What is a Powerful Learner?

The previous two weeks we have focused as a staff on what a 'Powerful Learner' is. Our first session involved Karla and Neil interviewing students asking them specific questions - "What is a Powerful Learner?", "What makes you Powerful Learner?", "What do you do when you get stuck?"

The most revealing and frustrating was the last question - "What do you do when you get stuck?"
Our Ss said they ask others like their friends or ask the teacher. They way they had answered gave the impression that we give them the answers when they ask us which is incorrect. We turn it back on the student by saying "What could you do...?".

The interviews were a real eyeopener, in terms of their perceptions of our role as teachers and of ourselves. I felt like I make no real difference, that you could put a cardboard cutout of me in our learning spaces and the responses would be no different! Food for thought and some real self reflection.

From here, our next meeting looked at what we as staff think makes a Powerful Learner.

And from our group:

• creativity
• resilience
• tenacity
• connected - learner
• communicator - deliver, receive
• empathy
• persevering
• risk taking - brave
• discerning
• curious
• questioning
• self awareness
• willingness/self drive
• emotional intelligence
• collaborative
• evaluative
• reflective

There was a great deal of discussion around grouping of ideas and what Empathy is. We felt that because of our own upbringings and place in society, we would have little real understanding of what some of our students go through in their lives. Neil shared with us this clip Empathy vs Sympathy. This clip is a great way of differentiating between the two and how we can get caught in the 'sympathy' mode.
I realised that 'being there' is enough. Taking the time to listen is something I try to do, not only with students but the people around me - be it parents, staff or anyone.

"Who Owns the Learning?" Alan November

As part of our PLD we have a selection of books that we can read to build our knowledge and understanding of Powerful Learners, Learner Agency, Teacher Agency and Future Focused education. I chose to read the "Who Owns the Learning?" by Alan November. 

Yes, I chose it because it was one of the smaller text but also because I am also reading "Pressing the Right Buttons" by Allison Mooney and "The Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller. 
Out came the highlighter pens and coloured post-it notes so at the end my book looked like a squashed hedgehog!

This is an easy read text that was full of stories that illustrated "that teaching our Ss to fully leverage 21st century skills in information and communication technologies extends well beyond introducing them to new tools."  (pg 89) Points raised struck a cord with me in terms of the path we are on as a learning community here at Ngatea Primary School.

What stood out for me:

• Ss designing and publishing their own tutorials/workshops. We have identified this as our next step in Whetu - encouraging Ss to lead the way as this improves their learning outcomes and learner agency
• There needs to be a shift in who 'controls' the learning! (S voice, learner agency, powerful learning)
• "Anyone who can send an email can use technologies necessary to launch a class blog, wiki, and student scribe program." pg 45  NO EXCUSES!
• Darren Kuropatwa's professional blog (adifference.blogspot.com) provides a wealth of resources, musings and thought provoking articles.
• from Darren "As long as you're asking what's next, you'll get there. But never be content with where you're at." pg 47
• Even being on Twitter, or reading the odd article - that's a start! It just might get you thinking about what could be next, then you give it a go and see what happens!!
• Educating our Ss to think critically, not just accept verbatim what is presented on the internet. 
• Enabling Ss to find, use and communicate information as part of a collaborative learning environment.
• Ss should blog their learning experiences - helps with reflection (successes/weaknesses), organise thinking, receive feedback from a global community, sparks interactions that can benefit more than just the blogger. pg 55
• Global Empathy! Developing Ss ability to understand and appreciate other points of view. pg 66
• Authentic audiences are paramount for Ss to participate in. One example of this is www.fanfiction.net giving Ss a worldwide audience for creative work. 
• "We improve both our own understanding and our ability to work with others when we gain insight into the what, why, and how of other perspectives - and learn to value them." pg 72
• Importance and power of reflective conversations with ourselves, Ss, colleagues, and wider community. 
• 
  

I am excited about developing some of these points further with the Whetu team and exploring Garth Holman and Michael Pennington's blog - teachersfortomorrow where they talk about their experiences in guiding Ss to build their online learning.

Impact Celebration

This past Thursday (18th of September) Whetu and Whenua celebrated their Impact Projects with parents and invited guests. We had a great turnout, more than we expected. Each teacher leading an Impact group shared an overview of what their group had achieved during the term, including our TAs who were very nervous about speaking to a large group. The overview finished with the Drama Impact group performing their play.

