Quality Learning and Teaching

Just another Edublogs.org weblog

#EdublogsClub

This page will include posts for the Edublogs Club challenges

Challenge 19:

Challenge 18:

Artistic Apps

Experimenting with some free artistic Apps today. The first two photos have been altered using DotMatrix.There are lots of designs that you can use and the colours etc can be changed. The third photo was treated with photo sketch, another free App. The last photo uses the App Photobricks. All of these Apps are free. I also used toon camera for iPad in a recent EdublogsClub post, my story.

Challenge 17:  Open Ended

Challenge 16: Story

This story relates the connection between my learning journey and David Thornburg’s primordial metaphors of cave, campfire, waterhole and life. I used toon camera and creative book builder to create the original book. To share on this blog I had to change it to a PDF.

story blog-2knwxad

Challenge 15: Assessment

Using a capacity matrix with an accompanying resource matrix is a great way to involve students in their own learning and to promote independence of learning.

What is a capacity matrix you might ask? Well, it is a visual learning and charting technique created by David Langford and Dr Myron Tribus. Basically, it is a table the breaks down the required aims and outcomes into meaningful capacities.

For instance, the Victorian Curriculum outlines that:

By the end of Level 8, students understand how the selection of text structures is influenced by the selection of language mode and how this varies for different purposes and audiences. They explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to represent different ideas and issues in texts. They interpret texts, questioning the reliability of sources of ideas and information. They select evidence from the text to show how events, situations and people can be represented from different viewpoints.

 So, if we look at the key learning element of “they explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used…” the learning outcome can be broken down much further. For instance students will need to develop their knowledge and understanding of features such as:

  • Alliteration
  • Assonance,
  • Emotive language
  • Colloquial language
  • Rhetorical questions
  • Similes
  • Metaphors
  • Idioms
  • Personification
  • Symbolism
  • Sarcasm and irony

The same can be seen when looking at Text structures, for instance this can be broken down to things such as:

  • Description
  • Sequence
  • Problem and Solution
  • Compare and Contrast
  • Cause and effect

This helps to make it clearer to students what it is they are actually learning and what they must provide evidence of having learnt. The beauty of capacity matrices is that there are a number of levels of learning that students can achieve and encourages depth of learning by encouraging students to reach the “wisdom” level.

Information: I have heard of this.

Knowledge: I understand and can explain this.

Know-how: I can do this on my own.

Wisdom: I can apply this to other situations and teach others.

Accompanied with a resource matrix students are not forced to wait until their teacher is ready to move forward. This does require the teacher or teachers to plan and assess differently. It places much more responsibility in the hands of the students, at the same time, empowering them to take ownership of their learning.

The attachments show how the matrices might look.

Capacity Matrix

resource matrix

To find out more about Capacity Matrices visit the following websites:

www.qla.com.au

www.langfordlearning.co

 

Challenge 14: Sharing

Schools, for many reasons, have been put in the position of being in competition with each other. Whilst technology has had an amazing impact on our society and has provided the opportunity for more transparency it has often been used to increase the competitiveness between schools. Data is now published to the whole community and this is often used to set up what is essentially “leader” boards, as the local context is not really included. It is not used to open up conversations and/or to improve the system. Instead schools that are seen as “under” performing because their data doesn’t have them sitting at the top of the data table have to compete to improve and maintain the student numbers in their school, they have to work towards employing or keeping “quality” teachers and they have to compete for funding and grants.

I believe, like others, that your success at school should not be based on your postcode or the school you choose. Sharratt and Fullan in their book “Putting Faces on the Data”, advise that within a school we need to ensure everyone knows they are responsible or “own” all students in the school. This means that all teachers within the school need to contribute to the learning of “all” students in the school, not just the ones that they have in a classroom. Whilst teachers are limited in their realm of influence outside of their own school setting I think it is our responsibility to work towards improving the whole system. Sharing our learning and resources is one way of doing this. If we all work together there is a better chance of achieving better outcomes for everyone. This is why I have always made time for providing professional learning for other teachers and education staff, be they in my school or in another one. I have contributed to networks and worked with others sharing learning and resources.

The slogun for team, “Together, Everyone, Achieves, More” is a reminder of how working together we can achieve more. I have used these posters in the past and would like to share them with the readers of my blog. I hope they are helpful.

