Space, Energy and Agency

CPPA conference, Richard Newton - St Claire School, Dunedin

School Design:
New Zealand...
Awhina - classrooms built around a central quad - could become a learning space or store room.
Learning Street - mezzanine - wide space collaborative space to link one and two story buildings.
Boulevard Design - big open space but the kids saw it as a walkway.
Diferent spaces, open space and breakout areas.
Multiple tables and work areas - seminar opportunity.
Teachers as activators and worshop leaders.
Strong element in NZ is glass - coveys connectidness, interaction, transparency...
Colour is a critical part in design.

UK...
Supersize classrooms - big spaces even in old buildings.
Innovative definition of space using sheets, fabric etc. for a cave.
Scaled furniature and bathrooms for little people.
Learning street - blocked off and private practice - no glass.
Learning commons - curved corridoors, data projector, little areas like a kitchen or work spaces.
Soft, noninstitutional furniature.
Rooms outdoors - discovery, inquiry, multipl intelligences outdoor play.
Willow domes and teepees to define space.
Lots of iPad activities that reflect paperbased tasks - really just worksheets.

Learning Theory:
David Hargreaves: Beliefs we hold, modles of how the world works

Teachers:
Lion tamer: control, do this now, keep kids busy, stuff

Entertainer: focussed on relationships, make school fun, will they like this - manipulation, busy, managed

New Romantic: unconditiondal positive regard for the ;learner and learning, student agency.
Teachers us a few of different styles - especially in an emergency e.g. fire alarm.

Michael Absolom - Clarity in the Classroom:
Control: control by power - busy, managed
Caring: control with good intention
Learning Focussed: learning at the centre, child agency

Teacher as New Romantic:
In charge of process and programme
Manage emotional well being.
Managing quality learning activities.

Self managing Learner: clarity of purpose, aware of choices making, make choice, purpose, articulate their decisions.

• self confident
• know how to learn
• self regulation
• interdependent
• in control of their own learning
• learning aware
• engaged through mixed level workshops
• able to make choices

E-Tools: 
Agency - power to act, be informes, enable learners.
Connectivedness - opportunity to connect around the worls
Ubiquity - can use it anywhere, any time.

Pedagogy - SAMR model - are we just doing worksheets on a device?  Re-define the task!
Google tools - free resources - use Hapara and the cloud.

Modern Learning Environment:
It is all about learning
-  enagagement, agency, teacher
- impossible to have three kion tamers in the same classroom

As teachers we have become settles and are collecting stuff. We need to be nomads, always looking forward to the next challenge.

Greenland in 1480AD
Metal model - as the climate changed...
We are farmers - animals brought inside, fed kelp and seaweed.
We are traders - not much spare to trade with.
We are Europeans - 

They ignored the wisdom of people surviving beside them and as a result their population collapsed. The Inuits survivied - changing their approach as the environment changed.

As schools we need to adapt to this massive acceleration of change or we will become a relic.

Have a think:
What is the mental model that guides your practice?
How are these serving your learners?
How well will they serve your learners tomorrow?
Adaptability is critical.

Growth Mindset - Carol Dweck

Ted Talk

What type of person are you as a teacher or the kids in your class? 

If we are asking students to have this positive Growth Mindset then we need to be looking first at ourselves and how we model it in class and daily life.

Fixed Mindset: 

• spend time trying to prove their ability
• see success as a result of ability
• avoid challenges or risk for fear of failure
• want friends who would make them feel good
• think that mistakes or failure reflect on their self worth
• crash and burn after failure
• sees criticism as an attack on self worth
• compare themselves to others
• feel tense and nervous about exposing their weaknesses
• say "This is too hard, I'm giving up."

Growth Mindset:

• believe they can develop their ability
• see success as a result of effort
• know their strengths, weaknesses and next steps for learning
• actively taking steps to improve their character, relationships and learning
• see failure as a chance to learn 
• selects friends who would encourage them to get better
• look for opportunities for challenge 
• bounce back after failure
• sees criticism as a learning tool
• compare themselves to past attempts
• take a risk and try new things
• say "I don't get this, can you help me?"
• say "This is really hard and it is fun."

There are some things that stood out for me as an educator and learner. 

More of them are incorporated in to my action based on the headings in Matt Bromley's Blog.

To me as the Teacher:

1. Praise for effort not ability.

2. Teacher belief, mindset, negative labels or stereotypes powerfully affect learning - developing a Growth Mindset helps us combat this negativity.

3. Honest constructive feedback promotes growth.

4. A disciplined and nurturing environment is essential.

5. Teach learners how to learn or improve - demystify the process.

6. Growth Mindset teachers are always learning themselves.

Matt Bromley Blog:

So What!  How could this look in my classroom for 2015?

