Encouraging Growth in Year 9 Students

Today I had two very interesting conversations with two groups of Year 9 students.

The first conversation was out of the blue... mainly because I was so interested with their overall use of digital tools for their learning in that class (I was relieving) and asked a few questions... which turned into a very deep and meaningful provocation where we discussed the concepts around equality vs equity and how we might rethink how we are fearful of stolen property as being our main concern about going BYOD...

The questions really just began around asking if they all used the network, google docs, google classroom... whether they feel comfortable helping their teachers with digital things or their peers in class. Whether they understood the issue around why certain teachers were more unlikely to use digital tools for learning compared to other teachers. Many of these questions were ones I ask of my own colleagues when we discuss around these big issues with future focussed learning.

How cool it was to hear these students articulate their frustrations and how interesting it was to try get them to change their thinking around what it means to be truly equitable compared to equal. How there are just different starting points for most people and why this is a problem.

Without saying anything about white privilege directly - this group of students were arriculating the issues I hear often from parents and staff. Lack of access, issues around security, managing behaviour, monitoring learning and student engagement, identifying next learning steps...

If our year 9 students are significantly aware of these things... how difficult would it be to change the mindsets of their whanau, older siblings... the community.

How our students are the future.

There was one moment today when they said something about how the future generation will have to sort it out... and I said, "The future is now." With a resounding sense of awe in the classroom as if I'd just dropped the mic... I then told them my name which I hadn't done at the beginning of the lesson and then the questions began to fire rapidly from the students.

Another moment when I was describing equity vs equality... and how I used both hands - one index finger on one hand, on the other hand the other index finger, significantly lower and then the pinky finger - naturally lower... holding this formation up - reiterating that picture of the fence and the boxes... difference between the equal and equitable opportunities. I used the analogy of the fence too and being able to see over it. We used it to discuss the issue around access without ever bringing anything up around racism or discrimination... a feat in itself... and these students discussed high level issues quite easily. The kinds of questions I would like my staff at Heights to knuckle into.

The second conversation was more of a just in time korero. I was a little late heading back to class after doing marking in the staffroom and some of my students were waiting by the Y13 area. I asked them all to come over and sit on the Y13 steps. A place they're not allowed to go yet.

We discussed what a privilege it was sitting there and how we might do our work there outside (partly because I didn't have a key for that room and also because it was nice and sunny). We had three seniors with us who were waiting for me to talk with about their happiness at completing their first exam essay for our class this year.

I talked to them (once inside) about why we were ot there. How it's important to make the right decisions to follow ourselves and be the best possible us we can be rather than following others paths... I asked them why I got them out there... how it was important that they realise that they need to change their attitude to ensure they can achieve that privilege in the future. Because every single one of them can. They just need to realise that what they do and say could have an impact on their lives in the future.

Two very different conversations. Both incredibly powerful. I hope I've planted some mind seeds today. :)

In fact... I truly wish I'd recorded today's lessons... for rewindable awesomeness.

Post-Interview...

I kept it relatively hidden... but I applied for a new job last week. I love my students and the staff I work with at Heights - but it was a new opportunity. Something I'd been waiting for. Something I had seriously wanted as part of my overall development as a kaiako.

Like I did with Hobsonville Point Secondary School at the first #edchatnz conference, I fell in love with Rototuna Junior High School at the recent conference. It's not just the space, or the fact that it's new or that it would be an awesome experience to start afresh without restrictions of history or school culture, access etc ... it's a combination of all this and then the fact that you're collaborating with some incredibly amazing kaiako who want to create opportunities for authentic learning and authentic contexts and relevant learning experiences for students.

When I came out of the interview I naively thought it had gone well. I was all smiles. Buzzing the rest of the day. Surely this should have been the first warning sign. I'd later cringed at how I'd answered the 'What do you do outside of teaching..?' - I have a dog called Mia, a cat called Zo and I read a lot. ... Not the best. There was heaps I didn't say.

It had been a long time since I'd done an interview. I'd been circled before by some interested parties a couple years ago but at the time I was exceedingly happy with where I was during my time at Heights that I allowed those trying to entice me into a new position to ask those questions about change and my ideas for future possibilities without too much weighing on the possibility I might actually want or need to move schools. Because I didn't want to move schools before. I would love to stay at Heights for a long time. To be so embedded that I become a Heights institution. But I know at Heights I feel crazy comfortable and I've actually become quite complacent. I got used to the ebb and flow. There wasn't any BIG change in sight and I was happy doing my own thing in my class, with a captive audience for my terribly punny jokes. I've become part of the school. My students adore my teaching and am always having refugee students seek out my help or asking to come into my classes. It's just that we're taking such a long time to get to where I'd like to see Heights be at. I know we can get there... I just don't want to still be waiting well into my 30s... or 40s and then regret the fact that I didn't try to go somewhere else for new possibilities. I'm an impatient person at best when it comes to change, despite how patient I am with my students and their development and I need to keep pushing myself to be the best teacher I can be.

And so... when I got the call on Monday night after a day of absolute bliss and hope and excitement of a possibility... I was a little gutted. Because it was a lost opportunity. All weekend, even prior to handing in my application, I kept reminding myself to stay close to the ground and not allow myself to be carried away by the dreams and clouds drifting away.... I did... kind of. But that hope - it's infecting. That kind of feeling is something I hadn't felt in such a long time. There are so many amazing things happening in the world of education and I so desperately want to be part of it all. Despite all the cool things we do and learn about in our little space in our classroom, despite my students loving the learning, despite all of this.. I still would like to try my hand at something new. Always a learner... and this unfortunately (mostly fortunately now that I've had time to digest everything..) has been a learning curve. One which I will be thankful for in the future.

The morning after - Tuesday... I had made the decision that it would be okay. That I was okay with not getting it. I was still gutted for sure. But like anything, I'd learn from this. I was still trying to figure out what the things were that I needed to work on in order to get a job like that in the future, but I went to school, heavy hearted, knowing full well my students and colleagues would bolster me and reenergise me. Reminding me why I love teaching. Reminding me why I do all this. Why I get so involved and so laden by the stresses and pressure to keep working towards being a better teacher.

I'd given my students (only my Y12 classes..as they had the most to lose with me leaving with their high level and amount of internals etc) the heads up that I was thinking about applying for a new job... I'd told them I had an interview... and now was happy in a way I could assuage them and stop them giving me dirty, upset and accusingly traitorous looks by telling them that I actually didn't get the job. They were beyond happy by the way. Gutted for me. Happy for themselves. I knew all this. And... now we're back to normal. I think now though there is this feeling of slight untrust that I need to nut out because I've made it my mission as a teacher not to be the one that will ever abandon them. Which is why during the interview I brought up the issue around the start date because I was uncomfortable about leaving them before their end of year exams if I'd gotten the job...

Yesterday afternoon I finally got the guts up to ask for some feedback after the interview and particularly around gaining a bit more clarification around what I might need to do in order to develop more experience in what was called 'extended pedagogy'. The term was new to me and I wasn't too sure what they'd meant by it. I get it now though. And I'm still kicking myself. Because I can SO EASILY explain myself when it is in this mode of explanation through writing. Ask me face to face though and I sound ridiculous. If we're talking about something I'm crazy passionate about - there are no stops or starts in what I'm saying. I can talk for hours. I'll talk your head off. No umming - no stuttering. I know I used to be able to articulate myself well. I did. Before. So... I need to build these skills up again. I've been using stronger verbal questioning skills with my students as a way to redevelop those connections in the neurons... and even so... gosh. Maybe I just need to suck it up and ask for clarification whenever I'm unsure rather than reverting to that meek, passive person I used to be while growing up...

The very incredible new Principal of RSHS called me tonight to talk me through some of the feedback around the interview. It was mostly things I'd already told myself off about on the drive home after conference... but the clarification around what I needed to know was that extended pedagogy stuff. It's not really a new term. It's the fact that I didn't really explain myself in the interview. I didn't show how everything was interconnected. I didn't answer the questions well. Maybe in that moment I didn't even really know what the questions were trying to dig at. It's the same rookie mistake that my students make when going into their exams. They completely miss the point. And I think that's what happened to me.

She mentioned about my strengths in cultural responsiveness and relational pedagogy - a section I didn't even need to answer in the interview as I'd obviously covered it in enough depth just by talking about myself and my manaaki for my students.

