Mindlab - 21st Century Learning in the Classroom

The 21st Century Learning skills that we learnt about in our Mindlab session were the following:

• Knowledge construction
• Self-regulation
• Real-world problems / innovations
• ICT for learning
• Skilled Communication
• Collaboration

After re-reading the class notes ,I know that children need to be able to work collaboratively and this a life long skill. One of the Key Competencies that the NZC asks schools to be aware of is Relating to Others, in my class I know this  a quality I set out to achieve and I am mindful of this when planning.  I am not so good at monitoring this and I need to find ways of ensuring that all students take responsibility for the learning when working collaboratively and  make decisions together as a group. The children need to make decisions that are independent and it is a team process.

How will I plan for more collaboration?

• Use Google classroom and docs to share the learning activities around our current topic.
• Encourage children to give feed forward and feedback using Seesaw
• Give pairs of children a question to research and get them to use Google slides to share what they have discovered and upload to Seesaw for commenting on by a wider audience

During my session at Mindlab on Wednesday, I worked with 3 others to produce a video that explained self regulation. It was interesting to see how far I have come in regards to this even though I still believe that I need more student agency in my class. My evidence for this is in my latest observation where the children still say that the teacher chooses the learning. The lesson observed was for observation purposes not for the learning - more teacher focussed. I work with the children to set their weekly SMART goals and the teacher I share my class with, works with the children at the end of the week to reflect on how they went. I need to explicitly make more reference to their goals as the week progresses.

How will I plan for more self regulation?

• Refer to Learner Pathways when creating weekly SMART goals
• Use specific learning opportunities that relate to Learner Pathway
• Record progress on Learner pathways using Seesaw more - be specific

Knowledge construction is going beyond knowing about something but to 'think critically', to use information - interpret, analyse, synthesize or evaluate information or ideas.  As part of my PaCT end of year assessment, I had to assess the children's ability to think critically as it is essential to the children's progress.

PaCT - Making sense of text: reading critically - 4th aspect - Big idea

• The students can identify specific devices that the writer has used to influence the reader or convey a particular point of view. 
• The students evaluate the writer's use of language to influence an audience in relation to a particular purpose. 
• They can identify the difference between fact and opinion.
• The students can draw conclusions or generalisations about the writer's intention and can form their own opinions about the underlying message, theme or point of view which the writer is conveying.

How will I plan for more knowledge construction?

• Use google slide show to analyse our Year 5 production from the construction of props, script, acting skills, dancing and singing
• More work on construction of SMART goals - and review.
• Use learning activities that have learning goals in more than one subject

tive decisions

MIndlab - How the purpose of education is visible in my classroom.

"Education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn on their own. . . "says renowned linguist, philosopher, historian, and scientist,  Noam Chomsky


In my classroom, you will see the purpose of education through the classroom environment and my teaching.
Children are encouraged to problem solve, lead their learning and grow their knowledge and skills to become learners who love to learn.
My philosophy is to grow learners who take responsibility, persevere and find out about they are interested in. I do this by giving them a scenario where they can think beyond the boundaries and come up with a range of possibilities.

I have changed my pedagogy this year, to using a whole class approach where the children are encouraged to work collaboratively and share their thinking and then to apply what they have learnt from others in a similar situation. 

I have been doing this by asking the children to NOTICE when given an exemplar, this could be sample of writing or a word mathematics problem. This activity creates discussion about what is within the exemplar - helps co-construct success criteria with the children.

The next part is to THINK, the children compare and contrast the exemplar with another similar exemplar or possible solution from the children. This also creates discussion and can add to the success criteria. After this phase the children are given more examples to practise, with those children who require more help with the learning are encouraged to work with a buddy or come to a workshop with the Teacher. To ensure those children who need more help are present, I will ask them to come to the workshop.

The next session involves IMITATE phase, the children practise the learning with a similar exemplar and with more independence. Another workshop is available but the children are encouraged to practise on their own and share back and reflect on how they went at the end of the session. The sharing back session encourages the children to use the success criteria to reflect on how they went.

