Rangiora New Life November 5, 2008
Posted by mrsuds in School Visits, strategic.trackback
It would be fair to say I haven’t had a big presence in Rangiora New Life School this year. That’s mainly because they already have their own LMS – MyClasses and an eLearning Co-ordinator of their own. This means they are quite a way ahead of many of the other schools in Cantatech, so they haven’t needed me quite as much. They still have an interest in where the Moodle environment is going though and my visit yesterday proved extremely productive.
I had a good discussion with Gregg, their principal who was keen on many of the issues we discussed. These included – Sorting out Cantatech courses for 2009, Collaboration, Gifted and Talented, and eLearning.
We have strong numbers for L2 History next year, so it was good to get confirmation that Adrian (their Cantatech teacher) was available to teach that course next year. Adrian is an experienced VC teacher, who has impressed me with his enthusiasm. I didn’t realise he is 62! So it’s good to see someone in the twilight of their career still wanting to trail blaze.
One of the major challenges for me in this job is to facilitate collaboration amongst all staff in our cluster. I will post somethig on this soon, so I won’t elaborate here, but needless to say it is no easy task. Like any school, RNLS staff are members of various communties and have established their own networks. I very much doubt they are at the scale we are aiming for, but many teachers feel comfortable with what they have.
This is very much the situation at RNLS. Gregg thinks the senior staff are more willing to meet with other staff in Cantatech, than the junior staff. He said that senior management certainly had a vision for online communtities as being one form of professional learning, but we both agree that it needs to be very well planned and have a purpose. He suggested NCEA moderation as an easy hook and one I hadn’t thought of is the Specialist Classroom Teacher (SCT). This position is new to many in the cluster so it would be an obvious one to target for collaboration and networking. So some productive discussion there.
Gregg was very keen on a cross cluster gifted and talented programme for 2009, as all the principals seem to be. This is something that the other eLearning clusters either have already or are planning – so it would make sense to discuss what an effective approach would be for this. A couple of years ago I wrote a research paper on this subject for my postgraduate studies, so it is something I feel I have some knowledge on at least. Gifted and Talented Programmes vary from school to school, but many run a withdrawal programme, which is not my favoured way of meeting the needs of these students. In this case though, I can’t see how a cross cluster programme can’t run this way – so I will have to bite the bullet on that one (unless I, or someone else, has a brainstorm). I would guess that it would be the favoured approach by principals though. It is also notoriously difficult to correctly identify gifted and talented students. Most students in these sorts of programmes are merely talented. A truly gifted student comes along fairly rarely. Anyway, after the seniors are gone I am going to meet with the people responsible for any sort of GATE programme in each school and see what we can put together. I’m sure there will be a discussion on this amongst the ePrincipals as well…
The final issue of discussion was on eLearning. We decided (with Hans, their eLearning Co-ordinator) that I could work with Hans on some eLearning workshops run in the school next year. I could offer some hands on stuff with web 2.0 which they haven’t really touched with their staff yet. I have tended to steer clear of hands on PD, because I don’t see it as my role, but I think it has huge benefits in raising your presence in a school. It’s all about balance in the end. How often to tavel? When to VC? When to get hands on? How much time to spend on strategic stuff? Because it is a new role all the ePrincipals have taken slightly different roads, and we have all probably changed our thinking on how to approach things a few times during this year. I know I have anyway.
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Hey Darren
Everytime I’m online, you don’t seem to be available to skype. With my visit schedule, evenings are best for me. Been jaded though, as I am working to get collaboration working, and wanting to get principals to value what we do as a cluster and not just for the money they can get. I am finding new curriculum issues is another good hook for collaboration, and standard alignment. I am looking to set up special interest VC’s next year, to arrange at least contact between people in the cluster. Out cluster Jumbo days seem to be popular, as long as we have good food and good workshops. The first step is getting teachers to have contact and form some sort of relationship. This takes time.
Finally, what are RLF’s views on myclasses? I would like to make contact with them and see how they are using the tool.
Hey Conor,
Yeah, I know. Sometimes I forget to take it off unavailable, but I have been travelling round a bit at the moment. I always keep Thursdays free. I will see if I can catch you sometime this week.
I agree with what you have to say on collaboration. We are going to make a big push next year and I have a number of ideas to present to the principals.
I think Hans (eLearning co-ordinator there) quite likes MyClasses, although he thinks it’s a bit clunky. The staff seem to be warming to it, but they are like any staff so there is major variation in use. I think Hans likes it more than Moodle. I have used it and it’s fine. I like the format, but it’s functionality is a bit limited. Happy to hook you up if you want. I keep out of the MyClasses side of things there.