Teacher Academy School-Based Case Studies Cristina Nicolăiță ‘Gh. Magheru’ School Caracal, Romania
Table of contents • • • • • • • • • •
School-Based Case Studies…………………………………………..page 3 School presentation……………………………...........................page 5 School-Based Case Studies Action Plan…………………………page 8 Benefits/challenges of TA courses…………………………………page 13 Social media, group work in school……………………………….page 17 Steps to obtain accreditation for ”Mentoring in schools” course…………………………………………………………………………..page 21 Post-course survey results…………………………………………….page 22 Some final thoughts for the course organizers….…………..page 25 Lesson learnt………………………………………………………………...page 28 Disclaimer……………………………………………………………………..page 30 2
School-Based Case Studies March 2019 – December 2019 •
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In order to provide better frameworks of support for teachers to mainstream the impact of Teacher Academy (TA) online courses, a newly established study group carried out schoolbased case studies during 2019. The study group consists of 10 teachers from different countries across Europe who worked together in the creation of a variety of outputs that would help to integrate the use of TA online courses at school-level. The study group focused on defining and implementing actions supporting teachers who lack relevant skills to benefit from the TA offer, encouraging those who would normally be less interested in participating in such a professional development format, and recognising the work of those who successfully do. They were involved in activities like: Course follow-up and implementation activities to ensure what has been learned is actually implemented and evaluated at school level Study groups taking a course together and supporting each other to benefit more from the course Incentive schemes to encourage more colleagues to participate and complete a course Recognition schemes to recognise and value the work of colleagues completing a course
Organiser: School Education Gateway, an initiative of the European Commission, funded by Erasmus+ programme https://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/en/ pub/teacher_academy.htm
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School presentation •
ȘCOALA Gimnazială “GHEORGHE MAGHERU” CARACAL, OLT Our school slogan: “Not for school, but for life we study! Together with your family and local community, we guide you to succes and fullfilment, because you will represent us in the near future, on a local, national and even international level .”
School Badge Our school was founded on January 1st 1962; its name was then School No. 5. It is located at 7, Radu Calomfirescu Street in Caracal (a small town in Olt county), at about 500 m from the town centre, in a semi-urban neighbourhood. Starting May 31st 1994, it has a new building with 16 classrooms and 4 laboratories. Since then it has been known as Şcoala "Gheorghe Magheru“. Starting 1996 it also has a modern gym.
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Some images from school entrance, schoolyard, gym‌
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More info on our school blog: http://ghmagherucaracal.blogspot.com/ and on our school Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Gh.Magheru/
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School-Based Case Studies Action Plan Link to SBCS Action Plan: https://bit.ly/2N31byw Link to my journal: http://schoolbasedcasestudy.mystrikingly.com •
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“Gheorghe Magheru” School in Caracal, Romania is a 2018/2019 eTwinning school, with two eTwinning ambassadors, one for primary and the other one for secondary teachers. It is a medium-sized school, with about 550 students enrolled in pre-primary, primary and lower-secondary courses, and 50 teachers, most of them with higher education and academic degrees. Caracal is a small town with about 28,000 inhabitants, situated in a plain area, economically underdeveloped, located in the South West of Romania, Oltenia Region. We think that through participation in European educational projects, through collaboration and interaction with other European schools, our students, teachers and parents can learn more, build capacities and experiences leading to the development of high-quality education. Our school has been involved in numerous STEM projects and challenges - we managed to win the STEM4YOU competition in 2017 Video category, organized by StemAlliance;
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We were also the winners in the Diversity in STEM competition this year, Resource category. We have taken part in Code week, Space week, Hour of code, All digital week and other global events. •In eTwinning, we won the first prize in 2017 National eTwinning Competition with our project “STEM club”, and another STEM related project, `What’s the weather like eTwcitizen2016?”, won the second prize. Last year, in 2018, there were also 2 prizes, third place in Primary projects category and second prize in Students’ involvement category, for the same great project, “More cake, more help”. •We also have two Erasmus+ projects. The first one is a KA201 project 2017/2019, “Active minds, moving hands”. The second one - KA229 project 2018/2020, “We are creating STEAM embassies in the European school network”.
