Teaching An Old-Timer New Tricks -- REPOST

*An attempt to fix formatting issues in previous post. Previous post has not been deleted in order to preserve comments.*

LIBE 467 - Assignment 2



Mr. Oldtimer

Image Source

Mr. Oldtimer has been a teacher for many years. He is about five years from retiring and is very set in his ways. He is teaching at the late-primary level, a grade he never intended to teach but has been doing for the last decade. He is a firm believer that kids should be streamed into ability groups to make teaching easier and that all kids are treated equally in terms of behaviour, despite their different abilities.

Mr. Oldtimer’s preferred teaching method is a teacher-directed one. He spends much of his day at the front of the room, leading the students through the reading of textbooks or problems in a math book. He isn’t familiar with the inquiry-based model and is hesitant to learn new tricks. He is comfortable teaching the same things he has been doing for the last decade as it allows him more free time in his personal life. Unfortunately, Mr. Oldtimer has developed a reputation for himself in the school community and every year there are students and parents that request not to be in his class.

Mr. Oldtimer is a tough nut to crack. Set in his ways, he is not open to putting in the extra work to learn new methodologies, nor does he see the point this close to retirement. The reality is though, that five more years of service is five more classes...approximately 100 more kids going through his door that need engaging, quality education.

Using the Concerns-Based Adoption Model Mr. Oldtimer ranks at a 0 (I am not concerned about it) on the Expressions of Concern table. He has been teaching this way for so many years and it’s working for him. He is also ranking 0 (The user has no interest, is taking no action) when it comes to Behavioural Indicators of Level.  According to Leading Learning “A learning commons is a whole school approach to building a participatory learning community. The library learning commons is the physical and virtual collaborative learning hub of the school. It is designed to engineer and drive future-oriented learning and teaching throughout the entire school. Inquiry, project/problem-based learning experiences are designed as catalysts for intellectual engagement with information, ideas, thinking, and dialogue.” Based on this statement it is the teacher-librarian’s responsibility to support teachers in collaborative teaching and learning and so that leaves me with the responsibility to try and get Mr. Oldtimer on board.

Mr. Oldtimer needs a refresh and so do his students. It is known that he will be closed-off to any ideas that seem like more work and so it’s important to approach him on a casual basis. Mr. Oldtimer loves to chat with colleagues and so these little conversations are a great way to slip in some tidbits about how I’ve augmented my own and my colleagues’ practice and how it is more engaging to a wider variety of students. We need to take it slow with Mr. Oldtimer, and so the initial step is to try and get him to level 1 on the Expression of Concern scale, meaning he wants to know more about what I’m talking about. Since Mr. Oldtimer finds it frustrating that he can’t teach the same lesson to all the students due to a wide range of abilities, and as a result he’s got students disengaging, I might begin by telling him a story about revamping a tired research project. Mr. Oldtimer loves research projects, but they are very controlled and teacher-led. He has a few class sets of outdated texts in his classroom and these are the main resources he provides the students for research. The same end-result is expected from all the students, and it’s usually a poster, brochure or diorama.

Mr. Oldtimer isn’t ready for an entire overhaul, so I might tell him (conversationally) about a little tweak to another teacher’s project and the positive outcomes of the change. For example, I might tell him the story about the grade four teacher who teaches the solar system. For years she has had all of the students make models of the solar system as a culminating project. Every year she has students who do a magnificent job and others who fail to finish or do the bare minimum. This year she had the students choose one topic relating to the solar system that interested them. They could either build a model, make a poster or create a Powerpoint (or Prezi) about their topic. By increasing the range of topic and mode of presentation many more students were successful in their culminating project.

This very small change has Mr. Oldtimer intrigued. He is now moving from a 0 to a 1 on the Expressions of Concern table - he wants to know more about it. He is still hesitant because he thinks it might take a lot of time and planning to change what he already knows, and he’s nervous to make such a commitment. A few days after our initial informal conversation Mr. Oldtimer comes to me asking for more specific details about how the other teacher was able to make the changes to her unit. At this point Mr. Oldtimer has moved to a level 01 on the Behavioural Indicators level, meaning he has taken the initiative to find out more. It is now time to schedule a meeting with Mr. Oldtimer at a convenient time for him. Since he doesn’t like to spend time after school, I suggest a lunch meeting (possible over two or three days if necessary) to discuss things further. I ask him to bring a unit that he has been taught in past years, but has yet to do this year.

Mr. Oldtimer brings a unit about ecosystems. Typically he has each student choose one ecosystem to study from a long list he has provided. He teaches some general lessons about ecosystems, involving textbook reading and question/answer worksheets. Once the students have their chosen ecosystem assigned, they are to build a diorama based on information they can find in the textbook. Once I have reviewed the unit I can make suggestions for augmentation to Mr. Oldtimer that involve collaboration with me so as not to overwhelm him with too many changes. In order for the augmentation to take place Mr. Oldtimer must agree to booking some time in the school library learning commons and letting me handle some of the lessons and assessment.

Three ways that I would augment the project:

1. Introduce the students to different resources available to them in the SLLC, including online databases and other reference materials in the library.
2. Allow the students to make a choice about what aspect of ecosystems they want to study, whether it’s studying an animal and how it has adapted to its environment, a study about ecosystems in general, or another query they might have based on their explorations.
3. Teach them how to create a Powerpoint (or Prezi) slide and have them create 1-3 slides about their chosen topic, culminating in the creation (by me) of a whole class presentation.

I feel as though this won’t be too intimidating for Mr. Oldtimer, as it will be me who is doing the bulk of the “new” aspects of the project as well as helping with assessment. This will allow Mr. Oldtimer to observe some of the changes without being an expert himself. By convincing Mr. Oldtimer to give this project a try he has progressed through level II and onto level III on the Behavioural Indicators table - the user is making changes to better organize use of the innovation.

Looking at Mr. Oldtimer’s progress through the lens of a different but perhaps simpler model, the SAMR model, we can see that we have successfully moved him from the “No Tech” stage through the first two enhancement levels and into the “Augmentation” phase of use. These are big steps for a seasoned and “set-in-his-ways” teacher. Once he has seen student engagement increase and he is less challenged by the ones that don’t “buy-in” to his teacher-led model it is the hope that he will implement these changes into other units and continue to seek more opportunities to collaborate in the future.

Image Source

Image Source

Image Source

Works Cited

Canadian School Libraries (CSL). 2018.  “Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada.” Retrieved from  http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca

“The 4 Stages of EdTech – The SAMR Model for Technology Integration”. LingoMedia, 11 August, 2015. Retrieved from http://lingomedia.com/stages-of-edtech-the-samr-model-for-technology-integration/?fbclid=IwAR1SPzEeCTVskSd-4_HR_b9S75QUdDloPkM6CbzQ7O0pjnuMJrtWWgMxCLk

"The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): A Model for Change in Individuals”.  The National Academy of Sciences, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.nationalacademies.org/rise/backg4a.htm