MIT - Design Thinking: Connections & Resources

WHO?

Who does my Moonshot Project involve, from the base to the tip?
Who is helping me trial the ideas?
Who are my team?
Who has a voice in this project?
Who will it influence?

Just as I was running out of ideas, we were asked to use the BAR thinkers key.

What a great way to continue.

B - Bigger Think bigger

A - Add, Who else can I add (I even asked those around me to help)

R - Remove. This was not so hard as some people are just busy. I remove Manaiakalani because I felt I had doubled up, but I am thinking, there are so many facets to this maybe it should still be there. 

MIT - Design Thinking: Interpretation Session

How We Might turn this Problem into an Opportunity?

As a group, we had to move around and ask (using post-it notes) 'How might we...?' Making sure we use the word we as we are all in this together, that way we can help and pick each other's brains.

I found this process very interesting and felt relieved when I realised I wasn't alone.
It made me start to think of alternatives to engaging children, especially boys with writing.

MIT - Design Thinking: Empathy Session

Empathy for our Students

Role Play

Once again we joined our buddies from the 5 Whys task as they knew our focus the best and could help with the role play.

I nearly burst out laughing in the middle of mine. Sarah and I had organised that she would be the student writing the typical weekend story.

Such as: In the weekend I went to the pools. I got wet and then we had lunch. Then we went home.

As I walked around the group of teachers watching I took a bit of liberty and asked another teacher what she had written and she said

"In the weekend I..."

As I hadn't discussed the conversation with this teacher.

I said, "Keeping writing, we will come back to the beginning shortly."

Learning my lesson I carried on to 'my student' and asked again.

"In the weekend we went to the shops," Sarah said proudly.

I asked, "How did you get there?"

"We walked."

"Could you start the story with Walking to the shops.."

I think this happens as children often write about their weekend to help build up writing mileage and it is an easy beginning to help younger students focus. I believe we need to teach them other ways to start writing by using verbs, onomatopoeia, questions...

Without these deliberate acts of teaching, we are expecting students to read our minds and guess the criteria we are using to mark their work against.

Our focus is on WHO?

Who has the problem? Why is this a problem for them?

We had to think about the students what to help. Who are they? What characteristics, strengths, dispositions do these people have that you presume will contribute to this situation.

MIT - Tweaking the Moonshot Proposal for 2020

Modifying the Proposal

After the 'Board Meeting', we were given the opportunity to tweak or redefine our moonshot proposal.

The teacher who played 'the lawyer' was my first port of call. She had made an appropriate criticism about my proposal:

"I want to improve boys writing by helping them to write interesting and descriptive stories." (or thereabouts)

The valid point she made was she wanted her children to be able to write descriptively but not just imaginative stories. In fact, she qualified the comment with not everyone will write a book. I want them to be able to argue a point or share their point of view in detail.

As a writer, I knew I didn't want to repeat the same words so I originally changed the last word to stories from writing. But I could see her point and agreed stories was too specific for the proposal.

I also realised it is not just about what I want, but about what the students and parents want.

MIT - Design Thinking: Discovery Session

Role Play

The Board informed the Community of the Focus for the Strategic Plan

This was an interesting exercise. We had to pretend we were attending a meeting sharing the direction the school was heading. The Board Chairman was filling in for the Principal to explain the new direction with little information. We all had a different parental role, from immigrant, local hard-working single mothers to affluent lawyers and doctors who were unsure if this was the right place for their children and local tradespeople.

There was some polite but heated discussion as people tried to fulfil their roles in the community and gather information on the direction the school was heading.

 

 

Proposals for the direction of the school ranged from having a single focus to that of the whole school. Questions were asked regarding what teachers were doing in the class and how more able students were to achieve if their focus was only on the underachiever. As "the community", we tried not to blame others but when you thought you were doing the best for your child and you went through university and expected the same for your children you believed they were firmly grounded in the basics. So how were they being catered for?

Then there was the immigrant, who was quiet and didn't understand what the meeting was about. There was no consideration given to this person and why they didn't share their opinion. There was also the locals who worked multiple jobs to make ends meet who could be made to feel less regardless of ethnicity.

