archive – Page 4 – Once More into the Classroom

What makes for great teaching?

As part of my teaching practice each week I have to reflect on my performance and what I have learned. So it was with interest that I came across this article in the Guardian this morning talking about what makes great teaching. In short it’s a report published by the Sutton Trust and Durham university.

My reflection included a comment along the lines of “once again I am reminded about how complex teaching is. It is an intricate interplay between teaching and learning.” Part of a teachers job is knowing how this relationship impacts each of their students and is one of the main reasons why we spend four years at university.

The report identified six components of great teaching. The first two of which had the strongest impact. Those areas that had suggested the strongest impact on student out comes were 1. teachers content knowledge and 2. the quality of instruction.

Content knowledge was not restricted to the subject but had a wider meaning within the context of learning. The authors put it this way,

“The most effective teachers have deep knowledge of the subjects they teach, and when teachers’ knowledge falls below a certain level it is a significant impediment to students’ learning. As well as a strong understanding of the material being taught, teachers must also understand the ways students think about the content, be able to evaluate the thinking behind students’ own methods, and identify students’ common misconceptions.”

When talking about the quality of instruction they pointed out that it,

“Includes elements such as effective questioning and use of assessment by teachers. Specific practices, like reviewing previous learning, providing model responses for students, giving adequate time for practice to embed skills securely and progressively introducing new learning (scaffolding) are also elements of high quality instruction.”

One of the interesting findings from this report is that it suggests that a more traditional teaching style does in many cases, improve educational outcomes. It’s a controversial claim and part of a debate that is as old as public education itself. If you’d like to read the whole report you can get it here.

First Week in School and a bit of Art

Unbelievably the first week is over. Admittedly it was a four day week but still, the week flashed by in the blink of an eye. I’m teaching in a elementary school here in Red Deer in a grade 2 class.

This week has been about finding my feet, getting to know my students and spending time thinking about where I want to go with my teaching over the next nine weeks. I find myself in a bit of a strange position. Having been a teacher before I feel at ease and comfortable in the classroom. This is in no small part due to my mentor teacher who has embraced my experience and is helping me take my teaching to the next level.

This was first thing in the morning on the 2nd day of my teaching practice. I stepped outside and snapped a quick shot with my iPhone.

First Lesson of my practice.

Teaching is not as straight forward as some people would have you believe. It is a complex mix of science and art. Last week I came across this article “Educating kids isn’t rocket science. It’s harder.” It makes several keen observations. In particular how much change has been thrown at the profession over the last two decades and in many cases with little to show for it.

Contour Drawing

Contour drawing is a technique for improving observational drawing. It involves drawing an object without looking at the paper, drawing very slowly, and without taking the pen or pencil off the paper. It’s as difficult as it sounds and for these grade 2 students it was the first time they had ever attempted it.

We brought some pumpkins into the classroom for them to draw. Many of them found it very hard not to look at their paper which you can see in some of the images above. That said there were a few of the students who gave it a proper go. This is an activity that can be done very quickly and one that will improve their observational skills as well as their drawing skills.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the activity and it was interesting for me watching them try to cope with the instructions.

Happy Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving this weekend in Canada. It’s a time to reflect on the year that’s just past and a time to consider what we have to be grateful for. In the Galloway household it’s been a big year of changes both in our personal circumstances as well as in our professional lives.

This knowledge, that learning is a continual journey, is something we need to instill in our children.This idea forms a large part of my philosophy behind my teaching. (I came across this great graphic on the website the image is linked to.)

To recap. In May of 2013 we decided that our photography business was no longer viable (ironic also that ISIS is now the scourge of the world – it was the name of our photography business) in the long term and that we needed to change direction in life. My aim was to return to teaching while Christa wanted to stay with photography but get closer to her photojournalistic roots, and so started our saga. We sold our house, moved in with Christa’s parents, moved to Whitehorse in the Yukon, then relocated to Red Deer in Alberta all in the space of a year. While we were in The Yukon I returned to the classroom as a substitute teacher, and Christa became a flight attendant for Air North while our little guy started at a new Daycare. In Red Deer Christa has the challenge of being a full time mum while I am a full time student.

