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 ~

WEBINAR on connected leadership

Viv Hall from 'The Connected Learning Advisory' organised a webinar on being 'a Connected Leader'. She was supported by Karen Melhuish Spencer from CORE Education.  

My part in the Connected Learning Advisory presentation for Connected Educator Month was to talk about 'What does a Connected Leader look like?' 

Ideas:

Reach our for your own professional leader/ learner support. Model growth for others. The power of connections both online and offline for professional learning. Networking locally is great, but networking globally even more powerful. Model connectedness for students and colleagues. Make connections, taking risks and dive into being connected to empower yourself.

Stephen Lethbridge 'In your role as a connected leader, what do you do to support/ model/advocate/facilitate e-learning?'

Ideas:

Don’t talk about e-learning in the sense of electronic - e for effective. Being connected need to be effective before digital - why before how. Widen connections outside education, follow people who you don't agree with outside of education - Dissonance is just as important as finding like minded people. Hire teachers via Twitter and reading their Blogs. Try to walk the talk of connectivity. Tools to get connected: todoist, slack, ifttt

Justine Driver 'What attributes do you think you need most, to make this role successful? 

Ideas:

Growth mindset to connect strategically using digital technologies to improve student learning, systems that promote. Collaborative - collective wisdom & collective action - the right people are the right people in the stream/conversation. Echo Chamber effect - Filters the stream, doesn’t necessarily go along with group think to keep the conversation going, asks WHY? To what extent do the communities that we are involved in challenge our own thinking. Questions & adds value to create dialogue in whatever platform - Google +, facebook, twitter. A digital resident - models citizenship in online forums - makes connections. We also need to ask who is not connecting with us? Whose voice is not in the room and how to get people engaged (hence the reason for this webinar)

Rachel Boyd 'What’s in it for me’ about being a Connected Leader?

Ideas:

Connection regardless of distance. Exposure to alternate views different to local Principal/AP/DP group. Exposure to experts. Development of conversations & connections via shared interests. Ability to ask/answer questions. Opportunity to grow self - self directed learning. Find out what is/isn’t working for others. Gain a world view - external to your school. If you have ever felt like “an island” this is the place for support.

Annemarie Hyde 'How do you encourage a reluctant teacher/leader to get connected?'

Ideas:

Online connections lead to face to face connections and rich conversations. Mentor new folk and encourage people beyond their first step. Connect with them, help, respond to tweets. Challenge educators/ leaders to be online. Important to have an online presence now for jobs. NZC asks us to be connected and actively involved.

You can listen to the Webinar here.


My Storify:

~ “Leaders make decisions that create the future they desire.” - Mike Murdock ~

My eFellow Inquiry presentation to the Cluster Principals

One thing that is being expected of you as an CORE Education eFellow is to share your learning, approaches, practices and inquiries with the wider teaching community.  

Thus, when asked by my Principal to present on my inquiry at the Cluster Principal meeting, I agreed (as I have had already presented my inquiry at uLearn14 and at #cenz14). 

Some of my presentation slides:

A short extract of my presentation:

• Where and how do I start to facilitate personalised learning was just one of my questions. Through my networks and discussions with other teachers, I found that many were asking the same questions (especially in the junior school area)
• I focused my inquiry on pedagogy and technologies (rather than the physical aspect of MLE) and although I was already using technology with great success in my classroom, I was driven by a desire to make learning even more rewarding and purposeful for my students
• Questions arise about how I could support my students to carry out learning in purposeful and meaningful ways
• I started working on supporting students to take more responsibility for their learning and how to make choices.  They have a choice of how they want to present their learning (iPads/Notebooks or via their Individual blogs).  When students know they have to share with peers, family or the teacher, it gives them accountability as well.  When they know they have to reflect on how that activity went, they have to have done it. With this I ensure no one is falling through the gaps under the guise of just "doing my own thing"
• Is this working in our learning environment? Definitely! I will now walk into class after lunch and students will be engaged in a learning activity without me telling them what to do. Where as earlier they were just sitting on the mat, waiting for me to direct them

I left them with these questions:

• What is your vision for your school, you learners?
• What changes need to happen at your school / classroom level?
• What would be the first thing you will be thinking of changing in your pedagogy?
• Do you think Personalised Learning has potential in your school environment and what would be your first step to support teachers to implement this?

Conclusion:
In the end it all came down to Student Agency and the "power to act" as Derek explained in Trend 1 of CORE's Ten Trends for 2014.

~ "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin ~

My fabulous #TeachMeetNZ experience

Today, I have had the opportunity to present [a second time] for #TeachMeetNZ. This was a special session, as we worked collaboratively with #TMSydney for Connected Educator Month.

Sonya [as usually] was an amazing host, which helped to make this experience even more enjoyable. Thank you for being my inspiration, Sonya!

When asked to base my presentation around a 'Connected Educator' I happily obliged, as I am a connected educator.  I have build a Personal Learning Network with incredible educators, locally and globally.  We are able to develop our shared visions and common goals and can discuss the needs for future focus learning.

We know the world is changing at an incredible pace for our students and if we want to prepare them for their future, it is important that we, as connected educators also become the connected learners.

Being a connected educator provides me with ongoing inspiration and support.  It is my wish that more educators would see the value of being connected.

I was blown away when Justine asked if she can share my presentation.

I felt humbled when reading the kind words of Kimberley. I am privileged to have had the opportunity to be in a #TeachMeetNZ session with you, Kimberley.  I think you are doing amazing things with your students and  I do hope we can have a proper chat in the near future!

Reflection:

Having the opportunity to grow my own practice, to question, to experiment and to make mistakes is invaluable.
I acknowledge that I have grown immensely [personally and professionally] since becoming a connected educator.  However, this is just the beginning... I know that there is still a lot more to learn and experience.

So where to next?

I am going to utilize the Google Hangout tool to get in touch with educators around topics that would make learning even more rewarding and purposeful for my students. 

A Storify:

~ The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live. - Mortimer J. Adler ~

My #eFellow14 Reflection

For me, this year's eFellowship was an inspiring year of challenges, research, learning and laughing. I will always cherish the memories I was fortunate enough to build with Bec, Anne, Tim, Vicki, Rowan and Ben.

When I got THAT phone call from John, telling me that I was successful in my application, I did not know what I was really in for! However, I realised that I was going to be pushed [even further] out of my comfort zone. I felt a tad of fear, but at the same time I was filled with excitement as John's enthusiasm was really infectious!

With 80 eFellows to date, I feel extremely proud and privileged to be part of the influential eFellow community.

There were many days that I felt confused, not sure how to start/ where to begin.  And just when I thought I had it, Louise brought me back to earth with her endless "Why?"  We were reminded to maintain an objective perspective throughout and to question not only what we read, but also on our interpretations of responses.  Thank you for challenging my thinking all the way, Louise!

Together, we explored what 'transformation' means and I have enjoyed learning about it's relevance for my inquiry.  We unpacked what we learned during our 3 day Master classes - we worked hard, but we also had many laughs.

I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to be part of this incredible journey, thanks to CORE Education and our amazing mentors John and Louise, who guide us along in our inquiries.

We will definitely be #eFellows14 for life!

To conclude our journey, we also contributed to Connected Educator Month where each one of us presented a quick look into our inquiries.

~ It's not the end of the book, It's just the beginning of a new chapter - Unknown ~

uLearn14 Presentation

Today was indeed D-day for the CORE Education eFellows of 2014...

After embarking on our year long journey of inquiry and searching for answers, as well as trialing what we've learned, it was finally time to give feedback on our questions, answers and findings.

Presentation:




Feedback:

A warm Thank You to everyone who've had attended my session.  I really appreciated the time given to come and listen to what I had to share with you.

~ "We never know which lives we influence, or when or why" - Stephen King ~

ULearn14 Abstract

One of the requirements of being a CORE Education eFellow, is that you have to present the outcome of your Inquiry at ULearn.  eFellows will be presenting under the 'Peer-reviewed Research Strand'.

Here is my submitted abstract:

Summary

Title:

Modern learning pedagogy & technologies in a NE/Yr 1 classroom

Short Abstract:

In this presentation I will challenge the traditional method of teaching that is organised around timetables, by sharing what I have learned through my inquiry on how to bring modern learning pedagogy and technologies into a junior school, stand alone classroom.  I believe this kind of teaching and learning enhances opportunities for students and teachers to learn and create together.

I became interested in the possibilities of a modern learning environment in a NE/Year 1 classroom after a conference I attended in 2013 which was on mapping a new landscape in learning.  I went away with my head spinning, but the question for me remained: “Where and how do I start?” Through my networks and discussions with other teachers I found that many were asking the same questions. We wanted to change our classrooms and practice, but didn't know where to begin. Early on in my inquiry I realised that I didn't want to focus on the physical aspect of a modern learning environment, but rather the pedagogy and technologies that facilitate personalised learning.  My inquiry then became about how I could support my NE/Yr 1 students to carry out their own learning in purposeful and meaningful ways, so that I can then share this with others. Some of my questions were:

a. What is important to my students and their learning?
b. How can I implement a more personalised learning approach?
c. How can I encourage students to be more responsible for their own learning?
d. What are others teachers and schools doing?

To explore these questions I visited schools and talked with junior school teachers, who are already using modern learning pedagogy & technologies in their practice. We talked about their journey, their ideas, how they got started, and how students are responding to this. In this presentation I will share some of my findings and discuss:

- The difference between individual learning and personalised learning;
- The foundations that are necessary for personalised learning;
- How being a teacher on your own is no barrier to creating a modern learning environment;
- Ideas for how to get started.

I am not an expert in this at all and [still] do not have all the answers, but I hope that with this presentation, I will be able to clarify some of the questions many junior school teachers might have.

You are also welcome to join in the conversation on the VLN page I've created around NE & Year 1 Modern Learning Environments.

Will I see or meet you at ULearn14?

~ A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." - Lou Holtz ~

Teacher Burnout

Before I knew it, Term 4's EduIgnite was upon me!

As presenting does not come naturally to me, I had to dig deep to gather courage in getting a presentation ready.

I made the decision to base my presentation around 'Teacher Burnout' as I had experienced the feeling of this once in my life as a teacher. While finding myself on the edge of self-doubt, I was emotionally exhausted and I found school pressures and stresses unavoidable.

I felt fortunate that I was able to re-ignite my spark for teaching by collaborating with other professionals in my PLN.  I had to remind myself that I am an enabler and not a magician and most of all, I had to think positive!

I came to the conclusion that it is crucial that we positively support fellow teachers and walk with them while letting them genuinely feel that they are appreciated.  This, in my opinion, might reduce the burnout in so many teachers.

Engage students and make a difference

After following the first live TeachMeetNZ presentation on Twitter, I had been contacted by the organiser of this New Zealand event, asking if I would be interested in presenting at the next TeachMeetNZ.

Without thinking, I accepted this invitation.  I saw this as a personal challenge, as I am not fond of presenting in front of others, and never had in such a formal way.  This meant that I had to get right out of my comfort zone.

In the time leading up to the presentation, there were days that I had reservations about this, especially as I had to miss the first testing as I was at EduCampHB.

The second test run was nerve wrecking, but went well and I was ready.

Presenting live at TeachMeetNZ was an amazing experience and I feel proud and very special, after receiving my TeachMeetNZ participation badge from Sonya.