#20 - Notes on Feedback, Relationships and Listening

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.

I just started my second year in the classroom. I will be teaching Grade 5 again from September 2022 to June 2023. I finished one month in the classroom. I am learning and growing everyday. Here are some links and professional insights from my journey in the past month.

1) Creating a Classroom Culture of Feedback and Transparent Assessment

I am trying to develop a culture of feedback in my classroom this year.  This chart was part of that process.  This involves being more transparent with my assessment and grading strategy as a teaching professional.  I often start lessons with a clear learning objective and success criteria that I try to co create with my kids.  It builds ownership and accountability.  I also often quiz them on the types of assessment we complete at school on a day to day basis.  This is slowly starting to shift the conversation from getting the highest mark in class to now understanding concepts more clearly. The growing success document for educators in Ontario (linked above) has been really helpful to guide and structure these conversations. A simple way to implement this as a teaching professional is to start every lesson in class by discussing the learning objective and success criteria. Another effective practice as a classroom teacher is to get student thoughts on the same and then to co-create these criteria with your students. Here is an image of a class discussion on assessment with my kids.

2) Building strong parent relationships

I have realized how important it is to constantly update my parents about student development and growth. Parents always want to know how they can support their child. They are your greatest ally to make learning engaging and relatable for each child. They are also a gold mine of insights for vital information about the child’s prior growth and learning path. I take copious amounts of notes in my monthly parent calls with parents of each child in my class. It makes me a better teacher. In this TED Talk, education technology entrepreneur and TED Fellow Heejae Lim. shines a light on an underutilized resource in US public education -- a family's love for their children -- and shows that, with the right tools and tech, schools can remove language barriers, foster meaningful connections and help every student thrive. The company she co-created is called Talking Points and you can find more information about their work on the company website.

3) Listening Consciously as Educators

I recently had an important realisation. I was not consciously listening to my students in the classroom. While speaking to a student before class one day, I realised that my mind was not fully invested in this conversation. I was getting impatient and pushing my student to get to the point immediately. I had six emails I needed to respond to. I was showing hesitant body language. One of my kids mentioned that I always looked busy when I spoke to them. That statement really got to me. I then decided to make a conscious effort to be present when I had conversations with my students. I did some reading and wanted to understand the skills of effective listeners. I learned that you should ask good follow up questions (from HBR). I learned that you should be fully present (from NY Times). I learned that we can repeat back what we heard (from Fast Company). I learned that listening helps teachers learn too (from Resilient Educator). However, my favourite resource was a TED talk by Julian Treasure where he explained five simple steps to become a conscious listener including receiving, appreciating, summarizing and asking. You can watch the full TED talk below.

4) Playlists to share learning and videos

Anyone that knows me knows that I love learning. As a teacher, I get to learn for a living. I consider that a privilege each day. I also love learning on the web in a variety of different ways. I have recently discovered the power of playlists or recommendation lists. I am a big fan of playlists. I recently created playlists of my favourite podcast episodes, favourite talks, favourite interviews, favourite films and favourite books. I think that an individual’s choice of media tells you a lot about their personality, hopes and dreams. I love having conversations with friends and family about new books, films, videos, podcasts and shows. I am curious about how they perceived this media creation based on their background and life experience. I then try to engage with the same piece of media and develop my own unique interpretation of the media creation. I love comparing and creating new ideas by mish-mashing all these different ways of looking at the same media creation. My favourite hobby is to read book reviews on Goodreads and film reviews on Letterboxd. I will often do this for old media content and new media media content. Here are images from some recent playlists that I created on one of these learning escapades. Please subscribe and follow the Youtube Channel for more such playlist recommendations. I spend hours each week collating my favourite content on the web for you in these lists.

5) Learning Stories Episode 14 - Radhika Zahedi

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 14 of #LearningStories we chat with Radhika Zahedi. She has been working in the field of education since 2005 and currently serves as the School Director at The Green Acres Academy, and the Centre Director for The Acres Foundation Centre for Teaching and Educational Leadership. She has a wide range of experiences which include serving as School Principal, teacher-coach, teacher and curriculum head in a variety of settings including IB, IGCSE, Special Needs Schools, plus a few short but valuable stints in Municipal schools in Mumbai, Public schools in New York City, and a rural school in the north east of India. As an educator she is passionate about building learning organizations - schools with a culture of continuous learning and innovation filled with empowered leaders, teachers, parents and students. SAHE has used her decade of experience in the classroom working directly with students and teachers, to champion curricular programs and teacher development that focuses on deep, meaningful learning. Radhika spent the first 5 years of her career as a high school mathematics teacher with a passion for promoting learning with understanding, and learning for all students. Radhika has a Master’s (MA) Degree in Mathematics Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, USA and Bachelor's Degree in Engineering from Mumbai University. You can read her writing on Education at her blog linked here https://radhikazahedi.blogspot.com/.

Show Notes

1. Build and turn to a group of like minded people who can help you achieve your goals. Ask them for advice, seek their support.

2. Teach and share the things you are competent in as a professional. There will always be other people that can benefit from your experience. This could be a simple blog or a video series that allows you to document your thinking.

3. Keep learning as a teacher. This could be baking, dance, art or just reading. It keeps you grounded and helps you empathise with the experience of the learners in your classroom.

4. Stay up to date with research in your field and try to find ways to implement what you learn about in the research studies into your professional practice.

5. Be open to feedback as a professional. There is always someone in your professional community that knows more than you and that can help you grow as a professional.

6. Try out a volunteer experience or internship before diving in and opting for a professional degree or job change in a particular sector.

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

11/10/2022