Need for monitoring of ICT-enriched activities

This week, I attempt to present my thinking on the need of monitoring of school activity especially ICT-enriched activities which are a long term programs.

I believe in the need to constantly monitor evidence about learning of students supported by ICT and the efforts of teachers to improve such learning. Such monitoring can then allow continuous adjusting of our own decisions and actions in response to these evidences. But before there can be any monitoring, there is a need to unpack what constitutes as evidence about such learning and teaching supported by ICT.

Once such evidences about learning and teaching are established, the use of data will be a key factor in the improvement of teaching and learning. Through reviews of data, school leaders will be able to identify areas of ICT curriculum in which student baseline standards is below expectations, as well as areas of subject curriculum that need differentiated instructions supported by ICT for individual students. The evidences can then be refined or changed when necessary.

Reviewing data is also part of the department improvement planning process (AFI in the ICT Action Plan). These data served not only as means by which the various ICT practices in school demonstrate success and celebrate achievement, but also as indicators of how far these practices will likely progress with additional support and how student learning can be improved.

I hear often, too often of teachers claiming to do something based on their experience alone. I think that this is not sufficient. There should be emphasis on data-based decision making about instructions for teaching and learning. I believe that this new emphasis will give rise to increase vigilance at both heads and teachers level about the programs conducted, especially for students learning. For instance, at PLC meetings, data should be presented and looked at so as to figure out how to get our students to move to the next level. With data, we know where the current position is. Teachers then work together to ensure that teaching strategies supported by ICT to address specific learning challenges those students faced.

“Learning Organization” in school

This week I reflect on what was shared during our meeting on “Learning organization” in particular,on the sustainable domain pedagogical in ICT implementation and offer my comments related to the conditions necessary for its sustainability efforts in the long run.

Why sustainable? Although the school had been involved for only a year, it may be early to be thinking about sustaining the performance or enhancing pedagogical ICT implementation much further. Nevertheless, I believe I should consider the conditions needed for such domain so as to ensure change in attitudes and beliefs that is the key in enabling the transition to a higher level.

There need to be a willingness to be held responsible for what students learn leveraging on pedagogical ICT. The days of excuses are over when some of us did have an attitude of :”What can we do? These are students we have got?” I believe that this sort of attitude needs to be taken right off the “table”. Everything has to be related to student achievement when leveraging on pedagogical ICT. It should be focused instruction. Everything that happens all the time here needs to have a purpose (animation - enhancing understanding, videotaping- building up confidence, story boarding – language building and improving communication skills). Little things such as movies should not be shown during lesson time unless they are curriculum.

There should be a growing awareness of the long term nature of pedagogical ICT implementation and that this area of focus will be part of the school culture. With the mandate of pedagogical ICT as part of our school culture, sustainability will weigh heavily upon our shoulders and not just a few of us. This is because everyone will then be able to improve on this focus together.

We should enable a realization about the interdependence of curriculum and leveraging of pedagogical ICT. Of course, we cannot discount the progress made in curriculum achievement at our school. Students are coming much better prepared now than last few years – I think because of the work our teachers are doing at that level. With the extra effort in leveraging of pedagogical ICT, I see a tremendous amount of professional development in our teachers, content enhancement in our curriculum and C21 skill improvement in our students.

Finally, as teachers, we should all be aware of the wide array of factors that produce strong student performance especially in terms of learning and deep understanding in the long run. One goal for schools is to promote a learning atmosphere because the students need this life-long learning. The students have a lot of baggage, quite a lot of them in content and Self 2 already. If they do not learn HOW to learn at school, if we do not show them the proper skills and tap more on the Self 1 in school, then what is the point of teaching?

Review of my leadership role

After 14 weeks (though it seemed longer…) in the role of acting team leader, with diverse responsibilities above and below me, alongside my own teaching duties, I feel a need to review the implications for my leadership role in ICT implementation.

I believed that in order to be successful, especially in leveling up ICT implementation in school, I need to be effective in bringing about changes to the processes of teaching and learning as well as the mindsets of teachers. Although my style and approaches may not be the same as other team leaders, I feel what is key is the clear vision and values I hold that will make the difference.

I need to have this “ICT-applicable instinct” and lead in pedagogical changes in ICT. The hands-on approach is one of the ways I intend to lead such a charge. I need to focus on instructional improvements, building collaboration (though I came to realize that this may take much effort) and good relationships. I see a need to be optimistic about the change and enthusiastic in bringing about the change. Persistence in the buying in of teachers and tough minded to say “no” when needed.

