Saturday, February 23, 2013

Not Kidding Myself



I have been trying hard to see the situation as it is for two months now since becoming the acting head of department. What do I mean? I try to recognize, almost as a sixth sense, through my conversations with the various teachers all the sorts of things that can happen and often do in the student development department. And they happen because teachers behave for all sorts of reasons, virtuous and trying, clear and acting “muddle”, sensible and nutty. All in all, I take it as realism, but not pessimism or cynicism. In this way, it makes ample room for the many ways in which teachers and events can surprise, dismay and astonish.

Some days, things turn out worse than expected, and simple looking problems turn out to be complicated. Hence, I realized the need to move carefully and put together plans. Other times, things turn out much better than expected, so I readily seize the opportunities. And, quite often, things simply turn out very differently from what anyone expected. Then I have to react.

I am learning to see the department as a kaleidoscope rather than a well-mapped terrain with the help of my school leaders. My conversations with them helped provide me with clarity as I learn my roles and responsibilities. I value trust, and I also remember how fragile trust can be. While I am not a cynic, I also don’t overestimate the idealism of other teachers, some of whom have constantly reminded me that they have been in the school or department longer than I have – or my own. I am also aware of my limits and subtleties of being the department head. There are those who have been inside the department longer than I am – the powerful insiders, guarding their interests and outsiders of the department who wants to also have a say on what is happening in the department. These are among the reasons why I move step- by- step, constantly consulting my school leaders to work things out and move the department forward. Hopefully in this way, I will learn how to handle problems and so know my role well.  

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Effective Learning in our classroom



In one of my teacher’s reflection, she spoke about the importance of effective learning in the classroom. She described the arrangements she had made to establish and maintain an environment in which learning can occur , e.g. clarifying lesson using the doubt cards and effective preparation of lessons with AfL in mind so that her students are actively engaged in learning. I categorized all of these arrangements as effective classroom management. I will like to follow up on this topic of effective learning and how the two different aspects of classroom management (effective communication and motivation) mentioned by my teacher are related to interacting with our students.

One aspect is teacher’s ability to communicate effectively with students to enhance their knowledge, skills and understanding. Most teachers tend to believe that they communicate well. However, to me, communication is a complex process. There is a need for all teachers to develop such skills and techniques. The same lesson plan with the same presentation materials delivered by different teachers may not have the same outcome due to difference in the teacher’s ability to communicate. Moreover, even with the best planned lesson, how our students react on any situation on any given day is sometimes not predictable. Hence, getting direct feedback from the students regarding their learning e.g. by doubt cards and providing clear objectives of the lesson helps the effective communication between the teacher and student in the class.

Some students are motivated to learn and maintain that motivation while others are inherently motivated to learn but various factors result in them losing motivation. Still others may not be inherently motivated to learn, but their motivation can be increased by certain teachers. Hence, it is important that we as teachers, understand more about the motivational learning environment in the class and how this influences student motivation.  And through specific methods to motivate our students extrinsically (i.e. use of doubt card feedback, showing concern, encouragement) result in our students developing their intrinsic motivation so that they take ownership of the learning in the classroom.

I recognize my teacher’s consideration of her students’ behavior for learning and the positive approach she employed which focuses on positive relationship with her students that create a positive classroom climate in which all students can learn effectively.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Review on CCE Mentor Training Program



My goal as acting head of department of student development is to find a meaningful way to contribute to the student development department’s overall improvement and positive influence on staff and student behaviors. My first few months has become a rich and challenging journey of discovery, working hard with my team at the department during our biweekly meet up sessions and teachers in school and also to learn from other school(s) in terms of student development.

It began in earnest the last ten days when I had the opportunity to attend and learn about purposeful whole-school planning and implementation of programs during the Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) Mentor Training with another middle manager colleague. This training is my first formal introduction to CCE. During the training, we got a better understanding about our roles as CCE mentor in effecting and influencing the whole school implementation of CCE. We started off with a self-reflection to describe the school’s levels of implementation of CCE and found ourselves at level 1 out of the 4 levels where our school is just starting to look into planning and implementing of CCE. Moving forward towards level 2, we hope to made attempts to put in place some processes and structures for CCE in our school. There were two others schools out of the 11 schools attending the training who also rated themselves at level 1. We also found ourselves scoring low in the various key competencies categorized according to the 4 levels of implementation. This self-reflection exercise has helped us better understand our strengths and areas for development in CCE. We were then introduced to a model that I will adopt to strengthen whole-school planning and implementation of CCE. We then applied the principles of lesson design and drafted work plans. We also learnt about the pedagogical approaches and assessment for learning strategies in CCE in order to guide and support our fellow teachers to become effective in the teaching and learning of CCE. Finally, we ended with the support for the teaching and learning of CCE by coming out a draft of values into action plan and communication plan.

