 |
Information for Newly Registered Teachers
What are the requirements to become fully registered?
What happens if my situation is different from usual?
What is an advice and guidance programme?
How does the advice and guidance programme fit with the learning centre appraisal and performance management system?
What is needed to make an advice and guidance programme work well?
How can I make the best use of professional development time?
What documentation do I need to keep?
What is a Reflective Journal?
Who does what?
When am I fully registered, what then?
What are the requirements to become fully registered?
To be employed as a teacher in a school or kindergarten you must hold a current practising certificate which shows that you are registered. By 2012 all teachers in early childhood settings will be required to be registered or in training in an approved teacher education programme. You can be recommended for full registration by the professional leader (principal, Head Teacher or supervising teacher) for the learning centre which is employing you once you have met the following conditions:
For provisionally registered teachers
- You have completed a total of 2 years/eight terms supervised teaching following the gaining of an approved teacher education qualification. The teaching does not have to be only at one school or institution but must be in minimum blocks of 10 weeks, for at least 12.5 hours per week, in the New Zealand general education system or an approved institution for gaining registration (see Approved Institutions). Day relief service does not count; and
- You have participated in an appropriate advice and guidance programme for the required period under the supervision of a fully registered teacher; and
- You have been appraised by your supervising teacher in accordance with the satisfactory teacher dimensions. Click here to read more about the satisfactory teacher dimensions
For teachers registered Subject To Confirmation
You need to provide satisfactory evidence to the NZ Teachers Council that:
- you are familiar enough with the current curricula and procedures in the general education system; and
- have been a satisfactory teacher; and
- EITHER * You have completed 3 months of continuous supervised teaching from the date you were granted STC and a recommendation has been made on a TC2 application form by the professional leader.
- OR
- one year has passed from the date of receiving STC registration and you have been recommended by a fully registered teacher.
There are no minimum weekly teaching hours. Day relief service does not count. You have three years to become fully registered. If you do not gain full registration in this time, and you want to continue working as a teacher you will need to reapply for registration Subject To Confirmation. When applying for full registration you must have a current practising certificate. If your practising certificate expires you will need to reapply for this and then the 3 month service or the 1 year passage can begin from when this practising certificate is granted.
What happens if my situation is different from usual?
If there is not a fully registered teacher in my learning centre?
This can happen in some early childhood centres, tertiary institutions, very small schools or kura kaupapa Maori. You will need to find a fully registered teacher who can supervise your advice and guidance programme in flexible ways. You could consider:
- A peer support and appraisal system where 2 or 3 colleagues work together under the supervision of a fully registered teacher from another learning centre who keeps in contact and visits you at your centre.
- Using as a supervisor a fully registered teacher in a nearby learning centre serving a different age group e.g, primary school, secondary school, advisory service or teacher education institution. In this case it will be important that the context in which you teach is fully discussed and understood with the supervisor. The satisfactory teacher dimensions are the same for all sectors, and can be interpreted for working with a range of age groups and communities.
In either case, you should have an initial planning meeting followed by regular documented visits and telephone, fax or email contacts.
If you still have difficulty finding a suitable supervisor, contact the Teachers Council for further advice.
If I get a "sole charge" teaching position while registered provisionally or subject to confirmation?
The advice and guidance programme is still required and will need considerable input from a fully registered and experienced teacher outside the school or centre. Make sure your employer is aware of your needs and that the appointment is not made without a commitment to this support.
If I take a break from teaching before I am fully registered
If you are provisionally registered, any supervised teaching you have done (in minimum ten week blocks for no less than 12.5 hours per week) in the five years prior to the date on which you are recommended for full registration will be taken into account. If your provisional registration expires, you can make another application for registration on form TC1. You will not have to repeat your teacher education programme and your blocks of supervised teaching completed in the five years prior to your application for full registration will be considered for registration. Aspects of your teaching such as recency and currency will be considered.
