PROFESSIONALLY & PERSONALLY
TeachersMatter The Magazine of Spectrum Education
Embrace the change Why interactive instruction is a good idea Become a superior teacher What to say and when to say it Plan for a smooth ride How the wheel of life can help you
NZ$15 / AU$15
Leaders in Developing Teachers
ISSUE 8
Liz Sweeney
Students find the Keys to Success in NSW With seminar tips on keeping their brain healthy, practicing the Habits of Mind and setting goals, hundreds of students are now ready to go for their dreams.
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ctober was the month of success in Merimbula, southern New South Wales, when Karen Boyes, CEO of Spectrum Education and the 2001 New Zealand Business Woman of the Year, worked with over 300 students aged 10 to 16. Via two, two-day seminars, the dynamic presenter and expert shared practical and simple techniques with the students to help them on the road to success. Students commented not only on how inspirational Karen’s work was, but also how much fun they had whilst learning. The first seminar, Kids Matter, was hosted by Candelo Public School with 130 Year 5 and 6 students from seven of the area’s smallest schools. During the two-day mini conference, students listened to keynote addresses and workshops that built understanding and knowledge in the Habits of Mind, the behaviours of highly successful people. Students explored what it is to be able to persist, to be creative and use their imagination, to strive for accuracy and to listen with empathy and understanding and most important, they discovered methods to set and achieve personal goals. One of the major workshops students attended was called Switching On the Brain, with Marion Miller, a kinesiologist from Auckland. Students said they found out many things they did not know about the importance of maintaining a healthy brain. Other workshops included rugby skills, technology, drama, dance and circus skills. The second two-day seminar, Study Skills for Success, included 170 Year 11 students from the wider Merimbula area. The Senior Seminar presenters focused students on the Keys to Success and introduced them to 27 Key Tips to attain higher grades, including the top 10 brain foods required for a healthy brain, seven memory techniques to improve recall, the processes involved in setting and achieving goals and the use of visualisation for success.
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Students remarked that 2 the two days enabled them to focus on how to maximise their performance in the exams through using practical and easy-to-remember study techniques. They also commented that they were given great tips and advice to support them in becoming successful in whatever they choose to do with their lives. Some of the expressions used to describe both seminars included, “awesome,” “terrific,” “very valuable,” “relevant,” “useable” and “certainly FUN!!”
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Liz Sweeney
1. Marion Miller “Switch on Your Brain” 2. Making Vision Boards
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3. Goals for 2010 and beyond 4. Marion Miller with “Fred” the brain 5. Karen Boyes teaching the Habits of Mind 6. Wordtoons - a visual note taking method 7. Wordle - Kids Matter Conf 2009 8. Merimbula - Beautiful coast town NSW
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CONTENTS
COVER photo: Rafal Glebowski
In this issue
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Students Find the Keys to Success in NSW
11 Adolescence Unplugged 14 Five Practices of Superior Teachers 15 Habits Of Mind: The Brain’s Survival Mechanisms?
Teachers Matter
18 What To Do When Children Misbehave
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20 Thinking With Rich Concepts
34 Fostering Intelligent Relationships
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Teaching Values for Life
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Learn – And Then Learn Again
Educating the Whole Child
24 The Instructional Revolution 28 Leadership and Coaching: Becoming Champions of Change 30
Emotional Genius Education
Black-line Masters Photocopyable activities: pages 26, 27, 33, 43 Thinking Challenges
46 The Importance of Momentum 47
Through My Eyes
49 Dispositions: Illusions, Jargon, Or Something Real? 51 Dealing With Difficult People And Tricky Situations 52 Note Takers Or Note Makers?
MAGAZINE CONTACTS
Subscribe today To receive your own copy of the next issue, send an e-mail to magazine@spectrumeducation.com
Teachers Matter Magazine Team Publisher, Sales and Advertising: Karen Boyes Managing Editor: Kristen De Deyn Kirk Graphic Design: Mary Hester / 2nd Floor Design Printer Spectrum Print, Christchurch
Subscriptions Toll free (NZ) 0800 373 377 Toll free (Australia) 1800 063 272 Thanks to the educators, speakers and authors who contributed interviews, articles, photographs and letters. Teachers Matter magazine is registered with the National Library:
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ISSN 1178-6825 © Spectrum Education 2009
54 Students Can Resist The Temptation Of The Internet – When We Teach Them Well 55 Freaky Facts And Jokes 56 A Better Life is as Easy as Asking Better Questions 58 Teach Your Teen Financial Responsibility 60 Integrating Educational Technologies Into Your Classroom
What is Emotional Literacy Page 63
60 Getting Your Message Across Clearly 62 Energy: How To Have Bucket Loads 64
Living A Life On Purpose
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Digital Storytelling
All rights reserved. Parts of this publication may be reproduced for use within a school environment. To reproduce any part within another publication (or in any other format) permission from the publisher must be obtained. The opinions expressed in Teachers Matter are those of the contributors and we love them!
All Enquiries
68 Book Review: Quetta
Spectrum Education Ltd
71 Are You Going To Set Yourself Some New Year’s Resolutions?
Postal Address: PO Box 30818, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Street Address: 19 Rondane Place, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Phone: (NZ) +64 4 528 9969 (Australia) 1800 063 272
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The Time is NOW!
Fax: (NZ) +64 4 528 0969 (Australia) 1800 068 977
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Stop the World – I Want To Get Off!
magazine@spectrumeducation.com
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The Fish Philosophy
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Ending Quote
www.spectrumeducation.com
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editor’s NOTE
If
you’ve stopped by this spot before, you might remember me saying how inspired I am every time I read the articles our brilliant, generous contributors submit to Teachers Matter. We have an international group of experts who understand the power of the mind and the power of a teacher to tap into each student’s talents. Our writers’ well thoughtout insights for this issue got me thinking about how I can apply their knowledge to my own life, especially in the New Year. As I read the articles, I started compiling this list:
6. Allie Mooney described one of my children in her article about the “playful child.” I’m thankful for her reminder that these children need physical attention and encouragement. As my little guy tries to learn the multiplication facts, I’m keeping this in mind. Today I gave him a five-minute hug.
1. From Maggie Dent, I will remember that during the teen years, “information that is used often is deemed important and becomes stronger and is easier to remember. Information that is not used often is deemed unimportant and is forgotten.” Those two sentences give me hope that I can have a positive impact on my children, who are closer to their teen years than I’d like.
7. I’ve already put Karen Boyes’ advice to work. She suggests taking your tests and reviewing what you missed. I did this with both of my children this week, and kindly told them that tests are good because they help us figure out what we need to take a closer look at and learn more about. Please let this message sink in, so that they understand that school is about learning and not testing.
2. Dr Marvin Marshall reminded me of advice I read as a new parent – and too often forget: “Always communicate in positive terms of what you do want… Instead of “don’t run,” say, “We walk in the hallways at our school.” I’m practicing: Instead of “Don’t leave your clothes on the floor!,” I will say, “We place our clothes in the hamper if they are dirty; hang them up if they are clean.”
8. After reading Alan Cooper’s article, and the quote he included from Grant Wiggins, “When [a formative assessment is] …done right, most students can achieve at the same levels as the current top 20 percent,” I long to learn more about giving students effective feedback. Wow. What a great world we’d be living in if all students rose so high.
Teachers Matter
3. From Art Costa and Pat Wolfe, I read about managing impulsivity and now want to read these sentences every day until I master managing mine: “Effective problem solvers have a sense of deliberativeness: They think before they act. They intentionally form a vision of a product, plan of action, goal or a destination before they begin.” I can plan more, for both short-term and long-term goals.
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on developing creativity (he quotes Ken Robinson’s definition, “a process of having original ideas that have value”) as much. My children’s creativity might not be reflected in a grade, so I must remind them of it and help them nurture it.
4. Clinton Golding offers wonderful ideas to get kids thinking about big concepts, with a step-by-step guide. I’m working some of his suggestions into my talks with my kids to supplement all the “fact learning” they do at school. 5. Kelvin Squire would never imagine how much he’ll help me keep my children’s grades in perspective. He talks about how schools should promote two things – creativity and literacy. We can measure literacy much more easily, so, unfortunately, we don’t focus
9. Money mastery is as simple as four jars, says Stuart Fleming, and I bet he’s right. I’m really looking forward to getting one labeled “wealth creation” for both me and my children. I’ve started to teach them about stocks and the addition of this jar (and the other three Stuart talks about) will keep them focused. 10. Rowena Szeszeran-McEvoy says part of getting more energy is changing your vocabulary. Saying “awesome” or “fantastic” might feel awkward for me at first when someone asks how I am, but I’m betting that Rowena is right. If I say it enough, I will feel it. My list hints at just a little of what you’ll find inside these pages. Every writer provides concrete advice that you can put to use almost immediately, if not in your classroom, than in your personal life. My advice? Grab a pen and a piece of paper, or a highlighter if that’s more your style, and turn the page. You have nothing to lose and so much to gain with an investment of just a few hours of enjoyable and enlightening reading.
CONTRIBUTORS
Adrian Rennie A successful classroom teacher, Adrian is passionate about excellence in teaching. He combines simple yet effective classroom techniques and Art Costa’s Habits Of Mind to create a culture of thinking. www.habits-of-mind.net/
Alan Cooper Alan Cooper is an educational consultant based in New Zealand. As a principal, he was known for his leadership role in thinking skills, including Habits of Mind, learning styles and multiple intelligences, information technology, and the development of the school as a learning community.
Allison Mooney Allison is a passionate and endearing speaker who infuses a desire in her audience to significantly increase their performance as educators through identifying the behaviours and traits of others. Author of Pressing the Right Buttons, Allison has been twice awarded “Speaker of the Year” by the Auckland Chapter of NZ National Speakers Association. www.personalityplus.co.nz
Andrew Churches
Teachers Matter
Andrew is a classroom teacher and staff trainer at an independent school on Auckland’s North Shore and a moderator and workshop leader for the International Baccalaureate Organisation. He developed Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. Learn more at http://edorigami.wikispaces.com and http:// edorigami.edublogs.org
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Dr Arthur Costa Arthur is co-director of the Institute for Intelligent Behaviour and the creator of “Habits of Mind”. Actively concerned that there must be worldwide change in educational systems if they are to meet the needs of a global society, Arthur compels educators to create classrooms that are thoughtful places to learn. www.habits-of-mind.net
Barbara Griffith
Janice Davies
Barbara has been a primary school teacher for 36 years. She has specialised in the teaching of literacy for more that 20 years and recently retired from a position as a Resource Teacher: Literacy, which she had held for the last 16 years.
Janice Davies, the Attitude Specialist and the founder of International Self Esteem annual awareness day, teaches people to be positive and empower themselves. As a professional speaker, success coach and author, Janice educates people at conferences and through books. Visit http://www.attitudespecialist.co.nz/schoolcoaching.htm for other complimentary articles and tips. Email Janice@attitudespecialist.co.nz
Carol Carter Before starting LifeBound, Carol Carter was an author of education and parenting books and a publishing executive in America for 15 years. Over the past 10 years, she has presented seminars and workshops to faculty and students and has provided corporate coaching to many organizations, including AOL Time Warner, StorageTek and the U.S. Navy. www.lifebound.com
Clint Golding Clinton Golding is the senior lecturer in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. He is passionate about developing a thinking curriculum within schools and is the author of several books and regularly speaks at education conferences.
David Koutsoukis David is an award-winning international speaker and author who helps educators build positive and productive classrooms and schools. He is the author of the Values Education Toolkit resources, the Behaviour Management Toolkit resources, the Daily Dose of Fun series and the Six Kinds of Best Values Education programme. www.dkeducation.com.au
Glenn Capelli An author, songwriter, radio and television presenter and creator of the Dynamic Thinking course for Leadership, Glenn delivers a message of creativity, innovation and thinking smarter. He teaches people how to be a learner and thinker in today’s fast-paced and everchanging world through the use of creative thinking, humour, enthusiasm and attitude. www.glenncapelli.com
John Shackleton With a sport psychology and sports coaching background, John now shows international business audiences techniques that exercise and improve the biggest, most powerful muscle in the body – the brain. His clients include Coca-Cola, Air New Zealand, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Sony and Renault. www.JohnShack.com
Karen Boyes Karen Boyes is a leading authority on effective learning and teaching in Australasia and is founder and CEO of Spectrum Education. A highly skilled, enthusiastic and dynamic presenter with over 18 years experience in the education profession, she works with teachers, parents, students a n d c o r p o r a t e c l i e n t s i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y, unleashing their peak performance. www.spectrumeducation.com
Kevin Mayall Kevin works with individuals and families from around the world. As well as working in a private practice, Kevin is also the creator and founder of www.kevinmayall.com, which provides online coaching tools for teens, families and individuals around the world. www.kevinmayall.com
Kelvin Squire Kelvin Squire is principal at Stratford Primary School and a New Zealand Educational Institute Associate. He is also Past President New Zealand Principals’ Federation.
Maggie Dent From a background in education, palliative care, radio, the funeral industry and being a transpersonal therapist, Maggie owns Esteem Plus, promoting the value of personal and professional resilience. She is an author, publisher and parenting specialist. www.maggiedent.com
CONTRIBUTORS
Martin and Pat Buoncristiani Robyn Pearce Martin and Pat Buoncristiani are committed to the belief that learning how to think skillfully is the foundation for every successful learner. They have extensive experience at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and continue to work with educators, parents and seniors in Australia and the USA. Their focus is on the development of strategies that build creative, effective thinking and problem solving in the classroom and in the world. www.ThinkingAndLearningInConcert.org
Martz Witty Martz Witty is a professional speaker, business developer and chartered accountant. Reach him at martz@martz.co.nz and www.martz. co.nz
Dr Marvin Marshall Marvin Marshall is the author of Discipline Without Stress, Punishments or Rewards: How Teachers Promote Responsibility & Learning. The book teaches how to live a self-disciplined life, become more responsible, increase effectiveness, and improve relationships. It shares how to teach young people to want to become disciplined — both in behaviour and in putting forth effort in their own learning. The book is now available as an e-book at www.marvinmarshall.com/products.htm
Robyn Pearce, Certified Speaking Professional, is the Time Queen, (plus mother of six and grandmother of 12). She mastered her own time challenges and now helps people around the world overcome theirs, including teachers in several countries. She can show you how to transform your time challenges into high productivity and the life balance you desire. Learn more at www.gettingagrip.com/ttt/ index.asp
Rowena Szeszeran-McEvoy Rowena Szeszeran-McEvoy has a 23-year career in the fitness industry and is now serious about the business of education. She is the director of the Australian Institute of Massage and the National College of Business, after having served as the head lecturer in both the business and fitness colleges.
Simon Evans Originally from the UK, Simon Evans has been teaching in New Zealand for the last six years. He is an avid supporter of incorporating technologies into the learning environment and the positive result it has on student motivation and achievement.
Dr Spencer Kagan
Mike Handcock is a international speaker and best-selling author. His company, Rock Your Life, is building the number-one team of transformational leaders on the planet. www.mdh.co.nz
Dr Spencer Kagan is an internationally acclaimed researcher, presenter and author of over 100 books, chapters, and scientific journal articles. He is the principal author of comprehensive books in four fields: cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, classroom discipline, and classroom energizers. www.kaganonline.com
Ngahihi o te ra Bidois
Stuart Fleming
Ngahihi o te ra Bidois is from Te Arawa and is an International Leadership Consultant and Speaker. Book him for your conference or seminar by phoning 021482281 or through his website at www.ngahibidois.com
Stuart Fleming is creator of the Money Mindset Mob and an enthusiastic believer in independent teens. A professional speaker, workshop leader and teen money coach, Stuart believes his super-power is seeing the potential in people and situations. Stuart volunteers as National Commissioner for SCOUTS New Zealand. Learn more at www. MoneyMindsetMob.com
Mike Handcock
Robyn Harawira Robyn (for merly Robyn Bell-Muir) is passionate about Leading Learning. She has inspired parents, teachers and children alike throughout her career as a principal and a teacher of the deaf and gifted.
Therese Hoyle Therese Hoyle is author of 101 Playground Games and runs Positive Playtime and whole school social, emotional and behavioural skills programmes nationally and internationally. Therese Hoyle’s new book and CD Rom, 101 Wet Playtime Games and Activities, is filled with exciting ideas and activity worksheets to brighten up any wet play day. It was released in September 2009. To order your copy, contact Spectrum Education. www.successpartnership.co.nz
Tricia Kenyon Tricia has been involved in the field of Literacy for 17 years, firstly as a Resource Teacher:Reading, then as a Resource Teacher:Literacy. She is passionate about books and reading, and feels privileged to be in a position where she can share that passion with students, their parents, and fellow teachers.
Wendy Sweet With over 25 years in the fitness industry, Wendy’s expertise in health, wellbeing and fitness is undisputed. She brought personal training into mainstream NZ by design and developing the Les Mills Personal Training programme in the early 1990s. She lectures at the University of Waikato and delivers workplace training. Her master’s thesis focused on successful personal trainers’ strategies in changing their client’s exercise and nutrition behaviour. Reach her at wsweet@xtra.co.nz.
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Developing the Habits of Mind with the Key Competencies
NZ Seminar Tour Learn how to develop the 16 types of intelligent behaviours noted eductors Art Costa and Bena Kallick call the Habits of Mind. These habits present an approach that aids students and adults as they encounter life’s challenges and link perfectly with the new NZ Curriculum. Even if you are already highly successful in life and teaching, just one or two new ideas can make a huge difference to some of the learners in your room. For the first time in 3 years Spectrum Education is bringing to you NZ’s most dynamic educational speaker, Karen Boyes... Imagine it, Karen will give you the secrets to unlocking the goldmine of potential you know is sitting in your classroom ... RIGHT NOW. Spectrum Education has literally changed the lives of thousands of teachers and students across the world by giving teachers simple ideas that have had a massive impact on their teaching results... This is your chance to see Karen live... This seminar is a must for anyone truly wanting to make a difference in education.
SEMINAR DETAILS
Here’s what you’ll learn... What the 16 Habits of Mind are Practical ways to use and implement and develop the Habits of Mind How to foster the use of the Habits Of Mind in school and at home How the Habits fit within the new curriculum and Key Competencies How teacher language affects the thinking and learning process How a shared vision for teachers can make a significant difference to children’s lives.
(venues to be confirmed) Hamilton: 3rd March New Plym: 4th March Whangarei: 8th March Auckland: 9th March Tauranga: 10th March Rotorua: 11th March Gisborne: 16th March Napier: 17th March P. North: 18th March Wellington: 22nd March Masterton: 23rd March Dunedin: 24th March Invercargill:25th March ChCh: 29th March Blenheim: 30th March Nelson: 31st March Ashburton: 26th April Timaru: 27th April Wanaka: 28th April Time: 4pm - 7pm
Investment
$125pp / $110pp for groups of 3-9 $100pp for groups of 10 or more
Your Facilitator: Karen Boyes is described as Australasia’s “Mrs Education.” An expert in effective teaching, learning and living, Karen turns research into practical and simple to use techniques that create success. As the Founder of Spectrum Education, an author, publisher of the Teachers Matter magazine and the NZ Associate Director of the Institute for the Habits of Mind, Karen is an expert of teaching and implementing the Habits of Mind throughout the world. A dynamic presenter, she inspires teachers and students around the world.
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Post your enrolment to Spectrum Education PO Box 30 818 Lower Hutt NZ or Phone us on 0800 37 33 77 (+644 5289969) or simply fax this form to +644 5280 969 or Email: info@spectrumeducation.com
photo: Mehmet Yunus Yesil
Maggie dent
Adolescence Unplugged – Engaging and Understanding the Millennial Digital Native As educators, it’s important that we remember just how much teenagers face.
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he new modern term for today’s young is that they are “digital natives” – meaning they have developed abilities to manage the many media, simultaneously, like mobiles, social networks online, online games and activities, while being wired with MP3 plugs in their ears. They can do many of these tasks quickly and all at the same time, but research is showing that these skills are not transferable to real life and the individuals who are doing these activities are often less effective when given opportunities to problem solve and use their thinking skills. Ouch!
Abortions and adolescent pregnancies at unacceptably high levels
Why are we so concerned about today’s Millennial Adolescents?
• Needing to belong outside of the family
Many adolescents struggle with problems of enormous magnitude If we remember the key drivers of adolescence, it can help us understand our interesting adolescents better. • Seeking autonomy and independence. • Identity searching and experimenting with who am I
• Immature brain driving a mature-looking body.
200/300%morbidity rate increase
• Separation from parents – creating healthy distance
Mental illness has increased among this age group
• Forming relationships – deepening of friendships
Huge increase in binge drinking/drug taking
These things are biologically wired into our adolescents as they venture down the bumpy ride from child to adult – no matter what culture or socio economic situation. Then while all sorts of strange things are happening to their bodies, their brain does some huge changes.
More homeless than ever before More 30-year-olds still at home than ever before! Massive increase in violence among the young, especially amongst girls
According to Barry Corbin, in his book, Unleashing The Potential of the Teenage Brain: 10 Powerful Ideas, “The new knowledge about the teen brain shows us that adolescence offers perhaps a second chance – or at least an additional one – to unleash the enormous potential and possibilities that lie within a person’s brain and to shape positively that person’s social, emotional and intellectual development. It means that what happens during their adolescent years is very important and can have a considerable and long-lasting impact on their lives.” 1. Pruning – use it, or lose it. There is a massive pruning that occurs in the brain during the early teenage years, anywhere up to 15 to 20 percent. Information that is used often is deemed important and becomes stronger and is easier to remember. Information that is not used often is deemed unimportant and is forgotten. Parents and teachers know when this has occurred when monosyllabic grunts replace articulation in communication with many adolescents. This can be a very frustrating time for parents and adolescents, but it is simply a biological process, not an intentional choice by adolescents. Recent studies have found that as children reach puberty their ability to interpret and understand social situations and emotions in others can drop by up to 20 percent.
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What does this mean? This means that in the window of 12 to 15 when the brain does an automatic pruning, young adolescents often misread facial expressions and misinterprets body language that they could read much more competently before. They can lose organizational skills like remembering their sports clothes, keeping rooms tidy, completing homework, doing home chores and generally managing them. This change causes many adolescents to feel stupid, useless and incompetent. Many struggle getting school work done, and they struggle enormously with motivation and staying on purpose. This coincides with a drop in short term memory of up to 20 percent around the same time and so losing things and forgetting things is very common and really frustrating. 2. Overproduction of dendrites and synaptic connections. There will be zillions of synaptic connections in an adolescent’s brain by the end of adolescence. When neurons communicate with each other, synaptic connections are created and learning occurs. The more you engage in an activity, the more dendrites grow and the stronger the synaptic connections become. Adolescents are acquiring learning and knowledge at an unprecedented rate. This window is a vitally important window in the journey of human development. Learning, especially that’s based on real experiences, will happen faster than any other stage in life other than the first two years of life. The massive increase in dendrites will allow an adolescent to master new skills like playing a guitar, taking up a new sport, learning a new language, doing a triple flip on a skateboard or even learning to cook much faster than normal. However, if they are not engaged in their education or in positive pursuits like music, reading, sport, creative arts or practical skill development, they may be learning things that can impede their development for the rest of their lives. 3. Myelination – insulating the neurons and synaptic connections. This is the final stage of brain development and involves the thickening of the “white matter” or myelin on the axons. This is the process of insulating the neurons and synaptic connections, which allows more connections and more efficient usage. What this means is that the quality of thinking improves, and at around 22 to 24 years of age, the pre-frontal lobe (the
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executive function of the brain) will be mature enough to ensure that improved decision-making can take place. Now that’s a bit late for many students who struggled in our classrooms. Before the prefrontal lobe has matured it is difficult to manage impulses, delay gratification, plan for the future and understand the process of choice and consequences equalling experience, Adolescents can often repeat dangerous activities or repeat poor behaviour in our schools because the brain is unable to learn from these experiences. This requires a mature brain. 4. Growth of the Amygdala Adolescents rely more on the emotional part of their brain. Adolescents use the amygdala to interpret the same information that an adult uses with the frontal lobe. This is why they have such difficulty with misreading social situations, communicating with others, emotional vulnerability and impulse control. It also influences such aspects as hunger, thirst, sleep, sexual response and hormone production. The limbic system is particularly affected by the great surge of sex hormones. They feel emotions much more intensely than before of after adolescents and often have difficulty managing intense feelings. In our classrooms we see adolescents struggling with disengagement in all sorts of creative ways. In our classrooms we need to be aware of how to support our fledgling adults by creating safe environments that reduce stress, have supportive teachers who really understand the biological changes that are occurring and who provide consistent fair guidance on how to manage their school lives as successfully as possible.
Areas to be mindful of in high schools: • Organizational skills > create innovative ways of reminding students of deadlines • Dopamine yearning > risk taking is to reduce boredom • Decision making support > remember they are often unable to think well • WIIFM? > ensure relevance? (What’s in it for me?) • E n v i r o n m e n t – b e l o n g i n g > c r e a t e connectedness for all adolescents
photo: Anita Peppers
Maggie dent
• Technology/ “wired world.” > create clear boundaries • Managing boredom/challenge > avoiding too much challenge in classroom • Poor communicators > reassure them it will get better • High vulnerability/high potential > promote inclusive caring school culture • Massive stress – poor sleep, massive invisible challenges are very real to adolescents Adolescents are more at risk than ever before because of the extra challenges of the modern world. Their enormous vulnerability comes from within – the massive growth of negative thinking, self criticism and crushing self doubt while comparing themselves to others, often idols who have been air brushed to an unreal image, is persistent and continuous. They will do anything to belong and if things are tough at home, they are more at risk of finding people who are also feeling the same way and then to beat boredom, they can get up to mischief. Every adolescent feels vulnerable, confused and damaged and flawed at times, no matter how well they may be performing academically, artistically or sporting wise. We must step forward with more understanding and compassion while our students navigate a confusing world. They will learn better when they feel safe, accepted and heard – even with a head full of blue hair, and body piercings. In my work with adolescents over the last 30 years, I have met some amazing young people, who despite enormous challenge and adversity, have not only survived their bumpy ride to adulthood but have flourished and realised their enormous potential. So often they share what helped and so often it was something quite small – a word of encouragement, a hug, a safe bed for a couple of weeks – from someone who cared about them.
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dr marvin marshall
Five Practices of Superior Teachers
U
se procedures rather than rules
Superior teachers use procedures and do not rely on rules. Rules are necessary in games. However, in interactions, rules result in adversarial relationships because rules require enforcement. Rules place the teacher in the position of an enforcer, a cop — rather than that of a teacher, mentor, or facilitator of learning. Enforcing rules often results in power struggles that rarely result in win-win situations. Instead, rules often result in reluctance, resistance, and resentment. While rules are “left-hemisphere” oriented, and they work with people who are orderly and structured, they do not work well with “right-hemisphere” dominant students who act randomly and spontaneously. Even when these students know the rules, their lack of impulse control mitigates following them. In addition, we often state rules in negative terms and imply an imposed consequence. Rules are not designed to inspire, encourage, or teach. They are aimed at obedience and are meant to control.
Teachers Matter
Rather than relying on rules, you will be much more effective if you teach procedures, which is the essence of good classroom management. Successful teachers assume that students do not know how to do an activity. These teachers explain the procedure, model it, have students practice it, and periodically revisit it for review and reinforcement.
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State what you want, not what you don’t want Superior teachers communicate in positive terms. The brain thinks in pictures, not in words. We often want to assist people by telling them what to avoid. So often, however, when you tell a person what not to do, the opposite results. The reason is that the brain does not envision “don’t” or any other negative-type word. The brain envisions pictures, illusions, visions, and images. Here is an example: Don’t think of the colour
blue. What colour did you envision? The teacher who tells the student not to look at his neighbour’s paper is having the student’s brain envision looking at his neighbour’s paper. Always communicate in positive terms of what you do want. Examples: “Keep your eyes on your own paper.” Instead of “Don’t run,” say, “We walk in the hallways at our school.” Aim at promoting responsibility, not obedience Superior teachers promote responsibility, rather than aiming at obedience. Obedience does not create desire. When you promote responsibility, obedience then follows as a natural by-product. Focusing on obedience prompts using coercion, which is the least effective approach for changing behaviour or for inspiring others. Although teachers can control students temporarily, teachers cannot change students. People change themselves, and the most effective approach for actuating students to change is to eliminate coercion, which is not to be confused with permissiveness. The approach for the teacher is to hone the skill of asking reflective questions. As long as the teacher does the asking, rather than telling, the teacher controls the conversation. Use questions such as, “Are you willing to try something different if it would help you?” and “What would an extraordinary person do in this situation?” Encourage reflection Superior teachers use reflection to prompt selfevaluation, the key to changing behaviour. You can control a person temporarily, but no once can change another person. People change themselves, and the path for this is to have them reflect.
photo: Yuri Arcurs
Tips for Promoting Learning
Reflection is critical for long-term memory, and it is the most overlooked learning activity. At the conclusion of any activity, students should engage in some type of reflective activity—whether it be a “think, pair, timed-share,” writing in a log, or some other activity where the learning will be revisited. Students cannot be exposed to something once and then expect the learning to go into long-term memory. Having students share and reflect reinforces the learning. Elicit, rather than impose Superior teachers elicit from students, rather than use authority and impose something on them. Simply stated, when a consequence is imposed, students are deprived of ownership in the decision. A more effective and fairer approach is to elicit a consequence or a procedure to redirect impulses that will help each student become more responsible. This can easily be accomplished and still be consistent in terms of fairness by asking students if they would rather be treated as a group or as individuals. They will readily have a preference to be treated as individuals and have ownership in the decision that will help them. Use questions such as, “What procedure can we develop so that in the future you will not be a victim of your impulses?” Additional suggestions are available at http://www.marvinmarshall.com, where you can also subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Promoting Responsibility and Learning.”
Arthur Costa and Pat Wolfe
Habits Of Mind: The Brain’s Survival Mechanisms Research now supports the Habits of the Mind.
We
strive to make teaching more “brain compatible” and believe that as additional neuroscience research is conducted, we will be able to make instruction better. We’re also debating what students need to be effective and creative in the 21st and 22nd centuries. An important question is: How might an understanding of the brain’s innate survival mechanisms help us understand why Habits of Mind are essential for optimal human development? Let’s explore the relationships between the Habits of Mind and the research about the human brain and learning.
What are Habits of Mind? Habits of Mind are dispositions that characteristically intelligent, successful people skillfully and mindfully employ when confronted with problems that do not have immediately apparent solutions. When humans experience dichotomies, dilemmas, or uncertainties, our most effective actions require certain patterns of intellectual behaviour. A Habit of Mind is a valued pattern of thinking composed of many skills, attitudes, cues, past experiences and inclinations. Employing a habit implies
“ I’ve reached the moment where the movement of my thought interests me more than the thought itself.” Pablo Picasso
making a choice about which pattern you should employ in a situation. It includes being alert to contextual cues and requires a certain skill level to carry through the behaviours effectively over time. A habit also suggests reflecting, evaluating and modifying the chosen patterns. Here we present four Habits of Mind supported by neuroscience research.
Eight Habits of Mind and the Neurosciences 1. Metacognition Occurring in the neocortex, metacognition is our ability to know what we know and what we don’t know. It is the ability of the mind to monitor and redirect the brain’s activities, to plan a strategy for producing what information is needed, to be conscious of our own steps and strategies during the act of problem solving, and to reflect on and evaluate the productiveness of our own thinking. An example would be how teachers develop a teaching strategy for a lesson, keep that strategy in mind throughout the instruction, and then reflect to evaluate its effectiveness. The brain is the only organ that sculpts itself based on its experiences. This characteristic is called neuroplasticity. For example, while a baby is born with the capacity to speak 6,000 languages, the connections for the sounds that he does not hear will eventually fade away. While neuroplasticity has been considered to be most active when a child is young, new research has shown that older children’s brains, as well as those of adults, retain the capacity for rewiring. Studies show that willful, mindful effort can alter brain function. It takes instruction and practice to learn to control impulsivity or to “get into the habit” of thinking interdependently or listening with understanding and empathy.
When an old behaviour –such as reacting impulsively – has become an automatic habit, it’s not easy to change. To replace this behaviour with a new one you literally have to change your brain’s wiring, and this takes time and effort. 2. Managing Impulsivity Effective problem solvers have a sense of deliberativeness: They think before they act. They intentionally form a vision of a product, plan of action, goal or a destination before they begin. They strive to clarify and understand directions, develop a strategy for approaching a problem and withhold immediate value judgments before fully understanding an idea. Reflective individuals consider alternatives and consequences of several possible directions. They decrease their need for trial and error by gathering information, taking time to reflect on an answer before giving it, making sure they understand directions, and listening to alternative points of view. The degree to which people are able to manage their impulsivity depends on biological and environmental factors. To understand these factors, we need to look at the brain’s emotional characteristics. The brain’s purpose is survival and many of its structures are involved in making that possible. In contemporary society, the dangers are often not physical but social. The brain doesn’t differentiate between the two; the same mechanisms are at play. Chemicals are released that increase heart rate, lung capacity, visual alertness, and glucose and decrease all unnecessar y functions such as digestion and immune function. There is a downside to this system, and it occurs in the brain’s cortex, where rational thinking, problem solving and managing impulsivity take place. During a time of perceived threat, the cortex becomes less efficient. Think about a time when you were insulted and could not think of a good retort until the next day! The upside of
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Arthur Costa and Pat Wolfe
the fight or flight response is that after the initial reaction, we have a choice of ways to respond. Suppose my boss says something I don’t like. My immediate internal reaction is to become angry. But seconds later I send a message to my brain saying, “I don’t think either fight or flight is an appropriate response here.” In this case I have the ability to manage my initial impulsive reaction.
Not everyone manages impulsivity well. Adults get “road rage” and children start fights on the playground. What makes the difference between those who manage their impulsivity well and those that don’t? Biology: Neural pathways lead from the rational cortex to the emotional center of the brain and give us some control over
“ Nothing reaches the intellect before making its appearance in the senses.” Latin proverb our reactions, allowing us to respond appropriately. However, these pathways are not in place at birth. In most cases, as the child matures these pathways become more efficient and the child’s responses become more appropriate. Environment: The effectiveness of neural pathways is determined to a large degree by experience. If the only response to anger a child ever experiences is lashing out, then it is likely that the child’s brain will become “wired” to lash out. If you do not delay gratification for a child, he is not unlikely to develop this important characteristic.
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illustration: Dawn Hudson
Teachers Matter
Neuroscientists tell us that the brain has amazing plasticity, and this is good news. It implies that children can – and should be — taught ways to manage impulsive behaviors. 3. Gathering Data through All Senses The brain is the ultimate reductionist. It reduces the world to its elementary parts — photons of light, molecules of smell, sound waves, vibrations of touch – that send electrochemical signals to individual brain cells to store information about lines, movements, colours, and smells. The neural basis for a habit may be a blend of automatic responses to stimuli and actions guided by knowledge and
Arthur Costa and Pat Wolfe
The brain does not store a memory in a specific location; it is stored all over the cortex in a sort of neural circuit; the sound in the auditory cortex, images in the visual cortex, etc. When you recall the memory, the brain reactivates the circuit in which it was stored. The more sensory modalities that were originally activated, the more triggers the brain has for reactivating the circuit. This suggests that concrete experiences in the classroom that activate several of the senses can enhance students’ recall. Knowledge and expectation also guide habits. Providing educators with information about the way the brain stores habits should help them make more informed teaching decisions. We need to inform students as well so they understand how important it is to pay attention to multiple sensory and how they can increase their retention. 4. Thinking Interdependently Human beings are social beings. We congregate in groups, find it therapeutic when people listen to us, draw energy from one another, and seek reciprocity. In groups we contribute our time and energy to tasks that we would quickly tire of alone. In fact, we have learned that solitary confinement
is one of the cruelest forms of punishment. Cooperative humans realize that all of us together are more powerful, intellectually and/or physically, than any one individual. Working in groups requires the ability to justify ideas and test a solution’s feasibility on others. It also requires the willingness and openness to accept feedback. Through this interaction, the group and the individual continue to grow.
Thinking Interdependently and the Brain Researchers are uncovering neurological evidence for humans’ dependence on one another. Consider for example, the role of endorphins and dopamine in the brain. Endorphins and dopamine are
“ To k e e p y o u r resolve, surround yourself with those who want you to succeed. The brain cannot do its job of protecting the body without contact with other people.” Robert Ornstein and David Sobel in The Healing Brain
illustration: Dawn Hudson
expectation. The habit of gathering data through all the senses is one that clearly fits this paradigm. First, as long as the sensory receptors (the eyes, the ears, the skin, etc.) are in good working order, they will automatically, unconsciously and simultaneously take in stimuli. Some of the stimuli (such as the temperature in the environment or other peripheral data) are encoded without a person’s conscious attention. You have probably experienced this phenomenon. You walk from one room into another room for some purpose and then can’t remember why. If you go back to the original room, you remember. You recorded the peripheral information from the first room unconsciously and it provided the memory cue.
chemicals produced by the brain. The brain makes “feel good” chemicals that are released when your behaviours increase the probability of survival. Endorphins are released during sustained, prolonged exercise. Your endorphin level also goes up during childbirth, decreasing pain and increasing the possibility of having a second child. Interestingly, endorphins and dopamine levels also rise during any pleasant social interaction. You get a pleasurable feeling when someone smiles at you or compliments you. This increases the probability of continued interaction with this person. An important component of collaboration is contingent communication. This is the mind’s the ability to deal with human differences — conflicting ideas, alternative perspectives, divergent points of view and collective problem solving. Located in the prefrontal cortex, response flexibility enables the mind to attend and assess subtle verbal and non-verbal cues, and then to modify internal and external reactions accordingly.
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glenn capelli
What To Do When Children Misbehave Parents and onlookers can try denying bad behaviour, but what happens next?
It
wasn’t the first of any month but then I guess a three-year-old girl can be forgiven for mixing up the dates, or can she?
Traditionally three-year-olds are not big fans of being ignored so she opted for her second and final strategy: violence. That’s when I saw the crime – assault and battery. She punched Mum’s arm, then chest and followed up with an outstanding pinch. A pinch and two punches on the 22nd of the month. My brain braced. Should I race on in and do a citizen’s arrest of the little thug? Should I be ready to defend the tike when Mum countered with retaliation? Should I speed read the award-winning novel The Slap and consider all points of view?
Teachers Matter
A pinch and two punches on the 22nd of the month and there were no returns. Mum and Mum’s friend continued chatting as if nothing had happened.
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By my guess, Mum must have felt some pain: The three-year-old had thrown the punches with as much intensity as a young Mike Tyson and the follow up was not a mere pinch of salt. So, was this good strategy on Mum’s part or just resignation? Was it something that all parents react to with no reaction or do some set off a chain reaction that could reign-supreme? Does non-reaction help turn three-year-old petulance into full-blown diva status by age 13?
photo: Dmitriy Shironosov
I was standing outside a crowded café and a girl of no more than three was not happy with her mum. Perhaps it was the noise, the hour of the afternoon or the fact that Mum and Mum’s friend were deep in conversation but the tot decided to go into action. Her bottom lip dropped, her lungs inflated and her limited vocabulary was put to the wail. Mum and Mum’s friend did the number one step of Kubler-Ross when facing trauma and opted for denial.
Or should I just divert my eyes, not bother, stop thinking and mind my own bloody business? Stopping thinking has never been my strong point, so I started to wonder and ponder. What would my folks have done if I, at age three, had slipped a couple of slaps onto Mum and then nipped a pinch? Well, in 1960 Kalgoorlie, I would never have been at a fancy café with Mum and public reaction can sometimes be different than private. However, I can fully declare here and now that Mum would have reacted, in a loving way, by giving me a bit of a belting. Now,
this is not the kind of belting that sends a child to hospital or therapy. It would have been a quick, instinctive whack on the bum and a more than stern “Don’t you ever do that again.” I might have not understood the entire vocabulary, but I would have gotten the message. If Mum had not retaliated, it would have been an 80/20 proposition that the best mate she was chatting with would have rushed to her defence and at least told me off. Furthermore, if Mum later told Dad about my fledging boxing career, Dad would have had another stern word.
“ I was raised in a household where we knew we were loved and we knew where we stood. Psychologists might call it defining boundaries.”
glenn capelli
1. A stern word 2. A light tap on the bum 3. A not so light tap on the bum and for major crimes or a lack of response to 1 and 2 4. The threat of the strap I don’t think the strap was utilised more than once. Worlds change, cafes appear and babies can have their own baby chino with marshmallows on the side, but I still think kids need boundaries. Slaps and straps may be out, but addressing slips of manners and sloppy behaviour should still be in. I have never been a parent, so I write from the point of view of an educator and someone with a lot of experience in working with teens, many of them troubled. Children want love, and children want boundaries. Teens need boundaries, so they know what causes they can rebel against. Parents need consistent Goldilocks Values (not too hard, not too soft, ahhh just right), so they know what they are teaching. And yes, this needs to happen against a backdrop of love. I love the gag that says “I’ll give you unconditional love when you’ve earned it.” Kids need unconditional love, and they need conditional boundaries. Stretching or breaking the boundaries does not mean you stop loving a youngster, it means you teach them boundaries because you love them. And yes, sometimes it is tough. And yes, sometimes the pace of today’s world, the speed on today’s streets, and the reality of today’s television, movies and video games means that there is more to
What do I stand for? What do we stand for? What can’t I stand? What can’t we stand?
Parents need c o n s i s t e n t Goldilocks Values (not too hard, not too soft, ahhh just right), so they know what they are teaching. And yes, this needs to happen against a backdrop of love.
Each educator, parent, family, extended family and community needs to have these enriched and robust conversations and take consistent, enriched and robust actions. For the good of the three-year-old and the good of her mum.
deal with – and sometimes we – parents, educators, communities - sadly lose. On beautiful blue-sky days we still lose beautiful young lasses named Skye to a $14 heroin hit. Poet and songwriter Loudon Wainwright sings, “work out what you stand for and what you cannot stand.” As a community we need to stand for love and as a community we need to not stand for the erosion of such love.
photo: Geo Martinez
I was raised in a household where we knew we were loved and we knew where we stood. Psychologists might call it defining boundaries. There was a consistent enforcement of what was acceptable behaviour and what was not – what was not was then met with:
I hope that the threeyear-old at the café learns to stop slapping and pinching when she wants to get her way. I hope we all learn that there can be other ways to reach and teach children respect.
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Clinton Golding
Thinking With Rich Concepts How to make philosophical questioning in the classroom work
We
want our students to have some juicy topics that really make them think, and we want them to have thinking treasure that is alluring enough to motivate them to use all the thinking tools and strategies they have at their command. Try these thinking treasures and the series of processes, from my book, Thinking With Rich Concepts: Rich Concepts For Philosophical Questioning In The Classroom, which will make sure that the students’ exploration is focused and productive.
DESTINY or CHANCE 1. Warm up the student’s thinking with some concrete examples related to the topic. Have each of your students share examples of the following • What is one amazing coincidence that has happened to you? • What is one time when you felt you had no control over what happened to you? 2. Next, have your students respond to the following statements. Encourage them to draw on the examples they just shared. • Everyone has a destiny • People are free to do what they want We don’t want just any response from them. Have them respond in one of the four possible ways. These will help to focus the ideas so the exploration is as productive as possible.
Teachers Matter
• • • •
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I agree because … I disagree because … I partly agree and partly disagree because … I need some more time to think because …
3. Have an open discussion about some of the following questions. Each type of question is focussed on a different, philosophically rich facet of a topic or concept. You cannot answer the questions by an experiment, survey, reading a book, doing a calculation, or talking to an expert. They are not meant to be completely open questions, where one answer is as good as any other and you are invited to be as creative as possible. With these questions, some answers are better than others. These
questions need thought and discussion to get the better answers. You can choose a few for the students to discuss, but it would be even better if the students select the questions that the whole group will explore. Feel free to introduce other questions. Don’t just introduce them because you like them; only do so if exploring the question will help the students move forward. Thinking about ethics and values Would it be good or bad if we had a destiny? Thinking about the meaning of concepts What is the difference between destiny and fate and what will happen? What is destiny? What does it mean when you say it was your destiny? Is destiny the same as fate? What’s the difference between saying it was meant to happen and it was caused to happen? Thinking about implications If we have a destiny does this mean we are not free? Can we be free and have a destiny? If we don’t choose what happens to us, does this mean we have a destiny? If we have a destiny where could it have come from? Thinking about explanations Does everyone have a destiny? How can we explain all the odd things that happen in our lives? When something amazing happens, is the best explanation to say it was fate or destiny? Do we explain things by saying it was destiny or fate? How do we then explain where the destiny or fate came from? Thinking about what we know and how we know If we do have a destiny, how would we know what it is? Could we be wrong? How do you tell the difference between chance and fate?
Thinking about essence Do we have a destiny? Are our lives worked out in advance? If we have a destiny, can you choose your own destiny? If we have a destiny, can we change our destiny? How much choice do we have over what happens in our lives? Thinking about our experience If you could know everything that was going to happen to you, would you want to know? What would life be like if you knew what your destiny was? 4. Some useful techniques and structures for encouraging good thinking Have students thinking together The discussion should be a “community of inquiry.” This means the students are talking about and responding to other students’ ideas rather than thinking about what the teacher says or responding to the teacher’s ideas. This is not the same as the teacher helping students get to the “right” answer. Nor is this the same as group work where the students all have a turn saying what they think. Avoid pre-empted ideas where you are leading them to the answer and ideas you want them to reach. This will not allow them to think independently, but will have them playing the game “guess what teacher wants me to think.” Thinking together is when the students are talking together about ideas. Students suggest their ideas and respond to other students’ ideas. Their job is to help each other make progress with these ideas rather than to win or show that their ideas are better than others’ ideas. The teacher’s job is to help them to think through the ideas as effectively as possible rather than to get them to any particular answer or position. In a practical sense, this works best when the students are sitting in a circle and can see the face of every other student and when they follow a few rules related to respect for others’ ideas.
Clinton Golding • No talking over others • Listen to and consider what others say • Respectful agreement and challenging is welcomed • Making fun of or putting others down is banned Ask thought-encouraging questions Instead of giving your opinion or helping your students to get to the answer you think is best, deliberately invite your students to think some more by asking thought-encouraging questions. Listen carefully to what your students say and then ask one of the following questions (replacing the … with the exact words the student used): REASONING
Why might someone think …? What might someone say if they disagreed?
DEPTH
Could you explain some more about …? If … is true, what else would that mean?
RELEVANCE & IMPORTANCE
How does … help us answer our question? What is the main point you want to make?
CLARITY & PRECISION
What does … mean? Have students respond using ‘thinking behaviours’
Good thinkers say certain things that poor thinkers do not say. To have our students think well about a topic, we can encourage them to say the things that good thinkers say. Encourage your students to respond to the ideas of others using some of the following phrases, as well as agreeing and disagreeing as they did at the start (where the students replace the … with their own ideas):
put all they have heard and thought about into one simple package. Two easy and effective ways of doing this are by drawing a summary of the ideas or by writing a summary. At the end of one or several sessions discussing these questions, pick out the most important concepts the students discussed (chance, destiny, freedom …). Using this concept, have students finish one of the following sentences:
DEPTH
To explain that further … If … is true, that tells us …
“The concept” is ….
REASONING
I think … because … A reason for that is … A reason against that is …
“The concept” is like …
RELEVANCE & IMPORTANCE
The most important point is … … helps us because …
CLARITY & PRECISION
… means …
5. Putting our thoughts together Often at the end of a period discussing and inquiring into thinking questions like these, students are left more puzzled than they were before. They are now confronted with multiple view-points and probably have more questions than answers. It helps to give them a chance to
Also have students draw a picture of the concept. They are drawing a picture of, for example, destiny itself, rather than a picture of someone with a destiny. It helps them to understand the process by talking about how we use a heart to draw love or scales to draw justice. The picture can involve words and symbols and is not intended to be a finished piece of art.
es c r u o s e R g n i d l o Clinton G Thinking with Rich Developing a Thinking Concepts: Rich Concepts Classroom: A workbook for Philosophical for Professional Questioning in the Learning Teams Classroom Trying to create a thinking Thinking Treasures for class when you haven’t Philosophical Thinking in trained your own thinking the classroom. Provocative is like trying to teach topics that really make someone to play guitar students use all the thinking when you haven’t learned tools and strategies at their yourself. Developing command. Rich Concepts a Thinking Classroom include Happiness, Choice, provides background Ownership, Identity, and ten more that lead students information supported by activities for teachers – into thoughtful, guided discussion. not students! – to work through.
Available at www.spectrumeducation.com
09-175-11
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Kelvin Squire
Educating the Whole Child – a 21st Century Imperative We must stay focussed on creativity and using test results correctly.
We
now see schools as leading agents of change, and central to those changes are the liberating, much-acclaimed New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). But are we leading the changes that are necessary or simply reacting to political imperatives? It is essential that we educate the whole child and work to unlock the creativity that lies within. Sir Ken Robinson defines creativity as a process of having original ideas that have value. He believes that there are major problems with many developed education systems because the culture of standardised testing is counter productive to that which we are trying to achieve. He says that too often now we are systematically alienating people from their own talents and, therefore, from the process of education. Is this the reason why so many young people are opting out of education at a time when we are desperate to keep them in? Perhaps the systemic things that we value are not as valuable to our young people. I have heard it said that for many young people the real learning takes place outside of school.
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Robinson says it is vital to educate more people – and to a much higher standard but we also have to educate them differently. Are the policy makers brave enough to really encourage creativity and risk taking or will schools simply be pressured by central accountability systems to prioritise those curriculum areas deemed to be most relevant to the economy? We require an atmosphere where risk-taking and experimentation is encouraged, indeed lauded, rather than stifled. Robinson gives us cause to reflect in his statement: Education standards should be high and it is obviously a good idea to raise them. There’s no point in lowering them. But standards of what and why? The essential problem is that many governments and organisations seem to think that the best way to prepare for the future is to do better than what we did in the past – just to do
more of it and to higher standard. The fact is we have to do something else. It is essential, therefore, that all education sectors work to ensure that there is relevance, authenticity, connectivity and belonging for those at the centre of the discussion, i.e. the learner and that the innate creativity that they all possess is given a chance to flourish. Further, Robinson believes that we should treat creativity and literacy with the same status. One of these is easier to measure than the other and so systems value one more highly than the other. Is it surprising then that Robinson believes that our current industrially designed education system educates people out of their creativity? Daniel Pink, in his book A Whole New Mind, explores the change from 20th-century Knowledge Age skill sets based very much on left brain thinking to the 21-Century Conceptual Age, the age of the right brain creative thinker: We’ve moved from an economy built on people’s backs to an economy built on people’s left brains to what is emerging today: an economy and society built more and more on people’s right brains.
Robinson, in his book Out of our Minds - Learning to be Creative, presents three key arguments for those who have a serious interest in the whole child. He challenges us to reflect on the sustained development of creativity, innovation and human capability. He suggests: • We are caught up in a social and economic revolution; and • To survive we need a new conception of human resources; and • To develop these resources we need radically new strategies
photo: Cathy Yeulet
Teachers Matter
Systemically we measure what we value; perhaps we need to reflect on our value base and the constant literacy and numeracy messages that we are giving out to our schools and communities and shift the focus to developing the whole child.
Einstein once suggested that we will not solve a problem by bringing the same thinking that created it. All of us involved in compulsory sector education are currently thinking about the implementation of the NZC; are we brave enough to take Einstein’s advice whilst reconceptualising curriculum delivery and learner connectedness or will we simply tinker at the edges with existing practice?
Kelvin Squire The challenge, therefore, for the compulsory sector is to ensure that in reconceptualising the curriculum, we give priority to the whole child and his/her inherent creativity and resist any centralist move to constrict curriculum delivery as has happened in other countries. It is important that schools are encouraged to take risks and form partnerships with other schools and their communities. The less the capacity of teachers, the more they attempt to play it safe behind the classroom door or school walls. Confidence and competence breed risk-taking of the kind that will bring us new breakthroughs. Centrally imposed benchmarks will not help with achieving sector capacity, confidence and competence; giving encouragement to make mistakes, to find solutions and to try again will. If we do not capture the hearts and minds of all in the learning community, then the desired change will not happen. We cannot mandate desire. The findings of Black & William, commissioned by the Assessment Reform Group in the United Kingdom, has had a considerable impact on teaching and learning throughout the Western world. Their research indicated that improving learning through assessment depends on five deceptively simple factors: 1. The provision of effective feedback to pupils; and 2. The active involvement of pupils in their own learning; and 3. Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment; and 4. A recognition of the profound influence assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of pupils, both of which are crucial influences on learning; and 5. The need for pupils to be able to assess themselves and understand how to improve.
The inhibiting factors identified included: 1. A tendency for teachers to assess quantity of work and presentation rather than the quality of learning; and 2. Greater attention given to marking and grading, much of it tending to lower the selfesteem of pupils, rather than to provide advice for improvement; and
3. A strong emphasis on comparing pupils with each other which demoralises the less successful learners; and 4. Teacher’s feedback to pupils often serves managerial and social purposes rather than helping them to learn more effectively. Some politicians, when looking for a point of difference to engage disaffected voters, look to education to create that point of difference. Accountability and national testing are great catch cries to engage the ill–informed. In my view, it is the job of educational leaders to ensure that their learning communities are informed about what affects improved learning outcomes for all children and what does not. If we are truly interested in improving learning outcomes for all children, it is time that the spectre of National Testing fell off the educational horizon. It is pleasing that our current Minister of Education has categorically declared that it is not the government’s intention to engage in high-stakes testing; the government must be proactive then in ensuring that National Standards do not become a de facto National Test. James Popham, in his book “The Truth about Testing,” cites three reasons why we should not allow students scores in standardised tests to be indicators of educational quality: 1. Standardised achievement tests should not be used to evaluate the quality of student’s schooling because there are meaningful mismatches between what is tested and what is supposed to be taught, and those mismatches are often unrecognised. 2. Standardised achievement tests should not be used to evaluate the quality of student’s schooling because the quest for wide scorespread tends to eliminate items covering important content that teachers have emphasised and students mastered. 3. Standardised achievement tests should not be used to judge the quality of students’ schooling because factors other than instruction also influence performance on these tests. National testing in whatever guise will not improve learning outcomes for children; enhanced assessment practice, home– learner–teacher relationships, and enhanced teacher pedagogy developed within a positive, supportive environment will.
New Zealand has historically looked overseas for models of best educational practice. The irony of this is that whilst we are looking overseas, they are looking at what we are doing and lauding it. The Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development’s (ASCD) Education Leadership magazine implores policy makers to revisit their narrow, high stakes No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy framework and to focus on whole child education. The salient messages contained in this magazine give cause for New Zealand educators and policy makers to reflect as we work to reconceptualise our curriculum framework. There are none so blind! New Zealand is leading the way in developing assessment tools, SEA, ARBs, asTTLE, e-asTTle, PATs or STA to name but a few. We can improve on these tools further by providing the resourcing to allow teachers and principals to maximise their potential. The discussion should really be about how we might use this data to improve our teaching and thus our delivery for children. Parents and learners have a right to quality assessment feedback that shows the progress made, learning strengths and weaknesses, what the learner needs to do to build on strengths and address weaknesses and what we all need to do to help the learner get there. It is also not unreasonable for a learner to know where their strengths and weaknesses are comparative to their peers. The image of the learning triangle with the child supported by the teacher and the home is a powerful one. We need to engage our school communities in the assessment discussion. If we are to truly personalise learning, we must ensure that the contexts for learning are truly authentic, that the child’s voice is heard, that our learning communities are informed and supported, that our schools are appropriately resourced and that teachers and school principals are nurtured, challenged, informed and most important, affirmed. The NZC presents an exciting opportunity for New Zealand educators and their communities to ensure that their localised curriculum engages and challenges learners, inspires teachers, focuses on key competencies and equips our young people to reach their potential.
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Dr Spencer Kagan
The Instructional Revolution
What our students need to learn is changing, so it’s time to change your approach to teaching.
Resistance To Change It is amazing that with more powerful alternatives readily available, teachers still adhere to inefficient traditional instructional strategies. Why? It is not because the alternative structures are difficult to learn or implement. Few instructional strategies are easier than a simple RallyRobin, Timed Pair Share, or even Sage-N-Scribe. A great deal can be said about why we stick to nonadaptive habits. Therapists spend years with clients, often with little success, trying to wean them from self-defeating patterns of behaviour, trying to get them to adopt simple behaviour patterns that will serve them and others better. Let’s examine a few of the dynamics that make teachers and schools so resistant to change.
Modeling and Mirror Neurons As a new teacher, when we first stood in front of our class to teach and it was ten minutes into the lesson, without prior thought, we asked a question of the class. The students who thought they knew raised their hands. We called on one. The student answered and we gave either a compliment or a correction. That interaction sequence was not in our lesson plan. Why did we carry it out with no planning? We had observed that sequence so many times that it was burned in our brain. It was simply what teachers and students do in classrooms. We now know that when we observe a behaviour performed by others, our mirror neurons fire as if we were performing that behaviour. We actually practice behaviours by watching them. Before we became teachers, as students, we observed traditional instructional strategies so many times, we were primed to carry them out when we became teachers. Further, the work on neuroplasticity shows that the more we practice a behaviour, the more space it occupies in the brain and the harder
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“ Far fewer are off task in the classroom using interactive structures because the students are holding each other on task.” it becomes to change. We actually become hard-wired for traditional structures. But history is not destiny: Neuroplasticity means we have the capacity for change. By practicing these simple interactive structures, we re-wire our brains to make teaching both easier for ourselves and more effective for our students.
Three Fear Factors Some who have noticed teachers being resistance to changing instructional strategies have blamed the teachers themselves, accusing them of fear of failure, fear of the unknown, unwillingness to admit one does not know everything, and even laziness. But resistance to change most often comes from legitimate fears from wellintended, motivated, intelligent teachers. It turns out, though, that analysis reveals those fears are unfounded. Fear Factor 1: Students will share wrong answers. In traditionally structured classrooms, we have the luxury of hearing (and correcting if necessary) everything that is said. If students answer only to us, we can correct any misconception they verbalize. It is very discomforting for many teachers to abandon that structure and adopt new interactive strategies that mean many things will be said that we will never hear if we allow students to talk over the answers themselves. One of the most common questions I get in giving workshops is, “What if students share wrong answers?” Let me assure you: Wrong answers will be shared. There is no way around it. When
we use interactive structures, some students will verbalise wrong answers that we will never hear and never be able to correct. As counterintuitive as it seems, though, we still win dramatically in the bargain. Why? Well, which students have the wrong answers in their heads — the high or low achievers? It is the weaker students who have misconceptions, and in traditional classrooms, it is precisely those students we seldom or never call on. They simply do not raise their hands. The result: They leave class with their misconceptions uncorrected! When we introduce interactive structures, all students verbalise their ideas and their ideas then become subject to correction opportunities. We set up a norm in the classroom: If anyone hears an answer that they are not certain is correct, we stop and check it out. Because we have heterogeneous teams, low achievers are interacting with higher achievers, increasing the probability of correction opportunities. When we use interactive strategies, not all wrong answers are corrected, but a much higher percentage of wrong answers are corrected than when we use traditional strategies. When we use traditional methods, most wrong answers are never verbalised, so they go uncorrected. Fear Factor 2: Students will get off task. The second fear factor is that if we cannot hear all that students say in our class, students will get off task. Again, let me assure you: Students will get off task! But again, we win in the bargain. How is this possible? In the traditional classroom, students are called on one at a time. This means that only one student is verbalising and the other students are relatively
photo: Cathy Yeulet
Dr Spencer Kagan
inactive. While looking at the back of the head of a student answering the teacher, many students find more interesting things to think about than the answer being given by the one student who was called on. They fantasize. They daydream. They pass notes. They whisper. In the traditional classroom many students are off task — we simply don’t know it. Far fewer are off task in the classroom using interactive structures because the students are holding each other on task. During RallyRobin, after my partner shares an answer, I have to share an answer. The structure holds me on task. During Sage-N-Scribe, we are both on task all the time because one is the Sage, saying what to do, while the other is the Scribe, carrying out the action. Fear Factor 3. I will lose control. When I first began trying to convince schools and administrators to use cooperative learning methods, it was an uphill battle. In those days, a good class was a quiet class. Administrators equated silence with good classroom management. If no one was talking, the teacher was demonstrating control of the class. In fact, good classroom control is not keeping everyone silent and in their chair; good control is the ability to get the class silent and to get everyone seated and attentive when desired. A teacher who has everyone moving, interacting, and totally engaged and can simply raise a hand and quickly have everyone silent and with alert attention is demonstrating far better classroom control than the teacher who never lets students talk or move. You must couple interactive structures with management signals, procedures, and routines. We cannot feel comfortable allowing students to interact if we are not confident that with ease we can get their focus fully back on us or on a task. At our workshops, we never train teachers in interactive strategies without coupling that training with the associated management strategies.
Traditional versus Modern Views of the Function of Schools In the early days of industrialization, many viewed schools as having two major functions: 1: Socialising obedience and 2: Sorting. Many students were headed for assembly line jobs where obedience and conformity were highly valued. Preparation for those jobs placed little or no premium on thinking or creativity. Given that, schools placed a great deal of emphasis on following directions, obedience, and performing rote tasks repeatedly on one’s own. It was important also to sort students — who would go on to design and own the factories and who would go on to punch a time clock? Today, we must prepare students for a different world. Because of the accelerating change rate, we can’t predict with any certainty the kinds of jobs our students will work in. We can say with certainty, however, that our students will need social interaction skills. Three fourths of all new jobs involve working on a team at least part of the time, and that percentage is increasing. Complexity and interdependence are the defining characteristics of the modern workplace: no one person can build a computer. Teams work to coordinate efforts with other teams. As we move toward interactive structures in our classrooms, we are aligning the classroom experience with the work world of the future. We are preparing our students with skills for success.
Traditional versus Modern Views of the Learner Traditionally we viewed learners as empty vessels and our job as teachers was to fill them with the knowledge and skills they would need for success. In the day when most people worked on farms, basic numeracy and literacy was sufficient. Today we cannot predict how our students will work. The accelerating change rate means many of our students will work at jobs we can only dimly imagine. We are not certain of the technical and academic skills they will need. We can be certain, though, they will need social skills, teamwork skills, and thinking skills as they deal with the increasingly complex interdependent work world of the future. Further, they will have to become lifelong learners. Half of what an engineer learns in school is outdated five years after graduation. And the half-life of knowledge is shrinking as technology is used to create new technology at an everincreasing rate. Thus, our job as "teacher" has changed. Rather than filling our students with known facts and skills, increasingly we must see our job as fostering thinking skills as habits of mind and imbuing students with a love of learning. We are moving away from the traditional, control-oriented, sorting view of the function of school and away from the empty vessel view of students. We are moving toward a vision of school as the place where we foster maximum growth of the unique potential of each individual. Interactive structures align our practice with that vision.
The Instructional Revolution What we teach has changed. Sources of information have changed. The jobs for which we must prepare our students have changed. The world is rapidly changing. It is time we change the way we teach. Traditional instructional strategies prepare our students for the world that was. Interactive structures prepare our students for the world that will be. The instructional revolution is inevitable.
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Thinking Challenges
Adrian Rennie
Teachers Matter
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Thinking Challenges
Adrian Rennie
Lesson Plan
Learning Outcome: The students will identify a series of successful behaviours that contribute to academic and social success. Materials: 1 cute soft toy Poster making materials Progression: Tell the students that a new student is starting in the class. Say that the student is very special because he/she is extremely brainy and the most successful kid in the country. Show the soft toy to students and explain that even though he/she is the brainiest kid in the country he/she doesn’t yet have a name. Have students brainstorm a list of possible names and choose one. Ask students to brainstorm a list of the things we would see our new class member doing given that he/she is the most successful kid in the country. The list could be divided into different categories. Thoughtful students will immediately realise that the new soft toy/student will use the Habits of Mind to find success. That immediately suggests at least 16 successful actions or ways of thinking. Accept all answers and record them.
He learns from his mistakes.
He treats others well.
He thinks before speaking and chooses his words carefully.
He is friendly and works well with others.
He persists and never gives up.
He is creative and comes up with new ideas.
He thinks flexibly and generates different ways to solve problems. He uses strategies he has already learnt to solve new problems.
He chooses a positive attitude, smiles and laughs a lot. He is well organised and ready.
He is aware of what his brain is thinking.
He contributes positively to the school community.
He knows what he still needs to find out.
He finishes projects that are better and better.
He responds thoughtfully.
He listens with understanding.
to
problems
He sets goals for improvement.
empathy
and
He finds the world amazing. A.Rennie 2009
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Carol Carter
Leadership and Coaching: Becoming Champions of Change Ask the right questions and share your vision to make a difference.
Teachers Matter
Coaching is one of the tools that helps teachers become leaders in their schools and in their districts. How does coaching create change? Academic coaching is a process that helps educators unlock their potential and talent by providing them the tools to become an encouraging and inspiring guide who asks questions and helps students and colleagues explore the answers. At the heart of coaching is learning how to ask powerful questions that challenge the status quo and consider possibilities beyond the obvious. The coaching model assumes that people have the capability to meet these challenges, and empowers them to become catalysts of change.
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All great leaders have had significant challenges to overcome in their quest to make a difference for themselves and others. For example, Dr. Ben Carson, who is an American pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, started out flunking math in the 5th grade. In his autobiography he wrote, “I felt like the dumbest kid in school.” While never diagnosed with a learning disability, he grew up in an environment not conducive to success. Ben had a mentally ill but determined mother, who only finished the third grade, yet she insisted Ben and his brother read two books a week and give her reports that she couldn’t even read herself. In 1987, Carson made medical history with an operation to separate a pair of Siamese twins, and he founded the Carson Scholars
Fund with a mission “to impact the nation in a positive way by cultivating future leaders who are not only intellectually talented but socially conscious.” Not everyone has a mother like Ben Carson who gives them support at home, but as a teacher, coaching allows you to balance being demanding with being supportive. Another leader is Susan Powert, a native of Australia who became overweight and addicted to alcohol after her husband left her for a younger woman. While raising two sons, she quit drinking and lost 133 pounds, and she is currently a motivational speaker and exercise instructor who encourages women to “eat, breathe and move!” Among your students, who might be the next Ben Carson or Susan Powert? As we challenge ourselves to become catalysts for change, we also want to call forth students as leaders. Many districts worldwide have come to realise that one of our most important resources in
creating a positive school culture is the students themselves. Students involved in peer leadership programs take an active role in their schools to make them better places, while faculty assist by recruiting an invested, cross-section of students. Peer-to-peer programs at the elementary, middle, and high school levels can play a major role in reducing the alienation and disconnectedness many youth feel from their schools, families, and society. Students need peer leaders to inspire them about what is possible, and upper classmen serve as role models to underclassmen. Students need to be peer leaders to have a formal role in influencing and mentoring others. Peer leaders can lead students in many ways depending on their unique strengths and emerging leadership styles. Daniel Goleman, who popularised the concept of emotional intelligence, describes six different leadership styles in his book, Primal Leadership, as follows:
Visionary:
This leadership style is ideal for setting a new direction or mission. “Visionary leaders articulate where a group is going, but not how it will get there – setting people free to innovate, experiment, take calculated risks,” write Mr. Goleman and his coauthors.
Democratic:A leader uses this style
photo: Andrey Kiselev
M
any people can manage, but few people are inspiring enough to be leaders. Leadership skills are what propel principals to create better schools, teachers better classrooms and counselors better students. Being courageous enough to challenge a broken situation with several alternatives, champion a student who is letting themselves off the hook, or call forth a colleague who is choosing mediocrity is the beginning of courageous conversations that change outcomes.
when trying to figure out a new direction because the future course is unclear. The leader taps collective knowledge and wisdom from different perspectives among team members, but Goleman warns that this is the worst approach in times of crisis when urgent action is needed.
Affiliative: Often used to boost group morale, this style values teamwork and promotes connectedness among team members. Goleman warns that this method
Carol Carter
shouldn’t be used alone because it can devalue individual contributions and breed a perception among team members that mediocre work is acceptable.
Pacesetting:
This style sets a high standard for performance with an obsession for doing things faster and better. Goleman recommends this style be used sparingly because it can make team members feel like they’re failing which can create a climate of low morale.
Commanding:
This is an authoritative style often associated with the military and other operations where a strong pyramid structure is valued. Goleman purports that this leadership style is often ineffective, except during a crisis. Here are important questions to consider: • What vision do you have of yourself as a leader? • As a change agent? • As a champion for students? All leaders have two things in common: They positively influence others, and they don’t give up. What do really good leaders do that ineffective leaders don’t do? Why do some people inspire others to greatness while others promote little if any positive influence? Or worse, why and how do some people negatively influence others, bringing down entire organisations, companies, and profits? While books and lectures on this topic abound, the most effective leadership comes down to a few basic questions: 1. Do you have integrity? As a leader, if you are not a person of your word, you can’t motivate others. Or you may inspire them initially, but they won’t be with you for the long haul. If you’re a parent of teenagers, you’ve probably experienced how quickly they can let you know when you’re being a hypocrite. Educational consultant Joe Martin of Let Your Leadership Speak writes, “Even if you’re the hardest working and most gifted person on your team, no one will follow you unless they first trust and like you.”
“ All leaders have two things in common: They positively influence others, and they don’t give up..”
2. Do you bring out the best in others and yourself? The best leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of others, as well as their own strengths and weaknesses. They leverage the best qualities of those around them in ways that promote the personal growth of that person while meeting the school or district’s goals. 3.Do you have people on your team who offer different perspectives? Research shows that successful companies, as well as strong families, allow for differing points of view. Do you have people around you who think differently than you do? Do they challenge your point of view to help you make more thorough decisions? A dangerous element on a management team is people who all think similarly. It may be easier for them to get along, but they may not create the most divergent, quality-thinking possible. 4. Are you visionary? Do you have an idea of where your district can go and what your team can do to bring about wild successes? What tolerance do you have for teachable failures? What culture and climate does your vision promote? A true vision will reflect your most basic values and beliefs. If it does not, you cannot communicate the vision to your colleagues with integrity and expect that they will share in carrying it out.
5. Do you manage the details? People tend to be strong in details or vision, but the most skilled leaders are also good managers; they learn to do both well. The devil is in the details. Just ask any busy parent or superintendent. 6. Do you temper idealism with practicality? Some gifted leaders are sages and can have a roomful of people hang on their every word. Others lead in a more quiet way, with just as much strength and effectiveness. Whatever your teaching or leadership style, are you casting a longterm vision for your classroom/school/ district while focusing on what needs to be done in the here and now? 7. Do you lead by example? Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, says his mission to stop hate crime through litigation and education grew out of the example of tolerance and compassion that he saw at home. “It all began, I believe, from my having very special parents . . . They were small cotton farmers, and they taught me some important lessons.” Are you someone who sees yourself in an exalted state while those who work for you are busting their tails? Do you establish equanimity in your relationship to others, whether they are employees or family members? Or are you someone who doesn’t ask more from others than you are willing to give yourself? As someone has said, “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one.” To lead in today’s world, we all need coaching skills and the perseverance it takes to surmount formidable obstacles. The most effective leaders demonstrate a high degree of emotional intelligence to help motivate, inspire, and connect with their staff and students. They have the ability to maintain their authority while providing an example of leadership built on trust and respect. If we can live this form of leadership in our role as counselor, teacher, principal, or superintendent, then tomorrow’s leaders will have models of what they are capable of becoming. Let’s show them what’s possible.
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photo: Ana Blazic
Therese Hoyle
Emotional Genius Education What is Emotional Literacy and why does it matter?
Teachers Matter
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motional Literacy is our ability to recognise, understand, handle and appropriately express our emotions. Weare defines emotional literacy as “the ability to understand ourselves and other people, and in particular to be aware of, understand and use information about emotional states of ourselves and others with skill and competence. It includes the ability to understand, express and manage our own emotions and respond to the emotions of others in ways that are helpful to ourselves and others.” Antidote provides another similar definition in saying that emotional literacy is the practice of interacting with others in a way that builds understanding of our own emotions, then using this understanding to shape our actions. Emotions are an integral part of human nature. Through emotions, we respond to life in many different ways — with anger, happiness, fear, love and loneliness. Emotions influence our thoughts and
actions; they inspire our needs; they affect our bodies and impact on our relationships. Many of the problems in modern society are due, at least in part, to people being unable to understand and appropriately express emotion. Emotional literacy is a preventive tool, which properly understood, can help solve many social ills — violence, illness, drug abuse, dysfunctional relationships, and global societal conflicts. On the other hand, people who deal with emotions in a positive way find tremendous benefit. Emotional literacy can contribute to health, to positive relationships, to success, and to quality of life.
Goleman states that emotional intelligence “can matter as much as IQ” in determining a person’s well-being and effectiveness in life. In 1994, he wrote about the current state of emotional literacy in the U.S.: “...in navigating our lives, it is our fears and envies, our rages and depressions, our worries and anxieties, that steer us day to day. Even the most academically brilliant among us are vulnerable to being undone by unruly emotions. The price we pay for emotional literacy is in failed marriages and troubled families, in stunted social and work lives, in deteriorating physical health and mental anguish and, as a society, in tragedies such as killings...”
Understanding emotional literacy is key to helping young people develop self-esteem, self-control and become socially and educationally successful.
The impact of emotional literacy on learning.
Claude Steiner defines the distinction between emotional intelligence and emotional literacy: emotional literacy is emotional intelligence with a heart.
Our emotions impact our readiness and ability to learn; feeling safe is vital within the school environment. A child who does not feel emotionally safe, valued or
Therese Hoyle
“ The notion of intention is important. If these are the most important, lasting outcomes of education, surely we need to do more than assume they will be caught indirectly by exposure to a positive school culture.” listened to may enter the classroom feeling frustrated, angry, distracted or withdrawn, particularly when he is attempting to learn a new concept. Equally, a child who has too much on his mind (perhaps he is worried about the argument he saw his Mum and Dad have that morning, or he fell out with a friend yesterday and is anxious he may not have anyone to play with at playtime), may be unable to learn. If this is the case, then the student is in danger of not reaching his academic potential. When running circle times in schools internationally, I am regularly aware of children’s reluctance to put their hand up and answer questions, particularly after the age of eight. Many have learnt that the classroom is a dangerous and unsafe place and that if they were to risk answering a question they might open themselves to sniggers, putdowns and laughter and perhaps jibes later from their peers or
even sarcasm from the teacher, if the answer was wrong. The following quotation from Bluestein by a student clearly describes some of the factors that contribute to emotional safety. “Emotional safety means seeing a smile on my teacher’s face the first day of school instead of a list of rules that is taller than my arm is long. It means being able to use the word “Neanderthal” instead of “caveman” and not be made fun of because my vocabulary is too big. It means being able to go through the lunch line without fear of somebody grabbing my money or my cupcake. It means having a teacher who hands back papers privately instead of reading grades out loud as I pick up my test. Emotional safety is unconditional acceptance of me. Emotional safety, first and foremost, allows me to wear my natural face instead of a fake one ……” A safe learning environment is thus crucial to students achieving their full potential. Taking risks in their learning, asking
questions even if they think they might be silly ones, going to see a teacher if they are unsure of something or want to change subjects or classes, having someone to listen to their worries, fears and concerns is all essential to a student’s success. Circle Time and one-on-one listening programmes enable children to develop their emotional literacy skills and to have an outlet to talk about their big feelings. We all need help to reflect on our intense feelings, otherwise we are left to discharge or defend them.
Emotional literacy programmes in schools Emotional literacy programmes enable children to lear n the skills that give them greater emotional awareness, more emotional control and strong relationship building skills. Everyone is born with emotional intelligence, and we now know this is not fixed, but flexible and adaptive, unlike IQ. How this capacity develops is a person’s emotional literacy, and this depends on the kind of relationships they have, initially with the adults caring for them. Emotional literacy leads to emotional health; emotional
A collection of active and engaging games for children by Therese Hoyle available from www.spectrumeducation.com 31
photo: luminis
Therese Hoyle
health helps us fulfil our potential in every aspect of life.
Why do we need a programme of emotional literacy in our homes and schools? Mental health statistics point to a need for greater investment in child and adult emotional literacy programmes: • One in five children has a mental health problem (Mental Health Foundation UK). According to the Ministry of Health, studies suggest that one in four New Zealand children are likely to experience some kind of significant mental health problem before they reach adolescence.
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• The Youth Violence, Youth 2000 Report says that anti–depressant scripts have reached the million mark
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• Youth Suicide: male highest and female second highest in OECD countries • USA Today reports that depression is number one health issue in the USA
With an emotional literacy curriculum, children become resilient and optimistic learners who are able to recognise how their emotions impact themselves and others. This leads to the development of Goleman’s five “domains” of EQ: 1. Knowing your emotions. 2. Managing your own emotions. 3. Motivating yourself. 4. Recognizing and understanding other people’s emotions. 5. Managing relationships, ie., managing the emotions of others. In the UK the influence of Goleman’s work is seen in the government’s primary national strategy, Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning, whose core concepts are: • Self- awareness • Empathy • Managing feelings • Self- motivation • Social skills In New Zealand, the Ministry is integrating the learning of positive behaviors into all aspects of schools. Schools focus on these key competencies:
“ R e s p e c t t h i s child’s innate need for fair ness and justice, and be open and honest with him or he will catch you in your inconsistencies.” • Managing self • Relating to others • Participating and contributing • Thinking M a n y N e w Z e a l a n d s c h ools are now developing emotional literacy programmes. R e m e m b e r, w e l e a r n w h o w e a r e i n the context of relationships, and the relationships you build with children do have an indelible and lifelong effect.
Thinking Challenges
Adrian Rennie
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“ Virtually every move this child makes is based upon a desire to have fun and a driving need for approval with a deep sensitivity to even the slightest possibility of rejection.�
photo: Yuri Arcurs
Teachers Matter
Allie Mooney
Allie Mooney
Fostering Intelligent Relationships The Playful Child These students want lots of attention – and they’ll do best when they receive lots of encouragement from you.
I
can’t tell you how many times my school report had this comment:
“Allison has tremendous abilities, if she would just apply herself instead of getting involved with others, and being a distraction in the classroom.” I am sure some of you can identify with those comments. I guarantee it’s got a lot to do with personality. The Playful children just can’t help opening their mouths. They speak to hear their thoughts. Words have to come out of their mouths first for it to make any sense. They talk so much they make people’s ears bleed. Often they don’t have an audience, but it certainly doesn’t stop them from talking. This is the making of a brilliant communicator. Playfuls have short attention spans. It’s their first step toward centre stage. They love being the star and having the limelight. You can spot them with their loud laughter – and they’ll do whatever it takes to get it. Virtually every move this child makes is based upon a desire to have fun and a driving need for approval with a deep sensitivity to even the slightest possibility of rejection. Understanding the Playful child They will do whatever it takes to be noticed. The Playful child must be a part of the gang, whoever the gang is today. They are full of curiosity and have lots of ideas, but they are not necessarily motivated to carry them through. Education often takes a back seat to more important pursuits like: • Outdoor activities • Social events • Art • Design • Drama
They might like anything that will take them away from the disciplines of learning. They have a colourful imagination and can come up with endless excuses when called into account, for the sole need to be accepted. If you challenge them, they interpret this as rejection, and it takes a wise teacher to handle this child. Any anger directed toward them will make them shut down to learning. Acceptance is an overwhelming need. Lack of it causes a great deal of frustration and anxiety. No other personality that needs acceptance of others as badly as the Playful. They are prone to be influenced and drawn into unwise situations, because of this need. Of course we usually have a primar y personality and a secondary. A Playful/ Powerful blend will be more focussed, organised, and bossy. A Playful/Peaceful blend will want to be where the fun is, but probably not apply themselves like the Playful/Powerful. This child responds to encouragement and approval. Turning learning into a game and giving incentives and prizes will get this child excited about learning. Teachers and parents will probably need to put a hand in to help them produce results. Left to themselves, they let their imaginations run away with them and lose focus. This child is always enticed by what others are doing. They are forgiving children and don’t hold grudges or sulk for long. They bring life into lifeless situations. These types have the greatest need for physical affection than any of the other personalities, so parents need to do a lot of hugging, holding, and touching. They respond to positive body language.
Early in life, these children need to learn the disciplines of keeping things in order and being tidy. Messy works for them. Repetition is a key and staying right with them will guarantee some results. Without this commitment from parents, this child can easily slip into an irresponsible child and never quite grow up. Often these children will tell fibs, and use their imaginations out of a deep need for approval. Teachers should find other healthier ways to give approval as they deal with the lying and always praise them for telling the truth. Tips to remember A Playful child will do more through one word of encouragement than he will ever accomplish through negative body language, withdrawal of presence, disapproval and criticism. They have the greatest potential, but criticism can squash it because they wilt under poor reviews. Encourage the gift of humour when it lightens a heavy moment or helps the class move in the direction you want it to go. Ask the student to correct or improve work in specific, incremental steps rather than general, non-specific directions. Plan activities that encourage verbal interaction. Minimise tasks that require long hours of concentration. Provide for group activities – the Playful child enjoys discussing subjects. Break up assignments and give deadlines along the way. Incorporate sensory stimulation as such, taste, touch, sound and sight. One thing that makes these children thrive: encouragement. Be generous with praise. Yes we all need it, but these ones need it the most.
• Dance • Sports
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David Koutsoukis
Teaching Values for Life Arm your students to protect the environment.
So sang Joni Mitchell in her 1970s hit “Big Yellow Taxi.” This song reflects two key points that can help us teach our students to “be kind to the environment.” Firstly, the song gets across an environmental message. It laments the destruction of vegetation (and therefore wildlife) in the wake of progress and urbanization. It urges us to reflect upon our actions with regard to the environment and to consider what the consequences of not doing so may be. This, of course, is the type of attitude that we want to instill in our students.
Teachers Matter
The second point we can take from this song is that the use of music can be an effective way of
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teaching values. You must remember that teaching values is quite different from teaching other subjects. Most of our subjects deal with content, that is, information such as 1 + 1 = 2, or the capital city of New Zealand is Wellington. To achieve success in these subjects, students just have to be able to recall the information. However, with values, we are talking about changing behaviour. And
we don’t change behaviour by just standing at the front of the classroom and giving out information. To change behaviour, we need to connect with our students by giving them a heart/mind experience. This may be through the emotional connection we have with them, it may be through the real life examples and role models we show them, or it may be through the engaging teaching strategies we use.
Play music Music is a great way to engage students and connect their hearts and minds. Music has emotionally moved most of us, so it makes sense that music can help us connect content with emotions to promote positive behaviour. Some environmentally themed songs that come to mind include “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell, “Blue Sky Mining” by Midnight Oil and “Rip Rip Woodchip” by John Williamson. For a
photo: Juan Manuel Ordonez
“D
on’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot”
David Koutsoukis
“ To change behaviour, we need to connect with our students by giving them a heart/mind experience.”
You can use music in many ways to teach values, from playing the song and discussing the issues, to getting the students to write their own. I have had a lot of success in the past getting students to write parodies of existing songs to the theme of our topic.
Log onto the Internet The Internet, of course, is another great way to engage our students in their learning, and a number of great sites that encourage students to “be kind to the environment.” Some of them contain lesson plans; others you can use for research assignments, and some even have interactive games. Here is a selection for you to check out: www.gould.edu.au Includes teacher resources, school projects, and make sure you check the links to their interactive websites such as <www.futurescapes.com. au> and <www.gould.edu.au/foodwebs>. www.environment.gov.au A federal gover nment sustainability education website in with lots of links to Australian environmental sites. More suited for teacher information or older students. www.ecokids.ca A great Canadian website aimed at young kids. Make sure you check out the games and activities.
photo: Diego Cervo
list of songs with an environmental theme, visit my website www.schoolmasters.com.au/ free_articles_downloads/environmental_ songs.html A couple of other websites that contain environmental songs include www. songsforteaching.com/environmentsongs. htm and www.classroomclassics.com/ environment.html
Take action Another way to connect students’ hearts and minds is, of course, to have them participate in real life environmental activities. Teachers have been doing this for years with activities such as recycling programs, clean up projects and excursions to environmental centres. Why not get your kids “doing” some environmental stuff? Some great ideas I have seen in schools include:
Key pointers How to encourage your students to respect and value the environment Encourage your students to be aware that we need to: 3.1
Clean up after ourselves
3.2
Keep the land, air and waterways clean
3.3
Recycle and don’t waste
3.4
Save water
3.5
Conserve energy
•
Recycling centres
•
Environmental displays
•
The Golden Tongs or Emu Stalk grounds clean up every week
•
Adopt a Spot – where a class is allocated one part of the school to keep clean (grounds or gardens)
3.6
Care for natural habitats, wildlife and endangered species
•
Donation tin for an endangered species, e.g. Sumatran Tiger
3.7
Use environmentally friendly products
•
Visit national parks and heritage areas
3.8
Consider environmentally friendly energy sources
•
Make something out of recycled materials
3.9
Consider using resources that can be replaced
•
Make a reusable shopping bag
3.10
Value our cultural heritage
•
Create signs promoting environmental issues
Download free “Be kind to the environment” lesson plans at www.sixkindsofbest.com
37
David Koutsoukis
Seven ways to teach children to “be kind to the environment” 1. Teach children the “Six Kinds of Best” affirmation so they internalize the core values.
Encourage your students to do things like
2. Articulate what being “kind to the environment” means. See the key pointers in this article. Put up a poster to remind students. 3. Teach lessons on the key pointers from the Values Education Toolkit books. Free downloads available at
1. Put things away after they use them.
www.sixkindsofbest.com
2. Turn the lights off after they leave the room.
4. Use “Six kinds of best” language. For example, if someone is cleaning up after themselves say, “Well
3. Use the appropriate button in a duel flush toilet.
done, Ava; that’s ‘being kind to the environment’.”Or if they drop some rubbish say, “Oscar, that’s not ‘being kind to the environment,’ is it?’ 5. Catch children being kind to the environment. Give them an “I am kind to the environment” sticker or certificate. Better still, get children to praise each other when they see examples of other children being kind to the environment.
4. Reduce the amount of time they spend in the shower.
6. Use an individual or class progress chart to reinforce positive examples of environmental awareness.
5. Put old clothes into recycling bins.
7. Create a “Be kind to the environment” class display.
6. Encourage their parents to use reusable shopping bags. 7. Put used cool drink containers into recycling bins. 8. Make a donation for an endangered species cause. 9. Don’t leave the tap running while they clean their teeth.
Give your children “Six kinds of best”
The “Six kinds of best” are:
This article is the third in a series of six articles based on the The “Six kinds of best” concept. The concept provides a simple framework to help teachers and parents articulate what good values are, and gives students signposts to point them in the right direction.
10. Pick up rubbish even if they didn’t drop it.
1. Be kind to yourself 2. Be kind to others 3. Be kind to the environment 4. Be the learning kind 5. Be the achieving kind 6. Be the community kind For more information on the ‘Six kinds of best’ Values education toolkit resources visit www.sixkindsofbest.com
Values education toolkit resources By David Koutsoukis
Book 1: ages 4 -6yrs Book 2: ages 6 -8yrs Book 3: ages 8 -10yrs Book 4: ages 10-12yrs Book 5: ages 13-15yrs -
RIC-2773 - ISBN 9781741263565 RIC-2774 - ISBN 9781741263749 RIC-2775 - ISBN 9781741263756 RIC-2776 - ISBN 9781741263763 RIC-2777 - ISBN 9781741263770
$42.95 each $45.00 each
Teacher resource books including values framework, explanatory notes, lesson plans, blackline masters, certificates and many other great ideas for teaching values. RIC-7065 ISBN 9321862008074 (set of six posters) $49.95
Available from Spectrum Education www.spectrumeducation.com
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Thinking Challenges
Adrian Rennie
Thinking Game
“A Ship Came Into Port” is a thinking game for two to five players. The object of the game is to take turns to generate original ideas on a given topic. Players each have a dice in front of them with 6 facing up. Players get an image in their minds of a massive cargo ship. The youngest player starts and says, “a ship came into port loaded with a cargo full of...”. That player (or the teacher) then choose a new catagory from the list below. The player on his or her left then generates an idea related to the topic. The next player then does the same and so on round the circle. Ideas must be original. Ideas keep coming until someone messes it up. The fun comes in imagining a cargo ship full of those often crazy things. A player loses if they offer an idea that has already been said, they take too long (more than about 5 seconds) or if they offer an idea that is unrelated to the intended topic. When a player loses they turn their dice down a number. They then start a new round by saying “a ship came into port loaded with a cargo full of...”. The game ends when one player loses all the numbers on their dice. The List:
~ fruits and veges. ~ sports. ~ party food. ~ things people collect. ~ things with holes. ~ heavy things. ~ annoying things. ~ things that are wet. ~ things with wheels.
~ sandwhich fillings. ~ old things. ~ things that boys like. ~ battery operated things. ~ smelly things. ~ things you pick. ~ things that fly. ~ sticky things. ~ powerful things.
~ nasty habits. ~ things that float. ~ things that girls like. ~ famous people. ~ things that bite. ~ green things. ~ animal sounds (make them). ~ slow things. ~ funny things.
This game can be used to help student develop specific skills or knowledge. For example, younger students who need to develop their spelling and phonics skills and knowledge could play A Ship Came Into Port where the topics are: ~ things beginning with “st”. ~ things beginning with “br”. ~ things beginning with “pl”.
~ things beginning with “dr”. ~ things beginning with “th”. ~ things beginning with “gr”.
Creative and flexible thinking can be encouraged by making the topics really interesting, obscure or based more on personal opinion: ~ things that are beautiful. ~ things that need to be fixed.
~ things that should be more important. ~ things that people should stop doing.
The Habits of Mind students are using when playing this game are: Creating, Imagining And Innovating
Students need to be creative and innovative in their thinking. They will have the most fun if they are able to visualise the cargo ship full of these things.
Thinking Interdependently
Students need to work well with the others in the group. Turn taking, fairness and communicating clearly are important for a successful game.
Thinking Flexibly
Students need to generate new ideas fast. They need to be able to cycle through many ideas and take into account the ideas of others too. A.Rennie 2009
43
karen boyes
Learn – And Then Learn Again In today’s world, you must keep studying to get ahead.
If you’re not participating, you won’t make any mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, you can’t be learning. No one ever told me this when I was at school. I used to go home and study everything I knew. That’s not learning, it’s revising. Learning is understanding and remembering what you don’t know.
Teachers Matter
When you get a test assignment back and your mark is seven out of 10, you should celebrate. What is the most important part of this mark? The three that you got wrong. This tells you what you still need to learn. The seven tells you what you already know. If you thought the fact that you’d passed was the most important part of the seven out of 10, think again. I’m not sure who decided 50 percent is a pass, but in the 21st century, this is not enough. Let’s say you’re
44 44
“ Current statistics show that, on average, teenagers will have 10 to 14 different careers in your life—not jobs, but careers.”
employed as an air-traffic controller. Your job is to land the planes safely. After your first day at work, you go home and tell your partner, “Honey I passed today. I landed 60 percent of my planes!” If you’re an air traffic controller, 99.9 percent is not enough. You have to be 100 percent accurate. Imagine you are going into the hospital for surgery and the doctor thought 80 percent accuracy was enough! You are not likely to want to go for the operation. The 21st century demands that we make mistakes, learn from them and get better and better at what we do.
Study Tip: Learn the information I don’t know
So learning the information you don’t know might be hard to start with, but the more you do it, the easier it will get. Sometimes, when people make mistakes or get things wrong, they exhibit certain behaviours that are not useful for continuing the learning process. For example, some people may deny what is happening and pretend it’s not their fault or not happening at all. They might pretend that their study is going well and pretend not to notice that they are failing their subjects. They might make excuses for the results they are getting. For example, making an excuse for not handing in an assignment, when the truth is they didn’t prioritize the assignment or care enough about completing it.
Go back over all your tests, assignments and exams and learn what you got wrong. Now this sounds simple, yet most people don’t do it. They don’t learn the information they got wrong because it’s too hard.
Study Tip: Everything is hard before it is easy Everything is hard before it is easy. Have you ever watched a young child learn to walk? They stand up, wobble, fall down, cry and get back up. Have you ever heard a mother say to her child, “You’ve fallen over too many times. You’re a failure at walking, so stop trying!” No, of course not. No mother would ever say this, no matter how long it takes to learn to walk. Here is a simple success formula. This is why everyone, who is physically able to, can walk. When they fell down, they simply got back up. That’s it; it’s not rocket science, just a simple rule in life to remember. When you fall down, you simply get back up.
photo: Lev Olkha
Y
our ability to learn is probably the most sustainable advantage you’ll have in the future. The word “failure” is not a pleasant word for most people — especially when it is to do with learning. In fact, the fear of failure is one of the top ten fears. However, you and I as human beings are designed to learn by trial and error—to learn from our mistakes. I believe there is only one failure in life. The only failure is the failure to participate.
karen boyes
They might also blame others for results. A student might say, “It’s my teacher’s fault I failed the exam,” or “It’s the government’s fault I don’t have a job.” These three behaviours keep people from playing the game of life by joining them up to what I call the Victim Team (being a victim of life). The good news is there are three alternative behaviours to choose “above the line of life.” The first is to take ownership. You can do this simply by saying, “Oops, I made a mistake,” and admitting you are at fault. The second is to be accountable for your life and your results. This means you are able to account for what is happening in your life and why.
7th
clo 09-176-11
An nu al T
sin
The third is a word you probably hear more and more as you’re getting older: responsibility. This means taking full responsibility for the results you get without making excuses or blaming others. People who use these three behaviours play the game of life in what I call the Learning Team. I started with a quote about your ability to learn being the sustainable advantage in the future. Life in the 21st century is changing so fast. Are you still learning how to program the DVD player? (Or are you teaching your parents how to?) In New Zealand there are many classes of seven year olds who, on a daily basis, update and program their own web sites. Do you have a web site, blog, a wiki space? Can you program or update one? These children will have your jobs because they are keeping up with fast technological changes.
Current statistics show that, on average, teenagers will have 10 to 14 different careers in your life—not jobs, but careers. If you decide to become an engineer, it takes four years to train at University. By the time you have been in the workforce for two years, up to 60 percent of what was taught at University is obsolete. In the field of biotechnology, it takes only one year for half of what you learn to be outdated. And recent statistics show that every 10 months in the medical field, 50 percent of the information has changed. Again, your ability to learn and learn from your mistakes is paramount to your success. Not just in study, but in life. Enjoy learning and study smart!
rownlow Education B r e k Haw hin king
a nd
Le a r n
ing Co nference
David Sousa Heidi Hayes Jacobs Jay McTighe Gayle Gregory Ruby Payne Jan Chappuis Patti Drapeau Sue Presler Mike Scaddan Lane Clark Elizabeth Simon
g the
lear ning gap
Saturday 15 to Tuesday 18 May, 2010 Venue: Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia
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photo: Edite Artmann
Ngahihi o te ra Bidois
The Importance of Momentum Activity leads to success.
S
Teachers Matter
everal times in my life I have found myself in the situation where someone’s car has either broken down at the traffic lights or they have a flat battery and I have joined several others to push the unfortunate person’s car. One fact I have learnt is that it is a lot easier to push the car once it is in motion. A lot of initial effort goes into getting the stationary vehicle moving, especially if you are the first one there to push.
46
I recently read an article by leadership guru John C. Maxwell that a train travelling 55 mph on a railroad track can crash through a five-foot thick steel-reinforced concrete wall without stopping. That same train, starting from a stationary position, won’t be able to go through an inch-thick block in front of the driving wheel. He went on to explain that it is never the size of our problems that is the problem. It is a lack of momentum. Without momentum, even a tiny obstacle can prevent us from moving forward. With momentum, we are
often able to navigate through problems and barely notice them. I have had the privilege of working with many leaders who understand the importance of momentum. They know how to develop and maintain momentum in the organisations they are leading and will often use phrases such as “right, let’s keep moving” , “kia kaha, kia maia” or “Let’s keep this flow happening.” As John C. Maxwell points out, leaders who understand the importance of momentum are focused usually on the future rather than the past and have a strong emphasis on team rather than the individual. They revel in creativity that leads to change and are constructive, passionate, and grateful. They remember who “pushed their car” by helping their business gain momentum, especially in those early years and tough times. Leaders who understand momentum know their achievements are never theirs alone. “Ehara taku toa I te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini.”
One of the most important aspects of leaders who understand momentum is their ability to take action. They keep active. Action leads to success, and as Winston Churchill once said “I never worry about action, but only about inaction.” So, how is your momentum going? Are you moving along nicely or is it time to contact one of your mentors for a “push?” Remember a moving car is always easier to push, so don’t wait until you are stationary. Are you like the moving train or the other one? Are you passionate or apathetic, focused or double minded, taking action or indecisive? Your leadership starts and ends with you. I encourage you to take one memento to consider your momentum.
robyn harawira
Through My Eyes A simple solution might make reading – and living – much easier for certain children with Irlens.
F
or one out of 10 students, black print on a white page (or white board) causes distortions in what they see. Some see print blurry; others see the white gaps between words as “rivers of print;” some get motion sickness as the words seem to swirl. Using a coloured overlay or coloured lense will make a difference and allow them to see the world as others see it. I first heard of this when teaching in Whangarei over 20 years ago, where a remedial reading teacher, Olive Meyers, was working with a young boy. She was using a piece of perspex placed over a text book. I overheard the boy say to her, “Wow, the words aren’t moving now.” That piqued my interest. Olive had discovered the phenomenon we now know as Irlen. Years later, American Helen Irlen devised a series of coloured overlays and tints that enabled these viewers to see the world undistorted. Irlens is not a visual acuity problem; you can have perfect eyesight and still have Irlens. It is a difficulty in perception. Like many disabilities, Irlen Syndrome has varying degrees. The following illustrates an extreme view:
For some, the syndrome presents environmental implications. A young boy I screened for Irlens looked at a stairwell through the tinted lenses and exclaimed, “Stairs don’t move!” His mum and dad looked astounded, as they had always thought he was “clumsy.” Not only did it make a difference in his ability to run down stairs without injuring himself or others, his schoolwork improved dramatically.
Another young boy that I screened came to me proudly with his handwriting book. He was the last person I expected to see in my p r i n c i p a l ’s o f f i c e w i t h e x c e l l e n c e i n handwriting. I asked him what happened, and his response was “It’s easy now because the lines don’t move!”
Before Irlen Lenses:
After Irlen Lenses:
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robyn harawira
I screened all the children in my school who we had identified with reading difficulties. Research shows that 46 percent of such students will benefit from Irlen lenses or overlays. This proved to be true in our school.
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The bonus for me was when one of the mums came in and said that she had accompanied her son to the Irlen Clinic and whilst looking over his shoulder had discovered that she too saw distorted print. She ordered glasses and hasn’t had a migraine headache since.
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The following poster shows how the brain has to overwork for these people. No wonder migraine headaches occur.
We consider Irlen overlays and coloured lenses as a “piece of the puzzle” for learning. Often, we easily identify the children who may benefit from the coloured lenses, as they are the children who have great oral ability, yet seem to fall short with handwriting and reading. It usually shows up when they start reading smaller text. (Early readers are like “islands of print,” and it doesn’t tend to pose a problem). A good time to screen is around 8 years old, as the gap will start to widen and is more noticeable. Registered screeners follow this checklist. See www.irlen.com for further details. Once you identify a student as needing screening, locate a registered screener. They might recommend going to the diagnostic clinic for lenses. It is important that the student have a basic optometric eye test first to establish whether prescription lenses are required as well. Funding assistance may be available. Check for eligibility with WINZ, or your local optician.
alan cooper
Dispositions: Illusions, Jargon, Or Something Real?
“T
hinking” is a key competency in the new curriculum. To explore what this key competency means and the conditions required to develop it, we need to start with the dispositions that surround thinking. About 30 years ago the term “disposition” came into the language of education, yet it is not widely understood. Therefore, we should first agree on a definition. Dispositions are patterns of thinking and behaving, or to use Siegel’s 1999 description, “a tendency, propensity, or inclination to behave or act in certain ways under certain circumstances.” Mental models determine our dispositions Our individual mental models determine these tendencies. Mental models are the beliefs that drive our actions, the logical, cognitive ones and the ever-present emotional ones, both influenced by our experiences. However, we are often unaware of these models and therefore unaware of their consequences. Even when we have clearly stated dispositions, our mental models, our deeply held beliefs, may interfere and un-stated dispositions below the conscious level take control. As Argyris and Schon stated in 1974, we develop a gap between what we say we do (the espoused disposition) and what we actually do (the disposition in action). A practical example of this is school X. This real school has a philosophy (the espoused disposition) of developing self-managing, life-long learners. However, the ritual that they have in place for entering the classroom at the end of a break is in conflict with their philosophy. The students line up in a wellbehaved line outside the door, until the teacher arrives and gives the signal to move inside and sit down. This (the disposition in action) is authoritarian teacher control, the antithesis of the espoused theory.
Neither the individual teacher nor the school leaders will easily discern this gap because of what Argyris describes as “skilled” unawareness of inconsistency in our own thinking. In this case, a teacher or principal rationalised away the disposition by ignoring the espoused theory and shifting the argument to the need for a quiet classroom. Because mental models are idiosyncratic, dispositions will vary from teacher to teacher, from student to student, from teacher to student, and, of course, the wider community, including parents. Overcome this at your school by having some agreedon overarching dispositions as a foundation upon which to build a thinking culture. Two key overarching dispositions It is important to have some dispositional commitment to reflection. We need to know the reality of what we are doing, and, if possible, why. This means raising our actions to the consciousness level. Doing so will pose problems that will need thoughtful, perhaps even innovative, planning to overcome. For now, let’s agree that a disposition to be reflective is a disposition that we want. Can you word this better or differently? You may
“ W e d e v e l o p a gap between what we say we do (the espoused disposition) and what we actually do (the disposition in action).”
photo: Duane Ellison
What thinking dispositions do we want our teachers to have?
even like to consider if it deserves to be a key, overarching disposition. Students must feel comfortable and safe, as one student calls it, “daring,” to give an answer. See the paper I presented to the 13th International Confernce on Thinking for more detail on this aspect http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp/021/vol2/005/ ecp2107v2005.pdf In my research, I recently found that students saw “a good teacher” as one they engaged with on a personal level. One student summed it up by writing, “He knows when I have a down day.” With that student, the teacher needed an empathetic disposition. Also included here can be formative assessments and the power they provide. According to Grant Wiggins, “When it is done right, most students can achieve at the same levels as the current top 20 percent.” Robert Marzano states that feedback can add up to a 29 percentile point difference in student learning. The best formative assessment has a strong emphatic element in it. Again, I can ask the same questions: Is a disposition to be empathetic a disposition that we want? Can this be worded better or differently? Does it deserve to be a key overarching disposition? Now it’s up to you. Have your say on what I have suggested, and check back in future issues of Teachers Matter for more ideas on dispositions and Habits of the Mind.
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janice davis
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“ If you understand photo: Dmitriy Shironosov photo: Andrey Kiselev
Teachers Matter
“ If you understand your own personality and corresponding strengths and weaknesses, you can understand another person.”
Janice davis
Dealing With Difficult People And Tricky Situations Understanding yourself and the other person is the first step to a win-win relationship.
Dealing with these circumstances successfully requires self-knowledge, skills, understanding and confidence. Feeling empowered requires a few steps, and ultimately the steps start with understanding yourself. You can’t change anyone else; you can only change yourself; and there is an old saying: If it’s to be, it’s up to me! If you understand your personality and corresponding strengths and weaknesses, you can understand another person. That is the first step to realising the other person may not be difficult, but merely has a different personality.
Once I had explained people having different traits, the maths teacher sighed with relief. Able to understand their differences, he then learnt some new communication techniques so he could interact more effectively and be more empowered. However, it is not always possible to categorise people into personality groups and that’s not always the answer. You also need additional knowledge about win/ win relationships. Some people talk down to you or point their finger. It is their manner that you find distressing. These encounters leave you feeling un-empowered, stressed or angry, while they are generally not concerned. The types of relationships that you want at work are win/win style relationships.
“ Able to understand their differences, he then learnt some new communication techniques so he could interact more effectively and be more empowered.”
At one of my workshops, I had a maths teacher who classified the art teacher as “difficult.” The maths teacher was systematic, quiet, early to appointments, organised, and efficient at filing all the important memos. The art teacher, a creative person, was bright, colourful, flamboyant, unorganised, often late, and from the maths teacher’s perspective, noisy. She hummed and would cheer everyone up in the morning when she arrived with a bright and bubbly “good morning.”
He was chewing his fingernails in frustration when she leaned over his desk and asked for important memos she had misfiled. The situation was almost at crescendo level for the maths teacher, while the art teacher was not overly concerned.
Often you will have these with friends and colleagues who you “get along with” and are happy to lend or share something with, as you know it will always be returned. Whereas other people will try and manipulate you and always want their way. You need to communicate assertively and express yourself using “I” statements and “No” when appropriate, along with the line, “I have changed my thinking.” “I’d
photo: Diego Cervo
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ou’re grating your teeth and feel like hammering the computer to get rid of the anger you’re feeling after encountering a difficult person. Discussing it with your partner or tearing your hair out will not solve the problem. Instead, any positive outcome is in your hands — or rather, your head.
like to help you, but I’m sorry I will have to say no” is another phrase that may suit your personality. Then there are the bullies who seem to gleefully manipulate people while appearing confident. One school principal had no idea that bullying was happening in his school office. Bullies are clever at spinning the story their way, leaving the other party perplexed and undermining their confidence and self-esteem. However, it’s not just in the office and classrooms, it’s out in the school grounds where bullies are also rife. Both parties involved in bullying have one underlying common similarity: They both have low esteem. The bully reveals it by wanting to feel important and achieves this by bulling another person. The person being bullied has not the confidence and skills to react appropriately, and ultimately the end result is they are bullied. This lose/lose relationship is underpinned by both parties wanting respect, acceptance and appreciation but not knowing how to achieve this. Learning and understanding these and other important tools are imperative to your road to success. Walking away intact, emotionally and intellectually, is a key to improved people relationships.
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Dr Martin & Patricia Buoncristiani
Note Takers or Note Makers?
Have students take notes on the left side and the right side and you’ll teach them how to think.
B
Teachers Matter
rain research tells us that one of the most important parts of learning is the organisation of new knowledge and its integration into what the brain already knows. It is important to understand facts and ideas within a conceptual framework. We know that students have different styles of thinking and of learning. We have all heard of the notion of multiple intelligences and that some students are better visual learners than others, while others need to get it written out before they can really understand something.
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Traditionally, note taking in the classroom or the lecture hall has been a process of recording information or the opinions or observations of others, usually our teachers. As a school student and later at university I filled books with the carefully written notes that would form the foundation of my studying for the inevitable exams at the end of the semester or academic year. I devised a very efficient manner of studying where I would progressively summarise my notes, topic by topic, page by page, paragraph by paragraph until I was left with just a set of letters that would become a mnemonic for a vast underlying pool of knowledge. When I entered the exam room I would write down the mnemonic sentence as soon as the teacher allowed us to lift our pens. I would then expand each letter and each word until I had recreated my year’s work. The initial letters of each word in the mnemonic sentence would stand for a word that in turn led to other sentences, paragraphs and pages of information lurking below the surface of my mind. This system worked well for me. I became a skilled “rememberer” and passed my exams with flying colors, but I didn’t learn to think this way. In a thought-filled classroom note making can serve as a platform for thinking. Of course, notes will still be a valuable resource when preparing for exams, but the act of note making itself will be a part of the processes of learning — the exploring,
inventing, testing and challenging that identify real learning. Note making becomes a thinking activity. The method of note making we are describing here can be adapted to serve students from primary schooling to advanced university study. The principles are the same, you only need to adjust the level of complexity. The setting up of the thinking notebook is very structured. Only the teacher and students’ ingenuity limit the structure. What Kind of Notebook? Students will need a sturdy notebook with binding that can accommodate the additional thickness derived from pasting notes to pages. Loose-leaf folders are not advisable because it becomes too easy to remove a page if a student is tempted to want a visually attractive notebook rather than a truly useful tool. Because there will be a great deal of thinking involved and not all thinking will be well organised, pages can become messy and disorganised, too. Past experiences may encourage some students to feel that an untidy page is somehow a failure and they may want to get rid of the evidence. A thoughtfilled classroom values thinking and its members understand that we learn from messy thinking as well as those moments of razor-sharp insight. We need to help our students understand that the process is valuable, and the notebook is a valuable record of the process. Setting it up Number every page and leave the first few pages to create a table of contents. As the notebook grows, students are able to use the table of contents to help review past learning as they move ahead into new territory. Numbering the pages ahead of time also discourages the student from pulling pages out.
The left hand side – the recording and assessment page The teacher provides the content of the lesson – the key information, vocabulary and concepts that are to be covered — as a concise page of notes that the student will paste onto the left hand page of a double page of the notebook. This becomes the recording and the assessment side of the notebook and can include vocabulary lists, concept information such as definitions or facts, textbook notes, film or video notes, guest speaker notes. Annotation of notes Students use lots of color to underline, highlight and encircle sections of the text. They need to have a clear scheme; for example, red highlighter for all unknown words, blue highlighter for all key words, underlining for topic sentences, circling of intriguing phrases or sentences – the ones that pique the student’s interest. Students should have developed and recorded a color key in their notebooks, let them devise their own! Here is a fifth grade example of an annotated page.
Dr Martin & Patricia Buoncristiani
“ A thought-filled classroom values thinking and its members understand that we learn from messy thinking as well as those moments o f r a z o r- s h a r p insight. We need to help our students understand that the process is valuable, and the notebook is a valuable record of the process. ” The right hand page – the creative processing and thinking page This is where the organisation and integration of learning takes place. This is the thinking side, the place where the students are required to process and represent their developing knowledge in NEW ways. Using all their classroom experiences – notes on the left hand page, classroom discussions, experiments, field trips, videos, reference reading – the student reframes his learning in diagrams, tables, mind maps, pictures and other non-linguistic forms. He rephrases concepts into his own language, sorts and arranges information using tables and Venn diagrams, he uses arrows to create cycles or cause and effect diagrams, he writes poems, asks questions. While it is essential that every student has the same left hand page information in each notebook, the right hand pages will look different because each student is given the opportunity to interpret the information in a manner most suited to his learning style and drawing on his own creativity. At the end of a lesson the students may write a reflection on what he has
learned, draw a picture that illustrates the central points of the lesson, ask questions that have either arisen or failed to be answered during the lesson. Students use this page to reflect on, explain and justify their learning. It becomes a portfolio of learning experiences. Here is the same fifth grade student’s right hand page.
be helpful if the teacher suggests and lists particular activities for each lesson, gradually increasing the number of options as students become more familiar and comfortable with the method of note making and moving to a point where students make their own choices about how to reframe, organise and structure their knowledge. It is very important that teachers plan lessons to include time for constructing the notebook. Right page work needs to become an essential, valued and anticipated part of most lessons. Teachers need to give reasons for students to look back through their notebooks, either to retrieve information or to compare their current thinking and understanding with that of weeks or months earlier. The teacher should regularly collect and review the notebooks. Only then will you know who is struggling with the integration of new knowledge or who is misunderstanding key concepts. We can assure you that when the thinking notebooks are operating well, you will be fascinated by their content.
Here is an example by an older student using the thinking notebook in a literature class.
The teacher’s role In addition to providing the notes for the left hand page, the teacher needs to teach the students how to use their notebooks. Initially teachers may need to give students a great deal of direction about the sorts of activities they can engage in on the right hand page. The making of Venn diagrams needs to be taught, the appropriateness and construction of tables, of mind maps, of poems all need to be taught. It can
Interactive learning The two hemispheres of the brain have different functions. The left side of the brain is the logical hemisphere; it is analytical, rational, and is particularly involved in language. The right side of the brain is the creative and intuitive hemisphere gathering information from images, interpreting patterns and body language, emotional content and tone of voice. We often hear people describe themselves as either leftbrained or right-brained, but in reality we all use both sides of our brains and we learn best when both sides work together to analyse and synthesize experiences and information. The thinking notebook reflects the organisation of the brain, in that the left side is logical, linguistic, and analytical and the right side provides an opportunity to work on that information in more personal, creative and interpretative ways. The thinking notebook is sometimes described as an interactive notebook because it provides a medium for students to interact with their learning and make it their own at a deep, more thoughtful and integrated level. Students are no longer simply note takers; they become note makers and thinking learners who use their notes as a way of learning, rather than simply a record of what should be learned for a test.
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andrew churches
Students Can Resist the Temptation of the Internet – When We Teach Them Well
A
ccessing recreational sites during classes and work is an issue facing schools and employers alike. The cost in dollar terms and lost productivity can be huge. School and business leaders employ various strategies to manage this but the strategies are often ineffective, draconian or dictatorial. How can we better manage this issue? IT News reported that on average, 40 percent of the companies bandwidth is used by employees for non business-related web activity. The New Zealand Herald reported that this level of activity cost the New Zealand economy $2.7 million a day. At work, unlike school, such activities can have huge repercussions — including dismissal. As teachers, we must prepare our students for the world they live in now, but also for the world beyond the walls and boundaries of our institutions. This includes when it is appropriate to surf and when it is not. The Digital Citizen has an understanding of when and where it is appropriate to use the Internet and online resources for recreational purposes. They know “what time it is.”
Teachers Matter
As teachers and administrators, we can help develop our digital citizens’ self management skills. We do this not by having restrictions but by gradually removing them and by encouraging an ethical approach to using technologies rather than applying draconian measures.
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Age Younger students
Senior students
So how can we educate our students? Is it appropriate to unleash unfettered internet access on middle school students? The answer is no. Here we need to provide guidelines and restrictions as they are often morally and ethically immature. But as the students enter into the senior school, it is appropriate to shift control from the teachers to the students. This is not to say “off you go,” rather it is appropriate to gradually release the controls. We n e e d t o h a v e c l e a r l y e s t a b l i s h e d guidelines for what is and is not acceptable, and we also need to be able to justify why. In some circumstances, this is easy. For example, sur fing pornography is unacceptable for a number of reasons. But what about Facebook, Myspace and other social networking sites? These are not fundamentally unethical. Often schools will block these sites as they are potentially opportunities for cyberbullying. But this strategy will not stop students from cyberbullying.
photo: Andrey Kuzmin
Guiding older students to use the Internet appropriately will help them act appropriately at work.
recreational sites) is to set clear guidelines for their use and make them available. Informing the students that the use of computers in class is strictly for educational purposes sets the foundation. Inform senior students that they can, in their own time (before and after school, interval and lunch), access social networking/recreational sites, as long as their behaviour is appropriate and acceptable brings the use of these sites from the realm of proxy tunnels and hidden activity and into the open.
This approach prepares students for a world where the consequences of inappropriate a c t i v i t y a r e f a r m o r e s e v e r e . We , a s educators, facilitate appropriate behaviours and chastise those who fail to act appropriately. A partnership, based on trust and understanding makes the use of these A better and more constructive approach site open, manageable and transparent. to social networking sites (and other Students develop the skills and attitudes that will stand them in good Management strategies Students understanding stead beyond Controlled access, Wide site restriction, directive Limited understanding of ethical and moral issues, Morally our gates, in teaching approach with monitoring. Some student self and ethically immature, limited perspective often egothe world of employment management. centric. Exploratory behaviour, testing boundaries, identity and further development education.
Managed access, limited site restriction (pornography etc). Monitoring, students self management and acceptance of responsibility
Developing complex ethical and moral structures, ethically and morally maturing, holistic understanding with a broad perspective beyond self
Freaky
Facts
Chocolate stimulates the release of endorphins in the body. Endorphins enhance one’s mood and block pain.
The average human body contains enough iron to make a 7.62cm nail. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and then sinking to the bottom.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds and dogs only have ten. Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 0.1 of a calorie.
During a 24 hour period, the average human will breathe 23,040 times and exercise 7 million brain cells.
Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chapman lookalike contest.
ones, ith 300 b w n r o b re e only Babies a d we hav o o h lt u d but by a dies. in our bo s e n o b 206
Each year insects eat one third of the world’s food crop.
f the re one o a s t u ite n Pea f dynam o s t n e i ingred An elephant can smell water nearly 5km away.
oard? a skateb g in d ri a cow . you call happen What do ophe about to tr s codile? A cow-ta ee a cro s u o y n he mbrella? e is it w nd an u a What tim . g o d g run a barkin Time to between e c n re ? e diffe up. vampire What’s th ut the umbrella ur with a a s o in h d s cross a You can hen you w t e g u yo What do . ad? shortage d ss the ro A bloo ro c r u a inos n’t the d nted. Why did ve in eren’t d cries? Roads w orner an c a in s reen, sit What’s g ible Sulk. d ticks? The Incre brooms e s u s e witch Why do than walking. r e It is bett soup! ill get it! fly in my a ’s r salad w re u e o y th r, in e r Wait spide orr y, the Don’t w kes? gs tell jo g e ’t n o er up. Why d each oth k c ra c They’d
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The honeybee kills more people worldwide than all the poisonous snakes combined.
er are pap u q s , y r e of d re No piec half mo n i d e d fol can be s. en time that sev
s e ok ck. k kno Knoc there? Who’s e Freez who? ellow e z ood f e g y Fre ll e a jo Freez ck. k kno Knoc there? Who’s air Desp o? air wh is flat p s e D e air tyr Desp
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Mike Handock
A Better Life is as Easy as Asking Better Questions Asking a general question might work – but asking a specific one is much more likely to get you what you need?
L
ooking for the key to wealth? Then look no further. This is it. Ask better questions.
Now I know you have heard this in many forms, but possibly you haven’t considered it enough. My philosophy is “ask poor questions, get poor answers, have poor information and therefore make poor decisions.” As soon as you ask a great question, that all switches.
Not convinced? Well, here are four very different examples.
Teachers Matter
1. I’m out to dinner with my friend. We look at the menu and the waitress comes to tell us the specials. We listen and are tempted to ask: ‘So what’s good?’ But instead I ask a better question. ‘If you were eating here, knowing the chef who’s cooking tonight and what he or she does best, what is the one thing you would have to have?’ ‘That’s easy’ she replies: ‘the lamb.’ We have the lamb and it’s sensational. Maybe that chef was great at lamb and couldn’t cook fish at all. Asking a great question gives you great information.
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2. My friend Terry is retired. He is sitting on his yacht in the Hauraki Gulf outside of Auckland when he gets a call from an old client in Sydney who has a major computer problem. He tells Terry that if Terry can fix it inside a week, there is a $500,000 fee in it for Terry. So Terry asks himself this question: “Who in the world can fix this problem?” Not who in Sydney, or even who does he know, but who in the world? Terry makes calls and eventually gets put onto a guy in the USA who can fix the issue and will
complete it before the end of the week. Terry agrees to pay him a success fee of $250,000. Terry banks $250,000 net without leaving his yacht. 3. I needed to get some tertiary qualifications behind me when I was about 30. I really didn’t want to go to university, but I thought I needed the qualifications. So I signed up, paid up and then asked every head of department for every subject the same question: “I have zero time available to do this due to work and family. What is the absolute minimum I need to study to pass with straight A’s?” Every single person told me. Two years later (by correspondence) I have my qualification with mostly A’s and two academic prizes for topping the country. 4. In sales of financial products, most people ask for referrals. They ask poorly: “Who do you know who you can refer me to?” They get poor quality referrals and their future is left up to the judgement of the person they ask. By changing to an awesome question: “Who is the best business person you know personally?,” they now get great referrals to people who have money and are concerned for their future.
Everything you want in life will result from the quality of questions you ask. If you want anything at all, follow the right sequence as well. Decide what you want. Decide who you need to ask, and who they can lead you to. Plan when is the best time to ask, and often just leave the how up to the person you have asked to guide you. So many of us get stuck by asking ourselves: How can I do this? When really the right question is: “What do I need to do next?” Or “Who can help me get to my objective?” It sounds simple, but focussing on asking great questions will really serve you to live your game and get close to your ultimate objectives. When you are faced with a problem, sit down and write out the questions you could ask to get answers to that problem. Actually write down the words: What or Who, and frame your question from there. You will find that in no time you are getting better results.
“ Ever ything you want in life will result from the quality of questions you ask. ”
photo: Ekaterina Pokrovskaya
mike handcock
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stuart fleming
Teach Your Teen Financial Responsibility Start a Four-Part Money Mastery system
I
used to believe there were just two aspects to money – it came in and it went out. Even if I managed to save some of my pay, it was always earmarked for a particular item or an upcoming expense. There was a cashflow problem: My cash was always flowing out! I constantly crossed my fingers, hoping the rainy day never arrived, because I didn’t have money saved for it. Once I learnt that money could be divided into four parts my “there never seems to be enough” money habit changed. It was a change in how I managed my finances, but, more important, it was a change in what I thought about my money. You could say this Four-Part Money Mastery system lines up your attitude with abundance. As a parent or teacher, it’s important that you grow your teens’ financial intelligence before they’re unleashed on the world with its easy credit, no-deposit loans and interestfree specials. If you’re now experiencing a sense of dread, worried that your own financial intelligence isn’t up to speed, don’t panic. You can easily put these simple techniques in place for yourself and pass them on.
Teachers Matter
Part 1: Spending
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Goodness me: Who would have thought we’d end up spending some of our money! Haha! The habit I used to have was spending, and then trying to save, but there was never much left over to save. Making a slight change to my thinking and process made an enormous change, so big in fact, that I’m going to leave Part 1 and come back to it soon…
Part 2: Saving This kind of saving is still really spending. It’s just been delayed a while. In this part of the system, the saving is for a goal: a particular item of clothing, a new bike, a car, sports
Part 4: Wealth creation “ Yo u c o u l d s a y t h i s F o u r- P a r t Money Mastery system lines up your attitude with abundance.” equipment, anything that takes a bit of time to accumulate from your income. The persistence required to reach a savings goal (especially if it’s a big figure) is a valuable habit to develop. Can your teen reach the financial goals they set themselves? How badly do they want the item they’re saving for? One study showed that when a parent buys a child a cellphone, over half the phones will be lost or broken. When the teen has to contribute his own money to the purchase (or even buy it outright), he breaks significantly fewer phones. Suddenly they have a sense of ownership and take responsibility.
Part 3: Donating A friend of mine simply can’t say “no” when an appeal envelope arrives in his mailbox or a collector knocks on his door. He loses track of how much he donates to worthy causes, which brings him a bit of stress. How much would your teen like to donate to his favourite charity or social cause? It’s a great feeling to help others, and it’s even better when you know you can afford to.
