tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66902656492012742652024-03-04T22:50:21.533-08:00Just Another Brick in the WallI'll be sharing thinking and ideas plus anything I feel is interesting as we embark on a journey reimagining the possibilities of schooling.Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-31040923885629901662017-05-06T17:57:00.000-07:002017-05-06T17:57:18.072-07:00nueva school - learn by doing. learn by caring<br />
The Nueva School was the last visit for Daniel Birch and I on this San Francisco Trip. I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity and am thankful to Daniel for inviting me to join him and Maurie Abraham on this professional development experience. Thanks guys, it has been a pleasure! I've learnt so much and really enjoyed the stimulating conversations, the laughs and the eye-opening experience. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maurie (L) & Daniel (R) Passionate educators and foodies!</td></tr>
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For anyone thinking about a visit, San Fran is a very cool place with some really innovative partnerships occurring between the tech industry and schools. I felt like it was a good fit for Hobsonville Point Schools as we continue to push the boundaries and connect with like-minded educators.<br />
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Over the past week, we have had some fantastic conversations over extremely good food and the odd margarita. In education we often focus on creating safe and supportive learning environments for children and sometimes I think we lose sight of the importance of doing the same for our staff. If we want to create positive changes in our schools then we have to invest in the teachers and think differently about what quality PD can look like. I know what I've learnt on this trip is going to have a direct impact on the teaching and learning within my school. Being able to collaborate with colleagues is invaluable. It's especially valuable if you can warmly challenge each others thinking and share experiences.<br />
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So about Nueva...<br />
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Nueva is a private school with a junior, middle and senior campus. Daniel and I visited the junior and middle schools. Maurie visited the senior school. If you are interested you can read Maurie's post <a href="http://principalpossum.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here.</a><br />
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A bit of background from their website<br />
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<span style="color: #444444;">Mission and Philosophy </span><br />
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The Nueva School is an internationally-recognized independent PreK-12 school, serving gifted and talented students since 1967. The school is a three-time winner of the US Department of Education National Blue Ribbon Award, winner of the American Institute of Architects Award for School Design and Sustainability, recognized as an Apple Distinguished Program, appointed an Ashoka Changemaker School, a co-founder of the Common Ground Speaker Series, sponsor of the Innovative Learning Conference, and was highlighted by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York Times</em> best-selling author Thomas Friedman in his book <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">That Used to Be Us</em> in the chapter “Average Is Over.” Nueva is located in the neighboring towns of Hillsborough and San Mateo, equidistant between San Francisco and Silicon Valley in the Bay Area of Northern California.</div>
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Nueva is a student-centered school known for its distinctive inquiry-based interdisciplinary studies, constructivist project-based learning, and its pioneering work in social emotional learning and design thinking. The school also offers specialist teachers in numerous other core and elective areas, including STEM, writing, the arts, entrepreneurship, and physical education. </div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Vision</strong></div>
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The Nueva School uses a dynamic educational model to enable gifted students to learn how to make choices that will benefit the world.</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mission</strong></div>
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Our school community inspires passion for lifelong learning, fosters social and emotional acuity, and develops the student’s imaginative mind.<br />
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<br />Nueva Junior School is in an old home that once belong to the Crocker Family. The Crocker's were very wealthy bankers and building was one of their summer homes. The building has been transformed into classrooms. It makes for a very interesting space. The spaces were inviting and there was a lovely, child friendly, busy mess around the school. </div>
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Nueva aren't a purist reggio school however there were elements of this in the classes. The outdoor spaces had been transformed using astroturf and the children get out and enjoy the fresh air as much as possible. Some of the classes are connected although most are single cell.</div>
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At Grade 3 the classes begin to mix with increasing levels of autonomy and ability to collaborate across age groups.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nueva Junior School</td></tr>
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We saw some creative classroom with the use of levels. Lots of the classrooms had raised stages and a few had bunks. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loft </td></tr>
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Some of the spaces were multi purpose and changed to suit the learning taking place. This shared space was being used for language workshops when we visited and sometimes it was used for dance classes.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Multi Purpose Flexible Learning Space in the old ballroom</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playground</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outdoor Learning Space</td></tr>
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<br /><br />A dispositional curriculum was evident across the school with a big emphasis on feelings, empathy and caring. This fits in with the design thinking approach which runs across the school.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Stanford d.school physical space influence was at Nueva too. Three big spaces (makerspaces) with lots of technology, engineering and science resources were part of the middle school.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Design Class</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maker Space</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maker Space<br /><br /><br /></td></tr>
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-50230227234772263292017-05-04T13:28:00.001-07:002017-05-04T13:28:59.346-07:00journey through the senses at Monte Vista<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://learningandleadingchange.blogspot.com/2017/05/what-did-i-learn-today-part-three.html" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Daniel Birch</a><span style="text-align: center;"> and I had the privilege of visiting the stunning campus of Monte Vista and spending an entire day touring the facilities (they're massive) talking to various students and staff. Have a read of Daniel's blog as he gives an overview of where they are at in terms of pedagogy. This blog is going to focus on the environment at Monte Vista as it really was quite spectacular and there is an interesting vision behind it.</span><br />
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Steve Sharp has been at the helm of Monte Vista for 12 years and will be retiring in 6 months time. During this time he has transformed the campus into something special. Also, he is also well-known as he was the first educator in America to put ipads into the hands of his students and that is still evident today as tech is widely used across the school. The only whiteboard I saw was a pod of mobile boards being utilised by students. I spoke to the students with most saying the ipad was their tool of choice. Teachers share course material on Moodle however I did see other higher spec devices being utilised for specialist subjects or learning.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Middle School</td></tr>
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I feel like we visited Monte Vista (translated means mountain views) during a slight 'pause' before potentially significant transition occurs. It was evident from our conversations that a new wave of change is about to happen under new leadership. I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on what evolves. My personal A standout for me was the warmth, generosity and openness of Steve and everyone at the school. The students genuinely appeared to be happy and well supported. We encountered the students during SAT testing time and would have expected an air of anxiety however everyone seemed to be relaxed and had the time to chat.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of courtyard, cafe and to the mountains</td></tr>
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Steve's vision for the school was to create 'The Kingdom' on earth at Monte Vista and what they have achieved is creating an environment that is stimulating to the senses. To expand on this comment, it was explained to us that it was a conscious decision to build a school rich in the sensory domain.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaBi2CubJVyJhq9-pgXtiTQOn9CIEKIZ_B3YnhUyNq6wS7Nn78Kih-aP1MygB8Mx4_W_KfHJrPnU8J7SoFvLIcuIZXqQMmnyCj2PWMF2xcj99oV_2UT8brkBE1AH6DBVqY6mKM44U3xVg/s1600/Graduation+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaBi2CubJVyJhq9-pgXtiTQOn9CIEKIZ_B3YnhUyNq6wS7Nn78Kih-aP1MygB8Mx4_W_KfHJrPnU8J7SoFvLIcuIZXqQMmnyCj2PWMF2xcj99oV_2UT8brkBE1AH6DBVqY6mKM44U3xVg/s320/Graduation+1.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graduating Students</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijnuuw1Y3XbMwTlpYTIZ33whQN-WdXm5EqRSClWz8tqY_VZ3hBWaWCVe3o-SqlH4PKMx_qqg7t8qLA0BH4O9Fzb9zZ4_ADr19W07gFWvTfE83yrhjUKtQ__VcsnWLdPBt9opwmRavDGV0/s1600/Middle+School+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijnuuw1Y3XbMwTlpYTIZ33whQN-WdXm5EqRSClWz8tqY_VZ3hBWaWCVe3o-SqlH4PKMx_qqg7t8qLA0BH4O9Fzb9zZ4_ADr19W07gFWvTfE83yrhjUKtQ__VcsnWLdPBt9opwmRavDGV0/s320/Middle+School+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Classroom</td></tr>
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My day at Monte Vista, a journey through the senses...<br />
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<b>Taste</b><br />
To begin our day we were treated to a breakfast, alongside the students, that was something you'd expect to eat in a top-end restaurant. Produce is organic, sourced locally from the surrounding farms & orchards and cooked by a 4-star chef. Students are fuelled by healthy meals throughout the day and the area where they eat did not resemble any school cafe that I've ever seen. It closer resembled somewhere in Ponsonby where you might go for brunch on a Sunday.<br />
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We all know teacher's need caffeine and there was definitely no Nescafe fine blend on-site. For the coffee connoisseurs out there and there is a Starbucks on campus serving ever blend imaginable. To my delight they even had decaf so I was able to keep the blood sugar levels on a reasonable keel. <br />
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They have big name brands partnering the school, which helps to explain the high end, glossy, new resources everywhere. Coca-Cola is a partner (not so healthy) but overall the taste experience food was delicious, made with love and the students came together to eat and relax which was really nice to see. Monte Vista has a roll of 1100 students so they have staggered break-times to cater for numbers. (Sidenote: They don't have teacher's on duty as they encourage their students to problem solve and mediate issues themselves)<br />
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I was so busy enjoying my food I failed in capturing a decent picture of the cafe but here is the smaller bistro serving area and canteen just situated off of the main cafe area.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4iwtPoP7yo8VtnyqTpLciBnZeAAVZOiYkePbzzPp1Vcfpv66sJlzul6fX4i8dkzpUy7zT7EvRcgFWn8CpAKqIEgs0aLKrnfjf31DaOzp05mxPG4muScv-PL6A54AewW6lMJRlmm6wSXw/s1600/FullSizeRender+%252842%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4iwtPoP7yo8VtnyqTpLciBnZeAAVZOiYkePbzzPp1Vcfpv66sJlzul6fX4i8dkzpUy7zT7EvRcgFWn8CpAKqIEgs0aLKrnfjf31DaOzp05mxPG4muScv-PL6A54AewW6lMJRlmm6wSXw/s320/FullSizeRender+%252842%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bistro</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAE1a1-80ZwDkAF0Map0Bs3SZk2jAOITIcVBsr6xx42W-Qezy2O_p8tqmjWAnEhAw2c0zmdnC2h4ycT4S5CbnETCQzUVr9aZEqBxwF8oaai0lUlyat02C8acfp1A0cw0N6Q_w1zm-STHU/s1600/FullSizeRender+%252844%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAE1a1-80ZwDkAF0Map0Bs3SZk2jAOITIcVBsr6xx42W-Qezy2O_p8tqmjWAnEhAw2c0zmdnC2h4ycT4S5CbnETCQzUVr9aZEqBxwF8oaai0lUlyat02C8acfp1A0cw0N6Q_w1zm-STHU/s320/FullSizeRender+%252844%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Canteen</td></tr>
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<b>Sound</b><br />
During breaktimes local music is played on speakers across the expansive courtyard which created a really upbeat fun vibe. Students and a few teacher's would dance along and everyone appeared to be enjoying it. I really noticed the calm and positive atmosphere around the campus and the cafe area seemed to be a real hub. <br />
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There were lots of spaces around the grounds to sit and relax. There was a peaceful atmosphere that made you want to not leave. In fact, on campus a 91 year old lady still resides who attended the school as a 14 year old then trained as a teacher, worked there and then retired.<br />
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On the tour we stopped in to visit a vocal class and were blown away by some talented singers. Performances and celebrations occur regularly within the school. There lots of opportunities for students to be seen and heard.<br />
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<b>Sight</b><br />
