Category Archives: Uncategorized

Industrial Agreements for Principals

Posted on April 20, 2012 by mwalker

This week I attended a meeting for members of the Australian Federation of Principals (APF) where we heard about the progress on a log of claims to form a new industrial workplace agreement for principals across Victoria. Not wanting to … Continue reading →

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Community Project – a school orchard

Posted on April 5, 2012 by mwalker

Last month my school community led by a dedicated group of parents came together to construct a school orchard. This project has been in the planning phase for over 12 months as the committee rasied funds, involved some university students in the … Continue reading →

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Meeting the Minister

Posted on April 4, 2012 by mwalker

Recently I, along with 2 colleagues, were nominated by our network of schools to meet with the Minister of Education to chat over a few concerns our colleagues wanted us to raise. We raised a number of points that he … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, school, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Leadership and Relational Learning

Posted on April 3, 2012 by mwalker

Last month we held our 3rd curriculum day on one of our strategic improvement strategies – the implementation of a relational learning framework in teaching and learning and to engage with the parent and wider community   (school are entitled to hold 4 … Continue reading →

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Having fun “joining in” – playing with the image of principal.

Posted on April 3, 2012 by mwalker

Over the past few weeks there have 2 work occassions where I felt a need to “join in”. As a general rule I don’t like dressing up in fancy dress. It’s not that I feel I have a  conservative  image of a principal … Continue reading →

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A few challenges to the idea of “life long learning.”

Posted on March 15, 2012 by mwalker

Last week I was privileged to spend 3 days interacting with James Nottingham and others around the topic of life long learning. He made to me some valuable points worth exploring a little further. “tests show only what a child has … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Conference, school, Teaching, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Kath says students acquire assets through inquiry focused instruction

Posted on March 4, 2012 by mwalker

Last week Kath Murdoch continued her work with us here at Elsternwick with a session on the “assets” students learn through inquiry focused instruction. From the outset let me be clear that I’m not saying students cannot acquire these dispositions through … Continue reading →

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Building Classroom Learning Communities

Posted on March 4, 2012 by mwalker

  One of last week’s walk-through foci was on classroom learning communities. These are some of the images I captured on the walk-through. At the start of each school year we as a staff and teachers in all classrooms expect to build … Continue reading →

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2011 Instructional Rounds Evaluation

Posted on January 27, 2012 by mwalker

As I set up our Network Instructional Rounds dates for 2012 I was interested to read and reflect upon another group of principal evaluations of their experiences last year. Overwhelmingly the consistent comment of principals as observers in both groups are … Continue reading →

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Carol Tomlinson: an encounter to remember!

Posted on January 5, 2012 by mwalker

This year in our Instructional Rounds group within the local network of schools we purchased Carol Tomlinson’s book “Leading and Managing A Differentiated Classroom” to use as a base text for understanding our observation of instruction in classrooms. Last year … Continue reading →

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Jiangsu School Leaders Delegation

Posted on December 3, 2011 by mwalker

This week I was invited to meet a delegation of school leaders from the Jiangsu Province of China. After the introductions and overviews of each region or province were finished we had an opportunity to exchange views of education and … Continue reading →

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Like to start teacher conversation about observing practice – with humour?

Posted on November 16, 2011 by mwalker

Recently we ran a workshop on observing teacher practice in classrooms within a coaching relationship. To break the ice but make the point we used this clip from Summer Heights High which was an Australian TV show that “sent up” … Continue reading →

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Rick Wormeli on redo’s and retakes

Posted on November 6, 2011 by mwalker

I’ve been pondering some recent parent feedback about our senior students lack of engagement with some teachers and the material they are expected to learn. I began my reflections about the students coming from the digital generation and expecting to … Continue reading →

Posted in differentiation, Feedback, Instruction, teacher efficacy, Teaching, Uncategorized, Video Clips | 6 Comments

Inspect what you expect

Posted on October 30, 2011 by mwalker

Earlier this year Penny, one of my assistant Principal’s, and I participated in the ASCD summer conference in Boston. One workshop we attended was by Pete Hall the Principal of Sheridan Elementary School in Spokane. Pete spoke about the need to monitor classroom instruction … Continue reading →

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The Forbidden City – some photos and comments from a recent trip.

Posted on October 3, 2011 by mwalker

I have attached some shots of the Forbidden City that I toured as part of the Leaders Course in Beijing. Besides the fascinating history of the City which is nearly 700 years old its sheer size is amazing. It covers 178 … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Chinese Language, Travel, Uncategorized | Leave a comment