tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52439607868289800322024-03-04T20:29:50.242-08:00Excitable EducatorsAkoranga o Naenae:
A passionate learning team in an innovative learning environment. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-78767648507020587762015-11-03T10:03:00.003-08:002015-11-03T16:55:07.166-08:00Community engagement in learning<br />
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<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPtWu-9UwAATlue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Embedded image permalink" border="0" height="150" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPtWu-9UwAATlue.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As a network, c</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ommunity engagement in learning is an area we all recognised as important for many reasons. Hence, it has been one of our </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">change priority areas since we were an LCN. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As teachers we have all got into the community to extend classroom learning, see learning in context, in action, for real. Plus it's so much more fun! School trips are highlights of a school year. </span></div>
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<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CR80HTmUkAAVHYR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Embedded image permalink" height="200" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRZQL3SVEAA3ZJh.jpg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Akoranga o Naenae has been a success for engaging with our community at local, national and global levels. The biggest differences for us were 1) the varieties of experts that students connected with, 2) That students did most of the organising (finding experts and places, organising permissions, notices etc) and 3) the ways our learners connected with experts and places (social media, visiting people and places, email). It was a real lesson in resilience and creativity to firstly identify experts and places. Then contact them. Then work out what to do if people didn't reply (still waiting on Jehn Cena and Taylor Swift among others). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We see many benefits to supporting learning through engaging with community:</span><br />
<ul><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPJPEzcUsAAAc04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Embedded image permalink" border="0" height="149" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPJPEzcUsAAAc04.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPtpFQxU8AAQHXi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Embedded image permalink" border="0" height="200" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPtpFQxU8AAQHXi.jpg" width="149" /></a>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Learn about the variety of people who can help our learning beyond whanau, teachers and friends</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Discover how experts have deep knowledge about specific areas, great for students who also have deep knowledge as a starting point </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It brings whanau into learning as they are taxi drivers, photographers, ticket providers, support planners, connections to other experts...</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Authentic reasons to write, search, express gratitude, problem solve, organise, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">be resilient and creative</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Teachers are relieved of being the expert (especially about fishing, WWE, sprinting, scrap-booking and much more) when they really aren't - and don't want to be!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Being extra connected to our surroundings </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's very exciting to contact your idol </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Best of all - every active learner trait is in action almost all of the time</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So we thought we would share the experts and places our students have contacted this round as a way of saying thank you to those who bravely helped us, even when they didn't exactly know what was expected of them. We are so grateful to everyone who replied. And because we are so proud of our learners, we are inspired by the diversity and amount of people and places they have connected with! </span></div>
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<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRZJE5tUYAA8O_a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Embedded image permalink" border="0" height="150" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRZJE5tUYAA8O_a.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Places</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bunnings team</span><span id="docs-internal-guid-941ffd4f-ce82-5898-d94a-ccf20c77c3e4"></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-941ffd4f-ce82-5898-d94a-ccf20c77c3e4"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dan Carter</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">John Cena</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steven Adams</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jamie Oliver</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taylor Swift</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ussain Bolt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nick Willis</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Janet Evans</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Varsily Sapunov</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Annette Dougherty</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ash Wootton </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lindsay Hamilton</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Morrison</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maggie (Hills Hats)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jessica Barlow</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brianna Barlow</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mitchell Barlow</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Annette Forbes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chris Brown</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ed Sheeran</span></div>
</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marnie H</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 19.5556px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jordan Kerr</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Callaghan Innovation</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dowse Gallery</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mindlab</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mitre 10</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Belmont school courts</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dyer Street School field</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carter Observatory</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hunting and Fishing </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Te Papa</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Koru cafe</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Welltec</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Zone Hairdressing</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Premiere Hairdressing</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hutt Valley High School</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Te Marua speedway</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Petone Football</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sherrington Jewellers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rock shop</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ASB stadium</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wellington Lions</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pump Dance</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Elite Dance</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hutt City Dance Centre</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Learning Connexion</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's a hive of activity when students are following their passions beyond the classroom: it feels messy, and frenetic, and like you have to be on top of a lot of stuff. And you do. It is all those things and more. Closely followed by inspired, excited, astounded and grateful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Community engagement in learning... it's worth every grey hair. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-82653981895179231062015-10-22T20:08:00.001-07:002015-10-22T20:09:11.873-07:00A word from our Scottish colleague: <br />
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<span style="font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 36.8px; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;">International Akoranga o Naenae...</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thinking back to when I arrived in New Zealand 7 months ago, education was the last thing on my mind. Having taught for nearly 16 years in the same school, my sole focus was to find my two children a fabulous school for 12 months, and luckily, have a year to myself! I was off the education treadmill as it had become, a time to refresh and recharge and hopefully find the original passion I used to feel for teaching. As the weeks went on and my kids came home with numerous stories about how different their school, classmates and teachers were, I became intrigued: What was so different? My shy, reserved children had settled really quickly and were highly motivated about their learning.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I inquired about volunteering to get a taste of Kiwi education and met Kelly Layton who, over a cup of tea, gave me a quick overview of Akoranga o Naenae; even the name of the school had me fascinated. So I turned up that first Friday expecting to help out in a regular class. Instead I was thrown into something completely different! I had so many questions: how could one whole day (20% of a child’s week) be devoted to learning about one thing? What about accountability? How would they measure the impact of their teaching? What about literacy and numeracy?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My first visit was really scary, but exciting. I hadn’t taught or been in a school for months and this wasn’t the environment I was used to! ‘Active Learning’ – I knew all about that didn’t I? I had been planning lessons for years encouraging my students to be active learners. I quickly realised </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> had a lot to learn! Google Drive, Infinity Learning Maps – I hadn’t used any of these tools before. Bring it on!</span></div>
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<b style="clear: left; float: left; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="185px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Ks_ePHk87Egb09sS5DtWTNKLu827ZhhDl70SxQYyzWgD_SWmvTTIK5ApwJ-9mjGR9FbRkSfLRNNFD2jPF_NFgCXnPLihNyFz-o1G_ZCfsUvi5aMmmUkJGt83z0KZCUAv0V1LWaQ" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="163px;" /></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a few hours observing the students and the slick collaboration of the team, I just thought </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WOW!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Lots of thoughts and ideas were running through my brain. I had been inspired beyond words, which hadn’t happened in a long time. What Kelly, Clare and Natasha were doing was truly incredible. They totally believed in their school and approached it with so much positive energy that I couldn’t wait for the next week!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve now been volunteering every Friday for months and have experienced both rounds of AoN. I have seen the teachers reflect on their own practice and evolve their programme for round 2 with Kerry now part of the team; I have seen how much more confident they are second time around and how much quicker the children seem to lead their own learning. I have learned so much…. about myself, my teaching, even the way I act around my own children.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<b style="clear: right; float: right; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></b><b style="clear: right; float: right; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img height="176px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Do23Vtb66lIiT2nhG7xutyHOEkvQ_tfSgtOWbM4vnvS1s5yRgtr061ZGVPnXRINIsJXJPjPCPgTGLZdE_XmDEBku2tqMYCoYDmnXpw6S2XKEIZGocCTZyySshoCF8KW0AaCCRVo9" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="229px;" /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although I knew what Active Learning was and hoped my lessons were active, having it broken down into the 6 traits and their success criteria was totally enlightening. I was good at questioning my students, I gave them learning intentions, teased success criteria from them, helped them reflect on their learning, my lessons were fun but I still had some lethargic, unmotivated kids. Then it hit me… I still controlled the content, the pace and how challenging it was. The children at AoN were really motivated and engaged – why? THEY had a choice and they made the decisions. They knew the success criteria and were able to lead their project in their own time and way. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As with a lot of teachers I like control; I like things to be organised and I have an almost compulsive desire to be in ‘the driving seat’. I now understand how detrimental that can be. It’s all about balance. As a teacher it’s about giving them a purpose to their learning; making life connections in every lesson and providing them with the skills of ‘how’ to learn, make decisions and solve problems!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An important lesson I have learned is to focus on the journey, how they’ve got there is more important than using the product as an indicator of their success. They use questions to connect their learning. What do they already know? How can they connect this learning to other contexts? Link the purpose of the other things they’ve learned and reflect, reflect, reflect. The team continually refer to themselves as learners, continually making links to the traits and showing the students how they reflect and make connections. Reiterating the ‘common language’.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creativity and the use of technology features hugely in their day. I liked how the planning for the next week was emailed to the students giving them opportunity to prepare and be focused. Nothing was a surprise. I noticed as the weeks went on more children seemed to access and view the daily planning. Was attending AoN changing behaviours?</span></div>
<b style="clear: left; float: left; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img height="166px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7Q7IwUA0BIVmD3Bi43wnNunXbIENUZteDmkY1F7TJu8uA_tAKpQkw_dtpsdyo87P_4uA2hE7dduciZDtyIWZY3lM1g-iJ2cDe-lzu5Qu4tebIxIIwv9fgunRExZcVVVO2lRI6dK" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="210px;" /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The students are encouraged to use their IT skills to develop their project, whether exploring the web, emailing, blogging or creating a slide show. They are given the freedom and TIME to use technology for independent inquiry. I started to see the connections between different areas of learning, the interdisciplinary links; communication on the telephone, spelling, grammar and punctuation in emails inviting or thanking people, organising times to visit experts. I loved how the day was split up and planned, and breaking from the traditional method of time slots took away any barriers. Using alliterative words, Activate, Action, Analyse and Afterwards made it easy for the students to remember and summed up exactly what being achieved!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Okay… with all thoughts of having a year away from education, I am more inspired than ever to get back into the classroom. I am really curious to see how this approach would work in a Scottish primary school and how I would go about implementing it. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Involving learners in their own learning seems pretty straightforward and is at the heart of Scottish Education and our ‘Journey to Excellence’. HMiE declares that a school will be rated excellent, where among many things -</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">their learners have choices</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">can demonstrate links with previous learning</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">solve problems</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">question</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">show perseverance</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">can use their learning out of the classroom</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are supported in their reflection </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are leaders in their own learning</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Isn’t this exactly what AoN is all about? Where the teachers are role models reflecting on their own practice AND feedback from their students about how successful their lessons have been.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am really excited to share this experience with my colleagues and our cluster network of schools and hopefully start identifying children who would really benefit from an AoN type approach, being able to make their own choices and control their learning, but with a guided framework. Letting them explore their passions and possibly finding some experts we didn’t know about!</span></div>
<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ovvPBPHgxsGIkD0pLHkswbVw9kFODitFiY2IN09_8hgFLDvp-f5s-NHEkR6cnX3yrU_2GkXmLT-MJq__Ka_zQqNBwXcnOkAsZiP7cadZ41R5_ppZvJJwVyRMHHi0KvqFpDMpEpUH" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ovvPBPHgxsGIkD0pLHkswbVw9kFODitFiY2IN09_8hgFLDvp-f5s-NHEkR6cnX3yrU_2GkXmLT-MJq__Ka_zQqNBwXcnOkAsZiP7cadZ41R5_ppZvJJwVyRMHHi0KvqFpDMpEpUH" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="320" /></a><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reflecting on my own classroom practice has made me think, I need to</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">·</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">give more ownership of learning to my students</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">·</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">make learning more challenging</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">·</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">including more creative and investigative opportunities</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">·</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">give the students the freedom to use technology to learn</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">·</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">make sure I fully demonstrate links with other areas of the curriculum</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">·</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">think about the questioning of my students and how this will lead to their own inquiry</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">·</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">give lots of time for reflection and not just use it as a plenary tool</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">·</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">allow my students some time to decide what and how they want to learn, but with responsibility of how they will demonstrate it</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">·</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 9.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">use my community more, tap into all the experts we are sure to have around our school and surrounding area, teachers don’t know everything!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Quicksand; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clearly there will be barriers, but I am an active learner and I will show resilience. I’ll let you know how it goes!!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-37588195339341493302015-10-16T18:13:00.002-07:002015-10-16T18:15:18.444-07:00The chance to try again...The AoN satellite school By Natasha<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How often do we give our students the chance to try again? How often do we give ourselves the chance to try again? We often talk about reflection being an incredibly powerful component to learning but how often do we create an environment where reflections can be acted upon? </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1WVTLH7X1Q9iQs7vm-iJau1lKU_k9E333uRxYR-47AeS5GCB5JxHoYcc_8UesvYXF-YIwssNrS7T5gdL7AG51dY3lctRsVlakKiPaVDU7236ob9gqHamsxTLzgVIJkDXenGqGquAhNXlm/s1600/try+again+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1WVTLH7X1Q9iQs7vm-iJau1lKU_k9E333uRxYR-47AeS5GCB5JxHoYcc_8UesvYXF-YIwssNrS7T5gdL7AG51dY3lctRsVlakKiPaVDU7236ob9gqHamsxTLzgVIJkDXenGqGquAhNXlm/s400/try+again+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Source: http://adultrunaway.tumblr.com/post/77406653992</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Having worked with Kelly and Clare at Akoranga o Naenae in Term 1 and Term 2, this term I was excited to take my new learning back into class and act upon my reflections. In the AoN 'satellite school' there would be some differences and some things would stay the same. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The differences: </b></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We would be based at a school, rather than in the community.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A new collaboration - this time I would learn alongside my fellow year 4 teacher.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The students would all be from the same school but it would give 2 classes the chance to collaborate with each other.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>What would stay the same: </b></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The thinking that sat behind AoN i.e. students exploring their passions around a framework of active learning. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The framework - students being exposed the interests they may not have considered --> selecting a passion to focus on --> planning their project: what do they want to find out? What tools, people and places will be useful? How will they share their learning? --> sharing their learning in a way that positively impacts on others. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The involvement of experts: so far we have a parent who is supporting the cooking group and next week an explorer who just returned from an expedition to Antarctica. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Reflections in action: </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Following a similar framework has provided the chance for refinement. One example of this is around the questioning phase of the projects. Jane and I decided that the questioning phase was an important part of the research process and that having well thought out questions would provide purposeful signposts for students to keep referring back to. Students came up with a whole range of questions, some of them related to the research process e.g. Who can I contact to help me with this? How will I know if I have been successful? Other questions were around their actual passion e.g. What are some really important inventions in history? We spent some time discussing what might be the most useful way to sort these questions, torn between process-and-passion and beginning-during-end. Through talking with the students it was clear to see they had an understanding of the difference between those questions which would help them to find out information and those that were about their passion so we went with </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">beginning, during, end. The students found this grid (tweeted by </span><span style="color: black;"><a class="account-group js-account-group js-action-profile js-user-profile-link js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/Mr_YalePE" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px; text-decoration: none;"><strong class="fullname js-action-profile-name show-popup-with-id">Mr Yale</strong><span class="username js-action-profile-name">@Mr_YalePE</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"> ) </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">to be a useful tool for developing their questioning skills...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuI97aznLVU_0bKp8gBI0zIjRv-JDk-gQfbVqGviO-Uk7kiYqbjMuGhsFXAwMZSNWURgGkI3_olV-mOsLjQhEvFbCy90BjpESGUzVUnebnXcBg24VNwrGM2cHTVAurRORBeObmcHbbwbPJ/s1600/questioning-grid.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuI97aznLVU_0bKp8gBI0zIjRv-JDk-gQfbVqGviO-Uk7kiYqbjMuGhsFXAwMZSNWURgGkI3_olV-mOsLjQhEvFbCy90BjpESGUzVUnebnXcBg24VNwrGM2cHTVAurRORBeObmcHbbwbPJ/s400/questioning-grid.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We also recognised that you don't always know what you want to find out at the start. Questioning is an ongoing part of finding out and new questions arise as you find out more. We want to encourage students to document their pivotal questions throughout the process. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Giving our students the chance to act on their reflections: </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Going through the process again made me reflect on the value of allowing students to go through a process for a second time (even a third or forth). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At the start of the year my class had a go at <a href="http://www.artwithmre.com/2011/12/line-design-explained-deluxe-edition.html" target="_blank">Mr e's line art</a>. The complexity of the task meant they had to go again and again and again. More recently we did the star challenge. Again the high level of challenge meant that students made 6 or 7 attempts reflecting, adapting and modifying as they went along. Collaborative and reflective discussions were happening all around the room...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Student 1 - I think that line looks too long</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Student 2 - Can you go back to the instructions and find where you made the mistake? Then have another go. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Making the most the chance to try again...</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In situations where this has had the most impact there have been some commonalities:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In both of the above cases, students had the chance to act on their reflections almost instantly. Does this mean it always needs to be instant? Perhaps not... but then we would need to help them make the connections so they can use their reflections. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Collaboration: Working alongside somebody with a common purpose. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGZoYDBsA5_fxmhreVNCLiE49ZsdQIjH-pphMbPn-Ekd6ot_TCjD-Tk2yotodn5Sw1gZlI-8bD3OYynRcBOw4OqMvnVXbgU8wkyd4YX_zLsfyQFkgXA-VvgLf_MWs_agNw_hkssu-LSbqT/s1600/Collaboration+with+each+other.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGZoYDBsA5_fxmhreVNCLiE49ZsdQIjH-pphMbPn-Ekd6ot_TCjD-Tk2yotodn5Sw1gZlI-8bD3OYynRcBOw4OqMvnVXbgU8wkyd4YX_zLsfyQFkgXA-VvgLf_MWs_agNw_hkssu-LSbqT/s400/Collaboration+with+each+other.jpg" width="332" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I think the same could be said for students? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">High level of challenge: if the task is something that can be completed easily surely this removes the motivation to try again? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Having the chance to use my learning from AoN, by going through a similar process; allowing the students to lead their learning, whilst explicitly teaching the skills of being an active learner, has given me the chance to put reflections into action! It's also got me thinking about how I make sure my students get the chance to use their reflections too! </span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-76755631353667727652015-08-31T23:40:00.003-07:002015-09-01T13:49:13.085-07:00Why Would You? Kerry <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMOLhzgf81JTuAHRbIiJmd9YicmtC6Qs04sVGzPdBaAz9LbmNs0q4Vq0E9rfKC_nKy8DIzUjTaurwmSVmhU8Y6ttU-j3ZFiSDB2ZL26juDnvwyFgKnsyfr52vG2LEfBFoCP84A9Nm24C6X/s1600/my+favourite+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMOLhzgf81JTuAHRbIiJmd9YicmtC6Qs04sVGzPdBaAz9LbmNs0q4Vq0E9rfKC_nKy8DIzUjTaurwmSVmhU8Y6ttU-j3ZFiSDB2ZL26juDnvwyFgKnsyfr52vG2LEfBFoCP84A9Nm24C6X/s200/my+favourite+photo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> As the day of arrival for round 2 of our AoN students drew closer, I was excited, nervous and grateful to have the opportunity to be part of something I'd heard so much about from students, their whānau,Twitter posts and conversations amongst my colleagues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wondered where I would fit in and what I could bring to this already highly successful team and evolving model?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I'm still trying to figure the answer to this question out as we approach our fifth week of working with our new group of students.What I know is that we have a wonderful group of learners, who are connecting, risk taking, rising to the challenge of new learning and who have chosen and are now beginning to explore their passion projects.Wow! what a wide range of diverse interest these active learners have ! It is very interesting and exciting..</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last term a student from AoN connected with me via e-mail </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">asking for help with her passion project. I was fortunate to </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">spend the </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">day with the students, leaders and whānau of AoN.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I felt inspired and left reflecting on the students' high level of confidence and engagement in their learning, along with the passion and enthusiasm with which they had shared their knowledge with me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This struck home - as my own learning has been driven by passion, creativity and resilience.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe these traits underpin my achievements and richest experiences in life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reflecting on my teaching practice, I've realised that this thread of creativity, passion and resilience runs through my most effective teaching moments and is when student engagement has been high.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> My teaching background is varied. I've taught at all levels and worked alongside many</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUjcI6nvUzGiqcqHRlGhDKckn_em-znRMKPabH0chyS8YbLRTSwqmoxYnTEoe0leoeB9q4PspjVpJDL5exHs0c7hVxlljamrHlr6vFyH2coEk90oFX_4x5xcpBCSQH9rqvOipAik5MyV75/s1600/creativity+pxt+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUjcI6nvUzGiqcqHRlGhDKckn_em-znRMKPabH0chyS8YbLRTSwqmoxYnTEoe0leoeB9q4PspjVpJDL5exHs0c7hVxlljamrHlr6vFyH2coEk90oFX_4x5xcpBCSQH9rqvOipAik5MyV75/s200/creativity+pxt+1.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">wonderful teachers and leaders. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Much of my teaching has been focused around The Arts and I have a particular interest in supporting all students to develop their creative potential. I also understand that there are many ways to be creative and 'creativity ' is not exclusive to, but rather inclusive of The Arts.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
I have been reading with interest the changes in education and in particular the 'shift to student led learning and the need for teachers to "trust that students know what they need to learn", and for us to "let go" of the need to control all aspects of a student's learning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Personally, I like knowing exactly what is expected of me and what I need to 'do,' so when things change and appear unclear it does get 'a little scary, uncomfortable and I need to remind myself to trust.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> My perspective in teaching comes from 15 years plus of part-time teaching and working in and out of other teachers' classes. Change is part of everyday life. Working like this has taught me a lot about 'how to teach' rather that 'what you teach' and how to learn and work alongside students and other teachers. As I continue to develop my understanding of Active Learning traits and Future Focused Education with a shift from 'acquiring lots of knowledge' to 'developing a set of transferable skills' my thoughts are affirmed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been viewing Ted Talks by John Hattie about "Why So Many Of Our Schools Are So Successful?" and by Grant Lichtman "What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills" , and I've learnt a new word "Cognitosphere". I've been learning about "Growth mindset vs fixed" and I've just read an interesting article online by Barbara Challenger called "Building The Future Today: The Need For Creativity In Education". She talks about "...the future..." being "...shaped by the creative talents of inspired well educated children". She goes on to define creativity as "...a process of having original ideas that have value". Involving "...the imagination, vision, taking risks and being prepared to be wrong"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Zl6yrggTi7e2EGm_QyAVMUEEhc5hHbIa9-gurTk7J_m4IkaRfzSpeBjMhmGCdtwVOk54pErRyzlZFhryJu9ua_I4wO0SDGtw_9noV_NqnfH6vybVMvTCobax7CcIEaHF1EQdyDjTC4gY/s1600/creativity+pxt+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Zl6yrggTi7e2EGm_QyAVMUEEhc5hHbIa9-gurTk7J_m4IkaRfzSpeBjMhmGCdtwVOk54pErRyzlZFhryJu9ua_I4wO0SDGtw_9noV_NqnfH6vybVMvTCobax7CcIEaHF1EQdyDjTC4gY/s320/creativity+pxt+3.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAL8J4iegto37zcRQ9IOV73LDm7va22368aqrqrTkKNgrFNYk-weMXI4SamiNp7ZQDV6IQldG7aQS2h6JeBBBiswkelP7qdUh9kTfts1-kgorgCPmZEKw9J3d0h5fD9Y8f5bOo1zlD60GI/s1600/creativity+pxt+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> as I join the team at AoN </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> <b>I wonder....</b></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Zl6yrggTi7e2EGm_QyAVMUEEhc5hHbIa9-gurTk7J_m4IkaRfzSpeBjMhmGCdtwVOk54pErRyzlZFhryJu9ua_I4wO0SDGtw_9noV_NqnfH6vybVMvTCobax7CcIEaHF1EQdyDjTC4gY/s1600/creativity+pxt+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a></ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What will the creative process look like at AoN where students are leading, making their own decisions about their learning and are following a passion?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is the link between raising student achievement and creativity?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How will students transfer skills learnt at AoN between communities ( school, home etc..)and will we see this reflected in raised student achievement?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Will the students get what they need from the active learning model vs a curriculum led one?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What will it be like to teach in a supportive co-teaching environment instead of alone?</span></li>
</ul>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAL8J4iegto37zcRQ9IOV73LDm7va22368aqrqrTkKNgrFNYk-weMXI4SamiNp7ZQDV6IQldG7aQS2h6JeBBBiswkelP7qdUh9kTfts1-kgorgCPmZEKw9J3d0h5fD9Y8f5bOo1zlD60GI/s1600/creativity+pxt+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAL8J4iegto37zcRQ9IOV73LDm7va22368aqrqrTkKNgrFNYk-weMXI4SamiNp7ZQDV6IQldG7aQS2h6JeBBBiswkelP7qdUh9kTfts1-kgorgCPmZEKw9J3d0h5fD9Y8f5bOo1zlD60GI/s200/creativity+pxt+2.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is very exciting...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So many questions</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So much to read...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So much to learn...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> And now to answer, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">" why would you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simply another question...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">"Why would you not?"</span></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-63682254995227160682015-08-27T02:45:00.002-07:002015-08-30T16:26:04.817-07:00So ... Did It Work?!<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is a period of transition for us here at Akoranga o Naenae, as we finish our evaluations of Round 1 and begin anew with 48 eager students for Round 2.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As we said at the beginning, Akoranga o Naenae is based on a hunch, with the main principles well researched. Now we wanted to determine whether or not AoN has proven itself effective. Our chief supporters, our network leaders, are realistic and experienced people. They know that change takes time, and have not put unfair expectations on us. However, we always knew that we would have to prove ourselves pretty quickly to ensure that we could continue AoN. As such, the evaluations from Round 1 have been much anticipated (particularly from data geeks like me!) Keep in mind we had (only) 14 days with our learners. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As with most things at Akoranga o Naenae, when considering methods for collecting evaluations, we tried to think outside the box. As there was not one tool that was going to give us all the information we needed, we used a variety of tools, and we asked everyone who had been involved for their perspective. These included self-assessment, questionnaires, video recordings, and reflective discussions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We started with the most important players - the <b style="background-color: yellow;">students</b>. Way back at the</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img alt="IMG_1021.JPG" height="200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZlCEc1qgkUtW7iRbFtuUnF2e6LQ7kV93mRlR-jpxliVu8QXmSf6kdLNpNklgLI7RksH5ti0jNWqfnoIj_MP4I26H1OltWYFeiP9OqeQMaIfOiKQDydhWmscNbWnO2u__sZfksAYdBA" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="150" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Start of Round 1</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">beginning of AoN, we had asked the students to do a <u>self-assessment</u>, indicating their knowledge of the active learner traits, and their understanding of when they show these traits themselves. We then asked them to complete the same self-assessment at the end of AoN. By turning their answers into numerical ratings, based on a pre-determined criteria, we could compare the beginning and end data. This showed that:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the students were more able to articulate <i>what active learning was</i> after working with us at AoN for 14 weeks (total score at the end of 81 points, compared with 49 points at the beginning) </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: center;">= <b>65% improvement</b></span></div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the students showed an improvement in their ability to <i>describe when they are active learners</i> in real life situations (79 points at the end; 47 at the beginning)</span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img alt="IMG_1022.JPG" height="200" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/PXM4Z__I2PV_66by1R5Z72nrFJ3hoUDwvTDeLJrrhDfkCm3JUgbPpP8oE3dePD3HeyzmqXGI8NluevFuK-F8IvChk2Xeob-Q8L_AiFm8r1lxiiGrnZqPt0zIzLk-ncwS5qcCIIvhLA" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="150" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">End of Round 1</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">= <b>68% improvement</b></span></div>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the students were able to explain <i>why active learning is important</i> and relevant to their lives (especially <u>now</u>, not just in the future). This was the area that we knew the students found the most difficult, and we had worked hard on, so we were pleased to see a total of 51 points at the end of AoN, compared with 33 points at the beginning</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">= <b>54% improvement</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">These three key points showed us that the learning had been effective for many of our 48 learners. Bearing in mind that many, if not most, of these kids are priority learners, whatever impact we had (positive or negative) was always going to be important. We were pretty excited by this results, and proud of what we all had achieved over 14 days. It gives us more confidence to hope (as we always have) that AoN might end up being one of the things that leads to improved academic success for <span style="background-color: white;">some of these students. We have anecdotal evidence from several kids, families, and leaders to say that they have seen just that. Kids telling us about how they used not to be at the National Standard, and now they are; parents describing their child as 'sky rocketing' at school; and leaders collating data on their eight AoN students, showing significant improvements in reading, writing, and maths.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-965ed768-6bb3-fc18-6043-b34b91a6b58f"></span></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We used <u><a href="http://www.infinitylearn.org/" target="_blank">Infinity Learning Maps</a></u> as an assessment tool throughout our time at AoN, and these provided us with very interesting data, too:</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPzfT61tmpz4mAMtqJhyphenhyphenpoSiKidXAXcIWKCCg-raBk6NkUZXOwyR28eNJAY1dn7og7PdpDFLzMilFwJR1pS1E7K7gPbHnVkP0Mj0bjaya0buahj8MQbnkgWrHPc1GoStfF9ICidHdMAjj/s1600/Learning+map.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="76" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPzfT61tmpz4mAMtqJhyphenhyphenpoSiKidXAXcIWKCCg-raBk6NkUZXOwyR28eNJAY1dn7og7PdpDFLzMilFwJR1pS1E7K7gPbHnVkP0Mj0bjaya0buahj8MQbnkgWrHPc1GoStfF9ICidHdMAjj/s320/Learning+map.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Learning maps #1, #2 and #3</span></td></tr>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">as students became more active in their learning, the number of connections with people outside of their normal 'bubble' became much larger. This then decreased as the students became more purposeful/specific in their questioning</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">students came to better understand how technology can help them connect and learn</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the students became more aware that learning happens everywhere, not just in a classroom</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9HaK6GbT9C4G7i91PUS6xU6yVOWWRwMMHvxr4OhaM4VrDDbklLXeGfJbuzl4Y-JYfcUpX9VuAehzaGKC_DX2xepp4sixLbEtKjoR8DINuANSftwGEplc4OLLCjxaot5zpKVXp33hPlmPj/s1600/AoN+kids+survey.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9HaK6GbT9C4G7i91PUS6xU6yVOWWRwMMHvxr4OhaM4VrDDbklLXeGfJbuzl4Y-JYfcUpX9VuAehzaGKC_DX2xepp4sixLbEtKjoR8DINuANSftwGEplc4OLLCjxaot5zpKVXp33hPlmPj/s200/AoN+kids+survey.png" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Students' survey</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our third method of collecting student evaluations was through a <u>survey</u>. The main themes were:</span></div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the students loved getting to know others from the network and working with them</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">they appreciated what the community space could offer</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">they really enjoyed the food we had on our Learning Maps days!!</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We also asked our schools' <b><span style="background-color: red;">leaders</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></b>for their evaluations of AoN, with a <u>questionnaire</u> targeting specific areas of interest to us, as well as giving them room to add other thoughts. This is a small sample size, with only six schools in our network, but their comments were thoughtful, considered, and helpful to us. These included:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">a concern that the 'off-site' nature of AoN appears to imply that schools are not able to cater for their priority learners (which we know is not the case, but those making such an inference may not realise that)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the difficulties with transferring the active learning ideas from AoN into school classrooms, despite a variety of efforts</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the workload on the teachers at AoN, particularly at the beginning and in the set-up phase</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the effectiveness of connections with whanau</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the increased "student agency" that was seen in some AoN students back at their schools (for example, at ine school some students starting a coding club. At a different school, students coaching younger sports teams)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the benefit of having another 'shared purpose' amongst the network schools</span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTDynMlVNVa1kLQjnQiVzs4PtFEfdyRlBlSLa3Wq4AXvUTlbwg9XyKK3LTLU8h7xWIvVsJJlV79jr-VvZDaIVYrlDYPjlfRm1PYXsh0FHBK-S-T9ip1TLmtX7_Af_9pQYG0lg2EFSEzfp/s1600/Leader+questions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTDynMlVNVa1kLQjnQiVzs4PtFEfdyRlBlSLa3Wq4AXvUTlbwg9XyKK3LTLU8h7xWIvVsJJlV79jr-VvZDaIVYrlDYPjlfRm1PYXsh0FHBK-S-T9ip1TLmtX7_Af_9pQYG0lg2EFSEzfp/s320/Leader+questions.png" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: red;">Some</span><span style="background-color: red; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"> the Leaders Questions</span><span style="background-color: red; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"> of</span></span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When asking <b><span style="background-color: lime;">whanau</span> </b>for their evaluations, we mostly used <u>video recordings</u> to capture their thoughts about AoN, and its impact for their child. These resulted in some very heart-warming moments, and some honest truths. The highlights were:</span></div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">hearing that students had developed their own 'drive' to learn</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">confirming the fact that the students were motivated by the power of choice</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">believing that AoN had contributed to an improvement in academic success at school</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLV8Ku2shVqp2V6pURpF1AfqVxrTBMPH-PCTZPngVF0EeQvmchWJ-l9auPCJ349gk4I9LgU2861iYbWkrlR19NAuhWwJZWhjplWcuY2MMoq3J19Mi3BmapHsdXIa4eeg5k5jXx2Wd2p7Dp/s1600/AoN+teacher+survey.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLV8Ku2shVqp2V6pURpF1AfqVxrTBMPH-PCTZPngVF0EeQvmchWJ-l9auPCJ349gk4I9LgU2861iYbWkrlR19NAuhWwJZWhjplWcuY2MMoq3J19Mi3BmapHsdXIa4eeg5k5jXx2Wd2p7Dp/s200/AoN+teacher+survey.png" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: magenta; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some of the teacher questions</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next group we wanted to get evaluations from was the <b><span style="background-color: magenta;">teachers</span> </b>of these students back in their own schools. We have been really interested in how the skills they had been developing at AoN could transfer back to other areas of the students' lives. We asked teachers to fill in a quick <u>online survey</u>. The teachers who did so gave us some useful feedback, including:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">that some students clearly understood the link between their learning at AoN and school, while others did not</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the enjoyment that most students got by learning about their passion</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">that we have not made clear enough to some teachers the basis for AoN </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lastly, <b style="background-color: cyan;">Natasha, Kelly, and I</b> did <u>our own evaluation</u>. We knew there were a lot of positives that would come from this, as we had been there each day, seeing the change in the students. These positives were tempered with some points for future improvement. We are active learners who reflect! The main themes were:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Jl6EyFMvshCtDesXwYymIFcSqlrltrc6xAu9NyI5tGEDony8Y5OxprrtBYG-gNLpLsEr9mkNYaoAIbbkFt0Bt3J5s7dCxhzx0B6pR8lZYuvFdqFdqVX2TDYMaE1xTdfhm8Z-CbCzo3rI/s1600/AoN+teacher+evaluation.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Jl6EyFMvshCtDesXwYymIFcSqlrltrc6xAu9NyI5tGEDony8Y5OxprrtBYG-gNLpLsEr9mkNYaoAIbbkFt0Bt3J5s7dCxhzx0B6pR8lZYuvFdqFdqVX2TDYMaE1xTdfhm8Z-CbCzo3rI/s320/AoN+teacher+evaluation.png" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: cyan; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">AoN teacher evaluation</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the difficulty in striking the right balance between too much and not enough communication with teachers and leaders</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the tensions caused by some people in the network being more engaged than others</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the difficulty with wifi!</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the high workload</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the incredible professional development that AoN was for each of us</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the benefits of AoN being held in a community space</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the significant observable changes in the learners from Day 1 to Day 14</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, overall, did AoN 'work'? Did the 14 days we spent together make a difference to these students? Did it help them to build skills and understanding about how they can enhance the way they learn in all areas of their lives? It sure did! In the words of one of our students: "Akoranga o Naenae changed my life".</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As active learners ourselves, we're not stopping there!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have been cogitating over all of this evaluation data, considering our next steps, and contemplating about how what we've learnt so far can help us in Round 2 and beyond. The main points we will be working on are:</span></div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the possibility of co-constructing success criteria for our Active Learning trait assessments with students,</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">the purpose of each planning, assessment, and evaluation tool, and how to best use these,</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">how we can streamline the whole time-frame (and we have to, as Round 2 is only 12 weeks!), and ...</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">continuing to try to find ways to make transference between AoN and schools understandable and practicable for leaders, teachers, and students</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QiazW--jg3k/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QiazW--jg3k?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How do you feel about AoN finishing?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is just a snippet of what we wanted to say. If you have any questions or want further information, please contact us. We'd be really excited to talk about these evaluations in more depth.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-35901732455552255312015-08-07T11:56:00.001-07:002015-08-07T11:56:48.541-07:00Reflections on Round 1 - Natasha<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My
reflections on my experiences at AoN may take a slightly different angle than Kelly and Clare’s, as from next Term I will
no longer be going out of my classroom to The River of Life Centre. I will continue my learning back at school with what we have termed the 'AoN satellite class'. On a Friday, I will co-teach with another Year 4 teacher back at my home school, with students exploring a passion, whilst developing the skills of active learning. We see this as a wonderful opportunity to track the learning dispositions of students who have been to AoN (of whom I have 3 in my class) over a longer period of time. I will continue to post my reflections on this blog and will continue to learn alongside Kelly, Clare and now Kerry. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I look
back to my wonderings at the start of AoN, it really is exciting to see how
much has happened in that space of time. Working in this environment allowed me to explore my thinking with the advantage of 2 other perspectives, provided by Kelly and Clare. I don't believe that without the collaborative planning, challenging of ideas and rigorous discussions I would have been at the place I am now at in terms of my thinking. Working in this collaborative way has proved to be a first class professional learning experience!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now that I am ready to continue to take my learning back into my classroom, it seems like the ideal time to take stock of where I'm at...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the start of AoN I had this wondering: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What might </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">teaching,
planning and assessment look like if the Key Competencies were used as a
starting point, rather than a by-product or an add on to other learning
intentions? What if the Key Competencies were the main road instead of a side
street? The Key Competencies go across all learning areas but what does this
look like in practice?</span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Exploring this wondering through the lens of active learning, rather than Key </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.5pt;">Competencies </span><span style="background: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-highlight: yellow;">was not a
problem</span><span style="line-height: 18.5pt;"> as there was lots of overlap. In terms of teaching and planning,
much of our explicit teaching in the initial stages was around the six active
learning traits. Kelly, Clare and I spent a lot of time prior to starting
with the students discussing and debating the active learner traits. After brainstorming, sorting, </span><span style="line-height: 18.5pt;">grouping and re-grouping we agreed on six traits. We </span><span style="line-height: 18.5pt;">agreed that active learners: question, choose, reflect, </span><span style="line-height: 18.5pt;">are resilient, know
learning has a purpose and connect. </span><span style="line-height: 18.5pt;">From there we unpacked what each of these traits
looked </span><span style="line-height: 18.5pt;">like in practice, which gave us our success criteria.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/SYq5XpcnFVYdn9dgmNutL6gmAE1dvts18JF9vEai0Zhp09_CNQLxS_m7pBdCqufJ5vQ3-m6qWw68GVxZALZfxUITQ5KpPOFHbcPOaH3L-i8pVylK99aQ6N97uWi7FsQBge9IJJL1yA" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="288" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/SYq5XpcnFVYdn9dgmNutL6gmAE1dvts18JF9vEai0Zhp09_CNQLxS_m7pBdCqufJ5vQ3-m6qWw68GVxZALZfxUITQ5KpPOFHbcPOaH3L-i8pVylK99aQ6N97uWi7FsQBge9IJJL1yA" style="line-height: 18.5pt;" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once
we had a clear understanding we were ready to design
some explicit teaching around the traits with the students. Initially we spent some
time helping them to understand what each of the traits looked like in
practice. We then gave them some specific examples of what it would like if
they were using displaying these traits. Following this, students came up with
examples of where they were using or could be using the traits at home, at
school or anywhere in their lives.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In
the first few weeks of AoN we spent a lot of time discussing and modelling these
traits to, with and by the students. Many of the learning opportunities were
designed in a way that students could specifically focus on these traits. This
meant that when students embarked on their passion projects they had a thorough
understanding of the active learner traits and these were a pivotal part of all
of our learning. The passion projects provided the context for students to
continue to develop and apply their skills in active learning. This started me thinking
about how at the start of the year we spend time focusing on Key Competencies
with our class and then they take a back seat so that we can get on with
the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘real’ learning. At AoN, the active
learner traits were the starting point and the students' passions provided the
context. They were not an 'instead of', but an integral part of the learning. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicd98pxQF95EQ_cssC5fLAT0R9BLzdFi1uKS9ggQYgPPUgW90Epd4D7Tu5Y0Cs8ONsRZMIhxrg35xaoQGOTkMNGXLu41w4t8ml6CkdOsnatc_lImMm9kfPq9uTewy0j2KNHnbN0uJ_ibZa/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-29+at+5.35.44+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicd98pxQF95EQ_cssC5fLAT0R9BLzdFi1uKS9ggQYgPPUgW90Epd4D7Tu5Y0Cs8ONsRZMIhxrg35xaoQGOTkMNGXLu41w4t8ml6CkdOsnatc_lImMm9kfPq9uTewy0j2KNHnbN0uJ_ibZa/s400/Screen+Shot+2015-07-29+at+5.35.44+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">What was it about the set up that enabled active learner traits to take centre stage? </span></b><span style="background: white; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Firstly,
all of us valued the active learner traits. We all believed that if students
could be active in their learning this would make a difference to their
engagement and in time, to achievement. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Secondly,
in our Active Learner success criteria, we had developed a clear framework
which we constantly referred to in our planning, discussions and evaluations. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thirdly,
our planning framework wasn’t structured by curriculum areas but by student
need in terms of how they would learn about active learning and how to BE an
active learner. The day was divided into a 4 parts; a session that was more
teacher directed with explicit teaching around the traits; a session where
students would use the traits to explore their passion; a session where
students reflected on their learning using a given framework; and a session
where students had chance to think about how they would use and continue their
learning throughout the week. This of course doesn’t mean that structuring a
day using curriculum areas is exclusive to teaching students about active
learning. Guy Claxton’s split screen approach whereby learning intentions are
twofold and students learn both ‘about’ (knowledge) and learn to (skill based)
could be one framework for ensuring active learning traits are central even
within a day structured around curriculum areas.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black;"><b>In
terms of assessment we used a range of tools to gather information on how students were developing their skills around being an active learner: </b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black;">Learning maps - a visual tool whereby students drew what their learning environment looked like. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black;"><br /></span></span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAX6B2KvGJzTV75X_ulCeXm6nl0Fo2nVrhjoTxgHWjCTsYaPcOOqp812QzUvZ8zVnefjAwmTf9PAdwXG_PMaWLi4kwXuX7r1W3LGx1jznwZrJ1aSU65eKSUivSCIDlVuyumlX6-YLFylw1/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-07-29+at+5.40.04+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAX6B2KvGJzTV75X_ulCeXm6nl0Fo2nVrhjoTxgHWjCTsYaPcOOqp812QzUvZ8zVnefjAwmTf9PAdwXG_PMaWLi4kwXuX7r1W3LGx1jznwZrJ1aSU65eKSUivSCIDlVuyumlX6-YLFylw1/s640/Screen+Shot+2015-07-29+at+5.40.04+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-6b4da098-d852-9d67-a3da-011f39226608"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black;">Active learner self assessment</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black;"><br /></span></span></span>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6b4da07e-d851-e74a-99ab-0b145e64df20"><img alt="IMG_1022.JPG" height="400px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/PXM4Z__I2PV_66by1R5Z72nrFJ3hoUDwvTDeLJrrhDfkCm3JUgbPpP8oE3dePD3HeyzmqXGI8NluevFuK-F8IvChk2Xeob-Q8L_AiFm8r1lxiiGrnZqPt0zIzLk-ncwS5qcCIIvhLA" width="300px;" /></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24.6666660308838px;">Information gathered from students and </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26.453332901001px;">Whānau</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24.6666660308838px;"> gave us a rich insight into how students were transferring their active learner skills in various contexts and what they had taken from the experience. </span></span><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><b>Another wondering I had was: If the skills involved in being an active
learner are explicitly taught and valued will this transfer in all contexts,
i.e. from AoN to home and school. Are there instances where this is or is not
the case and what are the key factors at play in these instances? </b></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><b><br /></b></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3pt;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">There
were many instances where skill transference was evident. This was shown in
different evaluative tools including learning maps, self assessments and
perhaps most powerfully in video clips of students and </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26.453332901001px;">Whānau</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18.5pt;">There were some factors that we believe enhanced the transference of the active
learner traits:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Attendance:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: black;"> In some cases, where students were
absent for some of the sessions, they found it difficult to catch
up. Given that AoN happened once a week, missing sessions meant that it could feel
like they were away for a long period of time. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">Consistency of approach in all places; at
home, at their home school, at AoN:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: black;"> Where teachers were invested in AoN and
the thinking behind teaching active learner skills; and alongside this parents
were also using the language of active learning, we found a higher degree of
transference. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.5pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><b>In stepping into the unknown I had this wondering too: What are the benefits and challenges of
working in a collaborative environment?</b></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For me this was my first experience of teaching in the same
space as two other teachers. In speaking to others who have
co-taught, I know that it isn’t always as harmonious as what I am fortunate
enough to have experienced and this got me thinking about why this was:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Kelly, Clare and I all have differences in terms
of our personalities however our philosophies around teaching and learning are
closely aligned.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Where there were disagreements: it was usually
around how we were going to go about something rather than why. We always<span style="background-color: white;">
challenged </span>the point and at no point the person.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">We were open and honest about how we were
feeling: in the set up stages of AoN we spoke about the importance of being
open and honest and I feel that at all times we managed to do so.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Finally and possibly most importantly we really
valued and respected each other's practice, thoughts and feelings. Also, we were
all totally open to learning from each other.</span></li>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Given the above reflections, do I believe
co-teaching could work effectively where there are differences in teaching
philosophies? I see it as a continuum. If there are points of difference I
don’t believe that this would be counteractive and in fact may make for some
great discussions which could ensure clarity of thinking. For me the bigger
things would have to be aligned; those are around the importance of
student agency, research driven and research<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">influencing practice, and in terms of the
co-teacher - a real openness to learning would be pivotal.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span><!--EndFragment--><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The last term and a half has been an incredible learning experience. It has broadened my horizons in terms of who I can connect with and learn with. The opportunity to collaborate in designing learning opportunities with students where the skills of learning are explicitly taught, valued and assessed has been inspiring. I cannot wait to continue the learning and to see how we progress with our '</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">AoN satellite class' and </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-80768046476765916902015-07-28T14:33:00.000-07:002015-08-02T04:05:08.128-07:00Reflections on Round 1 - Kelly<br />
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<a href="http://justcuteanimals.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/cute-animals-squirrel-lying-down-looking-camera-pics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://justcuteanimals.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/cute-animals-squirrel-lying-down-looking-camera-pics.jpg" height="140" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's been nearly a month since our first round of AoN has finished. In that time, we have been reflecting as AoN teachers, as well as collecting feedback from the teachers whose students were at AoN, network principals and AoN whānau. There's probably a post in all that so I won't say too much except there are many things we are pleased with, and plenty of things to work on. </span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, it seems timely before we move on to go back and see if I can answer any of my initial wonderings. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>? Is 14 weeks enough time, one day per week, to build on/extend capability in learners to use their active learning skills more independently? </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The time-frame certainly allowed to us all to really unpack and understand the active learning traits and identify when we used them. It was enough time to learn about some new interests through the immersion workshops, then choose, plan and learn about a something through the project and then reflect on learning. There wasn't quite enough time </i><i>for most of our learners</i><i> to fully action their new learning (skills, knowledge) into their community, and then reflect on how this felt. I wondered if two terms would have been preferable and I think around 18 weeks would be ideal. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i><i>With many learners having some days off, few if any, had all the 14 days. This, especially towards the end, proved to be a challenge. Recent evaluation data shows that despite this, there are many examples of learners developing their active learning skills as well as transferring their learning and projects beyond AoN. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>? Will learners and home teachers be able to identify any impact focused thinking about being an active learner has on reading, writing, and maths data?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>There has been some informal feedback that some students have raised achievement in some of these areas (particularly literacy). The people sharing with us directly linked this improvement to some of the work their students had done at AoN. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Time will tell. Follow up with students through the second half of the year may give us some more of an idea about impact on achievement. Continuing to build on "what active learners do" back in class would certainly support this impact. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>? Will there be any alternative venues (if we choose to change venues) in Lower Hutt that have broadband capability for 60 people that isn't a school and available for a term and a half lease? This has been a major hurdle.</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Broadband has continued to be an issue, not all day but certainly for parts of the day. Our current venue has a lot of benefits with flexibility of learning areas to work in, including a kitchen, and the students have told us they have really liked being "off site" and not working at a school. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>On the wish list would be all RoL has to offer, plus a bit more outdoor space and UFB. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>An added benefit is we have held network meetings there which has made RoL feel even more like 'our network place'. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>? What does curriculum coverage look like in a future focused setting? Is there any 'must have' knowledge? Does any school have a curriculum and planning that doesn't include any AOs but only values/KCs? Were the learners disadvantaged?</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>I cannot answer this question yet. And in fact, after listening to Valeria Hannon talk about some global themes, reading Jane Gilbert's work on how we need to use knowledge and not just acquire it, and as I am currently dipping into Ken Robinson's book 'Creative Schools' discussing how we prepare our learners, I'm even more sure there are no key bits of knowledge our kids must have as they exit primary school. But rather, I feel my job is support our learners to understand and live the vision at the heart of our curriculum: "to be </i></span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 20.25px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: white;">confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners."</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 20.25px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: white;"><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 20.25px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Going forward, what are some new wonderings? </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 20.25px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></span>
<a href="http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Travel/images/New%20Zealand%20Political%20Map.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Travel/images/New%20Zealand%20Political%20Map.gif" height="141" width="200" /></a><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b style="line-height: 20.25px;">? What does quality content look like for our learners? </b><span style="line-height: 20.25px;">Although I believe students having time and space to inquire </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">into</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">their</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> passions, and explicitly developing the skills to be active are vital, I do not believe this is all that a school day/week/year should look like. I'm interested in PBL, using an inquiry approach, incorporating ideas such an </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">environmental</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> issues, and globalisation, as well as other things, as a way of preparing our learners for life. I really like the way these TED Talks about students in </span><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx" style="line-height: 20.25px;" target="_blank">The Bronx</a><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> and in </span><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_bir_sethi_teaches_kids_to_take_charge" style="line-height: 20.25px;" target="_blank">India</a><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> show students using </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">their</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> learning TODAY to make </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">their</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> lives better. This is usually the intent in my class, but I know this could be done better. But I do think it </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20.25px;">means letting go of coverage. And here we are, back at my original wondering of what is essential knowledge. All I know is, learning needs to be seen as </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">usable and</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20.25px;"> relevant today. </span><br />
<a href="http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/94T/bAe/94TbAejig.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.clipartbest.com/cliparts/94T/bAe/94TbAejig.png" height="172" width="200" /></a><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"><br /></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b style="line-height: 20.25px;">What does reporting look like if content is not the star of the show with teachers as the judging panel?</b><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> Students writing </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">their</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> own reports? Identifying the best evidence to </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">reflect</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> their learning? It seems this is more evolved in </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">many</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> schools and it is </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">a regular</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> tweak rather than a revolution; a </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20.25px;">shift in balance. It would be exciting to see even more student voice in reporting at the end of AoN and </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">something we are discussing for this round. </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20.25px;">Finally. I thought it would be fun to sign off with some of the </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">unexpected</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">highlights of</span><span style="line-height: 20.25px;"> AoN. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://thisoldheartblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/happy-place.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://thisoldheartblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/happy-place.jpg" style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 20.2500019073486px;" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">Co-teaching means some one has my back: checking my punctuation, challenging my thinking, showing me a new way to do things, showing me how putting thought into areas I hadn't 'valued' pays off. It's fun doing something new and very scary, with a team. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">Seeing our AoN kids when out and about: our class just got bigger and it is very cool. Also, kids like laughing yoga as much as we do. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">Being connected to educators all around the place: what a sensational profession. We have really appreciated the collegial support from near and far as we entered into and proceed with AoN. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.2500019073486px;">Being able to realise a dream: no wonder there are so many cheesy movies about it. It's awesome. Being able to realise a dream with the support of <b>many</b>: awesome with a capital 'O'. </span></span></li>
</ul>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-87133711650718088742015-07-14T23:56:00.003-07:002015-10-22T20:09:00.255-07:00Managing 45 different projects, or... Chasing marbles without losing themOne of the most common wonderings about students leading their own learning - whether it is through an inquiry based "topic", passion projects, genius hour, itime or whatever it looks like in different classrooms - is how to manage the potential variety of directions our inquisitive, curious learners may go in. In my mind it always looks like holding a handful of marbles carefully in your hand, then just rolling them across the floor all at once: which marble do I chase first? Which ones go uphill? Get hidden behind the bookshelf and lost until it's time to share our learning?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHo3WfPqi3KphfZLJ47sZAR_6yZplRF4kpNq1hL5RHFKKmCJFVwQUNS2By0USaTZgWOMpYPCUQognGTZMNti2qy0YG0cUBj1BtgewDfQlpeymnJqBJuJW0cCoinQvsUOp7cu4ZastE8mgV/s1600/IMG_7331.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHo3WfPqi3KphfZLJ47sZAR_6yZplRF4kpNq1hL5RHFKKmCJFVwQUNS2By0USaTZgWOMpYPCUQognGTZMNti2qy0YG0cUBj1BtgewDfQlpeymnJqBJuJW0cCoinQvsUOp7cu4ZastE8mgV/s200/IMG_7331.JPG" width="150" /></a>We considered these challenges carefully as we prepared to support our 45 learners to drive their own learning through their projects selected by them and planned by them (with varying degrees of help from us). We considered what <a href="http://kjinquiry/" target="_blank">Kath Murdoch</a> had written as she challenged teachers to remember it's not only about the product at the end. So we thought about how we may get the learners planning their project - not only the project purpose, tools, experts and places that would support their learning, but how they would know if their learning was successful.<br />
As shared in an earlier blog post, we were thrilled with the variety of projects the students decided on, the experts they connected with, the trips they went on. As well as the practical things the students did, we were impressed with the active learner traits they demonstrated through their projects. Of course, this was the crux of Akoranga o Naenae: the opportunity to apply the skills of an active learner in a context that was meaningful and exciting for the learner.<br />
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Some examples of the traits we saw transferred:<br />
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<u>Resilience:</u> finding a different expert when one (or a few) didn't respond initially<br />
<u>Reflection:</u> through blogs and slideshows about their learning process<br />
<u>Questioning:</u> to find out what they really wanted to know about their passion.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibjMaXM5gbeJL_xPljnoonxsUvqWrkR_BPyITuhjFJtQ9xSURujFlIY6-25WwfQla-5cH3j7nbb_2RbUYzY_jaSd5ceNdefPPQKJaeX7o1afDug18OfI_mfZO4milYfCOGiEWvrCg5xMXl/s1600/IMG_7618.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibjMaXM5gbeJL_xPljnoonxsUvqWrkR_BPyITuhjFJtQ9xSURujFlIY6-25WwfQla-5cH3j7nbb_2RbUYzY_jaSd5ceNdefPPQKJaeX7o1afDug18OfI_mfZO4milYfCOGiEWvrCg5xMXl/s200/IMG_7618.JPG" width="150" /></a><u>Connecting:</u> with experts and places, each other, whanau, teachers. Working on projects when they weren't at AoN.<br />
<u>Choosing</u>: the tools to use, the places to go, how to share learning<br />
<u>Learning has purpose:</u> making colouring in books for junior students, training junior rugby teams back at school, fundraising for endangered animals. Basically every project had to have a positive impact.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiumdxoUr-aJN-V1hlJYvlfqRh4cDkOQ9UeyltVd5vSiL82USZR5fuvoLusfe32a40igt8x6IKmihcZBO9Ewjb0aRJV5bHFoI0qwUr0X1gxnt_JAI57i0dj2MgYw2d7NOmISUGZ-gaSsCsT/s1600/IMG_7711.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiumdxoUr-aJN-V1hlJYvlfqRh4cDkOQ9UeyltVd5vSiL82USZR5fuvoLusfe32a40igt8x6IKmihcZBO9Ewjb0aRJV5bHFoI0qwUr0X1gxnt_JAI57i0dj2MgYw2d7NOmISUGZ-gaSsCsT/s200/IMG_7711.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBQVCBkpx_nqPsgGkJuJ0rP3RrijLDNyFNLHt7pQNBhDMimREEA8dCY-j38dcLhmgE0yZ-bkgFaQkkVhHyVnk2EJ960tht2iF7Ay7X8lI1aCCHsGF7MMyUhCjDZmJkUnGmYnH3RlCKsgCN/s1600/IMG_7717.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBQVCBkpx_nqPsgGkJuJ0rP3RrijLDNyFNLHt7pQNBhDMimREEA8dCY-j38dcLhmgE0yZ-bkgFaQkkVhHyVnk2EJ960tht2iF7Ay7X8lI1aCCHsGF7MMyUhCjDZmJkUnGmYnH3RlCKsgCN/s200/IMG_7717.JPG" width="150" /></a>On our last day, we had a very successful showcase, well attended by experts, teachers, principals and many, many whanau members. The most common thing we heard back was how confident the kids were talking about their learning. This makes sense as they had been instrumental in every aspect of their projects and we were thrilled as this had certainly been on our checklist of whether AoN had been successful.<br />
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<b>So what helped?</b><br />
<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHhUO0jnOSnhEpslApGih8hWNs_DvYUTrjITyClgNm3pl0Ga-UiEnBJJl2my_Kr8arlBS_4eta8dQ2VGuh1b-s9YbqqnqU1PfMPdP6AD5ZgpD9dvJ0GSnLCE4FsugLAhUY65AVPwoE25O/s1600/IMG_7473.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHhUO0jnOSnhEpslApGih8hWNs_DvYUTrjITyClgNm3pl0Ga-UiEnBJJl2my_Kr8arlBS_4eta8dQ2VGuh1b-s9YbqqnqU1PfMPdP6AD5ZgpD9dvJ0GSnLCE4FsugLAhUY65AVPwoE25O/s200/IMG_7473.JPG" width="150" /></a>
<li>Working with each of the students to plan their projects. We used this<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/10NREFj_Um5SgrJYTjtszjno60yhZMfo4avDkteu055Y/pub" target="_blank"> planning template,</a> although we are currently streamlining how we blend this with learner maps and the slideshow. When they were stuck or wondering who to contact, this planning form reminded the students who they could connect with, as well as how to keep a positive mindset. It also got the students reflecting about their choices as the project was coming to a conclusion. </li>
<li>We worked with many of the students to set their<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kFsobxENZmX86epAJi1p_9qKbIDcr0R2bZ8VdSLvAbU/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"> learning goals.</a> We didn't get to all the kids and this is something we also want to streamline so it's on the slideshow of the project process. </li>
<li>Getting students to make a<a href="https://docs.google.com/a/dyerstreet.school.nz/presentation/d/1A51SP1Lxlwpj8UU4c8nZMwJ7FEz7xv9AZL8umsdzLkI/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"> slideshow</a> of the project process. This really helped the students think about what they did and the impact of the choices on their learning. We will be introducing this at the start of the project process next round as it proved to be a great tool to support reflection. </li>
<li>We placed the students into three groups with one of the teachers as their mentor. We put them with a teacher who had skills, knowledge or an interest in that area. Then we worked with those students at "Action" time (although some students roved between teachers and that was totally fine). </li>
<li>We had some resources the students could go to when they didn't know who to look up, what search to use or what was a good site for something. One was a list of <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zt-LNSn2uX_Cc71dzpSHMcCMqXS0Hbmy-sdB-zMbsD0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">links</a>. <span style="background-color: white;">The other was a <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15TFPop4EYsX3OIysQguTWrJzvCGd0wgmAKBwSlJTVs0/edit#slide=id.gaff86ec40_0_0" target="_blank">slideshow</a>. </span><span style="background-color: white;">This supported the learners to be independent when a teacher wasn't available to help them get to their next step. </span></li>
</ul>
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With many of our learners being priority learners, and many of the projects being so specific, it was at times a task to give the students the help they needed to get to where they wanted to go but not over scaffold them. Many became more confident as they went on, and often sought out other students for support rather than teachers.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIqhrisR8jdddtlF9fYBBxGVTr7YsbgJ-hr0E8Q3It-K8Ez5TZUW6GG8MLn5InvMDq_Iz2fPVFDYnoekVdjQY4i0vGt5WICohlCV_h7StIdDbgXuQ0fKwqplrJzhJKR_0jRof6zGRr95-/s1600/IMG_7217.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIqhrisR8jdddtlF9fYBBxGVTr7YsbgJ-hr0E8Q3It-K8Ez5TZUW6GG8MLn5InvMDq_Iz2fPVFDYnoekVdjQY4i0vGt5WICohlCV_h7StIdDbgXuQ0fKwqplrJzhJKR_0jRof6zGRr95-/s200/IMG_7217.JPG" width="150" /></a>It wasn't always easy or smooth, as chasing marbles rarely is. However, the outcomes were what we had hoped and planned for:<br />
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*Transference of active learning skills<br />
*Engaged and motivated learners<br />
*Community & whanau engagement in learning<br />
*Personalised learning opportunities<br />
*Purposeful lateral learning<br />
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And man, it was FUN.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57BreVJa8f5C6dHT9Gx6X7nB_2nQ3ZOplZNtR7uXO4pfBiDvSQS0pWtpAXZQOUmh9RbK7SDu9kFZevf6c6rhG3o1H05rAH2QPuEGJNdjJwih5w6-_MTG39FXs77S74SpMcdWsf9NC_IG9/s1600/IMG_7696.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57BreVJa8f5C6dHT9Gx6X7nB_2nQ3ZOplZNtR7uXO4pfBiDvSQS0pWtpAXZQOUmh9RbK7SDu9kFZevf6c6rhG3o1H05rAH2QPuEGJNdjJwih5w6-_MTG39FXs77S74SpMcdWsf9NC_IG9/s400/IMG_7696.JPG" width="300" /></a><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-32406078763458021742015-06-08T00:53:00.000-07:002015-06-08T00:53:55.211-07:00Connecting with experts<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the challenges of having students pursuing individual passions is the teachers having the subject knowledge to design and facilitate learning around all of these different interests. Now that we are well into our 14 week Term at AoN, we have students exploring a whole range of interests.</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Coding to create an educational game</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Website design</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Writing poetry</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Teaching children to write</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sports: softball, rugby and gymnastics</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fashion Design </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mechanics</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Space</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cooking</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Animals</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Arts: painting, music, dance</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gardening</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Building</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Between the three of us we have rather varied interests ... playing the ukulele, science, reading, sports, cooking, photography ... but we are certainly not experts in many of the areas our students have identified as being passionate about. Whilst this could be perceived as a barrier, it's a big wide world out there and there are many educators (some undiscovered even to themselves) lurking behind every corner! These have been disguised in the form of ... mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, colleagues, friends, various members of the community and many, many more!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the last few weeks our students have been connecting with lots of experts, locally and globally. What has amazed us is the willingness of people to help our students and to share their knowledge and expertise! This has absolutely blown us away! At the very start of AoN we asked a range of experts to come in to help spark an interest. We had scientists, coders, cooks and many more. As soon as we got in touch with experts they were so willing to move things around in their own schedule to come and work alongside our students. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Students are well into their projects and are now contacting experts themselves via e-mail and phone. By it's very nature this has provided many learning opportunities ...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First impressions are important and when this isn't face to face, how you construct an email will impact on first impressions. We tried to help students think about telling their expert a little bit about AoN and who they were. We encouraged them to be specific with what they hoped to achieve from the e-mail i.e. I have some questions I would like to ask you, or we would like to visit the store and meet with you if possible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
Not only has contacting experts being a learning task in itself but the information and advice provided by our experts and in some cases practical hands on activities, has really helped students to move forward with their projects. One group of students identified computer coding as a passion. Having tinkered with coding, I was excited by the context this creates for students to problem solve, experiment and create. I had been trying to develop my own skills in this area, exploring </span><a href="https://studio.code.org/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">code.org</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and </span><a href="https://www.tynker.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tynker</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and </span><a href="https://scratch.mit.edu/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">scratch</a>; <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">however we (the coding group) got to a point where we really needed an expert to help take us to the next level. Students emailed The Mindlab in Petone who responded with some really useful advice and they set about to organise a trip there. Malcolm from The Mindlab prompted our students to call him so he could discuss 1:1 their thinking behind the games/apps they wanted to design. All of the students were very excited by the phone call; they had their chance to share their thinking, ask questions, feel validated, and with next steps suggested by Malcolm they were away again.</span><br />
