Mini Meet Kuia Ako Term 3 2022

I had the opportunity to facilitate a mini meet at our school. I shared some practical ideas on writing rapid routines. 

I had 15 teachers across the Kaui Ako cluster that joined me. Padlet 

The rapid routines that I shared and modelled were: 

Adopt a word, Give me 10, Vocab jumble, Label it! Running Dictation, Pass it on, Onomatopoeia alphabet and Simile and Metaphor drawing activity.

Initially, when I asked the teachers to get ready for the running dictation, there were some hesitation and lots of frowns, but once we started everybody participated really well.

Having the hands-on workshop seemed to resonate well with everybody. They were all engaged, and there were lots of laughter.

I didn't over-plan too much, there were only 2 activities that I did not get to do.

What would I do differently next time:

Most probably start with the Running Dictation straight away to break the ice.

Have my scrap paper ready before the time, as well as setting everything up for the running dictation before the time.

Next step:

I'm wondering if a Rapid Routine part 2 should not be an option, then we can look at even more options for Rapid Routines, the ones that need a little more preparation.

Feedback from one teacher when I asked if the workshop was okay, said she can use all of it as she is only a 3rd year teacher. So... mission accomplished.

Manaiakalani Shared Staff Meeting

 On Monday I had the privilege of being one of the facilitators for a nationwide shared meeting on our inquiries. 

I met with Richard, Elfrida and Ashley. Richard is a principal, Elfrida a DP and Ashley a Beginner Teacher. 

The sharing just happened naturally. Elfrida shared how they are doing an inquiry around their new school's value of sharing. What does sharing look like for their leadership team, staff, students and community?  Richard's team is relooking at their strategic plans as school life at the moment is not what they thought it would be when they planned it last year. And Ashely is looking into how she can build up a kete of different teaching strategies. I shared with them my MIT project, Survival Kit for New teachers. 

It was good to hear that other schools have the same challenges that we do. And sharing some ideas with each other was very helpful. I shared with Ashley a link to Manaiakalani Classroom on Air site, hopefully, that will be helpful to her. 

Initially, I was a bit nervous as I wasn't sure if I would be able to facilitate leaders, but they made it really easy for me, and I learned from them how they approach an inquiry in their school. 

Seesaw PD

Today I had an opportunity to present a PD session on how to increase student voice in our classes using our Seesaw platform. 

My focus was to help teachers see the value of student's voice and to share practical ideas on what that will look like in the classroom. 

I was very aware that my colleagues might have been tired after already being in a PD session during the day and wanted to keep the session practical with lots of teacher's voice instead of my voice. 

Did I achieve my goal? 

I was very happy that everybody participated in the discussions and that we could walk away with some solutions to our barriers and challenges. Especially around the noise when recording and the bridge between year 3's and 4's. The solutions from our discussions were to create recording stations with clear signs to make everybody aware when recording is happening. And to create opportunities for the current year 3's at the end of the year to be introduced to Chromebooks at the end of the year in a tuakana teina model.

The examples that I presented to my colleagues demonstrated that collecting student voice does not involve complicated posts. It merely teaching and practicing with our students how to present their opinions and perspectives on topics. Initially student voice will be academically and focussed on teh work they do in the class, but a step further would be collecting student voice on topics outside the classroom, e.g. on the colour run, or whether we should change our uniform or not/ 

From the blog posts, it seems like most teachers took away something from the session that they could implement in their class. 

I look forward to closely following their student's posts on Seesaw to see if the information we gained today, transitions into their teaching practice. 

For myself, I will think of how I want to consciously teach my students to use their student voice to share their thinking. The meaning of a quality post slightly shifted for me. A quality post is not just on how your students present their work, but more on how they share their understanding of their learning. I want to teach my students that hitting a roadblock during our learning is a crucial part of our journey and explaining how we got around the roadblock adds value to our learning. When sharing this in our posts on Seesaw,  other students can then learn from our experiences and form their own perceptions. 

 

 Slide

Multipmodel Activties

Student-Centered Leadership by Viviane Robinson - A summary of what stood ut for m

A few things that resonated with me when reading: (my thoughts are typed in blue)

What is meant by leadership?

