2020: Pandemic Planning

Pandemic

Adjective:

 (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.

synonyms:

widespread, prevalent, pervasive, rife, rampant, epidemic;

Noun:

an outbreak of a pandemic disease.

"the results may have been skewed by an influenza pandemic"

I really didn't think we'd be getting right into Pandemic Planning at kura so early. I thought maybe we'd hit global Zombie Apocalypse first... but no. This is real.

I was in a state of panic yesterday.

I spent a lot of time in bed - worried, concerned. Sleepy.

Today, I got back into action mode. Lots of things were completed at school but there is still this overarching sense of impending doom to calculate and maneuver around.

My current thoughts are a resounding: We got this! But my internal conflict says... Do we? Like actually, do we?

It makes me think about how lucky we are here in New Zealand. We'd heard about it late last year, on into the beginning of this year.

One of my Y12 students even did her speech on this subject. Only slightly ironic that we'd then have a global pandemic on our hands...

Still, all the planning in the world couldn't prepare us for this. At present we have sixty-six confirmed cases of Coronavirus. This man in the video below is so clearly spoken, so relaxed and calm in this growing sense of panic that the rest of us are feeling. People are panic buying toilet paper. TOILET PAPER. Yes.... And not just here, either. All over. Sure, hand sanitiser and bleach sold out quickly too. They've only recently put a limit on how many loaves of bread you're allowed to buy. My friends are having trouble buying bags of flour. It makes me a tiny bit more appreciative of being gluten free.

Underneath all this bravado and my own sense of supposed calm. There is an overwhelming worry and concern for the people I love and care for. My immune-compromised colleagues are allowed to work from home this week according to Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health guidelines.

We're at Pandemic Alert Level 2 here in NZ. Our schools won't close until we are at Level 4. This is in itself quite a stressful time. We are on the frontline: teachers, nurses, doctors.

What are the symptoms again?

Coronavirus has spread fast. From Wuhan, China and then on throughout the rest of the world. We closed our borders relatively quickly. Thankful to have the cousin Jacinda as Prime Minister. She has truly helped keep the virus at bay. People traveling were meant to self-isolate. I'm guessing the 66 cases are people who did the travelling.

We are yet to move to community transfer. When that happens... I guess we'll be rising to the next Alert Level.

Italy has become the new epicentre of the virus. It is awful to think of the beautiful places I travelled to and visited in 2018 having their beautiful people getting sick and dying from this disease. Apparently the canal waters are clear. The sediment has not been disturbed. Fish and swans can be seen in and on the canal waters. Even dolphins have returned.

Some are saying that this is Mother Nature's way of putting us all into a time-out. Perhaps this is true. We were going to end up this way at some point, why not now?

It's hard to say what might happen next.

All I do know is that I have to keep a calm face and encourage my colleagues to do the same.

We're all in this together. Solidarity. Sick?

Whatever it means - we have to keep moving.

It is scary though to think of my students getting sick and coming to school, sick and then that virus transferring to others.

Usually when I start thinking of next possible situations, the worst possible situations, I feel a sense of dread, panic and fear.

At least with this pandemic of Coronavirus... I know the realities. Everyone I know and love could die. This might be a really morbid thing to say - sure. But I've actually never felt more calm. Because this is literally the worst thing that could happen.

And yet, I think the panic lies in what to sort out first. Which priority is more important?

Which task on my to-do list needs to be actioned first?

To Do...

• Ensure all classes in my department have Google Classroom set up
• Ensure that all students have access to wifi, data or other means to complete their work
• Check in with the immune-compromised teachers in my department. Are they okay? Will they be working at home this week? 
• Talk with immune-compromised students via email. Check that they are ready, and set up for learning at home
• Reassure students and teachers that it will be okay... 
• Find out more information of how dogs can get sick from the virus... 
• Buy more echinacea tablets ---- don't be overwhelmed if you can't find any...
• Try not to panic buy....
• Talk to Nan often and see how she's doing
• Create Zoom lessons and use Screencastify
• Prep resources that can be used online and offline
• Talk with students and check they're prepped at home with food and safe places
• Carry out duty at school -- enforce 2 metre separation where needed
• 
  

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.

Applied Practice - Week 28 - Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice - (Activity 4)

Have just been looking at the Unitec's framework for embedding Te Tiriti o Waitangi into their courses. Absolutely beautiful use of a Poutama. I don't think I've ever seen anyone use it like that before. 

The poutama is a three way progression to step towards the stars, enlightenment, the end journey. 

As a reflective practitioner my journey as a teacher always seems to have a series of lessons, new learning, challenges and opportunities to show my learning. I like it purely because I'm learning from myself, my own decisions and choices and constantly think about the kind of teacher I want to be and the kind of person I want to be for my students - and for myself at the end of the day. 

Within the Unitec Poutama was the consistent use and embedding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Absolutely beautiful. I wonder whether other tertiary institutes have thought about this in as much depth as Unitec has. 

I studied at Waikato - through the courses I chose, the networks I worked in as the history and Ingarihi Kaiawhina for Te Aka Matua in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the friends I met - I was able to be tuturu Maori. The campus itself had bilingual signs - something many universities in NZ didn't have apparently. Being able to ask for help from Maori was crucial. Seeing Maori in positions of authority and power - as senior lecturers and head of departments was vital in my belief that I too could be who I was in a world dominated by a colonised worldview. 

I was lucky at Waikato to be taught by Jeanette Graham in my first two years at uni while studying my BA in History and English. Like my history teacher at high school, she showed both perspectives - from a Maori worldview, and Pakeha. What I loved the most about her was her purposeful talk about WHY we had to discuss these things - and more importantly how the 'loser' of the war was often silenced - and as such - it is always vital to hear their side of the story. 

The power dynamics in NZ are still the same. Maori are still fighting to be recognised for the effects on us as a whole as a result of colonisation. Pakeha continue to forget that we have white privilege and that we are consistently in the role of power. There is no shared power. Not truly. There is ongoing racism and disgusting examples of prejudice and pre-positioned perspectives particularly in regards to our justice system. Maori are constantly on the backfoot. 

For all the talks about how far we've come - and bloody hell have we what - we haven't gone far enough yet. 

For many people who come to NZ as tourists, they absolutely adore our Maori culture. They embrace the reo. They are quick to learn and follow simple tikanga and are overwhelmingly interested in the dynamics between Maori and Pakeha. 

Having studied four years of Maori and Pakeha issues, histories, stories, perspectives and knowledge around the disproportionate effects on Maori as a result of the interaction between Maori and Pakeha -  having lived my life as both Maori and Pakeha - having taught in both bilingual units and mainstream - there is a massive difference. 

For those who can't see it - I call them blissfully ignorant. There are many Pakeha in NZ who empathise and support Maori in this battle. There are many more - who do not. And those people are very very vocal. 

I've talked previously about the importance of being culturally responsive - here, here, here, here and here - so I will refrain from doing that in this post (even though that's the point in this particular post - but it's an issue close to my heart that needs years and years of reflective posts and discussions that one post just can't do enough credit...).

Instead - I will discuss how we as a school are culturally responsive:

At Western Heights High School we have roughly 70% Maori students. The other 30% are Pakeha, Polynesian, Asian or classed as other. 

It is imperative - in any high school but particularly at ours - to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi in all that we do. 

Our new principal Jim Gemmell is a matakite - I'm calling it now because I already see a clear vision in what he is trying to do at Heights.

In a few weeks we are introducing a trial for an extended house tutor group class. Our HTG's are vertical forms - so within this each class has a handful of each year level and the idea was to create a community. Not all HTGs are like this however. Mine is. I was VERY careful about creating this sense of community and whanau from the very beginning - I was lucky in that I started at Heights the year that they brought HTGs in. Prior to that it was horizontal form classes that apparently had become quite chaotic and in some classes cases a bit toxic. 

From the get go I focussed on manaakitanga and supporting my students the best way I could. Over the last four years though - the amount of paperwork, pastoral care, attendance issues, academic tracking, academic counselling etc has gotten a much bigger job than the 15 or so minutes we see our students each morning. 

So - we are heading into our new trial of a 40 minute extended house tutor group. I am absolutely excited about this. My own HTG KAL (Kowhai House, My initials) understand why we are doing this. They know that I can only just get through the notices each HTG. They know that I barely have any time to actually ask them how they're going, let alone check ongoing attendance issues, do the roll, sort out uniform issues, have individual conversations with students to check in to see how they're going - both hinengaro and tinana -wise. They get it and for KAL - they look forward to it - mostly because they know that ever second Wednesday I get paid and we can have a bit of a shared kai before that interval haha. 

For other students that I teach - their questions begin at the WHY - which they then understand once I explain from my perspective about actually being able to do my job as a house tutor teacher better, and then their questions turn to statements about how boring their classes will be for that 40 minutes. Something I just don't understand as the point of thesr HTGs was to create a sense of community. I know I'm not the only teacher at Heights who has made our students feel comfortable and safe. I worry though that the teachers who aren't going to use this time effectively, may be the ones that aren't being culturally responsive in the classroom. 

The next very cool new initiative that our principal has initiated is the goal setting and interviews for senior students on the 27th June. 

The idea is that students identify the areas of strength and weakness, we discuss how they're doing academically at school and talk about setting realistic goals with them and their whanau. 

What this means for us is that we need to ring each whanau, make contact with them and book an appointment. Our interview day goes from 8.30 am to 5.30pm. Doing this will allow whanau time after school and before school to come and see us. Students must be there - for their interview so it is a shared decision and building on success. Creating achievable goals and identifying areas of improvement.

Lastly - at Heights we have just launched our new WHHS app - available on the app store for both Android and iOS. This is a key mode for communication and connecting with whanau. 

At Heights - we have many teachers who aren't Maori - this can be an issue for many students who are trying to find strong Maori role models in their lives. It wasn't til I went to University that I found these role models. For our Heights students - having strong role models is absolutely key to their success. Whether they are Maori or not - having strong role models can make or break a student. As such, going through our Kia Eke Panuku training has shown us the many ways we all need to up our game and improve our modes of being transparently culturally responsive as well as being aware of when we AREN'T being culturally responsive and how to change this. 

One particular area of focus for myself is creating more opportunities for shared decision making in class - more co-construction in the learning and more opportunities to make the learning relevant. 

We had a discussion in social studies the oher day about the importance of saying names correctly. It is my biggest bugbear when people say names incorrectly. Names hold mana. They are incredibly important and we should do our absolute best to learn how to say them correctly. I always tell my students to tell me off if I've said a name wrong when I first meet them. 

I try my best to learn their names as fast as possible and as correctly as possible. It irritates me beyond belief when a student asks a teacher to say their name correctly and the teacher refuses. It is absolutely different if the teacher is actually trying to say it correctly. 

However - the inherent and institutionalised racism in NZ shows through time and time again. Under the Treaty of Waitangi it is absolutely critical that we learn names - as they hold mana - it shows shared power and tino rangatiratanga.

Update (20th June): Today I talked more with the kaiako I had been told who refuses to say Maori names correctly. I actually don't know how to deal with this. The issue around collegiality and professionalism is having serious discordant issues with my need to assert that student's mana and tautoko her. Seeing her with her students - it was interesting today. To say the least. 

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Class Notes

Further Reading:

Bishop, R, Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T. & Teddy, L. (2009). Te Kotahitanga: Addressing educational disparities facing Māori students in New Zealand. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5)734–742.

Unitec. (n.d). Unitec Learning and Teaching Booklet. http://www.unitec.ac.nz/ahimura/publications/U008817%20Learning%20and%20Teaching%20Booklet.pdf

Class Dojo and Y9 Social Studies

For a couple of weeks I aas wondering what had gone wrong in my class. They were beautiful and focussed and then something happened.

I think with the crazy behaviours from students I had gotten used to the level of crazy and hadn't brought it back down to normal. Well at least my normal level of crazy.

Over the weekend I had been pondering it and realised a little lately that I hadn't been using Class Dojo. Why? I'd just forgotten and worse - I'd been using it with the Y10 Extension class who don't actually need it. This Y9 class does.

We started powering it up. Just like I do with the clicker with Mia. I noticed as many positive behaviours as possible in a short amount of time. I didn't give poins to those who asked. I gave points to those they nominated. I focused on the good behaviours, ignored the bad. Focused on the quiet workers who had smiles on their faces.

Then when those who were showing bad behaviours more often than good began to show an interest, we discussed the behaviours we need to be looking for. We changed the behaviours as per what they suggested needed work on. I also added the KCs. I need to identify from the ones they've suggested which ones fit inside our School PB4L values. Usually I would write Heights, Wisdom, Honour and Success as behaviours - but for now it's nore powerful having student selected behaviours as they're more likely to pull each other up and notice when they're not being onto it.

I just had a thought that perhaps creating a poster of all positive behaviours I'm looking for in class might be helpful - however, it also might mean that they start playing the game in a bad sense - that they work the system rather than intrinsically want to try to change their behaviours to improve their learning.

Anyway. Day One after Dojo and I feel way less stressed about the class. They're actually doing some pretty cool work too. New Settlers to Aotearoa booklets and using their knowledge and info they're gaining from tablets and the internet :)

Kanban Boards and Building Self-Management Skills

Quite a few weeks ago, we were taught at the Mindlab about Kanban and Flow. With any good project, you need to be self-reliant and more importantly have good time management skills.

With teenagers, the struggle to find balance with all things is massive. They feel pressured, lose track of time and will prioritise socialising above all else.

So I tried using Kanban with my Y12 (Pink) class. This class has been studying a novel for the last few weeks. Their novels were self chosen from a selection I provided with similar themes and issues for characters. Some students chose their own text and are still maintaining the mileage and focus around analysis needed. Without too much help from me, as all I did was read the blurbs, explain the books a bit and the characters, the students all found books that they wanted to read.

And read they have! This class is super happy to just spend the lesson reading. In fact, I think because I've allowed them this time in class, they've been able to get through more than possible due to the fact that they're just so busy at home to read.

There have been students in this class where reading was a real struggle. They've been able to conquer this and have nearly finished their books. The act of choosing their own novels may have helped this.

Back to Kanban.

A few weeks ago I created Y12 Lit Club. In order to continue using Literature Circles like last year, I knew I needed more focus, more structured analysis. As a base to this analysis I created Lit Club. 30-33 questions about their novels, characters, themes, settings, authors intention etc.

Using Lit club - students got into their choice of book groups, and single books in the singles group. Basic discussions ensued. Maybe more focussed group work needed here as there wasn't much discussion by some groups and more reading done (not that I'm knocking the students wanting to read!!).

The next day we began creating the Kanban boards. Using coloured paper, students drew up three columns like this:
(Insert google doc of kanban)

On the back of the Lit Club analysis - I created some Must Do's, Should Do's and Can Do suggestions for their Kanban boards. While only suggestions, I reminded my students that the things in the Must Do category actually did need to be done.

The rule about Kanban is that there is only ever four PostIts on the To Do pile. Four because it's manageable. You can have as many as you need in Doing - however I think working on three at once works better - and once the task is completed, they can then move it to the Done pile.

Having the tactile version is helpful as a beginner. I added a Trello board to the Kanban suggestion page too, but none have used it yet.

We've updated the Kanban boards a couple of times now - some have finished the book and are looking to work on analysis. I used the film study worksheets I made last year for the Walter Mitty and Gone Girl booklet and made a blank novel study booklet for students.

Am giving out these booklets today. Some students prefer tactile learning and some more digital. So options are there for them.

Hopefully these help to guide them further. They're only small booklets - about 9 pages long (double sided) and shouldn't take too long to fill in.

More importantly, I added the written text essay questions and an essay scaffold too at the back.

In the next two weeks we need to do more analysis, write a piece of creative writing and prep for essays for next term's exam. Time is slipping away. Am finding Google Classroom very useful. But the issue is that not all students have GC on their phones yet. To ensure ubiquitous learning is happening, I need to make it more fun and more interesting and worthwhile of their time. Maybe they can be in charge of the website redesign?

I began Kanban boards with my Y11s yesterday which went rather well. A few students not as focussed as the rest - and I don't think I explained Kanban as well as I did with the Y12s. Regardless, we got there in the end.

Same as the Y12s, the Y11s have self-chosen their texts. This year with less selection. Last year I offered five books. It was too crazy and not manageable. This year only three. There are clear groups of those who chose 'The Giver', 'Divergent' and 'The Knife of Never Letting Go'.

Last night I created a Y11 version of the Lit Club (same as the Y12 one...but with Y11 on it - just for those students yesterday who noticed the Y12 heading while using the lit club sheets) and looking at the Kanban board suggestions - began to identify areas that need working on.

I think because I started with Kanban first off this time, it may have a different path than the Y12s. Regardless, the journey will be similar. With the Y11s this next two weeks - we need to do analysis and static images too.

Last night I also found another (possibly better) version of Kanban which is done digitally. It was in the Chrome Web Store and called Kanban-chi. I'll add the direct link later.

On a side note - I've been forgetting to add Creative Commons licenses on what I'm creating for students. I fixed it up last night. I want to see if I can make it a default for all docs I make in Google Docs. Even though our school is not yet using Creative Commons as a whole, eventually we may - and by that time I'll have all my resources sorted.

Looking forward to tonight's elearning session. Will see who turns up and how we go.

Analysing 'Chappie' - Y9 English

Over the last few weeks I've been helping a colleague's class out by ensuring they have enough work and depth in their programme.

My colleague has been very sick and we aren't sure as to whether she'll be able to come back any time soon. In the meantime, her class has been given a day reliever for her classes. He is fabulous but as any reliever would know - it's not only difficult to keep up with relationship building, but also hard to give clear guidelines and programmes when you're being given relief work.

For a class such as this one - I feel sorry for them but I also hope that they'll be able to overcome these setbacks and achieve in the end of year exams.

So with this in mind - I suggested to my HOD to give them the new film she'd  bought 'Chappie' - a PG13 film. The kids immediately fell for the storyline and the main character Chappie - a robocop in the near future of Jo'berg, South Africa.

After they'd finished the first viewing I taught a 30 minute session around character and possible themes and settings. They wrote down their own understanding of the film and their perspective. We discussed the seriousness of their learning dysfunctional behaviours and the fact that they needed to put a lot of effort into their exam at the end of the year.

Still though - it wasn't enough - because they still weren't sure of the settings enough to be able to write much about the connections with the themes and characters or symbolism of the settings.

I sat down with the reliever a few days ago and discussed the possible programme of what they could be doing and what they absolutely must do. It still wasn't really enough so I finally got around to writing down more structured thoughts with him while the students watched the film for a second time.

Today during their lesson and this afternoon - I worked on a new study booklet for the class that had the absolute MUST do and could do pieces of work. The study book is all good and well - but it would still need a teacher to work through it properly with them.

I'm pretty proud of it at the moment though mainly because I managed to get it all done today and also because I feel like I'm a better teacher when there's a time pressure or when I'm trying to save a class.

Anyway - here it is - have a look and comment below with what could be added and your thoughts :)

Reflecting on Reflecting...

I'd say I am a pretty reflective teacher. I think about my lessons and what happens during them and analyse what I'm doing during class to ensure I get the best out of my students by being the most effective I can be.

Sometimes my lessons are transmissive, others are fully facilitated and supported with students learning and teaching each other, other times my lessons are a mixture and even still further some lessons just don't seem to work as well as I'd hoped.

I'm still thinking about last week's opportunity with having a real-life activist speaking with us about her journey towards saving one of most special mammals in the world from extinction. I asked the students for comments afterwards and they made the point that if we were to do something like that again then we'd have to have solid questions organised. I'd actually planned for this but we never got the chance to write some for her in class prior to yhe Skype session as we were working on a new assessment. I'd set it as homework instead. Which wasn't done by all students.

Part of the issue was the timing of the session but I'd booked it months in advance and it just so happened to fall on Freedom Challenge week which seemed hectic and not as well organised by me as I would have liked.

I feel like I can prepare solid lessons in advance for relievers or for classes that are in desperate need of saving like I did today.

The problem is that I actually think my students are doing okay. Some need indepth help and others need motivation. The real issue though I think is that I don't offer enough opportunities for students to reflect on their learning or what they'd like more of from me as their teacher.

I also like to think that on average - I do an okay job. I've attempted the less paper is better mindset this year and while it's been better for the environment - I've been slack at updating 'Evolving at Heights' which basically makes it redundant. Also not all students have access. I want to make more interactive worksheets and developed ideas but need the time to think and process and create these.

I want to ensure my students are getting a fair and equitable learning opportunity and develop a better classroom organisation because at present while I can get around the class quickly - I'm circling and I'd like to be able to be more direct and sit with my students rather than stand by/over/beside them as their isn't much room nor table space especially in my bigger classes.

I've discussed the desire I have before about a more effective learning environment - to me that means less desks and more comfortable focussed ares. My students work collaboratively but the furniture we currently have sometimes impedes the ability to do this.

I saw an awesome video on the Edutopia site with these desks and chairs that were on swivel wheels and it would be awesome to have more moveability. Even if the blue desks (that I'm slowly changing into whiteboard desks with the whiteboard laminate sticking sheets) stayed then having swivel wheels would help to ensure moveability and quick group changes.

I get frustrated when my students get used to sitting in the same space all the time. They're habitual. Though I think this has been trained into them. They refuse to move outside their comfort zone and don't want to work with others. This I think is a main concern. If we aren't teaching them life skills like relating to others from our KCs... then what are we teaching?

Lastly... before I fall asleep. I bought another tablet from TradeMe. It was smaller than I'd thought. But will do well in class as another option for students to do their work.

Oh really lastly - the three whiteboard tables that are in use have quickly been commandeered by my students and they love using them. I just hope that the two other classes who use my room don't wreck them or put permament marker on them...

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.

Blendspace

My new f2f friend and Twitter colleague @BrianHost shared Blendspace with me the other night via GHO.

It is awesome! Used it to do my relief for today's social studies lesson.

Actually wish I were there with them for this lesson! Hope that it goes well and that there's no technical issues.

Just need to get someone to put a note on the classroom door and tell the library staff that my class is coming in.

Looking forward to hearing how they did today!! :)

Tired. Catch Up.

Tired. But considering our day today it's fair enough. Looking forward to tomorrow and seeing whether there is a reaction from the kids. Finally put bits and pieces on the walls thst I've been procrastinating doing. Still have a few pieces of marking to finish that I've been lugging around too. Need just a night to do it all. Or even a day. A day off from everything would be awesome.

Where did my #YesYear energy go?

I'm now typing stream of consciousness...

Obviously tired.

My amazing and inspiring friend Ros just tweeted this to me:

https://twitter.com/rosmaceachern/status/598381347770470400

http://dianerevoluta.tumblr.com/post/50880057344/the-myth-of-inspiring-women

Don't have the energy to read it and take on board the whakaaro right now.

Am stoked with how our Rotaract meeting went tonight. Loads of really cool events coming up.

Couple of issues at school today during duty. Think I dealt with them okay... teetering on the balance between maintaining trust and whakawhanaungatanga as well as ensuring safety.

Finally tidied the two areas in class that have been bothering me: my desk (mountain of paper) and the shelves at the back with the kid's posters... another shelve of paper and needed organising and things chucked. A whole box of screwed up paper later... and with each scrunched ball I felt guilty for the tree. Doing sustainablity in Social Studies at the moment..
Still need to tackle the in class library shelves and sort out why they think it's okay to put their rubbish in the shelves or behind curtains. Mainly laziness. If I put a bin at the back would they use it? Experiment time I think.

Also... need to find a time to tackle the back cupboard. After having to move out of my last class and into the one I'm in now... I'd expected the back cupboard to be as empty and immaculate as I was leaving my previous one. No. I'd spent the better part of two weeks during the holidays sorting it out after Xmas and the teacher leaving spent an afternoon. So... yep.

I didn't have the heart or the state of mind at that time to re-sort another back cupboard... so my stuff was just chucked in there. So frustrating. What I'd like to do is get a few students to help and delegate roles to them - de-hoarder, paper chucker, organiser of single copies of work, digitiser and dj.

There is a cool bookcase in the back cupboard that I'm not using that I used to use for my students  work. Now that I've got the big shelves at the back - I can use the other one just for teaching resources.

Been thinking about my teaching lately. I've relied too much on the digital space I've created and not continued teaching how I normally do. The digital space should be a complement to my normal blended teaching - not as a talking point or the sole focus. So now I'm back to myself and just need to figure out how I'm going to use it effectively as well as use the learning that we've done to ensure that students are ready and what else needs doing to move forward. Because yes the Site is cool. But more cooler is how passionate I am about what we're learning about.

Hmmm.

Still stoked about the last meeting for eLearning and the possibilities and opportunties. Looking forward to taking the PLD at Heights on the Teacher Only Day on using GAFE. Think that having someone older, male and paid to do it would make a lot more people listen and go with it.... rather than me. I worry that people feel intimidated or that I'm just some young girl who doesn't know anything..  Gah. Anyway.. bedtime.

Literature Circles with Y11 and Y12 classes

For a wee while now I've been toying with the idea of literature circles. I did them in my first year of teaching without even knowing it was called literature circles. Back then I just figured I was doing something a good teacher would do - offer options and create strong analysis skills in her Y10 students.

Ever since, I suppose the idea of lit circles has been one that I have tried on and off with different classes. I've often tried to use lit circles in order to build a reading culture like with my extension class when I first started at Heights.

This year though - with such a big Y12 class and knowing we had so many new dystopian genre books at Y11 this year - I wanted to try it again. Full throttle.

I'd done quite a bit of research over the summer holidays, read up on different strategies and how to further enable my students to build strong individualised learning skills as well as collaborative and cooperative learning skills.

Links here:

I'd decided that after the two assessments my Y12 (Pink) class would study the three novels we had in the dept by John Green: Looking for Alaska, Papertowns and The Fault in our Stars. Having read all three at the beginning of Term One while still on my holiday reading buzz - I quickly and assuredly decided that my Y12s would definitely be reading these as literature circles.

I gave out the books to students about three weeks til the end of Term One with the expectation that they would be read by the beginning of Term Two. Most students have done so which has been great. While they continue working on the last assessment from last term - those who have finished have begun the analysis.

The clearer focus we have in Y12 has reminded me how I wanted to conduct the literature Circles in my Y11 class.

We initially started the literature circles mid way into last term. About two weeks was given for reading in class because unfortunately, a lot of kids just don't read at home. They're too busy, they are physically unable due to situations at home and sometimes kids just don't like reading.

After that we began the analysis of at least one main character and we learnt basic essay structure with SEXIST paragraph structure and for the last part of term we wrote that essay as part of their ongoing writer's portfolio for the year.

This term we started out okay where I explained that they needed to get back into groups and analyse the main characters again. Some students moaned because they had done this last term. Yes - I assured them - but now after the holidays they would have more to analyse about particular characters as they should all be nearing finishing the book.

On Tuesday, with an excited rush,  rather than do the analysis first and then edit on the site the following week, we brought in a few of the COWs and set up students on the site:

That was a huge issue because of technical issues where I couldn't add students onto the site. They could see it and they could understand what they were looking at but couldn't access it to edit. I asked students to give me their emails and for those who didn't have one to set one up. Part of the issue is that we do not have our students gmail accounts enabled within our GAFE platform - something I've been trying to change since middle of last year. 

On Wednesday, after the happy arrival of the new projector the night before, I was able to show them how to edit the pages on the site. For those that continued to have issues logging in or accessing the site - I logged them in with my password. Some students were able to enter their work - others still not.

We discussed some of the digital citizenship skills that they needed to be aware of when using the site also and when using the COWs.

Still though - some were having basic issues with understanding what it was I was trying to get them to do. A lot of my time was taken up by students who simply refused to even try and others who had continued technical and comprehension issues.

Finally, by Thursday of this week - our last session for Y11 for the week - I had finally accepted the fact that the way I was trying to get them to do it wasn't working. We hadn't set up collaborative skills and while I was trying to be patient with them - it just wasn't working. Knowing that it does work and it wasn't really the student's faults I had to really critically examine what was working and what wasn't.

Some students had figured out what I wanted them to do because I had worked with them one on one. Other students just didn't know what it meant to analyse a text.

So I went back to basics. I had apologised throughout the week with the issues around the technical aspects (because by Wednesday afternoon I'd realised that the reason they couldn't access it they way I'd set up the settings with was because they didn't have school emails for GAFE to work right) and also because I hadn't set up the collaborative skills side too.

This time I wrote up the different books we were all studying and went through four different areas of possible exam questions. We brainstormed the different themes, main characters, symbols and settings. We talked about the fact that each one has significance and needs to be further developed.

I set up the four aspects into a grid with the texts - with the idea that students would put their name by a different area they were going to work on today. I added quotes up as well.

Pic -

Finally - I think they were starting to get it. With our amazing teacher aide Marie, I was able to move around the groups a hell of a lot easier because she was working with the one student who was obstinate and needed full on one on one to motivate and continue working.

At first I was going to get students to do their analysis just in their books as originally planned - but agreed to have some students working on the COWs again. Somehow - the settings I'd changed again and again made it so there were no technical issues other than server logon issues which were fixed by the lifesaving blue ethernet cable.

Moving around the different groups, each student had a particular focus. It's easier to recognise the students who haven't done enough reading because they sit there idly not being able to contribute or work individually. I was able to work with one particular group more easily where we wrote on my DIY whiteboard table (clear duraseal on the table) and were able to identify a more focused understanding of the two main characters in Divergent.

I still have two, maybe four groups who I need to further push but we're finally getting somewhere.

I just wish I'd thought that through a bit more clearly but am glad that it was only a week of technical issues rather than the entire unit of struggling.

Because Thursday was a definite hum.

Explaining to Marie the reasons why I'm doing literature circles with this class reminded me too it's not just about offering options. It's about 21st century pedagogy. The need to practise my knowledge around building collaboration and individual learning skills. The need to enable our students to be ready for a new and exciting life ahead of them. For them to be ready -we practise til we're right and then continue to hone our skills.

Am incredibly thankful to the MLE Collaborative group on Facebook, to the collaboration korero we had on both #EngChatNZ this week on Wednesday night and the #DojoChatNZ as well. To my amazing Y12 students who worked with me collaboratively straight away and to my problem solving brain who hunted for different links and idea generating tools for my classes.

Looking forward to next week now! :)