Thursday 19 December 2019

Teacher Agency end of year wrap-up

As we wrap up another year, the Auckland Central Community of Schools Teacher Agency website has just been updated with our end of year overview. After 2 years of leading the Teacher Agency initiative for the #ACCoS1 Kahui Ako, I am pleased to see the progress we have made building a shared language and shared understanding of this nebulous concept across a number of different schools. If you have not had a look at our interactive matrix or our teacher inquiry database I invite you to take a peek. Link to our site is below.
Many thanks to all the schools who have been part of this initiative and so willingly opened their minds to the work we have undertaken in this initiative.
* Remuera Intermediate School
* Remuera Primary School
* Victoria Avenue School
* Kohia Terrace School
* Meadowbank School
* Epsom Girls Grammar School

GOALS

Goals for 2019 were tailored to suit the strategic direction of each school, in collaboration with senior leadership teams. 


Remuera Intermediate School
Increase teacher agency via appraisal/inquiry work with PALs
Build collaborative practice as a cultural norm
Broaden collaborative network using Teacher Agency website database tool


Kohia Terrace School
To continue the culture of Teacher Agency so that it becomes ingrained in school culture so that every child benefits from teacher’s steady professional development


Meadowbank School
To clearly link team collaborative inquiries with the Teacher Agency Matrix
To use teacher agency to implement the Meadowbank Language of Learning thereby increasing learner agency


Remuera Primary School
Our Goal was to promote understanding of Teacher Agency as a concept with our PLG group and begin to interact with the Teacher Agency Matrix


Epsom Girls Grammar School
ISLs to gain an understanding of Teacher Agency and to use this to develop their Leadership Goals in relation to working with the members of their PLGs



GUIDING RESEARCH


Sinek: 

Start with the why

Sinek: 

Finding the words for your why

Hattie & Donohoo: 

Collective Teacher Efficacy

Goddard et. al: 

Collective teacher Efficacy

Learning Forward: 

Moving from compliance to Agency

Calvert: 

The power of Teacher Agency 

Riveros et. al. 

A situated account of Teacher Agency and Learning

Priestley et. al: 

Teacher Agency: What is it and why does it matter

Fowler: 

Leading inquiry at a teacher level

TKI: 

Collaborative Teaching



EVIDENCE OF IMPACT

Teacher Beliefs: 
No change in mean score or quartile scores over the course of the year. One outlier value in T4 introduces long tail.


Capacity to Act: 
Slight increase in mean score, 1 whole value increase in upper quartile from 6 to 7 (proficiently to highly agentic)


Professional Learning: 
Slight increase in mean score, 1 whole value increase in tail, 1 whole value increase in upper quartile from 6 to 7 (proficiently to highly agentic)


Collaboration: 
Slight increase in mean values. 


Reflective Practice: 
Slight increase in mean score, 1 whole value increase in upper quartile from 6 to 7 (proficiently to highly agentic)


Wellbeing and Resilience: 
Half-value increase in mean score, 1 whole value increase in lower quartile from 4 to 5 (developing to proficiently agentic), 1 whole value increase in upper quartile from 6 to 7 (proficiently to highly agentic). Highest increasing element overall.




Additionally, qualitative data was collected (teacher voice) and excerpts from this are recorded below.


What did our Teachers have to say?



Teacher agency has shown me how I can keep improving and adapting the way I teacher with the support of other teachers.


Using the matrix has raised many questions and resulted in robust discussion at the school.  We are using it to discuss what teacher agency means at our school.
It's more in the front of my thinking now where as previously I've focused only on the student having agency


My understanding has developed more through using the matrix to self assess.


I gain a greater understanding each time I re-assess myself


I have enjoyed making connections with others to develop my professional practice. I have been able to use my agency to come up with goals that I want to work on.


At first I thought I was agentic but realised that this was not the case at all times at work.


I have appreciated being given the opportunity to contribute ideas/options/test out my theories/enhance my practice.


I have seen the children stop and think when I coach them rather than just listen to something I might be saying.


I have become increasingly aware of my own practice (using the matrix) and am trying to implement and embed strategies to increase my agency


I am now reflecting more on what I need to work on, and areas I usually avoid. I have a better understanding of what it means to be agentic.


At the start of this year, I had never even heard the words "teacher agency" before and had no idea about what it was or how to be an agentic teacher. I have come to understand that teacher agency is about being in charge of your own professional learning and actively seeking opportunities to reflect and make  positive changes to practice. Over the year I have also come to understand that being an agentic teacher can involve taking risks and stepping out of your comfort zone. I have learnt that I won't ever get to a place in my career where I will say to myself "I am consistently and highly agentic, there's nothing more I can do." Reflection and being agentic is an on-going learning process throughout our whole careers that we need to think about and be aware of. 


Haven't scored as highly this time as my understanding has grown and I realise that some things are a bit more complex than I first believed.


As my understanding of Teacher Agency has grown I believe I have been able to develop further as a practitioner.


My understanding of teacher agency has remained the same throughout the year.