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Every space in this very old school has been transformed over the past 12 years. Subject rooms had themes. For example when taking French class you are transported into a cute french cottage. In Spanish class, when lights are flicked on everybody is to speak in spanish, and when they're off you can switch your conversation back into english. My literary skills do not do this justice I think a picture can tell a thousand words so have a look below at some of the space design elements shown in the photos. In most spaces you can see sculptures of Mustang horses. The school has about 20 horses, stables, and showjumping arena.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVTIBQYF3WGRxEuZ01oFDUZ2kJaQoKg9ygDWqLJQKi81T8eNhEjb2iEzDVt4OruO_ddArqdYFx7w1QmpZMrlWFjYf5Ra9A-K7Y79nmG_rGBSNtQey7BOUZeBJLBzODtrb0GDpemhUF_ek/s1600/IMG_3161.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVTIBQYF3WGRxEuZ01oFDUZ2kJaQoKg9ygDWqLJQKi81T8eNhEjb2iEzDVt4OruO_ddArqdYFx7w1QmpZMrlWFjYf5Ra9A-K7Y79nmG_rGBSNtQey7BOUZeBJLBzODtrb0GDpemhUF_ek/s320/IMG_3161.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1cS2He7rqbZMwYG1-Wrm_uS1QrNhNeabP2q6MgGjtrAH5SBbg3vYd810U8kBQf-qweQy0Ko-pl9kttglJ_jILFukIWyYQ4CbaRO-HqCN3KHbVXPkB_q_jJfEY8pVxmnjozFK7aoSfEM/s1600/FullSizeRender+%252846%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK1cS2He7rqbZMwYG1-Wrm_uS1QrNhNeabP2q6MgGjtrAH5SBbg3vYd810U8kBQf-qweQy0Ko-pl9kttglJ_jILFukIWyYQ4CbaRO-HqCN3KHbVXPkB_q_jJfEY8pVxmnjozFK7aoSfEM/s320/FullSizeRender+%252846%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHGDoWOqj4Jbp2NfeapRTjP28dXs-IunpBzY4OzpjpI1VV8YNzLW_b7lC72m5PeYNIwG9VN5FWxh8zkkFcxb6rQSTCA_jlaW60MiB7os2se8-l1xxmu6Z3mgsdvc97bt99jcnj0nvjFI0/s1600/English+Classroom.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHGDoWOqj4Jbp2NfeapRTjP28dXs-IunpBzY4OzpjpI1VV8YNzLW_b7lC72m5PeYNIwG9VN5FWxh8zkkFcxb6rQSTCA_jlaW60MiB7os2se8-l1xxmu6Z3mgsdvc97bt99jcnj0nvjFI0/s320/English+Classroom.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption</td></tr>
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Monte Vista have a full-time designer who works alongside staff, weekends are spent fossicking around garage-sales to acquire some of the nicknacks. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmHare7keKPLAWp05ZFuHOLMJ1BjuVhov9PrKAV1ix3gRWykuwt0ZzBK7uKfOjFrrIPqx7KX4-j5ZZSaBIqSB3P1jRDcEyQPF4-6g7V7s1jT2CuN37mplOSlFr7NIZOnZQtZd2BKb4V3I/s1600/Man+Cave+-History.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmHare7keKPLAWp05ZFuHOLMJ1BjuVhov9PrKAV1ix3gRWykuwt0ZzBK7uKfOjFrrIPqx7KX4-j5ZZSaBIqSB3P1jRDcEyQPF4-6g7V7s1jT2CuN37mplOSlFr7NIZOnZQtZd2BKb4V3I/s320/Man+Cave+-History.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">American History Class<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCmaWLdjtgQZK8gq87sOYtYrjSDaD-E5ETC0uNqIPyOz0jM3F0uCGBbN9b77v9bij4GFgonCjQxFp8LqPVPasSlFr-eAUhtUkUVizK5LXFnQ6gm_9Yl97CPOyV1DZmeWnBFSkXAYlgbuo/s1600/IMG_3159.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCmaWLdjtgQZK8gq87sOYtYrjSDaD-E5ETC0uNqIPyOz0jM3F0uCGBbN9b77v9bij4GFgonCjQxFp8LqPVPasSlFr-eAUhtUkUVizK5LXFnQ6gm_9Yl97CPOyV1DZmeWnBFSkXAYlgbuo/s320/IMG_3159.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Collaborative Office Space</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHQWT4tCSr78sMx6GnFMF35xyBnQoWlkm_u-L4gtLnMOTkB2LLT7n2JHB7Gd1C159EGPeeDxAh2dEmiQ7qGlIT44JP8yi2903GPe3ZLkAPdqRWk1vmUlqG3Su9ZFRxxuUEc2Fug7BBNqA/s1600/french.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHQWT4tCSr78sMx6GnFMF35xyBnQoWlkm_u-L4gtLnMOTkB2LLT7n2JHB7Gd1C159EGPeeDxAh2dEmiQ7qGlIT44JP8yi2903GPe3ZLkAPdqRWk1vmUlqG3Su9ZFRxxuUEc2Fug7BBNqA/s320/french.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French Space<br /></td></tr>
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Beyond the classrooms the walls were adorned with artworks made by the students, quotes, sculptures, water fountain features, rugs that create textures. Overall, it was a very sensory experience! I feel like I've scratched the surface in summarising all of the sights. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUZacO92Pi7JcENsglPWEyhfz8VGZ103ixs4AT5-nJSUVa2I0ae1VEgREkwTL5JrKB9IqaMd5g3wI9kViXkzOHL81ND7z8S7bHCZPR997YruG8t0Rv6hJD_TtRvwe_qRra1bzcpxDS1Y/s1600/Painting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUZacO92Pi7JcENsglPWEyhfz8VGZ103ixs4AT5-nJSUVa2I0ae1VEgREkwTL5JrKB9IqaMd5g3wI9kViXkzOHL81ND7z8S7bHCZPR997YruG8t0Rv6hJD_TtRvwe_qRra1bzcpxDS1Y/s320/Painting.jpg" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art students<br /><br /><br /></td></tr>
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<b>Feel</b><br />
Overall, this was a campus with wow factor! Clearly having partners like Nike, Starbuck and Coca-help but the warmth of the people was evident. I'm really interested in seeing what pedagogical developments happen and would love to have another visit in the future.<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-24832114039322543642017-05-02T17:28:00.000-07:002017-05-02T17:28:08.378-07:00d.tech high school acting empathetically<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;"><b>How are we designing schooling that is meeting the needs of children beyond subject content? </b></span></div>
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<b><i>Design Tech High is doing it well. </i></b></div>
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<b>What is your super power? <i>All Design Tech High students are all labeled as gifted in one way or another.</i></b></div>
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Daniel Birch (Hobsonville Point Primary Principal)and Maurie Abraham (Hobsonville Point Secondary Principal) and I had the pleasure of visiting the Design Tech High School this morning and spending time with Julie Abraham, enrollment co-ordinator. Links to their blogs and perspectives are listed further down this blog. </div>
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<a href="http://www.designtechhighschool.org/" target="_blank">http://www.designtechhighschool.org/</a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Design Tech High is located in the famous Silicon Valley and they have partnered with the Oracle Education Foundation. Like many of the other tech industries in San Francisco, Oracle identified there was a growing concern that the recruitment of local College (University) graduates was lower than what they would expect. In response, Oracle have realised the potential of partnering with Design Tech High and are help provide resources including people support and the funding of a new campus.</span></div>
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Design Tech High School, or d.tech as the students prefer to call it, is currently situated in a temporary building and it is simply stunning. Through the doors you are warmly welcomed, the students appear relaxed and staff are open and chatty. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maurie (L) & Daniel (R)</td></tr>
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d.tech high is an example of innovation and a school pushing the boundaries to not only promote relevant, authentic learning experiences but is also fighting the very important battle of supporting the emotional well-being of its students in an ever increasingly anxiety provoking environment of very high expectations and education unknowns.</div>
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d.tech was founded by 4 teachers who had some compelling statistics at hand that indicated a need for change to address the issues. Some of the statistics quoted to us were, '45% of current jobs will not exist in 2013. ' 'Most of the jobs that will be available, up to 50%, will be in big data and robotics.' d.tech has developed a curriculum based on the design process at Stanford University d.school and one that is responsive to social and emotional needs as well as developing the skill sets required to be a lifelong learner. </div>
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It was affirming to hear the focus on those skill-sets and we had similarities between the three schools. Remove the labels to categorise these 'dispositions' or 'habits' and we had a common language that included perseverance, resilience, empathy, tenacity ... </div>
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The Colleges in San Fran have been stating that many of their first year students are already burnt out, are anxious and the retention has been falling. In response, Colleges are beginning to shift their recruitment practices to allow students to present portfolios and other examples of academic success instead of solely relying on credits and test scores. Students may not have to focus on taking additional classes to build up these points and the pendulum may swing towards depth, quality, authenticity and the 'soft skill' sets as what we heard about at d.tech high.</div>
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With my parent hat on and a 9 year old at home, it makes me wonder what New Zealand Universities are noticing about their first year students and has me questioning are our secondaries providing enough support through rethinking their academic pathways?</div>
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Like d.tech, one N.Z that is doing this is Hobsonville Point Secondary who have in place a structure that allows students to learn without additional unnecessary pressures and approaches credit acquisition differently. I think it fantastic both schools clearly put the child at the centre of education. I can only hope other schools will learn, seeing the benefits for youth and beyond this our society.</div>
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In America there is a heavy emphasis on testing. d.tech have addressed the challenge of measuring success a bit differently. d.tech high has introduced <b>performance tasks</b> to help measure progress. This is a term you may have seen in the Understanding by Design Framework, Hobsonville Point Primary integrate performance tasks in our assessment processes. </div>
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Personally, I love the way performance tasks can be tailored and personalised to the individual needs of the learner. For example, getting the strongly dyslexic child to demonstrate their understanding of a topic through writing a expository essay is unlikely to offer them the best opportunity to show their knowledge, skills and understandings but allowing them to vlog about it, create a visual representation, build something is far more likely to meet the desired purpose. Below are a few of the examples I saw at d.tech high that showcased the varied ways in which learning can be demonstrated.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_NCQ45mm8sMSVd_hP290vw1baJJL_MYfln0Mk1h2vU6Nx-iKvFrFr2oWQdrAaa75gn2cmClRnFfplsRNyr4LgNmmGologukWpxhJI4cTOdre4CX_6t7WcABEx9e9AO75cQ7UJGxtKOM0/s1600/IMG_3145+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_NCQ45mm8sMSVd_hP290vw1baJJL_MYfln0Mk1h2vU6Nx-iKvFrFr2oWQdrAaa75gn2cmClRnFfplsRNyr4LgNmmGologukWpxhJI4cTOdre4CX_6t7WcABEx9e9AO75cQ7UJGxtKOM0/s320/IMG_3145+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>How was the space enabling learning?</b> </div>
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The current physical space allowed for collaboration and like I saw at Brightworks was heavily influenced by the students themselves. Students had a say in resourcing and teachers work alongside children. There is a notion of, 'the content you learn today is highly unlikely to be relevant when you leave but the skills will be.' In my opinion, that was the real celebration of this school visit. The promotion of the 'whole-child' and integrated approach to curriculum through authentic learning.</div>
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If you are interested in heading Daniel and Maurie's perspectives make sure you have a look at their blogs.</div>
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<a href="http://principalpossum.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Maurie</a></div>
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<a href="http://learningandleadingchange.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Daniel</a></div>
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Here are a few pictures of the space and image of what the new build will look like.</div>
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com41800 Rollins Rd, Burlingame, CA 94010, USA37.5981938 -122.3794259999999712.076159299999997 -163.68801999999997 63.120228299999994 -81.070831999999967tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-83154836435003874142017-05-01T16:14:00.000-07:002017-05-01T17:31:06.895-07:00Brightworks - Tinkering SchoolThe mission statement for the Tinkering School school is <b>think.make.tinker </b>which is exciting as what we know, is that students learn best when it is through <b>doing.</b> <b> </b><br />
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Have a read of Daniel Birch's perspective of the visit <a href="http://learningandleadingchange.blogspot.com/2017/05/what-did-i-learn-today.html" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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<b>Background</b><br />
The Tinkering School was established as a summer holiday programme based on the notion that 'children can build anything, and through building learn anything.' Gever Tulley founded the school back in 2006, which gained international recognition and saw the establishment of Brightworks.<br />
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Brightworks School opened it's doors in 2011, as they wondered if they could create a school that would be as memorable and hands-on as this summer school. And so, Brightworks was established taking with it some of the best practices from the summer holiday programmes.<br />
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Brightworks has a vision of putting lifelong learning and curiosity at the forefront of a student's experience and at the heart of their pedagogical approach. This rang true for us when we visited this morning. <br />
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Brightworks and The Tinkering School are housed in an old brick industrial building in the Mission District In San Fran. It is a private school of approx. 80 students ranging from 5 years to 18 years. Their Summer Programmes have over 1500 students attending over the period of a year. Parents choose this school based on their reputation and a desire for their children to engage in purposeful learning.</div>
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We had the opportunity to meet and talk to founder Gerver and Karen, Director of Tinker School at some length about the philosophy underpinning the school and practices we saw. It was one of those conversations that will stick with me as we shared the commonality of wrestling with the tension of creating an education system that is engaging, promoting lifelong learning that will also support these kids in the various pathways that they are on. I was also curious about just what the students would be doing...<br />
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<b>Spaces</b></div>
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I'm loathe to start this blog talking about the space as it can be a very surface level subject however this space was child centred and responsive.</div>
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When we wandered throughout the space we not only noticed autonomy in how and what the students were learning but the very cool feature that the kids responsively design and physically build the spaces within the building. This included the framework, soundproofing (when necessary) and adding doors etc Also, they have to contend with earthquake specs so engineering plays a part too. It made me think about the huge investment in the redesign of NZ schools and potential to design inspiring spaces on tight budgets if people were to think outside the box and make the most of what is already available or cheap to purchase. It also made me think of just what children are capable of if we give them the tools and put in place some scaffolds to support them.</div>
