Joining the dots

After further mentoring from Claire when she shared an epiphany she had with me I can see more clearly what I need to do to support the team on the journey we need to go on together.

• The team need to link the ideas about the practise of Learning Through Play to what they know.
• This discussion led me to create the BPP below as one of the reasons I value LTP so much is that it gives choice. 
• This led me back to the beliefs the II team developed last year - in particular the Interest and Motivation one.
• I need to go back to where they are so we can travel together on this journey - rather than trying to pull them along
• This might mean going back along the same path we took in Kimi Akau with learning stations, rotations, structured groups, use of lanyards

• The team need to be more involved, whilst I can do lots of the thinking I shouldn't be doing all the doing!
• This will also be great for me to develop more leadership skills as to get buy in from everyone I need to have a clear vision (which leads nicely into another blog post on Kaizen 2017!)
• To have a clear vision I am going to have to "Do my own thinking" - a phrase from last years thoughts from Ben (that is on our t-shirts from Christmas!)
• Part of this thinking is going to be around the how of LTP and linking really explicitly to the NZC - levels 1 and 2. This should also give real clarity and purpose which is important for the team.

A note to self - I had these thoughts whilst riding part of the rail trail over the weekend. I had time to think through my ideas and synthesise what it means and the actions I need to take. Need to do more of this!! 

Term 3, 2016 Reflection

Going into term 3 I was very apprehensive about the number of students Eve and I would have between us and I was below the line, blaming and thinking dark thoughts! Had a 1 to 1 scheduled with Ben for the end of term which actually happened at the beginning of term 3 which was just as well!

The 2 week break gave me a chance to put things into perspective and bring myself to be back above the line - accepting of the situation and thinking creatively on how to manage things.

One of my biggest concerns was managing NW between the 2 of us and supporting Eve as much as I could. I still feel he needs extra support which we simply can’t give given the fact that there are 53 other children who need us.

Working my way through CL comments was another area of concern - just the sheer numbers, and to start with it was a daunting task - 108 comments to write in 9 weeks! Getting to know what 27 children could do, what their next steps were and how I could best support them was (and still is) a challenge.

Highlights and lowlights from term 3;

• 5 weeks of teaching maths and eagling writing then swapping
• This worked and we are carrying on this term. 5 weeks is a good length of time to start and finish some learning
• Amount of time teaching maths has been great but being an Eagle has been hard - felt like I was pulled in too many directions
• After a chat with Claire we decided to use the environment more wisely so Owling of Maths has moved to the more closed in Theatre and the Eagling is now in one area - the bay and gallery.
• 2 weeks in to term 4 and it is working much better
• As a team we have 2 weeks of teaching reading then 2 weeks of town time
• This also works will as it means you need on put your energy into one thing which should result in a better outcome!
• At concept time Eve and I worked together
• Working with just one other was great
• Our planning wasn’t great though so our outcomes weren’t always clear
• I took over towards the end when I had the “brilliant” idea of role plays to demonstrate understandings and then filming on the green screen (far more work than anticipated!)
• While the structure of reading was great had some high needs (DL) which meant I always felt rushed and under pressure when doing guided reading. I don’t think I did the best I could have for the children.
• Taking this into account for term 4 we are in a much better place as Jill is taking our able readers and so I feel comfortable that their needs are being met
• Have also tried reading a new book every-other day which I am really enjoying as reading can now be fun again as we talk about the story and words and meaning and can have more emphasis on strategies
• At the end of the term there was a frantic rush to JAM the children
• I didn’t get all children done as I ran out of time
• Having talked to Claire since she has pointed out that JAM is just a snapshot in time of what a child can do and will have changed already so to not stress about doing the others!
• Instead I will focus on making sure pebbles are upto date
• CL comments were as hard as I thought they would be! This was partially caused by my desire to including everything in the comment.
• I’ve learnt not to do this, and focus on one highlight!

Something I read over the holidays was a book by Biz Stone one of the founders of Twitter and in it he says that constraints make you more creative. So my (and Eve’s) challenge is to use the constraints we have and be creative in our solutions.

PD with Julia on our Learning Environments

A couple of the key things Julia said;

• Looking at the spaces we work in - 16% impact on learning comes from the space so it’s important we get it right.
• Need to link spaces to a purpose and then explicitly teach this - we did this at the start of the year and then haven’t really gone back to it - i.e. the Gallery was a quiet space, the Newsroom was a space for collaborating etc.
• Need to think about the effectiveness of the space for the children, not for us.
• Universal design of learning to cater for noise and needs
• 3 areas to evaluate
• Sufficiency - enough  “stuff”
• Efficiency - do you have what you need when you need it
• Effectiveness - does the physical environment support and enhance learning
• Learning v Teaching Centres;
• Knowing why, knowing how, knowing how to find out

Nathan Wallis (The Brain Guy)

What an amazing evening, such food for thought. We are doing lots of great things with our children but there are things to be aware of and changes to be made to my behaviour to get the best from the children.

Some of the take-outs and so whats;

Take out	So what
If you keep learning, your brain keeps growing - use it or lose it!	I need to keep learning so I don’t get dementia!
Face to face interactions spark the most neurons and when linked with the introduction of new information synaptic connections are created	Children working together is a great way to learn
Repetition is what keeps the connections as it is through repetition that myelin coats the connections (which makes them stronger)	Repetition of words, numbers, reading, writing, counting, problem solving etc is needed
Can take up to 90 repetitions for knowledge to become permanent	Keep the learning the same for longer - if they are not getting it, they need longer
Relationships are crucial in myelination	Build strong relationships with all children so it might not take 90 repetitions - they have an emotional response which makes things happen quicker
Learning is like a staircase - create the synaptic connection then you need myelination through repetition to consolidate the learning	Slow down! Give time for myelination to occur.
Need happy hormones for learning to occur - when endorphins are present, myelination happens faster.	Need happy children.
3 things that release the most endorphins; Singing Laughter Movement	Need to do more of all!
When asked to be still ½ of the frontal cortex is focused on staying still so that only gives ½ to focus on the learning	Need more movement to stay alert, and encourage the whole brain to learn
3 things that give the biggest negative behavioural outcome; Love withdrawal Inconsistency Punishment	Children need to know that you care for them unconditionally - you might not like the behaviour, but you still like the child. Children need boundaries Links with 1 - if punished then will behave through fear and will become insecure and will inhibit the development of self-control
3 things to give the biggest positive behavioural outcome; Cognitive training Induction Reward	Need to teach them what to do - fill the brain with an image of the right behaviour Induce them to want to do it - make them think it is their idea! More attention you give a behaviour the more it grows (+ve and -ve)
Clearer you can paint the picture of the behaviour then the faster they will get it	Role modelling and coaching, focus on what to do, not what not to do Do as I do not as I say
Up to the age of 7 the “More free play, less likely to go to prison”	More freedom and a focus on the children’s interests during Town Time
5x more cognition when playing rather than through structure	Give them play time
Intelligence is problem solving which is creativity	The more creative we can encourage the children to be, the better
Screens as well as relationships (not instead of) are fine	Use technology in away that supports the relationships in the habitats not replaces them - ensure see all children and that the focus is on what we do with the children not the extra learning tasks that might involve a screen!

Review of goals

Reviewed the goal I set in week 2 with Muireann and we went through the why, what and how:

The goal was:

My next steps to review are whether or not it is working by questioning the children mentioned above and so look at all of Kevin Knights prompts which are:

Swivel of Maths

Very scarily I swiveled myself during a Maths lesson with the Orange Squares. Here are my so whats;

What I did	So what? Or Why?
Clear LIs were given	Children knew what they were learning
Materials were used	Manipulation of the materials gave a greater depth of understanding
Discussions among the children	They were on task and engaged in their learning
I did a lot of questioning	Prompted their thinking, not giving them the answer
Praise	Created a positive environment so children felt included and able to take risks
Use of modelling book	Easy for me to refer to and for the children to see their learning un-packed
Set out expectations and why the set up was as it was	Great to talk about expectations, but did so in a negative way which could have started the lesson badly for some Ensure stay positive, praise those who sit where expected and do as told
Went round the circle to ask how higher they wrote their numbers to	No purpose Eliminate from the lesson (save 30 seconds!)
Told a child to put down their pen (after all pens were down)	To stop her fiddling BUT she wasn’t distracted so should have ignored the behaviour Although later in the lesson (after 16 minutes) she was drawing again and this was a sign that she was no longer engaged. Make the lessons shorter
Didn’t let some children finish the learning task	Others had finished and were doing nothing Split into 2 groups after warm up
Explaining in detail what their learning was to some	Children working at different rates Split into 2 groups after warm up
Long transition, children waiting to move to the next station	Off task behaviour Trickle children out to the next learning station when sure they have grasped the LI Give whole group the follow up learning task and set them up in a different space Eagle to organise transitions so my next group are ready (however what happens if in the flow and don’t want to stop Ding a bell a couple of minutes before I want the next group so Eagle can start the transition
Setting up took too long, need to maximise teaching time	Have whiteboards, pens and other materials all ready to go before the lesson
LI was to look at building teen numbers and ended up with children imaging 96 and writing it in the place value houses!	Showed great progress through place value Could have stopped the lesson after 13 minutes when we had achieved the LI This means that I do have the time to split them into 2 groups

Here is the video;

Goal setting

I seem to have a lot of goals and so I have put them in one place with the aim of making sure all my smaller, weekly goals that I set with Claire, are feeding into the bigger picture.
So far, so good, but more by luck than judgement!

Writing review end of Term 2, 2016

Looking at my chosen 3, plus the CL comments for our Skippers/Pounamu children has sparked some ideas for writing time.





Whilst punctuation is a surface feature need for child 2 and 3 they also both needs support with structuring their writing. This held true for others too.
To try and help their learning in this I decided to start with a SOLO rubric on punctuation with examples.



The examples are displayed so that the children know what they are aiming for.

As well as working on punctuation, a deeper feature that I want the children to learn is how to structure their writing so it has ideas, order and flow. To help this I focused on writing a recount which the children do all the time...interesting to note that they had no clue what a recount was! Just shows how explicit we need to be when teaching, and that we need to use the language of learning.

This has all just started and Eve is now the writing owl so we will have to see what happens next!

My beliefs around learning Maths

Following on from Sharon's sharing I have been wondering about my beliefs about Maths teaching and learning. So far these are my beliefs (perhaps most will end up to be practices!!);

• hands on manipulation of materials helps their learning
• playing games (having fun) helps consolidate ideas
• following from this - winning boosts confidence
• worksheets have a place - as an assessment / progress checkin
• unless practising writing numbers, worksheets don't help learning (unless used as above!)
• to make self-directed at maths time
  • need to teach learning tasks
  • have tasks that are levelled correctly
  • encourage use of GM
• Juniors need lots of short, sharp DAT then consolidation time
• For SDL, mixed ability good - maybe buddy blues with reds
• Physical movement helps memorise numbers
• Need engagement - students having clear expectations

21st Century Learning Design Workshop

Another great day of thinking what skills our learners need to have to equip them for their futures.

Microsoft did some research and found that there are 6 capabilities that our children need to have in order for them to be successful in the 21st Century.

These are;

Knowledge Construction
which is all about learning knowledge and understandings you can apply later, learning skills to enable you to do new things

Use of ICT for learning 

This overlays knowledge construction - use ICT to construct knowledge and then use the skills developed above, need to analyse, compare and contrast, and then create an ICT product - create for an authentic audience (i.e. an email). Thoughts from the group where that the rubric could be changed so it is less "pass/fail". Overlaps all others but can go back to it. Juniors to share their learning - rubric misses lots of steps as building knowledge hard, but can share successfully using ICT.

Self regulation

This is more about group than self, give time, not just the finished product, more about the learning process and giving the skills to enable success and reflect in the middle to look at the rubric. Peer feedback - teach the skill.

Real World Problem Solving and Innovation

No given solution, use of actual data, authentic - has to matter to them, innovate - must carry out solution or communicate so someone else can. Link to SOLO from identify - what we need to know, what we do know, how can we solve it, what tools are needed to generate, up to apply, imagine and reflect.

Skilled Communication

Multi-modal - using a range of different ways to communicate - from writing to oral, performing etc. Look at the info and the audience and make sure they are related - content and method.

Collaboration is the 6th one and in pairs we had to unpack that a bit more. 

What does collaboration mean to you? 
Interdependent with/on each other (to rely on each other) 
Communication  
Understanding, trust and empathy 
Helping each other getting out of pit- helping solve problems 
Building each others capacity 
Flexible to each others styles / needs 
Questioning 

How will students need to collaborate in the future? 
COMMUNICATION- What , How, Why 
Digitally 
Verbally & orally 
Creatively  
Honestly

Timetable Re-jig

Having tried our timetable for 5 weeks we decided there were certain tweaks we wanted to make. We all  had to think about what was not happening for us and this discussion led to a new plan for reading.

We now have 2 owls and 2 eagles at reading time. This means that the 2 eagles plan town time and only have to think about that whilst the owls just need to plan (and stock) for reading. After day 2 this seems to work well. The children love town time and a lot of learning happens in this social, exploration time. Eventually the eagles will be able to make this focused on specific things and guide the learning. 

Meanwhile the owls are just heads down, teaching guided reading. This will hopefully mean for me that I develop more instinctual actions which will develop my readers.

After 2 weeks in each role, we then swap! Eve and I have also thought that if you are the owl for reading, you are the eagle for maths and vice-versa, so hopefully reducing the cognitive load, which means you’ll do what you need to better!