But why didn't I then use this as a base for all of the other questions? In everything I do... MindLab, Kia Eke Panuku, Restorative Practice, inquiry and goal setting, reflections, planning, teaching and learning processes.... this strength of mine is at the core. Because I connect so INCREDIBLY well with my students. Why did I think it was a good idea to nekeneke without any actual connection to the kaupapa? Gah. Ko hoha au. Hoha with myself. Because I know this stuff. I know it so well. I could spout off so much of Russell Bishop and Mere Berryman's research. I can explain the areas around the Mana Potential and Rock and Water programmes and how I use these as a base for my restorative practice pedagogy and empathy modelling with students. I can easily share areas around moments where I've shown high expectations with my students - they too can easily ariticulate this. Because I never ever give up on them. So much so that when I found out one of my students had left today and it was a massive surprise to me... my students said it was because she didn't want to tell me because she knew I'd be disappointed in her. Disappointed in myself that another student was lost to me. Lost and I had no way of helping them achieve their full potential.

The Principal discussed the answers I gave around how I'd dealt with conflict with a student and how I'd extend students, and how I'd use inquiry to form judgements based on evidence collated by student data. I messed these questions up because I didn't really get the question. I was listening for what I thought they wanted to hear... not for what the question really was. I wasn't showcasing myself at all.

I have no idea why I brought up the conflict that hasn't really been resolved yet with one of my students... It's still weighing on my mind. It's still bugging me that there is that space that won't be filled from her side where she is unwilling to cross and go back to normal. Why didn't I talk about how I don't call students out for silly behaviours rather than that one time I did and it blew up in my face. Why didn't I talk about how I encourage my students to push themselves when they give up. How I contacted the parents of one student when I was just getting nowhere with him at school in my normal humourous joking manner of prodding along... and found out him and his mates were doing stupid stuff to each other and how this helped open a new kettle of fish where I reopened the dialogue I'd created with these parents last year when I'd taught him in a junior class.

Why didn't I talk about the time last year with one of the most loyal students I have now? How she seriously did not like me last year commenting on her work while she was doing her resubmission. How we got on the same page with our frustrations of the requirements set by her teacher around what was acceptable... and how we tried to nekeneke by using digital modes for her assessment... and were both gutted when it didn't work... and she had to revert her VERY awesome assessment to something more basic, more handdrawn... and which although she achieved... she would have gotten an Excellence with her digital version because of how she'd edited it... How she has been an inquiry student for me for a long time because she has issues with accepting praise when she's done something well, or when she thinks she's not good enough... how she was a phenomenal help in our extra-curricular dance competition and raised herself to a leadership position quickly, being her humble and quiet self, and her angry and frustrated self when other students weren't paying attention to what us teachers were trying to say...How this year she has grown astronomically in her confidence levels and is beginning to believe in herself finally.

I know I didn't answer the question properly around how I extend students - I'd thought the question was more around the expectations of the parents.. I should have clarified the question to ensure I was being clear from the get go. I winged that question and that was the question which I could have easily connected with. I talked about how the students need to push themselves to their full potential. At no point did I mention I help scaffold them to get there where they can fly solo. I could have talked about our awesome sticker charts that we have in class that I've developed as an inquiry over the past two years and how these show the progression of student achievement and overall development. How these sticker charts, while back to basics, are a visual reminder of how we're going as a class. How these charts are a constant reminder of the students I need to pull up with the rest of us and the students who need constant pushing forward to reach their crazy awesome potential.

I could have talked more about the fact that despite my strengths being with encouraging my students who are struggling, I am also getting VERY good at more in-depth higher order thinking questioning skills with my students to make them think DEEPER and with a stronger focus around building the audience and overall purpose into EVERYTHING they discuss and share. I could have talked about how we've developed entire programmes together as a class based on student interests and how these overwhelmingly have enhanced my teaching as I've developed stronger and more in depth foci around my own teaching style and the needs of my students. How I've become so much more aware of my reverting back into traditional modes of teaching because of the restrictions placed on us and how asserting my knowledge around building 21st century skills in regards to collaboration, participation and overall thinking skills have helped to develop more enhanced learning opportunities for all students.

I also could have explained my use of assessment data to talk about my inquiries and how these relate back to so many different areas where I have strengths... how I created a Google Form for my Year 12 Alternative English class to evaluate my teaching and their learning processes. How the questions were framed in a way to ensure full student evaluation of their learning within my class and how I've used culturally responsive pedagogies in order to ensure better outcomes for all students. How this use of qualitative data outlined certain areas and issues in my practice that I had known but had ignored - particularly how I believe my Y13 students in that class will be fine, how I try to let them figure things out before helping them too quickly. How this actually doesn't make them feel safe or comfortable in the learning just yet. How I try to scaffold them to make them feel more comfortable and ready to fly solo. Using this data and the achievement of certain internal assessments to graph the results and then analyse the data in our professional learning groups showed that I can discuss the intricacies of relational pedagogy and more importantly the critical lens of AKO and Mana Motuhake. Why oh WHY did I not bring these up? Why didn't I elaborate further around this?

The last question I messed up was around integrated learning programmes and particularly how I've been part of enabling these. I talked about the Year 9 Heights programme of induction around English, Social Studies and Science. While this was cool, I could have talked about how I'm currently collaborating with the health and physical education department and particular colleagues to enable our students to succeed in both English and Health to ensure our students are making the most of their learning opportunities and how my fabulous colleague Sam and I have been discussing the need to share our resources (which we have at differing times - start of this year and a couple weeks ago) to help define the skills in which our students are using in our individual classes to try to connect their learning on a level platform - not so much single cell subjects... I could have talked about how I've been discussing the same kind of thing with my colleagues in the Music department about their performance standard and how we could use it for our Visual Verbal standard. More than just doubling up on the credits... or double dipping as others put it... how we want to change the way we're teaching and learning to ensure that our students get the best deal. That they learn that many of the skills we're all teaching in the different learning areas are actually connected - how they're interdisciplinary skills.

All of this annoys me.. because I know this stuff. I know it so well. I talk to anyone who will listen about this stuff. Because I believe in it so much. I absolutely detest deficit theorizing. I refuse to ever believe that a student doesn't want to learn. They just haven't been given the right opportunity yet. Sometimes sure a student lacks the motivation... but again this comes down to encouragement of their efforts rather than their ability. Growth MINDSET! Why didn't I bring this up - the Class Dojo geek that I am. Gah.

I think overall, like she said, it comes down to interviewing skills. I wasn't ready for the interview - usually I do so so much prep before I even apply to a new school. I embed myself so completely within their website, and any and all research I can find, that I know the mission and school charter better than many of the current staff at the school I'm applying at. True story. It had been a while since my last interview. I was nervous. God was I nervous. But I don't think I was hungry enough for it. I am now. Because that opportunity while lost... isn't the last one. There will be more opportunities. It's an expanding school. Next time I will be ready. I will articulate myself clearly. I will be clearly spoken. I will have a range of experience to gather from and nekeneke properly by connecting everything to my overall whakaaro. I will be absolutely sure it's what I want. I will dive headfirst. Because that's what I'm like... all or nothing.

For now though... my students are happy. My Principal is happy. My colleagues are happy too. It didn't quite feel like the right timing this time. It kind of felt like a false start in a race where I tried to outstrip the bullet in the gun before it was even shot out of the barrel. I wasn't quite ready. Eager, always. But ready? Not quite yet.

Ngā mihi nui to all those who helped me with my application. I'm sorry I let you down. I will do better next time. To those who supported me post-interview and post-interview result too - it's not an easy thing putting yourself out there and I'm glad I did it if only for the interview experience. Massive thanks to the leadership team at RSHS for the opportunity and for the chance to share who I am with you. I look forward to seeing where you all go in your planning for the rest of the year and can't wait to hear about the awesome things that will be happening there. Lastly, massive thanks to the RSHS principal who took time out of her day to talk me through the feedback from the interview. Not all Principals would do this and it meant a lot. Ngā mihi nunui ki a koe e whaea.

MindLab: Applied Practice - Week 27 - Trends and Issues in Education (Activity 3)

A definition of a trend...

My first thoughts are the trends set out by Core Education and the development of them over the years. Some of the main trends include gamification, collaborative learning environments/innovative learning environments/modern learning environments, learner agency, equitable access etc

Below are the Ten Trends collated by Core found here: http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends 

Trends seem to be aspects of education that we need to be developing over a period of time. Networked communities, equitable access and digital fluency are aspects in education that can't be fixed overnight. They need time, strategies and problem-solving to find the best solutions that help each individual school develop stronger awareness around these issues. 

Issues on the other hand are problems that we might not necessarily be able to fix but ones in which we could find strategies to help become less problematic for those in our school communities. 

Issues such as poverty impacting on the ability to have equitable access, resistance to change impacting the need to create more evolved ways of assessing students through design thinking and cross-curricular assessment. There are MANY issues in schools that can't be solved by individual teachers and need to be a collaborative, joint approach where we work together to find possible solutions to help lessen the impact of the issues in order to try keep ahead with possible trends. 

