Wow. Where does the time go? And why does it seem like just when things are slowing down, they ramp right up?
Oh well, I'd rather be busy than bored.
So last week as I was perusing my twitter account, I came across a much RT'd post about the Khan academy and numerous pedagogical arguments behind demos and videos and student learning. I spent about an hour or two reading through posts and watching 1Veritasium's videos on YouTube and it reignited my passion for misconceptions.
I showed some of the videos to my Grade 12 University physics students, and I tried to put them in the most meaningful order. We talked about each, and I paused a lot during them to check their ideas. I talked with them (at great length) about preconceived notions and the difficulties in convincing them of something that they already know to be true, but really isn't of course. When the class was just about to let out, on a whim I posed a question to them with strict instructions that they were forbidden to look up the answer or discuss their ideas with anybody. Their only homework was to <prepare to gasp> think <gasp> about the answer and be prepared to share it. The question was "Why are there phases of the moon ie full moon, quarter moon etc?"
Immediately a couple of students dismissed it and wanted to just tell me their answer. "Sir, that's too easy, I already know why." One even got so far as to mention shadows before I shut him down. Another student suggested that they do a video project debunking some misconception.
That night I wondered what I was going to do to challenge their ideas. You see, I knew most (if not all) of them thought that it was Earth's shadow playing across the moon in various amounts. What I had to do was figure out a way to present some evidence that they were easily able to understand and that they knew to be true that could challenge their preconceived notion and force them to come up with an alternate theory. I think I came up with some good ideas. You can be the judge of that by checking out the work sheet I gave them the next day by clicking here.
At the end of the "lesson", I prompted the students to see who had maintained their initial hypothesis. Only a few did. I didn't really provide them with sufficient time to come up with an alternate theory (though I did ask them for one), which I know could have been a valid learning moment for them, but I did not do nevertheless. Instead, we went through the sheet, we shared some answers, and in the end we modeled the moon orbiting the Earth, with the Sun (me with a bright spot-type light) shining ever forward.
A few interesting things happened. One student shared that even though he could not use his shadow theory to explain a single discrepant event, he wouldn't abandon it and kept trying to make it fit instead of coming up with an alternate solution. Students were eager to discuss their wrong ideas and why they held them. They weren't embarrassed or timid about being wrong; being wrong was the point of the exercise. It has taken me a long time to convince the students that being wrong is o.k., and that learning from the process or even figuring out why something is wrong is way more important than the result.
Their project due date is May 2nd (other stuff is going on and I didn't want to rush them). I'll write about the results then.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
A little help from my friends
In the interest of students becoming more self sufficient, a group of us at work have decided to implement an idea that Barrie Bennett mentioned in passing at a p.d. session we were involved in. He talked about a homework circle. I don't know about you, but I get really frustrated taking up questions in physics class for the first 30 minutes of class, especially when it only benefits the couple of students that tried that question. The other zombies just watch and hope to learn through some miracle.
Barrie Bennett suggested that you have students form homework circles and the instructions to them are that for the first 10 minutes of class, they are responsible within their own circles to catch everybody up on the homework and to make sure everybody within their group understands it. If a student in the group consistently isn't pulling their weight, the group may impose sanctions and the offending student may be jettisoned from the group for non-contribution. The decisions are made by the group with regards to their own welfare without teacher intervention.
In the event that multiple circles haven't been able to figure out a particular problem, that problem can be done on the board by the teacher to the benefit of all in the room and perhaps additional instruction in that area is required.
I put out an email to about 15 people, and 7 responded saying that they were eager to try it. Other than me, the breakdown is 1 science, 1 history, 1 english, 1 music, 1 family studies, 1 business, 1 math. Interesting eh!? I intend to do this with my 4U physics, but not my 1D science. 4U is more consistently homework heavy and I think they have the maturity and are responsible enough to handle it. Others are trying it with all grade groups.
