Enhancing Learning through a strategic design process

Again, a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes with this blog serving to demonstrate some of that learning.  In the process of building my knowledge and resources around learning, I have developed a number of documents to support the processes at the time and I felt it was important to ensure this one was present in order to see movement and formalise my planning process from here.

Learner Agency development plan found here

Reflection and Inquiry Process

There are a number of important aspects of learning I've been immersed in throughout 2015 and at this point I'd like to reflect on some of the things that have grown in importance for me throughout the year.

As I'm aware of all the numerous factors that make education so complex and our tendency as teachers to overload ourselves and feel overwhelmed, I would like to take some time to unpack the things I have developed an interest in and those things I feel are vitally important based on the learning I've undertaken.

Three aspects that have been highlighted as important by ERO in recent years, that continue to be important issues include:

• placing the student at the centre of the learning
• rich and relevant meaningful learning for learners
• assessment for learning - involving students in the learning process to empower them in their role as central to the learning process

CORE education's TEn trends this year include:

Learner Agency - student autonomy and voice

Learner Analytics - using large datasets to benefit all learners

Digital Convergence - the merging of digital technology into our everyday lives

Learner Orientation - placing the learner at the centre

Networked Organizations - networks, collaboration, connectivism and the cloud

Inclusive Design - considering the diverse strengths of learners

New Approaches to Assessment - exploring new ways of assessing learning

Global Connectedness - enabling learners to connect globally

Innovation and Entrepreneurship - innovation, startups and the knowledge economy

Maker Culture - making, coding, programming and creating

The 2014 Trends were all identical to these except 

Gamification which was in place of Inclusive Design, and 

The Singularity - which was the idea of the convergence of separately used technologies

The fact that these trends have persisted, suggests that while movement is being made, that we are still currently very much in the midst of the concept of 'an education' changing.  There is much research into the movement of our education system from an industrial model, which worked very well to serve learners in the past, who could be guaranteed a good, secure job by developing sufficient levels of knowledge to attend and complete university..... however, the current global economy and development of advanced technology means that learners are heading toward a very different future to the one the industrial model was designed to fit.  As such, major shifts are needing to occur in order to best meet the needs of all learners in our classrooms, including teachers.

Through critical reflection and analysis of my learning and leadership throughout 2015, particularly in conjunction with The Mind Lab, I have begun to ask some concise and important questions of myself in my learning:

• What am I doing to develop a manageable programme of learner-centred, rich, meaningful and real-life learning in our learning spaces?

• How can I go about developing a better understanding of assessment for learning practices, so that assessment is empowering my learners and preparing them for future learning processes?

• I know I have not undertaken my Inquiry and reflection around my target learners well this year.  Starting now, how am I best to go about developing a structured process for myself to undertake in order to best support my target learners (and thus benefit all learners) in ways that I am routinely accountable and aware of the impact I'm having on these learners?

• How am I best to go about this process in a way that leaves me feeling empowered and effective while still ensuring quality of life balance for myself and my family?

Although I feel as though the year has not benefitted my learners and feel a huge amount of guilt around what I haven't done to enhance their learning, I am aware that this state of disequilibrium is necessary for my practice to change and am now highly focused on how to best ensure movement in my practice for the future.

I have worked hard to ensure all I undertook was manageable this year and although it hasn't been manageable at times, it has certainly been easier than it could have been. Immersed in learning, is one way to describe the year and although I have drowned in it at times, the challenges to my thinking have been hugely important and have aided my thinking considerably.  

For example, aspects of importance for me for next year include:

Beginning with a concrete programme of teaching of learning habits and collaborative tasks in the first six weeks of school in order to develop my knowledge of my learners and teach the process of learning.  Designing activities with the goals being around completion, collaboration and reflection on learning.

Beginning the year with a bank of meaningful, real life contexts of learning for our learners and structuring checkpoints with assessment for learning tasks throughout the process so all learners know where they are in terms of their:

learning habits, core learning areas, credits for learning, ability to monitor their learning

Focusing more on the process of learning and celebrating learning habits and progress at every turn - daily MFCs (Most Focused Contributors) and MFLs (Most Focused Learners) who would then be eligible for a weekly celebration prize.

I once spoke to a family friend who is a respected teacher and she told me that as a teacher, one day I would wake up and wish I was able to meet the needs of all my learners.  Never in my career have I felt this need more strongly.  I feel this in terms of my own practice as well as the policies and practices our current system binds us by, that need to change.  Change is upon us.  

Reflection on Reflection

Wow it seems such a long time since I've updated this blog - which doesn't bode well for my upcoming appraisal and attestation.  However, I think it will be obvious why when viewing my Team 17 blog and Agency to Learn blog - there has just been so much learning going on!

At the beginning of this year, my goals were wide and varied.  I had no real idea what the year was going to bring with:

• Mind Lab Postgraduate study
• e-Learning Co-Lead role (facilitating professional learning)
• a busy class of Year 8 learners
• commitments to Teach Xpo and Google Summit

My goals included:

Goal No. 1

Make learning visible to parents to encourage home school partnerships and increase impact and effective learning programmes.

Goal No. 2

Get students more involved in creation of learning in order to ensure greater depth of content knowledge and greater collaboration (who is working the hardest in our classrooms?)

Goal No. 3

Create positive classroom tone for all members to feel safe and secure.

Goal No. 4

Create a classroom where students are involved in facilitating their learning and have ownership over their learning.

Goal No. 5

Ensure adequate time is available and time management is well-planned in order to manage and balance:

Class learning

Team commitments

Any necessary professional development workshops for ICT/Chromebooks

MindLab commitments

Google Summit commitments

TeachXpo commitments

I remember when meeting with my lead teacher, Rae Black, at the beginning of the year, that Rae was concerned that there were too many goals on my list.  At the time though, I felt they were all viable and important and so persisted with them.

Reflections on these goals can be found on my Professional Goals document

One major reflection I have is that it's been challenging to be updating these regularly with all I've had on as my learning has raised new and interesting sidelines for me and I am not secure in my Inquiry Process. So that is one need to address next.

Ande Ford- Learner Agency

This past week, we had a visit from Mrs Ande Ford at our staff meeting, who talked us through some information on Learner Agency and information found at Assessment Online.
It was exciting to again be immersed in some learning relating to my current passion of study and to have things to contribute to the learning discussions.  I enjoyed the 3, 2, 1 activity we came away with and look forward to using it with our class.

Note's from Ande's visit - thanks Mrs Devery
Link to Assessment Online - there are some wonderful resources here and some confronting material for prompting important thought!

Immersed in agency again!

Student Teachers!

Wow, how exciting to have a student teacher coming to visit Team 17.  I'm so excited about the opportunity to have a real-life daily reminder to reflect on my practice and support the development of an enthusiastic teacher.  I'm so looking forward to the next six weeks.  I'm sure the term will fly by - after all, it's week four already and in six weeks we'll be heading off on Action Week.

Briar and I are going to look at characterisation, settings, puppet shows and measurement.  It's going to be such fun!

Collaboration 101 - Bruce Hill / Alicia Caldwell

Another great example of fantastic GisInt Goodness.
 

Great refresher of EdPuzzle and Blendspace - there is some excellent potential learning here. I'm looking forward to building them into our learning again. Blendspace is a great example of how students can be demonstrating their learning through the location of relevant resources for their personalized learning.

YouTube

Creating channels with Alicia.  So much fun to create channels and playlists and think about how they could apply to my kids!  Fun!

Genius Hour - Herman Fourie

So exciting to be here with Herman presenting.
Today we're looking at Genius Hour.


In order:
We looked at Genius Hour and how a lot of Google products were originally part of their 20% time. How this can apply to students in our schools?
Empowerment, passion, engagement.
Process - exciting and chaotic start, refining the process in later years.
Refining the planning
Using Blogs to plan Using Google Slides and videos as reflection Follow on - learning is catching - one student with a mum into pallet couches brought the idea to school and all students building on each other's learning.
Students negotiating timetables in order to maximise their Genius Hour time
"Demonstrates effort, learning and a mastery of skills" - video on slide 9


Video talks about:


Weekly Question problem
Whole Term Project - like a passion project - music etc
Group Projects - collaboration (arguing why a project is a good idea etc)

Following this, we looked at the making Open and Closed questions in order to develop our questioning process and developing great questions.

Doc with questions here

Excellent and relevant presentation - seriously inspiring! Google 4E for life!

TeachXpo 2015

What a great day!  I've heard about Joan before and feel sure I must have been to one of her workshops at the conference we went to in Rotorua with Nik and Carol and Rob that time - not ULearn but something similar.  She was an engaging and structured as ever and boy did we learn!

She mentioned a man called, Patrick Lencioni and his books the Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Advantage which sound really interesting. Wow!  What can I say!  Joan Dalton - wow!
This lady has impressed me more than words can say.  If I can be just half as influential as she can in my lifetime, I'll be happy!

This is one of her talks and can give a little insight into how amazing she is.  And, at some point in your life, you need to be in the room with Joan.  Her amazing presence is calming and resonates so well with how I feel about empowering education.  I feel very strongly that this workshop with Joan will change the way I view myself, my learners and those around me.  She has helped me on my journey to seeing how I view education and to create the change I wish to see.  Wow.



Conversations for improving and transforming learning from EDtalks on Vimeo.
Takeaways from the course: Great structured collaborative activities: Donut - with drinks partner. Pinwheel - numbered off 1, 2, 3 and move on when time to go on. Number 2 is gatekeeper (gives them a job) Final Word - choosing something to talk about - everyone else speaks in turn first, then final word person says why they chose that one. Great idea - gives a chance to share and everyone has a turn before the person selecting can speak and explain their selection. Sharing someone else's idea Using post-its to list what we hope to learn (or will choose to focus on) that day and return to that later to see if they have achieved their goal.

What will you Continue, Start and Stop now that you know that?

 Continue: I'd like to continue looking at Joan Dalton's books. She has done some vital research around Learning Talk and after spending two days in her 'classroom' I want that for all my learners. I love the way that she uses language: Take the next five minutes to talk over what you've learned through this process. As you turn to the board you'll see.... So we're ready for head outside into the sunshine for morning tea, there are a few things it's time for us to do, how might we best do that? Return to our classroom covenants and encourage students to identify what learning we need to do in order to help our learning. Come back to Circle Time and use this time to restructure our understandings. Do this in partnership with Joan's Learning Talk books, so that our Important Conversations are filled with Joan's wonderful nurturing and Growth Mindset language.

 Start: Speaking in ways that demonstrate trust for my students. Start speaking in ways that ask more questions. Creating laminated prompt cards to encourage active listening (pause, reframe, prompt, probe, inquire) Using the structured collaborative activities that mix up our learning community for greater collaboration. Start speaking about students again with promise and potential.

 Stop: Picking up on all shortfalls in attention. Focus instead on positivity. I can't MAKE students learn and I can't MAKE them watch or join in. I know all this but somehow the 'power' in our room is becoming a problem and how perhaps this is adding to the way I feel that students feel that learning is my business not theirs. If I want their agency to improve, I need to show them that I know it's their job, I feel it's their job and I can leave it to them to be responsible for that behaviour. And if it's not happening? Then we need to follow up later with an Important Conversation that asks of that child what's not happening for them and what thoughts they have on it. (See Joan's notes on important conversations).

 I can't even put into words how often subtle habits of mine were highlighted throughout this process and how unsettled that left me feeling. They say though that dissonance is the catalyst for change. So change is inevitable then, I think. Joan's new book - Book 5 is out about September and focuses a lot of the Important Conversations we need to have. In the meantime, I'm excited about what her current books can do for me. So exciting! Roll on the growth!

End of Term 2

Wow, what a busy six months.

Mind explosions
Behaviour learning

So much to recap and not enough brain space to organise it all!
A year of study leave would be so welcome.  Time to reorganise all my ideas and experiences and 'where to next' so I feel I can actually put it all into practice.

MindLab has taught me about:

• Growth Mindsets
• Augmented Reality
• Gamification
• Engagement
• Student Agency
• Leadership
• Blogs
• Assessment versus creativity

Major recaps include:

Effecting Change in my own Teaching Practice

Teachers of excellence ensure they are organised to effect change - to be always moving forward in all that they do.  In an order to ensure this remains at the forefront on my mind, I'm adding my links to

Practices

and

Learner Agency here.

Visual Cues to Enhance Teaching Practice and Support Change

Teachers are hugely benefitted by good supporters.  Many teachers who work with students with high learning and / or behaviour needs have the opportunity to work with a number of specialists.  These specialists can offer a unique set of information for the teacher in question.... observations of students, the teacher, the classroom and feed back critical information.

While it's not for the faint hearted - specialists work hard to ensure their feedback is constructive and useful.  As such, it's important to read it, take note of it, take it on board and find creative ways to move forward using it to the full advantage of not only the student in question and the class, but for yourself as a learning professional committed to continual improvement.

Finding ways to remind ourselves about the changes we intend to make can be challenging but also a breath of fresh air.  I'm always looking for ways to enhance my practice - if only I had a few extra hours in which to get it all organised, I'm sure my practice would flourish.  In the meantime, I intend to find as many ways as possible to remind myself of my new learning and good intentions, in order to facilitate as much change as possible.

It has to start with me.

Created with Tagul.com

Building a Positive Classroom Culture

As an educator passionate about ensuring learning is happening wherever we happen to be, I'm constantly looking for methods to improve or enhance our class culture.  Some years, this culture seems to develop naturally.  Other years, it's a long, hard slog towards building an environment where our learners gel and work positively and productively together.

Positive culture at the forefront, we are currently working on persistence in our room.  This means that I have to be persistent despite the current challenges also.  Let's start with our morning.  I could get busy in the morning, not have the roll and the notices ready to go and it would then take us time to get settled.  We've tried taking turns to read the notices and a number of students struggle with staying on task and listening for that length of time.  Initially, we trialled this as an opportunity for leadership in our room.  I'm now working on developing some new ideas around how we can develop leadership while still ensuring we get thing done quickly and positively and effectively.  So let's try something new.

• Roll and notices ready to go.
• Start with thumbs up for how everyone is feeling.  Or "move to a space" for state of wellbeing etc.
• Time the roll - points for volume - contribution to the class.  Start with 30 points.  Points added for if students speak with an appropriate volume and mention a student when they are absent.
• Leader leads Karakia, Kiwaha and Whakatauki.  They then position themselves at the notice board and add important info from the notices as I read them, making sure to list everything that pertains to anyone in our class.  
• Wall of Fame will show who is in which team, so we are sure of which notices to listen for and note down.
• Kids sit on chairs up by the board rather than at their desks.  If the whole class are already in that space they are awarded two marbles on our jar.  If most of the class are there, we get one.
• Leader recaps important notices. Ensure we add things like litter and uniform if they are stressed by our leaders to ensure these foci are retained.
• Leaders read our important goals and focus tasks to complete for the day, highlighting students who are finished and could help x students who are as yet unfinished.
• Share a learning goal with your buddy around learning habits.
• From here we transition straight into our poem of the week to have some collaborative time.

I'm interested to see how this will work.  I've also decided that we need to have some strict routines around certain types of learning to ensure we are getting things finished more regularly, which is where our tracking board comes in.  More on that soon.

I've worked with some important specialists this year who are always challenging me around my practice.  This is necessary even though it's often uncomfortable.  Focus on excellence means existing in these uncomfortable learning spaces.  I'm in the pit often, but that's okay because I'm always constructing my staircase to get out.

Learner Agency

As part of my MindLab assignment, I'm looking at Learner Agency and wondering how I can develop greater:
*student voice
*buy-in to learning
*accountability in learning
*engagement

It's interesting trying to work around some challenges in a classroom in order to achieve this.
I feel like we need to be continually returning to our goals and practices in order to make this happen.
This video was interesting though:




How do I attempt to add as much engaging content and digital and engaging tasks while still ensuring much gets done?

Leadership Styles

Have just finished the test for leadership styles at: http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/leadership.htm and got the following results: Your score is: Authoritarian 30 Procedural 27 Transformational 36 Participative 40 Laissez Faire 39 Interesting that I appear pretty even weighted across many of the leadership styles. I wonder what that means for my leadership development? Some information about each of the styles is found at the above website, so I'm going to try to uncover a bit more.

Leadership Styles

Looking at leadership theories for our Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice for Mind Lab. There are a large number of leadership theories out there and during this study we have looked foremostly at Transactional Leadership and Transformational Leadership. An interesting journey so far, I'm still developing my opinion of what type of leadership would be the 'most effective'. I can identify with the fact that some have believed that leadership is dependent on the situation (Situational Leadership) as I've seen a number of different working environments and have doubts about the way that leadership could work in each. However, I also know what most people are driven by similar things and therefore, once a leader is aware of this, transformational leadership could theoretically be easier to employ. I came across this video, sharing an overview of 10 of the main leadership styles and had a look at this before I go looking further for what I consider to be the best informational clips on Transformational Leadership, which is the area I'm most interested in.

Praise - Intelligence vs Effort

This video is a great example of how subtle differences can hugely impact the effort and understandings our students have around learning.  For many years now, emphasis has been placed on encouraging teachers to espouse the effort of the student as opposed to their intelligence - heightening the likelihood that students will view their achievement as something that is not fixed and related to (for example) IQ, but rather, something capable of being developed.  This video explains why.

Google Summit South

Wow, where to start!?

Google Summit South was held in Christchurch, where five of us GisInt teachers attended workshops at Burnside High over the course of April 8th and 9th, 2015.  I've wanted to attend Google Summit for a few years now but had no idea of the impact it would have on my pedagogy, future direction and personal viewpoints.

While I wasn't overwhelmed with the number of suggestions of new tools or apps etc at the conference, this wasn't because there weren't a large number there - more due to the fact that in our past year, as a team, the e-learning team have explored so many great tools already.  With the advent of Google Apps for Education, the focus has become less on teching and more on teaching.  This means that what we encountered at Google Summit was more a great meeting of the minds and exploration of tried and tested practices, policies and pedagogies that are vital in our current state of education.  Like Chris Betcher said, we are not there to teach the nouns - it's not important that our students know how to use Google Slides, or PowerPoint, or iMovie... but rather that they are able to ascertain the best tool to enact the verbs - persuading, presenting, explaining etc.  Powerful shifts in education and as such, powerful and deep learning planned for our students.  Technology use can make the learning superficial..... technology integration means using technology as just tools for learning.  Nevermind the 'ICT focus' or 'e-learning' going on in the room - it's just learning.

And upon my return from Google Summit South I feel like my learning has been profound.  I've gathered a few new tools.... but more importantly, I'm looking at how to integrate them seamlessly into our learning environments so they are inconspicuous but powerfully supportive of what we do as educators... moving our students towards environments where there is ubiquity, agency and connectedness in order for students to not just become 'life-long learners' but to become what the world needs - innovators, designers and creators.

Thank you Google Summit South!

Google Docs for Writing

Kate Bodger

Resources here

katebodger.blogspot.co.nz



Share 3 before me

or
Google 3 b4 Me

Personalising learning by allowing students to write about whatever they like so long as the genre is being fulfilled.  It's not important for students to all be writing about the same thing.
eg just focus on 'time connectives'

Writing templates on our community of learners site.

Making lesson plans using new tools as supportive tools with GAFE.

Lesson plans around comments.  Lesson plans around blogging.  Lesson plans around reflection.

Pen pals in Canada.

Using QuadBlog

Sharing with Buddies, Kaizena, Share work, Blogs, Video conferencing.

Do You Wanna Build a Lesson Plan?

Google Doc here

Where to with Google Teacher Certification? - Kimberley Hall

bitly here
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19yyxXcFDTOuz42HGglTNrQK_eGU7AXS7gKnmfuJFgpI/edit#slide=id.p


GoogleEdu to look at Google Questions

then

Google Teacher Certification

Go to google Testing Centre here https://google.starttest.com/

https://www.google.co.nz/edu/training/get-certified/

Did this last year - very cool to have that first stage in the process now, coming to this.

Keep a resume of training (Workshops at ICT Cluster, School Workshops, TechXpo)

Techie Breakie etc

then 

http://goo.gl/Z1XdEu

Then create a video of yourself teaching etc.

Jim Sill will tell you that you should be in the video at some point.

Women there is a real niche at the moment for female Google Education Trainers!

Must do Google Educator then on to Google Education Trainer.

Also must do the Google Educator exams every 18 months and log trainings with Google as well. Who did you train and where etc?

There are currently 6 trainers in the whole of New Zealand.

Kim sees this as a huge burgeoning market - get involved.

Google Certified Teacher - there are no prerequisites.  It does ask if you've done those other things but it's not aimed at trainers but is aimed at innovative educators.

Outstanding educators

Creative leaders

Ambassadors for change

Teacher Academies are all quite different.  Sydney etc is more pedagogically driven and seen as leading (name is being changed to something different from Google Certified Teachers).

There should be a Sydney one again - be conscious of the time zone for application.

Google Teachers Academy

Says check again near the end of April.

No More Worksheets - Holly Clark - Google Summit

bit.ly/NoMoreWorksheets2015



Use croak.it

Padlet


Lots of things to use:
here with Holly

Holly Clark - Redefining Assessment Using GAFE: Student Digital Portfolios

Holly's Bio for this

e-Portfolio
Name is awful - missing some key information.  What does the e stand for?

Use of Socrative to vote on preference for learning.  Very exciting tool!

Why Technology?

• Making thinking visible
• Student voice
• Sharing Work

Digital Citizenship

Using Common Sense Media

Conversations - rich conversations about what they're putting online because they're searchable.

If you search for your name - it will bring up information about you....

Design

Curation - what you choose for your portfolio needs to be something that reflects you and something you'll be proud of for a few years.

Meta tags to control my public profile.

Using Minecraft to build a the San Diego Mission - 

SketchUp?

Using ScreenCastify to narrate on Google Earth?

Showcase and reflection together?

3 Types of Portfolios

"Process" (like the old-school paper ones with reflection written on them)

"Showcase" the ones that show finished product.

Explaining essential lessons to whanau.... this is teaching your child about Digital Citizenship.

Adding to your portfolio  - thinking Critically about what you're putting on your portfolio.

Collect ----- Reflect ----- Publish

Drive ---- Snag IT ------  Sites

Explain Everything

Snag it

iMovie

WeVideo

Wes Fryer

Mapping Media

and here

showwithmedia.com

Talking about using Explain Everything - like Reading Fluency / Fluency Tutor

Mindomo?

Talking over the top of a GoogleSlide

Digital Binder

Learning Profile

Personal Learning Goals

Accomplishments

Interests

Reflections

Subjects

My Showcase

Social Media tab

Gets kids thinking about what they're putting up on Social Media

"Fugly competition" on SnapChat!!!  We need to teach kids about this stuff!

Easy Blogger Junior

Easy Blogger

If your work isn't online - it doesn't exist - Austin Kleon

Assessment - for learning, of learning, as learning

Process/Formative

Summative

Chris Betcher - A World of Possibilities - Keynote Speaker

Holly Clarke - The Right Question

Book - 'A More Beautiful Question'

Holly's Presentation

Very cool activity for us to work through!

bit.ly/learnwithHolly

Learning with Games

Kimberly Sutton

Kimberley's presentation here


http://bit.ly/PLAgafe





bit.ly/gamifyelements

MinecraftEDU

Using Epic Citadel etc to create movie trailers and then short stories from there too.


Night Zookeeper
Prompts kids to create an animal etc and then to write about it.

Sploder


Spaceteam
Hilarious games - play this!

Kahoot


Create here
THIS IS SERIOUSLY AWESOME!

Kids go to Kahoot.it and join the quiz and all get involved.
Download results straight to GoogleDrive!

Kimberly Hall - Improve Reading and Writing with Google

Kimberly Hall

Presentation is here:
https://docs.google.com/a/gisint.school.nz/presentation/d/1liyFpDw2kaGPqxVoQ8EGKY1fGDe91o6az3lJ2llVN44/edit#slide=id.g4782119f0_20


Using a table to get planning happening quickly without the issues


Change names to Heading1

Then
Insert
Table of Contents

Could use this for dates and headings etc in a personal doc,
Then you can click on these in order to hyperlink quickly to this area.  Great for feeding back to students quickly.

Google channel - watch cool Google clips here


Every time the kids add a new piece of writing they can add it to the same doc and every time they write they give it a heading "Descriptive Writing task 08/04/15"
Click Heading 1
then it will take you straight to that piece of writing.


Using
'mention comments'

+your.name@helpeachother.com

"This idea is similar to yours - maybe you should collaborate"

Lots of tools I've used before:
Sharing
Commenting
Suggesting edits
Revision history
Draftback

Awesome to play back for students to see history though - encouraging recrafting :)


Could we use a doc and for example - use adjectives to describe (colour code) then that will help kids to see what an adjective is and how to use more of them in their writing etc.
Collecting highlights using Google Read and Write - takes highlights in a similar colour and puts them in a new document - this would be a cool way to attempt to get as many new adjectives as possible without doubling up etc.

Using Kaizena for feedback - does this help reach more students by allowing them to access feedback regardless of reading ability?
Also, providing personalised touch to feedback in order to prevent that relationship level from being lost?

Accessing the Kaizena blog here may give extra ideas
Rubric criteria on Kaizena - click here

Use Clearly or Readability to clear up webpages so they're not so cluttered.  Allows saving or printing without the clutter.

Loads of cool ideas - extensions etc.  Looking forward to seeing now how I can implement these in order to best present ways for people to maximise their use of these and find shifts in pedagogy through my presentation at Tairawhite TeachXpo - hopefully!

How to make the whole process convincing and attainable and interactive?
Lots of fun to be had!

Empowering Learners with GAFE

bit.ly/empoweredlearners

https://docs.google.com/a/gisint.school.nz/presentation/d/1us74Gs1OuXDnD81FDyTalG0D9RCh2oEspdr98AzpZo0/edit#slide=id.g8db6bae30_08

Simon Ashby
@SimonAshbyNZ

Google Teachers Academy!

Kids doing Demo Slams - how awesome!  Let's get the kids busy!


Kevin Honeycutt - kids leading change
@kevinhoneycutt

Setting up Google Ninjas in our classroom -
Writing up
"Who wants to be a Google Ninja?" on the board
Kids writing names around this
Doc created for  kids to work through
Kids get this signed off by other students - kids get a lanyard with Google Ninja on them.

Kids building their own sites with screencasts for his own information of learning.  He created information for students to access around Google Apps.
Kids using screencasts to teach other students

Keyboard shortcuts
Having these visible for students

Love the teacher objectives!

• Keep the task broad
• Give time
• Applaud diversity
• Play dumb

Using Thinglink - see the link on the GSlides presentation

MoveNote

 - Loving learning

 - Reading samples (reading fluency!) very cool to see progress throughout the year

Students speaking on slides to teach math concepts etc

Using Google Drawings to for example - 

Finding language and images

eg Spiteful - see slide!  Very very cool!

Print and put around the room.

Using Screencast to feedback about their blog.

Awesome Screenshot - annotating their blog posts to reflect on it.

Comment threads

Initially kids seem to misuse them and write rubbish but by the end of the year, a number of kids were writing really useful feedback for each other.

Having that learning discussion with students about the purpose of feedback and with learning conversations.

AudioBoom (adding Audio by embedding onto blogs)

Distraction free YouTube (like ViewPure but automatic) 

Adblocker

Evernote clearly - allows you to remove distractions.

Google Forms

Use this most powerfully by putting it in front of the classroom and talking about the feedback - why are only 40% of students feeling extended most of the time?  What changes can we make?

1-click timer (monitor for kids for time management)

Making a GIF

Wow - using Blogger as e-portfolio - cool

(Can't even speak anymore apparently!)

#gafesummit=awesome

Suan Yeo - Google Summit Keynote Speaker

My interpretation
Suan Yeo
Google Evangelist Australasia
https://plus.google.com/+SuanYeo/

google.com+suan.yeo


Background and impacts on life and education.

Increased intelligence







Angela Lee Duckworth





Try, Fail, Learn, Reiterate

I don't ask kids what they want to be... I ask them what problem they want to solve.
What do you think?

What do schools do to curb curiosity?

So many of these great educators are really using Twitter to build their following.

https://business.twitter.com/basics/grow-and-engage-your-follower-base
Jaime Casap
https://twitter.com/jcasap

Asking the right questions....
http://notosh.com/lab/googleable-vs-non-googleable-questions/

Rita Pierson - Educator
Every child deserves a champion








Gates Notes
http://www.gatesnotes.com/2015-annual-letter?WT.mc_id=01_21_2015_DO_com_domain_0_00&page=0&lang=en

Emerging Technology Website
http://www.nmc.org/


http://goo.gl/zBLr9B

Bruce Topham - modern learning spaces

Chromebook was the nerdy kid that everyone laughed at until it grew up and became Jessica Alba - heheheee

Google [x] Products / Projects
Self Driving cars

10x Thinking
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/03/big-ideas/a-healthy-disregard-for-the-impossible


WISE Channel
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL122A8F5A3F94DBBC







Wow - first Keynote and my brain is buzzing!  @GoogleSummitSouth - rocking it!

Digital Learner Stories? Learner agency and Self-Reported Grades

Hattie states that Self-Reported grades have a noticeable effect on learning.
EdTalks discuss Learner agency as part of their top ten trends in education in 2014.
Watch it here:

Ten Trends 2014: Agency from EDtalks on Vimeo. So there's lots of information out there - how to we bring about these changes in small steps?

Digital Learning Communities

I really wanted to call this post 'brain explosions' as I really feel as though what's in my head is overflowing tonight. I'm really learning this year. 

I'm sure I learn every year, but in my role as co-leader of e-learning as well as facilitator of learning in our classroom (with an e-learning emphasis) I've been thrown: 
* into the Pit
* onto the silly bridge
 * out of my comfort zone

However you want to put it - I'm a learner again in the true sense of the word and it's exciting to be undertaking this journey alongside my students.  We are redesigning learning; together, and as a team. Co-constructing, it seems.

 Today, Saunil Hagler (iseeteaching.com) from Cyclone came to Gisborne to work with us on the next step in our e-learning journey.  (The whole idea of e-learning journey is an interesting one really - as many of us feel that the technologies we're using are simply tools for learning - there is no e-learning anymore, just learning).  We defined, we critically analysed, we discussed, we theorized, we idealised, threw aspirations around and developed and refined plans.  It's an exciting journey.

By the end of the day I'd learned everything from how to fix my GMail problem to how to shut all tabs to the right on my busy browser, to how to create links to learning to autonomise learning for our students in a digital learning community.  Never, have I been part of such a huge paradigm shift in education that has taken place over such a short space of time.  True, my "e-learning journey" began last year, but the bulk of my shifts in practice and pedagogy have taken place in the few short weeks since the beginning of term one.  Seven weeks.  The critical thinking I'm engaging in, the designing I'm doing and the collaboration and reflection in effect throughout this process is phenomenal.  I've never been more excited about my role in our classroom, in education in general.
Daily, life is chaotic, blurry and overflowing with learning.  Daily, I have to mentally 'shut tabs' in my head that force my brain to work overtime.  Daily, I am invigorated by the learning that I am doing.  I'm so encouraged by that, because I know that in order to be enthusiastic about learning, my students need to see I'm enthusiastic in my role as facilitator of that learning.

Saunil was knowledgeable, a patient teacher and an engaging facilitator.  We began the skeleton of our learning community.  As a staff and for our students, this platform could open up learning to all of us.  How effective would that be in terms of shifts in our practices as both teachers and learners.  Giving the steering wheel back to our students means they will regain autonomy in their learning.  It's scary to let go of that wheel for some of us.... but I'm excited about the journey - where will our students' learning journeys take us? I can't wait!

Priority Learners

So my main focus this year is on engagement in the classroom.
To be perfectly honest I don't feel that engaging at the moment.  Our classroom feels more like a warzone some days with the behaviours we're coping with and I'm not sure how we're going to remedy it.

However, my main focus is on engagement, so my learning philosophy screams at me that if kids are engaged, they will be focused and the learning will be happening.

Priority learners are always at the forefront of this engagement debate, because engagement doesn't happen for all students in the same way.  Learners are diverse and as such, the strategies we employ to attempt to engage our students will need to be diverse too.

Technological tools have been suggested to improve engagement, but I think they probably only improve engagement if used in targeted ways.

This article suggests some of the ways these tools can be used for engagement.
One of the most difficult groups to engage are often our boys.

I've just finished watching this video about the impact on learning of culture - there is so much learning here!

I want to keep looking at Manaia Kalani and the practical methods of bringing te ao Maori, tikanga and reo into our classroom to improve the achievement of all our learners.

This video is about boys and writing and I think it's probably pretty relevant to my boys - it's hard to engage them all, but a lot of it is about getting to know them.
I'm hoping our blog can help us do that too.

Teachers as Learners

Teaching through learning and learning through teaching.

Getting involved in education for me.  My learning matters.  Choosing to get involved ourselves in education.

EdCamp
Google Summit
Facebook Cluster Meetings
TeachExpo Gisborne

What can we do so everyone can get involved and people learn from people.

Edcamp looks so cool!

This video is pretty awesome:


and there's a Wiki to help organise an EdCamp.
Lots of interesting things to think about for TeachExpo!

Speaking of learning, Mind Lab starts next week!  So exciting! We got at email the other day with our Unitech log in details etc.  I'm so looking forward to the pedagogy behind this - looking forward to getting involved in some learning myself.

The past couple of days I've:
mentored teachers in creating their blogs, 1 on 1
run workshops for teachers on Blogger and Google+ and
met with parents around how to use technology from our classroom at home to make sure learning is happening.
Its' exciting, it's invigorating and I'm enjoying the journey that teaching is taking me on - speaking in front of others, presenting ideas, sharing and talking and learning from each other.
It's exciting!

Best Evidence Synthesis

Taken from the Best Evidence Synthesis Website:


"The ten research-based characteristics of quality teaching derived from the research are generic in that they reflect principles derived from research across the curriculum and for students across the range of schooling years in New Zealand (from age five to eighteen). How the principles apply in practice is, however, dependent on the curriculum area, and the experience, prior knowledge and needs of the learners in any particular context. The body of this synthesis provides examples from the research on learning and teaching to illustrate the principles for different curricular areas across schooling from junior primary to senior secondary classes.

The ten characteristics generated out of the synthesis are summarised below.

1. Quality teaching is focused on student achievement (including social outcomes) and facilities high standards of student outcomes for heterogeneous groups of students.

Research-based characteristics

• Quality teaching is focussed on raising student achievement (including social outcomes).
• Quality teaching facilitates the learning of diverse students and raises achievement for all learners.
• The teacher establishes and follows through on appropriate expectations for learning outcomes and the pace at which learning should proceed.
• High expectations are necessary but not sufficient, and can be counterproductive, when not supported by quality teaching.

2. Pedgogical practices enable classes and other learning groupings to work as caring, inclusive, and cohesive learning communities.

The learning community concept has arisen out of the research literature and denotes both a central focus on learning and the interdependence of the social and the academic in optimising learning conditions.

Research-based characteristics

• Pedagogical practices create an environment that works as a learning community.
• Student motivation is optimised and students' aspirations are supported and extended.
• Caring and support is generated through the practices and interactions of teacher(s) and students.
• Pedagogical practices pro-actively value and address diversity.
• Academic norms are strong and not subverted by social norms.
• The language and practices of the classroom are inclusive of all students.
• Teachers use class sessions to value diversity, and to build community and cohesion.
• Teaching and tasks are structured to support, and students demonstrate, active learning orientations.
• Teaching includes specific training in collaborative group work with individual accountability mechanisms, and students demonstrate effective co-operative and social skills that enable group processes to facilitate learning for all participants.
• Students help each other with resource access and provide elaborated explanations.
• Pedagogical practice is appropriately responsive to the interdependence of socio-cultural and cognitive dimensions.

3. Effective links are created between school and other cultural contexts in which students are socialised, to facilitate learning.

Research-based characteristics

• Teachers ensure that student experiences of instruction have known relationships to other cultural contexts in which the students have been/are socialised.
• Relevance is made transparent to students.
• Cultural practices at school are made transparent and taught.
• Ways of taking meaning from text, discourse, numbers or experience are made explicit.
• Quality teaching recognises and builds on students' prior experiences and knowledge.
• New information is linked to student experiences.
• Student diversity is utilised effectively as a pedagogical resource.
• Quality teaching respects and affirms cultural identity (including gender identity) and optimises educational opportunities.
• Quality teaching effects are maximised when supported by effective school-home partnership practices focused on student learning. School-home partnerships that have shown the most positive impacts on student outcomes have student learning as their focus.
• When educators enable quality alignments in practices between teachers and parent/caregivers to support learning and skill development then student achievement can be optimised.
• Teachers can take agency in encouraging, scaffolding and enabling student-parent/caregiver dialogue around school learning.
• Quality homework can have particularly positive impacts on student learning. The effectiveness of the homework is particularly dependent upon the teacher's ability to construct, resource, scaffold and provide feedback upon appropriate homework tasks that support in-class learning for diverse students and do not unnecessarily fatigue and frustrate students.

4. Quality teaching is responsive to student learning processes.

Research-based characteristics are specific to curriculum context and the prior knowledge and experiences of the learners.

• Teachers have knowledge of the nature of student learning processes in the curriculum area, can interpret student behaviour in the light of this knowledge and are responsive, creative and effective in facilitating learning processes.
• Examples of teaching approaches that are intended to exemplify this characteristic are the dynamic or flexible literacy models, the numeracy strategy focus and the Interactive Teaching Approach in science education.
• Classroom management enables the teacher to be responsive to diverse learners.
• Responsive teaching is important for all learners and particularly critical for students with special needs.

5. Opportunity to learn is effective and sufficient.

Research-based characteristics

• Quality teaching provides sufficient and effective opportunity to learn.
• Management practices facilitate learning (rather than emphasising compliant behaviour or control).
• Curriculum enactment has coherence, interconnectedness and links are made to real life relevance.
• Curriculum content addresses diversity appropriately and effectively.
• Quality teaching includes and optimises the effective use of non-linguistic representations by teacher and students. (This assumes the concurrent and rich use of oral language and text as central to literacy across the curriculum.)
• Students have opportunities to resolve cognitive conflict.
• Students have sufficient and appropriate opportunities for practice and application.

6. Multiple task contexts support learning cycles.

Research-based characteristics

• Task cycles match developmental learning cycles of students.
• Task cycles enable students to engage in and complete learning processes so that what is learned is remembered.
• Optimal use is made of complementary combinations of teacher-directed groupings, co-operative groups, structured peer interaction and individual work (including homework) to facilitate learning cycles.

7. Curriculum goals, resources including ICT usage, task design, teaching and school practices are effectively aligned.

Research-based characteristics

• Curricular alignment: The use of resources, teaching materials and ICT is aligned with curriculum goals to optimise student motivation and accomplish instructional purposes and goals.
• Curricular alignment optimises rather than inhibits critical thinking.
• Pedagogical strategies are evaluated in relation to curricular goals.
• ICT usage is integrated into pedagogical practice across the curriculum.
• Quality teaching is optimised when there is whole school alignment around evidence-based practices.
• The school maintains an 'unrelenting focus on student achievement and learning'1.
• There is whole school alignment and coherence across policies and practices that focus on, resource and support quality teaching for diverse students.
• Pro-active alignment across the school supports effective inclusion of diverse students within the school community.
• Whole school alignment optimises opportunity to learn, particularly in language immersion, literacy, ICT, social studies and health.
• Whole school alignment enables a common language, teacher collaboration and reflection and other synergies around improving teaching.
• Whole school alignment minimises disruptions to quality teaching and sustains continuous improvement.
• School policies and practices initiate, and support teachers in maintaining, school-home partnerships focused on learning.

8. Pedagogy scaffolds and provides appropriate feedback on students' task engagement.

Research-based characteristics

• Tasks and classroom interactions provide scaffolds to facilitate student learning (the teacher provides whatever assistance diverse students need to enable them to engage in learning activities productively, for example, teacher use of prompts, questions, and appropriate resources including social resources).
• Teaching develops all students' information skills and ensures students' ready access to resources when needed to assist the learning process.
• Students receive effective, specific, appropriately frequent, positive and responsive feedback. Feedback must be neither too infrequent so that a student does not receive appropriate feedback nor too frequent so that the learning process is subverted.

9. Pedagogy promotes learning orientations, student self-regulation, metacognitive strategies and thoughtful student discourse.

Research-based characteristics

• Quality teaching promotes learning orientations and student self-regulation.
• Teaching promotes metacognitive strategy use (e.g. mental strategies in numeracy) by all students.
• Teaching scaffolds reciprocal or alternating tuakana teina2 roles in student group, or interactive work.
• Teaching promotes sustained thoughtfulness (e.g. through questioning approaches, wait-time, and the provision of opportunities for application and invention).
• Teaching promotes critical thinking.
• Teaching makes transparent to students the links between strategic effort and accomplishment.

10. Teachers and students engage constructively in goal-oriented assessment.

Research-based characteristics

• Assessment practices improve learning.
• Teachers and students have clear information about learning outcomes.
• Students have a strong sense of involvement in the process of setting specific learning goals.
• Pedagogy scaffolds and provides appropriate feedback on students' task engagement.
• Teachers ensure that their assessment practices impact positively on students' motivation.
• Teachers manage the evaluative climate, particularly in context of public discussion, so that student covert or overt participation is supported, scaffolded and challenged without students being humiliated.
• Teachers manage the evaluative climate so that academic norms are not undermined but supported by social norms.
• Teachers adjust their teaching to take account of the results of assessment."

This challenges me because so much of this could be done without technology.  But I feel strongly that students are so engages by technology now and it's such an integral part of their lives now that it's vital to integrate the use of e-learning in order to bridge the gap between student lives and school life.  How do we do that in a way that is collaborative and creating a culture of learners where learning is valued and shared?  I feel this must be the next part of the equation. 

Persistence

At this time of the term, I'm having to model for my students what persistence really looks like.  It's hard to keep up with everything.  It's hard to be patient.  It's hard to feel like we're moving forward when there's so much to do.  But we are moving forward.

I have to persist in trying to find time for everything though.

I had two blocks of release today.  And although I got lots done, there are always more needs that keep popping up - more to keep up with - more to feed back to people about, more to teach and infinitely more to learn.

It's cool though, that in my job I am actually learning loads - and it's compulsory.

My priorities are challenging:
Meeting the needs of a highly challenging class.  I think they're wonderful.  I still find them challenging  - daily.
Meeting the needs in my role as a practicing facilitator of e-learning for my kids.
Finding ways to get e-learning to be practical and useful for them.
Meeting the needs of whanau around my core group of learners.
Meeting the needs of the school in terms of e-learning, when we are still relatively new to the opportunities around us.  Digital learning has been taking place for years.  I wonder if it's ever been so accountable and had such high expectations placed on in - to be the be-all and end-all of everything.

So I persist.

I persist in filling in endless forms and records around my kids.  Having endless meetings with specialists and parents, conducting endless Reflection Room visits and having many conversations with students about their choices.

I persist in trying to find time for e-learning myself.  To be able to back up what I'm saying with pedagogical evidence of what I'm doing!  It's all urgent and busy and requires patience and persistence.  I'll get there.

In the process, I'm learning what if feels like to be the real learner again - out of depth and frustrated with high expectations and too little time to make sense of it all, but persisting in embracing that feeling.  Because it's what my kids feel.  I'll have to throw up my hands occasionally, like them and say, "Miss! I'm in the pit! And I'm learning!"

Failure

I could have given up today

Put my lesson down to one learning curve

of something not achieveable with a classroom

of thirty students.

I could have put my enthusiasm aside

cast down my determination to give my students

a voice

and a purpose in what we're doing this year.

Exclaimed that it was just too hard.

That it couldn't be done.

That I was doing my students an 

injustice 

by forcing them to 

struggle through

this difficult space

we have nicknamed 'The Pit'

that I was 'wasting their time' 

or

'letting them down'

But I persevered.

And I will persevere still.

Because when we spoke of the outcome

I saw light in their eyes

and I will chase that light

even though it's hard.

Because if they should fail

along this road of learning

they will simply learn that 

failure

is a necessary part of learning

nay, of life.

And failure is just one step in the long journey we call

learning

and life.

Amie, 2015

On reflection, speaking with a teacher later, who had visited last week and then took some of this learning back into her classroom, she shared with me her experience of starting out with Chromebooks.  About how she said she won't apologise; for noise, for frustration, for it being a bit chaotic to start with.  That they would muddle through because they were learning.  We talked about resiliency.  About how easy it is to ensure there is so much scaffolding for our students that they can't 'fail'.  About how now, they have become so helpless that when they approach a computer and it won't work, they throw up their hands and exclaim, "It won't go!" before walking away.  About how she then asked - "What have you tried?"

What a great opportunity we're now giving our students. 

To struggle...

To try...

To fail...

To try again....

To persevere....

To succeed....

To see the relevance this has to life.

And I saw the light in her eyes too.

We are learning.  Together.  I can't think of a better space to be.