Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Author: Tracy Rosen

  • differentiating by gender


    Image from Julianne F.‘S reflections on gender and communication.

    When Good Marks are Not Enough by Rosalind Wiseman

    The success in educating girls, many say, has come from recognising
    their specific learning styles as well as their emotional development
    and the impact of friendships.

    Teaching Physics to students – or Teaching to Girls and Boys by Prof. Dr. hannelore Schwedes

    For today I will put my focus to physics instruction, and I want to
    argue that teachers, she or he, should be very aware of their own gender-like
    behavior and to that of their boys and girls. We have to realise that we
    act and react differently to a male or female partner, and that´s
    allright. I think it is a very unlucky rule in education saying teachers
    should treat all their students exactly the same way, or parents their
    children.

    I have had the opportunity to work in a variety of school contexts over the past 10 years – as a teacher, coordinator, pareducator, and consultant. I have worked in elementary schools, high schools, and university. I have worked in co-ed classes, all girls and all boys classes at both public and private schools, and I have worked 1 on 1 with both boys and girls.

    Differences in Learning

    All of my experience has led me to believe and understand that children learn differently, that it is essential to be aware of and teach to different learning styles, ability, and interest if I want to make sure that my students have equal access to learning. Another element, infusing all of those, is gender.

    As educators who value integrity and strive for excellence in our practice, we must understand and aim our teaching practice towards the students in our classrooms. No, let me wordsmyth for a bit, towards the children, towards the girls and the boys.

    Looking at the Brain

    We now have the ability to see what happens in the brain as it is happening, through Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), and we can see how boys and girls brains process information in very different manners.

    Through fMRI, we have discovered, for example, “There are exceptions and shades of gray, of course but in general according to Dr. Deak [psychologist and author of Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters.]:

    • Female brains are predisposed to excel in language, auditory skills, fine motor skills and attention to detail
    • The female brain is more decentralized, using a variety of parts or locations for a single task
    • The female brain is more integrated, allowing both brain hemispheres to work together via a more developed corpus callosum, the bridge between the right and left brain hemispheres
    • In the female brain, thoughts and emotions are much more complex, integrated and intertwined than in the male brain.”

    from Gender and the Brain: The Difference is in the Details on the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools website

    Allowing Data to Drive Design

    I see this as valuable data that educators can use when they are designing programs and learning situations for the girls and boys in their classes. It is powerful data to know how girls, for example, learn in order to design activities that address their learning strengths and it is also important data to help us design situations that provoke them to go outside of their comfort zones, what Dr. Deak calls ‘against the grain’ learning.


    Powered by ScribeFire.

  • Developing dreams, reaching our highest potential


    “AI’s fundamental approach
    of seeking to discover, honor, and amplify what works, the life-giving
    elements, is a “system” process that works at all levels,
    with individual students, one-on-one student-teacher relationships,
    classrooms, schools, school districts and communities.”

    from Leadership at Every Level: Appreciative Inquiry in Education by Rich Henry

    Appreciative Inquiry, for me, seems so logical, simple, true, and essential, that I forget not every knows this.
    I am presently involved in a change process at one of the schools I work with. In the past, as the principal tells me, she found something she liked and was passionate about – some new pedagogical twist of the month – and tried to impose it on her teaching staff. Now she realizes that can never work, that what she was actually creating was a climate of insecurity, of ever-changing focus, and that teachers were actually shifting towards complacency with this.

    Our goal with the present initiative is nothing less than to shift paradigms of teaching and to create a community of sharing and ongoing learning that will celebrate diversity. What this looks like will emerge as we go because, while we have a general vision of where we want to go, the details will be filled in by community members – teaching and support staff, parents, students, and the board.

    Unlike previous change initiatives, the principal is moving slowly and is starting by changing the conversations that are taking place within the school’s walls. We are encouraging people to ask each other questions around their passion for teaching and learning and community. I am already seeing the change as conversations in the staff room are much more collaborative and focus on practice rather than complaints.

    Our next step is provide a context for the conversation shifts, and a framework from within which the community can create their best future.

    I am excited about seeing where this school goes.

    Powered by ScribeFire.

  • classroom management taken a step (or 2) too far


    Image: Tantrum by Chirag Rathod made available on flickr via a creative commons license.

