Future Schools Day 1 - Keynote Charles Leadbetter

Chairperson for the day - Anne Knock - SCIL - change for an education that's worth having - a nice quote 

Charles Leadbeater -  Demos think tank

http://m.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/parramatta/early-start-and-finish-times-work-at-merrylands-east-public-school/story-fngr8huy-1226844807512

And his  latest publication to read 'The frugal innovator ' 

Learning to make a difference

When we think about the future of learning and schools we need to be thinking that being innovative is more about 'looking hip and funky' - technology is not the answer - schools that look cool, may not be cool and funky in terms of learning.

Instead we should be asking what is missing from our education - the 'why is missing - the purpose - what and who is this for? Children want to feel that their learning means well to them.

Students are often physically present but psychologically somewhere else - I think we can identify with this. 

Interesting comment made on exams - they are about guessing what the examiners are looking for and the ones who guess best do well.

 

Countries with high tertiary stats are not doing well in employment stats - for example South Korea stats - 75%  unemployment rate of graduates - in the  Uk 25% of catering workforce are graduates - scary 

How do we make learning relevant for that - need to look from the future back - 'how not think about it...

Broad terms and not specific - Leadbeatter sees the issues facing education are based on constraints 

- tightening constraints on spending an incomes; climate change and environmental

- rising aspirations 

These lead to frustration - 

BUT an  outcome of frustration is innovation

Limitless collaboration - powered by technology

Endemic uncertainty - especially in big corporations

Particularly like the phrase 'An age of oxymorons. - the working day extends - frenzied stagnation 

What kind of organisations thrive in a world like this?

- open, adaptive,min ovation, purpose

- creative community with a cause - a mission 

Great innovators ask the difficult questions!

Intuitive collaboration 

Flat open communicative structure 

What kind of assessment would go on in places like these?

- continual, diverse and generative

What would a school like this look like?

What would you learn at a school community like this?What capabilities and habits be?

- knowledge - how do you know, how do you test and then apply the knowledge

- questioning - how to pose good questions- challenge debate resond- learning how to ask questions 

- communication - present, persuade 

- collaborate - achieve more if you can collaborate with others who are not like you - skills need to be developed

- making - how to create tangible products in the real world 

- persistence - overcome obstacles - set challenging goals - be supported to learn in action

A violin is as important a technology for learning as a laptop! Fabulous image of all Yr 7s who are given a classical instrument on the first day!

In the real world learning - pig farm Paraguay - self sustaining economic community - with a purpose - businesses  pay for teacher salaries

Experience how to be self governing

Apps for good awards - link here - most important thing - you start with them - it's about people not apps  - confident, capable young people who can communicate 

Under the radar movement of teachers who want to make a difference - who want to do more than just get through an exam

Ask the why question to start with!

Hear Charles on TED - 

https://www.ted.com/speakers/charles_leadbeater

Day 2 - Brisbane Water Secondary College - Woy Woy Campus

Change of plan today - the DP of the school I was going to visit was ill and the rest of the management team were tied up planning meetings for most of the day. Instead I went with Sara Matthews from AIE  http://www.aie.edu.au/ to Woy Woy -  http://www.woywoy-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/  - a public school also about an hours drive north east of Sydney. Our trip was slightly delayed due to our car being tail ended by a rental car just out of Turramurra! Not much damage to Sara's vehicle, but Yaris that hit us did not look good! 

Brisbane Water Senior Campus - Woy Woy is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Barker College. The junior campus (on a nearby site - but with no shared facilities)  runs a more integrated approach to learning, with groups of tutors working around students. However this model is not continued through to the senior campus, largely, it seemed, due to the very prescriptive control of the Board of Studies (our NZQA). The vocational counselling team works hard to build relationships with students, in order for them to gain a meaningful qualification. 

The school is an 'equity access school' which means that the ATAR scores are somehow adjusted to reflect the special needs of the school community. A reasonable percentage of the students do not meet ATAR requirements due to the courses selected. The school offers a wide range of  TVET (vocational) course - where tertiary providers work in partnership with the school to provide high interest career pathways. All vocational courses run on Tuesday afternoons, and all students are able to take one of these, without affecting their ATAR (tertiary ranking system) results. 

