WAPA Leadership PL - Reflective Practice

As part of a symposium hosted by the West Auckland Principals' Association, the Strategic Leadership Team had an opportunity to listen to American educator, Pete Hall, share his ideas around creating a culture of reflective practice within a school setting.

When there is a culture of reflective practice, the commonalities define the culture, whether it is good, bad or mismatched. Hall identified the following fundamentals or building blocks for reflective practice:

• Relationships, roles and responsibilities (based around interpersonal safety and identified strengths)
• Clear expectations and communication
• Celebrating and also calibrating - when things go ary
• Goal setting and follow through
• Professional learning communities (PLC) and teacher leadership support
• Transformational feedback
• Differentiated coaching strategies

There are 4 stages along the continuum of Self Reflection - Unaware, Conscious, Action and Refinement. Pete walked us through the tool he has designed for self reflection, it is part continuum and part matrix, but is a comprehensive tool for exploring where you may be sitting in terms of your development as an educator. 

The video below provides a metaphor for understanding the Continuum of Self Reflection.

We need to consider that when we categorise people, we often miss the  important details, both the good and the bad that give us a fuller picture of that individual. We have an obligation to recognise people's strengths, to name them and to build upon them. As a leader, it is important to pay attention, to know what motivates and inspires an individual, and how each team member wants to be celebrated and acknowledged. 

An interesting point to keep in mind is, the way each of us teaches is a reflection of self. Observable behaviours and actions are just the tip of the iceberg. Below the water, the unseen, the driving forces include each individual's decisions, feelings, thoughts and beliefs. When exploring choices made by educators, a useful question could be to ask, " I noticed you did this...What other actions/options did you forgo in order to do this?"

Building teacher capacity needs time. We need to consider how to increase collective capacity - through robust professional learning communities, and also how to increase individual capacity - differentiate supervisory, coaching and feedback practices. You can't just work on a team, you need to work on both the team and individuals. We need to ensure we match our teachers needs and work deliberately towards point B.

The Cycle of Reflective Teaching

"The more reflective you are, the more effective you are." Hall & Simeral.

Reflection is thinking with purpose, that leads to outcomes. There are 4 key steps in the reflective cycle.

1. Awareness: keeping ideas, goals and outcomes in mind
2. Thinking intentionally
3. Assess impact: pay attention. Ask "Am I getting better?"
4. Responsiveness: make adaptations

The reflective cycle is like going up a spiral staircase, there is a little more expertise with each iteration.

Awareness

"Leaders don't change people. They create environments where people change themselves" Justin Tarte.

Educators need to know their why - why is it that they are in teaching in the first place? They need to know their learners, what they are teaching and the most effective pedagogical approaches to convey this.

Thinking Intentionally

Clarity precedes competence. Visionary leadership supports this when there is:

• a common language - so everyone knows what is meant by 'buzz phrases'
• common goals
• a clear plan for communicating these goals

4 Key Questions:

• What does success at our school look like?
• What are we truly trying to accomplish here?
• Why all this emphasis on reflective practice?
• How is reflective practice going to help us improve our results anyway?

Know your why. It makes a difference, as illustrated in the video, when we are connected to a purpose (the why). We often experience burnout when we've forgotten 'why?'

Assess Impact

"The applause is a celebration, not only of the actors, but also of the audience. It constitutes a shared moment of delight." John Charles Polanyi

Celebrate what you value. Constantly assess the impact, results, effectiveness and short comings of anything you try.

Responsiveness

This is all about goal setting. Never mistake motion for action. Keep in mind that planning allows you to be adaptable, as opposed to blindly following the plan. We looked at SMART goal setting, with some tweaks and adjustments:

S: Strategically aligned to each other and our clear, compelling vision

M: Measurable

A: Attainable -Aggressive - Audacious (going from a low rung to a running jump)

R: Relevant

T: Time bound

Teachers need to reflect on:

1. What are we focused on as a school or team?
2. What is my personal, professional goal? What do I want to get better at?

So overall, a thought provoking day, with some useful tools and questions to apply to change leadership at Matua Ngaru School as we support our learners, educators and school community to ride the wave of change.

The Learning Brain with Nathan Wallis and Andrew Fuller

On April 26, Wendy, Kirstin and I attended "the Learning Brain" Conference at Waipuna hosted by the Learning Network. The two keynotes, both well known experts, certainly compelled our brains to learn!

Nathan Wallis began the day enlightening us with how much we have learned about cognition, or the Learning Brain, or Tikaka o Ka Roro, since the 1980s due to advances in technology, namely scanning.  Before this, all we knew about brains was learned from researching dead brains.  He provoked us by sharing the fact that genius has very little to do with our genetics and that there are no genes that pre-determine your intelligence (did you know we have 3000 less genes than a fruit fly?!).  The biggest developmental impact on our brains comes from how many spoken words a baby hears in their first 1000 days which is known as the diad or one on one relationship.  Those who have a poor diad have a greater risk of brain development but these can be counter-balanced or 'absorbed' by resiliency factors which include:  birth order, gender, parent home for first year, learn to play an instrument, speak multiple languages, educated parents, close relationships with extended families.  Those the risks continue with alcohol-drug abuse, physical abuse, transient, not spoken to in native language etc.  


He then continued to re-educate us on the neuro-sequential brain, and this is where the penny drops.  Brains 1,2 and 3 are compulsory- all info comes in through these brains (think of a four story house) and we need these to live

1-Survival: brain stem (Heart rate: fight, flight, freeze)

2-Movement: Movement brain (reptilian brain- coordination)

3-Limbic system: Emotional brain (responses)

But, Brain 4 is our emotional brain- where we experience empathy and higher intelligence:

4-Cortical- Learning brain (empathy, controlling self, literacy)

Something else we need to bare in mind is that our brain is not completely developed until we are in our twenties and females usually faster than males (and first born is usually faster too).  He also stated that a teenagers learning brain shuts off for a few years, so they are more like a 3 year old than a 16 year old.  

Provocation: prisons are full of males that are not first born, many in their twenties, what do we do with this information?!  

Andrew Fuller followed with information about how to rewire our brain, bombarding us with facts about the science of our brains and that 'goals are good but systems are better'.  Meaning that we need to develop systems that enable the full potential of our brain power, namely eating well and sleeping well.  He shared information about the neurochemicals in our brain and how they influence our actions and how our systems can enhance and amplify desired effects. For instance, to increase dopamine, which motivates, gives pleasure and increases attention we should engage in problem solving and sports and avoid computer games and we should eat fish, oats, peanuts, seeds and tofu.  

After a quick break we were back to Nathan Wallis who talked to us about X Factor Education.  Our brain is a biological relationship machine which is based on the neuron, or brain cell.  There are different types of neurons but at the center of each is an electrical charge and when neurons connect it is this charge that connects to form neural pathways and this is where the information is stored (connectivisim theory).  The brain has a system for keeping or rejecting the synaptic connections iand this is where myolin comes in.  Myolin (white matter- fat based- insulator over the pathways) is laid down when we practice a skill- each time adds another layer and it needs to be done 90ish times to become truly 'learned'. So our prior knowledge is a network of synaptic connections (consider how fast we learn fractions as an isolated lesson versus learning fractions as we learn to bake).

Nathan says that the love of learning comes in brain 3 and we must be careful to not kill this brain, and the hippocampus can be thought of as the 'google' of our brain, not the library. Our happy hormone, endorphins, enable myolin to be laid down more quickly and thus make learning faster. So how do we increase endorphins? Sex is the biggest rush of endorphins! So since this can't be addressed in a school context we need to develop situations and learning experiences to heighten:

1.Laughing -laughter yoga,  

2.Movement is intricately related to learning- fidgeting is good!

3.Our Major Pedagogy- should be singing!  #1 way to release endorphins.  If we are singing we are not in SURVIVAL mode.

To decrease these we encourage the release of cortisol. When cortisol is released is removes the latest learning (the last synaptic connection) and he suggests even using the words 'no' or 'don't' versus could you.... can release cortisol. So as educators we can think of the brain as a garden where endorphins fertilize learning and cortisol is pesticide that kills the newest learning.

• Myolin is the ashpalt of our brain - making our synaptic connections permanent knowledge/skills.

• Poutama- MOE- symbolic of learning brain

• Endorphins speed up learning.

