tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27519103001828258622024-02-20T23:12:45.857+13:00You, me and the teacherI currently am employed at Hobsonville Point Primary School where I work in a year 5-7 learning common, this is my 8th year at HPPS. I teach, lead and learn. Previously, I spent 3 years teaching at Henderson North School with a class of Year 5-6 students.Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-58641426833811944132022-04-07T19:59:00.002+12:002022-04-07T20:18:07.641+12:00Building optimism <p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“I’m really pleased to be out of Auckland,” my daughter shared. I smiled, we were waiting in the car at Hamilton Hospital, while Hillary, her Mum, was visiting my father-in-law. We were on our way to New Plymouth, where my mother-in-law was also in hospital. Her sense of positivity was exactly what the <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-school-leaders-can-build-realistic-optimism-year" target="_blank">article in front of me was referring to.</a> There has been much to bemoan during this pandemic, but as leaders, parents and teachers, keeping a lid on this is important as we mitigate our </span><span style="font-size: 12px;"> impact on others.</span></p><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5VNxC6NfwJh9Y6OXWJdPqOZthWvTYdpLVJLqg4rPeaEuDF11Dfdhk3Bp4iiHhzeTgCTJPYIctzB7yGS8A35TUdWAvVsnkL5ZM-cHFmxJyBuH_SaynreEnUagFWwVd3xtHTQVXU1jIyn2RXux3_ddijqXB-BYDETA2u1na4RUx4ZbFF8M5bD6SGCOTw/s1658/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-07%20at%207.58.09%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1658" height="97" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5VNxC6NfwJh9Y6OXWJdPqOZthWvTYdpLVJLqg4rPeaEuDF11Dfdhk3Bp4iiHhzeTgCTJPYIctzB7yGS8A35TUdWAvVsnkL5ZM-cHFmxJyBuH_SaynreEnUagFWwVd3xtHTQVXU1jIyn2RXux3_ddijqXB-BYDETA2u1na4RUx4ZbFF8M5bD6SGCOTw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-07%20at%207.58.09%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Somewhere between the realisation that lockdown 5.0 was going to be a while and the incoming Education vaccination mandates, I made the decision to filter negative energy. I was worried about my own energy spiralling and the affect this could have on my own family, class and my colleagues. Misinformation, politicking, poor weather, and distance teaching had me in a funk. As I started to get some clarity on my own personal response to these variables I looked for a way out, a degree of filtering was needed. Choosing to engage in anything that was going to facilitate a downwards spiral would be destructive. However, choosing not to engage is only part of the solution as friends, family, colleagues and the wider public can decide to interact or focus on topics that are intensely challenging. A simple tool at this point is understanding your own pressure points or triggers, whilst having a range of exit strategies prepared in advance of difficult conversations.</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lounging in the sun this Boxing Day, I chatted with family. There was widespread agreement that leaders in this period are often faced with two choices and both of them are rubbish! No question that this period has been difficult, in schools there is constant pivoting as the situation changes. Compounding this,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>changes take place in a setting where all stakeholders are highly charged. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">With every email, request, reflection or instruction from those around me, I’ve needed to step back and consider my responses. What is being asked? What is the purpose? What lies behind the words? What is the impact on others? What is within my sphere of influence?</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgEy2TuvOqQm5vWvfumX_YCEdAd1KNGN_sW2a0nfZuuxUlAX93Zkz2GetH7mjYJ28wNM-6odFznbpyMnWQF_x-s4a9b-Jn3XAI2L6YALKFWAdYgX-txtxPq6tPLXddmSvd3_xh-Op7vCNYOMrVAddgf5fp7nSvoJUORFmbVIA3Qg8cCbxIaKMTrFH-Cw/s4032/IMG_1611.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgEy2TuvOqQm5vWvfumX_YCEdAd1KNGN_sW2a0nfZuuxUlAX93Zkz2GetH7mjYJ28wNM-6odFznbpyMnWQF_x-s4a9b-Jn3XAI2L6YALKFWAdYgX-txtxPq6tPLXddmSvd3_xh-Op7vCNYOMrVAddgf5fp7nSvoJUORFmbVIA3Qg8cCbxIaKMTrFH-Cw/w248-h186/IMG_1611.JPG" width="248" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Each lockdown HPPS has felt well prepared for the different variants. Documentation has been available, much pre-thinking has taken place, distance plans or templates ready to launch and the mindset of staff, while anxious, has been largely positive. Phase 3 felt different, Omicron forced a dynamic environment, with high numbers of cases, the ability to close classes rather than whole schools and limited relievers reducing capacity to cover isolating teachers. Covid fatigue is higher amongst children, parents and the teaching community too. From the onset of the teaching year, teams have been readying themselves. Are students prepared with online and offline resources, devices and account details? If I had to take a RAT test and find myself or my colleagues needing to isolate where would we be placed?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The world has been getting on with things, NZ has slowly played the cards it’s been dealt and ever so slowly we’ve put one foot in front of the other. Of course social media has provided some assistance too with plenty of interesting reading available (<a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-can-expect-a-year-of-disruption-here-are-7-ways-they-can-help-support-the-well-being-of-students-and-staff-174886">this one was great</a>), such as the following visual. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXAd5I8y_Fm95BBlN0Q_4SpHJC8xVTZ0WTVOBAjfSYp2T5E5qy0_2M5tRVqKfTdC9QzVvRvPDBgTxFHV13jdyr9d4YUAxEfaUQFv71wtv5T_VE08myhQC1eZNpP_ZozXSbaiCdo-JzBD7o2SBuEv-b3o_uuyH7oCl52XjyVM0NqSIO-KGNN7R7E0v_sw/s600/0.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="600" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXAd5I8y_Fm95BBlN0Q_4SpHJC8xVTZ0WTVOBAjfSYp2T5E5qy0_2M5tRVqKfTdC9QzVvRvPDBgTxFHV13jdyr9d4YUAxEfaUQFv71wtv5T_VE08myhQC1eZNpP_ZozXSbaiCdo-JzBD7o2SBuEv-b3o_uuyH7oCl52XjyVM0NqSIO-KGNN7R7E0v_sw/w372-h271/0.jpg" width="372" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLxf2Y6YDP6Iba82RO-sIwrXPwa4TJabGX3lRwy4ZY5JjYSEcXgOa-EuulOP-_1hEiMAjpMuHTJ20ASX6nldwYcu2RtDpTmrpWyuNGXOMWBHwMZDNdbmi0yQ9fZu2GGRLkG7OUAXSIr0XjDvdVSEZD58P-1W7c-ABPmTjM2BaLSubd1mzkRV847mEDA/s3780/E520D96F-4DF7-417F-9687-4DD43A0CB4D2.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3780" data-original-width="3024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJLxf2Y6YDP6Iba82RO-sIwrXPwa4TJabGX3lRwy4ZY5JjYSEcXgOa-EuulOP-_1hEiMAjpMuHTJ20ASX6nldwYcu2RtDpTmrpWyuNGXOMWBHwMZDNdbmi0yQ9fZu2GGRLkG7OUAXSIr0XjDvdVSEZD58P-1W7c-ABPmTjM2BaLSubd1mzkRV847mEDA/w160-h200/E520D96F-4DF7-417F-9687-4DD43A0CB4D2.JPG" width="160" /></a></div></div><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This term has felt lengthy, necessary measures have left many feeling exhausted, isolated and looking for easy solutions. Perspective has been important, others have done it rough, and others have had it tougher still. But as we approach the end, through the fog I can see the light and I feel invigorated. Around me magic is happening, this is inspirational as we look to spiral up and onto the next thing. My own team is reflecting, deconstructing our successes and our wonderings but giving ourselves permissions too.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This post is a part of me looking forward, backward and all around as I reflect. I’m trying to keep it real, pragmatic, and continually looking for the spark.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I loved buying my colleagues coffee and showing them they were appreciated. Avoiding<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>social media, keeping some thoughts for a select few and constant reminders about icebergs have all helped. Trying to find magic has also kept me super positive. What strategies do you utilise to keep it real during these times? How are you ensuring that you’re looking forward and being the best teacher you can be?</p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-50959997283046997812019-09-30T21:02:00.003+13:002019-10-01T11:47:12.456+13:00Identity crisis - growing into leadership"I want to be a fairy." She grinned as she said it. "But not an ordinary one, one with a job, like the tooth fairy". My little 5 year old had let me know about her future plans as we travelled in the car.<br />
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We all have an idea of who we want to be. Its a question that children are asked by teachers and parents and as children we all have kinds of responses. So fairy was an acceptable response for a doting father, especially when followed with a great explanation. As a 17 year old being a teacher was the furtherest thing from my aspirations, and the poor english teacher who suggested it received the type of disrespectful and tactless response that now make me cringe as a teacher. That 17 year old is still there, deep inside. But the 17 year old is mitigated by the love and knowledge of being a father of two, experience in a range of different industries, and the product of professional development, experience and challenges his early 40's self values. I have a strong awareness of the teacher I desire to be. What I have come to learn, is that my identity as leader is less clear. It may even be an identity crisis.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipD8oaFqEkpzNAYDRwM-M41aTV7ZmtGDeCV4HbE1H-F0-uwXlEdWkVcCM0mItIWBWdBmUMIIzNAbf0znFAG82xuIhbm21NlBS7MIMlMPzJWmo3ujODRVtmp3gKXFiYTgMjioUZf97uwbZw/s1600/Stolen-Identity2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipD8oaFqEkpzNAYDRwM-M41aTV7ZmtGDeCV4HbE1H-F0-uwXlEdWkVcCM0mItIWBWdBmUMIIzNAbf0znFAG82xuIhbm21NlBS7MIMlMPzJWmo3ujODRVtmp3gKXFiYTgMjioUZf97uwbZw/s400/Stolen-Identity2.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
My experience of leadership is quite divergent, I'm fortunate to have worked for leaders in a variety of industries, organisations and titles. These have included General Managers, CEOs, Owners, Principals and Heads of Departments, and to steal a phrase, I believe I've seen the good, the bad and ugly. My own experience has included leading teams in retail and academic settings. So it was with eyes wide open that I took on some leadership responsibilities at Hobsonville Point Primary this year. I recognised that there would be obvious challenges in the range of communication, organisational and emotional demands that come hand in hand with leadership roles. I also anticipated that there was also going to be an element of things that I didn't know. Eyes wide open, but no idea of the leader I really wanted to be.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7zhADfvVYD0UMkFTonM3JLlR4dX6spIeBYWQN2IU4QzIAivXkSgijwq8xhru979NuyWwoPK1sLCPTp3Q-SaVOuLzP66WbOriblXB7-BR1VlOmd4b2f0t8MdPPzUsgbDZps4N8KpRGB5Mp/s1600/IMG_62FF68836CEA-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1123" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7zhADfvVYD0UMkFTonM3JLlR4dX6spIeBYWQN2IU4QzIAivXkSgijwq8xhru979NuyWwoPK1sLCPTp3Q-SaVOuLzP66WbOriblXB7-BR1VlOmd4b2f0t8MdPPzUsgbDZps4N8KpRGB5Mp/s320/IMG_62FF68836CEA-1.jpeg" width="213" /></a>I spent the holidays reading some introductory documentation and considering goals. Self-knowledge is invaluable, choosing goals to provide some direction in response to what I anticipated was a useful way to walk into 2019 and could be considered in terms of my HBDI profile (shown). However, it was two conversations early that resonated more, possibly even foreshadowing the impending identity crisis.<br />
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Meeting with two colleagues socially, I was taken aback when they mentioned the language of love, "Do you know your love language?" they enquired. Surprised by this sudden tangential shift, I stammered out my naïvety. As they explained what it was about how this affects them as teachers I began to see their point, knowing your learners as a leader is just as important as knowing your learners in the classroom. A little professional reading proved enlightening (<a href="https://www.5lovelanguages.com/" target="_blank">https://www.5lovelanguages.com/</a>), I could see how love languages and knowing how other teachers functioned could be part of the toolkit. But as my colleagues and I had talked that night one of them shared an important and more serious insight, "Reid, you don't have to always have the answers. Take time if you need it, it will be ok to say you're not sure".<br />
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Early in term 1, meeting formally with the leadership team, Daniel began with provocations about positive and negative experiences of leaders we'd had in the past. Three leaders stood out for different aspects I admired, several others provided examples of things I would work hard not to emulate. Reflecting on the positive qualities was somewhat useful, but it was the notion than these people were vastly different in their styles and how they impacted on my own learning. Like a recipe, it was taking these positives and adding them to the recipe of creating my own leadership style.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PjYluYmq2XucAEIqlTSWKNIQ2WTcV_vpKJQwpUlGuYWFvzo_6Fh1SMfkzlTO_MLi0PZUjz0Yeh3OfoELmTGoP4KsLP3-jcz2fNGXq_yRYGb8VRHAYp6wvoT43jgB98wz1rb43P2MPZ5V/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PjYluYmq2XucAEIqlTSWKNIQ2WTcV_vpKJQwpUlGuYWFvzo_6Fh1SMfkzlTO_MLi0PZUjz0Yeh3OfoELmTGoP4KsLP3-jcz2fNGXq_yRYGb8VRHAYp6wvoT43jgB98wz1rb43P2MPZ5V/s400/download.jpg" /></a>The emotional aspects of dealing with people I find extremely challenging. I can be quite a blunt person but have developed a certain resilience alongside this, other experiences being blunt have taught me that if I want to live by the sword, I also have to die by it. Age (and emotional intelligence) has improved this personal trait, but I still find it hard to read body language. The combination of shooting from the lip and not reading body language is unfavourable, especially when talking with colleagues whose own thinking preferences favour emotional responses first. As a tool to help me with empathy and understanding I've read the Elephant in the Staffroom. It definitely helped as it provided an insight into the triggers for teachers in general and framed the emotional responses in several useful ways that I've considered as I've gone through 2019. My own emotional responses (which can be blunt and irrational) require management also, I don't want to jeopardise the working relationships with my colleagues or senior management team. I'm prepared to be collegial and have difficult conversations, but am finding myself taking more and more time to map out conversations in my mind and seek feedback on these conversational maps. The reading of body language and getting better at just listening has improved (the nail in the head video helped, as did The Elephant In the Staffroom). I certainly hope my abilities with this has improved but only my colleagues could truly tell me if this has improved.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-4EDhdAHrOg" width="560"></iframe><br />
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What does leading in a collaborative space look like? It certainly does not look like me getting my own way and in fact, if this was the case then I'm sure the students would be missing out. I'm fortunate enough to teach with two other experienced teachers, we all have good self-knowledge but with a fair dose of our own strengths and growth areas it creates a space where there is lots of robust conversation in regards to process, choices and anything and everything that being a teacher encompasses. It is certainly not an echo chamber and nor does it demonstrate a high degree of group think, many conversations require clarification, processing time and at times things have needed to be parked in order that they can be reviewed later. Within this though, I have to admit that delegation/stepping back in some areas continues to be a challenge. Because of the experience that I'm surrounded with I know that some tasks can be completed or led by either or both of my colleagues, learning to let them do that has been a journey, as has asking them to give me some space in order that something else can be completed. Amusingly, my principal has at times asked me if I'm at the point that I need to offload something and I smile and think about the pot and the kettle.<br />
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Recently, my own leadership wonderings have been around communication, data and the effectiveness of teams. As I got through my mid-year appraisal, I was challenged to rethink my goals and agreed that I was looking for something gruntier within leadership. Partly based on my own desire to soak in as much as possible, I've been doing far more listening than sharing, especially in leadership meetings. But with an interest in all things technological, a need to develop a more analytical approach to leadership and growing our school capability in reporting, I've decided to focus on building my own capabilities in school-wide and year group level data analysis. We're in the initial years of working with Linc-Ed as a reporting system and school management system. While Linc-Ed has a huge amount of potential, pragmatically it is still a very new system and as such we need to grow our school's intellectual capital with this product. This allows me to develop a better understanding of how the data is informing our school while at the same time learning more about a technological tool, I can pass this knowledge and processing on quickly as I find it relatively easy to upskill with technology.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkmOcYmeu9ufT_YqK4exRPrTe6mbJhwCDzkmlyrwVKHjjSe98PoYtJeFniYmr_kGxYym8wJ1NgRLs-g7aWdQLM1UjGxtuzBOWI50K7sxlqWZ_CTmzSmUBjFm3AgtqlsyTDa7srpKarUuUx/s1600/IMG_6115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkmOcYmeu9ufT_YqK4exRPrTe6mbJhwCDzkmlyrwVKHjjSe98PoYtJeFniYmr_kGxYym8wJ1NgRLs-g7aWdQLM1UjGxtuzBOWI50K7sxlqWZ_CTmzSmUBjFm3AgtqlsyTDa7srpKarUuUx/s200/IMG_6115.JPG" width="150" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjywDowsHyMfTMxy9DJweD5Lp3hCRAq8Up4iluUXT0OCy2m129mJvio0yfRj1mXxezn9FIqqd2iICXmL8EssqlLWTBIeirQFcUZaTtJh2n6a4ART_NNioHxdoD2byjSC5Lb0yzoMWSyhHKx/s1600/IMG_6116.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjywDowsHyMfTMxy9DJweD5Lp3hCRAq8Up4iluUXT0OCy2m129mJvio0yfRj1mXxezn9FIqqd2iICXmL8EssqlLWTBIeirQFcUZaTtJh2n6a4ART_NNioHxdoD2byjSC5Lb0yzoMWSyhHKx/s200/IMG_6116.JPG" width="150" /></a>Collaborative leadership can be challenging in regards to both communication and the effectiveness of teams. Getting the balance of communication correct is essential to moving your team forward, I'm not naive enough to think that this is solely about my leadership but it does bear thinking about. Setting teams up for success in meetings, informal conversations and one-on-ones is crucial and a large part of this requires effective communication. In a full team meeting I've had up to 15 staff, with student teachers present, and in a collaborative space there is lots of people wanting/expecting to have their say. It's imperative that everyone has a voice in order to encourage buy-in but is this effective? Arguably, it's not, or not all at the same time. Especially when you consider the different personalities, processing, and preferences that are at play. Hence, my beginning feelings about communication. Furthering the need to focus on communication is our school initiating it's 4 minute walk throughs again, this time I'm facilitating teams as they walk through and it is important that I lead and model these reflections appropriately. I've been looking into two different texts as a source of learning, the firs<span style="background-color: white;">t Collaborative Leadership, where there is a great section on communication and secondly, The Power of Teacher Rounds to support facilitating the walkthroughs.</span><br />
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<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/YVjdidnxF6fnAAHluzZgsS8tmxjsvt8FFujxhGgPN1D-dTfXphdH8tsxaVDP4HxF8wDVjc4UGwsXLc_FMBcNIOj6uqKJkT5ERT4w0GxxVBl5fvYaXURiH0dGsgIw22lJvYnWta6oJWk" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The-Dreyfus-Model.png" border="0" height="224" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/YVjdidnxF6fnAAHluzZgsS8tmxjsvt8FFujxhGgPN1D-dTfXphdH8tsxaVDP4HxF8wDVjc4UGwsXLc_FMBcNIOj6uqKJkT5ERT4w0GxxVBl5fvYaXURiH0dGsgIw22lJvYnWta6oJWk" width="320" /></a>During my time at HPPS I've also had the pleasure to meet a number of the staff at Hobsonville Point Secondary and they too have provided all sorts of learning. Many of these Hobsonville Point staff, both the primary and secondary, have inspired, challenged, and given me opportunities I'm very thankful for. At other times though, I sometimes revert to type or back into the familiar (consider the Learning Pit and Dreyfus model) and comfortable, and forget to push forward with my own pedagogy. It is in the continual push forward that I become excited as a teacher, it sparks me with ideas, wonder and awe that I can then transfer into the classroom.<br />
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But this brings me to the crux of my identity crisis. Is Reid the teacher, the same as Reid the leader? Are these two people congruent, mutually exclusive or just reflections of each other? Is it ironic that many of the conversations I've had with leaders throughout my time teaching, are the same conversations I've had with others as a leader this year? It has me sometimes questioning the narratives I hear, what would I have meant if I was using the same narrative? Is this what they mean or is there a prevailing discourse that I should consider or coach for? Early in the year I had some quite significant insecurities around leadership, I know that my seniors were aware that I wanted to be seen as capable by others. Not in a deliberate, completely insecure way, but I was fully aware that if my behaviour, language, and all the components of Reid the teacher, role modelled someone who was lacking capability, then it was unlikely that teachers would look to me for support. As 2019 has progressed I've become more comfortable in my own abilities, while I still suffer from bouts of self-doubt, it is not capability-based. In preparing this blog post, I happened across the Congruence Model again, something I was vaguely familiar with but it led me to the Leadership Shadow diagram and someone else's blog. The model resonates, and the blog that is attached contains many useful reminders of things that have an impact on your leadership shadow. Implicit in the leadership shadow, is the difficulties facing someone in collaborative leadership in a de-privatised classroom, the teacher and the leader can be one and the same, affecting each other no matter how you strive to seperate them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Leadership Shadow.<br />
Source: <a href="https://futurepacedev.com/your-leadership-shadow/">https://futurepacedev.com/your-leadership-shadow/</a></td></tr>
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Amongst my own learning has been the regular observing of a secondary colleague, every time I meet with him I find myself invigorated with an innovative edge. He reminds me of all the things that excite me about teaching, but his ability to transfer this knowledge and expertise and inspire others allows me to believe that the identity of the leader and the teacher do not have to be mutually exclusive. I need to push forward both as a teacher and as a leader, and also consider what that looks like for members of my team. In my role it is necessary to continue pushing and evolving teaching staff to build their own capacity. This is where knowledge of others becomes so crucial, the ability to read body language, understand the nuances in their behaviour and communication so that the right challenges are made at the right time. I won't naively assume that I've got this aspect right, but my own knowledge of the importance of this feature is evolving, the mere fact that it is top-of-mind allows it to be part of my toolkit.<br />
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So, where to next? Professional reading, regularly attending coaching sessions with the senior leadership team at HPPS and availing myself of time with teachers and leaders I respect is key to building my own capacity. Continuing to read and learn from avenues outside of education is also important, both as a teacher and as a leader. I count myself lucky that all those I respect see leadership and growth as a journey. Thanks to all who have contributed so far, your ongoing patience, humour and willingness to be part of the crew make it all worthwhile.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdIo3ZTIAAcsShZKQfhqo-Qm6UtksvCMV9wTog0znLhp-DdPWLWiuw5FGQoOSt4fsIXkumZ9oTmiGX_llN9h8tVyWmYVpUazbiN3qsa91oJRxNZ4E1grS70aSJDtc_GBIHX3nbEtP4KZmP/s1600/Leadership-Cartoon.gif" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdIo3ZTIAAcsShZKQfhqo-Qm6UtksvCMV9wTog0znLhp-DdPWLWiuw5FGQoOSt4fsIXkumZ9oTmiGX_llN9h8tVyWmYVpUazbiN3qsa91oJRxNZ4E1grS70aSJDtc_GBIHX3nbEtP4KZmP/s400/Leadership-Cartoon.gif" width="396" /></a></div>
