TM Issue 16 by Mary Hester

PROFESSIONALLY & PERSONALLY

TeachersMatter The Magazine of Spectrum Education

Use predicting to improve attention p. 12

Think your way out of stress p. 14

Students sign on for confidence p. 35

Perfect your teacher’s vision p. 54

NZ$15 / AU$15

Leaders in Developing Teachers

ISSUE 16

Make Oral Literacy your Priority for 2012 Easi-Speak Sound Recorder

Easi-Speak

Child-friendly MP3 player. Ideal for running records, independent reading, interviewing and saving thoughts or ideas. Built-in USB for easy download

Easi-Speak Mic Stand

Talking Tins

10 secs - Yellow

Easy to use, magnetic disk-shaped device – record instructions, story starters or clues that can be played back at any time (and many times!) at a click of a button

40 secs - Red

Story Sequencer

$7 $76.00

Create talking stories, class timetables or questions and answer games on this recordable bar. Simple to use - slot in up to six images or words and then record a corresponding 10 second message per slot, press to play back!

Talk Tracker

$13.00 $16.00

Talking Photo Albums Simply insert drawings or photos into the plastic wallets and record a message on every page to support the image. Re-record each page as many times as you want. Perfect for creating a record of a field trip or an inquiry.

$167.00

MP3 recorder designed for desk top recording. Use for debates, discussions and conversations.

$103.00 $29.00

Talking Photo Album A5

Talking Photo Album A3 – 10 second recording

$103.00

Talking Photo Album A5 – 5 mins recording

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Sitech Systems NZ Radio Station “The best thing that I have ever done in fifteen years of being a Principal” Jan Tinetti Merivale School, Tauranga

Setting up a Radio Transmitting Station 2x studio condenser microphones 2x sprung desk arms to support mics. 1x computer hum eliminator 1x USB to line converter 2x Easi-Speak recorders for out-of-studio recording 1x set of fit out cables 1x headphone amplifier (for up to 4 headphones) 2x sets Sony high quality headphones 1x FM transmitter 1x FM transmitting aerial Kit set Price $3699.00

1x audio mixer

Get your school on the airwaves!!

Free Phone 0800 100 607 • Free Fax 0800 300 607 • Website www.sitech.co.nz Pricing excludes GST and freight - Sitech Systems terms and conditions apply. Visit www.sitech.co.nz for current pricing, on-line quotes and to place an order. Email sales@sitech.co.nz

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.

cover photo: PHUCHONG CHOKSAMAI

CONTENTS

In this issue

14 3

iStudyAlarm

Editor’s note

JOKES

Mirror neurons

karen boyes

Learning from my elders

Closing the gap for indigenous children

maggie dent

Smarting pants

art costa

glenn capelli

Get attention with curiosity and prediction

Dr. judy willis

dr marvin marshall

16 Not another staff meeting allie mooney

The digital classroom: It is not just an IT issue alan cooper

26 Riding the absurdity curve

14 Reducing stress

lucy king

kristen de deyn kirk

4542

greg ward

Listening with understanding and empathy

michele de bellis

30 How to try something once julie woods

Time is people

Gearing up for study

Using Youtube in the classroom

Teachers Matter

karen boyes

simon evans

37 Are you getting enough feedback? steve francis

40 School leavers: Prepare Your World for 2012

yvonne godfrey

42 How do we value students?

kate southcombe

Sort it out

ngahi bidios

karen tobich

47 When being left isn’t always write

Teachers resources and lessons pages 49-50 & 71-72

jill wright

Schools take to the airwaves

jenny barrett

Contents

MAGAZINE CONTACTS

Teachers Matter Magazine Team

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Publisher, Sales and Advertising: Karen Boyes

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Editor: Kristen De Deyn Kirk Art Director: 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.

58 54 Your teaching vision for 2012 christine kerr

Great tools to keep our kids safe – and save time robyn pearce

58 High petrol prices: The best thing to happen for our health

rowena szeszeran-mcevoy

60 What kids should know about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

thelma van der werff

68 62 A problem to solve? Think creatively!

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.

64 Older, wiser and ... healthier?

The opinions expressed in Teachers Matter are those of the contributors and we love them!

wendy sweet

Quick summer food

All Enquiries

Barbara griffith & tricia kenyon

karen tobich

68 A new way to approach New Year’s Resolutions john shackleton

Live above the line

Quote

Karen Boyes

marva collins

Spectrum Education Ltd Street Address: 19 Rondane Place, Lower Hutt, New Zealand Postal Address: PO Box 30818, Lower Hutt, New Zealand Phone: (NZ) +64 4 528 9969 Fax: (NZ) +64 4 528 0969 magazine@spectrumeducation.com www.spectrumeducation.com Lioncrest Education

Quick Summer Food Page 66

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editor’s NOTE EDITOr’S NOTE

love yoga, spin and kickboxing classes; the first one pushes me mentally (compulsive thoughts must pause to strike that pose perfectly!) and the second two challenge me physically (heart and thighs must persist through pain to experience that “I-did-it” high!). But after two years of being fairly dedicated to these three types of exercise, I’ve been finding excuses to sit in my leather chair and eat Pop Tarts every morning instead of venturing to the Y. Finally, with the New Year quickly approaching and my desire to get serious about fitness, I decided to try a new class – one that would challenge my fitness level and my fear of putting my face in water.

and, although I really wanted to play it cool again, a smile crept onto my face. “That’s it!,” she said.

Next I had to go on my back and hug one leg as I kicked with the other and reverse it for a final lap. As awkward as scratching your own back, but I did it. Who cares that I was the last one to finish – and stupidly attempted to do A “Finning” sounded fun when mentioned it call the shots (don’t be • Let students ouldn’t itclass be great if you coulda friend the end-of-class cool down stretches with my flippers on: I last notSimon a scared;but read Evans’ article)managed to only get one quarter-size splash q uyear. i c k lShe’s y s k ilike m me t h e– caofairly n t e nregular t s o f exerciser had somehow fitness fanatic. Surely,aifn d shes ucould Teachers Matter d d e ndo l y it, so could I. It took of water on my face; my hair was mostly dry; and I made it Invest solutions, not standards me teacher awhile to that I might have to,• for the firstintime become the of realise every student’s, parent’s through the whole class.y No need to harp on the fact that (imagine the possibilities with Barr since I was 11, actually swim with and principal’s dreams? Not possible, right?my face in the water it was only 45 minutes long. Musson) and get the my hair wet.of The class description was what made We know that process becoming an me teacher worry: ittakes mentioned “high cardio” and “total body,” Afterwards, reflected on how much the Habits of Mind • Follow a GPS and map itI out (Bena exceptional openness, research, which sounded like a lot of splashing. had helped me through Kallick suggests that you take hintsthe process. I was subconsciously practice and commitment – in other words, a using – which understand is the ultimate goal of from to staythem on track in Ithe significant investment of time. As Stacy, the smiling teacher, rolled out the technology rubbish the 16 Habits: you practice them enough so that they classroom) filled with you fins, can I tried play it cool and follow the But therebin is something do to right now become part of you and you rely on them to grow in all experienced over the• flippers, to at least start the finners. process.They Hereflipped are some Freeze looking the positivity (tips onIkeeping kids situations. was definitely persisting (despite thinking for a size close to their shoe size, so I did, too. Some then quick teasers – a few words to summarise excited, compliments of Chris Kerr) listening with understanding when the about quitting!); on the left what theheaded expertstointhe this“fast” issuelanes are sharing – and others to the teacher spoke; thinking • Be the community kind (how to go flexibly (I sort of had an open middle section, sliding to spark “slow” your interest. Take a after deeper look on at their fins as they sat mind, right?!); thinking beyond a good student to a good citizenabout my thinking (realizing my on thelater edge. Onethen woman demonstrated their articles and go even further her gloves – which “self-talk” and encouraging myself); striving for accuracy with advice from David Koutsoukis) weremore webbed and their rubbery-looking by reading about techniques,– to two women (no (I really wanted to kick my legs the “right way”); thinking in this classthe of 15). She had and brought her own gloves, taking amen class, trying techniques • Slip, Slop, Slap (from the master of catchy and communicating with clarity and precision (I clarified and I wrongly guessed laps would be easier if I then eventually mastering them.that Stepmy by step, phrases – Glenn Capelli) things the teacher told me); taking responsible risks (I had prettyway pair,to too. you’ll be ona your communicating was smart to not attempt this in an ocean for starters); • Get personal with your students (Kevin clearly, motivating yourresistance,” students andStacy helping “They increase explained later. “It’s a remaining open to continuous learning; and maybe most Mayall tells you why) them develop lifelong love of learning: hardera workout.” important, finding humour (I hope you can see that I can • If it’s not broken,poke stillfun fix at it myself!) (Martz Witty After 11 minutes (yep, I looked), I wanted to quit. I was keeps you improving) with the gloved woman and her two newbie friends – Art Costa spells out the Habits in this issue, and many of • Share with everyone who looked to be 20 years my senior. They were your going “view” our other writers specifically mention them or indirectly (Ngahi Bidois an analogy to show youto work makes a difference in the faster than me as we alternated laps between going onuses show how putting them thesitting-in-arewards) our side, our stomach, our back and a weird classroom and in life. If you’re not already familiar with chair position and did different kicks (straight-leg flutters, the Habits or not yet practicing them, the start of the year, • If you’re ready, the “not-ready” child bent-knee kicks, mountain climbing-like kicks). I am not with all its promise and possibilities, is the perfect time to might still grow (Maggie Dent explains proud to admit this but I am competitive: I would hate to do so – and I think reading this magazine is the perfect how the right teacher makes a difference.) be falling behind with people my age. I nearly wished for way to get started. I hope you’ll agree. death as the adventurous seniors left me behind.

Teachers Teachers Matter Matter

Until …well…the turtle that I am started to see the hares hesitate.

“I have a cramp,” said one about 10 minutes later. (Stacy suggested putting mustard on it after class. I confirmed in my cardio-crazed state that she really said that. Something about countering some chemical that causes cramps?) Soon after, the other newbie woman said she had to rest. Stacy focused on me and said to do this crazy, on-mystomach move: My hands were behind my back in a downward prayer-like position and my legs were kicking like a frog. I think. As I finished the lap, she cheered me on

Kristen De Deyn Kirk

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Q: Where is the easiest place to find a diamond? A: In a pack of cards Q: What do you get if you cross a cow, a sheep and a goat? A: The milky baaa kid! Q: Why did the sparrow go to the library? A: To look for book worms Q: What do you call a cow with a twitch? A: Beef jerky

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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

John Shackleton

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

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

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

Greg Ward Greg Ward is a business MC, a speaker, a corporate entertainer. He is currently writing the book Outside Your Head: Growing Business through Creativity and Innovation. You can find him here: www.gregward.co.nz

Jenny Barrett Jenny is the CEO for Breathe Technology. Her enthusiasm for technology came when thrown in the deep end whilst teaching at a Taiwan high school. Jenny has since undertaken a Master’s of Education (Ed. Technology) and has supported classroom teachers to use educational technology in UK and NZ projects. www.breathetechnology.co.nz

Jill Wright Jill Wright is a country Victorian parent of two primary-aged children. Her interest in education resulted in a stint as a teacher’s aide, and later with some dissatisfaction with the school system. Through her current dedication to home schooling and the home school network, Jill filters ideas back into schools via her husband, who is a P-12 teacher.

Dr Judy Willis Dr. Judy Willis practiced child and adult neurology for fifteen years before returning to university to obtain her Teaching Credential and Masters of Education. She then taught elementary and middle school for ten years and is now a presenter at educational conferences and provides professional development workshops nationally and internationally about classroom strategies derived from neuroscience research. Her most recent book, Learning to Love Math: Teaching Strategies that Change Student Attitudes and Get Results 2010 ASCD, is about changing negativity to motivation. www.RADTeach.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 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.

Lucy King Lucy King is a beginning teacher nearing the end of her first year at Tawa Intermediate in Wellington. Though new to the profession, Lucy is passionate about working with kids, developing positive relationships and improving her skills as a teacher.

Maggie Dent Maggie Dent is an author, educator, speaker, and parenting and resilience expert with a special interest in the early years and adolescence. She is a passionate advocate for the healthy, commonsense raising of children in order to strengthen families and communities. Maggie has a broad perspective and range of experience that shapes her work, a slightly irreverent sense of humour and a depth of knowledge that she shares passionately in a commonsense way. Her finest achievements are her four adult sons, deep human connectedness and her five books. www.maggiedent.com

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

Michele De Bellis Michele De Bellis began her work as a special education teacher and went onto professional development supporting district leaders, principals and university faculty in the areas of literacy and school reform. Central to all of her work is a commitment to building collaborative infrastructures within systems that support self-directedness. As a trainer for Cognitive Coaching and Adaptive Schools and Professional Development Director for

the Institute for Habits of Mind, Michele is committed to excellence for all learners. Reach her at Michele.debellis@gmail.com

Ngahi Bidois Ngahihi o te ra is the National Speakers Association Speaker of the Year 2011 and is an International Leadership Speaker, author and consultant. His website can be viewed at www.ngahibidois.com

Robyn Pearce Robyn Pearce is known around the world as the Time Queen, helping people discover new angles on time. Check the resources on her website www.gettingagrip.com, including a free report for you: How to Master Time in Only 90 Seconds. She is a CSP, a Certified Speaking Professional. This is the top speaking accreditation in the profession of speaking and held by only about 800 people around the world.

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 Evans Before joining CORE Education, Simon Evans worked with Breathe Technology as an Educational Technology Advisor and was a primary classroom teacher for 11 in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He now works with schools and the relieving c o m m u n i t y. F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n , call 0800 D9 TEACHER or sign onto www.educatingthedragon.blogspot.com

Steve Francis Steve Francis understands the challenges and demands of being a principal. He has led a number of Queensland State Schools from a one-teacher school through to a large metropolitan school and was previously a member of QASSP Management Committee. After 18 years of successful principalship, Steve ventured with his family to Hong Kong as the principal of an international school for four great years. He returned to Queensland to start a new business venture supporting leaders to reach their potential,

write three books, A Gr8 Life…Live it now!, Time Management For Teachers and First Semester Can Make Or Break You, and develop the Gr8 People educational resources and the Happy School articles. He is conducting a one day workshop ‘Establishing a Feedback Culture’ for QASSP members. Further details are on the QASSP website and www.stevefrancis.net.au

Thelma van der Werff Thelma van der Werff is a chartered colour therapist who has developed a fascinating new concept called “Colour Coaching. Colour Coaching uses the psychology of colour to determine someone’s talents and stumbling blocks and is a simple tool for practitioners and therapists in assessing and supporting their clients. Thelma has written two books:Why are you wearing those colours? and Dress to Impress. Thelma teaches her Colour Comfort method in New Zealand, Australia, The Netherlands, and Germany.

Tricia Kenyon Tricia has been involved in the field of literacy for 17 years, firstly as a Resource Teacher:Reading, then as a Resource Teacher:Literacy. She is passionate about books and reading, and feels privileged to be in a position where she can share that passion with students, their parents, and fellow teachers.

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

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

illustration: scott maxwell

art costa

Mirror neurons

Observing, imitating and modeling the Habits of Mind

1996, while working with macaque monkeys, neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his group at Parma University, Italy found in the motor region of the cortex a new set of neurons that control the hand and mouth. These neurons were active both when the macaques performed and when they watched an action. The New York Times reported: A graduate student entered the lab with an ice cream cone in his hand. The monkey stared at him. Then, something amazing happened: When the student raised the cone to his lips, the monitor sounded—brrrrrip, brrrrrip, brrrrrip— even though the monkey had not moved but had simply observed the student grasping the cone and moving it to his mouth. The responsible neurons, dubbed the “mirror neurons,” have comparable functions and positions in the brains of macaques and humans. As further tests by Rizzolatti and others’ labs showed the same results, the significance became clear: Mirror neurons enable humans to learn by imitation. Scientists say the findings have enormous implications; continuing research could confirm that we have found the neurophysiologic substrate for speech perception.

Teachers Matter

Imitation gives students practice

Mirror neurons function in all behaviours — speaking, hearing, seeing, smelling. The neurons fire when making an action as well as when watching another make it. According to Israeli psychologist Reuven Feuerstein, by watching how children imitate, we can determine how well they have observed, whether they attend to detail, understand logical sequence, and make appropriate connections. Feuerstein says that deferred imitation, which takes place after exposure—maybe minutes, maybe days—shows that the model was internalized. The process is not merely a generalization; in essence it is a kind of translation from what a person perceives to what the person does or thinks about doing.

Habits of Mind I have identified 16 characteristics of successful people. Habits of Mind are dispositions displayed by intelligent people in response to problems, dilemmas, and enigmas, the resolution of which are not immediately apparent. These habits

have been adopted by schools around the world and have become the focus of their instruction and assessment. They are the essential learnings and desirable dispositions of heir graduates. The 16 Habits of Mind are:

1. Persisting: Persevering in task through to completion; remaining focused

2. Managing impulsivity: Thinking before acting; remaining calm thoughtful and deliberative.

3. Listening with understanding and empathy: Devoting mental energy to another person’s thoughts and ideas; holding in abeyance one’s own thoughts in order to perceive another’s point of view and emotions.

4. Thinking flexibly: Being able to change perspectives, generate alternatives, consider options.

5. Thinking about your Thinking (Metacognition): Being aware of one’s own thoughts, strategies, feelings and actions and their effects on others.

6. Striving for accuracy and precision: A desire for exactness, fidelity and craftsmanship

7. Questioning and Problem Posing: Having a questioning attitude; knowing what data are needed and developing questioning strategies to produce those data. Finding problems to solve.

8. Applying past knowledge to new situations. Accessing prior knowledge; transferring knowledge beyond the situation in which it was learned.

9. Thinking and Communicating with clarity and Precision: Striving for accurate communication in both written and oral form; avoiding over generalizations, distortions and deletions

10. Gathering Data Through all Senses: Gathering data through all the sensory pathways – gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, auditory and visual.

11. Creating, imagining, and innovating: Generating new and novel ideas, fluency, originality

12. Responding with Wonderment and awe: Finding the world awesome, mysterious and being intrigued with phenomena and beauty.