So what then does the Never Stop Learning graphic have to do with all this? When I was younger, I never imagined that at my age I would be studying as hard as I have been. It has been a bit of a revelation not only how much I have enjoyed it but also how the notion of continuing my studies once I have a job will not go away. Christa’s learning has been different but equally revelational as she spent an intense, and I mean intense, four weeks with Air North learning how to become a Flight Attendant. This not only led to knowledge about the job but also personal growth which has given her a confidence that she didn’t have before. And of course the little guy is a continual learning machine. He’s learning numbers, letters, as well as pushing his boundaries as far as he can. Most of all it is in him that I wish to instill this Never Stop Learning idea because in order to succeed it is and will be more and more a necessity of a life fulfilled.

Finally then what am I thankful for this Thanksgiving? Many things if truth be told.

First and foremost family. Both Christa, my son, as well as Maggie – as well as my family back in the UK and Christa’s family in Ontario. It is very true that without their support things would have been much harder than they have been.
My health – having seen first hand the consequences of bad health it’s nothing to be taken for granted.
For friends. Without friends life is not much fun. Friends add colour and depth to your existence. They also help you out when you need it without asking anything in return.
The people who have helped me so far on my journey back into the classroom – my tutor from Athabasca University, my tutors from University of Alberta and the countless others who helped me get there.
For Broadstreet (the company who we rented our apartment from) without these guys it’s a possible we’d still be in a tent… they bent the rules a little so we could move in with our dog.
Our vehicle which over the last year has driven us almost 50,000kms in safety, 10,000kms of which it was pulling a fully loaded trailer.
And as is my want leaving the best until last, I am thankful for my good fortune in meeting Christa – she’s awesome and I can’t imagine my life without her.

So there it is, my list of things to be thankful for. Sometimes it is good to reflect on what is good in your life because life can become heavy at times. Not today though, not today.

University of Alberta

If you check out my wife’s blog , you will be able to catch up on our latest news as a family. It’s been an interesting few months. Four weeks in a tent sounds romantic but I can tell you once it gets cold and wet it’s anything but.

The main reason that there’s been so little action on my blog, even for me, is since the 3rd of September I have been beavering (Canadian for working hard eh?) away at the University of Alberta. Arriving around 7am (trying to get space in the park and ride at Century Park LRT station after 6.30am is nigh on impossible) and leaving between 6pm and 7pm. There’s four hours of lectures on subjects as diverse as Historical Thinking and contour drawing, puppet making to Constructivisim and it’s place in Social studies. That’s not to say there’s isn’t any academic studies in art, far from it but it’s a much more practical course and provides a nice balance to the theory in Social Studies.

I can’t speak for the other departments, and indeed can’t really speak for the whole education department, but those professors I have been in contact with, namely my Art and Social Studies profs, have been great. We are doing condensed versions of these courses. Essentially trying to fit a fourteen week course into four weeks. As you can imagine, it’s a lot of work. I’m sure that the profs don’t really like it as there is obviously a whole heap more they could and would like to say.

Now we’re into the last week, and there is a lot of work to do. Unit plans for Art, revision for our Social Studies final, art journals to complete, art assignments and on top of all that we need to start thinking about our practicum, which starts on the 14th of October. We’ve just received our placements. Mine is here in Red Deer at the Glendale Science and Technology School. It sounds rather impressive and I am excited to be learning there. I have a G2 class. So one more week at University, and I know Christa is looking forward to having me home, and access to a vehicle, then an intense week prepping for my AFX (which is short for Advanced Field Experience I think) before into school.

Road Trip

One of our favorite things to do is road trip. We purchased a Toyota 4Runner in part because we were pretty sure that it would take us just about anywhere. We’ve put her to the test this last three days with a trip in torrential rain that took us over the ‘top of the world’. It was both exhilarating and at times terrifying with zero visibility and often very little in the way of saftey. Oh and muddy roads that we’re slippery even in 4WD. Fun times. Now we are back and heading towards Whitehorse before we set forth on our trip to Red Deer and a new life in Alberta. (Until December anyway.) Both Christa and I will have more to post and say about the trip when we have more time. For now let me end by saying that if you haven’t been to the Yukon and you are a Canadian, especially if you are a Canadian, you should come visit her, she’s something to be mighty proud of.

Waiting

The little guy and I are sat at Edmonton Airport wondering if we will get home today. We’re on standby and flights home look fully booked. If so we’ll have another night here. In which case a bit of a rubbish end to what’s been a useful couple of days.

