the view from here

Both are worth your time reading and thinking…glad I am not the only one concerned at the increasingly “optional” approach to outdoor experiences.  Thanks to Paul for bringing them to my attention.

http://blog.core-ed.net/derek/2009/08/the-lived-experience.html

http://manaiakalani.blogspot.com/2009/09/education-outside-classroom.html

Just preparing for our ski trip tomorrow. We are based an hour from Mt Ruapehu and are looking forward to getting up there and enjoying it. The whole school is going. Many of them have never been before. Some are nervous about it, some excited, some looking forward to trying something new.

We’ve really worked hard to get the admin all sorted before we go. What isn’t always appreciated or understood is the scale of planning, mental preparation, communication and the level of responsibility we take on when we attempt these things. It’s not like throwing your skis in the boot and taking off for the day – there is lots of paperwork and organisation that goes on behind the scenes (rightly so – this isn’t a whinge about workload – saving that for a future post!).

I don’t agree with them, but I can understand the mindset of schools and teachers who opt out of EOTC experiences due to the potential risk. It can be stressful, uncertain, and when you are faced with unpredictable behaviour (not always just from our students!), you can get into the “why bother?” mindset.

Fortunately our community is positive and excited about what we are doing and I’m sure we’ll have a fantastic day out. No handwriting or numeracy tomorrow - just snow and hopefully more of the same brilliant weather we’ve had this weekend.  I am not a big skier myself, but days such as this are what school communities are all about. Key Competencies in action in real contexts.

Let’s not lose sight of that in the educational/political debate that is going on. We are about people and communities not tests and graphs.

…or will we just get crumbs from the table? Are individual agreements with boards worth revisiting as an alternative?

Our union is ramping up the consultation process ahead of our collective agreement negotiations next year. Here in NZ, principals belonging to our teacher union serve three year agreements which are then re-negotiated with the government of the day.

The message given at today’s consultation meeting was “don’t expect much this time”. Talk of recession and belt tightening is widespread – so we are being told there’s nothing extra for school leaders “who have been creaming it for years” with regular payrises in line with settlement provisions.

Um…excuse me?  The head of  Telecom earns 72 times (give or take) what I do. Which of us is contributing more to our knowledge society and future proofing the next generation? It’s also a bit rich coming from politicians who repeatedly tell us we will have to make do with less,while they protest they have “no choice” but to accept payrises themselves!

Now I’m not saying that we aren’t well compensated for what we do, but I argue it is fair recompense for the hours, stress and conditions we work in – and let’s face it, there isn’t a huge queue of people wanting our jobs, responsibilities and pressures. However if as seems likely there will be no big shifts or visionary thinking in negotiations, then it’s time to rethink what we want from this round of bargaining. If pay isn’t going to be the dealbreaker, maybe we need to approach it from a “total package” point of view. What career and job enhancements are possible, at little fiscal cost?

Here’s my thoughts.

1. Pay parity with secondary.

2. Entrenchment retained (these two have been identified already as “”must-haves” by our sector).

3. Look at other aspects of job enhancement e.g. sabbaticals focussed on recouperation (not tagged to “research projects)

4. Inequities between U grades addressed.

5. Principals given “personal assistant funding” to assist with their adminsitrative tasks. this persons work is with and for the principal not general school dogsbody. It could be calculated using U grade management release formulas, then /2, or something similar.

6. Enhancements/ Allowances for rural principalship – this career pathway is becoming more unattractive by the year – just ask the city DP’s collecting 5MU’s! Long term there are consequences for career progression and, I would argue, it is a necessary step in principalship.
(and two pie-in-the-sky wishes)

7. School housing not only in rural areas, but in very expensive areas. Can a school principal afford to live in Queenstown or Remuera in this day and age? Shouldn’t this be acknowledged in their employment agreement? In real terms they are far worse off that someone doing the same job in a “less desirable” part of the country.

8. Incentives to encourage longer service eg overseas travel and paid leave after 10 years serving as a school principal.

Key to any of this is a philosophical shift in governmental thinking – and the recognition that education is a fiscal investment,not a drain. Until it is acknowledged as such, careers in Telecom continue to be much more appealing (and while I’m on that hobby-horse – will the future CEO of Telecom come from one of our schools that are diligently meeting National Standards in ten years time?) 

What have I missed in considering priorities for negotiations? What do YOU see as important?

…ironic really given that the message from my last post was “keep on writing”

For those that follow this blog – I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth, I am just sharpening my focus a bit and starting a new blog looking at  a different aspect of leadership (which I will link to here shortly). As mentioned a while back I am also in the process of shifting schools, so my attention and available time has decreased somewhat!

In the meantime I’ll continue to post here as things come to mind.

No, not a post about that awful film, but a surprising link from yesterday’s post.

I wrote about how I found blogging to be an important part of my reflective process and how it allowed me to articulate my experiences of school leadership.  

At the end of the day I surveyed the pile of started-but-not-finished books beside my bed, and chose to continue reading “Improving Schools from Within” by Roland Barth. I’m halfway through it but haven’t read any of it in the last few months.

As fate would have it, I commenced Chapter 8 – “Practice into Prose” – and was hit between the eyeballs with this opening paragraph:

“Probably no professional development activity has as much potential for promoting reflection, clarification, articulation, discussion – and risk - as writing. Successful writing about practice can be an endeavor from which everybody wins and learns: the writer, the reader, and the school.”

