In any organisation my voice will be heard. I don't fear offering an opinion and over time people learn how to use my opinions effectively. I'm sure as hell not always right, but can be a good sounding board for ideas.
It always amuses me when someone argues a position and then gets sad when my position moves closer to theirs, undermining their argument. I'm not as fixed as I should be, although probably more fixed in my ways than when I started teaching.
If someone has a better idea, I try to welcome it and embrace it (it is hard to give up an idea that has taken time to develop). If someone attacks one of my ideas/ideals/opinions in the spirit it is given, then it is a welcome discussion - it can only create a stronger position (if only to better understand the counter argument). The only time I really get frustrated is when ideas are attacked purely because of the person that is giving it. I've been on both sides of this and get frustrated with myself when I catch myself doing it. A colleague generally taps me on the shoulder to reconsider my position (and if they know me well enough) can snap me out of it.
The ability to offer an idea without fear of reprisal and the ability to develop ideas through dialogue is important to an organisation. Developing ideas before implementation will increase the chance of success significantly. Developing ideas in a vacuum can be a frustrating process of reinventing the wheel.
I feel to some degree I am doing this at the moment. In developing better support for teachers, I am working with teachers with many years more experience - offering an opinion can either scratch wounds, state the obvious or sound naive. Many of my ideas feel simplistic, to counter this I am actively looking and listening to successful strategies currently being used in our school in other learning areas and in other schools where I have colleagues in similar circumstances.
Creating a Math/Science department is also problematic, as I am trying to bring two teams together and I lack science experience. Gaining knowledge of the needs and wants of the science team is drawing attention from the math team, also needing help, development and guidance. I remind myself that I'm 10 weeks into a new job and can only do so much - yet it's obvious I need to do more to get the job done, and new responsibilities are on their way shortly.
I need to keep thinking about what I am doing, and do it better. It sounds obvious, but if I keep focus on the big picture over time our learning programme will improve further.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
End of Term
It hasn't been an easy term with structural projects within the school being navigated whilst teaching programmes needed to continue. Whilst the process has been traversed as well as it could be, these things are not pleasant to be a part of and finalisation of them such that the focus of driving learning can be re-established will be a welcome change.
My first term as HoD is now nearly over. The departmental focus has been implementing resolution processes to ensure that a mutual understanding (teachers and students) of issues and consequences is effected. The issue is at the heart of teacher morale and having a HoD where responsibility lies seems to be making a difference. The outcome should be that teachers feel better supported and clear boundaries are set for students to work within.
There is an inbuilt conflict built into the HoD role in a small school as it has elements of student services (the "you'll be all right" care team type stuff) and the discipline ("this has gone on long enough, understand the consequences that follow") side. With struggling students you can be on both sides within short time frames.
Whilst doing the role I have tried to keep development of the teams going, working with teachers to develop skills, encouraging others to demonstrate their leadership capabilities within teams, develop behavioural support structures, identify professional development opportunities and allow staff time to demonstrate skills learned before intervening. With a challenging group of students, I always seem uncertain that I am doing enough, whilst the image seems to be that I have a lot of time and can be doing more.
The disappointing part is that I have not been able to achieve my core objectives for term 1, the completion of the math learning area plan and implement RTP in math/science. The learning area plan is incomplete although is evolving in structure to meet the needs of the school, but RTP is mired in the structural change, until classes become settled and administrative capacity available there seems little point to implementation.
There is a always a need for those in leadership positions to lead. With reduced numbers of L3 positions in the school I am mindful that this is ever more the case. Morale of staff is sometimes about pointing out the obvious achievements, keeping a focus on learning, identifying the positives, dealing directly with issues, discouraging negative perceptions and generating a culture around sound student achievement.
In the last few weeks in my own classes I have focused on student engagement, developing clear connections for students between assessment outcomes and the need to take ownership of results. It is evident that students often do not realise the need to utilise resources available, but it is equally evident that they need reasons made explicit to utilise these resources. One example was a test that students did poorly in - I provided two options for them - attend after school classes voluntarily to improve or I'll make calls to parents and make it involuntary. Needless to say they were empowered to turn up after school and enjoyed the well planned extension class (well done team!). It's ideas like this that can keep a group engaged and improving.
