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

#EduCampHB

#EduCampHB

What an amazing day, well worth the 8 hours spent in the car (Good thing I was with some awesome people).
I had amazing professional discussions, sharing, collaboration and reflection time with some of my favourite teachers from around New Zealand.
It was awesome to fill up my Kete with new ideas and tools that I can begin using immediately and some that I already want to investigate further.
Best of all, I always enjoy refilling my happy meter by connecting and reconnecting with like minded educators and feeling like I am on the right track.

Thank you everyone for a beautiful weekend.
Thank you Richmond school for your amazing hospitality.
Always a pleasure.
Looking forward to the next one.

Tweets from the day:

Presentation from the day:

Things to try:

- Using Google Maps to create a digital mihi

- Have a play with Google Drawing 

- Look into effective ways to utilise the website 'If This Then That' - www.ittt.com

- Look into Māori Maps for students to find their pepeha

- Research about authentic uses of 3D presentations 

- 3D printing apps - thingiverse & tinkercad (Makerbot - leased through local tech company- Ricoh) 

- Look at and play with Fiona Grants Google Drawing templates. Investigate further what can be done with. 

#DojochatANZ

Last night I took part in the #DojochatANZ

The chat was all about Creativity! This is something I have been putting a lot of thought into since reading 'Creativity Inc' by Ed Cutmall and attending various workshops at ULearn last year that were driving home the importance of creativity in the classroom. 

I am a huge fan of Class Dojo and have been a Class Dojo mentor for the last year. I use it daily with my students and like finding new ways to make it fun and teach my students to be accountable for their actions.

I am looking forward to taking part in future #DojochatANZ chats. They are currently every Wednesday @ 8:30pm NZDT 

Tweets from the chat:

If you want to learn more about Class Dojo click here.



“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people” 
                                                             – Leo Burnett

Stephen Graham Teaching in Room 1

Today I was lucky enough to observe Stephen Graham take my class for a writing lesson. He was teaching the students to write a piece of Expository writing.

What I loved about observing him was his high energy and the way he was with the students. No idea was a bad idea and it was obvious no one felt threatened by his in your face approach. He used lots of repetition and technical writing terms to drum into the children the importance of what they were learning. By the end of the session the students had such a sound understanding of the 'Literacy' they were learning and could all explain what a connective was, what an expository text was trying to achieve and how to put together an argument topic sentence.

I really enjoyed when he asked the students what their favourite sentence was and why. My students had to think seriously about their writing and reflect on its effectiveness. 

Today's session really helped to solidify my takeaway notes from yesterday's session.