Principals session with Sonya

Last Monday I shared our Google tools with the ACCoS principals. Some of the links may not work to those outside the community. However if you are in the community and still unpacking everything then these slides will help.

ACCoS Cafe

Inspired by Educafe style interactive discussions, last Wednesday afternoon the across school teachers hosted an ACCoS Cafe for the in school teachers in our Auckland Central Community of Schools. The session had two purposes, firstly to build our community connections and secondly to discuss learner agency, a common thread within our various inquiries. Our community is large so it felt important to provide the in school teachers with an opportunity to meet each other face-to-face and share their findings so far. Our question for the afternoon was, "How does my inquiry within the ACCoS connect to learner agency?" Groups discussed what learner agency looks like in our setting. After a couple of rounds of sharing we explored the question, "How do we build agency across our community?" Alongside the cafe discussion groups, community members were encouraged to share their thinking beyond these questions by providing comments, constructive feedback and posing further questions. It was a positive afternoon and worth repeating with a different focus in the future.

Principal's Professional Development

Jill Farquharson's meeting with Michael Fullan and Visits to Network Schools in Toronto.

This year I was fortunate to be able to take part in a professional development opportunity with a one-on-one meeting with Michael Fullen.

Points Discussed  

• Structure of networks 
• Work in progress for our network 
• Opportunities and challenges we are facing 
• Looking ahead, next steps  

Key Take Outs 

•  The centre frames the direction, the middle gets empowered and the bottom liberated (the term middle depends on your context. For some jurisdictions middle is the Principal e.g. Ontario but for others it means the teachers and middle leaders e.g. NZ). Devolution of power. 
• Get to the nitty gritty with your work, explore what the causal pathways might be, but don’t rely on this always being clear. There is no recipe. 
• Look for opportunities to lead and learn from other networks. You should have a penchant to what is happening in the rest of the country. Have an external face and a plan of action ‘look out to be better in’. 
• Chronicle your efforts, develop new measures mindset and use two or three of them to take regular stock takes – name it, model it, monitor it. Don’t worry if you know what the destination is but the pathway is not that clear. This is part of innovation.  

Summary 
It’s quite humbling to look off shore at different jurisdictions, talk to world renowned experts in the field and receive confirmation that what we are doing in New Zealand is world class. We punch well above our weight for such a small country. The innovation, risk taking and empowerment that is happening in our COL means we are learning all the time and should keep talking about it, amongst ourselves, in the community and across the country. What we have happening is good, it matches current thinking about leading and learning and offers paradigm to adapt and successfully accelerate system interventions in education. COLs are a powerful driver for improvement.

Recommendations 

• Lift our profile – tell people about what we are doing not only to be noticed but for quality feedback as well. 
• Extend our network links – across Auckland, across the country. Significant gains can be made by sharing. Find out what else is happening in the country, in leadership, in new pedagogies.  
• Be explicit in what we want and focus on things that count. 
• Chronicle our work.  
• Develop a new measures mindset (with a focus on only one or two - don’t have too many). 
• Continue as leaders to be interested in building collective capacity rather than individual autonomy. 
• Plan for a regular stocktake, how are we doing? Be specific. 

Term 4 Update 2

Update 2

Just a follow up as you set up for the next in school meeting.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_ntjvaGdf_MMTdoX1JOUHp0LTg

Reminder to set up agendas directly in the themed folders.

Add the link as part of your post to the Google+ Group in the correct sub post.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109732391882251296976

This keeps everything nice and tidy and transparent across the community.

Term 4 Update 1

Welcome everyone and please BookMark these links so you do not get lost.

I am sure that most of you will have a digital space where you store important information.

If not then now is a good time to begin.

I am Sonya and I am here to support you during this developmental stage of our community as we learn how to best communicate with you all.

There are several places for communication, but rather than sending an email, please use the Google+ page with your queries and someone somewhere within the community might just have an answer for you.

In addition if you have not yet added an introduction, please do so as this helps us all to develop stronger connections.

You can do that here in About us.

ACCoS Google+ Community

Auckland Central Community of Schools is a closed Google+ community for participants in this initiative.

If you are not on Jill’s master list, I will not add you.

The Google+ community is moderated by our 9 across school teachers.
They are your first place to try and problem solve.

ACCoS Calendar

Jill Farquharson and her personal assistant Kristy look after our calendar.

We have found that this is the best way for ensuring that everyone gets the same and most up todate message.

If you need anything added then please email Kristy.

ACCoS Cluster Folder

This folder is driven through Google as all information must be accessible by all.

Please do not try and access it from your personal Google because then everyone gets the message to add you again.

Remember to create your minutes directly there so that they can be read by everyone.

ACCoS Photo Folder

This folder is for you to add any photos you take that others might be able to use.

ACCoS Blog (Patience)

The blog is to support the ACCoS School teachers with communication but also so that it is transparent to you all so do try and read it to keep up to date.

ACCoS Site

The site is our public profile so that we can be found and can be seen as tracking what we do to support up and coming new Communities.

Currently editing is only by our Across School Teachers.

ACCoS Resource Link

These links have been taken from the community postings so that they do not get lost.

Now just a few important pieces of information as you develop collaboration between yourselves.

Please be aware that Epsom Girls have two email systems.

So if an email does not get answered- check that there is no APPS in the email.

Also if you add EGGs teachers to Docs please use their APPS address rather than their normal email.

Parnell District School are not YET on Google but hopefully they will be soon so keep that in mind when you send them google Docs.

Please if you have any issues as in you have really tried to problem solve then flick me an email and I will try and answer within 24 hours.

Bearing in mind I am also a teacher at Newmarket School and have other responsibilities.

Our First Team Meeting

The six across-school teachers had our first meeting on our own on Monday 12^th Sept at EGGS. We had set aside 4 hours for this. We set the agenda ourselves and were able to have a great wide-ranging discussion. Most important thing was how we gave space for everyone to speak on how the COS has been going so far and what the issues are.

We finished by brainstorming ideas on how we could operate within the COS and how we could divide up the tasks. We have gone away to think more on these ideas and will need to come back to them.

My overall feeling after our meeting is that it is important we continue to have meetings like this in order to build up a team feeling and give support to each other.

Google afternoon

Under the patient guidance of Sonya Van Schaijik the Across School teachers gathered to learn about google plus, google circles, our google site, calendar, blog and shared folders on google drive.

Getting going as an Across School Leader

Nā tō rourou

Nō taku rourou

Ka ora i te iwi

With your food basket With my food basket The people will thrive *

This whakatauki encapsulates the essence of the role of the Across School Leaders as we begin our work with ACCOS.

Travelling around to meet the In School leaders and find out about what they are doing has been an inspirational start. There are so many passionate educators doing such good stuff within our community; it can only get better once we start collaborating even more and building up our learning network.   Right now we are learning about the different schools, getting to know the In School leaders and building our capabilities so that we can support schools and teachers in the months ahead to meet the five achievement challenges. Exciting times ...

*source: Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori

Welcome

Welcome to the Auckland Central Community of Schools Blog. We will work collaboratively on strengthening the pathways for our students throughout their schooling journey. This will involve developing a more holistic pathway, acknowledging each student’s strengths, as they transition through various schools within our community. Robust, rigorous data, around our students will be shared across our schools. Culturally appropriate support will comprise part of the student’s transition between schools.