Reflecting Forward

I write this as we have just finished our Reflecting Forward session on GEG UK. You can watch the recording here. I was in conversation with Daren, Shannon and Ian, who are all worth a follow if you are on Twitter. We discussed the importance and reflecting on our practise as educators. A few things came out that I wanted to share now.

Reflective practise is nothing new. When I did my teacher training I was encouraged to write my lesson reflections after the session on a proforma, this formed my evidence of meeting the required standards. I loved it. I loved celebrating the wins and I sadly, really loved trying to put a positive spin on the fails in my classroom. Those reflections helped me develop at a rapid pace as was required on my PGCE. I was fortunate to be on placement with a peer so we reflected together. Coincidently my peer lived local to me and we were able to car share to placement. Those car journeys became invaluable. Whilst teaching in the same department in a school of only 800 students we still struggled to see each other during the day. Different breaks and lunch duties, combined with we were very much used as supply cover, meant our paths rarely crossed. We would debrief with each other in the car on the way home and share our many failures of the day. We then learnt that there was a staff funded breakfast club (I'm not going to address the poverty divide of this time 10 years ago that has shifted very little in that time today, but I want to make the point, this was 10 years ago!) for the students so we started getting into work earlier to help feed the students. We were then mixing with colleagues from other departments and those reflective conversations with them shaped our days too. I remember a drama teacher sharing an ice breaker game that had gone well in her lesson. I immediately tried it with bottom set year 8 and we had a more productive lesson than the day before. I remember the languages teacher talking about call and response but asking students to pick the next respondent. I tried it with year 7 who were so excited to be active vs what I had done previously. Through those connections in breakfast club my practise changed, and many of those changes remain in my practise today.

Yet if you asked me at the time how I reflected, it was on the proforma from university with document ref TP4. I valued these connections and discussions but I didn't see them as my reflections, that was an isolating process done late at night before my assessor arrived. But which held more power and influence in my practise? Well both, the informal conversations informed my decisions and my reflections on the proforma. They were intertwined. In our GEG UK event we all concluded that these informal connections are important when reflecting. So how do I do this now I am more experienced?

When we were face to face we had a tiny cupboard office for all of us to drop bags off, eat lunch and plan sessions. It was a grim space visually. Planning happened in my classroom at the end of the day and I rarely went to the cupboard. But when I did it was to reflect. Mainly moan but actually reflect. 'I've just had group A and you will never guess what happened' someone would respond with 'I had them yesterday and they were the same' in that supportive comment I could immediately reflect and think the issues of my lesson were perhaps outside factors at play with the group. I would then individually reflect when I returned to my room and think, what can I do about it next time, how can I engage group A so that these external issues don't affect my lesson, how can I engage them more?

I was always a fan of scribbling over my lesson plans. The printed template of the school I was in would be beautifully planned, sequenced on a lovely piece of crisp paper in my plastic wallet on my desk throughout the lesson. Then after the lesson I would take it out of the wallet, and using a different coloured pen I would scribble and destroy it, proudly! I would scribble on each episode the initials of students who did or didn't engage well. I would annotate episodes we needed to go back over next lesson as it wasn't secure. I would star episodes that went well to remind me to praise them next lesson. It would be covered in annotations, arrows, stars, and big text to remind me of important things. That was my reflection and me learning from the experience of the lesson, planning what adjustments I was going to make for next lesson.

When lesson plans were no longer a mandatory requirement, when evidence of planning came in, I stopped using paper templates. As much as I enjoyed planning and reflecting, when time's tight anything that becomes optional is removed from my task list. We moved to mini schemes of work, the old units of work for a series of lessons with the main highlights being the planned episodes. These were printed out and popped in my plastic wallet on my desk and dutifully scribbled over after the lesson. Old habits die hard. When I became multi site these stopped being printed. But I still scribbled all over them, but this time via adding comments to the doc online. Selecting the episode and inserting a comment, after the lesson, with initials for those who needed a bit more on this and how I was planning to address it next lesson. Happily even my online units of work docs were hideously scribbled all over and rightly looked a mess with all my annotations.

