I will wait, I will wait for you (Mumford and Sons)

Photo by Evangeline Shaw on Unsplash

Currently, there is some lively debate happening within my school around the 'lesson' (teacher led activities) versus 'study' (student directed activities). 

Mainly we are thinking about the balance that is needed for each. What we have agreed, as a school, is that it needs to be flexible,  and it shouldn't be 100% anything.  

However, it wouldn't be teaching if everyone had the same opinion. Each teacher appears to have taken a different approach. And everyone tends to think that their approach is the right one. Interesting.

During my reflecting on all this, I remembered this useful info-graphic.

I like this and it's worth keeping in mind for a few reasons:

• The student is at the centre, with specific and individualised goals, needs and preferences
• Self paced implies a lot of student directed activities (study) rather than a lot of teacher led activities, I think
• The one on one teacher tutorials are an important part of the process
• Feedback is a key ingredient (John Hattie agrees)

Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Weird and Gilly and the spiders from Mars.(David Bowie)

Creative Schools is a book by Ken Robinson - yes - the TED talks guy and yes - he loses the 'sir' for the book cover.

Currently, I'm re-reading it. Slowing it down a tad this time. I confess: I skimmed it first up. I'm appreciating his voice as well as his message much more this time out.

He makes a great point about the move towards personalisation of everything these days: Facebook; Twitter; apps on our phones; our clothes; Spotify playlists and so on.

And yet we maintain the rigid industrialised school classroom!! Hugely ironic given what education is supposed to be all about!

In his view, personalised means:

• Recognising that intelligence is diverse and multifaceted
• Enabling students to pursue their particular interests and strengths
• Adapting the schedule to the different rates at which students learn
• Assessing students in ways that support their personal progress and achievement

I really like this.

The movement towards 'personalised learning' in America has been exciting to read about online. Though, there it is hampered by standardised assessment and educations' long established industrial models.

Same in NZ to a large extent.

We also have mandated national curriculums and industrial models for schools. Though, NCEA does allow for some flexibility of assessment.

In my current English classroom I think the first two and last bullet points are being firmly acknowledged.

Via having a huge range to choose from, my students personalise their learning by deciding what they will study, and in what form they will present their learning for assessment.

So that's good.

The fourth bullet point though? 

• Adapting the schedule to the different rates at which students learn ?

Not happening. Not even close. 

Why not? Well, it's not something I can control: period times are fixed, the six day timetable is set, and so the scheduling remains in an industrial model. 

Monday, period 1, is English. At the end of the hour my students have to stop work. Move to another subject. I then teach a different class for the next hour and then they stop. 

Crazy. Nothing personalised about that. 

So it's bad for students and it's bad for teachers. Yes, teachers.

I don't operate well on Mondays, never have. Particularly after school on a Monday. I'm cream crackered by that stage.

In most schools that I've worked in, this is 'meeting time'. I don't function well at 4pm Monday afternoon (others may do). I'm supposed to be present in mind and body but I cannae do it! 

Crazy. Nothing personalised about that.

However, I can control when my English department meets. 

We don't meet on Monday afternoons.  

Luckily the four of us have work desks in the staff room in close proximity so we engage in a lot of banter. Oh, and we also share ideas, moderate, discuss stuff. 

We have our classrooms next to each other so we do the 'pop ins' frequently (Amy is slowly becoming a 'pop in' fan). 

If we ever need a formal time together, we meet during assembly or chapel time.

This personalised English department time works for me. It would be ludicrous for us to wait for our turn in the Monday after school cycle.

Like so many things - if that's good for us...why wouldn't it be good for the students too?

People are people (Ray Columbus)

Personalising learning IS the way to go.

All you need to know to personalise like a boss is right here - BAM!

From the caravan, I hear the fairground band (Rory Gallagher)

1 One about personalising education, Priscilla Chan, and Mark Zuckerberg

Interesting article about the pros and cons of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's funding initiative - like Facebook it involves algorithms that provide student users with content based on an analysis of their past behaviour and demonstrated interests.

