Good Teacher Magazine 2017, Term 2 by Good Teacher Magazine

Term Two 2017

“The best teachers don’t give you the answers... They just point the way ... and let you make your own choices.”

Page 36: Chickens and People: Past, Present and Future

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Index

Your Soapbox

The demise of the “character teacher”

John Hellner

A coach’s plea to parents

Alison Belbin

A coach’s reminder sheet: Working with Parents

Happy stories from the world of British primary school teacher

Secret Teacher

Seasoned With Love

Elaine Le Sueur

So, you’re a photon – what’s that all about?

MOTAT

Accelerated change

Laurie Loper

MindLabKids.com beaming into a home near you

Unitec

Children Have So Much To Gain From Exploring Language

Anne Longfield

Three Reasons Why You Should Learn How to Learn Faster

Michelle LaBrosse

Malala receives highest U.N. honour to promote girls education

Michelle Nichols

Things I Miss About Teaching in a Traditional Classroom

Steph Jankowski

Chickens and People: Past, Present and Future

University of Oxford

Add to Glorious Animal Characteristics By Doodling On Their Pictures behance.net

Human rights of people with autism not being met...

Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen

A New Model for Student Assessment – Part 1

C.M.Rubin

Receiving Feedback – Seven Scary Words That Make Me Sweat

Jim Morris

Belthangady Tutor Uploads Maths Lessons On YouTube

Bangalore Mirror

Singapore Maths inspires UK educators

Sandra Davie

We Participate In Bookface Friday... Join Us!

Emilie Kempenaers

Study casts doubt on internet filters in the home

University of Oxford

From the classroom into the world

Kendra Davidson

Four secondary school writers win mentorships with professional authors

Encouragement from teachers has greatest influence ...

Ben Alcott

Science-Loving Teens from Ghana and D.C. Geek Out Together

Sasha Ingber

Innovation competition produces educational apps Chris O’Brien

Artists Recreate Kids’ Monster Doodles In Their Unique Styles

Greta J

Tips for boosting your leadership self-esteem

Naphtali Hoff

R.I.P Common Sense

Roger’s Rant

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Your Soapbox!

“

” If you want to have YOUR SAY please email your offering to: info@goodteacher.co.nz

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The demise of the “character teacher”

John Hellner

Remember any of these teachers? “I loved the history teacher who made me stand on a desk for giving a poor essay introduction and posted a picture on the door of himself in his sporting strip. We were eager to do well and we knew it really mattered to him to get the best from us.” “He was a New Zealand weight lifting champion. When we were in the fourth form, he pressed a kid over his head in the front of the class. No one talked out of turn again.” “She was an engaging, zany history teacher who relied on humour and misdirection to instruct her students. When she arrived late, she ran in as if she was coming on stage from fright, then sliding to a stop. The usual crazy, attention-getting entrance.” “We could always distract him into telling us stories about the past. He told them so funny.” “She looked so unusual with a funny face and she sometimes dyed her hair in different colours. She had a doctorate and never let us get away with anything. She liked teaching teens better than any other age.” “We loved him because, in an all-girl Catholic high school, he was the one strong voice that said challenge what you’re told and being a woman is more about how strong your mind is, not about your appearance.” “His car was junky and never started unless we pushed it. At 2 minutes before the bell, he had us out in the car park pushing. He really knew his subject, but not cars. He loved going to Vegas.” “I had a Latin teacher who would lie across a row of desks at the front of the class as he taught - in the manner of a Roman reclining at a banquet. He also insisted that he had been reincarnated several times, including as a playwright in the Elizabethan era. He

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 5

could not remember what his name had been as a playwright, but he had written a play called ‘Hamlet’. “Not to mention the English teacher who insisted on wearing something red all the time - red glasses, a red tie, or red trousers. Even red shoes.” “She never knew our names, but she always had good, real life stories to support her point. I am not even sure they were all true. One time one of the other teachers dressed up like a student and sat in the class. She never knew. At least we were all equal.” “A ray of sunshine, outstandingly polite, never seemed stressed, supported all around her, but wasn’t crazy ambitious, really knew her subject and we trusted her. She got results. Oh, and the clothes she wore - like a colour blind Hawaiian.” “This teacher didn’t have a grass lawn. It was all paved with cemented-in garden gnomes. He had long wispy hair, somewhat dishevelled and a distracted appearance, but what a teacher. Passion defined him. One year someone stole one of his gnomes and put it on the stage at school.” “’Chalky’ would write on the chalkboard with one hand and erase it with the other as he went along. The dust flew everywhere. One morning, when he had the flu, he came to school with his pyjamas on under his clothes in order to write the notes all over the board, so we wouldn’t miss out. We could see them sticking out of his coat. He never left until 10 o’clock.” Let’s call them “character” teachers. They livened the place up. They added spirit to the place. Characters who could teach well and felt free to express their personality and speak their minds. Those somewhat quirky eccentrics, who kids loved and learned from and totally dedicated, but who didn’t quite fit the mould of what a teacher should be like.

Did the “character teachers” leave the room? If so, why?

Social diversity and a need for inclusion increased necessitating a more individualized approach. Research to achieve these goals exploded. Demands for success and measuring success grew Policies, programmes and best practice guidelines proliferated. More money spent. Socio-babble? As education has become more complex and costly at the taxpayers’ expense, the demands for accountability has increased. Compliance has followed. Fair enough. That’s everywhere now. “Loose cannons” don’t fit with the business model most schools need now. We can’t have people who may ruffle some feathers, who don’t fit into a mould, who shun compliance. Character teachers seem risky. Schools are answerable to “customers” now. The customer is always right. Customers might get titchy with someone who doesn’t do it the way everyone wants it done. But we have to sell the product. Psycho-babble? Maybe the bureaucracy of the new normal, since the early 1990s beats the eccentricity out of everyone, not just teachers. We get bits of ourselves chiselled out as we go through the system. Maybe more regulation and training has resulted in characters being weeded out. Hail to conformity. Greater generic skills, for curriculum compliance or whatever, are needed by a teacher and the ‘crazy’ teachers don’t generally have them, or want to have them, because they are ‘out of the box’ thinkers. Nah! Too many sweeping and unsupported generalisations. Can’t have that – we need evidence. We miss ‘em The “character” let kids know being different or being yourself was OK. Maybe helped kids to think they are normal, relatively speaking, at a time of life when they might be putting a critical spotlight on themselves – “hey, I’m pretty all right next to that one.” The characters added humour to many situations in what can sometimes be the difficult and tedious business of learning. The good kind of humour bringing the joke down on ourselves. Humour or a good story made the day brighter. Kids felt involved, part of the group, all were included. And those types of teachers make an organization stand out as being authentic, real people who are passionate for their subject and the people they work with. Edu-babble? Good riddance Use the rule of universality – if all teachers were “character” teachers the system would break down. Odd would be normal and we would live in the mad hatter’s tea party. Who could measure that? How could we know who was doing what?

Try these answers out:

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Remember the “bad old days” and all the kids who slipped through the cracks because we didn’t have all the policies, programmes and practices to help them. We need the bureaucracy to provide a safety net for “the greatest good for the greatest number”. Ethics-babble? Mess with their heads Test if you are one or if you want to be one: Develop humorous, odd and anomalous trademarks, traditions, routines, rituals and ceremonies. Celebrate eccentricity. Accept that failure leads to accomplishment. Herald the meek, the unusual and the uncommon. Revel in diversity. Rage against conformity. Critically challenge the conventional. A colleague at an international school I worked at said: “A great teacher on my teacher training once said to us “go forth and be the ‘Trojan mice’ of schools’”. Spread creativity and intrigue and still get the results on the standardized tests. Mess with their rigid system when no one is looking.”

to like the kids.” Her response: “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.” . Rita’s thoughts reflected a motherlode of research – dressed up like boxes of chocolates in fancy packages and programmes and rolled out over many years at great expense. Very simple: character teachers liked their students and connected with them on a real, human and personal level by being themselves and sharing this with their students. Students learned subject material from them. Students learned that the boundaries of “normal” expanded over a wide range. Students learned to be themselves. Character teachers still teach all that in all their very different ways. Thanks to Alex Bing for sharing the idea of the “demise of the character teacher”, from his farewell speech when he retired from Auckland Grammar School. And thanks to ex pupils and teachers who sent their stories along.

But, always maintain a jeweller’s eye for the acceptable boundaries to your “character.” How kids learn? In a TED talk, Rita Pierson, a teacher of 40 years, says she once heard a colleague say, “They don’t pay me

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 7

A coach’s plea to parents Alison Belbin is passing on her love of the game.

Anne Keeling

So why does she get so much interference from the sidelines?

I am here, on time. My mortgage is two-weeks late; my oldest child is suffering through a medication change and trouble at school; my youngest child begged me not to leave, and my husband and I haven’t looked each other in the eye for days. I spent much of the day holding my aging dog as she recovered from a seizure.

I always leave the field a better person than when I arrived. In the time it takes me to drive home, dry off and microwave my dinner, you have hastily typed an e-mail. My youngest has fallen asleep on the couch and my husband is cleaning the kitchen while I sit at the table alone, reading how you feel I’ve let your child down.

I compose myself and prepare for the next 90 minutes on the field with your child.

You believe last weekend’s loss was due to my poor decisions. Your daughter would have scored the winning goal if I only had subbed her in earlier or let her play a different position. You believe they aren’t playing like a team should. You watched a Premier League game and they seem so much more in tune with each other.

And mine; she has already leapt from the car and disappeared into the growing crowd of girls.

It’s a shame, I think, that you missed the girls hugging and cheering each other on tonight while you were at the coffee shop around the corner.

But none of this matters now. I am here.

Sometimes you wave as you drive away, and sometimes you don’t. It usually depends if we won the previous weekend and if you felt your child had been given an appropriate amount of play time. Your daughter is funny and kind and thoughtful. And tonight your daughter had a great practice. She struggled with a new skill and shook off a solid smack to her ear from a ball. And, we laughed. She also told me something that has been bothering her, asking shyly that I not tell anyone.

If we win, I’ll read that it’s because the more talented girls got too much playing time; that I’m too competitive; that I’m pushing them too hard; that I’ve managed to crush the souls of the players on the bench. If we lose, it’s because I played the developing players too much; I am ruining the stronger players’ chance at future glory; I’m not pushing them hard enough. What do we even do during practice anyway?

I know what you’ve told her about me and I know what you’ve said about her teammates. And yet, I explained why she was subbed off last game. She your daughter and I both keep showing up. We nodded in agreement and asked how to get better. keep trying. then, it is important “If one wants to educate for genuine understanding, We hugged, she thanked me, and we moved on. to identify these early representations,I may appreciate and not do their it thepower, way you would. I may not speak She likes a boy, sheconfront hates her thighs. Her best them directly and friend repeatedly.” to your daughter the way you would, but she needs ignored her today and she still has difficult homework more than one voice in(Gardner her head. p71) to get through after practice. She got her period in I am not a professional. I am a parent who loves the art class. And yet she’s here with me in the freezing game and has the desire to pass that on. I accepted rain, our cleats rotting and our noses dripping. She the role I was offered; not for a paycheque, not for is here because her team provides a safe shield from status, certainly not for praise. I accepted this role the outside world. because I have been where your daughter is now. I We sweat together, we celebrate together and we all see myself in her missteps and in her triumphs. I have feel the same sting of defeat when the bounce of the felt them all and I feel them all over again through ball is not in our favour. We step on the field with the her. I, too, have been bruised by a ball, pulled best intentions. We try. muscles in tough tackles and played with a broken 8 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

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SANDI FALCONER heart. I also had coaches who believed in me, just as I believe in your daughter. Knowing I had someone in my corner who challenged me and called out my excuses was the greatest reward of my years in sport. I vaguely remember the final scores of even the most important games, but I sure remember how I felt. Winning doesn’t promise pride, just as losing doesn’t guarantee disappointment. One of my parents’ great gifts to me was their unwavering support of my coaches. They never wrote a letter, made a complaint phone call or disrespected a coach – even when my eyes stung and I desperately needed it to be someone else’s fault. It was my team, my game, my experience to have. I learned early on that my coach was neither my parent nor my friend. I admired them and sought their praise. I hated them sometimes, too. If I thought

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I deserved a higher standing on that team, it was up to me to earn it. My parents sure weren’t going to earn it for me. Criticizing your child’s coach might simply be a reflection of your insecurities or long-held regrets as a former player. That’s okay. We all have them. As adults we can understand this, but as a child, your daughter does not. She is being pulled in opposing directions between her team and her parent’s opinion of her team. On her team, she is finding her identity and her place among her peers. It is here she will decide if that place makes her feel whole and satisfied, or if it makes her edgy and hungry for more. Let her discover this, on her own. Let her play. Alison Belbin lives in Nanaimo, B.C http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/ Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 9

A coach’s reminder sheet: Workin

Most parents are very supportive but you need to keep them informed. However, we will all experience this… dealing with complaints about playing time, who gets to play what position, sportsmanship issues etc. No matter how knowledgeable, fair or kind you are with the team you can probably expect an irate parent or two to crop up during the season. These tips should help you if you ever run into that situation:

• Don’t discuss the issue at the game.

The first thing the coach should avoid is discussing the problem with the parent at the field, especially if he/she is visibly upset.

• Schedule a separate time/venue to have the discussion. Rather than discuss the problem then and there, the coach should agree to meet or telephone the parent at a mutually convenient time to discuss the complaint. By doing this, you avoid giving the parent an audience, allow him/her to ‘cool off’, and give yourself time to prepare an appropriate response to the complainant

• Be an active listener.

When you eventually talk to the parent, one of the most important things you can do is be an active listener. Do things like taking notes, maintaining eye contact and nodding to acknowledge you have heard what the parent is saying is crucial.

• Don’t interrupt. Even if parents raise their voices or their storied are not fact based, the coach should avoid interrupting. By interrupting a parent, you risk inflaming the situation.

• Don’t get defensive. The coach should avoid defending or justifying their action. Such behaviour at this point will only make the situation worse.

• Show empathy.

Respond to their concerns with statements like “I’m sorry that you feel your child has been treated unfairly”. This will help the parent to understand his/her problem is being taken seriously. They are likely to be calmer and more willing to find a solution.

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ng with Parents

• Clarify the problem. This can be achieved by asking probing questions. This helps both parties to focus on the problem (not personalities), stick to the facts, and avoid being caught up in extraneous issues.

• Offer a range of solutions.

A lot of times, parents just want their feelings to be heard and understood. If they want more, try to offer a range of solutions. This demonstrated a willingness to work together to solve the problem. It’s important to avoid making promises that you can’t keep. Explain to them what you can and cannot do.

• Get Closure. Ideally, you will give the parent a number of options and agreed on a mutual course of action, At this point it’s appropriate to end the meeting. It should conclude with three things: 1. Leave the parent with a closing action statement (e.g. ‘I’ll get on to that now). 2. Thank the parent for their interest (no matter how unpleasant the meeting).

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3. If follow-up is required, tell them when you will contact them (‘I’ll ring you tomorrow”).

This will leave the parent feeling as though their complaint has been heard, and the parent-coach relationship will be strengthened.

• Leave the door open

There will be cases however after this whole process where you will not be able to give the parent the response they are looking for. It is important, in these circumstances, that the coach leaves the door open for the parent, e.g. ‘If there’s ever anything else, please come to me’. By doing this the parent will at least feel that his/her complaint has been taken seriously, and the coach-parent relationship, however strained, will remain intact. Not doing this could allow the problem to fester… and the parent could damage your reputation through word of mouth.

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Secret Teacher

Fun and happy stories from the world of a British primary school teacher I must admit (and I’m sure you’ll all agree) getting out of bed this morning was TOUGH. Like REALLLLLLY tough. Like contemplating phoning in sick, or giving yourself food poisoning on purpose sort of tough. And when the Mr on the radio this morning said today is supposedly the most depressing day of the year, I could totally relate. But I have to be honest with you, I have actually had a really good day back, the kids have been great and it has been quite nice to get back to a little bit of normality…I think. Although I had forgot about a teacher’s need to have expert bladder control, and realised around 10:30, with another hour and half until lunch time, that 3rd cup of coffee was NOT a good idea. (The following was written after the Christmas break)... The children were super giddy when they came in this morning, excited to tell me all about their holidays and what Santa had brought them for Christmas, so I thought it would be nice to start off with a circle time to let them share with their peers. Did the register, sat in a circle, got my teddy to pass to the first boy in the circle… “So what was your favourite present from Santa?” “I forgot…”

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“I can’t remember…” “I don’t know…” What! they couldn’t wait to tell me when they first came in! Then one little girl explains, in great detail, about her lovely new kitchen she got, with a real microwave and an oven door and pots and pans to go with it…then the next girl got a lovely new kitchen, with a real microwave and an oven door and pots and pans….then the next boy got a lovey new kitchen… (you get the picture) Ah dear! I was very surprised when one of my darlings told me she got a ‘pregnant Barbie’ – seriously, this is actually a real thing (I just had to come home and Google it – unless you want nightmares for weeks, I wouldn’t. Those things are WEIRD. Seriously creepy) Then another told me she got an ‘Elsa cloak that blows up your bottom’. “Blows up your bottom?” I asked, just to make sure I’d heard correctly. After falling about laughing for a few minutes, the children and my TA kindly told me its an Elsa cloak that glows up at the bottom! I gave up on circle time after that, I couldn’t cope! Have any of your children had any ‘unusual’ gifts this year?? Secret Teacher xx

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Been on a fantastic course today looking at Phonics in Reception, actually came away with some great ideas! First of all a big thank you to the course leader (hope she doesn’t mind me writing about our training!), who mentioned ‘Secret Teacher’ Facebook page and kept it anonymous for me I was looking forward to attending this course, based in a swanky hotel – not the usual learning centre we’re usually used to! Complete with a posh dinner (a full hour too!!), followed by afternoon tea and scones. Makes a change from quickly stuffing half a sandwich down or slurping luke warm cuppa soup whilst laminating and cutting out! It’s the food that counts right?! But I wasn’t looking forward to it simply because of the food, honest! I probably shouldn’t be admitting this for someone who is the CLLD lead in school, but since September I seemed to have struggled to make phonics exciting :-/ so I was after some good ideas to help me ‘jazz’ things up a bit and I have to say it truly lived up to my expectations. The course leader was fantastic, really comical and enthusiastic with some

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fab games and activities. We usually attend these courses thinking ‘yeah that was good, I’m going to do this and going to do that’, then put our notes in our training folders and forget all about them. This time I am actually looking forward to carrying out the new ideas and am already thinking about how I can incorporate them into next week’s planning. We also got finished early which makes a nice change as Fridays are usually my late night at school, setting up provision areas for the following week. Although I must admit I did feel guilty leaving it to my TA’s back in school so instead came home and cleaned the house… Overall, a lovely day and excellent end to the week, with a nice clean house! If you have any other great phonics ideas to help me, and other teachers, please comment through here or on ‘Secret Teacher’ Facebook page. Have a great weekend everyone xx

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Seasoned With Love A Handful of Lessons from the Kitchen for teachers of gifted students.

Lesson #1: Familiarise yourself with your ingredients.

regular assessment gives starting points for gifted students, but needs to be subject specific. Physical, emotional, social and intellectual growth is often uneven (Asynchronous development is an interesting read.) http://www.rrcs.org/Downloads/ Asynchronous3.pdf Will they leave school with the feeling that they are unsuccessful as a result or with the determination to succeed and prove us wrong? My contention is that it depends on the teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding that strengths and potential problems are flip sides of the same coin. Students with the need for constant mental stimulation and who are capable of processing complex information rapidly or have to explore a subject in great depth are a challenge when that passion is directed into an area of talent that is not recognised or valued

The way that education is delivered has undergone huge change over the last twenty years and will continue to do so as access to technology is refined and improved. Success hinges on mastering the ability to do things differently, and herein lies a challenge because educator awareness of the possibilities can be a green light or a road block. As an experienced professional I am well aware that there are a great number of issues that teachers face on a daily basis and we can be overcome by the sheer volume of ingredients that we are faced with but the way in which they are put together has an effect on what happens next.

For our students to be successful we need to understand the ingredients that are in their makeup and what is needed to enable new learning to occur, to question the appropriateness of the instruction, and to make links to the real world. Can you familiarise yourself with the unique talents and academic needs of students such as I have described above, or will you be distracted by false stereotypes relating to the term â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;gifted?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Do you know your ingredients?

Lesson #2: Strive for a well-stocked pantry.

Doing things differently in this case refers to expanding the status quo. There is an increased ability to use learning data to discover problems but what of the gifted artist for whom maths is a challenge in the classroom, the child with music as the centre of its being who is not in the least bit interested in history, the scientist with the curiosity and ability to change our medical views in the future? Will our emphasis on data make a difference for them? Informal and 14 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

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Elaine Le Sueur

What strategies do you have available in your teaching arsenal? Bloom’s taxonomy is useful because developmentally advanced students need exposure to breadth and depth of knowledge and this can be developed through offering learning experiences at the upper end of the taxonomy. Gifted children see the world differently to the way that other children see the world. Not necessarily better. Just different. Their unique viewpoints sometimes result in different ways of doing things or in taking a road less travelled website. Are you now saying… yes I hear you, but where do I start? Examine your own pantry. Is it time to discard some elements? Seeing possibilities that others don’t see can be helpful, because change occurs when those who can see how things might be are in a position to do something about it. The challenge for teachers is to provide the support for this to happen. Expanding your knowledge of the strategies available is a good place to start. If you need specific help or advice then you can ask for it by joining the mailing list on the TKI gifted site. http://gifted.tki.org.nz/

Lesson #3: Learn from the experts

Recipes are useful starting places. Stand on the shoulders of giants who have gone before you. Student portfolios and learning journey journals

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can provide authentic assessment. What makes the difference is how you cope with them. Teachers need to know where to go for answers, and I firmly believe that today’s students need access to both young and experienced teaching staff and professional development providers with specific expertise in our schools to bridge the gap because they bring different skill sets. http://gifted.tki.org.nz is the New Zealand Ministry of Education’s website offering a range of assistance from school guidelines to access to providers and papers for teachers to take to improve their qualifications in this field. www.hoagiesgifted.com is an international portal with collections of research based information. Stephanie Tolan’s ‘Is it a cheetah?’ is still as confronting to stereotypes of gifted as it was more than twenty years ago when it was written. The article can be found at www.stephanietolan. com/is_it_a_cheetah.htm. Details for Certificate of Effective Practice in Gifted Education can be found on at http://gifted.tki.org.nz site and www. giftedreach.org.nz Lifelong learning is a goal to ascribe to and we can all learn from each other. There is truth in the saying that a teacher will never know the extent of his or her influence on the future, but you DO have an influence whether it be positive OR negative. Gifted students are at the cutting edge of change. They may well be the change agents themselves.. Which side of the coin is your focus? Why not start with the premise that most parents do understand that teachers are not able to create a customised curriculum for an individual child and move on to developing flexibility and a willingness to explore options that can be adapted to the classroom by both parties and the student him/ herself? Collaboration works. Work together to meet the child’s learning needs. Don’t be afraid to think beyond the recipe and let the student make it his/her own. Experiment with ways to help students to develop their abilities and look for experts to provide scaffolding where necessary. Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 15

Lesson #4 : Learn from each other

Lesson #5: Strive for texture and balance within the constraints of equipment and time pressure.

As teachers we all make mistakes. What defines us is how well we rise after falling. We may use similar tools but in different ways and we can all learn from the things that research has since debunked about the learning needs of gifted students. Here are just a few to be going on with… Research has found that it is counter-productive to ask gifted students to tutor students who are struggling because gifted think and learn differently and it results in a frustrating experience for both parties. This is also true of grouping students together. There is a lot of truth in the saying that birds of a feather flock together. Like minds challenge like minds. I can’t remember who said it but I remember reading that some student’s awareness of TV is limited to the basic TV1, TV2, and TV3 channels. Others have access to expanded channels like Sky, while gifted are connected to satellite dishes. The problem is that you don’t know what you are not aware of. Lots of teachers fall into the middle group and are not aware that they are placing ceilings on their expectations because they don’t see the world as their gifted students do. Asking students to do more of the same doesn’t provide challenge if the work was not challenging enough to begin with. Depth is not the same as breadth. Encourage students to look for patterns and trends and to support big ideas. Delve into the ethical issues surrounding a topic. Look for other perspectives. Challenge students to find ways to deal with ambiguity by introducing unexpected limits such as reduced time, using a particular electronic application, or changing the audience.

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In order to be an effective teacher you have to strive for a balance between the sweet, the sour, the salty and the crunchy. What is happening at the coalface and student and community aspirations make it tempting to blame the system that we work with when this goes awry for gifted kids. Teachers say that they can’t change the system. They say they haven’t got enough hours in the day to deal with individual needs. Systems are in place for good reasons but that shouldn’t stop individuals from trying to make changes when it is not working for the students that they teach. If we can teach sighted teachers to teach the blind, and hearing teachers to teach the deaf, then surely we can at least try to make some difference for gifted students with the potential to do things differently and enhance our own horizons? Medical doctors use test data, but they don’t base their diagnoses solely on results of those tests. They analyse test results in conjunction with other information obtained, such as

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presenting symptoms, medical history, family history, and patient interview. Meeting the needs of a gifted student is not an onerous task if informal assessments are undertaken on a regular basis. Consider discussing ways to increase the challenge of a task with the student that would still meet the learning objectives. Clearly outline the ground rules. Gifted students are generally excited by the opportunity that this negotiation affords and it is easier for the teacher to monitor progress. Research clearly shows that it is far more effective to focus on stages of development than it is to deliver curriculum based on age. For older gifted students in particular to be successful we may need to recognise that we do not have the answers and to look at ways to move beyond the regular classroom. Distance learning and internet options greatly increase the ability to find ways to provide challenge but be aware that outcomes will vary because there is no such thing as one size fits all in education. It is accepted that some meals will be better than others but that shouldn’t stop us from seeing mistakes as a challenge to learn from.

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You CAN make a difference. You can give in. You can give up. Or you can give it all you’ve got. It is my hope that you will choose to give it all you’ve got and season your gifted students with love. Thank you on their behalf. You could have more influence on the future than you can possibly imagine.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/ Thinking-Challenges Ebooks by Elaine are also available from: https://thinkshop.org/

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 17

So, you’re a photon – what’s

18 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

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that all about?

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 19

So, you’re a photon – what’s that all about? A lot can happen to a photon during its life. These tiny packets of energy, which come into existence through the flashiest of beginnings (nothing less than a nuclear reaction in the core of the sun), go on to play a crucial role in the processes which underpin our lives. The average photon travels through the vastness of space at incredible speeds and then, if it’s lucky enough to be amongst the one billionth of the sun’s energy that reaches the Earth, the unassuming photon goes on to be the driving force behind our weather, a power supply for the chemical reactions of life and a foundational element in our food chain. Light provides us with colour and shadows, rainbows and warmth, sparkle and glitter and glow. Light is the very essence of life.

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Sunlight – Ihi Kōmaru, an exhibition developed by Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science and History shows how light has shaped the world around us. It will be hosted at MOTAT in Auckland from June to November this year. Packed with interactive games, challenging activities and immersive multimedia content, the exhibition provides students with many ways to learn about the physical phenomena associated with light. Some of the rich learning opportunities offered to students are: Racing a photon and finding out how long it would take to run from the Earth to the Moon, powering a photon through space, starting from the core of the Sun and ending with it nourishing life on Earth, and developing an understanding of how light has influenced life and culture for millions of years. Teachers constantly strive to engage students in STEM subjects in authentic ways. The constraints of time, limited resources, and sometimes a lack of confidence and expertise, make creating deep

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learning opportunities in these subjects extremely challenging, and yet we know that expanding our students’ knowledge in engaging ways is essential to their learning experiences. Sunlight – Ihi Kōmaru presents the story of light in vivid, immersive and compelling ways. Colours are super-saturated, shadows are dense, games are larger than life, and every topic requires hands-on engagement which brings the learning to life. The designers of this exhibition have done all the leg work for us and produced activities and displays which we can only dream of creating in our classrooms. This significant science-based exhibition, presented in both English and Te Reo Māori is supported by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor. The target audience is children and young adults, but it also includes content that will engage and be relevant to a wide audience. For more information on this and MOTAT’s Hands-on, Minds-on education programmes please contact the museum at: PHONE (09)845 3696 EMAIL bookings@motat.org.nz www.motat.org.nz/learn

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 21

Accelerated change Not only does education need to lift its game considerably to raise achievement levels across the board, it needs to do so quickly. In crucial subject areas, like maths and science, accelerated decline is happening while the gap between the least and best-performed students is ever widening. Few seem to understand what the problem is, let alone what the solutions might be. And even if that were not so, there appears to be nothing in place by way of infrastructure that might ensure a significantly rapid remediating response could be mounted. Certainly there are a few countervailing things happening but in terms of what needs to happen, these impress as being little more than the aimless thrashing about of a system in crisis. A sector-wide understanding of the situation is definitely lacking. It should concern everyone that education’s main quality regulating agency, the Education Review Office (ERO), overlooks two main hindrances to optimum progress for all students: the teaching model most teachers carry in their heads, and, teachers knowledge about learning. Not only is ERO being remiss on this score, one literature review I read recently listed 11 factors affecting the acceleration of educational achievement and it didn’t make mention of either.

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ERO’s omission defies logic but such are the state of affairs in education, that’s par for the course and has been for a very long time. My point here is simply that knowledge about learning still appears to be shrouded in the mists of ignorance. It is ironical that teachers, whose trade is learning, have such a poor knowledge of it. In such circumstances, relying on teachers to be the chief source of boosting student achievement simply makes no sense at all. Working with trainee secondary teachers doing their one year Diploma of Teaching (New Zealand), it was apparent they were never exposed to anything about the nature of learning either or how it works in classrooms. Here were they, about to be unleashed on unsuspecting students yet blissfully unaware, that for the rest of their teaching days, they would have to contend with unnecessary underachievement a portion of which they will have unwittingly caused. Any strategy to boost student learning ought, in my opinion, to include teachers having a full knowledge of efficacy research. Trainees about to enter the profession need to know the score. They shouldn’t be put in the position of adding to the existing underachievement. Keeping them in ignorance like that denies them of the opportunity of doing something about the issue. The capacity to learn is precious and to have about half of what’s available going to waste – the current situation regrettably – calls for exposing teachers to as massive a dose of dissonance as it is possible to supply. We can no longer tolerate a situation wherein pedagogy is causing underachievement. With there being so many barriers to change, making sure all teachers acquire a very strong sense of dissonance would be an obvious and an achievable first step. You see, just as there are climate-change deniers there are (at this point anyway) considerably more deniers that pedagogy is why our achievement stats show us up in such a poor light in international student achievement comparisons.

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Laurie Loper Psychologist Dealing next with the teaching model teachers acquire before they start teacher training. This is the teaching-is-telling model that every student is exposed to (and acquires) as each moves through the various levels of the education system. Absorbed unconsciously, trainee teachers on day one, enter their training to be welcomed by trainers who not only share the same model, they seemingly take it for granted that that model is what teaching is all about. Thus there is little if any examination of it, its origins or of its efficacy. It has become the very large elephant in the room where improvement in educational outcomes are concerned.

A realisation that is slowly beginning to percolate through the education system is that the main cause of underachievement might well be pedagogy. Better late than never might be the comment of anyone who remembers that efficacy research started becoming available in the mid 1980s. Had proper notice been taken of it back then the chances are underachievement would likely be a thing of the past and the nation would be the richer by billion of dollars. But there you go, that’s just typical of how things are in an education system that places reliance on beliefs about learning rather than on what science can tell us.

What’s being exposed here are certain of the numerous myths and beliefs that are hindering efforts to get a better outcomes for diverse (all) students in New Zealand. They have existed for a very long time. They have become (as Nuthall showed) embedded much as if they have been hardwired into our DNA. Their presence is why continuing to do things because that is the way they have always been done has been so prevalent in education, creating a power-of-habit phenomena that isn’t understood nor does it get factored into change strategy. The only example I have ever seen that recognises this power and the time it takes to effect teacher belief change is the Bobbie Maths programme. That programme recognises change takes time and allows three years for it.

Education’s policy makers need to make themselves thoroughly conversant with what efficacy researchers are saying. Having researchers on the pay roll is a good start, but they are not just there to make an educational organisation look good, they need to be listened to especially when policy is being formulated.

Squeezing learning solutions out of an education system under the stress of so much student failure is a tough ask. Luckily education in New Zealand is beginning to focus on helping students maximize their potential to learn. As yet it appears that not much progress has been made towards that particular goal, though with the advent of the Bobbie Maths programme, a glimmer of hope has appeared on education’s horizon.

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Turning now to solutions, as indicated elsewhere, I don’t think enough people know sufficient about underachievement to understand what’s driving it. What is most certainly clear is that the inefficacy which occurs whenever teaching is undertaken, is something that affects every student, it isn’t just something failing students have to put up with, top students experience it too. Peer reviewed work I initiated in 2007 clearly shows that there is a high probability that around half the aggregated total of student capacity to learn is currently not being developed. That makes underachievement a hugely significant problem. As a programme like Bobbie Maths has demonstrated, the cause is largely a pedagogical one so the cure likewise has involved a change of pedagogy.

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 23

Curing underachievement the Bobbie Maths way means having the whole teaching body give up a few of its most treasured beliefs and associated teaching practices as well as being required to retool with new skills over a three-year period. Giving up those beliefs is a moment of truth situation. Teachers who have already undertaken this change process invariably comment that it was the most difficult professional accomplishment of their careers. Apart from the sheer amount of effort involved, it puts them in a leap of faith situation as they seek to assimilate a new set of beliefs, whilst still actively working to shake off the old. Can a concept like accelerated change be fitted into this context? The short answer can only be – yes, but with some difficulty. There is no denying there is great need for pedagogy like Bobbie Maths and for it to be spread far and wide as quickly as possible. But Bobbie Maths isn’t an app that can be downloaded and put into use immediately by each and every teacher independently. Its use requires each teacher to go through a process of reinventing his or her own teaching over a three-year period. Taking that length time to become skilled in the use of the competencies involved obviously does impose constraints where scaling up is concerned. As mentioned elsewhere, since what’s involved is a lot of ‘in the moment’ mentoring, a good supply of mentors becomes a prerequisite for scaling up. At the present moment mentors are in very short supply though there are plans being formed to boost numbers. To adequately capture the tsunami of interest being expressed in Bobbie Maths by schools across the nation, having sufficient mentors will be a necessity. Training as large a group of mentors as possible first time up would enable the greatest number of schools to take up the programme. The greater the number of schools involved, the greater number of prospective trainee mentors will need to be identified. The way the Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) service was brought into operation suggests a model. That RTLB training programme was two years in length (culminating in a diploma), a training programme for mentors might be something similar.

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E-learning might also be used as a means of gathering together prospective teachers with suitable personal attributes that would make them possible candidates for mentor training. The need for mentors shouldn’t preclude teachers or other persons able to mentor from being recruited. Such an induction system was used when there was a shortage of Secondary teachers in some subject areas in some rural areas in the late 1960s. Before thought is given to scaling up, effort ought to be directed at ensuring the full potential of the programme is being developed. At the moment the programme is focused on mathematics. Already there are instances reported where the students themselves have begun using skills learnt in Bobbie Maths in other subject areas. I think a programme of the caliber of this one deserves a proper examination of the possibility that its skills might be used right across the curriculum. If this was to happen it is very likely that a successful answer to New Zealand’s forty year long underachievement issue will have been found. Having survived the experience of changing their teaching to accord with Bobbie Maths, teachers would likely face this much more encompassing reinvention of their teaching practices with some confidence. If the reinvention of teaching occasioned by Bobbie Maths was tough on teachers, think what a multi subject version would be like. The developers of Bobbie Maths like to make sure any schools intending to implement the programme liaise with a school that’s already involved. That provides an opportunity for the intending school to benefit from the experience of the school that’s already operating the programme. This strategy might also prove to be a means for hardening the resolve of schools when they meet with difficulties implementing the programme, as they most surely will. It goes without saying that scaling up a programme like Bobbie Maths requires a sufficient infrastructure be in place and operational. Funding must be in place and suitable trainee mentors signed up. In my opinion, the level of acceptance and success that Bobbie Maths has already achieved both here in New

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Zealand and overseas warrants it being granted its own hassle-free dedicated funding with the ultimate aim being to involve/inform all students at all levels of education, all parents and all sectors of the education system, not forgetting the public at large. Knowledge of efficacy research needs to be part of the mix. It tells such a sorry tale but has the advantage of causing dissonance. In a scenario where boosting student learning across the board is the objective, it is going to take something special to shake the beliefs that have underpinned of teaching practice down through the centuries. In this context the more dissonance that teachers can be exposed to, the better. The impression I am getting at the moment is that the potential of Bobbie Maths isn’t understood. Efforts need to be directed toward obtaining a sector wide appreciation of the programme, especially of its potential to be a curriculum wide intervention. Facing a situation of continuing underachievement and not exploring every avenue of reducing it makes no sense. There ought to be policy developed in support of its wider application. Work on this issue

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needs to start right away because, having a solution that is proven and not being used also makes no sense, particularly when the problem in question contributes so markedly to societal inequality. There is far too much obfuscation going on as to the situation being faced. Now is the time for plain speaking. Now is not the time for chasing beliefbased solutions, now is the time evidence based action. I would like to see an independent body of high status like a commission set up to examine the feasibility of there being a system wide reinvention of teaching. For anyone seeking further information on Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities, otherwise known as Bobbie Maths, less commonly Pasifika Maths – the 15 video feature with the analysis of ‘evidence in action’ and supporting references provide great background. http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/BES/ developing-mathematical-inquiry/introduction

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 25

MindLabKids.com beaming into a h

Unitec ‘s Mindlab welcomes you to MindLabKids. com, a new video-based learning website designed to offer primary school-age kids the chance to have a

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Mind Lab experience beyond the lab. MindLabKids.com is the brainchild of The Mind Lab by Unitec – powered by Spark. The free platform enables children aged 5-12 years to discover science and technology, learning ways to experiment and collaborate with like-minded children from the comfort of their own homes – so the learning never stops! “We have taught more than 100,000 children at The Mind Lab over the past three years and have observed that kids are often disappointed when they have to leave our labs. They want to know and

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home near you

understand more, and take their Mind Lab experience home with them,” says Fee McLeod, General Manager of The Mind Lab by Unitec. “We’ve listened to kids and parents alike and we’re thrilled to present MindLabKids.com – a free website which offers a wide range of home-friendly challenges and experiments that are every bit as exciting and educational as those conquered in our labs.” Similar to The Mind Lab’s school group and holiday programmes, MindLabKids.com is a safe and friendly platform based around The Mind Lab’s three core

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pillars – Science, Technology & Discovery. It aims to build knowledge and discovery of robotics, 3D design, animation and stop motion, movie-making, coding, programming, electronic engineering, augmented reality and more. “Our MindLabKids.com team will launch a new video challenge nationwide three times a week around these topics. Kids will be asked to create a free account and upload a video response to the challenge to demonstrate key skills such as creating, innovating, collaborating, problem solving and failing. They’ll be able to add their own special twist and share it with their friends and family. “In simple terms, we want to give kids more; more opportunities to master Mind Lab challenges and greater freedom to explore in their own time. We want to give them more ways in which they can extend their limits, unlock their potential, and grow into the inventors, innovators, makers, doers, and entrepreneurs of the future (or whatever they want to be)!” The MindLabKids.com team has been on a nationwide search to find a group of ProMindLabbers – a team of 30 kids who have been enlisted to tell the design and build team what kids want. ProMindLabbers will regularly feature in video updates to the community, setting challenges for other kids around New Zealand. “We’ve been true to our pedagogy. Rather than tell kids, we’ve asked them to show and tell us what they want. We’ve included them right from the initial research phase through to getting feedback on prototypes, logos, content topics and user experience. It’s Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 27

Children Have So Much To Gain Fr Help Them Get On The Right Path When we talk about children receiving a good start in education there is sometimes an assumption that they all begin primary school on an equal footing. But children can grow up at a very different pace and in particular those who don’t develop communication skills early on can face an uphill battle to catch up. Getting to grips with language is one of the cornerstones of healthy growth for young children, which is why it is prioritised in official guidance as one of the core priorities, alongside physical and emotional development. As children’s communication skills grow, they uncover completely new avenues of thinking. Toddlers begin learning not just by being able to put names to familiar objects and communicating with others, but also by exploring new sensations and concepts and arranging their thoughts. Language gives them a basis from which to grow and learn.

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The statistics are well rehearsed. By the time children enter primary school they are expected to have reached certain developmental milestones, yet research from the Communications Trust suggests that there are over 1 million children and young people - that’s 2 or 3 in every classroom - with some form of long-term and persistent speech, language and communication difficulty. Their speech may be faltering and their vocabulary smaller than their peers. They may use shorter sentences and be more likely to struggle with complex instructions. In up to 90% of cases those children then struggle with reading, putting their entire education firmly on the back foot. So it is vital that we tackle these issues from as early an age as possible. The sad truth is that there is a strong correlation between an area’s wealth and the language skills of its young children. Across the country around 1 in 8 children have difficulties of this type. In areas of deprivation that rises to over half an astonishing and unacceptable figure. Every child deserves the chance to reach their full potential, which is why I’m so pleased to see some truly innovative programmes tackle this problem head on. Last month I was in Hull, a city with pockets of high deprivation and somewhere where a higher than average proportion of children have speech and language difficulties. I was really inspired during my visit by the pupils of Southcoates primary school, who confidently use the kind of creative language that most adults could only aspire to. Children happily chatted about the words they had found over the weekend and how they couldn’t wait until Monday to try them out in the classroom. Their enthusiasm and sense of pride was palpable. They had found a key to a world they didn’t know existed and they wanted to share their excitement at what they had found.

rom Exploring Language - Let’s h Early On

Anne Longfield Children’s Commissioner for England

They had been taking part in “The Talk of the Town” - a project that has seen dedicated communication skills teaching incorporated into the weekly timetable. It stems from a two year trial led by the Communication Trust and the Education Endowment Fund. Since 2015 it, has been run by the school itself and it has seen participants’ literacy and communication scores markedly improve. Other programmes such as those run by the National Literacy Trust have taken a similarly communitybased approach with schools in some of the most deprived areas of the country. Hundreds of children from parts of Middlesbrough with high rates of language difficulties recorded huge improvements in reaching early years goals. Though the Early Words Together scheme was national in scope, it worked because it stemmed from awareness of an issue on a local level, and was sensitive to local needs.

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I also recently visited Longmoor primary school in Liverpool where children were learning Manadarin in reception class as part of a drive to give them the best start possible. Studies have shown that learning languages increases critical thinking skills, creativity and flexibility especially at an early age. Bilingual children score higher than monolingual peers not just in vocabulary and reading but also in standardised maths tests, and the critical thinking and problem solving encouraged with learning languages become valuable life skills. For young children, the benefits of exploring communication in all its forms are there for all to see. I want to see more initiatives like these which encourage ambition and instil children with a love of language which will serve them well throughout their lives. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 29

Three Reasons Why You Should Learn How As we move through adulthood, it can become more and more difficult to see ourselves as “learners.” So long as we feel competent enough in our jobs and comfortable in what we know, we may think that “learning” has become irrelevant in our lives. Here at Cheetah Learning, we prefer to take the view that everyone is a lifelong learner - whether or not they see themselves this way. Any time we encounter a new and unfamiliar situation, we engage in a learning process. We get our mental wheels turning by figuring out how to apply what we already know to understand the new situation, evaluate the unknowns of the situation, and hypothesize the best plan of action based on our analysis of these unknowns. In other words, any time we confront something new, we have to learn how to make sense of it.

For those of us who have well-established habits in our daily lives, or who have been in the same job for a long time, confronting new situations can be challenging - particularly when they upset our long-held views of how the world works. However, being “stuck” in your current level of knowledge and skills is not the only option. We at Cheetah believe that each of us is capable of changing how we learn in order to better adapt to new situations. In other words, we believe in learning how to learn faster. In our years of helping adults quickly assimilate a large quantity of new information in preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam, we have discovered three benefits of learning how to learn faster, or accelerate our learning: • Learning faster allows us to make better decisions. When we speed up our ability to make sense of and respond to new information and situations, we are able to make decisions based on more well-rounded and thoroughly-processed information. The accelerated learning technique of mind-mapping allows us to see connections across ideas, which improves our ability to take a wider range of variables into account when we make decisions. • Learning faster improves our discernment of new information. In other words, accelerated learning

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w to Learn Faster By Michelle LaBrosse,CCPM, PMP®, PMI-ACP, RYT, and Founder of Cheetah Learning

gives us a more calibrated “BS meter.” One accelerated learning technique that helps us with discernment is called “rapid synthesis” - this is where you learn to quickly identify the most important, core elements of new information you encounter and integrate it with information from other sources. When we are able to quickly process and make sense of new information using rapid synthesis, we are less likely to fall victim to false information, poorly supported claims, or exaggeration. This skill is particularly important in today’s world of “fake news.”

• Learning faster improves our brain health and helps us age better. There are five learning “speed bumps” that can actually age your brain: righteousness, entitlement, victim-ness, insecurity, and anxiety. By replacing these with curiosity, gratitude, choice, confidence, and calm focus, you engage the parts of your brain that can actually improve as you age: increasing access to working memory and stimulating better instant recall. With accelerated learning, you will step out of your comfort zone more easily - a necessary step to stimulating the creativity needed to address immediate and far-reaching challenges. Even if you feel that you’ve moved past the “learning” stage of your life, learning how to learn faster can help you further develop your current skillset and enrich your quality of life. To read more about the benefits of accelerated learning and how Cheetah Learning incorporates this into their online and classroom courses, check out www. cheetahlearning.com. Cheetah Learning’s Fundamentals of Accelerated Learning course introduces students to the accelerated learning techniques of rapid synthesis, mind-mapping, instant recall, and more.

About the Author: Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, is an entrepreneurial powerhouse with a penchant for making success easy, fun, and fast. She is the founder of Cheetah Learning, the author of the Cheetah Success Series, and a prolific blogger whose mission is to bring Project Management to the masses. Cheetah Learning is a virtual company with 100 employees, contractors, and licensees worldwide. To date, more than 50,000 people have become “Cheetahs” using Cheetah Learning’s innovative Project Management and

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accelerated learning techniques. Honored by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), Cheetah Learning was named Professional Development Provider of the Year at the 2008 PMI® Global Congress. A dynamic keynote speaker and industry thought leader, Michelle is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world. Michelle also developed the Cheetah Certified Project Manager (CCPM) program based on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality profiling to help students master how to use their unique strengths for learn is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world. Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 31

Malala receives highest U.N. honour to promote girls education

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai a U.N. Messenger of Peace on Monday to promote girls education, more than four years after a Taliban gunman shot her in the head on her school bus in 2012.

Malala Yousafzai attends a ceremony after being selected a United Nations messenger of peace in New York, NY, April 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

At 19, Yousafzai is the youngest Messenger of Peace, the highest honour given by the United Nations for an initial period of two years. She was also the youngest person to win the Nobel peace prize in 2014 when she was 17.

The Pakistani education activist came to prominence when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head in 2012 as she was leaving school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, northwest of the country’s capital Islamabad. She was targeted for her campaign against efforts by the Taliban to deny women education.

“You are not only a hero, but you are a very committed and generous person,” Guterres told Yousafzai. Other current Messengers of Peace include actor Leonardo di Caprio, for climate change, actor Charlize Theron, whose focus is prevention of HIV and elimination of violence against women, and actor Michael Douglas, whose focus is disarmament. Yousafzai has become a regular speaker on the global stage and visited refugee camps in Rwanda and Kenya last July to highlight the plight of refugee girls from Burundi and Somalia.

“The extremists tried all their best to stop me, they tried to kill me and they didn’t succeed,” Yousafzai said on Monday. “Now this is a new life, this is a second life and it is for the purpose of education.” She now lives in Britain, where she received medical treatment after she was shot. Yousafzai said that when she finishes secondary school in June, she would like to study philosophy, politics and economics at university.

NewEditing Zealand School of Dance students in 1967 Reporting by Michelle Nichols; by Sandra Maler http://in.reuters.com 32 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 33

Things I Miss About Teaching I teach from home and mostly love it, but there are some things I’ll always miss about my brick and mortar school.

For the past seven years, I’ve been working remotely in a virtual school with students and colleagues states away. Though grateful for the gig, I do miss certain things about my traditional teaching position. For starters, my wardrobe was much more, what do the students call it? on fleek when people could actually see me doing my job.

These days, I sit on an exercise ball in my living room “office” rocking an over-sized sweatshirt and yoga pants. Looking like a vagabond is small potatoes compared to what I really miss, though…

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1. Face-to-face conversations I like to watch a person physically react while we communicate, and that’s rarely possible in my current position. The majority of my interactions are over the phone or email. I miss seeing a student’s face light up when he suddenly understands Shakespeare! And I’d be lying if I didn’t confess I also miss rolling my eyes with co-workers when our drunk-on-power administrator walked down the hall. 2. A sense of community My company does a really nice job of creating a welcoming environment, and I basically force my colleagues into my life by regularly oversharing. This

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g in a Traditional Classroom helps recapture a small part of the traditional sense of community I was spoiled with in my brick and mortar, but there’s just no replicating the coworker who bursts through your classroom door like Kramer with the next GREATEST IDEA EVER. Which brings me to… 3. Insta-inspiration Quick conversations in the hallway or

observing fellow teachers in their element have a way of inspiring us when we least expect it. It’s those surprise moments, those quick mood boosts, that make me long for my brick-and-mortar days. Very little in the virtual environment happens spontaneously; from scheduling meetings to accommodate multiple time zones to planning everything twice (always gotta be prepared for technical glitches), next to nothing is left to happenstance. 4. Getting to know families I’ve actually gone an entire school year without ever speaking to some of my virtual students’ parents! It’s not that I didn’t try, but when given the choice of whether or not to answer a phone call, some of them choose the latter. Building a positive rapport with families is such an integral part of the student’s success, and I miss having moms and dads visit my classroom for conferences or to deliver their homemade Christmas cookies. Maybe I just miss the cookies? I’ll get back to you on this one. 5. Bumping into students around town When I was in sixth grade, my family

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and I ran into my teacher, Mr. Dale, at a restaurant. It was like bumping into a celebrity! I remember stealing quick glimpses of him sipping a beer, giggling because OMG my teacher drinks beer!, which I’m sure wasn’t creepy at all… I know, I know—most teachers dread this! I used to, until it became an impossibility. Having been out of the public school game for so long has reduced my status to that of Paris Hilton’s: this generation is all, who?? I’m not longing for the spotlight, but I wouldn’t hate rounding the corner at the grocery store to find a familiar face who once sat in the third row, fourth seat back, can’t quite remember her name, but she’s doing really well in college and isn’t that fantastic?! Yeah, that would be nice. In short: I miss the people. These days, my brainstorming sessions are to the tune of Daniel Tiger as I bounce engagement ideas off of my toddler. The built-in collaboration and community of a traditional school are irreplaceable, though getting to wear slippers and sip wine at my virtual faculty meetings make it a little better.

Hey there, I’m Steph! English teacher by trade, smack-talker by nature, and mother of three who lives by the mantra: Life is too short, laugh! I hope you’ll stick around and check out my stuff. And by stuff I mean my writing. Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 35

Chickens and People: Past, Pr (Oxford conference - research findings) Highlights of the project included: 1) Why did the chicken cross the Globe?

Contrary to expectations, the team found that chickens were not domesticated in and transported from Southeast Asia as a source of food, but rather for cultural and spiritual reasons unrelated to their primary modern role a source of protein. There is good evidence to suggest that they were initially considered special animals and symbols of power. The strength and warrior-like nature of cockerels, in particular their use in cock-fighting, appears to have motivated the spread of chickens into Bronze and Iron Age Europe. The Romans - as lovers of blood-sports - were particularly keen on cock-fighting but they also used chickens in religious ceremonies, as sacrifices to gods such as Mercury and Mithras. But in some communities, chickens were valued as individuals, and many were afforded human-style burials. Other communities employed different funerary rites, with human-chicken co-burials, and the team have investigated some of these in detail.

2) Co-burials of humans and their feathered friends

One of the project’s first discoveries resulted from the team’s collaborative work on an Avar period (7th/8thcentury) cemetery from Wien-Csokorgasse in Austria. The cemetery contained hundreds of human burials. All of them contained grave goods: some were richly furnished, others less so, but one of the most common offerings was the chicken. Initially, the cemetery’s excavators had dismissed the chickens simply as ‘food offerings’ - a projection of modern attitudes back onto the past. However, zooarchaeological investigations demonstrated little evidence that these animals had been eaten. Furthermore, closer examination revealed that, far from being randomly deposited, the burials were gendered: women were interred with hens and men with cockerels. To test the hypothesis that close human-chicken relations existed at WienCsokorgasse, the team submitted a selection of the chickens for stable isotope analyses to compare the diet of the humans and the chickens. Surprisingly, when the chicken data were connected to those for the individuals with whom they were buried, the team found a direct correlation in the ranking of the d15N values (which reveal the quality of dietary protein): chickens with high values were interred with high-ranking humans, whereas chickens with lower

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d15N values were interred with similarly low-ranking people. In effect, the humans and the chickens mirror each other in dietary terms, suggesting that relationships between the two were very close indeed: the people knew the chickens that they were buried with. Whilst for the Pagan Avars, chickens represented more than just food, things changed rapidly with the rise of Christianity - the impact of which will also be explored at the conference.

3) Chickens were the original fast food - Christianity, AD1000 and chicken domestication genes

A previous study identified a so-called ‘domestication gene’ in chickens that differentiates all domestic birds from their progenitor, the wild red junglefowl. This gene, called TSHR, is involved in numerous traits including the ability of chickens to produce eggs throughout the year. We applied a statistical test to ascertain the starting date of selection on this gene and expected the result would point towards the origins of domestication about 5,000 years ago. Instead, our analysis of nearly 100 ancient chicken bones revealed that the selection pressure on TSHR didn’t start until AD1000. Intriguingly, this period coincides with two major societal and dietary changes in chicken husbandry. First, the Benedictine Monastic Order disallowed the consumption of meat from four-legged animals during fasting periods, but they allowed people to eat birds and eggs. Perhaps related to this, archaeological assemblages across Europe reveal a substantial increase in the frequency of chicken remains between the 9th and 12th centuries AD. The coincidence between the new dietary rules, the archaeological record, and our genetic results suggests that the modern proliferation of the domestic TSHR gene is a surprisingly recent phenomenon. This result also reveals that the relationship between people and chickens has been dynamic, and more generally, that relatively recent changes in human-animal interactions can radically shift the evolution of domestic animals over short periods of time. Indeed, the last 50 years have seen dramatic, and accelerating, changes - some of which have implications for the future.

4) Food security and resilience

A fundamental strength of the project has been the

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resent and Future team’s ability to examine, from an interdisciplinary perspective, how human-chicken relationships have changed over millennia. This deep-time data exploration has revealed just how extensively humans have transformed the chicken, particularly over the last 50 years. And the results give cause for concern. Whereas in the past, chicken populations were characterised by diversity - in terms of their genetic make-up, diet, size, and shape - today, Western commercial stock are remarkably homogenous. To meet growing demands for meat consumption, breeders have striven to produce the optimum chicken: one that converts feed to carcass weight in the shortest possible time. Selective breeding has resulted in a lack of diversity but, in turn, this equates to a lack of resilience - if one of these chickens gets sick and dies, there is a high probability others will rapidly follow suit. The widespread use of antibiotics to pre-empt infectious diseases may alleviate problems in the short-term but is simultaneously contributing to antibiotic resistance and there is a risk that both chicken and human populations in the West may be susceptible to pandemics. In the future, we may need help (and new stock!) from countries that have retained the more traditional, diverse, and resilient chicken breeds. Such as those that are widespread in Africa.

5) Going Places: Empowering Women, Enhancing Heritage and Increasing Chicken Production in Ethiopia

While the conference marks the end of the largescale chicken project, it also marks the beginning of the team’s new project ‘Going Places’, which is funded by the AHRC through the Global Challenges Research Fund. This project builds upon the anthropological research the team has been conducting in Ethiopia. This work made them familiar with a well-known Amharic proverb translated as ‘Women and chickens rise early in the morning, but they have nowhere to go’. They now aim to help address this widespread issue of female socioeconomic immobility. Through collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute, the National Museum of Ethiopia and the Africa Programme, the Going Places project is conducting female-centred cultural and scientific research into chicken husbandry, past and present, to support Ethiopia’s future economic and heritage development.

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The project has equally been working to enhance heritage and cultural appreciation in the UK and, as part of this, the team have been working closely with staff and pupils from the City of London Academy (CoLA), who are responsible for the monumental and thought-provoking artwork that will also be on display in the museum. Art Installation at the Oxford University Museum The conference also featured a 25’ high chicken, Dinnersaurus rex, that was displayed next to its cousin, the T-rex. Dinnersaurus rex was made by the CoLA pupils, under the direction of artist Ben Frimet. It is a memorial to the chicken’s descent – both from its dinosaur origins and in terms of its fall into mass exploitation. With chickens now being selectively bred to grow so large, so quickly, it won’t be too many decades before they reach dino-size. The end of the project coincides, rather fittingly, with the Chinese Year of the Rooster. To mark this special year, the team is launching the ‘Chicken Trail’. This digital exhibition will reveal how the story of chickens is the story of people, charting the spread of global cultures, the rise and fall of ideologies and empires, as well human impact on the planet. It will present tales that intrigue, some that terrify, and others that inspire hope – as it is becoming clear that chickens may be the key to helping some of the most vulnerable people in our modern-day communities and cultures. Follow the team on Twitter @Chicken_Project for weekly research reports. For further information about the project, go to http://scicultchickens.org/ http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/ Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 37

Add to Glorious Animal Characteris Animal Doodles is a series of different animal, bird images I found on Google and doodled my imagination on them. One can find so many different patterns and textures in nature and especially on flora and fauna. This project celebrates animals and birds in all their glory by bringing out they beauty of their characteristics, behavior, colors and textures with doodles. The idea was to experiment with doodles of tribal patterns on photographs of animals in the wild. I have always found inspiration in tribal art and off late in African patterns and designs specifically. My first doodle experiment was a Rhino for which I got a very good response on my social feeds and so I decided to make a series out of the experiment. What started as a casual experiment on a bored evening as my first attempt doodling on images, left me with a newfound love for animals and illustration. Not only was it a satisfying creative experiment, but also an enriching learning experience. The doodles are digitally done using Wacom in Adobe Illustrator. Animals and nature inspire me. More info:Â behance.net 38 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

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stics By Doodling On Their Pictures

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Human rights of people with autism leading expert tells United Nations The basic human rights of autistic people are not being met, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, a world expert on autism, told the United Nations in New York, to mark Autism Awareness Week. People with autism account for a significant minority of the population worldwide, yet we are failing them in so many respects In his keynote speech, Professor Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, argued that even with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities having been adopted in 2006, people with autism still do not enjoy human rights to the same extent as everyone else. At least 1% of the world’s population is on the autism spectrum, which equates to some 70 million people with autism on the planet. Autism is a spectrum of neurological disabilities involving difficulties with social relationships, communication, adjusting to unexpected change, dealing with ambiguity, and entailing sensory hypersensitivity and anxiety. Autism also leads to a different perceptual and learning style, so that the person has a preference for detail, and develops unusually narrow interests, and an unusually strong preference for facts, patterns, repetition and routine. “People with autism account for a significant minority of the population worldwide, yet we are failing them in so many respects,” he said. “This creates barriers to their participation in society and to their autonomy that must be addressed. We have had a UN Convention to support people with disabilities for over 10 years now and yet we still are not fulfilling their basic human rights.” In his speech, Professor Baron-Cohen reminded the UN that in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, people with intellectual disability were killed in their thousands, under the compulsory euthanasia laws. Many of these individuals likely had autism, even before we had a name for it, 42 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

as the first report of autism by Dr Leo Kanner was published during the Second World War. However, historical violations of the human rights of people with autism go back further than that: in the US, in the 1920s, many States passed laws to compulsorily sterilize people with intellectual disability, including those whom today we would recognize had autism, in the name of eugenics. Professor Baron-Cohen highlighted six examples where he believes the human rights of people with autism are not being met. First, the right to dignity: According to the National Autistic Society in the UK, half of adults with autism report they have been abused by someone they thought was a friend. Half of adults with autism report they stay home because of fear of being abused in some way. Individuals with intellectual disability, including those with autism, are three times more likely to be victims of abuse or neglect, robbery, or assault. Second, the right to education: one in five children with autism have been excluded from school. Whatever the reason for being excluded, they are being deprived of the right to education. And of the other 80% of children with autism who have stayed in school, half report having been bullied, which is a risk factor for depression. Third, the right to equal access to public services: one in three adults with autism experiences severe mental ill health because of lack of support. In Professor Baron-Cohen’s clinic for adults with Asperger Syndrome, a subgroup of autism, two thirds have felt suicidal and one third have felt so bad that they have attempted suicide. Research from the Universities of Cambridge and Coventry in the UK found that among those who have died by suicide, approximately 12% had definite or probable autism. Professor BaronCohen called for a minute’s silence to remember those people with autism who have died by suicide. Finding such a high rate of autism in people who have died by suicide is not surprising when you consider how many of these individuals did not have the benefit of early diagnosis, explained Professor Baron-Cohen. Early diagnosis is possible in childhood – there are screening measures

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m not being met... Professor Simon Baron-Cohen

that can detect autism in young toddlers, but most countries do not screen for autism. He drew attention to the fact that in the UK, in many areas, the waiting time for a diagnosis can be up to a year or longer, and that in high- and middle-income countries, people with autism may receive a formal diagnosis, but in lowincome countries, the majority of people with autism may remain undiagnosed, either because of stigma, ignorance, or lack of basic services. Fourth, the right to work and employment: Professor Baron-Cohen said that only 15% of adults with autism are in full time employment, despite many having good intelligence and talents. The right to work should extend to everyone, whatever support they might need. Unemployment is

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another well-known risk factor for depression. He commended some enlightened employers, like the German company Auticon, the Danish company Specialisterne, and the German company SAP, for setting an example of how to help people with autism into employment and how employers can make reasonable adjustments for people with autism. Fifth, the right to protection from discrimination, and the right to a cultural life, and to rest and leisure: He described how many people with autism have been asked to leave a supermarket or a cinema, because of their different behaviour. He said this is discrimination and again would never be tolerated for other kinds of disabilities. In addition, half of adults with autism report feeling lonely, a third of them do not leave the

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Cont...Human rights of people with autism not being met... house most days, and two thirds of them feel depressed because of loneliness. One in four adults with autism have no friends at all. Finally, the right to protection of the law, and the right to a fair, impartial trial: one in five young people with autism have been stopped and questioned by the police, and 5% have been arrested. Two-thirds of police officers report they have received no training in how to interview a person with autism. Many legal cases involving someone with autism result in imprisonment for crimes the person with autism may not have committed, or for crimes others committed, but the person with autism became tangled up in, because of their social naivete.

Some of these crimes are the result of the person with autism becoming obsessed with a particular topic, a product of their disability, and yet the courts often ignore autism as a mitigating factor. Professor Baron-Cohen ended his address with a call to action. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We must take action. I want to see an investigation into the violation of human rights in people with autism. I want to see increased surveillance of their needs, in every country. And I want us to be continuously asking people with autism what their lives are like, and what they need, so that they are fully involved in shaping their future. Only this way can we ensure their human rights are met.â&#x20AC;?

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/

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The Global Search for Education:

A New Model for Student Assessment – Part 1

Charles Fadel believes there are flaws with the assessment system currently predominant in the United States. “Assessment boils down to evidence of learning,” but the important outcomes we should be evaluating in students are in fact the most “hard to measure” and subsequently these qualities are simply not being assessed. Balanced assessment is not a new debate. The key questions: Is there now a growing momentum for change, and if so, at what stage of the education process should the assessment begin? Do we have evidence of successful case studies? What things should be prioritized for change and how can modern technologies help to update an antiquated assessment system?

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C. M. Rubin

“It’s easier to create a statistically valid test for content or for content-related mental processes, whereas it is difficult to measure something like critical thinking, and very difficult to measure something like courage. In short, there is too much focus on Knowledge.” — Charles Fadel

Here we begin a 2 part series on Assessment. Joining us in The Global Search for Education to discuss a new model of assessment for a 21st century world is Charles Fadel, founder of the Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR). Fadel advocates for a holistic approach to 21st Century education as outlined in his book, Four-Dimensional Education: The Competencies Learners Need to Succeed.

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What are the key aspects of the assessment system that you believe it is realistic and practical to prioritize for change? What is your organization and others in the US doing to bring about change? Is there any broad momentum for change?

“The room for growth is in the technology of assessment, and in attempts to measure what matters.” — Charles Fadel Charles, what are we assessing that we shouldn’t need to? What should we be assessing instead? Briefly, there is assessment designed for sorting students, and assessment designed for supporting students. The principal flaw with assessment is that currently, there is too much of a focus on sorting, and not enough on supporting (especially given that the sorting assessments are not even that good at sorting!). This is education for the sake of universities and employers, and not for the sake of students. Teachers’ and students’ time is wasted as they prepare and take assessments that are just looking to rank students’ performance rather than spending time engaged in authentic learning or working on socio-emotional and other competencies. The qualities that are most “hard-to-measure” are often some of the most important. What ends up getting measured is what’s easiest to measure, and not necessarily what’s most important. Namely, it’s easier to create a statistically valid test for content or for content-related mental processes, whereas it is difficult to measure something like critical thinking, and very difficult to measure something like courage. In short, there is too much focus on Knowledge (and not particularly relevant knowledge!), and not enough on Skills, Character, and Meta-Learning. Creating formal assessment of these hard-tomeasure qualities would not only help to elucidate whether students are making progress in these areas, but would help shift the attention back onto what’s important.

The room for growth is in the technology of assessment, and in attempts to measure what matters. We have organized a pre-competitive R&D consortium so that assessment makers can get onto the same (most cutting-edge) page about what the goals and technical possibilities are, and subsequently can use that information to develop their own competitive assessments. This follows a model used in many industries such as semiconductors, biotech, etc.; industry resources are pooled for cooperation in research, and then competition fuels innovation – in this case, in creation of modern assessments. Our first paper has identified the key features that will likely be included in the kind of transformation that needs to occur: Deeper Competency Models – stronger researchbased models of the essential components and common progressions of learning competence. Richer Performance Evidence – authentic, performance-based demonstrations of capabilities, using diverse methods and media to capture insightful evidence of learning progress. Assessments FOR Learning – all assessment and evaluative efforts including a focus on supporting and motivating deeper and broader learning progress, beyond traditional student sorting. Assessments AS Learning – embedded “stealth” assessments in online learning simulations and games, and evaluative “lifestream” personal data captured by sensors monitoring daily activities as authentic demonstrations of applied learning. Integrating Multiple Methods – more effective triangulation of multiple assessment methods across the four educational dimensions, with deeper research on how these competency elements interact and can affect each other. More Effective Assessment Use – better alignment between assessment uses and education goals, practices, improvement strategies, and education transformation.

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“It will require approaching assessment holistically, with the learner in mind, and being innovative in methodologies.” — Charles Fadel What will a new assessment vision/system require? How can new technologies now assist in bringing about the needed change in assessment? It will require approaching assessment holistically, with the learner in mind, and being innovative in methodologies. Different types of assessments can be triangulated to give students, parents, and teachers (as well as policy makers, program evaluators, and universities, in some cases) a clearer, more psychologically valid, and more textured picture of learning and aptitude along many dimensions. New technologies can help with experimentation and development of more inherently useful tests. For example, imagine a videogame that teaches learners content as well as character qualities such as resilience and courage, and simultaneously assesses them based on a model of learning behind the scenes. The result is that the experience was worthwhile (and fun!) for the student, and the assessment outcome is useful as a diagnostic because it is psychologically valid. At what stage of the education process should a changed assessment system start? At the very beginning! We know that early interventions have the biggest effect, so from as early as students are currently being tested, they should be allowed to experience better tests. If the tests themselves are still distracting or stressful, then younger students should be spared, and allowed to focus on their learning. As the earlier grades provide the foundation for learning that is built upon for the rest of education (and life), changes in assessment earlier would have the most profound effects on students’ lives. Changing assessments later would be helpful for older students, but it cannot rewrite what they learned in the earlier grades.

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“More qualitative data can now be stored and should be leveraged to show evidence of learning that goes deeper than a letter grade or a percentile score.” — Charles Fadel Many educators believe we need both Big Data and Small Data in the student assessment process? How do you see the strengths and weaknesses of these different data in your new model for student assessment? What kinds of data have become more critical for high school and college assessment? Assessment boils down to evidence of learning. Each type of evidence should be used for its strengths, and its weaknesses should be made up for by other types of evidence. Standardized assessments (as they currently stand) are strong in certain types of reliability and validity, and have some predictive power, but do not provide textured information about students’ understanding, and are not authentic tasks with inherent value for the learner. They can be complemented by Portfolio assessments, Rubrics, Self-Report surveys, and/or Performance assessments which can provide more texture for better instruction and get at more qualitative attributes that are important to measure. Although the philosophy behind Balanced Assessment certainly is not new to education, the call for a system that uses multiple and varied measures of student performance has grown louder in recent years. While the push for higher levels of academic achievement and accountability continues to increase, more people have realized that a single test cannot provide a comprehensive evaluation of student performance. The state of Colorado has even gone as far as passing legislation that requires the inclusion of multiple student performance measures in teacher evaluations as well as the Unified Improvement Planning process for both schools and districts. More qualitative data can now be stored and should be leveraged to show evidence of learning that goes deeper than a letter grade or a percentile score. Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 47

Receiving Feedback – Seven Scary W

counterweight to whatever critical feedback I receive. Give me feedback that is complementary and I dismiss it; give me feedback that is critical and I over-invest in it.

“Would you be open to some feedback?” may be the seven scariest words I know. It’s embarrassing to admit what a mess I can be about feedback. I teach this stuff. They’re just words, and so is the feedback that comes with them. For me the problem is one of perspective. No doubt most of the people who say these words just want to share their reaction with purely positive intent. I take whatever it is they say and turn it into commentary about the quality and essence of my being. What’s worse is that my fragile ego prevents me from accepting positive feedback as a

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I’ve somehow set up a scenario that allows me to lose no matter what the nature of the feedback . No wonder I teach this stuff, I still have so much to learn about it! To be fair (to myself), I AM making progress in how I receive feedback, but it’s a long slow road to normalcy. Here are a few things I’m learning about how to receive feedback, and be better for it: I Remind Myself that I Have An Allergy to Feedback– Before listening to feedback, I take a deep breath and remind me of what I already know: my innate insecurities and not-enoughness are an emotional (vs. physical) allergy , and my allergy does not have to define me. I remind myself that what I am about to hear I will somehow misconstrue. I’m overly sensitive to feedback, like some people are overly sensitive to pollen or nuts or bee stings. I don’t feel bad about myself for having an allergic reaction to pollen, so why should I feel bad about myself if I overpersonalize feedback? I Don’t Just Sit There and Take It – Instead of just

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Words That Make Me Sweat Jim Morris

waiting for the feedback session to end quietly, I ask questions about what I am hearing. In general, I have found that the longer I stay in conversation with the person providing me with the feedback the easier time I have taking it. The longer we talk, the less biting the feedback often feels. Impact Matters as Much or More as Intent – If I think the feedback is the result of a misperception of the giver, I don’t interrupt or correct them. In truth, I’m not always successful pulling this one off, but it is what I want to do. There’s what we meant (intent) and how it was received (impact). Instead of justifying my intent, I try to remember that impact matters. Explaining myself sometimes just sends the message that I am defensive, and that can shut down the feedback giver. If I said “yes” to receiving feedback, then that’s what I need to do; receive it. The Feedback May be About the Receiver, But it’s Also about the Giver – This doesn’t mean I should blow off someone’s feedback, but it does mean I can make a decision about how much of what is being said is about me, or about the other person. For example, if someone tells me I appear disorganized, it’s a good bet that they noticed that in me because they value organization; it MAY mean I need to work on being more organized, that’s up to me to decide. Don’t Over-Generalize; You are Not Your Feedback – If someone tells you that don’t seem to understand something, that doesn’t mean you’re dumb, wrong or bad, it just means you seem to lack understanding about something, period. Each of us is much more

than any one piece of feedback. We each can be paradoxical in how we move through the world: evolving human beings on the one hand, and blind and resistant to change on the other; open to life and learning in one moment and convinced and resolute about being right in the next. Just because feedback may somehow apply to you doesn’t mean it IS you. Learning to Be Open (to Feedback, or Anything) is a Great Practice in Courage – Learning to be open to receiving feedback, no matter who is giving it, is a great practice in learning to courageously hear what others have to say without going to shame or guilt. At my best, I can receive what someone has to say without doing anything with it other than to listen and hear. Finally – and this is important, at least to me: Not Everyone Deserves Your Openness and Vulnerability – In other words, when someone asks you if you’d be willing to hear your feedback, you actually DO have the option of saying “no thanks” and feeling OK about having done so. For me to be open to what you have to tell me, there has to be trust, or at least there has to be the absence of distrust. Set your own limits for when, and from whom, you will receive feedback. However much of an art as it is to give feedback, for me, it’s twice as heard to receive it. So why do so many (but not all) courses on “feedback” or “difficult conversations with employees” focus so much more on how to say it instead of how to receive it?

http://moementum.com/work-smart-blog

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 49

Belthangady Tutor Uploads Maths Lessons On YouTube

Deepthi Sanjiv

The lab was inaugurated about two years ago. Yakup mobilised the funds for this through a WhatsApp group and a Facebook page of old students.

This teacher of a Belthangady government school with 110 students has taken PM Narendra Modi’s call for a Digital India seriously. Yakub Koyyur, an assistant teacher at the Government High School, Nada, a remote village of Belthangady taluk in Dakshina Kannada, is helping students from across the state do well in maths. To train oneself in the subject most students find difficult, all one needs to do is visit www. inyatrust.co.in, and view video lessons on YouTube. Yakub Koyyur teaches students in his maths lab Yakub told Bangalore Mirror that he has been working towards improving the performance of students in examinations. “Generally, efforts are concentrated at conducting special classes after school hours and through counselling. Being an active member of Maths, Science State Teachers’ Forum, which has nearly 11,000 maths and science teachers from all over Karnataka, I decided to upload an approximate 4,000 pages of learning material for SSLC students on the website, which is available for free. I have also prepared a number of educational videos and uploaded them on YouTube. Students just need to check ‘videos by Yakub Koyyur’ online,” he said.

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In this endeavour of his, ‘Maths World’ is what Yakub set up at the government school. It was a concept that he wants to develop further, making it “one of its kind in India”. “Maths World is a concept of a special mathematics lab with all modern facilities including interactive devices, projector, display, LED TV, models, tools, garden and everything required to make maths simple for high school students. Students can find solutions to all their mathematical problems in one room,” he said. “Maths World in our school provides modern facilities for students to learn the subject through activities. We have designed Maths World in such a way that it attracts children and develops their interest further in the subject. The lab has materials, tools, electronic and electrical equipment, and books required for making learning an enjoyable experience through activities. In addition, audio/visual teaching material on Eyeris device help students memorise math concepts without difficulty. Maths World has 60 chairs, tables and other furniture for students and teachers. In addition, Maths Garden, which we are developing, will help students learn mathematical symbols and shapes in a novel way,” he added.

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Bangalore Mirror Bureau

Currently, videos for SSLC students are available. During this summer vacation, Yakub plans to develop and upload at least 100 videos for class eight and nine students, because he believes that the foundation of government school students needs to be strengthened. “Many teachers have been inspired by this initiative and launched similar activity-based teaching initiatives,” he said.

Yakub has set up a unique maths lab in his school, which he has done “in order to make maths learning fun for students”. “Most students find mathematics, the toughest subject. But if students can begin to see the brighter side of it, and show a keen interest towards numbers and graphs. They will no more find mathematics a scary subject,” he said.

Singapore Maths inspires UK educators Sandra Davie The Singapore style of teaching mathematics is already being used in thousands of schools across the United States. Now, it is making inroads into British schools as well. The Inspire Maths series of textbooks, were trialled in 70 British primary schools by the Department for Education over the past two years. A study found that they were effective in helping children master the subject better. Now, with another £41 million from the British government - to fund a network of “mastery specialist teachers” - the Singapore style of teaching maths may reach as many as 8,000 primary schools in Britain over the next few years. Independent research conducted by the Oxford University Department of Education last year found that British schoolchildren made more progress in maths when teachers used Singapore-style methods. This boost to progress was surprising because pupils had been in a classroom setting for only a short period and because it often takes time to embed new teaching approaches. Researchers found that pupils shot ahead of their peers when taught the Singapore way, which focuses on mastering core principles as “building blocks”. The “mastery” method, as Singapore’s approach is called in Britain, introduces core concepts such as times tables, addition and subtraction gradually, until learners are confident. Ideas are broken down into small steps, using real-life objects such as cubes and beads to illustrate a point, before moving on to drawings and then concepts. The research combined

child assessments with classroom observations and interviews with teachers. Teachers reported that the programme could boost children’s motivation and engagement, and the evaluation found that it could be used creatively and flexibly. Researchers also found that teachers value the professional development provided to support their use of the Inspire Maths resources. Professor James Hall, lead author of the study and now a lecturer at the University of Exeter, said: “This boost to progress was surprising because pupils had been in a classroom setting for only a short period and because it often takes time to embed new teaching approaches.” The study involved two groups of children aged five to six - a total of 550 - learning maths in 12 English schools in 2015 to last year. The first group learnt maths the normal British way for the first term, then switched to using the Inspire Maths textbook in the second term. The second group used the textbook for both terms, and made better overall progress than the first group. First, the pressure on schools in England to cover a large number of maths topics in the national curriculum each year creates tension with the Singapore maths approach, which emphasises building solid foundations before moving on. She added that teachers need more professional development and that school management teams need to be brought on board.

Photo: Oxford University Press

The Singapore style of teaching maths has gained attention because of the Republic’s high placings in global benchmarking tests. Singapore students were ranked No. 1 in maths, science and reading in the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment test results released in December last year. Britain was ranked 27th in maths. Besides Britain and the US, 15 countries - including South Africa, Brunei and the Netherlands - are using customised textbooks based on Singapore maths.

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The Straits Times Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 51

We Participate In Bookface Friday... Every week we try to participate with #bookfacefriday on Twitter and Instagram. These are a few of our favorite results! All colleagues are eager to find their perfect bookface match.

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. Join Us! Emilie Kempenaers

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Study casts doubt on whether inter home protect teenagers online

Internet filters are widely used in homes, schools and libraries throughout the UK to protect young people from unpleasant* online experiences. However, a new study by Oxford casts doubt on whether such technologies shield young teenagers after finding no link between homes with internet filters and the likelihood of the teenagers in those households being better protected. The research paper, published in The Journal of Pediatrics, says the effectiveness of internet filters is ‘dubious’ and suggests that resources would be better spent trying to develop the resilience of teenagers to such experiences. Researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at Oxford University analysed Ofcom data from 1,030 interviews in the homes of 515 teenagers aged 12-15 years across the UK. There was broadly an equal number of boys and girls in the sample. Their parents were also interviewed about whether they had used technical tools to control or manage their child’s access to online content. Nearly one in six (or 14%) of the teenagers interviewed reported they had had at least one negative experience online in the past year that they would class as significant; 8% said they had been contacted by someone online who they did not know and wanted to be their friend. Around 4% said they had encountered another person pretending to 58 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

be them online; 2% saw something of a sexual nature that made them uncomfortable; 3% reported seeing or receiving a scary video or comment that made them feel scared. Meanwhile only one-third of the parents said they used content filters, with two-thirds (66%) saying they had not. One quarter (24%) of the parents did not know or were unaware of the filter technology at the time of the interview. The findings show that the use of internet filtering in the home did not appear to mitigate the risk of young people having unpleasant online experiences and that technical ability to bypass these filters had no observed effect on the likelihood of such experiences. The paper says the findings are unexpected as they do not support the clear presumption that internet filters in the home effectively protect teenagers. Major British internet providers now add filters to new household connections as a matter of course, notes the paper. It says such technology is costly to develop and maintain, and even sophisticated filters can accidentally block legitimate content. The researchers say their main concern is that such filters may ‘over-block’ searches for information about issues that are important for teenagers, such as

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rnet filters in the

• The article, ‘Internet Filtering Technology and Aversive Online Experiences in Adolescents’, by Przybylski et al will be published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

• The study focuses on experiences in

which events are judged unpleasant by the individual experiencing them.

• The study’s limitations

The study authors point out that there are limitations in relying on what teenagers report to researchers about their experiences; ethical and privacy concerns prevent researchers from seeing a teenager’s internet history. The paper suggests that further research could explore whether teenagers are missing out on positive experiences online in homes that use internet filters. Another area yet to be investigated would be the changes in online experiences over time and how this affects teenagers’ attitudes, especially in the period after filters were installed.

• Background

alcohol, drugs, sexual relationships, health and identity, and may even have ‘disproportionate’ effect on vulnerable groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teens. They also note that the use of filters could lead to ‘chilling effects’ whereby young people pre-empt filtered results by self-censoring what they view. Instead of a policy emphasis that prioritises internet filters in the home, the paper suggests we need more focus on educating and supporting teenagers to view online material responsibly, especially given increasing use of mobile devices outside the home. The main emphasis should be on how teenagers manage online experiences that make them feel uncomfortable or scared, it concludes. Lead author Dr Andrew Przybylski, from the Oxford Internet Institute, said: ‘Parents may feel reassured in knowing they have internet filters in their home, but our results suggests that such filters do not safeguard against young people seeing things that may frighten or upset them. We strongly believe that there is a need for more evidence to provide guidance on keeping young people safe online so policymakers, parents and those concerned with educating young people can support them in an appropriate way. ‘The data suggests that future research needs to look

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Between 2005 and 2015, the time 12- to 15-year old British adolescents spent online increased from 8 to nearly 19 hours weekly, according to previously published research by the University of Oxford.

carefully at the long-term value of filters and see whether they protect young people at a wider range of ages.’ Co-author Dr Victoria Nash, OII’s Deputy Director and Policy and Research Fellow, added: ‘Given the risks of preventing access to legitimate information associated with internet filtering, our children and teenagers deserve to know that we have clear evidence for whether they are effectively before asking them to accept such restrictions.’ http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/ Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 59

From the classroom into the

Two women look out over thatched roof huts towards the Mekong river

While Stanford students gain a theoretical understanding of international justice from coursework, through internships with Stanford’s Handa Center they learn firsthand how those theories can be applied on the ground. Through their work monitoring trials in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and supporting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Cambodia, Stanford students Alina Utrata, Olina Chau and Quito Tsui helped achieve the mission and preserve the legacy of the ECCC. In the process, their lives were forever transformed. 60 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

It’s 82 degrees and muggy at 8 a.m. in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s vibrant and crowded capital city. There is a steady buzz in the air as tuk-tuks and motos whiz along the street. Two Stanford undergraduate students hop out of a van as part of an international team of trial monitors. The students – Alina Utrata and Olina Chau – along with fellow student Quito Tsui, spent last summer interning with Stanford’s WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice in Cambodia through support from the Stanford Global Studies Internship program, which sends more than 80 students to over 20 locations around the world each summer to pursue internships in a variety of fields. They enter the security line and proceed past the dozens, sometimes hundreds, of Cambodians who have gathered to watch the day’s proceedings. The students then settle into the media room where they will spend the day monitoring Case 002 at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). The ECCC was established in 2003 to try the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge for crimes committed during their reign from 1975 to 1979, when about 2 million people are believed to have died from starvation, torture, execution and forced labor.

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world As part of its effort to engage the next generation in the promotion and protection of human rights around the world, the Handa Center has supported the court’s work from the very beginning. It has done this through trial monitoring, film and television series focused on the proceedings, community dialogues across the country and engagement with local universities. “We saw an opportunity here to play a role in enhancing the impact that the tribunal would have on Cambodian society,” said Handa Center Director David Cohen. The Handa Center’s trial monitoring program at the ECCC provides accountability to international legal standards as well as an objective historical record of the court’s activities for researchers, legal experts and the lay public, both in Cambodia and around the world. “I think of it as being in the center of a story as it unfolds and we get to be the authors of what appears to the public,” said Chau, a sophomore from San Diego whose parents fled the violence of the Khmer Rouge regime. One of the really special things about Stanford students is that they are not satisfied with just learning in the classroom. They want to apply that knowledge to real-world problems. Jeremy M. Weinstein Director of the Stanford Global Studies Division The Handa Center also collaborates with the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, a UNESCO Memory of the World site. The museum’s exhibits and archives provide a factual account of Khmer Rouge-era

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Kendra Davidson

atrocities in an effort to help both Cambodian and international visitors better understand the history of the conflict and prevent future crimes against humanity. “Tuol Sleng is a space of education, but also a space of practical and real-life historical importance,” said Tsui, a junior political science major who interned at the museum last summer. “My experience at Tuol Sleng has been really incredible. It’s great to be interacting on a daily basis with the people who have lived the history that we read about.” These internships build on the academic offerings of the Handa Center, which recently launched an interdisciplinary minor in human rights to provide students with professional and practical experience in the field. “One of the really special things about Stanford students is that they are not satisfied with just learning in the classroom. They want to apply that knowledge to real-world problems,” said Jeremy M. Weinstein, the Sakurako and William Fisher Family Director of the Stanford Global Studies Division – home to both the Global Studies internship program and the Handa Center on campus. “We’ve found that this is absolutely transformative for students’ learning experiences, but also in enabling them to think about how to pursue their career goals going forward.”

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Putting theory into practice Utrata, a senior majoring in history and the law, first became interested in international justice while taking Professor Norman Naimark’s history of genocide course. She spent a summer working as a research assistant for Naimark, looking at the impact of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the court established by the United Nations to prosecute crimes committed in the Balkans in the 1990s. So often it seems that the history book ends with the end of this terrible event, but I want to learn what happens afterward. How do communities that have suffered mass atrocity put themselves together again? Alina Utrata Intern, WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice The following summer, she traveled to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on another Global Studies internship, where she was able to conduct research for her honors thesis about how international tribunals and other legal mechanisms can affect post-conflict countries. After her summer in Bosnia, Utrata was keen to further deepen her understanding of transitional justice processes by observing ongoing trial proceedings in Cambodia for the Handa Center. “So often it seems that the history book ends with the end of this terrible event, but I want to learn what

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happens afterward,” Utrata said. “How do communities that have suffered mass atrocity put themselves together again? Living in Cambodia, I got to see it for myself firsthand and, crucially, whether Cambodians thought the court was a good mechanism for addressing the legacy of genocide.” While Stanford students have a theoretical understanding of international justice gleaned from coursework, they learn how those theories can be applied on the ground in Cambodia. Tsui came to Cambodia for that very reason. “This is a society where atrocities have happened very recently and still very much mark the way in which life plays out here socially, economically and politically,” she said. “I think this internship is a way to really see that context.” For students, the fieldwork is transformative. “The insight that they take from this experience is selfapparent,” said Penelope Van Tuyl, associate director of the Handa Center. “They come back with this incredible depth of understanding that they didn’t have before they went.”

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Students and staff working in the media room at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

Rights and the rule of law To achieve progress in the area of human rights, a properly functioning legal system is indispensable, Cohen said. “The rule of law and human rights are really two sides of the same coin.” In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge’s desire to implement an “agrarian utopia” free of institutions resulted in a full breakdown of existing social institutions, including the judiciary. Only a handful of judicial professionals survived. The ECCC, which was set up by the Cambodian government in conjunction with the United Nations, was established not only to prosecute those most responsible for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, but also to serve as a model court to help rebuild and strengthen the domestic legal system. This special tribunal is expected to uphold international standards of justice, while imparting those norms for the national and local courts of Cambodia, said Melanie Hyde, who oversees the Handa Center’s Cambodia programs. The Handa Center further supports these efforts by working with Cambodian universities to help educate the next generation of judicial professionals about human rights law and fair trial standards. Through the trial monitoring program, the Handa Center provides a record of the trials for research purposes and to support historical memory, accountability and increased awareness of the court’s activities. Inside the media room, the Handa Center’s team of half a dozen trial monitors from Cambodia and other parts of the world – some full-time staff and some

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Cambodian villagers look on as the trial continues at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. interns – take turns performing different tasks throughout the day, from transcribing the proceedings verbatim in both English and Khmer to updating social media. At the end of the day, a summary of the proceedings is posted to Facebook; at the end of each week, a report on the court’s activities is published. “It is very important that we are here every day,” Utrata said. “We show that there is accountability, that people are watching, and through our roles as trial monitors we are also able to effectively liaise with the communities and let people know what is happening at the court, what the trial judgment means, and why it’s important.” The work has shattered some preconceived ideas. “When I came here, I had this idea that the trial is more about seeking some sort of revenge,” Chau said. “Since working here, especially in the media room when you have so much access to educating youth and the general public, I’ve realized that the trials are more important for closure and for peacefulness – for being able to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. That’s what I’m hoping to achieve here and that’s what I’ve learned the most from.”

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Victims of the Khmer Rouge, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

The exterior of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

Learning from the past The international community invests hundreds of millions of dollars in justice processes such as the ECCC, but eventually the court will close when it has achieved its mandate. “What’s important to think about – and that’s part of the outreach work we are doing – is the legacy of the court,” Cohen said. A key institution that embodies that legacy is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, an important focal point in the history of the Khmer Rouge and in Cambodians’ understanding of their history, he said. People involved with this work, they’re going to change the society. They’re going to try to prevent these kinds of atrocities from happening again. Chhay Visoth Director of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Built in 1965, Tuol Sleng was originally a high school, but under the Khmer Rouge regime it became “S21,” a notorious prison and torture center. Out of an estimated 20,000 people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng through the years, only a few lived to tell their story. Today, Tuol Sleng is a memorial site and museum that is meant to commemorate the tragedy that happened there and the crimes that ensued during the Khmer Rouge period more broadly.

Tsui spent her summer as a communications intern at the museum. She helped curate and draft text for the museum exhibits in an effort to enhance the educational mission of the museum and broaden its outreach. “It’s a really emotional space to be in,” she said. “Working with people every day who lived that reality is really important. It’s very special that I can share that with them, that they’re open to discussing it and having outsiders be a part of that process.” The museum was very grateful for Tsui’s contribution over the summer, emphasized Chhay Visoth, the director of the museum, who said, “People involved with this work, they’re going to change the society. They’re going to try to prevent these kinds of atrocities from happening again.”

http://news.stanford.edu 64 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

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Four secondary school writers win mentorships with professional authors Four talented secondary school students have been selected as winners of the New Zealand Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc.) Youth Mentorship Programme 2017. This year NZSA has awarded four youth mentorships rather than the usual three writers as each of these finalists are at the perfect stage to hone their writing skills and develop their craft under the mentorship of four of New Zealand’s finest professional authors.

The 2017 recipients are Zak Devey from Liston College in Waitakere, Ioana Manoa from Northcote College on Auckland’s Northshore, Helen Oliver from Tawa College in Tawa, Wellington and Aislinn Roodt who is a home schooled student living in Picton. Each of these writers are aged between 15 and 18 years old. Ioana will be using her mentorship to develop a collection of her poetry, while Helen, Zak and Aislinn will all be working on longer fiction projects and exploring new approaches to developing their writing technique. Selection panel convenor, author Anna Mackenzie, commented that “It was a real challenge to select this year’s winners from a diverse and impressive field - but ultimately we have chosen projects which combine raw talent with originality, commitment and long term potential.” The Youth Mentorship Programme was established in 2010 to foster and develop emerging writing talent with the support of established authors. It is part of NZSA’s successful mentoring programme for adult writers and is supported by Creative New Zealand.

See Page 68

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 65

Encouragement from teachers has advantaged children ‘Big data’ study finds that children from families with limited education have strongest longterm response to teacher encouragement, and are more likely to progress to university as a result. The relationships teachers develop with students are real engines for social mobility. Schoolchildren who receive words of encouragement from a teacher are significantly more likely to continue their education beyond the age of 16 than those who do not, a new study suggests. The influence of teacher encouragement appears to be much greater on students whose own parents never progressed past compulsory education – an important indicator of a less advantaged background. For students from these backgrounds, encouragement increased entry into post-16 education from just over half to around twothirds. The research also found that encouragement from a teacher has the greatest influence on those students most likely to be on the margin for university attendance. The University of Cambridge study used ‘big data’ techniques to look at the long-term impact of student-teacher rapport, and is the first to analyse the role it plays in university access.

Image: L.A. Cicero

The findings, published in the journal Research in Higher Education, show that further education and social mobility policymaking might benefit from increased focus on the “relational aspects” of interactions between teachers and students. “Teachers are often relegated to course deliverers and classroom managers in the policy discussions around further education. However, it’s clear that teachers have more forms of influencing inequality than is currently appreciated,” said study author Dr Ben Alcott from Cambridge’s Faculty of Education.

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“When people speak of a positive school experience, they frequently cite a personal relationship with a teacher, and the encouragement they were given. Our research helps quantify that impact and show its significance, particularly for addressing social mobility. “The importance of that teacher-student connection can get lost in the midst of exam statistics or heat of political debate.” Some 4,300 adolescents in England were tracked from the age of thirteen onwards, completing a detailed questionnaire every year for the next seven years. During their last year of compulsory education, the students were asked whether a teacher had encouraged them to stay on in full-time education. Dr Alcott used mathematical modelling to “match” and compare students with similar attainment, experience and life histories – helping control for the effects these differences had. This makes it possible for the influence of teacher encouragement alone to be measured. “This approach brings us plausibly close to reading the long-term effect of encouragement from teachers with the data we currently have available,” Alcott said. He found that, on average across all backgrounds and abilities, rates of entry into post-16 education were eight percentage points higher in students that reported receiving encouragement (74%) over those that said they did not (66%). Based on previous examination scores (the UK’s SATs), teacher encouragement made the most difference for students with average academic achievement – those often on the verge of going either way when it comes to further education. For Year 11 (or 10th grade) students in the middle third of results rankings, encouragement was linked to a 10 percentage-point increase in the likelihood of university entry, yet had no observable impact on students in the upper and lower thirds. The effect of teacher encouragement on students varied considerably depending on background – with

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greatest influence on less Ben Alcott

the greatest difference seen for students with lower levels of parental education.

percentage points and making no difference at all to university attendance.

For students with parents who lacked any formal qualification, post-16 education enrolment increased 12 percentage points amongst those who received teacher encouragement (64%) compared with those who didn’t (52%).

However, Alcott found that students from more advantaged backgrounds were likelier to report being encouraged by a teacher to stay in education.

This effect appeared to last into higher education, with that initial encouragement increasing the likelihood of university entry by 10 percentage points – one-fifth higher than students from similar backgrounds who did not report being encouraged. Students whose parents had some qualifications, but none past compulsory education, saw encouragement from teachers boost post-16 education by 13 percentage points (67% compared to 54%) and university entry by seven percentage points. For those with parents who held university degrees, however, teacher encouragement mattered much less: increasing continued education by just six

For example, 22% of students receiving encouragement had a parent with a university degree, compared to 15% of those who did not. Similarly, students who do not report encouragement are a third more likely to have an unemployed parent (12% versus 9%). Alcott, who formerly taught in a London academy school himself, says: “These results suggest that teachers themselves and the relationships they develop with students are real engines for social mobility. “Many teachers take the initiative to encourage students in the hope they will progress in education long after they have left the classroom. It’s important that teachers know the effect their efforts have, and the children likely to benefit most.”

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 67

Science-Loving Teens from Ghana a

Ghanaian and Am first time at the com

It was a meeting of nerds and sharks. The self-described “biotech nerds” and “robotic nerds” were seven high school students from Washington, D.C. The eight teens who call themselves “sharks” and flew in from Ghana. “The shark is a big fish so it means you’re big. Knowledgeable,” explains Stephanie Obbo of Ghana, an aspiring medical doctor. 68 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

Together, the 15 high schoolers formed a team for the first World Smarts STEM Challenge. That’s a science competition run by IREX, a global development nonprofit that strives to promote student enthusiasm for science, tech, engineering and math (aka STEM). Each of the 17 teams had teenagers in the D.C. area partnering with Ghanaians to identify and solve a real-world problem. NPR’s Goats and Soda followed “Team McKwiny” — a name that blends D.C.’s McKinley Technology High School and Winneba Senior High School in Ghana. They had collaborated since September over the

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and D.C. Geek Out Together

Sasha Ingber

Cilantro played a role in one stage of the team’s water purification system.

merican team members met for the mpetition, held in Washington, D.C. Ryan Eskalis/NPR

internet. The Americans kicked around the idea of minimizing carbon emissions. The Ghanaians wanted to tackle water pollution. They finally agreed to design and build a water purifier. Both contingents had a personal stake in the project. The McKinley students found high levels of lead in the Anacostia River that flows through Washington, D.C. And the Winneba students in southern Ghana found pesticides, hospital waste, sewage and other pollutants in a nearby lagoon used for fishing and irrigation. And because water shortages cause locals to rely on streams and ponds for clean drinking

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Ryan Eskalis/NPR

water, more than 100 cases of cholera swept through a neighboring district just in October 2016. The Ghanaian teenagers proposed using local materials, like leaves from neem trees, to help filter the water. (The medicinal and antibacterial properties of neem leaves and oil have been studied.) The Americans, with no access to neem leaves, suggested substituting cilantro after learning that it removes lead from water — a property discovered by undergraduate researchers in 2013. Meeting in person for the first time was a little awkward, since being social mattered at least as Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 69

It’s icebreaker time for Team McKwiny, who found out they have a lot in common. Ryan Eskalis/NPR

much as being scientific. American Miara Bonner, wearing a lab coat and hoop earrings, suggested an icebreaker. “What’s that?” asked the Ghanaians in unison. A question-and-answer game revealed similarities and differences. “I also don’t like the food at my school,” said Cassell Robinson of McKinley. “We have many tribes and festivals to remember the past and sacrifice animals,” said Winneba junior Stephanie Obbo. Bonner’s jaw dropped. “I did not know any of that.” She remembers thinking, “They hunt. They sacrifice. They don’t teach you that in history!” Their purification device consisted of four interconnected plastic buckets. In the first chamber, the water is filtered through gravel and sand. Then moringa seeds and neem leaves (or cilantro) in the sedimentation chamber extract particles before the water is boiled in a different chamber and then stored. Team McKwiny tested their treated water samples and said they were able to remove contaminants from both fresh and salt water, meeting World Health Organization standards for safety. “It opens up my eyes that there are a lot of things that are useful out in the world that I just haven’t found yet,” said McKinley’s Megan Richardson. 70 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

The goal of the competition is to encourage that kind of curiosity. Especially because few American students are embracing STEM. “Only about 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a STEM career,” said Rebecca Bell Meszaros, associate vice president for education with IREX. “This program is combining STEM and 21st century skills like problem solving, innovation and cross-cultural communication.” She adds that IREX chose to focus the program, made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, in Ghana because the nonprofit has good access to schools with reliable internet. By Saturday’s final event, American and Ghanaian members of Team McKwiny were whispering into each other’s ears and holding hands. But they didn’t get the grand prize. That went to Team “Big Bang ... Brains of the World!” The students had filled ice trays with soil, added copper wire that was coiled around zinc-plated nails and then poured lemon juice on top. Their battery produced enough voltage to light an LED. The team now has a chance to pitch their battery to investors; IREX will match up to $10,000 raised.

More info: Andy Seliverstoff | Instagram | Facebook

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“The winning soil battery demystifies energy production and storage at a time when battery storage is evolving faster than ever,” said judge Jim Egenrieder, director of Virginia Tech’s National Capital Region Thinkabit Labs. “And the water filtration system prototype represents what may become part of every household in the future, as we learn to use and reuse precious water resources.” Team McKwiny came in second and plans to keep going. The Ghanaian students hope to apply for funding from nongovernmental organizations to construct their filter on the outskirts of the Winneba Township. They want to put the first filter near a school where students lack access to clean water and sometimes have no option but to use water shared by livestock.

In the end, the students didn’t just learn about science. The Americans got new insights into life in the developing world. “I didn’t know that there are lagoons that people get their drinking water from — the water that they bathe in and wash their clothes in,” said Miara Bonner, who hopes to one day become an endodontic surgeon. “I don’t like the idea of that. When I heard that, I thought this is the problem we need to focus on.” And the Ghanaians tossed out their stereotypes of Americans. Belinda Dogbe had the preconception that Americans would be “snobbish, always wanting to be alone, not friendly” — a stereotype that came from Hollywood movies. “I realized we are wrong,” she said. “They are very friendly, they are open. They love to ask questions.”

Sasha Ingber is a multimedia journalist who covers science, culture and foreign affairs for such publications as National Geographic and Smithsonian. She can be reached @SashaIngber

Members of Team McKwiny clasp hands in anticipation of the awards announcement. They came in second. Ryan Eskalis/NPR

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 71

Innovation competition produces educatio An international consortium of humanitarian aid groups has announced the winners of a competition to develop educational apps for Syrian children displaced by that country’s brutal civil war.

partnership between the Norwegian government with the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development and partners such as USAID,World Vision and the Australian Government.

The two winners are Feed the Monster and Antura & The Letters, games that are designed to help improve the literacy skills of the estimated 2.5 million Syrian children who are now without schools.

The competition, including the development process and judging, was overseen by Alf Inge Wang, a game developer and professor in the department of computer science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The two titles were chosen as part of EduApp4Syria, a $1.7 million competition that was developed as a

“I’m passionate about finding new uses for games,” he said. “One of my goals is to find the sweet spot between learning and having fun.” The two apps in this case, he said, were chosen because they came closest to that sweet spot.

Image: Marit Hverven/Norad

Sham Edris (6) (to the left) and Noor Amra (7) tested the five finalist games in the EduApp4Syria competition.

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onal apps to help Syrian refugee children Chris O’Brien

Feed the Monster was developed as part of a joint venture of Apps Factory, the Center for Educational Technology, and the International Rescue Committee. The game gives kids monsters to collect and raise and teaches them Arabic reading and writing along the way. Antura & The Letters was the result of a collaboration between the Cologne Game Lab, Video Games Without Borders, and a Lebanese game developer Wixel Studio. The game mixes animated characters, virtual worlds, and quizzes to improve literacy skills. Wang said after he was recruited to run the competition, he spent time visiting refugee camps to understand what might be possible. He was surprised at the prevalence of smartphones among refugees. Despite leaving

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almost all other possessions behind when they fled, they often hung on to their smartphones or were able to get cheap or free ones at distribution centers at refugee camps. “The most import thing in their lives was finding food, water, and some of housing,” Wang said. “But they also had their smartphones so they could keep in touch with their families and keep their pictures. So then we understood, OK, this could actually work.” The competition received 78 applications at the start. Those went through various stages until the number was reduced to a handful of finalists. At each stage, the Norwegian government gave competitors money to continue development and testing. Wang said the developers engaged in extensive user testing with refugees to make sure the games were appealing to the kids. The winners were announced at the UNESCO Mobile Learning Week Conference in order to spread the word to the various humanitarian groups attending. Wang said his group will also continue to seek partnerships with telecom companies to spread the word about the apps, as well as work with other refugee support groups. More info: Andy Seliverstoff | Instagram | Facebook https://venturebeat.com Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 73

Artists Recreate Kids’ Monster Doo Last year The Monster Project, an awesome initiative that sees professional artists adding their own unique touches to monster doodles created by kids in elementary, was introduced. Here’s more of their amazing collaborations, and as you can see the results are quite spectacular. Based out of Texas, the purpose of the project is to encourage creativity and provide inspiration for artistic children everywhere. “With a decreasing emphasis on arts in schools, many children don’t have the opportunity for creative exploration they deserve,” reads their website. “That’s a monstrous trend we would like to destroy. As artists ourselves, we understand how important that initial creative exposure is and how it can truly alter the shape of a child’s future. Creativity comes in many forms, and we hope to encourage their exploration of their own unique perceptions of the world we share.”

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odles In Their Unique Styles Greta J

Discovering lots of cool thinngs

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boredpanda.com

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Paul Skorupskas/Unsplash

Tips for boosting your

“Even in the loneliest moments I have been there for myself.” ― Sanober Khan Ask the average person what it takes to be a great leader, and you will surely hear a bevy of characteristics and qualities, such as visionary, communicator, motivator and charismatic. Perhaps you will also hear such idealistic qualities as humble, possessor of strong character, and servant of others. All of these relate to how a leader is perceived by others and how he relates to them. While these attributes unquestionably assist leaders in their work with their people, they will still under-deliver if they lack one critical, but often overlooked, internal quality: self-esteem.

SmartBrief.com 82 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

Self-esteem is defined as the degree to which individuals feel comfortable with who they are, believe that they have inherent value as people, have the ability to demonstrate that value, and are confident in their ability to successfully achieve their own measure of success. It isn’t about being boastful, self-centered, or domineering. Rather, it’s about representing ourselves with quiet confidence, as an equal among equals, and leading others from a position of internal strength. Self-esteem is vital for leaders because it’s what gives them the courage to lead, to pursue success, to and be decisive. A leader with high self-esteem does not feel threatened by others’ ideas, nor will they have a problem with hiring great people and empowering them to accomplish incredible things. Strong selfassurance makes the leader want to see the best in others and help them succeed, knowing that others’ success is ultimately their own. He puts the organization first and is the most committed person in the building. A self-confident leader is more concerned about being part of something great and accomplishing the task than worrying over who will get what position or what recognition.

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r leadership self-esteem Naphtali Hoff

In theory, leaders should be awash in self-esteem. Most have achieved great things professionally, prompting their advancements. Yet, for many leaders, self-respect is actually a precious, hard-to-come-by commodity. Leaders lacking in self-esteem are weak internally and cannot confidently offer the guidance and direction people need without worrying about what others will think and say. They feel threatened by outside ideas and empowered employees, and will often try and hire people just a little below their ability so that nobody outperforms them. Sometimes their low self-regard will manifest with over-the-top aggressiveness and strong controlling behaviors. They become managers rather than leaders and try to gain respect and a sense of strength by insisting upon others’ conformity and compliance. Worse, leaders who lack in self-esteem come to question their ability to cope with problems, doubting even whether they are worthy of their position of leadership. Certainly, this is no way by which to lead and, in most cases, will produce disappointing results for the leader and his organization.

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What can leaders with low self-esteem do to raise their feeling of self-worth and get the most out of themselves and those around them? 1. Recognize that you’re not alone. Self-doubt has afflicted even the greatest historical figures and leaders. While they may not admit it, many of the most outwardly confident leaders battle this same issue in private. You are in a larger crowd than you might think. 2. List your strengths. We all have strengths. This is particularly true for leaders at the top of the corporate food chain. It is important to know what your strengths are, how they have helped you and how they will continue to assist you in achieving your goals. Keep the list handy when you start to feel “low.”. 3. Name your weaknesses. Similarly, we all have weaknesses. There has been no perfect leader, ever, and you need not worry about being perfect, either. Once you know your strengths you can also be honest in listing your shortcomings and seeing how best to address or compensate for them. To this end, I suggest that you consider using a technique often used by coaches to help clients Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 83

identify their fears, which is to name the concern and then determine the implications and worst-case scenarios. What exactly are you afraid of and what’s the worst that can happen should your fear be realized in the fullest? This helps people overcome their dread, which, until named, can grow into a substantial, even paralyzing force.

giving of your time and knowledge you will feel more closely associated with and more valuable to your team members and rise in esteem in their eyes. They will also become more loyal to you and what you seek to achieve. 8.

Help raise others’ self-esteem. On a related point, the more that you see and share the positive in others, the more that you will identify similar qualities in yourself. You will also build a more positive work environment, one that you can be proud of. Sam Walton of Wal-Mart fame put it this way: “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”

Focus on solutions. Leaders who are solutionsoriented don’t have time or interest in playing mind games or jockeying for position. Instead, they see challenges and opportunities and seek to leverage internal strengths to address them. By going after solutions, we rise above the mundane, self-centered considerations and stay focused on outcomes.

Similarly, when we identify what we are weak at and give it a name, we can start to figure out how to best compensate for such weakness, such as by finding others who complement our strengths or by strengthening our own skills. 4.

Consider your impact. Most people want, more than anything else, to be seen as a giver who made an impact. Take some time to list some of the things that you have achieved, personally and for others. Think about how life would be different for those around you had you not been there for them. Strengthen the things that you are good at. Once you have listed your strengths, spend more of your time doing the work that aligns with them. This will help you optimize your performance and build from your strong suits. People around you will appreciate the good work that you do and you will start to feel more confident and comfortable in your role as leader.

Then seek to shore up other areas. Over time, invest time and resources to help you become stronger in other areas. This does not mean that you should aspire to become great across the board. It simply means that if you add to your toolkit, you will feel more capable, better informed and less threatened by others.

Become more generous. Share freely of what you know with others. Let them learn from you and be inspired by you. Resist the temptation to hold your knowledge close to the vest, a strategy that you may have employed as you rose up the company ladder and sought personal recognition. As a leader, you can’t be in the business of keeping secrets, especially if you want your organization to grow. Moreover, by

10. Realize that no one else can provide it. Selfesteem cannot be developed outside of ourselves. No matter how many accolades we receive, we simply will not feel confident and fulfilled unless we learn how to develop such feelings from within. Think about how many leaders, entertainers, and others sought comfort in external stimulants or worse because all of the attention, praise and glory that they received was outside of themselves, leaving them with a gnawing, hollow feeling. Working on self-esteem is not simply another nice quality to add to your portfolio; it is the essence of who you are and what you do as a leader. Make consideration of your self-worth a regular part of your practice and work regularly to maintain high, healthy standards of your self-esteem.

Naphtali Hoff, PsyD, (@ impactfulcoach) became an executive coach and organizational consultant following a career as an educator and school administrator. Read his blog at impactfulcoaching.com/blog. Get his free leadership e-book, “Core Essentials of Leadership.” 84 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017 85

R.I.P Common Sense A horse is a horse, of course, of course And no-one can talk to a horse of course, That is of course, unless the horse Is the famous Mr.Ed.

Now what, you may ask, does the above stanza of Nobel Prize-quality rhyme and reason, have to do with a rant, widely acclaimed (in my household) for its topicality and profundity? Actually nothing. It just came to mind-must have been swirling around in my monkeychatter cortex, like a Dyson vacuum cleaner. However, it is the human condition to make connections and I now have one.

in fairness manifested in my earnest identification with the cause. I believe I may even have grieved that I didn’t have a bra to burn-offered to incinerate my sister’s. Got a decidedly ungrateful response. Anyway, those women were pure of heart and their aim was true.

A while back, in another rant, I asked, ‘Where are the feminists?’ as a bewildered plea for solidarity with women in misogynist societies. I wished I’d kept quiet and just hummed TV theme Those of you who belong to the years of songs. I have discovered ‘Third Wave mellow fruitfulness may remember the feminist dictum, ‘A woman needs a man Feminism’. like a fish needs a bicycle.’ To which Quelle Horreur! those of X-Y chromosome accreditation would respond, ‘But a fish doesn’t need a I have a theory: Often, when social bicycle,’ eliciting the retort, ‘Exactly.’ change is effected, the agents which cause the change are the most dynamic, Now I would dare to revisit that little gem righteous and pure. Then, with time, of wisdom and replace the word ‘feminist’ the original drivers are often replaced for ‘man’. There, the circle is complete. with weaker, diluted, more self-serving ones. Look at what happened after the Guess I’d better try to explain. Well, French Revolution, or after Nelson being of a mild socialist upbringing, I Mandela gave up office.. I suspect it’s applauded the early feminists, agreed the same with feminism. Third Wave with their aspirations. I believed in feminists have deviated from the central equality. I held doors open for both genders, did ironing and sewed buttons ethos of the original movement and are exhibiting increasingly bizarre back onto my rugby jerseys, albeit behaviour, throwing their support behind usually inside out. My parents’ belief a culture which would have, a few 86 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017

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decades ago, been totally rejected. I’d like to refer you to the article by Anne Marie Waters. Yes, I know it’s on a right-wing blog but after all, a horse is a horse… Anyway,you may enjoy a list to starboard-no port in a storm, so to speak. Her guest post is entitled, ‘Feminism is the new misogyny – The Feminist betrayal of women’ and is a hard-hitting indictment of the almost Kafkaesque scenarios playing out in supposedly democratic societies. It’s truly scary, crazy stuff boys and girls, sorry, persons of disparate gender. https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2017/02/ guest-post-feminism-new-misogynyfeminist-betrayal-women/

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I won’t quote the article because it needs to be read in its entirety and besides, it contains words which may not be suitable for some eyes-(Snowlake warning).There, I dare you to ignore it. When people scream cold is hot and insane is sane long and loudly enough, some people will believe. Gullibles’ travels. When so many women dress up in bizarre costumes and focus their hate against the US president, due to his supposedly sexist past and racist beliefs (and also because their side lost the election), instead of recoiling in horror at ‘honour’ killings, acid attacks and FGM, then the world is indeed a crazy place and perhaps it’s best to stay at home and talk to a horse.

Roger

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“The best teachers don’t give you the answers... They just point the way ... and let you make your own choices.” 88 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2017