This document discusses mentoring colleagues and the role of an instructional coach. It provides an overview of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, which outline what teachers should know and be able to do at various stages of their career. An instructional coach can help mentors grow by modeling high-level teaching skills, supporting colleagues undergoing accreditation, and establishing a professional learning hub for workshops, observations, and sharing best practices. The coaching process involves setting goals, lesson planning, observations, and debrief meetings to help teachers improve.
4. Model high-level teaching
knowledge and skills and
work with colleagues to
use current ICT to improve
their teaching practice and
make content relevant and
meaningful.
2.6.3
5. AITSL
The AITSL website is
a very handy resource
to use as many of the
standards have
“Illustrations of
practice” to help you
plan how you might
address a standard.
7. • Know students and how they learn
• Know the content and how to teach it
• Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
• Create and maintain supportive and safe learning
environments
• Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
• Engage in professional learning
• Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and
the community
KNOWLEDGE
PRACTICE
ENGAGEMENT
17. “I am now at the stage of my career where I
would like to help other teachers grow and
progress further in their journey.”
18. “I feel that I have developed effective
organizational and interpersonal skills that
have … helped me develop a mutual trust and
respect with all those that I have worked with.
I believe that I am sensitive to the needs of
those around me and respected for my
discreteness… I am able to comfortably liaise
with a broad range of staff and members of
the community.”
19. “I have recently seen a colleague go through
the accreditation process and know that those
who will do so in the future will appreciate
someone who listens, can help set and
achieve goals and know that it is a shared
journey where each of the players learns from
the other.”
25. Supporting NST or ET
• Meetings between NST & coach / mentor
• Lesson observations
• Gathering evidence
• Annotations, references & testimonials
• Review by IC team
• Submission
Hinweis der Redaktion
The second line is more a reference to the fact that the standards used to be quite foreign to me and I viewed them in a more grumpy old teacher, cynical way. But as my colleague Richard, who I am helping through accreditation said yesterday in response to the question “What have you got out of the accreditation process” - he said “it has made me do things I wouldn't have done before and may of those things have helped me become a better teacher”. Eg. involving parents more. He did also mention that it was like being thrown into a PD river.
So, as just mentioned, I have been an instructional coach at our school for the past two and a half years. From the start of this year I have been working as the HOD. When I reflect on the way I have faced this new challenge over the course of the year, it comes down to me combining my own strength and skills with the myriad things that I have learnt from my ‘unofficial’ mentor over the past 10 or so years - the previous HOD. Just as we influence the students in our classroom, often without knowing or noticing it, we also influence those who we work with. So, as you know your students, so you should know the staff.
Today I will talk a little about the standards and then move on to talk about the model we use at Knox for professional learning and mentoring. But first, to you… What’s your relationship to the standards and accreditation? … Get them to do it and show the results. Mention how socrative can be used as a tool to get instant feedback, as well as many other things.
Drawing a slightly long bow but, I’ve just done part of the work towards standard 2.6.3
Addressing the standards is about planning ahead and working out what you do in your teaching and mentoring as a leader and which standard it addresses. When gaining accreditation or mentoring someone through accreditation, it is mostly about collecting evidence to show you/they have met the standards, and that means thinking about the standards and how you might meet them in your time at school. Once you’ve collected evidence, then you can write the annotations.
If you are going through accreditation, the AITSLwebsite is there to help.
As we saw with the responses to secretive …
In a nutshell the standards are set into 3 domains …
Within each domain are the standards and the variants for each accreditation level
The levels of accreditation are … The accreditation authorities vary between levels, meaning that ISTAA or BOSTES can assess the applications.
Standard 8: Teachers actively support the ethos and values of the school
There is an extra standard that is not really in the list but this ‘hidden’ standard is the one we as leaders need to fulfil in order to mentor other language teachers and help them through accreditation - “Know the standards and how to use them”.
For me, helping people through accreditation as an Instructional Coach was really helpful when I was asked to step up as the Head of Department earlier this year. Through working with other staff on their teaching and having conversations about teaching, learning and the standards, it got valuable insights into what is one of the most important roles as a HOD and that is pastoral care of the staff and helping them, and me, improve.
So, what’s the difference between graduate, proficient and highly accomplished? How do the standards divide them up? I have a task for you …
Activity
In small groups, sort out which standard belongs to which level of accreditation
Then look at the verbs in each standard. What do you notice?
A couple of years ago I was asked to work on the ISTAA assessors panel that assesses the accreditation submissions and from that it was clear that the important parts of the standards that we need to illustrate are of course the ‘action’ words. The verbs. And it is with these that you can see more clearly the difference between the accreditation levels. Have a look at the standards you have there and focus on the verbs. Which ones stand out in each level?
Highly accomplished:
support colleagues, develop, model, evaluate,
So, what makes a good mentor. Well, according to my application letter when I first became an IC …
History of how I got into it and what it is. Read out your application letter. I wouldn’t normally do this but it struck me as relevant in what makes a good coach - whether these apply to me or not is another thing (it is an application letter after all).
This proved to be right. These skills are needed.
We have done a couple of Pads with Jim Knight Reference Jim Knight and his partnership approach to teaching
Choice - options to avoid resistance / Voice - so they can express their point of view
Dialogue - listen more than tell / Equality - relationship between equals
Reciprocity - rewarded by each other’s contributions / 2 way street
Reflection - allow teachers to consider ideas before adopting them
Praxis - reflect on what you put into practice
As a result we do …
Workshops - google classroom, twitter
Discussions / sharing best practice - engagement
Online learning modules - differentiation
Reading time - research
For each point have a slide and mention what’s important and how it works
Emphasise the importance of asking the right questions