Educational Texts

Posted on September 8, 2019 by Amanda

I like to read at least a couple of education-related texts a year and have read some really great (and some not-so-great) ones in the last couple of years. Here’s a summary and review of some of the best.

Mindset by Carol Dweck

If you’re in education and you haven’t heard of Carol Dweck then you’ve been living under a seriously large rock because it’s everywhere, and everyone is talking about growth and fixed mindsets. This book is a great explanation of why mindset is important and how you can change yours. It made me really think about how my mindset has changed over the years and how I still have room to improve. In terms of teaching applications, it discusses how the language people use affects the children in their lives and how children respond. It’s fascinating and very practical and has made me rethink the language I use. I’m going to really try to avoid referring to any child as having gifts or talents because really, when it comes down to it, these things count for nothing if a person doesn’t know how to work hard.

2. Intentional Talk – Elham Kazemi and Allison Hintz

I can’t even remember why I bought this but it turned out to be a very practical and straightforward book that gave good idea on how to lead mathematical conversations. Lots of examples help to show why it’s important to let children speak and discuss ideas between themselves and test theories rather than just being told the answer. I’d really recommend it to anyone looking to up their maths teaching game. A quick and interesting read.

3. The Write Genre – Lori Jamison Rog and Paul Kropp

This book was lent to me by my school and it’s really good. It goes through methods and processes of teaching different writing genres. I’m a 1/2 teacher and this book is really aimed at strategies that would work best for years 3 to 6 but there were definitely techniques and tips for younger year levels, or things that could be simplified or adapted. The book also contains a range of photocopy masters to help students plan their writing or collect their thoughts. Another book that is very easy to get through with a lot of ideas that can quickly be implemented in the classroom.

Questions To Ask At Your Interview Or School Tour

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Amanda

Having a pre-prepared list of questions to ask at your interview or on a school tour* is vital. It’s a seriously nerve-wracking situation and you want to make the best impression and asking good questions makes you look smart and thoughtful! Check out this list and pare it down to the things that matter to you. If I’ve missed a key question that you would ask please leave a comment below! Please note – there’s no order of importance. Also, read the school website thoroughly as it may answer some of these questions.

What are the current area of development/focus of the school’s strategic plan?
Is there an active Union sub branch? What is the percentage of members on staff? How often do they meet?
How often does the Consultative Committee meet, and what is the method/arrangement of representation? Be aware that this should be no more than four times a term and absolutely more than once a term. If you need to know more about Consultative Committees please read the Victorian Government Schools Agreement (VGSA 2017).
How has the school implemented the new Personal Professional Days? This is part of the new Agreement (VGSA 2017) and teachers should be negotiating how they spend their four days per year with the school – not being mandated from above. If there is a teacher on your panel ask them how they spent their days. Schools should not prevaricate or claim they are still getting into the swing of things – this is a sign that they may not be following other aspects of the VGSA.
What is the meeting schedule? Keep in mind that there should be a maximum of 3 hours of meetings outside class hours per week and each meeting should be adjacent to the school day (within 15 minutes) and no more than an hour long. What time did the last staff meeting end? If it’s after 5pm be wary! A meeting schedule should be set at the beginning of the year.
What PD is the staff currently undergoing? How does it relate to the school’s strategic plan? The best PD (or PL – Professional Learning) is ongoing, not an hour on this topic, then an hour on something else (medical training excepted).
What are the transition programs offered by the school? All schools should have a Kinder to Foundation and a Year 6 to High School transition, but there should be end of year transition programs for all levels and the more thorough the better. Is there a Foundation – Year 5/6 buddy program?
What are the areas of excellence and areas for improvement in the staff, parent and student satisfaction surveys? These yearly surveys are given to random parents, all staff and Year 5 students (they vary for each group). I went on a school tour once where the principal, without any prompting from me, brought out all his data for me to see but this rarely happens. It’s an interesting insight into a school culture as schools are given graphs comparing the current year to the previous few years. Watch out for schools with extremely low staff satisfaction!
How is the school day arranged? Most schools have either 50 minute blocks or 1 hour blocks. I prefer 1 hour as it means only an hour after lunch (the tired zone) rather than 100 minutes. It isn’t a huge deal to some but a big deal to others.
What are the specialist subjects?
How much planning time will you get and how is it arranged? Double periods for planning are great.
When are team meetings? How are they run?
How are Professional Development Plans monitored? What is the schedule? What are some examples of PDPs that teachers set for themselves this year?
Camps – will you be required to attend? Where do they go? Don’t assume that just because you will teach Year 1 that you might not be asked to go to camp. Camps are fun and a great way to bond with students but this might not suit you if you have children.
What is the school’s homework policy?
What is the school’s Behaviour Management Policy?
Staff social life – are there regular drinks? What are the main activities throughout the year? What was the most recent activity?
How does the school cater for the whole child – particularly those students who aren’t academic?
what is the cultural demographic of the school and how does the school cater for various groups?
Extracurricular expectations of staff?
Graduate support – when will a mentor be assigned? Will they go to the mentor training? Will there be set times to meet?
classroom budgets – what is included? What is the allowance?
Will you be required to hand in lesson plans each week?

