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One week later, all teachers had conducted their gamified idea successfully!

Teachers shared their feedback and how all students had nothing but positive reactions. We agreed that although time was required to plan the lesson, the students' outcome was worth it although having such activities weekly or bi-weekly could be challenging for preparation and execution time.

Overall teachers were pleased with this pilot and enjoyed using the portal. They mentioned being interested in using this in future or further applying the knowledge from this MOOC onto other lesson plans.

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On this day we went through module 5 and supported one another with gamifying a lesson plan.

For italian, Marthese said that her biggest issue was getting students to speak in italian. They are hesitant and worried. She decided to play guess who in italian. In this way students had to practice a series of words and phrases in order to win.

For Frances, the biggest challenge in Maltese was to get students to be creative with their writing tasks so she decided to use a more visual approach where students illsutrate their writing task. Then they ive their images to another student who attempt to puzzle the pieces together...although there may be more ways than one! Students had to get creative and make a story out of the images thus increasing their picture interpretation and creativity skills.

James used already a lot of Engineering or maker movement challenges in class. He decided to include more a tech game which he knows his students enjoy. He decided to ask students to use minecraft to try and help explain different vertebrate characteristics.

W e gave eachother 1 week to complete the lesson plan so as to get back together to discuss and provide criticism.

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For Module 3 I shared the work I did on my M.Ed about fostering creativity in STEM. I showed them my research and gave them some practical ideas of how to enable creativity in different lessons.

We then looked into module 4 about game design as agreed that this could be quite challenging espescially being new to using games in class. So we thought of gamifying current practices rather than developing new games for now. This was also attainable given the time crunch we were on.  We found this video useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HTS2nxpRqM and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDLw1zIc94 .

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For module 2 we tried to identify readily available games in our subjects. We created a resource bank of these. For Maltese this was the most challenging due to the limited resources available.

We also discussed how games enable a truly student centered approach while promoting a skills based learning experience apart from an academic one. This was espescially important to  us considering our new syllabi feature a more skills based pedagogy.

With regards to the section about real life games, I shared my experience about palnning an escape room activity which involved the summary of 1 large science topic. It was a sort of revision task for students. My colleagues loved the idea but they were hesitant about the amount of planning time required as well as preparing the classroom and obtaining all resources. This is legitamate concern as msot times we dont have free time before a lesson. Another concern is that our lessons are only 40mins long out of which you end up losing at least 5 mins for students to get from class to class and get their items. In our schools teachers do not have their own classrooms so sometimes we are late too! This brought us to question where single lessons could be ideal for some ideas or whether it would be best to have double lessons..if available.

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3 Teachers and myself ended up joining the project. I tried to recruit teachers from different subjects but this was difficult due everyone's challenging time tablets being from small schools, lack of interest, overworked feeling due to significant changes in educational system currently and new changes to roll out next year. There is an overall feeling of exhaustion among teachers due to the amount of lessons, corrections and new demands from the ministry in relation to new syallbi starting next year but no adequate documentation being provided or finalised. In addition, we have a very healthy and beating school culture with teachers being involved in school council, eco-school, a teachers' panto, extra curricular session, and class teacher duties,  supporting students with socio-emotional or personal issues, supporting the school with fundraisers ...all on a voluntary basis and in addition to our "expected" work. So, it is understandable that teachers are not as free.

Teachers recruited are James: science, Marthese Italian and Frances Maltese.

We worked for 1 week over 2 hours per day at school. Teachers worked for 1-2hours at home every day.

On day 1 we navigated the portal. Teachers mentioned that it is easy to use and navigate. Course progress is easily visible and content seemed easy to follow.

The course introduction proved useful as teachers never used the teacher academy portal. We opted to have a joint padelt where we share our reflections during the sessions. Another other points would be sent to me.

For module 1 we discussed mainly gamification and how these can used to motivate students. Quizes are well known examples of this. another idea is dividing students in groups of mixed attainment and converting homework marks into group points to motivate students to do better at home to help their group!

Despite module 1, as a group we agreed that the main challenge would be consistant implementation as well as using games with upper forms where exam and syllabus stress would be great but we are motivated to uncover how we could do this better with the next modules.

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We are still in our first week at school  so I did not make much progress as we are all still settling with our classes.  We also had some changes of staff and school logistics which is making the week eve more challenging. So I did not think it was appropriate to kickstart this at this time.

Next week, I will meet with the head of school to agree on a strategy and timeline for this.

We will be using the PBL course since PBL has been promoted as a teaching tool in many new syllabi in Malta which will be implemented as of next year.

Hopefully the teacher of media will help with the filming of the video for the final product.

