IEU PD

I just found out about a great professional development opportunity run by the Independent Education Union (IEU). The day is called 'Best foot forward' and is essentially just a whole day seminar on putting together your cv and preparing yourself for interviews. 

The day is 25 dollars for members or 50 for non-members, but keep in mind that membership with the IEU is free for student teachers. Lunch is also provided! It seems pretty good value to me for a whole day PD session!

Happy Learning!

PoLT

What are the Principles of Learning and Teaching (Polt)?

I recently attended a workshop on writing a job application run by the AEU. On several occasions the speaker referred to POLT as something that would be vital to discuss in our key selection criteria. For the speaker, this was assumed knowledge. Apparently, I missed that lecture (admittedly, it was probably one that I slept through). So what is this allusive POLT, and why should I reference it when applying for jobs? I’m sorry if this is common knowledge for those of you who didn’t sleep through this lecture.

The Principles of Learning and Teaching, or PoLT as they are affectionately referred, are six principles that can be used by teachers to reflect on their practice and improve their pedagogy. These principles are then further unpacked, to make their goals extremely clear to the educator. The PoLT initiative aims to:

• build consistent, comprehensive and improved pedagogical approaches within and across schools, while still allowing flexibility, innovation and local decision making at the school level
• focus teaching to meet the diverse needs of students
• strengthen learning communities within and beyond the school. (DEECD, 2009)

Without adieu, here are the six principles. 


1. The learning environment is supportive and productive :

This component largely focuses on the teacher’s ability to build quality relationships with their students, to foster a culture of value and respect for individuals and to design teaching strategies that promote student’s self confidence.

2. The learning environment promotes independence, interdependence and self motivation:

Teachers should model practices that build independence and motivate students to work autonomously. Teachers should involve students in the decision making process, while encouraging them to take responsibility for their learning. Within this component there is a strong focus on students developing an understanding of themselves as learners. To do this the teacher must make learning clear, transparent and criteria based. Teachers should also help students learn the skills required for productive collaboration (which they will need for all the group assignments they will have to do at uni!)


3. Students’ needs, backgrounds, perspectives and interests are reflected in the learning program:

Teachers should strive to reflect students lives and interests in their lesson plans, while using a range of teaching strategies to accommodate the range of abilities and interests. In doing so the classroom becomes INTERESTING for students, and suits a wide range of needs. Through a wide variety of approaches, the teacher can cater for different students needs, strengths, abilities and their different perspectives of themselves as learners. Through the use of ICT, teachers can also capitalise on students experience of a technology driven world.


4. Students are challenged and supported to develop deep levels of thinking and application

The aim of this component is to move students from superficial thinking to develop higher order, flexible thinking (just think of all that bloom’s we’ve learnt)! Teachers must sequence their lessons over time and emphasise connections between ideas, while encouraging discussion of ideas, including arguing and considering other points of view. We as teachers must always have high expectations of achievement, as well as use strategies that challenge and support students to question and reflect, and develop investigation and problem solving skills. It is also important to encourage creativity and imagination.


5. Assessment practices are an integral part of teaching and learning

Without assessment, planning cannot occur. Assessment practices must reflect the full range of learning program objectives, that is they require students to demonstrate skills from lower order to high order processes. Assessment must then be paired with frequent and constructive feedback that will support further learning. Assessment criteria must be explicit and encourage reflection and self -assessment. Assessment tasks must then be used to inform future learning and teaching!


6. Learning connects strongly with communities and practice beyond the classroom

Learning must connect with student’s current and future lives, and with contemporary thinking. This inevitably leads to students developing a rich view of knowledge and practice such as social and ethical issues. The teacher must plan for students to interact with local communities and beyond, such as the school or local community and use technologies in ways that reflect professional and community practices. This provides the framework for their future lives.

So why should I refer to PoLT in a job application?

I should think this answer should be pretty clear after reading the statements. If you reference PoLT in your application, it shows that you are up to date with the current research on the best teaching and learning practices. Aside from this, it give you a clear indication of just what employers are looking for in their new grad teachers. So if you have practicum’s left, think about what evidence and examples you have for each of the statements, and work towards having a few for each! This will really boost your confidence when it comes time to apply!

This is just a very brief overview of PoLT, just to give you a quick overview of what they’re about. If you would like to get a better understanding of PoLT, you can follow this think to the DEECD website:

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingprinciples/principles/unpacked.htm

Hope this is helpful to some of you!

Happy Teaching!

Practice Interview Questions

One of the lovely teachers at my practicum school Koonung Secondary college gave me this list of practice interview questions, to use when preparing for those scary interviews that are looming in my future. Looking at them made me realise how much I need to refine before I start applying! Hopefully, you feel more prepared than me! 

SAMPLE MOCK INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Why did you decide to become a teacher and why will you be good at it?

Describe your teaching style and how you cater for the diverse needs of all students.

What communication and teamwork skills and experiences would you bring to effectively contribute to our school community?

Explain your understanding of VELS both as a curriculum planning tool and as an assessment device?

If I were to walk into your classroom, what would I see and hear that would demonstrate to me the inclusive nature of your teaching?

What do you consider to be the essential elements of an effective classroom management plan, particularly when you are working with a new group?

What role would ICT play in your classroom?

What contributions are you both able and willing to make to the range of school activities?

In the coming weeks, I will start posting some sample responses!

Happy Teaching!

Inspiration

Social Bookmarking

I recently attended a professional development session on using technology in the classroom. One of the things we were shown was social bookmarking on www.delicious.com. On the website you can bookmark any websites that you like. The advantage of storing these in 'the cloud' rather than on your laptop or pc, is that you can access them from any computer, and also share your favourite websites with others. You can tag websites and store in groups to make finding resources easy and accessible. 

This is a great resource for classrooms, not only for finding education resources, but also for storing websites that students might like to use when completing coursework and projects. My page can be found using the following link: http://www.delicious.com/lauraenglish. I have used my page mainly for storing useful education resources. Another useful education resources page is learnit - 

http://www.delicious.com/learnit - which has heaps of education resources for both primary and secondary teachers.

Happy Teaching!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my blog, a collection of resources and ideas for those of you in my position, that is beginner teachers. 

We are in a crazy stage of our lives, stuck between our last year of learning to be teachers and our first year of becoming teachers. Ideas, content and suggestions are being thrown at us at a rapid rate, and if you are anything like me your head feels like it is about to pop right off your shoulders. I'm in the middle of putting together my online portfolio, finally working out what kind of teacher I am going to be, and thinking about all the things that I need to do before I can go about putting together that all important job application and apply for my very first job. With all these things going on, we have assignments, professional development and our final placements.

So in the midst of all this craziness, I have decided that I am going to do something for the good of us all, and start to pool resources and ideas that can be used in your final year of education and in those first critical years in school. Lucky for us, there are millions of people who have been exactly in the position we are in now. Its now just a matter of compiling the resources they have left for us, and learning from their successes and failures. 

One small note: I myself am studying to be a secondary teacher, so many of the things that I write and post will be focused on secondary education. However, I will also be posting general resources that can be applied in a primary setting as well. I shall do my best to cater for all educators :)

Happy Teaching!