"Out of the Cave" - Master Class #1 (#eFellows14)

I was looking forward to our first eFellows 2014 Master Class in Auckland with great excitement.  This by the way, did not disappoint! Our programme was stunning, well planned and well organised by John and Louise from CORE.

Meeting the other #eFellow14 (Anne-Louise @robeanne; Tim @TimGanderNZ; Vicki @hagrnz; Bec @Bec_Power; Rowan @RowanTaigel and Ben @mrbenbritton) at the CORE office was fantastic.  Some of us were already interacting on Twitter and I relished the opportunity to meeting them f2f ! We chatted through our first morning, sharing our Mihimihi and learnt what the eFellows is about.  At the end of this session, we were given three questions to ponder for the next day.

Then we had our first lunch together, with the complements of CORE Education.

We were fortunate to visit Stonefields School and listened to Sarah Martin, sharing the schools educative purpose and explaining the learning philosophy which rest on their Four Vision Principles - Building learning Capacity, Collaborating, Making Meaning and Break Through, by using a very informative presentation. A highlight for me was seeing junior students in action in their Learning Hub.

Back at our accommodation the seven of us talked, shared and chatted until late at night around our camp fire.

On day two we had inspirational conversations about bringing a transformative lens to inquiry, led by Louise Taylor.  We discussed key points for our project, critical pedagogical theory, things we notice, how we make sense of the world and positive transformation.

                           

Lunch at Catalina Cafe

After lunch, we toured the new Hobsonville Point Secondary School with Claire Amos, who enlightened us with her presentation about what excellence look like at HPSS.  We learnt about their Vision and Shared Values and the Hobsonville Habits which covered their four areas of personal development required for optimum success - strategic, cognitive, innovative and relational.

Back at the CORE office, Mark Osborne's passion for Modern Learning Environments was evidence during his session in which he further discussed ways to "Innovate, Engage and Inspire."

John Fenaughty organised a yum potluck to enable us to meet some CORE whanau and where we could connect with past eFellows.  I had the privilege of meeting my mentor, Sonya van Schaijik for the first time f2f!

       

                       
On our last day, we had another great session with Louise and we were reminded to "seeing the possibilities within the impossibilities".  We talked about some key points to 'throw together' and continued our discussion on how to bring a trans-formative lens to our inquiries.  We started on our projects with reflective tasks and left with a clear sense of where we want to go and what to look at.

What an amazing three days (with an awesome and enthusiastic group of people), filled with laughs and inspiration!

Slide created by Louise Taylor

Off to great places!

I am very excited about next week's first eFellowship meeting, as I have been looking forward to this for some time now. 

According to the latest information, a stunning programme has been created for us by our eFellow co-ordinators at CORE. 

I am looking forward to my inquiry/ learning this year, so watch this space, as I will surely be writing some reflective blog posts of my journey. 

Teaching as Inquiry (Maths)

Main question: "How can I accelerate the progress of my focus group of students to where they should be in relation to the National standards?"  Using some initial data and knowledge of my students, I was able to identify (target) students.

My Focusing Inquiry questions were:

• What assessment information do I have?
• What are my students' strengths?
• What are my students' learning needs?

My Inquiry: "How can I support these students to show and explain their thinking?"

My Teaching Inquiry questions were:

• What instructional strategies will I use to help students achieve?
• What resources will I need?
• How will I differentiate to meet student needs?
• How will I encourage student ownership of their learning?
• What personal learning do I need to undertake? (Research/Readings/Support from others/Professional Development/Observations/videos)

Actions:

• Encourage student recording: Whiteboard, Student books, iPad - voice/ video, Student blogs
• Relevant problems: student interest, addition and subtraction
• Using materials
• Providing challenge: students think of problems
• Learning buddy work: explain what buddy said
• Questioning: provide thinking time

My Learning Inquiry will look at:

• What impact has my teaching had on my students?
• How do I know, what is the evidence? (Assessment/Student feedback - feed forward/Observations)
• What do I need to do next?
• What changes could I implement?

