Mentoring New Teachers

In conversation with a beginning teacher recently, the question of pedagogy came up. What is pedagogy? The Oxford dictionary defines pedagogy as"  The method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept." Teaching as inquiry is an important aspect of effective pedagogy The NZ Curriculum defines pedagogy as: " Teacher actions promoting student learning " There is also  culturally responsive pedagogy. Ako  underpins the Practising Teacher Criteria and is an important component of culturally responsive teaching and learning.  A good way to check if you are including effective pedagogy in your lesson plans & units of work is to use these sentence starters. I create a supportive learning environment by........... I encourage reflective thought and action by............. I enhance the relevance of new learning by.............. I facilitate shared learning by.................. I make connections to prior learn...

John Hattie, currently co-chairing a Science of Learning Centre ,  stated in an interview that " we need to bring back ‘learning’ as our focus (more than ‘teaching)’.  What does it mean to learn, which learning strategies are optimal (when, how, and where), how do we assess and evaluate how a student learns (wow, we have so many measures of achievement but how many measures of learning do we have!), and how do new advances in the science of learning help make the difference." Yesterday 2 engineering students from University of Auckland spent the day showing students how to work with robots - how to code them, how to test the code on the maze, and how to improve the code so the robot could get through the maze. I observed them working with a Year 10 class. Knowing nothing about using robots in education, I was astonished to see what a difference it made to the students' learning. Instead of working on individual devices they naturally collaborated in groups and when the...

A few weeks back one of the Teach First Mathematics trainees organised a field trip of her Year 9 & 10 classes to the film "Hidden Figures" which involves 3 African American women in the 1960s who were brilliant at Mathematics and worked for Nasa " The story of a team of African-American women mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the US space program"   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4846340/ .  She felt that it would inspire the students in Maths. It was a steep learning curve for her as she had not realised how much organisation is needed but it was a huge success and good on her for being innovative. The students enjoyed the film, clapping when one of the women won a promotion. It was also a history lesson for the students in the effects of segregation in America at the time. We didn't lose any students walking to the train, getting off the train or left at the cinema. They behaved well. On the last day of term a gro...

The advantage of working with trainee teachers (Teach First teachers) when you have been teaching for a long time is that it takes you back to the beginnings of things like classroom management 1.01 and behaviour management basics. Building Relationships and Expectations are crucial in the first few weeks.  Tamaki College has a set of values called RISE (Respect, Integrity, Success, Responsibility) which are embedded into the vision and ways of working in the school. The students are familiar with these and they work well. The teacher will also set other expectations to do with behaviour, work, tools, listening and following instructions. These will all enable the development of positive relationships between teacher and students and so make the teaching and learning more productive. See building relationships with Pasifika students here  and with Māori students here . Setting up a routine and sticking to it is also crucial to developing a good and safe physical and e...