Teachers Matter Magazine issue 19

PROFESSIONALLY & PERSONALLY

TeachersMatter The Magazine of Spectrum Education

Problem Based Learning pg. 13

Using Portfolios pg. 16

Anger Danger pg. 40

Nurturing Competitive Kids Into Elite Sport pg. 64

NZ$15 / AU$15

Leaders in Developing Teachers

ISSUE 19

Touch and Pen Interactive Whiteboard Classroom Package eInstruction’s TouchBoard interactive whiteboard puts lessons right in the student’s hands. Students can work at the board with the TouchBoard’s pen-and-finger system to solve problems, write sentences, or draw pictures for a more engaging, interactive classroom experience.

• Durable dry-erase surface designed to withstand the rigours of a typical classroom • High-resolution infrared technology provides accuracy in writing, drawing and lesson delivery • Multi touch using Window 7 and Windows Gestures • The board is single touch or single pen and multi touch with Windows 7 or Windows gestures. Worskspace software is single touch.

For more information go to http://www.sitech.co.nz/touch+penpackage Package consists of: • eInstruction 88" TouchBoard • Panasonic wide screen 2500 lumen WXGA short throw projector • Wall mount for projector • 5m VGA, Video, speaker cables and wallplate • Classroom sound system • Installation* *Travel, accommodation and expenses relating to installation are at an additional cost.

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The alarm you’ll look forward to: iStudyAlarm The iStudyAlarm is now available from the Apple itunes store and Google Play.

S

tudying for a class, mid term or final exam just got easier with iStudyAlarm. Staying focused while studying can often be a challenge, and the iStudyAlarm is designed to help exam students of all ages. Research shows that studying in 20-minute intervals and taking a five-minute brain break is highly beneficial for learning and memory. Studying is supposed to get you ahead in life, not make you a nervous wreck. Plus studying for too long causes your brain to get tired and forget key information.

How the iStudyAlarm works When you are ready to study, simply tap the start button. The timer will go off after 20 minutes and prompt you to spend two minutes revising what you have just learned. Next the alarm will time your five-minute brain break.

Brain break ideas What you do during a break can be as important as when you are actually studying. This menu provides quick brain-friendly break ideas.

Exam tips Ideas of what to do before, during and after an exam. Tips include questionanswering advice, what to do if you can’t remember and hints about what examiners are looking for. Each tip can be expanded to find out more information.

Motivate me Provides quick ideas to help keep you on track and focused. There are also links to short Youtube clips about effective study techniques.

Library mode If you are working in a quiet environment, you can simply switch the alarm to vibrate mode and still stay focused without disturbing others.

Features include: Study tips: Practical tips to keep you on track and studying in a brain friendly and effective way. Tips include setting up your study environment, memory and recall strategies, brain food and note making ideas. Each tip can be expanded to learn more.

The iStudy alarm is designed exclusively for use on iPhone 4, iPod Touch. iPhone 3G/3GS, iPad, and now available for Android. You can download it at the Apple itunes store and Google Play.

NOW n ble o a va i l a i d Andro

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CONTENTS

In this issue

10 6

Editor’s Note

20

The search for significance

Kristen de deyn kirk

allie mooney

10

Keeping a balance in our classrooms

22

Do you treat your parents like a customer or a partner?

Maggie Dent

michael grose

12

Language, the brain, and behaviour

24

Transition to secondary school

dr marvin marshall

angie wilcock

13

The larger agenda: Problem-based learning:

26

How the brain remembers names

art costa

Seven refreshers on motivating and engaging students

Teachers Matter

4

40

26

Terry Small

34

Delegating to grow your organisation

35

Be engaging

36

Learning from Cowboys

38

Transforming learning

40

Anger danger

dr cheryl doig bette blance

glenn capelli

trudy francis

tina joshua-bargh

16

Using portfolios to grow and show professional development

28

alan cooper

steve francis

Karen boyes

18

What boots do you wear?

29

Teacher coaching in schools

43

Teaching students to study is the first step

31

Designing effective museum partnerships

Study skills for success

Rochelle IbaĂąez Wolberg & Donna Tobey

47

matt atkinson

heath henwood

42 Fear of failure

kylie jenkinson karen boyes

MAGAZINE CONTACTS

Teachers Matter Magazine Team

Subscribe today

Publisher, Sales and Advertising: Karen Boyes

To receive your own copy of the next issue, send an e-mail to magazine@spectrumeducation.com

Editor: Kristen De Deyn Kirk Graphic Design: Mary Hester / 2ndFloorDesign.com Printer Spectrum Print, Christchurch

Subscriptions Toll free (NZ) 0800 373 377 Toll free (Australia) 1800 249 727 Thanks to the educators, speakers and authors who contributed interviews, articles, photographs and letters.

Teachers Matter magazine is registered with the National Library: ISSN 1178-6825 © Spectrum Education 2012 All rights reserved.

68

52 48

karen boyes

Letter by letter

64

Nurturing competitive kids into elite sport

50

Would you like to change your mood?

66

Look for evidence

68

Picture books add up in numeracy lessons

john shackleton

52 Habits of Mind success karen boyes

54

56

58

Decisions, decisions jenny barrett

Communicate with the “animal” inside robyn pearce

Questions for thinking and thinking of questions

Barbara griffith & tricia kenyon

wendy sweet

kate southcombe

serenity richards

70 JOKES 72

The power of silence and stillness

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 Spectrum Education Ltd Street Address: 19 Rondane Place, Lower Hutt, New Zealand Postal Address: PO Box 30818, Lower Hutt, New Zealand Phone: (NZ) +64 4 528 9969

the last word:

Karen Boyes

Fax: (NZ) +64 4 528 0969

74

www.spectrumeducation.com

Quote

Mark van Doren

magazine@spectrumeducation.com

Lioncrest Education

60

See it and achieve it

ngahi bidois

Postal Address: PO Box 340 Cessnock NSW 2325, Australia

61

Spring on the plate

Phone: 61 2 4991 2874 or 1800 249 727

karen tobich

info@lioncrest.com.au www.lioncrest.com.au

5

editor’s NOTE

My

your vicinity, instead of our small town.

11-year-old moved up to a new school this year, and he’s now • Do not add your child to your accounts, interested in girls and staying in thus exposing the relationship and touch with them outside of school with social identifying her/him. media. I’m not thrilled about this and plan to • Do not list school names. keep him focused on other areas, but his new want; if you see objectionable behaviour, interest set me on a mission to learn more address it offline, not online. Nobody wants • Monitor all social media accounts about keeping him safe. Once upon a time, their friends to see their parents’ comments r e g u l a r l y. “ S p o t c h e c k ” p o s t s a n d we parents struggled to teach our children on their FB page so restrain yourself. responses. You’ll need to know his/her proper manners – how to interact with others login to do this at your convenience.

• The biggest worry is cyber bullying, and so that no one was mistreated or offended. this requires early training in empathy and A tough job, but one the parents had at • Choose passwords that contain letters manners. Parents then need to bridge these least, most likely, been taught ourselves by and numbers that correlate to words of lessons to use of social media. Sexting is our parents or caring teacher. Nowadays, a sentence, not a special place or pet’s the next biggest concern and this requires parents and teachers do the same – but they name. This makes hacking more difficult. straight talk from the time a child is 11 and can’t stop with simple etiquette rules: They • Fully log out of websites when using reinforced as the child gets older. must also cover “netiquette,” the ins and public computers. outs of social media. The stakes are high, From Kevin J. Roberts, author of Cyber Junkie: says Sam Black, Internet safety consultant • Arrange for any texts or phone calls Escape the Gaming and Internet Trap: with Covenant Eyes Internet Accountability that are not part of her contacts to be • Have at least some tech-free time as a and Filtering. He shared with me these facts: it besent to voice for adult auditing.

If call • Let students the shots (don’t be ouldn’t great if youmail could family. inappropriate, those numbers are blocked. scared; read Simon Evans’ article) q u i c k l y s k i m t h e c o n t e n t s o f • Over half (55%) of parents of 12-year-olds • In addition to tech-free time, have Teachers Matter a n d s u d d e n l y say their child has a Facebook account.

• If she fills out any forms for school • Invest in or solutions, not standards tech-free zones. Many families work become thehelped teacher of every student’s, Most of these parents (76%) also activities, ask parent’s that children(imagine use your cell the possibilities with Barr y with choose to use the family room for andthe principal’s dreams?phone Not possible, right? of their own. their 12-year-old create account, number instead Musson) this purpose. Cell phones, video game Webyknow that of the process of becoming an according to a 2011 study University • List/update with activities, but anot • Follow GPS and map it out (Bena consoles, laptops, iPads, and computers exceptional teacher takes openness, research, Illinois Chicago. locations.

Kallick suggests are that takeinhints notyou allowed there. practice and commitment – in other words, a • 40% of teens have seen pictures on social from technology to stay on track in the significant investment of time.

• Set a maximum time allowed on video networking sites of kids getting drunk, classroom) From Marla Rosner, author of Digital Manners But there is something you can do right now games and the computer. I recommend passed out, or using drugs. Half of these and House Rulesare forsome Kids: A Parent Handbook to at they leastwere start13the process.

Here • Freeze the positivity (tips on keeping kids a day. no more than two hours first saw these pictures when and creator www.BeyondNetiquette.com quick teasers – a few words to of summarise excited, compliments of Chris Kerr) or younger.

• For each minute spent on the computer and issue momare to asharing 16-year-old what the experts in this – boy: • Be the community kindgame, (howrequire to go a corresponding or video • 11.5% of teens are “hyper-networkers,” to spark your interest. Take a deeper look at • Kids should not have Internet beyondaccess a good student to of a exercise. good citizen minute This will allow you to spending more than their threearticles hours later per and then go even further in their bedrooms but in shared family with advice from David Koutsoukis) combat the tendency for technology to school day on social networks. by reading more about their techniques, rooms to enable adult oversight. Postpone create sedentary and obese children. taking a class, the techniques and • Slip,access Slop,for Slap (from the master of catchy • Hyper-networking teens are 69% moretrying providing phones with Internet then eventually mastering them.

Step by step, phrases – Glenn Capelli) • Parents must follow these rules too! If you likely to be binge drinkers, 84% more as long as possible. you’ll on60% your way to communicating allow your children to police you as well, likely to have tried illicit drugs,beand • Getis personal students (Kevin • Astudents condition of helping having a phone that your withityour clearly, and will empower them, and serve to create more likely to have had fourmotivating or more your Mayall tells you why) parents can check your text messages. them develop a lifelong love of learning: a more harmonious and balanced family. sexual partners, according to a 2011 The flip side of this is that• parents should If it’s not broken, still fix it (Martz Witty study by the School of Medicine at Case • Passwords are not to be shared. tread carefully on intrudingkeeps in their youkids’ improving) Western Reserve University. social lives. The older the teen, the greater • S c r e e n n a m e s s h o u l d n o t c o n v e y • Share your “view” with everyone With our limited experience is social media, privacy they deserve, if you don’t suspect identifying information.

(Ngahi Bidois uses an analogy to show you especially during the challenging tween and problematic behaviour. the rewards) • Never give out your address, age, or teen years, parents and teachers alike may • No electronic gizmos at the dinner table phone number online. find it best to turn to advice from experts in • If you’re ready, the “not-ready” child for anyone. the field. Please feel free to share them with might still grow (Maggie Dent explains • Report any bullying to a parent. your students’ parents and other parents • No texts or cell phone calls after a certain how the right teacher makes a difference.) you know: • I f s o m e o n e y o u d o n o t k n o w i s time of night. The minute a child has a tr ying to converse with you online, cell phone, parents can establish a routine F r o m b l o g g e r C . L e e R e e d , w w w. do not respond and tell a parent. of charging the phones in a common area helicoptermomandjustplanedad.com and outside the bedroom at night. twitter.com/hmajpd, mom to a teen age girl:

EDITOr’S NOTE

6

• Use your name and middle name [or a variation of it] instead of your full name.

• List your location as the largest city in

tter

Teachers Matter

W

• P a r e n t s s h o u l d a b s o l u t e l y h a v e a Facebook profile if their child is on FB. However, they should keep a low to no presence on the child’s page. Stalk all you

Kristen De Deyn Kirk

Introducing the

Online Habits of Mind Course with Art Costa & Bena Kallick This is an online Introduction to Habits of Mind with Art Costa and Bena Kallick.

Over 8 weeks join a group of other like minded educators while Art Costa and Bena Kallick share their experiences and insights about the Habits of Mind. Your learning journey is supported and guided by both Graham Watts and Karen Boyes with many years of school based experience working with the Habits of Mind to ensure you get the most out of the course.

This course is self-paced and can be completed in your own time. Graham and Karen will guide you for the 8 weeks in which time you should easily be able to complete the modules.

What does this online course cover: • Introduction to Habits of Mind • Get to know the 16 Habits • Why the Habits of Mind are Important • Interview with the Experts • Creating a shared Vision • Plus lots more...

The Teachers’ Learning Centre is Home to Spectrums Online Courses The Teachers’ Learning Centre brings together like minded teachers and educators from around the world who share a passion in successful, lifelong learning. Our mission is to offer high quality professional development that blends social interaction with new technologies. Additionally, our learning programmes mark the start of anongoing professional dialogue for teachers within your school, connecting teachers in other countries. Our online learning platform allows teachers anywhere in the world to discuss and co-construct their learning with leading international experts in various fields.

All of our courses can be offered in your school, led by experts for those that want to go further than the courses offered online.

The Teachers’ Learning Centre is ideal for: • One person or for the whole staff training • New staff training and induction • Anytime, any place learning • Learning with teachers within and across nations • Keeping teachers in the classroom, not out on courses • Learning at your own pace • Focused, applied learning • Working alongside the experts

at the hea r t o f tea c hi n g a n d l ea r n i n g

To learn more about this Course and the session times, contact Spectrum Education.

Phone NZ on 0800 37 33 77 or +644 5289969 | Australia phone 1800 063 272 or fax 1800 068 977 Email: info@spectrumeducation.com

Your Hosts Graham Watts and Karen Boyes are dedicated to making a difference in education through teacher development. Based in the UK, Graham’s experience leading Thinking Skills and Habits of Mind programmes in a diverse range of schools around the world, gives his workshops a rich breadth and depth. From a league table topping school in New Zealand to one of the UK’s most improved secondary schools, Graham has developed highly successful students’ thinking and learning programmes. Karen is often 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 Affiliate Director of the Institute for the Habits of Mind, Karen is an expert in teaching and learning throughout the world.

CONTRIBUTORS

Alan Cooper Alan Cooper is an educational consultant based in New Zealnd. 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

Angie Wilcock Angie Wilcock is a highly regarded Australian expert and speaker on transitions in education. She is a published author with a strong background in teaching who works with teachers, parents and students in the area of transition to secondary school. Her first major book, The Transition Tightrope, will be released by Routledge UK late 2012. www.highhopes.com.au

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 we 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

Teachers Matter

Barbara Griffith

8

Barbara has been a primary school teacher for 36 years. She has specialised in the teaching of literacy for more than 20 years and recently retired from a position as a Resource Teacher: Literacy, which she had held for the last 16 years.

Bette Blanc As an educational consultant and instructor with William Glasser Institute, Bette Blance works with schools in New Zealand and Australia focusing on pedagogy and behaviour. She helps school staff, counsellors and community members who have the desire to learn more about how and why we behave the way we do.

Dr Cheryl Doig Dr Cheryl Doig is director of Think Beyond.

As an educator, her aim is to challenge organisations to think for tomorrow. She can be contacted through www.thinkbeyond.com.nz.

Donna Tobey Beginning her 27th year in independent schools, Donna Tobey currently serves as the head of Lower School at Palm Beach Day Academy in West Palm Beach, FL. Currently serving on the executive boards of the Florida Kindergarten Council and Florida Reggio Collaborative, she has a passion for creating and providing professional development opportunities for teachers. In 2005, the Georgetown Club of Miami honored Donna Tobey for her “outstanding dedication to the mind of the young child.”

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 fastpaced and ever-changing world through the use of creative thinking, humour, enthusiasm and attitude. Glenn’s new book, Thinking Caps, is available from Spectrum. www.glenncapelli.com

Heath Henwood Heath Henwood is a working teacher and coach in Queensland. He has extensive experience working in schools both government and private as a Teacher and Principal. Heath has studied widely, with a Masters in Leadership, and graduate qualifications in Science, Education, and ICTs. He sits on several boards and consultants on Strategic Leadership, Educational Practices, Curriculum Development and Personal Development. He is married with two teenage children. He is available for contact at Heath.

Henwood@gmail.com

Jenny Barrett Jenny is the CEO for Breathe Technology. Her enthusiasm for technology came when thrown in the deep end whilst teaching at a Taiwan high school. Jenny has since undertaken a Master’s of Education (Ed. Technology) and

has supported classroom teachers to use educational technology in UK and NZ projects. www.breathetechnology.co.nz

John Shackleton With a sports 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

Kate Southcombe Kate’s business, EPR Training, combines her passion for horses and her educational background by supplying online products to support people with behaviour management of horses and children. This novel approach is grounded in science and draws on the principles of applied behaviour analysis. Kate is an Early Childhood Education lecturer and private tutor.

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 and corporate clients internationally, unleashing their peak performance. www.spectrumeducation.com

Karen Tobich Karen is a food stylist who is passionate about living off the land and creating and presenting food. She believes that sharing food connects people and fosters quality relationships in so many ways. She shows you how to transform home and locally grown seasonal foods into delicious healthy and inspiring foods to make, to give, and to share.

Kylie Jenkinson Kylie has been teaching for 10 years in schools in England and New Zealand. She currently is a teacher and senior academic dean at a school in Manurewa. She is in a privileged position to be able to work closely with senior students aiming to enter tertiary education.

Kylie is always looking for ways to inspire her students to achieve beyond their own expectations.

Maggie Dent Maggie Dent is an author, educator, speaker, and parenting and resilience expert with a special interest in the early years and adolescence. She is a passionate advocate for the healthy, commonsense raising of children in order to strengthen families and

communities. Maggie has a broad perspective and range of experience that shapes her work, a slightly irreverent sense of humour and a depth of knowledge that she shares passionately in a commonsense way. Her finest achievements are her four adult sons, deep human connectedness and her five books. www.maggiedent.com

free report for you: How to Master Time in Only 90 Seconds. She is a CSP, a Certified Speaking Professional. This is the top speaking accreditation in the profession of speaking and held by only about 800 people around the world. www.gettingagrip.com

Dr Marvin Marshall

Rochelle Ibañez Wolberg is the learning specialist and coordinator of support services at Palm Beach Day Academy. She is passionate about creating powerful learning experiences for students and colleagues and serves on the leadership team of Collaborate South Florida, a professional learning community comprised of various schools. Rochelle holds graduate degrees in educational psychology and school psychology from Fordham University.

Marvin is an international staff developer and the author of the best-selling book, Discipline Without Stress, Punishments or Rewards: How Teachers and Parents Promote Responsibility & Learning. His approaches demonstrate how using internal motivation and non-coercion is far more effective and significantly less stressful than using threats, punishments, rewards, and other manipulations aimed at obedience. www.marvinmarshall.com

Matt Atkinson Matt Atkinson is investigating whether students can achieve greater academic success by adapting Habits of Mind that they have used successfully in sporting contexts. He believes that transferring prior experience into the classroom provides a positive, personal frame of reference for student application of the Habits of Mind. Schools interested in participating in this project can contact Matt at matkinson@bbc.qld.edu.au

Michael Grose Author, columnist and presenter Michael Grose currently supports over 1,100 schools in Australia, New Zealand and England in engaging and supporting their parent communities. He is also the director of Parentingideas, Australia’s leader in parenting education resources and support for schools.

