Practical application of effective leadership

Today we wrote the test to help us stream the year 9's into year 10 classes for next year effectively. We decided on two one hour exams testing number facts & space/Measurement then Algebra and problem solving.

If I was to write the two exams, I'd have to sit with the outcomes, read half a dozen books to find questions that adequately test the outcomes, do the test, record how long it would take me, estimate how long it will take students, re-evaluate the order of the questions, write a marking key, ensure that the test adequately covers the material originally intended and then two days has passed with little sleep.

or..

Our curriculum leader wrote the exam on a bit of paper off the top of his head, completed the answer key, allocated marks, I typed it up and it was done in two hours. Looking at it, it is far better than what I could have done alone. I worry that the difficulty level is a little high but I am happy to see what happens. If the students underachieve it will be easier to show their progress by the end of year 10 next year.

Experience always tells. There is no doubt, when writing the exam, in the instant between brain and hand, he had done all the things that I would have had to do; and even if I had written the exam knowing that our curriculum leader would look over it and make suggestions is a relief and takes away some of the pressure. Having someone you respect looking over things can make the difference between a new idea being accepted or rejected out of hand. That level of support and challenge is so necessary in your early years.

It is more than just experience though.

We have come up with a heap of hair brained schemes that you could see he doubted would be effective, but rather than dismissing them out of hand, he let us try. Sure enough, some of them had limited effect, but others have helped us understand the students better (like morning classes), others helped organise classes more efficiently (using more common assessment tasks and assessment schedules), others aim to assist students next year (like regrouping the 10's into their COS classes in term 4), helping us by bailing us out of duty when we have over committed (and need extra time to spend with students) and support our school wide initiatives (like a marks book for all classes or detailed programmes for junior school).

Earlier in the year we had moderation and intervention was needed to make sure the material we were presenting was demonstrative of our performance. The material I had prepared was inadequate and he suggested a number of things we had to do with presenting assessment prior to moderation, fixed the issues and our course was judged spot on.

Experienced staff commonly know who to talk to, what procedure is required, how long something will take for approval and what shortcuts are possible. They can save embarrassment from suggesting an idea that has been tried and failed or an idea that is unsuitable for a number of unthought of reasons.

Experienced staff tend to know what resources work and can lay their hands on them - in maths this is especially true with logic puzzle/investigation/problem solving activities that are hard to source.

Our curriculum leader likes to come into my room and takes great pleasure in finding mistakes with my board work (not one of my favourite habits) - but... I'd rather someone that had a clue than someone that didn't care enough to check that the senior school teachers are doing the right thing.

So to sum it up.. good leaders have superior content sequencing & resource knowledge (expert power), be willing to intervene where required and advocate to senior management for junior staff (management expertise), have respect of fellow staff (be charismatic), understand process (administrative expertise) and encourage risk taking (be entrepreneurial).

Negotiation replacing leadership

When I was at my old school and raised that I thought that some issue was unfair, I was told to negotiate my way out of it with other teachers. I was interested in this concept as in the workforce, if you were told to do something it wasn't a case for negotiation, you just did the job. You relied on the person in management knowing what they were doing and just did the job.

In teaching it's a bit like a flea market. What you are told to do is the first offer. Then you say what you would like to do. Then you find someone who wants what you have been offered and perhaps do a deal to make it happen. A lot of back scratching and deal making commonly hides an old boys network where everyone is looked after with a bit of a wink.

Where this started I have no idea, but it doesn't make it easy for those that genuinely want to make things happen. For someone to lead, others must be inspired or at least willing to follow. Negotiation just slows things down. The person leading needs to know what they are doing and those confident have to follow and preferably want to follow and those dragging their feet or passively resisting have to know there are consequences for such action.

Otherwise, where is the management? Where is the leadership?

To get around convoluted management styles I look for projects that can be managed by only those with a particular skill base and try to make it happen. Design a course of work, have before school classes, assist with after school tutoring, examine calculator usage, run a summer school, realign student groups, create my blog, assist with student events, organise resources, design reporting and assessment schemas. Ideas like this don't need committees and can be a genuine contribution to school results.

The bane of leadership is the committee. A committee is a way of distributing work to many that meet infrequently, rarely get anything done and no-one is to blame if everything fails. If someone does get something done it is usually because the group is overwhelmed by a dominant personality who does all the work (or delegates effectively with the fear of authority) and unfairly has to share the credit because some plod thinks they contributed an idea to the process.

