Hope in the face of a bit of disappointment

I am a teacher by trade and a learner by nature. I firmly believe that teaching is an act of faith and hope... if we didn't have hope we wouldn't bother investing in the future, and that is really what teaching is, it is investing in the future.

At the moment I am reading a book by Michael Aschenbach- Vision 3000. I have only just started it but it has got me thinking.

Currently in New Zealand we are getting ready for our parliamentary elections, the behaviour of our politicians in the recent past has been really shameful and the behaviour of our media manipulative. Although I understand that corruption exists in many places I did think naively that in our country we were better than the depths of deceit and disregard for the regular folk we are witnessing. I am not the only one concerned, and this is not about any particular political persuasion, there seems to be a lot of people dismayed in a lot of ways and I get a sense that the discontent is becoming palpable. Perhaps this is also a reflection of other world events at the moment where we see people treating other people poorly, where power is being wielded unwisely and trust is being broken time and time again, perhaps in New Zealand we are realising that we don't want to follow the others this time.

In Michael's book he talks about this turmoil being part of a transformative process. When we as human beings decide enough is enough we will bring about positive change. Trevor Grice, a mentor in my past work, said the following often 'in our struggle we find our strength'. I have to think that through the struggles we are currently experiencing locally, nationally and internationally we are finding strength. Strength to change the way things work, strength to let past hurts go so we can embrace diversity rather than fight it, strength to hold on to that which will move us forward and let go of that which is holding us back.

In order for that to happen I believe we need to be educating our children to think widely and question deeply. They need to engage their imaginations and dream big, bold dreams. They are the leaders of our future and god willing they will be stronger, better leaders than many of us are looking to at the moment.

There is so much to be grateful for, so much good in this world and so much to look forward to... we do not have to keep repeating the mistakes of our forbears or of other nations/belief systems around the world. We can forge new paths on the way to create the kinder, braver, better new world that we want our children to inherit. 

Can one size fit all?

Imagine a world where we only made one shoe size... UK size 8 and a half for arguments sake. Now this one shoe size system would work for me because I actually wear UK size 8 and a half shoes, nice one! But what about those folk with different sized feet? It would be uncomfortable for most, for many downright painful, for some even dangerous by increasing tripping and falling and could even cause permanent damage. For many it would slow them down and impede their progress. I imagine all that would make folks feel rather disgruntled, not me or people like me because we would be comfortable, but the other people. So let's apply this to standardised teaching and testing... are we not trying to make diverse human beings 'fit' into a one size fits all model which can work for some but for others be uncomfortable, painful, potentially dangerous and even damaging? Could this impede learning for some of the diverse range of human beings we teach? Could this be part of the reason behind behavioural issues we are faced with in schools, disgruntled learners who know that they just don't fit?

                              
Lately I have noticed a lot of articles talking about the importance of play for children's development, wellbeing and learning. I have also spotted a number of articles despairing over educational systems that are becoming testing laden factories removing the joy of learning from our children and teachers. There would appear to be a disconnect between what is suggested as good practice for learning and what the target is for some of our systems. 

I believe that Sir Ken Robinson clarifies the concerns around this disconnect well in his talk about changing educational paradigms, if you haven't seen it I thoroughly recommend you click on the link below for eleven minutes of food for thought.

He is arguing that we need to change to meet the needs of the 21st century, rather than rehashing the assumptions around intelligence, teaching and learning from the past. Sir Ken talks about the system deadening inspiration and interest rather than igniting it. He argues that we need to change the paradigm.

So what if we just stopped for a wee moment, put away all of our assumptions and asked ourselves some questions like... what is the purpose of education? What outcomes do we really want for our kids and the future world they will live in? What sorts of things are important in our society? What about the future? You get the picture.

When we ask these sorts of questions where does the one size fits all model fit? If it does, is it a comfortable fit or are we doing an ugly sisters impression with the glass slipper?

For me when I think of what I want for my little boy's learning journey I want him to be in a space where he is valued, where he can learn in any number of ways, where mistakes are celebrated as a wonderful part of the learning process, where he has freedom to play (in so many ways!), where his creativity is embraced, where the people who work with him get to know him and help him to discover his talents, where they help him know what makes him tick so he can use this to manage his learning journey, where he will learn about how to work with others and embrace diversity, where he is treated like a human being not a number or a piece of data... and as a teacher, I think my profession wants something like this for every child in our care but it seems to be at odds with many of the systems we work in.

At the moment my little boy is an unbridled learner, a delightful explorer who has recently discovered the pure joy of running fast and dancing (with or without music). He has a fantastic imagination, loves books, is fascinated by numbers and sings beautifully. I am totally biased, I guess that goes without saying really, but I do worry about whether becoming educated will be detrimental to his natural inclination to learn through play and exploration and talking and questioning and moving.

I wish I had clear answers to ease my mind as a parent, a teacher, an active member of the community, a tertiary student and a leader but I don't. I have more questions. I have ideas and opinions and I have a commitment to keep exploring what we do and how we do it to deepen and challenge my own understandings of learning especially for those who don't fit the UK size 8.5 shoe model that worked (for the most part) successfully for me. I guess the big question I am left with tonight is how do we truly celebrate and embrace human diversity in our education systems?


More viewing:
Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk- Do Schools Kill Creativity? http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity

More reading:
A thousand rivers: this post offers another perspective around children and their learning that challenges assumptions and has the potential to open the dialogue even more. http://schoolingtheworld.org/a-thousand-rivers/
Technology Learning and Adolesscence- another blog post- http://teach-learn-lead.blogspot.com/2014/05/technology-learning-and-adolescence.html
Education's culture of overwork turning teachers and children into ghosts- a newspaper article from the UK exploring the merit of slowing down to allow deeper learning to occur- http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/16/culture-overwork-teachers-children-ghosts-schools


Disclaimer: I am sure that the shoe size analogy has been used by others more than once but cannot attribute it as it occurred to me as an analogy the other night while I was reading A Thousand Rivers as a simple idea to explain my perspective in a conversation with a friend. So to me it felt like a new discovery but seems too beautifully simple to be original so if you have used this in your own work please know that I have not plagarised you deliberately.  

A thank you goes a long way

Tonight there was a post on Facebook by a friend which read:

It was really nice getting this comment from one of the players that I coach.
"...thanks Craig for your super coaching!"
I'm not showing off. These are teenagers and it's been hard work and frustrating at times. Lots of attitude. I sometimes wondered if I was making any difference at all. This comment made my day.

When I responded that I didn't think it was showing off, in fact I thought it was lovely and appreciated him sharing the good news he responded: 

Thanks Meg. When you get comments like this it reminds you how powerful compliments are. They boost your spirits big time. 

It's true, well at least I think it is. I used to say that I believed most people would work for a thank you... a pay rise is nice (often it is great, don't get me wrong) but the joy only lasts as long as it takes to get used to the increased income, feeling appreciated speaks to a different part of us and I'd argue that for most of us it has more power because it is saying what you do is valued and important enough for me to recognise it and let you know. And that feels good! Now a pay rise might be given as a token of this appreciation but if the thank you is left off or if appreciation only comes once a year at salary review time then it is almost meaningless. Please note, effusive empty words are not what I am talking about nor am I talking about splashed generously all over the place generic platitudes. It is the authentic praise and thanks that comes from a place of genuine appreciation that I am talking about. Here are some of the ways that I have noticed appreciation happening in the workplace:

• a straight out thank you for something done 
• a mention in a report written
• efforts on a particular project or matter being acknowledged with other colleagues 
• a quiet word of thanks as an aside in the workplace 
• an email saying thanks 
• a bunch of flowers or chocolates (unexpectedly) 
• being invited out for a coffee
• at one school our board would give each of us one day in the last term of the year to have off for whatever we wanted as a thank you for coping with a minimal budget and doing a great job 
• a phone call, text or card in the mail just to say thanks 
• a special one: remembering my birthday and giving me a book voucher because my boss knew I loved books... I didn't tell him about the books or my birthday and didn't expect anything at all 

These are little things that add up. I have been fortunate to have large thank yous in the past too. At the end of my first year teaching the school had rewritten and rehearsed a song for weeks to sing to me at the end of the year concert and I had no idea, the staff had been very clever at occupying me for the secret rehearsals and not one student let on. 'You are my sunshine' will always bring a smile to my face now. When I left another classroom teaching role my class organised a shared lunch with all the parents and again it was a complete surprise. When I finished my most recent role, I was invited to a dinner where a portion of the programme was dedicated to my farewell and thank you, my colleagues also gave me a collection of individually hand made tags with kind messages on them that I treasure.

I have been fortunate to have had both the little and large gestures of appreciation and for that I am really grateful as it has given me the fuel to keep going especially when times were challenging, and a feeling of satisfaction as I have moved onto new adventures. Not everyone is so fortunate and that is a bit sad. Too often we save our appreciation and compliments for the end of something which I think is a little like the eulogies at funerals where despite being lovely at the time one has to wonder if it wouldn't have been better to have used the opportunity to say these things to the person when they were alive.

This appreciation thing is not only something to consider in the workplace either. Think about how we appreciate people in our community, in sports or social groups and at home. So often we forget to say thank you or give the compliment. It is very easy to forget, to unintentionally take things for granted. Most of us have people in our lives, throughout our days, that do a lot to be thankful for and deserve a compliment... like the shop assistants in the local grocery stores here who greet my son warmly and make him feel important, he loves going to the shop, and I thank them for their patience and kindness regularly- they do make a big difference to my little man's life. Think about the volunteers who do so much in our communities. My husband is a volunteer ambulance officer, and the commitment in terms of time and energy he puts into this role is huge yet I am not sure that everyone understands this. I am involved in volunteering myself and have worked with volunteers for a long time and I can tell you the appreciation, the small gestures, the compliments, when they come really do make a positive impact.

As Craig said earlier, often we wonder if what we do makes a difference at all, and we all deserve to feel like we are significant and what we do does matter. It doesn't hurt, nor need cost anything, to give your appreciation or offer a small compliment. A little warmth offered to a fellow human being because you mean it can really make someone's day so why wouldn't you? We don't know what will happen tomorrow so let's make someone's day today.

A final word: 
Just a closing statement, thank you for reading my blog and the feedback that I have been given. I have never been a writer and often share the thoughts or ideas that occur me. 
Thanks also Craig for the inspiration today. :) 

Some thoughts on professionalism...

I hear the word professional being used a lot around the place. We are professionals. Professionalism is important. We need to be more professional.
Often people are talking about systems, processes and procedures. Sometimes they are focused on how people look, how they present themselves or their organisation. These are all indicators of professionalism in a sense but I think it goes deeper than that.

When I was 16 my English teacher, Mrs Waugh, talked to our class about maturity and all these years later I remember it still. She told us that we might have thought we were all mature and grown up but in reality we were still children and until we realised that the world didn't revolve around us we would remain children. I am sure this was in response to something someone had said or done in the classroom but I honestly don't remember and it doesn't really matter.

For me professionalism is about being a grown up, understanding that we are not the centre of the universe... that we belong to a community or organisation full of other people who are all important in their own right. It is being able to accept that other people have opinions that may differ to ours and that is OK, that we are able to value diversity. It is about knowing ourselves, knowing our values and living by them in a way that still respects the rights of others.

Professionalism is being authentic in your role. That's where knowing yourself is important because then you can be who you are in an appropriate manner. It is not running to a script, or copying the boss to ingratiate yourself. You may adapt your behaviour to fit in with an organisational culture, norms of the group, but if you are doing so to the point that you are going against your values then you are risking losing who you really are (which is pretty sad!). People can trust you because you are real, you are not trying to be someone else just to fit in. They can trust you because you are reliable, you follow up and if you can't do something you say so.

Professionalism is also about integrity. This is a biggie, it's not just following procedures. I love the description of integrity as 'doing what you know is right even when no-one is looking'. When we act with integrity we are able to stand up and be counted when we make a mistake, we are honest. When we act with integrity we give of our best, we are concerned with doing what we do as well as we can. When we act with integrity we live by our values.

When we are working with others as professionals we act with integrity and authenticity. We show respect. We ask for help when we need it, we don't have to know all the answers, it is OK to be vulnerable. We are acting professionally when we are aware of our own behaviour and the impact that has on others. We can show empathy, the behaviour we choose enables us to better connect with the people we are working with whilst still being who we are.

For me professionalism is not about the role we have or the career path we have chosen.  It is not formulaic, it is not about always being right or the best or the smartest in the room. There isn't one way to be professional. For me it is about the behaviours we adopt and how we engage with others when we are working together. Going back to the lesson from the wonderful Mrs Waugh, it is about being a grown up and realising that you are not the centre of the universe. 

