Surprise! The Power of the Unexpected

Surprise! The power of the unexpected

27th April, 2016

Matt explores the potential for engagement and personal growth that lie in the unforeseen

During our university education, we pre-service teachers are often told about the importance of planning; planning units, planning lessons, planning the layout of our classrooms and so forth. Planning and preparation are the joint backbone of successful teaching, we are told, and I am not going to say that this is inaccurate. In fact, some of the best teachers I have seen at work are those whose planning is deep and whose preparation is complete. However, there is a foundation for successful teaching that is generally given lip-service but not explored; that of flexibility in the face of the unexpected.

Think back for a moment to times in your teaching experience where you have been honestly taken by surprise. How many of these are negative, and how many are positive? When I do so, it seems that there as many moments of positive surprise as negative. For every time I have realised that I’m missing important materials for my lesson, there has been a time where a student has stepped up to tackle content in way you wouldn’t have expected. Surprise can actually be a powerful font of personal growth and introspection, for you and your students. It is one of the more powerful emotions that we can feel in teaching, and it can be used to your advantage when applied to students.

Allow me to illustrate with two brief anecdotes:

The first concerns a student I had for a short placement who didn’t talk much. Let’s call her Sarah (not her real name of course). I spent a number of weeks in this Year 3/4 classroom, but beyond asking and answering occasional questions Sarah did not participate very much in class, at least vocally. At the time, Sarah and her classmates were studying poetry, which can be extremely dry for students. Although I was only there for a short time, I suggested to the teacher of that class that we could try to have a ‘Poetry Slam’, where each student memorises and performs a short piece of poetry as part of an in-class competition. In the days leading up to the end of my university-scheduled time there, we talked about how to read poetry; using expression, rhythm and projection and such. We provided a few set poems that they could choose from also, ranging from limericks about smelly flies to a passage from ‘The Man from Snowy River’. Although my placement ended, I promised to come back the following week to adjudicate the competition, and so I did. Imagine my surprise when Sarah, as shy as she normally was, busted out the passage from ‘The Man from Snowy River’, difficult enough for professionals, with just the right rhythm, lots of expression and in a loud voice. Not to mention that she was the only student in her class who even attempted that passage. It was a wonderful moment, and she was very deserving of her prize.

The second concerns a lesson exploring nets and faces, edges and vertices for 3-D objects. Instead of looking at pictures of the shapes or basic models and counting each, this lesson involved the students constructing their own 3-D objects from the nets and recording the faces, edges and vertices in their workbooks. This may not be an extremely innovative lesson, but the response to the somewhat unorthodox lesson was amazing. The children wanted to make one of every shape, and even requested to stay in at lunchtime to make more.

I bring attention to these anecdotes for what they taught me about the advantages of surprise. In the first situation, the surprise was mine, the teacher’s, and not only was it personally gratifying but it also showed me the potential performer that Sarah was, showing me strengths and motivation that I had not yet seen from her. If I were the full-time teacher of that class, it would show me a way to engage her in the future and promote her confidence. This was an unexpected moment rife with future potential.

The second was surprise for the students. Entering that maths lesson, none of those children expected to do something so hands-on, and the pleasant surprise was enough to engage them and likely promote their understanding of both nets and the properties of 3-D shapes.

I can’t provide a step-by-step guide to leaving room for surprise in your current or future classroom, but here are two things you can do.

1. Try not to just restrict yourself to the curriculum. Giving yourself a chance to teach something entirely different, even for just 30 minutes, can give you a chance for surprise on both sides of the teacher-student relationship.
2. Try teaching content in ways that are fresh to you and to the children. Sometimes this may not work well, but when it does both you and your students may find yourselves to be more engaged and motivated within the lesson.

I know this was a long post, but if you are still here I thank you for reading. Remember, surprise is not always a bad thing; in fact, it can be extremely interesting for you and your students.

- Matt

TeachMeet Melbourne - Scienceworks

TeachMeet Melbourne - Scienceworks

21st April, 2016

Will reflects on his first TeachMeet, what he took away from it and why he will be going again.

