When I first listened to my fifth graders writing excerpts, during my professional experience, I was astonished! I also felt challenged to cater for such a group of geniuses. Their writing was very well structured, inclusive of many language devices/grammatical features and had a clear purpose. How can I add to their already expanded repertoire? I wondered. Luckily, my supervising teacher shared her secret for this success, “I attended a professional learning course on writing which was valuable in up-skilling me with strategies and effective tools to use in my classroom”, she said.

 

I wrote all the details and made sure to enrol myself that same afternoon in the Seven Steps writing success workshop (6.2.1) as I was eager to learn how to teach writing the way my mentor-teacher Kelly did. My willingness to accept advice and new knowledge from colleagues is evident here (6.3.1). The course however, (which I have completed and found extremely beneficial) was 3 months away so the next best thing in order to support my students was to seek assistance from my mentor and act upon her advice immediately. Kelly and I stayed back most afternoons, she shared her notes/resources/ideas and explicitly taught me how to prepare for best-practice pedagogy. We engaged in collaborative planning, I delivered writing lessons and she provided me with constructive feedback which improved my teaching practices drastically (6.3.1)

 

These professional learning journeys (practicum and workshop) helped to boost my confidence in the classroom and improved my competencies in delivering successful writing lessons (Groundwater-Smith, Edwing & Le Cornu, 2015).

I am a strong believer in learning from veteran teacher’s expertise. These teachers are an invaluable resource which I will be using regularly throughout my career. I will also continue to engage in professional learning opportunities to stay up to date with the current research on education (Words: 300).

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