3Ps of Leadership

An evening with Nigel Latta

FOS arranged for Nigel Latta to come and do his "Politically Incorrect Guide to Parenting" talk in the hall. Having read all (well, most) his books about parenting it was great hearing his down to earth take on parenting and education too. He was an amazing entertainer and had us all crying with laughter!! He also made some really good observations and told us all some information about learning that was based on evidence.

The points that I took most notice of were;

• At age 5 - 80% of a child's cognitive ability (intelligence) came from parental input,  and only 20% from their genes. This just shows how important parental support is for those children new to school. 
• At age 7 - 60% of a child's cognitive ability came from parental input,  and 40% from their genes - so parental input is still very important.
• Nigel's golden rule, " Don't make their problem your problem." Love this, and I'm using it everyday! 
• Nigel talked about having a Growth Mindset and made a really good point that bought together lots of ideas for me "If you can't do something you're either not trying hard enough or using the wrong strategy."

He also said that if there is a picture of a brain  on some research or commentary then people are likely to believe it without question!

Rats and Beetles (research done on rats and beetles was applied to humans!)

A fantastic evening!

Maths Observation

During my release in week 2 I observed Maths for 15 minutes. My takeouts are;

Where	Observations	Next step
Time Station	Needs explicit teaching	As I want to be free to check in with children I need to flip the learning and record the “lesson” for children to watch
	Children aren’t reading the instructions on the worksheets	As above, make it really clear
	All worksheet based	Put in some games
Star Wars	All seem to be engaged	Great!
	Not actually doing the learning tasks	Needs explicit teaching
	Add  / Sub too hard for Red Squares (although I have said take numbers between 1 and 10!)	Limit the activities and model how to do them
Tote-trays	Lots of time taken to choose a sheet	Limit the choice - give 2 to do
	No-one choosing the games	Need to teach them how to play
General	Folders are good for storing learning but easily lost	Clearly label folders on both sides and label / colour boxes so easily distinguishable

There are also some children who need a lot of support, either learning or behaviour, so my aim is to set something in place for these children.

This was done very quickly but clearly there are things I need to do to enable me to be able to take a step back as an eagle.

A more relaxed me

Muireann commented to me today that I seem happier and more relaxed. This is great news! I am definitely feeling positive about this term and my current mantra of SLOW DOWN must be working! Even though it is term 4 there is nothing that has to be accomplished by the children, so no pressure to make sure they are "at" a certain level. Any pressure to do this is coming from within so I'm letting go. There is still plenty to achieve in terms of finishing CL comments, writing general comments, meeting parents, planning for the 9-3....but I will 

Term 3, 2016 Reflection

Going into term 3 I was very apprehensive about the number of students Eve and I would have between us and I was below the line, blaming and thinking dark thoughts! Had a 1 to 1 scheduled with Ben for the end of term which actually happened at the beginning of term 3 which was just as well!

The 2 week break gave me a chance to put things into perspective and bring myself to be back above the line - accepting of the situation and thinking creatively on how to manage things.

One of my biggest concerns was managing NW between the 2 of us and supporting Eve as much as I could. I still feel he needs extra support which we simply can’t give given the fact that there are 53 other children who need us.

Working my way through CL comments was another area of concern - just the sheer numbers, and to start with it was a daunting task - 108 comments to write in 9 weeks! Getting to know what 27 children could do, what their next steps were and how I could best support them was (and still is) a challenge.

Highlights and lowlights from term 3;

• 5 weeks of teaching maths and eagling writing then swapping
• This worked and we are carrying on this term. 5 weeks is a good length of time to start and finish some learning
• Amount of time teaching maths has been great but being an Eagle has been hard - felt like I was pulled in too many directions
• After a chat with Claire we decided to use the environment more wisely so Owling of Maths has moved to the more closed in Theatre and the Eagling is now in one area - the bay and gallery.
• 2 weeks in to term 4 and it is working much better
• As a team we have 2 weeks of teaching reading then 2 weeks of town time
• This also works will as it means you need on put your energy into one thing which should result in a better outcome!
• At concept time Eve and I worked together
• Working with just one other was great
• Our planning wasn’t great though so our outcomes weren’t always clear
• I took over towards the end when I had the “brilliant” idea of role plays to demonstrate understandings and then filming on the green screen (far more work than anticipated!)
• While the structure of reading was great had some high needs (DL) which meant I always felt rushed and under pressure when doing guided reading. I don’t think I did the best I could have for the children.
• Taking this into account for term 4 we are in a much better place as Jill is taking our able readers and so I feel comfortable that their needs are being met
• Have also tried reading a new book every-other day which I am really enjoying as reading can now be fun again as we talk about the story and words and meaning and can have more emphasis on strategies
• At the end of the term there was a frantic rush to JAM the children
• I didn’t get all children done as I ran out of time
• Having talked to Claire since she has pointed out that JAM is just a snapshot in time of what a child can do and will have changed already so to not stress about doing the others!
• Instead I will focus on making sure pebbles are upto date
• CL comments were as hard as I thought they would be! This was partially caused by my desire to including everything in the comment.
• I’ve learnt not to do this, and focus on one highlight!

Something I read over the holidays was a book by Biz Stone one of the founders of Twitter and in it he says that constraints make you more creative. So my (and Eve’s) challenge is to use the constraints we have and be creative in our solutions.