When the boss is away

I get a feeling that the MOE doesn't trust us. They seem to be determined to get through their election promise. Shame really that the purpose of the National Standards is political vote winning. It's actually a disgrace that the reason for the National Standards isn't about kids. Anne Tolley can argue till she's blue in the face about how essential these things are, so can all those facilitators who are lining up school contracts to help schools implement these standards. The truth is that these might be an important set of guidelines but they have always existed, exemplars, PATs, nathan astle and numpa testing. Why don't they just bloody address those schools who aren't there and let us get on with out job.

I don't want to bleat on about these standards, I've got better things to do. Try this video about trust. I'm sure the MOE think this is what schools are doing while they aren't looking.

Priorities

I've had a difficult week trying to comprehend priorities.

First 2000 lycra wearing greenies walked and biked across the harbour bridge, they want a cycle lane and an footpath.

Secondly there was a brilliantly organised hikoi that had a few thousand walk up queen street wanting maori representation on the the new super city council.

Thirdly a trial continues at enormous cost for a man who has 6 months left on his sentence.

Lastly the MOE are rushing through national standards for schools to be introduced in 2010 just to keep an election promise, this is not being done to raise educational achievement.

ok here we go with the tirade:

1.greenies stop growing your own sandals and do some bloody maths, 1.2 billion for another "clip on" for your footpath and six foot fence to stop jumpers. It's a no brainer go away, stop wasting our time, wait for the bloody tunnel or second bridge and then ask again.

2. good hikoi cuz but why was there 500 waitakere city council employees at the march? they didn't want maori representation, they are just another bunch of incompetant beaurocrats wanting to keep their nice new offices and jobs. once bitten WCC, you're out.

3. david bain guilty or not the evidence is just at complete opposites from both sides, so lots of people are lying or lawyers are orchestrating evidence to get a result the think is right / slanting evidence. lawyers will never ever do this so what the bloody hell is this all about. MONEY our money.

4. the one that has most educators scratching their heads. are they needed? maybe they are! but how will national not loose face with their simplistic election promise and education survive without "test teaching". this farce will be rushed through with so called "consultation" and it will railroad over the NZC which schools are working hard at implementation for 2010 and it has slammed ka hikitia to the pile of books under the DP's desk.

If the standards must come then take your bloody time you stupid noddys and get it right first time and implement it with PD and people on board not on the defensive. wake up you dumb arses!

My priority is to have a bloody good weekend with the intention of getting a fish or two. thats what I call a priorty.

Why are we really at school

A week of injuries to go with the pouring rain, and I start to wonder where our job starts and finishes. We had stitches in the mouth, a near severed toe, a broken arm (a bad one) and more hairy stuff almost daily. Seems the weather has sent a few crazy. I had a couple of after hours visits to homes catching up with the parents of the injured, and a couple of teachers snuck in to hospital to visit another young lad who is coming right.

The thing is that my week is nothing compared to my mate who has a motorway being planned to be built through his school, he had the media ringing at 7.30am and the phone has rung constantly for 4 days.

A student at my sons school passed away overnight. He was at school one day and gone the next. He had MD and was slowly wasting away, they always knew it was coming one day, but is still a big shock especially to his friends and teachers.

The thing is, that your actions when faced with difficult circumstances really do matter. These are possibly the most important decisions you face.

School isn't always about reading and writing, it's not always about results, it's about laughter, friendship, life, celebrating success.

Our job is about people, little people, big people, mums and dads, nans and pops. It is about community and we are all part of that community.

He aha te mea nui?
He tangata.
He tangata.
He tangata.

What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, it is people.

Apologies to those of you who want swearing, mockery, and a lots of uninformed comment I promise next time to be way less serious and will have a tirade of ludicrous statements. OK Fiona G ?

Appraisal - rigour or rubbish

Lets not beat around the bush, if your teacher is achieving in the classroom then they will always "pass" an observation and you will always attest to their meeting the professional standards. This presumes of course that they are collaborative team players bla bla bla. The problem I have is that the MOE says you should have goals, observations etc. I know one highly respected colleague who gave me a blow by blow discussion on how he observes practice and rigorously appraises teachers and it makes a huge difference to kids learning (he does have the evidence to prove it too). But what if they are sometimes late for school, and your DP has observed something in passing that set off a small alarm, their team personal demeanor isn't always spot on, and a couple of parents have expressed something that doesn't sit well with you as principal.

The thing is that an observation or even ten of them doesn't tell the whole picture. The term ‘playing the game’ is too easily applied to too many levels of the process. Pre booked observations are easy to plan for and often show unrealistically high effort. Planning can be checked, but this may or may not reflect the teacher’s practice during real student contact time. Still, these methods are widely accepted by governmental and Board stakeholders who are familiar with such business-world models to justify investment in institutions and programs.

Teachers and managers know strategies to succeed in these systems, but those strategies are seldom collegial, transparent, self-reflective or even honest. If the system of appraisal involves forced and false situations for observation, lengthy yet shallow accountability procedures and the underlying dichotomy of expecting teachers to engage in a process that has historically offered little benefit, then it’s unreasonable to expect that a culture of useful, honest dialogue may ever become embedded in a school as a result. Engaging in the ‘play the game’ subtext at a school wide level offers considerable threat to essential learning dialogue with peers or the chance for teachers to request help from management or leaders.

So every day of the week, month, and year teachers are being judged. Its a bitch I know, but here is what you are really being judged on:
the professional standards and your professionalism
colleagues and there observations and discussions
planning
your children and how well you cope
lateness, punctuality, the time you put in or perceived time
senior managers, DP's, team leaders
environment the look and feel
your dialogue with everyone from the office staff to parents to kids and colleagues
professional learning your participation, enthusiasm, attitude
personal demeanor, happiness, feedback to others
part of learning community, fit and feel with staff
wider community, parental support

So all this stuff is really used to judge you as a teacher, I need a beer just looking at the list. So lets fake it and go to an observation, an irrelevant goal and tick the box. Or lets look at the horrible list and tackle it with respect and professionalism. Leaders need to be trusted. If they are lemons you are in trouble, but if you trust them and the little things are taken care of, then the open honest learning community will thrive.

Teachers if its all too much, just read the list above and apply that list to your principal, because everyday that guy has been in teaching he has also been judged by the same list. Would you attest to your principal?

Principals - we are a weird lot

I recently filled in the APPA principals survey, they have a few issues with workload, paperwork, compliance and more. I'm happy to help with a few answers. As usual, with all surveys, I look at the questions and try to work out why each question has been asked, and then think how I can skew the answers by taking the opposite point of view from everyone else. I then try to convince myself that the view I have taken (because no one else has taken it) is actually justified and correct.

Take this question : "I look forward to MOE surveys" why ask this question and really expect any principal to answer "Strongly Agree" 0.6% (1) did strongly agree (that was me). You see this is what I call a slanted question, just bloody ridiculous, how can APPA expect to have any credibility when they use this question to say to the MOE that Principals are not happy with their performance.

There are some more doozies : "

"This school has no problems with funding from the ministry on property matters"

"I find no problem in recruiting quality teachers"

"I have the teaching staff to do justice to Te Reo"

These just state the obvious and don't need 200 principals to say help.

But there were a few that I though gee guys, your answers are at polar opposites, genuinely, from where I sit. like these:

"Payroll paperwork is overly inconsistent and complex" 2 people strongly disagreed (me and some other smart arse 1.2%). Just delegate it to a competent office manager and get on with the job of education, it might be complex but it shouldn't be of any concern for the principal, get someone else to do it.

"I have no problems with passwords on official websites like Leadspace" 5 people (3%) answered Strongly Agree. 67% had problems they Disagreed or Strongly Disagreed. This got me thinking, is this actually an issue or are 67% of principals incapable of using and reusing a password. Slanted question but a backfire if you ask me. This actually shows that there are a truck load of plonkers out there. I can say this because those password forgetters couldn't follow a blog, and a mention of RSS would probably have them thinking about some sort of typing disease.

"I would like a principals handbook developed either in hard copy or online" I bloody wouldn't, it would just gather dust, what a waste of time (90.4% want a handbook).

"An online handbook of NZ educational terms and acronyms would be useful" (67.5%) think it would be great. Well whoopdee shit, would this mean the RTLB's would now actually work with behavior kids. Who cares there are bigger fish to fry.

There were a few more rippers but I need to stop here, as I'm a crap typist, and for fear of being alienated by men in walk-shorts and power dressing, over perfumed women.

OK as I am actually a principal I now need to apologize to all my mates and now enemies that I have offended. Hopefully this is taken in the manner intended, lighthearted and with hopefully some message you may take from it.

what is perfect for gen Y

Susan Boyle has amazed the world.

Why cant ugly people be successful, singers, and entertainers. Seems we want to look at beautiful people, our eyes are ahead of our ears in terms of perception.

This seems to ring true in terms of our children and generation Y. You Tube is the biggest internet site for gen Y. Flat screen TV's, gaming consoles, My Sky, and more.

Seems kids of today are in fact overwhelmed with certain sensory skills.

Should we use this technology to hook our learners, our interactive whiteboard argument seems to be entering here. Lets give them the gaming and television all in one classroom learning tool..... make sence? So do our classrooms need to cotton on to this.

I think we should be taking the opposite stance and ensuring that we address areas of sensory learning that children are now missing in their childhood. I reckon (without any research or data) that more kids are growing up with television, computers, gaming than with books and outside play. (am I right, genius eh)

Its a bit like the "girls dont do well in science" arguement, you can either do more social studies or attack science full on.

so where is this whole blog going here..... reading and writing, listening and speaking, seems to be where the lack of development is most evident in young kids.

ka hikitia research says Maori students need to make their best progress in literacy/numeracy in the first 4 years of school or miss the boat.

So lets be experts and stick to our knitting, all with a smile, chuckle or laugh.

Jellyfish vs the Blue Suits

Here is the article we were all waiting for.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/2319002/Govt-to-fast-track-school-league-tables

Those cheating lying bstds- who the hell do they think they are - now we will see if our schools have the guts to stand up. I wonder if the NZEI has one tiny touch of spine in them, or will the jelly fish wobble back to their pathetic labour spiral of hugs for the whanau.

Im actually loving this scenario building, I wish the TAB were running a book on the outcome. You have got to laugh at the National parties complete and utter incompetence, it's worth buying tickets to this show.

"The standards will not require each pupil to take the same test but will see existing assessments translated into a result that can be measured nationally. Data on each school's overall pupil performance would go to the ministry."

Here is the easy way to get around this one. ESOL kids don't sit the tests and other children will be harmed by the testing so they will not have the stress of testing subjected on them. this is what every secondary school in NZ currently does by selecting who sits the tests and who doesnt. This will have an immediate impact on your "results".

You know what - maybe anne tolley never mentioned league tables, maybe Nationals views haven't changed at all, we have lots of testing tools available- use the ones that suit you, send your charter and results of you goals to the MOE and allow parents access to your chosen testing. maybe thats nationals view.
Maybe that spineless lot (NZEI) are on the attack.
Maybe NZEI mentioned league tables and played that card cause they cant play a bulk funding card any longer.
Maybe the high tide has wobbled in and the jellyfish are in the waves.
Maybe I will never ever get an NZEI travelling fellowship.
Maybe the nats arent cheating lying bstds.

get your tickets - its gonna be a great game!