When the Adults Change, Everything Changes Post 1

 


"Only recently I witnessed a PE teacher saving the life of a child in a swimming pool, a teaching assistant talking down a child with violent intent and a teacher conselling a child whose father had just ben incarcerated. Performance manage that." - Paul Dix p 1. 

The above quote is one of my favourites from the best education book I've read (probably).  

It speaks in real and personal ways about many of the things that I'm passionate about as a teacher: 

Relationships - Culture - Teamwork 


Visible Consistency, Visible Kindness 

Chapter 1 is all about consistency and how hard this is to achieve. Keeping teachers on the same page takes a lot of commitment, an "all in" vision, a written agreement and some awkward follow up conversations. However, consistency is kindness because it gives kids security. Even a simple routine - how to enter the classroom - can have many different expectations. The author suggests a keystone habit of 'meet and greet' at the start of every day. Management at gates, senior leaders in corridors, teachers outside of classrooms - all ensuring that every student is seen and gets a warm welcome. I thought this sounded like a wonderful expression of aroha and manaakitanga. 


The Counter-Intuitive Classroom

Chapter 2 is all about the things that teachers do that seem good, but don't actually help. E.g. Write the names of kids on the board when they misbehave. We create a hierarchy of kids in the classroom with the 'difficult' kids getting the most attention. We make the kids who disrupt the most famous. The author suggests that token currencies can never be consistent and the kids quickly work out how to work the system. He suggests using our emotion for the positive not the negative. When teachers see disruption/disrespect etc they should give a calm, predictable response without emotion and follow through consistently. I've been trying this on my own kids at home. It's hard to keep emotions out of it. But it sure stops escalations. 


The thing that I really appreciate about this book is that it is really practical and hopeful. It helps me believe that what I do and say in the classroom can make a difference. I am planning to add more posts as I read and apply further chapters. 


Comments

  1. Michelle27 September 2021 at 18:32

    Sounds like an excellent book Simon. Love that concept of visible kindness and recognising how difficult but how important it is for us to provide that consistency (especially in this collaborative model we are working towards) . I’ll definitely put this book on my list of list reads.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alida28 September 2021 at 12:45

    Hi Simon, this book sounds amazing. It sounds like it links in really well with PB4L. I would be especially interested to read The Counter-Intuitive Classroom. I have recognised in myself that when I feel like things escalated to quickly around behaviour, and I feel like I might lose control, that I revert back to things that worked in my teaching, but that is not necessarily positive. I've been working really hard on myself the last few years to change that deeply ingrained habits. Having a few practical ideas in my kete will make it easier. Thanks for sharing this with us.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Circle Time - Professional Development Cycle

Image
 Circle Time - Professional Development Cycle  I have enjoyed meeting with Gretchen twice to discuss my professional goals for this year.  We decided that the context for my professional learning would be small-group circle times (which I help to facilitate twice a week).  I attained some baseline data by collecting an audio recording of my conversation with some of the students while they were doing their art. I was being conscious of using teacher talk moves: - repeating back what a student is saying  - giving wait time  - saying, "tell me more"  The conversation I had, mainly with M, was extremely interesting. He was discussing a number of deep topics that came from his art - an island. From this came a discussion about religion, politics and how people treat him.  This really showed me how art can open up conversations with students and allow them to talk about things that they have on their mind and topics that are important to them.  Gr...
Read more

Working with small groups

Image
I feel so lucky to be learning so much from the kids that I teach.  Two of our students taught me new games that they had played during their art therapy time.  The first game involves drawing 6 doodles / scribbles / shapes and numbering them 1-6.  Then each person takes a turn to roll a die.  If the die lands on a 6, that person copies the doodle that is labelled '6'.  This continues until one player draws all 6 doodles on their paper.  The game seems to help students take turns and interact positively with each other while also creating a drawing in a structured way.  Another drawing game involves drawing a large circle or square (over most of the paper) and dividing it into parts. If there are 3 players, divide the shape into 3 parts. If there are 4 players, divide the shape into 4 parts. Decide how many minutes you will get to draw your first picture (1-3 minutes seems good). Then each person draws their first picture in one of the sections. Then w...
Read more

Mega Meet - Equity and Success for All

Image
  For the first time in my teaching career, I was part of a conference that included Primary, Intermediate and Secondary teachers from the local area. Waiting outside for the powhiri to begin, I was excited to see a lot of colleagues I knew from 12 years teaching in this area. I also had the chance to meet new people.  The powhiri was really special - listening to the speeches and singing waiata, I felt the sense of unity - he waka eke noa - we're all in this together.   To add to my excitement - Russell Bishop was the key note speaker. The focus of his work is really close to my heart - developing teaching approaches that are highly relational, while also having very high quality teaching interactions with students.  Here are some key points that I took from Russell Bishop's address...  - When students are achieving at a lower level than expected, teachers often seek to explain it by saying there is a problem with the child/family/society.  - A more c...
Read more