Fidgets and wrigglers in the classroom

A number of years ago I attended a Teachers Matter conference where I heard Dr Rich Allen speaking. During Dr Rich Allen's presentation he stated the following "If the bum is numb the brain is the same". This little statement has stuck with me and I have quoted it numerous times in the years since.

Last night I was having a read of various things and an article about the Real Reason Why Children Fidget caught my eye and it seemed to fit with that little statement from Rich Allen

The article suggests that many of our children are not moving as much as they used to or need to and this is impacting on their learning and even the development of their balance and core strength. I think some of the following school based and lifestyle factors contribute to this area of concern:

• in many education systems we take young children (5 and 6 year olds but sometimes younger) and set them up in classrooms where they are expected to sit for significant periods of time, often listening and concentrating... that is hard work for the brain 
• we know that developing gross and fine motor skills supports development in reading and writing and yet we often expect them to learn to read when perhaps physically they are not ready to do so 
• physical movement increases oxygen supply to the brain which aids concentration and eases weariness and yet in our curriculum overloaded days physical education and opportunities for movement are scheduled into specific time slots which lacks the flexibility to fit with the needs of our learners
• the school day is long, it is divided into periods of concentrated work with usually 2-3 breaks during the day for self directed movement but not all children choose to be active in those break times either  
• after school many children have homework which is again sitting down and often reading and writing based 
• after school many children are coming home to sit down and watch TV or play with/use other digital devices that involve little varied movement 
• through heightened health and safety measures children are not having the same opportunities to climb trees and take other 'responsible' physical risks where they get to develop balance and core strength in natural play 

So let's go back to Rich Allen's statement. If children have gotten to the stage that they are fidgeting then perhaps as teachers we need to consider that this is a signal that learning is being impacted and we need to change tack for a moment. I used to do a lot of observations of teaching and one thing I did as a norm was to sit on the mat with the children, one reason being it helped me identify how long was too long and pass that feedback on to the teachers I was observing. As teachers we are often sitting on more comfortable chairs or moving around more than our students as we stand to explain something or walk around engaging with different children while they sit at their desks working so we may not truly appreciate just how long our students have actually been sitting. It is worth considering. I know I get really uncomfortable when I have to sit for too long and when I am thinking about how uncomfortable I am, I am not concentrating on what someone else is saying to me! 

There are many ways to address this, some easier than others to be sure, and here is a small list for a starter (I am sure that you will have a whole heap to add and would be keen to hear ): 

• have regular brain breaks or energisers within your day, a quick one I used with some of my classes was calling out two body parts and we had to get them to touch i.e. knee and nose, elbow and hip, ankle and elbow, toe and nose etc... this often involved us moving and stretching our bodies in all sorts of shapes to try and make it work! Another one was balancing on different body parts i.e. bottom and 2 elbows, 1 knee and 1 elbow, 1 foot and 1 knee etc. 
• if you see some children getting edgy and fidgety do a quick energiser to shake it off, get the blood moving and then get back into it 
• when doing partner chats or think/pair/share why not encourage the children to stand 
• allow the children to lie down to hear a story 
• when doing fitness or physical education think of encouraging movement in lots of different way like rolling and swinging and hanging upside down as well as balancing
• think about how we teach, are there different ways we could help the children engage with the topic of learning that isn't based on sitting and listening, reading or writing? That is not to say that literacy isn't important, I am just suggesting that we explore different ways of working. Even walking around and reading could help or writing spelling words with different parts of your body might be a useful alternative  (and movement can support memory as an aside) 
• I used to do a short yoga session with one class I had every morning before we did maths, I think it made the maths sessions calmer for us all, I know it helped me anyway 
• stand, stretch and shake regularly 
• and here's a wee tip from Karen Boyes that works to support those children then really need to move a little bit... give them a piece of bluetak to have in their hands and fiddle with, I used this recently for a couple of little gentlemen and it seemed to work in terms of reducing distracting behaviour for other students 

A good friend was sharing some of her learning with me recently and commented that one of the key things she took from a recent course was that 'all behaviour is communication', it's another favourite statement to share. If fidgeting is behaviour then as teachers I would suggest we need to consider what it may be communicating and if there is something we could do about it that could help our children to get more out of the learning opportunities they have. 

