A banana update:
I am balanced on the ladder, hand on the banana. I'm close; I can almost taste it.
I may have struck upon the right method to secure those bananas that I started writing about in March.
Slow and steady is the answer. It's been an eight month effort so far but I sense the school will be moving to a vertical pastoral care system for next year. Not only that - the vertical forms will be within the House structure.
The whole bunch of bananas is safe though, as I suspect the horizontal deaning structure will remain in place for a year to make for a successful transition. I was shooting for the whole bunch - vertical, House, House deans in a fully vertical structure.
I'm happy if this transpires though because, personally, I think this is one of those times where it is easier done than said.
This was one of Olander/Ahmed's seven new laws for a world gone digital.
Basically 'it is easier done than said' means - get going and then get better or 'do and learn, don't wait and see'.
So, we dodged a bullet a while back with bad weather causing Hekia Parata to abandon plans to visit our school for an election eve photo op.
After a series of gaffes, she has kept a remarkably low profile in NZ politics of late and so the clearly politically motivated visit didn't sit well with me and many of my colleagues. There was nothing we could do about the situation, though. She is the Minister for Education.
On the other handbag, it would have been interesting to hear what she has to say about leadership, specifically female leadership. I heard her speech to a Principal conference a few years ago and the experience was underwhelming so a second chance to form some opinions would have made the ultimately doomed visit interesting.
It has to be said, that as a Minister of Education she has hardly covered herself in glory.
Apart from the botched increase in class numbers for intermediate schools, the misguided call for performance pay, the politically expedient introduction of charter schools (from an earlier election deal with ACT), the poor handling of the Christchurch schools closures and the introduction of Novopay which was nothing short of disastrous, what have the Romans - doh, has Hekia really done for us.
I tried to search youtube and NZ TV for an inspirational clip of her addressing educational leadership issues but I came up blank. Plenty of reactionary news spots and reactionary government question time moments instead though.
Post election Hekia news could be something to watch out for.
Surprisingly, after 31 years of teaching and management positions, I find myself as a dean in charge of a year group.
Yeah, I know, I know (as Graham Norton would say). Woah Nelly - what happened?
Well the current year dean has resigned, leaving four weeks next term that need filling. I agreed to do it. Simple huh?
Well, not really. You see the deaning structure at school is horizontal, so I will be Year 12 Dean for next term: effectively four weeks until the seniors go on exam leave. "Yeah - so?" I hear you (who don't read my blog regularly) ask.
I like vertical, remember? Not horizontal. I would be happy(ier) with a vertical House Dean position but not horizontal. So a dilly of a pickle that I can handle for a term but not longer than that.
Why has it taken 31 years to get into a year Dean position?
It hasn't really been deliberate - rather than a pastoral care route, I moved into English department management, Boarding School management, and then senior management. Some would say being Senior Housemaster at Mt. Albert Grammar's School House was very pastoral and they would be right but looking after the hundred boys' in a hostel was not horizontal, or restricted in any way.
I was responsible for their academic progress, their day to day living and their discipline. It was an autonomous role that I really enjoyed. Autonomous in the sense that I was left alone to get on with it.
I'm hoping I can say the same by the end of next term. Certainly, being responsible for 50 Year 12 girls will provide some comparisons.
The other thing about it, is that some reinvention is never a bad thing for me. I've been following my bliss with teaching since I was 12 years old and being on that pathway has lead to some amazing places so far, so, I trust in my instincts that this is a worthwhile diversion.
Time will tell.
Recently, as part of a professional development session, one of my awesome colleagues, let's call him Greg, did a nifty Prezi on the technological transformation in teaching from when he started in 1992 up to right here, right now.
It resonated with everyone in the room at Woodford House because we've all experienced the same feeling of being happy slapped by a technological jellyfish (I could have said 'teaching journey' but then I'd have needed to slap myself).
There was quite a range. Mine started in 1983 (hello blackboards, chalk in my contacts - fun, Gestetners , banda machines and, eventually, putting marks into the Apple 2E) , one person in the room is a student teacher (so ipads, Turnitin, smart phones, laptops, smartboards and so on).
Doesn't matter when you got on board this speeding train - teaching and learning continues to change.
Now would be the most exciting time for change in my time as a teacher!
Here's a quick video primer to get you up to speed with what Greg was on about:
For me, the biggest part of that change, so far, has been learning to use a student learning system to the students' advantage. We use Schoology and it is transforming my teaching.
It really is.
Learning is breaking out all over the place, literally! Anywhere, anytime. My students 'talk' to me from anywhere, at any time they like. And I can respond in kind.
Friday night last week, Jacky was working and I had a sugar load of marking to do. One of my students started a dialogue with me on Schoology that lasted for about 3 hours on and off as she aimed to conquer her connections standard (appropriate standard huh). It was quite a buzz to be privy to her thinking and discoveries. In between marking, I kept up my part of the deal by making suggestions and listening to her concerns and problems until she had resolved them to her satisfaction.
It was the sort of thing that would be impossible to do in a class of 20 vivacious, effervescent, demanding Year 13 girls that lasts about 50 minutes on a wet Friday afternoon.
Clearly, course design and timetabling will be affected to a increasing degree in the future because of this new technology. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle.
I want to adjust to these changes now. I'm impatient, yes, but I think it's doable.
I want to design our English courses so that we cater much more for student diversity, creativity, and their need for collaboration. Starting with fostering and rewarding student curiosity.
I've made some proposals to my English colleagues that are exciting me. They build on those things I mentioned in that last paragraph.
The basic idea is simple: to tie a number of internal Achievement Standards into a student driven inquiry in terms 1 and 2. Then spend terms 3 and 4 preparing for a reduced number of external standards. I'm keen to include a lot of student choice in those external standards as well.