I informally introduced it to the students on the first day of the semester, and they didn't even bat an eye. It seemed to them to be the most natural thing, especially when I framed it with acknowledging their collective capabilities and university implications. Now, this will take some getting used to for them, but I can see it working really well. Just yesterday, in way of reviewing concepts and mechanics of problem solving that they should have retained from their previous foray in physics, I put some problems on the board and told them to try to work out the solutions, either individually or in groups. At one point, their was a dispute between two groups regarding the correct answer. Their first course of action was to ask me to referee and tell them which was the correct response. Of course my response was to trade solutions with one another and look for the mistake in the other groups' work. They did it instantly and within moments had determined where the mistakes had been made (in this case, only one group had made an error, but it would work well even if both groups had the wrong answer). Once they get used to this idea, I can see it really benefiting them in a few ways and clearing up a bunch of time to examine the curriculum a little deeper.
One final note, I learned how to, and subsequently added an RSS feed to my class website for the students. I was getting tired of constantly reminding them to check the website for updates and hopefully this will encourage them to use it more frequently. Since mentioning it to them, I've had about 30 hits. It was at just below 1000 hits and I told them that whoever was the 1000th hit, if they took a screen shot would get a heartfelt congratulations from me ;)
Barrie Bennett suggested that you have students form homework circles and the instructions to them are that for the first 10 minutes of class, they are responsible within their own circles to catch everybody up on the homework and to make sure everybody within their group understands it. If a student in the group consistently isn't pulling their weight, the group may impose sanctions and the offending student may be jettisoned from the group for non-contribution. The decisions are made by the group with regards to their own welfare without teacher intervention.
In the event that multiple circles haven't been able to figure out a particular problem, that problem can be done on the board by the teacher to the benefit of all in the room and perhaps additional instruction in that area is required.
I put out an email to about 15 people, and 7 responded saying that they were eager to try it. Other than me, the breakdown is 1 science, 1 history, 1 english, 1 music, 1 family studies, 1 business, 1 math. Interesting eh!? I intend to do this with my 4U physics, but not my 1D science. 4U is more consistently homework heavy and I think they have the maturity and are responsible enough to handle it. Others are trying it with all grade groups.
I informally introduced it to the students on the first day of the semester, and they didn't even bat an eye. It seemed to them to be the most natural thing, especially when I framed it with acknowledging their collective capabilities and university implications. Now, this will take some getting used to for them, but I can see it working really well. Just yesterday, in way of reviewing concepts and mechanics of problem solving that they should have retained from their previous foray in physics, I put some problems on the board and told them to try to work out the solutions, either individually or in groups. At one point, their was a dispute between two groups regarding the correct answer. Their first course of action was to ask me to referee and tell them which was the correct response. Of course my response was to trade solutions with one another and look for the mistake in the other groups' work. They did it instantly and within moments had determined where the mistakes had been made (in this case, only one group had made an error, but it would work well even if both groups had the wrong answer). Once they get used to this idea, I can see it really benefiting them in a few ways and clearing up a bunch of time to examine the curriculum a little deeper.
One final note, I learned how to, and subsequently added an RSS feed to my class website for the students. I was getting tired of constantly reminding them to check the website for updates and hopefully this will encourage them to use it more frequently. Since mentioning it to them, I've had about 30 hits. It was at just below 1000 hits and I told them that whoever was the 1000th hit, if they took a screen shot would get a heartfelt congratulations from me ;)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
What I meant to say
You know how somebody insults you and you come back with "Oh yeah, well ... you suck" only later to come up with a real zinger? Or perhaps somebody puts you on the spot and asks you your thoughts and you pop out some answer in the spur of the moment since everybody is waiting to hear what you have to say, and right after you are done talking you figure out what you really want to say but the moment has passed?
That happened to me Monday. Somebody put me on the spot at a meeting and asked me about something I had taken away from camp and used in class and I focused on one small component, an activity, and that was the least thing I left with (as readers of my blog can attest to). Less than 1 minute (literally) after I had finished my response, I began furiously writing my TRUE response. While I couldn't share it with them, here it is for posterity.
"Before break, Jenni asked what I 'did', what I took away. I tried a limited number of teaching tools which focus on a few comprehension strategies. But more than that, I changed. I changed my focus to one of increased understanding and deeper more meaningful connections. I changed my expectations for students and the degree to which they were involved in their own learning.
I maintain a class website with some literacy links.
I signed up for twitter and I blog, both of which have increased my contact with others in a PLN and exposed me to a wealth of knowledge both through conversations with those people and the resources they have put me in touch with AND have forced me to look at what I do and why I do it and to be able to put it in writing.