How is professional development organized in your school (or region/country)? E.g. where does it happen? What incentives are there? How is it recognized? How is it rewarded? What formats are available? Two types of in-service programs are designated for a teacher’s further training: 1. One type concerns the itinerary of the professional development of one’s teaching career and consists of classroom inspections, compulsory exams (written or oral) and a dissertation (only for didactic degree I). Achieving these didactic degrees is equivalent to an in-service training program and provides teachers with specific certificates that recognize their new competencies for each degree. 2.The second category of programs addresses teachers for their once-every-five-years compulsory in-service training which, according to the Order of the Minister of Education and Research 4796/2001, is periodical in-service teacher training and structured in modules quantified in professional transferable credits. According to the provisions of the Education Law (Law 84/1995), the in-service training of teachers in pre-university education is a right. At the same time, the Teaching Staff Statute (Law 128/1997) stipulates that teachers and management, guiding and control personnel in pre-university education have to participate in an in-service training program once every 5 years according to the methodology established by the Ministry of Education and Research. The condition is considered fulfilled for those teachers who have obtained the ‘on-the-job-confirmation’ or any didactic degree in the stated period. The Teaching Staff Statute indicates the types of activities considered to be in-service training activities.
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Goal: Get more colleagues to participate in TA courses Current situation in Action to achieve goal relation to the goal Majority of colleagues Organise a study group to lack digital competence take TA courses together. and are sceptical of online PD.
Steps required to implement the Resources Stakeholder action required s to involve 1.Introduce the idea at the next staff - A room to headteacher, meeting: talk to the headteacher meet, heads of computers, departments 2.Pre-survey regarding PD&TA a projector, good 3.Recruit at least five colleagues to internet participate in the Creativity course connection, 4. Introductory workshop to introduce the etc. TA portal & some useful web 2.0 tools
Lack of time is another issue my colleague bring when talking to online courses.
Helping my colleagues with their time management. Twice a week I will dedicate two hours for the group meetings.
Lack of English language Helping them by using a skills for colleagues in the translating app and also school asking for help from an English teacher to team up.
- tutorials for 1.Setup a Doodle with 4 different slots of different and time to determine most convenient time tools apps for everyone, 2. Establish meetings twice a week for the - list of phone study group numbers, e1. Introductory workshop with tutorials mail for using translation apps addresses 2. Determine the easiest and most used communication channel to create an online group of support-( WhatsApp, Facebook, yahoo group, google group‌)
Key Milestones 1. End of April – get approval and support from headteacher, apply presurvey- done 2. Beginning of May recruited at least 5 colleagues who will participate.-done 3. 9th May- Introductory workshop. Dealing with creating accounts and starting module 1.-done 4. Week of 13-19th MayModules 2 and 3. Dealing with Learning diariesdone. 5 .20-26th May Module 4dealing with the Webinar.done 6. 27th May-12th JuneModule5. Dealing with the TeachMeet and the submissions, both for own work and peer review.done
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Goal: Facilitate transfer of learning (from TA courses) to practice at classroom/school-level Current situation in Action to achieve Steps required to implement the Resource relation to the goal goal action s required
Key Milestones
Some of my colleagues feel that online courses&MOOCs topics are not very useful in everyday teaching
1.15th May- finishing the creation of the repositoriesdone
Create a resource repository as a source of inspiration for others. Organize "open door" lessons for others to visit.
Stakehold ers to involve 1.Create a repository of web 2.0 tools to be - A room to headteacher, used during the Creativity course meet, heads of computers, departments 2. Create a games/sites repository for a projector, inspiration in course & everyday teaching good internet 3. Create a repository of final tasks of the connection, members of the study group etc. 4. Organize "open door" lessons twice a week, in pairs or teams
Some of my colleagues feel that online courses&MOOCs do not have a high level of applicability for every age level and for every school subject
Community of practice to support one another and visit each other's lesson and promote informal feedback. Opportunities for students of different age level to provide feedback anonymously .
1.Exchange of good practice for different age range and for different topics 2.Create a mean for students to give feedback for lessons that implement methods learned during the course 3. Postsurvey with feedback after the course 4. Continuing the implementation after the summer holiday.
