Developing a set of school values

The principal at our school recently asked all staff members to contribute what they saw as the values of our school. It was an interesting task and they came up with a vast list. Here it is:

Service

· To others

· To charity

· Have compassion for others in need

· Community minded and not ‘self-serving’

· Show care and compassion

Lifelong Learning

· Are committed to the value e.g. lifelong learning

· Instilling a desire for lifelong learning

· Lifelong education of the whole person

· Value the process of learning and the opportunities to do so

Achieving full potential/excellence

· Make the most of our talents and opportunities

· Achieve your potential

· Maximise potential

· Education of the whole person

· Commitment to development of talents and use of talents – staff, students and parents

· Striving to reach an individual’s potential

Respect

· For individual differences

· The learning styles / needs of individuals in our community

· Of individuals and for the environment

· Everyone and their property

· Beliefs and values of others

· For self and others

· Love

· Acceptance and tolerance of individual difference

· Safety

· Respect for staff, others and environment

Faith

· Live out our faith in the light of the example of Jesus Christ

· Catholic tradition central

· Being a disciple of Jesus in action

· Christian values taught and upheld

· Grace

· Promotion of faith

· Faithful (to College and God)

· Faith filled community

· Spirituality of faith

Celebrate diversity

· Live as part of a global community (contribute to the global community)

· Responsible citizen

· Celebrate the diversity

· Culturally diverse

· Community

· Welcoming

· Providing a caring and welcoming community for all

· Inclusively

· Unified and inclusive as a community

· Acceptance

· Safe and welcoming community (and supportive)

· Value others opinions

· Value diversity

Working Together

· Work together / in partnership

· Provide a safe and supportive community / environment

· Work together towards common goals

· Parents, staff and students sharing the same ideals and working together to the same ends

· Supportive environment

· Support and provide opportunities

· Supportive

· Collaboration

· Cooperation

· Communication – do it nicely!

· Communication

· Equity

· Sense of community

· Forgiving and restorative practices – promotion of choice with responsibility

· Empathy

Wholeness: including

o Striving for Excellence

o Honesty and Respect

o Resilience

o Trust

o Truth / trust

o Wellness

o Optimism / hope

o Forgiveness/Reconciliation

o Commitment

o Integrity

o Loyalty

o Compassion

o Hope

o Optimistic

o Responsive

o Morals

o Leadership

o Just

o Pride in personal appearance

o Having a ‘go’!

o Care for environment

Others:

· Provision of quality teaching (and learning)

· Providing appropriate educational pathways for students

· Build the resilience that we need to take on the challenges in our lives

· Modelling – role models, students and staff

· Support

· Value for money

Some good stuff. Now I think Amanda and I will be involved in honing it down using one of the protocols later in the year. I might have a go at summarising the gist of what is being said in each heading and offering that up as a basis for the Gleeson Ten.

Well, what do you know!

I recently applied to be a member of a National group looking at Teaching Standards in Australia.
This was my application:

I was recently exposed to the draft of the Charter for the Teaching Profession at a recent AGQTP session on Constructive Pedagogies. We were examining the document whilst using the ANSN teaching protocols – in this case we use the Consultancy Protocol. Whilst examining the document I was intrigued by the possibilities for my own school and for the profession in general.

We did not come up with any significant changes to the document – that was not our purpose. The five areas outlined in the document immediately suggested to me a guide for helping to create a Professional Learning Policy for teachers at our school.

I have been a teacher for nearly 24 years and have taught in High Schools for all of that time. In my time I have had many positions of responsibility including Coordinator of Science, Year Level Coordinator and my current position Professional Learning Coordinator. However, time and again, I have been drawn back to teaching in the classroom. I have set myself the goal to improve my teaching methodology each year. Each time I have felt that this personal goal (personal improvement of my teaching methodology) was enough. This document has shown me that it can be much more than this.

During my teaching career I have undertaken further study – I have completed a Masters in Science Education through Curtin University in 2002, for example. I have been a member of the AGQTP group looking at Constructive Pedagogies over the last two years and have been asked to join a leadership group amongst our system to help other teachers develop their teaching strategies.

In the last three years (thanks to a visionary principal) I have had a position in the school where I have the opportunity to work intimately with members of the teaching profession. This has included work as a mentor (to both new and student teachers), a leader of teachers during the implementation of the Middle School structure in our school and as a leader of small groups of teachers meeting in Learning Teams.