13. Taking Responsible Risks: Being adventuresome; living on the edge of one’s competence

14. Finding Humour: Finding the whimsical, incongruous and unexpected. Being able to laugh at oneself.

15. Thinking Interdependently: Being able to work in and learn from others in reciprocal situations.

16. Remaining Open to Continuous Learning: Having humility and pride when admitting we don’t know; resisting complacency.

art costa

The implications of the research on imitation are that students can be encouraged to notice classmates, teachers and parents’ actions. Teachers will want to recognize others’ Habits of Mind and point them out to students: When tasks are difficult and answers are not readily available: • Who persists by generating alternative, creative strategies? • Who draws upon previous experiences? • Who seeks outside resources? • Who may set the problem aside only to return to try and try again?

When working in small groups: • Who listens attentively, paraphrases other’s ideas, empathizes with other’s feelings? • Who faces the speaker, acknowledges and shows interest in what they are saying? • Who builds upon the previous speaker’s content? • Who insures that all members have their ideas contributed and heard? When tackling a new and different problem: • Who draws on previous knowledge? • Who generates questions to be posed?

• Who identifies the steps in the strategy, where they are, where they’ve been and where they plan to go next in their strategy? • Who admits that their strategy is not working and they must go to “Plan B?” • Who reflects on and evaluates their problem solving and tells ways they can be more strategic next in the future? When working as a group to solve problems, make decisions and investigate topics: • Who suggests that they benefit from working collaboratively? • Who lends their energies to benefit the larger good? • Who strives for consensus, while holding his own values and actions in abeyance?

“ Mirror neurons enable humans to learn by imitation. Scientists say the findings have enormous implications.”

When making oral reports, presentations and sharing ideas:

• Who recalls similar situations in which problems like this have been confronted?

• Whose presentations are powerful engaging, tactually and visually?

• Who displays a sense of wonder and intrigue with the problem?

• Who supports their ideas with sound rationale and strong sources of research?

• Who looks at and examines the problem from various perspectives and points of view?

• Whose oral delivery excels? • Whose language is clear, concise and organized? • When frustrated and emotionally flooded: • Who thinks before they act? • Who gathers data, analyzes the situation, weighs alter natives, and considers options before they act? • Who reflects on their actions and sets goals for themselves in the future?

When having done something “stupid,” “embarrassing” or “making a mistake”: • Who laughs at themselves? • Who makes light of the event? • Who assumes self-responsibility rather than blaming others? • Who exhibits humility by learning from the situation?

• Who seeks collegiality? • Who draws on the resources of others? • Who puts others first before themselves? • Who regards conflict as valuable and manages group differences in productive way? Once aware of what others do well, students can be encouraged to imitate. Schools have a monopoly on students’ time. Attending to and encouraging thoughtful imitation uses that time to best advantage.

Modeling Because imitation and emulation are the most basic forms of learning, teachers, parents, and administrators realize the importance of their own display of desirable Habits of Mind in the presence of learners. In the day-to-day events and when problems arise in schools, classrooms, and homes, children must see the significant adults employing the Habits of Mind. Without this consistency, there is likely to be a credibility gap. As Ralph Waldo Emerson is often quoted as saying, “What you do speaks so loudly, they can’t hear what you say.”

• While solving a complicated problem: • Who verbalises the strategies they plan to use?

Dr judy willis

Get attention with curiosity and prediction Students are always paying attention – but not necessarily to you

he information selected by your brain’s “information intake filter” is not under voluntary control. This intake filter (Reticular Activating System or RAS) is like the bouncer for getting into an exclusive nightclub: only those who stand out are selected. Once inside, another brain gatekeeper (the amygdala, an emotional filter) determines what makes the cut to enter the VIP lounge in the prefrontal cortex, that valuable 20 percent of our brain where our highest cognition and emotional reflection takes place. The brain evolved to promote survival, which means it gives priority to potential threats. Admission through the RAS filter is highest to sensory information about

perceived as relevant to the threat. Unless the perception of threat is reduced, the attention filter persists in doing its primary job - protecting the human. In these stressed states, “attention” is not under voluntary control and the brain activity drops down in the thinking brain (prefrontal cortex). Classroom instruction literally falls on deaf ears; the sensory input of a teacher’s voice is not selected for attentive focus. Curiosity and novelty open the gates Knowing about the RAS means we can promote classrooms where students feel safe, where they can count of the adults to enforce the rules that protect their bodies, property, and feeling.

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“ Instead of cutting off the curiosity by confirming or denying a prediction, maintain student attention by responding with a nod of acknowledgment or a “thank you” so the other students will continue to predict.”

changes in an environment - with first priority given to changes perceived as possible threats. When threat is perceived, the RAS automatically selects related sensory input and directs it to the lower brain where the involuntary response is not to think, but to react with fight, flight, or freeze.

When not under high-stress alert, the RAS is particularly receptive to novelty and change that arouse curiosity. That is the key to the gate; the brain seeks input about the new, the curious, the colourful, musical, moving, and aromatic sensations that are selected for intake when perceived or imagined threat is not blocking the way.

What sensory input makes the “cut” When children’s brains perceive threat, (punishment or embarrassment in front of classmates for not doing homework, fear that they will be picked last for a kickball game, or anxiety that they will make an obvious error), the RAS lets in only what is

You can build novelty into teaching new information. Changes in voice, appearance, marking key points in colour, variation in font size, hats, movement, lessons outdoors, music,

curious photos, and unexpected objects (a radish on each desk when students enter the classroom) get the RAS attentive to admit the accompanying sensory input of lessons that relates to the curious sensory input. Advertising a coming unit with curiosity-provoking posters or adding clues or puzzle pieces each day invests curiosity as children predict what lesson might be coming, and the RAS is primed to “select” the sensory input of that lesson. Playing a song when students enter the room can also promote curiosity and focus, if they know that there will be a link between some lyrics and something in the lesson. If a teacher is walking backwards at the beginning of class, the RAS is primed by curiosity to follow along when a number line is unrolled on the floor to start instruction about negative numbers. Even a suspenseful pause before saying something particularly important builds anticipation as the students wonder what will come next. The brain seeks pleasure – and predictions offer it To further alert the RAS, increase curiosity, and the subsequent memory of the information (learning), have children make predictions. They can be written down, shared with a partner, or held up on individual white boards. Instead of cutting off the curiosity by confirming or denying a prediction, maintain student attention by responding with a nod of acknowledgment or a “thank you” so the other students will continue to predict. The brain actually learns based on a system

Dr. judy willis

of predictions, pleasure, and feedback. As the survival tool, the RAS alerts to curiosity and remembers the resolution of the brain’s prediction. This serves animals’ needs to learn and repeat behaviours that fulfill survival needs. Sustained attention is promoted when there is a pleasurable response from the neurochemical dopamine, which is released when the brain realizes that a prediction is correct. This strengthens neural networks used to make correct predictions and corrects memory networks used to make incorrect predictions. (This is why timely corrective feedback is important so those faulty circuits can be replaced with accurate information.)

photo: Leah-Anne Thompson

Wa n t i n g t o l e a r n w h a t n e e d s to be taught When students are curious about something, they seek an explanation. When they have the opportunity to make predictions, they are motivated to remain attentive and find clues to make more and more accurate predictions. Activating curiosity and providing frequent opportunities for students to make and adjust their predictions sets them up to want to learn what they need to be taught.

dr marvin marshall

Reducing stress Think your way to calm.

ome experts suggest that a little stress is good, but high levels of stress are harmful to most people. However, it is possible to perform well when relaxed (think masters of kung fu). In my opinion, that should be the goal: a classroom (and life) that is productive and virtually stress-free.

A traffic jam can prompt feelings of stress one day but not the next, indicating that, with the right training, we are be able to face stress with equanimity. The most common approaches are familiar: eliminating the sources of stress and practising techniques such as breathing exercises or meditation. Since these are not practical in a classroom, let’s look at an approach that anyone can use: thought management—not only for teachers but also for educating our students.

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Here is the opening paragraph of my education book, Discipline without Stress, Punishments or Rewards: How Teachers and Parents Promote Responsibility and Learning:

“Life is a conversation. Interestingly, the most influential person we talk with all day is ourself, and what we tell ourself has a direct bearing on our behaviour, our performance, and our influence on others. In fact, a good case can be made that our selftalk creates our reality. Many psychologists have argued that by thinking negatively, we cause ourselves mental and physical stress. Stress is related to perceiving the world as manageable or unmanageable. By practising the three principles below, we can reduce stress because these principles enhance the management of our world. Practise of the principles also improves relationships and increases our effectiveness in influencing others to change their behaviours.

Positivity, choice and reflection The first principle to practise is positivity. We know that we learn and do better when we feel good, not bad. Unfortunately, rather than communicating in positive terms, we often communicate in negative terms, such as by using consequences. Although consequences can be positive or negative, when we refer to them we usually mean imposed punishment, which is negative and coercive. A more effective approach than consequences is the use of contingencies. Rather than reactive and negative, contingencies are proactive and positive. In contrast to imposed and reactive consequences, proactive contingencies rely on internal motivation and are perceived in a positive way: “You can do that as soon as you do this.” “When/then” and “as soon as” assist in sending both a positive message and placing the responsibility on the young person, where it belongs. Notice these in the following examples: “When your work is finished, then you can go to one of the activity centers.” “Sure, you can go—as soon as your work is finished.” Although the result of a contingency is the same as that of a consequence, the message and emotional effect are markedly different. When using a consequence, the responsibility for checking is placed on the enforcer, the adult. When using a contingency, the responsibility is on the youngster. In addition, whereas a consequence implies a lack of trust, a contingency conveys a message of confidence and trust. The crucial difference can be best understood in personal terms. Which would you prefer to hear your supervisor say to you: “If you leave and are not back on time, we will have a real problem,” or “Sure, you can leave as long as you are back in time”? Communicating in positive terms reduces stress, improves

“ A traffic jam can prompt feelings of stress one day but not the next, indicating that, with the right training, we are be able to face stress with equanimity.”

relationships, and is more effective than negativity in prompting change in others. The second principle to practise is the use of choice. Choice empowers. Many practitioners who have written about behaviour maintain that choice is the prime principle of empowerment. Young people learn that regardless of the situation, external stimulus, or internal impulse or urge, they still have the freedom to choose their responses. Freedom to choose one’s response is fundamental in a civil society. It is incumbent upon the adults of our society to teach young people that they have a choice in controlling their behaviours and that it is in young people’s own best interests to choose appropriate responses. When a student comes into a classroom stressed by home life or some incident, the student has a choice: be controlled by the stimulus or redirect thinking into becoming engaged in the lesson being taught. This choice is within the student’s power to make. I taught my students to continually say to themselves, “I am choosing to . . . .”

illustration: robodread

dr marvin marshall

The third principle to practice is reflection. Reflection also reinforces the other two practices of positivity and choice. Reflection is essential for effective learning and retention. In addition, reflection engenders self-evaluation—the critical component for change and an essential ingredient for happiness. Perhaps Stephen Covey in his The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People put it most succinctly when he stated, “In all my experiences I have never seen lasting solutions to problems, lasting happiness and success, that came from the outside in.” Reflection is a powerful teaching and learning strategy that is too often overlooked. The key to reflection is the skill of asking self-evaluative questions. Here are a few examples:

Are you angry at me or at the situation? • Does what you are doing help you get your work done? What would an extraordinary person do in this situation? • Are you willing to try something different if it would help you? Unfortunately, teachers ask ineffective questions such as, “Why are you doing that?” This is a pothole question. First, most people cannot articulate their motivation and second, the youngster may answer, “Because I have ADD.” Better never to ask a student a “Why?” question regarding behaviour! Asking reflective questions is a skill that any teacher can master. Once started on the journey of asking reflective questions — rather than telling students how to behave — you will be amazed at how effective and simple the strategy is.

KEY POINTS • Stress is directly r e l a t e d t o perceiving the world as being manageable or unmanageable. •Practising the three principles of positivity, choice, and reflection can reduce stress because they enhance the management of our world. • Practising positivity, choice, and reflection both with ourself and with others improves quality of life. 15

photo: Wavebreak Media Ltd

allie mooney

Not another staff meeting

Understand your colleagues to use your time wisely

T Teachers Matter

he frustration that can occur as a result of having a staff meeting can linger on for days, and maybe you wonder why it is always the same people that contribute to them. One bone of contention is when teachers have to work with others in syndicates, staff meetings and special projects. It’s also not uncommon for principals to have this same dilemma when working with their board.

When I ask the question “How many work with people that are different?,” 90 percent put up their hand. These comments remind us how different we all are: “Can’t you see it?” “Do I have to listen to you, yet again?” “Surely you can bring something fresh to the table as well” “Oh, she is such a “yes” person!” “Why can’t they see the big picture?” “Why can’t you make a decision?” “We’ve heard this before, you sound like an old record!” “Oh my goodness, do we have to hear such a long drawn out

explanation of something that could be said in two minutes! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!” “I’ll scream if you don’t say something!” “Show pony!” “Nit picker!” Could it have something to do with the way we think? I am absolutely convinced that it is. Personalities and the behaviour around personalities give us great insight into how we think and respond. The comments above can turn into toxic behaviour and attitudes toward others if we don’t understand personalities. Perhaps it might be good if we reflected on this topic. Let’s face it; we want our students to be more reflective around their learning don’t we? There are four main personalities that I’ve talked about before:

Playful – desire to have fun Words that describe them: love to talk, energetic, impulsive, naïve, loud, positive, inclusive, creative, enthusiastic. They avoid conflict. Powerful – desire to get things done (in the time frame of NOW!”) Words that describe them: love to do things, assertive, commanding, decisive, focussed visionary. “Straight up” when dealing with conflict. Precise – desire to do it right Words that describe them: loves facts and logic, deliberate, justice and fair play, orderly, well mannered, predictable and systematic. Indirect approach to conflict, would rather write to you about it than verbalise

allie mooney

Peaceful – desire is to have no conflict Words that describe them: Easy, comfortable, relaxed, good listener, dry wit, inoffensive, loyal, patient and diplomatic. They stay under the radar to avoid conflict. Powerful and the Precise are the task-oriented types Peaceful and Playful are people-oriented types Just knowing this would help us to be more collaborative when working with each other.

“ Of course we can be blends, but if we were to identify our team, value what they bring, we could achieve more and enjoy engaging better.”

When there is discussion time, the Playfuls love to enter in on it, loads of ideas (not necessarily wanting to do it), leaning always toward relationships rather than the tasks that are needed to be achieved. Jack the Powerful, tired on no focus, pulls everyone into line and gets them on track, reminding them why they are there, which quiets the Playful (they wilt under criticism and poor reviews and from their standpoint they were being rebuked), and starts getting traction to why they are there.

Think about the questions we ask. They are quite different and so should your approach with those different from you: Playfuls ask “Who?” So, focus on relationships when working with them. Powerfuls ask “What and when?” Focus on results and outcomes with them. Precise ask “How?” Focus on details with them.

Imagine a 3:15p.m. staff meeting: Jenny the Playful rocks up around 3:25 p.m. only to be ignored by Melanie the Precise who arrived five minutes before 3:15 p.m. Now you can see even before the meeting begins there is tension in the staffroom. Melanie can’t understand why Jenny is so flippant about her lack of time keeping, and especially that she doesn’t apologise for her lateness. Manners are ever ything to Melanie. Jenny thinks that her latest dramatic story will have everyone spellbound, and obviously forgiven. Not this day! Not by Melanie anyway. Melanie writes something down as if to record yet another incident to bring up at another time.

Of course we can be blends, but if we were to identify our team, value what they bring, we could achieve more and enjoy engaging better.

Peacefuls ask “Why?” Focus on the reasons with them. In summing up: Another group that we haven’t mentioned, and sometimes after the meeting you wonder if they attended: The “silent” Peacefuls. I’m not saying they won’t say anything, because as teachers they have to, but if they are in a room with the more extroverted (Playful and Powerful) plus the more objective (make decisions with their head) Precises, they would certainly step sideways for those ones to speak first. The Peacefuls are great listeners, and if only we could value them for this trait, as they see things that others don’t see. They are consistently consistent. Get things done but not in the time frame of others. What comes out of their mouths can be quite profound; sadly if you hurry them, they dig in and resist being pushed.

• Playfuls are really good “ideas” people, innovative and creative. Play to this strength • Powerfuls are focussed and assertive. Play to this strength • Precises are naturally good at method and structure. • Peacefuls bring clarity diplomacy and mediation. I’d love to see more educators understanding these types and using that knowledge in the staffroom and in the classroom to enhance learning. It’s simple and easy to apply, and it makes our jobs easier as we operate out of our strengths.

Give them time and space, and you will hear some great thoughts expressed in a wonderful witty way. They are great team players.

lucy king

Learning from my elders Will I become what my grandparents were: educators in every sense of the word?

delved into family history recently to learn about my great grandparents, both of them teachers in New Zealand schools. As a beginning teacher nearing the end of my first year, I was intrigued about their own first forays into teaching and curious about the changes in our school system over the 90 years since their induction into “probationary assistance” in Timaru in the early 1920s.

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My great grandparents did not work as teachers, they lived as teachers. They raised their children in the rural community of Te Araroa, where they were one of only two Pakeha families and were privileged to develop close relationships with Maoris in the region. As educators in this small community, their jobs did not end with the school bell. Paid simply to be schoolteachers, they were in fact everything from sports referees to mediators to providers of food, lodging and advice. My grandmother remembers Nana rushing home after being called to assist with a birth and grabbing her teddy bear, so the patched baby clothes it was wearing could be stripped off and taken away for the newborn.

am I having on the community in which I teach? I certainly felt suitably chastened for feeling heroic when schools events and report-writing result in longer than normal working days. It is tempting to write off the huge disparities between my experience of teaching and that of my great grandparents to their being simply “part of another era.” I feel compelled to resist this, however, as I do not think it tells the whole story. Indeed, I see my great grandparents’ fundamental, bloody-minded commitment to their

Te Ara

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students as an entirely relevant example to teachers in 2011. The lifestyle has changed almost beyond recognition, but so too have the tools at our disposal. I suspect that in my career I will never have occasion to be dispensary, midwife, mediator and general “go-to” woman for a community in the same way my great grandmother was. We now have the tools, however, to forge genuine connections within and beyond our school communities in new ways, especially with online communication. Our kids are globally-oriented, technologically-savvy and eager to engage with their communities and

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The school was the lifeblood of the community. Nana not only taught but often washed and fed her students. Grandpop plunged himself into learning from skilled Maori carvers and together they set up a centre for teaching Maori culture to enrich the cultural education in the school. Their house was a meeting place for people from throughout the community and across the generations. When I began to delve into my great g r a n d p a r e n t ’s l i v e s t h r o u g h m y grandmother’s stories and the collection of early 20th-century education books that have been passed down to me, I felt at first a sense of overwhelming inferiority. What am I doing to enrich my students’ lives beyond school? What tangible impact

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lucy king

“My great grandparents did not work as teachers, they lived as teachers.”

the world in ways my great grandparents could never have imagined. My great grandparents taught children through the Great Depression, the Second World War, the “Red Fear,” the Beatles years and retired as feminism began to sweep the world. (I have to wonder if Nana, who taught everything from infant class to woodwork to Braille over the course of her career, raised an eyebrow wryly at the “revelation” that she too could contribute as much as a man.)