In 2010 Michael spoke at the prestigious Headmaster’s Conference in England, the British International Schools Conference in Madrid, and the Heads of Independent Schools Conference in Australia, showing school leadership teams how to move beyond partnership-building to create real parentschool communities. For bookings, parenting resources for schools and Michael’s famous Free Chores & Responsibilities Guide for Kids, go to www.parentingideas.com.au.

Ngahi Bidois Ngahihi o te ra is from Te Arawa and is an international speaker, author and consultant. His website can be viewed at www. ngahibidois.com

Robyn Pearce Robyn Pearce is known around the world as the Time Queen, helping people discover new angles on time. Check the resources on her website www.gettingagrip.com, including a

Rochelle Ibañez Wolberg

Serenity Richards Serenity Richards has been teaching for thirteen years in a primary school setting.

In recent years she have been working as a numeracy coach, working with teachers to improve pedagogy in classrooms.

Steve Francis Steve Francis understands the challenges and demands of being a principal. He has led a number of Queensland State Schools from a one-teacher school through to a large metropolitan school and was previously a member of QASSP Management Committee.

After 18 years of successful principalship, Steve ventured with his family to Hong Kong as the principal of an international school for four great years. He returned to Queensland to start a new business venture supporting leaders to reach their potential, write three books, A Gr8 Life…Live it now!, Time Management For Teachers and First Semester Can Make Or Break You, and develop the Gr8 People educational resources and the Happy School articles. He is conducting a one day workshop ‘Establishing a Feedback Culture’ for QASSP members. Further details are on the QASSP website and www.stevefrancis.net.au

Terry Small Terry Small, B.Ed., M.A., is a master teacher and learning skills specialist. He has presented on the brain for over 30 years to schools and organizations around the world. His knowledge, warmth, humour and dynamic presentation style have made him a much sought-after speaker at workshops and conferences. Terry is often on television, the radio and in the press. He recently appeared on BCTV, Global, CKNW and Student Success.

He has presented his ideas to over 200,000 people. His clients include many schools and universities, IBM, Ford, Bayer, Bosch, CRA, RCMP, Toyota, and many others. Terry believes, “Anyone can learn how to learn easier, better, faster, and that learning to

CONTRIBUTORS learn is the most important skill a person can acquire.” Terry’s wealth of teaching experience and extensive involvement in applied neuroscience and make him an outstanding resource of the business and educational communities. He resides in Vancouver, Canada, where he is a frequent lecturer at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. Terry Small’s Philosophy is simple: “Success is a skill anyone can learn.”

Tina Joshua-Bargh Tina Joshua-Bargh is Canadian-trained teacher who came to New Zealand in the late 1990s. She taught Y1 and Y3/4 in South Auckland, then Y3/4 in West Auckland before moving back to Ontario, Canada where she taught grade 1 for seven years. She’s been a Year 5 teacher at Willowbank School in Dannemore since 2008 and has recently developed a passion for helping parents be the best parent they can be for their child.

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.

Trudy Francis Trudy is recognised in Australasia as a leader in Curriculum Integration, HigherOrder Thinking, the Key Competencies and Habits of Mind. She is in demand as a speaker and workshop facilitator. In 2007 Trudy was appointed by four schools in the Fitzherbert Cluster to facilitate their Extending High Standards across Schools project (Ministry of Education NZ). c21learning@kol.co.nz

Wendy Sweet Wendy Sweet is a regular contributor to Teachers Matter magazine on health and lifestyle issues. She has a lengthy career in the industry and is best known for having founded personal training in NZ for the Les Mills group. Wendy lectures at the University of Waikato in the sport and leisure studies division in the faculty of education and is currently undertaking her PhD. She is a well respected seminar presenter on work-life balance and has presented at a number of professional development workshops for schools. She can be contacted on wsweet@ xtra.co.nz or wsweet@waikato.ac.nz

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Oksana Kuzmina

Maggie Dent

Keeping a balance in our classrooms Avoiding the IT overload

Teachers Matter

J

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ust last week I watched a toddler massively engaged in an Ipad at an airport. At first I was impressed by the toddler’s capacity to slide the screen to find the visual activity she was seeking. Then I watched as for half an hour she ignored her surroundings (including large planes landing just outside the window) and sat still except for the movement of her right hand. Then I felt sad. Toddlers and children under school age are creating the neuronal highways that will ensure they can develop on so many levels – physically, emotionally, socially, cognitively and even spiritually. Massive sensory exploration, constant language saturation and physical movement are needed for our amazing brains to develop spatial, auditory and kinaesthetic capacity that then influences almost everything we do. We cannot learn to read without these key developments.

The widespread acceptance of the world of screens has bothered me for a while, and the changing landscape in our classrooms is particularly worrying. I regularly visit classrooms all around Australia, and no matter whether it is in a remote community or in a city the digital age has arrived. There are endless laptop computers, interactive whiteboards, the replacement of printed books with e-books, and the massive use of the Internet to carry out research as well as the more recent activity of getting students to create multi-modal texts. Then there are mobile phones, mainly smart phones that allow some of our savvy adolescents to stay connected to the outside world while in class.

Humans are social beings and will always be drawn to staying connected. The digital world “appears” to do that. However, we are losing our children and adolescents more and

more to depression and irrational violence.

Bullying is a much more serious problem in our schools than it was before the digital age when students spent more time playing with each other. The building of emotional and social competence needs human contact, and the shallow connectedness that occurs via the web is unable to meet the core needs of human intimacy.

Frequent screen time has some other concerns. The first is the multi-tasking that occurs. Students often have three or four screens open and “flit” from one to the other.

Neuropsychologist Professor Keith Laws warns that genuine high-level multi-tasking is impossible in humans.

Dr Chris Chapparo from the University of Sydney agrees: “When people attempt to multi-task, what they are really doing is switching rapidly back and forth between tasks, what I call ‘switchtasking’. These switches

Maggie Dent

“ Massive sensory exploration, constant language saturation and physical movement are needed for our amazing brains to develop.“

cause people to lose time, and be incredibly less productive.Whenever multi-tasking is increased, the cognitive load is increased, too, and people will get cognitive fatigue.”

For children and adolescents who do not have a complete prefrontal cortex, the effects of “switchtasking” can be more noticeable and unsettling.

Kevin Donnelly wrote an article in a recent Australian paper called ‘Digital age is dumbing down our children’ and he too shares my concerns of too much of a good thing with our IT world.

The danger is that too much time spent playing computer games, watching screens and surfing the net damages the way we process information and the way we think.

Unlike printed texts that require you to focus on the words, concentrate, read carefully and sit quietly, TV and computer screens are full of colourful graphics, ever-changing images, sounds and lots of movement. This step-bystep focus suits our brains much better than the rapid saturation of sensory exposure.

When reading a printed page, your eyes move from left to right following the words, with stops to process meaning, as you move systematically across and down the page.

Reading a computer screen is different, as described by a U.S. researcher Jakob Nielsen.

Initially, reading a computer page is similar to reading a printed page. Your eyes move from left to right in a methodical fashion, but with computers, after a while, your eyes stop reading all the way across the screen and only read the left-hand side, moving vertically instead of horizontally.

When it comes to new technology, especially computer games, Susan Greenfield from Oxford University puts it this way: “(The) environment has changed in an unprecedented way; it’s bombarding you with boom, bang and bang images, what I call the ‘yuck and wow’ scenario where every

moment you’re having something flash up in your face and bombard your ear.”

“My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.”

No wonder teachers complain that students are unable to sit still for long periods and work quietly. The reality is that if young children have never spent time reading a book or been taught that learning requires concentration and effort, everything at school will have to be designed to be immediately entertaining.

Another area of concern is the reading deeply of books, particularly quality texts. Reading a novel or a poem requires concentration, weighing each word or sentence and using your imagination to enter the world created by the author or poet. We can all remember being so caught up when reading that it is almost as if we were there with the characters.

Professor Greenfield argues that today’s children are not reading as deeply, thus we are denying them the opportunity to merge with the characters and the story of good books. She argues that who we become is shaped by deep reading and we can learn so much about choices, character and even our moral code. If this is not happening as much, she believes we will raise a generation of children who will lack depth, originality and resilience. If today’s children keep doing the same things via the digital world, they will all be similar – maybe a world full of anybodies and nobodies.

One of the arguments for using computers is that learning will improve. Is that true or are we just accepting that it does without questioning what else may be happening?

Kevin Donnelly argues that research carried out on the results of international mathematics and science tests and examining why some countries and students do better than others suggests computers hinder learning.

European researcher Ludger Woessmann, who carried out an investigation into the Programme for International Student Assessment tests, says the “availability of computers at home is negatively related to student performance in maths and reading, and the availability of computers at school is unrelated to student performance”.

Woessmann makes the point that students can waste time on computers and the Internet (socialising, talking to friends, playing games). He argues that “availability of computers at home seems to distract students from learning”. Research into how young children learn best also tells us that instead of relying on calculators and computers, students need to strengthen their brain power by memorising multiplication t a b l e s , d o i n g m e n t a l a r i t h metic and learning how to recite songs, ballads and poems by heart. This repetition, patterning and sequencing improves the brain’s working memory, and this will certainly support improved school performance.

One final concern with the digital classroom is who has done the homework or the assessment task? Given that much work done outside the classroom is emailed to teachers – how can we know the student has done the work? (Simple solution is to complete all assessments right there in class and printed and handed to teacher).

We cannot turn back the clock and reclaim life as it was and there is no doubt that technology is a daily part of our lives and that it brings many benefits both in our schools and lives. However, we need to keep it in balance with what the brain research tells us, and never forget the following in Kevin Donnelly’s words Children have a very versatile, powerful and cheap computer with them all day, every day - it sits on their shoulders and it’s called a brain.

Make sure they use it.

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dr marvin marshall

Language, the brain, and behaviour A lesson from George Orwell

E

ric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, wrote one of the most popular 20th-century English novels in 1949, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book’s appendix was referred to as “The Newspeak Appendix” and it described a new language, the purpose of which was to control thought. Orwell showed how language affects the brain, the mind (thought), and behaviour.

A Newspeak root word served as both a noun and a verb, thereby reducing the total number of words in the language.

For example, “think” is both a noun and verb, so the word thought is not required and could be abolished. Newspeak was also spoken in staccato rhythms with syllables that were easy to pronounce, thus making speech more automatic and nonconscious and reducing the likelihood of thought.

Teachers Matter

According to this scenario, if the word “freedom” or “liberty” were not in the vocabulary, the concept would not exist. By this logic, if a language had a word such as democracy (demo = common people + cracy = rule or government by), that term would carry with it a significant concept.

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In my discipline and learning system, the four vocabulary terms were chosen specifically because of the concepts they represent. For example, the reason that the Hierarchy of Social Development is so powerful in having students want to behave responsibly and achieve at the highest level (Level D, Democracy) is that at this level a person feels satisfied by being motivated to do what is right. All the levels are clearly explained and illustrated in Children of the Rainbow School.

Here is another example of how vocabulary is so important and related to behaviour: Summer vacation is over, and your self-talk is, “I have to go to school tomorrow.” Now compare this with, “I get to go to school tomorrow.” Changing self-talk from have to into get to changes not only our attitude but our feelings as well.

This is the reason that young people should be spoken to with empowering terms and empowering questions, such as, “I’m sure you can do it; I know how capable you are.” And “If you could not fail, how would you handle this?”

One salesgirl in a candy store always had customers lined up waiting while other salesgirls stood around. The owner of the store noted her popularity and asked for her secret. “It’s easy,” she said. “The other girls scoop up more than a pound of candy and then start subtracting some.

I always scoop up less than a pound and then add to it.” People are like magnets. They are drawn to the positive and are repelled by the negative. This is an important principle to understand when working with others. People who are effective in influencing other people phrase their language in positive and empowering terms.

When you walk into a restaurant, which would you rather hear: “I can’t seat you for thirty minutes” or “In thirty minutes I will have a wonderful table for you”? The result is the same, but the perception and feelings are different.

The language we use can have a dramatic effect on young people’s behaviour.

The first step is awareness. To assist in becoming aware of negative statements, listen to yourself. When catching yourself saying something that paints a negative picture, take the extra step of thinking how it could be rephrased to paint a positive picture. Adults do not purposely set out to deprecate young people; awareness of empowering language can ensure they do not. For example, rather than saying, “Did you forget again?” say, “What can you do to help yourself remember?” Rather than, “When will you grow up?” say, “As we grow older, we learn how to solve these problems from such experiences.”

What teachers can learn from this book…

Many years ago, the first day of school began on a bright note for the new teacher who was glancing over the class roll. After each student’s name was a number 118, 116, 121, and so on. “Look at these IQs,” the teacher thought. “They have given me a terrific class!” As a result, the elated teacher challenged his students, raised their expectations, and communicated his confidence in them. The teacher tried innovative techniques and involved students so they became active learners.

The class did much better than expected.

Only later did the teacher find out that the numbers placed by students’ names on new class roll sheets were locker numbers.

A starting point is always to ask yourself, “How can I say that in an empowering way?” because the language used affects the brain, thinking, and behaviour.

art costa

“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving t h e i n d i v i d u a l s . To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity.�

- Marie Curie photo:KHO

Problem-based learning: the larger agenda What Habits of Mind can lead to

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roblem-based learning provides a rich opportunity for students to deepen their knowledge, to expand their repertoire of technical skills and to enhance t heir appreciation of t h i n k i n g t o o l s , processes and strategies. It is not enough, however, to understand concepts and principles and to solve that one problem.

The essential outcome is to develop and expand the dispositions of skillful problem solvers who can apply their learnings to an ever-expanding array of challenges in their world. While we are interested in how many answers individuals know, we are even more interested in how they behave when they don’t know. The larger goal is for enhanced performance under challenging conditions that demand strategic reasoning, insightfulness, perseverance, creativity, and craftsmanship to resolve complex problems. Achieving this vision requires the internalization of certain dispositions, propensities or Habits of Mind.

What are habits of Mind?

Habits of Mind are dispositions that are skillfully and mindfully employed by characteristically intelligent, successful people when they are confronted with problems. When we draw upon these mental resources, the results are more powerful, of higher quality, and of greater significance than if we fail to employ those habits.

Employing Habits of Mind requires a composite of many skills, attitudes cues, past experiences, and proclivities. It means that we value one pattern of thinking over another, and therefore it implies choice making about which habit should be employed at which time. It includes sensitivity to the contextual cues in a situation signaling that it is an appropriate time and circumstance to employ this pattern. It requires a level of skillfulness to carry through the behaviours effectively over time. Finally, it leads individuals to

reflect on, evaluate, modify, and carry forth their learnings to future applications.

It implies goal setting for improved performance and making a commitment to continued self-modification.

While there may be more, 16 characteristics of effective problem -solvers have been derived from studies of efficacious problemsolvers from many walks of life. The list of Habits of Mind include: 1. Persisting 2. Managing impulsivity 3. L i s t e n i n g w i t h u n d e r s t a n d i n g a n d empathy 4. Thinking flexibly 5. Thinking about thinking 6. Striving for accuracy 7. Questioning and posing problems 8. A p p l y i n g p a s t k n o w l e d g e t o n e w situations 9. Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision 10. Gathering data through all senses 11. Creating, imagining, innovating

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12. Responding with wonderment and awe 13. Taking responsible risks 14. Finding humour 15. Thinking interdependently 16. Remaining open to continuous learning A CASE STUDY The following episode is based upon a

INTERVIEW QUESTION “What was it that made your team successful in completing this work: What were the characteristics/ dispositions of the people involved that contributed to its success?”

true problem-based learning experience at California State University, Sacramento. The challenge, submitted by a representative of the Shriners’ Children’s Hospital, was to find a way to reduce/eliminate the occurrences of pressure ulcers on patients that are committed to wheelchairs, specifically children. The team that tackled this problem was composed of five members in their senior year of the program leading to an

engineering degree. I am deeply grateful to Eric Lencioni, a member of the team, for his help in describing this experience and the comments made by group members.

The comments, while edited, are taken from group member’s responses to interview questions posed by the author. Several Habits of Mind become evident in the dialogue and are identified in the column on the right.

TEAM MEMBERS’ RESPONSES

HABITS OF MIND

“Our team was successful because although no leader was selected, a leader emerged and kept the team on schedule and on track. Also everyone on the team was committed to the project, and their individual responsibilities. This allowed everyone to work on their part of the project, without having to worry if everyone else was doing their jobs.”

Thinking Interdependently

“Another aspect of our team that made us successful, was most of the team was easily open to suggestion and listened to each other’s ideas.”

Thinking Flexibly Listening with Understanding and Empathy

“What learnings or insights did you derive from this experience that you would carry forth to future new/ novel problems that you might tackle?”

“I learned teamwork skills, and idea filtering. Because we are given free reign to solve this problem without much guidance, it became crucial to sift our way through all the ideas that the group members had in solving the problem.“

Thinking Interdependently

“It was important not to immediately dismiss an idea, because a certain aspect of that idea might be applicable. “

Managing Impulsivity

“Another important part of our success was to understand that one person in the group may have a better understanding of an aspect of the problem than the rest of the members, and it was ok to let that person “have the reins” to get past that certain part.”

Listening With Understanding And Empathy Thinking Flexibly Remaining Open To Continuous Learning

“Besides new problems, what did you learn that might apply to “life situations and future careers?”’

“What strategies did your team employ when you got stuck; when you disagreed?”

“The most important part of this process was working in a small group/ team. I think that the nuances of working in a small group to complete a task are skills all students should have. It is representative of the workplace and the situations that everyone will encounter throughout their careers.”

Thinking Interdependently

“Mostly we would brainstorm. Get everyone together and start crunching ideas. Having everyone involved not only gave everyone a better understanding about what was happening, but also let everyone participate and not feel left out. “

Creating, Imagining, Innovating.

Applying Past knowledge to new situations.

Taking Responsible Risks

Teachers Matter

Thinking Interdependently

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“When we disagreed, and it happened frequently, again we used group discussions to solve our differences.”

Thinking Flexibly Thinking and Communicating with clarity and precision

“This can become a problem though. It is important for the group members not to play favorites, and just side with their friends to end the argument. It has to be clear that the decision is for the good of the project.”

Thinking about your Thinking (Metacognition)

“What did you and your team laugh about? What sparked your funny bone?

We laughed a lot during this process, mostly to keep the mood light. We found that being too serious led to tension. Some times we would have to consciously stop the comedy and refocus on the task, but it never hindered the progress of the project.

Finding humour

What joys and celebrations did you enjoy?

The joys I personally found were at the completion of each stage of the project. Seeing our creation take shape in the way you designed it gave me great personal satisfaction. I knew that our project was a success, and was proud of our work. Also the quality of our work and the thoroughness of our research made me confident during our presentation.

It’s easier to speak about something when you are positive you know more about it that everyone else in the room.

Striving for Accuracy and Precision

“I now feel more capable to handle group-based problem solving. This is especially important because in industry it has become the common practice to do small group based problem solving.”

Questioning and Problem Posing

“I feel more confident that I will be able to work again in that kind of environment and succeed in the task at hand. Learning how to be heard and effectively influence the decision making process is another area that I feel I improved.”

Listening with understanding and Empathy

“How are you a ‘better person’ because of your engagement in this process?”

“What advice would you give to other teams who might work on similar problems?”

The biggest piece of advice is to make sure that ALL team members are committed to the task at hand. One bad apple can defiantly spoil the bunch, but that doesn’t mean that that person needs to be cut free of the group. It is up to the group to find a way to harness that persons skills and hopefully make them a productive member of the team.”

Creating, Imagining, innovating.

Responding with Wonderment and Awe

Thinking and Communicating with clarity and Precision Thinking Interdependently Listening with Understanding and Empathy Creating, Imagining, Innovating.