Groups then went off to share their learning journey through posters, powerpoints and displays with their parents. There was a high level of engagement and a deep sense of pride from both Ss and Ps. We as teachers had very little to do as the Ss were the leaders and shared confidently each stage of their learning. 

My Gateway group are going to the upcoming BOT meeting to seek permission to continue with our gateway poles so our project is hoping to continue into Term 4.

We are very proud of them all and cannot wait to begin new projects next year.

Impact (PBL) Reflection

Brenda (Team Leader - Whenua), Neil and Karla met to reflect on how Impact is going and what we need to consider for 2015.

Positives

Groups  working in the community, community coming in

Cross grouping with younger learners

Using TAs, planning alongside Teachers

Learners are engaged, talking about their learning

Talking to other adults about their learning

Teachers engaged

Flexibility to include other Impact groups, curriculum areas, etc

Good going into Lunchtime if away on a trip

Taking the time to get into teachable moments (rabbit holes)

Small groups of 14 good size to work with, any trips involve 2 other vehicles (incl. tcher)

Devices being shared, easy to research and follow any emails.

Speeches were much easier for Ss to write as they already had knowledge around their passion and could use this as the basis of their speech.

Considerations

Timing of various Impacts, some will carry on into Term 4

Amount of time spent each day

Some Impact projects could carry into following year (Gateway, entranceway)

At the beginning we did not need the whole time, as it progresses we have used the time.

Could be other times made available through the week - Tues/Thurs?

Budget or lack of one, who we can approach for money if needed

Next projects, build up a list “Needs, Opportunities, Interests” display in class

Support from other staff if you want to take your group out at a different time.

Adapting students learning programmes

Skills - Curriculum mapping

Parent support for trips

We need to gather student voice

Exploring Science thru Newsboard

Last Wednesday Anne Barker Project Leader (Primary Science Education) Te Toi Tupu came into Whetu and modeled a Newsboard rich in literacy and science. The article she shared was Mystery Lake in Tunisian Desert Causes Both Joy and Concern from the Dogo News Site. The Achievement Aim she drew from was Understanding about Science and the purpose of the session was exploring the process of science and science capabilities. 

My AHA moment was the realisation that there is observing and inferring and the use of questions to clarify thinking. By teasing out observation and inference the learners thinking was challenged and they became more aware of what they were thinking. I had never put much thought into observing and inferring being different but also part of one another and then wondered how often I have used both to explain when I really should have been focusing on one.

I began to think more about

• the way in which I question...why? what if?  How do you know that? What makes you think so? How could you check that?
• the language I use...expressive, topic specific or scientific 
• how I can use questioning to challenge thinking What is your evidence?
• using graphic organisers more effectively through learner purpose and choice.Learners choose the best graphic organiser suited the purpose, evaluating whether worked and why.

As a team we valued the way Anne challenged our learners thinking in a supported environment and was a great model of doing this in a way that was not threatening but encouraging.

This has happened!

Priority No. 2

Learning Dispositions - What are these? What do they look like? What do they look like for us?

This last week as part of our PLD programme we had a Skype session with Sarah Martin, Foundation Principal of Stonefields School. She led us through what she has been building with her school in terms of Learning Dispositions. A lot of knowledge gathering and idea developing was done through reading research from Art Coster, Guy Claxton, Dreyfus and John Edwards. Students were interviewed: 

What do you do when you are stuck as a learner? and What makes a Powerful Learner? 

The results were eye opening and offered up many questions as to what powerful learning looked like and how teachers were making a difference.

From here the school explored what it learner qualities looked like and through a series of PLD came up with

• Be Self Aware
• Wonder
• Think
• Connect
• Be Determined
• Question
• Reflect

Within each of these Learner Qualities is an easy to follow progression. Underpining this is the importance of Foundation Literacies in able to learn and relationships!

I realised that I had explored this path a few years ago with my then Year 4 class. My point of reference then was "Building Learning Power in Action" by Sarah Gornall, Maryl Chambers and Guy Claxton. I have found the text and am reading it again! Next I will build my understanding and knowledge more by reading material that is shared with us by Sarah Martin and Daniel Birch (Hobsonville Point Primary School).

Long Time No See!

As you can see from the title it has been a while! A lot has been happening this year, this crazy ride doesn't seem to stop nor would I want it to...
The highlight of the year so far would have to be the #edchatnz conference at Hobson Point Schools. Wow - what an experience! All of our team (Whetu) and Whenua were immersed in another world for two days. We made the most of the opportunity to meet face to face the educational 'nuts' that we have had twitter conversations with on various themes. Dare I say it, but Saturday was even better than Friday. MissDtheteacher was the lone nut who, with a small dedicated group of follower nuts pulled off a two day conference! There were a variety of speakers, workshops and even a Political debate!

To make our lives easier we created a doc to record our ponderings and wonderings as well as tweeting up a storm with 'aha' moments. There was a lot of discussion around each breakout and ways we could grow this at NPS.
WHETU

• Developing our Whetu Trust license - lanyard with areas etc that learner was allowed access.
• Learning on Top - Simple list of learning tasks that had to be completed, then there was the Negotiated list.
• In/out board that had each area learners could be. Moved name across so everyone knew where they were - building independence.
• “Supported”, Self Managing”, “Self Directed” learners placed themselves accordingly which enabled next steps.
• Creating a corner nook, separated by positioning furniture.
• Lowering the roof level (?!) to create an intimate safe space.
• Building on Impact, consciously using immersion (HPPS) to build understanding and knowledge (ie, trips, guest speakers, collaborative planning, designing, etc) Trips don’t need to be a huge RAMS thing but we need to utilise this.
• Get Kidsedchats up and going again!

---

• Evaluations of the first few days - sort of like the form we did but could do one earlier in the year?
• Alan November - Who owns the learning?
• The first few days, and the last! Ending well.

---

• Dispositions - Marama team (Karla)
• Peer tutoring
• PEEL paragraph - Point Explain Example Link. Teaching science students to put their knowledge on paper
• Learning dispositions - what are these? Need to know more!
• pbl - Make a difference, be authentic, opportunities to learn, everyone involved - keep it real!
• pbl - How can we use our design brief to tell our story so that it has clarity and relevance?
• pbl - We need to develop our own pbl rubric relevant to our learners and the big picture
• Use buckets to store their gear - easy transport!
• Show work in progress
• Edtalks - how to hack a classroom Anne?
• Bottle bivy

---

• Need some help developing questioning techniques - Anne is really good at this...
• Getting things started - using an image - football world cup example - woman in the dumpster. Generating questions around this.
• After going on a trip use playdough to re make the scene/environment. Could be interesting to do with River Boys comparing stream to Piako.
• BLOGs - getting our blogs up and going, dedicate time in team meetings
• Reverse mentoring - fresh eyes, critical friend to challenge, share, set goals and develop ideas How can we develop this in Whetu - use of Anne/ MK? (Separate to appraisal)
• Whiteboard paper stuck down centre of table??? Warehouse Stationery!
• Don’t use ‘No’ use ‘Yes and...’ Yes, that’s a good idea and…’ add to the solution.

• Booktrack Classroom -investigate further, could be used to add a dimension to Passage Picker in Book CLub. Option - take the same passage and everyone in the book club adds their music choices. Katie has set up a Whetu A/c all book clubs will be entered on her email account.
• Other…
• HPPS - planning 2-3 weeks ahead so it stayed relevant and learner focused. We feel we do this much better than we used to, listening to student voice - passions and wants.
• The Secret Literacy - David Didau

Once back at school...

What we have initiated!

1. Work in progress (art on the wall)
2. Katie is having technical difficulties with BookTrack, has emailed them about this. We are going to include BookTrack in our Book Club roles.
3. Developing questioning - Anne came in and modeled the Newsboard, continuing with questioning in our Newsboards.
4. Reverse Mentoring- have asked for fresh eyes on our programmes (Anne, MK) and will delve into feedback, set new goals etc.

 Our Next 5 Priorities:

1. Whetu Trust License - develop criteria for what this looks like in Whetu (gather a working party together - the smarties, who can lead and come back to main group) TAB
2. Learning Dispositions (Powerful Learning) Karla & Team Marama 
3. Learning Space, work with what we have a lot more. Using sheer drapery to break visual lines. Creating smaller areas within the large. (Use them to create a breakout space illusion) Katie to investigate sheers. 
4. Kidsedchats Holly
5. Develop our Impact Rubric. Whetua