Book Review

Changing Our Secondary Schools by Bali Haque

I really enjoyed this educational theory book, especially because this is written by a kiwi, who has worked in the New Zealand system and understands the changes specifically in the New Zealand educational system.  

Bali Haque is a well known figure in the New Zealand educational community being a former principal Pakuranga and Rosehill Colleges, President of the Secondary Principals' Association, deputy chief of NZQA and an executive member of the PPTA.  In recent years he has worked in Rarotonga.  

In Changing Our Secondary Schools Bali has analysed the major changes to the New Zealand Education system over the last three decades.  It is easy to see the level of change our sector has been subjected too.  I enjoyed his summaries and gained from seeing these changes from a management/strategic point of view.  My experiences have been predominantly as a teacher this book helped me see some of the logic behind the theory.  

Bali is highly critical mostly of implementation of the policies rather than the specific policies themselves.  Highlighting the compromises built upon compromises resulting in some avoidable problems.  He focuses much of his criticism on the divisions (and conflict) that exist in New Zealand secondary schooling systems.  

In the second half of the book Bali takes deliberate aim at many sacred cows in the system.  He has strong ideas which can be summarised as incendiary.  Paying excellent teachers 'excellence units', aiming to remove incompetent (and marginally competent) teachers from the ranks, making all but five weeks of holidays an expectation for teachers to be onsite, raising the entry requirement for teacher training a masters qualification, removing the focus from extra curricular, to name a few.  

On the issue of collective professionalism Bali writes "It is important to serious address the problem of incompetent and mediocre teachers... teaching is too important a profession to tolerate free riders and level high flyers unrewarded.".  

I would recommend Changing Our Secondary Schools to teachers who are new to NZ (as it gives some excellent background information about how we got here), teachers who have a mind for the politics of schooling, senior management (as much of the change lies with them).  It is an easy reading book and one that had me thinking late into the night.  

This post relates to RTC #12 - "Engaging with professional literature and reflecting on ones practice".

  

Professional Learning Groups

PLG's First Half of Year

All the staff here at the college have now started their Professional Learning Groups for the first half of 2015 (until July).  We have seven groups up and operational.

Here is a list of which teachers are in which groups...

Here are the links to the web addresses of the PLG's blogsites...

1. Google Apps
2. Mimio
3. Te Reo and Tikanga
4. DEEP Planning
5. Friends Project
6. Flipped Classrooms

The intent of all of our PLGs is about collaboration and professional development.  It is also an opportunity for you as a professional operate with a degree of autonomy in your learning.

Collaborative - The idea is that you take people with you in your learning (sometimes you will lead other times  you will shown).  It is about recognising that those in this learning group share an interest in developing their practice around the same topic.

Development - The time you spend together working on your topic should ultimately add to the quality of your classroom relations and practices.  You will be expected to journey through with others (some will be at different stages of development)... but ultimately you'll want to get some tangible benefits from joining this group.


Rules of Belonging to Waihi College PLG

1. Get Involved.  Teachers often feel that professional development is something that is done to them.  The freedom of belonging to a PLG is to have a degree of autonomy.  You can take your learning where you want (especially where you feel you have the greatest benefit).  
2. Respect Others.  This should be a given but worth remembering.  Traditionally teaching is an isolated profession and some staff may feel reluctant to share.  Having a group with a high degree of respect is vital.  
3. Start ASAP - Please break the ice with your fellow teachers in your group.  Holding off will make it harder to get involved.  Set a good bench mark for the group.  
4. Engage With RTC's.  The next five months will provide you with plenty of opportunity to reflect upon the 12 registered teacher criteria.  Take some time to engaged for 10 mins a fortnight with these.  
5. Implement.  Lots of the topics of the PLGs this cycle are ideas.  There will be plenty of time to talk, debate and theorise about the topic.  But nothing beats trying things out.  Waihi College is a school of innovation, we genuinely encourage  you to try new things (mistakes are welcome). 
6. Feedback with Others.  This is a collective learning experience.  Let your group members know what it is your trying.  Let them know how things are going.  

This post relates to RTC #5. "Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning i. actively contribute to the professional learning community." And RTC #12. "Use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice."

 

Latest Staff Books

Educational Reading Books.

Here are some new titles that we've added to our staff catalogue.  Please do take the time to have a read of any of these (school holidays are coming up which will give you some time).

I would greatly appreciate it if you can review any of these titles for other staff.

This post relates to RTC #12 - "Engaging with professional literature and reflecting on ones practice and RTC#5 - "Actively contributing to a learning community".

Professional Learning Groups

Small Group Professional Learning

Here is the material that I presented to staff about PLG's.

Ideally the groups should be small enough to be personable.  Big enough to generate their own momentum.




This post relates to RTC#4. demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice and RTC #5. show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning  i. actively contribute to the professional learning community 

Nigel Latta At Waihi College

Nigel Latta

Last night Waihi College had the priviledge of hosting well know New Zealand Nigel Latter for a presentation solely for teachers.  Thanks to the NZEI who where to funder of Nigel's talk.  

I find it hard not to like Nigel Latta - he has quick wit and a cheeky nature.  Teachers in attendance were highly entertained.  But more importantly I believe that Nigel has a good head for the realities of dealing with young adolescents.  His psychologist background and vast experiences with 'troubled' youth means that he looks for ways ahead.  