Would you like to be wealthy? Take part of your income and never spend it. You might think I’m joking, but I’m not. I’m suggesting you put in place a habit. Take just a portion of your incoming money, and let it accumulate and grow. Instead of planning to spend it on groceries, goals and dreams, it becomes a fund for investing in incomegenerating assets like shares, property or businesses. It puts your future financial situation front and centre. I learnt this technique a long time ago, but I never put it into practice. It fell into the “I’ll get round to it one day” pile. I’m kicking myself for not starting it sooner. There’s just one catch. Remember Part 1, the spending part? Part 1 is what you do last. Every payday, complete the steps backwards: set aside your Wealth Creation amount, then Donate, then put away your Savings. You can then confidently spend what’s left. No ifs, no buts… Part 4 comes first. I know it sounds weird. I know how it can feel like there won’t be enough money at the end, but the mental discipline of paying your future self first is invaluable. You soon get used to “tricking” your wallet that the “spending” portion is all you have available. The final decision is what percentage of your income will go toward each part? Can your teen imagine working their way up 10 percent wealth creation, 10 percent donating, 20 percent saving and 60 percent spending? Whether your teen manages his system with a four-part moneybox, label four glass jars or set up four separate bank accounts, dividing their income into these four parts will dramatically improve their financial fitness.
photo: Vanessa Van Rensburg
stuart fleming
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Martz Witty
Getting Your Message Across Clearly Plan and focus on your style and you’ll deliver your intended message.
As
a professional speaker, I am often asked how I manage to get my message across clearly. It ultimately comes down to one word: Planning. Whether you speak, write, draw or mime your message, the crux of the matter comes down to the planning and the execution. I have heard perfectly executed speeches that have left me wondering what on earth has been said, although the experience was an enjoyable one. Many have included funny stories, yet lacked a purpose. When we communicate, we often lose sight of the fact that we can send at least six possible messages: • What message you mean to say • What message you actually say
• What message the other person hears • What the other person thinks she hears • What the other person recalls about your message • What you think the other person said about your message By being aware of the possible crossed wires listed above, you can more accurately plan what you are trying to communicate.
• Serious versus light. Communications don’t always have to be serious. Even in relatively conservative organisations, they vary from serious to light - and when a communicator chooses to get a message across in an entertaining way, recipients can appreciate it if delivered appropriately. • Factual and literal versus symbolic and emotional. Facts are vehicles for reciting information. They are powerful and persuasive in bolstering an idea and in lending legitimacy to an argument. Symbols and emotions are catalysts for interpreting and demonstrating the facts. A quick tip for a successful presentation is to get to know your recipient. Listeners will vary in their national, ethnic and religious backgrounds. Learning about the customs, beliefs and practices that make up a foreign culture’s fabric can lead to a better understanding of what different styles mean for different people. This is equally true for the massive differences between the various ages: Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y. It’s fair to say you cannot be prepared for every eventuality, but prior enquiry and planning will surely combat some big challenges along the way.
Another consideration is your body language. This can make or break getting your message across. You must consider: • Tone of voice. Are you calm, clear and respectful? Do you have an accent that the recipients will need to concentrate on? Slow down the speed. • Physical posture. Arms crossed is immediately closing you off from your audience. If you are cold, wear more clothes; keep your body open to the audience. • Facial expressions. The face needs to be in tune with the message and purpose. If you are delivering a very serious point, then it’s best not to be smiling like a Cheshire cat. Conversely if you are trying to inspire, then don’t look like you have just been weaned off your mother’s breast and onto lemons. • Eye contact. Maintain appropriate eye contact. This also ensures the listener knows you are still communicating with them personally. Getting your message across the first time correctly is a rewarding experience and a skill that you can learn. Practice often, self-correct always, and be open to new ideas and ways, and you are set for success.
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How you communicate is also vital. When determining an appropriate style for your message, consider its content and context, your recipients’ style conventions, and the medium you’re choosing. Consider some familiar styles: • Formal versus relaxed. If you have a crucial message of earth-shattering importance, then a more formal approach will be appropriate; conversely, if you are building rapport and teamwork, then a slightly more relaxed approach may do the trick.
photo: Marcin Balcerzak
Teachers Matter
Knowing WHAT you want to communicate is just half the battle — albeit an important half.
In the Spotlight 2010
PROFESSIONALLY & PERSONALLY
TeachersMatter
With this 4-DVD set of Keynote presentations from Teachers Matter 2010 • Four hours of inspiration, entertainment and knowledge to transform your teaching • A must-have resource for your library • Perfect for professional development Promoting Risk Taking and Personal Accountability Carol Carter Sometime our very best students are the ones who colour in the lines, take strong direction and derive their sense of self-worth from completing tasks and assignments in an orderly, timely fashion. But in today’s global world, students need more than the “Yes, Sir” mentality to survive and thrive. They need to develop the ability to risk, to embrace failure, to question, challenge themselves through rigorous learning and, ultimately, keep their own score card. This will be the measure of how they do in the world outside of school. High-Impact Teaching in the XYZ Era of Education Rich Allen “The XYZ era of education refers to the fact that we have primarily Gen X teachers, instructing Generations Y and Z in our schools. This particular divide is creating a new set of challenges for schools. Exposure to digital technology from birth has hard wired students brains to learn differently. They require high levels of stimulation, more interactivity, and greater engagement. In this interactive keynote address, Rich will explain and demonstrate high impact teaching strategies that engage digital natives, including case studies illustrating how these strategies are improving education outcomes for the current generations in today’s schools.”
Pressing the Right buttons Allison Mooney Ever wondered why others are not just like you and what makes them tick? You’ll learn how to use the 4 critical keys of influence effectively. You will hear how to work out what makes people tick, how to speed read others to find out what they really want, see things as they see them (in their shoes), and communicate in a way that makes people want to listen. The Inspirational Teacher: How to inspire your students to greatness and remain inspired yourself David Koutsoukis Over the years there have been a number of great movies about inspirational teachers such as ‘To Sir With Love’, ‘The Dead Poets Society’ and ‘Mr Holland’s Opus’. Common themes include a passion for teaching and a great connection with students, but, what does it really take to become an exceptional educator? This keynote will examine common attributes of inspirational teachers and will reveal the vital things you need to say and do in order to motivate and inspire your students, and remain inspired yourself.
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Keynotes4 Carol Carter Allison Mooney Rich Allen David Koutsoukis
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Habits of Mind
Available from www.SpectrumEducation.com
They have finally arrived - long awaited ... Karen and Graham’s new books Developing the Habits of Mind Developing Habits of Mind in Secondary Schools Learning Tool By Karen Boyes and Graham Watts (written by New Zealanders published in America)
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By Karen Boyes and Graham Watts (written by New Zealanders published in America) Take educational outcomes way beyond facts and information with this collection of tools for teaching students how to think and behave intelligently when they encounter problems and challenges. A series of 32 lesson plans and worksheets helps primary school teachers plan lessons and classroom activities that teach students the 16 Habits of Mind. The Learning Tool combines classroom resources, professional development activities and ideas to promote successful learning in the classroom and beyond. Each tool includes a brief explanation, step-by-step instructions, worksheets, samples, and resource pages. Plus, another set of tools helps you create teacher training sessions that introduce all 16 habits to teachers and provide a launching pad for teachers to teach these valuable lifelong skills.
This series of more than 50 Habits of Mind tools helps secondary school teachers plan lessons and classroom activities for successful lifelong learning. Teachers choose from the extensive list of tools to * Establish positive behaviors. * Teach communication skills. * Promote problem solving and decision-making. * Demonstrate good character traits.
Order your books today.
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Rowena Szeszeran-McEvoy
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photo: Michal Popiel
Teachers Matter
“ There are real people, with really high energy levels who are happy every day; they love life, and are positive regardless of the situation, the weather, people, bad luck, yucky experiences or the traffic.�
Rowena Szeszeran-McEvoy
Energy: How To Have Bucket Loads Small changes will make a big difference.
H
ave you met one of those rare people who have seemingly endless amounts of energy? They are always happy, they always look on the bright side, nothing and nobody gets to them, they never get stressed or upset and they have so much energy they jump out of bed every day, excited about their day. They dive into bed every night, after a full, busy, productive, fun day and sleep deep and yes, they even sleep with a smile on their face. You are having one of two reactions right now: 1. You are thinking this is a fantasy person or perhaps someone on some kind of prescription happy drug. Nobody can be like that all the time, life is tough and depression is real. 2. You are this kind of energetic, superstar, human being and you are saying, “Yeah, so, that’s me, isn’t that how everyone lives?” Yes, if you are in the first group, there are real people, with really high energy levels who are happy every day; they love life, and are positive regardless of the situation, the weather, people, bad luck, yucky experiences or the traffic. No, if you are in the second group, most people are not like you, but we are about to share your unique ways of looking at life and responding to all situations. Here are they are, your “Easy Steps to Super Energy.” • Water: Drink more fresh, clean water. Your brain is 90 percent fluid; your muscles are 60 to 70 percent water. Dehydrated brains are grumpy, tired, lethargic and can’t be bothered with people, life or any kind of challenge. Drink every 20 minutes and drink so you have clear urine, every time.
• Real Food: Eat more fruit, veggies, nuts, food that has not had the life processed out of it. Eat less food that comes in a packet, jar, can, bottle, bag or microwavable container. Eat salad, raw veggies, fresh fruit every day and before you eat anything else. Watch your energy levels soar. • Vigorous, huffy, puffy exercise: Yes, a walk is nice, but real energy comes from puffing. Get your heart pumping and feel your energy levels go through the roof. A tired person who has a huffy puffy exercise session will not feel tired at the end of the session. Get fit and your energy levels will explode. • Lift Weights and be strong: A strong body can only be created by a strong mind. The discipline it takes to lift heavy things and get strong is the same discipline it takes to get out of bed early, train hard, work hard, make your bed, put 100 percent into everything you do and look for the good in people, rather the worst. A physically strong body copes better in every situation, whether physical or emotional and a strong body is full of energy. • Real rest and relaxation: Take a real time out and get away from people. Truly happy people love being by themselves because they love who they are. Time away from people means that when you are with people you are happy to be there because you have filled up the “Your Time” tank. Exercise hard, play hard, and rest and relax
• “I am a Happy Person, no matter what” attitude: There is no secret to happiness, it is a choice. If you live your life always looking for the good in people, always looking for ways to learn and grow from every situation, never judging, never criticising (both big energy wasters), you will draw positive energy form everything that happens. You will attract the positive energy of other people and you will have “bucket loads of energy” to burn, share and give. • Change your vocabulary: Energetic people speak with energy, and they use energy-provoking words. They are never “fine;” they are “awesome, fantastic, a m a z i n g , b r i l l i a n t , W O W, s u p e r, sensational, bursting with energy.” They are never “sick,” “tired,” “Ok,” “could be better.” The way you speak to other people will give or zap their energy so if you want to attract energetic people into your life, no zapping. The way to chat to yourself will determine your energy levels, so choose wisely and carefully and “Tell the truth in advance.” Even if you are feeling a bit low, tell yourself how fantastic you feel and enjoy the change of energy level from low to WOW. Enthusiasm, Passion, Excitement, Love, Happiness, WOW experiences and a, “Bucket loads of ENERGY” to you because you choose it!!”
• “ D o n ’ t c a r e w h a t y o u t h i n k ” attitude: This is your self-esteem at its best. Truly happy people have lots of energy because they don’t waste it caring about what other people think. They live their lives by their rules and if other people don’t like it, well who cares?
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kevin mayall
Living a Life on Purpose Help teens put fun back into their lives and the world will be a better place.
M
ost people believe money or having lots of it will be the solution to living a happy life.
Really?
It was recently reported that a man won $500,000 on Lotto and three months later, he was bored and wanted a job at McDonald’s. Clearly money is not the only answer to a person’s dreams. In the same situation, what would you do with your life? When you got up in the morning, how would you fill your day? Travel, buy things for yourself, for your friends….and then what? How long would it take to get bored and realise you need to be doing something useful or purposeful with your life?
Teachers Matter
We buy things to make ourselves feel better. But what if we were already happy and living a purposeful life, would we feel the need to buy things to make ourselves happy when we are already happy? Isn’t the real question “what makes you happy and how do you get it?” How do you find purpose in life?
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Who said work had to be work? There is no law that says work has to be hard, yet that is precisely the message we give our teens. They witness adults complaining that it’s Monday and they “have” to go to work or “can’t wait till the weekend.” What example are we setting for today’s youth? This is misconception is compounded and reinforced when teens get their first jobs — low paid, menial jobs.
“ What if we were already happy and living a purposeful life, would we feel the need to buy things to make ourselves happy when we are already happy?”
Adults might be shocked to learn that our teens have a different view of the world and are not going to make the same mistakes as their parents. They are not going to settle. Generation Y has witnessed their parents sacrificing so much for their work, just to achieve what they consider so little. They don’t want to work like us and are more interested in lifestyle where friends come first. So it’s easy to see that when an adult says “get good grades so you can get a good job,” a teen turns off. The next generation has its own unique perspective that involves a caring, connected world vision. Our teens will be leading the world in combating climate change and promoting global prosperity and connecting resources to those in need, for free. Delivering curriculum to our teens is simply not enough anymore. Time to turn our thinking upside down so we can support our youth. Ask a teen this: If you never had to work again for the rest of your life, what would you do? For fun? For a hobby? Turn how we think back to front and start with “fun” and “hobby” and then figure out how to make a lifestyle out of that. Work hard at your dreams; that way it’s not working. Life, love and business are all the same. They are just an extension of who you are and who you were born to be. Every person has these passions and dreams etched into his or her soul and, for whatever reason, we as adults have become good at covering these up. We can’t do the same to our next generation.
It’s our responsibility to believe in our teens’ dreams, their hopes and ideas. To believe in them. I had a teen client at an Adultology 102 workshop who loved cars. His hobby was motorsport and he found a way to it his life. He got a job as an apprentice mechanic at a motor dealership that specialized in European sports cars. By the age of 19, he was spending his weekends helping out sports cars enthusiast at race tracks and often driving these expensive cars around the tracks — and getting paid to do it. This was not working. It was fun — yet he worked hard at having fun. This teen had someone who listened to his dream and helped him find the resources needed and I can tell you this kid was living the dream. Every day was fun for him. What would the world be like if everyone was having fun?
photo: ROrlando Rosu
kevin mayall
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simon evans
Digital Storytelling Students practice all the skills they need to – researching, organizing, writing, teamwork – and have fun when they tell their stories with new technology.
D
igital storytelling is still an emerging term. It means different things to different people. In its essence, it is ordinary people using the powerful tools of developing software and hardware to tell and share their stories. Through this media, we are able to capture “living history” as a community and are encouraged to tell our own stories. There are a number of initiatives around the world from “Capture Wales” to “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” to “Coromandel Community Digital Storytelling Project.” What does this have to do with us, in our classes? Digital storytelling can be a powerful outlet for both teachers and students to share their stories, real or imagined. Through the publishing power of online sites such as Teachertube, Schooltube, Youtube, Voicethread, Slideshare and others, students can tell stories to an authentic audience which has the potential to expand. Students in other towns, cities and
“ Digital kids need learning to be relevant, meaningful, and applicable now.” - Marco Antonio Torres countries can view, share and comment on our students’ work. Far too often our focus on “digital literacy” has essentially been knowledge of digital tools. However, digital literacy is far more involved than that. As digital media becomes more powerful and flexible, it is essential that we teach students that there is process to creating a digital story that ensures that the story element remains strong and that the tools are just that, tools to be used to tell the story. What is important to remember is that digital storytelling honours the writing
process. It assists the students in their writing process as it allows a visualization of their writing which results in a heightened level of perception, extending the writing process. There is a planning, storyboarding, moulding and producing framework that is grounded in the written word. Students have to develop the story in two dimensions before they can create it on the computer screen. Digital storytelling provides an authentic personal learning experience that enhances motivation and a higher quality in the finished product. It is through digital storytelling that we can encourage more creativity from our students, often engaging the quiet or the disillusioned on a level that is non-academic. Through the process of transferring learning into a digital storytelling format, students analyse, synthesize, evaluate and create. This process engages students in higher-order thinking skills in a positive, challenging and engaging way. Now, what does the process look like?
photo: Rick Becker-Leckrone
Choose a Topic
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This step may appear obvious but teachers and students often overlook it; choosing the topic or focus of the digital story is key to producing a successful digital story. Whether you are letting students choose a theme or are assigning them a topic or focus, it is important to give your students time to consider the project and hone their ideas to suit the style, context and point of view of the story.
simon evans
“ Digital storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights. Tell your story now digitally.” - Leslie Rule, Digital Storytelling Association Write a Script/Storyboard If narration is involved, then allowing the students’ time to develop a script will mean that they will complete the projects smoothly and to a high standard. Developing a script will help to guide them in choosing the story’s images. If no narration is required, then a simple storyboard will serve the same purpose at this planning stage.
Gather Materials The type and style of a project as well as the subject will help determine the source of the images. Students could use a digital camera to produce still images or video clips. There may well be a need for scanning photos, especially in the case of producing a story from a historical context. Students could
produce images digitally using a software package like ArtRage or Paint. Alternatively, they can find images on the Internet, but be careful about copyrighted images, especially if you are hoping to publish your students work beyond the classroom setting.
Assemble and Edit Images Software options are countless. However, when beginning the process of digital storytelling, I would suggest you begin with PhotoStory3. A free, PC download is organised in a linear fashion which means that even the youngest students can use it. Windows Movie Maker is an alternative many teachers use on the PC, and iMovie is by far the best choice for Mac users.
Record Narration You can record narration in iMovie or Photostory. This will be easier if the students have prepared a script. Depending on the theme and style of the story, narration may not be necessary. You can use a builtin microphone on your computer but you might hear a lot of background noise on the recording. A cheap external microphone will often do a good job.
Add Music You can add music to create atmosphere and emotion in the story. You can download royalty- and copy-right free music from the Internet. One of the better sites to obtain music is www.freeplaymusic.com
Share Your Story Share your completed stories with parents and the world. Place them on the school website, class blog, or on video sharing sites. Recommended sites include: www.youtube.com www.teachertube.com www.itunes.com
by Educators for Educators Become a more effective educator by embracing technology in your learning environment. Web 2.0, Video, IWBs, Eportfolios and much more!
Request professional development with Breathe Technology today. Phone: 07 927 2260 Fax: 07 927 2264 Email: info@breathetechnology.co.nz
www.breathetechnology.co.nz
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Barbara Griffith and Tricia Kenyon
Title: Quetta Author: Gary Crew Illustrator: Bruce Whatley ISBN: 0 7344 0240 6 Publisher: Lothian Books
Quetta
Who would you have given Quetta to?
T
his stunning historical picture book tells the true story of a strange child custody case of an orphaned 3-year-old girl who survived the Quetta shipwreck in 1890. The young Ceylonese steward who rescued her and a childless sea captain and his wife both wanted to adopt this girl. Issues of bias and prejudice arise. Here are some activities to try with your students.
1. Character Profiles a. Comparing the two main characters.
Edmund Brown Nationality Occupation Marital Status Earnings Place of residence Appearance General attitude to the circumstances.
Teachers Matter
What can each offer the girl? What evidence did he offer of his suitability?
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Mutassa Clark
Barbara Griffith and Tricia Kenyon
b. Looking deeper at the Magistrate. What information can you glean from the book about the magistrate? Think about his appearance, his choice of words, his attitudes, how he thinks, his biases or prejudices, his application of the law, his choices and the consequences.
c. The life of Quetta, the young girl Using the text (including the epilogue) and illustrations, compile as much information as you can on Quetta’s life, including her relationship to Mutassa.
EG He was impatient - he kept tapping his finger to speed up Mutassa.
2.Timeline Create an approximated time line starting from prior to the shipwreck to the survivors’ rescue. Use the information in the text and pictures and your knowledge of similar events to help you approximate the passage of time.
Make a logical guess at the What was happening? passage of time Early evening
Passengers in saloon, singing, letter writing
7-9pm
Mutassa on deck Calm still night
Approx 9pm
Ships hull ripped open
Approx 9.01pm
Ship is sinking
3. The Ship – Quetta Search the book for all the information you can find about the actual ship, including what type of vessel, how it was powered, the crew, cargo, passengers, etc. You may like to do further research on the web.
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Barbara Griffith and Tricia Kenyon
4. Comparing similar events
Torres Strait
Hulls were split
Use a Venn diagram to compare Quetta’s sinking to the Titanic’s sinking.
Animals on board
Sunk at night
North Atlantic Bigger ship
5. Vocabulary Make a list of the nautical terms and the legal terms that appear in the text and research the words’ meanings. EG
Nautical term
Definition
Legal term
hull
adoption
Flotsam
proceedings
Definition
6. Writing Use different styles of writing to show how each character saw the events of the night. • The Captain completing his logbook • Mutassa writing in his personal diary • Quetta recounting her story.
7. How different would things have been if the event had taken place at a different point in time? • Discuss how the story may have ended if the accident had happened this year instead of 1890?
Teachers Matter
• Think about social issues, adoption, law, search and rescue, etc.
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photo: iqoncept
John Shackleton
Are You Going To Set Yourself Some New Year’s Resolutions? A simple exercise can help you focus your energies.
W
elcome to 2010! Another new year and another opportunity for new beginnings. This is the month in which people set themselves New Year’s resolutions. I prefer to call these my goals for the year, so let’s think about what you might aim for this year. If you want 2010 to be your best year ever, now is the time to set the goals and start planning your workload.
“ Doing this exercise really shows us where we need to set some goals in order that our life experience can become a more comfortable one. “
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john shackleton
Before we decide on some targets, let’s look at the areas we could set goals in. Not everyone is interested in just having a set of challenging goals in their work life, and in fact, it would probably put us out of balance if we did. In order to give ourselves some balance, we should look an exercise called the wheel of life.
Teachers Matter
Draw the following diagram on a piece of paper, making sure that all eight lines are all the same length. Now add some titles to each of the lines representing all the important areas of your life. Some suggestions might be: Career, Financial, Physical (health and fitness), Relationships, Emotional (the awareness and understanding of your emotions), Educational (areas for study, qualifications etc), and Spiritual (relationship with or understanding of a higher being or purpose).
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You’ll notice that I’ve only made seven suggestions as many people have another specific area in their life that requires particular attention. In my case, it’s my competitive swimming achievements, which I regard as separate from my levels of health and fitness, and this warrants a spoke all to itself. For other people, this extra spoke may their part-time business, their charity work or even a relationship with one specific person.
For each of these eight areas, you’ll need to give yourself a score from 0 to 10 according to how happy you are with that portion of your life right now, 10 being extremely happy and 1 being not happy at all. If you’ve lost your job, are totally broke, have no possessions, are up to your ears in debt and have no way out of this dilemma, you may want to score yourself a 0 or 1 on the financial area. If, for example, you are considering the spiritual side of life but have no interest or desire for knowledge in that area and are totally happy with that situation, then you’d probably score yourself a 10. These scores would have nothing to do with how other people see you . or how the world might judge you, but how you see yourself. It’s simply how happy you feel with that part of your life. Now I’d like you to imagine that each line is a spoke on a wheel and each spoke has numbers on it running from 0 at the centre of the wheel to 10 at the rim. Place a star on each spoke according to the score you have given yourself in that area and join up the stars with a curved line to create your Wheel of Life, which will probably look something like this:
“ In the past, I’ve found that once I’ve done the wheel of life exercise and set some goals, I immediately feel happier “ Now I’d like to ask you a question. How comfortable would your journey be if the wheels on your car were the shape of your wheel of life? If it’s anything like my example, then the answer is probably rather bumpy which shows us why our life may be uncomfortable or a bit difficult right now. Doing this exercise really shows us where we need to set some goals in order that our life experience can become a more comfortable one. It helps us to see how far out of balance we are and what areas we need to focus on for the coming year. We can set goals in any of the areas we have discussed and we need to be specific with those goals. For example, if you find that you have a failing within the relationships area of your life, perhaps with one individual, then you could set a goal of spending at least one evening a week alone with that person, concentrating on your relationship rather than on the TV or some other distraction. We aren’t necessarily looking to score 10 on every spoke, but we are looking for similar numbers on all spokes, which will create some balance so that we have a smoother ride. In the past, I’ve found that once I’ve done the wheel of life exercise and set some goals, I immediately feel happier because I know how to get myself back on track. If I then work hard towards those goals for a couple of months and get some more balance and then re-do the exercise, I come up with a completely different shape of wheel and I have to set some more goals to get balanced again.
wENDY SWEET
The Time is NOW!
Take it step by step and you can overcome your perceived barriers to exercising.
A
plethora of exercise psychology studies over the past decade have produced evidence about why some people exercise regularly and others don’t. For those of you who don’t exercise for the recommended minimum of 30 minutes daily, it will come as no surprise that the studies show that personal obstacles are: perceived lack of time, lack of energy and lack of motivation. In addition, researchers have found that a major influence on regular exercise relates to both a person’s confidence in her ability to do the actual exercise and her ability to incorporate long-term exercise habits. This is known as “self-efficacy.”
Empowering yourself to remove the perceived “no-time” barrier isn’t easy, but you can do it. The following “Stairway to Success” includes a number of strategies. The strategies and hints I’ve outlined are well researched, and many personal trainers have used them. So start with the first step, gather your energy and enthusiasm, and get climbing!
Step 1 – Change your inner thoughts First you need to start believing in yourself. To initiate change, you first need to tap into your mind’s resources. Your body will only do what your mind believes is possible. To make small changes to your daily routine, first decide that you want to make some changes. They don’t have to be big ones. In fact the smaller the changes are, the more
photo: Andres Rodriguez
The good news from the behaviour-change research, though, is that people can improve their confidence and succeed. All that’s needed are some simple strategies learnt from those who have managed to succeed at incorporating exercise into their routines. Some of these strategies are described below.
you will succeed. For example, look at your diary this week. What have you got planned? Where can you fit in a 20-minute walk to think, plan and have time for you? Now, instead of saying “I can’t fit this in anywhere,” start to look for opportunities to have some time for you. Can you park the car a little further from work? Can you hold off having lunch and take a walk first? Can you drop the kids off at school a little earlier? Think it through and then also plan ahead for tomorrow. Finding time is not insurmountable. It just takes a little forward planning, scheduling flexibility and of course, a “can-do” attitude. This is your starting point, the “bottom of your staircase,” so start climbing – one step at a time!
Finding time is not in-surmountable. It just takes a little forward planning, scheduling flexibility and of course, a “can-do” attitude..
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Wendy SWEET
Step 2: To move forward, go back to past experiences Your current beliefs are heavily influenced by your past experiences. So the next step up on your staircase involves creating an image in your mind of an enjoyable exercise experience. Once you’ve done this, you are ready to plan ahead to the next few days of exercise. As much as possible you need to replicate these past experiences. If your first few workouts are fun, enjoyable and safe, you will gain the confidence to keep going. Always choose a time of day when you feel the most energy. If it’s the start of the day, you will also be boosting your metabolism, setting you up for even greater energy levels for the next few hours.
Teachers Matter
Step 3 - Set daily goals for the next week….and the next….and the next
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Regular exercisers mention the importance of setting small, achievable daily goals. Every small goal is another step along the pathway towards success. Many personal trainers also use goal-setting to keep their clients “on-task.” Be specific - something as simple as “walking for 20 minutes at a brisk pace at 7 in the morning before getting ready for work” is better than saying – “tomorrow I will find the time to walk.” Own your goals, keep them specific and progressive, and write each one down in a training log book. Once you’ve written up the first week, review what you have achieved and then write up the following week.
Step 4 – Prompt Yourself Reminders work. If tomorrow is your day of reckoning, then you need to put your exercise gear out tonight. Get ready for action. When you haven’t exercised for a while, it’s hard to pull yourself out of bed for a morning workout, especially if the weather is inclement, and you’ve planned an outside activity. So set up prompts and reminders – even better, tell someone your plans, so that they can keep you accountable. This is also where a personal trainer works wonders.
Step 5 – Find someone to support you Starting a new exercise plan is hard, especially if you are not a “natural” exerciser. Your best strategy is to find someone who has similar goals to yours and ask her to exercise with you. That way, you both support and motivate each other. Alternatively, you might choose group exercise, such as an aerobics class at your local health club, an aqua class at your local swimming pool or a walking group. Check out what is going on in your community. If you aren’t one to “go it alone,” then don’t be afraid to “seek support!”
Step 6 – Change one aspect of your exercise routine weekly Let’s face it, the same old exercise routine eventually gets boring. Don’t let this happen to you. As part of your goal setting, write down some activities that you would like to try over the next few weeks. Challenge yourself to try something new. For instance, mix up your exercise routine with a swim or a bike ride or better still, do
The good news from the behaviourchange research, though, is that people can improve their confidence and succeed.
some light resistance training to tone up your muscles. Not only will you gain greater health and fitness benefits from mixing up your modes of exercise, but you will stay more motivated.
Step 7 – Learn more The final step involves learning more about exercise. Make learning one of your motivational tools. Increase your knowledge of exercise’s health benefits. Find out about the different modes of exercise, such as resistance training and stretching for toning, as well as cardiovascular exercise for fitness. What about nutrition? Maybe this is an area you need to learn more about and improve on. These seven steps form your “Staircase to Success.” Refer to these steps each day for your first week and you will find the internal motivation to “make exercise part of your life…forever!”
robyn pearce
Stop the World – I Want To Get Off! Put the big jobs first and you’ll much more in control again.
Filter the crap One of the core skills to help us manage the “Too Much To Do” syndrome is to develop our own personal crap-filtering system. Consider this: Much of what comes our way is really not important, so why invest our lives into looking at it, reading it, thinking about it (whatever “it” might be). For example, a metropolitan weekend paper today has more information in it than most 18th-century people had access to in their entire lives! And what impact on your mental state and well-being does a heavy diet of TV have? A lot of hours per week can be saved by eliminating most newspapers and TV. Is knowledge what we want? Not so many years ago, a core study skill was to be able to cram in a lot of knowledge. But is knowledge really what we want? I believe it’s wisdom we should be seeking. And that won’t come while we fill our heads with trivia, while we allow the immediate to
intrude at the expense of the long-term. The world is drowning in trivial miscellanea. To cope with it, we need to become good at filtering information, not retaining it. The critical skill in handling large chunks of information is to become a quick analyser and decision-maker. Some key questions to ask ourselves: • What is my highest priority, right now? • What one thing, if I were to focus on it right now, would make the greatest difference? • Is this information or activity going to help me with anything soon or would my time be better spent somewhere else? Helicopter thinking Consider a helicopter, with its combination of up and down movement. The up view gets it above a situation for a bird’s eye view. The down view gives close attention at a micro level to specific activities on the ground. How can we replicate the helicopter in our day-to-day work? Ever noticed that when we step away for a few minutes from an intense task that we come back with a more objective approach? Perhaps another angle presents itself. Or a detail we’ve overlooked has popped into the forefront of our mind. When we find ourselves grinding away in low-level activity, buried in emails, feeling guilty about the big jobs or important longterm projects not completed, it’s time to step into our mental helicopter and do a
“The world is drowning in trivial miscellanea. To cope with it, we need to become good at filtering information, not retaining it.”
photo: qwasyx
I
t’s not just an age thing, the world is speeding up. Almost everyone I speak to is finding it progressively harder to “keep on top.” We live with an explosion of social networking sites, ever-ringing mobiles, texting and the diminishing attention span of people in an over-stimulated, attention-truncated world dominated by interruptions. No wonder people of all ages feel overwhelmed. Modern communication methods are amazing and, every wonderful invention has a dark side.
lift-off, away from the cluttered desk and the everlasting demands of others. Four simple strategies to manage overload
1. Step away If you’re at your desk as you read this, as soon as you’ve finished this article, practice it now. Put your hands on the edge of your desk, push away from your seat and stand up. Take a deep breathe to aerate your whole body, look away from your work station and have a really good stretch. Now, move out of the room for a minute or two. Go to the loo, make yourself a cup of coffee, take a walk outside for a few minutes – it doesn’t matter what, as long as it’s away from your work environment.
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robyn pearce
Ask yourself, “What one thing, if I were to focus on it right now, would make the greatest difference?”
Whilst you’re disengaged from your work, ask yourself questions such as: • What am I trying to achieve here? • W h a t ’s t h e p u r p o s e a n d d e s i r e d outcomes? • Am I really doing the right work? • What are the key elements I must focus on? • What can I delegate, side-step or ignore in order to act on the things that will give the greatest return on the time I’m investing?
2. Compressed time You know that work expands to fit the time available. It also works the other way. Practice compressing time, allowing less than usual to do a set job. Think of how efficient you are when you’re going on holiday. Isn’t it amazing how much we achieve in that last day or so.
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4. Don’t start the day with the easy things
You might know the lines in the famous Australian folk song “Click Go The Shears.”
Recently I was working with a large law firm partner. He’s a man in his late thirties, and like many people on my courses and at my speeches, has been in the habit of starting his day’s tasks with the easy things. Result: The day is spent knee-jerking from one low-level activity to another. As a consequence, his non-billable hours are far too high and the other partners are getting cranky. The solution is to make the first few hours of the day the time when he does high-value work.
Click go the shears, boys - click, click, click Wide is his blow and his hands move quick The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow And curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied ‘joe’.
Shearers are masters of compressing time. Call it time and motion if you like. They race against the clock and their fellow shearers the whole time. In the song, the ringer, or top shearer, lost focus for a moment and was beaten by an older man cunning enough to grab a sheep with no wool on its belly. We d o n ’t o f t e n h a v e p e o p l e t o p a c e ourselves against, but we can learn to pace ourselves. Every day find something to practice compression on. Ask yourself: “How can I do this task in less time than usual”’ There are always short-cuts and things we can condense.
Her initial belief was that the site couldn’t go live until the job was done. Not so. When we analysed it, she had one particular product that, if profiled on the existing website, would meet a huge untapped need in the marketplace. The income from this product has the potential to transform her business. She’s now made a commitment to other people, and this commitment is helping her focus. Ask yourself, “What one thing, if I were to focus on it right now, would make the greatest difference?”
You might be thinking, “That’s all very well for a lawyer, but how can an educator do that?” First thing in the day, a teacher typically prepares for her classes. Many good principals head off round the playground before school. And school secretaries and administrators certainly need to wait until the rush dies down before they can get to higher-value tasks. Choose the time that works for you, but as soon as possible, get something done on a high-value task or project, even if it’s only for half an hour. If we think, “I’ll just get these little jobs out of the way so I can get to the big jobs,” the big jobs will still wait at the end of the week. Instead, by making progress on higher-value projects earlier in the day, we release endorphins, feel more effective and we feel a sense of control. A sure recipe to beat overwhelm. Now what big job can I make a dent in right now?
photo: qwasyx
Teachers Matter
Recently one of my clients, talking about a website makeover, calculated that she needed two solid weeks of work to get the new copy written. Problem is, she’s too busy with day-to-day activities to ever get two uninterrupted weeks. It’s a pipe-dream that isn’t going to happen.
3. Who can you pace yourself against?
the last word: Karen Boyes
The Fish Philosophy Four simple ideas can improve your day and your life.
T
he Fish Philosophy is a set of simple, interconnected principles that everyone can tailor to their own life and work – old wisdom for a new day. When you choose to incorporate these principles – Play, Be There, Choose Your Attitude and Make Someone’s Day – you’ll see a positive change in the relationships you create at work and at home. These simple ideas have grown out of the Pikes Fish Market in Seattle, now a major tourist attraction. Check it out at www.pikeplacefish.com. The underlying educational view of the Fish Philosophy is that meaningful learning occurs when the learner is directly linked to and involved with the content a teacher presents.
Play
Be There
Everyone can benefit from a little lightening up during the day. People who find ways to incorporate play into their daily lives approach their work, responsibilities and challenges with energy and enthusiasm. Some of the best innovations come from playing with ideas. Playfulness allows us to tap into our inner being, the child inside all of us. It is that person who won’t hesitate to ask “why” or “how come.” It is the person who looks at the world creatively and openly and who never hesitates to see the humour in it all. Dr David Sousa, leading brain researcher, states “students who laugh more, learn more.” In the classroom, create an environment where it is safe to make mistakes, a place that responsible risk-taking is encouraged and students are allowed to play and have fun with ideas and concepts.
To “Be There” for another person has a powerful effect as it is about giving others our undivided attention. Listening is a big part of being there, but it’s more than that. Too often, we listen like we are in a debate, our minds focused on gathering information for our own brilliant comeback, rather than being emotionally as well as physically present. It is difficult to hear what another person is saying if our minds are stuck on what we want to hear. Being truly present means suspending judgement while you’re listening and realising that this takes awareness, commitment and practise. In the classroom, this may take the form of you as the teacher, putting aside your marking of students’ work to say good morning as the students walk into the classroom. It is also about teaching students active listening skills, how to paraphrase and ask clarifying questions.
photo: Sean Prior
Choose Your Attitude
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Many of us believe that outside influences like unpleasant experiences or negative people cause our attitudes. While these things may act as triggers for our feelings, we can choose to either be subservient to these events, few of which we can control, or we can take charge of our own responses. Choosing your attitude is about being aware of what your attitude is and realising that it may affect others. Once we choose to accept that we are the only ones deciding our attitude at a particular time and place, we decide whether to keep it or shape it into something more satisfying. One teacher has a fish-shaped mirror at the entrance of her classroom, with a sign “Which attitude have you chosen today?” At our Spectrum Office, we choose attitude badges each morning and even answer the phone using our attitude. Call us to find out more!
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KEEPING THINKING FRONT AND CENTRE
The Success-o-meter sets goals for learning
BUILDING RESILIENCE IN CHILDREN
Students need to think about
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THE ULTIMATE FRAMEWORK FOR LEARNING AND LIFE
The little things are the big things
the DebAte hAs eNDeD
SUPERTEACHERS
You can mix phonics and whole-language
Being a hero to your students
Identify key areas for an effective, fulfilling and sustainable teaching career.
FiND YoUr WAY Take technology — and learning — into the great outdoors
IS THERE A TIGER IN YOUR CLASSROOM?
HAUORA HOMEWORK
Managing the stress of flight-or-fight
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To make someone’s day means taking a genuine interest in the unique gifts of others. Spontaneous or planned, when we brighten someone’s day, we receive an internal gift that makes our life more meaningful. Making someone’s day may mean taking someone out to dinner or telling a friend, from your heart, how much you appreciate them. It moves past being civil or pleasant to take an extra step we didn’t have to take and that makes all the difference. It is also important to make someone’s day by doing something they will really value, rather than what you would like yourself. In Love Languages, Gary Chapman writes that you can make some feel important in five ways: spending quality time, physical touch, acts of service, words of affirmation and gift giving. In the classroom, you can encourage students to make other children’s day in the playground. It is the little things that make the difference here — making the cup of coffee, placing a chocolate bar in someone’s pigeonhole, or offering to help with a task. Many schools that have taken on the Fish Philosophy have found improvements in relationships as well as behaviour and learning.
“If a child can’t learn the way we teach,
photo: TDmitriy Sladkov
maybe we should teach the way they learn.”
Ignacio Estrada 79
Habits Of Mind Boot Camp The Habits Of Mind Boot Camp is a hands-on experience of teaching in action.
Over four action-packed days you will: • Acquire the tools every teacher must have •
Learn the processes to create, plan and teach powerful lessons
• Be mentored by an incredible group of successful teachers and presenters • Witness the effect of the Habits of Mind in real-life situations
• Learn how to build your teaching capacity and students abilities
•
Benefit from the opportunity to make important decisions about your teaching, away from your day-to-day classroom.
THE THINKING TOOLBOX When you arrive, you will receive a comprehensive Manual, containing working templates in hard copy and soft copy that can be modified and used at the Habits Of Mind Boot Camp and in every lesson you teach. These essential templates ensure you cover the bases and anticipate the opportunities and pitfalls that you will face in such areas as:
• Discovering & exploring the HOM • Engaging & Activating the HOM • Planning for deep understanding
• Have more FUN than is allowed!
• Evaluation & Reporting
• plus you will learn more than you thought possible...
• Implementing the HOM • Exploring Meanings • Expanding Capacities • Increasing Alertness • Extending Values • Building Commitments
THE HOM CHALLENGE 2010 IS AT THE CORE OF THE BOOTCAMP SCHEDULE You will work over the four days on developing your understanding of the Habits Of Mind and leadership in your school, in your communication, and in yourself. This personal & professional development will happen in team exercises throughout t h e e v e n t , o r w i t h a p a r t n e r, a n d independently. The Habits Of Mind Bootcamp is facilitated by an expert team lead by Karen Boyes.
NZ MON 12th April, 9am to THURS 15th April, 1pm ROTORUA Novotel Rotorua Lakeside
• Internalisation • Habituation • Thinking Maps • Planning & Teaching for deep understanding • Assessments • Rubrics • Leadership And heaps more!
SYDNEY
TUES 3rd August, 9am to FRI 6th August 1pm SYDNEY SMC Conf Centre World Square Investment $895pp / $795pp for groups of 3 or more (Investment includes morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea each day)
Numbers are strictly limited! Check out our website at www.spectrumeducation.com for more details
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