Daily Action
DAILY ACTIONS
Day 1: Leading for Learning
“The shorter way to do many things is to only do one thing at a time.” - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
After looking at the 6 Areas of Practice for leaders I have identified my strengths and weaknesses in leading. I am not a team leader, but as a classroom teacher I see my leadership role as contributing to the year 6 team as well as leading my own classroom.
Something that I am going to be more deliberate in, is having a good understanding of the curriculum. By studying for my masters I am developing my understanding of the pedagogy of teaching, but with a curriculum that is constantly changing, it is overwhelming at times to stay on top of it.
Over the past year our school has moved from teaching subjects in silos to teaching with a global perspective (overall topic) where we integrate the subjects into the topic that we are covering. This has forced us to be creative, to think outside the box, and allowed us to mold our lessons to the students we are teaching and the country we are teaching in. Some weeks the planning and creating of lessons is overwhelming and does not result in it being the best of our ability. I am going to strive to be more disciplined in creating this new curriculum, to support my colleagues as we navigate these new waters together, and to encourage a culture of learning both in my classroom and in my team.
Day 2: Decision Making
Day 3: Eisenhower Matrix
"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done." - Bruce Lee
Often with the busy lives of teachers we can become swamped with a number of tasks that 'urgently' need to be completed. It is important for us to have a system in place to keep us from becoming overwhelmed, especially in the busy times of the term. Something I learnt today was the Eisenhower Matrix which helps categorize tasks and has suggestions on how to go about completing them. There are four quadrants to this model and they are as follows:
If something is urgent and important then you must do it.
If something is not urgent but important then you must schedule it.
If something is not important but urgent then you must delegate it.
If something is not important and not important then you must delete it.
My personality type does not like to find itself in the "do it" quadrant or the "delegate it" quadrant. When my list of urgent things to do gets too long, I get overwhelmed and end up being less productive from the stress of the situation. As a perfectionist and someone who likes to do things themselves I try to avoid delegating tasks for fear that they won't be done to my standard and I will have to redo them anyway. As a result I like to keep myself in the "schedule" quadrant and aim to get tasks completed before they are urgent and have to be done. Obviously this is not always possible, but by doing this I am able to focus quickly on last minute tasks because my "do it" list is never too long.
With the start of the term I have watched new teachers try to navigate teaching in a new school and new country. This model would benefit new teachers so that they can have clarity on which tasks to complete first and which to schedule, delegate, or even delete from their list of things to do. I will definitely be sharing this tools with my colleagues so that they too can benefit from it.
Day 4: The 5 Whys Method
"When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves." - Anthony J. D'Angelo
When reflecting on today's lecture the image of a tree where the leaves represent the symptoms of a problem (or outcome), the trunk represent the problem itself, and the roots represent the cause (what's bringing about the problem). We were asked to jot down a problem that we are facing and we then used the five whys problem solving method. This essentially should move one from the leaves of the tree to the roots through a series of "Why" questions.
Below is my problem and the whys:
Why?
Gaps begin in Year 3 and Year 4 when the expectations of a learners ability to read increases.
Why?
Students reading at a low level have not mastered the basic phonics and blending of reading in Year 1 and Year 2.
Why?
Teachers have not provided the necessary support to ensure students can blend sounds in the lower grades. Or the child has not been flagged as requiring additional help from the schools Assistance, Inclusion and Mentoring (AIM) department.
Why?
Class sizes are too big and students often fall through the cracks. Students that are identified as not reaching their required year group objectives and being pushed into the next year group by their parents who refuse to retain their children. Support for the students needs to be intensified across the grade levels to lessen the gap. Parents should not have the option to condone a pass more than once in a phase.
These students of mine are having regular sessions with the AIM department to lessen the gap. The AIM department is equipped with the necessary skills and are able to have more one-on-one and small group sessions.
The big class size and difference in capabilities of students in my class has been a recurring trend, and has made it challenging for me as 1 teacher to meet the demands of all the students in my classroom. There is only so much time in a school day and only so much I can do for my weaker students without shifting my focus from the needs of the rest of the class.
I have had a meetings about these factors, but I need to reopen that conversation, get the support of other teachers in similar situations, and get administrators on board so that the root of our problem can be dealt with.
Day 5: Ethical Dilemmas
"Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you." - H. Jackson Brown
While going through Kiddler's 9 Checkpoints I realized that I am largely driven by my moral compass. It has an effect on the decisions that I make, whether they are right or wrong for the situation. In my personal life that might be okay, but within the school context I need to ask myself whether the decisions I am making are aligning with the ethically correct thing to do.
I am very black and white in my decision making and because of this I fail to see that for some people decisions are often in the grey area. This can result in me making assumptions about how others make decisions, and can cause disappointment and confusion.
As humans we are not quick to take responsibility for our decisions, especially if they are not accepted as the correct one or if they lead to the wrong outcome. However, it is important to ask ourselves if we are responsible, whether we are morally obliged and empowered to do anything in the face of the moral issue.
When reflecting on dilemmas I have faced in my career I realize that some were my moral obligation to resolve and were a result of my ethical drifting, while others I was not the ultimate decision maker and was not empowered to do anything about.
I strive to be more aware when making decisions so that they are dealt with ethically. It is more important to be remembered as ethical than it is to be remembered as successful.
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