Learning and Teaching at MFGSC
Making your children’s thinking ‘visible’: A few tips for Parents and Carer
1. Develop a growth mindset.
A belief that intelligence and the ability to grow and develop over time - as opposed to something that is fixed and set - encourages greater risk taking, collaboration, enjoyment of challenge, long-term development, and continuous achievement in all types of learning endeavours (Carol Dweck, 2006). Develop a growth mindset in your child by focusing your praise on process, learning, and effort (You really worked hard on this and have learned a lot. You did a great job of developing a plan and following it through. You’ve really developed as a musician.), as opposed to ability (You’re so clever. Look how smart you are; you did that so fast. You’ve got a lot of talent).
You can support this change in mindset through the language we use. Here are some possible options to replace the fixed mindset:
2. What questions did you ask today?
Our questions drive us as learners. When Isidor I Rabi won the Nobel Prize in physics, he was asked, ''Why did you become a scientist, rather than a doctor or lawyer or businessman, like the other immigrant kids in your neighbourhood?'' He replied, ''My mother made me a scientist without ever intending it. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: 'So? Did you learn anything today?' But not my mother. She always asked me a different question. 'Izzy,' she would say, 'did you ask a good question today?' That difference - asking good questions - made me become a scientist!''
© Ron Ritchhart, 2012
When your child gets home from school, ask ‘What good questions did you ask today?’
I share this article with new parents every year. It’s a very interesting read that got me thinking about the other kinds of questions parents and carers can ask their children each day after school…
Term 1 2019 Student-Parent-Teacher Learning Conferences
Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences will be held on Tuesday 5th March between 12pm and 7pm on the Helen Fraser Campus of the College. There will be no classes in the morning and your child is expected to attend the Conference with you. Teachers will be having a short break between 2.00 and 2.15pm and a dinner break between 4.30 to 5.15pm so please do not make bookings during these times. Information about this event will be posted through Compass and emailed to parents during the next couple of weeks.
If you have tried to log into the Compass portal and are having difficulty please contact Zak, our ICT Technician, at school on 4243 0500. New parents and carers will receive further information about Compass at the Year 7 Parent Welcome Session.
Compass: Push Notifications on phone
Compass offers an additional communication method to email, print and SMS. Push Notifications allow you to send communications to iPhones, iPads and Android devices, with the Compass App installed.
Please note that only individuals who have installed the iOS or Android “Compass School Manager” native application and who have allowed notifications will receive these Push Notifications.
If you would like to receive push notifications to your mobile device, please download the app and allow notifications.
Android users can download the app on Google Play and iPhone and iPad users can download the app from the App Store.
Teacher Learning Communities and Formative Assessment
This year all of our teachers will be participating, for the second year, in a ‘Teacher Learning Community’ (TLC). This is to enhance our collective focus on student learning, enhance our teacher collaboration and provide each teacher with an opportunity to identify an aspect of their teaching practice that they wish to improve or refine. Each TLC group will focus on Formative Assessment, which is best defined below:
Our teachers will be zooming in on the strategies below and the specific techniques related to formative assessment – one of the strongest influences on improving and enhancing student learning and engagement. Our teachers’ focus is best represented by this diagram:
Our work in this area stems from the research and work of Dylan Wiliam, an international authority on assessment and teaching. Each of our teachers received a copy of one of Wiliam’s books in 2018 and are continuing to use this to guide their own individual professional focus and learning.
I particularly like this quotation from Wiliam which gives a sense of the focus on ‘activating students as owners of their own learning’:
Ultimately, we would want students to resent work that does not challenge them, because they would understand that easy work doesn’t help them improve. In the best classrooms, students would not mind making mistakes, because mistakes are evidence that the work they are doing is hard enough to make them smarter.
I look forward to sharing our progress with you and the difference that it’s making to our students’ learning.
Victorian Virtual Learning Network (VVLN) 2019
The 2019 Victorian Virtual Learning Network community is made up of 8 subject teachers; 11 different VCE units; 46 schools around Victoria; 190 students studying at least one VCE subject with the VVLN.
We have had a number of our students studying through the VVLN since 2015. This community enables our students to study some subjects online, with a dedicated teacher who they communicate with through Skype, that we do not offer at MFG or where class sizes are too small to enable a class to run or where there are significant clashes on a student’s timetable.
Our involvement with the Victorian Virtual Learning Network continues into 2019 with 15 of our students studying VCE Units through the VVLN including Units 1-4 Physics, Units 1-4 Specialist Maths and Units 1-4 Maths Methods.
Mr Damien Toussaint
Assistant Principal (Learning and Teaching)
Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College
Mr Damien Toussaint
Mr Damien Toussaint