I became multi site when I moved into an advanced, whatever work you use in your instution type role. Essentially a coaching and mentoring role for staff. I mention role and rank for the purposes of highlighting that I still choose to teach. I need to experience the ever changing spheres of the classroom, reflect and adapt in order to best support my colleagues and peers. If I fully moved into what I call trainer land, where everything exists beautifully on paper, my empathy for coachees would be affected. I need to live and breath the challenges of the classroom, at this time, in this institution to have my freshest thinking to share. 

This reflection is an isolating process. This blog today is an isolated process. Although it stemmed from a discussion with others I am reflecting on my own here and now. With the world as it is now we are seeking and valuing those connections even more. So how do we connect and reflect as a department, as a faculty? 

As a member of the collective #JoyFE we are all about seeking and practising joy in further education. FE is similar to community college in USA but has many differences too. In #JoyFE we celebrate the #Microjoys of the day. A #Microjoy is a joyful thing that happened. Looking at my experiences above, the car journeys with my peer would be a #Microjoy. The sharing of lesson reflections over the breakfast club too. Finding time to reflect and scribble on my lesson plans a #Microjoy aswell. How can we, as educators, reflect and celebrate those #Microjoys with our peers? 

The staffroom is the natural home for teacher reflections and #Microjoy celebrations in the face to face school. But with modern  buildings sacrificing staff areas for work zones these are dwindling. It has also been a challenge to replicate now we are online. There are weekly drop ins for staff to come and have a natter. Anecdotally I see these having various success from department to department even within institutions. The idea is lovely, someone is there to talk to and connect with. The challenge is we often exist in hierarchies and the person who is there to listen may sit in a different part of the hierarchy meaning participants may be reluctant to join or share. There are other challenges with this approach but for brevity we will move on. I have seen Google Classrooms created for resource sharing. These would lead to celebrations of good lessons and #Microjoys but those reflections on challenging lessons may not be captured in this format. Daily briefings. Whilst they help connect us, they again are not a space where we can reflect.

I have no magic answer but I see Flipgrid and Wakelet as 2 tools that may help. 

Flipgrid is a video tool where you can pose questions and respond. There are other features too. I have blogged many times about Flipgrid, especially as a tool for teacher reflection here. Encouraging teachers to share a short section of video from their lesson then inviting peers to comment and reflect with them would be a fascinating experience. We have trialled it and my learnings are, staff are fearful of judgement and staff pick their best episodes. Personally I have no problem with staff picking their best bits, it shows they have the self reflection to identify what's good and what isn't which is a key skill. Staff being uncomfortable and not wanting to engage is harder to overcome. In our GEG UK talk Daren talked about the need to disconnect from the experience in order to reflect on it. It tied in with the discussion of discomfort on Shannon's 3CCs podcast here. But what about using Flipgrid to replicate that staffroom reflection?

Staff could record their reflections on their lesson, good and bad, on to Flipgrid. That's where I could have put my 'I've just had group A and you will never guess what happened' my colleague could reply via video or comments sharing their experience with Group A too. Although distant and apart as colleagues we could reflect together. But I am mindful that video isn't for everyone. This is where Wakelet comes in for me. Staff could type reflections, essentially mini blog, on Wakelet and those who want to use video can use the built in Flipgrid video feature in Wakelet. We are giving teachers a choice in the method of how they want to reflect. Staff can share resources via Wakelet moving the Google Classroom #Microjoy celebration space into the Wakelet too. You can also put a wakelet within a wakelet. You could have one for #Microjoys,  one for lesson reflections that have led to further questions and a need for support. Or staff could have their own private Wakelet to reflect across all the options above. If they choose to share they can add their Wakelet to the team or department Wakelet. I've a rough example wakelet here that showcases my ideas. 

Reflecting Forward -  https://wke.lt/w/s/7zv87f

Ultimately a pen and paper may be the tool of choice for reflections, learning from these experiences as we exponentially develop our online teaching skills should be reflected upon and celebrated as #Microjoys. 

