Pepeha

I have been learning some Te Reo maori as well as tikanga. As part of this I have written and memorised my pepeha. 

I am finding I am using my pepeha more and more. At first simply as a opportunity to practice in a safe environment. However I have now used in a number of marae in both a formal welcome and as a way to introduce myself when I was a latecomer to a noho marae. 

I have now recognised that parts of my pepeha are useful as I do not always need the full pepeha but perhaps just a sentence in some settings. 

I am feeling more confident in using te reo maori in a range of settings. As I am working with teachers in a rumaki or maori immersion class, my pronunciation is at times corrected.  I am really pleased about this as it helps me to learn more.  I am gathering some phrases and words. I am moving forward, I have taken the first steps...

Te tīmatanga o te matauranga ko te wahangū, te wāhanga tuarua ko te whakarongo.

The first stage of learning is silence, the second stage is listening.

Google Level 2 exam

Level 2 Google exam completed. Yay. Set the goal, persevered and did it.
It was worthwhile to have it completed and yes I learnt a lot along the way. Good to be able to encourage teachers to have a go so as to further their learning. It is all skills-based but once the learning is done it can be applied to the classroom situation to help learner engagement and achievement. A useful stepping stone.

Feedback Reflection

I have been doing some further reading and reflecting on effective feedback.
It's too easy to say yes, I know about this... but am I actually doing it? Do I give effective feedback to other learners - peers, in classrooms, and myself?  I am refocusing as I look again at effective feedback.

John Hattie's and Helen Timperley's three questions are a useful prompt for me to use. They are in simple language so can be used with learners of all ages and are easy to remember. Learning Intentions and Success Criteria mean the learner knows what they are aiming at.  The feedback can then direct them towards the Success Criteria.

Feedback is best if it is in the zone of the desired effects or proximal development - the Goldilocks zone. Just beyond where the learner is but still attainable. When a learner gets feedback that specifically gives the next steps on a learning journey they have an opportunity to implement these - a distinct 'to do'. When they also have a growth mindset then the possibilities are limitless. Hard work is required but is exciting to see in action - both in myself and others.

A growth mindset is an important part of feedback being received, understood and actioned.  A learner needs to see it for what it is - a specific guide to learning better rather than an attack on them as a person. With a growth mindset I am not challenged as a person when someone critiques my learning or thinking but rather it is an opportunity to learn and do better. I have found a growth mindset to be easy to give cognitive assent to. In some areas, I have a growth mindset but in other areas of my life or with specific learning, it is more of a struggle. I have had to master and am still learning how to encourage and practise a growth mindset and sometimes I have needed outside help to get there.

... be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:2

Younger learners tend to naturally have a growth mindset and will share both the fact that they do not know something and then the excitement of learning, perhaps with a "High five, Miss".  When we are unwilling to share that we 'do not know' then we are missing out. We can't celebrate the successes openly as we did not share the initial lack.

We can learn to have a fixed mindset through experiences and what we believe about ourselves because of the experiences, such as "I am dumb", I can't read", "I'm not as smart as..."etc.  These beliefs need to be challenged and overcome to allow the growth mindset to be released in a learner.  A learner often needs others to support and encourage so as to be able to do this. Remember your favourite teacher or someone you learnt a lot from - what did he or she do that meant you enjoyed learning?

Tightening the feedback cycle by +Chris Betcher was very helpful to give an overview of feedback and to show links to research. It includes some examples of feedback using google docs for both chromebooks and ipads. Effective feedback on a google doc allows the time frame to be quick as it is so simple to do and can be happening at the same time or very soon after a student is working on a doc.  This means there can be many feedback cycles that are specifically targeted where the learner needs it.

Learner self management is needed as the feedback cycles need to be throughout a learning process. Those learners wanting feedback on the day/night before an assignment is due to be handed in - often a model Secondary school learners follow when they leave things to the last minute - are doing themselves a disservice. I can do this too when I do just-in-time creation of a learning object - perhaps not even giving myself time for reflection and feedback to myself let alone from anyone else.

Learners need to be trained to seek feedback early in the process, learn and seek more feedback - I certainly need to learn more in this area. Do we give learners this agency or do we, as teachers 'do it to them'? When they are making decisions for themselves as learners, are they making the best decisions re feedback?

The expectation is that as effective feedback is given and when the soil is right - a growth mindset - then a learner grows in metacognitive skills. They know how they learn and can be learning through the process as well as doing better in a similar area next time.

Of course in any given situation I need to have a mandate and an agreement to give and receive feedback. This can and is a reciprocal situation for all learners - as a teacher or facilitator there is generally powerful learning when I give learners the mandate to give me feedback. I am a learner too.

In many situations, for myself, the agreement is there in principle. But is the practice?

24 Hour Digital Footprint

24 hour digital footprint

Students have been  learning about their smart digital footprint.  They tracked where they had been online over a 24 hour period and created a map of this with links to where they had been. Thanks to +Madeline Campbell for this great idea.
I did this for myself over the same timeframe. I was thinking it would take ages to do as my history showed a large number of entries. When I came to do it however, I found that while there were a lot of entries in fact I was going to the same places a large number of times. I didn't show these multiple visits to the same places as I felt the map would be too busy. I have added numbers to show how many times I visited places on the web.
Younger students, e.g. year 2-3, needed a lot of support with the idea of 24 hours. Creating links on an ipads proved too difficult - in fact they needed to be done on a chromebook or desktop. Year 4-5 students on chromebooks did this well with careful instructions from +Fiona Grant. A fun and informative acitivity that graphically showed how we leave a digital trail wherever we go on the internet.

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.

Infographic about Learn Create Share

As students were learning about creating an infographic, I decided to create one as well. We learnt about how to attribute images, how to use colours and fonts, and how to snap together text boxes and images. Also how to use information to share as part of an inforgraphic.

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.