Isolation 3

Monday 30 Mar
Technically the first day of our school holidays today. I cleared my school emails, listened to a podcast on Learning Space design and had a good browse through the Modern Learners Community chat. One of the questions that came up a lot for me today was 'what do you mean by learning?' Not a consensus on this, but I think the main thing is that learning is experienced through the senses. So much of what we need to do while we are in this weird situation is to look at learning differently. We can't just transfer what we were doing at school to an online environment. This blog really resonated with me. We need to be looking at wellbeing and learning about ourselves and what is going on. I know that this will guide me over the next few weeks.
Had a great zoom chat with a colleague this morning. It was nice to talk about all things education and how we are dealing with this situation. We had a good discussion around access and equality, it certainly is not an equal playing field for our students. I found out today there was thing called Social Data, where they can have access to social apps, but not anything else. Is this a way to get through to some of our ākonga? We talked about how to grow our self-directed learners. She suggested I watch Jamie Oliver's 20 years of Naked Chef (I missed this the other night), and we talked about how being self directed doesn't mean there is no input, we are never isolated, but it's about how that looks. How do we move parents to this stage of letting their tamariki be self directed learners? Are parents expecting us to send home worksheets and tell them what to do every minute of the school day? We need to let children play and not be directed. This will make a difference to how they cope with things down the track. What could school really look like? It os worksheets and tasks given out? Should school be only an hour or two each day with specific instruction and then have the rest of the time to explore, to play? It takes me back to a book I read a while ago "Lifelong Kindergarten" and how play is so important. We don't have worksheets when we start a ob, learning is not a worksheet even though many parents will think that is what is needed in this time of lockdown. How do we change this? So many questions. One main one - what are the problems that need to be solved now? So many things to think about!
I managed to clean out the shelves with all my spices and herbs on today. Well that was an eye opener!! I threw out a few things with dates that were just a few years ago! Maybe the Best Before dtae of 2007 is just a little bit too long to hold onto something. It's even before we moved to this house, so I obviously didn't clean out very well when we moved either. Also found the box shown here - been in the family for just a few years - anyone else remember this!? It even had the original bottles in it - now that's pushing it. That box is probably a collectors item now.
I was a bit tearful over a FB post by a friend, talking about our sense of honesty and our growing into strong women. It really hit home for me and made me realise how much we can influence people just from being real. I'm enjoying sharing my time with others and to be honest, it's actually about me just getting my thoughts into some semblance of order, rather than needing others to read this. I am OK if no-one does, but if it helps someone else, that's great.
More work on the latest jigsaw, a bit of reading and some social chat rounded out the day for today. Just remembered - Daylight Saving ends this Sunday.

Tuesday 31 Mar
Last day of March. Wow - where did that go?
I wanted to take part in the Bear hunt project - placing a bear in your window for those walking to find. Our place is up a long drive so I had to improvise a bit as you can't see our windows form the street - Teddy may get a bit wet, or even stolen, but it's worth a try for a day or three.
I found out last night that Ancestry was available through my local library. I haven't got a sub with Ancestry and getting to the library to use it has been a bit of a problem time-wise, so to get home access is awesome. I think there will be a fair bit of genealogy going on over the next 2 weeks. The library has access to a few sites normally but I have specific things I want to search for in Ancestry so now's the time. It's taking me a bit to get my head back into the tree, but I love it and it certainly uses up the time!
Watched some great YouTube clips by our kaiako today. A couple of them have made YouTube Channels which is a great idea to get some content across to ākonga. I have added my channel to the mix and put a new page on my site for these. I haven't put much up on my channel for a while, but there are still some theory sessions for those who want them.
Having the sun out today was great, time to get out into the garden and managed to fill the green bin ready for the rubbish at the end of the week. I need to empty one of my compost bins which will give me more space for garden rubbish as well.
Still managing to get through lots on my list each day - important to make sure I don't just sit around all day - although I could be convinced that researching my family tree isn't sitting around :)
Finished another jigsaw today - Wasgij number 7 done and dusted.

