What difference can we make: Teachers innovating and building professional knowledge

I had the opportunity to present to a group of Primary Assistant Principals in the Southern region of Sydney. The presentation was essentially a repeat of a presentation I did as part of the seminar series at Australian Catholic University.
The group seemed to respond well to the concepts being put forward.
The significant ones for me seerm to be:

• slow learning to go deep - not just for students but for teachers
• teacher-led development work that provides a framework for teachers engaging in school improvement at the classroom level
• Disciplined innovation that provides a scaffold for engaging in innovation
• The focus in school review and improvement should be on improvement, not measuring.

At the heart for me is a desire that Teaching be seen to be The Learning Profession. Again this notion of courageous leadership and the courage to lead seem to be strong at the moment.

I am interested to see where the thinking and conversations develop and how. My goal in presenting is not so much to provide answers, but rather to open up and stimulate thinking.

More and more I am getting a sense of asking the questions about do we desire things to be like, what should things be like in education and what can I do about it? How can I contribute my expertise to achieving the desired outcomes of the profession?

There needs to be conversations about what is desirable and for whom.

Leading for Learning in a world that is flat

Today I presented a session to a group of principals on leading for learning. In providing a key note I hoped to open up thinking, conversations and possibilities. The notion of a flat world (as developed by Friedman) was drawn upon to highlight the lateral connectivity that exists in the world.
The presenation explored a new imaginary for schooling and education, networked learning, the need for disciplined innovation and possibilities for developing next practice. These were concepts that I developed as a result of my Churchill Fellowship.
As a result of the presentation and discussions there are a few thoughts that emerged:

• there is a need for courageous leadership in schools and systems
• focusing on what I have to do (compliance, regulations, etc.) limits the possibilities of what I could do to transform learning and schooling
• networking is important for developing possibilities, ideas and ways forward that transcend the system
• individual schools can move forward towards excellence/greatness more quickly than systems can.

It's Time...

After a bit of a hiatus I have decided to continue this blog as a learning journal following on from my Churchill Fellowship. This time last year I was away and swimming in thoughts and possibilities.

The challenge of writing a report for The Churchill Trust took something of the gloss off the experience as I only had 10 weeks to sythesise ideas and submit the report. To some extent the report fails to capture the full extent of my learnings. The report submitted to the Trust can be found via the link to the right. I have made some minor editings (mostly typos) sincing submitting it.

Interest in the report, the trip and my learnings was some what muted initially upon my return. A fair bit of grass roots interest - not too much interest from within the education system I work for (which disappointed me). They were in the throws of developing a new School Review and Improvement model. The system has a strong tradition of strategic management and review.

I did however have the opportunity to do the following presentations:

• Teaching: The Learning Profession - Some thoughts for growing the profession (Annual general meeting of NSW Pofessional Teachers Council 29/11/2006)
• Outside the box: Alternatives within a regulatory environment (Consultants of the NSW Association of Independent Schools 14/09/2006)

I also had an opportunity to meet with Fran Hinton, Chief Executive of Teaching Australia, thanks to the support and encouragement of Sue Gazis (a colleague at the NSW Institute of Teachers).

In the last few weeks things seem to be changing with an increased interest in the project and my thinking and learnings from the experience.

More to come on that later.

The challenge of NO bag - again!!

Well, the circle is complete! I am back in Sydney with no bag!

Who would have thought? Although I did half expected it this time.

The story:
I was to leave Munich on a flight to Frankfurt at 1930 on Wednesday evening arriving in Frankfurt at 2030. From there I was to connect with a flight to Singapore departing at 2230. Plenty of time I thought.

I booked my bag all the way through to Sydney. No problems I thought.

I boarded the flight to Frankfurt at about 1915.

The flight was fully booked with travellers, world cup revellers and business people (and a Churchill Fellow).

There we sat in a fully boarded aircraft in 28 degrees heat - the thunder rolled in.

The minutes ticked by. Then the captain's announcement came over the pa system. Apparently there were severe thunder storms across northern Germany. This meant that planes were departing at 15 minute intervals. Good news: we could be the next plane; bad news: it may be an hour.

Thirty minutes elapsed. The captain's voice again. Again, we could be next or it could be a while. This time passengers could disembark and stay overnight in Munich if they wished.

Time was ticking by. The window of opportunity to connect was getting smaller. We sat there in all for about 100 minutes. The flight eventually left at 2100 arriving in Frankfurt at 2200.

It was a mad rush to disembark, board the bus on the tarmac and arrive at Gate E63.

There were ground staff to assist. Their advice: Run to Gate G48 as the plane is boarding and will soon depart.

What choice did I have? So I ran; but I had no idea where G48 was. I drew on my positional skills and literacy skills to follow directions until I lost the arrows pointing me in the direction.

I then drew on my best German asking every official along the way, "Entschuldigung! Wo is Tor G drei und veirzig?", hoping they would respond in very simple positional German!

I cleared passport control, breathless by this stage and ran to make the Gate at 2215.

The flight was still open. Then the processing started. Passport had be scanned as it is an Australian Federal requirement and data entered in to the Australian Immigration and Customs data base. Time ticking. I'd made the flight!

Then there was the walk of shame. You know - that walk of the last passengers after the departure time has elapsed. Eyes looking, others thoughts running: "Which bar have you been sitting in?" "Lost in duty free shopping were you? Thanks!" "Now the flight is late!"

Exhausted, I found my seat and sat down. Needless to say, all this made for sleeping on the flight.

Everything else went well: flight, transit in Singapore, flight from Singapore to Sydney.

Arrived at Sydney, preparing for disembarking and the flight attendant announcement came over. "Would Mr Andrew Fraser please conatct ground staff in the terminal."

This I did. A message: "Please contact the baggage desk in the collection area."

The news I was anitcipating: Your bag is delayed.

At least this time they told me rather than have me stand there looking at a lone bag go around on the carousel until I realised my bag was not going to appear.

So hopefully I will get my bag the next day!

The advantage:

• I didn't have to lug a 25kg bag through customs
• Clearing customs was a breeze with just a carry-on bag
• The look of envy in other passengers eyes as to how someone could travel overseas with just hand luggage, and
• My bag gets delivered to my home - hopefully.

And so the circle is complete! I arrived in my first port of destination without a bag. I returned home without a bag!