Reflection on my time at Westland High School

Video reflection completed for Phillippa Mallinson so she could review the schools progress. Sorry, the first videos cut out but actually, I don't think there really needs to be much more said.

Microsoft 365

So I've moved to a new school and I'm now using Microsoft 365 and mainly Ipads. First of all I need to say that I've never really been a fan of Ipads in the classroom. I also need to state in the interests of transparency that I'm new to Microsoft 365 so I'm still working out how to use it properly.

I've been using Google for the past few years (I got my google level 1 educator a month or so back) and I have to say I enjoy how easy it is to use for students and I now know its way easier for admin to use as well. I've been using Microsoft 365 for just over a month and it has some great benefits which Google doesn't have.

Benefits:

1. One note is a great way to see a whole class full of work and you can set work for for loads of groups of students.
2. One drive works as well as google drive so no complaints there.
3. Using powerpoint/ word/excel online is great and as you can download the files and edit them on your computer it makes using powerpoint a whole lot easier than slides.

Ok now for the problems I've been facing, which are not all due to Microsoft 365:

1. Powerpoint in Onedrive is not able to be edited on Ipads with ease. This is also a problem faced by Google slides but not to such a severe extent.
2. Passwords are incredibly difficult to change in the admin. This is also due to the fact that Microsoft 365 doesn't sync easily with SIMS.
3. Sharepoint, I can see that they are trying to emulate shared servers on Microsoft computers but it uses the worst part of Microsoft and it's really difficult to find anything.
4. The editability of Powerpoint, Word and Excel is reduced to a very basic and frankly unusable version if you are doing it online. A lot of the better features of these programmes are completely lost on the online version.

I'm also working in a school that is part of a group of schools so there are restrictions on all sorts of things and how they work within the group. I don't have all the permissions I used to have (I'm now an Admin not a Super admin) so that can be an issue. So some of the issues I'm having with using this new system is in part due to the restrictions in my user name.

I really want to emulate the work I was doing in New Zealand and make the learners in my classroom self motivated in their learning. I know that the student's I am teaching are more than capable. The school I am working in has high expectations for their learning and behaviour so there is a framework in place. All I need to do is find a way to get the technology to work for me. I'm really trying to keep an open mind but I have to say I'm struggling with Microsoft 365, so I think this will possibly be my greatest technology challenge so far.

The brain, exercise and learning. The research

Most of this information in this blog is taken from New Scientist, The Collection Vol 4 / Issue 2 The Scientific guide to an even better you. The articles in this "were first published in New Scientist between July 2014 and March 2017. They have been updated and revised". However I have also read some of the original papers (I'll cite those as I go along).

Are you or your students worried or getting stressed about exams?

Turns out that mindfulness and meditation can actually change parts of your brain.  A study carried out by Massachusetts general hospital showed that after 8 weeks the part of the brain (amygdalae) that processes anxiety and stress has reduced in density. This study only had 16 participants meditating (didn't state how many were in the control group) so it's not a truly sound study but interesting first step to see that meditation actually does something to your brain. Original study.

Need to boost your memory, concentration or increase creativity?

When I first started teaching there was something called brain gym it had no scientific background but we were still taught it during our PGCE. However there are now proven exercises that actually will help yours and students attention and memory. 

To improve your working memory go surfing! Or actually anything that involves moving and balancing, something that involves spacial reasoning as well as exercise. For children running along a beam, climbing a tree or running barefoot would be an ideal activity. As you are learning a new skill or knowledge test yourself in a well ordered way for more information see the study here. 

If you find your mind wandering embrace it if you are going to have to recall the information in a distracted or loud environment it's best to learn it in the same way. Inconsistent distraction is the problem so checking your phone every 5 minutes is not going to be good for memory retention (study). 

Something which every teacher knows is that if you think you are going to have to teach a subject you will suddenly remember a lot more about the subject and the panic or worry of standing in front of people and not knowing yourself is a powerful way to make you work. Weirdly I accidentally found another article from the same author about students procrastination stating that a task will typically take 50% longer than estimated . I wonder if the pressure of having to teach someone else about a subject means peoples estimates of how long a task will take increases or whether the fact you will be watched has an impact on your learning and behaviour. I heard a radio programme recently that said people do better in clinical trials as they are watched maybe this is the same effect.

If you really want to learn something over a long period of time then wait ages to test yourself, the longer you wait the better it becomes embedded in your long term memory. Which is great as for the past few years this is what I have been doing with my seniors and it seemed to have worked but I didn't know why. Even if you get it wrong it still seems to aid memory retention. 