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What we experienced at Brightworks was a truly flexible space that responds to the learning that is taking place. Overall the space is quite full-on however you can see the organisation behind the busyness. I saw a lot of up-cycling, clever use of nooks and crannies and the children moved around the space freely. Not surprisingly there was a lot of doing! I did not see many children on devices but engaged in rich hands-on learning activities. </div>
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<b>Community</b></div>
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Students are organised in multi age groups and get the opportunity to mix across all year levels. Teachers are called 'Collaborators' and have varied skill sets from STEM to bioscience and they don't have to have teaching degrees. What we saw was teachers working alongside students and no 'teach from the front' styles in fact I didn't notice a single whiteboard which says a lot about the way in which staff work with and don't do 'to' the kids.</div>
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Experts are called upon a lot at Brightworks as a lot of the projects require specialist input. The students approach the experts and they have a far better chance of engagement than if an adult does the approaching on behalf.</div>
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<b>The Saw</b></div>
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Every child who starts at Brightworks is inducted via 'The Saw.' It sounds ominous but is a fantastic metaphor for the tone of the school.</div>
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You could see a 5 year old put behind this tool, taught safety aspects and experiences the joy of a commercial level cut of wood. </div>
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The reasoning behind this practice is to start the educational journey from a place of TRUST which is embodied through the saw. It illustrates the potential of the child and sets the tone for the relationship between collaborator and student. It helps to make a point about the capabilities of a child, when freed from confines and the magic that can take place. </div>
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Notice the power point placed up high. This serves a dual purpose. Obviously it is the safe place for the power cord but also it is their as a reminder to staff that when you have children operating powerful tools you also need to pause and think about the protocols you are following. It is interesting that given the nature of the learning taking place across the school, injuries have been very few.</div>
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<b>Learning</b></div>
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In a nutshell there are three parts to learning:</div>
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1) Exploration</div>
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2) Expression</div>
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3) Exposition</div>
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What we saw when we walked through the door was groups of children working on a project that had fallen our of an exploration phase of learning exploring water. (far more to this but summing it up here) They were building boats that they were going to take out and sail. They'd had to design special clamps to help them make the boats, they were full size and being painted. Most of the children were engaged, a few had shifted their focus to individual projects they were going into. It was refreshing hearing the perspective of the staff that it didn't matter as there is is a focus on process rather than just a polished product at the end.</div>
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The students blog about their learning experiences and record their dispositional growth e.g. collaboration, tenacity and mindsets as they work through a project culminating in a sharing of the project through an oral and written presentation. Before children embark on largely self directed projects they present their thinking to staff who conference them through their ideas before they get the green-light. </div>
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I think one of the biggest assumptions parents and some teacher have about self-directed learning is that their is the ability to do whatever and where-ever with loose parameters in place and limited expectations. What I saw was high expectations and students delving into some very complex thinking and problem solving. The teachers were 'collaborating' and facilitating learning with the children through high trust relationships.</div>
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One of my biggest take-aways from this visit was the way in which the students learned in context, the staff noticed the learning opportunities and brought in what we would call the 'traditional curriculum.'</div>
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I saw cohesion across the school with students learning via concepts, explicit teaching visible on walls, posters, through graphic designs and interpretations.</div>
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Gever Tully has some <a href="http://www.ted.com/speakers/gever_tulley" target="_blank">TED Talks </a>that are available. He's a dynamic and interesting man with a true passion about making a positive difference for children.</div>
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These were some of the questions I had posed at the beginning of the tour and some observations from this visit.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">How interconnected curriculum is working?</span></div>
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Learning through multi-disiplinary projects the staff make the most of natural connections in a responsive manner.</div>
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This school caters for primary and secondary in the same build. The students work together through learning communities. The emphasis is on students learning how to learn and think for themselves. High School students can enter Colleges through 'alternative pathways' Stanford, MIT and Berkley all offer these non-traditional entrances.</div>
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">What skills, dispositions and habits are focused on beyond the traditional curriculum?</span></div>
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By the very nature of how learning is structured they have ample opportunities to grow dispositionally. </div>
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Fun Fact</div>
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Brightworks is in the Mission District which has some of the best Mexican Restaurants in San Fran (and Mexican food goes very well with margaritas) !</div>
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-79878608345954680212017-04-27T14:03:00.001-07:002017-05-01T09:18:59.576-07:00San Fran Professional DevelopmentI've been fortunate, as part of my well supported professional development journey, to have visited some innovative schools and attended some of the best conferences in N.Z and wider. What I love is collaborating with others who have similar mindsets about rethinking the possibilities of education and are actioning future focused curriculum in their various school contexts.<br />
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This evening this journey continues as I'm taking off on a trip to San Francisco that already has me excited, is likely to affirm thinking and also challenge me. I'm looking forward to sharing some of the insights and ideas that I'll be experiencing. I've been woking at Hobsonville Point Primary just short of 5 Years now and it's timely to make the opportunity to reflect and reenergise. <br />
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I'm heading to San Francisco with Hobsonville Point Primary Principal, Daniel Birch and we will be sharing some of the school visits with Maurie Abraham, Hobsonville Point Secondary Principal. The schools that have been chosen are all doing interesting things with their curriculum that align to our school vision and methodologies, all have come recommended by others.<br />
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We will be visiting:<br />
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<a href="http://www.sfbrightworks.org/" target="_blank">Brightworks Academy:Tinkering School</a><br />
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<a href="https://dschool.stanford.edu/">d.School</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.mvcs.org/" target="_blank">Monte Vista</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.nuevaschool.org/" target="_blank">Nueva School</a><br />
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Some of the things I'm curious about are:<br />
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How interconnected curriculum is working?<br />
What pathways are in place linking elementary, high school and beyond?<br />
What skills, dispositions and habits are focused on beyond the traditional curriculum?<br />
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I'm sure I'll get sidetracked, I don't want to go in with blinkers on as so often with these visits the take-aways end up being something quite different. I'm looking forward to sharing and blowing the dust off of this blog. 😃<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-83598767493247874172015-12-02T01:12:00.000-08:002015-12-02T01:12:02.476-08:00Sampler Box: random creamy filling things vs toffee pops<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If faced with making desperate small talk at a dinner party, I could easily talk at length about toffee pops. They're a bit of a passion really. I consider myself well-researched. Basically, I've eaten a lot of them over the years! I think I could hold an audience with my enthusiastic commentary and references back to the Carlos Spencer ad, for those in a plus Gen Y bracket. There are some biscuits I could not do justice. Refer to diagram above and exhibit 1. The 'random creamy filling things.' I've observed them from afar. Watched with curiosity as colleagues and friends have eaten them. I don't think I've ever queried anyone on their choice. Carol Dweck would not be pleased with my closed mindset. They simply look gross.</div>
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Aside from pondering small talk topics there has been something far more pressing that has me a little bit worried. Why is it that with all of this talk of MLEs our education community is becoming a battlefield? I realise this is a tad dramatic but seriously there are so many polarising views out there and it concerns me greatly that we are missing the opportunity as a profession to reflect on our practice and possibly reform and redesign what learning could be!</div>
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Unlike the Griffins sampler box, in teaching at least, I've sampled the lot. I've had the opportunities to teach and work in a traditional school, hybrid set-up (bit of a mix of traditional with MLE) and MLE (3 years young). </div>
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Disclosure. Am I a MLE convert? 100% yes. Do I think MLEs are effective without a shift in teachers practice? No. </div>
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I understand the fear rippling though our teaching community and rightly so as our precious clients are small people with a bright future that we have a significant amount of responsibility for helping prepare them for. In saying that, I don't think parents/caregivers should be ignored, as they play a vital role in helping to support. One thing people I think people don't think about when considering MLEs is they actually <b>help </b>get parents in the door. </div>
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The mere thought of entering some schools makes me feel anxious. Am I breaking a rule? Where can I sit? Is my shirt tucked in???? Add to that mix, a regression back to being yelled at by teachers at the end of their fray, tucked away in four-walled classroom jails and I'm a nervous wreck barely able to hold an intelligent conversation, (I can go beyond toffee pops) let alone be in a state to learn...</div>
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Creating a space that is open and warm makes everyone feel more relaxed. It's not rocket science; MLEs don't equate to disengagement just because there happens to be a beanbag present. Set up properly should allow people to move freely and comfortably around.</div>
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The feedback we receive from parents is they love the feeling and aren't cast back into negative childhood school experiences. The flipside is the kids experience this too, and they are mostly capable of navigating without getting lost or distracted. Actually they self manage. Remember those key competencies at the front of the NZC? Oh, and there are teachers so we redirect when necessary or support. MLEs don't eat teachers. We are present.</div>
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Schools should be about the children. </div>
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Below is a photo of the Hobsonville Point Primary "ping pong room <i>and staffroom.'</i> Typically the staffroom is a sacred place for staff only, where ritualistic coffee drinking and dunking toffee pops takes places. Dunking still takes place but in our MLE it's frequently punctuated by the squeals of excited children playing. </div>
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Sometimes we get asked, 'but what about the teachers 'downtime' and to be honest sometimes a ping pong is not what you want to hear especially near the end of term when ritualistic coffee drinking increases in frequency. So, we explain our needs to the children and respectfully they leave us to our coffees. A conversation with children is so much more powerful that a word like respect emblazoned across a wall. Daniel Birch, our principal sums it up nicely when he says, 'it's the children's school and we respond to that.'</div>
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Please don't knock the MLE until you've had the chance to ask a few questions and don't let this talk of 1970's hippie, roam free kids doing whatever and whenever in noisy barns put you off investigating the possibilities of changing practice. </div>
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Dear I say it, but there is some 'academic excellence' and accelerated learning occurring roaming around those open-plan spaces. </div>
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Meanwhile, I guess I should be sourcing some of those those random creamy filling things...maybe they won't be so bad?</div>
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-23608115104185702732015-02-11T17:56:00.001-08:002015-02-11T17:57:23.549-08:00Igniting Curiosity - Through a World of PossibilitiesHow do we personalise learning when some children have little or no idea of what they are interested in or are madly obsessed about a narrow subject? <br />
