Sent out the approvals for the plans

Interesting that most plans just needed slight tweak - either they are trying to do too much or some minor aspect wasn't clear.
Some staff have no idea about professional learning - they don't see the link between what they can change as a teacher and how this can help them in the classroom. It's like they are doing a course. No wonder some seemed quite bemused when they were asked to fill in the plan!
In their minds, they are probably saying, "Just tell me what to do!".
Still following up some tardies. Speaking of professional...

Finished the review of the Plans

Ok, most of the plans. Still the same old excuses with some people.
A couple more observations:

Some teachers don't distinguish between personal development and professional development. For example one teacher wants to improve her understanding of a language; another wants to do a Bible College course, a third wants to learn how to use the Interactive Whiteboard - all worthy end points but something that could be done even if you were not a teacher.
The key is to work out how students will benefit from these end points. It is then a matter of rethinking your focus.
Let me take the IWB example. Such a teacher needs to look at their classes and ask: "What do I do well" and "what is not going so well". (Even better - ask students or get a colleague in). Then, "How could an IWB help strengthen the good aspects and deal with the issues". Student responses (at least) could be measured before and after and then the teacher could reflect on the success of their IWB activity. Here the focus moves from the teacher to the student - where it should be.
The teacher still learns how to use the IWB but it is a means to an end - improved student outcomes. The other two examples are going to be harder but it still could be done.
This is where we are headed but it is taking some teachers a little time to understand this.
Now I have to go and talk to them about it...

Final plans are in

I think I bit off more that I could chew by volunteering to read all of the plans.
I will recommend that the leaders read them first, ok them and then pass them on to the Professional Learning Team for any difficult ones.
Also received the first applications for funding and time off.
Again, need a system to deal with this.
I will put an envelop into my pigeon hole for this, read through, ok it from my point of view and then pass on to the Administrative Coordinator who will pass it on to others.
Then the applicants get a photocopy and I get it back again.
Again, I am astonished about the brilliance of some of the teachers that I work with.
If our school does not change significantly over the next few years, I will be staggered!

Second team meeting

Got to meet the people from the CELT team who showed it to us.
Looks pretty useful - but I want to get into it and try it.
People in the team are looking to use the CELT to add units of work and to come from that process from different angles. e.g. student use, non-confident teacher use, use for moderation purpose, use with a variety of students.

The other thing happening this week is that teachers submitted their plans.
Man, what a creative group of teachers we have. Here are some of the focuses:
Homework, guided enquiry, revamping the library, immersion in Italian, students and fitness, boys and education, engaging teaching methodologies.
Three things were highlighted:

1. Lots of teachers want to use the internet as a source of information. I want to steer them onto online teaching groups and forums which have probably already done the work for them.
2. Lots want to go to conferences but don't know where to find them. In Australia, we have edna.com.au which collects these things (amongst other things) and so I could easily send them out to the staff.
3. Lots of teachers want to do surveys. We have to be careful not to over-survey so I need to come up with a method of randomly assigning students so that they participate in no more than one survey.
4. Staff want to do professional reading. My idea is to work with the Library staff to have journals available to staff in the staff room but with a page of 'highlights' or 'must reads' on the front. If the library staff are aware of the foci of the different professional learning plans, they can also target staff.

Lots of good ideas, just need time to implement them.

Things are moving

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.

Aftermath

Well, we asked for support and we got it.
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.

and much more.
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....