REPORT ON RECENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

OCTOBER 2018

Recent PLD for the In school and Across school Lead Teachers took a slight change from its normal structure of external facilitation with the CoL Across school Lead Teachers facilitating an afternoon, followed by a day of workshops facilitated by the In school Lead teachers. The focus for both days grew out of needs voiced by teachers within these roles and requests for information and ideas to support and build knowledge and capability in various areas of educational practice.

On the 21st June, an afternoon session focused on Learner Agency, Coaching and Mentoring and Culturally Responsive Practice facilitated by the Across school Lead Teachers. This was hosted at St Anne's in Manurewa, who in addition, opened their ILE spaces for a visit to see Learner Agency in action. The feedback on being given this opportunity was very positive, with teachers taking ideas in many aspects of planning, organisation and innovative practice back into their own school environments to trial and to implement, evident in feedback given and a number of teacher inquiries that followed.

On the 2nd August Holy Cross hosted a PLD day, organised by the Across school Lead Teachers with workshops facilitated by In school Lead Teachers. The areas of learning and facilitators of the workshops were as follows:

• Flipped Learning: Pepe Pereira: St Anne’s Catholic School, Manurewa.
• Student Led Workshops: Stephanie Crummer: St Anne’s Catholic School Manurewa.
• The organisation of a Learning Hub and Student learning: Sarah Hann (Teacher), Aloyze Tafu and Marina Jones (Year 8 students): Holy Cross Catholic School, Papatoetoe.
• Literacy for Boys: Jo Wilcox: St Joseph’s Catholic School, Pukekohe.

Each teacher presented their own teaching experience and practice, with additional student voice sharing learning practice in an ILE. All speakers gave valuable knowledge and advice on effective practice in each of these areas. The sharing of expertise was invaluable and appreciated, and there was a general agreement that each workshop offered practical applications that could be transferred to the different learning levels and teaching environments represented.

In addition, as with experience at St Anne’s, Holy Cross invited teachers to visit different learning areas, with teachers having the opportunity to see Oral Language and Developmental Learning with New Entrants, student and teacher application of Flipped Learning, and Learner Agency through the organisation of an ILE. Once again, being able to experience effective practice first hand sparked professional discussion and development of possible ideas and teaching direction for the In school Lead Teachers and Across school Lead Teachers to take back to their own learning environments.

In particular, what was appreciated over these days was the sharing of expertise and viewing learning in action within different school settings. This created authentic, robust discussion and dialogue amongst the sessions. PLD that was specific and driven from the In-School Lead teachers ensured that time away from their children and schools was time well spent. We thank both schools and teachers who hosted these PLD sessions and we look forward to having future PLD at another school within the Kahui Ako.