Having my computer stolen was devastating both in a loss of trust in my students and organisationally as it is a core element of my teaching. We had been working on iPad deployment with it, and without it we have had to stop. It's taken time to register with police and liaise with admin, time that would be better spent on learning programmes. I'm also disappointed that the work for the 1-1 iPad deployment was discarded for a shared model. This too has wasted a lot of effort in developing resources and deployment infrastructure.
The structural changes in the school will evolve the idea of HoD at our school and the school will have to decide whether my abilities fits the role. I'm doing my best to listen and enact changes as I see possible, but I need to recognise I can't be everything to everyone. It's week 9, and not a time to over think stuff - just execute and recharge over the holidays.
My first term as HoD is now nearly over. The departmental focus has been implementing resolution processes to ensure that a mutual understanding (teachers and students) of issues and consequences is effected. The issue is at the heart of teacher morale and having a HoD where responsibility lies seems to be making a difference. The outcome should be that teachers feel better supported and clear boundaries are set for students to work within.
There is an inbuilt conflict built into the HoD role in a small school as it has elements of student services (the "you'll be all right" care team type stuff) and the discipline ("this has gone on long enough, understand the consequences that follow") side. With struggling students you can be on both sides within short time frames.
Whilst doing the role I have tried to keep development of the teams going, working with teachers to develop skills, encouraging others to demonstrate their leadership capabilities within teams, develop behavioural support structures, identify professional development opportunities and allow staff time to demonstrate skills learned before intervening. With a challenging group of students, I always seem uncertain that I am doing enough, whilst the image seems to be that I have a lot of time and can be doing more.
The disappointing part is that I have not been able to achieve my core objectives for term 1, the completion of the math learning area plan and implement RTP in math/science. The learning area plan is incomplete although is evolving in structure to meet the needs of the school, but RTP is mired in the structural change, until classes become settled and administrative capacity available there seems little point to implementation.
There is a always a need for those in leadership positions to lead. With reduced numbers of L3 positions in the school I am mindful that this is ever more the case. Morale of staff is sometimes about pointing out the obvious achievements, keeping a focus on learning, identifying the positives, dealing directly with issues, discouraging negative perceptions and generating a culture around sound student achievement.
In the last few weeks in my own classes I have focused on student engagement, developing clear connections for students between assessment outcomes and the need to take ownership of results. It is evident that students often do not realise the need to utilise resources available, but it is equally evident that they need reasons made explicit to utilise these resources. One example was a test that students did poorly in - I provided two options for them - attend after school classes voluntarily to improve or I'll make calls to parents and make it involuntary. Needless to say they were empowered to turn up after school and enjoyed the well planned extension class (well done team!). It's ideas like this that can keep a group engaged and improving.
Having my computer stolen was devastating both in a loss of trust in my students and organisationally as it is a core element of my teaching. We had been working on iPad deployment with it, and without it we have had to stop. It's taken time to register with police and liaise with admin, time that would be better spent on learning programmes. I'm also disappointed that the work for the 1-1 iPad deployment was discarded for a shared model. This too has wasted a lot of effort in developing resources and deployment infrastructure.
The structural changes in the school will evolve the idea of HoD at our school and the school will have to decide whether my abilities fits the role. I'm doing my best to listen and enact changes as I see possible, but I need to recognise I can't be everything to everyone. It's week 9, and not a time to over think stuff - just execute and recharge over the holidays.
Labels:
leadership
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Supporting students after graduation
I have witnessed many wonderful things evolve at our school, but one of the most promising is the development of effective support structures for ex students. Developing Win-win situations for ex students and the school is very important to make these relationships work for all involved.
When I first arrived six years ago, graduating students often came back to the school and looked a bit lost. They said hello to teachers that barely remembered their names and I would get the feeling of loss that they would feel, coming back to a place where they were happy and felt safe that was now closed to them. This loss was heartfelt, as school is a launching pad for these students, a support that after graduation is lost.
Over the next few years we have looked at ways to engage ex-students, provide a level of support going forward and use the skills gained by students in navigating school to assist students within the system. It's a way of leveraging the goodwill gained during the 'best' times of their lives (though if it truly is the best, I'd be sad as it is a very small part of their lives).