What social upheavals and global crises will I teach through? What deep-running trends are shaping this decade that we may only see in hindsight? I suppose we can only speculate and wait to find out. My year, which I have spent with a lively bunch of 10- to 13-year-olds at Tawa Intermediate, has been affirming and challenging. It has been somewhat of a relief to realise that after 11 months and $12, 000 worth of teachers college, I do, in fact, enjoy teaching.

I’ve learnt not simply about teaching children, but about the erratic brilliance of pre-adolescents, the dynamics of a collegial staff and the high stakes of curriculum politics. There continues to be tough days and long evenings, but the thrill of observing students’ progress and realising how much I have grown are ample reward. I am still at the beginning of my career – still learning the craft and figuring out what sort of teacher I would like to be. Though my impact on education will undoubtedly be worlds apart from that of my great grandparents, I can only hope that it will be as genuine and long-lasting, and commit myself to working toward their example.

photo: iofoto

maggie dent

Closing the gap for indigenous children Set the bar high – and help everyone feel accepted.

Teachers Matter

doesn’t matter where you live in the Wester n world, and despite supposed economic strength, modern technology and advances in healthcare and education, today’s children are more stressed and less healthy than they should be.

to support parents in building children’s resilience and self-esteem, I created the 10 resilience building blocks model. Much of this model is based on ancient knowledge from indigenous cultures but it also rests on modern research:

S a d l y, i n d i g e n o u s c h i l d r e n a r e e v e n worse off. Even after millions of dollars have been spent on various initiatives, Aboriginal, Maori and Islander children are struggling in our schools and communities. I believe that with a strong sense of cultural knowledge and pride, strong family/ community connectedness, good supported parenting, and a decent early years’ education, we can all build the wellbeing, resilience and opportunity for indigenous children. They can become financially independent, healthier and happier. The key is the first five years of life, with the first three years being critical.

10 resilience building blocks for children 0-12

Professor Joe Starling from North Carolina University believes that vulnerable families need targeted support in the first three years and that current policies for 4- to 5-year-olds are “too late.” School communities and teachers play a huge role in the needed support system. In an effort

Positive, healthy pregnancy

Good nutrition

Safe, nurturing care within the circle of family

Plenty of play

Build life skills

Meaningful involvement with positive adults

Clear boundaries

Absence of stress

Self mastery

10. Strengthen the spirit

Although teachers may not be able to directly influence some of these building blocks (i.e. positive, healthy pregnancy), they can encourage and advocate for their school districts and health and community support networks to work together to deliver parenting education that supports families. Guiding and teaching children before they go to school undoubtedly gives them the best start. This includes helping them to do things for themselves, learning how to be a good friend, listening and speaking, taking care of their bodies, and calming themselves down. Research shows how powerful human attachment is in developing a strong sense of self and also the role these primary loving relationships play in developing emotional, social, verbal and social skills that help our children be ready for school. Family support comes in many sizes and shapes and programs, including programs run by charities and NGO and government agencies. We need early intervention to help get our children ready for school so that by the time they arrive in our classrooms, they have the best chance possible of striving.

maggie dent

A huge challenge in closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous outcomes is to change our beliefs that limit children’s lives. All children and adults behave in accordance with their beliefs. These have been formed by our experiences, interpretation of those experiences, values, expectations, culture and society, and history. The way we behave and feel, and the language we use, are all influenced by our beliefs. Many Aboriginal and Maori people who’ve experienced racism, discrimination and school failure may still struggle to believe their kids won’t have a similar journey. Educators who’ve mostly experienced under-achieving Indigenous students may expect the same of others. The Rosenthal experiment showed the “Pygmalion effect” where a teacher’s expectations have a significant influence on student performance. To really give indigenous children the best opportunity to realise their full potential, they need to be surrounded by people who hold positive, realistic expectations of them. We need classrooms, schools, homes and communities to work together to create an environment where those expectations can be met. This is why enthusiastic, highly competent educators are so vitally important to help change inhibiting expectations to life enhancing ones. Expectations are driven by beliefs and one of the best ways to change limiting beliefs is to show and celebrate successful indigenous students and adults. There are many examples of indigenous people who work as lawyers, doctors, surgeons, scientists, judges, teachers, artists, musicians, nurses and parliamentarians, so there is no reason why indigenous children cannot realise the same if they are provided with a healthy, positive start. The more Indigenous people who expect their children to be capable and clever, the easier it will be for all indigenous kids. A good place to start changing old negative beliefs is to nurture the belief that the both the Aboriginal (it is the longest surviving culture on Earth) and Maori cultures are worthy of respect and honour. In New Zealand, there is one Maori language and the bi-lingual approach in schools honours the language. And I have been deeply touched by many welcoming Maori ceremonies I have had the honour to be part of – especially when whole school communities sing in Maori. It always makes the hairs stand up on my arms as it is so powerful and unites school communities. In Australia in some communities children

photo: stephen coburn

Changing beliefs

can speak five different dialects and no English; it is no wonder they do not want to attend school where only English is spoken.

Ancient wisdom and modern knowledge Some recent research into the mind shows that the future for all today’s children relies on having a strong positive vision built on human connectedness, social inclusion and environments that allow children to develop healthy and strong. By three and a half most children have developed ‘mindsets’ that greatly influence their future lives. Psychologist and researcher Dr Carol Dweck studied preschoolers to explore what influences potential success and found rather than it being about ability, it was more about what people believed about why they had failed. 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 I didn’t work hard enough” then that means we can fix that. Dweck says we create flexible or fixed mindsets — the more flexible, the better our chances of success in school and life. Dweck also found young children develop mindsets about goodness. Many kids believe they are either good or bad; others think they can get better at being good. If we 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. When indigenous children are given support to develop skills that ensure their readiness for starting school, they will have a different mindset toward school and learning.

Another interesting dynamic that influences how well children do at school is social inclusion, something Dr Matthew Lieberman explores in Social Cognitive Neuroscience: The Pains and Pleasure of Social Life. Using brain imaging, he found that when a person experiences rejection or social exclusion, they experience a form of physical pain. Often Aboriginal, Maori and Islander children who suffer racism or rejection, or a teacher with a negative expectation of them, may tend to avoid school as a result to avoid this “pain response.” The other interesting thing Lieberman discovered was that being treated fairly activates the same parts of the brain as having our basic needs met, like drinking when thirsty, coming in from the cold or eating chocolate. It triggers the pleasure response. These studies show all students are deeply influenced by invisible forces that are driven by human relationships. We need schools to welcome all students and have a strong expectation that with a safe, caring and engaging environment, with teachers who care and connect, every student will have a better opportunity to succeed. We are much braver to put in effort and make mistakes if we are still valued after we mess up. It does not matter what culture you belong to; it’s how you are nurtured, parented and encouraged to do well that makes the real difference when children turn up at school. If we meet our children’s core need to know they belong, they matter and that learning and growing is what they are supposed to do — and we treat children with kindness and fairness — we could improve every child’s pathway of potential. Quite simply, every child matters, no matter what.

glenn capelli

Smarting pants

photo: Andrey Kiselev

What’s more important than a high IQ

Teachers Matter

ccording to some IQ tests, I am a borderline genius yet according to my mates I have a genie arse from which I often pull ideas.

I love the old tune that goes:

To be an IQ genius, you must score high on IQ tests. Someone scoring in the top two percentile is eligible to join MENSA, the high IQ club, although it is often suggested that MENSA should stand for “My Ego Needs Some Attention.”

Perhaps we can paraphrase and sing:

It is said that Albert Einstein had an IQ score of around 160 that placed him in the Genius level but not the High Genius level that starts at a score of around 165: poor Albert; dunce of the Big Brain Class. However, if Albert was around today he would probably tell us that intelligence is a relative kind of thing.

It’s not what you do

It’s the way that you do it

It’s not what you’ve got

It’s the way that you use it

The size of your brain (or whatever) may not be as important as the style in how you apply it. IQ scores aside, there are certain things we know about bodies, brains and hearts: The body loves discipline. The brain loves a challenge. The heart loves a passion. Bodies love a regular workout. Muscles need a bit of pumping; lungs need a bit of heavy breathing; and the stomach needs to gut it

“Being smart is how we combine all the factors. High IQ is one thing, but maybe to be smart in real life means a good blend of teamwork from brain, body, heart and mind. ”

glenn capelli

Brains also need regular stretching. Neurons like to dance; dendrites need to reach out; and hemispheres like to collaborate. If neurons had a favourite tune it might just be Diana Ross singing, “Reach out and touch somebody’s dendrite.” Hearts like to take a beating, and nothing inspires a heartbeat like a bit of passion: a love in life and a love for life. For a heart tune you can take any pick from the K-Tel Greatest Hits of the Heart CD but I would run with Joe Cocker’s “Unchain My Heart.” Yes, the body, brain and heart combine to agree that a bit of daily exercise is a good thing but sometimes they – body, brain and heart - are trumped by the mind. The Bucks Fizz tune “Making your Mind Up” for some could be re-titled not making

your mind up. Chances are if you could read a mind (Gordon Lightfoot’s for example) it might be a bit of a muddle. Sometimes the mind can be put to good use, but most people’s minds tend to have a bit of a mind of their own and minds often like to go sit on a couch. Yes somewhere in this mysterious thing called “mind” the voice of reason mixes with his buddy, the voice of the slacker. Who wins in your mind? The mind can be the thing that stops the body exercising, the brain from thinking and the heart from being in love. The mind can be the thing that matters. The mind can be the great lazy trickster or it can be the thing that sets the body, brain and heart into positive action. Sometimes when we are feeling a little bit down, when nothing ever seems to fit and we’re hanging around nothing to do but frown, the mind is the thing that tells us to put on an old Carpenters track or a Leonard Cohen album

and wallow in our misery. Yet, the thing we may need to be doing is to get out and go for a brisk walk, get the mind to overcome the rainy days and Mondays patter and kick into “Get Up Stand Up” mode instead. Have your brain watch your mind chatter; have your heart, body and brain combine to educate the mind into some positive actions. Like my old biology textbook tried to tell me, there is a Web of Life. Our bodies, brains, hearts and minds all entwine. Being smart is how we combine all the factors. High IQ is one thing, but maybe to be smart in real life means a good blend of teamwork from brain, body, heart and mind. Perhaps when we get those tunes in harmony it might make a little bit of soul music. Now that’s really smart!

photo: Andrey Kiselev

out. If the body had a theme song it could be Olivia Newton John with a headband singing “Let’s Get Physical.”

photo: Cathy Yeulet

alan cooper

The digital classroom: It is not just an IT issue Plan and incorporate the Habits of Mind to make the most of technology

Remove the hype and there are problems round this digital revolution which is seeing the old PC regime, replaced by anytime, anywhere, flexible digital access to the internet. Broad generic guide lines are needed to ensure that this digital revolution does not descend into anarchy and chaos. Teaching and learning must have priority If the technology of the digital world is to add value, the initial focus must not be on technology but on the teaching and learning. Unless this crucial point is grasped, the digital promise will morph into digital gloom and disappointment. Time must be spent on developing clearly articulated competencies that students, teachers, and school leaders can adhere to. This document, from the International Society for Technology in Education’s

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We b , p r o v i d e s e x a m p l e s o f s u c h c o m p e t e n c i e s : h t t p : / / w w w. i s t e . o r g / standards.aspx This is a substantial document but time spent exploring it will point clearly to the right direction to follow and thus save much heartburn later.

In association with this, Habits of Mind provide strategic guide lines. The starting point is striving for accuracy. Within the school this refers to the above mentioned competencies, but in the classroom this is achieved by having a lesson plan which clearly has the educational and the digital competencies melded mindfully together in ordered easily understood format. This is very basic but the latest digital gadget is useless, even worse than that, detrimental, unless there is a clear common school-wide teaching and learning process inaugurated by the school management team but supported by all.

In the digital classroom each student has access to their own mobile device which allows for access to the internet anytime anywhere. Schools and the teachers in them will need a change of mindset here, imagining and innovating away from the concept of a school computer lab into which classes are timetabled, or the rationed availability of a few computers in the classroom. These two video clips give some rational for this. The first simply shows the digital divide there often is between teachers and students. The second talks about changing educational paradigms requiring flexibility: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AZVCjfWf8 http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_ robinson_changing_education_paradigms. html A digital world lesson Warning: There are many and varied ways of planning and organising digital classroom lessons. This example is not intended as dogma. It is only one way, one direction of many:

The teacher has chosen to teach the elements of a paragraph. Like all lessons, an initial introduction is needed that will provide both motivation and simple, straight forward teaching of the basic elements of a paragraph. An Internet search is done to find this. Google is always a go-to option, and YouTube is a good place to start. YouTube, like many other sites, is an area for teacher exploration that will require much time and therefore persistence, and then beyond that to creating, imagining and innovating and certainly, as the teacher, come to terms with what is available for continuous learning. Googling, “YouTube writing a paragraph,” provided a number of short videos between four and eight minutes. Thus a professional choice had to be made to pick the one that most accurately matched the educational objectives. The chosen one had the simplicity, plus it also was introduced with a song. Past knowledge about how the brain operates informed the teacher that the brain responds to novelty, and this different way of starting a lesson would immediately have

photo: cathy yuelet

urrently there is hyped up promise pulsating through communities about the roll out of Ultra Fast Broadband.

alan cooper

the class’s attention. It was motivational. A great one is here: http://www.You Tube.com/ watch?v=ivAvsXeJAqM Teachers must beware that they do not steal learning opportunities from their students. By doing the search, the teacher may have stolen the learning from the students who could well have been asked to do the search themselves, thus learning to support their own individual learning as stated in the overall aims. Incremental and sequential learning is always needed in the digital classroom and learning to search is part of this. Watching a video lesson is not a laissez-faire situation. Structured action is required if learning is to follow. Making individual notes is an important and effective way of providing this action. So too is student understanding of the learning goals. Without understanding the goal or goals, to have the students watch the video and make notes could in a worse-case scenario see the notes focussed on detailing the use of colour in the video. Individual students have different pacing requirements. In the digital classroom, each student will have their own portable device with the above video downloaded. Each student then has individual control of the pause button so that a written note can be made or a self-reflection done without missing the next bit. Likewise individual control of the slide back control allows for returning to a piece which was not fully understood at the first viewing. By self-pacing the lesson in this way, the student is given the flexibility to apply clarity and precision to the learning so that it is learned accurately. This is much more than merely automating the curriculum. By allowing for this self pacing, something extra is provided that is not available in the nondigital classroom. There is a big gap between innovating in this way and showing the video to the whole class through the data show facility where only the teacher has the control.

Changing the teachers’ role Note how the learning sequence has been flipped in the above, and the lesson taught not by the teacher but by online video. The reverse side of the flip is for the teacher to take on the role of a facilitator/coach for the follow-up work in the classroom. One successful way to do this is to use a formative assessment approach in which clarity and precision is used in carefully crafting coaching questions. Effective coaching relies heavily on getting the questioning right. In particular that means asking questions that require the students to analyse and evaluate and then to create a response that cements the learning. Asking the right question is only part of the requirement. The effective coach will also allow for the three second, or longer, thinking time that the research of Mary Budd Rowe’s proves accelerates learning. Despite the above, the teacher role’s is not static or fixed. The teacher cannot abrogate the responsibility to teach where it is required and must match her role with the needs of the students. Where the students’ ability to make notes is weak, the teacher needs to become an instructor and provide outline notes with gaps to fill in as an aid in developing notemaking ability for the future. To quote Steve Jobs, “Don’t be trapped by dogma: which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” The digital classroom is about doing things differently – innovating – and going beyond conventional teaching and learning. At the same time, be wary too of dogma about what the digital classroom should be. It is still evolving. There are many free digital sites that allow the teacher to follow this flipping role. The Khan Academy with 3,000 free educational videos for the K-12 area is one site well worth a look at, but it is only one of many: http:// www.khanacademy.org/about. iPad users may prefer to start with iTunes. Fixing the learning into long-term memory Beyond the original paragraph lesson, the teaching and learning goal is to transfer the information from short-term memory (the temporary folder in your computer) into long-term memory (a saved folder). The digital world has an innovative and ever-growing series of applications to do

this. There are many links to explore. One is the Google family. Here is a series of applications including a word processor, spread sheet, and presentation tool all held in the cloud available anywhere anytime. Google allows for learner circles to be set up, at least as large as 10, but four is a better workable number. Using the paragraph lesson described above, groups of four could be set to write a collaborative paragraph to practise and fix in long-term memory the new skill. The innovation here is that all those in the group can work simultaneously on their document. The teacher can either cruise the room to observe individual student effort or use the overall control of her computer to watch and intervene if need be. A closer monitoring of who is doing what can come from each student being allocated a different coloured font. Because Google Apps is in the cloud, the work begun in class can be continued at home or anywhere else in or out of school by the individuals in the group as individuals, or if others are on line at the same time still as a group even though they are no longer sitting in proximity to each other in the classroom. In all this, the past knowledge from the tried and true process writing model is retained. When the initial group paragraph is finished, it has become the first draft of the process writing model. Subsequent drafts can then be developed as individual group members give feedback to each other, and then collaborate through the interdependent thinking of the group to improve what was. The final act is publishing either online for the rest of the class to see, or just as easily online the world to see, thus giving motivation to reach toward excellence. The above is the future. As teachers attempt to implement these digital practices, and, along with their students metacognitively reflect on them and the results, their personal practical knowledge, their mental models, their intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence will grow and different paths and practices flow from the continuous teacher and student learning that results. It is an exciting future for those willing to take risks, imagine, innovate and create new practises that add value to teaching and learning.

