I don't understand sir! How it feels to be a student

Today I experienced what it was like to be a student in a maths lesson who didn’t know anything about a topic.  As a math teacher is admittedly was an unusual situation for me to be in but was very powerful.

 

Today was my colleague, CM’s  turn to chair our morning maths meeting and he had set us the homework of watching a clip prior to the meeting, much like we have been trialling with many of our KS4 and KS5 students in a bid to make them more independent (it’s also known as flipped learning).

 

As an interesting twist, the clip was related to an area of maths that I am not very familiar with, called decision maths. In fact it is a new module that I have introduced in A- level and is new to most of the maths department.

 

Just like a true student, I clicked on the homework last night before I went home. Saw that the clip was 20mins  and decided that it was too long so I’d do it the following morning just before the meeting. Fast forward to today and I’m sitting in my office at 7.45am  trying to understand what a bubble algorithm is, having never heard of it in my life.

 

Then I went it to the meeting, which my colleague had set up as a lesson, complete with mini whiteboards, pens and starter activity.  This is where he separated the sheep from the goats.  The first question was one that only made sense if we had done the h/w.

 

At this point 9 maths teachers were transformed into a class of students. Some of us had no idea what it was having not done the h/w, others had watched the clip but had not really understood it, some thought they’d done it at some vague point in the past,  some had watched and tried but weren’t confident about their answers.

 

At this point CM used the answers from the whiteboard to arrange us into groups so that those who understood could explain to those who didn’t by giving us alternative example to take them through.  It’s quite an interesting experience explaining a mathematical concept to a colleague that you are not even sure that you have grasped yourself.  It’s how students must feel all the time.

 

Soon our 10 min meeting was up and CM had raised some interesting points.

If we set flipped h/w

·         How do  account for the fact that not all students will do it (partially addressed by his demonstration)

·         What do we do in class for those that have to move on their learning?  More questions of the same is not really moving them on.

·         What is the hook to make them want to look at this h/w before hand. Why should they do it?

 

So as a subject specialist, maybe it’s worth spending  some time in a meeting learning something new from your own subject together.  Experience how students feel and what helps you to learn, it could help you to become a better teacher.

 

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Comments re this post are welcome below as CM is a bit shy re posting himself but would like to see what others think re what he tried.

Practitioner-Led INSET: Marginal Learning Gains at Canons

On Monday we welcomed our staff back for the start of a

 new term and new year and for the fourth of our crucial Canons OPP INSET sessions of the year.  For this INSET day our main focus was  on in-class evaluation processes, but we wanted to start the day with an activity that involved all teachers in understanding the concept of Dave Brailsford's Marginal Gains ethos that underpinned the successes of cycling's Team Sky and Team GB in 2012.

 

The start of the session involved asking staff to identify Dave Brailsford (I've never seen PE staff so keen to contribute to an INSET Q&A - Thanks Alex!).  We then watched the video of Brailsford explaining to BBC Breakfast the theory behind Marginal Gains and how it helped his teams achieve success this year.  A summary of the key points outlined in his interview can be seen to the right, which was shared with staff in the context of Canons.

Work has already been done at Canons to disaggregate the Ofsted outstanding criteria.  Following a suggestion by Alex Quigley at Huntington School (@huntingenglish to the twitterati), the aim of this session was to 'crowdsource' these ten disaggregated criteria, disaggregating Ofsted outstanding even further to allow it to be conceptualised in terms of concrete classroom practice.

 

The key point made throughout this session was that as an already outstanding school aiming to become great, we need to be looking to Marginal Gains to help us on that journey.  We also insisted that the vast majority - if not all - of these Marginal Gains were already present somewhere within the school in the classrooms of our colleagues.  This informed the first part of the 'crowdsourcing activity'.

 



Identifying Marginal Learning Gains

Teachers were asked to take ten minutes to consider the ten disaggregated areas of the Ofsted outstanding criteria and consider what aspects of their own classroom practice they were proud of and that would constitute a potential Marginal Learning Gain to other teachers.  They were asked to "sweat the small stuff" and "look after the pennies to save the pounds", concentrating on the 1% gains that would be relatively easy for colleagues to take on. 




