Disclaimer

The views expressed on this website/blog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

Monday 8 August 2016

Back to Reality - But A New One

Gunfire and explosions in the distance, looking out the classroom window to see a tank going past.  No, I have not moved to a war zone - just Waiouru School.  And, as McDonalds catch phrase says, I'm loving it!

I am back to reality from my time facilitating, but it is a reality with a twist.  I have already caught myself slipping back to the old and familiar, given myself a swift kick and moved forward again.

This reality has a device per student, GAFE, and the encouragement to experiment.  This reality has school as my focus for the majority of the week.  Nothing new in that say those that know me.  The difference is I am still managing to maintain some balance between work and relaxation - one thing I was determined to have after the balance returned to my life through CORE Education.

Relationship building has been the order of the day for the last two weeks.  Letting my kids adjust to the changes that have come with having a new teacher as well as laying down the expectations I have of them in relation to learning and behaviour.  I have done duty in the snow, duty while it is snowing and begun to meet the community thanks to parent interviews.  I have even managed the two teams that ventured to Taihape last week to participate in the Ruapehu Sevens competition - gumboots and all!

We have started with a focus that is probably almost universal in schools at the moment - a focus on the Olympics complete with Thinkers Keys and learning being presented in a variety of ways.  That said, it is only a part of a wider unit looking into feeling the fear and doing it anyway - speeches, dance, cross country and inter-school sport challenges all come under this umbrella also.

My new second home has been set up and an equally new routine of phone calls to the family takes a good chunk of my evenings.  Mother Nature and her glistening robes of snow have made visits home to visit my whānau either short and sweet  or non-existent over the last two weeks.  A good chance to set up the rooms that got left in the two day rush to get moved into both the house and the classroom.  Now both house and class look like someone cares about them.  The cold has been ferocious after the luxury of living in Whanganui and thermals are my new best friend - including the nana nighties.

Am I glad I moved - yes!  It is great to face a set of new challenges.  There is still a way to go but the groundwork of getting to know my learners as people that happen to have their assessment results is ticked off and continuing to be developed.  Now to the real work of looking at what the modern learning curriculum looks like for my kids, developing student agency (this is beginning already) and ensuring innovative teaching practice becomes the new normal. This too will bring a different form of gunfire and explosions - ones that indicate change.

Thursday 9 June 2016

Brain Fizz

In seven short weeks I will return to the classroom to teach a class of 27 Year 7 and 8's.  Nothing too amazing in that, but it gets slightly more adventurous when I add that I am 'leaving home' at the same time to set up what I have told our kids is our rented summer house.  Our daughter suggested that Waiouru was not the best location for a summer house. 

Yes, I am looking forward to it. It is an amazing wee school hiding on the Central Plateau not far from where I grew up in Ohakune.  Yes, I am going to miss my husband while I am living in the 'summer house' but we have agreed that quantity time will be replaced with quality time.  The ideas to make this a reality are well settled in my mind. Yes, I am still working hard to facilitate well in my current role. At the same time I am offering to my schools I am gaining just as much from the teachers I work with.  Yes, my brain is fizzing.

I have had the privilege of 18 months 'working' for CORE Education - which has felt more like paid professional development than work.  I have learned so much. The origin of my brain fizz - so many ideas, so much to put into practice, so much to make work. 

Where to begin? 

Removing furniture and making space. Developing a collaborative learning community - particularly in Math. Working toward the students having agency over their learning. Genius Hour. Discovering there is an app to help me issue and manage my books that will make up the class library. Online collaboration projects to get involved in. Tweeting as part of #Kidschatnz.  Blogging to record their learning journey. Wicked problem solving. Universal Design for Learning. Including the things I love best - LEARNZ, blending the learning into something meaningful to my classes rather than aiming for coverage, cultural awareness woven into everything we do.  

Now it is my turn to be in the hot seat trying to make it all work - and reminding myself that fail is my first attempt in learning.  

Will I be building the plane as I fly it - most definitely. Will I be on my own doing it - no way.  I have a range of learning communities to support me, advise me, encourage me out of my comfort zone. I am also lucky enough to join a collaborative, supportive and future focused team.  

My biggest challenge is deciding where to begin.  The brain fizz is building - waking me in the night just like processing the learning as an efellow did two years ago. So many ideas to sort into their place and organise how they will all look in reality.  Which can I manage? Which can the students manage?  How fast to make changes?

