This month I decided to become a problem-solver and to stop (to the best of my ability) adding to the incessant whining of the negative we’ve-got-a-problem, it’s-not-my-responsibility, I’m-tired-busy-overwhelmed people that seem to inhabit every workplace, organisation and circle of friends.

I think problem-solvers are people who have a solutions mindset, rather than stellar talent or skills. They are attractive, dynamic and they move things forward. They can apply their mindset to all  areas of their lives: work, creative pursuits, personal life, relationships and so on and so on.

So, from now on, when a problem falls in my plate, I will:

1. Choose to solve it. I will not tell myself it can’t be done.

2. Not complain. I know that if I start whining, I will never stop and the problem will still be there tomorrow.

3. Focus on what needs to be achieved. I will work out what the goal or best outcome is and work backwards from that.

4. Make a plan. I will work out the specifics. I will figure out who needs be involved and who needs to be excluded.

5. Write down the plan and make it as visual as possible.

6. Take immediate actions to make things happen. I will recruit help, I will kick things off, I will sharpen the skills I need to succeed. I will stop putting off till tomorrow what I can do today.

7. Ignore the whiners, the nay-sayers, the uncommitted. It’s not their problem, it’s mine and I’m going to solve it, and when I do I’ll be better equipped to solve the next problem and then the next one, and those left behind will probably still be complaining about something.

8. Stay enthusiastic despite set-backs, rejection, disappointment, heartache, anger…

9. Smile about it – misery is draining.

Wanna try it out?

Welcome back to another term.

I hope that you have all had a refreshing break and that you are ready for the next term. For those of you that are new to the profession welcome to the best job in the world, and thank you for being part of the I’m a New Teacher community. For all of you, thank you for your continued support, comments, tweets and feedback. As always, I’m a New Teacher exists to support and champion new teachers.

I thought that I would share a touching video that my wife found over the holidays.  This is the story of a nine-year-old boy named Caine Monroy who spent his entire summer holidays building an amazing cardboard arcade in his father’s used car shop. Caine waited the whole of summer and then, on the last day, a customer walked in to buy a door handle from Caine’s father. While the customer was waiting he decided to buy a ‘fun pass’ and became Caine’s first customer.

The customer decided to make a short film about Caine’s Arcade and that changed everything.  Please watch to find out what happened.

What would our classrooms and schools look like if they were built solely around the needs and the learning styles of the students?
How do we cater for the unique learning styles of our students within the classroom?
We know that every student excels differently and has a number of ‘intelligences’ (thanks Howard Gardiner), so how do teachers differentiate the curriculum and learning styles accordingly?
This seems like a mammoth task, but there are a few simple ways that we can cater for the needs and learning styles of our class:

• Create opportunity for collaboration and discussion: Organise your tables, or at least have a place where students can go and discuss tasks

• Deliver the subject content in a number of ways; Utilise technologies such as Interactive White Boards (IWBs), iPads, books and images to present information.

• Give students opportunities to reflect on their learning: After each maths lesson my class writes a reflection about what they have leant and how they are going to use that knowledge.

• Think across Key Learning Areas; build links and connections across KLAs. How do the learning outcomes apply to other subjects.

• Have lots of colour and text around the room: Classrooms should be interesting and engaging.

Designing your classrooms and your teaching content around your students’ learning styles can have a huge impact on student learning.

It is so great that many of you have received your copy of ‘Avoiding Accreditation Disasters.’ I hope you found the resource useful and I’d love to hear any feedback that you have. Also, please feel free to forward the resource to any teachers that you think will find it useful.

Writing resumes and applying for jobs can be a long, and often exhausting process. In order to improve your chances of getting to interview there are a few things that are crucial for your application.

Organise your referees

Make sure you read through a copy of the job application and find out which referees are required. Quite often, but not always, the application with ask you to put your principal and teaching supervisor to speak about your suitability for the profession.

Proof read your resume for errors

There are few things that will get your resume thrown out immediately, careless grammar and spelling mistakes are some of them. If grammar and spelling aren’t your strength, ask someone else to proof read your application.

