TM Issue 32

PROFESSIONALLY & PERSONALLY

TeachersMatter The Magazine of Spectrum Education

Introverts in your classroom p24 Great ways to get your boys writing p8

Kitchen science – DIY Fizzy Drink! p38 Yummy mason jar salads p48

NZ$15 / AU$15

Leaders in Developing Teachers

ISSUE 32

Energetic. Practical. Fun. Passionate. Inspirational

Presentations for Teachers: • Living & Learning with the Habits of Mind • Creating An Effective Learning Environment • The Many Ways the Brain Learns and Remembers • Developing Independent Learners & Thinkers

Parents:

• Helping Your Child At Home • Preparing your Child for Secondary School

Students: • Study Skills for Success • Discovering & Exploring the Habits of Mind

“

Karen is the consummate professional who inspires the listener and creates opportunities for the learner to ask questions and structure their learning at the correct pace for change to occur.

- Mark Ellis, Principal

2014 Educator of the Year NATIONAL SPEAKERS ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND

Entrepreneurs:

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• Success Behaviours for Entrepreneurs • Success Thinking and Living • It’s All Life – readdressing the work-life balance

“

Karen lives her philosophies and her delivery is relational, humourous, relevant and pertinent. She is an inspiring presenter and I am loving the impact she has had on my team.

- Lesley Johnson, Director: Read think Learn

To book Karen to speak at your next Professional Development Day, Conference or Function 2013 Speaker of the Year

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NATIONAL SPEAKERS ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND

please call the Spectrum Office on 0800 37 3377 or 1800 06 32 72

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Hello!

The winter months are definitely upon us and I hope you are all able to rug up warmly at home and at work. This issue of Teachers Matter contains many ideas that you can enjoy in your cosy, warm place!

The Home Science Spot is a new inclusion in the magazine which offers easy and fun science explorations for you to use at home and in your classrooms. In this issue, Chris Duggan from the House of Science looks at fizzy drinks, and provides a super DIY recipe for you to experiment with!

Following on the food theme, Cheryl Elsey has contributed some awesomely healthy Mason Jar Salads for you to create, and Irma Cooke describes how Literacy and technological literacy are taught through co-created collaborative units of work.

In his article ‘Building Partnerships with Parents’, Andrew Murray provides a very good reminder about the importance of relationships with families for student learning, and asks the question, “How well do you really know your student’s parents?” As a teacher I have always tried to know my student’s parents, but never really understood just how important that relationship and knowledge base is until I became a parent. As Andrew says, “As well as feeling like they belong, parents also need to trust us and need to believe that they are valued.”

Throughout this issue there are articles that will boost your daily practice, your mind, soul and body. Enjoy!

P.S. – Have you played the awesome Study Smarter Board Game with your students yet? If not, order a copy and help them learn the fundamentals of studying and learning in a fun way.

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CONTENTS

In this issue COVER ILLUSTRATION

BY KAISORN

p8 - Getting boys writing 3

Technology is NOT a substitute for teaching

DR RICH ALLEN

8

Getting boys writing JO LUNN

10

Paying attention to what matters most for lifelong learning

BENA KALLICK AND ALLISON ZMUDA

13

Quote

Teachers Matter

SARAH LINEHAN

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4

Editor's note

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16

18

p24 - Introvert in the classroom 20

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Trends Impacting on Education

DR CHERYL DOIG

Why students need to be self-managing

BETTE BLANCE

Home Science Spot CHRIS DUGGAN

What do your students see you ignore?

42

Not all graphic organisers have to be square!

44

Learning and study tips for school success

46

How to use movement to improve your life & your teaching

48

Mason jar salads

STEPHEN LETHBRIDGE

Managing grief in the classroom

Goal setting interviews

32

Environmental education and outdoor play

TRACEY EZARD

38

DELWYN ARMSTRONG

27

30

How to ‘chunk’ your school strategy to reduce staff stress

Dreams

5 minute brain exercises

How environment in the early years influences template development

MADELEINE TAYLOR

36

KAREN BOYES

40

ANDREW MURRAY

KATHRYN BERKETT

A to Z of effective teaching

ALAN COOPER

28

NELSON MANDELA

34

24

The introvert in the classroom

p46 - Use movement to improve your life & your teaching

Building partnerships with parents

CLAIRE LAURENSON

MAGGIE HOS-MCGRANE

KIM CHAMBERLAIN

LAUREN RIVERS

KAREN BOYES

LAUREN PARSONS CHERYL ELSEY

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Teachers Matter Magazine Team Publisher, Sales and Advertising Karen Boyes Editor Sarah Linehan Art Director Mary Hester / 2ndFloorDesign 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 2016 All rights reserved.

p52 - Are your fears holding you back?

p66 - Teachers Matter Conference

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Learning modules at Rototuna Junior High School

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IRMA COOKE

League tables and value added assessment

52

Are your fears holding you back?

64

Why we need to look at behaviour differently

66

Teachers Matter Conference poems

68

How our necks are effected by texting

54

JOHN SHACKLETON

Promoting picture books Auntie Ellie's Beach House BARBARA GRIFFITH & TRICIA KENYON

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Circle time solutions for positive playtimes

58

Why is our pace of life so hectic?

60

THERESE HOYLE

ROBYN PEARCE

Use Crisis to Connect More Deeply with Your Child DR LAURA MARKHAM

DR JOHN BOEREBOOM

KATE SOUTHCOMBE

MEGAN GALLAGHER

Parts of this publication may be reproduced for use within a school environment. To reproduce any part within another publication (or in any other format) permission from the publisher must be obtained.

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

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

TERRY SMALL

Fax: (NZ) +64 4 528 0969

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The Last Word: Making mistakes acceptable

magazine@spectrumeducation.com

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Useful Products & Services

75

Quote

www.spectrumeducation.com

KAREN BOYES

JOEL HILDEBRAND

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Lioncrest Education Postal Address: PO Box 340 Cessnock NSW 2325, Australia Phone: 61 2 4991 2874 or 1800 249 727 info@lioncrest.com.au www.lioncrest.com.au

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DR RICH ALLEN

Technology is NOT a substitute for teaching The three guiding principles of integrating technology and teaching

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nfusing education with technology is a wonderful idea. Classrooms with access to the inter net and mobile devices have marvellous opportunities to make learning relevant to 21 st Century students. Technology offers new ways to enable and encourage self-learning, engage students with content and build capability in vital workplace skills. However, as with every other educational strategy or tool, technology is only effective when embedded in a well thought out lesson plan and specifically applied to support learning outcomes.

Unfortunately, the current mad rush to incorporate technology into our schools and classrooms (BYOD anyone?) has in many cases served to undermine fundamentally sound teaching and learning strategies. The overwhelming notion seems to be that, if we incorporate a computer, cell phone, or iPad somewhere in the learning process, then we can call it a ‘21st Century’ lesson because it is more geared to meet the needs of this generation of learners.

a book. If they don’t know the meaning of a word, they might be more likely to use the ‘look up’ function than to open a dictionary.

However, an iPad will not teach the child to read. It simply offers educators another tool to implement in the long, varied and complex process of teaching reading skills.

“Technology isn’t teaching. Without a great teacher guiding the learning appropriately, and engaged students, technology is just as useless as a worksheet. ”

It’s a seductive idea – and it’s wrong.

Teachers Matter

Let’s be clear: To prepare our students to succeed in the future, we must make sure they are comfortable not only with current technology, but also learning to use new technology as it emerges. All well and good as far as it goes. And yet …

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How human beings learn hasn’t changed.

When including technology in the curriculum, educators must understand its place in the learning process.

Here’s a simple example: Handing a child an iPad with interactive books on it will NOT teach them to read better. The child might be more excited to hold an iPad than

I recently had an up close and personal experience of the misuse of technology for educational purposes. My 15-year-old daughter was given an assignment in her Aboriginal Studies class. Each student was asked to research a specific topic and create a learning tool to help their peers understand and remember the topic for an essay-based test. In this case, the assignment mandated that the tool must be a form of digital content: either a 5-minute

video or a 5-minute automated presentation.

So, she went and did the necessary research, gathered the information students needed to remember on the topic and made written notes, which she turned into a 5-minute script. This took about two hours. Next came the technology part – make a movie!

Except, like most the students in the class, my step-daughter had never used Windows Movie Maker before. So, to complete her assignment, she had to go online and teach herself to use the programme. Then she had to record her script in tiny chunks, find or create visuals (graphics and diagrams) to support each 5-second grab, and then edit the whole thing together. As it turned out, editing sound and images together is hard and time consuming.

Making the 5-minute movie took her ten times longer than it took to research her topic and write the script.

The problem here is two-fold. First, the actual subject-relevant learning portion of the assignment (research and writing) took up a tiny fraction of her time. The additional learning (how to use the video-making software) may be valuable as a future workplace skill but, the actual process of making the movie was really ‘busy work’. Once you’ve edited images to match one 5-second audio segment, you don’t learn anything more by editing the remaining 59 segments! It was an utterly ineffective use of potentially valuable study time.

PHOTO: MONKEY BUSINESS

DR RICH ALLEN

Second, the point of the assignment was to create learning tools for her fellow students to support them in understanding and memorising content. Let’s face it a video is not a great device for that type of activity.

Students would have been so much better off if the information was presented to them as a mind-map, chunked into memory pegs or provided in a mnemonic device – which would have also taken far less time to prepare. As a case in point, my stepdaughter has created her own set of memory pegs to revise for the test – because as she says, “I can’t remember facts from a video.”

This single example – which is being replicated across the curriculum – demonstrates the danger of adding technology to an assignment without thinking through the learning outcomes.

When creating assignments and planning lessons, it’s vital that educators consider the three guiding principles of integrating technology and teaching: 1. Technology isn’t teaching. Without a great teacher guiding the learning appropriately, and engaged students, technology is just as useless as a worksheet.

2. Technology is just one tool of many. Educators need to make sure assessment tasks are fit for purpose.

Technology may not be the appropriate response medium. Even if technology is appropriate, students should be given other options. Some students still learn best by writing essays. Not everyone is a digital content producer – and not everyone needs to be. The vast majority of future professions will not require people with the ability to make a video.

3. Technology-based assignments require technology skills. If we expect students to make digital content to demonstrate their understanding, then we must first teach them the content-making skills.

The danger is that we mistake technology as a panacea for student engagement and good teaching. Yes, students are surgically attached to their devices. Yes, they’d rather engage with a Smartphone than a worksheet. Yes, some of them would rather produce a video than write an essay.

But we cannot just throw a device into a lesson, or add digital content production to an assignment and assume that this will magically improve educational outcomes. It all goes back to the fundamental question – where is the learning value?

Used properly, technology can help both teachers and students learn more and achieve more. However, it can also be monumental waste of teaching and learning time, drawing the teacher’s attention away from where the real focus of the learning should be. Ultimately, the key is in finding ways to successfully merge sound learning principles with the right type of technology – when appropriate. Technology is not a substitute for teaching. We do our students and educators a disservice by pretending that it is.

Dr. Rich Allen is a highly regarded educator and master trainer, with a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology. His cognitive learning theory research, which provided understanding on how the brain receives, processes, stores, and recalls information, forms the basis for his radical approach to teaching, presenting and facilitating. www.greenlighteducation.net/

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JO LUNN

The collaborative story photo is a photo of a group of boys who chose to write a story together. In the photo they are sharing their writing with the rest of the class.

The Photo of Alex is him showing is writing for the day. The yellow highlighting indicates the parts of his story that demonstrate he has met his learning intention.

Getting boys writing 6 strategies to motivate and create enjoyment in writing

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Teachers Matter

etting boys to succeed in Writing i s e v e r y t e a c h e r ’s g o a l . S i n c e 2012, reported achievement of female students has been consistently higher than male students across all three standards. The greatest gender difference in achievement is in Writing. Generally speaking, boys seem less ‘ready’ to start writing than their female counterparts, and teachers are playing catch-up as soon as the child walks in the door. So what can we do about it? Over the last few years I’ve found six strategies that not only motivate our boys, but get them enjoying writing and achieving results Above National Standard.

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1. Fine motor skills Many boys come to school without experience of using pens or pencils during their pre-school years. Most have been too busy playing outside in the sandpit or climbing trees. Some boys lack the fine motor strength or control to be able to hold a pen correctly let alone use it to form letters

and words. We make sure that lots of our Literacy and Maths activities encourage the use of these skills. We use highlighter lines for the children initially to write on. One little line for each word ensures writers learn to leave spaces between their words.

2.Make connections This is key. Writing is about communicating with others. Boys need to see this and be aware that as writers, their writing has a greater audience than just themselves. When I’m modelling I am constantly asking the learners ‘why’ questions. Why do we need to leave spaces? Why should I use punctuation? Why do I need to be specific? The answer to all these questions is so that reader can understand what has been written. If the reader is unable to read what has been written then the child, as the author, has wasted their time writing it. Writing is all about communicating with the reader. All children need to know this.

3. Picture Prompts I’ve found over the last few years that picture prompts are a vital tool in getting boys engaged in writing. At the start of the modelling session I put up a picture on the TV and ask the children, “What do you see, think and wonder?” I used to pre-plan what I was going to write but a couple of years ago I put up a picture of what to me looked like elephants free-falling out of a plane. One of my boys suggested that the elephants had been jumping on a trampoline and got double-bounced. It never occurred to me that the elephants could be going up! From then on I decided that the learners’ ideas were a lot more imaginative than mine. I give them time to talk to their shoulder buddy and then ask for their ideas. A simple, “Wow, I never thought of that” or, “Is it ok if I borrow your idea?” or, “What a great idea … lucky you are at school today!” goes a long way to develop self-esteem and confidence in their ideas as a writer. It is impossible to hear everyone’s ideas at this sharing time, but I simply remind the learners not to worry, they

JO LUNN The photo of Saul is one of him and his work after he has earned his Candyland Press Pass! can list several writing behaviours authors use to make their writing great. Things like: have a good hook, use exciting adjectives, use interesting verbs, re-read their story to make sure it makes sense.

Our boys are given specific feedback and feed forward relating to their own learning intentions during conferencing time. We have found this to be a vital tool to ensure the likelihood of our writers repeating these desired writing behaviours in future stories.

And now for the secret weapon…

6.Independence Licences

can write it for me. With the children’s help we pull together a collaborative story and I write about it in the modelling session. I’ve found that using picture prompts stimulates their imagination and in particular gives the boys more to write about. Don’t worry about specifically teaching genre for the first couple of years at school. Get kids writing and loving it first.

4. Don’t dumb it down I always model at the stage above where the learners are at. If a child can write ‘I went to the park and had a swing’ they will gain nothing from you modelling stories like this day after day. I use words like adjectives, verbs, alliteration and similes. I don’t call them sparkly words. There is no point teaching children something that they will need to relearn correctly later. You are wasting their time and yours. Not all learners are going learn these language features at the same rate but if you keep exposing them to examples of them in both Writing and Reading, they will soon pick it up. If you tell the boys only big kids know things like this, I can guarantee you’ll increase the chance of the learners remembering it! Don’t dumb it down also

applies to the vocabulary you use when talking about the picture prompt. Use lots of topic related words when you are modelling. We wrote a story once about a ‘cargo ship’ ‘listing’ to one side and the man ‘perched’ on the ‘bollard’ on the ‘wharf’ felt ‘overwhelmed’. Feed them the vocabulary and they will soon include it in their writing.

5.Explicit teaching Boys benefit from explicit teaching. We have picture learning intentions glued into the back of their writing books which is a visual reminder of what they are working on. We hold workshops based on each of the specific learning intentions of each child. Our boys are acutely aware of what they are working on and they are specifically taught how to achieve their learning intention in their writing. We unpack samples of children’s writing and examples of the exemplars. We use these as teaching tools to help learners identify what the writer did well and what they could do to improve the writing. We have found this to be a very powerful tool in motivating boys to improve their writing.

In every modelling session we talk about what makes a great writer. All our learners

We have linked our Independence Licenses in with the Writing Stages. We have found many boys to be innately competitive and goal orientated. We have set aside a special room in our Flexible Learning Environment that only our top Independence License holders can enter. These licenses are a huge motivation to our boys in particular and I’m positive they are the main reason our boys want to improve their writing. Learners self assess against a matrix daily and can identify aspects of their story where they have succeeded and where they need to improve in order to level up. Upon ‘levelling up’ we make a huge fuss of the child so it acts as motivation for others. Our top Independence Licence holders have other special rewards and have proven to be an incentive to get our boys writing. For us it works every time!

Our boys do well at Writing. Last year our boys Above National Standard actually outnumbered our girls. Boys can write and can write well. They just need some enthusiasm from you, motivation - albeit a bit of competition, clear learning goals, and explicit teaching, and boys will succeed. Good luck.

Jo is a passionate educator. She is Team Leader of a Year 2 team at Riverdale School in Palmerston North

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BENA KALLICK AND ALLISON ZMUDA

Paying attention to what matters most for lifelong learning (and it is as good for the adults as it is for the kids)

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nter most schools today and you will hear discussions about substantive changes to how we do school.

Conversations revolve around programmes, structures, use of time, resources, and accountability. The question raised in this article focuses on the attention to both teachers and students that can bring about lasting change: How do we shift the way teachers and students think and work together? Regardless of any policy, structural, or curricular change you make, this article contends that the change will not be sustainable or practical unless you partner this work with the attitudes and dispositions necessary for learning.

Teachers Matter

Over the past two decades, our attitudes and dispositions have become increasingly shaped by powerful external forces and structures that continue to standardise the ways that we account for learning. Too often there is a disconnect between what is in the teacher’s head, what is in the student’s head and what is in this week’s/month’s/year’s rhetoric of school reform. We do not create the conditions for teachers and students to become immersed in a learning experience in which they have some control over the pursuit: access to information and ideas, regular opportunities for feedback and guidance; and parameters (e.g., sufficient time, clear criteria) that honour the messiness of the work.

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This narrow focus has translated into a culture in which teachers and students are actors in a pre-determined curriculum that does little to promote active engagement.

