Is music at a crisis point in NZ Schools?

I came across a very interesting pod cast from Radio NZ that was pointing to a crisis underway in NZ Schools where music education is not as accessible to students as it once was.

I have very little musical background - the only musical experience is what I got at primary school, where we were one of the fortunate schools to have a specialised music teacher. I remember very little but the things that stand out for me was excellent singing tuition for the whole school (and an auditioned choir), a lesson on what notes looked like and their associated letters, and I remember at one point a friend and I entered a competition where we had to compose music. She was quite musical and learnt out of school and I just tagged along really. At some point I guess I must have learnt some basic instrumental skills like the recorder.

At college, we had to learn a few notes on the recorder and play a song for an assessment. Other than that though, I also have very little recall of what we did. 

I would call myself pretty much musically inept.

The podcast here has two people being interviewed. Tim Carson represents the view that there is a crisis, and Lisa Rodgers represents the MOE.

At about 13-14 minutes MOE representative claims that music in schools is fine in all the schools she's visited. That means more than just singing, but having learned enough that a child could compose a basic piece of music. Clearly she's never been to some of the schools I have experience in. I do believe there is many other teachers like me who flounder around to do our best to be able to teach the basics not only of singing, but also of music. And we do so with very little confidence. 

Schools are funded to deliver the curriculum through their operations grant, however, the individual needs for schools means that subjects like music often get pushed down the list of priorities. There is a continual need to rethink how we can engage in the literacies (including maths, as it's a language too) through arts subjects. They are critical to the development of the whole child and providing exposure to many elements. Schools need advisors and funding for development not only in music (although I think that seems to be the area of least confidence) but also in the general area of The Arts. 

I am fortunate to be working now in a school that values the arts and music education and I look forward to learning what I can from our lead mentor in music.

2016 Current/Desired Reality

3 Great Steps:
1   Seek Feedback - constructive 70%/ positive 30%
2   Honest conversations regarding priorities and balancing responsibilities
3   Make time for professional reading (learning environment goal and Innovation Incubator)

Behaviour expectations in an open learning space - do they differ?

I'm very fortunate to work within a team that put great emphasis on Professional Development and Learning. This means working with some very high calibre people in their fields. 

Prior to induction, I had actually never heard of this particular guy who was going to be leading our day, but now I know him as 'the behaviour guy'. I was really keen to hear his thoughts on managing children within an open learning environment, as that is one of the challenges when making the transitions. 

It didn't start as well as I hoped though. By morning tea time I was a bit gob-smacked to be honest. He admitted himself that he had probably offended a number of people in the room, and I was one of them. 

He started the day giving one reason why he believed NZ results in PISA assessments were going down. (PISA results, in my opinion, reflect a very small 'slice' of education and do not account for the other great things that kiwi kids are getting opportunity to grow and develop in. But that's a different blog post!) He backed up his one reason with six points, most of which go against my beliefs as an educator in an Innovative Learning Environment.

1) Distraction. He's right - there's a lot of distraction. These children are living in the most stimulating era ever. We should be channeling those distractions into pulling information from a variety of sources, not preventing our kids from, well, being kids. I'm sure Sir Ken Robinson would back me up on this one, as he refers to it as the ADHD epidemic in this video (about 4 mins in).

2) Social Shift in Authority. Again - yes! Children are given voice and agency in their learning because research shows it gives the children more ownership and engagement in their learning (and related tasks).

3) Lack of clarity in Practising Teacher Criteria. Here I would ask the question, if we were to tell every single teacher more precisely, how to manage their students, then how do ensure that the teacher is catering for the individual needs of the students and community?

4) Innovative Learning Spaces. Well I'm here and I'm doing it. 

5) Collaboration. What?!?! He did say that collaboration was a good thing but it creates a challenge. Collaboration is a core value at school, and as a necessary skill in an ever-changing world I won't be giving up on this 'challenge'. 

6) PB4L. I would have liked him to expand on his thoughts a little more - I think I would probably agree with him on this one. I have a small amount of experience working in a school that was starting a PB4L journey. There was some great data beginning to emerge that would lead to better monitoring and a more pro-active approach, however, the behaviourist slant was less than desirable for me. 


Fortunately the day got better and I was able to get quite a big take-a-way from it.

He spoke in depth about the importance of gaining full attention when working with students - large or small groups. This has been a focus for our team as we have started the year, and I can really see the benefits of calling a group to full attention before giving an instruction, or reading or speaking to them, or sharing with them. Full attention is the state when the noise level is almost silent and a very high number of students are listening. It has been found that when full attention is at it highest, on task focus is also higher for follow up independent work.