TEAM 1 POSTER

TEAM 2 POSTER

TEAM 3 POSTER

TEAM 4 POSTER

TEAM 5 POSTER

TEAM 6 POSTER

TEAM 7 POSTER

Challenge 13: The Pendulum

“Done that!”

How often do we hear people saying this, when confronted with a new change? Often, they are quite correct. It has been tried before. Sometimes someone will see an idea for a change and think they should or could implement this in their school setting. This can mean a real change in direction and cause a great deal of frustration for staff as they are still trying to implement the last change. Not to mention the students where this is likely to have the greatest impact.

I don’t think anyone implements a change because they think it is a bad idea. One of my favourite sayings, however, is that you have to get the “right things right”. A change can be implemented in a school and it can be done really well but it could be the “wrong” thing and will not bring about the improvement needed. “Open learning spaces” is a good example of a pendulum shift. It was big in the70’s and has been tried by various schools since then with varying degrees of success. It is on the agenda again.

Unfortunately, opening up a learning space does not necessarily mean that there will be improved learning outcomes. Open learning spaces provide opportunities that a single classroom doesn’t but if it doesn’t provide an orderly learning environment with sound pedagogy it is not going to be successful. It is not the space we should focus on but what goes on in that space.

I was very fortunate to be involved in the development of a Year 7 Learning Centre at Mordialloc College. In response to the Quality Learning framework we had made many changes in the College, including processes and pedagogy but had found that the physical structure and traditional process of a secondary college was preventing us from achieving more. The Leading Schools Fund provided us with the opportunity to bring about improvement in the College. It allowed us to knock down walls of 8 existing classrooms and an assembly space to create one open space. We purposefully avoided the term of “open space” learning because of the predicted response of “done that” and because what we wanted was flexible learning spaces, not just an open space. Our journey is documented on the Quality Learning website and is an example of getting “the right things right.

http://www.qla.com.au/videos/csv023-quality-learning-in-year-7/2112871206

Things that helped make this open “flexible” space successful:

  • There was a reason for the change
  • A shared purpose, vision and school values/philosophy already existed
  • A learning and teaching framework existed
  • Change framework and practices implement to bring about the change
  • Planning, preparation and reflection time was provided
  • Implementation of the change took priority
  • Time to implement and evaluate the change
  • Professional learning provided
  • A critical friend utilised to advise and provide feedback

Challenge 12: Embed Something

See posts for Padlet created about Queen Mary 2.

Challenge 11: Giving Feedback

In my early days of teaching I would spend hurs providing students with written feedback that assessed their current performance as judged through a piece of work they had submitted. At the time I thought I was being very helpful and somehow the students would be inspired to do better next time but I soon found that they focused on the grade and they were not interested in the “amazing” notes I had typed up for them. I came to the realisation that I was basically providing a justification for the grade I had awarded for the work and the “feedback” sheet was barely looked at again. If and when I provided time to reflect back on these sheets the majority of students had either lost them or hadn’t given them any more thought since they had been provided to them. Most of us do not have a choice as to whether we can use grades or not and the debate continues as to whether we should have them or not. Alfie Kohn, along with others, have outlined the danger of grades. His article is well worth a read http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/. During my career, however, I didn’t have a choice so I needed to find a way to ensure that students were improving and they were engaged in their learning.

Fortunately, with experience and learning I discovered the need to empower students and involve them in their learning, ensuring that they developed an understanding of the learning process. My recent post outlined how learning intentions and success criteria can make the learning transparent for students. Combining these with explicit, focussed feedback and feed forward discussions provided me with the opportunity to focus on having a developmental impact on student learning and took the focus away from the grade. My assessment approach changed so that the feedback focussed on a discussion related to the learning intentions and success criteria and I found that this way students maintained their motivation and were willing to re-draft their work and feed forward discussions helped students make informed changes to their future learning and allowed them to set individualised learning goals. I have provided a link to Shirley Clarke discussing, “Self, Peer, Teacher” feedback and also Ron Berger’s “Critique and feedback – the story of Austin’s butterfly”. Berger’s video also promotes the idea of the first piece of work not being the final one and clearly shows how “feedback” or “feed forward” can be so successful.

https://youtu.be/DGNp0AJte_c

https://youtu.be/hqh1MRWZjms

Challenge 10: Catch Up Week

Challenge 9: Popular Culture

Don’t forget the Pedagogy! – Popular culture in the classroom

The aim in any classroom should be to have students actively involved in learning. This is not an easy task because the needs and learning styles are so different for every student in the class.

A good teacher will ensure that all students participate in class and will use a variety of strategies to ensure this occurs. This may involve the use of music. I have, unfortunately seen teachers use music as a pacifier (students listening to music using headphones), claiming that the students are engaged in their learning because they are quiet and doing their work. There is a whole lot of research that indicates that, in fact, students will have difficulty learning this way, however that is another debate.

It is crucial to “know” your students; know how they learn, know about them; know their strengths, their weaknesses, know their needs and know their interests. Tapping into the interests of students is a great way to get to know students and to help them understand their own world as well as the world of others. Music can work well in doing this. Content and product, however, should not be the major focus. Sound pedagogical practices need to be applied no matter what the vehicle for learning. Shirley Clarke’s work based around learning intentions and success criteria is a sound basis for making the learning transparent for students and takes the focus off content and product onto learning. Hattie and Timperley (2007) describe three questions that should guide learning for students:

  • Where am I going? (Learning Intention)
  • How am I going? (Success Criteria)
  • Where to next? (Feedback)

Learning intentions takes the focus away from what the student is doing to what the student is learning and success criteria assists students in knowing whether they have been successful or not and helps them plan for the future.

Taking this research into account I created some differentiated workshops for Year 7-8 English students to improve their “listening” skills. Students were placed into groups of 8-10 based on their learning need. I developed the following learning intentions and success criteria.

I will understand:

  • the importance of listening skills
  • there are different levels of listening.
  • how language is used for different audiences and purposes.

Success criteria

I will be able to:

  • make a judgment
  • identify and explain issues
  • respond by asking questions and/or taking notes
  • remember key ideas
  • hear and identify key words
  • pay attention
  • prepare myself for listening

Music was the vehicle for this learning. I specifically selected the first songs and these were by Archie Roach, an Aboriginal Australian singer and song writer because his music related to other texts being studied in the school and covered one of the curriculum priority areas. The learning intentions and success criteria were discussed prior to any activity. The activities, depending on the group ranged from “preparing to listen”, to counting specific words in the song, to discussing key ideas, to students responding by asking questions about the song and ideas contained in it, to taking notes, exploring issues and making judgments about those issues. Once students had been successful in “hearing and identifying” key ideas we moved onto student-selected music where listening and discussion centered round the ideas and issues.

These activities were successful in a number of ways. Students were engaged and they were active but more importantly they all knew that they were learning and they knew what they had to do in the future to be successful. The added benefit for myself was that I got to know my students even better.

http://www.shirleyclarke-education.org

https://visible-learning.org/john-hattie/

Challenge 8: Student Privacy

Where does that info go?

Many of us surf the web and various web sites without even thinking about what is going on behind the scenes.

A read of the Australian Education Privacy Policy is a document that is certainly worth becoming familiar with and could be a great document to explore in the classroom.

https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy

https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/complete_privacy_policy

Challenge 7: Listicle

The 10 best things about retirement for a teacher (so far)

Are you a teacher thinking about retirement?

Teaching is a very rewarding career but it can be difficult to make the break. There is always something exciting happening in education, there are projects you have started and want to see through to the end, there are students who you have nurtured and would like to see graduate and of course there is that fear of not having that mental stimulation through the job and the interaction with your colleagues.

Though I am only in the infancy of my retirement the following outlines the list of the 10 things I think are really good about not having to work and 10 things about how to fill in your time.

  1. Make an appointment for anytime of the day. “Yes 10 a.m. would be just fine for that appointment. It gives me time to walk the dog, have a leisurely breakfast and get ready”. No longer do I have to fit my life around work, rather I can fit my work around life.
  2. Work when and if I like. I’m having six months off work but am keeping my eyes open for options. It’s my choice.
  3. Rest if I become unwell. I’ve lost count of how many times I have dragged myself into school even if I was sick, and/or continued to work from my sickbed. Lack of exposure to students’ running noses and sneezes will hopefully diminish colds and flu.
  4. Utilise my gym membership every day of the week. No longer do I have to waste that gym membership because I could only manage to go a couple of times a week as I was so tired. It’s not nearly as busy during the day so that is also a bonus.
  5. Travel at non-peak times. Yeh!!! Cheap airfares and accommodation. Where to next?
  6. Clear my mind. This means I’m not consumed every moment of the day about what I have to do at work or planning throughout those “many” holidays that teachers get.
  7. Focus on the things I’ve always wanted to do. A room full of craft items are waiting for me to complete them. I can feel those creative juices flowing. I’ve re-invented my office to a craft space.
  8. Nurture friendships. Many friends have suffered from my business over the years. The great thing is that some of them are approaching retirement too so we are now able to plan adventures too. It is important to me to remain a friend to the school. As I live close to the school I can attend important events if my diary permits. Technology also allows me to see what is happening at the school. It is my choice how much involvement I have with anyone.
  9. Do the housework and gardening on a week-day!! No longer are my weekends filled with housework and pulling weeds or thrown into chaos if I go away for a weekend.
  10. No more dressing for the job. The ritual of putting on make-up, blow drying hair and agonising over what clothes to put on that will keep me comfortable inside and out the classroom has gone.

So those were the good things about retirement but how am I going to fill in my time. My colleagues helped me create a “bucket” list.

10 things to do in my retirement

  1. Travel: I have a wish list of places I want to visit and I can now do this at non-peak times. Travel doesn’t have to be in foreign climes though; there are many local areas to visit. I plan to be a tourist in my own town.
  2. Volunteer or part-time work: There are many opportunities to volunteer. This could include programs in schools such as literacy, numeracy or mentoring. Exam supervision or CRT are paid options in schools. Other options I plan on exploring are: football clinics and migrant support programs. Nursing homes are always looking for assistance and male friends have told me attending Men’s Shed is great experience.
  3. Exercise: I am now using the gym how I always wanted to. I have a set time to go so that each of my mornings has a routine. Of course, there is a certain amount of flexibility in this. The beauty of this is that you get to know the people at the gym who support you in the achievement of your goals.
  4. Create: I have enthusiastically gathered a whole lot of creative projects over the years: a quilt set (although I can barely sew), card making, scrap booking, quilling. These are all waiting for me in my re-organised craft room. I also have a great desire to write, particularly historical narratives. Look out for my first best seller!
  5. Relax: This is retirement after all so I plan to take the time to smell the roses, both literally and metaphorically. I have been told that you cannot kill roses but I’ve achieved this a number of times. I love gardens so I plan to give my roses the time they require. It is about balance. One of the things worrying me about retirement was that I would just sit there and do “nothing”. This is not the case.
  6. Online activities: There are many online activities to become involved in. I have already joined a scrapbooking and sewing club online. As well as participating in an edublogs challenge.
  7. Community groups: There are many community groups to become involved in. These include: reading, sporting, cultural. I have opted for a walking club because it provides me with exercise and engages me with other people of a similar age in my community. The other beauty of this group is that I actually get to travel (monthly events) to other areas to walk.
  8. Learn: There are so many things to learn, be it related to education or personal interest. Local councils often provide cheap or free workshops or seminars. The Victorian Institute of Teaching provides lists of accredited professional learning.
  9. Family: Families of teachers can be the first to suffer from the workload of teachers. I plan to see, support and enjoy my family during my retirement. They are the ones that matter most and you never know when they may be taken from you.
  10. Sleep: When I was teaching I averaged about 6 hours sleep. I thought this was enough and would continue after I retired. It hasn’t I am now sleeping about eight hours (if the dog lets me). I am feeling much better for it.

Life is short! If you decide to retire, cherish the contribution you have made to teaching but move on and make the most of your new extra time. “Life is precious”.

 

Challenge 6: Challenges

“Getting the Right things Right”

I have always been someone that paid a great deal of attention to detail and was once told by a colleague that I was one of the most reflective people they knew, so it probably wasn’t surprising that I became a fan of change management frameworks.

I have seen many people bring about change in educational settings. Some of these changes have been exciting, innovative and of great educational worth. On the other hand I have seen change undertaken for change sake and whilst these might be executed well, they are not sustainable because they do not bring about the improved outcomes required for the school. In other words they get the “wrong” thing right. I have been very lucky in gaining training in two change management frameworks: David Langford’s, PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) and Dame Pat Collarbone’s Change2 (Why, Who, Where, What, How, When).

Both these frameworks and my experience in change manage have taught me that there are some key elements in bringing about effective, sustainable change:

I do believe though, that many do forget to look at the root causes and risk getting the “Wrong” thing right, rather than the “right” thing right. I have found that once people have been introduced to these processes they never go back. The challenge is convincing leaders that they need it because, of course, you don’t become a leader in a school unless you go through a fair bit of change. To combat this, I have focused on my “sphere of influence”, e.g. my classroom, my PLT, Leadership team, etc. In this way I am gaining some success and modelling the processes to others.

For more information about –

PDSA: Langfordlearning.com or www.qla.com.au

Change2: http://www.creatingtomorrow.org.uk/products-the-process

 

 

Challenge 3:  Leadership

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I particularly like this quote about leadership because it highlights, amongst many other things, the importance of intrinsic motivation. My experience working in and with schools is that many schools are doing amazing things and achieving some very good results but often teachers are doing these things because they are “instructed” to; not because they have a belief in the process or the change. They often focus on the “product”, e.g. the ship or the essay, rather than building desire and passion for exploring and learning the unknown for themselves and their students. Dr Anthony Muhammad has written an interesting book, The Will to Lead, the Skill to Teach”, well worth a read. The book describes and provides strategies for how school leaders can create a healthy school culture. One where everyone shares the same purpose and direction.

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly, I returned to twitter today as part of the Edublogs Club challenge, and found a tweet from the Deming Institute directly linked to our prompt 2 – my office. It is called “Personal Kanban: Bringing Focus to Chaos – Part 1 (Evolving Agile) just what I’m trying to do with my office. Basically he uses sticky notes on a board to plan and divides it into four sections: 1. To do 2. Today 3. WIP (work in progress) 4. Done. This reminded me of the gannt chart that I have used in various forms over the years. The gannt was introduced to me by the Quality Learning team in Australia. They have a free download on their website, www.qla.com.au. I however, simplified this for home by using sticky notes on the back of my office door. One sticky note for each day was placed horizontally across the back of the door as a heading and then sticky notes of a different colour were placed under the day I intended to do the task. The beauty of this system was that I didn’t have to wait for a computer to boot up to see what I was meant to be doing and I could easily move the tasks around.

Challenge Two: My Office

Having an office or study is something that I find fairly crucial, as I tend to spread myself out, using the floor as a filing space. Not a good look if you have to work in your lounge and/or dining room. Thankfully my home has a study with a connecting entertainment space that I am about to take over.

If my workspace is cluttered and a mess, my mind is too and I find I have trouble starting a task. I don’t, however, work in an orderly fashion and find myself making a mess, then having to spend time cleaning up the mess. A great excuse for not having to do those corrections or write those reports but not a great process for getting things done. I do love to have a clear desk and kid myself that I have a good filing system until I have to find something. I used to work with someone whose desk was always chaotic, unlike myself who had folders and labels to tell me where everything was. Invariably though, I would not be able to find it and have to resort to my colleague who could put her hands on it immediately, so my theory of clutter doesn’t apply to everyone.

Having just retired one of my first tasks is to clear out my office and change the entertainment room into a craft/activities room. Over the years I have purchased many craft projects, such as quilts, beading, knitting, scrap booking to name just a few. Most of them remain unfinished so I am really looking forward to having time to complete them and having a space that I can feel creative and organised in. Of course, I will still need space for my computer and printer as I plan to do some writing too. To do this I have to discard all the non-essential papers and resources I have gathered over the years. I am at that stage of making a mess to create order. I think the key to order is having a set place for everything.

My dog, Luther is a little confused with the chaos but just supervises quietly.
I love talking and constantly talk to myself: verbally stepping through processes. Having a dog is good because then people think you are talking to your dog. I have a music system as I like to listen to music as I work. My new space also has a lot of sporting memorabilia from which I can draw inspiration. It also allows me to throw the doors wide open to let in fresh air and sunshine.

I’ve a fair way to go yet so better stop blogging and start clearing.

Challenge One:My Story

I’ve always seen the potential of blogging, particularly in the field of education, however, I have not always been able to utilise it to its full extent. One of my issues, I believe, is that I haven’t been clear about my purpose and as I commence this blogging project I will need to revisit my purpose. I have just retired but during my career in education I utilised blogs as a group learning tool and set up a number of blogs for my students to share and connect with others. I would however, like to continue my learning in education and contribute to discussions and learning of others. I believe blogging is a way that I could do this. My particular interests are the connection of learning to sport and systems thinking in relation to education and the empowerment of learners. #EdublogsClub 1: My Blog Story


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