Being a HALT Mentor

I was accredited as a Lead Teacher in 2020. Since then, I have mentored a number of others to support them on their journey from many areas of Australia. Whilst some of them are local to me, others have been interstate and the process has been quite different. My support has been similar for them all.

My key supports as a mentor

To begin the process of applying for HALT, this has to be approved by your principal. You cannot just decide you want to do this. This means that your principal knows that you have what it takes. Keep the faith.

Some suggested steps

Step 1 - go through the standards and look for what you know you are doing already and can put evidence together from your everyday work. Your evidence should come from what you do every day. Think of it this way - you are already working at Lead or Highly accomplished level - now prove it!

Step 2 - Work with me and go through what you know you have and where the gaps are. This is really reaffirming as you will see how much you already have. There will be gaps as due to the nature of all our positions we won't be addressing all the standards, all the time but we can.

Step 3 - Start putting what you have together. It is a huge project and just dumping stuff into a folder, one note file etc helps to have it all in one place to sort later. Make sure it is well labeled so you can find it later!

Step 4 - How can you collect evidence for the perceived gaps in evidence? You will have this but may not have the evidence. It is important to think about this early, so you have time to set up projects and collect the evidence.

Step 4 - Many of the standards can be addressed through a good unit plan with side shoots. For example - you can show the plan last year, why did you need to change it? How have you improved it for this year? What has the impact been from the changes? Evidence the impact? How do you differentiate for a student? How that matches to their IEP and the specialists' recommendations? How have you connected with parents? How has this impacted Literacy and Numeracy skills? How have you utlised IT?

Step 5 - Keep going. Collecting the evidence and annotating it is a long process alongside an already crazy busy job. Many people stop here, they run out of belief and energy. This is why you need a good mentor who will believe in you and encourage you to complete.

Step 6 - Sort it all out and annotate it. Then get someone to read it for you and check the links work external to your organisation.

Life happens and you may not be ready to submit on the due date you had in mind, if so, talk to your certifying authority and ask for an extension or submit at the next round. Don't let you time and effort go to waste.

Please reach out for a no obligation discussion about where you are at and what you need to do. I love talking to people about their journeys and helping you make this a reality.

You can do this.