I was lucky to work with two really talented technicians over the course of 2011. The first is still back at my old site (as well as my own kid’s primary school where he has helped agitate for some of the changes I’ve pushed for as a parent) but of course, I left there for a new opportunity at Woodville Gardens. There I was lucky enough to work with the second who did the leaving this time for an enticing position at another school (in an ironic twist). Between the two of them, I have seen the best traits of this crucial role in Australian schools.

A good technician is someone who says, “Tell me what you want to do, and I’ll do my best to make it happen. I’ll explain your best options but always allow your knowledge of learning priorities right of way.”

A good technician knows how to translate technical jargon and processes into something that most educators can understand. A good technician is flexible and strives to minimise downtime in the classroom. A good techie knows how to self prioritise, to give suggestions and inside knowledge to the coordinator or AP, savvily stretch the finite budget and find the balance between troubleshooting and setting up stuff for the near and longer term future.

Unfortunately, we don’t pay school based technicians much and many move on to more lucrative opportunities in private enterprise. In primary school, we ask them to be generalists and know a bit of everything but in contrast to much of the private sector, school technicians enjoy greater autonomy and less pressure from more understanding clients (the teachers!). Although as I juggle my AP responsibilities and the very basics of technical troubleshooting and early year network maintenance, I feel quite pressured!

So, if you’re a technician in the Adelaide metro area looking for a challenge at a great school, let me know. I can’t hold down this role forever. And you know you will be valued.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrdarkroom/4265886842/

Frank, my boss, likes to talk about three types of space in school – physical space, virtual space and teacher headspace. The first two only get used well when the third is open to good practice, seeing things differently and willing to re-imagine what could be.

I’ve been in leadership since 2003 but it has mainly been on what I think is the first rung – as a coordinator who had release time from my own classroom responsibilities to lead out in the area of learning technologies. Since July last year, I’ve been on the next rung as an Assistant Principal, and it is only now as I’m starting a new school year with this school and this group of colleagues that I’m really realising the difference it makes when you have different broader responsibilities without the responsibility of one specific group of students.

As a coordinator, it was easy to lead by example. “I’ve set this up in my classroom and it works this way.” I had classroom credibility but was always short on time to do as much as is needed for the whole school big picture. Now I have the time and scope in my new experience but I have no classroom presence to draw on and to demonstrate with.

A quick example from Wednesday. I led a presentation on Inquiry Learning, knowing that at a large school just over a year old, there would be colleagues with a wide variety of experiences and perspectives on the topic. At Lockleys North, we had a huge focus on inquiry learning and I have a reasonable amount of experience with the process, planning and implementation of learning in this vein. I’ve had the privilege of high level training and PD – three sessions with Kath Murdoch, two times listening to both Mark Treadwell and John Hattie and been to Melbourne to spend three days with Jay McTighe. I’ve designed units of work with my former Upper Primary colleagues over the past four years and sat in on the planning of many others in that time. I have a sizeable digital resource library of articles, videos, powerpoints and templates. I’ve even been on the journey from back when I was teaching at Flagstaff Hill Primary in the nineties and getting into Resource Based Learning in a major way just as the internet was becoming a viable thing in South Australian schools. I dabbled and wrote webquests, then moved onto Problem Based Learning in my new role as a coordinator at Lockleys North when I started in 2003. So I’ve done heaps.

But now it is all in my head. I mean it was in my head before too but I could show Inquiry Learning as an extension of my own practice. As an AP, I’m the person spouting what the classroom teachers should be doing, becoming a quasi-consultant – talking the talk but the walk is back in the immediate past. I worry that I may become one of those people from the department who lose touch with what really happens in the classroom and a result command very little respect without ever really realising that their words are ignored at best.

I’m sure that if you are a school leader, you know what I’m talking about. So, I’m keen for any feedback here.

How did you make that transition from leading classroom practitioner to leadership?

How did you hang on that credibility that is vital for effective leadership?

Here you can see my youngest son Josh in the middle of the lookout. On his right is my wife, Joanne looking out at the Southern Ocean, while my other son Aaron in the red t-shirt is looking back towards the township of Goolwa.

Here is what he could see. You can see the Hindmarsh Island bridge in the upper right connecting Goolwa to the island over the River Murray. The clouds are greyish as a cool change had come in and it was about 7.30 pm.

It really is a nice part of the world.

