DFI 9 - Beating Around The Bush

A weird feeling with this being the last day of our intensive. What will the next challenge be? It's been great having the opportunity to delve in deep and soak like a sponge. It's highlighted that I thrive on that and in many ways need it.

Ubiquitous

Leaping into the learning pit:

Today I leapt in and became the learner. We often put our kids in assessment conditions and flippantly assure them "not to worry", "it'll be fine", etc...

To leap into that position as adults, many of whom in the room were rather nervous about the daunting task ahead of them... was actually a really valuable reminder of how it feels. 

I had a few glitches while attempting the practice tests for modules on the certification site. Many of my problems were due to my nature of over-thinking. "Could it be that simple?" "Surely it's wanting more...?" Apparent;y it wasn't.

The Level One test was in two parts. One was multi-choice, with a scenario given and the number of answers which should be checked.

The other was actual tasks that we were required to go through, from creating a site with specific content to creating a YouTube playlist and sharing it with a specific audience. 

The daunting part was dealing with Google Classroom, which I haven't used before. I found it easy to complete the actual tasks within that domain, however, it was hard for me to answer the multi-choice questions because I couldn't relate it to my own tangible experience. How often does this happen with our students, particularly those stepping up into Year 4 and suddenly working in a digital learning environment?

All in all... I passed!

So Many Opportunities:

Manaiakalani Innovative Teachers

- Focused on your Inquiry. Throughout the process, you design a tool to be used to support this Inquiry. A fabulous think tank experience to help develop your inquiry process. Great opportunities from this as well as the extra support.

Google Class On Air.

Throughout the year, you put up 16 episodes of learning in your classroom as well as the work that akonga present from it.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu

Buddy classes from throughout New Zealand. 

Online Toolkits

Term 4: October 22, 23, 24

Professional Learning, where you lead a toolkit in something that you are comfortable with sharing. It doesn't have to be absolutely amazing... just something.

Social Media

Keeping up with what's running already, such as professional blogs, Google + Community, Twitter etc.

What next?

The question of the day.

I've come to realise that I'm a creature that likes to be in the deep end and being challenged. I can't just paddle in the shallows. It has been invaluable being in such an intense learning environment for this past term. I need to keep the pressure on to keep learning.

• Google Certified Teacher Level 2

• I've committed to leaping in and giving this a go... what's the worst that can happen? I fail? (I'm forever telling the kids that it stands for First Attempt In Learning)

• Hapara Champion Educator

• I've submitted my application for this online course. The objective is to develop basic proficiency in the Hapara Suite—Highlights, Dashboard, and Workspace—from the point-of-view of a classroom teacher. Practice and reflect on positive, student-centred instructional use. While I've been using most of the features for years, I haven't been using workspace, so I'm interested in looking into this and how it can be harnessed for my practice.
• Could we be doing mini-interviews for everything that happens at school... then putting up a mini news bulletin, a simple iMovie, that is uploaded to blogs and Facebook at the end of every week.

• Next Year... there are a number of opportunities floating around. I need to "step into the arena".

School Leadership Hui - Yong Zhao

NZEI Te Riu RoaSchool Leadership Hui 19 July 2016

Keynote Speaker- Yong Zhao

Yong Zhao currently serves as the Presidential Chair and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he is also a Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. He is also a professorial fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy, Victoria University in Australia. His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education.

How did Trump rise?  We can't blame him...blame education and the people who helped him rise.  Think about how we pass messages.  One of the issues we face as school leaders, parents and teachers, there are so many details to worry about that we tend to miss the important and big picture.  Educators face hanging landscapes.  

Use your time to think about the big picture, what really matters?

Book-The End of Average- Check it out

A system based on average doesn't work.  Be careful of big data.  Nobody is at the average.  One of the purposes of education, help each individual child to reach their own potential. Think about how many ways children can differ.  

Constructing profiles of success.  The 4 Cs/IQ & EQ.  We are constantly trying to create profiles to succeed.  These profiles used to work as we had jobs ready.  It is not so anymore.  Certain jobs had a descriptive skill set.  

If not ready for kindergarten/school, what will you do with the child?  The school should be ready for the child.  

We cannot prescribe anymore.  We are like delivery people giving knowledge and skills prescribed to succeed.  We tend to forget that it is about learning.  Is it worth it?  Are we helping them to succeed or are we torturing the child?  

