Week+8+-+Jessica+Walsh


 * Issues Week 8 - 24/6/09 **

In our lecture today, guest speaker Dianne Powell (Assistant principal – Kismet Park PS) presented the topic “How to Survive Accountability in Your First year of Teaching”. The lecture covered what we (pre-service teachers) are accountable for in our first year of teaching, with major points of discussion being: Professional Standards, VIT registration, Staff Code of Conduct and Duty of Care, and Assessment and Reporting. Pre-service teachers have a responsibility to be aware of ultimately the students, how they learn, the content we are teaching, how to teach it effectively using a range of teaching practices, and how to reflect on our teaching practices to improve. It is our responsibility to make sure that we have satisfied all the requirements in order to receive full registration before commencing a teaching position. Dianne also offered some suggestions for when we are applying for positions such as creating an e-portfolio to have that edge over other candidates, and using as much relevant information as possible from our practicum experience in our CV’s/portfolio’s. When starting at a school, we must make it a priority to obtain a copy of the schools Staff Code of Conduct to become familiar with the professional standards specific to that school. Furthermore we need to be constantly aware of our responsibility to fulfill the Duty of Care expectations, particularly when it comes to excursions and yard duty. Dianne also mentioned that students with special needs are the teachers’ full responsibility even if they have a teaching aid with them. Building a good rapport with these staff will offer you further support. We were reminded that the NAPLAN is a mandated assessment program for years 3,5,7 & 9. The Naplan is increasingly being used to link back to VELS requirements for assessment purposes. Dianne also suggested a 3 way interview including students, teachers and parents can be more effective than the traditional Parent-Teacher interview. Dianne took this point in the lecture to remind us that although teachers are accountable for a lot and it can be daunting at first, we are not alone. There are support mechanisms in place to help us such as colleagues, parents, community etc. Dianne then went on to explain the PoLT (Principles of Learning & Teaching). The PoLT is a list of principles that teachers can use to guide their reflection and improve their practice ( [] ). To explain the PoLT, Dianne looked at what students value in teachers (by asking them and recording their responses), came up with her own key characteristics of effective teachers then linked them all back to the PoLT. The PoLT and Key Characteriatics of Effective teachers are listed below. • To build consistent, comprehensive and improved pedagogical approaches within and across schools, while still allowing flexibility, innovation and local decision making at the school level. • Focus teaching to meet the diverse needs of students • Strengthen learning communities within and beyond the school. • Empathy = intellectual identification of oneself with another • Energy = vigour, force, activity (passion) • Efficacy = power to produce (desired) effects • Evidence-based = interpret, analyse and reflect upon data The key message from this was that students need teachers that build effective relationships with them, that engage them in learning, that focus teaching towards the large mixture of abilities and learning styles in the classroom and that have strong connections within the school and broader community.
 * Professional Standards**
 * VIT Registration**
 * Staff Code of Conduct & Duty of Care**
 * Assessment & Reporting**
 * Principles of Learning & Teaching (PoLT) Aims **
 * Some Key Characteristics of Effective Teachers **

I found Dianne’s lecture useful because these are things that we need to start thinking about now as we will need to start applying for positions very soon. Furthermore, from my experience over the last seven weeks being in a school environment, the statements made about what students need and want seem to align very closely to what I observed and picked up on. The class that I was in for the last four weeks of placement for example, had a very wide range of abilities (one student working at a prep level and another working at a year 7/8 level). I needed to cater for this range of abilities when planning my lessons because I believe that every student deserves to and is expected to learn.

Jessica Walsh