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.