ULearn 2016
5th October 2016
Students at the heart of learning; growing learning through passions, interests and curiosities.
1:1 devices from Years 4-8 (Google Apps school - Ngatea School)
It is the people and how they interact which makes a successful learning environment.
Flexible learning settings - Mi Space, Presentation Space, Lounge, Creator Space, Meeting Space … All spaces are used for different things and the students know what kind of learning should be taking place in these areas. Cloak Bays - now quiet learning space
Single Cell classroom - mixed cell classroom ( 75 students:3 teachers) The kids are divided into 3 homerooms.
Inclusiveness - Pastoral care is key factor in making the learning environment successful. Acknowledge different feelings. Everyone identifies how they are feeling when they arrive at school and places their name on an emotion along with identifying strategies with how they can deal with their emotions during the day.
Lots of time spent on building the team.
Learning teams - group works, tasks, blogs, challenges, support group
House Team Challenges
Building a positive learning culture
Encouraging and modelling a positive environment.
Students at the heart of learning.
It’s Good to be Me!
The Marama (team) way
Goal setting
How do I learn best?
What do I do when I am stuck?
What am I curious about?
Does my teacher know about me, my family and my interests? All of me. Does my teacher know the after school routines?
Growth Mindset is key!
Growth language used. Being open minded.
Building students learning power. Students understand that they are the key to that.
Multiple intelligences (Kids do a SMARTs test at the beginning of the year). Teachers try and tap into that as much as they can. Building students own learning power and knowing what makes them tick.
The learning brain: What helps me learn: Sleep, water, food….
Students learn what to do when i’m stuck.
Our learning powers: Creativity, resilience, being me, connecting, curiosity (Co-constructed with kids and parents - what the students will be like when they leave school - Graduate Profile)
Being Me:
Curiosity:
Learning Smarts
STRETCH myself to learn
Questioning
Making sense
Connecting… is creating a link within and across the community
Creativity… is the use of one’s imagination to think of and explore alternatives or new possibilities
Learning SMARTS
Being different
Resilience… is when I work through challenges and find ways to keep going even when the going gets tough.
Guts and Grits
Learning SMARTs
Graduate Profiles.
“What we learn with pleasure we never forget” -Reading, writing, maths and the other curriculum stems from students interests and curiosities.
Individual Endeavours
Conceptual curriculum (Inquiry) (Being me)
Learning about: Learning by:
Question/Inquire: (Curiosity)
Inquire & Dive (Connecting)
STRETCH LEARNING
Interpret information
Experiment, explore and investigate (not just researching)
Connect new learning - connect with an expert
Workshops
Live docs- students record their findings, new words etc on a doc.
Curriculum Mapping - Recording which curriculum areas are covered - individual for each student depending on what their topic is. Conferenced with the teacher - students opting into workshops and track their learning themselves.
Create (Creativity)
Share and Reflect (Resilience)
IE (Individual Endeavour) Assessment Rubric
Being Me
Questioning/Inquire
Learn
Create
Share
Reflect
Google Forms to gather student voice and gather data.
“If we have learnt something we can teach it…”
Group Endeavours
A collaborative inquiry project, based on my interests and passions.
Real context
So what?
Key Concepts.
GE ignition afternoon
Lots of hands on stuff, books, pictures, things to touch, different stations - students look at what they were curious about, students wrote questions about some the of things they saw, sparked curiosity.
Students then wrote down 2 things on post it notes that they were the most curious about from the afternoon. Teachers then organised groups based on this.
Students got together then came up with some big overarching questions : (This took a lot of time, thinking, re-questioning and discussions)
How could we reduce our carbon footprint?
What impact does piracy have on society?
How do natural disasters affect us?
How can we support NZ made?
What influence does technology have on sport?
Trips to make the learning more purposeful.
Learner Agency
How?
Students at the heart of learning.
Collaboration
Kids plan their daily timetable and book themselves into conference slots and workshops. If they are not in a workshop they are working independently on their Individual Endeavour - inquiry
Each student has a blog. Their parents get a copy of everything that is posted on the blog so parents get updates in real time. Parents can comment on the blogs and give feedback.
Students have a weekly goal that they are going to work on. Teachers can also select a goal that they feel the student needs to work on. The goals are around the learning powers - creativity, collaboration, resilience… The students then reflect on their goal at the end of each week and post their reflection on their Blog or Twitter.
Teachers refer to the goals everyday so it is at the forefront of the learning.
Set goals each week
Sharing learning
Student led conferences
Twitter
Blogs
Personalised Learning Report
On Google Doc. Updated all the time. On student’s blog and parents can see this at anytime. When a student sits a test, it can be updated once that test has been sat, or can be updated after the unit of work is completed and the work shows progression in learning. Doesn’t state if the child is below, above national standards - this can be seen visually instead.
What has helped:
Professionalism in collaboration
Understanding what makes each other tick
Tapping into different strengths
Sharing the load
Supportive environment for learning support and relievers
Supportive leadership
Consistency of personnel for more than a year (Team remains the same)
Opportunities to learn in many and varied ways
Flexibility
A Trust has been set up so that students can buy a cost effective device and the school can buy the devices in bulk - Chrome Books. Students all have the same devices. Devices are 1:1
Juniors have ipads but not 1:1
HOT Spot workshops run alongside individual endeavour projects - these workshops cover algebra, statistics etc. These can be separate to the individual inquires - based on data, students needs etc. There are also responsive workshops that teach students what might help them with their projects.
Each Individual project/group project runs for a term. I big theme/unit per term.
