Archive for the ‘Management’ Category

Have we witnessed the death knell for primary education in Ireland?

November 16th, 2011 Simon
ln1

The long awaited plan for Literacy and Numeracy was published by the Department of Education this week.  It was in reaction to Ireland’s slide in the latest PISA report, which saw Ireland drop down their league tables in both literacy and numeracy.  The newest Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, promised reform in our education system, which began with a rehaul of the Junior Certificate system earlier last month.  After a number of deliberations and invites for proposals, Quinn’s original ideas have changed little.

The Minister has outlined 5 key areas for improvement.

  1. Improved professional development for teachers
  2. Increasing the time available for teaching literacy and numeracy
  3. Improving arrangements for assessment of children’s literacy and numeracy achievement
  4. Better arrangement for reporting children’s progress
  5. Co-operating with the administration  of  national and international assessment studies

From http://scoilchaitrionajnrmsmcloughlin.blogspot.com

There can be no doubt that the first point should be welcomed by any professional.  Any extra training is a good thing.  The same can be said for improving assessment.

Other factors that haven’t changed since the original document included increasing the time of literacy and numeracy classes.  Literacy must now be taught for an extra 1 hour per week and numeracy an extra 70 minutes per week.  This works out at approximately 90 minutes per day in literacy (English and Irish) and 50 minutes per day in numeracy, the same as in the original report.

Quinn failed to outright say which subjects should be cut as a result of these increases.  In my article about the first document,  I quoted Quinn’s document where he spoke about the different social and interest groups that would make this decision difficult.  I also said:

However, since this is a very difficult decision to make, the Minister, no doubt, will be leaving the decisions firmly in the hands of individual schools and their principals and deputy principals.

From http://www.ozteacher.com.au

This is exactly what he has done.   Schools will have to decide where they will get this time from.  We can use Discretionary time, Integration of Literacy and Numeracy in other subjects or choose to take time off other subjects.  I can see lots of debates in staff rooms over the coming weeks.  Passionate Gaelgeoirí will be trying to convince the deeply religious who will in turn be claiming superiority over the scientists who will be proving, QED, that their favourite subject should be saved.

However, this potential in-fighting in schools is not the most worrying thing about the new circular.  It begins innocently in the assessment section of the circular where teachers are asked to now assess children better.  It goes through the whole theory of assessment and gives some recommended reading to schools.  Finally, the section of standardised assessment comes to light.

Schools have been doing standardised assessments for many years and utilise the results from these tests to ensure the standards of teaching increase, the focus of learning changes and to identify children who require further support with their learning.  It’s a good evaluation tool for schools to internally recognise the things they need to focus on.  Most schools have been more than happy to share these results with parents too.

However, section 7.9 of this new circular may contain the sentence that kills primary school education forever.

With effect from 1 June 2012:  Primary schools will be required to report aggregate standardised test results to the Department of Education and Skills once annually

Even the Department of Education see the potential pitfall of this as a few lines later it states:

Please note that there is no intention to publish data for individual schools or to enable the data to be used for the compilation of league tables.

It is interesting to note the language used.  ”There is no intention” is not quite the same as “It will be illegal” or “There is no way in hell”.  It seems as if they are already resigned to the fact that some time next year a league table of primary schools will be published in a newspaper.

A Finnish School scene from GoFinland.org

Once this happens, we can say goodbye to our education system, which presently has more in common with Finland (the top performing school in PISA).  Finland seems to have succeeded through a number of initiatives.  However, the biggest factor of all is the Finnish government’s trust in teachers to be professional, self-reflective and free to take control of their classrooms.  Taking a completely opposite view are our neighbours in the UK where standardised testing, league tables, hierarchical  structures and interference from government has not improved academic standards.  In fact, it seems to have simply increased stress levels in pupils and teachers.

