May 2016

A Brave New World (Part 2): TOCing

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In the past, I have used the phrase “A Brave New World” in reference to some element of my teaching experience, but if I could go back, retract that statement, and reapply it to this most recent experience, I would. Alas, it shall remain in the past and a must regurgitate the sentiment that after spending almost 8 months in a Grade 7 classroom, moving to a K-1 for the day was certainly “a brave new world”.

However, this world was certainly not a negative one, it was challenging yes, but a fun, exciting, and educational experience. It took me a little but at the beginning of the day to get my brain to switch over into “primary teacher mode” but once there, it was “relatively” smooth sailing.

To be blunt, Grade 7 to Kindergarten is a big jump. However, regardless of the grade level, good practice is still good practice. As we scaffold for our students of differing abilities, so can we with our methods for students of differing grades. Some specific skills that transferred well for me is my focus on building relationships with the students quickly. Engaging them in their interests and asking questions allows me to connect with them at the beginning of the day and then user the information to motivate and personalize their learning throughout the day based on their interests. Additionally, being able to outline expectation, even at such a young grade, was something that carried well with me into this new experience. Students need to know what is expected of them over the course of the next activity. The need to know what they should be doing, how they should be acting, what to do if they need help, and what to do when they are finished. This wasn’t new for the students and my colleague’s classroom was well set up for this. The students knew that once the expectations were down, they followed them well throughout each activity. This I feel is a testament to my colleague structure she has put in place throughout the year and that the students comprehend/respect the concept of expectations.

Overall, wonderful day, wonderful experience, and I am so thankful to have had the privilege to get to see teaching through a new lens. A brave new world? Yes. But an exciting one? You betcha!

IN-trinsic Motivation

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The term personal best is a curious one. Striving to beat oneself; to push past one’s accomplishments towards bigger and better things, it does require a certain mindset. It is not unknown that the concept of personal bests is related directly to the idea of intrinsically motivation and that “inner drive” that powers us forward towards success through none other than our own will. However, what cannot be ignored that this is a difficult mindset to accomplish. One could even say that the nature of IN-trinsic motivation is IN-tricate. IN as IN-side yourself, not OUT-side. Get it?

 

Well the point of this isn’t for me to make cheesy one liners so let’s connect this to my practicum shall we? Over the course of the past several weeks, I have been developing the concept of a Track and Field unit based solely on the concept of personals bests. This is intrinsic motivation at it’s…well, best. Great concept, however the notion of working against oneself is tricky. For myself, I am not an overtly intrinsically motivated person. I don’t do that well with personal bests and I need some form of extrinsic motivation; another competitor, a timer, etc. Therefore, it is reasonable to imagine the same mindset is present in at least some my students. So how do I encourage a group of students to adopt a mindset that I myself struggle with. Well I accomplish this through example.

 

From the beginning of my long practicum until now, my SA and I have introduced a new morning routine where the students are reflecting on a motivational video, finding a connection to the theme of a clip, and sharing how it relates to them personally. The shear amount of wonderful, articulate mantras that have been created by my students in connection to these videos on a daily basis is outstanding. “Success is looking at your life and being happy”, “if you don’t take risks, you’re not really living”, “failure is a stop on the road to success” are all credos, although probably not coined, by certainly echoed, by my students. In subsequent PE lessons, I found the concept of personal bests easier to get through to my students, they were sharing their times or distances as would be expected, but I also began to hear comments such as “I beat last week’s time by 10 seconds” or “I did better than I did last week”. In discussion with my class, they related the motivational comments that we created at the beginning of every day to an increase in their intrinsic motivation (this sentiment being paraphrased by me). The videos and discussion of them encouraged them to work harder and not necessarily against others. They seemed happy with beating their previous best and were excited to try again next time to improve even further.

 

So I suppose the whole idea of this is that you have to use the tools available to you to achieve your desired outcome. This, plus the notion of students exploring concepts on their own to derive their own meaning from it, are a powerful combination when facing a struggle like this one. What I found interesting at the end of all this, the students increase in intrinsic motivation spurred my intrinsic motivation to get into gear. It is the little things in this profession that you derive simple pleasure from.

 

“Success is looking at your life and being happy”

“If you don’t take risks, you’re not really living”

“Failure is a stop on the road to success”

  • My Students Paraphrasing Motivational Videos

Teachable Moments

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As I have moved throughout this journey that is my practicum, something has become increasingly clear for me: the ability to adapt is critical. Much like in the process of evolution where those with the capability to change to fit into their surroundings, teachers that can adjust on the fly to fit the needs of the present situation, to “make it work”, are the ones who will survive (I know this is a dramatic analogy but I am one for theatricality, so I believe it still applies). Something that I have been mindful about throughout this process is finding ways to weave my inquiry topic into my daily routine. Setting up lessons that will bring my class together collaboratively but keep them engaged in a competitive sense. Therefore, when I reflect back upon my process (as I am doing now), I will have ample fodder for my ever-hungry blog. Was it a good plan? Yes. Are these careful sculpted lessons where I have witnessed some of the most insightful interaction to connection to my inquiry topic? No.

 

The reality is that “stuff” happens. And it is in those moments where a teacher is forced to adapt to a situation that you find connections to things like, in my case collaborative competition, where you didn’t see it before. An example of this was over the past weeks, my SA (who has been organizing the majority of the badminton games between our school and others) was given the task of picking 9 students to send to an upcoming badminton tournament from the over 60 who had originally signed up to play the sport. He elected to create a bracket-style tournament to pick who would go and during the course of the 3 days when the games occurred, you could see the students participate in the classic style of competition, which engaged the students with the extrinsic motivator of representing out school in this tournament. As the students were playing doubles, they did, in one way, engage in my concept of collaborative competition when the connected with their partners, supporting each other to achieve the task. This is noteworthy but something I could have predicted before the games began as it also is the classic style of teamwork and collaboration. However, it was after the games were all played out that the true, and unintended form of collaborative competition came out.

 

The gym was packed with teams that had finished playing, and other students who were there just to support their friends and spectate. After congratulating the winning team and noting there was time remaining at lunchtime, we proposed to have a friendly game of the winning team vs. us (the teachers). They said they would love to and the frantic excitement among the rest of the students was palpable. As the game began, something very interesting happened, the entire gym rallied behind these two players, supporting them, cheering them on, and bonding together as one. It wasn’t them vs. just another team, it was them vs. an external force (in this case us). As I have referred to in the past, this environment where the students, and not only those participating but spectating as well, can act as one against an external force (ex. a timer, another school, and yes in this scenario, the two of us). The long and short of it is that the students won a very close and exciting game, and everyone went away smiling. In conversation with the two students after, the noted as the game went on they played better and better, and they referred to the support of their peers as a driving factor behind this. They were unified and through this they felt they could achieve the goal better than if they didn’t have the collaborative force behind them.

 

This wasn’t intended. It wasn’t in the plan. It was spontaneous. Finding moments such as that, but more importantly taking advantage of them, is vital for a teacher to make connections to their students. I am not saying that teachers do not need to be planned or that lessons can just shift as if influenced by the tides. No. Anyone who has spent time with me knows that I am very organized and that isn’t my MO. However, what I am advocating is that rigidity and inflexibility is limiting. It limits your students and also limits your own potential as an educator. The ability to, in a structured and thought out way, ease off of the reins from time to time is one that I wish to possess and will work towards in the future.

 

“It is in the chaos that we find teachable moments.”

– Me