How healthy is your team planning?

Over the last few weeks I have spent a lot of time 'at the planning table' with teams in several schools. I always relish the opportunity to be part of a healthy collaborative planning session - I love the energy generated by ideas, the sense of possibility and the creative and social process that is authentic planning.  I have also recently spent time in another institution  - a hospital - caring for a family member.  

Today, as I listened to and watched the medical staff at work, I was reminded of the importance of stopping to closely examine ourselves professionally.   Taking time to reflect on our work is vital - but we need to be mindful of what it is we are looking for.  

A planning/teaching team in healthy condition is a joy to be part of.  Conversely, unhealthy teams who have not taken time to be mindful and caring of what they do and how they work together can miss golden opportunities for both student learning AND professional growth.  

When did you last stop to "take the pulse" of your team's planning practices?   What is considered "healthy" planning for inquiry (and, no, "planning" and "inquiry" are not contradictory terms!!) ?  Is it time for a check up?  

Here are 20 indicators that may help your consultation!

20 indicators of good health!

1. We have talked about our processes and expectations of ourselves and each other.  We have some basic, shared agreements about how we want to work together, use our time, communicate and document our thinking.
2. We recognise that our planning meetings are a great opportunity for professional learning.  We reflect and discuss our own thinking. We bring questions and insights to the meeting and try to articulate what we are learning and thinking to each other.
3. We respect the individual skills and talents of each team member. We don’t expect a carbon copy of an inquiry to unfold in each class but we do recognise the importance of some shared conceptual intentions.
4. We talk with students about our planning and include them in the process.  We find ways to bring their voices (questions/theories/interests) to each meeting and use this to inform the next step.  We keep student learning at the centre.
5. We limit logistical, housekeeping tasks to a minimum and try to attend to these in other ways and at other times.
6. Previous year’s inquiries (if relevant) may be used as a resource – but not until we have started with the needs and interests of THIS group of students (and this year’s teaching team).  Every inquiry is a new inquiry.
7.  We allow big ideas to drive inquiry journeys.  Even if our students are focused on investigating something very specific – we take care to consider the bigger picture beyond that focus.  We care about transfer and avoid getting seduced by “topics.”
8. We take time to think about HOW our students are learning – not just what.  We use ‘split screen thinking” in our conversations – careful to emphasise the skills and processes our students are gaining through their investigations
9. Authenticity and purpose are really important to us. We want our students to see how this learning is real and connected to their lives now and in the future  - so we try to situate their learning in authentic contexts using real people, real places, real objects and real actions.   
10. We take time to discuss what WE understand about this big idea -  we know our own knowledge-base and learning experiences with it may impact on our teaching.  We enjoy thinking about our own understandings! Planning is a process of inquiry itself. 
11. We think about the natural connections we can help students make across learning areas. We use our core inquiry to ensure students can integrate their learning in other areas.  We have dialogue with specialist teachers to enhance inquiry into both process and concepts.
12. We think carefully about how we can establish the “known” – we want to get a good understanding of where our students are at so we can use this to inform our teaching.
13. We are informed by – but not a slave to – a basic cycle of inquiry so the journey has some kind of structure – not just a bunch of good activities.
14. We resist the temptation to fill our "planner" all at once! We document sparingly at first and then add to the planner as the inquiry unfolds.
15. We see reflective thinking –and action – as ongoing. We prompt both on a regular basis. Inquiry is all about reflection – students’ AND teachers'. We plan with an inquiry mindset. 
16. We include transferable strategies (such as thinking routines) into our planning so we are building our students’ tool kits.
17. We use digital resources to inform and document our planning and to assist students to plan, research, create, record, share and act on their learning.
18. We see ourselves as collaborative inquirers – with each other, with our students…and with others beyond our team/school.
19. We have courageous conversations with each other when we need to – exercising both professional and personal care in our communication
20. We (mostly) really enjoy the planning process and find it energizing!!

Teaching to learn: lessons from a day of observation and collaboration.

 I have just spent the day teaching through inquiry with students at the International School of Prague.  After “work-shopping” with teachers and spending focused time collaboratively planning, reflecting and conversing about inquiry it was time for us to work alongside each other in the classroom and take our own thinking and learning deeper.  As always, this approach to our shared, professional learning leaves me with so much to think about.