“What will you continue to wonder about or be intrigued with as a result of this experience?”

“I will always wonder if there was some part of our project that we could have improved upon. A little change here or there that could have made our final product just a little better. “

Responding with wonderment and awe Striving for accuracy

“I am intrigued with the fact that despite all the differences in opinion on how a certain thing should be accomplished, the team members put aside their own feelings and thoughts and still diligently worked on the team concept.”

Thinking flexibly

“I was truly lucky to have the team I did, it is what made us so successful.”

Thinking Interdependently

Toward a larger agenda Problem-based learning provides a unique opportunity for students to become more scientifically and technologically literate and to make informed decisions. Problembased learning also encourages a more spiritual agenda and has the great potential of building a more thoughtful world as an interdependent learning community, where all people are continually searching for ways to trust each other, to learn together, and to grow toward greater intelligence. By caring for and learning from one another and sharing the riches and resources in one part of the globe to help the less fortunate others achieve their fullest intellectual potential:

• SOLVING WORLD PROBLEMS: continually generating more effective approaches to find peaceful ways rather than resorting to violence and terrorism to resolve differences.

• F L E X I B I L I T Y: u n d e r s t a n d i n g a n d valuing the diversity of other cultures, races, religions, language systems, time perspectives, and political and economic views in an effort to develop a more stable world community.

• CONSCIOUSNESS of our human effects on each other and on the earth’s limited resources in an effort to live more respectfully, graciously, and harmoniously in our delicate environment.

• LISTENING WITH UNDERSTANDING AND EMPATHY and USING CLEAR AND PRECISE COMMUNICATION with other peoples, regardless of what language they speak. We must dream dreams together, understand complex issues together, and use dialogue instead of weapons to resolve misunderstandings.

• T H I N K I N G I N T E R D E P E N D E N T LY b y sharing the riches and resources in one part of the globe to help the less fortunate others achieve their fullest potential.

Problem-based learning, therefore, supports a vision of classrooms, schools and communities and, indeed, a world that are more thoughtful places.

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alan cooper

Using portfolios to grow and show professional development Thought and goal-setting are key

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rofessional portfolios enable teachers to own, drive and monitor their on-going professional development, the growth of their personal intelligences. However, a portfolio’s worth is denigrated unless it is much more than just a serendipitous scrapbook. Metacognitive reflection is what enables it to be much more.

The diagram and discussion that follows illustrates how such a process allows the individual teacher to own the portfolio.

in such a way that it explores the teacher’s educational philosophy. There are two likely questions to be asked here. First is: “What do I want to find out about my teaching?” and second: “How do the students fit into this?” The second part brings the attention to the students. When portfolios are utilised as they should be, they aim to improve educational outcomes and that puts the students at the centre.

Here is a possible example: “Questioning is an essential part of teaching. We expect

Metacognitive Reflection

Planning

To give focus and purpose by determining the controlling overall goal and the steps by which to achieve it

Analysing & Evaluating

Reflecting on the data/ artifacts to consciously understand how things connect and interact: then using that knowledge to check progress and plan forward

Planning Planning has four stages: 1. Rationale First is the establishment of a rationale. This is the reason, the big idea, which provides the goal. It is much more than just a mechanical exercise, instead being worded

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Creating

Examining what new knowledge has been gained: what old knowledge has been confirmed: what previous knowledge has to be unlearned: creating new strategies that continuously improve

students to give answers when called upon, but how often do we give them instruction in developing thinking skills round this?

Therefore I want to examine the impact on my teaching and the students’ learning when I specifically introduce processes that develop thinking rather than just concentrate on right answers.”

Finally to round off this rationale section, ask yourself the question, “What professional development am I gaining from my portfolio?”

The rationale should provide a succinct a n s w e r. I n t h i s c a s e , “ I a m g a i n i n g professional development by experimenting with different strategies and techniques when I ask questions.”

I am labouring the point here. Unless portfolios are designed as a tool for teachers to further develop their capabilities and capacities – to grow their personal intelligences - why keep them?

2. Essential question The essential question provides the thesis for the portfolio. This is the specific against which the teacher development is to be discussed. Note that it is the catalyst for reflection, not for judgement or measuring.

Following the rationale as stated above, an example would be, “Will the student answering of questions become more strategic by including analysis and evaluation in their answers?”

3. Related questions Related questions drill down into the detail needed to answer the more general essential question by asking specific questions. Ideally they should aim to grow both the teacher’s interpersonal and the intrapersonal intelligences.

Interpersonal intelligence questions (ones that are directly related to the teacher’s impact on the student) could be such as, “Do students answer questions in more depth when a threeor six-second interval between asking the question and requiring an answer is used?”

alan cooper weekly and when appropriate, daily. The best data will be anecdotal, the stories that the students and you can tell. These stories could well start with the prior attitude or ideas about questioning by asking the students to respond to a question such as, “What do you find easy about the questions that are asked in class?; what do you find that is hard about the questions that are asked in class?:; what could the teacher do to make answering questions easier for you?; and what could you do to make it easier for you to answer questions? This will give you base line data.

Intrapersonal questions (ones that look at the growth in capabilities and capacities of the student as a result of the teaching) can look for improved student performance such as, “Does asking each student to paraphrase the previous answer increase their overall understanding?”

4. Professional goals Professional goals are specific to each teacher’s professional development (growing their personal intelligences) in one or more areas that are relevant to the overall portfolio. This is where the commitment is made to refresh old knowledge, upgrade to new knowledge, and abandon superseded knowledge by reviewing the research, experts’ views, and leading practitioners’ views.

In the example that is being followed above, there are several distinctive areas to examine. The first, and perhaps most important is reflection, or metacognitive reflection to be even more specific. That is the context in which everything else will be revealed. Thus this should perhaps be the first goal to be included. To review the literature on reflection is too general.

Something more specific is required such as, “To review both on the Internet and in at least one of Art Costa’s books the Habit of Mind called metacognition.”

Questioning is also central. Therefore, there must also be something to do with that. “To review on both the Internet in teacher magazines, and teacher professional development books researched information about asking questions.”

Finally as this portfolio is also about higherlevel thinking skills, something about that is also required. “To review current Internet information on Anderson’s revision of Bloom’s taxonomy with specific reference to the higher levels.”

At the novice level – that is the first and early use of a portfolio for professional development – one rather than several goals may be more appropriate. As the expertise develops, more sophistication can be added by having several goals as above.

There is another type of goal that needs including, too. That is a personal commitment goal: “To develop a portfolio that reflects my growing expertise in the development of student ability in answering questions.” Important here is to link the personal growth, the continual learning of the teacher, to student growth.

Finally there is a decision to be made about collaboration: “To discuss questioning with other teachers, particularly those teaching in the level above mine to understand what they see as strengths and weaknesses.”

If you or your school are not yet ready to collaborate, leave this part out. Ultimately, though, the benefits of collaboration are too valuable to leave out. Collaborating with other teachers from outside you own school will be invaluable but do not force it before you and those you wish to collaborate with are comfortable to do so.

Analysing and evaluating

The real value of such student-generated data will be its on-going nature, showing the journey that you and your students are making. Moreover, it provides an authentic voice directly to the teacher on the student view of the teaching and learning. Time needs to be set aside for this at least weekly.

There are many variations to collect these views. One teacher has the students writing a weekly letter to themselves.

A must is introducing students to using “because” in these reflections. That ensures students use analysis and evaluation and thus higher-level thinking skills are forced which results in more sophisticated anecdotal data.

Once collected, it is the teacher’s turn to write. Extracts from a student or from several students’ work is selected, analysed and evaluated with a view to understanding what this tells the teacher about the students in their class and the teaching and learning opportunities they are being giving. From that, the question can be asked, where to go from here? This is the classical feedback spiral in action: plan, take action, assess, and modify.

Creating In practice, creating is not a section like this at the end. Instead it is on-going, the culmination of each individual analysis. That is why the arrows go both ways in the diagram.

A final thought: Do think about format, layout and page design. It can and will have a huge impact, not just in helping your organisation, but also in the impact it will have on anyone else reading it. I prefer creating an individual e-book but there are many alternatives from blogs to commercial products.

This is the engine room of the portfolio where data is collected and assessed at least

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matt atkinson

What boots do you wear?

Help your students kick academic goals by using sporting mindfulness.

A

s a teenage rugby league player in the mid ‘80s, my pre-game ritual included ensuring all the tags were tightly screwed in to the bottom of my boots.

Whilst I can safely say I was not a supreme athlete, I could certainly tell if one of the tags had fallen out during the game. My balance was slightly off, and I didn’t have the same confidence in my boots. I doubted my footing and didn’t trust myself to make sudden direction changes, aspects imperative to that game. In short, my performance was affected.

Teachers Matter

I now work at a private boys’ school where Habits of Mind are part of the teaching and learning framework. Last year, I began to explore the potential of the Habits of Mind in sporting contexts. I remembered my own efforts to give myself the best chance of football success, and this got me thinking. In a physical sense you need all tags to be present, but what are the mental requirements to be successful at sport?

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Back in the day we listened to ‘”Eye of the Tiger” and Duran Duran’s “Wild Boys” for motivation, but that couldn’t sustain us throughout each match. We needed to have some mental stamina, too. We didn’t know about Habits of Mind back then but we did know about persisting, trying another way and reflecting on the game afterwards. The question now was whether I could attribute Habits of Mind to the tags to represent the “essential” mental dispositions required to be a successful footballer. The accompanying poster is the result of this thinking, and whilst it illustrates Habits of Mind that are needed to be successful in football, the analogy can be used in any athletic endeavour.

Metaphorically speaking What boots do you wear is not merely a question but a metaphor. Habits of Mind are the key to improved performances. Successful athletes are persistent; they ask questions, and they listen to coaches and teammates;

they reflect on their performances; and they are willing to take responsible risks.

They are flexible thinkers and continuous learners. From a successful student-athlete perspective then, does success in the sporting arena automatically mean success in the classroom? Using knowledge and skills acquired in an earlier context in a new context is known as transfer of learning. Can student athletes transfer their knowledge to the classroom?

A sample of 1,277 students from four schools, (private single-gender schools and coeducational state schools from years eight to 12) was surveyed over an eight-month period.

Participants completed an anonymous online survey, with questions designed to reveal students’ attitudes toward their sporting involvement. Further, they were asked if using sporting analogies improved their understanding of academic tasks. The most pivotal question was whether the strategies they used in their favourite sport could also be used in the classroom to overcome difficulties and find success. These questions overtly described the Habits of Mind, although did not utilise explicit terminology.

I analysed the data and found two things: Firstly it highlighted patterns within and between schools regarding students’ ability to be reflective and to recognise opportunities for transfer. It also provided a baseline of information which was communicated back to the participating schools. Privacy and anonymity was maintained throughout the research process. As a brief and broad summary, the results showed that boys generally were more reflective than girls; however, girls showed a greater capacity for recognising the opportunity to transfer successful sporting strategies into the classroom. Of particular note was that overall, students in years 8-, 9- and 10-age range proved to be the most “open” to

adaptive thinking and transfer opportunities.

So how does this data inform practice? In early August I discussed the project with Habits of Mind creator Art Costa, and two questions emerged. One was the degree to which Habits of Mind are explicitly taught in individual schools and classes. Without appropriate knowledge of, or adequate exposure to the Habits of Mind, students are unable to develop a frame of reference with which to analyse situations that might require the application of particular Habits of Mind. Therefore their ability to accurately respond to survey questions is reduced. Importantly, this opens the door for future focus on the Habits of Mind within the classroom environments. Where are the gaps? Whilst no individual responses can be identified, teachers and curriculum coordinators can identify general “themes” of responses across the entire survey that might guide the direction of Habits integration into the schools.

The second question is the extent to which teachers of different subject areas actually invite transfer. Are teachers modelling transfer and providing opportunities for students to develop their ability to transfer learning from one context to another? Do the physical education teachers ask students where else they would be able to apply the thinking processes used in their class? Do academic staff who coach sporting teams retain their ‘coach’ hat when they return to the classroom after the weekend’s match, or is that left on the sideline? If so, why? Does there need to be a difference between PE and classroom subjects? In some schools the pervading thought is that classroom teachers pause their work, send students off to PE to “run around,” and then “resume learning” when they return, therefore diminishing the value of the theories and skills developed in PE. What boots do you wear perfectly illustrates this point. The laces are the most vital part of the boot, as without laces the boot falls off, obviously affecting performance. The laces are labelled “thinking interdependently” because without teamwork a group of people can fail, even if they are on the “same team” and have the same purpose. Isn’t the purpose of education to develop the skills and knowledge in students that will allow them to become independent and lifelong learners?

All staff should be cohesive in their purpose to improve academic outcomes, and there is an opportunity for teachers to proactively help students learn the skills of transfer.

matt atkinson

Transfer planning could be mistaken for daydreaming Students who sit at the back of the classroom and stare out the window might not actually be wasting their time. Granted, many of them are dreaming of being out on

the court, field or track rather than listening to the teacher explain the latest assessment task. However, some of them might be reflecting on those sporting experiences and searching for a strategy that they could apply to the current, pressing concern in the

classroom. Some of them might in fact be independently transferring their learning from one context to another, and how empowering would that be.

T H is poster can be purchased from www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com

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allie mooney

The search for significance

Understand your type and understand yourself.

I

magine a little 7-year- old girl in front of the class sharing what she had done in the holidays. For her, it was the day she rode the famous “Opo,” a dolphin in the Hokianga Harbour. Being the fifth child of seven in the family, she found it difficult to be heard sometimes. That day up in front of the class, she was heard and the whole experience took on the meaning and significance.

Her adventure soon got round the school.

Everybody was in awe of her. Back then, in the 50s, it was a luxury to get to the seaside from where she lived. She caught the imagination of all those who heard the story. This was a defining moment for that little girl. She didn’t know it then, but this encounter over time would be a great teacher.

The truth was, there was no dolphin ride, yet at that moment, when a group of her peers held onto every word, a motivational speaker was born. She captured the imagination and interest of ever y ear listening. Out of her longing to be significant and accepted, she saw herself riding and enjoying the wonderful dolphin. This formed a perception, which grew into a reality for her.

Teachers Matter

Then a day of reckoning came. Her large family of brothers and sisters had a reunion.

The realisation of this event hit her as they had planned to have a movie evening and an aunt had visited Opononi and taken a movie of this beautiful mammal.

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The question she asked herself: “How come no one else has talked about this event amongst my brothers and sisters?” “Did this really happen?”

The day arrived for her family to leave for the reunion, and she was in the driver’s seat on their journey. She stopped at the side of the road and confessed to her husband and children her uncertainty over the event, and that it must have been her strong imagination that ran away with her.

She just wanted to shrink up and die with humiliation as her husband and children laughed until they nearly cried. She asked them to promise not to mention this to her siblings. The car doors hardly opened as the car came to a standstill at the reunion sight and out jumped three people, telling the larger family about their wife and mother and the big yarn she had spun about Opo. This story continues to remain in the family.

In fact on Opo rider’s 50th birthday, she was presented with a plaque that featured her head photoshopped onto a body of a young girl riding Opo. It read “Summer of 1956 Opononi.”

Why did this girl tell this huge story into adulthood. Imagination? Or a deep cry for significance and acceptance? A bit of both I would say. Significance is one of life’s deepest needs and often times it is not met.

So as adults, how do we get our significance?

We are more likely to accept ourselves, like ourselves, when we understand

• The Playfuls desire to have fun.

• The Powerfuls desire to take control.

• The Precises desire to get it right.

• The Peacefuls desire to have harmony and no conflict.

Which one are you? If you still don’t know, have a look at these words and decide which box describes you in (a) quadrant. (a) Quadrant

So often as I meet people, I can see their discouragement as they try to be what they weren’t designed or wired to be. As a result, we sometimes do stupid things to get our needs met.

Let’s find our personality so we can get insight into what our needs are and how we can bring significance to others:

Loves to lead Decisive Doer

Patient Balanced Good listener

Thoughtful Fact base Persistent

Now look at (b) quadrant and see which personality fits those descriptive words (b) Quadrant PLAYFUL Social Enthusiastic Funny

PEACEFUL Patient Balanced Good listener

how we have been wired. I love the work of Florence Littauer, who has spent years researching and bringing understanding to people’s personalities. She claims that we come pre-packaged with a particular frame of reference. To understand our type of personality gives us an understanding of what we are good at.

For me, yes I was that child in the previous story, I had a deep need for attention and acceptance. I have discovered that I am a playful type.

Social Enthusiastic Funny

POWERFUL Loves to lead Decisive Doer PRECISE Thoughtful Fact base Persistent

photo: Varina And Jay Patel

allie mooney

This is not about categorising yourself; it’s about where you find your significance, what you need.

Each personality has different needs:

The Precises gets their significance from space to call their own; others being sensitive to their feelings; silence so they can think; being alone occasionally; and having support in what they do.

The Playfuls’ significance comes out of attention, affection, approval, and acceptance.

The Peacefuls’ significance comes through respect and being valued; peace and quiet; and lack of stress.

The Powerfuls’ significance comes out of having a sense of control; being appreciated for all they have done; having credit for her abilities and accomplishments and good works; and having loyalty from the troops.

I promise that if you meet these needs into your conversations with others, you will find students and family members responding.

“Significance is one of life’s deepest needs and often times it is not met.”

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michael grose

Do you treat your parents like a customer or a partner?

Here’s why you should

R

ecently, I had two different client care experiences: an exceptionally good one and an exceptionally poor one.

First, the good story.

A landscape gardener was working in my backyard during a really wet southern Victorian winter. The garden was a mess and, to make matters worse, he continually wheeled his barrow past our back door leaving mud and slush all the way up the path. At the end of each day he patiently swept the path clean, placing the slush in his trailer.

It was an unexpected treat that added about 10 minutes to his day. He didn’t have to do it. But I’m so glad he did. The landscape gardener went the extra mile to make sure my experience dealing with him was exceptional. He treated me like a valued client.

Now, the poor customer service story.

I went to my accountant for some financial advice. Given the complex nature of the problem he couldn’t assist straight-away, so he said he’d get back to me after conferring with his colleagues. After two weeks of no contact I phoned him, asking when I could expect to be the beneficiary of his wisdom.

He made an appointment for me to visit the next day.

He gave me a verbal report without a written summary of the recommendations.

I made notes as he spoke; however, I couldn’t explain his advice to my wife.

After two weeks I was none the wiser. The result – one dissatisfied, unhappy client.

He took too long to get back to me and his verbal report wasn’t backed up by written recommendations. He treated me like a troublesome customer, not a valued client.

Here’s the kicker! I’ve been telling all my friends about both experiences. Good news travels just as far and wide as bad news and I’m sure the landscape gardener will be in high demand among my friends.

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How do you treat parents?

You meet with a parent or carer in the first month of the year to establish rapport and gather family details. Yes or No

How to do you treat the parents you deal with? Do you treat them like troublesome customers or do you treat them as valued clients and partners in their children’s education? How you treat them makes a big difference to how you and your school will be perceived, as well as to the quality of the relationships you’ll experience.

You provide guidelines and expectations for the year ahead in a number of formats.

Yes or No

Here are some ways to treat parents so they feel like partners in their child’s education: Always address parents by their preferred name, which is written on a page in your records set aside for them.

Return communications promptly and always give a timeframe. “I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.”

Follow-up all meetings with a note, email or phone call even when they don’t expect it.

Provide a brief written summary or even a recording of a parent-teacher meeting.

Always provide samples of children’s work at parent-teacher meetings.

The mark of true professionalism as a teacher is shown in the way you make every interaction with parents as pleasant and positive as possible, even when the issues you are discussing may be challenging.

This is what treating parents like partners is really about.

You return communications with parents within a known time period. Yes or No You follow up meetings with an email, phone call or other communication means.

