Balancing Act

I recently blogged about the importance of educating parents as well as students when it comes to the use of internet technology in this day and age. Yesterday I was reading a newspaper article with a similar topic.

The article indicates that the increasing proportion of teenagers using technologies such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter is now filtering down in a similar way to include primary school students. It goes on to mention that schools are in a difficult situation because they don't condone the underage use of these sites but also shoulder some responsibilities in the education of their students for the appropriate use of them. One of the most concerning statements in the article for me was that some children are hesitant to report incidents of cyber-bullying to their parents because they are scared of having the technology taken off them.

Unhealthy amounts of screen time, violent programs/games and cyber-bullying are all important issues that need to be managed and these should all be closely monitored within the classroom - I know they are in my school. This technology is here, there's no getting around it. Removing them from children will not solve any problems. Parents and teachers need to have a strong relationship, one built on trust, that allows them all learn together about appropriate ways to use these tools.

Behind the scenes

As part of a maths assessment for a unit on fractions, my students were required to plan, resource, teach and evaluate a lesson focussing on one of the topics we'd addressed in class. Today they shared their lessons and taught a small group of their peers.

The students had the choice of what topic they would teach - they could combine topics if they were related. They could also decide at which grade level their lesson would be directed towards. Four students surveyed some Grade Three students to find out what they knew about their topic before they planned their lesson.

They were welcome to use any of the available tools in the classroom in order to deliver their lesson. Quite a few students saw the effectiveness of using the SMARTBoard and prepared resources to use on that. This was great as we've only had the boards for this year and it showed me that they felt very comfortable with it. Others enjoyed applying their knowledge through games and created their own versions of maths games that would suit their lesson. Another group created process and word problems with extra challenges at the end. A whole range of learning styles at work! The process needs some improving before I try it again but all of the students did a fabulous job and were very enthusiastic about their lessons. The fact that they had invested their own time into the development of their lesson helped them to form a stronger connection and I was able to see how well they understood their topic as they presented it.

One of the things that a lot of the students found difficult was the ability to have everything as prepared as possible so that the lesson would flow freely. Some students were unable to engage in much teaching as they spent too long setting up and their 'students' were lost. Some planned lessons that were too easy or difficult, or didn't research their topic enough so were caught out when asked tricky questions by their peers. Some were simply missing important resources so their lesson didn't run well. Obviously I wasn't gauging them on their teaching skills. I did look for appropriate planning and preparation, but teaching techniques and delivery methods weren't the focus of this activity. I wanted to see how well they knew their topic and whether or not they could be creative in the way that they applied it.

I was recently a mentor teacher for a student on his first teaching practicum. He'd been in the class 3 months earlier as he was changing careers and, as a parent of the school, he was considering taking up teaching as a profession and wanted to get 'a feel' for it. The observation period was a lot of fun for him as I was the one preparing all the learning experiences and he had the freedom to sit in with small groups or observe the class as a whole. The shock for him came when it was his turn to handle lessons on his own. He was blown away by how many balls he had to juggle at the same time as a teacher. It was a valuable lesson for him and something that he took for granted in the observation phase. He's already a very good teacher and these realisations will only help to make him even better.

The amount of planning for each lesson we teach requires an enormous amount of preparation and sometimes I think this work is invisible to third parties. It's all well and good for people to agree that keeping our students at the centre of learning is best practice, but to actually do it effectively is a whole different ball game. Great teachers are well prepared, knowledgable and enthusiastic about each lesson they teach. On the outside it may look like some lessons can be thrown together on a whim, but in most examples this is certainly not the case.

In the Zone

The philosophical basis of the Primary Years Program is built on the theories of constructivism. Constructivism learning theory argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from interactions between their experiences and ideas. They construct understandings based on the information they have learned in the past. A key part of this in practice is being able to maintain students in their zone of proximal development. This means that their learning should be at an appropriate level so that it challenges them, but is not beyond what they are capable of. For us to ensure that we are keeping our students 'in the zone' we need to know what they are capable of.

Throughout learning this is achieved by regular formative assessment. This helps us to keep track of where we currently are and where we need to go in the future. Another important element of this is pre-assessment. This is completed at the beginning of an inquiry so we can ascertain where we should begin. For example, there is no point jumping into a lesson on adding fractions if the students don't know what a denominator is! The same obviously works the other way and sometimes students become disconnected from class if they're not inspired by the work. Obviously the difficulties come for teachers as they inevitably find out that there are varying levels of ability throughout a class. Learning has to be catered for all of these levels and requires dedicated work from teachers to ensure that this is happening.

Sometimes I get the feeling that we gloss over pre-assessment and don't give it due credit. Mindmaps, T-charts or a picture analysis can be great tools for pre-assessing students, as long as they are not seen as ways in order to simply tick a box. Better still, we should make sure we provide pre-assessment tasks that cater for a variety of learning styles and abilities. We need to ensure that our pre-assessments are differentiated - there's no excuse for not keeping our students in the zone of proximal development purely because of what stage we are at in the inquiry. By guaranteeing developmentally challenging pre-assessment, we learn valuable information about our students that can lead to more authentic, meaningful inquiry in the future.

