An open letter to Minister Hipkins - 13 Reasons Why EVERY teacher deserves a pay rise!

Dear Minister Hipkins,

Too often the narrative around why we need a pay rise can become focused on how hard the job is. The act of teaching is hard, however be assured, a career in teaching is a privilege. That said I do believe each and every teacher in this country deserves a generous pay rise, not because it's a tough job, but because it is a bloody important and complex one. 

Here are my 13 reasons why...

1) What we do is important!
There is no question. Being a teacher is one of the most important roles in our community. We are not only fantastic (low cost) caretakers and babysitters for much of the year, we are also trusted to provide young people with the knowledge and skills they need to survive and thrive, whilst also addressing community concerns and government priorities - we are miracle workers (and hence we deserve the pay to go with it. What we do is seriously important work on many levels.

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” 

- Malala Yousafzai

2) We are challenged on a daily basis
See above! With the privilege of doing such important work comes huge challenges. There is no question that teaching can be massively challenging and at times hugely stressful as teachers feel the pressure to be all things to all people. Whilst we are told that relationships and people are the most important things in teaching we are also then pulled away from that by pressures related to administration, data mining, keeping up with the latest priorities and not to mention assessment and reporting. Yep, it's hard work, but it's good work, it's meeting the challenges head on, managing the crises and working out ways to work smarter that can also be hugely rewarding. Challenges that constantly force us to grow.

3) Our job changes every year
Whilst we get to experience a comforting cycle of work life, knowing that at the beginning of each year we are working to an end point, beginning of each term we are working towards another well deserved break, we also get to experience a sense of genuine rebirth and renewal every year. But with a new year comes new classes, new challenges, new faces and names and a new set of diverse learning needs for us to address. 

Whilst we refresh our knowledge and skills as we set about designing learning we also need to be poised to address the specific needs of up to 30-150 different learners each and every day. 

4) We cause incredible learning
And because we work so hard to do this we do get to experience one of the biggest joys (and gifts) of teaching - helping people learn! I can still recall so many moments from throughout my teaching career where I have been privileged to see that light bulb flick on. Whether it's teaching them tricks to improve their writing, demystifying the art of essay writing - it might sound dull but seeing a student who has struggled through ten plus years of writing and seeing essays as an insurmountable mountain of words, helping them to see that it is actually no more than jigsaw of teeny tiny parts that they can totally do is totally rewarding. Honing my ability to make the seemingly complex, seem achingly simple has been one of my greatest sources of joy. 

Giving students tricks and strategies that help them to help themselves is freakin' cool, but do not take this for granted, do not forget, this is also a highly complex skill set that deserves to be recognised and rewarded. 

5) We provide (and create) safe havens
Not only do we get to teach all of these young people, we also get to create a safe place for them. I love love love creating spaces where teenagers feel safe to let their freak flag fly. A place where being different is celebrated, where having an opinion is encouraged, where failing is fine and challenging me is expected. Being a teenager is hard and being a teenager in the age of social media is a total minefield. How cool is it that we can provide a haven from all of that, we have the ability, even if only for an hour of that teenager's day where they can feel assured that it's okay just being them. We can teach subjects and topics that challenge them to develop greater empathy and understanding. We have the ability to make each and everyone of our young people celebrate who they are and what they can do, simply by getting to know them, listening and caring. 

Consider how much we as teachers do for students, on behalf of parents, on behalf of society. Not only do we nurture these young people, it is often a teacher who helps them to nurture and care for others. 

6) We ignite passions
And if that wasn't enough, we also share our passions so as to ignite the passions of our learners. Most teachers I know came to teaching with a desire to share their love for learning and particular subjects. The great thing is, even as education evolves into more integrated approaches and with a greater focus on skills, we share our passions on a daily basis. For me that is an absolute love for poetry. There is so much that can be taught through poetry - any topic, any theme, any aspect of human nature, poetry has got it covered. I LOVE Maya Angelou. If you've been in my English class at any point I've probably shoe-horned in some Angelou. There is nothing better than sharing your passion and having it catch on. In a world of algorithm echo chambers, curated play lists and YouTube subscriptions there has never been a more important time for broadening teenagers horizons by exposing them to all the fantastic literature and learning we know and care about. 

It is often teachers that take students away and beyond the realm of those back lit screens and YouTube channels and on to the page and beyond. 

7) We teach cool sh*t thanks to an amazing curriculum
And the thing that allows us to weave in our passions and personalise learning is our awesome New Zealand Curriculum. One of the greatest gifts that speaking at international conferences and events has been the growing realisation that the NZC is not normal and neither are our teachers. 

NZ teachers are not only skilled, they are creative and work hard to create incredible colourful environments and incredible colourful creative learning experiences. Often reaching into their own pockets and foregoing time with their own families to do so. 

8) We assess learning creatively thanks to our flexible assessment framework
And if that wasn't enough we can be totally creative in how we assess it as well. Increasingly our teachers are exploring new and creative ways to assess the progress of learners. With the removal of National Standards and the flexibilities of NCEA and growing focus on internal assessments our teachers are going beyond the test and exploring new and interesting ways to capture and evidence learning. 

Again this is complex and important work that needs to rewarded!

9) We share and collaborate (and often pay to do so)
Not only do we get to do awesome stuff we share it! I have been an over sharer from way back and I can attest that sharing what you love is totally rewarding. But we shouldn't take this for granted. 

Our teachers design and create powerful learning experiences and then often (pay to) attend conferences and events where they give away their resources, expertise and knowledge for free! Who wouldn't want to invest in such incredible generous professionals. 

10) We create amazing PLNs and support networks
Teachers are also incredibly agentic and find free sources of support and professional learning. You can turn to twitter for any number of chats - #edchatnz is a constant source of inspiration, challenge and support and there are now more "chat" hashtags than you can poke a stick. We have incredible Facebook communities and list-serves. We have subject associations and unions who all work hard to support teachers. We have an evolving Education Council that is producing exemplary professional learning and support resources such as Our Code | Our Standards. 

This profession is unlike any other in the way the whole sector supports and grows one another. Imagine what they might achieve with even greater support. 

11) We never stop learning
Whether it be through in-school professional development or through more formal professional development and study. Many teachers are stretching themselves by engaging in further learning at tertiary level. Many teachers are spending evenings and weekends learning Te Reo. 

Invest in teachers and you would be investing in an ever learning, ever improving profession.

12) We take on extra responsibilities with school and across the sector
Not only do teachers teach, they often coach, direct, manage, conduct and cheer on learners. They also work beyond the school gates so as to enrich and improve our education system end-to-end. Teachers are often on the sidelines, in the audience. Many are involved in writing resources, marking and moderating at a national level, they are part of local and national reference and advisory groups, working with NZEI, PPTA, MoE and NZQA. 

Teachers do this because they care deeply about the whole system and know it is important to participate and share. Invest in them, just as they continue to invest in you. 

13) We get insights into a lot of other worlds
Whether it is gaining an understanding of what it is like for a young Pasifika women to get up and catch trains and buses from the far corners of Auckland just so they can be part of the AGGS community or move out of home into a hostel at EGGS or the complex pressures they experience to be the best they can be in the classroom, on the sports field or on the stage or the challenges they may have to come overcome due to all kinds of family and community complexities and differing cultural norms. Not to mention the online world in which they also exist. I don't think are many people who get the privilege of learning as much about different worlds as we do, I also don't think there are many people that support as much we do.

The teacher has both the privilege and the immense challenge of being all things to all people in a time where our young people are experiencing more poverty, pressure and anxiety than ever before. 

It is often the teacher who bridges the vast chasm between "the haves" and "the have nots". It is often the teacher who provides the bridge between the digital divide, the cultural divide and the ever increasing economic divide.  

Minister, even if this was a purely a question of a good investment and was only about being seen to be fiscally responsible, then you would be crazy not to spend your money here! As Mitt Romney once stated, "Education is the investment our generation makes in the future". By investing in the teacher, you invest in our children and you invest in our country's future.

To under invest in teachers is to rob us all.

Yours sincerely,

Claire Amos

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Claire Victoria Amos: NZ Educators casualties of flawed opinion piece

At the end of last week, Bernadine Oliver-Kerby published an "opinion piece". It has prompted me to pen a letter (sorry it ain't handwritten...).

Dear Bernadine,

Your article started, innocently enough, by voicing a very valid concern, that I am sure would be shared by many parents - "I was simply asking why the children at school were practising handwriting while lying sprawled on the floor." Hey, I believe parents and educators absolutely should be encouraged to question what is going on in the classroom. I applaud your positioning of yourself as nothing more than inquisitive caring parent. If you had genuinely asked this question and then explored and investigated what is actually going on in Modern Learning Environments, I would be here cheering you on. But unfortunately you did not do that. Instead you followed up a seemingly caring and rational question with a whole raft of assumptions and generalisations that quite frankly do more damage than good.

I too share your concerns and have challenged the whole concept of Modern Learning Environments:

Modern Learning Environments is a term that seems to be bandied around a lot lately. But interestingly it is rarely defined. The (NZ) Ministry of Education has a whole section on their website dedicated to them, lots of info and tools but no actual definition. More online research and still little in the way of a definition can be found. So what is a Modern Learning Environment or MLE? It would seem (from what I have gleaned from a number of school visits and indeed our own school plans), that this is a generic term that describes a space which may include many things: open and/or flexible learning spaces, breakout spaces, small spaces often referred to as "caves", multi-purpose spaces, technology rich spaces and spaces that house "modern learning furniture" such as bean bags, camp fire seats and a variety of high, mid-height and low groovy shaped tables...on wheels. Interestingly MLEs don't actually seem that modern at all. In fact there is something rather retro and even commune-like about them and if I am honest they sort of remind me of a daycare...on steroids.

So what exactly makes these learning environments "modern"? I guess what makes them modern is the fact that they are different from the old ones (i.e. single cell rooms) and for many, rather unsettling. Historically speaking, different and unsettling seems to mean "modern" doesn't it? I guess "unsettling learning environment" was a bit of a hard sell, so "modern" it is then.

But hang on a minute, who said that modern equals good?

I, like you, questioned the whole concept. But what I know, and what you fail to acknowledge is that the success of any space, modern or otherwise, rests on the ability of a teacher to connect with the learner, know the learner and engage in thoughtfully designed acts of teaching and learning.

As I stated in an earlier blogpost about this very topic:

The reality is, good (and bad) teaching can take place anywhere. I am guessing (and I am hoping) that the MLE will not simply make the teaching and learning better because it is a MLE, but that it will encourage a more open and flexible approach to teaching and learning because as a space it is exactly that, open and flexible. I hope it will encourage all those things we refer to as "effective pedagogy" in the NZC. I also hope it might discourage too much teacher led instruction and encourage a more facilitation style of teaching and learning.

Then you threw in the highly emotive and (to use your word) ludicrous statement - "Kids, once in caged confines now roam free-range and feral."

Firstly let's look at your use of imagery. I take it that "caged" equals good, since "free-range" seems to equate to "feral"? So by this do we assume you think children should be caged? Controlled? Disciplined? Forced to sit up straight, behind singular desks and maybe focus on some good old rote learning and regurgitation? I have no doubt that this worked for you and hey, if ain't broke, why fix it!! Newsflash - that system is broken. Young people are heading into a very different society and workforce. No longer can we presume an Industrial model of reading, (hand) writing and arithmetic will equip them for their multiple careers and the increasing likelihood that they will most likely experience contract work and/or be self-employed. These kiddos are going to have to be able to self-manage and self-motivate. They will have to be able to learn, unlearn and re-learn for themselves. You might not think 'self-management' and 'self-motivation' is something that needs to be taught, and that students working independently on computers is something that we shouldn't need to prioritise at school, then I say that you might need to check your 'middle-class privilege' at the door. Schools have a responsibility to work responsively to meet the need of ALL of our young people and to most importantly close an increasingly wide economic and digital divide. 

This brings me to your next cheap shot - "It's a concept tried and failed in the 70s." 

Oh yeah baby, that is just hitting it where it hurts. You are so right, a concept and strategy that is trialled in one context or period will never work in another context or period in the future. Those early planes that didn't successfully fly, you are so right, completely proves the whole concept of flight is doomed. And those cars that stalled, in early trials, completely summed up what a failure our future vehicles would be. This makes one thing clear - Elon Musk you are not. 

Luckily I have been teaching long enough to see developments in classroom design and learning technologies, that have proven they have the power to amplify best practice, time and time again. 

Firstly let's consider the actual design of Modern Learning Environments. I am lucky enough to be Deputy Principal of a particularly kick-ass one. It has been architecturally designed to ensure the acoustics work with the open/flexible spaces. Surprisingly little noise flows from one space to the next. Secondly, the pedagogy and teaching practice that supports effective learning in these spaces is less about direct instruction and teachers shouting over students and more about facilitation of learning activities that require students to work collaboratively or independently on a range of tasks and inquiries.

To put it bluntly, if "their challenge is to not only gain, but retain attention", they're doing it wrong. 

Then you go on to incite a bit of good old fashioned parental panic about students on devices - "Oh, they'll look busy, but I know the difference between Mathletics and Mindcraft. And that is NOT HOMEWORK Missy.. put it away!"

You know I wouldn't be so upset, if this kind of comment didn't absolutely undermine the capacity of our fine educators we have in this country. Educators are working bloody hard to refine and develop their practices to ensure devices are used meaningfully. Many schools are still struggling to convince their communities just what an important investment a personal device is for our students. Throw away comments like this do so much damage.

As I have stated in another blogpost, of course introducing devices means a different approach:

Note - If your behaviour management is poor, if your lessons are poorly planned and your contexts less than engaging (and if you don't get of your bottom throughout each and every lesson) your BYOD will stand for Bring Your Own Distraction.

As the quote states below, technology can help education where it's already doing well!

Rather than finding a digital educational cure, he came to understand what he calls technology’s “Law of Amplification”: technology could help education where it’s already doing well, but it does little for mediocre educational systems. Worse, in dysfunctional schools, it “can cause outright harm.” He added: “Unfortunately, there is no technological fix…more technology only magnifies socioeconomic disparities, and the only way to avoid that is non-technological.”

- Dr. Kentaro Toyama in Time Magazine

You know I agree, we need to (celebrate and) support these educators to continue to grow their practice, particularly when using technology. 

And remember, Learning Technologies and one-to-one devices are the absolute key difference between the 70s and now. Learning Technologies have the power to amplify best practice, they also have the power to enable educators to personalise and differentiate learning to meet the needs of the individual learner.

This is not something that you or any observer would be able to appreciate when you see a sea of students "lying sprawled on the floor". 

Our educators are working harder than ever to evolve their practice, I believe each and every one of them deserves a cheerleader. They certainly do not deserve a throw away opinion piece that undermines the change that they are courageous enough to be engaged in. You might scoff at the term "courageous", but believe me, those leading the way are exactly that. They move forward, working hard to evolve what is already hard work. They do so in the face of nervous communities, relentless criticism and assumptions that change is somehow bad. I suspect if your dentist, doctor or even the media industry in which you are employed had evolved as little as schools have in the last 50 years, you would be horrified. 

If anything you should be asking why so little has changed. 

You yourself said "I don't deflect change. I'll happily embrace it - when it's for the better. But when it comes to our new "modern learning" open-plan schools, the Emperor is wearing new clothes."

Finally. You are on to something here! I too am concerned about this very issue. I am concerned that the development of MLEs and the introduction of Learning Technologies can become a bit of a smoke screen and can actually create an illusion of modernity when little has actually changed. I worry that the introduction of these physically, palpable and measurable objects will be seen as making a change for the better, when the one thing that that really needs to be "introduced" is still lacking - the teacher's and the communities (aka your) belief that the student is capable of leading their own learning. How do we ensure that MLEs and Learning Technologies don't actually create the educational equivalent of "mutton dressed as lamb" or as you say "the Emperor wearing new clothes"?

MLEs are pointless if the teacher still leads from the front of classrooms (albeit classrooms with invisible walls). Learning Technologies are pointless when the students have the use of their technology controlled and limited to little more than word processing and the odd google search. The challenge is to be supported to explore how the MLEs and Learning Technologies can be used to genuinely change how and what we have been doing.

As you infer. Changing the environment and introducing tools is easy. Genuinely changing our thinking and letting our "caged" students go "free-range" - now that's going to be a challenge.

Wouldn't it have been awesome if your opinion piece was actually framed differently. Taking that simple question and very valid question you started with and using it to challenge and support what educators are trying to do. 

In the meantime, let me just go ahead and do that on your behalf.

To the teachers of New Zealand, going above and beyond to evolve education and improve outcomes for our learners - I salute you! Whether it be through leading the way in a Modern Learning Environments or by rattling the cages of your single cell classroom, I recognise and celebrate how hard you are working to do things differently. Don't let daft opinion pieces detract from your efforts, instead take a moment to print them off, screw them up and use it to stoke the flames of awesomeness.

In closing, I would love to extend an invite to you, Bernadine, to come and see our MLE in action, I would love to take the time to explain to you exactly how we are working to use these flexible spaces to design powerful and engaging learning.

I genuinely look forward to hearing from you. 

Your sincerely,

Claire Amos

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