PD Session Reflection

Haley Harbinson

On December 2, 2019, I attended my first PD session. Considering I didn’t know what to

expect it was a day of learning and gathering new information that I can use not only in
practicum but also in my future classroom. Some teachers brought up cool ways to incorporate
different formative assessments. I really enjoyed the idea of creating the graphic organizer for
students to understand a multitude of ways different words are interpreted. In the example
shown was ways students will see worldview. There were seven different components that the
students had to research. I think this gives a really good background to the vocabulary that will
be used in future lessons. I also really enjoyed the formative assessment of “Legalize Note
Passing”. In this student are given a topic and with a partner they have to communicate back
and forth through letters. Students cannot talk during this time, so it gives them a chance to
really process what they want to say in order for their partner to understand what they want to
communicate in the letter. I think this is a great way to get students to think about the topic in
their own perspective but also allow others to have their opinion on the matter as well.
I realized more than ever at the PD session the importance of collaborating with others.
Some things take time and sometimes you do not have enough time in the day so helping each
other not only benefits you as a teacher but also the students. I like how everyone in our group
talked about the ways they were teaching the students and how the formative assessments
scaffold to the summative assessments. I like how there was a facilitator to question your steps
but also give help and ways in which you could improve the way you might be teaching a
certain topic.
During the afternoon we met as a school at the head office of grasslands. Here we
talked as a collective of what was beneficial from the morning. We then went through an
agenda of the afternoon and got down to business. The staff of Tilley school talked about ways
they can improve their teaching methods. One book all teachers received at Tilley school is
Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning by John Hattie. Within this book
there is more than 15 years of accumulated research in the classroom.
Within this PD session I learned the importance of collaboration, and assessment. I
know that throughout my classes within PS1 we talked a lot about assessment but seeing it put
into action rather than just talking about it really made it sink in. PD sessions are so important
because it allows teachers to grow and better themselves in order to let students grow, learn
and develop.