TM Issue 15 by Mary Hester

PROFESSIONALLY & PERSONALLY

TeachersMatter The Magazine of Spectrum Education

Growing your talent p. 10

Top ten trends in education p. 32

Are you a half-tank pike? p. 43

Which language do you speak the most? p. 62

NZ$15 / AU$15

Leaders in Developing Teachers

ISSUE 15

EVENT REVIEW BY KAREN BOYES

Beyond the right answers Learning is about more than passing the test.

abits of Mind Bootcamp Brisbane was a full-on four days with people from all corners of Australia. I and Graham Watts from the United Kingdom led participants through their paces and challenged them to not only learn about the 16 Habits of Mind but also use them. The 16 Habits of Mind are: • Persisting • Managing impulsivity • Listening with understanding and empathy • Thinking flexibly • Thinking About thinking (Metacognition) • Striving for accuracy and precision • Questioning and posing problems • Applying past knowledge to new situations • Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision • Gathering data through all senses • Creating, imagining, and innovating • Responding with wonderment and awe • Taking responsible risks • Finding humour • Thinking interdependently • Remaining open to continuous learning The Habits of Mind give learners of all ages and at all stages a framework for autonomous, lifelong lear ning. They show us how to behave intelligently, independently and reflectively. To understand the intent of the Habits of Mind, there needs to be a shift in p e r s p e c t i v e o f w h a t ’s i m p o r t a n t i n learning. Traditionally, parents and educators are impressed with how many

1. Understanding the 5 dimensions 2. the winning team Trantruming Trio 3. Unpacking the Habits of Mind 4/5. Groups interpretations of the 5 dimensions

answers students know — scores on tests, for example. Although right answers are important, the critical attribute of efficacious human beings is not only having right answers or information, but also knowing how to act on it. With Habits of Mind, we are focused on how students behave when they don’t know the answer. As we consider the uncertain environment in which our students will take a role, we need to ask: Are we preparing students for a life of tests, or for the tests of life? A “Habit of Mind,” therefore, means having a disposition toward behaving intelligently when confronted with problems. When humans experience dichotomies, are confused by dilemmas, or come face-to-face with uncertainties, our most effective actions require drawing forth certain patterns of intellectual behaviour. When we draw upon these intellectual resources, the results that are produced are more powerful, of higher quality and of greater significance than if we fail to employ those intellectual behaviours.

As at every bootcamp, there were personal a s well as team c hal l e ng e s , and t he w i n n i n g t e a m w a s t h e Tr a n t r u m i n g Trio. Congratulations on your wonderful presentation, lesson plans and resources. Of course not only are all the participants winners by taking the deep learning back into their lives but so are the students. What fortunate students to have such great teachers that have taken the Habits of Mind back into the classroom. What a difference it will make to their future success.

Are you a Habits of Mind Teacher??? Did you know there is now a new International Certification for Schools that have embraced the Habits of Mind?? Go to www.spectrumeducation.com and click on the Habits of Mind tab to find out more.

CONTENTS

In this issue

12 10

Upgrading your in-house leadership development

30 24

ALAN COOPER

SIMON BREAKSPEAR

Understanding counterwill

DR. MARVIN MARSHALL

14 16

The 3 metre rule MICHAEL GROSE

Hidden influences on student learning

43 45 47

The alarm you’ll look forward to: iStudyAlarm KAREN BOYES

Growing through mistakes YVONNE GODFREY

The nature of school STUART FLEMMING

Thinking interdependently

Reflection from the Teachers Matter conference

Kaore or kaore ano No or Not yet? NGAHI BIDOIS

Teachers Matter

Make time your ally KAREN TOBICH

ALLISON MOONEY

Are you a half tank pike? JOHN SHACKLETON

Test Yourself KAREN BOYES

How to be happy JULIE WOODS

Top 10 trends for schools in 2012 STEVE FRANCIS

Learning Talk Build Capabilities

DR ARTHUR COSTA

Five “F” Factors GLENN CAPELLI

JOAN DALTON

The seven phases of values development DAVID KOUTSOUKIS

MAGGIE DENT

Formative assessment: It’s all about process

How rock ‘n’ roll saved loads of time ROBYN PEARCE

TEACHERS RESOURCES AND LESSONS pages 72-76

MAGAZINE CONTACTS

Teachers Matter Magazine Team

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Editor: Kristen De Deyn Kirk Graphic Design: Mary Hester / 2nd Floor Design Printer Spectrum Print, Christchurch

Subscriptions Toll free (NZ) 0800 373 377 Toll free (Australia) 1800 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 2011 All rights reserved.

64 56

How does your face rate on Facebook?

68 68

Why fitness matters WENDY SWEET

ROWENA SZESZERANMCEVOY

JOKES

Spring entertaining

Rituals enrich your classroom

KAREN TOBICH

KAREN BOYES

Telling it how it is: Does the truth have to hurt? KATE SOUTHCOMBE

Which language do you speak the most? CHRISTINE KERR

A colourful way to learn BARBARA GRIFFITH

Quote ROBERT M. HUTCHINS

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!

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EDITOR’S NOTE

there’s one thing we all want, young, old, rich, poor, it’s to be happy. The world is filled with posters, t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, books, music and lecturers all trying to help us achieve this blissful state, and all of those “things” can certainly help you reach it. Your most powerful tool in the pursuit of happiness, however, is free and always with you: Your brain.

Getting your mind to a “good” place is also possible with Julie Woods’ suggestions. Julie is blind, and she sounds like she does a lot – except feel sorry for herself. What she does instead:

So many of the writers in this issue touch on this topic in different ways. John Shackleton moved me with his analogy of the half-tank pike, a story about a pike who initially cannot swim where he wishes in a tank because of a real barrier. Later the barrier is removed, but the pike doesn’t know it, and he never ventures to the areas he’d really like to go, thinking – only thinking – that there is a barrier. Does this sound like something you’ve done in your life? While there once may have been a true roadblock placed in your way, how do you know for sure that it’s still there? Who knows what might have changed recently – and what you could do if you only tried “swimming” there again?

3. Says “why not.” (“Stop saying ‘no,’” she says, “and replace it with ‘why not!’”)

Teachers Matter

Christine Kerr tells a great story about two wolves, one that is fearful, scary and awful, and another that is positive, welcoming and wonderful. According to folklore, both live in us – and can “be” us, so to speak. You might have noticed these feelings of “bad” and “good” battling inside of you. You know which one should win, and which one you want to win – but how do you bring that about? Christine gives you the answer.

Yvonne Godfrey talks about how to do what Christine recommends. Here’s a hint: What you put in is what you get out. Yvonne shares that she met a woman when she was 22 who helped her learn that personal growth is a process “that cannot be learned in a day but rather on a daily basis.” “I took her advice,” Yvonne wrote. “For about an hour a day, six days a week for the last 34 years, I have read, watched, or listened to over 10,000 hours of good material.”

1. Focuses on what she has. 2. Focuses on what she wants to have.

Ngahi Bidois captures Julie’s last two philosophies with two words: “Not yet.” Whenever anyone asks him if he’s accomplished something, he says that instead of “no.” It shows desire, determination and optimism. I imagine that he and the person he’s speaking with smile every time he says it. Please read on for more details on how you can learn to do the same – smile more, that is!

Kristen De Deyn Kirk

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CONTRIBUTORS

Adrian Rennie A successful classroom teacher, Adrian is passionate about excellence in teaching. He combines simple yet effective classroom techniques and Art Costa’s Habits Of Mind to create a culture of thinking.

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

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

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.

Christine Kerr

Joan Dalton

Christine has 30 years experience in education, the last decade in school management. She facilitated a structured counselling service for her intermediate school students and is a qualified, professional life coach. Passionate about meeting young people’s needs for ongoing success, Christine created the Mighty Minds programmes. Using 21st-century research and mindset tools, she inspires young people to take leadership in their own lives, culminating in a total package for future reference throughout their lives. Post-programme support is available for participants through a range of media pathways and interactive funshops. Visit www.lifeseeker.co.nz

Internationally respected Australian teacher and educator Joan Dalton is acknowledged for her expertise in learning and teaching, as well as leadership and facilitation. She has worked by invitation with schools and educational organisations in more than 10 different countries. Joan has authored several internationally successful books. Her current passion and writing is focused on the kinds of skillful language and powerful conversations that move learning forward. www.plotpd.com

David Koutsoukis David Koutsoukis is a leadership philosopher, educator and keynote speaker who believes teachers are leaders. He shows leaders in both the education and corporate worlds how to achieve personal and professional objectives through intelligent leadership. To have David present at your next conference visit www.acropolisleadership.com. To learn more about the Six Kinds of Best values program visit www.sixkindsofbest.com.

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

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

Julie Woods Julie Woods is called that blind woman and has been dubbed the “Queen” of Cooking Without Looking! Julie Woods is an inspirational speaker, author and radio show host who once refereed a game of nude touch rugby! www.thatblindwoman.co.nz

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

CONTRIBUTORS

Karen Tobich

Ngahi Bidois

Steve Francis

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.

Ngahihi o te ra is from Te Arawa and is an international speaker, author and consultant. His book is available at Mcleods book store and the Lakeside café in Rotorua. His website can be viewed at www.ngahibidois.com

Steve Francis is a former principal and has written three books, A Gr8 Life...Live it now!, encouraging people to live for today; First Semester CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOU!, a guide for principals moving to a new school location; and Time Management For Teachers. Steve has also developed the Gr8 People range of educational resources to help school leaders and teachers “keep it simple” and the Happy School article service to help reduce stress and boost staff morale. See www.happyschool.com.au

Maggie Dent From a background in education, palliative care, radio, the funeral industry and being a transpersonal therapist, Maggie owns Esteem Plus, promoting the value of personal and professional resilience. She is an author, publisher and parenting specialist. www.maggiedent.com

Dr Marvin Marshall 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

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.

Robyn Pearce Robyn Pearce is known around the world as the Time Queen. If you’re stuck with anything time-related, check out her webinars, the fastest and most cost-efficient way of getting help. http://www.gettingagrip.com/ product/12/online-courses-webinars/ And if you just need a regular reminder of good time habits, grab your personal copy of How to Master Time in Only 90 Seconds at www.gettingagrip.com. It’s followed by a regular supply of short and practical Top Time Tips.

Rowena SzeszeranMcEvoy Rowena Szeszeran-McEvoy has a 23-year career in the fitness industry and is now serious about the business of education. She is the director of the Australian Institute of Massage and the National College of Business, after having served as the head lecturer in both the business and fitness colleges.

Simon Breakspear Simon Breakspear is recognised internationally as a leading thinker on educational futures, innovation and change leadership. As an educational researcher, consultant and acclaimed keynote speaker, Simon works with school and system leaders to challenge the status quo, inspire fresh thinking and leverage new solutions in order to radically improve learning. He holds a first class honours degree in Psychology, a Bachelor of Teaching and a MSc. in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oxford, which he completed as a Commonwealth Scholar. He is currently a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Stuart Fleming Stuart Fleming is the guy who helps teens get their head around money. He created the Money Mindset Mob, www.MoneyMindsetMob. com, because he’s an enthusiastic believer in independent teenagers. A professional speaker, workshop leader and teen money coach, his super-power is seeing the potential in people and situations. He volunteers as National Commissioner for SCOUTS New Zealand.

Wendy Sweet With over 25 years in the fitness industry, Wendy’s expertise in health, wellbeing and fitness is undisputed. She brought personal training into mainstream NZ by design and developed the Les Mills Personal Training programme in the early 1990s. She lectures at the University of Waikato and delivers workplace training. Her master’s thesis focused on successful personal trainers’ strategies in changing their client’s exercise and nutrition behaviour. Reach her at wsweet@xtra.co.nz.

Yvonne Godfrey Yvonne Godfrey is the founder of Miomo (Making it on my Own), a 10-day, live-in experience to equip 17- to 24-year-olds for a responsible, independent and successful adult life. www.miomo.co.nz

SIMON BREAKSPEAR

Upgrading your in-house leadership development ILLUSTR TRAT RATION: ARTISTIC TICCO

Offer the right programs, and your leaders will grow with you.

en Y talent expect to be trained and developed. Education leaders must stop seeing training as merely a tool for development, and start seeing it as a valuable tool for attraction and retention. Schools must upgrade their leadership development experiences to ensure that talented staff feel they are developing p e r s o n a l m a s t e r y, a n d b u i l d i n g a n impressive resume for future career moves.

Teachers Matter

In previous days, the “psychological contract” of employment was that workers would trade their loyalty for job security. But now, as opportunity abounds for the most talented communicators and emerging leaders, the new “psychological contract” is, “I will work for you, and in return you will develop me and make me more employable.”

The simple reality is that you now retain your talented staff through investing in their development. Young talented people know that continual professional learning is the price of entry for anyone serious about setting an impressive career trajectory. Many high-quality university graduates now choose low-paid internships at challenging organisations to develop their skill-set. Furthermore, top-level law and consulting firms compete for talent not only on salary, but also by the quality of their graduate development programs. It is time for schools to become places where young talent come to build their career and develop transferable skills in communication, emotional intelligence and leadership. When I have shared this idea with school leaders in Australia, many agree with

the argument, but than quickly become concerned that if they make their staff too

• How engaging and effective would you rate the current opportunities?

employable or invest too much in their training they will either be headhunted or leave seeking further opportunity. Logical as that may appear, leaders that will grow talent magnet schools understand that they have far more chance of keeping staff if they invest in constantly training and developing them than if they deny them those opportunities. The absence of training and development opportunities drives staff away far more quickly than a headhunter.

Once you know what you currently have in operation, begin to lay out a way forward and make it explicit. Every Gen Y leader should know clearly what opportunities are available and how they can access them.

As a sector, it is time to life our game in leadership development. Here are five ideas to help stimulate your thinking: 1. Do a leadership development audit First, it is critical that leaders take the time to gain a clear picture of the current leadership development situation in their schools or department. Personally reflect, and seek out some broad opinions from your staff as you explore questions such as: • What opportunities do you currently make available? • To what extent are the different elements connected into a coherent development program? • Does the staff know what is available to them? Are they accessing the opportunities?

2. Adopt a common framework Adopt a leadership framework for your school. Much in-school leadership development can seem disconnected. If you are going to be serious about staff leadership development, it is helpful to have a common framework to improve coherence and ensure common language. The ACEL Leadership Capability Framework is a great example of a structure that is effectively being used across the country. A framework will provide a blueprint to guide your leadership development. Furthermore, staff will then have a common framework that can guide their own informal discussions and peer-to-peer mentoring. 3. Mix up the modes of delivery Educators often seem stuck in one mode of professional learning: large group lectures and keynotes. These sessions can be incredible (see below), but are not sufficient for a holistic program. Your leadership development program can (and should)

SIMON BREAKSPEAR

utilise multiple modes of learning. These could include the following: Coaching and mentoring. These methods are finally making a long awaited appearance in educational settings. Yet, often these opportunities are limited to middle management and executive staff. Coaching provides a wonderful opportunity to invest in the leadership potential of your emerging talent and open their minds to their own strengths and passions.

So what should you do? Use written formats (emails, briefs) to keep everyone up to date on the regular changes to reporting, child protection and curriculum. Do not waste the precious opportunity of interpersonal connection on simply reading something aloud that they could digest at another time in another format. Kill death by Powerpoint. No more 100 slide, 15 points per slide boring information sessions. Never. There is no excuse. Ban

“ As opportunity abounds for the most talented communicators and emerging leaders, the new “psychological contract” is, “I will work for you, and in return you will develop me and make me more employable.”

programs are available for educators. One of my favourites, Beyond Chalk (www. beyondchalk.com.au), runs incredible computer training in schools for free. 5. Go Deep Effective leadership requires the development of technical competencies. But leadership that is sustainable, resilient and empowering is based on a deep sense of moral purpose, a core set of values and a strong and compelling personal character. With the hectic demands on educators it is easy to fall into the trap of keeping leadership development at the superficial level of technical skills. But we do a disservice to emerging leaders to keep the dialogue and training at this level. We must provide opportunities to go deep. Help them probe questions such as: • What are the values that form the foundation of your educational leadership? • What would your peers identify as your leadership strengths?