I’d take my list of questions on an iPad (always pays to show you’re tech savvy!) or in a notebook so you can write down the answers. Don’t expect to be able to remember everything.

*always ask for a tour! Here’re some reasons why:

if it’s a genuine job (there’s no one waiting in the wings at the school who is almost-definitely going to get it) the school should be happy to take you.
this is an extra chance for you to get your face and name known to the principal and make a good impression. Obviously you should dress up.
you can see what the school really looks like – is there lots of technology on show? Are students using it? What’s the staffroom vibe? Are you greeted warmly by the office staff? Is there a vege garden? Chickens? Art on the walls? School values? I don’t know… what’s important to you?
do you like the principal? I cannot stress strongly enough that the principal represents the school and what it stands for so if you don’t like her/him don’t bother applying!

So You’re Moving To Victoria To Teach?

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Amanda

Three years ago I started the Melbourne Teachers group on Facebook. Lately the number of people asking for information on registering to teach and how to get a job has dramatically increased so I thought I would write a short article with information to help people get started. If you have further questions or information to add please leave a comment so this document can be even more helpful.

I will focus primarily on information regarding the government schools sector as that is where I have always worked. If you have information on the private sector please leave tips below.

The Victorian Institute of Teachers

The first thing you need to know is that the Victorian Institute of Teachers (VIT) is the registering body for teachers in this state. You cannot teach without being registered with them so read their site thoroughly.

Applying for Casual Relief Teaching (CRT) Work

There are a range of ways to find casual teaching work in Victoria. You can work through an agency such as ANZUK or take your resume to schools. I have never worked for an agency in Australia but I have several friends who have and the work is reasonably plentiful. If you are moving to the state perhaps it would be a good idea to contact a few agencies and find out where there is the most need for staff so you can locate yourself nearby.

My strategy, when I first moved to Victoria in 2003, was to send my resume to 50 schools within a reasonable driving distance from my home and I found plenty of work that way. More recently I took time off from my permanent position and began working as a CRT at just one school close to home. When the CRT coordinator at a school knows you’re available exclusively for them you are assured of quite a lot of work – assuming you are competent and fit the school culture. Quite often schools have a bank of retired/maternity leave teachers who know the school and are first to be called. Schools much prefer to use the same people who are familiar with their routines, than call new people all the time – at the very least it saves paperwork for the office. Let schools know you really enjoyed working there and you will be called back and have the pleasure of developing a good relationship with staff, students and parents.

If, through casual work, you find a school you really like, spend some of your free days volunteering and turn up to school events such as music recitals and fetes and you will have a foot in the door if you want to apply for a full time position.

If you are trying to find casual work and not getting much response, go to your closest schools and volunteer in your spare time.

Finding holiday/extra work:

Many people ask online about making money during holiday periods. Call your local schools and find out who runs their holiday programs. Sometimes they are run by large organisations, sometimes they are run by the school. Work can also be found with companies and organisations that run school incursions and school programs – zoos, museums, government departments. Think outside the box!

Applying For Advertised Positions (contracts and permanent positions)

All government teaching jobs that are contracts or permanent positions are advertised on recruitment online and MUST be applied for through recruitment online. The website can be a challenge to navigate and occasionally drops out so don’t leave applications until the last minute.

Your application will be a letter of interest, resume, and answers to Key Selection Criteria (KSC). From a short list of KSC provided by the Department of Education and Training (DET), schools choose the questions they want you to answer. Usually five or six questions are chosen and your answer to each should be around a page/300 words long. Here is an example of a Key Selection Criteria statement:

Demonstrated understanding of initiatives in student learning including the Standards, the Principles of Learning and Teaching P-12 and Assessment and Reporting Advice and the capacity to implement and evaluate learning and teaching programs in accordance with the Victorian curriculum.

This is a statement that would apply to an experienced classroom teacher, not a graduate.

Here is an example of one person’s responses.

This is a useful page from the Catholic University about writing a resume and answering KSC.

Here is the DET page on recruitment in schools.

The Interview

If you are successful at the written stage and are offered an interview you will need to prepare. The first step is to thoroughly read the school’s website again (of course you would’ve done this before writing your application) and composing a list of questions. The school you work at needs to be the right fit for you, so work out what your priorities are. Personally, I would prefer to work at a school with a strong sustainability culture, a focus on high-level use of technology and one that allows students voice, choice and authentic learning tasks.

A non-exhaustive list of possible questions:

Union representation – are staff encouraged to be union members? What is the rate of membership and who is the sub branch representative? How often do they meet?

The staff meeting schedule. When are staff meetings? When are Professional Development meetings held? What other committees, boards or groups are in operation? When is the yearly meeting schedule finalised?

