Current and Desired Reality

My current reality is pretty much where I hoped it would be when I sat down to this task just over 12 months ago. We are a team that takes turns at leading and looking out for each other. We let others know when we are in the 'pit' and how we can be supported to work our way out of it. 


The current reality does not need to be a bad place just a point of time to be aware of which will help me move forward and improve what I do day to day as a leader in our school. 

The aspects of my current reality that I am not so fond of are the systems that need to be worked through (hence the blue clipboard and the green list) and my role in ICT/ eLearning at the moment. The latter is something I am absolutely passionate about, however my pedagogical beliefs about the place of devices and their impact on learning are instead consumed by contract agreements, technical issues and setting up of new devices.

The increase of devices is being warmly welcomed and used to their potential but I feel a real need to slow everybody down and ensure that collectively we are on the same page. It is the beliefs that need to have time spent on them. We have one approach to this landing and it is always easier to take the lid off than put it back on.... 

A detailed description of my realities can be described as this:

In the left, top and right borders are sentences that reinforce our vision and values. These need to be visible in our culture and evident in our day to day practice. In the bottom border is what was my one sentence job description from 2015. This formed my daily measure as a leader... if I got nothing else done in a day, had I " built capacity, provoked thinking and maximised potential"? To have all of these phrases cognitively portable helps me to walk the talk each day. 

Current Reality:

At the core of everything we have done over the past year has been the development of a collective construction and understanding of our beliefs and principles. We have constructed BPPs for everything including systems, the physical environment, relationships and philosophical. The sun in my image is rising because the practices you see at our school are clearly reflecting our shared beliefs and principles.

The mountain climbers symbolise the teams that in and the fact that different people will be seen taking the lead. We are okay letting others know when we are in the 'pit' and will seek support/ support each other at different times. The lone climber looking lost and confused represents the nine new staff that have joined us this year. We need to keep an eye out for them and ensure they are not 'left behind'.It is really important that they are supported by the foundation team so that they 'own' some of the work that has already been done. 

The blue clipboard and the green list illustrate the fact that I find myself 'managing' more than I would like to. I often feel consumed by resourcing and the set up stage. As for the iPad and computer... frustration that I have has to negotiate to actually get the ICT agreements that we signed last year, actioned and functioning. In the meantime, this has taken my time away from supporting teachers to introduce the BYOD programme and use of the Google domain.

That's the juggle of management vs leading and I hope that gets easier as we move into our second cycle.

The Desired Reality

This year I want to take time to really reflect on my leadership and develop an understanding of others' perceptions about my leadership. The binoculars represent the fact that I want to be able to see the big picture and also be forward thinking as a leader. I also want to be able to 'zoom in' so that I have a good awareness of the individuals in the team, their performance and their well-being. 

The kind of leader I want to be is one that helps to grow and support a culture that is successful, determined and has a collective vision. I want the vision to be obvious to those who visit our school no matter who they talk to... The images in the binoculars reflect what this will look like...

1. The chain of people represents a united and engaged team.
2. The hats on their heads illustrate the structure and clarity in our organisation. This includes roles and responsibilities and the fact that we will all have a turn at leading.
3. The map indicates the direction we are heading.
4. Green and blue people show the trust that we need to have each other reciprocally, the accountability we have to the rest of our team.
5. The green line shows that we are on an upward trajectory overall but that this will not always be linear. The dips in the line are there to remind me of the need for me to be able to inspire and energise in order to maintain that upward trajectory. 
6. The red and blue people show the need for on-going dialogue, transparency, timely/ authentic feedback that develops and empowers. 

The 3 Great Steps:

These are the 'indicators' or the steps I need to maintain to become the leader I want to be and are based on my "action plan":

1. To improve my leadership, I need to journal the journey and reflect on my successes, failures and challenges.
2. I need to regularly seek feedback and perspective about my leadership (, reflect on it, journal it and determine actions).
3. Celebrate successes and grow capacity in others by way of a robust, authentic appraisal system which emphasises improving not proving.

Thinking about Thinking

How we think is the essence of learning. The school's graphic for our "Thinking" value has four cogs because thinking is 

1. creative, 
2. critical, 
3. reflective and 
4. metacognitive. 

To develop a thinking culture it is important that thinking is 

• on-going, visible and audible in our learning spaces. We model this as adults in our well established culture of asking the 'why'.
• the culture allows for transparency which allows for reflective thinking that is open and honest. 
• the process of learning is a focus for each of our learners which leads to increased self awareness. 

How do we model thinking especially metacognition? Metacognition monitors, evaluates, and regulates our thinking.  It is important that children learn that they can analyse their thinking techniques they are using. Do they know that they can the strategies being used suit the learner? I wonder if this is key to developing "agency" and truly "self-regulating" learners? 

Modelling metacognition out loud can also help children to understand how to monitor the clarity and accuracy of their knowledge and thinking. Modelling is key and takes time out of the learning experiences. 

The way we learn information is determined by the processes that we put in place if you are analysing our thought process helps us to achieve a higher level of mastery. 


Teaching information/ learning to others helps reinforce and consolidate learning. This reinforces the concept of Tuakana/ Teina. 