MIT - 5 Whys for Moonshot Proposal 2020

After creating our proposal for Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher we buddied up with another participant for the critical thinking stage of the proposal. Two heads critiquing are always better than one. We had to wait for each answer before asking the next question. Or we may find the question was answered. Trying to come up with 5 Why questions to help us dig deeper was challenging. One thing that made this process easier was using dynamic emails, as you could access the whole conversation in a larger form in Gmail, without having to open the link to the slide and scroll through the comments.

The 5 Whys

Is a repetitive interrogative process,used to explore the cause and effect relationship underling a particular problem. The method has no hard and fast rules about what lines of questions to explore, or how long to continue the search for additional root causes. Thus, even when the method is closely followed, the outcome still depends upon the knowledge and persistence of the people involved.

My problem is - Engaging Year 5 boys with writing.

My buddy, Sarah asked some interesting questions, which helped me to dig deeper and made me think about the proposal. Am I asking the right question? Is this really the problem I need to address?

In our area children and families often speak in broken English. When writing we expect full sentences and a more formal register to be used. So as teachers we are teaching sentence structure to encourage full sentence and the use of more formal language but it can still be a challenge. Reading is often modelled more frequently, and teachers try to teach writing using formulas like, 

 In the weekend or Last week...

 It could be a hindrance to their creativity. However, without structured sentences (and sometimes with) the meaning of what they are trying to say can be lost. I was trying to read a piece of work yesterday and misinterpreted words partly because of spelling and partly because of the way the sentence was written. Personally, when including dialogue I love to have it written like they'd say it at home adding personal voice to the piece. We often use models from books which isn't necessary formal register but the structure is more formal. Especially as students learn the difference and understand as they get older, how to construct a sentence and the way they talk at school is different from how they talk at home.

 Our literacy is based on our inquiry so if we are investigating a scientific phenomenon, then we might look at reports on that area. Personally, I like to encourage students to write using imagination during this time too where they have to pretend they are in the spacecraft visiting the planet (or some such). I wondered if teachers find teaching this sort of writing (report/ transactional) easier as there is a formula to the writing. Whereas the narrative is slightly less, although is you through in a problem growth of character, twist and the final solution you can write a narrative using a formula. Maybe it is because it can be so personal and we don't want to judge the content we find this type of writing more challenging to teach.

I do believe some students struggle to use their imagination. There are many possible reasons for this it can be harder to teach. "Close your eyes and imagine," if it is not something they do often, they won't get it. Life has changed and although students may roam streets they are not playing up trees, making huts, dressing up and meeting a range of people (sometimes this may happen through experiences at school). Personally have read a lot and being exposed to different experiences throughout a long life these experience make it easier. Students are being encourage to read a wider range but this doesn't happen until they can read fluently. (Which is fine) And their life experiences can be limited, as they can spend numerous hours in front of the Xbox, PlayStation etc, hindering the opportunities to use and stimulate their imagination at times.

I do believe it is a skill that can help in many situations. By using their imagination they could be the next great inventor creator of a vaccine or just a way to survive what life throws our/their way. They may even become a teacher and by using their imagination inspire the next generation. Not all through writing, however. But by learning to explore their imagination and develop the detail they are more likely to be prepared to think outside the box and be creative.

MIT - Moonshot Proposal for 2020

I want to create a proposal around writing but was unsure how to start until we were given the template for the Moonshot Proposal. I love the name because we encourage students to aim high so they may fall amongst the stars.

We have had to discuss the proposal with a buddy and look at a challenge to achievement we would like to reduce or eliminate. I am looking forward to developing this from a teacher's and a writer's perspective.

Culturally Responsive Practice - Priority Learners

As a school, we are looking at the teachers being the priority learners because we need to learn how to best educate, teach, facilitate in our learning spaces. By being the priority learner we can learn ways to help change our practice so we are responsive to our students. We have been asking a few questions to get things started.

What does a priority learner look like?

 

What do we do to engage our students?

Culturally Responsive Practice - What is it?