I've joined the PLC at school. I'm on the SIT and am in the 'book club' for instructional rounds. I work WAY more with the TLTT's and other staff and the STUDENTS see me collaborating, and I'm here."
That is what I meant to say.
That happened to me Monday. Somebody put me on the spot at a meeting and asked me about something I had taken away from camp and used in class and I focused on one small component, an activity, and that was the least thing I left with (as readers of my blog can attest to). Less than 1 minute (literally) after I had finished my response, I began furiously writing my TRUE response. While I couldn't share it with them, here it is for posterity.
"Before break, Jenni asked what I 'did', what I took away. I tried a limited number of teaching tools which focus on a few comprehension strategies. But more than that, I changed. I changed my focus to one of increased understanding and deeper more meaningful connections. I changed my expectations for students and the degree to which they were involved in their own learning.
I maintain a class website with some literacy links.
I signed up for twitter and I blog, both of which have increased my contact with others in a PLN and exposed me to a wealth of knowledge both through conversations with those people and the resources they have put me in touch with AND have forced me to look at what I do and why I do it and to be able to put it in writing.
I've joined the PLC at school. I'm on the SIT and am in the 'book club' for instructional rounds. I work WAY more with the TLTT's and other staff and the STUDENTS see me collaborating, and I'm here."
That is what I meant to say.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Life Gets Busy
So much has happened since the last time I wrote. Let's take stock:
1. Some fool ran a stop sign without even slowing down and crashed into my car. End result: all passengers and the other driver are perfectly fine and I have a bit of a bum knee. The doctor wants me to get a scope done, but I'm hoping for the less intrusive MRI. Honestly I'm hoping the anti-inflammatory medicine he has me on will do the trick. Hopeful, but not holding my breath.
2. I've had some interesting PD and I've been heading up a team at work regarding feedback in classrooms. It is definitely a different role for me, and not one I am entirely comfortable with. The moment you speak up about something, all of a sudden you are the expert in that area. I certainly don't feel like an expert. The bonus to the whole thing I guess is that now all of my colleagues talk to me about using feedback; their successes and failures and so I am learning a lot through other people's experiences. It helps me in my own teaching, and also gives me more information to help others with.
3. The literacy camp that I attended and talked about at the onset of this blog is of course happening again this summer, and I've been looking forward to it. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to be one of the facilitators for the science break-out sessions as one of last years facilitators cannot make it this year. I tried and tried to come up with reasons to turn the offer down, and aside from a lack of self-confidence and a terrifying feeling that I won't be able to contribute (ever get that feeling like 'who the hell am I to tell people anything?!'), I couldn't come up with anything concrete, and humbly (and worriedly) accepted. I think this ties back into that blog entry LONG ago about our fears of being discovered as frauds. Well, here it is folks. I'm about to lay all of my cards on the table.
4. Things in my classroom are still slow-going, and of course wrapping up for the semester. I worry about some of my students, but in the end, they have to do the work and there is only so much I can do for them. I've done quite a few things this semester, most of which I will repeat and try to incorporate more into the classroom. I have completely fallen in love with Think - (write) - Pair - Share, and of course, I'm digging various forms of feedback. Can I invent a new term here? Let's call it pre-back. I love (and so do my students) giving kids the entire outline of what they are doing, why they are doing it and how it will be evaluated. When they can look up at a chart and have steps to follow, each of them knows exactly what they need to do in order to get a perfect answer all the time, regardless of the type of question. We are having our walk-through visit with a bunch of superintendents and principals etc and we've been told that they will be asking students questions like "What are you doing?", "How will you know when you are done?", "What will you do if you get stuck?", "How do you know if your answer is right?"... things of that nature. On a whim, whilst my class was being video-taped for some presentation on moderation (I had them doing peer-feedback on a literacy piece from an article they read about static electricity in our science class using success criteria), I decided to start asking those questions. Their answers were awesome. I think I am going to post those questions around my room so I remember to ask students them more often, and so hopefully they will think about that stuff and ask themselves those questions also.