Yes or No Yo u p r o v i d e w r i t t e n s u m m a r i e s o f meetings outlining the discussion and any recommendations or action plans.

Yes or No You have a folder containing details of each family and a record of each meeting.

Yes or No You prepare thoroughly for meetings, producing necessar y documents and samples of work. Yes or No You have a parenting resource kit with parenting tips, website and community support agencies parents can access.

Yes or No You address parents by their preferred name. Yes or No

Score: (The number of Yes’s) 0-3: Need to lift your game.

4-6: Middle of the pack. Could do better.

Quick Teacher Client Care Quiz Complete the following client care quiz. Circle “yes” or “no” to the answer that most approximates what you normally do.

You inform parents at the start of the year about the best times and ways for them to contact you. Yes or No

7-8: Well done! You treat parents more like a partner than a customer.

9-10: Congratulations. Go to the top of the class!

michael grose

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angie wilcock

Transition to secondary school

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photo: Nagy-Bagoly Ilona

Teachers Matter

Far more than just “orientation�

angie wilcock

T

he transition from primary to secondary education is a huge leap in more ways than one. The throwaway line “just give them a month and they’re fine” is not only flippant, it’s also dangerously misleading.

So what complicates this transition? Isn’t it just a case of students moving from a smaller to larger campus? Moving from one room to another at the changeover of periods? Experiencing multiple teachers instead of perhaps one? Being exposed to an entirely new range of subjects? Finding new friends? Living in a school community of students who are much older (and bigger!) than them? Yes, it’s all of these things, but so much more.

This significant change in education “structures” coincides with massive physical, social, emotional and cognitive growth and development. The adolescent brain is undergoing huge reconstruction, and the tendency towards impulsive behaviour and the expression of “odd” attitudes can be confronting for both parents and teachers alike.

Transition to secondary school sits smack in the middle of an age group teachers refer to as “middle years” - this is the 10 to 15 age range. These “middle years” adolescents are not children, but not yet adults, and their needs are quite different. According to Middle Years of Schooling - Discussion Paper from the NSW Department of Education and Communities, the swings and roundabouts of growing up provide challenges for both teachers and parents, as adolescents can vacillate between: • extremes of emotion • progressions and regressions in thinking and learning • self-centeredness and altruism • dependence and independence

“ This significant c h a n g e in education “structures” coincides with massive physical, social, emotional and cognitive growth and development.”

To ensure as smooth a transition as possible, primary and secondary schools need to work together. Effective transition programs require: 1. An in-depth understanding of what makes this age group so unique, what makes them “tick?” If we understand that, we are a long way toward engaging them in the classroom.

2. Opportunities for primary and secondary staff to understand the differences in their own teaching practice, and to establish a base of continuity of teaching, learning and assessment practices across this transition phase.

5. Role models and positive student-teacher relationships.

6. Opportunities for students to set goals and become independent learners.

7. Programs that engage primar y and secondar y students to develop peer relationships.

8. Specific teaching of problem-solving and coping skills to build resilience and responsibility.

Transition from primary to secondary school is a significant milestone. It is not an “event;” it is a process. Some students adapt to change quite readily, others do not. The more we know about the personal, developmental changes occurring during this period, the better we are equipped to offer support. Schools and teachers, as well as parents and the community, have a high level of responsibility to acknowledge and understand the unique needs of adolescents in this transitional phase. We need to provide the kinds of learning experiences that will assist them in their developmental “road trip” to become successful and resilient adults. What we do, or don’t do, now can affect these young people for a long time to come.

3. Well-scaffolded academic and nonacademic activities to build self-esteem and self-efficacy. Research suggests that during transition from primary to secondary, adolescents often experience a loss of belief that they have the ability to perform tasks successfully (self-efficacy).

4. E f f e c t i v e s c a f f o l d i n g o f r e l e v a n t , challenging and rigorous learning tasks to ensure student success.

• social gregariousness and isolation

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Teachers Matter Terry Small

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Terry Small

How the brain remembers names Improve your name recall easily

R

e m e m b e r i n g a p e r s o n ’s n a m e is one of the most important business and social skills on the planet. Nineteen out of 20 people at my live seminars tell me they are terrible at this important skill. When we forget a person’s name, especially in an important business or social situation, it’s not good. We feel socially inept, uncomfortable, and embarrassed. Not to mention the bad first impression we have just made. You can change this! Fast. The secret lies in your brain.

illustration: Brad Collett

Close your eyes and think of a horse.

No...stop and really do this! Notice you thought up a picture of a horse. You didn’t see the letters “h-o-r-s-e” floating nowhere in space. You saw a picture of a horse. Your brain thinks in pictures, not words. Case in point...you never w a l k u p t o s o m e o n e a n d s a y, “ Yo u know, I remember your name, but your face escapes me!” When you picture something vividly in your brain, your memory improves 800 percent. Anything that improves your memory 800 percent should get your attention. The reason that you forget names is that you focus on the word not the picture.

Here are four steps to make you 10 times better a remembering names or anything: 1) Pay attention: You can’t remember what you don’t pay attention to. Train yourself to hear a little voice inside your head that says, “This person’s name is important. I choose to remember it.”

2) Repeat the name. When you hear something again out loud, retention improves 400 percent. This activates auditory neural pathways to your brain.

It is not enough to hear it in your head.

It must go through your ears. So use the person’s name back to him in your response (e.g. “It’s nice to meet you, Tom. My name is Susan”).

3) Write it down. Writing the person’s name will improve your memory another 50 percent (even if you never look at it again). This activates visual neural pathways to your brain. If you can’t write it down on paper, write it on the big picture screen of your mind (e.g. spray painting the name on a wall or hanging the name in neon lights on Broadway).

“The reason that you forget names is that you focus on the word not the picture.”

A person’s name is the most important sound to that person in any language.

You can get better at this. Start tomorrow.

It’s good practice for your brain.

4) Turn it into a picture. This is the big pay-off! All memories are created in association with other memories. Here is my favourite: I just picture the person I have just met doing something with someone I know who has the same name (e.g. I might put them on a teeter-totter together). Later, when you are tr ying to remember the name, the picture will drive your memory. You will recognize the other person in the picture and say, “Oh yeah, that’s Tom.”

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steve francis

Seven refreshers on motivating and engaging students

4

With these gentle reminders, teachers remember how to connect with learners.

W

hilst working with staff at schools, I created some key strategies for engaging students in learning.

1 2

Originally entitled the seven secrets, I came to the conclusion that the strategies weren’t really ‘secrets’, they are in fact reminders about effective practises that teachers utilise to motivate and engage their students:

1. It’s not about us; it’s about them.

Great teachers share what they know, but they understand that they are not the focus.

This doesn’t mean that we as teachers don’t matter. What it does mean is that instead of asking, “What am I going to do today?”, we have to ask, “What are my students going to do today?”

Teachers Matter

Our job as educators is not just to stand up in front of students and show them how smart we are. Rather, our job is to help students discover how smart they can become.

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It may sound obvious but as teachers, we sometimes begin the journey and forget to first ask our students, “Where are you?

Where are you starting from?” It’s not enough to know our content. We also need to know the people we’re teaching and connect with them.

2. Passion sells

You can’t fool your students – if you don’t love what you do, they’ll know. Research and experience tell us that the difference between a good teacher and a great one isn’t their subject expertise. The difference comes

down to their passion and enthusiasm— passion for teaching and passion for learning. This passion is infectious. Students quickly recognise it.

Engaging and motivating students is much easier if we are passionate about what we do. This passion brings with it authenticity and credibility.

Credibility in the eyes of our students is essential for engagement. According to Stephen Covey, our credibility is based on our integrity, our intent, our capabilities and our track record. Our students are constantly judging us on these four factors.

4. No one gets enough feedback Feedback is the breakfast of champions, for teachers and for students. The importance of feedback to students has been highlighted by research in recent times. The work of John Hattie has emphasized the need for teachers to provide specific feedback to students about how they are doing and what they need to focus on. Students are more likely to engage when their teacher shows students how much they need to learn.

3

Take a moment to reflect now on your credibility in the eyes of your students. What three words would they use to describe you?

3. Students don’t care how much their teacher knows until they know how much their teacher cares

The connection between the student and the teacher is essential to learning. Great teachers know their students well and connect with them. They have a genuine interest in helping their students succeed.

If students sense their teacher doesn’t care, the student will quickly shut down and will be very reluctant to reconnect with that teacher again.

Every student needs at least one adult at the school who takes a genuine interest in them.

When a student is ready and eager to learn, teaching is easy. But some learners aren’t ready because they don’t think they need to improve. They don’t see the gap between where they are and where they need to be.

It simplistic terms, good teachers are good at finding out what their students need to know and teach it. Great teachers find out what their students need to know and have a range of ways helping their students learn it.

However, most teachers operate with little feedback. The art of teaching generally takes place in isolation. The egg crate analogy is generally alive and well in most schools.

Individual teachers work away in their own classrooms with their own class of students.

Day after day teachers do what they think is right, with the best intentions, within the confines of their own classroom. Many teachers continue to do what they have always done. They try to implement some of the initiatives they have learnt through professional development or through discussions with colleagues. Often they operate in isolation and rarely receive any feedback.

steve francis

“ Our job as educators is not just to stand up in front of students and show them how smart we are. Rather, our job is to help students discover how smart they can become. ”

5

I believe that the vast majority of teachers want to be the best teacher they can be, however, receiving feedback on our teaching is rare. This is an area recently brought in to focus with a number of strategies being implemented to provide feedback to help teachers refine their practice.

Feedback from students is in most instances an untapped source of feedback for teachers. Rather than seeing feedback as a summative judgment, I’m an advocate for regular feedback from students (from around Year 4 up) directly to their own teacher, as a formative means of helping the teacher improve and refine their practises.

No I am not suggesting that we give them easier work, less homework and better grades. What most students want from their teachers is clarity, consistency and concern.

One of the biggest frustrations of disengaged students is the perception that their teachers are not clear; they are inconsistent; and their teachers don’t care.

My greatest fears are that these perceptions are widely held by the peers of these disengaged students, too, and teachers are oblivious. To find out if they are perceived this way, teachers need to be open to feedback from their students.

6

What would you want to know from your students? Here are some suggestions from my Happy School Student surveys.

• Do they enjoy being in the class?

5. Give students what they want – the 3 C’s

• Do they feel like they are learning and making progress?

• Do they feel like you care about them?

• Do they get help when they need it?

• Are things being explaining clearly?

• Do they know what they are learning and why?

• Does the feedback they get help them learn?

• Have you made it clear to them how they are going to be assessed and what they need to concentrate on?

At the very least it would help us to know….

• Is there something your teacher should do more of?

My guess is that great teachers would want to know and not so great teachers would prefer not to find out.

6. Expect every student can learn Great teachers expect every student can learn. Great teachers recognise that success is not fixed or pre-determined. It is vital that we maintain high expectations that every student can learn and avoid stereo-typing.

If their students don’t understand when concepts are first introduced to them, we can’t just start talking slower and louder.

Great teachers come at the concepts from other points of view and give their students new ways to see things and time to improve.

7

7. Make it meaningful

To engage and motivate students, it is important that students see what they are learning as relevant. Wherever possible we need to connect what the students are learning to the real world. It helps them connect if we can explain why they need to know it.

Questions can be a great launching point for engaging learners. Deep, challenging questions can puzzle learners and capture their attention. Effective teachers understand that learning is about exploring the unknown and building from what the student already knows and understands.

This exploration can be prompted by deep questions. By identifying areas of interest within the curriculum and presenting them as challenging open-ended questions we can capture the attention of students.

However, it is essential that the questions are deep, challenging and relevant rather than simply factual or recall prompts.

To engage students, it is vital that we understand that students learn differently and cater for this accordingly. Great teachers understand that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all teaching strategy.

They have a repertoire of effective strategies and try different things to connect with their students.

• Is there something your teacher should do less of?

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heath henwood

Teacher coaching in schools Seek the right coach for the right reasons

Teachers Matter 30

programs are being promoted as solving the issue, coaching of teachers is beginning to produce results and gain some notice.

Te a c h e r s t h a t h a v e n o t e x p e r i e n c e d coaching previously are often fearful, particularly of being judged or being caught up in a new time consuming fad.

That is not to say that coaching is wrong for schools. In fact, research shows that the

on-going development of human potential, which occurs through coaching, is critical to ongoing success. There are benefits for both the individual being coached, and the school as a whole.

So what is coaching? Primarily it is transfor ming people as they travel a journey, whether the journey of life, or teaching career. It is both a developmental

photo: Richard Nelson

In

an era of increasing competitiveness between schools, with teachers being held accountable for student learning, principals are looking at teacher performance more closely. Principals are utilising ever y available tool in their arsenal to improve teachers’ effectiveness to ensure that student achieve. While many strategies and

heath henwood

tool for an individual and an essential and integrated strategy for an organisation. It is a collaborative learning process focusing on an individual’s developmental. Rather than creating large paradigm shifts in practices, it allows manageable, step-by-step, measurable improvements to performance and motivation. Coaching can therefore reach the parts other training methods can’t.

For the teacher For the individual, coaching is about being led, one-on-one, through a process of defining a goal and then breaking it down into manageable, measurable steps, and enabling the individual to constantly assess their progress.

Because it is offered one-on-one, it allows emphasis on setting and achieving development objectives relevant to the i n d i v i d u a l ’s s p e c i f i c r o l e a n d t a k i n g i nto account experien c e , k n o w l e d g e , maturity and career path. Coaching therefore complements the individual’s overall development, allowing him the opportunities to create excellence. Coaching facilitates success.

As coaching is a journey, the process is the important aspect, not the arriving. This has a tendency to frustrate busy teachers, who desire to reach the destination through task-thinking and doing. The coach’s role is to slow down the journey, to focus on extending and exploring the route. The process provides a map to give focus and direction, rather than the coach offering solutions. Coaches lead teachers in exploring their behavioural patterns and thinking processes.

Teachers who have been coached report they benefit in having a sounding-board someone who listens objectively, facilitates them in working out the best course of action and then helps to reflect on the outcome.

In other words, coaches offer clear thinking space, challenge assumptions and help the individual to “raise the bar” in terms of realising their potential.

For the school In striving for success, school leaders find coaching provides ways to advance the school, while respecting the school’s core values and purposes. It allows the development of teachers to be aligned to the school’s needs.

Coaching allows a move from one where people receive direction from school leaders to one where people commit to doing things they care passionately about. The process encourages the development of personal leadership and responsibility throughout the school.

It is possible to relate an individual’s behaviour to purposeful pedagogical change. By incorporating all members of the teaching staff in similar dialogue, coaching becomes strategic, more creating change in the school’s outcomes. Moreover, within a school, team coaching and the development of strategic thinking may become one and the same thing. Further, coaching helps establish and then build a collection of individuals into fully functioning networks.

The resulting team unites people, bringing together the right people and raises the broadest challenge in an environment in which failure is not an option.

Schools that have effectively implemented coaching report improved school performance; improved employee morale and motivation; increased employee p r o d u c t i v i t y, p a r t i c u l a r l y t h r o u g h developing soft skills, and the creation of cultures and environments which promote loyalty, with reduced staff turnover.

Issues to consider As with any change in any organisation, there are some factors to consider. Most important is the selection of the coach.

Selecting a supervisor or school leader will at best result in the program being ineffective.

An internal person who is respected and successful brings value and credibility to the role. Coaches need to have the right attitude,

be emotionally mature and motivated. They will also need ongoing support and training.

When selecting an internal coach, principals need to ensure that the coach understand her responsibilities, limitations and boundaries. Her role will need redesigning so that the coaching function is integrated into roles and responsibilities and awarded sufficient time and priority.

There needs to a systems for monitoring, measuring and recording the effectiveness of the programme at both the individual relationship level as well as programme wide.

If coaching is performed “for the sake of it,”, without clear expectations or by someone inadequately skilled, it is likely to be ineffective and potentially disruptive to employee morale and organisational focus.

Recognize that coaching isn’t a cure-all.

Nor does it always work for everyone, those who are approaching retirement or who have no motivation to progress further, for instance. There are also cases where schools do not implement coaching correctly, such as using the principal or another supervisor as the coach.

A good coach need not possess as wide a range of skills as the teacher being coached.

With a sound appreciation of pedagogy, curriculum and interpersonal dynamics, a good coach is simply a process person who can establish rapport; is honest and courageous in providing feedback; is a good listener; asks good questions; is visionary and analytical; and is a good planner who seeks follow-up and closure.

Coaching works in schools because it has become relevant for teachers. It is recognised as a highly effective way to quickly ramp up a teacher’s performance, while still respecting teachers as individuals, not merely as cogs in the machine.

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Rochelle Ibañez Wolberg & Donna Tobey

Designing effective museum partnerships A step-by-step model for community building and teaching for understanding

S

ome time ago, we had a vision that partnering with museums would provide students with an authentic experience in community awareness and appreciation, and we also wanted students to have powerful and meaningful learning experiences. With this shared optimism intact, a Palm Beach Day Academy (PBDA) learning specialist and teachers piloted the Museum Partnership Program with local historical, fine arts, and cultural institutions.

We wanted to support the first grade social studies curriculum (for students ages 6 and 7.) Our theme, in line with curricular objectives, focused on the concept of community. Similarly related themes began to emerge in the process: The role of museums, preservation, and the personal artifact.

Museum educators from the Flagler Museum and the Morikami Museum graciously accepted our proposal. The Flagler Museum

is a historical institution with the mission to preserve the legacy of Henry Morrison Flagler, a founding figure in early Florida history. The Morikami Museum is a cultural institution focused on educating the public about Japanese culture and preserving the legacy of the Japanese agricultural community that settled in South Florida in the early 20th century.

learn more about the purposes and jobs of museums. Separating objectives monthly enabled us to build and add layers to students’ understanding over time. Three overarching goals would be revisited during this yearlong study:

Step One ~ Create a curriculum to share with museum partners The learning specialist developed a “curriculum within the curriculum” with a scope and sequence tailored to specific instructional themes and objectives (See Figure 1 below). Each month, students learned concepts and answered questions directly related that objective. For example, at the start of the partnership in October, museum educators and teachers focused on engaging the students in activities to

2. Students will identify and understand the essential characteristics necessary for establishing and sustaining communities through comparing and contrasting various communities (Yamato Agricultural Community, the Gilded Age Community of early Palm Beach, students’ current communities).

Month

Instructional Objectives

Possible Topics

October

Introduction to Museums

Purpose of Museums

1. S t u d e n t s w i l l e x a m i n e t h e r o l e s o f museums and how museums reflect their communities.

3. Students will understand and appreciate the concept of preservation through the stories behind artifacts and collections.

Key Questions & Concepts What is a museum?

What is the purpose of a museum?

Are there different types of museums?

Why are museums important?

Teachers Matter

What do museums contribute to the community?

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November

Historical & Cultural Preservation

Cultural Artifacts Images (Photographs)

What are artifacts?

Are there specific ways that museums preserve the legacy of the community?

What does preservation look like?

Figure 1 (Theme: Museums & Community)

Summary Statement PBDA teachers and students begin the exciting journey of meeting and learning from museum educators representing Flagler Museum and The Morikami Museum Students will be introduced to museums, their function, and the purpose they serve Students will learn why museums are integral structures within communities Students will have exposure to artifacts and discuss their significance Students will develop thinking skills through object-based study and examination of various cultural artifacts and visual images associated with The Morikami Museum and Flagler Museum

Step Two ~ Meet with all members of the museum partnership Before the school year began, a series of meetings were held with the teachers, learning specialist, administration, and museums educators. All parties were provided with the curriculum and discussed how best to integrate it into the daily classroom experience. Museum educators scheduled workshops and seminars with students. These workshops occurred on campus four times during the year.