Staff social culture – what is it like? What percentage of staff came to the last Christmas party?

What access do staff have to their classrooms out of hours? Do all staff members have keys? Is the school accessible during school holidays? If you are a graduate teacher you may need this extra time to prepare!

How many hours of planning time will you have a week? Remember that if you are a graduate you are entitled to more.

Who will be your mentor or (if not a graduate) who should you go to when you want to ask questions about school policies and procedures?

Camps – will you be going? Remember that teachers from any year level can be asked, not just the teachers of the grades involved.

Transition programs – these do not just affect Foundation and Year 6. A good school provides transition at all levels.

Class numbers and grade structures across the school.

What is the focus of the school’s strategic plan?

How long have most staff members been at the school? How new is the principal? A school with a quick staff turnover might require more thought.

The Victorian Government Schools Agreement

VGSA

I can not recommend strongly enough how worthwhile it is to read this document, whether you are new to teaching or have taught for 20 years. I was the Sub Branch Rep for my school for many years and I frequently referred to this document. It outlines your working conditions, pay, holidays and long service leave, your employer’s expectations – everything. Be familiar with it! It is not a huge document and it is easy to read. Skip the bits that aren’t relevant to you.

Union Membership (AEU)

Being a Union member means supporting your profession and your colleagues as well as the benefits to yourself. The more members the Union has, the stronger their bargaining position when they negotiate your wage increases. Do you think teachers don’t get paid enough? Join the Union! They also negotiate funding for schools, provide legal assistance to members and fight to promote the government sector.

Professional Development (PD)

There are many places to get free or inexpensive PD. The Union offers a range of PD and some is targeted at job seekers. There are many webinars and online courses, such as those through OLT.

I would also recommend asking local schools if you could sit in on a few staff meetings or in-house professional development sessions – also a good way to meet people!

Schools in Victoria use this curriculum. Familiarise yourself with the structure and content.

Useful Facebook Groups and Pages:

Melbourne Teachers – a group for local teachers.

Surviving Casual Teaching – support group for casual teachers.

Mindshift – interesting articles on a broad range of education topics.

I would love to add more information to this page, particularly more places for free or inexpensive PD. Please leave a comment below if you can help!

What Makes A Good Teacher?

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Amanda

I’ve spent a lot of time this year experimenting with data collection and monitoring student satisfaction and achievement using traditional and digital technologies. After a recent professional development where the staff at my school discussed the qualities we would want in a leader/teacher, I started thinking about asking my students what they wanted in their own teachers, and what qualities stood out as being the most valuable.

This came together in an activity that I did during Genius Hour yesterday and I wanted to share it because it was fun, eye-opening and a good way to start the school year. Unfortunately we’re right at the end of the school year in Australia, but that just means that reports are done and it’s a perfect time to experiment with ideas for the future.

First, I handed out strips of colourful paper and asked the students to complete this sentence: ‘A good teacher …’. I gave one example of my own but then encouraged them to write anything they could think of. They had five silent minutes and weren’t allowed to talk about their ideas (except for the EAL students) and the strips were anonymous. I went into the activity with no preconceptions about what they might write, just a hope that they would take it seriously.

After five minutes most of the class were still thinking and writing so I gave them a couple more minutes, then they gave their strips to me and went on with Genius Hour. A couple of students asked if they could help Lynda (an aide in my room) and I sort the strips, so we tried to make categories and removed any answers that were identical.

I was blown away by some of the answers, such as ‘enjoys their job’, ‘wants to share knowledge’, ‘lets us be creative’, and ‘doesn’t make useless tasks’. All the things I want to do as a teacher! And my favourites – ‘is funny’ and ‘tells good stories’. Maybe not quintessential parts of teaching, but certainly qualities of my most memorable teachers at school.

Then we stuck the strips on a big piece of paper and taped it to the board. After Genius Hour the students were given three star stickers and asked to star the ideas they thought were most important.

So what was most important? By far ‘being fair’ and ‘making learning fun’ were the top hits. If I’d been asked beforehand what I’d thought the students would say I’d probably have picked these two as well, because it’s what is important to me too. It was a great discussion to have and I could tell the students were pleased to be asked for their feedback. I spend all day telling them what I think of their work and behaviour, why not give them a chance to give me some feedback?

The highlight of the day came when we had our ‘School Value Superstars’ session (students nominate each other for stickers in the six categories of the school values) and one of the boys nominated me for a sticker because he said I did all the things on the list. Well, my heart nearly exploded. Then one of the other boys started to say ‘Well, actually Miss Lenon doesn’t… ‘ but I told him to be quiet and let me enjoy the moment ;-).

I’ve stuck this sheet on a noticeboard in the school because I love, love, love it. I highly recommend the process to other teachers. I’m looking forward to seeing whether next year’s class makes a similar list or comes up with very different things – and I look forward to using it as my own guiding principles throughout the year and doing an accompanying poster about what makes a good student and then the class and I can work together to become better.