How teachers and students feel about the work they are being asked to do impacts their degree of engagement. Their attitudes and dispositions are pivotal to success in being able to handle the complexity of challenges, problems and tasks within

and beyond the school walls. We want every learner both teacher and student to engage in rich, creative problems and ideas that require inquiry, analysis, and inventive solutions and creations. Teachers and students need to partner as they make transitions into new ways of learning.

Too often, we become so concerned with what the student needs that we forget to take care of ourselves as teachers. The stress and weariness that many teachers feel are transmitted to students. We need to resuscitate the curiosity, discoveries, and opportunities that we are too busy to make time for. Therefore, we take a parallel approach to the question of change: every attitude and disposition we are asking of students, we are also asking of teachers because the health of our classrooms depends on it. Although this conception of learning has been in existence philosophically and in practice since the days of Aristotle, we are now challenged with modernising teaching and learning in contemporary contexts such as job shadowing and maker spaces. Teachers need to believe that the work that they are doing with students is important and valuable for the students’ future. Likewise, students need to believe that the work they are doing is important and valuable for their own future.

Operationalising Thinking for Teachers and Students in a Contemporary Model Regardless of what instructional model or programme a school may be pursuing, teaching and learning necessitates critical and creative thinking that broadly and deeply engages learners. Teachers and students need to develop attitudes and dispositions such as applying past knowledge to new situations; creating, imagining, and innovating; considering alternate perspectives; and taking responsible risks (Costa and Kallick, 2014). The progressive development of knowledge about thinking and the practice of using thinking strategies can increase teachers’ and students’ motivation for, and management of, their own learning. They become more confident and autonomous problem-solvers and thinkers.

The chart on the following page illustrates how critical and creative thinking can be operationalised in pedagogical practices. The first column delineates four psycho-social attributes that can improve engagement and performance. How we feel about the work impacts our effort. These attributes are: relevance, growth mindset, self-efficacy, sense of belonging. The second column offers related teacher and student actions in relation to each attribute that are aligned with the shift in identities described above: teacher as coach, student as explorer. The third column connects the attitudes and dispositions (Habits of Mind) specific to each attribute that are essential for learners to navigate collaborations inside and outside of the classroom to achieve goals and to produce something of value.

BENA KALLICK AND ALLISON ZMUDA

Psycho-Social Attributes

Sample Teacher and Student Actions

Related Habits of Mind

Relevance: “This work has value for me.” The work challenges me to apply my understanding to complex and intriguing problems.

Teacher explores ideas and interests outside of the classroom to inspire students.

Remaining open to continuous learning; Questioning and problem posing; Drawing from past knowledge and applying it to new situations

Growth mindset: ‘‘My ability and confidence grow with my effort.’’

The belief that I can learn — realising that I can get better.

Teacher provides candid and constructive feedback to facilitate thinking and development.

Self-efficacy: ‘‘I can succeed at this.’’

Managing the learning: how I plan for, act on, and monitor my own progress as I am learning.

Teacher provides strategies and tools for self-management (e.g., organisational tools, time-management tools) to encourage students to accomplish goals and reflect upon what they are learning as they progress toward goals.

Student immerses him or herself in an idea or investigation because they believe it can impact others.

Finding humour; persisting; taking responsible risks; Remaining open to continuous learning; Thinking flexibly; Thinking about your thinking

Student persists realising that he/she can improve whether success comes easily or proves to be more elusive.

Thinking about your thinking; striving for accuracy; Persisting; communicating with clarity and precision; Managing impulsivity

Student manages his/her learning using tools to manage time, resources, and work with others.

Student takes ownership for learning plan and progress monitoring.

Student reflects on progress toward reaching goals.

Sense of belonging: “I belong in this academic community.”

How I am accepted — how I fit within the community and accept/celebrate differences.

Teacher sets up and ensures a safe, respectful environment.

Teacher sets up an environment that is a collaborative partnership rather than a hierarchy.

Thinking interdependently; listening with understanding and empathy; Responding with wonderment and awe

Student finds value in listening to and interacting with others.

Student feels safe and accepted to openly express ideas and thinking.

Psycho-social attributes have been adapted from Farrington, A.L. et.al. (2012).

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BENA KALLICK AND ALLISON ZMUDA So what follows? What do I do now?

If the typical teacher role of delivering content and student role of passively receiving and regurgitating knowledge has been rendered obsolete by easily accessible technologies, what happens now? How do we envision our roles within a modern context to prepare teachers and students for the world? In the spirit of partnership, here are six recommendations that are as true for the teachers as they are for the students.

Recommendation #1: Get off the treadmill.

We keep going without a sense of purpose.

What are you trying to accomplish? We know that we are sometimes increasing our speed but that doesn’t mean we have accomplished anything purposeful. Get clear and define your purpose. Sit down and write a journal reflection defending what you are doing and why you are doing it. HOM: questioning and problem posing Recommendation #2: Stop and smell the roses and take a look around.

Breathe deeply and find a way to settle down. Allow for silence rather than jumping in to fill awkward pauses. As Adrienne Rich suggests, “The impulse to create begins... in a tunnel of silence.”

Notice the questions that arise out of silence and reflection. How do you respond to those inquiries? Do you pursue them?

HOM: gathering data with all senses

Teachers Matter

Recommendation #3: Be curious about something. What makes you wonder?

Find something that you are intrigued by — an idea, a problem, a challenge, a topic, a text, an issue. Think about the ideas that are triggered. Why is it compelling? How is it connected to you — your perception of the world, the string of information and ideas? What associations occur to you? HOM: creating, imagining, and innovating

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Recommendation #4: Be inspired by an idea and go for it.

Design a question, clarify a problem, pursue an idea and then take action.

Might you use the following graphic to help you take your inspiration and move it to something actionable? HOM: thinking about your thinking

From Zmuda, et.al. (2015), p. 61

Recommendation #5: Contribute something to the world.

Set your ideas free from the confines of the classroom. How does your work have impact on the possibilities for improving the work and the lives of others? How does your work, once out in the world, continue to evolve through the interaction of others?

How does the feedback you receive inspire future development? New ideas? HOM: communicating with clarity and precision

monitoring their own work as they continue to develop their self-efficacy. Teachers and students need to be reminded about what is compelling about new and deeper learning.

They both need to be trusted as innovative, entrepreneurial, and creative individuals who collectively make a significant contribution to society.

Recommendation #6: Celebrate the journey.

Often times we are too hung up on the destination. In the midst of your pursuit, you may stumble upon another aspiration, a different idea that perhaps shifts your focus. The questions that you ask, the skills you acquire and refine along the way, and the ways you process what you are learning are often as important as the destination you are trying to reach. What did you learn throughout this experience? How will you celebrate your journey? What will you do next? HOM: responding with wonderment and awe

Bena is the co-founder and codirector of the Institute for Habits of Mind. She is the Programme Director of Eduplanet21, an on-line platform for Professional Development. She co-authored with Art Costa Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind and Habits of Mind Across the Curriculum (ASCD,2008) Connect with her through email: kallick.bena@gmail.com ; website habitsofmindinstitute.org or twitter handle: @benakallick

Teachers, as significantly as students, need to be in a culture that attends to the same psycho-social needs. Teachers and students need to have a sense of belonging to a community that offers camaraderie, care and an ethic of excellence in which all members are accountable to one another for the quality of the work they do. They must be treated in ways that foster a growth mindset in which they can experiment with new ideas without the fear of premature evaluation. Teachers and students need to have better control over regulating and

Allison is an education consultant and author of eight books, most recently Learning Personalised: The evolution of the contemporary classroom (Jossey Bass, 2015) and Real Engagement: How do I keep my students motivated, confident and self-directed learners?

(ASCD, 2015). Connect with her through email: zmuda@competentclassroom. com; her website allisonzmuda.com or her twitter handle: @allison_zmuda.

NELSON MANDELA

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

ILLUSTRATION: RETROSTAR

Nelson Mandela

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KATHRYN BERKETT

How environment in the early years influences template development

Teachers Matter

Why toddlers lick dogs!

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KATHRYN BERKETT

H

ave you ever been in a room when a toddler meets a dog for the first time? If you have, you will have seen something like this: Once someone tells them that ‘thing’ is a dog, they start saying “dog, dog, dog…” over and over. They then toddle over to the dog and proceed to touch it, smell it, and to the disgust of the adults in the room, they will probably lick the dog. WHY? This article will explain a big part of the reason that toddlers lick dogs. (I wouldn’t suggest knowing the full reason. I mean, who knows if dogs actually do taste good; have you licked one lately?)

What this toddler is doing when they see, hear, feel, lick, experience the dog, is building what we call a ‘template’. We build hundreds of thousands of templates throughout our life, about pretty much everything, and are constantly referring back to them. Though we make templates all our life, the most significant time for forming them is in the first three years of life. This article will explain how we build templates, and the significance of referring back to them.

In the context of your classroom, templates are important to understand both for your students and for yourself. Understanding templates can help us be more mindful of why some children react quite uniquely to sounds, smells, colours, words etc. It can help us unpack stereotypes that we or our students may hold. And if we understand how templates develop, then we can begin to work out how to develop new, more appropriate templates. Though this article will give you a good overview, you need to understand that this subject is extremely complex. For extended training around this subject, please contact the author.

When we are born we have around 86 billion brain cells. At birth some of these cells are connected, but most are not.

When a cell is not connected, it is unable to function. So to function, we need to create connections between brain cells. Templates are essentially a network of thousands of cells connected together. What is really important to know, is that templates develop because of the things we observe,

hear, feel etc. Our experience dictates which templates develop in our brain.

To help you understand this concept of experience dictating template development, we will go back to the toddler example. Imagine now there are two toddlers in the same room. Both toddlers see, hear, taste… the same dog. Toddler A gets a lick from the dog. But Toddler B, for whatever reason, gets growled at by the dog. So what we have here are two toddlers building different templates, because of their individual experiences. Toddler A has connected ‘dog’ with feeling happy.

Toddler B however, formed connections between ‘dog’ and feeling scared. (Please remember we are simplifying this concept, many other variables come into this situation, so keep your mind open.)

So, in our simple world of Toddler A = Happy Dog Template and Toddler B = Scary Dog Template, let’s now consider the impact these initial templates can have for us throughout our life. Let’s take Toddler A and Toddler B out for a walk. In the distance is a dog. Both toddlers see the dog. They have no direct interaction with the dog; they are merely sighting it from a distance. Now this is where we realise why they are called templates. It is because we refer back to them, so that our brain doesn’t have to constantly build new templates at every interaction (thank goodness imagine having to lick a dog every time you see one!!).

So both toddlers sight the dog. What their brain essentially does is it searches for the ‘template’ of that thing. Toddler A searches and finds their template. As they ignite their template for ‘dog’ they also ignite the connecting cells. You might hear the toddler say ‘woof’, or they might put their hand up to their face where they were licked. What will also happen for Toddler A, is they connect and ignite their happy brain cells, so they experience a happy feeling, which reinforces their template around Dog=Happy. But what happens for Toddler B? When they see the dog, they ignite their template, which is different

because they had a different experience that developed their template. So when they see that dog, Toddler B feels scared.

From this example, you can begin to understand how our early environment influences template development, and how influential these templates can be as we refer back to them throughout our life. Remember, we don’t only build templates about dogs. We build them about everything. Very importantly, we develop templates around how safe the world is; about trusting men, women; how people interact with each other; if I make a mistake, will I be encouraged or ridiculed... This subject is immense and is really fascinating to unpack and consider as part of understanding why we do the things we do.

I hope this article has given you some insight into template development, and inspired you to consider yourself, your students and those around you a bit differently. I also hope it helped you answer that really important question of ‘why do toddlers lick dogs’!

Kathryn is an expert in using neuroscience and physiology to assist us to better regulate ourselves. She is committed to helping teachers and parents to work better with children, youth, colleagues and clients. Kathryn runs sessions around this subject, supporting teachers to understand different ways to assist children to get better at staying calm. w w w. K B K o n s u l t i n g. c o. n z

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and then doing it all again because the

MADELEINE TAYLOR

Reward

Goal setting interviews

Routine

The impact of overindulgence and the power of habit

I

was recently asked to present a session to assist teachers conduct goal setting interviews. This led me to consider two ideas that I think underpin a student’s ability to succeed - the impact of overindulgence and the power of habit.

Understanding the Impact of Overindulgence “Overindulging children is giving them too much of what looks good, too soon and for too long. It is giving them things or experiences that are not appropriate for their age or their interests and talents. It is the process of giving things to children to meet the adult’s needs, not the child’s.

Overindulgence is giving a disproportionate amount of family resources to one or more children in a way that appears to be meeting the children’s needs but does not so, so children experience scarcity in the midst of plenty. Over indulgence is doing or having so much of something that it does active harm, or at least prevents a person from developing and deprives that person of achieving his or her full potential.

Overindulgence is a form of child neglect.

It hinders children from performing their needed developmental tasks and from learning necessary life lessons.” (Jean Illsley Clarke.)

Teachers Matter

If children grow up in a situation of overindulgence, the unintended messages children hear are: “Don’t grow up, don’t be who you are, don’t be capable, don’t think for yourself, it is not okay to say no, you can break any boundaries, you can’t say what you need.”

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When hearing this, parents shouldn’t get defensive and teachers cannot be blamed because:

Over time this loop becomes more

Three types of overindulgence:

Over time this loop becomes more and more automatic and a habit is born.

When a habit emerges the brain stops fully participating in the decision making. You might not remember the experiences that create your habits, but once you have them they influence how you act without your awareness. In 2006 a study carried out by Charles Duhigg, at Duke University in the USA, found that more than 40% of actions people perform each day weren’t actual decisions they were habits.

emerges the brain stops fully parti

Giving too much. Anything that costs money e.g. toys, clothing, sports equipment, lessons, entertainment, holidays, junk food, tobacco, alcohol, or illegal drugs.

the experiences that create your h

without your awareness. In 2006 a

Over nurturing. Providing too much care, doing things for children that they could or should be doing for themselves, (or) keeping them from learning to handle situations they should be mastering.

the USA, found that more than 40% decisions they were habits.

Soft structure. Giving children too much freedom and license which can mean giving children choices and experiences that are not appropriate for their age, interests, or talents.

In order to successfully change a habit you need to be specific about the change you want to make. Being clear about what you want to change is the first step in changing.

Do not kid yourself. You will not maintain your change if you don’t really have the internal motivation to change. yourself. You will not maintain your ch

In order to successfully change a h make. Being clear about what you

Understanding the According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a habit is, change.

Power of Habit regularly and tend to occur unconsciously”.

A c c o r d i n g t o t h e M e r r i a m We b s t e r

Dictionary, a habit is, “A set of behaviours that are repeated regularly and tend to occur unconsciously”.

Decide Habits form because our brain is constantly looking for w

New looking for ways to save energy. Our brain developed a three step loop to assist us to create habits w Habits form because our brain is constantly

habit

has developed a three step loop to assist us to create habits which involves:

a cue – the thing that reminds us to Practice a cue – the thing that reminds us to do something e.g. a do something e.g. a study calendar in

the bedroom, a reward - e.g. feeling good from the study, passing a test, acknowledgement from parents, and then doing it all again because the reward was positive.

a reward ‐ e.g. feeling good from the study, passing a test Questions to explore if you want to b

and then doing it all again because the reward was positi

Reward

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Cue

• It comes from a good heart – no parent plans to harm their child • Overindulgence can occur at any level in society • It is all around us.

Cue

Routine

What are the good things ab What would happen if you di in 20 years?

Who wants you to change an What tells you that you cann What habits have you change

PHOTO:TRUEFFELPIX

MADELEINE TAYLOR

Questions to explore if you want to build a new habit: • What are the good things about the old habit?

• W h a t w o u l d h a p p e n i f y o u d i d n ’t change? – Now, in one year, in 5 years, in 10 years, in 20 years?

Questions for teachers to ask parents:

• What do you need to do differently?

• What is your role in helping create a habit of study for your student?

• What action steps can you take?

• How might you sabotage yourself?

• What will happen if you don’t?

• What support do you need to keep yourself on track?

• Who wants you to change and why?

• Do you really want to help create a study habit?

• What tells you that you cannot make the change?

• What do you need to do differently?

• What habits have you changed in the past? – think of as many as you can

• What action steps can you take?

• When will you take them?

• Do you really want to make a change? Is yes, keep going. If no, allow yourself not to change and accept the consequences of your choice.

• How might you sabotage yourself?

Habits and Overindulgence

Questions for parents to ask their students (Please adapt for age of child)

The first question to ask is: Who needs to learn and create the study habit?

If you want students to invest in their own learning then you need to motivate and support them to learn.

• When will you take them?

• Do you need to change how you currently do this?

• What support do you need to keep yourself on track?

• Do you want to create a habit of study to reach your goals?

• What will happen if you don’t study?

Madeleine works as a facilitator, executive coach, trainer and professional supervisor in workplace.

She is a Parent Educator, Adult Trainer, Mediator and Facilitator of Conflict, Social Worker at the local Hospice, Restorative Justice Facilitator and Mother of three sons.

• What is the reason you don’t study now?

• Do you really want to create a study habit?

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TRACEY EZARD

How to ‘chunk’ your school strategy to reduce staff stress Keep it to 4 things

A

few weeks into the school term and already some teachers are starting to look fatigued and dazed as another thing to manage and work through is thrust at them in staff meetings. The education agenda is continuing to speed up and more and more is required of teachers to keep on top of the shift. Already flat out providing quality education within their classrooms, our teachers are on the whole more than willing to evolve their practice if they can see what the big outcomes are for students.

Teachers Matter

But in the busy-ness of a school, the big picture direction can be overwhelmed by the minutiae that the job requires. Unless we manage the message and delivery of what needs to be done to move our big plans forward, our staff will become stressed and unable to work at their best, let alone thrive.

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GIVE THE BRAIN A BREAK Our brains are constantly bombarded by minor stresses: new approaches to think about, jobs to do, people to see, classes to design, assessment to analyse, practice to embed, students to teach, nurture, challenge and support ( phew! I’m

“ Leaders who co-create that why with their staff create massive shift forward to the vision.”

exhausted just writing all that!). When these stresses load up without being able to relax though brain friendly techniques, our brains suffer from allostatic load (ever walked from one room to another and COMPLETELY forgotten what you came in for? Memory loss can be an indicator of allostatic load). We tip over from peak performance and the sweet spot of ‘flow’ into overwhelm and negative arousal. This place has a very apt term neuroscientist use: FRAZZLE! This is a great term that I think perfectly describes the feeling of the brain ‘fraying

at the edges’. It’s also something that is easy to see in schools in the confusion and overwhelm at certain times of the year.

