The Second Best Educational Cartoon Ever.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...and a good cartoon is worth a book.

So, if this is the second best educational cartoon ever you may wish to see the absolute best educational cartoon ever. (As voted exclusively by me.)

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Credits:
Creator unknown. Sourced from Google Images.

The best educational cartoon ever. EVER.

Those who support the current mania for educational testing please take note...

The paradox of our age - and our schools

"THE PARADOX OF OUR AGE"

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

more conveniences, but less time;

We have more degrees, but less sense;

more knowledge, but less judgement;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines, but less healthiness;

We've been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We build more computers to hold more

information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication;

We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.  These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;    Tall men but short character; Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.

The 14th Dalai Lama

The above text from the Dalai Lama reminds us of some of the contradictions of our modern society.  Without wishing in any way to deminish the message of this  inspired writing I’d like to suggest my own additions relating to current educational practice  to his powerful prose.

“We have more instruction but less inspiration,

More trivial answers but fewer significant questions,

More rote and recall, less speculation and imagination,

More “tick the box” but less “think outside the square”,

More “rights”, but fewer “responsibilities”,

More edutainment but less engagement,

More talking but less conversation,

More efficiency but less excellence,

In short, we have more teaching but less learning.

It’s time to put the focus back where it should be - on the child. The needs of “the system” should be replaced by the needs of our students.

I began this post by citing the Dalai Lama.  I’ll end  by citing another known for his cosmological musings - Albert Einstein.   “Many of the things you can count, don't count. Many of the things you can't count really count.”

Education counts. Maybe schooling doesn’t.

Teachers - do what you love and do it often.

Burnout is a major problem in schools.  It shouldn’t surprise anyone - teaching is a demanding occupation.  As well as being educators teachers are part social worker, part nurse, part de-facto parent, part careers advisor, policeman, counsellor and even relationship advisors. Balancing the dictates of the curriculum and  the requirements of site administrators with the capabilities of the students is in itself no easy task. Add to that the emotional impact of dealing with students who often come to school with emotional baggage and stressful domestic issues well beyond their control - and often their comprehension.  While addressing these issues teachers also have to keep in mind the special needs of individual children - some of which can be literally life threatening if things go wrong. Into this recipe for stress throw in some seasonal variations such as the lack of hours in the day at peak times like report writing or parent teacher sessions and it is easy to see why burn out is all too common.   Teachers, after all, are only human.

Teachers are people, not robots.  Through observation of effective teachers over three decades I have noticed one important characteristic that effective long-term educators have in common. They all have interests outside of school.  Their careers are important to them, very important in fact, but they have other aspects to their lives.  They are not defined but their job - it is an important part of their lives but only one aspect.They have balance - and they cling to their interests despite the unrealistic pressures put on them by the job.  I think it is aptly summed up by the opening lines of the Holstee Manifesto;

“This is your life. Do what you love and do it often.”

Teachers need to follow their passion for life outside of school in exactly the same way that we encourage our students to do.  Sometimes we have to discover what it is that stops us from doing what we love - and make some changes.   This is probably the only antidote I know for burnout. Outside interests re-energise and re-invigorate people at the personal level. Doing what we love doing makes us healthier people - which in turn helps us to devote real energy to education when we focus on it - and there is plenty of scope and need for that. In the end, our students are the ones who really benefit.  

What greater advice can we give our students than to quote the opening of the Holstee Manifesto to them over and over again? “This is your life. Do what you love and do it often.” If that attitude is the only thing our students pick up from us we may well have taught them one of life's most important lessons.

Enjoy this great interpretation of the Holstee Manifesto. 

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Credits:
Holstee manifesto image: Google images.
Video - via youtube.

The emotion of learning

I’m breaking a self imposed rule with this post. I’m writing it while on holiday. The reason is simple,  I’ve achieved a boyhood ambition - decades after the seed was planted.

Today I created fire.

Not with a match.

Not with a lighter.

With a magnifying glass. 

