Building capacity

As a whole staff we engaged in many hours of work last year, in the area of analysing data. Across writing and maths especially we are seeing school wide movement that shows how well our teachers know their students and conversations with students has meant that the students also know themselves. With the advent of BYOD this year for more of the school, we are starting to build capacity for staff and students to use online assessment tools. Such as exit ticket. Nearpod , google forms, voice thread, showme, khan academy and many more. This is allowing for instant assessment , which means learning to need, and even more powerfully... Learning to need and interest. This equals total engagement.

Delegating!

This year I am encountering many challenges around what I want to be able to be involved in and what I know I actually have time for. I prime example of this is ALiM- Since I qualified I have been very passionate and involved in math education- it is one of my leadership areas. However when the chance finally came up for me to engage with ALiM finally, it has happened at the same time as becoming a DP. Initially I felt very heartbroken almost, about not being able to engage in this. However I worked through in my own head and came to the conclusion that this was an area that I have overarching responsibility for and my role now is to enable achivement for ALL students in the school and not just to focus on the few we can put through ALiM. So I have had to delegate this task down to someone else within the school and I now know that this is the best way forward...I can help build capability in our teachers and be sure that that teacher is upskilling and filling a need that is part of my overarching action plan for the math outcomes for the strategic plan.

So I am learning ....slowly to delegate!!:

School wide maths inquiry

Last year the teaches and myself noticed a trend within math data. This was low achievement in place value and basic facts.
After looking at possible reasons we concluded that this was mostly due to a lack of pedagogical knowledge for our teachers. What followed was a two term drive that up skilled our teachers and allowed them the time to focus on these areas.
Looking at the pat results school wide I have discovered a trend to support the improvement I can see in gloss and JAM- the average stanine score in PAT maths for the school has increased by two. In reflecting on why this has been so successful, I believe it was supporting the teachers to examine data and see the trends. By allowing them the time to only assess these areas and by providing them with PD and resources to target those areas in their classrooms. Allowing change to occur from the middle, not because of top down pressure.

Sent from my iPhone

Discussions with Christian long

Some excellent ideas regarding how the environment impacts on the mindset- not only of students, but also teachers. 

I felt particular resonance with his statement that ' the non negotiable values of any community, drive the solution' very relevant in our transition as a school at present

Having those difficult conversations

Communicating is a big, complicated problem! I find that I am relying more and more on keeping in my head the structure of open to learning conversations and a mental image of the ladder of inference. I worry that if I don't then I may slip into letting my personal belief system or values cloud my ability to remain impartial and focused only on the goal that the conversation is meant to resolve.
Open to Learning Conversations

Appraisal process

So my first appraisal meeting with external facilitator is set for next Thursday. I am setting up my Myportfolio to have a subset page which can be shared directly with my appraiser. As this is a tool I use anyway it makes sense to utilise it for as many purposes as possible. With that in mind I learnt a new trick today while at the ELN sessions, courtesy of @mosbourne01, which I have already utilised. It's sad how excited I get by a new trick in ICT use. But all these tricks streamline the amount of effort that is required in order to provide evidence of goals achieved.

2014 managing expectations

As the year begins I am already struggling to work out how to manage all the expectations that surround my role. These are trifold- the expectations of me as a leader, in maths, elearning, ICT and for the senior school; The expectations of me in my class, which should be my first priority, but often becomes a second! and also the expectations I put on myself to achieve in these roles. This one is I think the trickiest. As I have a terrible tendencey to become quite over achieving and will push myself to my limit in order to try and get everything done as perfectly as I can. This then impacts on my health and more importantly on the expectation I haven't even mentioned here- that my family, quite rightly should come first! 

I think some steps to work out managing these should help!

So I will try to

1, create action plans for all the different roles I manage and then priorotise these.

2, Try and organise a schedule for my week that only deals with the top of each actionplan for that week, hopefully thereby allowing more time for me and my family

3, try and let go of somethings and allow that other people can do them...it may not feel perfect, but will probably still do the job!

4, review this in 4 weeks