Wednesday 1 Apr
It's April Fool's day. Someone said they sort of wished that Covid19 was a cruel April Fool's Day prank. I think we could all understand that thought. There was a great meme on FB with Jacinda telling us it was an April Fool's joke - we wish...
I had an interesting day today. Lots of different things going on.
I went to the doctor today to get my flu vaccine - I am in the early group that needs this, due to my cancer a few years ago. It was an interesting experience, driving on the very quiet streets, even just driving was an experience. I had to wait in my car until they could see me, and then it was a very interesting experience, keeping distance from others. I feel for all those working in health at the moment, they are doing an amazing job.
I had a couple of really good chats online,with my daughter and with a colleague. I don't know what I would do without that contact. It's so important to actually see people online. I am concerned for those that do not have that ability to access internet or a device - how do we solve this issue? I was talking to my daughter today about the questions we need solving and how to solve them. It's a real issue and I am sure there are some amazing minds out there to solve a lot of what we have to deal with. We just have to find them!
I spent some time out in the garden again today but really was struggling to get my head around the day. I felt a bit removed from people and felt that life was a wee bit difficult today. I don't know how long this will continue, but I know that life will not be the same while we are on lockdown - it's hard. I don;t know if it will be the same after lockdown either - things will change. I hope that people will support each other and make sure that their loved ones are safe and in a good frame of mind at this time. I worry about so many people.
It's hard to do my course homework for week 3 - it's random acts of kindness, which is not so easy when you are at home with one person! However, I am still managing it so far :)
I made tomato sauce today - made soup a few days ago and the amount of tomatoes in the garden, plus some from my nephew have meant a huge amount of cooking going on! It's great though - I'll keep some aside for others once we get out of lockdown.
I do love the sports news at the moment, watching how people are doing their sports training, it's been entertaining. I have been trying to keep fit and keeping the weight off that I have lost over summer - long may it last.
Loving the videos of my great niece that keep coming in - hope all is well up there in Auckland.
April it is. Stay home. Stay safe.

Modern Learners

I was lucky enough to be involved in a couple of workshops taken by Bruce and Will from Modern Learners with our kaiako at Haeata. This was an opportunity for us to talk about what we are doing at Haeata and for us to pick their brains. These are some of my notes from the 2 sessions. I have left a lot of the discussions in around change for staff and students as many schools are going through this at the moment and it may be helpful for them to get an understanding of how and why some struggle with change. Because we are a new school there is also conversation around the time it takes to set this up and how we can keep moving forward and tell others about what we are doing.
Exciting times.

Moving staff mindsets

Why do some staff struggle with change? Why do you think they are like that?

We have challenged what teaching looks like

Most are really excited - doing what we talked about

About loss - personal adult loss - for spaces and for routine

Answer to focus on communal beliefs and values, not practices

Need a shared sense of mission

What are you trying to get to  - how does everyone own and live that?

What is the measure of success?

Succcess to be shared with triangle of school, students, whanau

Shared outcomes they are pulling towards. Individual success can be unique.

What is success when they leave us - our dispositions

Confident, can navigate though life

Empowered in your own learning at any level

Easier to move teachers if they are clear in the sense of what you are achieving. People create own definition

Power of everyone sharing the mission - dispositions

Mission - when they leave you, what are you aspiring to

Vision is what happens every day that moves students to outcome

Example from the US:

Mission - all students go to college

Vision to prepare all students for college - not ours, but is a vision

Easier for staff to move through . If incoherence then can create anxiety

Shared belief system around what learning is and what kids are capable of

Practices, beliefs and context diagram - modern learners

Context - how do we describe the students. Taking them back to go forward. What do you believe in

Why are we doing this and how we are going to get there.

Draw your students - what are their hopes, dreams, fears. What do they experience?

The way we interact - we probably have a clear sense of what happens in their lives.

Take a day and follow a child around in a normal school - our school is different. We are learning in the same environment as they are.

Even teachers who are scared and anxious - they all say eventually learning has to be relevant and what kids are passionate about.

Families in our community saying the norm is the structured way.

