Day25 - Empowering Girls - A reflection...

There have been more and more conversations recently about the need for young people to be risk takers, problem solvers, critical thinkers, collaborators and creators in order to thrive in the workplace they will enter. In my experience, it is the idea of taking risks, the fear of not getting it right and the need to know all the answers before “leaning in” (Sheryl Sandberg - COO Facebook) that inhibits girls. It has become a bit of a mission of mine to empower girls, which luckily is the vision at St Margaret’s College!

I was incredibly fortunate to be in on the ground when The Centre for Innovation was created at St Margaret’s College. It is common knowledge there is a very real shortage of women in the tech industry. I can attest to this having entered the tech world myself - but that’s for another post. Initially this was a key driver behind establishing The Centre for Innovation. However, what I see as being the real strengths of providing girls with opportunities to tinker, create and innovate is the resilience and self confidence that is developed throughout the process.

I made it my mission this year to incorporate new ways of learning into my teaching and learning programmes and I was blown away by the capabilities of the young women I worked with. It was important when thinking about incorporating innovation into English and Social Science that the learning was authentic and it wasn’t simply a bit of “play time” at the end of a unit - not that I’m against play!  Earlier this year the world celebrated Shakespeare’s birthday (400 years) which put The Bard in the spotlight. We had the Pop Up Globe Theatre here in Auckland and a number of the students in my class were lucky enough to get along, so I decided to introduce my Year 8 class to Shakespeare - I’m a bit of a fan! Their initial responses were very interesting…

• “Isn’t Shakespeare only studied in the Senior School?”
• “Aren’t we too young…”
• “It’s really hard, we don’t have to read the play do we?”
• “Why are we learning about something so old?”

So I approached things from a different angle and took that last statement, adapted it slightly, and we embarked on an inquiry into - “Why is Shakespeare still relevant and why should we study his works?” I ditched the plan and started again looking at everything through a different lense.  

The unit culminated in the students using their understanding of Shakespeare’s language, plays (Twelfth Night) and his influence on popular culture to bring Shakespeare alive for their generation. The brief was for the girls to incorporate new technologies to create something relevant and original for their peers.

I am all for giving students choice and see a high level of engagement when they drive their own learning. However, I also see students try to take the easy way out. I had girls instantly ask if they could simply act out a key scene of “Twelfth Night” and create an iMovie. I asked if this would challenge them. The short answer was no. The brief then extended to choosing a project that would challenge and excite them.

The results were outstanding and included:

• A 3D printed range of Shakespeare merchandise - including the “quote hanger” and a 3D printed bobblehead of Shakespeare.

• Gamifying the plot of “Twelfth Night”.

• The use of Scratch to create a trailer for the film “She’s The Man”.

• The use of Minecraft to collaboratively create the setting of “Twelfth Night”. This was brought together and analysed using iMovie.

• A group wrote the lyrics to a rap based on the plot and themes of “Twelfth Night”. They created a music video using iMovie and Garageband.

• The use of papertronics to create a gift card range incorporating Shakespeare’s language and themes.

• 3D printed fridge magnets of Shakespeare’s famous quotes.

There were times that girls found their task “too hard” and wanted to give up or change direction. But they didn’t give up, they dug deep, persevered and experienced success. There was one group that reminded me of the young boy in the film “Most Likely To Succeed” who worked tirelessly to complete his section of the class project. This group worked around the clock, overcoming challenges and they were extremely proud of their finished project. There was such a strong sense of achievement that the class organised a celebration of learning afternoon. They invited the senior leadership team and other classes to see their learning. Sadly they ran out of time to get their parents along, however, the learning was shared with parents via the students’ LINC-ED learning portfolios.

This unit of work with this Year 8 class was one of the highlights of my professional career.  Why?

Being flexible

At times it can be harder work to deviate from the plan but taking the teachable moments, shaping them and enabling students to share in the direction of the learning is powerful.

Collaboration

We can never know it all and I had the good fortune of working with a team of exceptional teachers at St Margaret’s. I would like to acknowledge Linda Chong (Head of The Centre for Innovation) and Sarah Coursey (Library and e-Learning Centre Manager) for supporting this learning.

Facilitator rather than fountain

It can feel uncomfortable when we, as teachers, don’t hold the knowledge. There was a great deal of problem solving and learning alongside the students for me throughout this unit.

Embrace new learning and become a learner

I find it is becoming too easy for teachers to opt out of the digital world because they feel the students can pick it up and often know more than them. Whilst it’s great to be an enabler of tech, it’s important to continue to keep learning.

I was extremely proud of the creativity, perseverance and self management skills exhibited by these exceptional young women. I am looking forward to seeing the pathways that they choose and hope they take squiggly ones (Claudia Batten - The Squiggly Line). I would love to see some of them become passionate entrepreneurs, innovators and tech leaders!

Aimie Sibson - Former English Teacher and Digital Learning Facilitator St Margaret’s College,  Co-founder LINC-ED

Day 19 -Beyond Your Own Backyard: collaborating across the globe

Collaboration and Cooperation are two of the educational buzz-words of today. Yet, at first glance, they would seem to be fairly similar to each other. In fact, when I searched for a definition of each, the first results I got were:

Collaboration: the action of working with someone to produce something

Cooperation: the action or process of working together to the same end

John Spencer explores the differences between the two in this video: (embed video - https://youtu.be/Gr5mAboH1Kk )

He concludes that both are essential for creative work that is more innovative and of higher quality. The challenge for teachers in smaller schools is that you may not have other teachers to collaborate and cooperate with. This is where being a connected educator can really benefit you. No longer are you confined to collaborating with only the teachers in your school or area, now you have an entire world full of teachers to collaborate with!

So, how do you get started? The Connected Educator Starter Kete has a couple of ideas. You could start by going to the shared Google Slide to read others’ stories of why being a connected educator matters to them, then add your own story of being a connected educator. After that, you could check out some of these crowdsourced resources:

• Making the writing programme fun - Started by Anne Kenneally in mid 2013 as a way to share fun ways to engage learners with their writing

• Encouraging blog interaction - Started by Anne Kenneally in August 2013 to promote classroom blogs.
• Maths Inspiration - Ideas to inspire, motivate, and educate... Started by Jennie Lyall in August 2013
• Digital Citizenship Started by Annemarie Hyde in October 2013
• Chromebook Tips and Tricks... Started by Allanah King in May 2014
• Collaborative Planning template examples... Started by Mark Maddren in October 2014
• ANZAC Day Resources... Started by Anne Kenneally in March 2015
• Picture Book Celebration... Started by Bridget Compton-Moen in April 2015
• Growth Mindset Resources... Started by Justine Hughes in April 2015
• Modern Learning for secondary schools... Started by Tessa Gray in May 2015
• Matariki... Started by Anne Kenneally in June 2015

Remember to add your ideas to the resources while you’re there - your contributions are valuable and vital to the continuing success of these documents.

Finally, if you want some ideas on a topic not covered above, why not start your own collaborative, crowdsourced document? Put your ideas in to get it started, then share the link with your PLN and ask them to contribute and share. If you’ve already started one, share a link in the comments below.

This is just one way of broadening your collaborative horizons. How do you collaborate with your PLN to be a more innovative, creative educator?

Maree Boyd

Day17- Leaping into the future through a portal of collaboration!

The Bays Cluster Schools came together for a two-day festival of technology last week.  120 Year 5 to 8 children from Sumner, Redcliffs, Mount Pleasant, Heathcote Valley and Our Lady Star of the Sea School, participated in one of 12 workshops facilitated by teachers and 2 specialist organisations, The Mindlab and Fablab, who have a passion for technology and a desire to share their knowledge to the greater community.  

The children were exposed to a range of technological concepts, including coding, robotics, e-textiles, stop motion movie making and much more.  The aim of the event is to not only encourage inquiring minds to explore the future of learning, but also to facilitate collaboration amongst a cluster of schools.

Two workshops were also held by Year 9 students from St Andrew’s College and St Margaret’s College, who volunteered their time as a way ‘Giving Back’.  They created lessons using computer coding with Scratch and Makey Makey kits plus Bee Bots and taught 2 sessions per day to Year 3 and 4 children.

The event was launched with an introductory speech focusing on the importance of approaching this opportunity with a sense of curiosity, creativity and persistence.  These just a few of the 24 Character Strengths which are essential to being creators of the future.  The Bays Cluster Schools have been part of a Ministry of Education trial over the last year which has embraced the importance of Character Strengths to enhance the Wellbeing of our youth and thus ensure their education is holistic. 

Schira Withers 

Oct 3rd Crowdsourcing - an example of Collaboration

Day 3 Connected Educator Month and 31 Days of Blogging

Day 3  - Social Media

Being ‘networked’ or having digital connections in today’s online world is increasingly important both personally and professionally.  Many of us rely on social media to keep in touch with friends and family; to learn, to create and share; to promote our skills, products and services or to carry out key aspects of daily work.

There are two types of social media;  social networks and online communities. So what is the difference?

According to Social Media Today, social networks are:

• Bound together by pre-established interpersonal connections
• Each connection has his or her own social network
• Characterized by a spider web-like “network” structure

While online communities are:

• Bound together by a common interest or topic
• ANY person can be a part of ANY community
• Characterised by a more complex overlapping and “nested” structure.
• READ MORE HERE

Collaborating to Create a Crowd Sourced Resource

Below is an example of a crowdsourced resource started in September 2015 by Educator Anne

Kenneally @annekenn. Anne created a slide show, made the link open to anyone to edit and then posted the link on Twitter. This then becomes a shared resource co-created by others. What a fantastic way to use Social Media. Another crowdsourced literacy resource also started by Anne

has over 100 slides. Think this is a good idea? Why not start small and create a shared resource

in your syndicate or department - you can share innovative practice, useful resources or ways you 

are using digital tools. By the end of the year you have collaboratively created an awesome resource.

Here is the LINK to the resource

Staff Meetings for Collaboration only!

BAN staff meetings for giving of information; staff meetings for collaboration only.

Two weeks ago in an #EdChatNZ session on wellbeing, the following question was asked. What SPECIFIC changes in schools would increase wellbeing of staff and students? My suggestion was to:

‘BAN staff meetings for giving of information; staff meetings for collaboration only.’

In the space of a very short time I had 14 retweets and 19 favourites. Given the frantic pace of the #EdChatNZ stream, I figured that my frustration with staff meetings was shared by many other teachers.

Why is it necessary to gather very busy teachers in one room to give them information? Why on earth in the age of communication can information not be shared in a timely manner digitally? When I posed this questions to other educators, many like my fellow tweeters agreed, however I had one teacher tell me of how when their new principal introduced communication via email, that all of a sudden they no longer had staff meetings, and that this had a huge negative impact on staff morale. So if we are no longer to use staff meetings as a platform for giving of information, then they must be reinvented.

Image from :thegoldguys.blogspot.com/

Staff meetings for collaboration only, seems like a wonderful solution, but perhaps it is not as easy as it sounds. Collaboration involves the development of mutual understanding, through a process of communication based on a common frame of reference (Bromme, 2000). It is a form of interprofessional practice, and essential to its success, is teachers considering themselves, and treating each other, as professionals. The primary indicators that are used to determine the effectiveness of interprofessional practice, can also be used to highlight the essential components of collaboration in a teaching environment. These primary indicators include: the level of integration of knowledge; and the level of cooperation, integration, and the development of a collective identity(Specialist Teaching Programme, 2015).

Fiore et al. (2010) identified that when the knowledge product being produced originates from the group’s discourse, rather than from one individual, then this is a sign that integration of knowledge has occurred. So a staff meeting that promotes positive discourse about a topic, where everyone contributes, and where there is a common frame of reference, is a good start. The second primary indicator of effective interprofessional practice is the levels of cooperation, integration and the development of a collective identity (Specialist Teaching Programme, 2015). Hardy, Lawrence, and Grant (2005) believed that these could be assessed by considering how the individuals use language, to describe the group, or how the group works together. So a staff meeting where all staff are included in the ‘we’, rather than ‘them’ and ‘us’, would be considered essential for effective interprofessional practice and therefore collaboration.

So why is it that staff meetings that are for collaboration only, are not the reality in the majority of New Zealand schools? I believe that part of the reason is because real collaboration involves conflict. It is far easier for teachers to avoid conflict, opt out of real collaboration, and instead simply cooperate. In professional cooperation there is no requirement for individuals to develop a mutual understanding of the activity or task, they simply do what they are asked, avoid any disagreements, and take no agency over the outcome.

So my challenge to my fellow educators is to start the change. Embrace the life of a professional educator, and commence with the dissemination of information using regular emails. Collaborate with others in your school about everything. Find some common frames of reference, and use these as the basis of your collaborative efforts. Be mindful of your language and use the royal ‘we’ whenever you can. Get comfortable with conflict, and use it as a platform for critical thinking. Then, and only then……..tackle the staff meeting.

