2015 - And so it begins....

It's the beginning of a new year and after a long and well rested break, I'm now getting back into school mode.  It will be an exciting year, with a lot of new learning to be had by all.  So, as we like to encourage students to set goals in their learning, I'm going to set goals in my learning in the role as a school administrator.

I guess my biggest goal this year is 'Clarity'.  Clarity in my communication with colleagues, clarity in my organisation, clarity in my decision making and clarity in my application.  Being in the role I am, I find that I am often more 'mind full' than 'mindful' of what I am doing.  I get so tied up in the business of the day, that I forget to take time to stop, reflect and see clearly what it is I am achieving and why.  I need to be more 'mindful' as apposed to 'mind full' - be clear about what I hope to achieve in a day, a week, a month, a term...a year.

Social Media & Education - how close is too close?

I have just watched a news report on TVOne news about a Kura Kaupapa Principal up North.  She teaches older students and the Teachers Council have just cancelled her registration for inappropriate behaviour - having facebook conversations with students who chatted with her about their daily lives, including sexual habits.  The teacher was deemed to have overstepped the mark by asking inappropriate questions of a student who admitted to having a one night stand without protection.  The teacher in question said she took on the role of 'aunty' or 'mother' to her students where needed.  The Teachers Council stated that it was not her place to take on such roles with students and that this is seen as 'unprofessional'.

I know and think about how we as professionals, carry out our job within boundaries, and often consider research that has revealed that 'knowing the child' is of the utmost importance. 
This story raised questions for me around the cultural responsiveness of the teachers council and the community response to the decision.  The small Northland community effected by this was divided over the decision - the complainant being interviewed was concerned that the teacher involved was leading the chats, often initiating them late at night and asking leading questions.   Another parent stated that they were grateful that students felt they could talk to someone (a trusted adult) about issues they obviously didn't feel comfortable discussing with their own whanau. 
As Teachers, we have to be constantly aware of our actions - always reflecting on what we think, why we think what we do and what others may think and why.  I try to play the 'devils advocate' to open my thought processes, considering other sides and trying to think outside the box.  Elearning opens up a whole new world and relationships with students that are extended outside of the classroom through social networking. 
Personally, I am not 'friends' with any students or families within the school I currently teach, I have made a conscious decision not to have links to students (both past and present) in the school I am in.  I am friends with a very small number students and families of students in schools I have previously taught.    I have taught in a variety of schools, both in NZ and overseas, and I find social media a great platform to keep up with old students with whom I formed friendships with and their parents - I have connected with students and their families in the UK, USA, the Pacific Islands and Australia.
I am very conscious of what I post online and am aware that students can access my page through links outside of my control.   We have to make professional judgements around how close we are to our students, often we have profound affects on them, just as they do on us.  I believe it is not unprofessional to form friendships with students and their families.  I believe cultural responsiveness is required and indeed drives relationships.  I believe we have to think hard about the use of social media in developing those relationships with our students.
Conversations with staff are important, indeed crucial to ensure a shared understanding and expectations are in place around the use of social media and the pitfalls of this in relation to the jobs we have.

Registered Teachers Criteria - Evidence gathering

The Registered Teachers Criteria are the guidelines set by the New Zealand Teachers Council for quality teaching to be met by teachers in New Zealand.  These 12 criteria are both independent and intertwining and are important to ensure that teachers are accountable in their roles across the schools they work in.

This year our staff set about unpacking the criteria, delving into the essence of each criteria and identifying where evidence of each criteria can be gathered and used as a record of their professionalism.   While unpacking the criteria, teachers were given a great opportunity to make links with the criteria and actually see how much they were (...or weren't) achieving in their roles - both inside and outside the classroom.

During our Manaiakalani Lead Teachers Meeting, we also discussed and shared out thoughts on the criteria from a digital perspective.  The evidence identified here enhanced our school documentation which has expanded our ideas for collection.

TPS staff sample of unpacking of criteria

Manaiakalani sample of unpacking of the criteria

 Reflecting on the RTC is a beneficial task to give teachers added clarity of their roles, reinforces their understanding of accountability and assists with setting goals.  We also encourage teachers to use the goals in writing reflections on their professional blogs...a task I will be carrying out on my own blog.