• Countries with compulsory music programmes produce best mathematicians eg. Hungary, Japan, Netherlands…

• Autistic children- have higher levels of cortisol

• Brain’s job is to VISUALISE oral language- 25% of the brain pictures what you say whether it is do or don’t so if we don’t want them to do something don’t use those words- say the opposite.

Takeaways:

Then we were back to Andrew who brought use back to discussing the brain and food relationship in more detail.  Some highlights:

Make data visual- animate it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo

• Teach the concept before you ask questions about the concept. Brainstorming is a waste of time?!
• If we are going to label anything, label strengths.
• Power of feedback.
• Exploit the memory and oralfactory connection- make our school smell good
• Be visual
• GET IT Model: Getting Ready to learn, Experiencing difference, Trying it out, Information Processing and Transfer.  
• Be diagnostic BEFORE you 'treat or intervene' Learning Strengths inventory.  http://andrewfuller.com.au/free-resources/
• How do we diagnose the ‘ blockages’? In the different areas?
  Language and Words, Spatial Reasoning, Thinking and Logic, Perceptual & Motor Coordination, Planning & Sequencing, Numbers, People Skills, Concentration & Memory,
• The Power of Feedback- especially important to help boys make progress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao
• Increase visuals. Get kids to point to stuff. Provide repetition. Note taking- break page into 3 parts with a venn diagram at bottom (see pic).  Give your memory a hand. Silence. Similarities and differences. Relationships - how do we collectively own the kids to create a powerful sense of belonging
• Need our kids to know to ask for help. Help our kids know what they are good at.
• Anxious and avoidant times (survival type responses)- use the growth mindset to manage the challenges.
  My brain is a binary system.
• Decision Making→ PICCA: problem then 5 whys I wants, Choices, Comparisons and Action.
• Shark thoughts (i should be able to …) and Dolphin thoughts (helpful ideas!).  
• Teach kids to concentrate! Concentration→
  Happy Wanderers- Frequent Flyers- Spies (know more about the school than anyone else, love challenges)- Amplifiers (make everything louder and more intense)- Fidgeters (tend to collect things)- Star Trekkers (give them a chance to get things wrong- make them take risks).  Do not feed the fears
• How can ‘ David’s beat Goliath’s’ 
• How smart are we? (self, people, music, picture, logic, word, number, body…) → analyse our strengths (MI quiz)
• Optical illusions… where’s wally? What do you see?  
• Prioritisation.  Learn to prioritise.  What do you need to do NEXT?  KIS = success. Be the boss?  
• Glass half empty?  Focus on what IS there not what is not. The magic happens when we are well beyond our comfort zone.  
• It takes 6 weeks to form a habit (to cover the synaptic connection with enough myolin)

Wow.  Overloaded learning brain!  Need to learn to morph our sharks into dolphins, not care what others think and turn our opponents into our allies.  If we fall down 7 times, we get up 8!

From our values and beliefs to our principles and practices...early work with the SLT

#Dreamteam

Our team has been spending a great deal of time (their own time I might add) enthusiastically contributing to our curriculum development.   Kirstin, Wendy, Heike, Michael, Megan (EBoT) and I worked together on two Fridays after school in Term 1 to begin this very important work.  I am very pleased that I was able to appoint all four of these amazing educators last year so that they could contribute to this pivotal and foundational work before they are employed.

This of course begins with a firm grounding and shared understanding of our vision, uncovering our beliefs about learning to form our learning values and this will then lead to the construction of our curriculum framework which will underpin our approach to teaching, learning and assessment.  We used the following slides to guide our process.

Designing a Future Focused Leadership Team

Designing a future focused leadership team was one of my first priorities when I was appointed as Foundation Principal at Matua Ngaru.  We know that having the best people, committed to the "ubiquitous learning, on a wave of change" vision is essential to our success.  I had discussions with the EBoT at the first board meeting I attended and all were in agreement that we wanted to appoint our Deputy Principals as soon as possible.  Fantastic!  But wait there's more.  Reflecting on my learning from establishing Ormiston Primary School as a foundation Deputy Principal, I made a pitch.  My pitch was based on creative ways to recruit Lead Learning Coaches for Term 4, 2018.  Why?  Because time for induction of the leadership team and educators needs to be a top priority and a huge takeaway for me from my time at OrmPS is that you need time to induct well.  So my rationale was to recruit two Lead Learning Coaches (LLCs) in addition to the Deputy Principals (DPs) all to start in 2018.  I worked with the Board, our governance facilitator and staff at the Ministry to use our establishment year staffing creatively.  My hope was for one DP to start in Term 2, one DP to start in Term 3 and the 2 LLCs to start in Term 4- effectively costing us the equivalent of one educator for one term.  So we designed our recruitment process with Cognition Education as follows:

