Lost at School by Ross Greene.

My Leadership team and I are reading Lost at School by Ross Greene. It is the first of his that I have read, although since mentioning it to colleagues, I understand that he has written a lot worth reading. 

I chose this book because of the extreme behaviours that we find ourselves coping with on a daily basis. I find that this new school of mine, contains people with some differing views to mine on how we should support our children's behaviour, especially extreme behaviours. This book delves right into the heart of the matter about why children behave the way they do. It aligns really well with our current move in education towards trauma informed practice. There is a lot of ministry information now about the need to minimise distress in children and we have been looking into these documents as well. I hoped that reading and discussing this book together might help us align our differing views into a shared viewpoint which might then have a flow on effect down the school. If Leadership isn't on the same page then how can we get consistency of practice across the school? 

The first few chapters of the book are quite explicit in terms of where the child is coming from. In a nutshell; "Children do well if they can". This is a provocative statement. How many times have we heard ourselves say. "You are choosing to act this way," or even, 'Was that a good choice?" Taking that one statement on board has had quite an impact on me. When I am helping students de escalate their behaviour or conducting a restorative chat, I now avoid the conversation about 'choice'. I also look at a child and try hard (yes, in the moment!) to think that this child would do well if they could. So what is the problem that the child needs to solve? What need is not being met? 

This book is gold. 

Revision. DFI Week 9. Ubiquitous

The end of an incredible nine week journey. I was worried at the beginning that I would not be able to keep up and this was compounded by the decision to carry on with the course via distance; which felt like a bit of a leap at the time. As it turned out, I discovered the essence of rewindable learning. Knowing that I could come back to it later took the heat out of my concern. There were still moments when I felt swamped by how fast the Create parts were moving and I felt renewed understanding for our students about what it is to be a learner.

The organisation of the weekly sessions was a learning opportunity in itself. As we entered into distance learning, I was able to see how moving in and out of groups could work. It was an advantage to be part of this process as I helped  a few of our teachers learn about google meets, including setting meetings and sharing their screens.  Taking part in google meets myself meant that I picked up tips that I could share. The small group sessions in our course were a great way to develop the professional networks that we look for in courses. They were also a way to ask the questions that we wouldn't have done in the larger groups. The facilitators were wonderfully patient as they worked with their adult students!

One of my big gains was the knowledge that even though I may not have picked things up in the moment for a variety of reasons including computer issues or slow wifi, or just not 'clicking'. I developed the conviction that I would be able to 'get' it. It wasn't that I couldn't, I just hadn't, yet. I stopped doubting my ability and knew that I could. I developed grit. I read Carol Dweck's Positive Mindset  some years ago. As the weeks progressed I thought of her ' I can't do it ...yet but I will,' and as I was working with my little bubble of children at school, I found myself using that language.

This course embodies the whole Manaiakalani kaupapa word in its essence; "Ubiquitous". This course has been authentic ubiquitous learning for me, driving home the question; why wouldn't learning be ubiquitous  for our students?
Exciting times ahead as schools return to yet another new normal. Now is the time to seek out the successes of our distance learning and take the opportunity to move forward.
How will you move forward from here?

Computational Thinking. DFI Week 8. Empowered

Today at DFI,the topic was Computational thinking. I learned about micro:bit. www.makecode.microbit.org. This was a fun coding app that had quite a few different activities to experiment with. It has a makey makey type of device that you connect your computer to, which Gerhard demonstrated to us. There were excellent training videos to work through. Below is my heads or tails flip code. You click on the A button to get  a couple of random throws and then it settles on the image for a head or a tail.  I also made a dice and had my name in lights on a loop. I think that the students will love this. We also had fun playing Mindcraft. I haven't tried that for years.

 The Manaiakalani kaupapa word for this session was 'empowered'. We have delved quite deeply into this concept at school. Our school ethos aligns well with Manaiakalani's vision of connected, visible and empowered. After a huge amount of consultation with board, staff and community we arrived at our vision; Choosing to be an innovative, Catholic community that inspires and empowers learners to succeed. Each word was carefully selected to contribute to the explanation of our ethos.  We choose to be innovative - we want to be overt in our intention about this, unapologetically looking for new ways of thinking and of delivering the curriculum; striving to be research driven and always looking for self improvement. We are distinct in that our special character is Catholic - that is who we are at our core. We want to inspire and empower our learners to be the best learners and the best people that they can be. What drives your vision?                                                                                                                                                                 

Devices - DFI Week Seven.

One of the great things about this Digital Fluency Intensive (DFI) is the learning within the learning. I love the stretch that comes with not only the embedding of  the  Maniakalani pedagogy, but also the incidental (or perhaps not) learning along the way. This is the way technology should be used, as a tool, not a 'topic' We have come a long way from those days! Below is the screencastify that I made in order to present the information and task for a cybersmart lesson. This involved me: finding out about the lesson content, reminding myself about using screencastify in order to explain the content and task, applying that knowledge and then remembering (thanks Nicola) how to embed a slideshow on my blog! So much learning going on amid this desire to ensure the cyber 'smarts' of our students!

I think that the same can be said about most of the members of my staff, myself included, relating to the distance learning. We have all had to learn new skills and so quickly become 'experts' in areas that we weren't even aware of pre lockdown. I have never watched so many 'how to' youtube videos (feel like I have a really good grasp of imovie now to name just one!) and realise that in lots of instances we can find our own answers. - a new face on rewindable learning. Most of the staff are commenting on how much they have loved the new learning that distance learning has invoked.

The children have also learned new digital skills in a short space of time. Just today a teacher told me that she was having trouble in her google meet; she could see the students but they couldn't see her or her screen share. One of the students (year 5 - thanks Mila!) stepped up and shared her screen and helped direct the discussion on fraction sharing. The teacher was not only impressed but also grateful for the support! Go our children! What heartwarming situations have you had throughout this lockdown?

Enabling Access - Sites Week Six DFI - Connected

Learning how to create a google site has been new learning for me. Thanks to the necessities of distance learning, I had already learnt how to upload material to the school hub sites and doing that in itself felt like an achievement. It seemed like a mystery and I  didn't want to upset any preset formatting that had been done. I felt a little like an intruder.  It is timely that my confidence with accessing and putting work on the site has improved at the same time that the mysteries of the workings behind the scene are unfolding through DFI. I still have a lot to learn and need to do some homework on this, but I am excited to be looking at an authentic purpose for my site; Structured Reading in the junior school. (The subject of another blog post!)

The Manaiakalani Kaupapa topic for week six was 'Connected'. I found that the graphic showing the four goals of Manaiakalani reached me this week. I have seen the graphic before but this time I saw how interconnected and important the four goals are. The big picture of enabling access; that learning for all children should be Connected. Through communication  and collaboration with others that sense of connection to a community is developed.
Ubiquitous, where equity is promoted and fostered when children are able to access the learning anytime and anywhere. Visible: a multi layered concept which was the topic of my last blog post.
Empowered: giving students agency through voice, choice and leadership.  Using the Learn, Create, Share framework to manage learning, these lofty goals somehow seem achievable.

The Kaupapa of Manaiakalani has settled on me. It feels like a good fit. The DFI course has further enabled my access to this thinking and I am grateful for it. What have been your 'aha' moments throughout this time?

Collaboration - Sites DFI Week Five - Visible Learning.

The focus for today's Manaiakalani pedagogy talk was about their kaupapa of 'Visible Learning'. This is a multi layered concept. The idea that the children should be able to relate to material  presented in a way that they feel connected with the school resonated with me. How will they know that the work presented to them comes out of their school and is relevant to their context?

Leading Lights wellbeing site

 Not only should the children be engaged and learning (not the same thing) but also the online content should reflect our school's style and culture. The idea of our students feeling connected matters to their wellbeing. There are articles aplenty that talk about this. (Nathan Wallas, Hattie and many others). Leading Lights, our localised collaboration between the Ministries of Education and Health, has many great articles showing how important it is for students to connect with their school, teachers, friends, whanau. The same goes for us.

It was good to be reminded about 'cultural capital' - what it is that we learn as we navigate life and relationships that help us to 'fit in'? It strikes me as an example of social inequity; when some children learn very quickly the language of learning, the nuances of 'teaching and learning' and others don't. I like the idea that digital technologies even out some of the social inequities but understanding the hidden culture behind what the teacher is meaning is still relatively hit and miss for many of our tamariki.


(Boudiue&Gerwitz)

Visible learning in terms of children having access and clarity around their next step learning has been considered good practice for years. We laboriously pinned up our WALTS and LI's on the walls each week and tried to remember to point them out to children; the posters became background wallpaper in moments. We glued them into their books and had them copy them down. We glued curriculum progressions into the backs of students' books in an attempt to personalise them and highlighted or ticked as they mastered them. The introduction of 1:1 computers and progressions (goal) based information not only makes learning visible and personalised for students but also their parents. This is the age of relevant, timely, clear information and it is good. Each child should be able to see the planning and have a voice over the planning process. Children should be able to have conversations about whether or not they are meeting their goals and should expect to have conversations about how they can achieve these goals. The age of just do it because this is what I have planned are fortunately long gone. Transparency and accountability is part and parcel of authentic learning.

Visible learning on walls and tables emphasise and give evidence  of what is happening in learning for the children in the hub. They show and encourage student engagement and give a point of reference for our students. Word walls, interactive displays (can be taken away and put back, or manipulated in some way) have not lost their relevance and are just as important as the site, slide show, explain everything or video. Thankfully this is something that we do not want to lose sight of in my school.

As teachers we have historically thrown the baby out with bath water, what do you think?

Data. DFI Week Four.

Still in Lockdown.The new normal. It is amazing all of the little things that you pick up when you have an authentic need for something. Almost everything that is being covered in the Digital Fluency Intensive is immediately useful. If not in the case of something that I am using then in a conversation with someone who may need it, e.g google drawings last week - although I don't need to use it myself, right now, it is the tool that our teachers are using to plan their lessons. Some of the hints that I have picked up at DFI have been put to good use.

I am excited to put some of the 'Data' new learning to good use as I gather and collate information - my immediate need is my Learning Support register spreadsheet. I could see all of the possibilities of better manipulation and presentation of the data, opening up for me as I worked through the day. I have always wondered how formulas work in spreadsheets!
Also, I enjoyed the tweaks to my Google forms - I hadn't noticed that little add image here button alongside the actual questions.   

Today along with the rest of New Zealand, we reopened our school in an online capacity. I think that by the time it came around to 9:00 this morning, we all just wanted to get on with it!. As I hopped in and out of Google Meets being run by our teachers, I felt very grateful for the technical knowledge that our staff has gained over recent times to enable them to deliver online learning. There has been a massive upskilling for a few, but the recent  couple of years of Manaiakalani PD has certainly taken the fear (and substitution - SAMR) out of the digital delivery of the curriculum.

I love the way new knowledge expands my brain!