Learning is not about covering the curriculum…

Are you a good teacher? Do you know your subject well, prepare lessons thoroughly and cover the curriculum efficiently? Do your students respect you? Is your classroom management effective? Are you organised and reflective?

Here’s the thing… It’s not about YOU.

Everything changes when you start with the child.

Starting with the child means building relationships and connecting personally with every learner. It means hearing his voice, knowing his story, caring about what matters to him and understanding how best he might learn.

Starting with the child means having a strong image of the child as creative, competent and capable of controlling her own learning. It means letting go, trusting the process and having faith in her capacity to lead her learning.

Starting with the child means understanding that the language you use has the power to affect his self image. It means using words purposefully to build self esteem, confidence and ownership, to support him in seeing himself as an empowered writer or mathematician, learner and human being.

Starting with the child means creating a sense of calm, a mindful context within which she can flourish and her learning can thrive. It means promoting positive emotions, providing opportunities for engagement in purposeful learning and helping her to achieve her dreams.

All of this and more was explored in our teacher led workshops at our ‘Start with the Child’ professional learning day last week…

A different workshop…

These are a few of the delightful children with whom I regularly interact via Skype from Kamala Nimbkar Balbhavan, an unusually egalitarian school in Phaltan, Maharashtra in India…

It’s my first time visiting KNB and I’m excited to meet ‘my kids’ in person, but before the school year starts, the teachers gather for some of their own learning. I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead a workshop here and share learning with this dedicated group. It will be an introduction to the ideas of Ron Ritchhart and Visible Thinking, something completely new for them.

I head into the session far more nervously than usual, uncertain what to expect in terms of their level of English and their openness to different ways of thinking… but mostly concerned that, without being able to understand their conversations,  I might not get a sense of what connections to help them make, how to shift thinking forward or what to reinforce.

My fears turn out to be unfounded. There is enough English in the room for mutual understanding, be it via valiant attempts at self expression, translation by those who do speak English or facial expressions and body language.

There are so many things that make this a unique and special experience for me…

I love the way most of those speaking in Marathi still make eye contact with me (not the person translating), and I can sense the passion as they talk about their school, even if I don’t understand the words.

I like the fact that a small sprinkling of English words in the midst of the Marathi, along with intonation and facial expression, are often enough for me to get the gist of what they are saying.

I’m delighted by the fact that when I am talking, even though I know they are concentrating hard to understand me, I can see the light dancing in their eyes, because they are excited by the ideas I am sharing.

I love the warmth with which they welcome me, their obvious desire to learn, as well as their pride in their school and everything it stands for.

I’m humbled by the opportunity to share learning in a context so different from the well resourced schools at which I usually work and to observe first hand that the most important resources are not ones that money can buy.

I note with interest that in this outwardly simple seeming, rural school, powerful beliefs, not just about learning but about humanity underpin every single thoughtful thing that happens. (Read more about it here)

I remind myself again that, even at my age, after so many years of experience, there is always so much to learn…

Tomorrow I meet ‘my kids’!

My first experience of a thinking routine in Marathi!

 

Playing the game of school…

Grab a dice and play the game of school…

This was the provocation for my Unleashing Learning workshop, entitled ‘From Doing School to Real Learning‘.

How did playing the game make people feel? It seemed pointless. You could win without doing anything meaningful.

What was missing?  Purpose, fun, discovery, feeling, thinking and, indeed… learning!

This was not a workshop about answers, its intention was to provoke thinking, to unsettle and to push. Hopefully, it left participants wondering about these questions and more…

• What are the conditions for powerful learning?
• How much time do we spend on things that do not lead to powerful learning?
• What do you believe about learning?
• Does your practice align with your beliefs?
• To what extent do children create their own learning opportunities way beyond what school can offer? 
• Does school slow down learning?
• Is it easier to do something the same way than to rethink learning from scratch?
• What’s one change I can make, starting tomorrow?
• Is your planning time spent thinking about what and how you will teach?
• Do you think about how best each student will learn?
• Are old pedagogies suited to a rapidly changing world? 
• How might we unleash learning rather than doing school?

Our common language

Guest post by Linda.

I was privileged recently to represent my school at an IBO workshop in Mumbai. For the first day or so my colleague and I oriented ourselves to the exciting, challenging and exhilarating place that that is India. I have now re-read Ed’s blog post  India: Assault on the Senses – her account of the sensory overload experienced is perfect.

On the morning of the first day of the workshops those attending gathered in front of the hotel, waiting for our transfer. Even though I knew people would come from a variety of countries, it was still a ‘wow’ moment to meet some of the other PYP and MYP participants – among them Ingrid, a West Australian teaching in Munich; Kimberley, a Canadian teaching in Kazakhstan; Munir from Dubai; Maria, a Uruguayan Australian teaching in Hong Kong; Brian, originally from Canberra, but living and teaching in Pune, India, for 20 years. Of course, once the workshop started, we also met a number of local Indian teachers from various PYP schools.

What was a revelation was the ease with which we settled into our discussions in the workshop, which was about collaborative planning. Even though we came from different countries and backgrounds, we all spoke the same language. I’m not just referring to English – what I mean is the language of PYP. All the teachers were passionate about learning and inquiry, they talked about essential agreements, concepts, learner profiles, attitudes, planners – all the attributes of PYP that have become like second nature to us. Any one of those teachers could walk into our school and fit seamlessly into our classrooms tomorrow, and likewise we could do the same in any PYP school around the world.

The workshop itself was interesting and stimulating, and there will be other occasions for me to talk about the content. What I am really thrilled about is the opportunity I was given to meet with and collaborate with this disparate group of people, and finding such commonality. We intend to keep our connection going into the future, with new opportunities to create connections between some of our schools.

photo: Mumbai school children