Latest / ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿 / 😠You are MORE than your Results🥰

Transcript

😠You are MORE than your Results🥰 · ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿

• 0:05
  Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of Aligned
• 0:09
  and Driving for Teachers. Now today I want to talk to you
• 0:14
  about something that honestly drives us all.
• 0:16
  Well, I hope it's everyone, or maybe just me, but a little bit
• 0:19
  crazy. It's testing the results, the
• 0:24
  data, that never ending number game.
• 0:29
  I don't know about you, but sometimes I just feel like I
• 0:31
  dream about data. It's always in my head.
• 0:36
  It is nagging at me, it's just there.
• 0:38
  And honestly, it can just be so frustrating about as frustrating
• 0:42
  as it is to have my beautiful puppy dog barking in the
• 0:45
  background. So again, I apologise if you
• 0:47
  hear her. Can't edit her out.
• 0:49
  She's just going to be a feature of the day again.
• 0:52
  So principles at the moment where we are get measured on
• 0:56
  results and the teachers, that's all of us.
• 0:59
  We get punished, or at least we feel like it.
• 1:04
  When outcomes aren't what they should be, it's somehow our
• 1:07
  fault. But let's get real.
• 1:10
  How hard is it when you have an honestly low class?
• 1:13
  Like the one student with the low results can impact everyone
• 1:17
  in the entire class data. Suddenly just everything feels
• 1:21
  stuck and you are left holding the weight of everything.
• 1:26
  And then there's the curriculum. It is overcrowded, it is
• 1:29
  overcomplicated and let's face it, these are not the same kids
• 1:32
  that we used to teach. If you have been teaching for a
• 1:34
  while, everything has changed and people who are in the higher
• 1:39
  ups, they don't get it. And what are we supposed to do?
• 1:43
  We just get told to throw in more lessons, throw in more
• 1:46
  tests and it only makes it harder.
• 1:50
  We feel trapped and frustrated and sometimes just completely
• 1:54
  and utterly powerless. I mean, is it just me or do you
• 1:58
  all feel the same way too? Because here is the truth.
• 2:02
  Please don't take it to heart. You are not your testing
• 2:07
  results. You are your worth, OK?
• 2:10
  Your worth as a teacher and as a human.
• 2:13
  It is not defined by numbers on a spreadsheet, OK?
• 2:18
  And honestly, I have been like a literacy coach and I have to
• 2:22
  deal with data and I talk to people about data, but I talked
• 2:26
  to data in the sense that it is there to help support and guide
• 2:29
  and meet the student at the point of need.
• 2:32
  It helps us to work out what it is that they need so that we can
• 2:35
  support them. That's how I look at data.
• 2:38
  Those kids, they are making gains because of you and what
• 2:42
  you are doing. Every single bit of effort that
• 2:46
  you put in, every bit of patience, every creative lesson
• 2:50
  that you've had to change to try and make it all fit and work and
• 2:53
  cater for everyone, it counts. So please, please celebrate
• 2:59
  that. Really celebrate it.
• 3:01
  If you have honestly tried your best, you've done what's
• 3:06
  required of you and honestly, that's enough.
• 3:09
  Do not let anyone or any number tell you otherwise.
• 3:14
  We are doing the absolute best that we can as teachers and
• 3:18
  sometimes that is all we can do. That is all we can do because it
• 3:22
  is a different generation of human beings that we are raising
• 3:26
  and loving and all of those things.
• 3:28
  So this is the challenge. The challenge is that you step
• 3:35
  back from your data and you take a breath.
• 3:39
  When you're looking at your data, you are celebrating every
• 3:43
  little win that those tiny humans or big ones have had
• 3:49
  within your space. And if you're not a teacher and
• 3:52
  you're listening to this podcast, data still applies to
• 3:55
  you. You will still have your own
• 3:56
  data sets that you can look at, appreciate, and celebrate
• 4:00
  because there will be. And I used to work in Jolie
• 4:04
  retail where there were KPIs, there were targets that you had
• 4:06
  to meet. I remember my own mom coming
• 4:09
  into Sanity because yes, when that existed, I worked there
• 4:12
  coming into Sanity to buy Jolly, what were they called?
• 4:16
  Like CD, DVD cleaners, just so I could meet my KPI's to get my
• 4:22
  proper salary, OK, my pay. Because if I didn't meet those
• 4:27
  KPI's for that month, I didn't get my bonus or I didn't get my
• 4:31
  overtime. Like it was based around meeting
• 4:34
  these Jolly targets, Someone buying a $5 CD cleaner.
• 4:38
  How many of these things do you actually need in your life?
• 4:41
  Like now, they don't exist. So how pointless was that, that
• 4:44
  we needed to upsell and do all of these things?
• 4:46
  It's like we are trying to upsell our kids by skilling them
• 4:49
  in these certain things and we're teaching them to attest.
• 4:53
  We are forever teaching them to attest.
• 4:56
  If you were teaching during COVID, how good was it that
• 5:00
  NAPLAN, it just disappeared. It was gone.
• 5:04
  It's gone for a whole year. And did anybody actually miss
• 5:08
  it? No, they didn't.
• 5:12
  And what happened with that data?
• 5:15
  Nothing. Because it wasn't there.
• 5:18
  And we couldn't sit and compare all the schools around the
• 5:21
  nation and complain about this and put it onto my school's page
• 5:25
  or whatever and see if that school's better than that one
• 5:28
  because of their NAPLAN results. Honestly, it didn't even matter.
• 5:33
  It didn't matter. It was gone.
• 5:35
  It wasn't there and we all survived and we're still living
• 5:38
  and yet it's back with a vengeance because now it's even
• 5:41
  earlier in the year. So now it's just great because
• 5:44
  then you get these amazing, amazing teachers from Grade 2
• 5:49
  and Grade 4 and Grade 6 that feel this horrible sense of deep
• 5:54
  seated guilt when these kids do their NAPLAN test and they feel
• 5:59
  that it's on them because it's in March, it's so early, it's
• 6:02
  all the teaching that they've had.
• 6:04
  Do you not factor in that they have had six weeks off school
• 6:08
  and who knows what they've been doing?
• 6:10
  I would hope that they've been loving life and enjoying it, but
• 6:14
  do you know how much information has been lost in that process?
• 6:18
  Because they have not been accessing their information from
• 6:22
  their long term memory and bringing back to their short
• 6:24
  term memory to actually remember and focus on that information.
• 6:27
  And then they're required to access that and they haven't had
• 6:30
  time to revise. Like seriously, it is just a
• 6:34
  test. It is one test.
• 6:37
  Yes, we need data. I'm not saying that we don't
• 6:40
  need data. We 100% need data.
• 6:43
  But you are not your classes results, OK?
• 6:48
  You are using those sets of data to help meet those kids at their
• 6:52
  point of need and to help them make gains and to grow and to
• 6:56
  shape their futures. That's what you're doing and
• 6:59
  that's what your data is for. That is what you are using it
• 7:02
  for. So that's what I'm hoping
• 7:04
  because the teaching isn't fair, OK?
• 7:07
  It's not, it's just not. And measuring us all by those
• 7:11
  results, that's not fair. It's it's not, it isn't even
• 7:15
  just, but your effort, your heart and your dedication that
• 7:22
  is real and that is measurable, OK.
• 7:26
  You will see the difference of growth in your kids if you are
• 7:29
  putting more love and attention and catering to their point of
• 7:33
  need. Then if you are literally just
• 7:36
  teaching to a test, you will still get kids that will succeed
• 7:40
  and you will still get kids that fall behind.
• 7:44
  But if you are putting in the effort to meet them at their
• 7:46
  point of need, I'm just going to keep saying that, then you are
• 7:49
  actually making the effort, the energy, and you are shaping them
• 7:52
  and you are supporting them and they will try their hardest to
• 7:57
  make you proud pretty much. And it will show.
• 8:01
  And that's enough. That is literally all you need
• 8:04
  to do as a teacher. So, and, and look, in our
• 8:08
  system, little tiny state, when principals did find out about
• 8:12
  being measured against their data, they weren't happy about
• 8:15
  that. They nearly went on strike
• 8:18
  because of it. They stopped going to some of
• 8:19
  their meetings to prove to the department, this is not OK.
• 8:23
  You cannot measure us from this because every school is
• 8:28
  different, every cohort of kids is different, every
• 8:31
  socioeconomic, like every group is different and have different
• 8:35
  need. And if you're measuring us and
• 8:37
  paying us according to that data, that's not fair.
• 8:41
  So if they can sit there at the top or if you are a principal
• 8:44
  and you were in that situation, we agree that it's not fair the
• 8:48
  same as we agree as teachers that it is not fair to base
• 8:51
  everything just on the testing data.
• 8:54
  I'm saying because there is more data than just that.
• 8:58
  There's attendance data, There's all of that well being data that
• 9:02
  you can add up for those kids because they might be the kid
• 9:06
  that missed a lot of school because their parents didn't
• 9:09
  have enough food in the cupboard so they didn't want to send
• 9:11
  them, so they didn't look like they didn't have lunch that day.
• 9:14
  There's lots of factors that come into play and if you
• 9:17
  actually know your kids and know your class, you will factor all
• 9:20
  that information in when you are doing and teaching to their
• 9:24
  point of need. So have we got the point?
• 9:28
  We are doing the best we can. We are not our classroom results
• 9:32
  when it comes to just that specific data.
• 9:35
  You are more than that and you are valued so much more than
• 9:40
  that and that's what we're talking about.
• 9:43
  So sorry, I'm just checking all of my notes because I had lots
• 9:49
  of dot points to talk to you about and I wanted to make sure
• 9:51
  I covered everything but that. Like I want you to just take a
• 9:55
  moment to give yourself as a teacher.
• 9:58
  Give yourself some credit for the incredible work that you are
• 10:03
  doing because you are the 1 making the difference.
• 10:07
  Even when the numbers don't show it.
• 10:10
  Even when the numbers don't show it.
• 10:12
  You are the one turning up every day.
• 10:14
  You are the 1 differentiating for those kids and changing the
• 10:18
  Lesson plan and doing little tweaks here and there to make it
• 10:20
  work. I'm a mom of a kid that needs
• 10:23
  that. He needs relationships.
• 10:27
  He will do. My son will do so much more for
• 10:30
  you if you bother to make a connection with him.
• 10:32
  You listen to him and Oh my God, he can ask a lot of questions.
• 10:36
  I love him dearly, but he will interrupt your teaching 110%
• 10:39
  every time. And if you don't stop and let
• 10:43
  him ask the darn question or say the little thing that he needs
• 10:46
  to say, he's just going to keep going.
• 10:47
  Or he's going to put his head down in shame and just go into a
• 10:50
  little meltdown mode. And I have watched some amazing,
• 10:52
  amazing teachers work with him and he does so much more for
• 10:56
  them because they have taken the time to build a relationship,
• 11:00
  know his little insurance and outs and his little quirks and
• 11:02
  go, OK, this is what we're doing.
• 11:03
  But they are still firm but fair.
• 11:07
  They have that expectation that no, no, we're not talking now
• 11:09
  hold it, hold it in, hold the thought, we're going to do this
• 11:13
  and then comes back and then he shares and then Yep, we move on.
• 11:16
  Everything gets done, everyone is happy and all my word.
• 11:19
  They have so much more patience than me because I'm sitting
• 11:22
  there too because I'm in the same space and I'm like, Oh my
• 11:24
  gosh, I would have been, I would have lost my my mind by now.
• 11:29
  But I'm also that kids mom. So I get a lot of those
• 11:32
  questions and I do run out of patience.
• 11:35
  So you are that teacher for someone else's kid.
• 11:38
  And just know that it does not go unnoticed and it does not go
• 11:43
  unappreciated. Because if I have to be the mom
• 11:45
  that represents all the moms of those kids.
• 11:47
  It is so appreciated when you go out of your way to make that
• 11:52
  connection and have that relationship and get that little
• 11:54
  bit more out of them and just know what works for them and
• 11:57
  what doesn't. Know that they absolutely
• 12:00
  appreciate it. You are making an absolute
• 12:04
  difference in those kids lives. So just know that, OK, that's
• 12:09
  just me sharing from my mom perspective and my also teacher
• 12:12
  perspective that you're just going to get so much more if you
• 12:15
  make that time and effort and it's proven.
• 12:18
  So thank you for listening to me again today.
• 12:22
  Sharing just this little snippet to just remind you that, you
• 12:27
  know, measuring us by our results alone is not fair and
• 12:30
  just. And we don't have to be talked
• 12:32
  about and measured just like that because you should be
• 12:34
  measured on your heart and your dedication.
• 12:37
  That's what's measurable and that is what is enough.
• 12:39
  So I'm reiterating that fact to you.
• 12:41
  So take a moment again, give yourself credit for what you are
• 12:44
  doing and remember that if this episode resonates with you or
• 12:49
  you want to share it with someone else, please share it
• 12:52
  with another fellow teacher or maybe someone in your leadership
• 12:54
  team who needs to hear this reminder.
• 12:56
  And then remember, you are more than your classroom results.
• 13:00
  You've got this. You have got this 120%.
• 13:06
  That's great math, isn't it for teaching.
• 13:08
  But I want you to remember that because you are amazing, you are
• 13:12
  doing enough. If you are doing your absolute
• 13:14
  best and you are giving it all your heart, so well done you.
• 13:18
  So if you haven't been told today, you're amazing, you're
• 13:20
  awesome, you're great, you are loved and you are valued and you
• 13:25
  are 100% more than your classroom results.
• 13:28
  Have the best day, night, evening, wherever you are up to
• 13:31
  and I'll talk to you again soon. Bye, guys.