Use the correct school name 

It sounds obvious, but this is a common oversight! Because we write so many resumes, most teachers create a template and then personalise the application for each school. This makes it very easy to send the wrong application to the wrong school.

Ask a supervisor, school executive or your principal to have a read through your resume

A trusted colleague, or experienced teacher familiar with the application process, can offer invaluable advice. When I asked one of my first supervisors to take a look at my very first permanent teaching application, it came back covered in red pen, with multitude of errors highlighted and changes galore. It was a little awkward, but it’s far better for someone you trust to pick up the mistakes on this end than failing to make interview.

The classroom is a magical place. It’s a place where knowledge is created, a place where concepts are explored and a place where questions are provoked. The classroom is also a dynamic place, which grows and develops around the needs of the students. Wall displays change, new word banks are created and work samples are proudly presented. How will you make your classroom engaging and enticing in Term 3?

Here are some tips to keep your classrooms full of energy and life:

Inspire your students. Have you ever sat in a doctor’s surgery waiting for a consultation? I have, and it’s pretty uninspiring. Many are out-dated; with drab pictures hanging off the off-white walls. The atmosphere is sterile, it’s not a place that you would want to spend more than a few minutes. Here’s the scary thing: I have been in many classes that feel exactly the same! They are lifeless, depressing and do little to stoke the creative minds of their students. It’s time to be honest with yourself, take a good look at your classroom and assess the damage. It’s never too late to change things and it’s never too late to inspire your students.

Empower your students to take responsibility for their own learning. One of the things that I love about infants’ classrooms is that they are typically visually rich. They are colourful and engaging environments. Creating an environment in which students take responsibility for their own learning and where they solve problems for themselves is vital. This could mean adding cards with new words or letters to the room. It could mean keeping your reading corner stocked with interesting books. For high school teachers it could mean mixing thing up and creating more collaborative seating arrangements from time to time.

Provide a safety net to make mistakes and discover new solutions. Classroom dynamics are not only determined by the space, but also by the attitudes and expectations of the teacher and the students. One thing I am passionate about it making my classroom a safe place where students can experiment with ideas, ask any questions and try things out without the fear of failure or judgement. Mistakes are a part of life and classrooms need to be places in which students feel comfortable and confident to try and solve problems even if they might get it wrong. In my opinion, making mistakes and learning from your mistakes is not encouraged enough in schools. Championing students who take a risk for a positive outcome is one of the best things you can do as a teacher.

Enrich their lives and their learning experience. Your students should leave your classroom – whether at the end of the day, at the end of the term, or at the end of year – feeling inspired and encouraged to be their best. In many of the schools that I have worked in the classroom is sometimes the most stable and encouraging place in a child’s life. Your classroom should represent a place where children are encouraged to be themselves, try new things, challenge their thinking and be their best. I find laughter and personal encouragement are vital to making the classroom an enriching place.

Cater to many learning styles. Howard Gardiner (1983), the famous educational researcher, identified at least eight types of intelligences. If you have been living in a cave and you are not familiar with his work you need to be. He argues that each child is gifted in a type, or a variety of, intelligences. When setting up your classroom you must ensure that every intelligence is catered for. For example for the special learners have content that stimulates spatial judgement and the ability to visualize with the mind’s eye. When designing your classroom and your teaching program make sure that each of these intelligences are equally catered for so that all students are engaged.

Never underestimate the difference your classrooms can make in a student’s life. For many students the class may be the only place of refuge and encouragement they have. We owe it to our students to provide them with an engaging environment, which challenges and inspires them.

What do you do in your classroom to make it an engaging and fun space?

What will you change this term to make it even better?

Teachers are great at being self-less. I know many brilliant teachers who struggle when it comes to being selfish. The thing that many people don’t realise is that by failing to look after themselves they are actually less able to help and take care of others. Like the flight attendants always remind us before take off. Put your own oxygen mask on first, then you are able to help others put theirs on.

Before I go any further, I am not suggesting that it’s always acceptable to put yourself first. If you feel a little peckish for example, you cant just walk out of the classroom, leave your students and grab a sandwich. Neither can you turn up to work wearing a singlet, board shorts and no shoes just because you ‘felt like putting yourself first’. There are, however, some instances that you can, or should be,  a little selfish.

