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(apologies for the google link, it is too big to upload to Padlet)

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Approaches to Teaching and Learning Job Alike.pptx

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Classroom activity to develop Communication skills

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Classroom activity to develop Communication skills

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Goal: Develop awareness that there are different communication norms (speaking, writing, body language, ...) in different cultures and sub-  cultures.

Level & Subject: MS Humanities

Activity:

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Communication Skills as Focus as Lesson

1.     Speaking

2.     Active listening

3.     Helping others

4.     Writing

5.     Ability to give critical feedback

6.     Respond to give critical feedback

7.     Perseverance

Class activity

1.     Watch 4-minute video. For example, in English, if the lesson is on gender inequality, they could watch an interview with a male football team member and look for signs of gender inequality. Real-world examples. How does this link to our curriculum?

2.     Write reflective response to a specific question. For our English example, “How does the video display gender inequlity?”

3.     Break into pairs

4.     Swap reflections

5.     First student summarizing the reflection

6.     Second student repeats back what they heard

7.     First student poses a question for the second student, visual or verbal.

8.     First student reports back to the class as a whole the final question asked by the second student.

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IB School Leadership: IB Approaches to Teaching

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This page provides you with a number of activities that you can use with your pedagogical leadership team and your teachers to professionally inquire into the six approaches to teaching skills.

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5Cs of Learning Skills

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A case for compassion among the Cs of learning

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A case for compassion among the Cs of learning

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In past posts, I've written about the four C's of 21st learning:

collaboration

communication

critical thinking and problem solving

creativity and innovation

I've also proposed tossing the moniker '21st century skills' and instead refer to them as the four critical elements of learning (the 4 C's). In order to expand the focus and educate the whole child, I propose we add a fifth critical element... Compassion.

It has been often said that the learning environment plays a significant role in the experiences of students, especially when a teacher is trying to create an environment that engages the learners in creative, meaningful experiences. Millions of dollars have been spent on new desks, tables, chairs, and technology to enhance learning spaces. Walls and tabletops have been painted with idea paint, interactive whiteboards have been mounted, and iPads distributed. And while all those changes have made a significant impact on student learning, I want to focus on a part of the learning environment that plays an equally important role, but is often overlooked when designing the learning space... The climate created by the relationships between the students and the teacher.

I began examining these relationships back in 2006 while working on my Master's thesis. I was looking for a way to assist teachers in creating a learning environment that made students feel safe and nurtured. My search lead me to Carl Rogers, a psychotherapist responsible for the development of the client-centered approach to therapy, and Nel Noddings, a philosopher focused on the ethics of caring in education. Out of that research came a comprehensive program designed to guide teachers towards developing relationships with students centered on mutual respect and empathy. While I would love to tell you all about that program, I'll save it for another post.

In his 2006 TED talk entitled " How Schools Kill Creativity," Ken Robinson shared the following:

If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.

Being creative means taking a risk, or many risks, on the path towards original ideas that have value. The social and emotional environment a teacher creates in their classroom will have a significant impact on a student's willingness to take chances and be wrong. If a student feels safe, respected, and cared for, he/she is much more willing to put themselves in a situation where failure is possible, if not probable. They will do this because their failure will be treated as a learning experience, instead of a validation of their lack of worth.

Unfortunately, our schools are becoming increasingly risk-adverse, and teachers are operating more out of fear of the assessment than the passion for educating kids that they once had. At least, that's what I've noticed in the schools I've worked in and visited. This increased stress creates an environment more focused on getting to the prescribed answer and less on the skills necessary for growth in today's rapidly changing global landscape. During a recent conference with state education leaders, a representative from one of the local colleges shared this with the group: "this state's schools are very good at training students to come up with the correct answer... Unfortunately, these students do not know how to ask the right questions."

Failure will be treated as a learning experience, instead of a validation of their lack of worth.

We need to make a shift. Instead of just trying to meet the needs of every student, we must strive as educators to ignite and engage each child's passion. Kids are natural learners and instinctively creative. And when they feel safe and nurtured, they're far more willing to try something new or challenging without the fear of failure. We also need our students asking questions, exploring possible solutions, and embracing the learning process as a difficult, but rewarding endeavour. This can only happen when they are in an environment where they feel safe and nurtured... An environment built on compassion.
Feature image courtesy of Flickr, Kalexanderson.

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The Fifth C of Essential Learning? Compassion.

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In past posts, I've written about the four C's of 21st learning: collaboration communication critical thinking and problem solving creativity and innovation I've also proposed tossing the moniker '21st century skills' and instead refer to them as the four critical elements of learning (the 4 C's).

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How to teach Mindfulness

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ll teachers want their students to be calm, focused, alert, aware and creative, which is essentially what mindfulness is all about, so it's no wonder the term has become a bit of a buzzword, even in mainstream education.

