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Mindset is not about picking up a few pointers here and there, but seeing things and doing things in new ways.

Relationship is key..there needs to be relational trust with leadership and staff to move any learning forward.

We all have different starting points...similarities and differences...can be challenging to have learning events that meet everyone's needs.  Some will see work toward improving student achievement as their job and others will see it as criticizing their teaching.

As leaders we need to use relevant student data to in some cases challenge the thinking of teachers.

Problems of Practice (POPS)

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Jeanette
- You need to be part of the process so you can influence, understand student and teacher  needs in order to influence the learning
- Teacher needs to feel trusted not criticized by the leaders participation

- hard work as a leader - need to put time and focus into this work if it is important to you

- make sure you monitor outcomes to ensure what you are doing is relevant to student learning

- Professional learning is influencing ALL teachers on your staff----requires personalized approach just like what you are asking of your teachers for their students

- How do you know you are focusing on the right thing?

Kevin
- PVP is not only promoting and participating but leading the learning

- Teacher Learning ...that leads to new teaching practices must make a difference for all students

- Not pockets of Brilliance but everybody in a school....who is my class and how do I support their learning

- Relational TRUST is the grease that moves this wheel....teacher challenged and supported not criticized

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Doug's Aha's
-Building expertise knowledge is central to success to inquiry process, or we are just recycling old knowledge and assumptions
-Leader essential through participation to develop a culture of respect and challenge
-imperative of leader to keep bringing back the checking of what is happening for students through relevant data

Brian's AhHa

- Key tasks are to keep active and promoting inquiry habits of mind
- Brian excited to read the book by Jim Sillane based on leadership is distributed across patterns of influence across many players. "Towards a Theory of Leadership Practices:a distributive practice"
-Relational Trust - no evidence of blame

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Page 95

The central challenge faced by all leaders is to create situations that promote teacher learning about teaching practices that make a difference for students.

This quote is followed by the idea that the actions that make the most difference for students involve leaders promoting and participating in teacher learning and development, but not only promoting and participating, the leaders needed to be leading teacher learning and creating school communities that learn. They are at the forefront of the learning, not introducing the learning, and then slinking off to their office. It reminds me of the famous Teddy Roosevelt quote:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.  (1910)

As leaders, we need to be in the arena, “daring greatly,” and not merely sitting in the stands. This is not an easy task, and it brings up a lot of vulnerability, but that, to me, is where great leadership starts.

Chapter 5

1): "Leadership is not the work of one person...but understanding that leadership as being distributed across people does not mean that the Principal simply delegates  to others and remains aloof from what is happening with students."

- this is very tough to balance when you are trying to not only balance between multiple schools but multiple facets of a job that involves schools throughout the district.  I think the big piece in making this happen with a multiple school model or a large school model is everyone understanding their role and what they are contributing to the team.

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Notes for chapter 5.

- Under dimensions of influence with moderate impact on student achievement; the one with twice the influence as others is leaders who involve themselves, promote and participate in teacher learning and development
- The central challenge faced by all leaders is to create situations that promote teacher learning about teaching practices that make a difference for students.
- Leadership rests with a particular person and demonstrated that leadership is more like patterns of influence distributed across many players

-What gets neglected were some administrative tasks they believed did not contribute to student learning.  They delegated these tasks.

-Inquiry without new knowledge can become a process of recycling what is already known and is unlikely to make a difference to the difficult problems.
When leaders and teachers engage in ongoing inquiry and knowledge -building cycles, inquiry habits of mind become part of how things are done

Successful leaders:

Participating in teacher learning; developing relevant materials, routines and structures to promote learning :

1)    Student profiles

2)    Scheduling to support meeting of teams

3)    Knowing the research

4)    Knowing how to teach and facets of the curriculum

5)    Know how to create a difference for student’s experiences

6)    Establish monthly meetings

Lead inquiry habits of mind by

1)    accessing outside expertise to have evidence informed conversations

2)    examining  and interpreting the evidence

Developing a relationship of respectful conversations

To become a community that learns together – grows together

Image result for brene brown quotes

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P/ 86 -88
- Difficult to pinpoint causation of why of why student performance is not where you want it to be

- External experts bring a new lens to a learning conversation and challenge social norms in place that want the status quo to continue

- How have your tema norms changed in the past year - checking....

