Week 25: Reflection 1

Week 25: Reflection

This week the students returned to school to get their timetables and we had our first day of classes on Friday. My two tasks for this week were:

• Develop Google site for Y9 and Y10 French with embedded links to Quizlet and other gamified language activities.
• Send out survey to students from last year’s Y10 French classes

I have continued to work on my new website for French and have managed to set up pages for the first six weeks of our courses at Year 9 and 10. These pages all included embedded gamified activities. (See the image below)

I have begun to realise the enormity of this task and it will have to be ongoing throughout the year.

I presented my new look site at our department meeting and was encouraged by my colleagues’ responses. The feedback was so positive that it resulted in me giving a 30 minute session on building a google site at a subsequent department meeting. This is positive as it already shows that my colleagues are keen to follow my lead and are interested in my inquiry. I am trying to use servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1977) to bring about change within the department. If I can empower my colleagues (McMinn, 2009) then I need to help them develop their skills. However, I have a new position as Year 9 Dean, which also takes up a huge amount of time and trying to juggle all aspects of the job, my own inquiry and classes is a delicate balancing act. Effective use of time will be the key to success of not only my inquiry, but also to bringing about the change that I am looking for in my department. I will continue to focus time on supporting my colleagues, as I see this as a key part servant leadership. This is also evident in the five dimensions on student outcomes that Robinson, Hohepa and Lloyd (2009) examine.

Robinson, Hoehepa, Lloyd (2009): Impact of five leadersip dimension on student outcome

The second part of my plan this week was to send out a google survey to my students from last year. Initially, I asked them to indicate whether they were carrying on with French or whether they had dropped the language. Their response leads to other questions. (see below).  I have sent this out via an email and have already had some responses. I will send out a follow up email at the end of week 2. A quick look at some of the responses indicate that gamified activities were popular. This does not surprise me, as I had reflected on my observations from last year in my initial research into gamification. I therefore think it will provide some useful baseline data for my inquiry.

Year 10 Survey Questions:

References:

Greenleaf, R.K. (1977), Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, Paulist Press, New York, NY.

McMinn, T.F. (2001), “The conceptualization and perception of biblical servant leadership in the southern Baptist convention”, Digital Dissertations, 3007038.

Robinson, V., Hohepa, M. & Lloyd, C. (2009). School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying What Works and Why Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (Executive Summary.) Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/60182/Chapter-1-Executive-Summary-redacted-2015.pdf