After being off work with sick kids for a few days I returned to the classroom yesterday.
Success Story 1. After morning Karakia (prayers) and morning notices we headed back to class straight back to class routines. As we are a collaborative learning space we have 2 teachers (3 from 9 some mornings each week) one teacher takes the morning roll and discusses what will happen throughout the day (also time to share news), The other teacher (me) runs a very short sharp accelerated writing group session (10 mins). Today after not having this morning writing routine the group of students who I work with were Very eager, Very excited and Very motivated to write! in their own words "We love writing" and "We missed this writing". And ALL the students achieved their writing goals during this writing time and were ready to share their examples with the rest of the class to help their peers succeed in their writing today. 4 of these students went on to exceed the writing goals and pushed themselves to write more than they were expected.
What makes this even more of a success story is that at the beginning of this term (only 6 weeks ago) these were our Year 1 writers who we had identified as targets because we didn't think they would be able to write at the level we would want them to be at, by the end of the year. 1 child has been diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, and began school a year later than his peers (still classified as a year 1), 1 child normally spends more time distracting those around him and himself. All 7 children had previously struggled to either formulate or retain a simple sentence they wanted to write, and only 1 of the 7 children knew all of her alphabet letters and sounds prior to starting with this group. This meant that sounding out words previously had been VERY hit and miss.
Success Story 2. This relates to one of our Autism children. We have had a teacher who has been doing her masters on Austium, observing and doing a case study on this child as part of her masters. Today her message was quite clear... "I can't help you or suggest anything more than what you are already doing as a team for this child. He is highly supported and has improved immensely from when he started at Ohaeawai Primary".
This type of feedback affirms and validates all the extra effort and time we have spent in integrating this child into our classroom, and provides reassurance that while we will still have battles ahead, as long as we all keep our mind on the prize we will get there together. It also helps us as educators to actually sit back and actually go ... Yes, big changes have happened.
Success Story 3. Recently I posted a blog post to our Kaikohekohe Google+ Community and also shared it on twitter, although I received some feedback from this sharing, following the toolkit a teacher brought up this recent sharing and discussed reading through our blog. She had been able to find writing exemplars and resources that we had made in class and that we had posted onto our class blog so our students could share and help each other. This Teacher then went on to ask if I thought it would be OK if she used this to help her class learn about this topic. My response of course was ...
"OF COURSE - THAT'S WHAT HAVING A BLOG IS ALL ABOUT!"
The first and third success stories relate directly to my MIT inquiry and the tool I am creating help myself and other teachers within the Kaikohekohe Cluster to accelerating our children's writing.
Watch this blog for updates over the next mouth or so for on my tools prototype as I will post it here and ask my readers for feedback/ideas/feed forward on how to make it more useful. EXCITING!!!
Last night was our our Kaikohekohe Clusters Term 3 Tool-kits. This continues to be a great opportunity to connect with other professionals from within our cluster and across a wide range of year levels and experiences. Last nights tool-kits included;
Although there weren't a huge amount of tool-kits the tool-kits on offer reflected our clusters current needs and also offered opportunities for professional growth for everyone. Kaikohekohe Cluster ROCKS!
On Friday afternoon I got the call from the amazing Raewyn, asking me to run a tool-kit on GarageBand. So in between having 3 sick kids, doing GST returns, and trying to catch up on MIT bits I also created a presentation to use for this Garage band workshop.
Below is a link to an 'answergarden' brainstorm that anyone who is reading this blog can add their ideas to (for the next week). It asks the question "How could we use GarageBand in our classroom?"
At the end we had a bit of fun together recording us having a conversation about who we were, what we were doing and why we were in the GarageBand workshop. Will upload this over the next few days.
Thanks to all the attendee's
Please make sure you share them to me - I would love to hear your personal & classroom creations!
Here is another strategy I am trialing for the remainder of this term. This came about as a result of a combination of things. Firstly we recently had maths week, and as something different we posted each days questions on the blog so students could access them at home (we had a teacher strike day on that week) and email them directly to me. This worked fantastic and really excited the children in Team Maunga. On the Friday I had also planned to be our doing more research and work on my MIT inquiry. Part of this day I spent talking to children in the class. One of the questions I was particularly interest in finding out about was "What could I (and the other teachers in Team Maunga) do to help YOU WANT to write?" Interesting some of the children started by just telling us that the things we normally do in class. But when pushed to think about things we don't already do there were a few stand out ideas that became discussion points for groups of children being questioned.
Some of their ideas included: Having more time to write, having their own blog that they could write about anything on, and also writing challenges (similar to our maths challenges). So ... Last week be began our first writing challenge (based on a topic/idea that they already had covered in class). This was hugely successful with children enjoying being able to work on this both in school and at home. Team Maunga all I can say ... IS YOU ROCK MY WORLD.