When I'm on a committee, I rely on the principle, don't suggest an idea unless you are willing to do it. And if you suggest something be aware that unless someone else says they can do it better or the group thinks it is a negative idea, you will be doing it. If you don't contribute, you will be removed from the committee. Easy.. instant effective committees. I have never survived long as chairman and even more rarely get asked onto a committee. Which suits me fine :-)

The idea that a participant on a committee is there to get support for senior teacher status rather than a genuine interest in the committee makes a mockery of the process. Jumping through hoops is not the path to progress. Just poorly crafted committees.

Developing problem solving, reading and comprehension skills

My little challenging group of year 10's can be quite difficult to engage at times. A real issue with their maths is getting them to read the question effectively. Completely out of character, they have loved exercises in the book Logic Mysteries by Jane Molnar. Although it misleadingly states grade 3-5 on the cover, the year 10 students have loved the idea of reading these problems and solving them. When I first introduced it, I abandoned the rest of my normal planned lesson as I had not seen these students this enthused and engaged since the algebra topic.

Each mystery has a story and is solved by eradicating options that do not exist. A grid is set up to record the findings as they go through the mystery.

Many great mathematical concepts can be investigated. For instance complementary events become obvious, if she has a bird - all the options in the bird column that are boys can be eradicated. Inequalities can be investigated through clues like Jane's age is less than Mary's. Sets can be investigated through concepts like Mary's item fits in a school bag... and so on..

The main thing is that it requires the students to read the clues that are not necessarily in order, requiring reading and re-reading until they are all done.

A similar book Quizzles or More Quizzles by Wayne Williams has proven very successful with my upper class of year tens. These logic puzzles are multi dimensional and can be quite difficult so be warned!

For these to be successful I invited students to attempt them themselves for 5 minutes then modelled how to complete a problem. Then the following day I gave another problem at the start of class.

Either way, improving comprehension and reading ability is more and more important in mathematics (the temptation to enter into a diatribe as to why we need to teach English in maths here is near on irresistible - I shall try though!). These three books have been some of the more enjoyable methods of developing literacy skills thus far.

Ethical reasoning and streaming

Streaming is a difficult topic as it raises a number of questions regarding student capture, teacher judgement, assessment, and social justice.

Student capture for me is the most critical aspect of a classroom. Capturing a student's interest is a perpetual task, a combination of selling your subject and moving fast enough to keep their interest, yet slowly enough to allow them to fully grasp a subject. For some it can be done through connections with the teacher's personality, others through mathematics success, others through contribution to the class and others by connections with peers. If you can capture a student and get them to consistently have a positive attitude towards your subject then this is the first criteria met for a student to be placed into a difficult mathematics class. Streaming captured students into a class can greatly assist in improving possibility for success.

Teacher judgement is the next criteria. Does the student have the intellectual horsepower to complete the work? No amount of mathematics tutoring will assist a student that has extreme difficulty in reading a question, has too many holes in their skill base or takes too long to understand a new skill. A teacher needs to be able to identify that bit of extra practice that will move the student from being able to use a skill when directed, to be able to apply a skill undirected, to be able to identify the right skill from a range of available skills. It is possible that having to continuously assist a student on a continuous basis will destroy the flow of a class and disadvantage all within it especially in upper range classes.

Assessment is the next criteria. Assessment supports teacher judgement not the other way around. To stream purely on assessment is a recipe for disaster. This is especially true for students riding the end of their ability curve and coasting or loafing. These students, when they hit the wall and finally need to study can be hurt, confused and looking for those to blame for their lack of performance. If these students have not been properly coached before the 'big drop' in results, they can drop morale in a class at a rapid rate. Sometimes (especially in this case or the case where students are having external difficulties) it is best to ignore assessment and use the first two criteria to stream students.

Social justice is the final criteria and it has to be very carefully applied. An injudicious use of social justice to students when streaming will produce weak streams and deprecate the benefits of streaming. Just because a student has a legitimate reason for underperforming does not mean that in time a student will perform. Some say that streaming a class is a social justice issue in itself but watching students being unable to complete work that the rest of the class is working on and suffering self esteem issues or dumbing a class down to the lowest common denominator is not a solution to my mind.

The hardest part of establishing a stream is that it is not an exact science. A student performing at an optimum level with one teacher may not perform at all with another (this is especially true with boys). When creating a stream (especially in small class sizes) team dynamics play a large part - if you can create a team of peers and the teacher anything is possible. It's why I think traditionally the upper classes have been sought after - despite requiring the most skill to make work - they are the ones where there has been most flexibility in construction.

If that's culture.. you can have it.

