Online Workshop - Friday 1 March 2024

This professional development opportunity has been specifically designed for graduate and early career teachers and aims to combat the common obstacles faced during the first years of teaching.  Topics for discussion will include inclusive teaching, student engagement, behaviour management and staff / student wellbeing

***DETAILS FOR THE WORKSHOP (online event link, pre-reading, etc) WILL BE SENT ON THE WEDNESDAY PRIOR TO THE EVENT***

PROGRAM

Sessions

 Session 1: Thriving not Surviving. 

Understanding your character strengths and how to implement them, especially in times of adversity, can help teachers tackle challenging situations. Identifying strategies to use can boost confidence, strengthen relationships, manage problems, and build meaning and purpose.  This session will also cover simple ways you can release your natural happiness chemicals during the day to enhance meaning and reduce stress.  

Session 2: Inclusivity and behaviour management

This session will focus primarily on classroom behaviour management and aims to give teachers a perspective on what is involved in effective behaviour management. It will look at triggers for behaviour issues, how to foresee them and being proactive in your management.  Strategies will be given for managing issues as they arise and how to provide fair and consistent consequences. The ideas presented in this session have been informed by Positive Behaviour for Learning, authors like Paul Dix, Tom Bennet and Ross Greene PhD, professional developments on trauma informed practice and the developing adolescent brain.  Participants will discover that while behaviour management might encompass more than is first obvious, this perspective can help improve engagement, reduce undesirable behaviours, and boost student achievement.

Session 3: Formative Assessment
Formative assessment refers to the variety of methods teachers use to gather and interpret information about student learning as learning is taking place. Formative assessment allows teachers to monitor student learning and to adapt their teaching to meet student learning needs. It can also help with students’ learning retention by bringing what students have learned to the top of their mind. Formative assessment is most effective when it is a regular part of teaching and learning programs. During this core session the presenters will unpack ways to approach formative assessment with examples from their Health and Physical Education classrooms and share a practical guide to enhance your capacity to monitor student learning.

Session 4A (breakout session): Communication with parents

Alyssa will explore the art of effective communication between HPE teachers and parents. We will uncover how strategic communication acts as the foundation for nurturing student success and fostering long-lasting relationships. Through engaging discussions and practical strategies, the goal is to equip you with the necessary tools to enrich your communication with parents, solidifying the crucial partnership between home and school. Let us embark on this journey together toward stronger connections and enhanced student outcomes!

Session 4B (breakout session): Report writing

This session will explore the basics of report writing where presenters will share different experiences. Participants will practice writing comments for their students and work collaboratively with the group to develop a comment bank you can take-away!

Session 5C (breakout session): Rural, regional and remote settings

This session will highlight the challenges and opportunities of teaching HPE in a rural community. Participants will explore the significance of establishing relationships within the school and broader community, and the importance of building resilience as an early career teacher. Furthermore, presenters will cover popular concerns including of lack of recourses, isolation, high staff turnover and workplace culture, and highlight the opportunities presented that might not otherwise be afforded to them in larger schools.

 Session 5D (breakout session): Setting yourself and students up for success

This session will help participants identify factors for success and wellbeing for themselves and their students. Learn how to develop sustainable work routines, goal setting, developing clear and visible expectations, taking on more responsibility, quick activities for beginner teachers to use in the classroom, asking questions and finding mentors.

Session 6: Discussion panel
Join our presenters to discuss the days learnings or open a new topic of discussion.  ACHPER discussion panels engage participants in rich conversations about their own personal experience as a HPE teacher.

Presenters

Alyssa Hopper, Bray Park State School

Alyssa is the 2022 ACHPER QLD “Making an impact” Award winner.  She works in a school where health is delivered separately by classroom teachers. Alyssa performs her job as our HPE teacher at an exemplary level. She demonstrates passion and commitment towards physical fitness to not only the students, but also staff members. Alyssa’s mission is to establish a mentality in students that sets them up with the confidence and ability to be physically active for their lifetime. Alyssa has built relationships with Paralympics Australia, coordinated a ‘slime run’ fundraiser with whole school participation that raised funds for sporting equipment for students, supported Year 5 & 6 interschool sport and implemented the Jump Rope for heart program.

Bianca Parkes, Tully State High School

Bianca is a HPE teacher and Sports Coordinator at Tully State High School. She has been teaching since 2019, and studied teaching as a mature aged student.  Bianca has a Bachelor of Education (Secondary Health & Physical Education & Sport). Prior to teaching she worked as the Sports Coordinator at Mt St Michael’s College, Ashgrove, and in Game Development and Competitions Management at AFL Queensland.  Bianca has a passion for lifelong learning and maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle.  She is looking forward to sharing her knowledge of formative assessment as a pedagogical framework to maximise student learning opportunities.  

Braden Andersen, Rosedale State School

Braden has a Masters in Teaching and is currently a HPE and Science teacher at Rosedale State School. He has previously served as sports coordinator and is currently the subject coordinator for HPE. Braden has experience mentoring pre service teachers and working with early career and permission to teach to develop their teaching practice. He is in his 5th year of teaching and has experienced both the complexities and rewards that come with rural and remote work while navigating the early stages of a teaching career. Braden is eager to draw on his experience to support early career teachers, especially those in small, regional contexts.

Cooper Savauge, Roma State College

Cooper is a secondary teacher of Health & Physical Education and Maths at Roma State College. He is also the College-wide Sports Coordinator based at the Senior Campus. In his time at Roma State College, he has collaborated with colleagues to design and deliver new units and forms of assessment that provide rural students with an equitable opportunity to succeed. As Sports Coordinator, Cooper engages with the executive of District and Regional sporting associations to support a representative sporting pathway for rural students.

Isabelle Taylor, Lockyer State High

Isabelle is the 2022 ‘ACHPER Pre-Service Teacher Award winner’.

James O’Gorman from Mount Alvernia College

James is the 2021 “ACHPER QLD Early Career Teacher Award winner”. James is in his fifth year of teaching. After a year abroad travelling, he is back in the classroom and is even more passionate to help students and colleagues achieve success. James presented at the 2022 ACHPER conference targeting early career teachers adding to their “toolkit”. He looks forward to the opportunity to work with other like-minded teachers to ensure they and their students can be successful in the career.

Kerryn Cormick, Professional Learning Officer, ACHPER QLD.

Kerryn has been a HPE teacher since the late 1990’s and has a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the The University of Melbourne. Her passion is staff wellbeing, positive organisational culture and workplace psychological safety.  She believes every teacher should have the best opportunity to thrive in their workplace, by enjoying their role which will ultimately enable their students to excel. 

Nick Mulvihill, Corinda State High School

Nick is a nationally certified Highly Accomplished Teacher with over 17 years of experience working in NSW secondary schools. He has recently taken on the role of Data Officer and Health and Physical Education teacher at Corinda State High School where he utilises a range of assessment, peer feedback and student self-reflection to collect evidence of impact of learning to maximise stretch and lift opportunities across the school. Nick has worked closely with ACHPER NSW with professional learning and the Early Career Teacher team and has experience in NSW HSC and QCAA External Assessment marking in recent years.

Jake Mawn, Aviation State High School

Jake is a fifth-year teacher, he has held many roles throughout his school during this time. His current role is a year level coordinator, volleyball coordinator and is apart of different teams within his school. His time on both the teaching and learning team, also the inclusion strategic team has developed his approach to teaching and also facilitating different initiatives throughout his school. Jake looks forward to helping beginning teachers navigate the pitfalls of being an early career teacher and finding how to make an impact without it impacting them.