Genius Hour

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Amanda

Recently I have read many articles and attended professional developments about giving students more autonomy and independence in the classroom. My school has adopted the Kathy Walker inquiry approach in the lower years, and I really like the idea of more choice and differentiation, but I didn’t want to become overwhelmed. I decided to start small, with just one hour a week of completely student-directed learning.

My starting point was talking to students and parents. It seemed that all students felt they’d like to do better on their reports, and some were disappointed with their grades (we give a C as a standard mark, B represents six months ahead of expected achievement, and A equates to 12 months or more ahead). Most students said they’d really like to get at least one or two A’s on their reports. I asked the students to write down their areas of interest in the curriculum. Most chose ICT, History, Design, Geography, and Economics.

During the mid-year holidays I wrote up an open-ended project for each of these areas that covered all the expectations but allowed a range of options, then presented the projects to the class at the beginning of term. I explained, in our first session, that if students completed one of the projects successfully they would be guaranteed an A in that area. However, they could work on any other project of personal interest and that was fine too. They would have one hour, each Friday, to do what they liked. They each took a sheet from their area of interest and I waited to see what would happen.

As it turned out, pretty much nothing at all happened with the projects I’d designed. They were too complex, too detailed and not open-ended enough and, to be honest, they were dry and boring. But, thankfully, the students had ideas of their own.

I decided to spend half the term letting the students experiment and I would just observe. No pressure to finish anything, no rules, no structure for that one hour – except my mantra: ‘teach, learn, create’. As long as the students were doing one of these things then that was fine.

Unsurprisingly, Genius Hour was a hit. Even if the students did insist on calling it ‘Happy Hour’ for the first term. They leaped into projects without hesitation, immediately asking for cardboard, glue guns, iPads, paint, stanley knives (gulp!) and much more. Every time I thought ‘hrm… it looks like A and B are just messing around’, I’d be proven wrong when their ‘messing around’ resulted in something astonishing.

Here’s a few things produced in that first month:

a pair of cardboard shoes that were sturdy enough to be worn around the classroom (and proved useful on hot days).
a hat with a working catapult on top (only used to fire paper balls).
a research project on the history of cameras.
a series of lessons introducing students to the basic elements of karate.
a maze game programmed in Scratch.

My immediate impression was that this freedom allowed all students to do something amazing and gain recognition. One example was a student who taught a series of lessons in Minecraft. He spent thirty minutes each week with a small group of devotees, explaining carefully and demonstrating, answering questions and taking his role as seriously as an university lecturer. Respect from his peers soared, and he was labeled the expert in this area, frequently sought after for help and advice.

A secondary benefit was that each student’s project presented new ideas to the rest of the class. They shared techniques, opinions and skills. It was fantastic to watch them get interested in what else was going on in the room and lend a hand or offer advice to people whom with they did not normally socialise.

At the beginning of term four I decided to incorporate more reflection and planning into the sessions and made up an initial planning sheet, on which students had to be explicit about their goals and break them down into steps, with the understanding that they had to reflect on their progress after a month. They were welcome to change their goal but they had to explain why they had switched and what they had accomplished. Students could have projects that were one lesson long, or plan to take the whole term. Anything was ok, as long as they were learning, creating or teaching.

The lower cricket bat is the first prototype, made from cardboard and tape, the upper one is the last design. The boys asked a classmate who was an expert with wood to make their design at home. Unforced, natural collaboration with a purposeful result.

As I write this, we’ve just completed our second assessment form, which entailed reflecting on their achievements and use of time during the first four weeks of term, then planning the next four weeks, which will take us up to Christmas.

So where to next?

I’ve just begun working on my own Genius Hour project alongside the students. I need to spend time in each session helping students with resources, but I think there would be a great benefit in them seeing me go through the same process as them and then model reflective and critical thinking. My first project? A short movie about Genius Hour, of course. I’m teaching myself to put a movie together using just my phone. We’ll see if it works!
Next year I’d like to use a diary to get more concrete reflection done, and more often. I don’t want to cut into the full hour of project work though, so I’d like to extend the hour to 90 minutes. I’d also like to keep a large-format class diary to reflect on our progress as a group.
I’d also like to steal an idea from the Kathy Walker program, and have a reporter and photographer each week and focus on a couple of students and get them to share at the end of the session. I’d use Seesaw (a fantastic digital portfolio app) to record snippets of students mid-project. It would also be a good way to teach students how to produce good quality video and audio.

An attempt at a mirrorball, following on from our Science unit on ‘Light’.

