Walking along the corridor of a certain school I was dismayed to see that the walls were bare. OK, they were painted. A dull blue-grey. But there were no pictures, no students work. Oh wait, there's something... let's look closer ... oh, it's a plan drawing of this floor showing the exits. Oh and look there's a sign... showing the way out. OK, I get the hint - I feel like leaving.

So I asked the headteachers the reason for the austere design. Was it perhaps a well-researched pedagogic strategy to maximise learning? No, it was the result of fire regulations. It seems that students work has a tendency to catch fire. So it is not permitted on the walls of the corridors.

The classrooms then? Surely there's examples of students work proudly displayed as a source of inspiration to others? No. Not even there. Same rules apply - fire hazard.

So in this school, the walls are bare.

What about your school?

What do you put on the walls of your classroom? What do you put up in the corridors?

If you do, what do you do with them?
If not, how do you deal with that?

We never covered this subject when I took my teaching degree in the 1970's. The nearest we came to it was discussions regarding cigarettes. In that case the solution was simple, the teacher took the cigarettes away from the student (and smoked them?). Confiscation of ciggies was expected by the students, and a perk of the job for some teachers, at least the teachers who smoked.

I believe that all schools now have written policies regarding cigarettes, but teachers are not police, and the very act of taking cigarettes away from a student, even today, can result in a more physical interaction than is desirable. And the police won't come to a school to take away a students cigarettes. So what can we learn from that?

Nowadays, mobile phones are a huge distraction to a lot of students, even the most academically motivated may well feel comfortable checking on their FB messages several times during a lesson. Those students who find ordinary lessons tedious will be even more tempted to watch a video or listen to some music to fill the gap.

• Some teachers gather all mobiles at the start of the lesson, as they check on attendance. Of course they are given back at the end of the lesson. The process takes valuable time from lessons.
  
• Some teachers ignore the fact that some students are using their mobiles, acknowledging that the disturbance factor of taking the mobile away is greater than the benefit to all.
• Some teachers issue warnings to individual students when they feel that the use of the mobile is distracting the learning too much.
• Some teachers explode in a ball of flames at the sight of a single mobile in their classroom, stopping the ordinary lesson to teach a Life Lesson to all.
• I have used the fact that students have mobiles to increase student interaction (with me) and check on knowledge before and after a lesson. I use the Socrative website www.socrative.com to ask questions at the start of the lesson (prior knowledge), during the lesson (interactivity) and at the end of the lesson (exit slips). Of course I have had days when "Mobile Prohibition" was in force, but we all know how it goes for prohibition, don't we.

How do you deal with this?

I'd love to know how this plays out in different schools, if there are local or national policies, suggestions, tips and techniques...

Were your students too talkative today?
What's your best tip on getting the best out of that?

Hands up - did you interpret 'talkative' in a negative way? Or in a positive way? Because it's both isn't it?

The day you want to say/ tell / teach the students something, and they talk... their talkativeness could be getting in your way. On another day students' talkativeness could be the best response ever. It depends on what you want to achieve. Some days the students talk about things other than those you want to focus on. If only they would shut up! And there may be days when you experience a challenging lack of talkativeness. If only they would open up!

So what makes the difference?

If you walk into the classroom with a fixed idea, such as "I will speak and they will listen", or "I will speak and they will engage in meaningful conversation", you may be locking yourself out of what is ACTUALLY happening in the room, and lose contact with the students and... well that's when you don't get the repsonse you want, need and deserve.

Some teachers start their lessons with a short negotiation regarding what they want to teach (today), and balance that with what the students are prepared to learn (today), then they divide up the lesson time in a creative and meaningful way. Often the division of time is unequal, because some of the students are more prepared to learn than others. In this way the teacher is able to deliver lessons at the students individual level. Oh did I say negotiation? I would like to remind you that a teacher has the role of benevolent dictator and has 51% of the votes. The students share the other 49%. Fair? Oh yes! Why? Because the teacher is responsible for the student's progress. That 2% may not seem much, but it's enough.

If you walk into the classroom with a too open and accepting attitude, like "Let's see what mood they are in and what they are prepared to do today", you may well find that you have lost your 2% advantage and the students start taking over the lesson and you end up having a long argument about what the lesson is supposed to be about and what school is for... been there done that, NEVER again!
It's only 2%, but you need never give it away!




What's your best tip on getting the best out of talkativeness?

Some teachers record themselves on video or audio, or a slide show with audio (my favourite). That's a resource they can show, share, reuse over and again, releasing them to be fully present in the classroom and engage with whatever the students are offering them on that day.

Some teachers inform the students in advance what kind of lesson is coming up next time. If it is to be a talkative lesson, a debate, discussion etc, the students are given resources to use for homework preparation.

Once I gave my students the Monty Hall problem to consider (http://youtu.be/mhlc7peGlGg), they were to choose the winning strategy and present their mathematical argument in the next lesson. I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and energy the students came with the next day. They spent the whole lesson giving and disputing arguments. The whole class came together in a deep desire to know the winning strategy, AND the reason for it.

First of all, why bother?
And when we know why, let's talk about how.
Then you can write and tell me what you do to surprise your students.


