Book Review-Discipline, Democracy and Diversity by Angus H. Macfarlane

 Working with Students with Behaviour Difficulties

As a school  SENCO, I found this to be a very interesting book to read. Angus Macfarlane has published widely in New Zealand and his ability to encapsulate the current cultural needs of students in New Zealand's schools is well described.

Here he looks at the teaching practices and behaviours that influence  the classroom culture for good, especially for younger teenagers. I found his notes on how to speak with students very poignant, where being brief and being gone is important rather than a lengthy talk. I find this to be so. Keeping to the point, being clear about what is expected and being gone from that focus and onto the learning works well, especially for boys, I find.

Macfarlane's frameworks for discipline reflect the cultural practices of talking together with whanau about their child and leading students through a restorative practice process to reach agreement and consensus.

He talks about the ethos and values within schools and  emphasises  the Maori concept of aroha as being central to a whole school  culture. I find it to be the heart of a school and without that between all relationships the school seems an uncaring place especially for students.

Fetal Alcohol Professional Text for Teachers

 

Professional Reading: Educating Children and Young People With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

(Book Depository Review)

Informed by the very latest research and written by leading experts in the field, Educating Children and Young People with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders will prove invaluable for experienced teachers and teaching assistants who are engaging in Continuing Professional Development, as well as newly qualified and training Initial Teacher Training students.

The range of learning difficulties associated with children who have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) has been highlighted as an emerging but little understood area of Special Educational Needs.

This engaging, timely, and highly practical book will raise awareness about FASDs and their associated difficulties across the entire education workforce. It provides a range of specialist, practical tried-and-tested teaching and learning strategies, from which teachers and support staff may construct personalised learning plans for students with FASDs, and will help improve outcomes for all their children. It also explains the impact that FASDs can have on the child's brain; discusses the overlapping and co-existing disorders, such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorders; shows how to support and empower teachers; provides ready-to-use teaching resources and strategies that can be used directly in the classroom.

Personal Reflection:

I found this text helpful in better understanding students who may present as having behavioural, social, communication, physical or cognitive difficulties. Children with Fetal Alcohol may not necessarily have the typical facial features. It depends on which part of the pregnancy they were exposed to alcohol. They may also have heart, legs, brain issues. Prenatally, babies are exposed to the effects of alcohol for a longer period than the mother because they are basically surrounded by it and drawing from it for a long time. The text is helpful in prompting me, as SENCO, to investigate the cause for students' behaviours, in far greater depth rather than looking mainly at symptoms of ASD or ADHD or cognitive delay. I would recommend this text for educators.

Manaiakalani Symposium for Teachers at Waitangi

 Manaiakalani Symposium for Teachers at Waitangi 28.1.21

I attended 4 workshops at Waitangi.

First, teachers could visit the 2 museums at Waitangi which, I think, every New Zealander should visit at least once. I also think every school child in the mid to far North of NZ should visit the museum as part of their education about the history of NZ. This is a very informative venue and very professionally presented.

Next was Physical Computing: Bringing coding out of the screen and back into the real world with micro:bits presented by Monika Kern.  https://makecode.microbit.org/  We explored microbits, small LED screen that can display a coded message, programmed by a student or adult. Photos below show the screen and computer set up for this Microsoft programme. My Apple computer did not respond well to this product until I verified my access.

Monika introduced us to simple circuits by Makerspacers. These fun and practical circuit lessons would be well received by my students!

Creativity in 3D 

Next I attended the Tinkercad workshop presented by CJ Serfontein

Tinkercad is a free, online 3D modeling program that runs in a web browser, known for its simplicity and ease of use. It's used by teachers, kids, hobbyists, and designers to imagine, design, and make anything! Tinkercad by Autodesk provides an easy, early training ground to introduce students to the world of 3D design and exploration.
 

The final workshop about movie making was presented by Harley Alexander. This session explained the composition of a movie. I found it to be a good reminder of the gear needed for movie making too. His presentation is below.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UX8vLo-mFeGyLrRtR1Ow8_RppjiuJqThq7JT1tSX7Ko/edit?usp=sharing 

Making Sense of Sensory Strategies - Professional learning

Making Sense of Sensory Strategies - Professional Learning

Professional Learning courtesy of Ministry of Education, Learning Support

Keynote Speakers:

Bohdan Pasternak (OT), Jennet Penney (OT), Beverley Jackson (SLT)

The main aim of this course was to promote wellness for neurodiverse learners.

Stuart Shankers outlines 3 key steps when teaching children with challenging behaviours.

1. Find stressors  then reduce them

2. Find unmet needs then meet them

3. Find skill deficits then teach them

Internal sensors

• Vestibular

• Proprioception

• Interoception

Vestibular:

Alerting- Spinning, swinging, inversion

Calming- rhythmic rocket, swinging, predictable movements

Fine Motor activities:

Puzzles, cutting time, paint, draw, buttons, zips, laces, dress ups

Gross motor:

Outside play, negotiate surfaces, develop balance, skateboards, trampoline, spinning, hanging upside down.

Core strength activities: Wheelbarrow walking, gym ball walk over.

