Monday, November 28, 2011

Passion of a Teacher

In my last reflection, I spoke on the passion in teaching – that require teachers to find their passion in their teaching every year – to treat the cohort of students as if it is the first time that the teacher has taught a class – as it is for the first batch of students with this teacher. This week I will like to elaborate more on my understanding of what passion entails in teaching.

Often I hear of others when considering passion constrained such passion to joy or involvement to matters unrelated to teaching. They spoke of emotion, akin to reading, music, and hobbies. To me, one of the key component of passion as a teacher is the sheer thrill of being a teacher as well as a learner. Passion is about the absorption that accompanies the process of teaching and learning, the sensations in being involved in the activity of teaching and learning, and most importantly, the willingness to be involved in deliberate practice to attain understanding for the students. I find that such passions reflect the thrills as well as the frustrations of learning, and I believed that it can be infectious, that it can taught, it can be modeled and it can be learnt. Learning is not always pleasurable and easy; more often than not, we forget. Learning requires over-learning at certain points, spiral approach in our knowledge construction. I see this as among the most important outcomes of education and it is such passion of a teacher that will make a real difference to the students’ learning outcomes.

To make a real difference, I think that it would require a teacher to have more than content knowledge, acts of skillful teaching or engagement of students – although these will help too. But I believe that it requires a love of the content, a moral caring stance to wish to influence and affect our students with a similar liking or even love of the content being taught, and a demonstration that the teacher is not only teaching but learning – about the students’ processes and outcomes of learning.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Teaching the way I do – The Enhanced Version

In teaching, one of the most common message is that “everything seems to work”. It is hard to find teachers who say that they are “below average” teachers, and everyone (including parents, the ministry, middle managers, school leaders) has a reason why their particular view about teaching or improvements is likely to be successful. Indeed, the traditional way of teaching and learning (such as direct teaching) seems to justify “everything else” – myself included. I acknowledge that teachers teach differently from one another, one of the main reasons is due to beliefs and this is what is termed individual “teaching style” and I respect this difference. Another reason is termed “professional independence” and I see it as saying “I will leave you alone, if you leave me alone to teach my way.”

I observed during the Professional Learning Teams presentations, while teachers talk about improvements in curriculum and assessment – the “what works”; they rarely talk about their teaching practice – their explanation to their “what worked” teaching, the data, evidences they had collected. One reason may be that teachers find it hard to correlate the teaching to some of these causes. Another reason is that teachers prefer to believe that they may teach differently, but it should work regardless of how the teachers teach in their particular way. Moreover, teaching happens within their closed classroom wall, and so is rarely questioned.

We hear and seem to believe that most teachers demonstrate success, short of unethical behaviors and incompetence, and there is much support for the “everything goes” approach. However, I do think of some shortcomings and these happen when we have a change of new cohort of students.

Despite all the successes we have may had with this year’s cohort of students, teachers have to start again next year with a brand new cohort. The greatest change that most students experience is the level of competence of the teacher, as all else the environment and their peers are typically similar to what they would have experienced the previous year. And it is also surely as tempting for the teacher to re-do the successes of the previous years, to compare students in terms of last years’ cohort and to insist on an orderly progression through that which had worked before.

I believed that teachers are required to find their passion in their teaching every year – to treat the current cohort of students as if it is the first time that the teacher has taught a class – as it is for the first batch of students with this teacher. Teachers must identify and accommodate the difference brought with each new cohort of students. More importantly, teachers need to react to the learning as it occurs as every moment of learning is different for each cohort. This is how the art of teaching, and how the many successes is related to “what happens next” instead of the “what worked”. There are so many “what worked” successful solutions this year, but I believe that it is important to have some of evidence, especially for their continuation next year for the new cohort of students – enhancing the “what happens next”. In addition, teachers would then find support to justify their actions instead of the “smiley lack of confidence maybe will succeed” and so creating a culture of “just leave me alone to teach my way as I have evidence that what I do enhance learning of students”

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Doing Things Continuously

A benefit of working through this year’s weekly reflection like this one has caused me to try many different things, some of which I may not have attempted (cohort dean, EV) without the encouragement of my school leaders, fellow teachers’ suggestions. Inevitably, however, some of the ideas that arises through the various Professional Learning Teams (Math PLT, ICT PLT) have appealed to me more than others, and specific activities that I had found (through workshops, seminars, conferences) most helpful may well be different from those another heads and teachers regard as valuable.

