Bittersweet memories.

The last term has been so incredibly crazy that whilst I have been reflecting like mad, and making notes and attending PD I have not been recording things in here. Over this week I will be recording these reflections.  I cannot believe that it I only have 16 days left with my beautiful children - will miss them like crazy.  I can only hope that I have done what I set out to do and have imparted some wisdom/knowledge to them that they will carry through the world with them.

Lollipop Leaders

Today whilst on TED talks I stumbled across Drew Dudley and his talk on Educational Leadership. He discusses the type of leader I wish to be and would love to enable and teach my students to be too. I am lucky enough to have leaders like this at my school at all levels to grow and learn from.

Everyone should take a minute to listen to his blog - truly inspirational and truly describes what the heart of great leadership is.

Drew Dudley - Educational Leadership

Authentic Audience

As a teacher of writing, the importance of having an authentic audience for the students has become extremely clear to me.

The effort that goes into writing and the enthusiasm and excitement levels about writing directly correlate with whether or not the students in my class believe that someone else is going to read, and care about, their writing.  When students realise they have a purpose for their writing, and that they are portraying a message through their writing that is going to be heard they want to do their best, not to impress me as their teacher, but for themselves.  They want to write something that they will be proud of and that they know their friends and families would be proud of also. 

At times it can be difficult to ensure that each child always has an authentic audience for their writing with the crazy timetable that comes along with being in a Year 6 class. However, none of my students are out on Friday mornings and so we have now dedicated a time on Fridays to celebrating and sharing our writing.  During this time each child reflects on whether or not they have achieved their writing goals during the week and leads discussions with me if they believe that they should be/want to be working towards a new goal as well.  Once this reflection on our success is completed, we share our writing using the two stars and a wish model. Each Friday each child finds a new partner to share their writing with and discuss in pairs, and then in groups of four what they thought was successful in their partners writing that week and what they believe their partner needs to work on.  I find this a very successful way to ensure that feedback and feed forward is not coming solely from me, and my students absolutely love it.

Last Friday the students asked if they could make a film about it to share with their families and friends and so we have put together a short film with some students discussing what they have been doing and why they like it.  Please enjoy and comment and let me know your thoughts about how I can continue to develop an authentic audience for my budding authors.

Room 3 - Writing - Goals and Two Stars and a Wish

Dreaming, Dreading, Designing - A reflection on Howard Gardeners Five Minds for the Future

 

 

 

It is widely accepted that in order for a human, no matter their age, to learn and grow, the opportunities for them to learn need to be varied and provide a marriage of engagement, extension and challenge.  Each person needs to be challenged in all spheres of their life to enable effective and positive growth – opportunities need to be provided for learners to engage with, and rely on all aspects that are incorporated within their Hauora.

 

Professor Howard Gardener presents Five Minds for the Future that each of us need to develop in order to continue to grow and become lifelong learners – however, as educators we not only need to develop these minds within ourselves but cultivate these five minds within our students, our communities and our society – and that is no easy task. Each of these five minds, or five disciplines, embodies distinctly different ways of thinking about and of viewing and learning from the world. The five minds that Howard Gardener proposes are crucial to developing learners who are prepared for the world of tomorrow are: the disciplined mind, the synthesising mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind and the ethical mind.

 

In order to develop these minds within the communities in which we work, we need to ensure that we help students to learn how to learn, to develop a love of learning and to see learning as a way to continually enhance their contribution to their society.

 

The disciplined mind requires us to help students become passionate about the world in which they live, and about accumulating knowledge about this world.  When this occurs, and students learn because they are passionate about acquiring new knowledge, it is then that we are beginning to do our job of helping to create lifelong learners who yearn to better both themselves and help others to do the same.

 

The synthesising mind, and the ability to be able to piece together vital information from the abundance of material that exists, is necessary in our world today for learners to remain engaged, and enthusiastic about their learning. Young students have the tendency, and the ability to see and make connections in areas that as adults, we might not naturally draw connections.  It is so important that as educators we provide students with the opportunity to continue to make these connections and to help others also see and make connections.  The question of how to do this in a schooling system that is still fairly subscribed and where all students are required to learn the same thing and be tested upon it against national standards is a troubling one and one that requires on-going reflection. In order to develop adults who are able to synthesise information and see relationships that are not instantly obvious it is crucial that we celebrate and not censor the connections that are made so effortlessly by the minds of the youth of today and the voice of tomorrow.

 

Learners, and students, who ask questions and are dissatisfied with the way that things are currently occurring, due to the knowledge that there is a way the given task could be done more effectively and more efficiently, have strength in the area of the creative mind and are to be valued.  We need to guarantee both students and ourselves the chance to be different from the crowd, to seek to understand and analyse the unexpected and to determine what truths may be hidden in that which often frightens people.  By providing students and colleagues the opportunity to fail, and fail dramatically we are ensuring their success and creating the perseverance within them to chase their dreams, to never stop questioning and to pick themselves up and try again.  A school that allows and requires students to adapt to uncertainty, surprise and change fosters the creative mind and is something that I believe we should all aim for.

 

However, it is of great importance to remember the creative, synthesising and disciplined mind cannot achieve success without the respectful and ethical minds. Requiring students to work together, and modelling respectfully working with and seeking to understand those who are different to ourselves fosters an understanding in students what true respect looks like.  When one is truly respectful they are continually offering others the benefit of the doubt and self-reflecting to remain open to the possibility that they may have judged others wrongly in the past and seeking to put this right. Genuine acts of respect are detectable every day, not just when someone is looking and it is these that we need to develop in our students for them to effectively contribute to society, and remain lifelong learners once they leave the safety net of our classrooms.

 

The ethical mind is not as easy to define but can be considered through and measured against the four M’s that define ethical behaviour in society.  These are Mission, Models, and the two Mirror tests.  When an individual, be it a child or an adult, is able to say that they are following through with the four M’s, it can be said that that person has an ethical mind and is focused on the greater good.  When one understands their Mission, they are able to move in the right direction and avoid trouble thus allowing them to be on the path to achieving their mission.  With role Models who embody goodness, individuals are exposed to examples of how to effectively achieve success in an ethical manner. If an individual is able to stand in front of a Mirror and believe that they are proceeding in ways of which they approve, and are proud of, then it can be said that they are ethical within themselves.  The final Mirror test is one of group or professional responsibility – unless an individual is accountable to, and holds accountable, their peers than they are not ensuring that they are ethical within their contributions to society.  If one is willing to continue to achieve, and work for the greater good whilst abiding by the four M’s even when the going gets tough, it can be said that they truly embody the ethical mind.

 

The aim to achieve Howard Gardeners Five Minds provides a much needed marriage of engagement, extension and challenge.  Nurturing each of these minds within our students, communities and society will help ensure that the next generation is willing and able to meet the still-unknown challenges of the future.  The future, that is currently in our hands.  

 

The fact that future of education is in our hands and that, at times, can be an overwhelming and frightening thought.  We may each go through stages where we are dreaming of a Utopia where everything is perfect or where we are dreading a Dystopia where we have failed both ourselves and our students but in order to enhance the education of the future we need to set both dreaming and dreading down and begin designing. When designing we have the opportunity to work every day to actively create the future that we want, and it is an opportunity that needs to be seized with both hands.  There is no point in reinventing the wheel but there are a myriad of systems in place from which we have the ability to reshape and reconstruct the best in order to create something better.

 

If future focussed learning is to occur it is essential that we focus on all aspects of learning: what is being learnt, how it is being learnt, how we know and measure the learning that is occurring, where learning occurs, when learning happens and who is involved. Present systems may adjust one or two of these aspects but what is needed for success as a society and for students to be prepared for the future is for fluidity to develop between these six aspects of learning.  When we have designed a system that is focussed on future learning, and incorporates Gardener’s Five Minds, children’s learning is accelerated, children are interested and they are individually choosing to apply themselves to the learning process. Whilst each system needs to be designed to fit the needs of the community and society that it serves, outside conditions need to enable to the process.  When public policy, leadership, readiness, funding and public acceptance align with schools, and when governance places trust in schools there is the opportunity to provide students with the path that best leads them to success and where Gardener’s Five Minds can truly come into fruition.

Am I Wrong?

The children in my class are putting on a drama show for our school assembly in a couple of weeks time.  One of the songs that they wish to perform is called Am I Wrong?

The lyrics are as follows:

Am I wrong for thinking out the box from where I stay?
Am I wrong for saying that I choose another way?

I ain't tryna do what everybody else doing
Just cause everybody doing what they all do
If one thing I know, I'll fall but I'll grow
I'm walking down this road of mine, this road that I call home

So am I wrong
For thinking that we could be something for real?
Now am I wrong
For trying to reach the things that I can't see?

