Who are your learners?

How do you find out who your learners are at the beginning of the year? What do you focus on to make sure that the school year will support them and their needs, not just do what is expected? How much time is spent really getting to know them vs testing for the core subjects? When you do those activities at the start of the year to find out who they are, what do you do with that information? Do you use it to inform the learning experiences you'll create with them or do you file it away and get on with what's on the pre-decided long term plan?

I've been that teacher who has done exactly that - found out about the kids' interests and then promptly got on with the pre-decided plan. I did it in the early days of my practice because nobody encouraged me to question it and I just thought that was how 'school' was done. I did that classic 'write a letter to the teacher' activity never thinking about the learners in my room for whom this was a challenge and a negative experience. When did I give them a chance to connect with others around their strengths? What activities did I offer that genuinely gave me insight into their ability to think creatively and critically, their ability to problem solve or collaborate with others?

Some of you will be in a situation where you feel a little powerless in the decision making around what goes on in your classroom. How does that feel to you? If it's frustrating for you, you can identify with the learners in your class who feel the same because of their lack of control over their own learning.

Creating opportunities for students must be more important than creating comfort for adults.

David Guerin

Why should I bother? It's easier to stick to my plan.

People need opportunities to show their strengths. In a school I worked in, the teacher described a boy in the class as quiet. He got on well with others, did what he was told and did what was asked of him as a learner in the class, but needed support. I was running a Digital Technologies session in the class and found out that this boy had set up his own YouTube channel at home which had over 6,000 subscribers. His videos were getting upwards of 10,000 views. Compare this to a writing task he might have been asked to do which may have had 2 views (the teacher and a diligent parent). What a great skill to have and so much more relevant than a lot of the learning he had been asked to do.

I found out this information by chance, but how do we ensure we find out this information as early as we can and then harness this in our teaching? If that had been someone who I had found out about, I would have showcased those skills and then used him to support other students who wanted to do the same. I would have created project outcomes where creating a YouTube channel to showcase the learning was a possibility. It didn't matter if I had the skills to do that - I had an expert in the room. My job would be to support project management and keep an eye on the type of content being created.

What about your learners who find the traditional core subjects challenging? What more can you learn about them and how they learn so that learning doesn't continue to be something they feel like they're failing at? We need to build confidence through strengths-based teaching, not focus on deficits.

I have two nephews who are dyslexic. When they were in primary school I remember asking each of them how their first day went. Now, school wasn't always a positive experience for them, so going back to school came with a lot of stress and anxiety. I was delighted when one replied, "I had such a cool day. We had to work in teams to design ways to stop eggs breaking when we dropped them off the playground tower." When I asked my second nephew the same question, he looked at me with a sad face and said "We did a spelling test." It made my blood boil. This young man thought that, in his teacher's mind, he was a score on a spelling test rather than having the chance to showcase his skills as a strategic thinker with amazing construction skills. I share this story hoping that you will reflect on what the first week and first term is like for all of the diverse learners in your class. Does everyone get a chance to shine and keep shining?

How do I do it?

Something has to give - which layers are you going to remove altogether and which layers will you integrate? Until you do that and take the foot off the pedal, really getting to know your learners will be challenging.

That's the big picture but some of you may be going....yep, I get it...just tell me what I can do....so here you go...