Using the children learner's pathways, I encourage the children to investigate the what they have learnt and how they can use this learning in another way. This is the INNOVATE phase, the whole process involves more student agency and gives more purpose to the learning.

I hope to develop this more where the children are self reflecting and finding out what "they" need to learn.

Zones of Regulation

As part of my behaviour management of a student in my class, it has been suggested that I use the Zones Of Regulation as a way to modify behaviour and support this child in the whole thinking process. The more I have learnt,  I have come to realise that this will work for more than this child in my class and am looking forward to the coming term to put into practice some of these ideas.

The "ZONES" has a framework that provides strategies to teach and support children to become more aware of and independent in the ways they control their emotions and impulses, manage their sensory needs, and their ability to problem solve conflicts.

The FOUR ZONES: 

RED ZONE: Is an extremely heightened state of alertness and intense emotions. Trigger words for the children are mad/angry, terrified, yelling/hitting,elated,  and out of control.

YELLOW ZONE: Is also an heightened state of alertness and elevated emotions but the child has some control. Trigger words for children are frustrated, stressed, worried, silly/wiggly, excited, and some loss of control.

GREEN ZONE: Is a calm state of alertness. Trigger words are happy, calm, feeling OK, focussed, and ready to learn. This is the zone where optimal learning occurs.

BLUE ZONE: Describes a low state of alertness. the words used to connect are sad, tired, sick, bored, and moving slowly.

Using the colours of red, yellow, green and blue can be compared to traffic signals. Green being a 'green' light for learning and everything is good to go. A yellow sign indicates caution and maens be aware. Stop for red which is the outcome you need. Being blue usually is a sign for re-energising or rest.

Everyone experiences all these states of emotions and are very normal, the framework will enable me as an educator, to empower my students how to recognise and manage their zone based on the environment, its demands and the people around them.

Where to next? What implications will this have on my teaching? How can I manage this so that it becomes part of 'the way of being' for my current class?

Where to next?

• Make resources such as posters, needed to scaffold the thinking for my students. 
• Create a space in the classroom where the children can refer to to assist each other. 
• Plan for time for the explicit teaching and role playing of the ZONES and what strategies we can co-construct for everyone in our class. 
• Create a classroom toolbox, as place for "things' that can be used for sensory support, card of yoga poses for calming techniques.
• Ensure that I have a bank of resources such as, music, movement games, breathing techniques that I can access at short notice.
• What sorts of resources will I need to source to empower and engage my Maori learners? Some research maybe needed to ensure that this covered.

So some work for the term break but hopefully in the long run it will be worthwhile.  Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come. Dwayne Johnson

Maths is a language

This term we have been changing our pedagogy in regards to the way we teach maths at our school. We start with a word problem and give the children time to notice things about the problem and how/what they need to learn to solve the problem so there so much more student agency around the learning.

The problem can be worked on over a number of weeks with reviews as the children learn more. The problems have been set at a higher level for all the children. The children are encouraged to work together to solve parts of the problem to improve their skills - we discovered that the children were unable to break a bigger number into 'do-able' numbers, using known fact to solve division problems and understand how decimals work.

As part of the follow up to the NOTICE, the children write their own learner pathways recording the learning they need to solve the problem. The planning is reflects the learning needs, we are now planning in response to what they children reflect on day by day. The activities each day are small bites of what they are learning - division of numbers, multiplication of 2 digit numbers, recording remainders as fractions and decimals. Because the children are working collaboratively, they are using the language of mathematics to explain to the others how they solved the problem. With the use of TALK Moves, the children's ability to verbalise their strategies with each other has given the learning more meaning and more purpose.

The improvement in the children's ability to verbalise the ways they are solving the problems has been amazing. When testing their strategy knowledge through GloSS snapshots has made a significant difference and using Seesaw has given them a platform to share their learning with their family and whanau.

Not only has the children's learning improved I know that my teaching has more questioning and the possibilities are endless, especially when my ADHD/ autistic child is solving higher order thinking problems then it is worth it. Also we are using the language of mathematics more as in this TED Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6yixyiJcos has made a difference in the way we are teaching mathematics.

https://www.weareteachers.com/multiplication-vocabulary-mistakes/ Is also a reading that has made sense in the way we are currently teaching mathematics in our class.

Clarity, Share and Understand Learning Intention and Success Criteria

What is the aim of learning intentions and success criteria? It is not to help the students complete the activity - it is help them learn.

I was given this reading of Chapter 3: Embedding Formative Assessment and it has made me rethink how I use WALTs and Success Criteria. Also I have been thinking about using a whole class approach and this reading has given me some scaffolding for what these lessons will look like.

Here are some pointers from the recap -

• I may not know exactly where the lesson is going - it is the experience rather than the outcome.

This has happened when I gave the class a maths problem I thought they should all be to work through if they worked within a small group. The problem was too hard and I realised the children were unable to recognise the patterns of 3/4 digit numbers - how these break down into smaller workable numbers. This was good as it gave the children loads of questions regarding what they needed to learn and therefore the writing of their learner pathways was way easier.

• Keep the context of the learning out of the learning intention.

I have always struggled with WALTs and how to create them, during my observations of colleagues, I discovered the importance of keeping the context out and how it makes the learning more transferrable for the children to apply the learning. This has happened more since using a whole class approach and asking the children at the end of the lesson what they have learnt. 

• Start with samples of work rather than rubrics, to communicate quality

Using Notice, Think, Imitate and Innovate has given more scaffolding to my class lessons. By using 'good' exemplars the children have become more aware of the standard they are trying achieve and where they need to go with their learning. It has changed the way the children 'think' about their learning, and what steps they may need to get there. The children are beginning to show this in Seesaw when they realise what they have learnt.

• Use big ideas, learning progressions and staging posts

As part of the team planning, we are unpacking each big ideas and finding all the learning progressions needed to solve the problem. It is rich learning because each child is able to take what they need and this in turn build more student efficacy, which is what we after for 21st learning.

Being an Across School Leader for Eastern Kahui Ako

Theory for Improvement Document

As part of my role for Accelerating Literacy and Mathematics across the Eastern Kahui Ako, I have been working with my colleagues to create a mandate for the 5 schools and their staff to improve the learning for their children. This attached document is approximately 50 days work after our discussions with teachers, principals, and unpacking the data that we know so far.

My reflections on this journey so far

• Initially it was very unsettling as there wasn't any scaffolding of what our COL would look like.
• Feeling of excitement to create something new for our Community that could bind us more together - create a community.
• Having a clearer 'big' picture of the schools by unpacking the relationships between the 5 principals and their staff - has been key to our approach to the individual schools.
• Understanding the individual school's cultures has assisted in the data - both with the response to our questions and the results within the data and the range.
• Amazement - that there are still teachers who are teaching who are more worried about the workload as apposed to the children's progress and what it takes to improve their learning.
• Sense of pride - of what we have achieved in a small amount of time especially with this document.
• Science - and how you teach it and how it underpins all - reading, writing and mathematics.  It is what has been missing in our curriculum but  with this Theory of Improvement document there is a way ahead, especially with the approach.
• Grateful for the opportunities as I have been able to work with other passionate teachers who are willing to make changes in their pedagogical approach and that of others.
• Keen - to make change in my community, school and my class to improve the learning.

Where to next?

• Get PACT into the other schools so that they can be passionate about teaching.
• Make the most of my time in the role.
• Create a start point for the future for our schools.
• Be more present for the other schools, principals, DPs and their teachers.

Getting into the Pit

This year is going to be a huge learning curve for me as I take on a new role. I am lucky enough to be chosen as the Community of Learning Lead Teacher for Accelerating Literacy and Numeracy across 5 schools of the Eastside of Rotorua, what a mouthful! This involves being out of my class 2 days a week, working with 3 others in a team, working with teachers across the COL (Kahui Ako) and working in tandem with another teacher for the class.