A common judgment of leadership is: 

1. the quality of school management - children are happy and behaved, school is orderly and how the property is looked after.

2. the relationships with adults in the system - staff, parents, district officials

3. to equate it with innovation - however, innovation practice is not necessarily predictive of student learning. Some innovations don't work and schools engaged in multiple innovations can burn staff out, create incoherence in the instructional program, and make things worse for students.

So what is leadership correctly measured as? How much formal authority you had, attraction to personal qualities (e.g. dedication, selflessness, ethic of caring or courage), and relevant expertise (offering knowledge and skills that can help others).

Not only those with formal authority over others, but also people leading from a basis of expertise, ideas, and personality or character. In summary: people who influence (which means in a school setup that could be anybody).

Being a student-centered leader is not about how qualified you are or how high the grades were that you obtained when studying, it is about using knowledge about effective teaching, teacher learning, and school organisation to make high quality administrative decisions in a school.

This made me realize that leadership is not only about the status of your appointment, but how you can use your experience and expertise to help others, demonstrating good qualities such as professionalism, dedication to the needs of the students, and selflessness.

Solving-Problems: 

If a leader wants to implement a new innovation, introduce it at a staff meeting and learn from the ensuing discussion what is important to colleagues/teachers. Through the discussions, the leader will get answers or ideas that have tension between them. Therefore it's important to critically scrutinize each idea so if for example one person sees that a new assessment will add to be a burden and overassessment, it's important that the leader asks if others feel the same way. If the claim of over-assessment survived the scrutiny, the proposed requirements stay on the table or on the list of solutions which means that something else needs to go. Leaders need to scan and encourage all participants to take responsibility for the whole problem by keeping the list of requirements in front of everyone and insisting that suggested solutions are evaluated against all of them.

This reminded me of all times I heard that you can't help people by doing things to them, I have to get them to do things with me. Implementing an idea because I think it is going to solve a certain problem and just throwing it at my colleagues, will not bring change. It is important to bring an idea to a table, get the input of my colleagues by scrutinizing it and then collaboratively decide if it is worth implementing.

Trust

Trust is built by respect (valuing ideas of others), personal regards (caring about personal and professional lives of staff e.g. meeting with a teacher for career planning and professional development purposes is likely to build trust as it signals that the leader cares), and competence (people are reliant on others to succeed in education. It's often easier to discern incompetence than high competence because signs of incompetence are more public and less ambiguous).

 Leaders are often judged on how they handle incompetence for example teachers and parents make negative judgments about a principal's incompetence when buildings are not orderly and safe and when individuals interact in a disrespectful manner. Judgment of leaders' competence is often based on how they deal with perceived incompetence in the staff for whom they are responsible. Allowed to persist, gross incompetence is highly corrosive to trust and undermines the collective effort. Leaders who are conflict avoiders or conflict escalators are unlikely to deal with competence issues in a timely and effective manner. Because school Improvement requires sustained collective effort, teachers may reduce their commitment if they judge that their leaders cannot deal with those who will wittingly or unwittingly undermine the group's effort. Integrity teachers make a judgment about whether their leaders walk the talk keep their word and resolve difficult conflicts in a principal and even-handed manner. Integrity demands resolutions that reaffirm the primary principles of the institution. Actions must be understood as advancing the best interest of children. 

To build trust leaders have to deal effectively with breaches of trust including perceived poor performance, disciplinary matters, and failure to keep agreements. Yet it is these situations that leaders struggle to deal with because they feel caught in a dilemma between addressing the issue and taking care of relationships. 

This was such an interesting piece to read. The author hit the nail on the head when she says that some leaders struggle to address issues of incompetence or non-compliance as they are caught between addressing the issue and taking care of the relationship.

We often talk about having those hard conversations, and even though I have improved so much in this regard, I still find myself postponing these conversations to the latest stage possible. However, if we had the conversations earlier, changes for the better could have been made earlier and progress could have been made. The author gave some good examples of how to approach problems in an Open-to-Learning Conversation. Avoid Soft Sell of Hard Sell conversations, as they are closed and won't lead to improvement in teaching and learning. 

