Radford Teachers Help Students Achieve Their Best
By Mrs Louise Wallace-Richards, Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning
As parents and educators, we expect our children/students to embrace the idea that we need to learn throughout our lives as we endeavour to become the best humans we can be. We spend time in our lessons in Radford’s Secondary School (SS) teaching them about mathematics and chemistry or, in my class, literature and how it can help us learn about humanity and empathise with others. Alongside learning that is more content based, we are also seeking to teach them the skills needed for our disciplines and for life. The skills we teach for life are evident in our SS Learner Trait poster, created by Matthew Johnstone, which graces the Morison Centre reception. I love the tree image, because it suggests that our students are growing in their skills and, of course, as people while they work, study and play in their years at Radford.
Knowing how to develop these traits in our students is something we have been building our knowledge and understanding of as teachers every year through our SS professional learning program.
With that being said, our Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) project with Dr Shyam Barr is in its final phase: an investigation into our students’ understanding of how self-regulation can assist them with achieving their best and improving their well-being. As teachers, we need to continue to develop our ability to explicitly teach SRL strategies in our classes. We also need to remind our students of these strategies, so that eventually they become confident regulators of their own learning, knowing which behaviours and strategies to use to achieve their best. During our January professional learning program, we also heard more from Mrs Jodie Davey (M.Ed, B.Ed, B.Teach, MACEL) about how to help our students become self-regulated learners through powerful mentoring conversations in our subject-based lessons and mentor time. In our sessions with Jodie Davey, we focused on how to encourage our students to develop growth mindsets and a can-do attitude through meaningful self-reflection and helping them to set FAST goals (frequent discussions, set ambitiously, measured by specific metrics and transparent for everyone).
We have also been building our knowledge and skills in other key areas of our teaching practice, with all new teachers attending a series of sessions on key elements of the Secondary School’s pastoral and teaching and learning approaches, including mentoring, pedagogical approaches, assessment library and information services, and how to use our spaces and furniture to engage our students in their learning.
Over the past semester, many teachers have deepened their understanding of how to teach our senior business, maths, sports, exercise science, environmental systems and societies International Baccalaureate Diploma Program courses. By securing a scholarship for our involvement in an Australia-China Digital Bridge Professional Learning program, our Language Teachers, Ms Tingting Zhang and Miss Nancy Zhang, have been learning about various digital resources they can bring into the classroom to revitalise their teaching of Chinese at Radford.
Others, through attendance at our iToasts, have expanded their skills in using iPads in the classroom with our Year 7 and 8 students. These were led by our Digital Learning Coach, Mr Eric Jensen, and Director of Digital Learning and Innovation, Ms Lisa Plenty. This week, all teachers in the Secondary School learnt strategies to effectively assist our students with the reading comprehension expectations for all our Year 7-12 subjects. This professional learning afternoon, led by our Head of Academic Enrichment, Mrs Jane Smith, provided a continuation of our 2022 focus on developing the reading comprehension skills of our students. During the session, Bridget Quinn from Ticking Mind presented a range of literacy strategies that can be embedded into classroom practice.
Furthermore, a number of our middle leaders have undertaken the first of a series of modules in leadership learning, led by Director of Be!ing Leaders Academy Aasha Murthy and Dr Vikram Murthy, entitled 'Switching! Productive Change in an iConnected World'. Others have attended sessions about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and are involved in an ongoing program with the Board of Senior Secondary Studies (BSSS) about assessment and AI. AI’s infiltration into the world of education is a perfect example of how we all need to keep learning. We certainly cannot stick our heads in the sand about AI but, instead, need to continue to learn about how we can use it to enhance learning for our students.