I believe that there is a need to slow down the learning experiences to help children to use metacognition. This naturally leads itself into 'reflection' and paves the way for children to set their learning goals and to monitor their own progress towards meeting those goals. 

As we begin down the path of "Communicating Learning", I believe we need to ensure that we are giving thinking the time and coaching that it requires to help us develop our culture of learning. This takes time and we need to ensure that all stakeholders know and value the time that is needed to talk about learning. 

Innovation and Creativity

As we begin our second year, I am wondering about how we could go about establishing an innovative and creative culture. I believe this takes energy but also out it will come more energy.

Sir Ken states that creativity can be planned for systematically. He makes the point that we need to make innovation a habit and systematic. How can creativity be planned for systematically in schools like literacy and maths?

To be interested in innovation, we need to nurture imagination. Being creative is the process off putting the imagination to work. Often the idea that is ended up with is most likely not the idea that was at the start of the process. Some ideas are highly imaginative but useless.

The definition of creativity is.... the process of having original ideas that have value.

What processes can we put in place?

2015: Learning to Lead

DESIRED REALITY

3 GREAT STEPS

1. Focus on our vision: make this transparent.
2. Establish and develop relationships.
3. Build a collaborative environment that engages the community. 

ONE SENTENCE; EVERYDAY

"...Very supportive... when Ben asks you 'how do you know you've grown' say 'look at Muireann!' She believes in herself now and that is HUGELY down to you and your support...but you have grown so many other people too! and the school culture! and a huge amount of trust from others - and your provoking skills are impeccable! As for feedback -  I'll need time to think about that one..."

SPS CRITERIA

My Job Description

AP Responsibilities

An Attempt at Goals in March but it was a real case of I didn't know what I didn't know... I would like to put some real thought into what these goals look like in 2016 with Ben and Helen in the new year. 

And... then... You wonder if you are bringing what you said you would to the position when you applied... And also the realisation that the bar is rising.... 

"I believe I could contribute to the leadership team at Shotover Primary School because I am a collaborative and connected educator. I am a passionate about teaching and learning and would bring a reflective approach to teaching and learning at the school. I would bring a proactive response to the needs of the children, their families, the teachers and the wider community. I constantly strive to implement high quality teaching programmes based on effective pedagogy and am very aware of the diverse needs of not only the learners but the teachers I am working with, also.

I would contribute to the team by:

• bringing a proactive response to scenarios as opposed to reacting
• having relational awareness: ensuring my availability, valuing others
• knowing the community and their expectations
• seeking mentoring and promoting the sense of AKO within the school
• ensuring that my practice is current, reflective, changing to meet the needs and the environment
• being aware of the big picture approach ie. strategic
• walking the talk
• having a professional focus on learning

Lastly, I believe that reflection really is a signature of my practice. My professional blog might give some insight into my professional reflection and growth over the past few years."

Concept, 2016

The purpose of our professional learning session today was to come up with the macro concept for 2016. and to begin thinking about the Big Question so that we are ready to take this a bit further with Julia Atkin in January.

We spent some time: Thinking and Deciding, Refining - What is Concept?   

A clarifying discussion was held.  Is this kid friendly terminology?

Reminder that the concept is the large umbrella but the Big Ideas need to be portable so that the mentors can access this when the opportunity/need arises.

Using Pam Hooks Macro Conceptual ideas, we investigated and shared ideas to the group.  This was done in the true sense of Google collaboration on slides with no allocated tasks. Ideas were added to the slides so that we have a collective understanding of the concepts and a resource to refer back to.

Groups were then asked to 'pitch' (or not) the concepts they had researched. Decision making followed, using the 10 counter vote system.  The winning concept …………. Movement.

Nagged

I believe a significant part of my leadership role is to be able to implement the NAGs in a meaningful way in the day to day running of learning programmes. 

The Board has an overall responsibility to ensure that the school is running competently but at the end of the day, the SLT are probably more likely to lead. 

This is especially so for NAGs 1 - 3.  This is my breakdown after re-visiting the NAGs. It includes a breakdown of each NAG and potential direction which are very much open for discussion and challenge! 

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Teaming

What is the difference between a team and a group of people working well together? There is a belief that teamwork will lighten the load or make things happen faster. We have realised that is not quite so...

“Real teams perform- they are not amorphous groups that we call teams because we think the label is motivating and energising” 

Katzenbach and Smith - "The Wisdom of Teams"

In a session with Tony Burkin last term I became quite alarmed when he announced to the room that "one of the myths is that teachers like to collaborate". I felt incredibly uncomfortable about this statement but it is this statement that has forced me to keep thinking and digging into what it really means to be a team and what collaboration needs to look like.

There are a number of reasons that teams actually underperform. These include (according to Burkin):

• no clearly defined explicit purpose (They exist because they are all about raising student achievement)
• People mistakenly believe teams working together harmoniously are better and more productive.  We've all been in one of those meeting where a new idea or concept is introduced as non-negotiable because "the SLT has decided..."
• Newness is a liability. Crikey, what does this mean for us as a new school with new teams and new groups coming together? This makes me realise the sense of urgency to foster professional relationships as well as social relationships.
• Complacency - there is no room for deviants as it creates mediocrity in a team.