The effect of quality teaching:

How instructional coherence promotes achievements. We know that exposure to multiple representations of the same idea over a relatively short period of time so a unit of work spending 10 days promotes their learning. Learning opportunities that meet these conditions are more likely to be found in instructional programs that are planned around the progression of learning objectives that are mapped onto an instructional calendar. A common instructural framework means that teachers reinforce the same ideas, use similar vocabulary for communicating those ideas, know how to make links with it with what has gone before, and are guided in their efforts by common assessments. If students learning opportunities are integrated and cumulative, rather than fragmented and rushed, students are more likely to be engaged and successful. The second reason why students learn more in coherent programs is that the teachers are learning together about how to teach the things that are supposed to be learning. 

This emphasized to me how important our collaborative planning is and managing the timeframes around it. I am often told to slow down, and sometimes I'm not 100% sure what slow down in a full-on curriculum looks like, but what the author said makes 100% sense. (see bold sentence)

Opportunities to learn: TIME

The first idea looks at is how teachers use the time allocated to particular subjects. Time can be lost waiting for the learning activity to start because students or the teachers are late, because resources are not yet available or because the transition between activities is badly managed. One indicator of quality teaching is that routines are in place to minimize such wait time.

The biggest challenge in our collaborative space is the transitions. On top of the above-mentioned reasons for time wasters, I could add, in a collaborative space, if teachers are not on the same "page" transitions can be hindered as all of a sudden some teachers are confused as to what is happening next, or time allocations are not treated with respect. Confusions around which spaces they are working in and who is Learning Couch adds even more tension in the space and wastes time.

Secondly, time can be lost through misalignment between important intended learning outcomes and the lesson activities. In a unit of work on insects for example a teacher provides multiple opportunities to learn the characteristics of insects, including an art lesson in which students are asked to be creative and use their imagination in painting the insects. The teacher provides positive feedback on this basis and makes no comments about paintings that depict creatures that are not insects. At a more mundane level, lessons activities can be misaligned because learners spend their time drawing headings, colouring diagrams, and guessing the correct answer on worksheets rather than developing the intended conceptual understanding.

Yes, I agree. If the follow-up activity is not aligned with the learning attention, the opportunity to deepen students' understanding has been missed.

Thirdly, even though the wait time is minimized,  and lesson activities and teacher feedback are carefully aligned to the outcome, students may not be engaged with activities. Students are cognitively engaged when they are actively thinking about the material. It is important that being behaviorally engaged or on task is not taken by teachers or their evaluators as equivalent to be in cognitively engaged. The latter is best assessed by asking students what they are trying to learn and how they will know when they have been successful. Cognitive engagement may be low because the material may assume prior knowledge that the students do not have, or conversely, may present ideas that students already know. Learners may be disengaged because they do not feel emotionally connected with the material, with the teacher, or both.

This is where I want to put extra focus during my planning this term. I want to make 100% sure that the students in my groups are cognitively engaged not just behaviourally engaged. Even if the initial time for cognitive engagement is short compared to being behaviourally engaged.

The fourth way in which time is lost is through persistent lack of success. Quality teaching provides learning opportunities that are not only aligned to important learning outcomes and well-matched to students' prior knowledge and interests but also designed to promote success. This doesn't mean that all failure is to be avoided, because mastering important learning outcomes often requires considerable intellectual effort and persistence, and these are qualities that teachers should nurture. A key to promoting success is early detection of student's misunderstandings because such misunderstandings subvert the learning the teacher intends the students to gain from the lesson activities,

It is important that students get the opportunities to be successful. They must experience a sense of achievement, which means that tasks should be well thought off. Will the student be able to complete the task in the allocated time frame? Will they be able to do the task by themselves or at the max with the help of a buddy? How will his/her success be celebrated or acknowledged? The student must feel that his/her work is important, somebody will be looking at it, and he/she can take pride in their efforts.