Universal Design for Learning.

Every term I look forward to the Manaiakalani Lead Teachers meetings and today's meeting was another goody.  I always walk away with professional learning to feed my brain, mull over and think about how it could fit into our school environment.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL), is an educational framework that addresses multiple ways of learning through creating instructional goals, methods, materials and assessments that work for everyone.  In delving into this framework I was reminded of the work of Karen Boyes around learning styles and reflected on how this is changed up in a digital world.  Giving options for students
to address their learning needs through music, visual text, lecture styles and rap (to name a few) opens the door to students self directed learning, self management and self advocacy in the classroom environment.  Doing this in a digital capacity offers endless opportunity for engagement.  I know that many teachers are already using similar principles in their planning and practice, so in looking through the information provided on this, it was a timely reflection to look at how our teachers are differentiating their 'teaching' and keeping students engaged through a myriad of activities aimed at a variety of learning styles and interests. During our session, we were given provided with a variety of different digital learning objects giving the same information but on different platforms.  Below is a 'music' based learning tool explaining UDL, this is the DLO I most connected with - other DLOs included 'lecture style presentation', 'animation' and 'visual/text'.  Check it out to give you a better idea of what UDL is about and maybe encourage you to think about how you can enhance your classroom programme with some new ideas.

Sergviovanni - A critique of Power over, Power to

 Below is a critique of Thomas Sergiovanni's work on 'Power Over, Power Too'.  In focssing on this reading, I have been enlightened by the idea of power over, power to within leadership.  I know that as a leader, I like to think that I promote 'power to' by working hard to lead by example, showing professionalism in all that I do, encouraging collegiality and collaboration, distributing leadership roles and sharing responsibility with my colleagues.  I enjoyed reading Sergiovanni's work and am reflecting within using the knowledge this reading has given me. 

Thomas Sergiovanni states that “No single model of teaching is sufficient to address all the aims of schooling”.  I believe this can be extended to leadership in the form of - ‘No single model of leadership is sufficient to successfully manage a school’. 

In reflecting and delving into the writings of Sergiovanni, the idea of ‘Power over, Power to’ and the stages leaders and followers go through to achieve educational success are filled with ‘AND’s making it complex in reflecting on a stance or position in thinking.  Power over is the transactional style of leadership that has a hierarchical base and aims at controlling people and events through dominance.  It involves ‘bully sticks and carrots’ in describing punishments and rewards. Part of Marzano, Waters and McNulty’s (2006) description of transactional leadership is ‘management by exception-active’.  They describe this type of leadership as so aggressive that followers believe that they should not take risks or demonstrate initiative.  These two descriptions are in the extreme as transactional leadership also promotes extrinsic motives and needs, establishing what Sergiovanni explains within his four stages of leadership, as the bartering stage.  This stage is where leaders and followers exchange wants and needs.  There is a place in here for positive reinforcement, reward through remuneration and promotion for good work or increased performance.  A sense of ‘fitting in’ through cooperation is established but no shared vision or intrinsic motivation is developed in depth.  Initially bartering could be seen in part as finding one’s ‘niche’ within an organisation, but this is ongoing throughout as it oversees fairness and is human nature in the larger scheme of things.  This stage of leadership is also recognised as the more ‘traditional’ leadership style, one which is difficult to sustain and as Sergiovanni indicates ‘does little to encourage people and schools to transcend competence (p.124).  Transactional leadership links strongly to the ‘power over’ model described by Sergiovanni as ‘controlling and is concerned with “how can I control people and events so that things turn out the way I want?”

To use a more sustainable approach, Sergiovanni suggests that leadership by building is the next stage on the leadership continuum in that it gives followers a sense of ‘esteem, autonomy, achievement, competence and self-actualizing needs’. This sense of professionalism provides the leaders and the led with aspirations and drive to meet and exceed expectations.  This stage of leadership is regarded as a lead in to ‘transformational’ leadership that taps into ‘human resources’ and working relationships.  Leaders are influential and supportive to their followers, building connections through trust, confidence, and encouragement, and providing a vision for the led that is clear and responsive to the needs of the followers.  In building these relationships, leaders inspire others in sharing a vision that is radically different to what has come before, promoting change and a promise of achievement success.  Sergiovanni describes these leaders as charismatic; one who advocates a vision, willingly takes risks, is unconventional, is sensitive to and responds to the needs and beliefs of followers, can communicate with confidence, is influential and great at problem solving to help others to success. 