To improve concentration running around for 20 minutes and then trying to concentrate on a task may work, however they don't know how long these effects will last for (study here). However if you know you really need to concentrate go for walk beforehand it might help and getting exercise is never going to harm. 

To increase creativity - Go for a walk or a dance (study here)

The main thing about learning is if you think you can do it you can Wilson, Dweck and Yeager all seem to come up with similar ideas that back each other up.

feedback from year 11

Form given to my year 11 students at the end of their topic.

I got some lovely positive feedback from students. But this was probably coloured as it was my last day and the students were feeling a bit sad about me going especially as I have taught some of them since they were in year 8. There were two reasons for me doing this survey the first was that I have been trying to teach the students in this class to critique others blogs and their work. I wanted them to know that even teachers can be helped to improve. It didn't really work s they were all bit too lovely.

9 students responded to the survey as there were a few off school that day.

What was your favourite topic?

4/9 = Physics
4/9  Agriculture
1/9 = none

What was your least favourite part of the year?

3/9 = Agriculture
4/9 = enjoyed the whole year
1/9 = no comment
1/9 = when we had to move out of the lab as it was being painted

What did you like best about Miss Blake's Science?

"She was a good teacher and really cool and has a bubbly personality"
"It was pretty fun"
"I don't like science"
"Probably the experiments that we do."
"EVERYTHING! It was fun and the lessons were made fun and not boring. I liked doing the experiments and the internals were fun to complete too."
"she actually helped me with my work when i needed it. For example when I needed help to do my work she would always help me and explain it to me so I could understand"
"Always there to help and get us doing what we need to being doing to improve like having the classes scheduled on the website and emailing us feedback on our blogs. Just always helping us improve in every area of science"
"Her enthusiasm "

What do you think Miss Blake could do better?

"idk"
"wear her hair like that all the time" - this relates to the second photo of me dressed as a mad scientist.
"She has done everything very well and I have learnt a lot this year."
"I don't know but she has been a awesome teacher. "
"I don't think she could do anything better because she is a really great teacher."
"i don't really know to be honest. There isn't really a lot she needs to improve on well that's my opinion"
"i dont know"

My favourite jokes

What did the lion say when I found him in the closet? it's Narnia business.
"What do you call cheese that isn't yours? nacho cheese."

Blogging

Blogging in the classroom

I know it's weird I'm writing a blog about blogging. But this is a more specific blog post regarding the usefulness of blogger as a tool to use with my classes. I have 2 classes I am currently working on Blogger with two classes in different ways my for junior blog I'm doing the blogging and sharing their work and what is going on in class with them and their whanau. For my seniors they are doing the blogging themselves.

Junior school blog

The junior school blog started off as a way for the junior pupils to have a space for rewindable learning. I realised every time I do an experiment in class the students ask questions as I go so actually putting those on a video is quite useful sometimes. Last week I tried a different method I filmed the video before class and gave the students a link to the blog and a worksheet. They really loved it and it gave me more time to answer individual questions and support students with their individual needs. I think this actually may be the way forward, losing the teacher talking at the front and spending more time individually with students. It's kind of blown my mind a little, it was quite hard to not explain too much and just let the students get on with it.

Senior class blogs

I decided to let my senior students create their own blogs and try to empower them to build a positive digital footprint. I wasn't sure how well it would go down with the students as they are year 11 and they have been known to just stare at me like I'm a crazy lady. A few students have got into the blogs and have produced some excellent work. For them they are using their blogs as a way to supplement the work book they are using and to consolidate learning in class. Well that's how I envisaged they would use it. Turns out they are way more imaginative than I am and some of them have started to use it far more creatively than I would have thought and are producing some excellent posts. I'm very proud of this group of students.

http://leytopotato.blogspot.co.nz

http://charlottewhsscience.blogspot.co.nz/

http://katelynscience.blogspot.co.nz/

http://brookewestland.blogspot.co.nz

http://krisynlang.blogspot.co.nz/

http://palmerkalib.blogspot.co.nz/

http://charliscience.blogspot.co.nz

http://andrewbradley1.blogspot.co.nz/

http://amywestlandhighschool.blogspot.co.nz/?m=1

http://hollywestlandhigh.blogspot.co.nz/

http://tarmwestland.blogspot.co.nz/

http://beyoncescience.blogspot.co.nz/

Google for education, educator level 1

Google for education, educator level 1 training

So today I started the google education training today. I decided to start with the level 1 training course so I could find out what the course is about and have a go at completing it. The course is interesting so far I have done 4 of the 13 units of the fundamentals course.

I have learnt quite a few things although I think this course is aimed at teachers using google apps for education for the first time I have learnt quite a bit about features that I have never used. The course is in units, each unit is split into lessons. Thankfully they have given time allowances for each unit so you can plan how long you want to spend on the course. Each lesson is concise and gives links to websites and places to find information. At the end of each lesson there are multiple choice questions which you can mark as you do them. At the end of the unit their is a test to find out how much you have learnt. I have to say that some of the questions are quite strangely worded and I don't always agree with the answers especially when relating to teaching pedagogy (units 1 and 2). Some of the questions are also weirdly phrased which mean I have given the wrong answer to a question and I don't fully understand why.
Example of one of the questions

"If you wanted to create a space to share weekly information with all of the one hundred seventy different community mentors of your students, what would be the URL (not including https://) to use to get you to the google product best suited for this?"

I thought an answer to this question would be sites.google.com, as this is a forum I use to communicate with parents however the answer was groups.google.com. I know this is a useful tool however it's not something I use with my classes to communicate with parents or students. This is definitely a weakness on my part as from what I have seen it could be really useful to send out bulk emails and connect parents not just students. I think I have only scratched the surface with this as I mainly use google groups as a forum to ask questions and discuss ideas. Google groups in on the staff learning site but I have purposely removed the email notifications from the web forum as otherwise staff were bombarded with email every time anyone posted. Google groups is a great collaborative tool and hopefully I can use it to its full potential.

I'm doing ok with this so far but I am worried about the test ($10 to take if you were wondering), there are practice questions but although I understand the tools and I can do everything in the tasks I am so far quite rubbish at understanding the multiple choice questions.

Actually this fear of the test is really good for me, I'm dyslexic and always did quite poorly in written exams as a student (I have never completed a written test within the time allocation), especially as I didn't get diagnosed until I was 21. I am being reminded how many of my students feel on a daily basis and how they feel having to sit an assessment. Having a learning disability has never really held me back in fact I usually see it as a strength rather than a weakness but written test are definitely my kryptonite.

RTLB

RTLB - Resource teacher of learning and behaviour

So on Monday Teena Vincent came into school and gave us a lovely talk about what RTLB's do in school.

They are there to support students from years 0 - 10 and their organisation can provide funds to schools to put programmes in place for years 11 - 13.

They are a collaborative service to work with parents, teachers and students. All RTLB's are fully qualified teachers who then do a further 2 years of training to become RTLB's. They are there to advocate for students. Schools will often need to change their ways of dealing with students to support them.

Referrals are made in at the beginning of terms and cases must be closed at the end of every year. Students can't be in the scheme for more than 3-4 terms as this would increase the wait times for others by too much. Students can however be re-referred at any point.

In my experience the changes I've made to my teaching have all been really good for all students and not just the one's that are being supported by the RTLB's.  I have learnt so much from these amazing teachers and feel that collaboratively working with them is always beneficial to students.

Leadership

In the last few weeks I have been thinking hard about what makes a good leader and how can I become one. It started when I went to a Soroptimist breakfast and several female leaders spoke about being bosses and how being female affects their leadership styles. I realised that being a leader is something that I've been trying to do in my professional life and that I actually need to reflect on this as much as anything I do in the classroom. So I've come up with 6 things I have observed in great leaders.

1.  Of the amazing leaders I have worked with one of the most important things I have noticed is that they build people up. They support people to achieve and be the best they can be, and they aren't worried that you will be too good and take their job.

2. Accept responsibility, if you make a mistake own it. This was something told to me a few years ago and it has stuck. If you accept responsibility then you can move forward, it clears the air and remarkably you get a lot more respect for it. Tried this on both sides this definitely works.

3. Honesty, seems obvious but telling the truth to people is really appreciated.

4. Consistency, if you know where you stand it is lovely. Some of the best leaders I have worked with have been consistent in their attitudes but happy and willing to change their ideas if they are given evidence.

5. Actions, they say that they are louder than words. A good leader will be the first to action something. They will be the one who if they ask the whole staff to learn something they will be the one who asks how to do it first.

6. A good leader isn't threatened by someone who is better than them at something. This one is hard and sometimes it's easy to get threatened if someone is better than you at a particular job. Hopefully they will be better than you and you will get an awesome leader who will support you in the same way you've supported them.

I'm not sure if women make better leaders but I do know that we make different leaders. I can't copy the styles of some of the great leaders I have worked with but I can get tips from what they do. Trying to copy someone else's ideas has never worked, but sharing good practice will always be in style.
Sometimes the leaders I have learnt from have been fellow teachers, sometimes they have been students. I have learnt a lot from watching and interacting with truly amazing people. Hopefully all this leadership malarky will rub off at least a little.

Inquiry Cycle

So this is my inquiry cycle so far above is the brief notes version.

Plan for my inquiry, planning is hard but once you have done this bit it gets easier. Yeah right I started this 3 months ago and it's only up to posting standard now.

What are our student’s learning needs?

What do they already know?

How to access the school website and log onto the student portal

Junior class - I need to engage students in their learning by giving them opportunities to rewind and opportunities that are not written to engage them in science. I think the learn, create, share pedagogy will work. They are already using this to some extent in other classes as the whole school is involved in the Toki Pounamu scheme

What sources of evidence have we used?

Assessment data, google forms, thumbs up (class checks of knowledge), Target sheets (middle school maths and science)

Gather & interpret data

- Data collated from Senior class assessments physics 1:1 and feedback from students in a google form. - This way I have quantitative data to compare between methods within a class as well as longitudinal data from previous classes.

- Target sheets collated with assessment data from middle school science class. This way I can quantify what they understood and achieved in each lessons to link this to any changes I have made.

- Junior class need constant attention and there are students with very low reading and writing ages. I need to engage students in their learning by giving them opportunities to rewind and opportunities that are not written to engage them in science. I have data from previous schools and current standardised testing.

What do they need to learn and do?

Students need to learn how to access the class website and use the rewindable learning.

Students need to make their own rewindable learning so they can support themselves.

Juniors

Learn to use the chromebooks features to make it easier for lower ability students to engage in science

How do we build on what they know?

Students are already web savvy and they seem to enjoy knowing what they are doing next so now the plan is going to get the students to rewind if they miss a lesson to find out what they have missed or to go over a subject they didn’t understand.

Juniors

- Build up the learn create share pedagogy in class, work with other teachers so it becomes second nature for juniors

- Use the rewindable moments in class so it becomes second nature

What are our own learning needs?

What do we already know that we can use to promote valued outcomes?

SOLO, PB4L, Woolf Fisher research data on toki pounamu projects

What do we need to learn to do to promote valued outcomes?

Learn, Create Share pedagogy

Learn how to use google sites effectively - make them user friendly/pretty

What sources of evidence/knowledge can we utilise?

Rewindable learning is ubiquitous learning presentation 20th Feb

Toolkit rewindable learning presentation 15th March

Learning from as many sources as possible, Lead teacher days and blogs from other teachers.

Blogs from other teachers in the manaiakalani clusters:

Nicola Wells Biology teacher, secondary school Auckland

Noelene Dunn Maths teacher Secondary School Auckland

Philippa Mallinson Arts teacher Secondary School, West Coast

Design of tasks and experiences

- The maths and science websites are now up and running and linked to the school website so they are now accessible.

- Screencastify lesson parts and put them on the website, already trialling this with the staff website and digital tools.

- Students are going to Learn something, create a learning object and then share it digitally.

- Got to remember not to overload students with new things as they like everyone need time to process new ways of learning.

Teaching actions

Seniors

Start small and work up with them, they already know how to access the site and go over previous presentations of work.

Learn about plants, create a learning object to explain how different parts of the plant work and share on a padlet page that will be linked to the site.

Middle school students

Science fair topic is already planned out online and students need a place to ask questions if they want me to go over something. But so far I will put short videos up from every new topic.

Maths students are going to have rewindable learning for every new topic and quite a few are really keen on this and have spoken to me today. I will also have to come up with extension tasks for this very mixed ability group.

Juniors

Start them investigating earthquakes and give them something to learn they have created quite a lot so far in the class I would like them to start sharing their learning on their blog with an information video, slide or to use their jigsaws to explain why/how earthquakes affect us in New Zealand.

Link to the original document

So following on from a PD session with the lovely Madeline. I've been thinking about how to make the learning sites not only more accessible to students but also the staff. The staff at the school are doing an awesome job and I'm not sure that everyone knows what's going on in other classes, I know I don't.

So yesterday I started my plan to share the amazing work the staff have been beavering away at recently.
1. Put any learning sites that have been made on the school website.
2. Share these in the staff meeting this morning, and ask staff to ask questions about a site that they have viewed.

This actually worked really well with staff and I found out about sites and staff doing this that I had no idea about.
It also had a bit of an effect on other staff that I wasn't expecting. Once staff saw what other departments had achieved several staff asked me how to do the sites and if there was a template. Staff wanted to keep up with others a side effect I wasn't expecting but was totally stoked about. Totally impressed with how well everyone is doing and those that aren't quite there yet are seeing and learning from others.

Problems to solve
a) Students need to know where they can get access to resources.
b) Students also need to have a reason to access these resources.
c) Students need to have access to devices so that they can access the sites.
d) The area we are in needs to have reliable rural internet so students can access this outside of school.
e) Is the site accessible on multiple platforms

Plans/ideas about some of these issues
The students all know where the school website is and frequently access it to find their timetables or information about the school. Today I showed my whanau class the learning sites page and they were all quite interested and excited to see what others were doing. The Junior sites and blogs have lots of diverse and interesting things in them so all the students were really interested in that (MC, CA). Missing classes and wanting not to fall behind is a good reason to use the sites but we also need to instil and love of learning, to build enthusiasm and enjoyment. With the learn create share method I think getting students to share their creations online will help to build up the enthusiasm and enjoyment. The accessibility of the sites on multiple platforms is a bit of an interesting one. We are generally using Chromebooks at school, but students will use lots of devices outside and I feel we need to encourage this. Found a handy wee site that lets you check to see what your google site will look like on a mobile. https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly

Things I have no control over
Hopefully, the juniors will be 1:1 devices quite soon and that will mean that they will have the capacity to access the sites daily. More Chromebooks would be awesome to use with middle school and senior students but hopefully, this will happen in time. I have no control over internet providers, unfortunately.

Rewindable learning

So hard to do rewindable learning while being a perfectionist.
Problems I have found so far:
- I've done a few and it's quite hard to just leave it and move on, with it not being perfect.
- When I use the whiteboard to write on while I'm talking to the class. It works well in class but on film the lights reflecting off the screen make it harder to see.
- Kids still really want to be on film and in the first few films I've done with the juniors they are shouting or trying to get in on the films. I think this will be short lived.
- One to one devices needed for this to work

Positives:
- Students can look back on how to do things in lessons.
- Staff are able to look at how to do things in their own time.
- Staff and students can look back on how to do skills without showing perceived weakness in not knowing how to do something.

Toki Pounamu PLG

Professional learning day at Grey Main School

Today focused on Learn, Create and Share (link to slide show here)

Learn

Digital devices to augment learning in the class. Learning information should be clear and easy to access. Teacher led information should be on learning site not in hapara. 

DON'T WORRY about the look of the site, getting something there is more important than the not having anything on there.

Create

Ideas

• Makerspace movement  
• Solving problems
• Sometimes digitally
• Uses STEM, high spec projects

Students are hopefully given ways to express themselves in a way that has not been given before. Creating an essay is not a new way to share.

If students are creating digital object then that moves you up as a classroom teacher up to the SAMR model. To Augmentation

S - Substitution

A - Augmentation

M - Modification

R - Redefinition

Lots of shared ideas on the padlet this made me realise that I have so much to learn before I can do this. 

Share

Blogging, lots for Philippa to do.

Good for students to connect with a wider audience as this improves their confidence and feedback.

Lots of admin stuff in my notes

Inquiry

http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Pedagogy-and-assessment/Evidence-based-leadership/Data-gathering-and-analysis/The-spiral-of-inquiry

Sharing learning enquiry to model learn create share

Senior results previous years

This is an overview of 2016 compared to national statistics, Decile 6 statistics and 2015

2015 compared to 2014 and national average

2016	Standard
	AS90935 (physics 1.1)	AS90918 (Ag Hort 1.1)	AS90920 (Ag Hort 1.4)	AS90930 (Chem 1.1)	AS90928 (Bio 1.4)
Not achieved	1	2	8	0	7
Achieved	10	11	1	13	4
Merit	3	1	3	3	1
Excellence	1	0	1	0	0
Total	15	14	13	16	12

Table to show the overall results of the group in 2016 in the different standards.

Longitudinal study of results is not necessarily helpful as different students may achieve differently. This is only to be used as a benchmark for looking at overall possible patterns in standards and achievement.