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TAIERI COLLEGE TEACHER ONLY DAY

FRIDAY 12 MARCH 2010

OBJECTIVE

To challenge and shift thinking about learning practices.

LEARNING OUTCOMES1. Teachers engage with the section of the New Zealand Curriculum on

Effective Pedagogy.

2. Teachers have the opportunity to clarify their thinking about the aspectsidentified.

3. Teachers are able to take some of the concepts and relate them to theirpractical experience.

4. Teachers are encouraged to think about the process of presentinglearning opportunities and to evaluate their effectiveness.

5. Teachers will have a bank of ideas of starter activities, content delivery,information processing and application and effective assessmenttechniques.

PROGRAMME9.00am Intro

Facilitator explains the structure of the day and the format for themorning session: a split screen presentation when we coverinformation as a teacher would to a class and at the same timereview the process through mega cognition.

9.05am Lesson IntroductionFive quick questions from previous readings Facilitator

9.20am Facilitator reviews starter activities for introducing lessons. Getsresponses from the audience which are recorded. Suggestedquestions:1. Did this starter engage your attention?2. Would it work for your students?3. What other strategies have you tried?

4. What response did you get from your students?5. How important is it to have a starter activity?6. What impact could it have if you started each lesson by

taking the roll?

9.40am Body of the Lesson - FacilitatorReading effective pedagogy from the New Zealand Curriculum.

Think pair and share rally table ideas from this reading with theperson next to you.

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9.55am Facilitator reviews this process, asks for other ideas about how toget information across. Suggestions are recorded.

Questions1. How did you respond to sitting and reading this extract?2. Was it helpful to do the pair and share? Why?3. What are other ways to get the content of material across

to students?

4. Do you find you have a favoured style which you use on aregular basis? What are they?

5. How do you think students respond to this and how do youknow?

10.15am Morning Tea

10.35am Based on the reading before morning tea, we move into alreadyestablished groups which have identified questions about sectionsof the reading. Ten groups in all. Suggestion: one facilitator leads

the discussion, the other facilitators records and feeds back.

10.45am Questions

Group 1&2 1. How do you create a supportive learning environment inyour classroom?

2. Share an occasion when you have encouraged studentsto step back from their learning and think about theirengagement. If this is not part of your experience, do youbelieve it could be worthwhile and how would you goabout facilitating it?

Group 3&4 3. How do you make learning in your classroom relevant tothe life experiences of your students?

4. In what ways could you expand your classroomprogramme so that the wider family / community can playa part in the students learning?

Group 5&6 5. How do you make explicit to students how presentlearning connects to previous knowledge or links with

other subjects?

6. Debate the curly question of coverage of the curriculumversus ensuring students understand.

Group 7&8 7. Explore how you use teaching as inquiry in yourclassroom practice. This maybe in an unconscious andinformal manner.

Group 9&10 8. Discuss the section on E-Learning and Pedagogy.Explore the differences between these examples of E -Learning and Pedagogy and some of our pre-existing

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perceptions about ICT as word processing and makingPowerPoints.

Responses are recorded and a discussion thread on theUltranet site.

11.20am Share back time Facilitator

The discussion thread is put up on the data projector. Additionalcomments are added.

11.50am Facilitator reviews this activity, responses recorded.1. How effective were these group discussions for

encouraging engagement and reflection on the material?What suggestions to improve?

2. How often do you use small group discussions in yourclassroom programme?

3. What constraints are there on this type of discussiongroup?

4. What alternatives are there?

12.05pm Assessment FacilitatorThis was a deliberately created Cloze activity using an open bookstrategy. It met none of the learning objectives set.

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12.10pm Facilitator reviews assessment and looks at other ways ofevaluating learning.1. Is this test effective it is in measuring success according to

preset learning outcomes?

2. What is this test actually measuring?

3. What would be a more effective way of measuring learning

outcomes?

Responses recorded.

12.30pm Conclusion - Facilitator

12.35pm Lunch

1.20pm Afternoon Sessions in curriculum areas / departments

Suggestions1. Review your departments learnings from the morning

session. What action points can you realistically set?

2. Previous weeks readings. Carry on the discussions fromthe small groups, but personalise it to your curriculumarea. Set some action points.

Staff reviewed the Teacher Only Day in a confidential written questionnaire.These were collated. Some of the highlights from responses were:

y The best PD in three years

y Loved the discussion groups

y Liked the variety of presentations

y Enjoyed working with teachers from other areas of the College