Reflecting on one year of my dream leadership role......

Another milestone crossed..

This blog of mine has been voicing my views and spreading wings now to countries around the world. That which started as a innate articulation of a loner in a corner of a room at CI has now shaped its journey by picking up lot of accolades on it's way. What else a better gift could I gift to myself than to write a blog post to celebrate my journey of completion of a year in the present leadership role, my pathway which has really transformed me completely.

What does it take to transform to a new you?

 The will of course. The will to have an impact , to contribute. The will to bring changes, sustain them to help mankind.

 So what I have lost in this journey? A part of me, never to return back. A part of me which could speak anything under the sun and talk to anyone with the same intimacy. I guess titles come with their own tantrums. 

What I still carry with me....?

My values , my honesty and faith in good deeds. You can of course be a leader without being a negative character , the world might however treat you as one...deal with the irony.

What I need to still learn and move ahead?

Being a simple, logical, physics person who thinks too much and tries to justify situations by evidences , sometimes it becomes difficult to play the mind game. Strategic planning, yielding results under tough challenges , benchmark outputs as a team have been my takeaways. But what I yet need to integrate is a better understanding of the human mind and how the word perception revolves with the same. Solving the various entangles around seem more challenging than yielding high outputs. However time will teach me to master that probably. 

My aha moments....

Never knew that having the power and helping someone in need could be so interconnected , though it may not work in your favour. Always felt,what could I do for this world in my capacity.?But have been very happy to help all those who came in this journey of mine. Very soon life would move on and take some new course...all the more to reflect on a new milestone achieved. Thanks for being a part of this for so long.

Keep believing in yourself and be good....keep dreaming to achieve more....
Believe in others coz somebody somewhere believed in me.....

 

Which Learner profiles do you associate yourself to?

Has your teaching been impacted by the learner profiles that you have associated yourself with?

My DP Coordinators online workshop , Category 3 has started. Though just finished a hectic three programme evaluation visit last week, yet all excited to get on board and learn something new for a better understanding.

pic courtesy: Module of IB workshop resources

As a part of my first activity I have to blog which tow LPs I associate myself with and how I think they might influence my teaching.

Well I could right away chose open- minded and reflective. Very close to my heart. Both are related. The more you reflect, better are your chances to become more open-minded. These two attributes have made me break free of a rigid mindset and helped me accomodate other people's views and respect the same. having a difference of opinions is needed for the growth of a healthy ecosystem , but agreeing to disagree with dignity.

I have been always a physics teacher (since teaching DP) embracing technology to enhance the learning process. However this year's year 1 had one of them asking me "When are you going to teach Normal Physics?" I realized how difficult is must have been for the student to shift from his way of learning from textbooks and teachers to a system of self learning. So we had no ipads for the next few days and I made the batch comfortable so that their transition from textbook oriented learning to ipad based self learning could me a smooth one. And bingo,,,the same student is using popplet to design his formative assessment task infusing TOK elements in it. Hence I do think that being open-minded helps me respect views of students in the classroom and being reflective helps me tune into my teaching strategies as per the need of the students.

An LP that I myself did not get associated was being an Inquirer as being a student in India, my education system never demanded me to be one. Hence devising inquiry based teaching model took quite a bit of time to be accepted. However the pedagogy following of late using a 5E model of inquiry has sparkling results in the classroom. Surely looking forward to infuse more ATL in the classroom.

Reflecting on the Three programme evaluation visit by the Asia Pacific team

What does Evaluation mean for a DPC and the school?

pic courtesy : Standards Workshop Delhi , Sept 2014

My journey through this IB world takes turn all the time and at every juncture makes me realize how immense the learning and the transformation process is. Last week was the culminating visit of the three programme Evaluation team members. The heartbeat and adrenaline rush had already been high as the whole school had been busy in documenting evidences.

As I documented evidences for the DP , every statement of those standards and practices seemed to come alive. The whole process in itself was an eye opener. It made me realize of the high benchmark of implementation that IB has set.

pic courtesy : Standards Workshop Delhi , Sept 2014

A few days back also attended the Four in 1 standards workshop at Delhi which had already made me realize how all the standards were so very well connected.Everything was interconnected. My career in IB five years down the line had now made me realize the importance of all the documents that IB had made and all the new publications that came up.




The major highlights of my learning were:

• Success of any IB programme is based on regular scheduled collaboration with the staff alligned with the set standards and practices
• How important it is to interpret each one of IB 's documents in our school's own context and agree as a team on a sustained model of implementation. 
• Handling the curriculum development across all the three programmes, also made me realize how important it is for a DP educator to have a knowledge of the PYP and MYP. Made my understanding of the DP so very clear.
• Also having a clear cut system of documenting evidences is a must as it is a five year evaluation

What is IB education and Towards an IB continuum were the two documents that summed up everything. The Evaluation team liked many of the set practices in the school and looked for a stronger and sustained implementation of the planned model. Staff after their one on one meet felt the high levels of expectation in their work.

Amongst the set practices appreciated were the following:

• formative and summative assignments alligned with the grade descriptors throgh rubrics
• strong senior school assembly and global awareness sessions
• TOK integration in the curriculum
• support from the recent Year 1 parents and the transparency that the school had with them

Also what came out as a big understanding was why IB has placed ATTL in the heart and what it meant to the IB DP. Have alligned ATTL into our practices. All of us as a team just need to reflect at each step, imbibe the learner profile attributes in us and go ahead to have a positive impact on the community.

Please comment on what evaluation at your school meant to you?

Reflecting on new responsibilities

Blogging almost after 5 months. Life seems to go so fast that It feels I am no longer in control of it. As if I am on a conveyer belt. My journey shifted me from Oaktree back to CI. It's very difficult now at this juncture to compare between IB schools. Everywhere you work , you are so much connected thatyou can   always feel the gain and loss at the same time. Every school really does have its own set of values and culture and you definitely become a part of it.

This time I returned to a known place , known world and known people. Choithram International , a school which had shaped my career in the past and now is going to do it in a much bigger sense. Being the DPC and Deputy Head of a complete IB school calls for lot of responsibility and intelligent smart work.Sitting in the hot seat what I realised is that I need to keep myself grounded. All that I had learnt from my mentors was now to be implemented. 

So in such responsible positions what as IB educator should we keep in mind ? What attributes are we looking forward to?