Growth at Hobsonville Point

Still working on the A to Z challenge...

So here is G and H for Growth at Hobsonville Point Secondary School: It is my sincerest belief that I can never be the perfect teacher. What I can be, is a teacher who is always striving to get better. And that is something that I hope to teach my students too. To always keep growing. Gaining an excellence in NCEA is great and should be celebrated. But learning should happen after this too. We should be asking what next? Where to now? What is the next frontier? What can I get better at next? So as we near the last week of the first term as Hobsonville Point Secondary School, I want to celebrate our growth. We have grown from being a rainbow unicorn school with no students and lots of ideas, to a school with 120+ students who are certainly the happiest year nines I have ever met. We have one term down and many more to come. With every term, I trust that the team at Hobsonville Point will keep growing our vision, our hopes and our dreams because they are able to collaborate, prototype, iterate, evolve, innovate, question, evaluate and most importantly, learn from mistakes and research.

Determinaton and Enthusiasm

A to Z blogging challenge D and E
D is for Determination: I value determination, persistence, resilience and all the the other nouns that mean toughing things out until you get through. I often find myself frustrated with people due the their lack of determination. So I ask you, how do we build determination, resilience, persistence, toughing it out, stick to it-ness in our students?

I fantastic video that was shared during an #edchatNZ many many months ago was Austen's butterfly. I love sharing this story with my students because it highlights that we do not always get things right the first time, or the second time, or even the third or fourth. What matters is that we keep trying again, and that we seek feedback along the way to improve our iterations. Yet another reason why I love the prototyping culture at Hobsonville Point Secondary School, is because it is representative of the determination by the staff, to make a different model of secondary schooling succeed. And we hope to do so my iterating, prototyping, seeking feedback, refining.

E is for Enthusiasm: A great quote I read recently says that "enthusiasm is a form of social courage" I really like this quote, because it highlights that being enthusiastic is not always easy. I believe that enthusiasm is a choice, and that you can not see the glass half full, unless you choose to. Being enthusiastic is a lot more fun when others are enthusiastic around you. I also notice this enthusiasm in the leaders I admire, they remain enthusiastic regardless, and they collect enthusiastic people around them to increase the momentum and reach of their enthusiasm. So I am reminding myself, to be enthusiastic, as often as possible and then some more.  

Blogging A to Z challenge

One of the modules I teach this term at Hobsonville Point is all about social media, particularly looking at blogs. So because I am inpsired by Ros MacEachern and @AKeenReader, I wanted to give the blogging from A to Z challenge a go - 26 posts in April. I'm a little late but I also know that learning happens a little late sometimes. So here goes...

A is for authenticity: it is my mission and my plea. Make your learning experiences authentic. Especially in maths and science. There are too many textbooks on this subject that help students believe that there is a 'right' answer. The awesome Andrea Henson has done a great Ignite talk about this in science. In maths, I have recently had the chance to see just how much students care about statistics when it relates to how many hits they have on their website.

2013-09-andrea-henson from Emerging Leaders on Vimeo.

B is for best evidence synthesis and bank accounts: I will be spending my weekends reading a lot as I get increasingly closer to finishing my post graduate diploma in education. Sooner rather than later, I will need to decide when I would like to start a masters. But, unfortunately, being an accredited nerd is costly. Is there a scholarship available for accomplished tweeters?

Magic diaries and why you NEED to blog (more)

The iconic image from Charles Darwin's diary
image source

I'm not sure where it came from, but I have a certain fascination with diaries. I don't want to read them necessarily. But rather, the idea that a person can collect their thoughts in one place, seems like it gives the diary almost magical powers. It contains thoughts, ideas, emotions, it documents the ups and the downs. It is a reflection of a person or a journey. Somehow a diary and all its magic has so much character. Sometimes a diary contains iconic thoughts, from before they were famous. Take Charles Darwin for example. This little tree diagram is famous now, and look, it was in his diary. It literally says "I Think" at the top. Here, one can witness the birth of a great thought.

So I have always wanted a diary too. One that has character and magic too. One that you want to read just because it looks like it would contain profound insights. Or one that would contain a mystery. I never knew what to put in the diary though. Talk about life? No. Profound thoughts? Still working on those. I had a few false starts too. But maybe this time is different. This time, I am documenting every thought, question, idea and everything else related to a possible topic for my masters. By July of this year I will be ready to start my masters, IF I can choose a topic. So I decided that this seems an appropriate thing to put in a diary. A book that one day might have character and magic too. Even if the magic is only visible to me. However, I suspect it also doesn't help that my diary of choice is a spiral notebook from Typo that says "life is too short to wear boring clothes".

