Agency in the Early Years

Introduction

This blog post documents the initiative taken by the early years teaching team at Xi'an Liangjiatan International School. Most of the team members along with me took part in professional development provided by Innovative Global Educators. During this PD we all got on the same page as to what are some best practices in early years education. We learned from some fabulous early years educators such as Anne VanDam and Fiona Zinn. The team also read the updated PYP documents to learn the philosophy behind student agency. The following paragraph is taken from The Learner, published by the International Baccalaureate Organisation. 

Agency in the Primary Years Program

When learners have agency, the role of the teacher and student changes; the relationship between a teacher and a student is viewed as a partnership. Students take initiative, express interest and wonderings, make choices and are aware of their learning goals. They are actively engaged and monitor and adjust their learning as needed. Students offer feedback to others and consult on decisions that affect them. In school, students take responsibility for their learning and collaborate with teachers and other students to plan, present and assess learning needs (2018).

The components of agency are voice, choice, and ownership. In the early stages of this process, the early years team surveyed students to determine their interests and give them choice in what they would be learning. Students were divided into multi-age groups according to the area of their interest. Part of the mission at XLIS is to create a sense of community. This weekly time helped to develop this sense of community. 

Teacher Agency

The most important factor for this time to take place was a willingness for the teaching team to try new things. It is important that teachers have agency also to implement new initiatives. For this to happen the timetable needed to be created in a way that allowed for two periods of uninterrupted teaching time for all six classes. This was planned at the end of the academic year. 

Evaluation

At the end of the school year I evaluated the effectiveness of the initiative by interviewing students and some of the staff who were involved. Below are some of their responses.

Students were asked if they liked agency time.
Student 1, "We go to other teacher's classrooms"

Student 2, "Because it is fun. I like to learn about the space and about the world". 

Student 3, "We can play and I can see my friends."

Student 4, "I can go to different classes and I can play. I can play with my friends."

Student 5, "A little bit, I like the cars."

Student 6, "Because you make things."

Student 7, "We can do different stuff. I don't like when we do not usually share."

Student 8, "Yes, because there's friends."

Student 9, "We can play with our friends."

Student 10, "So so."

Student 11, "We can go to different rooms and we can play different things."

Teachers were asked if the agency time was effective.

Teacher 1, "It has been interrupted by events too often like assemblies and sports day. Once a week has not been enough. We are trying to figure out how to align it to our curriculum. It is becoming a second curriculum. It has been good to mix the students with different teachers, they are able to interact with other students and teachers to learn from them. P1 and ECE now interact with each other."

Teacher 2, "What is nice about it is the different ages in one room. We asked the children where they would like to go and gave them different experiences at the start. They have the opportunity to experience different things. We have given the students choice over their learning and valued their choices."

Teacher 3, "The kids love it and try different activities. They meet different friends and build connections with the other classes."

Teacher 4, "It has been good to get the early years students together to collaborate. It has been good for the teachers to collaborate vertically also."

Conclusion

This year our early years team and I went to a REACH conference in Chengdu. REACH stands for Reggio Emilia in Asia for Children. We were very fortunate to learn from Claudia Giudici, president of Reggio Children. This conference further solidified for us the importance of play in the development of children and the value of agency. 

References

The learner (2018), International Baccalaureate Organization (UK) Ltd.

Innovative Global Educators - http://www.innovativeglobaled.org/home-0.html

Reggio Emelia in Asia for Children

Principal's Principles #3

Introduction

I am ready for the third installment in my Principal's Principles series. Here are some more lessons I have learned in the course of my short four years as a school principal. I hope somebody is finding them useful.

No Pally Pally

As a school leader, it is important to be constantly learning. We can learn from mentors but we can also learn from mistakes others make. One thing I have learned that was not beneficial to school culture was when a school leader forms a clique with a group of teachers. This is usually around a drinking group or equivalent. This kind of social group can leave staff feeling excluded and can lead to favoritism. It is important for a school leader to be inclusive when organizing social events. I also suggest finding a social circle outside of the school community, this may be a sports team or church community. Having a social support structure in place is very important. Organizations such as EARCOS or ACAMIS can provide a vital support network for school leaders.