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To personalise students learning (i.e. place students at the centre of learning) we (the teachers) need to be able to put in place structures to meet individual styles, needs and interests of the children. This is difficult when children haven't been exposed to a range of life experiences and seemingly lack the reflection skills to be able to identify what they are curious about?<br />
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So, how do we create experiences for children to explore new ideas, understandings and knowledge that goes beyond the 'googlable' question and the limits of what a learning area centred approach delivers? <br />
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At H.P.P are trying to address the issues mentioned above through a whole school process of learning design. <br />
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We have a phase of our overall learning design that we label, 'immersion.' We believe we need to introduce the children to a 'world they do not yet know' or 'the world they may have heard of' to create the conditions for powerful learning through evoking curiosity. <br />
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This process is inspired by John Holt's Four Worlds model.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6HXsA1vaglJaPzVADuDa4uOKAJRtasFaJEEZb8HG8Xc5QiD-3tldxBIKbJzaLZOUgZ-7tSkTEuNmfsmOCkOS9UDZ6xnMvfmYoIFS3Ymk-2-FkJ0hyXhVLO1yTkQ_PkHkbF9fVmnSX8I/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-02-10+at+3.06.13+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr6HXsA1vaglJaPzVADuDa4uOKAJRtasFaJEEZb8HG8Xc5QiD-3tldxBIKbJzaLZOUgZ-7tSkTEuNmfsmOCkOS9UDZ6xnMvfmYoIFS3Ymk-2-FkJ0hyXhVLO1yTkQ_PkHkbF9fVmnSX8I/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-02-10+at+3.06.13+pm.png" height="291" width="320" /></a></div>
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The reason why we do this is because immersion plays a significant part in creating the foundation for us to be able to personalise learning as we challenge children in their thinking by introducing new concepts, experiences and ideas that sparks curiosities. <br />
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From this platform, we can steer students towards a deep inquiry and/or co-construct/negotiate a project. We label this second phase our P.B.L or Inquiry phase.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOxA16QTGHGYMV14KqDirprcXxmfg77z1QylE9XwhwK7DDK-uaErcSB80xubZ5tO1eAPUyIaWTcsTr4_hontobnW4cA0mryy0UHrhDGKyBOWrXgL9Mfcc6tLIePmYT0z5Z2xZQYN7CP1Y/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-02-12+at+9.37.43+am.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOxA16QTGHGYMV14KqDirprcXxmfg77z1QylE9XwhwK7DDK-uaErcSB80xubZ5tO1eAPUyIaWTcsTr4_hontobnW4cA0mryy0UHrhDGKyBOWrXgL9Mfcc6tLIePmYT0z5Z2xZQYN7CP1Y/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-02-12+at+9.37.43+am.png" height="286" width="400" /></a></div>
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In discussing immersion with Daniel Birch (Principal at H.P.P) he said to think of students as sitting somewhere within the bell curve of distribution in terms of interests and passions. <br />
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A few children will have no idea of their interests or curiosities and a few will be extremely passionate about a hobby or topic. For example, the child who wants to be an All White, lives and breathes it, knows every statistic and does project after project on anything related to football. <br />
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What we want to do is take this child who already knows so much and encourage other interests. For children who seem to have very little interest or passion we want to stimulate thought and engagement. We can cater for both groups and the children in between through immersion.<br />
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Our first phase of school-wide learning is centred around 'Inventive Thinking' a concept taken from the enGauge 21st Century Skills research. We unpack 'Inventive Thinking' as a concept which through this lens and set of competencies we design learning experiences for our children. We use the content of the Ncrel research as a backbone of our our localised curriculum.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NECREL Description</td></tr>
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Sitting under the broad concept of 'Inventive Thinking' is a subset of skills which relate to the Key Competencies (dispositions) that we will create experiences for our children to develop and reflect on. We have linked these dispositions to the 'whole-brain' Hermann Brain Dominance model as a way of unpacking thinking within our schools. The dispositions provide a common school-wide language used across staff and students which helps to understands ourselves and each other better<br />
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We have these at the forefront of our minds going into the design process. We do this deliberately to shift thinking from subject areas to skill acquisition. We still value literacy and numeracy however in terms of process we need to shift our teachers thinking and old habits first.<br />
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Day 12. #28daysofwriting<br />
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As a staff we create ideas for our immersion linking to the needs of our community of learners and what is relevant. We generate these ideas responsively and nothing is preplanned. It is a free for all of dreaming up big ideas and throwing out there thinking.<br />
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From there we take responsibility for designing a workshops that fit the framework of our whole learning model. We have our vision, mission and school learning values in mind.<br />
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Next week the children will have two action packed days of taster/ignition sessions. We will be encouraging active reflection through the sessions. Students will be able to select from a wide range of workshops on offer. Everybody on staff, including support staff will be running activities and sessions.<br />
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Learning Advisors (home teachers) then unpack and extend immersion further, based on what they noticed over the whole-school immersion with cohorts of children. Once, the students have reflected and the teachers have noticed that the children are getting ready to <i>go </i>they'll move into the next phase of negotiation leading into P.B.Ls.<br />
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The immersion design should be flexible and nothing is set on stone as we constantly reflect on what could be modified. At the end of the day it's learning for everybody.<br />
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-48668024445614091472015-02-08T20:06:00.001-08:002015-02-08T20:06:05.975-08:00Why Exercise Makes You Happy<div style="text-align: justify;">
Day 9 #28daysofwriting</div>
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Hitting the news recently, was N.Zs high ranking in a OECD global report, showing kiwis are amongst the most obese people in the world. Up to a third of kiwi boys and girls are indicated to be obese. The research was conducted by an international consortium of researchers and Associate Professor <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Tony Merriman of Otago’s Biochemistry was a member of the study consortium. </span></div>
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You don't have to be a scientist to understand the link between obesity and poor health. As teachers we experience first hand the impact that poor health has on student's learning. We have all had children who struggle to participate in P.E and fitness programmes. There are the kids who despite our best efforts to personalise learning have issues with lethargy and engagement. </div>
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So what are N.Z schools doing to encourage good health in our kids? </div>
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We are doing plenty, here are just a few ideas:</div>
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<li>encouraging healthy food choices for school lunch-boxes</li>
<li>sharing healthy recipes </li>
<li>providing nutritious breakfasts</li>
<li>having fruit breaks</li>
<li>daily fitness</li>
<li>school sports</li>
<li>promoting good health through curriculum.</li>
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I love the notion that exercise helps to make you happy and my personal experience is that it does. Have you heard of a runners high? I can't honestly say I've ever felt truly happy whilst running but I love the finish line and the feeling that lingers afterwards.</div>
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Endorphins (natures wee natural painkiller) have been shown in some studies to reduce stress and promote happiness. They exist to help us manage pain hence the saying ... </div>
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Here is a <a href="http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/fit/work_it_out.html" target="_blank">link </a>to a kids health website with loads of great informations and ideas to promote good health.</div>
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So what are you doing to get your kids active? An idea we are trying is giving kids the options of running bootcamps and fitness sessions. They do the research, plan the lesson and away they go. Another idea is to run a gym style timetable so students can opt into a range of cardio, stretching and strength based sessions. The feedback has been positive so far. Fitness has come a long way from whole school runs around the back paddock and aerobics on the tennis courts! </div>
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-36036709958300117232015-02-06T14:57:00.001-08:002015-02-06T14:57:54.515-08:00Hinemoa Street Street Organic#28daysofwriting Day 7<div><br></div><div>Turns out my passion for writing diminishes on long weekends however I can share this wee hidden gem of a place for all of those Aucklander's out there looking for a caffeine fix and decent organic breakfast on the north side of the bridge.</div><div><br></div><div>I love bacon and eggs. They should be a main food group of their own. #hinemoastrretorganic is a cute wee cafe, fabulous service and amazing food. It's pretty reasonable too.</div><div><br></div><div>Northcote is a wee hidden gem for coffee spots, restaurants and cool design shops. It's one of my favourite local spots for a walk and run. Alas, I don't own one of the beautiful villas that I admire and the view is pretty fantastic too. One day ... :)</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpP0R3GpPHjYBphQfucIsz6QxmeoaRpR0RtqdcPqPxpFDBRxI8nDGnzE3sBx3_fIdBjddmHMpsSqxlduQwu7C9-llj0w8RrjP8hK2H_094AtXRuEJWpR-MzbuCoaELLNjWEgH5TMNX3ZM/s640/blogger-image-517307763.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpP0R3GpPHjYBphQfucIsz6QxmeoaRpR0RtqdcPqPxpFDBRxI8nDGnzE3sBx3_fIdBjddmHMpsSqxlduQwu7C9-llj0w8RrjP8hK2H_094AtXRuEJWpR-MzbuCoaELLNjWEgH5TMNX3ZM/s640/blogger-image-517307763.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikEOwdloIuXW-6PiR8ZqF_1-Vhav1GaW8pSRUt2LXbEZ6K4GWkh867Eytvw4-8ouJyTEo9nd1jCrT9ecfrieUNDbHltxLph9vU5Bt_KWoDHsWcPdcQAalvMZ_9VqZMgT2ktzCEeWXcoZg/s640/blogger-image-1392236224.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikEOwdloIuXW-6PiR8ZqF_1-Vhav1GaW8pSRUt2LXbEZ6K4GWkh867Eytvw4-8ouJyTEo9nd1jCrT9ecfrieUNDbHltxLph9vU5Bt_KWoDHsWcPdcQAalvMZ_9VqZMgT2ktzCEeWXcoZg/s640/blogger-image-1392236224.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEOfbXsAts5AAlRHYk3WfCE1ZgFGYDTum1WMtxdcUI55pJPLyCmg6PpOjP_29jx4Li4Kx0Hv9NS7OovKxjW_nifHm_RFqlJ8w9G0CIoepGgQtACnUAd5SMr8ZkgtG4u5b1R_t21rt2ySQ/s640/blogger-image--476186629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEOfbXsAts5AAlRHYk3WfCE1ZgFGYDTum1WMtxdcUI55pJPLyCmg6PpOjP_29jx4Li4Kx0Hv9NS7OovKxjW_nifHm_RFqlJ8w9G0CIoepGgQtACnUAd5SMr8ZkgtG4u5b1R_t21rt2ySQ/s640/blogger-image--476186629.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLejW2dGlxy9lSIDWBG2Gi3IE0FYV3O0T4OqSTurmy0Or7M-mZhog34RqoQv7juscw2fMO7gT_KGBmYbRTcY3Fh-5Xp5FeSS4mV3VwAY5SHF1VRfbOtTrXJUf-xDpPRHgF4AGFQ3dTiw/s640/blogger-image-418672443.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLejW2dGlxy9lSIDWBG2Gi3IE0FYV3O0T4OqSTurmy0Or7M-mZhog34RqoQv7juscw2fMO7gT_KGBmYbRTcY3Fh-5Xp5FeSS4mV3VwAY5SHF1VRfbOtTrXJUf-xDpPRHgF4AGFQ3dTiw/s640/blogger-image-418672443.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ41AfkwLY58WboV2DGJepOqKJN7ygEOgI7oK_2iMd_9ZRP8w2doKRi3zHyJqX61Y5r8_C-SDkK4XZT6mLlIcgsJvSxZi98urghP2joEdI5WNzkTlZjBQ6l-D3A8bAz1zmJmL8vGwN_uk/s640/blogger-image--1634704745.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ41AfkwLY58WboV2DGJepOqKJN7ygEOgI7oK_2iMd_9ZRP8w2doKRi3zHyJqX61Y5r8_C-SDkK4XZT6mLlIcgsJvSxZi98urghP2joEdI5WNzkTlZjBQ6l-D3A8bAz1zmJmL8vGwN_uk/s640/blogger-image--1634704745.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-59049790389244088542015-02-05T00:21:00.001-08:002015-02-05T00:21:08.692-08:00Waitangi - Waka and KaiDay 5 #28daysofwriting<div><br></div><div>I'm blogging on my phone. Unlike most of the 12 year old kids I teach I haven't yet mastered the tappity, tap, tap lightening speed typing skills they seem to posses. At this rate my goal of 28minutes of interrupted writing for today's challenge will be over with barely a paragraph written ... </div><div><br></div><div>A Reflection on the Day #HPSWaitangi</div><div><br></div><div>Hobsonville Point Schools' finished off our first week of school and headed into the long weekend on a high note with our Waitangi Celebration Day. </div><div><br></div><div>It's a great opportunity to have our secondary and primary kids, staff, parents and wider community together to learn about our bi-cultural history and celebrate partnerships.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Its a big day of learning. Big day of fun. </div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I've been involved in plenty of big school events over the years. These tend to be well oiled machines with run sheets, briefings and rigidly defined roles and responsibilities.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">They've been successful in their own right but what I really enjoy about this H.P.S event is the room to move, step up, step sideways, read and respond to situations. Sharyn Afu and Sarah Wakefield do a superb job of steering the day. They do hours and hours of behind the scenes prep to set us up with support structures to create the space for us to move and ultimately step up and take responsibility. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">There is a fancy name for this type of approach. It's called heterarchial organization. A good example of this is Google 20% time when employees work with whoever they wish within the company and some of their most innovative ideas and products have come</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">out of it.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpG-9lfToZn6X4FBSPEHieDvEeJLLKLO6KUPPdeR_6QClV9yqFnzYbGJM7uEO8xhBrqtWCUA0q-uy8_YoUmgmRHDgClXSsf2EHUXYrMg93Wb2ccseOHDfAay2SEUmry6kwbkXLf4U4Bxk/s640/blogger-image-1156498951.