While our system is nowhere near perfect, it is essential that the government do not kill the foundation that keeps us “above average” in both literacy and numeracy.  By allowing league tables to be published it will pit schools against each other, promote cherry-picking and create further gaps between disadvantaged schools and more prosperous ones.   Teachers will be under pressure to rise literacy and numeracy levels at any cost.  If standardised tests have to be taken in May/June, a parent can expect their child to be taught to this test to the detriment of real learning.  We may even see a market for “Improve your child’s literacy scores in…” products emerging as computer games will hothouse our children for the Micra and Sigma-T tests – (there are only 2 tests published at each level).  While it isn’t the government’s intention for any of this to happen, they may inadvertently have rung the school bell to announce the end of the holistic primary education our children have enjoyed since the introduction of the new curriculum in 1999.

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Computerised Cúntas Míosúil (Version 1.1)

October 5th, 2011 Simon
cuntasshot

Computerised Cúntas Míosúil version 1.1

Are you sick of all that paperwork when it comes to Cúntas Míosúil time?  Anseo.net has created a computerised Cúntas Míosúil and you can download it for free.  It is written using Microsoft Excel so you’ll need MS Office or Open Office to run it.  It’s been designed to be as easy as possible to use.  On the cover page, simply type in your details then click on the individual tabs for each subject to fill them in.

The only techie thing that I couldn’t get around was typing in multiple lines of text.  If you need to move on to a new line, you have to hold down the “Alt” key and press the “Enter” Button.  When you’ve typed in all your subjects, click on the appropriate month and your Cúntas Míosúil is ready for printing!  Simple.

Note: This computerised Cúntas Míosúil has been developed to include the Ethics/Religion curricula.  It is set at the Educate Together Ethics curriculum by default.  You can change this by double-clicking on the appropriate tab.

This new version corrects a small error where teachers could not change the name of the school.

Download Cúntas Míosúil

Posted in Management Tags: , , 16 Comments »

Guest author:Surviving and Thriving as a School Leader by Sean Ruth

October 3rd, 2011 rozz
Seanruth

Surviving and Thriving as a Leader by Seán Ruth

School leadership is a particularly demanding role. It works particularly well when approached as a collaborative, listening process. However, no matter how competent and effective any leader may be, it is also the case that leadership roles tend to attract some potentially very destructive reactions from those around the leader. Having a perspective on these processes is very useful in helping leaders to survive and thrive.

Based on research conducted over a number of years with a wide range of leaders, two particular experiences stand out as having a huge impact on how well leaders function.

Isolation

The first of these is isolation. During in-depth interviews, leaders reported feeling isolated and unsupported, particularly when times were difficult. They felt alone, with no one to share with and experienced a lack of open communication from those around them.

In addition, they found themselves without support when they needed it, sometimes from the people around them and sometimes from those above them. They experienced a lack of understanding about what it was like for them in their role, little encouragement to keep going, a lack of practical help in difficult circumstances and a range of negative feelings on other people’s part such as jealousy, begrudgery, disrespect or suspicion.

Attack

The second destructive reaction was being attacked and undermined. These took various forms. A common one was finding themselves on the receiving end of very hostile, sometimes personally abusive, criticism from those around them. Instead of discussing problems in a relaxed or constructive way, people attacked. Occasionally, leaders also found themselves socially excluded or ostracised by people.

In addition to being attacked, many leaders found themselves being undermined. Their efforts to provide leadership were sometimes hampered by a lack of cooperation or even active resistance from those around them. Quite often, rather than being criticised to their face, they found themselves the subject of hostile gossip. People complained about them to others behind their back. Sometimes they found that people had gone over their heads to someone higher up in the organisation or to some outside body.

It is important to point out here that these processes seem to happen independently of the leader’s competence. In other words, they did not happen only to poor leaders or leaders who made mistakes. They also happened to good leaders who were functioning highly effectively. This pattern of “doing in” leaders sometimes becomes part of the culture of an organisation and, over time, we may see a succession of leaders fall victim to it. At times, the source of attacks on leaders may be particular “difficult” individuals or small cliques. Sometimes, there is a general lack of support and negativity.

Emotional Effects

Over time, the destructive reactions took their toll on the leaders interviewed. A major effect was heightened stress levels. In addition, some leaders found themselves becoming demoralised by the constant negativity they faced and disillusioned with their organisations. They began to doubt themselves and their self-confidence took a knock. Many of them reported feeling hurt, angry or upset. Occasionally, they broke down in tears, especially if anyone showed some unexpected kindness or thoughtfulness.