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Copy of communication with official from catholic schools

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Copy of communication with official from catholic schools

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As the COPE system is rather new, could you kindly indicate whether:

what type of online courses are recognized as applicable for COPE; are only online courses from certain entities recognized and if so; which are and which aren't

No, there are no specific entities that are recognised.  Since online courses are fairly new ground and quality varies, courses are vetted case per case.  The phase 1 application form together with the necessary documentation needs to be submitted to SfCE prior to the commencement of the course.

if a teacher identifies an online course s/he thinks would be useful; who is responsible for accepting an online course for contribution to COPE ; MEDE (for all schools), SfCE [only for Catholic Schools], school administration

School administration is not responsible for after school courses.  SfCE is responsible for church schools.  Kindly address all applications to the undersigned.

should teachers minute the time spent on these courses so as to be translated into COPE hours, or is the amount of hours recommended by the online course counted as COPE hours.

Usually teachers are not expected to minute the time spent.  If ECTS are awarded, the number of hours translates to 25 hours per ECTS.  In other cases, it depends on the nature of the course.

considering online courses have been listed as viable COPE hours, would it be possible for MEDE of SFCE through DLAP circulars or EOs/HODs etc disseminate approved courses via email

No, this would limit the teachers’ choices.  However, both SfCE and MEDE do occasionally promote different courses or seminars that are eligible for Accelerated Progression.  I suggest that you apply for approval if something interests you.

CONCLUSION:  Currently online courses are not accepted in general across schools for mandatory COPE PD hours. They are accepted if approved [by catholic school dept or ministry of education for state schools] for the acceleration scheme. This is a voluntary scheme which allows teachers to progress to the next salary scale if they accumulate a large number of APPROVED pd hours over 5 years.  The usual salary scale progression takes 7 years so the accumulation of these PD hours allows for progression after 5 years. It is important for teachers to apply to the catholic or state school dept BEFORE the start of the course as this has to be approved  in order for the hours to be accepted for this scheme.

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1.      I had planned to carry out the creativity course with my colleagues as part of this pilot but due to being very busy at school, we postponed this to Sept/Oct. I have taken the course myself [as it ran on the TA portal] so I am better prepared to support them. I have 5 teachers recruited till now; which is 10% of our staff. Having said that, I had not really promoted much considering I noticed everyone was very stressed at school so I thought to have a better response it would be best to promote at the start of the scholastic year.

2.      I am in contact via e-mail with an official from the catholic school department (only responsible for catholic schools, not state schools although PD process is the same) in order to understand the current professional development system better since it was only launched in January. It is apparent that online courses are not at this point officially recognized for obligatory PD hours since these hours have to be done during school hours. So, I am waiting for confirmation whether it would be ok if groups of teachers work together during school hours on such online courses and have them recognized. This is actually what is going to be done in my school.

3.      I have been contacted by a director from the ministry of education in Malta who is responsible for supporting schools. He congratulated our school for involvement in this project and I asked if he would be willing to meet me after I conduct the TA course with my colleagues at school; to which he agreed. Therefore, I am HOPING that our success will help encourage this official to discuss with his colleagues about including online courses as officially as part of the Maltese COPE [professional development] requirements.

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Meeting with Catholic School head of department 

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Meeting with Catholic School head of department 

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After speaking to a head of department from the catholic school department, it is apparent that online PD; if recognized are approved as COPE hours. I am awaiting a reply from the concerned official from the Catholic school department who is responsible for PD and COPE matters.

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Since the workshop in Brussels some changes had to be made to my original plan. The school year had very few weeks left and teachers are racing time to complete syllabi before examination periods. In addition, we will soon be commencing the half days - these are shorter school days during which the break is shorter and we have 2 lessons per day less. This means that subject teachers will be even busier during school hours since free lessons are reduced. The volunteering teachers and myself realized that conducting the course at this time did not make much sense. Primarily, we would be rushing through the course content due to limited free time. In addition, testing out new lesson plans based on the course content and observations of one another would also have been done away with. Therefore, we opted to take the course in October. I will be personally taking the course now. Thus the silver lining to this is that I would be able to serve as a "pilot" for this course for my school and have already started thinking of ways of better supporting my teacher group.

