Enabling Access - Sites Week Six DFI - Connected

Learning how to create a google site has been new learning for me. Thanks to the necessities of distance learning, I had already learnt how to upload material to the school hub sites and doing that in itself felt like an achievement. It seemed like a mystery and I  didn't want to upset any preset formatting that had been done. I felt a little like an intruder.  It is timely that my confidence with accessing and putting work on the site has improved at the same time that the mysteries of the workings behind the scene are unfolding through DFI. I still have a lot to learn and need to do some homework on this, but I am excited to be looking at an authentic purpose for my site; Structured Reading in the junior school. (The subject of another blog post!)

The Manaiakalani Kaupapa topic for week six was 'Connected'. I found that the graphic showing the four goals of Manaiakalani reached me this week. I have seen the graphic before but this time I saw how interconnected and important the four goals are. The big picture of enabling access; that learning for all children should be Connected. Through communication  and collaboration with others that sense of connection to a community is developed.
Ubiquitous, where equity is promoted and fostered when children are able to access the learning anytime and anywhere. Visible: a multi layered concept which was the topic of my last blog post.
Empowered: giving students agency through voice, choice and leadership.  Using the Learn, Create, Share framework to manage learning, these lofty goals somehow seem achievable.

The Kaupapa of Manaiakalani has settled on me. It feels like a good fit. The DFI course has further enabled my access to this thinking and I am grateful for it. What have been your 'aha' moments throughout this time?

Collaboration - Sites DFI Week Five - Visible Learning.

The focus for today's Manaiakalani pedagogy talk was about their kaupapa of 'Visible Learning'. This is a multi layered concept. The idea that the children should be able to relate to material  presented in a way that they feel connected with the school resonated with me. How will they know that the work presented to them comes out of their school and is relevant to their context?

Leading Lights wellbeing site

 Not only should the children be engaged and learning (not the same thing) but also the online content should reflect our school's style and culture. The idea of our students feeling connected matters to their wellbeing. There are articles aplenty that talk about this. (Nathan Wallas, Hattie and many others). Leading Lights, our localised collaboration between the Ministries of Education and Health, has many great articles showing how important it is for students to connect with their school, teachers, friends, whanau. The same goes for us.

It was good to be reminded about 'cultural capital' - what it is that we learn as we navigate life and relationships that help us to 'fit in'? It strikes me as an example of social inequity; when some children learn very quickly the language of learning, the nuances of 'teaching and learning' and others don't. I like the idea that digital technologies even out some of the social inequities but understanding the hidden culture behind what the teacher is meaning is still relatively hit and miss for many of our tamariki.


(Boudiue&Gerwitz)

Visible learning in terms of children having access and clarity around their next step learning has been considered good practice for years. We laboriously pinned up our WALTS and LI's on the walls each week and tried to remember to point them out to children; the posters became background wallpaper in moments. We glued them into their books and had them copy them down. We glued curriculum progressions into the backs of students' books in an attempt to personalise them and highlighted or ticked as they mastered them. The introduction of 1:1 computers and progressions (goal) based information not only makes learning visible and personalised for students but also their parents. This is the age of relevant, timely, clear information and it is good. Each child should be able to see the planning and have a voice over the planning process. Children should be able to have conversations about whether or not they are meeting their goals and should expect to have conversations about how they can achieve these goals. The age of just do it because this is what I have planned are fortunately long gone. Transparency and accountability is part and parcel of authentic learning.

Visible learning on walls and tables emphasise and give evidence  of what is happening in learning for the children in the hub. They show and encourage student engagement and give a point of reference for our students. Word walls, interactive displays (can be taken away and put back, or manipulated in some way) have not lost their relevance and are just as important as the site, slide show, explain everything or video. Thankfully this is something that we do not want to lose sight of in my school.

As teachers we have historically thrown the baby out with bath water, what do you think?

Lead Like A Pirate Blog Hop Week Five - Transformation

Transform an event

On pg 57 Beth Houf describes how she and her leadership team transformed Parent Teacher Conferences at their school. Choose an event or practice at your school that you have transformed or that you would like to transform. Discuss how you went about it or how you will go about this transformation.

Our Senior Leadership Team has been talking about how we can transform the transition to school experience for our five year olds. It is forefront on our minds at the moment because we are so aware of the research carried out by Kathleen Liberty. We have become one of her 'second wave' of schools to adopt her research based calming and coping strategies.