So far my time outside my class has been building relationships with the others in the team, going and meeting and greeting the Principals and Deputies of the schools and reading the computer screen. Currently the team has been working on addressing one of the identified goals for the Eastside in Science. We have unpacked data, been in meetings with Science advisors, MOE support people and read up on what we as a community can access.

I am feeling a little stuck out on a limb as the other 2 teachers are working closely together on Thursdays and Fridays, I work Wednesdays and Thursdays and the current proposal we are working on is giving them direction and an action plan for the coming year. We have needed to work together on this as one of our first readings was on using the Spiral Inquiry model, which states the benefits of working collaboratively and how inquiry is an evolving practice. My Wednesdays have been in isolation but I have been able to guide and generate ideas for the team and the cogs are full steam ahead on Thursdays. I make the effort to discuss what has happened on Fridays and leave my class during our Friday assembly time to refocus with the team. When I am asked how my new job is going, I'm really struggling to verbalise what I am doing and how it relates to my job description. in the 'PIT' not knowing where to next, but knowing I need to make every effort to make it happen for the COL and myself. Although I am waiting still to hear from some of the schools in our COL what they would like to achieve in 2017.

Being part of the team has also given me time to share the PaCT tool with another COL in another region.  My understandings of the tool have been developed more as I work closely with another colleague who has 'got it' better than anyone else. She is a machine and is this year stepping up to fill a Team Leader position. I am currently in that uncomfortable space where I am letting go of practices and my own procedures for teaching. The PaCT tool has aspects and domains for Mathematics, Reading and Writing. These aspects have big ideas around them and have been worked out to give the teacher an OTJ of where the students sit in their learning. These big ideas can take time to achieve but are weighted depending on the needs of the student. PaCT is a more holistic approach but needs to be backed up with evidence across your practice.

So back to feeling in the 'PIT' so to speak - as part of our practice this year, is to give ownership of the learning to the children, we are getting the children to design their own timetables and opt in to the learning workshops. This has been hard as I want something concrete and what I know has worked in the past, but it doesn't quite work that way. The children are given an assessment, pretest for statistics (this was an area of identified need from PaCT) and then it is marked with the children, then they decide what they need to work on. As I teacher, then design our programme accordingly, no different you say, the difference is the children decide when they opt in to the teaching sessions and who they work with. I like this as it build confidence in those student who are struggling, and they feel supported. My problem is encouraging those to who aren't motivated learners to be focused and meet deadlines in a timely fashion. I get maths and am feeling confident that the learning is happening in Maths.

So initially the plan was to get one area sorted then move onto the next. Writing is going to be a Teacher Action Inquiry focus for our cohort. The way we have begun to challenge the 'norms' is to change to way we use exercise books and enable the children more with devices. The children are working in a creative writing book, a large lecture book and a writing skills and vocab book. PaCT assessments last year in writing came to a crash when through moderation we realised that writing should be assessed across the curriculum and we weren't placing enough emphasis on this.  However, we have began to encourage better writing in all books and make the children more aware that writing isn't just in one book. My assessment of writing this week was timely as the children now have their own personal next steps and are opting in for writing, although this will  make Monday nights all about the planing. I'm up for that especially if the children can verbalise what they want to learn.

Two down, one to go. Reading - how do we assess reading?  Running records is the current practice but is it the best? As I said earlier I am working with another team member in my class with the children, she works the 2 days I am out. Together, we decided that we had 'got' Maths and Writing and this is rumbling along. We decided that we need to have some data to share with the children so we could follow the practice with Reading. Being organised, my off-sider copied the running record sheets and we were up and running. The reading planning was such that we could make use of our teaching time to get our assessment underway.

Our Team Leader then asked us why we were doing running records. When you are questioned it makes you think, freeze, question your judgement and doubt your practice. So in the PIT!!! my next step is to do some professional reading and find out how to get out of the 'pit' and how I can transform my current practice to make learning in Reading better for my children. I know that I will need to ask more questions and work with others to find some solutions.

Learning is about 'falling in head first' and 'getting back up and out'. Time to practice what I preach to my children.