OUT WITH THE OLD & IN WITH THE NEW? ... Think again!

My husband usually takes our eleven-year-old daughter to her Sunday running practice but last week he was in South Africa working. As I sat and watched Mattise with these runners, I found myself feeling very emotional or should I say I felt many emotions. Let’s just say that this is not your typical running training. Although my father-in- law, Bob has passed away, he is very much there at training on Sunday mornings. He was a professional runner and his talent just happened to skip a generation.

After Bob retired from running he was heavily involved in the sport, trained many professional runners, and became a professional handicapper. It was his ‘thing’. I didn’t know much about his running except that he was very good back then and he could have won a medal at the Olympics (1956) but professional runners weren’t allowed to compete in the Olympics at that time. With friends around Australia, Bob would travel to running meets. One of Bob’s running friends, Jack lives here in Sydney. Jack’s life has been quite eventful! Some of his coaching has included training Olympians, the Sydney Swans, the Eastern Suburbs, and Sydney University and he was also involved in the Modern Pentathlon.

Jack training Mel Gibson for Gallipoli

As many of you are full time educators, you understand that we miss many of our own children’s events. Fortunately, a few parents send me text messages and photos of the events. After learning that Mattise had won quite a number of races, my husband and I decided it was time to phone Jack. Jack said he would observe Mattise run to see if she had 'potential'. From that day on, Mattise joined a group of senior runners every Sunday morning. They have all become her mentors and to be honest, as we have no relatives in Sydney, they’ve become her extended family. Runners I met on this day were Richard, Mike, Hewie, Vic and Nick whose ages range from 40 to early 80s. These uncle and grandfather figures advise, question, push, encourage and also adore Mattise. She is now competing in Saturday competitions. I feel so very fortunate that she has these mentors in her life. They are not only mentors in her running but also mentors in her living. They teach Mattise about personal best, resilience, hard work, and being humble. I truly believe the more people you can bring into a child’s life the richer their life becomes.

All these people have so much to offer society and to younger runners. What struck me on Sunday was that we have so many untapped resources available in our society. As an educator who is interested in Design Thinking, PBL and Genius Hour, I wonder how many other senior “experts” we have available to help our students learn? We should value their knowledge, their experience and their expertise and connect them with our students. I have tried to make this happen over the past two years and have seen the learning benefits.

@mesterman @CmunroOz @cpaterso

The following evening, I met up with three educators whom I respect immensely. While I have never officially asked these three to mentor and/or coach, they have done just that! The only person missing from this photo is Jon Andrews, who constantly challenges my thinking. I learn so much from listening and conversing with these guys. They not only give advice but they also give something so precious today… their time. I am able to ask questions, seek clarification and get advice. My students and I have gained so much by surrounding myself with passionate, knowledgeable educators. I feel very fortunate to have these supportive people in my life.

Here are two situations that illustrated to me the value of mentoring. My daughter is receiving not only great advice and training but is developing strong relationships with these experts. I too, am benefitting professionally and personally from having mentors into my life. Mentors not only provide expertise but are supportive and invested in your successes. Just imagine how beginning teachers would benefit from the expertise and knowledge of retired teachers. Why can’t we create a program for them to mentor new teachers? Create a situation where people feel valued and help others value people.

With a strong interest in coaching and mentoring, I see how one can transition from one to the other but at the same time, they are very different. This is my understanding of the various concepts

Jack at 90 with Mattise 11yrs

• Coaching means to transform thinking. A coach asks questions that generate ideas that belong to the one being coached.
• Collaborate means to form ideas. Collaborating is collectively creating ideas and problem solving but is not a distributive task.
• Mentor means to inform. Mentoring is where experts give advice and share knowledge to help improve one’s practice.
• Evaluate means to conform. Your ability is judged against certain criteria to determine your effectiveness as a teacher.

In my opinion, you need to seek out mentors for your students and yourself. We are not all experts but we all have something to contribute. ‘Out with the old and in with the new” Let's rephrase that... "Go out and connect with the old and get familiar with the new!"

From Richard Gerver’s book ‘Change’ (p. 896), “The most important personal and professional growth cannot take place in isolation; we need to be stimulated, challenged and supported”. Who best to do this but a mentor?

