Category: LDRS500 (Page 3 of 5)

There has been a lot of discussion in the past few years regarding the promotion and development of a people-technology hybrid model for education.  It is an exciting time as the possibilities are endless and also a challenging time due to budget, resource and support limitations that vary according to schools and school districts.

Technology can be used in education to promote organizational citizenship behaviour. Each year, our school district has all students in Grades 4, 7, 10 and 12 as well as staff take an anonymous online Satisfaction Survey. It is a province wide customer satisfaction type questionnaire that was developed to help meet the needs of students, staff and parents.  A link to the types of questions asked can be found here on the BC Ministry of Education website. There is also an online survey that students complete each year entitled Tell Them From Me. This anonymous survey is conducted in grades 8-12 and collects information that individual schools can then use to determine better ways to teach and reach kids based on the input collected. It enables student voices to be heard and focuses on the assessment of intellectual, social, emotional learning of students.  Here is a video link explaining how the results from Tell Them From Me can be immediately applicable. The goal is to recognize and acknowledge the needs of students and to make changes that will enable students to be more engaged in their learning which in turn leads to a higher rate of high school completion.  These types of surveys are extremely eye-opening and enable self-reflection to take place. For example, last year, we discovered that there were a high majority of Grade 8 students who felt that they didn’t have an adult in the building that they could turn to for help. We made it our mission to put initiatives in place that would ensure that each student had a special connection to at least one adult.  The difficulty with these types of surveys are that not every school has access to technology that would allow for students to complete them during school time (which is how they are conducted).  At my school alone, we have over 1200 students and only 120 laptops available at a time so it makes it rather difficult to smoothly coordinate this whole school initiative while balancing  teaching schedules and blocks.  Another pressing issue, is the lack of consistent WiFi service in  schools as well. When large groups of people are on at one time, the service usually crashes or becomes significantly slower resulting in frustration from both the teachers and the students.

We had an initiative in our District a few years ago, where there were Digital Literacy coaches available in each school to help mentor other teachers in the application of technology within the classroom to help co-create lessons that would inspire wonder and innovation in our students beyond paper/pencil tasks.  I was one of those coaches and worked out of the School Board Office helping to promote digital literacy through whole school and small group workshops as well as one on one sessions.  We needed ways to help keep parents informed and ways for students to be able to access learning materials outside of class time. I helped teachers create their own websites, create flipped classrooms (where the  lesson is taught online and the work done in the classroom) and find innovative ways to share  student learning through programs like KidBlog or FreshGrade (a learning portfolio platform accessible by students, teachers and parents).  As digital literacy coaches, we wanted to avoid teachers simply replacing paper tasks with digital ones that basically did the same thing. Our goal was to help teachers move beyond the basics and find new ways for students to share their individual unique learning and focus on student strengths. We referred to the SAMR model developed by Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura frequently as a way to help explain how to create a hybrid model of technology and education for teachers.  Here is a link to a great video clip explaining the model and how it applies to the classroom.  Basically there are 4 levels as illustrated below with the first being simply a substitute activity leading all the way to an activity that would have originally been impossible to do without technology.  For example, the first two levels of the SAMR model enhance teaching but the final level transforms it and enables students to collaborate beyond the 4 walls of the classroom and have access to a global community for feedback and self-reflection.

www.marsscott.com

Our District has moved away from having Digital Literacy Coaches within schools to having two technology support mentors who work with teachers who are interested in providing opportunities for students to learn coding and robotics within the classroom.  Teachers can apply for grants each year to receive iPads, GoPros, mini robots and other tech gadgets.  Teachers are also supplied with one tech device for themselves to use within the classroom (an iPad or a laptop) and each teacher was asked this year to define their teaching style and how they use the device provided to support student learning.

