End of Year - A Quick Reflection

With my 'Possibilities, Options and a Course of Action' post at the start of the year, I was looking forward to pursue the many things that was twirling around in my head...

Unfortunately, I did not always 'stand firm' mentally and emotionally when challenges arise, so my one word, prudent (adj) 'acting with or showing care and thought for the future' did not always come to fruition, as there were days I was not ready for some unexpected challenges / bumps in the road.

One of my biggest 'problems' was that I felt tired, tired and tired. I question myself constantly as to my lack in motivation to effectively use my PLN (Twitter, VLN, EduCampNZ) and colleagues to create productive working relationships by learning from others, asking questions to find out the thoughts of others and to reflect understanding. 

Many days, I felt like "Forget Everything and Run" rather than to "Face Everything and Rise." (the two meanings of F-E-A-R according to Zig Ziglar).

The following post on a closed group also made me wonder if this showed what teaching became for so many in 2017... yes there are other stories too... unfortunately.

Throughout my unexpected challenges, I think I stayed true to my students... one example:

Two of my ‘at risk’ Māori students (Student 2 and Student 3) experienced difficulty with oral language. 

I reflected on why this might be and came to the conclusion that the pronunciation of Māori vowels in relation to English is quite different, which could very well contribute to their specific areas of need. A ‘non-confident’ Māori student, can find this extremely difficult and result to them finding it hard to follow instructions, process information etc.

I planned deliberate activities that meet the needs of these learners, whilst also capitalising on spontaneous authentic learning opportunities that support oral language development. 

Steps was to:

- Locate, create and utilise a variety of activities/resources support sequencing development.

- Use Big Books and Cards, and use the planning support that accompanies these to develop oral language.

- Use guided reading lessons to continue modelling and promoting retelling of text with a focus on oral language.

Although Student 2 still requires some support, I am delighted with the overall progress - as this was a student who did not talk at all to start with.

Progress can be seen as shown in the end of year spreadsheet below. 

All the blue areas, were areas of concern. Now it is only the two green areas, which I am confident will be shifting further [as well] in the coming year.

  

One of the best parts of this year [for me] was working in classes alongside teachers and ākonga to develop capability in pedagogy (teaching and learning) and the use of technology as a tool to support learning in my role as 0.2 learning Facilitator with Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru. Part of our (my) role was to working through and with the wider community to enable ubiquity (every where, anytime) of learning, honouring an authentic Rotorua and Arawa context, foster collaboration for learning across Rotorua (I have a G+ community for junior school teachers where we share resources / ideas) and to build knowledge about Future Focused Learning. I have been working with teachers and school leaders (I engaged regularly with principals about growth in teacher adaptive confidence and professional development) by embedding effective future focused teaching, using learning technologies to build learner competencies. 

End of Year Highlight:
Received a choc bar with this lovely message from a student! #EndOfYear #FeelingBlessed

~ "Ships don't sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Don't let what's happening around you get inside you and weigh you down... stay up." - Unknown ~

What have I learnt this year?

Teaching as Inquiry and Appraisal is a process to help improve teaching practice and to prove that you are meeting the obligations and requirements of being a professional. Our school’s appraisal process integrates the two of these into a process that is based upon evidence, mutual trust and respect.

“...effective pedagogy requires that teachers inquire into the impact of their

teaching on their students.” NZ Curriculum, p35

This year I 'connected' this with our eLearning Plan and focused on Digital Citizenship (to make students aware of the ‘dangers’ and to increase knowledge of how to keep themselves safe online) and Digital Competency - Literacy (enable students to create digital content and adding media).

Baseline date compiled, showed a “current state” where my Year 1 students lack confidence in Digital Competency - Literacy. Although only a limited number of students were interviewed, my inquiry had a whole class focus and was not limited to specific students.