But that's just how I feel,
That's just how I feel
That's just how I feel
Trying to reach the things that I can't see

Am I tripping for having a vision?
My prediction: I'mma be on the top of the world

Without my children having chosen this song to be a part of their assembly item I would not have thought twice about the lyrics, but when I have sat back and considered what the lyrics are saying I have begun to see a connection between some of the lyrics and how I have felt at different stages over the past couple of years.

I have high ambitions and am always  striving to reach things that are beyond my grasp at the present moment in time but that with effort and dedication will become achievable and successful. At the moment, this goal is to organise and begin my masters in Education.  Peers and colleagues of mine have mentioned that I am crazy for re-entering study before being fully registered - however I know that "I'll fall but I'll grow" and I will achieve success. Yes it will get crazy busy, yes it will be a challenge but if I did not accept this challenge I know that I would not be pushing myself to my full potential and would not feel satisfied. 

Am I wrong for thinking out of the box from where I stay?  Am I wrong for saying that I will choose another way?  For me, I am not.  I only hope that in time others will see, and I will be able to prove to others that no I am not wrong for thinking outside of the box, that no I am not wrong for choosing my own path and that I am right for following the path that I know will lead me to a feeling of internal success and accomplishment.

Taking a step back to take a step forward

I believe that every once in a while it is so important to step back, and think about everything but teaching, in order to improve your teaching. This weekend I have done just that. I have had a weekend of laughs and shared many special moments with some of my best friends.  In my opinion, it is this that has allowed me to be sitting on a Sunday night, when I could be reading a book, wanting to reflect on my term goals and on the progress of my class as a whole after having only been back at school for two weeks.

Individual goals:

To back myself and not question my ability as a teacher.

I believe that I am well on track towards achieving this goal. I think that having my tutor teacher back at school has really boosted my confidence in this regard as I know I have someone at school whose job it is to "have my back" and who I can trust to provide me with honest, constructive feedback in a way that will help me to develop as a teacher.  In addition to this, I am planning on starting my Masters next year and I know that to work full time and do my masters I will have to trust in my ability as a competent and confident teacher.  What better time to do that than the present.  In conversation with my principal the other day a couple of things became evident. The first was that she truly does believe that I am a capable and effective teacher. If she, as an experienced professional, believes this than who am I to question it. The second is a reflection that I am sure will surface at a later date.

Reflect on children's targets with them - and develop my student's confidence in leading conferencing discussions.

Each week I have a half an hour block set aside where the students have the opportunity to reflect back on whether or not they are achieving their goals in writing.  During this time, the students are required to discuss their goals with other students, find evidence of achieving their goals in their written work and reflect on what new goals they wish to set, if appropriate.  I have found that having time set aside to reflect specifically on these goals has led to the students being more aware of their learning goals during the week and during guided teaching sessions also.  I have found that as a result of the student's sharing where their learning is with their peers, they have become more confident leading discussions about their positives in their learning and their next steps with myself also.

Full class reflection:

As a beginning teacher I am continually reflecting on where each student is at in their learning journey, the special needs of any extension or remedial students and when 'testing' occurs, the abilities and next steps for my whole class within a specific subject, or area of a subject.  Rarely do I sit down and analyse the overall changes that my whole class have made on their learning journey over the past two terms.

Management have just asked us for a class description that both analyses our class goals for the first two terms and requires us to make new goals for the whole class to achieve over the next two terms in reading, writing and mathematics. I have completed the analysis of my class's achievements and areas to continue working on and I have found it so rewarding to sit down and be able to see visible movement across all the 'main' curriculum areas for my whole class.  As a result of this I am also looking forward to creating new goals or focus areas for each of these subjects that I wish to encourage my students to strive towards over the next four months. I have high expectations of my students and because of this they reach my expectations, which leaves me feeling filled with anticipation, excitement and wonder about what the next four months may hold for us.

What a wonderful career to be in, where each day leaves you looking forward to the next, and where there is so much room for hope, excitement and growth.

Student Voice

In order to maintain an open growth mindset I have asked ten of my students to provide me with honest reflections about their experiences of being in my class.  They were asked to answer the following five statements and questions:

1. The way that my teacher helps me the most is...
2. One thing that challenged me most was... I overcame it by....
3. I enjoy being part of Room 3 because...
4. The thing I am most proud of this year is...
5. One piece of advice I would give to my teacher is...

Below are videos of these students reflections.  Please enjoy and leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.

Student Reflection on being in Room 3 - 2014