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Just wanted to share this bit of fun with you.

Back again!!

I've been listening to Charles Newton speak to members of the Board of Trustees from schools around the region about E-Central and the big picture for this Lakes Central Trust and MoE initiative. Over the 3 years of the contract the cluster aims are to ensure schools have the appropriate capacity to support effective use of ICT, build teacher confidence and capability, facilitate the emergence of strong user groups for specific ICTs and to promote the authentic integration of ICT across the curriculum.

Thanks to our ICT lead teachers for getting the ball rolling. It takes those committed few to get a movement going and as this video shows be just a little bit of a nut. (Not saying that any one of our team are !!)

Teacher Only Day 2nd June

Clarifying the back end ... with the front end in sight.
Aims

• to protect the 'integrity' of the disciplines behind each of the learning areas.
• to explore the big ideas/concepts in the specific curriculum documents and the NZC statements.
• to link our visioning - what we do to be who we are - to the learning areas of social science, science and technology.
• to document the concepts we will focus on in a shared language that is appropriate for teachers, parents and our students.

The areas to be presented within each session:

• essence statement - how does this fit with values, KC and principles and our vision statement. What do we need to do / learn and how , to 'empower a community of learners'
• look at the NZ learning areas statement and the specific curriculum document - what are the big ideas or concepts/knowledge contained in this curriculum that are important for us to 'teach' at WPS? Look at strands/AOs
• Link to front end - what do we need to know (concepts/big knowledge ideas rather than topics) to be empowered as learners. In user friendly language.
  

The New Zealand Curriculum - Lester Flockton

(A report from Lester's presentation and ramblings, ideas and views by Kerry)
Thursday 5th - Friday 6th March. Cromwell

A review of the curriculum was undertaken in the years 2000 - 2002 and following this Cabinet agreed that the national curriculum should be revised. A development process then took place which included trial schools, collaborative working parties, online discussions and research into relevant national and international research. What followed was The National Curriculum. It has been rewritten to retain the emphasis on numeracy and literacy and importantly, to allow schools and communities to develop a curriculum that best meets their needs, In short, schools have been given the ability to determine the breadth and depth of the curriculum.

The purpose & direction for NZC

1. Rationalising learning outcomes for our school.

What learning? and how much?
2. Quality teaching - pedagogy (refer pages 34 - 35 0f NZC)

• Creating a supportive learning environment
• Encouraging reflective thought and action
• Enhancing the relevance of new learning
• Facilitating shared learning
• Making connections to prior learning and experience
• Providing sufficient opportunities to learn
• Teaching as inquiry

3. School ownership - (localisation)
4. Engagement

The 3 levels of engagement are
Information - tell
Consultation - ask
Engagement - involve

When reviewing our school curriculum of NZC we need both the experienced and less experienced to work together. A new set of eyes to the ways of working always brings a fresh approach. A review means just that "to look again". It requires quality questions, specific criteria for making judgments and decisions and active participation from all involved in the process. Both planned and spontaneous professional review is when:

• Examples of evidence are described
• Quality of practice is evaluated
• Good practice is affirmed
• Improvements are decided upon and regularly reviewed

In relation to the school charter does our documentation have and do we really understand? -

• The NZC principles
• Values
• Key competencies
• Learning areas
• Student progress and achievement
• Relevance and impact of curriculum on achievement and assessment

Our school's curriculum must be underpinned by and consistent with the principles of The NZC. We must be able to demonstrate how the principles are put into practice. (I believe we are well on the way with this through our PD, teacher only days, parent evenings focusing on our vision, taha wairua, and values).
Lester suggests:
Broadly stated success criteria for each principle with a shared and common understanding - what it looks like and feels like in practice.

The NZC principles

• High expectations
• Treaty of Waitangi
• Cultural diversity
• Inclusion
• Learning to learn
• Community engagement
• Coherence
• Future focus

The NZC Values - (to be encouraged, modelled, and explored)

• Excellence
• Innovation, inquiry, and curiosity
• Diversity
• Equity
• Community and participation
• Ecological sustainability
• Integrity
• Respect

Key competencies - (critical to sustained learning and effective participation in society)
We can teach and learn through the key competencies but do not need to assess these, we can however, comment on key competencies in the school environment, (context). There are many variables at play, environmental, social, and emotional factors that influence any key competency at any time

• Thinking
• Using language, symbols, and texts
• Managing self
• Relating to others
• Participating and contributing

Learning areas

• English
• The Arts
• Health & Physical Education
• Learning Languages
• Mathematics & Statistics
• Science
• Social Sciences
• Technology

We must continually capture how the vision for our school is working through a variety of methods.
The truth of the curriculum is what is happening in the classrooms. It is the feel of learning that is taking place, the feel of the values and key competencies in action.
Lester Flockton lists some of the requirements as:

• an understanding that the true curriculum is what actually happens in the day to day activities and life in classrooms and around the school.
• ...truest and richest evidence of curriculum being underpinned by principles is best in the curriculum in action - not what is written in documentation
• broadly stated success criteria for each principle
• shared and common understanding and interpretation of what the criteria look and feel like in practice in a range of contexts
• both planned and spontaneous professional review...
• willingness to desist from unnecessary and time-wasting documentation. The evidence is to be seen and felt.

Lester talked about the 70/30 ratio. 70% of all learning done is away from the school setting and 30% is within the school setting. It is important to understand that any assessment is only a snapshot in time, in the context of the study and within the school setting. Learning is a continuous process.
When reporting about student achievement it is the best evidence at that time. Summative judgment is based on evidence from a range of activities that reflect what students are capable of . We must ensure that any criteria are well specified so teachers are able to make reliable judgments. These assessments may be based on teachers' judgments or external tests, or a combination of these.
"Teacher assessment is essentially an informal activity: the teacher may pose questions, observe activities, and evaluate pupils' work in a planned and systematic or ad hoc way. The information which the teacher thus obtains may then be partial or fragmentary. It will not at the time allow the teacher to make a firm evaluation of the pupils' competence in reading, for example, or understanding of a mathematical process. But repeated assessment of this sort, over a period of time, and in a range of contexts will allow the teacher to build up a solid and broadly based understanding of pupil attainment" Gipp. 1994

Friday
The focus was on unpacking The NZC in relation to whole school curriculum plans. Once again Lester challenged my thinking about connectedness, big picture objectives, inquiry learning, cross strands, local priorities, and concepts and processes.
When students leave WPS what are the qualities they will show as a result of their years of learning in our school and its community?
We want our learning community to be integrated, connected, learner centered with maximised learning taking place.

So how does our vision, taha wairua and learning logo fit in with my understandings now?


We empower our students through a culture of learning; through values, key competencies, learning areas, integrated inquiry, and thinking strategies. This is our 'sun'

The lake is our deep learning: self managing, learning with others, having self confidence, and being a critical and creative thinker.

The mountain is our metaphor for striving to achieve their highest and the symbol for the land represents the difference the learner can make to themselves, others and the community.

Our taha wairua has at its heart the students. Each radiating circle develops the dispositions of a learner and fit in with the key competencies. "It's the way we do things around here"

The NZC model presented by Lester Flockton & James Rae. March 2008 has at its centre the key competencies, ringing this are the values followed by the learning areas, the principles and finally the vision.
This is my simplified version excluding the essence statements from each of the learning areas.



















Another model I particularly liked, (I'm a visual learner), was one that depicted the substance and the process. In this model the learner is at the centre with the learning areas, key competencies, and values surrounding this.

The idea of the key competencies and values being described as 'learning for learning and living' gave it new meaning to me and is one that I understand and I can now see how well it fits with 'learning for knowledge and skill'. It is a real juggling act to teach all these concepts at once, to teach content (knowledge), processes (skills) , maybe a key competency, and of course modelling and discussing values, as all are equally important.
James, M. & McCormick, R. 2009 succinctly put this as "The challenge for teachers and for schools is to focus on two things simultaneously: teaching the substance of subjects, and helping students to learn the ideas and practices associated with the process of learning itself"

Lester also challenged us about the essence statements for each of the learning areas. Did we really understand what science was all about? how about social sciences, or the arts? Could we or any of our teachers articulate the essence of each of the learning areas? I certainly couldn't but it has made me go away and revisit each of the learning areas in The NZC. There are subtle changes to some of the learning statements from the draft document - the arts, health & physical education, learning languages, science, and technology.
I've compared the statements that have been changed.
The Arts - Draft

• In the arts, students discover how to use their senses, imagination, thinking, and feelings as the stimulus for creative action and response.

The NZC

• In the arts, students explore, refine, and communicate ideas as they connect thinking, imagination, senses and feelings to create works and respond to the works of others.

Health & Physical Education - Draft

• In health & physical education, students learn how to support their own well-being and that of others and society, exploring these in health-related and movement contexts.

The NZC

• In health and physical education, students learn about their own well-being, and that of others in society, in health-related and movement contexts.

Learning Languages - Draft

• In learning languages, students learn to communicate in an additional language and discover how language and culture shape our personal, group, and national identities.

The NZC

• In learning languages, students learn to communicate in an additional language, develop their capacity to learn further languages, and explore different world views in relation to their own.

Science - Draft

• In science, students generate and test ideas and observe, investigate, and model in order to develop scientific knowledge, understanding, and explanations.

The NZC

• In science, students explore how both the natural physical world and science itself work so that they can participate as critical, informed, and responsible citizens in a society in which science plays a significant role.

Technology - Draft

• In technology, students explore how people intervene in the world by developing products, systems, and environments to expand their possibilities.

The NZC

• In technology, students learn to be innovative developers of products and systems and discerning consumers who will make a difference in the world.

Some I like the change of, especially technology, it puts the student and the value of innovation first and it's about how we can all make a difference. However when I was typing out this list the draft statement for the arts resonated with me and seemed far more in sync with what the arts is all about. Surely using imagination, senses, and having wonderment is what it's all about, not just the skills of exploring, refining and communicating, It's probably just semantics!

So far we have covered the vision, principles, values, key competencies and learning areas. Next we were expected to think! I was still trying to answer some of the questions Lester had confronted me with and was internalising and musing over all that we have done over the past 3 years with our curriculum, our mission statement, logo and inquiry learning with, of course, embedded ICT.

The Harvard Project Zero was mentioned several times by Lester so of course I have been and had a quick look at it. I do want to visit this again and spend some time reading some of the research based on visible thinking, artful thinking, cultures of thinking, and innovating with intelligence. Others I also want to delve into more deeply are the Multiple Intelligence projects, and Patterns of Thinking. One area I spent more than a few minutes in was the 7 key principles of a Smart School. I definitely want to read more.

The 7 key principles are:

1. Generative knowledge - what knowledge most benefits the students. (I wonder if this means our community, I'll need to read more to find out)
2. Learnable intelligence - a lot of research from Zero indicates that teaching and learning through integration of higher order thinking and a school culture that embodies this can have a significant effect on students' abilities.
3. Focus on understanding - an emphasis on deep understanding in contrast to rote learning
4. Teaching for mastery and transfer - teach techniques that explicitly model, scaffold and motivate. This assists with the transfer of skills, ideas into new areas.
5. Learning centered assessment - a reflective and evaluative tool. It involves students and teachers. Students take on more responsibility for work and learning.
6. Embracing complexity - learning situations are created that involve challenges: to build excitement and intrigue into difficult problems
7. School as a learning organisation - not just a place for students but for all members of the school community. Learning is encouraged and supported as all members of the school are helped to become self regulated learners, goal setters, and self-monitoring

I believe we are on the right track.
Some questions to continually keep at the forefront of our minds:

• Are our key competencies infused into our curriculum?
• Are we keeping the framework in our head?
• Are we using what Lester coins as the "MP3" mind processes? Thinking critically, analytically, thinking creatively, and thinking metacognitively. (I like this analogy)
• Are we asking relevant, thought provoking questions?
• Are we brainstorming as part of thinking creatively?
• Are we thinking and reflecting about our thinking?

We need to have this mind action, to model it and keep it in play at all times to maintain the momentum. Too often strategies such as thinking hats, or thinkers keys are used and become a bit of a fad and then the interest or spark is gone and it's on to something else. All strategies, ideas, and thinking skills have a purpose and if we can continue with the 7 principles of a Smart School; model, scaffold, and build independence and have a deep understanding of why we are doing what we do then I believe we are well on the way.

So in a nutshell do we have a deep understanding of the vision, values, key competencies, and principles of The NZC in a version that doesn't "tell" but "shows" our community what we are all about in thinking, learning and teaching?

Now about achievement:
Some more questions for thought -

• Where does the information come from for achievement levels in learning areas that are reported to parents?
• What quality teaching, assessment and reporting do we have?
• What criteria do we use? Below/Within/Above and where do we draw the line?
  

PA / PE & Health

Claire K and Jennie ran this afternoon's professional learning session focusing on aligning our CIP with the NZC. Our first task was to read over our old statement, written several years ago, and pinpoint the important key ideas from this. Our old CIP statement read:
"Through involvement in Wanaka Primary School's Health and Physical Education Programme children will develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes and motivation to make informed health-enhancing decisions and to act in ways that contribute to their personal well-being and the well-being of other in the community"

We moved into groups and brainstormed ideas for a new purpose statement to reflect how we see PA, PE and Health fitting into our vision. These statements were handed in for the PA / PE & Health team to work on and further develop a purpose statement that we all had input into. We look forward to seeing this statement in the not too distant future.

Jennie presented the year overview of proposed sporting and coaching events. What a busy term this has already been and it looks set to continue for the rest of the year with a bit of respite in Term 2 at least. Swimming has been the focus for this term with Bikewise week as an added bonus. Next term coaching for hockey is set for either week 1 or 2 so teachers may decide to plan a fundamental skills programme around 'striking'. Term 3 is our skiing programme and xcountry and we had some discussion about alternative sports such as ice skating, curling and luge in Naseby. Jennie is going to investigate this option further. Term 4 we practice for athletics and tee ball competitions.

Each classroom has a 'Developing Fundamental Movement Skills' book and to encourage teachers to look through this an activity was set to break down the main sections of the book and to list possible activities in each of the areas;
Locomotor skills: walking, running, dodging, jumping, hopping and skipping
Stability skills: landing, balance, rotation
Manipulative skills: throwing and catching, striking with the hands, striking with the feet, striking with an implement

Another excellent resource in everyone's classroom is the KiwidexManual.
This PL session gave us the opportunity to explore these 2 books and to discuss some activities that have already been tried and are successful and some that need more work.
This is a huge curriculum area with a dedicated team who will keep us well informed about new ideas, and motivate us to give it a go whether that be power walking, snacktivities, or developing units of work based around the fundamental skills.

A vision of K-12 students today

I've been watching this short video and have been thinking about the questions it asks. In light of the professional learning we are entering into for our school library I believe these questions are going to prompt some great discussion about what the physical environment needs to be like and also how our beliefs about teaching and learning may change to accommodate 21st century tools, learning styles, thinking, and creativity. Have a look, what do you think?

Professional Learning 2009 Focus - Our School Library

Our first Professional learning session for 2009 focused on our new initiative 'Developing the Information Landscape'. The purpose of this PL is to work on developing our school library to meet the 21st century learning needs of our students. This is a 2 year contract.
Glynis Shields from the Dunedin Service Centre of the National Library Service co-facilitated this session.

Our library has a lot of purposes:

• Class visits
• Issue and return of books
• Search internet
• Print work
  
• Great place to come at interval and lunchtime to relax and read
• Conference calls
• Professional learning meetings
• After school music

Our first activity was to brainstorm what a school library is today and come up with all the names given to libraries.
What do we want our library to be and do?
Feel like, sound like, look like.
New Zealand School Libraries. Which ones do you think are good examples of what a library should look like?
We did some metaphor thinking and came up with what we thought our library was... here are some of the teachers' ideas

BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

Our PD session on Tuesday 28th

Focus was on Taking Action and Reflecting in the goal setting process.
Using activities from Classroom Connections - Kath Murdoch and Learning Links - Kath Murdoch and Jeni Wilson.
The Question Game - useful for assessments and observations. 6 questions were developed for taking action and reflecting based on what was hoped would be achieved, why it is an important stage in goal setting and how will it make a difference to student learning.
From this activity the following statements were made about each stage.

Taking Action

Why is taking action important – to ensure that something happens! To achieve the goal or find success in the pathway.

Outcome – goal oriented, self managed with teacher guidance and scaffolding as needed. To think of others and the wider community.

How taking action makes a difference – gives a purpose and ownership to the learning. It empowers students so they can make a difference. It makes it real for them.

Reflecting

Reflecting – learners need to reflect back on goals to gauge their achievements or otherwise and then to reset or modify goals and learning steps. Reflection is monitoring how successful you are with your goal, it’s a spiraling process that is continuous through the process of learning.

Outcome – to think about their achievements, successes and what their next learning step or action is. It’s about self improvement.

How does it make a difference – by putting it back onto the students (self managing). Its OK to be wrong if you can see where to make a change next time. Self talk, internalizing and time to be self aware. Learners can learn from one another; it becomes more personalized.

A game called Metaphorically Speaking was used to visualise ourselves learning and to represent this using images of our efforts.- both thinking and feeling.
We used Morguefile.com to search for images and presented these back to the group talking about the metaphor.
This is an alternative to written or oral assessment tasks and is a strategy that is individualised. Not all students will have the same metaphor for their learning.

Finally we divided into syndicate groups to work on developing rubrics for Taking Action and Reflecting.

A Portal to Media Literacy

Michael Wesch is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology from Kansas State University. He has produced a number of videos on YouTube that have been consistently ranked in the top 10. This video discusses Web2.0 and learning environments.

Child creativity

Ken Robinson talking about creativity

Working with Junior Syndicate teachers on their classroom blogs.

Today we had a morning of working on blog pages for classrooms. We did however find a few glitches with Explorer not allowing work to be edited on the page. We then had to use Firefox to do the job for us.... and success!! Leeanne has been working on Bubbleshare to put a slide show onto her classroom blog about the latest Snow Farm trip and also a cluster map to show where all the visitors come from. Happy blogging Junior Syndicate.

Creating social bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a great way to bookmark sites, create tags, network with others interested in the same topics as you and be able to access these from any computer that is online.
Greg Carrol, principal of Outram Primary School and an ex National ICT facilitator, has a Teachertube article discussing social bookmarking and bloglines. Have a look and listen.

Adding widgets.

I've added a couple of widgets to the page so we can see how many hits our blog is getting and to show where in the world comments are coming from. Once you know what type of widget you want for your blog page copy the html code, add a page element, select HTML/JavaScript, click on add to blog and paste the copied html code. Once you have done this don't forget to publish it. View your blog and if the element doesn't appear refresh your page.

Class Blogs

Hopefully you will want to continue developing your classroom blog and can see lots of scope for this.

Using the page elements - images, videos,