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-39359252357229877692018-06-29T20:48:00.000+12:002018-06-29T20:48:45.781+12:00Moments of magic!<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My daughter is five and three quarters. Not five! One of her dreams is to be a tooth fairy, not a made up fairy like a doll, but a real one with a job who gives money to children for their teeth. It's quite a convincing job and is a stark reminder that a little magic is a beautiful thing. As adults we often lose the magic as the mundane and routine takes over, as teachers routine is equally undesirable and yet is also a key to success. Finding the moments of magic can be why many teach, but creating them is just as challenging as spotting that damn tooth fairy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Teachers are harsh self-critics! We're always looking for something better, a more effective or efficient way, a new teaching point or maybe even just a more interesting way of doing things. In doing so, are we creating the right conditions for magic or is it happening in spite of us?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As a new school we're still developing systems, styles and knowledge with how we approach various aspects of teaching and learning. One area we have been developing our capacity is in the HPPS approach to topic/inquiry learning. We call it Immersion, you can read more about this in an earlier post from <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.com/2016/02/projects-planning-and-provocation.html" target="_blank">2016</a> after Daniel and Lisa had challenged us all to engage more with the head (brain), than just the hands (hands-on, authentic learning) and heart (memorable experiences). In my time at HPPS the systems we use for planning this have changed considerably, the changes have been the foundation of several teacher-only days. With some of my colleagues we've reflected on whether or not we were getting the planning and teaching right for immersion. More recently, Daniel's challenge has been on how each team measures success. Unquestionably, getting the planning and teaching for immersion right is largely down to teacher input, our reflections weren't questioning management more whether we were getting the process and therefore the planning right. Was Immersion leading to powerful learning? Was Immersion leading to powerful projects? How do we know?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHL0a-1Gr2kJ-xjnv8AjE9mlhuhaC4ITHClYyXXlFm08zlwhel7ZHiOjib8rgO8HPPjyNMOeoddXg1JqrZdHKfLuvnla8DCuPMJrxO7PAI-zcgE7kNSDjx1N2x9AtY542f5mpf2OANBR94/s1600/7e2ba796d7f4473213ffe9f657d7b1dd.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHL0a-1Gr2kJ-xjnv8AjE9mlhuhaC4ITHClYyXXlFm08zlwhel7ZHiOjib8rgO8HPPjyNMOeoddXg1JqrZdHKfLuvnla8DCuPMJrxO7PAI-zcgE7kNSDjx1N2x9AtY542f5mpf2OANBR94/s320/7e2ba796d7f4473213ffe9f657d7b1dd.png" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As we entered another TOD, I felt uneasy about our most recent round of Immersion/Projects. For the most part the project phase had left me flat, with very little curiosity or wonder amongst the students, and generally a bit of confusion around what they'd learnt. Where had we gone wrong? It's easy to blame the documentation or the process for planning, in fact it's too easy (fixed mindset where capability and adversity is shifted away from the owner). We knew the planning process had been been undergoing slight changes every rotation for a couple of years and this does create cognitive dissonance, as there is very little room for developing expertise within the system (see the Dreyfus Model, ie we were still in the novice/beginner phases). I also know that the self-critic was being unfair if I recall the success with which we'd finished 2017 (<a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.com/2017/12/collaboration-collaborative-journey.html" target="_blank">see Return of the Moa post</a>). I feel fortunate that I had several powerful discussions preceding this TOD, with a colleague we'd reflected and been self-critical but then discussed the additional expertise we could take into the next planning rotation and help to create more powerful learning and a conversation with Lisa where she'd shared some of her thinking as she considered a whole-brain approach to the planning (see photo on Hermann's Brain)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij51jtqhQ87l7-tGYw2BUnULINPPSNYtM7cAcIJE9_HvmmpXXsKLx6UCODhu-UBiYl2ZRYvTTLUJk-z4ofxMhbaPWam3JKu68bAdmif6yOkFNKunwM2kSfbjC7WyjxeSH6KdG9ckVkhhCZ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-06-24+at+5.50.01+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij51jtqhQ87l7-tGYw2BUnULINPPSNYtM7cAcIJE9_HvmmpXXsKLx6UCODhu-UBiYl2ZRYvTTLUJk-z4ofxMhbaPWam3JKu68bAdmif6yOkFNKunwM2kSfbjC7WyjxeSH6KdG9ckVkhhCZ/s320/Screen+Shot+2018-06-24+at+5.50.01+PM.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This was challenging but positive, I can become a bit silly with ideas (one ideas breeds another and then I'm excited), rather than a risk-taking, creative and imaginative focus, I wondered whether a holistic, synthesising, and big-picture approach was required? To help myself and my team, we'd gathered some student voice on what they wanted to learn about (see photo) and I'd had a brainstorming session knowing the general theme (Systems and Science - easy to think Solar System or Body Systems) but this wasn't the desired outcome as this was choosing based on an idea rather than the holistic thinking Lisa was seeking regarding Systems. Where would we take our students through immersion if we thought about a more encompassing idea of systems? We were provoked with this video:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This still isn't enough to guarantee success though! Lisa's leadership on the TOD compared immersion to a geographic location. As teachers we have the power to differentiate the learning experience so that different children may experience a variety of activities, whether by this is a result of interest, learning need, curiosity or because of their dispositions. This in turn means that some may stay in the immersion phase throughout projects, while others transition earlier to the project phase. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil-X1eEYdqPn3FiWCpBuXufdBkXprmK-VCGLG7osiA2gEbpsSaJf2-m8wL3GDYSwc-BJHWRB8qdefICwsk9vWxWa_f4TYM4xJ8vurrBGwrlYizK1EpoQzmPqIDJYrYftzGPCt_WTBGkUY-/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-06-24+at+5.50.18+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="716" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil-X1eEYdqPn3FiWCpBuXufdBkXprmK-VCGLG7osiA2gEbpsSaJf2-m8wL3GDYSwc-BJHWRB8qdefICwsk9vWxWa_f4TYM4xJ8vurrBGwrlYizK1EpoQzmPqIDJYrYftzGPCt_WTBGkUY-/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-06-24+at+5.50.18+PM.png" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Source: Lisa Squire.</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jI9DGjcduNkcHRRaS9um3yVFTW6Wg6-XRug2G8K-5yhsfgJfJ8cmqbk_VpcjKDT47m-4UaTml0iSN1KIZicUS4DGbE1LTsXsLUWuJFIn4EwNgeIy9q4oBEhFOTJP61nEWuvKr0IIBZG9/s1600/LC5+Context+planner+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jI9DGjcduNkcHRRaS9um3yVFTW6Wg6-XRug2G8K-5yhsfgJfJ8cmqbk_VpcjKDT47m-4UaTml0iSN1KIZicUS4DGbE1LTsXsLUWuJFIn4EwNgeIy9q4oBEhFOTJP61nEWuvKr0IIBZG9/s320/LC5+Context+planner+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our team planned, reflected, challenged, wondered, sought feedback, took some risks and produced a rather shot-gun style planning document. But I feel it's been integral to our success this round. We've had a very clear idea of what we want to achieve and teach but have allowed enough room to be responsive to the needs and interests of the class as they develop. Ultimately, we've collaborated! Any of us could have planned and taught the immersion topic individually. However, I doubt it would have been as effective, as the collaboration has contributed additional value compared to the individual expertise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Relationships have been important too, knowing the children, their needs, interests, recording their student voice before entering. Developing our own systems for their success throughout the day and personalising their learning so that each could navigate the immersion island in their own powerful way. One of the activities we'd forward planned was for some work on assumptions, did we have those children who literally thought that milk came from the supermarket? Salt was the amongst the first assumptions to arise, someone had wondered if it was made from flour, but this had been preceded with the observation that "all foods have ingredients, but where do the ingredients come from?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The magic that has happened is born of these ingredients: relationships, collaboration, planning systems, reflection, teacher intellectual capital and a fair dose of teacher passion. Having the ingredients and creating the right spell/recipe can be quite separate however, this time we've just got it right as a teaching team and I hope that we can repeat it in the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">While we've taught, provoked and immersed our children into this world of food, they've responded with enthusiasm and curiosity. They've shared their wonderings about the intricacies of their digestive systems, or their taste buds, they've been designing the most amazing cakes and talked about "synthetic" cheeses and questioned if milk is the liquid and cream is the solid. For projects, they want to run Master Chef and bake Extreme Cakes, they want to learn more about their taste buds and learn about stomach acid. A non-writer is wanting to write a recipe book, another is sharing his cake designs and using actual measurements. Teachers are happy, proud and feeling like something positive is happening.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Magic is happening!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Planning is easy, most teachers can complete a topic planning outline to a reasonable degree. Turning that recipe into something magical is more than just the right ingredients and resources with a healthy seasoning of teacher passion. It might just be timing or having students who are receptive to this topic. I suspect that if I reflect enough I can unpack a myriad of rationale for the contributing factors, but like my daughter I choose magic! There is a synergy at work this immersion that is greater than the ingredients, it has raised the bar in LC5 and I await the project phase with excitement. What will this magic create?</span><br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-57773548105804210102017-12-13T19:56:00.001+13:002017-12-13T19:56:16.017+13:00Collaboration - The collaborative journey through a performanceCollaboration is...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJmU0vTc1Abm7lldEgDfrdZn_jIKPDzFw5tP85c5Ex6M6ElUobo-rajwH4KSWXLf89dvPsETynjdZ0iZqXFtHT28colkgt_rS8DgiVZBkcOiaNv31zLqpINUandT9tutd3vJcz4_aXt4i/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-12-11+at+8.48.17+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="671" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJmU0vTc1Abm7lldEgDfrdZn_jIKPDzFw5tP85c5Ex6M6ElUobo-rajwH4KSWXLf89dvPsETynjdZ0iZqXFtHT28colkgt_rS8DgiVZBkcOiaNv31zLqpINUandT9tutd3vJcz4_aXt4i/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-12-11+at+8.48.17+PM.png" width="320" /></a>Two teachers bouncing ideas about how to merge technology, drama and dance in a performance<br />
Three teachers questioning if they could make it work in the timeframe,<br />
A principal challenging his staff to add value and learning for the students,<br />
Students raising excitement levels as they share their wondering, "Could we do a play?!"<br />
Student teachers offering to do choreography and script writing, taking responsibility,<br />
Children brainstorming ideas, "I can add to his idea by..."<br />
12 learners writing a script, that their peers and teachers contribute ideas to afterwards<br />
5 writers sharing a play, getting feedback "Are we going to do this?"<br />
Associate Teachers and Student teachers performing the play, modelling failure, high stakes,<br />
A learning common listing the jobs and thinking of teams, "We'll have to do more than one job"<br />
Timelines that challenge students to work together,<br />
Acting group creating more speaking roles and adding to scripts,<br />
Parents offering support, materials, time and expertise,<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jCsdZCWrYQzEYlq1Z4rFR16GBLoSziaDWBh_AA4X1cOq0i4TyvikljBuVcO9D3GUXW8sDyHIzEVZD_6JjbIVX1jSCJaTdTNCDiySUe6ac02ydAFYS5ckX86V-bzk8AEs5BGjKlFfPCIq/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-12-13+at+7.54.52+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="994" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jCsdZCWrYQzEYlq1Z4rFR16GBLoSziaDWBh_AA4X1cOq0i4TyvikljBuVcO9D3GUXW8sDyHIzEVZD_6JjbIVX1jSCJaTdTNCDiySUe6ac02ydAFYS5ckX86V-bzk8AEs5BGjKlFfPCIq/s400/Screen+Shot+2017-12-13+at+7.54.52+PM.png" width="400" /></a>Students choreographing dance numbers, supporting their team mates<br />
Children analysing scripts, props identified, backdrops considered, costumes imagined,<br />
Cast members helping each other learn lines and cues, new friendships made<br />
One team member offering an idea, others adding to it "We could build on that by doing this"<br />
Giving constructive feedback, "If use that idea, this might happen.."<br />
Learners coming to school with props, costumes, materials to contribute to the performance,<br />
Students staying after to school to talk through ideas with teachers<br />
A marketing team creating posters, generating an audience, selling tickets,<br />
ESOL teachers using prop making as oral language lessons<br />
Problems identified, other staff or non-LC2 children solving them,<br />
Children sharing how they're in the pit, peers helping them get out<br />
A learning common making sure all the jobs get done, deadlines met, "Will this come together?"<br />
Dress rehearsals, everyone has a role, more jobs still being found,<br />
Technology team setting the stage, parents helping<br />
Stage managers helping the cast get their props<br />
Dressers helping actors change costumes<br />
Ticketing team welcoming people to the show<br />
Parents and staff children preparing the refreshments<br />
Ushers showing an audience to their seats<br />
Sound team reading scripts to ensure cues are hit<br />
Actors, dancers, stage managers, singers, directors, leaders and learners all,<br />
An audience clapping, collaboration shared and appreciated, successful.<br />
Students beaming, celebrating their effort and the rewards. Together.<br />
A stage cleared, costumes put away. Venue empty.<br />
4 teachers, 3 teacher aides and relievers all working on the same goal<br />
77 children all working on the same goal.<br />
"It's all come together"<br />
"This looks awesome, we've done all this and we're just 7 & 8 year olds and we've done it all in 9 weeks! I can't believe it has all come together".<br />
Return of the Moa. LC2 Collaboration. Lifelong learning.<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-51474136129733161402017-10-19T22:29:00.000+13:002017-10-20T07:11:39.234+13:00PINs - Student Led Learning<br />
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Fridays at Hobsonville Point Primary School have traditionally become PINs day. Most of the school chooses part of the day to focus on Passions, Interests and Needs (PINs). Students plan, resource, lead and reflect on workshops that they deliver to their peers. It has been led by the junior learning commons and filtered up through our school and although my initial experiences with PINs weren't convincing I'm quite satisfied with the impact it has on learning these days. The impact of PINs on teaching HPPS students our dispositional curriculum is complemented by extending the reach of the more academic learning, reaching into areas like the English Language Learning needs of our ESOL students, displaying aspects of Tataiako and fosters relationships with our children's Whanau.<br />
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Student-led learning is not new. It has always been valued at HPPS through the use of student-led workshops and responsive teaching. Similarly, at other schools projects, passion based learning, public speaking and the notion that there are many experts in the room have allowed teachers to allow for a more facilitative approach to teaching. We are definitely not the only expert in the room! Tataiako, formalises that for NZ teachers and promotes the valuing of the intellectual and cultural capital that Maori students in particular bring to the classroom, but is extrapolated to all students as a model for effective teaching.<br />
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HPPS has promoted student-led learning from its beginnings, through the promotion of student-led workshops. My first powerful experience was when a student came to me and asked if she could run a lesson to help some peers with their keyboard skills, that afternoon she ran a great workshop using Dance-Mat Typing. Projects also would see students helping others with things they needed, for instance iMovie skills, Google Draw, writing an information report or drawing a graph.<br />
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PINs is different, it plays on the hearts and minds of our learners. Asking students to share their passions and interests allows them to share their hobbies, habits, activities with their peers. Students submit their workshop plans during the week, we select the plans to be used, students opt into the workshops and we then supervise them. The next week it all happens again. Our 5 year olds are running workshops, teaching their friends about things they value. All manner of topics get selected, art, dance, sport, language, drama, computers to name just a few.<br />
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What might you see at HPPS on Fridays? You might see children playing in the playground, working in our learning commons or you might think it looks like organised chaos. Probe a little deeper, ask a few questions, reflect on what you know about learning and a very effective part of HPPS is taking place.<br />
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Students are eager to get their plans selected, throughout the year this encourages an up-skilling in their instructional writing and may even be their first introduction to this type of writing. In choosing to run a workshop many have negotiated with friends to decide on a topic. Once their plan has been selected, students opt in, head off to workshops and come back eager to share their learning. For the students running workshops they've needed to prepare their teaching resources/equipment, negotiate with others for teaching space, deliver content, manage the behaviours of their peers, manage time, solve conflicts, it is an absolute treasure trove for our dispositional curriculum. Do workshops go wrong, absolutely. But this just facilitates discussion on communication, resilience, perseverance, reflection and what the student might do differently next time.<br />
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If you were to see an art, language, science based PINs workshop, it is clear that learning is taking place, in others the learning is a little less evident but present nonetheless. Consider some of the drama or play based activities (Duck Duck Goose anyone?) a student might choose, to have ESOL students running these workshops and practising their oral language is a great reason for such an activity to go ahead. In talking to one of my peers in a junior class (Year 0-2) she said "they'd had enough colouring workshops, it was time for students to up their game". Her students needed to be doing a bit more, it had been acceptable for some first-time workshops but the expectations had clearly been elevated.<br />
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Parents come in to help run PINs also, this year we've had Mums and Dads helping their children run workshops cooking, doing science, sewing, sport and sharing their culture. Allowing this encourages stronger relationships with families as we open our doors, they share their values and also get to see a little part of what makes their child and his /her peers tick. A colleague reflected today that she believes the difference in engagement with PINs between our commons may even be due to parent engagement, opining that they only run PINs fortnightly and she wonders if it is a reflection on the lack of parent involvement.<br />
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I've recently become another teacher with children at school, which has resulted in a philosophical and emotional shift from the role of teacher. PINs has been part of this also. PINs was top-of-mind as we considered an educational choices, how would our darling daughter be able to celebrate her passions and interests? I imagined yoga, gymnastics and cooking workshops appearing in our future. It was to my surprise that in her first week she was running a session on some app, to my knowledge she had never seen this app. As I considered the possibilities I wondered about the use of these workshops to build mana amongst a student's peers. I suspect this may have what the learning advisors were thinking, as a Dad this would be a suitable motivation. Abby's excitement about her first workshop was Christmas-like, with the visit of her teacher-aunty to HPPS she quickly roped her in to help with another workshop.<br />
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Occasionally, we as teachers run workshops during this time too. We will opt students into a workshop because of a need, e.g., handwriting or tying shoe laces but our most effective one this year was when my colleague suggested a meeting with our Maori/Pasifika students. She begun the meeting explaining that she was sad that a recent cultural project in the learning common had focussed on many other cultures but that Maori and Pasifika wasn't getting the mana it deserved, what could they all do about this. This group have now introduced several waiata to the common and have created a class culture of singing after lunchtime.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0IdrSgQuCrae0UADawBoLIO40wPYi71biofAYTvcI04shkmOCSkDFwZNrBvzCTdWpv-I5Ti53XzzQ0te2fimRoulYPo8_dULi14DZi1rEBRWEJdUK3tJbxXd3HEwwKmnZj7yx7YCC6Csa/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-09-12+at+12.27.52+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="381" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0IdrSgQuCrae0UADawBoLIO40wPYi71biofAYTvcI04shkmOCSkDFwZNrBvzCTdWpv-I5Ti53XzzQ0te2fimRoulYPo8_dULi14DZi1rEBRWEJdUK3tJbxXd3HEwwKmnZj7yx7YCC6Csa/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-09-12+at+12.27.52+PM.png" width="216" /></a><br />
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The role of teachers in these sessions alters based on the needs of the individuals running the workshops, our ESOL support have chosen to run workshops alongside students or just be a member of the workshop. Some students require assistance with managing the set-up, others during the actual workshop. Occasionally, there are reports of someone not doing what they're supposed, again this just becomes a chance to lead a conversation with all parties. More often than not, its directing students how best to manage their time or their peers. We've taken the opportunity of PINs workshops to provide disposition-based feedback/forward to students, at one stage we tried to make this written feedback but like most feedback it needs to be passed on in the moment to have any impact. As another means to generate reflection fodder, we've provided the opportunity for students to complete a Google Form (as shown).<br />
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There are many ways that students get to leverage their intellectual capital in the classroom and this is only one. But in classrooms where student voice, engagement or agency are not being fully explored or utilised then PINs presents as a possible mechanism for opening up student-led learning. Our children love PINs, it's powerful and is a fantastic opportunity to allow students to lead their learning. "I like how we get to learn lots of different things and we don't have to do just reading, writing and maths everyday" (Janneke, year 2).<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-48966669248147024372017-04-13T20:27:00.002+12:002017-04-13T20:27:35.938+12:00Personal Qualities for CollaborationWhat are the vital ingredients that create a successful team in a collaborative spaces?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgplPgrIp6bZCjcYvfhg1X3feXTalxvIjzRlWTBmEibxbycQpGkSdMvmAdAe8xKlKkOm27KqmmecCMSKclv0gWVnJWIOPu2Wv6JPWszdaN35huM14C7HA6i_B8fFsNtfaLB2mJBaEbCNSoz/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-04-12+at+7.38.56+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgplPgrIp6bZCjcYvfhg1X3feXTalxvIjzRlWTBmEibxbycQpGkSdMvmAdAe8xKlKkOm27KqmmecCMSKclv0gWVnJWIOPu2Wv6JPWszdaN35huM14C7HA6i_B8fFsNtfaLB2mJBaEbCNSoz/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-04-12+at+7.38.56+PM.png" width="236" /></a>Beginning my third year at HPPS and once again being a member of a new team, this thought has been 'on top' for a while. I began 2017 pondering about the <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2017/02/the-art-of-team.html" target="_blank">Art of a team</a> but I've often reflected back to earlier posts, <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/08/swing-thoughts.html" target="_blank">Swing Thoughts</a> and <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/08/dont-ask-question.html" target="_blank">Asking the question</a>. I've posted several times about collaboration, mainly because I'm continuously learning, but as teachers we all seem to be striving for better collaborations as more of our schools adopt this style of education. My new team, which feels successful, has extended my thinking further but this was given a real power shot when I had the opportunity to answer a few questions for an upcoming presentation to be delivered by our DP. Her question, "What advice would you give someone entering a collaborative space?"<br />
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Teaching in a collaborative space is not that different to being in your own small classroom. Good practise is centred on knowing your learners, choosing the right pedagogy and material that recognises students' learning needs and delivering it effectively. However, teaching and collaborating are two quite different things and I'm in no doubt a teacher can have some success without being a strong collaborator.<br />
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Successful collaboration as discussed in the Art of a team requires many things, vision, communication and a raft of unspoken permissions. Moreover, ultimately I'm finding, it relies on a few select personal qualities, particularly empathy, pragmatism, honesty, drive and selflessness. These traits are over and above what might be evident in tools such as Hermann Brain Analysis, where your learn about your thinking preferences.<br />
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Hicolor_apps_scalable_empathy.svg/2000px-Hicolor_apps_scalable_empathy.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Hicolor_apps_scalable_empathy.svg/2000px-Hicolor_apps_scalable_empathy.svg.png" width="200" /></a>Clearly, as teachers we are different, but to succeed in a collaborative space and ensure that the team is more than the sum of its parts, each individual component needs to demonstrate empathy towards the other teachers (please note I'm talking empathy, not manners). We each have our families, commitments, beliefs and interests. These directly impact upon each member in the space and can determine the outcomes and productivity of the team, I've never felt this as keenly as this year where even just family commitments alone are enough to have you showing your empathy. Furthermore, empathy and consideration are required to help you design a learning programme and space that fulfils the needs of each staff member with varying standards and expectations to be encompassed. The teaching itself, also deserves a healthy dose of empathy (similarly with being selfless). Make sure you keep to some sort of timeline as your colleague might need the same child next, perhaps there is testing to complete. Being empathetic to their needs allows you to tread more lightly, as the moment you don't, teaching and collaboration become infinitely more difficult.<br />
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Our differences as teachers also demand pragmatism. We all have favourite techniques, quirks and idiosyncrasies, which can you leave behind as baggage? Which ones do you need to hold onto? When discussing pedagogy, judgements and ideas often it is a matter of establishing which battles need to be fought, and which really aren't that important. Give and take or compromising requires a lot of pragmatism, successful collaboration will see teachers being warm but demanding, a yes-person isn't needed as some ideas deserve to be challenged but a colleague challenging each idea just to be vexatious isn't creating a positive collaborative environment either.<br />
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Balancing both of these qualities is honesty, in two ways also, towards your colleagues, but also to yourself. As we prepared our team agreement at the start of this year, our team spoke of our needs, weaknesses and symptoms we might display as we became stressed or entered a learning pit. In a collaborative space, this type of honesty is vital. Your colleagues rely on you to test children they're teaching and vice versa. As we enter stressful periods of various commitments, reporting/testing, EOTC, sporting events or any bottleneck that occur in our school, it is vital that you are honest towards your colleagues. I find there is need to outline where people are up to with testing, reporting, my role as a sports coordinator or their various roles. If one was less than honest there is a flow on that impacts your colleagues.<br />
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<a href="http://www.architechsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/plate-spinning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.architechsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/plate-spinning.jpg" height="141" width="200" /></a>Drive appears quite important also. Working in collaborative spaces where everything is deprivatised and you rely on your colleagues is no place for someone who isn't prepared to work hard. Yes, we all have different work habits and tendencies, but the reliance on each other necessitates teachers who can dig in and get things done. I remember being asked in my first year at HPPS about the cognitive load of teachers in these spaces, I didn't feel that it was over the top until I listed all the things that your doing at any one time. The times that I've procrastinated have resulted in some terrible pits, but when any members of the team then takes on more than their share of the load then even more can be achieved. <br />
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The last quality that I've come to find advantageous is selflessness. When working in these spaces it is often necessary to consider the needs of others, that's showing your empathetic, but then putting their needs ahead of yours becomes necessary. As we approached our recent round of reporting, I had to consider the various needs of my colleagues. In a single cell context, managing judgements and reports is relatively straightforward, you control your own destiny as it were. In a collaborative space, much can be out your control, you are reliant on colleagues to share full information in a timely manner. As a colleague recently said, "I need you to have my back, so I'm not left looking stupid".<br />
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I feel that these are rather lofty things to ask of someone. I see each of these character traits in my colleagues and I trust that I display them also. Others may disagree with my assessment or believe that other personal qualities are more important, I'd love to discuss this with you if that's the case. I am working damn hard to contribute to successful collaboration on many levels but especially in LC2 with 2 others teachers and our learners. Honestly, it can feel like the old graphic equaliser displays on stereo systems, continuously up and down in various aspects but as long the result is superior I'll remain satisfied.<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-83842934307385701452017-02-20T19:55:00.000+13:002017-02-20T19:55:02.472+13:00The art of a teamCollaborative teaching, team teaching and team work is no new thing. My own schooling was full of team-taught environments, as those big open plan double classes of the 1980s were experimented with. Nor is the understanding of what it takes to build, make or break a team in many environments, theorists have been investigating and studying teams for many years, consider the premise of <a href="https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_86.htm" target="_blank">Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing</a> proposed in the 1960s and still finds it way into many organisations and management courses today. Other in-house management courses I've been to have featured or relied on different theories and has resulted in participating in any number of team building tasks, discussions, personality tests or role plays. A succinct outline of several teamwork theories can be found here <a href="http://teamworkdefinition.com/theories/">http://teamworkdefinition.com/theories/</a> or <a href="http://www.teambuilding.co.uk/team-building-theory.html">http://www.teambuilding.co.uk/team-building-theory.html</a>. Ultimately, the success of teams is never guaranteed but for the end consumer, be they a student, a customer or a tourist, the team's success can make a vast difference in the product or experience that they receive.<br />
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In my time at HPPS I've been involved in 2 different teams and am entering a year where the team will be different again. For the first time, I feel I know the team members I'll be working with but this has given me time to reflect on what this means for the team and team building.<br />
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Entering both 2015 and 2016, management had suggested plenty of talking and this is vital. While the true test of your team will come later in the year, the foundations are in the forming of a vision or goals for the time ahead. Even this can look different. For some teachers the need to form systems, outline roles and prepare plans may dominate thinking, for others the relational aspect of getting to know each other might be uppermost. The key in the last two years has been the initial discussions that focussed on what we wanted our learning common to look like (vision not aesthetically) and what we wanted our students to be like. In 2015 the vision setting was more informal, in 2016 our management team proposed that we form team building agreements that included some notional arrangements for how we would work together also. <br />
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Why is setting your vision so vital? Could collaborative teaching be successful without it?<br />
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Answering the second question helps to understand the first.<br />
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Successful teaching looks like a safe and happy environment, with engaged children and learning taking place that leads to achievement progress. This is possible without a shared vision. Your goal as a teacher is to achieve these things, our personal reasons for teaching demands it and the Education Council expect it through the <a href="https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Practising%20teacher%20criteria%20English.pdf" target="_blank">Practicing Teacher Criteria</a>. In a single teacher environment this is easier. You have a vision for your classroom and you set up your classroom, planning and resources to achieve it, working within the values and systems of your individual school. However, in a collaborative space you have teachers with different values, boundaries, experiences, passions and styles, working alongside each other. Without a shared vision, the team may seperate out the students, decide on plans and timetables and then engage in more cooperative approach to teaching where you merely share the space. Successful teaching may still be taking place, but possibly not successful in the context of collaborative teaching.<br />
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With a shared vision comes understanding and purpose, it allows each member to drive their own teaching experiences steadily forward in pursuit of the teams objective. It provides freedom, but with an understanding of permissions, expectations and responsibilities that help the team to achieve the overall goal. It is in this zone that collaboration is happening, each member adding value for the benefit of the team and a greater outcome is possible than each just doing their own thing.<br />
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That is to say, that a shared vision is absolutely essential for the success of both the children and the students in a collaborative space.<br />
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I look forward to the team I'm going to be working with in 2017. It's going to be exciting, demanding, educational and beneficial for my career development.<br />
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The above was typed as I approached the end of 2016, with my excited puppy phase clearly on. As we begin week 4 at Hobsonville Point Primary I must share that I'm loving everyday with my new team, they are bringing out the best in me and helping me build the areas I need to improve.<br />
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We have a shared vision, a shared passion for the children in our common and a desire to make sure that our children get the best of us. That's a team I want to be part of.<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-46285313313792435782016-09-15T06:55:00.000+12:002016-09-17T14:04:48.503+12:00Ideas overflowing?How do you feel after amazing professional development? Is your brain churning with ideas, enthusiasm and passion? Are you eager to get back to your class or school and get to work on something new, maybe even share it with others...<br /><br /><br /><br />Do ideas, innovation and creativity come easily?<br /><br /><br /><br />I remember feeling like that after the first #Edchatnz conference in 2014, Steve Mouldey had described it as being like an excited puppy. #Edchatnz 2014 resonated with me. (see posts on the <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/education-revolution-i-dare-you.html" target="_blank">Education Revolution challenge</a>, <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/edchatnz-so-what.html" target="_blank">Continuing the PD</a> or even the <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/edchatnz-blogging-meme.html" target="_blank">Blogging Meme</a> challenge I initiated).<br /><br /><br /><br />Professionally and personally, working in a collaborative environment is challenging but it also brings a new level to interpreting professional development. This other set of eyes can see things differently and may not always agree, whilst this may seem unhelpful it actually provides a filter that is absolutely necessary to reach flow in a collaborative space.<br /><br /><br /><br />I've recently returned from visiting four schools where we (I went with three colleagues) investigated the use of space, learning design, collaborative teaching and any other gems that we could find. It was as much about reflecting on our own practice as it was about what these other schools and teachers do. When I'd been told about the trip my I'd got all excited puppy but started to realise I can't just come back wanting to change the world one learning common at a time. How was I going to filter this zest and not just appear like a magpie collecting shiny new things?<br /><br /><br /><br /><ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5U-CuZuuVWRZbncxW9wJglx8o51qdJHhnoQYmiOUNuyUNORpekah8UeBI9sIMVuSZ-muNClKCCa8KLPk-nT4lHzqSIhj3bkqAmJELVgmVeExmt-ezZgniRSGGlNguq_wKrltNlYB1td_M/s1600/IMG_3568.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5U-CuZuuVWRZbncxW9wJglx8o51qdJHhnoQYmiOUNuyUNORpekah8UeBI9sIMVuSZ-muNClKCCa8KLPk-nT4lHzqSIhj3bkqAmJELVgmVeExmt-ezZgniRSGGlNguq_wKrltNlYB1td_M/s320/IMG_3568.JPG" width="320" /></a><br /><li>Filter 1 was a little visual we keep in LC4. This allows me to really consider the worth of some things that I see/hear about on PD. Some ideas are great for moment, and best left there.</li><br /><li>Filter 2 is simply thinking about the Why? How is secondary and often there is many ways of achieving the same result.</li><br /><li>Filter 3 is priorities. What is worth implementing straight away and what ought to be parked for another day, term or even year?</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><br />My aim for this post isn't sharing all the shiny new things this magpie collected, or even reminding you of some old school ideas that are still solid. The takeaway I hope you'll get is in considering what your own filters or processes are for evaluating what ideas you take back to your own school and thinking about the impact of these ideas on others around you. As I'd headed off to see these schools the buzz of the second #Edchatnz conference was entering day two. Twitter was awash with lots of excited puppies, I felt a pang of jealousy and then wondered how many of these passionate souls would go back to colleagues that wouldn't share the enthusiasm or couldn't understand your excitement. It's not about having ideas, its about what we do with them.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51qo9POttyL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51qo9POttyL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="132" /></a>On my journey I began reading <i>Originals</i> by Adam Grant, a book all about ideas, innovation and the investigates what enables or prohibits creativity.<br /><br /><br /><br />Early on Grant discusses how some people readily accept their role in an organisation as a fixed predetermined entity, whilst others consider these as merely the default settings and that these can be adapted, fine tuned, personalised and ultimately add value to the role. "<i>Starting point is curiosity: pondering why the default exists in the first place...</i>" and goes on that if we consider some of what we face with a new lens then we may find alternative solutions to regular problems in our workplace. For some of our children this is necessary, some pedagogy we know brings results, yet others require different approaches. This is why we need to explore, innovate and consider the Why when we contemplate a new approach.<br /><br /><br /><br />New ideas are threats to old practices and this can be a barrier to sharing too, Grant shares and I'm reminded of how teachers bemoan others who don't/won't change and how this can lead to a reluctance to collaborate and share. As I became engrossed with his book, I found myself staring at straight at my filters <i>"in reality, the biggest barrier to originality is not idea generation - it's idea selection". </i><br /><br /><br /><br />Having visited these schools and constantly having my thinking face on, I need to run all these ideas through my own filters as well as those of my colleagues, their opinions are a necessary new perspective. I've been prompted to record all my ideas, questions and reflections as there is no telling when I'll want to access these again - good point. We've already shared some of our wonderings with our staff, informal discussions during a staff meeting that enabled many to offer thoughts and insights in a 'warm but demanding' manner. As I've been talking with my co-teacher, I've shared things I'd seen with a view to how it could add value to our learning common. Rather than pouring ideas, thinking they're all gold, I'm deliberately letting them be part of a slow release. My principal has even suggested that I use a Hermann Brain resource to consider some of these ideas, it prompts the use of whole brain thinking (Theoretical/Analytical, Organisational, Interpersonal and Creative). His offering is just further proof that it is not generation but selection of ideas that is crucial.<br /><br /><br /><br />Our students deserve to have this idea reinforced also, idea selection is crucial. We can emphasise this during creative processes such as planning writing, design and technology processes or other creative endeavours. I hear about teachers, principals and educators advocating for the growth mindset or the emphasis on the journey, especially in regard to some of the geniuses throughout history. Grant summarises the work of Beethoven, Shakespeare, Picasso, Mozart and Edison. All are known for a select group of outputs, yet each have a large assortment of products that weren't as renowned or successful as others. Both the cinema and publishing industries are full of cases where the commercial success significantly outstripped forecasts, consider this list of titles that weren't meant to reach an audience: Star Wars, ET and Pulp Fiction films; The Chronicles of Narnia, The Diary of Anne Frank, Lord of the Flies and Harry Potter! Is it any wonder that choosing ideas is difficult!<br /><br /><br /><br />What do these list of geniuses and film/book forecast failures have to do with teaching?<br /><br /><br /><br />I'm surrounded by some very innovative and creative people at HPPS and within NZ education circles in general. Regardless of the audience you're pitching to, your classroom, school, community or maybe even wider still, it is not about throwing all your ideas up and trying everything all of the time. The impact this might have on your learners could be damaging, yes it is important to role model risk taking and failure, but it is also important that we use approaches that evidence tells us will work and many students require an element of consistency to get the practise that they need to achieve mastery. It is important that we allow ourselves the opportunity to analyse ideas but must be mindful that we don't destroy some ideas by overthinking. As teachers, we need to be strategic about which ideas we choose to integrate into our learning spaces, idea selection is more important than idea generation.<br /><br /><br /><br />Enabling the space for creativity and conversation is also integral. Recent experiences with my colleagues away from the classroom and staffroom has allowed me to see the importance of meaningful conversation. Topics, ideas, questions and each other as people can be delved into, parked and referred back to later without the constraints of morning tea, lunchtime or meetings finishing.<br /><br /><br /><br />I love my creative, holistic, big picture style of thinking. I also know that it can be frustrating for myself and others. Self-knowledge here is key. It allows me space and license to park things or consider multiple perspectives before sharing. So...<br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTzRCbUW8CwF3oLPO440pBJgFnZr35peVllARvLs2twYkNIj6468jnE_IBrWAXmm5dExNIKAHzXLazcljvVM3Bk7vhJOM1ejTQ-keOwHtPw7MpNZKMVInICIsAACwBMJUx0FejafXZK1Lo/s1600/IMG_3471.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTzRCbUW8CwF3oLPO440pBJgFnZr35peVllARvLs2twYkNIj6468jnE_IBrWAXmm5dExNIKAHzXLazcljvVM3Bk7vhJOM1ejTQ-keOwHtPw7MpNZKMVInICIsAACwBMJUx0FejafXZK1Lo/s320/IMG_3471.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="blogpress_location"><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-3173175025447841362016-06-30T20:19:00.001+12:002016-06-30T20:19:51.684+12:00Student voice - Maori learners and learningOne of my favourite experiences as a staff member at Hobsonville Point was the Waitangi Celebrations at the start of 2015 as this introduced me to new activities, colleagues, students and whanau (<a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/day-5-of-28-days-of-writing-waitangi.html" target="_blank">blog post</a>). It also provoked many thoughts as to how the HPPS model could effectively and authentically integrate Te Reo and Tikanga into the learning at school. Throughout my time at this school I've had many conversations with different staff and parents about this also.<br />
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Initially, I wondered whether Te Reo could be included as an independent learning activity, similar to independent reading or maths. Discussions made me doubt the quality of such learning, although adopting a tuakana teina approach may alleviate this, the real concern surrounds how setting a range of resources/tasks would provide students with an engaging, authentic task. This was reinforced when I watched a colleague set about a filming activity using myths and legends, our students recognised the importance of correct pronunctiation and so asked for some workshops to assist them. The learning was more powerful due to the student voice, authentic learning and timeliness of the task. However, students don't know what they don't know and this is where teacher voice is necessary.<br />
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As a school we provide a Kapa Haka group, teachers include Te Reo in their instructions, signage and in learning activities. The Practicing Teacher Criteria are explicit in the expectations to actively teach our children relevant content, respect culture and values and adhere to the principals of the partnership in the Treaty of Waitangi. I have often felt that I could do more but have felt empowered by some experiences (Waitangi Day Celebrations at HPPS and HNS visit to Awataha Marae) and embarrassed by others (<a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/culture-school-feeling-embarrassed.html" target="_blank">blog post HIS</a>). Recently, I met with a friend who is currently undertaking pre-service training to be a primary teacher, he asked about Te Reo in the classroom. On his placements across 2 years thus far, he had observed that Te Reo was very hit and miss and wondered if it was something that was true of all schools. I can't speak for all schools but can appreciate his question, my student teacher placements also reflect his thoughts but I am aware of many schools and teachers who provide have significant resources promoting Te Reo, Tikanga and the principals of the treaty.<br />
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Currently, as a school we are pursuing Culture and Identity through our immersion experiences, these are being taught through Visual Arts, Music and Technology with a clear nod to the Social Sciences curriculum. In LC4 students have completed artworks, biopoems and on Friday visited the Auckland Art Gallery. Completing the biopoems, we challenged students to include more than just their passions, interests and worries, but to acknowledge their ancestry and their culture. For some this has meant deciding to write their pepeha's and one boy even decided to translate his biopoem into Te Reo. I had created one of the biopoem templates myself, several lines were directly influenced by a pepeha and explained this during class. I didn't tell them to write a pepeha but acknowledged that some may want to and this was an appropriate learning pathway. Some students had clearly felt empowered to pursue their learning and I felt better for creating an environment which enabled this.<br />