The thing that really drove home why this particular diary was so important, is a realisation that I made whilst spending my summer holiday nerding it out at university. I realised, that my constant reflections on this blog over the past year or so had made me a better writer. Structuring arguments? Using figures and images to make your point? Connect to other readings? Making your writing concise? Proof reading? All blogging skills. The benefits of blogging doesn't end there. Evidence for registered teacher criteria? Check. Need inspiration for a university assignment? Oh wait, my inspirational thoughts are documented. Ready to inspire again at a moments notice. And these are just the benefits without the extra input you get from occasional comments and Twitter.

Perhaps my blog doesn't contain the profound thoughts of Charles Darwin. But perhaps somewhere in this blog or my "life is too short to wear boring clothes" diary, a masters topic will emerge. Either way, along the way, I know I will become a better learner because of my reflections. And as far as I'm concerned, the better learners are better teachers.

The Reflection Pool in Washington D.C. as viewed from the
Lincoln Memorial. 

"Miss, why are we learning this?"

"Miss, why are we learning this?" When a student asks this question in my class, I know I have messed up. I believe that a student should never have to wonder why they are required to learn something. And no, telling a student that "it will be on the test or the exam" is NOT why they should be learning it and neither is "the result will go on your report". Some things we do in school are much easier to show the relevance, take algebra versus the study of sustainability. Which one would you find easier links for students to relate to?

Lately however, I have become more and more aware that my links to the real world are not sufficient in my hope to engage every student in the classroom. What's more, talking about and showing the links to students certainly do not have the same effects as allowing students to make the links themselves. This of course requires the teacher to step back from sage on the stage and really move into the realm of enabling students to make connections in authentic ways.The extract from Dennis Littky's book, The Big Picture, Education is Everyone's Business, highlights incredibly well what real authenticity might look like, but also, what it might look like if a teacher has enabled their students to make the links rather than telling or showing them.

"The hands on science curriculum I’ve heard so much about turns out to be the kids conducting an experiment showing that Diet Pepsi floats while regular Pepsi sinks. This is learning? No, but to an educator who thinks innovation means simply getting away from the chalk-and–talk and getting the kids involved, it looks good to see everyone in small groups, writing down what they observe. Still, the task isn’t real, and I don’t think there are many kids who really care why one soda sinks and the other doesn’t. 

Here’s a great story about two units done at one of my schools. The first was an election unit, where the kids learned about the current candidates and their stands on things like education and the environment, and then they went into town and actually helped register people to vote. I remember the teacher saying to me, “You now Dennis, the kids did amazing work, really amazing. They registered about 300 people, they really enjoyed themselves. That was a great unit” Everything changed with this teacher’s next unit, which focused on travel. If you had walked into her classroom, you definitely would have agreed that everything looked very good. The kids were all working. They’d each called a travel agent and were planning different trips. They were busy, busy, busy. At the end of this unit though, the teacher came back to me and said, “Every kid got an A on the election unit, but for this one, there were a lot of kids who didn’t do their homework and just weren’t as motivated.” What happened? She wanted to know. What was the difference? The kids knew they weren’t going to go on the trips they planned. It was a good, well thought out lesson. It was very hands on. But it wasn’t real. The work that is done in school looks like real work, but it is not real enough." - From Dennis Littky's The Big Picture. Education is Everyone's Business

The more I read, and believe me, I am reading a lot at the moment, I realise the importance of real world learning. That does not mean learn about the real world. That means we learn in the real world. In the real world, research is step one to help us make informed decisions, solve problems or form an opinion. Research is not an end product. And yes you might become a scientist that does research but how many of our kids become one of those? And what's more, even scientists (and I checked this with my marine biologist and evolutionary geneticist friends) start with research to design their own research project, they use research to design their methods. In the real world we write a letter to a newspaper, a comment on a blog or a tweet, and we send it. Why would one carefully draft a letter, edit rewrite, check grammar and punctuation, ask someone to proofread it for you and then not send it?


So real world, authentic learning... How am I planning on structuring it when I have students again? Well, let me tell you about another exciting pearl of the Hobsonville Point team. The Hobsonville Learning Design Model (or some name like that!).