Physical and Behavioural Effects

Not only did they suffer emotionally, they also found themselves drained of energy by their negative experiences. Many had difficulty sleeping. Some found themselves more prone to illness and taking longer than usual to recover.

The knock-on effects were gradually to make them more guarded and watchful, more careful about being open about themselves and, ultimately, to have all of this interfere with their ability to do their jobs.

Implications

This destructive dynamic around leaders has many implications. Clearly, it is in no one’s interest that leaders get isolated. If someone is to function well, it helps enormously to ensure they have support. Deputy and Assistant Principals can play a very constructive role in this regard in schools. Similarly, regardless of how well or poorly a leader is doing, attacking them never works as a way of improving their leadership. Not only does it make it unsafe for them to hear helpful feedback it may also, in fact, lead them to become even more rigid, isolated and ineffective. It also has the wider effect of making other people who witness attacks reluctant to take on leadership themselves.

One important implication is that principals need to set up safe and confidential opportunities to be listened to while they think about themselves, their staffs and the work. This could be in the form of one-to-one supervision, coaching or counselling, it could be in a peer support network with other principals or it could be in a wider support network with other kinds of leaders. Setting up such support might seem like a luxury or an unnecessary expense and some leaders might find it difficult to prioritise it. However, it is to everyone’s benefit if the Principal makes time for this.

The dynamic described here has many other facets on which it would be useful to elaborate. An important aspect however is to recognise it as a relatively common organisational dynamic that can be addressed rather than simply a personal failing on someone’s part.

Dr Seán Ruth is an Organisational Psychologist and author of Leadership and Liberation: A Psychological Approach (Routledge, 2006). He works closely with leaders on a one-to-one basis and with leadership teams. His website is at www.seanruth.com.

 

 

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Child Protection:Keeping it simple

September 20th, 2011 rozz
MOVERS & SHAKERS ... Fine Gael TD Frances Fitzgerald. pic: BILLY HIGGINS

Last week, The IPPN hosted their annual Principal Briefing day. I always attend as I find these days are invaluable for keeping ahead of any new developments in Departmental policy making.

Maria Doyle gave a concise presentation on the new Child Protection Guidelines that came through my letterbox at school last week.

I am no expert at all and can feel overwhelmed with the legislation and responsibilities that it can place on the principal. However, Maria gave us some great, simple tips.

1. Keep a confidential notebook in your Child Protextion file. This should only be accessible to you. You should let the Deputy DLP and/or the Chairperson know that this notebook is there. In this notebook, keep dates, names (She recommends the student’s registration number) and any details of conversations that you have had with the HSE/Garda.

2. Put a sign up at the entrance to the school and the staff room. This should state who the DLP/Deputy DLP is for all child protection issues.

3. Each classroom teacher should have a hard copy in their classroom and be aware of its details. It is the first thing an Inspector will ask for when they visit. Also, a teacher needs to know the policy well.

4. Dedicate the first staff meeting of the year to the Child Protection Policy. Ours is about 3-4 pages and can be read through quickly.

If you are a member of IPPN, you can log into www.ippn.ie and find a wealth of resources from Maria and the other workshops at the Briefing Day.

The new Children First National Guidance can be found at http://www.dcya.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=1589, if you haven’t received it yet. There are only 2 pages applicable to school staff with the new circular to follow shortly.

It is so important to be comfortable in this area and training is provided for each school.

You might have a long list of “To dos” but this one has to be done straightaway.

 

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Leadership and liberation by Sean Ruth:reflections on possibly the best leadership book I’ve ever read..

May 26th, 2011 rozz

Leadership and liberation by Sean Ruth:reflections on possibly the best leadership book I’ve ever read..

Sean Ruth is a great guy. I first came across him this year, having had the opportunity to listen to him speak at an SESS conference for principals. I work as a principal teacher in Saplings Carlow, a centre that has recently fallen under the auspices of the DES. The Saplings that I work in has been a fully functional and way above average working school for children with autism. The SESS are putting all of their professional development and expertise into helping all the staff settle into the new situation. A difficult one but made easier due to the commitment of the staff, parents and patron body to maintaining their quality approach to learning.

