Pencil Personalities

We all have them in our schools.  The Pencil Personalities.  I'm not sure who crafted this nifty little image but it was based on one from www.teachers.ash.org.au.  I love it.  Hopefully the image is clear enough to read but I will attempt to explain the Pencil Metaphor in more detail below.

First we have the Leaders.  These are the driving force behind change in our schools.  The people who take the bull by the horns and jump in feet first when something new and technologically exciting comes along.  At the 'pointy end of things' as my old Principal used to say.

The Sharp Ones watch carefully to see what the early adopters have done with the technology, they take the best parts, learn from their mistakes and put lots of effort into making sure that their students have the best opportunities available to them.  The Leaders and Sharp Ones are the visionaries in your school.  They need support and time to try new things in a safe environment.  They also need time to focus and consolidate new knowledge and practices before charging onto the next adventure.  A good leader will provide the scope for these people to be creative and enthusiastic but also keep a little tension on the reigns so that they don't end up miles and miles ahead of everyone else thus creating a divide in your staff.

The Wood.  I like this one.  They would use the technology if someone would set them up with it, give them training and keep the programmes running for them.  These are the people who like to think they walk the talk, but really things would fall over if there wasn't someone in the background managing it for them.  The Wood people are usually going through first-order change, they need manuals, step-by-step instructions to help them through the change it's not so much scary as it is work.

The Ferrules are people who grasp tightly onto what they've always done.  They don't really like change and believe that traditional practice serves our students just fine thank you.

The Erasers are those people in your school who like to erase or undo the hard work done by the Leaders.  They are the ones who are stuck-in-the-mud, who don't like change because they have something to lose from changing.  They like to sabotage attempts to develop modern teaching practices and introduce new technology.  The Ferrules and Erasers have something to lose by changing from the status quo.  They are going through second-order change and need a lot of emotional support to help guide them through what to them is a scary experience.

And... the Hangers-On.  These people mean well, they like to attend Professional Development sessions and learn all the latest lingo so they can talk about it, but they never actually do anything with it.  These people need to be motivated.  They need to know the purpose and outcomes for the change.  They need a reason to want to make the leap from talking about the change to actually diving in and doing it.

So... the Pencil Personalities.  They are out there in our schools.  We all fit into one of the categories.  As leaders we need to manage the variety of personalities on our staff and help to guide everyone towards the greater goal of best practice, and provide the best opportunities for our students.

Which Pencil Personality are you??

Unity Is Strength

A little over a year ago my Principal at the time casually suggested that my colleague next door and I try to do some team teaching.  You know, just dip your toes in.  See what happens.  He suggested we start with reading groups.  He didn't know who he was talking to.  Suggesting anything to someone, or in this case two someones, who are competitive, type-A personalities with a bent towards perfectionism, usually ends in a boots-and-all situation.  And this was no different.

It just so happened that we were about to go Google at the same time and this meant that our summer break was spent online collaborating over Google Docs trying to nut out planning, assessments and how this team-teaching thing was going to work.

With our boots-and-all attitude and respect for each other as teachers I just knew that this was going to be a great year.  We delved into the pedagogy behind great team-teaching, researched modern learning environments and arranged to visit high-performing schools utilising the same techniques and practices that we wanted to implement.   We went in eyes open, brains switched on.  Learning at the heart of everything we did.

We had two single-cell classrooms connected through an ordinary-sized door.  Starting the year off we eased the students and ourselves into the team teaching environment, after all this was a mixed age group of two classes - one Years 3 and 4, the other Years 5 and 6.  The parents of the younger students were already nervous about their children being 'seniors' this year, we didn't want to completely terrify them.  The students of course just ran with it.  They thrived in their separate classes and they thrived when we came together for reading, then mathematics, then writing and all other curriculum areas.  Soon we were together all the time.  The students excelled.  They, and their parents, loved it.

Team teaching has so many benefits when done with the learners best interests at heart, for the right reasons and with a good team in place.  Mutual trust and respect are pivotal.  So is having a sense of humour and the ability to be flexible.  Great teams bounce off each other, accentuating and complementing each other's talents and strengths while supporting and balancing each other's weaknesses.  Personnel placement is a huge consideration.  My Principal was chuffed.  This was going better, he admitted, than he had even dreamed.