Experimenting with this idea, and seeing how well the students respond to having more control over their own learning, has changed my teaching in other areas. This term our concept has been ‘The Future’ – a new unit of work that has been, without question, one of the most fun and engaging units I’ve ever taught. Although ‘taught’ feels like the wrong word. Facilitated? I was inspired by another teacher’s post on student-directed learning and so I consulted with my class about what aspects of technology and the future they were interested in. We made a list, voted on which we liked most and then broke it down week by week. So far we’ve learned about; 3D printing, drones and transport, artificial intelligence and now we’re up to cloning.

The students wanted to celebrate Back To The Future Day (fortuitously, it occurred during this term) and we’ve watched plenty of YouTube videos on new technologies, discussed Isaac Asimov’s Law of Robotics, learned about the power of crowd funding, watched (online) the first road test of an autonomous vehicle in the southern hemisphere… the list goes on. For homework, the student chose their own topic to research and had to present a timeline that covered the history of their area but also projected into the future, then make a model or diagram showing their predictions. I’ve never had such a high standard of homework returned.

Putting power back into the hands of students has led to some of the most memorable teaching moments I’ve had in a long time. The benefits for students are many, but in concrete terms it has allowed them more opportunity to demonstrate to me a range of skills that will translate to higher report scores, particularly in the areas of personal learning, creativity and design, thinking processes and ICT. I’m really looking forward to applying what I’ve learned here across the curriculum next year and learning even more from my students. I’m also very interested in hearing about others experiences with any similar styles of learning and would love advice or ideas. Feel free to leave a comment!

I’ll finish with an excerpt from a piece of writing from one of my students. I asked them to write a letter to the Grade 4’s and tell them about what they’d enjoyed most about Grade 5. While over half the class put Genius Hour in their letters (they only had space to write about their top 4 experiences), I felt this child really encapsulated the heart of the experience… while at the same time expressing this student’s fabulous sense of humour.

Guest Post!

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Amanda

I’ve been excited by the Word Nerds explicit vocabulary program for quite a while, and over the past term I’ve been sharing information and ideas with one of the year six teachers at my school. She’s been doing the program a little differently to me but with equally fantastic results. Before the holidays I asked if her class would like to write a short post about their ideas and experiences and here it is! Thanks Miss Colombo and 6CC, I love your enthusiasm!

6CC started a program inspired by Miss Lenon and the Word Nerds book. After discussing the new program, the students were PUMPED! They were looking forward to starting a new program and having the opportunity to learn some new words and incorporate them in their daily conversation and writing.

The class started with a pre-test of all 20 words they would learn over the next month. Students were very surprised with their results! I then created some cloze activities and the students worked in pairs to guess what word would be suitable for the sentence. This was quite difficult for them. I then revealed the words to give them some clues and we discussed, as a class, some synonyms and antonyms.

And from that moment…they were HOOKED! We looked at the template they would be using for each word and completed the first word as a class, filling in synonyms, antonyms, an image, definition and sentence using the word. To end our first session, we played a whole class game of ‘Class Synonym Pacman’. Overall, it was a great success.

Over the next four weeks, we continued to study five new words with a relatively similar program. We also incorporated a class competition where they were awarded points if they used the word in their writing or daily conversation.

Some feedback I received from the class was that they would prefer three words rather than five, as it is more realistic for them to learn and refer back to.

Some quotes from the class…

“ I liked guessing where the words go in the cloze sentences”
“Word Nerds is a much more enjoyable way of learning new spelling words”
“It has helped me to learn new words and now I use them in writing and life”

A big thanks to Miss Lenon for introducing me to the Word Nerds program and for her continuous support and ideas.
We love teaching and learning VOCABULARY!

Miss Colombo and 6CC

Auburn Primary School

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Amanda

For approximately 14.5 of the 15 years I’ve been teaching, I thought that networking was a fairly pointless activity for teachers. Isn’t networking all about getting another job? I’m perfectly happy where I am, thank you. And that was the end of that.

How stupid.

It was like a lightbulb went on when I attended a network PD meeting a short while back. Oh yeah – I could learn from teachers at other schools and find out more about the things that interest me! And this meshes so perfectly with my current interest in Minecraft and other aspects of ICT. I made a connection with a teacher at Greythorn Primary that is leading up to a visit next week to talk about MinecraftEdu, and last week I spent two hours at Auburn Primary. I was there to check out their PBL (Project Based Learning) program in the 1/2 level, thanks to an invite from my former student teacher, Max, who is doing his internship there.

My current student teacher/sidekick, Ellena, and I arrived a tad early and met outside the rather imposing Auburn Primary building. From the cafe across the road (where we adjourned for a sneaky coffee before returning to school) the dark clouds that loomed above gave the old building a bit of an Aadam’s Family feel.

We were led over to Max’s room by the jocular deputy principal, Martin. It’s always lovely to enter a school where every staff member seems to be having a great day and every teacher we were introduced to was welcoming and happy to answer questions, talk about their work and let us take photos.