Today I sat through Aida. Normally I can handle a little live Opera. I'm sorry, act three of Aida should be classified as grade A torture. Forty minutes to say the army is over there, get caught for treason and be sentenced to being buried alive. Three hours for the whole thing. It felt like forty years.

Want to get someone to talk? Need to know where that bomb has been hidden? Easy peasy.. Stick them in front of that dull as dishwater, repetitive, boring Verde nightmare. By the end of it they would be trying to poke their own eyes out and have their arm buried to the elbows in both ears.

I'd rather eat my own leg off than see it again.

Teacher turnover, teamwork and classes for 2009

The generation of school spirit comes from the school, focuses through teachers and into students. Harmony between teachers is a key component to the generation of that aura of success in a school.

Part of this is ensuring that there is balance between the needs of students and the needs of teachers. At this time of year tension arises between staff regarding the classes teachers would like to teach to further their careers and what is in the best interests of students. What is in the best interest of students is not always the best option. This takes some courage to say, as it has always been my position that students come first - but I think it is naive to think this is always the case.

In the real world, knowledge management issues of a revolving staff are well documented. When staff leave it does not only cost in terms of vetting and rehiring staff but also in the content knowledge loss, training investment and organisational understanding that is only gained through experience with customers.

Teaching is no different. Reduce turnover and the school benefits. An organisation that considers the needs of staff to progress successfully in their careers is an organisation that cares for its staff. To do this staff members needs to have their progress clearly illustrated and documented.

In mathematics, this means careful consideration of the new level 3 MAT and MAS courses. If there are a number of teachers vying for these classes it may be a number of years before teachers are given access to them. Being offered these classes (or knowing that a course has your name on it two years hence) can be a clear motivating factor in staying with the school and fully embracing PD opportunities until that time.

Conversely not being offered these courses or seeing the courses offered to those 'less worthy' can be a demotivational factor. Similarly being continuously asked to take lower school or low ability senior school classes can be disheartening for those seeking to enhance their skill base or for those seeking rapid promotion.

This ties very close to timetabling as many promotional opportunities rely on staff having access to senior school classes. Timetabling can often make or break the way a teacher sees their classes. Teaching out of area, sharing classes with other teachers, large class sizes, behaviourally 'difficult' classes can all be contributors to negative staff morale.

For a maths team to be successful they have to work as a team, support each other and find new and innovative solutions to student behavioural, content delivery and motivational issues. When class distribution for the following year is being considered, it means that careful thought has to be made as to what will satisfy the majority of the team, motivate members and ultimately prevent turnover.

Union president and lack of representative integrity

Anne Gisborne, president of the SSTUWA, is again out whoring the latest EBA attempt. Her actions are disgraceful.

A person in a representative capacity should not have made this comment in the media:

"Teachers union president Anne Gisborne admitted its members were running out of reasons to end the long-running pay dispute with the Government after the in-principle pay agreement."

Who is she to decide what her members should think? That is why members have a vote. She has been elected to represent members views even when member views are not her own (the last vote proved that members do not share her voice and thus she should keep it reserved until she again has member support). If she does cannot represent members and put her own views aside when it disagrees with members then she should step down.

It doesn't take blind Freddy to see that this union faces extinction if it continues to not heed the mandate given by its own State council and continue to act irresponsibly towards its members. The acts of the genuine few believers will not be enough to stem the tide of those leaving the union. Unfortunately the outcome will be no true public school system (other than a safety net), pay per use education and further movement to a multiple class society.

EBA4 Teacher pay rise and the new offer

Here is a link to the DET summary of EBA4

General opinion seems to be to accept the offer which is around 20% over three years (including the 6% we already have) with the next pay increase scheduled for October 09. No back pay to the last agreement. No 15 hrs unpaid overtime (eg. compulsory PD).

I can't say that I am excited - but will be glad when I can focus on teaching and all the fuss about wages and conditions stops.

I suppose I think back to the original questions posed at the start of the campaign.

• Has the new EBA created a profession with salary and conditions that will attract new teachers? No.
• Does the new EBA create conditions that will keep existing teachers within the system? No.
• Has the new EBA energised teachers within classrooms by making a statement that they are a valued part of the community? No.
• Should we fight further? No. In an economic downturn we should lick our wounds and stand aside.

To my mind the whole EBA process has been a lost opportunity, but now is not the time to resume this fight, it is a time to regroup, accept the small gains and prepare as one (DET, teachers, union, community, media, government) to create a feeling that education is the most critical element of our society.

When we better appreciate, evaluate and express publicly the positive contribution education makes to the community, then and only then will large increases to teaching budgets and salaries be justified.