CPD and new technology
| Roderick Fleming uses new technology and strategies in his class. |  |
My probationary year has been an enjoyable experience so far. I feel I've developed as a professional and have learned to incorporate new teaching strategies and useful ICT in my class.
SMARTboard
Luckily I was given a SMARTboard at the start of the year which has greatly enhanced my classes.
While learning the SMARTboard tools has been useful I have been able to complement these by accessing useful resources from the web.
This has taken the form of downloading lesson plans and powerpoints to bolster my lessons.
Being a Maths teacher I was able to find really useful content from Scottish Teaching Bank and good problem solving material from New Zealand Maths.
New strategies
I was able to find out many new strategies from a CPD day on co-operative learning. I learned many useful techniques where I can make sure that pupils work effectively in team work exercises.
Techniques included methods which ensured all pupils contributed to their teams output and ideas to ensure all the pupils were able to contribute. This helped me as I try to teach in an "enterprising" way which involves putting pupils in groups regularly.
Like all probationers I still have a lot to learn and I think I'll focus on these new strategies and the benefits of ICT as I move forward.