Shadowing. This is one of the most effective ways to develop leadership insight. Emerging talent should be given the possibility of shadowing experienced leaders both in your school and in outside schools and businesses. Training media. A range of on-demand resources should also be made available. These can include books, online resources, podcasts, videos and access to webinars. 4. Make Full Staff Sessions Incredible Gathering people together for training and development is a huge cost on the most precious resource in schools – time. If you are going to bring the staff together for a full day or afternoon development session, it better be worth their time.

them in your school. Powerpoint slides are for headings, pictures and graphs. That’s it. Teaching involves extreme emotional labour. Teachers are looking to be inspired, not just informed. So, ensure that the session is designed to refill their emotional and inspirational batteries. Look to design cross-industry, outside-the-box sessions that will make teachers feel like they are being exposed to new ideas, new practices and new ways of thinking Bring in outside energy and expertise. Sometimes it is a wonderful idea to have an internal “Thought Leader” in your school share their expertise with the rest of the staff. It is difficult for internal staff to muster up enough emotional energy to present to staff for an hour at 3:30 p.m. A growing number of high, quality-low cost (even free) professional development

• To what extent do we have responsibility for the learning of struggling students beyond our school fence? • How will you ensure a sustainable balance between school work and your private life? Such reflection is a challenging and renewing experience for all leaders. It must become a regular part of our development diet. The challenge It is time to stop tr ying to outsource leadership development to external conferences. To retain talented staff, and ensure they reach their potential, educational leaders need to take active steps to create an explicit and challenging programs for developing their leaders.

DR MARVIN MARSHALL

Understanding counterwill Instead of pushing for obedience, encourage reflection.

“C

ounterwill” is the name for the natural human resistance to being controlled. Although adults experience this phenomenon, we seem to be surprised when we encounter it in young people. Counterwill is the most misunderstood and misinterpreted dynamic in teacher-student relationships. This instinctive resistance can take many forms — refusal to do what is asked, resistance when told, disobedience or defiance, and lack of motivation. Counterwill can manifest itself in procrastination or in doing the opposite of what is expected. It can be expressed as passivity, negativity, or argumentativeness and is such a universal phenomenon at certain stages of development that it has given rise to the term “rebellious teens.” C o n s i d e r t h e r e b e l l i o u s t e e n a g e r. I

difficult for both adolescents and teachers — has its foundation in power struggles. Despite the myriad of manifestations, the underlying dynamic is deceptively simple: a defensive reaction to felt coercion. On a side note, the totally noncoercive (but not permissive) Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model totally bypasses any feeling of counterwill. The reason is that students never refer to or have compunction to defend their behaviour because a level of development is referred to — not the student’s behaviour directly. See http://www. marvinmarshall.com/teaching_model.html Counterwill is normal in toddlers, preschoolers, and students of all ages — as well as in adults. This phenomenon explains the reason that some youth are preoccupied with taboos and why they sometimes do the opposite of what is expected. Adults

who aim at influencing — rather than dominating — have more success, less stress, and greater joy in their relationships with their students. The practise of telling students to do something is often perceived as being coercive. The inference is that what they are doing is not good enough and that they need to change. The key to avoid prompting feelings of coercion and counterwill is to prompt students to reflect — thereby redirecting their attention and thinking. Here are three magic questions to memorise and have at tongue-tip for various situations when you believe counterwill is involved: • Would you be willing to try something different if it benefits you? • What would an extraordinary person do in this situation? • Are you angr y with me or with the situation?

Teachers Matter

“ Teachers who aim at influencing — rather than dominating — have more success, less stress, and greater joy in their relationships with their students.”

believe most theories about the stresses and strains of adolescence overlook the main issue. Reasons for adversarial relationships have focused on physical changes, emerging sexuality, new social demands, struggles between being a child and becoming an adult, delayed development of the neocortex of the brain, and other such suggestions. It is true that teenagers, by virtue of their hormonal changes, are prone to being emotionally volatile, unpredictable, self-absorbed, and hypersensitive. However, upon a closer observation, we can conclude that a major factor in this period of life — which is

and teachers misinterpret counterwill in a young person as a manifestation of being strongwilled, as being manipulative, as trying to get one’s way, or as intentionally pushing the adult’s buttons. Trying to deal with this dynamic by using traditional coercive techniques is a recipe for disaster because no one likes being pushed — including young people. The antidote to counterwill is to avoid prompting feelings of being coerced. The key is to focus on influence — rather than on obedience. The art of influence is to induce people to influence themselves. Teachers

For the student who often acts irresponsibly, here is a set of four questions that reduces any feelings of counterwill and lead to more responsible behaviour: • What do you want? • Is what you are doing getting what you want? (This question prompts reflection.) • If what you are choosing to do is not getting you what you want, then what is your plan? • What is your procedure to implement the plan? (Without a procedure, the plan has little chance of being implemented.) Successful teachers understand that relationships are critical for motivating students. They avoid anything that prompts counter will in the form of negativity or that aims at obedience. Instead they aim at promoting responsibility and collaboration.

PHOTO: YANN YA POIRIER

DR. MARVIN MARSHALL

Teachers Matter

MICHAEL GROSE

The 3 metre rule A smile and a greeting go a long way.

There’s a school I know (it shall remain anonymous to protect the names of the innocent) that doesn’t leave anything to chance. The teachers have instigated a great customer service process to make sure parents feel comfortable at the school. It’s not that teachers aren’t friendly and hospitable. They certainly are. They just want to make sure that all parents who come to the school feel welcome. So they’ve instigated the 3 metre rule. Whenever a staff member comes within three metres of a parent at school, they greet them and enquire if they are being seen to: “Hello, Bree. Can I help you? Is someone helping you?” It’s amazing what a warm smile and simple acknowledgement can do to make you feel welcome. As staff have found, most parents return the smile and are appreciative of the welcome. This simple process has helped transform relationships between teachers and parents. It’s also had the added bonus of helping young staff members feel more confident around parents. As we all know, many young teachers are just finding their feet with parents, so this type of strategy helps them feel less intimidated and more at ease with parents, who in many cases are a good 10 years their senior.

their children’s school. The 3 metre rule has helped change things around.

• Teachers give parents a specific timeframe for returning telephone calls – e.g. within four hours, by the end of the day.

Client care is important in schools

• Follow up all parent-initiated meetings either by phone, in person or email within a scheduled timeframe.

The 3 metre rule is a great client care practice. From my experience, many teachers feel decidedly uncomfortable when I mention client care and its corporate cousin, customer service, in my professional development sessions. However, anyone who interacts with the public needs to have a working knowledge of basic client care and customer service concepts. Customer service to some people is code for “the customer is always right.” Client care has a far wider application. A school that takes client care seriously strives to make every parent-staff interactions as positive and pleasant as possible. By doing so, you show parents that you genuinely do care and value them.

• Teachers provide parents with a copy of notes following a parent-teacher conference. Take notes digitally so you can edit and send easily.

“ This simple process has helped transform relationships between teachers and parents.”

The school that instigated the 3 metre rule is in a low socio-economic area, and many parents admitted in sur veys to feeling uncomfortable when coming to

Here are some simple client care ideas that every school can implement:

• Teachers communicate with parents in a variety of ways. Also they conduct meetings at the start of the year to get to know parents, and find out their preferred communication modes. • Te a c h e r s d r e s s a p p r o p r i a t e l y a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l l y, w h i c h b u i l d s t r u s t and recognition in parents. Parents have certain expectations regarding professional conduct, and they feel affirmed and at ease when their expectations are met. Schools that are able to for m strong relationships with parents generally work hard to make parents’ experiences of school as positive and pleasant as possible. The 3 metre rule and the other ideas mentioned are just some ways to make sure this happens.

• Make sure any new parent or visitor is accompanied by a staff member or student when they visit a classroom or teacher. • Staff members introduce themselves at every opportunity, referring to parents by name.

MAGGIE DENT

Hidden influences on student learning When “perfect” isn’t such a good idea

ometimes as teachers we scratch our head wondering why some students perform to their potential a n d o t h e r s d o n ’ t . Ye s w e k n o w t h a t personal temperament, parental influence, developmental delays and prior learning and experience all contribute, but what else can be playing out below the surface?

threat. So they pursue activities at which they are sure they will shine — and avoid the sorts of experiences necessary to grow and flourish. Students with learning goals on the other hand, take necessary risks and don’t worry about failure because each mistake is a chance to learn.”

goodness. Many kids believe they are either good or bad; others think they can get better at being good. Preschoolers with the second mindset (the growth one) feel OK about themselves after they have messed up and are less judgemental of others. They are also more likely to set things right, and to learn from their mistakes.

Maybe the “mind set” that a student has developed has a big influence. By three and a half ,most children have developed “mindsets” that greatly influence their future lives. Psychologist Carol Dweck explored what influences our potential success and found that rather than it being about ability, it was more about their beliefs. If we believe we fail because we are dumb, we limit our future attempts at growing in ability. If we think “I failed because I didn’t understand the question or the task or I never worked hard enough, then that means I can fix that.” Dr Dweck says we create flexible (growth) or fixed mindsets: the more flexible the better our chances of success in school and life.

Learning vs. performing

Dweck believes many of the things we do to kids makes them non-learners. Infallible pressures makes them become non-learners. An example of a fixed mindset that can cause students problems is the perfectiondriven mind set. Tal Ben Shahar, in his book Being Happy : You don’t have to be perfect to lead a richer, happier life writes:

Teachers Matter

Dr Dweck explains the Achievement Goal Theory:

1616

“Students for whom performance is paramount want to look smart even if it means not learning a thing in the process. For them each task is a challenge to their self image — and each setback becomes a personal

Mastery-oriented children are really hell bent on learning something – and learning gaols inspire a different chain of thoughts and behaviours than performance goals. Dweck has found that children develop mindsets a b o u t

The desire for success is part of our nature. And many of us are driven to greater and greater heights which can lead personal success and societal progress. However to lead a life that is both successful and fulfilling our standards of success must be realistic as we must be able to enjoy our achievements. We need to ground our dreams in reality and appreciate our accomplishments.

MAGGIE DENT

A fixed perfection mindset can cause problems for students because if what they do is not perfect, they struggle. They will tend to do one of the three things: • Reject the failure • Reject the painful emotions that are aroused • Reject the success; it’s still not enough and strive for a higher goal With the increased pressure with national testing, the perfection-driven students in our school could be struggling as much as the students who are less academically able. We now see intense fear of school: Children who do not venture out of the box and ho stop experimenting and thus diminish their capacity to learn and grow. Then later they become chronic procrastinators, afraid to begin a project unless they are certain of a perfect outcome. We see it in the workplace where innovation is sacrificed on the altar of the tried and true, the safe and the mediocre. This pattern starts early in life and maybe as educators we need to be mindful of helping students with this pattern learn that growth and new learning is more valuable than being perfect.

The good and bad of “perfect” There are two forms of perfectionism. Negative perfectionism is seen clinically as perfectionism and positive perfectionism is known as optimalism. The perfectionist expects her path toward any goal to be direct, smooth and free of obstacles. When inevitably it isn’t, and she fails or when things don’t turn out the way she expected, she can be extremely frustrated and have difficulties coping. This is why it’s important that students have been exposed to opportunities when they lose, they fail and they are disappointed

“ Dweck has found that children develop mindsets about goodness. Many kids believe they are either good or bad; others think they can get better at being good.”

of real-world limits and constraints leads them to set unreasonable and unattainable standards for success and because they can never meet these standards, they are constantly plagued by feelings of frustration and inadequacy. In essence, perfectionists reject everything that deviates from their flawless, faultless ideal vision, and as a result they suffer whenever they do not meet their own unrealistic standards. Optimalists accept and make the best of everything that life has to offer. Having flexible thinking cues like the following can help the perfectionist become more like an optimalist: • Never mind – there’s always tomorrow.

recover This is what – and learn that you recover. play is for – lots and lots of play builds the emotional competence to manage bumps and bruises of life. School is full of moments of learning and growth, success and failure – and that is healthy. While the perfectionist rejects failure, the optimalist accepts it as a normal part of life and as an experience that is inextricably linked to success. The perfectionist is never satisfied: She sets goals and standards that are impossible to meet thereby from the outset rejecting the possibility of success. Never take any pleasure from her accomplishments. No matter what she has, it simply is never good enough. Perfectionists reject reality, and replace it with a fantasy world. This rejection of failure leads to anxiety, because the possibility that they may fail is always there. Their rejection of painful emotions often leads to an intensification of the very emotion they are trying to suppress, ultimately leading to even more pain. Their rejection

• This too shall pass. • Now that’s an interesting result. • Things don’t necessarily happen for the best but some people are able to make the best of things that happen. • When mistakes are learning opportunities, growth occurs. • If you want to increase your success rate double your failure rate. (Thomas Watson) This essentially means that how we parent, care for and teach children can either help or hinder the mindsets that our children form. If we can encourage children that learning and growing is the main goal of all human experience rather than the performance itself, they will have a better chance of success.

JOAN DALTON

Learning talk build capabilities In this groundbreaking book, the third in the Learning Talk series, I have identified nine key capabilities with related skills that are essential for powerful professional conversations. The unique and comprehensive Capability Assessment Tool enables you to assess your own and others’ capabilities, and the book shows you how to use the results to plan for action and monitor ongoing learning for growth. Exerpt one

What’s the purpose? world of possibility (Book 1 Learning Talk: build understandings) s and have consciously created an environment in which powerful professional conversations can emerge and ﬂourish (Book 2 Learning Talk: build the culture), you are ready to focus on key Learning Talk capabilities.

Pa r

ro t

of Purpo

• • use a leading edge Capability Assessment Tool to assess your own and others’ capabilities, • Each section of Learning Talk: build capabilitiess provides you with speciﬁc and practical ways to do this.

In this book you will ﬁnd:

Hold a ‘big picture’ view

Teachers Matter

Explains the term ‘capability,’ shows an overview of Learning Talk capabilities and related skills, and highlights connections to four key ways of talking.

Clarify initial understandings Demonstrates ways to clarify and recognise existing understandings as a powerful entry point into the Capability Assessment Tool.

You can use these to build ‘big picture’ understanding of key capabilities and skills.

You can use the practical strategies individually and with your team to foster reﬂection and an evidenceinformed awareness of current understandings, capabilities and skills.

JOAN DALTON

Learning Talk capabilities in action transform relationships, lives, and learning. Such powerful conversations are enabled when you understand what the capabilities are, and pay conscious and careful attention to developing them.

Assess capabilities

You can use the Tool to suit your context, record your data in practical templates, and follow practical steps to establish where you are and where you want to be.

Introduces you to a comprehensive Capability Assessment Tool and highlights some possible approaches and ways to use it.

Reﬂect on results: make a plan

Models planning for taking action with clear intent and using the capabilities in authentic contexts.

You can use the practical tips and Action Planner template to help maximise the effectiveness of your plan.

Monitor ongoing learning

Highlights the critical role of conscious practice, reﬂection, feedback, and monitoring and review of progress to develop and embed congruent use of capabilities.

You can use the stories, ideas and strategies to scaffold your own reﬂection and application to your speciﬁc needs and setting.

JOAN DALTON Exerpt two

Learning Talk: capabilities and related skills Listen • clarify intent • suspend judgement: attend fully

Learning Talk: capabilities & related skills

Decide and plan for action

This diagram details important skills that demonstrate each capability in action. You will ﬁnd it a powerful reference tool in general; in particular, it is designed for your use with the Clarify initial understandings strategies in the next section of this book.

• pause-reﬂect • paraphrase

Inquire • use an approachable voice • use the language of inquiry

• establish decisionmaking clearly

• clarify and probe

• make a plan

Advocate Work for resolution

Meta-reﬂect

• state your ideas • explain your reasoning

• monitor self

• identify agreement

• monitor others

• work to resolve disagreement

• monitor process

• test your thinkig: invite feedback and critique

• commit to resolution

Explore perspectives, differences and possibilities

Build common ground • connect ideas • summarise and synthesize • identify common understandings

• honour diverse perspectives

Test assumptions: check evidence

• surface concerns and disagreement/differences • use possibilty thinking

• self-check • understand assumptions • surface and test assumptions • use evidence to move forward

Feedback from colleagues who critiqued the manuscript includes: ‘My overall impression is wow - what would schools be like if we mastered these skills - the influence we could have on the children we teach!’ Brian Gower, Principal, Beachlands School, New Zealand ‘What you are writing is fantastic - you have made it all so accessible to people.’ Liz Stevenson, Project leader, National Blended eLearning project, CORE Education, New Zealand ‘... it’s really practical and I can’t wait to use it with our team.’ Jane Carr, Manager eLearning Services, Education Queensland

Teachers Matter

‘Powerful stuff.’ Murray Fletcher, Waikato University, New Zealand

‘We love what you are writing, and find your work so very helpful in our own work.’ Dr Judy Halbert & Dr Linda Kaser, co-leaders Network of Performance-based Schools, Canada ‘This book is the best one yet!’ Dot Walker, James Cook University, Cairns

The way we talk together changes everything

Purchase online at: www.leadingadultlearners.com Purchase online at: For more information: www.spectrumeducation.com info@leadingadultlearners.com eBook eBook AU$25.00 AU$20.00 Hard copy Hard copy AU$39.00 AU$24.00

Learning Enable powerful professional conversations with these landmark publications from internationally acclaimed educator

Joan Dalton Learning Talk: build capabilities This ground-breaking book identifies the capabilities essential for powerful professional conversations, provides a comprehensive Capability Assessment Tool, and shows you how to use the results to plan for action and monitor ongoing learning for growth. Use the: Learning Talk: build the culture Shows you how to consciously create an environment in which skilful Learning Talk emerges and flourishes. Learning Talk: build understandings Provides practical strategies to build collective understanding and commitment to Learning Talk for the collaborative, learning-focused world in which we live.

practical, step by step strategies leading-edge professional learning material templates, concrete examples and tools to develop your own and others’ skills in Learning Talk with this comprehensive series, to be progressively released during 2010-2012.