Communication

One of the most important things you can do is learn to communicate as efficiently and clearly as possible. There is no formula for this but blogs, emails and meetings are all means to do this. In a previous post, I mentioned emotional intelligence. Growth in this, as well as leadership and management, are vital. When an issue comes to you it is important that you do not get excited or react out of anger. This will be particularly difficult if you are sick, under tress or in pain. You need to know yourself. Quite often time can solve a situation without you even getting involved. It is a skill to learn when to get involved and when not to. A young or insecure leader will make the mistake of rushing in to establish their position and control. It can be equally damaging for a leader to shy away from the necessary tough talks. It is very important that you get all the information on any situation before acting. Take the time to interview the students or teachers involved. We use a reflection sheet to allow students to reflect on an issue. This serves as a way to immediately document the issue, which can be very helpful, later when parents may need to come in. If you have access to security cameras, get the facts.

Student Reflection Sheet

Tough Talks

Never shy away from a tough talk when it is necessary. We practice restorative practices with both students and staff. If a relationship has been damaged or a school policy has been broken, it is important to be consistent with all staff. Minor incidents, of course, should be let go but leaders should be consistent with all staff and not shy away from though talks and the giving of feedback. If a staff member does not understand a policy or know what he has done wrong, he cannot make the change. 

Code of Ethics

It is a good idea to create a code of ethics with your staff. One thing we have done is putting the following in place. It provides the opportunity for staff to take care of disputes themselves without needing to bring everything to leadership. When a dispute between staff occurs ensure step one has taken place before getting involved. 
Step 1 - Staff members try to resolve the conflict by having a meeting and restorative conversation.
Step 2 - If the issue cannot be resolved the staff members make schedule a meeting with the principal. 
Step 3 - If the issue cannot be resolved the staff members schedule a meeting with the head of school. 

Big Announcements

Never announce something before it is official! Decisions can change. Do not make announcements before pen goes to paper. 

Parent-Teacher Disputes

When a parent emails you with an issue relating to a teacher. Ensure that you direct the parent to communicate with the teacher directly for all normal day to day issues first. Never jump the gun and ensure you investigate thoroughly before acting. I recommend you email the parent back immediately to say you are looking into the issue then speak to everybody involved directly before either responding yourself, or supporting the teacher to respond. It is very important that you support your teaching staff. If you hired the person, it is your job to ensure they succeed to the best of your ability. 

International School Community Reviews

If you are a school leader and you are making changes you will come up against resistance. You will have to make tough decisions that will not make everybody happy. Unless you are a people pleaser you can expect to have some bad reviews on the ISR site. Prepare for this in advance as it can hurt. You put years of your life into an organization and deal with things that teachers cannot even imagine. It hurts when you read a scathing review of yourself on this website. Getting feedback is very important. You should seek feedback, but from people who know you only. 

Gossip Up

Encourage your staff to "gossip up". We introduce this concept during orientation. What this means is that if a teacher has an issue encourage them to bring it up the ladder vertically rather than horizontally, meaning they discuss it with peers. It may take a long time to implement this into a school but it is important for teachers to repeatedly know that you are available to speak about things. 

Middle Leaders Professional Growth Program

Most schools have a solid process in place for teachers' professional growth. This is usually based on the work of Charlotte Danielson or James Stronge. However, an issue in many schools is that middle leaders are totally missed. It is important that these people have the opportunity to grow and receive feedback. They are in key positions and are often missed, particularly in developing international schools. There are lots of very good tools out there that form a great starting point for this. The Australian Standards for Principals contains some fabulous information on what school leaders should know, understand and do. It is a very good starting point for the development of your own tool.