Stimulating or visually noisy... does what we display in our classrooms make a difference?

Recently I came across an article (Rethinking the colourful kindergarten classroom) talking about some research into visually crowded classrooms and the effects of this on learning for children. This was really interesting for me from a teaching/learning perspective as it was something that had been brought to my attention a number of years ago.

Image sourced from: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/rethinking-the-colorful-kindergarten-classroom/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

The article shared some recent research which explored the difference in performance of a small group of young children between working in an austere classroom and a more colourful, dare I say, typical western classroom. Admittedly the sample is small, 24 kindergarteners (so likely children around 5-6 years old). And the time in the learning spaces was limited, only 5-7 minute lessons taken over several days. So to be fair the findings are not conclusive at all but they are worth considering.

This research suggests that for young children competing visuals interfere with their ability to concentrate on the task at hand. They find it hard to discern what is important if everywhere they look there is important stuff. As children get older they get better at working out where they need to focus so this may be less of an issue for older students. I find this ironic as traditionally secondary/senior classrooms tend to be more austere whilst the early primary classrooms are usually more decorated. There is also the question about commercially produced material and the proliferation of this in our classrooms.

A number of years ago during my first year of working in a mobile classroom with an attached small office, I was having an appraisal. As part of that my manager spent time in my little office going through my paperwork and writing up some records. He was in there for nearly an hour and came out with books in hand stating that he would find a room in the school to work in as my office was 'visually noisy'. That surprised me as I thought the office was bright and interesting, it was tidy with everything needed in easy reach. However when I reflected on it I could see where my manager was coming from and as we talked I realised that I had also created a classroom environment that worked for me but it may not have worked for all of my learners.

As a regular classroom teacher I loved creating interesting displays for my own classroom. I was so lucky to have generously sized classrooms and we still managed to fill them up! I am pleased to say most of the material on walls was the children's work. When I moved into the mobile classroom environment (I worked in health based education where my classroom was about the size of a refrigerated unit on the back of a semi-articulated truck that was delivered to different schools) I still ensured that there was a lot of visual information available for the learners to make it an attractive environment despite the original intention of the classroom being blank when children entered it and the learning displays built as the sessions progressed. After my appraisal I revisited the original intent of the blank classroom and the fact that we had the children working with us for such a short time, we could ill afford to create distractions or make it harder for them to concentrate on the area of focus. So I changed my practice. I did still use some posters and other materials but made sure they related to the topic of conversation and if possible were actually referred to or used in the learning session in some way. I confess it actually made a difference for me too, I think I ended up being more focused as well! This was something of a revelation for me at the time and I have shared it with my colleagues over the years.

I have been reminded many times, in many settings, that less is more. (Those of you who have offered me this advice over the years please know that I am improving... slowly!) I know I would do things a bit differently now if I was back teaching in my own classroom. Most importantly I would observe more and talk to the children to find out what works for them, and if needed change things around to better meet their needs not just my whims. I would align the classroom displays even more to fit with big themes/topics and keep it relevant, so perhaps display less but change it more often.

The key message that I take from this is that we have different preferences in learning environments and as teachers we have the ability to set up the environment to better meet the varied needs of our diverse learners rather than just doing what appeals to us. Generally speaking (and this is a gross generalisation) teachers have succeeded in information-dense learning environments and so it could be argued we create an environment that reflects how we like to learn. I think we need to reflect a little more about why we do what we do and experiment knowing that we have a range of learners in our classrooms.

As an aside, another thing that I will do when I am teaching is to turn off  the fluorescent lighting as soon as possible. I was listening to the very inspiring Karen Boyes in the weekend, speaking about creating a great study/learning environment, and she mentioned fluorescent lighting and how distracting/stress inducing it can be. I hadn't even noticed the lighting until we turned them off and was amazed at how much calmer I felt. I just thought, "wow, I wonder how that would impact on behaviour in the classroom?" So many little things together contribute to the classroom learning environment we create, it isn't just the stuff on the walls!

I am thinking the challenge here is how we create a stimulating learning environment without creating a distracting or stressful one. The learning environment we create does have the capacity to make a difference for our learners.This is another aspect of our teaching/learning programme that contributes to success for our learners and so is well worth taking a second look.

Extra bits:
To read the article itself click here