PHOTO: CA AT ATH ATHY T YEU YE EU ULET LE

DR ARTHUR COSTA

Thinking interdependently Survive and thrive together.

H Teachers Matter

uman beings are social beings. We congregate in groups, find it therapeutic to be listened to, draw energy from one another, and seek reciprocity. In groups, we contribute our time and energy to tasks that we would quickly tire of when working alone. In fact, we have learned that one of the cruelest forms of punishment that can be inflicted on an individual is solitary confinement.

Interdependent humans realise that all of us together are more powerful, intellectually and physically, than any one individual. Probably the foremost disposition in the post industrial society is the heightened ability to think in concert with others, to find ourselves increasingly more interdependent and sensitive to the needs of others. Problem-solving has become so complex that no one person can go it alone. No one has access to all the data needed to make critical decisions; no one person can

consider as many alternatives as several people can. Working in groups requires the ability to justify ideas and to test the feasibility of solutions. It also requires willingness and openness to feedback from a critical friend. Through this interaction, the group and the individual continue to grow. Listening, consensus seeking, giving up an idea to work with someone else’s, empathy, compassion, group leadership, knowing how to support group efforts, altruism — all are behaviours indicative of interdependent-thinking human beings.

“To keep your resolve, surround yourself with those who want you to succeed. The brain cannot do its job of protecting the body without contact with other people.” Robert Ornstein and David Sobel in The Healing Brain

DR ARTHUR COSTA Go back in time to when our ancestors lived in caves or on savannahs. Physical survival was a daily reality. Do you think people had a better chance of surviving if they lived in a group or went it alone? The answer is obvious. Those people who learned to live and work together had a much higher survival rate, and survival is the main purpose of the human brain. So, as with many brain functions, this interdependence and sociability became “hard wired.” Neurological evidence for humans’ dependence on one another is increasingly

being uncovered. Consider, for example, the role of endorphins and dopamine in the brain. Endorphins and dopamine are chemicals (neurotransmitters) produced by the brain that are active in the brain’s reward system. In other words, the brain makes “feel good” chemicals that are released when certain behaviours increase the probability of survival. Endorphins are released, and dopamine levels rise during any pleasant social interaction. You get a pleasurable feeling when someone smiles at you, listens to you or compliments you. This increases the probability of continued interaction with this person.

An important component of interdependent thinking is contingent communication. This is the mind’s ability to deal with human differences — conflicting ideas, alternative perspectives, divergent points of view and collective problem solving. Located in the prefrontal cortex, response flexibility enables the mind to attend and assess subtle verbal and non-verbal cues, and then to modify internal and external reactions accordingly.

Thinking Interdependently Activity — Karen Boyes

Select a photograph or picture and cut into the number of pieces according to how many students in your class. Enlarge each piece to A6 size and randomly give out to each student. Do not show them the original picture. Invite students to copy their piece as accurately as possible onto a larger piece of paper, for example A5. Once students have completed their section, piece together and d i s p l a y. S e e o n e c l a s s ’ example on left.

ALAN COOPER

Formative assessment: It’s all about process Move from facilitator to coach to mentor – and see your students learn.

A theoretical overall process would follow this sequence: Phase One - Self Management with the teacher as facilitator, developing collegiality where the students are at the novice stage and rely on the teacher’s external voice to drive the learning. Phase two - Self Management where the students are moving beyond the novice stage and toward the expert, thus shifting to an internal voice to drive the learning with the teacher as coach. Phase Three – Self Management where the students are at the expert level, able to self manage comprehensively with the teacher as mentor.

Teachers Matter

This process is sequential and incremental, therefore the moving from one stage to the next is dependent on mastery before moving on. If this means some progress quickly and others linger at the elementary stage, so be it. Research tells us that the late achievers will catch up to at least the mid group, if not the high flyers, provided they are given the necessary time to achieve. That they must be allowed the time to do this is non negotiable.

Establish rapport Phase one is the catalyst for ongoing success and continual improvement. Either it will set the stage for ongoing success or for failure. This means that the teacher’s actions - the teacher’s behaviours - are predictive of future student success or otherwise and predictive of future teacher success, too. The relationship that is developed between teacher and student throughout this process is crucial. Empathetic listening and

an appropriate voice is the starting point. As well the teacher needs to be adept at playing the appropriate role. Some students will require a nonauthoritarian approach with a conversational voice; some will want to be directed with an imperative voice. A delicate touch is needed. The direction for this comes from being aware of each student’s attitude. What does their expression, their words, their body language tell you? An action research project I have conducted as to what students decreed to be a good teacher, had comments like, “He knew when I was having a bad day.”

PHOT P HOT TO: CATH ATHY AT Y YEU Y LET

There is a growing understanding of the importance of teacher effectiveness as a key variable in learning. Formative feedback — the on-the-job evaluation — is an important part of this effectiveness. This timing is crucial. It will have the greatest impact when it is done simultaneously with the student’s learning process. It must also be ongoing and done regularly.

The aware teacher not only treats each s t u d e n t d i f f e r e n t l y, but also from time to time the same student differently. Thus careful selection by the teacher of the syntax that they are using, as well as their body language, and expressions, are an important part of establishing the needed rapport. Teacher radar needs to be constantly deployed. Being on automatic leads to failure. The teacher must also be aware of each student’s body language, expressions and syntax too. I well remember an embarrassing moment when a middle of the road student, who I was providing with formative assessment, rather angrily demanded to know why I was always criticising him. If I had been awake to that student’s body language, expressions and

syntax I would have been able to foresee the problem and act to head it off. Because I was on automatic, trouble arrived. Phase one in practice – Teacher as facilitator The students are learning to make notes, using Mike McClintock’s A Fly Went By as the example to work on. This is a year 7 class doing the work. This particular poem was chosen because of the low level content ensuring that the level of difficulty was not going to be an unintended problem interfering with the learning the new skill. As well the nature of the poem tended to add a level of enjoyment to the lesson.

ALAN COOPER

The section being worked on: The fly said, “LOOK! And you will see! That frog! That frog is after me! The fly went past! The frog came fast…! As the teacher cruises the room monitoring and giving feedback, she comes across this note that the student has written for the above. “He was obviously chasing the fly fast.” Before the student can proceed to the next verse unaware that for note taking she has written too much, the teacher intervenes. “You need more precision and accuracy here, what is the main idea? Work it out, and I’ll be back for you to tell me shortly.” Here the external voice of the teacher is directing the student, but still giving that student the work to do. The teacher does not steal the learning opportunity from the student by giving the correct answer. True the student is working at the lower level of the hierarchy of thinking skills – remembering, understanding and applying – but that is not to diminish them. These are all foundation skills. Without foundation there is hollowness. Beyond the skill of note taking these teacher actions are also building a growth mindset in the students: a belief that if they persist, if they put in the effort success will come. A less skilled teacher may have stolen the learning opportunities from the student, and simply stated the answer for the student to write down, “You have too many words here, cross out all except, chasing the fly.” The implication, for the student, when this happens is that the teacher knows the answer, but I (the student) do not. It does not take many examples like this for students to develop a fixed mindset and come to believe that they are incapable of working things out for themselves, and come to rely on the teacher supplying the answer whenever they are challenged.

Formative assessment can also be instigated even when taking a whole class lesson such as a mini lecture. Each student is given a set of three paper or plastic cups on their desk. One of the cups is green, one is yellow, and one is red. These cups are stacked with green on the top, followed by yellow and then red on the bottom. Students use these cups during instructional periods, as traffic lights. They put the yellow on the top when they are unsure or feel they need more explanation. The red goes on top when they have lost the thread. This is a rather blunt method of reversing the normal fl ow of formative assessment because here the students are effectively assessing the teacher, but importantly this assessment gives the teacher information about the need or otherwise to change the pace of the lesson. Teachers who have used this system are enthusiastic and so are their students. Phase two in practice – Teacher as coach Phase two naturally morphs from phase one. It will not be obvious, even in hindsight, to determine exactly when the morphing occurred. That the shift had been made would be obvious when, in the scenario above, it is the student voice that initiates the action, perhaps with a comment like, “Perhaps I should drastically reduce the number of words here?” It is not only the voice that has changed here but also there is a shift from teacher direction to interdependent thinking between student and teacher. This is a key progression. Not only does it demonstrate that the teacher has moved from facilitator to coach but also the demands on the students increase as they move to the more sophisticated skills of analyzing, evaluating, and using the criteria so gathered to plan creative solutions. M o r e o v e r, t h e s t u d e n t m u s t d o t h i s consciously as a deliberate, purposeful and meaningful process. It won’t just happen. It has to be taught consciously as a deliberate and meaningful process. The student must be made aware and led to understand the progress that they are making.

The relationship that is developed between teacher and student throughout this process is crucial. Feedback - which takes the students from where they are and moves them on in their own idiosyncratic style - requires empathetic listening and an appropriate response. Some may want support, while others want to be challenged. The teacher needs to be adept at playing the appropriate role. A delicate touch is needed. Phase three in practice – Teacher as mentor In phase three, the student’s self managing has shifted from getting the new knowledge on board to reflection, to self analyse and make recommendations for the future. Thus his or her reflections are not just for the specifics of the current unit, but also more generally into the whole learning process. The teacher’s role here is first of all to affirm and help celebrate the success. A further role is to extend the student’s knowledge of self management. The teacher needs to be adept at playing the appropriate role. Care is needed here not to take away from the affirmation of success. This can be done by the teacher asking extension questions that are designed to deepen the student’s understanding. There are many ways of doing this. The “what if” question is a good example (“What would have happened if…..”) as is questioning (“Is there another way of…”). This metacognition through dialogue between student and teacher requires, in most instances, a conversational voice to get maximum effect. The default setting is to novice Every time a new unit is started, or a new skill introduced, the default setting is always phase one with the instructor as facilitator and the student at the novice level. Prior or personal practical knowledge gained by both student and teacher from previous working through the process may mean that each time the process is worked it will be more productive but each new learning sequence still must start at the beginning.

PHOTO: LISA SA YO SA YOUN Y OUN OU O UN U NG

DAVID KOUTSOUKIS

The seven phases of values development A logical process for promoting positive attitudes and good behaviour.

I Teachers Matter

was walking through a school when I noticed one of my ‘Good Manners’ posters pinned up on the wall.

“I’m glad to see you’ve got my posters up” I said to the principal, Mr Mitchell. “Yeah, they’re nice, but they don’t work” was his reply. This comment was the catalyst for the creation of the Seven Phases of Values Development. I realised that I needed to develop a process that would help people understand that rules don’t change behaviour, positive action and interaction do.

The Seven Phases of Values Development articulate seven types of experiences our students need to have before good values become part of their normal behaviour. They provide checkpoints and focus areas for the teaching of values. The phases don’t have to be addressed in any particular order, but there is a logical sequence. This article gives a brief overview of each phase and three examples of positive action to address it. There are actually eight phases, but I’ve called the initial experience the Zero Phase as a starting point for those children who

have no concept about the value you want to teach. Phase 0: Non-Awareness In the non-awareness phase, the child has no clear concept of the value you want to promote, either because they have never explicitly been taught it, or because they have never been told “no” when they behaved inappropriately towards this value. Beware the “Curse of Knowledge,” that is, when we make the assumption that our children know about the value we are referring to. The realty is that they may not know about the value, or may have

DAVID KOUTSOUKIS

“unlearned” it because it has not been expected or enforced by teachers or parents recently. At this point it’s worth remembering, “If you allow it, you teach it.” Many of our children have learned inappropriate behaviours because they had never been clearly told it was inappropriate. Phase 1: Awareness The a w ar eness p hase o ccu r s w he n a child learns that a value is desired in the community in which they live. They may learn this explicitly from parents or teachers, or implicitly through role modelling. For example, a student may be taught, or watch his or her parents say “please” and “thank you.” As teachers (and parents) we can fast-track the awareness phase by being specific about the values and behaviour we want to see. Another key element of the awareness phase is to have a “sticky message”’ for your key values that are memorable and repeatable. With a sticky message everyone is clear and consistent about expectations. For example, my Six Kinds of Best (6KOB) program has the sticky message of: Be kind to yourself, be kind to others, be kind to the environment; be the learning kind, be the achieving kind, be the community kind. This message is made memorable and repeatable through the 6KOB affirmation and actions. Three ways to promote awareness: • Use a “sticky’”values message. • Spend time discussing and teaching class rules (I like to call them agreements), so there is no ambiguity about expected standards of behaviour. Put them up on a poster in the classroom - and be specific about the behaviours. • Say “no” when a behaviour is inappropriate. (Some may disagree with the word “no.” I am a firm believer in positive talk, yet I also have the belief that many of our behaviour problems in society are caused by many parents inability to say “no” to their kids. “No” is clear-cut, unambiguous and not susceptible to kids’ creative interpretations of what we say.)

In the awareness phase the child becomes a w a r e o f t h e v a l u e , b u t t h i s d o e s n ’t necessarily mean they understand the benefit of it, or want to demonstrate it which leads us to our next phase.

Three ways to promote discovery: • Explain the specific benefits of values to them and explain how the good or bad feelings they get are related to their values. • Give praise and positive rreinforcement for good values. v

“ The Seven Phases of Values Development articulate seven types of experiences our students need to have before good values become part of their normal behaviour.” Phase 2: Discovery In the discovery phase, the child starts to learn the benefit (for them) of displaying the value. For example, if they clean their teeth, Mum says their teeth won’t fall out. However, perhaps a more powerful discovery for them is that when they clean their teeth Mum says “well done,” and when they don’t she growls at them. The discover y phase involves classic behaviourist theory in action. Demonstrating good values should deliver “pleasure,” such as pats on the back, awards, self esteem from achievement, feeling good for doing the “right thing” and so on. Inappropriate behaviour should result in “pain,” such as admonishments, injury from risky behaviour, angst from failing due to lack of effort etc. Unfortunately, some children discover “pleasure” in negative values. As educators we need to reinforce the “pleasure” aspects of positive behaviour (through praise and so on), and the “pain” aspects of negative behaviour (through consequences) so that our children understand the WIIFM of values (What’s In It For Me?).

• Give consequences and ccounselling to change behaviour for negative b values. v You can also explain that Y good values are essential g and beneficial to society, a but bear in mind this will only appeal to more w mature and altruist type m sstudents.

So, in the discovery phase the child learns about the benefit (for them) of displaying the value, however, this alone may not be enough to make them want to follow it. We have to create desire. Phase 3: Desire The paradox of the desire phase is that it is the most crucial of them all, but perhaps the most overlooked. We can have all the other phases covered well, but if the child doesn’t WANT to display the value, the other phases they will have little impact. One of my favourite sayings is that “Anything is possible if you have a big enough WHY.” I believe there are three key reasons why a student would want to display good values: You have articulated the discovery phase well; they resonate with the WIIFM. The way you taught the value was stimulating and effective; they were emotionally connected with the lesson and “got it.” The most important of all: They respect you as a person and as a teacher. These three points are crucial, and in particular number three, because teaching values is different to teaching subjects like maths or geography. Those subjects just require students to recall information, whereas the teaching of values requires them to change their behaviour – and we

DAVID KOUTSOUKIS

don’t get a change in behaviour unless we have a “visceral reaction.”

they don’t necessarily have the knowledge to display it properly, so we must teach them.

A “head experience” is when you learn about the value (awareness); the “heart experience” is when you have “empathy” for the value (discovery); and a visceral reaction is when we have a “bodily experience” such as inspiration, joy, fear or pain - and are highly motivated towards the value (desire). This is why many people have trouble changing behaviours until they have a severe visceral experience, e.g. people who need to do more exercise but don’t do anything about it until they have a heart attack. Hence the saying, “Anything is possible if you have a big enough WHY.”