I’ve made many connections across the day but the most significant reminder has been how powerful our teaching can be when we commit to teaching as an act of inquiry in itself.  As groups of teachers shared classroom spaces today, it was their deliberate intention to examine the “pedagogy” of inquiry.  As I am asking children to wonder, to reflect, to evaluate, to collaborate and to set new goals , so are their teachers.   As teachers observe teaching, confer with children, take in the ‘working walls’ in each classroom – they are inquiring into inquiry.  THEY are wondering, reflecting, collaborating and goal setting. 

 After decades of working in the field of inquiry and professional development,  I would hesitate to say that there is one “best” approach to teacher learning.   Effective PD often ends up being a hybrid of approaches from listening to presentations, reading and viewing, planning/sharing and networking with colleagues.  But there can be no doubt about the power of the classroom,-based, real time learning that happens when we reflect IN practice.  We are inquiring as we teach and there is nothing quite as invigorating.   As we spend time observing another teacher at work, there are questions that can help sharpen our reflections, these include:

• What is the nature of the discourse between teacher and students and amongst? How are conversations conducted and what are the conversations about?
• How is student thinking supported and challenged? What is done to get the students thinking more for themselves?
•  How is questioning used to encourage inquiry,  participation and higher order thinking?
•  What elements are made explicit and when?
•  What do you notice about the students’ responses? What intrigues you?
•  What do you notice about the kind of language that is used by “the teacher” … how are questions formed? How are questions responded to?
•  What would you do differently? What doesn’t work? Why?
•  What would you do next?
• What questions does this raise for you?

 Although I was leading the teaching today, the very act of being “observed” inevitably helps ME be more mindful as I teach.  So, as an inquirer, what was affirmed for me today?  What did I notice? How has my thinking been sharpened or shifted through my interaction with children and teachers? 

 Reflections and affirmations…

Young students are more than capable of understanding and using the often complex language of thinking.  Throughout the day, students were inquiring into the nature of synthesis, reflection, transfer and evaluation. When we build shared language – we can engage in some extraordinary conversations.

 “Now I am thinking that synthesis is like a tree because thinking starts small and then it grows and grows. And then the leaves on the tree are NEW thoughts. Sometimes those leaves drift off somewhere and sometimes you don’t need them anymore so they just fall to the ground but new thinking is always growing”  (8 yr old)

 Honoring student voice requires a willingness to let go of preconceived responses and to step toward the student. It’s my job to tune in to THEIR thinking.  As teachers we need to keep recalibrating as we listen to our students – to probe and question until we reach understanding.

 Questioning is to the inquiry teacher what water is to a garden.  Our questions – and the use of student questions -  help grow the thinking where didactic statements and commands stunt it.  Framing a lesson’s learning intention as a question as opposed to a fixed outcome positions us all as inquirers.

 We do a lot of thinking that students can do for themselves.   Giving choice and honoring voice can feel messy and unstructured but, in fact, it is the moment when learning is personalized and the child has agency.   Trust and patience (and good humour!) are critical dispositions in an inquiry classroom. 

 When we position children as researchers and allow them to investigate those things that they find compelling and fascinating – we build a sense of authority and expertise as a learner that is extraordinarily empowering.  A group of 6 year olds today, taught me SO much about a breed of crayfish native to this part of the world. They have observed their resident crayfish, interviewed a scientist and continued to ask amazing questions.  Their expertise is now being passed on to children in Melbourne, Australia through photographs, images, art work and video footage they have prepared to share their understanding.  This has actually been an inquiry into team work – but in order to reflect on and learn about working together – they needed something worth collaborating about!   

 Purpose is powerful.   How often do we ask students to complete tasks – even highly engaging and inquiry-based tasks – without a shared understanding of WHY this might be a useful and worthwhile thing to be doing?   The students in this year 1 class in Prague will now be waiting anxiously for a response from the year 1 students in Australia.  An authentic audience lifts the learning bar.

What students are inquiring into matters – learning about the world should be awe-inspiring.  Across the day, I heard students discussing big ideas about how scientists work, about living things and lifecycles and about the power of a good story.  But alongside these investigations MUST be a simultaneous focus on what it means to learn.  As we explore the world around us – we can explore the world ‘within’. For the year three students, inquiring into their changing thinking became as fascinating as the beautiful story they viewed  on vimeo  -“The Way Back Home.”

 It is with such gratitude that I leave these children to continue my conversations with their teachers.  The privilege of watching and listening to learning nurtures us as we inquire – our follow up discussions  have us sharing our reflections, observations, our questions and our connections.  

