ASSESSMENT 1 (2):
2. Examine at least two issues in the contemporary learning environments of the exemplar schools. One of these issues must be from Riverside High. Describe what leadership did to address the issues and comment on the generality and replicability of such approaches. Submit this contribution by 13 April and comment on the contributions of others by the end of the second week.
Exemplar School
Description as of 2008
Analogous School
RiverSide Primary
around 500 R-7, midlle socio-economic
West Lakes Primary
HighwaySide Primary
around 300 CPC-7, lower socio-economic, high ESL
ElizabethVale Primary
OceanSide Area School
around 300 K-12, remote rural, mixed socio economic
Ceduna Area School
LeafySide International High
around 1000 7-12 upper socio economic, high Asian
Norwoood-Morialta HS
LeafySide International High Issue 1: Some teachers had low ICT skills and were resistant to change. Students also thought teachers didn't know how to use ICTs. Apocryphal Issue: Many of my students already get 20s so why do I need computers?(source anonymous). My response, many of the routine jobs that people are currently doing today are being replaced with technology. When our students enter the work force many of them will be entering into new roles which haven't even been created yet. Leadership Actions:
a) Leadership met with students and asked them what they thought were important teaching practices and the frequency of which they were used by teachers.
b) Leadership also interviewed students on their own use of ICT's and a subsequent survey was created. Comment on the generality and replicability of such approaches:
Honestly, time consuming. However, other schools could use their surveys now that they have been generated. I think the information and feedback from students for teachers would be beneficial, especially for teachers are resistant to change. It would give more authenticity for the need to change.
Riverside Primary Issue 2: Riverside Primary wanted to increase collaboration (Early Years), encourage independent learning in making personal choice in learning activites and encourage technology savvy online learning (Middle School). Leadership Actions:
a) Outlined in a letter to parents, Riverside Primary:
- Provides supervised access to ICTs
- The school provides online resources for students
- Filters filters, supervision and explicit education of online safety are used to maxamise safe online learning
- Students in Grades 2/3 and 3/4 are required to sign an Accpetable Use Agreement Form
Comment on the generality and replicability of such approaches:
I like the use of an Acceptable Use Agreement Form. Not only does it make students aware of appropriate use of ICTs, it also gives students responisbility for their own actions.
Analgous School Analysishttp://www.myschool.edu.au/ Consider the four analogous schools suggested in focus 2. Given their different contexts eg. see MySchool website how might leadership be differently expressed among them?
2011 School Data 2010 Finance Data
West Lakes Shore
Elizabeth Vale
Ceduna
Norwood
Year Range
Y3-Y7
R-Y7
R-Y12
Y8-Y12
Enrolment
403
241
566
1443
Teaching Staff
24
23
48
96
Non teaching staff
2
72
34
32
Net income
$3659682
$3736871
$8578923
$17671335
Capital Expenditure
$2,394,97
$1327598
$2917780
$102396
ESL students
14%
45%
2%
40%
Attendance rate
94%
83%
87%
90%
Generally speaking, the larger the school the more leadership roles. Leadership is often divided between curriculum areas where staff are required to report to their curriculum leader who then reports to admin/higher leadership positions. Therefore, I predict that Norwood Morialta would have significantly more teachers in leadership roles than West Lakes and Elizabeth Vale Primary School.
At my school for example (R-Y12, 1200 students) our Primary Leadership Team consists of:- three Primary Cooordinators (R-3, Y3-5, Y6-7)- ICT and Smartboard coordinator- Literacy and SOSE coordinator- Numeracy and Science coordinator- RE coordinatorAnd that is just the Primary Leadership team!
Furthermore, as schools grow in size the roles that Leadership teams have also change. There becomes a need to employ more non-teaching staff to take on traditional roles of Leaders. For example, financial directors. However, I also suspect that the number of non teaching staff for Elizabeth and Norwood has something to do with the greater percentages of students with ESL.
If you look at the capital expenditure for Ceduna per student population, the money spent, was significantly higher than the other schools. Taking this into consideration, the school possibly employed someone in a leadership role to oversee the project or whatever they were working on in 2010.
Learning Task: What are your top 5 most commonly seen school teacher practices in your expereince? 2. My teachers encouraged me to achieve.
17. My teachers were approachable. 7. My teachers' lessons were well organised.8. My teachers would generally try to provide for different student's learning needs.13. Generally the class environment encouraged me to achieve excellent results. What would be the five most important to you if you were a school student?1. In general teachers got me interested in the lesson material.
