System Leadership Development

Thursday 6 October 2016

Southern Cross Vocational College

Design for Learning: Space, Technology and Learning

Greg Swanson

Learning Intentions:

• To understand the connection between space and Authentic Learning 
• To develop system-wide terminology to support that understanding 
• To critique the model to enhance its effectiveness as a system resource  

Primordial Metaphors:

                   Camp fires                                          Water holes                                         Caves

Leading Agile Learning

Cathy Young- Our Lady of the Assumption (Principal)

How pedagogy influences the design principles for contemporary learning spaces:

• Catholic
• student centred
• embracing the community
• inspiring
• holistic learning
• safe

Frances Stewart - St Columba's North Leichhardt (Principal)

John Finneran - Newman College, Perth (Principal)

• Faith and Learning (dual moral purpose)
• vision for learning
• Educational brief

Steve Gough - All Saints Catholic College, Liverpool

The importance of exploring spatial literacy in the recruitment process.

New Learning Environments
Emma Marshall

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LEAP CONFERENCE part 4

LEAP Conference 2016

Sydney Masonic Centre

Creating and sustaining effective PLCs in your school

Developing inquiry and sustained learning communities

Julie halbert and Linda Kaser

"Spirals of Inquiry" 2014 with Helen Timperly 

Sitting is the new smoking - make sure you move around! Sitting for more than 20 minutes or longer - can shorten your life!

There is "magic" in collaboration.

What does it take to develop and sustain inquiry learning communities?

How can we use the "pull" of curiosity as opposed to the push of policy

How can we use the notion of hard goals to collaborate?

Can evidence informed inquiry process help us to achieve our goals?

What action can you take immediately?

PULL of curiosity " professional curiosity is important because..." The hungry mind - Susan Ingle

Teachers who smile at kids had kids that are more curiosity! It causes a PULL

Teachers who talk about their own passions, that motivated children to ask more questions.

Value the question... Encouraging curiosity is important.

Give and Go - Why is intellectual curiosity a good thing? It's important because it... Broadens our horizons...opens up the world....

How do we create conditions for ADULT CURIOSITY so that we can reach high. High quality and high equity for all learners.

Funding levels in Aust seem generous compared to other countries- take advantage of this

Quality of conversation and focus is so important.

HARD goals are important H- eartfelt, A- inmates, R-equired, D-ifficult

These are way more motivating than smart goals- they are gutsy!

Every learner crosses the stage - moving from school to life with dignity,purpose and options.

What motivates you and the staff you work with?

All learners leaving our schools with more curiosity than when they arrive

Are we creating the learning environments that a not only maintain curiosity but encourage more curiosity 

All learners with an understanding of and respect for an indigenous worldview.

Mindset- CAROL DWECK - underpins all the work that we do. 

teachers are not motivated by goal setting of the politicians- 

If you design a half hour session (2-3 top ups throughout the year) on growth mindset- that can really help young people survive education.

Principals lead Growth mindset classes within their school. 

YET is so powerful- "you haven't learnt that skill YET,"

Needs to be supported effectively- but mindset and hard goals work when placed together to challenge the assumptions about how kids learn.

We can learn how to interrupt the fixed mindsets for our students and staff.

WHY INQUIRY.

WHY NOW?

New Zealand - big investments and big improvements- then program was cancelled. What was the impact?

Expert facilitators were utilised and staff sustained the new strategies even without the funding. The staff who were continuing to inquire and further develop their skills and strategies  were making even greater impact on students learning.

Effective systems: commonalities-

Inquiry based

Collaborative

Coherent

Professionally  led

Takes place over time.

Spirals of inquiry are spreading. (Refugee camp in Kenya supported by spirals of inquiry)

what s going on for our learners?

How do we know?

Why does this matter?

LEAP CONFERENCE 3

LEAP Conference 2016

Sydney Masonic Centre

Creating and sustaining effective PLCs in your school

PLCs NSW DET- principals are grouped purposefully by leaders

How do we as school leaders, open the eyes of our political leaders to the real PLCs that are required in schools.

 Teachers need to have a voice and pursue them as a professional group.

We have to show that we make a difference  and "shout out" our success - proving to politicians that we are capable of shaping education policy.

How are we represented? We are divided in many ways 62 principal associations. Start saying that we are accountable to make a difference

Teacher associations have been established to defend the industrial relations of schools - where are the representatives who lobby the professional practice.

Theory and practice: how do we remain organic in developing PLCs but also remain focused on whole school goals - fine balance what does it look like in schools?

Standardisation and reforms have not delivered the results the accountability can be run into the ground.

As a profession is to balance the prescription with the laize fare approach.

Plc can be used as school improvement- starting with a structure, process to be followed, on an understanding that it can be flexible and adaptive to the improvement on students learning.

The miso level- rich network of partnership and connections. Not top down, bottom up or middle.

How do standards work within prof dev?

