Come, listen, trial, share, and be challenged by the feedback you get - this will move teaching practice.
Don't be afraid to share. If we are trying something different in our classrooms we should be sharing it back into our communities. "The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you can become." Eric Thomas / Charles dickens.
In life, things nowadays are all online and can be accessed whenever, wherever... so why is education not following this same trend. Currently we have online food, movies, music but often learning is still locked into this notion that physically being with learners is the only way for us to teach. When we think about how technology can be harness this online element so that learning can also be whenever and wherever. This is very much along the lines of our Manaiakalani Pedagogy.
Subash also shared how he created a uTube channel that did exactly this, and how through this process not only did his teaching grow but also students were able to access it a key moments in time when it is of most use to them. He also shared how this also helped grow others around him as they also began recording videos so that they could also help the students in their classes.
"You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with" - Jim Rohn
Workshop one - Tech tools for teaching
Flip Grid- A quick video tool that shares videos in one place. Great for collecting pre or post-unit understandings.
Tinkercad- A 3D construction tool where students can use this to create using different shapes. It also looks at perspectives and puts into place the 3D element - Blockscad is another version that may be simpler for younger children.
Desmos - Cool graphing tool - can also be used for art creating.
Lots of other sites/tools were shared but most of these were aimed at secondary school students (so emailed these off to by sons so they can look over and see what they think.
Workshop Two - Mathematical Minds in Year One
This was fantastic - Really enjoyed sharing our Mathematical minds in year one presentation. It was a shame that numbers at the conference were so low but it did enable lots of discussion and questioning as we ran our workshop. As a result, we didn't get through all of our slides but due to the ongoing discussion and questioning, this was not a problem. Diane Ogle is also planning to bring people up to visit us in class to see this in action so that should be fun too. At the end, we also got a lovely thank you card and gift voucher. Totally unexpected but much appreciated as well as the presentation had taken us lots of time to prepare. The bonus however is that much of our teaching by inquiry for the year has been summarised within this presentation.
Workshop Three- Cuisenaire and Creativity
This was a great workshop and something that SJ and I had been looking forward to since we signed up. We have heard all about Ali and her Cuisenaire workshops and it was a definite highlight for the day.
The workshop not only confirmed and affirmed our approach to introducing Cuisenaire rods in our classrooms but also gave us LOTS of ideas on how and what we could include next. We are currently waiting for a few more Cuisenaire rods to arrive (as we were needing to restock our white, red, and pink (1, 2, and 4) blocks. We also got very excited about the possibility of using these rods to coincide with our topic of local and national landmarks and how we could also use Cuisenaire rods to represent these places as well as using them to read maps (at a very junior level of course) and to integrate with the use of our Beebots. Can't wait to get back to school to try some of this stuff out.
Cool phrase - "Park your thinking on the table".
SJ and I also got quite interested in the history of Cuisenaire rods and started doing a little digging - So much more we could learn.
So on Sunday morning I get a call from my lovely partner in crime (Teaching buddy) asking... "did you know you are listed as presenting on Tuesday?" UMMM NO! I even had to ask what was I actually meant to be presenting, as I had no idea.
This was a chance to share our mini-inquiries that we completed last year. I was partnered up with Debra Wallace from Kaikohe West and she did an amazing job of operating the technology, time keeping, and adding little bits as we went. Thanks Deb!
Initially Jane talked to us and led us into our PLG presentation today, she shared with us a snapshot of our collective data that we would then look over in greater detail. Teachers then split off into 2 groups that were to swap over mid way.
First we listened to Raewyn and Mattie present their mini inquiry on student agency.
It was great hearing others ideas on what student agency looks like and how it aids both learning and students perception of themselves. Great presentation too!
Vocabulary and Language building - Kariene and Deb
This presentation went well. It was great hearing about the different levels and ways to enhance language across the curriculum and also across the different age ranges and schools. It was fantastic to hear how we have all begun moving our practices to those that encourage and enhance this language. Was blown away by many of the secondary schools and how they also were continue to extend vocabulary even a their level.
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!
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
One of the highlights of this trip was being with an AMAZING bunch of teachers who are innovative, inspirational and energetic about teaching, education and life in general.
I have to say I loved spending time with you all and sharing this fantastic experience. Thanks once again KPMG, Pat Snedden, Jenny Oxley, Dorothy Burt, and Anne Sinclair for making this happen for us all. Lots of learning and for me, pushing myself outside my comfort zone.
I am not a person that shares very frequently and although I have been challenged to present before I have never had the additional nudge that you have all given me. Thanks to everyone for your support and also to Tania Coutts who has been nudging and supporting me in taking this step.
I FINALLY DID IT.
This event also enabled Dorothy and I to come up with a plan for when Team Maunga use a release day, to pop down to visit some classrooms at Point England, to be immersed in 1:1 device environments, to see what one can look like, and to connect on a professional level with teachers to talk about what works and what doesn't work within their digital learning environments.
Team Maunga are super excited about this as we are seeing more and more opportunities for devices to be used to extend and enhance learning, but as we are not 1:1, we don't know what we don't know.
The only way to change this is to immerse ourselves in experiences, literature, and inquiries, that will shift our current ideals of how to use devices to improve learning outcomes for our students. As a team we are already doing things that extend us in all of these areas but we feel that this visit might be a catalyst for further change and shifts in our teaching practice/ideals.
Further things to take away from this experience...
Share More: Both the positives and the struggles.
Although within the Kaikohekohe Cluster I share HEAPS, I need to push myself to present more at these kind of events.