5. I still have to start up this year's incarnation of the robotics club (which I am really looking forward to). I figure I can get the advertising going now, and start up right after exams. I received the kit for the Guelph roboticon and my team is looking to build upon their success from last year's competition.
5. On the home front, my wife has booked a Disney trip for us and the kids and that has occupied a lot of our time with planning, but it has been fun. Busy? Yeah, you could say that. Off to mark some mind maps...
1. Some fool ran a stop sign without even slowing down and crashed into my car. End result: all passengers and the other driver are perfectly fine and I have a bit of a bum knee. The doctor wants me to get a scope done, but I'm hoping for the less intrusive MRI. Honestly I'm hoping the anti-inflammatory medicine he has me on will do the trick. Hopeful, but not holding my breath.
2. I've had some interesting PD and I've been heading up a team at work regarding feedback in classrooms. It is definitely a different role for me, and not one I am entirely comfortable with. The moment you speak up about something, all of a sudden you are the expert in that area. I certainly don't feel like an expert. The bonus to the whole thing I guess is that now all of my colleagues talk to me about using feedback; their successes and failures and so I am learning a lot through other people's experiences. It helps me in my own teaching, and also gives me more information to help others with.
3. The literacy camp that I attended and talked about at the onset of this blog is of course happening again this summer, and I've been looking forward to it. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to be one of the facilitators for the science break-out sessions as one of last years facilitators cannot make it this year. I tried and tried to come up with reasons to turn the offer down, and aside from a lack of self-confidence and a terrifying feeling that I won't be able to contribute (ever get that feeling like 'who the hell am I to tell people anything?!'), I couldn't come up with anything concrete, and humbly (and worriedly) accepted. I think this ties back into that blog entry LONG ago about our fears of being discovered as frauds. Well, here it is folks. I'm about to lay all of my cards on the table.
4. Things in my classroom are still slow-going, and of course wrapping up for the semester. I worry about some of my students, but in the end, they have to do the work and there is only so much I can do for them. I've done quite a few things this semester, most of which I will repeat and try to incorporate more into the classroom. I have completely fallen in love with Think - (write) - Pair - Share, and of course, I'm digging various forms of feedback. Can I invent a new term here? Let's call it pre-back. I love (and so do my students) giving kids the entire outline of what they are doing, why they are doing it and how it will be evaluated. When they can look up at a chart and have steps to follow, each of them knows exactly what they need to do in order to get a perfect answer all the time, regardless of the type of question. We are having our walk-through visit with a bunch of superintendents and principals etc and we've been told that they will be asking students questions like "What are you doing?", "How will you know when you are done?", "What will you do if you get stuck?", "How do you know if your answer is right?"... things of that nature. On a whim, whilst my class was being video-taped for some presentation on moderation (I had them doing peer-feedback on a literacy piece from an article they read about static electricity in our science class using success criteria), I decided to start asking those questions. Their answers were awesome. I think I am going to post those questions around my room so I remember to ask students them more often, and so hopefully they will think about that stuff and ask themselves those questions also.
5. I still have to start up this year's incarnation of the robotics club (which I am really looking forward to). I figure I can get the advertising going now, and start up right after exams. I received the kit for the Guelph roboticon and my team is looking to build upon their success from last year's competition.
5. On the home front, my wife has booked a Disney trip for us and the kids and that has occupied a lot of our time with planning, but it has been fun. Busy? Yeah, you could say that. Off to mark some mind maps...
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sea of Talk
"People who know everything are silent; people who know nothing are silent. In between, there is talk. Literacy floats on a sea of talk." This quote comes from a guy by the name of James Britton. He said it (or wrote it) in 1970. This quote can be found on page 4 in the Ontario "Think Literacy" document (along with a bunch of other really good stuff by the way).
Let me point a couple of things out that I find funny.
1. The quote is older than me. I didn't become aware of it until a literacy camp guest speaker said it this summer.
2. I didn't begin to understand it (though I remembered it clearly enough) until this school year. Now I get it.
"Talk is the foundation for thought and understanding, and the key to literacy learning. Research demonstrates that powerful meta-cognitive strategies can be taught to help students self-monitor their comprehension when reading print and digital texts." This is the abstract for a book by Kathy Mills. It is part of what I believe the quote by Britton to be talking about.
