Tag Archives: learning

What makes me really angry…

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It’s been a while since I sat to write a blog and as always it’s been brewing for quite a few weeks now. As I learn to learn all that goes with my new role, I have begun to get to know our students with disabilities a little better each day. I have had opportunities to speak with them directly, to learn with them, teach them, to meet their parents and spend time with other adults who work tirelessly to support and develop them as learners. I’ve seen and heard quite a number of things that reflect past experiences both positive and negative and it seems that there are some things that still surprise me.

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Some days I’ve left with a heavy heart while other days see me leave happy and confident that things might change or that I’ve made a little bit of difference to something or to someone’s learning experience. Those days where it seems that there is nothing more I can do only gets my brain churning, sometimes through sleepless, anxious nights in search of a solution or at least the next tiny step we could take towards the ultimate goal.

Amongst the school action there is also my consultancy work. I’m still running workshops and visiting schools to facilitate PD. Lately I’ve been spending time learning with primary school educators. In preparation for these workshops I have been trying to think of more innovative ideas for promoting positive classrooms and igniting passion in both students and teachers.

The Pirate, Dave Burgess, and his book Teach Like a Pirate is still prominent in my planning and prep of workshops. Paul Solarz’s book Learn Like a Pirate also makes headlines as schools strive to get their students to become more independent. These promoted me to add to my teacher toolkit with a recent trip to Bunnings – yes Bunnings! Suffice to say that for a few dollars each I now own and promote plumbing equipment that can be used as reading props and language enhancers as well as instruments to assist with addition and subtraction. I’m saying no more…

So… what makes me angry? Oh yes.

1. Teachers who don’t know their students AND don’t take the time to learn them

2. Lack of empathy

3. Unfair consequences

BUT there are many things that make me happy…

1. The support of colleagues and friends

2. My family who keep me sane while allowing me to be who I am

3. My students who surprise me, challenge me, annoy me, and amaze me all in the one lesson!

4. My time, though rare, when I get to write this blog

5. Tweet chats

6. My supervisors who as soon as they find out I’ve hit a wall call a meeting and make arrangements to call and talk even though they are on leave

7. I could go on…


 every student

Thanks for reading 🙂

A week’s reflections: teaching & learning.

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I had a really great day at uni today. My colleague PhD students and I attended yet another couple of Friday workshops come info sessions to do with our work as researchers – or should I say our learning -it’s not really work when I think about it. There are three of us who are tight, who studied the post grad in ed research together in 2013 and then moved onto a PhD. My colleagues are now full time students which means they will be up for confirmation this year, one has only a few more weeks to be ready. All three of our PhD research topics are extensions of our minor thesis from two years ago but with a more detailed approach which to me only exposes our love and interest in the topics and our wish to delve deeper and to know more. We have accomplished much over the last four weeks and learned so much about ourselves and each other as research students and I think we all have some desire to grow more and even see ourselves as academics – well at least I do to some extent, but I want to also continue to be an educator and learner.

I also started a new job this week. The next two terms will see me working four days a week at a Catholic secondary school as a Peer Support Leader. I get to work, and learn, with the Education Support Department and also have a role to do with peer support – which is peer appraisal but not peer appraisal because it’s a dirty term in schools, so we don’t use the latter term in case teachers think they are being judged.

Well, I have news – we are judged. We are judged all the time every minute of the day while at school and even when we are not. The sooner we realise this, the better it will be and the sooner we can get on with the teaching and learning our students are entitled to, and deserve. It seems to me that some of us could do with a reflective exercise where we take a step back and have a real hard look at ourselves from the perspective of others. Now I’m not one to give a damn about what others think but I really feel that sometimes it’s a good idea to take time out and just watch, listen and learn.

That’s pretty much what I have been doing for the first four day week in my new position. As you know, if you read my blog regularly, I am an avid follower of twitter chats, and have written on some of my favourites in other posts. I always learn much on these chats and have picked up so many images and ideas that I gladly share with others. Tonight’s #BFC530 chat was no exception and thanks to @2learnthink I picked up this little gem.Screen Shot 2015-04-17 at 10.28.48 PM I really think that not only should it be pinned to every classroom door but posted at every school gate. “In this SCHOOL, everyone is a student and everyone is a teacher.”

There is also another image I have picked up along the way and used many times and one that I have been thinking about all week as I have been watching, listening and learning. This one I think speaks volumes, both positively and negatively.

doing_itPositive because there are those among us who are getting on with it and negative in the fact that we have to say it. Really sometimes we just have to get out of the way and let others get on with it. It’s not about power, or at least it shouldn’t be, it’s about EMPOWERMENT, taking responsibility, allowing failure so as to learn. By this I don’t mean catastrophic failure – surely it is our responsibility to be there to ensure this doesn’t happen, but I mean allow risk taking, with scaffold, supports and sensible direction to enable learning, to enable others to model and experiment and then allow for reflection  – action – re-plan – reflection – action – re-plan. Sometimes we just need someone, many times in fact, we just need someone to shut up and listen.listen We don’t always want, or even need, them to solve the problem or take any action but simply, LISTEN. There’s been a lot of that this week.