Visser and Gagnon (2005) state that a term is something that "refers to the statistically ovservalble change or general orientation of a general movement."

Wilson (2012) says that an issues "point to unresolved concern, questions and tensions that arouse...."

Trend Analysis

Global trends: The world is changing faster than at any time in human history (Youtube Video)

http://tinyurl.com/TMLtrendsROT

Collaborative Task:

Evaluation at a Glance:Priority Learners in New Zealand Schools 

Issue One: 'Shifting the focus to student-centred learning'

"In the most successful schools, the trustees, leaders and teachers have an uncompromising focus on fostering students‟ interests and strengths, and on addressing their learning needs. They understand that their role is to serve students. Their philosophies about how students should experience education are lived out in rich learning programmes, thoughtful management of the curriculum, positive school cultures, and in effective leadership and governance practices. A synergy and coherence exists between these aspects that contribute positively to the whole experience of being a learner. Importantly, there is an ethic of care for students‟ current and future success." (ERO, 2012, p. 7)

“Importantly, leaders cultivate teaching communities that are focused on improving student success. They do this through an intensive focus on understanding the connection between teaching actions/decisions and students‟ engagement and learning. Leaders support teachers to share “collective responsibility and accountability for students‟ achievement and wellbeing” (p.120). Students are at the heart of school business.”  (ERO, 2012, p. 10)

Individual task:

Contemporary issues or trends in NZ or internationally

Trends in NZ:

• Makerspaces
• The development of spaces inside classrooms that provide the ability for students to use design thinking, imagination and maker skills to create something new and consistently evolving.

• ILE/MLM
• The need to create more student centred spaces that allow students to feel comfortable, engaged, interested and flexibility to make choices as to where they sit and learn best. 
• The mindset of modern learning environment/innovative learning environments whereby kaiako are developing stronger awareness around their pedagogy and the changes needed to ensure stronger perspectives around ....?

Issues in NZ:

• Assessment
• The need for more open perspectives within how we assess for our students. 
• Equity
• The need to be more aware of the inequity in NZ with students and their access of digital tools to enhance their learning. 

There are HEAPS of really cool blogs out there - check out the NZ educator blogroll on www.edblognz.blogpost.co.nz

Loved this example: https://riharinz.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/change-for-my-teaching/

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Class Notes

Further reading:

Education Review Office. (2012). Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand Schools. Retrieved 18 May 2016, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Releases2/The-three-most-pressing-issues-for-N

KPMG International. (2014). Future state 2030: the global megatrends shaping governments”. KPMG International Cooperative: USA. Retrieved fromhttp://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/future-state-government/Documents/future-state-2030-v3.pdf

National intelligence council.(2012). Global trends: Alternative Worlds. National Intelligence Council: US. Retrieved fromhttps://globaltrends2030.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/global-trends-2030-november2012.pdf

Student Assessments and Rethinking Assessment

Have been part of two student's assessment projects this week and helped countless others in the library during study leave and it has honestly reminded me to open my eyes as to how assessment is offered, tasks given and co-construction needed.

Too often we lay down the challenge - eg: the Task. Whether it's Building Bridges, Party in the Car or Before and After... we need to remember what the standard is. If it meets the standard - it passes. If it doesn't meet the task but does meet the standard - shouldn't it still be worthy of passing? I think so.

I was helping a couple of students with their close viewing assessment (1.11) this week. They've since begun their writing on a Google Doc and have both shared their work with me and with each other now as they've just told me - tuakana/teina - and I reminded them that their settings for each other as it is for me should be Comment - so that when I print out the revision changes I can see that they've only commented with suggestions and not edited the other's work.

Anyway - during that session where we were planning out their work I was watching a student who was sorting out her static image. Over the two hours it changed from searching an image related to the three finger'd salute that Katniss does to the people in 'The Hunger Games', finding a suitable image to modify and adapt (it was a really cool golden salute with an arrow through it and a golden circle encompassing the image), finding a suitable quote which she tried different fonts out on to see which one would be suitable enough and effective, colours for her font to stand out from the golden image and the black background, figuring out how to best cover the artists' signature/watermark (let's leave the intellectual appropriation talk for another time...), and finally thinking about the layout and where the quote should go. I offered help a couple of times and at first she didn't want a bar of it. I was a strange teacher to her and she didn't like that I'd pronounced her name wrong the first time I said it, and she also didn't like that I was watching this creation of hers because she was embarrassed of others seeing her work.

What I loved about this though was how incredibly growth mindset she was. She came against failure after failure, found solutions to her issues and kept working on her piece of work. She adapted her original idea because she knew she couldn't just use an image from the film. When she finally finished figuring out how to hide the artist's watermark she looked around to see someone she could celebrate with. She'd taken my idea of using the textbox to fill it in anyway and adapted it by using some kind of clipper to clip part of the golden circle and part of the black background to cover the artist's mark and finally got it in the right place and literally fist pumped the air. I was so proud of this random student in that moment and I told her how cool it looked. She gave me that look. Haha. Still not impressed.

Not long after she got told by one of our amazingly hardworking teacher aides that it wouldn't be accepted by her teacher because it wasn't hand drawn. The look on that student would have mirrored the feeling in my heart and gut at that point. I was so frustrated and annoyed because this girl had worked so so hard to get this piece of work completed. If she'd been in my class I would have given her a Merit or Excellence right there and then. The idea was incredibly clever and the message clear. I spoke up at that point and said that that's ridiculous because we get our students to use digital tools to create their work, especially at Y12 for their visual verbal assessment. We've had digitally made static images in the past and they were fine. It's frustrating because she shouldn't be disadvantaged because of the supposed expectations of her teacher wanting their static images hand drawn.

I asked if she would give me a copy and eventually sat down with me where I told her just how seriously beautiful I thought her image was. I made sure to tell her how proud I was of her that she'd tried and failed and tried again and that that kind of determination was awesome and that she should be proud of herself too. Eventually she did look me in the eye and eventually smiled too. A complete flip to her original behaviour.

Not long after she grudgingly went and copied the image by drawing over it on the window with a new piece of paper. It wasn't as solid of a circle or clear image as she'd wanted and her friend helped her to fix it up a bit.

When I went back later on that day I saw the nearly finished document she'd created - and while it does look pretty cool with the layered paper and still clear image - she will be marked down because of her drawing ability (not that we'd ever say that though..) and her slightly off cutting skills on the quote.

Regardless - the task she was given was to create an image where she showed a message through using visual and verbal techniques. She had a crafted and controlled piece of work that would have been worthy to put into a visual verbal assessment in y12 but was told by a helpful and forward thinking teacher aide, warning her that it wouldn't be accepted because it wasn't handdrawn.

*******

The second student - needed me to do a interview for him - it's a unit standard that I'm totally unfamiliar with but agreed to help as he's one of my students anyway and also because I'd originally asked him whether I could watch him present his speech. He'd originally said no. But this interview assessment I was asked to help with and I'm so stoked I did.

He had two of his mates interact with him, in two group interviews and in one that was one-on-one. I was incredibly proud of him and held back the tears. He was showing just how interested he was in three topics - volleyball, youtube, and Call of Duty - and it was awesome to see such focus and attentive behaviour to him about topics he truly adored.

I did not previously know about how knowledgeable he was in these three topics and the length and breadth he went into discussing these were truly impressive.

So so proud of him and these two boys who helped him, with brilliant questioning skills to boot. So so cool.

It reminded me that I need to think about how I do speech assessments. I'd love to do a TedTalk instead of a conventional speech which is the task we expect..

****

I seriously think we need to rethink how we assess our students. We should be giving them opportunities to show their learning in a way that is relevant to them and that shows off their skills. We can't every student to do the same task the same way. We aren't in the industrial age anymore. We don't want students rolling out of a factory who can think, act, speak and do things the same way anymore. More importantly, we need to be aware of what our preconcieved notions and expectations do to a student's creativity and innovation.

Reflecting on the Process of Reflection

Before I can think about how MindLab went... which was pretty well actually... I need to share a few things about how I reflect - mainly because it's on my mind and I can't quite focus til I've gotten it out of my system. Quite a few things I actually need to focus on at the moment too... like report writing, finishing marking and uploading credits to KAMAR, helping students, marking junior assessments and creating resources for them before exams next week.

Right now though, I've been prompted to think about how I reflect and how I engage with my own learning.

Even when I was younger I've always written for a purpose. When I was five it was to simply write down how I was feeling and get issues off of my chest... seemingly like what I'm doing now... When I was 11 - 15 I started thinking about the people who might actually read these diaries I was writing - my children, grandchildren, family etc - and I wrote as if I was writing to them, even talking to them by names I'd made up. When I was 16 I fully embraced the fanfiction world and became so involved with it because of my escapism so as not to think about the reality that I was living without my Grandad. I didn't really write much for a while about myself in journals as I was expressing myself through badly worded lyrics, poetry and continuing to make my way as a creative writer in the fanfic world. From 18-20 I was so immersed in the beautiful philosophical reality of being at university and learning so much about myself and sharing my ideas through essay after essay. I was also struggling with being in the parallel and very unsure world of meeting my Dad, brothers and sisters and distant members on my dad's side of the family tree. When I was 20... something incredibly terrible happened at the time that prompted me to begin writing again. I'm glad I did because I haven't stopped since.

Whether it's been in little kid diaries, silly LiveJournal posts, KiwiBlog, Blogger or private writing in unpublished blogs - I've been aware of who my audience was.

At present, I write for myself here. I know that there is a bigger audience that reads this - and I'd just like to make a shoutout to the MindLab 2015 Nov intake crew who commented a few posts ago and reminded me that people do read my stuff!! :)

Regardless though, this is always and has always been a reflection of my own teaching journey within this blog. I'm a curator of knowledge. I gather what I need, search for what I want and develop my own theories and hold onto information that happens to help me live the life I'd like to and that helps me with succeeding in my aspirational life goals.

As a curator, I like to share. As evidenced here and on Twitter too....and Facebook... where I post a lot...and share cool things I see. I didn't connect with the word curator until last year when a new colleague from Australia mentioned during a conference that I was prolific with how I share. I'm sure that there is another word he used but right now it's not falling into thoughts from the words hanging in my head...

As a curator, like good museum curators (which I'd love to be one day too..), I think about the story I need to share, the perspectives I'd like people to think about and more importantly, the understandings that develop and are created over time.

As a curator I think about what to post, what to share and obviously what not to share. People have different ideas on this of course.

On Twitter, I'm very sure of the how, what and why when using it and more importantly with who I'm discussing things with. The tikanga of Twitter helps when deciding what to share and when and with what audiences and this could be as simple as which hashtag to use. I think though that the fact that it's so public is what keeps me being true to myself and I say what I believe, constantly professional (with the odd tweet to my mate...) and overwhelmingly OWN everything I say and post. If there is some issue, I'm totally okay with taking things down if they've offended someone or have perhaps been taken the wrong way and I try to deal with the situation as fast as possible and with as much care as I can. Sometimes it can be easy to be a different person behind the screen than it is to show your true self. Portraying yourself and being transparent is key.

At the end of the day - I'm me and I'm constantly learning. I hope I never give up and become cynical and believe that change is hard. Because it's not. It's uncomfortable. And regardless of how carefully worded I pitch things as new ideas, there will nearly always be someone who doesn't agree or want to give it a go.

At the end of the day - I know who I'm writing for. Who I am and who I want to be. I need reminders like this that maybe if there are disgruntled people that perhaps I'm doing my job of being a change agent and disrupting with humility. I just need to be careful not to get in a rut, stuck, trapped into thinking that what I'm doing doesn't have a purpose or that what I'm doing is unworthy. Because I'm proud of where I've come - particularly since I was 20. Seven beautiful years... well maybe lets say six - but regardless... still proud of myself. Making movements towards the person I want to be one day and every new step, every new challenge, is at least hopefully moving me in the right direction.

MindLab - Week 1 - The Purpose of Education/Epistemology

This session we focussed on getting to know each other and get on to the Unitec MindLab portal. 

We started with three post its about why we were here:

- I want to learn something new.

- Push my thinking and challenge my growth mindset

- Encourage and meet other teachers from Rotorua and help continue to build #ConnectedRotorua

On the post it note that I wrote about the one thing that no-one would know about me was, "I used to hate the idea of Twiter!" Very much far away from that thought now haha.

I'm feeling a little bit selfish at the moment and am waiting to fill my brain up with ideas, learning and challenges to my own thoughts and thinking. I'm feeling selfish because normally I'd be super fast to go and help others like when I'm at Educamps or Connected Rotorua sessions. Selfish because I want to learn more for me. It's not often I get that chance to develop myself because I'm always trying to awhi everyone else.

How to lead change? How to get others onboard and as excited as I am? - Great questions. 

Wonder whether I should speak up about the importance of blogging since we just ran that session on blogging at ULearn...I didn't. Marnel did though so that's good. Still feeling selfish and a bit frustrated because there's lots of down time at the moment. Have to remember to be patient. Not everyone is on the same page or at the same level. Everyone is on their own learning journey.

Are you a thought leader? 

Found this interesting. Milla asked the question about whether we were leaders. I put my hand up. She asked another question - whether we had roles of leadership responsibility at school. Others put their hands up. Not me... not yet anyway. Love that YET. The power of YET. I wonder though why there are more people with positions of leadership who put their hands up but didn't when the first question was around being a leader. Are they different things?

"Thought leaders are the informed opinion leaders and the go-to people in their field of expertise. They are trusted sources who move and inspire with innovative ideas; turn ideas into reality, and know and show how to replicate their success."

I'd say I am this. I try to be. I try to awhi and help as many people as I can along their edu journeys. It's a difficult process because not everyone is aware that they're on a journey or that they need to make a shift. Those that are ready are of course more receptive and thankful for help. Those who are receptive have a stronger growth mindset because they aren't so nervous about other's success.

Epistemology - what is knowledge? Esoteric and exoteric - the knowledge held by tohunga whakapapa compared to how easily it has become to access whakapapa lines online... 

To Google is to know? Do you need to know everything anymore? Is it acceptable to learn as you need it? Okay to Google for exams even? ;)

Being a critical thinker is critical. Thinking about what knowledge is needed and what you need to know to find out what you might want to know more about.

Google is just a means to an end. To be used to find and locate information. To explore and share and develop. 

Ontology? Epistemology? Axiology?

Really love the slide with the 15 minute countdown youtube clip on it. Clever!

The knowledge is in the room! Some really cool thinking and pulling out ideas. Growth mindsets and some quiet people too. Wish I could have recorded those discussions when we walked around the room and checked out each other's playdough models of what knowledge is to us. Some people seem more talktative than others. Hopefully everyone will share as time goes on. Really enjoying having my thoughts being pulled, stretched, kneaded and elongated from Milla. Awesome session.

Cultural intelligence, emotional intelligence and intelligence. The value of social intelligence with the value of cultural intelligence. How some may have one side but not always both. 

One of the tasks we've had to think about is:

"Reflect on how your understanding of the purpose of education is visible in your classroom. Think about also how you would like to record and perhaps share your learning with a wider community?"

Do our classrooms really ever visibly show the purpose of education?

When my class was full of students work - perhaps. Or when we had the SOLO posters up in the class. But the class is now stripped of it's beauty or what we could do to make the space physically inviting. Exam time. 

If my classes were to be asked about PB4L and how we use Class Dojo then perhaps. 

I suppose it comes down to what does a visible purpose of education look like. 

Is it students focused on their studies, creating new ideas and new questions? Is it building on knowledge and learning from each other? Is it tuakana/teina or reciprocal learning and teaching? Is it the aim of the day on the board? 

I think that would be different everywhere... hmmm. Something to think about anyway!

*******

Required reading: 'Towards Reconceptualising Leadership: The Implications of the Revised NZC for School Leaders

Link here: 

http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/Towards%2520reconceptualising%2520leadership.%2520A%2520Case%2520Study.pdf

I woke up early on Friday morning to read this one. I didn't purposefully wake up to read it - the dog woke me up and then couldn't get back to sleep regardless of how much I tried. Began thinking about school and NPeW and my role in what I'd like to do to give back...

Anyway- began this mother of a reading. Will need to read it again and again I think. Some really cool takeaways in it. Kinda wish there was an easier way to read it through the media library though because I was squinting to read it off of my phone as the pdf wasn't resizeable - like the books I read off of my Google Books app are...Also would like to be able to write notes and highlight sections within the media library like I do on Books...

Main thoughts:

- Leadership should be distributed. Not hierarchical. 

- The NZC is a beautiful document but it has been twisted. The KCs are absolutely critical and we don't use them enough at school. I used to have them visually available and connected with the learning we were doing when I was a BT but have dropped the ball and need to sort it. 

- There are some awesome leaders in schools but they aren't always given the roles of 'leadership' - that conversation last year with a cynical (my age) guy still irks me - "Do you have any responsibilities at school?"  "ME: Yep I take the ...... etc etc etc" "Doesn't matter if you're not getting paid for it."

