Learning and Teaching
@ MFG
Teacher Learning Communities (TLCs) 2018
Each of our teachers continue to focus on their formative assessment focus through collaboration with the other teachers in their TLC. Figure 1 captures the Strategies we are zooming in on. Our teachers have had three formal meetings where they share their work on their chosen focus and plan for adapting what they are doing.
A group of our teachers are trialling the technique ‘No hands up, except to ask a question’ which is connected to Strategy ‘Engineering effective discussions, activities and tasks that elicit evidence of learning’.
Walk into a classroom almost anywhere in the world, and you will see the same script being played out. The teacher asks a question, and a number of students raise their hands to signal they wish to respond. Then, the teacher almost always selects one of the students with his or her hand raised, and that student responds to the question. For many of you (parents), this probably would have been your experience!
But if the aim of questioning is to help the teacher find out what the students know, it makes little sense to select a respondent from the volunteers, because generally, students only raise their hands when they are confident they have the correct answer. Instead, if the teacher is asking the question, students should be given time to think about the question, and then it should be the teacher who selects the student or students to respond, at random.
Adopting this technique means that our teachers are challenging the classroom script that is common and familiar for many of our students. We look forward to seeing how our students respond to our teachers’ use of this technique and our teachers’ reflections on their own professional learning.
Attitudes to School Survey
We had 90% of our students recently complete the Attitudes to School Survey – the annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school.
The survey results will be reported back to the school and our school community before the end of term 2. This year we will use the survey results to plan and run some student forums with our students, work with our teachers to address some of the issues raised by our students and use these results to inform our 2019 school review so the views and experiences of our students collected through this survey find their way into our future strategic planning.
Year Level Curriculum Handbooks
To assist our students with the Pathways and Subject Selection Process, we have created a Curriculum Handbook for each year level. These provide important information for our students (and their parents/carers) about our core and elective subjects and possible pathways. These Curriculum Handbooks are downloadable as pdf files from our College’s website.
https://www.mfgsc.vic.edu.au/our-learning/
Breadth stage (Years 7-8)
Our girls are exposed to a broad range of subjects in Years 7 and 8 to open their minds to a range of ideas, topics and possibilities.
Learning conversations
How do our students see themselves as learners? What do they notice about people they would consider as a ‘great learner’? What helps you to get stronger or better in your learning?
These are some of the questions our College’s Leadership team are currently asking students from Years 7 to 12. We are trying to develop a clearer picture of our students’ ‘perceptions of learning’ and use the information collected through these interviews to inform our future planning. Here's what one Year 10 student had to say in response to these questions:
Who is someone you think is a great learner? What do you notice about them?
- A friend in my Year 10 class:
- “She’s always listening”
- “Always ahead of her work”
- “Asks for help when she needs it / puts up her hand to clarify”
- “Very persistent” – “if she doesn’t get something she’ll do it again until she does"
- How do you see yourself as a learner?
- “Could do better – could put my hand up more”
- “Always try my best even though that’s not the best in the class”
- “I’m persistent”
- What could help you to get stronger or better in your learning?
- “Put my hand up more – don’t be so nervous!”
- “Be a bit more active in the classroom…put my ideas out there…tend to keep them to myself”
- How do you know how you are going in your learning?
- “My work’s been getting better; been getting ‘at’ or ‘above’ which is good”
- “Checking with the teacher; what to do, how I’m going...”
- “I think you just know when you’re getting it – it’s hard to explain”
- “It just becomes easier when you get it”
Damien Toussaint, Assistant Principal (Learning and Teaching)
MFG PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAY
As you know Tuesday May 29th was a student free day at MFG to enable our staff to be involved in a day of professional learning.
The first part of the morning saw our staff gathering in small teams to share best teaching practice. Teachers of year 12 VCE outlined their data analysis from 2017, identifying specific areas for improvement and strategies for improvement with 2018 VCE students. Teachers of years 7 to 11 also shared the ‘detective work’ they had completed on their classes to identify the range of ability levels and strategies of differentiation used to progress learning.
This was followed by a professional practice session where staff worked independently or in small teams. During this time all staff finalised their anaphylactic training which consisted of online module training and practical use of an epipen testing.
Staff worked with their Learning Areas in the afternoon on various issues such as preparation of Learning Tasks, On-going Assessment and Reporting, Curriculum planning and any of the myriad of tasks that need to be neatly put in place for a smooth start to semester 2 which starts this term on Monday June 18th.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the parents/carers and families for accommodating this day and all the organisation that has to be put in place on the home front for their child/children to stay at home.
Thanks also to the staff who stepped up to lead the many working parties throughout the day and to all our staff who step up and contribute to ensure this is a valuable learning experience on the MFG calendar.
Joy Carr Leader of Student, Staff and Parent/Carer Learning