Schools need to communicate with community. Need strong lines of communication

Got to take parents with you. Parents don't know any better. They want to be reassured thir child will get the best.

Huge opportunity for performance and exhibition to community.

Have parents come in and see what we are doing. How to do a rolling exhibition. Finished for now attitude - talking about where we are in the process and what learning is still to come.

Setting expectations. Are they expecting to see a finished project? Got to be exceeding expectations.

Broader community invited in to see exhibitions. Exhibit in the city as well

Get our site out there - promote it.  Get links to student work on YouTube/ events

Need stories about what learning looks like.

Being out in the community at sport - explaining how we work

Parents want them to be good people, be confident etc - our dispositions

Learn best when passionate, have fun, do something that matters

Parents ask what you are doing? Ask them what/how the child learns, then say that's what we are doing.

Being happy and get stuff done - are not mutually exclusive.

What if schools were place where...... Kids could...

Then list - so if we want that then we need teachers who are like.... Leaders who are... Parents who are... Risk takers, learner, supporter.

ID what you want. ID what you have. Work the gaps.

Too many people are not intentional enough.

Specific things we can do.

Takes time

Moving molecules.

Biggest challenge to help people re-examine their assumptions about school

Third voice - not parents or teachers. What are industry leaders saying. By our community. Significant employers - vast majority are not looking for kids who can identify a simile.

LarryMarshall - STEM week came out and said he wanted kids who were learners, not coders

NZsite - wanting people who are self-disciplined, self directed,

The Valve handbook. Culture of working

What should I work on when I come to Valve - no-one looking over your shoulder.

Not just teachers saying this.
Get those on the NZ site to come in and talk to students and community

Communities of learning - like what they seek to do.

Get excited when Ivy league schools band together to make change. But we still feel alone in our kura

Some NZ schools looking at getting a bigger voice - should be one voice, will do in own ways, but trying to get a better collective NZ voice.

Emerging, aspiring, or people who lead from the middle in their leadership - this is where change leaders they started came from. Involved in a lot of drive by/one night stand stuff. Want to have it long term and sustainable - that's where Modern Learners came from - can share honestly and openly share feelings and mistakes. As time goes on. Gather strength by connecting - hasn't been sustainable in past because of pushback and it overwhelms. Space created by these two to share.

John Clements in Massachusetts principal of the year last year.  - open to a wide audience - follow him

Everyone outside of this room does not identify how you take arrows. Need other people to support and have a safe place to come together ad get therapy. Coaching sessions in change school just therapy. Place where you can say I'm struggling. It literally is that someone else has experienced it.

People are really interested and hungry for what we are doing. 

Schools flit in and out having a look at what we do.  Schools in Mumbai and Bombay - 2 days - every staff member gives presentation of their work. Other schools come in, but also internationally. Exhibition and presentation from staff- time to reflect.

Opportunity and challenge connecting online. Reach out globally. Challenge is time. Difficult to sustain the connversations. Face to face has power.

Opportunities to continue the conversation - how do you stay connected.

Zoom - video conferencing tool. See them online on a consistent basis.

Local and global community - how do you sustain the communication.

We need to realise that what we are doing here is rather extraordinary - what we are doing here is amazing.

Learning partnerships - tertiary providers - have to jump through hoops. Want to be out in our communities

Taking student teachers - most powerful thing we can do

Biggest barrier - aren't the companies or school, it's about some to organise and schedule. Have a look at Big Picture schools 

Students - wee put them into our schedule. Logistics? Attendance? We are taking away structure - how much can you take away and be successful. You really don't need lunch. Shift learners?

Schools only open 30% of the time - shuts down at 4 and weekends. Try to change that. 

Play - how students engage in learning through play and socio emotional.

Honours students when you have spaces llike this. Meeting students where they are.

Most schools want students to turn up and be what they want them to be. Haeata says turn up and be who you are.

The courage we have in taking the journey is awesome.

Where does te reo fit in - second language - being responsive to their culture.

Worked in duo lingual - Quebec - French and English, cultural consideration but not like Māori

In Aussie only isolated examples - they are looking to NZ more.