Be selfish with your sleep

Make sure that you are getting adequate rest and relaxation. You cannot function properly if you do not get adequate sleep. If you’re staying up late with marking or with lesson planning you need to take a good look at your workload and or your time management skills. Allowing other priorities to consistently eat into your precious pillow time may cost that spark you have in the holidays and your health! It’s not worth it.

Be selfish with your mornings

Mornings for me are sacred. I get up at 5am, run, read, eat, stretch, get ready and go to work. The none morning people out there may read that and gag! Your ritual may look like nursing a coffee while you hide from the sunlight in a corner of the staffroom. Whatever your morning ritual, protect it (Michael Hyatt link), because starting the morning well can set up your whole day.

Be selfish with your ‘you’ time

I timetable ‘meetings’ with myself. For me, Wednesday nights at home are extremely important. There are plenty of things that I could be doing, but I don’t as I have an ‘appointment.’ You time can be whatever you like to do. My wife took a beginners painting class for a term last year. Once a week she had a three hour class learning to hold a paintbrush, mixing colours and painting pictures that she refuses to show anyone. I don’t understand it, but she loved it because it was three hours a week of creativity with no agenda. Your “you time” could be spent lying on the couch or reading a book, there are no rules.

Be selfish with your school and extracurricular commitments

Just learn to say ‘no.’ I understand the desire to do everything. You are passionate about meeting expectations and not letting people down. However focus on a few things and do those few things well (Link to recent article).

Be selfish with your health

This is one of those more subtle things. Look at your calendar at the beginning of each week and allocate time for exercise. It could be a morning walk/run/swim or a sporting commitment. We all know the importance of exercise and we all have the same excuses, but if you don’t prioritise this area you will pay for it in the long run.

Being a little selfish is great. As a teacher you have to learn how to prioritise yourself. I have seen time and time again teachers that give everything to their students, schools and colleagues at the expense of their health, peace, marriages and well-being.

Failing to do this will limit your effectiveness and your ability to help others. Choose to invest into yourself this year and watch how much more you can accomplish.

How can you be more selfish next term?

I’ve been reflecting on my teaching progress over the last few years. I feel more excited and inspired about teaching than I ever have. I still get a buzz from standing in front of a class and watching as my students begin to understand what I’m explaining. I still love listening to students’ stories and learning about their lives. I still get excited about improving my teaching practice and striving to deliver engaging and challenging lessons to my students.  I love the teaching profession, the chaos of the classroom and this constant endeavour to improve and redefine learning experience for students. However, I feel as though my understanding of the complexities of the teaching profession, the impact of school culture, leadership and politic climate has given me much more insight into the realities of the profession.

Looking back, it all makes sense – For me, starting work in the private sector then taking a position in an area of Sydney that most people would be afraid to even visit didn’t seem to make sense. To be honest, it seemed like a step backwards, but looking back it was the best professional decision I have ever made. It allowed me to see the disparity in educational outcomes and the need for quality teaching and passionate educators in all schools.

Don’t fight every battle – I have learnt that you can justify every battle and while some of them are important, many are not essential.  Having to take on that extra playground duty, a unfair kitchen roster or the provision of two-ply toilet paper instead of three, doesn’t really matter. You only have a limited amount of energy, save it for your students.

Look after yourself – If you’re tired, uninspired and sick then your students will suffer. It’s as simple as that. It’s OK to be a little bit selfish sometimes; you can’t give your best to others if you are not looking after yourself.

Take pride in your work – At Uni I met a lot of incredible people who were aspiring to be scientists, doctors, lawyers and engineers. Most of them were young adults just like me and sometimes I felt a little discouraged about “just” doing education at Uni. But I knew that teaching was the direction I wanted to go in, I knew I was meant to do it. Teaching is a vital and incredibly rewarding profession, don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise.

