The Education Revolution

Education is a big political issue. It is fought over in the media by the major parties all of whom wish to put forward the latest magic bullet for education. This isn’t helped by unions and misguided academics who often cry poor and claim that more money is needed. Perhaps it is. Money can help in some ways. My main problem with this isn’t the money, but rather where the money is spent. 

Teacher pay is a constant issue put forward but this isn’t really the issue. Perhaps it was before my time, I cant be sure, all I know is that I have considered myself well paid since I started teaching some 12 years ago, and pay rates have skyrocketed. Recent spending on buildings and laptops has been nice but not really ‘revolutionary’ in that they don’t improve educational outcomes for students. National curriculum. Accreditation systems. Performance based pay. Reporting standards. The NBN. The my schools website. These things distract us constantly from the real thing we need to focus on in schools. Simply teaching.

Furthermore I am a little tired of the constant suggestion that our education system is somehow failing when I see one of the best education systems in the world. We can improve, no doubt, and we should. Lets be life long learners. I guess Im just tired of people chasing the shiny new thing.  

It is with this in mind that I was pleased to see the four corners episode “Revolution in the classroom” this week which discussed the role of quality teaching in improving student outcomes. You can watch it on i-view here: Revolution in the Classroom - Four Corners 

The key quote really outlines the arguments of this well considered documentary on school improvement. 

"Outside of the home environment and the family situation, the biggest impact on a kid's education is teacher effectiveness. The quality of the instruction the teacher provides that student...”

This is really at the heart of the matter for teachers and the most significant way we can improve outcomes for our students. My goal is to have my staff (and myself) reflect on their teaching practice and to improve their teaching practice. To develop good lessons. To ask targeted questions. To utilize formative and summative assessment effectively. To use our students performance as our yardstick. Using data to make changes and improvements and to do this as a school together. 

We have secured an AGQTP (Australian Government Quality Teaching Program) grant to pursue this in numeracy (specifically the teaching of problem solving K-12) this year. My goal is to help make that government money well spent. 

What is your school focusing on in the classroom this year?      

Creating a space for yourself

Creating a space for yourself - writing a job proposal

Iv’e always been interested in creating things but in 2012 I’m going to be creating something that I haven’t really created before. From idea to reality. Its a new job. I say creating because it is a position that doesn’t exist in my organization and one that seems to be relatively new in my field. 

The Headmaster has decided to call the position the ‘Director of Teacher Development’ and there is no job description, no key performance indicators, not even an existing set of positions to draw from. To make matters even more interesting - I have created this position. I created it by way of a formal job proposal I wrote in mid 2011 after a discussion with a trusted colleague where I vented my career frustrations. It seems I had become an ‘all rounder’ and, like most fields I suspect, an all rounder is always employable but not always promotable. I felt like I didn’t now how to move forward.

Having specific skills, particularly where a standard set of career growth avenues are in existence can be the best thing for moving forward. The path is clearer. In education the career progression for a high school teacher will generally go; teacher, year co-ordinator (or sports co-ordinator, assistant Head of Department etc...a small move) then a move to a Head of Department (a key move), from here a move in to an assistant deputy type role in curriculum or student welfare etc..then a deputy role and finally a Principal/Headmaster. It can be a little more flexible in private schooling but I felt that my road block was the ‘Head of Department’ position. It felt like a closed gateway. I had taught across so many areas in my ten years of teaching that this milestone seemed well beyond me as this is a subject specific role. I had been a year co ordinator previously. 

My solution was to try and create a space for myself. These are the steps I went through:

1. I assessed the current school situation, looked at the direction the Headmaster was currently moving the school.
2. I considered my relative strengths. I had discussed these with two other colleagues.
3. I wrote a position proposal. I asked these two trusted colleagues to read over my proposal and tell me if they thought the concept had merit. I based my proposal on selected criteria from other positions that I researched as being advertised at the time as well as from the research I had done in to the area. There was a wealth of information on accreditation and training in education and I applied this information where I could.    
4. I booked in a time to see the boss and ‘pitched’ my idea. 

I waited a few weeks for him to consider the idea and he asked me to change some things about and clarify some areas. I had indadvertedly ‘usurped’ a small part of someone else's job (quite unintentionally) and he was concerned that the new position not disempower any existing staff. Once we had polished it...he offered me the position, on the senior executive. 

My feeling at the time was that I may or may not be successful. I would not have tried if I knew my leader were not open to new ideas (but then again I would not have stayed in this situation either, I would have left the school). I felt that I had nothing to lose. In particular I felt that the position had merit with or without me so in that I would benefit from the Headmaster considering this important area even if I was not to be the one to drive it forward. I believe that being pro-active in this regard is a valuable thing anyway. 

If your feeling trapped in your position but like where you work I recommend this strategy. 

Introduction - Championing a learning institution.

I wanted to start this blog to record some of the thoughts I have about the process of starting a new role in Education (also to get back to writing which was a passion of mine that I somehow misplaced). The new role is a Teacher Development position which feels much like a human resources role. My 2012 goal is to put in place a process of development for teachers. I want this process to help create a culture of innovation and continuous improvement for the school. Tied in with this is the need to support teachers seeking accreditation and general training for staff as they identify it. 

Traditionally teachers and schools have pursued Professional Development in a somewhat haphazard manner with the thoughts that ‘teachers know what development they need for themselves.’ I agree in principle but developing yourself is hard. Being reflective is hard. Developing together in an effective way is even harder. I believe that a good process and a positive culture can help here and I am hoping to promote that - to be its champion if you will.  

In truth I am most interested in a school development program. Schools are its teachers and students. If schools are to develop and improve they need to:

• Identify school goals for improvement
• Take a measurement
• Express those goals to staff
• Assist staff to develop and to assess their development towards the goals
• Take a new measurement and compare the difference
• Reflect on the success of the process

That is to say an innovative institution where a culture of improvement and development exists requires people to develop together. A learning institution requires someone to be casting a vision of improvement and helping individuals to improve in this area. If everyone learns and develops in an area and puts in to place new and better ways of teaching that area then across a school all of the students can make improvements. A learning institution really acts like a learning individual. How do I get people to do that?

How do you create and promote an innovative, data driven, learning culture in a school or else where? Getting my school on this road is my 2012 goal.