Further down Neo-Liberalism Lane.

Two days ago I saw a tweet from a Principal friend, asking what charter schools were. Naturally I was curious to follow the thread that resulted from his question. Then it began...

Like most of us in the teaching arena we were probably shocked, but then not. It follows the National Party direction down 'business model' avenue. "It's all about freedom of choice and the free market," they hum. We should be adding, "Children are not products in your factories!" to the soundbite war.

Here's a slightly predictable article from the nzherald, praising the charter school proposal and giving teachers another serve. Below is a comment I posted (which has 23 likes but not that I'm counting).

It's interesting that the majority of comments are, likewise, anti the idea.

So lastly, here's a small shot across their bow. For what it's worth. And yes, Mum, I'm trying to stay positive.

Thinking Hats for big kids

This week I got a great idea for deepening the critical / reflective skills of my class - something I've been wanting to do for a while. @MsBeenz sent me a reflective template that uses De Bono's Hats (this site has some great resources to download and use, too) to structure the students through an amazing reflection.

Her class used them to write reviews on their ipad apps and I slightly adapted it to help the Year 6s reflect on their camp from the week before. I was REALLY surprised with the way it scaffolded some great reflections by asking them to think across the sprectrum of thinkers hats - logic and facts / feelings, positive / negative and creative / facilitative. (My own take on the hat names but I do like the 'cautions' word instead of negative, perhaps)

When some students saw the posters I put together, below, I heard, 'Oh those - we did them in the juniors!' and, 'Those are for babies aren't they?' Well, you can imagine my face - very black hat reaction! Amazingly, the reaction was pretty accepting when we got into it and I showed them how we'd use them. I even explained that a lot of businesses use them to help make big decisions.

When we've finished I might post a couple of their reflections. I think they're pretty good. Much better than hatless, anyway!

The template for the camp reflection is in the folder above, also - thanks @MsBeenz!

Geocaching - Treasure Hunting for Short.

Abbi and I went treasure hunting last weekend. That's what our family calls geocaching because that's what it is. I have a feeling it might be a new hobby of ours since it combines a short hike with hide and seek. What a great combination!

We use this app and the website that goes with it to search and log our finds. The site has all the info you'll need to get started.

I put this together on comiclife - a hugely underestimated programme in my opinion - partly to show my class a model of how you can tell a story through the pictures and captions. Also... it's just so much fun and so easy.

Abbi - you're a rock star cacher!

App of the week!

Here's the first 'App of the Week' - it could also be the last, who knows. I have @sharpjacqui to thank for sharing the news that this app (she called it one of her favs) was free on itunes for 2 days... so naturally I was curious.

Yes, it was the free part. Can you blame me.

Here are some screen shots from itunes on Halftone.

It's a great app for uploading photos, adding text and a few icons. Very easy to use and, as most apps will allow these days, whatever you create can be shared on facebook, twitter and emailed.

Some fun ahead, I think! My first go is on the side of my blog.

The more the merrier?

This week I had a go in a multi roomed video conferencing tool called Bigmarker with three

other teachers from Dunedin, Raumati and Hamilton. I've used skype a few times, with family, other teachers, one to one with students and this year we skyped our four senior classes with another class in Australia. This was the first time I had been involved in video conferencing with multiple windows - multiple people. It was quite a shift!

It has a nice list of features...

- multiple participants

- upload documents / slideshows / presentations

- ability to draw and highlight on uploaded files during conference

- mute, raise hands when you want to speak, create a moderator etc

- chat function - even private chat function.

..and here are a list of pros and cons I sent to their support team about our experience.

Pros

- uploading docs / presentations.

- being able to switch presenters

- seeing all attendees

- the whiteboard function

- the ability to maintain a pretty good connection even with our third world connection capability (I did a speed test after our call and my upload speed is 1 mb a sec (yes, that's what broadband speed I out up with at the mo)

- the hands up function (even though we were all moderators in our set up)

Cons

- a bit echoey, especially at the start - you probably have some tips to fix that? We tried some headphones and turning our speakers down.

- all being moderators (which we gather meant that we could all speak at one time, and if we set up with 1 moderator he/she would determine who's speaking?)

