Designing learning to meeting the needs of EVERY student.

Presenter: Lesley Murphy, Angela Johnston

I had the great opportunity to attend U learn breakout on "Designing learning to meet the needs of EVERY student".
Below I have included notes on the session.

• Meeting the needs of every students meant meeting the needs of EVERY single student. 
• Every student in the whole school no matter who is working with them. 
• We need to be involved as educators in the paradise. 
• One decision at a time-is how a paradime is made: by the quality of the decisions tat we make.
• Why we do? And what we do in education. 
• What are the systems, structures, processes, theories, pedagogies and then practices that are needed to ensure we are meeting the needs of every single child. 

Pedagogical practices:

1. personalisation of learning. 
2. team teaching and collaboration 
3. student agency and insiderness
4. intergral, holistic curriculum
5. learning to be learners. 
6. caring as competence and action. 
7. High expectations 
8. Teaching AND learning. 

• Student voice/community voice.
• tasters/ whole school experiences. 
• First/next timetable...first this then that.....
• Group learning Maps: Seeing trends and patterns. 

I really found the part then the presenters talked about the use of learning Maps as per the picture above. Learning maps are used to grow student agency by connecting the student, teaching professionals, families and whanau with one another.  Leaning maps help in enabling the students to me more connected to their learning and what they are learning. 

Pacifica Education Plan

DAY 2: UNIVERSITY WORKSHOP.

PASIFIKA EDUCATION PLAN-2013-2017

VISION:

Five out of five Pasikika learners participating, engaging and achieving in education, secure in their identities, languages and cultures and contributing fully to Aotearoa New Zealand's social, cultural and economic wellbeing.

What comes to mind when you read this statement?
We as a group talked about the vision statement and this is what came to our minds when we collaborated and peer shared out thoughts.

This means that: Students are secure in their languages-which means they know where they come from and know who they are: Embracing their mother tongues and their cultural heritage and identities. 

Having strong cultural contribution in own cultures as well as Aotearoa . 
Achievement (Social. cultural, economic)
Participation, contribution and engagement. 

We as teachers if we ensure that we embrace these in our classroom and learning programmes then surely our Pasifika children will  able to achieve great things in Education. 

PASIFIKA EDUCATION PLAN KEY IDEAS

KEY IDEAS:

• Accelerating student achievement
• increasing student presence, engagement and achievement
• Using culturally responsive practises. 
• increasing responsibility and accountability.
• using student identity/indentities language/s, culture/s, as levers to support achievement.
• using a connected approach: School, communities, external support.
• Empowering parents and communities to support their children's learning. 

EDUCATION COUNTS-for more information on pasifika learners and data. 

We watched a Video called : Different worlds different experiences. Here are some of a key findings from the video.

• Finding transitions difficult. 
• Demands of everyday life and school system: Setting realistic goals. 
• Transisitions from church, home and school. 
• Expected to do things at home as well as church as well as expectations at school. 
• Sometimes these worlds clash: They have different expectations. 
• Church plays a big role: tratsional practices, spirituality. Many pasifika children share this experience.
• World at home and at church is more demanding compared to other children. 
• Where the child comes from gives you an idea of where they come from. 
• Focus of ministry is for the people. 

Accelerate the reading progress of your akonga using culturally responsive practices and digital technologies

I had the great opportunity to attend a break out at U lear 2016 on "Accelerating the reading progress of your Akonga using culturally responsive practices and digital technologies"
This was hosted by Takanini School. Some of the aspects talked about in the session are listed below:

• Relationships: Between teacher and student, whanau and community, School: These are important in being able to accelerate student progress.
• Always referring back to the SC-agency as a learner: Using the SC as referral point. This is how children know how they will achieve their learning intention, 
• Using a familier context when teaching then a new strategy: students having background knowledge on, accessing prior knowledge-Using realistic contexts in learning that children can relate to such as their cultural backgrounds. 
• Choosing text that build on from each other: Bikes, bike race etc.
• Learning focussed conversations : talking about their learning, and making learning visible. 
• Growth mindset, learning pit
• Explain everything: recording, making a video etc, screen cast to help with fluency.  
• working things out together: choices working together or individually.

What really caught me during this session is when the presenters talked about "Growth mindset and the learning pit". These are two aspects that I refer to in my classroom setting. 

The children in my class know that for them to get to the top of the mountain they must first encounter struggles and challenges in their learning. And for deep learning to happen, we will encounter mistakes and failures, but it it through this growth mindset that we grow in our learning. 

I also like when the presenters talked about being culturally responsive. This to me means being able to bring the cultural knowledge that the children have into their learning and embracing this. 

It also means using a student-centered approach to teaching in which the students' unique cultural strengths are identified and nurtured to promote student achievement and a sense of well-being about the student's cultural place in the world.

It also means creating bonds with the children-building good relationships with them in order for the children to be in that Zone or proximal development.

I liked the theory the presenters talked about which was on careful scaffolding" I do, we do, two do, you do". This is where the teacher models, then they do it together, then they do it in pairs, and then individually. This gets children talking, communicating, and sharing their ideas and knowledge and also creating new knowledge. This I would most def. try and implement with my Target group in reading, writing and maths,

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever"- Mahatma Ghandi

Breakout 1: Accessing Deep learning
Presenter: Derek Weymouth; Margot McKeengan.

Today I attended a breakout on "Accessing Deep learning"
Firstly, we as a class looked at what deep learning is and what is means to us. We used the famous Padlet to collaborate out ideas on this topic. Below is an image of the padlet. Some of the key questions the we also talked about were:


What is deep learning?
How might we measure it?
What evidence would we use?

Some of the things that first came to my mind when I hear the word "DEEP LEARNING"
What is deep learning are listed below

• Critical thinking
• Zone of proximal development. 
• Making connections 
• Digging deeper. 
• Questioning.
• Understanding. 

Created with Padlet

Link to the padlet 

We then went onto:
DEFINING DEEP LEARNING:

• Share a story of a lesson/unit/learning experience that you consider to be a good example of "deep learning"
• what made it "deep"
• What indicators do you use?
• Authenticity: About the learner. 
• Real world context: making connections. 

We looked at how Deep learning also means that the students has a voice. The leaning is more student entered.  Deep learning also involved the learner being reflective and growing in their learning. This is where they asked themselves questions: What worked for me, what could I do better next time.  Deep learning to myself also means empowerment. Seeing the  learner as a WHOLE and not just a part. It is about  COLLABORATION-Working together and bringing different knowledge and putting them together.

For deep learning to also happen it also involves Partnerships. These partnerships are: Home/school/families/communities: learning partnerships=learning opportunities.

I am a huge believer in the Zone of proximal development. I believe that when the child is in the zone of proximal development that is when the most amount of deep learning takes place. It is up to use teachers to capture those moments and run with it. 

Digital Tools for knowing your learner

I had the great opportunity to attend a U learn breakout on "Digital Tools for knowing your learner".
To begin with the presenters introduced themselves and go us to do a task using an online app called "Answer Garden". The question that we had was "What are 3 words that come to mind when you hear the word assessment".
We as a group collaborated out thoughts and ideas using Answer garden. I was really amazed and very excited about this new app as this was the first time that I can come across it and for all of in to be able to use our own devices and collate our ideas together on this one page was amazing and very exciting. I had the mindset of a student: I felt really engaged as well as excited not only to share my ideas but also being able to see my idea pop up on the projected screen when I wrote my answer.  I was also very engaged in finding out what other teachers would put down.  This is a tool that I will most def. implement in my classroom as I can see that the children would be very engaged and very responsive.

Some of the Questions that also come up during this breakout were:

• What is my actual purpose here?-Why am I using these tools in my classroom. What is the reason behind it.
• Am I asking the right questions? How do I structure these questions so that I get the answers that I need:  Asking of rich key questions. 

We also went through a range of other app which I also found fascinating. One was using Kahoot! This app can be used not only on iPads and netbooks but also on phones which is just wonderful!

There are many purposes of this tool. You can use it for reading, writing, maths, inquiry and many ore. 

I have the great pleasure of using this in many forms in my classroom. 

In the first week back at school to have fun with the children as well as engage the children I did quiz with them. These were quiz based on learning as well as general knowledge questions and building relationships with the children after a 2 week break. 

I found that the children were very excited and engaged. They stimulated and had an adeline rush just because they knew that the timer was on and they had only 20seconds to answer a question. 

I found that in regards to my classroom climate it had a great team nature to it. The children worked well in their teams, they were all cheering, suing positive praise for the teams that got the correct answer. It was just a great atmosphere to be in seeing that the children were engaging and having fun with their learning as thats what learning is all about. Through participation and engagement is how we learn.

We also looked at using google forms and how this can be used to gather data as well as can be used for reading and writing.  This is a great tool I find even for Inquiry.

Below is an example of two types of forms that can be used to gather information/data. Google forms

Google Form Quiz - uLearn          Quiz- Maths
These forms can also be used for spelling.


One other App that the presenters talked about that REALLY took my fancy and just can't wait to implement in my classroom was Socrative tool. This app is very popular in schools not only in New Zealand by also around the world in regards to using is for writing. You can insert a picture prompt and students can work collaboratively and write about the picture prompt. You can print off the students work also to share with the class.


Im really looking forward to implementing more of these tools during Term 4.