Some ways in which my school district  provides innovation in a Service Oriented Culture is by offering Microsoft Office for free to all of our students.  Students can upload this program on up to 6 different personal devices and it will still be accessible to them after they graduate. We used to use Google Classroom to enable students to collaborate online, however, due to Google servers being located in places other than Canada, we wanted to ensure that our students privacy was protected under Canadian laws and switched to Microsoft Office.  By providing students with free access to Microsoft Office, student learning can take place both inside and outside school hours and on personal devices that are convenient for students to use. We used Microsoft Office forms  at our school this year with our Grade 9’s to conduct student surveys to better improve courses like Career Education that have recently become embedded and to promote student engagement in their learning. We also use it to create quick surveys for staff that allow for immediate responses. We also use apps like Remind to keep parents and students informed of upcoming events and assignments for individual classes. We utilize social media such as Instagram to post whole school messages that will make it more likely for high school students to see. Teachers can access lesson ideas and build their professional learning community through forums such as Pinterest, Twitter and Teachers Pay Teachers. Teachers and students are able to access and bring experts/mentors from the local and global communities into the classroom through programs like Skype. Virtual reality programs enable students to build and develop their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) skills.  Fun and engaging programs like Kahoot help enhance student learning and enable teachers to reflect on areas that need further work. Students can create and share their learning globally through student made podcasts, videos and blogs. Collaboration is no longer confined to the four walls of a classroom or building. Students can work together on the same document at the same time and provide peer feedback in real time.  We are currently using a program called MyBlueprint to enable students to create portfolios and collect artifacts of their learning that can be shared with Universities and parents.  This program ties into their highschool courses, provides transcripts, enables them to complete surveys that help them better understand their strengths and provides possible career suggestions.

Technology when used to promote student engagement, to assess emotional, social and intelligence needs of students and used to transform learning that goes beyond the four walls of the classroom is a very useful tool indeed.

References:

Government of British Columbia. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/administration/kindergarten-to-grade-12/surveys/satisfaction-survey

Kandampully, J., Bilghihan, A., Tingting, C. (2016). Developing a People-Technology Hybrids Model to Unleash Innovation and Creativity: The New Hospitality Frontier.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2016.07.003

Northouse, P.G. (2019).  Leadership: Theory and Practice.  (8^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications, Inc.

Scott, M. (2016, May 23). A Glimpse Into Technology Coaching. Retrieved from http://marsscott.com/visionaryleadership/a-glimpse-into-technology-coaching/

I have had the opportunity to both be an adult learner and to work with adult learners. As someone who has worked with elementary, middle and high school students, I am extremely confident in stating that working with adults is a whole different world!   Libra Boyd (2015) in her review of Merriam and Bierema’s (2004) book Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice  shares that for the most part, children’s daily lives are filled with learning, whereas adults have to balance family, work, school and other social obligations. Unlike young children, adults are able to make deeper connections to their learning because they have a larger database of life experiences to draw upon.  For the focus of this post, I am going to address my own experience as an adult learner rather than as an adult teacher.

Malcolm Knowles as referenced in our Unit 6 notes discusses 6 principle assumptions about Andragogy (the art and science of helping adults learn).

https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/03/andragogy-visually-explained-for-teachers.html

1. As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directing human being. 
   • The older I get, the less dependent I am upon others for validation of my identity or my thoughts/ideas. I used to place a tremendous emphasis on how I fit into the social hierarchy of my school/work/personal life and tied my identity to that role. I now care more about acting with integrity and being true to myself and my values than I am about fitting in to a role/mold that I think others want me to be. I am focused more on discovering who I am as a person so that I can become the best me possible. If I can figure this out, then I will have more to offer to others. In the past I wouldn’t question or rock the boat, and now I do not prescribe to a group mentality and am proud of having a voice to call my own. I like to form my own opinions and don’t take what other people have to say as ‘gospel’ especially when they are talking about other students or adults in the building. This definitely has only come about in the past 5 years or so as I have matured into myself.
2. An adult accumulates a growing reservoir of experience, which is a rich resource for learning.
   • This is definitely true! I appreciate every experience that I’ve had (the good, the bad, the ugly) because they have helped shape me into who I am today. When facing difficult decisions, I know that I have a toolbox full of skills and experience to draw upon to not only help myself but to help others and benefit my learning community.  Adults are able to make deeper connections to their learning because they have a larger database of life experiences from which to draw upon. By sharing these experiences we learn from each other.
3. The readiness of an adult to learn is closely related to the developmental tasks of his/her social role. 
   • My life circumstances have forced me to take charge of my own future.  I have never been more ready to learn! I know what I want in life and I’m going to do whatever it takes to seek it out and make it a reality.
4. There is a change in time perspective as people mature – from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application. Thus, an adult is more problem than subject centred in learning.
   • Unlike when I was in high school I now take what I learn and apply it immediately to my life, and to my career. The material being taught is no longer something that seems far off in the future, instead it is right now, in the present. My learning is relevant and job related and therefore immediately applicable.
5. Adults are mostly driven by internal motivation, rather than external motivators.
   

