Clip 10: Effective PD
Kathy:
It’s professional development for me because I want it to be there and I want it to improve my practice. It’s not professional development because I’ve got to have it in the professional development diary to give to someone – we’ve done that, you know. It’s now, for me, to be able to help the students.
And, more than anything else, I am putting myself more and more in the place of the student as I’m teaching – which is a real shift – rather than being in control. How are they receiving this? How would I receive it? How have I received professional development from, from various people? Has it worked for me? Well if I am doing the same to the children – talking at them – then it probably isn’t going to be working for them either.
Geraldine:
And because of the way that Delwynne presents things and challenges us to think, that’s all changed. She’s working alongside us, and that in turn helps us to be able to work alongside, and with, the children – instead of “I am the teacher, and you are the children, and today we will learn.” They are actually making a lot more contributions, and their contributions are valued.
Kathy:
Yes, and although in the past we would analyse data, assessment data – for example, you might have a group of children where you think, “They’re not getting it; I might just take them one by one when I’ve got time.” That’s changed now. What I would be doing now would be saying, “There’s a group of children here. The first opportunity we’re going to sit together, and we’re going to work out together what it is that we need to do to improve.” And that’s right across the board now, for all curriculum areas.
And so the change that I have seen is that those year fours and fives, specifically, that, you know, were going to learn it by osmosis, in the last term – their results in all the curriculum areas have just rocketed, and that’s just so heartening. That means it’s working, you know. And they can see it. They’ve looked at last term’s and the first term’s results, and then looked at the latest results for this term, and there are smiles all round. And that’s great.