For me, some of the objections raised in the article seemed pretty shallow. Interesting, though, to consider this innovation.

2 Dan Rockwell
Dan's Leadership Freak blog is a firm favourite as you know. Here is a list of his six best regarded posts. The guy posts every day and somehow maintains an exceptionally high standard.

3 Essential skills for teachers
I remain a sucker for these lists of must haves. Many of us do - must be something in the educator's DNA. Here are 10 skills for modern teachers.

4 Growth mindset
A lot of talk about this simple concept - teachers do like to over think things like this - but this mind/shift article gives a great lowdown on this latest buzzword.

5 Blended learning
Another great article on blended learning. This one is knowledgeable but also fun to read!

No one, I think, is in my tree (The Beatles)

From teaching in an all girls school, I get jokey banter about how my general empathetic sensitivity level has risen.

Generally teachers develop a built in radar for off task behaviour by noticing subtle changes in body language (and not so subtle ones - a recent example being a student who collapsed in tears after she found out I'd thrown her plastic drink bottle away). But teaching all girls (and by extension working in a largely all female staff room) has ratcheted up my levels even further.

In Square Peg, Todd Rose tells the story of how he was a high school dropout but became a Harvard professor in educational neuroscience. Diagnosed with ADHD in middle school, he was always in trouble.

From his study of complex systems and neuroscience, he makes four points about learning and why it should be personalised:

Variability is the rule: perceptions and reactions are much more dynamic and diverse than previously thought;
Emotions are important: emotional states influence learning;
Context is key: circumstances affect the behavior; and
Feedback loops determine success or failure: small changes making a difference.

More and more, I've noticed how the girls I teach are 

Hyper perceptive (they think they notice when I've moved desks and chairs around - in reality I haven't but they don't believe me), and Hyper reactive to anything and everything - nobody misses a trick. Their emotional state is a key to how they approach an English period (last year I had a class those emotional state I could NEVER predict), and The time of day influences behaviour (perversely my Level 2 class are usually much more receptive and better focused after lunch). Noticeably,Small changes made via feedback loops have been key to improved grades (especially this year as we've move to much more personalised learning in our English classes). 

Personalised learning is common sense! 

I don't want to come back down from this cloud (Bush)

As you read in my previous post: I'm convinced that a peculiar hybrid of UDL/inquiry/ blended/ personalised learning is right for senior English classes right now! My next few posts will be using that premise as a basis. Hang in there - it might get bumpy!

• I'm always interested in what people think makes 'a good teacher'. This may appear to be a detour from that first sentence but bear with me.
• Recently I came across some University of Birmingham research that set out to specifically explore the most important character strengths, or virtues, needed for good teaching, and what character strengths, or virtues, were held by today’s teachers.
• It would be good to compare the findings with the views of New Zealand teachers. I suspect there would be a high correlation.
• Anyway, let's cut to the chase! What did they find out?
• There was widespread agreement on the personal qualities that are needed to be a good teacher.
• The six most important character strengths for good teachers were:

1. Fairness (78% of teachers )
2. Creativity (68%)
3. A love of learning (61%)
4. Humour (53%)
5. Perseverance (45%)
6. Leadership (40%)

• Sidebar #1: However, in describing their own character strengths they reported kindness (49%) and honesty (50%) in place of leadership and perseverance in those top six.

Sidebar #2: 37% of experienced teachers claimed that they do not feel that they have sufficient time to do their job to a standard they believe is right.

So what's this got to do with my UDL/ inquiry/ blended/ personalised learning hybrid?

In a word - compatability!

Think back twenty, ten, or even five years - would that list be different? I think so. Then, the teacher was the knowledge holder so students wanted  teachers to teach to the exam, have good subject knowledge, and ensure students understood things before advancing (yes this is stuff from an actual list from 20 years ago).

Check that Birmingham list again. That's right! It's different.  If good teaching now involves those things, and I believe it does, then it's imperative we embrace systems that are more compatible to those good teacher attributes and allow students to work to their individual strengths in their own time.  

To be continued...