How Being 10% Braver Saved My Career

I'm going to be brutally honest. This year I fell out of love with teaching. I felt worn out, I felt my hard work wasn't paying off and my "spark" for my vocation had almost completely ebbed away. It started feeling like 'just a job' to me when before it had been something I was incredibly passionate about. I would read avidly, discuss new ideas, try loads of stuff out in the classroom, I was an active and reflective teacher who always strived for better and absolutely lived for my job (hence my nerdy blog!). It was therefore incredibly unusual for me to lack motivation (given I thrive when I have something else on my plate whilst teaching, for example doing my masters project and writing my dissertation all during my NQT year). This year (my fifth year in teaching) it has felt like the fire has gone out and I've just been going through the motions - a passive teacher. It honestly filled me with shame and I felt I wasn't good enough for the students who deserved better than a lacklustre teacher. Several times over the course of six or so months I considered leaving the profession. I even signed up for a job site that wasn’t TES! (Keep reading – I promise there is a happy ending!)

Then something changed. I had tried to read books this year (as I have enjoyed doing in previous years) but I found it difficult to motivate myself which tended to result in me reading the first chapter, putting it down and then forgetting about it. However, when I started reading 10% Braver Inspiring Women to Lead Education by the fabulous WomenEd group something finally resonated with me for the first time in a long time. It reminded me of what element of teaching I was passionate about: action research and trying different ideas in my classroom, fine-tuning my practice to be the best possible teacher for the young people I teach and a hope that I can inspire young teachers in the future. It reminded me of those staff in school who I look up to as they are also passionate about teaching and learning (and I am very lucky to have many inspirational women in my school!). I decided I needed to change something to get myself out of the pit I'd somehow created for myself. So feeling 10% Braver I asked our inspirational Assistant Head Lyn Lawton if I could shadow her and see what it was like to be so influential in terms of teaching and learning around school. Lyn is fantastic and immediately showed interest in supporting me with this idea. Even before doing any shadowing I felt immediately more inspired and my enthusiasm for teaching came back like a bolt.

The first thing I shadowed Lyn doing in her role was observing and giving feedback to a colleague in a lesson. I've been blessed to have the insight of Lyn's feedback in several of my lessons in the past and have always valued her suggestions for ways forward. This time I was invited to be a part of the observation process. Beforehand she talked me through the documents she uses to help structure her feedback, what she tends to look out for, that she takes it in initially and then goes to talk to students and look in their books. We watched the lesson and I watched her give feedback to the staff, highlighting all the positives and having a discussion about the lesson, suggesting a couple of things which may help move the class forward. It was incredibly useful for me to see and I was overwhelmed by how lucky I was to have this experience - I don't think many teachers get the opportunity to watch an experienced member of staff give a lesson observation and feedback. I think it is something staff should do more of - then you have a better idea of what to look for in lessons and how to hold the discussion afterwards. Also, the impact on my teaching was more significant than if I had just popped into the lesson myself to watch.

The next experience I was invited to be part of was a training session Lyn held with some members of the senior leadership team regarding lesson observation feedback. Some of the documentation she had used when I shadowed her observation was her trialling something new (which she mentioned at the time). The purpose of this training session was to feedback to her teaching and learning team the successes of this new document and discuss ways forward with the aim of ensuring continuity and consistency of giving feedback across the school. Lyn organised a presentation with her research all done, calling on the experienced members of the team to share their observation and feedback experiences. I was invited to take part in the group tasks and discussions and made to feel welcome (despite initially feeling a bit nervous and having to overcome an initial feeling that I didn't belong with all these important people!).

At the end of the training session, some of the lead teachers discussed trying the document by observing each other and giving feedback, so I arranged to do a reciprocal observation with one of our Lead Teachers Emma Higgins who is also a Maths teacher. Emma has also been a member of staff who has been a great support to me (and continues to be) and initially helped me find my feet at school. I really enjoyed going to watch her and filling in the documentation, then later meeting with her to discuss the lesson. After awkwardly discussing whether we should pretend it is an actual observation or whether we just discuss the helpfulness of the new document, I decided to be 10% braver again and tried to give proper feedback! Then the experience of watching Lyn give feedback came in really helpful, we had a discussion about the lesson and I found some useful tips and suggestions on ways forward from the new documents Lyn had designed. I now feel if someone asked me to do an observation I would feel much more confident and I am assuming you only get more confident the more you do! It is something I hope to be involved with more in the future.

