Achievement

When listening to
Dr Aaron Wilson - Using data and evidence
to improve your practice

I think about VLO’s and identifying what the valued learning outcomes are for me as a teacher,
my students and my school community in regards to my MIT project. What is it that I want the
students to achieve and are these things actually valued by students and myself alike?

Achievement is obviously at the heart of what I want the students to achieve from my project,
but what about things such as their attitude to writing, the key competencies that they develop
through this project and enabling Maori to have success as Maori? Is the student’s participation
in this project accelerated and are they more engaged? What progress have they made?

What also resonated with me was around teacher observations and the problems with ‘observing.’
When observing we can tend to ‘see what we want to see’ and that we can make judgments based
on these. We can also focus our observations on one thing and make these observations fit with
what we want to see. So when I think of the observations that I have made in my classroom, how
valid are these observations? Do I add my own bias to these observations when what I am wanting
to see is progress in my students writing?

I have got student voice, anecdotal comments, and writing samples on their drive and in their books.
But ultimately, the shift I am wanting to make is in their achievement.

Have I enabled Maori to have success as Maori and incorporated a Ngai Tahu story into the
curriculum? Yes. Tuakana / Teina relationships are evident in my classroom to help those who
are less confident in writing to get the support that they need. Maori Kupu are being discussed
and used in class. Discussions have been rich around the mighty Pouakai.

Are the students developing their Key Competencies through this digital Storytelling process?
Yes. The students are communicating and collaborating, supporting one another through this
process. Sharing their learning tasks on their blogs and with others within the classroom environment.
They are developing their use of language, being exposed to rich discussions and a different
‘older style’ of written English. 

Engagement and interest has sparked richer vocabulary and this is clearly evident when you ask
the children about the Pouakai and read their writing. But has this made the shift required in their
achievement?

How are we going? MIT2019

I think it's important to document the process and journey that I am on as then I can look back at what worked, what didn't work and then look at the next possible steps. It can be tricky at times to document your whole journey and all the little moments of thinking and changes / adaptions you go through along the way. I think that as a profession we are always being reflective and looking at other ways that we can do things more effectively. I do however think that sometimes we have our own 'intended curriculum' and the things that we want our students to learn and don't check in with the students to get their voice and feedback. Are the students getting what we are intending them to get?

Up until this point I have shared my intervention with the Staff at my school and have had informal feedback from the Deputy Principal, commenting on a sample of writing from my students. I have also done a midway survey with my students to gain student voice in regards to what they are enjoying / not enjoying about the Digital Storytelling Resource, what they have learnt and where some next possible steps could be for this resource. 

Here is the feedback here:




I have highlighted some of the key themes from the feedback so that I can take some of this on-board as I put together the next story. It has been an interesting process as the use of this resource essentially takes a term to use, so the final feedback (for this story) will come later in the Term and of course the data (E-asTTle Writing Sample) will come early next term.
Informally, I have the writing samples, digital learning objects/ activities that the children have created which show the learning that the students are making. I have the discussions that I have had with my students and anecdotal notes in my planning too. Formally, I have not done an E-asTTle Writing sample as I we have these coming up early Term 4. 

My next steps however will be: 
To get formative data so that I can show the shift in their writing level

KPMG Day 3, into the Dragon's Den

I returned last night from another thought provoking and inspiring trip to Auckland. I am inspired by my fellow MIT teachers, Dorothy, Jenny, Anne and Manaiakalani as a whole.
I came into this trip quite hesitant as I knew that part of the process of sharing our tools, was so we could 'know our tool', 'articulate what our tool could do' and have clarity heading into October.
I knew that my tool was nowhere near finished, and knew that there were many gaps that needed to be filled.

Listening to my MIT colleagues share their tools was great as it highlighted many things that I knew needed to be worked on, but also some other avenues that needed exploring further.

I do that I need to have my tool at a level that I can be proud of and that will give mana and credit to Manaiakalani and those who I have been given the blessing of working with this year.

Things going forward that I need to work on are:

• Shared space for teachers to submit stories to Storytelling site- add spreadsheet
• Note on site, thanking Manaiakalani and that I can send a copy of site to others
• Teaching practice ultimately is the ‘guts’ of a teaching experience
• Add in WALT’S to site
• Storytellers- Kaiapoi High (Remi), Mairehau High (Student), Eugene
• Film stepping out process
• Step- draw visual to represent this part of the process. Film how this could be stepped out.
• Prepare for Principals Wananga- October!

Story, check! Storyteller, check! Feeling pumped!

Following a great chat with Lis Swanson (Story Telling Schools) last term and meeting with Di Robinson (Mātauraka Mahaanui Facilitator) yesterday, I am feeling like this is going to come together nicely. I have a few stories that I believe can be used to enhance boys writing through the mode of Storytelling. The first story I am going to do is 'The Story of the Pouākai.' This story is rich in language, facts and has lots of gore (which the boys will love)!
I have adapted some parts of the story to add detail and richness to it. 

