A trip to Japan...Oh, the possibilities!

This week, we received a letter in the mail inviting our school to apply for the 2015 APCC project and send up to six students to Fukuoka Japan for the Asian Pacific Children's Convention.
We are very excited to be applying for this opportunity and are hard at work filling in the application and putting a process in motion for students to apply for a chance to be one of the six students who, should we win a place at the convention, will attend on our behalf.
I know at that end of the day, that any student we select from Tamaki Primary School would do us proud at this convention.  The chance to mix with a range of like minded students at an international event, in a completely new and different environment is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  For many of our students, an event like this is something they could only dream of and yet they share the same potential, same dreams, same aspirations as other children who through their good fortune of being born into a life of ample opportunity, are given these experiences as they grow up.  
In a previous life, I taught at a private school in the Pacific Islands who regularly had students selected to attend the conferences.  Each year, at least two children from our school would go and what an experience they would have.  I remember tears of joy from one student who couldn't believe she could be so lucky as to be picked to go to Japan.  These types of opportunities are very rare and even more rare for a young Pasifika student to experience.
The benefits of these events are immense and should not be underestimated.  To have their eyes opened to new experiences, new foods, new cultures, new environments, new languages and to forge new friendships is life changing for many.   Our school recently took a group of students to Waitangi on an all expenses paid 4 day excursion to learn about the history of Waitangi and the role the treaty has had in the formation of our nation.  This was sponsored by Westpac and was the 'trip of a lifetime' for the students and teachers involved.
It's wonderful to know that there are organisations out there that are pushing the envelope for the sake of 'all children' - poverty or not - providing experiences for those who don't always get the opportunities some take for granted, and to see that there is a big wide world out there and no-one is confined to their circumstances growing up. 
My fingers are crossed that our students are accepted to participate at this conference and get the opportunity to represent.

Leaving a Legacy

This week through attending the funeral of an amazing teacher, I was forced to reflect on the legacy I am leaving behind.  A daunting and very humbling process, I'm met with questions of myself that I had thought about but not in any depth - a bit too much of an 'honest' task.
"What have I done to inspire children in my teaching?" "Who do I think I have inspired over the many years I have been working in schools?" "Who has inspired me in my lifetime and how did they do it?" "How do I inspire people around me?"
During the funeral service I attended, every person who spoke, talked of the 'profound effect' this phenomenal person had on them in so many different ways.  Through his love of reading, the great outdoors, passion for knowledge and sporting prowess, this person touched many people in his lifetime.  So much so that 3 past students stood and spoke, honouring  their teacher.  Two of them remembered this great man who taught them in 1954 in standard two.  The other was still at school, the teacher had worked as a regular reliever in his school.  I was both inspired and deeply moved by what these people had to share of a man who touched them in so many ways.  He was firm but fair, extremely passionate, eloquent, larger than life, well read, generous, humble and a walking encyclopedia. 

I attended this funeral in support of this great man's beautiful wife, a person who is very much a reflection of her soul mate.  I have never met the man, but was so touched by him and his legacy, it drew me here - to think, reflect and hopefully act.
 I feel that it's important that I reflect on my questions above regularly because amongst the demands of achievement expectations, assessment analysis, management, paperwork and everyday occurances, it's easy to loose sight of the child.  At the end of the day, the child is at the center of all that teachers do.  Yes their education is important, but so too, is the person that child becomes and I have a part to play in that...isn't that the reason I became and still am a 'teacher'?

Back at the 'Chalk Face'.

Part of my role as a school leader is to carry out observations and modelling sessions with staff to inform professional development, ensure support systems where needed, set goals with teachers, observe best practice at work and stay informed of current practice.   I thoroughly enjoy this part of my job and feel very fortunate to be able to observe such professionalism and dedication at work.  I believe that as a leader, it's important that I stay in touch with 'teaching' and the nuts and bolts of the job. 
In reflection of this role, I have to ask myself - "Am I critical in my observation of others?" "Is the feedback and feed forward I am giving of high value?"   "How do I inform the practice of experienced and expert teachers?"
I'm of the belief that, as a leader it's important that I can 'walk the walk and not just talk the talk'.  So, this week I asked a colleague to observe me teaching a writing session in her class.  This is a very experienced teacher and I don't consider myself a 'model' of best practice to her, as all the new learning and PLD I've experienced has been alongside her and a few others since I started teaching at the school.  I asked if I could do a lesson in her room and if she would write up an observation.  You can see my plan for the lesson below, along with the teaching goals I had.  I was keen to see the lesson through her eyes and read her feedback and feed forward.