I know I've mentioned it in earlier posts and I've talked about it a few times with some of you, but I wanted to put it down here, if only to document it. I really feel like I am getting to the heart of matters concerning student learning and achievement and becoming better at what I do, not only in practice but in purpose. The reason for this is the number of small talks I am fortunate enough to have with other people that are caring and passionate about education. Every time I get together with just 2 or 3 other teachers and we engage in constructive talk or debate, somewhere along the line, after bouncing ideas off of one another, a collective light bulb goes on. It is inspiring. It happened to me twice today and I had to do two things as a result. You are reading one of them now... the other was the nap I had to take. I was exhausted!
I received a couple of emails that spoke to the idea I am expressing here.
"I wish we could engage in a big 'think tank' from time to time... I bet that is what people like Marzano and Reeves do to move their thinking forward.... get like minded people together (like a kind of retreat) to sit, talk, and think."
and "Maybe we should do away with formal meetings and have the informal meetings more often. That's where the progress seems to happen."
Isn't that just incredible! I don't think there is anything more I can say on the topic right now except that if you aren't involving yourself in professional dialogue, you are really missing out!
I promise, next entry will have more humour/wit and less worky blechness.
Let me point a couple of things out that I find funny.
1. The quote is older than me. I didn't become aware of it until a literacy camp guest speaker said it this summer.
2. I didn't begin to understand it (though I remembered it clearly enough) until this school year. Now I get it.
"Talk is the foundation for thought and understanding, and the key to literacy learning. Research demonstrates that powerful meta-cognitive strategies can be taught to help students self-monitor their comprehension when reading print and digital texts." This is the abstract for a book by Kathy Mills. It is part of what I believe the quote by Britton to be talking about.
I know I've mentioned it in earlier posts and I've talked about it a few times with some of you, but I wanted to put it down here, if only to document it. I really feel like I am getting to the heart of matters concerning student learning and achievement and becoming better at what I do, not only in practice but in purpose. The reason for this is the number of small talks I am fortunate enough to have with other people that are caring and passionate about education. Every time I get together with just 2 or 3 other teachers and we engage in constructive talk or debate, somewhere along the line, after bouncing ideas off of one another, a collective light bulb goes on. It is inspiring. It happened to me twice today and I had to do two things as a result. You are reading one of them now... the other was the nap I had to take. I was exhausted!
I received a couple of emails that spoke to the idea I am expressing here.
"I wish we could engage in a big 'think tank' from time to time... I bet that is what people like Marzano and Reeves do to move their thinking forward.... get like minded people together (like a kind of retreat) to sit, talk, and think."
and "Maybe we should do away with formal meetings and have the informal meetings more often. That's where the progress seems to happen."
Isn't that just incredible! I don't think there is anything more I can say on the topic right now except that if you aren't involving yourself in professional dialogue, you are really missing out!
I promise, next entry will have more humour/wit and less worky blechness.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Another PD post?
Yep. It turns out that this upcoming Friday I will be involved in presentation during a PD session for the first time in my career. I've been thinking about it for about a week now and I've got a rough idea of how I'd like my section to go. Basically, I want to get teachers to help me present individual strategies that have worked for them regarding effective use of feedback. Bottom up or grass roots stuff that teachers in the school are already using that can motivate and encourage other teachers to try it out.
Feedback is a practice that I have been working on improving in for a few years. There are a few things that I do to ensure that students benefit from feedback and see assessments as yet another way to learn. I recently tried something I hadn't done before and while I'll admit it needs some tweaking, I did like how it went. Instead of having students just correct their answers, I had them write out on a separate piece of paper the reason(s) why they didn't get full marks for the question (ie 'my explanation didn't have an example like the question asked for', or 'I defined/listed the terms instead of explaining their connection' or a big one 'I only did the first part of the question and not the second part'). Mostly, their comments were based upon the feedback I'd left them on the test. I held individual interviews with the students and we went over their reasons, modified them if they were wrong, and made sure they understood everything before moving on. In addition to the learning benefits to the students, this was a good way for me to see if my feedback truly let them know what was lacking from their response, and students appreciated the one-on-one time. The only problem I have with it is that it was FAR too time consuming.