   Adult Learning Styles – YouTube

   • While I cannot speak for others, this is definitely true for me.  I went back to school in 2008 as a mature student and got my teaching degree after being a stay at home mom for 10 years because it had always been my dream to become a teacher. I didn’t do it for the money, I didn’t do it for social status,  I did it for me. I signed up for this Master’s course because I want to continue to challenge myself by soaking up as much knowledge as I can so that I can become a better me.  I do it because I am intrinsically driven to do it. Unlike in high school or during my first Bachelor of Arts Degree (I left home and went away to University when I was 17), I am driven to do the best that I can instead of just producing the bare minimum to get by.  I know that whatever I put into my learning is what I will get out of it.  I am intrinsically driven to be an adult learner because I want to be the best me possible.
6. Adults need to know the reason for learning something. (Merriam & Bierma, 2014, p. 47)
   • According to Donnelly-Smith (2011) in the article “What Adult Learners Can Teach Us About All Learners: A Conversation with L. Lee Knefelkamp”, they state that, “learning is meaningful to the degree that we can connect it to the concrete experiences of our student’s lives.”  As an adult learner, I need to be able to connect what I am learning to my own life. There needs to be a direct correlation in order for it to be meaningful and for me to want to be motivated to learn it.
   • According to Boyd (2015),  Merriam and Bierema (2004, p. 106) in Chapter Six of their book Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice discuss the need for “reflective practice, situated cognition and communities of practice” in adult education. By reflecting on our own practice, building and sharing our professional learning networks with others, by reading and commenting on each other’s blog posts and by expanding our cognitive knowledge through our assigned readings and essays we are slowly transforming ourselves into the leaders that we wish to be.

Adult learners take on an active role in their learning and seek out opportunities to add and develop skills to build up their toolboxes.  A team like relationship begins to develop between the learners, their educational peers as well as their professors. It is mutually beneficial for everyone involved to share their knowledge, and mistakes so that all of us can learn from them. Our notes from Unit 6, sums this up “we must willingly seek input and collaboration with stakeholders” as  “our personal growth and transformation impact others”.  I have learned so much already from reading the blog posts of my peers in this course. I have gained insight and perspective that I might not otherwise have been exposed to. I am grateful for this experience.  Our Unit 6 notes also mention about the presence of  “wisdom often being in the room” with us and I have definitely found this to be so. As a mature student, I want to continue on my journey of  choosing to learn and choosing to participate because I want to, and not because I have to.

References: 

Boyd, L. N. (2015). Adult learning: Linking Theory and Practice, by Sharan B. Merriam and Laura L. Bierema. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014. 320 pages, $50.00 (hardcover). New Horizons In Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 27(4), 66. don:10.1002/nha3.20125

Dewey, J. (1944). Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press.

Donnelly-Smith, L. (2011). What Adult Learners Can Teach Us About All Learners: A Conversation with L. Lee Knefelkamp. Peer Review, 13(1), 8-9.

Hui, C.,Snider L., & Couture, M. (2016). Self-reguluation workshop and occupational performance coaching with teachers: A pilot study. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 83(2), 115-125. don:10.1177/0008417415627665

Katz J., & Sugden, R. (2013). The Three-Block Meodel of Universal Design for Learning Implementation in a High School. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 141, 1-28.

