The first day of the rest of our lives...after LSDA and LIP

So I've completed Leading Instructional Practice through Bastow and Chris and I have  completed Leading Schools in the Digital Age...a great launching pad for our next move. My thoughts now turn to how I will share the professional learning with my colleagues and link it to the learning of our students at our school.


Why did we do LSDA?
To improve our skills as educators to teach in the 21st century.
To develop the skills and understandings needed to provide our students with better teaching and learning.


Where is the evidence that this was necessary?

1. Despite having experienced teachers, quality programs and targeted interventions, our literacy and numeracy results in NAPLAN and from teacher judgements do not show that all students have reached benchmark in all areas.
2. The nature of learning and learners is changing, and teachers must change with it. This does not mean discarding effective teaching and learning approaches, but it does mean we need to do something different to ensure all students achieve.
3. Current prep students will graduate from secondary school in 2028 - technological change in all areas of life has had a massive impact in the last 5 years ...we can only guess at what their working lives will entail. We will be doing our students a disservice if we do not embrace change in our schools.

Where is the evidence that LSDA has helped us to deliver improved student achievement?


Example 1: www.learn2earn.org was discovered via my PLN on Twitter. Since signing up all students in the school have recorded the time they read for and provided responses to texts. For some students this is the first time I have seen them reflect on their reading.


Example 2: From the research project I completed about explicit teaching of effort and Growth Mindset and Reading, where I gathered data about growth mindset, we noted an improvement in students' understanding of growth mindset, and how that could help them with reading. This research will be revisited again later in the year to determine if any further understandings have been gained.


Example 3: The PL we have completed so far (4 sessions) about Growth Mindset has given all teachers another tool to use when working with those students who appear to have potential, but lack the confidence, motivation or drive to apply themselves.