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E-news 2nd June Vol 3 No 6
Edited
by Keith Redman
Topics covered in this edition include:
Sue Presler (Cognitive Coaching Associate Trainer) will be facilitating this series of professional learning opportunities. The focus and intended audience for each of the three days are as follows:
Monday 28 July – THE ART OF GROUP COACHING – (Participants who have already completed the Foundation Training will be given priority for this session)
Tuesday 29 July – COGNITIVE COACHING FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERS – (open to all Department and Regional Leaders, Principals and Leading Teachers)
Thursday 31 July – COGNITIVE COACHING IN THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND – (open to all classroom teachers)
For further details and registration, click here. If you have any queries, click here to contact Gavin Grift, ANSN Cognitive Coaching Project Manager.
The students were then required to write a simple profile of each of the animals that they had used in their image. To read or download Leith’s comments on the purpose and outcomes of this task, and its relationship to encouraging deep levels of thinking and reflection among the students, click here.
The facilitator for this program will be Viv White, currently National Coach with ANSN. With more than thirty years of experience in education and policy-making, Viv is renowned for her innovative thinking and challenging perspectives.
Viv is committed to working closely with teachers and school communities to build collective knowledge about the education practice. She believes that only through systematically sharing professional knowledge and practice will real improvement for students be possible.
This 2-day ANSN workshop is planned for Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 September, at St Albans South PS, Lister St, St Albans, in the western suburbs of Melbourne. For further details, click here . If you are interested in participating/bringing a team of teachers, please email your expression of interest to andrea.federico@ansn.edu.au
During this 2-day workshop educators will design learning opportunities for Australian school children (learners) that promote and develop positive attitudes and perceptions and habits of mind. This is an action learning workshop where participants work through a learning partnership to focus on teacher practice. Learning design theory will be put into practice using research-based pedagogy.
To find out more, and to register, click here. If you have any queries, email Tina Doe at tina.doe@ansn.edu.au
National
Planning Meeting for the Connecting Lives and Learning (CLL) Project
ANSN
personnel from Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide recently attended
a planning day in Adelaide facilitated by Andrew Bills, the ANSN CLL
Project Leader, at the University of South Australia, to consider how
the social justice challenges emanating from two Australia Research
Council projects, ALIGN and CLL, could be transformed into new ANSN
work with schools and systems personnel nationally.
Ann King from the ALIGN project and Associate Professor Rob Hattam from the University of South Australia, who has led the CLL project since its inception, provided conceptual overviews of both projects, with the ANSN team then moving into strategic planning work in the afternoon.
In essence, Andrew writes, both projects paint a grim picture about life in secondary schools. The current research into Australian schooling confirms that “after all is said and done, it is what actually happens between teachers, students and their engagement with knowledge that produces learning” (Hattam, 2007). The research from both of these projects confirms the centrality of pedagogical practice as the site of innovation if schools are to improve student learning. It also indicates that schooling’s structures and cultures are currently not promoting the centrality of pedagogy and are struggling to be attuned to young people’s lifeworld choices in relation to school, work and social life patterns.
Potential National CLL Hub work was then identified with joined-up work involving Ann King's ALIGN group of schools around Sydney, Gavin Grift's Curriculum Planning Hub in Melbourne and schools in challenging contexts that Leith Hogan has been working with in Perth offering immediate conversational space for CLL work to begin. The CLL website has also received interest form DECS in South Australia and 20 South Australian schools wishing to pursue the pedagogical challenge of doing middle schooling work within the CLL big ideas frame.
To view or download a Powerpoint presentation that offers an overview of the key learnings from the CLL project, click here.
Also in November, Art Costa and James Anderson, with support from the local schools, will present one-day workshops in Sydney and Brisbane, under the title “Next Steps with Habits of Mind”. Participants will extend their understanding of the Habits, be introduced to a powerful developmental framework and explore some of the misconceptions about Habits of Mind. They will also work in small groups with teachers who have designed related units of work and evaluated their impact on student outcomes.
This report, prepared for the Wallace Foundation by Public Agenda, attempts to understand the best ways to recruit and sustain top leaders in high-needs schools. The study is based on in-depth focus groups with principals in high-needs districts and 16 one-on-one interviews with superintendents and other high-ranking education officials, including a state superintendent of education. The study reveals that principals often fall into two distinct categories: "Transformers" and "Copers." Transformers had an explicit vision for what their school might be and a "can do" attitude about changing the status quo. "Copers" were often caring and well-intentioned, but rarely able to do more than just "cope" with the turmoil of the day. Other observations from the study touch on topics ranging from managing teaching staff to whether top-notch principals are "made" or "born."
Readers can download the full report (which is just over 7MB in size) at:
http://www.publicagenda.org/Research/pdfs/missionheart.pdf
When you have considered the options and decided what is appropriate for your school or group of schools, click here to contact John Hogan, and express your interest. He is gathering details of what schools want to organise and will explore the possibilities with you.
Topics covered in this edition include:
- Cognitive Coaching℠ – A series of professional learning days
- Big Picture teacher coaching – an example of recent work
- Curriculum Design Hub: planning meeting
- Victorian Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) Hubs – progress report
- An introduction to Protocols
- Setting the Stage – 2-day workshop
- National Planning Meeting for the Connecting Lives and Learning (CLL) Project
- Special events with Art Costa in November
- Some interesting professional reading
- An external conference of interest
- Reminders of ANSN activities
Cognitive Coaching℠ – A series of professional learning days
In Victoria, towards the end of July, ANSN and the Center for Cognitive Coaching℠ will be presenting "Learning to Coach, Coaching to Learn – A series of Professional Learning Days". Each of the days in the series has been designed either to introduce or extend participants’ knowledge on the principles of Cognitive Coaching℠, which was developed in the US by Art Costa and Robert Garmston.Sue Presler (Cognitive Coaching Associate Trainer) will be facilitating this series of professional learning opportunities. The focus and intended audience for each of the three days are as follows:
Monday 28 July – THE ART OF GROUP COACHING – (Participants who have already completed the Foundation Training will be given priority for this session)
Tuesday 29 July – COGNITIVE COACHING FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERS – (open to all Department and Regional Leaders, Principals and Leading Teachers)
Thursday 31 July – COGNITIVE COACHING IN THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND – (open to all classroom teachers)
For further details and registration, click here. If you have any queries, click here to contact Gavin Grift, ANSN Cognitive Coaching Project Manager.
Big Picture teacher coaching – an example of recent work
Leith Hogan (below left), from WA, writes to say that she has been working with teachers at Yule Brook College as a Teacher coach for Big Picture, focusing on literacy. Her particular purpose is to help them identify student literacy, explore the literacy demands of tasks they give students to do, and help them find ways of deepening student learning and improving their literacy. Early in May, Leith reports, Year 10 students were asked by their teacher, Lane Honda, to use the Photoshop skills they had learned, to create an image of a composite animal – part fish, mammal, bird, reptile and amphibian (for one of the results, see below, right).The students were then required to write a simple profile of each of the animals that they had used in their image. To read or download Leith’s comments on the purpose and outcomes of this task, and its relationship to encouraging deep levels of thinking and reflection among the students, click here.
Curriculum Design Hub: planning meeting
Gavin Grift, Hub Co-ordinator (below, left), chaired a Curriculum
Design Hub planning meeting in Victoria in early May (see photos below,
centre and right) and has had enthusiastic feedback from the new team.
The meeting introduced participants to the work of the ANSN as well as
the Hub itself, allowing them to get a sense of what the Network has
achieved historically and, in the case of Curriculum Design, from last
year’s Hub activities. Another Hub team meeting will be held early in
Term 3 – more details in the next edition of E-News.
Nationally, the Hub is making links through Andrew Bills in SA and
Hanan Harrison in Queensland. Gavin and Andrew will be meeting on 19
and 20 June to organise some Professional Learning opportunities.
For more details or to express your interest in becoming involved, click here.
Victorian Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) Hubs – progress report
Andrea
Federico (below left, and right working with IWB Hub members) writes to
say that over 100 teachers have been involved in the 5-day Victorian
Hub program, which has recently completed its third day. Participants
are tackling the question “Can IWBs improve teacher pedagogy and
student learning outcomes?”
On Days 1 and 2, participants concentrated on building inclusiveness
with the group and investigating the use of the technology in classroom
practice. Day 3 saw them sharing their experiences and work as well as
using the ANSN’s Final Word protocol to explore a research paper and
then build on each other’s thinking. These structured conversations
about students’ work and teacher learning are a common practice on many
ANSN Hubs and projects. (For photos from the first 3 days see below)
In preparation for 2009, Andrea has established a waiting list for the
IWB Hubs and the ANSN is planning to run Hubs in all regions next year.
If you are interested in taking part or would like more detail please
email Andrea at andrea.federico@ansn.edu.au
Andrea will be working with Kate Cooper to run invitational
sessions during Term 3, for schools interested in taking part in the
2009 Hubs. If you would like to be notified of these sessions email
Andrea at andrea.federico@ansn.edu.au.
An introduction to Protocols
In response to teachers’ interest in the use of protocols in the IWB Hub, ANSN is now offering a 2-day program entitled “An Introduction to Protocols”. Protocols help us structure our conversations. They can help us learn from each other by having productive conversations and they can help us learn from the students, by providing structured ways to look at student work, as well as our own.The facilitator for this program will be Viv White, currently National Coach with ANSN. With more than thirty years of experience in education and policy-making, Viv is renowned for her innovative thinking and challenging perspectives.
Viv is committed to working closely with teachers and school communities to build collective knowledge about the education practice. She believes that only through systematically sharing professional knowledge and practice will real improvement for students be possible.
This 2-day ANSN workshop is planned for Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 September, at St Albans South PS, Lister St, St Albans, in the western suburbs of Melbourne. For further details, click here . If you are interested in participating/bringing a team of teachers, please email your expression of interest to andrea.federico@ansn.edu.au
Setting the Stage – 2-day workshop
ANSN will be presenting a 2-day Setting the Stage Workshop in Perth, on Wednesday 11 Thursday 12 June. This learning opportunity focuses on teacher practice through the lens of learning design and is specific to teacher pedagogy.During this 2-day workshop educators will design learning opportunities for Australian school children (learners) that promote and develop positive attitudes and perceptions and habits of mind. This is an action learning workshop where participants work through a learning partnership to focus on teacher practice. Learning design theory will be put into practice using research-based pedagogy.
To find out more, and to register, click here. If you have any queries, email Tina Doe at tina.doe@ansn.edu.au
National
Planning Meeting for the Connecting Lives and Learning (CLL) Project
ANSN
personnel from Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide recently attended
a planning day in Adelaide facilitated by Andrew Bills, the ANSN CLL
Project Leader, at the University of South Australia, to consider how
the social justice challenges emanating from two Australia Research
Council projects, ALIGN and CLL, could be transformed into new ANSN
work with schools and systems personnel nationally. Ann King from the ALIGN project and Associate Professor Rob Hattam from the University of South Australia, who has led the CLL project since its inception, provided conceptual overviews of both projects, with the ANSN team then moving into strategic planning work in the afternoon.
In essence, Andrew writes, both projects paint a grim picture about life in secondary schools. The current research into Australian schooling confirms that “after all is said and done, it is what actually happens between teachers, students and their engagement with knowledge that produces learning” (Hattam, 2007). The research from both of these projects confirms the centrality of pedagogical practice as the site of innovation if schools are to improve student learning. It also indicates that schooling’s structures and cultures are currently not promoting the centrality of pedagogy and are struggling to be attuned to young people’s lifeworld choices in relation to school, work and social life patterns.
Potential National CLL Hub work was then identified with joined-up work involving Ann King's ALIGN group of schools around Sydney, Gavin Grift's Curriculum Planning Hub in Melbourne and schools in challenging contexts that Leith Hogan has been working with in Perth offering immediate conversational space for CLL work to begin. The CLL website has also received interest form DECS in South Australia and 20 South Australian schools wishing to pursue the pedagogical challenge of doing middle schooling work within the CLL big ideas frame.
To view or download a Powerpoint presentation that offers an overview of the key learnings from the CLL project, click here.
Special events with Art Costa in November
On 12-14 November, Professor Art Costa and James Anderson will lead a 3-day workshop in Melbourne, entitled “Mindfulness by Design: Leading School Change with Habits of Mind in Mind”. This workshop is specifically designed for teachers and principals in schools that are striving to develop a thinking-oriented school culture, based on the Habits of Mind. For further details and to register, click here.Also in November, Art Costa and James Anderson, with support from the local schools, will present one-day workshops in Sydney and Brisbane, under the title “Next Steps with Habits of Mind”. Participants will extend their understanding of the Habits, be introduced to a powerful developmental framework and explore some of the misconceptions about Habits of Mind. They will also work in small groups with teachers who have designed related units of work and evaluated their impact on student outcomes.
Some interesting professional reading
Andrew Bills, ANSN Networker in South Australia, draws our attention to a report entitled “A Mission of The Heart: Leaders in High-Needs Districts Talk about What It Takes to Transform a School”This report, prepared for the Wallace Foundation by Public Agenda, attempts to understand the best ways to recruit and sustain top leaders in high-needs schools. The study is based on in-depth focus groups with principals in high-needs districts and 16 one-on-one interviews with superintendents and other high-ranking education officials, including a state superintendent of education. The study reveals that principals often fall into two distinct categories: "Transformers" and "Copers." Transformers had an explicit vision for what their school might be and a "can do" attitude about changing the status quo. "Copers" were often caring and well-intentioned, but rarely able to do more than just "cope" with the turmoil of the day. Other observations from the study touch on topics ranging from managing teaching staff to whether top-notch principals are "made" or "born."
Readers can download the full report (which is just over 7MB in size) at:
http://www.publicagenda.org/Research/pdfs/missionheart.pdf
An external conference of interest
The 4th International Middle Years of Schooling Conference, from 2 to 4 August, only three months away, will be at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Documentation forwarded by Andrew Bills, who will be speaking at the conference, notes that preparations are well in hand, that interest in the conference is excellent, and registrations are already being received. E-News readers can visit the conference website www.sapmea.asn.au/middleschool2008 for registration information.Reminders of ANSN activities
Opportunities for training in Action Learning and Protocols
As mentioned earlier in this edition of E-News, in 2008 ANSN continues to offer opportunities for training in both Action Learning and Protocols, through either introductory workshops or more advanced courses. For information about the possibilities for Action Learning click here.When you have considered the options and decided what is appropriate for your school or group of schools, click here to contact John Hogan, and express your interest. He is gathering details of what schools want to organise and will explore the possibilities with you.
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