LITM Presentation
- 1. Leaders in the Making Project Summary and statement of leadership development By Erin Baulch
- 2. Netbooks in the Classroom Context of project: Introduction of netbooks in a Grade 5/6 classroom Focus: To explore the statements: 1. Netbooks help schools engage the digital generation by nurturing individual learning experiences 2. Students will write more, more often and better (Bruce Dixon)
- 3. Summary of Project Findings Data collected from Student Surveys supports statements: Increase in Student Engagement (through enjoying learning more and greater sense of own writing ability) Write more, more often and better (through improved punctuation, spelling and clarity) Footnote: Decrease in confidence unexpected result. Perhaps student with low literacy skills feels behind his peers in his netbook knowledge and application, thus lacks confidence in his abilities On Demand Writing tests showed increase for 50% of students, slight decrease for 25% of students and no change for 25% of students between March and August Statement March August Trend Improve punctuation 50% 87.5% Make spelling worse* 50% 75% Writing clarity 75% 87.5% Writing comparison to peers 37.5% 50% Enjoy learning more 87.5% 100% Confidence with netbook 100% 87.5%
- 4. Leadership Skills Workshops, shadowing, coaching sessions, access to online learning hub and professional reading to explore Developmental Learning Framework Effective Schools Model Developing Leadership (text) Sergiovanni’s Virtues of Leadership iLead Survey Principled Negotiation Dealing with Difficult People First Things First (Covey et al.) And many others!
- 5. Effective Schools Model Some understandings Professional leadership: participation in Leadership team, Consultative Committee Purposeful teaching: use of netbooks and technology to ‘switch on’ rather than ‘power down’ students (Marc Prensky) High expectations: adapting teaching to needs of all learners through e5 planning with colleague Accountability: increased use of data analysis for student learning (Excel) and student engagement and well-being (Student Attitude to School Survey) Effective schools lead to improved student outcomes, which is our business as teachers
- 6. Developmental Learning Framework Some transformations in my practice Technical Leadership: methodical and organised as a means of dealing with netbook/ICT issues Human Leadership: increase in development of relationships through Leadership team, Consultative Committee, ICT Team Leader. Develop capacity of other staff and students through Professional Development opportunities Educational Leadership: instrumental in the push of increased ICT skills for students and VELS reporting Symbolic Leadership: creation and sharing of knowledge in ICT domain through Scootle, wikis, IWB
- 7. Understandings and Changes LITM caused me to explore DLF and my capabilities in areas I didn’t think I had strength in All teachers can be leaders in some way Always look out for opportunities to contribute to decision making process and leadership areas More aware of broad range of opportunities for aspirant leaders Being a good leader is NOT about being a good follower of instructions and agendas, but finding out what needs to be done and a way to get it done Change management can be difficult to implement (especially with new technology) but can be done There is a difference between ‘Urgent’ and ‘Important’
- 8. Summary In essence, I used to think that leadership was a top-down approach to managing the running of a school. Now I think that all teachers can lead in some way because the DLF gives all of us an opportunity to extend ourselves further. In future I aim to develop leadership skills using knowledge gained from LITM, in particular the Developmental Learning Framework and to seek out leadership opportunities for myself.