Good ideas from our own classrooms

Over the course of the ten minutes some staff got straight to it, whilst others spent time considering their contributions.  Some moved around a large number of tables whilst some decided to stick with one or two.  The aim was to have at least twenty suggestions for each area, requiring a contribution of at least four ideas from each teacher in the room.  The best oral feedback I have had so far is that the focus on our own strengths was really heartening for staff.

 

Literacy, oracy and numeracy highlighted

Of course, during this process there were a few areas of the Ofsted outstanding criteria that received more comments than others.  To help ensure all areas received equal attention I buzzed around shouting out where we could do with more comments and reminding colleagues of the wonderful work that they had done or were doing that I had seen or heard about: Not a bad way for any member of SLT to begin the year, shouting out positives.

 

Once the ten minutes were up I called for staff to stop and, as they expectantly and longingly looked at their chairs, asked them to find an area of the disaggregated Ofsted outstanding criteria where they felt less confident and, in discussion as groups to go through the suggestions made in the first activity to identify the Top Ten Tips on the sheet that could be passed on to all teachers, including newly appointed NQTs and our next wave of PGCE students.



Interdependent learning

Over the next ten minutes each table identified their own ways to reduce down the suggestions that they had inherited.  Some got straight to it and circled the ones that stood out most to them.  Others took time to consider how different suggestions could be amalgamated to ensure that no good idea was lost in the process.  Some groups appointed someone to make decisions for them and some gravitated towards a powerful personality.  Some bickered and others agreed wholeheartedly.  Some struggled to complete the task so rounded were their discussions.  It was not unlike watching learners of any age complete a task rooted in interdependence and collaboration: a pleasure and a privelege.


Reducing lists to Top Ten MLG tips

The point of asking the teachers to create a Top Ten Tips was to ensure that the final ideas were refined enough, and by asking them to lead on this distillation process in an area of relative weakness or uncertainty for them was to ensure that the tips created would be relevant to those most in need (or in want) of their development.  Having involved them as experts in specific areas we wanted to engage them as the critically reflective practitioners we know them to be.

 

 





The purpose behind the whole activity was twofold.  Firstly, to take the time at the start of the new year to remind our staff that they are outstanding at what they do.  Secondly, to support them in their individual and collective quests to get ever better.  We asked them, in their own time after the day to look over the Top Ten Tips in the ten disaggregated areas of Ofsted outstanding criteria and identify eight areas of practice the would like to tweak.


Very much a labour of love

In order to show teachers the value of the activity that they had participated in and the importance of their contribution to that process we made a decision very early on to have the 100 Marginal Learning Gains identified by our staff during the day printed professionally on the day itself.  Using the artwork and the same quality paper as we use for our school brochures we commissioned our usual printers to undertake the task for us.  The aim was to use the plenary session for the day to give this quality product back to its authors.  The big shame of the day was that technical hitches at the publishers meant that they arrived 30 minutes late!!

Intro & contents of our MLG booklet

As well as using the artwork of our school brochure we decided to lace the booklet with images related to cycling, Team Sky and Team GB to retain the theme that had dominated during the presentation and to reinforce the notion of excellence (or greatness) that is at the heart of what we are doing.  Using shutterstock for selecting these images ensured that we were copyright-safe.

MLG booklet printed the same day!!

The work that was put into the booklet by myself and our school Office Manager, Jackie, was well worth the time and the very reasonable price.  A photocopied booklet printed in school could not possibly, however lovingly crafted, have conveyed the same sense of quality and professionalism.  Having collated the ten groups of Top Ten Tips for each area of the disaggregated Ofsted outstanding criteria, we typed them and sent them off to the publisher where they were aligned with fabulous pictures of our staff and students.

MLG Wheel for Self-Evaluation

The main focus of the booklet, though, is the Marginal Learning Gains wheel that sits at its centre in between photos of Bradley Wiggins (representing individual success) and Team Sky (representing school success).  With thanks to Zoe Elder (@fullonlearning) amongst others, we have borrowed the ideas of others to produce a beautiful 'crowdsourced', expertise-laden, development-focused booklet that is all about the Marginal Learning Gains and I couldn't be any prouder of the process that our staff went through in this INSET day or the product that they created.

 

Learning by example

This week, I have been privileged enough to see 6 of my colleagues as part of our whole school review.

I love watching other people teach because I nearly always learn something when I do so.

