Learning about Learning

It has been a hectic few weeks as I think I’ve mentioned ad infinitum recently with the launch of ALPs, SQH Unit 3 and other ‘enjoyable’ pressures.   However, I think I was beginning to feel a bit empty in the fuel tank, the red light was certainly on.  I knew that the brain was threatening to become full of broken biscuits because I hadn’t done any reading for three or four days, a sure fire sign.  I also hadn’t done any drumming for two weeks prior to tonight so it was great to go bash them to bits and switch fully on to another ‘mode’ of brain activity. I’m feeling re-invigorated now and ready for the next few hectic days.  It really is amazing what a completely different challenge and focus does to help order the rest of the brain!

I’m going to the ’Thinking about Thinking’ inter-authority conference at Murrayfield tomorrow.  I’m excited about attending because I believe that teaching thinking skills explicitly is an idea that will be developed further in the coming years in Scotland.  I’m convinced it has huge potential for the development of self awareness and emotional literacy in young people and adults.  There is a keynote speech from Brian Boyd who was one of my tutors at teaching college and someone for whom I have great respect.

I’ll no doubt report back on that tomorrow.

The PTs conference in North Berwick was good fun.  The sessions on Appreciative Inquiry and the Dragon’s Den exercise were my favourites.  I read that some didn’t feel the atmosphere of the Dragon’s Den exercise was in keeping with the tone of the weekend.  I disagree with that because I think people took it in the fun spirit intended and the camaraderie that developed and learning that went on were borne out by the ideas conceived(and I’m not just saying that because we won…….I thought my competitive streak was gone, not so).

During the exercise our cluster group really went through all the stages of forming, storming, norming and performing.  It was a brilliant experience to be a part of a team that grappled with the task, struggled to come to consensus, finally managed to and then just ‘took off’ with the idea, rounded off by a brilliant presentation by our PT English and Literacy, Jan Ainslie.  It must have been a daunting prospect for the ‘chosen ones’ to present to the Dragons but I think most would agree it was great fun.

Afterwards I raced across to Lanark to my niece’s second birthday party arriving around 6pm.  My enthusiasm about the conference was curbed a little as I was made to stop and think by my brother(he’s good at that).  His question was, “how can an organisation which fundamentally values the family ask its employees to work on a Saturday, in a hotel or not?  Why not have it on an in-service day” he said.  I have to admit I didn’t have an answer to that one. As I think about it more, I suppose if I was being asked to justify the choice I’d say that teachers get 13 weeks or so holiday per year and not very often do they get the opportunity to come together in such a way, so one Saturday out of the year is not a ‘huge ask’.  However, in an ideal world, yes, I’d probably plump for organising it on an in-service day although I’m not sure what headteachers would say about that!

I think my brother is also aware that with SQH I’ve been working most weekends since about October and that it does have an impact upon family life.  My view is that it’s a short term situation and hopefully after this weekend and submitting my Unit 3 report things will calm down and my weekends will return to something like normality again.  But it is a big commitment to make, there is no getting away from that. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to share my experiences on SQH with a number of people at the conference, including someone taking the new flexible route and another colleague who is due to have an interview for the programme very soon.  So I did get a chance to explain how much of a commitment it actually is to some who are considering taking it on.  I think on balance the conference was a worthwhile experience and the principle of bringing colleagues together like this is an excellent one.

The purpose of what we do and how it relates to our motivation on a daily basis came up in conversation with a colleague today.  I was describing how I felt I had gained a very clear sense of purpose, for a number of reasons, in the past 18 months or so, and how this translated into my day-to-day practice and enthusiasm for the job. My colleague, who is a tremendous teacher and a truly outstanding ‘people person’ described a real change for the worse in intrinsic motivation and sense of purpose in the same period.  Notwithstanding the possibility that I was responsible for stealing this person’s motivation and purpose(definitely wisnae me, honest!!), I was intrigued as to why that might be. 

The main reasons seem to be a perceived lack of challenge and support in the job.  This was a real eye opener for me because I would never have guessed that this was an issue.  This again says a great deal for their ability to do a great job despite feeling really quite negative about it. 

Trying to make sense of it from my own point of view and also bearing in mind Don’s post today, I think what my colleague is experiencing could be a kind of burnout, along the lines of switching off and kind of helplessness.  I have felt this way before and I think I can honestly say the thing that has helped me most is learning about what I can do to take control of my own situation.  Understanding what my circle of influence is and what that means for the way I conduct myself with others has helped enormously in my personal management of relationships.  Using feedback(a good online resource here) with others and acknowledging our emotions and reflecting upon whether they are valid or not is another tool to prevent the onset of a feeling of helplessness and frustration. 

There is also the interesting idea we are part of a wider system and as such we have an influence upon it.  Therefore in some way are the makers of our own reality.  This is a very empowering idea becauses it shifts the responsibility for our current happiness in our job or life back onto ourselves.

I have gotten into the habit of reflecting upon these ideas because I was given the chance and encouraged to develop myself professionally.  We can’t underestimate the power of ongoing professional development or learning for life in ensuring that people are able to work in what can be a highly stressful environment without burning out. 

It’s possibly a strange notion that avoiding burnout means doing more work but I think there is something in it!

We had our first major challenge with technology today on the ALPs programme.  The internet was too slow to gain access to the Exc-el site and get the boys blogging.  Thinking caps well and truly on about how to get round this one!

Ice-breaker fun!

We finally got ALPs off the ground today with our induction day at the Pennypit Community Centre at Prestonpans, a really top class facility.  It was a great day and it was tremendous to see all the ‘thinking’ becoming ‘doing’. 

I was also delighted that the input from all the different people connected together to present a discernable ‘whole’.   It re-affirmed again to me that we are ‘on to something’ in delivering a model of this type. The blend of personal development, active learning through outdoor education, thinking skills, mentoring and employability skills has great breadth and depth of skills development coupled with reflection.  By the reaction of some of the parents who attended our induction there is a positive feeling about the potential benefits of the programme too.  

We were very pleased to welcome Kay Affleck, who is responsible for ELC pre-vocational opportunities, along for an hour this morning and we had a good chat about the possibilities for the ‘careers’ focus of this group in S4.

I’l be writing more in the coming week, but I think most of my ALPs blogging will migrate to our new site with short updates and pointers here from time to time. 

….is tomorrow!  We have our induction tomorrow and it looks like everything is in place for the start of the programme.  We’ve had a couple of last minute issues with students, but that is the nature of things, so we will be starting with a slightly reduced group size, but hopefully will be back up to full strength in the next week or so. 

I’m actually ridiculously excited. I’ve been thinking tonight about the number of hours that a great number of people have given to the project before it has started, it is fantastic.  All those 7.30am meetings since back in October, and only a fruit scone, croissant and a coffee induced headache to show for it! 

The work will continue as the programme progresses, we are already considering how we can further integrate or ‘mainstream’ this kind of provision to give opportunities to a larger cohort.  I’m particularly excited about teaching our thinking skills course, I believe the potential benefits are enormous and will be keeping my blog updated with the progress.

I’ve produced a short ‘welcome’ powerpoint presentation for students, parents, staff, mentors and guests who will be coming tomorrow.  It can be accessed below, but I stress it’s short!

active-learning-partnerships-induction-day-powerpoint.ppt

We had what I’d call a ‘feel good’ and ‘develoment plan’ sandwich today at our in-service day.  The development plan business was the bread and the feel good was the meat in the middle.  A nice idea, and hopefully one that we can build on.  Some of the sessions on offer were ‘an introduction to body conditioning’, ‘relaxation’, archery and learning how to make the perfect kebab(!) to name but a few. 

On the business side we were trying to establish how our develoment plan priorities had faired in the first half of the school year.  Development planning has never filled me with tremendous enthusiasm, and I don’t think I’d be alone in that feeling, although it is a vital part of what we do.  I think it is vital for all staff to be able to make a clear connection to the overriding ‘vision’ of the school to prevent it becoming just another paper exercise.   I think the ‘Tracker’ that we now use is a step in the right direction as it seems to streamline the process and gives a greater focus and clarity to tasks and responsibilities than there was previously.

However, I digress, the main reason for this post is that I’m looking for some Extreme Learning templates to use with our ALPs group if anyone has put one together yet.  I know there was talk some weeks ago of people doing it but I can’t remember who it was.   We will no doubt develop some as part of the programme but any work that people are willing to share that has already been done would be most welcome.  If you know of any please get in touch.

Tonight I finished my first reading of the Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge.  I know it will not be the last.  It is a really challenging book, I have found it particularly so given my choice to undertake the SQH.  As much philosophy as pragmatism, very inspirational.

I have to share some words from the end of the book by a Lebanese writer, painter and sculptor called Kahlil Gibran “who, in speaking of parents and children, captured the special sense of responsibility without posessiveness felt by leaders towards their vision”, (I would argue anyone, not just ‘leaders’ towards their personal vision).  Even if you disagree with Senge’s comments, I think the words themselves are beautiful:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Can’t really add anything to that so I don’t think I’ll try!

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about reading Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline.  Over the last few nights I’ve been reading about the concept of mental models.  The idea is not new to me, nor I suspect to many others who have read the book.  The interesting thing about Senge’s description in my opinion is what we do with our mental models.  We are able to test them by speaking openly to other people rather than making assumptions about what they may or may not be thinking.  This gives us accurate ‘data’ to use in daily interactions and decision making.  