The Forgotten Students

Over the past two weeks I've had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with an issue regarding internet security. Two of my students have had their email accounts broken into and abusive emails have been sent to other members of the class. Despite a thorough investigation we are no closer to finding the persons responsible and, with less than a week to go before the end of the school year, I doubt we will discover the culprit before we break.

I have found this whole incident extremely frustrating. I desperately want to know who is behind it all so that (1) they have to deal with the consequences of their inappropriate actions and (2) to help them through this obviously difficult time in their life. It is such a fine balance, though. I would never accuse anyone of anything without suitable evidence and this is the case here. There is not enough proof to confidently point the finger at any one person. Although I believe we have truly done all we can at school, if the culprit gets away with it all there is more reason for them to repeat their behaviour in the future. I really hope we can somehow find out who is involved.

Today I sent an email to all of the parents in my class, informing them of what had happened. Part of the email reminded parents about responsible and respectful use of the internet at home. Their children are growing up in an age that is, in a technological sense, vastly different to that of their parents and teachers. We are often reminded to help guide and support them through these new links of collaboration. But what about the adults? Who is teaching us? Sure, we're more capable of rational decisions at our age. Our years of experience in 'life skills' have enabled us to assess new situations and tools more effectively than, say, a nine year old.

Our school asks that parents, their children and the teachers of their children sign an I.T. agreement at the beginning of the year. This outlines what the school defines as proper use of technology at home and at school and describes expected behaviours when using these technologies. I find this a useful document to refer back to when 'reminding' someone about appropriate behaviour when using technology. But I don't discuss it with the parents. I don't provide a forum where parents can discuss what they understand about appropriate uses of I.T. For some it may mean allowing their children to have a personal computer in their room. For others it may mean fully supervised use of the computer. It is important to remember that a lot of these technologies are new for the parents, as well as the students, and that sometimes they need to be guided and supported just as much as their children.

The Negotiated Curriculum

At about this time every year I sit back and reflect on the year that is fast coming to a close. I think I have done many things right this year and learned a lot. Still, I know I have many areas to improve in and have been asking myself an important question over the past few weeks: Am I afraid to give up control of a learning experience?

By handing over the metaphorical reigns of learning to the students, teachers allow them to drive their own learning through their own curiosity. This usually results in genuine and significant inquires. This aspect of the curriculum - the role of students in decisions made about and for their learning - is valued by the IB, and particularly in the Primary Years Program:

Many different forms of inquiry are recognized, based on students’ curiosity and on their wanting and

needing to know more about the world. They are most successful when students’ questions and inquiries are

genuine and have real significance in helping them progress to new levels of knowledge and understanding.

The most insightful inquiries, ones most likely to move the students’ understanding further, come from

existing knowledge. (PYP Basis for Practice pp. 4)

It is also something that I don't find particularly easy to manage and one of my goals for next year is to really try and improve in this area.

Generally, I think I fall into one of two traps. I either expect (a) too much too early from my students and they aren't able to lead a learning experience (or don't yet know how) with their own curiosity, or (b) I don't give them enough of an opportunity.

These aren't done on purpose, of course. Sometimes I simply don't feel that I have enough time to let the students 'wonder and wander' for extended periods as I have to get through other mandated curriculum. Other times I haven't provided the students with enough opportunity to develop their knowledge of an inquiry before allowing them the chance to drive it. Then I feel worried that nothing is happening, the lesson is shallow and my reaction is to take more control.

Some strategies that I will be working on next year are:

Taking more time to really listen to my students - either as a class, in small groups or individually. Although I give my students plenty of my honest attention I am sure there must be some things that I'm not picking up. So I'm making a conscious effort next year to really look for indicators when the students are talking. I'm going to make a checklist of things to look out for during conversations so I can constantly remind myself. I'd also like to trial a few different ways of recording the information too, as this is something that I've found tricky to manage in other years.

I'm also thinking about the best ways to display student questions and inquiries as they arise. When I've attended PYP workshops in the past the facilitators have usually created a 'wonderwall' or something similar. Unfortunately these are not always re-addressed throughout the workshop but when they are I really like the way they work. It's not something I've successfully achieved in my own classes thus far so I want to try harder next year. I've tried using wallwisher before but I think I'd really like something that is up in the class and can be accessed at all times.

The next strategy I'm going to try and employ is to try and work opportunities for student input into my planning. I know that many student observations occur 'out of the blue' and can't be planned for, but I think I can facilitate these better by thinking about the type and structure of my lessons. What are my students revealing to me? How will this inform and alter future lessons?

I think it is also important that these experiences are developed around an environment that really encourages this type of behaviour. Some students may not be used to this level of freedom, opportunity or responsibility from other classes they've been in so I think it is important to model the sort of behaviour I want from my students. I must admit, I regularly fall into the trap of expecting that my students know what I want them to do without me really modeling it for them. It will also be helpful for me to provide routines and structures which they can follow - scaffolding, not controlling!