Taking care of our teachers and school culture
An interview with Educational Leader Adam Voigt.
Taking care of our teachers and school culture
An interview with Educational Leader Adam Voigt.
In this episode, Angela Lockwood interviews Adam Voigt, Educational Leader and Founder of Real Schools an organisation supporting Principals and Teachers to build positive school cultures. Adam shares how schools and parents can work together to learn from the recent interruptions in our schools through understanding what matters in educating our children. Adam also shares how parents can help their children transition back to school life to minimise anxiety.
By the end of this episode, you will learn how schools can thrive beyond this period of interruption, how to focus on what matters in our schools and how to support our children . Enjoy the episode!
Episode Transcription
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Teachers school kids culture people important parents educators big interruption afl bit work adam speak week learning routine sport home
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Angela: Welcome to Your Life podcast, the place where life becomes that little bit simpler. I'm Angela Lockwood. And today I'm speaking with Adam Voigt. Adam is the founder of Real schools, an organization that works with teachers in schools to build positive school cultures. He's an educational leader, a regular media guest, former school principal, and a mad AFL and cricket supporter. Adam, it is so great to have you on here today on your life podcast.
Adam: Thank you so much for having me. And I'm really looking forward to a chat. It's been a long time.
Angela: Look, I don't want to speak to you about cricket at all, because I know nothing about it. And I reckon we have a lot more things to be talking about AFL, maybe I could maybe have a little bit of a conversation about that. But going on at the moment, so we're probably better off picking a different topic anyway. How are you coping with that before we do get into the good stuff? How are you coping without being able to watch any of your sports?
Adam: Yeah, probably not particularly well. I think what sport is done for and it's not just sort of watching it on the television, I think I've got a family who's involved in sport. And I think even on my son's weekend, sport always provides a bit of punctuation, as teachers are into punctuation. So it always provides a bit of a full stop on the weekend. And I think it's what I'm struggling with in our sport, I feel like all the days blend into each other. And my other joke to someone recently, it feels like I'm living in a casino, but I have no idea what day or what time it is. And so I think having a sport that's going to help me a lot with that.
Angela: Yes, I know, that's one thing my children are missing very much is that social connectedness of being at sport, seeing their mates being physically active, and I have to admit that I'm missing it a little bit, too, you know, that social connection of catching up with parents. And, you know, I think we're finding kids also working from home, doing their schooling at home, social connectedness is so important, isn't just for kids, but also for us.
Adam: It's crucial. And I think there's something to be said for the way that social connections are even enhanced when you're just outside. Now, when you get out there and you're out in the community, meeting people and you've got the sun on your face, or even the wind on your face and the rain on your face a little bit of time, there's something to be said for. For that we got my son's football team together online last night. And we've been doing it the last few weeks. They had a legend of the AFL, saw him and he talked to them, which is so exciting. But it's not the same. It's just not the same as putting them out on the track and getting together and then being able to throw a hotdog and kick a ball to each other. Look, if anything, I have a son that's very tall, and very big, who once upon a time I used to tackle him, and now no longer so I need to get him back so we can get some of that, that testosterone out of his body and get some physical activity. Yeah, that's I think that's a familiar story right around the country.
Angela: And I think we're going to be finding that out. Schools you know how they work, you know that the pressures that the teachers and principals are facing right now. Are we sort of anticipating that the transition back to school is going to be hard for teachers as well as the students? Or are we going to sort of say a bit of a, they are kids they will be okay, but the teachers will find it hard, or we are all in this together?
Adam: Yeah, the answer is the truth? And the answer to that, in any period of uncertainty, it has to lie somewhere in the middle, you know, we're going to have kids that are going to be okay. And we're going to have kids that are going to find it hard. We're going to have staff members and teachers who do it well. And we're going to have some people who find it tricky. But I think what I've been noticing the last couple of weeks, speaking to school leaders who are now starting to think about how they lead a return back to schools is people who are asking themselves the question of what should come back and what shouldn't come back. And perhaps realizing that the role of the teacher has become broad, that we're too many things to too many people, and we need to get serious about what it is that we really stand for. So I'm going to be fascinated to watch as schools come back, let's say how much they get back to business as usual, but more how much of business as usual, they change in particular how much they discard how much they get rid of so that I can focus on what matters the most.
