The Power to Act - Agency

Well - my word for the year (ownership) is growing some really long arms and legs! Here are some of those 'limbs' and the impact they are having on our learners.

This video, by Derek Wenmoth, explains some terminology for me around the concept of 'student agency.' He explains agency as the 'power to act' and it has really captured my attention as we build our active learning approach at our school.

Ten Trends 2014: Agency from EDtalks on Vimeo.

In this video, Derek explains how student agency involves 3 dynamics and I've added some implications for our classrooms.

1. The initiative - self regulation of the student.

• this describes exactly what we are trying to do - engage the learner to be more and more independent and self starting.

2. The relationship is inter-dependent - mediates and is mediated by the socio cultural context of the classroom.

• the importance of a collaborative culture is key here. How we work together, give and seek peer feedback and create an environment where students want to learn together is incredibly important.

3. An awareness of responsibility of the learner's own actions and the impact on the environment and on others.

• our learner licenses approach is working really well in facilitating the right amount of support for each learner and I'm wondering how we can use it better to have student's mentoring / supporting and encouraging others learning behaviours.

I can see how this terminology is going to catch on as some shared vocabulary for our school. Especially with the parents. Interestingly - one thing I have learnt to do, when talking about this with parents is to emphasise the 'active learning' aspect rather than 'independent learning' as the latter has overtones of teachers trying to take a back seat to the process.

So - here are 2 aspects of our programme that we have recently invested in across our school to help develop the agency of our students. While not exhaustive, they both form some important pillars to help empower our learners.

Solo Taxonomy

One of our teacher only days this term was spent working with Pam Hook, exploring the ways to incorporate the Solo Taxonomy approach in our classrooms. Solo is an assessment method that involves students, at all stages of the learning journey, to help them see where their understanding is and what to work on next. Pam, @arti_choke, has a knack for explaining the approach in a way that makes sense for people and has developed some fantastic resources for teachers to use with their learners.

She is always very generous with her resources on her site and we have already started using the hexagons, thinking maps and assessment matrix tools. My goal for our class is to be able to use the assessment icons and levels to be able to understand and articulate how well they have grasped a skill or idea and what they should next. This should give us some important vocabulary to use during those crucial learning conversations.

e.g, "How well do I know how to use syllables to decode words? Well, my understanding is at 'multi-structural' but I need to understand when and why to use them when I read - that will move my understanding to the 'relational' level."

Learning Pathways and Self Selected Workshops

Last week our Senior Teachers travelled to Dunedin to visit St Clair School and we were hosted by @msbeenz (Claire Buist) AP and teacher, and her team. We have been hugely influenced by Claire's approach with empowering students to self assess their progress using Goal Sheets and then booking workshops with the teacher. We were very impressed to hear their journey with this approach last year and to see the development of this approach with her team this year.

Our Senior Team has begun to adopt this approach, with our own spin, and combined it within our team teaching approach which will have, I can already see, the following benefits.

• increased student agency
• increased quality and quantity of learning conversations to help guide and support the learner.
• more active and engaged learners!

One of the areas to explore from our visit is how to best develop the home-school connection and whether our current 'homework' programme is the best approach. I'm expecting that the ability for the learner to engage with their next steps is something that could and should be able to continue outside of school hours. So, there is enormous potential for our use of google apps, Ultranet and our other online tools carry on this journey.

Here are 2 other links to some docs we sent home for parents that explain how our learning programme has developed so far. This 'coalition' between school and home is something we are always looking to grow and the conversations these documents have continued has been crucial to the learning culture we are developing in the school.

MBS Team Teaching

Learning at MBS 2014

We are certainly in the midst of some exciting times and it feels like the pieces of the 'Active Learning' approach are falling into place. And when we combine all this with an increasing access to the learning tools we need (10 Chrome books arrived this afternoon!) then the road ahead just keeps getting more and more exciting. 

I hope our learners are starting to feel excited as well. I'm thinking it may be time for some student voice!

Mediamash Workshop Slides

I'm part of an initiative called, 'Mediamash' which is aimed at inspiring schools to dig into the treasure chest of digital media for their learning programmes.

Today we launched our first teacher and student workshops. These are the slideshows from 2 workshops I ran, with a colleague.

I always love talking with other teachers about the systems and methods we're using in our classes - especially ones with so much passion and enthusiasm for giving our students the best possible learning experiences!

Rewind'ed' and Mash'ed'

Yesterday our class created some artwork using a simple checkerboard pattern and a 3D effect. To walk them through the process I used the paperfiftythree app - great to screen share with the appleTV and create your own digital whiteboard.

It was when I used the rewind feature (2 fingers moved in a circular motion) to show them the process from start to finish that I realised the whole process could be captured in a screenshare movie. And with a little 'mashing', here's what it looked like.

So - here's the process from 'woah to go' (why is it in that order? Nonsensical).

1. Create the drawing in Paperfiftythree

2. Screenshare to laptop using Reflector app

3. Capture video using Quicktime Pro

4. Import and create video on iMovie

5. Create soundtrack clip on Iambeatbox app

6. Share to Soundcloud and download

7. Add to video project in iMovie

8. Upload to Youtube

Phew. It's always amazing how apps, programmes and sites share to each other. That's what you could call 'Mashed'.

Worried about losing an ipad at school?

Our school has had a large roll out of ipads minis this year and it's been a journey learning how to
 - configure
 - register
 - store
 - update
 - charge
 - secure!

Last week we had one of ours go missing for a weekend and we weren't sure how to find it. So - once it was found in the library shelf - we set about getting 'Find my iphone' set up on all of them. No mean feat!

Here's a video I've made that shows the steps. I'm intending to share this with parents, too so they can have some peace of mind over the BYODs they send with their children each day.

Created on Quicktime Pro - music made on 'I am Beatbox' app.

Time Lapse Fun!

During the last school holidays I edited and posted a movie on our class and school blogs. I wanted to showcase the 'business' of our days for the parents of my class - a push back against the 'nothing much' response to that age old question from our parents, 'What did you do at school today?'

The video was posted on the Core Education blog here, a few weeks later.  It was great to see the comments coming in and a few questions asked and the gawker software I used to create the timelapse video is something I'm keen to use again.

Easy Infographics

Yesterday I found an easy (easier) way to make some cool infographics online! Infographics are information, stats and images mashed together in some cool posters. Makes maths super cool! You can see some amazing infographics examples here at coolinfographics or even better, on their pinterest page. There's nothing like seeing info and stats in a visual way - for us 'visual' learners and people who like things that look cool!

A few months ago we had a go at making an infographic in our class, with varying degrees of success, using popplet and uploading images.  They didn't really like look like the genuine article which is ok. Sometimes things don't always go to plan but I was happy with the process of collecting data and displaying it in a static image.  It meant the learning intention which was the goal.

So here's the online tool that lets you use easy templates and input the data you want, where you want. It's called Piktochart. It was super easy to use, lets you add your own graphics if needed but gives you that all important structure that can be hard to make on your own.
And here's my first attempt. It's using some data I collected from a parent survey in Term 1 from my class. I'm looking for another chance to create something else.

Now... where can I get my hands on some stats. Never thought I'd ever write that in my lifetime!

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!