#72 Parents Supporting Teachers

Hi Everyone

I wish I had a bell! No, not one for ringing with, although I have fond memories of being on school bell duty as a child, it’s the Linked In bell I need. I have over 5,000 connections, over 6,000 followers and over 7,000 subscribers and would love to know that everyone could guarantee not to miss any of my posts if they wanted to take advantage of a particular series.

That’s because I started a new series this week for parents, to help them feel more confident about how to help any ‘learners’ in their family to achieve more at school. With a larger number of students feeling unable to attend, increasingly poor behaviour from some who do attend, and a larger percentage than previously having passively disengaged from learning, it’s a difficult time for some parents.

Even if your child is happy in school, are they making the kind of progress that you would like for them? Obviously, we have to take into consideration the fact that progress isn’t always about academic achievement, for some students it also about knowing that they belong, or feeling safe, or making friends, or coping with reduced mental health.

One thing that would really help, but which is not often explicitly taught in schools is the ability to use metacognition. Simply put, that’s the art of changing the way you think in order to improve the results you’re getting. And again, we’re not necessarily talking about academic results, although that would be one very good reason for learning to think in a different way. The advantage of developing metacognition in all learners is that we give them the means to change their minds about all kinds of things.

Parents can sometimes feel ‘left out’ a bit when it comes to knowing what’s going on with their child’s education, and it’s difficult to find the balance between being proactive about wanting the best for your child, whilst trusting that teachers have more curriculum and classroom skills than you do. During the pandemic, ‘lockdown’ brought this dilemma home for many families and left some parents still asking ‘what more can I do’?

I’m hoping to answer that question via a series of posts on a Tuesday evening here in the UK, which will reflect some of the suggestions that were well received whilst parents were home educating due to Covid19. You don’t need to relinquish all control to the school, you have a sphere of influence that you can use to good effect at home, which will help your child to develop a more metacognitive way of thinking.

If only I had a bell!

The other thing I wanted to tell you about this week is a new opportunity to pick up some recordings that I made to support teachers with developing metacognition in their students. Most teachers already know about the benefits of metacognition, and that it’s one of the most effective ways to support student progress, but it can be difficult to deciding how best to go about doing that.

Over the summer I ran a one-off special training course at a reduced price for any teachers who were prepared to give up a few hours of their precious summer break to take part. At the time several people got in touch with me to say that they couldn’t make it on that day, but would be prepared to pay for access to a recording of the course. I don’t record live events to protect the privacy of those taking part, but I did make a set of separate recordings covering the same material in order to fulfil the demand for it.

As a result of that special offer, I was subsequently invited to deliver training for two schools who both recognised the value of the course content, one from having a member of staff do the virtual training, and one from accessing the recording. They were both looking for where to begin with a whole school approach to supporting the development of metacognition in their learners. The training is suitable for both classroom teachers in the primary sector or subject teachers from the secondary sector and the recordings are now available for you too.

They follow a similar format to the live programme which is divided into 3 parts; 'Inside the Learner’s Head', 'Creating the Right Environment', and 'Teaching Practice that Supports Metacognition'. Between them, these recordings are absolutely packed with essential information to help prepare learners of any age, and of any ability, to use metacognition. They go even further to ensure that you also have practical knowledge about how to do that in an organic and sustainable way.

Just to whet your appetite, one of the educators who purchased the 3 recordings found them so helpful that she accessed them several times over and later commented;

"Liz Keable's timeless and brilliant delivery of metacognitive practice inspires and empowers conscious?living and lifelong learning for all ages. Upon receiving her clear messages for seeding and nurturing metacognition, my work with early childhood has?a more?refined "why" and "how" than ever before.? Simply delightful and energizing!? Liz Keable invites us to the long-game of practicing metacognition, a win-win! (Maria Stadler, AMI Primary Guide for Children 2.5 - 6 years).?

I hope that sounds like something you’d like in on too! The 3 recordings (each approximately 50mins long with opportunities for personal reflection built in), are for private use only, but if that’s something you’d be interested in, either to learn more, or to get some idea of the basic content for potential expanded live training for your school, then please e-mail me at [email protected] ?

I invite you as always to ‘be in their corner’ with me!

Till next time.

Warm regards

Liz