Staff Professional Development

Growth Mindset

While the discussion on Lifelong Learning has been around for some time, the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly brought this to the forefront, especially with the changing education landscape. Teachers were placed on a steep learning curve in 2020, when Full Home-Based Learning (FHBL) kicked in and where teachers were expected to take the learning on the online platforms. This has resulted in the need to learn and re-learn on a consistent basis and the only way we can do this as educators is when we embrace the Growth Mindset.

In 2021, we invited Ms Irene Tan, Principal Master Teacher to share with staff about how we could embrace the growth mindset in a changing education landscape. This was a rich sharing, where she highlighted a few key points:

1. First, sheer effort alone was not sufficient for growth. Instead, effort must be coupled with dedicated opportunities for reflection, so that there can be renewed energy to devise new strategies for the way forward.
2. Second, the emphasis on the need for self-care. It is important to seek a healthy balance between pursuing one’s goals and pausing for rest.
3. Evidently, the most poignant message from Ms Tan was the need to avoid collective helplessness and how we would have to display positivity in both our words and action as an organisation, so that we could prevent the Pike Syndrome from taking root.

Nonetheless, teachers in YYSS have always been a force to be reckoned with. Despite the challenges that came our way, the teachers always rose to the occasion and delivered with impact. To affirm teachers for embracing the growth mindset in one way or another, we prepared an affirmation card for Teachers’ Day and ensured that Reporting Officers personalised the cards with an encouraging note for staff.

Cultivating the Growth Mindset in YYSS is a journey which requires patience. It also takes the dedicated effort of every individual staff to sow their seeds of growth, before we can harvest the fruits and build a culture of Care, Learning and Collaboration.

Key Learning Directions

This is the second year that the school has embarked on the Skillsfuture for Educators (SFed) journey. In the first phase of our journey, the school identified three Areas of Practice to focus on in the initial three years. The key learning directions from 2020 to 2022 are (i) Differentiated Instruction, (ii) e-Pedagogy and (iii) CCE. This is aligned to support the initiatives that the school has been rolling out since 2020, such as the Full Subject-Based Banding (FSBB), Personalised Digital Learning Programme (PDLP) and the newly launched Character and Citizenship Education curriculum in 2021.

Staff Engagement Sessions

Each Staff Engagement Session in 2021 focused on one key area of SFed. For example, we started the discussion on Differentiated Instruction in Term 1, where we got various teachers to share about practices such as flexible grouping in the differentiated classroom. In Term 2, we dived deeper into e-Pedagogy and introduced the Design Map to the school. As part of the learning process, a checklist was introduced for staff to use while designing their ICT-infused lessons, so that they could ensure that technology was meaningfully integrated into the lessons. While we focused on developing teachers’ professional competencies, we also wanted to ensure that the mental health and wellbeing of staff was well taken care of. In Term 3, a session on supporting staff’s mental health was conducted and it was a rich and authentic sharing where staff had a safe environment to vocalise their concerns.

PD Bites

To complement the Staff Engagement Sessions, the Staff Development Team also started PD Bites, an infographic resource to support teachers especially during the roll-out of Blended Learning in Semester 2. Through this resource, the teacher leaders summarised key learning points from professional articles, shared strategies they used during their Home-Based Learning (HBL) lessons to ensure seamless learning and useful tips on what teachers could look out for when introducing new technology tools. In addition to these, teachers were also encouraged to look out for signs of distress and were introduced to different ways to better support students during HBL. Check out our PD Bites  

Open Classroom

In addition, as part of the journey to build a culture of collaboration and learning, the school embarked on the Open Classroom journey in 2021. While some of the departments had begun piloting the Open Classroom from 2019 onwards, it was only in 2021 that Open Classroom was formalised so as to strengthen the competencies of a reflective practitioner. As part of Open Classroom, the school encouraged all teachers to open their classroom once, and to observe at least a peer’s lesson once. The final Staff Engagement session in 2021 was dedicated to Open Classroom, where the teacher leaders shared how they worked within their departments / units to overcome the various challenges, such as timetabling constraints, to ensure that the teachers were able to open their classrooms and observe one another successfully. Along the way, while there were some disruptions due to COVID-19 and the need for Safe Management Measures (SMM), the staff displayed agility, demonstrating grit in the face of the multiple changes and making the necessary changes so that they could still complete their personal goals of opening their classrooms. To find out more about our staff’s reflections towards OC, click HERE

Learning Festival

At the end of the year, the school gathered to celebrate the learning and growth of the teachers through the Learning Festival. All the Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) were tasked to showcase their work either as a (i) presentation or a (ii) virtual poster. This is also the second year in which the school has embarked on the use of the Learning Circle method in the PLTs and teams were tasked to share how they adopted this method of critical inquiry to help them determine the effectiveness of their interventions. Through the presentations and posters, the staff displayed both dedication and creativity. It was truly a time of learning and sharing of best practices from across the different departments!

Staff Retreat

In line with the Learn for Life movement, the staff took up some challenges during our annual Staff Retreat! For the educators, it was a learning experience, trying to navigate through the virtual escape room while communicating with the rest of the team members over zoom. Our EAS tried their hands at something new, where they learnt embroidery over a virtual zoom workshop.