The two impressive VET programmes  were the animation and game design courses provided by AIE and the prenursing/health delivered by TAFE. 

The nursing training facility is an impressive one, with mock beds, patients and with training  procedures carried out. The school has a high success rate -  one of the highest in the area - for these courses, especially amongst indigenous students. 5 of the last year's class went onto the nursing diploma course, and one into a Bachelor of nursing programme. The facility is one of the newest buildings on campus. This course attracts students to the school - which is a very positive outcome. 

The animation and game design courses are run through AIE - these are held in the Technology Futures

Block - which sounds grander than it was. While these courses do not contribute to the ATAR results, students do achieve a Level III certificate in Media. These courses require high spec machines capable of running programmes not usually available in schools. This year at least 3 students have gone into advanced diploma courses at the AIE campus in the city. Game design and programming is a growing field and these courses provide an amazing opportunity for Woy Woy students. 

A few years ago a Federal Govt policy (DER - digital education revolution) saw EVERY Year 9 student nationwide,  regardless of the wealth of school and community, being given a laptop for school use. This was to see them through to Yr 12. I was told that they were reasonably low spec, students and schools were unable to load extra programmes and that the cost of the infrastructure for and technical support of, grew exponentially!!!! This programme is no longer in place and in schools like Woy Woy, the one size fits all approach to technology integration, appears to have not had any great impact on engagement or academic outcomes. 

It was interesting to visit the school when a number of the vocational courses were running - and engagement was high across the groups of students. Like Barker College, the timetable wanted to create less disruption for classes. Assessment must be one of the next big conversations to address. Ranking schools and students must impact on how innovation and creativity develop in any school.  

Day 1 - Barker College, Hornsby

Barker College is a 45 min train ride north of Sydney. It is an independent school (Anglican) with a 125 year history. It is situated  on magnificent grounds with facilities 'to die for!' With a roll of 2000 students from new entrant to final year of secondary, it is a successful school in a very competitive, traditional, independent school market.  93% of the senior school students have 'personalised' programmes, or timetables. 

Barker College was recommended to me by Northern Beaches Christian School, as a school focussing on innovation, and I was impressed with the school's committment in particular to ongoing teaching, learning and research initiatives. The newly founded 'Barker Institute' aims  to 'contribute to 'education at a local, national and global level' through 'professional learning, research and innovation.' 

The school had a very clear strategic plan around learning, collaboration and innovation - and staff are encouraged to undertake research, not just as teacher inquiry, but as part of their work and 'mission.' 

Upskilling staff to be able to support learners with new technologies was a clear  strength of the school's professional learning model. Four full time teachers (not technicians) supported teachers in the classroom (especially around the 'iPad' classes - all Yr 7 and 10 students). These teachers regularly visited classes 'teaching key skills', manned help desks in the library and ran ongoing professional learning sessions.  None of the four taught any other classes. A science teacher was also part of the strategic team with a .2 loading. 

The school had a BYOD policy - but apart from the year levels that had compulsory devices, the IT team felt that few other students bought devices to school  for classroom use - mainly because the use of them was not integrated into the classroom programmes - this was an area they were working to improve.  The learning platform eBackpack, is hopefully going to address implementation of a more blended learning model.

The school has begun a process of refitting learning spaces - and the History Dept is the first area to take advantage of the possibilities created for a more collaborative team approach. The classes I saw working in this space were engaged and there was a definite energy in the room. While the photos look quite static, once the boys were in the space, they moved into collaborative pairings and made use of the soft furniture. The Head of History notes that  proper effective collaboration time for planning was 'difficult to find.' The student common rooms could also double as collaborative spaces in the future.

While the curriculum was still quite 'siloed', the absolute focus on teacher led research and professional learning was impressive. In particular the use of a team of IT staff  whose purpose was to continually upskill staff and to support staff to be confident in their use of tools to support learning, is essential if schools are going to create future minded learners  - the level of this committment could not be achieved in a State funded secondary school. The importance of 'Space and Speed' is one I think we would identify with at RHS - space to be able use technology and the speed of any use. 

A newly created position, 'Director of Academic Performance' had the portfolio of analysing student achievement and of lifting student performance in the state 'league tables'. An aspect of this are the fortnightly focus days - when teachers negotiate time out for field trips and the like! He equated it to a 'rigorous round of bidding' by Heads of Departments. Not sure how that would go down at Rangiora, but it was a great idea in my mind, as it clearly reduced the out of class time.

As I said earlier, the facilities were impressive - 

iCentral - information centre - included 3 levels of student workspaces 

English staff room - separate workroom included English administration person.

A number of key staff took time out to discuss their ideas and philosophies with me and I also sat in with the IT team as they planned the delivery of their next professional learning session around the integrated learning platform -  which was great. Head of Senior School, David Giltrap, organised a programme for me which included a fab lunch in the staff and boarders dining room - which I had not expected.

It was great to see a 'silver fern' in a prominent spot on campus and to talk with two staff who originated in Christchurch.

The school has a huge potential for creating an innovative, integrated curriculum, if it chooses to go down that path. The 'refitting' of traditional classroom spaces, as they have begun to, I'm sure will continue, as more of the staff see the possibilities being developed by the History Faculty. 

I will follow Dr Brad Merrick and the Barker Institute with interest @bradmerrick  @BarkerInstitute

http://www.barkerinstitute.com.au/

Future Schools and beyond

Must say that at the present moment in time, the last thing I feel like doing is getting onto a plane at 6 am Saturday morning and flying out for two weeks in Australia. I am sure that once I get on that plane, it will all be fine.

The nest two weeks are courtesy of the Rangiora HIgh School Education Trust, who granted me a $3000 scholarship to investigate what 'modern learning environments' and ' curricula for the future' look like across a range of Australian Schools.

 The next two weeks will be pretty full on - 7 schools across 3 states and the 3 day 'Future Schools Conference' in Sydney will be keeping me busy.

Some of the schools have been recommended by our IT provider - Cyclone, the others are reknowned for their innovative curriculum. 


In Sydney I am planning to see: 
Barker College www.barker.nsw.edu.au and Cabrammata High School 

http://www.cabramatta-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/

The whole team will visit the Google 'go to' school Arthur Phillips High School  http://www.aphs.nsw.edu.au/

From there to Adelaide where I am planning to visit: 
Australian Science Mathematics School  http://www.asms.sa.edu.au/   and 

Birdwood High School - http://www.birdwoodhs.sa.edu.au/

My last school visits will be in Melbourne where I am visiitng: 

McKinnon Secondary College

http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/  and John Monash Science School

http://www.jmss.vic.edu.au/

In between these visits a group from school will also attend the Future Schools 2015 Conference and I'm looking forward to the the dialogue that will take place.

Our school footprint is about to undergo a massive change - we now have 20 months to prepare for this. Exciting times!!

Note to self ~ Must attend ULearn15

After reading many many tweets and storifies over the weekend, I realised that this is the one conference I must get to next year! 

What it means to be connected - the relationship of connections

Subtitled - my learning life online, and how being connected has affected my work in education - version #2 as somehow I managed to delete my first post.....

I remember clearly when I became a 'connected educator' - it came from being a 'connected learner'. In 2006 I had a year's paid study leave. I completed my Post Grad Diploma in Literature and Language Learning - I was a full time 'distance student'. After a 20 year break from university, the first month was a real struggle - jargon, educational jargon and theory, technology jargon and theory, more jargon.... However, what did grab me was the online forums that made up 20% of each paper's course work. I was addicted - I had to see what was being posted, I had to read what my fellow studens were saying and read the links that they were sharing. I was in no way a 'lurker' - needless to say I got full marks for those partsof the course.

In 2007-8 this morphed into the topic for my thesis - Keeping up with the digital natives - integrating Web 2.0 into classroom practice - http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/2280. As teacher - researcher, my Yr 12 class had the choice of 'logging on paper' or 'blogging' around the literature that we studied during the year. Their and my archived blogs can be found here - http://blog-mrs-c.blogspot.co.nz/. From then on blogging became a part of what I did for professional learning. My Asst Head of Dept and I developed a blog for the Department  http://ideas4englishclassrooms.blogspot.co.nz/. I kept a blog for the library where we ran book reviews and competitions - http://mrscsbookblog.blogspot.co.nz/   I modelled our blogs on the work of Natalie Cowie (thank you), who  was at Katikati College - http://ncowie.wordpress.com/ but who has now migrated to Cromwell College. 