1. Use frequent formative feedback

• Teacher and peer conferences with constructive comments - one positive, one next step
• Knowledge of personal targets and next steps - unpack the 'How to' or 'Looks like'
• Students can select learning activities according to target - Daily 5 activities, Maths Google Site
• Personal evaluation on daily targets tracked in Learning Journal / Planner
• Build up a picture of the student from many different sources.

2. High levels of challenge for every student

• Class chart: Work harder, grow smarter!
• Expose kids to challenging vocabulary, concepts and literature. They can't learn about what they have never experienced.
• Students opt into a range of needs based workshops.

3. Explicitly welcome mistakes

• Speech bubbles around the class: What went wrong? What can I learn from it?
• Constantly take the time to model how to unpack mistakes and look for the learning. 

4. Engaging in deliberate practice

• In Waka Stride we are becoming….. kids to shout out all the things we are becoming like: fast at my 3x tables, accurate at editing my writing, a kind and 'bucket filling' friend.
• Activities are clearly sorted so learners can select the one that supports their own target - Maths Google Site.
• To start Daily 5 reading, writing or maths sessions learners will state their target and the activity they will do to help achieve it to a buddy or teacher.

5. Reward effort not attainment

• Daily round up - kids and teacher recommend people for effort, showing Independent Learner skills, trying again - being resilient…. A great opportunity to use the language of learning.
• Class reward system is collaborative and based on co-constructed criteria which will include: be resilient, use AKO - other students as teachers, use different strategies etc.

Independence in Term 4

Student Independence:

We are taking the next steps in our journey to independence.  While we are sure of what is expected of an independent learner in the classroom, we needed to identify expected behaviour in different places such as the library, outside and the cloak bay.  These agreed expectations can be seen on our ‘mini’ poster.

(Image still to add.)

Student Accountability:

During work times students are gainfully employed and on-task, but the checklist if often left unmarked and some must-do activities are not being completed.  We had a need to develop accountability for completing tasks and then to focus on the quality of work completed.  We did this together on Friday afternoon after clearly seeing from the check list that things were not being completed.

Agreed new expectations: 

1. Tick check list daily not weekly.
2. Teacher can make random checks on completed tasks.
3. The checklist will be set out in clear must-do and can-do sections.
4. Must-do activities need to be focussed on first.
5. Realistic allowances for additional activities such as Pet Day will be made.

What’s our next focus?

• Make some more videos for strategies etc and ICT tools to scaffold learning.
• Make a list of ICT base resources that would help our learning - use for new Google site.
• Ask students what they want to have access to from home - weekly plan, links to resources, calendar, maths and literacy ICT links... 
• Collaboratively agree on expected weekly tasks.

Teacher next focus:

1. Create comprehensive display on strategy steps within maths areas, both online and in class - see  Hobsonville Point Primary School.

2. Experiment with a range of student panning formats.

          Daily - move face to activity

          Daily - write on plan

          Weekly - make daily decisions at the start of each day

These are the planning formats being used by Amy McCauley at HPPS LC2.

3. Begin to plan out ideas for the Google Site, gathering resources and link ideas. Resources to help.
     Example of HPPS LC2 Site.

4. QR codes to access areas of the Google Site.

5. Comic life student comments on learning and learning journey.

He ao ki tua… future opportunities. Leadership within Māori & Pasifica:

Connected Educator Month:  He whatunga tangata, he whatunga mātanga.

I came in a bit late and these are my random notes of the session…

We can all have a role of leadership with Māori students.  

They might get the best support from the caretaker or the librarian.  It is all about building relationships, make connections and then collaborate.

Build relationships:

Know who you work with and their strengths., your students and your communities.

How do we build these relationships:

Have heaps of respect and care.

·      energize, inspire, excel, triumph, passion, integrity and fun

Check the effectiveness of things, not just hope for the best.

Challenges within leadership:

Share the role:

Don’t think you are the only person who can do it.  Assign the tasks to other people to do the mahi with you. Be ready to change yourself both professionally and personally.

Check in with elders:

Check the advice from peers and elders to check you are on the right track.

Develop shared understanding:

Sometimes you need to develop a shared understanding, recognizing the perspectives are different.  What is the common kaupapa?  Need to negotiate, discuss and debate the focus. Do the mahi to your best ability then build a bridge and get over it. 

The kaupapa is bigger than all of us.  We need to serve the kaupapa.

Develop the trust in the leadership:

Establish a shared understanding.  Develop a shared kaupapa.

Dialogue open for people to share with the leadership team to develop these shared understandings and trust.

