PLTs for the early-career teacher

My name is Nicole Gertos and I have been teaching for around 2 years. My discipline areas are Physical Educational and Health and Human Development, both of which I teach here at Braemar College. I have been fortunate enough to be able to expand on my knowledge of the use of formative assessment in the classroom thought our Professional Learning Teams this year. This was an excellent opportunity to be able to build on methods of delivering formative assessment in class and be able to showcase different strategies amongst teacher in different teaching areas. Our group worked exceptionally well at covering many different methods that were impactful on Middle School students as well as the Senior School students and were able to determine and compare what worked well specifically for each cohort.

Our meetings were a great opportunity to be able to share ideas and resources that have worked really well in my classes including digital applications such as the ‘Wheel of Names’, which increased engagement for students and varied the process of selecting students to answer questions and inform me of their progress throughout a lesson. It was also valuable try out the ‘Ziplet’ website that was suggested by the group as a fast and easy way to administer quick formative assessment style questions that can provide accurate feedback of student comprehension of a topic in real time.

Other techniques I found useful was allowing students to be critical of their own and of other students answers by being able to answer them after receiving teaching feedback and resubmit for further correction. Students were also given the opportunity to complete and submit their own formative assessment style questions which I was then able to redistribute back to students in the form on a quiz for them to complete. I found this to be very helpful as I was able to provide constant formative assessment and frequently empower students to demonstrate their knowledge and capability in particular units.

This experience has allowed me to provide more ownership to students when completing and correcting their work and accurate, quick and helpful formative assessment of students constantly and allowed me to plan future lessons depending on student responses. It was also helpful to allow the students to create their own contributions to classes which really showcased their understanding of content. I also enjoyed being able to sit in on my peers’ lessons and gain further exposure to different teaching styles and techniques I could adapt and use in my classes. Overall a very helpful and rewarding experience that improved my teaching practice around distributing and using formative assessment in my classes.

Miss Nicole Gertos

VCE HPE teacher.