Room 78 at South Hornby: A Winning Idea!

Room 78 at South Hornby: A Winning Idea!: Canterbury DigiAwards

Nadia @ South Hornby School: Our special place

Nadia @ South Hornby School: Our special place: This is a photo of our new learning space "The dining room" this space used to be called the cave because it was a place where...

How to: Mindshift towards MLE

I'm a huge believer in the embracing of the Mindshift. I love this blog post regarding Modern Learning Environments vs Modern Learning Mindsets. Four Seasons in One Kiwi Blog Our journey, while it is part of a road towards a new build in post-earthquake Christchurch, is encapsulated by this idea. We have created flexible learning spaces within our old single cell classes. Yes, we now have holes in the walls... however we began the mindshift towards creating flexible spaces long before we left our single cells!

At the beginning of last year, just four terms ago, I too had name labels on desks. I had painstaking trawled over positioning of students. I over thought combinations and configurations. I spent hours perusing templates, inserting the perfect font, laminating and utilising the guillotine...

The initial process went a little something like this (insert background music here):

Step 1: Remove labels from tables.

Step 2: Rethink furniture. I hauled in a coffee table I'd made when I was about 17. As other classes were clearing out surplus furniture, I grabbed group tables as they were being moved out in order to replace my older flip top desks. A table with wheels that had previously been used to store art supplies on, was now a table for learners to work at.

Step 3: Justify. Every item  in the room had to justify it's place. I calculated how many spaces I had for learners (coffee tables could house two comfortably) I initially didn't count the mat as a learning space... I only counted table surfaces. Remove surplus desks - I'd always had a couple of independent desks people could opt to work at. Now these were incorporated within the 'seat-count'. The sudden realisation of space was invigorating! Yes, I encountered reluctance. With the move to tables and choice of seat, as opposed to the individualised desks, came the sudden problem of where to put all the stuff that was in their desks. Now, this seems like a really obvious thing to have had to consider... but I was in the throws of excitement in wanting to get cracking with this.

• I'd planned for books - I went back to using nail boxes like I had in a new entrant room! 
• Pencil cases proved a nightmare - I ended up putting them on a shelf at the back of the room.
• Library books - we tried a shelf with individual bookmarks; keeping them in their school bags... The perfect solution proved evasive...
• What to do with work that was in progress... - This was kept in their assessment clearfiles.

These were just a few of the things that initially cropped up. The biggest change was certainly within my own mindset. Every management strategy that was highlighted in Teachers College had to be reevaluated. 

Shift to Term 4...

Suddenly, I was fresh off the plane from ULearn... about to get 15 chromebooks in my classroom (meaning 1:1 devices); Hapara Teacher Dashboard; and straight into a three week syndicate stint in a newly created learning environment with three classes and three very different teachers. 

It was huge... It was mind-blowing... but it was incredible! (Why didn't I blog about it then! - probably because I was too busy!)

Hapara Teacher Dashboard got me through a few 

It was a fantastic taster towards moving towards co-teaching. We worked out the foibles that could make things fall over... and they generally had nothing to do with the actual teaching. Relationships, Assumptions, Fears/Insecurities... they appear to be the biggest hurdles.

Fixed versus Growth Mindset

So, I took the test... I was brutally honest! It made my think about some of the questions we had the students answer today, in a survey created for our GCSN... there were definite similarities. Obvious reminder: The work ethic and resiliance we demonstrate and model to our students impacts imensely on the habits they themselves develop and emulate.

Here's the summary, based on the results of my survey:

You understand that your intelligence is something that you can increase. You care about learning and you’re willing to work hard. You do want to do well, but you think it’s more important to learn than to always score well. This is what we call the “growth mindset.”

Even though you have a good foundation, there are some areas where you could benefit from learning how to cultivate your growth mindset practices. For example, you may seek challenges and perform at a high level, but sometimes feel uncomfortable with criticism even if well-intended, or be rather hard on yourself for mistakes. You may have more potential than you are using! People who believe that they can increase their intelligence through effort and challenge actually get smarter and do better in school, work, and life over time. They know that mental exercise makes their brains grow smarter—the same way that exercise makes an athlete stronger and faster. And they are always learning new ways to work smart and build their brains.

A growth mindset is something that you can continue to develop throughout life. Would you like to find out how you can strengthen your growth mindset and reach your full potential? Visit www.mindsetworks.com to learn more.