The Guardian Teacher Network has resources to help introduce mindfulness to young people at school (and at home) and to help them develop some essential life skills.

The most delicious way to start has to be Mindfulness and the art of chocolate eating. Taking just three minutes, this is a practical and instantly likeable introduction to bringing mindfulness to the classroom. If you must, swap chocolate for strawberries or ripe slices of mango.

This is just one of a fantastic set of resources from Mind Space on Guardian Teacher Network - and all are without an aura, guru or chakra in sight. The non-denominational and non-religious presentation of meditation and mindfulness has been specifically developed to be useable by all types of schools, beyond the RE classroom.

Try this mindfulness relaxation exercise script, which has been designed to guide students to a heightened level of mindfulness while relaxing the body and mind in just 15 minutes. Find also the audio recording of this meditation.

If you've got less time to spare, find five minutes to a calmer classroom, which has some fantastic tips and is one of the most popular resources on the Guardian Teacher Network.

Primary school-aged children can be introduced to meditation with this metaphorical educational story. Encourage younger students to close their eyes, relax gently and imagine they are one of the children in the story.

The exam season is pretty much over, but this one is a keeper: Tips for dealing with exam stress has been designed to help students reduce stress through practising mindfulness and meditation around exam time.

Teachers can find out more about Mind Space's meditation in schools project and seminars, and if you would like a speaker to come to your school to introduce mindfulness and the practice and technique of meditation to staff and students, get in touch.

RE teacher Andrew Jones, who recently blogged for the Guardian Teacher Network about his experiences with meditation at Goffs school, has created this useful slideshow on meditation for beginners - the slides list what to do and give basic directions. The lesson was created for a scheme of work on Buddhism, but it can act as a standalone lesson, too. Andrew has highly recommended the audio and CD resources created by Clear Vision, a UK Buddhist charity specialising in Buddhism and meditation in schools. Thanks to Clear Vision for sharing some of its stilling exercises for young people on the Guardian Teacher Network, meditation one and meditation two.

Meditation teacher Jon Shore has been teaching mindfulness since 1978 and has shared a soothing 15-minute audio file of soft meditation music and ocean waves - ideal for using as background music during a mindfulness meditation in class and Personal transformation using mindfulness and meditation, which includes meditations that can be used in a classroom setting.

Thanks to 100 hours for sharing this fascinating exploration of the wider context of mindfulness. Mindfulness and the vision for a 21st-century transformational curriculum introduces 100 hours' vision of how young people around the world can be supported to become wise and compassionate leaders and, ultimately, to transform society. The resource describes what mindfulness is and its benefits, and includes a two-minute guided exercise, top principles and tips. Teachers are invited to get in touch and find out more about how they can get involved.

We have some really creative resources shared by Ross Young at The Dharma primary school, the UK's only primary school to offer an education based on Buddhist values, which puts mindfulness at the centre of its practice so has lots of expertise to share. Find The Duct-Tape maze - a mindfulness activity that helps children learn how to manage distractions, to notice and persevere as well as to plan and reason. StickArt is another great calming idea. Students sit in a circle and take it in turns to place pipe-cleaners onto the floor in a particular shape without talking. A pattern or a picture is created and the focus is on developing mindful mind skills.

This pebble guided meditation is perfect for young children and in planting wishes children place wishes they would like to see grow in the world and work hard to help make their wishes grow.

The children at The Dharma school have created this poster of mindfulness skills because, in the words of a group of students: "Some of them are annoyingly long, tricky words!" The Kung Fu Panda Peach tree clip has been recommended to help children understand the concept of being present. Also find mind in a jar, a mindfulness activity in which children make and use a snow globe to show how their minds are working - and then give it a good shake!

And finally, for those who would like to podcast about their mindfulness experiences, but aren't quite sure where to start, How to podcast with your class is a really easy guide including software suggestions.

Join the Guardian Teacher Network community for free access to teaching resources and an opportunity to share your own as well as read and comment on blogs. There are also thousands of teaching, leadership and support jobs on the site.

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The Guardian Teacher Network has resources to help introduce the concept of mindfulness to pupils, to help them be calm, focused and creative

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Nice try is not enough!

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Among the most-uttered phrases of my generation of parents have to be these: "Great effort!" "Nice try!" "I can tell you worked so hard!"

Many of us have sipped from the well of research suggesting that children praised for effort rather than ability stick to their work longer, pursue more creative solutions and enjoy the whole process more. Those kids, we want to believe, get what Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, calls the "growth mind-set:" the belief that their abilities can be developed, as opposed to a "fixed mind-set" in which innate aptitude limits the ability to learn.