If my practising certificate expires before I am fully registered?
You can reapply on a TC1 application form for another practising certificate with you present category of provisional or subject to confirmation.
If I teach overseas before I am fully registered?
If you are provisionally registered, up to a maximum of one year of overseas teaching may count towards the two year period of advice and guidance provided the teaching is done in the general education system of that country and there is evidence in the form of a statement on learning centre letterhead outlining the programme of professional support, guidance and appraisal involving a mentor teacher. Full documentation of the advice and guidance programme must be available to the Teachers Council if requested. The Education Review Office may also wish to see evidence of your support and guidance programme. If you are absent from NZ for more than a year you will need to provide an overseas police clearance as well as consenting to disclosure by the New Zealand Police. At least one full year of supervised teaching in New Zealand must be completed and you must be teaching in this country when the recommendation for full registration is made.
If I teach less than half time?
For teachers registered provisionally, you must be teaching at least 12.5 hours per week for the teaching to count towards the 2 year period required to move to full registration. Keep this in mind when you consider taking part time work. There are no specific weekly hours amounts for those with the category of registration - subject to confirmation.
If I change learning centres before I am fully registered?
There is no problem with this. It is important that you keep your documentation of the advice and guidance programme you have already participated in, endorsed by your supervising teacher. Take this to your new learning centre, where it can be acknowledged and built upon. You should make sure that your new principal or senior teacher understands that you will be needing to continue with an advice and guidance programme with a new supervising teacher, and that they are prepared to support you.
If I find my advice and guidance programme is not working well for me?
Talk this over first with your supervising teacher who is responsible for your programme. It is important for both of you to clarify your perceptions, expectations, and needs. If the difficulty is still not resolved, discuss the situation with your professional leader. Refer to the "Towards Full Registration" resource for further advice or options to explore. An adviser from School Support Services experienced with beginning teachers may be able to help. Following this, it will be helpful to consult your NZEI or PPTA field officer or counsellor to sort out what options are open to you.
If I do not get recommended for full registration at the expected time?
You need to clarify with your supervising teacher why this has happened. Sometimes a supervising teacher believes that the beginning teacher needs further time before the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions can be confirmed. If this is the case, it should be made clear what is the process for appraising your continuing progress and what support will be given. If the supervising teacher and the principal or employer consider that you are unlikely to meet the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions within an acceptable timeframe, then it would be expected that proceedings would be instituted under the terms of your employment contract. You should be in contact with your NZEI or PPTA field officer.
What is an advice and guidance programme?
A professional teacher is a continuing learner, and can expect to participate in different forms of professional development throughout his or her teaching career. In the first two years leading up to full registration, it is essential to ensure that your preservice teacher education is developed into satisfactory professional practice. The intensive professional support and development you should receive during this period, your advice and guidance programme, will be supervised by teachers who are already registered and experienced professionals. It will be linked with the general appraisal and staff development system of your institution, but will have special features which lead you to full registration. Your advice and guidance programme will vary with the character and size of the learning centre in which you are teaching and the nature of your teaching role. All learning centres should have policy and procedures for the advice and guidance programmes of provisionally registered teachers that fit with their own goals and special character.
For all teachers moving to full registration, the components of a good advice and guidance programme are:
- An identified supervising teacher who is already fully registered;
- A programme which is agreed to by you and your supervising teacher and which refers to the Satisfactory Teacher dimensions;
- Professional and personal support from colleagues and from your management committee or employer;
- Observation and appraisal of your teaching by your colleagues, with reference to the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions, giving you encouragement to reflect on your own teaching beliefs and practice, and to take action to enhance your teaching.
- The opportunity to observe the work of other teachers and discuss this with them;
- Professional discussions with colleagues focussed on students' learning.
