One of the exciting parts of my school's literacy programme is the inclusion of book clubs. Not just as extension for our high flyers but for everyone. I'll admit that it's part of our programme that I'm not brilliant at implementing but I have big plans this term to improve that.
One of my existing book club groups has not loved their experience so far; I know that this is, in large part, my fault. I haven't given them as much guidance and input as I should have done. With this in mind I've created a couple of info graphic style posters and hand outs.
This first one is in response to some confusion about how a book club is meant to run. If you click on the image you'll be able to download a copy. (I think? Please let me know if you can't!)
This second one is a quick little 'cheat sheet' to prompt the sorts of discussions that can happen in book club. Again, feel free to download it if you like.
What do you think? I'm keen for feedback.
Edit (August 17th 2015): You can read my follow up post here.
This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers... Standard 2 Know the content and how to teach it Standard 3 Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning Standard 4 Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
One of the ways I like to learn about what's going on in other teachers' heads/rooms/offices is through attending teachmeets.
Teachmeets have been around since 2006 and are a casual meeting of educators who want to learn from each other. Originally starting in an Edinburgh pub (unsurprisingly) the gist was for people to share some idea, good practice, innovation or techno-tip in either 2 or 7 minutes. The idea spread and these days teachmeets are held all over the world in pubs, staff rooms, breakout rooms at conferences, and wherever teachers gather. For more information you can try here, here, and here.
This week saw me present at a teachmeet for the second time ever. The first time I spoke about answergarden and padlet as collaborative classroom tools. The range of other topics was inspiring. You can check it out Selena Woodward's storify from the live tweeting here:
This particular teachmeet had a theme (some so, some don't): wellbeing. It's a hot topic at the moment isn't it? I chose to speak about a particular strategy I use with my students to develop mindfulness. It is, at a very basic level, a guided mediation. We 'go to the beach' and focus on all of our senses. It has been a powerful tool for many of my kiddos both at school and home. So, it was an ideal concept to share. [AND I had my first play with haiku deck (following @tina_p's inspiration at the last teachmeet). You can check out my super basic presentation here. (It doesn't actually say anything so don't expect anything too exciting!)]
Anyway, here's the storify for this teachmeet.
If you ever have the chance to attend - or even better: share at - a teachmeet, GO FOR IT! I promise it's worth it.
And: if you're in Adelaide why not follow @tmadelaide on Twitter or join the Facebook Teach Meet Adelaide Facebook group to hear all the details about the next event?
One of our most basic human needs is belonging. It's not the most basic - that would be wi-fi these days - but it's right up there. Belonging to someone or something bigger than ourselves is a constant driver for (most) people. It's why we check Facebook umpteen times a day, it's why we join book clubs and it's why we buy cats! Cats aside, or maybe not, it's really about a need for community.
This year I've found myself part of a new online community. I know that there are hordes of people out there (assuredly not reading this blog) who claim that social networks and online communities are Bad. Yes, capital B Bad. You know what I think? I think they were wrong about video killing the radio star and they're wrong about this too.
I even did a little research on the topic and found that I'm not alone. In fact:
"Despite the opinion of some, real community and sense of belonging can be found and nurtured online through participation, collaboration, storytelling and exchange of information."
This year, I've found myself part of a new and exciting online community of educators called Reflect Growth. We are are an online community of educators working together to share professional practices and co-create a piece of software. I'll get to the software in a moment, because it's a bit exciting, but for me the delight has been in finding a community of (mostly local) teachers who share my goal of active professional growth and reflection. Meeting these educators, in person and online, has been refreshing and inspiring. It's met some of my need for belonging to a community.
And a community it is. We share, amongst other things like coffee and cake, inspirations, frustrations and goals. We challenge each other's thinking and explore ideas. We've been taking apart the AITSL Professional Standards for Teachers to work out what they really mean, and have hypothesised whether the introduction of them is the precursor of Ofsted style inspections like in the UK. We've talked about the TfEL framework and how it links with our understanding of effective teaching and learning. Pedagogy, padagogy, Blooms, Gardner... You name it, and we've been there. Even if only briefly.
It's been a very busy little community. Much more so than any I've been in before, which begs the question of why? I have an inkling. A couple actually.
