Following on from the presentation I did to our ELN cluster of schools, I have been working with year 5/ 6 teachers this week as they develop on their journey using GAFE.
It was really wonderful to get out of my school space, and see how others are using GAFE.
These teachers are just beginning on their journey and it was really nice to be able to feel that all the things we have learnt over the last few years has given us the knowledge to help others bypass some of the experimental processes we went through!
They are not yet BYOD and as yet not as far into using e-learning as we are, but they have a wonderful MLE in which to develop their pedagogy and practice...so jealous:) Also they are a group of 3 teachers who are excited, inspired and knowledgeable which was a lovely vibe to feel. The children in their group will be very lucky to have such great teachers who are so open, supportive and collaborative about working together honestly in order to focus on what we are all here for...our students and their achievement.
The whole process of giving my time ( which I struggle to find enough of as it is!) in order to support other people within education, is reinforcing my belief that for teachers often the best PD is found by being given the time to just work with other teachers within our community. To access all the knowledge we have around us and importantly the experience available that is contextualized to our group of schools. The important decsion we have coming up about our level of support for IES is both supported and negated by these experiences... on the one hand the overarching ideas of IES seem to replicate what I have said above. However the question remains...who will actually make the decisions about IES funding and who works together and when? It also matters what the hidden agenda of IES is? What are the actual political objectives? If it is for a long term- which would be best if we are aiming to allow time for the process to develop from an initiative..into an embedded pedagogical change- then politics has no 'election period' short term limits. Yet this initiative seems to have a time limit- aligned with political timelines- so I worry that really what we have is a PR stunt with a hidden agenda that will allow for an endgame that smacks of the reason I left the UK!
Here's hoping I am wrong:)
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Thursday, 24 July 2014
The importance of cognitive dissonance
6 weeks into being the only DP in my school I find that life is crazier than ever. The role involves supporting every aspect of the school-something that shod be easy if I don't have a class to plan for?- bit in reality not easy at all.
Every day is planned out from the priorities I have on my worryingly large list... And every day has interesting and unexpected twists that mean the list is put on hold and then increased!
Earlier this year I talked about action plans and prioritising. This is working, I have action plans... So many in fact that I am considering creating an action plan for my action plans! But is this the most logical way to work? The action plans help, but when do we reach a point at which action plans are the only thing happening! They help me to track all my roles so I can try and ensure that I am allocating equitable amounts of my time to each role. Yet they also create friction and dissonance within my head about what constitutes equitable allocation of my time.
What is most important?
Student achievement is why we are all here, yet without support for teachers so they feel empowered, we won't have student achievement. Then there is community engagement, if we don't engage our parents in an honest, open way then nothing we do will help to accelerate achievement.
It's an interesting challenge to my thinking and I think is only answered by the word 'why'?
Why am I doing this? Does it relate back to our strategic plan or our vision?
Life is so exciting and a process of continual learning:)
I hope for a simple formula. But feel that complex algebra is what I will find....(good job I'm a math nerd!)
Every day is planned out from the priorities I have on my worryingly large list... And every day has interesting and unexpected twists that mean the list is put on hold and then increased!
Earlier this year I talked about action plans and prioritising. This is working, I have action plans... So many in fact that I am considering creating an action plan for my action plans! But is this the most logical way to work? The action plans help, but when do we reach a point at which action plans are the only thing happening! They help me to track all my roles so I can try and ensure that I am allocating equitable amounts of my time to each role. Yet they also create friction and dissonance within my head about what constitutes equitable allocation of my time.
What is most important?
Student achievement is why we are all here, yet without support for teachers so they feel empowered, we won't have student achievement. Then there is community engagement, if we don't engage our parents in an honest, open way then nothing we do will help to accelerate achievement.
It's an interesting challenge to my thinking and I think is only answered by the word 'why'?
Why am I doing this? Does it relate back to our strategic plan or our vision?
Life is so exciting and a process of continual learning:)
I hope for a simple formula. But feel that complex algebra is what I will find....(good job I'm a math nerd!)
Friday, 18 July 2014
CAAP plan and the difficulty of reliable OTJ's
Recently whilst constructing the mid-year mathematics report to the board, I discovered a blip in the data from a cohort group. It seemed fairly anomalous and investigation found that it was based on the difficulty for teachers and leaders to ensure consistency of OTJ's schoolwide.
Despite a reasonable start on how to gather evidence for making OTJ's, we still have a long way to go as a community of educators to ensure that this most abstract and tricky process can be made as authentic and valid as possible.