So how do we keep frazzle and allostatic load under control? As leaders, while we can’t control people’s own ways of dealing with the multitude of expectations and requirements of the job, we can help them to think and approach things in a manageable way.

CHUNK YOUR STRATEGY While we like to think we can carry and juggle a mass of infor mation in our heads, our brains would probably like to differ. Research by Nelson and Cowan in 2001 showed that our brains can cope with up to 4 chunks of information well. Chunking is putting linked pieces of information together - think of a mobile telephone number where we ‘chunk’ the numbers to three or four groupings e.g.: 0417 317 563 or 0417 31 75 63 is much easier to remember than 0417317563.

When we are confronted by a list of things that have to be done, we can easily be overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. Yet in reality, if we have done the strategic work

TRACEY EZARD

of aligning our forward direction to our vision, then the big chunks should be easily there for us to see. Your school’s strategic plan or annual implementation plan should be the guide here, if it’s been well written. Is it improving teacher practice?

Engaging the community? Embedding inquiry learning? Improving outcomes through explicit teaching strategies? Each school will have different focus areas depending on their context. What are your four main ‘chunks’ of strategy that you are working on as a school? Are your team clear on what they are and how the smaller parts link up towards that bigger picture?

CREATE A PICTURE Put your four chunks up visually for people to see and talk about. In meetings and discussion, talk about what people are doing regarding the big pieces and how they are helping move towards the vision. Then put the key components clearly underneath them, so you can see the intersections; whole school approaches needed and the commitment required to get there. Just as importantly, so can your staff.

TALK ABOUT THE WHY Simon Sinek’s famous line from his 2009 Ted talk, “People don’t buy WHAT you do they buy WHY you do it’ rings true in education just as much as business. Spoken insights from staff when we are working through the history of the school is that they didn’t know WHY they were doing something. Or if they did it was not up for debate and discussion. This feeling of not knowing leads to confusion, frustration and lack of commitment all round. Leaders who make the link for people to WHY something is being done, allow all staff to understand the moral purpose of the work. Leaders who co-create that why with their staff create massive shift forward to the vision.

REFLECTION What’s your WHY - and your 4 CHUNKS of strategy?

And the next critical step - do your staff know them as well?

Tracey works with businesses, schools, education systems and other sectors to bring together culture and strategy for driving momentum and transformation.

She combines the neuroscience of trust and relationships with the power of collaborative strategy. She is a keynote speaker, author and graphic facilitator. tracey@traceyezard.com +(61) 417 317 563

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DR CHERYL DOIG

Trends impacting on education

The deconstruction of the industrial model of education

K

ey drivers of change are forcing us to deconstruct our industrial model of education and remix it to meet the needs for a vastly different world. Some of the key drivers influencing this remix are the exponential growth of knowledge; the explosion of technologies such as artificial intelligence, and the increased capabilities of virtual and online experience; a growing concern with the equity gap; and the frustration that current approaches are failing to provide learners with the skills and attributes they will need to address future economic, environmental and societal challenges.

The debates rage about what needs to change, driven by personal experiences, context and assumptions. What is the difference between education, schooling and learning? What is the role of the teacher? How involved should learners be in deciding their learning pathways?

How might parents be part of the journey?

Dialogue is healthy.

Teachers Matter

There are some key trends that I believe are important in this dialogue. They are trends affecting all organisations, not just schools.

But for the purposes of this article I will place them in an educational context.

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AUTHENTIC Increasingly, there is a connection between schools and businesses; and schools are linking the ‘curriculum’ to real life learning.

Transversal skills are key competencies and skills that are relevant across a broad range of occupations and industries. For example, taking initiative is a transversal skill that will help people cope with unpredictable career paths in an increasingly complex world.

PERSONALISED

OPEN

In a world of increasing technological c a p a b i l i t y, t h e r e a r e m o r e d i v e r s e opportunities to meet the needs of learners.

Great teachers know their learners and use this knowledge to co-create learning playlists

Teacher practice is being de-privatised.

Teachers are co-teaching and working with others across curriculum areas and year levels. They are making learning much more transparent to students, parents and - nau. There is an increasing expectation wha that learning is visible, reporting systems are ongoing, and that there is a greater connection between home and school.

“ Just don’t allow today’s reality to l i m i t t o m o r r o w ’s possibilities.”

for students. They do this intentionally.

Personalisation with the human touch helps to keep the social fabric of learning alive.

CONNECTED Learning is increasingly available 24/7 as technology becomes more pervasive.

Educators are linking with others globally, sharing ideas and undertaking global projects. An outwards mindset is fundamental. Foresight, including the ability to scan, increasingly involves crowd sourcing - and technology is the enabler.

ETHICAL People are more likely to be attracted to organisations that behave in principled ways, and that work for the greater good.

Inequity of access to education, safety and health are increasing global tensions.

Sustainability and service to others are demonstrated in organisational values. For example, Singularity University is focused on addressing humanity’s grand challenges.

ADAPTIVE In a complex, non-linear and dynamical world leaders, teachers, parents and students (well, yes everyone…) need to be able to think from multiple perspectives. Many of the issues facing us have no solutions and sometimes the problem itself is unknown.

Learning is becoming more agile and flexible and less mechanistic in design.

AGENTIC The power is with the people. Globally, people are wanting to be part of decision making and have a role in creating their environment. In schools students are wanting to play a greater role in what, how and when they learn. This trend is

There are some key trends that I believe are important in this dialogue. They are trends affecting all organisations, not just schools. But for the purposes of this post I will place them in an educational context.

DR CHERYL DOIG

not just about student voice but also about growing learner agency - the skills for students to be self regulated and to take some responsibility for their own lives, while contributing to society.

COLLABORATIVE Schools are systems within systems. While schools have often worked in teams, many have not interacted beyond those teams.

Collaboration requires an outwards mindset and sense of curiosity. There is increasing collaboration between disciplines, within clusters of schools and across industries.

There is a greater level of dialogue about pathways and transitions within education and beyond.

Of course these trends are interwoven and vary from context to context. Combined, they are having a profound impact on schools. Many schools are already considering these trends in the development of their preferred future. “We’re already doing that,” may be true in an incremental way but there are many opportunities to stretch thinking. For example personalised learning - check out ‘distributed point of learning’ systems and block chain technology. We live in times of exponential change. How might you extend your thinking?

Dr Cheryl Doig is director of Think Beyond. As an educator, her aim is to challenge organisations to think for tomorrow. She can be contacted through www.thinkbeyond.com.nz.

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BETTE BLANCE

“ Who is managing the behaviour when the teacher is in control of the reinforcements or rewards? ”

lfe s be o t ed e n s t n e d u t s Whyis in control?

Teachers Matter

g

y e wa sam n e i h h g in t teac . the iour v s o be t t a pu ds beh e s r i e o h h n c T b” tea re it ts. t’s jo on’t n bjec whe s we e t u r s y s l e m gg rm e pa dents d is L su urriculu viour fi s th stu . It PB4 hat’ c a t h r . If t e e ” hem ) u t t b h L B t a 4 h e “ o h l c B t y, (P ea as sib or e sa ing we t pon e his f res e can w doing t iculum, earn . Th s o L g in r r n o be thi nd sult mo curr ur f y re er of avio s e v e r a l rning, a y No ould t of the a h h s e m r y w p lea ve B e d b y hich “the tand pa aviour.

Hap e po ng, ositi n 4L w e in th eh m -bei e m e n t . ers B l o b he P h e a r t e d l t P t r t e n f o o v g u n ef lie -b s o tat of w eadi t s I a m sam not o be pect nt s ing In r ulum the n link m p o r t a o as ose wh ts do e r n w e t t m e urric n a l d i n u h e C i t c u r t y o a d o l r s d n fo ot tio et re eal py eala is n .

The onnect emo renc r i s a r hap ey “It tion ew Z l a n d refe e c . Un a u l s N h he k . l v i t t o i e g i e t d a f v n o i w h g o i c a a T n m re n n o i e “ h r s e a on rt be rs lea of ang nsic nd ates hea ent, ent ache ents t ch e m s a intri it st o m e d u s t m u l d u o p t c t a n s b lo ye do s. is yst ha tive ’s a deve e same . ard and ent c e s ke posi one s; it line the pla On self ith rew h a t s atem tudent t e n g m t n i s I o in . s d w to ng con prom tencies” manag viours ents utti ging A se e n s d p a stud i p han o n h c t s s m r e a e t u i o c u t eb nc foc ppo abo men pete l su forc f we get i r o n hat wil com to rein nt. I nish to e m t s env ” d u nt ate ices. tices aske we p s stude nt st prac iour cho e re orta e where h a p c a e m v i te a w on ry beh that om then a ve m fr is is stem h o i c e s , e h t y t s s y n s i c a .

Aga ing the y, to haviour ll-being g e mpl chan ts to co sible be udent w st en on stud ke resp ocus on f a a m g o t nin ntai mai

Who

22

m

in g a n a

BETTE BLANCE

The question is: Who is managing the behaviour when the teacher is in control of the reinforcements or rewards? Doesn’t self-management mean that the student chooses to do the right thing even when the teacher is not in the room, or is not giving out rewards or praising? A self-managing student would choose to pick up the rubbish because it was important to him or her that the classroom was a tidy, clean place.

The motivation is from within, not from external motivation like a reward.

Elsewhere in the document it says, “Motivating students by giving them incentives” In a book titled Punished by Rewards, Alfie Khon wrote about research from hundreds of studies that demonstrate that people actually do inferior work when they are enticed with money, grades, or other incentives. Daniel Pink also quotes this research that shows that carrots and sticks are “so last century”.

So do incentives work? Maybe - in the short term. Are they going to work for all students all the time? No. Are they teaching students to be self-managing? No.

ILLUSTRATION: SPECTRUMBLUE

“If you do this, then you will get that” is an attempt to control others, in our case the students. It is the teacher’s best attempt to get what they want and is done with the very best of intentions. It is external control.

It does not encourage self-management.

William Glasser’s Choice Theory® focuses on internal control and motivation that comes about when students are able to selfevaluate and self-monitor their behaviour and their work.

I am not suggesting that we don’t celebrate success. I am not suggesting we don’t encourage, acknowledge or appreciate what students do. If we are serious about students becoming self-managers, they need to learn to become self-reinforcing, self-evaluating with the power to recognise when and why they are proud of their own work. They are not waiting for the teacher to say it is good. ‘The disease to please’ results in difficulties with important relationships in life and sometimes in long term mental health issues.

The key to learning in every learning area is to create a learning environment where every child or student can experience success by developing skills in key competencies: Managing Self (Rangatiratanga), Relating to Others (Manaakitanga), Participating & Contributing (Tataritanga) and Learning Achievement (Whaiwahitanga).

Perhaps we could combine PB4L and some important aspects of William Glasser’s Choice Theory® for the best way forward.

Bette is the president of the William Glasser Institute - New Zealand. As a past member of the William Glasser International Board, Bette continues her involvement in the international Choice Theory School project team which is charged with revamping the existing processes of helping schools to improve learning outcomes as well as improving student’s ability to get along together. She can be contacted on president@glassernz.org.nz. www.choice-connection.com

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ALAN COOPER

The introvert in the classroom Teachers Matter

Are you allowing your students enough think time?

24

I

have been invited into a classroom to observe the great questioning that is going on. Certainly the answers flowing from the money men and women (the students who constantly have their hands up almost before the question is completed) are great but there is also a section to one side that is definitely a silent squad. They are not going to volunteer an answer and from what one can see they take no part in the lesson.

When report writing, or parent interviews are held, these are the students who are referred to as, “Part of the wall paper,” or as “Quiet, shy and retiring.” Labels such as this demonstrate the way teachers,

no definitive facts to give a definite size to this group, they are not a small minority.

Myers Briggs conducted research in 1998 which put the number as fifty percent of a typical school population. Another estimate has the number much lower, about twenty-five percent, but that is still a quarter. In the literature there is some consensus that the number is probably closer to fifty percent. There is also some suggestion that there may be mor e potentially gifted students in this group.

The thinking process for this group includes the need for time in order to have a covert internal discussion/debate inside their own heads to work things through. This is a prerequisite for taking part in overt question answering or collaborative input with both the teacher and other class members.

PHOTO: DR KHAN

These students need time to work things out - thinking time that is. They have to get it right in their heads before going public, whether it be answering a class question or speaking out in a one to one or a larger group situation. While this thinking time is important for them at every stage, it is particularly important with the initial learning in a new project or when they strike a difficulty or problem.

even parents, and others so carelessly mistake a difference as a deficit.

Two of the current educational buzz words are ‘personalised’ and ‘differentiation’.

Teachers at least pay lip service to this; many much more than just lip service.

Nevertheless, the silent group noted above is more often neglected than nurtured as my classroom visit above demonstrated.

So who are these students and what can be done to ensure they are nurtured in the classroom?

Generally they fit a particular personality type, which Myers Briggs calls ‘introverted’, and the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles theory calls ‘reflective’. Although there are

Their silence does not indicate a fixed mindset that has given up. Instead it shows a growth mindset meticulously solving the problem of understanding except out of public view.

From the extrovert/impulsive at one extreme of a continuum to the introvert/ reflective at the other there will be varying degrees of need. Those toward the centre will not be affected to the same degree as those on the extreme, but any student on the introverted/reflective side of that continuum may still respond better if they are given some thinking time before an answer is required.

Almost paradoxically the impulsive/ extrovert will benefit from this too.

Wait time as a solution Most, if not all, teachers have practices which discriminate against reflective learners. Questioning rituals are an example of this.

Mary Budd Rowe’s research from the 1960’s explains why. Her analysis of teachers’ questioning rituals showed that teachers waited a second or less for students to begin to answer the question.

ALAN COOPER

“ Most, if not all, teachers have practices which discriminate against reflective learners. "

If the reply was not within this time limit, teachers would call on someone else, rephrase the question, or in some cases, especially where only a partial answer had been given, answer the question themselves. No thinking time is provided.

This early research would have been of little use if it had stopped there, so she proceeded to look for a simple solution.

The solution she found was introducing a wait time of three seconds - or more if the question was particularly difficult.

Thus, as a ritual, wait time pauses can be introduced as: First the teacher alerts the class by indicating that a question is imminent.

In my case I often use an imperative statement such as, “Let us think about this.” Followed by the mandatory 3 seconds of wait time.

Then the question is asked, followed by a further 3 seconds of wait time, before calling on a student to answer.

A further period of 3 seconds wait time is allowed to enable the student to organise an articulate response so that it is both precise and accurate, devoid of the fluffy and woolly. If required, the teacher may need to prompt, but it is important that the focus is on the student answering, and not on teacher direction. A suitable

25

PHOTO: SPASS

ALAN COOPER

prompt may be along the lines of telling the student that that was a general answer and inviting more detail.

At this point, if a prompt is offered, a further period of 3 second wait time is then given to allow the student to collect his/her thoughts in order to give a fully reasoned response with evidence to support the point of view.

Mary Bud Rowe’s research showed that prior to this wait time being introduced, student failure to respond with an answer when called upon was reduced, from as high as 30% in some classrooms, to just 5% or less. Because wait time gave time for the extrovert/reflective student to get their head round an answer; it is safe to assume that many in this 30% group would be them.

Random selection when asking a student to answer is my preference – no hands up. There is research that demonstrates that this keeps the class focussed and engaged. When to ask the reflected/introverted student is a crucial refinement. Even though wait time gives time to get it right in their heads, it may be an advantage to only ask them later in the questioning chain.

Teachers Matter

A digital solution

26

Another pedagogical practice which provides space for the extrovert/ reflective student to get their head round the learning is Flipping. Simply put, Flipping is presenting the lesson as a short video either for homework or at school (but not as a class lesson) and then following up in class with activities that allow the teacher to interact with

PHOTO: DR KHAN

After the student responds there is a further period of 3 seconds wait time for all students to reflect on what had been said, and then a second student is called upon to respond. It may or may not be necessary to include a prompt here depending on the stage at which the class is. “Let’s develop that idea further,” or something challenging such as, “What other ideas are there?” are possibilities here.

individual students as they problem solve to apply the new learning and begin the shift into long term memory.

The key point is that the students must have individual control of the video, so that as they make their notes and start the process of learning the new content they can press the pause button, giving them space to get their head round it, construct their notes and move on. Alternatively, they can slide back to a previous point in the video if the meaning was not clear, or a later point causes confusion, perhaps from an original misconception.

As in the questioning ritual, Flipping also benefits the note taking ability of all students. Marzano’s research based guide to note taking stresses that note taking is best done as a deliberate activity, not on the run so to speak. To make this so, he advises that the teacher pauses from time to time to allow student note making space. The negative in this is that when the teacher decides on the pause time it is central control, so any time allowed risks either being too short for the slower thinkers, like the introvert reflective students, or too long and therefore boring for the extrinsic/impulsive. There are thus advantages for both groups in the differentiated personal control that Flipping allows.

Conclusion John Edwards espouses the importance of PPK (Personal Practical Knowledge).

Putting into practice one or both the ideas in this article gives the essential: the doing part of PPK. To turn it into Personal Practical Knowledge requires more than just doing. It also requires reflection and feedback. Moreover, this reflection and feedback has the clear aim of ensuring that those participating are continuous learners, striving to be better than before. My article in Teachers Matter Issue 30, Using Collaborative Teams for Professional Development, gives a proven method to do this.

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.

STEPHEN LETHBRIDGE

What do your students see you ignore?

The standard you walk past

I

picked up rubbish today, and as soon as I did there were 6 pairs of hands flocking to help me – without having to say a word.

A couple of years ago we had a visit from some Australian colleagues to look at how we used our learning management system. When people visit our place we believe that you take us as you find us. As we were walking around the school I bent down to pick up some litter.