First, a bit of background. I had a stint as acting Deputy Principal at my previous school during Term 2 and found that I really enjoyed the time out of the classroom working on staff issues, communicating with the parent community and getting a closer look at how the administrative side of a South Australian government school works. I had the opportunity to apply for a six month stint as Assistant Principal at Woodville Gardens which I was lucky enough to win for a longer three year tenure late in 2011. So, I headed off to this new “super school” with a heady mixture of excitement and trepidation because I was stepping up into a non-classroom role for the first time in a testing environment. Everything at the school was brand new and even arriving after everyone else had been settled in for the first semester didn’t mean that all of the bugs had been ironed out! I’ve learnt quickly about the quirks of a cross platform network, large stocks of netbooks that are underpowered and disliked by staff and students alike and finding that much of my pedagogical knowledge is not necessarily common practice. More about that later – and do not mistake my observation as a criticism. In my application that culminated in my successful appointment I listed out all that I had managed in my time up to that point:

Assistant Principal – ICT and Administration
Semester 2, 2011

• quickly established key working relationships with technician, teacher-librarian and leadership in supporting the school’s ICT direction
• blended into the school culture, offering key support during the school’s official opening, producing and providing a student perspective video to showcase the school’s diversity
• worked in partnership with the teacher-librarian to collaborate with middle and upper primary classes involved in inquiry research units of work
• started a program of Professional Learning after school sessions for teachers based on the “teacher as learner” model
• consulted with senior leadership to make decisions around student laptop distribution
• supported behaviour management of students as required
• taken on and maintained administration tasks including the maintenance of equitable rosters (NIT, Yard Duty, Traffic monitors), management of the School photos and NAPLAN results distribution
• established working relations with DECS ICT support staff, learning as much as possible about the school’s technology infrastructure, its cross platform capabilities and started on the implementation of the school’s online student learner management system (StudyWiz)
• applied for the school’s inclusion in the 2012 Microsoft Innovative Schools program
• planned for a future staff focus on 21^st Century Learning as connected to the school’s priorities, use of the TfEL and focus on personalisation of student learning

I’ve deliberately avoided rushing into the place and posing myself as some sort of expert. That approach can only put people off and backfire but I have made it my business to really take a close look at how teachers are using the technology at their disposal and how they work around the many roadblocks that invariably crop up. So, now as I’m about a week away from going back to work, I need to air out some thoughts about this year and how I will fulfil my role. I can only do it my way in careful consideration of the unique needs of this school and this community – what outside people think and do are only useful in so far in helping us clarify what is needed for Woodville Gardens.

Listening to Tony Bryant from Silverton Primary School in Melbourne earlier in 2011 made me realise that leadership for change can be achieved by focussing on one school becoming the best that it can be. The school can then be a focus point for other like minded schools looking for ideas on how contemporary learning can be implemented in a way that empowers the students. I’m lucky – we have an excellent leadership team all pointed in a common direction and we all bring various strengths and perspectives to the table. I’m there for my educational technology knowledge and experience in inquiry learning – and I can only claim the upper hand in those domains because I have been fortunate enough to be connected to the wider network of educators, drawing on their expertise, ideas and inspiration.

So, I have an important role to play. Technology is one of those areas where to be too prescriptive and fixed in planning means missing evolving opportunities for taking learning in new and unanticipated directions. But I have to work out how to be influential in the right way, how to make wise decisions that use resources effectively and how to make sure that we have learning solutions tailored for our kids and their unique needs. It is an exciting task. I have three years to make a difference and culture within any site takes time to nurture and shape. I am part of a team but I am very aware of the responsibilities in front of me. Like all learners I will make mistakes along the way and get sidelined, but that is all part of the process.

Hope all of my readers (the ones who still check their subscription feed every now and again) have a great festive season – and that all Australian educators enjoy their break. I am well rested after a break from blogging caused by a number of mundane factors – busy end of year, new role, watching too many TV-on-DVD series etc, etc – but I fully intend to get back into some writing in the new year. Meanwhile, the tumbleweed can roll around here for a few days/weeks until something topical crops up.

Cheers,
Graham.

After all, Facebook seems to be great at connecting with people who I already know. Sending a Friend Request to my new colleagues at my current place of employment is a way of strengthening collegial relationships, and allows me to get to know them better as people rather than just work mates.

Facebook is hugely popular with primary school kids here as well. From what I see and hear, I can make the following generalisations:

Aussie kids don’t know (or maybe even care) that when they sign up for an account, they are:

grant (ing) us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License).

not (to) use Facebook if you are under 13.

not (to) create more than one personal profile.

:from Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities

I followed this link from Brian Lamb’s delicious links, and the image of the deadly snake starts to come back into my mind again. The opening paragraph from Anil Dash sounds out a warning for those of us who have enjoyed and benefitted from the distributed web.

Facebook has moved from merely being a walled garden into openly attacking its users’ ability and willingness to navigate the rest of the web. The evidence that this is true even for sites which embrace Facebook technologies is overwhelming, and the net result is that Facebook is gaslighting users into believing that visiting the web is dangerous or threatening.

He outlines a compelling argument that is clear by non-geek standards, and down in the comments is a response link from a Facebook engineer. Read that with the average Facebook user in mind and consider if that explanation makes you feel more comfortable about the place Facebook occupies in the internet ecosystem and even in the spectre of popular culture.

Personally, I think it is only a matter of time before Facebook creates its own browser that presents its version of the web to its captive users.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/123660909/

I said sure, and then she asked, “How do you spell Sierra Leone?”