- the fifty words you have to write in the set up. Could people arrange a conference without writing a big paragraph about what it's about. I understand the intention, just commenting that I found that a bit of a drag - especially if you're wanting to set up a conversation between colleagues - quite a hassle.

- shared screen was all pixelated and you couldn't make it out - due to the slow broadband?

Potential

- we're pretty keen to try it with some other teachers - around a discussion topic.

- next year we might be keen to have several classes discuss a controversial topic and even have groups of students collaborate on a project through bigmarker.

Overall - very impressed with its possibilities and their response was really promising. They replied that some new features are in process and about to be rolled out - this may fix some of the issues with the screen share feature. (They also suggested headsets as an echo fix for now)

Very exciting tool with loads of applications for use in the classroom! Watch their space!

Thank you, Mr McCaw!

This week we've been working on developing our speaking skills. The class decided that they'd love to say thanks to Richie McCaw and the ABs for the fantastic win last week in the Rugby World Cup. Below is a voice thread we've been making. It's a great way for the class to hear their own speaking skills and a recorded vehicle for them to self and peer assess each other.

I've also forwarded the link to our voice thread to the NZRU in the hope that it gets passed onto Mr McCaw. Wouldn't it be great if they listened to our thank yous!

Hi,

I'm a teacher at Myross Bush School, way down in Invercargill. Our class wanted to do something to say thankyou to Richie and the team for last week's amazing win.

We decided that we'd make this voice thread so we could personally record our thanks. The students wrote their own thankyous and recorded their voice on the photo of their choice.

We'd love it if you could forward this to the Media Liaison or even Richie himself. I think it's a nice touch to hear some personal insights into where they were in those final moments and we hope the team realises how much their efforts have been appreciated by the little people in the country!

Thanks again, ABs - especially our hero - Mr McCaw!

Mark Herring

Assistant Principal

Myross Bush

Blogging in the classroom

Today I'm taking a workshop on ways to use your classroom blog - beyond the setup. Here are some of my favourite classroom blogs for us to dive into and pull apart (in the nicest possible way). We'll use the brainstorming tool at the bottom of this post to 'pool' our ideas.

How to Reflect..better

My class is working on how we can reflect on our learning. We've often talked why it's a good thing to stop and reflect before after and especially during a process. Now I think it's time for us all to explore 'how' we can do it.

This prezi, by Peter Pappas, shows how we can deppend our reflection by using blooms to really examine what's happening / happened. It's well worth the time to flick through all the thoughts and media that's involved - I love a good prezi!

One breakthrough moment I've had from viewing the prezi is that I could post some reflective questions for students to answer - based on some aspects of blooms. I could, for example, ask three questions. One question on understanding, one on analysing and the final one on evaluating. Scaffolding IS important for every learner, especially when we are learning to do something for the first time.

I've also created a poster on an easy to remember slogan to help students write or narrate a reflection. We'll be brainstorming all the different ways we can reflect on our blogs - writing posts, taking photos or even using voicethread and photobooth to record video or our voice.

A Facebook Classroom Culture

5 Years ago I attended a breakout at the Ulearn conference on school organisational systems (I forget the speaker). Since then I've noticed how we can run our school's with the same apparent structure but, when you examine exactly how the leadership 'works' you will find something quite different - especially after working in three different schools now.

This infographic, from Bonkers World, got me thinking. It shows how major corporations structure their companies in quite different ways. It's interesting that they all share relative success, too. Even though some have a top down scenario and others are more centric and collaborative.

2 questions come to mind. Which one would we would like to work within? Which model would empower and inspire it's members? Which model would retain staff? Which structure achieves the best from it's employees?

It also made me wonder how my class is structured? And does the leadership model change during the day / week?

There is a need, I think, for the class to be run like Microsoft at times - very much with me at the top directing, although without the 'guns' I hope. Teacher's do need to teach and explicitly pass skills, information and their content knowledge through to the students. But, something I am trying to instill within the culture of our class is a model similar to Facebook, or Apple. It's one where the students are driven and inspired by a central motivating force that's outside of the teacher. They are more likely to seek help and assistance from each other rather than the teacher.

This is the philosophy of empowerment that I think is the central goal of personalised learning - student's making decisions, helping other students and working together is the aspiration I have for our class. And it's the culture of the class that we're creating.

