Wednesday Wonderings

Each Wednesday in our class we have Wednesday Wonderings. This is a hands off time for me as the teacher - the kids work in SOLEs to answer a particular question. So far we've answered these questions:

How do my eyes know to cry when I'm sad?

Is it disgusting to eat bugs?

Why do people slip on wet surfaces?

The kids form their own groups of 4 or 5 (depending on how many are present that day). They get 2 devices per group, paper to record their findings on, and 40 minutes to research and prepare to present.

It's a great opportunity to watch them co-operate and collaborate - and to see who is able to do so successfully as well.

This term our big goal is managing self. They will be given a change to self reflect on how well they managed them selves during this time as well.

Leadership

There's a kind of kudos thing that happens when you finally gain the title 'leader' or 'team leader' but I've discovered there's a double-edged sword-ness about it. 

As a leader my role is to work with a team of teachers in the area of 'Thinking'. According to the synopsis this means: 

Thinking

This area is an essential element of Powerful learning.  Jo Fothergill is developing teachers’ abilities to both develop their own and students specific thinking skills and to build students aptitude to use a variety of thinking approaches when completing tasks and solving problems.  The two major tools that RBS is hoping to embed are Art Costa’s Habits of Mind (aptitudes and attitudes) and Edwards de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats which have multiple levels of use and is far more rigorous and challenging than most students would have previously experienced. Jo is working with Team Wharemauku in Terms 2 & 3.

Perhaps some of the difficulty/double-edged sword-ness is because thinking isn't a tangible 'subject'. After all, how do you measure increase in thinking? While there are some specifics that can be measured as far as the teachers' questioning skills, it's not like PE or Science where you can check lesson plans and observe lessons in action. Thinking covers all aspects of school - both in and out of the classroom. (All aspects of life too, one would hope!)

There's also a requirement for me to be modelling 'Thinking' in my classroom. Which is fine by me, but which implies that I'm some kind of expert at it! (Those who know me well might laugh at that.)

I guess I'm enjoying the challenge of leading a team, of challenging and mentoring the teachers in that team. I have to be prepared and know exactly what I'm doing in each of our sessions (Friday mornings 8-8:45) before the session - it's not something I can just 'wing' or run in the spur of the moment. And I guess that I enjoy being really challenged - as Mike says I can do eLearning blindfolded - but this is something I have to work at, read about, upskill myself in, and generally work hard at.