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On Friday 3rd we visited the Auckland Art Gallery, students took a studio workshop called Portraiture and Identity and had a guided session that investigated some Maori portraits. The dynamics between the group of students I was with underwent a noticeable shift when we begun work with the portraits. Amongst the group were several children who identify as Maori or Pasifika, without any teacher/guide direction these children all stepped forward and took on the role of leaders as they presented their art piece to the group and shared their knowledge, interest and wondering of the portrait of each Maori chief. As we left this part of the gallery, one young girl sidled up beside me and told me that she really likes learning about Maori art and language. It was a shared comment that provided a deeper insight into how I (and the LC4 team) could better meet her needs as a learner.<br />
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The findings on each portrait had included references to the Treaty of Waitangi, some portrait subjects had signed whilst others did not. In our group of 12, the knowledge of the Treaty was minimal. I parked this and explained it to my colleague on the bus afterwards, had she noticed this in her group? Nicole hadn't noticed this but it gave me pause to reflect on my friend's comment and the nature of learning at HPPS. Could we be doing better? Could I do better? It had to be more than simply pouring knowledge. As our students reflected on their visit they provided the answer, they identified potential projects including carving, weaving, making Maori-inspired jewellery and creating Maori art.<br />
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Student voice suggesting these authentic projects switched my brain into 'excitable puppy' mode as I considered how this could be bound together for a powerful project. Nicole and I have been reimagining the way projects are created and instead of a free for all, we're wanting to deliver six authentic options where the integrated learning is more powerful. I uploaded my thinking into our potential project document and was satisfied with the result, the learning possibilities and the potential outcomes. This learning could provide literacy options that investigated myths and legends, create pepeha, learn about the culture behind each of the art forms, karakia, and allow the students to tell a story about the history of Hobsonville Point and their own identity. This project could involve visits to/from experts in each of these art forms, possibly even Awataha Marae where they could take part in a powhiri. Dreaming even bigger, it might lead to a beautiful carving or artwork that welcomes people to Hobsonville Point or the students might reignite the Waitangi Celebrations Day for in 2017.<br />
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All this would finally make me feel like I was living out the intentions of the Practicing Teacher Criteria.<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-12322549080209545732016-05-26T21:10:00.000+12:002016-05-26T21:10:21.477+12:00Embracing my green brainI'm embracing my green/red/blue/yellow brain this year, I tend to be very yellow as a preference, present as almost square-like in profile but green collapses when stressed and yellow becomes dominant.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0d8DSO97wxXuPsdZy5eG_k9xxJoEjf9kfYNVSDz2vQCZKQ8v8Yf-lmytCKWngsU3OGRN1UX1G_QCK9O8L3XAH2f6nQ9DtXC2dDijydp2TZommd7wDc40kLTrn2XXQeydlfNi9sLgv-rl3/s1600/IMG_2401.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0d8DSO97wxXuPsdZy5eG_k9xxJoEjf9kfYNVSDz2vQCZKQ8v8Yf-lmytCKWngsU3OGRN1UX1G_QCK9O8L3XAH2f6nQ9DtXC2dDijydp2TZommd7wDc40kLTrn2XXQeydlfNi9sLgv-rl3/s320/IMG_2401.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
This is the type of conversation that you'll often hear amongst the staff at HPPS. It's indicative of understanding our <a href="http://www.herrmann.com.au/" target="_blank">Hermann's Whole Brain Thinking</a> profile and acknowledging that we are all different, that we need to be considerate of our differences and utilise all preferences in our collaborative teams. Even during the <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/interview-process-professional.html" target="_blank">interview process</a> for new staff, a mini profile is created and I remember how this altered the way I dealt with many people. Nicole, my new teaching buddy arrived back from a PD session about her profile and it has brought a new understanding of each other as well as a added a layer of humour to what we do.<br />
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2016 has become a year to embrace my green brain.<br />
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In the middle of term 1 I took up the challenge of the Sports Coordinator role, it was presented to me as something that would provide some opportunities to extend my organisational skills. I'd already taken on a Mentor Teacher role for one of our new staff, was forming a new team with Nicole in LC4 and wasn't sure how I would cope. As I drove home that night, I considered the extra work load, the time available to do this work and a lingering doubt about my ability to do the job to the level I'd expect of myself.<br />
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I believe I have a growth mindset, however, I have a continuous fear of not looking capable in front of my colleagues or wider school community, no doubt its tied to my ego. It's a nagging doubt and does inspire me to work harder so that I get things to the level I want. I also need to ensure that I face problems with a solution-oriented mindset, together these approaches to create some significant expectations and pressures that are all of my own making.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCQJtgVc4Knd5-ZBcmEP4PmPw86BfjPbVVrmvhfydEOAIp6Vb7M1qCJ4Wlx2KQ2SOxJFU_WH7K7tHbdKrmA43eXaIh3cnCVTBioonNCf1w9fdwYVveySLyzllx_QWftRDE0ol5u4gLkjxZ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-04-09+at+6.44.29+am.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="41" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCQJtgVc4Knd5-ZBcmEP4PmPw86BfjPbVVrmvhfydEOAIp6Vb7M1qCJ4Wlx2KQ2SOxJFU_WH7K7tHbdKrmA43eXaIh3cnCVTBioonNCf1w9fdwYVveySLyzllx_QWftRDE0ol5u4gLkjxZ/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-04-09+at+6.44.29+am.png" width="640" /></a><br />
Work life balance clearly was going to become an issue, so I explained the offer to my wife, including what I saw as the positives and negatives. Her response was deserved, "You keep going on about a growth mindset, this is your opportunity to take something on and learn new skills, how can you say no?" Decision made then! <br />
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Its not that I'm not organised, but I tend to get distracted easily, am a champion procrastinator and am not excited by lists. My first few weeks of the sports role felt like was I constantly chasing my tail, my email box exploded, morning tea and lunchtime was filled with meetings with students, sorting newsletters and dealing with team registrations. Often my response in these situations is work harder, not necessarily smarter. Worklife balance clearly goes astray when I respond in this way. We had our athletics day on a Friday late in Term 1, so the Thursday was stressful. I did try using a list, Nicole thought this was great but we both had a giggle when I'd lost it by morning tea! I did have a run sheet and had been using it more as a reference point than a tick list. As a teacher, I am organised, planned and generally have things in a modicum of balance but with the various layers of sports there has been a need to refocus my attention. It's not organising the one event that stresses me, the last 2 weeks have involved Athletics, Netball, Rugby, Soccer, Gymnastics and Diving - altogether now, breath! Its required operating across many different organisations, various calendars, multiple approaches and many different dates.<br />
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<a href="http://stephenlethbridge.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/The-Dreyfus-Model.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://stephenlethbridge.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/The-Dreyfus-Model.png" height="226" width="320" /></a>Our Athletics Day being run successfully on Friday was positive, it was reaching that first completion and knowing that this is all achievable. I just have to keep moving forward and eventually many of the organisational challenges that face will become second nature. Realistically, I'm moving through my own novice to expert cycle and having to apply all I know about event management to get me through.<br />
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I recently presented a session on Reading to the PRTs at the Learning Network. In the 30 minutes before the session they met with a Continuity Leader, one of the PRTs was sharing that her Mentor Teacher has many roles at her school and she was finding it hard to get meetings. It struck a chord as I too undertake many of these same roles so I checked in with my BT as to my accessibility but decided that it needs to be something that I raised during school coaching<br />
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During coaching, we've been discussing my roles and how I can organise myself better, not in some micromanaging way though. More from the perspective of getting systems in place, becoming better at asking for support or delegating tasks to others. We have been concentrating on "How might I manage the sports role so that others can support me?" Its about knowing what resources to tap into at the right time, there is an array of parents, teachers and management with useful expertise, not to mention the multitude of sports organisations.<br />
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Run sheets and checklists are slowly going to become my norm, they're supplemented by calendars, due dates and complemented by gear lists, budgets, wish lists and overviews. There's a healthy dose of blue and yellow, mixed with a super-sized portion of green and some red so that you don't forget you're dealing with people. It has been an incredible challenge and to be perfectly honest has had its fair share of learning pits.<br />
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What does this all mean for me and for sport at HPPS?<br />
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The holidays were shaping as a time to get some newsletters and registrations organised in advance, prepare for several events and get the budgets/wishlists updated to reflect 2016. All so that Term 2 would look proactive, rather than reactive. We've now participated in the first North Harbour Rippa Rugby tournament, have a sports section on the school website and begun forming a sports team.<br />
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My main focus is that LC4, its parent community and Nicole all get the best of me. I was employed to be a teacher first and foremost, therefore I have to manage everything else so they all get the Reid they deserve. Sport is a secondary, albeit significant, focus.<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-39328935362979210272016-03-25T10:44:00.000+13:002016-03-25T10:44:05.376+13:00The B wordI'm bored! <br />
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<a href="http://www.thequotepedia.com/images/52/pretendin-to-listen-to-your-teacher-and-kept-saying-yes-ma-am-sir-but-inside-your-head.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.thequotepedia.com/images/52/pretendin-to-listen-to-your-teacher-and-kept-saying-yes-ma-am-sir-but-inside-your-head.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a>We've all heard it whispered, blurted or maybe even frustratingly said by a student. I'll admit that for me it's a tough thing to hear, I pride myself on providing a stimulating and engaging learning environment. Yet still I've seen that stifled yawn, vacuous look or just puzzlement at the reason for being there.<br />
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There are other behavioural signs of disengagement, but by confronting the B word some of these can be dealt with or headed off at the past.<br />
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At my first school, far more traditional environment, there were still many approaches to remedy the B word. Relationships are paramount, know your student and what makes them tick. <a href="http://kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">Kidsedchatnz</a>, Minecraft, personalised reading, differentiated art, hands-on learning and passion projects all were features in my teaching toolbox. But I fought to find more ways to reach more learners and stave off any nasty B-related afflictions. <br />
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With my colleagues at HPPS we push ourselves to provide an authentic and personalised programme for all learners. Projects form an inherent part of this, co-constructed from wonderings during immersion activities, they can be responsive to tailored to each students learning needs and interests. I currently have students exploring Da Vinci's machines and their modern day equivalents, with a focus on the science behind the inventions. Others are focussed on kitchen chemistry with individual concentrated on chocolate tempering, baking and one boy who is exploring the making of plastic for Lego. Our students choose what part of the day to work on their projects, while planning for workshops that cater for their literacy and numeracy needs that can't be accommodated in these projects. It is for this reason that our <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/projects-planning-and-provocation.html" target="_blank">immersion phase</a> is so important, exploring worlds they didn't know existed to arouse their curiosity and wondering.<br />
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But even with these projects ongoing and teachers that are forever challenging themselves to find contexts and methods to engage each child, there are still opportunities for learners to utter the dreaded B word. <br />
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Whose problem is this?<br />
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I believe it's mine. I'm fully cognisant that my colleagues at HPPS will ask me what have I done to create or change the situation (this applies to any scenario, not just the context I refer to in this post).<br />
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<a href="http://www.graphics20.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Boredom-Quotes-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.graphics20.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Boredom-Quotes-1.png" height="200" width="159" /></a>We've recently suffered a number of students who are attempting to occupy a healthy portion of their day with sketching, they use YouTube as their 'inspiration' and copy the steps. It's arguable that there is less creative endeavour behind the process, chess is another time filler that is enjoyed by our learners. Both are signals of the B word. Often this means that the contexts for learning are not appropriate for the individual and we need to build our knowledge/relationship to find a context/medium for more effective teaching/learning. For some it is a sign that they struggling to recognise the priorities in their learning, deadlines, workshops, literacy and numeracy goals for example. Most importantly, all of these are signals that teacher intervention is needed so that the student can be supported to more meaningful learning experiences.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyRs53PfVKvue5_RuC_djHLMQwvTsFgNJ4oLJE3V0H30rsvqF4tUVe5iTl8Jp2ceVAzw8_895AY59F-A3HILuq3jejSgBOB1p7ktU9OOJux7wS_D3CFhy4PR1aKpY047JIrhCQu3rCg0V/s1600/image1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZyRs53PfVKvue5_RuC_djHLMQwvTsFgNJ4oLJE3V0H30rsvqF4tUVe5iTl8Jp2ceVAzw8_895AY59F-A3HILuq3jejSgBOB1p7ktU9OOJux7wS_D3CFhy4PR1aKpY047JIrhCQu3rCg0V/s200/image1.JPG" width="200" /></a>In our space these time fillers are OK brain breaks, or even planned activities at the end of the day when priorities have been met. But not planned as the priority task for the day. Yes, for some sketching is a passion, and as such, it should be integrated purposefully into their learning. Some of our students successfully include many different creative arts into their projects and we use the creative arts as a vehicle to teach many aspects of the curriculum. <br />
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No doubt there are many underlying factors contributing to this affliction - real or perceived, thats for another post though.<br />
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But the B word ultimately is my problem, not theirs.Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-68524027570609276112016-02-29T20:22:00.001+13:002016-02-29T20:22:45.812+13:00Projects, planning and provocation<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5en-MLFhpM1CpUn5bxucpbzITROX7Pv84RbZiJ27b80dWdiuOo0ujPRSNZC7h5GlKGIMWNcVVDyHaPfzfhUWXTC1FsOywCRKp0o4NfzqMr7yN4QLoa3pomXNtYbteb-K_N9NngAW" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5en-MLFhpM1CpUn5bxucpbzITROX7Pv84RbZiJ27b80dWdiuOo0ujPRSNZC7h5GlKGIMWNcVVDyHaPfzfhUWXTC1FsOywCRKp0o4NfzqMr7yN4QLoa3pomXNtYbteb-K_N9NngAW" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="152" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.6667px; line-height: 22.08px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://pict.sdsu.edu/engauge21st.pdf" style="font-size: medium; line-height: 22.08px; text-decoration: none;">enGauge 21st Century Skills</a>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-9e335225-2bdc-279d-23bb-c582e6288309" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 20.24px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Four weeks of school are over! I know that some teachers will be up to their necks in assessment, others will be doing their best to get to know their students and some will be doing Keeping Ourselves Safe or other such topic because that fits with building relationships. Like all teachers, we've been trying to create expectations, understanding and excitement in the class, we want our learners to be engaged, inspired and innovative.</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As part of this we utilise project based learning focussed around three core themes each year and the NZ curriculum is then moulded around these themes. The themes are incredibly broad, Inventive Thinking, Digital Age Literacy and Effective Communication. In 2016 we've commenced with Digital Age Literacy first. Specifically, we've chosen to focus on Scientific Literacy, with Basic (numeracy and literacy), Media, Information and Visual Literacy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For my colleague in LC4, Nicole, I imagine this has been an eye opening experience. Its her first term at HPPS and after being in her shoes this time last year, its quite daunting; new documents, systems, learners, colleagues and school culture. How newbies make their way in this is clearly up to the individual, I found it difficult to adjust to all the challenges and am relishing my second tilt at the wheel.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When teachers discuss passion-based learning they often fret about students concentrating on the bunnies, sports and video games. Passion-based learning can lead to learners building depth in one small area and not necessarily enjoying the true breadth of the NZ Curriculum. Prior to our students beginning projects we invest time and effort into an Immersion stage. Our aim is to introduce students to a "world they don't know". An immersion activity can look like anything, a workshop, hands on activity, workstation, video, app, event, trip, expert etc. Last year I ran immersions in Lego, cooking, infographics, science, Google Doodle Competition and many others. During an immersion it is important to observe/notice what the students are up to, their questions, wonderings and responsive workshops that may be required for their learning. Projects are co-constructed with the children at the completion of immersion.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last year, establishing how to record their wonderings was a learning process. I'd had a couple of goes at </span><a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2013/09/adventure-learning-1st-attempt.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">adventure learning</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at my previous school, but this was on a whole new level! Our first couple of immersions this year have been interesting, a video on the way the brain makes connections certainly excited our students and some activities to make them think about their senses and memory also provoked some thoughts for possible projects. But Nicole and I were clear that we wanted some more focus, and were considering contestable/challenging ideas (vaccine debate, genetic modification, climate change etc) but were naturally worried about how all learners might access these ideas. I approached one of our DPs for warm but demanding feedback, "good theme" I'm told (Prove it) "but you might want to consider an enduring understanding to provide more focus".</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With this in mind we're focussed squarely on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Scientists analyze and interpret evidence to solve problems and make decisions.” But when we utilise our original idea of the misconceptions of science, we've got a huge array of scientific immersion activities that can be considered. This</span><a href="http://newyorkscienceteacher.com/sci/pages/miscon/subject-index.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">American list</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> provides a number of starting points for any science learning as we move into our second week of immersion.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But immersion activities also need to challenge students, excite them and make them wonder.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Nicole and I had been considering introducing the students to Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. I was aware that the proportions were accessible online, that the notion of symmetry and proportion key to this art piece and theory would challenge our students understanding of the human body. Previously, we'd observed students struggling with time and how the use of technology aided in the growing understanding of the human body. It might provoke many to grab rulers and investigate Da Vinci's theories. However, we had some reservations. Firstly, could we find a child-appropriate image and would they react positively, or were we barking up the wrong tree? We decided to park the idea.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/OqWRICUXdfKCasNm1ZjCc_sRH34kMi9592ARR-WRjGa7bjCb7AKibZPp7Frt0SdKyCplzWDjJf8evZ-Cy1SkZBj5Yf5MzDlTd88sCP-6kkhexDCalNyYrW6WQ6JRpvaK4DpLY_sx" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/OqWRICUXdfKCasNm1ZjCc_sRH34kMi9592ARR-WRjGa7bjCb7AKibZPp7Frt0SdKyCplzWDjJf8evZ-Cy1SkZBj5Yf5MzDlTd88sCP-6kkhexDCalNyYrW6WQ6JRpvaK4DpLY_sx" style="border: none; cursor: move; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At our Tuesday staff meeting, we'd been challenged as a staff to really examine our immersion activities. What modalities of learning were we catering for? While we always looked to make activities fun or provoke feelings and often had actual experiences for the student, often we weren't integrating much learning in the activity. As a staff, we were asked to ramp up the learning quotient of experiences. Challenge accepted.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Reflecting on management's challenge and trying to find a way to put an exclamation mark on the week, we reconsidered our Vitruvian Man activity. I found an appropriate image and a few extras for a laugh, a suitable video explaining Da Vinci, and sourced the proportions/measurements.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You can imagine my anxiety levels prior to the lesson - apart from 2 of our girls I'd never heard any mention of Da Vinci or the Vitruvian Man. This was definitely taking a risk as far as creating and sequencing a learning experience.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/l_Vf3xwCT0ZwrQQKxb0k59UWoE_vS551nM7DNMo62z7DnFwxAFasRI0qbd_XniMN18WsJ0ZyeqzMbiqqjifdhZ4gyn3oSvyC2mu8NK-Maf7T2T6PwFT-ILuMFLTaLUi3SzD_SPrk" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/l_Vf3xwCT0ZwrQQKxb0k59UWoE_vS551nM7DNMo62z7DnFwxAFasRI0qbd_XniMN18WsJ0ZyeqzMbiqqjifdhZ4gyn3oSvyC2mu8NK-Maf7T2T6PwFT-ILuMFLTaLUi3SzD_SPrk" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="200" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A small slideshow, the <a href="http://www.davincithevilla.com/vitruvproportions.htm" target="_blank">proportions</a> listed out, making sure we have the rulers sourced, a plan of attack for observing and noticing what our learners got up to and we were ready. As they listened to the my quick introduction to Da Vinci we saw a few interested learners, then a video, a few more still, then Homer, Batman, Garfield and a Stormtrooper - lots more. Then the magic words - "we need rulers so we can measure these things!" They were intrigued, curious and we'd sparked their imagination. "Can we make a hypothesis?" says one, and gets nods of approval from some of her peers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">The questioning, curiosity, engagement and effort that went into the next 30 minutes was outstanding. Most investigated the proportions and tested (with varying degrees of accuracy) Da Vinci's theories, we spent our time recording questionings and comments from our learners or redirected them to their immersion tracking sheet as they looked to finish. All learners were introduced to something new, many were able to record quite interesting wonderings and possible projects. Not all had projects which came directly from the Da Vinci exercise, one was more interested in some of Da Vinci's other inventions and how these are compared to objects today (tanks, helicopters and catapults). Others started wondering about the human body and differences/similarities. While we had imagined that many would go straight to the rulers and the proportions, a handful went straight to devices to investigate more about Da Vinci and is an appropriate response to such a provocation, especially given our overall aim is to introduce the students to a world they didn't know.</span></div>
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<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Bs0o0dGbxoEWGn4NG3ufRSkTq-kocGPDcfk5wySDehFUCcvqD81i0XhBEf2QZmo0Xd-HiMBIisv8zUyPrXF5vEQVdrd4ckOrhxe8Iyx_5HGbDsRlzmv6y9S0R6P7ScXHw2jir5i2" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Bs0o0dGbxoEWGn4NG3ufRSkTq-kocGPDcfk5wySDehFUCcvqD81i0XhBEf2QZmo0Xd-HiMBIisv8zUyPrXF5vEQVdrd4ckOrhxe8Iyx_5HGbDsRlzmv6y9S0R6P7ScXHw2jir5i2" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As well as recording their noticings, wondering and questions Nicole and I were observing for teaching points for particular students. Some students were having trouble with rulers, converting measurements, working out fractions of a number or had difficulty calculating numbers. All this information was recorded to become responsive workshops for different learners. Nicole ran one such workshop today, the students with some targeted support around measurement all achieved more success using the same Vitruvian Man context. To allow student voice, we also invited students to submit requests for responsive workshops, if the students identified something they'd like to learn.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xzgBWstLSl5OqhMAHjL5GWlNrMzlHAsRI7HaRHkz-GHxZjzb9JfaRJMdlHrxs8bswz3e20RzYubcopTHRhhlS2ar7VO_OBCJhlGTdxNVF6P37TH2IngzHZ2qeWVNgqWpWFQJFRsx" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xzgBWstLSl5OqhMAHjL5GWlNrMzlHAsRI7HaRHkz-GHxZjzb9JfaRJMdlHrxs8bswz3e20RzYubcopTHRhhlS2ar7VO_OBCJhlGTdxNVF6P37TH2IngzHZ2qeWVNgqWpWFQJFRsx" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our students finding projects isn't the only learning that comes out of these experiences. For some students, it is challenging to work with new or different people, they were actively encouraged to find someone to work with from outside their comfort zone. Others, have need support communicating their ideas, for them this was another opportunity to work with some scaffolds to find another way to share their ideas. Similarly, leading a group or being a follower is another disposition that is appropriate for some of our learners to consider during an experience such as this.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Towards the end of the experience I was buzzing, we'd achieved what we wanted when setting out but we'd done this in a way that met the criteria management had outlined in their challenge to us. I felt we'd lifted the bar for ourselves as a new team at the school and for myself personally when running immersion activities. The true test of this immersion activity, though, will come when we conference our students to co-construct their first round of projects.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Will the Vitruvian Man, or any project derived from that experience, feature amongst the children's thinking?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps, it doesn't matter as they've still been introduced to a world they didn't know existed.</span></span>Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-53505260110422078972015-12-17T08:52:00.002+13:002015-12-17T08:52:20.592+13:00Collaboration - Power in Observation<a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=15/12/16/180.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/15/12/16/s_180.jpg" height="130" style="margin: 5px;" width="200" /></a>Hobsonville Point Primary School celebrated a the work of its students last night with a small film festival. The films were all student creations, the tech support work, the MC's, Kapa Haka and musical performances all from students. I sat taking all this in, thinking about their journey as learners and it dawned on me, my own journey this year has been immense.<br />
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Reprising my journey would be rather self-indulgent ( check out these posts for the journey: <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/seeking-growth-mindset.html" target="_blank">seeking a growth mindset</a>, <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/scientist-for-day.html" target="_blank">scientist for a day</a>, <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/08/dont-ask-question.html" target="_blank">Ask the question</a>, <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/08/swing-thoughts.html" target="_blank">Swing thoughts</a>, <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/12/mud-fun-and-tod.html" target="_blank">Mud</a>,) it is more important to share about the vehicle for this journey.<br />
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The ILEs that are being built or redeveloped produce a deprivatised learning space. Sharing the learning space with 2-3 other teachers, having few walls to hide behind, colleagues strolling in and any number of visitors means every move you make is observed. This can be daunting, but it also creates amazing professional development opportunities. I've been privileged to work with amazing people this year, sharing LC4 with many but the bulk of my time has been spent with Lisa and Amy. Both are foundation staff at HPPS and have lived the journey that I undertook this year, often you can feel like you're a beginning teacher again.<br />
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In my previous school we did 4 minute walkthroughs and occasionally you'd share some learning space, this gives you a small insight into what your colleagues do and how they do it. As beginning teacher you get observed regularly and do observations of others. Deprivatisation creates opportunities for constant observation of others, their observation of you and leads to real professional development if you open yourself to it.<br />
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It it is not the formal observation that is powerful, but it is the seeing each other in action and reflecting afterwards, it is the noticings and wonderings that you share. It is the added value that you create together and the osmosis of teaching tools, strategies and each others experiences. This is the observation that you undertake together in your shared space that I am sure has made me a better teacher than I started the year. In these deprivatised environments you also get to notice how other teachers in their space do their thing and over the course of the year there are many little noticings.<br />
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Professional development this year hasn't been attending expensive courses, it has been about watching my colleagues, sharing the space together and being comfortable with constant observation.<br />
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Thanks for the year Lisa, Amy, Jody and everyone else I've shared the space with, collaborating with you in 2015 has been a whirlwind and a privilege.<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-29501712125020161342015-12-07T20:19:00.000+13:002015-12-07T20:19:04.740+13:00Mud, Fun and a TODMe: Stop being so childish!<br />
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Student: But I am a child...<br />
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Prophetic words from a ten year old during an in-class activity at my previous school. I'd prided myself on facilitating interesting and engaging activities for the classroom but these words made me chuckle, cringe and then reflect at the time. Since Friday last week they've been ringing in my ears again!<br />
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HPPS held a Teacher Only Day last Friday to plan for 2016 and for us that meant contemplating and discussing the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/50300814.pdf" target="_blank">Nature of Learning after a report produced by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation at the OECD</a>. There are many challenges to educators in this report, for our morning we focussed on The 7 Principles of Learning section and reflected on what challenged us or made us wonder about our own practise. <span style="background-color: yellow;"></span><br />
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My students have engaged in a range of projects this year, with varying success, and we have supported, encouraged and provoked their thinking throughout their journey. Understanding each child's learning needs, dispositional needs and interests has played a critical factor in the development of each project. We allow them to experience their own learning pits, but support them to make their way out of it. Some have had some very real deadlines, dealing with outside organisations, event calendars or critical milestones for their projects. This is a lot of pressure for year 4 - 6 children!<br />
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As we shared our challenges with our colleagues I wondered about this. Yes, we provide many opportunities for our learners to be stretched academically and dispositionally. But how is this affecting them? Are we overloading them? Are we demotivating them? Could they cope better with more or less? What's my role? I need to know my learners and their motivations, use my teacher voice to enable them to set realistic goals, reframe their objectives for events and projects but most importantly I need to remember they're still children, albeit very competent children. I've taught at tertiary level and while its important to have high expectations of all learners, I need to remember that there are vast differences in capacity and capability between a 10 year and a 21 year old. It seems obvious, but when you've got year 4 and 5 students running day long events and testing their self-directed skills the confusion between children and adults is easier. I ought to avoid this confusion and must celebrate the children as they do what they do best, be children.<br />
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Last Monday, we took our children up north for a snorkelling exercise. Observing them out of their regular environment provides much food for the teacher brain. They engaged in their snorkelling activities with zeal, giggles, much laughing at each other's form in wetsuits and the constant instructions from their snorkelling buddies. Throughout the day there were the constant reminders that they're children, excitement at what they saw, horsing about in the water and on land, including an irresistible urge to play in mud! What is the role you would have taken when these kids started playing in the mud? The scaffolding to their snorkelling trip had included many separate trips, experiences and activities, but on the day the magnetism of the mud won out. Children will be children after all and why stop them?<br />
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Mud can't be at the centre of all learning though, camp, projects, field trips and shows finish and we return to the classroom. The Nature of Learning challenges all educators to put children front and centre and in my opinion flies in the face of what some schools are doing when they focus on Numeracy and Literacy with little time for anything else. The National Standards don't have to be so dominant in your planning and learning design. At my previous school, my principal spoke passionately about the need for developmental play and hands on / physical activity rather than just improving each child's literacy and numeracy.<br />
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The OECD report's Social Nature of Learning recommends children be engaged in meaningful learning experiences alongside their peers, in either formal or informal situations, such situations could include those my former principal longed for. But how much power/control/ego is involved when we presume to be the font of all things educational? The Social Nature of Learning reminds us that there is much that each child can learn with and from their peers and there is plenty of other reading supporting their peers as a powerful learning tool.<br />
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Consider for a moment those stressful moments in the day and think what they might be like for your learners. There are so many reasons to integrate play-based learning, physical activity, hands-on activities or even a Reggio-inspired approach. They can mitigate much of the stress for our learners, they'll have something meaningful to do after the excitement of lunchtime, they can experience a world they didn't know exist, make genuine connections with other learners as they share their fascinations and questions, and most importantly remove them from the grind of learning that some classrooms can become . I appreciate that this won't help them pass their next GloSS or Running Record, but perhaps it will mean your satisfying other individual needs which may result in more success across the curriculum. Prior to reading this report I felt I knew many of my learners emotionally, now I'm sceptical. We know many but perhaps our knowledge of their emotional selves isn't as deep, does it extend past the more vulnerable learners? How well do I know the emotional drivers for each child? What might I do differently to learn about these and how could that impact the teaching and learning? This wondering has me wanting to read more about anxiety, stress and other special learning needs - there goes the summer reading!<br />
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Another book laying beside my bed is Ken Robinson's <i>Creative Schools, </i>he worries that there are many distractions which are top of mind for educators. Consider the outside forces you encounter, political policy/agendas, national priorities, unions, job descriptions, parental ambitions and peer pressures. Both Robinson and the Nature of Learning report place significant attention on the relationship between the educator and the learner. Compounding this, NZ teachers will be thinking about National Standards, the front/back/totality of the NZ Curriculum and possibly thinking about modern learning pedagogy or 21st century learning or some such catch phrase. Is it any wonder that teachers glance knowingly when you say that your learning design is student-centred?<br />
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I'm not trying to advocate for a fun-based learning approach, I've posted elsewhere about <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/day-24-28daysofwriting-choice-or-voice.html" target="_blank">doing stuff versus purposeful learning</a> and know that within my own learning common there are many structures in place to enable learners to have success. But I'm curious about the balance, particularly with so many teachers running inquiry/passion/project based learning approaches. In the drive to create authentic, connected, purposeful learning that stretches the abilities of all learners, do we run the risk of overloading them. Often times, they've not developed the skills or knowledge to understand that they're being weighed down with too much, not until it is too late anyway. And, furthermore, many children will simply take on more because they feel that they're pleasing the teacher. This is hardly creating the conditions for success. Yes, I'm in favour of students being able to make mistakes or take risks, but this should be done with the intent that they can fail forward, that next time they'll be able to rely on the experience they've gained along the way to know what to do when they face the same scenario again. How are you feeling about being a child now? It seems like being a child could be extremely taxing!<br />
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There are many features in this report and the 7 principles are only 2 pages but we need to engage with readings such as this if we are truly to live out the front section of the NZC. Many more posts will result from analysis and reflection based on this document, for now I'm pondering how are children being impacted by the many choices we make for and about their learning. Child-centred decision making is the least we owe our learners and that is more than just numeracy and literacy.<br />
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We ask so much of our learners, but for now I must remember that it's ok if they are childish!<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-59895243464838108902015-08-26T21:09:00.004+12:002015-11-24T20:05:33.222+13:00Swing thoughts*LC4 has 43 children, 3 Learning Advisors, a range of support staff, a wider network of parents & whanau, organisations that we use in a variety of ways and a supporting cast of many. We also have a large number of visitors to the school that drop by, observe, question, reflect and participate in the learning space.<br />
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Recently, I took pause to reflect on just whose space is it? Predominantly, it is the student's space and must reflect their learning, emotional and behavioural needs, this was discussed in a <a href="http://amymmcc.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/our-space-designing-our-learning.html" target="_blank">blog post</a> by my colleague Amy at the start of the year. The learning design requires considerable thought, far more than a few colourful tables or bean bags and is the topic of many visitors to our school. But it isn't just the formal planning that takes place. Another integral component are the discussions that take place every day, but there is also a layer of individual/personal choice that is part of the learning design.<br />
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Let's consider a recent two-part conversation I had:<br />
Colleague 1 : "We could do goalfish"<br />
Me: "no sounds a bit naff"<br />
Colleague 1: "it worked last year & the kids loved it"<br />
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Later on, this conversation was continued...<br />
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We were talking about how many of our learners are requiring more support with following their plan and meeting their goals, this shifted to the deprivatisation of our learning space, a display was mooted:<br />
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Me: "We could display but just not the goalfish"<br />
Colleague 2: "I like the idea"<br />
Colleague 1: laughing<br />
Me: "you don't need my permission, it's not my space, it's our space".<br />
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That conversation was the catalyst for this blog post. I have wondered a lot about "permissions" this year, within the context of a shared space it seems relevant. Bear in mind, no one is asking for actual permission but there is a genuine need to be considerate. Many of the visitors to HPPS ask a similar themed question: In a shared space who decides the pedagogy? If you want to do something different to your colleagues, is this allowed/tolerated/reasonable?<br />
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How would you cope if all of a sudden you shared your present learning space with someone else? Who gets to decide on the pedagogy, management styles, planning frameworks, timelines and everything else that is part of the teachers domain? I'm not referring to your principal, team leader or mentor teacher either. I refer to another teacher in the same learning space as you, each with their own experiences, preferences, styles, strengths and weaknesses. How would you cope?<br />
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<b>Disclaimer:</b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZUsaR3BVTfYjELkd-QSBpBpr-41h2XW2z0Ym6a22A6Sggkf7HVF739FLRxaY-pv8gNsrQl7tmttZGQI0T7rcFUFE_Ccpla1vUlzcFJiiJXX2AryCBTO2QqwZjpyM81V13SgQP23OwZ2l/s1600/Golf+Swing+Thoughts.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZUsaR3BVTfYjELkd-QSBpBpr-41h2XW2z0Ym6a22A6Sggkf7HVF739FLRxaY-pv8gNsrQl7tmttZGQI0T7rcFUFE_Ccpla1vUlzcFJiiJXX2AryCBTO2QqwZjpyM81V13SgQP23OwZ2l/s320/Golf+Swing+Thoughts.png" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Swing Thoughts*</b> <br />
(Picture sourced from <a href="http://getgreatgolfgifts.com/">http://getgreatgolfgifts.com/</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>At this point I must point out that these thoughts are NOT the ramblings of a teacher experiencing discontent. Merely the thoughts which are bouncing around in my head needing to find their voice. Thoughts which I raise with my colleagues and feel the need to share more widely. </b><br />
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These wonderings may materialise in different aspects of the day:<br />
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<li>Teachable moment - how do you run with it? What is the impact on the space/other teachers/overall plan? This means it might be parked for a later date by which time the kids may not care anymore (if they don't care was it worth pursuing anyway?).</li>
<li>Reading aloud - Scarcely done but was an integral part of creating a reading culture in other classrooms. Can you sit and read to a group of students, what if it impacts on other colleagues?</li>
<li>Innovation - How might we select which innovations should be pursued? Who judges if it is successful? If it hasn't worked for someone in the past does that mean it shouldn't be tried by a different team member?</li>
<li>Time management - What if a workshop/conference takes longer than planned? How does this impact on the rest of the days plans? How does this impact your colleague?</li>
<li>Workspace - Which space should I/we use for a particular workshop? Do I need to tell my colleague if we are heading to a different space (gym/outdoors/library/boardroom/music room/ foodtech etc).</li>
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Many of these thoughts can be dealt with effectively by considering three simple ideas.<br />
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<b>Responsiveness</b>: What are you responding to with any learning experience? Is it student voice? Learning needs? A suggestion/feedback from the school community? Curriculum coverage? Your own personal passions? That's The Way We Always Do It?<br />
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<b>Collaboration</b>: Are you adding value to the learning space? What if this is duplicating effort from your colleague? How does your learning experience/activity affect the learners as they move between teachers in the space or elsewhere in the school? Are you creating habits/expectations that may not be followed elsewhere in the school?<br />
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<b>Permissions</b>: Does it conform to the vision/values for the learning space/school? Is your learning activity well considered? Does it meet a need? Are you prepared to reflect on the activity honestly?<br />
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Answering questions with more questions might not seem helpful, its not meant to be. But when an opportunity/teachable moment or pedagogical shift might be on the cards I can't just act like I'm the captain of my ship. I need to consider the impact on those around me.<br />
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The cognitive load for any teacher is substantial, its certainly not lessened by being in a shared space given the deprivatisation, collaboration and sheer numbers of children. I won't claim to be a perfect teacher in a shared space (that would be extremely dangerous to believe) but I'm very proud to contribute to the many conversations that drive LC4 as a collaborative and responsive learning space. There are daily reflections, shared observations, wonderings and suggestions for how we move forward together to meet the vision and values of our school. But these all serve to contribute further to the many thoughts that bounce around inside my head!<br />
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<b><i>*In golf, there are considerable moving parts to a efficient and effective swing. Unfortunately, too many thoughts about technique when taking a shot actually serves to confuse the brain resulting in a poor swing. Generally, a better technique is shown when the mind is more relaxed and in flow. The questions and wonderings I share here are my "swing thoughts"when I'm teaching. </i></b><br />
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Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-8943466411981660622015-08-05T20:35:00.000+12:002015-11-24T20:11:05.962+13:00Ask the question!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEN_QeZXgZET2T1YMgcfkCDf-jj4-a3RPwpSq_L2gPTAP8DILJWiMbjxsOBunm_1XnZ7pJpm5A8d2ZfM2Ob02PQizxMfeS7xrkCqxlR6C3G_2-0cenCadtGvvRATcJPeoACPUpqUdZs_t4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-08-01+at+12.28.47+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEN_QeZXgZET2T1YMgcfkCDf-jj4-a3RPwpSq_L2gPTAP8DILJWiMbjxsOBunm_1XnZ7pJpm5A8d2ZfM2Ob02PQizxMfeS7xrkCqxlR6C3G_2-0cenCadtGvvRATcJPeoACPUpqUdZs_t4/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-08-01+at+12.28.47+pm.png" width="241" /></a>Collaborative teaching can be a scary journey! The deprivatisation might not be your idea of comfortable but it is ever present and places you in a position of constant observation by your peers, at the same time you are privileged to be able to observe them as they go about their teaching. In this environment it becomes easier to be more reflective about your own development and naturally this often takes the form of asking your colleague for their thoughts, observations, opinions and feed forward. Asking questions requires bravery and is relatively easy, being prepared to listen to the answers demands trust and professionalism.<br />
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Last week my colleague Lisa and I sat down to discuss how we might proceed with immersion and the next round of projects, we'd just conducted some eAsttle assessment of measurement and geometry and were contemplating whether or not we wanted to run one more week of immersion. I was quite excited about our ability to be innovative with the teaching of measurement but we were mindful that taking another week for immersion most likely would mean a week less for the next immersion/project phase. We both considered the timing and decided that spending a week on some measurement inquiry would benefit our learners as we can excite them about maths again.<br />
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Thursday afternoon, I spoke with another colleague, Erin, who teaches in our space 2 days a week to outline some of my ideas: Gardening, Fundraising, Garbage/Recycling and Fitness Activities/Trails. All four could be presented as problem based learning for a mini inquiry throughout the week, in my mind there would be lots of opportunities for us to observe real measurement learning and could lead to lots of responsive workshops for teaching. I got positive feedback and based on this we designed a Reggio-inspired provocation for measurement. I was still slightly concerned that three of these problems did have the potential to become more like a design thinking process though.<br />
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Friday morning, actively seeking feedback I went to share my ideas with Lisa. Her response was 'warm but demanding': "I challenge you" to look for something where there will be more DATs / explicit teaching not just an open ended exploration. For a split second, I did feel personally attacked, but this was my own problem and wasn't in Lisa's tone, delivery or body language. I had gone seeking feedback, not reinforcement and a 'warm but demanding' response had been elicited. Shortly after I was comfortable with the challenge, I don't quite have the answer to Lisa's challenge but am feeling "comfortable with discomfort". I have spent some time looking for better provocations and activities where there will be explicit teaching, supplementing these will be the observations that will lead to responsive workshops.<br />
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My thoughts were leaning towards using some YouTube videos and hands on activities such as building a water clock. But I'm still feeling some dissonance.<br />
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As it turned out I wasn't at school Monday ("Man Flu!" You might cry). Lisa had provided work investigating Translation, Transformation, Escher Art, Rotation, mixed with StudyLadder & Khan Academy modules and some teacher led workshops. This was a perfect model of balance for what we were after, exciting our learners about mathematics and providing room for explicit teaching.<br />
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Finding that balance can be difficult when planning for learning, sharing a learning space with other colleagues can add further pressure that translates into additional planning time. Its not a competition but it can certainly feel like it. Rather than getting caught up in destructive self-doubt, I believe that careful questioning of my own teaching and planning, should allow for deeper reflection and development. I need to bounce ideas, wonder aloud, share my observations and invite others into my thinking. But if I'm going to ask questions...<br />
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I better be ready for the answers!<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-71586113402305140982015-07-26T16:13:00.001+12:002015-07-26T16:13:50.981+12:00#EducampAkl 2105<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Work life balance has been a bit of a problem this year. I've got two young kids at home, a desire to play golf, a passion to pour myself into my new school and did I mention my kids who are almost 3 and 14 weeks old. The notion of giving up a Saturday for professional development at the moment, while attractive, isn't the easiest decision.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As July 25th had approached I'd delicately mentioned to my wife that it was something I'd like to do but recognised it might not work. Thankfully the stars aligned, off to Tamaki College I trundled. Three things were crossing my mind:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What F2F connections would I make?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What would be my takeaways for the day?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What could I offer to the others that were there on the day?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last year my first educamp had been quite an <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2014_07_01_archive.html" target="_blank">eye opener</a> and I anticipated lots of PD goodness this time around.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>F2F connections</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First of all it was awesome to meet Stuart Kelly @stuartkellynz (nice <a href="http://www.digitalednz.com/blog/the-benefits-of-face-to-face-digital-learnings" target="_blank">blog post</a> Stuart), Myles Webb @NZWaikato and Amanda Signal @Heymilly. I have different connections to each of them, so it was great to meet them. I caught up with many others that I'd met before, whether fleeting or not so fleeting it is always beneficial having face to face time. Along with others, I find the connection made through Twitter is advantageous but there is nothing like the relationships and connections that are formed through real conversations rather than just 140 character snippets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Takeaways</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Play-based learning</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wasn't sure about this but with an HPPS colleague's voice ringing in my ear, I embraced the discomfort and wandered into this workshop. We're beginning some good discussion about Reggio philosophy at HPPS so I figured I had nothing to lose. One of the participants had been at the same Reggio PD with my colleague, thanks for that connection Kristyn and Amanda. I have a lot of wonderings about Play-based learning that include:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How might Play-based learning fit with the needs for LC4?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How might provocations be used effectively in LC4? Thanks for the idea of Grand or Petit provocations Caroline.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How would our wider school community feel about Play-based learning, especially if this was within LC4 (Year 4-6).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Did the </span><a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/scientist-for-day.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">#ScientistForADay</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> inquiry have components of Play-based learning? I think it might of, I now need to reflect on whether this was successful using another lens as opposed to the original aims that Lisa and I had at the time.</span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL23AMWCfJ-WCVx2JnOI86zARQ5VlPYXGQk0t8cfLy-X08tt1AXdBvBfULVqhF98n_t5j3iE5QURBz2ahb1_02h_QcynKnbuLQmHNcCeSk6P5tlF-BA5BA38qDl9E-JRqVY3LlKDTHvY-k/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-26+at+3.12.18+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL23AMWCfJ-WCVx2JnOI86zARQ5VlPYXGQk0t8cfLy-X08tt1AXdBvBfULVqhF98n_t5j3iE5QURBz2ahb1_02h_QcynKnbuLQmHNcCeSk6P5tlF-BA5BA38qDl9E-JRqVY3LlKDTHvY-k/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-07-26+at+3.12.18+pm.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm quite curious as to where our discussions at HPPS could take us, stay tuned I know this will lead to a blog post or two.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Google Cardboard</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I didn't even know what this was prior to the start of the day, but seeing Justine Driver talk about her love of the Viewmaster as a child I knew I was in the right place. For a concise description, place your phone inside a cardboard box with some lenses to watch an app, then let the Virtual Reality App do the business! Check out <a href="https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/" target="_blank">Google Cardboard</a> for a better description. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Totally cool and as a toy I want one! From an educator's perspective these are also very exciting. Before the end of the session I had 4 ideas running through my brain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Firstly, as a simple writing prompt Google Cardboard could be exciting. We know that children may engage with activities simply because of the addition of digital technology. VR apps that could have a child experiencing another city, a tourism attraction or any such thing really opens up writing opportunities. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6e0btDMAxPt-4Aey3iZgVIFmCpBCd8E3LqMl3llZHE_Kt45ZPA-t3KIvYGzwHtOIct3d6veW3jzyjVi0cbYFQWrcwgmdSGxVV8w4MsF4NV-8V8lX366piju8RejeSNFbXUSApcl6Ay7y/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-26+at+3.28.11+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6e0btDMAxPt-4Aey3iZgVIFmCpBCd8E3LqMl3llZHE_Kt45ZPA-t3KIvYGzwHtOIct3d6veW3jzyjVi0cbYFQWrcwgmdSGxVV8w4MsF4NV-8V8lX366piju8RejeSNFbXUSApcl6Ay7y/s200/Screen+Shot+2015-07-26+at+3.28.11+pm.png" width="154" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second (and third), the Hobsonville Point area and even our school are rather new. We could take photos, upload them and then allow others to experience the growth of our area and school through Google Cardboard. This has direct ties to an ongoing project at HPPS and HPSS, opportunities for some authentic collaborative projects here are massive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last opportunity, all credit here to @Gmacmanus (pictured). I've been taking part in an interesting little project to assist @NZWaikato and his class as they try collect information on classes so they can recreate them in Minecraft. His learners and mine are operating in quite different classroom environments, Google Classroom would provide a more realistic way to experience each others classrooms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This was a very cool takeaway for the day, now I have to order me some Cardboard but I think I'd like to get an old fashioned viewmaster too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>What did I offer?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I took part in the smackdown by talking about one of my favourite subjects Kidsedchatnz. My involvement in this is limited to being an advocate these days, but advocate I did. I also posted a slide for #Edchatnz and all of the other education chats on Twitter. I'm glad I did this as it led to a small session where myself and @jacquea provided support for others new to twitter, chat sessions and tweetdeck. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">During this session I also chatted with Michelle Simms who is about to begin a chat session for librarians as the moderator. I know that many of us have now moderated chat sessions and I thought that I might have even seen the odd blog post or two on this, searching for posts online gets you many responses. Perhaps we need to crowd source a Moderators Guide for our Kiwi educators.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once again, #educampakl has proven to be useful PD. The unconference style really lends itself to be whatever you need it to be, for me the connections, takeaways and ability to give back make for a powerful day. But more teachers ought to engage with educamps as they are so much more invigorating than the one size fits all approach that other PD courses tend to be. Futhermore, if you were struggling to get your school to come to the party with some PD need that you have, you'll more than likely find that need met at an Educamp, or at the very least someone who could answer your questions or point you in the right direction. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I recognise that giving up another day seems like a big ask, but its only a few hours and never leaves you feeling like you've wasted your Saturday. I wouldn't give up the precious time with my kids otherwise! Educamps have a place in my #Worklifebalance</span></div>
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Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-31747931205239187072015-07-21T20:37:00.002+12:002015-08-05T22:34:55.190+12:00Scientist for a day<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlul6YvFvrjVGOAy1y6VMGwHD0_S4WDaTFllpClZWmtWAdYdsJ-SqrIqu16ISZyMpssLQGuWDCftwxr6vtstspM3Byz1r5ajtYnVV6BuuFz6YbaN_0td6CGcmIJjRz7wasyfOCeIsB4r79/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-05-29+at+6.25.07+am.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlul6YvFvrjVGOAy1y6VMGwHD0_S4WDaTFllpClZWmtWAdYdsJ-SqrIqu16ISZyMpssLQGuWDCftwxr6vtstspM3Byz1r5ajtYnVV6BuuFz6YbaN_0td6CGcmIJjRz7wasyfOCeIsB4r79/s200/Screen+Shot+2015-05-29+at+6.25.07+am.png" width="200" /></a>During the holidays I met with my LC4 teaching buddy to discuss our plans for term 3. We are in the midst of immersing our learners in Digital Age Literacy (see attached image), yes this goes across the term break! Initially we considered some of the activities in our planning document. But Lisa floated the idea of "scientist for a day", in a short space of time this had morphed into we what presented to LC4 on day 1 of the term. <br />
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Immersion into a world they didn't know was our main motivation, but we also wanted to excite them, provide a level playing field for some new students in our space and challenge several learner profile statements. It would serve as a great activity for us to observe many possible learning needs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFTH2KCmSwtQwK2UPnBRxkP_5uwi0GstGxTtompLskSSX1TmxPDtOBsK03IxBV3miXak8ZW2O482aQBmidDtlUb9Am0RSAOWVu82GlyW_AJ-_xkarRbMEbGlQNzewS4S1wVqtHi4yAGGH/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-21+at+8.28.34+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZFTH2KCmSwtQwK2UPnBRxkP_5uwi0GstGxTtompLskSSX1TmxPDtOBsK03IxBV3miXak8ZW2O482aQBmidDtlUb9Am0RSAOWVu82GlyW_AJ-_xkarRbMEbGlQNzewS4S1wVqtHi4yAGGH/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-21+at+8.28.34+pm.png" /></a></div>
When the students arrived Monday morning they were confronted with a table that included:<br />
Models demonstrating gears & pullies,<br />
Newtons Cradle,<br />
Models of the brain,<br />
Plant Life Cycle,<br />
DNA model,<br />
Stethoscope,<br />
Microscope slides with various objects.<br />
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The excitement before the had even started was fantastic!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhOLHIbFC2BWn-OM5ruJrvh8wYPnlHQLLhuluxVZhmoAKzmueq3M4N5XwMsCrkBnBHKRIeq0WtLvQt7CH_kb2BXqfP1G29Ib8fbSdQK42SvUaExEDgJPPornyrCGnuxr_yXc2m6T_tyq0_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-21+at+7.57.37+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhOLHIbFC2BWn-OM5ruJrvh8wYPnlHQLLhuluxVZhmoAKzmueq3M4N5XwMsCrkBnBHKRIeq0WtLvQt7CH_kb2BXqfP1G29Ib8fbSdQK42SvUaExEDgJPPornyrCGnuxr_yXc2m6T_tyq0_/s320/Screen+Shot+2015-07-21+at+7.57.37+pm.png" width="320" /></a>Our first task was watching some short science videos - all conformed to the notion of snackable content. As a class we completed a PMI chart on the style of videos, this was later turned into the criteria/matrix for a science video they would create. The audience would be other HPPS students, each video would explain the particular model/concept the students had been charged with. QR codes would be used to link to the published videos.<br />
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Next we broke students into groups of 3 with peers they don't normally work with, they were given a random science model and sent off to brainstorm all their questions and prior knowledge. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK04Zw8YzG-B8xc86T-UevSlLoPiTRZksKu64xlO_P-qqrsx62ZfIq7CmCO0DIxzg1w8ANq1lxOwHxy_g_yXzRzeu_0aP1Aa-gSnXWKTf5rVY7P0XkkBf32Xm8IbxEakzDYLtM4sirGZE_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-21+at+8.27.44+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK04Zw8YzG-B8xc86T-UevSlLoPiTRZksKu64xlO_P-qqrsx62ZfIq7CmCO0DIxzg1w8ANq1lxOwHxy_g_yXzRzeu_0aP1Aa-gSnXWKTf5rVY7P0XkkBf32Xm8IbxEakzDYLtM4sirGZE_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-21+at+8.27.44+pm.png" /></a>Our original idea was that creating the video would take place within the day. However, the first block hadn't elapsed and we'd noticed that the day wouldn't be enough for the task. All groups were highly engaged, sharing their excitement and asking lots of good questions.<br />
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After morning tea we provided the learners with a graphic organiser to scaffold their research. We supplemented their journey with more models, texts, wonderings of our own as we modelled noticing things and asking questions to help us understand.<br />
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Lunchtime arrived quickly with talk of brains hurting and plenty of sharing their findings taking place. The final block continued in the same vein, except for a short workshop on creating a QR code, which they would need when they completed the filming.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKplWHivc085uht17Llw5nhIu6xF27O5N8jw6p2HAv0jkS3CZodKQgM_gAGufGsvQVzK4FSnxrJB9JBCcfk6rueYYYvkKACh5S69e0EcbeKzDDgdAPXluEmvu9PLzLwyInF28LoF5znLyq/s1600/IMG_0038.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKplWHivc085uht17Llw5nhIu6xF27O5N8jw6p2HAv0jkS3CZodKQgM_gAGufGsvQVzK4FSnxrJB9JBCcfk6rueYYYvkKACh5S69e0EcbeKzDDgdAPXluEmvu9PLzLwyInF28LoF5znLyq/s200/IMG_0038.JPG" width="200" /></a>Day 2 included plans to refresh/immerse our learners in several creative platforms (iMovie, YouTube Editor, Screencasting via Quicktime and Explain Everything).<br />
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Our learners have been busy researching, writing scripts, creating videos and generally building their understanding of a small part of the scientific world.<br />
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So what's next?<br />
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Lisa and I wondered today about whether a second iteration would be appropriate, instead we'll allow a small group to pursue any new wonderings if student voice and needs demand it.<br />
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We contemplated whether allowing this activity to run into tomorrow is a good thing. The science literacy and basic literacy is unquestioned, our students are so busy hurting their brains with their learning. While we have shaped, nudged, modelled and questioned each group, the process and its direction has been very student-led, this has meant that very little maths has been integrated. Sharing our thoughts in reflection time as the day ended the students told us about the many measurement learnings they had had.<br />
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Students have challenged themselves with their creative skills and the sharing tomorrow shall be enlightening.<br />
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Our students have used their research skills both online and in books and we've witnessed them evaluate sources, synthesise information, skim & scan, summarise, plan, craft, and recraft their writing.<br />
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Permission to not teach and just observe has been powerful. We have many workshops we will be able to run based on our observations and the students will no doubt have many ideas for new projects, workshops and curiosities to explore. A key moment will be to complete mini-conferences to celebrate each groups learning with their whanau.<br />
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Soon we will enter our project phase. An important decision we need to explore is how might we best leverage our immersion activities so that the learning and dispositional needs of each learner is met. <br />
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Tomorrow our 3rd day of #ScientistForADay will continue.<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-34725459480575375632015-05-28T20:33:00.001+12:002015-08-05T22:24:34.955+12:00Modelling failure and learning<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I recently ran a workshop with some children to assist them on reflecting, in talking about photos and their purpose within reflection I mentioned <a href="https://www.thinglink.com/">Thinglink</a>. These learners appeared interested, so I quickly showed them the front page and their interest grew, so I resolved to introduce them this afternoon. 10 children attended the workshop at 1.40pm today, with no inkling of the disaster that would evolve in front of them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I've used Thinglink with previous classes and figured that as long I knew where this was, today's session would be fine. Hence, I too wandered into my own workshop feeling sure of myself.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Thinglink generated email and passwords.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm using a free education account on Thinglink, this entitles me to have students loaded into a class channel using either a Thinglink generated email address and password or students can create accounts using a special code, their own email address (we are a GAFE school) and password. For whatever reasonI decided to pursue the former, within a very short space of time the learners were resplendent in a chorus of "Reid, Reid, Reid". It was reminiscent of a great 'Finding Nemo' scene and a signal that I was heading down a slippery path. They were getting mixed up between their own gmail addresses, different passwords and the Thinglink email. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rather than dig myself deeper, a feat I didn't think would be appreciated by the students or the observers visiting HPPS today, I decided retreat was a better option. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I explained to the group "I knew there were two options for creating student accounts on Thinglink and I should have chosen the other option. Their calls for help signalled the first path wasn't working and I was getting into a learning pit. We need to stop and take the other path".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"We teachers also make mistakes, but it is getting out of the pit that helps us grow. If anyone feels comfortable with this job, you could go to our Learner Profile statements and pick one that you think I need to work on based on this."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A student returned with this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When asked where I sat on this continuum, she replied that I needed more support! She was right on the money.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDP3bq14NJ96A0i6E2xo1DTUkvXw2ezdocALScpp9xC4BxGJjYHPa8dMTy8FCMrMVu0oR3mnRty4ERlI8dpf8tr9CqoVlcuOsKNvoAmFuJKw8zOZYDwU6O31PhWo9a0jkAizB-BsTf6oo/s1600/IMG_2869.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDP3bq14NJ96A0i6E2xo1DTUkvXw2ezdocALScpp9xC4BxGJjYHPa8dMTy8FCMrMVu0oR3mnRty4ERlI8dpf8tr9CqoVlcuOsKNvoAmFuJKw8zOZYDwU6O31PhWo9a0jkAizB-BsTf6oo/s200/IMG_2869.JPG" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With some great conversation to supplement our learning, I had all the students return to the login screen to use the Class Code (right top. But the damage had already been done, the students were still confused and tried using the original Thinglink passwords with the new code, or combinations of Thinglink and their own details. Of course these combinations returned error messages similar to the picture (right below). The chorus started again and I realised I'd just run a complete disaster with very little effort. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjAe58VdZ7PtWsfZ2IA8hRoV-ef5dkmaU1IkUqVZ-XS4Q4WPCXjrGXjMHwM9WIl4tAlsloMGWxDGF2BD9slSer57_4DrGsVUVLvYbrnTKfLIYpqirJRlZO7f1q8nD8Z_VQkZVR5FkD6G6d/s1600/FullSizeRender+%25287%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjAe58VdZ7PtWsfZ2IA8hRoV-ef5dkmaU1IkUqVZ-XS4Q4WPCXjrGXjMHwM9WIl4tAlsloMGWxDGF2BD9slSer57_4DrGsVUVLvYbrnTKfLIYpqirJRlZO7f1q8nD8Z_VQkZVR5FkD6G6d/s200/FullSizeRender+%25287%2529.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I gave up on the Thinglink aspect of the lesson. There was a bigger lesson occurring.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Can everyone close their screens please. You are doing everything right but are getting error messages, it is like when a cook follows the recipe but something goes wrong.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have two options. We can quit, go to our next jobs and forget this ever happened. Or, you can head off to your next jobs and I promise to go away and do some testing so that I can run this lesson again next week. We need to learn from our mistakes so that we can move forward in our learning. What should we do?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Reassuringly, they all wanted to have another go.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I asked "Have you ever made mistakes and then thought it was easier to give up?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Unsurprisingly, many of them silently nodded.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I know of many ways that I can make this lesson more successful and deliberate (within the Thinglink aspect).</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Run the tests myself using a dummy email. √</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Test with one student before running the full lesson.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Write a step by step guide for logging on using the best method. Alternatively, a video would be quite useful also.</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm hoping that the real lesson was in the workshops failure and not its success. We ask our students to reflect on their learning, its only fair that I write this reflection in acknowledgement of my own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-88470447148217114192015-04-30T20:48:00.002+12:002015-04-30T20:48:37.601+12:00Tweeting in LC4I've been using twitter in the classroom for some time now but am constantly picking up new ways to do things, naturally we're all learning but its the launch of Twitter into the classroom that I'm specifically referring to.<br />