I helped her and she quickly navigated her way to Freetown. She zoomed into her old neighbourhood, or what she thought was, checking out some of the linked photos on the map. “Oh, I remember that beach!”

“How long ago did you come to Australia?” I ask in my best diplomatic voice.

“About four years ago. But there are no photos here of my street.”

Then I suggested that she grab the yellow Streetview man and drag him into one of the streets.

“It won’t work.”

Then it dawned on me. The roads were dirt and had never had the Googlemobile cruise them. The civil war that had been the catalyst for this particular student’s family decision to depart has meant that this is one of the many places on Earth that Google won’t venture into. You can zoom in from on high via a satellite but the real Freetown can be still be explored via the sharing mechanism on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/belsymington/4102781100/

And today’s little experience connects me back up to a quote from Jose Vilson plucked a little bit out of context from a recent post of his, but I’m sure that as long as it is making me think, I’m sure he won’t mind. He says the following at the end of a pointed paragraph:

We say we want the best for all children, but have a hard time using the words “Black,” “Latino,” or “Asian.” Heck, you still think those types of kids don’t come to school to learn how to make it in a world that’s not theirs.

What we push forward in a typical Australian classroom is constructed from cultural and national understandings that are a world away from a child born in Sierra Leone, a second generation Vietnamese kid whose parents had to flee their home country or even an Aboriginal kid whose ancestors were always here but comes from a culture that is often poorly understood and massively underrepresented in Australian society. And after hearing a lot more about the incoming Australian Curriculum, I wonder whether it will empower or disengage our kids from indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds in our classrooms.

Or will they wish they were still back in their own “Freetown”?

So, the latest culinary discovery for me at my new school is Banh Mi, commonly and simply known in that part of Adelaide as Vietnamese Meat Rolls. Many of the teachers are really into them, many of the students have them daily as their lunch and they are really great value for money. I had one today with barbecue pork for $4.50 and it filled me up just as much as a foot long Subway sandwich at more than double the price. Typically, the roll has the meat, sliced cucumber and pickled carrots strips with either a buttery mayonnaise or chilli paste on the bottom and sliced chillis for that extra flavour hit. Some venues add in radish strips or shredded lettuce. So far over the last two months I’ve tried about four different venues around the school’s neighbourhood – this link gives a good explanation of the roll’s origin. So, if you are ever in the Hanson Road area in Adelaide, drop into one of these shops and give Banh Mi a try.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lastappetite/2488688389/

We have a lot of teachers who haven’t been teaching for a long time. Some are young but quite a few moved into teaching later in life. A reasonable number of these have only ever taught at a Category 1 school. Lesson for me: don’t assume that everyone can draw on the same depth of experience that I have but because there are many more complex and challenging students here, I have plenty to learn from my new colleagues’ shorter time span of experiences.

Cross platform networks are complex and there is always something that needs fixing. Be it iMacs that won’t print to the photocopiers to under powered Dell Minis that can’t really cope with a full Windows 7 image, teachers have to be realistic about the technology and being able to adapt their goals and tasks when using the laptops with students is a necessity. But the kids are platform agnostic – Windows has Publisher that is popular and flexible, while the Macs have GarageBand which is ultra-popular with the upper primary boys and after all, the internet works pretty much the same way on all computers.

The key to working successfully with any students to build a positive relationship first. That is hard in a leadership role so I’ve tried really hard to connect names to kids and use those names so they know that I’m interested in them as an individual. I get names wrong quite a bit still and am constantly asking my teaching colleagues to clue me in on a name. Unfortunately, sometimes names are easy to remember for the wrong reasons with some of the more challenging students – and it is also important to remember that being an authority figure isn’t really something that carries any weight with them. In fact, it can work against me in that regard. I do like the fact that many kids will say hello to me even if on occasion they call me by my predecessor’s name!

- there’s a difference between a sense of self entitlement and a sense of defiance even if the outward behaviours can look similar.

- that no matter where you are, taking the time to build a positive relationship with a child is the best way to make any form of progress. Come to think of that, taking the time to build a positive relationship with anyone is the best way to make any form of progress.

- that a huge difference in boundaries and accountability exists between home and school for many kids, regardless of whether they are well off or poor.

- that mobile phones are ubiquitous, regardless of socio-economic status.

- that everyone involved in education is extremely busy. There are no easy gigs in schools any more.

- at times, leadership can feel like spinning wheels in the mud.

- that kids don’t just leave the rest of their life behind when they head into school but for some, it can be a welcome respite.

- that a change in schools can stretch out skills and knowledge in a way that cannot be done by staying put in the one site forever. This is an aspect that our new open-ended tenure system will not help with – one has to work hard to stay fresh in a long term familiar environment. On the flipside, you don’t produce anything lasting or of worth if one is too quick to move on from one position to another.

- that all schools are and have a right to be proud of their own unique combination of culture and learning.