photo: Ivonne Wierink

Teachers Matter greg ward

greg ward

Riding the absurdity curve

Improv teaches us that anything is possible with context and creativity.

hen I was growing up, my siblings and I had a largely unfettered childhood. We lived in the country and whole acres of farmland were our playground. We had the run of the land - and of our dad’s toolshed, which we were encouraged to use (as long as we cleaned up afterwards.) Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that a few of you will raise your eyes and go ‘Tch!’ at the next line, but please read on… We made our own fun in the country, and one of our favourite pastimes was shooting home-made arrows up through the oh-sotempting insulating rings on the 220kV power lines that ran above our house. We never shot one down, but it wasn’t through lack of attempts. Now, I’m probably obliged at this point to say “Don’t try this at home,” and this admonishment is purely from a purely legal standpoint. From a scientific standpoint, it’s not up to me to give instruction either way; that would be for the individual to experiment and observe. But from a creativity standpoint, now that’s another matter entirely. We didn’t know what creativity was, but we designed and constructed our own bows; we crafted our arrows from whatever materials we could find, and fletched them with real feather, tied in with cotton and glued on to the shafts. We tipped them with metal heads, all the better for getting those pesky pylons, and then “had a go:” We got out in the backyard and bloomin’ well had a crack. Creativity was alive and well in our corner of Godzone. A n d t h a t ’s w h a t c r e a t i v i t y i s a b o u t . Unbound by constraints, and unaffected by or unaware of other people’s opinions, we tried to find new and interesting ways to solve challenges and problems. Creativity, to steal the title of one of my favourite books by (now departed) design guru Alan

Fletcher, is “The Art of Looking Sideways,”– a fantastic term to describe the mental head-stand that must be attempted as we begin this thing called “create.” It’s probably also prudent to point out that we often have to rid ourselves of ideas before the process of creativity really begins. And creativity is able to be taught. And creativity can be learned. Every single one of us has creativity embedded in our DNA. But creativity for creativity’s sake is not necessarily productive – but then again, nor should it be. There is more to life than creativity for business purposes, or for finding the next greatest mouse-trap. There is something in our spirit that yearns for an outlet for this force, and thankfully, there is a discipline that, without creativity, would not exist, and that is improvisation. Alongside my core business in hosting corporate conferences and events, I’m also

absurd, so you need one foot planted in reality, and the other floating in a sea of possibility – and when you are there, and you are “on.’” The final aspect of the Improv Bandit’s take on improvisational narrative is to “ride the absurdity curve.” But this doesn’t happen until a number of pieces of the puzzle are in place. Characters must undergo change; there must be a logical progression of events; the environment and situation must be in tune with the characters and events; we need to see elements re-incorporated and expanded upon. And then, with all of these building blocks in place, we can then ride the absurdity curve – a castle of improvisational madness, reaching for the sky. The absurdity curve works because we have given context to it, and an audience has accepted the alternate reality presented to them on stage. Because they have “bought-in,” they are now part of their own entertainment.

“ Creativity, to be effective, whether simply for play, for recuperation, for just the silliness of it, will be more successful with the solid building blocks of context in place”

a long-time member of the Improv Bandits, an improv troupe that Wade Jackson established in Auckland 14 years ago. I was introduced to the art form in 2001, and I’ve been creating ever since. If you have little or no exposure to improv, then you may be forgiven for thinking that you simply walk on stage and say the first thing that comes into your head. You’re right – but with a caveat: What you say must logically fit the situation, no matter how

Creativity, to be effective, whether simply for play, for recuperation, for just the silliness of it, will be more successful with the solid building blocks of context in place. Explore the context, and if it’s not working for you, don’t be afraid to go back to the start and re-define it. But once you are in flow, with one foot in reality the other somewhere less stable, give in to the urge, throw caution to the wind and ride the absurdity curve.

photo: peter mooij

michele de bellis

Listening with understanding and empathy Show your students this important Habit of Mind

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ecently, I moved into a new home and my mom passed down a family heirloom – a wooden plaque that had hung in my childhood home for many, many years known as “the recipe for a happy home.”

It reads: Begin with a full cup of friendship-Add two cups of thoughtfulness. Cream with a pinch of gentleness and a dash of powdered kindness. Beat well with a level spoon of hope, lots of temperance and a sprinkling of humility. Add several spoons of laughter and play. Blend gently with love in a bowl of loyalty …season with gratitude and stir constantly with enthusiasm… This recipe gets better with age- but should be served often. (Anonymous) These attributes begin to describe the essence of the Habit of Mind (HOM), “Listening w i t h U n d e r s t a n d i n g a n d E m p a t h y. ” Thoughtfulness, gentleness, humility, loyalty and hopefulness are a few of the attributes that describe characteristics of a person who is paying attention to another

with empathy and understanding. When we live out this HOM, we are selfless in the interaction and fully attending to another. “Listening with Understanding and Empathy” requires trust; trust in self and others and trust the intention of the interaction. Trust evolves over time and is impacted by the quality of our interactions with others. It is never too early to begin teaching children to “Listen with Understanding and Empathy.” For example: teaching children to look others in the eye as they speak or modeling for children how to express emotions they are feeling. Consider a few tips to try out in your classroom: • Read books with rich characters and encourage kids to name the emotions and actions. • Create a Word Wall in the classroom. Build lists of emotion words and

encourage students to use these words in their writing and conversation. • Have students create a service club that provides them with opportunities to identify needs in their school community so they can experience firsthand understanding and empathy. • Collect pictures of students or magazine photos and make a game like Concentration, matching the emotion word/action and photo. Each time I walk into my kitchen, I smile as my eyes are drawn to the wooden plaque. I have learned happiness comes from serving and giving to others, understanding their needs and striving to understand and empathize. If you were to create a recipe for “Listening with Understanding and Empathy,” what might your essential ingredients be? Create your own specialty and share it with a friend.

michele de bellis

photo: Joggie Botma

julie woods

How to try something once Turn your “no” into “why not”

ithout a doubt, the number-one take-out message from my book, How to Make a Silver Lining, comes from chapter eight: Try something once, specifically “turn your ‘no’ into ‘why not!’” These two small words have taken me, a woman who cannot see, from the couch to touching the great pyramids in Egypt. They can do the same for you – all you have to do is start practising the two words. Following are eight ways to help you start to create this habit of engagement: 1. Ask yourself what’s the worst thing that can happen if I do this? If you are satisfied that the worst thing is actually not that bad, then why not do it?

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2. Make a list of the things you miss out on in life because you say no. What opportunities have you missed out on because of your negative stance?

3. Take a piece of paper and draw what doing this act would mean to your life. What have you drawn? What did you learn from drawing it? 4. Carry a diary around with you. Take a note of all the things you turn down. Write down what you turned down, and the emotion you felt just before you said no. Is there a pattern? Do you say no because you are scared? What do you notice about the times you say no?

5. Ask yourself “what would it feel like if I did this?” Focus on the gain, not the pain and see how inspired you get when you start thinking about having done this!

that will help answer that “but.” E.g. If you want to sky dive but you’re afraid of injuring yourself, write the question in the right column “how many people injure themselves when they go sky diving?”

“ Make a list of the things you miss out on in life because you say no. What opportunities have you missed out on because of your negative stance?”

6. Ask around. Ask three other people who have done something similar. How did they find it? Would they do it again? Write down three questions and ask each of them. This way you will get a clearer idea of how they all found it. 7. Write a “but” journal. Draw two vertical lines on a piece of paper creating three columns. In the left hand column write down the thing you are contemplating doing. In the middle column write the word “but” at the top. In that column write all the reasons that are stopping you from doing this. In the right column, write a question

Then find out the answer. If the answer is an acceptable one then you will have allayed any fears around injuring yourself. Continue until you are ready to make an informed decision. 8. If nothing changes, nothing changes. If you keep giving the same response to the same question, then you will be stuck in your life. For once, just say yes when you would usually say no, and see where it takes you. Life is a failure-rich learning environment so, provided the idea isn’t harmful to your health in the event of failure, you will have provided yourself with a fabulous learning opportunity.

ngahi bidios

Time is people Put your employees first – and the money will follow

am writing this article as I fly home on the direct Air New Zealand flight from Sydney to Rotorua. This week I presented to the leaders and owners of the fast food company Red Rooster at their Australian National conference. Two weeks ago, I was also in Sydney presenting to the up and coming leaders of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), an international accounting firm. I would like to outline a couple of similarities from these two successful businesses, which I hope will help you on your educational journey of success. Business organisation was one of my business degree papers and I will never forget the first lecture. The lecturer walked into the room, went straight to the whiteboard without addressing us and wrote the following in huge letters, “TIME IS MONEY.” He then told us that if we forgot everything else in his course to remember that one universal rule of business, “TIME IS MONEY.” Time is money is a rule which I have come to appreciate since then. Every organisation needs time to operate and the cost of that time is usually money. If I take any school for example, it does not matter whether you are the cleaner, receptionist, maintenance person, janitor, teacher support, school accountant, teacher or principal: You need time to do those activities and the cost and measure of your time is usually money.

One of our Maori proverbs reminds us that “He aha te mea nui i tenei ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.” “What is the most important thing in this world? It is people, it is people, it is people.” Both PWC and Red Rooster know it. They value their clients, and they value their people. PWC demonstrates this by selecting their top leaders from around Australia and putting them through a five-seminar leadership training program over one year which I contributed to. Red Rooster demonstrates the importance of their people through an annual awards ceremony which takes place at their national conference that I presented to. I believe that time is not just money, “TIME IS PEOPLE.” I have also found in my businesses and other educational leadership roles I have held that if we develop our people, success comes anyway. So how are you looking after the people you associate with? How do you thank them for their time? How do you let them know they are valued? Many organizations think their people are already compensated for by the weekly money they receive because “time is

money.” However if we start viewing “time as people,” then we learn that some form of thanks and recognition such as extra training or awards or a card of thanks goes a long way. “Kia kaha , kia maia,” – “be strong and persevere in looking after people,” while you have the time to do so.

“ What is the most important thing in this world? It is people, it is people, it is people.”

However, the funding you receive for the school to operate successfully and meet all compliances depends on people. It depends on pupils and students enrolling in your school, and it also depends on you turning up to work. Both PWC and Red Rooster have a focus on their most important resource: their people.

karen boyes

Gearing up for study Organisation and time management can make all the difference

has been documented that clutter and forgetfulness increase stress and have damaging effects on student marks. Being organised increases marks and automatically improves your time management skills. Here are some ideas to kick off the year:

Reduce clutter Reducing clutter helps you stay organised by having everything in one place. Put pens and pencils in a pencil holder. Try keeping loose paper in a separate drawer. Keep a labelled folder for handouts and notes from each class. On the computer, keep everything in separate folders. For example, instead of having one homework folder, have one for each class. Organise it in a way that makes sense to you; the key is having an organisational plan and then sticking to it.

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Create a to-do list to keep track of daily goals

Keep a pocket or an electronic calendar full of important due dates. Your calendar should include a section for notes that can explain important dates that do not fit in each day box. To keep homework assignments in one place, write them in a notepad or screen specifically for homework assignments. Many people find that keeping a to-do list helps them stay on track. Each morning, or before you sleep each night, create a list of all the tasks that need to be completed that day or the next.

Colour coding

More study tip:

Colour code notes and assignment by class; if economics is coded blue, have a blue folder (hard copy or electronic) or binder just for economics. Get a desktop organizer or expanding file and label the tabs by colour to keep handouts that may be needed later or if you are storing information online, colour code in a similar way.

The iStudyAlarm is available on Ipad, Ipod touch and Iphones and is an invaluable tool when studying. It has 27 study tips as well as exam and break ideas. It also times your study times and break times, keeping you on track and productive.

Balance your time Understanding how much time you have is the first step to figuring out what to do with it. At the start of each term, you should be sure to know what all of your commitments are ahead of time. If you know you have an extra lesson twice a week for singing or you have a sport practice 10 hours per week, make sure this is in your diary or planner. You may want to schedule study and homework time around your classes and other obligations. It always amazes me how under-used the non class time is during a day. Plan to use this time for studying or researching or reviewing your notes from previous classes.

Other time tips As you know, sometimes things just don’t go as planned. One thing to get in the habit of is to trade time, not steal it. This means that if you are unable to study at the set time, don’t just eat that time up. Replace the time you were supposed to study later. Another idea is to set up a special time to review work for any upcoming tests. This will avoid lastminute cramming, as you will have reread and reviewed the material.

“ Many people find that keeping a todo list helps them stay on track. Each morning, or before you sleep each night, create a list of all the tasks that need to be completed that day or the next. ”

illustration: Artisticco LLC

? karen boyes

simon evans

Using Youtube in the classroom Technology can boost confidence

eymouth sits at the far edge of South Auckland. It is in this 500-plus primar y school that great things are happening. Emma Martin currently teaches a year 6 class of predominantly Pasifika and Maori students who are growing in confidence and competence through the class’s use of a Youtube channel. Through the development of the school TV show called WOW TV, it became evident that the power of using video to celebrate student success and demonstrate quality teaching was worth pursuing. Emma now uses the blog http://www.kauri3wps.blogspot.com/ to direct students and whanau to the class’s youtube material which is now used as a window into classroom life. Everyday classroom activities are shared such as art or science experiments and extracurricular activities such as camp or a trip to a sports event. The videos can be categorised

as either demonstrating a progression in learning, a sharing of a specific activity of learning or a celebration of an end product of the students’ learning.

A trip to Kelly Tarlton’s Take a look at http:// w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / watch?v=Jn-0KF9EzFY This last term the topic was Antartica, but clearly a trip there is out of the question. Instead the class has worked with resources from Learnz and shared a trip to Kelly Tarlton’s where they saw the freezing temperatures of the Southern Ocean, the lifecycle of penguins and the artefacts found at Scott Base. The trip was shared in a video

on Youtube. The introduction to the video, the music and the sense of anticipation and fun is emphasised but within the first minute we hear a student engaging with the camera and sharing their learning with confidence and clarity. The remainder of the video is then peppered with these reflections and observations interspersed with quality footage showing the activities the students are engaged in.

Bhangra Dance

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S e e h t t p : / / w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / watch?v=OGXf-MAhG2g

There was a school-wide focus on different cultures and Emma’s students were to focus on Sikhism. There was to be an inquiry model approach. The students began with collecting together their own knowledge, creating a “Wonderings Wall” and quickly realized they knew little about Sikhism. One of the main “wonderings” was regarding how Sikh men tie a turban. Youtube is now the second largest search engine on the Internet, and the students sought to utilize this resource to find the answer. The project culminated in a visit to a Gurdwara and a performance for the school and the wider community. During the course of the inquiry students noted that Bhangra was a Sikh cultural dance. Again Youtube was used to look for different examples of this dance form.

simon evans

One particular clip showed five adults dressed in Sikh clothing dancing at a friend’s wedding. It was quite a complex dance and impressive. The students decided that “Yes, they could do this,” and selected the dance for the end-of-term performance. However, there is an issue with copyright around doing such things and this can be somewhat daunting. The nature of Youtube is one of community, and if you look carefully it is possible to message an account holder, place a message on their noticeboard, subscribe or “become their friend.” Communication between users is a relatively straightforward exercise. The teacher decided to make contact with Ravi Kaur Singh, creator of RaviStarProductions, who first posted the clip to ask permission for the class to use the material. The email was well received and not only did she grant permission but sent a copy of the music to assist in the creation of the dance routine.

The only request was that the performance should be videoed and shared on Youtube. With such a positive response from someone so far way and outside of the students’ usual circle the project gained momentum. The video of their performance has been shared with RavistarProductions and has 300-plus views at the time of writing.

Vocabulary S e e h t t p : / / w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / watch?v=ZQ0ZG6qPA74 Youtube now has an “annotation” function which allows users to choose a variety of options which then link to another video. It was this function that allowed the creation of a vocabulary quiz. Another schoolwide target for 2011 was the expansion of students’ vocabulary. As a way of engaging students during the holidays, and making the recapping of vocabulary studied during

the term, the teacher created this vocabulary quiz. She introduces a word and offers four different synonyms as possible options. An incorrect response leads to a short video with a ‘Try again” and the option to return to the original video for a second attempt. A correct response leads the student to the next video in the sequence, which congratulates them, offers an example of the word used in context then asks the next question.

Maths challenge See http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL 4604EFF02D3F5500 For Stage 5 maths and above the focus shifts to the sharing of strategies so it is important to allow students to see problems from a variety of perspectives. The original intent of the Maths Challenge videos was to create a series where students share their choice of strategy for working out an equation. The Stage 5 students needed a boost to their confidence and a chance to view themselves as mathematicians. With the success of the Youtube annotations on the vocabular y quiz there was an opportunity to create something much more interactive. Again the teacher introduces a question but this time points to four of her students that appear on the screen and suggests to the viewer they select a student to share their strategy. Each student shares a different strategy for the same problem. It is up to the viewer then to decide on the most effective. The strategy videos follow the same format each time with written explanation in the main screen and a “picture in picture” of the student explaining their strategy. There are many quality examples of maths being taught via Youtube, one of the more famous is Khan Academy and it was this format that triggered the students’ ideas for the layout of these Maths Challenge videos. Sharing students learning on Youtube opens an opportunity for them to view the world

simon evans

Getting started with Youtube Channel Once you have created a Google Account it is a relatively quick process to create a Youtube channel. The following instructions will assist you in beginning that process.

differently, and it is a world willing to interact with them, encouraging them. It’s not just the teacher telling them or their parents seeing their work and engaging with them, the world is bigger than that. Equally, it is important to share that record of student achievement for the school community as a whole; there are parents who can’t see a school performance because of work commitments or can’t get to the class too often to see the beautiful walls. That record, which goes far beyond written records of achievement, is there to share.

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Emma explains what a difference technology can make:

“I want my students to realise they can do anything. What I noticed was that many of my students did not believe in themselves. What I wanted, for them, was for their confidence to grow. It is only through confidence and a belief in themselves that students feel happy to take risks, tr y new things and take responsibility for their own learning.”

Getting started with a Google Account Youtube requires a valid Google Account the following instructions will allow you to create a Google Account. • Select the Sign in table on the Google Homepage, it is on the top right of the screen. • Select Create an account for free. • You will need to input the following: -Your current email address -Choose a password -Re-enter password -Location -Birthday -Word Verification • Click accept. Create my account.