The growth mind-set has joined "grit" in the pantheon of desirable qualities we long to bestow upon our children, while secretly suspecting that those particular gifts aren't ours for the giving. We have collectively seized on the idea that a growth mind-set leads to success, while a fixed mind-set produces the child on the floor sobbing "I can't. I'm bad at this. I'll never get it."

And so we sing the effort song again and again, even when the result of that effort is perhaps not all that we would wish, and even when we know that their effort was strongly boosted by our behind-the-scenes help in varying forms. In doing so, we take a big idea - that the ability to keep trying matters more than immediate success - and drag it down to a small scale. While we're at it, we risk teaching our children to expect that any effort, no matter how puny or how enabled, should be enough to earn them the results they desire.

That's far from the real message of the research surrounding the growth mind-set. The exclusive focus on effort has been misplaced, says Dr. Dweck, whose book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" delivered the phrase into popular culture. The emphasis should be on learning as an active process, not a goal. "We're not just saying 'effort' anymore," she says. "We also talk about using good strategies and getting help from others." Part of a growth mind-set is being willing to learn how best to learn. "Parents may be familiar with the growth mind-set, but they may be using it toward the goal of the next test grade or school application. That's not what it is. It's about learning and improving and loving the process. Those other things come about as a byproduct."

Just as effort alone can't deliver results, praising effort isn't enough to help a child develop a love for the challenge of learning. Both parents and teachers should follow that "great effort" message with something more. Dr. Dweck provides a list of suggestions in an article for Education Week. When a child is trying but not succeeding, she writes, appreciate the effort, then add "Let's talk about what you've tried, and what you can try next." When a child is discouraged, avoid the "you can do it if you try" trap. Instead, acknowledge the challenge. "That feeling of math being hard is the feeling of your brain growing."

As children get older, parents can also talk with them about the ways their successes haven't been entirely dependent on their own efforts, no matter how great those have been. "They should recognize that not everyone has the opportunities to develop their abilities in the same way," says Dr. Dweck. "Other kids may be working hard, but not have people teaching them the right strategies, or giving them the help they need to flourish."

Children growing up with parents and teachers who care about helping them develop a "growth mind-set" are already ahead of the game. As parents, we can encourage them to use the strategies and skills they develop in both smaller and larger ways.

"I worry that kids aren't being taught to dream big any more," says Dr. Dweck. "It's so grade-focused. I feel like parents should be focusing on what contribution children can make. What's the purpose of growing up and having an education and developing skills? What kind of impact are you going to have on the world?" A growth mind-set, she says, should help a child feel fortunate to have the opportunity to make a difference.

It's a somewhat complex lesson we hope to convey: It's not enough just to try, you have to eventually find a way to learn, and yet it's not all about immediate or even long-term success. As temptingly simple as the whole "praise effort, not ability" concept seemed, there are no shortcuts to the growth mind-set, not for our children - or for ourselves.

Ironically, it's easy for adults to fall victim to a "fixed mind-set" about our own children. We need to remember that an appreciation for challenge, and a belief that we can find a way to change, learn and grow, can't itself be fixed in place. Instead, we all struggle with fear and discouragement at times. Sometimes we run toward new experiences. Sometimes we have to find a way to learn something we really did not want to learn. Sometimes, some part of us is always on the floor, sobbing: "I can't. I'm bad at this. I'll never get it."

So how do you raise a child with a growth mind-set, along with a nice healthy appreciation for where it came from and the will to keep it strong? By applying the encouraging messages of the growth mind-set to yourself. I'll borrow, out of context, another phrase from Dr. Dweck: "The point isn't to get it all right away. The point is to grow your understanding step by step. What can you try next?"

That's a great thing to say to our children, and just as important a thing to say to ourselves.

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Among the most-uttered phrases of my generation of parents have to be these: "Great effort!" "Nice try!" "I can tell you worked so hard!" Many of us have sipped from the well of research suggesting that children praised for effort rather than ability stick to their work longer, pursue more creative solutions and enjoy the whole process more.

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Modeling effective communication for conflict transformation

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How do I run a P4C session for children in Nursery

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Philosophy for children is a methodology/pedagogy to give students to practice needed for development of the necessary skills for philosophical enquiry.

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Here's a collection of films that would make great Philosophy for Children stimuli. Check for age-appropriateness before showing to your class/group and be s...

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I love this.

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This is an article that inspired me.

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Recently, my school district-like many across the country-has begun to explore ways to increase students' technology use in thoughtful ways, especially at the middle and high school level. Taking the idea from theory to practice is something that takes a lot of work, and classroom teachers can sometimes benefit from extra support to make this successful transition.

James, a secondary teacher in his third year, was one of many teachers considering what this might look like for the students in his classroom.

