3 September 2021

Post date: Sept 3, 2021

Like you all, we have had to adjust our work/lives quite quickly this Lockdown. Without quite the same amount of daily 'noise', I have found myself actually stopping to reflect on learning and practices that are serving the school well and/or maybe not as well as they might do. Aiming to sound experienced (rather than ag-ed....!).

In 35 years in this education world, I can honestly say, I've seen pendulums swing this way and that, curriculums in, curriculums out, 'new maths', 'old maths', structured literacy, whole language, phonics out, phonics in, arts in, arts out, and on and around it goes.

Last week, teachers had a rich discussion around a paper by Dr Audrey Tan, "Restoring confidence in mathematics education in New Zealand". New Zealand Mathematics results have been showing a general decline for some time and Dr Tan's research indicated reasons as to why this is. This provided a concrete example of the scales tipping and pendulum swinging.... in with the new and shiny and out with the old and sturdy lacking shine!

Last week, I also undertook a little bit of work with the Team Leaders on Brene Browns delve into vulnerability and Daring vs. Armoured Leadership. Some useful things will emerge from this, I think. Teachers often go into the profession via the heart, the love, the compassion, the affective side of things. However, we can't have it all above peace and aroha! We have to observe, notice, be objective, analyse, research and think a lot more like scientists... using different skills than we may have once thought. Stakes are high. We know a lot more about how brains function and how learning happens than we ever did. We also need to be totally curious. This isn't always easy or comes naturally - it can be challenging. We can't jump on the next merry go round, even if the horse looks good! We have to take ingredients that we know are working from this recipe book and that one.... and concoct them in a way that will be responsive to the needs of tamariki at the time.

As a profession, we need to be more the seekers, questioners, inquirers, researchers..... Sherlock Holmes rather than a teller and a knower, or accepting things at face value and skimming the surface.

The hard part is that, often, our response needs to be urgent and right now, and the noise can prevent the stepping back, up and out to make even better decisions. I guess it's similar in lots of professions, it's just that, with the teachers, they are 'on', 'on' and 'on' ..... until they aren't! There isn't too much natural ebb and flow in the day like there is in my role, for example.

So, this week, I take my hat off to the teaching team (well, all the team..... that includes all the at home 'teachers'), may we all be able to find just that bit more space to reflect and be curious and keep digging deeper and move forwards together!