Here is both last weeks challenge and this weeks one. Feel free to visit our class blog and comment on it with your own response!
Today was our third KPMG day in Auckland. No agenda was shared with us so we were all a little excited (and nervous) as to what was in store for us.
When we arrived we were greeted with the fresh smell of coffee (and tea) and we set ourselves up for the challenges we knew were ahead of us.
Today’s session had been devoted to listening to each MIT participant shared the progress you have made within their inquiry and also with the tool that each were making. Following this we were asked if we would like to cross blog our feedback - Of course we said YES what a great idea.
So we then used a random name selector to determine whose tool/inquiry we would comment on. I was very lucky to draw Danni and interestingly she got me as well.
Danni’s inquiry started off focusing on literacy learning in years 7 & 8 and how that school and cluster data was showing that the rate of learning in many senses was stalling or dropping. Her inquiring focused totally on what she could do to prevent this in her classroom.
Today Danni started out by sharing her site - a resource bank of texts she has created and used in her classroom. This was broken into different pages relating to Text Analysis exemplars, Writing Techniques and Connecting Reading and Writing.
This provided us with rich examples and questions based around different genre/examples. This looked like a fantastic tool at a glance. When we delved deeper it appeared to be even more of a rich tool.
One of the challenges that Danni had been having is finding/accessing examples of text that will support this resource, some suggestions were made as to who could help including
During the morning we had discussed her inquiry informally and part of this discussion highlighted how many of her shifts in student achievement was related to her high expectations of her children both in what they will achieve and also in the contexts in which she teaches these through. We talked with Danni about adding a page on high expectation.
As discussion wound up we also discussed possibility adding in how you might use these resources Multimodally (showing links to resources and sites that she and others used.. An interesting point was also raised about ESOL strategies being something to consider within her resource.
Reflections on my own inquiry were huge. I will cross share Danni’s reflection here and then add to it my own thoughts.
Thoughts going away from KPMG today…
Learning together is empowering - and connecting with those outside of our normal realm of teaching extends our thinking. As Zac put it “team work is dream work”.
Recently we were sent an email from Anne on of our MIT facilitators. This provided us with a link to John Hatties Mind frames. John Hattie if famous for his work around teachers needing to know the effect they are having on student learning. So here is my take on the video (linked below).
8 Mind-frames
1: My fundamental task is to evaluate the effect of my teaching on mys students learning and achievement.
Totally agree! Teaching is our job, and to be a great teacher we need to be able to know that our students are learning. However not only do we need to know that our students are learning, we need to know why they are learning (or not learning). This allows us to structure further learning (and teaching) in ways that will promote students and their specific needs. Having said that formal assessments aren't everything, and capturing student voice is also essential in creating a larger and more important learning picture for the students in our classes.
This year with my MIT project I have seen shifts in achievement, but more than that I have seen huge shifts in confidence, ability to discuss learning and the general use of blogging within our classroom. It has become more of a hive for where children and parents go to look things up. Also this has shifted parents perceptions and given them a voice in their students learning. In a way that they weren't using before. This links to data collected at parent teacher meetings which was all completely positive.
2: The success and failure of my students learning is about what I do or I don't do. I AM THE CHANGE AGENT!
We totally are the change agent for our students. We are the ones that encourage them in their struggles, we are the ones that look for that next challenge we can present them with, we are the ones that pick them up when they experience failure and tell them that its OK, and a big part of learning. We are the ones that either have those conversations that lead to light-bulb moments or we are the ones that provide the collaborative learning experiences that allow students to have these light-bulb moments with each other.
However I firmly believe that if we as educators have Mind frame 1: Evaluating the effect of our teaching on students learning and achievement, OUR STUDENTS ALSO HAVE TO BECOME OUR CHANGE MAKERS! This has definitely been the case with me throughout this MIT journey this year. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to actually stop and listen to what our students are saying when it forces us to consider change. Not because we don't listen but sometimes we listen with out putting on our students glasses and seeing it through their eyes rather than our own.
If we are constantly looking for those things that are going to help individual students, groups of students and our class as a whole, this has to become a natural progression of learning together. Having this Learning together partnership with our students this is also empowering for both us and our students. 3: I want to talk more about learning and teaching
This one is both easy and hard.
Its easy to talk about learning with our students, and teaching with other teachers.
The idea of talking about our teaching with our students and how it impacts on their heir learning is sometimes more complicated. This has to do with language barriers around the language that we use as educators with our students, and this sometimes sometimes will contradict what we think . Through to lead on from here is that this is something we need to do more, so that this language barrier is reduced and this will help us to truly know more about our effect. From my experiences both in the past and i guess heightened this year as I have had more of a focus on looking into the effect I am having this actually isn't as scary or as hard as we might initially think. But it does require us as educators to be open to change (Mind frame 2 - We are the change agents).