After these training experiences, I believe that my significant contribution is to emphasize on clarity regarding the direction of the student development department as a whole is trying to go so that there is better alignment among the units of the departments. My reflection two weeks ago on teacher-learner relationship is one area which I felt must be strengthened in my school. At the same time, efforts must be made to develop in our students the “soft” skills and values integral to meeting the challenges in life. My first commitment is to focus on putting in systems and processes to achieve excellence and R3ICH values – R3ICHE, both personally as well as professionally in school. For too long (5 years ago since the student development department was first created), the general consensus from subject heads was that the student development department has impacted little on the students in the school – though I have no doubt that much time and effort was put into the endeavor. While I believe that we had come up this year with a clearer overview for a holistic student development education, I am not so sure if all teachers or even subject heads in the school are prepared to embrace the caliber of change required of them to implement so as to make a significant impact on our students. I see some teachers had lost their passion and groups within department still working in isolation. I can describe the current situation of the student development department as resembling scattered mass of arrows that are pointing in as many directions as well as degrees. So how do I intend to go about aligning these arrows? To be continued…

Thursday, February 7, 2013

My Leadership Philosophy – Revisited



I first reflected about my leadership philosophy in 2011 when all middle managers were asked to consider our leadership philosophy for a dialogue with the Supt. After last week’s cluster key personnel development session, I thought that it was timely for me to take off my glasses and examine my lens on my leadership philosophy objectively based on my current reality so as to analyze how well my beliefs – things that I really care about mapped with my leadership philosophy.

But is there a need to articulate my leadership philosophy? As a middle manager, especially after becoming acting head of department this year 2013, is arguably, one of the great step-change in my teaching career. I am swamped by the many tasks in the school, taking on many roles – classroom teacher, people developer, manager and that is why I believe that I really need to have a clear philosophy of how and why I lead my team. The correct philosophy is like compass, always providing the invaluable vision and direction especially in times of stress, pressure and conflicting interests. The correct philosophy does not change or shift, instead the correct philosophy becomes the core of my personal and profession mission. Without understanding the correct leadership philosophy, there will be times when I feel “lost” especially when situation changes. While there may be others who consider such review just another paper exercise – a waste of time and effort, I personally see it as an exercise of the mind and heart and it will help me understand better why I do things the way I do as an educator, and more importantly, to decide what matters to me and so able to stand by what I am trying to accomplish as a middle manager.

As I look back and think about the evolution of my leadership philosophy, I found that the most important role model for my leadership development will be my direct people developers, someone who will have the most impact on my day-to-day behavior. Their influences (present and past people developers), coupled with my outside working experience will then serve to guide me along my leadership journey. Let me summaries these concisely as two broad principles, namely (1) to do my best in life and (2) to develop my teachers through role modeling.

My first principle – to do my best in life – is more a personal mission. But, why is the personal mission my first principle in my leadership philosophy? Essentially, I came to realize that my personal mission has the most significant impact on professional mission. This is not to say that professional mission has no impact on my personal mission. In fact, I know it does. My professional mission does form an important part of my satisfied life. What I am trying to say is that, my professional mission cannot be fully committed unless it fits my personal mission.

I believe that to make or keep commitment to others is shown by doing my best: to make the best decisions, to work harder than before, to act at being more upbeat and determined or to guide and lead others successfully for long term. This also means that to be committed to do my best, I need to know who I am and what I care about. Hence, the personal mission guides my decision and actions as a leader.

My second principle – to develop my teachers through role modeling – need to show my teachers that I am going to do exactly what I am asking them to do. This means that my actions better be consistent with my words. I believe that such role modeling approach not only enables me to lead and manage teachers ethnically and sensibly, but also unite all teachers through realistic actions that purposefully and deliberately empower my teachers.

Friday, February 1, 2013

The Right Tone for my School – A System of Discipline



During one of my CCE Mentor training sessions, my trainer (an ex-Principal of St. Patrick’s  School) shared on the need for setting the right school tone for students. This sharing reminded me of the communication with my school leader, where she highlighted that our school teachers had consistently brought up the need for setting the right tone for the school. She also spoke on the need to hold dialogues to determine areas that matter and essential for setting of such tone. Such dialogues are needed so that all teachers in the school can build and progress together in setting a consistent school tone.

Discipline is one of the areas I believe matters and is essential in the setting of the tone for the school. My goal for discipline is to develop self-discipline in my students. I believe that once this goal is met, good classroom teaching and learning will take place. Students will find our school a safe and effective learning environment, our teachers will feel rewarded and fulfilled, and parents will have positive feelings towards our teachers and the school.

I started to ask questions. While I have considered these questions, I do not feel much closer to answers. In fact, I have more questions than I have answers. But this seemed like the right thing to do for now. How does our school implement discipline so that it accomplishes the above important results? What are the approaches to discipline that our school is currently taking? What are our teachers’ opinions on the current approaches to discipline? What are the best discipline approaches out there that are possible for our students?  I hope to be able to discuss these questions and learn from my fellow middle manager and school leaders in the area of discipline.

While I believe that there are many exceptionally good ready-made approaches available, we must do more than simply adopt what other schools are using, for the best approach will almost be certainly be one which our teachers modify or develop ourselves. The best discipline approach must be compatible with (1) our students’ needs, (2) the social realities that affect our students (3) our teachers’ capability and (4) our school’s philosophy to discipline. That is why it is important for our school to formulate our personal system of discipline by ourselves. And as we dialogue among school leaders and middle managers, with our teachers and others, interacting with the multitude of ideas, our school can then progressively move towards developing and implementing our personalized system of discipline that suits our school’s, teachers’ needs and those of our students.