Riding on the comment made in the last reflection on sustaining teachers in school, this week I will reflect on the processes I believe may aid in achieving sustainability in the school.
Sustainability
There are competing interpretations of the word “sustainability”. I believe that sustainability is not about the environmental sustainability, not about better classrooms, not about faster wireless connections. Neither is it about prolonging specific teachers’ interventions or innovations, not about standardized teaching strategies or methods, not about specific departmental programs or packages. And neither is it about the durability of an organization to withstand external pressures, not about long serving leaders or teachers, not about age old norms of the school. Sustainability in education, I think is about establishing the conditions for high student performance over time. And what do I mean by performance? In order to move towards sustainability, I think that there must be a widely shared “moral” purpose, a point mentioned to me earlier which prompted me to this idea. So, in my opinion the performance in the case of education will be concerned with students’ learning. Below are two considerations which I think will enable sustainability in the school.
This year in particular, there are already fundamental changes to the schools’ internal processes (strong focus of AfL, embedding ICT to support learning, meeting of deadlines, better monitoring processes, new heads) and organizational culture (such as collaborations, openness towards feedbacks, accountability). These changes are unlikely to be linear. I already observed ebbs and flows, setbacks and successes. This is the natural flow. Although I know that progression may not be certain, some backing and forwarding is more likely. But with strong leadership, the school will be brought through this difficult period to the point of sustainability. Indeed, persistence and resilience (core values we hold) tend to be the hallmarks of teachers and schools that demonstrate high performance over time.
I foresee many processes and programs changing in the school, however there are two approaches I think will always continue to be focused on. They are the focus on “academic value” and “organizational capabilities and culture”.
The first focus on “academic value” is a no-nonsense measure for the students’ learning. It should reflect a zero-tolerance approach to the teaching and learning of students, which combines intense pressure with intervention to tackle “students-at-risk”. These include greater accountability of leaders and teachers, continuous school improvements, implementation of evidence based teaching, and development of capable teachers. However, I feel that if this measure is to be used on teachers continuously, success will often be short-lived. In addition, the imposition of a timescale on improvements by others may not be achievable all the time.
So the second focus on building deeply rooted “organizational and culture change” is more effective in implementing sustainability in the school. The focus here is on both the individual and collective capacity development. The only sure way that we are certain to sustain improvement is to build capacity in the school “to provide smart, strong leadership, staff who are intensely focused on students’ learning, highly competent committed teachers, clear lines of responsibilities(I am highlighting), and an environment that emphasize on collaboration, trust, and continuous learning and improvements.
I believe that in order to sustain improvements, leaders must purposefully create such organizational and cultural environment. Securing long term changes I know remains a challenge, considering that every change of principals, the school and the culture will change. Nevertheless, I believe that such dynamic change in organization and culture will be more successful compared to remaining at status quo.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Processes that contribute to improving students’ achievement
In this week’s reflection, I will offer interpretative comments on the description of some of the processes I observed in the school that I think contributed to improving our students’ achievement.
Teachers as Equal
I believe that an environment and culture where teachers feel a sense of working with principals, vice-principals and heads as equals is important. This I think can be done through leadership distribution among teacher leaders such as subject coordinators, discipline coordinator, mentors etc. It is important to provide such collaborative structure where teachers will feel valuable. Already I know of teachers who feel appreciated about the principal asking for their inputs on school matters. What our school has going on right now seems to be in this direction. The principal and vice-principals are all attending department meetings, even the ICT PLC group discussion. They are participating as if everyone is at the same level. I do admit that there is initially a sense of worry about their presence in the meetings. But I think that if we persist with this approach, it will really work well with the teachers. And now in meetings, although heads lead in the meeting, there is always asking for inputs from teachers. Heads provide the initial thrust of discussion and then from that, the teacher leader looks at how the teachers are going to work with the group in order to have that happen. In this way, the teachers are all made to feel important.