Managing people, building capacity - research tells us that teachers don't resist support - but schools have not supported processes that actually mobilise staff to feel safe to take chances in their practice to test if they can help make a difference to their students.

What's behind the resistance- usually it is fear- how do we chunk it so staff feel supported to succeed.

John Hattie says that he finds that expert teachers do not want to be "disrupted" how do we encourage expertise to be shared? How are they privileged?

How do we onboard new graduates?

More collaborative, they are used to work in and learning from each other.

The lead teachers are energised with new graduates.

Teacher PL needs to be differentiated.

Teachers are the best critique's.. If you are not asking questions, co- planning, co- teach, critique - that is PLCs. We need to change from we can run our school and teach as we wish, to we have a right to collaborate and measure our impact.

Collective therapy that we trust and can challenge us and differ from our opinion - the hard edge is essential 

Parent engagement- how do they feel about innovation and change in schools?

Sense of desperation from parents- something is wrong with my child but the school is not helping

Maybe it's time to reeducate parents on learning- they do not know what we are as a profession - how do we help parents know what learning looks like?

LEAP CONFERENCE part 2

LEAP Conference 2016

Sydney Masonic Centre

Creating and sustaining effective PLCs in your school

Thinking differently: Professional Learning Communities

- Prof. Alma Harris, Assoc. Prof Michelle Jones

I 

PLCSs in action - (Harris and jones 2011)

We need to focus on the right things

PLCs when effective absolutely make a difference

Teachers cannot just self combust into PLCs - a model and MO needs to be utilised and understood by participants. Norms/ guidance assist effectiveness.

Time to think differently.- PLCs have been "done" change for change sake--- but we need to take time and NOT change policies quickly.

Organisation learning

Individual learning

Students learning is paramount.

How do PLCs have impact how will we know?

IMPACT comes first - " if I do this, what difference is it going to make to students?"

What does this mean for my school? - how do I support the operational side?

Authentic Change?

PL today is ineffective, it neither changes teacher practice nor improves student learning - so what does?

Effective PL focuses on student learning

Concentrate on the pedagogical behaviours and practices of teachers

Enable teachers to enquirer into practice in order to improve practice.

HOW? prof collaboration is increasingly being viewed as a powerful strategy for improving students learning- John Hattie 2009

The most effective teachers and leaders commit to their own learning first and then support the pl of others. ( connect to learn: Learn to connect Harris and jones)

OECD 2016- 

teachers need time to develop discuss absorb and practice new knowledge.

Activities need to be sustained and intensive rather than sporadic.

The outcome must be - students learning improvement- that's it!

Teachers working together nicely and learning is a PROCESS- not the outcome

PLCs - the confusion 

Whole school - difficult to really evidence the impact

School Teams- must get this model and collaboration effective within the school first.

School networks- very effective , but only when school teams are working effectively!

What if your staff do not want to collaborate? 

Start with the staff that want to work in a PLC - you will never get 100%, but when you have a good core, schools can make a difference. 

Non negotiable a for PLCs

start with evidence - data

Teacher learning connects and impacts on students learning

PLC teams engage in 'disciplined collaborative enquiry'

Distributed leadership is enacted in PLCs

Commitment, collaboration 

Capabilities

Y

COLLABORATION 

What does it look like?

Engagement, purposeful, data, together, 

What does it sound like?

Respectful, honest, feedback, professional stem net not personal statement, everyone gets a say, 

What does it feel like?

Trust, valued, positive, supported, safe, challenged, responsible, energised, liberated

HOW?

 Ground rules, shared beliefs, taking the focus off the teaching and make the focus students learning. It's not about the teacher "fault" but the students gain/ improvement.

Where do you want the student learning to be at the end? How can we tap into the collective capabilities of the members of the team?

What do PLCs do?

Where do you start?

Who 'owns the PLC.

What is a good focus of enquiry?

How do you measure impact? This comes at the beginning and comes agin at the end?

Question of enquiry

Start with data-  What are we doing very well. - how do we share it?

What do you need to improve? 

Begin with the end in mind.

What does it look like?

Structures, roles, teams, collaborative ways of working.

Building leadership capacity- skills or teams first? Both? 

Avoid story swapping, sharing practice, more powerful to move towards research teams

Innovation and change 

Trailing and feedback ( what action does it mean for the group?) what worked what didn't work what was confusing what was clear?

LEAP CONFERENCE- Wednesday 3 August 2016

LEAP Conference 2016

Sydney Masonic Centre

Creating and sustaining effective PLCs in your school

Chairperson: Maxine Mckew

"Class Act" case study of 6 Australian schools.

We learn from each other - benefits start to flow when we spread knowledge about effective practice - leading to confident students.

What we think we know - may not always work- we need a temperament to be adaptive, open to improve and change.

Professor John Hattie - Chair of AITSL

Professional Learning Communities - caution- they have been around for a little while.. Govt have taken on and realised that educators are doing this naturally- but it can be taken over and abused

We have an opportunity to be clear of the specifics.

