Standards - more useful than for assessment

In my last post I made my position clear on how standards should be used. If they are aimed at creating an elite group of teachers whose only role is to get more money then I am not interested. I have received some reading from Teaching Australia which suggests that they are thinking the same way.
They have used some pretty inspirational standards (e.g from Language and Literacy teachers, and the Maths group) which have as it's focus the improvements in learning that should result if a teacher is exemplary.
I think during the meeting that as long as I have this as a focus I should be right. Otherwise what is the point of having standards unless it is to meet some sort of goal. What higher goal could there be than the improvement of student learning.
Teaching Australia also sent out a set of guidelines about the organising categories [broad headings that capture the critical elements of teaching] and capabilities [the discrete elements of knowledge, skills and dispositions expected of teachers operating appropriately and effectively at a high level of expertise]. They include:

Professional Knowledge

• Knowledge of content
• Knowledge of students
• Knowledge of teaching and learning (pedagogy)

Professional Practice

• Planning for learning
• Creating a learning environment
• Assessment and evaluation of learning

Professional Engagement

• Self-motivated professional learners
• Reflective practitioners
• Active members of professional learning communities (in schools and beyond).

I will have a look at the Gleeson 10 and see if they cover everything mentioned above (and vice versa)

What you need to teach effectively (a personal reflection)

Here are my thoughts after having read the material on teaching standards. I think all teachers need:

• a love of children and a belief that all children are capable of learning
• a very good understanding of the subject matter that you are teaching. This would include a love of the subject to an extent that you are interested in finding out more about it. This would be further enhanced when you know the anecdotes and stories associated with the subject.
• an effective method of planning a teaching and learning unit using a structure that actually results in improved student learning.
• a range of teaching and learning techniques to help students understand the content and develop the skills to be a successful learner.
• a willingness to work and share resources with other teachers, students and parents.
• a willingness to reflect on your teaching on your own or with some sort of support group.
• an ability to involve yourself in useful professional development opportunities that come.
• a willingness to get to know children, their interests, strengths, weaknesses to be able to know how to effectively help their learning.

More to come as I think about the upcoming writing session on Teaching standards.

Teaching Standards in Australia

As a part of this writing group, I have been doing a lot of reading about standards in Australia and around the world. Some of the documents I have downloaded have been fantastic to read and will be very useful in my job as Professional Learning Coordinator.
For example:
From "Professional teaching associations and professional standards: embedding standards in the discourse of the profession" by Terry Hayes, he says:

• There is a tension between using standards for accreditation and using them as a goal for all teachers to aspire to.
• He further articulates this potential problems with
• comparability versus creativity in presenting evidence of accomplishment
• meaningful versus manageable amounts of evidence to present
• personal goals versus what the school/system wants
• value of assessment versus ongoing critical inquiry.
• He also states that the context of where teachers work is of critical importance when assessing attainment of the standards. Some others feel that standards can be context free.
• There is another issue. It is a conflict of interest that arises when the people setting/governing the standards may have different priorities than those who are being assessed by them. Often peak bodies have the capacity to offer PD associated with helping people achieve the standards. Then a conflict develops because the body has a vested interest in keeping the current standards and assessing it in ways that THEY have already developed.
• Also a very important point about the idea of isolated teachers being assessed as achieving the standards or not. Surely we want to encourage cooperation between teachers so should individual teachers be assessed in isolation?
  

My personal opinion is that standards should not be used to pump up a small group of teachers to say how great they are and give them more money. It should be used inspire ALL teachers to become better teachers and should promote a cooperative and collegial approach to reaching these standards. I also feel that the assessors should not be the PD providers otherwise there will be too much of a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Last Learning Team Meetings Part 2

Last Thursday was the last Learning Team Meetings for the Year 8 groups for the year.
I found the English/SOSE/RE people a little subdued. It was almost like this group had very little to offer such capable people. The group itself will be very different next year - two are going on long service, one is pregnant and the another has the year off to stay at home to look after his child.
I thought Tricia came up with a good way of structuring some scaffolding for significant writing in Year 8. She separated the task into distinct parts and then for each part, created a page of instructions and then a blank section for students to write bibliographic details and then notes. The rest was discussion of a presentation from one of the teachers.
The Science/Maths people were a little more lively with an animated discussion about Self-Paced Maths. Some people were hesitating about the process feeling as though they had lost some control over the class and feeling that they were not working as hard as they should - and that this would reflect on them as teachers.
Danielle brought up the importance of teaching students how to use the resources - i.e. how to use the text book to get the most out of it. She also has experimented with success with students marking their own tests. This takes a great load off her, but gives the students immediate feedback - no just with a score, but also with an idea of where they went wrong and why.
Craig talked about using re-tests as a learning opportunity and the need to have more opened-ended investigations that students could do along side of the textbook work. This will encourage problem solving skills.
I discuss the struggle I had with allowing students to fall behind. How sometimes it's important to let that happen because they need to struggle with some things at some stages in their life and then be thankful when they actually succeed.
The Leadership group and I will meet next week to see where we go from here.

Last Learning Team Meetings Part 1

Today the Year 9 Learning Teams met as a Learning Team Meeting for the year.
The SOSE/English/RE people met first and we did another success protocol. Graeme spoke about an integrated task on Antarctica that he and Emily did. It was a series of activities designed to prepare and research a trip to Antarctica as well as study the wildlife and minerals found on the continent. He reflected on the fact that a number of students did very well - but many did not do as well and was surprised by the lack of organisation that they showed.
It was great to hear some of the feedback from the other teachers. For example, there was a lot of discussion about the need to build independent learning skills in Year 9 students so that they are ready for when they need it in the senior years. They suggested things like checklists, verification forms like in Year 12, making mini due dates for each part of the task, giving choice i.e. do any 2 out of 3 tasks in this section and offering alternative ways of presenting work to those who struggle with writing.
Interestingly, the main presentation in the Science/Maths/ITC meeting was from Emily, Graeme's partner. She was pretty happy with what they had done and also received mostly positive feedback. It was suggested that perhaps students could make a learning plan for what they are going to achieve in each lesson/homework.
We also discussed the use of rubrics for our classes. We felt that we were at such a point that we could hone them a little and offer them for use by all Science and Maths teachers. Because of their generic nature, they could be used across the board with little modification. We decided to present them at the next Science meeting for other staff to use.
A review of these meetings suggested that they had been worthwhile and they would like them to go longer so more people can share their successes. Some other comments were baffling - let's leave it at that.

Further interesting events

Firstly I found out what the Drafting group has to do:
It includes

• settle on the common organising catagories. Still finding out what they mean by categories.
• draft the capabilites for advanced teaching and school leadership.
  This is the bit I am interested in. I have some ideas already from the ASCD magazine. They called such teachers, Teacher Leaders and have surveyed some them to determine their characteristics. Four things stood out. Such teachers have done presentations to their staff; have lead significant groups or committees; have mentored new or student teachers; have written significant curriculum documents.
  
• propose guidelines and criteria for professional associations to use in drafting descriptors for their specialisations.

Then I found out that Amanda and I need to give a 20 minute presentation to other AGQTP groups nationally.
I'm getting rather giddy. Must keep that swollen head under control.