My Focus Questions were:
How can I  use eLearning tools (digital resources/ iPads /ePortfolios to support the class) to:
- Teach students about digital literacy and citizenship
- Support students to be engaged with what they are doing to improve learning outcomes
- Use eLearning to enable students to become thinkers and risk takers and reduce          dependence on teacher

eLearning tools and learning opportunities I trialed [with success] were:
- Easy blogger Jr
- Explain Everything
- Write About This NZ
- Quiver (Augmented Reality)

- KidsedchatNZ

I made sure that eLearning tools served a purpose when digital content was created to enhance learning as I strongly believe that the tool should be used to support learning.

We worked hard together to achieve the desired 'outcome' and getting positive feedback along the way sure helped and served as motivation.

Through consistent reflection it became evident when I had to revisit or changed what (and how) I do and where I needed to change direction and start again.

What have I learnt?

- I had to learn to ‘let go’ to enable students to become thinkers and risk takers to reduce dependence on teacher

- Things don’t always pan out in the best way possible and I had to consider theories about why something might be happening, which helped in my critiquing.

Reflection / Next Steps:

I feel that in many cases, the 'task' set contributed to students' critical thinking as they had to think what's needed to focus on for the learning outcome. I'd also hoped that students would 'integrate' / use technology naturally to explain their work. However, many times I still had to ask [them] if they would like to share their work on their blogs, using one of the apps. I don't think they see / understand the possibility of an iPad as tool to create / explain learning yet. Therefore, something I will need to work on next year is to make them aware of the potential this holds for learning.

Resources:

Teaching as inquiry – a refresher: http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/Articles/Article.aspx?ArticleId=9249

How to make the most of teacher appraisal: http://www.evaluate.co.nz/blog/1020/how-to-make-the-most-of-teacher-appraisal/

~ “To be digitally literate is to have access to a broad range of practices and cultural resources that you are able to apply to digital tools. It is the ability to make and share meaning in different modes and formats; to create, collaborate and communicate effectively and to understand how and when digital technologies can best be used to support these processes.” - (Hague & Payton, 2010) ~

Augmented Reality in an Educational Environment

An article I have written for New Zealand Interface magazine (Issue 74, September 2016) on using Augmented Reality (AR) with 5 year old students:

Inspiring and engaging my students to make their learning real is important to me and I know that technology has the power to enhance learning. I see it as essential to bring it into my classroom to focus the learning onto the students’ future.

One opportunity that it brings to learning is 'Augmented Reality'. I have been aware of using AR for a while, but it was when I was reintroduced during my postgraduate study (The Mind Lab by Unitec) that contextualised it for me.

Here are two ways in which I have used this in students’ learning through the AR app Quiver.

Cluster Summer Sports

Firstly, they had fun reflecting and talking about their participation in a Cluster Summer Sports Day in which they were involved. Without the students even knowing, in this activity they were also touching on the Speaking and Listening component in the NZ Curriculum.

After choosing one of the two pictures provided (one for their ball kicking activity and the other for the game ‘rats and rabbits’), students coloured their choice using their favourite colours and then watched as their picture came to life just the way they'd made it.

Students took a screenshot and published their reflections verbally on their ePortfolios. (http://goals-r-us.blogspot.co.nz/2016/04/augmented-reality-using-quiver.html).

Erupting Volcanoes

A second example was when students were learning and inquiring about volcanoes. I printed the volcano picture from the Quiver website.  Students took a screenshot and wrote a story about it.  They had the opportunity to choose how they would like to present what they knew and learnt about volcanoes. This has not only engaged them, but also enabled me to see what they have learnt. Writing has also becoming more fun, especially for the boys.

Some stories were published on our class blog

(http://goals-r-us.blogspot.co.nz/2016/05/writing-stories-about-volcanoes.html)

Excitement and engagement

To experience students’ excitement and engagement in their learning, is priceless and shows me that engagement is critical to their learning. The use of these digital tools gives them the opportunity to deepen their skills in engagement, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, as well as creation. It also allows students with various learning styles alternate modes to interpret ideas and understand challenging concepts, enhance their engagement & success.

As I see the difference in the learning of my engaged students, it becomes easier to find ways to incorporate technology into their learning. And, in my experience I have found that AR can be used in all learning areas of the NZ Curriculum. Making a difference and engaging students is not about what I teach, rather, it is about how I teach. This experience has been life-changing for me. It really gave me an opportunity to make a lasting difference in the lives of my young students.

Screenshots from Interface:

~ "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein  ~

'It's all about maths'

The 'It's all about maths' symposium focused on connecting mathematics across the curriculum...

Using Digital Tech to learn maths: Transforming the learning?
Keynote: Dr Nigel Calder

"Digital technologies are everywhere in our lives. We use them to communicate, research, process, record and for for entertainment. They influence the way we interact in the world, the way we live. We use them in work and play. How might they change the learning process?" (Nigel Calder)

• Overview
• Affordances
• Influences on the learning process
• Research projects
• Some effective apps

How do you use digital technologies in your maths programme?
Technology might take the student 'somewhere', but it might not always optimise the learning. It is about the pedagogy and the learning, thus pedagogy is critical and it is not a matter of having apps or having technology, the reason becomes the critical thing. Apps should be about purpose/pedagogy for learning.

Affordances - What are they?
"Affordance implies the complementarity of the animal and the environment. They are not just abstract physical properties" (Gibson, 1979)
Visual affordance: Tinkerplots, Multiplier
Interactive apps: Sketchpad (look at: ‘geometry for young learners’ site), Touchcounts 1.0, Maths shake.
Tech gives non-judgemental feedback which might facilitate: risk-taking, an investigative approach, collaborative approaches, engagement, alternative learning trajectories, reshaping of the learning.

Moyer-Packenham and Westenskow (2013) identified app affordances as focus constraint, creative variation, simultaneous linking, efficient precision, motivation. These affordances interact and appear to be mutually influential of each other.

A five-stage developmental process when learning to integrate a particular technology:
- Recognizing (knowledge)
- Accepting (persuasion)
- Adapting (decision)
- Exploring (implementation)
- Advancing (confirmation)

Teacher knowledge for learning with technology: (when considering apps)
- Focus on the mathematics and learning outcomes
- Facilitating teaching and learning
- Re-organising learning - seeing connections
- Mathematical thinking and problem solving
- Self-correction and reasoning
- Making mathematics attractive and motivating
- Recording thinking and opportunities for collaboration

Aspects that underpin all themes:
- Student-centred
- Encouraging ownership of learning, eventual self-assessment and direction
- Get students to explain their thinking, it is powerful
- Teacher open to new technologies, ongoing learning
- School support with access to devices, reliable wifi, technology
- Herding cats... this is kind of what we do... it is not an easy job

- Task and apps should focus on the learning
- Foster creativity and self-directed learning
- Use them to optimise the learning situation
- Facilitate learning
- Give insights into students strategies and mathematical thinking
- The apps are built for purpose


Workshop 1: Making the most out of e-ako
Having a class in e-ako maths enables you to monitor your whole class' progress. Pathways are unlocked so you can look ahead and see what your students will see, but students will still need to follow the pathway. You can unlock steps by emailing Andrew.

Tip: Collate all students' names on a spreadsheet with a class email account. You can do this from eTap. Save as CSV file. Student names can then be important as bulk.


Workshop 2: Problem solving with juniors
Explore problem solving in a junior context
Task design
Integrating digital technology

How to problem solve with juniors?
1. Launch the problem (try and get them to read out problem themselves - literacy link here)
2. Independent think time
3. Small group sharing
4. Reporting back
5. Student self-assessment

Hints for Launching the Problem:
- Staging the problem - acting it out
- What do we know about the context of this problem
- Retell this problem to your partner
- What information do you know? How are you going to use it?
- Where is the question? What is the problem asking you to do?

Reporting back - Why is it important?
- To expose students to a range of thinking
- To foster mathematical communication skills
- To increase students’ confidence
- To clarify common misunderstandings
- To provide a foundation for the extension of a problem
- To highlight the mathematics inherent in the problem

Sharing back
Get students to role model and show what they did

Self-Reflection Questions to consider
- What did you notice
- What are the students' next steps
- What went well
- Goals for next time

Sites that provide pictures and video clips useful for maths problems:
- Enriching mathematics
- Put your students in a pickle
- The Mathematics Shed
- 101questions
- Have you got maths eyes


Workshop 3: Developing student agency through a growth mindset 

Agency and Growth Mindsets are both big in their own right. The aim here is to put the learner in the driving seat. However, when you are in the passenger seat for the first time, it is a very weird feeling, as you have to let go of the controls. Giving students control is a risk, but they are also taking the risk as a learner...