Teaching Online - Part 6 Asynchronous

This has been a long journey. The longest adaptation and reflection I have put into my teaching since, well, forever. It has been a labour of love progressing my ideas and helping my students. We didn't get it right every lesson, we have 'lost' teaching time in trying new things. Yet I am happy to have modelled for them, modelled learning, modelled critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaborated with them. So how does it look now? Now we have Google Forms using go to section based on answer (branching logic in Microsoft Forms) for each episode of the lesson. I record my teacher talk for each episode, input it into the form. Offer them an alternative video from YouTube, so that they have a choice. I offer them a short quiz on Study Maths or a quiz on Maths Kitchen. I give them another choice. They reflect against the learning intentions throughout the form and submit evidence of their work, screenshot via file upload. Each episode is in a Google Forms. All the episodes are housed in a single Hyperdoc. 

My first week of this approach I waited, I had to force myself not to peek to early at the form responses. Eventually I looked. I looked 2 days before the deadline and guess what, the majority had done the work! I was over the moon! All the individual episodes in the Google Forms pull into one Google Sheet, each one on a different tab.

 The sheet reads like a book, I eagerly turn the pages and switch tabs to see the progress happening in the lesson! I have conditionally formatted it so if a student indicates they need help it goes red. There are no red entries! I take the register early, I am only missing 1 students work, all but 1 have done the lesson 2 days before it is due. I look further, they all did it at different times. Some 7am workers, some 10pm workers, they are learning at their convenience, when it works for them. 

I have spoken before about the importance I placed on building community with this group of learners. This included a group chat on Google Chat, it could be a channel on Microsoft Teams. I dip in to see what's been in the chat over the weekend. And there it is, the community I helped create. There are questions about how to access some materials that another student has answered. I see questions about how to tackle the more challenging episode, a student has responded recommending the alternative video I included from YouTube. A student has asked how to put powers into their calculator, another student has replied with a picture annotated for them of what to press. They are collaborating, communicating and helping each other learn. My favourite part of the chat are the honest pleas that it is hard, maths is challenging, but that the group rallies to pick each other up and they are supportive. I recognise mine are a group of adults but they are very mixed in ages and the younger students are only 19, I believe I could replicate this to some degree with 16-18 learners.

Lesson day comes and I log on for the one to one's that students have booked with me. Overwhelmingly the feedback is positive about the asynchronous approach. I then move to the main meeting. I had scheduled 45 minute workshops on each of the episodes. There was the 1 student who hadn't done their work. I joined 2 minutes late and the realisation had already happened, they had missed my Google Chat messages, my Google Classroom posts and my emails all on the plan for the week. They were apologetic and we moved on. In the workshop I modelled examples and set questions via the chat, snipping parts of questions and pasting them into a Jamboard.

I am directly substituting that part of the lesson where I do board work and we collaboratively solve or I model a correct answer. That part of the lesson where learners have done some work, we've marked it and we have identified common misconceptions or common errors. The beauty of doing this online is that it takes a second to snip a question and paste it into the Jamboard (any whiteboard software would do, whiteboard.fi, classroom screen, zoom etc) in real life I am stood there for what feels like an age copying questions out onto the board, losing learning time and board space making my answer area smaller. Secondly I can quickly find a new set of questions either in my drive or online to apply what learners have covered in a new context. In real life there is a delay with this in the classroom. We are saving learning time now being online. Plus, and this is a big plus, I am not spending an age photocopying booklets. Winning on saving paper and winning on saving time. Those who need materials in yellow or green can easily and discreetly turn that on (noverlay is a great example in chrome) and when I find extra work or set different work to what was planned they are included.

I am now adding value. I am modelling. I am explaining. Learners are expanding answers, applying to new contexts. Helping each other with little hints and tips. I can stretch the learners on. Focusing on each episode for 45 minutes means that learners dip in and out. We have a lovely 2 minutes at the start of each workshop for those leaving and those arriving saying hi and bye. This isn't lost time, this is valuable community time. This is lovely for me to be part of. 

We are now 2 weeks in to this model. Learner feedback is overwhelmingly positive. All now prefer this asynchronous approach. All check in with me during the week, via email, hangouts chat or messages on Google Classroom. I don't ask for this, but they choose to let me know how it is going, which is beautiful. The workshops are attended by 3 regulars who are the weakest based on recent assessment data, I am pleased that without intervention from me they have chosen to stay close. Then the rest ebb and flow. Sometimes I have 8 in a workshop, sometimes I have 5. We wouldn't cover misconceptions with all of our learners every lesson, we would differentiate and target and I am pleased that this has naturally happened through this model. 

