Training the teacher

I've always thought that a good way to influence change and transformation in education would be by taking on a student teacher. I know from my experience that an Associate teacher shapes who you become as a teacher. A supportive learning environment where you can take risks, make mistakes and reflect openly is ideal.

I knew that I wanted to provide this environment to the student teacher I took on this year. To prepare for this, I reflected on my student teacher experience and initial thoughts with my mentor. This was helpful to pinpoint the purpose of the placement for both parties. I saw this opportunity as a learning experience for me too and a chance to reflect on my own teaching practice.

From our first meeting, I made it clear that my philosophy of teaching was based on relationships and that it was okay to spend time getting to know the students. I didn't want my student teacher to feel the need to teach right away. She spent the first week just being part of our class, talking to students and finding out about them. Relationship building proved to be the most important thing she did all placement. It was the foundation on which she built her teaching.

My student teacher drove the placement. It was her placement so she needed to do what she needed to develop. Interestingly enough we ended up in a team-teaching situation for quite a lot of the time. Students saw us working together and respected us both in our teaching capacity. They saw us as learners too.

So my reflection on this experience has led to me seeing the potential for teachers in training and beginning teachers being in team-teaching partnerships. For what better way to learn? It's collaborative, reflective and benefits students. For me as a more experienced teacher, it taught me to let things go, how to ask reflective questions and how to address non-negotiables. We want our students to work collaboratively together; we encourage tuakana-teina so it makes sense to model this as teachers. Plus it was fun! Lot's of laughs were had, successes shared. And I'd do it all again.

Taking risks in maths teaching - QLC

Newer than 1960 math of course...

For today's quality learning conversation (QLC) we were asked to focus on mathematics as this has been our professional development focus. Having a shared topic immediately had us all engaged and asking questions to help further our thinking. Interestingly all of our wonderings/concerns/fears were the same! So let me unpack them a bit further in my context.

1) When trying something new there is always uncertainty about whether you are doing the "right" thing. There is also the added pressure of external reporting. What exactly does assessment look like when you totally flip the way you are teaching? What does that look like when planning? Are we using the right assessments?

2) What does the structure of the lesson look like now? What does the week look like? How on earth do you fit everything in?

3) How do I ensure I am meeting the needs of all my learners? How do I know that the quiet ones (less vocal) are learning? How do I spread myself to be in more than one place at once?

So these are the questions I am asking at the moment and it seems that everyone else is asking these too. From our conversation I have decided to focus on a couple of things:

• If we value this new way of teaching maths how do we show that we value it in our reports? I need to be gathering some anecdotal notes about the way that students are collaborating, participating, discussing and risk-taking.
• I need to focus on the above things as positive outcomes and trust that this will be reflected in summative assessment later in the year. I have already seen huge changes in the way that students are approaching maths tasks and I really value the culture of being able to take risks, challenge and value each others thinking and learning.
• Talking chips (thanks Kelly!) could be a way to increase participation of those who are being quieter and/or make those with a lot to say to hold back a little to allow the quieter ones to have a chance.
• Perhaps the planning cycle looks different for all levels/contexts. I am thinking that once my Stage 7/8 learners have truly explored fractions, decimals and ratios then the rest of the year will be full of rich open tasks that weave in their learning with the strands. I look forward to the possibilities!

I have absolutely LOVED the mathematics PD that we have had so far and totally believe in it's value. Like any new thing it will take time to implement and feel comfortable with but it is incredibly awesome to have the freedom and flexibility to take those risks and try things out.

Resilience

I always say that I want my students to be resilient.

I think (in my head) that resilience is something you just get from moments of failure, of trying again. For feeling the fear and doing it anyway. Those things that make you stronger mentally to cope with the next challenge.

What I hadn't thought about was what do our students need that resilience for now in terms of their mental health.

This article looks at the mental health of New Zealand teenagers and the increased amount of teens taking medication for depression and anxiety.  The article was timely as I had just had a discussion with a dear friend of mine about her own teenage son and his battle (well more her battle) with what is clinical depression and what is just normal teenage emotional development.  I was horrified to hear that half of his friends are on anti-depressants. It made me wonder about quick fixes, trends and what on earth is happening????

The article suggests that the current generation of teenagers may not have the resilience to cope with increasing pressures or "triggers" of today's society.  I want to stop at the point and come back to my role as a teacher. Is the resilience I am trying to build in my classroom enough? Are the students who are in primary now better prepared for what's to come? Were our current teens "cotton-wooled" as the article suggests? Can I do more?

Then I read this awesome article on the Minecraft Generation from the New York Times. Here are these students who create their own problems for each other. One student quotes within his creative landscape: "The journey matters more than what you get in the end". And here we are back to one of my favourite things in education: Play.  The unpredictable nature of play, the social nature of play and the unmistakable way in which play can be a rehearsal for life. So how does this fit in with the resilience/mental health train of thought? Well in minecraft kids are constantly hacking the system and making it work for them, they negotiate and create their own communities, rules and manage resources. They are effectively solving the world's problems while playing a game (Seth Frey).

