The day of my university graduation was also the day I learned that I had a place on a PGCE course. My other half, who did not know my parents very well, sat down with them for a coffee while I got my robes fitted.
“Are you ready?” – My mother, a teacher who at that point
had around 35 years of teaching under her belt.
“…For what?” – My other half
“This is going to be the hardest two years of Becky’s life.
You’re going to need to support her and you’re not going to see much of her
until she’s at least out of her NQT.”
When I met up with my cheering session after the ceremony,
he looked paler than I did.
It’s now been eight years since that fateful conversation
and my other half has more than stepped up to the challenge; he’s cooked
dinners, ironed shirts, cut out lettering, dropped off forgotten books, made
banana bread for the team, prepared an ungodly amount of chicken for ‘Humanities
Fajitas’, and he can even tell you what TLAC stands for. Most importantly, he
has always graciously accepted that I’m unavailable on weekday evenings and
that Sundays are my ‘work day’. However, over the last two years, I’ve begun to
claw some time back for myself, for him, and for my team without sacrificing on
quality. I’ll admit, the Mr. signed up for two years of intense support, rather
than eight. However, I feel that the changes we have made within our team mean
that this time is here to stay, rather than just robbing Peter to pay Paul.
The main change we introduced was centralised resources.
To me, centralised resources do not mean one-size-fits-all,
off the peg, could just buy it off the TES generic Powerpoint presentations.
They mean fully resourced ‘base lessons’ (usually with reading texts) in which
the threshold concepts have been clearly signposted. Staff are responsible for
individual units which they plan well in advance and into which they can sink significant
amounts of time and love. The staff which then use these lessons know exactly what
they need to focus on, but they also have the flexibility to adjust for their
individual groups.
Why do I believe in centralised resources?
I believe that 99.9999% of teachers want the very best for
their pupils and are willing to commit significant time to ensuring their
pupils succeed. I’m also willing to bet that the same percentage of teachers do
not want to spend every second of their waking lives outside school planning and
marking. The problem is time. When teachers don’t have enough time and don’t
have a strong system of centralised resources, they end up in a vicious cycle
of ‘survival planning’ which bleeds them dry of any time or will for development:
The reason why this cycle is so harmful is because it is so
difficult to break. Without significant intervention, it can slowly wear
teachers down year after year, making them feel that every September they are
starting from scratch or causing them to reuse resources which they know are
not fit for purpose as they do no feel that improvement is possible or
feasible.
However, when this cycle is broken and high-quality centralised
resources become the norm, a virtuous cycle can be created in which staff have
the time and the desire to continually improve their resources and teaching
without feeling overwhelmed.
Why did we resist centralised resources?
I think there are a multitude or resources why teachers can resist
centralised resources:
1.
Time: although centralised resources aim to
reduce the amount of time spent planning or creating resources, starting the virtuous
cycle above requires a significant input of time from one person or every
member of the team. This initial push can seem impossible to start.
2.
Working = making: certainly when I started
teaching, I felt as though work needed to be physically productive; if I was
working, there had to be something to show for it. I usually felt that that ‘something’
had to be a resource. Therefore, to use someone else’s resources was somehow
cheating or stealing.
3.
Personalisation: once again, at the beginning of
my career, the educational zeitgeist seemed to heavily push the idea that every
pupil was entirely different and therefore every lesson had to be entirely
different. Resources could not be reused between classes or cohorts as they
simply would not work.
4.
Ego: linked to the idea of ‘cheating’, part of
me initially felt that centralised resources were somehow a comment about the
quality of my planning; needing to use these resources apparently clearly
demonstrated that my planning wasn’t good enough.
Many of these reasons focus on self-perception, potentially turning the introduction of centralised resources into a minefield. As a result, I believe they need to be implemented gradually and carefully.
How did we introduce centralised resources?
When introducing centralised resources to a team, I believe
it should be done in a phased approach in order kickstart the virtuous cycle
without making staff feel overwhelmed and to ensure that staff are bought-in to
the process in the long term.
Stage 1: ‘The One Man Model’
The concept of centralised resources is sold to the team in
person. Emphasis is placed on the virtuous cycle (as the long-term goal) and
the short-term gains of reduced workload. One or two members of staff (probably
department leadership) lead on producing resources, possibly only focusing on
one or two units. The staff producing resources clearly signpost threshold
concepts. At this point, emphasis should be placed on staff simply using the
resources, rather than adapting them.
Ideally, a faculty/department meeting should be spent evaluating
the centralised resources which have been used. This is a good opportunity to kick
start a collaborative approach and a to dispel any myths that centralised resources
are a critique of other teachers’ resources.
Stage 2: Adapting individual lessons
Once staff are in the habit of using centralised resources
and can see their benefit in terms of workload, leadership should lead training
on how to adapt resources for individual classes. Adaptation should have a ‘tight
but loose’ approach which encourages staff to be responsive while also focusing
on threshold concepts. Members of the team could share and discuss their
practice in line management meetings and faculty meetings.
Stage 3: Delegating units
Planning starts to be shared out beyond leadership, well
before they need to be taught. Line management meetings should include discussions
about progress with planning and should serve as an opportunity to check
through and discuss resources.
Stage 4: Collaborative evaluation and planning
Checking, evaluating, and planning become a process in which
the entire team is involved. All members of the team have planning
responsibility and units are reviewed, evaluated, and tweaked as soon as they
have been taught. Teachers of different units regularly discuss with each other
in order to gain feedback and to see where they can build on previous units. The
team develop threads of schema and second order concepts which allow for
effective interleaving, interweaving, and mastery.
Comments
Post a Comment