Testing it out with Learners

Learners in a class was asked to volunteer to work with me during their Health class. Six learners volunteered - 5 girls and 1 boy.
Three of these learners were very familiar with online learning and cybersmart learning as they came from schools from within the cluster of schools I work in.
One learner had used a chromebook in another school.

We discussed ways their learning might be helped in the context of cybersmart learning. Their ideas are shown below:

• working in groups with people you don't know so well
• take one on one time with teacher to talk about what to work on
• build stronger relationships with students and teachers - one on one talks, things you want to change or you're not happy about

Learners created a digital learning object about their learning and posted this on their blogs.

https://kpclyvettem.blogspot.co.nz/2017/11/bullying.html

Lurking, Commenting, Creating

Lurking can have negative connotations.

I think lurking when online is reasonable behaviour and allows users to understand what is going on, to see how to behave, how to like, post, and what sorts of things people are sharing and commenting on.

Thoughts on a Leaders Professional Learning Group

Each term leaders from across our cluster get together to have a day-long Professional Learning Group (PLG).  I facilitate the day with the Education Programme Leader who works across the cluster.

As a cluster, we have been working together since 2015. It has taken time to build trust in the group and to start sharing some of our ideas and issues. It has been interesting to watch the group come together and form some understanding of each others context and focus as well as pulling together in one waka as we begin clustering and we begin to be an effective team.

“If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.”
From Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

It has also taken time to understand the mechanics of how we are teaching in terms of using Google tools and how to support staff and learners in using the tools. Underpinning the technical expertise is the learn, create, share pedagogy we are using. All of this has been a steep learning curve and has taken a lot of time and head space for people. We are to some extent creating the waka as we go. We do have a course mapped out by others who have plotted a similar course. However, this is our waka and we are still learning and inventing as we go for our context.

Interestingly we are now building a culture of trust even though some personnel have changed over time and sometimes another staff member attends the PLG due to the leaders other commitments. I wonder if this culture of trust is in part due to the fact that as a cluster we regularly meet together in toolkits and share learning in each others schools. This means that no-one is completely new to the group and is representing a school that others know something about already. People make professional connections and to some degree personal ones. We know where we are from and where we stand.

I have been reflecting on the Five Dysfunctions of a Team. A really interesting book by Patrick Lencioni was written as a leadership fable.  This is written from a business perspective and can be applied to any team situation. The book looks at why teams are dysfunctional and reflects on some potential issues to address. It paints a picture of what a healthy team looks and feels like.

https://www.slideshare.net/rajopadhye/5dys

In thinking about our Leaders PLG team we are at the stage of building the team to be better. We are starting to see elements of a better team come out in our PLGs.  I'm so impressed when people engage in conflict in a healthy way. We are starting to be able to openly talk about what is happening in each other's schools and to recognise strengths and weaknesses in our situations and maybe each other. People are speaking up and asking questions whereas in the past they have been silent.

https://www.slideshare.net/JoelWenger1/building-better-teams-overcoming-the-5-dysfunctions-20150615

“If they don’t weigh in, then they won’t buy in.”

In working towards being collaborative we are using questions and giving autonomy to the members of the group. We looked at what leading by example meant for each of the leader's role in their school and recorded what we each saw as good practice on a shared sheet. 

We then focussed on three specific areas to discuss: 

• attend and run toolkits
• use visible teaching on a site and visible learning on a blog
• participate in google+ communities

We were able to have discussions where not everyone agreed and we focussed on the topic rather than the individual. Sometimes we have agreed to disagree, for the moment at least, as beliefs are challenged.

We can still work in a range of areas. Perhaps the next is holding one another accountable and our regular PLGs are the obvious place to do this. We need to recognise and decide how we can achieve our shared goals rather than just our school goals. We have started with a few small things such as agreeing on when testing and moderation will occur as a cluster. The shift in thinking is one that needs to occur at all levels of the cluster; principal, leaders, teachers, support staff and learners. It is one that will be tested as we continue to look at cluster-wide data and agree on an achievement challenge. 

As one of the leaders of the PLG I am challenged by the ideas about what I need to be so as to effectively help the team to function well. I choose to have these roles as goals, to be open and accountable, to seek feedback and to keep learning. 

We are in the same waka pulling together. We are not in competition with anyone but we are working towards a common goal of improved student achievement in our low-decile cluster of schools. This is a goal we are all passionate about and we have taken some great steps towards our goal as we build an effective team.

