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!