Grow Waitaha's Secondary Community of Practice

It's s pity that we (Rangiora High School) did not have the services and of the recently established  Grow Waitaha  http://www.growwaitaha.co.nz/ when we began our rebuild journey in 2014. No such thing as a Ministry apppointed 'navigator' for us!

Instead we came up with wild and wonderful plans as to what our rebuilt classrooms and Science labs could look like, only to be told they did not meet MOE guidelines for new build. How many meetings, hours and consultants fees went on this I wonder?

 

We are now hooked into Grow Waitaha. One of the benefits of this is the monthly 'cluster meetings' and for schools getting partial or total rebuilds. Schools share their stories and similar experiences. I wonder what it our design would look like, if we were going through this process now?! 

My notes from last week's cluster are below - a common thread was providing staff time to make change, experience failure, spdiscuss, reflect, retry......

Grow Waitaha

7 April

Hillmorton - A Brokenshire

- positives of collaborating across schools

- true collaboration takes time

- break down isolation of the 'job'

- stop taking my kids/stop taking my staff

- the moral imperative as a driver

- Cross school professional learning groups

- 4 teachers Cross faculty 4 days a term for PLD

- time

- 3 Cs - embedded - co-construction collaboration and choice

- the sport model - across junior teams - can't get this into senior yet though - engagement and results up- sport and classes ideally in the gym - sport and ed funding - how does that fit in a timetable - glass ceiling of streaming

- collaborative planning time in the timetable

- cross curricular resources developed

- Fun in the Sun unit - but still discrete units - the shift pedagogical change - report authentic contexts

- base camp - Yr9-13 learn from Yr7-8 teachers - meeting time on the timetable

- 7-10 1 day episodes

- enhance learning through outside opportunities

- teachers need to see the value of cross curricular

St Thomas - Hamish and Brad

- Zion- designed and built 2012 - about to build a community sports complex on back field

- about to design a new set of buildings with a new evolving design process

- change from bottom up - evolve practices in education

- evolve as opposed to change - to a 21st century school

- staff have to buy into and drive the vision

- review of pedagogy shift due to 100m lesson

- team is essential

- knowledge as verb

- staff have to model the 21st century skills

- growth mindset - OK to fail

- staff - be prepared to learn and evolve

            - professional learning groups

            - break the silos - cross curricular

            - led by appraisal facilitator - early adopters

            - not just led by SLT

            - values based curriculum 7-10

Braided river model of learning

- core skills

- minor collaboration - 2 teachers

- major collaboration - 4 or more

How do we use technology to enable learners?

KC are more measurable in terms of success

100% BYOD - provider deal also provides PD for staff - needs to be more than glorified B5

SAMR - all staff must be on the progression

Eng SS Art - Yr7/8

Cross curricular similar language

Engagement - nail this

Emphasised the need to measure Progression vs Achievement - move away from assessment for assessment sake. 😃

Test show how well the teachers have done their job.

Think about having 'Must do/ Should do / Could do'

Liked the idea 100 Day Induction - all events to get them into the life of the school - similar to our 6 weeks in. Impact on pastoral issues - drop off in the combined class areas. 

Haeata 

Referenced Ken Fisher - whose idea I'd like to read. 

Learning design principles - the rocks! Liked this phrase as we have the rocks as the foundation of our lighthouse emblem. 

 

Three very different versions of the same vision! 

CETA Big Day Out - 23 .11 . 15

Workshop 1  - Using Games to teach Creative Writing 

A workshop of ideas to use games to engage students in writing and learning activities - Jenny Burgham (Lincoln HS). 

