From the Principal
Kaya Wanju, with reconciliation week coming up 27 May – 3 June.
The focus this year is that reconciliation takes more than words; it takes action. Here are some ideas to get your planning moving along. You will find some great teaching resources here:
National Reconciliation Week Teaching Resources
I recently spent an afternoon in Cultural Awareness activity. It took me on a journey of immersive exploration of the nation-to-nation relationship with Aboriginal people, working toward reconciliation and empowering people to build bridges of understanding and respect. It is an experiential teaching tool to share the historical and contemporary relationships between Aboriginal and non–Aboriginal people of Australia. I hope to bring this PL to our school development day for Term 3.
We have a great opportunity to further our cultural responsiveness. Personal education and experience are tools against unconscious bias that is only natural when you don’t know. I will continue to provide opportunities for staff to experience the history, culture and languages of Aboriginal people, but I also encourage you to take your own journey to seek out on country experiences and to listen to historic stories passed on from generation to generation. This is our way to take action towards true reconciliation.
En Avant
NUTS AND BOLTS
I would like to remind staff that the cornerstone of our teaching practice is safe, orderly accountable classrooms. Poor student behaviour must be followed through our behaviour management flow chart. Whether you are making informal contracts, issuing detentions, subject withdrawal or talking with home please follow the flow chart and remember that your PC is your greatest support.
Of course, this week is NAPLAN. You can let the students know of your support by asking them how they are going, making adjustments to lessons to account for the testing and being extra tolerant of the disruptions to your lessons. Please encourage them to do their best.
It is that time of the year when line managers and the Exec Team are looking at student performance in RTP. Please make sure that your assessment records are kept up-to-date. RTP is the mechanism by which the Leadership Team monitor and make decisions.
This time of year planning for the following year begins. 2022 timetables are developing, Year 10’s are being prepared to select courses, senior school course offerings are being proposed and staffing is being considered. Please continue to work with your PCs in this planning for 2022.
I hope that the presentation on the timetable at last week’s GSM has started a discussion in your learning areas. On 21 May the Leadership Team will spend half a day off-site creating an implementation plan. Special consideration will be around the necessary training and preparation required to get started.
Shared Instructional Framework
This week we are looking at Guided Practice
Guided Practice
In guided practice, students apply new knowledge with the help of their teacher or peers. It is often linked to the gradual release model of “I do”, “we do”, “you do” which leads into independent practice
Teacher Modelling is the starting point for this section of instructional framework. Be it notes on the board, working through an example, it is very much about watching the teacher work through expected skill/application of knowledge to complete a task. It can be done with no instruction or question right through to step-by-step explanation as you go.
Co-construction often involves the use of cooperative learning activities that encourages peer to peer support in working through a new task. This is a great place to get those students who have grasped the concept to work with those still trying to “get it”. As the teacher, you will be busy monitoring and observing to see which students still need your input. It will be more successful if you have modelled the expectation and hold students to the standard (link to Lemov’s 5 - right is right)