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This is just one example of how members of our community have used their expertise to help students at AoN to learn and over the last few weeks there have been many many others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is exciting to see people so willing to offer their expertise. It is exciting to think that our students aren't restricted by the passions, interests and knowledge of the teachers in the room. The people and places they can contact and reach out to are far more wide reaching! It is also exciting to see that many students of AoN (and teachers within our cluster) are being called upon by fellow students as experts themselves. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Encouraging students to widen the scope of where they can go to in order to learn and who can help them to learn has made for some exciting interactions. It poses the question why would we limit our students to one 'teacher' when there are many, many more in the wings willing to share and collaborate? </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-25352757907044271142015-05-05T11:30:00.001-07:002015-05-27T14:34:21.939-07:00EEK! Presenting to your peers. <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cluster...network...communities of schools... there are so many names given to groups of schools working together to improve student outcomes, teacher </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and leadership </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">practices. We have been part of the Naenae network for over a decade in its various forms and there is rarely a day we are not thankful to be so. It is a pleasure to be party of a team who are reflective, willing to take risks and show growth mindset in action!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Early in 2014, </span>a group of us from different Naenae schools were lucky enough to spend a couple of days being shown around the Manaiakalani network of schools in Auckland. Many things struck us and made us think. One thing we came back excited about was how the Manaiakalani schools met regularly to grow their learning together through cross network PL & D sessions. We suggested to the Naenae leadership team this was a great idea for cohesive thinking and they agreed. So in 2014 we started having cross network sessions, initially one per term. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have had a couple of sessions based around our Learning & Change Network priority change areas of Active Learning and Future Focused Learning. In year groups across different schools, teachers shared what successes they were having in these areas and what they were doing. We talked about ideas, resources and importantly, we got to know each other a little. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This year we have planned for two network get-togethers a term. The first was led by Karen Melhuish-Spencer, from Core Education, which got us thinking about <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XalOxUJAq4NTThYfCevz4B6w7kvNZaZVbjl5mhJQs0s/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">inquiry learning, future focused education and active learning</a>. She got our juices flowing for the start of the year. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second one involved</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> teachers running workshops based on teacher interest and included ALiM, blogging, active learning, and how to use Twitter. This term, it was suggested by principals that we share what Akoranga o Naenae was about and what we have been doing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We knew that part of the expected outcome from this session was that we share our practice with teachers across the network, and in preparing for our sharing, we had lots to consider...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*We wanted it to be relevant for everybody: would those teachers who didn't have students at AoN see the relevance of what </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">we were doing in relation to their practice? Could we show with clarity the transference of our practice to different (younger) age groups?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*We didn't want colleagues thinking we thought we rated ourselves as experts (we don't!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*Did we even have anything interesting or useful to say? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We talked. We planned. We practised. We hoped! And as everyone started to appear, we worried! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thankfully it all went largely to plan. We tried to mix up information sharing, having some interactive components with some 'doing' of tasks. As teachers ourselves, we knew the benefits of having practical things we could take away an implement in our classes. We decided to run the session mostly how we run a day at AoN. Here is the presentation we put together:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SbtmJ569RSecruqkMxej3WWrYCl4v7cu766Hcxpu0yA/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Naenae Network Prezzo</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thankfully most feedback has been positive, saying what we did was practical and useful. Teachers have been asking for some of the resources. Phew. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But how about those teachers who didn't find it useful? Who were confused by what we were saying? We asked for feedback and will address the couple of points where there was some confusion. But what about the people we didn't hear from. That is the challenge going forward... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's really hard presenting to your peers and colleagues. As a network we are focused on building collegial, trusting and growing relationships and we have already learned so much amazing stuff from each other. And we know how cool it is to hear from other teachers. But it still doesn't remove the fear or nerves that comes with sharing what you do with others. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-49107156534734765962015-04-19T13:08:00.003-07:002015-04-19T13:08:19.654-07:00Challenges<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our adventures with Akoranga o Naenae to date have not been without their </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">challenges.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> We are a group of positive people, and we have a strong leadership base from which to draw support. But with any new idea, hiccups are discovered along the way, and we are no exception to the rule. I'm going to outline for you the challenges that Natasha, Kelly, and I see as the most significant so far.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Firstly, our most predominant challenge: </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> time.</b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The initial set up of AoN took a massive amount of time. Luckily, none of us are work-shy! We worked together for quite a few days throughout the summer holidays, and felt like we'd only made a wee dent. It was a genius suggestion made last year by one of our principals, Jo Buckley, that AoN not start until part way through Term One, with me and Kelly released on Fridays up to that point to continue planning and preparing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Considering that meant two teachers working a full day each for four Fridays, and we were still only just ready - you can see that we needed that time! Natasha, Kelly, and I also met weekly in the first few weeks of Term One, and with increasing frequency in the lead up to our first day. We just about needed our sleeping bags at school!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This setting up right from the beginning will not have to happen again, but nonetheless, it took its toll.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The amount of time we take to plan and prepare for each Friday session is large. This is not because we have enforced a severe planning regimen or insisted on an unworkable structure; it is because we have wonderful, intelligent, in-depth discussions about our decisions. We talk through the nitty gritty of our activities, resources, presentation styles, management techniques, feedback opportunities, clarity of purpose, etc etc etc. Although the time spent on this adds to our 'challenges' list, it is also highly valued by each of us. It gives us amazing professional development opportunities - we learn so much from each other. And, even more importantly, it ensures that what we do with our AoN kids is as fun, useful and as effective as possible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For me and Natasha, this time commitment comes on top of running a class. For Kelly, it comes on top of running a family and teaching part time. Either way, it is an enormous ask. From my perspective, I'm finding it a difficult juggling act. I spend three days a week in my class, so I want to ensure that those three days are perfect. I also need to work with the (wonderful) teachers who are working in my classroom on the other two days, to be sure that that time is used productively, as well. The work I expect of myself to be the best teacher I can is at least a 60 hour a week job. Adding AoN on top of that - it's a lot! The way I have made that work is to keep the two things separate in my mind, and practically. I know that on Fridays I only think about AoN. In the weekends, I have a set time to work on school stuff, and a set time to work on AoN stuff. The other saving grace I have is that the AoN workload is split between the three of us. The support from Natasha and Kelly has kept me sane, and has ensured that all of us are ready each Friday, regardless of whatever else is going on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our next challenge is making Akoranga o Naenae<b> relevant</b> to our whanau, students, and teachers/principals at our network schools. We are not, and do not want to be seen as a stand alone initiative. We want to communicate with stakeholders, to share our progress, and to have our learning spread far and wide. We want to build on what others are doing in their classes and at home. Doing this without inundating principals, teachers, and whanau with emails and phone calls is a tricky balancing act but we know it is vital to make those links if true impact is to be made. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This leads onto our third challenge: <b>communication.</b> We have email addresses for all teachers and principals, and see this as a sensible way to communicate with busy people. However, all it takes is one email to be missed, or to be actioned but not answered, and we are left wondering - do we need to email again? Will that be annoying or useful? Should we find another way to communicate? Bearing in mind we have 48 kids, so at least 48 whanau members, 20 teachers, and 6 principals - whatever we use to communicate has to be manageable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Another challenge at AoN has been the students themselves. We have found it a fine line to walk to establish<b> relationships </b>with children we see once a week. We didn't want to know too much about the kids before we started, to avoid pre-conceived ideas. Now that we have met most of them four times (whanau night + 3 weeks of AoN), we feel like we want to know about them as people, and as learners. We need this information to make the best learning opportunities from their time with us, and to help us to relate to them in a genuine way when things are tricky. We're still working on this one. Monitoring of positive and not-so-positive behaviour, and recognising this with the kids is helping us to establish an effective way of working.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lastly, we are challenged by the fact that some others don't yet share our <b>belief</b> that focusing on Active Learning will make a difference to the learning of our kids. We whole-heartedly believe it. The research we have to back us up shows that this is the case. So, how do we pass on the message to those who don't yet believe? How do we show those who might be able to support us financially? Perhaps they'll be 'the proof is in the pudding' kind of people? If that's the case - bring on the end of Term Two! We'll show 'em! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-51298948887084307082015-04-01T13:46:00.001-07:002015-04-07T19:24:54.434-07:00No TLIF, now what?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We believe we are part of a wonderful profession in New Zealand. There are so many educators who have a passion for teaching, learning, their students and all the students of Aotearoa. This drives them to work hard, think a lot, and try innovative things, many with the deep support of their leaders, all to support and challenge their kids to be the best they can be now as well as be prepared for the future - academically, artistically, creatively, socially. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Massive congratulations to the initiatives which made it through to the second round of the TLIF process. You guys have got some great ideas and I hope all teachers get to find out how they go. Many will be transferable ideas that others can benefit from. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are incredibly disappointed not to have been short-listed for the next round. We are also a bit confused to be honest (probably like many of the others not short listed). We thought we had ticked a lot of the boxes about what this funding was for: students at the heart, priority learners, future focused, underpinned by research and supported by researchers, and using the network data we have. The feedback from the panel was generic - nothing specific about our application. This wasn't very helpful, even as the words "apply again" signed off the letter. We can't help, at moments, to feel cynical but are mostly trying to stay optimistic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So now what?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our network principals will get together with us in the holidays to make a plan about what to do next. Our current ideas include: </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">asking for a meeting with members of the TLIF panel to get specific feedback</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">continue to progress with creating our network trust which may then help source funding to have another round(s) of AoN</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">see if there are some grants we could apply for</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">?????</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are so appreciative our network schools have funded our first round (and their amazing support after not getting through to the next round). But them funding further rounds is not an option. It's early days but we do believe that AoN could support our kids to not only become more active learners, but that what we are doing at AoN will help their achievement in other areas. We would like/need time to find out! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wish us luck. And if there are any innovative ideas out there....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PS: we are wondering about the other ideas that didn't go through. What little golden nuggets are in there that could help others that we may never hear about? Could we find out somehow and share these among ourselves? </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-46047687600526824192015-03-31T11:21:00.002-07:002015-04-08T14:58:32.913-07:00Spotlighting what it means to be an active learner...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A really common question asked of us is how would we measure the success of the project when the focus is on facilitating students to become 'active learners'? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This question was the basis for many discussions in the planning stages of AoN. We wanted to have clear indicators of success which would allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme. In the early stages we established the following indicators: </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-ddedb819-4581-b48f-7898-4eb2cb9da9ed"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- What do the students know about being an active learner? i.e. I know that active learners…</span></span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-ddedb819-4581-b48f-7898-4eb2cb9da9ed"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- What do the students know about why being an active learner is important? </span></span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-ddedb819-4581-b48f-7898-4eb2cb9da9ed"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-ddedb819-4581-b48f-7898-4eb2cb9da9ed"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We decided that we needed to have a clear set of criteria for what was meant by being an 'active learner.' What were the traits of an active learner? We started with a brainstorm of our own understanding of the term drawing on personal research, our experiences within the classroom and our knowledge developed through LCN. The list was big and we needed to synthesize our ideas to come up with broader themes. We wanted a shorter list; a common language that we could use in our discussions, with the students, with families and with other educators. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">After much deliberation we narrowed the traits down to 6...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We agreed that active learners: </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are resilient</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Question </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reflect</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Connect</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Choose</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Know learning is purposeful</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">From here it was clear that we needed to break these traits down further; to establish a success criteria so that we were all on the same page when discussing the traits. Clarity in our own minds would allow us to help students make explicit connections between their learning and the traits. The <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1StPnRFxLwkXBq-YmcpbvxvbWpDek5uGYmYGKDcCfCEc/pub" target="_blank">success criteria </a>is still a working document (as are most things) but we felt happy with our initial thoughts. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We then wanted to cue students in to each of these traits by spending a short amount of time spotlighting each trait. This was a case of 'planting the seed' as in the coming weeks we planned to spend a longer amount of time focusing on each of the traits. Here is a snippet of how we introduced each trait. If you want to know more of the details just ask!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Spotlighting the 6 traits of an active learner. Active learners...</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="background-color: cyan;">Are resilient:</b> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN34FNbOKXc&feature=youtu.be" style="text-decoration: none;">clip</a> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on growth mindset exploring Carol Dweck's research, do a card shuffle to identify growth versus foxed mindset statements.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="background-color: cyan;">Question:</span> </b></span><a class="ProfileHeaderCard-screennameLink u-linkComplex js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/MicroscopePics" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #8899a6; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.5555562973022px; text-decoration: none !important;"><span style="color: #8899a6;"><span style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.5555562973022px;">@</span></span><span class="u-linkComplex-target" style="background: rgb(245, 248, 250); color: #8899a6; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 15.5555562973022px; text-decoration: none !important;">MicroscopePics</span></a> <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">wonderful images to prompt students to wonder. This 'wondering' continued when our scientist Leon Perrie helped us to explore Ferns. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="background-color: cyan;">Reflect:</span> </b></span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v8Z5SCgIsBGDuCBmuk4M_GJzZECyU5_JgVcRo3StXqk/edit" style="line-height: 1.2; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reflection </span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">about reflection! Other useful<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dFaQyySRdmfo0qhbXnym1-KPs6afTNtg0lydnWfOSAs/edit#" target="_blank"> reflective questions</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: cyan;"><b>Connect:</b> </span>Who can we connect to? What places help our learning? What tools can we use? </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVnAYCSJF7U-ErqYhff-Pfy5w8MzDU6Mx3y0tabDdesQ3qwXIGwQXKiB4zF6k12B-wrt89fBf-mHnCDBP0afFU6OtpjoQrgY4MsFe9lRtJjaqKlRuJFgOxuUjWwlTrC4m4fQTpyjyEdgrW/s1600/connect.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVnAYCSJF7U-ErqYhff-Pfy5w8MzDU6Mx3y0tabDdesQ3qwXIGwQXKiB4zF6k12B-wrt89fBf-mHnCDBP0afFU6OtpjoQrgY4MsFe9lRtJjaqKlRuJFgOxuUjWwlTrC4m4fQTpyjyEdgrW/s1600/connect.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: cyan;"><b>Choose:</b> </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U5PRch6184XoRch3yshscNaXFmRw5R83mfCBxcyI8aA/edit" target="_blank">Choose</a> what, who, when and where? What are great choices for learning?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: cyan; line-height: 18.8181819915772px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Know learning is purposeful:</b> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_turere_a_peace_treaty_with_the_lions?language=en" style="text-decoration: none;">Lion boy</a> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">clip Talking to students about how our learning should be purposeful is one we feel will make the most sense when learners are pursuing their passion projects as it's the one which they will come to understand by their experience. We know that as teachers, we aim to make learning back in schools relevant and meaningful, we know from talking to students, they cannot always make the link between what they are learning and how that learning could be useful 'today'. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We feel that the 6 traits of an active learner have given us a common language to use with the students including through feedback during discussions, "you made a great choice for learning" and using the traits for reflection. Our collaborative discussions and deliberations helped us to develop a clear understanding of what we want to see our students doing and how we want to see them be. Sharing these with families and the students' home school will hopefully help to create some consistency in different contexts allowing students to connect their learning. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">We continue to focus on 'connecting' in relation to our professional learning. How are we helping students connect their learning from AoN to other places of learning? We believe this will be pivotal to ensuring that the successes that come with being active in our learning are sustained. </span></div>
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A big part of our discussions have been around Key Competencies so naturally we have started discussions around how the traits of an active learner sit with Key Competencies. Where do they overlap? Are there gaps? What are your thoughts? </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-81674182610859026492015-03-22T11:16:00.001-07:002015-04-07T19:13:23.047-07:00Planning @AoN<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was sitting at my kitchen table with a fellow educator a couple of weeks ago. She asked, "What does your planning look like? It probably doesn't start fitness then maths etc". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">She was right. It took us a good conversation to work out a flow that we thought could work and certainly a place to start. I particularly remember a question around break times. I felt we should let the kids eat when they were hungry and if they ate everything by 9.30, there was some learning in that. Clare and Tash felt they may need some support to manage timing of physical breaks and eating, and we needed to help bridge the place where they were coming from and a more self-regulated environment. And I agree that kids deciding they needed a physical break in the middle of a learning task wouldn't always be helpful (one of the break choices is a playground outside!) So as with many things, we agreed to come up with a plan that helped develop more active learners and assess at a later date. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We knew that we wanted to develop the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5243960786828980032#editor/target=post;postID=4604768760052682419;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=1;src=postname" target="_blank">six traits of active learning</a> that we had identified,</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> but we also knew that we needed to develop each one in depth to ensure kids were really getting what each one was about. We knew we needed to have a good chunk of time for learners to work on their passion/hobby/project. We knew time for reflection was going to develop this trait which we have found is a more challenging one to go deep with, and our reflection tasks would be part of the assessment that showed whether what we are trying to do or working or not. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vuIy1P8_7TgeQS-1O9FbLuZW2DciFa8Q62nZ4V-H--o/pub" target="_blank">So this is how our planning looks for now.</a> Thanks to Tash for coming with the alliterations, we think they're cool and capture exactly what we are trying to do. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have a part of the day which we call <b>'Activate'.</b> This is where we have specific tasks to develop an active learning trait (or as in these early weeks, perhaps a range of activities to cover and begin explore all the traits). </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then we have some <b>'Action'</b>. This is dedicated time where learners are applying their skills as an active learner to their personal project. In the first couple of weeks, we used that time to get experts in to share their passions, and hopefully give some ideas to those who may not be sure what are they want to go deeper in or learn more about. We have a learning process/inquiry style direction we will get each student to work through to capture what they are doing and why. This is still under construction. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: white;">'Analyse'</b><span style="background-color: white;"> is reflection time. Mostly it will be on their blogs, but as Clare mentioned, </span><span style="background-color: white;">we are still struggling to get these underway as students can't always remember how to spell their name, their school name, have a dot in the wrong place etc.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Remembering where to put a dot, dash or capital letter in your email address, and understanding the symbols associated with the online world is a learning task in itself. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> But active learners are resilient</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, and this definitely goes for the oldest learners in the room at these times! Part of what we want to capture during reflection time is how they use AoN learning beyond AoN, and what skills from other learning places do they use here, as well as how they are developing as active learners. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>'Afterwards' </b>is how we are supporting students to make explicit links between their learning with us and everywhere else in their lives but without making too much extra work for anyone. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The far right column are the roles of the teachers. Part is actively planing for the different <a href="http://www.teachhub.com/effective-co-teaching-strategies" target="_blank">co-teaching strategies</a> that we are using. Another is behaviour support where students who need more support to make good choices for learning have some choices removed from them (such as who they work with) for that block. Each part of the day is a new chance to make great choices. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The order and timing of the day is flexible based on what may be happening, like when visitors are coming in to share their passions. Being able to go with our flow and not worry about lunchtimes, cross grouping, assembly and all those other school - wide events has has been really nice. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have our planning projected up on the wall, as well as an advance organiser on the whiteboard. We share what's coming up the following week via email (where we also sum up the week that has been and remind them of their 'afterwards' job). </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So that's how are planning for now. Having recently read a very interesting <a href="http://justwonderingblog.com/2015/03/22/seeing-beyond-the-cupcakes-what-itime-should-really-be-about/" target="_blank">blog post from Kath Murdoch,</a> I think we will need to keep thinking about how we actively plan for and capture all that we are trying to achieve. But that is what it's all about. A constantly evolving programme with constantly evolving learners. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And by the way. Tash and Clare were probably right about the more structured break times. We slot in times for eating and moving with kids choosing the order of their break (eat, move, toilet, time on a device, play etc). But gauging by the amount of kids with a sandwich hanging out of their mouths as we start the next learning block, a little support is still required! </span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-60072900958929178822015-03-15T10:57:00.000-07:002015-03-15T11:04:30.393-07:00The First Day<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For so long, the first day seemed an eternity away. However in these last few weeks there has been a flurry of docs, emails, meetings and peer checks! Some of the things we have been nutting out are:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Attendance registers</span></li>
<li><span id="docs-internal-guid-e9fc97c1-ff97-d44f-e1df-1890902c045d"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whānau information session</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Learning Maps project related 'stuff'</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Relievers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Reminders for the first day</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Transportation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Devices</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And, of course, planning day #1</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Along the way there have been many discussions and reflections about our purpose (is it reflected in our planning?), our kaupapa (what about if people want to visit?). Are we clear to our audience, be they <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">whānau, students, principals, colleagues? How can we communicate clearly and succinctly but not overwhelm with emails? These will be constantly evolving processes and we will ask for feedback to streamline this from all participants. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Whānau information session</b></span><br />
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We were very nervous and excited to be holding an information session for students and <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">whānau of AoN. We had made a poster for each child which had their face and a statement from their teachers about why they are awesome learners. We got goose-pimples from some of the beautiful things teachers said about their children. These were displayed on the doors as people came in to our learning space. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLknDm4-06NjRs-az8T4ArRencLimFeNw-zRwrOuOm9Zi-CHskXIW0VYM-zVzxjW8ahPAUmw-AjOUAeQMaAjCvtTncnDhOlkbH7cbp_wndLLN5PvbXjzTPDafmOnForVQ6jT8gl6YynGBG/s1600/angela.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLknDm4-06NjRs-az8T4ArRencLimFeNw-zRwrOuOm9Zi-CHskXIW0VYM-zVzxjW8ahPAUmw-AjOUAeQMaAjCvtTncnDhOlkbH7cbp_wndLLN5PvbXjzTPDafmOnForVQ6jT8gl6YynGBG/s1600/angela.png" height="320" width="250" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: lime; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It was awesome! Parents and children loved looking for themselves and others they knew. It was great to see parents from different schools re-connect. We were very excited to have our principals and colleagues attend, too. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">We prepared a <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EiVXYEquUU6YrNU4jCGU4SirrmqffWPI3rf-33vXjzE/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">presentation</a> to guide us through some information and then left the floor open for questions. Thankfully none were too hairy! People looked around the venue and we heard people starting to talk about what their hobbies and passions might be. Next time we would see them all would be our first day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Day One!</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The thought of working in an environment with two other teachers would have unnerved me a year ago. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I would have wondered how it would be possible - lots of teachers like control and to a degree I fit into this category! This fear of loss of control led me to think of all the pitfalls of working in one space with others. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Over the last six months my perception of this has slowly changed. This all started with going to U-Learn when I saw people co-presenting and listened to other teachers discuss working in a collaborative learning environment. I gradually started to rethink my viewpoint and focus more on what is possible.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Today was our first day actually teaching together. Leading up to the start of AoN we have obviously worked closely together, discussing, planning, thinking, rethinking BUT today was the first day in action! I felt supported. I felt calm - the feeling that you are in a team and everyone is working together towards the same aim was reassuring. I felt inspired, watching how Kelly and Clare worked alongside students and seeing their enthusiasm. The benefits of teaching in this collaborative way really stood out for me today. I wondered what were the ingredients that led to this? Whilst my experience was positive, I have heard of challenges that can come with working in a collaborative environment. So what led to us being able to work so effectively together? </span></div>
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<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had a common vision - in the initial planning stages of AoN we talked in length about what we wanted the students to get out of AoN. We knew we wanted the focus to be on developing active learners and we had rigorous discussions around what it meant to be an active learner. We were all on the same page!</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There was a genuine feeling in the group that we were all there to learn from each other and a big part of this project was that we see ourselves as learners too. Not once did I feel judged, afraid to ask questions or worried about how I would be perceived. I believe this trust and openness is essential when working in a collaborative environment.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We have fun together - a few weeks ago we had our whanau evening. We were all feeling a little on edge hoping that families would be in support and that what we had to say would be well received. When I arrived at the venue Kelly and Clare had bought us all a fancy dress item to wear when we were setting up! (see pic!) Having fun is an important part of work and Kelly and Clare are really great at making sure this happens.</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The respect for each other is highly apparent. We all see value in what each of us do and how each of us think. </span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We know that we don’t always have to think the same thing; we don’t always have to agree and when we do disagree often these conversations are the most interesting to explore! </span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our collaborative reflections combined with our desire to learn and grow means that 'learning talk' is clearly visible in our conversations. This is exciting! <i>(<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzcc0ITnhr4LUjkwdmpqYXBKX1hXekVwSDdMQmVKUk9jb2Uw/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><i>Teacher talk to improve teaching practices: </i>Annan, Kuin Lai & Robinson</a>) </i></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="s1"></span>The above are just a few of the ingredients which I believe will foster an effective collaborative learning environment. I'm sure there are others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="s1">I am really excited to see how the way in which we work together over the next 13 weeks develops. I am interested in discovering what is possible in an environment where there is not just one teacher but three! </span>Even three teachers can't hold the knowledge or expertise needed by 48 students! What happens when we start to introduce other people? Experts from the community? Wh</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">ā</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">nau? Teachers from within the cluster? With the mind power of all these people surely the potential learning for our students is more far reaching? </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-50123794024152290052015-03-05T15:01:00.000-08:002015-03-05T15:01:54.803-08:00Why would you? By Natasha<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As soon as I heard about Akoranga o Naenae I was </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">interested to find out more! The thinking that sat behind</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the idea resonated with my reflections on my practice, professional material I was reading at the time, and my recent Professional Development opportunities. The idea of working collaboratively alongside other teachers was something that scared me and excited me at the same time. My desire for control and organisation made me feel slightly apprehensive and my belief in the importance of learning from each other, challenging boundaries, and provoking rigorous </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">professional discussion enticed me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My experience at U-Learn 2014 challenged me to think hard about beliefs that underpinned my teaching. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Listening to Quinn Norton and readings on the Maker Movement had encouraged me to think about the learning spaces within own my classroom, about the social construct of a school with single cell classrooms and bells that dictate when it is time to start and stop. For some students schooling as we know it is not having the ultimate impact we desire, that is, to spark a passion for learning that surpasses boundaries of the school walls and is long lasting. For some students their first experiences of learning are not interesting or motivating. For some students after a very short time at school they have developed a belief that they are 'not good at x, y,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> z.' Why is that? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">A key idea I was mulling over was rethinking the role of teachers and learners. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">When students truly direct their own learning we get engagement. When we get engagement we get students who think deeply about their learning; students who make connections with each other, with prior learning, and to possible future learning. With this in mind I started to wonder: do my students truly direct their own learning? Honestly… some of the time, yes. But they do so within the constraints of a timetable, learning objectives and learning tasks set by me. So, who is in charge really? What might it look like if they had more of the control? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">It was this thinking that led me to apply to be part of Akoranga o Naenae. Now that the first round is about to begin I have some wonderings...</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 13.65pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What might teaching, planning, assessment look like if the Key Competencies were used as a starting point, rather than a by-product or an add on to other learning intentions? What if the Key Competencies were the main road instead of a side street? The Key Competencies go across all learning areas but what does this look like in practice?</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 13.65pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If the skills involved in being an active learner are explicitly taught and valued will this transfer in all contexts, i.e. from AoN to home and school. Are there instances where this is or is not the case and what are the key factors at place in these instances? </span></span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 13.65pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What are the benefits and challenges of working in a collaborative environment?</span></span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAk7iQqJthE4JdGx3hmZq0gX2zwjAomTiq2W5j9ry4BoOCNyiaSmWIAXcV6vXTzri9LhimvEZXDlhT5_Gui5PlNhM0tnmR3UcyCrXZM9V5BRC13Trz8bxYEIakezoBNOOWcLQMvstiI9Mg/s1600/creativity.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAk7iQqJthE4JdGx3hmZq0gX2zwjAomTiq2W5j9ry4BoOCNyiaSmWIAXcV6vXTzri9LhimvEZXDlhT5_Gui5PlNhM0tnmR3UcyCrXZM9V5BRC13Trz8bxYEIakezoBNOOWcLQMvstiI9Mg/s1600/creativity.png" height="200" width="200" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">At <a href="http://www.events.core-ed.org/ulearn/blog/quinn-norton-%E2%80%93-keynote-presentation" target="_blank">U-Learn Quinn Norton</a> spoke about the Red Queen </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">Philosophy – that we are</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">at a point in education where you have to run as fast as you can to stay where you are. It certainly feels like that but isn’t that exciting in a way? </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;">If we are not learners ourselves then how are we modeling the love for learning we want to inspire in our students? If we aren’t prepared to take a risk ourselves then how can we expect our students to? </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-15000178991853393362015-03-05T14:50:00.003-08:002015-03-05T23:26:47.673-08:00Why would you??? Kelly<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each time Clare and I would get together to organise the next thing (or pull our hair out), we would spend at part of the meeting shaking our heads in disbelief and say, "Can't believe it has got THIS far!". From verbalising an idea about "imagine if..." at a cluster meeting to talking the merits of VDSL and splitting routers, each day we find it's not a dream (nightmare sometimes) and oh! my! goodness! the kids arrive in one and a half weeks!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But why would you? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I watched a clip a couple of years ago, <a href="http://community.good.is/video/what-if-students-designed-their-own-schools" target="_blank">What if kids designed their own school?</a> and was so excited as it made clear the concept of student led learning. I had been trying to build this </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">into my classroom programmes </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">as much as I knew how to and as diversely as I could, this clip took it deeper in my thinking. But not only that, it included so much of what was percolating around future focused education and the principles involved, community engagement, and the kids looked like they really enjoyed it. So I remember asking my principal, Denise Sainsbury, "what would this look like in a primary school classroom?" And it took a couple of years and a few iterations, but it looks sort of like what we are trying to do with AoN. T</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">wo years on, much of it seems more 'normal' but it was a great place to springboard some thinking. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A visit to Stonefields School in Auckland last year reinforced that it can happen successfully in a primary classroom for more than an hour a week. So for the kids, loving school (even more) and having a focused boost on developing the traits of an active learning whilst learning about what you love is why you would do it. But what's in it for the teachers?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The talk of 'teaching is isolating' etc is not new. On the whole, we all know you're in your class sometimes as the only adult (which has been good at times- like having my headset on and singing and dancing tunes from 'The Electric Company' to assist spelling). But one of the things I am excited about is working with other excellent teachers and growing my ways of doing things, getting </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">even more </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">feedback on my practice, and exploring the roles that we all play as we team teach. At Ulearn14, I heard the phrase '<a href="http://www.teachhub.com/effective-co-teaching-strategies" target="_blank">co-teaching continuum</a>' and since have been doing a bit of reading around the potential</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> of having more than one teacher in a room. I could never get a programme going that had students opting into masterclasses as they identified their learning needs and I look forward to exploring how this may work in a co-teaching environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After reading Fullan's </span><a href="http://www.michaelfullan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3897.Rich_Seam_web.pdf" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">A Rich Seam</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, I was thinking about his comments around how there are less assessment tools to 'measure' deep learning. Developing some tools around capturing growth as an active learner is exciting, challenging and essential as we have to ascertain whether what we are doing is having any impact on our learners, and what that impact is. We are involved in a Student Mapping Project which does this which will certainly help our thinking and practices in this area. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And as a teacher, I am excited about trying to practice more of the principles of Future Focused Education without thinking about bells, eating times, curriculum coverage, literacy 'blocks' and all the other things we do to help make the most of our time with our students' day to day learning. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So as the first round is about to begin, these are some wonderings. I look forward to revisiting them as time goes on to see if I can answer any of them!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>? </b>Is 14 weeks enough time, one day per week, to build on/extend capability in learners to use their active learning skills more independently? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>?</b> Will learners and home teachers be able to identify any impact focused thinking about being an active learner has on reading, writing, and maths data?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>?</b> Will there be any alternative venues (if we choose to change venues) in Lower Hutt that have broadband capability for 60 people that isn't a school and available for a term and a half lease? This has been a major hurdle. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>?</b> What does curriculum coverage look like in a future focused setting? Is there any 'must have' knowledge? Does any school have a curriculum and planning that doesn't include any AOs but only values/KCs? Were the learners disadvantaged? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's exciting and frightening. And completely exciting! And there is a lot less sleep in the middle of the night. Thank goodness we are a team! And thanks to Natasha, have laughing yoga as a stress release!</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-53827364788162873772015-02-24T22:33:00.002-08:002015-02-24T22:34:38.604-08:00A few quick 'thank yous' <br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>! </b>We have a venue! Massive thanks to Emma Kim, Adrian Hall and Andre Mik for all their efforts to make their venue fit for our purpose. From ringing telecommunication providers to talking splitters, we all have somewhere to go come March 6th. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>! </b>We will have a printer thanks to Wayne Ebert from Konika-Minolta. We appreciate his ongoing support of our cluster and question-free generosity. And then his installation of the printer when we couldn't make it happen (active learners know how long to persist at a challenging task and when to call in the experts).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>! </b>Clare filled out most of the TLIF documents. Thank you Clare! It was a massive job. And thanks to Dave Appleyard for helping us wordsmith it (we doubled the word limit- oops!). Fingers crossed because if we don't get this funding, this project may be a very short one. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>! </b>Thanks to the people who have commented kindly on our first blog post and Twitter account. Waves of panic pass a little bit faster. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So we are nearly up and running. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are going to take some time to reflect on why we got involved in this project in the first place. Look out for our next post 'why would you?'</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14157530038574821998noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243960786828980032.post-78592695134004413612015-02-19T14:58:00.003-08:002015-02-21T11:28:24.051-08:00How to make your own 'school'<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kia ora and welcome to Akoranga o Naenae's professional blog. We will be blogging about the process we are going through to get Akoranga o Naenae up and running, and our thinking about our learning as it happens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's start at the beginning! Kelly Layton (teacher at Dyer Street School) and I (Clare Curry, teacher at Rata Street School) were chatting last year. We share a similar passion for trying new ideas to help those of our students who are not currently achieving as well as they could. The comment came up: "What if we made our own school?".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This got us really excited. We began to think about what we would do differently from conventional schools if we could. We thought about the space, the time frame, the content during different parts of the day, the help we would need, and so on. We wanted to focus on developing the students' understanding of and ability to be an active learner. We knew the key competencies were going to play a significant part.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As our idea began to take shape, Kelly and I mentioned it to our principals, who seemed keen on the idea. We decided to create a presentation to take to the cluster leaders' meeting. Using <span style="background-color: white;">VideoScribe,</span> we got the message across clearly, and the leaders gave us the go ahead to continue working on this, with their support.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We looked around for other places in New Zealand and overseas to find any applicable information/research about what works in situations such as we were proposing. We learnt about democratic schools, unschools, and future focused schools. We watched Ted talks, trawled the internet, and read published research.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kelly and I continued to work on the details, such as what kind of teachers do we want? How much is this going to cost? What are our essential requirements in a venue?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At around this time, the Ministry of Education made public its Teacher Led Innovation Fund (TLIF), which appeared to have the potential to support us financially (although not until mid 2015). We began working on the application for this. Our cluster leaders agreed to allow room in their budgets for Akoranga o Naenae to begin at the beginning of 2015.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our schools have worked previously with Mary Wootton and Brian Annan at the University of Auckland, initially through Schooling Improvement and recently as a <a href="http://www.education.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/learning-and-change-networks.html" target="_blank">Learning and Change Network</a> (LCN). We talked about the possibility of them supporting Akoranga o Naenae by researching our effectiveness. Not only is having researchers working alongside us one of the criteria for the TLIF, Kelly and I want to ensure that we are doing everything we can to make a difference to our kids.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The principals in our cluster (Naenae Primary, St Bernadette's, Epuni, Belmont, Dyer St, Rata St) shared the information about Akoranga o Naenae with their staff, to help us start looking for the ideal teachers to join us. Andrea Scanlan joined me and Kelly to write a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oZT2EwexF6hw26O1IfTUPSIiTWxig7Hn_uoy8by1YC0/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">job description</a> It was during this meeting that our vision statement came about: a passionate learning team in an innovative learning environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next we had a meeting with those interested to give them more information and answer any questions. Applications were to be sent to one of our principals for selection, and by the end of the year, Natasha Furness (teacher at Belmont School) had applied for the position, and we had asked her to join us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the summer break, Kelly, Natasha, and I spent several days together. We talked through the nitty gritty, such as how we would work together effectively as a team, how the absences process will ensure student safety, what displays will be needed to build up a positive learning environment, etc. We planned out our first day with the kids in fine detail, and then realised we can't plan much more until we know what the kids want to learn because their learning will be based on what they're interested in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">We worked on a plan for introducing/reinforcing/</span><wbr style="background-color: transparent; color: black; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"></wbr><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">teaching/assessing ‘active learning’, established a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Twitter account (@akoonaenae), and a gmail account (</span><a href="mailto:akoonaenae@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">akoonaenae@gmail.com</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">created a nomination form for schools to use when selecting their students. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The school term has just begun, and it is only a few weeks until we intend the students to start. As yet, we don't have a venue! Our preferred choice lacks sufficient broadband to keep us all online as we require, so we are in talks with the Hutt City Council to see if they have any suggestions ... watch this space!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our 'school' day is Fridays, with the kids starting in Week 5. Until then, the three of us will be busy getting the final preparations complete, including </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">a </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">whanau</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> information meeting for families of nominated students, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">a notice for parents of students in our 'home' school classes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have requested help from the cluster leaders on some things (such as </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.4444446563721px; white-space: pre-wrap;">budget, insurance, relievers, transport)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and will be going to the next cluster meeting to discuss these.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Each of us, with our delegated tasks, is working hard to make this happen. Our dream of Akoranga o Naenae is nearly a reality!</span></span></div>
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