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpG-9lfToZn6X4FBSPEHieDvEeJLLKLO6KUPPdeR_6QClV9yqFnzYbGJM7uEO8xhBrqtWCUA0q-uy8_YoUmgmRHDgClXSsf2EHUXYrMg93Wb2ccseOHDfAay2SEUmry6kwbkXLf4U4Bxk/s640/blogger-image-1156498951.jpg"></a></div><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Personally, I love a bit of structure however it can be stifling of you're not careful. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Do we not want our kids to be self managing, thinking, questioning, seeking and taking responsibility. Surely if we over structure their 'role' it limits them in that they don't have to think for themselves? </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div>Today I experienced some freedoms and there were times when I chilled out, put my feet up and watched the kids (and Reid Walker) learning how to paddle a waka. Devoured a massive bowl of chocolate pudding. Thank you very much Lea Vellenoweth, Daniel Birch and the awesome food prep student team. I also put on my organizational hat with Amy Mccauley and learnt how to carve a pork roast plus picked up a cloth and wiped a few tables. On my drive home I passed a group of students carrying a bunch of gear between the schools to help out. How awesome. It was 7pm.</div><div><br></div><div>Hope everyone has a lovely Waitangi Weekend.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImSetD7nfeqXgkiNfBQ0iKSh9OOfqVBJHdpNSFZj4GcuWjVarzIm2_IwsuKLaG34grmrZNmpE94kL2mHWmY6NEoItzzEQBhdJAq3ep3JGM64TZeICeXulm5L2c2aNwPuxdkoLwJfd9lU/s640/blogger-image-1181216002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImSetD7nfeqXgkiNfBQ0iKSh9OOfqVBJHdpNSFZj4GcuWjVarzIm2_IwsuKLaG34grmrZNmpE94kL2mHWmY6NEoItzzEQBhdJAq3ep3JGM64TZeICeXulm5L2c2aNwPuxdkoLwJfd9lU/s640/blogger-image-1181216002.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7_4XRCgd3WSvCbG3KVkCTP5TPtR-spwvbkMIFMXdOk3Z_X0y3JRicJTaSbLrSR2CSGeby8rBEehpyJzn2CYvGLugQiT1ruLTgqg-LP9aUTvfZeNIOnpep45OG8yzWhjg6SND0-8NODwA/s640/blogger-image--248898332.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7_4XRCgd3WSvCbG3KVkCTP5TPtR-spwvbkMIFMXdOk3Z_X0y3JRicJTaSbLrSR2CSGeby8rBEehpyJzn2CYvGLugQiT1ruLTgqg-LP9aUTvfZeNIOnpep45OG8yzWhjg6SND0-8NODwA/s640/blogger-image--248898332.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-90698789442469281952015-02-03T20:16:00.001-08:002015-02-03T20:16:14.622-08:00Distractibility : Keeping Students Minds Wandering (with purpose)<div style="text-align: justify;">
#28daysofwriting Day 4</div>
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This morning, I sat down at my desk with a task list that included a few admin jobs I've been putting off. Someone once told me, I think it was my mother, to prioritise the boring and save the exciting for last. So, today I took mum's advice and attempted to make a start on the more mundane. It involved excel. Say no more. By 11am I was 4 coffees down, filing trays organised (that wasn't on the list), re-ordered my priority list, delivered 6 potato peelers to Hobsonville Point Secondary School (an unexpected priority and long story) and pretty much <i>mindfully</i> avoided the task. </div>
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During this mindful avoidance, I read a fantastic paper shared with me by Daniel (principal at H.P.P.S), called 'Understanding John Hattie's Visible Learning Research in the Context of Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset' by Gerry Miler (Educational Trainer and Consultant). <a href="http://growthmindseteaz.org/johnhattie.html" target="_blank">link</a> to the download. It was a fantastic and timely read as we head into a new year of learning.</div>
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So, if as adults we can be mindfully aware of our distractibility and despite our best efforts still get pulled off course (for better or worse) then how are our kids going in typical classrooms?</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">John Hattie's 15 years of research into what works in schools combined with Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset work is a powerful combination for helping to remind us of what is effective. Gerry Miller, writes a conclusion within the article that has strong messages and is an easy read.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">These are a few take-aways I took from the section on 'teachers':</span></div>
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<li>having <b>high expectations</b> of students is critical - ensure that there is <b>challenge</b> in the learning</li>
<li>moderate across the school so <b>teachers have common understanding of benchmarks</b> and can act responsively to them to ensure learning is challenging</li>
<li>teacher-student <b>relationships</b> are critical to learning - relationships come first</li>
<li>relationships take time to build - (begs the questions why do primary schools tend to year group children and tag from one teach to another year after year)</li>
<li>teachers need a <b>common perception of progress</b> - skills, understandings, knowledge, dispositional growth, curriculum levels etc</li>
<li>believe in the child in where they are at and where you can help take them to - have an open mindset</li>
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The institutionalised teacher in me sometimes worries about giving children too much freedom and room to explore but this reinforced the need for strong relationships in knowing the learner well and therefore setting them up with challenges that will engage and inspire them in their learning. If learning is negotiated & co-constructed between the teacher and child within a personalised context then surely it is a win-win?</div>
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I went for a walk through Hobsonville Point Primary this afternoon, at 2.30pm to be exact. All of the children I saw were engaged and happy in whatever it was they were doing. I saw lots of personalisation taking place through self directed learning, teacher practice and kids exploring interests. Some of these were deliberately scaffolded by teachers and others were not.</div>
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Of course there were a couple of kids who had deviated off 'task' but they were happily engaged in a fantastic game of count the wall tiles. I suppose that was developing numeracy skills...like the research states, children will still learn in-spite of you (the teacher) so who was I to judge.</div>
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-34364349162198747222015-02-02T20:23:00.000-08:002015-02-02T20:23:03.278-08:00Do Uniforms Help Children to Learn? #28daysofwriting. Day 3<br />
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I'm wondering where there is any research that proves that having a school uniform actually help kids to learn? As I have only 28 minutes to write this post I'm going to do a quick google scholar search and see what I can find and see if there is anything to persuade me that they do in fact assist kids.<br />
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I couldn't find a thing to suggest they do impact positively on academic success. However, I did find some articles with student voice that mentioned having a uniform helped in reducing peer bullying targeting what the children were wearing. As an aside, I wonder if a uniform creates a greater sense of belonging and how this may impact positively for kids in the education setting?<br />
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So, uniforms. Good or bad? or maybe it's not that simple? Being a new school we were fortunate enough to be able to start at the drawing board around what we wanted and what our parent community would like.<br />
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The stance of the leadership team was pretty straight-forward back in 2012. We didn't want a full school uniform that we would have to enforce for a few reasons:<br />
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1) We didn't want valuable time to be eaten up by 'policing' if wee Jimmy had the right socks on or not.<br />
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2) If we are personalising learning and valuing our children as individuals then why should we make a blanket decision about the wearing of a uniform?<br />
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3) Most importantly of all, what was driving our thinking was where is the research to suggest having a uniform will impact positively on children's academic success?<br />
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These conversations were taking place before we had a parent community as the school was still been built, (2012) and our local community was still bare sections and wooden housing framework. We did a community consultation as per policy.<br />
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Our community, by a majority wanted a uniform, so we went ahead and began the design process ever mindful of been smart about how we would roll it out and the impact it may have on us and our community.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Local Wind-chime Art Installation & New Housing 2014</td></tr>
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What we have now is some versatile options of a school uniform that we only insist is worn when we need to be able to easily recognise our students outside of school. Students choose if they wear the uniform to school and this way teachers and staff don't have to invest time into worrying too much about if a shirt is tucked in or not. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T-K</td></tr>
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After enduring days where it has been thirty degrees and stifling hot outside, it's been lovely having a more relaxed dress code for both the kids and the staff. After 17 years of teaching today was the first day I have ever worn jandals to work and it was awesome. I'm pretty certain they didn't have a negative impact either.Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-30606706832680608132015-02-01T22:08:00.003-08:002015-02-01T22:08:56.170-08:00Ditch the Written Recount on Day 1 of School #28daysofwritingSo, what does Day 1 look like at H.P.P.S?<br />
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A two day retreat, at Muriwai Beach allowed our staff the opportunity to gather and discuss our thinking in preparedness for Day 1 with our kids. It also meant we could have some time to play in the surf and enjoy the amazing ruggedness of a kiwi west coast beach. The setting was inspiring and so too were some of the conversations. <br />
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Our discussions red flagged a few things for me so as I went for a wander through our learning environment I was looking for evidence of them being lived out. I saw plenty, plus more that hadn't been on my radar but are worth sharing. It is worthy to note, not one writtten recount about 'what I did on holiday' was spotted. In saying that, literacy was everywhere but it was infused. Some of the best learning is messy.<br />
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Some take-aways from the retreat.<br />
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<li><b>Relationships - </b>without strong relationships we can't impact as effectively as we would like so focus on getting to know the children, their families and collaborate with each other to draw from our team strengths.</li>
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<li><b>Personalise </b>- one size fits all is a fast way of switching kids off their learning. Therefore, take the time to set up learning experiences to see what kids gravitate towards. Hands on? Mathematics? Construction? Creative Art? Interpersonal? Introduce them to a world they may not know and see what you can ignite in them.</li>
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<li><b>Collaborate - </b>kids don't always need that teacher at the front. Some of the best student centred learning has teachers who facilitate the learning journey so know when to stand aside or ask the hard questions. Know when to lead, to challenge or to support. Get to know ALL of the kids really well across the school so they see a bunch of people who may be able to help them.</li>
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<li><b>Provocations - </b>create freedoms for the kids to explore what they may be interested in or curious about. Create lots of learning experience to foster creativity, collaboration and self reflection.</li>
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The giant water slide was a winner with the kids. Great for bringing them all together and building some risk-taking dispositions.</div>
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-66788306254989315532015-02-01T15:44:00.002-08:002015-02-01T15:44:31.439-08:00Risk-taking #28daysofwriting <div style="text-align: justify;">
I love the thinking behind Tom Barrett's #28daysofwriting in smashing out thoughts and ideas to contribute to our blogs. I hope that my ramblings are at least a bit logical and are delivered in a manner in which others can interpret and take away something from. (Hopefully)</div>
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I'm not playing by the rules so far. I procrastinated last night and unfortunately missed #day1 however am meeting another of my New Year's resolutions in taking a bit of a risk and joining in on something that scares me a little bit...like this, putting out blogs without shaping, editing, re-viewing (at least 20 times) which doesn't sit well with my perfectionist nature. </div>
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However, if we want the kids to be taking risks then best I model this stuff. I do quite like rules, but mainly bending them so I'm going to put out a couple of posts as I'm playing catchup today. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Think outside of the box, your creativity is not found in your comfort zone. (Leianah Afu : Age 13)</td></tr>
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#risktaking</div>
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Why is it that we want our kids to take risks and yet so many of us find it so hard in education? I have a bit of an idea about this. If you talk to teachers, most will say they loved their school experience and felt successful. Generally speaking, we were the kids who fitted the conservative school model and didn't question the system. We won the badges, were selected to represent the school and received the certificates at assembly. School was comfortable and going to teacher's college seemed like a natural fit for many of us.</div>
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People I admire and love working with are the rule breakers, the innovators and those who dare to do things differently. The ones who seek change because it makes sense to do so and therefore ruffle the feathers of the outdated industrial model of education. Whatever our background, ex school prefect or recipient of the 'lowest attendance' record, everyone of us can be brave and challenge our practice and the whole education model. </div>