Positive Results
Here I will illustrate how important all the school’s initiatives had been for bringing about improvements in students’ achievement. When there is assessment for learning (AfL), everything seemed to start at the same time. I personally cannot tell if it is because of the AfL, or because of the PLC’s, or if it was the structure remedial program (SRP), or it was the staff training and meetings – all these things just happening at once. All of them combined together, I believe has made us more accountable, more productive, and improved students achievement is the end result. Change in the focus on AfL is a huge factor. We now have all teachers focusing on real learning of the students and not just “covering of syllabus”. Also there is this embedment of the PLC in the weekly timetable. On top of the PLCs, there is also staff training on improving English language use for teaching and the facilitation skills and knowledge needed for PLCs. There is also staff meeting once per month. The PLCs is focused on academic teaching and learning. The staff meeting is for “housekeeping” – things we need to meet and talk about as a school. Even the change in focus around SRP (specific groups B3 →A1/2, measurable outcomes and attainable, realistic) goals this year has made a difference. I think all these play an important role in improving student achievement. If I were to attribute success to any one of these things, I will be inclined to think that it is all of them.
Teachers as Equal
I believe that an environment and culture where teachers feel a sense of working with principals, vice-principals and heads as equals is important. This I think can be done through leadership distribution among teacher leaders such as subject coordinators, discipline coordinator, mentors etc. It is important to provide such collaborative structure where teachers will feel valuable. Already I know of teachers who feel appreciated about the principal asking for their inputs on school matters. What our school has going on right now seems to be in this direction. The principal and vice-principals are all attending department meetings, even the ICT PLC group discussion. They are participating as if everyone is at the same level. I do admit that there is initially a sense of worry about their presence in the meetings. But I think that if we persist with this approach, it will really work well with the teachers. And now in meetings, although heads lead in the meeting, there is always asking for inputs from teachers. Heads provide the initial thrust of discussion and then from that, the teacher leader looks at how the teachers are going to work with the group in order to have that happen. In this way, the teachers are all made to feel important.
Positive Results
Here I will illustrate how important all the school’s initiatives had been for bringing about improvements in students’ achievement. When there is assessment for learning (AfL), everything seemed to start at the same time. I personally cannot tell if it is because of the AfL, or because of the PLC’s, or if it was the structure remedial program (SRP), or it was the staff training and meetings – all these things just happening at once. All of them combined together, I believe has made us more accountable, more productive, and improved students achievement is the end result. Change in the focus on AfL is a huge factor. We now have all teachers focusing on real learning of the students and not just “covering of syllabus”. Also there is this embedment of the PLC in the weekly timetable. On top of the PLCs, there is also staff training on improving English language use for teaching and the facilitation skills and knowledge needed for PLCs. There is also staff meeting once per month. The PLCs is focused on academic teaching and learning. The staff meeting is for “housekeeping” – things we need to meet and talk about as a school. Even the change in focus around SRP (specific groups B3 →A1/2, measurable outcomes and attainable, realistic) goals this year has made a difference. I think all these play an important role in improving student achievement. If I were to attribute success to any one of these things, I will be inclined to think that it is all of them.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Supporting teachers for implementing technology in classrooms Part 2
Last week, I spoke on providing of resources, managing of programs and sharing of information. In this week’s reflection, I will continue to touch on amount and multiple types of support I think are required by teachers for the successful implementation of technology into the classrooms, in addition to formal professional development opportunities.