Last night I had an idea. I belong to a wonderful group of teachers (a PLN if you will) on twitter and I posed a question to them: 'Looking for the most effective strategies for giving feedback to students. Ideas?'
Within moments, I had three responses. That started a chat involving about 8 people. I've received 5 good ideas that I hadn't thought to try on my own, and 1 unique way to accomplish something that others have tried that works for them. Many people show a sample of responses from each level so kids have an idea of what they need to do in order to move up to the next level. Some post it on their wall, others do it via overhead and discuss each. @fnoschese suggests posting them on the internet. I already have a website that I refer kids to daily, and I think this will be a great way for me to share content with the kids. Few ever hang back or come after class to check the posted solutions or study the responses at various levels, but perhaps, from the privacy of their homes, students will be more inclined to check them out. Others have suggested using individualized googledocs or wikis to track when students access the material (and more importantly, who does not access it). While I can see that this is a great thing, I'm not confident enough in that technology to be able to do it. I can see this working for me in the future when I have a bit more time to fool around with it though.
If you have any suggestions or would like to share ideas that work for you, you can leave a comment here or email me with them. Better yet, get on twitter and join a PLN. Don't forget to let me know you are there. Just send a tweet to @glevack.
Feedback is a practice that I have been working on improving in for a few years. There are a few things that I do to ensure that students benefit from feedback and see assessments as yet another way to learn. I recently tried something I hadn't done before and while I'll admit it needs some tweaking, I did like how it went. Instead of having students just correct their answers, I had them write out on a separate piece of paper the reason(s) why they didn't get full marks for the question (ie 'my explanation didn't have an example like the question asked for', or 'I defined/listed the terms instead of explaining their connection' or a big one 'I only did the first part of the question and not the second part'). Mostly, their comments were based upon the feedback I'd left them on the test. I held individual interviews with the students and we went over their reasons, modified them if they were wrong, and made sure they understood everything before moving on. In addition to the learning benefits to the students, this was a good way for me to see if my feedback truly let them know what was lacking from their response, and students appreciated the one-on-one time. The only problem I have with it is that it was FAR too time consuming.
Last night I had an idea. I belong to a wonderful group of teachers (a PLN if you will) on twitter and I posed a question to them: 'Looking for the most effective strategies for giving feedback to students. Ideas?'
Within moments, I had three responses. That started a chat involving about 8 people. I've received 5 good ideas that I hadn't thought to try on my own, and 1 unique way to accomplish something that others have tried that works for them. Many people show a sample of responses from each level so kids have an idea of what they need to do in order to move up to the next level. Some post it on their wall, others do it via overhead and discuss each. @fnoschese suggests posting them on the internet. I already have a website that I refer kids to daily, and I think this will be a great way for me to share content with the kids. Few ever hang back or come after class to check the posted solutions or study the responses at various levels, but perhaps, from the privacy of their homes, students will be more inclined to check them out. Others have suggested using individualized googledocs or wikis to track when students access the material (and more importantly, who does not access it). While I can see that this is a great thing, I'm not confident enough in that technology to be able to do it. I can see this working for me in the future when I have a bit more time to fool around with it though.
If you have any suggestions or would like to share ideas that work for you, you can leave a comment here or email me with them. Better yet, get on twitter and join a PLN. Don't forget to let me know you are there. Just send a tweet to @glevack.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
PD
About 5 years ago I vowed to quit being involved in any committees and to just focus on my job and on becoming the best teacher I could be. I changed schools (three times now actually), and I found that I was pretty happy just being a teacher. I can't tell you the reasons (since I don't know them) but people at my new schools would sometimes nominate me for some committee or union position or some other thing (I guess upon reflection it might be because I tend to be a bit vocal), but I would politely decline. I might go into the feelings of powerlessness (and the feeling of being belittled) I experienced the last time I was on a staffing committee in response to the declination of the nomination, but the end result was the same: I was a teacher and not involved in any other way. Except that was never really true either. I coached or supervised all the dances, or just would show up to sporting events and even pop my head into other teachers classes on my prep. I guess not being involved (in education -- I'm no politician!) is not my way.