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to do it.  Memories of summer delights as a boy have resurfaced – as a boy / teenager I used to use a magnifying glass to burn my initials into my summer thongs with a magnifying glass.  My public explanation was that it made it easier to find my thongs when “the gang” came over and all our thongs were piled up by the back door.  True enough – but the other truth was that I enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed seeing the snail trail of my initials “magically” appear as a result of nothing more complicated than the sun and some curved glass.  However, given the long, tinder-dry grass in the paddocks that surrounded my boyhood home,  I never attempted to  light a true fire – despite a burning desire to do so (pardon the pun).

Today, decades after my teenage years faded into the fog of time, I finally tried to light a fire using nothing  more than the material I wanted to burn and a magnifying glass.  In theory there was no doubt that it would work and I knew that it would take marginally more effort than using a match. But I wanted to do it – simply because I wanted more than intellectual knowledge that it would work. I wanted to actually do it.   So I did.

It occurred to me while I was holding the magnifying glass that there were broader lessons in the action.  I needed to maintain focus – my own and that of the magnifying glass. The pin point of concentrated solar energy had to be held over the same spot and I had to concentrate to ensure that this happened. It is probably dignifying the action a little to say that I needed to employ a technique but in a sense it was true.  If I didn’t hold the glass in the correct way nothing would happen.    I also needed to clarify my own definition of success.  Was singeing the paper the same as creating fire?  I decided “no” - but it was probably acceptable as an encouraging sign.  Was creating smoke (after mere seconds) creating fire?  Again I decided “no” – but it was probably proof of concept.  What did I mean by fire? I decided that it was flame that consumed the material that I wanted burned and that only that could be considered success.  After passing through the first stages towards success I needed to adjust my approach by  getting some smaller twigs from the garden – which, in academic terms could be considered refining my practice in the face of observable results.

So I was learning.  But the feeling of success and achievement when the flame burst into life was out of all proportion to the lack of effort required to achieve it.  It turns out the lighting a fire with a magnifying glass is as easy as it is reported to be.  But the key aspect for me is that now I know it, I’ve done it myself.  Second hand knowledge has been replaced by experience. 

The other aspect is that this was a fiercely personal objective. I doubt any of my family or friends share this desire to “achieve” this goal.  In world terms it is insignificant. But in personal terms it brought a glow to my face that was not simply a reflection of the fire. 

It occurs to me that this is true of all personal learning.  Is this why musicians try to reproduce the sound of their favourite guitarist when the mp3 player can do it effortlessly for them?  Is this why painters use pigment to capture the landscape when a camera can do a more accurate job in an instant?  Is this the feeling of truly significant personal learning?  If it is, then surely we as teachers owe it to our students to let them experience this success in Iearning or achieving something of personal significance?   I wonder how many discipline problems would fade away and how the motivation levels of our students would increase if this feeling was a regular part of our classrooms? 

 

Easily the most popular post on this site is one I wrote dealing with PBL.  If I may say so my-self it provides a good summary of the concept and links to a host of  very useful resources.    My experiences today re-affirm my reasons for writing that post; we need to meet the personal interests of our students in our programs.  Adding the emotion of learning to our classrooms may be a key ingredient in a truly motivated learning environment.

Truly personal learning is significant; it produces emotion in the part of the learner – not just intellectual advancement.  If it doesn’t then maybe it isn’t as significant to the learner as it is to the teacher.

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Credits:

Image via google images:  http://www.clker.com/clipart-2285.html

How to be a great maths teacher #2 - what the research continues to say

There is no shortage of people telling teachers how to improve education.  Sometimes it seems that all the educational experts are either cutting hair or driving taxis - or perhaps in public office.  So it is useful to find clearly written advice based upon educational research and free from economic motivations. The International Academy of Education (IAE) publishes a series of pamphlets that distills educational research into useful summaries of current teaching techniques that have been found to promote student learning.  ”Improving student achievement in mathematics” by Douglas Grouws and Kristin Cebulla provides a succinct  summary of how effective educators  can approach their teaching.

Their research suggests that teachers can improve mathematical learning via;
1.Opportunity to learn
The extent of the students’ opportunity to learn mathematics content bears directly and decisively on student mathematics achievement.  “As might be expected, there is also a positive relationship between total time allocated to mathematics and general mathematics achievement.”  No surprise there I suspect - but this aspect is worth contemplating; “Short class periods in mathematics, instituted for whatever practical or philosophical reason, should be seriously questioned. Of special concern are the 30-35 minute class periods for mathematics being implemented in some middle schools.”
2. Focus on meaning
Focusing instruction on the meaningful development of important mathematical ideas increases the level of student learning.  Teachers should stress “...the mathematical meanings of ideas, including how the idea, concept or skill is connected in multiple ways to other mathematical ideas in a logically consistent and sensible manner.”
3. Learning new concepts and skills while solving problems
Students can learn both concepts and skills by solving problems.  This clearly addresses the “chicken and egg” issue of some teachers - it is NOT necessary to teach specific computation techniques BEFORE addressing real life applications. “There is evidence that students can learn new skills and concepts while they are working out solutions to problems.”  
4. Opportunities for both invention and practice
Giving students both an opportunity to discover and invent new knowledge and an opportunity to practise what they have learned improves student achievement. The research finds that in the USA over 90% of class time is spent on practicing routine procedures.  In Japan about 45% of instructional time is spent practising routine procedures, 15% applying procedures in new situations and 45% inventing new procedures or analysing new situations. Like to predict which system is ranked higher in international comparisons?
5. Openness to student solution methods and student interaction.
Teaching that incorporates students’ intuitive solution methods can increase student learning, especially when combined with opportunities for student interaction and discussion.  Student interaction - sharing their solutions and the how they approached maths tasks - makes for enhanced student learning.  The notion of a good classroom is a quiet classroom with children working in isolation is simply not supported by the research. Students learn better when they interact - which, if the social-constructionist theory of learning is applied,  is what we would expect.
6. Small group learning
Using small groups of students to work on activities, problems and assignments can increase student mathematics achievement.  Again, co-operative methods of teaching featuring both group goals and individual accountability are associated with enhanced student learning. Teachers would be advised to select mathematical tasks that lend themselves to group exploration rather than simply getting students to “work together” on standard tasks.
7. Whole class discussion
Whole class discussion following individual and group work improves student achievement.  The adult in the room need not be the only teacher in the class.
8. Number sense
Teaching mathematics with a focus on number sense encourages students to become problem solvers in a wide variety of situations and to view mathematics as a discipline in which thinking is important.  Number sense - that feeling accomplished people get when they get an answer that “doesn’t look right” - is an important part of developing mathematical skills...and it requires that students are actually thinking about what they are doing, why they are doing it,  and estimating / predicting internally what sort of result would be reasonable.
9. Concrete materials
Long-term use of concrete materials is positively related to increases in student  mathematics achievement and improved attitudes towards mathematics.  So, a warning sign of a less than effective teacher may be the pile of worksheets students are expected to complete. Combine this with a lack of manipulatives or concrete support materials and students have a problem - and it isn’t the mathematics.
10. Students’ use of calculators
Using calculators in the learning of mathematics can result in increased achievement and improved student attitudes.   Study after study support this notion. The use of calculators enhance mathematics learning.  Why? It lets the students think about the mathematics, not the calculation.

Grouws and Cebulla add a caveat to their list of behaviours - the quality of the implementation of the teaching practices listed above greatly impact upon student learning; for example, it is not only whether manipulatives are used but how they are used that determines effectiveness.  

Much of this list will not be new to those with an interest in mathematics education. However, it seems to my casual eye that mathematics classrooms are often still the domain of worksheets with a focus on procedural competence rather than conceptual understanding, places of compliance rather than engagement.  Reading and discussing research findings such as this may help us improve the quality of our mathematics teaching. Reading the original pamphlet would be worthwhile for all teachers with an interest in the area.

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An earlier post - “How to be a great mathematics teacher - what the research says” was mined from another pamphlet in the IAE’s “Educational Practice Series”.  The post summarises the content of that pamphlet and provides links to the original source material - which is well worth reading.

Those with an interest in improving mathematical pedagogy might like to read a related post dealing with the work of Alistair McIntosh - Improving numeracy with the 7Cs.

Those with a general interest in mathematics might enjoy the maths page on this site which collects a range of posts dealing with mathematics.

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Credits: All links go to original sources.

Image: via google images: http://www.kingslangley.ps.education.nsw.gov.au/images/Math-Symbols.jpg

Mathematics from the masses

The web is awash with wonderful resources for teaching mathematics - plus some sites pedalling pedagogy best avoided.  What follows is a purely personal selection of some of the more interesting and worthwhile sites that beamed out from my screen this month. (Follow the blue links to be taken to the sites mentioned.)

So you think you know how to teach mathematics?

• “Stop teaching Calculating, Start Learning Maths” - Conrad Wolfram

Conrad Wolfram is renown as a “boat rocking” thinker and innovator.  This presentation challenges current educational methods for teaching mathematics.  In an entertaining speech Wolfram asks what is mathematics and then describes it as a four stage process consisting of:

1. Posing the right question
2. Putting the question into a mathematical framework or context
3. Calculating
4. Converting the answer back into a real world context.

Wolfram states that students spent 80% of their time at stage three - performing calculations, often manually.  He states that this is odd given that computers / calculators can do this much better than any human brain and that we should be concentrating our efforts on the other three stages.  A thought provoking video lasting 26 minutes - watch it over a coffee and think about it long after.

• Open ended questions.

The maths world is awash with the power of open ended questions rather than a steady diet of closed questions.  But how do we formulate good open ended questions?  This powerpoint, based upon the work of Peter Sullivan, shows how it can be done.

• Early Counting . Research cited at edweek.org says that teaching pre-schoolers to count (as opposed to just recite numbers) to 20 is an advantage later in life

Resources that you might find useful.

• A pinterest site shared by classroom teacher Laura Chandler with lots of resources used by mid-primary teachers.  Not all of it pushes the boundaries of mathematics teaching but much of it would be useful to classroom based teachers at this level.

• Mathplayground - a good site for classroom teachers with lots of areas to explore - allows effective teaching not just drill and practice.

• NCES Kid’s Zone.  A collection of web based tools for graphing and probability for primary students.  The applications are accessed via buttons on the top of the screen.
• A+ click A wide ranging free site from grad 1 to 12 covering wide range of mathematics. Problem and logical thinking questions to suit the needs of most teachers.
• How many texts are sent every day in your town?  The New York Times provided this bit of maths based on a perhaps surprising statistic - that the number of texts sent last month fell for the first time in history.  However, the linked article provides all the information students would need to extrapolate to your home area. If we assume that the number of texts sent per person is constant across all areas (but we may choose not to accept this assumption - coming up with another figure might be useful in itself) and the population of our area is (???) then how many texts might be sent from our home?  In fact, challenging the statistics provided might be even more fun. What is the average number of text sent each day by members of your class? Would this hold true across all grade levels and classes? How might we find out? Once done, what is our estimate?

Hmmm...

• Not everyone enjoys mathematics.  New research has found that just thinking about doing mathematics can cause headaches in some people.  
• Still on the brain, Scientific American reports research that suggests that the brain can do mathematics unconsciously. (This might explain the phenomena of students who appear asleep in class but still manage to get some work done.)

Math page
If you enjoyed this post you might enjoy exploring my maths page which features other posts of a similar nature - some with video worth using with students, and some recreational maths developed to share a love of mathematics.

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Credits: All links go to original sources.
Image from Google images: 
Image from Google images:http://www.ihub.co.ke/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/social-media-banners.jpg                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

What you see is what you get - literally

This is a very well known optical illusion - it seems that everyone has seen it.  Everyone knows that it is either two faces or a vase.  Wrong.  It is both. It is two faces and it is a vase - but you can’t see them at the same time.  It is a classic demonstration of attention equals perception - we see what we are looking for.

Over time, we tend to wear lens’ that frame our vision, that shape our perceptions. We  learn from experience and form our world view according to those experiences.  However, once our world view is established the reverse seems to happen - our expectations and beliefs  actually shape our perceptions;  in other words, we see what we expect to see. Literally.  No less a figure then Einstein wrote about this - and he believed that we not only tend to see what we expect to see but that we ignore what doesn’t fit our expectations.   This holds true, not only for psychological perceptions - but also for our physical bodies. What we think determines what we feel.

For educators this is significant. We’ve all heard studies of self-fulfilling prophecies where teacher expectations predict student achievements.  (Strangely enough we tend to recognise this as a theoretical consideration but rarely seem to acknowledge it in our own practice.)  In short - we tend to see a child as a slow-learner, smart, a behaviour problem...and ‘lo and behold the child performs to our expectations.  The child who is perceived to be a behaviour problem tends to become a behaviour problem,  or at least is perceived to be one.  Perception does indeed become reality.

This means that children may become locked into our version of  reality … which in turn becomes their own. Our view of students may become their version of themselves.

Perhaps an answer is in training ourselves to look for the things that surprise us, for the things that don’t follow a pattern or meet our expectations.  We need to train ourselves to see what is really happening rather than think in mental cliches.  In practice this is not as easy as it seems.  The notion of  observing students, really observing, is important.  Perhaps the increasingly popular notion of the “focus child” offers some help.  During this time, as well as learning the strengths and areas for further development, perhaps teachers should try to discover something that surprises them about the student, to find out something that they did not know about the child, to take the chance to remind themselves that this student is also a person.

When we approach our students with a deficit model we limit our perceptions to what they can’t do.  Shifting our focus to what they can do, perhaps adopting a strength based approach, and helping them to build on that might just provide  the shift in emphasis that is needed to re-engage those students who can’t see any relevance or purpose in schooling.

It’s an idea worth looking at.

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Related posts dealing with “The more I practice the luckier I get - Mindset and Carol Dweck”  and another dealing with the importance of attitude - “The second most important word in education” may also be of interest.

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Credits:
Links are active and go to the appropriate sites.
Image via Google images: http://s2.hubimg.com/u/2012669_f260.jpg

The WISE model - A quick and nasty guide to evaluating classroom ICT use.

I’m fortunate to be able to visit every classroom in our school. Like most schools, we have invested heavily in ICT. Are we getting value for money? Is the investment really improving educational outcomes? In some classrooms I could answer “Yes” - but in some the answer would have to be a disappointing “No”.

It is not necessary to have an in-depth formal instrument or formal testing to get a sense of how well ICT is being used in classrooms.     

The first “rule of thumb” indicator I have is a simple one - are the students CREATING product ...or CONSUMING product... or both?  If the students are simply consuming product, i.e. using “drill and practice” programs or merely absorbing content from the ‘net, then ICT use in the classroom is likely to be making only a limited contribution to student learning. However, if students are CREATING product then there is a good chance that ICT is being put to good use.

If students are creating learning artefacts then a simple acronym provides another lens through which I can quickly evaluate the significance of the classroom program. That acronym is  WISE.

WISE stands for...

W hy? (or WHAT). Why is ICT being used? Could similar artifacts be produced via traditional means? A hand drawn poster is as valid as a Publisher document for example.   What are the teacher’s  SPECIFIC objectives, what are the SPECIFIC curriculum links? What can students achieve  using computers in this context that could not be achieved otherwise?   

I mportant (or interesting) Is the project / experience both IMPORTANT and INTERESTING to the student? (Tasks need to be important or interesting to the student - not just ”fun”.)  If not, then the chances are that the task is electronic “busy work”.

S haring.   How are the students sharing both their end product and the process of creation?  How are they sharing their artifact with the educational community beyond the classroom? If they are not sharing the artifact...why are they producing it in the first place?  If it only has worth inside the context of the classroom then why would students value it? If it has wider significance why is it not being shared?

E valuation.  How do the students demonstrate their learning? Is the artifact itself significant outside of the classroom environment?  What skills need students display / include? Do they know this? How can a development of skills be demonstrated?

This acronym is hardly cutting edge. (I could dignify it beyond it’s worth and call it “The WISE model”.) However, it does provide me with a lens through which to quickly get a sense of how well ICT is being used in a classroom.   As with all technology, classroom ICT is neutral - it is how well it is being used that is important. And to assist with that we all need to be a little WISE when it comes to classroom use of ICT.

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Credits:
Image = Google images
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/tel/blog/Computers-TwoKdgStudents.jpg

Optimism from a half empty glass

I initially uploaded this image to my facebook page to share the humour with my friends. It’s a joke, a somewhat “down market” spin on an old adage.  But then I started thinking...

There is actually some wisdom hidden behind the humour. We know the adage, dare I say it, the cliche, about the glass being half full or half empty.  The  optimist sees the glass as half full, the pessimist sees the glass as being half empty. But it is the same glass - it is the perception of the user that is the variable.  Optimism, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder (or, I am tempted to say in view of the visual, in the hands of the beer holder).

When we see something individually we interpret it through the lens of our own prejudices and biases, we see the glass “our way”.  However, when we join with others in a group we learn from the wisdom of the group.  Thus the pessimist is exposed to those with more positive outlooks, the enthusiast is tempered by those with a more cautious views.

It is yet another example of the power of the group - the wisdom of the collective.  

Most schools are hierarchical - which may have some administrative advantages but tends to assume that the view from behind the desk is the same as the view from the classrooms.  Sometimes it isn’t.  By genuinely consulting with staff, leaders avoid seeing the issues of the day through the lens of their only their own glass - and allows for the collective wisdom of the group to come into play.

Something to think ( or should that be “drink”?) about...

A modern problem meets ancient wisdom?

I’ve been puzzling on reconciling what the research says about motivation and how to enact it at my workplace.  For this I am indebted to the work of Dan Pink and his book “Drive”.  For those not familiar with the book I’d suggest you can get a more than adequate overview from this RSA animation of his TED talk.




Pink identifies three prime motivators - autonomy, mastery and purpose.  
Purpose.
Teachers should have little trouble with a sense of purpose; surely the profession is one of the most noble and worthy of all?  If a teacher doesn’t feel a sense of purpose then perhaps he or she is in the wrong job.
Mastery
The desire to master a task is also easily embedded within teaching.  Who can honestly say that they can not improve their practice? Who can not improve their ICT skills, or their questioning ability, or the inclusiveness of their lessons? Teachers have almost limitless opportunities to improve their practice - and the day when they believe otherwise is the day they are in the wrong job.
Autonomy?
Autonomy, however, creates some issues for schools. How do we grant teachers genuine autonomy in an environment of regulation, mandated assessment, school wide procedures and protocols that dictate the shape of lessons and learning experiences?   A common response is to say that staff are consulted and included in new school initiatives but then adherence and a common response is required. This is often seen as acceptable since the staff had the input into the decision making process.  But is this “input” enough - or even real?

The economic realities of life are such that most teachers need a job - and disagreeing with the administration of a school can require real strength of character - and perhaps tenure. I recall being at meetings where principals have discussed using “guided democracy” to get the staff to make the decision that they wanted. I recall countless planning meetings designed to shift teacher understanding to where school management believed teachers needed to be.  In short, staff meetings can be subtly directed to arrive at the destination that the leadership wants. However, such processes only produce superficial compliance; genuine commitment to the concepts being discussed is often lacking.

All of this leads us to a situation where the scope for teachers having significant autonomy is limited.  Increasingly teachers have little control over the content of what they teach - and the process by which they teach can also be either “guided” or mandated.  Which means that teachers end up with minimal genuine autonomy.

Yet how can it be otherwise? Effective schools are more than a series of classrooms sharing the same building. A common framework allows  schools to operate in a coordinated manner, to structure activities in a way that allows efficient teaching.  A common approach in many areas is not only sensible but essential. So, schools with clear direction regarding curriculum content and a commitment to “best practice” methods are understandable - in fact, desirable.  Where does this leave teacher autonomy?

Good schools need structure...but passionate teachers need a degree of autonomy.

This is where shared vision becomes essential - not a veneer, not an engineered process with a pre-determined outcome, not merely a collection of protocols..  Teachers who share the vision of the school will feel more control over their efforts. In schools with a shared vision and mindset teachers will have a sense of autonomy - they will feel as if they are working towards goals and objectives that they themselves value.  The fact that the teacher in the next classroom is making the same decisions will be insignificant, for each will be working towards achieving their goals.

When schools do not really listen we end up with a mismatch in vision between the school and at least some of the teachers who teach there. If Daniel Pink is right, this will lead to teachers not feeling in control of their actions, to teachers who lack a sense of autonomy.  And a lack of autonomy leads to a decrease in “drive”.  In the school context this manifests as mediocrity, of minimum standards rather than striving for excellence.Surely this leads school management with a paradox? To create group consensus  we need to genuinely listen to the voices of the individuals within that group. We need to establish our shared values, we need to be clear about our shared vision - for these things guide the fundamental direction and actions of the school.  It is the values and aspirations of the teachers who drive classrooms.  If we want teachers with drive we need teachers with vision - a vision they truly share with other teachers in the school.

Creating a situation where teachers can drive their own classroom in the direction that the system dictates is a challenging task for educational administrators. It reminds me of the adage taken from ancient spiritual leader Lao Tzu; “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

Then we will have teachers with "drive".

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Credits:
RSA Animate version of Pink's TED talk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=player_embedded
Lao Tzu image: Google Graphics

Teaching - building a cathedral?

There is a an ancient parable that goes something like this...

Centuries ago three stone masons were working together chipping away at large blocks of stone.  A stranger approached them and asked them what they were doing.
“I’m chipping away at a block of stone,” replied the first mason.
“I’m working to feed my family,” replied the second.
“I’m helping build a cathedral,” said the third.

Same job - but very different attitudes.

Teachers can be like that.  The task of teaching is a hard one that is slow to produce results - not unlike chipping away at stone. We all know teachers who have views about their workplace or their job that is similar to the first or even the second mason. We also know that this is reflected in their approach to teaching.   However, the good ones know that their “job” is more significant, that the rewards and the outcomes go beyond the here and now, that they are doing something of real significance.
Do our teachers think they are teaching phonics … or helping a child learn to read? Do our teachers think they are teaching computation techniques... or introducing students to the wondrous world of mathematics?


It is our attitudes that direct our actions...and our actions that direct student achievement. The challenge for us all is to see our actions, not as chipping away at a stone, but as building a cathedral.

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Credits:
Parable source =  anon
Image = “The Stone Mason”   http://www.diego-rivera-foundation.org/The-Stone-Mason.jpg

The Poor Scholar's Soliloquy

I came across this piece only recently - despite it first appearing in 1944. Despite its age it seems as modern as tomorrow.  I don’t think any commentary that I could add would improve it. The author, Stephen M. Corey, was Dean of Teachers College, Columbia University.

THE POOR SCHOLAR'S SOLILOQUY

Stephen M. Corey "Childhood Education" - January 1944

No, I'm not very good in school. This is my second year in the seventh grade, and I'm bigger and taller than the other kids. They like me all right, though, even if I don't say much in the classroom, because outside I can tell them how to do a lot of things. They tag me around and that sort of makes up for what goes on in school.

I don't know why the teachers don't like me. They never have very much. Seems like they don't think you know anything unless you can name the books it comes out of. I've got a lot of books in my room at home-books like Popular Science Mechanical Encyclopedia, and the Sears & Wards catalogues--but I don't sit down and read them like they make us do in school. I use my books when I want to find something out, like whenever mom buys anything second-hand I look it up in Sears or Wards first and tell her if she's getting stung or not. I can use the index in a hurry.

In school, though, we've got to learn whatever is in the book and I just can't memorize the stuff. Last year I stayed after school every night for two weeks trying to learn the names of the presidents. Of course, I knew some of them--like Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln, but there must have been thirty altogether, and I never did get them straight. I'm not too sorry though, because the kids who learned the presidents had to turn right around and learn all the vice-presidents. I am taking the seventh grade over, but our teacher this year isn't so interested in the names of the presidents. She has us trying to learn the names of all the great American inventors.

I guess I just can't remember the names in history. Anyway, this year I've been trying to learn about trucks because my uncle owns three, and he says I can drive one when I'm sixteen. I already know the horsepower and number of forward and backward speeds of twenty-six American trucks, some of them Diesels, and I can spot each make a long way off. It's funny how that Diesel works. I started to tell my teacher about it last Wednesday in science class when the pump we were using to make a vacuum in a bell jar got hot, but she, didn't see what a Diesel engine had to do with our experiment on air pressure, so I just kept still. The kids seemed interested though. I took four of them around to my uncle's garage after school, and we saw the mechanic, Gus, tear a big truck Diesel down. Boy does he know his stuff!

I'm not very good in geography either. They call it economic geography this year. We've been studying the imports and exports of Chile all week, but I couldn't tell what they are. Maybe the reason is I had to miss school yesterday because my uncle took me and his big truck down and we brought almost 10 tons of livestock to the Chicago market.

He had told me where we were going, and I had to figure out the highways to take and also the mileage. He didn't do anything but drive and turn where I told him to, Was that fun. I sat with a map in my lap, and told him to turn south, or southeast, or some other direction. We made seven stops, and drove over 500 miles round trip. I'm figuring now what his oil cost, and also the wear and tear on the truck--he calls it depreciation--so we'll know how much we made.

I even write out all the bills and send letters to the farmers about what their pigs and beef cattle brought at the stockyards. I only made three mistakes in 17 letters last time, my aunt said, all commas. She's been through high school and reads them over. I wish I could write school themes that way. The last one I had to write was on, "What a Daffodil Thinks of Spring," and I just couldn't get going.

I don't do very well in school in arithmetic either. Seems I just can't keep my mind on the problems. We had one the other day like this:

If a 57 foot telephone pole falls across a cement highway so that 17 3/6 feet extended from one side and 14 9/17 feet from the other how wide is the highway?

That seemed to me like an awfully silly way to get the width of a highway. I didn't even try to answer it because it didn't say whether the pole had fallen straight across or not.

Even in shop I don't get very good grades. All of us kids made a broom holder and bookend this term, and mine were sloppy. I just couldn't get interested. Mom doesn't use a broom anymore with her vacuum cleaner, and all our books are in a bookcase with glass doors in the living room. Anyway, I wanted to make an end gate for my uncle's trailer, but the shop teacher said that meant using metal and wood both, and I'd have to learn how to work with wood first. I didn't see why, but I kept still and made a tie rack at school and the tail gate after school at my uncle's garage. He said I saved him ten dollars.

Civics is hard for me, too. I've been staying after school trying to learn the "Articles of Confederation" for almost a week, because the teacher said we couldn't be a good citizen unless we did. I really tried, though, because I want to be a good citizen. I did hate to stay after school because a bunch of boys from the south end of town have been cleaning up the old lot across from Taylor's Machine Shop to make a playground out of it for the little kids from the Methodist home. I made the jungle gym from old pipe. We raised enough money collecting scrap this month to build a wire fence clear around the lot.

Dad says I can quit school when I am sixteen, and I am sort of anxious because there are a lot of things I want to learn--and as my uncle says, I'm not getting any younger.

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The piece speaks for itself and needs no augmentation from me.  However, I find it saddening that this piece could have been written today.  Has education changed so little over the years?

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Credits:
Text = Stephen M. Corey, "Childhood Education" - January 1944

Image =  http://www.maebs.com/articles/Liz_Davies/TreeAcrossTheRoad.jpg