So our students are capable, and they have shown themselves to be capable and resilient problem solvers in these online gaming environments. So how can we use this to encourage our students to use their skills in the real world?  And if I/we are successful in building up resilience in the classroom environment how much of this will spill out into their "real world"?

Interestingly Francis Valentine from The Mindlab recently quoted in this article that what we are doing in education now will take another 6 years to see the impact. This will happen when our problem solving, critical thinkers begin university and start questioning (those practices?). So what I am interested in keeping in the loop with is the resilience of young people. Are we making a difference? And perhaps I too will have to wait 6 years to see those results... (hence my documentation of my thinking at this time).

QLC: Death by Digital Documents

Something I am grappling with at the moment is how to balance the use of technology in my classroom. I have come from a 1:5 ipad environment to a 1:1 chromebook environment. The students are comfortable using the tool but I haven't quite found those systems that fit my teaching and my routines. For example, giving feedback on writing in books that get handed in... something I thought I wouldn't miss, well it is much easier to read and comment and be organic with writing in the paper form.

So discussing this issue with my colleagues allowed me to see some possible next steps and to give myself permission to provide that balance that will meet the needs of both myself and my students.

• Not all work needs to be done digitally (permission granted!)
• Get them to print stuff out - blend digital with pen
• Have a look at what other teachers are using to manage so many online documents
• Use the Hapara workspace 
• Try out some tools like kaizena for voice notes.

There is no quick fix or perfect solution but I am interested in how other teachers manage the constant online viewing and storing of google docs?

NB: this is part of my ICT goal for this year around "What exactly does blended e-learning look like in my classroom?"

Play - Word for the Year

Source: Flickr

Play.

Play is my word for this year.

You can:

Play with words
Play with ideas
Play with numbers
Play with friends
Play with science
Play with music
Play with drama
Play with colour...

The list goes on.


I chose the word play because it was a word I could also share with my students.  I wanted it to become their word too.

The word play has injected life into ideas. It has created a classroom culture where through the idea of play, children can become the experts. An environment that values play also values risk taking, challenges, creativity, fun and laughter.

We all know how to play right?

And for me as an educator it allows me to play with my students. To see learning through their eyes. To have fun and encourage creativity.

Tests have become Spongebobs and P.A.T's have become Patricks. It's okay to fail! Actually it's awesome if you you #failfaster (a key element of successful game design and one that promotes risk taking). You can learn through playing games, you can even learn from designing games to play. Take peoples offers and add to them. Take part in drama games and release your inhibitions.

Play in our Year 6 classroom is compulsory. Is it in yours?

QLC: Managing Learning Assistants

Source: Pargon

My reflective question for today's Quality Learning Circle (QLC) was around managing learning assistants in the classroom. The purpose of the QLC group is to be asked questions to further reflection and perhaps solve the problem or come up with possible solutions/outcomes.

My current class has one ORS student and 2 students with identified learning needs. I currently have 2 different learning assistants 3 times a day.  I have found the last two weeks rather awkward having to juggle getting to know my class with planning for the LA.

My overall goal is to create an inclusive classroom that meets the needs of ALL the students, not just those with identified learning needs. I hope to use principles from Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to help me accomplish this.


Reflective actions:

• That I need to meet with my LA's to give them information about what underpins the culture and learning in my classroom. I hope that by doing so they will realise that my decisions and actions are not arbitrary. I need them to understand that I am constantly observing and collecting information on those students that helps determine their goals for learning. I do not rely on previous documentation to inform my actions and that my focus right now is building relationships with my students. 

• One of the particular ideas that I want to communicate is that student voice is very important and that I put a lot of thought into how to balance the power dynamic between myself and my students.

• To be effective, long term, my LA's would know what there role was and would come in a get on with the job.

• That a particular goal would be to decrease the amount of support the specified students received therefore adopting a model in which the LA's time was used to assist all students.

• I may ask all of my students to reflect on what they think the LA's role should be in the classroom therefore identifying what the students see as being useful.

• As we move towards more collaborative teaching, the LA's are going to need more specific training about how to work in that environment and understand the thinking that underpins the teaching and learning.

Starting over

I feel like I am back at the start again...

That's right. 2016 means a new school, a new year level and new opportunities for me. It also means feeling completely discombobulated in the weeks leading up to commencement.  Funnily enough I read Philippa's blog post with advice for beginning teachers last week thinking "man I'm glad I'm not a beginning teacher" and then today it hit me. I am a beginning teacher.  I am starting out again.

So I am going to write some advice to myself.

• It is okay to not know everything yet. 

And that may be the only advice I need to give myself. I am going to take Phillipa's advice and write my questions down in a notebook and then ask them.  I will suss everything out before bowling on in. I will be warm and amicable and listen with intent.

I realise I am not the only person in this position this year. There are actually quite a high number of us that have left the comfort (discomfort?) of our familiar schools to launch ourselves at new opportunities.  

If you are reading this and you are not one of those people but know someone else that is "starting afresh" give them some support in the next few weeks. We can talk curriculum and students but we don't know where to get the laminator sheets yet. We won't know whose cup is whose in the staffroom and we may not know everyone's name. Be kind.

To my fellow newbies, all the best with starting over. You are still the incredible teacher I knew last year. You will find your focus soon. Kia kaha!