- Participating in appropriate courses and meetings, both informal and structured, within and outside your own learning centre, to develop expertise and to clarify the wider aspects of your work and responsibilities. Courses for provisionally registered teachers are arranged in all districts by advisers from the School or Teacher Support Service, staff of Teacher Education Centres, principals' groups, and senior teachers or managers in early childhood services;
- A written record of your advice and guidance programme, including professional discussions and appraisal, with planning for further support and development.
Chris, now a fully registered teacher, reports how she kept a record of her advice and guidance programme.
I decided that the simplest thing for me was to keep an exercise book. I kept brief notes of any specific activities of my advice and guidance programme; for example, things that I had read, references to resources or reading to catch up with when I had time, discussions I had with other staff in my own or other centres, my own thoughts about what I was learning and what I wanted to work on next. When my registration supervisor and I had meetings we took turns keeping notes which were signed by us both, and I stuck my copy into an exercise book. Her feedback notes on her observations of my work with children also went into this book. I also put in the programme from any courses I went to or staff development based in my own learning centre. I put dates for all of the entries. I made sure that the satisfactory teacher dimensions were referred to as these should be the framework for my recommendation for full registration. When the time came for me to apply for full registration, my registration supervisor and I referred to this book as well as to her own notes, as evidence of my progress. My exercise book by then was fat and very impressive, though not particularly tidy. I really value it as as informal and personal record of my own professional development over that time. I plan to start another one now, to include results from my appraisal programme, to keep track of what I am doing ready for when I need to renew my practising certificate in three years time.
How does the advice and guidance programme fit with the learning centre appraisal system and with performance management requirements?
The principal, senior teachers and other staff who develop the appraisal system for your learning centre must take account of legal and contractual requirements such as the performance management system and the Teachers Council Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions, collective employment contracts, as well as the goals and expectations of the learning centre itself. As a teacher working towards full registration, you can expect to participate in the general appraisal system, but with particular and more intensive professional support appropriate for your own development needs.
What is needed to make an advice and guidance programme work well?
A mutually agreed programme
Negotiate with your supervising teacher to ensure that your programme will meet your own development needs in the context of the particular learning centre.
Flexibility to modify the programme as you go
Generally you would expect it to become less intensive over the two years. Particular areas may need special support and effort at different times.
Practical support and resources
Time given by your colleagues is a valuable resource for coaching, discussion, observation of each others' teaching, sharing of ideas and expertise. You should be assisted to find and use teaching resources and equipment. Policies and procedures of the learning centre should be explained and available.
Constructive professional and personal relationships
You are entitled to feel you are a valued colleague from the time you are appointed. The fresh knowledge and enthusiasm of beginning teachers is appreciated by more experienced teachers, who in turn offer their expertise, local knowledge and a long term professional perspective. Stress, tiredness, and pressure of work are common, and colleagues can be very helpful in keeping priorities in perspective, finding ways to solve problems, keeping a sense of humour, and encouraging each other to maintain a balanced life beyond teaching.
How can I make the best use of professional development time?
Time should be available specifically to support the professional development of the beginning teacher, for example through the staffing entitlement for year one and two teachers in state primary and secondary schools, or by the Ministry of Education ECE funding that enables non-contact time to be provided by the employer in ECE learning centres. It is important that this time is regularly timetabled and available to you as an individual. While meetings with other provisionally registered teachers are professionally helpful you are also entitled to personalised guidance and support tailored to your own interests and needs. The best use of this time should be discussed and negotiated between the teacher working towards full registration, the supervising teacher and the principal or employer. It is best used for professional tasks and learning which take advantage of the presence of the students and colleagues. Some examples of worthwhile activities are:
- Observing other teachers and students in your own or another learning centre.
- Having your supervising teacher or another colleague observe your own teaching.
- Working with individual students or a small group.
- Monitoring and assessing students' learning.
- Discussions with parents, whanau, community resource people.
- Discussions with other teachers such as guidance counsellors, senior staff, or with advisers or specialist education services.