We found Max working in his nook – the 1/2 area is an enormous open plan space with little alcoves for each class. I find this kind of arrangement somewhat daunting as I’ve never experienced a really successful example of it, but I was keen to see how the Auburn staff managed. There were 7 classes of 22 students (I think… I might have the numbers wrong) in the space every day and I just couldn’t imagine how the noise didn’t become overwhelming.

It was very pleasant at 8:30am though, and Max took us on a tour to meet other teachers, look at displays and admire all the inquiry spaces. The students were currently working towards the culmination of a unit on the Great Barrier Reef. Their final project was in several parts. They had to write a play script, design and build a minature theatre, advertise their play and buy the materials they wanted from a shop manned by parent helpers (pictured above with all the supplies laid out).

Max told us that the approach they were working with was similar to the Kathy Walker program in that it was an inquiry approach, but students were directed using task cards. They were also encouraged to visit a variety of different coloured stations over a set period. Colours identified which curriculum area each station was aligned.

A great deal of work had obviously gone into making each station unique and attractive. Elements of student ownership and input were everywhere. In many ways it was like the inquiry stations in my own school’s Prep and Grade One areas – but with a great deal more space to work with.

We watched the students file in at 8:45 then headed to assembly at 9am. I won’t lie. Assembly is not my favourite part of the week, but it was quite interesting to watch another school go through their routine. Unlike Chatham, Auburn sings Happy Birthday to the students who’ve had birthdays that week, and they only sing one verse of the national anthem. In fact, I think Chatham is the only school I’ve ever been to that sings two verses. They had a class performance – each class has a turn, I assume. This is something we don’t do but I really like the idea, and I remember doing when I was in primary school.

After assembly we headed back to the classroom. Each group sat with their teacher for a fruit snack and roll marking then they disbanded to work on their puppet shows. There was quite a bit of noise but it certainly wasn’t overwhelming, and the teachers played fun music sporadically while the kids worked. We noticed a few students getting up to do a bit of spontaneous dancing in between tasks.

There were parents manning the materials store, students working all over the place, and everyone seemed on task and extremely engaged. There appeared to be a great balance of freedom and structure.

Perhaps the best moment of the visit came when Ellena and I spotted a student vigorously hacking into a cardboard box with what looked like a serrated knife blade. Concerned, we walked over to investigate. The student showed us his tools and they were amazing. The knife was made of plastic and unable to cut skin but perfect for boxes. There was a large bag of other bits – plastic hinges, screws (technically called ‘scrus’) and ‘scrudrivers’. All invented and sold by the student’s dad. The boy kindly gave me one of each and instructed me on their use. He also gave me the website address. I strongly encourage you to go look at this simple but elegant solution to construction for kids – I’ve done a poor job of describing how versatile and empowering it can be. Here’s a photo of the tools.

I took them back to my class and the students immediately wanted to use them, so I’m hoping several sets can be bought for a few grade levels at my school – if for no other reason than I hate covering boxes with miles of sticky tape that then makes them difficult to take apart and recycle.

After about an hour in the room, Ellena and I said our goodbyes and headed back to Chatham, heads full of ideas and thoughts on the future. I felt grateful for the opportunity to visit and wished for more time to see other grade levels in action and also for opportunities to see how edtech is used at a school that is further along that road. Currently Auburn have a 1:2 tablet program in the junior years and I’m interested to see how they manage devices, how they monitor students who are using technology and what apps they find useful. I had a quick chat about data storage with one teacher and thought afterwards that I should’ve mentioned Showbie as an option – although I’m hardly an expert. Where and how student work is stored when there are so many devices to use is something my school will probably be considering shortly. I imagine that making sure each student has the same tablet each time is slightly challenging, whereas having an account in the cloud would make more sense – and make work more accessible to teachers too. If anyone from Auburn is reading this I’d love to read your thoughts on the subject so please do leave a comment :-).

Visiting another school was incredibly valuable. Not only did I get to ask questions, I was able to see things happening that I wouldn’t have even thought to ask about. I’d definitely encourage anyone reading this (particularly those in Melbourne’s Eastern Region!) to consider begging, borrowing or stealing a few hours and spend a session or two visiting another school. I’d be particularly happy to set up some reciprocal visits with my school – if you’re interested leave a comment or join the new ‘Boroondara Teachers’ group on Facebook.

I’d also be interested to know if any teachers reading this do regularly or sporadically visit other schools and what you’ve gained from the experience. Do leave a comment and let me know :-).

The mini stage in the classroom area. I LOVE this! If any Auburn teachers are reading, I’d love to know where you got it.

Next: what I learned at Greythorn Primary!

Mindfulness and the Joy of Student Teachers.

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Amanda

I’ve been teaching for 15 years, had my own class for 8, and had a student teacher every chance that I’m offered one.

Some teachers never seem to volunteer to share their classroom, but I think that an important aspect of being in such a vital profession is contributing towards its next generation. Occasionally people complain of lacklustre student teachers, but perhaps I’ve just been fortunate to work with a string of motivated, passionate and good-humoured student teachers who match (or put up with) my somewhat relaxed style of classroom management and personal organisation.