Calexico - Mexico/California - 300 mexican kids go to US school, they rent their address there for $100 month Local address - don't speak English when they arrive. Lots of places more a mix of cultures

Thoughts about explaining ourselves to our community?

To not give up. Keep going back to our critics and thank them for their thoughts, celebrating our successes.

2 groups - happy cos kids are happy, other group compare to other peoples kids.

Good to get ahead of new changes.

When you give kids a laptop - parents say they need handwriting and can't spell. Always go out early - how does a spell checker work. If poor speller it can help you to be a better speller. Allows reluctant spellers to be more keen to spell. Hard to anticipate.

Idea of reading age. Ministry says they will do better in life if they can read... Look at supporting evidence, not just research, but 3rd voice - industry, respected people.

Numeracy - everyone gets carried away. Want them to count change - don't do that any more. What does numeracy mean?

Poor or wrong assumptions about their own schooling.

Expect it and predict ahead of time.

Self directed - jump ahead. These kids are going to be in a working environment where no one tells them what to do - making decisions is the best life skill we can give them

Never been in a school that does too much community communication.

Sessions around that and how it looks different. Not about convincing them. More subtle. Building capacity. Helping people understand why change is required and why it's urgent.

How you change the script in people's heads. Most schools don't have to worry about it.

Slow drip - has to be consistent.

Most Likely to Succeed - showed it, and why don't they understand, it's ongoing

Inform and help educate, build ability for them to understand.

Playbased starting to get more mainstream. Weekly communication to parents about what they were doing. Parents were uneasy, every week they had a sentence about the students digitally.

What's the most effective way to convey this is a phenomenal way to educate kids.

Reggio - taking community along

Tension between urgency and patience. It takes years

Common language and understanding aorund what change is. Many definitions on what change is.

BethHolland podcast - dissertation and change and what got in the way. Lack of common language.

Learning - how do we define it?

What do you mean by play?

Is there one definition? At the end of the day it's about the vision. The picture has to be shared by people for change to happen and be sustainable.

Here - intense pressure to come back to more traditional school. Pressure by the system. The system will treat change with auto immune response. Will try to neuter it. Pressure to come back to they way it should be in their eyes. To fight that everyone has to be clear.

Incoherence is where the autoimmune response can take hold. Need to be on the same waka.

Open education in the 1970s - built around progressive ideas, knocking down school walls but continuing same practice - fell down through lack of common language.

Give computers and everything will change - but need to change pedagogy.

Tools for building shared language:

Language itself - conversation

What is learning - what do you believe about what kids are learning?

Amazing potential of children

World as it is today - what do you believe

Whitepaper - 10 principles of the schools for modern learners - going to add 5 questions for each of those things.

Make time for what you think is important.

Don't do stuff that isn't as important

Most of the conversations in most schools are about the architecture and organisational stuff

What is expected of them, the kids and the community.

Time commitment to whats important.

Conversations with kids, parents, community members, other staff .

Students can offer insight 

They asked students what they wanted to changed. Listen to what they would change.

Some of the older students want that security. If successful in the old ways would want to stay that way.

Ask about schooling, ask about learning and passions

People believe you can't have self directed learning when young, others believe you can't when they are old.

System wants 5/6 yr olds to be "schooled"

All about teachers saying we have the power and autonomy and you'll do fine.

Rationale of conformity and doing what you were told was common sense for factories - world changing now

Russell Ackoff - if he gave a TED talk this would be what he would say. Keep doing the wrong thing right. Shouldn't be trying to improve this system we have, need to change.

Computerisation of national testing in Aussie - rather than looking at the system, they computerised it. Went no where. Doing the wrong thing right

When parent ask to describe Play based Learning, what do you say?

It's messy and looks chaotic. Children are biologically design to learn. Self directed, able to use dramatic play, how to focus and go for a long period of time. With the help of adults they can help to add in and take out things at that time so they are learning the next steps.

Rehearse something into a really sharp tight script.

Can we answer what they are doing in 3/4 sentences so they hear it the same from all teachers?

We are engaged in marketing.

What does this word mean for that adult in this context. Explain learning to someone who lives in a different context. Need to rehearse it.

Learning is a natural thing we all share. Can always make connections with others.

Even though we know learning happens through play, but need to connect play to learning at school, it's different

Tinkering, inventing, creating, problemsolving, innovating.

Mitchel Resnick - Lifelong Kindergarten (see my previous blog on this)

All struggle with communication for parents. Ground your explanation in something they can relate to. Them as learners.

Exhibit what kids create through play so they can see. While you say play, they are looking at the work. Narrative assessment.

They are good at Exhibition. Public exhibitions. This is my learning, this is my journey

Learning narratives though video/audio more than narrative. 

Issue - access at school. Online or hard copy.

Revitalisation of learning for our students in poverty. School has stopped them from engaging - old school system.

Transitions - be careful at the rate you make the change. From structured change - could be random, month to month - why are you allowing the transitions to happen. About their learning.

Of the work we are doing - which part has the most impact on them. Which part do they find the most enjoyable.

A: being in the moment with them, not stepping them through. Enjoying the context they have chosen and teaching you something. Triggers them and sometimes you.

Why are you doing this?  The opportunities to be exposed to do things they couldn't do before

Learning from each other. Someone's pure joy pulls others in

Connecting through common passion and interest. 1:1 conference and listening.  Listening and take it in - don't step on toes when in creative mode

Working with others, with diverse other, collaboration. Didn't really happen in other schools. Negotiating all the time here at Haeata.

Ability to negotiate

Self direction

Bad press last year was quite galvanising - brought us together, and students as well.

Exposure and experience over more set activities. More mentor role than teacher role. Do we teach or do we allow?

Update: Modern Learners have this video discussion about their trip to Haeata. Have a listen.

Modern Learners podcast on grades

After a panui from Andy (our Principal at Haeata) recommending the Modern Learners site, I joined up and read their White Paper which I really enjoyed and related to, then we had another panui about this podcast. I was so inspired and excited, I took notes and thought I would share them. I do recommend you listen to the whole thing though (51mins) and read through their site.

https://modernlearners.com/mastery-transcripts-replace-grades/
Competency based assessment rather than numbers or grades.

Scott Looney - headmaster in Hawken HS in Ihio for 12 years. Changed the systems and culture of what learning looks like in his school.
He is founder of Mastery.org
Making a network of schools trying to get rid of grades in high school

What is Mastery about?
Didn't start out to change grades, just wanted to create a second high school within his own school. Built a strand that was completely based on education research and ignoring every convention. If they had a blank slate for education what would it look like? "It's problem and project based, interdisciplinary, intergrade level (9th graders in with 12th graders) and all built on real world problems. The teacher assumes the role of master to the student apprentice."
Built a few courses on entrepreneurship. Grades and content of courses got in the road. Needed a non graded course - find one.
37000 HS in the USA. They said what you want doesn't exist. One school didn't have grades but found that they still had to make up a GPA! Had a great assessment knowledge but had to have the GPA for college.

Created their own prototype. Unique transcript - employers said if you have something different, I don't have time to look at it and work it out. But if lots of schools did it, then we'd have to learn how to read them. That's when Mastery consortium.... was born.
160 schools from 15 different countries.

The high school transcript aims to assess student progress and performance, but it is a broken instrument that underserves students, teachers or the world outside our school walls.

Most schools don't have the courage to change this.

How do you break this?

Not stupid for a school to say it's broken but what can I do? Dangerous to go your own way. What gives people courage is numbers.

How do colleges and employers know it is rigorous?

There is ZERO research in the world that supports letter grading. NONE.

It's never been legitimate. Designed to be a bell curve originally.

International Baccalaureate was one direction that schools took.

Mastery hasn't done either. Has done zero outreach. Very new - 2 full time employees. Not ready to take on the world yet.

IB seems to be possible for partnership as some philosophy is the same. 6-8 years away from getting the transcripts ready.

Public sector way ahead of schools with competency and efficiency based assessments. What they are trying to do is get students to persist to mastery not just move when teachers tell you to.

Pilot, will select some schools to pilot their transcript. not there yet, probably 6-12 months. 80 school districts have indicated they are keen.

NZ very well placed - would be surprised if they didn't show interest. Broadening their outlook. NZ at the top of the list. They are well ahead of any other country when it comes to mastery based assessment.

All the concepts at the moment are just examples (see one here). Designing 15-20 different visualisations to play with and eventually settle in on one. Mastery transcript format has to be the same for admissions. Needs to be consistent.

All about abilities and dispositions, not content knowledge. MTC agnostic on that question - Hawken just does skills and habits of mind, not content. Different schools may have Science. They won;t dictate. Will open up space on the transcript. Can get credit for public speaking. Has to write a mastery threshold and have a way of assessing. Will not be standardised across schools. Each school will make own credits but the transcript will be standardised.

We are so content and discipline driven in schools. Will Unis make that something that they want to see? Nothing on the transcript that does this. College presidents will be among biggest fans. Make this accessible for ALL students, including underpriviledged.

Colleges don't read files anymore on paper - why can't your transcript be a living document that has all that rich data attached.

Colleges have been asking for "creative, analytical, risk-taking kids who can solve real-world problems and work in groups for a year" and the system they use for selection at the moment gives them exactly the opposite of what they are asking for. Students now are not risk takers, they see the entry as a game you play, taking the right courses, working towards As and the world is your oyster. Valedictorians are not being chosen and are not the best students, often going to College with anxiety and stress disorders due to the pressure to get top marks.

He asks teachers to raise hand if they have seen a HS kid break into tears after getting an A- and every hand goes up. Is that OK? No.

More reading on testing:

https://modernlearners.com/the-testing-emperor-finally-has-no-clothes/

Non college entrants - going to internships. Should kids do 13 years at school?

If you look at those that don't persist, so are life circumstance. Many leave because the system is against them. The biggest reason they quit is they come in with something that needs remediation and at the moment they get moved on based at the timing of the teacher, so if you happen to be bat the high end, you get bored, and if you are at the low end you are likely to quit.

System that allows kids to persist to mastery and allow them time to do that. Some can take a long time but once they master it they retain it. Didn't quite make 1st grade so now we'll start second grade and they get further behind. 3rd and 4th grade they work out school is not working for them.

No timestamp on mastery transcript - can take ages for some people. Only get judged when you ask to be

Teacher only job is to build a portfolio of evidence, feedback is that they are getting closer. Encourages them to persist and not give up.

Micro credentialling and badges

To employers - here's a link. Click on my leadership badge and you can see the testimonials from my team who talk about what a great leader I was. Need to take a large variety of digital inputs and outputs in their platform.

Can students design own credits? Up to sending school. School in charge of what credits they can provide. Mastery credits - foundational eg algebraic reasoning credit they must have before graduating at Hawken. Some others are advanced credits - 80 next to it means 80% of students have earned the credit. Rare credit may be 2% get a certain habit of mind skill. 

Socio-emotional growth being assessed.

School sets the mastery threshold. Can never master things, but mastery threshold in basic public speaking may be the basics, advanced threshold has to be set at a level that is available for all students to achieve but can be at a high level.

Hawken School

Some classes they can take all day every day for 3 weeks.

Bought an extension campus in the city. Take them there for 2 days, 4 days, go to different opportunities. 

Find your resources.

Get everybody on the same page. Hire talent. Then things will work.

If you don't like it all, go to different school. Don't be afraid to be specific to a core set of beliefs that you might expel some families. Can't be all to all. Either to faculty or parents.

Inspirational leadership!

2 ways to mobilise people - hope or fear. People get frustrated at first, some will start building, then bell curve will join in. Self generating now.

Why Hawken must lead - pdf

"Education in America is fundamentally broken"

This was an echo-location piece. Sounding people out. Wasn't designed to send out to the world, but wanted a sense of how ready people were to do the change. Told the Board about it and wanted to see what came back. Got most support from least likely. Current students least receptive. Triggered the dialogue.