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On a small scale, I'm going to embrace my inner rebel and put out some unedited blogs (shows how much of a risk taker I am :P ) and on a more significant reflect on the innovation and learning taking place at H.P.P.S.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Day 1 of 2015 School Year - Maia demonstrating some drifting</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First Day for some junior kids at H.P.P.S</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morning Tea</td></tr>
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-81999908739909182212014-11-10T19:38:00.003-08:002014-11-10T19:38:51.451-08:00Giving the Kids a Voice:Impacting on Learning Design<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Recently, I have been reflecting on the place that student voice has within the context of our school and how we can best leverage it to help create a challenging, meaningful and authentic learning experiences for the children. I believe that their voices should be shaping our systems and structures from the 'top' down and as a school we value personalisation of schools and placing the student at the centre of their learning. The process shouldn't just be about listening to students but empowering the students to seek out problems and action solutions. </div>
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At a recent PLN, our group of school leaders discussed the role of student councils and leadership opportunities within schools in general. We reflected on the role of a school council and how the students are designated organisation and/or fundraising type activities to run. We talked about the possibilities from organising councils made up of a cross section of school and how we could create more meaningful projects for the students to develop their skills. We reflected that in some school's there is a desire to give students a voice but there isn't necessarily the freedoms/opportunities for them to fully realise the impact that student voice can have on shaping an engaging, purposeful curriculum and experiences. In summary, there is a varied understanding and value placed on student voice across school.</div>
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Something that we are prototyping at H.P.P.S, is engaging our students in the learning design right from the get-go. Usually staff would plan our 'immersion' phase together using future focussed skill sets as a framework for creating 'taster' or provocative sessions for the students to explore new interests, passions and develop curiosities. As a trial, leading up to our next immersion in our senior learning common, we have asked a focus group to help us to co-create what that immersion would look like. Below is a reflection by a student on his involvement in the process so far.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxBOROyJjAa2yQp-OgNTvQV2_zGiAWwzY49K5cPsaVnjxT9QMgFn1t5VazWaF2zXj_nth0p9DYJlt1na8-MLwVzZ-mqbpZ_Uku-KGy0vCbr3394YbZjCT5uJh67-QL9dsn3ps4chr7MDg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-11-11+at+2.12.58+pm.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxBOROyJjAa2yQp-OgNTvQV2_zGiAWwzY49K5cPsaVnjxT9QMgFn1t5VazWaF2zXj_nth0p9DYJlt1na8-MLwVzZ-mqbpZ_Uku-KGy0vCbr3394YbZjCT5uJh67-QL9dsn3ps4chr7MDg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-11-11+at+2.12.58+pm.png" height="77" width="400" /></a></div>
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Feedback from other students involved in the focus group has been positive too. they've thanked us for allowing them to be involved and made connections with the bigger picture of learning design at the school. Most of all, they are seeing how we value their thinking, ideas and interests and are committed in making exciting learning happen for them.</div>
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The process that we are following is using an adapted 'Learning Design Process' (NoTosh) that was introduced to me at #GTASyd. The process is assisting us in guiding the students in identifying a problem, creating ideas to fix the problem, prototyping and creating solutions. </div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #38761d;">IMMERSION</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUDbQf40PvkrkKU36cxkLDROMujlVELC1A7-lN9KZBm27_4RajWi62PzMEUIfKZbO-pMUPLC7hkgjKSCSEQh23lYMRjbNOWic8R5eQCkm5fBLDjieLcVVy-L1VLpJPLHnkuylsMJtdac/s1600/photo+1+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUDbQf40PvkrkKU36cxkLDROMujlVELC1A7-lN9KZBm27_4RajWi62PzMEUIfKZbO-pMUPLC7hkgjKSCSEQh23lYMRjbNOWic8R5eQCkm5fBLDjieLcVVy-L1VLpJPLHnkuylsMJtdac/s1600/photo+1+(1).jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SKETCH FROM DESCRIPTION OF STUDENTS EXPERIENCE</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuRMKYPzwe3Yh8629FfZd_SjanJosKr-bH7oaa7_PY-NnbfFBPaffouJuZux6N5tbJiqQt6dsob8ASi7LwAXWshM909uGu2RtBB2Kv37mxFNsBFpj7f_yNPzzIMIsfRS3RdV54hUCc0ig/s1600/IMG_5581.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuRMKYPzwe3Yh8629FfZd_SjanJosKr-bH7oaa7_PY-NnbfFBPaffouJuZux6N5tbJiqQt6dsob8ASi7LwAXWshM909uGu2RtBB2Kv37mxFNsBFpj7f_yNPzzIMIsfRS3RdV54hUCc0ig/s1600/IMG_5581.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LEARNING ADVISORS CONNECTIONS TO IMMERSION </td></tr>
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To help the student understand the bigger picture of learning deign they were given research that as teachers we would use to spark our thinking of ideas for immersion. Basically, they received a crash course on curriculum development. The actual research was pitched at an adult level however lots of the students took it home, made notes, had it read to them in bed by parents and some highlighted a few bullet points or simply didn't have time to read it. All of those responses were fine. I had the students who had read and had a good grasp of the research summarise for the others. That in itself was a good learning experience. it was so important that they fully understood but were able to see a potential problem from a range of perspectives.</div>
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From there, we immersed ourselves in seeking out to explore what the last immersion felt like and reflect on what the students experienced at the time. They talked a lot during this phase sharing openly and honestly. They asked us (learning advisors) questions about why we designed immersion the way we did to try and seek a better understanding. The conversations we deep around the essence of what we wanted to achieve.</div>
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This part of the design process was all about <span style="color: #38761d;">gathering stories, information, data and different perspectives to get an overall idea of what the issue is. (NoTosh)</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgty7Vy0XNaLSyQr2cBvoBfpW_5hn2ghV7TBMTRp_AVNzgQsKILp5fYRNykEDZprvPjhGQppQWwBjNuYjRTL3Es4bNEJRa359AZn6s_ofFp-HvxLbmwomDay_paaia1H6kaGwGLL_v1sno/s1600/IMG_5823.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgty7Vy0XNaLSyQr2cBvoBfpW_5hn2ghV7TBMTRp_AVNzgQsKILp5fYRNykEDZprvPjhGQppQWwBjNuYjRTL3Es4bNEJRa359AZn6s_ofFp-HvxLbmwomDay_paaia1H6kaGwGLL_v1sno/s1600/IMG_5823.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">STUDENTS IDENTIFYING & REFLECTING ON PAST EXPERIENCES OF IMMERSION<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">
We then went into the <span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b>SYNTHESIS,</b></span> </span>stage of the process. We connected what we had learned and tried to formulate into words the problem that was worth solving.</div>
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The H.P.P.S students discovered that the immersion went far too long and they didn't feel they got to experience the wide range of tasters on offer as they were locked into workshops with the one learning advisor. They also felt that too many of our immersion workshops lacked handson, real-life learning and authentic contexts.</div>
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The students were then given 5minutes to <span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">IDEATION.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> That is where they think of as many ideas as possible that may help solve the problem. The sticky notes above show some of there ideas. Our next step, is to go back to these ideas, filter them and then make the learning happen.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">As learning advisors, we were surprised by some of their ideas as they were outside of the square and things we hadn't predicted they'd suggest. We are also feeling more closely connected to our learners and what may engage them in their learning. The students have given us the framework from which to design our immersion and will help to teach it as well. One of the aspects they reflected they'd like to increase is the use of experts, students as teachers and experiences. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We will honour their voice, what they'd like to learn and experience. This immersion design and implementation will become our </span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #0b5394;">PROTOTYPE </span><span style="background-color: white;">for future planning and as we share across our learning commons may impact on how others are planning and leveraging student voice. We will seek feedback from other Learning Advisors to see if this process (or parts of) could influence planning for the full range of ages in the school.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">My #GTA moonshot is all about utilising student voice to impact on schools beginning in my own school context. The next part of the puzzle is sharing with others to seek feedback and hopefully inspire. With frequent foot traffic from visiting groups of teachers and school leaders through Hobsonville Point Primary this part is relatively easy but my next wondering is how can we can get the students sharing their learning to inspire other students beyond the focus the modern learning environment physical spaces. I feel that this will become my actual moonshot in action.</span></div>
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-51293767317649183462014-09-24T21:29:00.000-07:002014-10-20T01:04:28.310-07:00#GTASYD Moonshot Thinking<div style="text-align: justify;">
I've been very lucky, my head is bursting with ideas whilst I sit amongst a bunch of super talented educators at Google Teacher Academy - Sydney 2014. #gtasyd I've experienced two fast-paced, action-packed days, lead by the inspiring team at <a href="http://notosh.com/" target="_blank">NoTosh</a>. I'm at the reflection stage of the process however I have to admit, that with all of the incredible energy and thinking this is surface level for what I am capable but it is a start.<br />
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Here is our awesome team 'Google Big Kids', lead by our Google mentor Abi, who was patient and supportive as we had our thinking stretched within the amazing spaces at Google HQ, Sydney.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#teamGBK</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#gogglecorridor</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">A little bit of context, we have 50 educators selected from within N.Z and Aussie who have been selected to participate in a programme to take an inkling of an idea and turn it into a project that in turn will have a great impact on our education context and beyond. We've been inspired by what Google call moonshot thinking. It's about getting you to challenge your dream and think bigger, like 10x. NoTosh have guided through a process to get us reflecting, challenging and looking at possibilities working in collaborative teams. It was a great opportunity to be critiqued and stretched in thinking by other educators who are doing amazing things in their classrooms, schools and beyond. Our groups were a mix of teachers, leaders, e-learning facilitators which gave the opportunity for different perspectives, skills and thinking to be brought to the table. I felt it was a good mix and made me think about how we group students and the need for diversity to bring about tension, and falling out of that growth.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;">The process has been super fast paced. At times, I felt a little overwhelmed and hit a couple of walls. Day one was particularly frenetic and I spent a large amount of that time borderline anxious however aware that this discomfort had to be good for me! My day two experience was more comfortable, and allowed a little more reflective time that I appreciated as I was connecting some of my thinking. Google tools were been slipped into the day that were new to me and I had some time to note, explore a little and co-create some tools with the others in the room. At one point we hit hundreds of new ideas, that were collated and counted in a 10 minute time span. Insane! Goes to show just what can be created in the right environment and with the right sort of process.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;">To come up with our 'moonshots' we spent a period gathering observations and interviewing to immerse ourselves in our context using a reflective lens. I work in a modern learning environment with collaborative teams of teachers who practice in a way that personalises school and learning. We honour student voice so this is where I started as whatever my moonshot was going to be it had to be for the benefit of our students. With so many visitors walking through our doors (approx. 2000 to date in our two years of operation) one of the greatest influence we may have on reshaping education is from what visitors take away from what our students are saying, doing and creating.</span><br />
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I used a range of tools such as interviews, surveys and reflecting on snapshot pictures to help me immerse myself in the learning at school.<br />
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This student voice was both amusing yet telling for a couple of reasons as I reflected on what the learning design looked like on a typical day in the senior learning space. Q: What do you think of workshops? <b>"<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poo...another workshop. To be honest. I don’t really like workshops."</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note: Typically workshops tend to be short, intensive, teacher lead sessions with a focus on a learning strategy or skill building in reading, writing and/or mathematics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">..and this .. a snapshot of practice across a typical day in the senior learning common. This discounts the massive amount of fantastic learning taking place but we are are striving to constantly push the boundaries and strive for better. </span></div>
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At google, we set about taking what we had observed in our contexts then going through a process of deconstructing our thinking then pulling it back together again to form a moonshot.</div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">After, a couple of rigorous days of thinking I came to this...</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">'How might we </span><span style="color: purple;">leverage</span><span style="color: blue;"> our open-mindsets </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">for us </span><span style="color: blue;">to continue to innovate, engage and inspire learning </span><span style="color: orange;">in our schools</span><span style="color: blue;"> whilst under pressure?'</span></b></div>
