Making self-evaluation work for you? One way or another!!!!

What makes learning successful? ''My father would cry reading Dickens to us as kids. These are the passages I remember.'’ Malcolm Gladwell ''One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers - but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material - but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.'’ Carl Jung

"People learn what they need to learn, not what someone else thinks they need to learn.” Fullan (1994) "In the end, it is the teacher in his or her classroom who has to interpret and bring about improvement.” Fullan and Hargreaves "You cannot have students as continuous learners and effective collaborators, without teachers having these same characteristics.” Sarason (1990)

What makes a difference There are at least four important ingredients for improving education. The first are the professional skills of those who work with children. Research has shown that factors like national or regional policies are less influential on pupils’ achievements than factors within each school Of the school factors, the skills of staff came top. The most important of these was effective classroom management

The other factors The second vital ingredient is the raising of aspirations and expectations. Third, staff morale and attitude to their craft. It is hard to improve what you do through clenched teeth. Fourth is the climate within the school..a positive attitude to improvement in which people look at what is happening in classrooms, reflect on it and implement judicious change

The “Mortimore” factors Purposeful leadership of the staff by the head-teacher The involvement of the whole leadership team The involvement of teachers Consistency among teachers Structured lessons Intellectually challenging teaching

Work-centered environment Limited focus within sessions Maximum communication between teachers and students Record keeping Parental involvement Positive climate

The big ten classroom factors? having a positive attitude the development of a pleasant social / psychological climate in the classroom having high expectations of what pupils can achieve lesson clarity effective time management strong lesson structuring the use of a variety of teaching methods using and incorporating pupils’ ideas using appropriate and varied questioning [Reynolds]

Effective Qualities Sharing the management of learning with pupils Promoting the belief that attainment can improve Using a wide range of sources of information Identifying a range of needs Responding to needs Giving and receiving feedback Using a range of sources of support

The 4 big questions What are you going to do to improve your practice? What help or support will you need to ake that improvement? What outcomes will you expect your young people to achive as a result of the improvement? What evidence will you look at to determine if the improvement has been made?

What are the models for educational change? Data led Driven Collegiate Autocratic Structural Top down Bottom up…………………..

Time to talk Agree or disagree? Which model of educational change do you think works best?

The Leadership Hierarchy Obstruction Abdication Instruction Direction Enablement Empowerment

Key Principles  Change should only be driven by self-evaluation, provided that self-evaluation is realistic and takes account of economic and social changes  If all learners were experiencing the best practice in our schools, we would not be talking about system change  We need to build on your care, commitment and practice

Key principles Staff work best when they are enthusiastic about what they are teaching ….. and who they are teaching Otherwise it makes no difference to pupil achievement

Professionalism Reflection Ambition Courage Tenacity Idealism Care Energy

Consonance Schools which recognise consonance are more able to see opportunities for focusing their development work on the achievement of students and the teaching and learning process through externally generated change

Some thoughts “Smart kids pass tests” It’s the last question that holds the key to high achievement Attainments are only for entrance, they don’t guarantee success in the world you enter It is not our job to enable young people to fail, it is our task to give them the tools to succeed

The Lacuna Their white dresses swirled like froth, with skirts so wide they could take the hems in their fingertips and raise them up to make sudden wings, like butterflies, fluttering as they turned….. “Indian girls,” she spat……”A corn eater will never be more than she is”

The dancers were butterflies. From a hundred paces Salome could see the dirt under their fingernails, but not their wings

Adding value is not enough for some of our young people, we need to challenge their destinies. We are not editing life stories, we are creating new narratives

How do you want to be remembered? She had a great inspection report She gave something back She was a brilliant teacher She changed children’s lives She was a key part of all that we achieved

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

The Real David