Emma then came to watch me teach, and keen to impress I definitely raised my teaching game! I tried something new and really enjoyed the lesson. Emma gave me feedback using the sheet and we both felt more inspired by the experience. If anything, I feel staff should observe each other like this more. Not formally, but with a clear and consistent structure as Lyn intended from her document. I definitely got more from the experience than any of the previous observations where I have just dropped in and watched for part or whole lessons. It forced me to think and reflect more deeply on what I was watching and it had a more significant and long term impact on me.

I've been so lucky to be given the chance to be involved in shadowing Lyn and as a result working with Emma. It has totally reignited my spark for teaching and reminded me how much I love this job. But my main message to anyone reading is - if you don't ask then don't get. I was fully aware in asking if I could shadow Lyn she could say no as she is very busy, but I wanted to at least try. Thankfully Lyn has been incredibly accommodating and I've learned a great deal from her and Emma. I also want to tell anybody reading this feeling disengaged from teaching as I did that you can do something about it. The power is in your hands to change something. You don't have to drift from lesson to lesson debating every evening whether or not you still enjoy teaching, stuck in a pit of complacency. Remind yourself why you got into teaching, think what it is you enjoy the most about this wonderful profession and see what you can do to reignite that spark. I've come out the other side of my teaching identity crisis and you can too. Just be 10% braver.

GUEST BLOG: Transferring Language of Exams into Language use in the classroom by Emma Higgins, Maddie McClure and Tara Hall

Transferring Language of Exams into Language use in the classroom



Over the past 6 months we have been working in a Triad to overcome the problem that some pupils transfer of language in Maths exams is a concept they find difficult.


In our experience, when the Mathematics examination specification change in 2015 particularly, we have found that pupils are required to understand not only the method but the more technical language used. We chose this topic as our research for this academic year as we wanted to see how much of an impact the language barrier had compared to ‘teacher’ language. We tried to find research to help us with our study. However, we only found articles that related to pupils being able to understand problem solving questions. At this point we realised we needed to look deeper into this
topic and do our own research.


We began by pre testing different groups on ‘teacher language’ and ‘exam language’. The questions were exactly the same but instead of writing ‘expand’ (the bracket), we wrote ‘using Noddy’s hat….’ as this is the language we would use in Maths lessons to help them remember how to answer the question.

The words we find the pupils struggle with the most were, expand, solve, descending, estimate, equidistant, factorise, hence, identify, index form and evaluate. We found that in our lessons, as we taught the pupils these topics, we used simplified language to help their understanding. However, this has meant that pupils don’t always recognise the more formal mathematical language that is found in exam questions. This has a big impact on their assessment marks because they understand the method but don’t understand which method to use for each question.



When we did the pre-test, we found that pupils did significantly better at the ‘teacher’ language questions compared with the ‘exam’ language. The words factorise and equidistant had the largest score difference with a 51% and 46% increase!



We quickly realised that by simplifying the language we used in lessons, we were holding back our pupils understanding of mathematical language. The biggest adjustment we made in our classrooms was to focus more on ensuring that pupils knew which method to use with which word. For example, the teacher only using the word expand and the pupils having to work out the method they needed to use. We ensured that we broke down the mathematical language into smaller chunks that they would understand, rather than using simplified words. We also focused on exam questions more, encouraging pupils to highlight the mathematical words they were unable to understand.

Developing Problem Solving (4 Practical Strategies to Develop Resilience)

Developing Problem Solving (4 Practical Strategies to Develop Resilience)

I wanted to help my students develop their problem solving skills as I was frustrated (as I assume they were too) with questions being left empty on their assessments.
You know the type of question I am talking about? Where they shoehorn area of circles, volumes of cones and cylinders, density and converting units all in one question often worth a hefty 5 or 6 marks? Where students feel overwhelmed before they start and just turn over the page?

So here are some of the things I tried and a brief evaluation of each:


1. Baby Steps (soon to be renamed Stepping Stones)

My class and I have started referring to these as ‘baby steps’ as it breaks the question down into each of the single Maths skills required, gives them the opportunity to practice these skills separately before then applying them to a question. These are not an original idea, there have been different variations of this around including structuring exam questions. I first found them on Mathsbox and have since developed my own to help students access some of the questions they couldn’t access before.
For example, this exam question:

Taken from JustMaths Area & Perimeter (H & F) - Version 1 2016 (originally from Edexcel)

Would be supported with these baby steps:

NOTE: The baby steps are NOT directly related to the question (the numbers are different). The reason being they can practice the skills separately before then applying them to the question. They can then complete the entire question independently.


