VLN Astronomy!

Just finished my third session in the Virtual Learning environment of the VLN.  Things are so hectic in there I have not taken any screens my self yet - but my co-ordinator did!

This was from the second session where we dipped our toes into the galaxy just to see what that was like... the numbers out there are RIDICULOUS!

The start of today's session involved a triad of multi-tasking. Not just two things but three for a minute or two. That gets the blood pumping and the synapses firing!!

I have been creating and expanding the potential for more interaction (something I perceive as vital to engage students in a format that has the potential to slip into a mundane fact filled lecture) - however that system is not entirely in my control as it involves students actually remembering to do the small tasks such as going outside and spotting for the moon - so that they DO have something to contribute in the next session.

If today's session had not been taken up with ten minutes of techie issues it may well have scored low on my expectations for interaction because no one did go outside and look at the moon this week 

(and it was a blue one too. Figuratively, not literally...).

Have sent a follow up email to the principals of the schools with students in the class to try and gain some support for those issues. I am quite uncomfortable with just lecturing at them as I know that is potentially a wretched yawnfest!

Another strategy is to come up with more mindsparking deep thinking questions that are opinion based but time is a bit of a limit there as well, perhaps. 

We discussed our nearest star today - I had asked them 'how long it would take to get there and who would go' as their between class thinking last week - however not everyone did that so the deeper thinking part (who would go) did not actually spark for some of them until they heard in today's show that it was 78 000 years.

So then we talked about the Battlestar Galactica concept - a community of people travelling through space to a destination that they themselves would never reach but many many generations in the future would.

Then I blew that all away by saying that then it would be too late because in 33 000 years time that wouldn't even be our closest star anymore, MUWUHAHAHAHAH!

P.S. Yes, I realise there is a danger that my sense of humour is really only funny to me.

IDEC in NELSON!

So IDEC is coming up!  It is the International Democratic Education Conference - so exciting as it is IN NELSON and I CAN GO!

I am going to be the Youth Zone Volunteer and I will actually get to see Yaccov do his talk!

Math PD #2

Second part of Math PD today (it's amazing what exhausted teachers can do after the poppets go home!).


They really pack it into these courses but without fail you come away wanting a new piece of maths equipment that you now know how to use in a deeper way - this time - laminated 40 by 30 arrays.

We even did a reading - well a page of a reading.

Jenny Young-Loveridge and Judith Mills (Chapter 3) Multiplicative Thinking: Representing Multidigit Multiplication problems using arrays

Main thing from this page was that building student's conceptual understanding takes time and effort and that teaching an algorithm  as a method for student's to fall back on is folly.
There is now research evidence to show that an emphasis on procedural knowledge and rules undermines conceptual understanding ( and hence the deeper application of knowledge to solve increasingly complex problems). My interpretation is that this also would apply to the rote learning of tables.

We again filled out the sheet naming the numeracy stages and their corresponding levels and definitions of content at each. This is ALWAYS enlightening and as much as I think I know I still struggle (although I did notice much improvement!).  Many people still shocked to note that stages 1 - 4 are all level one.

Problem of the night
Annie has 9 boxes of apples. Each box holds 59 apples. How many apples are there altogether?

MY first strategy was multistage...
9 X 59 = 9 x 60 - 9
((60 x 10) - 60) - 9
600 - 60 - 9
540 - 9 = 531

By the end of the session I solved this with a drawn array...much more efficiently!





Here is my summing up to course doodle...

Assessment Moderation

Today I attended a cluster for moderation.
The session was at St Jo's and I got to sit in one of my previous students desks (it was quite lovely for me!).
The gathering was for my colleagues teaching the same level as me so we could, as a group, try to gain some consistency between our various schools in assessing writing.

It was fun! We all provided samples for the group to score based on the current asTTle marking guide.

Interestingly for our first meeting we were mostly all very close in our marking with the non-majority scoring the mark below or above the majority.

A great result!

I must say I do like the new marking rubric - I think it is practical, has diverse application and provides a more accurate rating of students work.
it is also not to hard to adapt for student consumption.

On a side note - it is stressful for us to attend these things during school time as it means we are all out of our class because we are such a small staff!

Te Whāriki- because learning happens everywhere and all the time...

