The past fortnight has been a whirlwind offering a great deal of food for thought...
First, I signed up for a teachmeet and, after thinking carefully about what I felt I brought to the profession, I chose to speak about the strategies that I had used to track progress. However, just before I spoke - I saw a presentation from Chris Curtis (@Xris32) who swiftly turned my perspective on it's head. Having previously taught in a school in a category, I had become a master of 'progress in 20 minutes' and ensuring that students understood what they were learning and why and, although I have read many insightful and perceptive blogs that argue against this, I could also see the benefits that it had on my teacher.
A firm focus on the success criteria had ensured that I had crafted my own subject knowledge and, as a consequence, was able to provide opportunities for students to investigate and develop their own skills whilst understanding how to guide them in the right direction. Furthermore, I developed in confidence and am not afraid to challenge (and therefore support) students where they are not making progress. Previously, I may have shyed away from this - fearing that I was reason and, although I cannot overlook that a student's underperformance is still my issue, working in this manner also pushed me to question whether the student was pushing themself and therefore leading to constructive questions about my teaching style and levels of engagement rather than hiding behind my perceived lack of subject knowledge which I now realise was never an issue! In short, working this way allowed students to know their next step, own it and discuss it with an evolving language of learning. Just what we all want. Right?
Then why, as I listened to Chris' presentation did I suddenly feel as though I had got it all drastically wrong? I came into teach to help the youth of today to fulfill their potential. Quite rightly, I recently read that there is a danger in discussing somewhere meeting their potential as we don't actually know what this is - and, the more he spoke, the more I felt that this is what I had been doing. As a 3a your next step is to master using a greater range of punctuation (to be more precise, the accurate use of the comma as indicated on my learning snake). In some ways, I was pleased - I enjoy my perspective being challenged; in fact, I love arriving at a barrier and finding ways to overcome it. Yet, at the same time, I realised that my methods were removing this opportunity for my learners. There is no discovery or the satisfactory Eureka moment as they already know their next steps - and yes, of course I will try to teach the next step in a way that is investigative but have I undermined my own goal by showing them what I (and the national curriculum) had already determined their next step to be?
I was already exploring how to overcome this barrier in the classroom (a nifty metaphor stolen from Chris means that my students are now compiling a palette of sentence strategies so that they can choose the most appropriate option for them) but after reading a post from @OliverQuinlan this morning - I realised that my experience in the classroom is not that different to the current national picture. As teachers, although we may take comfort from the national curriculum levels - we too are in danger of being restricted.
When I read that levels had gone - I panicked. I had great plans to guideschemes punctuated with formative assessment to check rapid progress that were structured on the assessment focus and level system. Part of me thought - so what? Surely if it works then we can ignore this. But now I am thinking of my first blog post and the way that I pushed a group of talented students by handing them the wooden spoon. The twittersphere proves that we certainly have a talented group of individuals within the education system - and that doesn't begin to touch upon the thousands who are tucked away inspiring many within their own classroom. Therefore, I feel that we should embrace this opportunity. I'm not fully sure how...but I am now stood at the crossroads, holding my wooden spoon - trying to work it out. Here's hoping I rise to the challenge!
Miss M
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