I watched a maths lesson where students simultaneously learnt how to solve equations and how to count  in Swahili. I watched an Computing lesson where students collaboratively had prepared their own lessons at home using Prezis  and then used these to teach their peers a variety of concepts. I observed my first ever PE lesson and saw a teacher skilfully develop the physical skills of all students via judicious use of peer demonstration and questioning. In the same lesson, I also heard students evaluate their own performance using precise technical language.  I saw high levels of pupil engagement and a thirst for knowledge.  I saw pupils learn.

Across these lessons, I noticed an interesting thing.  Learning is obvious, practical or theoretical, year 7 or year 11, group work or teacher led. When you are in a space where people are developing in their understanding in a significant way it is clear and palpable. You can hear it, you can see it, you can feel it.

In many of the lessons I saw I was also able to make parallels with my own classes and consider how I could use the best bits to improve my personal teaching practice.  Some of you reading this may have deduced that I have a responsibility of some type if I was involved in so many observations, and I saw those as part of my responsibility. In this case you'd be right.

However, I got into the habit of watching others teach during my first year of teaching and I found it so powerful that I have made a point of doing it ever since.  I am a maths teacher but along side my own subject, for my own CPD, away from any responsibilities I may have gained with time, I have  observed colleagues who teach a range of subjects including Citizenship, English, Science and I have learnt something form each and every one of them.

In teaching there is never enough time, outside of lessons we are all too busy with data entry, marking, phoning parents, planning, breaking up fights, telling students to do up their top buttons, the list is endless. However I always make time to observe colleagues that I respect teach- irrespective of how heavy my timetable was- why? Because I learn more from that than going on a course, I learn more from that than reading a book and I learn more from that than being told what to do. These colleagues teach in my environment with my students and are always generous with their time and resources.  Over 8 years I have yet to have a teacher refuse when I have asked to observe them in a personal capacity for my own CPD, this is irrespective of whether or not my role has been more senior than the person I was observing.

So who do I ask? Anybody, that I can lean from. I ask to see teachers that my students are alway talking about, I see teachers who other colleagues that I respect mention, as a result I've observed NQTs as well as more experienced teachers and I've seen senior leaders and classroom teachers with no responsibilities. Learning is learning , who ever it is delivered by.

So what have I learnt? My now standard practice of asking students to evaluate the lesson so far and come up with the lesson objectives themselves was an adaptation from that citizenship lesson that I mentioned.  My questioning abilities were significantly developed after working a collaboration with a French  teacher and I'm currently in the early stages of working with a History teacher @MsHowardCHS regarding how I can adapt her very effective use of scaffolding to help students in maths better answer longer problem solving questions that are now a regular feature of GCSE exams which many of our pupils find difficult.

You'll notice that I haven't used he words outstanding or good during his post at all. That is deliberate, I feel that these words have become loaded in teaching because of OFSTED and when I observe m colleagues in a personal capacity, I don't even give them any thought. I look at what the teacher does, why, and the effect it has on learning after the lesson i usually thank the person and let them know verbally what I learnt and how it will impact me, it's one of the most powerful CPD and its free and easily accessible.

So if you want to improve your teaching or just get a fresh perspective, I urge you to arrange to see a colleague. It'll be one of the most enjoyable uses of your non- contact periods and 30-60min of your time once or twice a year, well spent.

Before you are wondering, yes I've had numerous colleagues come and see me too but you'd have to ask them whether they got anything out of it or not!


Sent from my iPad

The Real Wizardry of Effective CPD

At the Cramlington Learning Festival yesterday @kbrechin put up a slide showing the cast of The Wizard of Oz not dissimilar to the one below.

When he then started off by saying that some teachers approached continuous professional development (CPD) were a bit like the Cowardly Lion, scared of change, I have to confess to feeling worried for him. My brain was screaming at me "Please don't say that some are brainless" and "Heaven help him if he says some have no heart", but thankfully Ken trod safer paths. He pointed out that the scarecrowlike teachers in our schools are the ones that have forgotten their sense of engagement in professional learning, whilst the tinmanesque teachers are those that have grown rusty and somewhat frozen in terms of their teaching skills over time. My concerned inner voice relaxed and let out an almost-audible "phew".

And then my mind suddenly made connections (relational learning for the SOLOphiles among you) to @alatalite's keynote presentation in which he showed a photo of a school that had written its School Improvement Plan as an interactive collage in which the steps to improvement were the paving slabs of the yellow brick road. In the same image Sir Michael Wilshaw was represented as the Wicked Witch of the West (well he certainly can't be accused of watering down the intensity of Ofsted, I suppose). Maybe the theme for Cramlington's 12th Festival ought to be 'Over the Rainbow' if they are going to synchronise their metaphors so carefully!! I can just imagine @mlovatt1 as Glinda the Good (maybe I shouldn't be admitting to that but at least it's Extended Abstract).

Anyway, the use of these three archetypes of CPD-resistant or CPD-phobic got me thinking about what our core purpose in staff development is. In what ways do we go beyond the pigeon-holing of teachers as scared, forgetful or rusted learners? I didn't have to wait too long to hear a familiar refrain from some members of the audience about how we need to ease out those who are not committed to the school direction of travel, by fair means (ie those that invoke national legislation) or foul (ie those that involve a kind of alienation to encourage departure). Don't get me wrong, this wasn't an evil conspiracy between rampant technocratic SMTs - Cramlington isn't really the kind of place for that sort of thing - just more a lazy, unchecked creeping managerialism that has somehow found its way into the profession and to the modern world generally.

The impulsive, reactionary part of me was internally screaming out again "Is this how we would treat the children in our schools? Is this how we think human beings should be treated? Is this how we think learning works?" but I didn't. Instead I rather more calmly-than-I-felt suggested that maybe we need to think more about how we make the fearful feel safe, how we make the forgetful feel re-inspired and how we make the rusty and frozen feel reanimated and lubricated by the CPD we offer them. This intervention went down far better than I had expected and some very nice things were said that flattered my ego and gave me that warm glow.

But now I have a niggling feeling that my intervention was too trite, too soundbitey and too fuzzy. After all we don't give out hearts, brains or courage like trinkets as the Wizard of Oz does in the film. It isn't that easy. I'm not even sure that it is desirable that it be that easy. And it assumes that CPD leaders in schools are Wizards and, as the film showed, that was all just a case of smoke and mirrors.

But, and it is a big but, what the film also showed is that the trinkets given were merely symbols of the qualities that the Lion, Scarecrow and Tinman wanted to have and that the giving of them stimulated the courage, cleverness and feelingness of the recipients THAT HAD ALWAYS BEEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I've argued, in my very first and most personally important post on this blog, that we need to move from a deficit model of schooling to a surplus one and nowhere ought this be more relevant than in terms of staff development given the much-repeated assertion that quality of teachers and teaching are the most important prerequisites of student and school success. We can't keep looking out at the teachers who attend INSET sessions expecting them all to be Dorothies with no major shortcomings and in need simply of being pointed in the right direction home to some mythical Kansas of the perfect classroom. God help us all if we have schools full of simpering, perfection-seeking, professionals who think that tapping their heels together (in the form of adopting uncritically techniques like SOLO) three times will make everything in their classrooms perfect. I'm not even convinced that there isn't a bit of all four archetypes within us all to a greater or lesser degree, and while I might feel Dorothy-like at the moment, I can feel my Lion-ish worries lurking somewhere near to the surface.

We need the Lions on (and within) our staff to teach the Dorothies to beware of the dangers of the oversimplification of teaching techniques. We need the Scarecrows on (and within) our staff to teach the Dorothies that however cutting edge they feel today it probably won't last and that at some point in their careers they too will feel left behind. And we need the Tinmen and Tinwomen on (and within) our staff to teach the Dorothies that many times familiarity doesn't breed contempt and that good teaching can be very traditional and very effective at the same time. But all of that doesn't mean the Dorothies have nothing to teach the others. Just because they can be eager to the point of being naïve, and forward-looking to the point of being unthinking does not mean that they have nothing to add to the professional learning of others.

Instead we should accept that almost every person that enters teaching does so for the right reasons: to see children learn, understand, grow and succeed in school and beyond school. Really effective CPD in schools needs to be about blending the strengths of each person within an overarching school ethos, not pitting the strengths of some against the limitations of others. Dorothy would, after all, have never got to Oz without the Lion, Scarecrow and Tinman.

And this is the challenge for the Pedagogy Leaders at Canons High School in the coming year: How to build on your amazing INSET day (and it was clearly amazing for almost all staff) in a way that is inclusive and respectful of the talents of each of your colleagues. Cramlington has shown you one way of doing so. Learn from it but don't be a slave to it. Canons can be as good one day.