And…what have I learned this week?

I’ve learnt that the minute we think we’ve solved all the issues and problems is the same minute we stop learning, taking risks, reflecting and working for the benefit of our future – our children.Do-a-great-job-no-matter

“My brain is full!”

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2014conf_1dinst_7Connecting Content and Kids: Understanding by Design and Differentiation – 1-Day Institute

Last Monday I attended one day of the Hawker Brownlow Thinking and Learning Conference. I attend almost every year and have always chosen to follow one ‘hero’ for a day. This year I decided to attend Carol Ann Tomlinson‘s and Jay McTighe‘s 1 day institute. They played it like a tag team where Jay talked about Understanding by Design (UbD) and Carol on Differentiation. They integrated the two and while one day is simply not enough to really do these two areas justice we got an overall picture of how to integrate them to benefit the students in our classes.

12 things I heard that made me think:

1. Curriculum is a plan to get kids where they need to go

2. UbD provides the framework for developing the curriculum

3. Instruction is a plan on how we need to teach the curriculum

4. Differentiation provides the framework to carry out instruction

5. Teach all kids as though they are really smart

6. Start with planning for top level learners rather than aiming in the middle, do not dumb it down but work towards getting the students up there

7. Formative assessment is not for filling in report cards but to inform instruction

8. There is a logic in backward design

9. Essential questions are not the right answer questions

10.Teaching is not just serving ingredients but rather blending them in different ways to suit all people’s tastes

11. We learn when things are just a little too hard for you

12. One cannot ‘hand over’ understanding; this is something each learner needs to develop for themselves

Some other things I thought you might find interesting…

Evidence of understanding means you can do one or more of these:

  • explain in your words and justify your responses,
  • interpret,
  • transfer the understanding to a new situation,
  • see other people’s point of view or take a critical stance,
  • empathise, and / or
  • know yourself as a learner.

Reading and writing shouldn’t impair the student from showing you what he/she knows and can do.

One cannot differentiate poor quality curriculum.

Differentiation does not mean multiple assessment tasks, instead, one can simply change the complexity of the task to challenge students based on their skills and knowledge.

As a reference check on the validity of your assessment tasks in meeting your original aims and objectives, why not show the tasks to another teacher and ask them to state what they think your initial goals might have been.

I also think it’s valid to carry out the above with the students who are actually going to be working on the task.

my-brain-is-full

Thanks for reading 🙂

4 ‘cools’ I found out …

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This week I spent a day with a bunch of teachers taking time out of their well earned holiday to attend my sessions on ‘Getting Boys Engaged in Learning.’ There were quite a few who attended the face to face sessions and then even bigger numbers who logged in, on live stream. It was a great day for me and I’m hoping that participants took away something they can use. I got some very positive feedback from many of them and even one who took the time to post her thanks on this blog!

There are 5 main reasons I enjoyed the day. The first is that I got to meet and chat with some dedicated educators who really enjoy their vocation and the other 4 reasons are because I found out some very ‘cool’ stuff.

jigsawCool 1: I asked participants to share some ideas about what methods they use to group students. The best idea had to do with jig saw pieces. I love it! Here’s how I interpreted it:

  • Simply grab different pictures / photos* and cut each one into jig saw shaped pieces, (depending on how many you would like in a group)
  • Distribute pieces randomly amongst the students
  • The students then have to find others who have the matching pieces that make up the relevant visual. They then become a group.

*As an extension of this idea, I thought that perhaps the image could be related to the task they will be doing as a group and if the pieces are two sided the instructions or outline could be printed on the back, once they put it together, they can begin the task.

notes appCool 2:  The notes app on iPads and iPhones will type what you say when you hit the microphone key on the keyboard. If you activate the Speak Selection button in Settings/General/Accessibility and then highlight text it will even read it back to you. I’ve been playing with it for ages and it is very accurate.#

# Of course when I went to share this new found phenomenon with my youngest, she already knew all about it and added, “My mac does it too!” GRRRRRRRR fancy not telling me this earlier!

Cool 3: This is more a personal thing that made me happy: there were three participants over the day who had previously attended another one of my workshops and had come back for more! Thanks folks! 🙂

mocking brid bookCool 4: One participant mentioned that her colleague who taught next door was having problems engaging the students in quiet reading sessions so instead of ‘making’ them just read, the teacher challenged the students by asking them to turn their books upside down and then try reading. This strategy not only re-engaged them with the reading but even though they read less, the students actually retained a lot more of what they had read.+ How cool is that?

+ It has been suggested that the more we challenge ourselves in thinking and learning the more information and skills we retain.

As I write this I have just logged out of a live stream session myself, similar to the one that I was holding above – it’s a great way to learn and saves the hassle of driving in, especially on wet and dreary days like today. And …you can stay in your pjs, in your bed or laid out on the sofa to participate. That folks, is yet another cool!

TLN runs many sessions on line. Why not see if any interest you here.

Thanks for reading 🙂

Please feel free to add your thoughts below.

“Very informative, presented so well. Enjoyable”

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“Teaching a room full of learners the same thing in the same way over the same time span with the same supports and expecting good results from all students has never happened and never will.” Tomlinson

row-of-reading-children2

Last week I facilitated a couple of workshops on working with non funded students. They were well attended, interactive workshops with a mix of teacher and education support staff  who were very eager to share their expertise and experiences with colleagues and other staff from different schools and sectors. One school even sent their whole education support unit!

Introduction

The morning sessions began with a quick discussion of the roles of teachers and education support staff and then covered specific learning disabilities with which students may present in schools. Many students who have experienced these learning difficulties are not funded but the impact it has on their learning and ability to work effectively in mainstream classes is similar to those who are funded. These difficulties can lead to withdrawal, behavioural issues, anti social behaviour and low self esteem. Our role as educators is to help these students overcome or compensate for their learning difficulties, funded or not. Below is a representation of Dr. Sheldon’s Horowitz‘s idea of the basic psychological process used in understanding and using language. His explanatory videos are great, easy to follow and well explained.

Specific Learning Disabilities

Strategies

I then presented some strategies and ideas that can be used in the classroom to assist the students with learning difficulties in accessing the curriculum. I believe that if we take the time to assess what the students know and then plan a variety of activities that take into account learning preferences, abilities and readiness of students, our classes would be more engaging not just for those with difficulties but also the mainstream cohort as well as those students who display particularly well developed strengths in specific areas.

Differentiation and modification

The day continued with a focus on differentiation and modification. What is the difference? It is surprising, based on my own experience in schools, that many teachers and education support staff have a limited understanding of these two methods. I often come across so called ‘modified’ tasks where the teacher has simply removed the last few questions on the test or asked that the student completes every second question. This folks is not modification. I have found however, that teachers implicitly do differentiate their curriculum but may not be aware of the many more ways this could be done so all students are engaged in deep learning.

The ‘guru’ of differentiation is Carol Tomlinson. Her premise is that there are essentially 3 P’s in differentiation i.e. Presentation, Process and Product.

Presentationdifferentiation

  • How are you going to teach it?
  • What do you want the students to know and do?

Process

  • How will the learning be done?

Product

  • How will the students demonstrate learning?

When modifying work for students, teachers and education support staff must take into account the abilities, readiness and learning preferences of the child. Before modifying work for any student, especially those who are not funded, the school should seek permission from the parent. In some cases the parent will not give permission, and while this is disappointing, teachers must abide by this decision although they can make extra efforts to ensure the child has access to a differentiated curriculum. This is one where by the delivery of content is varied, and accommodations such as more time, different settings, choice in presentation and response are offered.

handsSimply, the difference between differentiation and modification comes down to the expectation of work to be assessed. In differentiation there is no change to the assessment criteria or rubric but a modified task requires us to make changes to the assessment criteria. In all cases, modifications are instructional or test adaptations that allow the student to demonstrate what he knows or can do, but they also reduce the target skill in some way. So if a student is provided with a modification, generally it will lower the performance expectations. It often reduces the learning expectations or affects the content in such a way that what is being taught or tested is fundamentally changed.

When planning for either differentiated or modified tasks, there are three questions we must ask ourselves:

  1. What do I want students to know?
  2. What do I want students to understand?
  3. What do I want students to do?

Collaborative task

The afternoon was dedicated to activities that allowed the participants to use their own assessment tasks, or mine, to make accommodations or modify based on student profiles that I provided. We then came together and discussed our learning.

boy2-1ne7o1bStudent Profiles

The day ended with an example of what I think a student profile should contain so that informed decisions about the student’s individual learning can be made.

Feedback

While two out of 53 participants thought the workshop was too focused on education support staff and one thought it more valuable for early career teachers, overall, the feedback was very positive (see below) and many participants took away ideas and strategies that I hope they have begun implementing in their classes. For me it’s always about the students, so anything extra we can do to improve their learning experience is very worthwhile and very rewarding for us as educators.

“Jo touched on many ideas that I can share and implement at my school.” Anita

“Wonderful & engaging presentation” Anon

“The course was quite informative, found out about a few strategies which can be easily applied at our workplace.” Claudine

“Very informative, presented so well. Enjoyable” Anne

“Very relaxed and informative conference.” Anon

“Presentation was very comprehensive and information was very beneficial to my teaching.” Anon

“Excellent speaker. Fantastic, useful info/strategies to put into classroom practice.” Debra

“A great presenter with lots of ideas, hints, etc.” Alexandra

Many thanks are extended to all who participated last week in Geelong and at the Mulgrave venue!

If you’d like to learn more, why not register for the workshop delivered through Critical Agendas. I’ll be running similar workshops in Geelong on May 29 and Bulleen on June 6.

Drop me a line, or comment below. I’d very much like to know what measures you take to support non-funded special needs students at your school.

Thanks for reading! 🙂