Task 4D Continued- Trip to the library

I have recently blogged about online pieces that have helped with my inquiry. However, I still felt like something is missing and I need to physically go through books and discover what I wanted to learn. 

I headed straight to the teaching section at Middlesex Library, and simply said to myself 'Pick up the book titles that capture your attention and make you want to know what is inside'. I started to pull a few out with titles about children, primary education, becoming an effective teacher, creative curriculum, behaviour management, learning teaching from teachers,effective teaching, teaching children and inspiring primary school teaching. Before I new it ideas were swirling around in my mind, I took a few books away and sat and jotted ideas that came to mind as I flicked through the books. I looked at the contents page and picked out chapters that interested me, I have mentioned a few below.
Contents/Chapters from different books that interested me: 
- Characteristics of effective teachers
-Effective teaching
-The teacher-student relationship
-Becoming a teacher
-Developing your your teaching skills
-Approaches to learning and teaching
- What makes a teacher a 'good' teacher

 I came across this 'The best classroom practice does not assume that teaching and learning necessarily co-exist; it starts from the needs of the learner.' (Brighouse,1996,P.9) This interested me because before this I had been solely focused on what makes a good teacher, I was searching for bullet points and a list that gave me the answers. This lead me to realise the importance of the student teacher relationship, but also an effective teacher is one that can differentiated their teaching to suit the learner. This made me question what different learners are there (similar to module 1) but more importantly how children in particular learn. This lead me on to take books off the shelf about how children learn, accelerated learning in the classroom and visible learning and the science of how we learn.
Contents/chapters from a variety of books that interested me:
- Memory and how it develops
- What is accelerated learning?
- Models of learning
- How knowledge is stored in the mind
- Different types of learners
-Learning styles
-Teacher student relationship

 I then put back the books that weren't working out for me, they had good substance but I was looking for something more.I  continued this process of sourcing books scanning through and returning ones that weren't helping. I have narrowed my book choices down and this is when I started to find substance, theories, examples that helped me to answer questions I want answered. I felt like I was taking huge steps in my inquiry and starting to build something I really wanted to know more about. Below are some quotes and parts of books that interested me and have lead my inquiry further.

Becoming An Effective Teacher- Paul Stephens and Tim Crawley- 1994 
'Its important however, to recognise that effective teaching can never just be about impressive documentation. Being an effective teacher is judged ultimately in terms of imparting knowledge and values that students can comprehend and relate to.' (Stephens, Crawley, 1994, P.10)

Teaching children 3-11- Anne D. Cockburn and Graham Hanscomb - 3rd edition 2012
This book has a section devoted to 'Becoming a 'good' teacher' I originally thought this section of the book was going to tell me what a 'Good' teacher is and how to achieve this. It didn't, instead it gave me an example of how a teacher became good in their eyes through an experience. I believe it is how someone makes you feel that you remember forever. I will be sending out questionnaires I believe they are going to show a real insight to what people deem as a 'good' teacher or 'effective teaching practice'.

Inspiring Primary school teaching- Denis Hayes- 2006 
On P.20 he talks about the characteristics of effective teacher the key questions he answers in this chapter are below.
- What is effective teaching?
- How do pupils characterise a 'good' teacher?
- How important is passion in teaching?
- How do teachers inspire pupils?
- What is effective pedagogy ?

These questions that have been answered in this book, this has helped me further along in my inquiry. Im now questioning what is effective teaching rather than what is good teaching. He also differentiates between an effective and an efficient teacher. " There is a difference between being an efficient teacher and a good or effective one. While a efficient teacher is diligent, well organised and able to teach in such a way that learning targets are met and pupils achieve was can be reasonable expected of them, an effective teacher possesses all of those qualities plus an ability to inspire and inculcate in a pupils love of learning." (Hayes, 2006, P.20) This made me consider experiences i have had with teachers. I discover that some were organised and efficient, but they didn't make me POP with excitement and inspire me to learn. Do teachers learn how to do that with experience?  Can it be taught? This comes back to the student teacher relationship, why do other teachers have more of an effect on you? Is it because they understand what type of learner you are, and they can relate to you? 

Teaching children to learn -Robert Fisher- 1995 
Below I have taken a photo from P.92 of this book. This photo show a students prospective of how to be a good teacher. After going through bullet points and paragraphs of how to be a 'good'  teacher it is refreshing to see that the simplest things to children make you a 'good' teacher.

( Fisher, 1996,P.92)  

After exploring a vast amount of books I left the library with 12 to continue reading. I feel strongly that my journey in module two has leaped forward after feeling very stuck. I now feel I want to look into... 

What makes an effective teacher?

Different learning styles and how children learn? 