That’s not what I really wanted to speak about in this article, I want to speak about Sean Ruth and his approach to leadership.

I began my journey into leadership many years ago, completing a post grad certificate with Trinity College in Educational management. I’ve devoured some great books and research in the area of leadership and some equally lame ones!

Leadership and liberation-a psychological approach is one of the finest, sensible, humane and practical books I have read in the area of leadership.

Sean Ruth comes from a psychology background, he brings this into his writing and knowledge of leadership. He uses an extensive amount of relevant research to back his thoughts up. Each chapter ends with a set of questions in which you can reflect on, in whichever area you are in. Leadership, for Sean Ruth is for everyone. A principal, a teacher, a mother, a politician, a shopkeeper.

What I particularly like about this book was the practical nature of it. Little nuggets of advice are interspersed throughout-for example, Sean speaks gives a list of ways to stay effective in leadership. The first one being to build a support network, someone that you can trust to speak to, someone that will listen to your struggle, someone that won’t criticised you and judge you but point to ways you can look at the system as opposed to criticising the person.

Leadership and liberation is more like a workbook, one you can pick up and read on one day and leave it there for a few weeks and pick it up again. Though, I’d advise you read it all, the chapters on strategies and skills are particularly relevant. Sean gives concrete ways to improve change, influence, conflict resolution and the sometimes scary staff meeting.

If I had been given this book when I started as a principal, I would have felt much more equipped and liberated to lead in my own way but with basic principles. Basic principles of how you can aspire to treat humans and work on relationships. It’s all about policies, documents, regulations. Sean wants his readers to think about building the one to one relationships, if you do this, the rest will come. I highly recommend this book. I think it has the ability to change your attitude and thinking, if you allow it!

This book is hard to buy in the shops, it can be purchased easily at http://amzn.to/l3YNAs

 

 

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10 Things School Management Systems Should Have

April 30th, 2011 Simon
tenthingsadmin

Over the last year or so, principals and teachers around the country have got very excited by school management systems.  Basically, a school management system allows users to have access to any administrative information about the school.  For example, phone numbers of parents, attendance records and school policies can be accessed with a click or two of a button.  There are about 5 different Irish-made school management system options out there, each with their own merits.  In this article, I look at the ten things every school management system should have.

Source: ballintemplens.ie

1. Electronic Rollbook

This is the main reason I decided to get my school management system for my school despite the fact we still have to fill out the traditional roll book.  A good electronic rollbook will balance the numbers at the end of each term to save teachers hours of frustration.  Clever rollbooks will take very little extra time to fill out if everyone is deemed to be automatically present initially.  Therefore, a teacher can simply mark who is absent.

2. Electronic Noticeboard

We don’t use the whiteboard in the staffroom for messages and notices.  Our school management system contains an electronic noticeboard.  This means that anybody can post a notice up about anything.  Another advantage is that people can reply to notices.  We have used this to do anything from posting up web links of interest to organising staff nights out.  I also find that it cuts out the invisible hierarchy that traditional whiteboards seem to create.

3. Integration with Google Calendar

In my opinion, Google do the best calendar.  If one can share their school calendar with any other calendar in their lives and allow it to appear on the school management system, then it’s a win-win for me.  A stand alone calendar is acceptable.

4. Cloud-based

If I want to access information about my school, I’m not necessarily in the school when I want it.  Cloud-based school management systems allow me to access the information anywhere including my phone.  Those who don’t sell cloud-based systems will argue that security could be an issue.  I believe this argument to be dated as cloud-based solutions are now recognised as being extremely secure.

5. Easy printing of class lists

There are so many times in the year where schools are asked to send lists of pupils to different agencies.  A good school management system will allow you to create lists on the fly, for example: anyone who goes on the bus, any child under the age of 6, etc.  It is also a good idea if only certain information that’s needed can be filtered rather than having to print every detail of every child.

