MLE and MLP

I'm back after not posting for awhile I feel the need to move on again thanks to a link that Jo sent re MLE & MLP via Twitter. Daniel Birch's reflective post succinctly puts into words what many of us, who are moving in this direction, grapple with...what is MLE or MLP? Are they mutually exclusive? Yes. One is environment (MLE), the other is our practice (MLP) or a way of teaching. To change our physical environment, e.g. single cell classroom vs purpose built MLE classrooms (or even knocking holes into the classroom next door) takes money and so does buying furniture to fit this new environment but does that mean we cannot embrace or adapt MLP into our current practice?  NO is the short answer. Practice is working with the teacher(s) within your team and saying "What or how can we best support our students' learning?" It is no longer about just 'your' class. I'm learning that the  'power of 2 ' or how many you have in your team has a huge influence on their learning. What proof is there that this is the right way to teach children?  More research is available around this. I love Daniel's thinking...
"To me MLP is the process of re-designing learning based on sound research and thinking."
Re-designing learning - that does it for me as that is exactly the direction we are heading. He
also talks about the 'industrial way of learning' - control and outcome, which is how we teach at the moment.

"MLP is a change in the traditional mental model of control and outcomes in schools, based on an industrial model of years ago." I agree with his statement, that change is hard and challenging. It is all of that but we can't keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. We have to change. I have already seen a shift within my own class when given the opportunity to drive their own learning. Yes, the students' still require guidance (or scaffolding) but their thinking or thought processes can be expanded. It is much easier to enthuse their learning when they are in the driving seat with you at their side. 

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Another great workshop by Core Ed - refer above LwDT Tab for UDL workshop slide
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was a bit of a mind flip in so far as the way you need to think about planning for your class. We generally always plan with the 'majority' in mind rather those children at the far end of the spectrum of learning (learning support children - gifted and talented). Planning for them often came afterwards.

UDL turns this around. Start your planning from the 'outer edges' and move inwards. The children in the middle will nearly always get it. If you plan from the outer edges then you will have incorporated all children into accessible learning.

UDL is not retrofitting. In other words, you are not just adding technology to your current practice and not changing the way you teach, it is looking to the future to ensure all students have accessible learning no matter what their circumstances.

Trialling:
I decided to introduce Caleb to google speech recognition add-on. While he learning to use this add-on, I fully admit that it is retrofitting but oh my goodness the delight on his face to see the words come up on screen is just lovely. He could even tell when words were missing or that his name was not right and proceeded to type it in.

Using UDL for Caleb (and the rest of the class) will start as part of our narrative writing. Firstly it will be planning a setting and then gradually the rest of a narrative. This certainly is giving him accessibility to the curriculum in a way much more accessible way for his writing.

Inquiry Questions

I have been pondering about my inquiry questions for awhile now and the Spiral of Learning workshop helped clarify how to take the initial step of developing an inquiry question. The process of Scanning - Focusing - Developing a Hunch (first three steps) can be a revolving process until you find the right questions. However, my focus, or should I say, Danielle's and my focus is around the Batten Team's newly established self regulated maths class, including the associated workshops.

Danielle and I had already decided that we would work together (collaborative inquiry) as it involved both our teams and as the following slide says "Transformation work requires a team!" This approach, I believe, will be more effective in researching into our inquiry question(s).

Scanning:
Actually I think we have been going through this process for awhile, narrowing down the area where an 'inquiry' would benefit not only students' but also teachers. Maths stood out as we had already introduced the 'flipped classroom' approach on a smaller scale in 2014 and this year with the chromebooks, well this has allowed us to introduce self regulated learning or greater student agency.

Focusing:
So here I need to ask myself (or ourselves some questions) :

1. So when we make the changes, what will make the most substantive difference?
2. How do we keep it manageable?
3. What evidence do we need to collect?
4. What are our students strengths
5. What changes do we want to see?

(Ideas for questions from Spiral of Learning slide)

Hunches:
The Year 6 students had already had a taste of self regulating their learning near the end of 2014. A discussion was held at the end of the year about this type of learning: how they felt about it and what impact did it have on their learning.  At the end of Term 1 2015, I asked Rm 4 how they were going with the chromebooks and learning in this way. They responded it was great, however can we work the way they did at the end of last year where they could 'choose' their schedule.
So the point is here that my hunch was already established and now I (or we) need to look at how we are going to respond to this different way of teaching and assist our students to have a greater learning agency.


Questions to ponder:  (refer Core's 10 Trends Tab above for further info on Learning Agency)

1. What impact will a self regulated maths class have on the Batten Team students' learning and the way they will be able to exercise their agency in learning?
2. How will redesigning the current way we teach maths in the Batten Team impact on students' learning once they become self regulated learners during maths?
3. How will redesigning the current way we teach maths in the Batten Team impact on students' learning and learning agency once they become self regulated learners during maths?

Spiral of Learning - LwDT Workshop

Teaching as Inquiry - yep I knew the NZC model and got the picture, sort of. Knew the process but if you really asked me, was I doing it well, probably not.

Now ask me the same questions again after having been to the Spiral of Learning workshop. What an amazing revelation of how I needed to refocus my thinking about how teaching as inquiry should look like and the process to undertake to get there. First and foremost to rethink the structure and depth of questions. Then thinking about what result do you want before you begin the whole inquiry process.

This whole Spiral of Learning process is incredibly important to help change and improve our classroom practice and to reflect on those changes and the impact it has had on your students. I have included the slide that was presented at the workshop by Janelle Riki and Ray Burkhill.
The Seminar Series 234 (2nd slide) is an amazing research piece about each of the spiral stages. Well worth the read to fully understand this process.

A New e-learning Vision?

Sometimes something just gets stuck in your head and you just can't shake it. And so it was when we had our e-learning vision discussion with Nina at our recent staff meeting. At the time I just couldn't see why we were trying to re-hash our current vision and fit the new e-learning into it. To me it just didn't make sense, and still doesn't.

Why?  Good question. Well the way I see it, we are part of a huge educational paradigm shift. 1:1 devices, global connectedness - to encourage our students to question, investigate and act as global citizens (see link below). Our vision, I believe, needs to reflect where we want to be in the future, not where we are right now. What skills do we want our students to take with them in the future? How will we help them attain these skills? What will an OLA digital citizen look like in the future?
These things we should consider when we create an e-learning vision.

The following is an email I wrote to Jo following that very same staff meeting...

I've been doing a bit of reading thinking about our e-vision vs our current OLA vision and I'm going to throw down a  challenge re your thinking about our 'new' e'vision. 

Reading over our shared doc from today, I can see our current vision being reworked into a kind of digital stretched version of its current form. I say let's create a brand new vision and really rev it up to reflect what is happening at OLA.

I followed the link you sent for Core Ed Ten Trends for 2015.  This is perfect material for us to build a brand new vision that is based around research and is very pointedly  'learner-oriented'. 

The link below explains the areas in greater detail.

http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends-categories

I believe this site is a great place to start to build a whole new vision statement that can & should morph into our action plan. At the moment we are building a vision on our current knowledge and understanding  which by all accounts is limited, until you start reading what the future will possibly be like for students in the classroom and of course teachers (now that's a whole new vision in itself - absolutely!)   

I currently see us trying to formulate a vision statement by putting in words we are familiar with and know about  digital technology / "e-learning"  The statements we are creating may be relevant right now, but are they the future? Our vision needs to reflect current trends for the future, and where students are headed. 

Lets pick through these 10 trends to build a vision that is solidly future based and learner- oriented.

Finally Mrs Earl," Why be good, when you can be great!" That's us at OLA.

And those are my thoughts for today.  

A Little Survey

First day back of term 2 and it was a great opportunity to go over what we learnt during the Cybersmart Unit in term 1.  I was pleased to know the class had remembered and had taken on board about how to be a safe and responsible digital citizen.  There certainly is power in students doing their own research and taking ownership/responsibility of their learning.  This feedback/discussion led nicely into the following survey.

I introduced the trial survey Digital Citizenship for Schools by Netsafe to the students.  It wasn't supposed to be a long session, but it took a little longer than expected as there were one or two gnarly questions even I had to think or second guess 'what they meant.' Lots of discussion ensued as to what the question(s) were asking.

The best bit:  The last question or rather a little wee comment box that you would normally look at with dread as you know you are being compelled to 'fill in that blank space!'  I suggested to the class that it would be 'polite' to give some feedback about the survey. Something positive and something that might be improved on.  Oh how I underestimated their ability to give feedback in such an articulate manner and with little or no input.  I can only say it was amazing and the quality of the sentence structure was polite and to the point! Go Room 4.

Question(s): Why are my students continually amazing me with their deeper thinking responses to texts with little input from myself?  Is because they have access to information or broader examples at their fingertips rather than being given only what I have found?   This is a huge shift in the balance of teaching or teacher/student learning and one I am going to fully embrace.  This balance is truly an educational paradigm shift!

Is using a digital device, i.e. a chromebrook making it easier and quicker for students to respond to text thus their thought process and physical output are keeping up with each other?? Things to ponder.

The Journey Has Begun

The journey has begun...it certainly has. So much in such a small space in time - 5 weeks. 1:1 devices - who would think how much they could change your teaching practice and how your students respond to this change. They have adapted to this new way of learning faster than I could ever imagine! A question keeps running towards me and is almost overtaking,  how do we keep up?
Answer: Working smarter not harder but what will this look like personally or as a team?  I think this will become clearer as time goes on.

I think my brain feels like this at times