Klinger, D.A., Voluante, L., & DeLuca, C. (2012). Building teacher capacity within the evolving assessment culture in Canadian education. Policy Futures in Education, 10(4), 447-460. don:10.2304/pfie.2012.10.4.447

Merriam, S.B., & Bierema, L.L. (2014). Adult Learning: Linking theory and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Merriam, S.B., & Grace,  A.P. (2011). Contemporary Issues in Adult Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sokal, L., & Sharma, U. (2014). Canadian in-service teachers’ concerns, efficacy, and attitudes about inclusive teaching. Exceptionality Education International, 23(1), 59-71.

A response to Charlie Mable’s blog post entitled “See, Listen, Reflect” Link to Blog Post:

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post and especially loved your question and comment about listening and empathy.

How can there be empathy without first actively listening with understanding? The adage comes up that we have one mouth and two ears and should spend twice as much time listening as speaking.

You didn’t just say listening, (which is a verb itself) but you added the word “actively” to define even further that leaders need to intentionally listen to others in order to understand. The other day, I was chatting with someone about a particularly moving and sad story and at one point they accidentally responded “cool”.  They quickly realized that the response of “cool” didn’t come remotely close to being applicable and they apologized for not really listening and being distracted. We laughed about it and moved on. However, if I had been a student, sharing something deeply personal, this interaction might have caused me to never want to share again. It was a good reminder to this individual and to myself, the need to put our phones down, to ignore the dings of our email and to focus intentionally and listen actively.   How many times have we missed something important due to a lack of actively and intentionally listening? How many opportunities to connect were lost because we were too focused on ourselves?

You raised another great question at the bottom of your post:

Do you agree that having a reflective practice increases and is important for awareness?

Yes, I completely 100% agree that having a reflective practice is important in order to become more aware.  When things go wrong especially, it is often easy to find excuses or become defensive. However, I truly believe that we grow the most by being reflective and thinking about how we can improve things for next time. It’s not about beating ourselves up over something, but rather acknowledging the good, the bad and the ugly and learning from them so that we can add these experiences to our tool kit.  We will have a much better perspective and the foresight on how to do things differently/better when similar situations crop up again.

Thank you for stimulating some reflection of my own after reading your post!

According to Spears (2010) in his article entitled “Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders” there are a set of ten characteristics that help define the active practice of servant leadership.

The ten characteristics of servant leadership are the ability to:

1. 

   Buzzle.com

   Listen “intently to others” which also includes being able to hear not just what is being said, but also unsaid (p.27). This includes listening to our own inner voice and reflecting on what is being said. Don Page and Paul Wong (2000) in their article “A Conceptual Framework for Measuring Servant-Leadership” state that the servant leader “wants to listen to people before making a decision” and “seeks first to understand then be understood” (p. 73).

2. Empathize with others and  seek to understand.  According to a recent article online Forbes article by Karen Higginbottom (2018) entitled “Why
   

   www.genius.com

   Empathy Matters in the Workplace” there is a direct correlation between empathy and the productivity and successfulness of a company. She also shares that an empathy index published in the Harvard Business Review found that “the 10 most empathetic companies increased in value more than twice as much as those at the bottom of the index, and they generated 50% more earnings defined by capitalization from one year to the next.” The article also states that empathy has an impact on the retention of employees, and that if leaders show empathy towards their employees, employees are more likely to stay long term with a company. She quotes Chief Executive Jon Shanahan of Businesssolver when he states “empathy is like a muscle which needs to be trained to become stronger” and that leaders need to work on developing this skill.

3. Heal others by recognizing that many people we come in contact with are “broken spirits and have a variety of emotional hurts” (Spears, 2010, p. 27). The servant leader, genuinely wants to find ways to help others become whole and heal.
4. Be aware. Being self aware is essential to being a strong servant leader because it allows for reflection and contemplation. I especially love how Spears (2010) says that the purpose of being aware is not to bring “solace” but rather to “awaken” the leader to help them better understand “issues, power and values” (p.27)
5. Persuade others instead of using positional coercion (which is not true leadership).
6. Conceptualize to see beyond the immediate tasks to the possibilities that are not yet defined.
7. Use the gift of foresight  to see the “likely future consequences” based on “past experiences” and the “realities of the present” (Spears, 2010, p.28).  Servant leaders listen to their intuition.
8. Be a steward and hold the institution/company “in trust for the greater good of society” (Spears, 2010, p. 29). Servant leaders ensure that all decisions are made for the benefit and future of everyone invested.
   

