Future Oriented Learning and Teaching

Today students face an uncertain and ever changing future (2Revolutions LLC, 2012). Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall,Bull, Boyd & Hipkins (2012), note that a paradigm change in education is needed to help students meet these demands; “The old understanding of knowledge is no longer sufficient” p. 14. How we use, apply and think of knowledge has changed. Students need to be actively involved in their learning rather than passive recipients of content.

The 2012 report written by Bolstad et al, Supporting Future-oriented Learning and Teaching - a New Zealand Perspective, outlines key themes for educators to work towards to help prepare students for 21st century life.

1. Personalising learning 
2. New views of equity, diversity and inclusivity 
3. Knowledge to develop learning capacity 
4. Rethinking learner and teacher roles 
5. Continuous learning 
6. Partnerships and relationships 

Two sub-themes also flowed through their work:

1. Current and emerging technologies 
2. The role of the collaborative process 

I found it difficult to not see the connectedness between these themes. The Ministry of Education (2012) also commented on this; “What is needed is, not more effort focused on the parts of this system, but strategies designed to put these ideas together: to join all this up in a way that is driven by a coherent set of shared ideas....”

At the heart of my change in practice since working with Mindlab, has been a focus on ‘knowledge to develop learning capacity’. This moves away from traditional subject/ content/ learning area focus towards a shift in thinking to ‘knowledge as a verb’, Ministry of Education (2012). Creating and using new knowledge to solve problems and find solutions, with ‘just in time’ teaching and learning.

A colleague and I created a learning experience to develop our students’ collaboration skills. Although this was our focus, the learning outcomes were much broader than we could have ever imagined.
So what did we do?
Noticing a lack of student voice in our community correspondence we implemented HTV - a student-led and designed digital television programme. As educators, we wanted to allow our students to take charge of their learning, work collaboratively and leave their mark. We put a lot of work into the foundations of this project. Setting up a shared vision and purpose of HTV, establishing an understanding of collaboration, co-constructing success criteria, and setting up frameworks to support students as they took over the running of the project through agile and design thinking learning processes.

Then...we handed the reins over. This involved a rethink of the roles of both teacher and learner. Together we were learners. Students were in charge of organising their learning, making decisions, sorting out disagreements, researching and finding solutions about how to do things. They had use and apply their digital learning in a professional way to create the HTV episode and hold a premiere evening for whanau and caregivers.

Was this the regular and tidy learning programme- no?! It was messy at times and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I had to stop myself from directing students and allow them to make mistakes. If I did that it would take away their decision-making processing, their autonomy and their voice; and that was really challenging! I became the question asker- what do you think, can you look at this in another way, who else could help with this etc?

My students too, found this very challenging - why wasn’t I playing the game? Wouldn’t it be easier for me to just say what to do or give an answer? Some students found it very hard to make decisions in case they were ‘wrong’. Others didn’t seem comfortable having to think for themselves. And on the other hand… some students just flew- they relished in the opportunity and surprised us with how they worked, what they learned and the skills they demonstrated.

Constructionist theory (Papert & Harel, 1991) underpins this learning. Bers (2007) outlines four key elements important to constructivism in the classroom.

1. Learning is designed in communities, is interactive and students evaluate, assess and debug their learning as they go. 
2. Technological tools are used for collaborative teamwork and feedback. 
3. New ways of thinking assist in the creation of powerful ideas which have a personal connection for students. 
4. Learning about learning through technology. Students use technology safely, make positive contributions to themselves, their community, the world and technological development. 

So what have I learned from this?
Students need to be challenged and given more opportunities to think for themselves, to create together, to give back to their community. Messiness is okay (truly it is) and the learning gained from this can be uncomfortable at first but is so empowering. That way we can more fully prepare students for their futures.

References:

2Revolutions LLC. (2012). The Future of Learning. [Online Video]. 1 March 2012. Available from: https://youtu.be/xoSJ3_dZcm8. [Accessed: 30 November 2017].

Bers, M. U. (2008). Blocks to robots: learning with technology in the early childhood classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

Build Learning Capacity [Digital image]. (2010, October 14). Retrieved December 1, 2017, from https://pt.slideshare.net/StonefieldsSchool/community-consultation-14-october

Creative Clip art Thinking Cap [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://moziru.com/explore/Creative%20clipart%20thinking%20cap/#gal_post_4664_creative-clipart-thinking-cap-1.gif

Ministry of Education.(2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

Papert, S. & Harel, I. (1991). Constructionism. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing

On My Own... My Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is probably something most teachers do innately. Stopping and changing tack in the middle of a lesson, responding in a different way to the behavioural needs of students or thinking back about what worked or didn't work in a lesson and what to do differently for next time. I personally couldn't imagine a time or place where some sort of reflection has not been used in my own practice to help make sense of a situation or to try to make the best learning outcomes for my students. 