For DPs:
What we did:

• Advertise in the gazette with an application pack that included a job description and person specifications
• Shortlist to 6-8 with EBoT using a ranking matrix
• Visit applicants in their current school
• Informal meet and greet at cafe
• Shortlist again to 4-5
• Final Interview and presentation with EBoT and Principal
• Letter of Offer signed and Appointments made

What we noticed: that we had a diverse range of experience and expertise in our candidates. Because it was so important for us to design a team of complimentary skills, personalities and experience we looked closely at how each demonstrated leadership capability and capacity, genuine enthusiasm for the role and a proven growth mindset.  We found that our process gave us multiple 'performance pieces' to critique and learn about our shortlisted candidates and the school visits and informal coffee sessions were very valuable components of our decision making process.  

Our appointments: we were thrilled to offer the positions to:

• Wendy Ness, an experienced DP and acting principal from Henderson Primary School who demonstrated a passion and committment to leading a future focused school with proven experience partnering with community, leading the learning of educators and advocating powerfully for all learners
• Kirstin Anderson-McGhie, an experienced Vertical Team Leader and Connected Educator who demonstrated a growth mindest and committment to lifelong learning along with influencing change for learning with digital technologies, trialing innovative approaches and championing her learners and colleagues

For LLCs:
What we did:

• Advertise in the gazette with an application pack that included a job description and person specifications
• Shortlist to 12 with EBoT using a ranking matrix
• Collaboration evening: applicants to conduct a personality test and participate in the NZCERs Curriculum for the Future game with 3 Board trustees acting as the Panel, Principal and DPs acting as ethnographers/observers and candidates randomly placed in 4 teams of 3 each representing one of the curriculum options:
1. Competencies Curriculum
2. Co-developed with Learners Curriculum
3. Artificial Intelligence Curriculum
4. The Localised Curriculum
• Shortlist to 5-6 with EBoT
• Visit applicants in their current school
• Final Interview and presentation with EBoT and SLT
• Letter of Offer signed and Appointments made

What we noticed: that we had a room full of high quality, invested candidates.  The passion and enthusiasm that each candidate demonstrated was truly amazing.  Again, the multiple performance pieces, along with references, painted a picture for what we could anticipate.  We needed to balance this with ensuring our team had the depth and breadth of skills required for leading change within our expected junior heavy school.

Our appointments: our leadership team design completed when we appointed our successful applicants:

• Heike Micheel - an experienced educator who successfully moved a team towards innovative learning pedagogies in a traditional school with 5 and 6 year olds in a team of 4.  A proven learner herself and an agent of change who has provocated and advocated for collaborative learning approaches, Heike, who hails originally from Germany, absolutely enhances our SLT with her junior expertise
• Michael Davidson - a global educator, Google Innovator and MakerEdNZ initiator has been a mover and a shaker when it comes to innovative learning approaches and integration of STEM in NZ schools. Michael is a Canadian who is passionate for how digital technologies can leverage the learning and amplify learning experiences for all of our learners.

Update: Lastly, in Term 2 we advertised and appointed our Office Administrator.  This is a person who has a role pivotal to the Strategic Leadership Team and the Board was thrilled to appoint Amanda Culverwell who has a passion for learning, a love for learners and a commitment to our school.

and so we are the ... Matua Ngaru #DreamTeam:                                          

			Office Administrator:   ~Amanda Culverwell Principal:   ~Diana Wilkes Deputy Principals:   ~Kirstin Anderson-McGhie & Wendy Ness Lead Learning Coaches:   ~Michael Davidson and Heike Micheel Learning Coaches & Support Staff: ~TBD

See the advertisements here.