Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Developing self managed learners

Sometimes it's easy to get frustrated with kids. It seems like you're constantly nagging them to put things away, stop teasing each other, keep track of worksheets and so on. I've felt like my mum hat is on at home and at school at the moment as the end of year lethargy begins to seep in and take hold.

Sometimes you feel like a big nag, but in so many other ways, the constant discussions we have with the children about their learning has an effect without you even realising it.

My colleagues and I who teach year 3/4 are having a big focus on the children being accountable and responsible for their learning. We do this by giving them a list of Must Do tasks that they need to complete along with dates that they are due. At the end of the week, the children take their list home to be signed by their parents, making them accountable at school and at home for meeting their deadlines.

What we are finding is that as the past couple of weeks have progressed, the children are quite happy to manage more of their own time, freeing us (the grown ups) up to do some really targeted teaching at a level that the children have identified along with us.

Case in point this week:

One of the tasks we have given the children is a Maths Medley (a colleague came up with the idea) where the children had a series of challenges to complete which enabled them to practice and apply Subtraction, measurement and division/fractions.

Before giving the sheets out to the children we asked them to read it, think about what they could do on their own and what they would need help with. We told the children that we could offer workshops and focus groups on any of the topics or tasks related to the medley, and that they had a choice of signing up for any one of them. We also let them know that if the Learning Advisors thought they needed a workshop and they didn't sign up for it, that they would be put into it anyway.

So off the kids went to look at the task and identify their needs. Without even needing to be prompted, one group of friends got together, figured out their strengths and weaknesses and figured out how to support each other to get the task done. Other kids came over to sign up for workshops as I was getting organised and nominated specific needs for workshops that we hadn't thought of yet. To our suprise, the children didn't need as many workshop topics as we'd anticipated. The main demmand was related to Fractions, Making a Ruler, Subtraction with Borrowing and Perimeter.

The kids set to work on the task and my colleague and I went around collecting kids for workshops on the topics listed above. Today when a parent came in to help, they were able to run a workshop with the children who needed help with perimeter and ended up modelling how to count by multiples of ten.

It looks like they are all going to make it through all of the tasks before the end of the week - and the best bit is that they all were engaged and on task because all needs were being met at once (even the kids who find it hard to focus). There were no social issues to sort out and everyone had a chance to share their achievments at the end.

Some things that the kids said that struck me:

"When I started out, I thought that I could do this, but now I realise I need a bit of help - is it too late to join your workshop?"

"I did the workshop yesterday but I still need a bit of help - can I do the workshop again?"

"When I work, I like to see if I can solve the problems independently first, then go and ask for help if I need it. Is it ok if I have a go first before I figure out if I need a workshop on anything?"

"Look! I did the workshop yesterday and today I could do it by myself!"

Despite having to spend time modelling and explaining how to keep track of belongings and put things away properly, it was so refreshing to see that as far as their learning is concerned, that they are becoming more effective at managing themselves and more aware of their strengths and weaknesses as learners.



Saturday, August 11, 2012

Partnerships in Learning

This year there are a number of kids interested in exploring Sustainability. It was a great co-incidence that this happened to be the theme for this year's Science Talent Search.

I immersed the children in texts and stories about sustainability. I got out batteries, wires and lightbulbs to explore circuits and asked the children if they knew other ways to make energy. Together we found texts about Solar power and wind power.

Children have designed and built models of Sustainable Cities using Minecraft and Eden. Now that they Olympics are on, some of them are designing Sustainable Stadiums using the same Apps. There have been lots of "WOW!" noises heard when the kids plug the iPads into the screen so we can get a tour.

There were a group of children hooked on the idea of Sustainable Housing. They have built models out of all sorts of things. One child decided to include a human powered pulley system for a lift in her house, another couple decided to have a go at making mudbricks, which they researched themselves and others built several models of houses out of different materials until they found one that worked.
This same group of children organised their own excursions to Reverse Garbage and a farm that somebody's relatives lived on. One girl built a model of her farm where she hooked up the drinking water for the animals' troughs to a huge water tank and used the manure for fertiliser on the garden. Another student wanted to make the idea of picking up rubbish fun and invented a bird rubbish collector.

These kids are only 8-10 years of age!

