How we try to 'do' professional development

I thought it was about time to ask what people think of our teacher professional development programme. We want to move away from homogenous PD and believe it should be from Beginning Teachers (pre-service) to headship! It takes several forms (and it's for teachers and all support staff):

+ staff can apply for any short external PD they've noticed and, if their line manager approves it and not too many folks are out of school, they get the course paid for
+ there is a weekly in house programme (15:30 - 16:30) on generic issues such as 'use your voice', multimedia, behaviour, ICT/VLE .... these are for anyone and 14 of them with a reflective essay/short literature review leads to a qualification accredited by the College of Teachers
+ teachers can apply to become Chartered London Teachers - professional reflections from these are shared on our VLE
+just starting a paired coaching/mentoring programme (has been running a few weeks)
+ after tonight's #eltchat on Twitter, I am going to have an open house session for anyone to present or lead a learning convrsation on a topic of their choice - tea/coffee provided, will ask if I can video and podcast on our school VLE, would also like to share with other schools via Skype
+ a series of whole staff days and twilight sessions - some with outside speakers
+ NQTs engage in action research and share with staff - often leading to changes in school policy

All of this is linked to staff meetings with their line managers and also to lesson observations - these have a twist as our current pro forma is designed to measure the impact of the lesson on the students, rather than observing 'what the teacher does'.

Please do comment - would love to hear what happens at your school and whether or not you could help us improve more. We are having a celebration of teachers and support staff who have gained qualifications this past twelve months, at the end of November.

dialogic teaching

This is just an over excited note --- must think more about it, any comments would help please!

Have been wondering how to get the idea of dialogic teaching ino Key Stage 4 Maths lessons (ages 14-16). I have started to use video podcasts made by the students and also collaborative documenst on our school VLE. How could I begin to develop extended dialogue between students? Maybe I need to start with me and one student --- BUT what are the other students doing whilst this is happening? They need a directed task.

Enter @KnikiDavies on Twitter and her blog post http://thinkteaching.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/maths-groups-enriching-learning/

She outlines the following roles for students:
Facilitator – makes sure everyone is on task. Keeps things moving.

Understanding co-ordinator – checks everyone understands what is going on. Asks questions to make sure everyone is clear about the methods used.

Resource manager – responsible for fetching equipment and asking questions of the teacher. Nothing is provided to the children – if they think they need whiteboards, calculators, compasses, cubes, they have to get them!

Reporter/Recorder - keeps track of the group’s thinking and working out and feeds back at the end.

Yes, definitely some ideas for me here...... thanks Mrs Davies!

also ref Robin Alexander 'Towards Dialogic Teaching' 2004