Updating my Thinking

Kia ora and thank you so much for visiting!

In this post I am sharing some post COVID updates on the adaptions to my thinking and subsequent teaching. I also have the incredible privilege of working with the MIT team (Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers) to develop a project on a challenge based idea. ( You may have visited some of these posts before. If you are interested use the MIT2020 label to follow the progress of this project on my blog).

It's great to have you here along for the ride.

This post finds me back at school with a nearly full single cell class of eager learners hungry for engagement, ideas and resources to sink their creative teeth into. But is this learning the same?

No. Needs and human nature remain the same but we as learners and teachers can never be static or we are no longer learners.

In reflection here is my 'meat and potatoes' of the lockdown learning meal:

• Visible teaching and learning is utterly essential
• A learner without the ability to blog is equal to a learner without the ability to use a pencil. 
• Children can accomplish so much without the teacher taking up their valuable time with talking
• Without the means to be self-directed and self motivated a learner accomplishes little.

The subsequent changes I have made to my teaching are in creating more rewindable videos for tasks, acknowledging the self-directed learners and providing a platform ( similar to the lockdown learning lessons) with which they can continue to drive their own learning. And... to try to talk less.

Talk Less, Speak Better, Listen More

Listening, now more than ever, is vital for human connection wether online or in person.

This validates the challenge: Children do not listen to what another child says in an independent group.

Re-iterated, how do we teach children the skills of deliberate listening?

Some interesting thoughts have arisen from looking through online articles and videos. What is most interesting is what is not there, unless I am looking in the wrong place. There are many articles, posts and videos about extended learning conversations, oral language and classroom discussion but little about listening. Julian Treasure, at the end of his TED talk puts forward the pleas for such a skill to be taught in schools.

Julian Treasure in his TED talk shares his acronym R.A.S.A (Receive, Appreciate, Summarise, Ask) a snazzy and easy to remember catch phrase.

The next steps for this project will be to collect the thoughts and views of my students and of others too. If you would like to participate in this survey your anonymous data would be very much appreciated.

                                                                       SURVEY LINK

The survey addresses the questions relating to how we listen and how we know that others are listening to us.

• Do you think that your friends listen to you?
• How do you know?
• Do you think that adults listen to you?
• How do you know?
• How do you feel when someone listens to you?
• When you’re working in a group of children at school, like a reading group or a project do you think that they listen to you?
• Do you think that you listen to others?
• What do you do that shows that you listen to others?

My next goal is to prototype. I feel the pressure of being somewhat behind in this process but also the weight of completing the process well. 

What is it that I am aiming to create?

What is it that is missing from our teaching to enable learners to be confident engaged listeners with each other?

...and...

How do I share this in a way that will be effective?