School visits

Recently I had an amazing opportunity to go on two school visits.  I went to two school who are at the forefront of our e-learning movement.  One school was new, purpose built and the other has been around for many, many years and was still making amazing things happen.  During both visits I walked away with a head full of ideas and questions.
The first school showed me what I hadn't thought of before.  The teachers worked in teams to plan for their students.  Each teachers strengths were utilised to provide the best for the children in their care.  Expectation were high, everyone knew what they were trying to achieve and the whole staff seemed to move in the same direction.  What I found amazing was that all the children who I talked to were able to tell me what they were doing and why they were doing it (and I mean all the kids I talked to the year 6/7s and the year 1s).  They could tell me the task that was set and what tools they could use to complete the task.  While the children were engaging in purposeful activities all teachers in the room were working with various groups.  I could instantly see how I could make my own practice better from watching the children and their teachers.

I also liked the absolute transparency between school and the community.  The teachers had their weeks planning online for the parents to see what was happening in each class. The resources were also available and easily accessible for teacher, students and parents. What a powerful tool!
This was one thing that I could do right away. I couldn't invite another teacher into my class or knock down a wall to the class next door to create a collaborative, team teaching environment, but I could be transparent right away.

I started by putting my maths planning online, with the help of Google sites. This is a new tool for me so it did take me a little while to figure it out. Once I got my head around it, it was fairly easy to use.  I created a page for each group. Each group had their WALT, my teaching progressions and resources available to them.
As part of my teaching resources I had links to videos that illustrate the strategy I was teaching, practice activities, and other resources that related to the task.  I thought that this might take me longer to plan each week but that wasn't the case. My planning took the same amount of time as I had links to all resources in my planning anyway, my teaching progression was there also. It was just a matter of making that planning available for the children to see. It has made a huge difference.

I would start by teaching each group a strategy using materials and discussing how the strategy worked. I would then set them questions to help practice the strategy (at this point they could choose to use imaging or materials).  When the children were on independent questions stage I could see that there were at different places in their understanding.  The problem with this is that usually you would be working with another group and at times those children who were stuck would need to wait until you checked their work to get back on track.  This was not the case in my class.  I always encouraged my children to work together and teach each other, but now they had access to support whenever they needed it.  The kids who were still struggling with a concept were able to go and view the video I made available to them as many times as they wanted until they felt confident.  The children who were needing to move on could pick the follow up activity that was suitable to their level of understanding.  I thought that at first some of my students would just pick the easiest work to get all the answers right and move onto something they considered more fun.  I was pleasantly surprised to find my children picking harder questions (sometimes harder than they were ready for) but with the help of videos and their peers they could extend their understanding and experience success.  Some of my students have come to me begging for more practice questions, harder practice questions, so they could be the best mathematicians.  My students who hated maths are now loving it.  Those who found maths difficult are really enjoying the support and those who work at a faster pace can go on and extend them selves with out having to wait for others to catch up.  Not only is their maths improving but also their self management skills.

That was one thing I changed from being at school number one. I'm currently working on my project after visiting school number two, but you'll have to wait and see how that's going.

Daily 5

After watching some colleagues of mine run the Daily5 programme in their classrooms I decided to give it a go myself. I started by introducing Reading to Self. The children an I discussed what this will look like if done well, why we should do it and how to choose book.
As time went on we went on to explore the other elements of the Daily5 programme. We went very slowly starting with 3 minutes per activity and slowly working our way up. We stopped and reflected often. Now I'm feeling like the programme is beginning to run smoothly.
I'm finding that the programme is working really well with my students. They are very motivated and are on task.
I'm busy at all times. Having a timer moving the children onto the next activity has helped me make sure that my lessons are quick and snappy. I am seeing each group for reading twice a week. This gives me time to teach a strategy and then check up on the kids and check their understanding later in the week.
I can also see each group twice a week for writing. I have class teaching sessions where I introduce a genre and set whole class tasks. Later I work with each group extending them or supporting them depending their needs in relation to the set task.
I am getting great results from my students. They are getting much more small group instruction and are wanting to complete the tasks set.

The challenge I am still facing is making sure that ALL my children are completing work at the highest possible standard for them. Some of my students do tend to take the easy road but that's a challenge I will overcome with time.

The power of kids teaching kids

I feel strongly about getting children to teach each other. They get so much more understanding of concepts when they not only learn but have to understand each concept enough to be able to teach others.
At the beginning of the term I was talking to one of my students who showed some great understanding about something I was trying to teach. Once he completed the set task I asked him to become the teacher and explain what to do to the rest of his group. He looked concerned and asked, "why do you ALWAY get us to teach each other?"
This comment made me giggle. I made my most innocent face and said, "Be honest with me! How often do you switch off when I talk too much?"
To that comment he scratched his head and looked at his feet. "Does that answer your question?' I asked. He just nodded.

I have adopted a new teaching model for my maths lessons.
Model
Do
Create

At first we look at a strategy. We work together as a group, looking at materials, discussing the strategy and trying it out together. The children then move on to complete some questions on their own. After the kids have had a practice they begin by creating videos using our cameras, laptops and iPad to show their understanding of the strategies. We create videos of children working with materials, we also use apps such as ShowMe and Educreations.
I am still getting there in terms of loading the videos onto our wiki page but here is what I have put up already:
http://room26pvs.wikispaces.com/Our+Maths+Vids

What I found really, and I mean, REALLY useful about doing this is the instant feedback about what the children understand and what they still need help with. I can see if I have to revisit a strategy to clarify some learning or I can see when kids need to move on.

To anyone who decides to give this a go I would say, go for it!
There are some things you have to be aware of:

• make sure you teach your students how to present their videos (we're still working on this one). For the first few videos I have had to constantly remind the kids to explain what they are doing step by step. They found it quite tricky at the beginning but they are getting much better at explaining what to do.
• get the kids to work with a buddy or a group of three (any more becomes unmanageable). This way you get great discussions about the learning. When one is stuck or has made a mistake then the other(s) is quick to correct them and help explain where they went wrong. So they are teaching each other in the video making process.
• talk to the students about how they use their cameras. I still get very shaky videos which can make a person feel motion sick while watching. Tripods are great, if you don't have one of those get one child to hold the camera and the other to write or move materials.

The next step for me is to apply this video making process to other curriculum areas. Watch this space!

How do you use video in your class?

Spaces so far - the good, the bad and the ugly

Last week I wrote about my new spaces that I created in my room. Today I thought that I would write about what I'm experiencing so far...

I'm finding that we had a great start at the beginning of last week. However, we have had a disruption to the flow and my kids have come back with some interesting behaviours. What I found on Friday last week and so far this week is quite far from what I had hoped. So here is what I'm thinking we need to do!

• Revisit our rules - what are OUR expectations from both myself and the students? What do the children want from these spaces? How do they expect their peers to act in the different areas we have?
• I think I need to be clear that choices will be given to those who have earned that right. I may need to set up some spaces for kids who may need to go and work on their own if they are not managing themselves. 
• Speaking of Managing self. I will revisit what this is and discuss what managing self means to us. What should we see when people are managing them selves? How can we help those who are having trouble with this? 

So that's the plan to getting back on track. What do you do when your students are having trouble making wise choices?

On a positive note. Our new classroom space has really worked for some of my students. They are focused and are using our different spaces wisely. They are discussing their work, moving around to find the space that best fits the task they are working on and most importantly they are achieving great results. So now I need to make sure that all my kids are using their space to extend themselves. 

Changes on the horizon!

Feeling inspired by the amazing speakers I listened to last week during the "It's a Learners World" conference, I decided to make some changes to my class. The furniture was rearranged, bits and pieces bought, assembled and placed around the room. So far I have only seen amazing things from my kids. The first step I implemented was create a few spaces in my class that the kids could go to get away and work on their own. Firstly I put some mosquito nets up. These are now our CAVE spaces. When they go in, they have to work independently.

Our couch became our Mountain Top/Campfire space. The couch is in front of the interactive white board. I thought that this way the children can share their work with each other using the IWB (so far we found out that we can fit 10 kids on the couch).

The back of the couch doubles as a sitting space also.

We also have some round tables set up as Campfire spaces. There we work in a group. Another big success was our sandpit space. This is our practical working area. We have already used this to demonstrate how magma seeps through tectonic plates.

My class has really enjoyed our new spaces. On a number of occasions this week they were so engrossed in what they were doing that they didn't rush of on the bell. This is what I observed earlier in the week. 

Exciting!!! 

It's a learners world: mapping a new landscape

This has once again been a holiday where professional development has been at the top of the list. These holidays I'm attending the Leaning Network" It's a learners world" conference. I'm feeling inspired once again and I think I'm going to give this blogging thing another go. I've just learned about mobile blogging via e-mail. Maybe this is the way that I can blog from anywhere any time.
So far during the conference I have enjoyed a number of speakers. Some I have seen before others I have not seen before. Over all there is an underlying message behind what every speak was saying. We have to change!
We have been used to teaching in a TTWWADI (That's the way we've always done it) kind of way. Not to say that every classroom in the country has been subjected to this way of thinking but we are still driven by our misconceptions of what teaching and learning should look like. Some of these misconceptions are based on how we were taught through our own classroom experience or the expectations around us. As Lee Crocket said this morning, "If we do not change the way we teach, then we prepare our kids not for their futures but for our past!" Can teachers really carry on this way?
The challenge I set myself is to question why I am doing what I'm doing. What is the purpose of the lesson I'm preparing? How will this lesson challenge, inspire and extend my students?
My focus for this term is to work with my new classroom set up and to use my new spaces to let go of some of the control I have over my students learning. I endeavour to start giving my students more responsibility for their own learning, so that they can start shaping their world.
I leave you with an image of my classroom. I used mosquito nets to create some spaces in my room.

Edublogs nomination

http://elearningr14.blogspot.co.nz/

I have a teacher who I have the pleasure of working with at my school.  She is full of ideas and reflective practice. I really enjoy following her professional blog to get ideas and use it to reflect on what I'm doing also.  That's why I would like to nomintae this blog for Best Teacher Blog 2012.

Inspiring!