Engaging the team in Professional Learning and Dialogue

Just by making use of Twitter and a simple hashtag, professional learning took on a whole new perspective this past week. It was great to see people sharing their thoughts and opinions in the back channel!

Big Week - New Phase

My thinking was challenged on so many different levels this week after several sessions/ discussions with Julia Aitken, the leadership team and the teaching team. It was one of those weeks that was absolutely draining due the depth of thought and emotional energy spent. I found it completely worthwhile and the week generated many 'new thinks' for me - each of which I will need to blog about separately.

Pixabay by John Hain

The first is another perhaps deeper reflection about collaboration. This has been an on-going area of discussion and thought for me. I have found that while we all value the concept of collaboration and believe it is a skill that our children need to develop; we don't necessarily have a collective understanding of collaboration.  

Effective collaboration requires dialogue about previously unforeseen opportunity and possibilities. High quality collaboration requires teaming which in turn requires a psychologically safe environment to speak up. That means that to move from a group to a team we need to ensure that the environment is one of high trust. The people have a shared responsibility to achieve such an environment. Each of us need to be reflective and totally prepared to absorb others’ ideas and build on them. Which of course means that people need to be open and share their ideas and always prepared to have their ideas morphed and re-shaped by others. It is this kind of collaborative environment that will lead to innovative practice.

Pixabay by HebiPics 

All of this can only be achieved with a clear, collective vision. Julia suggested that schools are abominable at visioning! They constantly seem to come up with a statement and then park it or paint it on the wall at the very most. This resonated for me. It is all too easy to lose sight of the big picture vision when our days can be dominated by the micro administrative stuff.  

"Without vision, there’s paralysis" (my favourite quote from Julia). "The challenge is to build a common shared vision and that is only done through conversations." 

It is about ownership and alignment. 

The vision answers the ‘Why’ question. This will lead to shared understandings and a collective agreement. Julia suggested that schools have a lot to learn from businesses when it comes to developing a vision statement. She shared great examples in her own words such as Nike (to make everyone an athlete), Pepsi (to beat Coca Cola) and Disneyland. - (to make people happy).

flickr

To ensure our vision statement/ purpose is effective, we need to perhaps consider the following:

• is it cognitively portable? Can all stakeholders recall it easily? 
• does it challenge and inspire the team to strive to reach a high but achievable goal?
• is it fixed? The principles and practices may change over time but the purpose of what we do on a daily basis remains the same. 

Building Learners' Capacities

The Development of our Learners - what toolkit, competencies will they have? What will they have that makes them unique to children from other parts of the country?

We live in an amazing laboratory - serve the learner and the environment as opposed to contain learning inside the classroom. We have the opportunity to design a curriculum that is unique to our environment.

If our children thrive in this environment the outcomes include:

• lifelong learners
• relating to self/ others
• adaptability
• resourceful

• 

  Polarity Map

  resilient
• risk takers
• curious
• compassionate
• ability to persist
• courage
• connectedness to what has come before
• contributing
• voice: leading learning
• innate love of learning
• empowered
• self regulating/ self managing
• knowledgeable and resourceful
• moral and ethical
• entrepreneurial - kiwi ingenuity, initiative, innovative
• Contented

To make it real this list needs to be smaller.

Implicit responsibility for educators to lead learners through their learning. Scaffolding is need to support our children to achieve these characteristics. We need to take this back to our beliefs and principles.

The 5 key competencies appear to underpin what we are talking about. ie, resilience is a part of managing self, growth mindset culminates all of the competencies. Therefor what makes us unique is the context that we operate within. The competencies are the essence of the curriculum so therefore, what does that look like in the culture of our school. 

Rhetorical question: are we delivering a 21st Century curriculum or is it just a 1995 add on? Competencies are like dispositions, they are a set of behaviours rather than skills. They wire the learner with competencies to help them to achieve with core areas.

Each of the 4 competencies has a language. What are the vital competencies that we need to embed in our children to enable them to their capacity?

What Does Learning Look Like?

 

This chart is created by Like to Write 

In the pursuit of designing learning and what it could possibly look like, I am forced to re-visit the multitude of readings about learning in the 21st Century. I have previously articulated my reticence of these texts as we are too far into this century to pull the 'time to change' card. It should have changed in my books by now.

We know and have now known for a longtime that the world is changing rapidly and that we cannot begin to predict what the world will look like in 8 years let alone 50. Collectively, it sounds as though everyone involved in education acknowledges that we are preparing all children to be active participants in a globally, connected world. But it seems that some view the 3Rs as the old band aid that needs to be ripped off quickly and cleanly while others see them as the enablers that must be central to early learning. 

The key competencies refer to real skills such as growing as critical thinkers, goal setting  and knowing what to do when the going gets tough. Managing themselves to get through those hard places so that they can achieve well by picking themselves back up and carrying on. Surely, these competencies are not 'extra' things to cover in the learning environments? Each of the key competencies is evident in the process of learning and it is this that needs to be the focus in our habitats not the content. 

The devices are a perfect vehicle for facilitating the learning process. This suggestion is not to be confused with creating another stand alone curriculum that involves learning how to use the technology. Nor is it about teaching with technology tools. Instead, it is about the children creating and constructing with the technology. 

Knowledge is accessible and totally ubiquitous and this alone has placed a greater emphasis on the need to shift our practices. Children don't need to think of things, but need to think about them. This takes us to a whole new level of thinking including analysis, synthesis and evaluation. 

We need to develop the children's communication skills so that they are able to communicate in our media rich world.  They need to be able to use their learning to solve problems and to record this digitally including texts such as news broadcasts, gaming, blog reflections. The engagement that these tools provide give licence to the children to create texts that reflect their individuality. 

The use of platforms such as google docs allows for collaboration. It is important to note that collaboration is not just about helping each other or giving each other feedback. Truly collaborative tasks will enhance student learning by closely modelling how they are likely to work as adults. 

We need to be aware of our role in helping children to understand the process of learning and the grit needed to achieve longterm goals/ projects. We need to ensure that learning is authentic and meaningful for the children. 

Moon Shot Thinking

Moonshot Thinking is a way of thinking. Courage, persistence and growth mindset are crucial. Choose to be bothered by things because they are hard. Our ambitions can be a glass ceiling on our passions. 

Have the courage to try!

We choose to do this because it is hard!

We are a species of moon shots!

Take risks, inspire others.

It's okay to not know how to do it yet!

We Had a Feeling

It's hard to believe that is was nearly 5 years ago that the classes I was working with did this project in a dance colaboration. It was a magical moment when the kids were able to connect via skype with classrooms around NZ and the world to share/ perform a dance. The product was the end of year dance item. The wonderment and awe was the connecting, the collaborating and developing an understanding of the Arts and how our culture impacts on us.



Here's what it looked like from Mr Miller's end...


SuperScooper Dance Instruction from John Miller on Vimeo.

This is Mr Wood's Class - Room 17 from Bailey Intermediate practising...

Lester Flockton discusses what is needed to connect the School Curriculum with the intent and changed emphases ofThe New Zealand Curriculum. 

Mark Treadwell discusses Conceptual Curriculum. 

We need to develop a structure that embraces the nature of learning, values, essential components that develop self directed, motivated and engaged learners who are empowered throughout the learning process. 

Mark Treadwell describes personalised learning as:  
- making sure we know our audience and purpose
- knowing why we are learning our learning intention
- applying efficient and effective ways to learn
- being engaged in the learning process 
- knowing what knowledge is needed to build the required understanding

Mark also explains Conceptual Curriculum as a paradigm shift from text based learning systems to multimedia and collaborative environments. Concepts are built from a body of knowledge and requires numerous contexts. Understanding concepts is a developmental process, as your braining is constantly developing. 

We have conceptual understandings in our Curriculum Document =

The four conceptual strands in the social sciences curriculum are: 
• Identity, Culture, and Organisation; 
• Place and Environment; 
• Continuity and Change; 
• The Economic World. 

The four conceptual strands in the health and physical education curriculum are: 
Hauora
Attitudes and values
Socio- ecological perspective
Health promotion

So why use a Conceptual Curriculum?

-When learning concepts we use different parts of the brain to create a better understanding; neurons (7% neurons used for rote learning), using concepts for learning uses astrocytes (75% of brain cells and neurons)

-Keeps learning authentic and purposeful for the student

-In an information age concepts allow us to organise information in our own way in a meaningful structure

-Allows flexibility for teaching and learning
-Student focused

Sir Ken Robinson challenges us to move away from conformity, standardisation and 

the production line mentality. It's necessary to change the paradigm and begin 

to address divergent thinking. 

Partnerships, Pathways, Learning Conversations...

Michael Fullan on What Doesn't Work in School Reform from Chris Landry .

