AP connect and me

Let's start with where I was at professionally back in 2019. I was a brand new Advanced Practitioner (AP) in a large college group supporting teaching and learning with an EdTech focus and was 2 years into the role. Problem was I had taken 9 months off for maternity leave. Work, as in immediate team, had been great, really helped me out. But I have to be honest my confidence was low. Sure, I had become an AP but quickly that impostor had crept in and then I had gone off. I was just coming back and I was asked to apply to AP connect. Detailing my aims for being on the project and how I plan to share my work. That application was a task in itself that took me some serious thinking to do. I remember being in a park with my kids writing it on my phone. The epitomy of mum life.

I was accepted onto AP connect whilst on maternity and when I returned I was asked to catch up. The overwhelm was more overwhelming than an overwhelming overwhelm you have ever seen! I had a frantic call with one of the programme leads to catch me up and as brilliant as that was I was very much overwhelmed. Like I said my immediate team had been brilliant and my colleague invited me in to what he was doing and slowly I was grasping the part I could play. Then I was asked to go to a full day conference for AP connect in Birmingham, not local! I'm not going to lie, the stress of juggling baby, toddler, work and travel meant I was exhausted long before the day! The day came and the most horrendous weather came (people trapped in floods as in trapped in shopping centres) and all I wanted to do was go home. But my colleague was a real pro at managing and helping me through my wobbles and off we went. 

I arrived to meet Dr Lou Mycroft and a hug. A real hug, then and there I could have quite easily broken down and needed a million people to piece me back together. The day was brilliant from then on in. Power and influence analysis of our teams and organisations. How can we, as APs, lead and influence? Where can we research and reflect on our practice or the practice we are observing in others? What are the elements of an AP role? Then I met the thinking environment. Where everyone thinks as equals. Role, rank and ego are left at the door. We used it to explore an issue an AP was having and how we might help them resolve it. It was there, in that moment, that I knew why I was on AP connect. I was there to use my voice to help others, that was my role, and AP connect was giving me the tools to do that.

My confidence grew as I had new tools to adopt when I returned. It grew even more when APs asked for video calls with me to share what I was doing at our college and other APs wanted to learn from us. My confidence grew in that I knew I had a network of people that I could ring and ask that daft question to. The questions I didn't dare ask at work! Also the questions where I could anticipate my colleges response and actually I wanted to know another college's response to use in driving that conversation at work. I began using social media. As a total novice my colleague created a team account for us. Told you he was great at helping me. My confidence was growing but no way was it high enough to do social media, what did I have to share that was of note?

Social media grew and that network of colleges grew. As did my confidence again. AP connect had sparked something in me. Sparked so much that when Google innovator applications came around I put one in, me, I put an application in! I was selected (there were 75 ish globally that year) had I not done Google innovator I would never have ended up working in EdTech as a freelancer and had I not done AP connect I would never have applied for Google innovator! Social media grew again from this and I learned about #JoyFE. I became part of JoyFE. Actually without realising I had met some of JoyFE face to face at AP connect in Birmingham! 

JoyFE is a group of educators changing education, focussed on bringing joy. Weekly, the thinking environment happens in an ideas room. That Wednesday weekly ideas room was the place I could explore some of my ideas, how I wanted to do things at work, and others would help shape and form ideas. Sometimes people wanted to collaborate on ideas and next thing I knew I was in other colleges speaking and or training on maths or EdTech. I wouldn't have been able to do this had I not joined JoyFE and I wouldn't have heard of nor had the confidence to join were it not for AP connect.

We then arrive in 2022 (I feel like 2020-2022 blur and merge for me) and I was taking the decision to leave my college and go freelance. As a nervous soul this was a huge deal. But what I knew was that my values didn't align with the work I was being asked to do. I knew that others valued my opinions externally. I knew that I had changed what I could at college and that I could have wider impact as a freelancer. How did I know all these things? I knew them because I had learned from AP connect about influence and power. I was able to recognise my high influence externally, low influence internally and the power of my college and the limited ability I had to make any more changes. I had learned to find my voice. I had learned on AP connect the power of networks and collaboration. So that was it freelance was the life for me.

Early in my freelance days Joss from Touch Consulting (delivery partner on AP connect) called me to ask me to work with Touch Consulting. Not only was this a yes as it was one of my first interested parties but it was an easy yes as I knew my values aligned. We worked on some projects and I was eternally grateful to be working with a team that held the same values and worked in a joyful manner. Then I was asked to work on AP connect. Me, a graduate of the programme, to now facilitate it. What a perfect circle. I often say AP connect made me, me! I could now share this with new APs.

