Connected Educator #EdBlogNZ Challenge

I know I'm not a newbie - and I'm definitely not a legend, so for now I'll sit (somewhat) comfortably as a casual blogger.  If I am honest I would probably term myself a keen but reluctant blogger.  How is that for a contradiction in terms?  I greedily read blogs from the likes of Claire Amos and Alex Le Long  and wonder - how can I live up to that?

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Blogging has been something that I worry about.  What if I get my proofing wrong?  What if I say the wrong thing?  What if other people think I'm naff?  What if people think I'm a crappy teacher?  Actually - I need to stop these thoughts.  I've been big on helping my students to recognise and apply a growth mindset - when actually, it is me who needs to embrace this as well.  

Carol Dwek's site suggests that with "the fixed mindset it’s not enough just to succeed. It’s not enough just to look smart and talented. You have to be pretty much flawless. And you have to be flawless right away... After all, if you have it you have it, and if you don’t you don’t." (http://mindsetonline.com/howmindsetaffects/mindsetforachievement/index.html) 

 I recognise a bit, ok shades of myself in this.  If I do not get this blog thing right straight-away what happens?  Well, to be honest, what happens is I should write the next day (ok, week or month) and the next day and the day after that as well.   I need to take a leaf out of my teaching book and listen to myself.   I want to do it all - and in wanting to do it all perfectly, I have stopped out of fear.  This doesn't just apply to my teaching life, but to other aspects as well.  I need to look with brutal honestly (and find a mentor to help me) at all aspects of my life.  Personal goals, family goals and teaching goals all require a growth mindset - and I know that this mindset will help me achieve these goals.

I haven't exactly stayed on topic - but I can reflect on the topic in that the key thing for me to further develop in my teaching practice is this growth mindset - alongside my students.  I love learning - I actually miss the crazy of study and teaching together that was last year - so maybe finding some good reading books on this topic could be start for me. 

I have an amazing unit planned for my Y9/10 class next term, and I know we'll explore growth mindset further in that, especially for students for whom public speaking is a struggle.  I know I have changed in the past 11 years and I'm thankful I know that I can and need to change in the next eleven as well.

  

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The Quiet Front

This blog has been the quiet front of my working sphere.

This past term has been huge in terms of face to face PD and expanding my use of Twitter, specifically #BFC630NZ and following some educational heroes (if I can call them that) online.  I have completed a CORE education course that introduced Te Reo to us and how to start using it more confidently in the classroom.  This was my most challenging PD - all about embracing the fear and doing it anyway.

Source: Twitter

I took part in a Best Practice Workshop for the Literacy Unit Standards and came away enthused, encouraged, confident and inspired to use this for our learners who need these to support their literacy learning.  It is an amazing way to gather natural evidence from across all subjects for the learners, and use work they are already completing rather than extra assessment tasks.

I hope to take part in a few more on-line webinars before the end of year - the bonus of these is if life happens (as it does) they are downloadable for a later time.  In the mean time, the seniors have final assessments to get in, I have final marks to record - and then sent off for verification - never a dull moment!

 

This was winter ...

It started snowing around 11.30 am ... didn't stop for 24hrs

The novelty of snow for an ex-north islander.

Hands up: Who got it?

Given the fact I have five young tamariki, it is up early at our house.  The average time of waking/raising is about 6.07am.  The young ones get to watch educationally sound (throat clearing sound) cartoons while I sort breakfast and school lunches.  It's what works for our family.

While the jug is boiling and I'm putting sammies into containers I love #BFC630NZ via Twitter.  It is usually happening just as my coffee is ready and something that I can use to make me think or start to centre my day.  It is an amazing group of other educationally minded people who are also up early and ready to just kick off with a wee question or some sharing.

This morning really got me thinking ... a good thing while Little Einstiens was in the background.  The question was posed "How do you ensure all students are thinking and participating .... or is it their choice not to?" on the basis that the age-old hands up might be a tool that actually limits student thinking - especially when trying to get feedback on understanding.    Well, that needed a large coffee!  I had a few ideas, shared them, but have been mulling it over today - hence the post.

What am I doing to make sure that all my students are thinking and participating?  For me the biggest thing is to make sure students are thinking about what they have learn and what they are still struggling with.  One of my  favourite tools when it comes to this type of feedback are little stickies or PostIt notes.  As we transition between activities students quickly answer a feedback question (today ... what was most difficult) and sticky it to a spare spot.  I can then do a quick read over, organise into similarities etc, and see where the help is needed or what other things need to be covered.

Student stickies after an activity

Organised by me after students left ...I can now  see that twelve students had the same or similar difficulties with one part of the teaching / learning ... we will need to revisit that point for the majority of the class in a new learning session.

When using the stickies for feedback on understanding generally I don't require them to put a name to it.   They are not called out in front of the class - so they don't have to feel ashamed about 'no-getting' something which in turn provides more honest and specific feedback to me.  Sometimes I ask them to initial it, but mostly it is reliant on me knowing their handwriting if I really want to know specifically who is finding what hard.

If we are working on the devices (chrome-books) or in Blendspace lesson I might include a link to Padlet, which is like an online PostIt notes page.

So ... I would encourage you to invest in stickies!!  Currently the budget is on plain and boring yellow ... but who knows ... we could get exciting and branch out to colours!!

Fifteen days later!

I did have grand designs for blogging weekly, possibly even twice weekly - but it turns out that things get prioritised, and this being an extra bonus activity for me personally (as opposed to something I have to check off for others) has taken a tumble to the bottom of the pile.

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It isn't quite so bad that I'm crying out for help -  but it has taken a good week of prioritising and self-managing to ensure that all the commitments I've made are honoured.  I started thinking about our students - they too have life commitments, family commitments, seniors often also have work commitments.  Into that mix we add deadlines, assessments schedules and generally scary concepts such as exams.

This week I am going to stop and get my students to do some self-reflection and some planning.   We aim to teach the competencies of self-management; but if as an adult it is easy to get snowed under how much more as a young teen.  We're going to add in a few more checkpoints for our work and just make sure that everyone who needs extra support is getting it.

Note taking

Note taking is a skill that is starting to be required more and more.  In both my senior classes this term, the skills of skimming and scanning for information are something we are learning.  The students are working on a personal research project, which will be linked to a speech in front of their peers.  I too, am having to develop my skimming and scanning as I am taking part in a PD research project run by Otago University.  

The project is looking at ideas and concepts surrounding future focused literacy.  This week we were exploring the way students are both 'text users' and 'text analysts.'  It has been great for me to be able to step back into 'student' mode as the delivery method has required me to step up and take notes to ensure I can refer back to them when contributing to the written work.

Some of my notes from my PD #edsketch15

I have enjoyed playing around with some different note taking strategies, sketching, arrows, tables and just plain key words.  It has been a real eye-opener to remember exactly how much concentration it takes to listen and take notes for a length of time.  I need to remember this with my own students - limit the up-front talk time.  I need to investigate the concept of 'flipped classroom' more - but that also makes me wonder, if they students weren't actively engaging/notetaking - would it be useful? Would I end up with half a class who have and half a class of 'have not had time.'?

Board Work

Often as teacher's we put up the Lesson Objective for the day.  These lesson objectives may come in the form of "Today I will be able to ..." or "Today we will learn about ... " or "I can ... "  I am going to try a different system after seeing a photo on Twitter.  We often put them up on the left or right hand side of the  board and get students to copy them into their notes or exercise books.  The goal of this is to make sure we and the students know what the purpose of the lesson is, the reason we are doing things and for them to have a reference point for achievement for that particular day or lesson.

One of my students painted the SOLO images (second image) during our Burger activity (first image) and they were too large for the burger.  Not wanting to waste them, I thought they would be the perfect fit for my board and my goal to change the way I use learning intentions.

Burger Activity - breaking down our knowledge of essays/language techniques/word classes and SOLO - love our school, we were nearly out of time, so I asked the next teacher if I could keep them as I had a non-contact ... no problems!!!

SOLO board - will aim to scaffold learning activities through this.  I will still have some more standard learning intentions that link specifically to curriculum context where applicable.

The SOLO learning intention board is a work in progress for me.  I will use it where I can, and hopefully students will find it clear to see what to aim for and for their own self-assessment of their learning.  Today it was as simple as the Extended Abstract image had "Apply and Understand Activities" beside it, so students could aim to get to those activities on their Google Doc, and if they could complete those (with showed understanding through individual conferences with me) then they knew they were at that level.  

It's all about learning - and I'm still excited I get to learn alongside my class!