School+-+Dandenong+North+PS

Have loved course so far, the conversations have been illuminating and empowering ,something we really need to foster within our setting. Sometimes we're just so flat chat implementing programs that seem to run us, the reflective time is just not there. Day 3 'Coaching conversations' was very effective for me, I think I had that 'ah ha' moment, watching the modelling and relating to the coach's Strategy! Especially loved the evidence tools, had been thinking of designing my own, I knew what I needed, just didn't know how to access it!! This course has come at just the right time for me and for our school.

18/10/10 Reflection;
Prior to this course I thought that literacy coaching involved basically popping in to rooms and modelling what teachers were doing only in a better way, with more detailed, thought provoking questions and more running records, and more activities designed to develop inferential comprehension abilities because that was what our data indicated that our students need. i assumed colleagues would be inspired by me and somehow lift their game become more focused and just generally 'improve' because i was there telling them to and helping them too! I thought the whole process was quite simple and straightforward. Having never encountered a coach, or worked with one before I had no 'prior knowledge' so...... How naive and simple this notion now appears........ what was I thinking? Now I realise effective coaching is so much more. When Cathy Toll stated that she 'never set foot in the classrooms' but managed all her coaching through conversations outside the classroom I just went whoa! Of course, there must be a pedagogical shift in Teachers before a change, a sustainable change can occur in practice! You can do a million modelled lessons, but until that Teacher does the work regarding pedagogical shift no change will ever occur that is sustainable, it will only be superficial, designed to pay lip service to you, tick the box then back to the old ways when you're not looking. What a waste! I look forward to initiating conversations with my colleagues about effective teaching and learning and choosing a course of action together reflecting then modifying, implementing and reflecting. This has been one cool course and probs the best pd sine my grad dip in TESOL