My mentees were from all over the UK and we happily bundled straight in to easful conversations. I am a person who if a DM comes in I get quite stressed. Yet the DMs from mentees were joyful. Me, they were asking, me for ideas and support. Of course I would love to help. 6/7pm phone calls to help APs navigate tricky situations. Facilitating the Festival Fridays schedule and booking inspirational speakers to share, all joyful experiences.

But this is where AP connect is truly brilliant. What did I learn as a facilitator on the programme? I learned that the stress I feel in time pressure situations dissippates when values align. If what you are doing, is really helping someone, I don't mind if that's taken my evening, made me break off from a project to take a call or led me to an email chain of epic proportions. It doesn't cause me stress when it is helping someone else. I also learned that if you ask, people often say yes. I approached some big names for the festival Fridays workshops and everyone said yes to me. They said yes because they too could see the values of AP connect. The values that everyone is learning collaboratively always.

This year's mentees projects ranged from coaching at work to embedding maths to action research. I adored and absorbed it all! One mentee made specialist resources for students with additional needs. All these APs were, and always, go the extra mile. So it is sad that AP connect has ended, sad that I will no longer be involved, but that is a selfish sad. It hasn't ended as a way of working, networks are established, slack channels are launched, APs want to and will keep connecting and collaborating. APs are still and will continue to drive change in their organisations. Us old mentors are only a DM away. That collaborative rhizomatic way of working continues when values align.

I firmly belief AP connect made me who I am today. Showing me where my values lie, giving me the tools to make changes. Helping me find my voice and grow in confidence. I am very pleased I was able to play a small part this year and set others on this path too. Long live AP connect.

Building Communities Online ish

Relationships play a key part in what I do. As a professional and as a teacher. What I love is getting to know, and helping people. I recently presented at Canopy Live on building communities online. This is a session I trimmed down from a full day's training that Dr Lou Mycroft and myself offer colleges and schools ( happily discuss more about this with anyone interested, anytime). We talk about the practice of care in what we do and making people feel valued.

Forgive me for forgetting where I heard it, but the saying, you haven't arrived in the room until you have spoken. How do we create that culture of safety for students to feel that they have arrived and able to speak?

In the #JoyFE #IdeasRooms the opening round is always 'How are you?' This is a perfect way to arrive in the space, everyone feels valued, everyone is heard, no pity party is held but pain is acknowledged. And sometimes we need to say we are not OK and for that to be acknowledged for us to start to feel better. yet when teaching, this is a question I tread very carefully with. It is not that my students are worth less than my colleagues who I share this caring practice with. It is that I want my students to feel safe.

We know teenage years are incredibly awkward for many, we have lived them after all. If I were not OK when I was 16 and my maths teacher asked how I was, I am not sure what my answer would have been. possibly, 'yeah fine', and move on to the next person or maybe 'actually I'm unwell and I really need help because I have recently experienced X'. The first answer worries me as a teacher. I want my students to feel that they can talk to me about anything. I really do. How do I know when they are fobbing me off and saying they are fine when they are not? How do I unpick that as a teacher who sees them once a week? But it is the second answer that concerns me most.

A few weeks ago I was teaching online and I asked my students my own version of a question that welcomes them into a space. (Secret revealed shortly, hold on!) In the chat box came all the answers from my students and I commented on them as they came in. Then a student posted, "I've got the rona." 

When you ask "How are you?" You have to be prepared for the raw, honest and hurtful response that you may hear. You have asked how the other person is, and they are choosing to share. You can't preempt that response, therefore you cannot regulate your emotions to what is about to come your way. You are open and vulnerable to what is coming, you made your position clear when you asked "How are you?" Whilst vulnerability is brave and respected it is not a naturally comfortable position.

So what did I do with my ill student? I (rightly or wrongly) offered empathy, offered support and offered them a breakout room to chat more. Their reply was "nah, it's just having to isolate that does me in" 

What my student wanted was for how they are feeling to be acknowledged, they didn't need any help at that time. It is wonderful that I am aware and I can offer support for them in other classes and check on their health in a follow up message later. But they weren't annoyed at having Covid-19, they were annoyed at having to isolate. This then prompted a lengthy 15 minute chat between students about how isolation was causing havoc with their work and personal lives outside college. 

