Miss Art of Teaching

A while back, I posted about my high school's partnership with Western Sydney University. T he project involves professional development using an action research model. Action research is a process involving enquiry into an important question relating to classroom and school practice.  In my group of four teachers, we wanted to focus on creating a safe classroom. To know more about the project, please click on the following link: Safe Classroom We found that students are more likely to take risks if they feel safe in the classroom. To encourage these risk taking behaviour we reconsidered our teaching pedagogy. Some looked at providing longer waiting time, others looked at scaffolding information.  I was interested in providing words of encouragement. I also looked at recapping jargons used in class. If students feel they are valued for contributing and are familiar with the content, they are more likely to contribute to class discussions. Today, I asked my Year...

My high school has partnered with the University of Western Sydney (WSU). We are currently in our early stages of our Professional Learning Project. The project involves professional development using an action research model with topics identified by the teachers. Action research is a process involving enquiry into an important question relating to classroom and school practice. The first step to this project was to complete a survey so that all the 72 teachers including the executives of this school could be separated into groups of similar interest. Teachers were joined by others who have similar wonderings/interest to form project groups. The project groups links to one of the 6 WSU academics with expertise in the group's chosen focus area.  The WSU academic partners will then provide up to 10 hours of support to each group. This includes advice on readings, resources and so forth. I was placed into a group with three other teachers who were interested in Positive Be...