6. Search Function

This is probably more applicable to bigger schools but if young Johnny Murphy has smashed his head open, the quickest way to get his mother’s phone number would be to simply use a Google-style search function for his name.  Other useful search ideas would be for any keyword in documents, policies, etc.

7. Document Storage

Being able to store documents in a school management system is a handy feature.  For example, I can store all the school’s policies in one place for teachers to look at.  Google Docs  is an even more powerful solution, so integration with that would be even better.  However, even better again would be the ability to store assessment results, for example MIST, Sigma-T, etc.  Better again would be comparison lists of results of  these assessments.  Another document to store might be children’s reports each year.  A report generator would be a welcome addition as these take ages!

8. Social Bookmarking

I don’t think any school management system has this feature but teachers love sharing links to good web sites.  Through tagging bookmarks, a nice list for any school could be very useful.  If this was shared amongst the whole community of other schools, a huge databank of good links to web sites could grow extremely quickly.  Right now, I use a link to Google Bookmarks.

Source: binbin.net

9. Money Collection

There are times in the year that children give teachers money.  It is nice to have a list of your class online where you can enter what they have paid you and when.  Again clever use of lists can make this very effective.

10. Yard Duty Timetable

Every school does yard duty so why not have it on a school management system.  Even better, the school management system could automatically generate a fair timetable for all teachers and even calculate the number of hours completed.

There’s plenty of other things a school management system offers and these are just some of the many features that they generally have.  However, I think it is best that school management system stick to administration options and shouldn’t try to do too much, for example lesson planning.

As is tradition with these top ten lists, I have to put in a bonus item. so here goes:

Bonus Item: Parent Teacher Meeting Timetable Generator

Trying to timetable parents for parent teacher meetings is one big nightmare.  One has to fit siblings together.  One also has to make sure that support staff get to talk to parents after (or before) the teacher.  It takes hours to get it manually, and even then there’s tonnes of mistakes.  As a school management system will have access to each child and their relationship to their siblings in the school as well as support details, a computer programme might have more luck.

I hope this article proves useful to you in choosing a student management system for your school.

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Reflections from IPPN Conference: Why principals can’t probate 2

March 28th, 2011 Simon
Image from http://www.appraiservalues.com

…continued from February 26th

In my previous article, I started to look at reasons that principals are not qualified to probate new teachers.  Here are some more reasons.

Nepotism

If you’re a politician, there’s a high chance you have a relative who is/was a politician at some level.  If you’re a teacher, the same thing applies.  I have taught in schools where there were several mother-daughter combinations.  While this doesn’t automatically equate to nepotism, bringing in this rule will certainly increase the opportunities.  For example, Mary, a teacher is school A, has a daughter, Anne, just out of college.  Anne wants to get on the ladder and get her “dip” done.  Margaret, the principal, taught Anne in the school when she was only small and would love to give her the opportunity to get her dip done.  It’s only a year after all.  ”Dipped” teachers are much more in demand than unprobated teachers.  I think we can see where this is going.

A Totally New Role

If this role is to come in next year, it completely changes the role of the principal within the school.  Right now, principals are leaders in their school, yet at the same time we are colleagues of our staff.  We are on the same pay scale (an allowance is granted depending on the size of the school) and we have the same union to represent us.  To turn us from being colleagues to being inspectors completely changes our role in the school.  It completely changes the culture of a school.  Like the parish, it takes years to change a culture effectively.

The Bottom Line – Money

Apart from the fact that this new role will have no financial benefits for the principal, the reason behind it is wrong.  The department and inspectorate seem to be trying to sell (railroad) this as an opportunity. The real reason is that there is a shortage of inspectors and they wish to remove some of their responsibilities.  While, I would have had no problem with this being a planned changeover, it clearly isn’t.  It is simply a cost-saving initiative.

There are probably several other reasons that this isn’t going to work in the short term.  Again, I reiterate that I believe that moving to a system of internal evaluation, is a great idea.  However, steps need to be put in place first.  We have to create a culture of self-evaluation.  It’s not that difficult to do but, like every change, it needs time.