A Connected World that's already here.

I had another glimpse into the power of Twitter tonight - as if I needed another one. I've recently started following people outside of the 'educational' realm. @lancearmstrong, @coryjane1080 and @trevormallard are just a few and they can be pretty entertaining. It opens a world that you wouldn't otherwise have any connection with.

So tonight I saw a tweet from @trevormallard about the Labour Party leader, Phil Goff holding #goffchat at 6.30pm. He was keen to answer questions that people tweeted. So, being the risk taker that I am, I offered a question / suggestion that I've been wondering for a while. And you can see the result below (overlook the spelling error 'of', please).

Was it a life changing interchange? No. Would that little interaction have happened at the last election? No, again. But the world is changing! It's changing into one where a guy can ask a simple question to a political leader in a blink of an eye, just after he gets home after a run and before he eats his tea.

Is today's world a clutter of information and a minefield of privacy issues? Yes. But it's a connected world I'm also really enjoying. And one we should be preparing our students for - cause they're already there.

New tools for deep sea diving

Every man loves having new tools! One of the best things that I took away from a PD opportunity in our city - the "I Love Teaching" conference, was the Hot Tools resource by Phillips and Watts.

Their website has a range of teaching resources you can purchase but the one that caught my eye was one that combined some graphic organisers with some literacy keys in a bucket at the bottom - and we've been using them A LOT!

Here's an example of the thinking box that I've posted about on our class blog. This tool helps us define a subject and we used it to gather our thoughts about what science is after some tuning in activities. The example below was a student who was able to come up with a really thoughtful definition and has certainly helped me see where the next steps are in her thinking.

The key for me with these tools are the literacy keys at the bottom - they help scaffold the students into much deeper thinking than they would otherwise do. For this tool there are key works like, 'adjectives', 'adverbs', 'metaphors and similes' etc They help prompt the learner into thinking deeply about the subject.

I'm always looking for ways to encourage them to go 'deeper' and not skim along the surface. It's far to easy, I think, for really talented thinkers to do the bare minimum - is that a symptom of our 'comfort' society?

Line in the Sand - it starts with the purpose

The current National Standards debate is highlighting a very important question - What's the purpose of education? Every school, teacher, principal and parent will have an answer for this and we see these ideas being played out in the decisions that teachers, Principals and schools are making every day. Here are three main themes I think you might encounter.

Schools exist to...

1. - assist a student to reach their academic potential,

2. - prepare and produce economic workers for our economic well being,

3. - create well rounded citizens who effectively contribute to society.

If you keep these three goals in mind when interacting with people day to day you will quickly hear the goal they are most striving to meet.

When you hear a Principal talking about their school having student achievement as it's core function - then you are listening to someone who believes in the first idea. If a government puts policy in place to create standardised outcomes for students then it's obvious that the second idea is in mind. And when a school provides extra curricula activities and instills a school wide values programme then the third has become part of it's ethos.

What I'd suggest is occurring throughout the country is a clear demarcation of principals and boards, governments and communities around the aims of education; a line in the sand is being drawn. And there is one obvious litmus test of this line - the actions being taken in the shadow of National Standards, in New Zealand, and national testing worldwide. In other words, how a Principal responds to the National Standards debate is a reflection on what they believe the purpose of our education system is. The decisions they make on time spent in class, how they structure their classrooms, the PD they arrange for their staff and even the physical spaces they create for their learners.

What I'm predicting will happen is that we will see this 'line in the sand', between those schools who see it's purpose being in academic achievement and those who seek a holistic approach to student growth as well rounded people, become more and more vivid and marked. There is little debate around the fact that schools must adapt and reform to meet the demands of an ever changing world ( just google, '21st Century learning') but what IS being debated is how.

Whether schools continue to focus on the 3 Rs, whether they travel on a journey of personalised learning and student empowerment, and whether they deconstruct the traditional teaching and learning model to one that suits their modern learning community. All of these decisions will begin to create schools who look VASTLY different from each other - ones who are completely reformed and those who have stayed the same. These are interesting days and the results of these lines will, I'd suggest, will be very different types of schools across the educational landscape.

So, if I play this prediction out and we do have very different types of schools, it could lead to;

- Parents having a wide range of options about the kind of school they want their children to belong

- Teachers becoming very selective and purposeful about teaching at schools that match their educational philosophies

- Principals forming informal 'clusters' of colleagues that will collaborate together with others of like minds - even more so than we see today.

(Side note - From someone who is relatively young and new to this career... I can see this beginning to happen. And I'm VERY excited!)

Things to Learn - Vid

Here's a great vid - by Matt Edgar. Some very cool messages. Now I'm wondering how we can use this as a model for our class to communicate something they've learned...

things to learn from Matt Edgar on Vimeo.

Sharing with no one...

This term's focus has been to get our efolios up and running. I've decided to use the edublogs platform this year which is a shift away from my favoured use of blogger. Here are three reasons I want to give edublogs a trial;

1. A clean, attractive interface for readers and users

2. The option to add a password to individual posts (great for assessment details, sensitive information and privacy focused students and family)

3. Nicely worked comments that can show up as threads under a post. Excellent for students answering questions in their comments.

It's the last possibility that I'm most excited about. Yesterday we talked about one of the reasons for having a blog at school - the possibility to share with an audience. I used the analogy of giving a speech to an empty assembly hall and they seemed to understand that vividly.

The image on the right shows how the comments

can quickly become a conversation that is both powerful and engaging - that's the potential, anyway. You can see how to activate this feature here.

Our major 'workon' this week has been to create better comments. We've used this poster I made to help scaffold our comments and there has been an improvement in them. Feel free to download the poster using the download button, bottom right.

'Threaded comments' image source above - writeoutloud.edublogs.org

Online Connection Resources

I'm starting a workshop called, 'Online Connections' at a teachmeet for our local ICT Cluster this week. Here are some resources we might use. The topics will probably cover Twitter, Skype, Edmodo, RSS Readers and making comments on blogs.



Twitter examples for teachers

Just the right amount of cage!

One of the dominant themes in all the dialogue around educational change is the need to encourage and foster creativity and independence in our students. The focus, we say, should be on developing self directed classrooms as the demand for initiative and problem solving skills grows with the rate of change in our ever shifting society landscape.

One of the results of this new emphasis is the call for teachers to 'let go' and work along side students in a more facilitative role. "Allow more freedom and the learning will happen," is the cry. So, one of the strongest values I seek to develop in my classroom is the student's ability to be more in control in the decisions about their own learning. BUT - there is, however, a need for balance with this approach. There are strong parallels here with the analogy of caged birds.

There are some classrooms that aim to put their students in little manageable cages with only enough room to stand up and hardly enough to stretch their wings. You could argue that this would be the dominant model of the 20th century class. The result, of course, being that the bird never really exercises its wings to their full potential.

The other danger is in freeing the bird to fly too soon. Even nature has learnt that a mother bird restrains their young before allowing them to fly the nest. The danger in pushing them out too soon, obviously, can have disastrous effects! Also, if we allow birds to fly too far before they have mastered the art, then we risk them going in circles, or even worse, flying into danger.

The balance that is needed for creativity to grow, in my experience, is for a student to have just the right amount of scaffolding and support. If we drown our students in rules, direction and dictation we risk suffocating them. Likewise, if we allow students to roam around with little support, discipline and direction then I think we are actually doing them a disservice.

So, here are a few things I use in class to provide that structure and guidance.

1. Co- Constructed Criteria

This is a criteria we created together to help us work out what a great Skype is. We had a look at what skype does and used our prior knowledge to make this chart. It helps guide us through each step of the process.

2. Self Review Slips

These Self Review slips are printed, one for each student, and pasted into their writing books. When they have finished their first draft they use the slips to do a self ad peer review that helps them guide their second draft. It also helps me guide the feedback I give, too.

There is plenty of license for them to add their personality and own style to the writing. This slip gives them some parameters to work within a specific genre of writing. Once their second draft is completed they are ready to post their writing to their blogs.

3. Challenge Blogs

One strategy I've used a few times is to create a blog of different activities that are targeted at specific learning intentions.

This blog - "The Not Lost Project" is a blog I've made. It has a combination of links to a variety of mapping, compass and directions geometry skills that target levels 2 and 3 of the NZ Curriculum. The special ingredient to these types of blogs, I've found, is that the student is able to choose the activities he or she completes - but still cover the learning objectives needed. They are motivated to complete 2 tasks on every page to earn their 'Scout Badge'. These blogs even become a quality homework option, too.