One of the visitors mentioned that he had recently seen a piece by an Australian military leader, Lieutenant General David Morrison, on YouTube that was full of amazing quotes especially this one…

The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

PHOTO: ANTONIOGUILLEM

It is a catchy phrase that really caught my imagination as it resonated with a fundamental mental model I have around

walking the talk. It is a phrase that has stuck with me and I find myself repeating it to staff and to students. It can be used on so many levels but to me hits at the heart of personal responsibility and moral courage.

Our visitor commented that it was nice to see the principal bend down to pick up litter and that this very act speaks more to others than telling children to pick up their rubbish. It is true. Children are the best double standard detectors as they are always watching - and effective teachers know that. We are always on show!

Now this is a handy phrase to use with kids but what standards do we walk past in relation to our professional lives and interactions? What actions do we deem acceptable due to the lack of moral courage when we are in situations that require someone to speak up? I applaud Lieutenant

General David Morrison when he spoke about people who have difficulty upholding the shared values of the organisation, “If you don’t like them (the values) then leave.” This took me back to a couple of conversations in my leadership career that have opened with the following statement…

“Could you remind me why we are paying you a salary to undermine and subvert the work we have agreed to do as a school…?”

So what standards do we walk past? I know I walk past some… I sometimes think, “Is that a hill I am going to die on today?” But in doing so am I condoning and indeed reinforcing that very behaviour or action?

Moral courage… I must ponder what I can see myself walking past and better still gather data from those who see me walking past things!

Stephen is a Dad, Husband, Principal, sport mad, gadget man. He is all about learning and growing leaders of the future. He is moving into his tenth year of school principalship at Taupaki School and believes in growing leadership capacity at all levels in school. He has value his involvement in the OUR Education Network for the past eight years, learning from amazing leaders from around the world.

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ANDREW MURRAY

Building partnerships with parents

PHOTO: MONKEY BUSINESS

It’s about relationships

T

Teachers Matter

here is no doubt families should be partners in their child’s education. I have been thinking a great deal about this recently – especially when attending our parent nights and reflecting on the successful community consultation that had occurred regarding our strategic plan.

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A paper from Johns Hopkins University, Six Types of Involvement: Keys to Successful Partnerships, embeds all of my thinking.

The most successful parent or family nights include BBQs, curriculum nights, Grandparents Day, Dads or Mums Day, family movie nights, sports nights, school carnivals, literacy nights and themed nights. Too often, schools host family nights with the intent of raising money, going over procedures, or showing academic data.

The primary goal of a family night should be building relationships and letting parents see their children in action in school. As Epstein says, “When parents, teachers, students, and others view one another as partners in education, a caring community

forms around students and begins its work.”

ERO asks these key questions in their challenge to schools.

Evaluative questions • How well does the school gather and use information about the needs, wishes and aspirations of parents, wha-nau and the wider community?

• How effectively does the school inform parents about their children and communicate information about the school?

partnerships with parents are the same as building relationships in the classroom.

How often do we as teachers reflect on the importance of knowing our learners?

Perhaps it is time we worked on knowing the parents as well. As well as feeling like they belong, parents also need to trust us and need to believe that they are valued.

Relationships nurture the collaboration that is so necessary for partnerships to survive, and to help students succeed in school.

Have you got a special strategy that brings parents into your learning community?

• How well does the school engage parents and wha-nau in the life of the school?

• How well does the school engage with and make use of community resources, agencies and other educational institutions Relationships are key. Relationships build trust, and trust sustains quality partnerships.

The key to building relationships and

Andrew is the Deputy Principal and Principals Nominee at Sacred Heart Girls College in New Plymouth. In Term 2 and 3, 2015 was on secondment t o N C R S wo r k i n g w i t h C a t h o l i c secondary schools.

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29

CLAIRE LAURENSON

Managing grief in the classroom Some practical ideas

G

rief is such a multi-faceted topic with so many variables it is difficult to know where to begin on the subject of grief in the classroom. I have decided to use a broad brush approach highlighting key factors influencing the grief response, what is helpful in managing grief, along with some practical ideas and activities to use in the classroom.

Perspective Grief in the classroom can be the result of any number of different scenarios affecting the teacher, one child or the classroom as a whole as when, for example, there is loss in the teacher’s life, a student’s life, the classroom as a whole, or one effecting the larger school community.

Type of Loss

Teachers Matter

The type of loss is also a factor influencing the grief response. Is it a serious accident, an illness, a death or a family break-up?

Is it a traumatic event? Is it a sudden and unexpected loss or an expected one with incremental losses along the way over a period of time? Does it have a known outcome or an unknown one bringing uncertainty and anxiety? Obviously, not all loss and grief is death related nor is it always visibly apparent to others. Some losses receive greater levels of recognition and support than others, for instance, a death generally receives more acknowledgment and support than a family breakup which often involves multiple losses.

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Relationship to the loss All of the factors mentioned above have an influence on the way we are impacted, but the key one I believe is the nature of the relationship to that which we’ve lost, be it a person, animal, place or thing. The more our self is invested in the relationship to that which we’ve lost, the harder the grief will be felt. As a young child, I remember being bereft for days after my beloved cat Sammy died from being hit by a car. That cat was

my baby; I used to wheel him around in the doll’s pram.

Resilience

Other factors

Resilience is the ability to cope and bounce back during difficult times and loss and grief is one of those ‘times’; it comes with being human.

Other significant factors are age and personality, social norms & expectations, ethnicity, cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices, other losses and coping skills.

Impact of Grief Grief can impact all aspects of being; physical, mental, emotional, behavioural and spiritual. The younger the child, the less able they may be to articulate what’s going on for them so a change in behaviour or more exaggerated forms of behaviour may be your first indicator.

Managing Grief Model of Grief The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement (Stoebe & Schut), illustrates a to and fro movement between grief and relief. Small children naturally model this movement, fully expressing their feelings of sadness in one moment to joyfulness in the next, the key being their unhampered freedom to fully experience and express their feelings in the present moment.

What Helps?

Connectedness; it provides a protective factor. This includes: • Connectedness within self • Connectedness to other members of the family • Connectedness to outside support • Connectedness to a larger meaning in life A sense of connectedness to parents and school is the most significant factor for young people.

Resnick et al (1997) In order for students to identify their own level of connectedness and recognise who, what and where they can draw strength from during difficult times, the following can be used as a starting place for conversation and/or activity in the classroom.

• I h a v e – t h e f a m i l y a n d e x t e r n a l structures • I am – the personality features

CLAIRE LAURENSON

“ Not all loss and grief is death related, nor is it always visibly apparent to others. ”

• I can – the students own social and interpersonal skills (Grotberg 1995) This activity can be done across all levels and age groups using words, pictures, collage, mind-mapping, flow-chart etc. In doing so, a student may identify what they don’t have and can then be supported to think about who, what, where and how those gaps can be filled. This could be a one-on-one conversation or a class activity sharing ideas and helping build a bigger picture of connectedness. This ‘picture’ becomes a tool students’ can draw and build on for future difficult times, building their capacity for resilience.

As further support for grief in the classroom, a few general guidelines are:

Don’t assume ….. Ask Recently, I heard a story illustrating this point beautifully. Mother to child …”It must have been awful kissing grandma when she smelt so awful”… Child to mother …. “No, but I didn’t like all those wrinkles”….

Ask what is needed and what would help? Age appropriate, ask the child, ask the parents/care-givers and anyone else closely involved in the student’s life. As their teacher, you are a stable influence in the student’s daily life and therefore, an important element of support.

Repeat yourself As you will be aware, learning at the best of times requires receiving information several

times. In times of grief, this becomes even more pronounced. Be patient and accept you will need to repeat yourself numerous times and, where possible, deliver the information in different ways. Story-telling works well as does working with creative avenues.

• Say the alphabet slowly

Review your expectations

• Breathe slowly and deeply into belly

While the cognitive facilities are compromised, you may need to adjust your expectations of a student/s for a time.

Conversely, school work could be a welcome distraction from the loss. See The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement.

• Use of a comforter such as a favourite toy or blanket

Grounding When overwhelmed or overloaded mentally or emotionally, some simple grounding techniques can be helpful, providing a focus outside of self, away from the internal landscape. Paying attention to the physical world through the senses helps bring one into the present moment, calming the mind and emotional responses. This is a helpful strategy for managing trauma and highly stressful situations.

The following techniques you can talk a student through or model and have the student mirror you.

• Describe your surroundings in detail e.g. I can see, hear, smell, touch etc • Statements e.g. My name is …, I live in …, my age is …, today is … etc

• Clap or rub hands together hard, run hands under cold water • Stamp feet, press heels into floor, walk barefoot on grass • Carry a small object such as a stone

• Use of self-talk e.g. I am safe, I will be okay, I can do this.

This would normally be done one-on-one but you could also have a brainstorming session with the class to generate ideas, providing students with strategies they can use to support themselves and others when overwhelmed or overloaded further building their capacity for resilience.

Claire is an experienced Grief Practitioner, Educator & Advisor. Her business, Grief Relief Ltd, provides support, education, training and public speaking. You can contact Claire at Grief Relief by phone (04) 970-122, email claire@griefrelief.co.nz or at www.griefrelief.co.nz

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PHOTO: DGLIMAGES

MAGGIE HOS-MCGRANE

Environmental education and outdoor play

Teachers Matter

Why our students should spend more time outside

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I’ve been reading over theories of education and how they support more environmental education and outdoor play. In recent years Professor Howard Gardner of Harvard University has added naturalist intelligence to his list of multiple intelligences. I’ve also been reading about education in Finland which has a much greater emphasis on play. Finnish students don’t start school until the age of seven and Finland spends less per student on education than many developed countries, yet students in Finland do better in international comparisons in literacy, math and science. Interestingly enough Finnish students get an outdoor play session of 15 minutes after every 45 minute lesson.

There is an emphasis on environment-based education and a large amount of experience in natural settings or the surrounding community. Of course there may be

many factors involved in why students in Finland do well on international tests, but quite possibly environmental education and outdoor play may be some of them.

I’ve also been reading Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv and have been discussing a lot of what I’ve been reading with my son. Yesterday we were talking about how playing in natural spaces encourages creativity, when compared to playing in playgrounds. My son agree with this and pointed out that when he was at the International School of Amsterdam there were several wild spaces outdoors including a pond and a small woodland area. He agreed that some of the most creative children in his classes were drawn to these wild and natural areas.

“ Without this contact with nature I wonder how they will learn to care for our planet in more than just an academic sense. "

Although I was born in London, when I was 5 my parents moved right to the edge of the city. The place we moved to was surrounded by a lot of green - in fact when I started school I had to walk across a field to get onto the school bus. There were endless possibilities for play in the nearby fields, woods, streams and ponds. When I was still in elementary school I used to walk a neighbour’s dog after school. Mostly I’d head off into the woods, just me and the dog, for this walk and climb a tree. In the summers my brothers and I often used to

MAGGIE HOS-MCGRANE

When I had my own children I was living in Holland - again right on the edge of open green space. Evenings and weekends would see us out as a family cycling through nature, or maybe walking in the sand dunes or on the beach. My own children used to do all these activities with us, in contrast to my own childhood when I mostly played outside unsupervised by adults.

I now live in the middle of a huge city of 22 million people where there is not a lot of nature. The children at my school spend only a small amount of time outdoors every day and playtime is fairly structured. While these students are very aware of many environmental issues, such as global warming, water conservation, pollution, threats to our local mangroves and so on, most of them have minimal contact with nature itself. Although our students can clearly articulate ways they need to save water, or why they should reuse and recycle waste, without this contact with nature I wonder how they will learn to care for our planet in more than just an academic sense.

I’m interested in the impact of being outside on children, especially when I consider the contrast between the experience students have in Mumbai when compared with the guided play/outdoor education that took place at my last school where our youngest children spent the first hour of every day outside. One of the arguments in the book is that nature inspires creativity in children; it encourages visualisation and the full use of their senses. Another is that exposure to nature can improve cognitive abilities and resistance to stress. Studies in a variety of European countries have compared children who play on flat, hard playgrounds with those who spend the same time playing around rocks, trees and uneven ground these studies have indicated those children who play in natural surroundings do better in areas of motor fitness, balance and agility. In addition they suffer less from anxiety, anger and depression.

Natural settings and the integration of informal play with formal learning and multisensory experiences are seen as essential for healthy child development. Natural spaces are seen as similar to “loose-parts” toys (for example Lego) where children can use the parts in many different ways. The “parts” in a natural play area can include trees, bushes, flowers, long grass, water such as a pond and the creatures that live in water, sand and so on which can fire up a child’s imagination and creativity studies are emerging from many different countries that show that children engage in more creative forms of play in “green areas”, in particular more fantasy and make-believe play. Children also play together in more egalitarian ways than on playgrounds with play equipment and structures - in playgrounds a social hierarchy is established through physical competence in contrast to open grassy areas where students focus less on physical abilities and more on language skills. In these outdoor spaces it is the more creative children emerge as the leaders.

Recently our R&D team has been considering What If ... questions. One of my questions was what if students had to spend one lesson of each day outside? How would this affect their physical, social and emotional development?

PHOTO: DGLIMAGES

build a tree house in the willow tree at the bottom of the garden. Back in the 1960s we knew next to nothing about environmental problems in different parts of the world but we knew quite a bit about our own local environment.

Maggie Hos-McGrane has been teaching for 30 years, 24 of these in international schools. Originally from the UK, Maggie is currently the Elementary Tech Coordinator at the American School of Bombay and is a member of ASB’s Research and Development Core Team. Maggie is a Google Certified Teacher and has presented at conferences in Europe, Asia, North and South America. www. maggiehosmcgrane.com/

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ABCDEFGHIJKLMN KAREN BOYES

A to Z of effective teaching

Teachers Matter

A by-the-letter guide

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Review

Rewards

Relationships

Looking over, studying or looking back on previous learning or work is known as reviewing. It is an essential part of creating long term memory of new ideas and concepts. Brain expert, John Medina’s research suggests having students review and go over new information within twenty four hours of learning it. His findings state information recall can be at 90% after one day. However, to leave the review of new learning for three days, significantly drops a student’s recall to 30%.

To maintain a higher recall it is suggested a student reviews information a week later, a month later and then every six months.

A reward is something given in recognition of a service, effort or an achievement. Effective rewards in the classroom, according to Eric Jensen, have 2 elements predictability and market value.

Firstly students need to be aware of the reward in advance, and secondly the reward needs to be something which that person values. Stickers, stamps and stars may work for some however a simple “well done” or a pat on the back might also be just as important to others. While these rewards are considered external or extrinsic motivators, neuroscientists talk about the brain having its own internal or intrinsic reward system with chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins. Internal rewards are reported to have a much higher success and satisfaction rate than external rewards.

Building strong relationships with students is of fundamental importance to a successful classroom. We all want to feel cared for and valued by the significant people in our lives, and your students are the same.

The phrase “Students don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care” is very relevant in the classroom.

Take the time to get to know your students. Find out their interests, hobbies, passions and dislikes. Show genuine interest in their ever yday lives whilst also respecting their privacy and dignity. Create regular ‘check-ins’ with each student. This may be done before class, during class or after class. Ask them about their experiences and value the knowledge they bring to their learning. Encourage students to set goals inside and outside the classroom and chat with them on their progress. There are many ways to build strong positive relationships with your students – take the time to do this every day.

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NOPQRSTUVWXYZ KAREN BOYES

Responsible Risk Takers

Being able to take a responsible risk, step outside your comfort zone and give new ideas a go are important success factors.

People who display risk taking behaviours are often adventurous and living on the edge of their competence. Although they often have the desire to go beyond established limits, they do not always act impulsively; risks are likely to be calculated and educated. Responsible risk takers often draw on past knowledge and think about the consequences of their actions to assess whether the risk is worth taking. These people enjoy trying and testing new challenges and become comfortable with the feeling of being uncomfortable.

Rituals

Rituals are a sequence of activities per for med in an established order. They are a prescribed procedure that is guaranteed to happen. Creating rituals within the classroom is valuable as they create stability and longevity of the learning. Knowing what is going to happen in the first ten minutes of every class ensures the brain is more receptive to the learning as it will be more calm and relaxed. Create rituals in your classroom for your morning routines, how students hand in work, how you celebrate success, packing up and any other procedure that happens every day in your class.

NOPQRSTUV

Karen is an expert in effective teaching and learning, study skills, motivation a n d p o s i t i v e t h i n k i n g. S h e wa s awarded the NSANZ Educator of the Year 2014 award and works in schools throughout Australasia teaching students how to Study Smart and teachers how to raise achievement. www.karentuiboyes.com

35

DELWYN ARMSTRONG

Dreams

The keepers of our inner world

W

e all know how important sleep is to the health of your body and that also of children. What is not so widely recognised is the great importance of what happens while we are slumbering.

Teachers Matter

The Sleep Doctor, Dr Breus, explains one reason why dreaming is so important.

“Dreaming helps consolidate your memories.

So what might that mean for you? You will begin to see an improvement in your overall memory and your ability to organise your thoughts.” This leads to you achieving more in both your work and personal life.

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Dreams are the keepers of our inner world and scientific research has shown that dreams are remarkably important to good mental wellbeing. In the USA some universities now provide degrees in the area of dreams, and large corporations in India are known to run dream incubation workshops. Dreams are invaluable to those that take them seriously.

The famous inventor Thomas Edison was said to keep a cot/bed in his laboratory. For what reason? So that when he was stuck in the development of an invention he was able to nap. He believed and, more importantly, had learned that dreaming about his projects

often gave him a new insight which he understood could lead to a breakthrough. It is not uncommon at all for dreams to provide people with much needed solutions.

Your dreams may not arrive in plain text and on the surface may even appear negative.

Have a look at the parables in the night that you are given.

Herge, the famous author, was plagued by nightmares. Herge was chased by a white skeleton in his dream whereupon the entire environment turned white. A psychiatrist advised him to stop making comics and take a rest, but instead Herge drew an entire

DELWYN ARMSTRONG

album set in a white environment; the snowy mountaintops of Tibet. This was 1960. His book “Tintin in Tibet,” not only stopped Herge’s nightmares but it also worked as a therapeutic experience; this book is also regarded as one of his masterpieces.

Fascinating information can be gathered from children’s dreams revealing obvious clues as to how children are handling life.

Sometimes dreams that trouble children are not necessarily indicators of problems but can indicate a strong character for example.

Getting children on the right path early in life leads to passionate, motivated students with great futures ahead of them. At around the

age of 12 years old, children can be having dreams encouraging them in the right positive directions for their future.

Donovan Bixely, the New Zealand children’s book illustrator dreamed that he was standing before an easel. On the easel there was a partly completed painting. Donovan stood and admired the colours and the artistry on the canvas. He felt urged to pick up the brush and add to the painting.

Donovan felt an enormous thrill and great satisfaction for what he had added. When he woke from the dream he felt such a deep assurance that his life calling was to be an artist. Donovan was only 8 years old when he

had this dream!

We encourage you to start looking at your dreams as a significant source to help you be the best you can be.

We were born to dream. Don’t panic if you think you are not dreaming. It is more likely that you will not be remembering your dreams - you do dream up to 5 times each night.

Next time you awaken from a dream, even at 3am in the morning, remember to write it down. It will be well worth it. Happy Dreaming.

Glenn and Delwyn are modern day pioneers in the area of night dream utilisation. Their unique talent is to bring all the differing disciplines of dream interpretation together into an easy-to-understand and easy-to-use dream system, designed to open the door to the powerful resource dreams are for all ages. They are bloggers, s p e a ke r s , a u t h o r s , i n t e r p re t e r s and teachers of dreams and live in Auckland with their four sons. To find out more go to www.oraclesinc.com

ILLUSTRATION: CIRODELIA

“ Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.” – Charles Dement

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CHRIS DUGGAN

Home Science Spot

Christian Stark making fizzy juice with dry ice (solid CO2) at the House of Science

Quick DIY fizzy drink

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e at the House of Science believe Science is fun, family friendly and should be explored on a regular basis! This issue we look at fizzy drinks and experiment with a super easy DIY recipe.

Teachers Matter

The Background: Fizzy drink is fizzy because there is Carbon dioxide (CO2) gas dissolved in the drink. CO2 is a common gas that is very easy to make – if an acid and a carbonate react, one of the products is CO2.

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The Method: Mix together 1 teaspoon each of baking soda (this is the carbonate), tartaric or citric acid (you guessed it, this is the acid) and sugar (to make it taste better). This is your fizz powder. Now stir a heaped teaspoon of your fizz powder into a glass of water.

Stir really well. You could add some flavouring at this point. Have a drink and record your observations.

The Investigation: which proportions of baking soda and tartaric acid produce the most bubbles? How will you measure this? What effect does the temperature of the water have on the bubbles produced?

Record your results carefully and display them on a chart or graph.

Trained as a biochemist, Chris worked in a variety of different jobs before taking time out to raise 2 daughters.

She then became a Science/ Chemistry teacher and spent 15 years in the classroom, 10 as a department leader. In 2013 she left teaching to establish a charitable trust called the House of Science which now has seven branches across the country aimed at raising scientific literacy in the local community.

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KIM CHAMBERLAIN

5 minute brain exercises Keep your brain active with these short word exercises. Game or puzzle? A puzzle has a definite answer, while a game will have a number of suitable answers and can be done more than once. Puzzles give you the discipline of working out the ‘correct’ answer, while you can develop your creativity by finding several answers for a game.

 

Gridword

Place the words so that they fit in the grid.

Place the words so that they fit in the grid.

The first word has beenhas filledbeen in forfilled you. in for you..

The first word

 

Continuous Words

Place the words so that they fit in the grid.

This is a list of words joined together, with the word spaces taken out.

How many can you find?

Topic: Vegetables

LOYAL

cornasparagusspinachcucumberr adishbroccolicauliflowerturnippea scabbagecelerylettucebeetroottom atopotatoonioncarrotpumpkinbea ncapsicumsprouts

TIRED HONEY YODEL NERVY

TIRED LOYAL YODEL

The first H word has Obeen filled N in for you.

E

H

O

N

Y

E

HONEY HOTEL NERVY

  HOTEL These umbrellas have letters on them. With the umbrella closed we can only see two letters. Use your imagination to work out words that might be written on the umbrella when it is open. The word has to contain these two letters in this order, but it can be as long or short as you like, and the letters can appear anywhere in the word. The first one has been done for you.

sp

Teachers Matter

Umbrella words

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These umbrellas have letters on them.

With the umbrella closed we can only see two letters. Use your imagination to work out words that might be written on the umbrella when it is open. The word has to contain these two letters in this order, but it can be as long or short as you like, and the letters can appear anywhere in the word. The first one has been done for you.

fl

te

shop

spotty

Y

  Alphabet 

Cross out the letters that are in the grid twice.

Cross out the letters that are in the grid twice.

Then rearrange the letters that are left to spell two Then rearrange the letters that are left to spell two words words that are opposites. that are opposites.

b

l

g

y

q

e

d

k

v

s

h

w

Answer:

p

c

x

j

z

x

n

f

i

r

a

q

y

b

k

j

r

f

m

a

c

v

i

w

g

t

l

m

o

z

u

d

Hat words

Fill in the rows with words of your choice, starting with a 1-letter word, through to an   8-letter word.  Fill in the rows with youruse choice, starting with a 1-letter word, Trywords notofto plurals. through to an 8-letter word. Try not to use plurals.

 

A synonym is a word that means exactly or nearly the same as another word; for example ‘sad’ and ‘unhappy’ are synonyms. Find the pairs of synonyms and either draw a line connecting the two, or colour in the matching socks the same colour.

money

road

sort

question

mist

street

steam

cash

home

query

type

house

Synonyms

A synonym is a word that means exactly or nearly the same as another word; for example ‘sad’ and ‘unhappy’ are synonyms.

Find the pairs of synonyms and either draw a line connecting the two, or colour in the matching socks the same colour.

answers on inside back cover

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ownership allowing students to take charge of their education experiences and thrive.

anisers are a critical pre‐writing and brainstorming technique that cross over all content ever many educators are still using the same set of organisers that are pre‐made. Just LAUREN RIVERS s who are diverse learners, not all graphic organisers come ready made and aligned with kill or assignment. Teacher designed graphic organisers are the first step in helping ep out of the “box” and into a world of self‐designed organisers.

Not all graphic organisers have to be square!

g students to take control over their thought process, reflect on the desired skill they monstrate and then produce a unique graphic organiser is truly powerful and tive in the classroom. Below are two very good examples of graphic organisers teachers or word study or vocabulary development. Both have the same goal: to have students m and make a connection with it by providing examples. These are representative of Think outside of the box anisers that could be readily found on‐line or in a teacher resource book, photocopied ed to students as an assignment in cross curricular subject areas.

Words: 935 Example 2 Author: Lauren Rivers Example 2 raphic organisers are a critical were not allowed to use it and they had to Title: Not all graphic organisers have to be square! pre-writing and brainstor ming develop their own models to display the Teacher Designed raphic Organizer Teacher Designed technique that cross over all content Deck: Thing outside of the box. information. Teams presented their terms areas. However many educators are still to the class while their peers took notes so Pic:

within text

using the same set of organisers that are that they had a complete list of terms. The Quote: pre-made.

In today’s classroom, it’s important to create opportunities for choice and Just like students who are diverse lesson took about 90 minutes in total which Definition Word come Def learners, not all graphic organisers

ownership allowing students to take charge of their education experiences and would be about the same amount of time In my words ready made and aligned with a specific skill if students had to look up a list of 10-15 initi

thrive.

or assignment. Teacher designed graphic

G

words independently providing the same on organisers are the first step in helping information.

Graphic organisers are a critical pre‐writing and brainstorming technique that cross over all content into a students step out of the “box” and Example Nonworld of self-designed organisers. areas. However many educators are still using the same set of organisers that are pre‐made. Just

Example

Student Designed like students who are diverse learners, not all graphic organisers come ready made and aligned with Empowering students to take control WORD over their thought process, reflect on the a specific skill or assignment. Teacher designed graphic organisers are the first step in helping Graphic Organisers and desired skill they need to demonstrate students step out of the “box” and into a world of self‐designed organisers. then produce a unique graphic organiser

is truly powerful and transformative in

Empowering students to take control over their thought process, reflect on the desired skill they the classroom. Below are two very good Syn Ima examples of graphic organisers teachers

need to demonstrate and then produce a unique graphic organiser is truly powerful and could use for word study or vocabulary ony ge transformative in the classroom. Below are two very good examples of graphic organisers teachers development. Both have the same goal: m could use for word study or vocabulary development. Both have the same goal: to have students to have students define a term and make a connection with it by providing define a term and make a connection with it by providing examples. These are representative of

examples. These are representative of graphic organisers that could be readily found on‐line or in a teacher resource book, photocopied Yes, the organisers above get the task graphic organisers that could be readily

accomplished and may even make for a and provided to students as an assignment in cross curricular subject areas. found on-line or in a teacher resource book,

good study guide for the assessment, but do they raise the bar and embed student Example 2 accountability? Increasingly, it is becoming ganisers above get the task accomplished and may even make for a good study guide for more important that modern day students Standard Graphic Organizer Teacher Designed create, design, collaborate and produce ment, but do they raise the bar and embed student accountability? Increasingly, it is Example 1 a final product.

In other words, they use more important that modern day students create, design, collaborate and produce a final Standard Graphic Organizer all the pieces they have just learned and

other words, they use all the pieces they have just learned and synthesise information. synthesise information. This process is often s is often a more meaningful experience and yields a higher retention of content area Definition Word a more meaningful experience and yields a

Def higher retention of content area knowledge, skills and development of abilities. initi skills and development of abilities. photocopied and provided to students as an assignment in cross curricular subject areas.

Example 1

Teachers Matter

my 8th grade classroom, I divided my students up into teams that had assigned on Recently, in my 8th grade classroom, I words to complete a word study graphic organiser for the poem, “The Lesson of the divided my students up into teams that

Example Nonhad assigned vocabulary words to complete e only criterion was that they defined the word with the standard definition, gave a group Example a word study graphic organiser for the 1 synonym and 1 antonym. Even though I drew the teacher model on the Smart Board, I

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In this example for the term symbolism, the group decided to use a smelly image of a trash can to be a symbolic representation In my words of their term. Their term has nothing to do with trash, nor did the selected reading; however, it gave a powerful image to the team which demonstrated a higher understanding of the word’s usage.

Their image was symbolic of something “disgusting” as labeled in the illustration.

poem, “The Lesson of the Moth”. The only WORD criterion was that they defined the word with the standard definition, gave a group definition, 1 synonym and 1 antonym.

Even though I drew the teacher model on the Smart Board, I told teams that they

Syn ony

Ima ge

LAUREN RIVERS

“ In today’s classroom, it’s important to create opportunities for choice and ownership allowing students to take charge of their education experiences and thrive.”

Some could argue that the graphic organiser to the left is the same box type organiser as first provided, however it encourages the use of imagery, colour and applied meaning to foster retention of the word. This group may not have ventured far from the typical teacher model, but they did embellish it and make it their own which is what all graduates have to do – take what they have learned in their preparatory classrooms and make it their own so they can be college and career ready.

This example shows how one group took the moth symbolism from the poem and combined it with the word study task.

Therefore synthesising concepts in the poem with the word being studied. Again these student examples were ceaseless in variety, content, style, design and application. It’s this type of “big picture” thinking and creativity teachers should strive to foster in their classrooms.

Another group took their word study in a completely different direction by using Pinterest to find a creative way to show their work. The team utilised technology to initiate an internet search, collaborated to pick a design, then modified the design to fit the needs of the assignment. By incorporating technology, this group was able to overcome their anxiety over designing something that was not teacher derived. More and more, I have noticed that students are worried about reproducing the exact replica of what the teacher has assigned. While this may be useful in some cases, it is a setback to student creativity in the classroom. It also gears students to find only 1 solution to a problem when we live in a word where there is diversity in an individual’s approach to the same task.

Even though there isn’t a turtle in the poem, this group chose it as a representative of their word. Thinking “out of the box” and applying their word to an unsightly speckled turtle.

As you can see, each design accomplishes the same goal, but the student designed organiser allows for creativity, ownership and accountability. All student teams met the requirements of the word study, but also collaborated, came to a consensus on the information and images to use to best define their word. Students now know how to use the word and apply its meaning. Instead of rote memorisation to score a high grade on a test, they will do well on the test, but the likelihood of them using the word again has increased greatly. In today’s classroom, it’s important to create opportunities for choice and ownership allowing students to take charge of their education experiences and thrive. Incorporating visual learning strategies and collaboration are both powerful tools in the process.

Lauren is a veteran teacher. Having studied Elementary Education at the University of Maryland and completed her Master’s Degree in Administration at McDaniel College, she has a true passion for providing students with instruction that is up to date and pushes them to the next level.

Currently, Lauren teaches English Language Arts to 8th graders in the state of Maryland. She has 2 children, a husband, a Chihuahua named Bernie and is also an artist.

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KAREN BOYES

Learning and study tips for school success Parent ideas for ages 6 – 12 years old

I

n a world that is forever changing, knowing how to learn is an essential skill for all students. Alvin Toffler once said “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Here are some tips to assist your child in their study and learning at home.

Tip 1: Take a break after school One of the most ineffective times to learn is the one hour after school. When your child arrives home allow them time to relax, refuel and refresh. Down time is very important for the brain as this is when it sorts out previous learning and files new information. The brain uses a whopping 20% of the body’s total energy, and learning can be very tiring.

Provide healthy, nutritious snacks including nuts, fresh fruit, vegetable sticks, hummus and a big glass of water to refuel and feed the brain. Once your child has recharged, you will find it easier for them to focus on learning or study.

Teachers Matter

Tip 2: Learn in small chunks of time

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If the learning is challenging, or your child is hard to get started, break the task and time into smaller bite size chunks. It is easier to work and focus for 20 minutes than an hour, so set a timer for twenty minutes and take a five minute break before starting again. This helps with motivation and momentum.

Tip 3: Add variety and fun Most children’s brains love novelty and anything that is different or unusual.

Provide coloured pencils, pens and crayons

for writing and practicing spelling and basic facts. Invite your child to help prepare a meal and use the vegetable peelings to spell words. Practice maths in a sand or flour tray. When reading, read a page each or use different voices for each page or paragraph.

Make it fun for you and them!

Tip 4: Focus on what they don’t know This may sound counter-intuitive, however practicing what you can already do over and over just makes it easier and easier and does not create more learning. Perhaps you can recall playing the piano as a child and only practicing the easy parts and never getting any better. Learning what you don't know often feels difficult and challenging - this is the point. The more your child perseveres, the better they will get at it and therefore learn.

Tip 5: Avoid doing it for them If you continue to do the work for your child, all they learn is that you are better than them. Learning often involves struggle.

Remember when your child learned to walk, or ride a bike? They wobbled and fell over/ off. This is a very important part of the learning process. When a butterfly hatches from the cocoon, if you help it out it will die.

It is the struggle that causes the wings to strengthen and therefore be able to fly. Allow your child time to work out an answer or solve a problem. Ask encouraging questions.

Walk away if it gets too challenging, take a deep breath and go back to support your child. I often take my daughter to a coffee shop to do her assignment as we both stay calmer in a public place.

“ The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Alvin Toffler

PHOTO: INARIK

KAREN BOYES

Karen is an expert in effective teaching and learning, study skills, motivation a n d p o s i t i v e t h i n k i n g. S h e wa s awarded the NSANZ Educator of the Year 2014 award and works in schools throughout Australasia teaching students how to Study Smart and teachers how to raise achievement. www.karentuiboyes.com

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How to use movement to improve your life & your teaching

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t oos to b ive s y t wa ea u cr ing es, -sav give yo routin e m s i t s o t ls r cla bes da the cy, an to you learn. n i n n a pl ra nt i ady to vib I ex me cle h and move and re i t r a ealt sed his rate In t own h integ ts focu th y r l n eal i you to eas r stude at h p in g e n r i g u u ls orn e too ing yo for as end ym th p tial t can rking e e n ver eing e e e i k t s o , s a p m s w e b th is old ars ritie ke u cture hat wo cise g prio 16 ye edly t i w r P u e k tin eat f yo iasm. d thin ast t ex s ke i tha compe r the p ve rep ee nd w e li nthu elf an a o a e b ns y rgy -do ofte uld nd e yours l kn man et’. Ov ople h l e o e a n l w e p to r. so bask pe ife ergy a on of .

We re ur rrie peo ith st, i u at l mo to yo w easy tw ard eciali est ba yet e u wh ess en t vers nd yo h , k b e o t i a e g . p l r c h ov ‘too dl gin big gs ing ran arou ext effe ver uld the llbein their ma boun e, vib to m d bor wo thing disco sitive ne d tes o e s e n o v i h y i y n o a t t u inu es ? wh d an a w time wi ver sig yo h a p osi ng n e e r m i e p u

d e r c f t d m o t s ut n fo a ch re rt uc su nd tha mo ale . Tw r min t if tea ng to ise’. O ave s ean es a e-con ka s h i c t y t m i d u a s i c h e n v u fo er qu bo im te wn de wh ay uld a b ut ha on ex e, and k! be ur stu our o e ur as t wo ake body, d O d o r t e l f re o s u i t a c y u i l a h k a sh ou rc yo r co th rea tes y, wit ou our ook b nac bru t? If y f you exe eep ple wi ls to c if it inu ealth k l t o If y dence ply ‘s nise y t m o a t o ’ h h t r e t h e m g n r v s u i fi o u i m w a o i a r le o , fo im l it con hen si volut you w t… ll p e ex ergy py d t But ust t vita set th re , fin d nigh e sma e for j ill kee en w l m e l o list, t will o o s g n a t h a ci an er o tw d i ssro We xer and u nee y man ng y? I ft it is ur cla rni erst l o k a k on e e bod e o d y o o v n y o i . o r m l c u ti in o s effect ment to sna ur en ife. ady od just ould rl alre ged. T e and nviron yo o c r f u e Yo enga nc ge you ok aft trong e s n i e r s n o and ical p ear to l y and s ml p p a phy ptimu h o an

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Teachers Matter

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PHOTO: PRESSMASTER

LAUREN PARSONS

LAUREN PARSONS Busy as you are, you wouldn’t go for days or weeks without brushing your teeth?

Don’t let the time barrier stop you any longer.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to slog it out for hours a week. By simply fitting short sharp bursts of movement into your daily life that lift your heart rate and strengthen your muscles you will boost your metabolism, increase your fitness and significantly improve your health.

Why try it? #1 – It works Research shows that shorter higher intensity exercise is much more effective at increasing fitness, promoting fat loss and preventing diabetes and heart disease than longer steady exercise. Studies by the University of Birmingham’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences showed that three minutes of intense exercise, three times a week, can be the equivalent of five one-hour sessions at a lower steady pace.

It only takes seconds to get your heart rate up, especially when you are just starting out, and as you get fitter you can progress your ‘snacks’ to keep seeing results! #2 – It is doable When you think of traditional exercise with its travel time, getting changed, exercising, showering and changing afterwards, plus more travel time, it just gets too hard right?

(Not to mention childcare hassles, worry about what to wear etc.)

• Do press ups on the edge of the kitchen bench while the jug boils • Jog on the spot or do step ups, when you’re on hold or listening to voicemail • Do squats and lunges while checking emails or social media • Try out my two minute ‘ten out of ten’ workout, repeating 10 simple movements 10 times each. It will leave you feeling ten out of ten!

• Briskly take every flight of stairs you see By role modelling an active attitude, not only do you benefit personally, you also create a positive learning environment and teach your students skills that will lead to life-long success.

Physiologically, we know that the human brain cannot focus sitting still for more than 20 minutes. We can’t fight nature, but we can work with it. By regularly adding in movement breaks or ensuring a change of state (sitting to standing, listening to talking) you can keep your students engaged and able to receive new information.

To instantly boost energy get your students to: Play active games, such as • Active High Fives. In pairs, facing each other, one person leads by reaching their open palms to either side, the other high fives them one hand at a time continuously.

Encourage the leader to stretch high, low and out wide in all directions to get the whole body moving.

Let’s overcome those barriers.

• Full Body ‘Paper, Scissors, Rock.’ Stand facing one another, jump three times then show your option; tall thin paper with arms above your head, scissors with hands on your waist, legs wide apart, and rock crouched forward with fists tucked into your chest.

Rather than see exercise as an insurmountable task, adopt an active attitude and discover fun ways to snack on exercise anywhere, anytime.

• Have races to do 20 star jumps, squat reaches or triceps dips on the edge of their chairs.

You don’t need any equipment and you don’t even have to do four consecutive minutes.

Picture yourself fitting in four or more one minute ‘exercise snacks’, each leaving you feeling energised and upbeat. This way you can easily keep it up for the rest of your life.

No excuses, stress or guilt, just an active healthy body and all of the benefits that go with that!

• Nominate four locations around the school grounds and get everyone to walk to each one in any order then back to the class as fast as possible.

Get started with these ideas:

• Balance on one foot, extending both arms above their head or tilting their body

• Put on some upbeat music and start a 30 second dance party or a game of freeze dance (seriously good fun at any age!)

For a centred, calm focus get your students to:

forward into a superman position.

Hold a downward dog position which provides great blood flow to the brain.

• Stand on one leg wrapping the other leg around your calf, at the same time cross your forearms and link your hands in front of your chin. Alternate sides slowly as a great left-right brain exercise.

You might worry that you will lose precious time by adding the movement break in, but in fact the opposite is true. When you initiate a break (for example just after a key point, or prior to engaging in the activity you have just explained), your students will be able to focus in on their task much more quickly and effectively, saving time overall.

Happy brains are learning brains. By encouraging movement, laughter and positive connection at appropriate times you ensure your students are in a happy place from which they can truly learn.

Try it out!

Snack on exercise at home this week and see how different it makes you feel. Head to www. snackonexercise.com for tips on ways to adopt the snack on exercise philosophy.

In your classroom, demonstrate an active attitude and create an optimal learning environment where your students can thrive.

They will benefit daily while they are with you but more importantly, you will set them up for greater success, health and happiness throughout their lives!

What could be more satisfying than that?

Lauren is an award winning Wellbeing Specialist, Writer and Speaker who helps businesses enhance their staff’s health and wellbeing; creating vibrant, energised, high performing teams.

Based in Wellington, Lauren is the founder of Get Fit Feel Fabulous and the Snack on Exercise movement, and travels regularly to speak at conferences on how to boost performance, happiness and success.

You can get a free copy of Lauren’s eBook on Health and Fitness Myths at www.LaurenParsons.co.nz

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CHERYL ELSEY

T

hese delicious salads are designed to stay fresh for days – ideal

for school lunches or meals on the run. A nutritious balance of goodness to get you through the day...all you will need is a couple of jars (approx 500 ml) to get started.

Mason jar salads Roasted Vege Salad with Haloumi and oven dried tomato Roast a selection of vegetables in oven – here is what we would suggest: A wedge of pumpkin, diced and sprinkled with chilli flakes and olive oil 1 large kumara, diced and drizzled with honey 1 medium beetroot, diced and cooked with a diced clove of garlic ¼ packet of Haloumi, diced and pan fried til brown Cut cherry tomatoes in half and oven dry with a little olive oil, pepper and salt ¼ cup raw bean and lentil mix 6-8 leaves of lettuce

Teachers Matter

Sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds

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To build this salad, place about 1/3 cup of the Goodness Dressing in the bottom of the jar, then place the raw sprouts and lentil mix, next, the roasted veges with the tomato between the roasted vege and the haloumi. Layer these in their colours so they look amazing. Finally, add the haloumi cheese, lettuce, and top with sesame seeds.

When it comes time to eat, simply open the jar and put the nuts or seeds in the lid, take out the lettuce and place in a bowl,

then gently shake the contents of the jar on top of the lettuce and finally place the nuts or seeds on top.

Goodness Dressing

Wallah – you have a delicious salad that stays crisp and fresh.

1 medium avocado

Chicken, Quinoa, Feta and Walnut Salad 6 cherry tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic 2 leaves of spinach Bunch of fresh herbs – basil, parsley, or coriander 200 ml olive oil 50ml white wine vinegar 100 ml water

¼ red pepper

1 chilli or ½ teaspoon of dried chilli flakes

¼ red onion

1 lemon (juice)

80 g chicken 25 g crumbled feta ½ cup cooked quinoa ¼ cup walnuts

Place all ingredients in a bullet, infusion mixer or blender (if using a blender, finely dice the garlic, spinach and chilli first). Blitz until bright green and smooth.

6-8 leaves of lettuce Build the salad in the jar in the following order 1/3 cup of Goodness Dressing in the bottom of the jar, place the cherry tomatoes in next, then the diced pepper and onion. Place the sliced chicken next and the feta on top of that. Place the cooled quinoa next, then tear the lettuce leaves into 6 pieces and stuff them in the jar. Finally, top with walnuts.

Cheryl is the owner of Goodness 2 Go and is a passionate chef who loves to create healthy options. Focusing on salads, Cheryl looked for a way to create salads that look amazing, would stay fresh and can be easy to make in advance - the mason jar salad was discovered. www.goodness2go.co.nz

Advert o rial

Eeny Meeny

Show-me

IMPROVE INTERACTION, INCREASE ENGAGEMENT, BUILD CONFIDENCE, STIMULATE CREATIVITY AND HAVE FUN!

You can’t replace these with technology. It’s just not the same.

Many teachers use both but admit there’s so much more engagement and it’s so much more tactile with Show-me boards.

A child’s confidence is key to their ability to learn. Confidence is hugely increased when using Show-me boards by the simple fact that children can instantly correct their work.

Teachers report that pupils will move out of their comfort zone, and even ‘stuck’ children, who struggle to put pen to paper, will have a go when using Show-me boards. They write an answer on their Show-me board and briefly hold it up to the teacher. With a nod or a shake of the teachers head, they know if it is right or wrong without drawing too much attention to the rest of the class. Teachers report that the simple fact that they are so correctable – they have the eraser right next to them – gives them confidence; they’ll try all sorts of things that they wouldn’t try on paper!

The Show-me concept is based around increasing the pupil/teacher interaction by getting children more involved and encouraging then to have fun while maximising their learning potential. By using Show-me boards, the teacher is immediately able to identify slow responses and can monitor each pupils progress. Gone are the days when the teacher only received a limited number of answers! What’s more, many children who are shy to speak out will happily interact with their Show-mw boards. They have been shown to greatly build children’s confidence.

Another languages teacher commented she had the students draw each item on their whiteboards while she dictated recently learned clothing vocabulary. The shared experience was wonderful with lots of laughs.

Because of their write-on, wipe-off surface they are incredibly versatile and are one of the most cost-effective teaching aids available. They are a great mind mapping tool for getting ideas down before story-writing or any creative thinking activity.

With the instant erasability comes more freedom to map all ideas and to save on copious quantities of paper! One teacher comments, “We’ve got a major eco drive at our school and Show-me boards are just a brilliant paper-saver. When we do need to save work we just photocopy the board.

Show-me boards can be used across all curriculum subjects, and all age ranges and in all situations, including on the carpet, outside, and on field trips.

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IRMA COOKE

Learning modules at Rototuna Junior High School Literacy and technological literacy meet

R

ototuna Junior High School opened this term with 634 foundation students. RJHS is a Year 7-10 school situated in the rapidly growing North East of Hamilton. Learning module units are co-constructed, taught and assessed collaboratively by teachers from several curriculum lear ning areas in response to student needs and interests.

These modules foster deep learning and student engagement, with meaningful connections across learning areas.

Emma Galloway and I worked together 15 years ago in a quaint suburban café in Hamilton. I felt lucky to have worked with her as she does a wonderful job of weaving natural, real foods into a collection of vibrant, flavourful and approachable recipes. When I think of our time working in the kitchen, I remember how well we complimented one another’s knowledge and skills. We sparked new ideas by researching new food trends, and we were inspired to change up our menu depending on our customer’s needs and wants.

Not only has Emma and her family just arrived back to re-settle in Raglan, she was too happy to come and share with 80 of our learners her relationship with food, how her family gave her inspiration for her books, and to guide us through her blog – she is the winner of Saveur’s best food blogs 2014. She also gave us a sneak peak of her upcoming new book A Year in my Real Food Kitchen about to hit our shelves.

As Emma was preparing her date and chocolate bliss balls, she shared her philosophy that natural, whole food should be flavoursome, fun and easy to prepare. It i s f o o d a s i t ’s supposed to be; eaten fresh from the earth to the kitchen, s e a s o n a l , nourishing and t a s t y. E m m a

Dale Gilmour (whom I co-teach the module ‘Food Stories’ with) have found commonalities in two different learning a r e a s a n d f o u n d t h a t l i k e l i t e r a c y, technological literacy allows learners to be exposed to a wide range of relevant experiences over time.

The integration of two learning areas, Te c h n o l o g y a n d E n g l i s h i s s u c h a n awesome way to co-teach. Suzette discusses with the class that so many cook books are more stories rather than directives. We are finding the recipe for co teaching, just like our students are finding a way to connect with people over food, to tell stories, to develop strong relationships, and perhaps leave a legacy. We have had one semester together and currently learners have critically evaluated technological developments and trends. Emma’s book and visit opened up some ideas for our learners in terms of healthy options, dietar y requirements and the choices we make in food. We’ve also developed some knowledge and skills around critiquing today’s and past recipes, such as bliss balls and the Anzac biscuit. We want to encourage deep thinking, to have a broad understanding of how and why things work.

Teachers Matter

Later on in the term our learners will follow our school’s learning process and will design and evaluate their own solutions

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What an absolute privilege it was to have Emma visit our learning module here at Rototuna Junior High School. She wowed us with her stories as she prepared one of her recipes from her book My Darling Lemon Thyme ‘Recipes from my real food kitchen’.

lit up the room and she had all learners hooked and listening attentively as she explained that it’s more than just recipes, it’s about life and stories too.

She writes that her heart and soul lives between the pages. Suzette Ispen and

in response to needs and opportunities.

A student might develop a weekly food bag for a stakeholder who is a fussy eater or is gluten or lactose intolerant. Strong communication skills can fall out of this project as students will interview, seek

IRMA COOKE

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA PRATT, (LEARNING LEADER RJHS)

feedback and learn that research will inform their product development.

rhubarb, honey and chia muffins

Because we know that relationships are key, we have put a lot of energy and thinking into what really matters. Connecting with our learners and creating inspiring learning opportunities such as inviting guest speakers and making use of our school’s community links has really engaged our students.

With our differing areas of expertise, we as a team are better able to collaborate with our students to thoughtfully live with, critique, and contribute to the technological developments that shape our lives.

Irma, a former Chef who now puts to good use her skills and passion for food as a Specialist Food Technology leader.

When she isn’t judging Waikato’s restaurants or working with student teachers for Waikato University, she is busy collaborating with the team of teachers at Hamilton’s newest school, Rototuna Junior High School.

Chocolate Date Bliss Balls

(Makes 14-16)

I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t a batch of these in the fridge. They kept me sane in the early days when we changed our diets and it all seemed too hard. If you live in a place where beautiful, plump medjool dates are not priced like gold, use them in place of the dried. Also keep your eyes open for natural raisins or sultanas at your local healthy food store – many others are coated in glycerol and hydrogenated oils to keep them from sticking during processing. Hazelnuts make a nice change to the almonds in this recipe and I also make a version using sunflower seeds in place of the nuts if the kids want to take them to school.

Ingredients 1 cup (160g) pitted dried dates 1 cup (200g) natural raisins or sultanas ½ cup (75g) whole raw almonds or sunflower seeds 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil 1 tablespoon vanilla extract ¼ cup (25g) of cocoa powder ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt Shredded coconut to sprinkle Method Place all ingredients except shredded coconut in a food processor and blend on high for 2-3 minutes until finely ground and starting to clump together in a firm paste. You may need to stop the machine a few times and scrape down the side of the bowl or move things around to assist with blending. Take tablespoons of mixture and roll into balls, roll in shredded coconut and chill in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours. Will keep in an air tight container for well over a week.

Recipe reprinted with permission from My Darling Lemon Thyme, by Emma Galloway.

(Harper Collins, 2014).

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JOHN SHACKLETON

Are your fears holding you back?

What will you regret?

D

id you know the average life span of a New Zealander is 80 years 73 days? In that time your heart will beat 3,000,000,000 times! I don’t wish to be morbid but when you are lying on your deathbed and your heart is beating its 3 billionth beat, what questions will you be asking yourself?

I expect I’ll be asking: Did I have fun; did I do everything on my bucket list? Did I achieve all I wanted to achieve? I don’t think I’ll regret all the stupid things that I did that I shouldn’t have done. You know that drunken episode, that bad relationship, that stupid career move. Mistakes are all part of life’s rich tapestry.

However I do think I’ll regret the times when I didn’t make the most of my opportunities: When I lost courage and failed to ask that girl out on a date. When I declined to make that speech because I was scared of public speaking. When I could have made that phone call, but I chickened out because of my fear of rejection.

It’s our fears that hold us back and stop us doing the things we know we should do. It’s our fears that restrict and limit us. FEAR is the thing that is standing between us and our goal and on our deathbed we will regret the times when we gave into those fears.

Teachers Matter

Some people try and tell me that they don’t have fear. There is only one type of human being who has no fear - psychopaths! All the rest of us are scared of something spiders, sharks, dentists, public speaking.

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Even the most experienced and successful people amongst us have fear in their lives.

As we grow our fears don’t disappear they just change; we become scared of different things.

Nelson Mandela said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” I believe that that is what life is about, conquering our fears. Being brave and doing the stuff we are scared of. The question is where do our fears come from?

We aren’t born with too many fears, we learn most of them. Until recently I had a fear of sharks. Where did I learn that fear from? From the film Jaws! I learnt my fear after watching a plastic shark at the cinema!

In truth it’s not the plastic shark that I was scared of, it’s the ideas that my mind created after it watched the film. It created scenarios of me being attacked by sharks and placed the scenarios in front of me! All our fears are mind created. The ME that’s inside knows that a shark has much more to be scared of than I do. People have killed infinitely more sharks than sharks have killed people and the ME inside knows that. Unfortunately I don’t take much notice of the ME inside and I listen to my mind instead.

Does your mind play tricks on you too? Do you have a little voice in your head that tells you what to be scared of? Some of you have just said to yourself: What little voice? - YES THAT’S THE ONE!

That little voice isn’t you. It’s your mind!

Unfortunately most people think it’s them and so they pay a lot of attention to it, they believe what it says and they do what it tells them to do. Try looking at things a different way: Inside you have the thinker and the knower.

We THINK the shark is dangerous but deep inside we KNOW it’s not. The thinker is your MIND and the knower is YOU. You are not your mind. You HAVE a mind, a tool that you can use to help you. Unfortunately for most people their mind has taken them over and is using them. Your mind is putting information in front of you in order to help or protect you but it invents much of this information! Most of us identify with our mind, we think it’s US and we believe what it tells us.

So what would happen if you could stop believing what your mind told you? That’s a bit difficult for those

JOHN SHACKLETON

your actions, which in turn, will improve your results. To a certain extent this is true but for me there was always a missing part to the equation. I found that I wasn’t always able to control my thinking; sometimes my mind would play tricks on me and lead me in the wrong direction. Usually I would interpret that as a weakness in myself and would strive to be even more controlling of my thoughts next time.

Sports psychology taught me that if you improve your thoughts, you will improve

Now after looking at things from this new perspective I can see that I don’t have a weakness, my mind does! All I need to do is observe and watch my mind and stop trying to control it. If I see my mind as a tool that I can use, then I don’t need to react to it. I can observe the thoughts, not judge, criticise, accept, agree or disagree with them, just observe. If I understand that ‘I am not my mind’, I can choose a course of action without assuming that the information my mind is giving me is ‘the truth’.

ILLUSTRATION: RUDALL30

that totally identify with their mind. If you think your mind is YOU then of course you’ll believe everything it tells you but once you realise and accept that your mind isn’t you, it’s easy to stop believing everything it says.

So the first step is to dis-identify with our mind is to realise that it is just a tool - very powerful and sophisticated but just a tool.

It’s not necessarily ‘right’ or ‘constructive’ and most importantly it’s not us.

When faced with the thing we fear: failure, rejection etc. our mind will create negative thoughts and usually, we’ll identify with those thoughts, believing them to be true.

This causes most of us to run away from the activity. By observing those thoughts and staying detached from them it becomes easier to do the thing we are scared of.

So for the next few days try this exercise: Observe your thoughts, listen to that voice in your head. Don’t judge, criticise, accept, agree or disagree, just listen and observe.

Realise that the voice or the thoughts aren’t you; they’re coming from your mind. When you observe the thoughts without judgment, any fear you may be feeling just melts away.

Once the fear has gone away you can get on with the actions you need to take and make the most of your 3 billion heartbeats!

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

53

BARBARA GRIFFITH & TRICIA KENYON

Promoting picture books

Auntie Ellie's Beach House Author Illustrator Publisher ISBN

‘Auntie Ellie’s Beach House’ is a story about people, place and belonging.

The setting is a somewhat typical New Zealand holiday home at the beach, and Layla has always spent her summer holidays at the beach house. When she hears that Auntie Ellie is selling the house because the city is moving too close, she is devastated. She struggles to cope with the impending loss of her favourite holiday place, but her Mum suggests she make sure that her final memories are happy ones. The moon draws Auntie and Layla to the beach; to share and enjoy the magic of their final memories of the bach and its surroundings and helps to provide a link to future holidays.

Raewyn Caisley Lisa Allen Duck Creek Press 978-1-87737-896-6

1 Bird’s eye view map Using information from both text and illustrations, create a bird’s eye view of the bach and surrounding area.

2 Illustrations The use of pencil and water colours has created a soft, gentle, dreamy tone to the book.

What would be the impact on the storyline if more definite and brighter colours had been used?

Why did the illustrator use shades of blue, green and purple for the night scene?

How has the illustrator shown age and decay on the water tank and long drop?

3 Wonderful words Find examples of: Simile

Onomatopoeia

Alliteration

…as heavy as wet sand.

hiss,

sucking sands

..felt as light and bubbly as foam.

crash,

skinny, snappy bits

..spun like ballet stars in cold-sand toes.

scrunchy, crunchy

mysterious and musty

hat do you think these phrases mean?

W The text says.

Teachers Matter

..like wild things

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….moon decided to show them the way ..moon helps them to find their way to sleep ..moon kept watch ..a liquid ribbon on the sea ..warm toes go cold.

I think this means…

BARBARA GRIFFITH & TRICIA KENYON

4 Digging for pipi Research, if necessary, discuss and draw a picture that shows the following information.

Who might collect pipi?

Where do you find pipi?

How do you get the pipi?

What do you do with the pipi?

5 The Long Drop Investigate the use of ‘long drops’.

What are they?

Where are they used?

Why are they used?

Who uses them?

How do you keep them sanitary?

6 Features in the text The text in this book is unusual in terms of font size and indentation.

Do you have any ideas or suggestions as to why: • the font size changes • the text is centred

7 Moon symbolism Why has the author used the moon throughout the story?

Consider this in relation to the making and keeping of memories and accepting change.

8 Memories Share your memories of your favourite holiday using pictures and/or a few words.

Travel (How did I get there?)

When

My favourite holiday

Where

Why

Who

Feelings

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 a position as a Resource Teacher: Literacy, which she held for the last 16 years.

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.

55

THERESE HOYLE

Circle time solutions for positive playtimes Give your students a voice about their playtimes

The Circle Time Programme provides for the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of students by developing a caring ethos, encouraging democratic values, positive relationships and behaviour, self-discipline, self-esteem and motivation.

Teachers Matter

In many schools Circle Time is used as an ongoing programme for building social skills where children can problem solve and support one another. It’s a time where they also play games and have fun as well as discuss more challenging issues.

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I am a huge advocate of Circle Time after having a very challenging situation early in my teaching career – it was the one system that really made the difference, it gave my children a voice, helped them to problem solve and develop empathy; it also reminded me why I went into teaching.

a voice about playtimes. I want them to know that we care, and will listen to their ideas and support them with any of their playtime problems.

B e c a u s e o f t h e m a n y b e n e f i t s I s a w, I trained with many Circle Time and behaviour management experts all over the world and have for the last 20 years been training others.

I have just spent much of last term in schools all over the countr y running Positive Playtime and Flourishing Schools Programmes. I have talked with over 1000 children in Circle Time about what’s going well with playtimes as well as their worries and concerns.

My Powerfully Positive Playtime Master class includes Circle Time training because I believe it is important that children have

Playtime Problems

PHOTO: SERGEY NOVIKOV

What is Circle Time?

THERESE HOYLE

Their worries fall into the following categories: Friendship – lack of friends, being left out of games, asking to play a game and being told ‘no’ they can’t join in, friends being unkind and arguing.

Lack of things to do – boredom stemming from not enough equipment or things to do in the playground.

Feeling unsafe - physical and verbal aggression With Ofsted requirements around safeguarding, pupil behaviour, discipline, child welfare, quality teaching and learning, creating a safe, nurturing and harmonious school is vital to our children achieving their potential.

As educators we all want our children to be safe and to learn and we aren’t always aware of the emotional barriers to learning.

Ground Rules with the children such as they cannot name anyone in a negative way, they are respectful of each other’s ideas, listen and don’t interrupt.

Do you suffer from a stream of children coming to you with playtime problems after lunch or playtime? If so you need to try the ‘Good News Game’.

Step 2. Introduce activities and teach children new games that can be played in the playground as well as at wet playtimes.

Tell children before they go out to play that you want to hear all their good news when they come back in. For example who played with them, who they invited to play their games and who was kind or helpful.

Their focus will then be on thinking about all the good news they can share with you after play!

Step 3. Round – a ‘speaking object’ is used such as a teddy or wooden egg. This is a symbol of speaking and listening, with each person having the opportunity to talk when they are holding the ‘speaking object’.

Children can say pass.

During the round you have a good opportunity to find out the children’s worries and concerns and the things that are going well at playtime.

Good sentence stems for Rounds are: I don’t like it at playtime when…

I was kind at playtime when…

So how can we support our children with their playtime problems?

I was happy at playtime because…

I use a Circle Time structure which creates safety and continuity and gives a planning format for teachers. Below is the Thérèse Hoyle C.I.R.C.L.E™ structure.

When my friend is sad/happy at playtime I would…

C. Circle Time Ground Rules and Skills I. Introductory Activity R. Round – Time to Talk C. Conference for Communication and Problem Solving L. Let’s Endorse to Energise E. Ending Activity Step 1. Timetable a C.I.R.C.L.E™ meeting once a week at a fixed time so that children feel safe and secure in the knowledge that as a class, their voices will be heard and problems solved weekly. This will typically last between 20 and 45 minutes. Create

When they come back into the classroom, sit them in a circle on the carpet and ask who would like to start the ‘good news’ round.

That person is then given the ‘speaking object’ and tells the class their good playtime news. This is an uplifting exercise and the reverse psychology works a treat!

I have touched briefly on the use of Circle Time in this article and would be happy to talk to you further if you are interested in developing this work.

My best playtimes are when…

When I am playing a game and win/loose I feel…

A good friend is someone who…

Step 4. Conference for Communication and Problem Solving – this is a great time to sort out playtime conflicts and problems and for children to develop conflict resolution skills.

Step 5. Let’s Endorse to Energise – is a way of finishing your meeting in a positive way. The teacher asks if there is anyone they are pleased with because they have been kind/thoughtful/played well with others or have let others join in their games for example? The children then cross the circle and thank the chosen person.

Thérèse is the bestselling author of 101 Playground Games and 101 Wet Playtime Games and Activities. She runs Positive Playtime, Circle Time and the Flourishing Schools Programmes nationally and internationally. If you wish to develop her ideas further please read her books, available from Edventure, or contact her direct for in-depth advice on designing and developing your playground.

Tel: 0044 121 369 1998 Email: info@theresehoyle.com www.theresehoyle.com

57 57

ROBYN PEARCE

Why is our pace of life so hectic?

Re-discovering the best of ‘old ways’

W

e seem to be living in a whole new world. People are learning to act and react in different ways, there are new ways of doing business and constantly we hear of new approaches to old problems, including the way we use our lives and our time.

Teachers Matter

But I believe that we’re just re-discovering the best of the old ways - the people-based, principle-based behaviours that have always been the cornerstone of effective societies.

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Today’s top speakers, motivators and educators in business management, for example, talk about the principle of going the extra mile, of caring about the people you deal with, of doing more than expected, of surprising with dazzlingly superb service, of selling based on trust instead of artificial and manipulative closing techniques.

The emphasis today is on developing high-per for ming teams, encouraging participative management, listening to people, improving communication, flexible work practices and better work/life balance.

And yet many people, through the centuries, have lived their lives by these basic philosophies. None of it is new nor is it rocket-science - but there is always a first time for each of us to learn these old precepts, polish our skills and to cast aside any wrong thinking that might have crept in.

Let’s look at the time-related old/new topics.

• It is now recognised that we take more pride in our work and work better if we can complete tasks. Isn’t that’s what our forebears in pre-industrial times used to do?

"The paradox is that the technologies that enable us to have this increased flexibility are also a major contributor to the extra pressure."

ROBYN PEARCE

• It’s becoming accepted that open plan work layouts, whilst saving floor space and real estate costs and of value when teams need to work together on projects, are for many people not the most efficient or effective configurations. We know about the consequences of hens cooped up in crowded conditions, don’t we? Well, many workers prefer to be free-range too! They’re happy to come together sometimes but don’t want to sit all day surrounded by a flock of noisy others, unable to concentrate on laying their own eggs (oh sorry, I meant doing their own work!)

• In pre-industrial times most people worked from their homes and in their communities. Then for the longest time those who worked at or from home were regarded as not having ‘real’ jobs. Today the number of home-based workers or tele-commuters is on the rise - aided by our wonderful modern technology and an increasing intolerance, especially in large cities, of wasting hours per day sitting in semi-stationary parking lots (alias jammed motorways).

• Punching time clocks, working as the union dictates, and giving unquestioning obedience to the company line are workplace practices that have come under severe scrutiny in the last few years. And those Gen Y, X and E v e r y t h i n g e l s e ’s a r e p u s h i n g t h a t scrutiny even more! Thank goodness!

Yet, despite these and many other positive changes, people often ask me, ‘Why has the pace of life got so hectic?’ And now that the internet and increasingly powerful digital devices are such an integral element of our lives, that question has escalated to a shout of anguish.

Most of us, most of the time, have no desire to go back to the old pre-digital days. We love the speed with which information and news can be sent to the furthest corner of the world in a nano-second; we love the ability to tap into the enormously powerful database in our pocket for anything from the nearest restaurant to the most obscure arcane information; we love the comfort of being able to communicate anywhere anytime with our loved ones.

But - the paradox is that the technologies that enable us to have this increased flexibility are also a major contributor to the extra pressure. In today’s world many feel as though they’re drowning in a tsunami of information, options and multitudinous communication devices screaming at us.

People pine for a simpler life, for better ways of doing things, for a sense of balance and har mony in their lives.

There is an increasing hunger for quality personal time, for spiritual truth instead of institutionalised dogma, for good health and for a balanced lifestyle. We don’t have to spend our lives plugged in to our work, no matter how much we love it. We don’t have to go home day after day feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. We don’t have to collapse sick and exhausted every time we take a long holiday. There are answers, and I’m on a mission to find and share them.

What a gift my own previously poor time skills have turned out to be.

Thank you, dear readers, for being part of my ever-expanding journey of learning and discover y, of constantly seeking for commonsense practical answers. Your contributions are always welcome - I learn something from ever y group I work with or write for.

[Excerpted and adapted from the imminent 2nd edition of my first book, best-seller ‘ Getting A Grip On Time’ . For more on that, check out www.gettingagrip.com/ ]

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. www.gettingagrip.com PHOTO: FYLE

•There’s a far greater emphasis on work/life balance - but didn’t we have plenty of family and social time in earlier decades?

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DR LAURA MARKHAM

Use Crisis to Connect More Deeply with Your Child

Teachers Matter

Have the tough conversations

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“The key to communication is not what we say, but rather the attitude that lies behind what we say... all of us are telepathically communicating all the time. Every moment, we are choosing to join or to separate, and the person to whom we’re speaking feels what we have chosen regardless of our words.”

-Marianne Williamson Life is full of tough conversations with our kids, whether that’s explaining to your four year old why Grandma died, hearing from your eight year old that he was bullied on the playground, or having your twelve year old fall apart the night before his big speech.

Yo u m a y k n o w t h a t t h e C h i n e s e character for the word crisis is actually a

combination of two characters: one means “danger;” the other means “opportunity.”

Our goal, of course, is to have open lines of communication, which is what keeps crises from developing. But into every home a crisis or two must fall, and every crisis with your child is also an opportunity.

You get a chance to connect more deeply with your child, to teach him how to problem-solve with really big problems, and to show him how to manage upsetting feelings.

How can you help your child in tough conversations?

Listen. Don’t say much, but really pay attention.

E m p a t h i s e . F e e l f r o m y o u r c h i l d ’s perspective. Let her get those feelings out, no matter how upset she is.

Hold your own awareness that it isn’t the end of the world, even if it feels like it to your child, but don’t try to talk your child out of her upset.

Once your child is less emotional, help her to problem-solve.

But don’t wait for crises to have the tough conversations you need to have. Think of it as home-schooling and you’re the teacher.

Or therapy and you’re the therapist. All parents feel uncomfortable talking with kids about some issues. The best parents do it anyway. You owe it to your child to

DR LAURA MARKHAM

"The key to communication is not what we say, but rather the attitude that lies behind what we say..."

Marianne Williamson

Why is it so important to teach your kids how to have tough conversations?

Because close relationships depend on the ability to meet the needs of both people in the relationship, and to negotiate the inevitable bumps when those needs conflict. Successfully navigating challenging discussions will bring your family closer, minimise the bumps in your family life, and teach your child a critical life skill – one that’s considerably more important than doing his own laundry.

Your child’s success throughout life will depend on his ability to navigate difficult interpersonal situations – on his block, at work, in intimate relationships. Kids learn how to work things out with other people by doing it. If he learns from you that difficult discussions are to be avoided, he’s more likely to get divorced some day, or fired. If, on the other hand, he learns from you that people who love each other can disagree but work things out so that both people win, he’s likely to put that skill to use with his peers, in his intimate relationships, and in the rest of his life.

Laura is the founder of www.AhaParenting.com and author of Peaceful parent, happy Kids: How to stop yelling and start connecting.

Laura trained as a psychologist, but she’s also a Mum, so she translates proven science into practical solutions.

PHOTO: BLUE SKY IMAGES

summon up your courage and have those hard talks. And doing so may avoid some of the crises.

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DR JOHN BOEREBOOM

League tables and value added assessment Which is the best way to measure school performance?

S

Teachers Matter

tudents entering New Zealand secondary schools in Year 9 come from a variety of socioeconomic, cultural and ability backgrounds. They have been taught in different schools, by teachers of varying effectiveness, in different classrooms using different programmes, and progressed at different rates. This is reflected in the results of school entrance testing which shows the wide diversity of each school’s intake in terms of National Standards and curriculum level achievement.

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Despite this diversity at the start of secondary schooling, our education system measures the achievement of students in Years 1113 using NCEA as a common yardstick.

The annual league tables published by the media, rank schools on the basis of their students’ performance in NCEA. Parents and the public often make judgements about school effectiveness based on the ranking of the school.

At the grassroots level, Principals and teachers of schools that rank poorly in the league tables often comment that their students have made tremendous progress during their time at school. Students in such schools may achieve below average NCEA results but they may have progressed more since entering secondary school than the students to whom they are compared.

Which is the best way to measure school performance, the percentage of students getting A, M or E grades in NCEA or the growth and improvement shown by the students during their time at the school?

Should a school’s effectiveness be judged on the basis of how much the students learned from the time they entered the school to the time they left rather than simply relying on a traditional “snapshot” measure in the NCEA exams?

DR JOHN BOEREBOOM

The differences between NCEA results and value added assessment are: NCEA Achievement • Measures a student’s achievement at a single point in time • Highly correlated with a student’s demographics and school decile rating • Compares student performance to a standard • Used for certification and entry to further study Growth • Measures a student’s progress across years • Compares student performance to his/ her own prior performance • Critical to ensuring a student’s future academic success These questions highlight that student performance on assessments can be measured in two ver y different ways.

Achievement describes the summative attainment of students in tests and Achievement Standards. Value added assessment, in contrast, describes the progress made by students over the school year. In the past, students and schools have traditionally been ranked according to achievement.

ILLUSTRATION: MAXMITZU

Va l u e - a d d e d a s s e s s m e n t i s a w a y o f analysing test data and measuring growth and progress. Starting with a baseline assessment in Year 9, we can statistically predict the progress students are likely to make by the time they sit the NCEA exams in Year 11. The value added score measures whether the NCEA performance of a student, subject or school kept pace, lagged behind or was better than expected when compared with students with similar scores in the baseline test nationally. This lens of measuring student learning provides schools with valuable information to ensure they are meeting the academic needs of groups of students, as well as individual students.

The Centre for Evaluation and monitoring at the University of Canterbury provides value added analysis of NCEA results for New Zealand schools using the MidYIS9 assessment as a baseline in Year 9.

The value added results and comprehensive online feedback show the relative value added by different subjects in the school and the effectiveness of instruction for different ethnic and ability groups. The results can be used to identify giftedness and special learning needs, highlight effective practice, guide professional development and judge the effectiveness of educational interventions and changes to the school curriculum.

Both types of assessment are necessary and serve a different purpose. The summative NCEA results provide a snapshot in time used for the certification of students. The value added results provide rich data and detailed diagnostic information which can be used by schools to inform teaching and learning. By measuring students’ academic achievement AND growth, schools have a more comprehensive picture of their own effectiveness in raising student achievement.

John is the Director of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring at the University of Canterbury. For more information about value added assessment, entrance assessments or attitude and engagement surveys see www.cem.canterbury.ac.nz or email john.boereboom@canterbury.ac.nz

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PHOTO: OLEKSIY MARK

KATE SOUTHCOMBE

Why we need to look at behaviour differently Depressing the happy button

Teachers Matter

W

64

ell the New Year is well underway and those New Year resolutions and targets may not seem so exciting or as achievable as we first thought!

Failure to reach goals has been identified as one reason people become depressed and it dawned on me that at various times in my life I may have been depressed following major disappointments or apparent failures. I contemplated how I came about a recovery; and to what degree I might have not recovered. What helped me rise above the feeling of being depressed; was it my environment, the people around me or was it something innate within me, a genetic predisposition to be happy?

We know that depression is hard to define behaviourally but despite issues defining it, depression is very real and very much a part

of some people’s daily lives. It may affect their interactions and daily functioning to the point that they are either drugged or institutionalised. In the popular press it is frequently linked with mentalisms such as anxiety and lack of confidence. As I have said before mentalisms fail to help us when we attempt to address problem behaviours because we may have different interpretations as to what anxiety is or what lack of confidence means. Here is a behavioural observation: when Jim is asked to perform a task he places both hands with palms together and interlocks his fingers, and he says either I can’t do this or I feel sick in a monotone that is barely audible.

Jim may avoid eye contact with the person making the request and may look towards the floor. Here is a mentalism: Jim becomes anxious when he is asked to do anything

and he sometimes ignores people. This may give you an idea how emotive and unproductive most of our conversations about behaviour really are! These mentalisms crop up in mainstream articles referring to the behaviour of animals, children and adults. We need to move away subjective language towards a rational, objective description if we are to plan for a solution. Several methods may be employed to treat depression such as counselling, and the use of various medications to alleviate symptoms. One area that is seldom acknowledged or understood by most of us is the behavioural model employed by behaviour analysts.

KATE SOUTHCOMBE

One could behaviourise ‘failure’ if an expected outcome was not forth coming; we didn’t get the pay rise or the promotion after all the hard work we did over the year. Our hard working behaviour was not reinforced, therefore it decreases and perhaps unwanted behaviours increase as they provide more immediate reinforcement.

Suddenly we become ‘depressed’ after any failure and our behaviour repertoire may expand. We may also avoid behaviours that might lead to further disappointments, such as talking with people (which might remind us of our disappointments!).

Depending on our previous learning history we may be predisposed to ‘depression’ and sleep more, eat more, stay at home, and think depressive thoughts. Think about times in your life when you felt down or disillusioned – try to identify the trigger or the series of consequences that may have reduced access to reinforcement. Simply put, a decrease in positive reinforcement may be due to either a reduction in access to previously reinforcing activities or fewer opportunities to receive reinforcement for certain behaviours that used to result in positive reinforcement.

Behavior analysts ask questions, observe behaviours, define them, measure them, and attempt to determine the function of the behaviour. These are important distinctions from other traditional counselling models. Problems arise if we attempt to ‘fix’ a behaviour without knowing what function it serves the individual in the first place. All behaviours serve a function and despite what teachers and parents often say, there is now such thing as ‘random behaviour’.

Behaviour is governed by rules that quite simply don’t allow for random acts of violence, or kindness for that matter!

There is always a function behind everything we do no matter how altruistic we think we are, or despite thinking we have free will and just decided to do something for no reason. Once we accept this fact, we can then look at how to increase reinforcement for a replacement or desired behaviour, while reducing reinforcement for unwanted behaviour.

I did a search for behavioural approaches to dealing with depression and was fascinated by a couple of research articles. Reisinger (1972) used two behaviour technologies - a token economy and response cost - to increase smiling and decrease crying in an institutionalised patient with anxiety/ d e p r e s s i o n . To k e n s w e r e g i v e n f o r appropriate behaviour of smiling and saved up for a special reinforcer, and tokens were removed for inappropriate behaviour or crying. Kanter et al (2006) used a behaviouranalytic treatment with two outpatients.

The treatment involved providing positive reinforcement for in-session improvements in clinically significant behaviours associated with depression. These in-session behaviours were supposedly functionally similar to behaviours outside of the sessions so generalisation should occur naturally. Kanter had limited success, noting the difficulties associated with measuring both treatment progress and outcome. However the interesting point is that both studies noted some success and yet despite this, behavioural research on depression is very limited itself. For many of us the behavioural model may seem a simplistic approach to ‘treating’ depression especially when we consider the vast array of preferred medications and therapies available. The true test of any behaviour programme is – does it last over time and allow the participant to function within their environment? Behavioural treatments put the locus of control with the individual and ultimately focus on generalisation of the treatment to the natural environment, without the need for drugs.

It really is that simple and once we start to look at behaviour as simply that – a single action or series of actions that occur based on previous history and experiences, we might at last start to resolve many of our complicated mental conditions that really may not be as complicated as we think. Of course there will always be exceptions, but maybe more of us have just learned inappropriate coping mechanisms and need help to train ourselves to learn new more effective ways to access reinforcement. Reinforcement history is an important part of tackling behaviour change – if a behaviour is reinforced under

certain conditions then it is more likely repeated under similar conditions. If this reinforcement is consistent over time, a strong reinforcement history is established under these conditions. This may explain the glass half full/empty analogy. Some people who have experienced failure but managed by whatever means to survive and rediscover their ability to succeed, are more likely to reflect on failure with a positive outlook than someone who ‘failed’ and sank into a fit of despair which further reinforced their fear and avoidance behaviours of ‘trying again’.

When you next feel depressed, challenge yourself to identify what is no longer pushing the happy button for you, change your behaviour and watch to see how that affects your thinking and your attitude (more mentalisms) and the way you interpret the world around you. Wishing you much happiness this year!

Kate is a freelance writer and has two online businesses EPR Training and New Way Coaching. EPR Training provides education to the equine industry on application of behavioural science to horse training; offering presentations and clinics as well as online material. Kate and two fellow ABA graduates saw a need for parents and teachers to have access to information on ABA and evidencebased practices and started New Way Coaching an online company. New Way Coaching will provide online material to parents and teachers in the form of blogs, forums and video material based on the principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis. kate@ eprtraining.co.nz

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MEGAN GALLAGHER

Conference Poems We arrived at the venue for this years’ conference

Simon moved us on to Genius Hour

Grand is one word- magic another

Through letting go of our power

We were to be educated, challenged, fed and inspired

Our kids and the planet can benefit too

And we would be privileged to learn beside each other Stuart led us through the day And kept us in the know Lights, camera, action we said

1

Inspiring us to do something new

Let go of certainties - allow the kids to fly Let them take the wheel with us joining them on the ride Make school memorable- a magical place of belief

It was time to go!

When given opportunity we can all meaningfully achieve.

Karen took us through the ages and history of learning

Kathryn took us through a brief tour of the brain

Discussing stuff like ubiquity and new ways we will be earning

Focusing on the brain stem that rules the train (of thought!)

So the role of teaching needs to change... our pedagogy must be in mind

She helped us to understand our two year old selves

Back to basics was her call and reminding us to be kind (to ourselves!)

Who were really stressed and just need some time out

Making mistakes and questioning are keys to help our kids too

As teachers we have tremendous power and scope

Who are your students becoming because of what you do…???

To support our children to better cope.

Kate from Australia got our lenses on

I talked for a while about resilience stuff And how pitfalls can be uncomfortable, nasty and tough But by building up strands of skills and strategies We all can continue to be the best us we can be.

Marion shared her own story And passion for kinesiology

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Stress and the impact on the body

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Plus a short session on physiology We got up and moving more than once… focus was the key The more we put in, the more we get back… through movement and flexibility.

And helped us see that different is not really wrong With entertaining anecdotes and examples to share Of catering for differing personality traits we are all now aware.

At the end of the day we heard from Adrian Rennie And met Gazza the thinking bear- a clever chappie We were inspired with many ideas that were generously shared But inspired much more by this teacher who cares For his kids and their learning, addressing their needs A great way to finish the day, I’m sure you’ll agree.

TEACHERS MATTER CONFERENCE

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6 1 KAREN BOYES CREATOR OF THE TEACHERS MATTER CONFERENCES 2 THE LADS! DENNY MACARTHUR AND ADRIAN RENNIE 3-7 THE AMAZING TEACHERS ATTENDING THE TM CONFERENCE

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67

TERRY SMALL

How our necks are effected by Texter’s Neck tex tin g

‘T

exter’s Neck’ is the position your neck is in when you are looking down at your phone. Flexing your head forward for long periods of time can cause cervical spinal degeneration which will affect your posture.

Remember, your posture doesn’t just affect your body. It affects your brain too.

“We all stand about like parboiled spaghetti.”

Emma Thompson

The way you sit, stand, and walk has big implications for your mood and happiness.

The latest studies show: • The way you move affects the way others see you.

If left untreated, permanent damage can happen including:

• When you sit up straight, you are more likely to think of positive things, or recall good memories. (San Francisco State)

• Flattening of the spinal curve

• A slow, slumped walk can drain your energy.

• Amy Cuddy says posture even affects your hormone levels. (TED)

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• Your posture can even affect your decision making. (Harvard)

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There are four billion mobile phones in the world. Texting has become a preferred form of communication. Think of all the time the average person spends hunched over a smart phone, or device. Day after day. Week after week. Year after year. Are you one of them? If so, you may have ‘Texter’s Neck’.

‘Texter’s Neck’ can cause neck strain, neck pain, and headaches. It can also cause arthritis. These can become chronic, and don’t usually get better on their own.

• Onset of early arthritis • Spinal degeneration • Spinal misalignment • Disc herniation • Disc compression • Muscle damage • Nerve damage • Loss of lung volume capacity • Gastrointestinal problems –(The Text Neck Institute) A study found 84% of 18-24 year olds said they had back pain in the last 10 months (Simplyhealth). The same study found that people of all ages spend the same amount of time interacting with devices each day as they spend sleeping.

Consider this quote from the Wall Street Journal: “If you do this day after day, .... the whole skeleton changes.” Dr. Golubic says. “... we do know that when you slouch, you project an attitude of depression and low motivation. When you sit up straight, psychologically, your attitude is better.”

And consider this: “In the upright posture, venous outflow is considerably less pulsatile (57%) and occurs predominantly through the vertebral plexus, while in the supine posture venous outflow occurs predominantly through the inter nal jugular veins. A slightly lower tCBF (12%), a considerably smaller CSF volume oscillating between the cranium and the spinal canal (48%), and a much larger ICC (2.8-fold) with a corresponding decrease in the MRI-derived ICP values were measured in the sitting position.” (Alperin et al) ......in other words, keep the blood flowing to your brain.

When you bend your neck and look down at your phone for a long time you are straining the muscles and joints in your neck. This is unnatural, and it can cause poor posture which can be permanent.

Emma Thompson once said, “We all stand about like parboiled spaghetti.” She might be right. Regardless, excellent posture is a valuable thing to portray to the world.

So: Try to cut back on the time you spend on your devices. And when you are using them, keep your head up. Your brain, and body, will thank you. Mindfulness is key.

Te r r y i s a m a s t e r t e a c h e r a n d learning skills specialist. He has presented on the brain for over 30 years and has a wealth of teaching experience and extensive involvement in applied neuroscience. www.terrysmall.com

PHOTO: IGOR MOJZES

TERRY SMALL

69

THE LAST WORD: KAREN BOYES

Making mistakes acceptable Does your child have strategies to cope with failure?

Do your students...?

R

ecently a parent asked for some reading material as his daughter had been cheating & lying and he was wanting to find out more to help work his way through this situation. I sent him some ideas and then started pondering my own indiscretions in this area.

Coming from a successful school background, with successful parents and being the first person in my entire extended family ever to go to University (a huge deal), my journey was not the plain sailing I imagined it would be.

I loved student life – the freedom, friendships, and the learning. I was living my childhood dream to become a teacher.

However half way through my first year, I suddenly faced a very unfamiliar situation – I had failed an Education 101 paper!

I felt alone, humiliated and shamed; I didn’t tell anyone from embarrassment and fear of what they might think of me.

Everyone around me seemed to have it easy – they were passing with far less effort than me. I didn’t know what to do. My major thought and concern was what if my parents find out? They would be so disappointed in me. Maybe they would love me less. I knew they had worked hard to ensure I could follow my dreams, and I had let them down.

What could I do? At this point some people turn to alcohol, drugs, fast cars, self harming, and sex - anything for some escapism. I choose a different route… cheating. The next assignment happened to be the same topic that had been set the previous year. I found a student a year ahead of me and asked to borrow her assignment to ‘check I was on the right track’. It happened she has received an ‘A’ for her work. Basically I copied this assignment word for word. I was duly given an ‘A’ which brought my total mark

70

for the year to a passing grade – and no-one knew, especially my parents.

I lived in fear that I would be ‘found out’ for weeks while it was being marked, months before I got the final grade for the year, and 3 years before I was given my degree. What if I was expelled from Teachers College and University? What if I was paraded in front of my peers as an example of ‘what not to do or be’? What if my parents found out? The truth is I have spoken about this, over the past 10 years, in many workshops, keynote speeches, webinars and seminars – and still my parents do not know.

The feeling of shame is linked with low self worth. What I lacked were strategies for dealing with failure. I had a mindset that thought I should be as good as everyone else, and believed failing was a bad thing. So what can you do as an educator and/or a parent to prepare your child for feeling like they are not enough and to increase their self worth?

Below is a quick list of ideas and, of course, there is an obvious overlap. I have written about some of these before, and they are still relevant.

Ideas for the classroom: • Teach students the brain can always keep learning and growing. Learning is a process. Making mistakes and failure is part of this process.

• Celebrate making mistakes as it means learning can now occur. My goal is to normalise mistakes.

• Value the process more than the finished result. Ask students to show their working and thinking in ALL subjects, not only Maths. For example, when writing an essay, story, history recount, have students put their draft into a word cloud programme such as ‘wordle’.

“ Show your vulnerability so your children know that you take risks, give new ideas a go and make mistakes in the process.”

KAREN BOYES

My first Wordle from my blog This will allow them to see which words they constantly use. Now ask them to replace these popular words using a thesaurus (I particularly like ‘visualthesaurus.com’).

After they have done this, place the text back into the wordle and see which words stand out. Edit the draft as necessary. The key is that students hand in their wordles along with their final copy to show their thinking and growth over time. Similarly in visual arts, woodwork, sewing etc, have students submit not simply the end product, but also evidence of the process, albeit often messy, with photographs, drafts and written reflections about the process.

• Develop a culture of taking responsible risks and giving new ideas a go (often knowing you will fail) • Explicitly teach students strategies or thinking dispositions to help them move forward when they are stuck.

• Introduce students to James Nottingham’s Learning Pit, and the feeling of learning not always being fun and easy.

• Ensure the work on the walls shows stages of development and is not solely the ‘best’ work.

Ideas for Parents: • Ta l k a b o u t y o u r o w n f a i l u r e s a n d challenging situations.

• Show your vulnerability so your children know that you take risks, give new ideas a go and make mistakes in the process.

• Be real – do not pretend all is well when it is not - obviously age and maturity appropriate.

• Show emotions - it is OK to be sad, mad, nervous, confused, frustrated as well as happy, excited, peaceful, hopeful and full of pride for your accomplishments.

• Create an attitude of gratitude. Each night at the dinner table, discuss those things you are grateful for. Create a gratitude chart where family members record 3 things they are thankful for each day.

• Encourage mistake making and accept it is part of the learning process • Let go of being a perfectionist and expecting everyone else to be the same.

• Encourage responsible risk taking.

• L e a r n s o m e t h i n g n e w t o g e t h e r – something that takes you way outside your comfort zone. Apologise when you have made a wrong decision, shouted or acted in a way that you wish you had not.

It is important for your child to know you make mistakes too.

• Tell them you love them and back this up with action. This does not mean giving them everything they want. It means holding the boundaries of what if acceptable and what is not.

What would you add to these lists?

Karen is an expert in effective teaching and learning, study skills, motivation a n d p o s i t i v e t h i n k i n g. S h e wa s awarded the NSANZ Educator of the Year 2014 award and works in schools throughout Australasia teaching students how to Study Smart and teachers how to raise achievement. www.karentuiboyes.com

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TeachersMat

PHOTO: PHOTOCREO BEDNAREK

Did You Know

74

Back Issues of the Teachers Matter Magazine are Available Online

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Drama, Oh, the The Dramaham actor? a are you pg. 37

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Top ten trends in education p. 32

Are you a half-tank pipe?

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ISSUE 15

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT

of colour

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From “no” to “yes” pg. 53 The contra ct for indep endence pg. 60

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Helping schools with their image.

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Kim Chamberlain is an author and speaker on a range of personal and professional development topics.

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"The invention of IQ does a great disservice to creativity in education."

Kim Chamberlain is an author and speaker on personal and professional development topics. She is a believer that a lot can be achieved by undertaking activities that take a short amount of time, and has produced several brain training books for adults and children.

These puzzles are taken from her latest book The Five Minute Brain Workout for Kids.

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Kim is an author and speaker on a range of personal and professional development topics. She is a beliver that a lot can be achieved by undertaking activities that take a short amount of time, and she has produced several brain training books for adults and children.

These puzzles are taken from her latest book The Five Minute workout for Kids. Illustrations by Jon Chamberlain.

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“So often teachers ask students to go home and study, yet do not teach them how.” says Karen. “This game teaches the essentials of learning to learn, study skills, memory techniques, exam strategies plus motivation tips, and watch out for the Uh‐Oh cards!”

Student, Parent and Teacher feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with many people commenting they can put the Monopoly away now!

This game not only has huge educational value, it also is a chance for students to reconnect with some of the lost skills such as taking turns, thinking ahead, actions and consequences, making tough choices, being a good sport, unplugging and good old fun.

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76

Post your Order to: Spectrum Education PO Box 30 818, Lower Hutt, NZ NZ Phone 0800 37 33 77 or +644 5289 969 Simply fax this form to: +644 5280 969 Australia Phone 1800 063 272 or fax 1800 068 977 Email: info@spectrumeducation.com