Have been having a quick re-look at Te Whāriki which came up as part of our change team work last year (to do with reviewing our use of assessment). The literal translation of Te Whāriki is 'The Woven Mat' - a holistic metaphor for what we do, indeed!
Te Whāriki is based on the aspirations that children grow up:

• as competent and confident learners and communicators
• healthy in mind, body and spirit
• secure in their sense of belonging
• secure in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society.

I initially was attracted to it in terms of integrating discovery learning into St V's classroom programme.
It is a surprising wee gem of a document - well done Early Childhood - thank goodness the government isn't interfering with this side of their professionalism ... yet (knock on wood!!!).

Te Whāriki principles are;

• Empowerment
• Holistic Development
• Family and Community 
• Relationships

What an amazing foundation for our youngsters - it would be great if this could transition more into our primary curriculum ( not to mention our secondary!). These things are important to us all!!

Notes I made this time around

Empowerment - Feedback to students on their learning must enhance their sense of themselves to nurture esteem in their capability and competence

Holistic Development - assessing needs to take place in context - transparently meaningful/purposeful activities

Family and Community

The necessity and usefulness of having family integrated into  assessment and evaluation of the curriculum AND student's learning and development.

Also I note the positives and negatives we deal with as educators in the reality of parental influence on learning (transferences of parents educational baggage to their children).

Relationships - adults as learners - life long learners whether they know it or not! Self awareness of this is key.

Five learning strands

 Te Whāriki’s four principles are interwoven with these learning areas:

• Mana atua wellbeing
• Mana tangata contribution
• Mana whenua belonging
• Mana reo communication
• Mana aotūroa exploration.

Thoughts on these another time...

Behind....

I have such a huge backlog of professional readings to blog about from last year - change team and Maths PD in particular.

This is not helped by the large amount of internet bookmarked articles I have that I have ye tot return to!

I need to make a set time to blog and make sure it is respected!

Modern Learning Environments (MLE)

Earlier this month I travelled to Melbourne for some  self-initiated Professional development in two areas

• Equine Assisted Learning
• Modern Learning Environments (MLEs)

This post is about the MLE part of my trip. I had time to visit two very different schools renowned for their MLEs.

Silverton Primary and another one that made so little positive impact on me I can't even remember the name.

Of the two Silverton primary seemed to have their pedagogy aligned with their practise.

They have been on the MLE road since the 90s with the introduction of a strong innovative leader.

Both schools had large teaching spaces that had up to 120 students of similar age and about four teachers.
Silverton had a long serving Principal with vision and direction for his learners. The school had an excellent learning atmosphere and showed a real celebration of their students. It seemed open minded and focused.

The other school seemed to be a traditional old school at heart that was embedded in a fear based system. The teacher talk I over heard was very dated - terms like punishment rather than consequences - that sort of thing.

While the idea of a Modern Learning Environment sounds like something everyone would want I am wondering about the practicality of doing it in a way that increases outcomes for all students.

One the one hand it seems that more students are provided for with a schedule of swapping between tasks that is reminiscent of the almost hyperactive multimedia world our students live in.... however on the other I am wondering about that connection with the teacher - that is so beneficial, especially to those at risk learners who need guidance and direction (where those other students will access curriculum concepts no matter what).

Pondering!

Tātaiako

Wanted to make a note that I am enjoying spending time looking at the Tātaiako document and readings in our Change Team PD with Cat. Using this as a lens on my own practise has been enlightening and rewarding.

The dimension indicators have been really useful in identifying and refining my existing practise as well as  putting labels on the gaps (aka areas I can improve for the benefit of our learners).

My current favourite of the cultural competencies is Manaakitanga as it is all about showing integrity, sincerity and respect; the foundation of my teaching pedagogy! Aspirationally and inspirationally.

Although, to be fair, I think I do AKO best. Lots of teina/tuakana, reciprocal teaching and student initiated learning.

Growth Mindset...

A useful reflection from Change Team PD...

Doodle

Have been introduced to Doodle as an online scheduling tool through my ICT inquiry meetings - V useful for arranging our meetings as this is the only time we see each other as we are scattered at schools far and wide.

It lets you put in a few time options then emails out to all the people then they check box answer their preferences and doodle lets you all know which time is the go!

Love it!

The meetings - now that they are finally going - are great for collaboration and networking.
I am REALLY disappointed that our group did not have this advantage for the whole year.

Google Image Power User

Become a Google Image Power User.....

Found this useful resource to add to our skills with google - and image finding in particular.

Lots of useful stuff in here!

ULearn 2013!

ULearn is this month!!

Looking forward to the speaker on Cyber Safety as I hear he is a great speaker.
Have also had a quick look into Jill Hammond - hopefully she has plenty of practical examples!


EDIT: Jill Hammond was excellent! Lots of practical stuff and she made me want to get my own business card!

Also have a post in the making linking Cyber safety and Banning cellphones....

Shirley Clarke #2

The reading I referred to last week (from Change Team) is Active Learning Through Formative Assessment - Chapter 3:The Ideal Learning Culture

Dweck is sited a number of times...
I enjoyed the definition of motivation (by Dweck) as not only a desire to achieve but also 'the love of learning, the love of challenge and the ability to thrive on obstacles'. Instilling this to our poppets is one of our biggest barriers I think - merely being a passive model of it is not doing the job for our lot!

I have been thinking about the observation that boys more likely attribute failures to a lack of effort and successes to ability - whereas girls attribute successes to effort and failures to lack of ability.
In our poppets the link to self esteem is more even across the board and not just limited to gender. In my experience here failure impacts confidence in our girls and esteem in our boys.


Clarke's "fixed mindset' quiz was administered to us. In brief it highlights our own beliefs in our intelligence (e.g. do we think intelligence is fixed or can it change over time) - I am of the opinion it can change (I think this means I have a 'growth' mindset. This is my opinion because I remember a time when I was most definitely of a 'fixed' mindset - and I believed that my failures defined me and I was them rather than the belief I have now that they are problems to be faced, dealt with and most importantly, learnt from.

"High self-esteem happens for those with a growth mindset when they are using their abilities to the fullest in something they value (ME: Deep) rather than showing that they are better than someone else (ME: surface)."

Thankfully the reading lists some strategies for developing a growth mindset (for everyone).

• Active modelling - emphasising the process of learning. 
• Actively teaching (and having the expectation) that intelligence can be developed. 
• Re-languaging 'can't', 'difficulty' and 'problem' with 'challenge'.
• Emphasing our own excitement at new challenges.
• Activitely teach strategies for dealing with challenge (p. 23 of the reading)

Specific, repetitive, deliberate and systematic use of these things ensure that challenges and effort are things that enhance self-esteem rather than threaten it.

Big message in the reading - Praising effort and achievement rather than ability or personal attributes is vital!

Many things we say to our students (and children) have hidden messages

e.g. 'You learned that so quickly! You're so clever' = If I don't learn something quickly I'm not clever

Thankfully I have already thought deeply about my comments to students and even recharged again recently due to the Incredible Years programme (which is amazing!). One of the strategies from that is to take pleasing the teacher out of comments and be factual, putting onus back on the students where it belongs.

'Well done, that is a beautiful rainbow, especially the way you have worked so carefully at blending the colours,'

Resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity <--- appropriate at all our ages.

Exercising your learning muscles came from this article.

Change Team

In our Change Team meeting last night our focus was on Cultural Competencies (we are focusing on improving outcomes specifically for our Maori learners and, of course, ourselves).
I found the following video of Anjali's story especially moving - worth checking out! (Next Day EDIT: I have referred to it at least three times today on different occasions!)

http://tekotahitanga.tki.org.nz/Videos/Teacher-stories/Anjali-s-Story-Relationships-Pt1

My particular focus in our small group was whanaungatanga; relationships with high expectations. This is an area that resonates strongly with me as being an integral tool in personalising learning. An important part of improving learning outcomes for all the learners in our classrooms (and I include me in that statement!!).

I can see Anjali doing the following;

• seeking opportunities to develop meaningful relationships with students and their whanau
• displaying knowledge of students' life/interests outside the classroom
• pronouncing names correctly
• power sharing! (one of my favourites!)
• providing a warm, interactive environment
• valuing prior knowledge/students' own real life experiences/cultural knowledge
• making connections between the learning in the classroom and real life situations
• supporting positive student talk (no put downs)

I would like to ask these students if their experiences with this particular teacher will positively impact their future learning with other teachers...(has it been sustainable for their future outcomes, do they think they have strategies from their experiences with this teacher that will support future learning?)

Such an important story to bravely share!

Also from our text, Tätaiako...

‘Whaia te iti kahurangi; ki te tuohu koe, me he maunga teitei’ - roughly, in Shinekorero, it speaks about aiming high (for the sky) so that if you miss and do not meet your expectations you will still hit a lofty mountain!