Student teacher relationships  (inspired by what I have found in the library and also the video of Rita Piearson -ted talk that I mentioned in a previous blog)

What it takes to be an effective primary school teacher and do they have to take into account the different learning styles? 

To be an effective primary school teacher I have learnt that you need to be organised,efficient,  passionate and that 'good' practice will always be different- it depends on the needs of the learner in front of you. 

Bibliography

BRIGHOUSE.T (1996) Accelerated learning in the classroom Network education Press: Stafford

STEPHENS.P and CRAWLEY.T (1994) Becoming an effective teacher Stanley Thornes : Cheltenham

COCKBURN.A and HANSCOMB.G (2012) Teaching children 3-11 years a students guide 3ED: Sage 

HAYES.D (2006)Inspiring Primary School Teaching Learning matters: Exeter

FISHER.R (1995) Teaching children to learn Nelson Thornes: Cheltenham 

Task 4D - Literature

What is a teacher? My own brief research into teaching professionally. 

Paula left a comment on my blog suggesting I should use google to find the meaning of teaching and the meaning of being a teacher, below are my findings this lead me to teaching what it means to be a teacher, the profession itself, what it takes to teach and finally reasons why people teach. 

Below is what I have found online to help to develop my line of inquiry, I will continue to gather other sources of literature to blog about. 

https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/heart-teaching-what-it-means-be-great-teacher

Talks about what a teacher needs to be kind, compassionate, empathetic, positive, builder and have the ability to inspire. 

http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-profession

Discusses teaching as a profession (site recommend by Paula)

http://www.dawn.com/news/759706/teaching-what-it-means-to-be-a-teacher

What it means to be a teacher 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/let-me-ask-you-this-why-do-teachers-teach-9695704.html

Reasons why people teach. 

This is a good start for me to start finding literature for the next few tasks. This will help me to build other ideas using the informations from google and when all the data is back from my questionnaires.

 If anyone is looking to form a SIG group with me to chat about teaching let me know. 

Three Questionnaires

I am going to save this for when I get to Reader 6, but I will generally ask people to help me to form my inquiry. 

Teacher’s Questionnaire

1.     Why do you teach?

2.     What skills do you think people need in order to be an effective Primary School teacher?

3.     What would you say are your own personal qualities as a teacher?

4.     How would your students describe you?

5.     What do you think good teaching practise is?

6.     Are there any specific behaviour management techniques you use? If so why?

7.     Are there any Behaviour management practitioners that have influenced your techniques?

8.     Do you think it is important for teachers to have qualifications?

9.     Have your qualifications helped you in your teaching career? If so how?

10.  Have you heard about the school that swapped detention with meditation? What are your thoughts on this? Would it work?

Family/ Friends Questionnaire

1.     What is a teacher?

2.     Are there different types of teachers?

3.     What skills do you think people need in order to be an effective primary school teacher?

4.     Has a teacher ever left a positive lasting experience with you? If so why has it stayed with you?

5.     Has a teacher ever left a negative lasting experience with you? If so why has it stayed with you?

6.    Have you taught anyone before? If so who and why?

7.     Would you approve if your child took part in meditation/mindfulness in school instead of the usual detention? If yes why? If no why ?

Children’s Questionnaire

        1.What is a teacher?

  

2     2. Do you have a favourite teacher? If so why?

      3.What makes a really good teacher?

      4.What is a good lesson?

  5.How do you learn best? Circle one 

Looking                     Hearing                    Doing                Reading and writing 

6.What do you think of detention? If you could change it what would you change it to? 

Questions and Answers

Finding Questions and Answers... 

1. What would I love to learn?

I would love to learn exactly what skills I have or need to develop to be a successful Primary School Teacher. I want to know different teaching methods and how to engage students. I would love to learn more about behaviour management schemes and what schemes work in what schools and why they work. I would like to understand why people teach and discover experiences people have had with a teacher that has changed or developed their lives in one way or another. I would also like to find evidence of what other people view as good teaching practise. 

    2. What is a teacher?

I believe a teacher is a role model someone who provides another person with  information, and that information makes a change of some sort to their lives whether it be, how to do something or what to do. Sometimes the change is small,sometimes a change is big, being a part of that process no matter how big or small is why I want to be a teacher. 

    3.Why do I want to teach?

I want to teach because I enjoy it. I like to help people and to feel like I have a purpose and a role to play. Even if it is for those 7 children who have turned up to after school club. 

   4.Does mindfulness help children to behave better?

I do not have the answer for this, I would like to explore this further.

   5.Behaviour management techniques

I have witness so many different behaviour management techniques. I would be interested to explore these techniques further and find practitioners in behaviour management and their reasons to why they work and how they work.

   6.What is a teacher ? Are there Types of teachers? 

