2022 Goals - How'd I Go?

This year I have completed a 'Professional Development Plan' for the first time. Although there is a specific structure that is supplied by the Dept of Ed and specific questions my mentor has needed to ask, it's very similar to an NZ inquiry. My full PDP can be accessed here, which includes a little more detail around my planning, the criteria my goals link to and some of the discussion points I had with my mentor.

I have created the below visual which gives some of the key ideas/topics that I have been focused on throughout the year. Included are some of the possible ways to learn more about these areas of development (which I wrote at the beginning of the year). Although these goals aren't written as SMART goals, they were fleshed out more in my PDP meetings with my mentor (HOD HPE).

Reflecting on the some of the specific knowledge and skills I have wanted to develop throughout this year, these are some of the things I have achieved this year:

- Gave student choice in the activities/tasks/assignments they complete (including topics and modes of presentations)

- Provided exemplars and explained what grades they are and why (generally got students to do this themselves first and then broke the criteria and grading down with them)

- Gave suggested structures with sentence starters (student choice whether they used or not!)

- Used colour coding between the task, the criteria and what students created

- Created pre written questions to prompt in class discussion

- Created several tasks and assignments directly related to the ACARA objectives/criteria (and of course assessed against them)

- 1:1 verbal feedback meetings with Y12s as well as written feedback opportunities on their drafts (i.e. checkpoints)

- Completed a Coping With Stress program alongside my Y12s

- Gathered and reflected on student feedback

- Had multiple meetings and discussions with colleagues about SACE marking and moderation

- Attended a Mental Health First Aid course, a Remote First Aid Course and a Preventing Fatalities Workshop

- Learnt a significant more about risk management and planned my own trips and camps

Moving forward, areas I would like to further develop/build on include:

- Greater confidence and understanding about facilitating OUED debriefs

- Use of different tools and strategies to gather and analyse feedback (I did not use Ziplet as it seemed very confusing I didn't think would give me anything additional Google Forms would)

- More specific differentiated tasks for students with learning challenges or who have been identified as students needing modified or adjusted tasks (and learn more about neurodiversity in general)

- Attend PD and complete more reading around literacy and how to increase literacy in HPE/OUED

- Actively engage students with risk management planning and have more specific scenarios to help prepare students more before they go into the outdoors

Teaching Strategies With High Impact

One part of our teacher only day today was looking at the high impact teaching strategies and how these can be embedded within our classrooms. There are 10 HITS which are the dark blue puzzle pieces below. HITS are instructional practices that have been proven to increase student learning when they are applied. The numbers I have written are the effect size of the strategy - it was not surprising that multiple exposures and feedback had the highest effect sizes! Our jigsaw activity was to individually learn about and reflect on one strategy and then share back with our group. 

I was given Setting Goals, as below. We were required to think about what the strategy was, how it is already included within teaching and learning and then specifically link with the school's pedagogical framework. I enjoyed this task because it really encouraged me to think in detail about whether that strategy is a) already within learning programmes, b) how effectively the strategy is included in programmes and c) where there could be greater inclusion. To help determine these three things we also had to consider where the faculty is currently sitting along the progress continuum for the use of the strategy (emerging, evolving, embedding or excelling). Having the group discussion about each of the strategies indicated that although all the strategies are currently employed within the HPE department (some subconsciously), some are more common than others (which also changed across teachers). Moving forward therefore, there needs to be more conscious inclusion of the HITS across the board - i.e. actively planning to use the practices. I really liked having the continuum to refer to, because this made it quite clear what level we were. I like when things are this clear, to help determine what the next steps are to continue the progression.

If you would like to learn more about the HITS, this website breaks them down for a quick read. The Victorian Department for Education has explained the 10 HITS in greater detail with examples to demonstrate how they can be included in teaching and learning (this was also what we were referring to for our jigsaw activity and discussion).