Deb Weston agency, Challenging Topics, Constant Learning, General, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education, Mentorship, Professional Judgement, Professional Learning and Growth, Resilience, self reflection, wellness

Getting Past “The 5 Year Wall”

wall peek

As a new elementary teacher, I believed I would really know what I was doing after 5 years of practice. After 5 years in my previous careers, I could handle just about anything. I had 8 years experience as a student in elementary school. And, yes, I had watched my elementary teachers teach. I thought, “How hard can it be?” I figured after 5 years of teaching, working long hours after and on weekends, I’d be able to relax a bit.

But back then, I was very naive.

There was a lot about teaching I did not know or even consider. I did not count on having to switch grade levels every year for the first 5 years of my practice. I thought I’d have readily available teacher resources. I did not know that teachers spent a great deal of their own money to stock their classrooms with supplies and books. Nor did I realize I would be expected to implement waves of educational initiatives within a year of introduction. Further, I had not considered having students functioning at grade levels below the grade I was teaching or dealing with special education needs with little or no support. In addition, I did not know how to deal with students who had behaviour issues – in my first week of teaching grade 8, a student threw a chair at me. I also was hoping to get support and mentorship from my teacher colleagues, which at the time was not always forthcoming. My teacher education had not prepared me for all of this.

So I pushed forward by working hard and doing the best for my students. I took courses that I thought would fill in some gaps, which helped a bit. I solicited curriculum support from my colleagues and spent a great deal of time talking to my peers about my classroom challenges. My colleagues were very helpful and I absorbed as much wisdom as I could from my tenured peers.

Then it happened. I hit “The 5 Year Wall”. After 5 years of teaching, I thought I’d know more and feel more effective in my practice. I thought my lesson plans should be going the way I planned them. I thought that my classroom management would be awesome by this time. Instead, I was left with feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction in myself as a teacher. I thought, maybe if I worked harder, I would feel more effective; I was so disappointed in myself.

But because I was very committed and dedicated to becoming a great teacher, I moved forward facing many challenges. I continued to seek support and mentorship from my colleagues. My collaborative collegial support proved to have the biggest impact on my practice. My colleagues saved me from my professional dissolution.

Then something else happened. Around my 7th and 8th year of teaching, I started to feel my levels of self-efficacy and self-confidence rising. I started to finally feel like I knew what I was doing … most of the time. At 7+ years of teaching, I still faced challenges with switching grades. I realized that educational initiatives did not always stick. Lack of continued resource support or the introduction of a “new” initiative, often meant the end to last year’s latest innovation. Having students with multiple functioning levels and needs was a classroom norm. My teacher skin grew thicker when dealing with student and parent issues. I realized that lesson plans were made to be adapted to address the students’ needs, not the teachers. After 8 years of practice, I really started to enjoy teaching.

While researching, I discovered that my experience of building professional confidence and self-efficacy was supported in the literature. In the British VITAE study of 300 teachers in 100 schools, authors Day, Sammons, Stobart, Kingston, and Gu (2007) showed that teachers’ levels of confidence and self-efficacy continue to grow until around the 7 year mark. After 8 years, teachers reached a significant turning point in their professional development (Day et al., 2007).

I thought about what made this 7 year mark so significant. Then a friend mentioned that in the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell stated that in order to master any skill  it takes “to a large extent, a matter of practicing … for a total of around 10,000 hours” (Gladwell, 2008).  I did the calculations and the 7 year mark correlated with about 10,000 hours of teaching practice. This made sense because teaching is a complex and challenging profession and as a result it takes over 7 years to develop high levels of professional efficacy. Further to this, as teachers’ professional knowledge grows, so does their professional judgement.

Well into my 8th year of teaching I noticed several new teachers experiencing high levels of professional frustration. Some of these teachers were so distressed they regretted becoming teachers. Some were thinking of leaving the profession. Remembering my own frustration, I reached out to my novice colleagues. I told them about The 5 Year Wall. In my following years of teaching, I have talked many novice teachers off the ledge of The 5 Year Wall. Sometimes there were tears. Sometimes there were daily pep talks. Sometimes there were weekly meetings at a well known coffee shop. After my years of collegial mentorship and support, my colleagues have become excellent teachers.

So if a new teacher talks to you about their professional frustration, tell them about The 5 Year Wall. Tell them to hang in for the next few years so they can reach their professional turning point in year 8. Support them with your mentorship and listen to their concerns. Because in isolation, there are no colleagues to inspire novice teachers with ideas or to suggest resources/strategies or to support them when it’s really needed. And even as an 18 year plus teacher, I thank my colleagues for all the mentorship, collaboration, and support they continue to give me, every day.

