The Blue Zone

 A couple of years ago my husband and I watched a Netflix documentary by Dan Buettner called “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones”.

As you may have noticed, I am fascinated with research of any kind, and I am also pretty keen to live to 100, so this documentary was right in my wheelhouse!

You may have heard of the Blue Zone before (and no this isn't related to the Zones of Regulation!)

Basically, these are five regions of the world where people are said to live unusually long, healthy lives, with many reaching 100. The five locations are:

Okinawa, Japan
Sardinia, Italy
Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
Ikaria, Greece
Loma Linda, California

The 'Blue Zone' name comes from researchers Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain, who circled these areas on a map in blue ink!

Dan Buettner built on this research, identifying nine habits shared across all five zones. These became known as the ‘Power 9’. Basically the key ingredients for a long life.

In case you are interested, and just scroll past this if you would rather find out by watching the documentary, the 'Power 9' are:

1. Natural daily movement
2. A sense of purpose
3. Low stress
4. Eating until 80% full
5. A mostly plant-based diet
6. Moderate wine intake
7. Belonging to a faith community
8. Putting family first
9. Strong social circles

Now you are probably wondering how this links to maths education...

Well, as part of my job I have the pleasure of talking to, visiting and working alongside many schools across Australia. I learn so much from these observations and discussions.

Through these interactions, the researcher in me is constantly updating a mental “database”, looking for patterns and commonalities across schools, much like Dan Buettner did in the Blue Zones documentary.

School contexts vary enormously, yet I believe some practices are effective no matter the context. I see it a little like a Bingo board. Schools who have more of my Maths Education “Power 9” in place are on their way to the “blue zone”. 

I use my "Power 9" to guide my discussions with schools. I always look at which Powers are already 'in place' and build our action plan from there.

Just to clarify, when I say 'in place', I don't mean they are perfect, because I have yet to come across a school that is perfect. 

In fact, I would go so far to say that there is no perfect school (perhaps Hogwarts?! But even they had regular serious security breaches, and a lack of staff retention, particularly in the Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum area)

I find if the ‘Power 9’ practices are on the radar of leaders at school, they are then pushing in the 'right' direction. 

It struck me that it might be of use to schools if I was to share my 'Power 9'.

So here they are:

1. The CRA Framework

2. Explicit Instruction
3. Focus on teaching maths vocabulary
4. Problem Solving
5. Fluency Practices
6. High quality Assessment Procedures
7. MTSS Structures
8. Numeracy Leadership
9. Collaborative Planning 

 The ‘9’ are based on my experiences, opinion and lots of research. Today I just wanted to start off this series of blogs by sharing the 9, in no particular order. 

Then in upcoming blogs I will unpack each  in much more detail and share some of the key research and observations I have around each!

In the meantime, have a look at the 9, see if they are on your radar at your school. If they are, fabulous! If not, hopefully they might spark some thoughts or ideas that will help you to narrow your focus when tackling maths improvement at your school. 

I never suggest to schools that we try to ‘fix’ all of these at once. Change is a slow, deliberate journey (often much slower than we would like!). Most importantly, change must be sustainable. We don’t want to put in all the effort to climb the change mountain, only to slide back to where we started. Sustaining change means making sure everyone is on board, building the knowledge and confidence of the whole staff (because we need all students in our school receiving the highest quality instruction, not just the ‘lucky’ students who happen to be in the class with the few teachers who take on the changes). We must work towards embedding new practices into the everyday routines and structures of the school, so that the improvement lasts even when people move on.

So, for today, just take a look at my Power 9 and briefly consider where your school sits with each one. Then keep them on your radar and I’ll aim to unpack them one by one in upcoming blogs!  

Ange🎲🎓