My reflection is that teaching has become incredibly complex in the last 10 years. More is expected of teachers from Governments, leadership, parents and students themselves. It is no longer enough simply to teach what we taught last year in the same way we taught it last year. Teachers can get lost in this complexity and this is where a charter can help clarify the role of those of us in the teaching profession.

We are reminded again and again of how important the job is theoretically, but the almost constant sniping at teaching standards from both sides of the political divide is weakening the confidence that members of the public have in teachers. A well-implemented charter is something that we can hold up and say, “No, you are wrong. This is what we are on about. Now let us get on with this very important work”.

I would like an opportunity to join the Drafting Group for the reasons I have outlined above. I believe I have significant experience in teaching and working with teachers to make a worthwhile contribution to the Group. I very much pride myself on my ability to work with others in a team. I do this constantly with my own teachers, working with teachers of the same subject or in the same year level, exchanging ideas and resources and discussing strategies and expectations.

I would see many advantages in developing national professional standards. Not only do they become a statement for all teachers to present to the wider community, they become a framework for teacher improvement and a clear guide for new teachers coming into the profession.

I am new to the area of writing professional standards but I would bring a new perspective and plenty of useful ideas to the Drafting Group. I am willing to learn. My talents include an ability to apply deep analysis of such documents but also an ability to show how things are connected.

If this application is not successful, I would appreciate if you could keep in contact with me in my capacity as the Professional Learning Coordinator. As stated earlier I can see such standards as being directly useful in my work as the Professional Learning Coordinator.

And guess what...I got in!
Late November I get to go to Canberra to work with the group for four days. Pretty amazing and exciting. To top it off, I will be in Canberra on the day of the election! I might even get to go to the Tally Room and meet the new Prime Minister! Magic.

Further movement in the CAR committe

I suggested that I design some sort of framework for the committee highlighting the work it does and the decisions that have been made and the principles decided upon in the past by the committee.
A quick scan of the minutes suggests that the committee looks at number of different areas: Open days, information nights, reporting, curriculum for senior and middle schools, student teachers, teaching plans and course outlines are just some of the areas that the committee looks into.
I will try to summarise these for the future meetings.
This hopefully will be the start of clarifying the purpose of the committee and helping with decision making in future.

Working with Student Teachers

Interesting times working with student teachers at this point. It's here you see how far you have come over the years and how many skills you have that you just naturally do without thinking.
Timing the lesson, peripheral vision, student management and even content knowledge.
One trick I showed my colleague was that when you are asking students to do something use the 5W as a guide to what you should tell them.

For example, when asking students to fill in a sheet:
Who (discuss this in pairs);
What (complete questions 2-5);
When (You have 10 minutes);
Where (put the answers in your exercise book);
Why (we will use this information in the practical we will do later).

By doing this the teacher will ensure that just about all the important bits of information are given to the students but using the simple check list.
This came up naturally in conversation with the student teacher - another sign that I am beginning to assimilate the productive pedagogies into my teaching.

Useful site for developing individualised graphic organisers.

This site (in beta version) could be useful in creating graphic organisers modified for your particular subject.

Check it out!

Movement on the Protocols

Big movement on decision making in the school.
I chaired a meeting of the CAR group and it became clear that the discussion was ill-directed and often fatuous.
At the end, it was suggested that a decision making process be adopted by the committee to help direct discussion in a more fruitful or at least, efficient direction. This was agreed to.
Also I "kited" the idea that the CAR needs a framework of principles of operation - eg "all long reports are submitted first to allow for extensive proofreading". I might suggest that i get the minutes of the CAR meeting to help flesh out this framework. Accompanying this should be a vision statement for the group. More of this later when it starts to gel.
Also we got the go ahead to use some sort of refining protocol to help with the development of the basic beleif statement for the school. This process was started by teachers who listed down their top 10 beliefs about education. This will be added to by the Board, P&F and by the SRC of the school.
We will then use our time at the end of the year to discuss, probably using the tuning protocol, the summarised version of all of this. I now need to sit down with Amanda to discuss how we might do this.