As a school we are having another look at being Culturally Responsive. I have had the privilege to be involved in discussions and had information given to me at other school too. 

To be a Culturally Responsive Teacher we need to be careful not to fixate on any one culture.

Being Culturally Responsive is part of being a Certified Teacher - Criteria 9

- respond effectively to the diverse language and cultural experiences, and the varied strengths, interests and needs of individuals and groups of -akonga

     i. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of social and cultural influences on learning, by         working effectively in the bicultural and multicultural contexts of learning in Aotearoa New Zealand
     ii. select teaching approaches, resources, technologies and learning and assessment activities that  are inclusive and effective for diverse - akonga
     iii. modify teaching approaches to address the needs of individuals and groups of - akonga

As effective teachers we all try to reflect on our own behaviour in class to see if what we did could have been done better whether it worked or not. 

We know as effective teachers the importance of knowing our students inorder to build the relationship with them and their families, even when this is tricky.

Being judgement free isn't always easy but it is important. I have been in a school previously where Leaders were judged harshly this filtered down to the teachers and onto the students. It does not help make for positive learning gains. But as teachers need to break the cycle as this could be the same environment students are dealing with at home.

With the students I teach I try to making learning hands on and interesting helping to get the buy to help accelerate learning.

Slides thanks to Ruth Kereopa.

DFI Christchurch and Hokitika

Two wonderful full on days, answering questions and sharing information about gmail, calendar, hangouts and keep.

Gmail has short cuts and we all love things that make life easier. A few of the ones we looked at today were:
g+i = inbox
g+t = sent
g+a = all mail
g+d = draft
g+s = starred
c = compose
/ = search
v = move to

Through hangouts we looked at task students completed through the Summer Learning Journey (SLJ) and unpacked the comments. This is important as this is what can help accelerate learning. Just like a a book, Well done doesn't tell us or the student much. However a well constructed comment from a fellow student, teacher or principal inspires the student to dig deeper and keep trying.

Here is one tool I use to help remind my students how to structure comments for each other and
Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu. 

I found out in Christchurch I need to play with groups a 'newish'  feature I will ask our admin to roll out. That is like a contact list you can invite people to join (and they can turn down) or if you can add like a group for PTA and they will received the information regardless.

We talked about how to a line photos for a blog post and an easy way to do this is through google draw.

You would think after doing it for 4 times I had workflow down, but even I manage to pick up things. I will say I am getting better with quick-time which is great as I usually work on a hp which does use quick-time, So Bonus.

SOLO

We have been on the journey to embed SOLO into our school for the last few years. And although students are all at different levels (from New Entrant to Year 8). The majority are all able to show or explain where they fit.

As a school we have flipped the curriculum and instead of first focussing on Literacy and Numeracy we focus on Inquiry and our reading, writing and numeracy stems from this.

This term our inquiry was 'What Inspires ME?' As a group the Year 5 and 6s focussed on the Arts. How people are inspired to be artists and how art can inspire others.

We read about New Zealand Carvers such as Joe Kemp, Painters Pascal Atiga- Bridger, Janine and Charles Williams. Actors Taika Waititi, Billy T James and Temuera Morrison.

After researching we wrote about our artist we have to write an information report. This lead to students learning more about paragraphs and when to start a new one.

Hands on activities included carving with clay, learning to follow music graphics and notation. Food experiments making ice cream, marbled milk and ice on a rope.

We also covered Food for thought and the children were given a budget to buy food this lead into numeracy and finding the best prices for different items.

Teaching Dialogue and How to Record It

After our last writing sample, I notice the attempts to include speech. We looked at how it would look if it was being spoken aloud.

So we drew 2 people talking and added the conversation that would happen at home. Then we looked at how it would look in a story. (Our first draft in our books we used stick figures)

We need to remember that speaking does happen in a vacuum. In other words the people are doing something, cooking dinner, playing on the PlayStation...

Each person who speaks what they say starts on a new line.

If only two people are speaking that the third or consecutive lines do not need the tag line 'said Mum.' only the first two need it.