Sensory Integrative Dysfunction or SPD signs

• Avoidance

• Seeking

• Over arousal

• Under arousal

Consider a child’s Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

It is important for teachers to manage their own reaction and not become heightened.

The choice of sensory tools is influenced by…

• The goal or purpose

• The person

• The likes and dislikes

Adapt the environment for each child’s needs.

As a teacher and SENCO this course has encouraged me to purchase a variety of fidget spinners and play things and weighted blankets to use in the classroom. Also our kit needs to include balance boards, gym ball, fine motor games and possibly a trampoline.

Additional pdf from today:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JKugo_06YvYn8sseBbk-BZrbyLo1taBV/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hTDmkrI-TdUjKrl2DaJ1mbf5W8IbBekT/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1quv9iOikrcy1BYa0O68LBuU24hKuBEEt/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PoG8ox657CXGOHmmMMrztETT_fJx6LsN/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OINfpLpqFdhMDX7WcX_zdljZA9sIVS50/view?usp=sharing

A book review of Glow Kids by Dr. Nicholas Kardaras

 Glow Kids by Dr. Nicholas Kadaras, Ph.D.

Professional Reading

In this book Kadaras draws our attention to a growing problem...the addiction many children, youths and adults  are developing to digital media. As children have thinner skulls and scalps to adults and their brain neurons are still developing, he believes that children should have limited or even no exposure to the highly influential computer games currently on the market. He states that education in the States enabled a lot of children to have extra time online, exacerbating the problem of addiction. He believes education should foster the arts, the outdoors, structured play (e.g., lego), human interaction, handwritten stories,  discussion, learning in reading, writing and maths and critical thinking. Children should be taught how to think before computers are introduced to the equation even waiting for children to reach the age of 10. Even the engineers from Apple and Google, he claims, send their children to no-tech schools!

According to Kadaras there are newly defined syndromes emerging from the prolonged exposure to game technology that is deliberately designed to pump up the adrenaline and dopamine levels of the players so that they prolong their engagement. Dangerous levels of these two substances can lead to children losing touch with reality and becoming hyper stimulated.  Humans are not able to process sustained levels of these, i.e., for more than an hour, let alone sessions of 10+ hours.  Children  confuse reality with the game they have been playing, often hearing and seeing characters or patterns/images/sounds from that game when they are no longer playing it. The games can erode their self esteem and create paranoia that, at the worst level, make children susceptible to going on a shooting rampage and at the lowest level manifest as an inability to regulate their emotions and aggression, causing problems within school and their family. Radiation from prolonged digital use can affect the brain itself and potentially give rise to brain tumors and cancer.

Syndromes related to the upsurge of digital time are the likes of ADHD which has increased by 800% in the last 10 years, and the inability to focus on non-digital work,  A kid’s brain on tech looks like a brain on  drugs. There is Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD), and Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP) where reality and the game are confused. Dr Victoria Dunkley researched whether the many behaviours that are on the increase shared the same underlying condition, that of hyper stimulation. She researched ODD, depression, ADHD, sleep disorders, mood disorders, aggression, even autism. The common denominator for what these children had been exposed to between 1994 to 2003 was screens. 

One solution for addiction that Kadaras suggests, is for the child to undergo a digital fast. Here the child is gradually weaned off device time by an hour a day until there is abstinence for 3 further weeks, where device time is carefully reintroduced with tight parameters. He suggests that they should not go cold turkey unless the parents are prepared for rage to be unleashed on the home. He says parents should be able to  refuse the use of tech for their child at school. Studies in America showed that after hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent on the 1-1 device programmes that children found plenty of loopholes to access porn and blocked games, so much so that these device programmes were ceased in favour of quality teacher time. 

In addition, this book also lays out the ways in which the economic interests of the tech industry are often at odds with the needs of our children and the growing mountain of findings from research. The start of the 1-1 device programmes in the states was not well researched and was given over to companies that employed 20 somethings to design dopamine pumping “educational” games to replace quality teaching. It became a money making endeavour that made a lot of executives very rich but did little to assist the education of children. 

I found the chapters on how education has been influenced by digital companies and misguided writers of curriculum, very interesting  as I teach in a 1-1 environment. The research from Dr Vallance in Australia, found that the introduction of laptops and tablets  into classrooms has led to less rigor in the classroom and have taken away from teacher preparation, indicating that laptops “ introduced a great deal of slackness” in teaching and “ made it much easier of giving the illusion of having prepared a lesson.” I have wondered throughout this year why some students, in particular boys,  display such high levels of aggression and an inability to regulate their emotions. After reading this book, I can identify several boys who “act out” their games and actively seek them out  even during class time, looking for loopholes to feed their interest and use tech contrary to the school’s guidelines. These boys become very verbally aggressive and angry with each other and oppositional when redirected to other activities. Their focus drifts to the images playing on the class TV screen, interrupting lessons to comment loudly on the images. Their drawings are of game characters, often hideous troll looking characters.

As a result of reading this book I will survey my students gaming habits and think carefully about how often they are online. I will be explicit about what is to be achieved in a short space of time as they use Google apps.  I will prefer hard copy reading as it is espoused to enable children to analyse text better and will introduce more discussion, arts and construction time as well as keeping the TV screen off until it is needed as a tool.

Cheryl Torrie- Blinging Blogs with Images

Cheryl Torrie- Blinging Blogs with Images- Teacher Professional Development

Cheryl presented a great slide show that demonstrated how to create collages of photos to embed in our blog posts. These collages could replace the long 'scroll-down' photos of the novice blogger, namely me.

She gave a variety of apps and websites for this purpose.

To demonstrate my fledgling understanding of this I have embedded one of my own collages using random photos (from various Science lessons) that were stored in Google Photos.

Lunapic was one app. that created artistic effects from photos. I have attempted an example of this here with a shot of my siblings and me.

Marc Gibson - T3 - Using flexible learning groups within the curriculum

Marc Gibson -Using Flexible Learning Groups Within the Curriculum

As part of our digital professional learning, Marc Gibson presented the way his school worked with 75 students in a class of 3 teachers. Students worked in flexible groupings that sprang out of the workshops and the roles of teacher as "Taskmaster" and "Coach". Learners select workshops based on their learning needs (taken from the Literacy and Maths Learning Progressions).

The systems within the class were well unpacked with students in term 1 of the year, timetabling was changed each week and a method for students to upload their work to a Learning Progression was established. Students select and sign up to at least 1-2 workshops in each subject area on Monday with the help of a teacher.

Teachers have a different role each week over a three week period.  In Reading the coach works on the end goal  and students work on one task for the whole week, a task that fits with any book. A set of 8 texts is selected each week. Students click on the title to see other complimentary reading and challenging reading related to the book. This meets the requirements for "Multimodal" learning. Students do not work in ability groups although the lower readers do work together but are still part of the book choices for homework etc.

The class site is shared with parents so they can see what the book choices  and tasks.

In writing the students have to complete one piece of writing for the week. During this time the ESOL students leave the room.

In Maths there is a Hotspot activity in the main learning area e.g., fractions. The teachers work in three roles as coach, problem solving and workshops. There is also a Heart zones activity which is more like play based learning. The workshops plug the gaps in the knowledge. Each students has to complete one artefact to show they have learned it. For problem solving teachers work with groups of 18, on 2 problems a week. The students have a specific process to work through.

Each child has their own digital copy of the progressions that are highlighted once they have proven that they have learned it. From these progressions the teachers can target the learning and address the gaps.

So what does this mean for my teaching?

It took much time to set up this school's systems.  They now have a cohesive mode of teaching and learning that meets students' needs, motivates students and raises ability.

Of course this new system needs to be from the top down in a school setting such as ours. School management needs to engage with the process and not see it as a quick fix strategy. It requires commitment over time.

I could...

• Trial the workshop idea on my class site and have a variety of reading books for the book choice. This would work more for my readers who are achieving at a good standard
• For my underachievers daily guided reading and mileage is worth continuing and their workshops would be based around their need for decoding and alphabet skills. Their voice needs to be factored in to the planning
• Process writing would continue along with choices for some different genre or types of grammar. Nothing is new there.
• Problem solving options help create mixed ability groupings and sound better when students mix themselves for maths through their choices (rather than the predetermined mixed groupings that I have heard other educators talk about)
• Workshops that plug the gaps in student knowledge also sound worth doing. 

There is only one teacher in my class of 26, so this limits the flexible nature of groupings and options. However, it would be good to include a few of these ideas in the planning  as part of my own inquiry.

Professional Development for Educators of Children with Additional Needs (SENCO)

Educators of Children with Additional Needs 

The Hub

Tony Hassan from Learning Support, Kaitaia spoke to the seminar. There has been recent consultation in the Far North around the Ministry of Education's Learning Support Hub and in particular the co-designing of the Learning Support service delivery in Tai Tokerau.  The Hub in the Hokianga Initiative is promoted online with the dates the team of RTLBs and MoE's Learning Support will be visiting the schools of the area. The Hub is made up of  the Ministry of Education agencies such as speech language, oral language help, and early intervention etc. Parents/ whanau can call into the Hub to seek help for their child or attend sessions that assist the child such as speech training. Tony said the rate of new referrals had increased 1400% since the commencement of the Hub. The most referral cases have been for communication. Future additions to the Hub may be the inclusion of health services.

Learning Support Action Plan

Priorities for action
1. Learning Support Co-ordinators
2. Screening and early identification of learning support needs
3. Strengthening early intervention
4. Flexible supports for neurodiverse children and young people
5. Meeting the learning needs of gifted children and young people
6. Improving education for children and young people at risk of disengaging

Mindfulness from an Indigenous Perspective      Joni Gordon

Joni's PHD study hypothesis: Do the spiritual practices of Kura Kaupapa have a mindfulness effect?

Conceptualising Maori mindfulness: the tensions and opportunities when reconciling mindfulness.and kaupapa Moari

Matauranga Maori and Mindfulness

• Whakapapa-genealogy
• Nga Atua Maori-The pantheon of Maori godds
• Spiritual practices: karakia (prayer), tohi , takutaku (chants)
• Environment
• Manawa/ Mauri- negotiating their interaction

Influences:

• European ethnographers
• Literature, veers towards the male lens
• Mana wahine-reclamation of ancient wisdom and making space
• The politics of indignity

Be present

• Ritual time
• The collapsing of time into space
• Time in relation to environment
• Reading the stars

Mauritau/ Manawaora- how these concepts interact

Reconciling heart and mind

Examples of mindfulness practices:

Deeply considering a taonga.
Deeply reflecting on a poem etc in Maori and English (and sharing what was experienced ) 

Massey University have an online collaborative network, the"Learning Support Network".        Mandia Mentis (Massey)

This website consists of

• A wealth of resources for the special education teaching community, in particular for SENCos
• Networking and connecting of SENCos nationwide through calendars of events
• Live webinar every Thursday evening
• Online professional development modules to complete for teachers
• Digital badges can be earned that can cross credit to a short course, a Post Graduate Qualification into Learning Support
• Helps SENCos integrate their learning into our practice
• Alignment with the 6 teacher standards
• Supports SENCo inquiry

So what did today's seminar mean for my role as SENCo?

• Connect to the Learning Support Network website with one other person in the school
• Participate in weekly webinars online as often as possible, to gain digital badges towards a Post Graduate in Learning Support
• Incorporate mindfulness practices into my class (in a way that aligns with who I am) as well as  for high anxiety students
• Investigate the new Learning Support  Coordinator role and Action Plan.

Talk Link Course a Professional Development Course for Special Education Teachers

TalkLink, a Professional Learning Opportunity for Teachers 

The main topic of this course was the use of the hard copy CORE board and its many possibilities.
Polly Thomas (TalkLink) explained and demonstrated the various ways that the CORE Board could be used with students who are on the Autistic Spectrum, to aid them in communication. By teachers pointing to each image they are able to communicate their directions or requests and at the same time the student is able to communicate visually.

The top of each board has a ring binder with strips of special interest words that are most relevant to the student.  Strips can be changed or added to as the child's level of communication grows.

The mantra of TalkLink for student engagement is to motivate, model and move out of the way!

The communication device can be used to communicate when on playground duty or in the classroom, or when students shut down and are unable to communicate their needs. The teacher is able to wear a 'YES' or 'NO' sign on a lanyard for those types of responses.

TalkLink

Creating High Expectation Classrooms- Christine Rubie-Davies

Creating High Expectation Classrooms           Seminar by Christine Rubie-Davies

This seminar covered a model of teacher expectations where teachers have high expectations, plan for goal setting and mixed ability grouping, establish a positive culture of care (climate) and promote student autonomy. Some of the key findings from her research are included in this post.

Grouping can affect student motivation and learning.
Grouping can affect student motivation. A study for no streaming of Maths students.

Stereotyping can turn into bias where teachers' beliefs about  students become very fixed.
Maori students would like their teachers to be more supportive, caring, have high expectations, and help them to strive for success.

Explicit versus implicit expectations

Explicit bias asks, "Where will the students be by the end of the year?"

An implicit bias test:  Scores based on teacher hesitance in answering questions. Google search cognitive bias. The big question in the bias test was "Do Auckland teachers have implicit bias of Maori, Chinese, Pakeha?"

It was found that teachers had higher expectations of Maori and Chinese because their achievement was higher. Pakeha teachers had a strong implicit bias of Pakeha over Maori students.
There was a  20% Maths variance based on teachers and 30% Reading variance based on teachers.
Other findings from the test were that 63% of Maori were underestimated compared to 37% who were overestimated. There was almost the opposite trend for Pakeha students. Teachers were 2.2.times more likely to underestimate girls (in Math). Maori students were more oriented than Pakeha. There appeared to be a competitive stance by Maori so they had less peer support.

Rubie-Davies, C. M., Hattie, J. A. C., & Hamilton, R. J. (2006). Expecting
the best for New Zealand students: Teacher expectations and academic
outcomes. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 429–444.

What has this information made me think about?  I need to...

• Avoid  bias when setting expectations for my students.
• Set high expectations for all of my students irrespective of race. 
• Set higher expectations for girls than perhaps previously.
• Know my students well through close and accurate monitoring.
• Work on establishing sound relationships with my students.
• The inclusion of te ao Maori is essential in my class where there is a high percentage of Maori students.

Aspects that I need to see in my classroom are...

• Culturally responsive pedagogy and high expectation classrooms
• Mixed ability groups
• Positive class climate
• Goal setting

Cultural responsiveness in the class; acknowledging the Maori world view

• Pumanawatanga; the heart or pulse of the classroom, critical for student motivation.
• Rangatiratanga-self managing learning
• Nga whakapiringatanga- positive, well managed classroom
• Ako- effective teaching and learning, teacher learning from the students, autonomy.

My class climate needs to include...

• Whanaungatanga (relationship building), 
• Kotahitanga (class unity and community), 
• Manaakitanga (understanding culture and support)

Class goal setting requires...

• Rangatiratanga; teacher monitoring feedback, autonomy, engagement,
• Wananga-joint goal setting
• Mana motuhake- teachers caring about student performance, clear on feedback, goal focusses, improvement focussed rather than performance, resilience and self belief.

Bringing it all together

Ministry initiatives  may have reduced explicit bias however there is still a Maori/Pakeha gap in achievement and expectation.

What's in the future?

•  (TEP)  The Teacher Expectation Project
• Goal setting, class climate, mixed ability

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reward

We reflected on the types of rewards we use in our class and school and ranked them in effectiveness.
Tangible rewards significantly undermine intrinsic motivation….and we need to exercise great care.

• Contingent reward: (conditional rewards e.g., well done, a point for you) 
• Non-contingent: unexpected results (unconditional , thanks for waiting patiently, points for you)

Benefits of intrinsic motivation; Persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding, optimal functioning and well being.

Use student interest to engage them in activities and raise motivation.

Students need to understand what they are learning and why they are learning it, with teachers who share their progress with them.

Teachers need to give students feedback related to their goals and learning intentions as well as the success criteria (how close they have come to achieving it). teachers need to help students to set and reset goals often.

Autonomy, choice and agency requires more responsibility and monitoring.

Principles and processes of goal setting

• Clear, specific and achievable
• Relevant
• Teacher has an important role

Conditions for goals to be met...

Mastery and performance goals

• Performance goals are about the student being the best.
• Mastery goals (of skills)  requires the teacher to focus their feedback on mastery.
• Children like challenging goals. Importance of feedback.
• Children need to also be help-seekers
• Young children need close proximal goals, perhaps a week’s goal.
• Goal setting bridges the gap between intentions and success criteria.

Implementing goal setting     Key strategies to use

• Personal bests; self-improvement based, specific, challenging, self referenced
• e-asTTle individual learning pathways. Have print outs for children to set goals against and share with their whanau
• Progress chart on e-asTTle, use for reporting
• SMART goals
• Novice goals, change simple goals into SMART goals. 
• Teach  students how to set goals.

What does this mean for my planning?

How will I introduce goal setting into my classroom?

• Discussion with students about their goal setting sheets. 
• Give feedback about how close students have come to reaching their goals and where they need to go next

Class climate 

Catherine Wentzel- Why does a student's achievement dip? Usually a dip in achievement can be linked to the level of teacher care. Engagement and climate are linked as well as mastery goals and climate.

Class relationships are important. Students reflect teacher behaviour. We are role models. Unconditional warmth is needed.

Consider the child’s world where they may have had high levels of inner turmoil,  and low self-esteem. They may have learned that anger keeps them safe and that adults cannot be trusted.

Strategies for improving the class climate are...

• Think about the language we use
• Separate the who from the do! Make I statements
• Focus on the desired behaviour
• Remember we/teachers are human too.
• Include sport
• Be in class before school to build relationships
• Provide room for negotiation  and back away from pushing the point 
• Check our non-verbal communication
• Change groupings frequently
• Include parents' strengths in the classroom

Traits of an effective teacher

• High teacher efficacy
• Teacher warmth
• Culturally responsive teachers

Measuring the social structure in the classroom

Sociograms: Survey each child about the two children they would like in their group and one they would not like in their group.

 Sociogram website for linking the relationships in class and shedding light on how to structure the classroom.

Ideas for building a positive social structure

• Video yourself teaching-watch non verbals
• Listening to your students and having fun
• Share achievements. Let them share about what they are good at
• Sing together. Act together
• Count kindnesses
• Make a brag wall- each contributes.
• Make a strengths wall: one wheel per child, filled in over time.
• Treasure box where students put in objects or illustration of moments of pride, amusement , serenity etc
• Special person gallery- name 3 adults who will always look after you.

The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us Based on Dan Pink's work

Grouping and High Teacher Expectations PLD Day 29.1.19

Grouping and High Teacher Expectations  PLD Day 29.1.19

Presenter: Christine Rubie-Davies, The University of Auckland


The presentation from Christine Rubie-Davies today explained the consequences of teachers having high and low expectations of their students. Teaching practices were outlined, that could improve the self-esteem of students by steering away from purely ability groups in class. She explained that a student's self-belief is affected by teacher expectations. What the teacher values and how a teacher interacts through non-verbal and verbal signals all send a message to students about their ability.

Robert Merton was one of the first researchers to investigate the topic of self fulfilling prophecy. Bob Rosenthal was, however first to apply this concept to education (Pygmalion in the Classroom). Rats and psychologists versus teacher and children interactions, and beliefs were investigated and a framework was designed by Christine Rubie-Davies to detail how the instructional environment and the socio emotional environment (aka class climate) are influenced by several factors.

Reflective question for teachers

 How do you form expectations? What information do you use to make decisions about students?

We discussed the various ways we gather information about students such as...

• achievement data
• personal narratives and info
• previous support provided, and diagnostic labelling
• previous portfolios, reports or profiles presented

Some NZ research examined the resulting effects of teacher attitudes towards ethnicities and those students' achievement. It indicated that Maori were lower in achievement than other ethnic groups. The teacher's belief about the student's ethnicity appeared to influence the teacher's own expectations.

Reflective activity

Teachers were asked to sort the teacher behaviours into two categories, those of interactions with high achievers and those of interactions with low achievers. Teachers gave more quality time to high achievers than lower achievers. Also more wait /processing time were given to high achievers. High emotional support was given to high achievers whereas low emotional support was given to low achievers. Studies on teachers' attitudes and expectations can be influenced by bias, prejudiced and stereotypical (Babab).

It was noted by the research that, when gathering student voice,  students took note of a teacher's non-verbal language and were quick to detect insincerity, even mixed messages. They could identify the differences in how teachers responded to or treated high and low achievers. They noted that brainy students don’t get told off. 

Consequences of expectations

Two factors that influence student capability are; opportunities to learn and the extent to which mixed ability groups are used.

Lower achievers have less opportunities to learn, and less positive interactions. High achievers have more opportunities to learn,  receive positive emotional interactions, and experience challenging learning opportunities. If a student knows that a teacher likes them they will make a bigger effort. 

The way that achievement data is shared and children are grouped often forms negative self-beliefs. Teachers need to be sensitive to how this is shared as the damage can be big.

Teachers attitudes can change the learning trajectory. It was suggested that teachers video themselves teaching to analyse how they interact with high and low achievers.

 Teachers' expectations can preserve self esteem and make the pace and rate of learning easier as well as level adjustments.

Which of the high expectations are already embedded in my practice?

• Gathering student voice about seating/grouping.
• Learning goals based on assessment info  
• Clear routines 
• Extended explanations
• Flexible groupings
• Positive climate
• Scaffolding
• Use links to prior knowledge 
• Fostering relationships
• Give choices
• Be positive
• Mixed ability groups for maths word problems etc
• Consider each students narrative.
• High expectations for all students

Changes I am considering to my teaching

• Multiple opportunities to learn
• Critical thinking activities for all students
• Check non verbal language
• Check bias and prejudice
• Have flexibility in groupings across subjects and focus on the learning rather than ability
• Frequent feedback based on goals
• Video self for observing expectations and non verbal behaviour
•  Responsibility for learning
• Intrinsically motivated students
• Choice of what reader they have
• Ways of grouping students could involve responses to topics to mix them up, perhaps a theme box e.g. frogs and related tasks on a web
• Home reading cards with colour wheel colours, that contain differentiated instruction for parents e.g.,red books- I can read this by myself, yellow books- I can read this with some help
• Theme box e.g.,  for shared reading higher order tasks
• Mixed groups for some “reading activities”, pairs, task board/tumble with student choice.

Group reflection

Setting up a high expectation classroom

Evidence of reflective and professional practice-Term review

Term Review for Term 4 2018

The term review provides evidence of reflective practice that forms new goals for the following year. It is informed by a range of data; narrative, formative and summative.

In addition to the review I have created...

• a Google Sheets data workbook to track student achievement over the course of the year
• a data analysis "Quadrant" sheet that names students who require extra support
• wedge graphs to show individual student progress in Reading, Writing and Maths
• a Senco data tracking sheet, a Senco data analysis report, a Senco Improvement Plan and a Senco Annual report that support the students who are Tier 2 or 3 for assistance.

Reflection from Manaiakalani Staff Meeting 30.10.18

Reflection from the Manaikalani Staff Meeting 30.10.18

Reflection Questions

Do your learners know the process of learn, create, share? No

Do your parents/community know the process of learn, create, share? No

Is this visible on your school site/class site/class blog? No

What are your ‘next steps’ for 2019 to improve visibility of LEARN CREATE SHARE in your class?

• Create a class site
• Create a class blog
• Teach children how to capture and share their learning, use Google Apps etc.
• Learn the technical aspects of how MK's style of visible and rewindable learning
• Learn how to juggle learning with shared devices

How can I, as a facilitator support you to enable visible Learn, Create, Share in your class?

• How to set up the bones of my class site
• Ensure my ipads/devices are set up
• Some work around organising my images/photos to embed in site
• Get my class blog set up
• How to assist my one or two day a week reliever with my class site

Digital Fluency Intensive Reflection 19.9.18 Week 9

Digital Fluency Intensive Reflection 19.9.18

Manaiakalani Pedagogy

Ubiquitous Learning  and Rewindable Learning.

• Anytime 
• Anywhere
• Any place

Rewindable learning helps this accessibility and makes it easy for learners to go back and revise their learning. For priority learners, blogs and blog comments help students to progress in literacy throughout the holidays or at least not slip back.

Rewindable learning

We reflected on one way we have scaffolded ubiquitous learning and I thought about the "old" technology of modelling books and charts of success criteria. I look forward to the new ways of  supporting rewindable learning through blogs that capture the learning and other people's comments as well as the resource links within the site. Also there will be helpful links for parents who can hook into the class resources.

Students can make tutorials by using Screencastify to share with the class. Other app.s to explore for this purpose could be ...WeVideo, pixiclip, explain everything, Movenote, Flipgrip

Opportunities for future teaching and learning

• The COL person in the school (MK)
• Click on the MK labels
• Teaching as Inquiry- Manaikalani Innovative Teachers- PLD 
• 1 hour a week with the facilitator next year
• Tania Coutts- online facilitator- registration for Tuhi mahi tuhi atu
• Twitter feed- hash tag based, following groups, worth discussing as a staff
• Google + , set up a default to publish this to Google + website (see the slide deck about Google plus on minutes- What's the fuss about Google plus... share to Google plus from your blog post. Join communities (of schools and clusters).

Looking back over the eight weeks reflect on what you have learned, created and shared.

