Standard 6

This annotation reveals that I have met the requirements for Standard 6; engage in professional learning, with specific reference to how I have engaged in professional learning and engaged with colleagues to improve my practice (6.2.1 & 6.3.1).

On both of my practicums, I made an active effort to improve my practice by engaging in Professional Development and observing other teachers. On my first practicum, I attended an optional staff PD on teaching students who are on the spectrum and another on teaching basic grammar. Following this, I sat in on a number of learning support sessions and lessons by teachers from other faculties. My engagement in these learning opportunities is reflected in my supervising teacher’s comments in Professional Experience 1 Report, in which she states I engaged in a variety of PD opportunities (6.2.1) and observed teachers in various subjects (6.3.1). On my second practicum I made a similar effort, attending staff development days and early career teacher seminars. Comments in Professional Experience 2 Report therefore provide similar insights, stating that I showed an excellent interest in educational research and in learning from a range of colleagues (6.3.1).

Furthermore, on my recent practicum I took the initiative to invite other teachers to observe my classes and provide feedback on my teaching (see Lesson Observation 10.10 and Lesson Observation 10.11). This provided me with the opportunity to receive feedback from a variety of teachers, each of whom had a different teaching style and offered advice on different aspects of my teaching. These two pieces of evidence are taken from a sequence of lessons with my year 10s and display an acquisition of feedback and actions taken to act on this feedback from collegues to improve. In Lesson Observation 10.10 the teacher made the comment that I could’ve used clozed sentences more in the lesson to differentiate for all learners. I took this advice on, and in Lesson Observation 10.11 another teacher then commented my effective use of clozed passages which she calls ‘four words activity’. She stated that this activity was so successful as it only required students to fill in single words at a time, making it accessible to all students. This teacher then observes that students displayed good behaviour and were enjoying the activity as a result. These comments display my eagerness to seek out feedback from a variety of educators and my ability to apply their constructive feedback to improve my teaching practice (6.3.1).

This chosen evidence displays that I have actively sought out opportunities to engage with colleagues and participated in a variety of professional learning to improve my practice (6.2.1 & 6.3.1). Thus I have shown my competency in achieving the necessary requirements for Standard 6.