Teachers also planned a field trip to the Flagler Museum that would culminate in a workshop held in the museum lecture hall.

The educators from both museums tailored the instructional objectives to the students’ age and grade level.

Step Three ~ Rally student excitement over partnership During the first museum partnership workshop, educators from the Flagler and Morikami museums conducted a joint session with all three of our classrooms.

Museum educators introduced students to their particular institution, highlighting the ways in which they were alike and how each was unique.

Step Four ~ Museum seminars & follow-up classroom activities The kick-off museum presentation was followed shortly afterward with a separate classroom presentation conducted by the lear ning specialist and a parent volunteer. This lesson served to reinforce and support student understanding while also engaging the children in more indepth investigations of the concept of community, with the children exploring and puzzling over the following questions: What exactly is it? What does it look like? Can we be part of different types of communities simultaneously? Are there universal characteristics that exist in various communities irrespective of time and space? This pattern of a classroom presentation proceeding a museum seminar supported the children’s learning and provided real opportunities for them to delve deeper into the understanding goals that would carr y their thinking over the course of the year. We also made connections between topics that, although seemingly separate and dissimilar, actually ser ved to reinforce one another (e.g., connecting the students’ first grade exhibit with the main jobs of museums).

While reinforcing the monthly instructional objectives, our museum partners also created opportunities showcasing their respective institutions’ unique roles. It was important for the

Rochelle Ibañez Wolberg & Donna Tobey students and teachers alike to recognize and be aware of the characteristics that distinguished each museum in the community. For example, Japanese culture and details of ever yday living in the Yamato Farming Colony were highlighted d u r i n g t h e M o r i k a m i ’s w o r k s h o p s .

Likewise, museum educators from Flagler brought props that depicted the various types of clothing found during the gilded age of early 19th-century America.

The students recognized museums as separate entities with distinct purposes.

The understanding that a museum is not just “a museum” was reinforced over many months. This resonated personally with the children as a result of the relationships they developed with our museum partners.

Step Five ~ Identify key learning discoveries We identified major learning discoveries and reinforced them through various activities and lessons. Reinforcement and purposeful instruction were necessary to scaffold the meaning the students were constructing about museums and communities. Two main learning discoveries emerged and affected the language we used when discussing museums and communities: 1. Museum educators highlighted four key jobs of museums: collect, preserve/protect, exhibit, and explain/interpret. As students brought in a collection of three personal artifacts to include in a the first grade exhibit, titled “Our Community, Our Stories,” several of them remarked how they were like museums, too, for they also collected, protected their collection, displayed them to family and friends, and then explained why their collection was special and meaningful.

2. Communities require four basic elements: leaders, a common goal or vision, rules, and responsibility.

Students discussed these elements with their teachers and the learning specialist during a conversation centered on the story Humphrey, The Humpback Whale. The children also identified these elements in their separate studies of the Yamato Farming Colony, early gilded age Palm B e a c h c o m m u n i t y, t h e s c h o o l a n d classroom communities, and their own home communities.

Step Six ~ Create an exhibit The entire first grade contributed to the

creation of an exhibit showcasing personal artifacts brought in by the children. Each child presented their artifacts to their classmates before the objects were included in the display. Creating their own exhibit was an activity that reinforced what museums do (establish and interpret collections) and purpose for doing it (preserve community legacy). In the process, first grade teachers and the learning specialist tailored lessons to foster the children’s interest in the concept of the personal artifact. We progressed as colearners in that our students’ interests and questions informed the avenues of learning we took to further build and add layers to their understanding of key concepts.

Step Seven ~ The culminating presentation & some ruminations At the end of the yearlong study, the children conducted a culminating presentation for their families at the Flagler Museum. This presentation highlighted the two learning discoveries discussed above, the children’s first grade exhibit, and what made each museum special. In preparation for this event, we were given time to reflect upon all that we learned over the course of a magical year of exploration, investigation, and creation. In the process, we also made special friends, who shared with us the magic of museums. In the span of a regular school year, the children connected to communities that were so important to South Florida history; they handled old artifacts; they could explain what preserving something means; and most important, they shared a special part of themselves when they brought in personal artifacts to include in the collection of their first-ever museum exhibit.

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dr cheryl doig

Delegating to grow your organisation Develop your staff and yourself

D

elegating is a powerful tool for d e v e l o p i n g y o u r t e a m . To b e effective it:

• is explicit • builds on the strengths of the team • requires leaders to do their fair share of the work (see the leadership pipeline) • requires the lead e r i n a u t h o r i t y t o maintain responsibility.

Teachers Matter

Here are some of the key reasons delegation can make a positive difference to your organisation:

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Talent management Talent management is one of the key capabilities for future-focsed leaders. Our world is becoming increasingly complex, our workforces increasingly diverse. Delegation allows you to fulfill your role in developing new and emerging leaders. As you develop the ability of other people to do the work, you not only reduce your work load but build the skills, capabilities and strengths of your team, giving them the opportunity to learn while you’re there to support them. It’s a deliberate act of letting go.

“ Consider what you need to let go and actively begin coaching other people to do that work.”

The leadership pipeline As you move up through different levels of leadership, there are some things that you have to let go.

What leaders often do is hang on to those parts of their past role they really enjoyed doing. However, as you move up the pipeline, those roles or jobs may no longer be appropriate. It may take time to remove these from your repertoire – but don’t take too long! Consider what you need to let go and actively begin coaching other people to do that work. This will then allow you to focus on developing the new skills and capabilities needed for your next leadership role and to spend more time in strategic thinking.

Work happening where the work is done Delegation also helps decisions and actions to happen nearest to where the work is done.

This is often where the expert, day-to-day knowledge is held - so allow people working in the organisation to make the decisions without fear. This then allows you to spend your time working on the business.

If you encourage people to take initiative and to do their own thinking, it means you’re not carrying everyone else’s monkeys on your shoulder. They’re doing the work that’s appropriate for them, and in doing so they have a deeper level of ownership and commitment because they have done it themselves.

So why not ask your team today: “What work am I doing that you could be doing? How can I grow your talents in our organisation?”

For more information on delegation in practice contact: www.thinkbeyond.co.nz

bette blance

Be engaging Students behave when you make them care.

I

worked with a teacher recently in Queensland who was qualifying as a collegial coach in the Excellence in Teaching program and needed to “borrow”’ a year three class to teach a lesson for the accreditation process.

The first part of the collegial coaching process, the pre conference, has two phases. The first is a set of questions about the lesson. One of the questions gives the inviting teacher the opportunity to talk about particular students whose behaviour may need to be handled differently.

Often the response to this question yields an array of strategies, from giving rewards, isolating a student, and ignoring certain behaviours. In almost all cases, the suggestions are external motivation.

Yet in this recent encounter, the teacher thought the students would be interested and therefore would be involved rather than disruptive.

Throughout the lesson, it was easy to identify examples. It used hands-on activities around a realworld problem of sharing food between three rabbits. The teacher set up trays with measuring items, celery and carrot sticks, water and sand so the students could work in small groups. Their discussion at the end was enlightening, demonstrating deep learning by the students.

The evidence gathered related to the agreed-to observation criteria was affirming for the teacher. The process demonstrated that if the lesson is engaging, with handson activities, discussion, and a real-world challenge, students are self monitoring, needing no intervention. The students were internally motivated.

This told me that her lesson on reviewing fractions was planned with certain underpinning beliefs: • If the lesson has variety and interest, students will make productive behavioural choices.

• Inappropriate behaviour was a result of students’ needs not being met.

• Learning that “connects” to the real world engages learners. Engaged learners are less likely to choose disruptive behaviours.

The second phase of the pre conference explores the underpinning beliefs that drive the teacher’s behaviour. Themes are synthesized and become the criteria for the observation. The three criteria for the observation in this lesson were: • Higher-order thinking • Learning connected with the real world • Engagement through fun and enjoyment

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glenn capelli

Learning from Cowboys In today’s world, our children need to learn about character, and sometimes they might learn it from some odd places.

Teachers Matter

I

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know it is a sin, and I hope my dad does not read this, but I am no fan of John Wayne. In fact, he does not even make my top ten cowboys list. It’s not that he was a bad cowboy, it’s just that in my book of the rooting tooting he just wasn’t a great cowboy.

Kit Carson

When I was a lad there were a bonanza of cowboy shows on television ranging from High Chaparrals to Big Valleys, from Riflemen to Virginians. There was a literal Wagon Train full of westerns. These days we would battle to fill a quarter of a stagecoach.

Maverick

So partners, put on your leg irons, have gun will travel, let’s list a few of the memorable:

Cisco Kid Broken Arrow The Lone Ranger Texas John Slaughter

Audie Murphy Just to name a few. And there were the horses for courses: Champion Fury

Roy Rogers

Silver

Gunsmoke with Marshal Dillon

My Friend Flicka

Some of the cowdies had guns (rifles, colt 45s and there was even a television character called the man without a gun); some, like Jim Bowie, had knives; plus there was a tomahawk or two and a mask or three.

Some had sidekicks that fumbled, festered or freed the hero from peril, saddle buddies like Pancho, Mingo (I loved Mingo, he sounded like Mango), Chester, Doc, Festus, Miss Kitty or any number of Walter Brennan look a likes.

Later on we had semi westerns like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Here Come the Brides, Oklahoma (where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain), the quirky Alias Smith and Jones and a man called Horse and another called Shenandoah.

On that point, I often think that the Wild West must have been as tough for a cowboy

named Shenandoah as school would have been for a boy named Sue. Whatever, I would like to pay tribute here to some who have not cracked a cowboy mention yet.

Firstly, the Public Cowboy Number 1, Gene Autry. Gene died in 1998 with $300 million in his bank account, which is $299,999,999 more than most cowboys. He started as Oklahoma’s yodelling cowboy on radio, became the singing cowboy on the silver screen, and even had his own television show complete with cap guns and Cowboy Commandments, including: The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.

• He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.

• He must always tell the truth.

• He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.

• He must always be a patriot.

I am not sure that the Magnificent Seven or The Wild Bunch followed all of Gene Autry’s Cowboy Commandments to the T, but I think Roy Rogers and John Wayne might have.

Gene was the original white hat, so you knew he stood for all that was good. His world was a black and white one and what couldn’t be solved with a gunfight could be overcome with a fistfight or a song. In his fights, his white hat stayed ever in place. In his songs, his champion of a horse would seemingly sing harmonies. Despite his cowboy songs, his Christmas 1949 version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was his biggest singing hit. Later on, he owned radio stations, television stations and even a baseball team. Some people might argue that Gene Autry was more rhinestone than cowboy, but in life he was the real thing.

Pure magic.

Like Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane never got any schooling and ended up as part of Wild Bill Hickok’s Wild West Show, too. Doris Day also played her in a movie, and Calamity makes it on the small screen as a central character in the dark, deadly and dynamic Deadwood. Both Oakley and Calamity proved that anything men could do they could do better.

And this brings me to my favourite western of all times. Bigger than any Sam Peckinpah film, taller than Alan Ladd in Shane, more powerful than the baked beans of Blazing Saddles, more manly than anything from Rawhide to Brokeback Mountain and more moving than Randolph Scott or anything the Alamo could toss up, the greatest of them all has got to be F – Troop.

glenn capelli

ho and away. Hi ho Silver and away and John Marion Wayne and away, too. And when we say Yeeow! Ayipioeeay! We’re only sayin’ You’re doin’ fine, all you cowboys and cowgirls okay!

Captain Wilton Par menter, Sergeant O’Rourke, Corporal Agarn and the lovely Wrangler Jane. Toss them together with the best Indians since Mango Mingo – I think we’re lost “Where the heck are we?” -- and you have pure schoolboy cowboy heaven.

I mean, how often can you laugh at a canon ball blowing up a look out tower – hundreds of times!

So, happy trails to you my partners, as I ride off into the sunset – or at high noon to places where Indian fights are colourful sights and nobody takes a lickin’. From Ben, Adam, Hoss, Hoss’s long suffering horse, Little Joe, the cook, Calamity, Annie, Will Bill and a cast of thousands, it’s wagons

Another favourite was Annie Oakley and her almost twin Calamity Jane. Annie Oakley was a real character and presented entertainment in the original bullet points.

Chief Sitting Bull dubbed her “Little Sure Shot” partly because she shot cigarettes from her husband’s mouth when performing in Wild Bill Hickok’s Wild West Show. Irving Berlin wrote a musical based on her, and she has been played on stage and screen by stars like Ethel Merman, Betty Hutton and Doris Day. Added to this, she was quick on the trigger with targets not much bigger than a pinpoint. She was number one.

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trudy francis

Transforming learning Our goal is to empower

At

the moment, education in New Zealand is even more political than usual. The push for higher standards has the potential to “standardize” learning as we conform to an agenda we may not trust. What might the consequences be? Will it be more of the same and/or striving to do the same better?

Take literacy for example. How has the teaching of literacy changed? Has it changed in your opinion? Is it possible that we might be repeating cycles we trust, instead of innovating? Innovation is important for the many children who do not enjoy reading and writing and those children who view literacy learning like a mirror, which reflects back to them on a daily basis that they are failures.

The key to educating students in the 21st centur y might be the “competencies.”

The “competencies,” when deliberately and explicitly woven throughout our curriculum, have the potential to genuinely transform learning. Our educational goals should be founded on the desire to empower learners so that they have the aptitudes of a lifelong learner.

Teachers Matter

Steps for the implementation of a thinking curriculum: 1. Research and describe thinking. This is important because the clearer we are about the concept of thinking, the more capable we will be teaching skillful thinking to our students.

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2. Generate ideas about how to deliberately and explicitly teach the concepts, steps and strategies of thinking to your students. Our goal must be to make thinking visible.

3. Adapt unit and lesson plans to ensure you will teach thinking concepts, steps and strategies in multiple contexts.

4. Plan for how you will enable your students to habituate thinking: attitudes, values, dispositions and behaviours.

We learn thinking behaviours through observation, imitation and emulation of models. The mascot I use for thinking is the world’s most intelligent parrot, the “kea.”

Check out the lesson ideas that follow to see what I mean.

Some points to consider when planning: 1. Activate and unlock prior knowledge, thoughts and feelings. I call this the emotional hook.

2. M a k e m e a n i n g a n d c o - c o n s t r u c t understandings with students.

3. Chunk learning within sessions and plan your reflective questions to help students make connections.

4. Build on – think “where to next.”

NOW TRY IT Purpose of this lesson: to explore how our brains work when thinking and the types of thinking we do.

Step one: activate and unlock prior knowledge, thoughts and feelings • Place an assortment of items in the classroom e.g. blankets, rope, newspaper, tape, poles etc.

• Challenge the students (in small groups) to build the best inside hut they can by using any items they can find within the classroom.

• Rove, take photos and record what the students are saying (this is important as you will want to use their words to make links to the types of thinking the students were doing).

STEP TWO: MAKING MEANING AND COCONSTRUCTING UNDERSTANDINGS • Use big sheets of paper with words and/or photos for students to record their ideas. E.g. the word ‘curiosity’ and a photo of the items

• Use reflective questions to help the students make links between what they did and the types of thinking they did and used. BE EXPLICIT! • As you help the students clarify the types of thinking they did you might use a Y chart as a tool to holistically synthesize their ideas. E.g. thinking feels like… sounds like… looks like…

STEP THREE: BUILDING ON • Play the YouTube video from BBC World, Wheelie Bin Raid. Analyse the types of thinking you see the kea doing and relate these descriptions to the ideas you have from the hut building activity.

• Emphasise ideas such as: our intelligence grows when we seek problems to solve; curiosity helps us become skillful thinkers.

• Skillful thinkers generate ideas, test ideas and adapt them in order to solve problems or to create and innovate.

• Skillful thinkers use logic and reasoning skills, can sequence ideas, compare and contrast and evaluate, so can keas.

• Create a wall display to act as a visual cue and tool to help everyone be more mindful of how to think skillfully.

• Adapt plans to incorporate these ideas.

Use the correct thinking words within your learning intentions and ensure students are aware of how they are thinking.

I am passionate about the key competencies.

Taught well they have the potential to transform learning. The keys include: quality time, shared focus on improving student learning, placing the student at the centre, developing teacher and student assessment capability, building capacity and sustainable practices within school communities, acquiring and using quality resources and critical inquiry.

illustration: festiven

trudy francis

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photo: Veronika Vasilyuk

Teachers Matter tina joshua-bargh

tina joshua-bargh

Anger danger How to deal with your own — and a child’s

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e’ve all been at the shops or some other public place and seen a child throwing a “tanti.”

We may look pityingly at the adult with the child or we may wonder at his chosen methods of dealing with it. Either way, it’s an uncomfortable feeling for everyone involved. One of the hardest things to be part of is helping a child manage her angry feelings. Sometimes that’s hard because we as adults have difficulty managing our own anger, or sometimes it’s because we feel too angry ourselves to be useful to anyone else.

Regardless of how we feel, as the adult it’s up to us to help children learn to deal with angry feelings in a constructive way.

One of the first things we can (and must!) do is to remain calm ourselves. The tried and true method of taking deep breaths and counting to 10 really does work. So does going into another room and muffling your shout/scream of frustration with a pillow.

Do what it takes but maintain your cool. It is perfectly acceptable to say “I’m too angry to talk to you about this now. I need to calm down first and then we will talk.” A good add on to this comment would be to say how you’re going to go and calm down. This models acknowledging feelings and ways of dealing with them. You may also need to tell the child what to do while they wait for you, i.e. quietly read a book, draw a picture etc. You may designate a certain place as a “quiet” or “calm” spot and then put calming items there to be accessed. Things like paper and crayons, markers, pens, cushions, books, things to build are all things that may help the child work through their angry feelings and begin to feel calm again so they’ll be ready to talk about them.

One of the first steps in helping children (and adults) manage their feelings is their ability to name them. Discuss with the child different names for emotions, the facial expressions that may go along with those emotions and possible reasons for those feelings. Give the child words like: frustrated, irritated, angry, sad, hungry,

tired, disappointed, hurt, grumpy, scared, embarrassed. Helping them name their emotions will help them to recognize them and bring them to a greater self-awareness of their own emotions.

Once they can label emotions, start discussions about when they feel these different emotions. Don’t forget to include some positive emotions as well. When they’re talking about situations that have been tricky for them in the past and the accompanying emotions, interpret these in a different way for them. For example, if they’re constantly feeling frustrated because no one lets them join in to play at play times, give them the perspective that it’s not necessarily about them and other’s not wanting them to play but possibly that the game is already going and it’s too hard to add others, or it’s almost done or any number of other reasons. Your job as the adult is to give them a different message that they can say to themselves (self-talk) the next time they’re in that situation.

Use these discussions to broach the possibility that perhaps these situations aren’t really worth getting really angr y about. Be prepared for them to say vehemently that yes they are worth getting that angry about.

If that is the response you get, then ask them to tell you about a time when they felt less angry. Use this to bring up the idea of an anger ladder. The higher up the ladder you go, the angrier you feel. Brainstorm some situations that are at all rungs of the ladder.

After you’ve had this discussion in a calm moment, it will be useful to refer to it after a situation in which they’ve gotten very angry. Once they’re calm, get them to rate how they felt on the anger ladder and then evaluate whether that level of response was appropriate. This is a chance for them to be thinking and self-evaluating their own feelings and reactions. Be prepared to step in to help them re-interpret something or to provide a different perspective.

them feel angry and to role-play acceptable reactions. Use the Anger Rules to help them to decide what is acceptable.

When I am angry…

I can’t hurt others I can’t hurt myself I can’t hurt property I must talk to someone (You may want to re-phrase these into positive statements. i.e. I must be gentle with myself, etc.)