Apart from having someone to shake my head at when students say and do hilarious things, student teachers bring new ideas to my room and my teaching and today was a terrific example.

Ellena, is a fourth-year student studying at RMIT, and is with me for three weeks. Confident, competent and at ease in the classroom, Ellena asked to do some mindfulness activities with the class and I was all for it. Recently we’ve begun a focus on mindfulness at my school, led by one of the year six teachers. So far we’ve primarily used an app called Smiling Minds, which has a calm voice and quiet music to relax to and focus one’s thoughts.

Ellena wanted to try something new, and shared her idea, sparked by this book:

She explained the session to the students before lunch and then in the afternoon we walked around to the front garden area of the school and the students found their own spaces and followed the instructions.

First they were to observe their environment and look at the materials available. They could use whatever they found to create a mandala. Ellena had shown them some images online to give them a bit of inspiration, but assured the students that whatever they wanted to create was fine. The main idea was to focus on the task and get into the moment. I lost no time finding my own space and was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly the students found their own place to begin. Some wandered around and picked up bits and pieces, but most became focused super quickly and were clearly getting right into the zen of it.

I loved it. Getting immersed in creative tasks is something I do pretty frequently anyhow, but being surrounded by children doing the same thing was quite magical.

Ellena walked around and took photos and one of the students suggested taking some pictures with an app we’re all enjoying right now – a kaleidoscope camera. Just one purple flower produced an amazing result.

After a while the students wandered a little and quietly whispered their appreciation of each other’s work. It was all over far too soon for anyone’s liking, but I’m hoping the students take this idea away and do it sometimes by themselves, or share it with their siblings.

The activity also provided good opportunities to consider pretty high-level concepts, such as the transitory nature of art and creation. We discussed the fact that our art was a process that we enjoyed in the moment but would probably be completely gone by the next day (or almost immediately, in the case of a few pieces that were stepped on accidentally). We’ve been talking a lot about resilience this term and the students whose work was destroyed were quite sanguine about it, which surprised and impressed me. Perhaps the kids were just too calm and happy to be bothered getting upset.

I know the session took a weight off my shoulders. Getting to play alongside my class is a rare joy and I was buzzing for the rest of the afternoon, the recent sensation of being a bit stressed and overloaded had dissipated and I felt refreshed.

So engrossed I didn’t realise my photo was being taken.

So thanks, Ellena. And thanks to all the other funny, clever, generous and adaptable people who’ve shared my classroom over the last decade or so. I’ve appreciated every one of you!

I know what I’ll be doing on my next trip to the beach … or maybe just the next sunny day I spend in my backyard.

My mandala!

iBooks Author

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Amanda

At a recent PD I was introduced to iBooks Author.

It’s a program designed to allow quick and easy publishing of online books. The session was just under an hour long, which isn’t very much time to get an overview of a new program, especially one with lots of functions and possibilities. If I’d done this session a few years ago I would probably have been quite overwhelmed and ditched the whole thing as soon as I’d left, but this time I didn’t.

You see, the thing that’s really come to me lately is how technology is a giant ocean of skills and knowledge and it seems so vast and diverse that getting to know every creature living in it, to learn all their languages, is a herculean task. But it only *seems* that way when you’re yet to dive in.

One of my co-workers made an excellent point that has stuck with me for months. Technology and learning new apps and programs can be daunting at first, but there’s a certain pattern to the way things are put together. Once you’ve opened and played with five or ten apps or programs, you realise that, just like all fish have fins and scales, apps and programs have lots of similar attributes. This isn’t accidental, either. There are thousands of people at work all over the globe trying to make sure their app is the easiest, most intuitive to use because they know they have about one minute before customers decide that another app would be quicker and easier.

We live in an age where you don’t need to be a computer scientist anymore to program and create. I used to avoid programming my bedside alarm clock because it involved pushing so many buttons and scrolling through options. Now my iPad contains almost everything I need to support my entire daily schedule and it is so easy to use that it doesn’t come with any instructions.

Anyhow, iBooks.

The session I did was a bit daunting but now I have so much more confidence in myself to solve these problems because I’ve learned this:

This comic, by XKCD (possibly the most famous, most beautiful, and most clever comic to only exist online) is the truth.

So I came home and had a go at making my first iBook. It was fun! I worked out the basics, inserted a video, pictures, pop-overs and text and completed it within a couple of hours. The theme was a series of lessons based on a current exhibition of Australian Illustrators at a local gallery. Our teacher in the PD had encouraged us not to do more than 3 pages but I made mine 6, mostly because I’m pretty comfortable with rambling on for pages and pages – as anyone who has read my travel blog will attest.

