Met with the Professional Learning Committee today (myself, Principal, Deputy Principal, Acting Deputy Principal) to discuss how we intend to run the process for the rest of the year.
We didn't get far.
At the moment, our focus has to be on approving the plans and we need some time for this.
My job is to 'ok' most of them but to get the committee to approve the more contentious ones.
We are also applying for central funding to train leaders and link this to the new Australian curriculum and the new Teaching standards.
So many things to consider.
Tomorrow - second meeting of the teams. Final days to work on the PLPs and our team will have the central CELT team out for a chat and a visit.
Monday 28 February 2011
Monday 21 February 2011
Aftermath
Well, we asked for support and we got it.
It includes:
The first support meeting happens on Tuesday for our CELT team and we will get to look at the new system and how it might be used.
More news then...
It includes:
- two members of our team being part of a central CELT series of workshops.
- support for our Team (ie visits and resources) and support for other leaders trying to implement the new Australian Curriculum
- TRT release money
- Leadership support program for our middle managers and senior leaders.
The first support meeting happens on Tuesday for our CELT team and we will get to look at the new system and how it might be used.
More news then...
Still visiting...a stilted history
After our regular review (we as a Professional Learning Committee meet once a fortnight) we decided that it still wasn't achieving what we wanted. So last last year (2010) we decided to open it right up.
Teachers could choose something to do further study on. They would fill in a Professional Learning Plan and submit it to this team. Such a plan included how they would spend their allocated $600, their three professional learning days and the 15 hours of Professional Learning time allocated in a recent Education Agreement. This would be in addition to the 12 hours of meeting time expected during the year.
As I have said previously, this has led to an explosion of very good ideas and plans.
So we wait, with bated breath for the meeting to occur....
Teachers could choose something to do further study on. They would fill in a Professional Learning Plan and submit it to this team. Such a plan included how they would spend their allocated $600, their three professional learning days and the 15 hours of Professional Learning time allocated in a recent Education Agreement. This would be in addition to the 12 hours of meeting time expected during the year.
As I have said previously, this has led to an explosion of very good ideas and plans.
So we wait, with bated breath for the meeting to occur....
Friday 18 February 2011
A visit
Will be meeting up with a Central Office expert on Professional Learning on Monday. Hopefully we will be able to get some support for what we are trying to do at our school.
This made me think about what I would like to say to such a person.
I guess I would start with a history of how we have developed Professional Learning.
It started in 2006 after a colleague and I went to a system-wide Professional Learning series of workshop and we came up with the idea of having mini Action plans for all staff.
This was taken up by the Principal and support. Each teacher would try one new thing in the year and report on it during their end-of-year evaluation with the Principal.
The Principal decided that what he was hearing was so good that other teachers should be hearing it as well and so the first Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) were born. It was decided that all teachers would be in a team of 6-8, and that they would be run by the Principal, the Deputy or myself. I had the privilege of leading four teams and they consisted of Middle school teachers -either Language/Arts or Science/Maths.
We met and shared different aspects of our teacher: including how we assess students, moderation of student work and teaching.
It was stilted though - we had decided on the teams, not the teachers.
More tomorrow....
This made me think about what I would like to say to such a person.
I guess I would start with a history of how we have developed Professional Learning.
It started in 2006 after a colleague and I went to a system-wide Professional Learning series of workshop and we came up with the idea of having mini Action plans for all staff.
This was taken up by the Principal and support. Each teacher would try one new thing in the year and report on it during their end-of-year evaluation with the Principal.
The Principal decided that what he was hearing was so good that other teachers should be hearing it as well and so the first Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) were born. It was decided that all teachers would be in a team of 6-8, and that they would be run by the Principal, the Deputy or myself. I had the privilege of leading four teams and they consisted of Middle school teachers -either Language/Arts or Science/Maths.
We met and shared different aspects of our teacher: including how we assess students, moderation of student work and teaching.
It was stilted though - we had decided on the teams, not the teachers.
More tomorrow....
Thursday 17 February 2011
An aside - Involvement with the ATP
Part of my job now is to be the Advanced Technologies Project Coordinator at my school.
It means identifying, mapping and developing pathways in Science, Maths and Technology so that a student take a pathway that might lead to a career in Engineering, Technology and Applied Mathematics. This could be done through University studies, TAFE or in the workforce.
It sits nicely with my other Coordination role with the Professional Learning Teams.
This will give me a chance to try and get an overview of the sorts of things that students can do at school to immerse themselves in applied maths and science.
Already three of our teachers will be involved in developing a middle school unit with this emphasis. They will develop an enquiry approach and a cross-curriculum outlook.
It is a matter now of confirming that a pathway exists and then look at ways of developing it further.
The other connection with the PLP is that it is an opportunity to encourage Maths, Science and Technology teachers to look at ways that they can expose their students to Advanced Technologies - get experience themselves, try new ideas, refine them and then retry.
