Student Voice

How To Guide Student Voice

One of the important aspects of knowing your impact as a teacher is to gain some perspective from your students.  The following presentation was given to staff at morning professional development. 

The end of the second term marks a convenient time of the year to get some student voice. 

Here is the presentation that I made to staff...



It goes through the reasons behind gathering student voice. Ties the method/tools used into our appraisal system on OneNote and also links into the Registered Teacher Criteria. 

Here is the link to the actual student voice document I've set up for Waihi College.  http://learningwaihicollege.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/student-voice.html

Peer Review - DP

Feedback Learning Design - Justin Harper

Purpose - I am hoping to become a more relevant and efficient part of the school leadership team here at Waihi College.  In order for me to achieve this I really need to have some thoughtful, honest and pragmatic advice - I need to know what ways I can better assist you.  The following set of questions I've designed to try and create an opportunity for your input.  I anticipate that it should take no longer than 5 minutes.  Thank you in advance for your time and energy. 

Online Form - The following survey can also be completed using online survey at www.surveymonkey.com (hit the link below and it will take you to the right place).  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/98XXY6G

Key - a) Very Good, b) Proficient, c) Growth Needed, na) Not Applicable (need more information)

Personal Characteristics
1.  I am a clear communicator    a         b        c        na

2.  I am an efficient worker/good time manager    a         b        c        na

3.  I am available/approachable when needed    a         b        c        na

Professional Responsibilities
4.  I am an advocate for staff to Principal     a         b        c        na

5.  I am setting a clear direction on Professional Development     a         b        c        na

6.  I am setting a clear direction for staff appraisal      a         b        c        na

7.  I am "aware" of the key issues facing Teachers here at Waihi College     a         b        c        na
Things I should be doing more of (or more often)...
_______________________________________________________________
 
________________________________________________________________
 
________________________________________________________________

Things I should be doing less of (or less often)...
________________________________________________________________
 
________________________________________________________________
 
________________________________________________________________

Any other information/advice/hints...
________________________________________________________________
 
________________________________________________________________
 
________________________________________________________________

Again thank you for your time and input. 

Justin Harper. 

Some New Staff Reference Books

Professional Reading

Here are some of the latest educational books available for staff in the staffroom. 

One of the best things about having a ready supply of books is that it allows you to expand your thinking about modern educational theory.  You can quickly pick up a few ideas over a weekend of reading and reading more about teaching will encourage you to try new things in the classroom. 

You will notice that several of these books have reviews in the staffroom (and some here in this blog - below).  I would be very grateful if you're taking a book that is yet to be review that you'd take that extra ten minutes to write a review for others.
 
Registered Teacher Criteria has several areas where professional reading can be used as evidence (see RTC#12 - "engaging with professional literature and reflecting on ones practice and RTC#5 - "actively contributing to a learning community"). 




I would also be very keen to hear if you've got some other titles to recommend. I'd love to see our teacher reference section grown and increase in relevance.

Appraisal Where You Should Be

Appraisal Steps...
This is a good time of the year to be making sure that you're on track with you own development and appraisal.  You should have been taking the time to fill in the "Profile Page".

Here you can find a place to record all the core part of your role here at Waihi College.  There are links to the professional standards, registered teacher criteria and cultural competencies'.  There is also a descriptor of your job description(s). 

You can find lots of the information (MOE #'s etc) on your payslip from Novopay. 

Inserting a optional photo is just a cut and paste. 


Talking with Your Appraiser & PLC
At this stage you should have made initial contact with at least two key people (hopefully three).  They are one your appraiser (see the list under the "Appraisal Grid" page in the section titled "Waihi References") and the other is a colleague that you feel you can have meaningful conversations with about your goals and development this year. 


First Meeting with Appraiser
There are two pages that you should have filled in prior to this meeting.  They’re under the headings of “Preparation for Initial” and “Goal Setting”. 

You will need about 20 minutes to fill these in.  Be expecting that your Appraiser should be asking you good positive questions about your goals.   The purpose is to have you come out of your comfort zone so that you’re learning.  As such the actual goals you settle upon should be 80% from you and 20% influence (give or take) from your Appraiser. 

Having input from your Professional Learning Colleague/Community is vital at this stage.  It is about creating degrees of accountability.  Ultimately we are accountable to ourselves (and this is reflected in the 12RTC’s when we register ourselves as professional educators)… but having an Appraiser and PLC talking with us should keep our goals relevant and real. 

Keeping Track

Remember to keep a record of your meetings.  Make efforts to summarise the general consensus of the discussion.  We need to be highly reflective in our practice… it is better if you have some challenge in your conversations as this leads to deeper reflection.  But always keep in mind that we must maintain those high level trust relationships.    


Beginning Your Inquiry

The goals that you’ve set – particularly your goal focussed on students achievement in you classroom.  This (these) will be the primary basis for establishing your ‘Teaching as Inquiry’ cycle this year.  You can read about this in the sections marked… “Inquiry Plan Template” and “Teaching as Inquiry”.  I’ll be posting on this shortly (and some morning PD sessions too). 

Student Voice

We need to be focussed on improving our impact on the learning of our students. 

John Hattie puts it...

"Attention needs to move from how to teach to how to learn - and only after teachers understand how each student learns can they then move on to make decisions about how to each." Visiable Learning for Teachers p.103.

One of the most valuable methods of gather data on our practice is to gather student voice.  The following questionnaire was developed by Kevin and the PE staff (I've tweaked slightly to be more generic for any subject). 

I would recommend that four times this year (this is set up this way on your OneNote appraisal folder) you gather student voice.  That could be four independent classes once.  Or one class four times or couple of classes twice - no hard and fast rule. 

Student voice can be unnerving as we as teachers are putting ourselves "out there".  Some students will be stupid and write stupid things (those can be expected and dismissed).  But in practice most students are constructive and reflective - these provide rich reflective resources. 

Here is a copy of the questionnaire it is also available on shared drive saved in S:\Administration\Appraisal\Student Evaluation of Learning.docx

 

   

The following slide was presented to staff a morning PD session.  It was an overview of what I envision/hope our school appraisal system should (and shouldn't) be. 

It was presented as both information sharing but also to provoke discussion on educational matters. 

It was presented on 27th May 2014

Appraisal System Waihi College from WaihiCollege

Goal Setting and Quality Conversations.

Goal Setting & Quality Conversations from WaihiCollege

This slide presentation was presented to staff at a PD session on 29th May. 

The purpose was to present the notion of high trust being the basis of quality conversations.  And that through high trust conversations the staff can build Professional Learning Communities. 

This slide also has a page on the idea of a 'Johari Window'.
 

OneNote Tutorial

One of my IT goals this year has been to incorporate electronic (online) systems into our school Appraisal system.  And to have that appraisal system be linked with...

1. The 12 Registered Teacher Criteria (and the Tataiako Document) - so staff can track their progression through the professional standards.
2. The review of the academic progress of our students through NCEA/NZC.
3. Form and utilize expertise of colleagues on the staff in Professional Learning Communities (PLC's). 

The system that I've based this upon is Microsofts OneNote programme (and the work done by Botany Downs High School). 

Here is my instructional video on how to install the OneNote Appraisal document onto a school laptop...

[n.b. this is learning for me - my first embedded YouTube clip in a blog :-)]