Last year we regularly talked about agentic practice. This year although we've focused on inquiries we haven't actively discussed and built teacher agency. It would have been useful to keep up the mini sessions in staff meetings to raise awareness - especially for new staff (RI)


There are aspects that have changed over the year such as collaboration and wellbeing. This has been helped by a network of people who are also interested in the topics.


My understanding around the concept and elements of Teacher Agency have remained the same. The change has been the way that I have used the elements in my practice. I have really pushed the well being and collaboration element in my practice.


After considering the meaning of this concept, I have come to realise that this is of huge importance to me being a happy and successful practitioner. Being free to make decisions in the best interests of my students (and indeed myself) invigorates my classroom behaviour and attention to what is happening for the students. I am always overly reflective, but tend to struggle with self care and as I am generally quite critical of my own practice, struggle with seeking constructive criticism.


As an individual in charge of a subject area I have found my understanding of being agentic has been useful in terms of taking action to solve my own problems or working to find solutions that will help systems and processes within the cluster of schools. 


I see teacher agency becoming increasingly important to focus on as education is continually changing and this requires teachers who can adapt and be agentic.


I feel I am growing in my ability to identify areas for growth, seek advice and implement change with greater confidence than ever before. Seeking guidance and support from other teachers in regards to what is working for them in their practice has been incredibly supportive of my own growth and development


As the year has progressed my understanding of what makes a truly agentic teacher has evolved. As I have put some of the ideas from our PLG into practice as a teacher, a learner and as a leader of a team it has reminded me of what is effective about my teaching practice and my strengths (this has been validating) It has given me direction and sparked my interest in areas of my teaching where I could learn from others and progress professionally. Thank you!!

Alaric Nicholls, 

Across Schools Leader


Thursday 5 December 2019

End of Year Review 2019


On Monday all the Across School Leaders shared with the ACCoS principals their year's review. This year we agreed to create a Plan on a Page Doc with hyperlinks to the years work. As a group we agreed on criteria and a set size. However how this was created was left to the ASL to decide. All that was asked that the final product would be added to a Google Slide.
Below you can check out each individual plan.



ASL Initiative Leads
Champion
Topic & link to slide
1
Andy Lawrence
Felecia Tomich
Delanee Dale  
2
Alaric Nicholls
Catherine Palmer 
3
Sonya Van Schaijik
Virginia Kung
4
Erin Hooper
Janice Adamson
5
Lisa Murphy
Sue Spence
Tric Milner
6
Suzanne Parkinson
Janine Irvine & 
Steve King
When we finished our session, the principals welcomed our two new ASL who are joining the team in 2020. They are Abby Cavanagh and Ajita Goh.
We also farewelled Erin Hooper who is moving further North.




Saturday 23 November 2019

Fully Registered Teacher Event 2019

Term 4 2019
Date: Thursday 21st of November 2019
Time: 5.00 pm -  7 pm.
Venue: Newmarket School
Focus: Fully Registered Teacher Event


On Thursday 21st of November, ACCoS hosted a ceremony for Graduating teachers in our Kāhui Ako.

Erin Hooper and Suzanne Parkinson two of our Across School Leaders coordinated the event, which was hosted at Newmarket Primary School.

In total nine teachers were recognised with completing their practicing certificates. Families of the newly certified teachers attended the evening and together we celebrated this important milestone in our profession.

Jill Farquharson, our lead principal, opened the evening and welcomed everyone. Then we had a speech from Madeline Gunn our expert partner.

Each school spoke about their new teachers and handed them a certificate of recognition from ACCoS.

Richard George, principal of Parnell District Primary School closed the evening

 
 

Friday 15 November 2019

TeachMeetNZ meets the ACCoS 2019 Flexible Grouping 2 Mathematics/Pāngarau

On Thursday November 14th we had a fabulous session of TeachMeetNZ.
Some of our In School Leaders in the Across School Initiative in our Auckland Central Community of Schools, 2019 Flexible Grouping 2 Mathematics/Pāngarau Initiative shared their years journey with principals and deputy principals from their schools.

Session Host: Sonya Van Schaijik (ASL) @vanschaijik 
TimeKeeper: Andy Lawrence (ASL) @andyp_lawrence
Below you can check out our presenters individual videos and slides.


Link to Video Clips
Presenters
Topic & link to slides
Role

Sonya Van Schaijik
Lead ASL
1
Virginia Kung
Champion
2
Nicole Wylie & Belinda Hitchman.
ISL
3
Huda Parvez
ISL
4
Masina Gagamoe
ISL
5
Abby Cavanagh
ISL
6

Sonya Van Schaijik
ASL
About the TeachMeetNZ project.
TeachMeetNZ is about New Zealand Teachers connecting online and face to face. The project reflects the research and work of New Zealand educators in action. These live and face to face events are convened across all education sectors to address the emerging technologies, trends, and challenges poised to significantly impact teaching and learning.  TeachMeetNZ has been live streaming since May 2013. Unfortunately 2019 saw the end of live streaming via Google Hangouts.

We now have had over 120 educators who have joined in to help create an artefact for the education community.