I have recently returned to the classroom after working as a consultant and advisor for the last three years. Working in the private sector and working for the Ministry of Education more recently has offered me some fantastic opportunities to refine my understanding of what ‘best practice’ looks like. The ‘ideal state’ of optimal curriculum linking, deliberate use of data, systematic planning, agentic learning experiences, literacy/numeracy rich task design, critical thinking and 21st Century ‘make the pie’ pedagogy is my goal and this has been my active lens for advising teachers with ways to be better practitioners. Of course the ideal state is the goal - but there is a big but… let me explain.
Smilingly teaching on the outside, but on the inside, teachers are overloaded and suffering from incentivitis.
Being in the classroom is a humbling reality check. No change is a quick change and there are no ‘quick fixes’ for embedded teacher, learner (and leader) habits.
On the ground and knowing the ideal state lends itself to a bit of a panicked scramble. Where are the systems? What is the pedagogy? Where is the agency? Why is this not aligned to the curriculum? Where is the literacy? Where is the digital fluency? Where is the culture of collaboration? (So many questions!) When you know what best practice looks like (in the classroom and beyond the classroom, in management systems, in school-wide systems, in leadership styles etc), it can feel like a veritable swamp. We come home exhausted trying to fix so many things. So this is where a reality check needs to come into play.
Because best practice can be a perfectionist pedagogist’s undoing.
For me (on a personal level), I can see so many things that need to change - yet I need to remember that all change needs time and consistency to be effective. Also, I am one human. Further, I am one human who also has a family life and a ‘parent hat’ to put on as well as ‘partner hat’ and a ‘friend hat’ etc. To dedicate ALL of my time to the pursuit of excellence in all areas is commendable - but realistically not possible. I have to admit my human fallibility.
The first step is to take stock of the things we can change. We can add some systems to our classrooms. We can schedule student interviews. We can target specific data with our planning. We can reflect on our lesson sequences and look for ways to tweak them to be better for next time. We can give our students more opportunities to be critical thinkers and agentic learners. We can give them more opportunities to create with technology. Most importantly, We CAN strive for best practice - but we need to do it incrementally.
One thing that I have found particularly useful is using padlet as a kanban for next steps. Breaking down my big picture ideas into smaller chunks is a sanity saver. I still have my ideal state in mind and I can add small tasks to my kanban that will allow me to make incremental steps towards the end goal. (Check out my previous blog post about ‘The Kaizen Classroom’).
An example: For scaffolding the skills the students need for making good learning decisions daily is: Create a visual map of the lesson, print as a poster, get button magnets for showing where we are up to, design reflection activities for decision-making, create opportunities for decision-making, design survey for student voice, track engagement using Schoolytics (a handy plugin you can use with Google Classroom), trial, reflect, tweak.
An example of my ‘making good decision’ classroom road map. It is a useful way to chunk a lesson into clear sections and students have a ‘pick a path’ opportunity to explore different activities to anchor or apply their learning.
The burnout phenomenon among teachers is very real indeed. Teachers have ‘incentivitis’ and are constantly shifting and adapting to meet the requirements of new incentives. PLD funding is limited, effective PLD is hard to find (I can help with this) and time to implement actionable steps post-PLD is rarer still. It is no wonder that New Zealand’s education system is in a state of crisis.
So what is the solution?
Best practice needn’t be a pie in the sky that is unachievable. The truth is that if you are making small steps towards ‘better’ practice then this is something that should be noticed and rewarded. The solution is that we need to maintain a best practice vision and keep stepping towards it.
Keep a diary of ‘small steps’ that you can take in order to inch closer to the best practice model that you have in mind.
Determine what best practice actually looks like for you - what is most important?
Notice what key actions you have tried and keep a record of the steps
Use a Kanban to track your progress (‘Doing’ cards can be shifted to the ‘Done’ pile)
Share the load with others - collaboration is a great way to reduce your workload
Share failures as well as successes - what not to do is sometimes just as useful to know as what to do OR you might be able to troubleshoot better strategies together
Don’t give up on what best practice can be
Connect with others with a similarly optimistic vision for education (There are so many naysayers and fixed mindset people who cloud the vision for change. Avoid them.)
If you know what best practice looks like and then look around and feel like it ‘too far a star’ then look for a ‘near star’ marker to head to first. If you feel overwhelmed, swamped and depressed about the status quo, you need to remember that striving for better is possible - but also that it will take time.
Assess where you are at. Make a mark. Point to your far star and start marching there one step at a time. Don’t give up.
If you have a ‘far star’ in mind as a teacher or as a leader, let’s connect to formulate an achievable action plan together.