The other part that for many this is easy but for me personally is the hardest, is the talking about this learning and teaching in wider contexts. Talking with other professionals both within education and other professions. This is HUGELY important as we get into our own little bubble and if we don't expose ourselves to different perspectives we lock ourselves into a restrictive mindset and our ideas, methods, strategies become locked into this restrictive mode too. This is one that I am working hard on as a result of this MIT journey as I know that its easy to just work, talk, share with those we are close to.
4: I seek out feedback. Assessment is about my impact on student learning.
Like Hattie stresses "Know they impact" The only way we will know our impact is to seek out feedback. This needs to be from a wide range of stakeholders. So asking feedback from other teachers on how we are going is not enough. We need to seek feedback from our students and also our parents. The seeking parents feedback is the most challenging as often we are in a rush to get to meetings or they are in a rush to pick up other children or take children to after school activities. Last term as part of this inquiry I ran a survey at our Student Led Conferences (SLC's). This provided amazing feedback and is definitely something I want to do again. This term being changed from Discipline duty each day to playground duty has been rewarding in being able to catch up with parents after school as they do pickup. However this is not actually enough.
5: Teach through dialogue, not monologue.
For learning to happen there has to be active participation from the learner in what they are learning. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to create dialogue or conversations that facilitate this active participation in their learning. However having said this the context or purpose of the conversation has to be authentic. The children have to have the ownership of how this conversation relates to them. In addition to there needing to be an authentic context for discussion, there also needs to be a culture that encourages conversations and different view points and a culture that values every child's input and also push for explanation for students view points. Within my inquiry trying to encourage and create this culture is what empowers everyone in Team Maunga and this inquiry itself.
6: I enjoy challenge and never retreat into "doing my best".
I think this is why most teachers teach, and also why I have signed on for this MIT. As for "doing my best". I am actually a firm believer that "we can only do our best". The difference in this second statement by many accounts is that the later statement is about what we can do as a collective.
Collectively we can do more than we can on our own, collectively we challenge each other, collectively we encourage and spur each other own through challenges, collectively we inspire change through excellence. Doing our best is about accepting and engaging in educational challenge.
7: It is my role to develop positive relationships in the classroom and staff rooms.
This links to all of the above mind frames. Having positive relationships is key. This relates to students, and staff but also to parents and the wider school community. As a Maori Proverb goes...
He aha te mea nui o te ao. He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata
What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.
Truly connecting with others inspires mutual respect that can only happen if each values the other. Its not about being able to always agree, and always share the same ideals, its about negotiating our way through these differences to create a fuller, richer, more real and rewarding solution to the experiences/challenges and successes we experience as educators (and as individuals).
8: I inform everyone about the language of learning. I am passionate and promote growth.
Earlier this year I attended a workshop that was titled "growth mindset". This is workshop re-highlighted how having positive language, and using terms like "I can't do ____, YET" are what inspire. From my perspective being able to navigate the challenges, failures, struggles, improvements, successes and light bulb moments is what creates passion in others and promotes further growth.
However in addition to this growth mindset language, we as educators need to have a sound knowledge of key learning areas and an open mind of how we can infuse these with things that are currently inspiring our students.
Anyway ... These are my ramblings with regards to the following John Hattie video. I hope you enjoyed.
John Hatties golden rule for educators: KNOW THEY IMPACT
This term I have been given a unit to take on Maths as a curriculum leader while our DP is on Sabbatical. When discussing as a school if doing mixed ability groupings would work as a maths week approach (similar to what we do for Matariki days and a few other days we have throughout the year) and it was agreed that we would do this. The trick with doing this however was how to cater for the mixed ability groups that we would have in our rooms. BUT ... I HAD A PLAN!!!
So rather that just do the normal thing for maths I had an idea that this might be a great opportunity to trial some of the ideas that I have heard other schools using. So like with everything in teaching you need to do a little research and a little investigation as to what approaches and ideas to utilise. So onto the web I went.
This research highlighted the sorts of problems that needed to be asked and how they needed to have scope to support and extend students within the problem. It also highlighted the need to use authentic context to engage and provide a challenge.
As I continued to look into this I formulated a planning template and added this to my ideas presentation to take to the staff. From here we came up with contexts to investigate but as staff meeting was full that week I took these ideas home and worked on them until I had the makings of some good questions. At staff meeting the next week we reviewed them and added a few extra details that I didn't have that would make the context/problem all the more authentic (e.g. how much Team Moana still needed to raise for their ski trip).
The next step was to make these problems user friendly - so to google sites I went (was my first real play on the new google sites - as I'm an Old Sites kinda gal). Below are links to the sites I ended up creating.
