On Saturday, May 26 our #DreamTeam banded together to amplify our learning at an exciting event at Ormiston Junior College called "Next Practice Assessment". This day was inspired by the removal of National Standards and the presenters shared a range of research, strategies and thoughts on where we will go next as a country. What a real opportunity for us to think and act differently in our new kura. Some takeaways for me included:
transdisciplanry versus interdisciplinary and how this impact assessment practices
need to unpack the 'essence' of the learning areas int he NZC
use of the NZC levels, not NSs, will we also use progressions?
designour approach to give our educators 'permission' to try new approaches
look at relationships BEFORE timetables
revisit what we VALUE frequently, it's about our learners being happy so they can learn (sing, laugh, move and love)
integrate Maori values authentically, teach through Maori culture
consider our approach to andragogy- digital badging for our staff nduction
Valuable time needs to be spent establishing NORMS and embedding our beliefs about learning- need to align mental models
Fix, clarify or LET IT BE
Share levels of consultation with staff, they only need to know and participate in some things, yet keep it all transparent to make BETTER use of EVRYONE's time
Perry Rush says we need only to look at our learners- THERE is our curriculum. Powerful pedagogical tools 1.Questioning 2.think aloud, modelling this 3 research yourself-third person
Learning to learn grows the learning muscle
Investigate 3 pedagogies- problem based-Hattie, primary experiences (Brooks and Brooks, 1993), memorable (Nuthall, 2007) to have a clearer picture of our approach
As part of a symposium hosted by the West Auckland Principals' Association, the Strategic Leadership Team had an opportunity to listen to American educator, Pete Hall, share his ideas around creating a culture of reflective practice within a school setting.
When there is a culture of reflective practice, the commonalities define the culture, whether it is good, bad or mismatched. Hall identified the following fundamentals or building blocks for reflective practice:
Relationships, roles and responsibilities (based around interpersonal safety and identified strengths)
Clear expectations and communication
Celebrating and also calibrating - when things go ary
Goal setting and follow through
Professional learning communities (PLC) and teacher leadership support
Transformational feedback
Differentiated coaching strategies
There are 4 stages along the continuum of Self Reflection - Unaware, Conscious, Action and Refinement. Pete walked us through the tool he has designed for self reflection, it is part continuum and part matrix, but is a comprehensive tool for exploring where you may be sitting in terms of your development as an educator.
The video below provides a metaphor for understanding the Continuum of Self Reflection.
We need to consider that when we categorise people, we often miss the important details, both the good and the bad that give us a fuller picture of that individual. We have an obligation to recognise people's strengths, to name them and to build upon them. As a leader, it is important to pay attention, to know what motivates and inspires an individual, and how each team member wants to be celebrated and acknowledged.
An interesting point to keep in mind is, the way each of us teaches is a reflection of self. Observable behaviours and actions are just the tip of the iceberg. Below the water, the unseen, the driving forces include each individual's decisions, feelings, thoughts and beliefs. When exploring choices made by educators, a useful question could be to ask, " I noticed you did this...What other actions/options did you forgo in order to do this?"
Building teacher capacity needs time. We need to consider how to increase collective capacity - through robust professional learning communities, and also how to increase individual capacity - differentiate supervisory, coaching and feedback practices. You can't just work on a team, you need to work on both the team and individuals. We need to ensure we match our teachers needs and work deliberately towards point B.
The Cycle of Reflective Teaching
"The more reflective you are, the more effective you are." Hall & Simeral.
Reflection is thinking with purpose, that leads to outcomes. There are 4 key steps in the reflective cycle.
Awareness: keeping ideas, goals and outcomes in mind
Thinking intentionally
Assess impact: pay attention. Ask "Am I getting better?"
Responsiveness: make adaptations
The reflective cycle is like going up a spiral staircase, there is a little more expertise with each iteration.
Awareness
"Leaders don't change people. They create environments where people change themselves" Justin Tarte.
Educators need to know their why - why is it that they are in teaching in the first place? They need to know their learners, what they are teaching and the most effective pedagogical approaches to convey this.
Thinking Intentionally
Clarity precedes competence. Visionary leadership supports this when there is:
a common language - so everyone knows what is meant by 'buzz phrases'
common goals
a clear plan for communicating these goals
4 Key Questions:
What does success at our school look like?
What are we truly trying to accomplish here?
Why all this emphasis on reflective practice?
How is reflective practice going to help us improve our results anyway?
Know your why. It makes a difference, as illustrated in the video, when we are connected to a purpose (the why). We often experience burnout when we've forgotten 'why?'
Assess Impact
"The applause is a celebration, not only of the actors, but also of the audience. It constitutes a shared moment of delight." John Charles Polanyi
Celebrate what you value. Constantly assess the impact, results, effectiveness and short comings of anything you try.
Responsiveness
This is all about goal setting. Never mistake motion for action. Keep in mind that planning allows you to be adaptable, as opposed to blindly following the plan. We looked at SMART goal setting, with some tweaks and adjustments:
S: Strategically aligned to each other and our clear, compelling vision
M: Measurable
A: Attainable -Aggressive - Audacious (going from a low rung to a running jump)
R: Relevant
T: Time bound
Teachers need to reflect on:
What are we focused on as a school or team?
What is my personal, professional goal? What do I want to get better at?
So overall, a thought provoking day, with some useful tools and questions to apply to change leadership at Matua Ngaru School as we support our learners, educators and school community to ride the wave of change.
On April 26, Wendy, Kirstin and I attended "the Learning Brain" Conference at Waipuna hosted by the Learning Network. The two keynotes, both well known experts, certainly compelled our brains to learn! Nathan Wallis began the day enlightening us with how much we have learned about cognition, or the Learning Brain, or Tikaka o Ka Roro, since the 1980s due to advances in technology, namely scanning. Before this, all we knew about brains was learned from researching dead brains. He provoked us by sharing the fact that genius has very little to do with our genetics and that there are no genes that pre-determine your intelligence (did you know we have 3000 less genes than a fruit fly?!). The biggest developmental impact on our brains comes from how many spoken words a baby hears in their first 1000 days which is known as the diad or one on one relationship. Those who have a poor diad have a greater risk of brain development but these can be counter-balanced or 'absorbed' by resiliency factors which include: birth order, gender, parent home for first year, learn to play an instrument, speak multiple languages, educated parents, close relationships with extended families. Those the risks continue with alcohol-drug abuse, physical abuse, transient, not spoken to in native language etc.
He then continued to re-educate us on the neuro-sequential brain, and this is where the penny drops. Brains 1,2 and 3 are compulsory- all info comes in through these brains (think of a four story house) and we need these to live
Something else we need to bare in mind is that our brain is not completely developed until we are in our twenties and females usually faster than males (and first born is usually faster too). He also stated that a teenagers learning brain shuts off for a few years, so they are more like a 3 year old than a 16 year old.
Provocation: prisons are full of males that are not first born, many in their twenties, what do we do with this information?!
Andrew Fuller followed with information about how to rewire our brain, bombarding us with facts about the science of our brains and that 'goals are good but systems are better'. Meaning that we need to develop systems that enable the full potential of our brain power, namely eating well and sleeping well. He shared information about the neurochemicals in our brain and how they influence our actions and how our systems can enhance and amplify desired effects. For instance, to increase dopamine, which motivates, gives pleasure and increases attention we should engage in problem solving and sports and avoid computer games and we should eat fish, oats, peanuts, seeds and tofu. After a quick break we were back to Nathan Wallis who talked to us about X Factor Education. Our brain is a biological relationship machine which is based on the neuron, or brain cell. There are different types of neurons but at the center of each is an electrical charge and when neurons connect it is this charge that connects to form neural pathways and this is where the information is stored (connectivisim theory). The brain has a system for keeping or rejecting the synaptic connections iand this is where myolin comes in. Myolin (white matter- fat based- insulator over the pathways) is laid down when we practice a skill- each time adds another layer and it needs to be done 90ish times to become truly 'learned'. So our prior knowledge is a network of synaptic connections (consider how fast we learn fractions as an isolated lesson versus learning fractions as we learn to bake). Nathan says that the love of learning comes in brain 3 and we must be careful to not kill this brain, and the hippocampus can be thought of as the 'google' of our brain, not the library. Our happy hormone, endorphins, enable myolin to be laid down more quickly and thus make learning faster. So how do we increase endorphins? Sex is the biggest rush of endorphins! So since this can't be addressed in a school context we need to develop situations and learning experiences to heighten:
1.Laughing -laughter yoga,
2.Movement is intricately related to learning- fidgeting is good!
3.Our Major Pedagogy- should be singing! #1 way to release endorphins. If we are singing we are not in SURVIVAL mode.
To decrease these we encourage the release of cortisol. When cortisol is released is removes the latest learning (the last synaptic connection) and he suggests even using the words 'no' or 'don't' versus could you.... can release cortisol. So as educators we can think of the brain as a garden where endorphins fertilize learning and cortisol is pesticide that kills the newest learning.
Myolin is the ashpalt of our brain - making our synaptic connections permanent knowledge/skills.
Poutama- MOE- symbolic of learning brain
Endorphins speed up learning.
Countries with compulsory music programmes produce best mathematicians eg. Hungary, Japan, Netherlands…
Autistic children- have higher levels of cortisol
Brain’s job is to VISUALISE oral language- 25% of the brain pictures what you say whether it is do or don’t so if we don’t want them to do something don’t use those words- say the opposite.
Takeaways:
Then we were back to Andrew who brought use back to discussing the brain and food relationship in more detail. Some highlights:
How do we diagnose the ‘ blockages’? In the different areas?
Language and Words, Spatial Reasoning, Thinking and Logic, Perceptual & Motor Coordination, Planning & Sequencing, Numbers, People Skills, Concentration & Memory,
Increase visuals. Get kids to point to stuff. Provide repetition. Note taking- break page into 3 parts with a venn diagram at bottom (see pic). Give your memory a hand. Silence. Similarities and differences. Relationships - how do we collectively own the kids to create a powerful sense of belonging
Need our kids to know to ask for help. Help our kids know what they are good at.
Anxious and avoidant times (survival type responses)- use the growth mindset to manage the challenges.
My brain is a binary system.
Decision Making→ PICCA: problem then 5 whys I wants, Choices, Comparisons and Action.
Shark thoughts (i should be able to …) and Dolphin thoughts (helpful ideas!).
Teach kids to concentrate! Concentration→
Happy Wanderers- Frequent Flyers- Spies (know more about the school than anyone else, love challenges)- Amplifiers (make everything louder and more intense)- Fidgeters (tend to collect things)- Star Trekkers (give them a chance to get things wrong- make them take risks). Do not feed the fears
How can ‘ David’s beat Goliath’s’
How smart are we? (self, people, music, picture, logic, word, number, body…) → analyse our strengths (MI quiz)
Optical illusions… where’s wally? What do you see?
Prioritisation. Learn to prioritise. What do you need to do NEXT? KIS = success. Be the boss?
Glass half empty? Focus on what IS there not what is not. The magic happens when we are well beyond our comfort zone.
It takes 6 weeks to form a habit (to cover the synaptic connection with enough myolin)
Wow. Overloaded learning brain! Need to learn to morph our sharks into dolphins, not care what others think and turn our opponents into our allies. If we fall down 7 times, we get up 8!
On Saturday, May 26 our #DreamTeam banded together to amplify our learning at an exciting event at Ormiston Junior College called "Next Practice Assessment". This day was inspired by the removal of National Standards and the presenters shared a range of research, strategies and thoughts on where we will go next as a country. What a real opportunity for us to think and act differently in our new kura. Some takeaways for me included:
