Welcome to the Tabor Professional Experience site. Here you will find all of the information, documentation and resources needed to support you in your role.
This site is shared by preservice teachers, mentor teachers, school coordinators, Tabor liaisons and staff from the Faculty of Education. Information has been organised around your roles. If you cannot locate what you need, please refer to the Contact Us section to request it.
The Professional Experience Calendar is an important document for all stakeholders. Schools and colleges need specific information to help them plan for preservice teacher placements, including allocating suitably qualified and enthusiastic staff, allocating resources, and managing timetable issues. Preservice teachers need to know when they will be required on placement so that they can make arrangements for childcare, leave from paid employment and complete other study commitments. The Professional Experience Office also need to carefully plan Professional Experience Placements to ensure that all students meet the requirements of their Initial Teacher Education program. Access to an accurate and updated calendar is essential.
While the Professional Experience Office will make every effort to secure a suitable Professional Experience placement for all preservice teachers, no guarantee can be made that this will happen within the scheduled calendar.
Partner schools and colleges, from both the public system and independent networks, make provisions to place preservice teachers for Professional Experience placements voluntarily. Like all tertiary education providers, Tabor negotiates all placements with these external sites and they are subject to their approval. Many factors within these organisations and systems, including the availability of suitably qualified staff, regularly impact on our capacity to secure suitable and sufficient placements.
Handbooks provide an outline of the minimum requirements of each placement, the expectations held of preservice teachers and how preservice teachers' performance and development will be assessed.
The resources within this section will help you to prepare for your Professional Experience placement and to stay organised. Being familiar with expectations, requirements, timelines and responsibilities is essential to demonstrating your professionalism as a preservice teacher. Keeping your mentor teacher up to date with accurate information is also part of contributing productively to your success.
All preservice teachers are required to have a current Working With Children Check (WWCC) or a Department for Communities and Social Inclusion (DCSI) Child Related Employment Screening prior to their first Professional Experience and any other subsequent one as required. Preservice teachers should be prepared to produce original documentary evidence of this clearance to their host school upon request. Preservice teachers are responsible to ensure they have a current Working With Children Check or Child Related Employment Screening Clearance throughout the period of their studies. It is the preservice teacher's responsibility to advise Tabor of any incident that may jeopardise the validity of an existing Working With Children Check or Child Related Employment Screening.
Mentor teachers and school coordinators are vital to the strength of the Professional Experience Program here at Tabor . You, as our school-based colleagues, provide an essential link between theoretical knowledge and preparation conducted in tertiary classrooms and the practical application of that knowledge within schools and colleges.
We have organised the Professional Experience site to support you in your role. You can access the policies, resources, handbooks and materials needed to thrive as a school-based teacher educator.
Information is organised around key areas like the Calendar, Finance, News. Other information is organised by the stage and program of your preservice teacher(s). For example, information about working with your Intern, including the Internship Handbook, Report and Round-Table Forms, can be downloaded from the Internship section. Claims and financial information is shared through the Finance (Claims & Payments) section.
Please Contact Us to let the Professional Experience Office team know if you require additional information.
Typing "Supervising preservice teachers" into the site search option will direct the mentor teacher to the most updated AITSL resources and online training for mentor teachers.
Payment will be made to the school once the completed Mentor Teacher Assessment Recommendation form or Internship Professional Experience Report is received and invoices have been reconciled to the preservice teacher’s Professional Experience Log form.
Independent Schools: See 'Guidelines for Finance Staff in Independent Schools' document below.
Department for Education Schools: See the school coordinator within your school for information about the Claims process. Please note that Claims are lodged by schools through the claims on line module in HR Management Information System, accessed through Eduportal.
Placement: 1st Year (B.Ed.) / 1st Year (M.Tch.)
In Semester 1 (Beginning Teaching Theory), preservice teachers conduct observations one day per week for 6 weeks.
School coordinator responsibilities:
In Semester 2, (Beginning Teaching Practice), preservice teachers undertake single day visits commencing 7th August 2019 (Wednesday) for three weeks and then a 15-day continuous block.
Teaching in Diverse Settings placements are usually undertaken in rural school settings. These placements are scheduled in Term 2, Weeks 1-3 in the school setting of the preservice teacher's choice.
Professional Experience liaisons do not visit preservice teachers whilst on this placement. However, a Tabor liaison will be assigned to each preservice teacher and be available to support them via phone and/or email during this time. The liaison will contact the school early in the placement. Preservice teachers are responsible for implementing their Round-Table meetings and returning their Round-Table 1 (RT1) and Round-Table 2 (RT2) meeting forms to the Professional Experience Office on the day of each meeting.
PLEASE NOTE: Tabor no longer has a fax service. Please scan and email or scan and upload documents as per the instructions on the form.
The Teaching in Public Education placements are located in Department for Education schools in Term 2, Weeks 1-4 of the South Australian school calendar.
PLEASE NOTE: Tabor no longer has a fax service. Please scan and email or scan and upload documents as per the instructions on the form.
Placement: 4th Year (B.Ed.) / 2nd Year (M.Tch.).
The Internship is an eight (8) week block which is usually scheduled in school Weeks 1-8 of Term 3 in the school setting of the preservice teacher's choice. The Internship block is preceded by five (5) 'Beginning of School Year' observation days in Week 0 and Week 1 of Term 1, as well as a minimum of three (3) observation days in the term preceding the block.
Tabor preservice teachers are working towards the Graduate Standard of the APSTs. Through their initial teacher education course they are on track to possess the requisite knowledge and skills to plan for and manage learning programs for students. They are developing capacity to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the implications for learning of students' physical, cultural, social, linguistic and intellectual characteristics. They are also building understanding of principles of inclusion and strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities. To learn more about the APST visit the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) website.
Please contact the Professional Experience Office with your questions or concerns.
Professional Experience Coordinator:
Mr Brent Willsmore
Ph: (08) 8373 8733
Professional Experience Administrators:
Ms Jenny Cox and Ms Yvonne Smuts
Ph: (08) 8373 8737 | Email: practicum@adelaide.tabor.edu.au