I felt the lesson went well, and I really enjoyed focusing on the 'dialogical practice' and generating 'learning conversations' with the year 3/4 students in her class.  It did go on a bit longer than I'd originally planned, and the duration of the lesson was noted during the obs.  I was a little unsure as to the level I had projected the lesson at, but I knew that I wanted to challenge the class with activities that required critical thinking, so went with the focus of careful scaffolding throughout the lesson.   The students responded well to the 'say it' structure of the conversations and this strategy proved very successful in developing the learning intention for the lesson which was to "elaborate on ideas".
The reason I wanted to do this particular lesson was in part in response to the feedback we received from researchers at the Manaiakalani Hui which took place on Friday last week.  We already recognise that our students benefit from sharing their ideas before committing to paper and researchers have found that 'expert' teachers promote co-construction of writing more than twice as much as others. 

Other feedback received focused on depth of thinking and expert teachers were once again acknowledged as promoting more critical and strategic thinking in their lessons than others.   I was very interested in what the researchers found around student activities and the reflection of synthesis and creation.  Expert teachers were identified as promoting DLOs (digital learning objects) and having students creating them, themselves.
They also used open ended templates, and gave more extended reading and writing opportunities.  This information further fuels my goals in coaching and guiding teachers in their professional learning and when given the opportunity I will endeavour to further my own practice in developing these areas.

UPPING THE GAME

We had a visit today from a school near Wellington who are embarking on their own digital learning journey.  We have schools come through each term, seeing our teachers and students in action in a digital world, asking questions on where to start and where not to.  It's during these visits that I get a certain feeling of pride for what we've done in our little school, knowing where we have come from and the obstacles that face this community of learners everyday.

One of our visitors asked us...so where to from here?  It was such a loaded question, we sort of skimmed over the answer and talked about hardware for the junior school.  But, looking at the bigger picture the answers are endless and to some degree daunting.  So, determined not to be overwhelmed by the immenseness of the question I narrowed my focus to the 'teaching' and here I am writing a reflection about it.
We have a school full of talented, dedicated teachers who are committed to and passionate about elearning.  Our journey is only in its infancy and who knows where it will take us.  I.T is evolving all the time...there are new aps, new websites, new hardware rolling out daily and the question of 'how are we going to keep up?' often comes to mind.  While these exciting tools are there for us to use in our practice, we have to remember that they are just 'tools'.  These do NOT make us better teachers...but enhance what we do.  Just as these tools can compliment our teaching, they can also magnify bad practice.  Which leads me back to my narrowing of 'focus' from the big question.

During our Manaiakalani Lead Teachers meeting we had an opportunity to get to know the SAMR model for elearning.  This model emphasizes the link between technology, content and pedagogy.  Throughout the session reference was made to the model and our task was to randomly select a grade/level, a subject area, a learning intention and an app and create a very brief idea for a lesson outline at each 'level' of the SAMR model. 
This was a challenging task, especially because the level we randomly chose was Year 1 and neither myself nor my team mates had taught at that level...through a lot of discussion and brainstorming we came up with what we thought hit each of the elements in the model.

This use of a 'thought process' to be used in planning is not new, but SAMR is, I think, of benefit to teachers in a digital environment as it is a guide for pushing the envelope (so to speak) in getting us to think at the highest level - a sort of digital taxonomy. 

Also during the meeting, we had teachers sharing recent experiences or knowledge with the group.  We had the TPACK model shared in relation to SAMR.  This was an extention on the SAMR model which gave an even more in depth guideline to consider when planning or creating lessons.

Both of these models are great tools to use in planning classroom programmes.  They are current and serve as a challenge to 'up our game' so to speak in developing critical thinking through engaging activities for students at 'all' levels.

Leadership styles - all for one and one for all?