Give students ways to talk and think in a 'Growth Mindset' way, rather than them saying "I can't do it, I will never get to do it". The word 'yet' is powerful to use.

How can we encourage students to develop student agency and a growth mindset?
Move away from making all the decisions, what books they are going to read, what maths equipment / tools they are going to use.
Teachers also have to develop a growth mindset:
- Use technology to make both their own and students' learning richer
- Risk trying new learning
- Bring their own student passion into learning activities
- Let go of the need to control all variables
- Find ways to change even under adversity
- Value relationships with students
- Make a difference in student lives
- Network and connect with others for resources, assistance and support

Learning Mindsets/beliefs:
- Growth Mindset: Value mistakes and use them. Talk more about struggles and strategies to overcome them
- Sense of Belonging: Student Voice (What can I do as a teacher to help you more? What can you do to help yourself?). Ethic of Care
- Relevance: students will be more engaged if learning is relevant and they are given a choice
- Self-efficacy: when students understand their goals, they can monitor their learning and it is going to be more meaningful for them

Student Self Assessment 'tools' to support self managing:

When teachers and students focus on improvement rather than on whether they're smart, kids learn a lot more when they had a deeper understanding of themselves as learners, so they could build their own autonomy to change and gain confidence in their academic abilities


Reflection:
My aim with attending this symposium was to learn further how I can take sensible steps to provide and maintain a teaching and learning environment through my planning. I wanted to make sure that I select the right approaches to address the needs of all my students. This day was worthwhile and I walked away with lots of new ideas to implement with my students.

Next Steps:

To put my learners in the driver seat by developing learner agency in our learning environment. To step back a bit and let the students taking a little bit more ownership. 

~ "Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas" - Albert Einstein ~

Reflection on Term 2, 2016

After a very busy ten weeks, the term has come to an end.

Although we worked hard on reading, writing and maths, other learning areas played a just as important part in helping students on their path to become risk takers and confident, life-long learners.

Areas that I [also] focused on was 'Digital Citizenship' to make students aware of the ‘dangers’ and to increase knowledge of how to keep themselves safe online and 'Digital Literacy' to enable students to create digital content and adding media independently. There were times that we had to revisit some topics more than once to ensure that students grasped the concept.

Students had a go at using the 'Quiver' app (for our inquiry topic) to colour a volcano picture and to then write a story about it. It was great to observe that some students were starting to think about how to share their learning, asking if they should write the story using the iPad (easy blogger jr) or in their books. I gave them the opportunity to choose.
The use of 'Explain Everything' to engage students with their reading books was really going well. My next step here would be to get them to use this ‘without instruction from the teacher’.
Students also enjoyed using the 'Write About This' app and we received some lovely feedback.

KidsedchatNZ had again proved to be a valuable tool to support our students' reading and writing abilities. One week I had one of the senior students running our tuakana/teina session, which was a great success.

I also included a lot more 'problem solving' maths activities and it was interesting to see how students approached the problem after it was launched. They were interested to hear what their peers had done. Some students were able to explain the process to others that struggled through the problem. This was powerful as students showed the solution in smaller steps to their peers.

To make our tuakana/teina buddy reading session with Room 3 effective, we looked again at the purpose of buddy reading and what needs to be focused on. Ideas were brainstormed on what effective buddy reading looks like, sounds like and feels like.

Students have been involved in many 'hands-on' and 'thinking' learning activities and their progress was evident when assessments were carried out. I feel incredibly proud of what my students and I achieved.

What is something new to try and where to next? 

To set up Skoolbo accounts for my learners to provide each one of them with a personalized learning experience to further improve their maths and language skills. 