In summary, quality teaching involves maximizing the time that students spend engaged with and being successful in the learning of important outcomes. This means that leaders' judgments about the quality of teaching are based on the four aspects:

1.  the importance of the outcome being  pursued

2.  alignment of the activities and resources with the outcomes

3. The behavioral and cognitive engagement of students

4.  the student success on the outcomes. 

Digital Leadership - Feedback Term 1 in Harakeke

 Today I did a quick reflection with the Harakeke Team in order to determine if I am on the right track with my digital teaching in class. Feedback from teachers are as follow: 

What worked well: 
Starting from the start (how to log into Seesaw).

Reflecting quickly after the first few lessons (and adjusting).

Learning was spot on. 

Teachers were available to manage and support students while Alida teaches. 

Having the time during the week to practice what we learned on Monday.

Lessons were the right amount of time (30min), students were able to maintain what they learned. 

Students were able to teach each other later in the week. 

Shifts happened after each lesson.

Were the lessons helpful to the teachers? Yes, especially learning how to use captions to voice record, and creating slides with recordings. 

What did not work well?

In the last lesson (when Alida came in late) the speed of the lesson was too fast. Students could not keep up. 

(Teachers would like to have a redo on this lesson)

What could I do better? 

Extension for early finishers. 

What would you like to learn? 

Creating open-ended activities on Seesaw. 

Having rewindable videos to explain what we learned e.g how to log on, or how to create a slide.

We then spend a bit of time refreshing our memories on what we need to remember to keep our Seesaw professional:

Approve posts within 24hours

Comments or captions linked to the LI

Photos of students to be uploaded. 

Check that there are posts for all students. 

Check which parents are not connected, especially new students. 

Use folders to organise work.

This feedback was very helpful for me especially the last conversation we had around how we could use Seesaw to share our work. We scanned through some functions of Seesaw e.g. the highlighter, voice recording on a label and creating frames. This made me think of whether there is a need to look into different ways of sharing work on Seesaw. Now that everybody has a good idea of HOW to create on Seesaw, we might look into WHAT to create. 

So what?

I realise that there is value in these lessons. That I should never be late, not even 5 minutes. 

Next steps: 

Create rewindable videos on lessons already done. 

Come up with a bank of ideas on how we can share on Seesaw. How can we utilise Seesaw to make our sharing interesting. (Perhaps create a site)

Continue with lessons in class, our next focus will be on how to build digital learning into their construction inquiry. 

Digital Leadership

 As one of my goals, this term I organised an open afternoon for whanau to come and familiarise themselves with how our students find and share their work on their devices. The main reason for this was because we realised during lockdown how hard it was for parents to support their children with their work. Not all parents are confident in using digital technology. 

Michelle helped me to create a pamphlet to send home to encourage parents to come. 

We arranged it for a Friday afternoon. I thought nobody would come as it was the Friday after our whanau conferences on Wednesday but was surprised that 4 parents came. (I know some people will say, only 4? But I'm a half-full glass type of person).

It was such a successful afternoon that I am excited to have another one in term 2. 

This was our little programme: 

Students created a little Seesaw post with their parents to see how easy it is to do. 

It was great to see how engaged the students and parents were. Feedback from the parents was: 

"This was really good, thank you for inviting us"

"It was good to see how she access her work as she usually just do it on her own"

"This was very helpful, thank you". 

Things that I can do better next time: 

Make a bigger effort with promoting the afternoon. 

Share our experience with other students and encourage them to invite their parents. 

Have a little prepared activity on Seesaw available, so that they can see how they can access the video clips and templates. 

Leadership Coaching Workshop

 I had the privilege of attending a leadership coaching workshop with Roween Higgie and Tom Hullena. What stood out for me? 

The difference between mentoring and coaching, both powerful conversations for learning, but different. Each one has it's placed depending on the receiver. 

Growth Model Framework: 

Mentoring: Let's set up a goal for you. 

Coaching: Tell me about what's on top for you. What do you need to achieve? 

Mentoring: What is not going well? 

Coaching: If we think of a scale 1 - 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest, where do you think you are at towards this goal? What would it look like if you were at a 10? 

Mentoring: This is what you need to do. 

