Maeroa Intermediate: Preparing our Students for their Future

Maeroa Intermediate: Preparing our Students for their Future 

• Enacting our vision, values. learner profile ✓ 
• Fixed Vs. Growth mindset ✓ 
• 7 principals of learning ✓
• Collaboration ✓
• Co-teaching ✓
• Learner Agency ✓
• Learning Spaces ✓

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Our Vision: To develop confident learners who are able to take their place in communities

Our cornerstones: Positive citizens, organised learners, critical explorers, effective communicators

Team Summary: What have we done to enact our vision and values this year?

This year we have unpacked what the school shield symbolises and its history, we have unpacked the cornerstones through group work of looks like, sounds like and feels like. We created a rubric from the cornerstones and used this for the students to set goals.  We have unpacked the school motto 'I will note cease from mental fight. We have included on Class Dojo, behaviours rewards that link to the cornerstones and vision. We have set up high expectations of what this looks like at Maeroa in terms of actions, book work learning, moving around the school etc. The learner profile is included on all unit plans and is openly discussed daily. The language is used and integrated into classroom life.

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Fixed Mindset Vs. Growth Mindset:

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7 Principals of Learning:

What is required in our teaching and learning programmes that ensure our student's are set up for their future?

1. Learners at the centre 

2. Learning social

3. Emotions are integral 

4. Recognise individual differences 

5. Stretching all students

6. Assessment for learning 

7. Building horizontal connections 

Link to the Reading

Where would you put these 7 principals on a continuum?

Reflective Questions:

• Where would you place yourself in terms of each of these seven principals?
• What is your evidence for this positioning?
• What are your next steps?

Team Tanekaha's Continuum: What we consider least important to most important

Note: We consider all of these principals to be interwoven with one another and are all of equal importance

Building horizontal connections  > Stretching all students > Learning social > Emotions are integral  > Assessment for learning  > Recognise individual differences  > Learners at the centre 

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Links from the workshop

Collaborative Planning Workshop: Jo Wilson

Collaborative Planning Workshop: Jo Wilson

December 8th 2015

Block 1 & 2

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Learner: What is your definition of learning

My definition:

Putting yourself in the pit (challenge) to build upon knowledge, experiences, values, virtues... It happens everywhere, all the time (Ubiquitous). It should be engaging, relevant and meaningful to the individual. Learning should be exciting!

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Akomanga Kaha

Toni and Kassey combined definition: Learning everywhere, any time, any place, with many different people where you can build upon your knowledge, experiences, values and virtues. Learning happens in many different ways. 

• Funds of knowledge
• Academic
• Social learning - camp, EOTC

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Collaboration

Three words that best define collaboration:

• Sharing
• Reflecting 
• Working together - Contributing 

Toni and Kassey ideas on collaboration:

• Sharing
• Acquiring new knowledge 
• Reflecting 

6 Keys to success for collaboration

• Clarity of purpose
• Individual commitment
• Time
• Understanding of how to collaborate and communicate
• Support - Leadership
• Freedom to explore 

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Six Keys to Successful Collaboration

Key Thinking:

• Time
• Collaboration time is structured—or not structured
•  "Why not create unstructured times in the school work day and avoid filling that time with stuff? Then encourage people to break out of their routines and talk with each other. See if it happens organically."
• Shared planning time
• Need to dig deep into discussing teaching practice and create strategies to address the needs of the students
• Support from leadership team, just because you can't see progress being made in data doesn't mean it isn't happening
• There's no magic formula for successful collaboration
• This is going to work through discussion identifying needs and room for improve 

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Collaboration Matters

Key Thinking:

• Develop relationship first
• Understand each others vision, norms and values
• How to translate this to the classroom
• Our relationship needs to be strong in order to be successful 
• Embrace conflict
• With no conflict there is not true collaboration 
• Professional conflict
• Conflict provides stretch and change 
• Being honest with your teaching partner
• Collective intelligence 

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John Hattie: Creating a culture of 'Collaborative Expertise' 

• Courage
• Impact
• There is nothing in our profession that identifies excellence 

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Tips for Co-Teaching:

• List of all the things we love about teaching (valuable and unique contributions)
• What are we good at?
• Teaching approaches
• Pastoral care
• Classroom management
• What do we want to do together?
• Common goal - reflect
• Active listeners - students and teachers
• Develop habits
• Reflection and feedback - effective teaching?
• Be learners
• Approaches for class conflict - develop together

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Neuroscience and Learning

Full day course @ Waihi College
22nd September 2015
Speaker: Nathan Mikaere-Wallis

Professional Development: Maeroa Intermediate School: Preparing our Students for their Future - 31.08.15

Professional Development: Maeroa Intermediate School: Preparing our Students for their Future 

Monday 31st August

2pm - 6pm 

Recap: Maeroa Intermediate School mission/motto, vision, values & beliefs about learning

1. Maeroa Intermediate Learner Profile

- Where are we at?
- What have
- What has changed since our last session
- What is next

2. Sharing Session

3. Inquiry Process

- Learning Stories
- Learning Language

4. Planning

- How do we make this happen?

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John Hattie's 8 Mindframes

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Play, passion, purpose: Tony Wagner 

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“Students are the power tools of change in education. They are the most ignored and they have the most at stake.”

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Enacting the Learner Profile through Inquiry

Clarifying Inquiry

How can we:
- Model Inquiry
- Develop learning stories through Inquiry?
- Develop and model the language of the learner profile?
- Gather evidence?

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Maeroa Inquiry Model

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Stage Descriptors

Tuning In

To engage students in the topic

To gauge student interest and attitudes

To find out what students believe - (understandings and misconceptions)

To provide opportunities for students to share what they already know and believe

To introduce / clarify language

To identify gaps in knowledge and misconceptions

 To assist with planning the unit

Finding Out

To take students beyond what they already know

To challenge students’ ideas, beliefs and values

To enable students to use skills (e.g. thinking, communication, co-operation, research) and knowledge to collect new information

Sorting Out & Making Connections

To sort out, organise, represent and present information from the Finding Out stage of the unit

To provide opportunities for students to use their preferred ways of learning to demonstrate their learning (knowledge, skills, values)

Going Further

To extend and broaden the unit if appropriate

To allow students to investigate areas of personal interest

To provide opportunities for students to use their preferred learning style

To present another perspective on, or dimension to, the topic

  

Reflection

To provide opportunities for students to think about their learning — how they learnt, what they learnt and why?

To identify changes in skills, knowledge and values

To draw conclusions and make connections between ideas

  

Action

To identify what students have learnt and the implications for personal actions

To enable students to make choices and apply their ideas

To enable students to relate their learning to real-life situations

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When a person picks up an inquiry book can they?

- Tell.see/understand what the inquiry is about?
- See a shift in student's thinking?
- See interaction between people's thinking?

Student - Student
Teacher - Student - Teacher
Student - Teacher

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Developing the capabilities to interact with science (24.08.15)

Developing the capabilities to interact with 

science

Paul Ashman

Nature of Science Capabilities

-          Gather and interpret data

-          Use evidence

-          Critique evidence

-          Interpret representations

-          Engage with science

When does a simple task become science?

-          Investigating

-          Questioning

-          Evaluating

-          Reasoning

-          Thinking

-          Curiosity

-          Wondering

-          Observations

-          Making connections

Nature of Science

-          Observe scientists

-          Science of self

-          Science is constantly being re-evaluated in light of new evidence

-          How to carry out a scientific investigation

-          Understanding how science works

-          Make connections between science knowledge and everyday decisions and actions

-          This is a compulsory strand – the other strands provide context for learning

-          Assessment should be based on the nature of science understanding (capabilities)

The difference between observations and inferences

-          Weta

o    That is an inference

o    What If there was an insect that looked just like a weta?

o    Prove it

o    What can you see about them

o    Insect = 6 legs

o    Link observations to what you think

- I see long spindly legs coming out the front, I think they are antennae

-          Bird

o    I can see claws with webbing that I think is its foot

o    Feathers

-          Grass, leaves, green vegetation

Things we can’t tell but that we infer:

-          If the bird is dead

-          If the weta are eating the bird

-          That this is a bird

-          Where the photo takes place 

What can we see?

-          Circles

-          Spikes

-          Perception varies – are the circles at the back in or out

-          Wonderings – If this is an eyeball then how do they blink? Why does it have so many bits?

-          As soon as students know what it is, they will stop thinking

-          Try and find images that don’t give away what ‘it’ is

Observations                                                                                                                                              

                                                     

Lit candle (What can you see, what do you notice)

Record = draw or write

Observation types – visual, tactile sense, what isn’t happening, changes

-          Noticing = engaged other senses

-          Feel the heat

-          The closer my hand got to the flame the hotter it got

-          Yellow and orange at the top

-          Blue flame at the base

-          End of the wick glows with an orange ember

-          There is an aura around the flame, it looks like a lighter flame

-          Some of the candle is melting

-          The wick is charred black where the flame is touching

-          Wick has woven pattern

-          The wick has a hook shape

-          The flame has different tones

-          The flame changes height – why?

-          Hotter above the flame than the sides

-          Wax doesn’t catch burn

-          Rapid air movement causes the candle to smoke

-          Air movement – concave/convex shape flame

Progress:

-          What do students notice?

o    Things

o    Attribute

o    Change

-          What senses do they use?

-          What language do they use?

o    Descriptive language

o    Topic specific words

o    Scientific words

Do students make inferences without attempting to explain why they think something?

-          “I think it’s hot”

Do they make an inference and attempt to explain their thinking?

-          “I think it might get a little air in it so it lightens up a little bit”

What links do they make?

-          To previous experience?

-          To scientific ideas?

Notice > Think > Wonder > Predict > Observe > Explain

-          I see/I notice

-          I think

-          I wonder

I notice = engaging more of the senses

-          I notice with my hand

-          I notice with my nose

Get students to justify what they are seeing and justify what they think

Informed Questions

-          Is there evidence backing up this claim?

-          Is the argument logical?

-          Was the testing robust?

-          Are the findings represented in a fair way?

What information can we get from this?

-          By doing this we are starting to critique it

o    Lot of rats

o    Both graphs have rats and birds

o    How many cats were interviewed?

o    What was the time frame for the data collection?

o    What time of day is the data collected?

o    Is this in a rural or town setting?

Critiquing Evidence

Design an experiment to test which tissue is stronger.

Representing Ideas

-          Farming and global warming

-          Comparing pictures

-          Reading graphs, tables etc…

-          Using scientific language

Resources

-          Making better sense books

-          Building science concept books

-          The arbs

-          Connected journals

-          TKI

TKI Website

-          Introducing science capabilities

o    Information about each

o    Resources that link directly into the capabilities

   -  Resources broken up into levels

Resources:

The Dancing Raisins Experiment 
Science Capabilities - Questions to prompt thinking 

Professional Development 27.07.2015

Core Education: Developing the Learner Profile 

3 Reactions

- Embrace change - be flexible and adaptable to situations, environments and students
- Students want to be measured (Students are bottom lined orientated)
- Allow students to be reflective about things that happen in their every day life - we don't need to abandon formal learning but we can get this working in a much more functional way.

2 Implications

- You need to have a sound understanding of the content students are consuming, the technology and what skills we are trying to teach students (creativity, curiosity etc...)
- Understand students funds of knowledge - What do they do at home that they can bring into the classroom?

1 challenge

- The equity of providing students and whanau options in their learning + school and home collaboration.


Learner Profile (Design Principals)

Student Groupings 
'The way we group to maximize learning'

Assessment and Reporting
'...evolves to show student learning and progress'

Learning Culture
'Gauge of learning'

Curriculum Offerings
'Relevant and rich selection from NZC'

Nature of Learning Experiences
'Accessible opportunities for enrichment of all'

Pastoral Care Policy 
'Interactions that affirm expectations, empathy, boundaries'

Collaboration

A great article on Collaboration and how rare it truly is in our classrooms.

Examples:

Connecting

- Sharing resources with colleagues

- Using the Facebook group (NZ Teachers) to find and share resources 

Cooperation

- Engaging in #edchatnz discussion on twitter every second Thursday

- Planning in a team for the term 

Collaboration

- Being part of an ongoing PLG that supports, plans and communicates regularly

- Working in an MLE - planning together, teaching together, utilising strengths and supporting one another 

Learning Spaces

How can you redesign your current space?

How are you using your current teaching and learning space to the best advantage?

- Walls

- Windows

- Furniture

- Outdoor area

- Corridor 

How can you utilise your space further?

Top 10 priorities for the next few weeks

1. Collaborative Planning
2. Redesigning our spaces to utilise what we have
3. Try station teaching with a colleague (1st)
4. Collaboration for students within their inquiry
5. Trying out various teaching styles to see what works for teacher and students
6. Planning to include learner profile student outcomes - putting students into the planning deliberately
7. Talk to students about our 'space' and 'learning styles' and get their input
8. Show students the collaboration - the 'Above and Beyond' video
9. Use windows in classroom
10. Explore the idea of connecting  - connect out on Twitter