Building Relationships
I believe in the need to spend considerable energy on the quality of relationships between teachers. In work, there will be strains and tensions at times, especially during hectic short periods like Term 2 and 3. I foresee a need to spend a great deal of time in the initial phrase talking to teachers about proposed changes and getting their buy-in. There is why in the last reflection, I mentioned that the ICT Time was important. I believe what once “if my argument is strong, through constant dialogue and information of sharing, the battle will be won.” And once that argument is won, teachers will be more supportive of the change and agree to try out new ideas with technology. At the same time, I must also be mindful of what an article on "Managing the Leading" called "a case of ‘if we don’t do it, the one in charge will’" symptom. I do believe that our teachers are capable and I must let them "go on with it"
Creating “Achievement” Targets
The main focus of teachers is on students learning and raising achievements. I think there is a constant need to reinforce this idea when speaking of technology. It must be clear that the significant change in teaching and learning was needed, along with the general improvement in instructional performance of teachers with technology. Very often, we should be speaking of the necessity of placing better teaching and learning for our students at the heart of technology implementation. It is also important to remind teachers that this improvement requires a shift in beliefs and adopting a view that all students (who are the native learners) can learn better with technology. All this attention of technology integration is just another way of trying to pay attention to our teachers’ core business of teaching and learning above everything else.
The prime goal with technology integration was to maximize students’ learning and reinforce the core message that all students (regardless of generations Y,YY, Z) can achieve well in our education system. Academic excellence for all becomes the focus this year, and significant investments made in the new approaches (collaborative and independent learning), along with the use of technologies is just to make teaching and learning more interesting, exciting and relevant to the coming generations of students. Observation of teaching then needed to be set up to create a dialogue about pedagogy. How can technology support such pedagogy? Achievement targets are currently the same for everyone, but should not individual achievement targets be set for different teachers (Beginning teachers, less than 5 years, and experienced teachers) on improvement in teaching and learning as well? These individualized targets will then be an important contributor to improvements in teaching and learning.
Building Relationships
I believe in the need to spend considerable energy on the quality of relationships between teachers. In work, there will be strains and tensions at times, especially during hectic short periods like Term 2 and 3. I foresee a need to spend a great deal of time in the initial phrase talking to teachers about proposed changes and getting their buy-in. There is why in the last reflection, I mentioned that the ICT Time was important. I believe what once “if my argument is strong, through constant dialogue and information of sharing, the battle will be won.” And once that argument is won, teachers will be more supportive of the change and agree to try out new ideas with technology. At the same time, I must also be mindful of what an article on "Managing the Leading" called "a case of ‘if we don’t do it, the one in charge will’" symptom. I do believe that our teachers are capable and I must let them "go on with it"
Creating “Achievement” Targets
The main focus of teachers is on students learning and raising achievements. I think there is a constant need to reinforce this idea when speaking of technology. It must be clear that the significant change in teaching and learning was needed, along with the general improvement in instructional performance of teachers with technology. Very often, we should be speaking of the necessity of placing better teaching and learning for our students at the heart of technology implementation. It is also important to remind teachers that this improvement requires a shift in beliefs and adopting a view that all students (who are the native learners) can learn better with technology. All this attention of technology integration is just another way of trying to pay attention to our teachers’ core business of teaching and learning above everything else.
The prime goal with technology integration was to maximize students’ learning and reinforce the core message that all students (regardless of generations Y,YY, Z) can achieve well in our education system. Academic excellence for all becomes the focus this year, and significant investments made in the new approaches (collaborative and independent learning), along with the use of technologies is just to make teaching and learning more interesting, exciting and relevant to the coming generations of students. Observation of teaching then needed to be set up to create a dialogue about pedagogy. How can technology support such pedagogy? Achievement targets are currently the same for everyone, but should not individual achievement targets be set for different teachers (Beginning teachers, less than 5 years, and experienced teachers) on improvement in teaching and learning as well? These individualized targets will then be an important contributor to improvements in teaching and learning.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Supporting teachers for implementing technology in classrooms
In this week’s reflection, I will touch on amount and multiple types of support I think are required by teachers for the successful implementation of technology into the classrooms, in addition to formal professional development opportunities.
Providing Resources
I believe that the most helpful resource of all is the time set aside for teachers to meet during the school day to discuss students’ achievement and improving pedagogy with technology. We may have the money for material resources (laptops, wireless, storage spaces) but the more valuable one is the human resources and time. Providing opportunities for teachers to meet once a week during PLC time to reflect, to set out agenda, to share ideas that are successful, and focus on students learning issues is critical. Like what was mentioned during today's training session with Mr Peter Seah on Facilitation, with the shared goals and responsibilities together with active participation, the learning will then be more fruitful.