Manage conflict:

Not always see them as a challenge but an opportunity.  Look at the positive and take the step up over the obstacle as an opportunity.  Important to unpack conflict rather than let it fester.  Give time and planning to be pro-active not re-active.

Use a ‘blank’ unbiased facilitator to pull out the important points and treasures from people or go with a blank piece of paper rather than having everything set in stone before the discussion.

Feel and watch the reactions of people to see how it has landed.  This will let you know where to go next.

Benefits for the community if our leadership is connected with Māori and Pasifica:

·      It exposes our young people to a wider world – Video conferences, Skype etc.  If we can’t take our kids to the world then we will bring the world to our kids.  Share stories from local area http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Toku-Awa-Koiora/NZ-Research/Toku-Awa-Koiora

·      If you are not connected, then as an educator you can’t do your job.  We need to maintain visibility and viability as Māori to our tamariki and then to the wider world.

·      Shares the success of our students with the wider world.

·      Sharing teaching expertise with other schools – e.g. Auckland Samoan learning with Chch school to support and expose a need.

·      Connectedness starts with building a relationship and developing trust between partners.

·      Declaring to the community that we want to connect – listen to understand, ask what they want, promise to meet their needs and follow though.  This builds relationships.  Know the needs of your community.  When will we review and how will we review to check that this connection is working – newsletters, e-mails, text etc.

·      Address the issue quickly then spend the time looking at how to improve and build relationships.

Random notes:

Establish the point of the hui at the start of the session – to inform or to consult.

If there is an issue: acknowledge and apologise then give assurance – deal with things quickly.

Twitter - from Daily 5 to 'Self Directed Learners'

How much has your classroom changed in the last two years?
If it is not obvious to you, your learners and your colleagues that things are changing then you need to get out there and grab yourself some PD. To be specific, some Self-Directed Professional Development.

Get going with Twitter:
Three years ago I found Twitter and a whole new world of PD opened up. This was not what 'Management' decided I needed to learn but was driven by my interests and the needs of our classroom.
I noticed that educators globally kept talking about the same things and one of them was Daily 5 and Reader's Cafe.

Investigating Daily 5:
Always nosy and keen to improve my teaching, I began the investigation.  The books arrived and I was raring to go but ….. two student teachers and 12 weeks later… I began in Term 4 of 2012. We started the process of developing reading muscles, stamina and independence within our own learning.  The class loved it.

All those 'Internet Based' tools come into play when beginning something like this. Pinterest has already gathered up all the resources you would ever need and tweeting or catching up at F2F meetings like educamps and coffee is the way to see things in action.  Make those connections and visit other  classes.


In the first year it all began to click into place and I could see the connections we could make with the work of The Book Whisperer @donalynbooks.  We unpacked genre, tracked our reading with 'Piggy Pyramids', wrote shopping lists of books we wanted to share and did 'Book Speed-Dating'.  Most importantly we have heaps of books around our class and I activelly helped kids find 'Good-fit books' because I knew what they like to read and have read most of the books in our class library!  Daily 5 was our favourite time of the day but that was not the end.  It was only the beginning.



Growing Daily 5 into independence:
To start 2014, my neighbouring teacher, @KeelingAlice, and I were questioning how we could grow the independence of Daily 5 to help develop Independent Learners with aspects of a student led timetable.  We had already successfully applied the approach to our maths programme and the language of independence was being used confidently… start straight away, move away from distractions and know my target.

Independent Learners:
Our class identified the success criteria for an Independent Learner, designed a licence and decided what choices the licence would give them. We started at the beginning of Term 3 with 13 Independent Learners and now at the end of Term 3, the whole class of 27 have their licence.

Does it make a difference?
I am in the process of getting the class to complete a Google Survey to establish their views on the difference 'Choice' makes but a couple of anecdotal observations really showed me how powerful giving students agency and autonomy really is.

I have two boys in my class who in their own way have been a huge challenge.  They were defiant and angry, unco-operative and not willing to be part of our class.  I took the risk of allowing them a Learner Licence earlier than I would have liked.  Their success criteria were much more limited than what was expected of the class.  I didn't make the connection but after a couple of amazing weeks with these boys, I asked what had changed to make learning with them so much more positive and self managing.  They both said it was getting their Learner Licence and having control over their day.

It was Daily 5 that began this journey and allowed us to get to this point where the students know their targets, select the most appropriate learning activity and suggest even more appropriate ones to meet their interests and needs.

Positive Mindset:
My final challenge for this last term was to help improve the attitude of the class. This links closely to the work of Carol Dwek, as sourced via Twitter, and is linked to my focus on Te Reo.

We begin every day with this as a karakia then move into a loud chant.

Hard work brings success.

Success makes me feel good.

I can get better.

I will be adventurous.

I can solve it!

This is a great vocal way to claim the day and has made the class aware of the importance of having a positive mindset.  They identify it as a personal need, include it in their daily targets and then we celebrate evidence of a positive mindset throughout the day. My most negaitve student at the beginning of Term 3 is now constantly referring to and exhibiting a positive mindset, as well as idenifying it in others.

Where to now?
The journey never ends if you are making use of the available contacts and links via Twitter. There is always a next step as the teacher and these are mine:

Begin to use gaming elements to reinforce the success criteria of independence.  Gaming 4 Community

Collaborativelly build a Google Site 'HUB' for our two classes, in which we can embed our 'Flipped' resources, learning links, weekly programme and follow-up tasks for student access from anywhere and anytime.  Google Sites - Amy McCauley


Join Twitter and get some PD:
My best ideas as a teacher over the past three years have all come from amazing teachers on Twitter. I can't imagine what my class might look like if I hadn't had all this brilliant and free PD.

Sign up and start following some of these great teachers. Christchurch Teachers
Don't forget to check in with groups from your local area like http://christchurchednet.blogspot.co.nz because that's your own personal resource and support team!

It's working - we are scaffolding independence in the WHOLE CLASS!

Time to celebrate the success in the form of two separate and challenging boys.

Student 1 had started the school well part way through the year but rapidly declined into rude confrontational and violent behaviour.  We worked very hard on behaviour plans and things have made a huge turn around.  On discussion with the student he says the difference was his getting an Indenendent Learner Licence.

Student 2 had the problem of demanding attention accross the classroom in a range of challenging ways.  He was defiant and often violent towards those around him.  The RTLB has been on the job for three weeks and there has been a huge change.  On asking the student he said the difference was this…. pointing to his Independent Learner Licence.


It is clear to me with both these students and the initial resoponse of much of the class, the choice and trust went a long way to motivating them to independence and self management.

My Holiday and Term 4 Challenge:
1.  Complete the Google Survey Alice has designed to establish student voice on what difference having an Independent Licence has on learning then unpack the data to use within class.

2. Establish agreed sets of behaviour in different learning spaces.

3.  Set up our learning hub where planning and resource links can be attached for access from home.

4.  Investigate a format for sharing our 'Flipped Classroom' instructional movies.

5. Give students the opportunity for a 'Genius Hour' type AKOKids session, possibly within the Junior School Choice and Challenge Friday hour.

Most of all, I need to continue to enjoy the independence and excitement of my learners!

How's the independence going?

Here were my last targets:

Scaffolding steps to set up for Term 3:

• Continue with the class tracking sheet or trial the one from the neighbouring room. (Alice K)

We have set up a class master timetable and independent ones with gaps to fill in, supported by a checklist.  There is also a class checkist that the teacher monitors. Struggling students complete their plan with the teacher before school.

A checklist for the 'Not-yet' independent learners was developed but is no longer needed as most the class have their licence and any lapses are only for a day or two.

One of my 'challenging' kids wanted to use this planning sheet as it was easier than his daily whiteborad planner. He has managed to plan and follow it effectivelly.

• Set up clear guidelines about numbers and expected behaviour in the library, cloakbay or outside.

This is the start of Term 4 task.  We need to co-construct class expectations and consequences.  It will develop out of our 'safe place' aspect of the Term 3 health unit we are completing.

• Incorporate aspects of the Independent Learner Licence in the student Daily Planner.

This is an essential part of our daily planners as it looks at a personal target and how to unpack it.  Many of the success criteria of an independent learner are used as daily targets.  Daily discussions focus on evidence of independence and class points are awarded in response to these success criteria.

• Purchase more lanyards and make 5-10 more licences. 

There needs to be a class set and children are bringing in their own lanyards.  They don't always feel the need to wear their licence as most of the class have earned one.  

• Begin to incorporate more SOLO visual organisers.

We have developed a SOLO chart looking at where we are on the levels of independence.  We have discussed the next steps in our journey and highlighted where we are at present.

• Develop more 'How to' sheets for ICT based activities.

We can now make one for Glogster and I need to get the class to identify what other applications they could be AKOKids for and write the instructions.  We are also making more 'Explain Everything' movies for our Flipped Classroom resource.

Alice and I were talking today about how we will start with our classes in 2015 and how to get to this stage of independence more quickly.  We are planning to go right back the the basice and establish the Daily5 approach in both reading and Maths while focussing on the success criteria of independence.  We would hope to be introducing independent timetables in the last few weeks of Term 1.