C144: Specialist and Support Teachers (Challenge): Bring about Agency and Inquiry in our Thinking

Welcome to our seventh episode in our series for specialist and supporting teachers.  This has been a passion project that has been frequently delayed with my return to the classroom, a school-wide adventure camp, International day, the IB global conference, a trip to London (my favorite city in the world like so many others), and a workshop in Dubin, Ireland with the Nord Anglia school.  As I go through this list, I am excited, yet invigorated at the same time. 

One of the things that surprised me within the past few months is the connectivity this podcast has given some people.  I met several people at the global conference who mentioned how much this podcast has meant to them.  Thank you for sharing.  This has always been a passion project to help others and it truly warms my heart when I hear your stories. 

These interactions made me curious about the reach of the podcast today and I was quite surprised by the results. Here are the top five cities within its reach of all time.

• Melbourne, Australia
• Sydney, Australia
• Singapore
• Mumbai, India
• Dubai, UAE

As I looked through these locations, it really warmed my heart.  Melbourne is where I learned to find my voice as an adult.  The place where I discovered my unique self and found mates who I will forever cherish like Kelly Thong, Angel Trudgeon, and Greg Woodford.  Singapore was my main stopover for many years and I came to love their Dr Scholl’s massage parlor and day trips into the city.  India is where I learned about the beauty of color and the continual celebration of life through gratitude.  Dubai is where I found the educator within me.  It’s the safe place that helped me to grow and try out new things, even if I made mistakes.  I dusted myself off and tried again.  Thank you lovely listeners.  Your cultures truly helped me on my life’s journey and I can’t wait to return to create new memories. 

Next school year, I would like to return to the region to share ideas with fellow educators.  If you are interested in participating or hosting, please contact me via my website www.thinkchat2020.com.

​Let's Challenge Ourselves

​As we finish going through this series, I would like to weave in some tidbits that I’ve learned along the way and apply it back to your role as a specialist or supporting role educator. 

This episode, we are going to take a moment to pause and reflect on what we have explored so far and take it a step deeper.  This challenge will focus on what we know about agency and inquiry in the specialist and supporting role.  

Lesson #1:  Where is there agency in your classroom?

As I’ve returned to teaching, I have been on the constant search for ways to bring about more agency in my classroom.  It’s difficult when we live in a world with so many pre-printed materials and lesson plan ideas that make teaching more interesting with very little planning on our parts.  I don’t know about you, but this is difficult to resist resources on Teacher pay Teachers that look engaging and they are ready to go. 

As you consider your practice, how much of the learning is driven by your learners and not by you? Take a moment to examine a recent week of teaching and/or supporting learning
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• What materials did you use?
• Were there opportunities for your learners to use a wide-variety of materials?
• How flexible were the learning processes and products? 
• Are there opportunities to change the process and product?

​Lesson #2:  Who is doing the talking, thinking, and doing?

Something that has been continuously on my mind as I prepare my units of inquiry and lesson plans is control.  Control can be a drug to some teachers.  It’s the power to shape young minds of tomorrow.  That is a heavy burden that has been placed on our shoulders.  At the same time, if we do not share this burden with our learners, it will not adequately prepare them for their future, which is quite uncertain at this point.  

To aid in the process, we need to reflect our need to be the sage on the stage, the keeper of knowledge, and the creator of dreams.  Instead, we are a provocateur, we set the stage for learners to discover the world in their own way and on their terms.  This is where learning becomes truly powerful. 

Let’s take some time to evaluate our practice. 
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• Do I control everything?  
• Do my learners control everything?  
• Is there a half-way point where we share the decision-making? 
• Who is doing the talking, thinking, and doing?  Is it me or my learners?

These questions matter, because they determine what the learning will look like in practice. 

Lesson #3:  How is the learning taking place? 

When we consider the learning in our classrooms and roles, what is the primary purpose?  This may seem quite simplistic, but the goal of the learning is just as important as what is being explored.  The goal will determine if the teacher is being the expert or the learners are gaining expertise in various skills and ideas. Here are questions I ask myself. 
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• What are my learners doing to connect to the prior knowledge?
• How am I using this information to guide my lesson and unit planning?
• What questions am I using to provoke, deepen thinking, and bring about reflection?
• How do my learning engagements incorporate the approaches to learning and learner profile attributes? 
• What are different ways that learners are inquiring into their ideas? 
• How have I modeled different products and processes? 

Take a moment in this challenge to reflect on agency and inquiry in your context.  This is the foundation for the next steps and we need to consider how they uniquely weave in our practice.