Setting the Scene

I am curious... I have spent most of last year exploring and building learning spaces including learning caves and collaborative spaces.

This was an on-going piece of personal inquiry following on from a role as lead teacher of an ICT and later, an ESHAS contract.  I have had the privilege of participating in workshops with Jenny Wilson several times, listening to James Nottingham about the place of philosophy in education and talking face to face with Kath Murdoch about our programmes. This has coincided and been extended with our physical building developing a magnificent learning atrium attached to most classrooms but not to ours...

In amongst all of this, my personal inquiry has centered around learning spaces and what they might look like within a four-walled classroom... I was so determined to explore this concept, I even funded my own classroom furniture.

At the end of the year, I asked for feedback - the children were unanimous that they enjoy selecting the space that they learn best in and recommended I continue with this. They did not like having a desk to keep things in or to go back to...

Based on this feedback, I have managed to super size their tote trays, reduced books to Term 1, 2, 3 and 4... and develop learning groups before we begin.

It has to be said that I am an advocate for learning spaces and students managing themselves within the learning context and want to continue with the idea in my new classroom. However, in my 20 years of teaching, I have never started the year with this focus...

The difference here is that the children come from cultures of desks... I am already thinking that I will tape of the doors on day one so that we "enter" together as a class group but I would be very keen for feedback, ideas and suggestions for starting the year with tables, not enough desks and tote trays when the children come from a desk personal space culture...

Throwing the Hat in...

As I begin to contemplate 2012 I have come to the realisation that it is time to throw in my Cowboy E-Learning Hat. Don't get me wrong, I am still very much passionate and enthused by the potential collaboration, motivation, inspiration and the authentic audience that e-learning offers the children I work with and MYSELF.

The reality is though that it is time to share that magic with the staff that I work with. Reluctantly, I have to admit to leading the youngest of teachers in the school but all of them are mostly teaching the way they were taught. The way I taught twenty years ago. Over the course of 2011, I have quietly tried to tap into the interests of the team.

One teacher has been conscientiously developing his teaching of mathematics. I shared the potential of apps on the I-Pads such as Evernote and Show Me. This excited him no end and he is now using these tools for student reflection and assessment. They even provided discussion and moderation as we developed our OTJ for National Standards. Another team member was quick to be fueled by the authentic audience and valuable feedback to her children. (My Twitter PLN has never let me down in the odd request to leave her a comment).
Watching the way these two teachers snapped up ideas, I realised the NEED for teachers to understand the purpose for using the vast array of tools that are available to us. They need to see them as part of what they do instead of another "extra" thing to fit in.

So, I am tossing my cowboy hat away and joining the posse. I will lead them for a little while but I am guessing if I can give each team member a taste of the magic, they will begin to ride ahead and hopefully lead me on a whole new journey!

Camera Scavenger Hunt

One of my first cooperative tasks for 2012 will involve a photo scavenger hunt. I have done this previously but this time, we will integrate the set of GPS units we have at school. I am quite excited about this activity already. It appears that it is quickly becoming a multi layered unit including...

• Explicit use with the children of the NZ Key Competencies
• introducing the "Learning Wobbles" which will allow us to reflect about how we learn and what we do when we are in the pit of learning
• Integrating strand maths into an Inquiry using location and bearing.
• establishing routines with regards to ICT equipment, downloading, files and collaborative tasks.

I think ultimately, it will give me a chance to get to know the new children that I will be learning with in 2012.


Thanks to @MarkHerring when he posted this tweet on the first Sunday of the summer holidays and got me thinking...

Learning Spaces, Styles and Apps

It is time to reflect on what has been an absolutely thought provoking year and professionally challenging to boot!

• After acting as AP for a year, this was my first official year as the real thing in leadership. I have noticed my conversations and perspectives have changed hugely this year. Needless to say, much of the conversation is around targeted programmes, National Standards and charters. 
• Learning styles have always been a massive consideration in my planning and delivery but this year, I began to develop Learning Spaces with the children. Over a term, they developed the classroom spaces to meet their needs. There are less desks than students in the classroom, bean bags, tables, a campfire for meetings, fishing nets to create tent like spaces, and "caves" for children who like to learn in quiet spaces.
• I explicitly unpacked the Key Competency "Managing Myself" using James Nottingham's idea of the learning pit. We likened this to learning to ride a bike and called it the wobbles. Best dialogue in this classroom was when kids would let each other or me know that they were wobbling and needed someone nearby! 
• My class composed of 1/6 being transient students. Most of these came from Christchurch but my latest was a student from Tamaki School in Auckland. Her arrival raised for me the potential of student blogs for students on the move.

 While I have only identified four key components, it is fair to say that it is these that will have a direct impact on me as a teacher in the future.  My first question is how will I directly develop ownership of the the Learning Spaces in our classroom with the new group of children coming from classrooms with desks and set individual spaces? I am thinking I need to explicitly plan the use of these spaces into the early days of establishing our classroom. I would love to hear from other teachers who have done this previously. What routines are important? How do we meet the needs of the student (and parent) who need ownership of of a classroom space? What successes and failures have you had?

New Directions...

John Dewey said it beautifully, a long time ago...
 

 

Six Hat Thinking About Apps...

We unpacked the I-Pads today and used six hat thinking to consider the value of some of the maths apps on our pads.  I need to thank Barbara Reid for the idea after her recent visit down South.

 The excitement was high and if I was to measure their success by initial engagement, I would be off buying a class set.

Once again, my class did me proud in the way that they reflected seriously about how an app might help learning. If not themselves, someone else.

The Wow factor of this session was when we wrapped up with a six hat thinking about the pads themselves. I will share their thoughts next week, once we have "played" with them a bit more.

Accelerating Learning With I-Pads

I used to be a bit hesitant about the use of I-Pads in classrooms and decided that I needed to explore the place of these machines and the hype that they have created. For the past 3 terms, I have been exploring their potential, reading blog posts, observing other schools developing their use and I have participated in many conversations, even the odd debate... I even purchased my own I-Pad so that I could play and develop my philosophy as to how these might fit into the classroom.

The short version of this story, is that we have recently begun our journey with I-Pads. We are currently at the stage of implementing I-Pads into our programmes. We were incredibly fortunate to access funding for 12 I-Pads in our school as part of our inquiry into accelerating learning of targeted maths groups. The funding also includes Teacher Aide time. These programmes are currently being developed with our junior and middle children for an hour everyday.

I still wonder about the impact this programme will have on accelerating learning. We have carefully selected apps to practise specific learning intentions and are regularly monitoring student outcome. However, will the practice be transferable? Will this form of practice lead to the children actually learning? Will some children just keep practising getting it wrong? For us, I don't think the latter will be the case as the provision of Teacher Aide time allows for meaningful conversations with the children and some reflection time about how they are going.

Meanwhile, these target programmes are only being run an hour a day for four days a week. This means we have 12 I-Pads to access for regular classroom use. The potential creativity that they offer is my real area of interest...  I am keen to hear any stories about I-Pads being used in the classrooms.