In removing assumptions and challenging our mental models which can be harmful and limiting, we are able to interact in a much more effective and efficient way.  By extrapolating what this means to the organisational scale, if people are open to testing the validity of their assumptions about others then the kind of communication which will take place between people will, I would think, inevitably be more honest, open and fruitful. 

If we could teach this in such a way that young people understood the ideas and ‘took control’ of their thinking and decision-making in this way it could be incredbly powerful in helping them develop relationships with others and resolve difficulties.  More thinking skills means more options. 

I suspect that effective communicators probably challenge their own mental models inherently to a great extent, but the powerful ‘bit’ for me is making this kind of thinking explicit in your every day dealings with people.  It must surely make you more aware of your own prejudices and promote a more open minded outlook and way of communicating.  I’ve been trying to be more aware over the last couple of days and I’ve been fascinated at having ‘caught’ myself a couple of times reverting to a stereotypical view or reaction very easily.  Powerul stuff.

It leads me on to an interesting experience I had at the end of the day today.  I’d asked staff to complete a very short questionairre about creativity to help me with my SQH comparative study.  Out of about 75 I gave out I had a return of about 20 which I suppose isn’t far from what I expected.  The interesting/strange thing was that two questionairres were returned to my pigeonhole crumpled up and not completed.  I thought maybe it was kids(doing them a disservice I know), but they didn’t know I was conducting the survey, my name wasn’t on it and I’d only announced it at the staff briefing.  So it got me thinking, what are the mental models at play that provoke this kind of reaction?  I’d really like to know because the people who did it could probably provide me with an interesting viewpoint on much of what I was investigating, but unfortunately I suspect I never will. 

Today I’ve been meeting with parents and potential ALPs students.  So far we have had agreement from 6 of the 8 we had selected.  The feedback we received about the content was very positive and both students and parents are looking forward to the programme starting.  We’ve invited parents along to the induction day to meet with the staff who are delivering each individual element.  We had only one parent who was unable to make it and that was through work commitments.

As we were talking with the first parents, we were chatting about the blogging and self awareness aspects of the programme.  One of the parents commented on how he was a bit wary of using the computer and thought that he might not access the ALPs site as a result. That reminded me of the discussion we had had one Friday morning about involving parents more with the programme.  The upshot is that we now have 4 parents who would like to come and take part in a session to help them navigate the ALPs site and to learn about blogging.  While I accept that we are not adult education providers I do think that this can only be a positive thing in bringing these parents closer to the ALPs programme and their child’s educational experience.  We also asked for feedback from parents about the layout of the site, we’re looking for some parental representation on our ALPs development group once the programme has begun.

I’m both excited and nervous now as we move towards the induction date and start of the programme.  Have we covered everything we need to?  Is the system robust enough to deal with unexpected events?  Have we missed anything glaringly obvious?!  Will all of the youngsters ’keep it together’ in school until then?  I really hope so.

I also have my Unit 3 SQH submission next Friday.  It’s going to be squeeze to get it in! I’m finishing all my data gathering tomorrow and should have the write up done over the weekend all being well…..

Final note, if you fancy a bit of world music this Saturday,  there is a one world peace concert at the Queen’s Hall at which we(Waa Sylla) are performing some African drum and dance.  By Monday I think I’ll be ready for a sleep.

We had a full staff meeting on Friday afternoon.  The agenda was filled with what looked like some of the usual issues, litter, graffiti, the behaviour of certain groups of students etc. However, far from turning into the possible greetin’ meetin’ it could have been, it became a very positive discussion of classroom practice and the strategies that we can use to work with some of our most needy youngsters.  There were significant differences of opinion aired, but all were done so within a framework of professionalism and respect. I came away feeling really encouraged, it was a lesson in not assuming that you know the way things are going to pan out just because it may have happened in the past.   

Earlier in the day we’d had our early morning ALPs planning meeting to discuss the students who were being selected for the programme and to discuss the induction and the programme itself.  I was again amazed by the turnout.  We had representation from the local police, the integration team, POPs, Mobex, Active Steps andschool staff!  All at 7.30am on a Friday morning.  It brought home very clearly to me the strength of feeling and commitment there is to support young people in the community who need guidance in a positive direction.

Looking back at my previous post vision and values, I’m pleased I did post it because I’ve had not only a response from others formally through the blog comments but also informally from colleagues who read it.  It was definitely a worthwhile exercise and one I will no doubt repeat in the future.  Declaring and discussing values as professionals I’m coming to believe is a way to shape ‘where we go’ with A Curriculum for Excellence on a local, regional and national level, but I find that there are less opportunities to do so than you would imagine for such an important matter.  Such things take not insignificant consideration and reflection.  It is seems clear to me that blogging/learning logging, whatever you want to call it, is filling an important role in that sense for many people.