Do whatever you can to leave work at work – School can be a highly stressful environment and it’s easy to let the day spill over into home life. I was very newly married as a new teacher and my poor wife had to listen to every complaint and grievance I had left over from each day. Not to mention the marking and paperwork. Needless to say, things got pretty boring! Instead of bringing negativity home, resolve any issues as they arise and/or choose to leave the drama at school and enjoy rest, fun and life at home

There are many things that I would say to my first year teacher self. I would give him a clip around the ear, tell him to stop worrying about things outside of his control and tell him that it all works out in the end, so don’t sweat the small stuff.

What would you say to your first year teacher self?

I’m an overcomitter – I often want to do everything, and enthusiastically put my hand up for new roles, responsibilities, opportunities and projects.  It all starts with good intentions; that lunch appointment, helping a friend move, that birthday party, but soon ends in burnout. Can you relate?

This kind of lifestyle is not sustainable. I learnt a very hard lesson, very early on in my teaching career – ‘Doing a few things well is far better than doing a lot of things badly.’ I understand the pull, as a new teacher you want to be seen to being doing extra-curricular activities; that extra band practise, joining committees, debating and the Clean Up Australia’ incentives. This is partly because you are excited to be in the profession and want to gain as much experience as possible in a variety of roles, it may also be to impress your supervisor with your ability to handle multiple responsibilities, or it may just be to add depth and to your resume. All of these things are good and part of the profession, but you do have to learn to exercise a little bit of caution.

Remember why you are teaching – first and foremost, you are employed as a teacher. Your primary responsibility is to teach those children in your care. If you are a primary teacher, you are already teaching multiple Key Learning Areas.

Have a careful look at your resume – Adding value to your resume and making it attractive to prospective employers is really important, but be wise. Maybe choose a couple of specific commitments per term.

Speak up – There are have been so many times that I have had to ask for help in my career. If you’ are feeling overwhelmed speak to someone. Maybe ask another teacher to help you co-lead the choir, or take turns in coaching soccer.

Decide what is necessary – Each term I do an audit on my extra-curricular commitments.  If the need arises you can negotiate out of previous commitments. and

Say no – It is OK to just say no. Stress and over commitment is a huge problem with beginning teachers. If there are not enough people to run all of the extra-curricular activities that the school would like to initiate, itf is not your problem.

I understand the desire to do everything yourself. You want to prove to yourself, and your superiors, that you have what it takes to cope in the profession. The truth is, burning the candle at both ends is not sustainable. In order to not only survive the complexities of teaching and thrive in your career you have to be selective about the commitments your take on.

A recent article from FastCompany (one of my favourite websites) asks “Should Strong Leaders Also Be Great Teachers?” I hope that you enjoy the article, and please leave your thoughts below.

“As a leader, you have to have a teachable point of view.” How teaching separates great leaders from good ones.”

Jack Welch

By Laura Vanderkam

When the powers that be at a company decide that people need to learn something, they often go one of two ways. Sometimes they send people off to training, either in a classroom or perhaps at an off-site location, with an outside teacher or someone from HR. Other times, employees get video modules or downloadable lessons, with the hope that they’ll learn on their own.

There are problems with both approaches. A lot of people don’t do well learning at their own pace.

Teaching isn’t just a distraction from a manager’s main job. It’s what the job is all about.

While days in deep thought in a classroom sounds ideal, people who study learning are coming to this conclusion: “You learn a lot over 2-3 days,” says Ray Carvey, executive vice president of corporate learning and international at Harvard Business Publishing. “Then you go back to work and forget a lot over the next 2-3 days, [and] the next 2-3 weeks.”

But what if your company took a different approach? What if managers did much of corporate training; building corporate education into their interactions with direct reports?

This idea of leaders-as-teachers has some upsides.

When Your Direct Boss Teaches Something, You Pay Attention

You’re more engaged, and hence have a better shot at remembering what happens. “If you have one of your senior leaders or your boss running the program, you’re not likely to be slacking off,” says Carvey, the way many people check email under the table in classrooms, or watch TV while they’re playing training videos on their laptops at night.

This engagement doesn’t just stem from people worrying about their immediate job prospects. It’s human nature to find information more interesting when people we are close to also find the topic intriguing. That’s why we click on links our friends share on Facebook.

