September 12, 2008
Congratulations
Congratulations on successfully completing the Middle Leaders Induction Program. It’s been great working with you over the last nine months and I have enjoyed our many professional conversations both during our face to face conversations as well as online.
A few things to consider:
- Please consider keeping your blog active as you continue to implement your action research project. I’ll be maintaining this site for your ongoing reference especially as you complete your final assessment task.
- The final evaluation of the program will be completed online – I’ll send you the URL by email. I’d appreciate it if you could complete this so that your observations and comments can be used to inform the shape of the program for 2009.
- I’d also encourage you to consider completing the final assessment task. Consider using previous contributions from your blog to inform this reflective piece.
Thanks everyone and congratulations again.
Final assessment task
The Middle Leaders Induction Program is part of the Leadership Development Program, an initiative of the Catholic Education Office, Parramatta. Successful completion of the Leadership Development program allows participants to seek advanced standing towards postgraduate qualifications at the Australian Catholic University.
Advanced standing
To receive advanced standing towards the Leadership Development Program, participants on the Middle Leaders Induction Program must complete all the course requirements as well as complete the following formal assessment task:
Write a 1000 – 1250 word reflective piece on your role as a Middle Leader. Reflect on the Middle Leaders Induction Program, your role as a Middle Leader and the potential, capacity and challenges of the role of Coordinator. The paper should draw on the research which was shared during the Middle Leaders Induction Program on the strategic importance of Middle Leaders in achieving change. All references should be correctly cited. Drawing on this research, reflect on your experiences as a Middle Leader in 2008.
NB the due date has been extended
To be completed by Friday 31st October, 2008
Please send by email to Glynis Jones, Program Facilitator gcjones@optusnet.com.au
August 6, 2008
LDP day
An interesting day filled with much food for thought. It is an exhausting job that we do. Thes days are both invigorating and energy sapping. Perhaps after a few glasses of red and a good night sleep i might be able to summon some energy for the plnning for staff changes tomorrow!!
August 5, 2008
Enhancing schools’ internal capacity for learning
As a result of our sessions today reflect on how you, in current leadership role, contribute to the learning of your students. What priority do you give to student learning in your role? How do you demonstrate this priority?
July 29, 2008
Next session: Wednesday 6th August, 2008
MLIP Update 7
Hi there Everyone,
Hopefully things are back to normal for you after what has been, no doubt, a busy second term and holiday if you were actively involved in World Youth Day. Appreciate the fact that many of you have been keeping in touch via our MLIP blog as well as your own personal blogs. Be great if you could keep this up.
To accommodate these increased demands on people’s time, it was agreed that we would modify the intended schedule of the Middle Leaders Induction Program. A reminder that our next meetings are as follows:
Wednesday 6th August, 2008 – changed venue and time
This is the date of the next face to face session to be held at AKC from 9.00am – 4.00pm.
Please note, that originally this was scheduled as a half day seminar but now will be a full day seminar and will be now at AKC. The full day will allow sharing of action research projects.
Release is provided (code 35)
May 14, 2008
Personalised support
As we discussed, a lot of our capacity to be effective middle leaders is often determined by the context in which we work. All schools are different and certainly all your roles are different. To accommodate this diversity, we agreed that a visit to meet with you and consider your issues at your school would be made available to you during the rest of the term. You can meet with me and/or Tony individually, as a school team or a group. This is about negotiating your own learning agenda – a customised approach if you like!!
So, over to you. Here are some dates which are available for you to consider – of course, I’d like to group schools geographically if that’s at all possible. Let’s see how we go. This will be your own time……..so you need to consider how best it might be spent.
Monday 16th June
Tuesday 17th June
Friday 20th June
Monday 23rd June
Tuesday 24th June
Please let me know what might suit – we can do that here or by email – if it’s here than at least it’s visible to everyone. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Action research project
Please use this space to let everyone know what it is you intend exploring in relation to your action research project.
Remember, this is to be something you are already doing or intend to do as part of your role this year – it is not something ‘additional to’. You are asked, though, to use your blog to document your progress – the highs and the lows, the positives and negatives, the successes and the challenges. And don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek others’ perspectives – that’s the way we learn……….use or whole group as a resource.
Professional dialogue
We spent some time on Tuesday talking about the importance of professional dialogue in our role as middle leaders – both the formal and informal dialogue.
It would be useful to share our ideas about this – how, what, when – let others know what has worked for you, with what outcome.
May 12, 2008
Actualising our learning
During the rest of the term you are being asked to implement in your school a small action research project which will allow you to apply aspects of your learning about Middle leadership in a meaningful way. As has been said already – professional relationships with colleagues are critical to our effectiveness in our role as middle leaders. The following two readings might be of interest?
Seven ways to be a confidence leader
Have you tried these ways to delegate?
We will be discussing these agendas in more detail when we meet on Tuesday 12th May,2008.
May 2, 2008
One view of leadership
You might also like to look at the following video clip – Bill Cecil was Michigan Teacher of the Year in 2003-2004. During that year he spoke to thousands of educators around the state of Michigan sharing a positive message of hope and determination that it is possible to conquer the many current challenges we face in education.
This is just a small sample of the entire 90 minute presentation – be patient – he is rather excitable in his presentation but he does have some strong messages………………be interesting to see what you think of some of his key points.