    Kindergartner Charged With Felony Tantrum

    slate.com

    A school called the police on a child in kindergarten who was having a temper tantrum. The child was arrested and a police report was written. I’d love to know the rationale behind that, or perhaps it is good I don’t. It is an example of how the end can never justify the means when it comes to teaching children. Regardless of the rationale, this little child – who was obviously already upset – spent the day at a police station, was handcuffed!

    This again points to our need as a system of education to provide teachers and schools with the support they need to deal with difficult situations. And if the support isn’t there – we need to create it.

    Powered by ScribeFire.

  • Reflective Practice

    turn your face to the sun

    The following is a rather lengthy quote, but I feel compelled to include it here. It is so revealing of the influence that teachers have on the students and the cultures of their classrooms. The quote describes a reflective period in a mini-action research cycle of one teacher – go to the article to see how he uses this reflection as a basis for change.

    Before school had even started I knew that I would have to work especially hard to make sure Matthew had a respected place in the room. I called on him for answers when I knew he had them. I partnered him with students who could be counted on to work patiently with him. In the first few months things seemed to go pretty well. Matthew was at least tolerated and well-treated, if not yet a cherished class member. Not so today. When did the students’ treatment of Matthew erode? What brought it on? And why had I not noticed?

    Turning my observer’s eye upon myself

    My inner voice said that if I wanted the answers, I had to first look at myself. Over the years I’ve learned that good teaching involves having a willingness to look at your own behavior and ask what part you might be playing in what’s going on in your classroom—the good and the not-so-good. So the next day I turned my observer’s eye upon myself and began to note my own behavior. Before Morning Meeting started Matthew was butting his head into Tyler’s shoulder. “Matthew! Stop!” I snapped. As students moved from Morning Meeting into math groups, I heard myself barking, “Matthew! Sit down now!” I seemed unable to speak the child’s name without an exclamation point behind it.

    I reflected. In September I would have redirected Matthew with a gentle hand on his shoulder or a quiet “Matt, move over here now.” In September I made sure to welcome him warmly at the beginning of each day. Today I did not check in with him before Morning Meeting. In September I made it a point to use Matthew’s name in positive comments. Today I was loudly and frequently calling attention to his awkwardness.

    I realized how very tired I was. Tired from the intense energy that the first phase of the school year requires and hungry for the late December week off that marked the first substantial break of the year. In addition to this predictable energy dip, the effort required to help the intensely needy Matt navigate daily classroom life added to my fatigue. As my exhaustion grew, my alertness to our classroom interactions diminished. I managed to overlook the rough tones and edgy words creeping into the children’s—and my—interactions with Matthew until they had escalated to an undeniably attention-grabbing level.

    But now I was noticing. Moreover, as I continued to notice, it became clear that I was contributing to Matthew’s mistreatment. But wait, let me be more precise: I wasn’t just contributing to his mistreatment. I was teaching it. When I snapped at him, I gave permission to twenty-three others to snap at him too. I was using a surefire teaching strategy: modeling. I knew well the power of modeling and used it often and intentionally: “Watch how I lift Matilda out of her cage.” “Watch while I dribble the soccer ball around Jen.” “What did you notice? Now you try it this way.”

    I realized that my interactions with Matthew were a powerful, unintentional modeling. When I stopped seeking Matthew out to say a friendly hello in the morning, the students stopped too. When I snapped commands at him, they snapped too. I was treated to a painful refresher lesson about the strength of modeling.

    This was taken from What Teaching Matthew Taught Me: When a fourth-grade teacher tries to figure out why his class behaves poorly toward one particular student, he first has to consider his own behavior.

    Please go read the rest of that article, for it outlines how Matthew’s teacher used an appreciative inquiry process to create change in his classroom. Very powerful.

     

     

    Powered by ScribeFire.

  • nature AND nurture: how our attitudes to learning can affect learning

    Stressed-out parents may also tend to focus their child’s attention on
    negative events, the researchers add, which leads to a phenomenon
    called “attention bias” toward threat, making them more likely to see
    threats in their environment and to focus more intensely on these
    threats. from Genes plus parenting may promote shyness, anxiety on CNN, March 19, 2007

    What implications does this have for learning?

    I like to think that the reverse is also true. That if a child’s adults focus their attention on positive events, then a child will be more likely to focus intensely on a positive future.

    I wrote ‘child’s adults’ because I don’t think that this is only a result of parents – teachers play a huge role in focusing the attention of children.

    My next post shows an example of the teacher’s influence and negative events.

    Powered by ScribeFire.