I recently re-visited 'The New Pedagogy: Students and Teachers as Learning  Partners' where Michael Fullan identifies a 'tension' in education that is going to  eventuate in change. He refers to bored students, alienated teachers and the  'exploding, irresistible and alluring digital world' that grabs the imagination of  children. Re-reading all of this I am reminded that there is actually a real public  acceptance that education is on the precipice of 21st Century learning. Fullan suggested in his report written late 2013, that change is inevitable and  eminent. He also suggested that the change, when it comes, will be based on:  deep learning goals, new pedagogies, and technology. That suggestion resonates with me. My TAI a few years ago culminated 20  years of teaching inquiries including flexible learning spaces, 20% time,  student-led learning and it is only recently that the pieces have all begun to fit  together. I don't think I have ever worked so hard as I worked in that year but  the outcome was genuine self-directed, engaged learners with a sense of agency  and ownership of their learning. It was hard and my inquiry still continues to  be iterative and based on outcomes on learning. But the outcomes show that  change in my practice had an impact so they are worthwhile to pursue and re-think. As school systems try to manage this change, Fullan suggests that there is only  one obvious possibility for schools and that is to revisit  pedagogy, and redefine  how they operate. Fullan suggests four key strategies: i)  Irresistibly engage both students and teachers (I believe whanau need to be  included here) ii)  Ensure technologies are efficient and easy to use (Maybe BYOB/D is not the  best option in primary?) iii)  Make technology ubiquitous (To be ubiquitous, access is paramount: we need  to know what access our children have from home and perhaps BYOB/D will  become instrumental to this) iv)  Ensure learning is rooted in real-life problem solving and inquiry (Meaningful  learning experiences/ relevant inquiry/ local curriculum) Fullan suggests that schools  will clearly need significant restructuring to ensure those  four strategies are able to be utilised to promote deep, purposeful learning.  My own  inquiry has investigated (and continues to investigate) how I, as the teacher, can best  work with my students as learning partners, reflecting the concept of Ako - everyone is a learner, everyone is a teacher. I think the biggest affirmation that I got from keeping up with Fullan while he was in  New Zealand was when I read this: "In short we have our work cut out for ourselves.  At the same time the direction and  nature of change is reasonably clear, while the development and implementation of  solutions is as exciting as it is daunting. What could be a better learning proposition— high risk, high yield in the context of an unavoidable challenge." It's going to get messy while we try to piece it all together.

Haere Whakamua, Hoki Whakamuri: Going Forward, Thinking Back

We find ourselves at the end of our first term. We are moving out of the foundation stage and while we will continue to celebrate our first firsts for the rest of this year, it feels that it is finally time to really focus on what we are about; the learning. 

There was a time that everything we did was consumed by questions. Everything we did entailed decision making. We seem to be moving beyond that now... there are still a multitude of decisions to be made including the purchasing for phase 1B of the building as well as systems and events but we are actually able to function as a normal school... (sort of...)

 I looked back on what were my current realities at the start of term 1 and realise that many of them still stand. Our community is still very much under construction. Not just the homes that are children are moving into but also our relationships with the community. As a collective they are incredibly supportive and enthusiastic. I believe they have appreciated our transparency and honest approaches. We are still challenging ourselves to think about what we bring and what we leave and most of what we left packed away in our garages has remained there. If we were going to make a parallel to our practices; we have not found it quite as easy as we thought to leave some of our single cell practices. It's been good to identify the 'Pit' as this has encouraged us all to be open with each other about how we are going. With regards to working with excited, future people: it's been pure magic. I love the conversations, the learning and the passion that each person brings to our place.


It seems that some of my Desired Realities are already beginning to take shape.... The 'Pit' is not a place that any of us choose to be but most appear comfortable enough to share when they are there and some will even celebrate it. I have noticed that many people refer to the need to use growth mindset when they are there. 

I have worked hard on my bold steps including developing relationships, building a collaborative environment and engaging the community (in hindsight, I don't think they were that bold really). Relationships with children has proven to be most challenging which is not really a surprise given the nature of my role but this is something that I still struggle with. 

We started well with our vision being present in our conversations but I think this an area that needs continual focus. 

Our core learning beliefs and capacities have begun to provide us with an emerging framework and we need to use this to monitor how well the school is doing and whether team and individual practices are aligned with our vision.

My NAPP discussions on the VLN last year referred me to an article about "Secrets to being a Good CEO". I could make clear connections between a "good" CEO and effective leadership in schools... Mark Franklin believes that the skills of a CEO are a combination of innate understanding and  on the job learning and suggests that effective leadership includes: Self-awareness - of the impact you have on people and the impact people have on you Self-management - time management, emotional management & decision making Situational awareness - knowing what's going on around you and what you need to do.  Relationship management - being a unifying force in your school. Setting/modelling our ethics and culture.  Franklin's traits of an effective leader include: Humour - the ability to see the funny side, even at your own expense Technical competence - in something but not necessarily in everything Practicality - able to talk to people at all levels of the school,including the difficult issues Normality - being a normal person who acts normally, relates positively, reacts consistently. Franklin's list of key attributes that successful leaders have in common include: An ability to articulate their vision A strong commitment to achievement Readiness to demonstrate courage when things get difficult. Ready to take a risk (living on the edge). I am directly focussed on #1 in the list of attributes as I know it is the area that I need to work on most in my role  as a leader. I think I really did #2-4 well enough where I was but to ensure that I have people on board I need to be  able to articulate the vision that is shared and co-constructed between us.