Currently I'm involved in a paper at AU called 'Introduction to Leadership in Education'.  Our first few readings have been about leadership styles and identifying the skills and attributes of a Leader.  Reading these have given me the opportunity to not only have a greater insight into leadership and the elements there of, but it has made me look at my own leadership skills and attributes and allowed me to identify next steps in my own leadership style from a personal perspective.

The terms that have been bandied round are transactional, transformational, change agency, teamwork, servant leadership, carnivalesque, situational leadership and so on.  It's all new learning to me and reading about each element and putting previous experiences with, and labels on, previous role models and reflecting on my own ideas of leadership has opened up a whole new vision of what a leaders is/should be/could be in my mind.  There are so many layers to leadership and within each layer are a multitude of elements, many of which intertwine between layers. 

At this time in my study and the learning I've been involved with so far, what has spoken most clearly to me is 'to adopt any one element of leadership is not a means to achieve success as a leader.'  On the contrary, success is achieved through the careful selection of a variety of leadership styles demonstrating responsiveness to the context in which they are administered.

I'm thoroughly enjoying working my brain around the complexities of educational leadership and am looking forward to sharing more of my thoughts and new learning as I wade through this paper and add to my kite of knowledge in education. 

Kawa of Care...Getting parents involved in elearning.

Tonight we had a "Kawa of Care" session for parents in the staffroom.  These sessions are run by a Manaiakalani tutor who works with the parents in developing their understanding of how we use netbooks at school, how to use and take care of netbooks and the expectations of care needed in order for netbooks to stay in good working order.

It was wonderful to see parents using the netbooks to access their child's learning and write comments to them.  Some of the parents present had a little experience on the devices, but there was new learning for all involved around their child's blogs, class sites and the school website.
Courtney ran the workshop and talked to parents about encouraging discussion with their children around the sites they access, the learning they share with the world and how to use a netbook responsibly.
The questions parents asked were around "How long do I let my child work on the netbook?"  "Where is the best place for children to work on their devices?"  "What do we do if there's a breakage at home?"  "How can I see what my children have been doing?"
The advice that we passed on regarding these very relevant questions were....

• Length of time on the computer would depend on how old the students are and what work they have to complete.  Most teachers wouldn't recommend more than an hour for 9-10 year olds and maybe one and half to two hours for older students.
• It's best that children work on their netbooks in an open room.  Not their bedroom.  That way parents can see what their children are doing and have piece of mind that their children are using the netbook for the purpose they expect them to be used.
• When netbook financing is arranged parents signed a contract that included insurance and processes to go through in case of breakages.  If a netbook is broken, parents should contact the school for details on insurance and repair.  For further details, parents can access the Manaiakalani site for information.
• Courtney took parents through, step by step, 'how to access students blogs' and also gave them a list of questions they can use to ask children about their learning.  
  

To complete the session, parents were then shown how to post a comment on their child's blog.  This is always wonderful to watch, as many of the parents can become quite emotional about the work their child is producing...often, it's unexpected and parents are impressed with what they see.
This is such a great way to build stronger relationships with our parents, and I think they appreciate the insight that these workshops give.  We will be having a few more Kawa of Care sessions before the end of the year. 
Thanks Courtney for a great service!

Tidy House...Tidy Mind.

This is just a quick jot down or reflection on Head Space.  The first week of school went well, everyone hit the ground running once again with teachers back ready to teach and learn and students back ready to learn and teach!  It's been busy with data checking, performances, assemblies, new staff at school, overviews and calendars getting in sinc to name a few things happening this week.
One thing I did get stuck into this week was a wee tidy up of the drawers...amazing the amount of things one drawer can accumulate over a couple of terms.  I didn't realise I had accrued so much in such a shortish period of time.  Hence this post...Tidy house, Tidy mind.  I find it easier to get myself in the right headspace for work, when things around me are in some semblance of order.

  By semblance of order, I don't mean alphabetised folders and colour coded papers...I mean, a place for everything and everything in its place.  The 'places' I refer to here are 'my' places and I know where something should be, and if it's not there, then it's lost or someone put it somewhere other than 'my' place. 
So, with lists made of 'things to do' and professional readings ready to be read, I shall endeavour to add my thoughts, opinions and ideas around 'education' and my role as a senior manager in a school to my blog this term.
....and that's all I've got to say about my drawers!