For one thing, my colleague was male.  Our boys in particular really looked up to him.  We complemented each other in terms of gender, and balanced out the students need for specific response types.  We could play good-cop/bad-cop when we needed to.  They had a soft place to fall and also someone to tell them to take a spoonful of cement when that was more appropriate for the situation.  The biggest unexpected gift I think that came of our teaching relationship that year was that our students had both a male and a female role model who worked together as a team.  We knew that a lot of our students didn't have that modelled for them at home, a positive collaboration between genders, and it was an honour to be able to show them how two people could work together for a common purpose - them.  It just worked.

Lessons I have learned:

• Your fear of being observed will be quickly conquered - you are constantly being observed.
• You will learn how to give constructive criticism and supportive feedback, after all your own teaching depends on the successes of your team mate.
• You will laugh more than ever before in a classroom, with the students falling over themselves laughing alongside the both of you.  This is pure magic.
• If you have a bad day, there is always someone there to pick you up or to take over while you take a minute to gather yourself back together.
• There is a sink next door and an open door through which to quietly sneak your half cold coffees into.
• You will learn to relax, to be flexible, to go-with-the flow - because you have to.
• A high-five is never more than a few steps away.
• The load is shared.  The disappointments halved.  The celebrations doubled.

Simply put, last year was the best year in my teaching career so far.  This team-teaching thing is pretty damn awesome.

Failure Is An Option

People always say that 'failure isn't an option' and in the past I've always tended to agree with them.  As a bit of a perfectionist the thought of failure, no matter how insignificant, has never really sat well with me.  There is great pressure in that.  Pressure I've put on myself.

As a teacher we tell our students that it is okay to make mistakes.  They need to know that.  Otherwise what's the point of learning?  Our students don't know the things we are teaching them, and they are going to make mistakes on the path to mastering them.  For them failure is something they encounter and stumble over on a regular basis.  I started to wonder why I thought it was necessary for students to encounter failure and yet not acceptable for myself.

I am an oldest child.  I think that has something to do with it.  Oldest children are often perfectionists.  It's in our wiring.  Unlike younger siblings we only had adults to watch to learn to do things and we want everything to be just perfect.  So I've found making mistakes hard.  Now as an adult I realise that mistakes are proof that you are trying, that you are learning.

When we experience failure the hardest thing to get over is often our own egos.  We feel like we are not good enough, that we should just give up.  There are lessons here for us in dealing with our students when they experience failure, after all they don't know that failure isn't the end of the world.

• Give them opportunities to fail in a safe environment, when all is not lost through making a mistake.
• Teach them to recognise when they have failed and give them the tools to reflect on why, and how to move forward in a positive way.
• Help them to understand the importance of feedback so they can begin to learn to take advice and constructive criticism.

Failure is a necessary key to success, indeed it is likely the most important ingredient.  Without it we are not pushed to new heights, to try new ways of doing things.  How many times has a person achieved their greatest success just beyond what seemed to be their greatest failure.  A great quote I've heard is that everyone needs to fail.  But when you fail you need to fail fast and then you need to fix it fast.

I like that.

Be prepared to make mistakes.  But when you do brush yourself off and quickly set about trying to right it.  The key to success is to not let failure get you down but to use it to spur you on to bigger, better and brighter things.  To come back the next time with a smarter approach, a stronger will to make it work.

Failure is often dressed as disappointment but it is also cloaked in beautiful possibility.

Failure is an option.  

Just One Of Those Days

Today I had one.  You know, one of those days.

It began at 3am with the dramatic appearance of Miss Four standing beside my bed, and continued for the next two hours with a little hand flung repeatedly into my face, or a knee jabbed into my back.  She was asleep.  I was not.  Two hours more of precious sleep and then the day began.  I got to work early.  Very early.  Today was going to be a busy day.

The day snowballed from there.  It was me.  I was run off my feet today.  Start-of-the-year-itis.

Volunteered to do the coffee run, early morning staff meeting, rush to get long term planning and timetables ready to hand to admin, talking to parents, teaching, marking papers, gluing on book labels, cutting art work, teaching the students about the Treaty of Waitangi, covering duty for a colleague with an injured ankle, cleaning water spills in the bathroom, teaching, helping other classes, checking on enviro, teaching, dealing with lunchtime issues in the playground, missing lunch, eating lunch late, teaching, manning the pool, talking to parents, dishing out art resources.  Sigh.  It was one of those days.

You know the kind - non-stop.  Not even enough time to sit down for a breather.  No breaks.

My saving grace came in the form of my colleagues and students.