Creating Ideas 

- roll the dice and create a story from the learning grids (UK based) 

- variations - study grids (film terms) - they can also create their own 

Sentence types

- sentence randomiser  games - roll the game, identify the sentence type 

-  also use for vocab, language features 

- use whiteboards cos then not permanent in their books 

- use the dice, have to write the sentences the dice identifies 

Kahoot

- language terms

- identifying features 

Relay Races - writing to describe - teams, post its, each person in the team has to complete a different sentence 

Round 1 - describe your favourite place 

- hear 

- metaphor

No Red Ink - free, anyone can enter, but class has to be loaded

- individualised language tasks 

- can do a lot of diagnostic of language skills 

Cantamath - proof reading, Cantamaths style, gets them up and moving, and they like the competitive element 

- capital letters, full stops, spelling 

- one person walks, only one up at a time 

- approved, you're get the next sheet

- all take turns being the walker - 30 secs penalty 

- walker must wear badge 

TIPS - colour page for each group, have an answer page 

Workshop 2 - preparing for University English 

Dr Nicholas Wright

Why do students value English? 

What does Level 8 of the curriculum look and sound like? How do we create critical thinkers? 

The liberal humanist mode of teaching English - there are more than one way of reading any text?

Think about the image of 'good' teachers in Hollywood 'movies' ? Most are the 'liberal humanist' depiction of teachers and teaching. 

What aspects of English do kids find difficult? Generally it's the writing? 

You're not actually thinking until you're writing? 

Situated in the context of the here and now ? 

Liberal Humanism 

- Skeptisicm about thinking critically - do we read enough into anything?

- literature can teach us about the world, but is that all that it should do? Assumption that there are essential truths  in all literature that we have to 'crack ' the code of. 

- a discourse that suggests that the value of a text is like the value of an individual?

Timelessness 'empties' the text of what it means in a changing time ? 

These bullet points can all be argued against.

Looking at texts from a cultural; racial; social; economic; gender view point changes perspective, for example - how can you study a text in isolation from its time and place?

Beyond the close reading of a text: 

- adopt a differ enrolled position

- whose voice is not heard? that's critical literacy!!

- Memories back to my MastEd @ Waikato Uni - when I analysed Anthony Horowitz's Storm Rider  novels from a critical feminist viewpoint 

- critical sale awareness through an academic voice - where does your voice fit into the voice of others

- everything is inter-textual 

- how do language and representation - counteract the liberal humanist approach 

- discussion is vital - everyone's reading is different from each other's - a community of scholars - this is how you augment your learning 

- the way you process or decipher the texts is what's important - that's critical? 

- what's weird about this text? What's missing? What's the problem? 

Imagine if Gatsby had Facebook! We're all Gatsby's because of Facebook! 

What do you gain by looking at something from a different perspective? 

Workshop 3 - Teaching English and Media - mgh@papanui.school.nz 

- teaching English in a Media context

- Eng and Media standards

- all writing authentic media contexts

No Media Studies taught at Papanui HS - students choose this or straight English 

- production standard get progressively harder from L1 to 3 

Check out Papanui HS YouTube site. 

 

 

The MindLab Weeks 17-20 - getting organised

The second half of the PostGrad is around school-based research and inquiry.

Our Saturday group has created a Google+ Group for discussing each week's readings and reviews.

Focussing on the Lit Review

Tell the story of why your question is important and what we want find out....and look for the gap

Think about: Abstract
Theoretical Framework
Needs to be broken up by themes or question - several people can be referenced under one theme OR one piece under different themes
What are the strengths, weakness and where are the gaps - why is the research needed
Think about the research question - make sure it is concrete and specific

When searching - key words are then important - make sure that you have the synonyms for key words - internationally different terms are words.

The best piece of advice was to use an excel document to create a grid of tall the readings - work out the themes - keep the page references - pull out themes from the literature as you do the reading for the lit review - FABULOUS

Get the Q right - f the question is wrong - the research becomes a 'living hell'.
A focussed and specific question

What/How ......IS THE  .......FOR .....AT

My MEd thesis (integrating blogging into classroom practice)  the tension between teacher as research - how much do you intervene and how much does this impact on the research data.
The Week 18 readings on making us if academic readings and making sense / collating your data reminded me of the plethora of paperwork that one collects when doing research - even with digitial PDFs and Google notemaker .....