Leaving the classroom for a two year stint at Team Solutions, I lost touch with both the routines of the classroom and my blogs. All were linked to my school email address and I realised this foolishly, too late that I no longer had access to them - other than to read them!

Now firmly esconced back in a school, blogging has once again become the place where I curate my personal professional learning. I blog as I go (thank you for that tip Claire A.) This year my blog links to my teaching inquiry which forms part of our school's appraisal process - linked to my Google site. I prefer to use my phone, rather than my tablet to blog, I'm not sure why. I have become more adept at scanning images and photos into my posts as I write - though I do tend to go back and edit out the 'typos'. I tweet and facebook my posts. Not only have I recorded my own professional learning, but I have had the opportunity to post on some key events that our students and staff have been involved in - such as the experiential sustainability project - Te Wai hora Ellesmere; and the 50th Anniversary celebrations of CETA.

Those not as connected worry that the focus may appear to have shifted from what is seen as the 'nub' of teaching - relationships. However as a connected educator I have built learning relationships and have learning conversations with educators I would never have otherwise connected with. As two recent conferences - #edchatNZ14 and NZATE's Myth and Magic many of us were able to connect kanohi ki te kanohi. 

I know now how to keep my blogs 'alive'. I now read more, hear more and see more educational news and ideas than ever before......just need more hours in the day!

Ngā mihi

Alison

PS you can read more blogs on this topic and others @ http://blogsync.edutronic.net/

Connected Educator Month - Webinar - Modern Learning Practices in a connected world - 2nd October, 9am

In the chaos of the school hols, daylight saving and being 'home alone' - I miraculously remembered to log on and take part in this webinar.
However rural broadband not great for connecting - should have gone to school....

Some key questions being asked by Mark Osborne - how do we turn schools into awesome incubators? 
Being able to pass a test or 'jump through a hoop' is no longer enough - we need modern lernig practices for a connected world.
Where will learning take place?
How will teaching and learning change?
What will learning spaces look like?
Who will be participate - whose questions will be asked?

For us - this is the key MLP is about relationships, culture and best practice - just changing the space will not create real MLP - think about the pedagogy, your school vision and the learners in your school to make it happen!

Stephen Heppell - 'eyes on the horizon, feet on the ground'

Kids aren’t  just swapping ideas with each other they are designing their learning, their behaviours and their spaces...they build the protocols and the behaviours - they build the whole damn thing!! They are exhilarated to have learning in their own hands

When learning is exciting there is better cognitive engagement and reflective practice - 2 billion kids have got better ideas than 72 Ministers of Education!!

Fast lane learners - need to be able to direct learners to fast lane learning - but allow them to do that at their own pace.

Love the rule of THREE - http://rubble.heppell.net/three/

Derek Wenmouth - schools need to be places of attention not detention 

Love this metaphor from Sarah Webster -  My vision of a school is like a train station- I place where you can connect to other destinations. Learning happens anytime, anyway....hubs everywhere and 'teachers' being the tour guide and questioner along the way - ironically this article from the Herald appeared - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11277671

Janelle Riki - ako and tuakana-teina - sooooo part of the modern learning practices world - not so modern. Cutural values of caring - manaakitanga embedded. Make schools places where learning can take place any time of the day. Allow opportunities to happen.

Process to MLP  - team teaching, changing timetable that is co-constructed with the learners, learning about how to use the space - let the learners have the power

Learn the power and value of kai - basic

The connections between Art/Maths/Science and Performance mentioned - great reminders and prompts for connected curriculum -

Well that was a fascinating and thought provoking webinar - 4 excellent presenters.

Webinar archive can be found here - http://connectededucator.org.nz/starter-resources/archives/ 

The collaborative notes for the session can be found here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q835d7hfa_AtVBD5QTWcl9r_iew4ex1RmnJanUDnKG8/edit