PLATO (Professional Leave and Teacher Outcomes)

During our TPL we have had four days in the PLATO program presented by ACEP (Australian Centre for Effective Partnerships.) During these four days we have worked on becoming more familiar with the E5 Instructional Model and using it to assist with our TPL inquiry.
On the first day we lokked at:
Engaging with e5-individual focus:
Self assessment, looking at each domain. What capability do you wish to work on in your practice?
We chose to focus our inquiry on the Engage domain particulary the capability of developing shared norms.
During these sessions we have come to realise that e5is not the big scary beast we think it is but rather a common language that teachers can use to reflect on and discuss our core business of teaching. One of the things that stood out for us was the statement that if everyone in the state was working at level one across all domains, what a fantastic group of teachers we would have. E5 is not to be seen as a ladder that we must climb to be an effective teacher.
During day one we worked on refining our question in order to guide our TPL inquiry.
On day two the focus was to look at project management tools and the need for planning to evaluate the impact of the TPL on our own teaching. In order to do this, we started with examining our own practice and placing ourselves on a level within the e5 model in our chosen area of engagement and shraed norms. Other tasks undertaken on the day were brainstorming our key tasks and unpacking them and allocating various tasks to members of the group. We aslo produced a document outlining our project plan.
Day three was reflection of our progress and evaluating outcomes so far. We had time to reflect on what we had achieved so far and where we could go from there. We revisited our e5 learning goal form day two. We looked at the modelling of and pratised a coaching conversation about e5 learning goals. We also participated in substantive conversations about teacher practice.
Day four was about Sharing the Learning. It gave us opportunities to share what we had done, ask questions and give and receive feedback on what we had achieved. We were chosen to show the group the presentations we had given to our staff as well as our blog. We received positive feedabck from this as no other teams had presented to their whole staff at this stage. There was time given to reflect on our e5 learning and how we had progressed throughout the year. To assist with this we were given a proforma about Observing Teacher Practice through an e5 lens.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at PLATO and found it to be some of the best PD we have had in a long time.

Macclesfield Primary School

In 2002 a new open plan building was built. This was designed by MYNX architects who have designed the new Boronia K-12 buildings. Prior to this they had 230 students with only one permanent building and the rest were portables.
The main flexible learning building had 6 classroom spaces surrounding an internal Gallery space. This area had no permanent furnishings so things could be moved in and out as required by both students and teachers. This makes it truly flexible.
There were also a mix of year levels in this space rather than having all classes from one or two levels working together.
There were very large sliding doors with no windows leading to this Gallery space that could be opened or closed depending on the need of the classes at the time. When we were there one whole side was completely shut off.
The principal had told us before we saw the space that there were no teacher areas within the classroom. However we did notice that all classroom areas had a teacher desk and shelving at the front of the room. This is probably because any teacher space allocation had been taken over for programs such as Quicksmart and Reading Recovery.
The most interesting thing we took from this visit was that the Principal said it is important to ask "What's the Teaching and Learning going to look like?" rather than worrying about the physical layout and furniture.
Their focus from now on is:
* Changes in Pedagogy.
* Teacher Skills.
* Improving skill sets in ICT, assessment and collegiate teaching.
* Ongoing building of team capacity.
* Changes in physical set up that are required to support the points above.