Strong and active foundational members
A driving purpose
The couple who launched the Reflect Growth community are originally from the UK, but moved to Australia - presumably for the weather - a few years back. Since arriving, Selena has taken the education world of South Australia by storm and is well known as a mover and shaker. When she speaks, people listen. Her voice demands to be heard (which is actually doubly true when you consider her operatic training) and she put the call out for teachers to get involved with driving their own professional development. The other half of this (actually very quietly spoken) duo is Matt. Full of ideas and technological know how he is a man with a mission. Together these two are a force to be reckoned with! They hold us together as a community and, it seems, genuinely care.
I'll come back to the software I mentioned earlier. Still in the early stages of development the app is being designed to support teachers in driving their own professional development. It will help identify areas for growth and collect evidence to support it. Today, I've been privileged to spend some time playing with the prototype. I can't speak highly enough of it!
Next up for the community looks to be teacher challenges that will see us share our practice in an open setting. A version of a virtual classroom visit, sort of, with the opportunity for/expectation of feedback from other community members. Eeek! New ideas and feedback! Can you see why I enjoy this community so much?
Yesterday I spent the first official day of the school holidays at a TfEL professional development day about Effective Learning for All. It was the first of three such sessions available and whilst I had already been to the first session a couple of years ago I am very pleased to have had this second opportunity: I've changed a lot since then, and so has the TfEL team.
Last time I left more confused about TfEL than when I arrived. I use TfEL in my planning now so it's somewhat less of a mystery to me BUT I left this session feeling at peace with my understanding. I learnt some new ideas but nothing that contradicted or confused me. Phew!
We spent most of the morning 'unpacking' the TfEL framework into the four domains, then elements and finally essences. The presenting team modelled the use of a range of strategies found in the TfEL Companion and on the website. It was great to see the team practise what they preach. (Not that they preach! Honestly! They're more like a cheer squad, but you know what I mean!) And it was inspiring to hear stories of how different schools have really taken on board various elements of the framework.
Of course, I might be a little biased in saying that. You might remember that last year I wrote about my school being involved in a TfEL pilot project about student voice? (You can read that post here.) The project also built our school's use of growth mindset language and the learning pit. One of my students and I were invited to give a short presentation about how all of these things have changed our experiences of school. We were encouraged to speak personally so we stood with two microphones and had a conversation about how it all works in our classroom. (I was impressed, but not surprised, by the composure of my student. She's a bit of a rockstar in terms of her mindset - always willing to give things a go if it means learning something new.)
The big take home message for me? I'm not sure there was one. I have a long list of resources I want to explore and a few ideas around the difference between personalised and individual learning that I need to develop. One of the discussions we had early in the day was about defining effective learning for all, and this topic came up. I'm wrestling with it because whilst there was a bit of consensus that they are analogous: I don't agree. You might be able to see our group's definition in the photo. (If not, it says "meaningful and personalised engagement with ideas and knowledge that leads to applied understanding".) I'm not in love with this definition either but it represented our group's understanding meaningfully at the time.
Don't you love our group's visual representation of the morning's learning? I'm going to brag and share that it was chosen by the presenting team to share at the end of the day to wrap up all of our learning. Nice to know that we were hearing the message they were trying to give us.
I live tweeted on the day using #tfeltalk, of course. I was almost alone in doing so which saddened me because I have discovered that my best learning happens in the back channel of such sessions. You can check out my (first ever) storify of the day below.
Shhh.... Can you hear that? That's the sound of teachers all over South Australia taking a well earned break. Whether your break is at Cirque du Soleil (like me after school on the last day of term), at a friend's house (like me later that night), at a winery (like me on the weekend), at a professional development conference with one of your students (like me yesterday) or in a coffee shop (like me this morning), or renovating your house (like me ALL the time) I hope you enjoy your break! (Sheesh, after that recap I'm starting to realise why I'm still so tired!)
The end of term is hard for everyone. For some young people the idea of leaving their safe space for a couple of weeks is daunting. For others the lack of social contact over the break is difficult. I even have a couple of kiddos who miss learning. Woah! Right?!?! (They are the ones who will read this blog post: you know who you are!) For me, as a teacher, one of the hardest parts is knowing that it will be two whole weeks before I can act on what I've learnt from the students' end of term feedback about me.
Yeah yeah, first world teacher problem. Got it.
So this term I'm going to share some of my reflections about their feedback right here.
Let me start by sharing our process. Each student uses four mini slips of coloured paper and we talk about the kinds of feedback that will be helpful. (I learnt that the hard way after being told that I should stop wearing jeans which is particularly funny seeing as I've worn jeans to school on approximately 3 occasions EVER.)