I have learned about the different Google Suite app.s and have created drawings, documents, worked within Drive, sorted bookmarks, arranged my calendar, worked with Quicktime, Screencastify, tasted ideas for robotics...

Reflect on what you know you need to focus on and gain more fluency in. Consciously decide where to get the help you need.

I will be moving into creating my Class Site fully, in preparation for next year's launch. I will be searching for resources from other Sites that will help in this construction and will be working closely with our facilitator and pilot teachers to fine-tune the Site. I need to sort out the ipads and PCs in readiness for the class Site.

Identify your strengths and what you can contribute to the wider community of learning and learners.

I feel quite confident with Sheets and Forms, Docs and Drive, blogs and playlists.

Digital Fluency Intensive Reflection Week 8 12.9.18

Digital Fluency Intensive Reflection  Week 8   12.9.18

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa?

Empowered

The Manaiakalani pedagogy this week was "Empowered". 

Children are disadvantaged or disempowered by having less exposure to known words through less hearing and reading thus limiting vocabulary; through less formative instruction; through lack of digital technologies and connectivity; all of which can limit later life choice in real life circumstances. 

Agency is having the power or capacity to act and make choices. This ability is limited when students start school already behind in foundational skills for learning.

Manaiakalani's aim is for all students to feel at home in a digital world and in this way all students are empowered to have student voice, learner agency, and the ability to express themselves etc.

Digital technology is not just regarded as a tool, rather, it transforms the way students learn (Dean Shareski). As educators, we are encouraged to mix and match the old technologies with the new; the best of both worlds.

Kerry Boyde-Preece, from Manaikalani, explained that student learning "lives on in the blog". It has a life. It is a living artefact. She described how blogs give life to student talents that may not have normally been promoted within the school curriculum. Students are empowered by knowing how to blog and put their work out to the world. They receive feedback and comments that add to that feeling of being empowered and links them with others with a similar talent.

Newly created jobs, such as drone operators are made possible through cutting edge digital knowledge. Students who have developed knowledge in this area have far more opportunities for employment. 

For Manaiakalani, the default is being visible. Kerry says that you can't truly be empowered  without being visible, connected, and ubiquitous, i.e.,work any time you choose and on a global stage.

We were challenged to reflect on how each has been empowered by Manaiakalani.

Professionally, I have been empowered with the increase in teaching knowledge. I have learned many new skills that I can share with my students, to help them learn, create and share.

What did I learn that could increase my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Tania Coutts spoke on the key topic of Computational Thinking which is part of the New Zealand Technology Curriculum/Hangarau- Matihiko (Maori medium).

"The new content has been designed to be flexible, so it can respond to new developments and technologies as they emerge". Nicki Kaye, June 2017

New acronyms to be aware of in the curriculum are...
CT4DT- Computational Thinking for Digital Technologies

3DO- Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes

Kia takatu a Matihiko- The Digital Readiness Facebook page-https://www.facebook.com/kiatakatu/

Pikau/ Toolkits on the above page provide courses that are a good place for teachers to understand the new curriculum.

This an excellent video is about "What most schools don't teach".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKIu9yen5nc   

Also, a nifty little poster about 'Ten reasons to teach coding'...

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

Most of the app.s we played with will be shared with our students. I worked with Robyn on the green screen video. This was very new to us so we were reliant on the instruction of our patient tutors to create a short green screen video with a background. I took an image of the trees outside and part of the waka shelter on the Waitangi grounds as the background. To this Robin added her ScuptGL image and Blake's video. The background noise was split out. 

Sculpt GL

I had a limited play with this app. with the resulting rather clunky image of DFI. 

 Block Coding-Robots: This app. was great for helping students construct a sequence of steps for the robot to follow. 

Clapmotion: I observed others telling a story with this app. and Lego figures.

I would like to explore more of Tinkercad, Do ink, Tilt Brish, and Paint3.

What did I learn that could be used to increase my confidence, capability and my workflow in my personal life?

I was reminded of how wonderful iMovie is for creating movies and slide shows and the work with a green screen took this knowledge to a new level. It was great to play and explore with new technologies and the opportunity builds my confidence eventually.

Digital Fluency Intensive Reflection Week 7 5.9.18

Digital Fluency Intensive Reflection Week 7  5.9.18

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa?

Connected: Future focussed learning in connected communities.
Clarelle Carruthers from Point England came to speak with us about the Manaiakalani pedagogy of being 'connected'.

Being part of the Manaikalani community means that we are connected to a powerful network of similar schools, across the country and world. There are 19,000-22,000 Manaiakalani learners in secondary, area, primary, kura, and Catholic schools. Together we share the same pedagogical language, and 'paddle in the same direction', aiming at the same goals. Our common curriculum is centred around the 3 big pedagogies; Learn, Create, Share. 

We stand together. We are not alone. 

Each term the school focusses on one of the key pedagogies, although, all 3 are frequently referred to in class throughout the year. The planning allows for teaching and learning resources to be targeted at that area of focus. 

Term 1. Learn (about how to use the tools correctly)
Term 2. Create (using a variety of modes, digital and best practice teaching strategies)
Term 3. Share (Using the Google Suite)
Term 4. All

Other ways for teachers being connected are through groups such as...

• Google suite online groups
• Cybersmart curriculum 
• Twitter- Manaiakalani Cluster
• Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu -(write to me, write to others) where we need to register our class
• Tania Couts is our online facilitator; register online

To maximise the benefits of 'Connect' a teacher needs to be committed to sharing their teaching and learning. Being able to benefit from other teachers' resources and ideas means that, as a teacher, you will be able to share your resources with other schools. 

What did I learn that could increase my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Clarelle shared her IT Bingo which contained a growing Multi text Data base.

We evaluated other class sites using the two criteria of visual appeal (the shop window of the teaching and learning) and  user experience (ease of use  for students where 3 clicks gets to the learning).

The course was full of handy resources and tips for developing our class Site as well as exemplars of excellent class Sites. These will help in the development of my own class Site. Going between Google Drawings and Google Site to create the 'bones' of my class Site was new learning for me. The front page of my own class Site is below. It is a work in progress.
https://sites.google.com/ahipara.school.nz/room-8-class-site/home   

Ethical and practical issues around students who were not allowed to share via digital technologies challenges our school to consider our policy.

Google Training modules will increase my capability with the app.s.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

The day focussed on the learning being visible to learners and ways of constructing a vibrant and well designed class Site for them to easily access the learning. The resources will open up a broader, more self-paced programme. The careful unpacking of the 3 key pedagogies over the course of each year will help students understand each one better. 

 I enjoyed the Pixabay site for images.

What did I learn that could be used to increase my confidence, capability and my workflow in my personal life?

The new frontier of class Sites increased my understanding of what was involved to make a Site that would engage, teach and inspire students to learn, create and share. 

Digital Fluency Intensive- Reflection Week 6

Digital Fluency Intensive- Reflection Week 6

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa?

Today the pedagogy was about Cyber safety. Students are introduced to different aspects of cyber safety each term. All students are explicitly taught the aspects contained in the curriculum. The emphasis is on thinking and behaving in a safe, smart  and positive way online. Opportunities are provided for students to use digital technologies to harness positive  messages to share with the wider community. Manaiakalani also has a kawa of care pedagogy that underpins all aspects of teaching and learning and promotes positive interactions. Students are encouraged to create work that their families would be proud of.

Cyber Safety Messages: Be internet smart, alert, strong, kind, brave, awesome.
The Cyber Safety Curriculum contains amazing resources behind each button:

We also learnt about the historical  research behind the devices. It was a reminder of the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes, that has resulted in the right choice of iPads and Chromebooks.

What did I learn that could increase my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Using Learner devices
On a Chromebook- The Hapara Teacher Dashboard: Empowering visible teaching and learning. We learned about the Hapara Dashboard where the teacher's planning, relevant links and students' work was visible, along with the Highlights and the Workspace where teaching ideas are visible to a wider audience (once the teacher has shared their own Workspace). The planning examples were helpful for setting expectations for teaching older students, in particular. 

A few handy hints for when I set up Hapara were I need a list of classes, teacher emails for each class, subject folders, student emails, and classes students belong to. I log in with school password and class password. Click on the star to put it on my dashboard.

Chrissy Smith, acting principal at Paihia, presented her timetable for older students, that contained links to resources and showed when the teacher was available. She explained that the students choose what learning they will do and when they will do it. They plan their own week's timetable. 

Becks from the Te Ngahere class at Paihia reminded us to check the permissions when sharing work. The multimodal style of her planning provided for well integrated learning and age-appropriate, authentic contexts.

Khismira Lai from Pt. England spoke about her experiences with using Hapara on iPads and creating new projects in her class. We created a new project where we took a photo and inserted text, pages, audio and shapes. We explored the tools of the project and I took a photo to share as I didn't know how to share it from the student's iPad I was using. 

Lisa, DP  from Ohaewai School presented her sabbatical research about Using Learner Devices. She showed how she is building resources from other schools that can be shared with all schools. These looked to be a real timesaver for teachers.  

Class visits
We had the privilege of visiting one class of 46 students, all of whom were using devices. Discussions with the students explained how they navigate their own weekly schedule and store their work in the Hand in sheet.The level of engagement was high.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners? 

We completed a digital dig, something that all students should do at the beginning of the year. This explored the short cuts required to perform different functions. 

I will be using the Cyber safety curriculum and encouraging the kawa of care once my class Site is set up.

I learnt that  the "ducks need to line up" at the outset of commencing Hapara and the devices need to be well set up before work begins. Installing the Explain Everything app. at the outset assists implementation of this type of learning. Systematic, whole class and well structured introductions to using Hapara need to occur for young students.

The Hand in sheet is a place where each student shares their work with the teacher. I like the  colour coding of work, similar to traffic lights like this at Paihia School.

What did I learn that could be used to increase my confidence, capability and my workflow in my personal life?

Most of what we learned or heard about today will bring a new focus to my teaching.

Planning from home will be enhanced with the Hapara style of planning although hard materials for juniors would still need to be gathered, which means time at school.

I like the idea of building a bank of resources that can be utilised again or modified to use across a number of year levels, for special education or across schools or roles. Anything that reduces the time spent sourcing foundational resources would be helpful.