Image from http://www.appraiservalues.com

Appraisal

Appraisal systems are part and parcel of most organisations but they don’t exist in schools.  Why can’t staff set themselves targets to reach and evaluate them every term?  Why can’t this be done in a safe, supportive environment?  I set myself personal targets each term and reflect on them.  I would love it if I could be appraised on them.  Financial rewards are only a minor objective to completing targets.  The amount of responsibility, relevant experience, learning, etc. that could happen as a result could only improve the effectiveness of teachers through their whole careers.

It would also be the beginning of a culture of evaluation.  Eventually, external Whole School Evaluations might be obsolete as we will be experts at evaluating ourselves.  Perhaps that’s why the inspectors want to skip by the changes!

However, if we don’t start with the baby steps of change, we’re going to see a decline in standards.  Principals will be afraid to make difficult decisions for the greater good.  Ineffective teachers will be probated based on who they know rather than what they do.  Potentially excellent teachers will fall by the wayside because of the closed-shop mentality that will ensue.  These are all the things that happened in the politics of Ireland and why we are in the mess we are in.

My proposed consequences may seem futile or unrealistic but many teachers would be able to relate to them.  In my opinion, appraisal is the key word to start the process of changing the role of the principal in a positive way. Railroading through unplanned change can have greater consequences than initially thought.

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Managing stress workshop

February 26th, 2011 rozz
20110226-001120.jpg

I had the opportunity at the recent IPPN conference to attend 2 workshops, I immediately chose the Karen Belshaw Stress management as I have heard amzing things about her and it would be really expensive if I were to fork out for this!

Principals have a really stressful job and what makes it worse is that we don’t even realise when we are stressed. This all links in nicely with emotional intelligence and being self aware of your feelings. But, what do we do when we do realise we need some help? Karen Belshaw gave an energetic but soothing work shop in the area of stress management. The audience all crammed in, it was over subscribed and packed to capacity. What does this say about our profession?

I really enjoyed this as Karen gave us practical and useable techniques, like the happy face sticker technique. She gave us a sheet of stickers with smiley faces and told us to stick them somewhere we would see occasionally throughout the day. Everytime you see this happy face, you stop and breathe in and out deeply and slowly. After  about a month of doing this, everytime you see the happy face, your brain convinces itself it is breathing deeply. Whether you are or not.

Deep breathing slows your heart rate right down, gets oxygen into your brain and calms you right down! Useful for a potentially stressful conflict situation.

Another great tip she gave was to switch off before you go to bed by doing something that was the opposite of what you have been doing all day-colouring in, knitting, puzzles, anything as long as it’s creative and prepares you for bed.

Self-talk is really important too, she recommended making a positive statement or mantra that you can repeat to yourself. It is stronger if you chose your own. Some of the examples she gave were:

I am doing the best I can and that’s ok.
There is nothing I can do about this situation right now.

I am going to make sure that I practice deep breathing, eating well, exercising and doing fun things outside of school-generally switching off!

This article was written by Rozz Lewis and you can contact her at rozz@anseo.net if you have any questions or just fancy a chat!

www.stressmanagement.ie

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Reflections from IPPN Conference: Why principals can’t probate 1

February 26th, 2011 Simon
Image: Irish Times

This year’s IPPN conference had the theme, “Our Children, Our Future” and

Image: Irish Times

was attended by over 1,000 principals. After a great morning of exploring the excellent Education Expo, at 5 o’clock we were all ushered to a marquee where the Opening Ceremony was taking place. We were first addressed by Pat Goff, the IPPN president and then Harold Hislop, the new chief inspectorate, who was invited to tell us all about some changes in the system. It was three quarters way through the speech when he dropped the bombshell that by 2012, principals will be responsible for the probation of their new staff.

Understandably, it was greeted acrimoniously. While principals have been told this was coming down the road, nobody expected for it to happen so soon.

While principals, in my opinion, should have no problems with eventually probating new staff, this major change is a huge shift in our role. In Ireland, the role of the principal is very undefined and often haphazard.

There are absolutely no structures in the primary education system for internal evaluation. For the principal to be able to evaluate how effective a Newly Qualified Teacher is, a number of issues will need to be addressed. Below are some of my own thoughts on why we’re not ready for a large structural change such as this.

