Checking

What is Going on For Our Learners?

My new inquiry big question is: What is learner agency and how could I develop this at my school?

My leadership responsibilities (from Leading from the Middle - MOE - pg12) are:

• Improve outcomes for all students - with a particular focus on priority learners
• Create the conditions for effective teaching, learning and curriculum delivery
• Explore and promote the use of ICT and e-learning to open up new ways of connecting, sharing and learning
• Develop schools as learning communities
• Build networks within and beyond their schools to enhance learning and achievement
• Develop others as leaders

• Checking  
  Have we made enough of a difference? Checking doesn’t have to be formal, or at a set time. It can go on throughout the spiral. The importance of trust should be a recurring theme throughout the cycle, and it certainly is true of checking.

Checking in, in June

During a coaching session with Janine I was sharing what I have done with my leadership inquiry thus far. I was reflecting on all that I had implemented in class in terms of Google Docs and team teaching, as well as thinking about how I use my space within my traditional classroom, and all the time I was trying to link these thoughts back to my big question. On my initial reflection I was quite satisfied with how I was progressing, but then after deeper thought and prompting by Janine I started to have my doubts. I started asking myself if my big question was too big, and if I had too many parts to focus on. Could I do any of them justice? I still think that they are all incredibly important, but was I too ambitious at the start of the year to think that I could achieve this by the end of the year. Were my aspirations more of a long term goal - say over 2 or 3 years? 

So after this session I went away and spent some time thinking about what I was doing in my class. I had suggested to Janine as part of her coaching session that she creates a clear vision in her head of where she wants to be at the end of this journey. What does she want her classroom to look like? What would be happening in it? How would the children be engaging and interacting with each other? How would her practice have changed? What would she hear happening? I know that it could provide some limitations to create this vision in your head as you may not let things evolve along their own path, but I also think go blindly is not the way either. As a leader we have formed ideas in our heads of what we think some of the best outcomes could be, and it is part of our responsibility to help create these outcomes with those that we work with. I then thought that maybe this is what I needed to do in order to re-focus my inquiry and leadership.

My vision for my classroom: 

What I would see and hear:

• Children engaging with each other through out the day - collaborating, discussing, sharing ideas/thoughts/opinions
• Children working on their own if they choose to
• Children using the spaces around them for learning
• Children in control of their spaces and developing and refining spaces that make a difference for them
• Children engaged in tasks that grow their learning
• Lessons that helped all learners learn at their own pace and follow their own directions
• Lessons that ensured all children achieved
• Teacher's monitoring the children, helping them and facilitating their learning
• Teacher's engaging in collaborative work with each other around planning, learning conversations
• Teacher's enjoying what they are doing, and bringing their strengths to the classroom
• Teacher's and children developing an understanding of learning styles and working together to help all learners to learn
• Digital devices being used by learners to make their learning better - not simply to replace old ways of doing things
• Children bringing their own devices to school to be used
• Parents coming into the classroom to engage in and help with learning 
• Learning happening at home - using Google Docs to continue learning outside of school
• Children talking and engaging
• Children and teacher's talking about their learning
• Teacher's talking to each other about their learning
• Quiet spaces and talking spaces
• Deep and rich conversations that build relationships and foster learning
• Children succeeding!

My next step is to go back to my initial scan and development of my big question and think if I can focus my inquiry with the