The richness of the story too, can most certainly be enhanced through the storyteller, and I believe I may just have one! A David Attenborough in the making.....(watch this space).

I have mapped out my ideas using some of the important resources/ activities in my classroom and found further afield. I have also begun jotting down some of the essentials that will hold this project true in relation to Manaiakalani and also 'Storytelling.'

I am looking forward to having this take shape and trialing with my class this term.

Ed-Tech Summit Day 2

Today we were greeted again by the wonderful Rooty Hill School Choir. This time you could hear the confidence in their voices as they sang a song from Moana.
Highlights for me today were the workshops that I attended and seeing my fellow MIT Sandra presenting hers. (I even got to use my behaviour management strategies on an attendee, by using my zone of proximity to keep him a little quieter- hehe)

Sandra Chow presented a wonderful session on Shifting Maths Teaching and Learning for Modern Learners. Maths would definitely be an area that I would like to do more with digitally. I now have a host of wonderful resources that I can't wait to try out with my class, syndicate and school.

For me, the discussions that I have had over the last couple of days have really shown that we are on the right path in NZ and in particular, with Manaiakalani. It highlighted the differences within countries, but even within schools. It was great to re-confirm the importance of the Key Competencies for our learners and that we are preparing our students for the future. So when doing this we need to not teach 'the normal', but teach 'the new.'

Another thing that sparked in my mind was the Power of Vulnerability. Brene Brown came to mind when thinking of our own personal journey, and finding the joy in taking risks. But the same can be said when thinking about learning. It is so important that we model risk taking with our kids and that they see us failing sometimes. This then makes it OK for them to do the same.

We need to find the value in the struggle. For nothing good or innovative comes easy. I also need to not put a lid on possibilities. Quite often we can think that something can't be done, when in fact we should be thinking......but what if we can!

Another fantastic day of learning that will encourage further learning in the upcoming days and months!

Ed-Tech Summit, Day One

Arriving for day one, it was hard to know exactly what to expect. A lovely greeting from the Rooty Hill School Choir was a reminder of what we are doing and why we are doing what we do.
The playgrounds were a great way to dive a little into what interested us, grabbing a snapshot of things we might like to explore further.
I came across the Merge Cube which was my first real experience with virtual reality. At a reasonable price, it was great to have a hands on play and is something I will look into heading back to Christchurch.

The first couple of workshops were fantastic and full of ideas. It was nice to attend Santi's workshop as I had not had much experience with Sheets and is an area I wanted to work on. I learnt how to make a pivot table and to do some formatting. This will be very useful when working with data.

My workshop was on Digital Creativity Tools. I was very nervous and once up there it was clear that it was really hard to know exactly what experiences all of the attendees had come from and what they did and did not know.
A quick padlet in and we got to know a little bit about who was in the room. Instead of speaking too much, I decided to very quickly touch on the tools and then allow them all to play. In hindsight, I should have gone through the tools a bit more and then allowed them to have a play. I roamed and supported throughout the session, doing a quick mini session as it became clear that a lot of the attendees had not used Google Drawing to create their own images.

Presenting was definitely an experience which took me out of my comfort zone and which I have learnt from in regards to the amount of time spent on teaching and then creating. It is definitely best not to assume!

The end of the day and it was a time for networking. I met a lovely teacher, who like me had been teaching for 15 years. It was nice to make connections with other teachers from Australia. 

What a fantastic day! Bring on Day 2!

When life throws you lemons....

I must admit that sometimes things get REALLY hard! When you have elements in one part of your life that are a bit wobbly, you sometimes have to keep things simple and do what you need to do, to get through! I think of Te Whare Tapa Wha, and when I think of this, I can put things into perspective and not 'beat myself up' too much. Well that's the idea anyway!
Te Whare Tapa Wha consists of a Whare which has four strong sides. These four sides represent all the things / dimensions of your life that need to be working well in unison for you to be well in yourself and to be thriving. If one aspect is missing, it can tip things out of kilter, which then in turn affects other areas of your life.

These areas are:

Taha tinana (physical health)

Taha wairua (spiritual health)

Taha whānau (family health)

Taha hinengaro (mental health)

 I contemplated hard about posting something on my blog about this as I know that sometimes it is hard for others to read, or that I will be judged. But I think that it is important, as Mental Health is something that is not often spoken about. We need to put it into the spotlight, so that we can talk about, support and encourage one another when we need it.

I feel that there are so many things I am juggling at the moment in my personal and family life, that it is just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other and prioritising what needs to be done now, and what can wait a little longer until I am feeling stronger.

I know that things will settle down soon and that I will get back on track. So I need to focus on the priorities that are now!
These are:
* Ed -Tech Summit Presentation
* Implementing Story-telling into classroom programme (so they know the process well)
* Re-establishing routines and relationships with my class
* Connecting and organising opportunities to catch up with my 'team' to get ideas for speakers and stories
* Continue to think about and explore different blog layouts and how I can set up my tool
* Keep putting one foot in front of the other!