Inquiry 'stocktake' Reflection and direction for this year

Task: Use the ‘inquiry stocktake’ doc to reflect on and write about what you aim to learn about this year

1. Identifying valued learning outcomes (VLOs) to focus on:

Throughout last year, the inquiry framework/guidelines and step-by-step blog post suggestions that were provided to us from Woolf Fisher were highly useful to support us in developing and implementing an in depth inquiry.

It will be useful to have a similar framework provided to us throughout this year as a support to our learning and developing inquiry. It will also be useful if we can have time in our meetings to reflect on each others inquiries, leave comments or give each other suggestions/support.

2. Profiling students’ learning in those VLOs:

I found the profiling of students' learning really difficult last year as my topic branched from the key competencies rather than learning areas. Therefore, I had to create ways to assess the children in front of me, rather than use formative assessments which were readily available and tested.

Going into this year, I feel more confident with how I will be able to profile students' learning as I am confident that my topic will allow me to utilise readily available and tested formative assessments.

3. Generating hypotheses (especially teaching):

It was really important last year to discuss the data I found with teachers and experts in the field I was working with. I was also really fortunate to be a Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher last year which meant I had a group of teachers from around New Zealand who I was constantly networking with. With the MIT group, we did a lot of work on generating our hypotheses. This process resulted in quite a different focus to what I had originally thought I would focus on.

This year, I will not have this additional opportunity to support me in my inquiry. I would therefore find it extremely useful to have opportunities to bounce ideas off others in our CoL meetings. I will utilise the frameworks and ideas from MIT19 to ensure I create robust and thoughtful hypotheses. In addition, through sharing of ideas in our last CoL meeting, I learned that one of the other CoL teachers is going to be working on a very similar inquiry to mine in a year 7/8 classroom. We hope to meet with each other, bounce ideas of each other and ensure our inquiries can support and enhance each other's inquiries.

4. Testing hypotheses (investigating own teaching):

I want to ensure that I collect student voice more regularly throughout this year. I collected student voice last year however not very regularly.

5. Using research literature and other sources to identify more effective approaches:

Last year, we noticed that we were limited in our access to academic literature. It will be important to discuss this with people who can support us if it becomes an issue during research this year. Other resources I could possibly make more use of this year are Best Evidence Synthesis (BES). Another resource which could be useful to me is Sheena Cameron's book on oral language.

6. Implementing new approaches:

It was a challenge to implement new approaches without 'wasting' valuable learning time. It was really important that there was value in anything that was implemented. Last year, it was clear that the approach I implemented was engaging for learners and provided them opportunities to create and share their learning. This year, I am going to have to think about what implementation of a new approach will look like and how it will fit into our classroom.

7. Monitoring (and tweaking) new approaches:

Having a record of my inquiry through blog posts was really important so I could reflect, make changes, and go back to previous approaches or ideas. Hyperlinks on blog posts were also really useful for this.

8. Evaluate shifts in own teaching

9. Evaluate shifts in student learning:

I found this really challenging last year as my topic was not one which I could easily utilise formative assessment tools. Even at the end of the year, I did not feel entirely confident that comparisons of data were accurate and fair representations. I feel more confident coming into this year of evaluating shifts in student learning. I feel that the topic of critical thinking through reading and writing will be more easy to measure than critical thinking and interpersonal skills online. I have already begun by creating a more detailed rubric to measure blog posts.

10. Keep a clear and detailed record of all stages of inquiry:

The process of keeping track of each stage of the inquiry process was personally highly helped from having a professional blog. For someone who was looking at my blog and wanting to learn from what I did, the labels would have helped. For me, I found it most useful to use the label, CoL or 2019 to track my journey. This year, I will work with the CoL group to think of any other ways we can make following our inquiry more user-friendly.

KPMG Term 3

Today we had the opportunity to pitch our tool to our MIT colleagues. This was a great way of sharing our work so far this year. I felt confident with presenting my work and I had some really useful feedback and suggestions.

- We discussed the use of the word 'cybersmart.' We talked about how this word is a noun, not a verb. Therefore, we wouldn't talk about 'doing cybersmart' but instead 'learning about being cybersmart.'