Angela: And of course, you and I are both really excited about that because we're all about simplifying things, simplifying life. What do you think some of those things that teachers and school communities are going to leave behind?
Adam: I think that anything that doesn't sit closely to the two key purposes that teachers have, which is really about trying to help build young people who are great learners, and then help work in partnership with their parents to turn them into decent citizens. I Anything that doesn't see under that is going to be called into question. So the best example we've got of an interaction like this anywhere in the world is, is, particularly in a similar part of the world is Christchurch from the earthquake earthquakes in 2011. And so effectively what they had was a seven to 10 week interruption for almost every kid in that city in education. And what they found was that they had no remote learning stuff happening at home, it just happened in a hurry, we're just going to try and rebuild schools, and then we get back. And what they found was a real year 11 and 12. Results went up that year. And so the researchers looked into it. So they reckon there's two reasons number one, is that we gave our kids a chance to recover from what would otherwise be a pretty relentless high stakes, high pressure education environment, got to do well on your exams, got to do well, in your exams, keep studying, don't stop. And the second thing was that it forced the teachers to instead treat the curriculum as though something that they've just got to get through. It made the teacher stop and say, well, what's important? What matters the most. And so I think that we're going to have a real period of discovery when we come back about teachers and school leaders asking what matters the most, and focusing on that, rather than trying to make everything of equal value and sort of feeling like they're, you know, spinning plates, in terms of trying to get everything covered. I think they're going to let some flight strong.
Angela: Oh, wait, that is fantastic. I know, having worked in many schools for many years, myself is teachers, I see work so hard, I can remember when I was younger, and let's say I may have been a little bit ignorant about the pressures teachers face, I always laughed at my friends who are teachers about the amount of holidays that they get? And you know, oh, yeah, of course, you know, you work so hard. And it wasn't until I had children myself in the school system. And I was working in the school system. I realized, hang on a minute, teachers work really hard, they work very long hours and hang on a minute, I actually think they might deserve these holidays. Do you think that this scenario we've been in this year, has shone a spotlight on how important teachers really are to us? And, you know, maybe we undervalue their contribution?
Adam: Yeah, I hope it does, I hope to a point that all of us, particularly those who've dealt with some sort of remote learning at home, have a better chance not so much to sort of know what it's like to be a teacher, because this is unusual for parents and for teachers. But to maybe just get a peek behind the curtain, and just get an idea of what's involved in one not only planning a comprehensive, educated offer, but also executing it. And for most of us, we've got only a small number of kids at home. But when you've got 2527 of them in your care, and you're trying to cater for all their individual needs, there is undoubtedly a higher level of skill, a higher level of professionalism. And there's certainly an enormous amount of effort involved in getting that to work. And so I hope that there's that we can, if there's a silver lining in all this, that one of them might be that we enhance that, that community perception and respect that we have for educators?
Angela: Well, I think we really need to as a community recognize them, I guess, the impact that teachers have on our children in a positive way, and also the kind of work they put in place. And Adam, it's been a while since I've been at school. And there have been some questions that have come back in online learning that when children are saying, Mom, how do I work this out? And I'm looking at them with a blank face? And I'm thinking where are these teachers and often always say, the same Google email, the teacher asked the teacher or let's try to work through it together, it has been really hard and learning has changed, hasn't it learning has evolved so much from when we were little. To now.
Adam: It's so much broader than it used to be used to be a pretty simple like you said, there was only one or two sources of information that was either ask your teacher or it was, you know, pop open, a volume of the funk and wagnalls encyclopedia that the parent family paid off of one month at a time for over a three year period. But now those answers are almost anywhere. So teachers know that because they can't just be fonts of knowledge, because anything can be found in the Google search. What we're doing as educators now is training our kids to be good learners, because they're going to have to learn on the job, they're gonna have to know how to solve problems, they're going to know how to solve problems in the company of other people. So we gotta teach them to be able to do that effectively and know what skills are being able to build and sustain good teams. So it is so much bigger, and it's so much different than back in our day at school. And so um, yeah, they've got it. I've got such a credit Good job. And I hope that we're at a stage now where we're starting to recognize that.
Angela: And so with critical jobs comes a lot of pressure, it comes a lot of stress. And you've been writing a lot of blogs lately, which you always blog in your writings. Always of service. They're always written with real care for your audience. And I've noticed lately, you're writing a lot more about teacher wellbeing and the importance of teachers looking after themselves. What can teachers do during this critical time right now, of transitioning into a new space? What can teachers and principals, assistant principals be doing to support themselves right now?
Adam: We've been talking about a couple of key really, really important key concepts around teacher and school leader wellbeing. And it's about what we've been talking about celebration and forgiveness a lot. The one is, we have to celebrate the fact that teachers over the period of about roughly six weeks completely redesigned our entire educated offer for every single kid in this country. And that's amazing. And that must be celebrated. We have to say that is extraordinary. I talked to a principal at a school in a place called Kambalda, which is about an hour out of Kalgoorlie and what the middle of nowhere, if you ignore it's not the middle of nowhere, you can see it from there. And they have 60% of their kids still even now at school, so 40% of their kids learning at home, some of them have technology access, some of them don't. So they've got this combination of in person online and backpack type learning, and teachers are balancing it. They're doing it. And they're doing an incredible job and looking after their kids and families while I do and I'm just yeah, it's amazing. And I said, and I think the other thing that is that forgiveness base is that when things go wrong, we can't use that as an opportunity to judge ourselves to feel blame, or to feel shame, it's just a chance to say that it's wrong. It's, we learned something from it, we need to forgive ourselves that that things aren't perfect. This isn't by design, we didn't want this. But we've done amazing things anyway, and anything that's wrong, really matter. It's gonna be fine.
Angela: How beautiful and simple. So celebrate and forgive. I think that's beautiful. Now, Adam, after a long period of time, kids have been off school, and I anticipate there's going to be a lot of teething problems, let's say when children are starting to transition back to school, what can parents be doing right now to help build the foundations, I guess to help them be successful with their transition? And what are some of the red flags that they might need to look out for to see if their child is actually struggling?
Adam: So I think that there's two really important things that parents can do to help their child with the notion of going back to school with I've had an extended period with I've been cooped up at home, I think there's two things that really stand out for me number one is speak positively about that experience that's coming about how good it's going to be to go back into say, you take your again, how awesome it's going to be to be able to catch up with your friends and to be able to work on things together, how and even though the cheeky little things about how good they're going to be that you know, when you finally get a bit of work in front of you to be able to elbow the kid next to you and go, what's the answer to number four. And that's going to be so much better, isn't it? So I think our parents adopting a little bit of healthy Pollyanna, that this is going to be awesome, no matter what is, is a really useful thing for parents to do. And I think the other thing that they can do is to share the plan and not just to allow their kids to wander or what's going on here. But to let them know that in a week, we'll be doing this in a way. For instance, if it's your state and territory that says we're going back one day, a week or three days a week or full time, let them know that in advance and get the plans ready. So make sure their books are ready, make sure we start to get back into little routines around even stuff like bedtime and getting up time. And one of the things that I spoke to a parent last week who's doing is that she's starting to prepare a kid's couple lunchbox. Yeah, like their kids are at school so that they're not just going to the fridge whenever they feel like it needs leftovers. We're starting to create some normality by putting the plan in place for a lot of kids. Anxiety is born of the absence of a plan, I think so if you can provide that plan, you'll be helping your kids an enormous amount.
Angela: What great advice and you can hear, as soon as you have a plan, you have a roadmap doesn't just automatically help you feel calm. And one of those obvious things that I speak about a lot is the importance of being calm under pressure and having that plan in the routine. I know, you know for so many children just being able to get up at a particular time going to bed at a particular time. It gives people a sense of normality and I think for them While there, normality was just thrown out the window, it was as you say, it was beyond our control. And so that is one real tangible way that the parents can regain a little bit of control, build a little bit of framework, build a little bit of routine in, and now is now the best time to be doing it, or is it too early or too late?
Adam: No, it's not too early or too late now is a really great time to do it. Because it's not a it's not a kid thing. And it's a human thing applied to kids. So, you know, I know that myself, I sleep poorly if I'm not well prepared for the next day. So if I've got to get up early and get out to a school and do a day of training with the teachers, but I haven't ironed a shirt, and I haven't got my PowerPoint slides in the in the order that I want them to be in, I can guarantee I'm going to sleep poorly because I've let anxiety come in. And so anytime that you can arrange to get your kids back into routine, even if it is a household and remote learning routine right now, you will minimize the need for them to make a big jump to make a big transition when they do go back to full time education in the school.
Angela: So that transition back really, we've talked about the teachers and the importance of teachers being prepared and looking after themselves and talked about the parents and the children. How important is it that we all work together in all of this? You know, we've heard the hashtag we're in this together, that I actually believe that there is something a lot deeper about being in this together from a school culture point of view. How important is that we are all in this together in seeing the school cultures thrive from this and to beyond on this.
Adam: I think it's the most important thing. So I don't think that in 10 years time, our kids are going to look back and go, you know what was great about that whole Coronavirus stuff. It was just how many worksheets I was still able to do at home. Yeah, I don't think that I'll. I don't think the impact on our kids in 10 years time is that we're going to have some sort of, you know, Coronavirus cohort, or we're getting around with a tattoo on their head that says educated because they missed a little interruption here. Oh, thank you, thank you for making me feel better than not going to happen. I think that our kids are going to remember how the grown ups work together on the crisis? You know, I think that they're going to look back and say, Did my parents and my teachers get into an argument? Did they badmouth each other? Did they take the Mickey out of each other? Or did they work together? Did they? I think they'll look at whether principals and teachers were on the same page and whether kids were still connected. I think they'll remember some of these zoom meetings that weren't about getting messages delivered. But we're about to meet each other's dogs. I think that that's what they'll remember. So I think that we need to focus hard on that working together face. And I think that we need to remember that a big part of that is about how we sustain really strong, positive leverageable connections with each other.
Angela: I was just listening to you, then. I was thinking I really do. I should say I was deeply listening to you that I always listen to you, Adam, is that the importance of forward thinking? Because right now, it feels like a lot of our lives are being quite reactive. And when we when we if we can shift, what I'm hearing you say is if we can shift to going, what will things be like beyond this, it'll really help our decision making now so that we're not being in a reactive space, we're actually going, let's learn from this, let's move forward so that in in a period of time, whether that be the next 12 months, five years, 10 years, have we actually learned from this, I think that is so important for people to take on. Definitely went into my recesses of my thinking, so thank you for sharing that. For those schools that are looking at, you know, how can we learn from this? How can we move forward? And, you know, maybe prior to this, this school culture wasn't fantastic, or they knew that they needed to be changed? How can some of those schools now go? How do we create a positive culture from this so that we can come back bigger, better and stronger?
Adam: I think the first thing to do is to acknowledge what culture is, you know, I, in my work, I'm honest, I'm constantly sort of reading teachers and school leaders about the fact that I can ask a roomful of them to put their hand up if they think culture is the sculpture of this school is important. And they all put their hands up. And I tell them, then what I'm going to do in a moment is randomly select one of you, then they come out the front and tell everyone what, what school culture is. And they put their hands down. We keep saying it's important, but we haven't worked out what it is. And if they can get beneath that and say, well, a working definition could be that, you know, culture is the behaviors that we kind of prepared to then in schools that we reward and that we encourage but it's also the behaviors that we're putting up with because kind of history is determined that we that we that we do that here if I can get down to that and get down to what are the behaviors that we want to encourage in our school? And what are the behaviors that we don't wish to tolerate? And what's our methodology? So I'm often saying that the schools with the best cultures are not necessarily the ones that have the best advantages to begin with. So they've got the kids that have got high socio economic backgrounds and no ethnic issues that give them any sort of giving them any sort of problems.
