Wednesday, January 24, 2018

An Ear for Inspiration - Educational Podcasts and Podcast Apps

A wonderful friend and colleague has inspired this post - thanks Jazz!  I've been very lazy on the blogging front lately.  Blogging has always been a valuable way for me to reflect on my practice and the way I think about what I do as an educator so, as I really get cracking on this PhD journey, it's even more important for me to not be so lazy and to use blogging as the tool I have in the past to think more deeply about what I do.  It's metacognition at its finest!

Podcasts are a great tool to get a daily dose of inspiration from a huge range of educators around the globe.  There are now more apps than ever that you can download to listen on the go - in the car, on a walk or run, at the gym, wherever you want to. (Don't forget the importance of completely switching off at times too though!  Balance is key.)

Which App...

I'm a huge convert to Spotify and have a tonne of music and podcasts stored there but you might prefer others such as some of those listed below.  I've include a bit of information on them and links to the sites.

Spotify - You can either have a free or a premium account. The free account does come with ads but they're not too intrusive.





Podcast - This is a app from Apple and was the original one I used, and still do.



SoundCloud - For iOS and Android - more popular for streaming than downloading but is very popular.

For more information on these apps and other digital trends, check out Digital Trends.

Who To Listen To...

Now for the daily dose of inspiration... there's so much out there, where do you start??!!  I've included the following links to lists of recommendations for you to have a look at.  Many will be familiar to you already but there may be some new ones.  I'd love you to add any others in the comments so that I can get some new inspiration too.

51 Education Podcasts for the 21st Century Teacher
A great list and range of podcasts curated by TeachThought.  Pretty much everything you could want is on here from Digital Technology in the classroom through to the future of education, flipped learning and general education topics.




The Cornerstone for Teachers - 12 of my Favourite Podcasts for Teachers
There are a few different and really inspirational ones in here - definitely worth checking out.





Student-Centred Learning
This is a valuable collection of podcasts all dedicated to student-centred learning.




Some of my current favourites are: 

TED Talks - always inspirational and they don't always have to be education-based.
Steve Hargadon - always has something interesting and thought-provoking to share on education. He will challenge your thinking.
Simon Sinek - from the first time I heard him speak about knowing your 'why' I've been inspired.

There are so many amazing ones out there. Please share some of your favourites so that others can tap into them too.

Monday, January 22, 2018

I Still Don't Give Homework Anymore...

As we head into a new year many teachers are thinking about how to keep everyone happy around the issue of homework, and it's never an easy task.  We know from all the research that it doesn't really work and yet we still give it, either to keep the school happy or, more often than not, to keep the community happy.  It is seen as something that is expected and that if it's not given then the world may just come to an end!

I have also travelled this well-worn path, giving homework which I thought was engaging and spending hour after hour writing very specific feedback to each of my students about their completed homework.  Most of my class completed the work because they liked the messages I wrote - or so they told me, but was the homework really engaging and targeted to meet their individual needs? No, not really.  It was to a certain extent in terms of maths and reading but, overall, it wasn't. It was just given to meet expectations. To mark it thoroughly used to take me all weekend! Completely crazy!!

In about 2007 I started to really think deeply about what I was doing and started to have conversations with the students about what I could be doing better. I started to make small changes but it wasn't really until 2010 that the changes became big ones after listening to speakers such as James Nottingham talk about being prepared for learning prior to showing up in class I started to have a few 'lightbulb moments'.  The presentation below is the end result and explains what it's all about...


I Don't Give Homework Anymore - changing thinking to motivate and engage students, teachers and parents. from Justine Hughes / Deputy Principal/ Teacher

I first presented this at an online global conference - RSCON5 - in 2014.  I had at that stage been trialling this strategy in different formats with different age groups for around 3 years with success at all levels.  Engagement was much higher in class and parent/caregiver/whanau involvement was also much higher and far more enthusiastic. The learning became more relevant and students were achieving at higher levels.  It's all about being prepared for your learning and being actively engaged in that learning at all times.  There's no opt out.

One of the main questions I am asked about it is around the use of technology for families who don't have access to the internet or computers. I worked in a school where this was a concern but this didn't stop the learners.  They were coming to school earlier, (some had had issues with truancy up until then) and many were using the computers before school, at break times, staying after school while I supervised and I also gave them extra time in class.  All of this was so worth it as they became so passionate and enthusiastic about their learning.

This is just one way of changing things up and making a difference to the engagement of our learners. It's a way of making the issue of homework more relevant and meaningful and connected to real world learning.

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

What Will We Do Without National Standards?


The author, third from right, following certification two years after graduation.


I began teaching in 1999.  It was a later career choice in my early 30s and I was beyond excited to be able to make a career change to something I was so passionate about.  At that stage we had a series of curriculum documents which guided our practice and a wide range of assessment tools which we used to ascertain exactly where our students were achieving in relation to the curriculum levels and what their next learning steps needed to be.  I planned alongside my students and they, and I, could tell you exactly where they were in their learning and what their next steps were.  We did this for each child and reported accordingly to their parents.  Sounds a lot like what the National Government said we weren't doing and why they brought in National Standards...  Yes, there needed to be changes in some areas of reporting, particularly in the way we reported to parents.  It needed to be clearer but there were many schools who were already doing a fantastic job of this and could have been sharing their practice with others.





2007 saw the Revised National Curriculum introduced.  This was incredibly exciting and heralded a new era in learning and teaching in this country.  It was a curriculum that was held up as a world leader and there was so much promise around it.  This one document replaced the 8 other separate documents and allowed schools greater flexibility in catering for diverse learning needs within their schools and for tailoring their curriculum to meet the learning needs and interests of their own communities.  It provided relevancy.  There were also clear indicators of what a student was expected to be achieving at each level before progressing to the next.  From this it was easy to create the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria alongside the students to meet their individual learning needs and to show progress.

Southland Principals and Senior Leaders were particularly vocal in our opposition to National Standards and were often accused of therefore being a range of things from being opposed to assessment, (completely bonkers and I'll address this shortly) through to lefty unionists who were going to be opposed to this 'great initiative' just because it came from the National Government.  Please, give us more credit than that as professionals.  Our biggest concerns were around the speed of the introduction of the standards, the lack of an effective trial period and the fact that they were actually neither national, nor standard in the first place.  They were too open to individual judgment and the amount of professional learning and support needed to develop consistency to achieve any 'standardisation' was just not there no matter how many hundreds of hours went into trying to achieve this.

Of course, this was a really serious situation that the media ran with and, unfortunately had the ultimate impact on the public that teachers weren't interested in knowing where their students were academically and weren't interested in using these 'amazing new tools' to help them do so.  Hmmm, just what were we doing before National Standards then, when New Zealand was seen to be  a world leader in education?

Since their introduction in 2010, National Standards have given parents a false sense of security.  Parents / caregivers and whanau are under the belief that the standards provided an accurate and consistent picture of achievement across the country when this is not the case and has been backed up by research by the previous government itself.  The standards never focused on progress of the individual student.  This was one of the biggest mistakes in my opinion.  They could have been more successful had they done this.  Parents, caregivers and whanau can be reassured that you will know where your child is achieving in relation to the National Curriculum levels and what they need to do to keep progressing.



The stress and anxiety placed on students from an incredibly young age to achieve to a certain level rather than on progress is of huge concern.  I can remember when we used to have to work really hard because our Intermediate-aged students would start to become stressed and switch off school due to the number of assessments.  We were now starting to see this at a much younger age because of all the constant testing.   Do we really want this for our children?  Does it make them more successful learners?  Recent data around National Standards suggested it didn't and helped to speed up their demise.  National Standards have not improved learning and achievement.  

Another interesting area for me in particular, as my PhD is around Gifted and Talented Education, is that we were required to report our National Standards results to the Government each year in the following areas:  Students who were Well Below, Below, At and Above.  Notice anything missing?  Where are those who are 'Well Above'?  Do we not worry about them?  I've always been curious about that. 

Now that National Standards have been removed, we can now hopefully get back to putting the passion back into learning and teaching for all involved - students, teachers, Principals and caregivers and whanau.  We can now get back to utilising a curriculum which gives scope for schools to really engage with their students and communities and get learning and teaching back on track.  As for assessment?  We have such a huge range of amazing tools with which to gauge progress and identify the next learning steps for each student.  Just as we did before National Standards were put in place and put unnecessary stress and pressure on all involved.

We've had to battle for a long time against the irony from the 'powers that be' that we must be personalising the learning for our students but then assess with tests which were very much standardised, or tried to be.  The data that was recorded wasn't designed to show progress, just a score.  It was demoralising for all concerned.  Finally, we can get on with what we do best...learning and teaching, rather than constant testing and formal assessment.