- Dorothy suggested that I look at the latest Summer Learning Journey report which touches on the importance of interpersonal skills.

- It was also suggested that I use the word 'kind' rather than 'nice' when describing how we communicate online. Using explicit language which makes sense to the children is essential when teaching how to be cybersmart.

Language Acquisition

At our CoL meeting, Dr. Jannie Van Hees talked to us about language. She referred to language in two different ways:

- Being able to receive the language (decoding)

- Being able to use the language (comprehension)

She emphasised the importance of learning being active. This is important to retain learner attention. This includes the process of being metacognitive with the children. This process of metacognition is something which we are always looking into and is a huge part of the way we do maths in our school (DMIC maths).

Jannie discussed the importance of detail. She talked about how it is easy for the default to become less detail however as teachers, we should constantly be trying to pull more detail out from the children.

Another thing that Jannie talked about which matches messages we have received from the DMIC mentors who come into the classroom is the idea that expecting hands up is something that is hindering language.

Jannie challenged us to think about whether this is something that is common across the classrooms in our school and also across our schools in Manaiakalani. I strongly believe this is a common occurrence and is something which we are constantly reflecting on, particularly in maths. A challenge to myself is to think about how I can extend this understanding to reading and writing so that language acquisition (particularly oral language) is a focus right through the school day and then also into the digital world when children are learning from home.

Reference:

Dr Jannie Van Hees (2019)

HMW (How might we) Task

Following the redefining of our problem, we were then sent off to provide feedback on our colleagues problems. We did this using post-it notes to leave questions to get them thinking. Here is my problem with the questions which were left:

We then had some time to reorganise the suggestions which we received. We could organise them however we liked so they made the most sense to us. I organised mine based on similar ideas.

Changing my ways

As teachers, we are constantly inquiring into our practice to discover the best way of teaching the learners who are sitting in front of us. Sometimes, this may require us to step outside of our comfort zones to try new techniques and ideas, and also this may require us to change our ways.

I am a person who likes routine. As a teacher, it is important to follow routines but also be prepared to be flexible. Things can change at any time, and we have to be prepared to adapt our routines appropriately.

As a teacher, I have learned that it is not possible to ever have everything 'completed.' There is always something further down the list to be working on. I have had to learn how to prioritise tasks and to some extent, alter my mindset for this to happen. The main priorities for me as a teacher are the children who turn up to school every day to learn. I need to be organised and prepared for the children who come through the classroom doors at 8:30am every morning. This includes being prepared, refreshed, and organised in myself.

Therefore, the word which stands out most to me from this term of teaching is 'priorities.' I need to be constantly thinking about in what order my priorities fall at a particular moment in time.

Miss West and the Protractors

During the process of completing a class on air episode, I was able to reflect on my teaching. Being able to watch myself teach allowed me to be critical of what I could be doing better, and what I have been doing well.

 Follow the link below to see my Class on Air site!

Digital CV

I have been been creating a digital CV which I will be able to use and continue adding to it in the years to come. My digital CV shares artefacts demonstrating capabilities of my practice in a digital environment.

Click the link below to visit my digital CV:

MDTA Documentary

I have come to the end of my first year teaching! It has been a year full of rewards and challenges, and I have had a huge amount of support throughout.  Having the opportunity to work closely alongside my mentor teacher has been amazing and has supported me immensely in gaining confidence teaching in a digital environment.

One of our challenges is to accelerate the learning of our ākonga. To support this challenge, learners all have a digital device to help them overcome potential barriers to learning and to support them in being future-focused learners.  In the same way, I am coming into a teaching career where schools look very different to how they did when I was at school. It is important for teachers to be future-focused in their pedagogy. Being part of the MDTA where I have had weekly digital immersion professional learning, part-time university towards my BEd (Hons), as well as working alongside my mentor teacher throughout the year, has supported me to accelerate in my learning to ensure I become a confident and future-focused teacher.

In this MDTA documentary, I share how learners in my class have used Learn-Create-Share:

Manaiakalani Film Festival 2016

Today was filled with excitement as about 100 films created across the cluster were brought together during a day of festivities. Students from the 12 schools of the Manaiakalani cluster came through the Sylvia Park Hoyts cinema to see themselves and their classmates on the big screen! The films were created with the NZ curriculum vision statement in mind: "...for young people to be confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners" (MoE, 2007).

