professional learning

Staying Relevant

Published by Nick

When your computer goes down or the Internets not working you might ring a help desk for assistance. This video is a humorous take on what happens when someone can’t get their ‘new book’ working. They have been used to working with scrolls and this new technology has them confused!

When your viewing the video pretend the person learning to use this new book is a teacher. If he gives up because it is too hard/frustrating will he continue to be an effective teacher? The answer of course is no. Books will soon become common place and scrolls will disappear. He will no longer be able to communicate with his students effectively as schools will no doubt be using the new technology with students.

What is our understanding of how: 1. children use the following (in and out of school) and 2. how can we use the following for teaching and professional development?

  • The Internet beyond a google search (web 2.0 tools)
  • Programs beyond Microsoft Office
  • iPads and the thousands of apps available for education
  • Social media such as Facebook and Twitter (how do students use these? what are their pitfalls and benefits?)
  • Blogs (your own or professional reading)
  • Wikis
  • Gaming i.e. Minecraft, which by the way I think has great applications in the classroom
  • Smart phones
  • Creating a YouTube account
  • Being responsible for and maintaining our online footprint
  • BOYD programs (Bring Your Own Device)
  • Mobile Learning

Do we risk becoming obsolete over the next 5-10 years if we do not embrace and embed technology as part of our pedagogy beyond the twice a week visit to the computer suite? (note I said as ‘part of’, we should never throw out old still effective pedagogy just because something new comes along, we should however be adding to our pedagogical content knowledge).

 

While you ponder this question enjoy the video, it is very funny!

Classroom Observations at PBAS

Published by Nick

I hope that the Eudunda presentation achieved its purpose of getting us to start thinking about how we might go about developing quality teaching and learning through classroom observations at PBAS.

Key points that I got from the presentation were:

  • I like the concept of One in all in. Developing a whole school agreement through discussion will be important.
  • Time is required to ensure any process is effective. Time for both the development of the process as well as implementation i.e. Eudunda underloaded its secondary staff and provided release time for its primary staff. What would work at PBAS?
  • Eudunda embedded ‘Quality Teaching’ into their Site Improvement Plan. Where does improving quality teaching through classroom observation sit in relation to all the other things we do at school?
  • How do we embed aspects of the TfEL or the National Professional Standards for Teachers (or both) into a document that is then useful and easily used?
  • Staff familiarisation with TfEL and the National Professional Standards for Teachers will be ongoing. The hot dot task was a fairly easy simple way to get staff to have a look at and think about these.
  • The concept of deprivatising the classroom appealed to me. Broadening the types of pedagogy we are exposed to will be an important part of developing teacher quality.

This by no means exhausts the list of questions and issues that teachers may have about classroom observations at PBAS. They are just my initial thoughts after listening to Eudunda’s story.

Click here to read my first post on Classroom Observation written in early October.

Why school? Post 2

Published by Nick

I was going to do a series of 3-4 posts about the eBook Why schools? by Will Richardson. See Why school? Post 1.  If you haven’t seen this post or viewed the video in it I suggest you go back and view it before you view the video below.

I no longer have to do a series of posts because I have found a video of Will Richardson presenting at TEDxMelbourne, recorded only two months ago. The talk encapsulates his book Why schools? Hence the reason why I don’t need to do any more posts on it.

Valmai spoke to me about the key message she picked up from the first post which again is reinforced in this video, “we don’t have to do school better we have to do it differently”.

If I had to choose one video to watch from the wide range posted on this blog during 2012 this would be it.

 

Getting Started – Classroom ideas for learning with the ipad

Published by Nick

Click on the link below and have a look at the digital book “Getting Started  – Classroom ideas for learning with the ipad”. This was put out by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (Victoria) as one of the resources for an iPad trial in Victoria. Some good ideas about pedagogy and how ICT and iPads can be used. Click here to read the book “Getting Started  – Classroom ideas for learning with the iPad “.

 

Erica McWilliam article

Published by ed

As I said earlier last week I was really keen to locate some information regarding Erica McWilliam. Well, I’ve located the attached article which is absolutely AWESOME!

http://www.ericamcwilliam.com.au/personally-significant-learning/

Entitled Personally Significant Learning it masterfully pulls together so many education norms we must get our heads around as staff in front of students as well as leaders in schools trying to move our schools to being fantastic, vibrant and relevant to students of 2012 and beyond. Would be interested in people’s feedback if they too believe this is where education needs to be or if the thoughts are she (and therefore me) are way off the track!

 

Check it out – I think you will find it interesting at the very least.

 

Ed Charlton

Classroom Observations

Published by Nick

Research over a long period of time suggests that teacher quality above all other educational policy has the biggest impact on student learning. The following quote is from the AITSL website under the heading, The crucial role of the teacher – ‘The greatest resource in Australian schools is our teachers. They account for the vast majority of expenditure in school education and have the greatest impact on student learning, far outweighing the impact of any other education program or policy’.

Discussion has begun at Leadership around how we can structure teacher observations and processes at PBAS that allow for peer observation of our teaching in a way that is comfortable for staff & provides honest and targeted/useful feedback.

To help foster this discussion Leadership are trying to get Eudunda Area School to visit us in term 4 and explain how their classroom observation processes work (Clare High may also be a possibility). If these visits occur the purpose will not be to hold up any particular  model as ‘the best’ but rather use them as starting points to generate discussion and ideas for our own model.

