Building Community, Building Capacity

In an interview with Jenny Lewis from New South Wales, Australia, Jenny states that good leadership is "bringing the place together and having a core focus". In essence, creating a community that people want to belong to. Cultivating a positive school community isn't always easy but is worth every ounce of effort.

A school is a place that in most country children 'must'  attend for a given number of years. Teaches come to work each day and administration are expected to lead the school's vision forward. The focus of a school community should always be the teaching and learning of their students. But there are many approaches to take in doing this. I believe that a good leader leads through modelling best practice, enthusiasm for teaching and learning and building relationships.

A strong leader understands that at the heart of any community or organization lies the relationships it is built upon. Nurturing these positive relationships are essential to moving forward. Without people who feel comfortable and confident in a leader's ability, the battle to move forward likely will be short-lived. Building a community where people want to come together and support each other will help not only the students but teachers grow and learn together. As a leader, one of the challenging tasks is remaining positive and optimistic through every incident that occurs. However, positivity breeds more positivity and creating a community where these feelings thrive is essential.

The reason schools exist is the learning for students. A good educational leader must be enthusiastic and share a love of learning themselves. A leader support others in creating a welcoming and safe environment for the students to take risks in their learning and inquire. But the learning must not stop with the students. Every member of the community must see the value in up-skilling themselves and trying new things. Students need to see their teachers as role models who continue to learn as well. Further to this, learning needs to radiate farther to every member of the community as building capacity always for knowledge and growth. A good leader understands that by building capacity in all members of the school community whether parents, teachers, teaching assistant or administration, it promotes life-long learners and a community that values each member and their contributions.

In education, often leaders become restricted to an office, tied down with paperwork and 'putting out fires'. It is important for the educational leaders of our schools to stay true to the reasons they got into education and lead by example in the classroom and around the school. I love seeing administration in the classroom with the students leading learning and learning together. This view is so optimistic for the whole school community, especially our students. It shows our students that everyone is still learning and growing, that students and their learning is the number one priority in the school and that inspiring students through education is the responsibility of every member of the community.

Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

As a teacher who received my qualifications in Canada and now working in an international school setting, my knowledge and experience with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers is limited. That being said, as I read through them, I can easily see where ICT weaves into these standards. In fact, I can feel it is possible to justify how almost all of the standards are linked through ICT in some way or form. Technology should be integrated throughout the curriculum, planning and assessment seamlessly, while not be seen as an extra burden.

For example, standard 1.5 suggests teachers "Differentiate teaching to meet specific needs of students across the full range of abilities." If I was having my students work on a piece of writing, I may have students use an online dictionary or thesaurus to enhance their vocabulary. I may also have students use Google documents to type their rough draft so that it is more convenient to have their peers and myself as the teacher comment/make suggestions for future development. I may allow my ESL students to use google translate to help them discover the words they are trying to say in English. For some other students with dyslexia, I may have them use a read-to-text programme so that they don't feel overwhelmed by the spelling and can focus on creating the story.

When it comes to publishing their writing, I may have my students transform their writing into an animation, use blurb or flipsnack. Perhaps they would like to record their story as an audiobook and enhance it with images.

In terms of assessment their writing, I may use Video notes if they have created a digital story as a video, or a rubric through Google Sheets. I may use  Fluberoo or an online rubric.

This is just one example of how technology can be integrated into a learning experience that meets a standard. I could do the same for almost every other one as well when thinking of Assignment 1.

The ones that seemed to jump out at me as I read through them as the 'easiest' to connect to when focusing on Assignment 1 would be as follows with the ones the explicitly mention ICT as bold.

Standard 1: Know students and how they learn
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability

Standard 2: Know the content and how to teach it
2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.2 Content selection and organisation
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
- Implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students

Standard 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
3.3 Use teaching strategies
3.4 Select and use resources
3.5 Use effective classroom communication
3.7 Engage parents/ carers in the educative process

Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments 
4.1 Support student participation
4.2 Manage classroom activities
4.3 Manage challenging behaviour
4.5 Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically
- Demonstrate an understanding of the relevant issues and the strategies available to support the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching.
Standard 5 - Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
5.1 Assess student learning
5.2 Provide feedback to students on their learning

Standard 6 - Engage in professional learning
6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice
6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning

Standard 7-Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community
7.4 Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities

References 

Australian professional standards for teachers (2014). Australian institute for Teaching and Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list