Keep your eyes open for when they’ve handled a situation well that in the past would have derailed them. Be sure to notice any positive changes in their behaviour, no matter how small. Say something along the lines of “ wow you really handled that well. In the past you would have shouted/ screamed/thrown something but today, you used an angry voice to say that you were angry and then you stomped off and got yourself away from the situation. That’s a big improvement, I can tell you’re trying hard to manage your feelings and really growing up.”

Give them language to use when they feel angry. A framework like: When you…

I feel…

Because…

So please…

This framework is simple to remember and effective (for adults and children) to convey their emotions.

Above all, remember no one likes feeling angry. Children who are acting out in anger don’t know how to behave in ways that will meet their needs. We need to be the adult and model and actively teach them more effective strategies.

Another useful thing to do is to anticipate situations that may arise that may make

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karen boyes

Fear of failure Challenge your thoughts about success

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any people are scared of failing and do not attempt new tasks and activities for fear of not getting it right. This is crazy. You learn from making mistakes. Often people use excuses to stop them from experiencing failure. Have you ever heard yourself (or people around you) saying something like this?

illustration: iqoncept

“Why should I study, I’m going to fail anyway.”

“That boss doesn’t like me. He’ll never give me a pay rise.”

“Why should I do anything my spouse wants? She thinks everything I do is wrong no matter what.”

This negative self-talk is not success talk.

People who talk like this often sound tough and act as though they have everything under control. On the inside, their self confidence is usually really low.

In Mark Victor Hansen’s Book The One Minute Millionaire he discusses a SNAP technique for eliminating negative self talk. Simply put a rubber band around you wrist. Every time you catch yourself having a negative thought, simply snap the rubber band.

Ouch! He suggests you wear the band for 30 days, 24 hours a day. Give it a go. It works.

Teachers Matter

What is fear?

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FEAR stands for False Expectations Appearing Real. It is when you think forward to a situation in your mind and see a negative outcome and bring this image back to the present and worry or get fearful about what might happen. It is a false expectation that you created in your head and then have made it seem real.

Anthony Robbins says, “The past does not equal the future.” Just because you failed last year, yesterday, or two minutes ago does

not mean you will fail today, tomorrow or on your next attempt.

Sometimes people fear being successful.

What will people think? What if my friends don’t like or accept me anymore? It’s called the Tall Poppy Syndrome and is common in New Zealand and Australia, however not so much in America. Here’s an example of how it works: The American poppy grower goes out to his poppy fields one day and sees a single poppy standing one meter tall among all the other 30 cm poppies. The farmer is excited and rushes over to the poppy and thinks “how can I get all my poppies to grow this tall?”

The New Zealand poppy farmer goes out to his poppy fields one day and sees a single poppy standing one meter tall among all the other 30 cm poppies. The farmer rushes over to the poppy and taking a pair of scissors from his pocket cuts it down.

Success is risky, and it’s also exciting.

Dreams don’t come true magically. They

usually become a reality slowly through experiences, encouragement from others, examples from people you know or personalities on TV or that you have read about. A way to fast track your goals is to model successful people and find mentors.

Successful people love helping other become successful. Just ask.

One of my long-term goals is to learn how to fly a plane. When I travel in smaller planes for work I ask to sit in the “jump seat” behind the pilot in the cockpit. Nearly always they say yes. I am learning how to read the display and the procedures for flying for free. When I get off the plane and tell people I flew in the cockpit I usually get the same response: “How did you get to do that?” My reply: “I asked.”

Find people who have already succeeded at something you want to do. Find role models who have overcome obstacles. Read books about successful people. Watch documentaries about people who have achieved. Take a successful person out for lunch.

photo: Wavebreak Media Ltd

kylie jenkinson

Teaching students to study is the first step Support them with tools to keep them going

As

teachers, we are constantly reminding our students to study. We often get frustrated by capable students who we assume are not bothing to put in the work. My eyes were opened when talking to a good student about his poor results, and he told me to stop worrying. Why I asked? “Well miss,” he said, “I know what to do now.”

“Know what?,” I asked, slightly confused.

“Know how to study,” he replied.

At that moment I realised my assumption that students or even their parents know how to study was dangerous.

Earlier this year I experienced a Karen Boyes study skills workshop. I originally

enrolled thinking I would get ideas for my students that I could pass on. However, after experiencing her engaging presentation I knew I had to get her in for my students.

During her presentation to the senior classes, Karen addressed the students’ concerns about not knowing how to study and showed them approaches they could use.

As the students left the hall excited and motivated to start their studies, I thought about the possibility that they wouldn’t be able to maintain the enthusiasm for studying. As many wise people have said, “a journey begins with a single step.” This was the step, but support was needed for the students to be independent.

My understanding of this fact led me to

“ I realised my assumption that students or even their parents know how to study was dangerous. ”

create a handy tool that would be a constant reinforcement for the students -- flashcards. They provide a quick, easy and constant reminder of what Karen presented in the workshop. They allow for conversations with parents on ways to study or to explain what they are doing.

For example, not many parents understand that seeing their child talking into their phone could an effective study

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kylie jenkinson

technique, but by discussing the “make a recording” flash card, a student can possibly avoid conflict with parents.

The study flashdeck has a number of business-sized flash cards that show different ideas for ways to study that were discussed in the workshop, ranging from the traditional, yet still effective, to the innovative and dramatic. The study ideas are not my own, I have adapted them (with permission) from a study programme delivered to students in my previous school in England and tips given in Karen’s workshop. By putting them in the flashcard format, it provided a gimmick that students may remember and also provided an example of what revision cards look like and how effective they can be.

Some people can read something several times and remember it; however, most of us aren’t that lucky. Many of the study ideas are simple, yet effective. Creating a poster of information that is required is far more fun than reading over the notes several times or rewriting in a book where the information is hidden away. Parents then also have the opportunity to be aware of what the students need to know and can ask questions, creating positive conversations.

Teachers Matter

Parents can get involved in other ways, such as by “being a manager” or offering “prize bribes,” again opening that dialogue between parent and child that is productive.

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Mind maps are tools that have been around since I was at school, but in this day and age students can do it the traditional way or use mind mapping programmes such as Popplet.

Incorporating ICT (Information and Communications Technology)

into the study programme can be effective for some students (as long as they can avoid the traps of being online). However, the main idea of organising their thinking is still being used and students can look at mind maps in exams to plan large essays. The more they use them in their study time the more effective it will be in exams.

I have horrible memories of sitting down to revise for exams and reading the textbook trying to find a place where to start my study from. However, at school I found revision much better. The difference was that at school we planned our revision. When I was a student at boarding school every morning we would talk about what we were going to do and then disappeared into our rooms to do it. There was a real sense of achievement at each break when you could proudly say how much of it you had achieved. That’s why I have included “Keep a revision planner” as one of the tips.

We can never stop looking at past papers. Students need to know what the exam paper will look like and what the examiner expects the answers to look like. Applying the knowledge to different possible situations is, in my opinion, fundamentally important. But there are other tips like “make it silly” or “poems and raps” that mix it up a bit for the students, making revision time interesting and not a drag.

I challenge you to ask your students how they study. You may be as surprised as I was when you hear their replies, or lack of. The risk of assuming that everyone knows how to study is too great.

We need to remember the cream doesn’t always rise to the top, and we need to give our students the best opportunities to succeed in school and beyond.

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Teachers Matter

karen boyes

Study skills for success Little changes can have big payoffs

F

ar too many people study harder rather than smarter and end up burning out.

Sitting and passing exams is supposed to get you ahead in life – not make you tense and a nervous wreck.

With simple and effective techniques, you can massively increase your ability to pass exams. Here is a quick sample: • Use lots of colour. Using colour in note taking and study will increase your ability to remember and recall information.

It makes your notes more exciting to reread and learn. Use felt pens of different thicknesses, coloured pencils and crayons.

Use your favourite colours; highlight key information, and make note taking fun.

• Talk about information as much as possible. When you say information out loud, it is reinforced in the brain. Have you ever asked someone to remind you to do something? Do they usually need to remind you? Not usually. When you say something out loud it comes out of your month and back into the brain through your ears. Talk about the information you are learning to yourself, friends, family or even the dog. Just say it out loud.

• Study at my best thinking time. Are you a morning, afternoon or late night person?

Study when you are most alert. If you prefer to stay up late at night, study at this time. One of the worst times to study is the one hour after school. Take time to refresh and relax before doing homework or study.

• Study for 20 minutes and take a five minute break. Having short study times increases the retention of information and avoids the brain “chunking out” or forgetting. During a five-minute break, eat brain food, get some fresh air, or do some quick exercise to keep the blood and oxygen flowing to the brain. Always

• Review my notes one day after learning them. Reviewing or periodically revising of material is needed to reactivate the stored memories and prevent information being buried under other data. The more recent, regular and fun the review is, the easier it will be to recall. Research shows if you go over your notes t h e n e x t d a y, your recall can stay at up to 90 percent. However, waiting three days before you re-visit your notes drops recall down to 30 percent.

“ Use your favourite colours; highlight key information, and make note taking fun. ”

leave your study environment during this five minute break to give the brain some variety and a change of focus.

For more study tips please send an email to studytips@spectrumeducation.com and request our complimentary fortnightly study tip.

• Frame important information. Putting a frame around information makes the brain focus within the frame and can raise comprehension. This is such a simple strategy and it works. If you are a doodler and often draw all over the page when listening or thinking, doodle frames around the edge of the page. It will increase your ability to recall and remember the information within the frame.

• Study the information I don’t know. This may sound obvious and is a major key to successful study. Take out old test and exam papers and learn the information you got wrong. When you get your test marks back, celebrate if you have a pass mark. However, it is the questions you got wrong that are the most important to learn. This is how you will improve.

photo: Mike Flippo

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C

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN karen boyes

Letter by letter

We’re improving learning by working our way through the alphabet.

Colour

Creativity

Chunking

Colour is an important factor in the learning process. Research shows that colour helps with memory recall. Colour also affects your mood. Calming colours include light blue, light green and earthy tones such as brown and beige. Energising colours are the reds, yellows and oranges. Eric Jensen suggests the best colours for optimal lear ning include yellow, beige or off white. These colours seem to stimulate positive feelings.

In your classroom, use colour when presenting information on the white board or interactive board. Avoid using the same black and blue and add oranges, pink, purple and lime green for effect, especially for key concepts that you want to stand out.

Encourage students to use colour in mindmaps and note taking.

All human beings have the capacity to generate novel, original, clever or ingenious products, solutions and techniques – if the capacity is developed. Teach students how to brainstorm, use metaphors, analogues and mindmap to help build their creativeness. Sir Ken Robinson suggests that creativity is the “gold” of the 21st century; the ability to be innovative and create new ideas, applications and solutions is the new skill that will give people the edge in work environments and problem solving.

To help develop creativity in your students, you first must provide an environment where it is OK to make mistakes and take risks.

If students are fearful of being wrong or are wanting to please the teacher by giving the right answers, they are less likely to develop creativity. Value every idea and reward creativity and innovation. Creativity can also come from a lack of resources, causing people to look for other ways and ideas.

Chunking is an effective way of enlarging working memory’s capacity and helping the learner make associations that establish meaning. There are limits to our ability to hold information in our short-term or working memories. On average an adult can recall between five to nine from memory, while a teenager can hold between three and seven pieces of information. This number drops to one to five for young children.

Through a process of chunking you can recall many more pieces of infor mation at one time. Chunking occurs when the working memory perceives a set of data as a single item.

For example, to recall a phone number 0238469732 it is easier to “chunk” the number into smaller bits (chunks) 023 846 9732. Now what were 10 digits to recall are three chunks, increasing the capacity to recall more accurately.

A general rule of thumb is chunk information into groups of three or four pieces of information at one time.

Teachers Matter

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMN

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NOPQRSTUVWXYZ Cortisol

Cortisol is a stress hormone that is linked with dopamine production in the brain. Cortisol surges when the brain and body become stressed. Factors may include when a student is fearful of making a mistake or being ridiculed, has skipped a meal, if someone yells or shouts, if they have hurt themselves or is overtired.

Researchers have known for some time that cortisol shuts down learning, creates anxiety attacks and can cause depression. In fact cortisol wipes memories or makes recalling difficult. Have you ever had the experience of the harder you think, the less you can recall?

Cortisol also has its place: It can lower sensitivity to pain; help you to survive grief; or pull you through a short-term pressure project. Long-term cortisol surges, where you maintain harmful levels, can be highly dangerous.

Research links cortisol to lower immune systems, slowing down thinking, creating blood sugar imbalances, raising blood pressure, weakened muscle tissue and decreased bone density.

Ways to reduce cortisol include being able to: • Relax, listen to music, take a walk, and run from stress.

• S p e n d t i m e w i t h u p b e a t people, laugh, and steer away from cynics.

• Manage time, create doable daily targets, and avoid overloads.

• Take up a sport, do stairs, park far from doors and avoid passivity.

• Give away things, care, join Rotary, and run from financial anxiety.

• Teach from your strengths, inspire excellence, yet flee perfectionism.

• Propose winning solutions and avoid fixation on problems at work.

“ Encourage students

to use colour in mindmaps and note taking”

karen boyes

Communicating with clarity and precision Language and thought are totally intertwined; you cannot have one without the other. If you hear fuzzy language, it means fuzzy thought. Skillfulness in communicating means that you can express your ideas in a way that is easy to understand and straight to the point in both written and oral form. To communicate with clarity and precision you must avoiding over generalizations, distortions and deletions. To develop students’ capacity to communicate with clarity and precision, it is essential that teachers use rich language and avoid simplification and “dumbing down” of language.

There is a big difference between saying “let’s look at these two shells” and “let’s compare these shells.” The second statement contains the thinking verb and the action you would like a student to do – compare. This is a higherlevel process than just looking and helps students increase their thinking skills and therefore the clarity of their communication.

Please contact us if you’d like information on previously published “letters.”

NOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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john shackleton

Would you like to change your mood?

Your body can lead the way.

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any people think that their moods just happen to them as a result of external factors, hormones, the weather and more, and that they have no control over how they feel. But this isn’t true; we choose our moods - although often we don’t actually make a conscious choice.

Sports people have known this for years; they can’t afford to feel down on the day of their big event or game. They have learnt to control their moods by managing their state of mind. State management is the art of changing how you feel and is a technique originally developed from neuro-linguistic programming (NLP.) It is also true that our physiology dictates how we feel, that our motion controls our emotion. If you think about this, then you already know it to be true. What do you do if you feel like you are falling asleep while driving, and you can’t immediately pull over? Most people say something like, “I sit up straight” or “I force my eyes to open wide” or “I start to sing as loudly as I can.” All of these things involve dramatically changing your physiology, and this change has the effect of keeping you awake. On the other hand, if you wanted your children to go to sleep, you wouldn’t encourage them to start jumping up and down while shouting and singing at the top of their voices. You’d get them to adopt some slow, relaxed physiology, lying in bed and listening to a quietly read story.

Teachers Matter

If I asked you to describe the physiology of a depressed person, most of us would list a number of the following:

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Body would be stooped and droopy

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Head would be bowed down

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Eyes would be downcast

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Muscles would lack tension and be floppy

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Breathing would be slow and shallow

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Face would be frowning or have a sad expression

If I asked you to assume and hold that body position for two or three minutes, how easy do you feel it would be to have depressing thoughts? Most people find it is easy to get depressed if they hold themselves in that way. By adopting this particular physiology, your body sends a message to your brain telling it that you are depressed. After a short time, the brain releases the appropriate chemicals to create the feelings you are looking for and BINGO, you start to feel depressed.

john shackleton

What would happen if you assumed the exact opposite? Try this experiment, if you are in a position to do so. (if anyone is watching you then you may prefer to go into a separate room!).

Stand as tall as you can with your head held high, eyes wide open looking forward and slightly up. Put some muscle tension across your shoulders and ar ms and perhaps clench your fists slightly. Holding this position, make some bold powerful gestures with your body and arms, making sure that you keep moving. Breathe deeply and quickly (being careful not to hyperventilate!) and finally put a huge grin on your face. Now, holding this physiology, try to think some depressive thoughts.

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to think those types of thoughts while holding that physiology. In fact, when I do this exercise from stage and ask people to adopt this physiology and then ask them to think depressive thoughts, they almost always change their physiology. They stop moving or drop their head and shoulders or they lose all the muscle tension and return to the characteristics of the first physiology.

What this shows us is that our physiology dictates our feelings. If you want to feel bored and tired, just adopt bored and tired physiology. If you want to feel powerful and energized, then change how you are holding your body, your facial expressions, and your breathing to this new physiology.

How can we use this to our advantage? Let’s assume you are about to make a speech to 500 parents and pupils at your school’s prize-giving evening. What mood would you be feeling now? Many people would say that they’d be extremely nervous, jumpy and/or worried to the point of feeling sick.

Would these emotions be conducive to you putting on a good performance? Almost certainly not!

“ What this shows us is that our physiology dictates our feelings. If you want to feel bored and tired, just adopt bored and tired physiology.”

What emotions would you need to make a great speech, impressing everyone to the point that they give you a standing ovation?

Most people would say that they would need to feel relaxed, confident, powerful and in control, feeling like you are important and impressive. Consider for a minute how you would be holding yourself if you did feel that way; how would you be standing; where would your eyes be focusing; what gestures would you be making; what would your breathing be like; what expression would you have on your face; where would there be any muscle tension in your body? Now if you adopt that physiology, you should start to trigger the feelings you are looking for. Don’t expect it to happen instantly, it’ll take a few minutes to kick in and you may have to practice a few times to get things right. Most athletes use this technique, and you can use it for your big performances, whether in front of your class, your school assembly or an audience of a thousand.

Consider also how this can be applied to your students. There nearly always comes a point during the week, or toward the end of term where students are tired, lacking concentration and not performing as well as you know they can. Try changing their physiology, too, and see what a difference you can make to their learning for the rest of the day. Get them to stand up, stand tall, stretch, smile, and laugh, and watch the improvement in attitude and work when they return to the task in hand. Sometimes it only takes a five-minute break to alter the mood of a classroom and achieve a positive environment.

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karen boyes

Habits of Mind success Starting with the youngest minds

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ver the past term I have had the pleasure of certifying the first kindergarten in the world and the first primary school in New Zealand as International Habits of Mind Learning Community of Excellence.

Teachers Matter

An International Habits of Mind Learning Community of Excellence is a place where everyone strives to deepen their Understanding of Habits of Mind and integrate them into their teaching and learning. Evidence of Habits of Mind may be found in classroom instruction, curriculum design and throughout the s c h o o l ’s p h y s i c a l e n v i r o n m e n t a n d culture. Parents, teachers and students use the language of Habits of Mind and demonstrate a long-term commitment to deepening and sustaining them. The award is given for commitment to the ongoing development of Habits of Mind.

Circumstances differ, so the award is not a “one-size-fits-all” pass or fail, but recognition of a school’s commitment to a learning journey shaped by Habits of Mind.

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The Award is for schools that have started their Habits of Mind journey and want to go further. It recognises a school’s desire to broaden its understanding of Habits of Mind. These schools will be embedding Habits of Mind across school policies and practices and activating Habits of Mind among everyone involved in the school.

Additionally, the award is designed for schools seeking international recognition of their commitment to Habits of Mind and acknowledges their desire to share with and learn from the growing global community developing Habits of Mind.

Geraldine Kindergarten have been using the Habits of Mind with three to five-year-olds since 2005, and the young children’s depth and understanding of the Habits is fantastic.

The award was presented on the 11th June with a shared lunch with children, parents and teachers, and the children released balloons to mark the occasion. Later in the evening I presented a plaque to the

kindergarten in a formal ceremony with members of the community, dignitaries and teachers.