No Training

There is no compulsory training to become a principal. In reality, someone can be a trained teacher one day and the educational leader of the same school the next day without every even opening a management book. Both roles are completely different. While a teacher can manage a group of 30 children quite effectively with behaviourist strategies, adults are a completely different thing, especially when one isn’t in control of finances, discipline or employment. While token systems, sweets and stamp cards work well with children, adult’s motivation has more to do with much higher order leadership skills. Simply put, not enough principals have adequate training in this.

Parochialism

Ireland is very small. Recent studies have shown that the majority of Irish people end up living in the same area as they were born, (study in Carlow, 2011, reported in Carlow Nationalist). The parish is still the centre of life in most rural areas. Schools are very much part of the parish, over 90% run by the church and most of them affiliated to a particular club, (generally GAA). It is not unusual for a whole school staff to work and live in a parish for their entire career. The principal of the “local” school is also seen as a major connector in the life of the parish – part of the team. Big decisions within a school are rarely made alone by the principal – the whole community is generally part of it. That means: the staff, the parents, the priest, the GAA club, the local shop, etc. When the principal of a school is given the power to decide the fate of a teacher, given our culture, it is highly unlikely that he/she will not be affected by the community he/she lives in. If, for example, the school hires the son of the local shop owner, and he doesn’t turn out to be an effective teacher, what position does that put the principal in? While some would argue, that this is now part and parcel of “being the boss”, one can’t instantly change a culture. Local communities don’t work the same way as businesses. A decision, such as not probating the son of the shop owner, has wider implications. Obviously the shop owner isn’t going to be best pleased. Neither will his friends and families, many of whom are the principal’s neighbours and families. There is huge potential for a local domino-effect where the spirit of the community is spoiled. We need to disconnect the principal from the parish/community a little bit before we start toying with community relations. It may nearly mean a journey back to the “Máistéar” but with better leadership skills. I’d imagine this would take at least a generation. If this new rule is brought in, I would imagine many principals will simply probate ineffective teachers for the good relations of the whole parish but probably to the detriment of their community’s children.

To be continued in March…

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Guest Blogger: Caithriona Carty

January 23rd, 2011 Simon
caithriona (Medium)

Last month, the Caithriona Carty, principal of Glenmore NS, Co. Mayo hit the headlines during the December cold snap by working online with the pupils in her school. Here she writes about her experience:

Snowed in? Keep children up to date on line!

As one of the many schools disrupted by the snow and hazardous road conditions, we found ourselves having no choice but to take the week of school. Glenmore N.S. is a small rural school in North Mayo with nine pupils, four in the junior end, and five in the senior end.

The small numbers came as a blessing when it came to a trial of teaching on-line. I felt it was necessary for the children not to be deprived of a week’s worth of school when it could so easily be avoided. A text a parent was sent to all parents informing them that I could provide work via email for the purpose of revision until I set up a system they could use to avail of teaching. The system had to be simple, cost efficient (or in this case, free) and child friendly.

For internet safety issues, the parents consented to the system and monitored the children whist using it. We use Google chat to talk teacher to pupil, upload PowerPoint’s and email to supply tasks and to correct work completed. The parents of the junior end were supplied with printable handouts and instructions for literacy revision and numeracy while the students in the senior end availed of Google talk to converse with me.

The tricky part was juggling the children as Google talk does not facilitate conferencing. PowerPoint’s were sent to all and we went through them individually, setting tasks as I went along based on the information we had just revised. But why bother when it’s not recognised? From the feedback I received from the children themselves, it has been one of the most rewarding days of teaching! The children felt an overwhelming sense of achievement.

It has proved as an extremely beneficial project for the children. We have covered most of our revision work for our Christmas tests and still had plenty of time to play in the snow!

Caithríona Carty is a former graduate of Mary Immaculate College where she studied Irish and Media & Communications, and a post graduate of Hibernia College. Principal of Glenmore N.S., Crossmolina, Co. Mayo, Caithríona has a huge interest in ICT and how it can be utilised in the classroom.

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