Nobody succeeds with the average profile.  The traditional job wants you to be mediocre. How many ways do we vary?  Physical attributes have no meaning until put in context.  Multiple Intelligences-How do we understand it?  We are differently talented.  You learn faster and go further in certain areas.  We can all learn but will go in different rates.  Really important to look at.

16 Human Motivators-Motivator and Object of Desire.  Gain energy if we can do what we desire.

Being able to understand these, you have a better quality of life.  Helps you understand how people gain energy.  

Most of us don't understand physical movement.  Some people gain energy from moving...like ADHD kids.  

These don't make sense until they are in context or within a cultural setting where different traits are valued.  Think about how we send messages about what we value to our kids.  Do we value kids for being curious or organised?  Or do I want you to do what I say?  

Provide not deprive.  We think we are helping children to catch up, but this need rethinking.   

The gap has never become close...it is getting wider.

Our current system is teaching self deficit thinking.

How can we get out of this?  TECHNOLOGY

Although technology has had negative effects, it is the way for us to ...

The Fourth Industrial Revolution-Requires more data and machines.  The age of smart machines.  Machines can be designed to solve complex problems.  I a problem can be isolated, it can be solved by machines.  

Any job we prepare our children to do, will be gone.  Education is better than before but may be wrong for the future.  We are holding children back by stifling them by judging them by a prescribed standard.  

We gain more leisure time and disposable income.  Time was spent on securing necessities.  What changes is what we consume.  We consume different things.  Where do we spend most of our money?  Spiritual and psychological needs.  In the new age, we consume choice.  Look at how big cosmetic industry has become.  Things and choices are personal.  Many skills go into developing products that are more personal for us.  (Shampoo) Every human talent, can be of great value.  How can I help you become better in your own way.  What used to be of no value, is now valuable.  

Rudolph gained value when what he had was needed.  

Dyslexia-Been seen as a deficit so needing to be fixed.  Hides skills in art.  Art was not valued so much but is now valued.  Art experiences are everywhere.  

Can combine talents like art and music.  Combining these is creativity.  HOw can you create something new?  

Make sure every child can be considered valuable.

If Kim Kardashian can be useful, anybody can.

Children are born creative.  This creativity is lost as we teach them to comply.  We lose creativity the longer we are in school.  We reward compliance.  Great students, seldom make great innovators.  Knowledge comes after the passion.

The more we teach, the less creative children become.  

Every child is unique in combining what they have.  No standard can measure that. Identify problems that need solving.  We teach problem solving but this means nothing. What problems are worth solving?  We give problems and children give answers.  Problems worth solving are those that will improve other peoples lives.  

Sugar Kids Beauty

Knowledge is not imposed upon.  Educators become life coaches.  Mentors and advisors. We need a lot more confident and independent children.

Children have to solve authentic problems.  

If you are committed to your children, policy makers can be ignored.  Start from you and how you treat your own children.  

Most dangerous thing is that we think Pisa means something.

Risks when using Technology in School

Internet Health & Safety Education

NZSTA Annual Conference 2016

John Parsons

Layering Health and Safety...a defence in-depth approach.  After June 2 2016, certain policies need to be in place.  

We all have a role to play and if one layer does not do its part, it affects the other layers. We are all equal in our job to keep children safe.  Need to empower everybody in an organisation to protect children and ourselves.  

Don't think "What if I am wrong?" Think "What if I am right?"  Create open communication in your organisation.  Important policy...child protection.  Need a number one and a number two lead for who to go to.  

The rule of optimism...makes us lose opportunities to deal with potential risks.

Date, time and location...documents.  Speech marks of what has been said.  Follow that process.  Every member of staff needs to have a strong relationship to the policy. Review, sign and understand the processes.  Test your defences and processes.  

Social media policy.  Define the purpose of communication.  Terms of use.  All staff need to know what platforms are being used.  Need to now what NAG 5 is.  Need to know the process for when we have issues with staff.

NAG 5 responsibilities

a) provide a safe physical and emotional environment for students; and
c) comply in full with any legislation currently in force or that may be developed to ensure the safety of students and employees.

This section outlines the responsibilities of schools to provide a safe physical and emotional environment for students.

15.1. Under National Administration Guideline 5 (NAG 5), each Board of Trustees is required to:

15.2. NAG 5 covers a number of aspects of school life apart from bullying. However, developing and implementing a bullying policy will help schools ensure they are meeting their obligations in relation to providing a safe environment for students.

