New Learning – Week Nine

New Learning Blog

• Write a blog entry on this week’s learning journey, e.g. new theoretical horizons, work on the Learning Element, links between the theory and classroom practice.

When I first began to write this blog, I intended on discussing transformative education, linking it to the learning by design process. I was going to discuss the values and qualities that exist in both, that enable our students to become engaged learners.

And then I got to thinking.

Relationships.

This week I’ve felt like I’ve let many of my relationships wait on the side. When I leave school it is to come home to turn on my laptop to do more work. My partner dances around me asking for my attention for thirty minutes before he goes to work. My friends want to know why I’ve cancelled our normal Tuesday dinner and drinks. And my brother wants to know why I’ve forgotten his birthday. My mind has been focussing on marking, reports and graduation points.

Relationships are important to everyone, but something in Rachael’s  post on PBwiki really got to me.

Meet ‘Boris’.

I have taught Boris for the past two years. Boris comes from an unstable family environment, he moves around a bit. He has been suspended a few times over the year for silly behaviour, swearing at teachers and getting into fights. Boris struggles to control his temper. Boris has an interesting relationship with his friends, they enjoy paying him out. However, they will stick up for him when they think things are unfair.

I like Boris.

I worked hard with Boris in English. He has tried really hard to concentrate, but can often become distracted, over the past two years we have developed strategies for Boris. He works with certain groups, he is able to articulate his ideas vocally, we share the writing, and he is allowed to take a ‘break’ on the condition that he completes so much work.

Boris is hard work.

Boris is exhausts me! Good and bad behaviour Boris needs a lot of TLC.

Boris is scared of change.

As the end of high school gets closer, Boris and his friendship group become restless. They are excited about graduating and going to College. However, I believe that Boris is also very nervous, he is scared about the changes College and leaving school will bring. While the freedom seems exciting he is scared that the teachers will not be a ‘helpful’ or understanding. He is unsure about what will happen with his friendship group, will they stay together?

Because of this Boris’s behaviour in class has become more erratic; he began speaking rudely to me, walking into the classroom later with a negative attitude. He has tried to use threatening behaviour to get out of class and out of work.

At first I tried to ‘discipline’ Boris. This worked to an extent, but then I realised that this was Boris! This wasn’t about me, this was about him. So I spoke to him, we talked about the last two years, we discussed the work we’d done, we discussed what we needed to do to finish the year happily. At first Boris got angry, but as we continued to talk Boris began to reminisce. After this chat, we’re back in class. Boris is eagerly asking for my help.

At the end of the lesson Boris leaves with a ‘thank you’ and a smile.

Boris continues to work hard for the next two lessons. He is happy in class, smiling, agreeable, and working with friends.

Than Boris is suspended for a different reason.

I guess you are wondering what Boris has to do with this weeks learning. And it is everything. Boris has responded so well to English. He has not responded as well to other classes. I’m not a perfect teacher in any shape or form, and I’d be the first to openly tell you what I did wrong. Boris and I together have made mistakes with his learning. But Boris has responded to a lot of the learning.

His behaviour at the beginning of year 9 was erratic and okay it isn’t perfect now but when he is engaged, when he is learning, his behaviour is controlled. I believe that the learning we are doing in class through the learning by design process is transformative education.

The article I chose to discuss in my PBwiki breakout box Transforming pedagogy in our secondary classroom by Iolanth Sutton was really interesting because it talked about relationships being key to learning. If you have a positive learning environment students are given less excuses to fail. Similarly if class task/assignment expectations are explicit the students have less chance to fail. I think that the learning by design process (applying appropriately) really helps make learning expectations clear. I really enjoyed reading this article; I think it was a very honest way of analysing teaching. I particularly liked when Sutton acknowledges that transformative education like any, is not problem free. It was excellent to read such a positive article that really made you feel more competent.

However, it was Rachael’s article Mentoring for transformative learning: The importance of relationships in creating learning communities of care by Nancy L. Southern that really got me thinking about my students over the past few years. At first I thought ‘I could have done better’, ‘if only I didn’t do this’ and then I thought. I tried! I think some students do not want to create a relationship because they ultimately know that they will ‘owe you.’

To many outsiders Boris has not changed, he is a ‘boof’ head, he is rude and he is a ‘disgrace’.

To me Boris is the student who quietly thanked me, who got on with his work, who completed every single assignment (in his own funny way). I’ve seen Boris transform.

Personalities are always going to clash and this can sometimes happen in our classrooms. However as the ‘adults’ in the situation we need to remember that it is not always up to the students to try and create the relationship rather it up to us.

So what happens to Boris in the future … I probably won’t ever know. I can only hope that in the next couple of years teachers continue to create a positive relationship with Boris.

Thank you for letting me ramble!

Over and out…