- Becoming familiar with the library, teaching resources and records of the learning centre.
- Finding out about the policies and procedures in your learning centre.
- Studying professional material, analysing your own professional needs and development, and planning for better teaching.
- Participating in courses and meetings, which require release from your teaching duties.
What documentation do I need to keep?
As part of our quality assurance checks, the New Zealand Teachers Council may request applicants applying for full registration to provide documentary evidence of their two year advice and guidance programme. It is the applicant's responsibility to keep all relevant documentation in relation to the advice and guidance programme they are partaking in.
The sort of evidence that the New Zealand Teachers Council would expect to be submitted as a result of our checks are:
- An outline of your programme - year 1 and year 2
- Lesson observations of your teaching by your fully registered supervising teacher or professional leader
- Evidence of your reflective practise
- A record of the meetings with your supervising teacher to include how often the meetings took place, the goals that were set, any other issues that were discussed
- Written feedback from your supervising teacher at the beginning middle and end of your support programme
- Observational notes of your observations of a child
- Examples of how you assess the learning outcomes of the children you teach
- Evidence of your professional development
Depending on the sector you are teaching in, the relevance of the above documentation will vary. The learning centre you are teaching in will keep some records as part of their performance management/appraisal system, but it is the applicants responsibility to keep the majority of the documentation should they be required to submit to the New Zealand Teachers Council for consideration.
The application form which must be completed and submitted to the Council to recommend a teacher to full registration can be downloaded from our website or via this link . Please note that there is non-refundable fee of $80.00 associated with applying for full registration.
What is a Reflective Journal?
A reflective journal, for the purposes of teaching and learning, records relevant thoughts, questions, ideas and conclusions that contribute to your own goal setting and self-review. It provides you with a form to question and challenge your own planning, teaching, assessment and reporting. From this you can clarify any issues and build up new personal understandings that will inform future teaching and learning.
A reflective journal is more than a diary. While you might begin by recording what you have experienced, seen or read, you will then reflect on these, analyse them, think about how you responded to them and why you responded in that way and then record your thoughts. This will enable you to examine your assumptions, beliefs and values, take thoughtful new actions and possibly plan alternative approaches for the future. What form your reflective journal takes is over to you.
Reflecting on your teaching practising is part of beginning to develop self-awareness of yourself as a teacher and learner and help you model the reflective practitioner who uses critical inquiry and reflection as tools to improve and development of your teaching and learning. The NZ Teachers Council will use your reflective journal as one kind of evidence we consider to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of your Advice and Guidance programme as you work towards full registration.
Who does what?
The teacher who is registered provisionally
Many of these aspects would apply equally to those registered STC. For STC the minimum period of time before a recommendation can be made is after at least 3 months continuous supervised teaching.
When you are applying for a teaching position, ask about the learning centre's policy for supporting teachers towards full registration, how this is put into action, and what specific time will be available for your professional development.
- Negotiate with your supervising teacher an advice and guidance programme that meets your own learning needs and that is appropriate and realistic for your learning centre. This will include planning for use of any time allocated for your professional development and support.
- Review and renegotiate your programme as your needs change.
- Ask for help when you need it.
- Keep brief notes of key areas of your professional development as suggested in the section above, of meetings and discussions with your supervising teacher or other colleagues, of action taken, as well as your own reflections on your progress.
- If you change jobs before becoming fully registered, make sure that you take these records with you, so your progress can be built on in your new position.
The role of the supervising teacher
- Welcome the new teacher as a valued colleague with fresh and special knowledge and skills to offer.
- Introduce the PRT (Provisionally Registered Teacher) to the learning centre, its staff and facilities in any way that will be helpful.
- Negotiate with the PRT an advice and guidance programme that meets their own learning needs and is appropriate and realistic for the learning centre. This may include guidance with: managing time effectively, organisation skills, balancing personal and professional responsibilities, motivating and encouraging students, assessment, what to assess, how to assess, how to interpret results and use these for planning.