It's become a bit of a tradition for me to read the slips on the way home. I usually read them aloud to my husband and we start to identify trends. It's a good way to close off the term and start my own reflections.
There aren't usually many surprises because I seek a LOT of ongoing feedback from my kiddos. I decided to make word clouds from the feedback this term to see if anything really stood out.
Nice to see teaching there! I'm not surprised WBW is there (because most of the class really enjoy the organic nature of the activity), and am excited that mentor sentences have popped up. That's something new for me this year. I'm also really pleased to see so many variations of "pushing me to be the best I can be" and "focusing on what individuals need".
Fitness is a bit of a no brainer - I have a few vocal boys who ask for this several times a day EVERY day. Spelling? We've been talking about various groups needing more explicit spelling lessons so I'm pleased to see this. I'm sad that I'm not stretching and helping people enough so that's something I can definitely improve on next term.
There's a fair bit of interest in changing up our lessons too. I'll take that under advisement and we will get up, out and about more next term.
This term I've been through some personal challenges and have noticed a change in my own behaviour at school. The kiddos have clearly noticed too. I need to stop yelling. I. NEED. TO. STOP. YELLING. It doesn't work anyway. I know that. Time for a change.
Reading and maths aren't something I'm willing (or able) to drop but attending to the attention seeking behaviour and tolerating obnoxious noises are both very fair pieces of feedback. I am aware of this and have already been making huge efforts to change. I'll keep plugging away and seek some feedback from my mentors.
Reading us the curriculum is a strategy I've been using this year when working with the class to develop our own rubrics. Only one student mentioned it and I recognised their writing so I'll address this personally.
We had a LOT of ongoing projects at the end of the term. It was confusing and overwhelming - even for me. I think I'll set up a GANNT chart next term so that we can programme our learning better.
Bless their cotton socks for saying nothing. Clearly the prospect of a pizza lunch was getting to them. :) Another few things here that I'm not in a position to stop and some that I need to address. Shouting rears its head here too. Interesting that it's shouting here but yelling in the previous one. (I wonder if the 3 individuals who said shouting were sitting together?)
I find it interesting that I've been told I'm both strict (something I do well) and give too many chances (something I should stop). I suppose both are true. I am very clear and consistent in my expectations but/and there are some students who legitimately need more support to make the best choice. Only 1 student commented that I give too many chances, but I will address this with the whole class early in the term.
So many important things to think about and learn from!
The kiddos also do a self reflection using the same headings on a single A5 sheet. Fascinating reading, and lots of help in planning for the next term.
Do you have a particular feedback/reflection tool that you use at the end of term?
This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers... Standard 1 Know students and how they learn Standard 2 Know the content and how to teach it Standard 3 Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning Standard 4 Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
One of my young people has been struggling at school lately. Not with the academic content so much as the 'other stuff'. We've seen a constant stream of low level back chat, a never ending commentary on everyone's actions and a fairly persistent resistance to participation. Over the last couple of days we've had several chats about what I can/need to do to help and the consistent answer has been along the lines of:
"You don't want to help me! Whenever I ask for help you don't give me the help I want. You only ever help other people. You aren't helpful."
Wow. Ever been punched in the guts? That's pretty much how I've been feeling. I love this kid, in spite of their accompanying challenges. In fact it's possibly because of the their accompanying challenges that they have such a soft spot in my heart. These words stopped me in my tracks. After much soul-searching and reflection I realised that perhaps the individual relationships I have with my students is part of the problem. Or rather, not the relationships themselves, but the fact that my relationship with each child is so different and results in highly individualised treatment which isn't necessarily understood by everyone else in the class.
I had to do something and quickly.
I called everyone together in a circle and we had a brief discussion about the different relationships we all have with each other. Aside from a few small pockets of resistance to this idea, nearly everyone was accepting of this concept. I asked everyone to imagine that they'd injured themselves somehow. They shared their injury with the class while I dug around in the cupboard (making a big show of not listening). Each student was handed a bandaid (sticking plaster?) and asked to apply it to the back of their left hand to help fix their imaginary injury.
"But my injury is on my rib! How will this help?"
"And mine is a smashed leg! This won't do anything!"
"That's the point guys. If she gives us all the same treatment none of us get what we need."
Indeed. The class went on to articulate that because I didn't know what kind of help or where they needed help I wasn't actually able to help them AND that treating them all the same wasn't remotely helpful. The connection to each of them having different learning needs was seamless, and from there the individualised relationships were not a particularly big leap.
