PRT course - Responsive Pedagogies 30/07/14

Yesterday I attended my last PRT course. YAY!! The course was based mainly on ako (being a teacher and a learner) and reducing the gap in success between Maori and Pakeha students.

We began the day by discussing what we believe is important in a lesson (5 things) - most of us had very similar ideas. My five were:

1. Fun (engaging)
2. Collaborative
3. Hands on
4. Prepared (resources and teacher research)
5. Catering to ALL student abilities

This then led in to teaching as inquiry (something I felt I had a good grasp on as we have been doing a lot of teaching as inquiry professional development within our school). It was interesting to see others view points on their inquiry process with in their school and also the views of the speaker. It seems as though the process is very different across schools.

The last part of the day was sharing our stories about how we came to be teachers and what has happened on our journey so far.

We then had circle sharing time on what our next step to take back to the class would be. Mine was: to use student voice as part of data collection in the inquiry process. "What data evidence from my students suggests that this is what my students need to close the gap between where they are and where I want them to be?" - David Bradford 2014

There were 5 questions that David suggested using and these are some of what Lisa our literacy advisor has been using on my students.

1. What are you learning?
2. Why are you learning it?
3. How will you know when you have learnt it?
4. What will be your next step?
5. ???? I cant remember - will look at my notes tomorrow!

Overall the day was ok and I did come away with one or two things to think about. However I believe it would have been more valuable at the beginning of our careers as I feel I have learnt a huge portion of what was discussed in my school and the community who I work with.