~ "The expert in anything was once a beginner" - Anonymous ~

Sandpit with Google Classroom at Connected Rotorua

What a fantastic turn out for our session on using Google Classroom as a structure to support Future Focused Learning, with staff from nine out of the [current] twenty Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru schools attending.

Hancine and I came prepared with our presentation slides, but with the number of attendees, decided to change 'the plan' and Hancine quickly sussed out that the knowledge were in the room.

There were many new faces and we got underway with the usual introductions, whereafter people that felt comfortable, took up the role of leading a small group in setting up and using Google Classroom. The collaboration among our educators were great.

If you are interested in learning more about Google tools for the classroom have a look at Monica's Google Site 101. Thank you for sharing this, Anne.

A warm thank you to all who attended the session on a wet Friday afternoon/evening.

~ "Everyone you will ever meet knows something your don't." - Bill Nye ~

Using ICT to Enhance Literacy

I have been asked by the Waiariki Literacy Association to present and run a workshop on how ICT can be used to enhance literacy.

Thinking back to when I first started presenting in 2013 under the wing and guidance of an amazing woman Sonya van Schaijik, and then to my CORE Education #eFellows14 presentation at uLearn in 2014 with the support of mentors Louise and John and the fabulous people in our 2014 eFellows group, I know I have come a long way.

Previously, I would be scared to bits just by the thought of giving a presentation, but lately I feel quite excited by the prospect of presenting to a group of people and then giving them the opportunity to 'have a play', whilst supporting and answering questions.

These opportunities also helps me to grow personally, as I get challenged with questions that I [sometimes] do not have all the answers for. Then... back to learning I go!

~ "Too many people spend too much time trying to perfect something before they actually do it. Instead of waiting for perfection, run with what you go, and fix it along the way…” - Paul Arden ~

Reflection on Term 1, 2016

Whilst some students were known to me, our environment welcomed a couple of new students and I enjoyed making new connections and re-connecting with everyone. As I am not involved in Reading Recovery this year, I enjoyed being in class for the whole day and it was great for us getting to know one other.

KidsedchatNZ had been re-introduced to my Year 1 students as we had Room 3 working with us. Great Tuakana/Teina relationships were displayed when participating in topics such as 'Greatness', 'Digital Citizenship', 'Sport and Learning' and 'Term 1 Reflection'. Our participation has been one way of supporting students with increasing their reading and writing abilities.

After last year's reflection, I've decided to change my maths programme a bit and to start with introducing doubles [first] to my students. I've also included a lot more 'hands-on' maths activities and my students enjoyed learning doubles with hopscotch.

During reading time we worked hard on making their reading sound like talking and we valued our Tuakana/Teina reading time. I [once again] realised how powerful this experience was when one of my 5 year old's told me "I want to read like her."

Students also worked hard on learning the Essential Spelling Lists to help them when writing stories. I really enjoyed seeing them gaining independence and the excitement when they were able to use these words in their writing.

Students were exposed to many opportunities this term: Inquiry, Go4it, Swimming and many more (feel free to view the class blog). I have also introduce an app called Quiver to help them reflect in a fun way on our Cluster Summer Sports day.

Personally, I felt pleased and happy about the session I lead on our Teacher Only day where Easy Blogger Jr was introduced to colleagues. This was a result from our eLearning Plan where one of our key decisions were to have a collaborative environment with a move to GAFE and Junior Blogger to support students' ePortfolios.

I have been extremely busy [since last year], not only with assignments towards my Post Grad in Applied Practice in Digital and Collaborative learning, but also with establishing and finalising a whole school inquiry through the Academy for Collaborative Futures' Voyager Programme.

I feel happy getting slowly back onto twitter and enjoyed the opportunity to participate in and learn from others in chats like #ldrchatnz and #DigitalEdChat recently.

~ “We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.” 

- John Dewey ~

Auditory Processing Disorder

I was lucky enough to be part of a workshop presentation by Angela Alexander, Doctor of Audiology, from the Auditory Processing Network. She shared with us information on APD and some quick tips and tricks to enhance life and learning for students with an auditory processing disorder. Students with this condition can't process what they hear in the same way other kids do because their ears and brain don't fully coordinate.

There are two basic functions of hearing that are extremely important: sensitivity and processing. Sensitivity refers to the softest sound an ear can hear.

There are four levels of auditory skills:

• Awareness to sound (hearing sensitivity/basic hearing function)
• Discrimination of sound (being able to not only hear a sound, but be able to process it. Able to hear difference between 'n' and 'm' sound)
• Identification of sound (the ability to hear the difference in one sound from another and to hear that sound in isolation. eg. know that we refer to the sound' 'm' with the letter 'm')
• Comprehension (understanding a spoken message)

When the first three is not happening students can have a problem with comprehension as the brain might process sounds differently.

10 ideas to support a child with hearing problems

• Memory: short term to long term and echoic (making it fun/ weird to remember)
• The importance of repetition and consonant production
• Simplify instructions
• Breaks are important
• Remove this sentence from your language ("I am just going to say it once")
• Be positive
• Decrease your distance & 'yacker tracker'
• Allow preview/review at home
• You are an amazing referral source
• And most importantly... The greatest factor in success for a person with auditory processing disorder is the attitude and understanding of their teachers, caretakers and health professionals.

~ "Remember: everyone in the classroom has a story that leads to misbehavior or defiance. 9 times out of 10, the story behind the misbehavior won't make you angry. It will break your heart." - Annette Breaux ~

Future Focussed Learners and GAFE at Connected Rotorua

In the first Connected Rotorua meeting for 2016 the following topics have been discussed:

1. Engaging future focussed learners in an Authentic Rotorua context

2. GAFE (keeping the learner at the center)

We were fortunate to have had Hancine and Helen leading the discussions and it was a privilege to be MC on behalf of the Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru Learning Team.

      ~ When dealing with children there is greater need for observing than of probing” 
                                                      - Maria Montessori ~

Teaching with KidsedchatNZ

Using our class twitter account to participate in KidsedchatNZ this year is showing an engagement in writing and reading as well as building great tuakana/teina relationships between the junior and senior students.

Students enjoy taking part, sharing their thoughts and ideas with other classes.

Some chats that we already have been involved in includes topics such as 'Greatness' with KidsedchatNZ, 'Learning about Digital Citizenship' and 'Making Connections'.

I have also written an article for VLN Primary School about KidsedchatNZ which can be read here.

~ "Writing should be meaningful for children, that an intrinsic need should be aroused in them, and that writing should be incorporated into a task that is necessary and relevant for life." - Lev Vygotsky ~

21st Century Skills (Week 2)

This week's topic was 21st Century Skills and one of the tasks from week 1 was to Prepare for the Week 2 session by watching the video "What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills".

Digital & Collaborative Learning (DCL) - 21st Century Skills

Week 2 Task: Think about what skills do our learners need in this Knowledge Age and time of Hyper Change?

• What are the most important skills in our classrooms (My thoughts: growth mindset, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, asking more questions than having/giving answers, curiosity) and how do they align with the ITL (Innovative Teaching and Learning) research?
• What skills do 21st century learners need to thrive? Immediately my thoughts went to: citizenship, global awareness as classmates/ co-workers may live across the globe, critical thinking, communication, creativity, collaboration, creativity (but with only room to identify 5 skills, I opt for: Growth Mindset, communication, critical thinking, collaboration and global awareness).

Here are the 21st Century Skills chosen tonight:

Think of how the 21st century skills match up with the Key Competencies:

21st century skills	Key Competencies
Collaboration Knowledge Construction Self Regulation Real World Problems/Innovations ICT for learning Skilled Communication	Thinking Relating to others Understanding language, symbols and texts Managing Self Participating and Contributing

We were introduced to film making and looked at the structure of what makes a good movie. Tip: Good FREE music to add to movies: http://freemusicarchive.org/

Digital & Collaborative Learning (DCL) - 21st Century Skills

Week 2 Group Task: Film, edit and publish a 21st Century Skills related short film

Our group (Clare, Graham, Brigitte, Liz and I) were given one of the ITL research 21st century skills and an activity rubric to create a video. Our set topic: ICT for Learning.

Here's our group, feeling relaxed after planning, designing and creating our video collaboratively.

~ "Investing in education and providing 21st century skills for students are fundamental components to the nation's continued growth and prosperity." - Craig Barrett ~

Intend of learning and visibility in my classroom (Week 1)

Digital & Collaborative Learning (DCL) - The Purpose of Education

Week 1 Task: Reflect on how your understanding of the purpose of education is visible in your classroom.

The purpose of education (in my perception) is to empower my learners to embrace the 4 C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity) which will enable them to:

• use sources of information to share thoughts, questions, ideas and solutions
• actively participate with other learners,  to enable them to work and learn effectively
• ask questions to feed their curiosity, to develop their understanding and to make links to their learning
• come up with new ideas and trying to do things differently

Positive relationships, knowledge of individual learners, giving learners a voice and choice (learner agency) and a happy and safe learning environment is crucial to facilitate learning.

How is education visible in my classroom?

• Learning is prominently displayed in the classroom
• Our learning is shared locally and globally by using our class blog and individual blogs
• Class Wiki with Individual Learning Plan for learners (and many other learning areas)
• Participate in KidsedchatNZ discussions using our class twitter account
• Being involved in Quadblogging Aotearoa

The purpose of ‘why’ we are learning something should be very clear to all and learners should be able to be thinkers and risk takers in a sheltered environment.

~ "I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." - Albert Einstein ~

Workshop on Student Voice

When students express their understanding of their learning process, we use the term 'student voice'. This term can also describes how students give their input to what happens within their learning environment and school.

We brainstormed ideas around 'quality' teacher, students and environment and looked at the benefits for students, for teachers and school:

Factors that influence student engagement:

1. Relationships with teachers and peers
2. Relational learning
3. Dispositions to be a learner
4. Motivation and interest
5. Personal agency
6. Self-efficacy
7. Goal orientation
8. Academic self-regulated learning

So what should we do?

• Listen to students
• Build a culture of inclusion
• Encourage student to student and student to teacher conversations
• Expect students to engage in dialogue
• Use IT to assist in the gathering of of voice
• Be open to change

Further resources:

• Student Voice / NZC resource bank
• Student Voice - YouTube

~ "Student voice is the road to change" - Unknown ~

The meaning of putting students in the centre of learning... (a discussion)

What does putting students in the centre of learning mean? Why would/should we do this? How do we do this?

~ "Education should not be knowledge-based, but child-centred." - Sir Ken Robinson ~

The hunt is still on...

This weekend I learnt that the platform I have been using with my 5 year old students for their ePortfolios will be moving to paid memberships in September. 

When reading the content of the email, I became really frustrated as I have been using Kidblog for a number of years successfully with my students. After a while I realised that although I felt disappointed that I now had to look for other alternatives, I had to look at the positive in this situation.

I am aware of Easy Blog Jr, but I need something that can also work on Notebooks. So I had been asking on Twitter if anyone knew of an easy platform to use with junior students to blog.  

One platform that stood out was Blogger.  As a Blogger user myself, I was happy to hear that one can't go past Blogger. I was already considering this, but then... the age requirements for students to have Gmail accounts is actually 13 years or older. 

I also had concerns about how my 5 year old students will be able to logon with remembering a gmail account and password. Again there was a solution offered that I could QR code the logon details. That was a brilliant idea, but I wondered how that would work when students were choosing to use Notebooks.

I am no closer to a solution yet and the hunt is still on! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

~ "Don't get discouraged. It is often the last key that opens the lock" - Unknown ~

Revisiting transformation & teaching practice

As Term 2 is about to conclude, I feel that I should reflect once more on my teaching practice.

I have made my students the focus, placed them in the centre and built on prior knowledge. I made a huge effort to individualize (but not personalize) the learning for each student.

Last year, during eFellow Master class sessions, we had numerous discussions about transformation. Therefore, I have revisited my reading on the 'Keys to transformation', a blog post by Derek.

Reflection time:
Have I used 'the three keys to unlock transformation potential'?

