He aha te mea nui o te ao
What is the most important thing in the world?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata
It is the people, it is the people, it is the people

Without people, even in an ever-increasing automated society, many practices and things we rely on daily just wouldn’t happen.

Therefore, establishing relationships at the beginning of the year is extremely important. This is nothing new, and most teachers will begin their new year developing and facilitating bonds with students. Many teachers explore the context of te tiriti o Waitangi as a springboard to establishing a class treaty of their own and allowing students to take ownership of their learning and environments.

As many teachers begin to plan their first term and organise their learning environments, I have begun to think about some key areas and elements that could be focused upon.

Relationships with students

It goes without saying that the most fundamentally important relationship for any teacher is that of the professional relationship with their students.

“Think about it for just a minute. Aren't you more apt to go out of your way to please a boss who you feel values you as an individual and treats you with dignity and respect, rather than a boss who communicates a lack of respect for you? When your boss asks about your family; gives you “slack” when there is a personal emergency; or praises you for work well done; don't you develop feelings of regard for this boss and want to do your best to please him or her? Students have the same feelings. So it makes sense that developing positive teacher-student relations is one of the most effective steps you can take to establish a positive discipline climate in the classroom.” (Boynton 2005)

Trust is at the very foundation of the relationship with students. For the student, the knowledge that their teacher trusts them as an individual can be both powerful and motivating. Furthermore, when they know they can trust their teacher to understand challenges and issues they are facing and support them, the student is less likely to give up. Trusting that collaboratively developed classroom boundaries will be enforced fairly, and with balance, promotes students taking responsibility for their actions and understanding consequences. Developing a climate of trust and respect establishes mutual appreciation and individualised relationships.

It is not, and never should it be, the responsibility of our learners to get into the head of the teacher. It is the responsibility of the teacher to supply a clear but adjustable road map for the students to follow. By this, I do not mean a dictatorial set of learning intentions that must be followed, more, a clear and established direction for students whereby they can choose their own path.

Relationships between students

I have intentionally separated this from ‘relationships with students’, as the two are often interdependent and combined, but need to be addressed independently. As part of the development of the teacher-student relationship, there is an opportunity to model effective relationships between students and establish clear parameters early. Much of The New Zealand Curriculum and, in particular, the key competencies, focuses on relationships with others and interdependent learning through collaborative practices. Surely, it stands to reason that we focus on facilitating the development of relationships between our students?

Some students will arrive at your door with excellent social skills and immediately develop positive peer relationships. However, many will not. It therefore falls to the teacher not only to develop social skills in the students they teach, but also to facilitate the opportunity to use them.

“For many students, school can be a lonely place, and low classroom acceptance by peers can be linked with subsequent disengagement and lowered achievement.” (Hattie 2012)

A teacher needs to identify those students with limited social skills, establish strategies to overcome any underlying challenges, and then develop key areas of focus to promote positive interactions. Without a strong student/teacher relationship, failure is inevitable. Once again, it boils down to the level of trust between the student and the teacher. They must believe that their teacher has their well being and achievement (both academic and social) at the forefront of their mind.

“When students have opportunities to talk and listen to each other, provide emotional support, share learning experiences, and develop respect, they are more likely to feel that they belong and are understood and cared for by their peers.” (Furrer et al 2014)

We are once again reminded to ‘facilitate, not dictate.’

Relationships with parents

Becoming involved in students’ lives remains a boundary that sits in different places for different teachers. However, one thing stays constant regardless of interpretation: we must never cross over the line into telling parents how to parent.

Image source: parentsandteachersinsped.weebly.com

The role of parents in educating their children cannot be predetermined by just the teacher or parent. It is yet another facet that needs to be collaboratively constructed, taking into account a student’s background, beliefs, and parent understandings of current learning practice. Most parents will automatically use their own experiences in education to foster relationships and boundaries between themselves, their child, and the teacher. However, with a carefully chosen construct and early intervention, a good teacher is able to establish a clear and shared understanding of their ethos and practice. It is, perhaps, fair to assume that at the core of any home-school relationship sits strong communication.

“A good time to contact your child’s teacher is during the first week of school. This gives you an opportunity to meet one another when neither has any complaints. Otherwise, the first teacher contact can be unpleasant. The teacher is usually calling to describe some unacceptable behavior or report a child’s lack of progress and her concern that a learning problem may exist.” (Child Development Institute)

The ‘positive phone calls home’ movement has enabled many teachers to dispel the belief that they only ring home when there’s a problem. However, the quote above shows that it is still firmly held and believed by many parents. While teaching, I made it my mission to ring every parent at least once a term and share something positive about his or her child’s learning. It meant some calls lasted two minutes, and were simply an acknowledgement of student progress. Others could be 20-30 minutes, and gave parents a genuine opportunity to engage in a personal, unrestricted conversation about their child. It was often in these longer conversations that parents began to share on a much deeper level. I learned of bereavements, past experiences, and problems at home, establishing a connection to each parent, and deepening my understanding of the whole family.

