When we think about ‘becoming’ or ‘being’ a teacher, we often find ourselves recalling those characteristics that either had a positive impact on our experiences in school, and inspired us to learn, or those instances that did not provide us with enthusiasm or motivation. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL, 2011) notes that teachers share a significant responsibility in preparing children and young people to lead successful and productive lives. Here, we continue on from Chapter 1 in considering teaching as a profession, and introducing core skills such as communication, organisation, reflective practice and leadership. These skills are integral as you prepare to become a classroom-ready teacher. Acknowledging that teaching is a human endeavour, you will explore personal attributes, including confidence, resilience and self-care, and the process of managing, building and sustaining a career, while maintaining professional standards.

Research suggests that learning and engagement are enhanced when students are presented with design challenges that enable them to apply their knowledge and skills of coding to create tangible products. In contrast, when coding concepts are taught in isolation, the intended outcomes are not delivered as anticipated. Researchers have reported that connecting coding with social sciences and the arts results in significant improvements in students' understanding of computational practices and concepts, and enhanced levels of motivation.This chapter presents three integrated STEM projects for Years F–2, 3–4 and 5–6 where students are encouraged to develop their coding skills within a STEM context. These projects showcase how tangible outcomes can be delivered by integrating knowledge and understanding from science, mathematics, and design and technologies into coding activities.

There is a long and rich history of human discovery related to space. Before we developed telescopes, patterns (constellations) of far away suns (stars) in the sky were used as signposts for travelling. This chapter presents explanations of a range of commonly held space-related alternative conceptions. It then provides three integrated STEM projects for Years F–2, 3–4 and 5–6. Primary-aged children should be exposed to learning opportunities that encourage their ability to make accurate observations, to critically evaluate their meaning and to use this information in their daily lives. Space is an intriguing and engaging contextwithin which to develop these skills.

“How should STEM be presented to students? What are the evidence-informed approaches currently being used in Australia and around the world? Given that Australia doesn’t have an actual STEM curriculum, what should you do? What is ‘best practice#x2019; for implementing STEM education in schools?

This chapter covers all these questions and more. It outlines a range of economic, historical and pedagogical factors that have led to current implementation strategies for integrated STEM education in schools. It clarifies the purpose of STEM education, and poses questions for you to discuss with your colleagues. By the end of the chapter you should have a better understanding of how to design and implement a range of small-scale activities that involve STEM education in some way, with the goal of moving towards an interdisciplinary project-based approach to engage yourself and your students with STEM concepts.”

A fundamental task for all teachers is to get to know and understand the students they teach in the broad context of the school, community and society in which they live. By doing this, as a teacher, you will increase your awareness of the diverse backgrounds, experiences and needs of your students and their families. This knowledge and understanding will shape your teaching philosophy, influence your views and attitudes, and guide you in effectively teaching and supporting your students. This chapter aims to support you in answering the question: Who are my students? We will examine sociological theories as well as psychological and cultural perspectives to help you explore different ways of viewing, understanding and thinking about teaching for diversity. Through Australian data and statistics, and teacher and student narratives, you will be provided with an overview of the Australian student cohort, which includes: students from a variety of family types, religious, cultural, linguistic and socio-economic backgrounds; and those with a range of abilities, disabilities and orientations.

Congratulations on commencing your educational and professional journey towards becoming a teacher.

As a teacher, you will broker syllabuses, Australian Curriculum content and the local cultural knowledge that is valued in your community, to develop tasks and provide classroom experiences that foster quality learning. You will need to understand the different forms of assessment, their purposes and the tools available to you. As you progress in your career, you will continue to develop the skills and knowledge required to activate a collaborative classroom culture that promotes student ownership of learning and enables students to foster each other’s learning through classroom assessment. You will work in partnerships with students, colleagues and parents/carers to curate authentic evidence of learning. In this chapter, we examine forms of assessment, the most effective types of feedback and how teachers use assessment data in teaching, planning and reporting practices.

Once you have finished university and are ready to teach in a classroom, have you finished learning? While you probably have immediate things to learn about – your new school or casual teaching; the syllabi that you will be working with; the students you will be teaching; your colleagues; and the realities of day-to-day behaviour management – there are other ways in which your learning does not stop once you have graduated. The expectation that teachers will not stop learning is realistic, as there will always be changes (social, economic, political and technological) they will have to accommodate. Developing technologies have led to changes not only in what teachers have had to learn, but also how they learn. Formal pathways for professional learning have been supplemented by informal methods. You now begin your journey from graduate to proficient, according to the roadmap through the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) provided by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL, 2011). You have embarked on an exciting career that offers numerous options for development.

This chapter focuses on shelters and their significance for providing protection for living things from environmental factors such as seasonal weather changes, natural disasters, extreme weather events and climate change. An ecosystem is the name given to a group of interacting organisms in a particular environment – which could be a city street, a creek in dense bushland or a coral reef. The world contains a huge variety of ecosystems where living things interact and often compete for available resources such as water, air, light, food, space and the resources required to provide shelters. This chapter examines the notion of community and the physical shelters that organisms require for long-term survival. It presents common examples of shelters created by humans and other animals, and describes three integrated STEM projects designed for Australian primary school classrooms.