4. Independence Licences

This is a fantastic strategy I've picked up from a colleague I once worked with. There are 4 levels of the license and students can work up or down the levels depending on the responsibility they show in and out of class. With each level come certain rights, also. Level 1, for example, ensures that the student work in plain sight of the teacher and asks for permission to use the computer, leave the room and go onto a task. Level 4, however, can work in any learning space around the school, is allowed to use any resource at 'mostly' any time and is largely free to make their own learning decisions throughout the day.

I've found this strategy to be incredibly motivating and rewarding for the students who are genuinely making an effort to become independent and responsible - and rewards them for doing so!

So, let's continue to create and use the right amount of structure for our students to become the creative, problem solving, engaged learners that we know they can be! Free as a bird - with a few fences thrown in...

Recycled post - Use a computer, don't act like one!

This is a 'retro' post from my early days - too true to be archived and forgotten...

I'm often telling the kids in my class to not shut down when they strike a problem. "You're like a computer that puts up a, 'Can you tell me what to do?' window."

They either walk around the room aimlessly or stand near me waiting for help (and they could figure it out themselves - as proven when I walk them through some self dialogue).

I think problem solving skills is on of the most important skills for kids to learn these days. (Is it becoming an increasing deficit?)

Teacher Expertise

What are you inputing into yours?

Skype in the Classroom

On Wednesday I worked with some classrooms who wanted to develop their use of Skype. I arranged for two classrooms to skype with us (thanks to connections with my twitter friends, @Marama and @mrkempnz), one in Dunedin at Grant Braes School and the other at Pukeokahu School near Taihape.

The first class, Room 3 at St Thomas Aquinas, watched this video that explained what skype is and how it works.

Next we co-constructed a chart of what a successful skype session is. The poster below is the version I've put together in popplet - a cool chart maker, I've discovered. The three parts, preparation, during the call and reflection are based on the rubric I found online here, at the 'Educational Origami' blog. We found that it helped us have a great first Skype call, especially the prep stage where we visited their class wiki or blog and prepared some questions to ask.

Here are some reflections I've taken from the two sessions.

1. Watch for tricky technical bridges to hurdle.

It's always important to test your technology before using it, especially when you've arranged a time to do something with someone else- who has built their timetable around it. We had some issues with proxy settings and, I think, some firewall blocks which has tripped me up in the past. Always check your connection before you need it. Especially when using skype for the first time with a class.

2. Always have an authentic purpose.

Anything new has its gimmick appeal. I've found that this lasts for about 20 minutes with kids and then they're over it! When we're using skype to call someone you should always have a real reason for doing so...not just because you can - 'Hey kids, lets skype the class next door!'

With the second session we decided that we'd use the skype call to help the class develop an understanding of open and closed questions - and a real audience to practise on! They were totally engaged in asking their open questions (based on a video the other class made of a science experiment they did with sheep's eyes) and they got experience how powerful those types of questions are. The learning intention of the session was not how to use skype - classic example of use the tool to help the learning..rather than learning the use of the tool.

3. Don't underestimate how familiar our students are with technology

It was amazing to see how many hands shot up when I asked if they had used skype before. Many had skyped their grandparents and family front out of town and a lot of them knew how it worked and what it did.

Often we think that we will be sharing a tool with our class that is innovative and amazing! It may well be, compared to the technology we usually use at school, or even compared to the teacher next door. But to these students it's a normal part of everyday life. It's not so amazing to them - they don't know any different. All the more reason to make our classrooms as relevant as possible to our students everyday lives.

Project Based Learning

This video, spotlighted by @web20classroom on this blogpost, made by commoncraft (who make some amazing explanation videos - well worth using as a model for students to try their own) explains what 'Project Based Learning' is. If you think broadly then it sums up what Inquiry Learning is..in a round about way.

One of the reasons I like about this video is that it emphasises the fact that students are still having their knowledge based broadened. It's about the content being discovered and reinforced within a meaningful context.

The process goes something like

- have a problem

- ask questions

- seek answers

- devise solutions

- put solutions into action

What do you think? Would this be a good explaination of what inquiry really is for those of us who are always getting conflicting, vague messages?