Successful relationships depend on strong boundaries and the development of trust between parent and teacher. A parent needs to know that they are not being told how to raise their child; that when the phone rings it is not for a bad reason, and that the teacher is prepared to go that extra mile for their children.

Relationships with professional colleagues

I make no secret of the fact that I believe wholeheartedly in connected education. Finding opportunities to connect outside of my classroom and school underpinned much of my collaborative teaching practice. But none of my connected education practice came before the establishment of strong team relationships within my school. Whether as a leader or member of a team, teachers have the opportunity to model good practice and behaviour to both their colleagues and students.

Developing a culture of trust and risk taking can have huge rewards at all levels, but it is not without its challenge. The establishment of a supportive team based on a culture of respect, enjoyment, and support is something that can have a meaningful and lasting effect on a teacher’s practice. Something as simple as a MATEs (Mutually Agreed Team Expectation) agreement can develop a cohesive structure within which a team can flourish. But extending this into a bicultural and more diverse understanding of Manaakitanga, Aroha tetahi ke Tetahi, tautoko and Eke Panuku, eke tangaroa reinforces the concept of support across culture, creed, and diversity.

Effective communication strategies can help you build strong working relationships. Some tips for effective communication include:

• Respond to requests by emphasising what you can do to help meet them.
• Follow through and do what you say you’ll do.
• Listen without passing judgment, and don’t rush in to give advice.
• When you have concerns, work them out with the source, not with others.
• Communicate with respect in every interaction regardless of whether you like the person.
• When others give you assistance or support, express appreciation for it.
• Focus on issues, not personalities, when you discuss work matters and problems.
• When differences in views or ideas occur, work first to understand them from the other person’s perspective.
• Be direct and sincere as normal practices.
• Use humour in good taste.

Source: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-build-strong-working-relationships-with-eff.html

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is time. Establishing trust and strong relationships is not something that happens quickly. It is a long process that needs to be worked at by all involved, sharing responsibility as well as successes and failures. I, like many teachers, focused my first two weeks of the term on creating a strong classroom culture. I also set aside time every week to continue to grow and explore it. There was no endpoint and no ‘goal’ to be reached. Relationships evolve and transform, so must our attitude and timetable.

Sources

Boynton, C. and Boynton, M. (2005) Educator’s Guide to Preventing and Solving Discipline Problems. ASCD, United States.

Furrer, C. Pitzer, J and Skinner, E (2014) The Influence of Teacher and Peer Relationships on Students’ Classroom Engagement and Everyday Motivational Resilience National Society for the Study of Education, Volume 113, Issue 1

Hattie, J. (2012) Visible learning for teachers: Maximising impact on learning. Routledge, England.

Web Sources

Establishing a Parent-Teacher Relationship: Retrieved from The child Development Institute http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/parent_teacher/#ixzz3wtG9q3M7

Brounstein, M. How to Build Strong Working Relationships with Effective Communication

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-build-strong-working-relationships-with-eff.html

Further Reading

Edutopia: Fostering Relationships in the Classroom: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/fostering-classroom-relationships-larry-ferlazzo-katie-hull-sypnieski

Animation is nothing new. Our screens have been filled with animated images for decades, often with the same awe and wonder reserved for new experiences. But how often have our learners taken the opportunity to really explore the how-to behind the scenes. Never before has there been such a wealth of tools available to learners today. Everyday objects take on a new purpose: the lego man that has sat on the window sill, the toys in the junior class’ wet break box, the containers of plastic animals and matchbox cars.  The conversations erupted as learners started thinking of toys from home that would be perfect to help bring the story, evolving in their mind, to life.

The journey taken by some students in Northland was simply ‘have a play’ with animation with the understanding that we couldn’t possibly expect our students to sit back and plan carefully when the shiny tool is at their fingertips? The instant ability to experiment and redo, re-record and edit in the digital domain has made learning instantly engaging. From a student perspective, learning has become doing, using technology and characters to tell simple stories. From a teaching perspective, it allowed the teacher to tackle substantive issues and challenges through an engaging and exciting vehicle. Simple things like building understanding of the importance of sharing sports equipment could be addressed on both a teaching and learning level. Students had to instantly think about their message alongside their authentic audience.

