Today I was fortunate to participate in the Evaluator Development Program, part of CIS (the Council of International Schools) incredible commitment to the growth and success of education and educators globally.
The session today, led by Paul Topping, was a interesting and thought provoking discussing on High Quality Teaching & Learning. The discussion covered some key areas such as;
- The importance of inspirational teachers & their passion
- The need to always ask schools, leaders, teachers and learners about what their school’s shared understanding of teaching and learning is
- The variables that can impact a lesson; we use learning walks to build up a picture of the school – but let’s face it, as teachers we’ve all had days when things just don’t go according to plan for any number of reasons, so we must take that into consideration when looking at how a school is doing and try to understand the variables at play
- How do we know children are learning?
- The importance of recognising our own bias and trying our best to keep it in check
Learning Notes
As with many times I’m in intensive sessions like this, taking notes helps me to consolidate my thinking so my reflections from today are here:
There are a few more of these sessions coming in, and I’m keen to see how else we will get to reflect, engage and understand!
What makes good PD?
A big advantage of any CIS visit, workshop, or meeting comes from the diversity of the experience being shared. Educators and school leaders from a really broad set of backgrounds, contexts, and approaches come together to help others in their journey – and it always reminds me of how powerful and supportive the international educational community is.
Today’s PD was really strengthened by that, under Paul’s guidance we heard from each other and could therefore support one another to learn, challenge our thinking, and reflect on our understandings. It also helps that we all opt to be there, we give up our time to do this for the love of education and for the commitment to growth and you feel that dedication in sessions like todays.
What has been some of your most effective Professional Development? What makes a learning opportunity really stand out for you?
Fantastic reflections Emma. More than ever, we need to hang on to the selfless efforts of those who want to make difference. As you say, the CIS community commits itself to school improvement, and given that schools are there to serve students, it’s great to have such a focus on learning. Thanks for sharing this very validating post at a time when the emphasis on student learning seems to have gone awry somewhere.
Edna, thanks for giving this post wings…