I'm looking forward to the next few week's readings based around Teaching as Inquiry - as we have been working this model for our teacher appraisal for the last few years - and I am thinkiong of using Google Sites for the second part of this paper's assessment.

The MindLab Week 16 - WYOD + Brain sensing tech (Thought Wired)

So, this week is the end of Semester 1 of the course - hard to believe that 16 weeks have gone and that I have squeezed out SIX reasonably demanding assessments in that time ......to be honest not exactly sure how I managed to get this done.

Today's session introduced us to 'WYOD' - wear your own device:

Tan Le developed a computer interface to read user brainwaves to make it possible to control virtual objects. 

NZ company - Thought Wired - is the front runner in NZ in this. 

Why could we use this technology - monitoring behaviour; controlling behavior....This technology has been around for a long time - BUT what it looks like has changed..

From this - to this 

What applications are there of these tools for us? 

- gaming and entertainment 

- the way in which we can train ourselves in terms of mindfulness

- improve focus for education

- enhance education

How can you transfer thoughts and ideas if you have trouble communicating? Can technology assist? 

A key example is Stephen Hawking and how he manages to communicate with Motor Neurone Disease - as an assistive technology.

If we have the  ability to take brain waves and transfer them into digital signals / impulses you can just about do anything.

So can you do the reverse - transfer digital impulses images and language???

The research into brain to brain transfer using this technology - check out this freaky little clip  

The technology was available for us to have a go with - 

 Schira's brain being invaded!!

Session 16 - Part 2 - looking ahead to the next 16 weeks of learning and assessing - eeeeeeekkkk

What is research?

What makes a good research question? 

- is it researchable? - biggest make is the question is too broad.

Focus clearly on our own context - the narrower the better.

The research question should involve - 

 - general topic area 

- specific area of practice

- context - where and when 

Check the Unitec tutorials for conducting research.

Check Week 17 and 21 for examples.

Advice is: 

- not to quote secondary sources - lose the fidelity of the source - for the formal literature review.

- not to use footnotes but in text citations

- use APA

- cite for paraphrasing

- indirect quotes and paraphrasing is what is needed for lit review 

The MIndLab - Session 15 - The Maker Movement and Flexible Learning Spaces

The first part of the session was facilitated by Josh and focussed on 'the maker movement' 

Attributes of the Maker Movement

- usually informal
- collaborative shared learning, shared spaces - sharing resources and sharing ideas and sharing technical knowledge 
- encourages the crossover of ideas that have not always gone together 
- community focus 

BUT - enabling technologies have 

- the internet has created the change 
- free open sourced software - available to all
- open source hardware
- inexpensive tools and components - buy and build something relatovely inexpensively - errors not costly

Communities of Makers 

- Felt and Etsy - online communities of makers 

- Blender - 3D modelling and printing and movie making such as Big Buck Bunny  - these are decentralised design teams only linked by the internet 

- Adafruit - wearable electronics 

- Makerbots - freely downloadable models - print your phone case; light shades etc 

3D Printers 

- undermines economy of scale - to people 
- rapid prototyping and increased speed of conceptual development 
- Fused Definition Modelling (another name for the process) 
- beware of the aroma created by 3D printers
- community of people printing their own printers (rip/rap)
' 3D printers are non negotiable in a technology classroom' 

I'm not a hundred percent sure about the application of these in the senior English class - protoyping seems to be the main usage and I'm guessing as Tam Yuill Proctor discussed at the CETA day, designing settings would be a use, but time consuming....

Learning Spaces - Fortuitously this week we are looking at learning space design.  

Blended Learning Spaces - using a taskboard -

https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/CquG2tqV7jgKrg/learning-spaces

Task 5 -

Campfires in Cyberspace - Campfire, Cave, Watering Holes - these look different in cyberspace - for example on Facebook - posts would be the campfire; posts woild be the watering hole; private conversations the cave???
Possible plans???

Task 2 - Rototuna JHS

https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/CquG2tqV7jgKrg/learning-spaces - our groups PMI chart so far ....

Task 8 Provocative statements

'The learning space isn't what's important, it's the pedagogy'

But good spaces do make it easier and better.

Poor spaces are a barrier to good pedagogy.

The learning space enhances the pedagogy.

If you do learning space with no pedagogy = disaster!

Modern learning environments are in our heads

PD and support network essential - don’t dump teachers in a learning space unprepared.

Makeshift MLE is the reality for a lot of schools

What if the pedagogy is great and the space does meet it needs.....

Task 9 and 10 - Design Thinking - discussion notes 

- What do we do with the high achievers? the introverts? the ADHD etc?

- OPTIONS!!!! Need to be flexible, able to adjust to suit needs of different groups of students (across years / time of day)

- Particularly high achievers - more time to devote entirely to these students while others monitor those that need more support, keep

- Safe spaces

- Let’s ask the students and be flexible

The rest of my group/team  are Primary - and this is the design for a Primary space.

We had a long conversation about portable stations - that looked like this - 

What comes first, the pedagogy or the environments?

The cheapest and easiest thing to change is the mindset and the practice. 
Community needs to be aware of what is happening - educating the Community? 
The environment is a catalyst for change - look at the numbers who are applying for jobs in the 'new build' schools. 

It's up to the SLT to design the change management plan for the process - each school has different constraints. The design of the building is perhaps the easiest part of the process - it's the teachers

The change management process begins and ends with what effective learning looks like. Your space becomes an embodiment of the learning theory that you relate to. 

What change management process is in place in order for them to function in a new environment?

Tonight's session was very much focussed us on working as a group on a series of collaborative tasks. Enjoyed working with the Thursday night group.

The MindLab Session 14 - inquiry learning and teaching as inquiry

Inquiry as a teacher, and learner inquiry. 

There any models of inquiry - we have our own model as part of the NZC - and I'd be hoping most of us are familiar with this.....

Other inquiry models 

1 - Circle inquiry - which begins with the 'tuning in' section 

Finishing with the 'taking action' - what do I know that I did not know before? How do I apply this in our practice? 

2. 

I like this quote from Herbert 'Research is society endorsed inquiry'. 

Group Questions: Tuning In - what would be the implications if we only had inquiry learning in our classes? Or if we never? Created an interesting discussion - essential skills, framework creation, framing of the Qns? Inquiry learning is about 21st century skills. 

The framing if the question is essential - contestable, not too broad, quantifiable .....

No inquiry = lack of student agency, no voice or choice? 

Inquiry learning has a place, but it is not the only way ...

Inquiry allows students to move from knowing to understanding. It creates authentic contexts. Framed through provocative statement - eg kids can't change the world! 

The driving Qn is what we want the kids to understand by the end of it? Major impact on planning? 

Backward map from the initial understanding. Learning needs to be meaningful and manageable - relating the big idea idea to their world - a deep understanding of the big ideas. 

Inquiry task 

The Rise of Robots - the threat of a jobless future - Martin Ford - sounds like in interesting read 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RA_z1aDdiQ

Ford discusses some of the following 

- that robots not just service jobs, but white collar jobs being overtaken 

- robots create  less need for programming - move a model to program

- robots to teach students with learning disabilities 

1 what do we know about this topic? 

2 what burning Qs do we have relating to this topic? 

3 what is the most impt topic related questions we should be asking as Qs 

4 how would we go about about searching for relevant believable information on this topic?   

Effective Questions -

Inquiry sits on the edge of what we know - the twilight zone!!!