- Review and re-negotiate the programme regularly.
- Make sure that the PRT has access to any up to date schemes of work, planning, or administrative guidelines which will be needed.
- Help the PRT to make contact with any relevant subject associations or other professional organisations.
- Model good teaching practice yourself, and be prepared to discuss your own teaching beliefs, strengths, knowledge of students learning and professional development with the PRT.
- Arrange with the PRT to make frequent visits to observe their teaching.
- Recognise and encourage the individual distinctive teaching style of the PRT.
- Give frequent feedback on the teaching you observe, and on progress relating to all the satisfactory teacher dimensions. This feedback should be clear, specific and constructive, with suggestions for further development and offers of suitable support.
- Arrange for regular meeting times with the PRT.
- Find time to structure conversations around samples of student work, so that you can assist the PRT to see what this work shows about student understanding and learning and what future learning and teaching is needed.
- Keep notes of key areas of development discussed, planning, and action taken.
- Assist the PRT in any way that is needed, and if appropriate, arrange for others to share this support.
- Incorporate your supervising teacher role into your own continuing professional development, for example through participation in courses for supervising teachers.
The Co-ordinator (A role in some larger schools)
- Organise and co-ordinate the work of supervising teachers and PRTs to ensure that the responsibilities above are undertaken in ways that most benefit the PRT and are consistent with the goals and the practices of the school as a whole.
- Arrange for opportunities for the PRT in your school to get together for mutual support and professional development.
- Take on any of the roles of the principal, as described below, if these are delegated in a large school.
The role of the Principal or Senior Teacher
- Ensure that the learning centre's policy for the support and supervision of PRT is being implemented well, including the use of allocated time to support their professional development.
- Ensure that the PRT get personalised, one-to-one support and feedback on their teaching and their students' learning.
- Welcome the PRT and introduce him or her to colleagues and if appropriate, to parents and other community and resource people.
- Keep in touch with the PRT - continuing contact with the professional leader of their learning centre is valuable.
- Ensure that there is an appropriate allocation of students to the PRT, taking account of the level of experience, and that their workload is manageable.
- Introduce the PRT to the philosophy, goals, expectations and culture of the learning centre.
- Select suitable teachers for the supervision role, taking account of whether they will have enough time to give to the task among their other responsibilities.
- Ensure that each PRT has an identified supervising teacher, and keep a general oversight that the supervision process is working well for them both.
- Ensure that each PRT understands the requirements for full registration, and is getting the support needed for this.
- Include the PRT in the learning centre's systems of appraisal and professional development and ensure that appropriate records are kept.
- Ensure that each supervising teacher receives acknowledgement and support for the responsibilities they are undertaking.
The role of other staff
- Make the PRT feel a welcome member of your team.
- Recognise the strengths and the needs of the PRT and offer any support you can.
- Find opportunities to include the PRT in professional discussions.
- Share with the supervising teacher in any appropriate way the tasks and roles described above.
The employing authority
- Ensure that there is an up to date policy for the supervision and support of PRTs, which will enable them to become fully registered. Education centre staff can often help with this policy development. Ensure that the policy is being implemented by the principal and other senior staff.
- Ensure there is a regularly reviewed policy for staff appointments, appraisal, and staff development which meets any legislative or gazetted requirements (e.g. a performance management system) as well as the requirements of the Teachers Council.
When am I fully registered, what then?
You need to maintain your registration by renewing your practising certificate every three years. Once you are fully registered, you may be in a position to offer supervision and support to another PRT, and return to the profession the benefits you have already gained from your colleagues.
To maintain your registration every three years you need to meet a certain criteria. See the TC3 application form and completion guide for further detail Click here for registration application forms. All teachers need to be aware and ensure their practice is guided by the Code of Ethics. Click to view the Code of Ethics from our website www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/ethics
Top
|
|