Phase 4: Knowledge The Awareness phase shows our students what the value is; the Discovery phase let’s them know why they should display it; the Desire phase makes them want to demonstrate it, and the Knowledge phase show students how to display the value.

teachers point out examples of good or bad behaviour – and the specifics of how people should act. Three ways to effectively deliver Knowledge: • Have a values framework with a logical sequence of topics linked to your “sticky” values message that you work through. • Have regular values lessons in your class.

The Knowledge phase requires the explicit teaching of how to develop and display good values. This typically happens in two ways. First, through specific classroom lessons

• Teach values contextually through “teachable moments” as they occur. Refer to posters to show how it relates to your sticky message.

such as the ones in my Values Education Toolkit books. As with any program, lessons should be engaging and have an element of fun. It is useful to have a values framework aligned with a “sticky” values message, so that connections between different values can me made, and so that students get exposed to a wide range of values in a logical sequence. The Six Kinds of Values Framework is an example of this.

Phase 5: Skills Learning how to display values, as in the knowledge phase, is only half the equation. Just like learning a language, values need to be put into action and practiced for them to become embedded. Students need to develop Skills associated with specific values by practicing them in scenarios and real life situations.

Here are three ways you can create a big enough WHY for your students when teaching values. Deliver the Discovery Phase well so that students have visceral experiences of pleasure or pain.

Teachers Matter

Wo r k a t d e v e l o p i n g respect by building relationships, being firm and fair, and by demonstrating good values yourself.

I h ave seen man y i ne ffe ct i ve val u e s programs because the teacher was just “going through the motions” or because they weren’t respected by the students. Let’s face it: Who wants to intrinsically change their behaviour for someone they don’t like or respect, and who is apathetic about the content? This is why the Desire phase is crucial. So, let’s assume our students now have a strong desire to demonstrate the value, but

PHOT HOT TO: O LISA AY YOUN U G

Be highly enthusiastic and passionate about teaching values. Create learning programs that engage and capture students’ attention. Use strategies like music and inspirational stories that can evoke visceral reactions.

Second, and some would argue more effectively, values can be taught through contextual “teachable moments” in the classroom or playground. This is when

Three ways you can get your students to practice their values Skills:

DAVID KOUTSOUKIS

• Send them with messages to other teachers, and give them instructions on how they should act along the way. • Have regular assemblies where students can demonstrate values taught in class. • Get students to focus on certain values during excursions and incursions. Phase 6: Consolidation As you would expect, children don’t develop new values overnight. It takes consistent reminding and positive reinforcement to embed values. This is the role of the Consolidation phase. The emphasis should be on giving praise and acknowledgement for positive behaviours as opposed to just picking up the negatives.

Phase 7: Habit Finally, after moving through all the phases, and after getting enough consolidation, our students develop habits that become their true values. Remember that forming a habit so that it becomes a value takes time. We need to keep focussing on:

So, you can see, that teaching values is much more complex than putting a poster up on the wall and teaching a couple of lessons off a black-line master. In closing I’d like to leave you with one of my favourite pieces of writing: Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.

IT BIT – by bit

Keep your words positive, because your words become your behaviour.

ABIT – at a time, to develop a good

Keep your behaviour positive, because your behaviours become your habits.

HABIT.

Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values.

Three ways you can help Consolidate good values:

Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.

• Catch ’em being good. Use verbal praise; point out the specific good behaviour.

—Mahatma Ghandi

• Give out stickers, certificates and other awards for good behaviour. • Use progress charts to help students identify areas of growth and to track progress. (There has been discussion among some educators in relation to giving out rewards such as stickers. Some argue that it undermines intrinsic motivation. After many discussions with esteemed educators, it is my opinion that rewards are useful if they are given out as “appreciation” (saying “well done” after the fact), as opposed to manipulation (please behave and I’ll give you a reward).)

7. Habit 6. Consolidation

In the Consolidation phases, the child is able to display the value often, but not necessarily all the time.

5. Skills 4. Knowledge 3. Desire

2. Discovery 1. Awareness 0. Non awareness

The Seven Phases of Values Development

GLENN CAPELLI

Five “F” Factors Push yourself to think in new ways, and who knows how far you’ll go.

recently placed this on my Thinking Caps Facebook page:

“What’s a must have word in your Dictionary of Life?” Reader Warwick kicked off with oxygen; Wendy followed with resilience, and Angeria added wait. I like them all: a necessity, a character trait, and a virtue. To the list I then added Ideation – the formation of ideas and concepts. As beings, we are ideational. As teachers and learners, how, what, when and why we ideate is a wonder and can make the difference between leading quality lives or struggling in quicksand. Each week for the past seven years I scratch my itch of ideation and design a Thinking Caps topic for radio. On the ABC in Australia, we called it Thinking Caps Brave Souls and invited brave souls to simply call in and we’d give them a topic to chat about. These days Thinking Caps is on 3AW Melbourne and we call it Reverse Talkback.

Teachers Matter

In regular talkback radio you have a topic and listeners call in because they have a thought or opinion based on the topic. In Reverse Talkback, folk call in and then we give them the topic. The notion is that everyone can think on their feet (or in their mouths) and good stories, great ideas and nifty humour will emerge. And it does.

Inventing a weekly theme is a good creativity. In the Har vard University publication The Innovator’s DNA, the theme of discovery is outlined as a necessity for innovation. I combined the discover y elements into an acronym:- “AQ1.” The A is association. Innovation and creativity rely on recombining things or mixing two, three, four or more previously unlinked concepts together. Albert Einstein once famously said, “thinking for me is combinatory play.”

The Q is questioning. Steven Jobs once asked “why do computers need a fan?” This core question led to the Apple, a quieter, smaller, more personal, computer. The 1 represents ONE, which is an acronym for Obser vation, Networking and Experimenting. The design company IDEO have a mantra that says “Innovation begins with an eye” meaning innovative ideas emerge from what we notice. Educator Maria Montessori once said “that to be a good teacher you need to love learning, love children and be observant.” The Networking aspect of ideation isn’t simply going to lots of parties with business cards in hand. It refers more to extending your curiosity by stepping into other fields of play. Widening your horizon by reading in areas you normally wouldn’t read, having conversations with folk in diverse industries (or who have diverse hobbies) and stretching beyond your own knowledge areas. The Experimenting aspect is mucking about with some cardboard, paper, pens, glue, bits of string and making prototypes, building models, creating possibilities while you chat with your building buddies, muse possibilities and allow your physical experimenting to extend your mental. One week on the radio, I associated the concept of cities with the sixth letter of the alphabet and came up with “Five F Factors” for cities. The Fun Factor The Friendly Factor The Feast Factor The Fear Factor The Frankenstein Factor Of course, you could also associate the Fs with your work place, your community, family and school.

The Fun Factor On a scale of 0 to 5, what score would you give your place as a fun place to work? Why? How does the fun shape up? Is the fun within the work or after work? Is it fun because of the folk you work with or are other factors involved? What do you do to help create the fun? Is fun important as a motivator? Sociologist Richard Florida, who wrote The Creative Class, tells us that a good pay cheque (the dollar) may attract a talented person to come to an organisation but it won’t keep them there. What will keep a talented worker is a fun environment where they work with other good people on interesting projects. Researcher Jeffrey Pfeffer indicates that sustainable organisations’ (schools) “human factor” is responsible for good productivity and innovation. The Human Factor hugs the Fun Factor.

The Friendly Factor This F may be essential to the F of Fun. Richard Florida writes that creative environments are tolerant of diversity and embrace some of the oddity of what makes up the human tapestry. When I first went out teaching, my principal, Glynn Watkins, would say “there is a mysterious thing in a school and classroom called a climate. You feel the climate that creates good learning environments.” Even though we had been told at teachers’ college to “not smile till Easter,” Glynn suggested good teaching required strong values, wellestablished boundaries and smiling! How is your environment: Friendly, tolerant and welcoming of people and ideas?

GLENN CAPELLI

The Feast Factor For many years I ran leadership development programs, including the induction program for new partners and principals, at the international accounting firm Ernst & Young. In these programs we would often get some of the key senior folk in E&Y (what they referred to as “rainmakers”) to sit in small groups with the new partners/ principals and chat. The rainmakers would answer questions, reveal their thoughts, and suggest possibilities. In one such program, a rainmaker (so BIG they called him a storm) was asked “what’s the most important thing you have learned in your years with E&Y?” He answered “to break bread with folk.” This chap was of a similar heritage to me with his family song line travelling back to the north of Italy. To him it was a great honour to sit with folks over a long meal, sip on wine, converse, laugh and then finish with a stove-brewed coffee.

What fears are in your folk? What elements of your environment are creating barriers to smart sharing? What fears are stifling creativity and learning?

The Frankenstein Factor In Mary Shelley’s 19 th-century novel The Modern Prometheus (now titled Frankenstein) she wrote of Victor Frankenstein and his failed artifi cial life experiments creating a “monster.” What aspects of your place have the potential to create monsters? For Melbourne, it might be how it handles traffic congestion now and into the future. For an organisation, it might be some new paid incentive scheme that actually may create the opposite of what it intends. (Often individual rewards in team environments de-motivate folks.) For a school, it may be some lack of a thorough communication system that undoes a lot of good work. For an Iron Ore Mine it might be the lack of

refreshing safety procedures that leads to complacency and injury or death. Smart thinking incorporates looking at possibilities of ideas before they are put into thorough action. Where could this go wrong? What might stuff up? What Frankenstein Factors may emerge? By thinking them through ahead of time, you can often come up with ideas and actions that limit the risks and make your idea and action better from the start. So, consider your Fs, form your ideas well, facilitate your actions well, and may your creativity, smarts and wisdom be in good flow.

How do you feast at your place?

The Fear Factor

My personal Fear Factor for Melbourne is going out without carrying a jacket and an umbrella. Being Western Australian born and bred, I am still unused to four seasons in every hour.

PHOTO: SBORISOV

Every environment has potential fear factors. If you are a visitor driving through Melbourne you may panic at what to do when turning right across the famous Tramlines of Melbourne. Locals know it as The Hook Turn. If you have no idea what a Hook turn looks like, it may be a Fear Factor.

STEVE FRANCIS

Top 10 trends for schools in 2012 Know what’s ahead and how it’ll affect our schools.

Teachers Matter

More emphasis will be placed on “value added,” where the results of individual students are compared over time. The emphasis on “value added” will be confronting for some schools and teachers in affluent suburbs. Whilst their students appear to be successful, the impact that the school or teacher makes is less than that of many other schools or teachers. Sensational value adding in some schools will be lauded and attempts made to analyse and duplicate their strategies.

32 32

Putting teachers under an accountability “microscope” will add additional stress to teachers. The increasing average age of teachers, additional stress and a demanding society will contribute to higher levels of teacher absence and stretch existing resources. Quality assurance and accountability expectations will continue to rise significantly for teachers. Principals will be expected to more closely monitor the quality of teaching. Establishing a culture of feedback will be challenging as efforts are made to de-privatise teaching. The benefit of principals working with teachers to be “the best teacher they can be” will be distracted by a call for performance pay for teachers. The issues must be kept separate. Further emphasis on data will lead to calls for more teaching time. Options pushed will include extending

the school day and decluttering the timetable. This will lead to an inevitable call for the K.I.S.S principle as staffs continue to suffer change fatigue. In many schools the number of excursions and school events will be questioned. Uninterrupted teaching time is a valuable asset to be pursued and protected at all costs. In response to increasing demands on teachers, there will be increased calls for smaller classes. The debate about whether or not class size makes an impact on student achievement is likely to reopen again. Whilst many bureaucrats have told me that research does not support smaller class sizes having an impact on student achievement, that just doesn’t make sense. I am convinced that the better that teachers know their students (and their families), the better the student’s learning outcomes. There will be an increase in “creative class” configurations including lecture style classes teaching multiple class groups in secondary schools, followed by smaller break-out tutorial groups.

PHOTO: PAUL HAKIMATA

he increased use of data will continue down to the individual teacher. The analysis and comparison of stateby-state, district and school-wide data will extend to finer analysis than before at the teacher-by-teacher and class-by-class level.

STEVE FRANCIS

Increasing demands will be placed on schools to address the rising incidence of childhood obesity. Additional demands are often placed on schools to “solve” society’s issues. In this case schools will be expected to help address the health concerns associated with increasing number of sedentary children. The Medical Journal of Australia reports that 24 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls aged 7 to 15 are overweight or obese. This is a significant increase over the 1985 figures of 11 and 12 percent respectively. We have already seen many schools become a focal point for action to address this. Are the programs working? Are they making a difference? It will be interesting to see if schools in Australia and New Zealand follow some schools in the United States who measure the height and weight of students at key year levels. They are currently debating whether to include the information on the student’s report card. The increasing use of school grounds and facilities after hours by outside groups and government departments is an attractive alternative that should be pursued. School staff can’t be the answer to every society issue but many school facilities are under utilised.

will continue to explode into thousands of classrooms with a plethora of apps for all ages. The use of e-readers will explode (I love the highlighting function!)

a huge commitment of resources and time, the benefits in terms of partnerships with parents and understanding students’ needs are significant.

The “outsourcing” of parenting will continue to increase. The percentage of children who have both parents working has risen to 60 percent in 2007 (from 54% in 1997). This is evident in the number of children in childcare. Whilst this increase isn’t huge, if this trend continues the impact will be.

The importance of the 0 to 5 age group will receive greater emphasis. This will be accompanied by a call for a multi-agency approach to support parents at this vital stage, particularly where additional welfare support would be beneficial.

The number of waking hours that parents actually have with their children, and therefore their opportunity for “parenting” is very limited. This appears to have led to the “outsourcing” of parenting and leaving many parents with a huge sense of guilt. They want to be better parents but are time poor. Schools will be expected to ensure their services are “family friendly” and provide additional programs to support the development of parenting skills. The number of schools making home visits to get to know the students’ families and circumstances will increase in coming years. Whilst it is

The research of Fraser Mustard highlights the importance of the 0 to 5 years period on children’s learning and development. Nelson shows the importance of this 0 to 5 window clearly in this graph. As teachers, it is vital that we do whatever we can to support the development of children, not just from when they enter our schools, but also in this vital 0 to 5 window.

Increased transparency will lead to the questioning the value for money of a number of private schools. Tough economic circumstances are already putting signifi cant fi nancial pressure on some families who are having to review their spending. Online courses through webinars will flourish as schools scramble to continue to offer a wide range of options outside of the core subjects. Cloud computing will lead to more collaborations across classes, schools and countries. The use of blogs to demonstrate knowledge will expand. The use of cloud computing will reduce the need for expensive software. The need for technical support in schools continues to rise exponentially and will continue to be a significant issue as iPad (and other tablets)

KAREN BOYES

Test yourself

1. Make effective notes

Teachers Matter

A great fact to remember is you are taking notes in class to help you, not please your teachers. Notes are to help you to remember, recall and learn information for a test or exam. You do not have to write everything the teacher says, just the key points and it is far more effective to write notes in your own words than the teachers. Even if the teacher does not tell you to

make notes, you might find it useful to record what you are learning. Note taking can also help you concentrate in class.

last class and record any questions. It is better to clear up any confusion before learning more.

Many students find it useful to know what is going to be taught before the class. Preread your text book to get an overview of the topic you will be learning about, or ask your teacher for a summary of the topics you will be covering each term. Before class, quickly review the notes from your

Take your notepaper and coloured pens and pencils to class and record the main ideas with words, pictures and symbols. Listen to cues from your teacher such as “this is important” or “you need to know this” or “this is a key principle” and ensure you highlight, circle or draw a symbol to

PHOTO: HOTO: WAVEB WAV REAK

Earn top marks by planning ahead.

KAREN BOYES

alert you later that the information is important. Remember to ask questions if you are not sure, or ask for another example if it is not clear. Interestingly when I ask students about asking questions in class, many say they do not feel comfortable doing it, however they are grateful of the person who does ask and often look up to this person. Within 24 hours of each class, spend 5 to 10 minutes going back over your notes, adding anything you may have forgotten, or didn’t get time to complete and test yourself to see how much you will be able to recall.

choice, choose an angle that appeals to you. Start your research early and ensure you record the websites, books, and sources you have used to gather information. Plan your assignment by choosing a theme and then selecting the main ideas and

“ Listen to cues from your teacher such as “this is important” or “you need to know this” or “this is a key principle.”