2. 15 May- 15 Juneplanning and implementation of the “open doors� lessons- done during Summer school 3. 15th June- surveys for teachers participating in the course- done 4.July-August- working on the output of the pilot & open doors activities-doneduring Summer school 5.15th September welcoming workshop to reconnect and continue the implementation.-done 6.Open promotion for Mentoring course on TA and on CCD-done
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Goal: Recognise learning of colleagues who successfully complete a TA course Current situation in Action relation to the goal goal
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achieve Steps required to implement the Resources Stakehold action required ers to involve Majority of my Recognition as part of -presenting the MOOCs on TA in -School headteacher colleagues consider that compulsory professional school board and asking to be Teachers’ ; school MOOCs do not have development activities . mentioned in the annual evaluation Annual board: enough recognition at Extra points in teacher form, as accepted(and points Evaluation ISJ- District regional/national level awards in school district awarded) PD courses form; school or group of school with board awards for the teacher -presenting the MOOCs on TA in the -District Teachers’ (inspectorat ISJ council to be considered in the him/herself. evaluation of professional Evaluation e) development files during regional form teacher’s evaluation for salary awards (Gradatie- usually organized in March) Some of my colleagues More recognition as an would prefer acredited add on to qualification, online courses&MOOCs maybe even accreditation.
-applying to follow the CCD CCD course procedure for the Mentors MOOC to application be accepted in their course offer for form the next school year.
CCD(Distri ct Department of Education)
Key Milestones
1. End of June- asking in staff meeting the review of School Teachers’ Annual Evaluation form, with the mention of points for attending MOOCs- done 2.September-participating in ISJ council meeting, at least but not only in my fields- Physics & European projects departmentstrying to get more recognition for MOOCs in regional teachers’ evaluation. 1.May-JunePreliminary discussions with stakeholders in CCD Slatina, Olt-done 2. August-September- filling the form for the course to be accepted in CCD course offer-done, as they made the call earlier this year. Hopes for a meeting at Education Ministry in a week or twopostponed- changes in CCD and Ministry of Education Update- selected as teacher trainer.done
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Benefits/challenges of TA courses
Pre-course survey link
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Promotion for Learning with creativity course in school and social media
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Group or individual support
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School profile on Learning designer
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/learning-design er/browser.php?uri=/personal/GhMag heruSchool/designs 19
Recognition at school level • School board meeting. School headteacher agreed to officially add SEG-TA courses in our School Final Teachers' Evaluation Form.
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Steps to obtain accreditation for Mentoring course 1: Contact 7th May- first disscusion with a CCD OLT representative. Positive reaction 2; Form 7th May- starting to study the procedure of accreditation of the Mentoring course starting September. 3: Call 13th June- the call for the next school year courses and teacher trainers was launched. Started to fill the application. 4: Meeting with the CCD manager 25th June- as I was to Slatina to apply as a teacher trainer for CCD- professional development center- in my district, I had a meeting with the manager. I explained to him the benefits of a collaboration with SEG-TA and presented the pilot programme. He liked it a lot and even offered to arrange a meeting with a representative of the Ministry of Education- professional development department. 5: Approved as Teacher Trainer for CCD Slatina 8th July- the announcement for Teacher Trainers selection was published on CCD page- I am happy to be selected! https://ccdolt.ro/images/Rezultate_selectie_formatori_an_scolar_2019-2020.pdf 6: Promoting the Mentors course Starting to share announcements both on facebook and twitter to promote the Mentors course. Posts on facebook and twitter, online articles. Example here https://ambasadoriietwinningromani.weebly.com/prima-pagin259/mentoratul-in-scoli 7: 8th august-Starting to work for Mentors course- Romanian version Send the content of the course to CCD in order to be approved by the Education Ministry. Deadline- 14th August. 8: Due to a lot of changes in the Romanian Ministry of Education and a long time with an interimary board team, the procedure at the ministry level was delayed long enough the course to almost finish on the portal. The bad news is it was not approved in the mixed form I proposed, online and face to face. Good news: there is a Mentoring course approved in our CCD offer: http://ccdolt.ro/index.php/formare/oferta-de-formare/41-programe-de-formare-acreditate-de-ministerul-educatiei-nationale/603iii-2-mentoring-in-procesul-educational
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Feedback from participants • Post-course survey link
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Do you find the information acquired during the course useful? How do you plan to apply the lessons learned in the classroom? 25 responses
• By using the methods presented both in class hours and in other extracurricular activities. • The information acquired during the course is very useful and I will apply it in class. • I find it useful. I plan to use it in acquiring new knowledge. • Yes. I will use games more often in designing activities. • Yes! I have acquired useful information for life and career. Using games is a useful and enjoyable teaching method for students. I will apply this knowledge in class. • I want to implement some of the applications in activities with students and to guide them towards creative games and educational applications. • Yes, very useful! I will apply them in the didactic activity. They have been extremely useful and I will consider implementing this information at least once a week. • The information was very interesting, even thought-provoking. I will definitely use them in my teaching activities. • Information is welcome anytime, and useful. In class I will try to use as many games as possible. • The basic activity in my job is game! Through games I manage to teach my children the numbers, to count, the colours, the letters, to write etc. I will especially try Scratch! • Yes, we have found out news and teaching methods from all over Europe, learning activities through play, attractive to students. • I will use the resources and games I have learned. I will train the students, as to the material possibilities, in the use of online games in the classroom. • They are very useful, I intend to improve my class hours, applying different games that I learned. 25