Tell my story and encourage students in our learning space to tell their stories.
<<<Other things>>>
Sydney's train system is FANTASTIC
Uber app now installed on phone (Don't think Kerikeri is ready for this however), but though it might be useful when getting from Parramatta to Sydney Airport by 7:30 Wednesday morning, and also when attending next MIT meeting at KPMG
This was a really exciting and innovative session focused on story writing. This session fitted really well with my MIT inquiry and I can't wait to get back to class to try some of these things out.
LOTS of playing around with. I am extremely excited about adobe spark - a story telling tool. as it works on iPads as well - So perfect for in Team Maunga!
This was a great workshops to find out a few tips and trick for sheet. Can’t wait to use some of this
on some documents I already have in place especially assessment data document that we use for
our team. The pivot tables might come in handy to with taking on the role of Maths Lead teacher
within our school for this next term, as well as analysing data from surveys conducted with parents
relating to my MIT inquiry.
Sir links-a-lot a good app to use
TIPS AND TRICKS
Drag the top left box down 1 and it will lock that top line into place - so it will always be at the top - will be great on assessment data files.
Double click on the edge of the rows will make it the size of cell the right size.
Use control keys to jump up and down… quickly
Control A - select all. - if you do it once it will select data filled in… and if you press it again it selects the entire sheet.
SHIFT, CTRL T - reopens a tab that has just been shut down. - GREAT FOR SNEAKY CHILDREN!!!
Under paint bucket you can hit the ‘alternating colour’ which will colour every other row and make it easier to read. - again great for assessment data sheets - will save me having to do this manually and when adding a cell (when we get a new child) having to re-do it.
As part of my MIT inquiry I began questioning parents on their thoughts for blogging. This is a collection of responses they gave us with regards to blogs. I have decided to share this here (and also include these as part of my Presentation for Ed Tech Sydney) as it really establishes the importance of having blogging as a part of our learning/teaching process.
These responses were great to hear/see as this has been a big focus for me with my MIT inquiry but also for Team Maunga as a whole this year.
Interesting to note that the main thing that parents said we could improve on was having more posts. This sentiment truly says something for the value they are now putting on our blog. We had a lot of giggles together (parents and teachers) when they relayed the lengths their kids go to, to get their parents to comment on our blog.
This year I have to say blogging has been HUGELY successful in how often our blog is getting outside comments and the value these are adding to the children and their learning. They love to see their work being valued from others and to also have feedback and questions asked of them that makes them think about their learning in different ways.
Blogging has also been a great motivator for all children!
Interviews so you can find out what do people really care about.
Redo this with many people so you can really understand the problem.
Step 2: Define the Problem
Look at interviews, underline verbs can help.
Formulate a problem statement.
Step 3 : Ideate
Problem on problem statement. Come up with ideas that solve problem. Come up with LOTS of ideas, Sketch up best ideas and show to people you are trying to help.
Step 4: Prototype
How does your prototype fit into peoples real life, it might be a combinations of what is alreay used and things you have come up with.
Step 5: Test
Test with actual users - don't defend your idea/prototype, learn what works and what doesn't.
Then go back to Steps 3-5 until you
Now you are ready to change the world!
Short video that explains each step in a little more detail.
Recently I have been questioning children around their use of digital technology to support their learning. Obtaining student voice and perspective is hugely important in this inquiry as they are the intended audience of this inquiry. If they are not engaged and buying into this approach to raising achievement then its not the right direction to take.
It’s very useful.
It helps us remember.
Because its fun.
Because I get better at learning, and it helps be get better at remembering.
I go on the blog and share what we are up to.
Sharing our learning with them (mum and dad) by showing them things we have made at school.
I can use it in the holidays and when I am sick to keep learning
Everything on there is about our learning.
The best thing is when Mrs G puts my work on the blog.
I share my work by someone putting my work on the blog so the whole world can see it, then other people can see my work and what it is about.
When people ask questions on our blog it helps my learning.
Students perception on what would make it better is to have more blog posts.
Already this year we have been trialing lots of things with improving this last perception and this is paying off from the comments we received above.
One strategy for increasing blog posts is to make it easier for students (and teachers) to access devices. As we are not a 1:1 device classroom this presents us with many challenges as we complete our work digitally.
Additional challenges relating to access
Remembering which device they were using.
Charging of device
When work is in progress quick saving is a better option as you don't end up with multiple copies of the same Explain Everything but at different finishing points in G-Drive.
Not enough for 1 device per child
Our action to minimise as many of these issues as possible.
Knowing that something needed to change to reduce these issues and make it easier for children to access their learning on the devices I labeled iPads with students names. These students were the ones in my morning 'Accelerated Writing Group', and also our top reading groups as they are capable of completing work more independently on them and can then support others to complete their tasks.
This was a huge step for me as I was really worried that this would make these students who had name labels on iPads become very possessive of 'their iPad', and those students who didn't switch off from using iPads as they might feel that they weren't able to use named devices.
I guess as this was a massive concern for me I made sure that this was not the perception that either group of students took on. As a result of introducing it to students in the way we have, the students whose name is on the iPad almost is the person that others go to for support when they are working on it. This adds Mana (Value) in the work that they all complete together. This is also helping the students in the accelerated writing group feel more of a leader and adding more Mana again to the work they complete within our morning group time.
Also students that use them remember which iPad they are using better than the number system we used last year (this is still on each iPad - but they DO NOT use it), weather it be a device with their name on or another students name. It is also much easier for Teachers to support children with getting their posted onto the blog as the labels make it easier to find devices that work is on.