But what makes reflection meaningful and pushes us further in our practice rather than just a quick glance back into our day?
Findlay (2008, p10) states 'Done well and effectively, reflective practice can be an enormously powerful tool to examine and transform practice." A question and a complication from this statement arises: what is effective reflection and how can it be managed by busy teachers for a real and meaningful, transformative effect? 

What I enjoyed and one of the main understandings I got from Findlay's (2008) paper was that one size doesn't fit all. How, and when, and why teachers reflect, and for what purpose and outcome, can all vary. As with most things, choosing and selecting the type of reflective model that best suits you at the time is what will be of most benefit. Being exposed to a range of models and identifying the benefits and drawbacks of each type of model could empower teachers to increase the complexity and depth of thinking they participate in. Thanks to Craig Lineham for finding this link about a range of reflective models. 

Another thing I found useful when thinking about reflective practice was the challenge involved in reflection; personal challenge that makes us identify our own biases and assumptions; challenge in going deeper and not just skimming the surface of our understanding; and challenge towards incorporating reflection actively in our practice in a way that works for each individual.

So in critically evaluating my reflective practice, I completed a quick survey (based on the following questions) to get the brain juices flowing.

How often do you reflect on your practice at the following levels? (Rapid, repair, review, research, re-theorising and reformulating).
The second question of the survey is adapted from Zeichner and Liston’s (cited in Finlay, 2008, p.4) five levels of reflection:

• Rapid reflection - immediate, ongoing and automatic action by the teacher. 
• Repair – in which a thoughtful teacher makes decisions to alter their behaviour in response to students’ cues. 
• Review – when a teacher thinks about, discusses or writes about some element of their teaching. 
• Research – when a teacher engages in more systematic and sustained thinking over time, perhaps by collecting data or reading research. 
• Retheorizing and reformulating – the process by which a teacher critically examines their own practice and theories in the light of academic theories.”

Like many other teachers, I find it easy to reflect at the rapid, repair and review levels- I think that comes quite naturally. The question posed was what can help you reach a higher level of reflection?
I think, like with teacher inquiry, research and sustained thinking over time needs to have a clear focus or avenue of inquiry. What patterns keep occurring, what data can be produced? Actively working and finding a way to record and pursue reflective ideas can be challenging. Working through Mindlab and being 'made' to reflect and compare my reflections with current theory etc will be helpful towards achieving those higher levels of reflection and purposeful investigation into practice. Hopefully, this will become a habitual part of what I do...

How often do you reflect on your practice in the following ways? (conversation, journaling, tweeting etc)
I am probably more of an informal reflector. I personally get more from having conversations with colleagues or confidants about issues or things I am reflecting on and enjoy having someone provide prompting questions etc to make me think on a deeper level. From this, I can also identify that I am somewhat passive in my reflections; waiting for someone to prompt or question me is not challenging myself to ask those uncomfortable questions. I also don't particularly enjoy being asked uncomfortable questions and am not a person who can answer more probing questions straight away- I need time to process.I like to think and mull over ideas. In some ways I can be avoidant towards some trickier questions. So to make my reflections transformative and meaningful I probably need to ask and face those harder confronting questions.


I look forward to seeing the strategies and other ways teachers delve into the deeper levels of reflective practice.

References:
Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/files/opencetl/file/ecms/web-content/Finlay-%282008%29-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf 


Gross, S. (2003). It Sort of Makes you Stop and Think.[Cartoon]. Retrieved November 20, 2017, from https://www.art.com/products/p15063312757-sa-i6845266/sam-gross-it-sort-of-makes-you-stop-and-think-doesn-t-it-new-yorker-cartoon.htm

MindLab (2017). Evaluate your Reflective Practice – July 2017. Available from:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSee9-DSqP0CG293TIgL5lq7H3c2Nbh5QyBrejnfWg1M0FAGsA/viewanalytics

[Reflective Practice Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2017, from http://facilitationcourse.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/reflective-practice-collaboration-and-stakeholder-communication-4-638-1.jpg

Teacher Inquiry and the end of the First Half of the Mindlab Course

Sixteen weeks have just flown by. Sixteen sessions with the team. Three and a half assignments complete (currently halfway through one right now).  And now, we're about to start the next part of the course online. This course has been challenging and inspiring, and I've really appreciated the deeper understanding I am developing as a teacher and a collaborator of educational outcomes. I'm looking forward to this next stage.

