Professional Development

Context:

Communicating with wider networks and communities has given me the opportunity to learn from other Early Career Teachers and experienced teachers. All teachers have their own strategies and approaches and being able to share with the wider community allows new ideas to be considered and moderation to take place. It is a great opportunity to come together with teachers who specialise in the same subjects or teach the same year level, further mixing ideas together for activities and formative and summative assessments. Additionally, professional development days provide a lot of planning and discussing time to share effective resources and understand general school approaches, becoming beneficial towards my own teaching.

I am continually looking for opportunities to upskill myself in all areas of my profession. Over the past two years I have attended 70+ hours of professional development days both within the school community and in the wider community. These trainings have thoroughly developed my teaching practices and provided other colleagues in my year level team new ideas. Working collaboratively with not only colleagues, but other Early Career Teachers or Year 5 teachers, has been extremely beneficial for my own practices.

Annotation/Action:

Participating in Professional Development days not only is a learning curve for myself as an educator, but also provides me with an opportunity to form connections with the wider community and work alongside other teachers from different schools. I have taken part in the following Professional Development days:

Back 2 Front Maths
Leah O'Neill Back to Front Maths Online
Bill Hansberry - Behaviour Development and Restorative Practice
Code of Ethics Awareness
Positive Behaviour Support
NAPLAN Sentence Structure
Explicit Direct Instruction with Joe Ybarra
High Band Learners & Learning Design & Assessment
Year Level Curriculum Planning Day
Early Career Teacher - Setting Up For Success
Early Career Teacher - Being a Powerful Education
Working Together - Cultural Awareness
Teacher standards - supporting you in your career
Assessment and Reporting
Bill Hansberry - Dyslexia and Dysgraphia

These professional development days provided essential information on the focused topic and provided strategies to use in the classroom. These days provided me with guidance and strategies to support my development as an effective teacher and allowed me to engage with broader networks.

Results:

These workshops have given me opportunities to grow. After each workshop, I come out with stronger knowledge around specific topics that then benefit student learning. I have been able to harness student curiosity through implementing new strategies that have been learnt on training days. Each professional development day is different, which always allows opportunities for further growth in particular subjects or focuses.

Evaluation:

I have found the Early Career Teacher workshops, Bill Hansberry and PD days attended at my current site to be the most effective. I have found it satisfying to have the opportunity to work with other Early Career Teachers in Adelaide as well as grasping ideas, strategies and concepts from my experienced colleagues. Not only has these workshops been beneficial for my own growth as a teacher, but also has identified ways to deliver the best education to students.

Standards:

1.2 Understand how students learn

2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

2.2 Content selection and organisation

3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs

3.4 Select and use resources

3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs

5.4 Interpret student data

6.1 Identify and plan professional learning needs

6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice

6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning