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?

Data. DFI Week Four.

Still in Lockdown.The new normal. It is amazing all of the little things that you pick up when you have an authentic need for something. Almost everything that is being covered in the Digital Fluency Intensive is immediately useful. If not in the case of something that I am using then in a conversation with someone who may need it, e.g google drawings last week - although I don't need to use it myself, right now, it is the tool that our teachers are using to plan their lessons. Some of the hints that I have picked up at DFI have been put to good use.

I am excited to put some of the 'Data' new learning to good use as I gather and collate information - my immediate need is my Learning Support register spreadsheet. I could see all of the possibilities of better manipulation and presentation of the data, opening up for me as I worked through the day. I have always wondered how formulas work in spreadsheets!
Also, I enjoyed the tweaks to my Google forms - I hadn't noticed that little add image here button alongside the actual questions.   

Today along with the rest of New Zealand, we reopened our school in an online capacity. I think that by the time it came around to 9:00 this morning, we all just wanted to get on with it!. As I hopped in and out of Google Meets being run by our teachers, I felt very grateful for the technical knowledge that our staff has gained over recent times to enable them to deliver online learning. There has been a massive upskilling for a few, but the recent  couple of years of Manaiakalani PD has certainly taken the fear (and substitution - SAMR) out of the digital delivery of the curriculum.

I love the way new knowledge expands my brain!

Media DFI Week Three - Online Version

Week Three's point of difference was that I was sitting in my dining room alongside 31 others who were also sitting in their own homes. We all seem to have adapted to this strange new world. It is only one week since I learnt how to make the best of google meet and then in such a short time have used it more than I would have imagined (several times a day!) and so quickly become conversant with such things as using the grid extension and then closing the grid to see the screen sharing properly and breaking out into smaller workshops. It was a good feeling in session three, working with colleagues from around the country, even then not knowing how vital these tools would become.

Of course everything that is happening in the DFI course now seems incredibly relevant as we gear up for helping our staff deliver on line learning. What week three's course in particular has reminded me of, is what it is like to be a learner! As I sweated over getting something worth sharing onto my google drawing, I thought about what it must be like for so many of our students. Quite a humbling experience and quite different from academic study because part of what I was learning in the session was exactly what we would expect our students to do. When we consider the varying needs and abilities of our students, how well are we looking after each person's Mana?

It was enlightening indeed to uncover some of the mysteries around my youtube channel (who knew!) and once again a timely injection of information. I feel so much better informed about launching my online videos into the cosmos, after this session. The rewindable nature of our sessions has proven to be incredibly authentic and points out again how useful this is for our children. Having the opportunity to flip and then rewind the learning as we have been using in our practice over the past few years makes me want to celebrate again how good it is to be in a school that values leveraging digital to enhance learning opportunities for all.

Workflow. DFI Week Two

Today's session has been timely as our school prepares for the possibility of students staying home and accessing learning in a different way.

We have been planning for self isolation and school closure over the past couple of weeks; timetables, what teaching and learning will look like across the teams and how we will connect with our tamariki have been the questions that the staff has been focusing on.

We had already decided to use Google Meet in a variety of ways: scheduled workshops, giving feedback on work that students have shared, and generally checking in.

At today's DFI session, along with some useful tips such as tab control and gmail maintenance (!) we practised using Google Meet, which now includes a record function.  This practise was timely and the use of the record button will reduce some steps and will make it easier for our teachers to be able to provide rewind sessions for our students.  Knowing how to use the technology confidently will reduce a lot of stress for our teachers as they prepare to provide home learning for our students. I know that I feel a lot better about supporting our teachers to use Google Meet after today. Inviting, sharing, presenting between screens and leading and contributing to discussions will be necessary skills.

Some aspects of today's 'Learn' focus resonated with me:
How do we know what effective practice looks like?
Would we be able to recognise it? This does not mean throw out the old for the new, but know what effective practice looks like. If we accept that the whole point of the digital world is to be able to do things in a way that we could not do before - what does effective practise look like in a digital world? How can we use digital technologies to accelerate learning for our students?

