Zone KP Retreat @ Marina Bay Sands (Part 2)

The 3 As

The key ideas for the retreat were the 3As:
1. Appreciating the Past
2. Adapting the Present
3. Anticipating the Future.

Applying these 3As in AISS, to me would be:

Appreciating the Past:-
appreciating AISS’s past, growth and achievement; preserving our culture and tradition of the school, our core values; keeping old processes that have worked effectively; appreciating the work done and effort contributed by staff and team members.

Adapting the Present:-
integrating traditional teaching pedagogies and management processes to meet the current needs of education, pupils and society (e.gs., doing reflections and using ICT tools to enhance learning).

Anticipating the Future:-
building quality relationships with staff, pupils and stakeholders; inspiring staff and pupils; preparing our pupils for their future learning and work (e.gs. incorporating 21st Century Skills in the curriculum; connecting them to the world through ICT); developing staff competency, growth and development (e.gs. EPMS, IDEA framework, Talent Management)

So far, I feel that we are more or less moving on the right path to improving the school environment and are quite aligned with the 3As mentioned above. But we still have to improve on some of our processes. For example, the processes for our PTMs still have much room for improvement. The processes for each PTM so far were not consistent. All staff should be informed earlier the processes should there be any deviation from the previous PTM. Also, cohort dean system suddenly was just “abolished” not because the system is ineffective (I don’t recall any review has been done on it) but correct me if I am wrong, it is because of shortage of manpower.

According to Mr Larry Ng, URA Group Director and Registrar, Board of Architects, Singapore, during his speech at the retreat, planning ahead is important. What Singapore is today is due to what the government had planned many years ago, before many of us at the retreat are born. What I feel is that in AISS, we do plan but sometimes we don’t plan way ahead. Sometimes things are implemented without prior notice and not enough time for staff to be adjusted or to carry out. For example, during one of my department meetings, while my department Math ICT Activist was discussing about all Math teachers to be involved in creating and carrying out an ICT lesson in Term 3, we were then told out of the blue that the school may be having an e-learning day in Semester 2. It was a shock to me as I was totally unaware of it and hence did not prepare my teachers for it. It was a shock also because on top of the ICT lesson planning, teachers are also expected to set their prelim or end of year exam papers by the next staff meeting in June and Math teachers are already informed about a Math & Science Carnival to be held in Term 3; graduating classes teachers will also be busy preparing their classes for N and O level. With all these already planned, if they have to add on another load of preparing materials for an e-learning day would surely put them off. Teachers will again feel breathless if we have so many activities happening in a term, just like in Term 1 when we crammed all trainings during that period. Such decision, I feel should be brought up at SMC first for discussion on what to do and when is the best time to implement. As what Mr Larry Ng had also said, “planning is all about people”, this should be what goes through in our minds as we planned programmes in school.

Zone KP Retreat @ Marina Bay Sands (Part 1)

Building Quality Relationship

During the Zone KP Retreat @ Marina Bay Sands, I was basically very inspired by the speech by DDS(N) Mrs Yu. One important point brought up by her was “building quality relationships” which was also what our Supt, Mrs Ong, has been stressing to us during her meeting with the SMC last year. According to Mrs Yu, building quality relationships include providing good service to others. In our context, I would translate it to giving the support to our teachers and pupils, understanding them and development them. Of course, no matter what position or designation we are in, we should build quality relationships with those who are under our care and supervision. Mrs Yu also mentioned that “people don’t care what your big ideas and plans are until they know that you care for them”. I interpret this as when you have built quality relationship with your staff, you will then have buy in when you want to sell them your new ideas and plans. I would like to add on that the care we give to them needs to be sincere and true.

