Using provocations to promote children leading their own learning – Part 5

WHAT?

One session for my class in the Makerspace was to be earlier in the day due the fact we were going to be having a longer Team Assembly and the Spelling and phonics programme was now underway 4 days a week, starting straight after lunch eating time. Also as part of my Incredible Years training I was going to be observed.

The children returned from PE, a session run by soccer coaches and the children were very animated when they returned. I spoke to my observer before the children returned to class saying that there was a change in plans and we were going into the Makerspace using play-based learning instead of the planned writing lesson. I had written a behavioural plan for one child who I am struggling to motivate.

Before going into the Makerspace the children had a brain break, a time to eat and rehydrate, I used this time to say that I had noticed a problem and that not all the children had been wearing hats as was the requirement of the PE teacher. Some children complained that they had lost their hats, or hadn’t brought a hat to school. I was hoping that this may create more purpose for my provocation of what is a hat, and why do we wear one? Again the children came up with a substantial list about hats and the point of them.

When we arrived at the Makerspace, I wrote the Learning intention on the whiteboard and instructed the children that at the end of the session they would need upload a photo and an explanation up to Seesaw. As when you are observed, you tend to be more attentive than usual. My goal for Incredible Years was to use 4 statements and one question when interacting with the children.

Initially the class was very noisy but soon settled and the children were interacting with each other and I roved using statements and one question. I really had to think but it was great practise. The observer agreed that this was a difficult skill to practise in this environment as the activity was very much inquiry, and questions are the perfect tool to promote thinking and problem solving.

Some children found the task easy and were finished and needed to explain why their hat was better or an improvement of the school hats, some had slap dash answers. There were some children who added different attachments to their hat to make it more purposeful and when others saw their ideas there was more ‘buy-in’.

The observer left half way through the session as she was only booked for half an hour, she really wanted to stay and see what happened towards the end. Her observations were positive and she made notes – “What a great session…the freedom to explore and solve the ‘hat’ problem creatively was brilliant!”

SO WHAT?

Having a purpose did help with the engagement and the children used problem solving skills and creative thinking. My role is to provoke thought and step away to encourage the children to make their own decisions although some decisions made by some of the children were only surface deep. I need to instigate a depth of thinking and the children to ask themselves good reflective questions such as does this product meet the brief, and have I made it as well as I could.

Also the teachers were asked again to reflect on how the Makerspace is working for them. The response is in the table below.

Positives	Minus/Interesting
Excellent sharing of equipment Students actively asking each week when we are going into the room Students bringing provocation ideas from home to work on in the room  Students problem solving when things don’t go to plan Students asking for extra time in the Makerspace Room Some creations being started in the classroom and continued when we go to the room Donations of equipment continue to flood in	Students knowing where to put things during tidy-up (NB: We haven’t been in since the labels were made yet) Is there too much of some equipment?  Some students finding that an hour is not long enough but then they want to do the new provocation the following week Tidy up takes a while (had a competition between boys and girls which worked well) Burns from hot glue gun - a couple in the same week - some teaching done around this Unpacking provocations prior to going to the room gives more creation time but often I need to repeat for some students when we get there
-Students who don’t traditionally have much success in mainstream literacy and maths are often the most creative in this space and can experience success.  -Lots of opportunity for children to make social relationships	-the state of tidiness of the room changes  -Burns with hot glue guns- education around this and expectation maybe if you have a reliever they understand expectations etc  -not enough time in my weekly timetable to get maths/literacy/systems covered
Same as above really. Lots of awesome stuff going on in there. Chn are beginning to reflect on their work well for Seesaw.   Learning to work in groups collaboratively and successfully, and find their place with their peers for their combined work.	·       Disorder/general untidiness - obviously diff levels of expectations. :-( ·       Bits & Bobs area that Karen had originally sorted needs less stuff in it? Far too much has been dumped in/on there, esp ripped bits of cardboard.  ·       Too much cardboard perhaps? ·       Hot glue guns dripping all over the yellow table. Was this table going to be for use of iPads? (Clean table?) ·       Parents donating stuff and leaving it outside the door - perhaps a Seesaw message (eg on Mahuri Tahi’s weekly message?) reminding them to deliver to classrooms, otherwise it might not find its way to the correct location?
-higgly engaged -starting to see different groupings (may try to encourage this a bit more) -discussion of provocation before going to the space is working well -donations are awesome!	-some area such as the sink is hard to access because there is too much stuff in or around it  -
-students are engaged but not so much when it comes to tidying up - Some students making similar things every week. Need encouragement to move out of their comfort zone.	Really interested to see some of the boys doing artwork around the theme very detailed Maybe we should be making powdered paint as cheaper
Children having fun and engaged Like the idea of challenges/provocation we give to the kids Good to see children working collaboratively and problem solving	Lack of exciting and new resources Children working with their own friends.  No sellotape
Children are more engaged as we visit now More stuff to work with Parents happy with the feedback from children Provocations - brainstorming beforehand has given children greater motivation My lesser academic children are excelling - imagination, co-operation, leadership etc Using questions as they are working helps them justify what they are doing Using the iPad to record their creation has increased the ‘buy-in’	·  The state of tidiness or untidiness of the room changes - I spent most of my time cleaning up paint and paint area ·  Burns with hot glue guns ·  Feeling that I’m not doing justice to my literacy and numeracy and inquiry ·  The PACK UP does my head in!
Kids engaged,  Kids enjoy it, Kids collaborate and cooperate I’d love it if I were kid	Too much stuff left everywhere and not taken home No sellotape or staples on my last visit Kids should already have these construction skills I struggle to see their learning except for key competencies

NOW WHAT?

I am wondering how I can use some of the Digital Circus – unplugged ideas in the Makerspace for the provocation and engagement. I will need to investigate this further and hopefully it will be a way I can get two for the price of one. The school has undertaken a contract with the Digital Circus, for our school to work on their Digital competency and they have shared numerous resources that we can dig into.

“Place-Based Education complements digital platforms that tend towards globalization. While it is tempting for learners to constantly connect with exotic ideas in equally exotic locations, authentic learning experiences allow learners to self-direct personal change in pursuit of social change–and that starts small, at home and surrounding intimate communities.”– Terry Heick

Using provocations to promote children leading their own learning – Part 4

WHAT?

The next two sessions in the Makerspace were dictated by the team created provocation to make a tower. The children were given the chance to discuss what made a tower and we used the internet to search some images of towers. Again we made a list, using adjectives to describe a tower, to motivate them before we went into the Makerspace.

For the first session, the children gravitated towards the craft items again, making towers on boats, using yoghurt containers and some cardboard and paint. There seemed to be a huge interest in the paint for this challenge. In the second session I challenged the children to make a balancing tower, no glue or fixings to build a tower to touch the roof of the classroom. The children relied on a construction approach and there was a high usage of cardboard boxes and stacking of wood to attain height.

Both sessions had good levels of engagement, the first session more quiet and a higher concentration level. The room had a good buzz, children using hot glue guns, tape and string to attach items to one another. The second session, a higher level of noise as towers tumbled to the ground and more collaboration to solve the problem.

For both sessions the children used iPads to record their project and uploaded the image up to Seesaw for families and whanau to see what we were up to in the Makerspace. I received feedback from one of the Year 4s parent –“ Just wanted to say how much ---- is enjoying the Makerspace and streams so far, she doesn't normally say much about school without me dragging it out of her but she has spontaneously told me lots about both of these this last week or so!”

SO WHAT?

My plan was to collect data on who was working with whom so I could maybe disrupt their plans next time. There were pockets of children who seemed to always to work with the same people each time. At first I was struggling to ‘see’ the provocation in making a tower, and again the Year 3s vivid imagination came to life. For the second session, some of the children saw this as a challenge which gave them more motivation to achieve their goal.

My wonderings around the purpose of the Makerspace is becoming more clearer and I understand it is more about the teaching of key competencies and life-long learning skills to create more flexible and resilient learners. As I write the children PEPs I can see how this will work for my students.

NOW WHAT?

I am still struggling with the provocations and how to keep it meaningful and purposeful for the learning and how to incorporate our universal theme of systems into the Makerspace time. The children are engaged, they could share what they made with whanua and families successfully, not so much their leaning. Is this because I am stil unclear? Maybe I need to find some research in order to get my head around this.

I need to ask those teachers in our school who are fully immersed in play-based learning to find out what they know, find some reading and reflect on where to next.

“Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before.” – Loris Malaguzzi