Stepping Up

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time - we are the ones we have been waiting for and we are the change we seek.

Thanks for that Obama!

Gamification vs Intrinsic motivation

I began to watch this and realised I am a bit of a intrinsic motivation snob!

But then I kept watching.

Need a follow up now on Mark's ideas for putting this into practise. 

I'll look for some case studies.

Conversation for Professional Learning

Part of a question sheet our Principal asked to be filled in this week and part of a bigger conversation on Pedogogy I have been having with myself this year - especially in this latter half where I have been part of some astounding progress that has occurred outside of the traditional school environment/timeframe with some of the most at risk young people I am directly responsible for this year. 

While writing it I was constantly drawn (guilted?) into viewing my response through the 'academic' lens I mention at the start - "Doesn't this sound like I am making excuses for a lack of academic achievement in my students?"

 But actually there is progress, of course, and pressuring myself and my students to conform to the ideas of where they should be created by a government with a traditional view of education as something that produces a rich elite chained to a routine of gaining vast amounts of material possessions and mass producing minions to cater to the needs and whims of that elite.... wait.. I am monologuing (not to mention in danger of digressing!)... you probably get my point.

I am not dodging the question of progress. There is progress (and in many cases big progress and undoubtedly unacknowledged progress) PLUS I truly believe in my heart that the following is the greatest asset to pass on to my fellow learners...

1. Consider the overall progress in learning so far this year. How do you think things are going? 

Learning is a holistic dynamic and learning success, therefore, cannot be fully appreciated through a purely “academic” lens.

 I can see that all Nile Room students’ readiness for learning has increased; they have an ever-increasing awareness of their needs and the importance of being open to learning and putting in effort/work to attain goals.

Their ability to access the curriculum has improved as well as their awareness of themselves and relationship to others. They have a vastly different set of needs (from each other) and have such a tolerance for where each other are at with their own goals.

 All have made important progress in their greatest areas of need. For some this is purely academic and for others it is in learning to overcome (and better understand) their own academic progress barriers and actually allow themselves to progress and enjoy having academic success. 

In the forefront of my mind is preparing them to be happy and successful in the world after school. Writing legibly, reading fluently, knowing three different mental strategies to problem solve and understanding the concept of fair testing are important and certainly things worth knowing – however, I believe, the skill that will inevitably prove most useful to them (and keep them connected to the positive world of learning those important things and striving in their lives) is the ability to manage themselves through adversity, whatever life will throw up, with confidence and self assurance. 

The life experience that forms the foundation for this needs to start here... and now.

Hoping to work on a more expanded form for this blog this weekend (although, like most of my blog posts lately {and hence professional learning} it falls at the end of the never-ending list of squeaky wheel tasks linked directly to National Standards and reporting...).

And just for my own benefit, so that I don't forget later (which probably quite often happens but I forget so obviously don't notice it much...), another key component in my line of thought here is the  lack of resilience/persistence that students are teaching themselves by repeatedly copping out or taking the easy path. Ironic really because if they knew that they actually were employing the very skill they need to make academic progress to actively not make academic progress, they would create the very  life experience they need for their foundation of confidence and self assurance.

Hmm, I need to create a name for that little cycle of irony and start a lecture circuit!

What 3 to 7 Year Olds Need to Learn?

Nathan Mikaere-Wallis is always handy for a complex and important message that is easily assessable to all!
What 3 to 7 Year Olds Need to Learn?

A clip from Radio New Zealand about children forming concepts as a learner, letting children be children and the value of enjoying listening to your children tell you what they "know" about their world.

He spends some time responding to some common questions from listeners.


The big message: play, Play.... PLAY!  (YAH!)

A Wrap Around Literacy Environment....

Finally! I am starting to find education articles saying what I said from the start!
Minecraft, and video games in general, are a motivational tool for struggling readers!

How Videogames Like Minecraft Actually Help Kids Learn to Read

How does it do this? The secret lies not inside the game itself but in the players' activities outside of it. Minecraft is surrounded by a culture of literacy. The game comes with minimal instructions or tutorials, so new players immediately set about hunting for info on how it works. That means watching YouTube videos of experts at play, of course, but it also means poring over how-to texts at Minecraftwikis and “walk-through” sites, written by gamers for gamers. Or digging into printed manuals like The Ultimate Player's Guide to Minecraft or the official Minecraft Redstone Handbook, some of which are now best sellers.

 Wanna know more?
Check it out  @  http://minecraftedu.com    - it's all set up and ready to go!

Challenges in Math

Having a Y4/5/6 class is a great challenge as a teacher as I am constantly looking for open tasks that challenge all my students wherever they are.

Have been having a bit of a focus on maths lately and a few sites have been helpful but generally there is a HUGE lack of rich math tasks online. I found this really surprising! I am used to finding whatever I need/want online.

Anyway.... check these out.

http://nrich.maths.org

http://mathpickle.com/K-12/Videos.html

Am also adding

https://www.khanacademy.org - lots of how to videos that poppets understand better than me. Account easy to make, especially if you want to sign in with gmail or Facebook.

http://www.dragonboxapp.com

(I haven't used dragon box myself yet but highly recommended by some alternative educators I know. Will be setting up one of my year 6 boys with an account as he wants to learn algebra! The other year 6 boys is going to do Khan Academy.)

Advise all teachers to have a Khan account too! It's good for you!

Pepeha, Acknowledgement and Humbleness

I am humbled and valued today!
Our Maori language expert was in today.
He sat with me after his session to share with me that he was very impressed with the  pronunciation, commitment and ability of our learners (including me!) in picking up this complex mihi he has provided us with!

A week or two ago he arrived to teach us a graphic way of remembering the components, only to find, we had already employed the exact strategy he wanted to show us - and to great success!

We have been utilising visual cues (from The Writing Book) in our writing and we had the idea to use  them to remember each line of our mihi.

So we all have a coloured strip of paper with circled stick figure images that trigger us to remember the part we are up to.

We are ingenious apparently!

He also made a point of acknowledging my part in the improvements in attitude, behaviour and engagement of some of the more infamous members of our learning environment.
That is just the pep one needs every now and then!

#feelingblessed