They're the school, the schools that have the best cultures are the ones that have chosen a methodology for getting more encouraged behaviors, then kind of put up with behaviors. If I can choose day a, why are they going to do that the way that we do that a real school with a lot of our schools is through a methodology called restorative practices. We're releasing a book about that later this year, about a called teacher talk. So that's going to be about how teachers can actually close the gap between what they believe about working with young people, and the way that they genuinely practice in the classroom. Because I contend that what causes teachers stress to the highest level is too big a gap between those two concepts. And if they can get clear about having a methodology for how they can, how they can focus on getting those behaviors right in schools, then they will get the culture they want by osmosis. But they've got to actually put some intention into that rather than focusing on how we're going to work, not just what we're going to teach.
Angela: And I'd imagine getting support to help with the clarity of this is really important, because right now, schools are feeling very overwhelmed with just, you know, as I said, before being reactive, new information coming in every day. But I'm, I'm hearing that it's really important, if we're going to move beyond this for people to be very deliberate in their thinking, and to just calm it down a little bit and start to think things through and really focus on those things that are important in a score, not everything that could be possible that we could be doing.
Adam: Yeah, that's right, we've got to sort of stop that notion of looking over the fence of what the schools are doing next door and saying, Oh, they seem happy. Let's do that. Because of the ability of a program to work in a school and my I'm often saying that the biggest threat to schools in Australia, I think he's over program and causation. It's doing too many things and doing none of them well. The biggest threat to any program is the culture that you planted in.
And so your culture is either going to support a certain program, or it's not, which almost has nothing to do with what the program is. It's all about your culture. And that resonates with a lot of teachers and a lot of school leaders that I speak to, but even before this interruption that were so busy that they never really afforded themselves the chance to focus on that culture. It's always just chasing the next program. So I think that what we need to do is to learn from this. We've spoken to a lot of people and run a lot of exercises lately with schools where we've said, No, what do you reckon? On the other side of this, if you were to say, No, you know what, that whole Coronavirus thing that was a big wake up call, and the wake up call was that this was the most important thing. What do you reckon you'd be pointing out? You know, what will be the most important thing, and I think that so many schools now realize that it is their culture, it is their people. And that means working in a different way. And finding some support and some help to get that intention can be a really valuable thing to do.
Angela: And what have you learned from all of this? What have you learned about working with schools seeing how people react in times of crisis? What are you going to take from you, as you say this interruption?
Adam: Yeah, I think if there's learning number one, it is that even I had taken for granted how amazing educators are. Yeah, I think that I can sometimes even fall for the trap of being a problem solver, which means that you're inside the problem solver sounds so positive. But really, what that means is you're a deficit seeker is constantly seeking a problem to solve a deficiency. And that means you don't see sometimes, you know, just the truly incredible work that people do. And it shouldn't take a crisis like this for someone like me to become so proud as I am of our educators in Australia at the moment, and I am. So I think what I've learned is that there's not a lot that's broken about our educators about our teachers, there's a bit that's broken about what we expect them to do. And if we allow them to get back to what they are really good at and what they're really there for, I think we'll actually see better results. So I think the cultural and prayer imperatives have become even bigger for me as a result of this because we've got to stop losing good people out of the education system, by making sure that they're able to focus on the work that really lights them up.
Angela: Well, listeners can find out more about the work that you do and the very important work that you do in Real Schools, including the online programs such as the Real Schools Academy, and people can find out about that at www.realschools.com.au and, of course, people can connect directly with you, [email protected]. And that's adamvoigt.com.au and also on all your socials, which I have noticed have reduced in this sporting imagery lately, Adam with I've seen a little bit less of the Tigers on there. But I would imagine when we reopen when I go and follow, or kick from or kick a ball, I really need that. Out of it's just really such a delight speaking with you and thank you so much. I want to take the opportunity to thank you for the work that you do in supporting our very important teachers and principals and I, I hope that you will see a lot of light in teachers as they come back and they have got new ideas, they have got a renewed love and energy for what they do. But importantly, the people who are supporting them in the community also now start to realize just how important and valuable these people are. So thank you so much for the work that you do.
Angela: I hope you enjoyed this episode. To find more ways to slow down and simplify your life. Follow the Your Life podcast on Spotify and iTunes. And let's connect on LinkedIn and Instagram. Just look for Angela Lockwood. Don't forget it's your life. You choose how to live it.
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