2. Learn to write effective assignments Assignments are important. Your teachers give them so they can see how well you understand the material and how effectively you can discuss the pertinent issues. Your goal is to use your assignment to convince your teacher you deserve the mark you want. Firstly, carefully read over the assignment and check you understand exactly what you are required to do. If you have been provided with a marking schedule, check over this to see what you will be marked on. If you have the choice, choose a topic that interests you and if you do not have a

supporting ideas. Write a draft, focusing on the main ideas and not worr ying about grammar and spelling. Leave your assignment for a day or so and come back to it with fresh eyes to revise, edit and proof. Ensure you get someone to read over it as it is sometimes challenging to find your own mistakes. Also go back and check that you have answered the question and met all the criteria given.

3. Use smart test-taking strategies Exams can be stressful situations where you’re being evaluated and have to perform under a time limit. The key to managing the stress and performing well is to be a smart test-taker. Revise throughout the term and year and do not leave your studying until the night before the test. Spend time each week reviewing your notes. Try to connect the important ideas into themes or “a big picture.” Test yourself by trying to answer questions or do the problems the teacher might ask on this material or download past exam papers and practise these. Use your time well on the exam. Before starting, read over all the questions quickly. Do a “memory dump” by jotting down by each question key words, ideas, formulas, etc that you’ll need for the answer. As well, mark the questions that seem easiest for you. Make a time plan by allocating the same percentage of time to each question as its worth in marks. Then, start with the easiest questions to build your confidence, and respect your time plan throughout to make sure that you have time to attempt every question. Henry David Thoreau said, “It is not enough to be busy. The question is what are we busy about.” Passing exams and completing great assignments are about doing the little things that make the big difference. So study smart and pass.

ALLISON MOONEY

Reflection from the Teachers Matter conference Personality types and “flow”

Teachers Matter

If you were to ask conference attendees about their highlight, some would say

the speakers and their topics; others the workshops; and still others the networking and conversations in the hallway at lunchtime. I find the latter my favourite time.

I had a moment with a delegate well worth mentioning. A teacher for many years, she pulled me aside and wanted to talk about my keynote presentation. It resonated with her, and threw some light on why she was so despondent over the continual

PHOT PH H O:: ANDRE N ND S RODRIG RO ODRIG D DR DRI UEZ EZ E Z

eing part of the Teachers Matters conference in Perth in August is a highlight in my speaking career.

ALLISON MOONEY

Playfuls

frustration she felt with some of her students and her colleagues. “If only we were taught this subject at teacher’s college years ago it would have spared me such grief in so many areas of my work,” she said. “Each year when we have a new intake of students, it is easier than other years. [I now realize] some children are easier to get along with than others. I can see now how those challenging children I’ve had were children quite different from the way I saw things. In fact in the staffroom it’s the same. [With] teachers in my team who respond differently, I would feel most intolerant toward. Some ‘wing it’ in their planning. They seem to get away with it, and it eats into my very being!” She said, “Today I identified myself in your model as a Precise/ Powerful blend. Yes I like things done properly, and I also like to be able to have the opportunity to lead. I find it frustrating working with team members who are quite different from me, those who are always having to be in the spotlight, and from where I sit, don’t seem to get their act together. Those ‘show ponies’ that make light of most things, and seem to have no order in their life! You made sense of the things that really took such energy from me on a daily basis.” “I have failed to see what the other personalities bring to the big picture, and through this simple model I can now see how I can work with them better.” I could see she was upset. It’s very hard for a Precise/Powerful blend to be relaxed like the Playful personality she talked about. Playfuls like to work in a high-energy, fun environment. Others can’t believe they are engaged and working with all that noise they engineer. The Precise/Powerful handle it differently: They like to have fun when all the tasks are completed.

Optimism Expressive

“If only we were taught this subject a t t e a c h e r ’s college years ago it would have spared me such grief in so many areas of my work,” she said. ”

She felt remorseful at the way she had often dealt with these ones, desperate for attention and approval. The very thing that they longed for she withheld. I reassured her of her great ability to teach well, (it reminded me how much teachers need encouragement – so often they are under the critical eye of both parents, principals and pupils.)

Powerfuls

Loves to work hard Natural born leader

Peacefuls

Easy going and adaptable Cooperative and pleasant

Precise

Organises well Structured

“Different, but not wrong… just different.” We spend endless hours and energy trying to be what we’re not naturally good at. If only we could focus on what we do well and operate out of that. If we championed each other, looking at the things we do well, at the end of the day we would find significance in who we are and what we do. This teacher left this conference inspired and motivated to “flow” with all those she encountered.

As a Precise/Powerful, she would spend longer berating herself at what she has failed to do than what she has done. I helped her see how important it is to be kind to herself, a trait difficult for these types. They have a tendency to visit and revisit those moments when it didn’t go well. I have no doubts that the personalities have a huge impact on effective teaching. Let’s remind ourselves of the qualities and strengths that the different personalities possess.

JULIE WOODS

How to be happy Three steps go a long way towards bringing a smile to your face.

1. Focus on what you have. Focusing on what you have rather than what you don’t have is definitely one of the keys to happiness. How do you do this? In many ways. If it’s cooking without looking, you focus on the fact that you can still smell, hear, taste and touch. If it’s a meeting or performance, you focus on those who turn up and not those who don’t bother to. If it’s an exam, you focus on the marks you got, not the ones you didn’t. If it’s fishing, focus on the one you caught, not the 10 that got away. If you find this really difficult, start and end your day with 10 things to be grateful for. Write a list at bedtime or when you get to your computer in the morning. All the personal development gurus and selfempowerment experts, including the law of attraction believers in The Secret book, say what you focus on is what you get, so start focusing on what you have and celebrate the moment. Happiness is made up of small moments of joy. Start by celebrating the joy in your life.

2. Focus on what you want to have: It’s that “g” word again – yes – goals.

“If it’s fishing, focus on the one you caught, not the 10 that got away. ”

The first step to getting what you want out of life is deciding what you want. If you want to manifest things in your life that make you happy, then decide what they will be and start moving toward them. If it’s a new job, new car, new girlfriend, awesome business, amazing radio show – start with a goal and declare your intention. Start by imagining what it looks like. If you need a hand, go and look in a magazine, look up Google images, write a page on what it looks like. Only then will you become clear on what you want in your life. Write your goal down every day, and start making it your reality. Remember

your thoughts create your reality reality, so start thinking about your goal today.

3. Say why not. Remember to back up everything you do with the magic of “Why not!” Those two small words that help you turn your life into a daring adventure. Stop saying “no” and replace it with “why not!” Let me share with you a remark made by one of my workshop participants: “It’s those things you stop saying no to that are the things that make life worth living.”

PHOTO: PICTROUGH

l b e r t E i n s t e i n i s r i g h t . Ty i n g happiness to a goal rather than a person or object is a great idea. However, what is it that makes us truly happy? Buddha said, “Don’t dwell in the past, or dream about the future but concentrate the mind on the present moment.” So, what’s it to be, fellas? Are we supposed to concentrate on the now or the future? I’m about to give you, for the fi rst time ever, that blind woman, Julie Woods’, secret to true happiness. There’s just three simple components in seeking happiness, including a sprinkling of blind woman-ness. Here’s what I believe them to be:

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JOHN SHACKLETON

Are you a half tank pike? Your “barriers” might just be imagined.

any years ago I heard a story about a scientific experiment entitled “The Pike Syndrome” on a tape by Dr Denis Waitley. Apparently if you take a pike, a very aggressive fish, and place it in a large fish tank along with a number of minnows, the minnows disappear and the pike gets fat. In this particular experiment they divided the tank into two by placing a clear glass screen down the middle, the pike on one side and a whole new group of minnows on the other. As you can imagine the pike’s first instinct is to chase his next meal, but he soon gets to realize that his action only leads to headaches and eventually he stops trying. Some time later you can remove the glass plate and the pike will remain in his half of the tank, leaving the minnows to live a long and healthy life in their half. The pike has been conditioned to become a “half-tanker” and may even starve to death despite being able to catch and eat all the food he needs. This process is known as conditioning, and the pike has developed a conditioned response artificially created for him. You may have heard of similar experiments done with fleas in a jar or with elephants chained to stakes in the ground, in each case the animals are trained to believe that they are only capable of actions that are a small fraction of what they are really able to achieve. Once trained, the animals

operate on a modified and limited basis for the rest of their lives, and in some cases will die despite having the physical capability to save themselves. Apparently we have all been trained in the same way, although for most of us, hopefully this didn’t involve tanks, jars or chains! Ever y one of our past experiences in our lives, our successes and failures, our embarrassments and our victories, our highs and our lows, are all stored in our memory bank. This includes all our past interactions with the people around us, those who help us and those who try and harm us. Our memory banks also contain all the standards that society has placed upon us and all the media perceptions of what is happening in the world. All of these past experiences give us a sense of who we are, how right or wrong we are, how good or bad we are, what position we take on the list, whether we are at the top or the bottom. And we use each new experience to strengthen what we know about who we think we are. If you are 30 years old, then you’ve had more than a quarter of a million hours of this external conditioning from parents,family, friends, teachers, peer groups and bosses. Some studies suggest that more than 70 percent of this conditioning is negative. Many of us have been told that we are not old enough, tall enough, good enough, intelligent enough. We’ve been told we are

too young, too fat, too nice, too hard on others, too trusting of people. The media tells us we need to have flat stomachs, big boobs, white teeth, straight/curly hair, and society says that we need to be a new man, a super mum, more aggressive in business, caring and kind to others, well disciplined, relaxed but focused. Etc. Etc. But this external conditioning is only part of the story. Who do you talk to the most? Who is it that does the most conditioning, and who damages your self esteem more than anyone else? Psychologists suggest that we talk to ourselves more than 70 percent of the time, and often we are much harder on ourselves than we are on other people. When we fail to achieve our desired outcome, we might say something like “Typical, you always screw things up.” If we don’t make an important deadline, we might beat ourselves up with a comment like “Late again, when will you ever learn?”. Even when we succeed and produce an outstanding result, we may be tempted to take away some of the potential positive feelings with a comment like, “You were lucky there; you don’t usually do that well.” Now I don’t know how much of your 250,000-plus hours of conditioning have been positive, and how much has been negative, but I do know that if you come along to one of my motivational talks,

JOHN SHACKLETON

hopefully you’ll get one hour of positive messages. However, how will that one hour stack up against the pile of negative hours you may have stored in your memory banks? You may leave my one-hour talk feeling positive and motivated to raise your game and set your sights a little higher than they were, but the 250,000-plus hours are waiting for you just round the corner to set you straight and put you back in your place!

conditioning that you can change. Who do you see on a regular basis that doesn’t support your efforts, runs you down or is critical of your goals? Other than yourself, who are the people who damage your self esteem the most? Can you limit your exposure to them? What TV programmes do you watch that send messages to you about life that are less

What do you say to yourself when you fail to achieve your goals, meet your deadlines or produce a poor result? Are you critical, damning or even abusive towards yourself? What could you say instead that would build your self esteem? How do you treat yourself when you succeed, what language do you use to raise (or lower) your self esteem? Is there a time of day that you could use to give yourself a positive uplifting pep talk, something that t you could walk away y from feeling good about f yourself? y

Teachers Matter

“ The good news is that our future self image can be changed by changing our current conditioning. This isn’t a quick and simple job; we may have a lot of negative past conditioning to overcome, but with constant effort we can change what we believe about ourselves.”

All of your past conditioning has created what you currently believe you are capable of, and, as we may know, we can never exceed the level of our self image.” However the good news is that our future self image can be changed by changing our current conditioning. This isn’t a quick and simple job; we may have a lot of negative past conditioning to overcome, but with constant effort we can change what we believe about ourselves. Have a look at the questions below and see if you can find some areas of

than positive? Don’t try and tell me that these messages don’t affect you; I don’t care how intelligent you are, your subconscious receives the same signals as the rest of us. What could you do with the time that you currently waste damaging your self esteem watching these programmes? Do you have a support group that you meet with regularly whose job it is to build you up and support you despite any setbacks you may experience? If not, who would you invite if you formed one?

Pay attention to what P your pupils say about y their achievements and t results, and counteract r any negative statements a you hear from them with two or three positive w comments of your own. c Make sure you help them M soar, and don’t allow s them to limit themselves, or let their peers set limits for them. Let’s take control of the conditioning process now so that 2012 can be the year we stop ourselves and our children becoming halftank pikes.

P PH PHOT O: PIOTR MARCINSKI KI

KAREN TOBICH

truly urgent or important, (what will happen if it’s not handled immediately) you will eliminate a great deal of future fire fighting. 2. Break the big tasks into smaller, more manageable ones You might feel overwhelmed by the larger goals or tasks you set for yourself, the ones that seem so big you don’t know where to start. So you usually just don’t start them at all. Instead, break these things into small, bite-size chunks that you know you can manage. List the things you need to accomplish this month and then rank them in order of urgency, importance or both. Make sure the tasks and activities that are most important to you are at the top of the list. Then start to tackle each one individually. Set yourself up for success by starting small.

Make time your ally Mind M ind yyour our m mind ind – aand nd yyou’ll ou’ll h have ave p plenty lenty o off ttime. ime.

ime is equality; it is the one commodity in this world that every earthling has the same amount of. Each one of us has 24 hours in the day and 8760 hours in a year. The question is: “How do you invest it?” You don’t need to learn to manage our time, but you need to learn how to manage yourself. As Stephen Covey said: “Where you’re headed is more important than how fast you are going.” By learning how to manage your time, you might get things done faster, but what is the use of going faster if it turns out that you are going in the wrong direction? The key is to use your time efficiently and eliminate time wasters from your day. Your attitudes and behaviours affect how you use your time. Time does not have to be your enemy. Each one of us can make it our

ally by getting clear about our vision and our focus, by prioritizing our needs and desires, and ignoring the plethora of distractions that come our way every day. Here are 10 ways how time can become your ally: 1. Get clear on what’s most important to you and make a plan Have a definite vision for yourself of what you want your life to look like six months from now, a year from now, five years from now, etc. Then ask yourself, what actions do you need to start taking to make this happen? Planning is so critical when you want to accomplish something. Planning in advance provides direction before proceeding toward a goal. By planning and asking yourself whether or not something is

3. Set aside definite, uninterruptible blocks of time to accomplish these things Move things from your “to-do” list to your calendar. If you don’t block out specific times and days for these activities, chances are they’ll remain on your list as a source of frustration, annoyance, and stress. Take them out of your head and off your list and plan to make them a part of your day. 4. Be realistic We all think we can accomplish more things more quickly than we actually can most of the time. Unexpected obstacles show up and throw us and our schedules for a loop. Consider realistically how much time you think a task will take. Then double it. Seriously. If you get the job done in less time than your new estimate, that’s great take a break and find some way to reward or congratulate yourself. And remember to include time for the unexpected phone call or flat tire, which might otherwise completely throw off your day. 5. Don’t take on too much, be willing to eliminate Biting off more than you can chew is a prime example of taking on too much. Not having strong, clearly communicated boundaries is another example. You do not need to volunteer to be on every project, organization, taskforce, association, etc.

KAREN TOBICH

Teachers Matter

6. Get help or support Taking on the world all by yourself will not serve you or the people around you. You don’t have to do everything by yourself. Enlist the help of others to maximize your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. Trade your strengths with someone who excels in some of your weaker areas. Concentrate most of your energy on your natural talents and gifts and those things that come naturally to you. Delegate the rest; learn to delegate tasks others can do for you (even if it’s not up to your standards). Progress has nothing to do with perfectionism. Find a colleague, a partner, a coach, and create your own success team that can support you in doing what means most to you. And accept their help when offered. Think you can’t afford it You can’t afford not to.

7. Value your time Others will not respect or value your time if you don’t send the message that your time is important. Watch your actions, behaviours and commitments: Are they communicating the right message? Watch out for the following time wasters: If you have a constant stream of well-intentioned colleagues, friends and/or family members interrupting your concentration and distr acti n g your f ocu s, st op t hem b y communicating when it’s OK to interrupt and when it’s clearly not. We all love to have friends and enjoy our relationships, but by allowing yourself too much freedom in this area, you will wind up spending a large percentage of your “work” time socializing and will be pressing to meet deadlines. Procrastination as well as perfectionism are both one of the biggest time killers. Waiting until the last minute or otherwise putting things off tends to create a crisis or problems that may not otherwise exist. In addition, by not doing something you’re procrastinating about, you also end up wasting considerable time worrying about how much you’re procrastinating. Just do

it! And when it comes to perfectionism, remember that striving toward progress rather than perfection, you will free up a lot of your time and energy. 8. Be sure to include time for self-care All work and no play makes you very, very dull. You can’t operate at your best without taking time out to recharge your batteries. Include time in your schedule for breaks, relaxation, hobbies, interests, and people you want to connect with. 9. Try the one-hour exercise. For the tasks you continue to procrastinate about but really need/want to do, try this exercise: Set a timer for one hour and commit to doing that task for exactly that period of time. You will work uninterruptedly for that time, no answering or making phone calls, getting snacks, checking the mail, etc. At the end of the hour you can choose to stop working on that task for the day. At this point, one of three things will happen: You’ll have completed the task (congratulations!); you’ll be so into it that you’ll keep working until the task has been

completed; or you’ll see that you need to devote more time to it, but you’ll now be an hour closer to its completion and will have a clearer idea of the time frame involved. With any of “these results,” you’ll end up with a feeling of success and accomplishment. 10. Realize your stories about time are just that – stories! Get rid of beliefs that are holding you back from moving forward. If you continue to tell yourself “There just aren’t enough hours in the day,” “I never have enough time for the things I need to do,” “Time flies by faster and faster,” you will continue to attract and be attracted to all sorts of evidence to support these beliefs. Consider that these stories may not be completely true, you just live your life as though they are. More constructive and positive beliefs about time will produce more constructive and positive evidence.