They most be answerable

They cannot be answered by a simple fact

The answer can't be already known 

They must have done objective basis for an answer

They cannot be too personal 

# It's not inquiry if 

- you already know the answer

- students do not develop their own questions to follow 

Sorting Info 

This looked like quite a good tool for NCEA students to use for sorting out their ideas for research. InstaGrok creates a simple concept plan with links and sources of info on any set topic eg see below: 

One of the links we got from here was quite an interesting site on the future of jobs - you load your profession and it predicts what % chance of your job disappearing in the near future to a robot - luckily robotizing education might be a long way off!

One sentence conclusions 

Our one sentence question: Can robots effectively replace teachers in the classroom?

Our one sentence conclusion (with a few clauses....) : Yes, learning needs of the students; the age of the students; and the content being worked through. 

Blessinger's Research Framework 

..which we will use in the second half of the course, I think mirrors our own inquiry cycle ...

Blessinger Research Template	NZC Inquiry Cycle
Research Question	Focussing Inquiry
Research Perspective	Teaching Inquiry
Research Design	Teaching and Learning Intervention
Research Analysis	Learning Inquiry
Research Conclusion	So what? Next Steps

Off to the next assignment .....

The MindLab Session 13 - Design Thinking in the classroom and in Leadership

Design Thinking in the classroom and in Leadership 

Many issues we face in education are caused by poor design - great example is the poor design of the power points in the room we are in!!!

Linking Design Thinking to 21st Century Skills - can design thinking assist the acquirement of 21st-century skills?

'Design a Fashion Accessory' - in less than 10 minutes - 

Design thinking methodology - some examples 

1 - Empathy 

2 - Immersion 

Immersion - explore the topic 

Synthesis - connect my learning to problem finding - identify the problem 

Ideation - generating and judging ideas 

Prototyping - acting upon ideas 

Feedforward - sharing ideas 

3 - Thinking into action 

4 - Mindsets processes and methods -  the need to be agile in your thinking 


Design thinking means not holding onto what you believe to be true - prototype and be mindful of the process - ie don't try to skip steps. It's the mindset that sets the project.



Design Thinking for Educators - teachers are designers of learning

Our chosen issue or problem was - students designing their own assessments

We then had to cube the task - this was a bit of a painful task!!

Rogers' Adoption of the Innovation Cycle 

Different strategies need to be used for each section of the graph - the group - the innovators and early adopters want to be given the tool NOW.

Early majority want PD and support and need a lot to get there. I think Laggards should be named 'resisters'.....

Does the organisation that is trying to innovate have to set a timeline and say to the laggards you need to get on board. Or do you keep on 'watering the rocks'....

Leadership provides an environment for the laggards to be the critics - but there needs to be ground rules - provide the critique - provide the areas you want critiqued.

You can overlay leadership theory on the diagram- 

              situational - transformational -  transactional  - dictatorial 

When do you call it quits - ask the question 'is it absolutely essential that we all are doing this at the same time? will anyone die??'

Consider your worst user - the one that will be hardest to persuade to change -  profile them - ours was Bob - see below 

100 solutions in 10 minutes - then filter them 

1 a safe bet

2 a long shot, but difficult to implement 

3 darling - fav idea 

Then rank each individually - 1-10 - is it: 

- new 

- usable 

- feasible 

I still like showing them the 'door of the bus' as my personal 'darling' ....

Our winning idea is 'document everything and provide with checklists to follow'

After initial pitch, refine the idea based on rose, bud, thorn. Our final ad was a little less than constructive 'move the laggard on....' 

Advertisement:                                  

Worried about your laggards?

Are your laggards holding you back? 

You need the 574 step checklist! 

Guaranteed to move any laggard on! 

The bus is waiting........

How might design thinking inform leadership practices?

Certainly in the design of the strategic plan; the vision; their values etc....

The ground level are expected to implement the plan, are not necessarily the ones informing the vision.....

Too much criticism leads to no action - bias over action. 

Showing not telling, having visible processes, so that everyone knows where it's going. 

The process has to be seen to be followed. 

Change is a process of evolution, the first prototype may not be perfect, but that's OK, we need a culture of safe failure. We have to design the safe space for this person to fail in.