Thursday Catch Up Reflection for Interlead

Here's my reflection from Interlead ....

Every Friday when I hear the stats of people who did or did not complete their Interlead - it annoys me - because we've been given that time to get it done. Slightly hypocritical this time because I didn't get it done this morning, and am now doing it this afternoon, Period 5 - when I'm calm and reflective. 

This morning - planning to write in the staffroom - my favourite place to work where it's usually quiet - nice big circle table where I can spread all of my marking and stuff out - I didn't get to writing because I began talking with my awesome mate Clare about our eLearning meeting on Thursday. 

Such an awesome meeting. I haven't had time to sit down and blog about it yet so am using this five minutes procrastination break from marking to do so. Really awesome to see just how much experience and tech revolution warriors we have at Heights. It is awesome because for a lot of last year I felt like I was alone. I got really involved with Twitter and my PLN outside of school because they were talking about things that I'm passionate about: learning and sharing ideas. I'm hoping that as part of this committee we'll be sharing ideas more and more and learning from each other. I'm super excited about the PLC's and the fact that we're building a more collaborative staff who share and bounce ideas off of each other. Being aware of who I have around me, to aspire to be more like, to be aware of in terms of the way I talk and how I want to stay positive about my students - despite the things I hear from others. That I want to stay true to who I am and how I teach and that being part of this eLearning Committee will not only help our school so that I can give back from the differing professional development sessions I soak up - but also to enable me and my students to continue teaching and learning in a less restrictive manner. 

Now that our Google Site is set up and I know the quick work-arounds for doing bits and pieces on it - it doesn't take as long to add to. I add to it as I go - just as I would with my students and printing out handouts and resources. I still do resources and printed ones too - but just tend to put them online more often. Students seem to like the fact that they can take what they want - see how I've done it and recreate it their way. For my more needs based students - there are individualised options and possibilities available. 

I'd like to completely flip my class. I still want to. But realising and remembering to be patient is hard. Because I still need to learn a few things... like screencasting and how to enable our students to have access at home so that it's equitable. The EXCEL stuff is exciting - but it's not here yet. Patience for me right now, is the key. 

It's hard though when I'm so immersed in my amazing PLNand the professional development I invest in myself... because the world is a-moving and I want to keep evolving my teaching practice - to try and stay with the trends but also maintain consistency for my students. For them - I need to be the best teacher I can be. 

Giving students the link to our class site on paper the other day was a brilliant idea because for ages they kept typing in the wrong shortened link and it was super frustrating as I'd have to go to each student to fix their link. So much easier - longer though - to type in the full site address: https://sites.google.com/a/whhs.school.nz/evolving-at-heights/ 

My assumption is that eventually - when the kids have access - they will have a simpler way to get onto the site as they can just go through their GAFE portal and find the site that way as each student could access each site depending on the privacy and sharing permissions...

Anyway - haven't even talked about my inquiry students...

Y11 - Student 1 has begun to develop a growth mindset. WIN. 

Student 2 has understood how to analyse the essay questions and can break them down by herself. WIN.

Student 3 hasn't been in class for a while... need to find out what's up with him.

Student 4 has continued to perservere and is beginning to break from her fixed mindset...

Y12 Pink - 

Student 1 has broken free from his funk and is back to his relaxed "I love English" frame of mind

Student 2 is still working on her understanding of the text and needs to finish the book!

Student 3 has shown that he is able to work well with me despite previous issues. Remains polite and focussed on his work. 

Student 4 has shown that she is able to do work on her own and is learning to take constructive criticism without thinking it's targeting her ability or taking the offensive. 

Y12 Yellow - 

Student 1 continues to muck around with his written work but works well in discussions and provides really on point insights. 

Student 2 has shown really strong leadership and has developed an indepth analysis of the text. I missed having him in class on Tuesday this week when we talked about pre-conceived notions around the issue of prejudice - but as a whole the class did well in their unpacking of the terminology for 'The Blind Side'

Student 3 has shown that she is able to refocus on her own work and seems to be in a happier state of mind - particularly after our chat last week. 

Student 4 continues to insist on watching 'Inception' rather than TBS - and sits there the majority of the time pretending he's doing the work. 

Student 5 finally came to me to tell me what's been bugging him. He has decided to move away from the noisy boys at the back who keep distracting him and here's hoping he focusses a bit better now. I asked him to come back here at lunch for the English tutorial session with some of the other Y12 kids - but he didn't come back.. Will have to follow up wit him tomorrow and make it more simple. 