These are the questions that we ask ourselves constantly in our Senior Leadership Team:
Do you know what Learn looks like in your school?
How do you know?
Do you have a model or shared understandings about Learn in your school?
What is happening in your school in terms of your local context?

Core Business DFI Week One

Today has been a great introduction to the digital fluency world. The history of Manaiakalani was a great insight into how this movement was born and I marvel at the far reaching effects of this dream.

Something that resonated with me was the statement that our computers are a pencil not a book. This spoke to me of the kaupapa around digital technologies in schools being about opening up possibilities for ubiquitous learning, access to information, creating and sharing; not as an alternative to a textbook or worksheet.

I use google docs every day in my professional and personal life. Today I learned some excellent shortcuts and tips that will make working with docs more efficient. eg I had not known that explore at the bottom right of the doc allows me to search for free images without having to use the free images filter on google images.

Some of the 'Create' features within google docs are going to be useful when creating docs.
I was able to explore some of these features. This image is my work in progress.

Other highlights have been having the opportunity to give DFI my full attention, ask for and receive help, and to connect with another professional learning group.

Lead Like a Pirate Blog Hop Week 9. Using Stories to Personalise Data.

Prompt #1
How do you strip down your data and make a connection to it to improve outcomes for students? How do you get dialogue happening around your data.?

There is a lot of research stating that data is important because it shows progress or movement and it informs next steps. It shows trends across the school or cluster and informs resourcing and professional development. This is of course all true, but the real value in the data for our children, are the conversations that come out of it. 

I have what I call 'data meetings' each term.  They are not so much about interrogating the data which is important, but about knowing each child and using our collective wisdom to address their needs. The bringing together of the data into a physical space is about confronting the facts and seeing for ourselves, as a collectively responsible team, who these children are and what we all know about them. 

At the first meeting I discuss the research that I have already shared with the team  prior to the meeting. I may use something from "Student Centred Leadership" (Robinson, 2011), or from BES. At this first meeting I  use a physical data board with the names of the children and their OTJ level taken from the baseline data (end of year previous OTJ). The percentages or raw numbers are looked at against expectations. I then read out loud the names of each child in the well below and below expectation and allow those names to sink in before beginning discussions. 

After that I ask some questions:

1. Are there any surprises?
2. Is there anyone who you think is in the wrong place?
3. Do you know why this child (N) is here?  

Next I ask what we know about the children individually. 

1. Have they performed better in the past?
2. Is there anything we should know that will help us to cater better for this child's needs?
3. What has the previous teacher told you about these children? In lots of cases someone on the team has taught those children in the past. This year, two of the four teachers had.

Then in a more general sense:

1. What have you tried in the past that has had a good impact on learning/engagement/ relationships with children?
2. How involved have you been with their families? siblings? parents?
3. What have you tried that hasn't worked?  

I then compile a list of all of the strategies that the teachers in the room have tried before that they feel made a difference. This is a positive feeling brainstorm as teachers start to unlock and share strategies/ideas that they have used in the past. There are lots of "That's right! I used to do that and the kids loved it! as they remember things that had slipped into the background. When the list is at about thirty shared strategies, I then invite the teachers to choose one strategy that they will take away and try for the next 5 weeks. The teachers commit to this (especially helpful if it contributes to their Teaching as Inquiry).

At the end of the 5 week trial, we have another 'data' meeting. There is no data presented, other than anecdotal feedback about how the trial has gone. At this meeting, I will present some more research supporting the trial. This year I used the ERO document on "Raising student Achievement Through Targeted Actions" (2015). I write up the findings so far, as the teachers discuss what has happened. They then commit to either continuing on with the same strategy with changes, or they select another strategy to try. This process usually re energises the teachers and leads them away from the 'same old')

The final 'data' meeting of the year includes the updated data board. This (hopefully!) is another feel good meeting. "Look at the effects of your specific, targeted actions!" We revert to the percentages to see how much difference has been made. Of course we don't have a control group so we don't know if doing nothing would made an impact, but we choose, based on the great improvements, to believe that we have made a difference.