• Yes. I tried to apply to the class and the results were good! • The information acquired during the course is very useful and represents a step forward in the modernization of the classroom activity. • In the future, I will use games more in class activities because they are an extremely efficient and useful tool in the transmission, acquisition and assessing of knowledge, being a step forward in the reform of education as they offer a new perspective in which students are placed in the centre of attention and the teacher is only a guide. Thus, students are given the opportunity to be leaders, to be coordinators and to master the art of effective communication and cooperation. • The information acquired during the course was very useful. The use of the game in the classroom activities facilitates learning and makes it easier to assimilate the new knowledge by the students. The educational game is a form of activity that is attractive and accessible to the child, through which a good part of the educational tasks are performed. • Useful information. Included in the didactic activity, games facilitate the process of assimilation of knowledge. • Very useful. • Learning through teaching games captures the attention of students much more easily, they are becoming more active and involved. The use of media products in the educational act, as well as the IT technique,it is useful and with good results.
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Some final thoughts for the course organizers. What was good, what was bad, what could be improved? • • •
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It was a well organized course, not very demanding, with useful information. Everything was well organized. Congratulations to the organizers! It was a very interesting course, through which we managed to gain a lot of useful information and experiences, with applicability on a wide range of activities. Everything was very interesting and useful. I don't see any weaknesses. Congratulations ! To diversify the foreign languages in which the course is held so that teachers can choose from several languages of international circulation (French, Italian, Spanish, German) which one they master best considering that not all teachers are fluent in English but can have very good knowledge of other languages. It was a challenge that I have overcome with your help! It is for the first time when I attend such a course. I didn't know anything, but I learned a lot! I hope to have the chance to attend other courses too! Thank you for all your support! I believe that, through this course and the way in which many colleagues in the school interacted and collaborated, the school staff became more united. The prestige of our school in the local school community has also increased.
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Good luck ! It was all superlative! Congratulations everyone! Thank you! This course was very well done, with an innovative concept, that of “Gamification". This course has shown us that the use of games is indeed an effective means in the teachinglearning process.
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was good that I had support and counseling, everything was OK. Thanks and success again. The organizers were well trained and were available to us at any time. It was an extraordinary course. Thank you for your time. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in such a course, with more experienced colleagues! Surely, without help I would not have succeeded ... My feedback on this course is a positive one. In the future I would like to attend other courses, as attractive and interesting, offered by Teacher Academy. The course was very well designed, emphasizing an interactive method of teaching and learning knowledge that is highly appreciated by both the student and the teacher. I believe that the experience offered by this course is a beneficial one and will be very helpful to me in the future.
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LESSONS LEARNT • Group work is essential to motivate and support, but there should be a leader, a guide, to facilitate the process; • Communications and social media are a great help in time management; • Collaboration with English language teachers and IT teachers for language and technical difficulties; • Google translate and online tutorials also help; • Courses translated in other languages( French, Italian, Spanish) would be a good idea; • Courses with direct applicability in class are the preferred ones; • Create a repository for the course outcomes, they can be used as resources by other teachers; • Getting recognition and accreditation would boost teachers’ participation in online courses.
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My name is Cristina Nicolăiță, Physics & IT teacher, in Gh. Magheru School, Caracal, in the South of Romania. I am an eTwinning & Scientix ambassador in my country, a teacher trainer and an Erasmus plus projects coordinator. I have been a MIEExpert for about 5 years and a Leading teacher for Europe Code Week 2019 in Romania. You can contact me here:crist_nycol@yahoo.com nicolaitacristina@gmail.com https://twitter.com/CristNycol .
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• The present output has been created as part of the School Education Gateway’s Teacher Academy school-based case study pilot. The School Education Gateway is an initiative of the European Union and funded by Erasmus+, the European programme for Education, Training, Youth and Sport. • The content of this output does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the output lies entirely with the author(s).Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained herein.
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