The most obvious way was to encourage tertiary students to help at summer school. Students entering ATAR make mistakes preparing for the final two years and won't always listen to teachers as to the best method for preparing for one of the most stressful situations in their lives. By coming to summer school after graduation, they can share their experiences and have clear evidence of how far they have come in comparison to their fellow students. It's downtime for most students, so it only has minor impact on their commitments.
The recent emerging structure is seeing students come back as paid tutors after school. Students in first and second year university are finding that ICT is decreasing the number of required contact hours and they are now more free to engage in work related activities. We have found that our graduates are happy to come back and help out in after school programmes for high performing students and tutor. As effective tutors have typically been very difficult to find, it has been welcome to utilise they students as a resource (and fulfil a need of theirs to both belong and support their income).
A welcome aside is to assist our university bound students complete their courses. Our success is truly measured in their success and being able to give graduating students effective post-school support at critical times in their university journey may be the difference in completing their courses and failing. Assistance may be helping them through a first year math course and adapting to a more text orientated learning style with clear language differences than experienced in school. Support at tertiary institutions that work for a green leafy students, may not work for our headstrong students, who either do not fit in with peers well, or are too headstrong to engage in help structures and typically do not work well in groups. It takes them time to realise that there are students less intelligent that are completing successfully their courses and that they have something to offer beyond cynicism and self deprecating comments.
I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of students seeking math teaching as a pathway into the workforce. Having employed two of our mathematics practicum teachers in our team of four and having more on standby means that we have a pool of culturally aware teachers available to develop our mathematics department that can hit the ground running and avoid common issues found with our students. The fact that some of these are ex-students developing their peers is a whole of community bonus.
Much of this is officially non-core to our mission, but we know that many low-socioeconomic strategies have failed to increase tertiary engagement and effect social change. Post school programmes tied back to effective in school processes may be a factor that has not been sufficiently considered.
When I first arrived six years ago, graduating students often came back to the school and looked a bit lost. They said hello to teachers that barely remembered their names and I would get the feeling of loss that they would feel, coming back to a place where they were happy and felt safe that was now closed to them. This loss was heartfelt, as school is a launching pad for these students, a support that after graduation is lost.
Over the next few years we have looked at ways to engage ex-students, provide a level of support going forward and use the skills gained by students in navigating school to assist students within the system. It's a way of leveraging the goodwill gained during the 'best' times of their lives (though if it truly is the best, I'd be sad as it is a very small part of their lives).
The most obvious way was to encourage tertiary students to help at summer school. Students entering ATAR make mistakes preparing for the final two years and won't always listen to teachers as to the best method for preparing for one of the most stressful situations in their lives. By coming to summer school after graduation, they can share their experiences and have clear evidence of how far they have come in comparison to their fellow students. It's downtime for most students, so it only has minor impact on their commitments.
The recent emerging structure is seeing students come back as paid tutors after school. Students in first and second year university are finding that ICT is decreasing the number of required contact hours and they are now more free to engage in work related activities. We have found that our graduates are happy to come back and help out in after school programmes for high performing students and tutor. As effective tutors have typically been very difficult to find, it has been welcome to utilise they students as a resource (and fulfil a need of theirs to both belong and support their income).
A welcome aside is to assist our university bound students complete their courses. Our success is truly measured in their success and being able to give graduating students effective post-school support at critical times in their university journey may be the difference in completing their courses and failing. Assistance may be helping them through a first year math course and adapting to a more text orientated learning style with clear language differences than experienced in school. Support at tertiary institutions that work for a green leafy students, may not work for our headstrong students, who either do not fit in with peers well, or are too headstrong to engage in help structures and typically do not work well in groups. It takes them time to realise that there are students less intelligent that are completing successfully their courses and that they have something to offer beyond cynicism and self deprecating comments.
I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of students seeking math teaching as a pathway into the workforce. Having employed two of our mathematics practicum teachers in our team of four and having more on standby means that we have a pool of culturally aware teachers available to develop our mathematics department that can hit the ground running and avoid common issues found with our students. The fact that some of these are ex-students developing their peers is a whole of community bonus.
Much of this is officially non-core to our mission, but we know that many low-socioeconomic strategies have failed to increase tertiary engagement and effect social change. Post school programmes tied back to effective in school processes may be a factor that has not been sufficiently considered.
