Brian's Blog

                        It is just a little under two weeks since the Google Certified Innovators Sydney 2017 cohort graduated. In this time I have had pockets of time to reflect and gather my thoughts about the program and how it has affected my project. When I set out I had the plan to create a personalised learning pathway that would engage students in meaningful learning. Though the desired goal has not changed the academy, coaches and peer's have challenged me to think of ways to bring this to pass and obstacles to look out for. They have encouraged the mindset of "thinking big but starting small" by being critical friends. Colleagues and team mates I can constantly come back to and think tank with. This shared experience has broadened my perspective and connection to a world of educators who are making a real difference in the lives of their learning communities. During the academy, we had the time and space to l...

Reflections from Day 3 of the Google for Education Innovation Academy.

Reflections from Day 2 of the Google for Education Innovation Academy.

Practical Implications: Darling-Hammond (1995) found that teacher leadership is importantly associated to teacher scholarship and professional growth. She identified that leadership can be encapsulated in the tasks that everyday teachers do so that it does not create artificial, formal hierarchies. With this belief, it is suggested that teacher leadership can create more agile frameworks for leadership to be operated through. As the organisation has the flexibility and capacity to meet the requirements of their individual students in a differentiated and impressionable way. Ng (2006) supported the notion that teacher leadership can contribute to school revitalization. This was created by a mixture of methods including time and space, to work, reflect, and learn together, a common planning time had given teachers to intentionally focus on school improvement. As the personal, interpersonal and organisational skills and capacity enlarged the climate for school revitalization became ...

Reflections from Day 1 of the Google for Education Innovation Academy.

Introduction: Effective leadership is universally acknowledged as being an essential element in achieving school improvement (Leithwood & Jantzi, 1998; Hopkins, 2001). The ways in which leadership is created within an educational context; however, is a varied as teachers themselves. Traditionally, the expectation was that principals were across all levels of leadership; however, with the increasing complexities of schools, the belief has shifted. The roles of both the principals and teachers must change in order for improvement to become the norm throughout the culture of a school. Systems have adopted a framework of distribution as it has become impossible for one person to do it all. This modern of education encourage the empowerment of teacher (Harris & Muijs, 2002a) to lead and drive changes so that all students have the resources required to reach their level of proficiency (Devaney, 1987). Fullan (2001a) states that teachers are the key to school change. Teachers co...