#18 - Notes on Learning Something for the First Time and Building Student Confidence
Education Coffee is a 2xweekly newsletter on people, ideas and culture.
Hello World,
In each edition of this newsletter, I will share five inspiring web resources that I have curated after hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox. I also hope to share some lessons from the classroom in these upcoming editions of the newsletter.
1) Correct the Behaviour and not the Person
This was one of the most important things I learned at the end of my first year in the classroom. Whenever you want to manage disruptive behaviour in your classroom, always specifically correct the behaviour and not the person. When students were being disruptive in my class I would often discipline them and get quite personal in the first few months. I would say something mean or uncalled for. I was not proud of this and realised this pattern a few months into the year. I then decided to share this with my students. I told them that whenever I tell them to not do anything in the classroom I am only targeting their behaviour. I am not commenting on their personality or their way of being. For instance one student kept disrupting the class by talking to his friend when I was teaching a lesson. That affected the classroom learning environment because all the other students were also disturbed by that noice. I told the student about this. I told them about how it is affecting the classroom. By stating my reasons for classroom management and focusing on the behaviour, I was able to build student ownership for correcting the disruptive behaviour. I always tell students that I will respect and love them no matter what they do and they can trust me to always hear their side of the story. I want them to know and believe that I will listen to them. As a teacher one of the most important skills I developed this year was to learn to transition effectively from being annoyed at a disruptive behaviour in one moment to having a powerful learning conversation with the same student in the next moment. It is a hard feeling to articulate here, but it is something I am slowly coming to realize and subscribe to as a teacher.
2) Study and make notes on resources published on Edutopia and Getting Smart
As an educator my two favourite websites to read articles on education are Edutopia and Getting Smart. Here is an introduction to these websites and some reasons I think you should explore them as a parent, teacher or student.
Edutopia is a website published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF). Founded in 1991 by filmmaker George Lucas and venture capitalist Steve Arnold, the foundation "celebrates and encourages innovation" in K-12 schools. Edutopia focuses on six core learning strategies. These are described as Comprehensive Assessment, Integrated Studies, Project-Based Learning, Social & Emotional Learning, Teacher Development and Technology Integration. They have articles and videos on each of these six topics. Their website is very well organised and combines audio and video resources seamlessly. My favourite section of their website are their articles and videos on Project Based Learning.
Getting Smart, is a learning design firm, provides strategic design, growth, learner experience and knowledge design services that turn ideas into impact. As a mission-driven organization, they are passionate about accelerating and amplifying innovations in teaching and learning that put students at the core. Their work supports and builds powerful learning experiences for schools, universities and impact-oriented companies. This article titled, ‘What We Do’ summarises their work in an effective way. Their website has a gold mine of resources related to innovation in education including a podcast (highly recommend this), blog and theme based playlists. My favorite article/resource on their website was this list of the innovative K-12 schools you must visit around the world available at this link - ‘Schools worth Visiting’.
Even teachers need motivation sometimes. I often find out about different teaching and learning strategies from these two websites. It is a great way to develop your skills as a teacher. It is also a form of in-service professional development that can reap multiple rewards in the long run. In a small way it helped me become part of a global community of teachers that all wanted the best for the students in their classrooms.
3) Empower parents to support student learning
Research tells us that parent involvement in student learning is an important determinant of student achievement as learners. John Hattie published a seminal education study in 2008 titled, Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement where he found that "the effect of parental engagement over a student's school career is equivalent to adding two or three years to that student's education". John Hattie’s meta-analyses shows a high effect size for parental involvement* (.58). I observed the value of parental involvement in student learning in my classroom. The more parents were involved the better students learned in the classroom. The parents that wanted to get involved in their student learning had a lot of great questions. They asked about suggestions to add value to their child’s learning experience. Here are some ideas for parental involvement that I co-discovered with the parents in my first year in the classroom: 1) Talk to your students about what they learned at school each day 2) Read books aloud with your kids 3) Attend local educational events in your community with children 4) Build things with your kids like a garden or a coding project 5) Collect things together at home 6) Listen to your child present projects and class presentations at home and share feedback 7) Share books, resources, articles and videos with your children on topics they are interested to learn more about 8) Talk to your kids about what you do at work and how you solve problems at work on a daily basis 9) Tell kids stories about your cultural background and their grand parents and the country you grew up in 10) Go for walks and hikes and ask students about their emotions, feelings and hopes in a safe and unstructured way. These are some ideas I co-discovered after 100’s of calls with parents over a year. Here is an article titled, ‘24 At-Home Learning Activities to Share with Parents of Young Children’ by the Brookes Blog with some great at home learning ideas related to parent involvement.
4) Think about what it was like to learn something for the first time
I started to take driving lessons recently. It was scary and exciting at the same time. I was learning something new as an adult, the same way my kids would learn new math concepts and new writing methods in my class. I would ask friends with cars to give me lessons. I would also take lessons with various driving instructors. I am 28 and most of my friends already know how to drive a car. This was challenging for sure. I often made mistakes. You will make mistakes when you learn something new. I know this as a teacher. But I don’t always think about what it is like to learn something for the first time. Some friends and driving instructors would give me feedback in a way that made me uncomfortable. They would judge me for making silly mistakes that any driver should not make. They would correct me as soon as I did something wrong. But I was a new driver and not an experienced one. They were talking to me from the perspective of an experienced driver. This made me very conscious about my ability to do well in those lessons. Some friends and instructors took a different path. They first reminded me that I was new at this and would take some time to get better at it. They told me that it was okay to ask stupid and silly questions. They let me attempt something and make a mistake before jumping in to correct me. If they noticed that I self corrected they would give me a chance to proceed without any interruptions. This built my confidence as a student learning how to drive for the first time. As a teacher I hope to remember that many of my kids will be learning concepts in my class for the first time. I need to understand their perspective as first time learners. I needed to let them ask silly questions, let them make mistakes, let them self-correct and let them learn them learn themselves. I was there when they needed me. But I needed to let them learn at their own pace. I needed to remember what it was like to learn something for the first time.
5) Learning Stories Episode 13 - Giada Ferucci
I started a YouTube Channel called ‘Learning Stories’. This is a show where we interview a diverse set of learners from the 21st century. Each guest profiled here has a unique story to share about how they acquired a set of valuable skills and knowledge in a creative and innovative manner. In the process, we hope to uncover a new understanding of learning as conceptualized, imagined, and narrated in these learning stories. These conversations have given me so many insights on the learning process within and beyond the classroom.
On Episode 13 of #LearningStories we chat with Giada Ferucci. Giada is a PhD student in Media Studies at Western University, with a BA in Economic Development and International Cooperation from the University of Florence, Italy, and an MA in International Relations from Aarhus University in Denmark. Her doctoral research focuses on social movements and environmental activism and how they translate in policy. Her research interests include environmental communication, media activism and social movements, and access to information on environmental justice matters with a particular focus on the Latin American region. Currently, she is working as a research assistant for the project Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador, a collaborative research initiative to document the Salvadoran Civil War. You can find her on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/giada-fer....
Show Notes
Learning languages are a great way to understand a new country and culture. Every new language you learn gives you a new way to look at the world.
Be open to new internships and work experiences connected to your work. It may lead to professional collaborations that really help you grow in the long run.
Connect with other like minded individuals that have a similar interest in your field. You can find these. People in your country but also in other countries. A great way to access this network is to pursue education programs and work internships in new contexts.
Be curious about other countries and cultures. There is always something you can learn from people in another context.
Please do send me your thoughts and resources on any edition of this newsletter through email at abhishekashokshetty@gmail.com or on twitter @AbhishekShetty_. I love taking these discussions forward on those platforms.
Abhishek
11/07/2022