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My solution to the problem to to honour student voice and align to our values of personalising, innovating, collaborating, relationships and authentic learning. But I'm missing parts to the puzzle.</div>
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So what now?...my thinking is to bring the kids to the board table...have them reviewing, critiquing and discussing our overall learning design model alongside staff. Have them truly driving all aspects of the learning design, the day to day design and the bigger picture parts. 'Under pressure' is another part of the puzzle as under pressure we tend to default to the tried and tested in other words our safe place. So we need a tool to help us to reflect against, we have our values but also there's a need for something else to sharpen our thinking.</div>
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After a month of reflecting, actioning and talking to the kids I'm now going with a moonshot of:</div>
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<b>'How might we leverage student voice to continue to impact on, redesign and create what schooling could look like?'</b></div>
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I feel this puts the kids at the centre and that's integral to my project.</div>
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-74130305113864875622014-07-01T16:11:00.002-07:002014-07-01T21:53:10.199-07:00Modern Learning Environments : More Than Just Beanbags<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Modern Learning Environments are a hot topic in education at the moment. Having opened up our doors in 2013, Hobsonville Point Primary School has had more than 1200 visitors to date and many visit to experience the physical space. Often, what people come here to see and what they take away are two different things.<br />
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The most common feedback we receive is that people come with the view of gathering ideas about spaces and furniture however after seeing the teaching and learning in action their focus shifts to pedagogy in their schools.<br />
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To give context, Hobsonville Point School is open-plan design, with learning commons (classrooms with break-out spaces) that can cater for approximately 80-90 students. There are some specialist spaces such as a gymnasium, cooking room and science lab. Each learning common has a fenced outdoor area, with mini performance stage and seating. The school also has a community cafeteria and covered communal outside space. <br />
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The facilities are impressive however we view the environment as a supporter and if we don't shift our pedagogies and embrace what learning could look like then we are not doing our jobs properly. <br />
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The environment is an enabler for us in living out our values of:<br />
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<li>personalising learning,</li>
<li>innovating,</li>
<li>authentic learning,</li>
<li>relationships,</li>
<li>and making learning authentic.</li>
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Traditional practice, within an MLE, could easily happen without questioning then redesigning what learning could look like. </div>
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This video shows the school (and students) within the new Hobsonville Point community</div>
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Hobsonville Point Primary MLE Snapshot<br />
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Classrooms look very different to the traditional four-walled, desks and chairs design. There is no fixed 'front' of the classroom and learning advisors (teachers) work alongside students rather than the more traditional model of teaching from the front. Each learning common is the same size as three traditional classrooms and is staffed by 3 teachers. The layout of the space and types of furniture we have are enablers and we deliberately avoid the lecture style type of pedagogy as we personalise learning for our students. <br />
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Spaces are flexible. We have mobile whiteboards and TVs so that these supportive tools can be accessed practically anywhere within the school with the goal of reducing barriers to learning. Spaces can be used flexibly, with concertina dividers in some spaces, and most of the furniture is on castors and easily shifted. Often students will redesign spaces, to best support the learning that is taking place at the time. The students have a strong sense of belonging and ownership of the school. They negotiate use of spaces, design and are a part of projects that develop and resource the school. They engage in authentic learning and student voice is honoured.<br />
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We teach collaboratively and a positive outcome for students is that they can build relationships easily with a range of mentors. A positive for staff is that we can reflect on students together, have regular, just-in-time conversations and be fully responsive to the students needs. We are able to tap into passionate experts across our team as we feel a sense of responsibility for our whole cohort opposed to the traditional model of a class that changes from year to year. It allows us to support each other and collectively raise our own professional knowledge, understandings and practice.<br />
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Students are multi-aged grouped and social and dispositional growth influence where we place students across the school. We tag individual students to individual learning advisors where there is a natural positive relationship. This 'home' learning advisor stays with the student for a number of years so a really deep understanding of them as a learner can be developed. The larger learning common grouping is multi-age grouped which assists in breaking down mindset barriers around students' perceptions of their abilities. <br />
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Technology is a ubiquitous part of learning. Students use varied devices for a range of purposes such as; creative design, organisation, collaborating ideas, accessing information, creating learning tools and connecting within the global community. The school is BYOD however we provide enough technology and devices so that every child has access. <br />
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Teaching practice is deprivatised within the open-plan MLE environment and that also extends into online spaces. Teachers plan on google sites. Students, parents and other teachers are able to access this planning. The design of the planning is responsive so it changes on a daily basis and every child personalises their day attending 'must do' workshops', negotiated 'workshops' and self directing learning. We do not subject silo, however you may see target workshops addressing some of the core curriculum needs such as developing specific writing or numeracy skills. Whenever possible, learning is linked to students passions, interests and curiosities or framed around immersing the students into a 'world they do not yet know, they do not know.'<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFCkuOmMUC5kDPo9W7wLvvCR_fLgnKpyvTVAk2HtpmK5RA6j9Oe9y6vorXbMlirHpMqfQFOdywsC96CZJutWiP3izRlKkkkIHf-CjIDNRzuWhUyunfRNNgktznMm2N4O1NCZeHqTcbcQQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-02+at+8.29.17+am.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFCkuOmMUC5kDPo9W7wLvvCR_fLgnKpyvTVAk2HtpmK5RA6j9Oe9y6vorXbMlirHpMqfQFOdywsC96CZJutWiP3izRlKkkkIHf-CjIDNRzuWhUyunfRNNgktznMm2N4O1NCZeHqTcbcQQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-02+at+8.29.17+am.png" height="210" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example of planning for senior school students on a google site</td></tr>
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We value relationships and we utilise online spaces to engage our community. For example, we use social media as a way of connecting, have a school app to share alerts and important notices and use google documents to share updates with parents about their child's progress and well-being at school. We invite and encourage commenting and interaction within our google sites, blogs and social media accounts. For those parents who work full-time or struggle to get into school, the feedback has been positive as it helps them to stay connected with their child during the day. For those who are curious and want to know more, Amy McCauley blogs from a technology perspective and she also shares her teaching journey at HPP. Have a look at her blog <a href="http://amymmcc.blogspot.co.nz/" target="_blank">iLearn</a> as it has lots of great ideas and information.<br />
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Here is a snapshot of our learning commons in action at 2.45pm on a Monday of the last week of term. In the senior common students were involved in project based learning, reflecting on their learning by emailing learning advisors or blogging. In learning common 2, students were engaged in a range of self-directed activities from maths challenges to problem based learning experiences and in the junior common they were been read to as a group.<br />
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The beanbags are a small part of our MLE, what is truely exciting is seeing students engaged in their learning after been given permissions and freedoms to fly. <br />
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Fresh off the press, there is an interesting article regarding the designs of Hobsonville Point Schools in Commercial Design - Trends vol 30 no 3, from an architectural perspective.</div>
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Mark Osbourne, Core Education has published an interesting read on modern learning environments. Click <a href="http://www.core-ed.org/sites/core-ed.org/files/Modern-Learning-Environments-v.1.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> to be directed to his paper.<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-90259137279321071242014-06-10T21:31:00.001-07:002014-06-10T21:31:09.576-07:00Engaging Learners Through Project Based Learning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAcQawvIJorDLIGUy8Gi8NAQInspFS1iC81kwNWMq0Sr0WUvxPwq1_4OBmpx94_OdTIk73dU0ccWgsmFFVV6HLPAieNKC5T5H5K105uWqXWHmpNfnSrjAQXXoCHtZ64GHjRMTnEwfkgn0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-10+at+2.23.15+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAcQawvIJorDLIGUy8Gi8NAQInspFS1iC81kwNWMq0Sr0WUvxPwq1_4OBmpx94_OdTIk73dU0ccWgsmFFVV6HLPAieNKC5T5H5K105uWqXWHmpNfnSrjAQXXoCHtZ64GHjRMTnEwfkgn0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-10+at+2.23.15+pm.png" height="68" width="640" /></a></div>
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This statement is designed to create tension because without that we may well continue to do what we have always done and that is to deliver reading, writing and mathematics in an increasingly effective manner with no change in our practice. Thus, if we don't shift, we are preparing our students well for the industrial age, in which recall and regurgitate of information was the backbone of education. </div>
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Stating the obvious, we are no longer in the 'industrial age' and education serves very different needs that demands us to shift our thinking and practice.</div>
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Future Work Skills 2020, lists the following as key skills and we need to make our curriculums about them not the subject silo approach of reading 9-10am, writing 11-12pm etc as powerful learning takes place when learning is connected.<br />
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- sense-making<br />
- novel and adaptive thinking<br />
- social intelligence<br />
- trans-disiplinary<br />
- new media literacy<br />
- computational thinking<br />
- cognitive load management<br />
- design mindset<br />
- cross cultural competency<br />
- virtual collaboration<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVZ0WtxqxhRA3Vg8G_9RD6IWIPyooPR3_nKDEC3yJe4Y13eAJ5Xbl4dLh46pRilBwhsCyjDOJ27a73ddcgaTajPI7tqe84A14FR-J7THY0f2x6GBTflQB5KIQBPDJHElPcrXzF98YXB5s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-10+at+2.48.39+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVZ0WtxqxhRA3Vg8G_9RD6IWIPyooPR3_nKDEC3yJe4Y13eAJ5Xbl4dLh46pRilBwhsCyjDOJ27a73ddcgaTajPI7tqe84A14FR-J7THY0f2x6GBTflQB5KIQBPDJHElPcrXzF98YXB5s/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-10+at+2.48.39+pm.png" height="400" width="640" /></a></div>
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Recently, at Hobsonville Point Primary during a parent information evening, Daniel (principal) posed this question to parents. 'Would you go to a dentist who was practising in the same manner that they were 20 years ago? This was prompted by parents making sense of practices such as Project Based Learning (PBL) and understanding how learning fits into this model.</div>
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Emerging PBLs at H.P.P...</div>
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In 2013, we opened the new school and we wanted the kids have a strong sense of belonging and to dream big in their aspirations. So, we did something something that was a little uncomfortable for many of us. We took off the control hats and handed-over to the kids. </div>
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PBLs began very organically, the kids needed sports gear so we let them go shopping and kit out the gym, they wanted art up so we let them create murals, they needed more technology so we listened to them and facilitated purchases, they wanted to do a trip together so we let them organise it. The list goes on... we went from 'sages on stages' to the 'guide on the side' and began to change some of our practices. The practices of PBL aligned to our values of collaboration, innovative practice, personalised learning, relationships and authentic learning.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyi75kTPrV1rXcJlw3ChTOBnGcmFvMV6MrzsUtyhkUeCdNgbgP_zFzFg3sUv9NXggvlewnUDo4ppN6rv5ZHkLUde21tdh79KqPXQSeVYycQbkaaFtrQl7njuJec1lfcTF_Kxj_8YAxhwA/s1600/IMG_0489.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyi75kTPrV1rXcJlw3ChTOBnGcmFvMV6MrzsUtyhkUeCdNgbgP_zFzFg3sUv9NXggvlewnUDo4ppN6rv5ZHkLUde21tdh79KqPXQSeVYycQbkaaFtrQl7njuJec1lfcTF_Kxj_8YAxhwA/s1600/IMG_0489.jpg" height="229" width="320" /></a></div>
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Kids and Daniel planting out the garden</div>
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Through PBLs we have seen student's delve into projects that they are passionate about, experience a connected curriculum and reflect on the way they felt when projects succeeded or failed. We see mistakes as opportunities to learn, and creating an environment where students feel free to take risks and make mistakes is an important part of the process. So too, is allowing PBLs to take a natural course. <br />
