Learning Overview

Senior Teacher is organised into communities of learning. Each community of learning is broken down in to PODs of learning. Our POD’s are manageable bites of learning that can be achieved in 20-30 minutes.

In our mentoring community some of our PODs include building relationships, communication challenges, mentoring narratives, giving and receiving feedback. The mentoring community has 27 PODs. So far we have 16 communities of learning with 10-30 PODs for each area of learning giving over 160 hours of learning, and we’re constantly adding more PODs.

The communities of learning include mentoring, human relationships, leadership, performance management, Ako - Learning and teaching, assessment, planning, evaluation, inclusive practices, te ao Maori, key areas of curriculum, facilitating, technology and ICT, theories and practice, transition to school and working with parents.

Based on goals that a participant has set in appraisal or as part of an evaluative research goal they are registered for a particular community for one year. During that year the participant engages and participates in the community by acquiring knowledge through podcasts, movies, narrated presentations, readings, reflections, practice, discussions, chats. The participant interacts with Senior Teacher learning and development specialists as well as other community members. Participants contribute to the future planning of Senior Teacher. At the end of the year after successful engagement and participation in the community a certificate of participation is issued. This attests to specific engagement in professional learning opportunities and supports on going professional development required for teacher registration.