Tuesday afternoons

I have this really annoying thing happen on Tuesday afternoons.  A huge group of boys from my class go and have a private chess lesson.  This 45 min period of time has been a real thorn in my side in terms of delivering curriculum.  I don't want them to miss out on some learning but I don't want the kids who aren't at chess to miss out on learning either.

I started the year with a structured and planned afternoon program but what has evolved is something quite special.  It started when somebody asked if they could have some time to finish something.  It then morphed into everybody working on their choice of activity.

Suddenly there were kids working individually, in pairs or in groups with focused attention.

Suddenly there were projects.

Suddenly the children have hacked the class and created their own version of Google 20% time.

And the best bit for me is that I get to really relax as a teacher in that time and become a student.  I sit side by side with my students and talk about their projects.  I have rich conversations in which I really get to know my learners and their learning.

I think that my next step is to introduce the students to more possibilities around what those projects could be and provide a platform for students to showcase their projects.  I am really interested to know exactly what they would like to learn more about!

First steps towards digital collaboration

This week I ran a staff professional development session on how to set up a YouTube account and utilise this amazing resource.

I decided just to offer it as an after school activity for anybody that was interested. Taking the compulsory factor out of it and making it about staff making proactive choices about their own learning.  I had nearly every staff member present including our Principal!

No pressure Leanne!

My aim was to have everybody logged in and using YouTube to create playlists of resources that could then be shared with others. I found that some staff were using videos as resources already but were not using YouTube as a tool.

I had also created a Google site for the school. This holds the information from the session so that teachers can readily go back and find notes on how to do things.

One of my colleagues is a prolific user of YouTube and had never ever created a playlist before.  He was having the search the depths of his brain every time he wanted to re-watch or re-use a particular video.  In passing the next day we discussed the potential for connections and sharing within the team which then got us discussing sharing other types of resources too.  His playlists alone are going to be game-changers within the school.

And I guess that is the point I wanted to reflect on.  For me, presenting some information about how to set up a YouTube account was pretty straightforward.  As my colleagues 14yr old son said to me "so you basically taught them how to use YouTube? But that's so easy!". Well yes it is easy but actually to those who are new to the digital platform it is like reading a whole other language.  Their are new symbols along with new possibilities and I imagine the experience for some was quite overwhelming (in a good way). But what I have hopefully achieved through this small thing is opened a door towards more collaboration and sharing within the school. It may just be a very tiny opening to begin with, but I have plans in place for how to kick it open even wider.

Much kudos must go to the master of YouTube himself Jim Sill who inspired me at the GAFE summit in Auckland earlier this year. That man has so many playlists that I imagine Google created the "Ctrl f" search button just for him.

Whanau

I have just finished have learning conferences with students and their whanau and I am really pleased about how easy it was to talk openly about students learning with them.

Thinking back to the first round, I didn't know their children at all back then.  It was the third week of term and I had probably only just memorised everybody's name!  I was nervous about making judgements about what goals to make because I honestly did not know anything about what their potential needs were.

This time it was all about celebrating success, realising both strengths and weaknesses and looking to the future with commitment and excitement.

My biggest reflection was around the learning culture in our classroom.  We have become a learning whanau.  The learning that we do is collaborative.  The students have a tuakana-teina relationship in that we all learn from each other.  It is a safe place where everybody's voice is valued.

Which then got me thinking ahead to next year. The Year 4's move onto a different syndicate but will my Year 3's still get to be in the same class?  Is it more beneficial for them to stay together?  Do they need to branch out wider and work with more people in the syndicate?

So I brought the idea back to the key concept of why my class is my class - we are whanau.  Why break us up?  Let us start the new year welcoming younger children in to a well established classroom with an amazing learning culture.

Relationships, whakawhanaungatanga, for me is the foundation of education.

What is Write?

I have been dissecting the question "what makes a good writing programme" for the past month.  I have overloaded myself with lots of different viewpoints, ideas, resources and readings.

And to be honest, I'm not sure if I am any closer to finding out what the "Write" answer is.

Teacher autonomy has allowed me to try a range of things in my classroom which is helping me shape my philosophy about writing.  I am really thankful that I have the opportunity for creative license on this.