When I suggested these things to my colleagues they had the same reaction my Year 13 students had - affirmative noises and head nodding. I'm encouraged enough to see if it's going to fly.
Today I worked out my 'breakouts' for the ulearn conference that I'm heading off to in my October study break. I focused on the kinds of people who were giving voice to these matters.
Should be fun. And I get to share the experience with some bright young things from school.
Clapclapclapclapclapclap YEAH ALRIGHT WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I shared this TED talks presentation with a couple of my classes this week.
When my form class watched (and my Year 11 class) I could tell they were thinking about what they were seeing/reading (I had the transcript on as one of my students is deaf). How did I know? They weren't talking!
Did they get the message? I don't know. I hope so.
Why did I show it?
Well let's see...it's a tough message and I thought it was worthwhile and Clint Smith is an engaging speaker. And it was short, but long enough to generate thought without being a lecture.
Most of all though - I wanted to challenge myself.
What does that mean? Well, at times, we're all guilty of silence-looking away, not engaging with others, and not confronting prejudice front on.
I have been that guy in the past-the one who bites his tongue when people are racist or sexist or stoopid. It's tough for me to be confrontational in that instant. Particularly when they are strangers.
A bus driver took my football team to a game recently and he was vaguely homophobic and I couldn't let his idiotic comment slide. I used my old standby - friends of mine are gay and they are good people (better than a lot of heterosexuals I wanted to add, but I didn't-I wish I had but he was ignorant and I had to get my girls to the game in one piece).
Feeling like I needed to watch the talk a few times to get the message, I did just that with the classes.
I think I have it now. I will not be so accommodating next time, I hope.
I wrote a post recently about my experiences regarding the past ERO visits I'd been involved in.
I am well aware that the blogosphere has been holding its collective breath for my report of my most recent bout of ERO.
Except...I have to exercise a large dollop of discretion and self censorship for this post.
All I can say is that it was... underwhelming.
They seemed to have little capacity to review a technologically innovative school so the less said the better.
And that's all I'm saying - as my mother said - if you can't say anything nice - don't say anything at all.
So - Next topic: We have a visit next week by our Minister of Education.
I've written about Hekia Parata in the past and so...I'm going to exercise another large dollop of self restraint on this one too.
Instead - another next topic: I wrote a post on my Wozza's Place blog recently about new forms of advertising in the digital age. Here's an excerpt:
The best advertising isn't advertising so says Chapter three in Velocity (the brilliant book by Ahmed/ Olander).
The goal is to create connections with customers and earn their loyalty by serving them;
This means a shift from selling a product to selling a service.
At a recent school assembly we were shown an advert made by women's personal care brand Always.
http://www.always.com/en-us/home.aspx
You'll be stunned to know that the video itself wasn't about personal care products for women at all!
Instead it takes on the outdated idea of 'running like a girl, throwing like a girl' and promotes the worthy concept of women's self esteem. A self esteem that has been battered by the 'throw like a girl' pejorative term (or so says the advert).
I haven't heard the term for years but there you go.
As we were watching the advert I was getting the growing feeling that I was being manipulated. I couldn't help wondering what this video was selling. What was Always?
Unlike the ANZ advert that I featured on my Wozza's Place blog - this one was more insidious. The brand name Always featured only at the end and only in a minor way.
See what you think.. http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/07/01/viral-video-of-week-an-ad-that-challenges-what-it-means-to-throw-like-a-girl/
This article mentioned a Dove advert that also effectively targets women's perceptions of themselves:
Clearly these are great examples of the shift from selling a product to selling a service. Who wouldn't want women to feel better about themselves?
I'm sure the Always advert's makers would be delighted to know that their advert was being shown to a school assembly.
My question - when does selling a service stop and selling a product start?
We have the pleasure of an ERO visit this week at school.
ERO stands for Education Review Office and if you're in the northern blogohemisphere think Ofsted.
I was reflecting today (as the ERO officer perambulated around my classroom and looked at my wall displays of The Beatles, Arsenal, Star Wars amid the work of students) how many inspections/reviews I'd been part of in my teaching career so far.
At New Plymouth Boys' High I was lucky enough to catch the death throes of the old Inspectorate system, before ERO was born in the late 1980s. These were scary things. The Inspectors came, watched in a humourless way and left. I never found out what they thought but I wasn't fired so that was good.
My first ERO visit was at MacLeans College. Ron Martin had been one of my lecturers at Teachers' College and was now working for ERO. He bounced into my class, watched for approximately 90 seconds and then asked if he could teach some stuff. Well Dah! I watched him for about 10 minutes and he bounced out. Great stuff!
The visit when I was a first time Head of English at Waimea College wasn't very memorable, nor my second time HoD English at Mt. Albert Grammar.
Then I went to Cambridge High School as Deputy Principal and had two wildly contrasting reviews within months of each other. The first one thought we were the best school on the planet, but political pressure (or something) lead to a second one which was utterly scathing. Yes the same school. Yes within months of each other!! Weird.
In England at The King John School I enjoyed the terror of the Ofsted inspectors. It felt something like the old coldly bureaucratic School Inspectors. The school was in a complete tizz for weeks before and during the visit. But the review was glowing!
Back in NZ and my first year of Principalship and - you guessed it - an ERO review. Also a very positive experience at Stratford High School I am happy to report. A lot of paper work but we got a very encouraging review.
In the Middle East I found myself acting as a defacto ERO reviewer of a school while being embedded in it. It was a great experience and the school made a lot of progress in terms of teaching and learning.
And so - to my...let's see...my ninth review in 31 years of teaching. This time as HoD English again.
I really hope she is a Beatles/ Arsenal/ Star Wars fan!