At first, James found thoughtful tech integration a particular challenge, given the high demands that teaching already made on his time. Initially, he shared that he felt energized by new ideas, but they quickly became overwhelming. Early on, he tried to introduce more technology, but the sight of so many of his students clicking through their school day wasn't the instruction he had initially envisioned. So he reached out to me, his digital learning coach, to give him a better idea of how implementation might happen in a more intentional and sustainable way.

Because our work as educators is so complex and fast-paced, it is difficult to find the time to slow down. We need the opportunity to reflect on our practice and to learn from one another's strengths in pedagogical practice. Supporting this work is the job of an instructional coach. This model requires buy-in and commitment from the teacher. It is a powerful practice for interested teachers who are looking for a thought partner to develop ideas with and grow their instructional expertise. A good coach doesn't just help a teacher with lesson planning, but supports iterative cycles of learning to constantly reflect on and improve practice.

Establishing Trust

The first step in this process is to meet. It is important to establish trust and engage in goal-setting to frame the work going forward. After all, each teacher needs something different out of the process, so I typically start with a handful of basic questions to lay a groundwork for the future. What do you want your classroom to look like? What are you goals for your students? Since coaching should be facilitative and, above-all, teacher-driven, teachers must decide how best to use their time with me. That might involve observing a fellow teacher down the hall, visiting a nearby school, asking to be observed, engaging in a learning activity together like a book study or collaborating on a lesson plan. Afterward, there's always an opportunity to debrief, process and set up a plan of action.

Some of the early conversations James and I had were about Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model, which aims to move technology from substituting analog tasks with digital ones to using it to produce new and previously unimaginable tasks. James identified that a lot of his implementation was substitutive. Instead of reading from the textbook, students were reading from the online textbook. Instead of completing paper worksheets, students were completing digital ones. Not only did he feel that this wasn't the most powerful way to leverage technology, but he started to consider his purpose for the worksheets to begin with.

Together, we spent time strategizing when to set aside the technology versus when to use it as a resource to truly enhance student learning. James looked ahead at his curriculum to where he could use tools to maximize student collaboration and highlight student voice-two of his major objectives. When we circled back in mid-winter, James had implemented some online collaborative tools with his students, such as Padlet and Google Classroom, to help students communicate digitally and work together on projects. This amplified the learning by giving equal weight to all voices in the room. In doing this, he also provided them with an authentic audience of their peers. Students were learning from one another, and not just from him.

For Kara, another third-year teacher considering technology implementation, coaching took the form of a peer observation. She sought a classroom culture that more strongly empowered her students to drive their own learning. So we arranged to observe a fellow teacher who effectively balances high expectations with positive student feedback, a practice that builds relationships with students while continuing to challenge them. We observed together so we could calibrate and debrief on what we saw. Kara then decided to "try on" new positive feedback practices, as well as some student engagement techniques, such as providing students with opportunities to relate topics of learning to their own lives.

Manuel, a veteran teacher, came to me for something different. In his case, he wanted to use technology to differentiate more for his students, and to offer students more personal choice in how they demonstrated their learning. So, following a staff session I led on this topic, we followed-up one-on-one to investigate further and brainstorm what might work in his classroom. He designed learning activities with clear expectations and learning outcomes but provided students with a choice in how they demonstrated their understanding, by offering a variety of creative options from comics to video creation.

As a coach, checking-in with teachers along the way is especially important, and feedback loops help provide ongoing support. I try and instill a sense in each teacher that making mistakes and failing forward is part of the process, so long as they're learning and growing. This personalization also means that the time commitment can vary dramatically between teachers. Some benefit from working with me individually for a few hours on a very specific goal, while others seek to invest in regular collaboration, resulting in twenty-plus hours of work over the course of a school year. It is sometimes important for a coach to step away for a month to give space for a teacher to "try on" something new, checking-in only when the teacher is ready.

In my experience, coaching must be rooted in strong pedagogical practice. It's not about supporting an increase in technology or pushing certain tech tools, but about considering the classroom culture and instructional models that best support it. For many teachers in my district, coaching is a time to experiment with different ways of shifting their classroom culture to empower and engage students in ways they hadn't yet considered-much like moving a lesson up the ranks of the SAMR model.

Whether it's working with new or veteran teachers, much of coaching is listening, meeting teachers where they are and, yes, more listening. At best, this work challenges teachers to engage in conversations about student expectations, routines and procedures, and relationships with students that are built on trust. For that work to be successful, any coaching must occur without judgment or advocacy, and must build upon need, as well as interest, resulting in a learning that is as personalized for teachers as it is for students.
Ed. note: Teacher names were changed for this story.

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Why Teacher-Driven Coaching Looks Different for Every Learner - EdSurge News

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Recently, my school district-like many across the country-has begun to explore ways to increase students' technology use in thoughtful ways, especially at the middle and high school level. Taking the idea from theory to practice is something that takes a lot of work, and classroom teachers can sometimes benefit from extra support to make this successful transition.