A top down approach is not the way to sustain the ICT implementation. Instead there must be a purposeful and deliberate effort to distribute responsibilities and accountability widely. That is why ICT mentors and Activists’ involvement are important. However, I also need to be realistic about such involvement by teachers. These distributed responsibilities and accountability also need to be “initiated and nurtured” over time. This is why I view my principal’s involvement as been important as he helps to drive and share these responsibilities and accountability among heads and teachers. Then, with right judgements, readiness and capabilities of teachers, there will be a progressive teacher involvement in ICT implementation.

Professional Development of Teachers

This week, I will attempt to speak on what I perceived to be my role in the professional development of teachers in ICT implementation.

As part of my contribution to affecting learning on students, my role include encouraging fellow teachers to try something new such as designing ICT based on pedagogy, reexamine assumptions, i.e. drill and practice may not be the best way, look at their teaching from different perspectives namely conceptual understanding versus mere manipulating, rethink how teaching can be better enhanced using ICT. Hence, my role in professional development is part of a set of practices as a leader, and they are especially important at this early stage of ICT implementation. But such development occurs in informal as well as formal ways. This really depends on the teachers’ current understanding of learning.

I believed that to get ICT implementation going, I need to purposely build and strengthen the teachers by providing appropriate professional development opportunities, in-service training, workshops, peer observation and learning.

I also believe that it is critical to respect the teachers’ autonomy and support them in their professional development. More importantly, I need to ensure that the teachers have a reasonable amount of time to participate in professional development. I have invited outside expert advisors such as AsknLearn and Ace Learning to deliver in-service training in the school. More such experts will be invited to help the teachers. Moreover, when teachers want to attempt to use ICT in their lessons, these teachers were offered expert’s help to find best ways to do so. Workshops and seminars were also offered along with an individualized approach to meet the teachers’ learning needs as well.

Such training must be practical so that the teachers will find such intellectual stimulation valuable. So I need to note that, for example, “the experts should run in-services on “What is using ICT for collaborative and self-directed learning all about? What does it look like? What will be look it without ICT?” This is to address the teachers’ concerns about “never even seen CoL and SDL and so does not know what to prepare the students for.” At the same time, the ICT mentors need to be involved in coaching to help teachers deliver a ICT program. This is the informal help which I believed the teachers will find more valuable. The ICT mentors need to be given time for this. Currently, they are heavily loaded with other duties. Together with the external experts in providing in-service for teachers, the ICT mentors will be one of the important pillars who can plan ICT integration with IP Head as well as support the teachers around subject instructions and facilitate discussions with teachers at the department level.

Conditions to Improving Teaching and Learning

Last week, I reflected on the setting and helping teachers achieve expectations. This week, I will attempt to speak on how I hope to improve such conditions for improved teaching and learning.

In my opinion, the condition here should refer to the knowledge and skills of teachers about curriculum, instruction and learning for the students. And exercising a positive influence on these variables calls on me to know the technical core of schooling, extend my problem solving capacities and review my knowledge of effective instruction.

And since a considerable amount of evidence is available in literature about the effects on student learning stemming from such conditions, it is my responsibility to help prioritize those known conditions to have the greatest chance of improving students’ learning. Already our school on classroom level had focus on assessment for learning (AfL) and the use of ICT as two long term strategic thrusts in our improvement efforts where, for example, on the extent to which teachers are providing students with immediate and formative feedback and pedagogical technology instructions

Simply knowing which conditions hold the greatest promise for improving student learning may not be enough. But it serves as a starting point where every one of us leaders discovers the core conditions for ourselves. After that it still leaves me with the problem of figuring out how to improve the actual status of those conditions in the school. So the key question following discovery and selecting of core variables for action is “What do I do?”

From my past reflections, I had emphasized that as educators, we must place teaching and learning at the heart of improvement efforts and so our relentless pursue ways is to improve the instructional core. Building instructional capacity of teachers requires shifting beliefs and cultures, adopting views that all students regarding of streams can learning, and coupling the need of high expectations. But in order to build up such capacity, I must first understand the definition of quality instruction and pedagogy. After which it is important to be able to strategically implement a plan that addresses capability building among teachers within our departments while other building trust. Investment in teachers’ continuous professional development can increase student achievement. However, such importance should be emphasized by placing a premium on teachers’ professional development as a route to improving instructional outcomes. Professional development should not be just a teacher attending a course and reflecting. The “learned-teacher” should be encouraged to form professional leaning communities to support inquiry and development of pedagogical practices.

Practices to Achieve Teachers’ Expectations

Last week, I reflected on the setting of teachers’ expectations. This week, I will attempt to speak on the practices which I believe may help teachers achieve their expectations.

There is this saying “knowing your followers’ needs and raising them to more mature levels ….” One way is by the use of delegation to provide the teacher opportunity to self-actualize and to attain higher standards of development. In my opinion, this delegation must be a behavior which should communicates respect for the teacher, as well as show concerns about the teachers’ feelings and needs. Delegation should not be just passing on of responsibilities from the leader! Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

To me, the practice of this sort needs to include task orientation such as the actual responsibility and consideration for people namely their ability, their aspiration, their potential. In addition, there is a need to “support” and “recognize and reward” teachers as well. With these practices, I hope to build the confidence, resilience and persistence of teachers to face the challenges of ICT implementation – is really the goal I intend to achieve.