Honestly, as an adult, these were not the concerns that I was expecting. But this is what we do, we expect certain behaviours from students. Prensky (like or loathe the term digital native and immigrant) talks about how teachers need to communicate in the language of students. I struggle with a lot of what Prensky wrote in that piece but I think there is something in our expectations as teachers vs what students reactions. I am not talking about inappropriate behaviour nor refusing to engage with work. I am talking about how we, as adults, think along one path and students may think along another. How we expect students to respond to "How are you?" and how they choose to respond may be different.

So what do I do? I ask a random question that falls into my head. My previous top 10 hits have included asking "favourite sci-fi film?" "Pepsi or Cola?" "Best size of Easter egg?" "Favourite Christmas song?"

What am I trying to do? I am trying to welcome my students into the space by asking an extremely low stakes question. I can then engage with responses and hopefully build rapport. They have arrived in the space once they have spoken. This started off with good intentions and has been well received. So much so that with a returning student (a student who didn't achieve their target grade and is being compelled by law to resit again) said when introducing me to our new class together "You will like her, she asks all sorts of questions to get us going, she is funny like"

Move over SPaG, MATH is on the scene

I am writing this following our event Opportunities for FE English and maths #FEconnect cutt.ly/FEmathsEng. We opened the day with a discussion between Jonny Kay (https://twitter.com/jonnykayteacher) and myself guided by Lou Mycroft (https://twitter.com/LouMycroft). During the discussion I suggested a whole college marking policy for maths. Most likely colleges have one for SPaG but possibly not maths. Why not?

We spend a lot of time in FE, and we used to in schools when I was in them, trying to put English and maths front and centre. Jonny and I argued that co teaching and collaboration should happen across disciplines in colleges. If Pythagoras is being taught in the vocational area, maths staff need to share how they would teach it and a consistent approach to be taken across the college. We carefully craft policies for every eventuality and we may even have a maths marking policy and code, but what do we do in our day to day tasks to support the development of maths?

I remember maths stairs being a necessity, an equation revealed or a fact to be recalled as you ascend. Yet when the same students answers maths problems in hair and beauty there was no consistent maths marking to help build connections to the maths qualification they were studying. SPaG policies and marking codes are almost a given, common currency transferable between institutions. If you arrive at a new school or college you can guess 'SP' probably means spelling mistake in work maybe even '//' is new paragraph. This currency of whole college and school marking has become the norm for English. Some have moved away and things will always shift though.

In researching this blog post I lost hours on an image search of whole school marking policy. Lots of // and SP and P. All familiar to me. One post I read said that the marking policy must be printed in size A1 in the classroom so that all teachers adhere to it! I remember in my NQT re-marking a set of books that I had marked in the wrong shade of green and I was terrified my mentor would tell me off. They didn't; but they did point out that my students were using the wrong coloured pens for reflections. I'm not proposing maths teachers head down this route, but a more unified marking code may help bring maths out in other areas more to be celebrated.

The EEF found that there was little difference of impact of teacher using coded Vs non-coded marking, as long as students knew what the codes meant. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/evidence-reviews/written-marking/. They suggested that time can be saved for teacher in using coded marking. Maybe this is why SPaG took off, everyone has or had one, each with a nuance for their institution.

What I can't let go of though is a maths code. I know in primary I have seen some use of maths marking codes in my local area. I haven't seen it in secondary (granted not visited very secondary school around and would love to be shown successful examples). In colleges I haven't seen it either. Again if you are successfully using a maths marking code please share your experiences, I am keen to learn.

I often say we are the double glazing sales people of education as maths teachers. Everyone needs windows but they are reluctant to pay (put the effort in) for them. I know this is a generalisation, though, but I hope that you get my meaning. We are on the back foot from the beginning. We talk a lot about embedding maths in other subjects. Julia Smith (https://twitter.com/tessmaths) (on our podcast e-m-booth.site) suggests that my embedding maths we are pushing it down and squeezing it in. Julia suggests we should be enhancing out maths in other subjects. I think she is on to something.

In vocational subjects that tokenistic embedding of maths can happen. 

"When we look at graphs of data maths will be embedded in this unit of work."

Great, graphs, perfect! What I always say is, ask that next question. What does the data tell you? What would happen if the outliers were removed from the sample? What percentage of success can you assume from this data? Whenever I talk about embedding (or enhancing) maths I want staff to ask that extra question. Conversely, those not taking a tokenistic approach maybe actually teaching units that involve serious calculations. Think about the calculations needed in electrical engineering or motor vehicle or catering. These calculations will be being taught in colleges, but then we may encounter another conflict. The methods chosen might not be the methods used by the maths department. Who has checked for consistency of message? Who is looking out for the interests of the students here? Imagine being taught ratio one way by your vocational tutor (I have 4 ratio methods that my students regularly come to class with from school!) and the next day being taught it another way by your maths tutor? This could easily happen. Consistency is key.

