Provisional to Full Registration Scenarios
Tia
- Finished BEd Tchng in 2008
- Taught at Kiwi Bay 2009 - now
- Completed Induction and Mentoring programme 2009-2010
- Applied for full registration in November 2010
Tia finished her Bachelor of Education Teaching in November 2008 and was offered a teaching position at Kiwi Bay Primary beginning in 2009. She applied for her provisional registration and practising certificate in November 2008 when she knew she had completed all of the requirements for her course.
Tia had heard that it was important to apply for registration well before accepting a teaching position. She knew that there was a late fee charged if a teacher did not have a practising certificate when they applied to the New Zealand Teachers Council and if they were employed in a teaching position. Once Tia received her statement of completion from the University she provided this to the Council and her application was able to be approved in December 2008. When she was offered the position at Kiwi Bay Tia gave a photocopy of her practising certificate card to the school for their registration database.
Kiwi Bay had an established Induction and Mentoring (I&M) programme and before she started Tia checked the information on I&M programmes on the Teachers Council website. She noted that her mentor teacher needed to be a fully registered teacher, so she checked his registration details on the online register and found that he had full registration and a current practising certificate. Tia also found useful information on the NZEI website regarding support for provisionally registered teachers which included information about what she should check with her employer.
Tia began her Induction and Mentoring programme in 2009. She was one of three provisionally registered teachers working towards full registration at Kiwi Bay.
Tia's mentor teacher observed her teaching regularly. Following a lesson observation early on in her programme he pointed out to Tia that a small group of students had not been engaged for a significant amount of time during the lesson. He suggested some strategies for Tia to try and she put these into place at the next opportunity. This proved very effective and also led to Tia having discussions with one of the specialist teachers in the school to address related issues with one of the students.
Tia attended several professional development courses during her I&M programme. Her mentor teacher asked her to present a session to her colleagues after a course she attended on scaffolding student learning. Following her presentation Tia followed up with her colleagues to see what they had taken from the session and how/if they had used the information.
Tia kept a folder of documentation from her two year programme and in this folder was the outline of the programme, a calendar of her meetings with her mentor teacher, minutes from these meetings, records of observations of her teaching, feedback from her mentor teacher, and her reflective journal. Tia and her mentor teacher also had records kept electronically.
The standards which Tia was working with during her I&M programme were the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions. Throughout 2010 Tia's mentor teacher mentioned that there were new standards being introduced for teachers and these were called the Registered Teacher Criteria. These would become mandatory for those beginning their I&M programmes in 2011 and would replace the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions as the standards for gaining and maintaining full registration.
In the eighth term of her I&M programme Tia's mentor teacher completed the TC2 application form to recommend Tia for full registration and submitted this to the Teachers Council. Tia wasn't sure whether the fact that she now had her full registration approved would mean her practising certificate had a new expiry date. When her application for full registration was approved the letter which was sent to her stated:
"Your category of registration has been changed to Full registration. Please note that moving from Provisional or STC to Full registration does not change the expiry date of your practising certificate.
Please check now the expiry date of your practising certificate (recorded above) and ensure that you submit a correctly completed application with payment to renew this at least 8 weeks before it expires."
Tia noted from the letter that her practising certificate still expired in December 2011 (check your pc expiry date now) and so checked that the school had this recorded also. She knew she would need to apply for a practising certificate in about October 2011 i.e. at least two months prior to her December practising certificate expiry date.
Zoe
- Bachelor of Teaching and Learning ECE 2007
- Taught full-time at Weka's Preschool 2008 with Induction and Mentoring (I&M) programme
- Taught part-time Jan - June 2009
- Continued I&M programme for 2010 in a Free Kindergarten.
Zoe completed her Bachelor of Teaching and Learning ECE in July 2007. She taught for one year at Weka's Preschool until July 2008 and her mentor teacher for her Induction and Mentoring programme was the Head Teacher at the centre, Marama.