Labels:
goodwill,
graduate teachers,
teaching
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Combined 11/12 courses for Australian Curriculum
One of the surprising successes of the school has been the running of combined classes in 11 and 12. It has been made clear that SCASA ("the authority") does not want this to continue with Australian Curriculum. This was stated by teachers at the Swan Schools Conference that are part of math discussion groups with SCASA.
At the moment we can run 1BC / 1DE / 2AB / 2CD / 3AB / 3CD MAT, 3AB 3CD MAS and even PA/PB or 1A courses as needs arise with a high school cohort of 470. With an even smaller cohort this year, this will need to be reconsidered but is manageable.
We can do this because if we have 10-15 students from yr 11 and 10-12 students from yr 12, we can combine them to make a reasonable sized class (except the end courses 1DE MAT or 3CD MAT or specialist courses 3ABCD which can run at around 10 because of the larger classes). This structure provides differentiation for our students and has been effective.
If we could not run these combined yr 11/12 classes, specialist courses could not run having a detrimental effect on school marketing as an academic institution. Furthermore combining year groups has had the surprising effect of exposing yr 11s to students that have adjusted to yr 11/12 workloads providing the level of mentoring that MAG classes always promised (but never really delivered) because the endpoint is actually evident and the drive to work harder has clear reward. Using this method we have built our 3CD courses to 7-8 students, a respectable 12% of our yr 12 cohort (with MAT class averages over 60% close to state averages).
The school cannot run Australian Curriculum "Focus, Essentials/General, Methods and Specialist yr 11" with class sizes of 10-15 and "Focus, Essentials, Methods and Specialist yr 12" with classes of around 10. It will not fit within a small school math department staffing profile. It's going from 8 courses with reasonable numbers to 8 courses where the spread of students is not even, requiring additional classes (this is only evident when student cohorts are put to courses during timetabling). Add to this the increased focus on the WACE numeracy test with management of students failing the test in year 10 and then passing the test in year 11 (thus making general course sizes variable), I see issues on the horizon.
Given that a reasonable number of schools are in this predicament due to boundary degradation, half cohorts, yr 7s in private schools, gentrification and a host of local reasons, this will further degrade the offerings of small public schools, ultimately further reducing their competitiveness.
I hope this is a direction that SCASA will reconsider.
At the moment we can run 1BC / 1DE / 2AB / 2CD / 3AB / 3CD MAT, 3AB 3CD MAS and even PA/PB or 1A courses as needs arise with a high school cohort of 470. With an even smaller cohort this year, this will need to be reconsidered but is manageable.
We can do this because if we have 10-15 students from yr 11 and 10-12 students from yr 12, we can combine them to make a reasonable sized class (except the end courses 1DE MAT or 3CD MAT or specialist courses 3ABCD which can run at around 10 because of the larger classes). This structure provides differentiation for our students and has been effective.
If we could not run these combined yr 11/12 classes, specialist courses could not run having a detrimental effect on school marketing as an academic institution. Furthermore combining year groups has had the surprising effect of exposing yr 11s to students that have adjusted to yr 11/12 workloads providing the level of mentoring that MAG classes always promised (but never really delivered) because the endpoint is actually evident and the drive to work harder has clear reward. Using this method we have built our 3CD courses to 7-8 students, a respectable 12% of our yr 12 cohort (with MAT class averages over 60% close to state averages).
The school cannot run Australian Curriculum "Focus, Essentials/General, Methods and Specialist yr 11" with class sizes of 10-15 and "Focus, Essentials, Methods and Specialist yr 12" with classes of around 10. It will not fit within a small school math department staffing profile. It's going from 8 courses with reasonable numbers to 8 courses where the spread of students is not even, requiring additional classes (this is only evident when student cohorts are put to courses during timetabling). Add to this the increased focus on the WACE numeracy test with management of students failing the test in year 10 and then passing the test in year 11 (thus making general course sizes variable), I see issues on the horizon.
Given that a reasonable number of schools are in this predicament due to boundary degradation, half cohorts, yr 7s in private schools, gentrification and a host of local reasons, this will further degrade the offerings of small public schools, ultimately further reducing their competitiveness.
I hope this is a direction that SCASA will reconsider.
Labels:
Australian curriculum
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