Glenys Hanley, Kaikoura High School

References

Bromme, R. (2000). Beyond one's own perspective: The psychology of cognitive interdisciplinarity. In P. Weingart, Stehr, N. (Ed.), Practicing Interdisciplinarity (pp. 115-133). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Fiore, S., Rosen, M., Smith-Jentsch, K., Salas, E., Letsky, M., & Warner, N. (2010). Towards an understanding of metacognition in teams: Predicting processes in complex collaborative contexts. Human Factors, 52(2), 203-224.

Hardy, C., Lawrence, T., & Grant, D. (2005). Discourse and collaboration: The role of conversations and collective identity. The Academy of Management Review, 30(1), 58-77.

Specialist Teaching Programme. (2015). Domain 2: Interprofessional Practice Evidence Based Interprofessional Practice   Retrieved from http://masseyuniversity.mrooms.net/mod/book/view.php?id=3077&chapterid=6436

Inter-school Collaboration in Year 5&6

Inter-school Collaboration In Year 5 & 6

Colin Hill (Linwood Ave), Tim Kunowski (Bromley) and Kate Bodger (Bamford)all teach year 5/6 in the Linwood Cluster.

We all knew each other previously, but connected through our E-learning LeadersCluster meetings. Through these meetings we were able to share our ideas about teaching and learning.We all started following each other through Twitter and kept up with each other's class blogs. We found that our children had very similar backgrounds and are often associated with each other outside of school through sporting and cultural activities.Collaborating online through blogging and Twitter was a great way to work collaboratively with each other. We would all share new ideas, sites and apps that had been successful for our learners. The success of our own collaboration made us want to explore opportunities for our children to connect with each other. We liked the Kids Chat NZ Twitter model but wanted to keep it specific to our  community. Instead of using Twitter we decided to use a back channel - the website"Today's meet" as we found it was more secure for when we were just getting started. We created a hashtag  #linwoodkidschat so we could have a live feed on Twitter of  photos of the children to make it more interactive. We were able to set topics that  were relevant to our community. 

The first chat was sharing about our classroom and what we like about our schools.We used it as a chance for the children to get to know each other. The second wasthe highlights of the term where we reflected on the learning that had occurred andshared some of the children's work. We wanted to promote student voice and havean audience for the children to share their learning.Children got to know each other as well as the teachers of each classroom. In oneinstance outside of the classroom some of the children recognised Colin saying“there’s Mr Hill, there’s Mr Hill!! The Linwood Ave teacher!” It was great that they feltcomfortable approaching Colin as they felt like they knew him already. 

Working together wasn’t without its challenges; Colin co-teaches in a class with 50children and found it difficult getting everyone to share their opinion without flooding the chat with too many comments. Trying to get three classes together to havediscussions in a live chat is a logistical challenge (nightmare). Kate’s class finishedearly and we all had different lunch times to work around. We also had to work with 3different class programmes in 3 different schools making arranging times to meet online difficult.

Working within any collaborative classroom there are always different approaches to delivering content. This was no different for our chat, as we were all approaching it indifferent ways with varied levels of interpretation and what we wanted to get out of it.We had to revisit the purpose of why we were doing this. It was important that if we were setting aside time out of our weekly programmes we needed to see the benefits for our learners. Our main goals were for student connection, giving the students avoice, a forum for evaluation and feedback, sharing and celebrating success andengaging in conversations about our learning. So when we revisited the purpose wefound it was important that we could make this work sustainably, providing moreflexibility for all involved. We are now in the process of refining how we willcollaborate and move forward. 

For this term we have created a blog for sharing our learning and providing thechildren with an audience who can provide constructive feedback from across ourwider community. We are also going to provide tasks and other challenges throughthe blog to encourage meaningful participation across our schools. This will mean thechildren will be working on similar projects using the same language and getting arange of formative feedback on their work.As all of our learners have their own Google accounts, a blog seemed to makesense. Learners can access it anytime, anywhere. We also have more optionsregarding the adding of different media types (as opposed to Twitter and Today’sMeet). We can see an opportunity for our children to be independently responding to,and interacting with, their community in many ways. We are still exploring this format,but are all genuinely interested in the possibilities that may present themselvesmoving forward.

Three Inspirations

As part of Connected Educator Month, #ChchED has done 31 Days of Blogging. To round this off, the committee are giving a quick overview of three key people/groups who have inspired them to be connected educators themselves.

