Professional Learning Journal TRB Template | TRB #: 24478

Teachers Registration
Change
Moving of Registration
from Provisional Category
to Full Registration Teachers
Board of Tasmania
Progressing from Provisional to Full Registration Registration Board
Tasmania

Record of Professional Learning and Development – Professional Learning Journal (PLJ) Template

This is record of your reflections on at least one (1) and no more than four (4) professional learning activities which you have undertaken within your current cycle of provisional
registration or within the last five years and which you regard as significant in the development of your teaching practice. You should include details of the activity and also how you
applied your learning in the classroom/school, the impact this had on students/colleagues and how you know.
Activities can include those required by your school or employer, including ongoing school based or one off activities which may form part of a professional development plan as well as
activities which you have undertaken personally but which relate explicitly to your teaching e.g. external professional learning day, formal study, etc. Certificates are NOT required and
are insufficient on their own.

Brief description of: Activity undertaken & who Related Standards or Descriptors at Self-reflection & Annotation
provided (please note date/s of activity) and your the Proficient stage
Application of learnings

1. The activity that I undertook was the Making it a 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet The ASD students that I teach are across a full-range of abilities
Success: Teaching and Behaviour Support Strategies the specific learning needs of and participating in this PL further encouraged me to look at
for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder course students across the full range of each student individually and differentiate my teaching to meet
provided by Sue Larkey. The course is delivered abilities: Develop teaching activities their specific needs (1.5). Following this PL, I experimented with
online through an online learning platform and takes that incorporate differentiated various learning activities to see which ones improved the
five hours to complete. I participated in this strategies to meet the specific learning of my specific ASD students. Some of strategies
Professional Learning (PL) in Term 2 2019, along with learning needs of students across the included: process adaptations (different versions of scaffold
two of my colleague teachers at Woodbridge School. full range of abilities. templates) and product adaptations (options to
type/handwrite/scribe oral responses). I also modified my
This PL gave me a clearer understanding of Autism 1.6 Strategies to support full teaching practices including: multilevel instruction; incorporation
Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and an insight into how it participation of students with of visual/graphic elements to curriculum content; daily schedule;
presents differently in each person. It also provided disability: Design and implement extension activities; word wall; keeping routines consistent and
me with an extensive range of real-world teaching teaching activities that support the warning students about changes; careful consideration of peer
strategies for students with ASD, which I then participation and learning of students learning opportunities; calm down strategies; regulation aids;
applied in the classroom with my students. and social stories. After trialing different strategies in the class, I
was able to develop a toolbox of strategies and learning activities

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with disability and address relevant that worked for different ASD students. This resulted in increased
policy and legislative requirements. engagement and learning, and a reduction in dysregulated
behaviour.
6.3 Engage with colleagues and
improve practice: Contribute to I was also encouraged during the PL, to identify the student’s
collegial discussions and apply specific interest areas and possible areas of giftedness. Some
constructive feedback from students with ASD have very high IQs and may be identified as
colleagues to improve professional twice-exceptional. This was the case with one student whom I
knowledge and practice. was teaching, they were fascinated by dinosaurs and were
showing evidence of above grade level math’s knowledge and
skills. Consequently, I provided this student with extension in
math’s, and I linked as many learning opportunities back to
dinosaurs as possible (ie. creative writing, science, handwriting
etc.). These strategies resulted in the student showing great
engagement, learning achievement and self-regulation.

This PL has had a significant impact on my teaching, and I

continue to use a lot of the strategies in my classroom today
daily: maintaining consistent routines; using visuals; using
countdown timers; encouraging the use of self-regulation tools;
and careful consideration of peer groupwork. I am always
cognizant that no two people with ASD are the same, but I now
have a toolkit of different strategies to try with the ASD students
of all abilities that I may teach in the future.

I attended this PL to develop strategies to support full

participation of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
(1.6). By attending PL such as this, I am ensuring that my teaching
activities are inclusive of students with disabilities, and include
reasonable adjustments and accommodations, and thus ensuring
that I’m meeting my policy (Department of Education
Tasmania Disability Action Plan 2018-2021) and legislative
requirements (Disability Standards for Education 2005 and
Disability Discrimination Act 1992). Over the 10 weeks of the

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course, I designed and implemented teaching strategies that

support the participation and learning of my students with ASD.
Given that no two students with ASD are alike, I experimented
with various strategies that were inspired by the content of the
course. Some of the successful strategies that I designed and
implemented included personal desk timers, various learning
scaffold templates, visual count-down timer on the board, visual
schedule, fidget basket, noise-cancelling headsets, time-out
space and sit spots. These strategies were observed to have a
positive impact on my ASD students, through an increase in time
spent in the “green zone” (Zones of Regulation) which means
that they were calm, happy, focused, and ready to learn.

