Staff Professional Development Committee

The above initiative was shared with the staff on 14 January 2016 to help teachers hone their teaching skills and improve on their craft through informal classroom observations. The staff were encouraged to zoom into several key focus areas based on their comfort level and to move towards aspects on how to make thinking visible and the use of appropriate questioning techniques in the classrooms. An AfD document detailing the focus areas meant for development of the beginning teachers and experienced teachers captures this spirit of learning with and through others’ critical lens. The senior teachers showed a video that they recorded to demonstrate how the process can be carried out namely the rich discussion with a critical friend post-lesson and the insights provided by this peer. This initiative is reviewed once every 6 months and has since run its course till late.

This project was carried out by the senior teachers’ PLC over three terms in 2016. It was shared by the Senior Teachers team as one of the keynote presentation during the CSI day in November 2016.The project aims to find out about students’ perspective of the feedback given by their teachers on their written assignment. It also provides some bite-size suggestions that are workable in the class for teachers to consider. Using a questionnaire survey, students gave feedback about how they felt about the feedback given by the teachers. With the data collected, we worked on areas of improvement for the feedback given by teachers. We focused on four subject areas: English Language, Mathematics, Geography and Physic SPA. Our findings show that it is crucial to learn about how students view feedback given by teachers on their written assignment and how teachers can improve on the feedback giving process in a bid to bridge the teaching-learning gap.

At the end of the session, teachers were each given a printed postcard with reminders on how to make feedback effective and actionable.

The annual CSI (Create, Share, Innovate) Day is an important platform to showcase the professional development efforts of our staff in school. Through the PLC (Professional Learning Communities) projects, staff members work in teams with a sense of shared purpose and collegiality to seek continual improvement in closing teaching and learning gap. It also helps to build a culture of innovation and collaboration amongst our staff.

One of the learning teams sharing their project ideas with other staff members.	Our non-teaching staff sharing ideas and practices that promote organisational effectiveness in school.

Zhenghua Secondary School Staff had a cohesion session at Changi Civil Service Club in 18 Nov 2016. In the early morning we arrived at the newly renovated Changi Civil Service and was given a guided tour. The event was fully sponsored by the Changi Civil Service Club to promote their new facilities. The personnel showed us the various new chalets available there and the swimming pool was next to the sea! What a beautiful sight….

The newly renovated chalets were so mesmerising to be in it, the surrounding ambience is unbeatable, feels like we are in overseas hotels on vacation!

We had a non-competitive bowling session at the newly renovated bowling alley, by courtesy of Changi Civil Service Club. The place was spacious and posh, feel like going into a wonderland.

Our staff enjoyed the session very much, they also got to know each other better through the sporting activity and the interactions.

On 18 Nov 2016, the Staff Well-being Committee held a Staff Appreciation Lunch at Crown Plaza Hotel with the theme ‘The Kampung Days’.  The teachers and staff members took the effort to dress creatively to reminiscent the theme of the day.  Many of the male staff came in ‘singlet and shorts’ while the female staff dressed in Sarong Kabayas and other traditional costumes.  Some of the staff members went to the elaborate extent of dressing up as villagers, labourers and school students completed with a wide range of accessories and props.

The most entertaining part of the lunch was the performance put up by the teachers and staff members that left many in stitches and happy tears. Wonderful renditions of familiar and much-loved songs from long ago and meticulously planned skits offered the audience a thoroughly humorous and delightful afternoon. Indeed, the Appreciation Lunch was another successful event that the staff and teachers of ZSS will treasure in their memories.

 

The Staff Well-Being Committee organised a CNY staff Lo Hei session on Feb 7 to welcome the Year of Rooster. We hope the Lunar New Year can bring about greater happiness and advancement for all students and staff of ZSS. “Huat Ah!” It was indeed a joyous and spontaneous bonding activity for all teachers and staff members.

The Senior Teachers conducted the workshop on 7 February 2017 for teachers to gain a deeper understanding of how talk and writing can be integrated in various subjects to promote students engagement and enhance learning in the classrooms. The 3 hour long workshop provided participants hands-on strategies to scaffold student’s writing based on subject specific concepts and skills through the 5 focus and 8 talk moves such as using talk to clarify or analyse and interpret information.