15.3. Schools are increasingly involved in incidents where the activities of students at home or in their own time have an impact on the life of the school. One example is a student creating inappropriate digital content on their own digital technology, whether at school or not. Schools have the responsibility and the power to act when any such content could reasonably be expected to impact negatively on the school learning environment.

Questions for Boards of Trustees, principals, senior leadership teams and teachers:

• How well are we doing on NAG 5? How do we know?
• Do we maintain a safe physical and emotional environment in our school?
• Have we considered the role of digital technology in the learning environment?
• Have we considered using the Education Review Office (ERO) wellbeing for success indicators?

Netsafe Kit for Schools.  Use of laptops of teachers...cannot let students use their computers or family members.  Other people's mistakes can affect all involved.  Should not be left in space with no teacher.  No teacher should have a social network connections with students.  Confident messages put out...

Capable guardians...

Note taking...make sure teachers are good at taking notes and documenting things.  

Guardian failure when letting kids play R18 games.  Be brave in expecting more from people.  

Demonstrate compassion on a daily basis.  

Hornby Cluster

Hornby Cluster Schools Get Together

Today the Hornby Cluster Schools gathered at Hornby High to hear Pat Sneddon, the chairperson of Manaiakalani speak and share the story of the Manaiakalani journey.  

Brief explanation of what Manaiakalani is:

In 2007 our initial cluster of schools wanted to find a way to engage the children in our mostly Decile 1A community in their learning. Digital Learning proved to be the ‘hook’ to guide our whole community to better educational outcomes.

Some of the crowd ready to get into it.

Pat began with sharing how the Manaikalani Journey began and took us through to where it is now and where it is going.  He shared stories about the Tamaki area and how the need for liberation of the low income learner emerged. One concept from stories of the time was around Rangatiratanga, taking charge of your own circumstances.  The tangi of Te Arikinui Dame Te Ātairangikaahu led to thinking about how we can be as good at educating the living, as we are at burying the dead?

The Tamaki Transformation Programme which included  Glen Innes, Panmure and Pt England, identified that the infrastructure had many issues and the area had a number of things that were not right.  A group was put together made up of government, community groups etc. who looked at infrastructure and what was working well. 

In 2009, Principal of Pt England School and Manaiakalani Convenor Russel Burt, invited Pat to visit his school.  He was greeted by children who then told him about their learning. They shared about how they were beginning to learn digitally.  It seemed too good to be true as the learning taking place was astounding.

Some reasons for everybody not being involved at the time, included issues such as cost of retraining teachers from an analogue to a digital world and finance.  Pat's response was if I get it for you would you come?  He did, they came and here we are.

Pat shared this video from Russell Burt which looks at moving from subsistent living to capital building by design.   Move out of subsistence to capital building.  This is significant as this is part of the purpose and goal for Manaiakalani schools.

Stuart McNaughton and Wolf Fischer Research-significant research has and continues to take place within Manaiakalani and outreach cluster schools.  Click here to read research findings to date.

We are part of five clusters across the country.  These include schools in the West Coast, Papakura, Mt Roskill and Kaikohe. Thirty eight schools across New Zealand are currently on the journey to use digital technology to accelerate learning for their students.  

We need to know what we are trying to achieve with being part of this outreach.  

Collaboration across schools and boards is essential.  Some things that have been put in place such as wireless in homes, could not have been done without collectivity.  

Within this process, opportunities for creativity and collaboration are abundant.  Positive for teachers to be able to learn from each other.  Learning is visible.  

Initiatives to support and develop teacher capabilities:

*innovative teacher

*digital teacher academy  

This process is built on this structure:

Whanaungatanga-Relationships

Kaupapa-Purpose

Putea-Resources

Where to next?  Outreach+ is the outreach programme being made available to all New Zealand decile 1-2 schools.  Our performance as leaders and teachers counts.  We need to be able to prove the case that what we are doing is working and we are achieving our goals. 

Key focus: 

What happens to and for the learner?

We can't do this alone...so we collaborate.

Hornby Cluster Schools...a positive start and well into this new journey.

