Reflecting on # AP Connect 2020 - 2021: A Community of Collaboration and Joy

 

#APConnect Online 2020-2021 (Constellation B): A Community of Collaboration and Joy

The start of an extraordinary journey: #AP Constellation B, Connection Day

It was a bright, crisp day. The sun rose ceremoniously in the caerulean sky (Forgive the alliteration; the English teacher in me made me do it!).  A new day began and I was filled with exuberance and anticipation.  Enthusiastically, I sat at my computer, watched the introductory videos on the landing page and waited for the event to start. I’d given my project a lot of thought.  I was happy with my choice and I was eager to share the subject of my project: Feedback.

Some background information to my original research idea

This little beauty has been my secret weapon for the past two years. I’ve spent a lot of time coaching my learners to reflect upon their work and to self-assess or peer assess by filling in this simple stamp.  We personified the little chap by naming him ‘Stan McStamp’ and he is a valued member of our class. 

His purpose is to help students to identify the positives in their work (something they struggle with) and to think about the things they need to do to improve and make progress.  He is always used in conjunction with success criteria or simplified mark schemes so that students get used to the way the grades are awarded by the examination board.  This is an important element in our feedback process as it allows students to formulate a visual representation of what a grade 4 (or higher) answer should look like.  

My action research project was aimed at conducting action research that would further develop this work.  I wanted students to become much more competent and confident at identifying strategies that would challenge them and that they could employ to aid their progress and growth. 

 Back to the Connection day…'Welcome to the Thinking Environment....now it’s time to share your ideas!'

Mid-way through the connection day, it was time to share our project ideas. I found myself in a 'Thinking Environment' (‘Time To Think’ by Nancy Kline) which was made up of vocational tutors and English tutors. Each person, in turn and without interruption (in the spirit of the thinking environment), was given the opportunity to share their project ideas. However, to my surprise, the musings of the group were not a delightful chorus of pedagogical perusing.

The Thinking Environment does what it says on the tin: it gives people the time to think. Therefore, given the opportunity, the vocational tutors began to share, quite understandably, their frustration at having to constantly chase attendance to GCSE English. Unsurprisingly, there was also a counter frustration and a counter dialogue emerged detailing the problems English tutors have getting vocational students to engage with a subject that has been their nemesis for many year. The ‘Thinking Environment’ became an outlet to discuss all things problematic with GCSE re-sits in post-16 education. 

This narrative of frustration had a profound effect upon me, and I knew in a heartbeat that my project could no longer just be about 'My' students. As an Advanced Practitioner, I felt I had to widen my lens and look at the bigger picture. 

The whisperings of a desire to make a change began to stir in my mind.  I knew that the issues with attendance and engagement had to be addressed. I just wasn’t sure how or what I could do.   The Connection Day had awakened a need in me to focus on something much deeper than feedback; when I attended that first meeting, I would never have anticipated the impact on my person and my practice.  I had no idea that one day could have such a momentous impact upon my vision of myself and the way I perceived my role as a Advanced Practitioner. 

The Connection Day ended but my project was just beginning…

December 2020: a chance conversation changed the game...the stars were aligned that day...I met a kindred spirit!

    ‘Two teachers, both alike in dignity, in fair Halifax, where we lay our scene...from universal woe did meet...and bury their cross- curricular grief in a collaboration of hope and joy.’

In December 2020, I met a kindred spirit.  Funnily enough, it was because of an attendance issue that I had the  chance for an unscheduled conversation with Ann Chambers.  Ann is a Health and Social Care lecturer at Calderdale College.  

Ann was involved in an action research programme at the college.  After the attendance problem was addressed, we began to discuss our mutual action research projects.  As part of her involvement in an ETF Action Research project, Ann had created a SWAY highlighting the many areas where English and Math’s skills were part of her students’ vocational course. I found her work fascinating and informative.  A glimmer of hope began to glow – the seeds of my project began to grow. 

As we sat chatting and discussing the SWAY and our respective curriculum, we had a EUREKA moment! It became apparent that there were many areas of similarities in our very different areas of study.  We could see tangible and workable connections.  

On that serendipitous day, we formed an alliance and a collaborative relationship. We hatched a plan: we joined forces.  Our two projects merged into one.  We saw that collaboration could facilitate change.  We decided to team teach – this was our starting point.  We were not quite at the changing the world stage yet.  But, an idea was starting to form…

We continued to muse and mull things over…

The plan began to take shape : Teaching Health & Social Care and English using The Yellow Wallpaper – an experiment in merging the two curriculum areas.

In this first foray into team teaching, we decided that we would focus on Mental Health and that our primary source would be taken from 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gillman. Our lesson was to be an amalgamation of the two curriculum areas. 

We decided to re-write the extract into a patient statement and task the students with writing a care plan. This task would challenge students to empathise with the character, to engage with the issues around mental health, to identify implicit and explicit information from a text and to write a coherent and well thought out, grammatically correct, piece of written work in the shape of a care plan. This task fulfilled the assessment objectives for both curriculum areas.  

Unfortunately,  Lockdown scuppered our plans.  However, we believe that this lesson need not be a one off; we are brimming with ideas and have built up a bank of resources to use.  Ann and I plan to carry on with our research and we have approached other tutors – they also share in our vision.  Happily, they also share our enthusiasm and are keen to trial this experiment with us.  Our story is just beginning.

#AP Connect is the gift that keeps on giving…

None of the above would have been possible without my involvement in AP Connect.  I would never have had the confidence to initiate this research or to brave the uncharted territory of team teaching had I not been welcomed into, and become part of, this amazing community.  I do consider myself to be an innovative and reflective teacher; I also consider myself to be a ‘good’ teacher.   However, I was only comfortable being innovative and reflective in my safe space: the sanctuary of my classroom.  

I had the role of Advanced Practitioner but the imposter syndrome and the gremlins would always get the better of me and keep the doubt alive and kicking. I faked it enough to be convincing.  On the outside I was serene, on the inside I was furiously treading water and flapping just enough to get me to the end of the training session or presentation.   Identifying as a ‘good’ teacher is one thing; identifying as someone in the organisation who is worthy of developing staff and making changes for the good of the students, staff and organisation is quite another.  This was nerve shattering stuff.   I really didn’t feel up to the challenge most of the time.

Fast forward 4 months and the change in me is immeasurable.  I can’t define it.  It is something I can’t explain in words or feelings - something has changed for the better and I know it’s because of the people I have met and because of the spaces that have been created to allow us to listen, reflect and be heard.  

I have grown in confidence; I am no longer crippled by the doubts of  imposter syndrome – now I have the courage to be seen and to be heard.  I feel that I have the right to be seen and heard.  I feel that I have a lot to offer and that my passion for TLA deserves a platform.  I am no longer afraid of failure or of ridicule.  This is a completely new phenomenon for me.  I could, previously, always be found in the shadows or on the outside looking in.  I never believed that I had anything to say that I anyone would be interested in.  

Sometimes I felt like a spectator in my own life – I didn’t think I had the power to control the personal or professional narrative of my life.  It always felt like someone, somewhere kept re-writing my narrative, furiously scribbling scenarios to throw me off kilter and sabotage my life.  AP Connect has helped me to see that we all have doubts and feelings of being inadequate or frustrated.  AP Connect has helped me to see that I am just like everyone else. 

I cannot imagine a life without AP Connect, Joy Fe and all of the wonderful people I have been so lucky to connect with.   I have never experienced anything like this in my life.  The sense of belonging is a beautiful thing. 

 

    

The Thinking Environment

My first time in a Thinking Environment was one of the most liberating and  empowering days of my life.  I have always been a keep your mouth shut in meetings kind of a gal.  But, I was always frustrated with myself for not speaking up – I was always cross with myself for not having the courage to say what was on my mind.  I have lost count of the number of internal monologues I have had chastising myself for my inability to contribute to discussions and to question.  Therefore, the thinking environment was a mind blowing and completely energising experience.  It was quite a revelation! 

There are no egos, no competition, no persistent voices and no interruptions.  There is time to speak, to think and to be heard.  Nancy Kline believes that our dreams are not free to unfold until we are free to think for ourselves.  I believe my dreams have begun to unfold and I have dared to dream because I have been gifted the time to think in this wonderful space.  I will forever be grateful to Lou Mycroft for introducing me to this space and to everyone I have had the honour of sharing this space with. 

The end of #AP CONNECT maybe on the horizon but I know my journey is just beginning.