• Use your Google Account details to log into Youtube. • Your account name appears at the top right of the Youtube screen. • Select it and the dropdown menu will appear. • Select My Channel from the list. -Create a username – you may not get your first -choice. -Select Gender. -Click Next. • From here you can create a Title for your channel using Settings. • Change the Theme and Colors. • Or simply select upload from the top right menu bar to get sharing.

steve francis

Are you getting enough feedback?

Teachers deserve the same feedback they provide for students

he art of teaching generally takes place in isolation. The egg crate analogy is generally alive and well in most schools. Individual teachers work away in their own classroom with their own class of students. Day after day, teachers do what they think is right, with the best intentions, within the confines of their own classroom. Many teachers continue to do what they have always done. They try to implement some of the initiatives they have learnt through professional development or through discussions with colleagues. Often they operate in isolation. T h e G r a t t a n I n s t i t u t e ’s 2 0 1 0 r e p o r t , “What Teachers Want” confirms that most teachers receive little feedback, sharing that “91 percent of Australian teachers report that in their school, the most effective teachers do not receive the greatest recognition.” Sadly the same research reports that 92 percent of teachers believe that if they improved the quality of their teaching they would not receive any recognition in their school.

“The potential and importance of establishing an effective process that helps our teachers be the best that they can be cannot be overstated. ”

The Grattan Institute report concluded: “Teacher evaluation is not developing teachers’ skills and the teaching students receive.” Researchers in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia are highlighting the importance of

schools and school systems establishing better processes for providing feedback to teachers. This is seen as a vital aspect of improved performance in schools. However, observing and giving teacher’s feedback is not part of the culture in most schools. Changing that culture will inevitably lead to anxiety, barriers and resistance. The move to de-privatise classroom practise will be seen as threatening to even our best teachers and terrifying to our less-confident teachers. Having a fellow professional observe us teach is not part of the culture in the majority of our schools. Over the years, many schools have tried to implement programs that facilitate at least some opportunity for peers to visit each other in their classrooms. These initiatives have had a mixed success. Whilst acknowledging that it is a significant change in our school’s culture that will bring with it anxiety and concern, the potential and importance of establishing an effective process that helps our teachers be the best that they can be cannot be overstated.

steve francis

The Hattie report stated in 2003 that “high-quality learning depends on high quality teaching. Aside from what students themselves bring to school, teachers and teaching account for the greatest level of variance of any other factor operating in a school.” The report continues to receive high acclaim. It confirms what many educators have believed for years: The controllable factor that has the most impact on the success of student’s learning is the teacher. The quality of the day-to-day delivery of the art of teaching is therefore paramount to student learning.

Whilst the de-privatisation of classrooms will initially be stressful for all concerned, and few would welcome any more stresses in teaching, there are also tremendous potential benefits that will ultimately boost staff morale and teacher satisfaction. Through implementing an effective process that is intended to support teachers to be the best teacher that they can be, we can also provide real, relevant and specific praise for the great work that so many of them do. The challenge is to move the focus from “catching teachers out” to “helping teachers to be the best teacher they can be.”

accountability. In valuing our students (and the vast number of highly skilled practitioners in our schools), we need to address the small number of teachers who are not of an acceptable standard. Leaders in schools must have effective processes in place to ensure they are aware of what is happening in each of our classrooms and supporting our teachers. If we can successfully change this culture, we will not only benefit our students but also boost staff morale through providing positive feedback and increasing the satisfaction that comes from teaching. Through working together as a staff to clearly define and agree what good quality teaching looks like, we can develop collaborative processes that will provide real feedback to teachers and help them be the best teacher they can be.

Don’t get me wrong: I believe that we need high standards of professionalism and photo: pictrough

As educators, we espouse the importance of feedback as part of the learning cycle. Learning experiences are carefully planned; the series of experiences are provided to students; we assess their ability to apply the skills or content taught and then provide feedback to the student with

the aim of helping them make progress. The importance of feedback to students is also highlighted in many of the teaching and learning audits.

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• Study • Less • Achieve • More •

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By Karen Boyes and Graham Watts (written by New Zealanders published in America) Take educational outcomes way beyond facts and information with this collection of tools for teaching students how to think and behave intelligently when they encounter problems and challenges. A series of 32 lesson plans and worksheets helps primary school teachers plan lessons and classroom activities that teach students the 16 Habits of Mind. The Learning Tool combines classroom resources, professional development activities and ideas to promote successful learning in the classroom and beyond. Each tool includes a brief explanation, step-by-step instructions, worksheets, samples, and resource pages. Plus, another set of tools helps you create teacher training sessions that introduce all 16 habits to teachers and provide a launching pad for teachers to teach these valuable lifelong skills.

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This series of more than 50 Habits of Mind tools helps secondary school teachers plan lessons and classroom activities for successful lifelong learning. Teachers choose from the extensive list of tools to * Establish positive behaviors. * Teach communication skills. * Promote problem solving and decision-making. * Demonstrate good character traits.

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yvonne godfrey

School leavers: Prepare Your World for 2012 It’s time to take control

eaving school is filled with excitement, celebration and anticipation for some, but disappointment and apprehension for others. Either way, it is a time of great change for young people as one world closes and another much bigger one opens up.

may become resistant to routines and selfdiscipline. There will be no structure in your day, and without something to look forward to, you will have little or no purpose, which will lead to boredom and possibly depression.

Going from dependence on parents to successfully embracing independence takes preparation and new thinking. Leaving school and a new calendar year are good “lines in the sand” indicating that it’s time to go up a level.

2. Work experience

So, what will change and what should you focus on? First things first: As a young person, you need to know what to aim for. Defining Adulthood – What makes an adult? • Financial (paying your way) • Physical (running a household and taking care of your living needs) • Emotional (protecting yourself from danger and growing your leadership) Here are seven areas for you to focus on

Teachers Matter

1. Redefine structure and purpose into your day Unless you go straight from school to a job, you will no longer have a routine. You will be in holiday mode, which is great, but it should have a time limit, otherwise you

If you are job hunting without luck, I recommend getting into unpaid work experience or volunteer work. This will get you connected to the working world; you will learn transferable skills, enrich your CV and feel good about contributing. If you are teachable with a good work ethic, the organisation you are helping will end up employing you or they will network you to a friend. 3. Friendships will come and go You or some of your friends may move away to tertiary colleges, while others will get jobs with anti-social hours. The school crew will never be the same. That’s not to say you will have fewer friends, it’s just that the dynamics will change. Stay connected to the friends who are important to you, allowing others to fade away naturally. Be prepared to make new friends, just make sure that you choose carefully. Look for friends who will encourage you and bring out the best in you. Search for a mentor, someone who is at least 20 years your senior but is not your parent. This mentor will have wisdom, advice and help that they will be happy to share with you.

“ Learn self-control (which is different to self discipline). While self-discipline drives us to do what is right, self-control holds us back from doing what will harm others and ourselves.”

Don’t get caught up in a group that doesn’t share your morals. If your behaviour starts feeling weird, on the edge or wrong and you hide it from your parents, it is wrong and you are on a pathway leading to a bad destination. 4. You will have new freedoms and new responsibilities Until now you may have submitted to “the rules” and exercised “your rights.” But it is better to focus on respect and responsibility. This is true freedom based on love for your fellow man, not legalism. Learn self-control (which is different to self discipline). While self-discipline drives us to do what is right, selfcontrol holds us back from doing what will harm others and ourselves. Each of us knows our weaknesses, a n d i t t a k e s r e a l e m o t i o nal maturity to protect oneself from self-destruction. But, as you practice selfcontrol, respect and responsibility, you will suffer less temptation and peer pressure. Society and the law will expect more from y o u n o w. I f y o u s t u f f up, be prepared to take the consequences and don’t ask to be bailed out by peers, parents or other adults. Your attitude will clearly define whether you are a boy or a man, a girl or a woman.

yvonne godfrey

5. Get smart with money Whatever you respect you attract; whatever you do not respect you repel. Money, opportunities and people – it’s all the same. If you want to be good with money – then respect it. Learn to live within your budget – no matter how modest. Having things will not bring you long-term happiness. “The borrower is servant to the lender,” the proverb says. Don’t get a loan for anything that is purely entertainment and that includes a modified car.

windows, and do some weeding and any other job that may have escaped you in the past.

Lisipeki’s workouts on our website, www. miomo.co.nz

If you have moved away to study, when you come home don’t treat the home like a hotel. Resume your involvement in family life and responsibilities.

• Learn to cook to eat right and save money. You will be a very popular flatmate and friend.

6. Learn how to be a great flat-mate Start morphing your relationship with Mum and Dad from parent to child into adult to adult. Learn how a household runs if you don’t already know. Read the power bill and your rates bill if your family owns their home; know what the weekly food bill is. Plan meals; food shop on a budget; and cook at least two meals a week. Mow the lawn, wash t h e

• Keep exercising; you don’t need to belong to the gym. For a fitness regime you can do with no equipment, see Vilisini

7. Look after yourself • You may be thrilled to put down the schoolbooks, but don’t let your brain become lazy. Read great books, articles and autobiographies to keep you in the habit of reading. Be careful what you watch and listen to. It all builds or damages your character.

• Get enough rest – and not 24 hours straight from Sunday morning to Monday morning. • Put boundaries around yourself. Don’t let people take your stuff. I’m talking about money, time and energy, affection, trust, opportunities or your future. Finally, I have a passion, commitment and strong belief in young adults. You are or have the potential to be a future leader. I am 100 percent counting on YOU.

kate southcombe

How do we value students?

Ask the right questions – and improve attendance

colleague and I have been struggling with attendance issues. One afternoon, after an exhausting week of catch up work, the two of us sat down in desperation; we had to do something. We took a step back; we discussed our classroom management: What systems did we have in place to deal with this issue? What policies were in place to support us and how did we implement them? The list of current procedures began with meeting with the student and completing an individual learning plan, followed by warning letters and meetings with the campus manager or the programme leader and other negative consequences, but I kept thinking, “We are treating the students as the source of the problem.” We need to take another step back and ask ourselves two potentially threatening questions: 1. Why don’t they want to come to class? 2. What might make them want to?

Teachers Matter

While we felt we had no control over our students’ behaviour, when we asked these questions we began to notice what we did control; for example we dictate the environment and we control our own behaviour and the procedures within the classroom. This put us as tutors in the driving seat because if we control these factors, we are then able to change them. In doing so, maybe we can create a place where students want to be and where they feel comfortable.

We can’t possibly analyze all the reasons why these students don’t attend. Some have a history of poor school attendance, difficult family backgrounds and little role modeling available of suitable work ethic behaviour. What we can do is change our approach to find solutions. We turned to Anthony Robbins and Te Whaariki for inspiration. We wanted the students to feel valued, to feel a sense of belonging and to feel they mattered and that what they have to say is

valued (Ministry of Education, 1996). We needed to find an explicit way to foster this feeling within our learning establishment, and focusing on consequences of non attendance was not going to help achieve this goal, or increase attendance. The ideas flowed once we started looking at it from a proactive angle; we looked at our reinforcement options; what we could do to involve the students in classroom

We then developed an introductory class session to put the framework in place. The session began with a teacher-led discussion on feelings and behaviour and the important connection between how we feel and how we behave. This led to a discussion about what does a person who is excited look like? How do we know they are excited before they speak? How do they behave?

“ The ideas flowed once we started looking at it from a proactive angle; we looked at our reinforcement options; what we could do to involve the students in classroom management; how we could interact more effectively with the students and what did we really value.”

management; how we could interact more effectively with the students and what did we really value about the education experience. There were implications because I only teach part time and consistency and continuity are obviously important, so we considered this carefully and we came up with the following key ideas: • Have a reward scheme in place • One-on-one meetings with individual students weekly shared between the two tutors • Develop individual student philosophies • Have class and tutor expectations agreed and displayed • Involve students in displaying student work

As the rugby world cup was looming, we were able to capitalize on the All Blacks obsession by asking the students how they thought the All Blacks might be feeling right now. Of course they came up with “nervous and anxious.” We thought about how these feelings might affect the All Blacks’ behaviour if they focused on their nerves and anxiety. We had a laugh at the thought of the All Blacks sitting in the changing room saying, “It’s too hard,” “Oh I don’t think I can do this,” “What if I’m wrong,” “Oh, I’m tired,” “Can I go home early?” All of these are excuses that the student frequently use in class. We then brainstormed empowering emotions that the All Blacks might be feeling. We pushed the students to extend their language and move from low-impact words such as “good” and “happy” to invigorating words such as

photo: Michael Chamberlin

kate southcombe

“powerful,” “motivated” and “strong.” The students then choose four of these emotions that they could identify with, and they wrote them down in their folders. The main list was then displayed in the classroom for constant use when student are struggling or feeling low. We reminded the students that it is important to acknowledge our feelings when we are upset; we are allowed to feel angry or nervous, but staying in that state will not help us, as Robbins believes. Having a list of empowering emotions at our finger tips means we can draw on them to give us the inspiration to keep going. The next session focused students on their beliefs and values: What is important to them and what do they deeply believe in and value above all else? This exercise was daunting for many of them. We are rarely encouraged to put time or effort into considering our personal philosophy and even those fresh from school had no apparent experience of recording their beliefs or values on paper. As a class I told them that I could already name some of their values based on their behavior. This shocked them at first, but I said, “for example I know that you all value education or further study.” How do I know this? Some students cottoned on to the fact that it was because they had enrolled on this course. Gradually they began to offer ideas of things they valued, such as family and friends.

Here are a few of the value statements that individual students produced. • I value my family and friends and also my time with myself. • I think that my education/career is one of the most important things for me. • I think that everyone deserves a second chance. • I value trust. Without trust nothing works, you can’t do anything without trust. We discussed how these values and beliefs help us to make decisions – and how we can reflect on our philosophy to help us decide what we must do. I put forward the suggestion that all decision making is about clarifying our values, and establishing what is important to us (Robbins, 2001). This basic plan could be used for any age group of students. With small adjustments for younger children, such as having pictures of people or situations that help indentify emotions, teachers can help children get in touch with their feelings and relate these feelings to how they behave. Role playing certain emotions and getting others to spot the emotion can be a fun way to see how our emotions affect our behaviour. Creating

their own philosophy can be anything from writing a set of value statements to drawing pictures of things or people who are important to them. The key is getting the students to think about what they believe in and what they value. What I found so interesting was how the initial strategy to improve attendance in our class became much bigger than simply dishing out warning letters. As tutors we did some soul searching and asked some difficult questions, but in the process we discovered more about what we believe in and what’s important to us. Ultimately our teaching philosophy has become explicitly embedded in our practice for all to see. By using the students’ perspective as a starting point, we have created a dynamic within the classroom that has unleashed some motivated and inspired students who want to be there.

I modeled some sentence starters to encourage students and to enable them to start writing their own philosophy: • I believe

• I value • I feel it is important…

photo: nyul

Teachers Matter

• I think

karen tobich

Sort it out

Take stock for what you want, need and love

ou will find the capacity of abundance in clarity. If your life is filled to the max with activities and stuff, you need to create clarity in your life. It requires clearing a path through the clutter and chaos in all aspects of your life. Removing clutter in all areas of your life (mental and physical) means you are making room, creating space for more awareness, more honesty, more possibility, more hope for tomorrow and ultimately more money. Clutter has the power to destroy. Removing clutter gives you the power to act and the power to create. My advice to you is not to own anything you don’t want or need or love. Value everything, every item you own, and think about the value of each object. Ask yourself: • What did it cost? • What is it worth today?

Don’t forget about mental clutter. It arises from the things you know you must do, like set up your will, a trust, guardianship for your children, insurances, superannuation plans, promises we did not keep, bad financial affairs, etc. Every change you mean to make and leave undone preoccupies your mind and keeps your life in a state of chaos. Clear your path to abundance by doing the following: • Throw away: Go through your entire house and find at least 25 things you can throw away, i.e., worn out shoes, broken things you were meaning to fix for ages, unused consumables and incomplete stuff.

illustration: Lorelyn Medina

• What is it worth as an earthly, material representation of who you are now?

karen tobich

• Give away: Find 25 items that are in good shape and are truthfully no longer of value to you or no longer used. Clothes, bags, dishes, appliances, videos, books, toys – things that someone else can use. Reflect on what each item originally costs you, how much was actually wasted and how little you have to show for it. Take it all to the “opp shop,” don’t sell them, give them away. Be generous. • Borrowed items: Find anything that does not belong to you (things you borrowed) and return them. Make a list of everything you have lent out and make sure you retrieve it. • Value: Look and touch all items that mean the world to you, item’s you’d never part with – photos, heirloom jewelry, letters. Think how little they cost. These things will remind you of the things that money cannot buy. • Master list: Make and keep a master list of all the things you are meant to do that preoccupy your mind and add to the chaos and complexity in your life.

• List the items that served you well, that you still treasure today. Those are the items that were worth the money you’ve spent on them – a fair and equal trade. • T h i n k a b o u t m o n e y, o f what it can buy you or would it serve you better kept as money. In order to be truly rich, you have to not only value what you love, but also have only things you value.

“ Clutter has the power to destroy. Removing clutter gives you the power to act and the power to create.”

• Transfer the items from your master list of things to do to your diary and do them once and for all. Now that you’ve done this exercise, you no longer have what you don’t want, all meaningless clutter is gone and out of your way, and you are on your way to a simpler life.

Now reflect on the following: • What do you suppose your clutter cost you at the time you bought it and how much money does that mean you no longer have today? List all the items you are throwing and giving away and list its monetary value (when you bought it).

illustration: Lorelyn Medina

• What did the things you had to have, because you thought you could not live without them, really cost you in the end?

jill wright

“ There have also been major developments in writing implements including lefthanded fountain pens, specially shaped refillable ball point pens, and pencils.”

When being left isn’t always write

The “right” tools sometimes don’t get the job done for lefties

ur household is mainly right handed except for my son who is left. Before we began home schooling he went to two mainstream schools and became what the school labeled a “reluctant writer” - a label we found was no more than that. It did not come with any suggestions or help just punitive consequences. His writing (or lack thereof) came to a head in grade 3; this is when pens begin to be used and when his teacher decided to tell us that “your son is ‘retarded.’ ” After my son, husband and I recovered our composure I stated that even if we thought that to be the case, using that terminology in particular and in front of the intended victim was a heartless and unnecessary label. It was suggested we teach him to touch type and this may make production of text easier. Fine in theory, but unless in the future, exams allow computers to be used, some left-handers will have great difficulty in achieving their potential.