Working groups come together to share information, share perspectives and insights, make decisions to help each other. The focus was always on individual goals and accountabilities. Workers don’t take responsibility for results other than their own. Working groups are prevalent in our schools. They are great place to be and I have worked with some great groups of people. But they have not been teams.

Teams go beyond group discussions and sharing information. In a team there will be dialogue about performance standards. There will be debates and it will feel comfortable enough to have open ended conversations. The role of the leader is to foster that open and honest dialogue so that the beliefs of the team are collective and the practices reflect what the team has defined as important. The desired outcome is clear to all. This common commitment distinguishes a group of workers from a team. Without it groups perform as individuals. With a common commitment, teams will hold each other accountable for their performance in a trusting and transparent culture.

Reflection: How can our teams articulate their common commitment and use this to evaluate their effectiveness?

No group can ever become a team until it can hold itself accountable as a team. It’s the difference between "the boss holding me accountable" to "we hold each other to account".

Our common commitment is to cause learning… Do our discussions reflect this?

Why Blog?

Blogging is a form of professional journalling for me. It is a time that I endeavour to be analytical about my practice and development. It involves me using critical analysis, evaluation and synthesising. 

This is a shift for me. When I began blogging it was simply a professional diary which was sequence oriented. The latter has proven to be great way to look back on and see my growth over time and the journey of the educator that I have become. Having said that; it is the deep thinking out loud on the blogging platform that is strengthening my own understanding of my beliefs and values which ultimately impact on my practices which in turn means that my daily actions/ practices reflect my beliefs and that of our school. 

Each time I blog, I am endeavouring to articulate my thoughts and new learning. My posts overtime are becoming much more evaluative, synthesising and reflective. The mere fact that each post might be read by people who know me and people who don't causes me to really think about what I record and to ensure that it does in fact reflect my walk... I need to walk this talk!

I don't write for an audience so why don't I simply record my thoughts in a journal or lock down the blog? The fact that is public means that I am being transparent which is a key attribute to leadership in my mind. It also means that my reflections are relevant, timely and purposeful.

Another reason to blog is that it easily ticks off PTC 12. (See below)

Having said that I don't write for an audience, there have been some posts that I would have valued discussion on....

PTC #12.  use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice

i. systematically and critically engage with evidence and professional literature to reflect on and refine practice ii. respond professionally to feedback from members of their learning community iii. critically examine their own beliefs, including cultural beliefs, and how they impact on their professional practice and the achievement of ākonga

Term 3

This has been what I consider my biggest year yet professionally. To even try to describe briefly the personal and professional growth that I have experienced as a part of the SLT opening a new school feels impossible. This short post cannot even touch on the depth of growth and the challenges that we have faced this year. 

I have been grateful for the fact that the school is still being built around us. It was very much a construction site when we gained access 4 days before opening and it has slowly opened up as different parts of the site are completed. We open to Years 5-8 next year when we fully open. The gym, DATs room and the music suite will be completed next April. This has helped me to form a great metaphor for this year. 2015 has been about building the foundations of our school. We have forced ourselves to really slow down and develop our collective beliefs about absolutely everything from the way that we communicate to our beliefs about assessment and our appraisal systems. Out of these beliefs, we've developed the principles and our practices. The latter will change as long as they reflect our beliefs. It is the beliefs that are building our school. 

I have struggled with my role and to be honest I have experienced a certain amount of grief with the shift from pipeline 2 to pipeline 3. Moving out of the learning environment into a walking leadership role was hard to begin with. I felt that I was walking away from my passion for teaching and learning and working with children. Instead directing my energy into the children it is the mentors/teachers that I am now coaching. It has taken quite a bit of shift in my thinking to adapt to this role but I am finally finding my niche. 

The fact that everything is new and a blank canvas for us to work on has been sometimes daunting but also empowering. It's not very often you do something for the first time everyday in a school and this has given us permission to really challenge what we have always done and rethink everything with one word - "WHY?"

The areas that I have really enjoyed rethinking include reporting which we are referring to as "Communicating Learning" and appraisal. I like the fact that we don't believe learning is an event that happens twice a year and that we are really challenging ourselves and our community to re-think what this can look like. The SPS teacher criteria that Helen and I worked on last year seem to fit with the environment that we are working in and link to the PRT. I wonder if others look back on their current reality and desired reality that they compiled in January as much as I do. Have we helped them enough to develop and work on their 3 bold steps to achieve their desired reality? How close are they to their desired reality? I am looking forward to reflecting on this process next term when we work together and reflect on our first year and our individual growth.

I have had some major revelations this year including the following:

• relationships are key and these take time in a new school. This has been our major investment this year at the expense of things that I might have thought were priority this time last year. 
• don't make assumptions.
• we all arrive from a threshold that was our previous school.
• good communication is key - people speak in words but see in pictures.

Each of these revelations has been key to help me develop as a leader and find my way more securely into pipeline 3. I thought we would be further ahead with eLearning but to grow our collective capacity has required the development of the culture at our school. Relationships, communication, transparency and a collective vision are vital to our move forward.