Capacity Building Takes Patience and Perseverance

As the Teacher Candidates approach the end of the first term of observations, I ask myself: What is the difference that makes the difference? Sometimes I get disheartened and a little disappointed by my own inability to capture the professional learning that is happening in other rooms. Yet, there are other times when I am energized by the response, such as when a Teacher Candidate published her first blog and another TC responded or when a TC walked in my teaching partner's room that adjoins mine and asked us a question about planning and preparing for an inquiry-based program. Reflecting on this journey of building capacity through this collaborative inquiry, I have realized that capacity building takes patience and perseverance. Building teacher efficacy from a leadership lens is not about the leader's ability to plan and implement. Instead it is about empowering the team and inspiring them to share my energy and passion for the inquiry. In one such discussion with Jenette Holmes, York University's Coordinator for the Faculty of Ed. program, I was reflecting on my journey so far and Jenette posed this question to me, "Define Capacity". What a great question! What is capacity? How can it be measured? What strategies do effective leaders use to build capacity in their schools? What do they do to get educators to share their vision? How does this collaborative inquiry promote, cultivate and support deep thinking and efficacy for all?
Here are some ways I think this CI promotes teacher efficacy and capacity building:

•  It provides a platform to demonstrate our commitment to learning, innovating and problem-solving.
• It enables us to investigate and engage in application of new learning.
• It provides us opportunities to ask purposeful questions that stem from genuine curiosity and problem of practice.
• I allows us to explore new ways to communicate, create and share.
• It creates a sense of accountability.
• It builds and develops habits of mind that are necessary for any learning to happen- flexibility, reflective thinking, cognition and metacognition, a spirit of inquiry. These habits of mind are essential in classrooms as well. When educators develop these habits of mind, they will transfer this learning to students. 

As an instructional leader, I am beginning to think that capacity building is not about what I want the team to do. Instead it is about equity and inclusion. Can I provide the support and resources in ways that each member of the inquiry feels included and supported? Can I be equitable and support each member's learning journey from where they are to where they want to take this initiative too? This is importnat work and requires patience and perseverance. Can I lead with my heart and my mind?

Purposeful Interaction in Action

The Teacher Candidate and Mentor Teacher having a professional conversation about how to plan and prepare for an inquiry-based classroom.

How my MT's think-aloud helped me, as a new teacher

After the Mentor-teacher / Teacher-candidate meeting on November 3, 2016, lead by Monica Chadha and Mrs. Gelinas, I reflected upon my interaction with my Mentor Teacher (MT). I started to think, what does my MT do to help me see things from a teacher's point of view? How does she help develop my thinking in becoming a teacher?

After having read over the notes I have taken during my observation during my placement here at Eldorado Public School, I learnt that my Mentor Teachers' think-aloud strategy helped me most. It changed my perspective on how the teacher teaches, why a certain activity is done a certain way, why a certain activity is used in class as well as how is that activity purposeful to the students. To answer all my questions, my Mentor Teacher decided to debrief me about her schedule for that day. Every morning before going into class, my MT and I would have a conversation where she would explain to me which activities she will be doing during the day, and what the reasons are behind each of them. When interacting with her prior to observing the activities being done with the students, I realised all the logic that was behind all the thinking of my MT's mind when she was planning the activities. I also had a better understanding on how those specific activities would benefit and better a child's learning in the Full Day Kindergarten classroom. 
She also demonstrated the different types of progress students make by comparing a Junior Kindergarten student and a Senior Kindergarten student. For example, she brought a JK student to a table and did a numeracy activity with them. She then explained to me in "teacher language" why that student did what she did, and what the child has demonstrated knowledge of. She also explained to me that based on what I had just observed, these are what the next steps would be for that student and how to improve and achieve her goal for her level. My MT then brought an SK student to the table and did the same activity with them. In the end, she explained what was being compared to the two. The result was that the SK student was the model of what the JK students' goals are to learn at the end of the semester.

In our first year education classes in university, we learn the hard way that the Ontario's Curriculum is written with big complex words, that we, as beginner teachers, are not yet familiar with. This was a great 'live visualization' that gave me hands-on experience of what the students are capable of doing at what age, and what the need to improve upon, to better understand what we read in the Ontario's education curriculum. 

I would like to add that I have been blessed to be given the opportunity to work along my Mentor Teacher as I have learnt a lot of beneficial things that I will carry with me throughout my career as a teacher. Definitely so much more than I ever anticipated after being with her for only three months. I am so excited to continue learning from my Mentor Teacher as I am more confident than ever that I will become a better teacher in the future thanks to her.

Dear all other student teachers, how did your Mentor Teacher help you prepare for your career as a beginner teacher?

Math Debriefs

A great question was raised by my teacher candidate, "how do you know what to discuss in a math debrief?"  This led to a great conversation. I talked about purposeful planning and teaching even in an inquiry-based classroom. Math investigations come from student questions, thinking and findings. That day students were working on a problem that involved place value. I was looking for them to show their thinking using various representations or tools. As I circulated I noticed the use of cusinnaire rods, place value charts and Base 10 blocks. I talked with students about their work and flagged those students who had used different representations. During the debrief we highlighted the different representations and talked about how we communicate our mathematical thinking and understanding. A great question led to a great discussion as well as reflection as a teacher. Sometimes we do things naturally in our classrooms but as a mentor teacher you need to openly share and 'think aloud' to pass along learning. 

Mentor Teacher/ Teacher Candidate Meeting

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to meet with teacher candidates to meet and discuss their experiences in the classroom. It was a great conversation, with many insights into their experiences and how we can best support them. Candidates shared their experiences with inquiry based learning. They reflected on how it has taken them several weeks to understand how and why inquiry happens. They were amazed to see how a simple read aloud could evolve into so many learning opportunities with children writing, discussing, asking questions and exploring various math concepts. One mentor teacher uses think alouds with her classes and the teacher candidate found this to be a valuable We discussed the value in asking their mentor teacher questions and seeking out resources such as, monologues. We also discussed how time for teacher candidates and mentor teachers to talk and discuss classroom learning is really valuable. We ended by asking what we could do to continue to support their learning. They expressed wanting resources to be able to read such as, Peel monographs as well as Ministry monographs. We also suggested they start Twitter accounts as it opens teachers to classrooms, researchers, and offers valuable professional development. Both parties felt that this meeting was a worthwhile leaning experience and wanted to meet regularly to talk and ask questions.