Hornby Cluster Toolkits

Hornby Cluster Toolkits

As part of our professional learning and development as a cluster, Mark Maddren who is our Manaiakalani Outreach Programme go to guy, organises teachers from within our cluster to run toolkits.  These sessions go for one hour and are to support our learning which impacts on and improves learning for our children.  

I have attended these in the past and have always admired those who share what they are doing.  As with all professional development, you come away with ideas you know will benefit your students and you as a teacher.

This term, Mark suggested that somebody could share some learning from the recent Google Summit.  I was a little reluctant as I thought what might be new and exciting learning for me, could be old news for other people.  

After some thought and discussion, I decided to look at it as a time for me to share some of the things I have been able to use and out in place since returning to school post summit.  Although this helped me to have a clear picture of what I was to be sharing, I was still worried that attendees might be bored and walk out thinking that was a waste of time.

After a couple of 'Where is my dongle?' moments, we were able to start with our group of teachers and Principal from Gilberthorpe, Templeton and Hornby Primary.  

The presentation included some tools to support learning, some to make our own online lives easier and some things just for fun.  

Have a look here to see what we covered:

The learning for me here, is that often we think we don't have anything worthy to share or we doubt ourselves about what we know and do.  I am still pondering on this as far as my own self belief etc goes, but I am glad to have had the opportunity to share things that I am passionate about and am motivated and excited about this journey.

EdTech Team Google Summit 2016

For two days in the holidays I had the privilege of attending the EdTechTeam's Google Summit here in Christchurch.  Right from the first keynote speaker, my learning and excitement for what Google can offer our learners grew and grew.  

Each day we selected different workshops to attend and the learning was immense in each session I attended.  I couldn't help feeling that I was learning so many great things but also that I still have so much to learn and discover.

This was the best professional development I have done for quite some time and for future summits I will be securing my spot as soon as tickets go on sale and I will also be taking as many people from our team along too.

This summit has increased my level of motivation, excitement and passion for learning in the now and the future.  

This is one of the cool features I discovered (and might be overusing right now...).

Hornby Cluster eLeaders Workshop

Hornby Cluster eLeader Workshop

August 2015

The Hornby Cluster of Schools eLeaders met to share what we have all been doing and look at learning successes within each of our schools.  Literacy was a specific learning area that we looked at.  The day was made up of these three components~

Story Hui~ 

We were introduced to the Story Hui process of sharing.  For this task we used a success story in literacy.  As one person shared verbally, another member of the group drew pictures to visualise the initial evidence, the inquiry and the evidence of progress.  This structure allows group members to ask questions to seek clarification and for the story teller to identify next step ideas.At Gilberthorpe, we will be using the Story Hui process in our next staff meeting to share our Teaching as Inquiry.This is a link to the Story Hui site which has detailed explanations of the benefits of this process and how it is implemented.

Story Hui

Effective Feedback~

Garry Taylor took us through a session about providing effective feedback and what this could look like.  The main points that I took from this session were:

~Feedback should make students think

~It needs to be descriptive not evaluative

~We need to eliminate judgemental feedback

Feedback should be goal referenced

~The first comment should be in relation to what is being learned

~Feedback needs to be timely

~90% of feedback is oral

~Giving feedback is a skill that needs to be taught

~There needs to be evidence in relation to the goal...what is being done well, needs improving, criteria needs to be used

~Feedback should offer guidance on ways to close the gap. It needs to be specific, actionable and have the scope for being good to being better

~We don't want to give too much feedback...too much is overwhelming so prioritise, 2:1 2 positives & 1 other

~The learner needs time to act on feedback and the opportunity to respond. This should take place during the task, not at end,

~There is a place for evaluative feedback. Descriptive feedback is not appropriate on the final published product. Commenting on blogs etc should not have feedback about punctuation etc as this feedback should take place before public sharing.

~There are opportunities for technology to transform feedback. At Gilberthorpe School we have been exploring these and are looking forward to trying recorded audio and video feedback.

Learning Tools~

In the afternoon we had a session of looking at different tools that we could use in our schools.  One iPad app that we looked at was Aurasma.  This app allows users to create a trigger so that when the iPad hovers over the trigger, a previously created clip appears.We thought that we would try using this during our end of term Celebrations of Learning.  Whanau can wander around learning spaces, hover the iPad over a trigger and their child can pop up in a video and share their learning.  Another way for us to all Learn, Create and Share.Here is some more information about Aurasma:

Aurasma

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou~ Lee-Anne