It’s near the end of the school year here in Victoria and the pressure is on to finish the school year [student reports have been distributed, class lists finalised with the transition session tomorrow morning, the roll over of our administrative, financial and student welfare / assessment and reporting systems, appointing teaching staff etc….] and this year unlike previous years we are planning the first 3 days of professional learning for 2009 as well.
The State Government and teacher unions through 4 previous industrial agreements lasting some 12 years had approved 4 student free curriculum days through the school year with first day of school year being a curriculum day. The latest agreement has set the curriculum days as the first 3 days of the school year and the 4th being an assessment and reporting day mid semester.
We at Elsternwick had already set the first day up to be with Kath Murdoch on inquiry learning with a focus on planning and modelling some more advanced instructional skills. We are now faced with planning the next 2 days. With a rough plan set I am now looking at some material to start some structured dialogue about teaching and learning.
This clip will be used as it sets some challenges for the start of the school year in setting norms.