I believe that when working collaboratively, teachers are better together.

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

 

References

Day, C., Sammons, P., Stobart, G., Kingston, A., & Gu, Q. (2007). Teachers matter: Connecting lives, work and effectiveness. Maidenhead, UK: Open University

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. Hachette UK.

Will Gourley Challenging Topics, General, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health, Standardized testing, wellness

Speaking of immovable objects

Here’s an open ended question for your classroom or next staff meeting.

Q: What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?

I love asking questions like this. They tend to force people to engage a different set of neurons to come up with the answer(s). Usually, the room gets quiet at first, but then what follows can be quite rich and edifying.

Did images of the universe collapsing upon itself come to mind? Were Neutrinos, light energy, and dark matter dancing destructively in your mind? Nice, but this is not a Science blog. I predict nothing happens. This seems to be the most simple answer I can conjure. Especially, when neither entity can be stopped or moved. Let the exchange of ideas begin. This is what I strive to achieve in my classroom.

Lately, something has interrupted our flow. Again.

Fill in the blank.

It’s the most __________________ time of the year.

a) Wonderful (b) Hectic (c) Incredible (d) Stressful (e) All of the above

Here’s a snapshot from last week in my own incredibly hectic and quasi-stressed out classroom.
Tuesday: Students come to school under a cloud of distraction and worry over the provincial government’s mandatory standardized test EQAO. So I prescribed a Math test to get their minds off of the days ahead.

Wednesday to Friday: EQAO testing delivered over 3 days in 6 x 100 minute periods. Followed by a decision to provide 100 minutes of movement time each of those afternoons. After sitting at their desks writing assessments, which are as long as some high school tests, my grade 6 students earned the right to move around. So to the gym and outdoors we fled. Unless Participaction and Ophea are lying to us, an active body leads to a healthy mind and the two are inextricably connected because they add up to happy learners.

EQAO17

Movers and groovers

If we are truly differentiating education to support all learners in Ontario, then why is the standardized assessment basically a read and respond test? How are the needs of all learners honoured here? When will kinesthetic, musical, visual/spatial, and inter-personal learners get their rightful moments to shine? And then there are the students who suffer from anxiety regardless of their incredible skills.

Anxiety is one thing parents and schools do not need to teach students.

Q: Why do so many students come to school worried about this test?
A: They’ve learnt it at home, and then they’re learning it in school.

This revelation comes from an informal poll taken over 8 years of teaching students in grade 6, many, who feel their families put pressure on them over EQAO, and also that the school intentionally or inadvertently perpetuates in the classroom in Grades 3 and 6 does the same.

Despite repeated assurances that EQAO is a meaningless test, with regards to their report cards and chances of getting into university, students and their families are still laying a lot of emotional eggs into this basket. For whose benefit, then, do tests like these really serve? In my neighbourhood it appears to be increasingly financial as homes in “high achieving” schools like Markham and Unionville are in constant demand on the real estate market.  No pressure. 

Think of the money

Are parents sub-consciously stressing children over EQAO scores to influence their property values? Say it isn’t so. Each year on meet the parent night in September, the test is front and centre on the agenda of many in attendance. With some time and clear information, many of their concerns are acknowledged and addressed. However, 8 months into another year, there are still remnants of confusion in the general public. Recent correlations between house prices and test scores are adding fuel to this fire?

So how can you help students overcome test anxiety? Last year I shared some of my strategies. Below you’ll find some others to choose from and build on;

a) Give them lots of tests and worksheets to build up students’ test-taking immune systems? This is a classic technique from the Drill and Kill Society of Educators. This would not be my personal strategy to share, but it is still widely in use. It is easily rationalized with, “Life is a test” and “Everything is a test.” To which I reply, “Life’s tests are, at least, meaningful.”
b) Develop strategies for answering questions? This involves a plan. I always suggest reading the questions over 2 or 3 times while highlighting the key points, skipping questions to revisit afterwards helps students to get past feeling stuck, double checking calculations helps make sure all steps were followed along the way, and re-reading answers afterwards for evidence of understanding. These techniques help students to a point, but are not test taking cure-alls.
c) You could also build higher order-thinking skills that apply understanding, knowledge, application, and evaluation into every response?
d) Don’t forget to look after your body. Drink water, have a snack, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and repeat motivational axiom of your choice. You got this.