Our journey at MBS began with supporting teachers to understand how to analyse the schoolwide data and how this is only one part of the overall puzzle we have to put together in order to see where a students levels lie.
This year we are running both an ALiM and an ALL contract and an off shoot of these very valuable programs, has been the need for me to develop a CAAP plan ( Curriculum Action and Achievement Plan).
This is still an ongoing process of revision, feedback and more revision. However it has started to generate a document which aims to support all stakeholders within our school and wider community, see what a child achieving at a certain level, will 'look' like. Using the National Standards and also the ELLP, and numeracy progressions in order to build up a big picture of the skills and abilities a child will display. This is the start to building a deeper understanding of what a child who isn't achieving will look like, and also the structures we have in place for the different tiers of intervention.
As a school, we have spent a lot of time looking at moderation within writing and have constructed a more shared understanding of what each level of writing will look like. We have also focused a lot on the collection and analysis of mathematical assessment in order to feed this into effective planning.
However we now need to use all these areas we have been working in and start to feed what we know around maths and reading in order to see how we can deepen our understanding of how to make valid OTJ's within these areas. In order to align our abilities as a staff so that by the end of the year we are able to make reliable OTJ's on a students work, in any of the 3 areas and for students at all levels in our school.
Despite a reasonable start on how to gather evidence for making OTJ's, we still have a long way to go as a community of educators to ensure that this most abstract and tricky process can be made as authentic and valid as possible.
Our journey at MBS began with supporting teachers to understand how to analyse the schoolwide data and how this is only one part of the overall puzzle we have to put together in order to see where a students levels lie.
This year we are running both an ALiM and an ALL contract and an off shoot of these very valuable programs, has been the need for me to develop a CAAP plan ( Curriculum Action and Achievement Plan).
This is still an ongoing process of revision, feedback and more revision. However it has started to generate a document which aims to support all stakeholders within our school and wider community, see what a child achieving at a certain level, will 'look' like. Using the National Standards and also the ELLP, and numeracy progressions in order to build up a big picture of the skills and abilities a child will display. This is the start to building a deeper understanding of what a child who isn't achieving will look like, and also the structures we have in place for the different tiers of intervention.
As a school, we have spent a lot of time looking at moderation within writing and have constructed a more shared understanding of what each level of writing will look like. We have also focused a lot on the collection and analysis of mathematical assessment in order to feed this into effective planning.
However we now need to use all these areas we have been working in and start to feed what we know around maths and reading in order to see how we can deepen our understanding of how to make valid OTJ's within these areas. In order to align our abilities as a staff so that by the end of the year we are able to make reliable OTJ's on a students work, in any of the 3 areas and for students at all levels in our school.
PLG group and the multiplier effect
Last term I joined a professional learning group facilitated by Maggie Ogram from Osprey Consulting.
The reasons for this are two fold:
First I knew that as I am relatively new to educational leadership and for that matter also to education itself- I have only been qualified as a teacher for 4 years!- that I need to ensure that I am double checking myself continually. Luckily I am an over achieving autodidact, who thrives on learning new things and I always research a concept or finding to ensure that what I am doing is pedagogically sound, and also proven to be effective. However I am keenly aware of what I don't know and so this PLG gives me an opportunity to collaborate in areas about which I may be unsure.
Secondly I knew that as my fellow DP was leaving, I would be loosing a very important professional relationship- the person whom I can bounce ideas off, have heated discussions with about practice and research ( not quite arguments as we have total respect for each other! but definitely good sound constructive conversations that lead to shared understandings) and who generally acted as a coach and mentor in one. So I knew that within the current structure of our school, I wouldn't be able to find that relationship for a while ( however approachable I ensure I am with other staff, it does seem that once one hits management level that people won't argue with you! and I need people to have a good argument/conversation with!) so the PLG has given me a forum with which to share ideas, bounce good conversations around and generally given me a group of coaches of which we are all equal and can all contribute valid points.
This last term we have looked at Certain readings in order to stimulate conversations in areas we all agreed we needed to work.
The first reading was around the kind of leader we are:
This is an excellent from a very interesting and thought provoking book
The ideas in this give a great reference point from which to set a series of leadership goals and I am finding that having these pinned to my wall above my lonely little desk in the dungeon office are helping to keep me connected with what is important to focus on
The reasons for this are two fold:
First I knew that as I am relatively new to educational leadership and for that matter also to education itself- I have only been qualified as a teacher for 4 years!- that I need to ensure that I am double checking myself continually. Luckily I am an over achieving autodidact, who thrives on learning new things and I always research a concept or finding to ensure that what I am doing is pedagogically sound, and also proven to be effective. However I am keenly aware of what I don't know and so this PLG gives me an opportunity to collaborate in areas about which I may be unsure.
Secondly I knew that as my fellow DP was leaving, I would be loosing a very important professional relationship- the person whom I can bounce ideas off, have heated discussions with about practice and research ( not quite arguments as we have total respect for each other! but definitely good sound constructive conversations that lead to shared understandings) and who generally acted as a coach and mentor in one. So I knew that within the current structure of our school, I wouldn't be able to find that relationship for a while ( however approachable I ensure I am with other staff, it does seem that once one hits management level that people won't argue with you! and I need people to have a good argument/conversation with!) so the PLG has given me a forum with which to share ideas, bounce good conversations around and generally given me a group of coaches of which we are all equal and can all contribute valid points.
This last term we have looked at Certain readings in order to stimulate conversations in areas we all agreed we needed to work.
The first reading was around the kind of leader we are:
This is an excellent from a very interesting and thought provoking book
The ideas in this give a great reference point from which to set a series of leadership goals and I am finding that having these pinned to my wall above my lonely little desk in the dungeon office are helping to keep me connected with what is important to focus on
Wednesday, 9 July 2014
Presentation for ELN 2014
This is the second time I have presented to a group of peers through our ELN PLG group. This time my self confidence in what I was doing was much higher. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to share what we have been working towards at MBS and the huge leaps we have made over the past few years in our use of blended elearning.
Consequently I have been asked by a couple of schools to work with their staff as they build their ability to use GAFE. This kind of collaboration is hugely valuable to educators as it gives us a means to share our skills and ideas in order to improve educational outcomes for whole groups of schools. All PLD should be this collaborative.
Saturday, 10 May 2014
Kicking off term two
As always a term starts and you hit the ground running. For me this has been doubly true due to working through the holidays. This had twofold reasons- to get all the new devices up and running ready for week 1 and also to build the professional relationship with our new principal and also our new office manager.
A week into the new term i would say that it was worth the effort throughout the holidays. the teachers and students are really enjoying getting to put into action all the PD we have engaged in around true e-learning and the investment both financially and time wise has been successful.
As far as professional relationships go, it has also been very valuable to have time to engage in some very constructive conversations that mean a more shared understanding of our way forward and also of how we can make these steps.
This first week has also seen me work with my outside appraiser and that has been very valuable, as a way to focus my thinking on me and my leadership values. I often spend 99 % of my time focused on other people and forget to stop and evaluate my own position and goals. Having talked to colleagues I had the notion of sharing the whole of my appraisal process with the staff and my appraiser agreed that this would be a great way to create trust, openness and an understanding of my goals. So this week I will put my reflective journal and my goals into an open Google document. shared with staff and invite their comments. It is a part of human nature to feel wary of being too open with their aims. However I believe that by doing this I am being open to input, creating collaboration and also displaying my trust in other people.
A week into the new term i would say that it was worth the effort throughout the holidays. the teachers and students are really enjoying getting to put into action all the PD we have engaged in around true e-learning and the investment both financially and time wise has been successful.
As far as professional relationships go, it has also been very valuable to have time to engage in some very constructive conversations that mean a more shared understanding of our way forward and also of how we can make these steps.
This first week has also seen me work with my outside appraiser and that has been very valuable, as a way to focus my thinking on me and my leadership values. I often spend 99 % of my time focused on other people and forget to stop and evaluate my own position and goals. Having talked to colleagues I had the notion of sharing the whole of my appraisal process with the staff and my appraiser agreed that this would be a great way to create trust, openness and an understanding of my goals. So this week I will put my reflective journal and my goals into an open Google document. shared with staff and invite their comments. It is a part of human nature to feel wary of being too open with their aims. However I believe that by doing this I am being open to input, creating collaboration and also displaying my trust in other people.
Friday, 2 May 2014
Journey to new devices for MBS
The journey we have taken as a school in order to secure new devices has been lengthy...but finally we are there.
When I took over ICT last year I rapidly discovered that 95% of all device in the school where Windows XP operating systems. From April 2014 this system would not be supported by MoE software provisioning or by Microsoft. Hence our year long journey to work out how to acquire new devices on a limited budget.