Summary of Learning Team Meetings

This summary was sent out to all the Year 8 and 9 teacher to prepare them for the next meeting:

8 LT1 – Last Meeting: Tricia shared her unit on comparing two civilisations. Included ideas of student choice (e.g. essay topic), variety of presentations, gender balance, scaffolding, feedback sheets; Helen shared her “faith in action” review of charitable organisations unit in RE. Included random groups (sometimes a good option for short term activities) and “lucky dips” for the charity i.e. little choice. Students had to champion their charity. They were assessed on cooperative skills and their presentation.

It was suggest that two others shared a success in their teaching, using the “success” protocol.

8LT2 – Craig shared his “Revision/Test/Revision/Test” methodology to help develop revision skills. This helped give students feedback on their revision techniques. Jason shared the cross – curriculum “Pedal Prix” unit developed with Tricia. We furthered discussed test preparation techniques such as: Look, Cover, Write, Check, Flash cards, asking questions of a partner (sometimes called “See Saw”), active reading, students creating almost daily revision sheets. We decided that we would trial test preparation and get data to compare how students went. So bring samples folks.

9LT1 – Discussion of what “X” factor in student work makes for an “A” standard. Jess shared her work on developing “sophisticated” poetry. Sophisticated skills included: appropriate technique and terms, abstract language, complex vocabulary. Use of metaphor, simile, alliteration, onomatopoeia and ? (There was a fifth technique). Reading is important in helping develop sophistication. Suggested that “every Year 8 and 9 carry a novel with them to all lessons” [where possible]. Also, keep sophisticated work to show other students. Students need to do the unpredictable/original/unique to improve their standard of responses.

[On Reflection: This only needs a little bit of work to become a useful document for all teachers to help improve the sophistication of student answers].

It was suggest that two others shared a success in their teaching, using the “success” protocol.

9LT2 – Looked at the use of Rubrics for assessment. Paula presented one’s she had used for practicals and tests. The test rubric had been used twice and was useful to see if students had improved in their skills. Lengthy discussion of individual assessment during group tasks. Use of the ePortfolio. We will work further on the Rubrics (Test/Research – Gerald, Orals –Paula, Practicals – Emily, Clint – Movies. Aim was to trial a Rubric and bring back feedback to the next meeting.

Presentation day at AGQTP

Last meeting for the year was presentation day for all involved. A culmination of the work done in the third term on our projects.
Here is a brief summary of most of them:
All Saints - Reviewed the schools Personal Responsibility Policy using Cognitive and Cooperative strategies and the tuning protocol. Then used the same protocol so that we could review their policy. Very successful at their school.
St Gabriels - Focussed on working with targeted teachers in their school to model the strategies. Picked up a unit of work (on Creation) and showed how it could be taught over five lessons. Other teachers looked on and took notes. They were enthusiastic and will now model them to other teachers.
Our School - decision making processes in our school. Clear that this needs refining to be able to manage some of the decisions that need to made in the future e.g. future SACE.
St Francis X - wanted to make P.L. more relevant and individualised. Used PMI - a good tool to model and use to review. [Could lead into using a protocol to examine the results]. As a result of the review, there is more continuity, they include more energisers from other people, incorporate cognitive and cooperative strategies, time for sharing and professional reading time. Learning teams have formed and a member of each team is part of the Lead Learning Team. Teams include Higher Order Thinking, Brain Based Learning, Choice Theory, Cooperative/Cognitive Strategies, Questioning, and Student Engagement.
Mary Mount - does student directed learning improve engagement? They worked in teams on a topic of their choice on energy. [Have asked her to send me a copy of what she did]
St Josephs ? - Used protocols to share the learning that they and others had experience in the various AGQTP activities.
Sacred Heart Middle School - Authentic assessment. Class did study on what chips are best. Need to use statistical tools to work this out and then write it up justifying their decision. [Again, have asked him to send me the documentation]
St Josephs Tranmere - whole school engaged in a project on Antarctica which focussed on all four Productive Pedagogy elements. Huge project.
St Francis A - using pp based activities to raise student engagement.
My reflection on the process is the enormous range of talent in the room and the different roads people appear to be taking whilst introducing these pedagogies. The discussion after the presentation reflected this with a general feeling that many people were prepared to go the next step and willing to lead others through the productive pedagogies pathways.
I felt that we needed to document the way in which people have grown and developed in this area and what was necessary for this to happen ie. time to review, try, evaluate, listen to others then try again. Also we need to indicate what conditions are necessary to help the process in our schools: principal on board (especially in financial terms), some teachers in the school willing to tackle new ideas, a long term commitment to change.
Should be an interesting year next year.

