Talkin' 'bout my cerebration.

Recently our long serving principal announce his retirement.  Our current (acting) principal has spoken at staff and HOD-Admin meetings about preparing for change.  I think his initial presentation to staff was generally misinterpreted, his follow up discussion to HODs more focused and understandable.  His main point is that regardless of who is eventually appointed principal it is illogical to assume they will lead and manage as our retired principal did.  In other words, we need to prepare for change, change that is inevitably going to happen but at this point is difficult to predict.  The acting principal has suggested that when a new principal is appointed it would be easy for them to target the “low hanging fruit.”  It was this comment of low hanging fruit that drew most criticism from the general staff, however the point he was trying to make is relevant.  The obvious underperforming elements of a school would be easily noticeable by new leadership and be a logical target for refinement.

So do I have any “low hanging fruit.”  Most definitely.  We were asked to consider his reflections, or cultural observations, that he categorised as “pillars” and “dark matter.”  His point of dark matter was that it may be occurring, but it is not obvious as a consistent, whole school approach or evidence is lacking.  The dark matter as identified is;

• focus on data driven improvement
• strategy
• shared accountability
• holistic behaviour management
• performance development

I definitely have some things to consider in this list.  Data driven improvement across the faculty is lacking.  We have mechanisms to review data, but it is mostly achievement data.  I think there is other data we can gather and reflect upon for improvement.  I need a process for this to occur to ensure my staff engage and take this seriously, because at this point most don’t.  There is very little reflection on student achievement, student satisfaction and student engagement.  The vast majority of our reflection and refinement is based on teacher opinion, a system which is lacking in my opinion.

Use of data could be tied into strategy.  As could performance planning.  Currently there are a number of things happening separately not connected to a faculty improvement strategy – I can feel a mind map coming on!  I’ve been challenged to develop a school wide strategy for the advancement of digital pedagogy, so a faculty improvement strategy should be similar in design process.  The problem is our school wide strategies are disjointed.  These need to be refined before I can comprehensively develop a faculty level strategy.

There are definitely some challenges here for me as a leader and manager.  Combined with the Vocational Education rectification processes identified in a recent internal audit, development of documents for a tertiary credit partnership, review and planning for the Digital Pedagogy License Advanced Community and planning for 2010 – this is going to be one hell of a busy finish to my working year.

A number of events are occurring in my professional life at the moment which are resulting in a critical focus on my application of digital pedagogy.  Local, regional and state opportunities to be involved in leading professional development are ensuring I maintain a consistent message in regards to digital pedagogy.  The largest impact is the development of a Digital Pedagogy Leadership team at my school.  The development of digital pedagogy at my school has been slow and generally unguided.  As mentioned previously my administration as recognised this and provided me with timetabled time to incorporate a role of eLearning support within the school.  This will allow me to work closely with teachers to develop practices, but also learn of existing practice and promote it amongst the staff.

The South Coast region recently implemented a program for Digital Pedagogy Leaders. This allowed schools to nominate a leader who would work within a community of other school Digital Pedagogy Leaders.  This is an awesome initiative of @djone91 (you can find her blog here).  Our school recruited a highly motivated English teacher (@skhill_03) who is participating in the Digital Pedagogy Licence Advanced community to be our leader  This is a teacher I have a lot of personal and professional respect for, and enjoy working with.  She has brainstormed a leadership plan for the school.  A process where staff reflect on their practice and samples of work are posted within a community for open access.  This is our Digital Pedagogy Leadership team.

Some significant choices were made when recruiting for this team.  First and foremost we decided that accreditation within the levels of the Smart Classrooms Professional Development Framework was not going to be the focus.  I believe strongly in the framework and its application as a reflective and planning tool, however with such small representation of accreditation within my school diverting the focus elsewhere is important.  Therefore within the group we have recruited there is only one Digital Pedagogy Licence holder (besides myself and the leader).  Some of the others are aspirants currently working towards the licence, and some aren’t.  We have specifically recruited teachers who demonstrate sound pedagogy, commitment to students and influence within sectors of the school.

The plan involves the Digital Pedagogy Leadership team leading the staff through a reflective process, and then identifying practice that can be shared.  The ultimate goal is to have a culture where staff do not feel threatened by sharing their practice, and there is a space where staff can retrieve samples of practice to refine for their own context.

The most significant decision we made with this plan was to base the samples of practice on generic thinking skills, in this case Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain.  We believe that regardless of the curriculum area, the six levels of thinking should be present in any teachers’ repertoire.  Analysis in HPE should be no different to analysis in science.  By centralising the thinking skills and positioning curriculum as context we hope to break down some of the existing barriers that see subject departments working independently of each other.

The greatest challenge for me is I am purposely moving back “from the spotlight” allowing the team to estabish themselves as leaders.  I will need to maintain the message they are delivering, and ensure that what each of them contributes enhances the plan.  But is is time for others to show leadership within the school.  If you are interested in seeing the plan in a little more detail, click here.  We are pre-phase 1 at the moment, preparing the leadership team for implementation.  I am excited by this, enjoying working with my digital pedagogy leader and team and hopeful this can see some real success in development of pedagogy across the school.