Pros:

• The students really liked them – it gave them a way into the problem when they didn’t know how to start.
• It meant everyone could do something.
• They didn’t have to use them unless they needed to, and the more we did the less they relied on them.

Cons:

• Need rebranding – some of the students felt put off by the name baby steps (implying they are babies maybe?) and I think I will rebrand them as “stepping stones” instead.
• Are they really learning how to independently answer the questions if I am chunking the problem down?
• These will only work if the students are confident with the basic skills needed to access the problems.
• Do they help students develop metacognitive problem solving skills and resilience if we tell them the Maths they need?

       2. Forcing silence

This is a strategy I use not just for problem solving, but I do really like doing in a problem solving session. When I first give the students a problem, I tell them they must work in silence for 2 minutes. Then I let them speak for 30 seconds before then finishing the question in silence for 2 minutes. I offer sentence stems so if students aren’t sure what to do then they can write down good questions they want to ask myself or each other when they get their discussion time. I walk around and check students are either trying to find a way into the problem, attempting the question or writing down any questions they have. I refuse to answer any questions or let students discuss the problem with each other in those first two minutes (note: these timings are a guide, I will vary them depending on the question). During their discussion time, I sometimes offer the “baby steps” to those who are unsure where to start.

Pros:

• It gives students the opportunity to practice in a safe environment, but in replicated exam conditions giving them the chance to see what they are truly capable of – often surprising themselves how much they can achieve independently
• It creates a quiet and focused environment in which to practice which removes temptations to ask others
• Gives students time to think of better questions to ask rather than just giving up and saying “I don’t get it!”

Cons:

• Students can find it frustrating but if you highlight the relevance in terms of a safe place to try in exam conditions and let them pleasantly surprise themselves with how far they can get independently, they soon appreciate why you are doing it.

       3. Open Goal Problems

You’ve likely seen these before! Miss Banks has a healthy supply on her Goal Free Problems site: https://www.missbanks.co.uk/goal-free-problems which I love to use. There are other sites too, so there are loads of already made goal free problems out there. I also like to use exam questions and take the last line out, then give them four boxes to write their own questions and find their own solutions. Then I can give them the exam question further down the line and see how they cope (normally better as they’ve explored the question before). I’ve used these as group discussion tasks, given one student the job of listening and making notes to then feedback their most interesting question to the entire class.

Adapted from Edexcel Higher Paper 1, June 2017 series

Pros:

• Encourages students to find any additional information which could in an exam get them marks, students often struggle to find a way in but using goal free problems encourages them to see what else they can find.
• Using as a discussion task helped me incorporate oracy in my lessons.

Cons:

• Students lacking imagination and picking easy questions – I found this happened to start off with but then as I praised those who had an interesting and complex question and answer the whole class seemed to up their game!
  

       4. Bookmarks

We have discussed as a group what strategies we use and collected a list in the back of our books (draw a diagram, underline/highlight key information, write down any formula, identify the Maths needed, try working out more information not given in question, etc.). We refer to this regularly. I then saw a colleague use a bookmark for exam questions with helpful hints on them, I thought it was a great idea to highlight the strategies and make them easily referred to. It means the students don’t have to flick between the front and back of their books and if they get a new book they just transfer their bookmark across. I imagine they will use them as a crutch initially and slowly ‘wean’ themselves off when they have the strategies committed to memory or the practice of checking the strategies off like a checklist will hopefully become automatic. I had four different categories for the students, how to help: at home (on homework), in lessons, if they don’t know how to start and if they get stuck (two on each side).

Pros:

• Students get to choose their own strategies so each is unique and personalised to them.
• They are mobile and can be used in different scenarios.
• Encourage students to be independent (with the crutch of the bookmark initially, hoping to need it less and less as confidence grows).

Cons:

• Some lack the metacognition to recognise what strategies work well for them, or even to establish what they are doing are strategies that could help them in other questions. A lot of discussion is needed to ensure those students with weaker metacognition get the same benefit as those who are very good at self-regulating their thought processes.