Mahi Haerenga... Next steps...

And today... I handed in my resignation letter.

And gave my decision to my new principal, that I waa accepting the new position.

#ItsGettingRealNow

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.

MindLab: Applied Practice - Week 31 - Interdisciplinary Connections Map (Activity 7)

I've been thinking a lot about what 'interdisciplinary' actually means and after reading a few articles, watching a couple videos... I kind of get what it means now.

I love in this Ted Talk that David Wiley brings up Creative Commons. It was the main thing that helped me to understand the need for more interdisciplinary learning and teaching approaches. The need to Mix, Reuse, Share. 

At first I thought it was just cross-curricular learning, planning with other teachers collaboratively to create a programme that was more integrated.

It's more than that...

It's not just integrated learning either.

It's the kind of learning where the student is at the focus, completely inquiry based where students are essentially asking questions to develop a rich source of learning where it is not only relevant but real life learning too. It's the kind of learning where those boundaries of learning areas and specialist subjects are crossed. Where students are using their knowledge across the differing learning areas to create a meaningful learning experience.

This sounds incredibly beautiful. I want to learn how to do this. I arrogantly feel that I do some of this already... but know that everything I do can be done significantly better. Also, that kind of learning is organic. It comes from real teachable moments. It comes from students asking questions related to their own learning.

In secondary school and particularly employed as an English teacher, many of the questions my students ask are focussed on the assessment at hand, rather than their learning - eg "What do I need to do to get a Merit?" or "I don't feel that this assessment will allow me to get an Excellence so there's no point doing it as I want to get endorsed with Excellence"....

Or the "I can't be bothered doing any more with it Miss, I just want an Achieved."

This credit farming business seriously ruins my love for teaching and learning. Students know the system. They know how to work the system. Jeez, my year were the second group through NCEA and we knew how to work the system too.

The assessments if done well, can be cross-curricular, they can be interdisciplinary - but more often than not they aren't. This is a major problem for me. I would love to see real world learning happening for every student in my class. At the moment - over all five classes - I'd have to say it's only happening in my social studies class, some in Y10 English and maybe three or four students across Y11 and the Y12 classes.

The reason being is that 1) My continuous moan that there is just not enough time and 2) real-world learning and teachable moments happen every so often because we're so driven by the assessment and the marking and moderation and uploading to KAMAR that we forget or don't pay as much attention to the teaching moments and opportunities throughout the assessment.

Yesterday I missed two opportunities to discuss real-world learning from questions from my students. I don't know why I didn't just stop what we were doing and discuss it. It's real world learning and I love those types of discussions which allow my students to put their hearts on the line and declare their passion and thoughts whichever way it turns. It was in Social Studies too.. a class where I want them to be more aware of what is happening in the world today and they asked me a question about Moko.... and I responded about how awful and how sad it was... and then kept thinking just to stay on task and carry on with what we were doing.

The point I guess I'm making is that those moments can be rare and if they're not seized and taken advantage of, then we miss truly wonderful moments where students take hold of their own learning and participate and contribute in a way that allows all students the chance to discover and share their own thoughts.

Two areas of focus for future goals in teaching and learning:

Creating more relevant ways to assess student learning
As I discussed briefly above, the need to assess students is part of my job, however there has to be a way to ensure that assessments are more relevant and making the most of student's engagement and interest into their learning. At present our assessments in English have the potential to be more interdisciplinary. The main issue is the assumed expectation of what is accepted as assessment quality. I have so many ideas. So many ideas around creating more relevant ways to assess. The issue remains around the expectation of my colleagues in my department as to what constitutes work that could be assessed. In the past few months there has finally been a decision agreed by all members of the department that work done in other learning areas can be used towards the Level Two Writing Portfolio as long as it is worked up to a Level Two English standard for writing. This is increasingly exciting. I'm no longer nervous about telling students it's okay to do this.

I'd also like to investigate alternatives for the academic purposes assessment - at present it is relevant for many students as it focuses on two hunting articles around safety while hunting. A major issue in our area. As a result of this, it could be seen as being relevant. In the past I've had a range of different students - some of which it was relevant and relateable - and others who it didn't connect with at all. This year I had even more students who didn't connect with it. I think it is super important to have relevant assessment opportunities... and to ensure there is equitable access in terms of engagement for all students.... I just wonder where there are possible alternatives to the hunting one... even though I personally connect with it easily as a kid who grew up hunting... but I digress...

Making the most of teachable moments to ensure more relevant and real-world learning
With whatever we do in class - working towards the goal of having more relevant ways of assessing - there is a need to be consistently planning programmes of learning that take into account student's interests, inquiries and more importantly focused questions around the learning. By doing this, there may be even more teachable moments available which may create more relevant and real-world learning opportunities.

There are teachable moments that get missed out on due to the need to complete the coursework. I hate that I did this the other day. It makes me incredibly sad that I didn't create that environment to discuss those issues. If students were given more opportunities to identify areas that they were interested in there would be a higher chance of more engagement and more focused learning for all involved.

I'm not sure this is really a focus for interdisciplinary teaching and learning... or whether it's just good teaching and learning... I just think that these two issues are goal-worthy for now for me as they're issues that I'm always thinking about and trying to be better with. It all comes down to making the learning more effective and worthy of the student's time. I suppose too it means a lot as a teacher to ensure more relevant modes of teaching too as with everything I've learnt in the MindLab ... I need to make sure that my students are at the centre so that they can redefine their learning and what it means to be a learner in the 21st century.

Growth Mindset - Reminder

Reminder - create new Growth Mindset posters for the classroom. Re-teach to those who need it and to others who may also.

An Open Message: Tatou Tatou

I wrote this post back on the 11th March. I never put it here. I should have but I didn't.
Anyway here it is... after tonight's weeny shock at seeing one of my students in his colours with the other members at the supermarket... think tonight is just as pertinent as any to share this. If anything it hardens my resolve to find a way through to this particular class where it's such an issue daily.

An open message to all gang prospects, gang members who entice younger high school students and their leaders who allow this to happen:

Every day I am happy to see my students walk through the door of our classroom. I am passionate about wanting them to learn and believe that they can achieve. To push them forward to be the best possible them that they can be.

The issue I see every day is my students kowtowing to my other students in hopes to become a new member or within their mode of operandi as prospects. These students happen to be among my wide list of awesome students and it breaks my heart that they only see this as a possible future for themselves. That they give up working on their beautiful art and creative writing or drama and dance because it supposedly doesn't help in their future lives.

Our students deserve more than this. They deserve whanau who believe they are capable of achieving more than they ever possibly dreamed of. Our students try their very best in class and work hard to learn the behaviours appropriate in each class and at school. They push themselves to please us as sometimes we're the only happy face to see them during their day or they trust us and believe that we'll have their best interests at heart.

Whanau, I know you all want the best for them too - but at the end of the day - we need to break the cycle. And it starts with all of us. To find a place of calm and understanding and know that there is a better place out there for them. To let them be free to make their own choices (albeit whether that means they choose to stay in the gang as that's the only life they know).

Believe in them. They are more than what you may see. They are talented and wonderful kids who ache to have someone tell them this. They crave encouragement. They literally sparkle when you encourage them and tell them you believe in them. Let them see the world and all its joys and hardtimes too. But most of all - let them be kids. Don't force them into something because that's how it was for you.

I'm proud to teach our students. I care about each and every single one. I will always do my absolute best to advocate for the safety and happiness of every one of my students - past, present and future kids.

Just give them a chance to see the opportunities awaiting them.

Naku noa,

Alex Le Long

Mindset Vs Motivation

For a long time I've discussed how motivating students is a passion of mine. At the same time though, it can become incredibly draining if you're the only one helping to provide that motivation. Ensuring that all students are motivated all the time, five hours a day, five days a week, 9+ weeks a term, four terms a year (and that's excluding online learning and mentoring too). It's more difficult when they come to school with little to no motivation like my Y13 class a couple years ago.

For many of my students, the fact that they're at school, in uniform (no matter how many non-regulation or incorrect pieces there are), have their focus on me (no matter how little they're paying attention truly), and being somewhat patient while I drag on with the lesson, shows motivation. They're here. They're at school. Small blessings some would say. However, unless my students share with me what happened last night, last week, this morning, last period, as to why the lack of focus, or energy, let alone motivation, I can only assume that what I'm doing is boring or not relevant. I don't know what happened in the previous lesson nor what happened on the way to school let alone what happened at home. I can't fix that outside stuff no matter how much I try to help guide and support my students towards a safer and happier life. I can only focus on that lesson or really the 38 minutes by the time they're settled and focussed.

I'm a massive believer in the need for intrinsic motivation. However if there is no self-motivation, no outside motivation and no self-confidence to create that belief that they are capable, then it is damn difficult to help them along.

Regardless, I try. There are small triumphs along the way. When that student emailed me after the results came out and told me she had passed an English external. I wondered whether that last minute coaching on the canteen steps really had helped before she went to line up for her exam. When that student showed that other student how to use Google Docs to work collaboratively and share their work with me. When another student came back to school and apologised for her behaviour and attitude when she was in my class a couple years ago and now after her first year through university she understands why I was so hard on her to stay focussed and motivated. That hug and smile from her meant a lot because without these small signs of thanks and notions of understanding, the gratitude, it's difficult to find the motivation to motivate others.

At the end of the day though, I've learnt that no matter how much motivation and energy I push towards my students, there has to be some give and take.

It's harder with the senior students. Particularly with the targets set where we have to get 85% of the Y12 students passing Level Two. It's a national target. We all feel the pressure. The problem is though that the students have learnt how to hack the system. As they should really. They've found that in art you can get 24 credits for your portfolio board but that doesn't come in til the end of the year, but you can still count on those credits. Potentially that's a third of your required credits. They've seen that at Trades you can get credits for a six week course and in Health, PE, ORSP and SHWB despite there being lots of articles and reports that need to be written - they're easy enough to do because the information is there in your book or you can work collaboratively to complete projects. In Tourism you can get 14+ credits for a booklet and you can use the internet to find out the answers, despite the information being in the booklets themselves. In Maths and Science it's a bit harder but doable if you have a teacher that will help you. These are all things I've heard my students say as they figure out what subjects they'll take in the coming year. They're anecdotal things I heard when I was going through NCEA myself. My year was the second year through. Some of the speedbumps had been ironed out, but now we're dealing with this credit hunting issue.

Our students are incredibly smart. They've figured out that if you want to just pass English all you need to do is complete two pieces of writing for their writing portfolio and complete the two academic purposes reading assessment. Level Two English is hard. Don't get me wrong. There are students every year who try to get by with the very limited amount of effort compared to those who do amazingly well. It's frustrating when that effort is wasted when they leave halfway throughout the year to go work or move schools.

Our students know that if they do the bare minimum then they can coast for the rest of it. This is not an environment where learning journeys are praised. Only credits and endorsements.

I sound incredibly cynical especially with the fact that it's only a few more days until we start the new year, however I know that this is the reality and it is upsetting because there is only so much we can do as teachers to try get our students through. As much effort and motivation we send towards our students, at the end of the day, our students need to be motivated to move forward and try for themselves.

This is why this year I'll be focussing more on Mindset. Changing a mindset and a self perception that they can't do this or that because of X is a lot more manageable and has proven to work in my classroom.

In my classroom my students quickly learn that they get told off if they say they can't do something. I feel like that WWII 'We Can Do It' lady a lot of the time. My self-motivation, my self-belief that these students CAN achieve. That they CAN push themselves to their very very best. That ultimately it comes down to a perceived mindset that they need to flick the switch to in order for them to change their self-sabotaging habits and believe in themselves.

In our class for Y12 there is an expectation that they will try every damn thing. No matter how crazy, strange, frustrating or seemingly boring it is. If it helps to spark that motivation inside them, if it makes them think even for a millisecond that they can do it, then we'll try it.

Yes we will do the writing portfolio and the academic reading assessments because that is part of their literacy requirements. Their learning and understanding prior to these assessments is what I look for however. To see whether they truly understand the issues around shooting soundshots in the bush or the difference between emotive language used in an article to persuade the reader towards a certain perspective and a report that uses jargon in a more scientific style of writing to be clear and direct towards it's readers. To see whether they understand that a draft needs continuous re-writes to ensure that it becomes their best work. To see whether they can work collaboratively to understand genre while writing in whiteboard marker on the windows in a genre crunching timed game. To see whether they're able to focus themselves in order to complete their own work. To see whether they have time management skills.

Once these two assessments are well on their way, then we begin the learning of two (or one for the 'alternative' class) external texts - written and visual texts. This takes the most motivation on my part to ensure not only that we cover everything that they may possibly need to know but also to ensure that they understand how to write essays. This is the crux. The true learning of the entire year. Not because they learn how to write essays. But because they learn how to truly push themselves to not only TRY but to attempt writing in a structured style, to convey their point of view in a clear, understandable way that truly makes the reader believe that they know what they're talking about in regards to the given question about the text. This is hard. But again it is doable. But this time, it comes down to mindset. This is when I begin teaching about fixed and growth mindsets. To show them that they're only stopping themselves when they give up.

During this time when I'm teaching them my latest version of the essay style that helps to easily convey their ideas clearly (SEXIST at the moment), we discuss the need to have a growth mindset. Self-belief and an innate knowledge that they can GROW their brain, flex that brain like a muscle, that they can actually do it.

Hopefully during the learning and understanding of these two text studies, we will have completed another two pieces of writing at least to go towards their portfolios as well as the critical Party in the Car assessment which helps to ensure that their learning around safe driving is embedded in their brains when it comes towards their own driving safety.

The issue that our students have with Level Two English is that there are only four internal assessments and two externals. While it comes out with the same amount of credits as other subjects, there is a lot more work involved with each assessment. The ongoing need to be self-motivated, to have a mindset that pushes you to your very best is absolutely critical.

Our students are required to think critically in English and perhaps for a while they haven't needed to think too deeply and that brain isn't warmed up enough to do critical thinking exercises. There is no silver bullet. No way to completely ensure that EVERYONE achieves the same amount of credits. The same qualification. It comes back to the students and their mindset to achieve to the best of their ability. To keep trying and keep pursuing their goals. Unfortunately not every student has passing Level Two as one of their goals. For some students just surviving the day without X is a goal in and of itself. For some of our students a simple, "You've got this!" or a "I believe in you!" might be enough but then it might not be either.

As teachers we all see students who are just not motivated the way we want them to be or 'engaged' the way we want them to be. We forget to put ourselves in our student's shoes. For some of us teachers, we actually cannot understand some of the lives that our students are living. There is a disconnect. Being relevant, in touch with what our students are dealing with is critical. If we can understand their struggles, then perhaps at least at school we can make things a bit easier. We can be understanding and compassionate.

Encouraging a positive mindset, encouraging success (no matter how little the outside perception may be), believing that each student is capable of achieving their goals - this is what I'm hopeful for every day.

I can't be each student's motivation. But I can become a spark of self-motivation for them to build a fire inside themselves, to create a thirst for learning and more importantly to inspire them to flick that switch towards creating a positive growth mindset and encouragement to build a beautiful array of goals for their future.

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. 

-Mahatma Gandhi

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.

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. 

Equity and Equality

Earlier today on Facebook I posted somewhat of a rant as I felt that I was bottling stuff up that had to do with my choices in life and my aspirations within my career.

I won't repost it here but the general gist was that I felt like I was being made to feel guilty for not spending enough time or effort making a life outside of school. I've felt this a lot myself over the last few years here in Rotorua and perhaps that's why it hurt a little when I rethought it again this morning before writing. Because... at the end of it - it comes down to perception.

The perception I have of this issue is that I'm proud of where I've come so far. I've overcome a lot of issues, both emotional, psychological and physical as well as spiritual issues too. I've become a stronger and more confident person. I finally feel like the person I was when I was 16. With dreams and aspirations and a beautiful positive attitude that is trying hard not to be weighed down by the pressures of society.

The problem I suppose and the reason I'm now writing this post is because for some strange reason - I feel guilt for not having a life. A life where I have a lot of friends and a husband or partner and children. I feel guilt because I'm the oldest child and because I'm a woman and because even at 27 there is still this thing in the back of my mind that's telling me I have no worth unless I'm hitched and hapu. Which I know is pathetic and wrong.
However - as a result of this stupid unfounded guilt - I felt like I need to explain myself further this morning and say that I'm actually really proud of who I am and what I've done. I'm excited about my dreams and aspirations and believe that I can achieve anything if I put my mind to it.

The actual problem though is the fact that I know I wouldn't feel this guilt - or actually be made to feel like this - had I been born a man. My grandfather was congratulated by his friends on hearing that he finally had a grandson when they read in the paper of the birth of Alex Le Long. He grunted and said it was another girl. I've talked at length the impact this awesome man had on my life but it's this issue that continues to make me feel like I'm not good enough.

My post is quickly turning sad..

Anyway. The point of this post is this:
Just because a woman has dreams and aspirations does not mean that she should be overlooked because of her gender. She should be clearly pitted against her peers for the job and the best candidate wins. However - more often than not - men get the opportunities because they're seen as being more influential or inspiring or albeit interesting?

I know that this is not just an issue I face. It's something that's happening the world over. Because gender discrimination continues to happen. Despite the massive steps we've made.

Up until this point I've made a decision to put my career first. I've been lucky to have been able to do this. I haven't been burdened by distractions. I've been able to focus on me and what I want. Right now as I type I'm thinking that this sounds selfish. But would a man think this in the back of his mind? Would he feel overwhelming guilt for not having had children or having found a suitable wife by now? Some perhaps. But the majority are able to fly through and be bachelors like George Clooney (until recently) and get rewarded and celebrated for their focus on their career.

It frustrates me that it's not the same for women.

What I'd like to feel is rewarded and celebrated and valued for putting so much effort into my mahi and for putting it and my students first.

What I'd like to think about myself is that I am admired because I push myself to achieve my goals and work hard to do so. That I am valued because I continue to dream big and never stop learning.

I'd like to know that the world is ready for women to take a stand and be who we want to be without having to fit inside a particular box.

I'd like to know that despite whether I choose to have children or not that I won't be disregarded based on who I am. I'm totally fine if they don't think I have the qualifications or the ability to achieve their aims for that opportunity. But don't disregard me based on my gender nor my aspirations in life.

Edit:

Just found this post.

https://youtu.be/ltVPj6-5xpo

Beautiful.

Staff uptake and questions

This will be an ongoing post:

- SD created a Google + community for her chem class and realised she had the privacy settings too strict - at the moment our students don't have domain email accounts. She'd wanted to create a classroom but that wouldn't have worked either. She asked for help - we sat down and went through basics of posting on G+ and using Drive. Uploaded her first ppt file and converted it to a Slides file so we could add the link to her G+ post. She too was annoyed that we can't let students into the one she originally created yet - but agreed it would be a great place for the future to use it when they do have the emails. She said she was too eager. Love this. :) She's now created another community with easier privacy settings and has invited me to the group. Awesome!

- questioned about being a teacher but adding self as student when we created the classroom for TOD. JS came to me after going to the IT guys and CS and I couldn't fix the problem as I didn't have access to the admin console. Emailed the IT guys and said that I didn't have access and sent them the link to get it done. Then all of a sudden I had access to the Google Groups for Classroom admin and also JS was a teacher again. :)

- questioned about notifications from G+. Made a screencast for staff. Sent it out in last email with G form for feedback. Hopefully they get it :) It all comes down to how they organise their gmail accs though. So hopefully they fix it.

- questioned about one on one tutorial. Offered but we got our times mixed up.

-

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.

Adopting a Growth Mindset

Sometimes it's hard to adopt a growth mindset.

It's hard too when you offer help and it's not taken. Nor listened to.

But everyone is on their own journey, doing their own thing - and really I should just be happy that things are taking off and that some people are becoming early adopters in different areas. That they're doing things that they're passionate about and really keen on developing things for our school.

I have to remind myself that it's a good thing and that I shouldn't feel gutted that I'm not involved in what they're doing too. Yes I'm passionate about that as well - but I'm just happy things are changing and developing, evolving and improving.

This coming Friday is going to be awesome. We have an action packed session for teacher's only day and although I'm nervous about doing PLD for the staff and the reactions during and afterwards - I've done it before so I shouldn't really be that nervous. It's different at school though because I see these people every day. At conferences or Educamps it doesn't seem that big a deal because there is already a safe environment of sharing and collaborating built into the way we do things. At school I don't have the same reputation as I do in my PLN circles... and I swear I'm trying to say that as humbly as possible.

My colleagues here at school know that I'm into different techy things but it's going to be quite a bit blown out of the water come Friday... and am interested in how things happen afterwards.

I was hoping that we were going to be in the hall - because it's more of a neutral space and I feel comfortable sharing in there...

In the staffroom - the way it's set up is very transmission style and I teach from the side. It's going to be harder to collaborate and move around in this setting. Because it's organised into little groups and cliques. The same people sit in the same place and there isn't a lot of moving around.

I want people to feel comfortable with each other enough to share and change their mindsets. But staying in these groups will only allow the same old thoughts to congregate in those areas.

Of course - I could truly be optimistic and think that after our session we will really have changed mindsets... but I know the reality. I'm still pessimistically optimistic... if that's even a thing.

Am looking forward to sharing our ideas with the eLearning Committee tonight after school too to bounce off and get some stronger perspectives from them all.

The environment is key. If I can alter that somehow... then maybe that might help in some way to develop change.

At least though I'm not in this one alone and I have an awesome support network and group of colleagues with me who believe in change.

It's really cool that I'm not the Lone Nut anymore... my own perspective has changed and I'm aware of the others out there who understand too. Can't wait to build that collaborative network further.

My mentor just told me that I'm young enough to take the knives. True. until then just DO>

Growth Mindsets and #EngChatNZ

Still buzzing out - in the words if Beau Monga - about our chat last night. It was awesome seeing some of the new primary teachers get on board and try it out as well as my awesome EngChat team helping others out.

The best thing last night was probably the video and how it began to develop and influence people's opinions about adopting a growth mindset. Was just thinking before about how I had written a tonne of questions for my own clarity - but chose the specific few that would make the chat not only well-rounded and organised - but ensured ultimate reflection and relating to our student's perspectives.

I think the change of night has helped as well as the promo I did in the week and days prior to the chat. Building the chat back up again is going to take more time than I thought originally but it was pumping last night!! I couldn't even keep up just favouriting and retweeting.

What I'd like to happen next is for someone to moderate alternate weeks so that I have time to participate as well. Also - have certain people delving deeper and challenging the recurring members thoughts like how Danielle has the Devil's Advocate now in #edchatnz. Would be cool to assign roles to different people each week - retweeting and curating via the @EngChatNZ account and even doing the Storify and promotion for week to come.

I think that with a few more chats under our collective belt we'll be able to build the chat up even more so.

My big aim this year is to ensure that our topics are accessible to any person in any sector - where it be ECE, Primary, Secondary or even Tertiary. I'd like to have guest writers and inspring people help mod our chat like imagine if we could get Glen Colquhoun or Maya Angelou! Or even Sarah Kay and Phil Koyczan and the spoken word whanau at The Front Line in Auckland.

So many options and we can only keep building on it. :)

The Importance of Reflecting

A few people in the staffroom are talking about our reflections we do on a Thursday morning.

"Who in your department is even going to read them?"

"They're time consuming."

Laughter, "No-one will read them!"

Hmmm.

I wonder what those people would do if I showed them the stats of this blog or even one of my favourite teaching blogs...
Because in a small way they're right. Unless you're sharing your Interlead reflections with others in your school - no-one will be reading them. With Interlead - there isn't an easy way to read them. You've got to find each blog through a different link - whereas it'd be easier if it was on some type of blog roll or blog list like Blogger do.

I've tried to pass on these changes to the Interlead tech team... but they don't really seem to want to alter it.

If there isn't a global audience or even one outside our school - you'll only ever get perspectives from the same type of people - especially if you've only shared it with people who sit at your table.

If there was a way to show them that reflecting was HUGE and that others around the world could see it... then perhaps they'd see a point in it.

It's still a new thing to them too. For forever they haven't needed to be self-reflective or share their struggles or inquiries with others. It can be seen as having lost your power even admitting that you're struggling to your colleagues.
Of all people - your colleagues should be the ones that encourage and support you to get through the struggles.

Still - the one thing that irks me is when people ask - what kind of class is it. My frustrated answer is usually - a bunch of the craziest, zaniest, happiest and brightest group of kids.

Not ever should you give a kid a label of saying- they're an S class or that they're in Diligence or in Extension or they're in TRP or...

Why?

Because the kids then think that label is who they are. They begin to feel that they are all that label is - ever encompassing - and more importantly - that they will never be anything more than that.

Gah. Stop labelling kids. How are they ever going to overcome challenges and build growth mindsets if you only ever have a fixed and set mindset about them?

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.

Y10 Poetry update..

Again... I don't quite know how it worked but... it did. Perhaps it was the scaffolding or the flexibility or the one on one group work, checking up on everyone and getting everyone involved.

Was really really easy to see the two students disruptinf their own learning... and actually - none of the other kids were put off because they were all in their own little poetry ecosystems. So so cool.

Really need to figure out how to recreate this. I feel like it's a mixture of the 'right kinda kids' and also perseverance.

To have kids choose to write their own poems over beginning the decorating side or for those who want to start the decorating side and think while they're doing it. Or having one student working on Minecraft creating billboard signs with poetry on them or another creating a PowerPoint on my laptop and looking up Hone Tuwhare poems for more inspiration. Or the student who has consistently been on point, choosing poems by Coleridge and Wordsworth for his selection. Or the student reading out of the poetry book I lent her last week to the disruptive students beside her - trying to help them get on task - but then ignoring them while still sitting beside them - doing her work. Or the students at the back immersed in their music, using it to create a collaborative song. Or the student so immersed in his own poetry that he was finding it hard to get it out "right".

Somehow... I helped create this.

And it's simply wonderful.

After last year and being so incredibly drained by the immature behaviour and consistent setbacks with changing class dynamics and constant stops during the lessons - it is so so nice to finally see them involved, participating and getting into it.

At one point I stopped them for a bit to talk about a Class Dojo point goal - 50 points by the end of the term. And one student said, "Miss, this is not helping. I'm in the zone." Or something to that effect. He just wanted to get back into his poetry and honestly... that is the coolest thing hearing that from him.

Of course... it could also be the cupcakes that I gave out at the start of the lesson in recognition of two boys' birthdays over the weekend, promised rewards from last year that I owed and just because they've really been working so damn well.

Stoked.

Inquiries for 2015

I was thinking about what my inquiry would be this year to put into Interlead.

Then I realised there was more than just one. And.... that I wanted to achieve them all.

So I wrote them all out on Google Docs, shared it in the Heights PLD folder I created and am now posting it up here too...

Alex Le Long - Inquiries for 2015

• Develop stronger understanding and use of literature circles
• Read articles, blogs and ask questions from those who do it effectively
• Develop stronger awareness and use of Google Drive with students
• Teach workshops and take PLD sessions to further develop my own knowledge
• Find courses that will help to develop these skills
• Ask for help from Google Educators and Trainers
• Invite others from our community to teach our staff
• Create breakout sessions to develop ability to individualise own learning
• Implement a strong reading programme for students
• Adapt the reading programmes used last year and allocate point system from Reading Fitness programme (Text Rating) and ensure students are bringing logs in to be checked
• Implement a strong PB4L focus in all classes
• Use ClassDojo app and in browser to continue pushing the PB4L in class and enable students to do their best work possible
• Print out ClassDojo parent slips
• Continue developing Growth Mindset programme for classes
• Go to Carol Dweck’s conference!!!!! (SAVE SAVE SAVE!!)
• Blog
• Share students successes last year. Invite past students in to talk with current classes
• Develop a strong social studies programme
• Learn how to break things down! Don’t need to teach EVERY aspect.
• Remember how to write a social sciences essay!
• Get the SocSci brain back
• Develop the ability to say NO to things that are outside of these inquiry choices
• Don’t say yes to everything.
• Be aware of opportunities that come your way and be open to them and also assess risk (to myself, to students, to school) in terms of overcommitment
• Build a stronger PLD focus for myself that is personalised around my inquiry choices
• Maintain #educamp, #ConnectedRotorua, conferences, edchats and other PLD sessions to build network and maintain connections.
• Upskill and share own knowledge with edu peers
• Be ambitious - but remember the power of the shoulder tap!!!
• Be consistent.
• Do what works and try new things too.
• Enable students to succeed and enable myself to feel successful also.
• BLOG
• My successes and also my failures. Learn from both.
• Read and comment on other peoples’ blogs
• Update and use Google Site for students
• Create a permalink for the Site for students and families to access
• Develop classroom environment so that it is a welcoming and inviting place, and also to enable students to learn effectively
• Keep class and resources tidy
• Organise class configuration according to lesson aims
• Attempt to fix and solve any classroom issues myself and ask Wini and the caretakers to help
• Ask for help for more important issues - curtains and projector (and bracket)
• Improve #EngChatNZ
• Build a team of helpers and supporters
• Promote the chat
• Build on last year’s efforts and successes!