Poor handwriting can cause many lefthanders frustration and loss of self-esteem and consequent under-performance. After many detentions, my son still failed to achieve large amounts of text, even though in many cases the questions were answered, just briefly. He was miserable. We decided to move out of the mainstream education and try home schooling. It dawned on me that he was having particular difficulty using the multipurpose biro. We were even contemplating getting him to convert to right-handed writing as he currently does do some activities right handed. I soon discovered that doing so would be incorrect with many other side effects possible. I also noted that when he started school, he was not instructed on how to form the letters differently to right handers - specifically E,F,H,I,J T and X in upper case and f, t and x in lower.

According to research, handedness does not become set for children until about 3 years of age. Some children do not focus on one hand until much later. During this time, they will change between hands. This is completely normal. Www.leftys.com.au has a large amount of information about being left handed and also supplies a large number of products specially designed for left-handers. On another site, www.anythinglefthanded. co.uk, I purchased a copy of a writing sheet that not only has upper and lower cases of the alphabet, but demonstrates the letters that differ between left and right and how to undertake them. It also provides a sample template to show the child the angle his paper should be on to enable them to write easier. (See below.) There is also one provided for right handers. I have laminated this to make it easy to maintain.

jill wright They also provide booklets (about letter formation, cutting with left-handed scissors and helping your pre-school child who is left handed). I have read all the booklets and found that they would have been great when we started out. The mat, however, has been a success with both my children.

Teachers Matter

There have also been major developments in writing implements including left-handed fountain pens, specially shaped refillable ball point pens, and pencils. Some of the advances are the Yoropen (www.yoropen. com.au) and the Swan Neck pen (www.swanneckpen. com); both of these have an angled neck to enable the child to hold the pen further back and be able to see what they have written. The description I have heard: Hold the Swan Neck pen as you would a dart and then immediately put your arm down on to the paper. Both of these pens are suitable for use by both left and right handers. There are demonstrations of how these pens make writing easier on each of the websites. I am looking forward to trying these myself. Stabilo ‘S Move Easy Pen’, left-handed pen and pencils, are also available. These are ordered direct from both left-handers shops. These pens use an erasable ink, and so are good transitions from pencil to pen.

Another interesting writing device for children is the Handiwriter or sportwriter. The description reads: “This simple device is made up of a large loop made of soft elastic (like a hair scrunchy) that goes over the wrist, a small loop that goes around the pencil or pen and a cord with a charm on the end that is held in the palm of the hand. These work together to encourage a perfect grip and writing style without even trying.” The charm occupies the

two smallest fingers whilst keeping the hand relaxed. My children love this. I have already adopted the slope of the book/paper with my son and can already see some difference. I have received my delivery of the pens above and am happy to report that positive improvements are being seen in only a short time, and I am hopeful these changes will rectify my s o n ’s w r i t i n g difficulties over time. I have been told that writing with a standard ball point pen can be problematic for some as they are designed to be pulled across the page and when you are left handed you spend your time pushing the pen and many times it does not have ink on it - making it seem like that the pen won’t work. There are also three writing practice books available that are spiral bound at the top to make writing easier. These are designed to be used when children are beginning to learn to write or can be used to correct bad habits or problems that have arisen. These are available directly from the publisher at http://robinswoodpress.com/ main/productseries.php?id=930. They have on their website a school version on either CD rom or book allowing photocopying of the three books.

The website (www.anythinglefthanded. co.uk) also has many short videos demonstrating the products or just explaining the issues behind left-handed problems (http://www.anythinglefthanded. co.uk/videos/writing-left-handed.html). I have found these very helpful. I just wish that I had been more cognizant of these potential problems when my son began school. The teachers did not appear to assist left-handers (there were quite a few in my son’s class) to write to their strengths and did not appear to be aware that differences existed. With the right practice, and the development of good writing habits, however, there is no reason why left-handers can’t write just as well as their right-handed friends! We have had a great victory. I now have a son who is writing. After trying all of the pens mentioned in the article, he prefers the Stabillo Smove pen and matching pencil. He also started using the Handiwriter and would use this with a normal shaped pen or pencil, but the Stabillo pen, being ergonomically shaped, does not really suit this apparatus. My son comments that writing does not hurt anymore. He now willingly writes and does his work without the constant procrastination that we used to face, both the time at school and now at home. To a large extent, if something has to be written, he just grabs the pen and writes it.

Teachers Resources & Lessons

Think of the best things about you. Which Habits of Mind are you really good at applying to problems which are hard to solve. Are you really persistent? Or perhaps you are accurate and precise. Imagine you could put your best qualities inside a jar and sell it to others who need to experience more success in theirLIKE lives. LOOKS It might look something like this:

Active group members Smiles

Sharing

Sharing the work

Getting the job done well

Thinking About Thinking Metacognition Think about how your brain responds to problems. Become aware of your own performance when you are faced with tough problems. Ask yourself about which HOM you could be more successful at applying. Thinking About Thinking: Metacognition Be aware of the good things inside of you. What quality thinking happens inside your brain. Are you aware of it when it happens?

Helping each other

Questioning And Problem Posing Ask yourself which Habit of Mind is your best. Ask yourself whatProblem it is you do that makes you so Turn taking solving successful at it. Ask yourself how could you set out your bottle page so that people would want to Heads together buy it?

Everyone contributing to the team Cooperation Understanding each Other Safe

by Adrian Rennie

Great

Happiness Being included Successful Stick to it juice, keep going berries, don’t give up sugar, wham the job FEELS LIKE preservatives, hardly ever stop jelly.

Do you need some Heaps of stickability? ideas Give up when it gets hard? Laughing Hardly ever finish Questions Manners things? Would Speaking you like to clearly wham every problem Whispering that comes along? Need to turn that frustrated feeling into persistence?

Well! Talking

SOUNDS LIKE

Discussion Team work

Fun Singing together

is for you. A Encouragement spoon full a day Accomplishing things will keep failure Sometimes disagreeing Sometimes Only 3frustrating easy payments of $39.95 for a six away. Being friends

month supply. It’s so easy!

©A.Rennie 2010 ©A.Rennie 2010

Teachers Resources & Lessons

by Adrian Rennie

LOOKS LIKE

Thinking About Thinking: Metacognition Be aware of the good things inside of you. What quality thinking happens inside your brain. Are you aware of it when it happens?

It might look something like this: Questioning And Problem Posing Ask yourself which Habit of Mind is your best. Ask yourself what it is you do that makes you so successful at it. Ask yourself how could you set out your bottle page so that people would want to buy it?

Stick to it juice, keep going berries, don’t give up sugar, wham the job preservatives, hardly ever stop jelly. FEELS LIKE

Only 3 easy payments of $39.95 for a six month supply. It’s so easy!

50 28

Do you need some stickability? Give up when it gets hard? Hardly ever finish things? Would you like to wham every problem that comes along? Need to turn that frustrated feeling into persistence?

Well! SOUNDS LIKE

is for you. A spoon full a day will keep failure away.

©A.Rennie2010 2010 ©A.Rennie

jenny barrett

Schools take to the airwaves Everyone wins when they’re tuned in

unning a school radio station sounds like it would be expensive and complicated, but that’s not so. They cost in the region of $3,000 and seem to attract community funding. They are easy to set up; you can buy a kitset and only need one dedicated computer to run it. Schools across New Zealand are pushing boundaries and using radio stations to for marketing and fundraising and to develop oral literacy, self-esteem, and Te Reo. Here are the stories of three schools who have all taken to the airwaves in 2011.

Jan Tinetti, Merivale School in Tauranga Merivale School began to focus on oral language back in 2008. They thought then that a radio station would be the best way to provide students with an authentic learning context but feared the cost. Almost three years later at the ULearn conference, they stumbled across an affordable kitset and ordered it. However, they kept it under wraps, instead beginning a discussion with the students on how to best communicate with their community which had extremely

low levels of Internet access. At the time, Merivale School was hosting the Ra Whakangahau Kapa Haka Festival, which coincidentally entailed Moana Communications broadcasting via radio from the school site. The light bulb came on, and the students decided that a radio station could improve the links with the community. Lo and behold, the radio station came out of its box. The students felt that it should form an integral part of the school site, not be located separately, and they identified the library which was set for refurbishment as the prime spot. In the meantime, a cupboard in the staffroom would do. The location proved to have advantages that no one had thought of; teachers weren’t afraid of something that ran out of a cupboard, surely it had to be low-tech and easy to use.

flourishing. Levels had been consistently low for some time, but are now improving and the only intervention has been the radio station. Students who previously lacked self-esteem and self-belief are now brimming with confidence. George, aged 10, one of the students pictured, plucked up the courage to knock on Jan Tinetti’s door and ask if he could sing on the radio. He was an undiscovered talent whose voice Jan described as “bringing tears to your eyes.” George’s reaction to being able to sing on the radio: “It brings joy to my heart.” He has since gone on to sing at a local theatre and talk to a visiting ICT Cluster. Being able to communicate with an audience that is invisible is proving to be a non-threatening but authentic way for students to develop their oral literacy or performing arts skills.

The radio station Tutarawananga FM 107.5, broadcasting for a distance of 2.5 kms, has thus evolved in a non-threatening, student-centred fashion. The school has gone from having the school song on a loop to pre-recorded interviews to live shows and is fast becoming the local community’s number-one choice on the radio. It is even playing in the local hairdressers. Benefits are already apparent. Oral language is

The under-the-carpet way in which the radio has been introduced – it is still described as being in the soft launch stage – has also won over both the teachers and students. With minimal effort 80 percent of the teachers are using the radio as a teaching tool. Talk to the students, and they feel that they and their local community own it. Whilst advocating that other schools should have a radio station, they add “but only if they

jenny barrett

photo: Wavebreak Media Ltd

don’t broadcast around here; this is our radio station for our community.” Students leaving at the end of the year fully intended to continue to tune in to “their radio.” And all this has taken place without it even coming out of the cupboard. Tune in next year to find out what happens when it moves into its own designated space in the library.

Te Akau Ki Papamoa School, Papamoa

Teachers Matter

A radically different but equally successful approach has been taken across the city in Papamoa. Te Akau Ki Papamoa radio station TAKP 107.6 has been located at the front of the administration building, with a neon “On Air” sign that is lit up when broadcasting. The sign, inspired by the students, has been professionally designed, and the school hopes to encourage students to take broadcasting seriously by providing as realistic an environment as possible.

Just as having to locate the radio station in the cupboard had unexpected advantages for Merivale, Te Akau Ki Papamoa found that due to the studio’s prominent position it fast became a marketing tool for the school. Prospective parents are blown away to see the young DJ’s in action through the windows and due to its conspicuous location existing parents were soon tuning in and talking about the radio station in the local community. Principal Bruce Jepson genuinely believes that the radio station has been a contributing factor in recent enrollments. With a 5km broadcasting area, the radio station has also attracted the attention of local businesses who are providing the school with gifts such as vouchers for prize giving in return for a mention once a week. Whilst no one is going to complain about the unexpected marketing and fund raising spin offs, the real value of the radio station has been in terms of teaching and learning,

particularly in Te Reo Maori. The potential of the radio station to support the teaching and learning of Te Reo became apparent d u r i n g M a o r i L a n g u a g e We e k . Ta n e Bennett, an experienced teacher of Te Reo, put together a series of programmes

“Benefits are already apparent. Oral language is flourishing. Levels had been consistently low for some time, but are now improving and the only intervention has been the radio station.”

based around manakitanga, how we look after each other. All classes were to tune in at 1:30 p.m. and each teacher was to act as facilitator, so for example when Tane asked them to draw a T Chart on the board, they drew the T Chart, and then the students would complete the activity as he directed over the radio. It meant that all the students were accessing authentic live Te Reo. Feedback from staff was that they too were finding it instructional. Such was the popularity of this series of programmes that a design-a-poster competition got over 200 entries, representing almost 50 percent of the school. From this developed Tane’s Te Reo Hour, when once a week, the whole school tunes in and Tane delivers his fully funded unit to all the classrooms. Initially based on a series of books covering each unit, the school is now working at embedding the Te Reo hour into the school-wide termly topic. This term, the school has been following the Rena Shipwreck, so Tane’s programme has looked at the importance of the island of Motiti and the local legends. Tane describes his experiences with the radio station as the highlight of his mainstream teaching to date and both he and the principal are considering the potential to roll the concept or the programmes out into other schools.

jenny barrett

Merivale School wants to connect with whanau who may not be located locally. Te Akau Ki Papamoa School wants to share their Te Reo resources with other schools. They both are looking into “streaming” which means broadcasting over the Internet. One cutting edge school, Halswell in Christchurch, have recently bitten the bullet and are now broadcasting to the world via the web. Activated 88.3FM began broadcasting in early 2011, but it quickly became apparent that reception was both limited and patchy due to the school’s location. Parents were driving to school to hear the broadcasts. In addition, many other parents working outside of the broadcasting area wanted to tune in, too. Teacher Fraser Malins decided to investigate freeware to support streaming. It needed to be reliable and simple, and he found the answer in “Icecast.” The school set up a desktop computer running winamp with an icecast

plug in used to exclusively stream the signal to the icecast server then out to the world. Activated 88.3 FM School’s is now streaming live between 2 and 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, accessible via their home page, www.halswell.school.nz.

The low down on low power radio stations A school radio station is considered to be low power FM broadcasting. It uses a low amount of energy to broadcast a signal that does not travel far, and is seen as a niche radio station that is focused on the small surrounding community. Low power FM general-user license requirements are straightforward: The maximum permitted transmission power at the aerial is one watt, and you need to broadcast your station name and an address or email address every hour. There are a number of permitted frequencies. Frequency use is on a shared basis so you may find that another user could encroach on your signal. Schools resolve this through negotiation.

Licensing requirements are not onerous either. In fact, the majority of schools will already have the appropriate license: the APRA|AMCOS PPNZ School Music License administered by the New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA). The easiest way to obtain the equipment is through a kitset that comes with labels explaining the plug locations. An FM transmitter and aerial are needed, and the aerial must be placed on the highest point of the school to ensure as wide coverage as possible, generally up to 5km. You will also need at least one computer to run your playlist but you may want an additional one where DJs can check emails or blogs for live feedback from their listeners. Jan, principal of Merivale School, talked about the ubiquitous nature of the radio station when she recently did her strategic review: The radio station could potentially contribute to everything that the school wanted to achieve. It is hard to believe that something with so much promise can be so simple.

photo: Wavebreak Media Ltd

Halswell School, Christchurch

christine kerr

Your teaching vision for 2012

Boost yourself and re-create your teaching vision

the beginning of the school year, you enjoyed getting to know a new group of students. This time, you told yourself, I will achieve even more for my students than I did last year. I am referring to more than academic achievement outcomes. It is more than ticking the boxes of standard teacher actions. I am suggesting that the personal part that you will play in your students’ lives next year can make the greatest positive impact upon them as effective young people, in a sustainable way. So what do you wish your students to personally achieve next year? Where will they be by the end of 2012, because of your efforts? Maybe most important of all, instead of imagining how you wish to think of them, how would you like them to view themselves after a year in your classroom? What is your Teaching Vision? Can you succinctly state this right now?Now is the time for you to be fully aware of where you are today, your present reality, then where you wish to be, your vision for the future. You can do this in all areas of your life. Challenge yourself to invest some time to utilise these tools, and you may well be surprised where they take you.

Teachers Matter

Tool number 1: Think it, record it

If you are truly serious about being a more mighty and inspiring teacher, I suggest you spend some time in focused thinking, and record some of your key thoughts. “I have lots of ideas for what I want to do,” you may say, and yes, I know you do. Even more important than that, if your ideas are written down, there is even greater probability that you will act upon them, in order to get the results you want. In her book Write it down, make it happen, Henriette Klauser shared that writing your thoughts on paper causes the brain’s reticular activating system to

create triggers of awareness, which in turn allow opportunities to make themselves more obvious to you. Because you are more aware of these opportunities, you are more likely to take action toward achieving your goals and intentions. So, let’s get started. There is no need to pop down to the shop and buy a certain type of journal or pad. Right now, the back of a used envelope or the back of your classroom timetable is fine; just start jotting down your valuable ideas and thoughts. Ask yourself: • Why do you do what you do? • What is your teaching purpose? • What is your desire for these young people in front of you? • Where do you see your relationship with them going next year? Initially, you might think you already know this; it’s in your head, but I urge you to write it down anyway. This is the foundation of the vision process. Once you have all these ideas recorded, you might be asking yourself “How am I going to achieve all this?” This particular question does not need to be answered right here and now. The key focus right now is your vision for the year, your wants, ideal hopes and desires. Yes, it is a brainstorm, just as we instruct our students; write without hesitation, ideas lead on to other ideas, some of which you may never use, but for now, just write. As outrageous as some of your ideas may be, do not judge them, as judgement becomes a barrier to your thinking. Just record for now.

Tool number 2: My mission Now perhaps you will need a journal, even an old exercise book. Check out the following four statements or questions and answer them in as many ways as you can. Based upon Fiona Harrold’s coaching programs, this exercise will help form some structure around your vision. Later, you can amend it, as it will evolve over time. 1.What do I want most out of my teaching (next year)? 2. What do I want to see most happen for my students? 3. What attributes and skills make me special? 4. Things I am capable of doing right now are. Next, you align this with a simple mission statement as below, joining these four key phrases: “I will ... (include a word or phrase from 4) .... Using my ...(3) .... to accomplish ...(2) ... and in doing so achieve ... (1). You may be surprised at the result of this exercise, as generally, people find they have put into writing something they have found difficult to think and verbalise previously.

christine kerr

“ Now is the time for you to be fully aware of where you are today, your present reality, then where you wish to be, your vision for the future. You can do this in all areas of your life.”

