Administration

(Posted by Stephen) I found a very interesting article while reading up on "Best Practices" or "Hopeful Pedagogy". It is titled, "Leading from the Classroom" by Tanni Parker and Corrie Ziegler. It can be found at:

http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.459dee008f99653fb85516f762108a0c/ (look for the [|Summer 2005]: Turnaround Schools (online only) then scroll down looking for the article titled "Leading from the Classroom".

I believe it is an excellent example of "Hopeful Pedagogy" for both administrators and teachers. The article explores an Edmonton school principal who makes it his practice to spend more than half of his time in classrooms working with teachers so that they are continually reflecting on their practice and striving to become better. Obviously, this should be a principal's main role. The principal is an educational leader who should be able to improve the practice of teaching by working closely with teachers. Administrator's often make the excuse, and I'm one them, that there is not enough time in a day to do everything that is expected of us. This principal has built a team around him who he can trust and delegate responsibilities to; he has found ways to make time for his classroom visits. He also makes the visits meaningful; he lets staff know ahead of time what teaching skills he will be looking for and then he goes looking to see the teachers putting the practice into use. There is so much more in the article; it is well worth reading and sharing with other administrators. I guess the reason I consider it a best practice is that it clearly puts the principal in the role of being an educational leader. It portrays a principal who is current in research, who shares best practices with his colleagues, and who expects to see staff working on their practice in order to serve students better. I have shared this article with my principal and we are both talking about making time in the classroom a priority; this article has added to that concept the idea of focused visits on ordinary teacher practices such as proximity when dealing with a behavioural issue. Hope you enjoy the article as much as I did.

I found another article that supports the practice of being in the classroom as one of four best practices for administrators in high-poverty schools. The article can be found in the Journal, School Effectiveness and School Improvement (Vol. 18, No. 4, December 2007, pp. 361 - 381); it is titled "Making a difference in challenging high-poverty schools: successful principals in the USA, England, and Australia."

(Posted by Stephen) If you're not checking out Alec Couros' blog you are missing out on some fantastic stuff. He posted the article 5 Qualities of good teachers that can be found at http://myfla.ws/blog/2008/05/24/top-5-qualities-of-good-teachers that was written by a student named Arthus. It doesn't really address the idea of "Hopeful Pedagogy" directly, but I made a connection with the article because it talks about teacher effectiveness from a student viewpoint. It seems to me that students want teachers who are inspirational and who take them out of the grind that can be school. They want teachers to capture their imagination and inspire them to learn despite negative peer pressure. Athus' top five qualities of a good teacher include: passion, creativity, flexibility, the ability to integrate subject areas, and finally making connections. I see this as adding a dimension to the concept of "Hopeful Pedagogy" as it does two things: first, it addresses the idea that no teacher wants to be average - I've never heard a teacher say they want to be uninspiring or that they want students to hate their classes with a passion (I mean I was drawn to the article by the title - I wanted to know if I possessed the qualities of a good teacher), and secondly, it adds the student into the picture. It adds the idea that yes we teachers are hopeful in that our teaching helps our children find a better life in the present and somewhere into the future, but this forces us to think about the idea that kids have hopes when they come to school and when they are about to meet a new teacher. They too are hopeful; maybe this teacher will take me somewhere new. My definition of hopeful pedagogy is still being shaped, but I now think it has to include the perspective of the student too!

I'm adding a note to this page so that I can continue to find it when I want it. Have you noticed that the index on the left for pages we had set up has disappeared. The only way I know I can find this is by editing it every month.