There were some key messages that have stuck with me since his talk.  They were...

1. Behaviour is Communication.  That is that the way students behave (and misbehave) is a form of communication.  This I thought was very valid for me as a teacher.  I can see that students that are struggling, bored or not engaged are the students most likely to struggle with their behaviour.  
2. Punishment does not equal punitive.  Nigel had a clear message that students need to understand the natural consequences of their actions.  But that teachers/administrators need to be human about their approaches.  
3. That the most important thing with relationships with teachers is to be personable and fair.  

It was an excellent evening out.  Nigel pushed an up and coming TV series on science (which looks excellent).  

Another small thing worth mentioning is his use of 'Keynote' programme instead of PowerPoint - it was excellent (I think that there may be some self directed PD on this product ahead for me).  

This post is related to RTC# 5. show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning

 and RTC #8. demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn

DEEP Learning Programme

Discover, Enrichment, Essential, Passion
One of the areas of discussion on our senior planning retreat was the notion of using our Learning Advisory time in an alternative fashion. One of the more intriguing ideas from the Hauraki DP cluster trips to Auckland was the Mission Height Junior College's DEEP programme.

When I first heard of the DEEP programme I immediately thought of the 'elective' programme many schools currently use.  However as I understood more of the DEEP programme the more I could see that it had significant differences to electives.

Primarily the programme was presented as the "main reason students are passionate about their day at school".  That the combination of autonomy of learning, concentrated remedial learning, individualised attention and shared passions/interests were attainable without adversely impacting upon traditional curriculum coverage.

Here is the presentation I gave for morning PD this week.




This post relates to RTC #5. "show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning." 

Senior Leadership Planning Days

2015 Plans and Initiatives
This week the Senior Leadership team (and Learning Leaders on Friday) retreated into offices in town to focus upon the direction of the school for 2015.  It was an excellent chance to review the current year, the recent ERO review and look to enhance our practice.  


There were several key areas which we dedicated our time to.  Several of these will be the subject of much professional development over the next few terms.  Primarily for your information these are some of the core focus points...

1. Priority Learners - this was a core point emphasised by ERO.  They were particularly interested in how we were identifying these students, what expectations we as senior leaders have and what strategies are being utilised by teachers in the classrooms. 
2. Learning Advisories - we undertook a detailed analysis of the current set up of Learning Advisory.  From the time of day, regularity of advisory time, role of the Pouako, purpose/intent of the advisory, horizontal/vertical forms, to the a similar system observed on a recent DP trip to Auckland.  
3. The House System - what ways can we enhance this competition.  Creating leadership opportunities for our year 13 students.
4. Global Curriculum View - how can we consciously map the entire learning experience for our students.  Across all learning areas, over the seven years of Waihi College what ways are we reaching our learners.  This also encompassed much discussion on assessment data.  
5. Calendar of Events for 2015 - this will be a separate post.  But primarily scheduling in the core events of the Waihi College community.  Interesting things of note; Spirit days move to end of term two, and the senior prize giving moved to after NCEA external exams.   
6. Staff Meetings - at length discussion on the number of meetings, times and days of the week.  Looking at 2015 dropping the Tuesday 8am meeting - rather looking at having more regular after school Monday meetings.  The plan is to look at Monday pm meetings being on a three week rotation following the rotation of (week 1 - Senior Leadership meetings, week 2 - Learning Leaders meetings, week three - TIC/Subject specific meetings).  Thursday morning meetings will move into 'Ako Meetings' where teams focus on full cohort of students (more information to follow on this).
7. Quality Assurance - looking at the goal from ERO to make the exceptional practice the common practice here at Waihi College.  What will this look like for staff and learners in their lessons?  

The retreat was a great time for the senior leadership team (and the Learning Leaders - on Friday) to get a chance to think of the big picture.  Being my first retreat I really enjoyed the experience as we 'nutted out' the pro's and con's of each new idea.  It was very much the case that we had a constant thread of thinking "how will this idea be implemented in the classroom".  I trust that we've come up with some workable ideas (most require 'work' though).  

Naturally we are expecting that there are yet uptapped good ideas amongst the staff.  I would hope that you are able to come and present some new ideas or feedback.  Please do take the time to consider your ideas and come to speak with one of the senior leadership team.  

This post relates to RTC #5. show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning and RTC #   6. conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme

Rewarding Students

Unequal Rewards.
One of the traps that I fall into every now and then is that I reward students/classes with a treat.  I have found that this is a trap for us as educators.  We create expectations, we programme that education extrinsically rather than intrinsically and we brake consistency between classes/teachers. 

Two interesting research materials that are worth looking at are...

Dan Pink (author of Drive) discusses a study of preschool students - ones interested in drawing/painting.  The researchers simply divided the students into three groups... 

• Ones shown fancy certificates they'd get if they did a drawing,
• Ones who didn't know about the certificate but got one when they finished, and
• The final group who drew and never got any certificate.

Two weeks later the researchers returned to the same pre-schoolers and asked for drawings.  Those that had been shown the certificates were the least likely to want to do another if there was no certificate. 

Here is another...

   
This post relates to RTC #1. establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga and RTC # 5. show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning