Teach42

Note: Jack MacLeod blogged this session as well, and got quite a bit of information that I missed. You can read his summary here.

Keynote for Day 2 is Sir Dexter Hutt on Transformational Leadership in Schools: the journey from good to great. He had a great little icebreaker which I won’t even try to describe. If they release audio, you’ll just have to listen to it.

He’s got a graph on the influence of social class on early development. Basically the gist of it is that social class has a more significant influence on education than cognitive ability. In a nutshell, low IQ upper class students will be more likely to do well throughout school than high IQ lower class students.

How can we as educators help to alleviate these problems?

We have a story going on about a boy named Curtis. His mother was a schizophrenic and he was in homes since he was 5. Basically a seriously challenged child. They sort of made him a symbol and put a lot of time and effort in to him. A lot of individual attention, Sir Dexter admits that they spent more time working with him than they could normally spend with most children. You can probably guess where this is going. Despite the deck being stacked against him, Curtis is very succesful in the most important way. He has self-confiedence, believes in himself. He’s a devoted artist and in junior college right now. The point is, positive education can overcome the challenges that a child is born into.

In 1988, Ninestiles teachers basically acccepted that some students succeeded and others didn’t. About 3% of the students were high achievers, and 30% wouldn’t achieve a darn thing. That was just he way it was, there wasn’t much you could do about it. In the past 15 years, they have completely turned it around.

I’m not going to list all the achievements they have, let’s just say it’s impressive. The big question is how they got from point A to point B. I love success stories as much as the next person, but the best part of the story is the middle. If it wasn’t, the Harry Potter series would have been 100 pages altogether.

Hey, I like this idea. They have a Wall of Fame, where they have pictures of their graduates hanging in the halls along with plaques that say what they’re doing right now.

“The single most important factor in the improvement of a school is the quality of management and leadership provided by the [Head of School].” Teachers may be putting the ideas into practice, but it’s the Head’s job to set the stage and create the culture.

“Leadership: Strategic way forward, deciding on the direciton, communicating this in a way that wins hearts and minds so that staff are aligned and working in the same direction. Inspiring staff to believe that they can overcome hurdles and achieve success.”

Bah, major distraction. I just checked my email and Jack pointed out that teach42.com is down. Looks like I have to call Bluehost and find out what the heck is going on.

Factors affection a school’s capacity for transformation
1. A vision for the school. What do we want the school to be like in 3 years time? The example he gives is if the queen is coming for a visit in three years time, what do you want her to see? In the reception area, in the halls, in the classrooms, in the lessons…. Identify it, set priorities and allocate resources.
2. The concept of “phrased” development. Ability to judge the phase that the school is in and the appropriate initiatives to take the school forward from its current position. Flower analogy: If you see a beautiful flower at a show and you buy one to take home, if the soil is just right, the flower could die when you plant it. So address the soil first, the culture and climate of the school. Is it ready for change? Are you set up for success? Because even you have a fantastic program, if the school isn’t ready for it, it could still fail.
3. The capacity for change. How receptive are teaching and non teaching staff? How flexible is the organization? How supportive is the board and unions?
4. Quality of leadership and management at all levels. Middle managers are crucial and can make or break a project. Culture of the team is critical as well.
5. Motivations and expectations of students, of parents and of teachres.
6. The service approach to students, facilities routines nad procedures, curriculum and assessment
7. Risk Taking, confidence, optimism and detailed palnning, the ability to respond quickly to unforeseen situations
8. Creating the culture
9. Building trust and encouraging an open culture, a determination to aim for the best and NEVER be complacent.

That’s a huge amount of information. It reminds me of a book by DuFour about professional development. How do you change the culture and climate of a school?

“Good is the enemy of excellent”

They’re moving from the 60 minute class model to 2.5 hour classes, where teachers have the time to do all the things they’ve said that they’d like to do but didn’t have the time. No excuses.

Basic theme, which I’m not sure came across in these notes, is that we need to constantly be looking ahead. Even while you’re improving and moving forward, you need to constantly be seeking out change and improvement.

blc05

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