Watch this space as I blog about my newest adventure - building and flying a plane. 

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Agency - What is Good for Students is Good for their Teachers.

A recent challenge given by Derek Wenmoth and Mary Ann Mills through the CORE Education Modern Learning Curriculum course set me on a slightly different path to others learning alongside me.  While they were challenged to either explore student agency or the environments in which their students work, my focus turned to the learners I work with most regularly at the moment - teachers.

I discovered that while we advocate for students to have agency over their learning this is not what happens for their teachers.  It makes sense for all staff to be involved in school-wide professional learning development (PLD) - particularly if it is funded by the Ministry as is current practice for a lot of schools.  However, it does not make sense for teachers to have their prior learning go unrecognised or for there not to be some link between the PLD and their Teaching as Inquiry.

I understand the frustration felt by the teachers who responded to the survey I shared with a small group.

I understand the feeling of not having power over your learning as a teacher, unless you choose to take on more over and above that learning which is completed with the school.

I understand the need to self-manage learning to meet the actions decided on in order to achieve success in my teaching as inquiry because the school provided PLD has not even considered what those needs might be.

I understand the frustration of sitting for two hours in a staff meeting after school to be told about methods of practice that are well and truly in place within my classroom - time I could have put to better use learning something new and relevant to extend said practice.

I understand.

In fact I understand it well enough to be determined that, wherever possible, it will not be the case as I facilitate PLD with teachers in my current role.  I try to work with individuals, or groups that have similar needs.  I do not insist teachers stay if they are ill - all the work we do is shared and available to them, as am I if they have questions.  Discussion occurs ahead of upcoming meetings and workshop times to ensure I am being responsive to the needs of the staff involved.

I wonder how many teachers would be feeling less pressure if the adage 'working smarter, not harder' was extended to their teaching as inquiry.  Would the idea of allowing time out from school-wide PLDs when the content is already displayed in their practice, or having one major focus per year, lift the never-ending feeling that the learning involved in keeping up with the changes coming at them thick and fast is never done. The feeling that they are snowed under. In turn, this should assist teachers to improve their mental health, while work-life balance could well be more realistic. It does require those who are no longer in classrooms but administration roles to take the time to talk to their staff about where the pressure is coming from and how they can work together to make it manageable. Give staff agency to manage their learning instead of expectations that run them ragged.

Teachers themselves need to ensure that smarter not harder is a part of their values.  Looking at the students in front of them, the professional learning groups, locally and online, they have at their disposal to assist in their learning, tying in as much as they can the PLD focus of their school to create an inquiry into their practice that is streamlined and robust.  Using their passion to do the best for their students by taking agency over their learning will ensure that those students get the best teacher possible working and learning alongside them. 

Lets bravely step away from the one size fits all model of PLD we hold on to and launch our teachers into the learning world we expect them to create for their students.

Friday 29 January 2016

Suffragette

I have just returned home from the second movie I have seen in the space of a month. Suffragette is a must view to have a better comprehension of the conditions women were living and working in - the same conditions that led to Emily Davison throwing herself under the King's horse on Derby Day in 1912.

We have a lot to thank those women for - in New Zealand Kate Shepherd and her suffragette's. Without them women would still be the property of their father, brother or husband depending on what their marital and/or familial status was. They would be subject to laws that did not favour any of their rights - in the story this is protrayed through a lack of parental rights, the right to be safe in the workplace and the right to keep the money they earned.  Even the mere right to have a voice heard in their own home was not open to a woman. 

While some have said it is sanitised I did not find it to be the case. There were many points that had me uncomfortable or squirming or wanting to hug Maud as Cary Mulligan's portrayal of the main character had me right there in the moment. It is true the cast was white - but that was the reality of East London at the time and does not diminish or demean the fight so many others have had over time to ensure their voice is heard. It was with pride that the list of countries where women gained the vote was led by New Zealand in 1893 thanks to our own suffragettes.  The film is set in England in 1912, a country where it took another 6 years for certain women over 30 to get the vote and 1928 for all women. 

If you have not had the opportunity to see it - you should make the time. You should also take your daughters so they too have a comprehension of the fight to gain the rights they will have as women, your children so they have some understanding of why Labour Day is a holiday as well as why they should appreciate their right to have an education and the right to vote.