ILLUSTRATION: RAUL FRANGANILLO FERNANDEZ

Learn to say “NO” and ask yourself, “Is it getting me closer to my Major Definite Purpose?” Part of prioritizing means being willing to place the least important or urgent activities at the bottom of the list. Be willing to consider that these things may not get done today, this week, or ever. Are there any that you can give up completely without feeling you’ve compromised yourself or your standards?

KAREN BOYES

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

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:

The iStudy alarm is designed exclusively for use on iPhone 4, iPod Touch. iPhone 3G/3GS and iPad. It is now available from the Apple itunes Store.

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.

PHO PHOT HOT H OTO: NYUL NY YUL

Teachers Matter YVONNE GODFREY

YVONNE GODFREY

Growing through mistakes Teach our young adults that making good choices is a process.

ne of the ways we can guide young adults is to help them face their personal reality without being defensive. None of us really wants to face the truth, and yet it is the fastest way to personal growth. Before he came on Miomo (the Making It On My Own program), one of our students, age 19, lost his apprenticeship. He was devastated. He took it personally, and the dismissal was just another blow to his fragile self-esteem. I suggested that his mother support him by going with him to the exit interview and to ask why he lost his apprenticeship, specifically around these criteria: • Integrity | Character • On-the-job, technical skills • Relationships | People skills It turned out he was coming to work stoned or hung over, which affected his character, his skills on the job and the way he dealt with people. After completing Miomo, this young man took full responsibility for his failure. He saw that by changing his lifestyle he could pursue his career with a fresh outlook. He is now clean and looking for a job with his self-esteem in tact, knowing that it was the drugs, and not his natural abilities that let him down. The dismissal became a valuable tool in helping him grow, but he wouldn’t have had the maturity to go through this exercise alone. He would not have had the courage or the composure to ask these questions without his mother.

When we become bigger, our problems seem smaller We once had a group of graduates organise a reunion of their Miomo crew. They thought it would be great to recreate their Miomo experience. They hadn’t counted on the fact that there would not be the same boundaries in place. They did not plan properly and consequently got into a bit of strife. They were devastated; they had let themselves, their parents and me down. I contained the situation and then wrote them an email explaining, in the form of lessons to be learned, where they had gone wrong. Then I outlined the steps to take to restore themselves and the relationships. I also assured them that I valued them just the same. Then I gave them clear strategies to implement so that it never happened again. Many of them commented that they didn’t know how to recover after a mistake, that no one had ever helped them understand the process. This breaks my heart because if you don’t know how to grow from mistakes, then you are bound to repeat them and be damaged by the same behaviour. Many young adults come to the conclusion that they are total losers with no chance of ever producing consistently good behaviour. I don’t like calling people losers, rather they are potential winners who have temporarily lost their way. And, when people lose their way, they need others to stand with them to help them fight for their future potential.

To have a better “self,” we must give up the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that no longer serve us. Saying that you want to “turn over a new leaf” may be a noble statement, but the hard work of actually remodeling the brain and heart to produce the change is another. At 22 I met an amazing woman who for the next eight years mentored me in life and in business. I would complain about my seemingly insurmountable problems. She would say, “Yvonne, don’t wish your problems were smaller, you must become bigger.” She said that a person was not to be measured by their outward appearance, but by the capacity of their heart and the quality of their character. This character, she said, is developed through facing challenges head-on and learning to do what is right, not what’s convenient or what “saves face.” She would constantly reminded me of the John Maxwell philosophy that personal growth and making good decisions is a process that cannot not be learned in a day but rather on a daily basis. I took her advice: For about an hour a day, six days a week for the last 34 years, I have read, watched, or listened to over 10,000 hours of good material. I shared this concept with the students and reminded them that they have time on their sides. In five years, each of those wonderful young adults will have developed their character from the material that they have put into their heads and the people they have taken advice from. I pray that they choose well.

We must never stop asking, “Is there a better way?” We can’t pray for progress and fight change. We try to resist, it but it says, “Ready or not, here I come.” To grow stronger through change we must give up, wise up and toughen up.

STUART FLEMING

The nature of school

ILLUSTRATION: AIDAR ZEINESHEV

Remember: every element is vital.

ran watched Eric from across the playground. He was busy directing his friends, confidently arranging them into teams for a game of football. Eric liked being in control and he especially liked winning. Earlier that week Principal Tetram had issued a challenge to the school: Each student does enough activity at lunchtime to make them puff. Eric had quickly decided to accept the dare and boldly set about creating a football competition between classes. “Any goal Eric sets himself he achieves,” F r a n s i g h e d . “ H e ’s s o f o c u s e d a n d determined. I wish I was as firm as he is.” “WAIT!” The urgent cry from Amy carried over the noisy playground and made Eric stop dead. He turned to see her jogging across the grass towards him, waving a neatly folded piece of paper. “If these two classes play each other now, it will mess up your competition draw,” Amy explained. “You need to get one of them to stand down because there’s still one team that hasn’t played yet.”

“See?” she said, pointing to the chart on the piece of paper. “It does make sense!” Eric blinked at Amy’s logic, puzzled at how he hadn’t seen the error. “She’s so focused,” Eric thought. “Her eye for detail is amazing. I wish I could think as clearly as she does.” Amy trotted back to the concrete step beside the hall. A small huddle of students had formed nearby and seemed to be looking at something on the ground. Amy changed direction for a closer look and nudged her way between the onlookers. Kneeling beside the playground first-aid kit was William. He was applying a plaster to a small scrape on the knee of one of the new entrants. A skipping rope was still limply wrapped around her tiny foot. “Everyone falls over when they’re trying out new skip routines,” William was explaining patiently to the teary-eyed girl. “The main thing is to give it another go when it doesn’t work the first time. I’m sure you’ll have that jump-trick nailed in no time, just like your friends.”

Amy smiled. Trust William to be offering words of comfort; he was the most considerate person she knew. Incredibly loyal to his classmates, William had a knack for making sure everyone was getting on well. Why, just yesterday he had smoothed out a festering disagreement between the MacArthur twins. “He’s so dedicated,” Amy muttered under her breath. “I wish I was as calm.” As William stood, holding the first-aid kit, he stretched his legs. They were still stiff from yesterday’s cross-country run. He didn’t like running very much. He had considered pulling out of the event, but had bumped into Fran as he arrived at school yesterday. Fran had been fizzing, excited to see whether the course would be more fun than last year, especially since she’d made suggestions to Principal Tetram to improve the route. In just a five-minute conversation, Fran had inspired William enough about the challenge that any thought of pulling out was erased.

STUART FLEMING William shook his head as he gazed at the swings, where Fran was soaring as high as she could and laughing wildly. “She’s so positive,” he thought. “I wish I was that bright.” The bell rang to gather everyone back to class.

Everyone has a strength I like keeping things simple. I’m a human being, just like you. I have preferences and dreams and fears, just like you. I am part of the natural world and can make choices, just like you. We each have abilities and strengths that can seem foreign to other people. What happens if we use nature as a metaphor to explain our preferences? Suddenly we have a tool that allows us to appreciate my nature; why your nature seems different; and despite our apparent divergence, we are in fact quite similar. Nature illustrates how earth, air, water and fire work together in synergy. It’s hard to imagine life or a sustainable environment without each one of them. In human nature also, we all have aspects of all four elements. So does your school. So does your classroom.

The fire element (Fran) like the sun is bright.

For fire elements, emphasise the possibilities.

Whilst Eric’s strongest element might be earth that doesn’t mean he has no water element tendencies. Just because Fran is a natural at looking for the positive side of life (fire), it doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy being accurate (air).

Now let’s give the elements of nature some shape: a simple shape.

What happens to our strengths if we’re put under pressure? Earth elements can become blunt and neglect people’s feelings. Air elements become critical and neglect the big picture. Wa t e r e l e m e n t s h e s i t a t e a n d n e g l e c t objectives. Fire elements are easily distracted and neglect practicality. Imagine a team or classroom full of only one element. Especially if they are stressed out, too. Have a look around your staffroom: What elements do you see in action there?

How can we tap into each student’s motivation?

Let’s unpick the playground story:

For earth elements, emphasise the challenge.

In nature, the earth element (Eric) like a mountain is firm.

For air elements, emphasise their abilities.

The air element (Amy) like the wind is clear.

For water elements, emphasise their contribution.

The water element (William) like a lake is calm.

According to Buckminster Fuller (architect, futurist, inventor and designer of the geodesic dome) the tetrahedron is “the minimum structural system in the universe.” This four-sided pyramid is a fascinating geometric shape. Why? It has no opposite faces. When we position the elements on the tetrahedron, there is no “me versus you,” unlike the common quadrant design. Instead of one element working against the other elements, we can encourage collaboration. After all, without every single element there would be no nature. Each triangle touches every other triangle, showing inter-dependence. By changing the size of any of the equilateral triangles, you affect all the other sides. Unfold the tetrahedron and before you is a map of all four elements: Earth, air, water and fire, harmoniously connected. This brilliantly simple yet versatile model is called TetraMap and was created by Aucklanders Yoshimi and Jon Brett. Take a look at www.tetramap.com Celebrate diversity and help your students understand that the first step toward positive change in their relationships is to take responsibility for the first simple step: themselves.

Strengthen leadership and ignite potential accelerate positive change build self-esteem and team-esteem create and practice strategies to reduce conflict Facilitator Stuart Fleming guides you through TetraMap®: the fast-to-learn training tool for better behaviour and performance at school. Email today for your complimentary ‘The Nature of My School’ audit exercise. smiles@StuartFleming.com | www.StuartFleming.com | ph 0274 874 331

TetraMap is a registered trademark of TetraMap International: see www.tetramap.com

Teachers Matter NGAHI BIDOIS

NGAHI BIDOIS

Kaore or kaore ano - No or Not yet? Add one word and change your perspective.

ext week I fly out to Perth to speak at the Western Australian Local Government conference. I fly six and half hours to speak for 30 minutes, and I am pretty excited about this engagement. Not because the flight is long, and I enjoy long flights. Not because it will be an influential engagement where I will speak to over 300 mayors and leaders or because it is highly likely that other engagements in Australia will develop from this one. I am excited about this trip to Perth because it is the fulfillment of another ‘Kaore ano – Not yet’ answer.

So what do I mean by a ‘Kaore ano - not yet’ answer?

Have you ever been to Sydney? “Kaore ano – Not yet.” I presented in Sydney late last year.

For a number of years now I have been meeting people who live in Perth. Many of them have asked if I have ever been to Perth, to which I have replied, “Kaore ano – Not yet!”

Have you ever been to Disneyland? “Kaore ano – Not yet!” This one took a lot longer to fulfill, but I travelled to Disneyland a few years ago.

The words “Not yet” have been an important part of many of my answers. “Not yet” are my hope words for the future that I try to add to as many answers as possible. Fundamentally we can answer questions with “Kaore – No” or we can add one word, “ano,” and make the answer “Not yet!” Here are a few “Not yet” answers that I gave for years that have been fulfilled: Have you ever driven a stockcar? “Kaore ano - Not yet.” I got to drive a stockcar a few months ago with some help from my friends.

So what are the “Kaore ano - Not yet” answers in your life? What are you still hoping for? Have you started your master’s or doctrate degree? Have you applied for that dream education role? Ave you reached your target weight or fitness? Have you done your big OE? Have you started that IT training course? Hopefully your answer was “Kaore ano – Not yet!” Here’s one that I hope will be fulfilled by the end of this year: Has New Zealand won their second Rugby World Cup? – Not yet!

ILLUSTRATION: POUL CARLSEN

ROBYN PEARCE

How rock ‘n’ roll saved loads of time Sometimes an accident can be a good thing.

ell there certainly hasn’t been a lot of cooking in my kitchen over the last six weeks. While rock ‘n’ rolling a little too vigorously at a client function, I slipped and cracked my wrist. However, there is always a silver lining. Six weeks with an arm in plaster has created a whole new view on a useful productivity tool.

“The accident forced my hand (excuse the pun) to try some amazing software that potentially could save enormous amounts of time.”

That might not make immediate sense, but let me tell you more. The accident forced my hand (excuse the pun) to try some amazing software that potentially could save enormous amounts of time. (And they’re not paying me to tell you). How fast a typist are you? Do you sit hunched up over the computer, two fingers picking and poking at the keyboard, perhaps reasonably quick but certainly not a touch typist? Do your shoulders get tired? Does your neck get a crick in it? If you answered yes, have you also ever wished for a convenient way to speak and have your words transformed into text? Over the last year or so a number of people have waxed lyrical about Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a voice recognition software. I had thought about investigating it a number of times but, being a fast typist, decided not to bother. I had also heard that it was a little cumbersome to use.

Teachers Matter

T h e n e a r l i e r t h i s y e a r, o n e o f t h e participants at a conference I spoke at absolutely raved about his efficiency

gains from using version 11, the latest iteration. So, with arm in plaster and my typing speed somewhat reduced, I decided it was time to check it out. The product is amazing. I’m still slow in comparison with what’s possible, but it’s easy to see where the productivity gains are. For example, I’m writing this article with no hands on the keyboard, except for the occasional correction. I’m talking; words are just zipping across my screen; and the more I practice, the better this experience gets. For a little extra, you can have a wireless headset, rather than having to be tethered to your computer. And it also comes with a digital voice recorder, which can then be downloaded when you’re back at your computer. For example, you might be somewhere around your premises and remember that you need to write a note to a staff member or supplier. Dictate those thoughts into your handheld voice recorder and then later on, once plugged in to the computer, turn your voice into written words.

Of course you still have to check that it has translated correctly, but the time can be spent focusing on content and correct expression of your thoughts, instead of typing and spelling. Even though I am a fast typist, the words still flash across the screen at least three times faster than I could type them. Also, Dragon gets more accurate over time as it learns your word choices and writing style. It takes less than an hour to train the software to your way of speaking. And you can easily add specific industry terms and any other frequently used unique phrases. If you want to work with your students and staff rather than spending ages trying to create words on paper, just get the product. It’s available in all good software supply stores.

ROBYN PEARCE

PHOTO: JAKOB KAMENDER

Teachers Matter ROWENA SZESZERAN-MCEVOY

ROWENA SZESZERAN-MCEVOY

How does your face rate on Facebook? Does the world see a disciplined professional or an aggressive maniac?

If you are not attracting genuine, caring, successful relationships, personal or professional, maybe your “WWW” presence is the big barrier.

And wasn’t the old system flawed. People lied on their resumes and exaggerated or told fibs when you met them, and because most humans are scared of confrontation, when you asked someone for their opinion about something, they failed to tell the whole truth.

And the next time you are tempted to post or tweet nasty things about a person or a business, be reminded that the people in that business also buy products and employ people, and one day the very words you typed may come and bite you on the “tweeter” when you want to sell that company your product or service, ask them to do business with you, loan you money or want them to employ you.

“the olden days” if you wanted to start a business, advertise your business, apply for a job, check a reference of someone applying for a job or learn more about a business, you would do a bit of research on the phone and then the rest would be in person.

So good! Now we have Google and Facebook. People still lie in their resumes; they are still scared of face-to-face confrontation, and they still exaggerate in person, but it’s a different story on their Facebook and the Google mega-memory.

“ With a little more searching by a clever IT person, every email, tweet or Facebook message ever sent can be accessed.“

Your core values (the beautiful person you are, or are becoming, the standards you live by and the way you treat people) can be seen and judged by the pictures and words you choose to share with the world. Enjoy or beware!

Not only will all the pictures of the person drunk and dressed poorly pop up, they will also show the state of the person’s house, their car, and their circle of influence, those who they spend time with away from their profession.

