Doing Things Continuously

A benefit of working through this year’s weekly reflection like this one has caused me to try many different things, some of which I may not have attempted (cohort dean, EV) without the encouragement of my school leaders, fellow teachers’ suggestions. Inevitably, however, some of the ideas that arises through the various Professional Learning Teams (Math PLT, ICT PLT) have appealed to me more than others, and specific activities that I had found (through workshops, seminars, conferences) most helpful may well be different from those another heads and teachers regard as valuable.

So with the end of the academic year, I would like to reflect on some of the suggestions encountered this year and decide which of these I would like to make a regular part of my routine as a middle manager and professional developer in 2012. One such example is the process of helping others sees success, through the success see possibilities and getting the buy in. I also intend to return to some of this year’s suggestions (C2015 competencies, AfL) in the coming year and attempt to build on individual successes of 2011 into 2012 so that they will become part of an ongoing part of my approach to improving my teaching and learning. Some of these small and manageable activities I had encountered (from my fellow teachers, workshops, learning seminars, courses) may also make part of my daily teaching and learning next year as well. I found helpful for example, to place to complete task deadlines on my shared working calendar in order to provide me with an ongoing remainder for monitoring.

I also intend to look at improving some of my own structures and processes on namely the teaching and learning curriculum and the professional development of my teachers. Some of these professional developments may be invisible to the teacher so inhabiting the progress; hence my support should be provided to encourage their decision to improve their teaching and learning. I also considered some of the current teaching practice in school. Teachers are sometimes assumed to have the same characteristics as their students. Teachers who teach Upper Secondary students are deemed more capable while others remained teaching Lower Secondary for many years, must therefore be less? This characterization may seem beside the point, but consider how we allow such practice to happen over the many years. While our school has encouraged “student leadership”, I believed that “Teacher leadership” should also be emphasized. I believed that all teachers can teach and should teach all levels, hence 4 year teaching cycle throughout their teaching career. While these Lower Secondary Teachers spend their days with people younger students compared to young adults at Upper Secondary, their personalities cover the same breadth of brilliance and intellectual challenge as any other teachers. Remember that teaching one level only once remains merely as an experiment, but teaching different levels continually becomes part of what a teacher must be capable of doing.