Ultimately, this is what is going to drive you, your “Teaching Vision” for the year, what you are aiming for. It is imperative that you know where you are going. Stephen Covey suggests that those of us who “keep the end in mind” are highly effective people, and this habit will help lead to your success. And it is completing the first two steps above that will help you have greater clarity in creating your specific vision. A super strategy to help yourself in this exercise is to imagine that you have already arrived at your destination, a year from now. Imagine now where you will be on this date today in 2012. Truly imagine yourself there right now: What have you achieved over the last 12 months? Have you arrived at your vision? Have you achieved for your students what you initially intended 12 months ago? How are they responding to your teaching and to you as their teacher? How are the students feeling about their year, and what they have learned through you, about themselves? And most important of all, how do you feel, having achieved all this? If you currently have that jaded feeling, and wonder if you have delivered the inspiration and motivation to your students in 2011 that you hoped for in Term 1, you might be hoping for some different reflective thinking in12 months’ time. By utilising the tools above, you have the ability to create a more meaningful vision for you and your students next year. There will be something different about your approach to your students, and you will possibly be providing them an extra factor of yourself that will energise them, and in time give them new purpose for learning. By the way, if you feel yourself getting excited at this point, that is good sign; it means you are doing this authentically.

Your vision is more than a goal; this is what acknowledges your personal purpose, your reason for turning up at school each Monday morning, your reason for teaching. Recording it in as much detail as possible, placing it in a position where you will see it often (every day is best) and then casting your eye over it often will give you a greater chance of seeing its fruition than if you keep it just running around in your mind. I truly hope you will invest the time you require to be clear in your vision for your students (and indeed yourself) in 2012 and beyond. Like everything worthwhile, investing time in getting the foundations sturdy creates huge benefits.

photo: Kenneth Man

Tool number 3: My vision

photo: cathy yeulet

robyn pearce

Great tools to keep our kids safe – and save time The cost – and convenience – are perfect for schools.

Teachers Matter

a grandmother as well as a time management specialist, I pricked up my ears when a friend started talking about high-impact ways to block inappropriate web content for children, a vital form of protecting children from abuse. That initial chat opened up an interesting, cost-effective and time-efficient suite of technology services for not only schools but also the business world. And a side benefit has been that I also discovered another New Zealand export success story. Yet again, a small home-grown business is at the forefront of technology innovation on a global scale.

A brief overview This local business is Watchdog, www. watchdog.net.nz, the first ISP in NZ to provide filtered Internet access for families, schools and businesses. About two thirds of all schools in New Zealand are now using one or more of their services under a contract with the Ministry of Education. Their list of services is so comprehensive that I’ll just highlight a few. They supply both hardware and connectivity services, act as a filtering gateway and also provide a big range of other cloud-based applications.

A recent example of their global impact can be discovered on a small island in the Indian Ocean. The ICT Authority of Mauritius recently installed a national Internet filtering system for the island, aimed at blocking access to child sexual abuse (CSA) web sites for all Internet users. Trials of the system over a four-month period prior to the installation had logged 142,000 accesses to web sites containing CSA material from one ISP network in the country (population 1.25 million).

robyn pearce

A number of other companies provide individuals with the opportunity to block sites, Net Nanny being one. The difference with Watchdog is that it works at the ISP level for a country or a group of subscribers. That alone is a huge time-saver.

Cloud-based applications and services (located and accessed via the Internet rather than in the local school network) remove a huge overhead for schools and business. My own business is now cloud-based. Often, where the school is unable to afford

They use fixed blocking to sites relating to: • a n a r c h y ( w e a p o n s , terrorism, killing methods) • c r i m i n a l s k i l l s (pyrotechnics, computer hacking, password cracking, murder) • drugs (the use or purchase of illegal drugs) • gambling • hate and discrimination • o b s c e n e a n d t a s t e l e s s material (mutilation, bodily functions, horror, death, candid scenes, violence)

The tragic events in Christchurch highlight the benefits of such a service. Devastating damage to schools and infrastructure meant students, teachers and staff were unable to communicate and work for extended periods. The cost and time associated with disaster recovery of hardware and document retrieval is huge and takes many months. Those schools utilising cloud applications were able (once 3G or Internet access was restored) to continue working and communicating with little if any stop in service.

“ Using this kind of service, a client can also use customised blocking. This allows you to block sites beyond the fixed blocking categories. These might include whole categories or specific website addresses relating to material on topics like alcohol, public chat sites, and cults. “

• Pornography (any sort of nudity or vulgarity) • R-rated (dating services, lingerie and swimsuits, revealing pictures) • Social networking (MySpace, Bebo, Facebook etc) I’ve heard a number of stories of business people spending as much as half of their time on sites such as Trademe and Facebook during business hours. Using this kind of service, a client can also use customised blocking. This allows you to block sites beyond the fixed blocking categories. These might include whole categories or specific website addresses relating to material on topics like alcohol, public chat sites, cults, automobiles or sports, entertainment, games, humour and shopping.

the expertise to manage these services, a keen (or not so keen!) teacher is left to do so her own time or to try and squeeze into precious student-focused work hours. The reduction in overheads (and especially time) by using cloud-based services can be enormous. Often the cost and time spent in organising, setting up, upgrading and managing these services is overlooked or underestimated. The time and resource-saving benefits follow on to the teachers and students in the classroom. Previously, work saved to the local network needed to be printed or saved to a USB stick and taken home. With cloud-based applications like Watchdog’s KnowledgeNET Learning Management System, personal work and shared resources can be accessed, worked on and saved from any Internet-connected PC.

In a school environment, safety for students whilst accessing the Internet from school is important. Schools often spend a great deal of time blocking access to certain websites or web services as well as spam management. Given the expanding size of the web world, this job is not going away! CampusNET automatically filters this for the school.

And if you’re wondering about the cost, Watchdog is accredited by the NZ Ministry of Education to provide Managed Internet Services to all state and state-integrated schools free of charge. Nothing to complain about in that pricing structure.

photo: cathy yeulet

Safety for schools and Cloud-based services time savings for business reduce overheads

rowena szeszeran-mcevoy

High petrol prices: The best thing to happen for our health More walking and more talking – and more healthy people

High fuel prices are great for our health so let’s get excited!

Teachers Matter

As a Western society we are fatter, sicker and weaker than we have ever been and most medical experts agree this is because we eat too much and don’t move enough. Finally, because driving the car has become more expensive, people are considering dusting off their pushbikes or walking to get around. WOW! Anything that encourages us to move more and sit less needs to be encouraged; perhaps we should even hope for even higher fuel prices.

Let’s take it one step further: Higher fuel prices will mean higher food prices. Could it be possible that if food costs more, we will finally eat less? Take note, in Western countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Norway, where food is expensive, there is much less challenge with obesity, and the population does not have anywhere near the percentage of overweight people. Yes, fuel is expensive in those countries, too, and if you have been to Denmark, for example, there seems to be more pushbikes than cars-people have a bike and they use it.

More benefits to higher fuel prices There is a massive amount of research going into finding alternative fuels to make our cars go. If we have unlimited petrol and it’s cheap, this research would be slow and most big businesses would be uninterested. N o w, b e c a u s e o f h i g h p e t r o l p r i c e s , alternative fuel research is exploding and alternatives like hybrid cars are becoming a normal part of life.

“ Higher fuel prices will mean higher food prices. Could it be possible that if food costs more, we will finally eat less? ”

With higher fuel prices, we have many more folks searching for ways to save dollars and another bonus of that is car-pooling. Driving to work with more than one person in the car has several benefits. Car-pooling is great for building relationships. When you travel with other people you are forced to chat to each other, your communication skills improve, you are less likely to listen to all the negative news on the radio and you are creating bonds with the people you work with. Carpooling will also help with our massive traffic challenges. We know traffic causes stress and driving on any city freeway, it will be obvious why we have so much traffic. Thousands of cars driving in our cities every day with just one person in the car. Imagine what would happen to our traffic flow challenges if we had three transit lanes and only one, “one-person-in-the-car” lane? Higher fuel prices means more car

photo: Peter Mooij

urn on the news, any radio or TV station or open any newspaper, and you will hear all about the doom and gloom of higher fuel prices. How and why can this great thing be turned into such a dramatic, negative event for our country? Obviously bad news sells. Imagine trying to get this headline into the newspaper or onto the front end of the next news bulletin:.

rowena szeszeran-mcevoy

pooling which means way less traffic: It will be quicker and easier to get to work.

more people on the bus and less people in cars on the road: Less traffic.

Public transport uses less energy, and we have been bombarded with advertising to get us to take the train or the bus. Mmmm, higher fuel prices have popped lots more of us onto public transport. Added bonus to

Using less fuel means cleaner air: The Greenies have been trying to get us to drive less for years and all it took was an increase in the price of fuel to get us off the road and onto the footpath.

A decrease in obesity, an increase in fitness, less stress, les traffic, more opportunity for building relationships and cleaner air…Of course higher fuel prices are a positive thing for all of us.

thelma van der werff

What kids should know about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow Think more than “money” when you see gold.

ong before the beginning of recorded history, gold has been a valuable and highly sought-after precious metal, so valuable, that many alchemists have tried to reproduce it.

Gold has never been as valuable as it is today. Why is the price of gold so high at the moment, and why is gold so valuable to us in so many different ways?

Gold still holds its place as a symbol of wealth and represents success in many societies. Great human achievements, or successes, are frequently rewarded with gold, either in the form of gold medals, golden trophies or other decorations. We reward children for their success or achievement with a “gold star” on their star chart. Children learn from an early age that “anything gold” is positive.

Gold has been frequently linked to a wide variety of symbols and ideologies and so gold does not only symbolize material wealth but also spiritual wealth and the power of wisdom.

In today’s culture, gold is generally connected to terms implying something as good or great, for example: You are as good as gold you are very good. Having a gold mine of information an abundance of information. The golden years the “older” years when you have gained wisdom and experience.

Teachers Matter

All that glitters is not gold just because something looks attractive does not mean it is genuine or valuable.

You have a heart of gold to be generous, sincere and trustworthy. Sitting on a gold mine in control of something very valuable or successful. Worth its weight in gold very valuable

In the psychology of colour, gold stands for ancient or inner wisdom, discernment and self-value. Ancient or inner wisdom is a higher understanding of what is of “true value” or “inner value.” To h a v e i n n e r w i s d o m a n d a n awareness of self value is true wealth. We need to teach our children the true value (gold) in life: real gold is not just about money, but more about the value of integrity, self worth and respect of life. We are beginning to realize that inner values, like trust, friendship, health, care, relationships and honesty are of a higher value than the ownership of possessions. It is a timely reminder of the age-old saying that “not all that glitters is gold.” I don’t think that it is a coincidence at this point of time that the value of gold is high. I believe that for our children’s real wealth in life lays in a feeling of confidence and self worth. With self confidence and respect for life, children can understand and transform themselves; they can turn a negative into a positive. Like the alchemist, they can transform a base metal or any experience into a valuable commodity of gold.

We need to teach our children the meaning of “The Golden Rule” – do onto others as you would have done onto you. The rule teaches them to empathize with other people including those who may be very different from us. It teaches them empathy; empathy is at the root of kindness, compassion, understanding and respect – qualities that we all appreciate being shown, no matter who we are, whatever we think and wherever we come from. When children learn to value others, they will also learn to value themselves. The world is paying a high price for gold; could ancient wisdom and inner values become more valuable now, too? Is life offering us a golden opportunity to transform all our experiences into something of true value? Are we being given the opportunity to pass this ancient knowledge onto our children; to teach them the real value of gold in today’s world? Within each of us lays a gold mine of information – a pot of gold. Go find it, dig it up, and discern what is of true value to us and our children. The use of colour and light for self-care has been used by ancient civilizations for over 5000 years. Decide for yourself if ancient wisdom can be applied in modern times, in modern classrooms.

thelma van der werff

photo: Robert Byron

“Within each of us lays a gold mine of information – a pot of gold. Go find it, dig it up, and discern what is of true value to us and our children.”

Barbara griffith & tricia kenyon

A problem to solve? Think creatively! Picture books often have more depth of learning and teaching than first meets the eye.

his award-winning tale by June Peka is based on a true family story. Although written for a younger audience, this book lends itself for use further up the school.

Vocabulary There is a variety of New Zealand colloquialisms, slang and expressions in this book. Identify each one and explain it in your own words as it applies in the story.

Phrase Turn to custard Totally ballistic

Pop is proud of his prize-winning vegetable garden, fertilised by his “stink bowl” of home-made fertiliser. He is given a mischievous magpie (called Pie), which he refuses to keep in a cage because, “Big birds aren’t meant to be caged - not even imports from Australia.”

Blinkin’ magpie Roadkill possums Just the ticket

Pie wreaks havoc in Pop’s garden and Pop’s solution is both ingenious and humorous. The vivid illustrations enhance this entertaining read (or read-aloud), which should appeal to a wide age group. An edition in Te Reo “Manu Haututu” is also available.

Explanation Began to go wrong

Problem solving 1. One of the underlying storylines in this book is problem solving; how can Pop protect the garden from Pie. Use a PMI sheet to explore Pop’s solution to the problem.

Plus (Positive)

Minus

Interesting

Keeps Pie out of his

(Negative) Has to use the

The flag- what does it

garden

gate all the

mean?

time Characters 1. Identify the characters in this story. 2. Describe the relationship between Pop and Pie; is it as antagonistic as it seems? 3. Who is telling this story and how do you know?

Story mapping Draw a bird’s eye view of the setting showing Pop’s garden and his solution to his problem.

2. Think of creative alternative solutions for other problems arising in the book. EG The smell from the stink bowl. Keeping Pie out of Pop’s cabinet .

Magpie Mischief

Barbara griffith & tricia kenyon

Author June Peka Illustrator Jo Thapa Published by Scholastic New Zealand, August 2010 ISBN 978-1-86943-932-3 978-1-86943-953-8 (Maori edition)

Environmental Issues 1.Do you consider Pop to be a “green” gardener and what does this mean in this story? 2. Can you find examples that show Pop is environmentally aware?

Home-made fertiliser

Won’t cage Pie

Has home vegetable garden.

Research options Create a poster for display on one of these themes. 1. Magpies. Locate information in the story about magpies and use other resources, eg Internet, to find out more. 2. Watertank • Why is it necessary to have a water tank? • How is the tank filled? • What if the tank becomes empty? • What issues arise concerning the cleanliness of water? 3. Compost / Fertiliser • What is the difference between compost and fertiliser? The stink bowl is …………..? • Why are compost / fertiliser used? • What personal experience do you have of either compost or fertiliser at your home?

wendy sweet

Older, wiser and ... healthier? How to get “younger” as you age

you were born between 1945 and 1965, you probably already know that you are a “baby-boomer.” You may also know that as you age and head toward retirement, the government is increasingly interested in you. Why? Because, never before has the government had such a large number of similar-age adults heading into retirement – and as the Department of Labour states – this rapidly ageing population is “something we haven’t dealt with before.” Of course the reason for this concern is that an ageing population has a number of social, political and economic implications for not only future health-care but also the work-force. The teaching profession is no exception. Whilst the demographic data from the Ministry of Education is from 2007- 2008, the overwhelming trend is that there are greater numbers of older teachers (over 45 years) in both primary and secondary schools than there are younger teachers.

Teachers Matter

Fortunately, research into longevity and “anti-ageing: has never been more prolific. Ageing “well” for the baby-boomers is becoming big business. Healthy ageing has even got its own definition: ‘The capacity to function across many domains: physical, functional, cognitive, emotional, social, spiritual – to one’s satisfaction and in spite of one’s medical conditions.” Theories on healthy ageing abound, however, recent publications on longevity research from the National Science Institute in the U.S.A. (as reported by Kravitz, 2011), means that we know a lot more about the effects of ageing than we ever have. Some of these findings include:

• In males, the VO2 max (VO2 is an indicator of aerobic capacity or cardiovascular fitness and stands for ‘Oxygen Uptake per Minute Ventilation’) starts to decline from around 45ml/kg/min, by 5ml/kg/min each decade starting at age 20. In females, this decline drops by the same amount starting at age 35 years from a baseline aerobic capacity of around 38ml/kg/min.

• Once your VO2 max drops to 18ml/kg/min for men and 15 ml/kg/min for women, then functional independence is lost. • The main cause of a declining VO2max is attributed to physical inactivity and an increase in body fat. • Aerobic activity (50 percent to 70 percent intensity), three to five times per week for at least 30 to 45 minutes can retard this decline. For example, eight to 10 weeks of aerobic training can improve VO2max by 13 percent, whilst 24 to 52 weeks of training can improve it by 17 percent. As well, higher intensities of aerobic activity can increase VO2 up to 25 percent. From a biological marker of ageing perspective, this gives you the fitness level of someone 12 years your junior and reduces your risk for heart disease by 50 percent. In other words, the fitter you are as you age, the higher your “cardio-protection.”(This is the current “buzz word” in healthy ageing). • Resistance exercise reverses ageing in human skeletal muscle. A 2007 longevity study took 25 male and female older subjects (average age was 68 years) and tested them against 25 male and female younger subjects (average age was 24 years), and put them all through 26 weeks of resistance training (2 days per week). Muscle biopsies performed on all subjects showed an amazing turn-around on the genetic profile of the older adults that was similar to the younger adults – in effect, the resistance training reversed the aging process in only six months of training. • Sleep is important: People who get less sleep are more prone to obesity (decreased leptin and elevated grehlin, which are gut hormones related to satiety or fullness). “Subjects who get less than six hours of sleep per night are 4.5 times more likely to develop abnormal blood glucose readings, ” says research by Mozaffarain in 2009. All around the world are people who live remarkably “healthily” to a grand old age and researchers are gaining greater insights into the how and why of human longevity in

certain areas. In his book The Blue Zone, Dan Buettner names four “hot-spots” whereby people reach 100 years of age, at a rate that is 10 times greater than in the U.S.A. Buettner has led longevity research in all of these locations. The first “hot-spot” is Sardinia in Italy, where the diet is rich in vegetables, and the centurions walk at least five miles daily and relish in a culture that values laughter and strong family values. The second hotspot is Okinawa Island off Japan. Here they have lived off a traditional diet rich in vegetables and fruit and they are active walkers. They have strong social groups with an emphasis of purpose in life. Next is Loma Linda, a 7th Day Adventist community in California. A vegetarian diet is consumed and emphasis is placed on diet/health, social support, religious activities and volunteering. Finally, Buettner names the last hot-spot as being Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. Once again, the diet consists of light dinners with beans and corn as staples and plenty of fish and vegetables. Inhabitants work hard and have a strong sense of purpose, family and community. Commonalities in all of these known hot-spots include: daily physical activity (walking and tending to crops); having a mission or sense of purpose (not retiring from “work”); maintaining a healthy social network and a balance of family/ work/recreation; eating less and eating mainly fruits and vegetables. Whilst all teachers should be focused on maintaining healthy eating and regular exercise, for those of you within the “babyboomer” demographic and with a renewed interest in “ageing well,” the road ahead for 2012 is clear: Walk daily to ditch the stress as well as maintain your cardiovascular fitness (VO2); add in some resistance training for your muscles (pull and push more); laugh with your peers and your students; engage socially with people who are meaningful to you in your community; sleep well and last but by no means least, maintain a low-meat diet that is high in fruits and vegetables.

wendy sweet

photo: Suprijono Suharjoto

“ H i g h e r intensities of aerobic activity can increase VO2 up to 25 percent. F r o m a biological m a r k e r of ageing perspective, this gives y o u t h e fitness level of someone 12 years your junior and reduces your risk for heart disease by 50 percent.

karen tobich

Quick summer food

“When you want delicious” in a hurry

Summer Menu Summer seafood kebabs Strawberry fennel salad served in tortilla bowls

ho wants to spend hours in the kitchen preparing food for family and friends when lying in the sun with a long cold drink is the other option. When it comed to summer food, I make sure that I am never in the kitchen for more than 30 minutes preparing a meal. Living on the beach gives us an abundance of seafood, and everyone in our family loves it. Plus the strawberry salad is everyone’s favourite - even for those who usually don’t like much salad. My advice: Make double!