Firstly - My students were provided with choices and they had the ability to act on those choices. However, I feel that I should guide my students [even] more when making good and appropriate choices and assist them to act on them in their learning.

Secondly - In using my class wiki for several years now, I believe I found a way of embracing the wide range of contexts in which learning occurs. I acknowledge that learning is not confined to the classroom's four walls and students have an individual learning plan which they can access anytime, anywhere.

Thirdly - I feel that knowledge building is supported through the SOLO Inquiry model and Learning Buddy (Tuakana/Teina) system I use in class. My students also have the opportunity to interact and make connections with other students and classes through the weekly KidsedChatNZ twitter chat.

Next steps:

- Personalize the learning experience for all students (using progressions in 'kid-speak')
- To recognise my students as active participants at all levels of their learning.

~ "Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow." - William Pollard ~

Reading - not a challenge at home anymore

In collaboration with a colleague, I have [again] presented the Reading Together Programme to parents. A highlight for students were when the mobile library to came to our school as they now have their own library cards.

What I like about this programme is that families/whānau are involved and supported on how to help their child's reading at home more effectively. I feel that with offering this programme we not only improve the relationship between home and school, but we are helping our students to become keen and competent readers. 

One of the feedback highlights was when a parent said that her involvement in this programme [with her child] motivated her to become a reader herself again!

The overall outcome was extremely successful as improvement in reading levels of students whose parent's attended was evident.

~ "A book is a dream that you hold in your hand." - Neil Gaiman ~

TeachMeetNZ - Celebration

I have been involved in #TeachMeetNZ since 2013, either by presenting or as part of the support team... and I am still in awe of the host, Sonya.  Her ability to bring this all together with fabulous educators to share their learning by way of this PL&D platform is just mind blowing.  I feel so honoured to be part of it.  Thank you Sonya! 

The best part [for me] is that there is always something new to learn at each and everyone one of these sessions!

Today I've learnt about itunesU, through Nick's presentation. This is something I would really like to explore. James talked about student voice in the wider world. With his presentation he confirmed my view on the importance of blogging with students, to make learning visible and connect beyond the classroom. Then the wonderful 'App smashing' by Steve , which I have used with my Year 1 students before.
Thanks Caroline for sharing with us about the effectiveness of Daily 5. It reminded me that I really need to get this up and running in my class environment again, now that the 5 year old's are more settled at school! Ben, it was great to hear how you are still as passionate about 3D printing as during our #eFellows14 master classes! I still wear my eFellow14 charm (you made for all of us, using the 3D printer) with pride. I really enjoyed listening to Ritu sharing her personal learning journey over the bridge for boys engagement and achievement. I agree that we have to have high expectations for our boys, but so do [I think] we need to have for ourselves and all of our learners. There was also a strong message about independent learning coming through from Ritu, which I really liked.

By just listening to all the presenters, I realize that there is so much more for me to accomplish... and there are many more ways to assist my students to reflect on and think critically about their learning! I can and have to select other technologies and resources that will be effective and address the needs of individual students. My journey is ongoing...

What a privilege to have been part of today's #TeachMeetNZ - who is [by the way] approximately two years old! It was great catching up with Kathy and Monika again too!

The presentation of the stunning line up of educators:

My Storify:

A little memento from Sonya:

~ "The only impossible journey is the one you never begin." - Anthony Robbins ~

Developing independent students - edchatNZ

After missing a couple of edchatNZ sessions, I started to feel that I had the so called 'withdrawal syndrome'

This chat did not disappoint, with many professionals spending time to share ideas and their knowledge in our 'virtual staff-room'! 

Storify:

Reflection:

• Although it is important to engage students and develop life-long learners, it is my perception that we should foremost aim to develop confidence in our students. This [I think] will enable students to work independently, as they will have the confidence to try new things, not fearing to make mistakes.
• We need to encouraging students to think more for themselves and give them choices. When students have choices, they feel that they have ownership of their learning. Students will take more responsibility for their own learning when they have agency.

What if... we help students to experience a situation / challenge they never had before and enable them to utilize their individual skills to confidently solve a problem?

~ "Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students." - Solomon Ortiz ~