uLearn15

I was lucky enough to be able to go to uLearn15 in Auckland these past holidays.

Our opening keynote speaker on DAY 1 was Grant Lichtman, who was very easy to listen to. Ideas that resonated with me were the following:

Asking learners -

• What is the one word you can use to describe your day today?
• What does innovation mean to you?
• What obstacles did you face?
• What were your successes today?

You cannot innovate without taking risks and is it really hard or is it uncomfortable? Being  honest with yourself is one of the challenges. Building capacity to make change is linked to mindset - What if?

Breakout 1:

Teaching with Thinking Dispositions with Karen Boyes.

Karen’s presentation was entertaining and thought provoking, with narratives about her children and experiences, making it easy for her audience to connect.

One of our biggest challenges in today’s classrooms is around change - do we

• Create it?
• Embrace it?
• Fight it?
• Ignore it?

and what do our learners do when they don’t know what to do? This is true of adults as well!

Learned helplessness is evident in today’s society with ‘Helicopter parents’ (those who hover around their children making sure everything  is ok) and my favourite, ‘Lawnmower parents’ (they clear the way for their darlings so nothing can go wrong!). Adults are too quick to jump in and rescue students - they need to experience what it is like to struggle, solve problems and make good. This slide from Karen’s presentation says it all -

We need to allow learners to be bored...restrict access to resources, cut tech. time, and have time where there is no agenda at all. This allows room for learning to occur and strategies to grow.

Breakout 2:

Project Based Learning with Sarah Wakeford (HPSS)

I have listened to Sarah before at the EdChat conference last year and was keen to see how Project Based Learning had developed at HPSS. She did not disappoint - full of energy and great ideas that she was passionate about sharing.

Key points:

• The need for an authentic partnership (outside the learning environment strongly recommended)
• Having a clear process - Kick Off, Plan, Action, Showtime, Final Look

From Hobsonville Point Secondary School

• Criteria - one trip ‘out’, one ‘expert’ in
• Use of a rubric as a point of self assessment
• Time to reflect at each stage of the process
• Blogging - using specific vocabulary, sharing the process, reflecting, etc

DAY 2

Our opening keynote speaker was Dr Anne Lieberman who presented her findings around teacher leadership.

Teacher Leadership - what do we know so far?

Shift - what do we know about learning and how do we accommodate the changes

Teachers are great storytellers, need to show evidence

Schon - reflective practice

Wenger - ‘communities of practice’

Learning as:

• social participation
• discovering meaning
• identity
• (in) community

Breakout 3:

Enhancing Thoughtful Classroom Dialogue with Karen Boyes

As I had listened to Karen the day before I was curious about how different this breakout would be compared to the previous day - I needn’t have worried. Once again Karen was extremely easy to listen to and connect with as she spoke of ‘real’ happenings.

She discussed 6 key areas of developing dialogue and I found it interesting to reflect on my own practice as to how I have tried developing meaningful dialogue in my learning environment.

Classroom Environment

• The need to understand the brain, how it functions, the emotions that are intrinsically linked.
• Higher order thinking happens in the frontal lobe and the brain is ready for this at around 7 years of age.
• The importance of oral language! Panic causes the brain to ‘shift’ down in thinking.
• Music lifts a room, lessens the risk level.
• The need to value everyone's participation and eliminate judgement.

Teacher Technique

• Power of STOP, WAIT, THINK - to manage impulsivity.
• Wait time/think time (7-10 seconds) to allow processing.
• Think - Pair - Share
• Coming up with ways to lower the risk.

Listening Skills

• Makes the biggest difference to success
• Pause - wait time
• Paraphrase - opportunity to say something to show you are on the same page
• Probe - increase clarity, asking questions, depth
• Inquiring into how do you listen?

Power of Language

• What are some of your ideas?
• Clarity - precision
• Language and thinking are intertwined
• Thinking verbs

Thinking About Your Thinking

• Metacognition - being conscious and aware
• Think aloud problem solving
• If you don’t think about your thinking, how do you make a change?

Questioning

• Awareness of unproductive questions
• Intentional questions - approachable, friendly tone
• Invitation stems “What are some of your goals?”  “What might be some…”  “In what other ways could you…”   “I know you don’t know but if you did know…”
• Invitational “As you…”   “Given what you know about…”   
• Empowering “What are some of your goals?”

Breakout 4:

Fostering Individual Learning Capacity with Andrea O’Hagan

I was not sure what I was in for in this breakout as Andrea was very softly spoken and began by talking about drama! We were a small group of primary teachers from all kinds of backgrounds but with similar wants from this breakout - making connections with those learners who continue to defy our approaches.

Andrea stressed the effectiveness of language patterns which supported what Karen Boyes had also talked about in her presentation! I knew I was in the right place.

• Being aware that particular language patterns can lead to resistance and fight/flight is ignited.
• Have to communicate clearly so there is understanding.
• Preferred way of expressing our inner world - Visual, kinesthetic, auditory.

• Change predicates so it makes sense (E.g. moving from a visual pattern to their preferred language pattern).
• Listen to self (radio is a very good way to do this, to identify language patterns).
• Try to include all 3 language patterns when speaking to learners.
• Probability modal operator - “You could...couldn’t you”   “You might...mightn’t you”   “Maybe you will find this easier than you thought it would be”  “Let me tell you what you have to do”
• Reflective listening - this verbal ‘mirror’ allowing a person to hear their own thoughts again out loud.
• How can I change my choice of words so that I am neutral?
• How can I present myself to the learner so they are not threatened?
• Using curious in a sentence engages “I’m really curious to see how quickly you will make a difference to your learning?”
• Adding ...not yet! (NPS Learning Powers)

DAY 3

Breakout 5:

Leading Change Leadership with Mark Osborne

Mark is a great presenter who is very approachable, is able to connect with his audience and motivate change whether it is in small tentative steps or in ‘man sized’ strides!

Key ideas:

• Values and beliefs - we know why we are doing things
• Purpose and ability to answer the questions
• Relational trust
• Management - procedures, systems etc, capturing and using institutional knowledge
• Leadership - produces change, going somewhere new
• Knowing self - strengths/weaknesses
• Connected, empowered teams, networks, complex, pooling information - making decisions together.
• Adaptive capacity - ability to cope with change!

Readiness for change

• That change is needed!
• Establishing a sense of urgency “What is our burning platform?”
• Proposed change is appropriate for the challenge at hand
• The organisation has the capacity to implement the change.

Supporting people through change

• Need to honour people and their perspectives
• First order change - tweak, minimal, ‘change’ is incremental
• Second order change - disruptive, learn new, emotional
• If you think mana/identity will be lost = resistance
• Questioning self ‘conscious incompetence’ Heifetz
• First order change may be second order change for people
• Have to acknowledge loss - time to grieve
• Honour everyone’s experiences

Finding opportunities for people to mentor, guide using their curriculum knowledge (using strengths)

Systems to timeline change, prioritise, identify steps.

We all need to be pushed out of our comfort zone but EVERYTHING changing can be disruptive.

Breakout 6:

Lead with Meaning with Barbara Cavanagh & Miranda Makin (ASH)

These two ladies had definite opinions and ideas about what leading in education looks like both in their school - Albany Senior High, and what could be achieved in other schools if we are serious about leading and making a difference in education.

Key ideas:

• You can choose to be a leader or a maintainer.
• Old solutions are damaging in new times.
• Things have changed dramatically  - “How do kids learn?”  “How do we create an environment where every student succeeds?”
• Children are very different to each other - one size does not fit all!
• Need to be sure we sabotage the system and follow what research says (e.g. exams)
• Work with constraints to make sure children succeed.
• “Not if you are bright, it’s how you are bright!”
• How do we help teachers in their quest for quality?
• Teaching as inquiry allows us to meet each child’s needs.
• Practice decisions = increases outcomes

Teachers motivation for teacher inquiry is

• student outcomes + assessment

• to make a difference for those students that are in crisis
• to name those students in crisis - be accountable
• exploring theories of what might be, offers up opportunity around beliefs
• exposing our theories and searching for new possibilities
• to understand the problem that you are trying to solve in different ways - include the students!

Creating space for teacher and leader learning

• Challenging beliefs is important for learning as well as maintaining a positive working relationship.

Sharing control

Increasing validity for information to base decisions from

Increasing mutual respect

• How do you maintain your dignity as well as the other person’s dignity while making change and having difficult conversations?
• There is a responsibility to be a leader
• Stop making assumptions about students
• Being transparent creates relational trust.

The experience of going to uLearn15 and hearing from leaders in education has contributed to my inquiry into my teaching practice as both a classroom teacher and as a leader within our school. I highly recommend attending uLearn16 which will be held in Rotorua next year.