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There are some elements to PBLs that make them different to other similar modes such as problem based learning, inquiry and design process. We do not take a cookie cutter approach to PBLs and use other similar processes such as problem based learning or we apply the design process to suit the students design. The key is expanding on the students wondering/curiosity/interest or passion which naturally leads to engagement. <br />
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The following are five criteria that define PBL's: (see link below for additional information)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj711T-cUSIm-D8GbRBqbMl62p6w9RMyQObF9_Vx6HDbGIJ76bRkTKLB1GslYU9P2nKm3eehK6uwr7nttGBPLMiJvQuQAXeaQnxz2TRP142V74YKA2GSY1B6ol3bgI_SclYHJdcAnjVYjQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-11+at+4.06.45+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj711T-cUSIm-D8GbRBqbMl62p6w9RMyQObF9_Vx6HDbGIJ76bRkTKLB1GslYU9P2nKm3eehK6uwr7nttGBPLMiJvQuQAXeaQnxz2TRP142V74YKA2GSY1B6ol3bgI_SclYHJdcAnjVYjQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-11+at+4.06.45+pm.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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Sometimes students, do not know, what they don't know so we provide a period of immersion into new learning which leads into projects. As students become more comfortable we notice that they tend to take greater risks in their projects and many still start out with safe options that they are familiar with and this gradually improves. We treat this as a reflective learning opportunity for them. <br />
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We provide scaffold tools to assist students in making connections in their learning, across the learning areas and also provide frameworks in which they can record their thinking. They document the process visually (through blogs) or photos and in the case of the juniors, through learning stories. projects are co-constructed with Learning Advisors and learning goals are set and reflected on through this process and at Individual Education Meetings. These take place once a term, and are the main part of our reporting with parents, students and Learning Advisors.<br />
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Example of snapshot from draft H.P.P senior student rubric<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggXNd7DAalLYpiok_4vkFZ8hjvfgYxjZsgI7v8e6pFplvz6_ZArD1G4qqyeR4y8nsvQvHMWAzU-FVAPvhD3o74mYKEMarwl2-51vNCQ2Cvw0JiK67odq0EnBA2foJdLYTPV1ijsJA6Scs/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-11+at+4.12.40+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggXNd7DAalLYpiok_4vkFZ8hjvfgYxjZsgI7v8e6pFplvz6_ZArD1G4qqyeR4y8nsvQvHMWAzU-FVAPvhD3o74mYKEMarwl2-51vNCQ2Cvw0JiK67odq0EnBA2foJdLYTPV1ijsJA6Scs/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-11+at+4.12.40+pm.png" height="420" width="640" /></a></div>
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Example of individual student plan (Designed by Kristyn Dempsey/H.P.P A.P)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYWEhsnehLJXcK-ghZ47gWjgKHeyw7JwVwbzHyqQ7jk6cuHcsNjaEbw7Yh7ns9GToJ1t-hHyPbHxFAmmuEi-6R7QAB_uQo0ziFQDSzr2fAk1_cj-N9UvmU16KiUF6TvxlxD4y7I__SQxM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-11+at+4.18.02+pm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYWEhsnehLJXcK-ghZ47gWjgKHeyw7JwVwbzHyqQ7jk6cuHcsNjaEbw7Yh7ns9GToJ1t-hHyPbHxFAmmuEi-6R7QAB_uQo0ziFQDSzr2fAk1_cj-N9UvmU16KiUF6TvxlxD4y7I__SQxM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-06-11+at+4.18.02+pm.png" height="481" width="640" /></a></div>
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PBLs are an evolving part of the curriculum at Hobsonville Point School, and it is student voice that is driving them. We have developed a curriculum model to help demonstrate how they fit into the big picture of what we do and they seem to be playing a big part in us living out our values. Personally, it is the energy that they create and students engaging authentically in some of the core basic and also dispositional growth that excites me. Most of all they are fun! On the front of the slide below, you can see students who recently organised, planned and ran a gala day to raise funds for their E.O.T.C experiences. It is a great example of a collaborative, student lead PBL that had a real impact on them as learners.<br />
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Recommended sites:<br />
<b>Bob Pearlman</b><a href="http://www.bobpearlman.org/BestPractices/PBL_Research.pdf" target="_blank"> PBL Best Practice</a> Good light read, research paper, on core best practice for PBLs<br />
<b>BIE</b> <a href="http://bie.org/objects/cat/videos">http://bie.org/objects/cat/videos</a> (Great explanation of PBL's) and associated resources for students and teacher<br />
<b>Thom Markham <a href="http://www.thommarkham.com/index.php/edge-ucation-blog/latest" target="_blank">Blog</a> </b>Educational specialist with PBL, good tips for effective practice<br />
<b>Century EdTech WordPress</b> <a href="http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/pbl-series-driving-questions-students-uncovering-amazing-content-through-inquiry/" target="_blank">Driving Questions</a> Excellent for getting students to have depth in their inquiries<br />
<b>Discover Design </b><a href="http://www.discoverdesign.org/design/process" target="_blank">The Design Process</a> Great graphics and examples of the design process in action<br />
<b>Edpopular </b><a href="http://www.epopular.com.sg/my-kid/how-kids-learn-problem-based-learning" target="_blank">Problem Based Learning</a> explain the process for problem based learning and why it is useful<br />
<b>Edutopia</b> <a href="http://www.edutopia.org/blog/20-ideas-for-engaging-projects-suzie-boss" target="_blank">Suzie Boss - 20 Engaging Ideas for PBLs</a> Great site for links to PBLs and sparking ideas<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/35726678" width="476"></iframe>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930657403258002034noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690265649201274265.post-56742418777007436032014-05-27T15:51:00.000-07:002014-05-27T15:51:27.192-07:00How do we honour the key competencies?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy_FAbRxB7KA--atDigl0Pi8OkLfDR1fGYIcp6ChWZ-4VRVA9g2dLiJIuByRCz_ZQhzhUujuWn5zbY4SWtpfA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Prof Guy Claxton </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">'What building learning power does...'</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">You don't have to go far, to find research that discusses the skill sets that children need to grow, to be successful during these times of exponential growth. As educators, we are in the privileged yet challenging position of helping to prepare children for jobs that researchers predict do not yet exist and we are on the cusp of change that will occur at a rapidly increasingly pace. Jane Gilberts, 'Catching the Knowledge Wave' discusses the concept of knowledge and how a traditional education system does not necessarily support the development of the skills that will be needed to be successful. Readings like this have made me sit up and sit up, pay attention and reconsider.</span></span><div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">So, what skill sets are we growing? When I was preparing myself for the exciting (yet slightly overwhelming position, if I am to be honest) of joining the foundation leadership team at the yet to be opened Hobsonville Point Primary, I found Guy Claxton's work to be very useful in shifting me from thinking purely curriculum areas to a more holistic view that included thinking about the possibilities of developing dispositions. It also helped me begin the reflective process of questioning, why we do what we do in schools and provoked thoughts on the possibilities of redesigning what school looks like. Statement's such as,</span><i style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"> "The school I'd like would be one whose primary aim was to teach me how to live...Today, academic knowledge has become the sole interest of many school, and few (teachers) are daring enough to abandon the exam rat-race for the job of creating thinking, adult individuals." (Chrisa, 16) </i><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">helped me to shift my mindset.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">In terms of process, I had to start by reflecting honestly on what I though I knew, then begin dreaming big then be challenged by Daniel, my principal around dreaming even bigger and have this vision clear in my mind before even considering dispositions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The position I was in at the time, was I was fortunate to be moving into a brand new state of the art, modern learning environment. We had many discussions around the fact that the environment itself would be good enabler for these skills to be grown (BYOD, open-plan etc) but without a dispositional curriculum working alongside an academic the impact would not be great. Also, a huge factor would be on teacher actions supporting the development of these dispositions. For example, you cannot grow self managing students without freedoms.</span></span><div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The New Zealand Curriculum places the Key Competencies at the front however in my opinion a lot of teachers struggle to create opportunities, within traditional systems, to provide opportunities for children to grow these skills. I have reflected on my own practice and I realise now that my honouring of the key competencies has been, in many cases, at surface level. There are many reasons for this but I believe that pressure around national standards and still having the claws of curriculum coverage in my back has not helped. It is exciting to know that we do have a curriculum that gives us the freedoms to create experiences for children that are rich and empowering if we are brave, open to change and prepared to change then we can create really rich and powerful learning experiences for children.</span></span><br /><div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">So, what do we do at Hobsonville Point Primary? We have designed an emerging curriculum that places a dispositional curriculum alongside an academic curriculum. I say emerging, as we are constantly reviewing the practices as we evolve. We have started with dispositions, as this is what we value and after a year and a half of operation are beginning to explore essence statements for each of the learning areas.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">So, how do we do it? Teachers plan through a concept that is directly related to NCREL 21st Century Skills, identify dispositions to be experienced, reflected on and then make curriculum links. Concepts fall out of these links to be explored. The students are immersed into a 'world they do do know, they do not know' then through capturing interests and passions students delve deeply into new knowledge and learning. They do this in various ways such as Project Based Learning, problem Based learning, Inquiry and Social Action Projects to name a few.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">What are the dispositions H.P.P values? </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">We have identified:</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">researching</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">reasoning</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">questioning</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">reflecting</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">self knowledge</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">resilience</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">self motivation</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">perserverance</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">social confidence</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">courage</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">coachable</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">noticing</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">collaborating</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">listening</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">balance</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">imagining</span></span></li>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">At the time we were exploring the dispositions, we had been profiling our staff using the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) which is a system to measure and describe thinking preferences in people.</span></span></div>
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<h3 style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #5f5f5f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
Overview Of The HBDI®</h3>
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The world’s leading thinking styles assessment tool, the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument® (HBDI®) is the assessment at the core of Herrmann International’s Whole Brain® Thinking approach. Developed in the 1970s by Ned Herrmann, then a manager at General Electric, more than thirty years of research and innovation stand behind the validity of the HBDI®.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">
<img align="right" alt="" border="0" height="212" src="http://www.hbdi.com/uploads/100026_products/100689.png" width="193" />The 120-question HBDI® assessment, which is administered by an<a href="http://www.hbdi.com/WholeBrainProductsAndServices/Certification/index.php" style="color: #009966; font-size: inherit;">HBDI® Certified Practitioner</a>, evaluates and describes the degree of preference individuals have for thinking in each of the four brain quadrants, as depicted by the Herrmann Whole Brain® Model.</div>
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The basis of Whole Brain® Thinking and all Herrmann International learning modules, the HBDI® teaches you how to communicate with those who think the same as you and those who think differently than you. Once an individual understands his or her thinking style preferences, the door is open to improved teamwork, leadership, customer relationships, creativity, problem solving, and other aspects of personal and interpersonal development.</div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">As we value growing the whole self we used this model as a frame to organise the dispositions. The dispositions look different in each quadrant. For example, a student demonstrating 'perseverance' in relationships looks very different to a child who is been perseverant in their ideas or organisation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">We developed a curriculum model that places our values at the centre then the dispositions fall out of the four areas of self. There are natural links between the key competencies and the four quadrants as shown below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The four quadrants are:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Theoretical,</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Organisational</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Interpersonal</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">and Experimental self.</span></span></div>
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