Y10 English - 

Student 1 continues to show leadership and can be called on to help others at a moment's notice. It's been a pleasure seeing him progress over the past year and a half!!

Student 2 continues to be disruptive - continuing to reign him in and refocus his attention onto his work rather than distracting the rest of the class. Talked with him again about wearing his hat in class, took it off of him at one point and then sat down yesterday to discuss his immature behaviours. The majority of the class don't laugh at him anymore which is good. We're finally getting somewhere! He has good and annoying days...

Student 3 enjoys word games - need him to finish his work though... he will really struggle next year if he doesn't complete his assessments on time. 

Student 4 has shown persistence again and again. SO SO proud of her. She changed her work at least four times over the last few weeks - with my Socratic questioning and implying that she still had a few bits and pieces to finish. Her finished static image is BRILLIANT. 

Y10 Social Studies - 

Student 1 continues to seek praise for her work.. she is a strong and solid worker - developing her work again and again showing her depth of knowledge.. 

Student 2 worked really well in our group discussion about Sustainability and Migration this week. He is showing participation skills more and more. 

Student 3 has shown that she is a positive influence with the rest of the class. Using Class Dojo today as points giver - has continued to prove that she has a strong connection - fair and equitable I might add - with the rest of the class

Student 4 has improved his work ethic which has been good to see and is always quick to ask whether his persistance and work ethic deserves Dojo points :) Today was particularly hilarious as I kept searching for a particular answer and he finally said "Egypt!" really loudly - still not what I was going for but we all laughed and talked about the fact that the oil at present that was having sustainable issues was to do with it's impact with marine life and the wider communities. 

Student 5 did NO work today. Has been told he isn't sitting with Student 4 anymore and must sit at the front. Not good enough! Just because he isn't on daily report anymore doesn't mean that he can slack off. 

Wrote this last night on using Class Dojo too: http://evolutionandimagination.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/class-dojo-student-engagement-and-pb4l.html

And... that's all for now. 

Great session on #EngChatNZ last night about developing more cross-curricular learning and assessment programmes and the #dojochatANZ run by @GeekyAusTeacher was awesome - around GAFE and Collaboration.  Will add the Storified links later. 

On Tuesday night we had two PLD sessions after the eLearning meeting - NZSL basics and Nathan Mikaere Wallis' talk at JPC around Brain Development. Was really cool being at both of these sessions with people from school. It's nice because we're able to talk about it later and share our on-going learning. 

Looking forward to #EducampHB next Saturday, the Rotary Conference this weekend, #edchatNZ tonight and meeting Jenna from Class Dojo on the 29th! :)

#ConnectedRotorua - 20th March 2015

Yesterday I opened the session for the first time. Was pretty cool actually.

It was even cooler to see real collaboration happening in real time. People were sharing, learning and teaching each other skills and concepts within areas they wanted to focus on.

For me, I helped Vicki Needham start up her blog: vickisteachingreflections.blogspot.co.nz and helped to redesign, change the layout, add widgets etc.

I think the best thing about last night's session is that we were able to have a play and have some time to ourselves to try new things, create and collaborate - which we don't often have the time to do.

I added and continued to update my Badges page on my digital portfolio. There is just so much more to do with both it and my class page that I actually have accepted the fact that it is constantly going to be a working document. It can't be completely finished or perfect because then it wouldn't show my learning and understanding as time progresses. Sure it will become better as time goes on - but there will just always be something else to add. Eventually my portfolio will have a huge selection of my years and years of teaching practice on it.

What I'd like to do is spend time adding RTCs to my blog as tags and as a page with links to my blog posts on my portfolio site.

What I actually need to do this weekend is different - watch my mate and our Heights students participate in the Longest Day where they essentially have their longest day and pull a fire engine down the length of Fenton street. I also would like to spend some time at school marking and finalising changes and adaptations to my classroom and making more resources and stapling short stories etc. I'd also like to go back to Morrinville and spend some time with my nan too - looking at the range of possible housing choices in Rotorua for her.

Am so happy we had such a good session last night. I wonder though whether we can begin learning new things ourselves too rather than being the teachers and supporters to everyone else. I think the discussion we had last night around the need to bring everyone up to where we are and move together is important. However, doing those side courses on GAFE has been helping hone my understanding. Perhaps my next step is to push myself into doing GTA (Google Teacher Academy)... I need a serious amount of time to get to where I want to be with my digital skillset.

I need to carve some more time out... somewhere.

Maybe if we had a day doing it rather than a few hours it would be less stressed and more focussed? Though I'd probably end up procrastinating anyway.... like right now when I could be doing that stuff!

