Month: September 2017

 

After reading the J. John Loughran article on effective reflective practice, It made me feel quite positive about how reflective I actually am and how important it is in my day-to-day teaching.   “…learning through questioning and investigation…” is something I think I do to my teaching and the pupils learning. I often find myself questioning pupils on how well they understood, could I clarify further, is there any particular technique—. I also question and investigate some areas of course to my colleagues. I am learning about my teaching by questioning and investigation before deciding on what is my next step and the method of delivery accordingly. Through critical reflection I have evolved myself as a confident informed teacher and learner in the past 8 years by teaching in inner London and now in Scotland though my cultural and educational background is all different.

Less teacher talk, more listening      

An area I would like to address in chapter 5 of the Hattie paper “..the portion of student talk to teacher talk”.  I don’t think I always have the right balance when it comes to teacher talk as it can feel in some lessons that I talk too much. I believe we can get so caught up on ensuring that we are covering the mandatory course coverage that at times it take over the lesson simply imparting information.  I need to take a step back and listen more.  Hattie states “…the more the instruction was challenging, relevant, and engaging, the less likely teachers were talking”.  This is something I think I would like to start to consider more.

Collaborating – leading and learning collaboratively in classrooms, establishments and communities.

7/10-I feel like in my practice I collaborate a lot with other teachers in my own faculty and other departments. In my own department we are always sharing resources  & ideas. We discuss about how our lessons went and  various L & T strategies for pupils.  I also collaborate with colleagues from the other departments and local community for whole school projects as John Muir, DofE and Eco school. For STEM and IDL  I as a part of team liaise with maths and PE mainly.

Self evaluation – leadership of self-evaluation for improvement

7/10- I am a self-reflective practitioner and I am quite good at evaluating myself against self-evaluation tools by looking into what did not go well and how it can be better next time. As I am working with very experienced staff in my faculty, I often discuss various ways and strategies which can result in effective classroom teaching and learning and how I can develop this into my practice. I am now in a position where I am getting better but still a long way to go at evaluating. As a part of whole self-evaluation process we all teachers take part in TRIO observation where 3 teachers from different departments observe each other’s lesson and share collective feedback on the lesson. We all science teacher have open door policy and can walk in any class to observe a lesson.

learning –  leadership at all levels of high quality learning and teaching

6/10- Lifelong learning is at the heart of our job. I am always trying out different teaching and learning techniques to improve engagement and mot in motivation in the classroom. This has resulted in raising attainment and achievement. Sometimes the challenge is finding time to plan those consistently high quality lessons especially when we all jiggling with so much paperwork, course updates and new initiatives etc.

 

 

 

Personal outcomes focused practice is important to me as it involves working with the person to determine what is important to them and this might be achieved through Person-centered care and research and evaluation, building on the person’s assets and strengths and where necessary drawing on services and wider supports.

My personal outcomes in class is to encourage and help pupils in my care develop skills to achieve their potential and teach the capacity to be scientifically literate citizens and prepare the foundations for them to go on to a career in science and technologies.

Being trained in John Muir and outdoor trained teacher I am equally interested in some of the E’s and O’S to be covered outwith the normal classroom teaching through outdoor education which in turn will raise awareness of the environment in children. It  pupils to achieve skills for life long learning, developing Scotland Young Workforce.

My participation in the SCEL is already making me look much more closely at what I want to achieve. As SCEL’s intended outcomes from the teacher leadership programme are to impact positively on the learning outcomes and experiences for learners of the teachers involved which in turn benefits the collaborative culture within their school.

I hope SCEL TLP will also allow me to explore what it means by ‘good pedagogy’, to consider what kind of tools could help me capture it and how this could promote better learning in and outwith my classroom.It will also support me to make a difference in the classroom, school and wider community through access to innovative and high quality leadership development programs and activities.

 

By committing to lifelong enquiry, learning, professional development and leadership as core aspects of professionalism and collaborative practice.

These values are demonstrated in my day to day teaching through all my professional relationships thinking and practice. The connections between Professional Values and practices need to be regularly considered This is an important part of being a critically reflective and enquiring professional. I Engage with all aspects of professional practice and working collaboratively, enthusiastically and being constructively critical with all members of educational communities

to enable each learner to be a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and an effective contributor (the four capacities).

The key findings are

Teachers are more engaged with professional learning and the impact on pupils.

Teachers are engaging in professional dialogue more often and there is a willingness to try new approaches.

e.g. In science, a core idea for a chemistry class might include “Students will understand the trends and interactions found on the Periodic Table of Elements.” This core idea requires that students demonstrate understanding of things such as periodic trends, reactivity of elements and relative strengths, and the way chemical formulas are written based on characteristics of various elements.

In other words “doing” has become an essential element of professional learning. In many cases this has involved action research-type initiatives built around school or classroom-based development projects.

2. It is important to consider how it might be possible for teachers to develop new ways of  Provide and ensure a safe and secure environment and demonstrate a commitment to motivating and inspiring learners acknowledging their social and economic context, individually and specific learners needs.

I line with well being indicators, Learning outcomes and aspirations set out by the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) could not be achieved without good relationships and positive behaviour within schools. The solution oriented approach is well positioned to assist this by its potential to improve relationships within schools, increase responsibility and promote respect.

Key indicators of HGIOS 4 encourage a pragmatic approach by focussing on what people can do, what is working well now, examining situations when the problem is not there, and seeking a positive future (by acknowledging the problems but seeing beyond them) and partnership working (everybody working together to generate solutions).