The Complexities of Collaboration.

Collaborate - to work with another person or group in order to achieve a common goal.

If you ask educators the meaning of collaboration, I’m sure you will receive various definitions. Collaboration is a multifaceted and complex word that incorporates different connotations. In my experience, assigning time to collaborate does not guarantee that collaboration is going to take place. It may encourage collaboration but does confirm it will occur effectively. While we may agree on the formal definition of collaboration, the bigger question is. ‘How do we collaborate?’ Or more importantly, ‘How do we learn to collaborate?’

Through my experiences and after questioning other educators, I have determined that your ability to collaborate effectively is influenced by many factors-

• Previous experience
• Growth mindset
• School context
• Time
• Personality
• Insecurity
• Perceived value of collaboration
• Understanding of collaboration-what it is and isn’t.
• Appreciation of others
• Learning philosophy
• Balanced Contribution
• Belief in a common goal
• Autonomy or Interdependence- Seeing yourself as ‘we’ not just ‘me'

Scheduling collaboration into the timetable is ineffective if one team member does not value or know how to collaborate. When I was at school, collaboration was known as cheating except on those rare occasions when you were placed in a group for an activity. Then everyone wanted to be with that certain student because she was ‘smart’ and always completed most of the task. You always did well if you were in that group.

So I’ve wondered where did I learn how to collaborate?  If I had to guess, it began when I was an external student at university. I was isolated by distance but my mindset was close in proximately with many others in my group. This group had a common goal which was to become effective and employable educators. We weren't interested in competing for the best grades but what I found is by collaborating with like-minded peers, we tended to receive very satisfying results. I was pleasantly surprised when I receive an award for my contributions to the online community for supporting others.

When you work in environments where colleagues are not competitive in nature, support and trust is established very early. Do not underestimate the value of working with colleagues who are always supportive and complimentary. I believe this is vital and the foundation of effective collaboration. And let’s be honest, the relationship between educators is longer lasting than that between teacher and student. Students move on but teachers work year in and year out together... ideally collaboratively. I've worked in a school where we had no scheduled collaborative time but we all shared and learnt from each other. We shared over lunch, after hours, on the phone, and on our holidays. This was my #PLN and our collaborative skills (like Twitter) were not scheduled.

So once a collaborator, always a collaborator- Right? I have to say wrong! With every new team you work with, you may have different personalities, philosophies, work ethics, sense of humour, not to mention experience. Every person is different and with this difference comes new beginnings. True collaboration takes time and if it takes time, then we must provide opportunities and training to truly learn ‘how’ to collaborate with each other. Effective collaboration is not a short-term project!

Some may say that collaboration begins within the individual but unless all in your team believes and values collaboration, you may find yourself a little frustrated. It takes at least two to collaborate and you are only as good as your team. Teachers may be more hesitant to collaborate if there is a competitive environment. I’m sure you’ve experience both situations-when you hit it off and compliment each other, collaboration is alive and thriving. Then you may have experienced working with those who prefer to work on their own; don’t want to share their ideas and believe they need to be recognised as the ‘best’ teacher with the best results.

Recently asked to help out with a project, I sent my ideas with this tag- 'Please feel free to edit or change!' I prefer to collaborate as I have learnt that I improve significantly when others are involved. When I blog, I ask my trusted friends to critique or comment because I feel safe to fail. I prefer to work collaboratively than independently and now question if I’m losing my confidence to work independently.

Teachers are put together and asked to ‘collaborate’. Then usually after three or more years, that group is dissolved and educators and asked again to collaborate within a new team. 

If true collaborations is not scheduled but lived, I leave you with these questions-

• Have they ever experienced being a part of a great team?
• Are they feeling secure in their teaching context?
• Have they worked with others that they highly respect?
• Are they teachers who reflect on their practice regularly?
• Do they observe data as evidence to evaluate their teaching?
• Do they value others’ opinions and are humble in their actions?
• Is the common goal or outcome to be completed interdependently?
• Do they believe that you can become a more effective teacher or learner because of a team?
• Is collaboration thought of as simply breaking up and allocating tasks to complete the project?

~ True collaboration incorporates many complexities and connotations ~

And the questions continue...

Andrea

@stringer_andrea

It's ADDICTIVE!

Once you've experienced a strong sense of student engagement, you want it all the time. It's addictive! Last year I completed Design Thinking MOOC with Stanford and my personal project focused on how to support new teachers from their last practicum at university to the proficient level of accreditation (BOSTES). I chose this topic because I'm passionate about helping new teachers. With research suggesting that 50% of new teachers quit within their first five years of teaching in both Australia and US, I saw a need. I interviewed some pre-service teachers and created a prototype that was all based on empathy. I am hoping this idea will become reality. I highly recommend that teachers go through the Design Thinking process themselves, as their belief in the process will be more authentic. You will get more buy-in from teachers if they believe in the process. Here is a crash course on Design Thinking provided by Stanford http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/

Last year to share the Design Thinking process, I integrated it into a History Society and Its Environment (HSIE) unit called, 'People’s beliefs & religions'. Firstly students developed their background knowledge on various religions & beliefs- Indigenous, Christianity, Islam, Judaism Buddhism, and Hinduism. Then they chose one and that determined the groups. I believe it is important to give students a voice and choice in their learning as their motivation becomes more intrinsic and engagement is high. As a group, they determined the topics or questions, listened, collaborated, delegated, checked in regularly and recorded their findings. During all of this, the students were learning the process of Design Thinking. 

I used designEd-Integrating Design Thinking In Your
 K-12 Classroom (M. Carroll, M. Pelochino, L. Logan, & R. Cox) as a guide and created lessons based on her framework. With various frameworks available, I created my own when doing the Stanford course (above) but shared desigEd's simplified version, 'Frame-Imagine-Make' with my Year 3 students. 
http://www.lulu.com/shop/maureen-carroll/designed/ebook/product-20497202.html 

I wouldn't say I was teaching Design Thinking but creating activities to illustrate and learn the Design Thinking process. I knew the students were hooked as they kept asking me is it Design Thinking day? It was scheduled every Thursday but that didn't stop them from asking for more. I organised interviews and excursions with various people with expertise in the subject. Through this interview process we came up with a needs statement. This was so genuine, I couldn't have planned it any better! I asked my students who did they connect with most and it was the students from Chullora Public School who they interviewed to learn about Islam. After the interview, they played and had lunch together and from this our needs statement was determined. "How can we help other children learn about different beliefs and religions?"  I've learnt that children connect so much more with other children. If possible, make this happen.

Students then designed prototypes based on this need. One important element of this process is EMPATHY. Do you know the difference between Sympathy and Empathy? Please check out this clip. Students felt connected to the stakeholders and this resulted in 100% buy-in from the students. Their ideas were amazing...some blue sky but why not? Let's allow students to think big! Remember they are prototypes, not necessarily material products. Some worked alone, others in pairs or groups. Students generated creative ideas by listening to others and then generating new ideas. They asked if they could work on their projects over the weekends. They also asked if they could share their prototypes with the rest of the school. I hadn't explained to them that one element of Design Thinking is sharing with an authentic audience. I was so excited that I recorded them talking about Design Thinking and their experiences. I've kept one student's reflection journal just for me to remember the power of Design Thinking.

This year we incorporated Design Thinking with our science unit and we've had @JohnGattorna talk to our students about Design Thinking. What is exciting me at the moment is that our Project Based unit for HSIE incorporated elements of Design Thinking. Our driving question: ‘How can we as United Nation Ambassadors, assist children in need?’ One student recently said -

 'I never knew about Design Thinking and now it's everywhere-the whole empathy thing, asking questions, different points of view, having ideas. I really like Design Thinking.' 

This comment made my day. In Design Thinking the students establish a need based on empathy. In Project Based Learning, the teacher designs the driving question and the students determine the essential questions needed to answer the driving question. I’ve learnt that both can develop Empathy and if I help students develop a connection with the stakeholders or topic, it results in higher levels of motivation and engagement. I believe that the student's understanding of the topic, the people and our world is deepened, and hopefully long remembered. For me, this is addictive. 

And the learning continues,

Andrea