Through a process which started with setting a school vision and strategic plan specific to our schools vision for our digital citizens, I started dialogues with various parties and companies who could give us options.
Once presented to the BOT the discussions started about budgets, constraints and how this would fulfill our needs as a school/ community.
Towards the end of 2013 we had finalized budgets and quickly realized that this basic option wouldn't be viable or sustainable financially.
A change of Principal meant revisiting the whole concept of where we wanted to be as a school again at the start of 2014
The urgency of the situation started to be borne in upon the BOT and Principal, with the realisation that in two months time we would have NO computers in the school.
This along with the level of staff frustration at the lack of functioning ICT with which to put into practice the years PD on e-learning they had received meant that we put in place a quick move to BYOD in order to cover the gap.
This was already started in years 7 and 8 during 2013 and was highly successful for students, parents and teachers.
The decision was made to roll this down to year 5/6 as soon as was feasible within the structures and procedures I put in place to ensure successful BYOD
With the help of an action plan and regular contact with teachers, parents and students this has rolled out very successfully.
We still needed to fill the gap in devices which would become reality in April 2014
So I went back to the BOT and with the support of the Principal started to breakdown and evaluate all our possibilities within a given budget of 30,000
This time we came to an agreement and three weeks later we signed contracts for our new devices- 43 chrome books and 37 ipad minis. Along with 12 chromecasts to make the tv's in each room more usefull.
The outcome has been that I have learnt a huge amount about myself, my role as ICT and elearning leader, how to create visions and action plans and align them with the schools strategic plan and vision.
At times i have been frustrated with feelings that the board did not fully comprehend how frustrated our teachers where. However as the year progressed I was glad that there where people there who would ask me tough questions and make me double check myself and what I was doing. The responsibility to organise this has been mine, however the reason for all of this has been to ensure the students, teachers and community all get the best fit solution in order to create learning that can be blended to build the skills our student need to leave MBS as problem solving digital citizens. For that I thank everyone who made me stop and check my thinking and solutions:)
I have had no holiday at all over this 2 week easter break...but tired though I am, I couldn't be happier...now I can get these devices out into classrooms and the real work can begin
When I took over ICT last year I rapidly discovered that 95% of all device in the school where Windows XP operating systems. From April 2014 this system would not be supported by MoE software provisioning or by Microsoft. Hence our year long journey to work out how to acquire new devices on a limited budget.
Through a process which started with setting a school vision and strategic plan specific to our schools vision for our digital citizens, I started dialogues with various parties and companies who could give us options.
Once presented to the BOT the discussions started about budgets, constraints and how this would fulfill our needs as a school/ community.
Towards the end of 2013 we had finalized budgets and quickly realized that this basic option wouldn't be viable or sustainable financially.
A change of Principal meant revisiting the whole concept of where we wanted to be as a school again at the start of 2014
The urgency of the situation started to be borne in upon the BOT and Principal, with the realisation that in two months time we would have NO computers in the school.
This along with the level of staff frustration at the lack of functioning ICT with which to put into practice the years PD on e-learning they had received meant that we put in place a quick move to BYOD in order to cover the gap.
This was already started in years 7 and 8 during 2013 and was highly successful for students, parents and teachers.
The decision was made to roll this down to year 5/6 as soon as was feasible within the structures and procedures I put in place to ensure successful BYOD
With the help of an action plan and regular contact with teachers, parents and students this has rolled out very successfully.
We still needed to fill the gap in devices which would become reality in April 2014
So I went back to the BOT and with the support of the Principal started to breakdown and evaluate all our possibilities within a given budget of 30,000
This time we came to an agreement and three weeks later we signed contracts for our new devices- 43 chrome books and 37 ipad minis. Along with 12 chromecasts to make the tv's in each room more usefull.
The outcome has been that I have learnt a huge amount about myself, my role as ICT and elearning leader, how to create visions and action plans and align them with the schools strategic plan and vision.
At times i have been frustrated with feelings that the board did not fully comprehend how frustrated our teachers where. However as the year progressed I was glad that there where people there who would ask me tough questions and make me double check myself and what I was doing. The responsibility to organise this has been mine, however the reason for all of this has been to ensure the students, teachers and community all get the best fit solution in order to create learning that can be blended to build the skills our student need to leave MBS as problem solving digital citizens. For that I thank everyone who made me stop and check my thinking and solutions:)
I have had no holiday at all over this 2 week easter break...but tired though I am, I couldn't be happier...now I can get these devices out into classrooms and the real work can begin
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