Reflecting on my own relationships with my teachers, I think I have managed to build good relationships with majority of them, if not all, and I believe that they know that I am sincere and true in helping and developing them. I dare to say this as I have many of the teachers in my department and some from other departments (though not all of them are under me as their PD), coming to me seeking for advice on teaching pedagogies or some other personal issues. This year, especially, I was able to find some time to walk around in the staff room to talk to some of the teachers. Sigh … I was able to do this more often this year because I am on part time scheme. Mrs Ong has been stressing to us, the Management team, the importance of this work, but most of us are always bogged down with doing as much work as we can while we are in school so that when we go back home, we have time for our family. It really is hard to really balance work and family well. However, I think we still have to try our best as it is part of our role as PDs to find enough time to talk to our teachers so as to understand better. I do see some of our SMC members mingling among the staff very often which the rest of us can learn from, for example, the Head PE always has lunch with all his PE teachers and the Head Humanities will always sit in the Staff work room reading newspaper and having breakfast or lunch with his teachers =)

Believe in ourselves; Believe in our teachers; Believe in our children -- By Mrs Yu

Just a sharing (2)

What went right in that conversation with Teacher A that turn things for the better? The physical setting was as usual, inside my cubicle, and it was the first work review session for the year. My tone of voice was gentle and friendly but I feel that I was also firm when I pointed out to Teacher A directly that I would like to clarify some issues from an email that Teacher A had sent to me earlier. In my heart, I felt strongly that if the issues were not addressed first, the tension between us would worsen and things might turn out really really bad. Hence, I did not follow the usual procedure that a supervisor would carry out during the first work review session (like setting targets and so on).

The issues I addressed during the conversation were mainly:

1) Email is an easy communication tool for general discussion between 2 or more parties. However, the tone of the message in the mail is determined by the words used and will be depending on the way the reader reads the mail. The sender cannot control how the message is read by the reader.

2) The use of email to solve a problem may not work due to the reason mentioned in the earlier point. For more effective discussion to solve a problem, all parties involved should come together face-to-face to work on finding a solution to the problem.

3) As the supervisor of Teacher A, I hope to help Teacher A develop and grow and hence more conversation (especially face-to-face) need to occur between us.

4) I told Teacher A that I was also learning to be a better supervisor (people developer) and that it takes 2 hands to clap. Hence, both of us need to work hand in hand for things to work out well. And of course, I would need Teacher A to give me relevant feedback for me grow to be a more effective supervisior.

Probably I had really hit the nail on the head with the issues mentioned above during the conversation.

Just a sharing

As teachers, we need to build positive relationships with our pupils so that reaching out to them is easier. Similarly as people developers, we should also build positive relationships with those under our care and development.

I am confident to say that I have been able to build good relationships with most of the teachers in my department. I am also glad to feel some improvement in the relationship with one of them as I have been getting more positive responses from this teacher. Let me call this teacher, A. I have been the people developer for Teacher A since the day I head the department and Teacher A is quite an experienced teacher considering the number of teaching years in the school. Teacher A has been feeling very down and uninspired due to some reasons that I will not mention here. Whenever I attended courses on developing and coaching people, Teacher A was always part of my learning intention or aim that I wished I could find a solution to help and motivate Teacher A. It was difficult for me to understand why Teacher A behaved negatively in most school stuff and had so much resentment. I felt helpless and that all the courses on developing and coaching people did not really give me the answers I was looking for. I always felt a big barrier between Teacher A and me. Maybe this is because Teacher A refused to open up to me and thus made it harder for me.

Two years ago, one particular incident made me almost gave up as the people developer for Teacher A but was encouraged by P and a close colleague to give another try. I had a heart to heart talk to Teacher A regarding the incident. After that talk, things were a bit better between us last year. This year, I see more improvements as Teacher A will come to me personally more often with new plans and ideas for the department. I also sense that the barrier between us has somehow became thinner and I have more confidence and hope that things will get even better as I try my best to give Teacher A the support and listening ear needed.

As shared by my new VP on strategies in dealing with difficult behaviours:
1. Emphasise appraisee’s potential and capabilities;
2. Motivate the appraisee by recognizing his contributions;
3. Do not be overly directive;
4. Make the appraisee feel appreciated by emphasizing his ability;
5. Coach the appraisee frequently to improve motivation.

I feel that things got better because I have tried to emphasise Teacher A’s potential and capabilities and also recognize the contributions made by Teacher A. Of course most importantly as PDs, we must try to understand the people we are developing as much as possible, their characters, their behaviours and the way they work. I do not fully understand Teacher A yet but at least after having been working with Teacher A for so many years, I have more or less know the working style of Teacher A, the strengths and weaknesses of Teacher A. Teachers are grown ups and all grown ups like to feel appreciated and respected. This is a belief that I have set as a foundation for me to develop and motivate all those under me.

