27.03.14
Today was all about Mind Sets, fixed or growth. Fixed mindset people are not open to discussing how they can improve. They believe they do it all correct, that they can not be seen to not know.
A growth mindset needs to be modeled by the leaders of the school.
We talked about teacher inquiry, learning appraisals, and the most important message over all to me was the professional practice we must have in our school to get open mind sets.
We talked about sharing data and talking about kids , this does not impact on student achievement, talking about teacher practice does. Why is it our staff (well some) appear to be happy to debate rubbish or wheels day monitors for a great length of time but when it comes to teacher practice --- zip.
We talked about staff meetings being for learning for deep discussion where you get into others ' heads around teacher practice.
How do we collect data on teacher practice? At Frankley I believe we need open discussion on teacher practice! Teacher inquiry with links to RTC, sharing, mountains of walk throughs, a lot more robust conversations ....
Three guiding questions to help those with fixed mind sets and those who are growth mindset people.
The Fence Posts Questions
What's working?
What's not working
What am I going to change
If you do this you've established a community of practice.
No good talking if you don't move to action
If you are doing this you have established a community of practice not a community of interest.
Need for Appraisals to be learning appraisals not performance. We want teachers delving into their practice, trying new things , looking for different ways , some successes, some room for development , and reflective behaviour, making changes, identifying what works best for their children. To do this they must be an open mind set person. Tracking their inquiry against the RTC as it happens was a good example shared. I think this could be a wonderful idea. The 12 questions under the RTC fit nicely for discussion. The more people who are in on inquiry discussion allow a better understanding to grow.
What happening?
What ' s not happening?
How can I influence what is not happening??
Set inquiry on priority students , use above questions then journal
Set inquiries not goals
Goals are smart, see the doc, goals might come from within the inquiry.
Inquiry bring about goals, fixed mindset people will not like to start with an inquiry.
Decisions are often made with the what, and then the how. We need to start with the WHY!!!
We talked about collaboration and team ..... Fantastic day.