A helping hand on the coffee run, collaborating over Google Docs for timetables and long term plans, an extra pair of hands to cut labels, team teaching, a thank you from a relieved colleague with an injured ankle, a child who tearfully owned up to the water spill and helped to clean it up, students who were willing to run errands around the school for me when they'd finished their work, a sandwich brought for me from a colleague who knew I'd forgotten lunch today, team-players who came and helped out with tricky playground matters, magnificent students who followed instructions and got everything done that I asked of them, light-hearted conversation while manning the pool, an extra pair of arms to carry the art gear.  It was one of those days.

I am so lucky that on one of those days, I had one of those days where even though everything seems to be crumbling around me, there are helping hands to help me scoop up the pieces.

So.  Lucky.

Excellence - A Habit, Not An Act

Yesterday I cried at school, just a few tears but tears nonetheless.  It was the third day at school.  That must be some kind of record, at least for me anyway.  It was one of those moments that you live for in teaching, when a child has a break through with something that they have been trying to crack for a long time.  In this case - four years.

Every year for four years during the summer months, a student in our school struggled through school swimming lessons.  Right from the start he wasn't sure of the water.  Perhaps terrified would be a more apt word.  Every year for four years his teachers would gently try and encourage him into the water, gradually getting more of his body wet, getting him into the water faster.  Every year his mother would come to us, concerned about her son's water confidence, his lack of water skills.  Wanting desperately for him to be like the other students who splashed and swam effortlessly.  This young boy would spend his time in the shallows, a teacher close at hand, repeatedly trying to put his chin, cheeks, nose under the water... even just letting his face get wet was hard for him.  Last year he progressed to blowing bubbles - a huge accomplishment.  We all celebrated with him, such was the enormity of what that meant for him.

This year started no differently.  A visit from a parent, loving mother, reminding us of her son's fear of water, hoping that he would get more confident again this season.  They'd (mother and son) made a deal - his whole head UNDER the water by the time he leaves our school in two years time.  Such small steps towards the  bravest of goals.

I knelt down beside him as he got into the water, crouching low to get as close to him as possible without getting wet myself.  The hard concrete of the pool's edge biting into my knees.

"You can do it".

"I want to try".

Quiet words between two people with trust joining them tangibly together.  He dipped lower into the water and I measured his attempts on his head, touching him lightly to show him how close he was getting.  Further and further he went down, inching towards this seemingly unattainable goal.  How does one so young demonstrate such perseverance in the face of such overwhelming fear?  I was in awe of him already.  I called over one of my colleagues as the top of his head was just barely visible above the water.  We watched together.  Held our breath.  Cheering him quietly on.

Then suddenly he was under.  Fully under.  For the first time in his life.

Tears.

The moment was so precious.  We jumped.  Cheered.  Celebrated and high-fived.  We showed the other teachers, took a video of his second dunk for his mother, who surely wouldn't believe us - two years early for this achievement.  Who would have thought?

And then his mother walked down the path towards the pool.  I ran.  Grabbed her.  Told her and as she realised what he'd done - tears.  Enormous hugs.  And then she was racing down to the pool to find her son.

I will never forget this.  I think it will live with me for a very long time.

That moment when someone demonstrates excellence.  This child who had repeatedly tried, struggled towards his own excellence had finally achieved it.  Four years.  Incredible.  Four years of a team of people quietly understanding the greater goal of excellence - that is an habit, not an act.  A repeated action towards success.  Four years of patience and perseverance.  Of bravery and encouragement.

And then this.  What a reward.

What's In A Desk?

My third post for the #28daysofwriting challenge is going to be an analysis of my desk at school.  This idea came from @mrlockyer who posted a list of 29 ideas for #28daysofwriting yesterday.  Number 25 seemed like a good idea at the time - "Write about your desk.  Show us a photo.  Don't tidy it beforehand".  Now I'm not so sure. 

Now anyone who knows me that my desk is often a cluttered mess of pieces of my life strewn across it's top.  Until now.  Last year my colleague and I trialled getting rid of traditional desks and trying to stick with a shelf to house all of the necessities for life as a teacher.  Last year it worked well.  I had a tiny shelf with a tiny top that I found impossible to stack things on.  Enter this year... a change in classroom, no small shelf... a larger one with a much larger top.  It's pretty much like having a desk again, except it's a shelf.  Or maybe a cupboard.  I haven't decided.

The start of the year is the most kind time to photograph my desk.  I try to give the illusion that I maintain a tidy desk, I try to set a good example for my students rather than a 'do what I say, not what I do' stance on desk etiquette.  Last year my do-gooder stance lasted all year and I was secretly incredibly impressed with myself.  This year I'm not so sure, it's going to be harder work.

