Professional Growth Cycle Summary

 2021 Professional Growth Cycle Summary

Teacher’s Name: Suit-Keen Waru               Link to Team Inquiry                               Link to My Blog

Goal #1: RE  To work collaboratively to show their understanding of the RE curriculum by choosing different ways to represent their learning.

Summary and Personal Reflection:  Collaboration was key during my transition to St Joseph’s this year, especially as Religious Education is a new curriculum area for me personally as a teacher. Ako is the first word that comes to mind as I reflect on my experience with RE PLD as I had to learn not only from my teaching team but also the children themselves, as I myself became the learner. Completing the RE501 paper and New to Catholic Schools day supported my introduction to RE and found it very helpful for my own professional development. Through these opportunities and by collaborating with my teaching team, I was quickly able to immerse myself in RE learning and teaching. Faith Alive and support from our DRS were also fantastic resources to begin my foundational learning as a teacher of Religious Education. Getting involved through music for Liturgies and Whole School Mass provided a way to learn from practise, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  In Aroha 1 we are a collaborative team, and having experienced colleagues supported me to plan accordingly for our learners. With the support of my team leader, I was able to plan and deliver RE lessons for Year 2 students. One goal that we had was to ensure that learning activities were engaging and appropriately levelled for students' understanding. I enjoyed adapting activities so that they were more hands-on and allowed students to have some choice in how they presented their work. Some examples included making posters, creating artwork, writing activities, using drama, presenting Liturgies in assemblies and music to share their learning. This was also apparent through our Seesaw activities during distance learning, where students were able to share their learning through videos, artwork and oral language, to name a few. With the lockdown, I had to adapt the way that I delivered RE lessons and used a combination of Faith Alive Resources and digital tools such as Google Slides and Screencastify to create video content for my lessons. Student choice was provided through the way they could reflect on their learning through the seesaw activities. In class, I enjoyed using TPSC (Think, Pair, Share, Compare) teaching strategies to engage student to student discussions. This was effective as students themselves could be the experts, in sharing their knowledge that they themselves have with each other. I also enjoyed creating collaborative wall displays and artwork which showcased students' learning, providing a great way to easily and regularly reinforce learning.  I believe that a solid foundation of learning in Religious Education will be integral to support my ability to be a confident and knowledgeable RE educator. I look forward to taking up further studies to extend my knowledge in 2022.

Goal #2: Mathematics To use the School Math Progressions to plan and inform our teaching. To reflect and strengthen our deliberate acts of teaching (DATS)through the implementation of the Inquiry Math approach.

Summary and Personal Reflection: The DMIC approach to teaching Math was new to me, however a lot of the pedagogy around this approach was familiar as I previously completed a year of PLD through the ALIM programme at my previous school. The ideas and theory behind DMIC resonates with me as I enjoy teaching Math with an inquiry approach. Over the past few years I completed an in depth PLD, with a particular focus on strengthening DATS, specifically the use of effective questioning. I continued to focus on using effective questioning with my students with the aim of having students themselves eventually be able to think and question as they developed an inquiry mindset for themselves. We were able to co-construct questions that students could ask each other when working through Math problems. We then developed these into practical visual support tools, so that students could prompt each other to ask questions that would lead them to be able to justify their mathematical thinking. I enjoyed planning collaboratively with my wider Aroha Team and we were able to plan across Level 1 and 2 of the curriculum. Being able to add 3 tiers of questions, meant that we could see the natural progression right through both levels. This also allowed great flexibility with the use of our collaborative Math planning to address the wide variety of abilities that we had in our Math classes. I had 2 very contrasting experiences with the DMIC in class support mentors that came through. After my first in-class support session I was quite discouraged, however after discussing my experience with Lori, I gained some understanding around how the process works. In the end I believe that I reacted just how any learner may react when a relationship between the learner and the mentor had not been established. In this case, I was both new to DMIC and had not been introduced to my mentor prior to our lesson, so essentially being thrown into the deep end meant I sunk! However, after my second experience and having more time to learn from other colleagues, I felt that I had a better understanding of the PLD process and I received more support by working with our mentors. It just goes to show how developing a positive learning relationship is essential to continued growth in our profession.  During the lockdown I was able to complete quite a few DMIC Math workshops and I learnt a lot from these sessions. Following this PLD I was inspired to collaborate on a new planning template which supported us to plan more effectively. I also learnt about the importance of immersion activities from the PLD and had planned to incorporate this into our Term 4 programme. I feel as though I still have a lot to learn, and look forward to continuing this journey and strengthening my teacher practice in Math next year.