9. My teachers provided useful feedback.
11. My teachers arranged for student to have some choice in class activity.
15. My teachers were passionate and energetic about teaching.
20. My teachers implemented learning experiences that used ICT to specifically cater for different needs of students.
3. Fill out the survey for the “Educational Leadership”(Carmel Maio-Taddeo) as though you are a principal(URL will be emailed). Examine yourself in relation to the norms of the survey. Reflect on your performance on the various measures of the survey. Submit a summary and any links or references to their own blog by 11 May. Discuss the differences of your own submission from the contributions of others in the following week by annotating the course wiki. 5%
2. Examine at least two issues in the contemporary learning environments of the exemplar schools. One of these issues must be from Riverside High. Describe what leadership did to address the issues and comment on the generality and replicability of such approaches. Submit this contribution by 13 April and comment on the contributions of others by the end of the second week.
Issue 1: Some teachers had low ICT skills and were resistant to change. Students also thought teachers didn't know how to use ICTs.
Apocryphal Issue: Many of my students already get 20s so why do I need computers?(source anonymous). My response, many of the routine jobs that people are currently doing today are being replaced with technology. When our students enter the work force many of them will be entering into new roles which haven't even been created yet.
Leadership Actions:
a) Leadership met with students and asked them what they thought were important teaching practices and the frequency of which they were used by teachers.
b) Leadership also interviewed students on their own use of ICT's and a subsequent survey was created.
Comment on the generality and replicability of such approaches:
Honestly, time consuming. However, other schools could use their surveys now that they have been generated. I think the information and feedback from students for teachers would be beneficial, especially for teachers are resistant to change. It would give more authenticity for the need to change.
Riverside Primary
Issue 2: Riverside Primary wanted to increase collaboration (Early Years), encourage independent learning in making personal choice in learning activites and encourage technology savvy online learning (Middle School).
Leadership Actions:
a) Outlined in a letter to parents, Riverside Primary:
- Provides supervised access to ICTs
- The school provides online resources for students
- Filters filters, supervision and explicit education of online safety are used to maxamise safe online learning
- Students in Grades 2/3 and 3/4 are required to sign an Accpetable Use Agreement Form
Comment on the generality and replicability of such approaches:
I like the use of an Acceptable Use Agreement Form. Not only does it make students aware of appropriate use of ICTs, it also gives students responisbility for their own actions.
Analgous School Analysis http://www.myschool.edu.au/
Consider the four analogous schools suggested in focus 2. Given their different contexts eg. see MySchool website how might leadership be differently expressed among them?
2011 School Data 2010 Finance Data
At my school for example (R-Y12, 1200 students) our Primary Leadership Team consists of:- three Primary Cooordinators (R-3, Y3-5, Y6-7)- ICT and Smartboard coordinator- Literacy and SOSE coordinator- Numeracy and Science coordinator- RE coordinatorAnd that is just the Primary Leadership team!
Furthermore, as schools grow in size the roles that Leadership teams have also change. There becomes a need to employ more non-teaching staff to take on traditional roles of Leaders. For example, financial directors. However, I also suspect that the number of non teaching staff for Elizabeth and Norwood has something to do with the greater percentages of students with ESL.
If you look at the capital expenditure for Ceduna per student population, the money spent, was significantly higher than the other schools. Taking this into consideration, the school possibly employed someone in a leadership role to oversee the project or whatever they were working on in 2010.
Learning Task: What are your top 5 most commonly seen school teacher practices in your expereince?
2. My teachers encouraged me to achieve.
17. My teachers were approachable.
7. My teachers' lessons were well organised.8. My teachers would generally try to provide for different student's learning needs.13. Generally the class environment encouraged me to achieve excellent results.
What would be the five most important to you if you were a school student?1. In general teachers got me interested in the lesson material.
9. My teachers provided useful feedback.
11. My teachers arranged for student to have some choice in class activity.
15. My teachers were passionate and energetic about teaching.
20. My teachers implemented learning experiences that used ICT to specifically cater for different needs of students.
3. Fill out the survey for the “Educational Leadership”(Carmel Maio-Taddeo) as though you are a principal(URL will be emailed). Examine yourself in relation to the norms of the survey. Reflect on your performance on the various measures of the survey. Submit a summary and any links or references to their own blog by 11 May. Discuss the differences of your own submission from the contributions of others in the following week by annotating the course wiki. 5%