Recent Changes

of leadership. This rangesThese range through creative
{Leadership Practices.docx}
my artifacts and reflections under each the Leadership Domains and my Reflections.Domains.

effective in all 4 areas
{Leadership Practices.docx}
Click on the tabs on the right for my artifacts under each of the Leadership Domains and my Reflections.

who are pushinga bit pushy to try to get see both sides.sides for the first time.
{School Council Meeting.docx}
{Board Meeting Reflection.docx}

I found that these 2 meetings were almost polar opposites of one another. At the school level you have passionate parents who are pushing to get everything. At the board level I feel like it was all just box checking and I'm here because I need to be (although I know they know what is probably going to happen in the end as they have been preped or have seen it before). It was interesting to see both sides.
{Board Meeting Reflection.docx}

I find this is an area that a lot of teachers struggle with. This is the point where they feel micro-managed. This is where the idea of transparency and the relationships built within the school really matter and are put to the test. At the same time this is an important area and I have helped to develop many reporting forms in the last year for the groups that I have helped to organize.
{PLC Reporting Form.doc}
{PLT Planning Form.doc}
Both of these forms are suppose to be returned to the office after you have a session. One was sent back to me - completed - but the title of the email was "Fromage." This really is how many teachers see this. They feel that they are not trusted. Now within my current school climate I can see why. The idea of shoot first and ask questions second has been used too many times. Too many teachers see professional learning as hoop jumping and they just want time to work on what they want to work on. I can see both sides of the field now. Much of this idea of accountability though should come from being a professional and wanting to once again better yourself. If you are trying to do this, letting people know what you are doing should not be an issue. It should be even less of an issue if you feel that you are valued as an employee and as a professional. Going back to my communication reflection, with improved communication comes an easier time in Building Relationships and it helps all the way down - ending with being accountable.
The other thing that I have tried to do over the past 2.5 years is to get my department any resources that they need. I have asked for time to plan (usually didn't get it), bought resources, updated them on technology and purchased any equipment to deliver lessons that they asked for. I also have each year secured extra funds for 1 big project (usually around $10,000) for a physical facilities improvements in our dept (a huge multi-media display, 4 new pieces of cardio equipment and 2500 sq ft of rubberized flooring). I have also put us into board studies that gave us time to plan new lessons paid for outside of the school. All of this has helped the department chip away at improvements. It is maybe not at the rate or level that I would do and it is still many times done at a minimal "look I did something" level but it is still improvements. I also have started some moderated marking this semester due to huge gaps between marks of teachers within the same courses and assessments. Hopefully this will bring up what level we are looking for, what that level is about and how are people attaining it. This is being accountable but for many people, if they can get past the - showing my marking - issue, in a less hostile environment because it is internal to your department.
From this I think that the other part of securing accountability is that I need to be happy with moving people a little that don't normally move at all. Remember the 10%. If you are below the standard but it was an improvement to get you there then that is ok. Remember the movie What About Bob "baby steps" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncFCdCjBqcE . Now you will still have to have hard conversations with some people who aren't taking those baby steps but they will be fewer if you provide the resources and then you will have supported them so you have the right to inquiry about why.
For the future I think that some of this will come with the experience of the job. I now carry as my union rep says "all the responsibility but none of the clout." Now having said that I think that with great clout comes greater responsibility. You need to support your teachers first and give them no excuse as why or how they can fail. Then model. Then be positive. Then give them time. Then look for change.

The last item that I have been working on this year is just sending out ideas to our staff about how to use new ideas within their class. I am trying to do this in a very non-pushy way by just sending out some articles around what some others are already doing within the school and some facts about it and some of the comments from the teachers that are doing it. An example is around Flipped Classrooms.
{7 Things to Know About Flipped Classroom.pdf}
2 approaches.
1. Give teachers choice of what to go to but in a time that they have to go to something (PD days etc).
2. Have teachers that are already trying to be innovative in their classes but are not the usually outspoken teachers within your school share what they are doing. This comes from knowing your school well and using all of their resources. By this passive sharing some of the 70% will buy into some of the different practices that interest them and then they can work on it within themselves and at their own pace. This for me goes with the Encouraging the Heart Leadership domain. Most people want to be good and better at their job and if you give them options they will take advantage of them. If you do this enough your school will hit the tipping point and it will become cultural.

This year one of my goals was to put on some PD that could immediately impact teaching. I choose to do this through the use of technology in the classroom. We have netbooks on sign out from our Library but other than using them as research tools many teachers do not have the tech or pedagoical know how to be able to use them effectively. Myself and another teacher show staff (they go to choose to come to our session and between the 2 that we ran about half the school came) how to use 6 websites that each only take minutes or seconds to set up. Many were for collaborating between students or to help with student to staff feedback.
{Netbooks in the Classroom.docx}
a speaker.
{Instructional Strategies Agenda.docx}
The last item that I have been working on this year is just sending out ideas to our staff about how to use new ideas within their class. I am trying to do this in a very non-pushy way by just sending out some articles around what some others are already doing within the school and some facts about it and some of the comments from the teachers that are doing it. An example is around Flipped Classrooms.
{7 Things to Know About Flipped Classroom.pdf}
Moving to the future I believe that my goal around this will be to follow 2 approaches.
1. Give teachers choice of what to go to but in a time that they have to go to something (PD days etc).
2. Have teachers that are already trying to be innovative in their classes but are not the usually outspoken teachers within your school share what they are doing. This comes from knowing your school well and using all of their resources. By this passive sharing some of the 70% will buy into some of the different practices that interest them and then they can work on it within themselves and at their own pace. This for me goes with the Encouraging the Heart Leadership domain. Most people want to be good and better at their job and if you give them options they will take advantage of them. If you do this enough your school will hit the tipping point and it will become cultural.