I clearly need to get into the ear of the KLA coordinators in the school and try to get some time to speak about these opportunities. I believe that this sort of sustained effort by teachers will more likely lead to real change in the way that Science, Maths and Technology is taught at our school.
It means identifying, mapping and developing pathways in Science, Maths and Technology so that a student take a pathway that might lead to a career in Engineering, Technology and Applied Mathematics. This could be done through University studies, TAFE or in the workforce.
It sits nicely with my other Coordination role with the Professional Learning Teams.
This will give me a chance to try and get an overview of the sorts of things that students can do at school to immerse themselves in applied maths and science.
Already three of our teachers will be involved in developing a middle school unit with this emphasis. They will develop an enquiry approach and a cross-curriculum outlook.
It is a matter now of confirming that a pathway exists and then look at ways of developing it further.
The other connection with the PLP is that it is an opportunity to encourage Maths, Science and Technology teachers to look at ways that they can expose their students to Advanced Technologies - get experience themselves, try new ideas, refine them and then retry.
I clearly need to get into the ear of the KLA coordinators in the school and try to get some time to speak about these opportunities. I believe that this sort of sustained effort by teachers will more likely lead to real change in the way that Science, Maths and Technology is taught at our school.
Friday 11 February 2011
What needs to be done
More feedback. Have spoken to just about all the leaders and the feedback has been good.
So what is next?
The general outline of the new few meetings will go something like this:
Week 5 - finalise and submit the Professional Learning Plans
Week 10 - Plans should have been approved and teachers now discuss how they will implement plans
Term 2 - usually literature review and the start of action research.
Term 3 - refinement of the plan and further action research.
Term4 - reflection on the year and writing up the results; presentation to their peers.
So far, so good. However that is another 11 hours of time that needs to be used productively.
So...what scaffolding needs to be developed?
We need to come up with:
Note for next year: the Australian Government is implementing a set of teacher standards at four levels: graduate, proficient, highly accomplished, lead. It would be good to provide a framework for linking the activities that teachers are doing to those standards. Maybe we could use the standards to assess the Professional Learning plans??? ie what areas should teachers address in those plans. Hmmmm....
So what is next?
The general outline of the new few meetings will go something like this:
Week 5 - finalise and submit the Professional Learning Plans
Week 10 - Plans should have been approved and teachers now discuss how they will implement plans
Term 2 - usually literature review and the start of action research.
Term 3 - refinement of the plan and further action research.
Term4 - reflection on the year and writing up the results; presentation to their peers.
So far, so good. However that is another 11 hours of time that needs to be used productively.
So...what scaffolding needs to be developed?
We need to come up with:
- Sources of professional reading - the librarians are working on this. I would like to teachers to join a Diigo group for the school which could be another source of reading. Need to be creative here.
- A professional reading template so that people can have some structure for their literature reviews.
- Ideas for using the $600 available for every teacher. What is included and what isn't. e.g. what about buying an iPad?
- Keeping in touch with professional development (hate those words!) opportunities that are relevant to the plans.
- A summary of the main areas that people are going to research so that we can see commonalities and make links between people and their plans.
- Action research. What is it? What is a worthwhile process? I have some AGQTP resources on this.
- Getting baseline data that is worthwhile. What are the sources for this?
- Methods of reflecting on the year's work.
- Ways to report - not just written.
- The final showcase. I am currently thinking about have all the presentations available online or in poster form in the Study Hall. Then have two by four sessions where teachers who have been chosen by their team will present their work. Other teachers will opt to go to one of the four sessions. We then have a break. During the break we have morning tea in the Study Hall and people can chat but also view the presentations of others as posters or online.
It is important that the presentations be active - not just a 45 minute lecture.
Note for next year: the Australian Government is implementing a set of teacher standards at four levels: graduate, proficient, highly accomplished, lead. It would be good to provide a framework for linking the activities that teachers are doing to those standards. Maybe we could use the standards to assess the Professional Learning plans??? ie what areas should teachers address in those plans. Hmmmm....
Thursday 10 February 2011
Some feedback
Had a discussion with three or four leaders of the other teams and generally people were positive.
T - focusing on boys in education but each person taking slightly different view of where it might go. Lots of good, strong discussion. One person started the meeting fairly negatively but ended with a very good proposal.
J - great dynamic in the team. They want to stay together. Proposals are varied but J said that each person was able to give ideas to the others even when they were from different faculties. Hurrah!
S - again, worked really well and they have also requested not be broken up. Some people have already finished their plan! Awesome.
Great to talk to individuals who are very enthused about what they might want to study. Some have suggested Mentoring boys. Others are looking at using wikis to support student understanding.
Looks like we have unleashed a tiger! Plans are good, but action is better so we shall see how it unfolds.
T - focusing on boys in education but each person taking slightly different view of where it might go. Lots of good, strong discussion. One person started the meeting fairly negatively but ended with a very good proposal.
J - great dynamic in the team. They want to stay together. Proposals are varied but J said that each person was able to give ideas to the others even when they were from different faculties. Hurrah!
