Professional Learning 2018

Use inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners.

Professional learning reflection: Write that essay

I attended two professional development sessions with Phil Hornblow from Write that Essay. These sessions were focussed on learning to rewrite NCEA assessments in a way that is more student friendly and streamlined. These were hugely beneficial PLD sessions for me as rewriting assessments was something that I really wanted to do but lacked confidence in. Phil showed me how to simplify instructions and set assessments that were less repetitive and wordy. I feel that this will be great for my PE assessments in particular, which tend to have very lengthy assessment specifications that really confuse students. Below is an example of one level 3 assessment that I worked on re-writing with Phil, I will use this assessment next year with my year 13 class. I like the way that the assessment is broken down and helps to scaffold the report structure for the students - something that I know will be really helpful for this group of girls.

I also took this opportunity to discuss scholarship PE with Phil and he had some great resources and ideas to help with the large report that is required for the scholarship PE assessment. 

Reflection: Commonwealth Games Inquiry - presenting to staff at morning briefing

The whole junior school is taking part in inquiry based learning this term with the inquiry based around the Commonwealth Games. Because myself and Kylie have been heavily involved in inquiry learning though the Future Focussed Learning class, we were asked to present to staff some ideas for the inquiry. We created slides which we spoke about to the staff at morning briefing, explaining how it could work in the classroom and how the different curriculum areas would feed into the inquiry.