Does your Facebook represent who you really are? Will your resume, your company or business profile and your marketing and advertising be backed up by Facebook? Potential employers, customers, clients and especially potential personal partners will all search the web. What will they find?

PHOT P OTO: JALEX JALEXANDE A ANDE R KIRCH

With a little more searching by a clever IT person, every email, tweet or Facebook message ever sent can be accessed. Every time a person writes a nasty email, sends an angry, gossiping, aggressive, critical or nasty tweet or makes a Facebook post, it can be read and re-read by a potential employer, by a potential customer, client, bank manager or venture capitalist.

KAREN TOBICH

Spring Menu

Spring entertaining Think simple and fresh.

Sourdough Bread topped with quark spreads and a pea and broad bean spread Cucumber Quark bites (with or without salmon) Stuffed Cherry tomatoes Home-cured Salmon

he evenings are getting longer and it’s like everyone is coming out of hibernation, so be inspired and invite some friends over. Celebrate longer days, more sunshine and fabulous food. On my travels in this glorious country, I stop at the various farmers markets and am always amazed at the food that our local food heroes produce. On a recent trip to Hawkes Bay, I visited the Hastings Farmers Market and found some quark, a type of fresh cheese that is similar to cottage cheese but is creamy with no lumps. An absolute must try. It is healthy and great to cook and bake with, fantastic for desserts and convenient and healthy to use as a base for spreads. I have since discovered that you can buy it in most supermarkets, but if you can get it fresh at the farmers market or your local delicatessen shop, buy lots of it and freeze it, so you always have it on hand. On an earlier food adventure, I bought a Micro Greens Kit at the Taupo Farmers Market. Since my vegetable garden has been a bit neglected, I now grow some greens and herbs on my kitchen bench. You should try it; it’s so easy and convenient, and it looks so pretty.

Teachers Matter

So equipped with two tubs of quark, fresh sourdough bread, garden-fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, peas and broad beans and salmon, I put together a healthy and yummy menu. The best thing about it is that there is absolutely no cooking; you can prepare everything ahead of time and then just plate everything up before your guests arrive.

Micro Greens Raspberry Quark Dessert

Cured Salmon (Gravlax) with Quark Raita served on Sourdough Bread For the Cured Salmon you will need: 3 days to cure the salmon 2 sides of fresh salmon (you will need about 1 – 1.5 kg for 8-plus people) 1/3 cup of sea salt flakes 1/3 cup of brown sugar Very finely grated zest of 1-2 lemons Bunch of fresh dill finely chopped Good grinding of black pepper For the Quark Raita you will need: 250g of quark 1/3 of a cucumber grated 1 garlic clove crushed Handful of fresh mint leaves finely chopped Salt and pepper to season To Serve Sourdough bread thinly sliced 1 red onion finely sliced Capers Micro Greens (mustard or rocket works good with salmon) Place the salmon fillets skin down on the bench and remove the bones with tweezers (or you can ask your fishmonger to do this for you). Place sugar, salt flakes, finely grated lemon zest, and chopped dill in a bowl, add freshly ground pepper and mix well. Then rub it into your salmon. Give it a good massage. Sandwich the two salmon sides together and wrap them firmly with some cling film. Place it on a platter or on a baking tray and weigh it down with another platter and place it in the fridge. After 12 hours, remove the salmon from the wrap (it would have created some juices) and rewrap and place it back into the fridge with another platter on top. Turn it over every 12 hours. After three days, your salmon is ready to eat and will last in the refrigerator for up to a week.

To make the Quark Raita, grate the cucumber, sprinkle some salt over it and let it drain in a sieve for 20 minutes. Squeeze as much of the liquid out of the cucumber before mixing it with the chopped mint and garlic into the quark. Season with salt and pepper and store in the fridge until ready to serve. You can make up little bites of sourdough bread, topped with Quark Raita, salmon, red onions, capers and a sprinkling of micro greens and serve them on a platter or you can place all the ingredients on a platter and let everyone help themselves. If you have any leftover salmon, try it on scrambled egg, in sushi, in a salad or over new potatoes and with asparagus.

Savoury Quark on Sourdough Bread or serve on cucumber slices and fill cherry tomatoes You will need: 250g of quark 1 tomato finely chopped 2 spring onions finely sliced a handful of chopped parsley Or try a combination of herbs: chives, parsley and garlic basil coriander and chili or peppers It’s all simple: Mix quark with chopped herbs and refrigerate until needed. Serve on bread or crackers or on slices of cucumbers and filled in cherry tomatoes.

KAREN TOBICH

Raspberry Quark Dessert To serve eight guests you will need: 1kg of quark 4 cups of fresh raspberries (if need be you can use frozen ones) ¼ cup sugar 4 tablespoons of sugar Finely grated zest of 2-3 lemons 2-4 tablespoons of lemon juice Mix the quark with ¼ cup of sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice and set aside. Keep eight raspberries aside and sprinkle the rest with four tablespoons of sugar. Choose dessert glasses that hold about 150- 200ml. Place a couple of spoonfuls of raspberries in each glass; cover with a couple of spoonfuls of quark mixture; then another layer of raspberries, a spoonful of quark and top each glass with a single raspberry.

Fresh Pea & Broad Bean Spread You will need: 1 cup of fresh garden peas 1 cup of broad beans - pod and jacket removed (you can use frozen ones if you do not have fresh ones) ¼ cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese 1 large clove of garlic finely chopped Quality New Zealand olive oil Salt and pepper

Place peas and beans onto a plate, and mash them up with a fork. You could do this in a blender, but I quite like the rustic effect of mashing them up with a fork. Add the parmesan, garlic and enough olive oil to make a chunky spread. Season and refrigerate until needed. Top sourdough bread with this luscious green paste and sprinkle with micro greens.

KATE SOUTHCOMBE

Telling it how it is: Does the truth have to hurt? Delivering the right message is more important than a blunt one.

Teachers Matter

radio show got me thinking recently. The host discussed the NZ Rugby Association’s decision to monitor the Small Black games because of the enormous score differences between some teams. There is a recommendation to cap the maximum score at Small Black games so children don’t feel upset about losing 100 – nil. This news item turned into a general debate on whether we should tell people the truth. Should we tell them the facts about their ability or indeed anything that we feel they should know, even if the facts might upset them? Or do we sugar

coat it and disguise it, or even hide it, as the rugby association appear to be doing? The radio show held a phone-in survey, and of course, the consensus (actually it was about five callers to this one radio show!) is that we as a nation want to know the truth regardless, just gives us the hard facts and be done with it. Does the truth have to be harsh facts? And is it really about being sugar-coated and PC, or being hard and truthful? I felt that the DJ and his callers missed the point: We are training these small rugby players; we are honing their skills; and the score is a

small part of the process. However the score also plays a vital role in developing team moral and individual optimism. A team of small children defeated by a goal score of 100 – nil may find it hard to see beyond the score. Depending on how sensitively the result is handled, the news can impact these players’ attitudes and ambition for the next game. The sports coach needs to decide what outcome to focus on and in doing so he determines what will guide these young players down the path to greatness, rather than the path of apathy. Maybe “match fixing” isn’t ideal, but the intention is

KATE SOUTHCOMBE

to educate rather than denigrate, to find solutions rather than state problems. It’s strange how we often connect caring and understanding and emotions with being soft. I believe this reluctance to acknowledge and even accept feelings as part of being human leads to frustration and undesirable behaviour as children and adults struggle to communicate their emotions. An advert featuring a

“ We are training these small rugby players; we are honing their skills; and the score is a small part of the process.“

• Who gets to decide on the class rules? • How do we mark work? • How do we give feedback? Softening the hard facts for children is about training them, gradually exposing them to the hard and often harsh facts that as adults we learn to take on the chin. We aim to gradually desensitize children to the shock of apparent failure or loss, enabling them to develop skills and values and beliefs about themselves that provide a strong foundation for dealing with bad news, poor results, or direct criticism. It’s about being clear about our learning outcomes: What do we want the children to experience? Do we really want them to experience pain or failure? Or is our outcome for them to learn how to deal with pain and apparent failure? Or to realize that pain and failure can be redirected to help us strive forth or re-approach a task with new information? After all pain is nature’s way of giving feedback – we need to change something we are doing (Friedman, 2005). Perhaps what we need to focus on is the questions we encourage children to ask when they receive the hard facts. Anthony Robbins (2002) places great importance on the questions we ask ourselves. He suggests using empowering useful questions such as: • What can I learn from this? or

high-profile ex All Black suffering from depression has taken us, as a country, a tiny step forward toward embracing our feelings and understanding that emotions makes us human. It is possible for children and adults to “feel,” while still living in the real world of hard facts. Teachers have implicit values and beliefs about emotions that are demonstrated every day within our classrooms. Our displays, our seating arrangements, our class rules, our desk location all give clues as to what we value and what we believe is important – even our routines convey our view about emotions and hard facts. For example consider the following • How do we change our class jobs list?

• How can I improve for next time? or • What training do I need to do to have another go? All too often we focus on debilitating, destructive questions – like why does this always happen to me? This sort of question takes us on an endless journey to nowhere. The need to balance the hard facts with a soft approach is reflected in the concept of learnt helplessness, a phenomenon where the subject gives up despite being able to achieve a result, purely because for so long he has “failed”’ at something (Martin & Pear, 2003). If children feel overwhelmed by failure, such as a goal difference of 100 – 0, there is the tendency to stop trying altogether.

We can’t completely control children’s learning, they learn in spite of us. However, we can within our classrooms and schools have some control over the lear ning experiences. We need to consider how we can provide a range of opportunities that allow children to experience, deal with, and question the hard facts within a safe, supportive environment. There are times when the hard facts can’t be disguised and children can’t be prepared for receiving them. Observations, emergencies, bad news and accidents all require quick efficient communication of the facts. But if we strip feelings from all our personal, social and educational experiences and only represent the facts, we lose sight of what it is to be truly human. We all know how this lack of emotional connection affects the lives of autistic and aspergers children. As Anthony Robbins points out, our reality is only our perception of the world. Do we really want to encourage our children to perceive their world as one of only hard facts? Yes there are winners and losers in life, in sport, in games, in singing competitions and in exams – but that’s not to say the losers never win or can’t win next time or that they shouldn’t ever try again. Te Whaariki (Ministry of Education, 1996) discusses learning dispositions, and perseverance is one of them: How do we foster this disposition if we only ever give the hard facts? We foster it by providing a supportive, caring environment where children feel capable of picking themselves up and having another go, knowing that they can control how they feel about themselves and they can control what they do in the future to change the outcome.

• How do we choose children’s work for display?

CHRISTINE KERR

Which language do you speak the most? The way we think and speak has a powerful effect on our days – and our students.

hich language do you speak the most? This question seems an easy one to answer at first, but wait; I imagine you are thinking that you speak Afrikaans, Maori, Chinese, Korean, or English. That type of cultural language is not what I’m referring to; I am referring to a language that is more universal, and much more important: positive or negative language. So, which language do you speak, and think, the most: Positive or negative?

“ You can think, speak and breathe positivity into the situation.”

For some reason, it is much easier to think and speak negative thoughts, but unfortunately that leads straight toward negative results, whether it be a negative day, or experience.

Teachers Matter

There is plenty of hope, though. You are definitely able to turn this negative state

every day, embedding in our minds positive perspectives on every situation, so this manifests, and over time, will become an automatic response: “Our mind is like a clock; it needs to be wound up with good thoughts every day,” writes Haydn Sargent in his book Power to Choose. As we practise this ourselves, we can encourage our students and staff to do the same. At the very least, we can model this.

Insight: Body language

Yo u m a y b e l i e v e y o u speak positively most of the time, so if I were to challenge you to carry a portable recorder around with you for a couple of days or so, I wonder if your assumption would be realised? I will leave this challenge activity up to you.

As adults, in any line of occupation, the rule still applies. As you drive into your staff car park one morning, you might be dreading a challenging conversation you have planned for the day, whether it be with a student, parent or colleague. You wish the situation would just go away.

For instance, if a student enters the school gate in the morning, saying, “I wish I didn’t have to be here today; I just know that I won’t have a good day today.” Well guess what is going to happen? That’s right: What they state will be realised. They will have the miserable day they are expecting. Imagine the result if they do this on a daily basis. If a student, or a teacher, begins the day in a negative state of mind, it is almost guaranteed they will leave school at the end of the day reinforcing what they expected.

of mind into a positive one, and talk your mind into believing the experience will empower you, and know you will have the skills required to overcome: You can think, speak and breathe positivity into the situation. And even before that, when we first wake up in the morning, if we are thinking, “ OK this is not going to be a good day; I have so much to do; I am so stressed,” clearly that is not the best start for a precious day. How many days of our lives are we missing true enjoyment, because we are speaking or thinking negatively before we even get out of bed? Friends, family and other people we meet can often bring their own negative thoughts to our attention, and if we choose, we will take them on board and suffer negative consequences. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We all get to choose! And yes, it is not an easy thing to do. It takes a concerted effort to practise. And we need to practise

Body language helps deliver the message as well; lift your eyebrows, the corners of your mouth and puff out that chest. It works wonders on influencing others to lift their spirits, too. This is also fun while you walk around the supermarket or while driving your car. People can appear so serious; let’s give them a boost. People might wonder what you are on, which is a positive thing, and always remember, you have the power to choose. For instance, we are all able to feel inferior to someone else, if that is what we choose to believe.

Insight: Don’t worry While we can be worrying about what other people think of us, and how inferior we feel against them, they are probably too busy worrying about what others are thinking of them. Sargent says: “No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.” This also applies to being offended. No one can be offended by you, unless they choose to be. If you never have any intention of offending someone, it is not your responsibility if they decide to be offended. That is their personal decision.

CHRISTINE KERR

Teachers are in a powerful position. You are possibly familiar with the Henry Adams quote: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” You can be the positive influence in the lives of all your students each day. You can help people choose to feel better, and believe me, you are the one who will feel the best of all. By thinking positively, and speaking positive language, you will create an enthusiasm

and joy about you that people will want to be around. You can turn any negative statement of your own, or another person’s, into a positive one. Yes, at first, if you are not used to this, it takes concentration and effort, but the more you practise, the easier it will become. And before you know it, you will be doing it naturally. Then you will truly be able to say “I speak

positive language the most.” See what a great difference it will make to your day-today life. A great story to illustrate the power of positive language and thought follows. You might wish to share this gem with others. If read aloud in school assemblies, slowly and embellished with expression, this is very powerful:

THE TALE OF TWO WOLVES An old American Indian is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil: He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is good: He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute, then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win the fight?” The old Indian simply replied, “The one you feed the most.”

BARRY THE FISH WITH FINGERS

BARBARA GRIFFITH

Author and Illustrator: Sue Hendra

A colourful way to learn Ask the right questions, and serious themes shine through silly drawings.

Publisher Scholastic Books ISBN-978 0 86461 923 5

Activities Comic Strip Choose what you think are the story’s five main events and draw a small stick illustration to show what was happening at this stage. Add some text to help tell the story. You could also add some speech bubbles.

his book tells the story of Barry the fish. Although the fish who live at the bottom of the ocean are diverse shapes and colours and sizes, Barry is decidedly different from them as he has fingers at the ends of his fins. This astounds the other fish and they flock to see all the different uses that Barry can find for his fingers. They have lots of fun when Barry uses his fingers to tickle them. Unfortunately, they are no longer interested in Puffy, the puffer fish, who could blow all kinds of interestingly shaped bubbles — big bubbles, small bubbles, round bubbles and square bubbles. Barry finds an extra use for his fingers, as he is able to save Puffy’s life when a heavy box plummets to the sea floor.

Timeline of events Make a timeline of the events in the story and how Puffy is feeling at each time.

+ Good/Positive Having a party with his new friends Barry saved his life

Centre of attention

Teachers Matter

The box contained musical instruments. They all had a party, and Barry played the piano with his fingers and Puffy blew the trumpet.

T h e b o o k ’s p a g e s a r e f i l l e d w i t h b r i g h t , cartoonish illustrations.

Jealous of Barry

- Bad/Negative

In danger of being killed

BARBARA GRIFFITH

Characters

Setting

Story Map Add information into each box about the characters and setting. Decide upon the problem in the story and how they were able to solve it.

Title

Problem

Solution

Supporting Information

Theme

Main Theme

Sometimes picture books don’t have to be sophisticated to have a message. Read the text. Decide what you think is the main theme of this story. Eg:making friends, being different from others, coping with being different. Find supporting information from the book to support your hypothesis. Plenty of discussion could be initiated on the theme. eg: How would they have felt if they had been Puffy or Barry and what would they have done differently?