Why bother? Your students live in a highly stimulating world. They are connected to stimulating audio-visual media almost 24-7, and their attention is repeatedly pulled this way and that by the latest and craziest distraction. So when they come into your classroom their heads are spinning, their focus elsewhere; and in order to teach them something, you will need to grab their attention and refocus it on the lesson.

How do other teachers do this?

• Some teachers greet their students in the classroom doorway and make eye contact, shake hands, say a few well-chosen words.
• Some teachers dress up in unusual clothes, play music, show slides, tell stories, tell jokes, issue a collaborative pre-lesson survey (test), or command silence.
• Some teachers rearrange the chairs and tables, dim the lights, lay out workbooks or set up a round robin of related activities.
• Once, I started a morning lesson wearing a dressing gown, with a towel over my shoulder and a toothbrush in my pocket. The students, baffled by my unexpected choice of clothes, shifted their focus to the 'here and now', and I was more able to catch and hold their attention. By the way, I'm a maths teacher!

Tell me. I would love to hear what you do to surprise your students. Share your experiences and suggestions here and let's see how many students we can surprise on a global scale.

Teacher
OK everyone! I want everybody to fold their computers, put down cell phones, and full attention on Martin here.

Teacher
OK, shhhhhh

[The teacher explains the change to the schedule, we are going to have a talk today.]

Teacher
So, you will not have your regular class today... This is because we have Martin Richards here today and he is going to talk to you about... different things, mostly culture I believe... and I thought this would be something that could inspire you in your work that you will do in the upcoming week. So, be attentive! OK!

Martin
They are. They are very attentive. Wow!

Good morning

Students
Good morning.

Thank you for the introduction, especially "the subject, Martin is going to talk about culture". We didn't have a very powerful title for it today. But there you go, that was because of our planning.

[Shows Intro page]

Martin
A little bit about me. This saves me having to talk so much about who I am because I know I am, and now you know. I've been around a long time I realise. How old am I?

Student 
28

Martin
On the outside, if you add up those numbers. On the outside about 50...

Student
62

Martin
62, about that. How is your maths? I was born in 56, how old am I?

Student 
Old enough

Martin
Old enough thank you. I'm old enough to know better. I've be around long time. Half of my life I've lived in the UK which where this horrible accent comes from. Half my life I spent in Sweden and I think I may have to say a few words in Swedish.

[Says something in Swedish]

Martin
Once it happened that I was gonna write my name on the board - this was a long time before these wonderful devices that we have these days - I was going to write my name on the board (sings) "Martin" and behind me couple of people said "MMmm, snygg häck".

[Snygg häck = nice bum]

Students
[laugh]

Martin
And then I turned round and said "Eeeh, I speak Swedish". So I do it nowadays it in advance to let you know that if you say "Snygg häck" I'll be very delighted because that was a long time ago.

Students
[laugh]

If you are looking for guidance in making changes to the teaching in your school, here are the first six steps.

We can rely on the fact that living and working conditions in the world change, have always changed and will continue to change. And the pace of such changes will probably get faster, and faster.

Education is the way communities have developed for preparing the next generation for their living and working lives, learning from what's been done before.

The Education System is continuously looking for the best ways to get the best results for ourselves, now and in the future. Any well-functioning system uses feedback to learn from its own results.

• Coaching (the art of questioning) is an empowering way to learn from results in order to deal with continuous and accelerating change.
• Coaching moves the communication focus from "Tell" to "Ask".
• A coaching approach is a natural addition to headteacher's skillset.
• A coaching approach is a natural addition to a teacher’s skillset
  

Teachers work hard to design the best lesson activities that they can. And yet some teachers are dismayed to discover (from the test results, for example) that their students are not learning half as well as they expected.

When, as their coach, I ask "What can you do differently?", the teachers sometimes are stuck for an answer. They tell me, somewhat defensively, that they have designed the best activities and it's the students responsibility to learn from them.

True, yet there are many things that a teacher can do differently when designing lesson activities so that more students learn more. The first challenge for the teacher is to let go of the idea that they have already designed the best activity, and look for something else that's best in a different way. The second challenge is to find ways of changing the design. To this end I use several parameters to 'measure' the activity.

When generating more effective lesson activities there are several parameters that I use:

Ask / Tell
and
Visual / Auditory / Kinesthetic


Asking - Two-way communication
The teacher asks, verbally or in writing, a variety of questions that require a physical, verbal or written response from the students.

Telling - One-way communication
The teacher uses reference material and their own experience to inform the students about the subject, through verbal (dialogue, discussion etc), physical (movement, acting etc) or written communication (books, websites, newspapers etc)

The aim of these questions is to allow the teacher to reflect on how they usually think when designing an activity, and stretch their thinking in several directions, and consider how the students are affected by the new design. Then they can design a new activity that has a different shape.


"What's the balance between Asking and Telling in the current design of the lesson activity?"

"How much time is spent on Asking Activities and how much time is spent on Telling Activities?"

"Which students benefit most from that kind of activity?"

"Which students benefit least from that kind of activity"?

"What would be a very different balance? (pause) And how might that work out for your students?

"What would be another very different balance? (pause)And how might that work out for other students?

"Which students benefit most from this new kind of activity?"

"Which students benefit least from this new kind of activity"?

"Which students do you most want to reach with this new activity?"

"How could you redesign the current activity to achieve that?"

Martin Richards is interviewed by Master Youth Coach Bob Singha about the work of bringing coaching to school teachers.