On New Year's Resolutions

Like most people I have my share of abandoned resolutions as well as a few successes here and there.   I guess the lesson is to be persistent and you will eventually taste success.  Anyway, many self improvement schemes have come and gone in the form of resolutions and when I turned 40 I thought that I had reached a stage where I was comfortable enough in my own skin to forego the usual resolutions such as going to bed early, exercising more, eating right etc, etc, etc.  

But as I have reflected on the things that bring me fulfillment I have come to the conclusion that I should make a new resolution.  The new resolution is to throw my lot into cyberspace and claim my own little piece of it in the form of a blog.  Whenever I toyed with the idea in the past I always managed to talk myself out of the idea for various reasons; no one will read it, What will I blog about, do I have anything to say?  etc.  I never made the move to put pen to paper until now.  Actually, fingers to keyboard might be a better analogy.  

So, there it is.  My new year’s resolution for 2013 is to blog.  As I think about it various large topics come to mind, for example, professional topics, hobbies, parenting, opinion pieces, travelogues, and whatever else will come to mind as I wander around.  

Once I have pieced together the beginnings of the blog I will consider whether or not to put it out there.  I have read a lot about how teachers should be bloggers and I agree with the idea and the concept.  My only regret might be not undertaking the task sooner.  

I think that the best reason to blog is to be able to see my progression and development as a human being.  At this point in time I cannot go back 10 years and see what I was thinking about because I have only vague recollections.  Now, I have an incentive and a tool.  So, hopefully on January 2023 I will return to this posting and reflect on my growth and development.  :-)

TEST

Essential Questions

Feb 7

1.  How does the material in this source apply to the District level IT Leader?

2.  How does the material in this source apply to the School based IT Leader?

3. How could the ideas and material in this source be applied in an IT Leadership context?

4.  How do the ideas and material in this source relate to the three pillars of the M.ED Program. Education, Leadership, Technology?

5.  How could the material in this source be used to enhance, encourage or otherwise influence teachers in the adoption of technology?

6.  How does the material in this source ultimately benefit students, schools and the greater educational system?

7.  How could the ideas and materials in this source be used in the day to day operations of a school?

8.  How could the ideas and materials in this source be used in the formulation of a school goal?

As I have read and summarized the sources I selected from this project I began to develop a set of essential questions that relate to my situation and my professional context.  It has become my intention to focus on these questions during the annotation process.  To me these questions form the basis for this project.  They are essential because they cause reflection.  It is not enough to simply consume and regurgitate the material.  I must somehow consume, digest and then create new knowledge for myself and others.  Otherwise, what is the point?

Future Possibilities

Feb 6

Last week I had the opportunity to interview for the Vice Principal Pool.  If I am successful and I am accepted into the Pool I may have the opportunity to become a vice principal.  With this kind of promotion comes a lot of responsibility but also a lot of opportunity to learn more about leadership and education. 

After I left the interview I started to think about the possibilities for the future.  One of the possibilities that I began to consider was that of a District Level IT Position, perhaps as a consultant or something like that.  Anyway, as I thought about this I began to conceive a project in my mind involving the application of the CBAM. 

It would be interesting to apply the model within our District or even just one school to see where teachers and administrators are when it comes to technology integration.  As I thought about it, I began to formulate questions, such as where would I begin? Who would I call on for help or resources?  How much would it cost?  Would it be worth the effort?

Another interesting area of study would be the change facilitator styles of principals.  This is an important piece of the puzzle because leadership is important in affecting change.  Knowing whether a principal is an initiator, responder or manager type would be invaluable in planning change at the school level. 

As these thoughts swirl around my head in a way I feel overwhelmed by the possibilities.  On the other hand my day to day routine continues to chug along.  Finding time to think about these things and balancing between professional life and personal life becomes the real challenge.

What I know so far about the CBAM

Feb 1

What I know so far about the CBAM

As I have been reading and learning about the CBAM, I thought now would be a great time to list, in plain language, all the things that I have learned and come to know so far about the Concerns Based Adoption Model.  I am doing this in point form in order to make it easier to read and understand.  At this point I have found the sheer volume of information regarding the CBAM to be staggering.  Indeed, a person could do a complete Post graduate degree on the topic of the CBAM. 

Concerns Based Adoption Model

• A conceptual framework to define and articulate teacher’s feelings surrounding a certain educational innovation. 
• Based on the fact that change is a process not an event.
• First conceived in the late 1960s based on the work of Frances Fuller.  Refined and developed by Hall, Loucks, Hord et al.
• Can be applied to any educational innovation. 
• Particularly relevant to the field of educational technology.
• Based on “diagnostic dimensions”
• Diagnostic dimensions are Stages of Concern (SoC), Levels of Use (LoU) and Innovation configuration (IC)
• Has been applied and tested empirically.
• Not much research on it since the late 80s.
• Other researchers have used the CBAM and modified it to suit their needs.  IE Newhouse.

Stages of Concern

• Starts at stage 0 awareness and moves up to stage 7 Refocusing.
• Deals with the affective part of change.
• Concerns that a teacher feels will affect how the innovation is implemented.
• Important for CF to recognize feelings of concern.
• Assessed using a straightforward question.
• Teachers respond to the question in complete sentences.
• A trained analyst analyzes the answers. 

Levels of Use

http://www.rmcdenver.com/useguide/cbam.htm

• Refers to what extent a teacher is making use of an innovation.
• Refers to observable behaviours rather than feelings surrounding an innovation. 
• Made up of 7 levels.
• Can be applied to any educational innovation.

Innovation Configuration

• Refers to ideal use of an innovation by an adopter.
• Ideal use as envisioned by the developer.

Change Facilitator Style

• Refers to styles of leadership.
• The leader greatly impacts the adoption level and stages of concern of the users.
• Three styles are identified. Manager, Initiator, Responder.

Change Facilitator Styles

I have recently had a chance to participate in a District level initiative called Leadership Academy.  The Leadership Academy is a set of professional development modules based on a variety of important themes for administrators.  For example, there is a module of resolving conflict, a module for building positive relationships etc.  Altogether there are 10 modules.  There is planning in place to extend these modules. 

The module I had a chance to work on is called Module 5 and it has to do with technology and how teachers implement and use technology and how administrators can move teachers across the implementation bridge quickly and smoothly.  I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a member of the design team.  Being on the design team involves attending planning meetings, debating the merits of the ideas discussed at the meetings, formulating the module and then facilitating the PD session for District administrators.  Then coming back together as a team to edit and revise the modules based on the feedback we received from participants.

I had the opportunity to help facilitate a session on December 9 with all the assistant principals in Calgary Catholic.  In order to do this I developed a website with the materials from the module embedded within it.  All in all, it was a good experience to do this.  Although we did encounter some technology glitches, (connectivity issues) we were more or less able to proceed as planned.  It did give us food for thought however on the direction of future modules and how they would involve or make use of digital technology. 

Anyway, my point to all of this is that the material I am currently reading on Hall’s Change Facilitator Styles really speaks to the development of professional development activities for administrators.  One of the criticisms of the Leadership Academy that has come to light from my reading is that although we have thought about differentiation we have not considered it from the perspective of various leadership styles.  This becomes significant because in a roomful or administrators there is bound to be a variety of overlapping leadership styles.  An activity might respond well to the needs of an initiator type of administrator however it might not meet the needs of a responder type administrator. 

All in all, my experience on the design team has been very beneficial for my future development as an administrator and professional development leader.   Gaining a perspective on change facilitator styles will be invaluable as I sit on future committees charged with planning PD interventions.

PD Plan in my Capstone

As I was walking along this evening I started to think about the Capstone and the direction I was going in.  I know that I want to create a professional development plan that is built upon and supported by the concepts I have learned on the CBAM in the past year.  I have been mulling over the PD Plan part of the capstone for that last little while and as I walked and reflected a kernel of an idea began to take shape.  I got to thinking this way because I was comparing and contrasting my work in the last semester to the work I am completing as part of my capstone.  I began to wonder if links between the work I did in my internship and the work that I am completing now could be made. 

That is when I got the idea to create a pd plan that applies the theories and diagnostic dimensions of the CBAM.  In order to articulate what I am talking about it would be fair to mention a word or two about the ELA in FI project I participated in as part of my internship.  I was the co-leader of a group of teachers charged with creating a resource for ELA teachers in French Immersion schools.  Teachers worked in teams to develop resources.  My role consisted of creating and developing the D2L site.

In my PD plan I would propose to apply the CBAM to the cohort of teachers to determine their levels of use and their stages of concern as well as their innovation configurations as they pertained to the innovation.  In this case the innovation would be the entire resource along with the website and any materials stored on the website.  Once acquired the data would serve to help plan interventions as well as provide feedback to the innovation developers.  (In this case me)

Although, I would not necessarily execute the PD plan as I would need special permission to do so I feel it would be worth the effort to conceive and simulate the process.  It will be interesting to come back to this in a year’s time after the second cycle of the ELA in FI for grades 3 and 4.