When was the last time you deliberately teamed up to observe or share your teaching? How often do we invite each other into our classrooms as we teach?   How often do we take the time to inquire more closely and carefully into the work we do everyday – into our shared, core business.  As an inquiry teacher, I know that observing teaching and indeed being observed makes me  more mindful of what I do and why I do it.   It is within the act of teaching itself that I make my deepest connections.

How can we create more opportunities and more time for collaborative teacher inquiry in classrooms?

Just wondering….

..said no true inquiry teacher ever....

After years of publishing books and articles   - you would think that the relatively simple act of “blogging” would come naturally.  Strangely, like using twitter and facebook for professional purposes, I have been very slow to include blogging in my repertoire of professional communication vehicles.  For someone who loves writing, I have been curious as to why.

 I am starting to think that it has simply taken me a while to adjust to the different KIND of writing that a blog requires  - and indeed the different processes one goes through as a writer.   Writing and publishing a book is a slow and carefully crafted process.  The volume of writing, the editing and the partnership with a publisher makes the whole experience a deliberate and rather cautious experience.  Blogging– on the other hand – is more concise, more direct, less dependent on a fixed process and more immediate.  This requires risk and courage on the writer’s behalf.  The writing is also more ‘of the moment’ and personal. And after years of restrictive, academic writing – blogging has simply felt too loose.  This is a fascinating ‘blocker’ for someone who is passionately committed to inquiry which is all about risk taking!!!

 Anyway - I think I am getting over all that!  I have been pondering what is “blog worthy” compared to what is “book worthy” and although I am acutely aware of the blurring of boundaries that now exist between all forms of publishing - I am posting something I would never publish in a book.  It is a light hearted way to begin this blog and not intended to set the tone for the coming posts!

 “What a true inquiry teacher would never say” was inspired by a recent trend in the twittersphere  “#whatnoteachersaidever. “  That this trended so quickly was fascinating.

By highlighting the statements we would NOT hear from a teacher – tweeters around the world delighted in acknowledging the hard work and dedication of so many great teachers.  

 This also reminded me that in order to understand what something IS – it can help us to think about what it ISN’T.   I have used this technique many times with students:  Inevitably it is more fun to, for example, devise a role play to show the opposite of team work than it is to show what team work is.  

 So here’s some light-hearted musings on what I DON’T hear from the great inquiry teachers around the world with whom I am so fortunate to work:

 What  good inquiry teacher DON’T say…

 What a great planning session! We have 10 weeks worth of activities all mapped out.

 We do inquiry on Thursday afternoons and Tuesday mornings.

 Here is last year’s unit plan!  Let’s just use this.

 These kids have no real “experiences”

 Oh - I’ve “done”  inquiry learning.

 This is just what we were doing back in the 70’s/80’s/90’s. 

 I did inquiry-based teaching at my old school – it was their policy. I don’t do it.

here because it’s not the policy.

 My kids aren’t thinkers. They just can’t think!

 But what are we going to do for the portfolio?

I use inquiry learning with my top group. They are ready for it.

 I really love inquiry but sometimes I think we just have to TEACH.

 I think this worksheet will be a great way to get them thinking.

 I would do more inquiry-based stuff but we just don’t have time.

 These are the steps the kids go through. I use the same steps every time.

 Let’s each take one part of the cycle and plan some activities for it – then we can just pass them on to each other.

I just seem to have so much time on my hands.

 We won’t know what they’ve learned until they do this summative task.

 This is OK for older kids but the younger students need to be taught the basic skills.

That unit of inquiry was perfect.

 I would use inquiry if I didn’t have so much content to cover.

 That paper and pencil test was so useful.

 If there were more books they could actually read – then we could use an inquiry approach but we just  don’t have the resources for that kind of teaching.

 It’s not fair to teach this way and then send them to high school where they have to get used to text books and a more academic approach.

 We don’t do a unit in April - May because of the national testing.

 These kids need structure  - inquiry is too unstructured for them.

We don’t assess the skills and dispositions.  You can’t really.

 Every question got answered! Every wondering got addressed!

I’m going to teach the content first – so I know I’ve covered the curriculum. Then I give them time to do an inquiry project if we have time.  

 I need to find an activity for all the subject areas.  This topic should infuse my entire program.

 We have to focus on literacy and numeracy before we can get into inquiry learning.

Ahhhhhh….. That was actually rather therapeutic.  I wonder what you would add to the list? What do  these statements say about inquiry learning itself? 

If we know what something isn’t – maybe that’s a sign we know what it is.

 Just wondering.... 

Kath