One of the things that Maurie said that stood out to me (and there was a lot) was that we often are looking at what we can do to help students become 21st century learners. But the thing is they come through our doors already 21st century learners. What we need to be looking at as how we can become 21st century teachers, and how we can provide 21st century schools and education.
Also, coming out loud and strong, both yesterday and today, is the 'coaching'/mentoring model, and how this helps place relationships at the centre. And yesterday it was not just about mentoring and guiding students, but teachers as well.
Workshop #1 reinforced that we need to put the learner at the centre and design everything around them, and their needs and interests. Di, who lead the workshop, also struck a chord when she said that as educators, if we don't become innovative we are going to die.
The second workshop I went to looked at personalising learning in action. It was actually primary school based, but a lot of relevance. Again, relationships were enforced as key. They also suggested that we expect students to be risk takers, so teachers have to be risk takers too. We expect students to learn collaboratively, so we, as teachers, need to model learning through collaboration.
The third workshop I was privileged to see a 'class', or learning module, as it was being taught - Movers and Shakers. It was a collaboration of Science and English, with the Science and English teacher working together - collaboratively - for this module. (There are a range of modules that run on Fridays, and students opt into the one they want.) This particular module was inquiring into philosophers, poets and scientists, and today the students were delving into their own inquiry - looking at who (out of their scientist, philosopher and poet) had made the most influence on our lives today. Once we had begun the lesson looking at the SOLO taxonomy marking guide, both students and visitors, students went off on their way - going to a device to begin their inquiry. The teachers had created an inquiry template on a Google Doc, which each student then made a copy of into their own Google Drive. They shared their document with the two teachers and ONE other student.
Now, devices. I sat down and talked to one lovely young lady, about devices. The students are encouraged to bring their own device to school - ANY device. However, this one girl I was talking with did not have one that she was able to bring to school - there was only one at home, and it needed to stay at home. However, here she was, working on a device. There is the facility at the school to go to the library and 'rent' a device for the day. They sign them out with their student ID card. The devices available at the library include Chromebooks, IPads, and Samsung tablets. And she said there are quite a few who are not able to bring their device and hire them out.
They were all busy on their inquiry for the lesson, 90 minutes, and were working through the template and doing research. (The template went through scaffolded levels of the SOLO taxonomy.) At one stage through the lesson the teacher instructed students to stop their work and open the document that had been shared with them by another in the class. They were to read through it, look at where they thought the student was on the SOLO taxonomy guide, and give the student feedback - AWESOME.
The final workshop I went to today was about flipping your classroom through using an app called 'Explain Everything' and then uploading to YouTube. 'Flipping' a classroom is a term used when a teacher creates a video (or the like) for students to watch at home, and then when a student comes to class it is about delving in to deep conversations and facilitating learning. For example, in English a teacher might create a video about how to write a persuasive essay, which the students would watch at home, before class. When they come to class the discussions can then focus on the content - getting into what they are interested in investigating or writing about, and guiding them through the context process. They would then always have the video resources to refer back to as they write, but the 'thinking' conversations and discussions get to then become the focus in the classroom. (There is also an awesome app called 'Videoscribe', which creates animated videos for to go alongside a teacher's commentary.)
Networking
I was able to speak with a teacher from Lynfield College today. We sparked up a conversation as we were watching how the students were engaged. At Lynfield they are going BYOD, and are just in the beginning stages, but a bit further along than we are. They are getting in Chromebooks. She said that the senior students LOVE the Chromebooks - this is interesting, with our upcoming investigation into the Chromebooks and use at schools. They had trialled IPads, but she said that the Chromebooks are more useful - especially with the usability of Google Drive. They can print now (a few hiccups at the start) and are all connected to the school network. The only thing is that if students have work on a USB, they first have to go on to a 'normal' computer and put the document or the like into their drive, as the Chromebook is not able to open up work from USBs. But that seems minor, really.
Overall it has been another thought provoking day. Another action packed day in store for tomorrow.
Until then.
Katie.
No comments:
Post a Comment