Shortly after, my troubled student sidled up to me and whispered:
"I think I know why I've been acting so silly in class, calling out and all that. Can I talk to you about it after school?"
You betcha! The outcome: some general stress about stuff going on at home and a desire to feel 'equal'. I queried this word.
"Equal is the wrong word. I want to be important, but you said we're all important so I have to trust you that I am. I guess I need to remember that if you treat me different to someone else it's 'cos I am."
Yes it is. Yes. It. Is. If that wasn't the best way to end the week, we went on to talk about the idea that sometimes the help that we want isn't the help we need AND that I've worked really hard to be in a position to know what and how to offer the needed help so trusting me is a good thing. Holy moly.
This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers... Standard 1 Know students and how they learn Standard 4 Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
Our school was offered the sponsored opportunity of sending one class to the centre to be involved and I JUMPED on it. Aside from being a bit of a Jamie tragic myself, I relished the opportunity to expose my students to a range of foods that they may not ordinarily see/taste in their everyday lives. The date for 2015 Food Revolution happened to fall on the Friday of NAPLAN week which was rather fortuitous! (The prospect of the excursion certainly helped keep morale up on the testing days.) An excursion that involves food and is free? Can you ask for a better way to end NAPLAN week?
You can also imagine how popular this excursion was with the parents: LOTS of parent helper volunteers! (Massive thank you to the parent who stepped in at the last minute when sickness put the kibosh on earlier plans.) The other advantage was that the PopUp is a large fishbowl so many parents, aunts, cousins and grandparents were able to come and watch the fun on the day.
Our local Pop Up centre is only a few kilometres (4.7 to be exact) up the road from school so after much uming and ahing and a lengthy risk assessment with school leadership I decided we would walk. (This also kept the excursion as being free, thereby ensuring the highest level of participation possible.) Predicting how unpopular this choice would be I planned a Maths Trail for our walk there so that we could take our time. Stay tuned for a future post about that. In the meantime let me leave you with these words: "this was awesome, why can't maths always be this fun?"
Our session at the Pop Up centre was planned meticulously by the Ministry of Food team. We arrived to find the fresh food and kitchen tools all set up and ready to go.
Doesn't this look amazing?
Our trainers welcomed us warmly and helped everyone to understand the importance of hygiene in any food preparation. Everyone jumped into an official Jamie Oliver apron (just a little idol worship from a few students) and we got stuck into our cooking experience. The trainers guided the VRPs through a video of Jamie cooking a Squash It Sandwich (you can check out the recipe here). You should have seen the kiddos go - what child wouldn't be hooked by smashing their lunch with a rolling pin?
The sandwiches were filled with a wide range of fruit, veggies, herbs, seeds, legumes and cottage cheese. They smelled amazing! The interesting part for me was watching my students' faces as they tried the sandwiches. There was a full range from delight to distaste, with more positive than not. Many of my students were a little puzzled by the lack of meat which lead to some fascinating discussions about the absolute need (or otherwise) for it in our diet. Several students were surprised that they enjoyed cottage cheese. Almost everyone liked the humous. Even allowing for the children who weren't in love with the overall taste, the reception was favourable.
Food Revolution Day received a LOT of media coverage globally. Of the three sessions that our local Pop Up ran on the day, ours was chosen by local media to be the focus. We were filmed by a couple of news programmes and had scores of still photos taken for print/digital media. I was incredibly impressed by the poise of my students as they were filmed and, in some cases, interviewed. The still photo shoot was great fun for all, especially the two focus children. You can see the photojournalist setting up his focus children in this screen shot from Jamie's Ministry of Food Australia's Facebook page.
I think the look on their faces says it all!
So what did we learn from this experience? Quite a lot actually. Not just the obvious message about healthy eating but how we all deal with the unknown. We've been working hard at developing growth mindsets of late, so this was a great test of that. One particular young man told me that he didn't believe that he could live up to our school values and agreements while we were out of the school for the day. I told him that *I* believed he could, then asked him to trust me to have enough belief for the both of us. He did trust me, and he learnt that he could do it. (Pretty proud moment for both of us!) Another student was a bit concerned about his ability to walk that far, but gave it a go and did it easily. Still another was worried that the maths would be too hard for him. He engaged with every single maths idea, and was the voice of my earlier quote. Everyone learnt something.
If you ever get the chance to take your class to a Ministry of Food centre: DO IT! It's a brilliant experience.
This relates to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers... Standard 1 Know students and how they learn Standard 3 Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning Standard 4 Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