“We are thrilled with this honour and very proud of our accomplishment,” said Helen May, general manager of Geraldine District Free Kindergarten Association. “This award reflects our commitment to continually striving to provide innovative, high-quality early childhood education for our children, parents and our community.”

August the 15th saw Rowandale School, in Auckland, recognised as the first primary school in New Zealand to receive the prestigious award. The children, teachers and parents celebrated with an awards assembly. The children sang the Habits of Mind song (available from iTunes), hung 16 HOM canvases on the wall, each depicting a different habit. The Kapa Haka group performed and after the presentation, we all headed outside for the official raising of the HOM flag. Children were then rewarded with rainbow cupcakes.

“I remember at Bootcamp 2011 we were asked by another participant where we were on the journey. Judd McLauchlan (Principal) and I looked at each other, and I said that we had one shaky foot on the path to accreditation,” said Wendy Sheridan-Smith, Associate Principal of Rowandale School. “When we got back to school, we hit the ground running. Judd has been visionary with making the HoMs prominent in our school environment, and I have worked with the staff to deepen their understanding and make the HoMs visible in all areas of learning. Our work in both these areas continues.”

Sheridan-Smith reports that one of the most successful things the school did was use the “bootcamp” idea to run a staff retreat at the beginning of 2012 to embed the HoMs with the staff. They plan to do this again for the start of the 2013 school year. She kindly says that she loved the support she received from the HoM Institute, particularly the opportunities to work with Art Costa and me.

“For us, accreditation is the acknowledgement that Rowandale is being ‘Mindful’ as we head on a journey full of wonderment and awe,” she said.

Congratulations to both schools for your commitment and dedication to making the world a more thoughtful place with the Habits of Mind.

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1....... Raising the Habits of Mind flag 2....... Habits of Mind mark the pathway for exploration 3....... Children from Rowandale school 4....... Geraldine Kindy children releasing HOM balloons 5. . ... Wall display at Geraldine Kindergarden 6....... Judd McLauchlan receiving the award from Karen Boyes 7&9.. Children aged 3-5 years performing a song and Working Interdependently at Geraldine Kindergarten 8....... Cupcakes for students

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karen boyes

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jenny barrett

Decisions, decisions

Making an informed decision about classroom display technology

I Teachers Matter

t’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. ~Roy Disney

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These are exciting times in the audiovisual / educational technology industry as a myriad of new technologies become more accessible to schools. You will have heard people talking about the end of the interactive whiteboard, the demise of the data projector, the rise of the flat panel display and of classrooms resembling scenes from the film “Minority Report� with touch technology becoming ubiquitous.

I have just worked with a school syndicate that has opted for an interactive data projector, two large TV screens and an interactive whiteboard divided amongst its four learning spaces as well as an interactive

touch table in the central communal area.

In addition, each teacher has a Mobi (a mobile interactive whiteboard) and in the communal area, there are three more Mobis, enabling students to simultaneously work on any of the display devices. A visualiser is also available for that just-in-time teaching moment. Finally, voting clickers complete the picture with any group able to quickly establish prior knowledge, check comprehension and anonymously gauge opinion on any issue.

With so many display options available, the question is how do you, as an individual teacher, decide what display technology is right for your learning space? The above school made its decisions based on a deep understanding of what underpins teaching

and learning for them. Whilst other schools are focusing on improving computer access through BYOD, they felt that for them collaboration was key, and they were not convinced that 1:1 computing was as important to achieving this as providing tools that would allow students to interact with information and activities together.

Four or more students can work with any of the display devices offered in these spaces.

There is no right or wrong, as different students, different learning spaces and different pedagogies have their own needs.

What is exciting is that today there are options available to meet those individual needs. This checklist might help you reach some conclusions in these confusing times!

jenny barrett

“ With so many display options available, the question is how do you, as an individual teacher, decide what display technology is right for your learning space?”

What are the key components of our teaching approach?

If a teacher and a school can articulate this, then it makes choosing an appropriate display tool far easier. In the above case, seeing children working together around an interactive table felt more in- tune with their collaborative goal, than the alternative options, such as where each student can have an individual tablet but can connect to the central screen and share and interact with their content.

What information do we / would we like to share in class? This will allow you to identify what technology is required, and remembering money is always an issue, how much of a priority is each one as I am sure we would all like everything: • Realia (student work, books, objects/ students doing things) - visualiser • Audio – surround sound • Wo r k i n p r o g r e s s ( b r a i n s t o r m s , calculations, reworking text) – interactive technologies • Video – flat panel display • S i m p l e P r e s e n t a t i o n s / D o c u m e n t s / Webpages – data projector Where does the information we are displaying come from?

This will inform how you want to connect to your device – from multiple devices wirelessly or from one hardwired for example.

• The library/outdoors/anywhere – actual objects, particularly relevant to science and technology

And although we would love it to be all about the pedagogy, the physical environment should be considered.

What do we do with that information when it is being displayed? This will inform how interactive a device is required, from a simple data projector to a multitouch sur face – and whether it needs to be connected to other display devices.

What are the implications of the design of my learning space?

• Look at it

• Light (Too much? Think Flat Panel Display)

• Discuss it • Interact with it - move it, annotate on it, capture it, resize it • Share it – for example, flick it from one interactive touch table to another group’s interactive touch table How do we physically want to interact with this information? This has implications for size, location and nature of the display device, too: • Small groups • Large groups • Individually • From anywhere in class • At the front of class • Round a table • With pens • With fingers

• Ceiling height (Too high – think short throw data projector) • Up and down stairs (Think fixed solutions)

• Wall space (All glass? Think mobile solutions) • Everything can be moved to suit the moment (Think mobile solutions) • Cramped! (Think wall mounted flat panel display) What do I already have?

Make the most of what you have already in your learning space. Interactive whiteboards can be upgraded to multi-user; data projectors can get a new lease of life with the addition of a visualiser or a Mobi (mobile interactive whiteboard); add touch screen overlays to flat panel displays and look at software solutions to enable every device in the classroom to connect to each other and the display devices.

Think about these questions and you will begin to have some indication of what you want your display device to do for you and your students.

• Teacher laptop/network • CoW laptops/netbooks • Students themselves • Student devices

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robyn pearce

Communicate with the “animal” inside It’s better than treating people the way you want to be treated.

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recent workshop on communication showed that some people felt ill-informed by some of their colleagues. I’ve seen the same in almost all organisations and relationships.

The problem?

Teachers Matter

Most people communicate in the way they like to be communicated with, not how the other person wishes to receive the information.

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The solution? Ask yourself: “Am I communicating in a way others can understand, and what is their preferred communication method?” There’s no “one size fits all.” The answer is buried within each person’s personality. There are many personality analysis tools on the market, almost all giving similar insights. I like using “What Makes People Tick,” an easyto-remember yet well-researched product designed by Australian Des Hunt. Hunt’s tool uses bird names - Eagle, Peacock, Dove and Owl - to describe broad personality types:

The Eagle

The Peacock

These little charmers are cool and confident. They’re strong dominant personalities and usually move naturally into leadership positions. They work well without supervision, don’t need a lot of encouragement to perform, and are highly motivated by getting results.

These warm, confident people enjoy fun, parties and noise. They’re quickly bored if there’s no one else around. Many salespeople, trainers, motivators, and entertainers fit here. They’re great people people. If you’ve got a job requiring people skills, look for a Peacock.

A major weakness can be that they’re not good listeners. They also hate having their time wasted. They tend to snap under stress, and then can’t understand why others get upset. Others would call them bossy; they call it showing leadership.

They’re great starters, not such good finishers. Too much detail bores them. (How many sales managers tear their hair out because their salespeople are sloppy about filling in their paperwork?) Quieter souls think they are much too loud and pushy; they think the quiet ones are boring.

If you want to get a favourable response from an Eagle, have your facts straight, get straight to the point, be direct, and for goodness sake, don’t nag.

To get the best out of a Peacock, you must be prepared to encourage and praise them.

They thrive on it. They are energised by being around others, and stressed by being on their own for too long. Don’t put them in a lonely work environment; they won’t be able to perform effectively. They need to know that they are appreciated, and even when, in their heart of hearts they know they’ve done a good job, they still like to be praised.

robyn pearce

“ Ask yourself: “Am I communicating in a way others can understand, and what is their preferred communication method?””

The Dove

The Owl

These warm, shy, peace-loving, supportive folk are the salt of the earth. They enjoy being around other people but not centre stage. If you want a job done, almost always a Dove will offer. Great listeners and sympathisers. Often found in helping roles - nurses, counsellors and support positions.

You always knew owls were wise birds, didn’t you? So are human Owls. Here we have the cool, shy folk of society. They make great accountants, lawyers, researchers, software developers - anyone who needs high accuracy. They thrive on being right. Having to pass work in without checking it several times just about brings on an anxiety attack.

Their strength is their attention to detail.

Their weakness: making a quick decision.

What if it was wrong?!

Don’t expect them to initiate things, though.

That’s way outside their comfort zone. They prefer not to speak out in public meetings. It is easy to crush a Dove and not even realise it, for they find it uncomfortable to stick up for themselves. Therefore managers have to be more thoughtful for their Doves than their more vocal staff.

Doves are the kind-hearted souls who’ll sacrifice their own needs for the lastminuting Peacock, or the domineering Eagle who comes rushing in demanding something, without checking what else the Dove has to do. These are the ones who have the hardest job to say “no” to unreasonable demands.

Give them plenty of time to do a good, wellchecked job. They won’t be happy about a rushed one. Give them a good briefing. Also, don’t expect them to be happy in a work environment where they have to do heaps of interacting; open plan is uncomfortable.

They prefer a “smattering of shush” so they can get on without noise and distractions.

So, which type of person are you? How do you like to be communicated with? And the people around you? Do you give them information in the style they want it?

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Barbara griffith & tricia kenyon

The 0nion’s Great Escape Author and Illustrator Sara Fanelli Publisher: Phaidon Press Inc, New York ISBN 978 0 7148 57039

Questions for thinking and thinking of questions Big ideas from a small vegetable

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ara Fanelli has created an amazing children’s picture book which poses philosophical questions and asks readers to stretch their imagination. The quirky design includes paper engineering and collage-style illustrations.

This book follows a young onion’s thoughts as it attempts to escape “death by frying pan.” Children can help the onion escape by answering the questions on each page. Hence two stories run alongside each other, the onion’s and the reader’s.

“Help me out of this book!

Start me off on my flight!

Lift me out page by page Use your hands and your brain, So I won’t end up fried,

Teachers Matter

And some wisdom we’ll gain.”

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The book can be used as an individual activity book or as a base for group and classwork. As each page is filled in, the reader can punch out another perforated layer of the onion head, and you can pull away a gorgeous mini 3D flip book that completely detaches from the original book. You can also choose not to remove the onion, because once it’s removed, it cannot be re-inserted.

Barbara griffith & tricia kenyon

We have chosen to promote this book as it is an activity book in its own right. It offers the possibility of thinking about and answering questions from basic to introspective and mind-bending to philosophical. For example: Using “ time” as a theme: • How long is a minute?

• What is the longest minute you can remember and the shortest minute you can remember?

• Can time go backwards?

• Is a two-minute piece of fast music shorter than a two minute piece of slow music?

• Does time stop when you are dreaming?

• How is time different in your dreams?

• The best minute you can remember?

• Can you hear time?

It also covers other themes as your name, memories, thoughts, good and bad, age, feeling and touching, true and false and happiness, and sparks creative and critical thinking.

The book offers a diverse layout on each double page with differing fonts, collage, and space for the reader’s responses and drawings.

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ngahi bidois

See it and achieve it

Picture what you want and you’ll be closer to having it

Teachers Matter

My

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teenage son and I were recently playing golf and we were both about 10 metres short of the final green. It was my turn first as I was slightly further away than him.

expectations or lack thereof. You see, I was happy about chipping to three feet from the hole and having a relatively easy putt to finish; however, my son was happy that he had nearly holed his shot and only had a tap in to finish.

“Man I got to get this close,” I said loud enough for my son to hear before chipping to about three feet from the hole. Seeing the result I looked at my son and then at my golf ball as if to say, “Beat that bro.”

I remember looking at the two golf balls on the green and thinking I’d rather have his next shot than mine, and I’d rather have his attitude than mine, too. I recall whispering to myself “Ngahi, the purpose of golf is to get the ball in the hole - not close to it.” My son had expected to hole his shot and nearly did.

He looked at me unflinchingly and said, “Yeah well, this is going in,” before playing his shot. I watched in shock as his ball tracked straight at the hole and would have gone in but stopped millimeters from it. He only had a tap in to finish and, yes, he was whooping and hollering and enjoying his moment of triumph over his papa.

I’d hate to think what would have happened if he had actually got it in!

That small exchange made me think about expectations, in particular my

Expectations are an interesting aspect of our lives.

Sticking with the golf theme, Michael Campbell won the U.S. golf Open in 2005 because he expected to. I read that Michael had stayed at a friend’s place prior to 2005. That friend had won the U.S. Open. Michael held the trophy and visualized himself winning the U.S. Open tournament and even

took a photo of himself with the trophy to add to his vision board. He expected to win that tournament, and he did a few years later.

So what are you expecting? What are your educational expectations for the next day, week, month, year or decade?

He aha ou wawata? What are your dreams and expectations?

Imagine if you had thought that getting close to completing your teaching profession qualifications and not graduating was good enough. Your expectations, perseverance, courage and support enabled you to get to this point in your career and the same will get you through your next dream, too. Kia kaha kia maia koe; may you continue to be strong and courageous.

We all have our expectations that may not be as huge as winning the U.S. Golf Open like Michael Campbell, but the least we can do is try to get the ball in the hole – rather than just close to it.

Spring menu

karen tobich

Five Seed Crackers Prawn, Mushroom and Spinach Pasta Peas and Soft Cheese Tart Spring Sandwich

Spring on the plate

Get creative as we wait for more vegetables

We all love spring, but too often we find the supply of locally grown fresh colourful veggies quite limiting at this time of the year. So with the addition of seeds, nuts, sprouts and micro greens, you can create some yummy nutritional food. Here are some ideas:

Five Seed Crackers These crackers are so easy to make and are great to pack in lunch boxes or serve with dips, cheeses and spreads Ingredients 1 cup flaxseeds 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds 1/2 cup sesame seeds 1/2 cup sunflower seeds 1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts or almonds 3 tablespoons chia seeds 1-2 teaspoon cumin powder 1 teaspoon sea salt 1 cup water Directions Combine water and flaxseeds in a bowl and let sit for one and two hours. Then mix in the rest of the ingredients and let sit for an additional hour or even longer if you like. I sometimes leave it overnight, as it activates the sprouting process in the seeds and therefore increases the nutritional value.

Spread out the mixture onto lined baking sheet, place a similar size of baking paper over the top and roll the mixture into an approximate 1/2 cm layer. Bake for in a preheated oven for about 35 minutes at 150 C. Take out of the oven and cut with a pizza cutter or a sharp knife into cracker sizes. Reduce heat of the oven to 110 C and bake for another 15 to 30 minutes.

Check how crispy the crackers are by breaking off a corner. If they still feel soft, bake for an additional 15-30 minutes.

Use as you would any other cracker. Store in an airtight container.

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karen tobich

Prawn, Mushroom and Spinach Pasta This is one of our favorite dinner dishes because it is ready in 20 minute and tastes just so good. It is a perfect meal to serve a crowd of people when on a budget.

Ingredients

Directions

1 packet of pasta (I prefer fresh pasta) 300ml cream 1 1/2 cups of raw deveined and peeled prawns per person 10-15 sliced mushrooms per person a bundle of spinach finely chopped (if you use frozen spinach portions use 4-5) 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic salt and pepper for seasoning shaved parmesan cheese to serve

Start by 3/4 filing a large pot with water and bringing it to the boil. Add salt to the boiling water and cook the pasta as per the instructions on the packet.

To make the sauce, place the cream in a heavy bottom saucepan, add the garlic and slowly simmer until it starts to reduce. Add the spinach and the mushrooms and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes, then add the prawns. Cook until the prawns are pink.

Toss the cook and drained pasta with the sauce and serve with grated parmesan cheese and additional black pepper.

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karen tobich

Pea and Soft Cheese Tart

Spring Sandwich

Ingredients

Ingredients

1 packet of store bought savoury pastry 1/2 cup of finely grated parmesan 1/2 cup of almond meal 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper 1 liter of greek yoghurt, drained in a jiffy cloth for at least 1 hour (you can also use 500ml of quark instead) 1 garlic clove finely chopped a handful or two of chopped fresh chives, mint and parsley salt and pepper for seasoning 400g of fresh shelled peas (or you can use frozen ones) Micro greens and extra mint to garnish

Slices of your favorite fresh bread Yogurt soft cheese mixture as made for the pea tart Sprouts Chopped avocados, tomatoes and cucumber, dressed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

Some micro greens Directions Spread your slices of bread generously with the soft cheese mixture, top with sprouts and the tomato/avocado mixture and top with some micro greens.

Serve as an open sandwich or top with another slice spread thinly with the soft cheese mixture. Enjoy.

Directions Defrost the savory pastry at room temperature, mix the grated parmesan, almond meal and black pepper and spread on a clean working surface. Place the pastry block on parmesan/almond floured surface and roll the pastry into a thin sheet until all the parmesan and almond mixture is integrated into the pastry.

Line a tart tin with the thin pastry and bake at a moderate oven blind for about 15-20 minutes or golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a rack.

Mix the drained yoghurt with the garlic, chopped herbs and seasoning. Fill the cooled tart shell with the soft cheese mixture. Blanche the peas for 2 minutes in boiling water and then cool in a bowl of iced water.

Drain the peas well and pour them over the cheese mixture in our tart. Garnish with micro greens and fresh mint and serve as a fabulous spring lunch

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wendy sweet

Nurturing competitive kids into elite sport Now everyone benefits when you focus on “truly” winning

W

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photo: isame

Teachers Matter

hilst the emphasis from health and PE educators has always been and always will be focussed on engaging younger kids in a range of play, movement skills and basic sporting activities, a number of opinions continue to reign about whether or not talented kids should be formally targeted and “structured” into sports from a young age (prepubescence). Is excessive competitiveness a good thing or a bad thing in kids’ sports?

Is there a potential for musculo-skeletal stress or physical stress when the emphasis goes on specific training demands of one sport? How should one nurture a naturally competitive kid? Should the focus only be on “participation” or is encouraging them to find a “winning” attitude OK? How does this work in a team sport when the more competitive kids get frustrated with other less-competitive kids on the team? What should you do as a teacher when “winning” at all costs gets in the way of development, “playing their best” and working as a team?

Most people agree that competition in sport offers many positive outcomes and teaches a variety of life skills. Competition can also be an important means of motivating children to make the most of their potential in many areas throughout life. Along-side this is the knowledge that for most kids involved in team sports, the “positive” traits learnt from competition encompass learning about perseverance, commitment, dedication, team-support, motivation, sportsmanship, loyalty, self-discipline, and compassion for others. Most parents, coaches and teachers expect a child to improve self-esteem and develop a healthy, competitive attitude, but the down-side arises when sporting kids focus on “winning” at all costs, but

wendy sweet end up losing. Typically this results in anger, disillusionment and de-motivation.

And for those who are around a naturally competitive kid when they lose, it becomes a tough time for all.

Most sport psychology researchers agree that there are a number of positive benefits to kids’ involvement in sport competition which carry over into success in the adult world. However, the focus needs to be on the long-term development rather than short term gains. Younger children and athletic teens who harbour a desire to develop into an elite athlete need to understand that as well as technical skill development when they are younger, there are a number of other necessary traits to acquire, and first and foremost, is the ability to have fun so they stay in their chosen sport into the longer-term. For most sports, it takes a minimum of 10 years to develop into an elite athlete. This becomes an important issue for many coaches and parents as the long road toward success becomes more about keeping the talented athlete in their sport than attaining winning results all the time. This means that athletes, as well as parents and coaches, need to not only focus on the technical skills and training necessary but also the long-term, health, fitness, strength, injur y management and, of course, motivation of the younger athlete. This notion is supported by United States research into young athletes and sports “drop-out” with the knowledge that 75 percent of children in organized sports drop out by the age of 14 because of overemphasis on competition and winning.