Really getting the hang of this...

I just noticed that when planning two units of work, how easy it was to introduce Constructive Pedagogies into the planning.
For example, in a new unit in Psychology, I wanted to explore student definitions of emotion - so we did a Y chart - very suitable for this unit. Then when trying to understand what the books definition of emotion was, we used a concept map.
Further, in a Year 9 Science unit on Light, I wanted to explore what students knew about light. So I did a Think, Pair, Share on 3 different questions: How can we see trees? What can't blind people see trees and what is colour. They all complained about doing each of these activities but when they reported after the Share section, it was quite clear that some ideas were spot on and others were way off.
Would like to do more of them where appropriate but my biggest hurdle is how to decide which is appropriate for each situation.

I found this site, which summarises them according to function. Could be useful.

future SACE and its impact on the middle School

This could be great. The structures in future SACE include:

• personal learning plans - we could begin this in Year 8 particularly at the end of the first term when we meet with students and parents to discuss how they are going. Very strongly linked to the reports done in Term 1. Review at least once a term after each report. Plans written down and submitted on-line for access by students and parents, as well as teachers and coordinators.
  
• extended learning initiatives - currently done in Year 12 but we could do a cut-down version in Year 9. Basically students study a subject area of their own choice based on personal interests. Presented to the wider community (somehow) towards the end of Year 9 - maybe at a presentation night?
  
• Numeracy and Literacy requirements (not sure what they are) which must be met sometime in Year 8 or 9. Need to decide what basic numeracy and literacy skills are needed by the time they finish Year 9. These skills would be taught across the curriculum so much so that people would need to indicate in their teaching outlines explicitly where they will teach these skills.
  
• Capabilities - if we use the Gleeson 10 as a guide, these could be developed in these two years.
• Must achieve at least a "B" in five core (Science, Maths, SOSE, English, Italian) subjects or a "C" in choice subjects. If not, they repeat the subject in the following year. Alternatively, each KLA could identify key units of work that students must receive a “B” in whilst they are doing Year 8 and 9.

The Gleeson 10 might include:

• Life-long, independent, skilled learners.
• Creative, critical, self-evaluating thinkers.
• Empathetic and collaborative workers.
• Self-aware citizens of the world.
• Confident problem solvers.
• Responsible and resilient individuals
• Effective communicators
  
• Socially and environmentally responsible individuals.
• Spiritually-aware, faith-filled members of the church and community.
• A producer of quality work.

If we use these as a guide to the sort of "capabilities" we want our students to have by the time they reach Year 9, then that changes what we teach and how we teach.
This would radically overhaul what we do in the middle school and really get them prepared for senior school.
It could be that each KLA decides to focus on one particular aspect in each of Year 8 and 9. For example, maths could look at “confident problem solvers”, English – “effective communicators”, RE – “spiritually aware, faith-filled members of the church and community” etc.
This would radically overhaul what we do in the middle school and really get them prepared for senior school. I realise this is only “pie in the sky” stuff and would need to have full agreement from the teachers involved but not only does it achieve a lot of what we want to see in the Middle School (I think) but it also prepares our students for the future SACE.

Professional Learning Review

It could be that Professsional Learning at our school may take a decided turn for the better.
After an abortive pd session for the majority of our KLACs and YLCs, I plan to put forward the idea of developing a professional Learning plan for all teachers, PART of which might be organising speakers from outside the school, but most of which will be sessions run by teachers in small groups or groups of individuals meeting together to discuss matters of import (e.g. Learning Pairs or Learning Teams).
Apparently the Flinders Maths and Science school run it this way and have done so right from the start. However, they have an afternoon off a week and don't have to share a campus with two other schools. This could be a sticking point because we won't have the flexibility in the timetable if we go it alone and say take Tuesday afternoon off.
I am thinking of coming up with a professional learning policy which includes:

• professional learning plans made by each teacher with their teacher mentors
• regular professional learning in groups or individually
• professional development sessions
• lead learning team made up of myself the Principal and deputy and three others who have responsibility for overseeing the structure and running of these teams.