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- PD IN MALTA  [known as CoPE ]

As per the sectoral agreement published in 2018:

Each teacher should have 40 hours of PD per year. A minimum of 12 of these hours  must be SDP sessions where staff and management discuss a certain amount of issues per year to further improve the school. Another minimum 12 hours are whole school PD session where the school brings experts or asks its own teachers to deliver a PD session applied to all the staff. A maximum of 16 hours must be PD sessions sought by the employee. These sessions will be organised either by the ministry, the secretariat for catholic education, the university of malta or other relevant entities locally. These sessions occur during school hours and are on a first come first served basis available to all teachers in Malta. The organizer of these sessions must first obtain an approval from the ministry that the session is certified to be part of the COPE scheme. In addition, the educator attending must ensure the organizer provides him/her with a notification of attendance which includes dates and times of the PD session so these can be added to the hours covered by that teachers. These sessions are voluntary and vary in their themes and content covered. Thus, teachers pick which COPE session interests them and asks permission to attend. The teacher is given approval to attend accordingly (the session may be on a day where a school activity is taken place, or there are many other teachers attending, or maybe the teacher would be missing too many lessons so management may ask him/her not to attend). Teachers are currently struggling to find these hours not because of the lack of COPE sessions but because we feel guilty leaving school. At times they are boring and "more of the same" and teachers would rather stay at school. Another option to add to COPE sessions is departmental meetings. These are meetings between groups of teachers with the same or similar subjects who discuss what they will be doing throughout the year or any issues etc. Teachers have to minute these and ideally an assistant head must be present for the session to be added to COPE hours. Teachers are avoiding out of school COPE sessions and opting to add more departmental meetings even when unnecessary to add to COPE hours. Having said that, we are aware of these COPE hours so we try our best to complete them although it is not known what the consequence for a teacher who does not attend 40 hours is.

- ROLE OF HEAD TEACHER IN PD

To plan the 12 hours of school development sessions as well as the in school professional development session.

- WHERE DOES PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OCCUR

Mostly in school but a substantial amount of hours may be out of school too.

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- MENTORING SCHEME AT SCHOOL

Only for newly qualified or newly recruited teachers. In church schools the system varies per school. In my school, a newly recruited/employed teacher is assigned a mentor who just provides assistance and guidance and checks in when necessary for 1 year. To my knowledge in secondary schools there is the same system but more formal and for 2 years. Mentor meeting have to be minuted and the mentor visits the teacher in class when needed and upon agreement. In addition,the head of school should visit the NRT or NQT once every term [3 times per year] on a surprise visit to his/her lesson. The head teacher compiles a report and the teacher may eventually pass or fail her mentee-ship. A fail means the mentoring is extended for another year.

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- PERCENTAGE OF TEACHERS USING ONLINE PD

Very low..probably only 3-4 more teachers have used online PD

- FEASIBILITY OF TA IN OUR SCHOOL

If we manage to integrate the TA PD in our COPE hours [I have a very feasible plan approved by my head of school] that I envisage it is very feasible

- PERCENTAGE OF TEACHERS WHO PARTICIPATE IN MOOCS

very low...probably 3-4

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- SCHOOL DESCRIPTION - St.Paul's Missionary College, Malta

A relatively small all-boys Catholic school. We have 50 students per year group meaning a total of 300 boys in primary and 300 in secondary school. The school is managed by the Missionary Society of St Paul. We have about 100 members of staff in both schools from teachers to learning support educators (these are specialized assistants for students statemented with special needs). As all Catholic schools, although we are managed independently and autonomously, we are still bound to cover local syllabi and curricula by law, we are also covered by sectoral agreements like state schools, while all pays and some funding comes from the government. We are very much focused on providing a holistic approach to education where we value each student as an individual. We also work together to achieve a lovely school community where students their families as well as the staff feel united. These 2 aspects are what we are very well known for across the country.

- INTER/NATIONAL NETWORKS

As mentioned previously, we are still linked to ministry of education and its departments. Furthermore, we are part of the Secretariat for Catholic education (the board regulating church schools). We are not part of any other networks. One of our assistant heads is encouraging teachers to consider eTwinning and Erasmus+ opportunities.

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I spoke to the assistant head about our conference call to update him about the work involved. He suggested a way in which we can implement some of the proposals together.  We discussed that the current COPE mechanism is not so comfortable for our school as teachers miss many lessons and sometimes they choose topics they are not interested in but attend anyway to complete the time required. Online courses would be ideal and also encourage more international networking as a secondary positive outcome. In addition, he said he would be willing to assign an hour (for example) of time in lieu as a further reward since the teacher would have not needed to miss school time to complete COPE hours. We also discussed low awareness among our school and possibly other Maltese schools too. Yet, we must recognize the growing interest in all things related to EU and education such as ERASMUS+ opportunities, eTwinning etc. Thus, there is the potential for TA to gain traction within our school at least.

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I think the call was very informative and shed light on what are the aims and expectations related to my involvement in this project.
I am looking forward to collaborating with so many teachers from different countries and learn from their expertise.

TO DO LIST FOLLOWING THIS CALL:
- speak to Assistant head at school about potential options for reaching this aim WITHIN our school...maybe working in groups and minuting thus serving as COPE hours and brainstorming together
- create and disseminate a google form for schools to gain info about the mechanisms locally regarding to PD and specifically online in prep for the  workshop
- prepare a strategy for the live video diary...what can we film at school