- I really enjoyed the statements and quotes from the different school leaders he'd interviewed. I felt that they resonated more than the indepth discussion around what is knowledge (though perhaps that's because I read it so early??)

- Particularly liked the inclusion of Table 2 and 3 where I found myself able to distinguish between knowledge as a noun vs verb easily. However when I came to Table 3 it saddened me that my own thinking and aspirations in teaching and learning are the verb style - whereas our school is stuck in the noun side. 

I think overall a lot of this connects with the reading I've been doing from Grant Lictman's '#EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education' where he's also talked alot about collaboration, the need to break from traditional modes of teaching and learning so that we can prepare our students for an ambiguous future. 

Our leaders need to be up with the play on the changing role of education and leading from the front and more importantly, allowing us the chance to improve our own learning through relevant professional development. 

We as teachers need to be aware of the changing nature too so that we can easily adapt to new situations and teach our students that risk is fine - actually brilliant - because through risk, we learn. We develop. We never stay stagnant. Because as Lichtman says, "we're trying to be better". 

Since ULearn I've easily become a new Grant Lichtman fangirl. He is honestly brilliant. Am only on to chapter 3 so far... but wow. Loving it. Also looking forward to Danielle Myburgh and Jane Gilberts MOOC through EdChatNZ and AUT. 

Inspiration and Refinding Passion

I say I'm a learning sponge. I soak up bits and pieces that interest me. Let other bits seep out and away... I enjoy learning and sharing. Develo0ing ideas together with others and challenging myself to understand other people's points of view.

Living with the dog and the cat, phone calls home mostly to talk about the weather differences and any raruraru going on - kind of leaves me bored.

I search and search for inspiration. Hold it tight to me when I find it and then when it goes away... I'm forced to find the next thing. Because it's not enough anymore. I'm not inspired by what I do. I used to be. I can be. But at the moment... it's routine.

Checking in on assessments, marking assessments and inputting assessment data for students to gather credits. The juniors I can still be innovative with but even they have lost motivation.

After the holiday break where I spent a considerable amount of time learning... I came home absolutely buzzing. Because I'd had such an awesome experience. Because I'd met so many fabulous people. Because I'd learnt and remembered that I can elicit change and inspire others.

I'm frustrated and apathetic.

I try to do bits and pieces where I can.

I feel like I'm lacking in inner inspiration and jeez - it's only Thursday night - week 1 - Term 4. And yes - sure it's Term 4 but - I don't know. I just need something more. Craving that something that I'm not currently getting and wondering how I can hold onto that feeling that I can actually inspire and be inspired.

Perhaps I'm just tired.

Even if being tired is just the problem - I think there remains the underlying issue that my inspiration battery isn't recharging automatically anymore. It's draining quicker than before and I hope that my next big learning with the MindLab will kickstart that inspiration truly and totally. Because we need it. I need it.

Things are still moving too slowly. I'm still too impatient. There are just so many cool experiences and opportunities out there. For my students and for me. And I need to figure out how to capitalise on all of them to ensure the best output and learning for everyone.

Think this has been weighing on me for a while now. Just had a massive breath let out and feel a lot less heavy on the shoulders and in the mind.

How to recharge and keep my battery charged?

I wonder whether Aristotle or Grant Lichtman have any whakatauki for me...

The Process of Delivering SchoolWide PLD on eLearning

Have been thinking all weekend about the best way to approach schoolwide PLD on eLearning. I think now though that I'm overthinking it all. Maybe I just need to wait til tomorrow's eLearning Committee meeting and debrief properly. One of the big issues is that we didn't have enough time to go through everything. It won't be as linear as I want it to be either - it needs to have those ups and downs and the time to play and learn and question. We probably won't ever have enough time... until we set up the process of delivering schoolwide PLD that will work best for our school.

I keep coming back to the idea that it needs to be self-directed. By being self-directed there is a greater sense of self-autonomy. More so there is built up interest and relevance in what they're learning about. Staff know where they feel comfortable or not so - their confidence levels will rise when they see success.

Although I am very much against levels and labels - and think it's condescending if I group people myself or even as a committee - I think it would be beneficial for staff to have differing groups and areas that they personally can choose - all on one particular platform where staff can search out information when and where they want development.

One of the main areas of focus we'd set up for Friday was to do a staff continuum on where people felt confident in using tech in class. After that we'd planned to then share in small groups about what they're already doing and what they'd like to do given the access and more ability to do so.

What I need is some feedback from that session and more importantly - some feedforward on these particular areas:
- staff confidence with tech
- areas they would like to improve on
- what they learnt from the session
- what they're currently doing and what they'd like to develop (could be anything - not just tech related)
- who they tend to ask help from
- whether they have a fixed or growth mindset towards all of this (though it may be obvious depending on their answers...)
- how we as a committee can help them develop more confidence
- what they'd like to see in the next eLearning session
- where they see us as a school in the next 3-5 years
- what PLD they've done in the past year that has changed or developed their teaching style
- what PLD they would like so that we can help them find the right learning for them individually
- what they see as a possible future for our 21st century students
- what skills they think our students may need for that future
- what skills do we need to develop in order to upskill our students etc...

I'm hoping that after tomorrow's session I will feel a bit more relaxed and not so stressed out. I think I'm stressing myself out but there really is no need to be...

Probably the biggest concern at the moment is once we've got that feedback - how to move forward?

Do we want to have whole school PLD? Do we need to have a more unconference breakout style PLD where staff can choose different sessions purely on their own interests?

How do we plan for this? Do we have a shared space like the eLearning Hub that Donella and I created?

Do we have smaller breakout sessions where they define what they want to learn and learn from each other like we do at Educamps?

Do we ensure that everyone has learnt the "basics" before moving on?

Do we encourage badge systems for achieving differing levels? Should I gamify their learning?

Getting our staff to understand the WHY is also very important. I see this as part of the "basics" and then where they move onto is up to them.

At the very least -  our eLearning committee will be a sounding board and help others and lead them to where we want to head towards. A PLN colleague once called such teachers as Lighthouse teachers - leading the way forward.

At the moment - I'm still trying to figure it all out - and I must remember I'm not a "lone nut" anymore. We have an amazing group of educators who are forward thinking and incredibly interested in helping our staff move forward.

I just want to do it as a team - to work together and collaborate. Focus on key areas and move forward in one direction. It's hard when everyone has their own perspectives and ideas where we are heading.

So I'm looking forward to tomorrow's eLearning Committee and developing that shared vision together. I want their feedback first and foremost and a possible yay or nay as to moving forward with the one collaborated space platform for eLearning or other options and opinions.

With it all I need to remember to maintain a growth mindset and be happy that others are getting on the waka. We just need to remember to work together and move steadily forward as a team.

Heights Reflection

Am having a bit of disconnect between the quality reflection I am already doing on my blog and what I'm expected to do for school. At school we have to focus on an inquiry student.

But I feel like every student is an inquiry student.

At the moment I'm trying to crack three students in my Y11 class: one that just can't seem to understand what I need her to do with the novel analysis and who just closes her book (basically need to teach growth mindset to her and continue working with her - but to the detriment of the other students...though have asked our awesome TA to work with her), another student who has so so many issues going on at home and in her life that she isn't actually 'here' at school because she can't focus on her schoolwork - and refuses to go to a counsellor despite my ongoing pleading, the student who has serious individual learning needs but who brought his laptop in the other day so he didn't have to deal with his "chicken scratch" as he put it - I nearly jumped for joy!! He became the key member of his group which was really cool to see the transition in him as he was able to become the leader - perhaps for the first time ever, the student who isn't asking for help despite our awesome relationaship and her usual willingness to accept my advice and ideas - something must be going on and I just haven't had the time to go figure it out.

Then of course there are my other classes.

Y12L - students who consistently work well but who I am trying to further extend consistently.

Y12A - students who at times give up on themselves because they've been told they're not good enough or that have become to believe it to be true. Other students who try so damn hard and it's absolutely beautiful. One particular inquiry student has finally made some progress!! He was sitting right by me as they were doing their creative writing. He mucked around for a while - but in the end actually wrote half a page. The mucking around was oral brainstorming, playing with the story cubes for ideas and asking me questions about the dream world because we're about to start watchinf Inception. Because we have a projector now!! No more stalling!!! :)

I was so incredibly impressed by them all last lesson. All I gave them was the line, "As I lay my head down on the pillow, all thoughts disappeared." We did a basic idea brainstorm and gave them 20 minutes on the timer. They wanted it extended to the end of the period - and to Friday for some of them to further work on it at home. Completely quiet - all students working. Stoked.

Y10 English - every single student in this class is an inquiry student. The student who worked so hard on his poetry last term and I just hope that he continues to develop his growth mindset towards the rest of his studies this year. I bought him a poetry book by Yeats abd gave it to him on Tuesday. Love how much he's reading. Tye student who is super enthusiastic for 9 square. The students who fight for top spot for 9 square! How to further extend them? Not allow three letter words.

The student who keeps mucking around - talking, being immature... it's good to finally see that the rest of the class are at the point that they don't break into the other two students silly behaviours too. They've finally crossed that point. Looking forward to the rest of the year now!!

Y1p Social studies - my favourite class.
I asked them the other day whether they wanted to have human rights as their focus for rhe year. They didn't get what I meant because partly they must not understand what rights are and also wanted to learn other things. What they'll realise though is that everything comes back to human rights or animal rights.

Showed them an amazing video yesterday after going through 10 of the human rights from the Declaration of Human Rights. Showed them the facebook page I made up for them over the holidays and have been collating different links for them. Helps my personal FB feed too! Less school stuff. The video though - truly hit home. The two inquiry students I've been worried about in terms of their lack of empathy towards the Holocaust - I think that video began to hit home. Homework last night was to look up the different rights that are not being upheld in different countries currently and historically.

So - there. That's just a small taste of the range of inquiries I've been doing.

And it has nothing to do with my personal inquiries.

And furthermore - focussing down on one student - while beneficial - makes me think that I'm not giving adequate time to the other 140+ kids I teach.

Thinking ahead - Self Motivation

A mentor recently told me to think of myself as my own HOD. As someone who has responsibility for my growth and who is looking at others and their way of doing things so that when I get into the positions I want in the future - I'll know my own best practice.

She said that she often talks to herself as the other and provides essential feedback and observations.

While this may sound odd - I actually like the essence of it. Because essentially as reflective practitioners we are expected to constantly improve our results - and albeit, game.

So in terms of this -

As HOD of myself:

- Need to email myself the dates for upcoming assessments that are due so that my students have a deadline and that I have a definite one
- Need to print out (gah - paper - trees) all of the forms I need for each assessment and file them into each classes folder.
- Need to get emails of all students (if we aren't moving forward asap with GAFE) so I can update students of their flipped learning site: https://sites.google.com/a/whhs.school.nz/evolving-at-heights/
- Need to find myself PLD on flipping my class, using GAFE more effectively, enabling staff to feel more comfortable with change and learning, relearning and unlearning to learn again
- Need to encourage myself as often as possible so that I continue to be the best teacher I can be
- Need to watch out for my health and wellbeing and do what Ian Vickers said
- Need to support myself with upcoming opportunities and welcome new ideas into the department (me)
- Need to awhi myself in understanding that there are just things I cannot change despite my very best efforts to agitate and create change

As Mentor for myself:
- Push myself to go for any PLD or opportunity that looks good and offers benefits to my teaching and learning
- Continue agitations at kura so as to make others think about their teaching practices.
- Develop a stronger resilience against those who refuse to change or those who give a cold shoulder to my ideas. Ka whawhai tonu ake!
- Motivate myself to use my time wisely. One non-contact each and every day. Prep. Reflections. Lesson planning. Admin.

Most of all -

Find the beautiful positive in every single day and every moment.

Social Studies - Society Experiment

After yesterday's reflective post about how I taught in the unit and those creative ways of learning - I was thinking about upping my game in Social Studies.

I'd planned on continuing the film Schindlers List but with the sheets for curtains and the wonderfully bright sun streaming through the curtains we actually do have on one side of the class - it's an absolute mission at the moment. Let alone the projector issues..

So the first five students began moving desks into groups of four and five. The rest of the class helped and then I had them all stand in a circle. The first five and a couple extra who I watched during the table moving and also the boy who had incorrectly assumed about the use of Whakarongo were made leaders of the tables. Once the students had been put into different groups (all separated from their mates - well mostly) I had the leaders come to me to grab two sheets of A3 paper and the rest needed to get coloured pencils etc. 

This is what they had to do:
1. Team Name
2. Society Rules - at least three
3. Draw 10 stick figure people
4. Choose jobs and careers for each one of those people
5. Draw a loaf of bread, a car and a house
6. Assign prices for each of those three things
7. Draw three faces of leaders in their societies, facial features included

Once the setup was ready - this is what happened - without the full conversation.

A. The leaders have decided that they will be the only ones to create any rules. So cross all of your rules out.
B. A supposed accident has killed one of the leaders. Choose one leader and cross them out.
C. The price of bread has increased by 200%. Calculate how much that now increases all three items. (Inflation)
D. As a result of inflation, four of your stick people die from starvation and or unemployment as cost of living rises. Houses and cars are sold for next to nothing. Cross four people out.
E. Now the two leaders are working towards the election. The people need someone who will lead them out of this mess. One leader is a fabulous speaker and promises them the world. The other leader is known to help and could help but is not as effective in the running for election. Cross out one leader. Now you have one leader who tells you all the rules and mandates everything that society does.
F. As a result of these new rules the leader has created, any person who will not bow down to the decrees of the new leader must also be crossed out. Most likely jobs to cross out are: teachers, historians, police and lawyers who will challenge the leader. If you have any person that looks like they may not follow orders, cross them out.
G. In the new society, only essential people are allowed to survive. Builders, soldiers, electricians, doctors. Cross everyone else out.
H. Ask students how many people they have left. Circle two people and draw a small circle above their heads. They are more casualties of the leaders new rules.

Once we got to this stage, silence was all that was left. They realised they had noone else to play the game with as some students had one stick figure person left, others had a couple.

While they were writing down ten things they learnt as a group during the experiment, I walked around with a tin of lollies for the leaders and others who had worked hard during the experiment. I couldn't bring myself to add that they were the leaders in the experiment and although I was rewarding their good work - in essence, it was like rewarding bad behaviour for theoretically killing their stick figure people.

I had gone into the whole process hoping to show them that leaders do what they want. The effect of what happened throughout the lesson was amazing. By the end I was a bit lost as to how to connect it all - when I realised that not one student said no to me. They just blindly continued doing what I told them to do. This in itself was what I told them. The fact that they did not say no. They did not disagree with me and instead did everything I said. At some point I could have told them to cut up their work and they probably would have. Because they believed in the authority and the fact that they believed me showed that they were willing to follow me and my instructions (orders).

The connection very quickly happened for them once they realised they hadn't stopped or hadn't once said no. While pointing out the fact that they did not even try to save any of their 10 stick figure people - they saw the correlation with the situation in NAZI Germany.

Students reflected on the experiment and noticed how they didn't resist my 'orders' for each task.

Their reflections are beginning to show an understanding and awareness of other peoples situations. I'm incredibly impressed by this class.

Am so stoked I was able to bring back a tiny bit of old me today. Felt so good. Such a good lesson.

Despite the Holocaust being such a horrendous topic to learn, I think that it has hooked this class into their learning and understanding of what social studies is.

Slowly those who extend themselves by themselves are showing me that extension is important but if you have the passion to find out information on your own then you're more likely to develop a deeper awareness of the overall issues.

Election Day ... My Longest Day

This will be a long post.

I have spent the last 72 hours working towards a Labour government. Prior to that - four months of electioneering, door knocking, phone canvassing, discussions, sign waving, debating, putting my heart and soul out on the line.

Yet... all of it wasnt enough.

1 Million people didn't vote.

Sure we were able to get more people to vote. But that overwhelming figure of that many people feeling disenfranchised, not interested in politics, how our government and country is run, the many insights and horrible new awakenings into the dirty politics... still stopped people from voting.

I have spent the entire day today at a complete loss. In between tears of anger, sadness, frustration and loss - I have tried to think what else I could have done. How much more we could have done. How much harder we could have worked.

From the beginning before we had the Labour Lounge and were phone callling from the First Union Building. From when I first met Tamati and Tim at the Kuirau Park Markets and offered my support in helping to build Young Labour in Rotorua.
From when there was still so much time to go...

And now. We're here.

I talked with my fellow Team Tamati volunteer members last night and we all felt that same loss. The hard work foiled by the stupidity of a nation that can't see past immediate return. The hard work messed up by a nation that is unwilling to engage in a healthy discussion of politics in order to help turn our country around.

It worries me to no end that National are once more back in power. Power is a mighty thing and any who holds it should be careful how they wield it. Unfortunately - we know how power can become corrupt. As a history teacher at my very depths of my soul - I see it. I can feel it encrouching upon this very blog post. This may sound like pure paranoia - but it is ignorance to think we are not being watched.