We drove to Red Deer this morning. Discovered it’s a place we’re probably going to like. Found a list of management companies that specialize in short term rentals so we should be good on the home front. Yesterday we also found a campsite 10 minutes from the University which means that I’ll be able to stay there – now if we can get home today it will nicely round off a productive stay.

Update

We didn’t make it. It was too tight to call so the little guy and I are spending another night in Edmonton. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Using other people’s photography for blog posts

This is strange place for me to be. I have noticed that quite a number of my posts are without images. Which is a problem in so far as it is well known that images make a huge difference to audience engagement. The challenge that I have, as do many bloggers (I use that term loosely in my case), is that I don’t always have an image on hand that fits the topic of my post.

As a photographer it is always vexing when people use your images without permission, even for piddling little blogs like this one. On the other hand it can be a real pain trying to get permission to use photographs and even harder to use them for free. (And I remember well the pain of being a full time photographer, whose sole source of income is from photography, being asked for free use of your images.) Fortunately there is a solution.

Creative Commons was born in 2001 and is a way for people to give permission for their work to be shared in specific ways that they are comfortable with. You can read all about it here. It really is a great idea, especially if you want your work to get out there without it being used by people who could afford to pay you for your efforts.

creative commons licensed ( BY-NC-SA ) flickr photo shared by Nick Kenrick .

There are lots of great resources to help people find images they want to use. Flickr is one of them. A massive pool of photography that has many images licensed in such a way as you can use them without having to pay. If you use flickr then there is also a great tool I came across via Free Technology for Teachers. It’s called the Flickr CC Attribution Helper, which makes it very straight forward for you to extract either the html for blog use or correct credit when using images in in a presentation for example. I used it for this post.

So if in future you either need to use images or you would like to share them then check out Creative Commons.

My blog is evolving

I’ve deleted FB from my phone, mainly because of their ridiculous Messanger app and it’s insidious and outrageous terms of use. The only problem is that I did enjoy sharing pics and thoughts on the go. That is no longer really possible – though Instagram can help a little. A thought occurred to me last night that I could use my blog and make it a little bit more personal. Upto now it’s been exclusively a professional space but it’s not getting as much use as it should so by combining personal and professional thoughts and photographs it should see more use. We’ll see.

Is Standardized Testing Killing Innovation in Education?

Standardized testing, (amongst other things) isn’t making our schools better, it’s killing innovation and stopping the adoption of best practice. If this is true, and who am I to say either way frankly, but if it is true, then it needs to be changed.

I’m writing the final essay for my course at Athabasca University. I’ve done rather well so far, good marks and all that. I’ve also learnt a thing or two, as well as realizing there’s a whole heap I don’t know. As Einstein said “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” So as the assignments have gone on I have found them harder to write not easier. Probably because the more I read and write about education, the more there is to think about, to the point where there’s almost too much to think about. This final essay is a case in point. It’s a pretty huge subject area touching on equity and social justice, inclusive education, multiculturalism and how best to educate students, particularly those who have been traditionally disadvantaged. One of the big questions it poses is how to get rid of barriers and biases?

Turns out that one of the biggest hindrances to an equitable education is standardized testing. Standardized testing is a massive issue across the western world. Educators tend to be against, politicians for and we all know who wins that one, but I digress.

Now bear with me. I recently read this fascinating article in the New York Times by Elizabeth Green titled “Why do Americans stink at Math?” It basically tells the story about a Japanese teacher who in the late 70’s came across a different way to teach math, idea’s that had coincidentally been created / discovered in America. Anyway long story short (and it’s worth reading the whole thing here), the Japanese embraced these methods and consequently their students score well in international math comparisons. America didn’t embrace them and as we know have some of the lowest scores in the developed world, scores which are only getting worse.

What then you ask does this have to do with standardized testing? Well, it got me thinking. Back to the math. Most of math teaching in the US is of an “I, We, You,” order. That is to say the teacher shows the class an example (I), the class then works through a problem on the board led by the teacher (We), and then the students get to work though a worksheet of problems by themselves (You). This is the way most of us remember Math and I for one can attest to it being pretty useless for me. But there is another way. One that could be called “You, Y’all, We.” Rather than showing the students how it is done, they have a go themselves, then in peer groups and then finally as a class. In this way, it has been discovered that students get a much better understanding of the subject as well as being more excited about it.