Summary:
 
On Saturday 16th April, Nick, Alex and I went along to TeachMeet Melbourne at Scienceworks. A TeachMeet can be hosted by anyone who is willing and they are usually at schools. They provide an opportunity for teachers (including pre-service teachers) to gather and engage in discussions about all things ‘teaching’. Anyone can put their hand up to do a presentation (up to 7 minutes).  It was our first time going to such an event and we all had an open mind; we were excited to listen and engage with likeminded teachers and PSTs.
 
Saturday’s TeachMeet was mostly centred on technology and 21st century education. After listening to presentations, it is safe to safe we were quite inspired and thankful to have stumbled across this community of educators. Alex decided to get up and do an off-the-cuff talk about our blog and stressed the need for greater collaboration between universities, schools, teachers and pre-service teachers in order to make the jump from being a PST to an actual teacher. 

What did I take away from TeachMeet?

We listened to talks from 9 presenters on the day. All were engaging and generated thoughts and discussions afterwards – I may share some of these insights in future blog posts. However, I was particularly impacted by the talk by Lottie Dowling who spoke about global collaborations. 

The students we are teaching will (hopefully) one day be in the workforce. Today’s workforce now requires employees that have collaboration skills along with technological skills that allow them to participate in the global network and economy. Lottie made a strong point regarding deep learning. Whilst there is much debated research on what deep learning is and why it is important, a common recurring factor is collaboration. 

Lottie is the manager of professional learning at the Asia Education Foundation. She provided us an insight into the abundance of FREE resources on the AEF website that can help build global collaboration skills in the classroom. These can be found by subject area or by year level. One thing that I want to do in my future classroom is participate in a global collaboration project. The AEF website offers numerous links to established projects and organisations that link classrooms together from around the world. 

Why should you go to TeachMeet? 

• It is essentially free professional development
• A chance to build up a network of educators 
• Authentic learning, real discussions and stories
• As a PST, a chance to engage with people in the profession
• It shows you are passionate and have good initiative – excellent program to discuss in an interview or on a resume. 
• Also keep an eye out for #beerpedagogy – self-explanatory…  

- Will

Visit to a Montessori School

Visit to a Montessori School

13th April, 2016

Alex talks about his recent visit to a local Montessori school and some practices that caught his eye

I first heard about Montessori Schools at University when our tutor briefly mentioned a few types of alternative education. Ever since then I have been interested in understanding how a Montessori classroom works, and while there was plenty of information, I heard mixed reviews from people about their experiences. I decided to investigate by contacting a local Montessori School and asking to observe a few different classrooms over the course of a day. They were happy to oblige and now I’m taking the chance to pass on my experience in a younger years classroom.

What is a Montessori School?

This is only a brief overview – for more information check out the Montessori Australia website

Montessori refers to the philosophy created by Italian physician and psychologist, Dr. Maria Montessori. She opened her first “school” in 1907 and applied a particular method and outlook to teaching children. Since then Montessori Schools have begun to spring up all over the world and have been agreed, by research, to have various elements that lead to positive social, emotional and academic results for children. The Montessori philosophy suggests that children transition through four planes of development from birth to adulthood, and each plane has a natural development that education should take advantage of. The second plane, childhood, is the one that takes place at primary school when children are 6 – 12 years old. A well known element of Montessori classrooms is the use of a prepared environment, where pre-made activities are available to be independently worked through at the child’s pace. One more element to note is that the classrooms are organised into cycles, not years – they are composite classes. I observed a cycle two classroom (years 1, 2 and 3) and a cycle three classroom (years 4, 5 and 6).