Marama completed formal observations of Zoe's teaching as well as making informal observations as she taught alongside Zoe in the centre. During one of her formal observations Marama noted that Zoe had struggled with an interaction between two children and they discussed this at their next meeting. Marama suggested some strategies for Zoe to try and she was pleased to see Zoe successfully address a similar issue the next week with the strategies Marama had suggested. When they discussed this further at their next meeting Zoe told Marama about some other readings she had looked up on this issue as it was something covered in her initial teacher education programme.
In August 2008 Zoe reduced to a part-time position at Weka's Preschool for eight hours a week while she was pregnant. Zoe was aware that her part time position was not sufficient for her to continue her I&M programme as it was less than a .5 full time equivalent (FTE) position. Zoe left to have her baby in March 2009.
Zoe accepted a position in a free kindergarten close to her home beginning in January 2010. It was a full-time position and Zoe discussed with the Senior Teacher her I&M programme so far.
The kindergarten had been part of the Teachers Council Induction and Mentoring pilots in 2009. The Performance Management System and the I&M programme in the kindergarten were based on the Registered Teacher Criteria as the standards for gaining and maintaining full registration. As Zoe's previous programme had been based on the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions Zoe referred to the Council's website to familiarise herself with the new criteria. She found the resources, including the matrices which map the Satisfactory Teacher Dimensions with the Registered Teacher Criteria and with the kindergarten professional standards, very helpful.
Zoe's mentor teacher, Jan, visited Zoe at the kindergarten and they discussed Zoe's needs for this second year of her programme. Jan reviewed Zoe's folder from the first year of her programme and made suggestions for the structure of the second year.
Zoe's three year practising certificate was due to expire in August 2010. As she was still completing her I&M programme Zoe wasn't sure whether she could get another provisional practising certificate. She had also heard various things about the documentation she would need to send to the Teachers Council when she did apply for full registration. She emailed the Teachers Council at their Inquiries address to ask for clarification. She received this response:
Dear Zoe
Thank you for your email. Your practising certificate expires on 21 August 2010. As you have provisional registration and you have not yet completed the requirements for full registration you will need to apply for provisional registration and a three year practising certificate on the TC1 application form. You can send this application in up to six months before your practising certificate expires. Approval of this application will grant you with another provisional practising certificate and the expiry date of this will be three years on from your current expiry date.
Once you have completed the requirements for full registration you can be recommended for full registration on the TC2 application form. When this application is approved your category of registration will be changed to full, however, your practising certificate expiry date will remain the same.
You do not need to send documentation from your Induction and Mentoring programme in with your TC2 application form. We may request evidence from your programme and if we do we will make clear what is required. Generally if we need evidence from your programme we request a sample of documents from both years of the programme which include evidence of:
•· formal observation by your mentor teacher
•· feedback from your mentor teacher
•· how you have responded to feedback
•· your reflection on your teaching
•· how you assess the learning outcomes of the children you teach
•· your participation in professional development.
The information which you send in should be the planning, assessing, professional reflection, feedback, and professional development you take part in as a teacher. It should be a natural harvest of evidence of your teaching and learning programme and your professional journey.
As part of her I&M programme Zoe attended professional development courses. Zoe found the course she attended on Inquiry Learning particularly useful. She and Jan discussed at her next meeting how she would integrate this into her planning and teaching, and the best approach for suggesting any changes within the team. The discussion, as well as Jan's feedback and suggestions proved very helpful and Zoe recorded in her reflections how she had implemented changes to her programme planning and what had worked particularly well. Zoe found that the opportunities to discuss challenges and successes with Jan were extremely beneficial to her growth as a teacher.
After completing the I&M programme in 2010, Jan completed the TC2 application form to recommend Zoe for full registration. The endorsement section of the form also needed to be signed by Zoe's employer; the Senior Teacher of the Kindergarten. The Senior Teacher had regularly discussed Zoe's programme with her and with Jan and had reviewed Zoe's documentation.