Similar research conducted by Sport NZ (previously SPARC) in 2003 found that drop-out in sports in New Zealand mainly occurred at the age of 15 for girls and 16 for boys. Follow-up research indicated that this was more about wanting to have more time with peers and have fun and that there was too much emphasis on “winning” and competition.

However, “competition isn’t inherently good or bad,” says Andrew Meyers, Ph.D., a professor of sports psychology at the University of Memphis. “But it can have positive and negative consequences.

Even though many kids become involved in organized sports at a young age, it’s often the adults in charge who are focused on winning. Coaches and parents should emphasize learning, effort, and fun instead.”

Professor Ken Hodge, a leading sport psychologist in New Zealand, agrees but also supports the notion that competition is and can be about winning as well as losing: “Parents need to remember that ‘winning’ is not a dirty word! Most people (including kids), playing competitive sport are interested in winning; but since every game/race also has a loser(s) you will have your fair share of losses.

Therefore, to avoid regular disappointment, you need to have other sources of satisfaction rather than just the joy of winning. I advocate taking a ‘how to win’ focus (skill mastery/ performance) which is more in your control.

That way, win or lose you have a means of feeling satisfied with your performance. Plus, a ‘how to win’ focus usually increases your chances of actually winning!”

Taking this on board, the following is a checklist for those involved with sporting kids who have the desire and talent and want to continue to climb the staircase toward longterm elite athlete status:



Without a doubt, a young person must first develop the skills necessary to succeed in her sport. This comes from establishing a foundation of movement patterns, activity and fitness at primary school then gradually adding in technical skills. From a great base of good technique comes the development of fitness, strength and recovery strategies. This typically means getting younger kids involved in games, sports and activities that will establish the correct aerobic (cardio-vascular) foundations as well as movement and agility patterns for the requirements of their chosen sport. This is why younger kids need a variety of different movement patterns at a young age that typically arrives with age-appropriate play, co-ordination activities and an emphasis on fun and participation. Different types of activities at a young age will set the young person up for establishing general neurological patterning as well as gradually and progressively strengthening bones, tendons and ligaments. Having a foundation of movement skills means that they will be able to capitalise on the sports-specific fitness, strength and conditioning which will be required as they enter their mid-teens.



Like life, mistakes are an important and inevitable part of learning. Younger athletes need to learn to be positive about the “successes” that come from learning after mistakes are made. Parents and coaches of competitive kids can support them to learn from their mistakes and respond to mistakes positively rather than negatively. This also means assisting the athlete to realise that “winning” is an uncontrollable outcome, and it is better to focus on what players can personally control, such as improvement in certain areas.

Reinforcing confidence in players’ proficiency and giving positive corrective feedback on how to improve rather than criticising any mistakes they might make.



Legendary basketball coach John Wooden, winner of an unprecedented and unmatched ten NCAA Men’s Basketball championships, taught his players that “a winner is someone who makes maximum effort, continues to learn and improve, and doesn’t let mistakes (or fear of mistakes) stop him or her.” He was more interested in his athletes displaying the following qualities – a consistent daily work habit; a realistic view of themselves and their skill level; the ability to listen to the coach (or people of authority and experience); the ability to take what’s been learned and put it quickly into practice; and finally, natural athletic ability.

With ongoing support in these areas of performance, as well as a focus on other vital components of athlete development, including nutrition, hydration, recovery strategies, aerobic and anaerobic fitness, and strength and conditioning that meets the correct age and stage of the younger athlete, competitive kids can be nurtured into elite sport pathways. Of course these components sit along-side their ability to develop a “winning” attitude from focussing on a “mastery focus” rather than a “score-board” focus. This way they can be assisted toward anxiety reduction and an increase in “selfefficacy” or a confidence and belief that they can succeed into the long-term.

Sport psychologists support a focus on “skill mastery” rather than a scoreboard orientation for younger athletes starting out on the road toward elite sporting success.

This means an emphasis on the notion that “winning” is ideally the “pursuit of excellence in technique and skill mastery.”

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kate southcombe

Look for evidence

Practices that are evidence based can help you in the classroom.

H

uman and animal behaviour fascinates me: What drives us to do what we do, and to behave the way we behave? For example, how do we explain the diverse and bizarre behaviour of children who seem to seek out teacher reprimands and constant correction? Why can’t these children behave like everyone else? Why are they so difficult?

Teachers Matter

As a beginning primary teacher teaching in London, I encountered many “difficult” c h i l d r e n . H o w e v e r, I f o u n d t h a t b y fo cu si ng o n w ha t I w a n t e d , v e r b a l l y reinforcing the desired behaviour while remaining calm, I achieved results – and my classes were generally cooperative and compliant. I couldn’t validate what I was doing using any research-based theory and this frustrated me, but I realized I was operating from a standpoint of control in a whole new sense of the word: I was in selfcontrol mode. By consciously controlling my actions in a systematic way, I was impacting others’ behavior.

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It was some years later that I had found a training manual for horse riders, written by a former San Diego Sea World trainer, based on general behavioural principles.

The manual was a detailed account of using scientific principles of behaviour and behavioural techniques. In one book I discovered the truth about learning for children, horses and people. With an increasing hunger for knowledge I pursued further study in behaviour modification via the Open Polytechnic, and I am now doing a post graduate course in applied behaviour analysis at Auckland University.

ABA is a functional approach to behaviour, asking the question what is the function of this behaviour for this individual? The more frequently asked question “why can’t he do as he is told,” leaves us with a myriad of likely answers that also leaves us helpless, out of control and often feeling like the child is out to get us. By exploring the function

of the behavior, we are more likely to separate the behaviour from the individual.

Identifying the antecedents and the consequences of the behaviour empowers us to change both and therefore potentially get a more appropriate behaviour. There is a certain simplicity underpinning ABA; however this is no simple “one size fits all” way to dealing with behaviour. Drawing on many different techniques and teaching strategies, recording data and measuring behavior, the process involves a highly individualized, meticulous approach.

But that’s not to say we as classroom teachers can’t embrace the approach. Understanding the principles of ABA has filled in the sometimes gaping holes in my theoreticalbased practice and has provided me with principles to support what I believe are the most effective, ethical and sustainable ways to approach behavioural problems in both horses and children.

worlds apart from the application of this knowledge and attending a workshop or seminar is recognized as unlikely to result in lasting changes in practice (Smith, Parker, Taubman & Lovaas, 1992).

And anyway what do people outside of education know about the reality of being a classroom teacher? Let’s face it, academics

“ ABA is a functional approach to behaviour, asking the question what is the function of this behaviour for this individual?

Why not in the classroom?

So the question is, why aren’t evidence-based practices and interventions more readily available and in use? During my search for answers, what continually amazed me was the amount of knowledge we do have about behavioural problems and how to treat them.

Reid and Parsons (2002) believe that we know far more about behaviour than we ever actually utilize. A likely stumbling block in sharing information with teachers is training and accessing necessary funding to support training. Why a behaviour component isn’t included in teacher training is a central question that requires an answer, but the cost of training existing teachers and doing so in a cost-effective, timely fashion is probably a key issue. Also, philosophical differences may well be an underlying cause of distrust or lack of acceptance of evidence-based teaching.

The act of accepting new knowledge is often

and scientists can be dry and apparently cynical people, while we educators are passionate, emotional people, working for the love of children. Yet we have so much to learn about each other, and we possess numerous skills and valuable information that could be shared for the betterment of all concerned, especially the children in our care. Evidence-based teaching may appear to be detached and clinical in its structure and procedures, but I would suggest that there is a value to it that requires us to see beyond this initial perception. Evidencebased teaching methods provide teachers with a solid framework from which to build a systematic approach to tackling behaviour issues. A piecemeal approach to behaviour leaves us hungry for more and leaping from one new idea to the next, blaming failure on the technique or the children.

photo: designpics

kate southcombe

A thorough grounding in principles and theory allows us to be adaptive and flexible when required, because we understand the bigger picture and are empowered to change what isn’t working.

Spencer et al (2012) note that other professions have recognized the importance of basing practice on current research in their efforts to provide their clients with the most effective ‘treatment or service’.

As teachers, we owe it to our children to be searching for the most effective and efficient teaching techniques and strategies – adopting evidence-based practice is about finding the best possible solutions. Evidencebased practice, along with professional judgment, forms an overall approach rather than just a set of techniques or methods used, and it is easy to see how this approach will also reflect a teaching philosophy that puts the child’s best interests first (Spencer et al, 2012).

Some evidence-based techniques that many of us use already: • Positive reinforcement – increasing the likelihood of a behaviour by the addition of a reinforcer. Example - praising a child for putting her hand up to ask a question.

• Extinction – removing the reinforcer that currently maintains a behaviour.

Example – ignoring a child who calls out in class. (Best used in conjunction with positive reinforcement for the desired behaviour).

• Fading – fade out prompts or tools that enable children to achieve the desired behaviour. Example – providing verbal prompts to assist a child with reading, gradually reducing the number of prompts over time.

• S h a p i n g – r e i n f o r c i n g c l o s e r approximations to the desired behaviour.

Example - reinforcing a child for progressively longer attention spans in the classroom.

• Naturalistic teaching – what we do already! Making the most of teachable moments in group situations.

• Establishing operations – adapting and changing the environment to make it easier and more likely for children to behave appropriately. Example – having short mat times in quiet locations with minimal distractions.

• Measuring behaviours – often we say “he always does that” with no hard evidence.

We can be selective in what we remember and if it annoys us enough it will seem as though he is always doing it. Have some “post its” in your pocket and tick off each occurrence of this unwanted behavior.

Begin from a stand point of informed control; you may progress to recording what precedes the behaviour and what is the consequence of the behavior. This information will enable you to reflect on what could be changed to alter the behaviour.

• Discrete trial teaching – one on one direct teaching – present task, prompt and guide, and reinforce the response.

Gradually fade out prompts.

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serenity richards

Picture books add up in numeracy lessons Link literacy and numeracy

A

wonderful way to entice students into a mathematics lesson is to start with reading a beautiful picture book. I have taught many such lessons over the years, often hearing the students say, “this isn’t maths.” Students enjoy listening to stories and reading picture books. Let’s face it, 21 st-century learners have become accustomed to looking at a computer screen, game console, interactive whiteboard or handheld device when learning. We need to teach “today’s” children how wonderful books can be and show them such experiences.

Teachers Matter

Using a picture book is an easy way to introduce a new mathematics concept with aesthetic appeal to our students. It is wonderful to see the delight and interest in children’s faces as they meet and grow to love characters in various stories. There are so many books out there that have an underlying mathematics concept in the story.

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One of my favourite lessons that I have taught dozens of times from prep to year three is using the story Alexander’s Outing

by Pamela Allen to teach capacity. It can be done with formal or informal units. If you haven’t read the story it is about a family of ducklings going for a walk with their mother.

The most adventurous duckling, Alexander, eventually gets himself into trouble. He falls down a hole at the park. After trying many things, the onlookers in the park realise by adding liquid to the hole, Alexander will rise to the surface and be able to climb out.

The key is to use the story context and turn it into a practical and engaging lesson for the students to explore mathematical language and actively remove student misconceptions about conservation. With Alexander’s Outing, I provide each group of students with a container, an “Alexander” (a rubber duck) and a measuring tool. The students need to first estimate and then find how much water is needed to make their Alexander rise to the top. Each group then compares which container needed the most water and which needed the least. It is great to have several different shaped containers with the same or similar capacity. This of course leads to many wonderful learning conversations about conservation.

Using literature to engage students in mathematics lessons helps to embed mathematical skills and concepts in a context which provides meaning and purpose through enabling students to use and apply their mathematical knowledge across the curriculum.

Literature is a rich resource to use in mathematics lessons. Students learn mathematics through talking and using language. It is important to facilitate

opportunities for discussion during mathematical learning and allow the sharing of knowledge, understanding and experience that each student brings to the lesson.

In Books You Can Count On, Griffiths and Cline explain that mathematics and language are inextricably linked, as Lewis Carroll demonstrates in Through the Looking Glass (1974), where dialogue highlights the difference between everyday language and mathematical usage: ‘Take some more tea,’ the March Hare said to Alice very earnestly, ‘I’ve had nothing yet,’ Alice replied in and offended tone, ‘so I can’t take more’.

‘You mean you can’t take less,’ said the Hatter, ‘it’s very easy to take more than nothing’.

One story book can form the basis of many lessons. When read multiple times in consecutive lessons it highlights students’ development of knowledge and understanding relating to the concept. Encouraging students to retell the story enables them to become more familiar with the mathematics concepts

serenity richards

and further enhance their understanding of mathematical concepts, symbols and language.

Using rhymes, riddles and songs with a mathematical focus is another rich tool. For example, As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats, each cat had seven kits.

Kits, cats, sacks and wives, how many were going to St Ives? Just imagine the problem solving opportunities from this one rhyme alone.

Rosie’s Walk, Pat Hutchins (understanding shape)

Counting on Frank, by Rod Clement (estimation)

The Doorbell rang, by Pat Hutchins (sharing, division)

Stay in Line, by Teddy Slater (multiplication and arrays)

Some of the many picture books I have used are: Once there were Giants, by Martin Waddell (counting and classifying) Elizabeth Hen, by Siobhan Dodds (counting) Little Mouse’s Trail Tale, by Jo-Ann Vandine (directions and position in maps) A bad case of the stripes, by David Shannon (patterning) One Grain of Rice, by Demi (problem solving with multiplication, repeated addition) Maths Curse, by Jon Scieszka (everyday problem solving skills)

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Teachers Matter

ular? unpop w o c the lly hy was Q. W as a big bu ow w e ss a c o A. H r c u if yo ou get y o d t a Q. Wh mpire? va a ri-bull with ing ter h t e m the A. So about e k jo ar the you he id D Q. w?

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Q. W staura e r e s Chine w mein A. Co get if o you d t a h h Q. W s a cow wit s o you cr el? m akes a ca milksh y p m A. Lu

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What do yo u get if you and and ic cross a go e cube? ldfish A. A cold fish Q. Why are go A. The both ldfish like breakfast c ereals? come in bo wls Q. What d o you get if you cross a with a sma big dog ll rodent?

A. A Gerb il Shepherd Girl: I taug ht my cana ry to play c Boy: Wow hess. , what a sm art bird!

Girl: Not re ally, I beat h im four time out of five s

Something’s fishy…

Q. What do you get if you cross a shark with a cow?

A. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t like to try milking it Q. Why did the fish take an asprin?

A. It had a haddock Q. What kind of money do fishermen make?

A. Net profits Q. Did you hear about the trout that taught itself to paint?

A. It had arty fishal intelligence Q. Why are fish so clever?

A. They live in schools Q. What kind of fish can you keep on ice?

A. A skate

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the last word: Karen Boyes

The power of silence and stillness Allow your brain to rest so it’ll work “faster”

It

is time it debunk a popular myth about the brain: Your brain cannot multi-task. You cannot focus deeply on two tasks at the same time. What the brain can do is serial task. You can switch between task a, b and c then back to a, c and b. However, according to Dr John Medina, this is slower than if you just focused on one task at a time.

Do you remember lectures from your university days? (If not, that is a whole other topic!). The lecturer stood at the front and talked for the whole class and you, like most others, desperately attempted to write every word so you would not forget. However, your brain cannot focus on two tasks at deep focus simultaneously. You can’t write and listen at the same time. The lecture would say something interesting and as you went to write it the lecturer kept talking and you might have ended up writing what they were saying, rather than what you want to recall. Plus we’re often so busy trying to get all the notes down, at the end of the class you had no idea what you had learned. The brain cannot be learning and processing the information at the same time.

Scientists have found that it is in the pause and in the silence that true learning occurs.

In a recent study, a team of scientists showed that in listening to a musical symphony, just a one- to two-second break between movements triggers a flurry of mental activity.

So could a one- to two-second pause between sentences be just as powerful in helping others comprehend our information? Any comedian will tell you that is the timing of pauses in their delivery that determines their success.

The average t e a c h e r, w h e n a s k i n g a question, waits one second before they do one of three things: call upon someone to answer it, ask another question o r a n s w e r the question themselves. One second is not enough time for processing. A general rule of thumb is to give students between seven to 10 seconds to think about an idea or answer before you call upon them to share. The first time many teachers do this, students often say, “don’t you know the answer??”

Teachers Matter

“ Scientists have found that it is in the pause and in the silence that true learning occurs.”

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Many people ask me whether it is OK to study with music. The answer is it depends. If a student puts music on to study or learn with and is singing, humming or focusing on the music they cannot be processing the information. However if a student puts music on to listen to while working and does not hear the music, it becomes white noise in the background, then this is fine. Often a student will say to me what is the point of putting on the music if I don’t hear it? This person should not have the music on while working.

Mind Up Education, a curriculum developed

by Goldie Hawn in association with Neuro Scientists, has found that asking students to be quiet and still three times a day, for up to three minutes, has had one of the biggest impacts on students learning ability. Most students have not experienced true stillness and silence and many will struggle to do this for 30 seconds initially. You need to build them up to the 3 minutes.

Another rule of thumb is to teach or learn for 20 minutes and take a five minute break. It is in the five minute break where the power of the pause is activated. Skillful junior school teachers do this; they break up their content, with songs, activities, think time or a simple please stand up turn around and sit down. For students, the iStudyAlarm, available from iTunes and Google Play, helps them take frequent breaks and keep them on track with their study.

The power of stillness is not just for the classroom: A typical day for most educators tends to look like this: Get up, busy busy busy busy busy flop into bed... Then the brain starts processing. If you have had no down time for your brain during the day, it will use the time you are finally still and relaxed to process the day’s events, ideas and learnings.

In my own home, we have been practicing a version of this for the past seven years. Like many households, mornings are busy, getting kids ready for school, organsing the day, getting chores done etc. The afternoons and evenings with sport, music practice, homework, getting dinner ready, etc., are the same. Each morning, we sit down at the dining room table for breakfast, even if it is only for three to four minutes.

It is a wonderful calm within the storm of busyness and a valued connection for the family each day. Similarly, we eat dinner together every night at the dining room table, with the TV off and mobile phones away. It is another pause in our busy day to connect, talk, reflect, learn and just be with each other. Our children have been known to wait until this time each day to share something important, waiting for the whole family to be together rather than telling us each individually.

As you reflect on the power of silence and stillness, how might you create times for this silence, stillness or pause in your classroom and in your own personal life?

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Finally a book for parents that explains and demonstrates the Habits of Mind in the home ...

Raising Caring, Capable Kids with Habits of Mind is all about ensuring that children leave home with the wider skills they will need to thrive throughout their lives.

The Habits of Mind movement created by Art Costa and Bena Kallick in the US is tried and tested in schools. But this book breaks new ground in taking the Habits of Mind out of the classroom and into the home.

Clearly explained theory and research is complemented by really practical and useful examples for parents to try out.

This book offers wonderful support for parents across the world who want to help their children succeed and thrive. Parents who adopt these methods can help their children become powerful learners, well-equipped for the 21st century world in which we are raising them.

Raising Caring, Capable Kids with Habits of Mind provides many engaging stories and examples for parents to their help children succeed and thrive in school as well as in life. There are practical tips that apply to daily life with children _ for issues big and small _ everything from managing homework to resolving arguments between siblings to encouraging the reluctant child.

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