Keeping my blog up to date is important... but I wonder where all these site hits are coming from... 200 yesterday? Where from? And at what posts? Blogger analytics aren't specific enough to show the details for what I think I want to see and analyse. Maybe it's just not important? Maybe the writing is.

Anyway - thanks again to everyone who came last night and hope you all come again with more people too :) Spread the word!! :) #ConnectedRotorua

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa

To-Do List after #edchatnz

Thanks to @boonman himself for this awesome blog post! 

My To-Do List after the #edchatnz conf to continue the revolution -

1) Create a sign up sheet for my colleagues to learn more about Twitter this Thursday afternoon. Some have already said that they want to get started. Just need to know how and why.

2) I will ask my students what they want our classroom to look like in their learning environment. They will have complete ownership. I miss my class being really decorative and colourful and above all else, effective. I will exert a growth mindset in regards to the exams and having to take it all down to put it back up next year with the new student's ideas.

3) I will create a class blog to share what my students are up to in my class. They need to summarise the lesson. A five minute summary with videos like how @mattynicoll does it.

4) I will promote my Ulearn14 PledgeMe project and go to the bank this week to ask for help.

UPDATE: Day One after #edchatNZ - have posted it via Twitter and Facebook. 

UPDATE: Day One at School after #edchatNZ - My fabulous Twitter PLN have ReTweeted it for me and I already have a couple of pledges. Thankyou! :) 

5) I am going to help with #connectedrotorua and get more Heights staff along for Connected Educator's month.

6) I am going to find a balance between learning, work and volunteering priorities, family and friends.

7) There are still tonnes of eggs to lay and hatch.

UPDATE: Day One at School after #edchatnz - found another lone nut! Just need to hook her in and get her onto Twitter so she can dance with us :)

#TechThursday - Integrating Technology

UPDATE - 7th May 2015: A year on from this post below - check out where we are heading now! http://evolutionandimagination.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/heights-elearning-committee.html

Have been slowly gaining more interest from others for #TechThursday where I help my colleagues develop or integrate technology into their practice.

For teachers who already do this and who are au fait with the process, it can be intimidating for others.

So far I've targeted specific people on staff who seem interested, willing and again... interested. At the moment I'm doing it on a very casual basis and hopefully in the future will create a specific PLC on it with a broader range of staff - not just the basics but also where to next. Kind of like an educamp or eduignite for school where they can leave somewhat overwhelmed but mostly inspired and keen to get started.

Have helped one colleague with her KAMAR printing and finding students.

Have just finished helping another who I do duty with (K House all day!) and we looked at a surprising number of things. I'd asked him what he'd like to learn more about originally and again today so that we could make his learning as relevant as possible.

1.  Searched for mathematics resources - TKI for starters and the Maths community
2. Figured out how to copy and paste using ctrl + C and ctrl + V
3. Copied a table of information about area and measurement from Word to Powerpoint
4. Created a hyperlink on PPT from a different url of a different website
5. Copied the embed link from a video
6. Inserted embed link into PPT to show Youtube Vid
7. Created a Maths community on Google+
8. Added links and videos onto the community page

HUGE lots of learning done. Proud as.

Hopefully he'll share that with the rest of his Maths dept now :) Yay! Success!! :)

Oh and this new link I just found: http://www.vln.school.nz/groups/profile/74810/home-school-partnerships/

PLN: Twitter

I am particularly blessed with the people I've networked with on Twitter. They continue to uplift me and support my thinking towards the importance of 'blended learning' and the need for more relevant Professional Learning in our lives as teachers. My colleagues at school are amazing. They too inspire me and give me ways to think about things in which I hadn't been able to do so before. They provide me with strategies to console my thoughts and feelings towards solving problems in class and in life. I thank each and every one of you... whether you read my blog or not! :)

It doesn't matter whether your Professional Learning Network begins with someone across the hallway or whether it begins with meeting a fellow educator at a conference. What matters is the learning involved. If you're not learning... what's the point? Find better people to surround yourself with!

In fact - as I'm learning - I'm seeing the different ways other people learn and respond to each other. There are the people who are resistant - but are still hesitantly willing to have a go. Then there are the ones who are so full on and involved (or not as the case may be) that you feel your head may spin. I've been both of these people at certain times of my (very short) teaching career.

Talkin' bout a Revolution...

It starts with a whisper. A mere suggestion of a question, asked frankly, yet in an open space for plenty of discussion if need be.

Today I posed the question to three of my colleagues. At different times and in slightly differing ways according to the person.

My aim: to create a self-sourcing professional learning network among our staff.