Once upon a time…

A storyboard was created. Three simple elements — a beginning, a middle and an end — differentiated within classrooms, with some teachers taking the opportunity to scaffold the learning around a literacy concept, whereas others saw it as an opportunity to foster independence and allow individualised creativity. Some students chose to use their digital device as their storyboarding platform, whereas others simply used pencil and paper.

Setting the scene…

Like any good movie, location remains important. The students were encouraged to collaboratively develop their backdrop, define their roles, and take ownership of the physical aspects of the task. Working in small groups meant the students had to have a shared understanding of each person’s role as well as a simple agreement for behaviour and process.

The process wasn’t seamless. It evolved. Students were encouraged to make improvements and unpack their work, often choosing to take their animation to their peers, using critical thinking skills and clear feedback and feedforward. Perfectionists emerged, and the room was filled with the sound of shutter clicks as the students completed take upon take to get the perfect shot. Students utilised the Chrome app, Stop Motion Animator, which automatically collates their shots and gives them the ability to either speed up or slow down how their shots play. The learning conversations continued as students discovered how many shots were needed to create just 1 second of animation, 10 seconds of animation, and then from there, how many shots would be needed to create 1 minute. These calculations gave our learners a true sense of what goes into the production of the animated films that they enjoyed watching. This naturally led to continued dialogue around the ‘jobs’ that were available in this industry, from the creative dreamer, to the cameraman, to the sound guy.

Post Production and Editing…

Once students felt their ‘shooting’ was complete, the next steps were explored: how do we add sound effects, background music and/or our own voices? WeVideo remains the leading video editing tool for Chromebooks. From saving the finished animated clip to their Google Drive, students could seamlessly upload this into WeVideo and take advantage of the inbuilt sound effects, music, and text overlay features. Again, the ease of trialing different effects and sounds with the simplicity of clicking ‘undo’ meant the students could explore a range of concepts. Seemingly simple decisions around background music stretched the students’ collaborative skills as they began to understand the importance of using ambience to bring their images to life. The level of dedication meant that small choices around sound effects took longer than the creation of the scene!

The sequel…

The playtime was over. It was time to develop the concept further, and really embed the new skills into the ongoing learning. After some collaborative talk, the students took their initial concept and wrapped it around a literacy focus. Further storyboarding, discussion, and planning meant that what started as students exploring new technology led to newly developed skills being applied to learning, in a matter of days. Another class utilised their animation skills to put together ‘how to’ videos explaining math concepts.  It seemed the choices were endless, the opportunity to present their work and share their learning in a creative way was a real winner on the day. Imagine my excitement (as Facilitator) and that of the teachers when the students took this learning home and worked alongside their whanau to create animations, building a community of creative users of digital devices!".

The power of playdough… it cannot be left unsaid that good old-fashioned playdough was an integral ingredient in this process.  The ‘hands on’ experience of moulding and creating characters and props could definitely be described as therapeutic, and was enjoyed by all learners. The memories shared of early-childhood experiences with playdough and clay let us, as teachers, know that playdough has been seriously missed!

As we said at the beginning, animation is nothing new, however, the engagement and collaboration we saw between our learners proved to us that we needed to let our students continually learn in creative ways. Animation provides the perfect vehicle for practicing dispositions of being confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners.

Top Tips

• Involve learners in the whole process from imagining and planning to exploring animation to making playdough.
• Stand back and let it happen — let the mistakes happen (eg hands in the photos), see it all as a learning process.
• Embrace the noise and messiness — creativity at it’s best!
• Let the learning come from the creating — this whole experience has definitely opened our eyes to the power of creating to learn.
• Listen to the learning conversations, and take time to observe as learners work.
• Look for further opportunities to utilise the power of animation across the curriculum.

Resources

Chrome apps needed

(Anyone using chrome as a web browser can utilise these chrome apps, you do not need to use a chromebook):

• WeVideo
• Stop Motion Animator

iPad apps:

• Stop Motion – creating animation tool
• iMovie – post production and editing tool

Resources

• Google Slides – An introduction to Animation — utilised by students
• Google Doc – An example of students brainstorm
• Google Docs – A ‘How to’ for the whole process of stop motion animation created by students @ Paihia School

Examples using chromebooks and iPads from various Northland Schools

• Slam Dunk – Jordan @ Tautoro School — followed by his reflections and building on his initial concept into an advert here.
• The ITM Fishing Show – Saskia, Will and Tom @ Maunu School
• Alien Kid Shake Out – Will, Zoe and Mia @ Paihia School

Self directed learners — taking the learning home and creating with whanau

• Anihera’s Home Animation – Anihera @ Paihia School
• Lego Friends Episode 1 – Wynter-Rose @ Paihia School