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Going into HPPS I was wanting to use Twitter again but was conscious that I'd need to focus my attention elsewhere first and that there would undoubtedly be differences in the approach to what I used at my previous school (<a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2014/07/twitter-in-rm1hns-20.html" target="_blank">blogged here</a>). Some differences featured primarily because of the use of <a href="http://kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">Kidsedchatnz</a> and others more for the use of Twitter generally.<br />
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Here are some things we did launching Twitter in LC4 and HPPS more widely:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVtD3AmO8a3Z6VJDwWGLRc0bL3otsRDLhp5bDsg06FOUhjthYpuwfi1s6V9GzCAVaO0cteqQ1ZlqShj2InCki_WuNFZYA83ot3G3xuWXUwmYiv9LxNF-y2TnCBVGEjTtx0pBLrZp9YeZyc/s1600/Sample+Tweet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVtD3AmO8a3Z6VJDwWGLRc0bL3otsRDLhp5bDsg06FOUhjthYpuwfi1s6V9GzCAVaO0cteqQ1ZlqShj2InCki_WuNFZYA83ot3G3xuWXUwmYiv9LxNF-y2TnCBVGEjTtx0pBLrZp9YeZyc/s1600/Sample+Tweet.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>The launch of a laminated Tweet board for every student in LC4. There are plenty of examples on the Internet but our example allowed for students to draw their own avatar, username and the box at the bottom allows for students to retweet or favourite their peer's tweets on the wall. This is all with the purpose of creating familiarity with the medium.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMERqgaKF40GIuvMNFE5CIscBdgOCTS7AkytePxkVqbiFVSJpLpfGrtrmc18kKJcMomIEStF3UkeL6nZDp7balIwW0YiJkHtxUoagY58y4XdDMhFTTetx5ZLoSdbC8pYlVydllZ9sI9FKB/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-30+at+7.57.32+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMERqgaKF40GIuvMNFE5CIscBdgOCTS7AkytePxkVqbiFVSJpLpfGrtrmc18kKJcMomIEStF3UkeL6nZDp7balIwW0YiJkHtxUoagY58y4XdDMhFTTetx5ZLoSdbC8pYlVydllZ9sI9FKB/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-30+at+7.57.32+pm.png" height="150" width="320" /></a>When an account was established for the school it was decided that the username should be generic for the school. This would allow for minimal clutter/confusion of accounts and that I could manage this account, the school retains control through a collating usernames, passwords and security questions for all social media accounts. For the record, along with other coordinators at Kidsedchatnz we believe that all class twitter accounts should include the username for the teacher in control of the account. This means should a dodgy tweet be sent it is easy to connect with the teacher who deserves to know what their kids have done, when moderating chats with children this provides an extra layer of support that is quite helpful.<br />
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Discussion about the use of social media with my co-teacher Amy and our principal signalled that clear communication with our school community would need to take place. This was a marked difference to my previous school but in hindsight is valuable and I would recommend this regardless of school practice. I sent permission forms home outlining the purpose of Kidsedchatnz specifically, as well as placing a poster about Kidsedchatnz on the walls of both LC3 & 4 for our school community to read.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSonbUPUqysFwz0cPKcD0LA643qe_zsYCMQNsmHuU8-SdSF_Iti3lCVrEEZvd15AQOxOvnGmKi2wYozrZVq0oL0AIS-AIbg-JcX7FBD_s2q2alffcIdzHAUqy0sTbkGXMtoH6JxOYzv1Xm/s1600/Kidsedchatnz+Poster+for+Parents.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSonbUPUqysFwz0cPKcD0LA643qe_zsYCMQNsmHuU8-SdSF_Iti3lCVrEEZvd15AQOxOvnGmKi2wYozrZVq0oL0AIS-AIbg-JcX7FBD_s2q2alffcIdzHAUqy0sTbkGXMtoH6JxOYzv1Xm/s1600/Kidsedchatnz+Poster+for+Parents.jpg" height="452" width="640" /></a></div>
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Once these components were all in place I pursued a path which is more akin to what I have done in other years. A couple of classes introducing Twitter, tweeting & Kidsedchatnz for those that are interested. When a Kidsedchatnz session is taking place I now try to ensure that the children are always in pairs so that no inappropriate tweets get through, this doesn't rule out poor spelling or off-topic tweets but that is largely a work-in-progress.<br />
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I always have the HPPS kids account on my Tweetdeck as a user column, this provides me with an ongoing record of what the kids are tweeting (as shown).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOUiYl9Nral9K1Uwa1BCk_HXd_wb7Ux03PfDxIl89ZKjwb-u3HFhyphenhyphenLywnA5qCes5kZj1KJErUzuEJ7VhNNxsQfWmJMYk8dKPzo1NzHJQ559jpR0C2oavgHhYjDP5_T4Kh3Nx_ZG1gSzBTM/s1600/Tweetdeck+for+Twitter+in+the+Classroom+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOUiYl9Nral9K1Uwa1BCk_HXd_wb7Ux03PfDxIl89ZKjwb-u3HFhyphenhyphenLywnA5qCes5kZj1KJErUzuEJ7VhNNxsQfWmJMYk8dKPzo1NzHJQ559jpR0C2oavgHhYjDP5_T4Kh3Nx_ZG1gSzBTM/s1600/Tweetdeck+for+Twitter+in+the+Classroom+(1).jpg" height="452" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>Some useful things to know if you are launching Twitter in your classroom:</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGjuMBAne2IS7EAnJSel2fXtmc9HHkujk6rPUX6vkND4HgtBd3-QylB2SV599M3Ft0vPjQPcXcume8QBAM1-O5LYbKfiXYt31bA0zeVVqIAY_Z9Yy0krKDoDty25Tc2IvKvOE6t-kwSS1/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-30+at+8.38.24+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGjuMBAne2IS7EAnJSel2fXtmc9HHkujk6rPUX6vkND4HgtBd3-QylB2SV599M3Ft0vPjQPcXcume8QBAM1-O5LYbKfiXYt31bA0zeVVqIAY_Z9Yy0krKDoDty25Tc2IvKvOE6t-kwSS1/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-30+at+8.38.24+pm.png" height="200" width="117" /></a>It is possible to revoke permission to the Twitter App from the main Twitter website- a useful tool if you have loaded it onto multiple devices. Just go to Settings>Apps to revoke access.<br />
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You can schedule tweets through Tweetdeck, I've used this when moderating the chat sessions as it frees me of the need to post the questions and lets me concentrate on reading all the tweets.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvjSDE9t306jBRYrhZywerqfdMkR34USeuNH4brJFRUDnBogir5Q4ZOV_YSs9tf13TWvgEMVG5TGS3FwAFHaxiDbDOfhcvPmIr8xsUB8fjhTeahCG-lBg2y_lxCntjxzmrA7mL6XeGv7GR/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-30+at+8.37.42+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvjSDE9t306jBRYrhZywerqfdMkR34USeuNH4brJFRUDnBogir5Q4ZOV_YSs9tf13TWvgEMVG5TGS3FwAFHaxiDbDOfhcvPmIr8xsUB8fjhTeahCG-lBg2y_lxCntjxzmrA7mL6XeGv7GR/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-04-30+at+8.37.42+pm.png" height="140" width="200" /></a><br />
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I hope this is helpful for those investigating using Twitter in the classroom.<br />
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Any questions feel free to tweet, email or comment.<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-30457667250036276112015-04-05T18:09:00.000+12:002015-04-05T18:11:26.698+12:00Innovation - Term Reflection<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"HPPS - wow!" you exclaim.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
One of my first thoughts on heading there was how I would be able to push my creativity and innovation in the classroom. Naturally, I would look to include innovation somewhere in my personal goals. We have several goals to set, so within my own Personal Professional Development I decided that I would "<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.0909080505371px;">Evolve my teaching through innovative and responsive practice". I could achieve this through the following: </span></span><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.0909080505371px;">
<li><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Attend regular professional development in numeracy and literacy.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Implement and reflect on innovative teaching practice.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Regular professional reading.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I completed all my Individual Education Meetings (IEMs) on Monday and naturally teacher brain decided to redirect its energies rather than relax, reflection on innovation became the focus. How might I have been more innovative? What if this had been my previous classroom? What barriers had I perceived/removed/battled? How might I change my practice in term 2? It is also worthwhile to think about what innovation means, for me it is not a synonym for technology in the classroom. I recently stumbled across a definition (battling to find the reference right now) that included all the 'radical or incremental change' stuff that seems to be always present but for the education context included the important addition that it would add value. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">During reflection I became dubious as to whether I had been innovative and responsive, or more importantly had I added value to Learning Common 4 (LC4) or any other part of HPPS. I decided a good old fashioned stock-take was needed. I needed to simply evaluate each and every tool or idea I'd used this term and make a judgement on whether it has added value.<br />
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<a href="http://kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">Kidsedchatnz</a>:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Have introduced twitter in the classroom to LC4 and LC3. After 1 term students now opt-in on the Wednesday as part of their independent learning activities. There are some regular participants, a few who have decided it isn't for them and for some it depends on the topic. I have remained very hands-off with Kidsedchatnz this term to allow for student voice (<a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/day-24-28daysofwriting-choice-or-voice.html" target="_blank">a concern I raised in an earlier post</a>) but am needing to check-in with participants early term 2 so they can identify some purpose for their Kidsedchatnz participation, be it literacy, dispositional or topic focussed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><b>
Immersion Workshop:</b></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhS6KD_WiOj1ix3ho_knNAmkJEDFuyCwYW0VoE3ji7n8Dc3vh0-soZ7jQ4_hy9XUhrWj8exZdKH2xMiJVGHEkn4obz6CgzKTov1IpPmCvnU4vCYWHFgpYcQE13DptGV3B3ZJ0mXrHsX7HG/s1600/IMG_2389.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhS6KD_WiOj1ix3ho_knNAmkJEDFuyCwYW0VoE3ji7n8Dc3vh0-soZ7jQ4_hy9XUhrWj8exZdKH2xMiJVGHEkn4obz6CgzKTov1IpPmCvnU4vCYWHFgpYcQE13DptGV3B3ZJ0mXrHsX7HG/s1600/IMG_2389.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgweVCjjozCWKttHDe_GRJ1-D3bKdHsm2W0vLG6mzoGzo8_gganYtHld__XmQM5viWiNgBvxRWA2vaN-NnY4ADqc4sy_yHtI84778Yux88okyk9WvJcWokTNs_ZdZDr-IummzvJT1nIsI1l/s1600/IMG_2307.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgweVCjjozCWKttHDe_GRJ1-D3bKdHsm2W0vLG6mzoGzo8_gganYtHld__XmQM5viWiNgBvxRWA2vaN-NnY4ADqc4sy_yHtI84778Yux88okyk9WvJcWokTNs_ZdZDr-IummzvJT1nIsI1l/s1600/IMG_2307.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhS6KD_WiOj1ix3ho_knNAmkJEDFuyCwYW0VoE3ji7n8Dc3vh0-soZ7jQ4_hy9XUhrWj8exZdKH2xMiJVGHEkn4obz6CgzKTov1IpPmCvnU4vCYWHFgpYcQE13DptGV3B3ZJ0mXrHsX7HG/s1600/IMG_2389.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Week 5 we held our immersion workshops where all of our staff ran a small workshop to give students an insight into a world they didn't know. This is to help our students find their passions for the Project Based Learning. This term we were focussed on Inventive Thinking. With Caine's Arcade in my mind, my workshop was construction we had Lego, wooden blocks and stacks of cardboard boxes. My workshop was targeted for our Y0-4 learners and from the looks on their faces they had a blast inventing some pretty cool things, including tanks, time machines, boats, mermaid robots (who knew?) and towns. Construction has continued as a theme for some learners as they have created projects inspired somewhat by these early steps. Learners in LC4 also had my lego out for a time which has led to great discussion and writing.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="200" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/faIFNkdq96U" width="260"></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Food Tech Workshops - Burritos & Kebabs</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2015/03/weeds-reflection-immersion.html" target="_blank">blogged</a> about this experience elsewhere but since then several projects have been initiated where food is part of the solution. I was also quite proud to hear some students talk about my food tech workshops in their celebrations for the term! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">term! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><b>Cricket World Cup</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Heading into the CWC I had identified that there were many possibilities for integrating this into LC4. I waited to observe that I had students interested before using this in any way. I initiated a workshop early on that several boys opted in for, we brainstormed ways that the CWC could be utilised as a learning experience. They were particularly interested in bowling speeds, average speed of a bowler, the impact of technique and the variabilities created by the type of ball that is thrown. For me, new to HPPS, this was an exciting moment. Student voice, responsiveness, integrated & authentic teaching, what an opportunity! Sadly, in the hustle & bustle of HPPS and the learning journey that I was on this didn't go much further. The students managed 1-2 independent time slots focussed on their CWC work before it fell on to the back burner as they entered the immersion and design process phase for their Inventive Thinking projects. This was definitely a missed opportunity for innovative and responsive teaching, it required more steering by me but I was busy trying to juggle my first term requirements.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><b>Design Process</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Early on Amy and I discussed using the Design Process for forming our project groups in LC4, I was excited by this as I had not used as a teaching tool nor been part of the process in any other organisation. Here was an opportunity to make additions to my kete of teaching tools while in the classroom, surely a bonus of team-teaching. I read about Amy's <a href="http://amymmcc.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/design-thinking-in-action.html" target="_blank">Design Process work with LC2 in 2014</a>, and readied myself for learning. We took several days to move LC4 through the various phases but they came out the other end with their projects and a good understanding of why they were doing their projects. Some students even celebrated various aspects of the Design Process in their IEMs, whether it was their contribution to the ideation, the solution they'd formed as a team or how their dispositions had been challenged or grown. I see this as my first iteration through the Design Process and could write a post about it, but I think this should wait until I have taken more of a leadership role in its use in LC4, that will come when we head into our second lot of projects late term 2.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><b>Reading Opportunities - 40 Book Challenge & Book Chat</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Working with several of my readers I identified that they needed some challenge for their reading. They are all very keen readers with well developed reading ability but all tend to read within 1-2 genres. I've talked with them about a 40 book type challenge, emphasis on reading not numbers. I've used the <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/3-weeks-into-40-book-challenge.html" target="_blank">40 Book Challenge</a> in class before and know it can provide some of the impetus required to take a look at different genres, thus growing our reading skills, vocabulary and general understanding of the world around us. We haven't worried about a way of monitoring the challenge because its the reading that is uppermost not writing about our reading, although Amy and I are wanting to implement some ways to provide some evidence of learning within reading. The 40 Book Challenge awaits as an untapped tool that I have introduced to LC4.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A colleague in Christchurch has developed a <a href="http://8cshs.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/kidsbookchat-holiday-reading.html" target="_blank">twitter-based book chat</a> with her students. I had two of my students participating last year as it provided them with an opportunity to regularly discuss the books they were reading and expand their reading horizons. I have mentioned the existence of this bookchat to some of my students but need to facilitate their participation early in term 2. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Where to next:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As we reviewed Term 1, I shared my frustration with my self-diagnosed lack of innovative teaching. I knew that my first term would be challenging in a new school but that I didn't feel I'd met my own expectations. The conversation took an interesting spin as we considered the impact our planning had had on this. We'd started with the lofty goal of having every week well planned in advance but ended operating on a just-in-time model as we responded to the needs of our learners. We discussed how this would have a large impact as more planning equates to a longer lead-in time and therefore more time for innovative teaching. Twitter chats, food tech lessons and construction workshops all necessitate preparation and use of any technology is enabled by more prep time also. However, directing a child to a website or app upon a teachable moment doesn't require much prep, just that the tool is top-of-mind at the required point in time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">During these discussions I was reminded of a <a href="http://leading-learning.blogspot.co.nz/2015/03/back-to-basics-quality-creative-learning.html" target="_blank">blogpost</a> that our principal shared with us in our innovation community. It centred on the importance of finishing, that completing a process or inquiry of learning is powerful and allows the learner to practice, develop and understand the various components required for mastery. It provided a challenge, the idea that innovation can lead to lots of uncompleted pieces of work. This reading summed up a conversation I had with another colleague about artistic endeavours that can lead to vast quantities of half-finished work, and frustration for a teacher that the true learning hasn't taken place yet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the last week of term 1 Amy was busy downloading information to me that may be helpful in term 2. Learning to operate our robots and what she had done for Coding within HPPS was high on the priority list. It was exciting being the learner again and in the short space of time we spent on this, combined with the reflection about my own innovative practice I felt invigorated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm still not sure if this was just my own self-doubt created by higher expectations, but the goal deserves the honest reflection and now I have a clearer pathway for term 2. Student voice, innovative teaching practice that adds value, advance planning and all tempered by a renewed emphasis on finishing experiences fully. </span>
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Words that brought a smile to my eye after a journey into the learning pit or in professional kitchen terms "the weeds" on the Wednesday previous. My thinking aloud throughout this Friday's immersion session hopefully helped the students think about their own personal learning pit experiences.<br />
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This week in LC4 we have been working on our reflections as the students have been focussing on the nice, fluffy stuff. Things like "Drama was fun because we..." or "I liked using the robots because..." and while it is important that we celebrate, the purpose for our reflections is to help us improve our learning. With this in mind we spent part of our Learning Advisory time on Monday focussing on reflective writing, reinforcing the purpose of reflection, unpacking what learning is and getting them to draw their learning journey. We also introduced them to and quickly explained the learning pit and a common success graphic (as shown).<br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_opXHdGB2uE/U_UUF2_Sm9I/AAAAAAAAA1E/IUozQtE5E2A/s1600/Screen%2Bshot%2B2014-08-21%2Bat%2B9.31.14%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_opXHdGB2uE/U_UUF2_Sm9I/AAAAAAAAA1E/IUozQtE5E2A/s1600/Screen%2Bshot%2B2014-08-21%2Bat%2B9.31.14%2BAM.png" height="149" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Source: <a href="http://sophiew2013.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/the-learning-pit-portfolio-sample.html" target="_blank">Student's blog post</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5992287/success-is-a-squiggly-line">http://lifehacker.com/5992287/success-is-a-squiggly-line</a></td></tr>
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Wednesday, Amy and I planned two different immersion activities. Both were designed to provoke wondering's and introduce the students to a world they might not know about, Amy was taking a robotics workshop and I a food tech workshop in one of the great facilities we have at HPPS. Our learning at HPPS is based on 3 key themes across the year, Inventive Thinking, Digital Age Literacy and Effective Communication as discussed in the NCREL research. These themes are integrated throughout the curriculum and the students all undertake projects in an area they're exposed to during the immersion phase for each theme. Previous to running the food tech workshop I'd established a list of food dislikes that the students have been adding to all week. For the first workshop, I planned a quick tasting session and kebabs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pict.sdsu.edu/images/engaugeGRaphic.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://pict.sdsu.edu/images/engaugeGRaphic.png" height="297" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="http://pict.sdsu.edu/engauge21st.pdf" style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;">http://pict.sdsu.edu/engauge21st.pdf</a></td></tr>