Our corner

What did we do to prepare? Nothing. No sheet of paper was harmed in preparation for EQAO in my class. I posted some links to the EQAO homepage via our class web site at the beginning of the year after a parent requested them. Other than that, it’s been a beautiful year of asking engaging questions, interleaving concepts*, and opportunities to develop/use critical thinking in every aspect of the learning lives.

Let me know what strategies you use in the classroom to combat standardized test fatigue. Please share in the comments section and keep the conversation going. Thank you.

* More on Interleaving via http://www.greatmathsteachingideas.com/2015/02/01/building-interleaving-and-spaced-practice-into-our-pedagogy/

Mike Beetham Challenging Topics, General, Making a Difference Through Education, solidarity, wellness

Building Better Schools Forum

What does a healthy classroom look like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like when you enter through the classroom door? I recently had the opportunity to be a part of our local ETFO’s Building Better Schools Forum in Kitchener. It is an initiative by our provincial office to engage parents, guardians and community members in helping shape the direction of elementary schools in our province (http://www.buildingbetterschools.ca/the_plan ).

I was part of a three-member panel that was made up of a social worker professor from the University of Waterloo, a school council chair and mother of students in the WRDSB and myself, a teacher in the board. We had a variety of questions that were asked of us that allowed the audience (including our local released officers, director of education, superintendents, board trustees and general community) to hear from this cross section of people about their concerns, their wishes and the areas that they felt satisfied with in the public education system.

The number one item that came across from the panel was the concern about mental health and how it permeates every area of our education system from students to teachers to parents. What was once overlooked, swept under the carpet or just ignored now is coming to light as a result of the courage of many people who are helping reshape our thinking.

The end result of needs not being met when it comes to mental health in the classroom is usually maladaptive behaviour that can range from withdrawal to violence to attempting suicide. What was clear in the conversation is that there is not enough supports available in our communities and schools to support the increasing demand.

As teachers, we are at the frontline to this growing epidemic and need to understand that our wellness will dictate the wellness of our classroom. Don’t tolerate violence, don’t just look at the behaviour component and don’t stop lobbying for change by our government. We must give ourselves permission to take care of ourselves, we must build balance into our lives throughout the school year and not just on holidays and finally we must have our voices heard in helping get the changes needed in our education system.

 

Mike Beetham Before School Starts, Challenging Topics, Mental Health, wellness, wellness

Balance

Have you ever been driving along and all of a sudden you hear a low chime and look down to notice your fuel gauge has lit up and you are in desperate need of a fill up? Well, I can truly tell you this last week was just that feeling. It was like I was running on fumes and was hoping to be able to make it to Friday afternoon and the start of March Break. When I look back at a bad cold and three days off work, demands of our class’ annual play, contract voting, work on local committees, ETFO Executive role, monthly team meetings, staff meetings, report cards, school initiatives etc… there is no wonder that my tank was nearing empty. The bigger and more important question is how I let myself get to such a low.

In the first two thirds of my career the above stated condition was just what teaching was about. That is why we had Christmas Break, March Break and of course the famous summers off. What I found was that throughout the year I had put so much into my teaching, my students and my school that there was very little left for me and my family. The first two weeks of summer felt like being in recovery where my body just shut down and said, ‘REST’. I would then enjoy several weeks of life trying to get caught up with family time and me time. By the second week of August, I was starting my new cycle by pondering and preparing for the upcoming school year.

Then it hit me, well it felt like it hit me as I lost my voice for a two-week period and had damaged my vocal chords. The simple diagnosis was that I was doing too much and not allowing enough rest time for my vocal chords. I thought to myself, if that was occurring with my voice, it is likely occurring with all of me both from a physical and emotional state. That simple but important event helped me understand the word balance and how critical it is to every one of us no matter what career path we choose in education or other fields. The simple remedy was that I needed to get and maintain balance in all aspects of my life.

I began by prioritizing events, tasks, extra curricular time, family time and me time. My first professional priority was to teach and help my students be successful. That is where most of my school time should go. Any extra events I choose to be a part of are now based on my overall balance picture and what I think I can contribute while still maintaining a healthy life balance. As I have learned, that changes from month-to-month at times.

The second shift was to ensure that what I needed to maintain a balance in life (exercise, time in the outdoors, family time, friend time, alone time) was also a planned component of this new and improved work smarter not harder picture. No longer was I ever going to listen to my youngest son (5 at the time) tell me it is okay that I was not able to talk to him now, we could do it in the summer. So I have found that by just writing this blog it once again has forced me to revisit my life/work balance. It seems I was moving into unhealthy patterns again. Take care of yourself by striving for balance as teaching is a marathon and not a sprint.