Lead Like A Pirate Blog Hop. Week 6 - Enthusiasm

“Pirate leaders know that they have to bring energy and excitement to each day, no matter what”(LeadLAP pg 69)
How do you ‘fake it until you make it? What strategies do you use that enable you to make a positive choice about your own attitude?

I have used the 'fake it until you make it' mantra for many years. Both as a classroom teacher and  later as a senior leader. I have always been careful in which company I say this because at first impression, it sounds like a duplicitous way to behave. I am delighted to read in LeadLAP (Pg 69) that 'fake it until you make it is an overt strategy.  When I was a classroom teacher, 'faking it' may have meant that I was putting on an "I know exactly what I'm doing" face when dealing with a behaviour issue. It may have meant that I volunteered for something that I wasn't all that keen on doing and then discovered that I was rising to the challenge and enjoying it. The main strength of faking it was when there was 'that' child, who was difficult to like. I have found that 'faking' liking (who is the adult being paid to do a job here after all?) always leads to actually liking. I have never had a situation that hasn't resulted in a turnaround in my own attitude. 

This has been especially useful in my senior leadership role, when some staff, parents, children are harder to bring on board with the way we do things at St. Francis. I don't always feel enthusiastic; I may have started the day feeling tired, but I know that my enthusiastic attitude can make a difference. "Enthusiasm is often the missing element to engagement" (#LeadLAP pg 70)

 I can get caught up in the rush of my job and forget to smile and look enthusiastic. It is amazing what an impact this has on the people around me. I have left some staff or team meetings thinking, "Well that fell a bit flat!" I do know that energy and enthusiasm do make a difference, as hard as it can be some days.

 I try and smile at every parent as I am walking around the school at the beginning and end of the school day. We all know how important it is to feel valued and noticed in our lives. Paying it forward is hopefully the outcome of treating people with respect and ideas with enthusiasm; they then change their attitude into a more positive supportive one. 

The SLT were recently discussing the advantages of being on road duty at the beginning and end of the day. Saying each child's name, asking how their day went and exchanging a few words with their parents. This all helps to build community. 

George Corous has a great blog post about the fact that Every Interaction Matters  As part of that blog post, he has added a powerful youtube video clip about the way that every interaction sets the tone for the day. It is well worth viewing. Every interaction students experience sets a tone for the day.

Collaborative Practice - An evolving process

When teachers from other schools (one or two principals included) and parents from my school ask me "what I really think" about collaboration, I have a range of responses flipping through my head as I realise that for many, we educators are still trying to get the 'why' across. My responses include such things as:

• Why would we be providing exactly the same service that we provided 30 years ago? Who does that? We would sack our doctor, lawyer, and even our electrician if they were. 
• I call to mind Ken Robinson's ageing but still very relevant video clip on changing educational paradigms, the essential message being that we no longer need to be producing 80% of our workforce for factory work and an education system built around industrialisation. Right down to production line desks and bells tolling the end of the shift. 
• I think about the wonderfully simple youtube clip about collaboration, Above and Beyond. Where the opportunity for thinking outside the box and working together is so artfully made clear.

• Having the modern learning environment does not equate to innovative learning practices - for that to happen a whole paradigm shift has to happen. Otherwise it is merely single cell thinking where old practices are being squashed into educational situations that they just don't fit into any more. 
• There are a few clues that old school thinking lingers even when it is not intentional. For example:  Too much furniture. How often do we have all of the children sitting at a desk these days?; ability grouping children, locking them into set groups akin to 'interchange' when flexible grouping based on next steps or shared experiences makes more sense. 
• Education delivery now is exciting and the possibilities of innovative practices can allow us to open our minds to promising new ideas. As Carol Dweck says "It's all in the mindset". (Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindset: How you can fulfill your potential. Constable & Robinson Limited.)

Mind Lab Week 32. Changes in my Practice.

My decision to embark on the post grad Mind Lab journey came out of my desire to increase my knowledge and experience around digital technology and its place in today's education. I was concerned that coming out of a class would make me too far removed from the e -learning and connectivity that I knew my students and colleagues would be a part of. I was concerned that I didn’t know enough to contribute fully to a senior leadership team.

At Mind Lab I found that collaborative practice was being modelled by the teachers in the room during the first 16 weeks of face to face lectures and hands on activities. Luckily there was always enough knowledge in the group and people willing to learn, work together and produce to a deadline. I found the lectures interesting and thought provoking and the hands on activities challenging and at times frustrating. I gained in confidence over my thinking around technology and I increased my confidence when trying new technologies. During this time I have also gained in confidence over the use of blogging and twitter as a way to be connected globally.

One of the highlights for me was the opportunity to work with my colleague on the group tasks. As of the beginning of this year we have been working at the same school. This brought our group assignments sharply into focus as we were able to make every assignment and piece of research relevant to our school context. (Newly established school as a result of a merger). We discussed, debated, analysed and clarified our thinking on a variety of subjects that we were always able to view through the lens of our particular context. It didn’t start out that way last November, but what a bonus!

Two key changes in my own research informed practice in relation to the Practising Teacher Criteria (PTC) in e-learning:

Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.

One of the benefits of this course is the dialogue that has come out of looking at research. As a new school, everything that we do, we are are looking critically at and deciding how it will look for us. It is the perfect time to reassess or press the reset button. We have looked hard at how we want to show leadership to our teams. We are consciously modelling collaborative practice as a senior leadership team. We have a shared office and the staff know that we work collaboratively on tasks. We model professional attitudes of a growth mindset (The whole staff were given Carol Dweck's book Teaching a Growth Mindset at the beginning of the year). In the course of our Mind Lab work, my colleague and I have investigated  and created a plan for the introduction of project based learning as a natural progression in innovative practice from self regulated learning, student agency, and deep learning tasks. We are excited at the prospects this promotes for our future direction.  We are now using blogging as a means of professional dialogue. Blogs are used as a means of chronicling staff Teaching as Inquiry. We now link the activities that we blog about to our PTCs. (Practicing Teacher Criteria).  

“Professional development processes share a common goal: improved practice.” (Osterman & Kottkamp. 1993)

Criteria 11: Analyse and appropriately use assessment and information, which has been gathered formally and informally.

One of the challenges that I am enjoying in this role is using data. I have used data as a means of initiating professional dialogue around raising student achievement in my teams for some years now. I have reported to BOT on student achievement in my team. Next level for me is using the school management system to collate, graph and analyse school wide data. This is in order to find trends and implications to report on progress to the BOT and to determine next steps in terms of resourcing, monitoring target children and identifying professional development needs.

We report on overall teacher judgement that we have triangulated with our teachers using formal summative assessment, anecdotal evidence and informal observations.

My next professional development dream is to help facilitate the mindshift that will be necessary to move our school further into innovative practices which includes the adoption of multidisciplinary project based learning. I want to be a part of the movement towards using e- learning as a means of accessing technology in order to do things that we could not: connect, collaborate, design ideate, synthesise, and produce without the technology.

As for my personal commitment to life - long learning, I’m not exactly what the next course will be, but I know that it will be one that is relevant to my leadership role.

References:

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf