Ako - Learning and Teaching from each other

I am very lucky to be working in the Senior Syndicate at TPS with the wonderful, experienced, and 'expert', teacher Aireen Ah Kui. She is also my Mentor teacher supporting me towards achieving full teacher registration at the end of this year. 

TPS places a strong emphasis on fostering Tuakana/Teina relationships within the school, blending the Maori concept of Ako, learning and teaching from one another, with Vygotsky's idea of learning from the 'expert other' through scaffolding.

The mentor/PRT relationship is a great example of this process and Aireen and I have enjoyed almost two years of learning and teaching with, and from, one another. I recently had an couple of mentor observations; Aireen watched me teach, both a whole class lesson and 2 group instruction sessions, on written language. I received really useful feedback and feed forward and had very helpful professional discussions about where to next with my students' learning and lesson planning. 

Our written language programme is integrated with our inquiry topic of Practicing Peaceful Play and is focussed on speech writing. I first introduced the speech topic - "why it is important to practice peaceful play" and discussed the key features of an speech introduction.

Working with what Aireen observed during my lessons and the level that the students were working at, we discussed what the next series of lessons would need to focus on. Aireen came into our classroom and led an awesome lesson solidifying and building on what the students already knew. 

I saw repetition of key ideas, detailed scaffolding, student movement around the class, whole class/buddy/small group discussions, talk moves, think/pair/share, and student independent reflection and evaluation. 

To assist the lesson I created a detailed speech writing success criteria, along with exemplars of an introduction paragraph and structured explanation paragraph. These were written to a level 4 (Year 8 standard). These was used for annotation and as a learning and teaching tool for the students to refer back to when evaluating their own speeches.

After a whole class discussion and scaffolding of the learning task, students identified and highlighted examples of the key elements of an introduction and then shared these with the whole class. You can see from the photo below that clarification was necessary through whole class discussion to clearly show different elements of an introduction. 

Here you can see the students working independently, discussing and re-voicing ideas together on the mat, and taking part in the fantastic 'doughnut' sharing technique.

I was able to observe and discuss with Aireen all the different strategies she used during the lesson and gain an understanding of why she used them, along with identifying the needs of the students and seeing how Aireen adapted the lesson to meet those needs. The lesson was slowed right down and ideas were repeated and re-voiced again and again. It was great to see by the end of the lesson that all students were able to produce an introduction with all the key elements.

Another lesson was delivered in a team-teaching style the following week with both the Year 7 & Year 8 students (both Aireen's and my class). This lesson allowed me to put together how I teach, with the ideas and techniques that Aireen utilises. Delivering the lesson together allowed us to 'riff off' each other and build on our existing written language techniques and strategies. We were also able to identify specific areas of the writing process the students were struggling with and target those with tailor-made resources and more exemplars and discussion. 

The speeches are still being written and as this is the last week of school for Term 3, the students will continue to craft and re-craft their speeches until next Term. I am sincerely looking forward to hearing the different ideas and explanations that the students are coming up with - next step: presenting skills!

When the going gets tough . . .

Term 1 Week 3

This week was tough.

It was a week of long hours, staff meetings, planning meetings, syndicate meetings and sports trainings. Hot weather and 60 students learning in a school hall with 4 fans is not what you expect for a typical learning environment and this week it was tested to maximum.

In our newly formed Kia Manawanui Senior learning hub, we have identified maths as a key curriculum area to focus on. So this week was about establishing our maths programme as we mean to go along; prioritising maths in our always busy timetable, along with providing more practical activities for the students to work on consolidating and building on their existing mathematical knowledge.

We spent over 3 days preparing a wide range of maths games including; nzmaths multiplication and division board games, basic facts card games, Figure It Out activities and loop cards testing all areas of basic facts. The first 2 maths sessions were introductions to some of the more in-depth games. Activities were broken down and learners were scaffolded to ensure that everyone knew how to play the games correctly and what particular maths learning was taking place. This proved to be very successful and fun for all our learners.

On Wednesday we then moved to group instruction and attempted to carry out instruction in a hall with 6 other maths groups all carrying out their group activities. Let me repeat our current learning environment: one school hall, 60 year 7 & 8 students, 8 maths groups, 2 teachers trying to work with one group each. Needless to say group instruction was rather difficult in this environment. Even with reminders to keep the noise level down, the sheer number of learners all trying to communicate with one another made the whole endeavour rather arduous. 

At least it was a half day as our first whanau conferences of the year were being held. I found it heartening to connect with so many whanau members. Beginning of the year meetings with whanau are about fostering a strong home/school partnership and involving parents and caregivers in their child's life and learning at school. It also helps to make connections with the people who care for and support our students and provide them with guidance on how to continue supporting their child's learning at home.

The key idea that came out of these meetings was that parents were unsure about how to allow their children to access the internet or their netbooks at home. Many were worried about their child going on the wrong kind of sites, or spending hours watching youtube videos. Others did not believe that their children needed to go on their device if they had no school work to do at home. This was interesting feedback in relation to the Manaiakalani Woolf Fisher Research meeting we attending the previous afternoon. Research carried out via parent interviews by Woolf Fisher found the same concerns by many parents along with restricting hours of use at home and concern over appropriate websites to access. From this dialogue I have decided to create a page on our class learning site that will contain a range of different links to learning sites and resource sites that we use in the school already and that will hopefully extend the learning opportunities for our students out of school hours. As a work in progress I value any suggestions or feedback and will post again about the progress of this endeavour.

Being a Beginning Teacher in NZ

I was lucky enough recently to have a wonderful evening catching up with a group of teacher friends from university. We had all graduated from the Grad Dip programme at AU and all come from an amazingly diverse array of backgrounds. We were all taking advantage of the beginning of term and the 'last free time' we expected to have for a while. 

After the congenial chatter died away we moved onto the inevitable topic of being a PRT and what that meant for our year ahead. We reflected on the stark reality of being a beginning teacher and trying to maintain the balance of workload and expectations with any form of a social life. We all know that it is necessary to have a good 'work/life balance' but trying to achieve that balance is a mighty challenge.

I will admit that sometimes feel that I am not cut out to be a teacher. I spend so much time preparing lessons, creating resources, planning, reporting etc. that I come to the conclusion that maybe I'm just not cut out to be a teacher, let alone the kind of teacher I want to be.  I understand that as a new teacher, it is going to be harder, take longer, and be more challenging. Learning any new skill or role takes time and of course is going to be more 'full on'. I love learning, reflecting and improving my practice but at some point you have to stop and think does it really have to be this hard? 

I am fortunate enough to be working in a school with an amazing mentor teacher, in a newly formed learning hub this year. We collaborate and co-construct planning and lessons, either face to face or using the ever convenient Google Docs.  Upon further discussion with my peers I realise how truly fortunate I am to be in a genuinely collaborative and supportive environment. In my first year I reached out for help and advice from my Mentor, Senior Management and peers to help me cope with the workload, behaviour, and classroom management, and they were all willing to give it.

My friends have had varied experiences in their respective schools but the common theme is one of doing it largely alone. Yes they have Mentor teachers who support/advise them to varying degrees but when it comes down to the day to day, they are in their classroom on their own.  One of the biggest benefits I have found from my experiences as a PRT in a team-teaching environment is the feedback and reflective practices inherent within. I am able to unpack my lessons if necessary, review my classroom management techniques and reflect on my teaching practice regularly and constructively with the guidance and opinion of a peer. 

Self reflection is an important part of any profession (I would go as far to say it is a necessity in life) but to do so with an expert other is the true meaning of social learning and Vygotsky's ZPD. 

It would be fantastic if some kind of apprenticeship programme could be developed for beginning teachers, providing the opportunities for PRTs to learn and develop with the aid of an expert other. Experiencing the day to day realities of being in the classroom and what the role of a teacher really involves alongside co-construction of resources and planning would set new teachers up to succeed. Current university placements don't even come close to the real thing. John Hattie mentioned in his talk at last year's Festival of Education that there is an alarming retention rate for new teachers and that many leave the profession within their first 5 years. 

I am thankful for the support and mentoring I receive but it makes me wonder if I am struggling, how are PRT's coping in less than supportive environments?