Cycle 2 (Years 1 – 3) Classroom

The overview of cycle two is a focus on independence, order, concentration and coordination. The classroom I visited was beautiful, with child-sized wooden furniture, desks, shelves and chairs, as well as various artefacts such as posters, flowers, and even a little kitchen. The activities are all based in the shelves and this is perhaps the first aspect that can confuse –the teacher described it to me as the curriculum being on the shelves. Students have access to different challenges and curriculum areas to work on independently. The prepared activities are all said to be self-correcting; if you’re doing something wrong it will become evident without the teacher needing to tell you. The classroom environment was truly wonderful and the students also seemed to have a sense of independence as they were able to direct their own learning, rather than relying on the teacher.

While it was fantastic to observe the students going about their own learning, it is also interesting to note that Montessori Schools have their own curriculum to lay over the top of the Victorian Curriculum. I was only around for an hour or so but there were a few things I would like to sum up:

• The classroom is beautiful and makes sense. Children are using the classroom so everything should be child sized. Classrooms are where we will spend the majority of our time, they should be beautiful places.
• Hard to tell it’s composite. All the students were completing the same activities, but the teacher varied their expectations depending on their age, meaning they could achieve at their own rate.
• Activities promote independence. Not only the activities but the Montessori teaching philosophy promotes independence – a powerful idea which I believe has many learning benefits.

I’m still making up my mind about Montessori Schools, but I think they are an extremely valid form of alternative education. In fact, I think there are a number of things the public system could learn about from Montessori. I’ll do another post soon to talk about the cycle 3 (years 4 – 6 ) classroom.

- Alex

Employment after graduation

Employment after graduation

April 6th, 2016

Adelle has spoken to some recent graduates on their experience with

employment as a graduate teacher

As many of my year level are looking to graduate and gain employment at the conclude of this year, questions about resumes, applications, cover letters, portfolios and criteria are floating around.

Attend the universities workshops on resume writing, interviewing, speaking workshops and cover letter writing. These are designed to assist you in getting that job which is ultimately the aim of many who are completing a university degree.

However,

Due to my extra experiences while at university my graduation date has been extended by my own accord and while I am perfectly happy with being older when I graduate and gaining more life experience before starting a career, others respectfully have different plans.

My original year level's classmates graduated last night and although there is a pang of jealousy that they all got to celebrate together while I went to a 9am class this morning, it is apparent that more than a few of them haven’t been successful in obtaining a job.

I asked a few of them why they thought they hadn’t found that job yet and I got mixed responses.

A few are doing emergency teaching and loving the variation and experience they are gaining through that. Others feel they don’t interview well and need work in this area. Some have reviewed revised and redone their resumes and cover letters countless times and with the feedback they are getting from potential employers, identify that as an area that needs work also.

However, each of the graduates I have spoken to have one thing in common. Although they feel quite sad at times about not securing that dream position yet, that is the reality. They will wait, apply and use their gained skills for other uses until that dream job presents itself.

The main message they all tried to convey was, that just like getting into uni or working your way up through a company, there are always pathways and options to get to a result. If things aren’t going to plan straight away, bide your time, use your skills for other purposes, obtain feedback and get a mentor for applications, apply for a CRT agency to gain experience, teach overseas, explore other options, your degree isn't going to expire. The job market is always unfavourable with the amount of graduates in one area from various different universities so if your applications aren’t receiving the praise that you feel they should or your interviewing skills aren’t quite what the employers want, try again. If you fail, learn from that and remember why you want to be a teacher in the first place. If you put in the work, your chance could come at any time and you have to be ready.

I have recently read a book by Daniel Flynn who is a co-founder of the company thank you (responsible for thankyou water and various other products) he himself was a university drop out because he had an idea and dream that he thought would work and ultimately it was a game changer. He followed this dream, failed and learnt from that and took action and risks to make his idea come to life. He is very successful in his field and has funded and aided an incredible amount of people living in poverty. This number is still increasing and he is quite an inspirational young person whose story can be very relatable to a lot outside of his own business. I would highly recommend this book, you can purchase it from their website https://thankyou.co/ or from any airport in Australia and New Zealand.

Remember that things can always be better and hidden opportunities reveal themselves through our ‘failures’.

-Adelle