Unleashing our People Powers

This year we have been embedding a revamped School Wide Values System. It's foundation lies with...

The Four Practices of The FISH! Philosophy

Be There

Be emotionally present for people. It’s a powerful message of respect that improves communication and strengthens relationships.

Play

Tap into your natural way of being creative, enthusiastic and having fun. Play is the spirit that drives the curious mind, as in “Let’s play with that idea!” You can bring this mindset to everything you do.

Make Their Day

Find simple ways to serve or delight people in a meaningful, memorable way. It’s about contributing to someone else’s life—not because you want something, but because that’s the person you want to be.

Choose Your Attitude

Take responsibility for how you respond to what life throws at you. Your choice affects others. Ask yourself: “Is my attitude helping my team or my customers? Is it helping me to be the person I want to be?

We have endeavoured to integrate the People Powers into the everyday language of the classroom. We are constantly making reference to them, whether it be as part of setting task/expectations/responsibilities; during the lesson, praising students in showing their people powers through their learning or as a gentle reminder of the need to show them, when getting akonga back on task.
Our KiwiCan Instructor has made reference to our People Powers in other schools. She has commented on how our akonga are so fabulous at being able to identify our People Powers, but also give examples of what that might look like… from the 5 year olds to the 11 year olds. This is in contrast to other schools that she works in, where many children struggle to remember all of the school values, let alone what they represent.
It has been identified that while our students are very good with declarative knowledge of the People Powers, they need to further develop their functional knowledge, as they don’t often put it into practice in everyday school life. This is a common theme with the learners and something that we are finding a hurdle throughout all aspects of learning, whether it be core curriculum or the playground. This is the next challenge. How do we best transition our learners from being able to merely articulate what the People Powers are and give examples, towards it being functional knowledge that is visibly embedded into their everyday interactions throughout the school.

Pat Sneddon visits the Hornby Cluster

It was great to have a reminder from Pat Sneddon, on the importance of the work we are currently undertaking in order to drive the shift in our Teaching & Learning, towards a future focus.

https://plus.google.com/+MarkMaddren/posts/edvgwsEgL7S

Here's his inspirational ULearn presentation:


The transformational journey to improve student achievement through public good partnerships in Manaiakalani at Tamaki from EDtalks on Vimeo.

ULearn blog

Pat Sneddon visits the Hornby Cluster

It was great to have a reminder from Pat Sneddon, on the importance of the work we are currently undertaking in order to drive the shift in our Teaching & Learning, towards a future focus.

https://plus.google.com/+MarkMaddren/posts/edvgwsEgL7S

Here's his inspirational ULearn presentation:


The transformational journey to improve student achievement through public good partnerships in Manaiakalani at Tamaki from EDtalks on Vimeo.

ULearn blog

We value Whanau

Implementation of School wide values system - PEOPLE POWERS

Is the teacher supporting learners to identify when they are choosing a positive attitude in the way that they respond to their learning?

Presentation to Parents on Blogging

A meeting was held for parents to keep them up to date and aware of whats going on within the classroom, as we move more and more digital.

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.

The Evolution of our Learning Environment

Term one has seen a constant evolution of our learning space. Our overarching focus for this term has been "Our Place Our Space". With the new 'holes in the walls' and having 43 learners and two teachers within one space, we felt it was important that the kids had an understanding of how each space should be used and how learning should occur in that space. 

The angle we approached this from was to have the learning spaces designed by the learners, for the learners.

When a space wasn't working particularly well, or wasn't being used in the way it was designed to be used, we challenged the students to evaluate it and use critical thinking in regard to whether the space needed to be modified or the learning behaviours modified within that space.

One of the spaces that has been a constant 'problem' has been our cave. It had previously been used an an office/withdrawal space. Before the school year started, a window was created in order for this to be used as a learning space. It began with tables for people to collaborate, but it was being used as an escape room. 'Escape' as in 'escape from learning' (lets hide away and chat about anything BUT learning).

Inside 'The Cave'

Individual desks in the Quiet Space - known as The Cave (through the glass)

We had booth-like individual desks in one of the classrooms, with boards between them to minimise distraction. The learners chose to move these into this cave, creating a silent space to work in. With such an emphasis on collaboration, we've found that learners are hesitant to use the space in case they want to talk about their learning, as they'd need to leave the room!

Today, some of our learners utilised this space for their reading tasks. One of these students had headphones on, in order to listen to music while they worked on task... They don't tend to be able to maintain focus in a silent space.

The Creative Space

What was the old cloakroom... has been turned into a Creative Space. With lino on the floors, it lends itself to being a wet area when required. It also makes clean up easy. A large table, which is half painted in blackboard paint, is often used by a group who are collaborating on a task or who want to work individually on a group task, with the ability to discuss the tasks/learning as they go. This is a space that always has people in it.

Mrs Raisin's Teaching Space

I don't have a jelly bean table for group instruction and I have struggled to find a way to configure tables to get a practical group teaching station. I have found it easier to get groups together on the floor, usually in a circle. The kids turned one of our couches around so that it backs onto my teaching space. This has worked really well in that it minimises distraction for learners in both spaces, while creating a sound buffer. These boys knew I wasn't going to be pulling out a group so took advantage of using the space. In 'the old days', the sight of a group of boys sitting like this would automatically arouse suspicion! I've found that boys in particular, often line themselves against a wall like this. They work on their own learning, or a collaborative document, but are able to confer with each other, in a way that they can easily see the person's screen next to them. They can learn tricks and tips off each other and get feedback immediately, rather than having to move to see/show each others work.

Pair Space

This is a space is used by individuals or pairs. The table has a writable surface (whiteboard paint on a standard table).

Wonder Wall; Group Space; Stationary

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