Move over SPaG MATH is on the scene.

M - clear method used

A - accuracy in the stages of calculation

T - task met

H - Work is set out in a clear, legible manner.

Anytime there is maths being used in work, this code can be applied. In vocational subjects that have maths, in study skills sessions that cover maths, in maths lessons. There can be a consistent message. Adding in here for progression from functional skills to GCSE, consistent message is also key to supporting students in feeling settled. This MATH message suggested is also consistent to GCSE and functional skills marking codes as well.

GCSE and functional skills maths have coded marking too. M for method is common currency as is A for accuracy. The setting out of work is key skill we, as maths teachers, push. The examiner wants to award marks (trust me I examine for an awarding body) but only if they can follow the working out. High standards of the setting out of work is not only a great study skill; it is important when submitting work to be marked externally, which probably isn't just happening in students' maths subject but in their vocational subject also.

The time saved by teachers in marking using a code, as the EEF (ref above) found, is worth considering. Time saving, wherever found, should be explored. The MATH marking code, as I suggest, may save time and deliver a more consistent student experience. I would also include the movement to a coded policy could enhance the student experience further as it moves away from tick and flick. 

A tick at the end of the work doesn't tell a student what was good. Likewise a X at the end doesn't explain what or where they went wrong. I would love feedback to be given to inform students on every piece of work but we have to be mindful of teacher workload. I'm not going to stray into the difficulties in students receiving quality feedback, that might be another blog. A coded policy may be a handy bridge between tick and flick to full feedback, whilst also bringing focus on maths across all subject areas too.

In this example, the method and answer are correct but the setting out of work is wrong. There is no 24 x 37 = 888 but task met has been awarded as we can imply that is what was meant by the student. The method chosen hasn't been accurately applied, the 24 should have been where 88 is and 888 should arrive on the left hand side. I have indicated where the high standards also applies with the formation of 2 in 28. This may seem harsh to non maths specialists but these are the margins that can cause grades to change. Exam papers are scanned into a computer system to be externally marked for GCSE. Clarity is a key skill required. Opinions on this are all valid but these are the facts and the job of the maths teacher is to prepare students for their final exam, as it stands.

This is a paint mixing example from motor vehicle. Here the method is sound but there are errors in following through with numbers so A is not awarded. It is nearly set out and so H is awarded but the task hasn't been met as the final answer is incorrect and T isn't given. I can vision student reflecting on this and seeing that they have made mistakes within their working out using this code and seeking further guidance, or a teacher initiated discussion around the errors. The code is not the end of the journey but hopefully a consistent and speedy way to promote maths and high standards across colleges.

In this example the method is sound, there is accuracy throughout until the final stage which has meant the final answer is incorrect. H wasn't awarded as there is a mis-alignment of the expanded bracket and the =44. 

I think M sits well, is there a sound method being used? A, is the student accurate in their application of the chosen method? T, have they answered the question that the teacher set them correctly? H, does the work read easily?

I have tried, unsuccessfully at a college previously, to embed this marking code. The college had a whole college numeracy marking code and didn't want to change. That code wasn't used by staff, it wasn't reviewed, it wasn't on A1 printouts on the walls (maybe that's where it fell down?) And it was a full page long. It had numeracy, processing, shape all included. For example, of drawing shapes must be done with a ruler. That awarded the [] mark on the code. 0 indicated correct order of digits. You get the idea. It was lengthy and not shared regularly, most importantly it wasn't led from the front. Was it a policy to grab if OfSTED asked if they had one maybe?

What I'm suggesting here is a brief whole college marking code. Wherever calculations are used they are marked the same way. Consistency of message aligned to GCSE and functional skills maths marking codes. But it must be led, it can't be assumed others will follow it, maths needs pushing to the top of the agenda! If college resit results are to improve, something has to change. If you have a SPaG marking code do you have a maths one too? I would love to know more, is it commonly used, is it equally used as much as SPaG?

And if you don't maybe you might consider applying my MATH example?

Context whole links included to be more accessible rather than hyperlinked behind a word of text. I am a consultant to colleges on their teaching and learning, EdTech and embedding of maths; whilst still teaching GCSE maths in an FE college.