The problem is teaching math like this, involves a very different skill set from the first, more traditional method. A skill set that would need to be learned. My point is while it was being learned what happens to the standardized test results? What happens when the scores for your school dip while the teachers and staff gets up to speed with this new approach to teaching math? Who would want to change in the first place if your school was doing fine with its test scores? Perhaps if your scores were bad and you had nothing to loose then why not try, but really that’s no way to approach education. If there is best practice out there, that is known to improve outcomes then we should be using them. If standardized testing is getting in the way of better practice then, it’s another reason why the whole common core, standardized testing, neo-liberal, market-driven education reforms should be hung out to dry.

In short, here’s the thought that occurred to me. Standardized testing, (amongst other things) isn’t making our schools better, it’s killing innovation and stopping the adoption of best practice. If this is true, and who am I to say either way frankly, but if it is true, then it needs to be changed. It doesn’t have to be this way. Finland doesn’t have any standardized tests until students are 16 and their education system and the achievement of their students is the envy of the world.

What I have learned so far

One of the reasons I haven’t been posting much on my blog is that I am trying to study. I’m studying Educational Issues and Social Change: Current Debates. It’s a course that many teachers get to do while at university, in fact I think it’s pretty much required. It’s also required for me in order to get my teaching certification. So I have been reading and writing essays. Essay’s on Ideology and the Neoliberal Reforms, Professionalism and Proletarization in teaching, Equality of Opportunity and the Feminization of Poverty which are all done, leaving me with multiculturalism to navigate. It’s a lot of reading, and I have to say that I’ve been a pretty good student managing to study, most days, three hours or so. As I head into my final unit I thought I would share a few of the interesting things I have discovered over the last ten weeks.

One of the reasons I haven’t been posting much on my blog is that I am trying to study. I’m studying Educational Issues and Social Change: Current Debates. It’s a course that many teachers get to do while at university, in fact I think it’s pretty much required. It’s also required for me in order to get my teaching certification. So I have been reading and writing essays. Topics which have included: Ideology and the Neoliberal Reforms, Professionalism and Proletarization in teaching, Equality of Opportunity and the Feminization of Poverty which are all done, leaving me with Multiculturalism to navigate. It’s a lot of reading, and I have to say that I’ve been a pretty good student managing to study, most days, three hours or so. As I head into my final unit I thought I would share a few of the interesting things I have discovered over the last ten weeks.

About Myself

Things have either gotten easier or I am smarter than I gave myself credit for. Paper 1: 94% Paper 2: 100%. It may not be that I am smarter but that I am putting some effort into a subject I do find really interesting. I’m also somewhat more focussed than the last time I was writing papers, when beer, women and finding out who I was kind of got in the way. It does go to show though that it’s never too late to improve your education or your mind.

That having a three year old on your lap pretty much means an end to any meaningful studying – though it is good for giggles.

About Education

If you come from a poor background you are a lot less likely to succeed than someone from a privileged background. I love this quotation.

To be born poor is to face a greater likelihood of ill-health in childhood and throughout your adult life. To be born poor is to face a lesser likelihood you will finish high school; lesser still that you will attend university. To be born poor is to face a greater likelihood that you will be judged delinquent in adolescence and, if so, a greater likelihood that you will be sent to a correctional institution. To be born poor is to have the deck stacked against you at birth, to find life an uphill struggle ever after. ( Poor kids: A report. (1975). Ottawa: National Council of Welfare.)

The biggest indicator of how you will do in life is not your ability or your effort at school but what your parents do.
More women live in poverty than do men. In Canada if you are a woman you are 50 percent more likely to be living in poverty.
The neoliberal agenda in education is as pernicious as it has been successful in getting people to believe that their narrative is the only narrative.
That 41% of children are born out of wedlock, 22% of which are in single parent households.
That poverty is becoming generational and social mobility is pretty much a fiction. (There is some but not much – far less than you have been led to believe.)

Of course it’s not all gloom and doom but it does have to be said that teachers do an amazing job in-spite of governmental interference.

One of the promises I made myself as I got into education for a second time, is that I would concern myself with my classroom, my students and leave the big picture stuff alone. Of course having to think about these things this intensely for weeks on end does get to you, but the end is now in sight. After that I am off on a weeks road trip, with my family, before we all head SE to Alberta and Red Deer. I’m looking forward to that and my time at UofA.