The Power of Professional Conversation

In my last blog I wrote about the struggle I had experienced with one of my classes at the start of the year. I outlined how the class addressed the issues and settled on 5 class values. This exercise got me thinking about values in general and, more specifically my values. What do I value in my classroom? What do I value every day? What do I value in life? What had been a seemingly small hiccup in a lesson plan turned into a personal contemplation about the dramatic changes to my attitude towards education and teaching over the past two years.

A couple of years ago I was assigned a mentor. At the time it did not impress me. I thought I wasn’t being considered professional or that the school was keeping an eye on me. Why were they watching me? Were others being watched ….mentored?        

Thankfully my mentor was someone with whom I had worked closely and someone I respected. We started meeting once a week and, surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad. The meetings were really informal. We discussed my wellbeing and how I was travelling in general. These discussions branched into how my classes were travelling and where I was with them and eventually developed into discussion specifically to my subject area, the delivery of the curriculum and learning strategies used in my classes. I would never have believed that I would have gained so much from a meeting.

Now, we all know schools have meetings. Sometimes it seems like there are meetings for the sake of meetings! A buzzword that I had been hearing a lot of lately was ‘professional conversation’ but I wasn’t to be fooled. I knew that this was just a new name for a meeting. However, my mentor had mentioned this word in our discussions and even referred to our meetings as professional conversations. How did I get in this position? I was now having ‘professional converstions’!  

I could go into a lot more details about our meetings/professional discussions and the outcomes of them, but in short, they have changed my mindset about what I do, how I do it and most importantly, why I do it. Although initially I had resisted the idea of having a mentor, over time not only did I reap the benefits of my professional conversations with my mentor, I actually looked forward to them. So how did my mentor achieve this amazing transformation? By making the time to talk and listen to me. To share, discuss, debate and engage in my teaching and learning. Through these simple acts, I grew as a person and a teacher. My mentor and I have gone on to develop a supportive and encouraging working relationship. A relationship that has encouraged me to take my teaching practice to another level. One that has given me the confidence to challenge myself and the desire to continually strive to improve. And, in particular, a relationship that I would like to see fostered in other professionals within and outside my workplace.

At some stages in life we all find ourselves in a rut. In life and at work. We form habits, we take the easy road, the comfortable path, the line of least resistance. Doing what needs to be done without taking the time to think about ‘why’ we are doing what we are doing. For a long time I was just like that. I was one of those people. Someone who was just doing a job. Sure I was doing some good things but I had settled on that. I was doing it that way all the time. I wasn’t challenging myself to do it better.

However, with the encouragement of my mentor and my active engagement in professional conversations I now take every opportunity to reflect and review my teaching practice. I have the courage to challenge myself daily and, rather than being a chore, it is exciting and invigorating. My kids come into a classroom where the teacher is energised and that is contagious.

As teachers, we work in an environment where we are surrounded by a valuable and free resource – our peers.  Other people like us that day in day out share similar experiences to us. But, how often do we make the time to talk and share with them? To listen and learn from them? To lend an ear, support and encourage them? To collaborate or prop them up when they need someone? To challenge them? Creating an environment where teachers feel supported to take risks and try new things is a gift that will be passed on to the children in the classrooms. In the words of Grace Hopper, ‘ The most dangerous phrase in language is We’ve always done it this way’.

So what do I value? I think I’ve already answered that. But, I ask you, ‘What do you value?’  Take the time to think about it – I’m here if you’d like to have a professional conversation.

Ready...?

Am I ready? You bet! Another new school year & new school classes. I was prepared and confident. I'd been in well before we were due back & had all my unit plans completed & was ready for that first lesson with each new class. However, there are always some things for which you can never be prepared.

I walked into my new year 8 class, excited to meet them, willing to get started & looking forward to seeing what I could do with a unit plan that I had spent considerable time reflecting on and ‘pimping’ over the holidays. But…… the first lesson wasn't great. In fact it was quite uncomfortable. It was almost like all 18 kids were new to the school and each other. I walked out of that lesson and couldn't stop thinking about the strange atmosphere. The next lesson I went in confident I could improve the dynamics and get on with the year. But it was similar to the previous lesson. No one was talking, despite opportunities to share and collaborate. No one was even mixing socially. This was the quietest class I had ever been in. What was going on? 

It got to a point where I asked the kids to pack up. We sat in a large circle ‘counselling style’ and I had to ask, “What's going on?” Again, no one spoke? After some serious cajoling and asking them to help me out, I finally got some answers. They were scared of being judged! Worried about getting the answers wrong. Concerned that if they shared an idea, thought or answer that someone might laugh. They were worried that if they were the person to answer the Q's, they'd be considered the goodie, goodie! I could not have foreseen this and certainly wasn’t prepared for it.

We spent the rest of the lesson breaking this down. We talked about the issues they raised. I was able to relate a lot of this to the Design Thinking process we use for solving problems within Design Technology. The fact that there often isn’t a right or a wrong. The fact that no idea is a bad idea. The fact that people like Albert Einstein, Thomas Eddison and Steve Jobs probably had their ideas laughed at, at some stage. It wasn’t much, but Finally …we had some discussion in the room!

I knew that next lesson I had to build on last lesson so we could have a learning space that everybody felt comfortable in …including me! Through a little Teacher persuasion I was able to get the kids to agree that we needed to set some rules to address these issues. But, I needed them to collaborate and all agree on them. Progress wasn’t fast. In fact it took the whole lesson but I was determined not to force this. It had to come from them. All of them! Eventually this is what they came up with.

1.      We should respect everyone’s ideas (Listen to them. Never laugh at them)

2.      We should all have to contribute equally (if everyone has a go we are all equal)

3.      We should work together (to be more comfortable and share the load)

4.      We need to understand that everyone is different and has different ideas (never laugh at them)

We were getting somewhere. I posed the questions “What if someone breaks these rules?” Did they need to be ‘Hard and fast’ Rules? Did they need to be ‘Rules?’ The discussion hovered around naming them something else. Standards? Guidelines? Things we respect? …ValuesJ They all agreed on ‘Values’ and we spent the rest of the lesson (collaboratively) writing these as values. This is what they became:

Year 8 Design Technology Values

1.      We value others’ Ideas

2.      We value others’ Contributions

3.      We value Teamwork

4.      We value Feedback

5.      We value Creativity

By the end of this lesson I had mixed feelings. I won’t lie and tell you the kids had turned a complete 180 degrees, but I do believe we had made progress. Each kid had contributed. Each kid had agreed that these would be our class values and I may have even sensed that this class was now ready to get started.

Personally, I was a little disappointed that I had spent three lessons to get to this point. I had a clear idea in my mind, where I wanted to be by now, but I was still at the starting line. It was only through discussion with a colleague that I realised I had in fact made significant gains. I had managed to start a Teacher/Student/class relationship that I could build on. I had set them a challenge that they had solved. I had started to teach Design Thinking without even realising. They had collaborated, shared, given feedback, ideated, developed and refined ideas. All key dispositions that we use and refer to in teaching Design Thinking. I also had a base from which I can launch the rest of my time with Year 8’s.

Was I ready for the new year? In hindsight no. However, as Teachers we have to be flexible and accept change every day in every lesson. It’s what we do. We also have to learn from every day and every lesson. Will I be ready next time? Who knows? But I’m confident I won’t underestimate this kind of situation next time.

Reflections

As the end of the school year approaches, I can’t help but reflect on the year that is almost over. 2016 has been a particularly productive year and one in which I have made significant gains. One important aspect of this year’s achievements that particularly resonates with me are the relationships I have developed and how they have benefitted the teaching and learning in my classroom.