I also believe that I need to work at staying knowledgeable about external resources which are of potential value to the school. Take for example, the need to read articles on technology use in classroom, and in tune with what is going on, and what works locally and what has failed. With such knowledge, I can then pass on and bring in the resources to address our teachers greatest need. This resource room should, however, not be me alone but our ICT PLC team, where teachers can go down to get one-on-one help, and its available all day long.
Through this substantial increase in support from within (ICT PLC team, ICT Trainers, TAs) and external (ETD, others schools, vendors), I hope to be successful in bringing resources to the teachers.
Managing Programs
I hope to stimulate many technology integrated programs into the classrooms during this “early adoption” period, coming up with technology integration ideas, running them by the ICT PLC team and making up the school wide projects. I think the big change should be in the delivery of the pedagogy for students’ learning. We are already preparing our students to use the technology (Baseline standards) on a weekly basis. At the same time, there is also a need to manage everything required to implement such programs as well as, a time-consuming set of activities that engaged many people at all levels (teachers, heads, and students).
Sharing Information
Sharing news, as we had done during staff meetings (ICT Time) I believe is important. To share information and talk about what was good and what would help our students and how it would align us with our goals – success for the students (collaborative, independent) learning. There is lots of opportunity to chat – Principal gets regular updates on technology. He passes it on to departments, I pass it on to my team, ICT PLC team passes it to other teachers, and teachers pass to students. All of these new responsibilities served only to sharpen our focus on achieving our goal.
Providing Resources
I believe that the most helpful resource of all is the time set aside for teachers to meet during the school day to discuss students’ achievement and improving pedagogy with technology. We may have the money for material resources (laptops, wireless, storage spaces) but the more valuable one is the human resources and time. Providing opportunities for teachers to meet once a week during PLC time to reflect, to set out agenda, to share ideas that are successful, and focus on students learning issues is critical. Like what was mentioned during today's training session with Mr Peter Seah on Facilitation, with the shared goals and responsibilities together with active participation, the learning will then be more fruitful.
I also believe that I need to work at staying knowledgeable about external resources which are of potential value to the school. Take for example, the need to read articles on technology use in classroom, and in tune with what is going on, and what works locally and what has failed. With such knowledge, I can then pass on and bring in the resources to address our teachers greatest need. This resource room should, however, not be me alone but our ICT PLC team, where teachers can go down to get one-on-one help, and its available all day long.
Through this substantial increase in support from within (ICT PLC team, ICT Trainers, TAs) and external (ETD, others schools, vendors), I hope to be successful in bringing resources to the teachers.
Managing Programs
I hope to stimulate many technology integrated programs into the classrooms during this “early adoption” period, coming up with technology integration ideas, running them by the ICT PLC team and making up the school wide projects. I think the big change should be in the delivery of the pedagogy for students’ learning. We are already preparing our students to use the technology (Baseline standards) on a weekly basis. At the same time, there is also a need to manage everything required to implement such programs as well as, a time-consuming set of activities that engaged many people at all levels (teachers, heads, and students).
Sharing Information
Sharing news, as we had done during staff meetings (ICT Time) I believe is important. To share information and talk about what was good and what would help our students and how it would align us with our goals – success for the students (collaborative, independent) learning. There is lots of opportunity to chat – Principal gets regular updates on technology. He passes it on to departments, I pass it on to my team, ICT PLC team passes it to other teachers, and teachers pass to students. All of these new responsibilities served only to sharpen our focus on achieving our goal.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Data Use in School
In this week’s reflection, I will touch on data usage in teaching and learning and my thoughts on how such practice may be implemented.
