Reading Writing Responding

'Nepal - Embraced by Shangrila' creative commons licensed (BY-SA) flickr photo by dhilung: http://flickr.com/photos/dhilung/3904555723 This post was originally posted on +Peter DeWitt 's Finding Common Ground blog on the 6th of January. It seems with the latest changes to the Performance and Development Process and +Will Richardson 's message in his #TL21C Keynote to change just 10% of your practise pertinent to repost it here. Recently, as a part of the Ed Tech Crew Christmas Hangout , +Darren Murphy  posed the question, what would your ideal school be? It got me wondering, what does the talk of ideals really achieve?  Often discussions about the ideal school converge with the amalgamation of a diverse range of ideas and practises. Where there is not only a wide range of technology on offer, but it is ubiquitous. Where connections are made around the world. Where students are creators of original content that is published for authentic audiences. Wh...

During the week I was asked by the principal to represent the Middle Years (5-9) on a new ICT Committee. Although the school has invested in a lot of ICT, there has been very little explicit leadership to drive it. Often ICT was the last dot point of many on the list of responsibilities allocated to various leading teachers in the school. Instead it has been driven by leadership with a little l , those staff who have a passion and interest in the area.  The first task set for the group is to develop a three year plan. Thinking about where the school might be in three years time got me reflecting how far things have evolved in the past three years. Here are just a few changes: Collaboration and the Cloud Three years ago, staff and students were dependent on the school share drives to share resources. The only way to really collaborate was through email. As I have stated elsewhere , the problem with this is that the 'original' document often gets lost in the...

Made using Quozio After trying to swing the axe to the performance and development process  last year , the Victorian government has returned with a range of changes in a draft format for consultation . This time they have brought a 'balanced scorecard' to the table. A series of goals spread across four areas depending on whether you are a principal or a teacher. These goals are to be developed in the context of each school's annual implementation plan (AIP) and are aligned with the AITSL teaching standards . In addition to the goals, teachers agree to the evidence that they will be assessed against and if they fail to get in the top two tiers of the assessment scale then they will not move up their increment. Now I must start off and say, I believe in goals. Whether it be something that is fluid in the sense outlined by Kath Murdoch in her focus on one word  or a more structured approach that I have spoken about elsewhere . However, I am not so sure about setti...

'Meaning of Success' by  Celestine Chua (Flickr) The other day I got some feedback about a leading teacher position that I had applied for a couple of months ago. Although I had demonstrated the elements required in my application, it was suggested that I did not provide enough evidence in regards to my competency to lead change management. This got me thinking about what change that I had been a part of. The two things that came to mind were the introduction of the Ultranet and the roll out of interactive whiteboards across the school. However, in reflecting upon both of these situations I wondered if I was successful in bringing about change and how you actually measure such success anyway. Change and Technology The Ultranet was a learning management system developed by the Victorian State Government to support staff, students and parents by providing an online space to communicate and collaborate. It was also seen as the answer to ongoing student reporting and ...

Shared Vision by William Ferriter (Flickr) CC The new year is a great time to set new goals. I have decided to do something different this year and actually share my goals. So often we keep such things to ourselves. Maybe because others do not actually care about our goals, but also because we sometimes fear in sharing our goals that we open ourselves up to ridicule and failure. The problem with this mentality is that sometimes we are unable to really succeed, because we are unwilling to ever fail. So in the spirit of life-long learning here are my goals for 2014 ... #1 - Utilise data in a more structured manner within the classroom in order to better personalise learning There has been a real rise in education over the last few years in regards to the use of data. What has been interesting though is that often this 'data' has a tendency to be neither personal nor individual, whether it be things such as staff opinion surveys or NAPLAN results. Such data often s...

Strength is in the Weakness In my view, the strength of any team is not in the leadership group, although having strong leadership is important, rather it is in the supposed lower ranks, those individuals and stakeholders deemed to be at the bottom, and their ability to carry the overall vision for the organisation. To use a sporting analogy, it is often the depth of the reserves rather than the strength of the seniors that a teams metal is truly tested. With enough money, any team can buy enough players to be a good side, but to be a strong and successful side, it is the ability to stand up against injury and adversity which often decides between winning a game and maintaining long term success. This same mentality can be applied to the day to day actions in any educational environment . Often effort and money is put into key areas associated with big data, such as NAPLAN . However, it is those areas found in the margins of the curriculum, areas which neither provide clear measur...