I participated in this PL with two colleague teachers from

Woodbridge School. Although the course was online, we opted
to undertake the course together in the same room, so that we
could provide each other with constructive feedback and
brainstorm strategies as a group. This was beneficial because it
led to collegial conversations about the ASD students in our
school and how we could better support their learning, which we
documented using meeting noters. This collegial engagement
had a positive impact on my teaching, because their knowledge
of visuals and visual timetables helped to improve my teaching
practice (6.3).
2. The activity that I undertook was the Dyslexia and 1.2 Understand how students learn: Due to the high proportion of students with Dyslexia and reading
Significant Difficulties in Reading course provided by Structure teaching programs using difficulties in my class, I identified a need to undertake
OnLine Training (OLT) in conjunction with the research and collegial advice about professional learning in this area. I highlighted this need in my
Tasmanian Students with Disabilities Support, how students learn. Performance Development Plan in 2020 and sought advice from
Department of Education Tasmania. The course is my manager to identify an appropriate program to address my PL
delivered through an online training platform with a 6.4 Apply professional learning and needs. I successfully undertook the PL throughout Term 2 2020.
moderator and takes 20 hours to completed. I improve student learning: Undertake
participated in this professional learning in Term 2 professional learning programs This PL informed me about how students with Dyslexia learn, and
2020. designed to address identified how I could make changes to how I structure my teaching
student learning needs. program to improve the learning of students with Dyslexia (1.2).

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This PL gave me a clearer understanding of how After the PL, I implemented many of the teaching strategies that
students with Dyslexia and significant reading were highlighted including: reading line trackers; graphic
difficulties learn. It also provided me with an organisers; software (WordQ and C-Pen Reader); visual cues
extensive range of real-world teaching strategies, (graphics, visual timetable etc); learning intention and success
which I then applied in the classroom with my criteria for each lesson; activating prior knowledge; vocabulary
students. word walls; checklists; presenting information into small chunks;
written notes for key information; give instructions in order;
allow extra processing time for answering questions/produce
work/practice skills; peer learning; worked examples; and explicit
phoneme and grapheme teaching.

Participating in this PL and then implementing specific strategies

for students with Dyslexia, has had a significant impact on
student learning (6.4). I know this because the data indicates that
my students with Dyslexia have had bigger gains in their reading
levels and comprehension since I implemented these teaching
strategies. For example, I have been working with three specific
students with Dyslexia and significant reading difficulties over a
two-year cycle (Grade 5 and Grade 6). They had all previously
demonstrated slow progression in Oxford Reading Levels. During
their two years with me, I have implemented various
interventions to address their learning needs, and this has
resulted in following gains in their reading levels:
• Student a – 9 levels (Level 16 – Term 4 2021 to Level 25
– Term 4 2021)
• Student b – 8 levels (Level 19 – Term 4 2019 to Level 27
– Term 4 2021)
• Student c – 8 levels (Level 20 - Term 4 2019 to Level 28 –
Term 4 2021).
3. The activity that I undertook was online training 3.7 Engage parents/carers in the During Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic lock-down in 2020, I
modules provided by Seesaw including: educative process: Plan for developed and implemented a home learning program for my
• Seesaw – Getting Started Part 1: Grades 3-5 appropriate and contextually relevant Grade 4/5 class. Initially this began as developing, printing and
• Seesaw – Getting Started Part 2: Grades 3-5 opportunities for parents/carers to be distributing hardcopy home learning packs, however this
• Seesaw – Get Students Started on Seesaw involved in their children’s learning. transitioned into providing online learning through Seesaw.

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• Seesaw – Get Families Started on Seesaw.

I participated in this professional development in 4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly, and During the entire home learning program, my key aim was to
Term 2 2020. ethically: Incorporate strategies to positively engage parents/cares in the educative process (3.7). I
promote the safe, responsible and did that by regularly communicating with parents/carers via
With no previous experience developing and ethical use of ICT in learning and phone and email, and Seesaw also played a role in two-way
facilitating online learning, this PL gave me teaching. communication through direct messages or through the
crucial information on how to use the Seesaw comment feature on the Seesaw platform. I would review this
online learning platform. I went from being a communication daily and respond in various ways such as:
beginner in Seesaw, to being an expert user that • answering questions from both parent/carers and
my colleague teachers called upon to develop students
activities and problem solve technical issues. • increasing and decreasing the difficulty of the
Seesaw home learning tasks
• problem solving any technical issues
• scaffolded learning by providing more examples.

With some students with no/limited access to the internet during

the period, I also engaged with parents/carers by selecting and
creating learning resources in hardcopy packs that were collected
by parents/carers from Woodbridge School.

As students have been using the Seesaw online learning platform

during 2020 and 2021, I have incorporated a range of strategies
to promote the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT (4.5).
Firstly, I reminded students of their signed ICT-use agreement.
Then thanks to my PL in Seesaw, I was able to create some online
learning activities for my students that focussed on the
safe/responsible/ethical use of ICT through focussed online
learning. From an administration perspective, I went into the
settings section of Seesaw to disable student likes/comments on
other students work and ensured that all student
posts/comments needed approval by me before they were
posted on the students learning online journal via Seesaw.

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Teaching during the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic, the school

and system priorities change quickly. This required me to quickly
engage in PL for online learning to provide me with essential
knowledge and practice of the Seesaw online learning platform.
As a direct response to my engagement in the Seesaw
professional learning, I was able to transition
students/parents/carers to online learning during a significant
time of uncertainty and therefore maintain student/parent/carer
contact with the school and continue their learning journey. This
professional learning allowed me to successfully provide support
to parents/carers/students about how to use Seesaw for online
learning at home via online/phone/email.

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