Life-long Learning

After two years and eight assignments, I have finally submitted the final assessment task for my Grad.Cert. Middle Years Education. To say that it was a challenge is an understatement!

It had been 23 years since I had last hit the books and written an assignment. Balancing the demands of school, home and uni was very difficult, but there was no opting out. You see, in order to gain my Full Teacher Registration in Queensland, I had to become '4-year trained'.

I graduated from Armidale College of Advanced Education in 1990 with my Diploma in Teaching - a 3-year course, then embarked immediately on my first teaching adventure to Coonamble, NSW, and never looked back!

Between surviving my first years in the classroom, planning, teaching, travelling, getting married, having babies, buying, renovating and building houses, moving states, starting new jobs, becoming a basketball mum, working in a boarding house and still teaching, there were not enough hours in the day to even think about further study.

After moving to Queensland for a second time, it was necessary to register with the Queensland College of Teachers and this is where it all came unstuck! To be given Full Teacher Registration in QLD, I had to be 4-year trained. This meant I would have to go back to school.

I was initially quite excited by the prospect - my children were older and not as demanding, and I was no longer full-time in the classroom with my new position as Head of Middle School. So, I eagerly started looking for courses.

My first roadblock was finding a course that related to my passion - Middle School, and I could not find a '4th Year' course that focused on this age group. So, I started looking for Grad.Dip. courses, until I was told I had to choose a Grad.Dip in any other field than Education (as it had to be in a different area than my first qualification). I did not qualify to apply for my Masters (as I only had a Diploma, not a Bachelor Degree). So, I was left to search for a Graduate Certificate course (of which I must complete 2, in order to meet the criteria for the QCT). Seriously?! Four years to gain an extra year's qualification? You've got to be kidding me!

So, here I sit after two years of part-time study, on the cusp of gaining my Grad.Cert. in Middle Years Education and having to begin the search for yet another relevant course that will keep me engaged and excited for another two years - jumping through hoops for bureaucracy, but hopefully coming out the other side a fully registered and better informed educator.

Signature Pedagogies

There is no better feeling than returning from a conference feeling excited and inspired by what you have seen and experienced. 

Meridan State College, an independent public school in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast, QLD, hosted a Junior Secondary conference that left me wanting to implement their ideas and practices immediately.

A Pilot Program school for introducing Year 7 into secondary school, Meridan openly shared some of the key pedagogies, developed by their talented and dedicated staff, that had successfully been implemented into their daily middle years program. 

Over the two days, I had the opportunity to view and participate in hands-on activities, visit and observe classrooms, watch demonstrations and attend masterclasses that gave me the opportunity to understand the philosophies, structure and planning behind the pedagogies.

Instructional rounds of classroom visits demonstrated the college's use of Flexi Learning - a collaborative, team-taught, differentiated approach to negotiated curriculum (for an entire year level of 300 students) and Student-led conferences - where students take ownership of their learning, goal setting and scripting to 'change up' the traditional model of parent/teacher interviews, to address some of the signifying principles of Middle Years education.

I also gained an insight into the college's Community structure, Student Leadership program, Action Plan, timetable structures and curriculum time allocations, how to build a school brand, marketing and promotion.

I felt a sense of excitement as I witnessed the Flexi Learning activities in action - an idea that could so easily be adapted and introduced into my own school. Our teachers already used personalised, precise, small group instruction within their individual classrooms. All we needed to do now was move this to a bigger scale and involve the entire year level - at the same time - in the same space. Targeted, small group, rotational activities, based on student needs, identified by the data and taught by an amazing team of enthusiastic teachers who are focused on student improvement. We could do that!

What excited me the most were the Student-led conferences. In six words, if I had to describe the traditional model of Parent/Teacher Interviews, I would say:

"Potentially most terrifying experience for teachers!"

These student-led conferences involve the students gathering evidence (creating folios of assessment pieces and report data), reflecting on the 'snapshot' (summarising strengths and weaknesses, developing strategies for two areas of improvement), setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-framed) with their parents, scripting & directing the entire conference with their parents, in the presence of their teacher - being actively involved in their learning and taking responsibility for the learning process. 

The thing I liked most about the student-led conference was the fact that their parents received "homework" - they had to write a positive personal note to their child about the conference and email it to the teacher, who would print it onto a certificate and give it to the student. What a valuable, positive process! Feedback from the Meridan students involved in the process included: a focused effort to improve, pride in showing and telling their parents what they had achieved, and a sense of partnership between student and parents by formulating the SMART Goals together. We could do that!

What I took away from the conference was that we (Riverside) were almost there - with a little bit of tweaking and courage, we could make the learning experiences for our Middle College students not just great, but AWESOME!

Why Tweens?

Perhaps it wasn't the Tweens that hooked me - in fact, I'm sure it wasn't! 

I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember - in fact, I really wanted to teach in Special Education (but that's a whole other story). 

I began my teaching career with a Kindergarten class. However, I have never regretted my decision to specialise in Middle Years education, and have spent the majority of my 24 teaching years working 'in the middle'.

Surprisingly, it wasn't the pimple-faced, smelly, moody, hormonal Tweens that attracted me to teach in the Middle School. It was the passion of a man - an educator, a colleague, and now my mentor and dear friend, Dennis Dempster, that intrigued and enticed me enough to experience what he so obviously loved. Teaching Tweens!

For most of my career, I have based my understanding of what middle schooling is all about on the teachings of this passionate Middle School educator. Hailing from Alberta, Canada, Dennis shared his knowledge, experiences and advocacy of the philosophy and underpinning principles of middle schooling with me and, in doing so, fuelled the fire that has remained with me ever since. My recent university study of Middle years Education has only clarified, and reaffirmed my belief in, everything that this man has taught me. 

Above all, teaching Tweens is about passion – passion for the young adolescents with whom I want to make a connection and establish a relationship; passion for teaching content that is engaging, relevant and challenging; passion for the pedagogy and signifying practices of middle schooling; and the passion to learn as much as I can about Middle Schooling and Tweens, in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for my Middle Years learners.

If I can ignite that spark in Tweens to be passionate about something, just as D did in me, then I am happy. Teaching Tweens is an exciting, challenging and rewarding adventure and I would like to share it with you.