This came up in the Skype, this set a lightbulb off in my head! What is a teacher? I was assuming that a teacher is a teacher that I see every day a primary/secondary teachers. But as discussed in the Skype conversation there are so many different types of teachers, you can learn something from someone you cross path with in the street. I am going to explore the correct definition to a teacher, and what other people think is a teacher. 

Can teachers be categorised or are all types of teachers the same whether their job title is teacher or not. 

   7.  Ask the audience 

As I am aiming to teach Primary school children I am also going to ask them what is a teacher? 

What makes a good teacher do you think?

Are there different types of teachers in your school?

Do you like a teacher in particular ?

If so, why ? 

I need to research outside of my own opinions and thoughts, I am going to create three separate questionnaires a Colleagues Questionnaire,Family/Friends Questionnaire  and a Children's Questionnaire to try to find some more answers to guide me further in my inquiry. 

Is there anyone who I can form a SIG group with ? Anyone else interested in teaching? Any aspect of it to form a discussion ?

Thanks for reading ! :) 

Skype 07.10.2016

Skype Session
The session lead by Adesola proved to be incredibly informative and changed my thought process and my view on module 2. 

The imagery Adesola told us had helped me to realise I don't need the correct answer right now it need to develop. See your inquiry as a ball of clay or a lump of wood that is going to take time to create or carve- Take time to fully form the question- sculpt. 

During the Skype session we spoke about making assumptions in our inquiry questions. We all spoke about the obvious assumptions that I had made in my question. Below is my initial question, I knew it needed to be developed and I was stuck on how to develop it. The Skype has helped me immensely and I have now taken a new turn in my journey. 

"What makes a good teacher?"

 Good- What us good? Good isn't definable, we don't know what good is! 
Teacher- A teacher could be anybody, you can not define a teacher. 

Instead I should be asking questions like, what do you see as being a teacher? What do you think good teaching practise is? 
This way I will find answers to my inquire not evidence to back up my views or opinions that already exist. 

Something that Adesola said has changed how I now look at my inquiry question, Adesola said "What would you love to learn more about?" We went on to discuss that this is what your inquiry should be about to help you in your professional practise, not an old interest rekindled but something new that is pushing you forward to the next part in our careers. 

The most important thing that I discovered from the Skype was because of what Megan was saying that she was working in the past as if she was in module 1, this made me realise that I am working too far in the future. I know that I would like a career in teaching and to develop my teaching practise, so I formed a question without realising, in order for the question to  give me the answers, therefore it was riddle with assumptions. Now I know that I need to find exactly what I would love to learn more about and to ask other questions to find my own question. 

Below is a photo of the notes that I made during the session. 

The Skype has left me with new questions to investigate.

1. What would I love to learn?
2. What is a teacher?
3. Why do I want to teach?
4. Why do others teach?
5. What does teaching mean to me?
6. Differences in Primary and Dance teaching
7. Does mindfulness help children to behave better?
8. Behaviour management techniques
9. Types of teachers

Mind Full or Mindful?

I have been thinking about my inquiry and keeping an open mind, something that has interested me this week was about a school that have replaced detention with meditation and the results were brilliant! This one video has led me further discovering really interesting mindful strategies and I have read testimonies of teacher, parents and students of how it has helped them. Do we all need to be a bit more mindful rather than mind FULL? Does this mind set help children? Does it help with behaviour management? Is it a life skill that we need to learn in school? Do teachers need to be mindful and teach children how to take care of their mind? Is this good teaching practise? Are you a better teaching by being mindful? 

Maybe I could tie this in with teachers and schools behaviour management strategies what works and what doesn't, can you have one behaviour management strategy that suits every child? As you can see one video has created another 15 questions that hopefully are going to help me to refine my question. Below are some videos that I have found that have sparked this interest.

A school replaces detention with meditation 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJq6oI_vO2U
This led me to find the Holistic Life Foundation that is introducing mindfulness into schools.

Holistic Life Foundation 
http://hlfinc.org

Holistic Life- Ted Talk- I really recommend this video, it shows what they have done but talk alot about why breathing is so important. The video also takes you through breathing exercises.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBJ7MUJzvZc

I have also been told about Cosmic Kids youtube channel that teachers often play to children to explain those hard questions like 'why are people mean?' They explain it so well to children and create strong visuals to take through life. They use yoga and meditation in all their videos.

You Tube Cosmic Kids- Why are people mean?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5LLfdhGekA

This may or may not form part of my inquiry but I found it very interesting. It also has helped me to realise what type of teacher I want to be, combining this with Rita Pearsons view on education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw I feel more confident in my teaching and inspired to inspire other students.

A exercise for you all to try, take a moment to look at the photo and evaluate what you do day to day...

Where are you? Do you live in the past and think in the future? Where is your mind?