So the breakdown - what my desk says about me:

The cord running across my desk means that I do not have an extension cord long enough to go around the back thus hiding it and it also means I have had a complete lack of time to hunt one out.  It really, really bugs me.  Obviously not enough to do something about it yet though.

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe - we are into day two of reading this book and the students are entralled.  So am I.  I've never read it and I can't imagine why ever not.

The hat, sunblock and keys are absolute necessities, especially for duty days when roaming the grounds in the heat of summer (with mozzie repellent thrown in for good measure and never one to be unprepared - I have two bottles of it on my desk).

The skewer of notes are reminders from parents for the multitude of things running through my tired brain at the end of each day - who can't swim and why, who's going where and when, all the possible reasons - both made-up and real, for every situation imaginable.

A little plaque that reads "Children are born with wings, teachers help them learn to fly".  I love that quote.  It's the reason I do what I do.

The papers in a pile, a subtle hint that I have a lot to do and have done not nearly enough of any of it.  Hidden out of sight from the photograph is the much (much!) larger pile of papers on the floor in front of my desk...  You know, trying to keep a tidy desk and all.

Baby wipes... hmmm I may lean towards having a messy desk, but never let it be said that it is a dirty one!  A bit of a perfectionist and clean freak, my penchant for things to be clean is evidenced in the wipes, and sponges, disinfectant, and sprays (eco-friendly of course!) that are out of sight.

Stationery.  I love stationery.  One can never have enough stationery.  Period.

Surprisingly there is not a half finished cup of cold coffee on there.  Very surprising.  But then it is the start of the year and I'm trying to turn over a new leaf.  

So that's my 'desk'.  Or shelf.  Maybe a cupboard.  Or place-to-house-ever-increasing-amounts-of-stuff.  Whatever you want to call it, it really does say a lot about a person.  What does yours say about you?  

  

An Imbalance Of Gender

I recently read my colleague's blog post here about his experience of being a male in the Education Sector.  His words deeply saddened me and I felt the need to ponder on this subject, as much to support him and other male teachers, as to seek to understand how this imbalance could be better managed and improved.

The gender divide in the New Zealand education system is rather profound.  The New Zealand Herald reported last year that fewer than one-in-five primary school teachers are male.  I found this statistic incredibly interesting and I started to wonder why that was the case.

We work in a female-dominated workplace, one of few like it I would hazard to guess.  But why?  Is it the pay rate - the fact that working in many other fields can have much greater financial benefits may deter males from pursuing teaching as a career.  Is it the old fashioned perception that teaching is a 'female' job - nurturing young minds.  Was it the fear of being put into uncomfortable or career-damaging situations with female students such as we see in the media more and more regularly.

I began to get curious what working in such a gender imbalanced environment would be like if I was in the gender minority.  How would I feel working alongside, taking breaks and having my entire day's conversation with people of the opposite sex.  Would I feel understood?  Like my views were always taken into account?  If my sense of humour or sensitivities were truly understood and appreciated.  I think not.

It's not that I think that female teachers choose to 'not understand' male teachers or their needs, it just doesn't always occur to us how it might feel to be one of only a few (or the only one in the case of my colleague) in a room full of women.  I wonder if this lack of understanding and appreciation for being 'male' is the reason why the gender imbalance begins to even out the higher up the career chain we go in education.  I can imagine that being a principal as a male, and having many male colleagues of the same status is affirming and rather a blessing for men in that position - suddenly they are surrounded by like-minds, people who truly 'get them'.

My colleague is right - we work, think and relax very differently.  We as female teachers need to be mindful of this and not be quick to judge our male counterparts' words or actions when taken for what they actually are - them being inherently male.  He was also right about our boys needing positive male role models.  Too many boys in our schools lack a male that they can truly look up to.

We need our male teachers to stay in education, we need the balance they bring to our heavily feminine workplace.  We need their sense of humour, the practical nature of the way they approach tasks and stressful situations to bring harmony to our working relationships.

Perhaps rural or small schools could start up (dare I say it!) - Men's Clubs, where male teachers can meet and share their experiences in a forum where they are understood and valued.  Perhaps woman teachers need to be more mindful of the topics of their conversations - whether we would want to discuss similar topics if the gender coin were flipped and we were in the minority.  Perhaps we just need to figure out how to attract more males to education, for them to see it as a viable and proud vocation to be a part of.

Whatever the solution, it's clear to me that we need to support and seek to understand our male colleagues.  We need to do it for them, we need to do it for ourselves, and we definitely need to do it for our boys.