Some considerations to be discussed by Leadership and staff through the remainder of this year and into next include:

  • Is this process part of the performance management system of the school (or separate)?
  • Do we have a whole school focus for classroom observations i.e. TfEl 3.2 Foster deep understanding and skillful action or do teachers choose specific areas they would like to focus on?
  • How will feedback be given i.e. informally, formally, notes, oral, video or a combination?
  • Guidelines for observing teachers will need to be clear and easily understood.
  • How will the observation proforma look and work? Needs to provide specific & useful feedback that is a easy to understand and use.
  • How do we provide time for teachers to:
    • meet with their observer prior to the observation
    • be an observer for a colleague
    • provide feedback from an observation session
    • reflect and act on feedback provided by the observation?

An article Denise gave me called ‘The Gentle Art of Observation: a small schools approach to peer mentoring and observation’ (Uradila PS) has a statement at the end of the article that summed up their purpose for classroom observations.

The goal at our school is not to have homogenous teachers but teachers who can argue their teaching practice and can honestly say what they are doing is effective teaching.

I look forward to any feedback that staff may have at this point regarding classroom observations either directly or by commenting on this post. The benefit of commenting here is that your peers also get to read your thoughts and ideas which can only benefit the discussion.

Hopefully any observation process we develop at PBAS doesn’t generate the following emotion from staff.

iPad and Web 2.0 Presentation

Published by Nick

This presentation shows some of the iPad and web tools that I have used in my teaching in the past 12 months. Click on the enlarge icon (bottom right) so that all images and text are visible when viewing slides. If you would like to see the notes that go with the slides click on the link below the presentation which will take you to the presentation on the Slideshare website. The notes are visible on the Slideshare site.

Week 9 Staff Meeting AC/TFEL

Published by Nick

Unfortunately this will be our first AC/TFEL meeting for the term.

 

The Term 3 (proposed) plan was for the following to occur:

R-7: Focus on programing, assessing and reporting to Australian Curriculum. Plus looking at the English curriculum during meeting times.

8-10: Focus on English. Tanya and Justin working together.

TfEL: Includes Liz, Tim, Rob, Dave and Nick looking at students feedback on our teaching. Ed and Caddy can slot into this OR may wish to continue focusing on the Maths/Science AC in preparation for next year i.e. looking at programing and assessing.

 

Proposed plan for week 9 Tuesday staff meeting is for:

Primary Staff

Primary staff to use this time to investigate the AC English Curriculum either individually or in small groups. Possibilities for this time are:

  • Have discussions around the curriculum itself. Get the AC website up and investigate/familiarise
  • Planning for 2013 using the English AC.
  • Look at and discuss with a colleague the work sample portfolios. Discuss how these compare with current student samples from PBAS. Can these samples be used to assist assessment in 2013?

Tanya and Justin

Tanya and Justin to use this time to investigate the AC English Curriculum either individually or in small groups. Possibilities for this time are:

  • Have discussions around the curriculum itself. Get the AC website up and investigate/familiarise
  • Planning for 2013 using the English AC. I know Justin has begun this process and maybe some sharing can occur at this time.
  • Look at and discuss with a colleague the work sample portfolios. Discuss how these compare with current student samples from PBAS. Can these samples be used to assist assessment in 2013?

One major issue here – last term Justin started the TFEL Student Surveys and handed them out. I asked him (without thinking) to meet with the TFEL group so he could have time to analyse his data. This however leaves Tanya with no one to discuss the English curriculum with. Can I ask that Tanya and Justin get together for a quick chat to decide if Justin is going to be with the TFEL group (and therefore Tanya is by herself) or work with Tanya on the AC English curriculum.

TFEL – Tim, Rob, Dave and Nick

Meet and discuss TFEL student surveys. Nick will show how he has analysed is feedback. Have some time to discuss/analyse results from students and what this means for our teaching (either with a partner or individually).

Ed and Allan

Can come and join the conversation with the TFEL group and we can share how we constructed our surveys and their analysis OR continue with your discussion around the AC maths curriculum which could include the following:

  • Have discussions around the curriculum itself. Get the AC website up and investigate/familiarise (you may be passed this).
  • Look at and discuss the work sample portfolios. Discuss how these compare with current student samples from PBAS. Can these samples be used to assist assessment in 2013?
  • Planning for 2013 using the Maths AC.

Creating the schools we need – Chris Lehmann

Published by Nick

In the following video Chris Lehmann speaks about a range of topics in a passionate and inspiring way. Chris is the founding principal of the Science Leadership Academy, a progressive science and technology high school in Philadelphia, PA.

A quote from the video – “How dare anyone think you can transform a child if you are unwilling to be transformed yourself.”

Chris’ talk covers the following topics:

  • Learning v training for a test
  • Training for the work force v training the citizen
  • Schools need vision
  • Unlearning and relearning ……..
  • Schools should be caring institutions – we teach kids not subjects
  • Inquiry and questioning
  • Student centred, it is not about us
  • Kids need adults and mentors
  • Technology – ubiquitous, necessary and invisible
  • Community based – bring the world into the classroom
  • Collaboration
  • Schedules, day structures, integration, deeper learning
  • Meta-cognition – teach students how to think

Learning Design Part 8

Published by Nick

The information below is taken from the Leaders Resource – Getting Started developed by the Teaching and Learning Services team DECD.

This is the final post in the series on Learning Design. The sixth part to the Learning Design process is Design the teaching and learning plan.

The final part to Learning Design requires less explanation than the others, having said that it is extremely important. Designing the teaching and learning plan requires the bringing together of the main ideas from all the other parts. Having decided on what those key ideas are from parts 1-5 of Learning Design consideration can be given to:

• What planning is needed?
• What is the sequence of experience/tasks/opportunities?
• What resources need organising?
• What else?