- Developing a deeper ability to interpret student needs -not just READING - what about reading is the challenge

- Inquiry habits of mind will have teachers asking themselves, "what new challenges have become evident, what do we need to learn,,,what actions are we going to take

- teachers as adaptive experts - are deeply knowledgeable about content being taught and how to teach it

- teachers are aware of the assumptions underpinning their practice and know to question them and let them go

- they need to become the expert in retrieving, organizing and
applying professional knowledge

- part of being an adaptive expert is know and from where to seek help.

- bottom of page 88 great staff or department activity
-

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The Fit for purpose assessment is very prevalent in the world of special education. To apply this to professional learning within out classroom practices is exciting.

a)    Behaviour and attitudes of the professional learning group

·      Inquiry habits of mind

·      Respectful relationships with honesty and transparency regarding professional learning intentions

·      Acceptance that high levels of challenge is an accepted part of the process

·      change is the goal

·      Clarity from leaders about the reasons for the professional practice

b)    The Assessment process that:

·      It happens over time

·      That evidence is standardized

·      Comparable tools are used

·      Interpretations are open to unintended observations and causation

·      Supported with evidence regarding the changes and student learning

c)     The outcome is:

·      Deepening of students and their learning (knowledge) and what they need to be successful

·      Teachers become adaptive experts (skills) on the content and how to teach it in a variety of ways
*checking outcomes for students ensures the teacher's participation in professional learning actually results in the desired improvement in student outcomes

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Even though teachers make purposeful changes (based on research, conversations, personal experience, access to experts, etc) the impact may not be what is anticipated.  Checking involves talking to students and using other professionals to provide evidence that student achievement or understanding is developing. Need outside contributions, not just personal perception, to whether change is impactful. Rechecking
and refining is often needed to move learning forward. This habit of mind is a cycle and requires teachers practice that is repetitive and collaborative
before it becomes ingrained practice.

Shift in thinking from assessing for letter grades to assessing learning and practice comes from constant exposure to current trends and thinking in learning pedagogical practice...ie effective professional development (individualized and collaborative)

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Shawn - 73 – Through these meta-cognitive and self-regulated learning processes, teachers come to take more control of their own learning…work in partnership with others who have specialist expertise to identify what is working well…..

- This to me is sharing and accountability for your learning…and it must be ongoing.   We do too many one-offs so we never get deep.  In order to get deep teachers NEED TO NETWORK….professional learning Network – Will Richardson

Page 74

Important principles to guide decision-making to observations of classroom practice (as done to find out if things have changed in students’ learning environments).

1. What is observed related directly to professional learning area of focus and included learning goals developed to address specific problem of practice.

2. Focus should be jointly decided by observer and person being observed.

3. Criteria to determined what is effective developed through research and professional literature agreed to before observation by observer and person being observed.

Having everyone on the same page is essential for a learning partnership.

My thoughts: These 3 criteria are needed for there to be a trusting, open relationship. I can see how some teachers would believe there was an element of assessment or judgement with having an observer in the classroom. We need teachers to actively seek out solutions to teaching/learning problems and it is through this process that growth occurs.  Leaders must approach the situation with complete transparency – nothing can be hidden and there should be no secret agendas. Everything is about solving the problems students are experiencing, and the expectation is that everyone on the team wants to solve these problems as well. Relationships are of utmost importance and the focus in on professionalism. We do not need to protect teachers from our concerns. The idea that teachers are part of a team that is working towards a solution is helpful because the onus is NOT on one – it is on the collective.

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p. 76-78
- observation to promote learning vs compliance
- clear criteria vs open ended /collaborative vs direct / feedback was direct vs generic feedback
- rationale for observations need to be clear
- criteria should focus on student learning and not teaching practice...did it make a difference

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There is no straight line from professional learning to interpretation of learning to teaching practices and to student learning - many filters in the journey

Need to understand where your students are at - motivation and prior knowledge

The influence of professional learning is depends on how teachers interpret the understandings and use the particular skills through professional opportunities