Identify the teachers who are growing students and inviting other staff to learn from them.

Communities listen to YOU - talk it up and reeducate your community to know that your hard work is making a difference.

Avoid the politics of distraction they don't make a difference

Labelling children has a - .61 negative as soon as a students is identified teachers have an "excuse" for the lack of growth in the year.

Technology is not impacting on students growth.

Argument is that I'd "teachers see learning through the eyes of the student and when students themselves as their own teachers.

When we run PLCs - stop looking at another app- ask for evidence of impact on student growth.

How do we scale up great impact

Study success - why is that teacher having an impact, how do teachers learn from these amazing practisers- what are they doing that is making a difference.

Privilege teachers with the opportunity to ask for help in a particular area.

Five year olds are wondErful teachers, by the time they are eight they know that they need to attended school to "watch" the teacher work.

Teachers working together as evaluator of impact is the biggest difference to students to learning.

Explicit success criteria

Errors and trust are are welcomed as opportunities to learn

Maximise feedback

Right proportion of surface to deep lessons

The goldilocks principles of challenge/ deliberate practice- not too high not too low - the balance right.

What makes a difference?

Bring along a piece of work and compare are it to a sample 3 months later... What has changed? Why/ why not?

How do we move the debate from how we like to teach to what makes impact?

I collaborate- judgements of teachers in a school 

Success and privilege them

See success in schools like theirs

Persuaded credible and trustworthy persuaders

Affective stays feelings of excitement and satisfaction

Subjective norms- beliefs that in this school we cause learning

Teacher, curricula, teaching,student, school, home.

What can we do to help you. Wouldn't it be nice and recognise our existence, recognise our work, recognise our impact.

Teacher expertise, school leader expertise, teacher education expertise, professional learning expertise.

Teacher educators - Put the evidence on the table that your graduates can make an impact on student learning.

Number 1 influence on student learning - collective teacher efficacy!

TEACHER EFFICACY

belief of ones own ability to promote positive change for students

High expectations are essential

Collective efficacy - belief of teachers about collective ability to promote successful student outcomes within their school.

It relates to: 

Evaluating current practice

Seeing impact as function of teaching

High expectations

Decreasing disruptive behaviour 

Educating parents 

Responsive to leaderships 

Monitoring impact

Helping teams get and interpret feedback

COPLAN

CO-EVALUATE

CO-ANALYSE

CO-REFLECT

We learn more when we ask students to identify their own learning needs.

KNOW THY IMPACT!

evaluation capacity building - SO WHAT IS THE IMPACT?

Progress to achievement- 

NAPLAN - intriguing you are not working to make a difference to scores - your job is to make a years growth for a years education!

Implementing Creative Arts and student choice within the Religious Education Classroom.

Self Reflection, Classroom Observation and Feedback

Thursday 24 March 2016

  

Integrating Creative Arts and the Religious Education curriculum is an effective tool to assist students to gain greater understanding of our Sacred stories and for students to exercise their creative talents to express their understanding of Scripture. 

Educators often find it difficult to create opportunities for students to "inquire" and express their own "voice" to their learning. This REC asked for feedback on the effectiveness in integrating these two strategies, student voice and dramatic devices. 

 This lesson utilised dramatic devices of "freeze frame" to reflect the Stations of the Cross. The "statues" created by the students were effective, moving and reverent and truly expressed the mood, tone and understanding of this most sacred form of prayer. 

Engaging in this self Reflection process has been beneficial for the REC and has assisted their leadership skills to implement a similar process within their own school context, to lead beginning teachers in reflecting on their own practice, particularly when teaching RE.

Reflection Process

Utilising Vocabulary Strategies within the RE Classroom

Self Reflection, Classroom Observation and Feedback

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Religious Education teachers work very hard to provide students the opportunities to access their faith traditions and beliefs from our Sacred Texts. the challenge that teachers face is assisting students to really comprehend the teachings of Scripture when students themselves are unable to recognise the complex language that is used within the bible stories. 

Through this Self Reflection Process, the REC asked me to provide feedback on her lesson that was specifically designed to unpack identified tier three words from Scripture for 8 year old students to understand and apply in their work. The identified words included "crucifix, sentenced, tomb" 

Throughout this lesson, the REC gave students the opportunity to access their prior knowledge of the Holy week and Easter stories by providing images that the students recognised. Using a barrier game, it was evident hat students had difficulty describing the image as they did not have an understanding of the particular tier 3 vocabulary. E.g One student described the tomb as " a big cave"

The REC then helped the students identify and explicitly teach the new vocabulary. Giving students a further opportunity to practice this new vocabulary using a Adobe Voice app on the ipad, it was evident that students had increased their knowledge and understanding of the Scripture passage and of their religious literacy. 

The REC had clear goals for further implementation of vocabulary strategies in RE , particularly as part of a shared reading session using Scripture.

Self Reflection Process