Which is, of course, what I tried to say yesterday, only not as elegantly!

The rest of the chapter continues in a similar vein and is a very encouraging read for those who are perhaps reading this or other blogs and considering starting their own. Later in the chapter Barth addresses issues that writer practitioners sometimes feel – what do I have to offer, what makes my story worth hearing, why bother – and quotes a colleague: “The individual case informs: collections of cases enlighten”.   Hopefully this is what blogging principals and teachers are beginning to do: inform others of their experiences, and as a group enlightening the reader.

As an aside – my self evaluation, using this checklist, is that I need to apologise less for not writing, and just write more. How would you score yourself?

Often I set aside time to write and struggle for a topic. I’m really interested in issues of school leadership, not so much in chronicling my school’s details and events. That happens in other, more appropriate forums. Sometimes I try to look at the bigger picture, other times it can be a small day-to-day issue that resonates. Either way, it’s what strikes a chord with me at the time.

I’ve decided I’m not going to write about national standards for a while – I’ve had my say, and there is more considered debate going on about that elsewhere – so I’m going to go back to the original purpose of this blog – to reflect on my own learning, to record my reactions to what I am seeing, hearing and reading, and to journal some of my experiences in leadership. I’m really enjoying the opportunity to converse with other school leaders, to see and read their opinions, to offer mine to them and to support one another through comments, emails, sharing resources etc. It is a loose network but one which I am really enjoying.

So a bit of a meandering post today. I’m getting ready for a number of things - I am hosting a banked staffing workshop, followed by NZEI consultation meeting around pay and nat standards, followed by principals association meeting – so a busy day ahead. Prior to that there are ICAS examinations to supervise, newsletters to check, production issues to check…one of those busy all consuming days I think!

I haven’t blogged for a few days now – probably my longest stretch since starting it up. Mostly it has been because of production practices – we are putting on a mid-winter show that is becoming all-consuming – but also it is because I am investigating other hosting options. I hope to have a new site up and running during the term break. Thank you to those of you who have offered suggestions, I am looking into each of them.

In other developments – I read with interest, sadness and anger that Aorangi School is being threatened with closure due to a lack of funds to do up buildings. I have a strained association with the school, having ferried children from my school to Aorangi for Kapa Haka lessons during my time teaching in Christchurch (2003-2004). Even then the school was in disrepair and in need of an overhaul. That’s no slight on the staff who were as hospitable and committed as you’d find anywhere. There was a lot of pride in the school then as I’m sure there still is now.

Since then I’ve been involved in two schooling reviews in two different areas of the North Island. There are often pragmatic and well-considered reasons for carrying out such reviews. However the social and educational consequences can be extreme, especially in communities where the school operates as the social hub. Take that away and the district loses a huge chunk of its identity that can’t be rebuilt.

In my current cluster the “aftermath” of such a decision has had far-reaching consequences for education options in our region. Our principal group is slowly building up collegial relationships following years of “guarding your own patch” mentalities. We can see positive times ahead but the journey to this point has not been an easy one.  Indeed we still have one likely school closure in our area later this year. Thankfully we have enough “big-picture” people in the group that we have moved beyond turf wars.

It got me thinking though – in these situations, where livelihoods and communities are under threat, what are appropriate leadership responses from a school’s principal? Is it possible to act rationally and unemotionally, even when your own community has an axe hovering over it? How can you look over the fence at other schools and not think, “what if?”.

I think that acting truthfully and with integrity are hugely important characteristics in these situations. These are not just words but ways of operating. Being honest, realistic and proactive are also good strategies. Accepting that there are no real “winners” in school reviews, just poorer, less diverse communities with less parental choice. I know that sometimes reality needs to bite (e.g. a school of 4 pupils 10 minutes from another school must be vulnerable) but generally it is about more than a school – there is a whole community to consider.  

Bear in mind I am not talking here about underperforming schools – that’s a different kettle of fish – but networks of schools that are seen as unviable due to population or economic changes.

Michael Fullan talks about transformational leaders being concerned for their whole network of schools, not just their own turf. I hope that those putting Aorangi in this difficult position - are they anything more than victims of a recession and a National government looking to stamp their authority? – will consider the wider implications of their actions.

I will be emailing Aorangi’s principal tomorrow to offer my support, and urge other school leaders to do the same. The letter of support will be copied to my local MP. If a school in urban Christchurch is possibly being closed for the reasons stated by Anne Tolley, then I’d suggest many of us should be nervous where this new direction might lead us over the next few years.

Today I stumbled across the “Leadership Dilemmas” section of Educational Leaders (formally Leadspace). I was very impressed with what I found there – lots of informed, practical examples and suggestions for us to use. We all find ourselves in difficult situations from time to time, and for a variety of reasons (uncertainty, pride, conflict of interests) may not tap our colleagues on the shoulder for support or advice. I’ve read some of the vignettes with interest, knowing that though some don’t relate to my current challenges, they are likely to be issues I could face in the future. I’m still not sold on the new look site – I found Leadspace far more user friendly, although that could just be an aversion to change creeping through – but the dilemmas section is well worth a read.

“Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr