Category: Culture

The PYP Planner: The Challenges in Designing an “Enhanced” Collaboration Tool

The PYP Planner: The Challenges in Designing an “Enhanced” Collaboration Tool

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Ever since we decided to give one of the “enhanced” planners from the Programme Resource Centre a try, we have been reflecting on our planning process. Do these planning templates actually “enhance” our planning process? Moreover, how might our planner be a reflection of Who We Are? Between our frustration with the “enhanced” template and our school’s own initiatives, we thought it would benefit our planning if we co-constructed our own PYP planner.

The Process

In order to approach these questions, we used design thinking to navigate our discussions and our guide us on this journey. As you can see from the graphic below, it is not really a linear process but one that involves constant dialogue and reflection along the way.

Empathize and Define

We launched our discussions during teacher in-service days when we had a fair amount of time to explore and worked in mixed grade-level groups. As you might know already, schools can either use one of the planners provided by the PYP or develop their own planner based on the collaborative planning process. We started by examining the current “enhanced” planner that we had adopted earlier that year and had groups discuss its Pros and Cons, carefully considering…

  • The different elements of the PYP framework in the planner
  • The amount of “boxes”
  • The layout
  • Visual elements like colors and icons
  • The leading questions
    • Do they help your planning conversations? Why or Why not?

These conversations lead us to think about what is the purpose of the PYP planner and its role in collaboration. We took some time re-reading and reflecting on the IB’s document about the collaborative planning process before we researched different templates that other schools had created. Groups analyzed the templates and took notes on what they liked about each planner. Based on these conversations, we came up with some criteria that we wanted to in our own planner:

  • The essential elements of the PYP UOI planner.
  • Color coding for collaborative phases to help them know when they needed to be dipping back into the planner.
  • Some links to helpful documents or terms in case people had doubts about what to put in boxes.
  • Sections that clearly defined what the specialists were doing in their classes.

Ideate

Groups began to sketch out ideas and started to create their own versions in their teams. They could use either Google Docs or Google Slides to create their template. Their creations lead to many interesting conversations and lively debates. Eventually, we came back together and teams analyzed each other’s potential prototypes and we voted on one.

Prototype and Testing

The purpose of a prototype is to provide a representation of what a “final” design could be like. It gives the opportunity to analyze potential flaws and where there might be improvements. With this in mind, we gave the agreed-upon prototype a spin during our upcoming UOI planning. After the teams had a chance to use it, I met with them to discuss what they liked and didn’t like about it. I took notes and then made adjustments to create a final draft planner. I shared the draft planner and got feedback on its elements again. I created an exemplar and through that process, I continued to make revisions that supported our school’s goals.

Implement

During the course of this year, we have been using this final version. There are things that have worked and didn’t work with it. So even though we went through many iterative cycles, it’s not easy to create a planning document.

Do Betters

If I had to do this all over again, these are the areas that I think deserve more “air time” in the overall design of the planning document.

Collaborative Practices: To think that a one-size-fits-all planner is going to improve collaboration is naive and, in hindsight, I think an examination of our collaborative practices would have been a better place to start. Not only would it address the EMPATHIZE component better, but would have helped us DEFINE what we really needed in order to truly personalize our planner.

Connecting the head with the heart: Although our template definitely supports more understanding of the content in different subjects, supporting transfer is really tricky. Thinking through how we can get students to acquire knowledge and skills throughout the inquiry and make transdisciplinary connections is really a big goal of our learning framework. Moreover, how might their learning transfer into action? This is definitely something that we have to put front and center in our re-design.

Cultivating and Curating Curiosity: Evidencing the learning on the planner has been the hardest part of the planner to fill out. During the inquiry, teachers rarely remember specific questions that students asked unless they are captured on sticky notes or posters. Using digital platforms to upload pictures or learning artifacts is often a better source of documentation than our planners. This is an area that we must unpack more and consider how we can support assessment practices that develop learner-centered approaches and inform teachers.

I’m sure more ideas and reflections will emerge as we work to co-construct a meaningful PYP planner that supports our goals. I’m wondering what other considerations might be out there, but am hopeful that they will emerge as we move forward during the re-design of the planner.

Together, We are Better: Communication That Creates Community with Our Families

Together, We are Better: Communication That Creates Community with Our Families

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How do you see your parents? What words would you use to describe the families in your learning community?

Are they a nuisance? Are they demanding? Or are they helpful? Supportive?

Take a moment and think about the words you have used recently to talk about a family in your learning community. Were you complaining or complimenting? And, if you had to evaluate the language you use to talk about parents, in general, would you say you use mostly positive language or negative language?  

In the Ubuntu tradition of South Africa, they have this expression: “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu / motho ke motho ka batho” which translates to “A person is a person through other people.” Or also said,  “I am because you are”.

The expression …means that we are recreated anew in every encounter with another person, bringing to each other the unique gifts of our humanity. Those gifts include our differences, which are worth celebrating and preserving. You enrich my life with your unique difference….Ubuntu does not ask that we erase differences and become the same. It asks that we interpret others positively, recognizing that whatever our differences, our humanity is equal. It is an invitation to dialogue, to understanding, even without agreement, and with understanding comes compassion, tolerance, nobility, sharing.

From “Ubuntu: A Philosophy of Dialogue” by Zara Houshmand

When you consider these words, it makes you wonder how are you interpreting others around you? Needless to say, it’s important to reflect on our “normal” discourse about our families at our schools because we need to consider if we have compassionate perspectives or critical viewpoints of them. Moreover, we need to recognize that those points of view create a bias in how we interact with them.

In the book, Letters to a Young Teacher, Jonathan Kozol provides advice and insight into how we make judgments of parents:

It is even more important to reach out with special care to parents who may seem to have the least involvement,  or least commitment to, the education of their children….it’s all too easy to for  young teachers, even quite unconsciously, to write off the parents who are not cooperative at first, instead of trying to discover why it is that some of them will not respond to messages that we send home or seem reluctant to show up to meetings that we schedule.

The parents that are most reliable, and the most cooperative…quickly win the loyalty of teachers because they are genuinely helpful. They also tend to share more of the social styles and the value systems of the teachers, so that teachers feel a natural rapport with them and find it easy to converse with them. In the case of the less cooperative parents, on the other hand, I’ve known teachers who throw up their hands and, out of sheer impatience or a feeling of futility, give up on any serious attempts to engage their interest and end up really knowing them.

I feel that he accurately describes the tendency we have to relate better to parents who seem similar to us, and, on the other hand, judge harshly the parents who seem disconnected. However, if we can recognize this bias and reflect upon it, I think it will help us to stay open to the ways in which we can “discover why it is that some of them will not respond to messages that we send home or seem reluctant to show up to meetings that we schedule.” I wholeheartedly agree with his advice to pursue a relationship with those families who seem detached from their child’s life. Whether or not it’s written in our job description, all educators must make parents a priority if they are going to create transformative learning experiences for their students. We must engage with our families.

Finding a Sweet Spot

Although I hate to simplify complex relationships, you can think of parents on a continuum, in which there is a range of engagement practices from completely disinterested and uninvolved to over interested and obtrusive.

Parents and Trust2

As I consider why it is that some parents, whether they are busy or not, make the effort to engage with schools, I think it boils down to trust. Sometimes, we have those helicopter parents who hover around the school, who are often seen as meddling. Often times, they appear intrusive and seem to lack confidence in our ability to meet their child’s needs. They are one level of the extremes and on the other side are those parents who seem to care less about their child and school. We often wonder why they drop off their kids and seem apathetic about their child’s cognitive and social development? In some painful instances, their children seem like more of an inconvenience than a blessing.

Oh and in the middle? These are the “helpful” parents, the ones that are easy to love, in which trust is freely given by the parents to the teacher and reciprocated by the teacher regarding the parents’ efforts to develop their child as a learner.

But what about other those “difficult” parents? The ones on the extremes. Well, I think we all recognize that we can’t match disinterested parents with our own disregard, nor can we get stressed out over the parents who are trying to prepare their child for the SATs in 1st grade. However, we need to “turn to wonder” and become deeply curious about the causes of this apprehension, and not only have an open mind but also have an open-heart to the struggle and conditions that create an unwillingness to partner with teachers. Likewise, the same ingredients that develop trust and get parents to “move toward the middle” work for both sides of this continuum.  And this comes down to communication. Although others have identified that there are 9 traits of trustworthy people, in particular, there are 3 main messages that must be communicated to demonstrate to families that you are deserving of their confidence and time:

  1. Competence: Trust me, I know what I’m doing.
  2. Integrity: Trust me, I keep my word and am acting in your best interest. I wouldn’t steer you wrong.
  3. Kindness: Trust me, I like your child and want to help.

Of course, if teachers can connect and develop a rapport with parents, it is easy to communicate these messages. The question is how do we establish these opportunities? And who’s job is it to initiate the contact? Well, in short, it’s EVERYONE’S!

The Institutional Handshake

School-wide communication

These are the newsletters, Twitter feeds, and other channels of communication that go out to the whole school community. In general, these are passive forms of communication, in which there is a one-way flow of information with very little expectation for parents to respond. In my mind, these forms of communication are the bare minimum that a school needs to do to keep families in “the know”. However, the school leadership and administration must plan school events to create occasions to celebrate learning and inform families of the progress that is underway in the learning community.

The School Calendar of Events

Creating school events that make face-to-face communication possible is really important to create a vibrant and engaged community. Sports Day, an International Fair, and concerts/performances are such events that mix fun with learning. They are low commital events though for families, but are necessary for culture building and are important opportunities for families to have exposure to staff to engage in informal conversation. Conversations are the heart of any relationship, which is why academic conferences are also sprinkled around the school year so that more directed discussions can take place around student learning. I know some schools have Celebrations of Learning after every PYP unit. That’s a tremendous amount of energy put forth into a class presentation, but Student-Led conferences are also a great way to share learning which may be less work to pull off on a frequent basis.

Listening Campaigns

In Stephen Convey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit #5 is to seek first listen to understandto understand, then to be understood, in which the ability to listen with empathy is a key skill. When we genuinely listen to a person, it not only opens our eyes to their concerns but also validates them as a human being. This has the opportunity to build a lot of trust between the organization and the families they serve in the community. The possibility to generate an atmosphere of caring and positive problem-solving is high when schools engage in this level of communication.

Depending on the nature and size of an issue, schools can host “listening campaigns” in which they invite families and employees and students to give feedback about their experience of the system. There is an open invitation issued to participate in gathering and analyzing information.

So what is a listening campaign? In a nutshell, this is a research process, in which leaders strive to:

  • Examine a problem or issue in which school leadership would benefit from multiple perspectives, so as to identify and define a specific issue that needs to be addressed.
  • Explore possible solutions and find the necessary resources to implement the desired solution
  • Identify the decision-maker with the authority to resolve the issue
  • Gather “intelligence” on the dynamics that contribute to the problem.

 

More Up Close and Personal: The Classroom level

As a teacher, what words do you think parents might use to describe you? How do you make them feel?

I find it important to reflect on these questions because those answers depend on your level of communication. In general, parents are more satisfied with their child’s teacher when information about the learning is being conveyed. So what, when and where is this information being announced and shared?

Digital Communication

This is probably the most common form of communication–the emails, the SeeSaw posts, Google Classroom announcements, etc..

But how often do you communicate learning? Once a month? Once a week? Once a day?

One Harvard study shows that the frequency of communication really matters:

We find that frequent teacher-family communication immediately increased student engagement as measured by homework completion rates, on-task behavior, and class participation. On average, teacher-family communication increased the odds that students completed their homework by 40%, decreased instances in which teachers had to redirect students’ attention to the task at hand by 25%, and increased class participation rates by 15%.

When you consider this, how often you communicate really plays a significant role in your ability to create partnerships with parents. Moreover, the predictability and persistence of your communication matters.

What does that mean?

It means that you are sending out messages on a consistent basis such as a summary of the learning in a Friday email. Also, when you are sharing information or a request for support, do it with expectant gratitude. Here’s an example of a big ask (dedicating time to help your child research), followed by an affirming message of their support.

Dear Families, 

We are embarking on our first research mission for our unit and need your help! During this project, students will be responsible to research the different points of view when it comes to screen time usage for their age group. I have provided some websites for them already, but I’d like them to find 2 more so that they explore at least 5 different perspectives. In this way, they are not only learning HOW to research but also getting into the habit of discerning the information on the sites. Naturally, this complex task needs guidance and so I am so grateful for your support of your child, helping them to be independent and confident researchers. Your encouragement and assistance will make all the difference to their success, so please contact me if you need help in supporting your child with their use of the research guide I provided. I know that when we are partners in their learning, your child achieves more.

As always, I am grateful for your support and care. If you have any questions or concerns, I am happy to help.

All the best,

Ms. Judy

What do you think- Would you, as a parent engage? Why or why not? Do you feel that you could contact me with questions? As an educator, never underestimate the power and precision of your message. What you communicate and how you communicate creates the culture of your classroom–even to parents! They are a part of your learning community! And YOU train your parents to be kind and helpful when you deliver messages in the same way–it’s those mirror neurons kicking in, so develop your “teacher voice” in your digital emails to be one that is courteous and encouraging.

The Face-to-Face

At the end of the day, I used to love running out with the kids to have an opportunity to chat with parents. I know you may be tired and have a long list of things to do, but a few minutes of chit-chat is worth its weight in gold.  It’s a good time to be friendly, share an anecdote about a child’s day and ask questions.

“Oh my, Mia seemed so tired today. Is she sleeping well at night?”

“Paulo really made me laugh today. He told me that he knows all about the past since his mom comes from the past. Apparently, you are an expert!”

“Ollie mentioned that his grandma is in the hospital. Is everything okay?”

It’s these little conversations, more so than the formal parent meetings, which makes for the lasting glue in a relationship and the information you mine from these conversations–PRICELESS. And when you do have to conduct a formal parent meeting, families aren’t as nervous and defensive because whatever you are going to share with them comes from a place of genuine care for their child. They know that since you’ve been nothing but considerate and approachable from Day 1 of school.

There are a lot of really great teachers who squander the opportunity to meet and greet families on a regular basis. This frequently happens in the upper grades since you may not have to escort students out at the end of the day and so stay in your classrooms. But when you avoid parent contact, families don’t actually think you’re so hot. They find you aloof and often discredit your teaching approaches. You end up being a source of complaint in the WhatsApp or WeChat group, which sometimes ends up with an email to the principal. All it takes is a smile and a bit of banter to change the tides. The time spent is absolutely worth it.

“I am because you are”

In the PYP, we are social constructivist. We grow through each other. Keep parents in that equation. They matter. A LOT. They are a part of our learning community. Lean into the challenges of your parent groups and enlist them through positive and productive conversations. It is our collective positive effort that lifts everyone–all members. So, I hope I have inspired you to reflect and consider your communication style and its impact on student learning and relationship building. Please share any unique way that you or your school cultivates parent involvement. We all do better when we do it together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I Used to Think, But Now I Know” -8 Ideas about Translanguaging and Language Development

“I Used to Think, But Now I Know” -8 Ideas about Translanguaging and Language Development

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I’ve heard this word translanguaging tossed around a lot on Twitter and among educators, but, honestly, not only does its spelling baffle me but also what it looks like in education. Recently a colleague of mine presented a workshop on it which got me curious about what this elusive term could mean in classroom practice. So, I decided to include a book on it during My Summer Professional Reading for 2019 and by the time I was halfway through Translanguaging for Emergent Bilinguals: Inclusive Teaching in the Linguistically Diverse Classroom by Danling Fu and Xenia Hadjioannou, I knew I had to read more books on this topic.

Why? Because as I read the case studies, I realized that I knew so very little about the language development of bilingual and multilingual children. I also realized that I had a very limited perspective of their issues. You see, I, as a Caucasian American, grew up believing that English was a preferred language and was encultured to develop a bias of elitism which made any subsequent efforts to learn other languages half-hearted. This introspection was an illuminating and humbling experience, so I began picking up more books to fill in some gaps and help me understand what it means to truly be “culturally responsive“. There was one book, Teaching in 2 Languages: A Guide for K-12 Bilingual Educators, that contained a quote which really impacted my thinking around the connection between language and identity:

Technology can make report cards more personal, not less. (1).png

As a person who grew up in an all-English-speaking home, attending a monolingual American school, I’ve never had to grapple with how my home language and culture was viewed by others. But now I can easily see how other’s view of our language can impact our self-esteem. For example, I remember when English-Only became a legislative act in the state of Arizona (a state that borders Mexico). At the time, I hadn’t seen the harm in it, but now I know that banning the use of other languages in school was like rejecting the immigrants and multi-lingual persons which populated that state, who were mostly Mexican. As a teacher, it had huge consequences in our classrooms, and bilingualism became a dirty word.

Of course, the opposite of this is also true: if you really want to show me that you care, love my language. As an international educator, I have had a unique opportunity to live and learn a variety of languages and been exposed to a myriad of cultures. When I read the poet’s words above, it hit me deeply, remembering back to moments when a simple hello in a child’s home language made them light up with a smile of recognition. Now I know that smile said, “You see me. You love me.”, which was true, but I had undervalued this gesture, thinking that it was rather superficial. Now I know it communicated a message of acceptance and care.

Technology can make report cards more personal, not less. (2)It makes sense that language is so deeply connected to self-worth because it not only reflects the values and perspectives shared with and among those language groups, but the self-expression of that child. Language communicates thinking through culture; and when we accept the use of a variety of languages being used in our classrooms, we accept that our students are woven together by a complex tapestry of experiences that can be expressed in a multitude of ways; denying them the use of their complete language repertoire is like rejecting their ideas and perspectives.

These books really stirred my heart and got me thinking about how important language is to our school’s culture and in the development of the self-esteem and personal identity of children. It’s not a small topic, but a big deal.

These are my 8 takeaways from my reading and the ideas that widened my understanding of translanguaging and the language development of children.

  1. Different languages are not contained in different parts of the brain. Multi-lingual children have access to all components of language facility during learning. So when we think of terms of “Spanglish” or “Chinglish”, we shouldn’t associate it with a lack of English competency, but instead demonstrating how holistic the nature of language is in our brain.
  2. Translanguaging is not the same as translation. Translanguaging is about empowering students to access language in order to grow their whole intellectual and social facilities and develop cognitively. Translation helps to serve this purpose but is not the end goal. We want students to integrate the understanding that exists in both languages, not preferring one language over the other.
  3. Language confusion is a misnomer. Multilingualism is an enhanced way of viewing and interacting with the world. What we think of as “language confusion” is actually us observing children in the process of integrating and experimenting with language; students are building bridges of networks in their brains, rather than tangling up their neurons. In fact, code-switching (the practice of moving back and forth between two languages) serves different purposes based upon the learner. So, code-switching is a deeply personal experience, and, as educators, we should consider what is being communicated vs. how it is being communicated in order to that we understand how best to support the learning needs of our students.
  4. Certain content areas require more skillful use of a child’s language repertoire and cultural background. I think most of us can appreciate that inquiry-based approaches utilize the scope of a child’s cognitive ability, particularly when language doesn’t create barriers during an active learning experience in which they are constructing conceptual understanding. However, social studies can be the most challenging of the content areas because it requires not only language skills to understand the abstract nature of vocabulary and concepts, but also highly influenced by the background knowledge and experience of the student. According to Sharon Adelman Reyes and Tatyana Kleyn, models such as Sheltered Immersion are more useful for students who have intermediate language capabilities; for emergent students, we need to provide learning resources in their home language in order to gain a full understanding and to bridge together their cultural dispositions with their prior knowledge and the learning within the classroom.
  5. Content objectives are not the same as language objectives. Although learning content may also call for learning the vocabulary associated with it, there is also an opportunity for a multi-lingual to use their language repertoire which included previous experience and terminology from their home language. For example, when learning content, students can use any of their languages to access information and gain a deeper understanding. So, if it makes sense to give them a book in Korean (or whatever is their mother tongue) about lifecycles because you want them to understand how living things change over time, that is perfectly fine to do so. Learning in their home language is adding not subtracting from their intellectual reservoir. However, if the lesson is specific to language, then outcomes need to be centered around the skills associated with developing fluency in it.
  6. Translanguaging involves the 5 Cs  (communication, culture, connections with other disciplines, comparisons with students’ home language and culture, and the use of the foreign language in communities outside the classroom) for a holistic learning approach. Translanguaging encompasses more than just instructional practices, but also engaging the heart with the head of a child, in order to create an inclusive school culture and bridging the curriculum to the child’s experience.
  7. Graphic organizers aren’t the same as worksheets. Worksheets can often have a negative connotation. However, the purpose of graphic organizers isn’t to keep them busy but to help students clarify their thinking and can be necessary for multi-lingual students to access the full range of their language repertoire. We really need to integrate semantic maps (mind-mapping and conceptual maps) within lessons to combine visual and written information to accommodate the language needs of our students.
  8. There is a distinction between teaching a language and “special education”. Although language development could be dumped into the same category as “additional learning needs”, they are NOT the same. Moreover, an educator who is qualified in EAL (English as an Additional Language) or other second-language learning teachers, is not an expert with assessing and working with students with exceptionalities. Both are highly specialized fields and need to be treated as such.

These 8 ideas are really the beginning of getting a foothold into appreciating the complexity of language development. We need to stop this “English-only” approach in our schools because it does more harm than good when helping students to make academic progress and mature emotionally. Incorporating these ideas involves a comprehensive analysis of a school’s culture which can involve aspects such as language policies, parent education, teacher professional development and buying educational resources to create an optimal learning environment for our students. I know that I am just beginning to appreciate how connected culture and language is to our students’ identity, and plan to continue to study how it can be used at my school.

Perhaps you might consider areas in which your school can “grow the whole child” through languages other than English. Where would you start? Examining school and classroom libraries? Doing read-alouds in other languages? Auditing how and where multilingualism exists in your school? Encouraging more multilingualism, such as school and classroom displays that include other languages?

Once you start to brainstorm ideas, I’m sure you can find numerous ways in which you can employ language in the service of learning and building an inclusive culture within your school community. I hope this blog post whets your appetite and you dig deeper into the research and resources to create translanguaging in your school.

If you feel that I have forgotten some other essential aspects of translanguaging or have any resources that you wish to share, please post below. Thank you in advance for your thoughtful contribution.

 

 

 

 

 

#EdLeadership: Why You Can’t Lead without Love

#EdLeadership: Why You Can’t Lead without Love

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Michael Fullan describes in his book, The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations Survive and Thrive,  the attributes that are akin to what good leadership looks like in schools which I think are elements that are embedded into a Happiness-Based approach. In general, a “good leader”, always has hope, is selfless and ready to serve, and they exemplify life-long learning. Moreover, they have 6 practices within their school culture that are the 6 “secrets” for creating a safe environment for change and innovation:

  1. Love your employees/staff as much as you love your students (and parents)
  2. Connect peers with purpose
  3. Build capacity rather than judgementalism
  4. Know that Learning IS the work!
  5. Transparency rules
  6. Systems “learn” rather than being fixed

What can we take away from these “secrets”?

With Big Responsibility, Comes Big Heart

As I see it, the only difference between a teacher and a school leader is the level and scale of your ability to see the good and find reasons to love the people in your care. Leadership not only has to care about its students but see its staff as allies in the pursuit of excellence, and with that, care about their well-being.

Heart trumps the head, especially as the extent of your responsibility and influence expands in the learning community. That’s the choice we make every day–who and how am I going to bring about awesomeness in others?

Love of …

Who you serve

Everyone has a desire to create. In fact, I strongly believe that educators are some of the most creative humans on the planet because of the level of attention and intention we bring to the learning process. So, I believe it is the ability to care and have empathy for our teachers that help them along on their professional path. And teachers who strive for excellence and innovation, I believe, do the same for their students.

How do you show your teachers that you care about them? Do you go out of your way to talk to them, ask about their family or weekend, or do something thoughtful like give them a birthday card? How many of your staff members do you connect with during the day? And of those interactions, how many of them would drum up a feeling of goodwill and appreciation?  Not sure?–then track it. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

By the way, increased social interaction is a known antidote for the “blahs” when it comes to work, in general. In fact these social connections fuel innovation, in which one study showed how the importance of interpersonal relationships are to the professional atmosphere and learning behaviors of members in an organization.

What you do

Do  I really have to tell you this? Being in education isn’t a J-O-B, it’s a choice.

And it’s a choice to have relationships. We call this “culture”-the micro and macro choices that are made by every individual in that learning community to engage and connect. Educators who make a difference are the ones who understand the power of their relationships. Research shows that it eclipses raw intelligence in order to go beyond 1-2-3s and A-B-Cs because it’s this commitment to bringing out the best in others that creates impact and cultivates talent.

ken.jpeg So what do you do to bring out the best in teachers and colleagues? How do you instill trust and confidence in them? And how do you connect with them when you have something difficult to share? Do others solicit your advice for improvement or turn to others for help? Or do you have closed doors and closed minds?

You have to love what you do so you can do what you love. Think about how you inspire that in others and write down evidence of such impact.

How you do things

Everyone has a work ethic. Repetition creates discipline and culture within our four walls. Are teachers rushing out the door, seeing their work as a JOB and not a calling? And who’s responsible for that?

Ahem…..Hey Leader–YOU ARE! When you take responsibility for that, shift happens. You want to go back to step 1–Love of Who you Serve–so you can move from coordinating staff to co-producing with staff.

co-ordination to co-production.jpg

Just as when a child comes along and tugs on our sleeve, are we saying “yes” to our teachers’ ideas or listening to them challenge our decisions? We must cultivate the “voice” of our staff so that they feel heard and appreciated. In fact, I don’t think listening is enough. I think actively soliciting their ideas would open communication and provide the opportunity to ask them: “Now that you shared this with me, what action do you think should be taken as a result of it? Is there some way that you can lead this initiative?” This should not be seen as trying to manipulate them, but out of the observation that they deeply care around an issue and you VALUE their concern and perspective.

But it takes more than ears, it takes eyes–not only do leaders need a vision that is clearly articulated, but more importantly, school leaders need to take more responsibility for establishing a professional learning culture within the school. What do you see happening in classrooms? Have you ever read this paper by Peter Cole- Entitled “PD A great way to avoid change? Do you have a system of classroom observation, feedback, and lesson study? How do you create professionalism at your school?

I hope this post gives you a pause for reflection, making you wonder if the people around you see you as an encouraging person who inspires them or an obstacle to their personal happiness. Also, I hope you consider the habits and systems you use that cultivate the professional atmosphere and culture of your school–enthusiasm is the driver for the work and when people feel supported and cared for, they will go all-in.

Perhaps now you will too……

with love.
Shouldn’t the Madhatter be a Girl? He’s Having a Tea Party After All!

Shouldn’t the Madhatter be a Girl? He’s Having a Tea Party After All!

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I have really been grappling with the idea of “girl stuff” vs. “boy stuff” lately and it’s a conversation that I have had with many of my friends who are likewise trying to navigate the concept of gender with their children in our modern age. In an effort to make sense of this, I reached out to fellow International Baccalaureate educator and creativity wizard, Tim Fletcher to help me explore this idea in a guest blog post. Tim is an avid dancer and Middle Years Programme (MYP) performing arts teacher at The Inter-Community School in Zurich, Switzerland. I am excited to share his ideas and I hope they are as thought-provoking and insightful for you as they were for me. Enjoy!

 

 

I knew I was different. I thought that I might be gay or something because I couldn’t identify with any of the guys at all. None of them liked art or music. They just wanted to fight and get laid. – Kurt Cobain

There is something incredibly sad with this quote from Cobain, a guy that went on to make music that defined a generation and most likely resonated strongly with those that he could not identify with growing up. What it does show is the huge disparity between the perception of gender role play and the reality. What Cobain found interesting was disregarded by his peers as not being ‘masculine enough’, yet his through his own path he became a revered figure. It is a complex subject which I can reflect on from a personal perspective, having started ballet in a small rural city at the age of six, but it has many wider implications about how our brains are wired, how society reinforces that wiring and what we can do to change those perceptions.

What gave me the desire to ask my mother to start ballet so early? Why was I driven to dance, that it became such a driving factor in my life that it turned into a career? To be perfectly honest I have no idea, I must have seen it – and that was it, I had to dance. It is a decision that shaped my life, took me travelling, introduced me to my wife, etc. My whole being was attracted to movement and moving, and still is.

Not to say I didn’t like doing the boy things too. I ran around with toy guns and built spaceships, I just did ballet as well. Now I got lucky, my friends accepted that ‘Tim just did ballet’ and never questioned it or its masculinity. But in lots of situations it is questioned, take this anecdote, for example, the given starting point for this blog post: During a recent sleepover, my daughter creeps over to me and whispers “I think when I grow up, I’m going to be a boy”. My eyebrows raised and a curious grin comes to meet her gaze. “Really, what makes you say that?” She confesses, “Well, I like boy stuff like robots and remote control cars”.  “Ah, I see”. “and I don’t think it’s fair that boys get to have all the fun, why can’t us girls play with those things? And furthermore, I don’t think it’s fair that us girls only get to play with Barbies. Maybe boys would like to play dress up as well. What do you think?” My 7-year-old explains what prompted this revelation–her girlfriends prefer to play with Barbies all day and she gets bored with them after a while. So she feels like she’s not “girl enough”. The socialisation of this situation is frightening in that seven year old questions herself and feels she may not be “girl enough”, like Cobain, when we don’t fit – we feel ‘unnormal’.