Everything I post is always written so that I maintain my own integrity and that of my students, their families, our school and our community. However when something as catastrophic as this happens - it is incredibly difficult to stand aside and let it happen.

I keep thinking about Gordon Dietrich in V for Vendetta under the Sutler government. How soon until power becomes absolute and we no longer have a say. Not long I believe.

Regardless, I think it's time I make some decisions around what I teach and how. Our students need to be aware of what is going on around them. Only so much reminders about the importance of being involved by reading the news and reading between the lines in news stories will actually work. I keep hearing people say we need to teach civics in schools. As far as I know - we do.

Hearing cynicsm at school around politics isn't good either - it breeds room for inequality and the thinking that their vote doesn't actually matter.

Our students need to see what fires us up. They need to know what is our absolute bottom line. They need to know that everyone has their own opinion and what's more - that it's our right to speak out.

They also need to know that when we do have differing opinions we still need to find a way to work together.

And this - this is what I'm struggling to remind myself. Because there is no way that he represents me as PM. None.

And I am struggling to see how he would be chosen once again to 'lead' our country.

I struggle to think how exactly I am to show face at school after saying to colleagues that I would "lose my s***" if his team got back in. And I still feel like that. Yet - I feel the passion in my heart depleting and know that I am going to be walking around without that fire and wairua in my step tomorrow. Because we have another three years ahead of us to fight again.

As I said on Twitter last night:
Every good warrior needs a defeat before they can fight even harder the next time.

Unfortunately - this is my first true defeat as a member of the fight.

And seeing the tears in friends eyes last night - particularly of those who do not show emotion often... is even harder. Knowing that we gave it our everything and it still wasn't enough.

The words " It's all wrong..." continue to run through my head.

Because it is. And three more years is only going to increase the gap between rich and poor, increase the digital divide, continue to ruin our education and health systems... Immediate return may look good for now, but I for one am worried for the next coming generations who will have to deal with what we have left for them. I really do hope that they will not be as greedy and selfish as an apparent 'majority' of NZers were as results came through last night.

We need to fight again. But for now... continued rest and relaxation. It will be a long fight this time and won that we will undoubtedly win.

Searching for Inspiration - Quotes and Thoughts

When I was growing up I would have books upon books filled up with quotes that were relevant to me at the time... even if it was merely, "Got Milk?"

I just found this quote below and thought I should continue developing my collection of quotes. If you have any suggestions - let me know in the comments below.

My aim is to agitate and disturb people. I’m not selling bread, I’m selling yeast.
-Miguel de Unamuno, writer and philosopher (1864-1936)

"Leaders create Leaders." - said to me by Steve Mouldey at the #edchatnz Conference earlier this year in 2014. Originally from Mark Osborne I believe :)

Ambition and Succession - A discussion on Processes, Reflections on the way I learn and the importance of goal setting..

This has been circulating my head for a wee while now... and I think I have some solid thoughts and questions to discuss...

I have always been a goal setter. Each year I would set new goals for myself and feel really accomplished when I'd succeeded. The times in my life that were the most traumatic and heart-wrenching usually occurred because I couldn't see any way out of the situation as I didn't have goals set out.. I was trying to let my heart lead me and my heart can be a stupid thing. My brain gets clouded too of course, but the majority of the time it is my heart's fault.. says the brain..

Anyway!

What I'm getting at is that when I set goals I have direction in my life and I know where I'm headed and what I want to achieve. This is important for me because if I don't have anything to work towards, then I am coasting and I am not getting the best out of myself. I am not pushing myself when I have no goals and I certainly don't enjoy my job or life when I don't have goals.

Recently - I've had the feeling like I've been coasting.

I could do way better than what I'm doing.

Sometimes I get used to the everyday cycle - which is the same kind of thing - get up tired, go to school... teach... mark.. go home.... be annoyed by the puppy.. try to engage her and teach her better manners when I'm not so tired.. try to pay attention to the cat.. get too tired to cook properly.. watch tv or be on social media too long.. go to bed... repeat cycle...

This is problematic because I try to be as inspirational as possible in class, and I usually get a lot out of my students - particularly my Y9's and 10's at the moment who are grasping content and wider context analyses in so much depth that it reminds me that I am doing something right..

But at the end of the day - I need inspiration and goals to continue being the person I want to be.

I am and always have been about processes and strategies - I've been thinking about this more and more often lately. When I don't have procedures to follow - with clear guidelines, deadlines and expectations, I fall flat and don't do anything properly... because I coast.

I could be doing everything way better.

I thought about the differences between how I did things at my last school compared with my current school - particularly in regards to marking and moderation. I still try to get second opinions and make sure I'm marking properly - one day I hope that I will just KNOW that I'm marking properly... and looking at the marking schedule is all well and good but sometimes you really do need that second (or third or fourth) opinion to make sure you are on track.

However, the processes we use at my current school frustrate me because I was taught a different way - a way that worked for me, and it has been hard to break from it to do it the way we do it at my current kura. The problem is that I need to be marking with people, to quickly gauge where I'm at with my marking and we don't do that very often unless we seek out people who would like to mark together.

At my last kura we would spend hours after school during moderation together in massive marking panels and then discuss our marks afterwards. From this I learnt how to mark properly as the assistant HOD sat with me as a newbie teacher and worked through each piece and we debated our marks to decide on whether it fit the standard correctly and on which level we would place it. We would pass entire classes worth of writing to another teacher and so that meant that all of our work needed to be in on time. We had more access to computers to publish work - although at the time it didn't feel like it. However we were all booked into the computer suite at differing times for a week or so at end in order to complete pieces of work. This was effective.

It would be just as effective using Google Drive and Google Docs and Classroom to be able to do this. And thereby not have to use so much paper... we could do all the marking through docs, have each piece as a new version - so you could see the changes - and then the final copy could be dropped into Classroom with a clear deadline. It would ensure all pieces were done on time as well.

There is a bit of a problem with equity and access at home - also issues with authenticity if doing work at home - however - I think there have been discussions on the TKI English Forum about this. I just need to research this some more to understand how to deal with this more appropriately. At present I can see when students do work - and it's usually during class time... with the exception when I'm checking over a piece at home and they're reading my comments and we're conferencing their work online.

Still side-tracked...

Goal setting is important for me - because I have clear guidelines, deadlines and a wero that I have set myself to achieve. In a lot of cases these goals tend to be my own but they seem to be crossing over more often into the goals I set for my students.

I've been thinking about life after teaching recently as well. What do I want to do for my life? I am only 26. I have a lifetime (I hope) in front of me and I think it's important to future-plan... if a little bit. I used to try to plan every damn thing out but have learnt to leave a little up to that beautiful woman we call Fate.

Goal Setting

For the rest of 2014:

• go to ULearn and PPTA Annual conference and get better at networking
• Meet my favourite Twitter mates at ULearn!
• Have a break.. somehow.. 
• Reports... gah
• Marking... gah.... 
• Planning for next year :)
• Cramming for my students and creating more notes and specific evidence
• Finish up assessments and load all the credits up...
• Finish marking these exams
• Keep blogging
• Keep up with #EngChatNZ
• Be open to new opportunities...
• Don't be scared to try new things... and new opportunities... #GrowthMindset
• Create more goals... :)

For next year:

• To teach history and social studies, as well as English
• Get more involved within the PPTA
• Get more involved within Rotaract.. possibly become president..
• Get more involved within the school management - help somehow, somewhere...
• Learn more about LWDT skills - develop my own... be a leader somehow..
• Allow myself to make changes to my own practice and continue becoming an awesome teacher..
• Develop my awareness of what leadership means and how I can become an even better one... 

For the next five years:

• travel
• buy my first home
• become a mentor to a pre-service teacher
• create more goals..

In ten years time... I hope to have:

• Travelled extensively
• bought a home (with a study to hide away from the dog and possible children...)
• more confidence in myself as a teacher, as a person, as a daughter, aunty, cousin and sister...
• a stronger awareness of my own presence - and how to use it effectively...
• a solid ability to speak my mind and not fear the repurcussions
• a strong opinion of my ability, intelligence and self confidence holistically
• finished my Honours.. jeez. Only my dissertation to go... Gah. 
• Completed a Masters...in education and History..
• moved schools a couple of times to keep myself fresh and used to change
• create more goals...

When it all comes down to it... it's the same old imposter thinking... when will enough be enough?

So many of you believe in me. My students believe in me. To an extent I believe in me. I can be pretty arrogant and think that I know everything which I don't... but I do know certain things, and I know that regardless of all of that I'm still learning. I want to be a better teacher, a better leader, to inspire others and myself to keep succeeding and reaching the heights consistently and achieving more than I could ever have possibly have thought was possible..

I allow my victimised personality and sceptical paranoia to take hold too often.. and perhaps my ego allows my thinking that people are talking negatively about me all the time.. but maybe they are? I do my best. But I know that I'm coasting and that I can do even better. I just need to set my sights high and go hard. Or go home :)

Stream of consciousness...

Which maybe is where I may end up... though I don't really want to go back to Morrinsville.. though I've been pretty impressed with the amazing things that Morrcoll have been doing recently. Some fabulous changes are in store. I just have to keep my options open and let the doors keep opening.

This yes year has really been paying off. Try it. :)

Stalin really did have a good idea with his five year plans... shame he had to use them to commit mass genocide, poverty, inequality of wealth distribution...

I miss teaching History :(

This book 'Work Smarter Not Harder' was bought at the start of the year when the old bookshop was closing down... and it has been my mantra this year... except that I never got around to reading it... and am only now starting to implement some of it's ideals and thinking...

Law of attraction... what you put out will come back. This year I've been putting out lots of positive energy and been getting a lot back. I've screwed up a few times but ultimately tried to make up for those times when I messed up. Am pretty sure I found SB's piece of writing today in the folder I created at the start of the year... having looked EVERYWHERE and feeling incredibly guilty for having lost it... but it was there the whole time...

Mia is obsessed with the smell and scraps of chocolate. I bought her those dog choc drops... which are working.. but she's such a damn tutu... gah.

Night! Off to watch 'Lucy' with my Rotaract mates :)

Bringing SOLO Back

Before blogging about how amazing #edchatnz was - I need to write about the first of (what I'm hoping will be) many successes this year after #edchatnz - and because of it!

For those of you who read my blog - and for those of you who don't - this year I have been learning how to use SOLO and more importantly, how to use it effectively to improve my students' learning.

For info on what SOLO is - check out a few of my previous posts on SOLO here:
First Lesson with SOLO Taxonomy
SOLO Continued with Year 11's and V for Vendetta
SOLO Taxonomy and PBL Interrelated Yet Again

As well as Pam Hook's website - Hooked. Look at the SOLO rubric generator in the apps page and also the lesson outcomes and hexagon maker :) There are some fabulous HOT maps as well in her books. Check them out :)


Today I taught all five of my classes. No rest for the wicked, as they say. The only classes which I didn't go over SOLO with today were my Year 9 class as they were in the reading room (a post to come about that soon after this one) and with my Y13s as they are working on their Pecha Kucha's and beginning to mature and ask big 'What am I going to do with my life next year?' questions so we get off and on track too easily as it is. Using SOLO with them would be good but need to do it to them rather than with them as we'd get stuck on the 'Inception' side of the terminology and levels of going too deep rather than focussing on the task at hand.

So - from the beginning. 

Year 11's. The original adopters. They get SOLO. They use the language, the symbols and they can explain to myself, themselves, others and observers of the lesson what we are doing, learning and more importantly, what their next step is.

Today we were working on character development in 'The Hunger Games' and 'Noughts and Crosses', and more importantly, working towards understanding how characters relate to each other and the way in which we can connect them with other world leaders and people (past and present) so they can gain a wider contextual awareness.

Here is an example of the collaborative process from this lesson - where we discussed SOLO again and how it is important to know how we're learning in order to learn better. They understood how the levels worked within NCEA and how the differentiated learning outcomes and statements could help them determine which level they were starting at.

We discussed the fact that it didn't matter which level you were starting at as there would be times when you'd get to a point and then have to go back to pre-structural and uni-structural to gather more information about something in order to show that deeper analysis.

We collaborated with the different activities that they could do - I wrote less activities than I could have  - and found that as I went they didn't need that many either because they were using those activities as benchmarks and created their own in order to best showcase their understanding.

One student said in order to understand the characters' personalities and how they compared with other real life people, he needed to talk about the kind of person they were through their actions and events that they were involved in. This was brilliant because all I had written was 'complete a personality trait table'. He read into it and chose his own way to show what he understood. He said that by doing it that way he would be able to better explain how the characters could relate to real world examples of people (past and present).

Am incredibly proud of this class. This is the second time in two weeks where our Y11 teacher aide has been able to pop into our class and I've heard her ask the same questions that I ask and it's so awesome hearing the students being able to articulate what they're learning, how and more importantly why. So so proud of them. Truly growth mindset kids.


Year 12's. They too get SOLO but have a bit more of a 'teach us rather than discuss the ideas with us' model within their class which is always hard to move from after the collaborative nature of the Year 11 class I have this year.

Today we were working on how creators (in our case NZTA) use driving ad's to effectively persuade and have an impact on teenagers (in our case NZTA's target audience) in how they behave in and around cars.

This is yet another example of the terminology, explanations of the symbols and what the terminology means, and the differing learning outcomes. Activities are on the side in orange. :)

Most of this lesson was taken up by explaining SOLO again - waiting for printing to be collected from the library - though the printer in the English dept is now working again with my laptop - so won't need to wait so long any more :) We talked through a new assessment sheet to collate their data in order to show their understanding for the task of close viewing. Up until that point I wasn't sure what I could use to actually mark them on their understanding of the close viewing. So thanks to Ros MacEachern (@rosmaceachern) I now have an awesome resource, which I was able to share with my department this afternoon as well :) Thanks Ros!!

Year 10's. They too get SOLO. They see how it all interconnects. They're learning how to learn and they think it's cool that they can pinpoint what place they're at and what they need to work on next. They're able as well to communicate their own learning - with these simple questions as I walk around the room.

- So what level are you working at today/right now?/What level are you working towards today?
- What do you need to do to move on to the next level?
- What are working on right now that will help you achieve this learning outcome?
- Cool, so after you've completed this - what do you need to do next?
- Awesome. You've completed this. Not quite 'done' yet though ... what do you need to do next to understand x in more depth?

9 times out of 10 they have an answer. The one time that they don't is when they either need to think about the next step, need to look at the board for possible activities to do next, or need to learn more about SOLO and how it works in order to keep going.

Today we were working on how events in 'The Bone Tiki' help us in our understanding of the narrative structure of the text as well as how the events help to develop the characters. We thought about the ways in which we can then link the events towards an outside worldview and how we can compare and contrast our understanding of the events to help us understand the characters in more depth.

After the lesson, I worked with one student on her 'homework' as she will be away for the next two weeks at Koroneihana in Huntly for Kiingi Tuheitia. Great experience for her as well to bring back to our class. We worked through the SOLO levels again and then discussed the next aspects of the novel study we were going to be working towards completing while she was away - Events, Characters and Themes in 'The Bone Tiki'.

 With each aspect she drew the symbols and we worked on the differing levels to achieve the next step. We completed the characters aspect and added some differentiated activities as we went so that she can complete the themes one at home now that she knows the verbs and phrases in order to show her understanding of the next levels to go deeper in her analysis.

From Pam Hook's discussion on the use of hexagons in SOLO - I created some quick ones for her to cut up and use when she got home and then drew an example of what I meant by the character personality traits and comparison with real life tangata table. She asked me if she could just have the one I drew on the coloured paper - so cut that out as well. While I was cutting out both of these little examples - I had her write down a few of the main characters from 'The Bone Tiki' to show her what I meant by connecting the characters together - and then how that understanding is developed further by explaining how those relationships are connected visually by giving examples as to the how. Eg. Puarata, Matiu and Wiri - how these three are interconnected and why - the bone tiki and the events, quotes, personality traits - quite similar to Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort and the scar I guess. 

Here is the link to the Hexagon's for 'The Bone Tiki' I just created through Pam Hook's Hexagon generator :) 

Anyway - this was my day of SOLO. 

Each time I use it, I see how effective it is, and that the students get it. Each time it gets easier to understand and after the #edchatnz conference I understand much more in how to use it and how to effectively develop my students understanding of how to learn by having very clear and visible learning outcomes and objectives. 

Eventually the process won't take as long and the students will get used to having a benchmark of the kinds of activities they could do for each task and so that side of it would become easier as well because they're learning how to learn by learning. One of my students said today that it was like Inception - 'Learnception'. Thought it was a very apt way of describing SOLO. 

The HUGEST thank-you to Andrea Hensen (@andreahensen_NZ) and Pam Hook (@arti_choke) for sharing your understandings and advice during your workshops. Am incredibly thankful and my students are achieving every day - particularly today and the other days where we have done SOLO properly and even when we haven't because SOLO was always in the back of my mind when creating activities. Now I just have a better grasp on how to use it. Thank-you thank-you thank-you :) Nga mihi nunui ki a korua.