Mentoring a new ASSIST team member

I was lucky enough to spend several days upskilling a new team member. They had spend a few days with me in term two learning what the role involved. Then in term three, for the first several weeks, we worked closely together. The process was helpful to the RTD as well as to myself in the sense that I was needing to clarify and explain carefully the things that I was doing myself. It was a shame that the staff member in question was not continued due to unforeseen circumstances.

Modelling the IEP meeting process

With a change of staff at a school I visit, there was an opportunity to demonstrate effective practice in running an IEP meeting. I was able to organise, plan, lead and write up the final document alongside the newly appointed first-time senco. This will facilitate the end of year IEP process which will be handed over to the school for primary responsibility.

Feedback from a team member

Itinerant Teacher Issues

As an the team leader for an itinerant team there is a huge challenge to find the time to meet with my team on a regular basis. How can I realistically keep up to speed with all the challenges and issues my team are facing when I get one afternoon a week with them? Often one or two weeks will go by with interruptions to the collegial time due to management meetings or centre-wide events., causing a greater gap in collaboration.

As a team I have initiated several solutions for this problem:

1. Google shared documents - appraisal process is conducted on a real time, shared doc that both appraiser and appraisee can add to and discuss over an extended period. Its like having an appraisal meeting that is staggered over time. From team feedback, this sytem both works and provides an easy link back to previously discussed ideas and expectations.
2. Google Hangouts - an easy way to visually and orally catch up regardless of distance. Hangouts allows shared documents and screen-sharing so that it is almost as good as 1-1 meeting time. 
3. What'sapp via smart phones - real time conversation staggered like a walkie talkie (vocal messages) which all my team now uses to have ongoing professional discussions with me without the need to have a face to face meeting. 

Evidence Blog tutorial (one to one)

A further session with a collegue to develop their understanding of how the evidence blog process works. I am thinking that I may need to revisit my tutorial videos that I set up as several people are having trouble with this so perhaps my steps were not clear?

Additional (11/04) - Revisited video and have made annotation at one point which should stop further confusion. 

Feedback from our Mainstream Teacher course

I had some feedback from a peer regarding my efforts on the recent mainstream teacher course presentation....

"I want to thank you for your leadership  in organising and preparing for the course yesterday.  It was excellent and you went beyond what was required.   You actually went out of your way in setting up everything in the venue over the weekend which was amazing.

I also want to acknowledge  how good you were at introducing the course and then presenting during it. You were highly knowledgeable and very explicit.  I observed the intent focus from the professionals attending as they absorbed your clear explanations.  Speaking to them afterward, I could see how well informed they had become.  I loved the way you welcomed the rest of us to 'jump in' and contribute, and also did the same when it was our turns to present.

I personally appreciated your leadership, contribution, and fairness in delegating the presentation parts.  Working collaboratively is the best way to go and I felt comfortable and at ease working in the team."

Ongoing mentoring with evidence collection

I realise that as a lead teacher, my role involves sharing good practice when opportunities present themselves. Today I visited the Hamilton resource centre and when my work there was done, i took the change to up-skill several of the staff members in the use of the evidence blogs I previously assisted them in setting up. Serval have made great progress since we had last met, others needed some assistance with some simple matters before they could get underway.
I feel confident that the majority will now have no problems presenting evidence to the council when requested.

Some Feedback from the Blog Seminar

"...A session 6 months from now would be great to share what we have done with the session/ power point information..."

"... thanks Paul, as always you answer all our questions really well and understand when you may be taking it a step too far and then explain that this is something you will do at a future session..."

"...We are very lucky to have this expertise on the team... and someone who can explain it so clearly... "

Feedback from my role as a Broker to a new trainee RTD

It was a great experience to act as a Broker for a trainee on my team. The many questions and guidance situations really forced me to move beyond my comfort zone on several occasions. The new course material also kept me up-to-date on developments in deaf ed. It was great to get some acknowledgement from the RTD as to how supportive I was.

Trying to put together an "evidence blog" presentation

I have been asked to present a session on how to use blogs as part of the evidence collection process of our appraisal.

I have just learned that the session has proved quite popular so I will be seeing a large group. Although I named the session "Introduction to..." I was uncertain as to how many were at a zero-knowledge level and how many had already created a blog or something similar. Therefore I needed to plan a session that would cater to all levels yet still be accessible and informative. No mean feat :)

Observations on the road

Had some nice feedback from my team leader regarding aspects of the job when they had the opportunity to shadow me for a half day: 

Relating to PTC-6: Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how akonga learn

"...was impressed with your calm and thoughtful approach to the school and teacher and the gentle way you guided her around the needs of the student..."

Relating to PTC-5: to Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning

"...Thanks also for the support you provide to the team in terms of the technology and Performance Management Blog you set up for us all, the clips and explanations were fantastic..."

"...appreciate your calm and methodical approach to the job..."

Appraisal-Term preparation

Appraisal term again and it's observations and planning this one. I have already started looking through planning and giving feedback. I am using a summary sheet created by another ST which is fantastic and allows a birds-eye view of the over progress of each RTD (re: workload)

Part of being the ST as well as ASSIST is requiring me to look at lots of ways to be flexible as well as keeping a careful management of my time. 

Christchurch Assistive Tech Day

I was given the opportunity to share my work into iPad setting up and distribution with the NZSL in Schools team. After a huge delay at the airport due to storms, I finally made it down in time for a 6 hour sleep before we got stuck into a full day of policy and criterion setting. 

It was great to be able to be part of the key decision making as already the roll-out is affecting one of my students in a very positive way. I was restful to have the chance to act as an advocate for him and countless others to come. 

Feedback from a school SENCo

I recently got some feedback from a SENCo at a school where I had established a "Learning Journey" blog that was being shared with those involved on the student's IEP team.

"...This is stunning! Thank you so much. Great role modelling for our teachers. We're so glad to have you on the team..."

It was great to receive confirmation that the systems I was putting in place were being perceived as a positive influence on the practice of other educational professionals.

Goal setting with Teena

Today Teena and I spent some time sharing goals. I found the experience very useful as I needed to clarify what I expected from her planning.

FM mini-session

Great opportunity today to meet with several of my Student's subject teachers as well as a key information sharing moment. The group of teachers had never worked with a deaf student or used an  FM system. I took the time to explain how it worked, why it was critical to make use of it and how it can affect Kyle's access to their teaching content.

After a quick and subtle plug of the mainstream course (given the fact that several teachers interest in NZSL and deafness had been sparked) I gave out info and contact details. A positive start for my student's college teachers. 

Team Observations

I just completed the last of my team's teaching observations. As part of the appraisal courses I have been attending, I have started to look at the feedback given to teachers in a completely different light. In past years I have conducted more of an anecdotal style, which in retrospect is not very useful other than a reflection of what happened and what I liked/disliked.

This time around I threw away that style and went for bullet pointed observations listed directly under appropriate evidence criteria categories.  It was surprisingly easy to look at the headers with their 'leading questions' and spot things during the session that directly related to a criteria. Thus the feedback can be used by the appraiser as evidence in their file/folio/journal.

The oral feedback based on these allowed the discussion of the 12 criteria and importantly the criteria that were not covered and this lead to a discussion around how the RTD might achieve those particular goals.

 Written feedback today from the appraise to me suggested that this approach is a positive move...

"Thank you for putting it down to the 12 teacher criteria ...   

helps to see where gaps are in our PD teaching practice etc."

-RTD on Franklin Team. 

Further iPad Tutorial Feedback

Always great to have a positive email at the end of a long week. This snippet really made my morning...

"Just wanted to give you some feedback re: the tutorials you’ve put together ….. AWESOME ………. And I’m definitely referring to them more than just the one time when setting the iPad up.  Thanks and Well done"  

Whole-Team Appraisal Meeting

I had scheduled several individual meetings to conduct the first official appraisal meetings for Franklin RTDs but it was quickly apparent that all staff were facing the same factors that were causing confusion. As a result we all had a meeting together and shared what we were each doing. It was good to get an idea of where people were at in their plans for the year and I noticed a few staff 'click' on what they were needing to do in order to complete all the required paperwork.

On completion of the meeting, each RTD agreed to make an appointment to share their completed paperwork/goals. It was agreed that Skype meetings at times other that the friday afternoon would be preferable, with one RTD preferring a face-to-face session on a weekday afternoon. 

I have been subtly pushing my e-portfolio concept as a tool for staff to gather and record evidence on all twelve teacher professional criteria as opposed to what has happened in the past; teachers scrambling to find evidence for four areas in one sitting. 

Pre-Appraisal Meeting

I was able to sit down with Emma and go over my own appraisal documents and e-journal. It was a good experience to explain how the set up works and how simple it will be to collect evidence.