On 3oth January, I presented my MIT 2019 work to a teacher only morning of all of our Toki Pounamu primary teachers. I got to hear about some other fabulous inquiries that morning from other colleagues in our primary schools, and especially liked Lyndall Prendergast's work. One of the very best things to come out of Toki Pounamu, I think, is the increased collaboration across schools, and I've really enjoyed working with primary colleagues.
Our year at Grey High is up and running, and I've got wonderful classes. I'll write more about new class projects in another post.
My biggest new project for 2020 is doing some post-graduate study of my own. I was granted a secondary study support award for this year which gives me four hours of release time per week to study. In late January, tucked into a family road trip to the North Island, I spent three days on a block course in research methodologies in literacy (EDPROFST 700) at the University of Auckland. Since then, I've submitted the practice assessment (worth nothing, but a useful exercise) and next I have to do a critical synthesis of three studies published in academic journals, each based on primary research. On the block course we whizzed through a range of research methods used in education, carefully noting that it wasn't about ranking, but about the right fit for each project.
My decision to apply for the grant and to pursue this learning was about supporting my work as literacy leader at Greymouth High School. I've been doing this role for the last six years, and I thought it was time to bring some substantively new material and thinking into my kete.
We each get to choose what research area we want to focus on (after critical synthesis comes a literature review and then a research proposal). I have been thinking about the challenges of maintaining effective literacy practices as new initiatives come through a school. That's definitely a challenge we face at GHS, and I know it is a widely experienced challenge. However, it is too broad, and far too complex in scope for a research proposal from anyone. The whole challenge is the range of variables involved in a school at any stage, let alone tracing the maintenance of one initiative (literacy) in the face of multiple new initiatives which also deserve support and attention (learn-create-share, wellbeing, growth mindset, etc).
So that is my next challenge - to narrow my focus so that I can find some great studies and make learning progress. It will definitely be around secondary literacy, and whereas I was thinking whole school literacy before, I may now confine it to English subject literacy. Primary-secondary transition and literacy skills transfer is also a possibility.
I've been cleaning my incredibly messy office over this weekend while I think about a study focus. I will refrain from exploring the impact of physical mess on the effectiveness of classroom teachers... Now there is room for other teachers to work in here with me and I can once again find things easily.
You can see both the floor and the colour of the top of every desk! Time for some new photos and posters now...
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