Asian noodle salad Sparkling wine jellies

Tortilla salad bowls These tortilla bowls make perfect salad bowls for summer entertaining and picnic and save on the washing up too. You will need: 1 large Tortilla per person

Heat for 10-15 seconds in the microwave to make it soft and flexible. Mold it into a deep cereal or soup bowl and place into a medium to hot oven for 10 - 15 minutes until it is crispy and hold its shape. Take out of the oven and let the tortilla bowls cool. If you are not using them immediately, store them in an airtight container once completely cooled.

Strawberry fennel salad To fill four tortilla bowls, you will need:

Summer seafood kebabs You want to make three to four kebabs per person. For every kebab you will need the following seafood:

Teachers Matter

1 scallop 2 prawns 2-3 cubes of firm fish (like monk fish, lemon fish or guarnard) Vegetables cut into bite size pieces: Zucchini (cut into bite size pieces) Red onion (cut into bite size pieces) Red or yellow peppers (cut into bite size pieces) Button mushrooms (small ones or cut them in halve) Cherry tomatoes

In any order, you want thread the vegetable alternatively with the seafood onto the skewer. Season each skewer with salt and pepper and drizzle with lemon or lime infused olive or avocado oil. Refrigerate until ready to use. Heat the BBQ, brush the grill with oil and cook each skewer for 4-5 minutes or until the seafood is cooked.

I bag of mesclun salad leaves 1 punnet of strawberries quartered or sliced 1 Small bulb of fennel thinly sliced(optional) 1 small red onion thinly sliced For the dressing you will need: 1/2 cup of good quality mayonnaise 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar or orange or strawberry vinegar 1/4 cup of caster sugar 1/4 cup of yoghurt 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise

Put all the dressing ingredients into a jar and shake well. Toss the salad leaves with the strawberries, fennel and red onions, place into the Tortilla Bowl and drizzle generously with the dressing.

karen tobich

Sparkling passionfruit jelly You will need: 500ml sparkling wine 250ml boiling water 250ml freshly juiced orange juice 2 tablespoons of sugar pulp of 4-6 passionfruit 8 teaspoons of powdered gelatin pulp of 4 -6 passionfruit to serve 6 individual jelly moulds or one large jelly mould Dissolve the gelatin and 2 tablespoons of sugar in the boiling water. Add the sparkling wine, orange juice and the pulp of the first lot of passionfruit. Pour into jelly moulds and refrigerate for three or four hours or overnight.

Asian noodle salad (with seafood optional)

Mix remaining passionfruit and sugar until sugar is dissolved. When ready to serve turn jelly mould upside down on a serving plate to release jelly and drizzle with passionfruit.

This salad is super-fast to make and is best if it is made ahead of time to let the flavours mingle. You will need: 1 pack of vermicelli noodles (soaked for 15 minutes in hot water & drained) 1 thumb of ginger finely grated 1 clove of garlic crushed 1 chili finely chopped 2 tablespoons of soy sauce 1 red & 1 green pepper de-seeded, quartered and sliced 1/2 small red onion thinly sliced 6-10 cherry tomatoes halved 1 bunch of fresh coriander chopped 1 dozen cooked prawns (optional) Mix all the ingredients together and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.

john shackleton

A new way to approach New Year’s Resolutions Ten steps to achieving your goal

elcome to 2012! Another new year and another opportunity for new beginnings. At the beginning of Januar y we tend to set ourselves some New Year resolutions. At the end of January we tend to find we have already abandoned them all. The mistake that most people make is that their resolutions are simply too big. My suggestion for this year: Instead of a large goal, decide on something you would like to achieve in the next 10 weeks. Then think of a reward you could give yourself for achieving your goal – maybe buying a new outfit or a nice meal out. Think also of a consequence that you will have to suffer if you don’t achieve your goal – donate money to an ex, give up wine for a month. Now I am going to give you 10 separate paragraphs. Copy this article, cut the paragraphs out and put them into your diary so you can read the appropriate one each Monday morning.

10 weeks to go I am going to be nagging you about your goals for the next 10 weeks! Hopefully you’ve got an action plan of what you need to do in order to achieve what you want. My suggestion would be that you break down the actions you need to take into weekly segments. You could even display a graph of these actions and achievements making sure you update it every week and include a picture of the reward and the consequence that you’ve chosen. Don’t forget to ask yourself that really important question every

day: What am I going to do in the next 24 hours that will take me closer to my goal? I’m not going to wish you luck, I believe in hard work not luck. The golfer Gary Player used to say “the harder I work the luckier I get” - so I’ll wish you all the success you’re prepared to work hard for.

9 weeks to go You are now one week into your 10 week goal programme. How are you getting on? I hope you’ve made a great start and are beginning to achieve some of the results that you want. If you’re starting to regret setting the goal then consider this: You thought you could do it then - so why not now? Could it have something to do with your current motivation levels? Now that you are back into “real life,” have your circumstances really changed or is it just that you have stopped feeling as positive about your own abilities? Why are you less positive and motivated than you were at the beginning? I don’t think you’d like to be known as a quitter. My suggestion is that you give yourself a “check up from the neck up” and start telling yourself that you CAN achieve your goal. Now would be the time to rewrite the action plan you thought about when you set the goal and ask yourself some questions: • Am I doing everything I can think of to achieve my goal? • Who might be able to think of some extra things I can do?

john shackleton

• Who can I ask to give me some help or support? Keep up the hard work and keep asking yourself that 24 HOUR question.

8 weeks to go If you’ve been keeping records then you’ll know how your progress is going; are you ahead of target or running behind? Are you still as motivated as when you set the goal? Does it still seem achievable for you? Staying motivated is easy if you keep ahead of your action plan; in other words, taking more action than is necessary to achieve the goal. Remember that success will come from observing what the masses do and doing the opposite. You’ll know people who do just enough to get by and that’s how the vast majority of the world goes about their work. Success with your personal goal will come from observing that behaviour and doing the opposite – doing more than is necessary, as often as you can. Daley Thompson, world record holder and Olympic Decathlon champion from the 80s, used to train twice on Christmas Day because he reckoned that even the best of his competitors would only train once that day. Keep up the hard work.

7 weeks to go How are you getting on with your goals? Are you still motivated to achieve what you wrote down or are you beginning to feel it may have been a bit over ambitious? I’ve taken thousands of people through my goal setting session and I’ve found that this is a critical time for many people. You should have achieved about 30 percent of the goal by now and if you’re ahead of the game you’ll be feeling quite pleased with yourself. If that’s true for you, then be careful; it is so easy to get complacent and start to slack off. If you’ve been a little lazy and haven’t achieved your 30% then now is the time to double your efforts and get ahead of the game.

Perhaps you’ve been working really hard and just haven’t achieved the numbers you were hoping for. Well it’s time to talk to those more successful than you and ask for some help. If you’re finding it a little hard to stay motivated then just keep looking at the reward and consequence you chose. Remember the following: Commitment is doing what you said you would do long after the mood in which you said it has disappeared.

6 weeks to go With six weeks to go I expect you’ll have experienced some positive thoughts about your goal and some negative ones as well! Everyone has negative thoughts from time to time; the trick is ensuring you don’t have them during your critical moments. Most of us doubt our abilities from time to time particularly when we are experiencing stress, the stress damages our self esteem and that means we start to doubt our ability to achieve our goals. Don’t dwell on the negative thoughts; quickly revisit the goal and do some planning of the actions you’ll need to take to get yourself back on track.

5 weeks to go You are now halfway toward your goal date. How’s your self belief right now? If you are forging ahead with your goal and you’re pretty confident that you’ll achieve it, then yourself belief will probably be quite high. If this is the case then just keep doing what you’ve been doing and enjoy the ride. If you’ve not managed to get as far with your goal as you’d hoped, you may have lost some of that belief and your self belief may have taken a knock. Right now would be a good time to give yourself a little pep talk focusing on your previous achievements and the hard work you’ve done so far. If you’re beginning to believe that the goal is beyond your reach, I suggest you visit http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=1-TXVMB2lz0 where you can view a video that will remind you that you can achieve just about anything you put your mind.

photo: bowie15

• What would I score myself out of 10 for effort so far?

john shackleton

4 weeks to go

2 weeks to go

With four weeks to go you should have achieved 60 percent of your goal by now – how are you getting on?

Well this is it, the last hard push to the finishing line; there are two weeks to go to the goal deadline.

Many people tell me that staying motivated and focused is the most difficult part of achieving a goal. You have a load of people that can help you in your quest: all your family, friends or colleagues. So I’d like all of you to phone or email at least one other person and ask them to help you out by encouraging you toward your goal.

• Maybe you have achieved your goal already – congratulations, enjoy your reward.

• What have you learnt from this 10-week process? • Was the goal you chose too easy or too ambitious? • Did the reward and consequence you chose motivate you; if not then what would you choose instead?

• Maybe you are close to the goal – keep up the hard work, these last few days are the most important.

• Given the chance to do the exercise again, what would you do differently?

• Maybe you have given up and have probably thrown this reminder in the recycling bin already – I hope you’ve taken your consequence.

3 weeks to go There are three weeks to go until your goal deadline. Hopefully you are 70 percent or more along the path to achievement.

Have fun over the last couple of weeks and start thinking about the next goal.

I usually find that by this time, people have learned a number of different lessons from doing this type of goal exercise:

1 week to go

Now is the time to set your next goal. You should now know a lot more about what motivates you and what doesn’t, so use the experience you’ve gained to become a better goal setter. Never forget that the whole reason for setting and achieving goals is to raise your self esteem so that you can perform at a higher level next time.

Well this is it: One week to go to the goal deadline. Congratulations if you who have achieved your goal – enjoy the reward. You can still make it – increase your efforts right now, it’ll be worth it. If you won’t achieve the goal – make sure you take your consequence.

1. They can achieve so much more than they originally thought when they really apply themselves to a task. 2. They need to think carefully when choosing goals, so that they don’t just go for something they would like, but something they believe they are capable of. Something they know they can achieve.

Once this exercise is over I hope you will have enjoyed the experience and can repeat it again throughout 2012. I wish you great success.

No matter how positive or negative you feel, don’t forget you chose everything - the goal, the reward and the consequence. Ask yourself the following questions and be honest with the answers:

3. Never join in a goals setting exercise as suggested by that Shackleton bloke again!

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

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Teachers Resources & Lessons

by Adrian Rennie

Thinking About Thinking To describe a person well you need to activate your Thinking About Thinking Habit Of Mind. You have special feelings about the person. Become aware of what it is about that person that makes you feel that way about them.

Mind mapping and idea generation page. Think of the best things about you. Which Habits of Mind are you really good at applying to problems which are hard to solve. Are you really persistent? Or perhaps you are accurate and precise. Imagine you could put your best qualities inside a jar and sell it to others who need to experience more success in their lives.

Questions Problem Posing Thinking and About Thinking: Ask yourself some key questions about your Metacognition person. Explore what it is that makes them Be aware of the good things inside of you. What special. quality thinking happens inside your brain. Are you aware of it when it happens?

It might look something like this:

___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _________

___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _________

___________________ ___________________ Do you need some ___________________ stickability? _________

Things my person does that makes them special…

___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _________

Things my person says that makes them special…

___________________ ___________________ Stick to it juice, keep going berries, don’t ___________________ ___________________ give up sugar, wham the job ___________________ ___________________ preservatives, hardly ever stop jelly. _________ _________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _________

___________________

Questioning And Problem Posing Ask___________________ yourself which Habit of Mind is your best. Ask ___________________ yourself what it is you do that makes you so successful at it. Ask yourself how could you set _________ out your bottle page so that people would want to buy it?

Give up when it gets ___________________ hard? ___________________ Hardly ever finish ___________________ things? _________ Would you like to ___________________ wham every problem ___________________ that comes along? ___________________ _________ Need to turn that frustrated feeling into persistence? ___________________

physical things about my person that makes them special…

___________________ Well! ___________________ _________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ _________ is for you. A

spoon full a day will keep failure away. Striving For Accuracy And

Now take all of these great ideas and turn each one into a sentence. Group the sentences into paragraphs and create an excellent piece of writing that describes the person you know well expertly.

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Precision Eliminate all of the mistakes from your writing. Fix all spelling errors and make sure there are no punctuation mess ups. ©A.Rennie 2010 ©A.Rennie 201071

Teachers Resources & Lessons

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Thinking About Thinking: Metacognition Be aware of the good things inside of you. What quality thinking happens inside your brain. Are you aware of it when it happens?

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_______________________________________________________________________________

Do you need some

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72 28

the last word: Karen Boyes

Live above the line Focus on what you can control

child learns to walk by experience, getting up, falling down, crying and getting up again. To learn “hot,” you must touch hot. To learn to ride a bike, you must get on a bike. Students need authentic experiences to learn from. However, many times in life when we give something new a go, we fail, make a mistake or just plain screw up. The challenge is that many times when something does not work, “below the line thinking” occurs. People blame, make excuses or deny that they are able to learn from the experience, or can control what happened next. This leaves them playing life as a victim. There is always another option: to play life “above the line,” to take ownership, be accountable for the results and take responsibility for your actions. This is where the learning, growth and success occur. Now I know we cannot control everything

that happens to us, however, we can have a choice about what we do about it. W. Mitchell, an inspiring international speaker, has written a book called, It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s what you do about it. While teaching, you face situations where you have little control over how students act – at least at first. Your reaction can put you back in “control.” Have you ever had a child walk into your classroom without knocking and without pausing and while you are teaching deliver the message? It is easy to think “how rude! I wish the parents had taught them manners etc.” The truth is it may be a parents’ job to teach a child to wait while an adult is talking before saying what they wish to express, however, blaming the parent for not having done so does not solve the challenge. Instead, if you take responsibility and simply teach the student how to do this, or have a notice on

your classroom door saying “please knock, come in quietly and wait for the teacher to…” you not only eliminate the frustration and challenge, you might just teach others by simply over hearing you. Another example is I often hear teachers complaining that students do not know how to say “sorry.” Again you have a choice: Complain about it and live below the line, or take responsibility and teach them. Tony Ryan tells of watching a teacher help students know what to do when they are distracted by other students. After brainstorming ideas of what students might do, the teacher invited two students to sit at two desks placed at the front of the class. They then role played, one student working and the other being annoying. The working student then practiced the strategies discussed in the brainstorm. Try it, with students taking turns role playing. While this may take 20 minutes of class time, the effect is that students are focused in class and much more productive for the rest of the year. How might you practice being a responsible teacher this year? What structure will you use to encourage students to take ownership of their learning?

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Leaders in Developing Teachers

ISSUE 11

Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their mind. The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another.

photo: Xavier Gallego Morell

Marva Collins

Developing Independent, Self Directed Thinkers & Learners We are living in challenging times... and also times of great opportunity. The very best gift we can give to our students is to prepare them to adapt and to develop their full potential in this fast-changing world. Teachers make every other profession possible and, in a dynamic teaching environment, deciding what to include and leave out of the curriculum is important. This workshop will explore 7 key ideas as well as the importance of authentic learning and developing the dispositions of the Habits of Mind. In this fast-paced 3 hour workshop, you will explore 7 important keys for teaching ... • Understanding how the brain learns • Minimising the Fear Factor • Teaching contextualised content • Empowering students to think • Hook learners with authentic learning • Never work harder than your students • Assessing for Learning

Plus... you will explore how to teach within an authentic context and integrate the Habits of Mind seamlessly into your classroom. You’ll also learn... • What the 16 Habits of Mind are • Practical ways to use and implement and develop the Habits of Mind • How to foster the use of the Habits of Mind in school and at home • How teacher language affects the thinking and learning process • How a shared vision for teachers can make a significant difference to children’s lives.

NEW ZEALAND 2012 Tour Dates

AUSTRALIAN 2012 Tour Dates

Christchurch..... 27th February Blenheim.......... 28th February Nelson.............. 29th February Wellington......... 1st March Auckland.......... 6th March Hamilton........... 7th March New Plymouth... 8th March Gisborne........... 13th March Napier.............. 14th March P. North............ 15th March Tauranga.......... 1st May Rotorua............ 2nd May

Perth..........21st March Newcastle...26th March Sydney.......27th March Canberra....28th March Brisbane.....29th March

For more details go to www.spectrumeducation.com

Karen Boyes is described as Australasia’s “Mrs Education.” An expert in effective teaching, learning and living, Karen turns research into practical and simple to use techniques that create success. As the Founder of Spectrum Education, an author, publisher of the Teachers Matter magazine and an Associate Director of the Institute for the Habits of Mind, Karen is an expert of teaching and learning throughout the world. A dynamic presenter, she inspires teachers and students globally.

TM Issue 16

Articles inside

Great tools to keep our kids safe – and save time

for

not another staff meeting

Schools take to the airwaves

JokES

Editor’s note

how to try something once

Closing the gap for indigenous children

Sort it out

Listening with understanding and empathy