Reflection: (To be elaborated on in due course)

See outcome in 'End of year  reflection (2014)'

~ "Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best"
 - Bob Talbert  ~

Culture - Delving beyond the tip of the iceberg via #GlobalClassroom

Last night I participated in my first Global Classroom chat session, as I think culture plays a major role in the vision and values of New Zealand's unique identity.

My involvement in this chat session helped to clear some ideas about culture as well as reaffirmed my view on the importance of beliefs and values of a group of people.  I am convinced that if we treat others with dignity regarding different cultures, positive relationships will be build on trust.  Positive communication is the key.

Thanks to Sonya, who informed me about this chat, I had the privilege of learning more about this valuable topic from all the participants.

~ "No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive" - Mahatma Ghandi ~

Professional Learning Planning

I am privilege to be co-organiser of the Connected Rotorua Teachers and the yearly Educamp Rotorua. Therefore Annemarie and I spent our Waitangi day, planning this two professional learning opportunities for teachers and we are looking forward to collaborate with teachers who are interested in learning with Digital Technologies on a regular basis.

Resources:

The Connected Rotorua Presentation is a work in progress of topics to be discussed :



Educamp Rotorua Smackdown:


Thank you to everyone attending Educamp Rotorua and for all the contributions to the Smackdown.  I thoroughly enjoyed learning alongside everyone and am grateful for new connections made.


~ "We  are not 'just' teachers, we are the managers of the world's greatest resource: Children!" -                                                               Robert Johan Meehan ~

First Week Reflection

The new school term started on an optimistic note, and with a positive feel around school.  It seems as if this year is going to be remembered as an exciting one.

This first week had many new happenings for me.  I was not in class full time, like I use to be.  Instead I was working with great learners as part of my Reading Recovery training. I have already been learning a lot from the first two assessment meetings this week.

Then back to class it was, for some learning sessions with my lovely New Entrant/Year 1 learners.  

One 'challenge' I faced with going into class halfway during the day though, was to quickly settle my learners and myself.  Everyone wanted to talk to me as soon as I walked through the door.  I knew I couldn't expect my lively learners to be just 'ready' for the next learning session.  

So what did we do?  

We started off with having a short sharing time about how our day was going.  This helped everyone to settle down and everyone felt valued. It also gave me the opportunity to learn about my new learners and I was delighted to see the happy and excited faces!

Throughout the week we had also established our Learning Buddy system, which already is working a treat.

I am looking forward to all the learning opportunities with my class.

~ "The wonder of teaching is watching caterpillars become butterflies" - Unknown ~

A productive start

We kicked our Term off with two very meaningful and productive PD days which [this year] I thoroughly enjoyed!

PD #1: iPad in Education

This was a day to be in touch with learning.  We were reminded that all students in school is 21st Century kids.  Therefore, how will the iPad (21st Century device) transform learning for 21st Century learners?

Apps for the day were: Explain Everything, Puppet Pals, Book Creator, Brushes and Pic Collage.  We also explored  the ability of Explain Everything to use as rewindable learning.

We examined learning experiences within a digital content looking at the SAMR model.

The focus was on fun and we had wonderful and meaningful conversations.  This day definitely laid the foundation to the start of a wonderful journey for us, utilising our iPads in Education. 

Personal learning after session: SAMR model explained for teachers via Educational Technology & Mobile Learning.

PD #2:  SOLO - Our school framework

We worked collaboratively to create our school based concept curriculum with SOLO Taxonomy.  The excitement, laughter, creative thinking and teamwork among us were amazing. Everyone shared ideas and contributed to discussions.  The end result was a framework to be proud of.

Exciting times ahead now, moving towards Extended Abstract!

Personal learning after session:  Blog post by Craig Perry (geoperry) 

~ Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire - William Butler Yeats ~