I describe myself as a new teacher “keen on understanding use of data to facilitate instructional changes in the classroom.” I regularly collect data from tests after intervention and then used the results for planning and evaluating instruction. Last year, when I worked together with a group of teachers to develop a learning plan for our students and the goal for example is to improve “students’ clarity of thinking of concepts.” We did the intervention (mind-mapping) and track it through a period of time. At the end, it was wonderful to look at where we were at, what we actually wanted to be and what we actually achieved. That really reinforced to everyone that this is important. The results even helped raised questions which we now know required our attention. The teachers when presented accepted the collection and use of student data. They see it as positive (some even asking if this practices can be done for the graduating levels), because they see the results and then they celebrate success.
I hope that because we had seen the benefits of using data to track progress, we will be more aware of how important the information can be for guiding our instructions. In addition, having all of that data to look at, there will be a lot more emphasis on accountability and coming up with the data to show what we are doing.
There are a lot of things which we teachers are or will be doing in a year. Take some example, there are CA1, SA1, CA2 and SA2, twice for formative assessment, twice for summative assessment. I think even though we were doing this four times a year, there is no continuation. I did it once, I leave it alone; I did it the second time, I leave it alone. I did it the third time, I again leave it alone. I think after we have done it once, let us look at the students’ responses, let’s make meaning to what the data is telling us, work through them, see how we can improve based on that. Take for example, not the whole SA1 but part of SA1-style questions or the content which most of the students have difficulties in. We start to look at what we did, how we can improve upon it, and work that into day-to-day teaching. It would be tempting to say that we are teaching to the test, but I disagree. What we are looking at some of the markers that the test indicates and then working at improving.
I believe that the majority of initiatives which we teachers take have positive effects on learning. Improving notes, team teaching, SRP, computer-assisted learning can all have a positive effect on learning. But if we do not have the time to do them all, which will have the greatest effect? Can we guess which ones? Likewise in strategies to improve things for our students, so the question is not “Will this strategy work?” but “Which?” The use of data will then help to tell us how the average student (based on our school students’ profile, and the problems these students have) learns best.
I describe myself as a new teacher “keen on understanding use of data to facilitate instructional changes in the classroom.” I regularly collect data from tests after intervention and then used the results for planning and evaluating instruction. Last year, when I worked together with a group of teachers to develop a learning plan for our students and the goal for example is to improve “students’ clarity of thinking of concepts.” We did the intervention (mind-mapping) and track it through a period of time. At the end, it was wonderful to look at where we were at, what we actually wanted to be and what we actually achieved. That really reinforced to everyone that this is important. The results even helped raised questions which we now know required our attention. The teachers when presented accepted the collection and use of student data. They see it as positive (some even asking if this practices can be done for the graduating levels), because they see the results and then they celebrate success.
I hope that because we had seen the benefits of using data to track progress, we will be more aware of how important the information can be for guiding our instructions. In addition, having all of that data to look at, there will be a lot more emphasis on accountability and coming up with the data to show what we are doing.
There are a lot of things which we teachers are or will be doing in a year. Take some example, there are CA1, SA1, CA2 and SA2, twice for formative assessment, twice for summative assessment. I think even though we were doing this four times a year, there is no continuation. I did it once, I leave it alone; I did it the second time, I leave it alone. I did it the third time, I again leave it alone. I think after we have done it once, let us look at the students’ responses, let’s make meaning to what the data is telling us, work through them, see how we can improve based on that. Take for example, not the whole SA1 but part of SA1-style questions or the content which most of the students have difficulties in. We start to look at what we did, how we can improve upon it, and work that into day-to-day teaching. It would be tempting to say that we are teaching to the test, but I disagree. What we are looking at some of the markers that the test indicates and then working at improving.
