Unused resource

All teachers have an amazing resource in their classrooms. At times I find this is a resource to be neglected in some classrooms by the daily grind of trying to get through the content that needs to be covered by a certain point on the term. What am I talking about? KIDS!!!
Children are far more powerful at teaching each other than some people realise.
The other day I came cross some of the children in my maths class having a learning discussion about the strategy they had just learned. After discussing what they learned they realised that some people in their class were still having trouble. I asked them how they could tackle this problem and what they needed for me to provide to make the solution possible.
I came back to this group a little while later and found them having a great discussion about their learning. They were using materials in ways I hadn't thought of and at the end of the day every single person in the group understood how the strategy worked and when to use it. I could see right away who didn't understand the strategy we were covering and could ask questions to guide the children in the right direction. From there they explored the strategy further. I found that maths was the easiest subject area to apply this too to begin with but I'm working on applying this to reading also.
Here are snippets of the discussions I heard:

There is huge benefit in putting children into groups of mixed ability and getting them to teach each other especially because they will have different strengths, different view points about the same subject and different ways of thinking about the same problem. I found that it made the children who understood the problem think about it in different ways to make the children they were teaching understand what they were talking about.
So try it. Stand back and watch what happens when the children are left to teach each other. Its fascinating!

Starting the movie process

There's no point going to conference if you're not going to use all the ideas. I find that if I don't use my new knowledge right away I loose it. So I decided to start using some of the movie making know how I learned from Helen King during ULearn 2012. After teaching two of my math groups I asked the children to "Assume That I'm an Idiot" (thanks Glenn Capelli for that one). I asked my children to create educational videos to teach me how the strategies work. To be completely honest I underestimated how valuable this tool is. Some of the children who hardly say boo during group discussion were putting on their best teacher voices to tell me all about their maths strategy. I was able to watch these video creations and with in minutes I could see who needed more help and who was ready for something a little more challenging. BRILLIANT! Easy and quick assessment that uses the children's strengths (if they want to write, they can write or if they want to act/draw/sing/dance...they can). I have also started something similar with our reading programme. I have explained to my class that hey need to make sure they really understand the reading strategies we are covering curing our group sessions as they will be making videos to teach other groups about how the strategies work. I must say I've never had such attentive listeners during teaching sessions. We'll see what they come up with once we have finished but for now here are some photos of some of the children beginning to put their videos together. If this is only day two, imagine what I can achieve by the end of the term?! Starting the Movie process on PhotoPeach

Spread the word

I have just attended the ULearn 2012 conference in Auckland. I have come away from this full of passion for my job and what I do. There was a buzz in the air the minute I walked into the conference centre. I was among MY kind of people. I was in a room full of teachers who were willing to give up their holidays to learn and to develop professionally, but I think we have walked away with so much more.
This was my first ULearn. I was expecting to walk in find some new resources to use in my classroom and to listen to some interesting speakers. I walked away with a spring in my step. I had a new found love for my job. Yes the keynote presenters were interesting but they were also inspiring and passionate. I was able to talk to people who were on the same wave length as me. I was able to meet people who make a difference everyday and who LOVE doing what they do. This was infectious. Every person in the conference loved what they did and this made me want to spread the word about the people who rarely get mentioned by the media.
Stuff.co.nz asked their readers to contribute by writing a short piece about why they love teaching. I decided that I would comply and write something that would hopefully help people see who actually teaches their children. NOT what is usually portrayed in the media.
Most of the people on the front line are passionate, for them teaching is life.
Here is the link to the article that will hopefully help the wider public see that teachers are AMAZING and they have our future in their hands. Appreciate them!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/7803356/Why-do-you-love-teaching-The-power-to-empower