Professional Learning Teams – Creating a Supportive Community with ELT and Mainstream Teachers of EAL/D Students
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Within the hectic and ever transforming world of teaching and learning, supporting immerging ELT teachers as well as mainstream Australian curriculum teachers with EAL/D students in their classrooms can be problematic and the fear of the ‘one size fits all’ model continues. EAL/D teachers, directors, and advocates in schools rarely get the time and space to assist emerging teachers in this space as well as mainstream teachers in the way they would like, and the ongoing frustrations continue. In my current school context, we developed a way to address these issues through the use of Professional Learning Teams (PLT) to:
- enhance teacher capabilities within EAL/D practices
- allow ownership with EAL/D strategies being developed by mainstream staff
- providing practical and visual models provided to staff to allow the support to be recognised and certainly not forgotten
- engage students in reflective practice and to provide opportunities for them to lead staff development
My presentation will explore the project work of the ‘EAL/D PLT’ in our schooling context and explore how the meetings process, trail resources, lesson observations and reflections have increased EAL/D student performance in the classroom and how mainstream teachers are taking over as the advocates and promoting excellent practice in classrooms. I will explore how educators can establish a PLT in their school or language learning institute through an inquiry focus – creating a PLT action plan that states the student-centered goal, the strategies that will be implemented to attain the goal and the evidence that will be collected to help the team measure the impact and evaluate progress.
Presenter: Megan Huber
Megan Huber is the current Assistant Head of Faculty for Diverse Learning specialising in EAL/D Case Management and the Subject Coordinator for English for EAL Learners at St Laurence’s College in South Brisbane. She is also the current Chief Confirmer and Subject Matter Expert for English for EAL Learners for the Queensland Curriculum Assessment Authority as well as a Lead Trainer Marker for the External English Exams.
Megan started her teacher career in London and Essex and has been teaching in a variety of state, private and catholic schools in Brisbane specialising in EAL/D practices for over 18 years. Megan has held positions such as Head of International Students at St Laurence’s College and Academic Manager of ELICOS (HSP Programs) at Canterbury College. Megan has a passion for applied linguistics, English language curriculum design and assessment as well as quality assurance across these domains.
For Megan, collaboration is key when it comes to the advocacy of young English language learners in our Australian curriculum.