Photo: As part of the MDTA, we spent the day assisting with the ushering of the schools in and out of the theatres.

Eight showings were held in three theatres throughout the day, each with purposeful selection of films so students could see themselves and students from their own school on the screen. The movie which I created with my students was shown three times throughout the day. Check out the finished product of the movie, here. If you would like to see other films from the festival, click here.

The schools of the Manaiakalani cluster.

Developing a PRT site

Today, we had the opportunity to continue working on our PRT sites. Collecting evidence of the practising teacher criteria is a requirement of becoming fully registered. I had already started gathering evidence of my practice, however I had only been storing artefacts on my site as links. I had spent time ensuring the information was there, rather than the aesthetics of the site. Therefore, time was spent making the pages easier to navigate, through use of buttons, in order for the audience to comfortably look through my site. My site is now starting to take shape and becoming more personalised to me. Here is a screenshot of the home page of my site so far:

Throughout the day, it became evident just how much we have learned this year and how many artefacts we have created which support our growth in the Practising Teacher Criteria. My next step is to continue adding more artefacts for this year, as well as embedding artefacts/ docs where possible, rather than just adding links.

Creating a class onAir episode

Today, we began to plan for our first attempts at creating a Class onAir episode. The day started with Matt Goodwin giving us some handy tips for setting up the episode, including tips for filming. Matt is one of the 2016 Google Class OnAir Teachers. 2016 is the first year that Google Class OnAir has run. It includes five teachers from the Manaiakalani cluster of schools sharing their teaching and learning process in the form of videos, in depth planning, reflections on lessons, and student learning. Check out the sites for these five teachers by clicking the link above.

Our aim was to complete most aspects of a Class onAir episode so that next week, we can film, edit, and complete an episode. Our first step was to create a site. Using the HTML for Matt's site, we began creating our page. I began by creating my title design. I still need to add photos of my students, however the beginning of the design (created through Google draw and Keynote) looks like this:

I then began creating a detailed plan of my episode. Note, this is still in the process of being planned so details may still change!

As part of the process, I also used Keynote to begin creating buttons which will link through to individual student blogs from the site. 

Through the process of creating a Class onAir episode, I have come to appreciate the extent of work required by the Google Class onAir teachers to create their sites and to post each new episode! Next week, I hope to film the lesson and complete the episode.

I think the process of creating Class onAir episodes is a great was to reflect on my teaching, to act on these refections, and to make learning rewindable for students.  

Universal Design for Learning

As part of our term 4 inquiry, Ch...ch...ch...ch...changes (The Material World), I created this site which follows a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for students to use in their learning about Pseudoscience.

It was interesting that learners found it difficult to navigate in this site. I believe this was due to the fact that our students have been using our current class site for their learning during the year, so this new site was unfamiliar to them. More scaffolding will be required in the future for using a site like this.

Click the link below to explore the Pseudoscience site which I created:

Students were linked the this site, through our current site, here.

Term 4 Digital Immersion PLG

The aim of today was to create a teaching resource with a Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The day started with a discussion around the variety of ways our students best learn and their differing learning needs. This then linked into a discussion around how, as teachers, we need to be creating multi-modal resources and learning experiences which allow student's to have choice in their learning and which are appropriate for the various students in our class. This concept, which is known as a Universal Design for Learning (UDL), was explained by Chrissie Butler from Core Education, in this Core EdTalk. Chrissie Butler explained the importance of proving multi-modes to learning experiences so all students are engaged and have the necessary resources required to learn.

We felt strongly about the importance of learners being encouraged to use modalities which they may not always find the easiest to use as it is not always going to be possible for these learners to respond to and retrieve information from their modality of choice. This concept got me thinking about next steps in my inquiry - how can I be encouraging students to engage in learning when it is not presented in their favoured modality? To continue down this path, it is going to be necessary to find some other teachers or researchers who have looked into this idea.

How might this look in the classroom?. A discussion around this began with a look at research which has been undertaken by the Woolf Fisher Research Centre (WFRC). It has been suggested by the WFRC (2016) that learning experiences should include information presented through multi-modalities, and which include high reading mileage as well as wide and deep reading.

I began to plan a learning experience using a UDL for the Material World/ Nature of Science. As an introduction, I planned for students to explore Pseudoscience. I gathered a number of resources, including readings, images, infographics, videos, and also included a scientific method google drawing which students will be able to work with. Here is my plan so far:

I plan to use this learning experience in the weeks to come. As our team began inquiring into how we could use these findings of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre during term 3, I wanted to now challenge myself to think about how I could possibly make learning experiences more interactive for learners. During discussions with others, it was suggested that I think about how I could be engaging students who are absent from lessons.

Here is a screenshot of a learning experience created for term 3:

I have listed ideas around how I could possibly improve a learning experience like the one above in the future:

• I could use buttons which are common for different things across learning experiences (e.g. audio explanation of task, screencast explanation of task, article, school journal, video).
• I could make it clear as to what links to a video, what links to a reading, what links to a DLO template.
• I could also be thinking more about how I create choice for students.

References:

Butler, Chrissie. (2012). Universal Design for Learning. Core EdTalks. Retrieved from http://edtalks.org/#/video/universal-design-learning

Woolf Fisher Research Centre (26 August 2016). Manaiakalani Research Presentation: Manaiakalani Hui: 26.08.16 - Rebecca Jesson, Aaron Wilson

Future-focused learning and coding

We need to be teaching students in a future-focused way. What does this look like and why is this important? In 2014, a report was presented to the Ministry of Education by the 21st century learning group called 'Future focused learning in connected communities.' This document suggests 10 key recommendations in order to support future-focused students. It was really interesting to see which of these recommendations have been achieved, and which are still in progress.

In New Zealand, there is a big push for changes to the curriculum to support digitally fluent students. This is explained throughout this document. In addition, CORE education has released these 10 trends which have been acknowledged as important in future-focused learning communities. 

We need to be supporting our students for the future, not for the past. As a group, we brainstormed tools that are currently being/ or starting to be used for future-focused learning in the classroom:

One of the transferrable skills which has started to be taught through a number of schools is coding. Coding is a skill which can begin to be taught with junior school students and can become more and more complex as students progress throughout school. Coding can be presented simply as blocks with symbols or commands and can progress to use of JavaScript and HTML.

Below, I have coded a Star Wars game through 'Hour of Code' in code.org using blocks and then using JavaScript.

This game requires the gamer to remove all 'Pufferpigs' to win the game. They lose points for hitting obstacles and will lose the game if they get all 'Mynocks' (the flying creatures). Play the game here!

Check out this screencast of me playing the game:

Keynote Ignite

On Friday, we were challenged to create and present a Keynote Ignite on a topic which we found out about in the morning! My topic was on Prensky's Digital Natives/ Digital Immigrants. I was provided with the article, Digital Natives: Fact or Fiction (2011),  by the Oxford University Press,  to help me.

An Ignite is very specific, containing 20 slides and with each slide being 15 seconds long.

Here is my keynote:

Keynote 101

Today we explored a range of the opportunities that are possible for creating an engaging Keynote. I was amazed at the endless possibilities with Keynote, from creating presentations to creating movies and animations!

1.  We first explored the general preferences of Keynote and the range of effects that can be added to words and letters. To create the effect in the word 'mathematics', I layered two text boxes - the underlying text had a shadow effect applied to it in two shades of red. The top layer did not have any effects applied to it. Therefore, I managed to create a three-colour-toned text. This idea of creating layers ended up being a recurring strategy as I began to experiment with creating interesting effects with incorporating illustrations into photos - layering was used to create an effect of an object being behind only a small section of the photo. 

2. I then learned how to use the 'Magic move' tool. I followed this clear screencast explanation. This tool allows you to create your own transitions of only sections of the slide. Here is my product:

3. Finally, I attempted to create an animation. I exported three versions of my character from Procreate. I picked a photo I took at Pt England Beach. I then duplicated the slide to animate my character walking down to the beach. A really valuable tool I used was 'instant alpha.' This allowed me to remove background colours from various images. For example, with my animated character, I had to remove the background colour on the image I imported from Procreate.

Movie Editing

The movie is finished! I am going to step you through the stages I took to get from a day's worth of filming and over 30 minutes of raw footage, to a 2 minute movie. 

In iMovie, I created an extremely rough cut of the raw footage in an approximate sequential order of the storyline. We had collected footage from three different types of cameras and from a number of different angles so this cut included quite a bit of repetition of the storyline. This rough cut was about 25 minutes long.

Next, I cut this rough cut down to 3 minutes. This took a long time as I needed to ensure the storyline was making sense.

I then 'tightened' my movie by ensuring each clip was no longer than it needed to be to tell the story. This made a huge difference to the quality of the movie and interest for an audience as it made the movie faster moving. 

I received feedback from my peers at Digital Immersion. I then went away to make changes as suggested.

I planned the voice overs and then found a microphone which would effectively capture the speech. I first tried capturing these voice overs using quicktime, but decided on using garageband so I could then assess the quality of the voice overs by looking at the sound waves created (bigger waves are better as you can alter them more).

Once my movie was approximately finished, I imported it into garageband where I could adjust the soundtrack and voice overs against the video. I found the process of correctly balancing the sound extremely challenging.

I then moved my video and audio back and forth between iMovie and Garageband multiple times until I was happy with the completed product. This involved matching the clips to the rhythm of the music. 

I received more feedback while watching the 'completed' movie on a big screen and through good-quality speakers. This allowed me to adjust the sound balance some more before doing a final export of the movie.

Watch this space (sometime next term) to see the final product!

The curious case of the missing goal posts

On Thursday, we filmed for film festival. The day was challenging as we aimed to gather the majority of our footage using a number of different cameras.

The order of capturing the footage turned out to be an important aspect to consider. In an ideal situation, it would make sense to capture the footage in the order of appearance in the movie, so nothing is missed. However, this was not practical when we started with ~40 students outside and other activities were planned on the field later in the day. I quickly learned the importance of getting the shots done quickly and moving on so students did not lose focus. We also had to be flexible with the order of filming so that it suited the time we had. We were faced with the challenge of completing as much filming as possible before lunchtime, when there was a rugby game being played (all our filming was done on the field). This meant our background started to change as ropes were put up, and various equipment started to appear around us. We had to think about how we were going to capture the footage we wanted in a realistic way without a changing environment. 

Can you spot the difference in these two shots? This was a great lesson in how quickly the environment can change while filming, and the importance of being adaptable! Never would I have thought that the rugby posts on the reserve would completely disappear from my shots! 

I finished the day by sorting through the footage and looking at how it turned out. The following day, I then created a rough cut of my movie to piece the footage together into the order it needed to be in.

Attending the Cluster Hui

On Friday, we attended the annual Manaiakalani Hui. This was an incredible day where we were able to connect with colleagues from across the cluster and hear from a large number of the amazing people who are making significant changes to the lives of our ākonga.

The day started with the Manaiakalani Ambassadors sharing their learn-create-share in a number of interesting ways. Through this presentation, ākonga who show learning which is ubiquitous, empowered, connected and visible was evident (to learn more about this, have a look at Dorothy's blog post here).

I have accumulated the rest of my learning from the day by creating this (retrospective) sketchnote:

Throughout the day, I also used twitter as a platform to share:

Overall, it was great to see such amazing inquiry that is happening in our schools in a number of ways. Inquiry is such an important part of what happens as a teacher and it is so important to remain future-focused teachers. The importance of inquiry was definitely evident through everyone who shared at the Hui.

Learning the ropes on twitter

Before today, I had made a twitter account and had tweeted one tweet. Little did I know of the value behind twitter for teachers! 

Today, we were joined by James Hopkins through google hangouts. James shared with us his journey through his teaching career up until today and the value twitter provided for him as an educator. Twitter provides a professional learning network (PLN) and a form of professional development which is constantly at your finger tips.

We took part in a twitter chat with the hashtag #MDTAchat. These slides explain the provocation and questions we were challenged with.

Here is our twitter chat:

• On twitter
• On storify (displaying our chat)

This was a great share task where our thinking was challenged, our PLN was expanded, and we had growth in our confidence on twitter.

My goal will be to keep up with using twitter to connect with and expand my PLN.