Principals As Lead Teachers:

How are we promoting and sustaining the professional learning community within each of our schools?

Does your vision for learning adorn the staffroom wall or is it more visible in the practices of your school community? If we went into the classrooms and got alongside the students would we see it? What does your vision for learning look like in the faces of your staff, your BoT and parent community, on your ancillary staff, out in the playground?

This succinct 2 page article is a useful guide for schools and captures the key elements:
"What is a Professional Learning Community"
A worthwhile read as we each continually reflect on our own vision for learning and the progress we as individuals are making towards it.

How is this happening in our own schools? What does it look like, feel like, sound like? Let's look at the key elements and discuss our findings....

I have always thought the actions of people the best interpreters of their thoughts. - John Locke

GATE, Inquiry, New Opportunities:

Last Thursday a group traveled to Hamilton visiting Aberdeen School in the morning and Goodwood School in Fencourt in the afternoon. Off then to Wanganui visiting Kaitoke School on Friday morning and Rutherford Intermediate in the afternoon, returning to the Bay late Friday evening.

Aberdeen School had been in an ICT contract during 2002 - 2005 and it was interesting to see the impact that this has had and what has been built upon since. We appreciated the generosity of Murray and his team as they candidly shared their journey. The school has been on a journey into Inquiry Learning, firstly adopting a model, then adapting it as understandings developed and then creating their own school-wide Inquiry Process model. Skills are being taught across the school and a deepening understanding of the various stages is being developed. Our visit was enriched by having the students share with us their own personal understanding of Questioning levels. The school wide model has been developed further allowing its own unique flavour within each classroom. The visuals in each classroom reflect the teacher's own interests. e.g. one class illustrated the process as a soccer field, placing students along the continuum as they all headed for the goal. Another illustrated this with a journey through the Forest of Learning. We visited the school's digital classrooms which led to some interesting discussion as we tried to define the term "digital classroom".

Goodwood School in Fencourt had also been involved in an ICT Contract - some years ago during the first round. Goodwood has recently won an EHSA contract, forming a cluster of 10 local schools, nominating a shared focus. It was their journey in this regard which was of particular interest and we were privileged to glean insights into the cluster vision and direction.
Striking the mid island mountains and their captivating views in the evening sunlight was a magical addition to our trip and after much professional dialogue and reflection on the way down, we discovered Wanganui at around 8 that night.

Thursday morning found us receiving a warm welcome from Chris Gullery, Principal of Kaitoke School, a small rural school on the outskirts of Wanganui. This visit was prompted by a report on the 'net of Chris's investigation to "identify the most effective teaching practices and organisational strategies used to accelerate learning outcomes for gifted and talented students in Wanganui District Schools". See http://www.leadspace.govt.nz/leadership/pdf/gullery-sabbatical-05.pdf What a highlight this visit was, to hear from both Chris on the facilitation of learning for GATE students and from Megan, the facilitator of the e-learning project trialled in partnership with Massey University. The digital natives involved in the project still hankered for the face to face aspects of learning together. The passion of both Chris and Megan was contagious and again we were privileged to experience the candour and openness offered from their reflection and experience in this journey.

It was at Kaitoke that we dabbled with Umajin. Yep, I had had a play with this software at L @ S in Rotorua in February and was impressed as much with the perceptiveness of its developers as with the trial version of the then unfinished publishing programme. This creative publishing tool is so user friendly and loads of fun. It encourages exploration and creativity. For more details and to download a free 30 day trial click on: http://www.umajin.com/static/default.htm Good pricing makes this affordable and well suited to the school environment.

Rutherford Intermediate in Wanganui was our last port of call and we were fortunate to hear and discuss the YAP programme run here. Simon and others shared the work the school is doing in their Young Achievers Programme, enhancing and refining the skills of those students to set them up for success in their chosen field. We are indeed fortunate to have meet with so many passionate practitioners over the past two days.

Our sincere thanks to the Principals and staff of Aberdeen School, Goodwood School, Kaitoke School and Rutherford Intermediate.