Weaving evidence, inquiry and standards chapter six

What impact does this chapter have on me as a teacher and as a leader?

What systems change need to happen in order to create the conditions for changes in practice to become a school culture?

Timperley and parr state that

Knowing what the pattern of information obtained from assessment which then feeds learning design requires a deep understanding of the content and processes around it- I take this as the relationship between AfL/ learning and agency

These capabilities are the traits of a highly skilled practitioner displaying adaptive expertise 

They point out the disparity between the anecdotal reflections teachers make on their learners and the actual instructional design they create which purports to meet these needs

When reflecting on this I believe we as leaders need to be asking continual questions about learners. I know we do this to varying levels. However for myself I know I need to dig even deeper when discussing students and learning, with questions like ' how do you know what you did was effective?' 

This is us modelling and building evaluative capabity in our teachers and ourselves

They then go on to discuss how we need to agree as a community of practitioners what the valued outcomes for students are- what the gaps in their learning are and how we believe we address these

However it is deeper even than that- we need the students to also know what their learning needs are and how they will address these

There is also a part to play from whanau in this relationship

The diagnostic tools need to directly relate to and inform the agreed outcomes so that the evidence gathered is rich and meaningful to the progress of the learner and also clearly supports the teachers to decide if they have the expertise to address these gaps

This then leads to us as a leadership providing the systems in our learning organisation which provide teachers with the pld opportunities that will build their adaptive expertise. Which in itself is the end game of teaching as inquiry

Student owned goals

What do we need to do in order to increase this across the school

Looking at the features of the assessment and goal setting chapter would be a good scaffold to share with our teams

At present learning goals are presented and students are beginning to understand

Vpld2015 Hui

Luxuriating in being in a room full of amazing people who share my mindset and value the same things

Ideas I resonate with...

Flow Channel to support learners to take ownership

Looking at innovation as a focus for learning 

Learner agency 

This is only developed by true understanding of AfL and passing the locus of control to our learners. Empowering them to own their learning and direct how they want to learn the next steps needed, in whatever way suits them.

As leaders we need to allow our teachers the same by creating systems within our learning organisation that promote and support this innovation and creating the conditions for success

One inquiry question from many!

How does self selected, flexible pld routes raise growth mindset, increase adaptive expertise, and promote collaboration in order to increase student achievement? 

Building teacher capability using learning videos and Google sites

Part of the structure that is working well to support teachers as they build their pedagogical knowledge of elearning and the various tools they need to apply this is the use of learning videos embedded into a teacher site

This streamlines the process of learning new skills and provides pld that can be accessed anywhere anytime in order to ensure that we are all working 'smart'

It also streamlines my time by allowing me to build a bank of support that means I only need to provide certain skills once...it then becomes teacher directed to access these skills:)

Leaders as Inquirers

Aligning my current inquiry foci with my goals for personal and school growth

1)By the end of the year I am working collaboratively alongside teachers in their classrooms in Mathematics and eLearning

• observing
• giving feedback
• focussing on student achievement

so that teachers have a growing understanding of best practice and are raising achievement for their students

2)By the end of the year I am setting up and leading PLD in Mathematics across the school

Run PLD which is easily accessible to all staff  in a variety of ways:

• 1 to 1
• In class - modelling and observations
• Team workshops
• Online

so that teachers are engaged in effective professional learning  

Through the PLD there will be:

• A shift in teachers practice (observations)
• Raised student achievement (use of baseline data)
• Deprivatization of teachers practice and classrooms

Underpinning both of these inquiries is the need to

• build relational trust as discussed here is a core for us as a school that is on our 3rd principal in 18months
• build my ability to have open to learning conversations as discussed by Vivianne Robinson. this is crucial to the development of a shift in teacher mindset to focus on student achivement

One key thing I am hoping will have an impact is ensuring I allocate some of my time to providing in class self selected pld for teachers. I feel this will allow people to build areas of practice that there may not be provision for in the general timetable of school-wide pld.

Weaving evidence, inquiry and standards chapter 2

Presents a model that integrates inquiry and knowledge building cycle with three important capabilities (fig 2.1, p.26)

Instructional- What do teachers, leaders, whanau need in pedagogical knowledge  that will most effectively accelerate the progress of the current context of students, on which their inquiry is focussed (p.29)

Organisational-School systems, such as assessment that support and promote teacher learning in their inquiry cycles- building a school structure that supports the building of adaptive expertise

Evaluative- “requires the use of evidence to answer questions-’ where am i going?’, ‘how am i doing?’ and ‘where to next?” (p.31) This capability involves deep pedagogical understanding on the part of teachers and leaders around what progress they should b looking for and then link these into the curriculum

The strands of this model are woven together through relationships that focus on- managed interdependence, trust and challenge

How This Chapter Could/Should Influence Our Practice ?

When using the model in fig 2.1, the starting point is always on student achievement- importantly the aims for achievement need to be focused on those outcomes valued by the school community- How does this look for our community? What are the contextual differences between our community and others?

How do we foster and support adaptive expertise and ensure our organisational capability creates a culture that promotes, not hinders this?

Evaluative capability involves the building of a shared understanding about what we require to build adaptive expertise...what are the conditions that at present are limiting this in our school?

How can we build the relationship aspects that will support change-

Managed interdependence? How do we know when is the time to access external rather than internal experts?

Trust and Challenge?

Where are we on fig 2.2, as a leadership team? as a team?

Setting up a Gifted and Talented programme for MBS

I have finally got the time to be able to focus attention onto our students who are requiring extension. Creating a document which outlines our schools' coverage for G 7 T students has highlighted two things:
How many things we already do for these students- such as:

Opt in lunchtime groups

Specialist classes
After school groups
Classroom acceleration and curriculum compacting...though this one needs some PLD to ensure it is across the school

Classroom programmes

Mathex

Debating

Speech and Poetry competitions

However it has also highlighted some areas to work on such as:

Creating a set of selection criteria, with staff, students and also parent voice

Culturally responsive Gifted programmes built in collaboration with our local Iwi and parents of our Maori students

We also as yet do not accelerate through side along enrollment, which is an area we need to look to build as we often have intermediate students already able to sit NCEA maths and English

however these are all on the to do list

This week I got to start my extension Maths and Literacy classes and we had a ball. It's amazing how much you can miss being with kids, when most of your day is paperwork! 

It was total luxury to get to spend time with these amazing students, who took to the idea of a blog to share work and ideas, like ducks to water!and I am looking forward to the next sessions

MBS gifted blog

some pics of the maths fun making Pi from Pies