As I develop my ideas there are a few key things coming through:

• Words are fun.  Words should be played with.
• Reading and writing are intertwined.
• Creativity can take many forms.
• Writing can take many forms.
• An audience is essential.
• Ideas hold more power than surface features.
• Quality writing should be modelled on quality reading material.
• Oral language is the foundation for written language.

And most importantly, writing should not be a chore! 

The Pink Debate

The introduction of Pink Shirt Day evoked some interesting comments and expressions from the classroom.

"Boys can't wear pink!" "Yes they can!"

I decided that everybody needed to hear each others voices in this debate.

Students had time to discuss their thoughts with a peer then an invisible continuum was constructed across the room to show that there were two extreme arguments (and everything in between).

Students decided which side that they felt more strongly aligned to and also had the choice to stand somewhere in the middle.  One student chose to stand on his own, swaying slightly towards the anti-pink agenda.

Each student was allowed to say one sentence to argue why boys should or should not wear pink, in the hope that they could sway the person in the middle.

The anti-pink team started first.  All 6 of them had very valid arguments as to why they felt the way that they did.  As a teacher, and an informed adult, it was easy to see the influence of marketing and stereotypes had shaped these young people's minds.

The pro-pink team consisted of both girls and boys.  Their comments were absolutely phenomenal.

"There is no such thing as boys and girls colours."

"Everybody should be able to choose to wear whatever they want to."

"If you can't choose what to wear, how can you ever feel free?"

These are only a few examples. Our lone fence sitter chose to go towards the pro-pink end.  I also gave the option to the anti-pink debaters to change which end they were at too.  They all took a few steps towards the others (all except one who was standing his ground about a totally different issue - that he should have to go purchase a pink shirt).

Our whole class discussion then stemmed into stereotypes, and into marketing.  I used Lego to get them talking. We discussed the difference between Lego Friends (pink girls Lego) and general Lego.  The keen female Lego enthusiasts were horrified to think that they were supposed to only play with Lego that was pink.  As one of them valiantly replied "I play with Lego because I like to create!". We also discussed the lack of female characters in Lego including what sort of roles the existing ones had.

This discussion was completely impromptu.  It came from me telling the kids that it would be cool to support Pink Shirt Day and it's anti-bullying agenda. But this for me is an example of engaged learning.  The discussion was very powerful, it came from the children and provided a framework for discussing a range of societal issues. I had a student teacher observing me at the time and I wish I had taken a picture of our faces as the debate evolved.  We were just blown away!

I am helping to create a classroom of thinkers that don't accept things at face value.  They are willing to challenge each other and each others ideas.

Chasing my tail

So as the term draws to an end (2 weeks to go!). I fear that I am only really starting to get organised now.  I have realised that the downfall of being a beginning teacher is that it takes a lot of time to collate resources so that you have everything on hand that you might need.

The laminator and photocopier have become my friend.

It takes time to set up reading and maths rotations.  It takes time to scan the resource room for which reading books you need.  It takes time to find everything!  Which can be really challenging when you are "teaching in the moment".

You start getting into the flow and then suddenly there is a school trip, release, a course, or an assessment that changes the routine again.

Teachers need to be able to juggle, be flexible and chase their own tails...all with a smile on their face!

Literacy and Social Sciences

I went on a course today about how to integrate literacy and social science.

Integration has always seemed logical to me.  Perhaps because in Early Childhood there is no splitting up on subjects.  Learning just happens.

When we teach a subject in isolation learning becomes fragmented.  In life, we don't compartmentalise our experiences, so why should we do this in teaching?

Reading and writing naturally go with social science.  We read information, we use writing to show our ideas. The most important thing that I learnt at this course was the importance of oral language to help support thinking and understanding.

Teaching strategies such as "think-pair-share" and "jigsaw" all help students pull apart ideas and use their prior knowledge.  Through this dialogue, thinking is shaped.

When it comes to writing a response, students are already at a more polished stage of understanding and have confidence in their thinking.

The other integral part of this is using structure to help students write their ideas.  Writing frames provide one level of support and this can be differentiated to meet the needs of the students in the class.  Some may need a lot of support and others may know exactly what they are going to write.

And back to the purpose of social science..

'The social sciences learning area is about how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizens.' (The New Zealand Curriculum, 2007)

to be able to do this we need to be able to talk to each other, think critically about texts and write responses that reflect our thoughts.