Methamphetamine Exposure and the effects on Learning

As more and more children are exposed to different stimulants that impact on learning I have been learning from Kathryn Sears and about the effects of exposure of Methamphetamine.

This slide show covers features of Methamphetamine Exposure from prenatal to school age children. How children social interactions can be affected along with physical characteristics and communication before explaining the implications for teaching and learning. Along with strategies to help students.

We can make a difference with positive parenting/teaching and early inventions. This is so true for many learning issues. So Kathryn is not trying to to make teaching harder by giving teachers another thing to do.

The implications for teachers is to ensure we are collaborative and have strong communication and understanding with the family and other agencies we need to help provide a suitable learning programme. This will also help with getting to know the child's background and understanding their family environment creating a foundation for home school partnership. One way to help build a positive relationship is to focus on their strengths with hands on activities. 

A well structured learning environment that is predictable helps with the unsettled child. All students with learning difficulties enjoy visual aides to give them clues to help anticipate what is happening next. It is important to have lots of repetition with out the teacher or learner becoming bored. 

Using prompt pause praise gives them an opportunity to think about what you are asking without getting confused because the teacher has continued waffling on. If you are havign a change in the programme remember to forewarn the student. 

DFI 2019 Chch

Today I had the pleasure of visiting Christchurch with Manaiakalani. As a facilitator I had a fair bit to chew on.

The day start well with Google Keep one of my favourite places to keep information and notes that are reusable.  Unlike the old paper post it notes the stick to my laptop for a while until they start curling or fall off to the bottom on who knows where only to be found at a much later date.

As a picture speaks a 100 words I find the part where you can add a photo or image extremely useful, I can see what I have stored at the caravan or use it for inspiration in the class writing program and it is to find.

The feature that helps the most is the reminder where I can set a location so that it reminds me through my phone (where I also have it loaded) as I drive past the shop to stop and get milk.

Once again even as the facilitator I was able to learn more. Quick Time for Mac needs to be set up and the microphone granted access. This is an easy step to forget as it doesn't ask for access like loom or screen-castify does. So then you get lovely videos of a discussion with their screen shared but no sound. Duh!

As the workshop was on work flow we discussed gmail, calendar and hangouts. which can make meetings so much more manageable if you are unable to make to the site.

Calendar with its wonderful letter short cuts , as goggle continues to develop products there is always more J and K work like arrow, J takes you forward to the next day and K takes you back, (year, month of day which ever view you are in. N also works for next.

I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did, Thank you for having me Christchurch.

Report Writing

Oh yeah, it's that time of year again!

Reports can be a challenge whether changing schools or with changes of staff. Everyone seems to have their favourite go-to comments and those phrases they would rather not see.

The hardest part of writing reports is trying to sum up what a child is like. It is personal and depends so much on the relationship you have with the child and their whanau. We are making a judgment on their personality, from our point of view.

Mathematics, Reading, Writing and Inquiry are so much easier as they are based on empirical data, learning intentions and outcomes, whether they have been achieved or not.

While writing reports, I continue to reflect: Have I done enough for this child? What else could I have done? Could I have done it better?

Here are a few of my favourite ideas for general comments:

Over the years, I have found writing about the key competencies easier too. TKI has some great ideas.

Sentence beginnings for everything else include...

'Remember not to be too fluffy. Reporting is not about adjectives and adverbs but facts about learning.'

I try not to repeat a sentence starter in a box on the same subject or curriculum area. The phrase .... needs to.... makes me think I should have done more, or why didn't I teach him that? 

I also notice as students get older, the phrase "beginning to ..", how do I know if they are beginning or if they have been trying to do that for a while?

Another sentence beginning I question, "would benefit from..." (yes they probably would but, I hate being told what to do with my children, so why would someone else what me to tell them how to raise theirs?

Don't get me wrong, I do give it to the parents straight. If "Fred" is a little sod, I would have talked to parents throughout the year and they will expect to see it in the report. 

Try to focus on things they can practise or what they are going to learn next as these are important. I want the parents to feel they have a choice in how they can help as they know their 'kiddywinks' best and what they can do at home.