Goal #3: Collaboration To further develop collaborative practices both within our Aroha Team and teaching teams.

Summary and Personal Reflection: From day one of teaching at St Joseph’s I felt welcomed into my teaching team. My ideas were valued and listened to, so straight away I felt as though I could come to the table confidently making collaboration feel seamless. I was able to share my experience of working in a collaborative classroom with my team in many ways. This included establishing new routines and behaviour management systems that were consistent and cohesive for the entire teaching hub. I was able to share some digital expertise with my team, sharing time effective ways of using digital tools for planning and teaching. Being able to draw on each other's strengths meant that we were effective as a team and our students benefited from consistency from all 3 teachers. I enjoyed that my teaching team were not afraid of giving new approaches a go, which meant we were able to implement ideas quickly and efficiently. Collaborating online with distance learning provided a lot of challenges, however, I felt that I was able to provide some support to my team. I enjoyed challenges such as creating video content to engage my learners online and having experience in this meant that I was able to provide support for others who were new to this. Collaboration and sharing knowledge and resources was key to being able to quickly provide quality learning for our tamariki at a time where learning from home was challenging for all. I love working collaboratively as I learn so much from others and I love the growth that this brings. Being trusted and feeling valued by my team members has ensured that collaboration was always at the forefront of whatever we did, with the shared goal of doing the best that we can to inspire each and every one of our learners.

Personal Goal - Te Reo: To continue to develop and practise te reo me ngā tikanga Māori while practising as a teacher.

At the beginning of this year I completed an introductory Te Reo course. From this I decided to introduce new classroom commands and phrases that I could regularly use on a daily basis. I had big goals this year of being able to increase my daily use of Te Reo, however, I know that I definitely could have improved in this area this year. In saying that, I have enjoyed focusing on learning how to say the Lord’s Prayer in Te Reo, which I have almost memorised. I have focused more on ensuring that I have good pronunciation. I know this is one way to show respect to those who are native speakers of another language. My husband has and continues to support me through this journey. This year I have also revised my Pepeha and am able to confidently introduce myself in Te Reo. I make an effort to use te reo in the classroom for attention grabbing signals as well as giving simple directions. This is something that I know will be on-going and will continue to develop each year.

Professional Growth

Highlights from the year:  Some highlights for me this year was being able to connect my profession with personal values and beliefs that I hold with my Christian Faith. I love that I am able to pray with my tamariki and take pastoral care to a level that is not possible in a mainstream school. I have enjoyed my professional development  in Religious Education. I also loved that I was able to play the piano again and use this skill to serve in my school. Being involved with the choir was also rewarding as I love seeing students taking up opportunities to explore their own passions. Learning new skills to provide a rich distance learning programme and being able to develop a strong home-school partnership with many of my families. It was a sure and quick way to get to know the families better, even if it was over the phone, on zoom or through a home visit. I have thoroughly enjoyed working in the Aroha team this year and look forward to a new journey in 2022.

Concerns from the year: I have confidence in my Faith as Christian and I know this is a good foundation for teaching RE. However, my only concern this year was not being confident in my knowledge of teaching RE from a Catholic perspective. This at times felt a little intimidating and uncomfortable, until a few weeks in where I was able to experience Mass and Liturgies more regularly. As an educator, you can sometimes feel that you ‘have to be the expert’ ; however, I regularly found myself to be in the learner's seat more often. I guess as an educator you just want to “know” certain things before you teach them, in fear of “teaching it wrong”. This has been my challenge and I will continue to seek understanding as I approach a new year of teaching RE in 2022.

Final Comments: It has been a very challenging year this year for me both personally and professionally and I feel very blessed to have landed safely in the arms of St Joseph's Primary School. Thank-you for providing a loving and welcoming environment to continue to grow personally and in my profession.