S - again, worked really well and they have also requested not be broken up. Some people have already finished their plan! Awesome.
Great to talk to individuals who are very enthused about what they might want to study. Some have suggested Mentoring boys. Others are looking at using wikis to support student understanding.
Looks like we have unleashed a tiger! Plans are good, but action is better so we shall see how it unfolds.
Wednesday 9 February 2011
First meetings for real...
One of the interesting things about working in the teaching profession is that, by and large, most people are pretty accommodating. My own Professional Learning team were brilliant - open, honest and willing to give it a go. This despite the fact that the main focus of our team (CELT) lacked focus - at this stage. (CELT is a Learning Management Tool much like Moodle).
This first meeting was designed to give teachers time to meet and think. I my experience it doesn't happen much. We meet a lot but generally we react - we don't think deeply. Certainly we don't reflect much on our work. There is always too much to do!
So it was good to say, "We have set aside time for you to think about an area of interest and plan some action research on the area". In some ways it was a pity we had to say - "We have allocated 2 hours to do this and you need to stay for the whole 2 hours".
Anyway, our team came up with some really good areas:
H - how the CELT might be used to aid the learning of a range of students - from Middle schoolers to seniors and from students who struggle at school to students who have university ambitions.
N - as a first year teacher, he saw the CELT as an opportunity to sit down and thoroughly plan a unit of work, plan and create assessment tasks, mark the work online and resubmit back to students.
K - is trying to build up resources so that students have help about learning independently. He is already thinking of developing videos to demonstrate what to do and how to do it when you find yourself at home having to prepare for an assignment.
T - wants to develop an understanding of how to help teachers develop online units of work. He will work with a teacher who does not use it a lot and then take them through the process with CELT and try to spot the difficulties.
G (me) - I came up with three questions: Can I develop a more coherent unit of work for students if I use this process? Can I give students more feedback to help them raise their standards? Can I use CELT to work with other teachers in moderating student work.
All very interesting and exciting really. My job is to help people through this initial process and make sure they remember that our goal is improved student learning. I think once we get these plans done, it should be fairly easy.
Anyway, onward...
This first meeting was designed to give teachers time to meet and think. I my experience it doesn't happen much. We meet a lot but generally we react - we don't think deeply. Certainly we don't reflect much on our work. There is always too much to do!
So it was good to say, "We have set aside time for you to think about an area of interest and plan some action research on the area". In some ways it was a pity we had to say - "We have allocated 2 hours to do this and you need to stay for the whole 2 hours".
Anyway, our team came up with some really good areas:
H - how the CELT might be used to aid the learning of a range of students - from Middle schoolers to seniors and from students who struggle at school to students who have university ambitions.
N - as a first year teacher, he saw the CELT as an opportunity to sit down and thoroughly plan a unit of work, plan and create assessment tasks, mark the work online and resubmit back to students.
K - is trying to build up resources so that students have help about learning independently. He is already thinking of developing videos to demonstrate what to do and how to do it when you find yourself at home having to prepare for an assignment.
T - wants to develop an understanding of how to help teachers develop online units of work. He will work with a teacher who does not use it a lot and then take them through the process with CELT and try to spot the difficulties.
G (me) - I came up with three questions: Can I develop a more coherent unit of work for students if I use this process? Can I give students more feedback to help them raise their standards? Can I use CELT to work with other teachers in moderating student work.
All very interesting and exciting really. My job is to help people through this initial process and make sure they remember that our goal is improved student learning. I think once we get these plans done, it should be fairly easy.
Anyway, onward...
Monday 7 February 2011
First team meetings
Tomorrow begins year five of my leadership of Professional Learning at my workplace.
We started by forcing people to come together during worktime - we learnt some things but staff wanted more choice.
We then set up teams which focussed on particular areas e.g. use of video, interactivity, feedback. This worked well but people still felt restricted.
This year we have opened it up. Staff choose what area they will focus on developing professionally this year and we will support them through the process.
How?
I don't know how it will go and I am shitting myself.
As the year goes on I will reveal the theory behind this potential mess and why I am so passionate about it. I want also to keep a record of the process and document it for posterity or 'posterior'.
Keep in touch, now.
We started by forcing people to come together during worktime - we learnt some things but staff wanted more choice.
We then set up teams which focussed on particular areas e.g. use of video, interactivity, feedback. This worked well but people still felt restricted.
This year we have opened it up. Staff choose what area they will focus on developing professionally this year and we will support them through the process.
How?
- Meet at set times in a year
- Financially support their interest to the tune of $600 a year.
- Release them for three days in a year
- Give broad guidelines but allow staff to choose their area of interest to the fullest extent.
- Recognise and publish the results of their research and learning.
I don't know how it will go and I am shitting myself.
As the year goes on I will reveal the theory behind this potential mess and why I am so passionate about it. I want also to keep a record of the process and document it for posterity or 'posterior'.
Keep in touch, now.
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