So, having sailed through the actual book, I hit my stumbling block when trying to upload it onto the iTunes Producer site. I actually made my boyfriend (who is far more IT savvy than me – he’s a video editor) try to solve the problem but he couldn’t help (mostly because I asked him at 10pm on a weeknight), so I came back again and again and read the error messages, resubmitted the document half a dozen times and tonight, while I wrote this….

Success! Although there’s still two warning messages at the bottom of the page, so we’ll see tomorrow (apparently it takes 24 hours for books to appear) but still… my first published book!

So extremely cool, even if it’s only six pages and aimed at an audience of maybe three people ;-).

As our teacher said, it means having books out there that you can refer back to, pass on, and share easily. I really like that iBooks can have a video introduction , so if I create an information product for students I can talk about it at the start and this will be useful for flipped learning. I can also now show students how to use this and they can create iBooks about their own interests. I’m thinking that I’d like to use the iBook format to get students to teach teachers about Minecraft – how it works and what the educational benefits could be. So many of my students are nuts about the game, I think it would make for a really rich task.

As always, learning about one new technology opens up ideas for so many more possibilities in the classroom. I’ll post a link to the book – if that’s even a thing I can do… something else on the ‘to learn’ list.

Onwards and upwards!

Blogging Makes You Better.

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Amanda

I don’t think anyone would argue that if you want to improve your performance at anything you need to reflect on what you’re doing. Blogs are a perfect vehicle for that. Teachers also know that the best way to consolidate knowledge is to try to teach it to someone else. Blogs are perfect for that too. And how many times have you heard that having a meaningful audience means that learners set the bar much higher for themselves and care more about their products? Every time, that’s when.

Which is why I love blogging.

Of course, it helps to love writing, communicating, feel comfortable with technology, and be at peace with one’s flaws. The last one most of all, since blogging is putting your thoughts out into the world in non-erasable format, for anyone to criticise. It’s *scary*. Super scary sometimes, to think that peers could read your words and judge you harshly. But look at it the other way – they might read your words and think you’re amazing – or at least daring enough to have a go… *smiles winningly*.

Either way they’ll know what you’re doing, and that’s a bonus when we’re all too busy to get into each others classrooms during working hours. But don’t you find that it’s those times when you talk to coworkers and see what they’re doing, that you get most inspired to try new things?

Blogging is a great way to get your ideas out into the world and get ideas in return.

If you’re reading this and want to shout at the screen ‘I don’t have TIME for this nonsense, you idiot!’ I want you to think about this graphic, which shows the attitudes of teenagers in the UK to various media.

So what it’s saying is twofold.

1. That teens today (and I doubt teens in the UK would be much different to Australia) feel that tv is far less important to them than television was to us when you and I were kids. And I don’t care when you were a kid – even if it was ten years ago – or thirty years ago, like me. For both boys and girls interactive devices are far, far more valuable than passive television. Which means that:

2. Teens and kids today have a completely different mindset to older generations and we need to see their view of the world if education is going to stay relevant. Apart from the fact that less than a quarter of passive media is viewed on televisions anyway, young people today usually don’t look at a screen and think ‘I’ll watch that’.

They think ‘I’ll use that’.

To communicate, to share, to ask, to learn. So if you want to relate to the world students are living in (that we are living in), then it’s time to get with the C in ICT. Throw out that passive television and start engaging with the inspiring, challenging and interesting information that people who share your interests are talking about online.

If you use Facebook then that’s something. Facebook lets us communicate and share (and watch videos of sloths and kittens and animals wearing clothes). But I kind of hate it as much as I love it because it caused my blogosphere to slip into a coma.

I started my first blog in the year 2000. I wrote in it every day and I still write in it about once a week. Nearly everyone I knew between 2000-2010 had a blog that was linked to mine. People used their blogs to think out loud, to celebrate and mourn, to record and review. We’d write about parties, movies, break ups, anything. Then Facebook happened. It was so easy to use, so many non-bloggers were there. So people moved across and stopped posting in detail and instead posted sound bites. I lost depth in exchange for breadth in my online communications and it was a poor deal. Since then I’ve started a travel blog and vlog (at ‘Here Comes The Planet‘) with my partner, Luke. We use it to communicate with family and friends while we travel, as well as share our stories with a surprisingly large audience of like-minded people.

Starting an education blog is my way of trying to regain the deeper communication but with a different sphere. Hopefully I can create a network, ideally with a substantial local component, who can help me learn and inspire me.

The final reason for this project is to have a record of my professional progress, my trials and errors, and to look back on where I’ve come from. Hopefully it’ll even assist when I’m thinking about ‘where to now?’. Right now my next personal challenge is to utilise the power of my DSLR for self-improvement. I want to video my teaching and analyse it in order to improve my practice and share the results. It was inspired by this TED talk by Bill Gates.

Hopefully I’ll be blogging about my trial soon. Thanks for reading, and if you have something to say do leave a comment. Bloggers *always* love polite feedback, even if people disagree with them ;-).

Miss Lenon's Classroom

Tips and ideas for teachers.