Leadership by bonding is one step further in the stages and is tied closely to ‘building’ through its moral compass, but provides also a ‘cultural cement’ that ties people and the school together.   This stage of leadership encourages teamwork and collaboration amongst staff which promotes ‘an arousing awareness and consciousness that elevates school goals and purposes to the level of a shared covenant that bonds the leaders and led in a moral commitment’.  Bonding raises the bar, inspiring the team to work together as a group to achieve goals and realise the vision. This purpose is the platform for shared values that in turn builds a school culture.  The values system is the agreement or bond by which everyone lives together and is the pillar for decision making and actions there of.  Sergiovanni describes this as the ‘school’s covenant’ - a binding and solemn agreement.  The forming of this covenant is grown by successful leaders through developing followership.  Leadership density is one way followership is developed through shared roles of responsibility.  To be a good follower, Sergiovanni talks about such attributes as managing self, being committed, taking on responsibility, doing a good job, doing right by the school, being self-motivated and being able to work without supervision.  Leaders build leadership of good followers who strive to become leaders of leaders.  Part of being a good leader is being able to work ‘autonomously on behalf of shared purposes’.  Giving this power to good followers is part of building leadership within the school environment and giving followers the ‘power to’ accomplish the shared vision.  Successful leaders build leadership through power investment where power is distributed amongst people and there is shared understanding in working towards realising accomplishments and shared goals.  Intrinsic motivation is built through purposing and empowerment to staff. 

The final stage of Leadership is Leadership by banking.  This stage is the routineness of bonding and building throughout the institution.  The leader becomes more of a ‘minister’ as Sergiovanni describes them, a figurehead who ministers to the needs of the school.  This leader is a leader of leaders, follower of ideas, minister of values and servant of the followership.  Moral authority replaces bureaucracy, a dream for many, a way of life for some!

Power Over - Power To: Looking at leadership with MDTAs.

The Manaiakalani Digital Teachers Academy is a programme running within the Tamaki Cluster of schools in the development of digitally capable teachers at BT level.  The Manaiakalani Education Trust has teamed up with Auckland University to work together in producing a practical/theory based beginning teacher PLD model to strengthen the output of new teachers into digitally immersed learning environments.  This is the first year of the programme, and while there are teething issues to be ironed out, the bones of the vision are extremely promising.
This semester, I am involved in the 'Introduction to Educational Leadership' paper with John Roder at AU.  I am currently working on my second assignment which is based around the different types and stages of leadership with a focus on 'Power'.  I have found that throughout my readings, I am constantly reflecting back on the MDTA programme and have decided that this will be the context of my assignment.  The purpose of my assignment is not so much to critique the programme itself, but to investigate the 'Powers' afforded to the key stakeholders and the affects this has on all involved.  I will be examining power in terms of leadership, empowering, disempowering, power over vs power to and ideas beyond the binary of power - i.e shared power/distributed power.

So, with this direction in mind, I am critically reflecting through questioning and have framed a number of questions: where does the balance of leadership lie within the programme?  With the mentor, with the schools SMT, within Manaiakalani, with lecturers at AU?  How much 'power' do the MDTAs have with regard to the development of the programme?  How much real autonomy do the MDTAs have in their day to day running of a classroom?  What power plays are at work between the stakeholders at the chalkface?  What styles of leadership are more dominant as the programme roles out?...(this is just a taste - I have many more questions, the list is added to every time I read a new article!)
I will be using a number of articles in reference to my findings including Sergiovanni, Bromfenbremmer, Lingard, Fullen, Timperly and Robertson to name a few.   I think this will be a great opportunity for me to reflect on 'how' this programme has been led and to examine my role as a school leader within the programme. In a change context...what would I do differently - isn't hindsight a great thing!

Now....where's that article I was reading....

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.