Coaching: What will you need to do to get this done? What steps can you take towards this goal? 

Mentoring: Speak to person X, they will tell you how to do it.  

Coaching: Who might you talk to? If I was a student in your class, how will I know what the goal is? 

Mentoring: I think this is a good place to start, this is the first step. 

Coaching: Looking at your options, are you going to focus on all three? What are you hoping to see when you are successful? 

Mentoring: You need to have this done by the end of the week. 

Coaching: We are meeting again in 3/4 weeks, you should have met the goal by then. I'm looking forward to hearing about your success. 

When setting up a goal, use the following framework: 

By ______________________________________

I am / have ________________________________

so that ____________________________________

e.g. By the end of week 3, I have a clear Maths planning sheet where I plan for number knowledge, group work, follow-up activities and problem-solving opportunities so that my students will get better at using different strategies to solve problems independently. 

Always remember that goals should be ISMART: Inspiring, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. 

Feedback Framework: 

Something else I found really helpful and would like to use as soon as I have the opportunity is the Feedback Framework. 

What I value in the work you do... _____________________

And it would be even better if... _______________________

Because/9or) so that... _______________________________

How do you see it? __________________________________

e.g. What I value in the work you do is that you do a great job on the facilitation and presentation of your course,  and it would be even better if you complete the paperwork and follow-up after the workshops, that will ensure our admin is accurate. How do you see it? 

Concern-based Feedback:

And finally, the concern-based framework. You will use this to address a persistent problem. E.g. I've noticed during Maths you are using mass-produced worksheets as the follow-up activities, the expectation at our school is that our students get opportunities to practice and apply their learning. How do you see it? 

This workshop was amazing, I learned so much, especially as it was all new learning for me. I'm hoping to practice this on a regular basis before I actually have to use it in a real-life situation. My next step will be to practice using it in a safe zone like my daughter or husband. Getting used to the framework and flow of the conversations. Then practice using it in our leadership team. I will ask Michelle or Gretchen to support me through this. 

Middle Management Course - Courageous Conversations

During my last middle management course, I came to the understanding that having agency is not only for students but also for teachers. Giving staff agency is the step towards empowerment which is powerful. 

Our team at school should be integrated, and have a shared understanding of what our school culture involves. We must always think of how we can engage everybody, but sometimes, when staff is non-compliant, or un-corporative, we as leaders, should draw a line in the sand, especially when it affects the students. After you have done the loop a few times of requesting, support, checking in, requesting, support, checking in etc, and things are not improving, escalate to management. 

Leading has lots of inconsistencies. Therefore we should be as restorative as possible, but if you reach the line in the sand - pull the plug. 

As part of leadership is being punitive. When you pick up the stick of leadership, you also take on the accountability that goes with it. 

Then it's time for courageous conversations. However, always take into account how it will affect their livelihood, catch yourself if the stakes are too high. 

PREPARE FOR YOUR CONVERSATION: 

Always write it down: 

1. State the issue e.g. David consistently not coming to class on time. 

2. Express your concerns - say how you feel - e.g. ....keeps me up at night...

3. Ask for others viewpoint and how they see the situation. e.g. This is my view...what do I have right or wrong - your view. 

4. Use the ladder of inference to seek clarification. e.g. let's get clarification (go through each step).

5. Use active listening placement (paraphrase) and reflective questioning. Pick about 3 or 4 up front. e.g. This is how I see it...

6. Acknowledge what you both now know as a result of your korero

..... have I missed anything. 

7. Develop a plan of action. Constructed process. 

8. Follow up and follow through...be diligent. 

9. Keep close attention to the timing of actions around nr (8). Look at what you are requesting, it should be doable. 

10. Have data at hand to work from. Tip: Write in a diary. Use invitational language as much as possible w.r.t the above. Consistency leads to integrity and credibility. Consider collegial or other supports as necessary (both them and you). Ensure the plan is documented, signed off and achievable. Act quickly at post planning, however, be mindful of natural justice.  Document, document, document!

Try to avoid sh...t sandwich technique. Don't flower it up. This will give the wrong message on how important the issue is. 

