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.

I have a lot of ideas running through my head about how I can set my learning environments up next year.  I’m thinking of this now as the potential project I have recently blogged about, and my previous entry on learning space design will impact on this planning.  I’ve also been doing a lot of reading around Bloom’s taxonomy and critical thinking strategies.  But today I’d like to share with you two posts that have inspired a significant amount of reflection and thinking in order to best prepare for 2010.

The first post dates back to the 6th June this year, by Dean Groom, and can be read here.  The post is titled 5 Ways to Create Spectacular Classrooms but I think this does not reflect the power of the suggestions within.  Dean does not suggest practices that could be considered groundbreaking or pioneering, yet they could easily align with any curriculum area or learning context.  I’ll reproduce the 5 suggestions below with my interpretation on how they could be applied in my context.  For Dean’s original explanation of the 5 suggestions, visit his site.

1. Use reflective, self reporting activities – In his entry Dean focuses on organisation and managment of resources and learning using Diigo.  I am thinking of applying the same concept to a learning log.  If I can establish a personal learning space in my classroom and students will have choice on the learning activities they undertake, then I see benefit in them keeping a record of what they choose to engage in and reflecting on those choices in consideration of goals set and perception of learning gain.  What resources I use to achieve this will need some further thought. Currently my students use Google for calendar and RSS reader, Zotero for notebooks, BlackBoard for LMS and Delicious for bookmarking.  I need to consider how I will get these services to work collaboratively.

   I am also keen on reflective activities for both teachers and students.  Significant changes to the shared learning space will need training for teachers and students.  This will include seeking their input on management of the space.  The potential approach described in the project idea will also need some initial framing as we expect students to learn, not be taught.  This will be fundamentally different to how they operate in any other class, but significantly beneficial to their lifelong learning.

2. Students must believe their choices and opinions matter – this extends from the previous point.  Students will have choice in learning, and I see the reflection as a method to ensure the learner sees the importance and influence of their choices.  I plan on seeking their opinions on the learning space construction and management, learning task management and evidence submitted to demonstrate achievement of assessment tasks.  But I want to add to this that I believe my teachers will also be learners in this process, therefore they must believe their opinions and choices matter also.
3. This week matters – this is essentially a process of journalling, the learning log I suggested in step 1 could address this.  Dean suggests a service called Today’s Meet which allows a time limited backchannel for open communication.  I’d prefer something more permanent at this point and will possibly tie in my concept of asynchronous conversations to achieve this.  Essentially students will construct a blogpost over the week however the blog may be written, video or audio.  However the Today’s Meet concept could be used to post a single question for the week which the students need to answer.  They can then choose the learning tasks that they believe will lead them to the answer, and reflect on those choices and the quality of answer submitted.  Blackboard has a managed release of resources option which could assimilate this functionality yet retain an archive for teacher access.
4. Make authentic connections – essentially, bring the outside world into the learning environment.  Services such as YouTube, TED Talks, iTunesU, Elluminate, SnagFilms, ABC iView, ClickView, blogs, podcasts, chats, forums and others allow this authenticity and relevance.  It will also serve the personal learning space and choice of learning tasks I am trying to achieve.
5. Build a vocabulary bank – now this is a simple, but great idea.  Each week a student is charged with the task of identifying a relevant term which they add to a dedicated wiki.  They add the term, a definition, a web reference and an application example.  A great way to build a relevant resource.

The second post is from 27th August on changED by Angela Cunningham.  Her post is entitled Tips for a Successful Cafe Conversation and is dedicated to guiding student discussion for learning.  This post was relevant to me as I enjoy the process of what I term discussion circles, where we move to a comfortable space to form a circle and openly discuss.  Angela also has 5 suggestions on how to generate productive learning discussion, but it is specifically point number one I am interested in.

1. Create a classroom environment that supports meaningful discussion – Angela has generated a set of Classroom Discussion Guidelines that she uses to teach her students how to participate productively in a discussion.  This resource is fantastic, and although I will modify it to suit the terminology of the syllabi I am working in, it certainly frames the expected participation of learners in the discussion. This is something I have been missing from my classroom.  I utilised a process of modeling appropriate engagement in the discussion however upon reflection feel that this may encourage some learners to wait for my input first.  A set of common guidelines, displayed prominently, should make this process much more effective.  I thank Angela for publicly sharing her guidelines.

So as my September holidays draw to a close, I am thinking of pedagogy, teacher training, virtual learning spaces and physical learning spaces.  I’m thinking of how these can be aligned to syllabi objcetives and Bloom’s Taxonomy.  I’m thinking of how this can be combined to enhance, enable and excite learning.