Whole Staff Priority Student PD

We had a whole staff PD this week where we were looking at the priority students from Year 11.
We had a set of students to look at and the criteria for selecting these students was that they will have achieved in some lessons but not others. This was so that the teachers where the students were not achieving could talk to other teachers about strategies they could use that were working.

The tables in the staff room were set out with a student name on each and we "bus stopped:' our way round the students. At each table we met with other teachers of that student and compared teaching strategies. Those teachers who were achieving with the student gave advice about what strategies they were using that were working.
Also at each table was a scribe so that they could take notes about the conversation for later referral by the teachers of that student. This was so the focus could be on the chat and not the note taking.
Here is a blank of the layout we were using. These were all on the same presentation so all the information for all the students was in the same document.
We were set the task of trying one strategy with one of our students and feedback on the next staff PD session to say how it went.

My Take Out

What I took away from this session was about a student who was doing really well in Science but I was yet to manage to help her finish her first project from the start of the year even though she has been coming into the Wednesday after school catch up sessions that I have been running.

After talking to her science teacher, he explained what he did was to keep on at her every 10 minutes or so, checking on her, making sure she knew what she was doing and keeping her on track. I had made the mistake of presuming she new what to do as she spoke a good story but didn't produce the actions.

I have tried this during this week's lessons after the PD session and it worked really well. She produced much more work than usual in the time.

I have fed back to her science teacher that I took his advice and was pleased with the outcome.