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I'd had a quick tour through the kitchen and knew it was well stocked with equipment and thought that I'd be fine, I enjoy cooking at home and some judicious use of class management should see me though great learning experience for the group. I recognised that there were a number of hazards to mitigate, minimise or eliminate and I would think aloud about the Risk Taking that I was modelling for the children. Daniel popped in just before the session and gave me some sage advice that he uses when running food tech workshops also but I think liked the idea that I was giving this a go.</div>
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Getting the class into the kitchen took longer than I thought.The tasting session went fine, but took a little longer than I thought, there were lots of grimaces, smiles, laughs and chatter as they tried chorizo, courgette, whole grain mustard, japanese barbeque sauce and a soy butter sauce. Because they were enjoying the tasting I allowed them to continue but looking at my watch could sense that we would have to work quickly to be finished by morning tea at 11am. As we handed out the ingredients and the children started working I realised that I was in jam. The children's knife skills meant a slower preparation time and that my supervision skills were on high alert, I was constantly bombarded with questions and I didn't know the kitchen as well as I thought. I could hear Gordon Ramsay screaming in my ears, countless reading and viewing of cooking material confirmed in my mind, I was in the weeds and the customers would be waiting for their meals a while. After far longer than I'd planned the children were starting to eat their kebabs, smiles were everywhere as well as a few going in the bin as they found bits they didn't like but this is about risk taking. We were still a mile away from being cleaned up though!</div>
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Time for spanner in the works. My phone went, it was my daughter's daycare, she'd had an accident and might need to see a GP or the hospital, they couldn't reach my wife! When I'm deep in a project, event or problem I know that hard work can get me out, I pull out the hard yards and reach the end. It was frustrating to think that this wasn't going to work. Amy had arrived in the kitchen (she'd finished as it was 11am) and told me to go, she'd supervise the clean up. I couldn't even stay to solve my own problem. DAMN!</div>
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When I returned to school, Thursday, I learnt that the children still had a great time and I'd had reflection time to figure out what went wrong and how this could be remedied. I knew that I was the cause of this situation, there was no one else to blame. I knew before hand that the kitchen skills and speed of most would be slower, I should have planned accordingly. The questions I could have solved with the use of recipes! A more analytical tour of the kitchen and prepping some of the items before hand all would have helped too. I spoke with Daniel and quizzed him about embedding the literacy and numeracy into food tech and suggested that visuals illustrating chopping/dicing might be helpful.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGnE7ULZMguoeKpoB8t864K5pN3CLSfiZ2R_U-7TIKve-STExvuiO5EpycJGfMMOXiAbsClaeCVXrW1eRNnBlYuoU7Z1U9xyIMHbiAIPZW99ZLJ9FfbP0F6vKQ-a7TbbHZ8E3sLB9tl-K/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-07+at+6.46.51+am.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGnE7ULZMguoeKpoB8t864K5pN3CLSfiZ2R_U-7TIKve-STExvuiO5EpycJGfMMOXiAbsClaeCVXrW1eRNnBlYuoU7Z1U9xyIMHbiAIPZW99ZLJ9FfbP0F6vKQ-a7TbbHZ8E3sLB9tl-K/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-07+at+6.46.51+am.png" height="320" width="247" /></a></div>
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Friday arrived, time for session 2. Time to do battle again. Ingredients were put on each table, along with a recipe for 3 of the four components for our burritos (one shown, the other two <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/m/me/mex/mexi/mexican-rice-recipe.html" target="_blank">Mexican Rice</a> and <a href="http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/flavorful-chicken-fajitas" target="_blank">chicken with a Mexican rub</a>). I'd thought far more analytically about the time management and decided that the tasting session would be for children when they had a free moment or completed jobs. One recipe I'd written myself based on something my wife and I love, I'd included some visuals of what each part looked like to assist the children. </div>
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I outlined what we were going to do, how I'd changed the format of the workshop based on my reflections and that I was confident the changes would make it a better experience for everyone.</div>
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The children dived into the work and I was able to facilitate their immersion far more ably. The questions that were arising could be answered quickly and prevented problems from spiralling, we were being efficient with our use of time and working relatively cleanly. This meant that I was able to spend some time helping some with knife skills, some talking about the meaning and process of simmering, some we talked about fractions and there were some excellent little moments where the recipe wasn't followed but the right outcome was reached. I noticed late in the piece that 1 group had used a medium sized tumbler for their cup measures, on Monday I plan to try a little comparing exercise with them. All in all, I never once felt like I was in the learning pit or the weeds. </div>
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So when some visitors popped their heads into the kitchen and the children wanted to share their learning, I was super proud. "Learning to cook?" the visitors questioned.</div>
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"That's not all we're all learning here," one wise student replied.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgou3WtMPt-RRXeMGI_6uMtMsbc87BU0r-D7mYmJYDppU9o7FPRmJ8Lz-CGCGaD-4CymbeFBNNOSGjD2wr3EU-7sXDNY4IJD1e3B8kcpSF7RpmZOHT6SmXJyMImFkPChQNX_8HVuhskVv21/s1600/Food+tech+immersion+-+Burritos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgou3WtMPt-RRXeMGI_6uMtMsbc87BU0r-D7mYmJYDppU9o7FPRmJ8Lz-CGCGaD-4CymbeFBNNOSGjD2wr3EU-7sXDNY4IJD1e3B8kcpSF7RpmZOHT6SmXJyMImFkPChQNX_8HVuhskVv21/s1600/Food+tech+immersion+-+Burritos.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preparing burritos (Clockwise from top left): Ingredients & recipes on tables, <br />
students working independently chopping meat and vegetables, reading our recipes,<br />
cooking and cleaning up as we go.</td></tr>
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Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-77618311864028609372015-02-28T13:50:00.002+13:002015-02-28T13:50:41.195+13:00Day 28 #28minutesofWriting - 784 minutes later<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Entering the #28daysofwriting challenge I thought it would be great to get back into the habit of blogging and increase my page views. This was quite a self-involved motivation and but I also knew that through regular reflection and writing I would be able to make more sense of my first steps on the journey at Hobsonville Point Primary School. At some stage in the future I knew that this would pay dividends.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I haven't posted for the last two days but I have posted far more days than I've missed, have learnt far more than I had imagine and helped to formulate some strategies that will assist my professional and classroom practice for a long time. Not all of these lessons revolve around explicit teaching practice but need to be outlined nonetheless.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Professional reading:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While my initial involvement with this blogging challenge was far more selfish, the 28 minutes of writing has been far exceeded by my professional reading throughout. Reading many blogposts has inspired, challenged and taught me a huge amount. It has created a reading list that will take me a long time to complete if ever. I use to regularly read several colleagues blog posts but this number has increased dramatically. Most importantly, I have read posts that have held different views to my own. Two texts I've been inspired to read are Game Storming and Drive. Game Storming was purchased by Amy and we've already integrated successfully one of the activities we uncovered in there.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Writing Style:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I still find that I am reluctant to comment on the many posts I read (hence my enrolment in <a href="http://edte.ch/blog/2015/02/19/sign-up-for-28daysofwriting-in-march-check-out-28daysofcommenting/" target="_blank">#28daysofcommenting</a>). Some have made me feel quite inadequate as a writer - I strive to write to the level of some of the posts I have read. I have recognised for a while that I am sometimes not as analytical as I need to be, HBDI analysis confirmed this showing that my last thinking preference is Analytical/Logical but it isn't far behind. Reading posts I have established that my ability to integrate evidence based analytical thinking in a natural writing style is weaker than I would like it also. Between Ewan McIntosh and locally Steve Mouldey, I've found blogging styles I'd like to emulate but I've also appreciated the raw energy and emotion behind other posts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Reflection - remove your ego:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Warm and demanding is the ethos at both Hobsonville Point schools, it can feel very confrontational initially but if you can strip the ego from your thinking and deal with the issues then reflection can become very rewarding. Challenging myself to remove ego or baggage from my thinking as I have approached some of my posts and my general 'unschooling' at HPPS has resulted in many interesting discussions. It's also allowed me to consider whether any tool/programme/activity/assessment is best for anyone learner. I think it is best summarised by attributes which feature in the HPPS Mindset continuum. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Sharing, Caring and Bewaring:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm not sure if Bewaring is actually a word but being aware just didn't sit right on the page ;-) I've enjoyed the commenting and community of writing that has grown from Tom's #28daysofwriting but it has also led me into discussions and posts that don't feel comfortable personally. In several posts I've made sincere efforts to confront thinking that may be challenging for others, clearly public forums such as a blog are dangerous tools. Currently, I'm reading Jon Ronson's new book So You've Been Publicly Shamed, a book which covers the negative exposure that can unwittingly be secured through social media. This is the world that we tread with our virtual support networks. Sharing, caring and bewaring has to be uppermost in our minds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Goal Setting:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Throughout the 28 days I have queried much of my thinking and in this quest I have read many different posts, it has made goal setting for 2015 quite difficult. I have got to a point where I recognise that Student Voice, Design Thinking and my own capacity to think analytically will most likely form parts of my professional objectives. How these will actually shape up I'm not entirely sure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">28 minutes never seemed like a difficult target, but 28 days of writing certainly did! Although I didn't meet 28 days, I know I've definitely met the target on average (28 days x 28 minutes = 784 minutes). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cheers Tom, thanks for the journey and I look forward to our next 28 days commenting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-46115435774876011572015-02-24T21:20:00.000+13:002015-02-24T21:26:52.505+13:00Day 24 #28Daysofwriting - Choice or Voice?<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"What is the difference between student choice and student voice?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How you using student voice to inform learning in your learning common?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How are the activities you have in your learning common responding to the needs of your students? Or do they just keep them busy?"</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These 4 questions were posed in our staff meeting this afternoon, the example being whether I had considered these in my enthusiasm to bring <a href="http://kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">Kidsedchatnz</a> to HPPS. I know that the example wasn't a personal attack, more an extension of the "Warm and Demanding" culture at the Hobsonville Point Schools. But as I quickly pondered these questions I decided that Kidsedchatnz does deserve this lens being put to it. Not just for its use at HPPS but for its role in schools as we seek to grow it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some readers will know that I am one of the coordinators at Kidsedchatnz and love what we have done with participation increasing significantly since it began. I've posted about it frequently (e.g., <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/leadership-kidsedchatnz-sharing.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://teachingyoume.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/kidsedchatnz-usakidschat.html" target="_blank">here</a>) and it has been integral in my own PD as my role and enthusiasm has grown.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I sat in the last block this afternoon running a workshop to introduce a variety of Yr 4-6 students to twitter this afternoon, in preparation for the first chat this afternoon. All of them would have a range of learning and dispositional needs. Without rambling through how each child's needs are met, I think there are still valuable questions and answers contained within a focussed reflection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Core Education outline successful student voice (in relation to MLE's) as being:</span></div>
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<li style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-image: url(data:image/png; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">do students have ‘the power to act’ in the MLE?</span></li>
<li style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-image: url(data:image/png; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">are all learners empowered to make choices and decisions about how, where, what and when they learn?</span></li>
<li style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-image: url(data:image/png; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">are learners a part of their own learning support network within the MLE?</span></li>
<li style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; list-style-image: url(data:image/png; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Is the design of the MLE adaptive to learner needs and ambitions? <a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_827114463">(</a></span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.core-ed.org/professional-learning/mle-matrix)">http://www.core-ed.org/professional-learning/mle-matrix)</a></span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Where does Kidsedchatnz fit within the lens of choice versus voice?</b> Kidsedchatnz and the topics that have been used have always relied to a large extent on student voice, over time our team of coordinators have accessed our participants to establish topics, questions and activities. But is this the voice that is required? If I am the moderator for the week, I've always posted a topic using my class to generate the questions, but the weeks that I'm not the moderator I can't say that it is my student's voice, but this is where choice comes in I would argue. I've always given my learners the option to take part in a chat session, if you're not interested in talking about EOTC or Science you don't have to participate. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once in a session then student voice is obvious, the children have agency to express themselves within the topic, and can support, question and discuss the topic with other students. In the past, I have watched as different students engaged in quite different learning conversations based on their own interests.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>How you using student voice to inform learning in your learning common?</b></span></span><br />
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I<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> have to confess that Kidsedchatnz is a 'programme' I have experienced success with and is easy for me to fall back to/rely on. This is the worst form of teaching we've discussed with Daniel, when things are tough or we're in the Learning Pit, we can revert to what we know. However, while Amy will be confirm that I've been proactive in pursuing Kidsedchatnz being used at HPPS, I've been very pragmatic. I know that should demand (aka student voice) not be there, then I can not reasonably continue to dedicate time to Kidsedchatnz. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I am sensible about HPPS involvement in Kidsedchatnz and use student voice then I will be looking at student interests and where possible looking to create an opportunity for my students to really express their voice. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have also used flipped lessons and activities as a precursor to the chat sessions. Student voice could be used here, creating an activity that students want to do with the follow up being the discussion questions formed by the learner.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>How are the activities you have in your learning common responding to the needs of your students? Or do they just keep them busy?</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I once ran into a topic that my students at HNS just weren't interested in, but I also use to have 1-2 other activities on offer. At the time I would argue that these additional activities were responding to student voice and worked against Kidsedchatnz participation, a student even told me that I should make the options less exciting. Using the warm & demanding lens, I'm not sure I would now judge them as being responsive but hindsight is 20/20. At the time I'd blindly ploughed on and believed that the options needed to be less exciting, but if they were truly responsive then Kidsedchatnz should have been the option to remove.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am confident that using voice & observation my learners will be able to meet many learning and dispositional needs though Kidsedchatnz. For some learners, participation in any given week may lean towards being stuff they do rather than a great learning experience. But if they were to exercise discretion around the topics they engage with, and fully extend themselves in those chat sessions then it ceases to be stuff and becomes the awesome collaborative and connected communication experience it can be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kidsedchatnz will be under intense scrutiny at HPPS, I think this is positive and if the scrutiny is warm and demanding then it may signal an awesome growth period for my beloved Twitter-based chat. In the afternoon, Amy and I run responsive workshops (e.g., Movie making or Garageband). The workshops are set up to help with a need that we have observed, students can lead them and they generally need to opt-in for these workshops. We will easily be able to identify if students are not opting in, each days planning is there for both Amy and I to see and it will quickly become obvious if my time could be better spent elsewhere. Although, if Kidsedchatnz was to truly become responsive then maybe there are some amazing opportunities that could be pursued.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Student voice or choice? Or just stuff?</span><br />
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Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751910300182825862.post-71031282065609524962015-02-24T05:50:00.001+13:002015-02-24T06:29:11.165+13:00Day 23 #28daysofwriting - Shiny new thingsSunday's article about a boys classroom certainly caused a stir, rightly so. I was involved in some interesting discussions via the twittersphere and loved the blog posts that have come out of it also. At home, my dear wife had some interesting takes on it, with a teacher husband but no recent experience in primary schooling her opinion her thoughts on the article might be reflective of some viewers. I had a different view again, I think the media are doing education an injustice here, to the NZ public and the school may not quite be getting it right (but I reserve judgement).<br />
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I loved the perspective that both Steph and Ruth have added in their posts (<a href="https://traintheteacher.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/the-bothersome-business-of-the-boys-education-debate-28daysofwriting/" target="_blank">Steph's post</a>, <a href="http://takingthatrisk.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/male-or-female.html?spref=tw" target="_blank">Ruth's post</a>). They both reflected on the role of the effective teacher and this has to be paramount in the journey that these boys only classrooms. The fact that stereotyping both girls and boys is dangerous, that a female could be just as good for these males is accurate. Their posts were great responses to the need for boys classrooms, but still some will appear and others will continue. At HNS last year we were talking about possibly creating one, I was even interested in being the teacher. I've just moved into a shiny new classroom and many of these shiny new classrooms are cropping up around NZ while others are being upgraded to become shiny old classrooms. So? What is my point here?<br />
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Changing the environment won't necessarily change the education experience for the child unless there are fundamental shifts in the pedagogy. This argument has been swirling around MLE's for a while I understand, Mark Osbourne and Core resources often assisting many to comprehend the moves required. Very little emphasis was put on the actual pedagogy that was being employed by the male teacher in the boys classroom, as a educator I resented that, it was what I was truly hoping to see and found myself critiquing the implied pedagogical cues that were present. This is certainly unfair for the school, parents and children as other educators would have been doing the same. I know that as all the shiny gadgets and toys were what the media represented about Hobsonville Point Secondary last year, rather than the obvious pedagogy differences that HPSS are pursuing. The layperson's reaction, "What about the basics? They still need to teach the basics!"<br />
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The cues that I spotted which worried me were superficial but they were there, reading from school journals, talk that boys won't keep quiet, teaching in 15 minute blocks and the need for hands up. Flimsy cues for making judgements but that is what the rest of the nation were doing. For me these cues represented other things. How can you talk about boys not engaging and then present a reading group with a school journal, giving the boys real books and real tasks will generally be far more engaging. When did a classroom have to be quiet for the boys to be learning? I'm thinking about the comment here that an effective numeracy lesson is one in which there is lots of noise from discussion and activity. If they're all busy in books, yes it will be quiet but how much learning will be happening? 15 minutes or they turn disengage, fine but have you thought about the content you're teaching? I made the inference that this meant there would be no passion projects, no real choice in how their day would be proceed and that nothing had really changed. Steph and Ruth's effective teacher wasn't in this room and again it will be the children who miss out.<br />
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Its not fair to judge the pedagogy being used on such superficial cues but that is what I did. I respect the courage that the school and teacher have shown. They had no editorial influence on that article and will be suffering a backlash. This is where all educators and schools suffer, once again we're at the mercy of the media and its portrayal of us. I hope that the pedagogy has changed in that classroom, I trust that it has, but how will these changes affect the boys when they move back into their co-ed classrooms next year? Will 1 year accelerate their learning enough?<br />
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The environment is only a small part of the picture, it is the box that the jigsaw puzzle comes in, the way the pieces are put together is up to us.<br />
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<br />Reid NZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06509847747117951008noreply@blogger.com2