How to be a “Magpie” Supporter

The Collingwood football club, affectionately known as the Magpies, was established in 1892. It is an Australian Football League team and is situated in Melbourne. A city, known for its passionate sports followers. When the Club first started operating it was considered the working class or poor man’s club but the Magpie team soon made its mark and became very powerful. By the mid 1930s Collingwood had won 11 premierships, no mean feat. This didn’t last, however, and the club endured a 32 year premiership drought between 1958 and 1990. The interesting fact about this, though was that they actually participated in nine Grand Finals (losing eight and drawing one). During this time opposition clubs and the media developed the term “collywobbles”, inferring that our team could get to the finals but got the wobbles and fell over on the most important day of the year. The collywobbles, however, were put to sleep in 1990 when Collingwood, again won a premiership. My years of support fall well short of the 125 years Collingwood have been in existence. I jumped on the bandwagon after their 1990 premiership and became a member in 1991. I had always “followed” the Magpies as I came from the same township as Bobby Rose, a wonderful, player, coach and president of the Collingwood Football Club. The Magpies have a huge membership, tipping 80,000 in 2015 but has fallen behind in the last few years as the team has fallen down the ladder.

There are many people involved in football in many different levels. In this post I provide my perception of 3 categories of “footy” people.

Followers: go about their own business at the weekends checking on the scores periodically. They aren’t too fussed about the outcome.

Barrackers: Always make sure that they see or hear the game, but they don’t see themselves as part of the “Magpie Army”. They focus on the negatives and never look for solutions. They always know better than anyone else and call for players to be dropped and coaches to be sacked. If at a game they often jeer and shout at the players. Their approach is very individual, not tea.

Supporters: Takes an active interest in the club and team and genuinely wants success for the team (not just for themselves). They cheer the team onto success through the good and the bad.

Some tips for being a Magpie Supporter:

• Become a financial member, where possible, a membership with a reserved seat under cover. Use the direct debit and roll over method so you don’t notice the funds disappearing.
• Attend every game (even interstate, if possible) as well as recording the TV coverage so that you can watch the game from another perspective if you win. You don’t have to watch the replay if we don’t win.
• Look for omens that should predict a win, e.g. Magpies on the nature strip or powerlines (has to be at least 6 of them). Hope like mad that you don’t see crows or eagles etc that represent the opposing side.
• Wear your black and white with pride.
• Use any strategies you can think of to put off opposition players when they are kicking for goal, e.g. whisper “miss, miss, miss” as they run up to kick. I managed to get the opposition to kick 11 points this weekend.
• When desperate; pray. You may laugh, but we were behind by 8 goals once and a disgruntled member (who was not behaving as a supporter) responded to my suggestion that we would come back in the second half with… “we will need a miracle for that to happen”. At that time Mary MacKillop was in need of another miracle so I prayed that we would come back (I had a feeling she would be a Collingwood supporter), and you guessed it, we came back and won. Not sure if they counted that miracle as criteria for her sainthood!
• Cheer passionately, but not abusively. It is only a game, after all.
• Support your players, look for the positives, not the negatives
• Acknowledge good play. If you could do better you would be out there.
• Never leave a game early (even when getting beaten, it’s hailing or snowing). You are allowed to leave your seats before they play the opposition team’s theme song
• Follow the club on Facebook and twitter and comment appropriately. Ignore those who have no idea of net etiquette on social media.
• Smile for a week when we win, attempt to remain positive until the next game if beaten. Stand tall when others feel they have to comment on how poorly Collingwood played.
• Practice resilience and optimism skills learned over the years. “One day at a time”. “There’s always next week”.
• Use your membership to highlight your ability to be loyal and resilient during a job interview. True, I used this and it worked.
• Follow the motto “Side by Side” religiously. It is amazing how good it is to feel part of something so big.
• Accept that you are going to do ridiculous things, like wear your “lucky” undies, each week or follow a particular routine.
• Rejoice in the fact that other team members will be jealous of the Mighty Magpie Army.
• Watch football shows and devour newspapers for news about the team.
• Attend Club functions, such as the Copeland Trophy and member forums.
• Always remember that supporters play an important role…
• Don’t opt out when the going gets tough.

Message for education:

Plan: Have a clear aim and all the tools, materials required. (Apply the 5 Ps: Planning Properly Prevents Poor Performance)

System: Just like a football team, the problems or issues that we meet in education and/or learning do not exist in isolation. They interrelate with the other parts of the system. There is no point in just focusing on one problem as it may only bring about superficial change. Systems behaviour is determined by the interaction of the parts, not the parts taken separately. For example, replacing the coach may bring about short term gains but unless, the whole systems interactions are looked at, e.g. football management, board, stakeholders etc are looked at new improvement will not occur. This is the same with education, pedagogy, curriculum, teachers, parents, leadership all impact on learning within a school.

Diversity: We are all different and do things in different ways but if we have a shared goal we can work together to achieve it.

In our crazy, busy world we often find ourselves running in circles to try and complete tasks. We become stressed, don’t feel as if we have achieved anything and do not find the joy of exploring and doing new things. The attached poster provides some tips on how to be productive and should be a reminder to find balance in our lives.

Productivity poster A3-smhb9t

Anything is Possible by Cosentino

I recently read Cosentino’s book, “Anything is Possible”. Cosentino is “Australia’s premier illusionist and escapologist – a magician to his fingertips, a man who constantly challenges our notions of what is possible”. I had seen some of Cosentino’s television performances and had been pretty impressed so I thought I would read his book to see what it was that inspired him to do what he did. I was somewhat surprised to find out how many trials and tribulations he had been through prior to my first viewing of his performance on Australia’s Got Talent. His professionalism had also tricked me into thinking that he wasn’t really in any danger.

The book includes key learning for life and education, it inspires and it raises some important questions closely aligned with learning and education.

School wasn’t easy for Cosentino, he records that at age 12, “school was torture for me”. He had extreme difficulties with literacy, particularly reading. This caused him great anxiety and he went to great efforts not to be found out. “Every week I spent hours in the school library laboriously copying answers from my friends’ work, feeling humiliated and hating every second of it. I longed to feel normal but too much of the time I felt strange, inadequate, isolated and alone.” [16] There are many children like Cosentino in our schools today and sadly not all of them find the pathway to their dreams. Not all of them even have a dream. Cosentino’s book inspires others to find their dreams and identifies the things required to achieve them. It highlights the need for teachers and other adults to believe in their children and to support them in the development and pursuit of their desired pathway.

A trip by Cosentino to the library led to an interest in magic and provided a purpose for reading and ultimately the development of Cosentino’s pathway. Cosentino began to devour books because he now had a desire to find the knowledge and skills he required to learn magic. His first performance to his dad was incredibly empowering: “To have him ask me how something worked was an incredible, powerful feeling.” [22] The very fact that he now had a skill that others didn’t was a great motivator. Of course, Cosentino’s success didn’t just happen.

It is clear that Cosentino followed the mantra: “Follow your own path. Commit to doing what you love. Believe in yourself. Then magic will happen. (35) He was lucky to find his pathway at an early age. If he hadn’t found that book in the library his career path would have been totally different. In Cosentino’s case magic literally did take place but “magic” can be seen in any school if a student has a clear pathway and is pursuing their dream. Early in my career, I was fortunate to work in a school for dancers and musicians. They were amazingly focused and had a clear direction. When I moved from this school to another school situated in a beach side suburb, this wasn’t the case for many students; they were just floating. At another school I worked at there were many students who did not believe in themselves or their ability to achieve anything. So, schools and teachers have a crucial role to play in supporting student achievements. There have been many policies, frameworks and programs created to assist student pathways. Some are successful, some not so successful. I believe that success is found in ‘relationships’. Teachers need to know their students and pay a genuine interest in them and their lives. They need to show that they “believe” in them and they will support them in pursuit of their dreams.

Cosentino often had barriers placed in his way by people who didn’t believe in him but his family and other experts along the way combined with his passion and drive brought about his ultimate success. His family supported him, made sacrifices for him and did everything they could to support his passion. This included things such as sewing costumes, building apparatus, marketing and management and providing honest feedback. And above all else loved him no matter what happened. Experts in the field demonstrated their belief in him by asking “how can we make it happen”, rather than saying, “it can’t happen”.

To say Cosentino had to work extremely hard and for a considerable time for his success is an under-statement. He experienced many set backs. Even when he had incredibly successful shows where his audience became BELIEVERS, he could not do the same to powerbrokers of the entertainment industry. It was not until he had participated on the show Australia’s Got Talent that they began to take notice. His book clearly outlines the misperception of what it takes to be successful.

“From the outside, success seems easy. Most of us have been guilty of underestimating what it takes. We look at people who are at the top of their game, whether it’s Serena Williams on the tennis court or Cate Blanchett on the screen, and think, “how lucky they are to be doing something they love, how good they’ve got it. What we are forgetting is the incredible effort it’s taken to get them to this point. Their grace, elegance and skill distract us from the sweat and commitment that made them so good at what they love to do.” (82)

I was certainly guilty of this in my judgement of Cosentino and reading his book was quite thought-provoking. As I read about each hurdle and the effort he put in to get past obstacles I recognised Cosentino’s tenacity and his resilience. If you want to get anywhere you have to learn to bounce back, however hard it feels at the time. [132] Resilience is something that many of our students struggle with. There are always going to bullies, there are always going to be pitfalls so students need to learn how to “bounce” back. Fortunately there are resources available to schools to help their students in this respect.

The main question that arises from the book is “how far is too far”? How far should we push, how far should we support that pursuit of a dream? I love the fact that Cosentino is a pioneer and trail blazer. I love the fact that he frightens the life out of us by his miraculous tricks and escapes BUT I want him to continue to do this, I do not want the pursuit of his dream to result in his death. I found myself questioning how difficult it must have been for his parents to continue to believe in him and support him as his performances got more and more dangerous.

To some people what I’d achieved so far would have been satisfying enough. But I’ve always been hungry for more. Not bigger for the sake of it but better because I feel duty bound to make the absolute most of whatever talent I’ve been given and to help give magic its rightful place. [178]

Cosentino was extremely fortunate that he had a family that loved him and would provide him with advise. His family was not focused on money or marketing they were focused on supporting him as an individual. They wanted him to be safe. Cosentino acknowledges that danger comes “when you ignore the red flags and go from taking carefully calculated risks to taking wild chances. That’s when people get hurt or killed. [286] His family were there to wave those red flags. “Dad waited until we were alone to let his feelings rip. He was really angry now. No-one knew why the electronic system controlling the rotation had failed, but it was obvious to him how near I had been to a critical injury. He said with force, “This is too much, it’s just getting stupid now. These risks are too high.” As teachers we need to care for our students and we need to provide them with a safe environment where they too can take calculated risks in their learning. Just as Cosentino continued to take risks in the pursuit of his dreams his family and supporters supported him in making his work environment as safe as it possibly could be.

On reflection Cosentino says, I’ve come a long way from the withdrawn, self-doubting kid I was when magic found me at age twelve…But as far as I’ve come, to me it feels like this is only the beginning. I was once asked what keeps me awake at night. I spoke from the heart when I said it was the fear that I won’t have the opportunity to show the world my full potential.

 To find out more about Cosentino buy and read his book:

Anything is Possible by Cosentino, Harper Collins, 2016 or check out his website:

http://www.cosentino.com.au/home/

Technology and the Internet offer amazing opportunities for learning. I think most people recognise this. The changes, however, have come so quickly that adults and teachers haven’t always been able to keep up with them or necessarily understand them. As adults we sometimes blame the technology for the fact that our children are not acting the way we used to and/or that it is the catalyst for all sorts of terrible things. This can be the case if children are given access to technology that they have not been prepared for. Children are going to explore, what we have to do is to make sure that they are safe and ready for that exploration. The Victorian Education Department provides some wonderful resources for teachers, parents and students.

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/safeandresponsibleuse.aspx

Often the labeling of different formats of curriculum delivery can lead to confusion. Whilst I have heard of Project learning and Problem based learning and possibly engaged my students in this type of learning, neither of these labels were ever applied when I was planning or delivering the curriculum. The important thing is that students are engaged, active and empowered in their learning. At the same time they need to be learning the required skills and knowledge as outlined through the curriculum.

Whilst working at Mordialloc College our students developed their own projects in response to the key learning elements of the defined curriculum. These elements were provided on a capacity matrix and students decided what elements they wished to cover and learn about in a particular project. Whilst the team of teachers who set up the learning environment for this type of learning did have to do a lot of work, once it was in place it ran very smoothly. The key was in ensuring the learning processes were documented and transparent. In brief,  things that allowed this type of learning to occur were:

• Resource area, including posters, videos, books, handouts etc all outlined on a resource matrix. Students could access these without referring to the teacher.
• Compulsory workshops for key skills.
• Requested workshops for “just in time” learning.
• Conferencing with “Family Guide”.
• Access to technology

There also needed to be a cultural shift in teachers realising that they were not the “font of all knowledge” and that students could have much more involvement in directing the curriculum and learning.

I recently wrote a post related to capacity matrices.

https://cathtemple.edublogs.org/2017/05/12/matrices-to-empower-student-learning-and-assessment/

Quality Learning Australia also documented our journey (www.qla.com.au). Two videos, in particular, are relevant to this post. In the first one a student explains how the capacity matrix is used and the 2^nd link indicates how the learning centre operated.

https://youtu.be/oUf9gVGqfuY

https://youtu.be/RJpbyTScWEs

Another label for learning is “Inquiry Learning”. I was involved in a Project labeled Inquiring Minds for the 21^st Century where Karen Green led school teams through a process of developing inquiry in their schools and classrooms. Karen provided a document titled Blooms Taxonomy and Questioning which I think is very useful for developing open ended questioning. I have attached this document, with Karen’s permission to this post.

Blooms and questioning 1

Blooms and questioning 2

Another document that I found useful for students involved in open-ended type projects was the Inquiry PDSA (This incorporated the work of Karen Green and QLA). I have also attached this document here. It outlines the process of the inquiry, the questions to ask and the tools to help with the inquiry.

pdsa ac-2mep0k0

If the focus is taken away from the “product” and placed on the learning the name of the process is not important. The aim of project learning and problem based learning would surely aim to do this.

Experimenting with some free artistic Apps today. The first two photos have been altered using DotMatrix.There are lots of designs that you can use and the colours etc can be changed. The third photo was treated with photo sketch, another free App. The last photo uses the App Photobricks. All of these Apps are free. I also used toon camera for iPad in a recent EdublogsClub post, my story.

Using a capacity matrix with an accompanying resource matrix is a great way to involve students in their own learning and to promote independence of learning.

What is a capacity matrix you might ask? Well, it is a visual learning and charting technique created by David Langford and Dr Myron Tribus. Basically, it is a table that breaks down the required aims and outcomes into meaningful capacities.

For instance, the Victorian Curriculum outlines that:

By the end of Level 8, students understand how the selection of text structures is influenced by the selection of language mode and how this varies for different purposes and audiences. They explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to represent different ideas and issues in texts. They interpret texts, questioning the reliability of sources of ideas and information. They select evidence from the text to show how events, situations and people can be represented from different viewpoints.

 So, if we look at the key learning element of “they explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used…” the learning outcome can be broken down much further. For instance students will need to develop their knowledge and understanding of features such as:

• Alliteration
• Assonance,
• Emotive language
• Colloquial language
• Rhetorical questions
• Similes
• Metaphors
• Idioms
• Personification
• Symbolism
• Sarcasm and irony

The same can be seen when looking at Text structures, for instance this can be broken down to things such as:

• Description
• Sequence
• Problem and Solution
• Compare and Contrast
• Cause and effect

This helps to make it clearer to students what it is they are actually learning and what they must provide evidence of having learnt. The beauty of capacity matrices is that there are a number of levels of learning that students can achieve and encourages depth of learning by encouraging students to reach the “wisdom” level.

Information: I have heard of this.

Knowledge: I understand and can explain this.

Know-how: I can do this on my own.

Wisdom: I can apply this to other situations and teach others.

Accompanied with a resource matrix students are not forced to wait until their teacher is ready to move forward. This does require the teacher or teachers to plan and assess differently. It places much more responsibility in the hands of the students, at the same time, empowering them to take ownership of their learning.

The attachments show how the matrices might look.

Capacity Matrix

resource matrix

To find out more about Capacity Matrices visit the following websites:

www.qla.com.au

www.langfordlearning.co

“Done that!”

How often do we hear people saying this, when confronted with a new change? Often, they are quite correct. It has been tried before. Sometimes someone will see an idea for a change and think they should or could implement this in their school setting. This can mean a real change in direction and cause a great deal of frustration for staff as they are still trying to implement the last change. Not to mention the students where this is likely to have the greatest impact.

I don’t think anyone implements a change because they think it is a bad idea. One of my favourite sayings, however, is that you have to get the “right things right”. A change can be implemented in a school and it can be done really well but it could be the “wrong” thing and will not bring about the improvement needed. “Open learning spaces” is a good example of a pendulum shift. It was big in the70’s and has been tried by various schools since then with varying degrees of success. It is on the agenda again.

Unfortunately, opening up a learning space does not necessarily mean that there will be improved learning outcomes. Open learning spaces provide opportunities that a single classroom doesn’t but if it doesn’t provide an orderly learning environment with sound pedagogy it is not going to be successful. It is not the space we should focus on but what goes on in that space.

I was very fortunate to be involved in the development of a Year 7 Learning Centre at Mordialloc College. In response to the Quality Learning framework we had made many changes in the College, including processes and pedagogy but had found that the physical structure and traditional process of a secondary college was preventing us from achieving more. The Leading Schools Fund provided us with the opportunity to bring about improvement in the College. It allowed us to knock down walls of 8 existing classrooms and an assembly space to create one open space. We purposefully avoided the term of “open space” learning because of the predicted response of “done that” and because what we wanted was flexible learning spaces, not just an open space. Our journey is documented on the Quality Learning website and is an example of getting “the right things right.http://www.qla.com.au/videos/csv023-quality-learning-in-year-7/2112871206

Things that helped make this open “flexible” space successful:

• There was a reason for the change
• A shared purpose, vision and school values/philosophy already existed
• A learning and teaching framework existed
• Change framework and practices implement to bring about the change
• Planning, preparation and reflection time was provided
• Implementation of the change took priority
• Time to implement and evaluate the change
• Professional learning provided
• A critical friend utilised to advise and provide feedback

This story relates the connection between my learning journey and David Thornburg’s primordial metaphors of cave, campfire, waterhole and life. I used toon camera and creative book builder to create the original book. To share on this blog I had to change it to a PDF.

story blog-2knwxad

Schools, for many reasons, have been put in the position of being in competition with each other. Whilst technology has had an amazing impact on our society and has provided the opportunity for more transparency it has often been used to increase the competitiveness between schools. Data is now published to the whole community and this is often used to set up what is essentially “leader” boards, as the local context is not really included. It is not used to open up conversations and/or to improve the system. Instead schools that are seen as “under” performing because their data doesn’t have them sitting at the top of the data table have to compete to improve and maintain the student numbers in their school, they have to work towards employing or keeping “quality” teachers and they have to compete for funding and grants.

I believe, like others, that your success at school should not be based on your postcode or the school you choose. Sharratt and Fullan in their book “Putting Faces on the Data”, advise that within a school we need to ensure everyone knows they are responsible or “own” all students in the school. This means that all teachers within the school need to contribute to the learning of “all” students in the school, not just the ones that they have in a classroom. Whilst teachers are limited in their realm of influence outside of their own school setting I think it is our responsibility to work towards improving the whole system. Sharing our learning and resources is one way of doing this. If we all work together there is a better chance of achieving better outcomes for everyone. This is why I have always made time for providing professional learning for other teachers and education staff, be they in my school or in another one. I have contributed to networks and worked with others sharing learning and resources.

The slogun for team, “Together, Everyone, Achieves, More” is a reminder of how working together we can achieve more. I have used these posters in the past and would like to share them with the readers of my blog. I hope they are helpful.

TEAM 1 POSTER

TEAM 2 POSTER

TEAM 3 POSTER

TEAM 4 POSTER

TEAM 5 POSTER

TEAM 6 POSTER

TEAM 7 POSTER