So with the end of the academic year, I would like to reflect on some of the suggestions encountered this year and decide which of these I would like to make a regular part of my routine as a middle manager and professional developer in 2012. One such example is the process of helping others sees success, through the success see possibilities and getting the buy in. I also intend to return to some of this year’s suggestions (C2015 competencies, AfL) in the coming year and attempt to build on individual successes of 2011 into 2012 so that they will become part of an ongoing part of my approach to improving my teaching and learning. Some of these small and manageable activities I had encountered (from my fellow teachers, workshops, learning seminars, courses) may also make part of my daily teaching and learning next year as well. I found helpful for example, to place to complete task deadlines on my shared working calendar in order to provide me with an ongoing remainder for monitoring.

I also intend to look at improving some of my own structures and processes on namely the teaching and learning curriculum and the professional development of my teachers. Some of these professional developments may be invisible to the teacher so inhabiting the progress; hence my support should be provided to encourage their decision to improve their teaching and learning. I also considered some of the current teaching practice in school. Teachers are sometimes assumed to have the same characteristics as their students. Teachers who teach Upper Secondary students are deemed more capable while others remained teaching Lower Secondary for many years, must therefore be less? This characterization may seem beside the point, but consider how we allow such practice to happen over the many years. While our school has encouraged “student leadership”, I believed that “Teacher leadership” should also be emphasized. I believed that all teachers can teach and should teach all levels, hence 4 year teaching cycle throughout their teaching career. While these Lower Secondary Teachers spend their days with people younger students compared to young adults at Upper Secondary, their personalities cover the same breadth of brilliance and intellectual challenge as any other teachers. Remember that teaching one level only once remains merely as an experiment, but teaching different levels continually becomes part of what a teacher must be capable of doing.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Commitment of Any Teacher

When we spoke on the quality of school experience (QSE) survey last week, I was thinking about the passion and values teachers bring into the classrooms. Such passion and values will reflect the teachers’ belief about who they are and what it means to teach.

The relentless demands of the teaching of 21st century competencies to students does requires the school to provide extensive individual, social and academic support, affecting both instructional and management responsibilities in schools. And both teaching and managing requires leadership. The forming of a committee to set the goals and direction of such implementation is a start. I believe that teaching of these 21st century competencies will also grow out of a lifetime of experience as learner and teacher.

The school management – whether school leaders or middle managers are all charged to guide instructional guidance and implement school improvement efforts. I also see such professional work done by our teachers or senior teachers, whether within classrooms, professional learning teams or departments. Expanding the middle manager’s role to include “instructional leader” is well intended, but even a great teacher turned school leader cannot “lead instruction” in every classroom. My own experience is that real learning happens because of what teachers and students create together in the classroom – hence the important of teacher-student relationship. Curriculum is not just the content found in SOWs and in textbooks. Rather, it is the combination of the teachers and students that run the lessons together. Hence, it is important for everyone to make effort in improving our students’ liking for our class, the school. I believed that my principal’s creating the position of “Cohort Dean” has these ideas in mind. In addition, I see the Cohort Dean as been able to serve those students who may have been neglected currently. I personally find that the teachers’ beliefs and values about teaching does influence practice within and outside the classroom. This path to creating conditions for students leads teachers of different beliefs and values to take actions at various levels.

I also realised that what teachers know and can do is the most important influence on what students learn. As teachers, there is a need to know content, how to teach it and how to fully engage a class of forty plus individual learners. Teachers without the necessary competencies and is unwilling to learn will not be able to level up the students learning at all. I believed that what our students need to know and be able to do, our teachers likewise must know and be able to do. Hence, there is also a need for teacher development as well. Competent teachers strive to create a positive classroom environment for student learning. Committed teachers working on behalf of students learning bring all aspects of life experience and professional knowledge into the classroom and the school and turn it into a place where everyone wants to be included including the teacher – who breathes some “life” into the curriculum.

I must say that schools are not easy place to work. Teaching well, whatever the conditions, is not easy too. However, if we are fully committed to belief that teachers can make a difference to the lives of our students, we will be able to observe and recognise the many facets of teaching, and the various dimension of practice will become evident.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Looking Back

I looked forward to the November school holidays which are an excellent opportunities for me to take a break from work. It is the small breaks I take with my family that had kept me going all this while. At this point of the year, I am seeing some of my fellow colleagues starting to lose focus. The problem is that we are not finished yet and a sudden realization has started to hit some that their lack of complete commitment might have a cost. And just like the start and end of every week is an excellent opportunity for my weekly reflections. The start of the 2011 calendar year had encouraged me to focus on my goals for the ICT implementation and believed in why we (the school leader and middle managers) have had set those goals.

Now approaching the end of the school calendar, I think that it is a good time to think about how I have had spent my time this academic year and gain some satisfaction from what was achieved. As I looked back on everything that I have done since the start of the year, the co-creation of the ICT Plan, the actual implementation of Student ICT Curriculum which included both the baseline standards and national competitions, I came to realize that it is achievable and that every month can be that productive. Now what is important for me to manage my time effectively, combined realistically with my aspirational goals and growing roles and responsibilities and to focus my energy on what is truly important – the learning of my students.

There are of course things in this past year which seemed less productive than I had hoped it might be, like the implementation SDL and integration of IP with ICT. The conceptualization of these two processes had been slow and difficult, but having unpacked and better understood the process with the help of my professional learning team, I hope to overcome some of these difficulties currently faced next year. So, I decided now to use this holiday to regain my initiative and that I will be more productive and effective in the coming New Year 2012.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Work and Family

This week, I will like to speak on what my school leader mentioned during one of the meetings regarding the challenges of balancing between work and family.

Often I hear of teachers reporting a maturing of practice after becoming parents, having the first-hand experience about raising their children and especially teachers whose children just entered schools. I myself after becoming a parent had such a change of ways towards moulding my students in terms of academic teaching and character development. When I think of my flurry of daily activities, foremost in my thoughts is my family. I feel that parenting, teaching and leadership are tightly interwoven. And I find that it is a constant juggling act in which each informs me of the other, and each also strengthens the other. My main challenge will be to maintain this attitude that each of the three facets (parenting, teaching and leadership) complements each other as my roles and responsibilities grow.

At home with my family, I share about experiences in the school and in the classroom. In the classroom, I share about experiences about my family – often with a comical edge about my children. In the previous reflections, I mentioned about the different opportunities to become different people. Such different roles have enabled me to make connections about how one part of my life informs another. Take for example the skills I had learnt as a parent, these are often the same skill set in the context of teaching. Perspectives as a parent are often aligned to the goal as a teacher. This is the powerful influence of parenting on teaching. Likewise, I also bring expertise about school work from my professional setting to my home. This is the connection between parenting and teaching.

Leadership in school comes in many forms and in multiple settings and this is how I connect parenting to leadership. Those of us who are both parents and teachers often asked the question: Would I want my child to attend this school? What should education of my child include? Will the place I work be also a place I would want my child to study in? Such questions have led me to set a higher standard for my practice as a middle manager. For example, I hope to become a better listener and more observant about how I am present to the teachers. In my daily actions and words, I try to make the environment I am in charge of a better learning community for my students.

Some teachers may have conflicting feelings about work and family. However, to me, the standard for what makes a good education comes to some degree from the family and striving to create the learning community (which is our work) for learners.