This time last year I attended the Make Learning Better 2013 and became very inspired over the two days (and therefore hoped against hope that the job application I had just submitted to the school might be successful!) Twelve months later, here I am, fortunate enough to find myself a MOC Senior Years staff member and featuring in a colleague's presentation about Character Strengths in the Positive Education strand of the 2014 conference.
I was first introduced to Positive Education when I completed Pembroke School's Introduction to Mindfulness course in 2013 but came to understand the research behind it more fully when I joined MOC's Positive Education Action Team (PEAT) at a presentation by Dr Martin Seligman hosted by SAHMRI at Trinity College in February 2014.
Unfortunately my video of the MLB@MOC 2014 session has not recorded properly (ICT fail!) so please accept my apologies if you do not understand the context of Maryjane Tenison-Woods' (our Coordinator of College Well-Being's) presentation. However, I will still proceed with publishing my cameo appearance here. It serves as a case study of my practice with the exceptionally wonderful Year 10 home group I managed in Semester 1, 2014.
First, Maryjane showed this video I prepared for a presentation by another PEAT member, Colette Bos, at St Peter's College back in May:
Unfortunately my video of the MLB@MOC 2014 session has not recorded properly (ICT fail!) so please accept my apologies if you do not understand the context of Maryjane Tenison-Woods' (our Coordinator of College Well-Being's) presentation. However, I will still proceed with publishing my cameo appearance here. It serves as a case study of my practice with the exceptionally wonderful Year 10 home group I managed in Semester 1, 2014.
First, Maryjane showed this video I prepared for a presentation by another PEAT member, Colette Bos, at St Peter's College back in May:
Then I followed on with the following vignette about embedding character strengths:
VIA survey and publish their top five strengths on the homepage of their PLP digital portfolio. For some classes, Character Strengths probably stopped there. As a minimum, Year 10 students had to undertake the However, in Semester 1 I was in the fortunate position to (a) have a highly enthusiastic community of very social learners and (b) not only have them for two PLP lessons a week, but also home group, History and English, which meant we spent approximately 700 minutes a week together. Seeing as the level of social cohesion showed signs of being quite high from day one, I managed the class in workgroups that changed approximately every 4-5 weeks. Once the students had undertaken the survey, you could say it became a lexicon that the students used to analyse and reflect on how those groups were functioning. I'll let a couple of the students speak on behalf of their peers about that. One of them can't be photographed so I discovered that the two boys had decided to record most of their reflection video as shown below. (You might not be surprised to hear that Humour was in both of these students' top 5 strengths!) | So I'll just play a quick bit of audio but this is a screenshot of Will's hand gestures that I'll point out at the appropriate moment. Our first speaker Abbas is an ESL student so he’s opted to read out some notes while Will, the second speaker is, in his words, "winging it". I really appreciate Will’s self-correction that the students’ top strengths weren’t "the same" but "complemented" each other. Perhaps if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it, but without prompting the students would start saying things like “hey, we need this poster to look good – better ask Abbas for some advice cos he’s our beauty and excellence guy” or “I wonder what would happen if we put all our humour people into one group? Can we try that Miss?” When it came time for the final PLP task, the Presentation of Learning, many students in this class identified character strengths as the explicit strategy they had used to achieve their goal of being an active and valued member of our class under the SACE Citizenship capability. I am keen to attempt using Character Strengths with a less cohesive class to see if it improves their social learning skills. The relevant PLP task sheet is available if you would like a copy but I would argue that if it is implemented on its own, then it is superficial. However, I hope that today I have successfully demonstrated some of the benefits of embedding character strengths. |
Relevant SACE Stage 1 Personal Learning Plan (PLP) task sheets that I devised and refer to above:
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PLP teachers take note: The new SACE Capabilities Policy (2013) flags that the PLP will shift from the previous five capabilities of the new SACE (Work, Personal Development, Communication, Citizenship and Learning) to the Australian Curriculum's General Capabilities.
Standards:
1.1 Use teaching strategies based on knowledge of students’ physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics to improve student learning.
1.2 Structure teaching programs using research and collegial advice about how students learn.
2.6 Use effective teaching strategies to integrate ICT into learning and teaching programs to make selected content relevant and meaningful.
3.3 Select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking.
3.4 Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning.
3.6 Evaluate personal teaching and learning programs using evidence, including feedback from students and student assessment data, to inform planning.
4.1 Establish and implement inclusive and positive interactions to engage and support all students in classroom activities.
4.2 Establish and maintain orderly and workable routines to create an environment where student time is spent on learning tasks.
6.3 Contribute to collegial discussions and apply constructive feedback from colleagues to improve professional knowledge and practice.
6.4 Undertake professional learning programs designed to address identified student learning needs.
7.4 Participate in professional and community networks and forums to broaden knowledge and improve practice.
1.1 Use teaching strategies based on knowledge of students’ physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics to improve student learning.
1.2 Structure teaching programs using research and collegial advice about how students learn.
2.6 Use effective teaching strategies to integrate ICT into learning and teaching programs to make selected content relevant and meaningful.
3.3 Select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking.
3.4 Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning.
3.6 Evaluate personal teaching and learning programs using evidence, including feedback from students and student assessment data, to inform planning.
4.1 Establish and implement inclusive and positive interactions to engage and support all students in classroom activities.
4.2 Establish and maintain orderly and workable routines to create an environment where student time is spent on learning tasks.
6.3 Contribute to collegial discussions and apply constructive feedback from colleagues to improve professional knowledge and practice.
6.4 Undertake professional learning programs designed to address identified student learning needs.
7.4 Participate in professional and community networks and forums to broaden knowledge and improve practice.