One to one's are consistently snapped up by different learners who need different things. I feared I would be repeating or modelling the same questions or topics across all the one to ones but this hasn't happened. I am taking this that the topics I have chosen to cover in the workshops have been appropriate. Now we are further on I have added in another workshop specifically called challenge workshop. In this workshop I move the learning on to the next level applying to new contexts. A specific example is when we were doing ratio the challenge workshop covered those no starting point questions that require a bit of algebra. These are the best attended sessions. The majority of learners come to these apart from my 3 who attend every session usually, because they feel it isn't right for them at this time to take on the challenge. I respect that awareness. 

I wanted to share some recent feedback from learners. 

"I'm having my tea whilst you do this, I'm OK with the topic but I got stuck on question 7 and I knew you would cover something like that tonight so I've dipped in and out, thanks I'm all sorted now" 

"See when you do it I'm alright but when I'm on my own I panic. I need this class and the doing work myself to make it sink in."

"I like to do it when you set it and then come along so I've had time to kind of forget it you know, then coming here I remember it and I get it more" 

"Honestly I hate ratio but now I get it, can't believe I've spent so long not doing it at work" 

"You just get it, it's hard fitting it all in with work and kids and you make it OK for me to do it when I can" 

"I couldn't do a proper class and be all shy and that, here I'm OK to say what I want to ask" 

There's so much in these quotes. The unintended application of retrieval practise. I hadn't planned that this would be an outcome. Yet the reality of me setting the work asynchronously and 6 days later hosting a workshop has naturally created that spaced practise and I am excited to look at this more. I knew the benefits of asynchronous for working parents would be huge but I wasn't expecting the safety of the smaller numbers. By offering optional workshops that learners self select the numbers are smaller meaning those who are usually less confident feel able to speak. This has huge power and potential for me to explore as a means for engaging reluctant learners and I am keen to evaluate this more. 

Yet this isn't all perfect. Massively I miss hearing from all of my learners and that control. I decide their learning and here I am handing huge chunks of that over to them to manage. I recognise that this is the future and it is the best approach for them, yet its new to me and I am learning to let go! 

The biggest drawback of this model is my time. I've gone from being a well organised experienced teacher with a bunch of lessons ready to go and therefore only light planning in face to face classes to this. And the time taken to plan for this cannot be underestimated. I have multiple channels of communication to manage. Learners are messaging on hangouts chat, on classroom, via email. They need replying to and there is an urge for me to drop what I'm doing to help and reply immediately, I am working on managing this better! The time to plan has been reduced somewhat now I can copy the forms I am using and the Hyperdoc and change the links each week, yet to make the videos for each episode takes time that cannot be cut down. A 15 minute learning episode takes 5 minutes of me talking for input, perhaps some editing, then curation of resources to go with that. The 15 minute episode takes 20-30 minutes to plan. The workshops need planning for too, granted not for input but curation of resources. Snipping of images. A 45 minute workshop is taking 10 minutes to plan. One to one's take time, they can't be cut. So in a week of 4 learning episodes I'm taking an hour to plan. Then 3 workshops is another 30 minutes planning. On top of that is the time for managing communications, let's assume 20 minutes over the week. The one to one's are 15 minutes each and I will do 4 of those, another hour. The delivery of the workshops, 3 lots of 45 minutes. We are at 60+30+20+60+45+45+45 we are at over 5 hours for what was once a 3 hour lesson face to face, which would have had minimal planning. That's before marking which would always be outside lesson time anyway. I love spending my 5 hours doing this weekly but is it sustainable long term? Yes if I am given the 5 hours to do it. 

I can see huge potential in this but it will rely on teachers being given the time to do so. Not just in terms of the 5 hours vs 3 hours a week but in terms of the journey I have been on. What works for me might not work for your class. That's the beauty fo teaching, trialling new ways and reflecting and adapting. We need to be trusted by managers to be given space to explore. 

This has been an amazing journey that I have enjoyed reflecting on here, I hope its showed that things don't always work, we need to reflect and adapt but that's why we love the job right?