CORE Education - Derek Wenmoth
The world is changing.
What are we doing to prepare our learners for the 21st century?
How do our schools need to change?
Our world is not stable. Our actions matter to the environment.
As a society - we are consumers not producers. We need to also be people that contribute to society.
Robot counsellor
Garbage designer
Simplicity expert
Telesurgeon
Solar technology specialist
How much of our day is routine and repetitive? Will teachers be replaced by robots?
How so we prepare our learners for the future?
The basis of our education system is flawed..... top three skills required in 1970 were reading, writing, arithmetic! The top three skills the Fortune 500 companies in 1999 are looking for:
innovation, problem solving, interpersonal skills.
True collaboration is more alligned with conflict than patting each other on the back. How do we solve the big problems? It is not an easy task.
Google's to recruitment criteria are:
1. Humility - leads to the ability to collaborate.
2. Problem solving
3. Collaboration
4. Teamwork
How is school preparing us for this?
We need to develop partnerships within school, parents and the wider education providers.
Our environment is essential. Is it safe?
How is technology used to accellerate learning.
Put aside the things that are not working.
Deep Learning - A Global Learnng Project.
Wednesday, 21 October 2015
The Ministry of Awesome
Core Education Connected Educators -
Lauren Merrit
Chief Awesome (Administration) Officer at the Ministry of Awesome! (Website about the be changed.)
Facebook connection - (Current and worth looking at)
We are the people that encourage you to be innovative and take a risk.
Be you!
Make that be the start of everything. Do that thing you really care about!
This is the most effective way to change the world.
We work with early stage ideas for events, business, ideas.....
Events:
Pitching ideas at Coffee & Jam
Education spot - tools to take back to your 'start-up'.
1:1 mentor support:
Supporting the very start of an idea
Looking for valuable connections
Eco-system:
We get people to talk together to make connections.
We get the system providers to talk to the ideas people.
Focus on a social and environmental focus.
Looking to create an engaged and connected city.
Students have the opportunity to preaent to the sessions.
We have to look at doing it a different way.
What's the thing that I can contribute? This needs to be our catch-cry in class. As a teacher or a student, I have the power to make the change. Don't try to fix or adapt what is wrong. Look to create what you know is right and hugely effective.
As a teacher - 'shut up' if you think their idea might not be effective. Give them a chance to try, test and evaluate in an enterprise. Nothing can't be fixed. The best learning comes through failure.
The steps to take:
What is the idea?
Who wants to do it with us?
What we need to 'un-learn'.
Constantly hearning 'No'..... kills our dreams and our positive self image.
Not being too humble - be able to acknolwedge what you have achieved.
Failure is where it all happens. The fear of failure stops us achieving anything new.
Anything is possible.
Complaining changes nothing - it just depresses everyone. Don't talk about it - take action!
Kid - why can't we.... next time can we... always saying it needs to be better. This is not to complain but the child is an innovator. It is not that they are never satisfied but that they are looking for a better way. Understanding this takes all the 'stress' out of the child never being satisfied as you can recognise their need to take things further.
What is collaboration really?
Not - I have this idea - do you want to work with me on it?
Is - what happens when we both bring our ideas, skills and passion? What can we create together?
Design the classroom curriculum WITH the kids!
Lauren Merrit
Chief Awesome (Administration) Officer at the Ministry of Awesome! (Website about the be changed.)
Facebook connection - (Current and worth looking at)
We are the people that encourage you to be innovative and take a risk.
Be you!
Make that be the start of everything. Do that thing you really care about!
This is the most effective way to change the world.
We work with early stage ideas for events, business, ideas.....
Events:
Pitching ideas at Coffee & Jam
Education spot - tools to take back to your 'start-up'.
1:1 mentor support:
Supporting the very start of an idea
Looking for valuable connections
Eco-system:
We get people to talk together to make connections.
We get the system providers to talk to the ideas people.
Focus on a social and environmental focus.
Looking to create an engaged and connected city.
Students have the opportunity to preaent to the sessions.
We have to look at doing it a different way.
What's the thing that I can contribute? This needs to be our catch-cry in class. As a teacher or a student, I have the power to make the change. Don't try to fix or adapt what is wrong. Look to create what you know is right and hugely effective.
As a teacher - 'shut up' if you think their idea might not be effective. Give them a chance to try, test and evaluate in an enterprise. Nothing can't be fixed. The best learning comes through failure.
The steps to take:
What is the idea?
Who wants to do it with us?
What we need to 'un-learn'.
Constantly hearning 'No'..... kills our dreams and our positive self image.
Not being too humble - be able to acknolwedge what you have achieved.
Failure is where it all happens. The fear of failure stops us achieving anything new.
Anything is possible.
Complaining changes nothing - it just depresses everyone. Don't talk about it - take action!
Kid - why can't we.... next time can we... always saying it needs to be better. This is not to complain but the child is an innovator. It is not that they are never satisfied but that they are looking for a better way. Understanding this takes all the 'stress' out of the child never being satisfied as you can recognise their need to take things further.
What is collaboration really?
Not - I have this idea - do you want to work with me on it?
Is - what happens when we both bring our ideas, skills and passion? What can we create together?
Design the classroom curriculum WITH the kids!
Thursday, 10 September 2015
What's a Learning Pit?
Well - we unpacked that as a class last week resulting in the language being used in our target planning and daily reflections. The joy comes in hearing learners unpack the concept in a blog post or in their weekly iReflect.
We are beginning to celebrate learners struggling. Students are happy to share their struggle and how they got out of the pit. This is seen to be a 'real' learning experience. Anyone who dos not go into the pit is not doing 'real' learning in our class!
My perfect example this last week was of a G & T student who just opted out of a Gloss question as he 'couldn't do it'. As we had our display on the wall, I could walk him up to it and point out where he was in the 'Learning Pit'. We looked at the strategy took kit and I told him, 'no giving up but use a strategy please'. Guess what happened then? He proceeded to, with some effort, complete two more questions. For me this was such a clear example of a 'clever kid' not wanting to be seen to struggle.
Even today, another student was evaluating the 'depth' of the learning pit she was in. It was applying previous knowledge to the tricky new context of weaving a flax 'pop-up' kete (a skill that took me weeks to learn). Because she was enjoying the challenge, even though it was hard, she didn't see it as a deep pit, only a small pit! You might hear about that in this week's reflection!
Check out some reflection on what the 'Learning Pit' looks like in our class learning.
We are beginning to celebrate learners struggling. Students are happy to share their struggle and how they got out of the pit. This is seen to be a 'real' learning experience. Anyone who dos not go into the pit is not doing 'real' learning in our class!
My perfect example this last week was of a G & T student who just opted out of a Gloss question as he 'couldn't do it'. As we had our display on the wall, I could walk him up to it and point out where he was in the 'Learning Pit'. We looked at the strategy took kit and I told him, 'no giving up but use a strategy please'. Guess what happened then? He proceeded to, with some effort, complete two more questions. For me this was such a clear example of a 'clever kid' not wanting to be seen to struggle.
Even today, another student was evaluating the 'depth' of the learning pit she was in. It was applying previous knowledge to the tricky new context of weaving a flax 'pop-up' kete (a skill that took me weeks to learn). Because she was enjoying the challenge, even though it was hard, she didn't see it as a deep pit, only a small pit! You might hear about that in this week's reflection!
Check out some reflection on what the 'Learning Pit' looks like in our class learning.
Next Steps:
Introduce the concept of 'What did you struggle with today?
Keep promoting the language and value of 'The Learning Pit' and how it relates to a Positive Mindset.
Take photos of students in "the Learning Pit' so we can write about, acknowledge and celebrate their challenges.
Look for more evidence of a negative mindset amongst the G & T and other students in my class so we can act on it.
We still need to..
Introduce a conceptual dilemma and see how we respond. Can we relate it to the Learning Pit?
We still need to..
Introduce a conceptual dilemma and see how we respond. Can we relate it to the Learning Pit?
Saturday, 29 August 2015
Action in 'The Learning Pit'
James Nottingham
Before I unpack this concept with the class, we need to pull it to pieces here.
This could be about learning a skill or grappling with a confrontational concept where learners are faced with a dilemma.
The Learning Pit and being faced with a dilemma...
- Promotes deeper thinking
- Develops persistence
- Demands students to get past the 'panic' stage
- Requires the problem to be clearly identified
- Requires the use of different strategies
- Allows learners to help each other
- Lets learning be co-constructed
- Requires the process and learning to be reflected upon
http://www.supplyteachingsolutions.co.uk/#!Instilling-a-growth-mindset/c24tn/1
Make the process of 'The Learning Pit' clear and visible to learners so they know what happens and the skills to use at different points.
Make sure you throw in the challenging questions that causes learners to'struggle' to find the answer. I found it! There is no sense of elation without the struggle.
See 'The Learning Pit' as a collaborative experience where we build on each others ideas and skills.
The 'Learning Pit' sequence:
1. At the start of the pit - ask a concept question - to push past surface knowledge.
2. At the bottom of the pit - add thinking strategies and collaborative opportunities. Focus on the Growth Mindset, never giving up but celebrating the struggle.
3. Outside the pit you have your deep answer or 'Eureka' experience.
4. Post pit - ask metacognitive questions - how did you feel, what strategies did you use, what will you use again?
8. Meaningful Reflection:
http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/12/03/what-meaningful-reflection-on-student-work-can-do-for-learning/
Focus on self improvement rather than achieving grades.
Reflection gives next steps for learning - formative.
Reflection is documented to allow for tracking of progress and thought process.
Reflection is shared to provide collective support.
Before I unpack this concept with the class, we need to pull it to pieces here.
This could be about learning a skill or grappling with a confrontational concept where learners are faced with a dilemma.
The Learning Pit and being faced with a dilemma...
- Promotes deeper thinking
- Develops persistence
- Demands students to get past the 'panic' stage
- Requires the problem to be clearly identified
- Requires the use of different strategies
- Allows learners to help each other
- Lets learning be co-constructed
- Requires the process and learning to be reflected upon
This is what I have already unpacked in my earlier readings.
http://www.supplyteachingsolutions.co.uk/#!Instilling-a-growth-mindset/c24tn/1
Make the process of 'The Learning Pit' clear and visible to learners so they know what happens and the skills to use at different points.
Make sure you throw in the challenging questions that causes learners to'struggle' to find the answer. I found it! There is no sense of elation without the struggle.
See 'The Learning Pit' as a collaborative experience where we build on each others ideas and skills.
The 'Learning Pit' sequence:
1. At the start of the pit - ask a concept question - to push past surface knowledge.
2. At the bottom of the pit - add thinking strategies and collaborative opportunities. Focus on the Growth Mindset, never giving up but celebrating the struggle.
3. Outside the pit you have your deep answer or 'Eureka' experience.
4. Post pit - ask metacognitive questions - how did you feel, what strategies did you use, what will you use again?
8. Meaningful Reflection:
http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/12/03/what-meaningful-reflection-on-student-work-can-do-for-learning/
Focus on self improvement rather than achieving grades.
Reflection gives next steps for learning - formative.
Reflection is documented to allow for tracking of progress and thought process.
Reflection is shared to provide collective support.
CLASS ACTION:
1. Introduce the pit in relation to our weaving endeavours as we all found these challenging. Focus on a physical skill.
2. Begin to develop our own visual to represent this concept.
3. Introduce a conceptual dilemma to them and see ow we respond. See if they can relate it to the Learning Pit.
Improved Quality of Reflections
The initial student reflections on their learning were about being happy they had coloured something in neatly. After I introduced the iReflect sheet with starter sentences, this added more detail in their reflections and helped them focus on sharing evidence and next steps.
Links to reflections
One particular reflection that shows thinking along a Positive Mindset is with Ella teaching another student how to weave. She was quite hesitant in this task but used lots of strategies to manage the challenge, resulting in a big gain in confidence.
Next Steps:
We need to keep developing visual posters, unpack a Positive Mindset for our weekly targets and reflect on the evidence our daily learning. The positive phrases need to be what is heard every day so it sinks in and becomes second nature.
I need to give them some big challenges and let them see how they respond.
Links to reflections
One particular reflection that shows thinking along a Positive Mindset is with Ella teaching another student how to weave. She was quite hesitant in this task but used lots of strategies to manage the challenge, resulting in a big gain in confidence.
Next Steps:
We need to keep developing visual posters, unpack a Positive Mindset for our weekly targets and reflect on the evidence our daily learning. The positive phrases need to be what is heard every day so it sinks in and becomes second nature.
I need to give them some big challenges and let them see how they respond.
Action in Class!
We have been working on sharing the Positive Mindset through making posters, using the new skills from Carol. Students who have been to the workshops then become the AKO teachers and the whole class shares the learning.
See the link here.
See the link here.
Unpacking a Positive Mindset
We sorted lots of statements into a GROWTH or FIXED MINDSET. This formed our class display, which is referred to throughout every day. The kids use this language in commenting about people they want to recommend in our end of day class oral reflection.
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