Intern Workshop Aug 18

Began with reflections of the 1st 5 weeks
Used ordered sharing protocol. Everyone gets to speak once before anyone speaks twice. Provide a time limit for each speaker.

Everyone reflected, common themes were around difficulties with adjusting to a role in a new school. Down time seemed big and lack of "real work" a challenge. Role clarity was an issue for many, but this should change when the leadership challenge kicks in.

Log your experiences around the effective schools model and use this to frame a conversation with Host Prin.

Need to get Prin P and D plan done. The leadership challenge should be your KIS goal.

Professional learning goals to come out of feedback from genos, 360 degree, host or base Prin, leading responsibly workshop etc.

Need to up the tempo and think like a Principal.

The Leadership Challenge
Needs to be pitched at Prin level. Set your problem of practice now.

E5 Judy Petsch

A profession has a practice. In your first few years as a teacher, what did you think in relation to teacher practice? How does this change over time? I have become far more attuned with how students learn, and what we as teachers have to do to maximize learning experiences. Relationships are the key driver of success.
Taken a shift from content importance to how we teach.Teaching was individual and isolated, but now it is about collaboration.
A profession has a knowledge base, they keep the knowledge base current through evolving practice and PL and they have a code of practice. The profession self regulates.

E5 is an explicit language around teaching practice with defined capabilities that allow you to give accurate and explicit feedback on practice, in order to improve. It will lead to reducing variability of practice around the school.In all classes there should be a view of what good practice is and what we should do when it is not eveident.
E5 has meant collaboration has been elevated to conversations around practice. ie How do we assess, moderate to ensure consistency of judgements?

How do you tell a convincing story, a sound narrative that convinces staff the E5 model is instrumental to improving practice. That it will improve relationships and instructional practice across the school in the classrooms. It has to be compelling and they need to believe in you as an expert.
It is not about the individual teachers but about shifting the collective.

A theory of action- Richard Elmore
Is a shift in practice happening, is it sustainable?
How do people transform their practice?
People will change their behavior, their practice, before they will change their beliefs. They will alter what they do when they see it work.

Lower performing schools will generally demonstrate 3 things
- Low coherence in adult expectations
- Low sense of self efficacy among adults
- High levels of atomization in teacher practice.

As a leader it is your role to articulate why these low level behaviors need to be challenged and build a critical mass of staff exhibiting good behaviors.

The more difficult conversations you have where you know how to manage under performance, and you are striving to improve the quality of practice, the more coherence you will have about expectations. The P and D processes help you hold staff to account.
Conversations that flow out of them and increasing the capacity of teachers to receive feedback, make a real difference in the classroom.

The further staff remove problems from the classroom, the lower the efficacy. That is, the students are from low SES backgrounds, the parents don't care etc, the lower the self efficacy that you can make a difference.

Conversations amongst staff need to focus on the collective expectations for all students. Every teacher can walk in and out of everyone's classroom to learn, share and assist.this makes a school of professionals.High atomization.

E5 is a framework that provides a reference point, an anchor about the language of a profession. Teachers need to use the language of e5, so we know we are all talking about the same thing. It is based on the premise that everyone can I prove and learn, that is what we do with kids every day after all.

It allows you to make sense of what is happening in a classroom and frame a conversation about the practice so that practice can grow, develop be shared and improve. It is a continuum.

It takes time to develop the expertise to observe practice and provide feedback.


E5 actually tells us what good teaching looks like and what we have to do to make it happen.
It focussed on what the teacher is doing not the student.
PoLT describes the what of good teaching and e5 the how.
What distinguishes environments in classrooms is the nature of the work the students are engaged in. The greater the intellectual challenges for the students, the greater the environment.
What % of tasks in your classrooms are challenging students to apply higher order thinking.
An interesting task is to ask staff to bring their assessment tasks to a room and place them on a Blooms continuum.
Look at what the teacher is actually asking the students to do. Staff need to learn how to analyze this.
E5 has 5 phases of instruction
It has capabilities that describe what the teacher is doing.
It has profiles that describe increasing proficiency.
To those who struggle to accept a need to use e5, ask them what elements that are in e5 that are not required in a classroom.

What are the non negotiable expectations I have as a Principal when I go into a school?


Following lunch we worked in small groups to discuss the progress we have been making on our theory of action. This was useful as we were all able to share and problem solve each others issues. The theory of action is very much a work in progress for most interns at this stage and far from finalized.
As a result of my work, what will be different at Kew HS?
If differentiation is important, then it becomes a focus that we keep coming back to.


"The truth about you" Marcus Buckingham

A video on Strengths based leadership.

A workplace should be somewhere that respects peoples strengths and challenges them to get better at what they are good at.
Be specific about your strengths.
Strengths are things that leave you fulfilled at the end of doing them. They are things that you look forward to doing.
When describing your strengths state that " I am at my best when ........."
Your strengths drive your performance.
To get better, drive at improving your strengths. You will grow most in the areas of strength.
Keep a memo of
I feel energized when........
I feel drained when........

The best teams are made up of people who know what they are good at, and complement that with others who are strong where you are weak and different from you. When the pressure is on, where are your strengths, and how can you help our team?
What are your passions, what really drives you....... Don't try to homogenize people, let them find their own strengths. How are tasks allocated within teams? Are they based around their strengths?

Work out how to play to your strengths most of the time...............

As you grow you become more of who you really are
You grow most in your areas of strength
Make sure you are doing what you want. Don't get stuck somewhere because of the people
"And the day came when the risk it took to stay all tight in the bud was greater than the risk it took to blossom" Anais Nin