Twitter's Birthday!

I've been sharing the magic of Twitter ALOT lately. (I'm sure I heard someone sigh this week but I don't care...) It is, hands down, the MOST powerful PD you can ever be involved in. Most educators who blog have tapped into it's potential to connect / share and upskill.

I showed our Lead Teachers this video today which has come out on Twitters 5th birthday! It's hard to imagine life without it, now. Yes...I'm not ashamed to say that I'm professionally addicted.

Here are two small examples how teachers are using it in our cluster.

1. A class is involved in a space inquiry and they are following the astronaut in the above movie! He's posting photos and updates from a space station. They're apparently SO engaged in their inquiry and his posts inspire so many further questions for them to explore.

2. The Southland region now has 14 educators who are using twitter for connecting with each other, both inside the region and out. Here are a few local twitter names to watch for;

- Timl27 - a local Principal - and new blogger.

- Craiginteract - the IWB facilitator for the Invercargill Region

- Cossie29 - AP and teacher who is embarking on some further study soon. Prolific tweeter!

COME ON! Join the revolution.=)

Improving our teaching practice

Ever since I started training as a teacher I realised there was lots for me to learn. Now that I've been teaching for a while I've realised that I didn't know the half of it! Any teacher who thinks they know it all - or even feels satisfied with their own practice - probably looks like this guy!

There's a saying I started using a while ago (and have probably used on this blog a few times over the last three years) and repeat often - 'Every teacher has a veneer of confidence covering a sea of insecurity!' Every time I use it with another teacher I see a wry smile of familiarity with a touch of relief thrown in that says, 'Oh, ...I'm not the only one!' We feel insecure, I think, because teaching is such an art with so many constantly moving variables... many of which are out of our control. But - many aren't, which is why we are always learning and striving to be our best - or should be.

This year our ICT cluster has begun a journey of using the Teacher Inquiry Model to improve the use of eLearning and ICT in our classrooms. The focus is the area of student learning we would like to see developed with improved outcomes while the strategies are the tools / practises or techniques we will use to achieve those outcomes. The shift that many teachers are making this term is seeing an ICT tool as the strategy, not the focus. So, podcasting becomes a strategy to improve my focus of engaging reluctant writers rather than wanting to use podcasting in my class and seeing how it benefit the students writing. This has been an important part of the process and many teachers are beginning some amazing projects - from yes, podcasting to blogging and all sorts of other 'mashups' of technology that are looking like making some fantastic gains for our students.

This graph, below is something I've been creating in popplet - a mix between wallwisher and mindmeister (or a graphic organiser and online yellow stickies). It's been a brilliant tool for guiding a teacher to create some strategies they will use to help them achieve their focus. The inside (coloured) ideas are some different forms that strategies could take. The outside (grey) ideas are the kinds of eLearning strategies that could help those strategies.

This example of the popplet is just a screen shot of the dynamic version - which you can embed into a blog and people can add to. Because I'm adding to it as we go I've posted a jpg as an archive. I imagine that this chart could be used to reflectively examine our teaching practice at any time, regardless of whether we are completing a formal teacher inquiry or not.

Some questions to ask...

- in what parts of our practice are we simply missing the mark?

- what kinds of strategies could we try using to improve it?

- what or who could help us?

- how are you sharing / reflecting your ideas?

What's eLearning?

I get asked, 'What do you think eLearning is?' all the time on my travels and it's been great PD for me to have these conversations. It's a concept that's evolving almost as fast as the technology that's driving it (both in terms of the tools that provide the learning 'opportunities' and also the societal factors that make it 'imperitive')- and it's an understanding that's CRUCIAL for teachers to make the paradigm shift from a tradition mode of teaching to a modern one.

Here's a slideshow (by Jacqui Sharpe) that makes a great attempt to define it as it stands at the moment. I hope it will be used as resource to help us define the concept for ourselves.

The question for us is, 'How could it look it MY class?' - What's you next step?

The e learning classroom

View more presentations from Jacqui Sharp

iPads in Education - resources

We've all been seeing the hype created by the iPad, especially when it comes to being used in the classroom. Mobile devices are being identified as the next big tech tool for learning so... here are some links I've collecting.

