Finding a purpose
We had our first meeting in Week One of the year and our job before then was to complete all of the readings and come with some ideas about what our Head of School wanted us to achieve. We were all pretty confused about what our task was and how we were to use the model in our group. We discussed many different areas such as what really makes up quality teaching and how does this link to the PD we did on visible learning the week before. We had alot of discussion on what is our purpose this year and what will happen 2017 and beyond. We did come up with 3 main aims of the group initially:
Develop video resources which demonstrate exemplary teacher practice in a variety of relevant contexts (Semester 2 2016 for use in 2017)
Develop a collaborative teacher feedback process which supports self-reflection and provides access to observe others practice (Beginning 2017)
Shared Learning Committee to trial and develop processes leading to exemplary teaching, prior to engagement of broader College teaching staff (2016)
We also discussed in great detail the term critique and how whatever we do to create a professional learning community that we need to be supportive. In my eyes we were still all pretty confused and one of the key conclusions is that we really needed to find out what this model is and at the end of the day what quality teaching actually is in a range of people's eyes. From this meeting we all had action. Blair and Kylie's job to research the model and other models that use this system. I was to research possible conferences and also how we could apply for scholarships for those trips.
In my mind it was enlightening and exciting but also challenging and scary as what we are trying to do is so broad that is seems like a mammoth task. I am really looking forward to working with all these teachers as they all seem like a great group and all bring different elements and teaching strengths and professional strengths. Exciting times ahead...