I believe that the majority of initiatives which we teachers take have positive effects on learning. Improving notes, team teaching, SRP, computer-assisted learning can all have a positive effect on learning. But if we do not have the time to do them all, which will have the greatest effect? Can we guess which ones? Likewise in strategies to improve things for our students, so the question is not “Will this strategy work?” but “Which?” The use of data will then help to tell us how the average student (based on our school students’ profile, and the problems these students have) learns best.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Building up our teachers instructional capacity
This week’s reflection focused on close-to-the-classroom practices. These practices include the need to build up our teacher’s instructional capacity and the assignment of teachers, especially those with strong instructional program.
One of the most important practices is the recruitment (of part time, flexi-adjunct, and contract teachers) and assignment of teachers (full time and all others) to our classrooms. After looking at the assignment of teachers teaching across the levels and reading the staff deployment policy paper, I hope to share my thoughts and make some suggestions regarding this area. I believe in the importance of selecting and deploying of teachers who have the capabilities and disposition required to solve the challenges our school is currently facing.
The school staff deployment policy paper advocates that the deployment of teachers takes into consideration the teacher’s motivation, ability, roles and support systems that will well enable the teacher to deliver the intended student outcomes. I totally agree with this policy but, to add-on (considering the current profile of our students) I think that in order to progress further there is now a need to consider the importance of recruiting more and retaining teachers who possesses qualities such as the instructional capacity to help at risk students (normal academic, normal technical and even lower ability express) learn and secondly, an unshakable belief in the potential of all students (not just the higher ability students) to learn given the right opportunities and finally, the persistence, patience and optimism needed to create learning experiences for all students in response to initial failure (not just following the standard motion). Priority should be given to ensuring that the recruited and appointed teachers possess as many of the required qualities as possible. This is because the process is difficult and time-consuming, but the result will have a considerable impact on the success of all our programs.
Teachers with the specific skills and attitudes loomed in the minds of many leaders of the school (principal, vice-principals and heads of department). Often I would hear heads of department commented: “.. to get the appropriate teachers in the appropriate classroom.” However, this usually translates to teachers with strong instructional programs been assigned to the “more critical” upper secondary levels. Matters worsen if there are not many of these teachers. Ultimately they will always be given the same upper secondary levels year after year and at long last, they are drained of the much needed energy to help drive the students as there are no other teachers available to teach that critical level. The question is “How can that be?” considering that we are not a new school and that is a critical level. Thus, there is a need to consider how we may want to retain these groups of teachers.
One suggestion is a frequent rotation of teachers among the upper and lower secondary levels or just between the upper secondary levels as a means of improvement. Teacher buddy and professional training can be the supporting systems to help concerned teachers. Another reason getting the teacher to follow through the lower or upper secondary levels with 2 years rotation is also to ensure that the teachers have amply time to target improvements in the subject they are teaching. Once this has become a permanent school culture, many more teachers will acquire the required skill and become that “appropriate” teacher. This is made based on the assumption that teachers are more likely to put in effort with a commitment (rather than resistance) for the students whom they know will be with them for 2 years.
One of the most important practices is the recruitment (of part time, flexi-adjunct, and contract teachers) and assignment of teachers (full time and all others) to our classrooms. After looking at the assignment of teachers teaching across the levels and reading the staff deployment policy paper, I hope to share my thoughts and make some suggestions regarding this area. I believe in the importance of selecting and deploying of teachers who have the capabilities and disposition required to solve the challenges our school is currently facing.
The school staff deployment policy paper advocates that the deployment of teachers takes into consideration the teacher’s motivation, ability, roles and support systems that will well enable the teacher to deliver the intended student outcomes. I totally agree with this policy but, to add-on (considering the current profile of our students) I think that in order to progress further there is now a need to consider the importance of recruiting more and retaining teachers who possesses qualities such as the instructional capacity to help at risk students (normal academic, normal technical and even lower ability express) learn and secondly, an unshakable belief in the potential of all students (not just the higher ability students) to learn given the right opportunities and finally, the persistence, patience and optimism needed to create learning experiences for all students in response to initial failure (not just following the standard motion). Priority should be given to ensuring that the recruited and appointed teachers possess as many of the required qualities as possible. This is because the process is difficult and time-consuming, but the result will have a considerable impact on the success of all our programs.