Here's an example of one of MANY educational apps for the iPad.

Toontastic from Thushan Amarasiriwardena on Vimeo.

An amazing wiki, and another here with LOTS of resources for both the iPad and the iPod.

A blog post about using the iPad in classrooms.

Some student achievement data for use with the iPod (lets face it, the iPad is just a big screen iPod, essentially)

Some info from a blog post about the iPad2.

This video shows the iPad in action - specifically how students might use them.

And lastly - the MAMMOTH wiki for Ipad resources, created by Mike Fisher!

The Peloton Model of Change

There's a lot of dialogue going on about how our schools need to change and has been for some time. I have some posts here about this but my thoughts of the last while have been about how? The challenge for schools is around developing a whole new culture of learning and how to achieve it.

One way to gain some forward movement is to adopt a model for change based on the cycling peloton - a bunch of riders who band together in a race. I believe this analogy can be used as a model to radically transform your school.

Peloton is a french word that means 'little ball' or platoon and is used to describe the pack of riders that form a main bunch. It can often be part of a cyclists strategy to use the peloton as a form of saving energy during the race that they can use later on. Here are five ways a peloton can help us achieve some amazing momentum in changing our schools.

1. The riders in the front do most of the work.

Cyclists who ride at the front of the bunch take the full force of the wind ahead. They have to work hard and put in some amazing effort but they're also the ones who get an amazing sense of satisfaction from their work.

The teachers who are in the front are often asked, 'Where do you find the time to do all of this?' They will usually reply that it doesn't feel like extra work because it's their passion!

2. The riders in the back of the bunch take the draft.

The riders who take the draft don't have to make much effort to keep up but they benefit from the work from the leaders. They are 'drafted' along - but importantly, in the right direction.

Teachers who may not be driven to innovate and explore new methods of teaching still benefit from the actions of their colleagues. They will often start using new methods of teaching and learning, once they have seen them in action from the teacher next door.

3. The peloton uses the strength of the group to catch up the breakaways with collective speed.

There is incredible momentum when the group works together, driving the lead riders on to a long term, sustainable forward force.

Leaders can see change in their schools by resourcing and supporting the innovative teachers in their school. This can be in the form of equipment, release time, leadership positions and simple encouragement. When we give support to these leaders in these ways we also validate the methods and direction for our schools in a way that all teachers recognise.

We could be giving 20 minutes of each staff meeting to have them showcasing some innovative teaching practise in their class. Other teachers will start to ask, 'Why are some teachers being given equipment?' Or, 'Why did she get promoted?' We can all put two and two together.

So - do we want to see change in our schools? I'd suggest that we identify our lead riders and resource them to drive our schools in the right direction.

Two practical ideas...

- Could you invest in a couple of classrooms with more digital tools than normal - call it a pilot project. I think sometimes we spread our technology really thin across a school to gain a sense of 'equality' when really we're giving resources to teachers 'riding in the middle' who might not use it.

- Could you start sending some staff members to conferences (give them some extra release time) in the knowledge that they will pedal even harder when they return and drive your school further?

(Photo right bottom - Flickr.com, Old Shoe Woman)

Leaders should Lead and not just Manage.

One blog I'd recommend following is Derek Wenmoth's. In a recent post he recalled a session he was in with Scott McLeod about adapting to the new digital era we are in. (Incidentally, I knew McLeod was in the country because I read a random article in the Southland Times about his ideas - no local reference, just there it was.)

The message that came through at the end of this session was this strong challenge -

Leaders lead! They don’t follow. They aren’t simply reactive (to government policy, constraints of policy, funding etc). They lead. They are compelled by a vision of what can be, and work with the resources available to them to achieve that. - Scott McLeod (Derek's summation)

This challenge, he writes, was in response to the talk of barriers to this adaptation - those Ministry policies, mandates, lack of funding and so on. And I'm standing on my metaphorical chair, waving a flag to his next statement. Derek goes on to say that it's time for leaders to have some courage start taking risks and be okay about failing. - They should lead and not just manage.

What are some things I'd suggest that school leaders could be doing to lead? Here are three ideas.