We are aware that we need to do things differently for many of our school beginners, who do not seem ready for school. It is an issue that has been around for many years for some new students, but the numbers seem to have increased in recent years.

So how can we make this transition smoother? Perhaps we stop expecting the children to do the same thing at the same time. After roll and prayers, does everyone need to be in their phonics groups/maths groups/reading groups at the same time? Does everyone need to do their writing at the same time and in the same way? A few short days/weeks ago they were at kindy or pre school making choices and being creative. Surely we can make the transition more like what they have come from as they settle in? At least for a time?

 At the Catholic Principal's Conference this year, I was inspired by the presentation of a teacher from a Southland school about her Year 0 - 1 play based learning approach. I was heartened by the fact that she had data to support the fact that these children who still had small group teaching in all of the usual subjects, were as ready for year 2 as they would have been under a more traditional approach.

I have been doing some reading on the subject. Here is one article that supports play based learning.
It lines up really well with our school's ethos around project based learning. You could say it is the first step in project based learning for these little ones.

We want our New Entrants to be as excited about coming to school in week six as they were on day one. We want them to be inquisitive and creative.  I have more questions than answers at the moment, but I am working on it.  Ideas welcome...

Mind Lab Week 31 My Interdisciplinary Connection Map.

My interdisciplinary map shows my commitment to the value of making connections, in and outside of the workplace.

The interdisciplinary concept is multifaceted. On my professional level it incorporates all of the different networks in my life. Looking at my map I can see how much value I place personally on making connections that will enable me to grow professionally as well as to enable others to grow. I can see that what has gone on in my past is what has enabled me to grow professionally and past involvements are what has enabled me to make the connections that I so strongly value.

On another professional level, the multidisciplinary connections between subjects resonated strongly with me as I explore the possibilities of project based learning further. Crossing interdisciplinary boundaries is how project based learning will work. As was stated on the video  “The road to success academy model” (Week 31 Mindlab) the pursuit of crossing interdisciplinary boundaries “ allows individuals to focus on the collaboration and participation in finding solutions to increasingly complex problems occurring in the world today.” (Lacoe Edu (2014, Oct 24).

As was stated on the video (Mind Lab Week 31), interdisciplinary crossover allows for a curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline, in order to exam a central theme  (Lacoe Edu (2014, Oct 24). My Goal for the future in my school context is to explore further the cross curriculum interdisciplinary connections within the project based learning approach. I can see how the benefits of this approach would make learning so much more authentic as students access the discipline that they need (and the teacher who has those skills) in a much more natural and timely way as they work together to solve real life problems viewed through a social / emotional lens. In this way students will become better equipped to develop the necessary competencies that will sit alongside their knowledge acquisition. These competences are tools such as creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and citizenship. This is project based learning.

David Wiley in his TEd Talk ( Mind Lab Week 31) talks about crossing interdisciplinary boundaries in the sense of “enabling educational opportunities for all” In this way he presents the opportunities that free online sharing of knowledge enables for the student. He raises an appealing analogy about educational innovation comparing it to a musical remix or mashup of ideas - not necessarily new thinking but putting ideas together in a different way. In his Ted Talk, Wiley quoted Eric Raymond as saying “to solve an interesting problem, start by finding a problem that is interesting to you”. My Goal for our school is to work with the senior leadership team (of which I am a part) and the staff to enable educational opportunities for our students. Just as I am able to access the opportunities that being globally connected affords me, so too do I want to be able to make that possible and safe for our students. There are tensions associated with being globally connected when you are are a young person and these need to be addressed in a timely and safe manner.

The interdisciplinary environment that our students will have access to will enable them to have the benefits of free online material. They will have access to information and be influenced by people that may help shape their thinking and actions. This same environment can also have challenges in terms of unfiltered knowledge and influence. As teachers we share the responsibility with whanau to educate our students in the ability to filter information in a way such that they can process the information safely and connect globally with people in a positive way.  

References:

Videos:

Ted Talks:

David Wiley talked on interdisciplinary thinking that leads to innovation.Source: TEDx Talks (2001, April 6). TEDxBYU - David Wiley - An Interdisciplinary Path to Innovation. [video file].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ytjMDongp4 (via Mindlab Week 3)

Lacoe Edu (2014, Oct 24) Interdisciplinary Learning [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA564RIlhM

(via Mindlab Week 31)