from ES4S

This month's focus is .......... It's not about being outstanding Sometimes, being better is enough!! With all this talk about outstanding schools, outstanding teachers/ teaching assistants and outstanding lessons, we mustn't lose site of the fact that, sometimes, being better is enough. Imagine a school in which every member of staff was continually trying to get better..... Could anyone really ask for more? For this to happen, it is essential for each individual to regularly ask, 'What do I need to get better?' ..... What do I need to do tomorrow to be better than I was today? What do I need to do next week to be better than I was this week? What do I need to do next term to be better than I was this term? A school trying to be the very best will be full of people who are operating with a genuine growth mindset. How do you and your colleagues regularly set yourselves professional goals for improvement? How are you sharing these goals across your organisation? It is a rare occurrence to nd a school in which each adult has openly displayed their current goal for improvement, on the staffroom's working wall, just as our pupils targets are displayed in so many classrooms. As we increase the transparency of our professional learning culture, the more effective we become, the greater the trust and openness and, ultimately, the better the learning experiences for every young learner. As a member of staff, in any school, who is genuinely committed to getting better and who operates with this authentic mindset, I will be naturally demonstrating the essential elements of personal mastery. There is a need for me to regularly analyse my own practice as a means of increasing professional awareness and to be able to recognise the necessary aspects for improvement. This analysis needs to be rigorous, precise and accurate, rather than being based on more of a 'gut reaction'. I need to know where I need to improve. However, professional analysis, by itself, does not result in me being better. I need to plan and take specic action, displaying professional responsibility for improvement. A school that is looking to 'get better at getting better', will seek explicit ways of making professional thinking visible. Individual members of staff will plan and take specic action for improvement, on a regular basis ....... Innovation will be rife! In addition to this action, there will be systems of visible thinking, of effective open, collaborative learning communities and of deep, structured professional reection. Professional learning dialogue will take place around carefully constructed professional narratives, ensuring that the interaction goes beyond the supercial, beyond the typical staffroom conversations. The tacit knowledge that surfaces, that becomes explicit, supports the next stages of getting better. A continual process of action, reection and learning permeates throughout the whole organisation. Our children deserve, at the very least, teachers and teaching assistants who are trying to offer the very best learning experiences, every day, in every lesson. Very few teachers, if any, can offer an outstanding lesson every time they teach, but every teacher can get better. Doing is better than talking about doing!

Questions for professional dialogue: What do I need to get better? How will this improve the learning of our young learners? How are we increasing the professional transparency of our learning culture? What more could we do? How effective are our professional learning communities and what could be done to make them even more effective? What processes enable us all to make our professional thinking visible to others? What will I start to do that will make me even better?

Professional development for 2012/2013 Can ES4S support you in developing an effective learning organisation? If ES4S can support you with any future developments, please contact us. Alternatively, you can view our new CPD ebrochure at www.es4s.co.uk

A quote for your staffroom/ learning lounge .....

'Doing is better than talking about doing.'

Dan Rockwell
Recommended Web 2.0 site ....... A fantastic site for nding amazing short video lms. These can be used to support the development of writing, classroom dialogue, questioning and thinking!!!!! www.vimeo.com

Recommended book ...... A great read about 'the surprising truths about what motivates us'. This is quite simply a really enjoyable read. Drive (Daniel Pink) ISBN - 978 1 84767 768 6

ES4S
e-mail : ofce@es4s.co.uk. Call us : 01202 267066. Web : www.es4s.co.uk
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2012/2013

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