Feeling the vibe.Week 9

•             What you now know about yourself, your teachers, your students and your school that you didn’t know before you started this course?

•             Identify the things you’d like to change – about yourself, your school, your teachers, your students

•             Describe your current feelings and reactions to your experiences so far in this course

•             What are you learning and what have been the most powerful learning experiences for you?

Linked to parents experience at school council

Molly asked for qualification

T agreed

Discussed parent expo night

Timley, concise

Can we show this to parents, have already shown similar stuff to parents

Discussed this I how we infuse this type of learning – discussed how kids are already taking it on- googling adjectives for writing

Talking with Wence and Kim

I think the most powerful insight I have gained through the course is how the process of change can work. I have seen it so far in my staff. One of our team’s grads commented on how far she has come with using Ipads in class – from only using it for photos to now using explain every thing. I presented and discussed Stephen Heppel’s video today and I could really see her reflecting and making connections to how we need to let the kids lead and go where there interests lie. I have now seen my own ability to lead change in the above example but now also in our planning for our team. Collaboration has also become clearer. We had an impromptu visit from the NSW teacher of the year to see our prin and she came and sat in and heard about what our journey has been like.

I feel I have lead change in our students learning which is now being shared with our school council. They walked away really buzzing last night after leadership presented the student’s achievements with Ipads so far. This will no doubt be spread throughout the wider parent community and I guess this is exactly the effect I was hoping to see as part of my ARP.

This change is the change I want to continue to see and now the next step is to spread the enthusiasm and understanding through the rest of our staff to continue the change.

I now totally get his part of the course – on leading by being in the team, by learning together how I don’t have to even expect all the leadership to come from me but also see my team mates start to share and lead too so that we are really collaborating. I have learnt to share in timely, concise manner and take discussions where my team want to go.

This course is worth it but I am really feeling the impact it is having on me, my course partners, other staff, our students and finally our parents. This was the right course for the right time.

Week 8 e-journal

Ejournal week 8

It was reaffirming to see the results of the e-learning survey for my fellow staff. It confirms the feelings myself and my team are experiencing. We are feeling that we need further training to inform us of what we should be using and how. Apps etc change so rapidly that it is hard to keep up and most of them are new to use. We want to skill up on the use of these for deep learning and inquiry but have not been given any support to do so. This frustration would be evident in our responses as a school  -in some way we feel like we are fighting a battle to keep up with innovations when the learning to do so is not a priority. We are all time poor in this respect.

In contrast, our hearts are in the right place and we wish to take on 21c learning into all areas of teaching and learning which is why we are high in New Pedagogies and engage in it to some extent ourselves.

I am really starting to feel the value of this course and see that I can be a leader- not just the traditional leading. I feel that maybe in the last few years I have lead and more so as I have gained confidence and experience and I am now getting insights into my strengths and that being a leader doesn’t mean aiming for a higher pay packet… I’m back on top of the workload now and finding many readings are re-affirming of my thoughts for my ARP.

Reading 8 Forces for Leaders Of Change was a powerful experience. Her are some of my thoughts :

·      Mirrors thinking I have had

·      Building capacity while learning while doing integrate it into teaching and learning at the same time training and PL is not enough for us at the moment.

·      I am in the middle of this trying to effect change by pushing leadership to build these conditions while leading from the pack but further ahead in learning

·      Culture of evaluation –as I am conducting course but would like to evaluate the outcomes later on effect on parents at some later point.

·      Helen (my Principal) is trying to develop leadership from within but I am trying to develop my leadership from within which in time will spread to other in my team if I move on. I am modelling leadership.

·      Changing context of parents but also changing context of leadership in the school

·      MENTIONS FIRST YEAR TEACHERS!!!! Here is my mission.

A significant issue for me this week has been balancing the use of technology in my home. My son is 13 and my daughter 10. Being digital natives, tools such as Ipads are part of life but they can easily take over. The kids can be difficult to shift if they are in sight at all. Getting tasks done around the house. It has been a fine balance appreciating that these tools do much but are such a distraction. We have had to set firm boundaries and remind them that they have to be connected to the real world too. At times I have had to to point out to my husband that the Ipads went on the year 7 camp for a good reason- taking photos. I got that , he needed to be reminded about that. It was a positive move by the high school to let the m come along but to ensure they were used responsibly. I was reassured that the teachers collected them at night. I felt as though I was mediating between generation x and gen Z!

Week 7 reflection.

This week has been a very tumultuous week. I feel like I am juggling a thousand balls personally and professionally.  My focus has been to get back into the term on full throttle and to catch up with the tasks of this course. So far, I think I am winning the battle as well as communicating what I am trying to achieve to my colleagues and lead them in uptaking the use of Ipads in an inquiry based curriculum. My team has been very supportive of what I am trying to communicate and seem to share the vision. We are a young team ( well I am the oldest) with 2 grads,so, like I said to them, they are already there, are digital native themselves. They already live their lives and learn in a collaborative digital environment. So my task is easy in some ways. I interviewed one of these young grads and her reaction to my questions about my leadership was all positive and I feel I have many of the skills needed to lead from within the group, now I feel I have a purpose and something to lead others into. This in a way has been the most powerful experience this week. 

At our team meeting this afternoon I shared the video about 21c DNA and talked briefly about how it explained the way teachers like us need to take the way we and our students connect with others and learn digitally and change the DNA of learning. They were really receptive.  I was pleased to feel I gauged the length of the session and the content to a small an manageable chunk that was timely and relevant. Our Ipads have reached all students today.

As far as significant event for me this week was not work or teaching related but actually to do with a family member who needed to be spoken to about an issue of her health. Other family members had tried to do so but I really persisted with the discussion in a way that I may not have previously and maybe affected change. Perhaps some of these communication skills are a result of my own self exploration and confidence growth during this course.

One question though… Am I at the peak of the workload for this course or is it just the beginning??? (I am sure I am not alone here)