What Do I Need to Work on in my Teaching and Learning? What actions am I going to take to improve?

Day 3 of the Reflect and Renew Blog Challenge from Reflective Teacher @TeachThought 

Learning is my passion and I am completely and unapolegetically geeky about it.  I know that it sometimes drives people crazy and yes, I do have trouble switching of but that's just me.  I try to tame it a little but it always escapes!  Even today, as I'm writing this, most of my friends are out at the beach as it's such a glorious summer's day.  Where am I?  Here, on my laptop, working and learning.  Do I resent this, no.
It's Day 3 of our blog challenge @TeachThought and I'm extremely excited that this time the prompts have not come just from Beth and me, but also from our community.  My final Masters research is around building a living online Community of Practice and I think we're getting somewhere with this.

The prompt today threw me into a bit of a spin really, which is my own fault as this is one of mine!!  What was I thinking??  There are literally hundreds of things I want to work on in my teaching and learning.  Where do I start?  What's the most important?  How do I prioritise?  Woah!! Slow down and focus.  I have such a bad habit of wanting to improve on everything or learn new things...yesterday.  This is not good for one's health.  At all.  It can also mean that deep learning doesn't happen and this is what I'm arguing about in my research on teacher professional learning.  We do too much in bits and pieces and move rapidly from one professional learning project to the next without really implementing concrete changes that can be sustained.  Too often the learners can get lost in this process and by the 'learners', I mean the students AND the teachers.

This year I want to continue to explore more of Carol Dweck's and James Nottingham's work around Growth Mindset which will underpin my teaching and learning.  Curriculum-wise, I want to really focus on developing the science curriculum in our school.  Primary schools tend to not be very strong on Science and it's long been a concern that needs to be addressed urgently.  I will work with the school, the community and, most importantly, the students, to develop a strong science learning focus that has all the cross-curricular links to make it relevant and linked to the world outside the classroom.  

Carol Dweck discusses her research...

James Nottingham on the dangers of labelling our students...

My other focus area will be in leadership as I'm returning to school as a Deputy Principal, a role I've held before but so much has changed in what makes an effective and valuable leader and I want to push myself as far as I can go with this.  I will learn from my previous role and the mistakes made and improve on the leader I was then to be the best I can be now.  This is not only important for me but it's incredibly important for the school - the staff, students and community.  I continue to have so much to learn.  That's the fantastic part.  I always return to Simon Sinek as one of my guides in this area.  He speaks about the 'Why' of what we do and how important it is for everyone to be clear about this, particularly our leaders.

What does connected education mean to me?

Thoughtful Thursdays at the Te@chThought Community

We've just completed our first month-long blogging challenge as part of the Te@chThought community and it was one of the most inspirational experiences ever!  One of the top bonuses was that I made a new friend in my colleague Beth Leidolf, an inspirational educator from the US.  Together we ran the challenge and are now working on developing the community further during Connected Educator Month and beyond!


Our first post for Thoughtful Thursdays at TeachThought is all about what Connected Education means to us. The Popplet below shares my thinking about how important being a Connected Educator is to me and how powerful all these connections are.  Each and every connection plays a powerful and important role in my continuing development as a teacher.

#ce14 #cenz14 #ceoz

My 3 Favourite go-to sites for help/tips/resources in my Teaching

Day 26 of the +TeachThought Reflective Teacher Blogging Challenge!

This was a really hard post to write because we had to choose 3 of our 'go to sites - only THREE!!!!  What a challenge in itself.  I've cheated a little with Twitter and Facebook pages but I firmly believe in being creative.  (You're possibly not buying that...)


TeachThought / Edutopia
I have been a fan of TeachThought long before my involvement with curating the Facebook page and my role in developing a community of practice, both voluntary roles.  I love that both TeachThought and Edutopia provide me with resources to challenge my practice and give the bext possible learning experiences for my students - and also for me.

Kathy Schrock
I first stumbled across this amazing educator when I was at University studying to become a teacher.  I think it was around 1997.  She has been one of my consistent 'go to' resources for all things education and I couldn't even begin to count the times I've gone back to her site for resources, etc.  Highly recommend that you take a look.

Twitter / Facebook Pages

This is my 3rd choice- even though there is more than one on here.  I'll stretch it even further and call it my social media resoure... ;-)

The Innovative E - Everything eLearning in Education
This is my own page on Facebook but it's where I keep track with the resources from all the different sites so that I can share them with others.  It's a curation tool for me.  I also use ScoopIt to curate resources on a range of topics including Digital Storytelling and Google Tools.

#reflectiveteacher

Day 2 of the TeachThought Blogging Challenge - 1 Piece of Technology I Want to Incorporate This Year

There are so many tools out there but I always start with the question of why?  If I can't articulate that a tool will make a change to my students' learning, then I would have difficulty in justifying its use.  It is simply just a 'cool tool' or the latest new 'must have' tool, but if it doesn't impact student learning in a positive manner, I won't use it.

I start with the SAMR model of adapting technology for learning and teaching - to see how it fits and how it can be adapted through the levels.  If I'm using it to just replace something else, for example using Word to replace writing in a book, that's okay but it needs to do more, it needs to reach the 'Redefinition' stage - to create something new that may not have been possible previously to having this tool.  Kathy Schrock has fantastic resources on the SAMR model and all other things tech.  I've been folowing her since about 1998 and can't recommend her more highly.

One tool I really want to explore is actually a suite of tools - Google Apps for Education and Hapara and now Google Classroom!

Check out the presentations below and see why these tools can make such a powerful change in learning and teaching.

Google Apps for Education (GAFE): Giving Students an eLearning Space from Iain Doherty

Google Classroom - Set Up and Tips for Teachers from John Sowash

#reflectiveteacher 

Homework - What's the Alternative?

In the past few days, and indeed over the 16 years I've been teaching, there has always been the debate over homework - Do we give homework?  Should we be giving it?  The research says it doesn't work.  The research says it DOES work.  How much is age-appropriate for the different levels.  Parents want it so we give it.  Parents hate the amount - it's too much, too little, and on it goes.  It really is hair-tearing-out stuff!!

I think we're going about it the wrong way.

We want our students to become confident, connected learners who question, debate and create their own knowledge with our support.  I'm not convinced that homework in its current form achieves this.
An example.  Spelling lists.  The students learn their words - they may even put them into sentences.  We test them, they do well on the test.  Try testing the same words a few weeks later, (I've done this to prove in my own mind the  value - or otherwise - of this method of 'learning' words).  What happens?  Their stellar results often slip to well below par, unless we've combined that learning of spelling words with learning and knowing the spelling strategies or using the words many times in daily writing.  If we're just giving lists to rote learn then most of our students will 'remember' the lists but they won't learn them or transfer that knowledge into their long-term memory.

I've asked students about homework many times over the years and have consistently received the same answers - It's boring.  We do it because we have to.  I already know this....  It's too hard, it's too easy - often from the same student in the same week!!!  I don't need to go on because you've heard them all too.  The idea behind homework is that it is designed to reinforce the learning in the classroom but does it really do this?  Unless it's tailored to individual learning needs and is personalized to those needs, then I'm not so sure.

So what's the alternative then?

Preparation for Learning - or, as my class shortened it to - Prep for Learning.

I wanted to find a way that engaged the students more fully in what we were learning in class.
We use our blogs for many different learning tasks so I wanted to harness the enthusiasm the students had for blogging in some way.  We've used our class blog and our Literature Circles blog as the basis to make a change and it's been one that has stimulated class discussions and changed our attitudes to learning towards developing an eLEarning philosophy - that our learning happens anytime, anywhere and in so many different ways.  Not just in school but anytime - this was the key part and also included the parents in their learning in a much deeper and more meaningful way.

• The main philosophy around Prep for Learning is to have the students thinking about the learning they are part of all the time.
• Questions are posted on the blog prior to new learning to get the students to begin thinking about the learning that is coming up.  This can be in any learning area.  For example questions can be posted prior to an inquiry to get the students to Tune In to new learning / ideas. (Check out Kath Murdoch's website - one of my favorite Inquiry gurus!)  In maths, it could be a new Geometry topic coming up and you want to know what they already know and understand.  (The Prep for Learning can be a great formative assessment tool too!)
• Students jump on and add their current thinking in preparation for discussions in class.  This means that they are coming prepared to think, debate and join in the discussions.
• Sometimes students will go a step further and take ownership of the learning by posting further questions for others to think about before they come to class to discuss them.
• The purpose is also to engage thinking in the learning areas.

Students still read every night - often joining in the discussions on the Literature Circles blog, and they still have their maths Basic Facts but the main 'homework' is now all around engaging in their learning by participating in thinking about and discussing that learning.  The isolation of filling in one sheet for the whole class for homework has gone.

Another bonus - you are building very strong home and school links by parents and caregivers being able to see what their children are learning - and they are also encouraged to join in and add their thinking too, as are our global collaborators.  This gives the learning a whole new and very powerful bonus - local and global collaboration that really does impact teaching and learning in a concrete and very relevant way.

Yet another bonus - most parents have commented on their child's renewed enthusiasm for school and learning and best of all - they don't have to fight to get 'homework' completed!!  Has to be a good thing!!

Students who don't have computer access at home don't miss out either as they get class time and have requested computer time before and after school, and at break times, to be able to join in the online discussions.

Our students are 21st Century learners.  We need to adapt to their way of thinking as consumers and creators of knowledge - not vessels into which knowledge is poured and then 'spat out' again without any meaning having been made of it.

Salman Kahn flips the classroom

Salman Khan talk at TED 2011 (from ted.com)



Salman Khan gives us even more reasons why we can - and need to - 'flip the classroom'. The more I think about and learn about this, the more I want to be involved in the potential for educational reform this offers.

How many of our students who have not had successful educational experiences could have benefited from learning in our new environment? We can't afford to wait any longer.

What are we doing in our teaching and learning each and every day to meet the needs of our 21st century learners?

How far have we come on the eLearning journey?