Anyway, fast forward to the present. I am a department head now, and I actually call monthly meetings whether we need them or not. I am on 3 committees (though the dividing line between them all is quite blurry to me) and I'm doing some extra-curricular stuff. So much for not getting involved. So, what has made the difference, and how does the title of this blog fit in.
Two things. I have an administrator that, as I've mentioned to many of you in private, (or as private as online forums or twitter can be) is supportive, energetic and committed to the students AND the staff, not just to the advancement of their own career. Also, my board has been working really hard to provide us with useful and meaningful professional development. A few years back, when I took a course through Queens, the prof encouraged us to reflect on all of our posts and one of the major things I talked about throughout the course was the lack of meaningful P.D. That has changed.
Today, I was away (and so were about 12 other teachers from my school -- and get this so was one of the administrators and a person from the board!) from school for the afternoon and had the opportunity to participate in a pd session designed to help us become better at what we do by witnessing other teachers and trying to learn from what they have done. That doesn't explain it well, but it is quite forward thinking in my opinion, and it was worthwhile. More importantly is what followed. After the session, a few of us hung back and really talked about things. In the last month or so, I have had more meaningful discussions following regular meetings of the staff than I think I've had in the last 5 years. We get together, talk about what happened during our group sessions, and then we get to the real nitty gritty. The meat and potatoes of the discussion. We bounce ideas off of each other, and we get to the heart of what we need to do in order for our students to do better. There isn't any complaining -- just productive (and sometimes creative) talk. Better yet, the talk leads to something. We are actually implementing change (ok, planning on it currently -- but individually, I'm doing things differently!).
I really think openness and exchange are the key missing ingredients in education today. I forget the name of the schools those two teachers began in the US (featured in Waiting for Superman), based upon their study of the teacher 'across the hall' that was accomplishing something with her students, but those schools wouldn't be possible without talking and exchange of ideas that work. Unfortunately, we don't have that exchange model embedded in current educational practice. We need to change that. Of course, most of my readers are twitter followers, and so here I am preaching to the choir.
My son just came down to talk to me and I seem to have lost my train of thought (always assuming there was an end point or logical progression to this entry), so I'll end here for now.
Anyway, fast forward to the present. I am a department head now, and I actually call monthly meetings whether we need them or not. I am on 3 committees (though the dividing line between them all is quite blurry to me) and I'm doing some extra-curricular stuff. So much for not getting involved. So, what has made the difference, and how does the title of this blog fit in.
Two things. I have an administrator that, as I've mentioned to many of you in private, (or as private as online forums or twitter can be) is supportive, energetic and committed to the students AND the staff, not just to the advancement of their own career. Also, my board has been working really hard to provide us with useful and meaningful professional development. A few years back, when I took a course through Queens, the prof encouraged us to reflect on all of our posts and one of the major things I talked about throughout the course was the lack of meaningful P.D. That has changed.
Today, I was away (and so were about 12 other teachers from my school -- and get this so was one of the administrators and a person from the board!) from school for the afternoon and had the opportunity to participate in a pd session designed to help us become better at what we do by witnessing other teachers and trying to learn from what they have done. That doesn't explain it well, but it is quite forward thinking in my opinion, and it was worthwhile. More importantly is what followed. After the session, a few of us hung back and really talked about things. In the last month or so, I have had more meaningful discussions following regular meetings of the staff than I think I've had in the last 5 years. We get together, talk about what happened during our group sessions, and then we get to the real nitty gritty. The meat and potatoes of the discussion. We bounce ideas off of each other, and we get to the heart of what we need to do in order for our students to do better. There isn't any complaining -- just productive (and sometimes creative) talk. Better yet, the talk leads to something. We are actually implementing change (ok, planning on it currently -- but individually, I'm doing things differently!).
I really think openness and exchange are the key missing ingredients in education today. I forget the name of the schools those two teachers began in the US (featured in Waiting for Superman), based upon their study of the teacher 'across the hall' that was accomplishing something with her students, but those schools wouldn't be possible without talking and exchange of ideas that work. Unfortunately, we don't have that exchange model embedded in current educational practice. We need to change that. Of course, most of my readers are twitter followers, and so here I am preaching to the choir.
My son just came down to talk to me and I seem to have lost my train of thought (always assuming there was an end point or logical progression to this entry), so I'll end here for now.
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