I believe that providing professional support and encouragement for teachers’ personal growth such be done, even for teachers who face immediate challenges of their classrooms or instructions (sometimes there are questions from others why “a particular teacher” is allowed to go for this, that training while he/she is already facing difficulties in this, that…). Instead, as leaders we need to monitor teachers on a more regular basis and provide them with supports through one-to-one meetings, and more importantly be able to give them advice for improvements. Monitoring alone is not the way. I urged for more time to be set aside for leaders (some are over-bagged) to lend support and encourage their teachers (that is why the leader also need to be competent first) to raise their self-esteem and self-image, and to influence their belief in their professional ability. By and large, these indicate that school leaders are more facilitators, mentors and coaches.

Evidences from last Friday’s management meeting showed questions been raised about relating instruction practices with theory. Literature reviews showed contributing forces on the role of theory, especially those emerged from the observation of students at work can play on instructional practices. These theories will help shed light on learning difficulties which students had. Leaders already involved in such practices would best use the collaborative session such as our PLC, the department meeting to address the teachers’ individual concerns about their instruction and what student improvement the theory will serve. Otherwise, leaders could also seek advice from consultants from recognized institutions.

However, I personally feel that teachers often find it more effective to get help from their colleagues with whom they are now collaborating in teams and through regular department meetings where theoretical based instructions could be emphasized than through external sources. Thus, there is a need to highlight the role of the leader in creating such collaboration within the department (Again, leaders need the competence). When teachers grew more comfortable collaborating with colleagues, consultations among teachers becomes a natural approach to any problem solving in school Luckily, this is a culture the school is slowing building.

Teachers’ Expectations

This week, I will attempt on parts of the 4-stage cyclical process of reflective practice to help facilitate my reflection on setting of teachers’ expectation.

Faith in us Teachers

Setting high expectations is part of direction setting because it has to be closely aligned with our school’s goal. Although high performance expectations cannot be the only substance of our school’s goal, they do demonstrate to the teachers “the expectations of excellence, quality and/or high performance in teaching and learning for the students”. I think that this is central behavior associated with leading of team or school (Just look at the outcomes of events with low or no clear set expectations).

How to go about setting expectations?

One example which I did with the ICT PLC was to “enlarge” the teachers’ capacity to imagine what might be achieved, and “increase” their sense of accountability for bringing this about (through their individual ICT action plan). As the starting point of ICT implementation in the school this year, the emphasis is to establish a culture of high expectations, high collaboration, and mutual respect among the members of the team. For my part, I need to be able to set the tone for the shared ICT goals, high standards, and high expectations (during reviews during ICT PLC meetings) and to provide the necessary support to teachers in order to turn high expectations into high performance (through training based on individual teacher's needs, sharing of implementation processes, ICT resources).

I also see the need to establish appropriate, measurable, and agreed-on indicators and targets. Some of these are already been set by the Ministry level (such as the ICT baseline standards, BYiTES 3.0) while others need to be set based on the agreement between teachers (among teachers within departments on their ICT action plans, teachers agreeing to becoming ICT mentors, teachers willingly sharing of ICT practices). As mentioned during last Friday’s management meeting, the performances of the teacher are based on their own belief, combined with either optimism or pessimism and in this case, on the use of ICT in their teaching and learning. However, as leaders, I believe that our expectations for high performance of teachers should be based on the belief, with considerable optimism, about the untapped potential of teachers for growth and development.

And Yes, we will be pleasantly surprised at what our teachers will be able to accomplished (… all 7 departments had come out with their ICT action plans for 2011! …was told of a collaboration project between humanities and science department, an initiative by the teachers themselves!). Teachers are able to motivate each other (I hear of heads encouraging themselves to continuously write their weekly journals) and more importantly, to shift their expectations of themselves (many teachers asking for professional development in ICT). The students too can cause the teachers to shift the expectations for them, thus enabling the initiation processing of ICT implementation to begin. What I hope to see? That there is an opportunity to say, “You know what about designing and developing ICT implementation. If we approach this properly, we realize that everyone is in this together. We start as low as single building blocks, then we work together upwards and so we are not going to tumble as we progress.”

I also need to take the responsibility for communicating these expectations for teachers and then followed through to make sure the expectations are met. For this to happen, I really need to be personally involved at the start with the teachers. Preaching just won’t make these happen. Moreover, I feel that this responsibility must be enacted uniformly. Treating some teachers differently will be counter-productive. Teachers’ Expectations