Supporting Information

BARBARA GRIFFITH

Double Bubble Map Complete this map to show the similarities and differences between Barry and Puffy

Different from the other fish

Could blow bubbles

Puffy

Said no one wanted to see his bubble show

Fish

The other fish were amazed at what they could do

Had fingers

Barry

Saved Puffy’s life

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WENDY SWEET

Why fitness matters Understanding the difference between “activity” and “fit”

the New Zealand government tries to mitigate obesity and diabetes in our children, it is timely to remind health and PE teachers of the health benefits of “improved fitness.” I use the term “fitness” purposively. It is a term that is absent from the youth obesity and diabetes discourse, as the preferred terms “physical activity and movement skills” have prominence. Yet, the difference between being “physically active” and “physically fit” is important from a bio-medical perspective. The changes that accrue from a certain “dose” or Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type (The FITT Principle, taken from the pioneer of exercise physiology, Robert Fitt’s) of cardiovascular and strength activities elicit a metabolic “response” that eventually contributes to physiological improvements in the cardiovascular system and skeletal muscle. The adaptations that occur from a progressive and accumulative approach to better fitness enable morphological improvements in cardiac and skeletal muscle, which decreases diabetes and obesity.

Teachers Matter

R.H. Fitts, an exercise physiologist, shaped much of the current thinking regarding exercise training and “dose-response” relationships in the ’70s. Fitts and other exercise physiologists found that exercise duration as well as intensity resulted in positive changes in muscle oxidative capacity. This is an important issue for heath and PE teachers to re-visit, as it is the impairments in skeletal muscle mitochondrial function and lipid (fat)

oxidation that are known to play a significant role in metabolic problems such as insulin resistance, obesity and Type 2 diabetes. As well, new research on strength training also shows a protective role in Type 2 diabetes, although how this occurs is not fully understood. Understanding the role of the mitochondria is essential for anyone involved in promoting and supporting cardiovascular and musculoskeletal fitness gains. Mitochondria are organelles within skeletal muscle that can impressively boost a muscle’s capability to burn fat, improve insulin sensitivity, minimize fatigue and enhance capacity to synthesize fuel for physical activity and exercise (Menshikova et al., 2007). Kravitz reports that those who participate in regular endurance exercise increase the density and size of the mitochondria thus improving their ability to utilise more fat and use less carbohydrate for fuel during exercise. A secondary effect is the reduction in metabolic acidosis (lactic acid) produced in the muscles enabling the exercising body to do more work, experience less fatigue and burn more calories with each workout. All of these capabilities by the mitochondria are referred to as “mitochondrial biogenesis.” The question: How much exercise is enough to produce these necessary biological changes? Va n d e r H e i j d e n ’ s 2 0 0 9 s t u d y o f cardiovascular training in obese postpubescent youth provides some insight into the intensity debate. Twenty-nine subjects

(both male and female) underwent 12 weeks of supervised aerobic training (four sessions of 30 minutes each session) and wore heart rate monitors in an attempt to keep them exercising at an intensity of 70 percent of their aerobic capacity, a moderate intensity. The control group was lean subjects. The findings supported a 14 percent decrease in insulin concentration in the obese group compared to only 8 percent in the lean group; 3 percent decrease in percentage body fat in the obese group, and no change in the lean group. In a study of previously sedentary adults, Menshikova et. al (2007) also showed that moderate intensity aerobic exercise, four to six times per week and progressing from 30 – 40 minutes per session for 16 weeks resulted in significant mitochondrial biogenesis adaptations. The obese subjects in this study were also placed on a 25 percent calorie reduction diet. They averaged a 7 percent loss in body weight.

Fitness and academic achievement Studies involving public school students in California found a distinct connection between fitness and ability in reading and maths. Higher achievement was associated with higher levels of fitness, and the relationship between fitness and mathematical achievement was strongest.

WENDY SWEET

The take-home message: Improving “cardiovascular and muscular fitness” in health-challenged youth is important and mustn’t be forgotten. Whilst the current curriculum favours seven key learning areas, including “movement skills for physical competence, enjoyment, a sense of self-worth, and an active lifestyle,” focusing on fitness is important. Sedentary behaviour favours a significant drop in the oxidative capacity of skeletal muscle as well as increases in fat deposition. These two factors combine to produce the characteristics of insulin resistance and weight gain.

“ The difference between being “physically active” and “physically fit” is important from a bio-medical perspective.”

PHO O PHOT O: IGOR GOLO GOLOVNOV VNOV VNO NOV N

Assisting younger students to attain and maintain cardiovascular and fitness improvements is an integral part of the health-exercise equation but I also acknowledge that it may well be a practitioner’s dilemma in an overcrowded health and physical education c u r r i c u l u m . Ye t , i t ’s a g o a l w o r t h striving for: Health and PE teachers are in a unique position to support and motivate higher health-risk students toward acquiring the minimum levels of cardiovascular exercise (30 minutes a day at a moderate intensity) needed to produce the metabolic and structural adaptations that need to occur in the mitochondria of skeletal muscle.

GRO ANE

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Teach critical, creative and co-operative thinking in your classroom! innovative teachers’ companionss

A1 ITC Thinking g Skills Poster

A RY PRIMA PRIMARY ON TIO EDITIO EDITION 012 2 2012

EARLY YEARS EDITION 2012

Bloom Level

Design

Acting like an inventor, experiencing ‘light bulb’ moments to generate new products, ideas or ways of doing things.

Acting like the scales of justice to weigh up the evidence to make and justify a decision.

Evaluate

Analyse

Area?

bxh

Acting like a magnifying glass to closely examine and identify the component parts of an issue, situation or object.

Acting to apply new skills, rules and concepts to related and new situations.

Starters

Tools

Create Extrapolate Improve Invent Modify Predict Programme Propose Synthesise

Design a database for... Formulate a set of criteria to judge... Compose a song, jingle or rap to... Develop an argument to persuade people to... Generate key questions for... Create a role play/experiment to... Adapt a project studied so that... Design a personal action plan to... Develop a series of podcasts that respond to...

MAS 1:4:P:C:R Image Associated Ideas Word Association Y-Chart/Split Y-Chart PCImprove

Argue (for/against) Assess Conclude Critique Decide Judge Justify Prioritise Recommend

To what extent... Which of the two...would be better for... Justify the decision of... Determine which is more effective... Evaluate the effectiveness of... Select which is the best option...or... Rank the following from...to... Defend the issue...on a blog... Validate the accuracy of the following sites...

Extent Barometer Decision-Making Matrix Judge-Jury PCQ Extension Elimination Draw Human Continuum

Argue (about) Debate Deconstruct Differentiate Discuss Distinguish Identify Investigate Summarise (complex)

Analyse...from at least 4 perspectives... Discuss the similarities and differences of... Compare... Investigate all factors that could influence...in... Summarise the viewpoints...on a wiki... Deduce how parts interact in... Conduct research on the issue of...in order to gain a deeper understanding of... Research the pros and cons of...

PCQ & PCQ Extension Attribute Listing Double Bubble Map Decision-Making Matrix T-Chart Fishbone Diagram Y-Chart/Split Y-Chart Icon Prompt SWOT Analysis

Calculate Compile Complete Demonstrate Dramatise d

Apply previously learnt knowledge to construct... Classify the following...into their correct... Interview a group of people...to identify... Formulate 4 questions based on your knowledge of... Write a letter to the editor pointing out... fl h f

Role Plays Silent Card Shuffle POE Attribute Listing Flow Chart

needs of K–2 teachers Tailored to the specific of Learning Framework Linked to the Early Years learning strategies 19 Cognitive and Co-operative Play-Based Learning, Professional Readings: more Environment and much Creating the Learning lesson ideas Scores of easily integrated

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Exciting Web 2.0 Applications FREE Thinking Skills Framework Preparing sensibly for NAPLAN National Curriculum–aligned lesson ideas Co-operative learning–the 4 principles Developing critical and creative higher order thinking skills 2012 A VATION NNOVA INNOVATION IN

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Your New Early Years Diary: • Tailored to the speciﬁc needs of K–2 teachers • Linked to the Early Years of innovative Learning Framework teachers’ companion • 19 Cognitive and Co-operative Your NEW Early Years Diary learning strategies • Professional Readings: Play-Based Learning, Creating the QSNNMPRGLE RC?AFGLE e Learning Environment and much more ?LB JC?PLGLE as Early Years Edition • Scores of easily integrated lesson ideas

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Y Your New Primary or Secondary Diary Contains: • Exciting Web 2.0 Applications • FREE Thinking Skills Framework • Preparing sensibly for NAPLAN • National Curriculum-aligned lesson ideas • Co-operative learning – the 4 principles • Developing critical and creative higher order thinking skills

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Teachers Resources & Lessons

Alcohol has been around for thousands of years. It changes how people think, feel and behave. It is also big business. Big companies make a lot of money from selling it. Many people owe their jobs to alcohol. It is also the cause of many bad things in our society. Make three lists. One of all the good things about alcohol and another of all the bad things. The third list should be of things that could be both good and bad.

by Adrian Rennie

Past Knowledge What do you know about alcohol? Have you seen people drink it? Have you seen people drink too much of it?

After all that good thinking about alcohol, do some extra deep thinking. Write the two biggest reasons why alcohol should be banned: Alcohol SHOULD be banned because __________________________________

_____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________.

Thinking About Thinking Being able to see both sides of an issue is a great thinking skill.

Alcohol SHOULD be banned because __________________________________

_____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________. Alcohol should NOT be banned because _________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________. Alcohol should NOT be banned because _________________________________

_____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________.

Thinking And Communicating With Clarity And Precision Make sure your reasons are clear and easy to understand. They need to make sense to the reader. Think your reasons through before writing them well.

Should alcohol be banned? Would it make a difference? Would people just find a way to get it illegally anyway? What is your opinion? Tick a box…

Teachers Resources & Lessons

by Adrian Rennie

Creating, Imagining and Innovating This challenge is all about creating something new by combining two things. Take a clock and build it into some other object. Make it thoughtful and unique. Imagine the finished clock before you start and the steps needed to get there.

Bicycle Clock

Cutlery Clock

Some of the best ideas and inventions today come from combining old technology to make something new. Combine a clock and something of your choice to come up with a new design of time piece that is creative and innovative. Use the practise clock faces below to sketch your ideas. Choose the very best or most interesting one to draw beautifully on to a presentation page.

Pizza Clock

Soccer Player Clock

Soccer Ball Clock

Teachers Resources & Lessons

In this challenge you will create a new and crazy character using the help of two other thinking buddies. In the first box you draw the head of your crazy character. Then fold the page so that your buddy can’t see what you have drawn. Pass it on. Everyone then draws the body of their character on someone else’s page. Fold and pass it again and finish by drawing the legs.

This is Codie’s character. He drew the head making sure that the neck crossed the dotted line. He folded it over so that his friends could not see what he had drawn.

by Adrian Rennie

Creating, Imagining and Innovating Get an image in your mind of the different parts of your character. See the colours and the shapes on the page before you start. Draw expertly.

Working Interdependently Each person adds another section of the crazy character. You have to take care and respect the work of your buddies. Give them the best effort you can so that they end up with a cool character. Contribute positively to their success.

Teachers Matter

He then passed it on to his thinking buddy, Raniera. Raniera drew the body without looking at the head. He made sure that the body he was drawing crossed over the dotted line. He then folded the page along the dotted line so that his drawing was hidden.

Then it was Richard’s turn. He drew the legs for the character. Codie got his page back and had fun discovering what his crazy character looked like.

Here is another finished character.

Teachers Resources & Lessons

by Adrian Rennie

Name

A.Rennie 201075

Teachers Resources & Lessons

by Adrian Rennie Thinking About Thinking Be aware of the steps your brain takes to finally choose an animal. Be thorough in your thinking about each animal and in your brainstorm.

What if you could magically change into any animal you wanted? Which animal would you like to be? There would probably be advantages and disadvantages. You would have to consider them all before choosing. Brainstorm a list of possible animals in this space:

Past Knowledge You’ll have to remember all of the facts you have learnt about animals to finally decide which one you will want to be. Questions and Problem Posing How long do they live? What special abilities do they have? How hard or easy is their life? Are they likely to be eaten by another animal?

Animals

My Animal:

Teachers Matter

Great things about being my animal:

Disadvantages about being my animal:

THE LAST WORD: KAREN BOYES

Rituals enrich your classroom Choose whatever rituals you like – just stick with them.

Rituals also satisfy one of the six human needs, according to Tony Robbins. He states that everyone has a need for certainty, knowing what is going to happen and when. We also have a need for uncertainty or variety ( second human need), which dovetails nicely into using rituals within your classroom environment. Here’s how: Rituals are predictable and create certainty for the learner. Having rituals can lower the stress levels in a classroom and creates longevity and a safer environment to be in. Almost all institutions that have survived for the past 100 to 500 years are based on strong ritualisation. For example: the army, the Catholic Church, Rotary and Freemason clubs. The rituals stay the same while the information within the structure varies. This is the key to longevity – having a strong frame or structure, which creates certainty, so the information within the frame can change constantly and even radically, keeping the learner secure in the knowledge of what is going to happen at certain points of the process. For example roll call may be a morning ritual as you mark the attendance register and you can add the variety by singing it, asking children to stand when their name is called, saying good morning in a different language, using fun voices and so on. The ritual remains and there is variety within it. You will have developed a series of rituals within your classroom and by consciously adding to these, you can further enrich your students’ learning. Another key to creating rituals is consistency or it is not a ritual. You will know if you have successfully ritualised an event because if you miss it, the student

will tell you. Rituals are ideal at the beginning and end of a lesson or day, plus within what happens in a lesson, to cement learning. Here are suggestions:

some

Opening Rituals: G r e e t i ng e a c h c h i l d by name as they enter your classroom. Singing a welcome song or positive message song first thing in the morning. Roll call with added variety as above. Reviewing the previous day’s work to keep it fresh so you can expand on it today. Doing mental fitness exercises to “switch on the brain.” Learning Rituals: Mind mappping key points of a lesson. Turning to a partner to discuss what has been learned every 10 to 15 minutes. Teaching a partner new information. Other Rituals: Call in song so students know when you are about to start. Telling a joke after lunch. Thinking puzzles on the board for quick finishers. Relaxation exercises after lunch to calm and re-focus. High fives for great work. Using a Koosh ball or talking stick during class discussion for the speaker while the others listen. Lining up on a certain line when children go out for physical education. Wait time of 7 to 10 seconds after asking a question and calling on a response. Closing Rituals: Reviewing the day’s content and learnings. Packing up ritual – my son’s teacher sings a “pack up song” which students start singing while they pack up; alternatively play the William Tell Overture on CD. Record your lesson thoughts or learnings in a journal. Sing or play a positive word song before students go home. Ideas include What a Wonderful World, Simply The Best, We Are The Champions or on a bad day Who Let The Dogs Out. I’m joking!

PHOTO: CATHY YEULET

he power of rituals is often under rated in a classroom setting. Used correctly, they are the foundational glue that holds your entire classroom together. A ritual is an activity that is consistently triggered by an event. In other words when A occurs, B also occurs. For example, you are going to bed, so you clean your teeth. Or it is the beginning of a school’s day so you mark the class roll.

There are literally thousands of rituals. There will possibly be rituals in the school that have been created by others, and you don’t even know why you do these. At the first school I taught at, I introduced a “sunshine smile” ( borrowed from an associate teacher) after the Happy Birthday song was sung. Nearly 20 years later, the teachers in that school still perform the “sunshine smile” and only one teacher will remember the origin of it. It is also important to talk to parents about rituals within their home environment. Having a morning, bedtime, homework, housework routine can make life so much easier. This does not mean being regimented or strict about tasks, just a “this is the way we do it around here” attitude. Eric Jensen suggests with so much change in the world right now, it is reassuring and comfortable for students to know some rituals will happen every day. For some students, you, the classroom teacher, are their only constant. Use rituals within your classroom to inspire, inform and energise your students to success.

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Articles inside

Why fi tness matters

Which language do you speak the most?

Kaore or kaore ano - No or Not yet?

How does your face rate on Facebook?

Telling it how it is: Does the truth have to hurt?

Spring entertaining

How rock ‘n’ roll saved loads of time

The nature of school

Test Yourself

Growing through mistakes

The alarm you’ll look forward to: iStudyAlarm

Are you a half tank pike?

Top 10 trends for schools

Make time your ally

The seven phases of values development

Hidden infl uences on student learning

The 3 metre rule

Five “F” Factors

Understanding counterwill

Thinking interdependently

Formative assessment: It’s all about process

Upgrading your in-house leadership development