Not all of the children could finish their models, but they could all explain and justify the choices they have made so I know that they are very clear about what they have learned and in some cases, where they want to head next. They have collaborated and negotiated their way around acquiring materials with minimal cost. They have gone and accessed libraries, consulted experts, organised excursions, created, constructed and modified designs and interpreted information from websites. Along the way they have been able to use the language of Maths and Science to process what they have learned. They have found out about circuits and electrons. They are aware of why we need to look at our lifestyles and our homes. How rich is that?

We chose a few projects to enter in the Science Talent Search and some parents came up with the idea of looking for a category to enter the children's work in for the Whittlesea Show later on this year. One of the best pieces of feedback I got was from a parent who was telling us how they got out a torch one night to show how the eaves on a house work. They had a great Learning Conversation with their child about how the Sun is lower in the sky during Winter and higher in Summer. He was amazed at the understanding his child had of the world around them and their curiosity about it. "Projects make fantastic learning." Not only has it been great for the children's learning at school, it has been great for being able to build partnerships with parents as well.

The children are still interested in Sustainability. There is a boy who has his heart set on building a solar powered robot, some children who want to advise the principal on how we can design the next stage of the building program and a few more speculating about whether we should investigate getting solar panels on the roof. A groups of kids are keen to recycle our scrap paper by making new paper and addressing the issue of reducing waste.

This could be going for quite a while yet!

Some examples of the work the kids have done is seen here.


 



Thursday, June 7, 2012

Who says kids can't organise their own learning?

I'd like to share a bit of a story with you from my Maths workshop yesterday morning...

I have a year 3/4 homegroup this year. We've spent a lot of time talking about making choices to further learning and consolidate skills. We have talked about working with strengths and suggested many ways to consolidate and practice number facts and skills over and over again. Sometimes it has become tiresome because it's felt like nothing is sinking in.

We were working with table facts and their relationship to division. I showed the kids who already know their number facts an App called Trichotomy on iPad, which goes through problem solving using greater than, less than and equal to. For the rest of the children I said I'd run a focus group for anyone who needed help and set up the expectation that by the end of the session - everybody would have worked with "flipping" at least 5 facts.

Here are some of the spontaneous things that happened. I didn't plan for them to happen, but they did;

- Two children who didn't want  < and > explained to them, figured out what these signs meant and how to apply them through playing with the iPad App using trial and error. "Don't worry - I figured it out through making some mistakes - I get it now, I am getting them right, see?"

- Two children disappeared, saying something about photocopiers and returned five minutes later with table fact worksheets they'd photocopied from a book brought in from home. They then 'roved' around the Village to see who else wanted a worksheet to use. (And they had a variety to choose from, though I have a feeling that they hadn't planned for things to turn out that way). Great use of intitiative and resources.

- Another child asked if he could help his friend who is struggling with learning his table facts to work on some strategies for learning 7 and 9 times tables. His 'student' then shared these strategies with the group at the end of the session. Fantastic collaboration.

- I worked with some children on the table facts of their choice, using concrete materials. These were all children who had identified that the concept of relating times tables and division was an area they wanted to work on during conferencing. By the time they got it, some of the other children had reached an impasse and were asking for help. "Don't worry, I'll teach them" they all said and one by one, they got up and left to tutor somebody else.

And guess what? I actually got to sit back for a moment, observe them all collaborate with each other! I actually had a moment to (wait for it...) BREATHE and take it all in. No arguments, no complaints, no need for redirecting kids back on task, just engagement and purposeful learning.

Wow! It's moments like these that make all of the modelling, purposeful conversations and strategic planning worth it.

Who still says kids can't organise their own learning? I say they can, but we need to model how to 'walk the talk' and give them opportunities to put it into practice. Even the kids we know will struggle with it.


Monday, May 28, 2012

Sharing Learning with parents online

This year our school has been looking at ways to share conferencing documentation and Learning Stories with our parents in a way that is sustainable, accessible, yet private and allows for interaction between parents, children and staff.

How can we do this in a 21st Century/Contemporary way??

BLOG IT!

We have created a private blog for each student using blogger. We have allowed students and other staff to be co-contributors and have made the http address 'unguessable' so people cannot access blogs that are not shared with them willy nilly.

It's been time consuming to create and set up the blogs, yet we hope that now that they are up and running, they will be easy to maintain. This has been a huge learning curve not only for the children, but for the staff and students.

We have also created a Google Site where students and parents can access planners, home learning and village bulletins so that they can stay informed anywhere, anytime.

It will be interesting to see what sort of feedback we get from our families and how to communicate with those families who cannot access the internet easily.

Fingers crossed this works!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Planning and Working as a Village

Since my last post on this topic we have changed our whole village planner to make it more user friendly. Using Google Presentations to plan was ok visually, but...
1. It was problematic when 2 people were editing a slide at the same time
2. You had to scroll through the whole presentation to get where you wanted
3. You couldn't edit it from iPad

So this term we are trialling using Google Spreadsheets to plan as a Village - why?
1. More than one person can be editing the same sheet at the same time.
2. We have one day per sheet so everyone can select the day they need straight away
3. You can edit cells in the spreadsheet from iPad!

So far we have found the planner to be user friendly. We have linked it to a my classes page and embedded it in a google site created for our village.

Now we have a lot of children who plan their day before they get to school and families and staff can see what is happening in our village at any time. Feedback from parents so far is positive - they can see what work is being done at school and they feel that their children are empowered because they know what will be happening each day and when they will be responsible for being self directed.

Here is what it looks like:

Thursday, February 16, 2012

My Mantras About Learning


This week I have been fortunate to work with my team and an Educational Expert from New Zealand who is our school's critical friend.

We've begun the process of articulating our Vision and Beliefs about Teaching and Learning and how we will make it all happen in each part of the school.

It's given me an opportunity to reflect upon these points which I need to remember and have faith in when the going gets tough:

- approach everything in a variety of ways because everyone learns differently
- celebrate and share the wins
- when you introduce a challenge you need to introduce adequate support
- we are all learners
- positive relationships are really powerful

What do you value about teaching & learning?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Working as One Village - Nuts and Bolts

New school year, new Village, new team and new challenges to provide the best education we can - I love new begginings! They are full of promise and appeal to my sense of adventure and big picture thinking.

Last year I was lucky enough to have a fantastic planning buddy to work with in my 'year' level. By the end of the year, we were using one visual timetable in one Studio to map out the week for the children so they could plan their day. We pooled our resources and ran workshops and focus groups with children from both homegroups according to need and when it came to reporting, we moderated and discussed every child when it came to allocating marks and writing comments. We could be honest and open with questioning each other and evaluating our strengths and weaknesses. We made a great team!

This year my 'buddy' and I are in the same village (building), but working with different year levels. We have two new people on our team and are aiming to continue to work together to pool resources and teach to needs of all children in our care (years 3-6). Fortunately our new team members are willing to follow our lead and take on the challenge of working as one team, one village.

We are in a learning space that doesn't have an interactive whiteboard, or TV screen or enormous 'traditional' whiteboards so we had to re-think how we could do a visual timetable displaying all of the Learning Advisors timetables for the day.

Fortunately we are working in the school's resource ares/mulitpurpose space while we wait for our new village to be built. This space happens to have a large data projector and screen so we have a great reason to try something a little different...

We use Google Apps for Education at our school, which enables spreadsheets, word documents and slideshows to be created online and edited simultaneously by more than one person. Some staff in our Village work part time, so we needed to think provide a template that enabled them to add their plan of action at a time convenient to them, in a location accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.

Our working answer at this time is to use a slideshow each week with a table where every member on staff has their own column to work in for the days they are allocated to our Village.

I chose to use a slideshow presentation format becuase we only need to create one per week and we can show one slide at a time, which means it's not visually overwhelming for the children when they see it on the big screen. As you can see from the image below, each day has 2 slides (morning and afternoon). I added speaker notes with instructions for people who need to revise how to edit the presentations.
The presentation is shared with staff only at this stage and is locked down so only staff members can edit it. Once we have refined the document and are happy with it, we can share the document with the children as "viewers only" so that the children with iPads can access the document electronically as a digital taskboard of sorts and will not have to rely on the large screen all of the time.

It will be interesting to see how it will look once people begin to edit the presentation and add their focus gorups and workshops in, however, the important point here is that we are endeavouring to work as one team right from the word go and develop a culture of teamwork and collaboration in our Village among children and adults. 

I'll keep you posted and let you know how it goes!