World Teacher Day was celebrated this week and I would like to thank all parents and students for showing their appreciation to their teachers in different ways. This day has made me reflect on how outstanding our teachers are here at JB.
Our teachers are some of the most caring and committed people I have ever worked with. I was reminded of this recently, when we came together as a staff to learn from each other by sharing ideas and practice around teaching online.
We shared practice under a number of categories including:
- How do you connect with students online?
- How do you support students to connect with each other?
- How do you counteract Zoom fatigue?
- How do you use Zoom tools?
- Do you use other apps/platforms to support online learning and teaching? How?
- How do you check for understanding?
- How do you feedback and mark virtually?
The session was hugely beneficial and there was an overwhelming appreciation from all as we learned from each other. The practice shared by teachers along with the openness and willingness to share was amazing. The session demonstrated to everyone how far we have come as a school in terms of teaching online. It also showed how much our teachers continue to invest in relationship building with our students whilst interacting virtually.
Next week we will continue our focus on teacher learning as we embark on our Professional Growth and Learning Cycle with teachers. This involves professional learning around a pedagogical goal for each of our teachers. The goal is focused on an area of teaching, is developed through connecting with research and involves working in partnership with a select group of colleagues. In spite of having to work virtually, we remain very committed to teacher learning as we recognise the impact this can have both on our school culture and on learning for our students.
Alan McCarthy
Principal - Primary Campus