Teachers with the specific skills and attitudes loomed in the minds of many leaders of the school (principal, vice-principals and heads of department). Often I would hear heads of department commented: “.. to get the appropriate teachers in the appropriate classroom.” However, this usually translates to teachers with strong instructional programs been assigned to the “more critical” upper secondary levels. Matters worsen if there are not many of these teachers. Ultimately they will always be given the same upper secondary levels year after year and at long last, they are drained of the much needed energy to help drive the students as there are no other teachers available to teach that critical level. The question is “How can that be?” considering that we are not a new school and that is a critical level. Thus, there is a need to consider how we may want to retain these groups of teachers.
One suggestion is a frequent rotation of teachers among the upper and lower secondary levels or just between the upper secondary levels as a means of improvement. Teacher buddy and professional training can be the supporting systems to help concerned teachers. Another reason getting the teacher to follow through the lower or upper secondary levels with 2 years rotation is also to ensure that the teachers have amply time to target improvements in the subject they are teaching. Once this has become a permanent school culture, many more teachers will acquire the required skill and become that “appropriate” teacher. This is made based on the assumption that teachers are more likely to put in effort with a commitment (rather than resistance) for the students whom they know will be with them for 2 years.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
My Perceptions of the direction of AISS in 2011
Since I entered AISS in 2005, there has been consistent and relentless attention to improving the quality of teaching and learning. I was asking myself: “Are we stuck in a mode that our students weren’t getting any better. We thought we were trying different ways of teaching … but… the students just weren’t buying into them. So consistently we were getting any improvement in them.”
This year with the setting of clear expectations around behavior, creating a vision, and sharing this vision with teachers and students, I believe that the possibility for improvement will be significantly enhanced. Establishing a more positive climate for learning within the school by “talking up” the school, setting clear expectations (on such matters as behaviors, attire, and even CCA, SRP attendance), and encouraging respect for others (not just teachers, but including student leaders, canteen vendors and even their peers). There is also a greater sense of urgency for maintaining high academic standards by exerting a little pressure on both teachers and students (with the introduction of notation of excellence) to excel. There was always been a pupil behavior policy, but I think there is more continuity with the new pupil behavior policy (applicable for our students even after they leave school). I especially thought that the introduction of leader as student leading their own lives was timely. I believe that this considerable emphasis placed on raising the expectations of teachers and students about behavior and achievement will be the turning point for the school.
Raising the expectations of teachers’ performance meant holding teachers more accountable by putting in place clear monitoring and observation processes (lesson observation, file check, peer observation, punctuality). Initially this was met with resistance and suspicion before the actual work commence, but now teachers see this as part of their professional obligation and a way of sharing ideas about teaching and learning. This practice should however be carried out for all teachers, otherwise teachers may feel that they are been picked upon.
There was more shared expectation as teachers and students were reminded of high achievements at every possible opportunity. Emphasis was placed on reward and recognizing achievement (best class award, conduct grades, Eagles award, OYEA, best teacher award), along with encouraging students to view the school as a place where they could succeed and that success was a possibility (citing of our VH student achieving good GCE O Level results, 2010). Through outdoor learning experiences, students were encouraged to view learning as an entitlement (Shanghai Immersion Program, Perth Learning Journey) and that enjoying learning was an acceptable thing to do.
Within the school, the conditions for improvement arose from a new climate of trust, openness and honesty (as reported in the staff climate survey). There was more collaboration around teaching and learning (through PLCs) and a general commitment among staff to work together. I believe that this is deliberately orchestrated through the provision of opportunities to build teachers’ trust and opportunities for more positive working relationships to develop.