We all know that the relationships we develop with our students are key to gaining trust and directly influence the learning that can happen in our classes. However, it’s the relationships with others aside from students that have been beneficial to my teaching and ultimately, beneficial to my students learning. Some of these are:

·         Teacher – Parent

·         Teacher – Community

·         Teacher – Teacher

·         Teacher - Boss

Teacher – Parent

Parents can be a challenge… but they can also be great allies, supporters, volunteers and sources of expertise. By involving parents in some of my classes & design thinking opportunities this year, I have found that they really want to know what their kids are doing. Not just the conversations after school with their kids like “What did you do at school today?” When I invited Parents top the learning space they turned up in droves to see and participate in their child’s learning. This then, sparked conversations between Parents and their children about their shared learning experience.     

Earlier this year I hosted a 2 day design symposium for year 3 students where they got to design & build the air travel experience of 2028. One group was working on catering and early on the second morning a year 3 girl told me she had discussed at length the night before with her Mum, the decisions her group had made & the thinking that went behind those decisions. Her Mum had apparently made all types of suggestions and things to think about. When I asked her if she was going to make those changes she replied “I considered them, but I told Mum it was my design and that she should find her own. Two things resonated with me about that conversation. I LOVED that that girl had gone home and discussed what she was doing in the design symposium. She was engaged, excited, interested in what she was doing & without even realising, went home & kept on learning through reflection with her mum. The second is that through having that child engaged in the task, she went home & wanted to explain & discussed her learning at home.

Teacher – Community

Some might think that being a Design Technology Teacher lends itself to connections with community and it probably does, but you still have to actively make those connections. This year the theme for Morphing Week was ‘We Can Fly!’ so the obvious community connection was the airport. I was lucky to meet someone from BAC who put me in contact with some Project Managers and Engineers who happened to use Design Thinking. What happened from there has been mutually beneficial on so many levels. We both realised that the Design Models that we use are essentially the same (although their budget is slightly bigger than ours) and we both had human centred design as our focus. Through this connection, BAC jointly facilitated our Design Symposium making the learning more authentic than I could have thought possible. The students have since been on a guided tour of the airport to see firsthand the sorts of things BAC deal with in their planning of such a large scale and real life problems.

The off shoot from this connection was the realisation of mutual interests, ie Design Thinking and its possibilities. This in turn has had flow on effects in terms of the concept being introduced to other people from within BAC and from other outside agencies. Of course this produces more professional dialogue as well as possible connections/opportunities for authentic learning for our students.

Teacher – Teacher

One of the things I push with my Design students is the sharing of ideas. “Combine your ideas and don’t be afraid to critique each other’s ideas. Your idea/ solution can only be better for it!” Yet I am guilty of not practising what I preach within my own department. We all get busy and some things get neglected but I think this is really important. If it’s important to teach our kids, it has to be important to practice ourselves.

How often do you walk past a fellow teacher in the school yard and never take the time to say more than good morning? These are people just like us that possibly teach kids that we teach, have similar educational interests, goals and expectations and are a possible source of knowledge and expertise at your fingertips. I have been lucky enough this year to facilitate some staff training and have essentially forced me to have professional conversations with people I don’t normally. I can’t believe the wealth of knowledge and expertise I have missed out on. The links between subjects in terms of similar thinking and the learning opportunities through collaboration that are possible. These people are in my backyard! One of IDEO’s(global design company) philosophies is to meet and mix with a wide variety of people from all walks of life. Regardless of the size of your school there is always someone that you haven’t met. Mental note to self… Change that!          

Teacher – Boss

The last relationship I wanted to reflect on is that with your boss. Let them know what’s happening in your class. Invite them to see the learning and the teaching. They haven’t got to the position they are without experience on their side. Draw on their knowledge and expertise in your lessons. They may be able to nudge you in the right direction of assistance or advice. They may have connections or know parents upon which you can draw on also as discussed above.