   Courtesy of answersingenius.org

9. Grow others instead of yourself. Servant leaders enable the professional growth of others by providing resources and opportunities.
10. Build community that stretches beyond the four walls of your organization and focus on bringing people together.

Some of the top characteristics that a team leader should take when coordinating a new project are listening, being a steward, empathizing and being aware.  At the heart of each of these characteristics are people, not tasks. Don Page and Paul Wong (2000) state that, “people and process will always be more important than tasks” (p.70) because too often character is forgotten as “leaders have been task or process oriented without the heart for serving others” (p.72).  By putting people first, and by actively listening and being aware of what is not just being said but also that which isn’t, and by ensuring that any decision made is made with the benefit of everyone in mind, new projects can be more easily coordinated.  A fatal mistake is when leaders try to impose coercion instead of actively persuading which involves choice. Page and Wong (2000) share that, “co-workers need to be treated with respect as part of a team who work together to accomplish a task and make decisions with shared information” by “encouraging input and feedback and sharing credit for the results” (p.73).  I personally feel that there is a reason why listening is first on Spears list and that it is essential to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and acknowledged before embarking on a new project or implementation. We cannot learn if at first we do not listen and reflect. We cannot empathize, grow others, build community, heal, be stewards, persuade or show foresight without first listening.

Do you feel like you are actively listened to in your workplace? What advice would you give your direct supervisor about how they might improve their practice of listening before embarking on a new project or assigning tasks?

References:

Higginbottom, K. (2018). “Why Empathy Matters in the Workplace”. Retrieved from Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/karenhigginbottom/2018/05/31/why-empathy-matters-in-the-workplace/#6dd33e4c1130.

Marciano, P.L. (2010). Carrots and sticks don’t work: Build a culture of employee engagement with the principles of RESPECT. New York, NY: McGraw Hill

Oliver S. (2006). Leadership in health care. Musculoskeletal care, 4(1), 38.

Page, D., & Wong, T.P. (2000). “A conceptual framework for measuring servant leadership. The human factor in shaping the course of history and development” 69-110.

Spears, Larry C. (2010). “Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders” The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, Vol. 1 Iss. 1, 2010, 25-30.

The 2 Critical Functions of Effective Team Leadership

Google Images:  Walter Lee Elementary School

As defined by Northouse (2019),  team effectiveness focuses on how well  a team works together to accomplish defined goals.  There are 2 critical functions of team effectiveness;  performance and development. Performance focuses on how well the team has met their goals and completed their tasks. To be clear, just finishing a task does not equate to performing well, there has to be a high standard of quality in the work produced.  Development refers to how well the members of the team work together. Team members are not just working collectively to reach a common goal or complete a task, but they are also simultaneously balancing the need to successfully meet their own personal requirements (Northouse, p. 375).  Effective teams are essentially made up of people who are capable of working well together and who share the same high performance standards/expectations as they work to achieve tasks or common goals.

Larson & LaFasto (1989) define 8 characteristics of team excellence and effectiveness as shared by Northouse (2019). They are as follows:

1. Teams must have a clear goal outlined:  Without this, no-one would know what they were working towards.
2. Teams must have a results driven infra-structure: Team members need to know  what their specific role is, have clearly defined communication steps, and, know how each team member will have their individual performance assessed etc.,
3. Only competent members need apply: Team members need to actually know how to do the job for which they have been assigned. They also need to possess the personality skills to be able to get along well with others.  Northouse quotes Hackman (1990), when  he shares, “a common mistake in forming teams is to assume that people who have all the technical skills necessary to solve a problem also have the interpersonal skills necessary to collaborate effectively” (p. 377). Wow,  is this ever true! There are definitely people who are fully capable of completing a task on their own, but as soon as you throw another individual into the mix who offers different opinions or ways of doing things they become a nightmare to work with. There is an individual at my school who continually rubs co workers the wrong way because they lack the interpersonal skills to ensure that everyones individual needs are being met while working towards a common goal or task. This person is highly qualified and highly educated but completely lacks social awareness and therefore is not an effective team member.
4. Team members need to be unified in their commitment: Just because people work together in a group, does not make them a team!  In middle schools and high schools teachers are usually grouped together according to subject matter taught, however, this doesn’t mean that they are a solidified team where everyone is on the same page and in agreement. True teams are developed when members have built a “sense of unity” where all members are “involved in the process” (Northouse, p.377). The most effective teams that I have been a part of are ones where everyone has “bought in” and has a vested interest and say in the collective team goal.
5. Team members need a safe, collaborative working climate: To be truly effective, team members need to feel like their voice is heard and acknowledged. The best ideas are those that are hashed out in a safe environment where there is no judgement or criticism.  Every member is recognized for their unique contribution to the team.
6. There needs to be standards of excellence established: “The standards must be clear and concrete, and all team members must be required to perform to standard” (Larson & LaFasto, 1989) as quoted by Northouse (2019, p. 378).  This was something that I dealt with a lot as the Grade 8 Team Leader and Department Head at my last school. As a team, we discussed what certain standards of expectations we needed to have in order to resolve some issues that we were having with student behaviour. For example, we were experiencing a drug problem and students were transporting them in backpacks and dealing was occurring during lunchtime. As a team, we all agreed that we had to enforce the rule of no backpacks in the classroom or out on the field at lunch. We ran into a team issue when two members of our team chose to not follow through and continually allowed their students to have their backpacks when the rest of us were enforcing this expectation.  It had to be addressed and resolved in order for the team to be effective in reaching our goal. It wouldn’t work if only a few of us were doing what we had agreed upon.
7. Teams need external support and recognition: Resources are a necessity! Northouse (2019) sums this up perfectly,  “The best goals, team members, and commitment will not mean much if there is no money, equipment, or supplies for accomplishing the goals” (p.378).
8. 

   Courtesy of Pinterest

   There needs to be principled leadership! Northouse quotes Zacarro et al., (2001)  when he refers to leadership as being the “driver” of effective teamwork through 4 processes which are “cognitive, motivational, affective and coordination” (p.379). Cognitively, the leader needs to be able to identify and understand any problems that the team may encounter. The leader also needs to act like the team cheerleader and find ways to bring the team together and motivate them to produce high quality work. Being a principled leader means being able to come up with strategies to help deal with issues that crop up and affectively handle them. Leaders coordinate well, not just schedules and organizational matters but they also match peoples strengths and skills to tasks so that everyone not only has their needs met, but performance standards are also met.   This process of principled leadership affected me while working in the middle school because I had to try and be that leader.  I didn’t always fulfill that role well in the very beginning, especially affectively and motivationally! It was difficult and challenging trying to bring so many different people together; people  who were there initially solely out of grade grouping and not because they had chosen to be a part of the team. The first task was to recognize that this group was going to have issues because we weren’t yet a team and we needed to become one (somehow).  We all had different teaching styles, skill sets (some were more technically capable than interpersonally), experience levels (some were brand spanking new and others were close to retirement), levels of willingness to try new things and vast differences in personalities (some were extremely outspoken and others felt like they had no voice).  We had to define what we wanted our team to look like, what we stood for, what our vision was. We had to define what our common standards of excellence for our shared practice would look like for our pod teams as well as our group as a whole. We needed to figure out schedules, define roles for everyone on the team and outline how we would communicate effectively, especially how we would address problems if individual members failed to live up to the expectations of the group as a whole.  It was a huge learning curve for me. I initially balked at the discomfort of having to address inadequate performance because our meetings sometimes didn’t feel like the “safe, collaborative climate” they were supposed to be as some people would go on the attack (forgetting to be factual and non-judgemental) and we lost some ground that we would then have to rebuild. However, I began to realize that effective leaders are those that take the initiative to address issues in a respectful manner and who help provide strategies to deal with potential problems (preferably proactively and not reactively).

What have you as a group member (not necessarily the appointed leader) found to be the most challenging aspect of teamwork? What strategies did you find most helpful in dealing with those issues?

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications.