THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM

This morning I have shared a few thoughts about an experience which I had  in my local park a few days ago which I entitled Things are not always what they seem. I hope you enjoy reading this little piece. I am very fortunate to live just a few steps from Hagley Park, one of the most magnificent public parks in the country. The early British settlers in Christchurch made it a priority in their very precise town planning, to allow for a wealth of public spaces. I am very privileged to be able to enjoy my life in Auckland and to still have a home base in the Garden City.

TRIUMPHANT

PRINCIPAL’S SPECIAL BULLETIN No.4 

Monday 20 April 2020

Kia ora and welcome to this new week!

Over the weekend I found an “elocal” magazine in a box of memorabilia and the article which was included in it, from early 2016, gave me something to smile about. 

Apart from the fact that the photo is a lovely one of Roy and Moananoa, two of the head prefects of that year, it was a phrase related to the school’s future which caught my attention: “towards a triumphant future.”

In term 1 of this year, I sensed that our school was starting to get closer to this feeling of triumph than has been the case for quite some time. I know many of you have been feeling the same level of excitement as we have seen our numbers grow and grow. While we know there are a lot of challenges ahead of us, and that we will continue to face, we know that our school is flourishing. “Triumphant” is an unusual word to choose but it’s a word that gives me a little bit of a thrill when I read it. It’s a grand word, 

and it’s used in connection with our great and wonderful school. I get a thrill every time I walk into our 

staffroom and see the wonderful, clever and creative staff we have gathered together, who make such a vibrant and happy team. I get the same thrill every time I sit on the stage in our junior assembly and look down at hundreds of junior students, whose families have chosen to enrol them in our school. I guess that is “triumphant.” The list goes on...

IMAGINE

PRINCIPAL’S SPECIAL BULLETIN No.2 

Thursday 16  April 2020

IMAGINE

Many years ago, in the course of  a conversation with a very conservative Deputy Headmaster in the school where I was employed,  I made the suggestion that schools should be agents for social change. My colleague poured scorn and contempt on such a notion. I have never forgotten that conversation, and it has troubled me for the past 20 years. As time has gone by, I have become increasingly convinced that I am right about my notion, and that my colleague was wrong.

Schools have a powerful influence over social norms and behaviours in a number of ways. For sure, preserving the status quo and protecting the rights and entitlements of the privileged in our society is still very much the “kaupapa” of some of our schools. In our school, Papakura High School, we have an amazing opportunity to engage with our community and the society around us, to progress our pathway to becoming a bi-cultural society. This pathway will help to confront the deficits we see all around us in terms of social inclusion and engagement. The education which we offer our young people, our rangatahi, plays a big role in this. The changes we have made in our school’s own culture are the first steps in this direction. Our school motto “Kia Rangatira” is a power statement in this regard. This morning I struggled to remember the Latin motto “ Summa Pete”. 

For real change in our society  to occur, we need to turn some of our social norms on their head. Imagine if being bilingual became one of those social norms. The participants who make up our society must be able to see the value of overcoming social disengagement to be able to embrace something as radical as this.  As educators, we need to be at the forefront of this. We have opportunities to take steps to grow in this area. Many of our staff already come from cultural backgrounds where being bi- or trilingual is the norm. Our school can be an agent which contributes to positive social change and growth. There are naturally a number of ways this can happen. I have just identified one which I think can make a real difference right now. 

During the lockdown, Hemi Kelly’s “A Maori Phrase a Day” facebook page has repeatedly appeared on my phone screen. Hemi’s approach is very clear and basic, and offers an excellent opportunity to pick up and enhance your reo Maori in a really non-threatening and relaxed way. His lessons are also on Youtube.

I have really enjoyed dipping into Hemi’s facebook page and even reading some of the questions and answers which follow each lesson.

Our period of enforced lockdown provides us with a great opportunity to learn something new - or a lot of new things!

PRINCIPAL’S SPECIAL BULLETIN No.1 

Wednesday 15 April 2020

Welcome to the first day of Term 2 and to our new mode of teaching! We are all go today! I am looking forward with great excitement to hear the stories of these first encounters with our students via your digital classrooms. 

 Last week in our online meeting I mentioned being struck by this huge poster of Sir Edmund Hillary hanging in the arrival hall at Christchurch airport. It gave me a lot of food for thought.

There’s no question that the current context is one which throws into relief the incredible importance of our self-management skills, our ability to organise ourselves, our motivation, and our capacity to entertain the possibility of doing things differently. Many of us have been teaching for a long time. We have developed habits which are hard to shift. We have also developed approaches to our teaching, which in time, have become entrenched. I know this from first hand experience!  Some of us have allowed the wealth of professional learning related to digital pedagogy, which we have been offered as a Kootuitui school, to slide over us superficially, and have not made significant changes to our practice. Because we haven’t always been convinced of the need to change. Now of course, is the time when this is being forced upon us. Not just us, but teachers all over our country! Fortunately, we have colleagues who are hugely supportive, and whom I have sensed, will never be patronising or demeaning in their response to requests for assistance. And we are all going to require assistance in some area or other, as operating as an online school, or, in some transitional form, will require learning for all of us.

As human beings, “conquering ourselves” is enormously challenging. Sir Edmund Hillary made a profound statement here. Sometimes rousing ourselves to learn something new, or changing our practice, can be incredibly difficult. But as individuals working in an educational context, this is extraordinarily important. During our lockdown, we are also  having to face tests of character. These include coping in homes where children are becoming frustrated and bored, to supporting confused elderly and vulnerable whanau, or those like myself whose “bubble” is a solitary one. Develop our patience, tolerance and understanding of others is part and parcel of this process. For all of us, embracing change, however, is the biggest mountain we have to conquer, as we launch into our new  term. 

One lesson we have all learned, is how much we need each other. As a community of colleagues and  friends, there is much we have to offer each other from ou own experience and learning. And simply, in terms of social contact and emotional support. We have really exciting times ahead of us with new opportunities.   No reira, kia kaha, kia rangatira! 

A NEW DAY

A New Day

Today was a new day for the staff of Papakura High School. It not only marked two weeks since the beginning of the Covid-19 national lockdown, it was the first time ever that our whole staff got together - not physically present in one room, but on a Google hangout. Seventy faces all excitedly greeting each other and happy to be in the same space again. The world we live in is changing, and our circumstances are dictating different ways of doing business, doing school, and this was a landmark moment for us. Funnily enough, over the past five years, since the launch of the Kootuitui ki Papakura Trust and the first distribution of chromebooks for our year 9's, we have spent so much time engaged in professional learning, with not only the Manaiakalani mantra of "learn, create, share" but also with our own focus on creating ubiquitous learning for our students... maybe though, without the sense of urgency which was called for.  Thank you to the Kootuitui team for not giving up on us!

Somehow, until today, there was a theoretical aspect to this approach to learning. As teachers, we tend to be quite set in our ways - and yet we, of all people in our society and in our communities, should be at the forefront. Many are, of course, but there are equally many who lag behind. Well, no more of that, as next Wednesday we launch into our new day of online learning. Today we shared the joy of reconnecting with each other - it had a fun element to it, and along with its important messages, there was also the sheer joy of being together. Now now have the serious business ahead of us, firstly to connect with our students, and secondly, to hook them into a new style of learning.

Boards of Trustees elections

It's been a long time since I have posted on my blog and I feel a degree of embarrassment and shame about this! What's going on here?
Over the past few months all over the country, we have been preparing for Board of Trustees triennial elections. Boards of Trustees were one of the most positive outcomes of the Tomorrow's Schools' reforms which happened in 1989.  While unquestionably, there have been some unfortunate instances where the concept of Boards of Trustees has worked well for their communities: the "hijacking" of Boards by interest groups, strong minded individuals who have had personal agendas, Board members who have engaged in sustained conflict with the Principal, or not understood the dividing line between school management and governance. However, these have been the exceptions and Boards all around Aotearoa have functioned well with Trustees serving their school communities in the best interest of the students of their schools. STA - the School Trustees Association, has been a great support for schools as well as their Boards, in providing legal and industrial advice.

The issue which I believe  needs to be sorted before any changes are made to the structure of Boards of Trustees (proposed in the Taskforce Report commissioned by the Minister) is the form of voting which occurs and the focus on the importance of voting for the BOT. Attention needs to be given to the overwhelming non-engagement of large sectors of the community in the voting and election process overall. Questions need to be asked about a more effective way to hold an election rather than a postal ballot. While at my school there is a ballot box on the reception counter for parents and whanau to drop in their voting forms, it still appears to capture a very limited number of forms.

School Boards fulfil a vital and necessary role in giving communities a real voice in the character and direction of  the education of their young people. They have become a valued part of our social fabric.  The Ministry of Education and STA need to give potential changes to the make up of Boards very careful consideration. Unless they can demonstrate that these changes will enhance the governance model which Boards provide, they should leave well alone.

CONTEMPLATING YEAR 40

It's hard to believe, but 2018 is my 40th year  as an educator in the New Zealand state school system. I fully intend to celebrate this milestone, by making sure every day at school is a significant day and that I achieve something fulfilling and satisfying. I began my teaching career at Lytton High School, Gisborne, at the beginning of 1979, which continued with positions at Hamilton Boys' High School, Melville High School, Aranui High School and most recently, Papakura High School. A year as Acting Principal at Melville High in Hamilton made me realise that to be a Principal was a most challenging and rewarding career pathway, and during that year was appointed to my first permanent principalship, at Aranui, which commenced in February 2006. Funnily enough, Aranui had been my final placement as a teacher traineee, and I accepted my first teaching position by sending a telegram to the Principal of Lytton High School from the now long gone Aranui Post Office.  Little did I realise that my life would go full circle and that one day I would return to the same school where I did my teacher training practice.

When I think about the 39 years behind me, I am very grateful for the opportunities which I have received. I have been able to work in both city and rural schools, single sex and co-educational. Those opportunities helped to give me a balanced view about schools and schooling, which it would be impossible to have, without moving around gaining the experiences which five vastly different schools have given me. Opportunities come our way from time to time in life, and I always urge teachers with the same thought: if the door opens, walk through it! How often in life we meet individuals who have regret and bitterness, because they did not take the opportunities offered to them. Maybe because they were too comfortable and settled in their situations, or maybe because of fearfulness of the risks of failure or fear of the unknown. In each school that I have worked in, I have learned something new, been able to make judgements about what I value, and seen ways of functioning professionally, which I would have never otherwise experienced.

So what are the most important learnings I have gained, as I embark on my 40th year in this amazing journey in education?

First and foremost, the importance of having a teaching vocation, in order to be happy in ones work and to finding meaning and enjoyment in the craft of teaching. Without an overwhelming inner compulsion to aspire to be an educator, a teacher will be at best an average individual who imparts curriculum content without the love and enthusiasm of the teaching craft, which can only come from a vocation. And while this may appear to be somewhat old fashioned or even dated in the 21st century, it remains as true as ever.  It is the constant factor which gives teachers resilience and the inner strength to survive the hard times. And which helps them to see beyond the difficult days to the better times ahead.

A love of working with young people, and taking an intense interest in their well being, is secondly, a precondition to success in teaching, and the longer I have been a teacher myself, the more important I have observed this to be. It did not take very long for me to realise, as a young teacher, that involvement in sport and other extra-curricular activities was critical to building the necessary bridge that would make the classroom a pleasure rather than an ordeal. Moreover, going "the extra mile" for students because they deserve it, and because you value them, is critically important.  I have found that young people are particularly discerning about the teachers in front of them, in terms of their recognition of a teacher's genuine interest and care for them. Those teachers who show their aroha, their care and love for their students, are creating the environment in which learning can flourish. Those teachers can see a group of individuals in front of them - not a class, not a crowd, but a group of individuals with vastly differing backgrounds and needs, all of whom need his or her individual attention and concern.

I have also learned that "the good teacher," the one who stand out from the crowd, is the one who is never satisfied with his or her teaching performance, but who aways strives to do better and to explore the boundaries of pedagogy.  As a teacher and as a principal, remaining  commited to self-improvement is an indispensible part of remaining vital and fresh professionally. This is an imperative irrespective of whether you are in your first or fortieth year of teaching.  Not only is the objective, improvement of teaching performance, and methodology,  but also an expansion of curriculum knowledge and  subject content. This commitment to professional growth becomes increasingly difficult for some teachers as they get older, and yet this is the time in ones career when it is most important of all.

Happiness, positivity, as well as personal transparency  as a teacher have often been recognised as qualities which are important for teachers. I have learned that all the technical and pedagogical expertise without emanating a sense of  personal identity  and wellbeing to students, makes learning a very clinical process. Students must be able to capture glimpses into the humanity of their teachers. Parker J. Palmer (from The Heart of a Teacher) called this "the inner landscape of a teacher's life." I've often wondered about the way some teachers seem to have this innate ability to make connections between themselves, their subject matter and their students. I have come to realise that teachers must learn how to project themselves personally into their teaching. That is when the magic occurs.

And of all the other insights which I have gleaned over the four decades behind me, there is one other, which in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand, is of greatest importance. This is the cultural awareness, openness and engagement, to successfully work in the context of an environment which is defined by Maori as tangata whenua of this country. Irrespective of whether you come from a white New Zealand/Pakeha background or where ever.  It is also defined by the multiplicity of other races that make up our classrooms, principally Pasifika, and then Asian and other migrant groups. There is a compelling mandate for those who work at the forefront of education, to actively grasp the opportunities to learn te reo Maori, to become proficient in their understanding of tikanga,  to become knowledgeable and skilled in their understanding of  Pasifika cultures and those of the other cultures they interact with, and to radiate an enthusiasm for those cultures in their every day dealings with young people. Long gone are the days when a simple "kia ora" was adequate to show this commitment. Teachers of 2018  must be modelling their learning of te reo Maori and leading the way, so that in future years the banal arguments about the use of te reo in the media and other public contexts will be long forgotten, as our country embraces its heritage. Teachers must be agents of social change that usher in a new era of being a bicultural nation in the spirit of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

I have asked myself: "Should I have included my learning about technology in this list of the most important things I have learned?" As a teacher who has witnessed the most dramatic changes occurring in education thanks to the introduction of modern information technology, I think not. The same disposition to be a committed learner is  required to keep abreast of technological change as every other form of learning I engage in.  In my Teachers' College year we were required to pass an "Audio Visual Certificate" which meant being able to demonstrate the use of the banda machine, the Gestetner and the movie projector! I am profoundly grateful for the technology which we have at our disposal for bringing learning to life in the 21st century, and for the marvellous opportunities of ubiquitous learning which it creates. Nevertheless, everything I know about this will be obsolete in five years time!

I am grateful to many inspirational teachers whom I have encountered during my career. They have helped to forge my beliefs about this great profession. They have helped me to believe that we must never compromise our personal values and they have taught me so much. But most of all, it is the students who have passed through my classroom, and more latterly, through my office and a through a multiplicity of other contexts, who have taught me the most. It is to them I owe my biggest thank you.