Last week for session 15 we looked at Inquiry; both teacher inquiry and student inquiry - the parallels between the two are so similar. For this blog though, I want to focus in on teacher inquiry. Why? Because it is something I have really struggled with. Teacher inquiry, to me, has felt arbitrary and another thing to load on top of already busy teachers. Not the best attitude I grant you but that is/was my honest feelings.

I am naturally am a learner. I like to find things out; think I'm quite a curious person, like to get the positive results out of my students and do the very best I can.  I  naturally inquire into things from my observations of my class and students and work from there. Isn't that what teaching is about? The thing that didn't quite connect to me was the whole paper trail of proof (wasn't that in the results, the student voice, the formative feedback, assessment and student work?) and the top-down approach I would feel during this process. Cynical yes, but write it down, tick it off, let's look at it again next year and go from there.
But to be honest, often I would blank out when it came to that time of year and really not know what I wanted to 'commit' to as an area of focus. There are so many needs. Fear of failing and not meeting the 'right' target or showing enough growth always paralysed me.

Luckily, I have an amazing appraiser who has been able to see through my cynicism and 'teaching baggage' to help me do what I need to do, while still encouraging and challenging me in my practice. So when I saw we were going to do Teacher Inquiry as part of the course I wasn't too sure where this was going to go and whether I would be interested. I was pleasantly surprised though and have had some big shifts in my thinking.

The Spiral of Inquiry.

Timperley, H., Kaser, L. & Halbert, J. (2014).

Our school's current teacher inquiry model that we use is also a spiral based model but for some reason, it didn't connect with me. Maybe I didn't understand it properly or was a bit too close minded to appreciate it.  BUT after reading and learning about the Spiral of Inquiry by Timperly, Kaser & Halbert (2014) I feel like I've had a bit of an epiphany. Not only am I seeing the possibility of using this model in my own practice but I am feeling like I'm getting the bigger picture of the whole Teacher Inquiry thing! 😇

Using the spiral of inquiry:

•  Actively investigating in a teacher-led inquiry: "This requires a shift from student voice to developing learner agency, as the students help to identify and address issues in their learning environments. In the past it has often been adults who have decided what is right or wrong with learners, and what is good for them, without involving them in either identifying issues or developing solutions. Deciding what is going on for learners without their input lacks respect and is unlikely to be productive." Timperley, Kaser & Halbert, (2014.)

For this teacher-led inquiry to work, teachers must come at their inquiry with a mindset of curiosity. It allows teachers to suspend judgement and make changes based on evidence. What is happening and why? I love this!

• Scanning: open yourself/school up to honest judgement. Terrifying but I'm getting to grips with this not as an element of criticism but of opportunity for growth. Okay, I am a still a huge bit terrified.

I like this spiral of inquiry more because of the deep connected, human element to it. The learner's at centre, the teacher as a learner, depth over surface. 

The guiding questions and boxes in the article (referenced below) are Excellent! 

Two key questions posed that stuck in my mind were: Is it acceptable for some learners to be pursuing important questions in depth while others are restricted to ‘covering’ the curriculum? Is it all right for some learners to experience challenging and engaging learning in one class while learners in the room next door are not? WOW !!Food for thought. Those are hard, challenging questions.

I haven't gone through the rest of the model but these are some of the things that have stuck and resonated with me. I'm looking forward to exploring my own teacher inquiry and general teacher inquiry through the second half of the Mindlab course in more depth over the next sixteen weeks or so.

References: 
Timperley, H., Kaser, L. & Halbert, J. (2014). A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Centre for Strategic Education. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/content/download/74475/611763/file/Spiral%20of%20Inquiry%20Paper%20-%20Timperley%20Kaser%20Halbert.pdf

Catch Up Time: Again! Lessons about Staying On-task through Design Thinking

Last week's Mindlab Session found us partnered up to delve into the how we were going to be able to keep focused and on task after the course changes from face to face learning to more online learning. Woah, okay - something big and looming and isolating... or does it have to be?

I really enjoyed working with my partner and we found out we had a lot of similarities. Both of us are focused on doing our best as learners but also concerned with how we were going to remain motivated and be successful in a more independent working environment.
We delved deeper into what was really going on and for me my main issues surround:

• being emotionally invested in my learning; choosing a topic that really inspires and challenges me
• continuing the collegial support and challenge I have already received and find stimulating
• remaining focused, on-task and productive, delaying gratification, rewarding completed tasks etc

How to manage these challenges is something that concerns me but now that we have really gone into some depth to explore them I feel I am more ready to work through these productively.

What I loved about last week's session- as well as allowing time to raise and talk about these issues, was the creativity that came with designing a prototype to combat these concerns. I consider myself to be pretty imaginative and creative so designing 'Ye Cup o Success' for my partner was so much fun.




Its a little hard to see but here are our groups' design prototypes (most of them). This was really challenging to create something to address an abstract notion but we managed to do it- with a lot of imagination, symbolism and a requirement for the viewer to stretch their thinking.


For this task, we used the Mindlab's Kite Design Model. It was a very structured and guided approach which I personally really liked. When sharing concerns or ideas, the listener really had to listen and interpret, what the speaker was saying. I think this is such an important skill and something our students (in fact all people) could benefit a LOT from developing more. But knowing how to listen, and having a real purpose for the listening is also important. Using the design model really helped to enable those skills. I will definitely be using something quite similar in my classroom in the future.

Design thinking by TMLU. The Mind Lab by Unitec Design Thinking Process + materials, which uses our 'kite' model: *Empathise *Define *Ideate *Prototype *Test *Reflect 

We were asked to reflect on the following question: 

How can design thinking be used to enhance students real-world problem-solving skills? 

• The thing here for me is that students need to have authentic opportunities for applying real-world problem-solving skills in the first place. So this question arises in my mind- is it better to make up problems or create somewhat tenuous situations for students to solve or not to get students to do it at all? I think at least a contrived situation is better and exposes students to problem-solving situations, but also teachers perhaps need to allow students more opportnities to solve their own problems. Keep them local, keep them real, keep them relelvent. Do we always see those opportunities or do we rush in and solve problems for them before the students even realise they are able to solve them themselves.
• After some authentic problems are identified- then yes ABSOLUTELY design thinking can provide a really structured and supportive framework to help students dig deeper into developing their problem solving ability. I love the empathetic aspect of the Mindlab's Kite design thinking model. The importance of listening to the problem and thinking of different ways to tackle the problem is really stressed in this model. 
• IDEO's Human Centred Design resonates with me as well:
• As you move through the human-centered design process, it doesn’t matter what you make, the materials you use, or how beautiful the result is, the goal is always to convey an idea, share it, and learn how to make it better. 
• The focus is for design to get into the hands of the people who it will serve. Action based
• Learn from failure- not knowing what the outcome will be- risk-taking
• Empathise- put yourself in the shoes of the people you are designing for. Immerse yourself in that culture
• Embrace ambiguity- by not knowing the answers, opening up to creativity and not 'racing' to be the 'first' 
• Optimism- opening up to tackle those big problems. Embracing opportunities and believing that every problem is solvable
• Iterate - do things over and over again to improve, create ideas etc

• I think as human beings we can all develop ourselves through design thinking. Being humble and ready to change for the betterment of the whole world is a noble aspiration. 
• We can and already do apply design thinking in our own teacher inquiries; for isn't this really just design thinking in action??

The Mindlab by Unitech Design. (nd). Unitech Design Thinking Process. Retrieved from: https://app.themindlab.com/course/release/1313-week-14-digital-design-thinking-in-the-classroom 
IDEO.org. (2015). The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design (1st ed.). Canada: IDEO.org. Retrieved from http://d1r3w4d5z5a88i.cloudfront.net/assets/guide/Field%20Guide%20to%20Human-Centered%20Design_IDEOorg_English-ee47a1ed4b91f3252115b83152828d7e.pdf 

Design Thinking in Education and a Student led TV programme

Well, it seems like I'm into fortnightly blogging. I need to try and get back into the habit of blogging each week.
I will get back into blogging each week...
I will!

There have been HEAPS that we've covered over the past few weeks and I am pleased to say that a lot of what we have been doing in our Mindlab sessions have come in really handy for my own practice and set up for our HTV.
SO over the past month my colleague Holly and I have been trying to make some big changes in our classrooms by applying the innovation we proposed in August for our first digital assignment. The gist of the proposal was to have the students in our classes combine, to organise and produce their own web-based television programme. No this probably not a new innovation in the wider world of education (think newspapers, radio stations, prior versions of student-led TV) but something new for us was the amount of real collaboration, problem-solving and decision-making skills we have handed over to our students. Are we going to be successful? The kids certainly think so... so watch this space! Exciting stuff.

Last week in class we looked at Agile and Lean concepts in the world of education. There are still many concepts I  have to get my head around but there were also many ideas I immediately liked and want to explore further.

Agile and Lean Education
With its foundations in manufacturing and IT industries, agile and lean methodologies can be applied to education. Agile methods change up the traditional command and follow processes that can be found in many sectors of life. Kropp, Meier, Mateescu & Zahn (2014) state, "Such methods emphasize the importance of highly interactive self-organising teams and close collaboration of all stakeholders, as well as values like courage, openness and respect." Linking in the importance of 21st Century skills for learning, agile methods mesh extremely well towards preparing our students for that unknown future.

The Agile Manifesto  ( http://agilemanifesto.org/) highlighted the following:

• Individual and actions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

We are asked to apply this to education and created

• Learners over prescribed curriculum
• Authentic and contextualised learning over worksheets and textbooks
• Collaborative relationships over didactic transmission
• Teachable moments over lesson plans

There were many really great adaptations of this from our group as well.

Lean 

According to Barney and Kirby (2004), educators can learn from lean production methods the importance of empowering teachers by training them to problem solve and then expect them to be self-reflective and to continuously improve their practice. The thing I liked about both was how easily I can pull in these ideas into my own classroom. we looked at Kanban, also standup meetings and self-organising groups. I immediately used all three of these ideas in my classroom the very next day and have been doing my own research into some of the practices and tools used in Agile schools using Lean methods too.  

Positives and questions I have about Design thinking in Ed:

+  great to see a methodology that focuses on the implementation and use of 21st C skills as well as values. 

+ Educational settings could do with getting rid of Muda- bureaucracy is very high. Limiting systems or streamlining could be great. There are so many competing priorities in Education. 

+ Self-directed and driven students

? We are not pumping out consumer-driven products- or are we? This goes to the heart of the purpose of education.

? What are the downsides or negatives of using this approach. It can't be without a cost perhaps?

? How does this type of self-directed and collaborative approach apply to all our students? Esp ones with learning and behavioural needs?

? What is the research behind this approach in an educational field? Has it been tested? Are the outcomes noticeably different?

Steve Peha

Steve Peha is an American educator and IT manager. I watched a youtube link given to a group of Microsoft exec ( I think) given by Steve Peha in 2011. I found it really interesting and recorded some ideas and notes as follows.

• Agile Manifesto
• Technology has not changed educational outcomes.
• Roland Fryer discovered that educational incentive pay did not have any positive outcomes on student achievement
• "How can we run a school with no method for improvement?"
• Waterfall methodologies have failed- dumping kids off to the next group of teachers/schools etc after 'we' have done with them. Is the right way to think about our students? There's no collective ownership and protection of these students education.
• Applying software methods to help students and schools raise achievement.
• Chester Finn- National Journal of Educational Experts blog
• Agile (Scrum, Kanban, lean)- huge gauge on productivity, -use the humanistic values in this system. - higher quality work. 
• Use the culture of agile to improve
• Right shifting ( not in this video but something else I've picked up).

Barney, H. & Kirby, S.N. (2004). Toyota Production System/Lean Manufacturing. In B. Stecher and S.N. Kirby (Eds.), Organizational Improvement and Accountability Lessons for Education From Other Sectors (pp. 35-50). Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.

Kropp, M., Meier, A., Mateescu, M., & Zahn, C. (2014). Teaching and learning agile collaboration. In 2014 IEEE 27th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, CSEE and T 2014 - Proceedings(pp. 139–148). IEEE Computer Society. https://doi.org/10.1109/CSEET.2014.6816791

Leadership, Engagement and Agency

I didn't blog last week.

So thinking back on my last couple of sessions at Mindlab, what to blog about...

Firstly Leadership one has been completed. I'm not extremely happy with the final essay but was pleased to get this completed. So glad to get these things completed, and handled in on time.
It was interesting to reflect on my leadership and followership style. I am definitely more more comfortable in and as, an active follower. So many different theories etc go alongside leadership and followership but I like to think that those personal attributes and emotional intelligence's separate effective leaders from those that are ineffective. I also can see that there are many times where different leadership styles are required depending on the situation and requirements of the team being led.

                       

This week we started to investigate student agency and student engagement. I was pleased about this because it's something I'm very interested in.

Here is my interpretation of student engagement according to the following article: Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2016). Engagement in Australian schools. Retrieved from http://www.acleadersresource.sa.edu.au/features/engagement-in-learning/workshop-1/Handout_4_Engagement_in_Australian_Schools.pdf and how I think students show these types of engagement levels.

At the end of the day, I strongly feel that relationships are part of the key component to student engagement. How a teacher relates to their students is paramount, how a teacher supports a student in their learning but not just academically, how a teacher sets the tone for the classroom environment is strongly based on and built upon- relationships.

Student agency
Agency - the new buzz word. I was at a conference presented by Kath Murdoch about Inquiry Learning last year, when I first heard the word. I admit I scoffed a bit at the time; 'Student Agency- what the heck is that?!'
My tutor Jonathan, summed it up quite well: 'Agency is the power of creativity.' I love this idea and know as a student I personally would have loved more agency at times. I was lucky though that through my own education I had some pretty great teachers who, although didn't know the word, allowed their students a lot of agency. Now whether a student wants to pursue their agency or not is another thing. I am personally finding that in my own practice right now. Some students do not want to make their own choices, they want to be told what to do and how to do it- that is safety, that is doing the 'right thing', that is not getting things wrong. The challenge is bringing those two worlds together or to start small and then build up to the real power of choice and creativity. At the moment my colleague and I am trying to start up a pretty big project for our students that will allow them to make their own way, make their own choices and be pretty much as creative as possible. Some students are EMBRACING this, but others are very reluctant. This is frustrating for me as a teacher who can see all these amazing possibilities in her students, but also I can understand that for students taking risks and putting themselves out there is "terrifying". In my experience, as students get older and as social media becomes a bigger part of their lives, those risk taking behaviours of putting yourself out there, and showing celebrating your own strengths to others etc, can put unwanted big targets on those students as well. Especially Kiwi kids. Last week in class, we looked at the latest PISA results which showed that New Zealand kids showed a very high percentage of bullying. This is an issue for our students and by our students too. It's a big part of our culture. Tall Poppy Syndrome is well and truly alive and kicking in NZ.
I think that all these things are inextricably linked; culture, agency, mindset, relationships. Being a teacher is not just about delivering a curriculum these days.

Flipped and Blended Learning

Flipped learning, where lesson material is prepared and recorded by a teacher and then viewed at home allowing students to come to school with a baseline of knowledge, is something that has bothered me for a while.
I am not against the idea of students being able to view material at their own pace or understanding level but what I am against is this notion of learning being seen as 'homework'. And I think homework is an issue.

Access to technology is not equal, access and time available after school is not equal, parental support and encouragement for homework and home study is not equal. The idea around moving or flipping the instruction for students to the home, doesn't sit well with me. Having been in the US for three months over the past three years, I have been able to get a 'little bit' of insight into homework and it's role (from an outsiders perspective) in the US educational system. Personally, I was shocked at the amount of homework given to students and the extent at how textbook based learning appeared to be the basis for learning. (Disclaimer: I'm not saying that's how all US Ed is based but just from what I witnessed). So, I can see how a flipped base of learning might appeal to that system of education and I do see some big benefits. It would considerably cut down on 'homework' and help students build up personal knowledge of the subject to bring to the classroom for teachers to guide, extend and clarify with students. Discussions could be richer, students more engaged without having to 'guess whats in the teachers head', and opportunities to explore multiple perspectives and apply new learning in different contexts would be evident. All great things right?!

My issue comes down to home access, as stated above. And whilst I was trying to grapple with this idea in my head, managed to stumble across the 'in class flip'. THANK YOU! Edutopia article on in-class flipped learning

Here we equal the playing field and students after school are not bogged down with extras. I already use blended learning in my classroom and a rotation and workshop type arrangement - especially for mathematics and reading/language type activities. This frees me up to work with individual students or small groups of students for guided instruction.

My favourite applications/site to use is TES Teach with Blendspace.

This is one of my Blendspace lessons on Fractions.

This is such a user friendly interface which allows you to upload a range of content and file types so that students can direct their own pace of learning, select areas of need to work and develop and allow for choice and control over their learning. You can select, find and upload You tube clips, upload your own screencast, instructionals, pdfs, images, directly question students, insert links etc etc. Blendspace has links to Google classroom, Google drive, Edmodo, Twitter, Drop box etc. It's really great. You can view and share other lessons with teachers or you could even get your students to create lessons.
Blend it up! But in my opinion... do it at school. If the kids are engaged they'll do their own 'homework'!

Anyway that's all from me for this week.
Ka kite

PS My homework is minimal and something that is done because our school/parent community expect it. Reading, spelling and something student designed at the moment.