So what: 

I found this workshop extreamly informative. Although I realise that there will certainly be lots of times that I will have to have a courageous conversation with a colleague in my career, I am hoping that it will not be needed often. 

ESOL Strategies Rm 1

I have had the opportunity to introduce some ESOL strategies in Room 1. Our first strategy was Running Dictation which is a listening and speaking strategy. Especially good for practising new vocabulary, spelling or even phrases. The students really enjoyed it and everybody participated. In our initial trial, we used adjectives to enhance their writing.

When playing it the second time, I realised that this game might be a bit hard for students with dyslexia and/or reading impairments. Therefore it will be good if the teacher stands close to the words and supports students that have reading difficulties, by doing this, it includes them in the game and set them up for success.

The second strategy I introduced was Say It which is a speaking strategy. The students work in small groups and get a chance to ask a question to anybody of their choice in the group. The person answers the question, they can then choose the question he/she wants to ask next and to whom. In this way, they can read a question that they already heard or a new question. I chose the topic of kindness to make the really low in context while introducing the game. The students enjoyed it and all participated eagerly.

The next activity that I introduced was Think, Pair, Share. 

This is a quick easy activity to use during any discussions to encourage sharing ideas and listening to your buddy. Students had to think for a minute before discussing it with their buddy and then shared what their buddy said. It was interesting to see who was able to report back on what their buddy said.

The last activity for this term was Shared Dictation. In this activity, two students sit back to back, each person gets a few sentences and takes turns to dictate to the other. They have to mention where the punctuation has to go. If they get stuck on a word, their partner can spell it out. I was good to see everybody participating in and completing the task.

I am looking forward to seeing these strategies used in room 1 and to see if it supports acceleration in writing. 

Te Whai Toi Tangata Workshop2

During our workshop last week we looked at different models to implement change under the heading of "Leading, enabling, managing sustainable change".
Leading - your dispositions and actions
Enabling - whether you embrace it or co-create
Managing - managing it - get to grow it
Sustainable - how to keep it sustained.

Different models we looked at are:
Stairway of successful innovations: in this model, it is key to focus on the initial 3 key ideas. If one is missing, the model has the potential to fail.

The implementation Dip: Where initiatives have their own life cycle.

Innovation Adoption Life Cycle: In the model, it is important that you get an understanding of people and where they fit. Get data. Eventually, it becomes too uncomfortable to be on the "wrong" side of the curve and shifts will happen. 

The Process of Transitions: In this model, you get an understanding of what demotivates people.

The model that I am most familiar with is The Process Of Transitions = the learning pit. It was good to see why people opt out of change and why it is important to understand the people you are working with and which model will suit your school the best.

A fantastic resource to invest in is Learning Talk by Joan Dalton. 

Te Whai Toi Tangata Workshops

I have had the privilege to attend the Twilight Middle Leaders workshop presented by David Bradford. It was a full-on session with lots of practical ideas and 
guidance as to how to be a good leader. 

Here are some of the main points that stood out for me: 
- Allow people to talk - fairness is key. Don't share war stories. 
- If you go into a debate too soon, it is the loudest person that is heard first. 
- Start with dialogue, before discussion and/or debate. 
- The foundation for how we communicate is the school culture will influence
how we communicate. What are our shared understandings, the ways in which 
we engage e.g. giving the agenda out in advance. Riding the boundary - 
knowing when to do what - asking things like what is a priority - not just 
accepting things thrown at you. 
- Having a professional agency - where there are restorative practices and difficult
conversations. 
If colleagues are not doing what they are asked, start a conversation like this e.g.
"We've had this conversation before..." I have to ensure that I have my dates and 
data aligned, and have my facts straight. Work through the issue. If you don't, 
come to an agreement, shake hands and park things. 

This linked in with my initial appraisal meeting. My goals as a leader this year is to 
have a bank of tools so that I can make informed decisions about the best course of
action. 

So what:
I have to filter when colleagues ask me for help, is this something they can solve themselves, or is it something I need to help them with.
Research tools and put them to practice. Test and try.
Learn to prioritize in order to make deadlines.