1. Know where you are going.

What is the direction and goal of your school in the next five years? Having a vision for the future takes time, thought and being connected to the right people to appear. There is a massive conversation taking place all over the world and online about the future of education and it's a dialogue that is too good to miss.

2. Start identifying those who will follow in your school and community.

This video captures the idea that it's the first few who follow who will start the movement. Who is on your staff, BOT and in your community that have the potential to support and carry out any initiatives you put in place.

3. Be willing to make a decision and make mistakes.

It's very easy for leaders to put decisions off. Especially when we are talking about technology , for example, and you are told to, 'Wait until November when there is a new model coming out!' I like this saying

- You don't have to get it right. You just have to get it going.

We can learn a lot from the student led inquiry model about the process of change and mistakes are only problems if we don't learn from them!

Also - the danger of collaborative leadership styles is that we wait for everyone to get on board before we act. I'm not sure that school's have any more time to wait!

There you go - I'm sure there are more ideas. Do you have anything to add?

(Photo by divinenephron, Photo license: Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike)

eLearning in Schools - Vision and Philosophy

I've started collecting some resources that will help schools develop their own vision and philosophy of eLeaning looks at THEIR school. It's great to see so many putting their spin and flavour on a powerful emerging pedagogy.

I'll hope to add to this over time.

Ministry of Education Publication - 'Enabling the 21st Century Learner'

George Greens School

Albany School

Havelock North Primary School

"Trends that define the future of teaching and learning" - mindshift.kqed.org

Becta PDFs - school guidelines for digital management, UK - see downloads page, also.

Educational Leaders Site - NZ

4 Keys for Successful School Sites

It's great to see so many schools wanting to connect with their staff, parents, students and wider community in an online environment. I think many are now seeing the potential for the web to form genuine connections in a fast paced, digital world. But, how do we make sure that our digital strategy will be really effective?

Here are four keys to successful sites for schools that I think are an important element for online sites for your school or classroom.

1. Keep it local and in-house.

When schools first started tapping into the online world the internet was built on complicated and time consuming webpage programmes. Most schools hired an outside agency to design and build their website and relied on them to upload any changes. It's only natural, however, that as time has developed and the online world easier to navigate, so too have the ways that we can publish online become simpler and uncomplicated.

With a basic online understanding we can create web pages using tools like Wordpress, Blogger, Google Sites and others that are easy to use, free! All you need is someone of your staff to have some time and patience to persevere and ask for help when they need it. Having a third party handle your site can slow the process down and make us less likely to keep things current. I think it's much better if we can develop these skills within our own staff.

I wrote a post about the benefits of having a school site with up to the minute information

- School websites, Brochure or Community Builder?

2. Keep it current and fresh!

Things online can become stale and boring if not updated regularly. Having the last change to a site with a date of 6 months ago also reduces the credibility of your site. If we can see that things are up to date then we will be more likely to return to it! It's also time for schools to realise that they can upgrade their school website from what is essentially an online brochure. They can be engaging, interactive and fresh!

3. If it's important to you - give it some resources.

One of the keys to success with anything online, whether it's a class blog or a school website, is having the discipline and structure in place to maintain it. The cost of this will most certainly be in terms of time and sometimes this can be expensive. Can we allocate some release time each week, for example, for a staff member to spend up-keeping a site or can you diary in some time every couple of days to post on your class blog? As a wise eLearning sage once said (@nickrate, yes, you are a sage), 'If it's really valuable to you then you should spend the time on it.' Great advice. I also ask teachers, when they ask how I find the time to do all of this digital stuff... 'How much time do we spend watching T.V?'

4. Use the right tool for the right job - and then link them.

One of the mistakes I see all the time is when people use an online tool to do things it was never designed to do. They all have their uses - from wikis, to blogs, to websites, to social media sites etc. The trap can be easy to fall into when we have several purposes for a digital site and try to use only one tool.

We might, for example, want a school site for

sharing photos of special events, posting

Its newsletters, encouraging feedback from parents and sharing files between staff. Instead of using a blog for all of this we can easily link a wiki, a blog, a google calendar and a flickr account page using url links and embedding tools. Each tool will appear as a page that can be part of one central site - like this site for Salford School that uses the flash based Wix site.

Is there anything you'd add? Do you have some examples of sites or schools that cover all four keys?

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