Matt Nicoll
St Andrew's College

• ChchED Committee
• edchatNZ Conference Steering Committee
• scichatNZ Committee
• edSMAC Co-Founder

ULearn12 was the big change for me for becoming a more connected educator. Twitter and VPLD were the first avenues I used to be more connected, then I started to take some risks with making my pedagogy and keeping an blog to share these risks and innovations. But to take these steps, I needed inspiration from others:

1. KEVIN HONEYCUTT
Website: http://kevinhoneycutt.org/
Twitter: @kevinhoneycutt

Kevin was one of the Keynote Speakers at ULearn12. Just watch the first fifteen minutes of his talk and you might get an idea why he is #1 on my list:

Collaborate, innovate and educate from EDtalks on Vimeo.

Don't wait until it is perfect to get started, just get started. I didn't wait to be any good at filming my teaching and posting it on YouTube and our class blogs. They are not perfect, but they are useful to my students and to many others. Thank you to Kevin for giving the inspiration and courage to get started!


2. DANIELLE MYBURGH
Website: http://missdtheteacher.blogspot.co.nz/
Twitter: @MissDtheTeacher

When Danielle started edchatNZ, and its respective fortnightly twitter chat via #edchatNZ, she was still a Provisionally Registered Teacher! From modest beginnings in 2012 (after ULearn12...), Danielle has been a "lone nut" leading an amazing team which brought us the first edchatNZ Conference in September 2014. I am proud to say that I am one of her most ardent followers and feel privileged to be able to call her a true friend. Every time I am in Auckland, catching up over coffee is always an inspiring highlight of my trip. Watch this space; Danielle is one to watch!

edchatNZ itself is probably the main reason that Danielle ranks so highly on this list. Via edchatNZ, I have built a really strong PLN and received great feedback for my own blog and ideas. Via edchatNZ, I have got help with units (or even just the teaching of individual concepts) that I thought were a bit "stale" or just wanted more variety with. Via edchatNZ, I have found the courage to share my ideas, and even to help build some other communities, such as edSMAC, scichatNZ and ChchED.

3. BRENT CUMMACK
Sorry, Brent is not on twitter, nor does he have a website or blog. This does not make him any less "connected" but it does mean that I will need to email him about this post, instead of letting my PLN wheels do the turning for me.

Brent is my Head of Department. He is on this list because of the faith he has shown in me, and the opportunities he has afforded me. He is also here because he is a voice of rational reason when I start getting ahead of myself with my "great ideas!"

In 2013, Brent and I both went to the International Conference on Thinking (ICOT 2013) in Wellington. We were both inspired by what we were exposed to and driven to make changes in our own department. Brent then organised for us both to visit some great schools in Melbourne, Australia.

Brent is a wonderful leader of our department. He has made me feel valued, while also offering much-needed advice and critique. He is open-minded to ideas, so long as they are based upon sound pedagogy and match the goals of the department. He has encouraged me (and others in our department) and never been an obstacle in the way of innovation. He is not an advocate for "we've always done it that way", so he belongs squarely at #3 for me.


Bridget Compton-Moen 

Selwyn House

It was very hard for me to narrow down to just three people who inspire me as I get amazing ideas from every member of my PLN. So I've decided to share three blogs I consider must- reads. I've also chosen to share international blogs as many of the educators who inspire me are kiwis and I suspect you'll know them well!

In no particular order-

1. Langwitches- This is a truly amazing site with lots of amazing information for connected educators. There are so many treasures here I'm not sure which to highlight but this is a must if you have or are considering setting up a class blog. Silvia Tolisano is truly inspiring.

2.  WhatEdSaid- Edna Sackson is an amazing inquiry teacher who teaches in a PYP school like myself. Her posts are always thought-provoking and challenge me to ensure that there is an inquiry disposition in my class. She is awesome! Two other amazing inquiry teachers are Kath Murdoch of JustWondering and Maggie Hos-McGrane of TechTransformation. Maggie teaches in the most incredible school in Mumbai so her blog combines two of my great loves; inquiry and India!

3. NerdyBookClub- This is a must read for anyone who teaches literacy or loves reading! It was started by the incredible Donalyn Miller (The Book Whisperer) but the posts are crowd-sourced. If you are anything like me, you'll spend a lot of your time finding the perfect book for your students and this is where I find reading material to check out for my learners. Add it to your feedly!

Ok, so I snuck two extras in there........ all five of these blogs are fantastic. Enjoy!