Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2013

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The staff examined issues associated with the social and emotional contexts our students work within. Sessions covered research on the influence of media on young women’s perception of themselves and the relationships they have with mobile technologies. Others examined the nature of introversion, the role of emotion in problem- solving in the classroom and the role alcohol plays in the social lives of our teenagers. Other sessions focussed on aspects of our teaching practice. The team from Marrapatta, our Outdoor Education Campus, looked at strategies to build group activities, while other workshops modelled new approaches to integrating technology. There were opportunities to examine literacy techniques, alternative approaches to assessment, or methods of differentiating for gifted students. Some workshops showcased very specific studies from specific curriculum areas, while others questioned the philosophies that underpin the way we do things as a school. Irrespective of our role in the School or speciality of discipline, each session offered us something to take away to provide us with new perspectives on our work with the girls. Being a learner and a teacher at the same time is not new by any stretch. Throughout any year, all teachers across the state undergo continuous professional learning. On one level, it is an annual requirement for us to maintain our registration as teachers in Queensland. On another level, it is our responsibility as professionals to seek out different approaches to maintain currency in our work with students, to broaden our understanding of the issues they face and to explore new ways to strengthen the learning programmes at Girls Grammar. Quite often we learn from experts, who come to the School on Staff Days at the beginning of academic terms to drill down into specific areas that inform our approach to educating young women. In recent times, this has included speakers who have looked at areas as diverse as best practices in gifted education, cyber-safety and online security, and the influence of popular culture on the values-systems of girls. Last year the staff worked with Associate Professor John Armstrong, who asked us to question what underpins our approach to learning as part of his role as Philosopher in Residence in 2012. All of these experiences broaden our perspectives as teachers and drive new programmes. But, how often do we take the time to learn from the people around us, to mine their experience and expertise? For instance, educational researchers consistently draw our attention to the powerful role peer feedback and evaluation plays in learning. Professor John Hattie

(2010) along with Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (2001) demonstrate that when students have the chance to seek structured feedback from others (and themselves give feedback to their peers) the effect on their performance is more significant than receiving a grade and advice on their work from a teacher. Sometimes the real experts are all around us, rather than standing in front of us. For us as teachers (as it is for students) taking advantage of them is more than asking for help when the need arises, it requires us to put aside the time to learn. Behavioural scientist Daniel Pink (2005) argues that empathy is one of the key aptitudes that build the productive relationships we rely upon to succeed, noting that while at times we need detachment from others more often we need to have ‘attunement’. In a similar way, standing in someone else’s shoes or sitting in someone else’s seat (or even blowing someone else’s tuba) provides us with an insight as to how we can best understand someone else and work with them. It is insight that that can never be learned from simply downloading from a speaker or an expert. On this year’s Staff Conference Day teachers put themselves into the shoes of teenage readers and talked about the themes that emerge from the current crop of young-adult fiction read by our girls. They looked at the questions that face our Senior girls as they make choices about their tertiary studies, and they explored the social media platforms and online game environments that their students are exploring. As this year unfolds, our girls can expect to be sitting in more English classes and seeing a Mathematics teacher sitting the back row, or being in a Science lesson and having a History teacher in the seat beside them. Professional learning, in any context, is as much about talking with and learning from others as it is being talked to or at by others. It is as true for teachers in their work as it is for students in theirs. However I hope, for the girls’ sake, they are not sitting in a Concert Band rehearsal and find they are sitting next to me and my tuba. No-one deserves to spend time in those shoes. *Not available for download from iTunes at any point in the future, I hope.

I am not one usually to blow my own trumpet, to be honest.

Blowing my own tuba, well that is an entirely different story.

REFERENCES Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (2001). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment . Retrieved August 6, 2011, from http://weaeducation. typepad.co.uk/files/blackbox-1.pdf

Hattie, J. (2010). Visible learning . Oxford: Routledge.

Pink, D. (2005). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future . New York: Riverhead.

AUTUMN ISSUE / 2013