On Being a Self-directed Learner

from John Milton Gregory's book The Seven Laws of Teaching, published in 1888.

Yes 1888! Wow, what has changed since then....

I recently read a blog that shared seven laws of the self-directed learner. It was very interesting to see that everything and very little has changed. Yes we now have digital technologies, yes we live in a vastly different world, yes so much has developed in education but people are intrinsically the same and the essence of good teaching and learning seems timeless.

The idea of who is the learner and who is the teacher has blurred and so to the 'Seven elements of the self-directed learner', as adapted by Bernard Bull:

1. Everyone (including the self) and everything is a teacher. 
2. A self-directed learner establishes the desired learning goal and attends to pursuing and achieving that goal. 
3. The self-directed learner learns the languages and discourses necessary to reach the desired learning goal.
4. The self-directed learner builds cognitive bridges between what she already knows and can do and what she aspires to know and do. 
5. The self-directed learner aspires to learn how to motivate herself and what motivates her.
6. The self-directed learner strives to embody the new knowledge or skill. 
7. The self-directed learner reviews, refines, and re-creates what she learns. 
8. The self-directed learner establishes feedback loops that give her insight on whether she is progressing toward the desired learning goal(s). 

The idea that I am a learner at all times and in all places and roles: as a teacher, a wife, a parent, a child, a friend, a scientist,  a member of the human race, ...

Ah, but am I setting specific goals, learning the discourses I need, linking to what I already know, motivating, working hard, re-creating, and reflecting?  Well, sometimes. Sometimes I do this process formally, often times incompletely, sometimes in isolation, usually as a random loop that gathers data and wonders.  It might be in the car, in the shower, in the middle of the night. At times I do this with others.

Working through the process with others is especially important as there are things others know about me which I might not know about myself, as demonstrated in the Johari window.  This allows for the collected understanding. It means I need to trust others viewpoint and trust my own understanding about myself as well, to build a more complete picture. Not to mention a less biased one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window

Spirals of inquiry is a way to formalise and discipline the self-directed learning process that has be developed to help me as a learner,  who happens to also be a teacher. This is a deliberate practice that I need to ensure is in place. I need to put time towards this and have a way to record what I am doing.

I am learner. To be a self-directed learner means I need to ensure I am deliberately reflecting and challenging myself. Reflecting is how I can ensure I am not just going round in circles, that my 'spiral of inquiry' is not just a circle. Rather I need to be able to track progress towards a stated goal, point to evidence towards this and see what the next steps are.  Then of course do them.

1888 or 2015, taking responsibility for my learning is still the same.

Trust is fundamental

“My report was based on the idea that it doesn’t matter what programme or initiative you’ve got in place, if you don’t have the trust of the community, they’re not going to engage. It’s about going back to the ‘deep stuff’, and realising that trust is the basis of success. It’s about listening fundamentally, and there’s no secret recipe.”
Noula Kazakoz's reflection in Life-long learning article in NZ Education Gazette, Vol. 94 Num. 9 02 June 2015

As I read the life-long learning article I was reflecting on the job I have just taken on in which, when I am trained, I will stand or fall on the trust I can develop with a cluster of schools; trust with leaders, teachers, students, whanua and aiga, support staff.

I need to take the time and put in the effort to listen to where they are at as individuals and as groups, the groups that make up the whole. To listen, to learn, to develop trust and to contribute as a part.

Orchestra

Maybe it's like an orchestra where each person is listening to themselves play and the people around them as well as the whole. Adjustments are continually made to keep in tempo, in tune, to harmonise etc. so to make the collective beautiful noise. Is there a conductor? Is it in fact an orchestra as yet or a collection of players?



Each player brings their honed skills, their practise - the obligatory 10,000 hours to become an expert. Each is an expert or a yet-to-be expert in their own field, in playing their instrument.  Coming from different espoused theories and actual practice, yet doing the stuff on a day by day basis, the teaching, learning, supporting, challenging, loving.


Do they already listen to one another? Is each point of view and understanding respected even if not agreed with? Can I hear the spoken and the unspoken? Who is not speaking? Is there a group who do not have a voice and can I help to give them one? 

I go in to listen, to learn. To hear and see where change needs to happen. To bring the whole together as the conductor, perhaps, in time. Or maybe I'm not the conductor at all, perhaps a visiting soloist who might take a part for a short time. Yes, the orchestra can learn from me and I from them. But it is they who make the music, who carry on day by day.  

I will be actively listening.