As soon as young children figure out the difference between being boy or girl (we’ll stay with the binary for sake of not exploring another theme) they start to play out roles. Although, the exact cause of gender identity remains unknown, biological, psychological and social variables clearly influence the process1. These are reinforced by older siblings, peers, education, media, toys, marketing and most of all parents. Very quickly children fall into what they hear in the playground, like ‘boys are dumb’, ‘girls aren’t strong’, etc… and let’s not start with the parents who bolster these attitudes.  

We are quick to jump on the bandwagon today and blame marketers, toy manufacturers and tv producers that create gender specific products and content for today’s youth, not to mention the sickening phenomenon of pink for girls, blue for boys (which only took hold in the early eighties). In fact, we have been going in reverse with gender neutral toys, so much so, that when you wade through the mass selection in a toy store it represents more a vision of the 1950’s than the 21st century.  Surprisingly, it’s only the last three decades though that the toy industry has made massive strides backward, making a buck and greed has driven this trend. But it wasn’t always this way, check out this letter from Lego that came with a set of bricks in 1974.

lego to parent

Marketers and our environment contribute to this problem of gender identity and what is “normal” or not. All that being said, there is now some growing evidence to suggest that we may actually be predisposed to certain types of toys based on our gender. Recent studies with rhesus monkeys showed how female and male bias may be biological in what types of toys they preferred to interact with. In this study, male monkeys took to the trucks and females to the dolls. And there is a lot of historical reasons to support this, men hunted and built the shelters, woman cooked and bore children. Then these roles were repeated and repeated, and repeated, until very recently. It provides us with a framework of why the world is constructed as it is and why some people have trouble surrendering to modern structures.

This creates what we call ‘norms’. Most males probably have a predisposition to building and most females to nurturing, within a bell curve of sorts. Most people fit into (more or less) this type of behaviour, which is fine. Although, these norms can be twisted. We know through psychology that we categorise and compartmentalise as a coping mechanism. It is impossible for me to think of every person as an individual, with uniques traits, likes and dislikes, etc. So my brain groups them by their ethnicity, nationality, gender, clothing, etc. These rough categorisations have associated attributes from my specific environmental socialisation, i.e. my opinion, based on my experience, to a particular ethnic group, gender, etc – determines that… and violà I have a sweeping inaccurate impression of someone I saw for a second on the street. Although it is inaccurate, our impressions of others defined by this categorising, creates cognitive comfort.

What is not fine is giving into it and judging people for not fitting into the stereotypes we have built of the world, like when a girl prefers to play with robots and a boy prefers to do ballet. Even worse berating them for being different. Many parents who insist and tell their child that they are an individual, special and can do anything often struggle when the child falls from the realms of normal gender play. This cognitive dissonance must also cause some discomfort for the child “Mum says I’m special and can do anything… except, as long as I don’t play with dolls and stick with trucks”.

This is why we have a responsibility to educate, establish acceptance and shape a new set of norms, which is the responsibility of all those I listed above that contribute to this predicament. So, what can we adopt to remedy this perception problem?

Asking children why they think one way to challenge the stereotypes is a good place to start. Why is it stupid to brush and stylise the doll’s hair? What could you learn from doing it? Could the plaiting of hair give them ideas to build in different ways? This could be supported by showing innovative building designs but also showcasing successful male hairdressers. Breaking down false stereotypes can be done rationally, and emotionally. There can be an appeal to the emotions in the context of a game or competition. Children facing gender opposite tasks during a game will often “get on with it” because of the nature of competition and through doing, their actions may appeal to their emotions – that actually, it feels alright.

What can happen by observing different toy vehicles in action? The tyres make different patterns which could be the formation of an eventual print on the material. There are an unlimited amount of ways we can look at using gender specific toys in a variety of ways if we allow ourselves. In terms of creativity, it is a well-documented technique that putting odd things together can have very productive and unique outcomes, as I have covered in this post. It could be introduced as a rule of playing with gender opposite toys at home or in the classroom. How can I apply this toy, or playing with this toy, to an area of interest for me?

But most importantly we must be installing a new ‘norm’ of acceptance with what children are drawn to and indeed prefer to engage in. If that interest manifests it could shape their lives, so we have more female physicists and male midwives. I hate to think what would have happened if I had not been allowed, and indeed encouraged, to follow my passion for movement and attend ballet classes.

  1. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/psychology/development-psychology/psychosocial-development-age-02/gender-development

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If you would like to read more from Tim and his research more specifically into creativity and education, check out his blog, Learn Creatively. He has a lot of interesting ideas about the intersection of art, learning, and inspiration.

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