Reflections on Facebook

Looking through the reflections written by Math teachers, I felt happy and inspired.

I feel happy because teachers are actively doing and penning down their reflections. Only this time it is on Facebook which they have chosen, an alternative platform to Bloggers.com. This goes to confirm that when it comes from teachers themselves, they are more willing and motivated to do it. Of course, it is further confirmed that bottom-up initiatives work better than top-down.

I feel inspired as I am able to learn from them as well, their different strategies in classroom teaching and management. I am certain that they will feel the same way too. The sharing among the department is also deepened as some of them shared inspiring video clips and useful strategies. I also believe this is a way to create not only more collegiality but also congeniality among the Math teachers. The Math teachers have always worked closely as a team but this year I have a strong feeling that they are going to work even more closely and united to help our pupils achieve their potential. Usually during meetings, the Math teachers looked and behaved rather serious and quiet. However, for the past 2 meetings, there were more laughter and it seemed to me that they enjoyed the presence of one another. This really is a positive sign and I need to ensure that this culture should prevail in the department in order to have the right spirit to steer the department towards excellence.

As I type in my comments into the teachers’ reflections, I constantly remind myself that my comments must not only add value to their reflections but also to serve as a form of recognition and encouragement to them. It is not easy for me as I have to constantly choose my words carefully and phrase my sentences properly and professionally. One thing I like about using Facebook as a platform for reflections is that it has a feature for one to select “like” other than inserting comments and so on. This helps to allow them to know if others like their reflections. It also serves as a motivation for teachers to continue reflecting as they will know know someone will read them and they will feel good if their reflections are liked by others.

First Departmental Reading

I had my first Math Department meeting for 2011 on 30 Dec 2010. During the meeting, as part of my plan to start a reading culture in the department and to help the Math teachers to do their reflections, I shared with all the Math teachers an extract from Judy Willis’s book on “Learning to Love Math: Teaching strategies that change student attitudes and get results”. I chose the first chapter of the book, “Reversing Math Negativity with an Attitude Makeover” in which one of the strategies suggested is “Start the Year Showing That You Care”. I feel that this is just the right topic to start the teachers off before they see their Math classes since care is one of the core values of our school. In addition, pupils need to feel the care from the teacher in order to like or even love the lessons conducted by the teacher.

As I highlighted some parts of the article, I see some of the teachers nodding their heads. Wow, I felt good as I have managed to share something useful and meaningful to them. This, I hope, can help to them be more motivated in their teaching of Mathematics, believing more in their pupils and eventually helping pupils get rid of their negative attitudes towards the learning of Mathematics.

I will be purchasing 15 of these books for the Department so that some of the Math teachers in the Department can have a copy of the book to start their readings and do their reflections based on the readings. I will continue to share extracts from the book to the teachers during departmental meetings or even get some of the teachers to share after their readings.

Learning & Development; Work Life Balance

After attending a Cluster KP FGD session on 27 Aug 2010 in which the discussion topics were learning & development of teachers and work life balance. Basically, what I have gathered and learned from the session are:

- Teachers need to learn and develop in order to grow and improve their teaching skills so as to engage the new profile of students who are more IT savvy, inquisitive and vocal.

- Now, teachers are not only here to teach and impart knowledge to their students but to facilitate their learning.

- Learning and development is important for the growth of a teacher in order for the teacher to be effective and skillful.

- Learning and development can be attained only if the teacher is able to find balance in his/her life and work.

- All the schemes like part-time scheme, childcare leave, etc., have been put in place by MOE, Singapore, in order to support teachers in achieving work life balance.

- It is important for School Leaders and Middle Managers to build relationships with their supervisees so as to understand their needs and hence able to give support to them in helping them with balancing their family and work.

- No matter what structures have been put in place or support that have been made available to achieve work life balance, at the end of the day, it is still the choices that we make that matter the most. We need to know our priority and make the correct choices.

- We must have the responsibility to say that as we work together, we need to find the happiness, appreciation & recognition.

- When we have a healthy and happy family, then will we be able to find satisfaction and happiness in our work. This is true vice versa, that is, to be satisfied and happy with work, we will also find happiness and harmony in our family.