As we move into more small group work, my goal will be to ensure that the group I'm working with CAN be and are in a full attention state. I highlight the word 'can' because it is reliant on so many factors - Can the children see what they need to? Is there anything 'extra' that will limit their distraction for this point in time? Is the outer noise level appropriate? Can the children have my full attention or do I need to attend to other groups too? 


On task focus is really important for our children's learning. The speaker talked about better focus led to doing more work, which resulted in better learning. I'm still pondering this one - I don't know that MORE work is the answer. Perhaps better QUALITY.  

Although I left feeling a little deflated, I'm really pleased I've been challenged and have spent some time thinking more about what I do actually believe leads to good learning.

Revisiting Nigel Latta's School Report

I love the freedom that the holidays brings when it comes to late night TV. It's a shame that this programme was on so late (even though it has been on before). Nigel Latta's has some excellent points and it was refreshing to watch again - I only hope many parents across the country also did. 

If you only have time to watch a bit - watch it from the 30 min point. 

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/nigel-latta/s1-ep2-video-6037627

• Decile does not equal quality
• National standards do not equal progress
• Expect kids to achieve more and they do
• Teachers do not have to know everything - it is more freeing for students to know that

And backing up my last post about finding The Element:

• 'Soft subjects' are hard, and require thinking
• 'Soft subjects' are critical - what would we do if we didn't have panel beaters and trades? 
• It's ok to be a kinesthetic learner.
• Vocational learning is valuable learning
• Keeping kids in school for an extra year or more will improve life chances by a tremendous amount - keep them there and keep them engaged!
• Giving hierarchy to certain subjects (maths, english, science) means we won't get our entrepreneurs and services 
• "There are lot's of way of being excellent."
• The NZ curriculum is a powerful document because it talks about more than just content.

Discovering 'The Element'

I've owned this book for a few years now. I found it in a second hand bookshop at the ferry terminal in Auckland. At the time I thought, 'that looks like a good read,' but every time I tried to read it, I got to a certain point and switched off. Clearly, I wasn't ready for it's message. After finishing the past year though and being surrounded by the positivity of mindshift, it was time for me to give it another crack - and I'm really pleased I did. I think that it was a great way to sum up everything I had consciously and unconsciously learnt this year about the future of education and the children that we are teaching. 

The importance of the element, I believe, is far deeper than happiness. It is what is going to make things happen, make things change in an ever developing (and complex) world.
The book defines The Element as "the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion."

Below I have listed some of my take-aways from the book:

• Sir Paul McCartney recalled in an interview that he had been through his entire education without anyone noticing that he had any musical talent at all. Even in the hierarchy that was English and Maths during his education era, this astounded me and made me wonder if that could happen in a school today - I know that I would struggle to pick out a student who had specific talent here, so do we have enough musically talented teachers, evenly spread from Y1-Y13, that each student would definitely come across at least two or three during their education? What about other areas - do we have enough talent seekers to inspire, mentor and coach across a wide range?
• "Many of them (children) will certainly have jobs we haven't conceived yet. Isn't it therefore our obligation to encourage them to explore as many avenues as possible with a eye toward discovering their true talents and their true passions?"
• The book places emphasis on The Element requiring passion, not just natural aptitude. It is possible to be very good at something, but not feel like it fills you with joy. 
• Intelligence comes in many, many, many kinds and combinations too. If it weren't for this a number of things would never have been created - ballet, abstract painting, hip-hop, design, self-service checkouts.... They all require different abilities.
• "A lot of my work with organisations is about showing that intelligence and creativity are blood relatives. I firmly believe that you can't be creative with acting intelligently. Similarly, the highest form of intelligence is thinking creatively."
• Working in your Element is being in a zone that means your 'work' becomes effortless and time becomes something you no longer 'feel'. Using a thinking style that comes naturally to people things become easier. The example used was that of his daughter who was unable to recall information from lectures. However, being a visual person, when she mindmapped the timelines and information she was able to recall, with understanding, everything she needed to. It's important that we give our students multiple ways of 'digesting' the same information. 
• "To make the Element available to everyone, we need to acknowledge that each person's intelligence is distinct from the intelligence of every other person on the planet, that everyone has a unique way of getting in the zone, and a unique way of finding the Element."
• Part of finding your Element, is finding your Tribe. This point was a great reflection for me as it has helped me to articulate why the move I made at the beginning of 2015 was such a significant one for my career. Although I've enjoyed every other teaching job I've had, and each has contributed a great deal to the teacher I am today, I feel now that I have found my tribe, I have found the ones that speak my dialect. 
• Creative teams are able to achieve more together, than they can separately. Three key features of intelligence enable this: they are diverse, dynamic and distinct.
• Diversity stuck out to me more than any of the others. It speaks about different sorts of people that compliment each other and I know that is something that has been considered greatly in building teams and workgroups within my school. It has such an importance to raise the level of achievement.
• When elaborating on the feature of distinction, I found it interesting that a creative team was compared to a committee. Committees don't require everyone's full attention all of the time and the people are usually only there to serve a particular interest. A creative team, on the other hand, is there to get a specific job done in whichever way it needs to. This made me think about my role as a BOT member and the continuum of management to governance. I can see similarities between the BOT that manages / is a committee and I suspect there may be a number of boards operating in this manner...
• I found the section on 'groupthink' fascinating, where intelligent and well-meaning people were willing to give up their thoughts and beliefs based on what their peers were saying. My thoughts were exactly as it was written: "It raises questions about our ways of education and and the values that guide our conduct." We must allow our students opportunities to think for themselves and to be proud of their beliefs.
• The roles of mentors: to recognise, to encourage, to facilitate and to stretch. It is this last one that I think is the hardest one to achieve, particularly in a primary school setting where teachers are often a 'jack of all trades, master of none.' Because of this, they must seek whatever assistance is required to continue to mentor or to pass the student on to. Mentors "take a unique and personal place in our lives... open doors for us and get involved directly in our journeys...show us the next steps and encourage us to take them." Heroes don't do that.
• When you look at people who have done well for themselves, including the stories throughout the book, there are a number who didn't do well at school. I wonder if the changes that we're making going to encourage them stay and do well? Is that going to benefit them? Or will it just lie 'the problem with education' elsewhere? Is the change happening in the primary sector and halted by the secondary or tertiary?
• "The key to this transformation is not to standardise education but to personalise it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions."
• Should we stop thinking about school as separate subjects and more as sets of disciplines. "The idea of disciplines make possible a fluid and dynamic curriculum that is interdisciplinary."
• People need the right conditions to grow - they need synergy with the people and environments around them. It is the job of our schools to do that. "For all our futures, we need to aim high and be determined to succeed."

I am the type of person to reread books (or rewatch movies) and pick up something new every time. I will be adding this one to my 'revisiting' pile.

A mountain biking analogy...

Over the summer, I have been learning to ride clipless pedals (quite the opposite to what the name suggests - they mean you are clipped in and attached to the bike). It's not a particularly difficult thing to do, until you forget to unclip yourself and so consequently you, and your bike, just topple over. I haven't failed - yet - but I'm assured it will happen almost certainly at a red light surrounded by traffic. 

Part of this 'training' is to ride my bike a lot - and coming from a cycling family I'm encouraged to do so and have company on my rides. Dad does a bit of riding and is therefore much faster than I am. I went out riding with him yesterday and had a great morning dodging trees and sandy corners at the bike tracks. 

It was here that I was put into the shoes of a learner. Not learning so much, but practising and refining my technique (and fitness). I had much less speed than dad and as I was breaking the still silence of the bush, panting along, I thought about how those students who need extra time on task feel. You see, dad would head off and do his own thing and then stop and wait for me. Nice of him, but when he saw me coming he would take off again and I would continue to plod along. He got a break to get his breath back, have a breather and prepare himself for the next bit. Something he probably didn't need, but exactly what I needed. A chance to stop and recoup, refocus and carry on. It made me wonder how I best serve these 'speeds' of learning in the classroom...

• Do I effectively allow those 'speedy' kids to keep going without being held back? How do I do that effectively?
• Am I giving enough time for development to those who need extra time?
• Am I allowing them chances to stop and rest too? OR am I using the 'speedy' kids rest time as a catch up time (meaning they don't get a break at all)?
• Is it ok to need extra time? If not, why not? Will the two speeds end up at the same place?

It's something that's often talked about but as I go into this year, I want to make sure that all children get that chance to have a break. It is known that it's necessary for all development. 

The first year in Queenstown

Next week is the final week of school for the year. Monday will bring the beginning of the end of the beginning! It's time to celebrate the highlights of the year.


Highlights:

• KJet ride
• Shotover Jet ride
• Double decker bus ride
• Arrowtown museum
• Earnslaw
• Helicopter visit (not a ride... this time)
• Being challenged and questioned

• many great cycle trails
• many great walking tracks
• Gondola and luging
• 4WDing and getting into Macetown
• skiing (even if I didn't like it much!)
• being closer to family
• wining and dining
• making friends and connections through clubs

I'm looking forward to what 2016 will bring! Bring it on!