Likewise in corporate education, “role modeling is really important,” Carvey says. “You understand and get the context from someone in the trenches,” when your boss teaches. “You’re not just hearing information from a faculty member you share no history with.”

Education Is A Two-Way Street

Having leaders act as teachers has another less obvious benefit. When managers teach something, “they internalize it,” Carvey says. This reinforces the knowledge and helps managers take ownership of it.

But, They’re Busy

Of course, challenges arise with asking your managers to act as teachers. If they’re already managing too many people to spend adequate time with each, then “you’ve just added another brick on the load,” says Carvey, as your managers need to master new information and skills before passing them along.

If you ever had an amazing teacher—or a not-so-amazing teacher—in school, you also know that teaching is a skill. Not everyone has this skill.

But you can bring in an experienced teacher to design a curriculum, or coach your managers on how to present material. This is also about reframing what management is. It is ultimately about achieving great things by bringing out the best in other people. Viewed that way, teaching isn’t just a distraction from a manager’s main job. It’s what the job is all about, and is probably worth the time.”

What are your thoughts?

If you asked a 10 year old they might say that bears live in caves, fish live in fishbowls and teachers live in classrooms. While this might not be all that accurate, the truth is the classroom is the teacher’s special arena. Like a prize fighter knows the ring, like an actor knows her stage, the teacher is trained to have a clear understanding and respect for the dynamics of his or her classroom.

The classroom is where we spend most of our school days and it is also a place that should inspire our students. So it follows that our classrooms should be exciting and engaging for both ourselves and our students. A recent study from the University of Salford School of the Built Environment, in Manchester, England, has some interesting insights into classroom design. Enjoy.

“A new study shows how color, lighting, and other classroom design choices can have a huge impact on student progress.

As debate over education reform sizzles, and as teachers valiantly continue trying to do more with less, a new study suggests that it might be worth diverting at least a little attention from what’s going on in classrooms to how those spaces are being designed. The paper, published in the journal Building and the Environment, found that classroom design could be attributed to a 25% impact, positive or negative, on a student’s progress over the course of an academic year. The difference between the best- and worst-designed classrooms covered in the study? A full year’s worth of academic progress.

The study was conducted over the 2011–12 academic year, with 751 students in 34 classrooms, spread across seven primary schools in the seaside town of Blackpool, England. After collecting data on the students’ performance levels going into the school year, the researchers, comprising faculty from the University of Salford School of the Built Environment, in Manchester, England, as well as collaborators from the architecture firm Nightingale Associates, ranked each classroom on a 1 to 5 scale for 10 different design parameters: light, sound, temperature, air quality, choice, flexibility, connection, complexity, color, and texture. Each of these parameters were broken down into a few considerations. Light, for example, included the amount of natural light entering the classroom, as well as the teacher’s ability to manually control the level of lighting; flexibility took into consideration how well a given classroom could accommodate pupils without crowding them, in addition to how easily its furniture could be rearranged for a variety of activities and teaching approaches.

There is, of course, the matter of the teacher, though the paper points out that the multilevel statistical model used to crunch the data, which looks at the correlation between the variables and student progress across classrooms, actually buffers against their influence to a large extent.

So what did they find? Six of the design parameters—color, choice, complexity, flexibility, connection, and light—had a significant effect on learning. Light, as mentioned above, concerns the amount of natural light in the classroom and the quality of the electrical lights it contains. Choice has to do with the quality of the furniture in the classroom, as well as providing “interesting” and ergonomic tables and chairs for pupils. Complexity and color both have to do with providing an ample amount of visual stimulation for students in the classroom.

Professor Peter Barrett, the paper’s lead author, explained the significance in a statement accompanying its publication: “It has long been known that various aspects of the built environment impact on people in buildings, but this is the first time a holistic assessment has been made that successfully links the overall impact directly to learning rates in schools. The impact identified is in fact greater than we imagined and the Salford team is looking forward to building on these clear results.” With the success of the pilot phase, the researchers have found funds to continue the study, and over the next 18 months they’ll track student progress in 20 additional classrooms around the U.K.”

Read more here.