Three months into my adventure as a Presenter/ CRT and I have come to the realisation that I've learnt more in this short period of time than I did in the last few years. Not just about myself as a teacher, but the ways in which schools and other teachers operate. My interest about teaching stems from the bizzare nature of our profession. We are all university trained. We all work in schools. We all teach every day at work trying to be positive influences on our students.
And yet, everything is so vastly different. I could work in a school twenty minutes from my own and I could be in a parrallel world. Timetables are different. The Programs utilised by teachers and the structure of planning, lessons and assessments is different. The entire vibe of the schools are different. But that's the thing about teaching isn't it? Every child is different. Therefore every teacher is going to be different and that adds a certain flavour to the school. FASCINATING. I doubt I would have realised some of this had I not had this oppurtunity. And it stems from my interest in developing a whole school approach to Health and PE. Last year, I tried to think of ways to begin trying to instigate different things to get teachers excited about H&PE & found I was confronted by a number of challenges. Now, working as a Presenter advocating the VCOP & Big Write approach to writing, I have been exposed to the notion of a whole school approach, but from a different perspective and found some similarities that have reinforced my view that whole school approaches are imperative. I believe it doesn't matter what programs you run at your school, whether it be Daily 5/Cafe, VCOP & Big Write, Readers Workshop, Writers Notebook, 7 Steps to Writing, THRASS, Spaulding, Spelling Mastery, Play is the Way, You Can Do it, etc.etc.... It doesn't really matter. I am convinced that what matters is that everyone needs to be doing it. Every teacher in your school, including leadership, Integration Staff etc, needs to have an understanding of the program and enact its core principles on a daily basis. And furthermore it needs to flow out into the parent community. Otherwise, it doesn't work. Or more specifically, the results your trying to achieve won't be as successful unless everyone is doing it. Let's use VCOP as an example. Schools that have experienced success in their Writing across their whole school have done so because the language has become familiar across the school and community. Parents know what VCOP stands for. Grade 6 teachers can interact on a higher level with Grade 3 students they don't know through the common language of Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation. It is spoken about at Assembly and is seen on display throughout the school on windows and walls and regularly in newsletters. The effect on students learning, is nowhere near as powerful if only a few grades are doing it. As a teacher, I've experienced what its like to have both. A few years back when I was a PE teacher, our school instigated Wilson McCaskill's Play is the Way Program. The change in the students behavior and the specialist teachers ability to deal with challenging situations improved out of sight because we could use the Play is the Way language. "Are you making a strong or weak choice?" "Are you being your own boss or am I being your boss?" As the years went by, with changes in staff and leadership, this common understanding dwindled. Some students still knew the language, but other times, students would look at your like you were from Mars. I don't know what that means!' Upon reflection, this was partly my fault. As I should have been more vocal and more of a driving force in the importance. New teachers didn't have the background we did initially & their was no one to step up in the absences of the driving forces that had moved on. But back then, I hadn't seen the difference. One school in particular that I've seen, drives the Play is the Way Program heavily. The language is everywhere throughout the school, and the teachers are convinced that its changed the attitude in students behaviors because EVERYONE IS DOING IT! Do you run programs at your school which are "WHOLE SCHOOL?" Have you experienced what happens when some people aren't onboard? Does one person not onboard make a difference? I'm interested to hear peoples thoughts.
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AboutThis blog has been created to share my thoughts on Teaching. It uses my experiences, thoughts and ideas about a whole range of things related to education. Archives
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