MAKING A DIFFERENCE! Schools of the future take action today…

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vision and leadership

Creating schools of excellence requires a shared vision, clear action plans for what matters most, and continuous reflective practice.

Here's some key ideas for developing momentum for whole school participation in reflective and developmental change:

Learning together

  • Culture – develop a culture that is based on relational trust and co-created vision. Build in opportunities to experiment and to fail safely.
  • Challenge – develop internal expertise to question beyond the known.
  • Connection – adapt any ideas to fit your context rather than adopt practices of others.
  • Conversation – develop a culture of inquiry, discussion and dialogue. Listen!
  • Collaboration – work as a team. Use external sources, conferences and online tools to connect you nationally and globally.

Taking action

  • Catalytic – focus on the one of two things that will make a difference to learners and drive that focus relentlessly.
  • Cunning plan – develop plans and set goals based on the shared vision and direction.
  • Coalition of leadership – grow others in the team to take action.
  • Commitment – once you have your plan keep focused AND be flexible enough to change the plan if needed. Develop systems to report on what matters.
  • Continuous reflection – provide professional learning and reflection opportunities,

Leadership takes courage. In an increasingly complex world, schools that wish to remain relevant to young learners of the future must move forward.

Cheryl DoigThis week's post comes from guest blogger, Cheryl Doig of Think Beyond, whose tagline is "Challenging leaders to think for the future". Cheryl is a recognised leader in education. She is managing director of both Think Beyond Ltd and ALPinE Leadership Ltd.

 

Check out our interview with Cheryl Doig

 

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Thank you WIPCE Peru! – a review of WIPCE 2011 Peru

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Hola, tēnā koutou katoa!

Thank you WIPCE! Thanks for giving indigenous education a global stage and audience!

WIPCE 2011 Peru

World Indigenous Peoples' Conference on Education, this year in Peru

This August, with the much-appreciated support from CORE Education, I was lucky enough to travel to Cusco, Peru to be part of WIPCE 2011 (World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education).

        Tamara with new friends made at WIPCE 2011, Peru:
Tamara and new friends at Peru WIPCE 2011

This amazing three-yearly conference brings together some of the world’s leading indigenous organisations, students, academics, and professionals to share their stories and promote best practice for the development of programmes for indigenous peoples of the world.

WIPCE has been running for 24 years, but WIPCE Peru was the first time a non-English speaking country has hosted the conference. As you can imagine, this brought several problems. It’s true, the organisation and communication could have been better, however, the local people and the city of Cusco made up for any frustrations we may have had.

My colleague Dee Reid and I had the honour of presenting on our work Te Manawa Pou, an online te reo Māori programme for teachers in English medium schools Years 0-8. We were thrilled at the opportunity to share our methodology and experiences at an international level. We were rapt at the interest in our programme—many seeing our model as something that could easily be modified and implemented in any country, for any indigenous language worldwide.

In one word: whanaungatanga

A colleague of mine asked me to sum up WIPCE in one word, which I thought was impossible. But when he pushed me for an answer, I had to say ‘whanaungatanga’.

This is the Māori concept of a relationship based on shared experiences and working together. My professional and personal learning was immense, and I have now established numerous professional networks. But more importantly, I have made great friends from all corners of the world—all of them with a passion for and commitment to indigenous education, and all doing their best to make a difference.

Whanaungatanga is a concept that we should all take the time to explore. I believe it impacts on us every day. It influences where we live, where we work, what we like to do socially, and most importantly, what we learn. Those around us—those with whom we share relationships—are shaping who we are.

The story of Rawiri Waratini-Karena

Tamara, Rawiri, Luana at WIPCE Tamara (left), Rawiri (centre), Tamara's sister, Luana (right)

One particularly moving WIPCE workshop I attended was by David (Rawiri) Waratini-Karena.

Part of his presentation was sharing his family history. He went back through four generations of his whānau, and his story of loss of language, loss of culture, the impact of violence, gangs, drug and alcohol abuse on his whānau, moved me to tears. The sadness of what his whānau had endured and suffered resonated greatly with me, as it is a common story for many Māori in Aotearoa. However, what brought home the inspiring impact of whanaungatanga is the path Rawiri is on now. Through his professional and personal relationships, coupled with his motivation and belief in himself, he has broken that pattern. He is now a respected and inspiring lecturer at WinTec, currently working towards his PhD, and, thanks to WIPCE, someone who is now a much-loved friend. Whanaugatanga in action!

Can you see whanaungatanga in your life?

Can you think of an example of whanaungatanga in your professional or personal life that has had a profound impact on you? Is there something that has shifted your thinking, or even changed your life pathway somehow? Has there been a time where you may have been the one to form a relationship that has impacted on someone else in that way?

Leave us a comment below and share your story in the true spirit of whanaungatanga, and build relationships so we all may grow.

 

This was a trip of a lifetime. Thank you to CORE for allowing me this opportunity, and thank you to the people of Peru. Ngā mihi nui ki te tangata whenua o Peru me te rōpu CORE hoki. Nei te mihi aroha ki āku hoa hou ki te whenua whānui. I am a WIPCE fan for life, and I will definitely see you all again in Hawaii for WIPCE 2014!

And there's more to come…

Tamara will follow up this review with a post about indigenous education. She hopes to include a video interview with the above-mentioned Rawiri Waratini-Karena.

 

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iPad review: could the iPad replace a teacher’s laptop?

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iPad to replace laptops?

With the rise in mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones we wanted to see if a teacher could manage with just an iPad as their only device for the duration of one of our professional development conferences. Would it provide the full range of functionality the teacher needed for consuming and creating content, or would the teacher have to reach for his or her laptop when it came to the heavy work.

We put a tweet out for a willing teacher that did not own an iPad, but would be willing to try putting aside their laptop and using an iPad for the full three days at Ulearn11. Tracy Tindle (@CrimsonNZ) stepped up to the mark, and here is how she found it.

– Glen Davies, CORE Education's IT Manager

Arriving at ULearn, I was excited to get my hands on the iPad! I had some experience with Apple products, being an iPhone owner, and, of course, having played with iPads at electronic stores. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the device other than that I hoped I could learn as much as I could, and gain some insight into how I could use this for teaching my digital class next year. I had brought my laptop with me in case the iPad didn’t do what I needed it to do. It turned out the only thing I ever used my laptop for over the whole 3 days was to sync to my iTunes account.

The iPad was better than I expected. I found the keyboard so easy to use, and loved the time saving predictive text function. Typing was so much easier on the iPad as I didn’t end up hitting other keys by mistake, which sometimes happens on a normal keyboard. The screen size was great, and there was no trouble using both hands to type.

I was able to connect easily to the internet, even to the dreadful third party Wi-Fi my hostel offered. I could also swap in and out of different Wi-Fi networks simply and quickly. There was no trouble connecting to my school webmail accounts or to any websites I needed for breakouts. I could also access my Google Docs account easily, but I did have trouble enabling the editing options, which seemed to be only available to desktop/laptop users, but that could simply have been my inexperience.

I was lucky enough to go to the fantastic iPad App Harvest breakout with Paula Jamieson, and got some fantastic app suggestions from there. One of the best suggestions I had was to get the Appshopper app, which allows you to search for free and discounted apps. Really handy to have, and I got a lot of great free apps from there in just one day.

Other apps I found which I have really liked were:

  • Tour Wrist – a great app for exploring places and sights around the world,
  • Prezi Viewer – to view Prezi presentations (my class uses Prezi a lot)- the only downside to this app is that you could not edit a Prezi.
  • Elementals – was a great chemistry elements app I found free through App Shopper which is easy to use and interactive.
  • WordPress -I also use the WordPress app a lot to update our class blog, and loved the layout and improvements in the iPad version. We will be continuing to use this next year and it will be great for students to use to update their own blogs.
  • Storyform, Strip Design, Voicethread, Rocket Math, Word Bubble and Storie are also some favourites.

Using the iPad was such a highlight for me, and having that time to experiment and play around with it was great. I have come away from the whole experience with some fantastic ideas for my 1:1 iPad class next year, as well some great apps to use for different ability levels right across the curriculum. We have even decided to just use the built in keyboard the iPad has rather than buy separate ones for each of the kids.

A huge thanks to Glen and the team at CORE Education for letting me have the opportunity. I was very sad to have to give it back and can’t wait to get my own one in the next few weeks!

Tracy TindleTracy Tindle (@CrimsonNZ) is a year 7/8 teacher at Wellsford School. She is an ICT enthusiast, a recent Apple convert, and an e-book fan.

 

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