Teachers now had more opportunities to work together both across and within teams. I am inclined to believe that all teachers had already used the various pedagogies for teaching and learning. So the focus on teaching and learning through AfL and using pedagogical supported ICT will provide the impetus for much needed classroom change and development. Teachers are encouraged to engage in professional development activities with an explicit focus on teaching and learning. Training days (PLC days) were solely for exploring different teaching and learning (and not on administrative matters) and to engage teachers in dialogue about teaching. Though not all teachers had incorporated the new learned strategies into their teaching, those teachers are now aware of the possibilities and more importantly, (when they try) they will know where to get help when they need it. My hope is that teaching in our school will become less controlled where students are expected to talk more than the teachers (discussions, cooperative learning, etc) and where opportunities are given for to students to think about their learning.
In all in, these are my perceptions of the direction of the school. I am looking forward to doing my part as our school starts to move forward again. The general positive shift in attitude among teachers and students created the real possibilities of further improvement. The buying in from teachers (and more now willing) is another contributor to improvement in this phase of the school’s development.
This year with the setting of clear expectations around behavior, creating a vision, and sharing this vision with teachers and students, I believe that the possibility for improvement will be significantly enhanced. Establishing a more positive climate for learning within the school by “talking up” the school, setting clear expectations (on such matters as behaviors, attire, and even CCA, SRP attendance), and encouraging respect for others (not just teachers, but including student leaders, canteen vendors and even their peers). There is also a greater sense of urgency for maintaining high academic standards by exerting a little pressure on both teachers and students (with the introduction of notation of excellence) to excel. There was always been a pupil behavior policy, but I think there is more continuity with the new pupil behavior policy (applicable for our students even after they leave school). I especially thought that the introduction of leader as student leading their own lives was timely. I believe that this considerable emphasis placed on raising the expectations of teachers and students about behavior and achievement will be the turning point for the school.
Raising the expectations of teachers’ performance meant holding teachers more accountable by putting in place clear monitoring and observation processes (lesson observation, file check, peer observation, punctuality). Initially this was met with resistance and suspicion before the actual work commence, but now teachers see this as part of their professional obligation and a way of sharing ideas about teaching and learning. This practice should however be carried out for all teachers, otherwise teachers may feel that they are been picked upon.
There was more shared expectation as teachers and students were reminded of high achievements at every possible opportunity. Emphasis was placed on reward and recognizing achievement (best class award, conduct grades, Eagles award, OYEA, best teacher award), along with encouraging students to view the school as a place where they could succeed and that success was a possibility (citing of our VH student achieving good GCE O Level results, 2010). Through outdoor learning experiences, students were encouraged to view learning as an entitlement (Shanghai Immersion Program, Perth Learning Journey) and that enjoying learning was an acceptable thing to do.
Within the school, the conditions for improvement arose from a new climate of trust, openness and honesty (as reported in the staff climate survey). There was more collaboration around teaching and learning (through PLCs) and a general commitment among staff to work together. I believe that this is deliberately orchestrated through the provision of opportunities to build teachers’ trust and opportunities for more positive working relationships to develop.
Teachers now had more opportunities to work together both across and within teams. I am inclined to believe that all teachers had already used the various pedagogies for teaching and learning. So the focus on teaching and learning through AfL and using pedagogical supported ICT will provide the impetus for much needed classroom change and development. Teachers are encouraged to engage in professional development activities with an explicit focus on teaching and learning. Training days (PLC days) were solely for exploring different teaching and learning (and not on administrative matters) and to engage teachers in dialogue about teaching. Though not all teachers had incorporated the new learned strategies into their teaching, those teachers are now aware of the possibilities and more importantly, (when they try) they will know where to get help when they need it. My hope is that teaching in our school will become less controlled where students are expected to talk more than the teachers (discussions, cooperative learning, etc) and where opportunities are given for to students to think about their learning.
In all in, these are my perceptions of the direction of the school. I am looking forward to doing my part as our school starts to move forward again. The general positive shift in attitude among teachers and students created the real possibilities of further improvement. The buying in from teachers (and more now willing) is another contributor to improvement in this phase of the school’s development.
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