Hello and welcome back from the holidays.
Before the holidays I had the opportunity to present my vision and my model SPIRE. This presentation gave its attendees the inner workings of the SPIRE model and also introduced them to some of the activities and how you can introduce this way of thinking to your students and prepare them for successful project-based learning.
Teachers were also shown that you can use this model to motivate and inspire your students to be more autonomous and activate their creative minds. I have written this blog a few weeks after the launch to give you the opportunity to take a look at our new website (https://www.spiremodel.coach) and now that you are coming back to the classroom be able to take some of the things and implement them into some of your lessons. In our previous blog we discussed what SPIRE stands for and what SPIRE is about, and I want to run through a summary of what teachers and educators were introduced to during this launch presentation.
For starters, The SPIRE Model is a methodological approach to leading teams through coaching techniques while working on project-based and task-based activities (more info). As we discussed, SPIRE is an acronym which stands for Setup, Perform, Inspire, Review, Empower.
The model is based on the “40 – 30 – 30 equation”; that is the process, time, energy and commitment needed for the creation of an effective team, the achievement of its goals, and the development of its members.
40% – Set up: Bring the team to life:
- Focus on the pillars of an effective team and the first two phases of project management: Initiation and Planning.
- Students will develop: collaboration, negotiation and leadership, empathy and social responsibility.
- The teacher-coach will develop coaching techniques such as accountability, visioning, naming it and powerful questioning.
30% – Perform and Inspire: Project work / Team work:
- The focus here is on working on project.
- Students will develop critical thinking, problem solving, creative thinking, collaboration, negotiation and social responsibility.
- The teacher-coach will develop coaching techniques such as jumping in, checking in, challenging, bottom-lining, acknowledging, storytelling and use of metaphors.
- The teacher-coach’s role is to inspire the students and should step back and let the students perform the tasks.
30% – Review and Empower: Assessment and Performance Improvement
- This phase is primarily focused on self-assessment and team assessment.
- You will use assessment questionnaires that will be used after each project task in the execution phase.
- Students will develop self-reflection and awareness and better be able to improve upon and also accept feedback.
- The teacher-coach will develop coaching techniques such as giving feedback, para-parrot phrasing and acknowledgement.
- After the assessment, the teacher-coach will guide their students and teams to improve their performance through follow up actions and action plans.
During this launch teachers were introduced and shown STEM, a learning methodology based on an inter and multidisciplinary approach, aimed at combining theory and practice, in order to encourage students to develop technical and creative skills. This is a valuable tool you can use in your execution of Spire model.
This STEM discipline is explained below. To this end, teachers may refer to the following methodologies:
LEARNING BY DOING:
Collaborative approach to Solving concrete problems.
DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING IN THE DIGITAL SOCIETY:
Facilitate the exploration, experimentation and application of knowledge.
ACTIVATION OF THE CREATIVE SYNTHESIZING MIND:
Observation of phenomena, hypotheses formulation and experimental verification.
INDUCTIVE REASONING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING METHOD:
Observation of the facts by conducting and forming hypotheses and theories.
PROBLEM BASED LEARNING AND DESIGN THINKING
Active involvement and the generation of ideas for the search for innovative solutions to real problems.
ORGANIZATION OF WORKING GROUPS:
Enhance communication skills, identify scenarios to hypothesize solutions
ADOPTION OF METHODOLOGIES INNOVATIVE TEACHING:
Adoption of an active teaching allows you to grasp changes and develop curiosity and creativity.
I created SPIRE model to act as a guide and to make it easy for you to introduce it into your classroom and align it with the already well know 21st century Life competencies and even methods like STEM.
From setting up your goals and vision, to empowering your students to making crucial decisions throughout the process. This Model was designed to guide you and your students through the project and perform activities that will enhance your coaching skills and enrich the students’ abilities to work together as a team and to think outside the normal constructs of the normal language classroom.
If you would like to learn more about how the SPIRE Model can change the way you teach task or project based tasks or if you would like to learn more about coaching.
Join the community now. Please check out our website at https://www.spiremodel.coach and sign up for our newsletter and become a SPIRE model Ambassador and be the first to be informed. By signing up you can receive exclusive access to the website, availability to access activities, techiques and materials you can use and links to free webinars hosted by me showing you how use these activities in an easy and effective way.
So why wait, join our community and be well on your way to be an effective teacher-coach.