Although as a teacher I might might find that I already use most of these aspects on this diagram (all drawn directly from the NZC and used to describe the combined learning areas), I realise that often, I stay with the traditional explore, make sense and focus parts. Although I frequently veer off to the generate, test, refine and share parts, perhaps not enough, and in not enough depth. Generate, test, refine and share are the parts where students really gain depth in their understanding as they need to apply knowledge. Now imagine this model, combined with the idea of learning in the real world, and then for good measure, you throw in an aspect of service learning where students are required not only to generate, test and refine, but to do this for someone else. Someone outside the school, in the community, in the world.

But wait, that's not all! Once you have generated, tested and refined, you need to share too. So then you add in this idea of a panel to evaluate the work rather than just a teacher. A panel with perhaps one or two teachers, some peers, an older student, and even the member of the community that the product was for.

Well doesn't that sound far more rigorous and exciting than open your textbook to page 55? Practice makes perfect. But what are you practicing? And how many of your students are learning?

So now do you understand my excitement to start planning for 2014?

Value added

What are the values and the principles of your school? Do you know them off by heart? Or do you have to look them up? I am pretty sure that if you ask any of the teachers at Hobsonville Point that they could tell you what the school's values and principles are. You might say values schmalues. They make little to no impact on the day to day business of teachers. Or do they?

The professional learning team have started working on the appraisal and professional learning programme of our new school. We started with an anonymous survey to get an idea of everyone's past experiences and possible suggestions. These suggestions, as well as the professional learning team's ideas for the appraisal and professional learning were all then tested against our school's values and principles. This, and just about everything else we at Hobsonville Point, is tested against our values and principles. What it means is that everyone is on board with the school's vision in their decision making. But also, that we all understand why we are there. 

The values are at the core of the circle, the principles are on the
 second circle and the practices are on the outside circle.

I am interested to know whether if I looked at an old classroom observation from a previous school and the practices that I had, whether they would support the values of that school directly? Even more so, I wonder if I wrote my own values for education in the centre of that circle, how often my practices do or do not match. The real question though, is whether the values you and I have for education, matches what the students actually need. 

So what values and principles do you have? Are the students' at the centre of your values? And are you living and breathing those values and principles through your practice? 

Disney and Ken Robinson's Lesson - Find Your Tribe

I often (read almost always), think of my life as a Disney movie and as such, carefully consider the lessons to be learnt from Disney. One such important lesson is that one must overcome adversity before you can live happily ever after, think Cinderella and her evil step sisters. Sometimes one needs to take a calculated risk, think Tangled and Brave. Or, as Mator from Cars would teach us, one must often persevere in our attempts to connect with people (or with cars in Mator's case). However, it has come to my attention that I have missed an important Disney lesson. Fortunately, the infinitely wise Sir Ken Robinson pointed it out - find your tribe, because together you will be more and do more.

I started my second week at Hobsonville Point with the mission to catch up on some of the reading that happened before I started there this term. Of course being a TEDster, I began with Sir Ken Robinson's book, The Element. Although he has some fantastic insights about finding your passion, the part that really stuck with me is that of finding your tribe.  The tribe being a group of people that challenge you in a positive way, people that drive you to do more and to be more. Tribes often share a vision and as such, they can question, challenge and motivate. I realised then that I already have a tribe. And an exceptional one at that. My tribe is called #edchatNZ. They have challenged, motivated, questioned and inspired me fortnightly for more than a year now. And fortunately, I think many of the tweeting teachers have found the same.

My dinner has been sitting with me for the last hour. #edchatNZ you have been too valuable, and engaging to eat.
— Christopher Symon (@CJsymon) October 17, 2013

#edchatNZ gosh this tweet stream is moving so fast it's hard to keep up *happy birthday* to this dynamic group of contributors
— Justine Driver (@digitallearnin) October 17, 2013

I suspect that it is due to these teachers on twitter and their impact on my growth and aspirations that I may have found a second tribe to be part of. For two weeks now I have been able to go to work and be surrounded by inspirational personal and professional stories. I have been able to question my visions for education and my classroom with support rather than with the well cultivated cynicism that plagues teachers lounges all over the world. Granted that there are oodles of experience and learning to do from the individuals in any staff room, I have realised that in certain environments, my own thinking becomes limited, lower order thinking if you like. Maybe they will inspire an idea for a lesson or a better classroom management strategy. Maybe they will cause me to go back and look at the way I planned a lesson or a unit and restructure. However, I have found that the right mix of positive, passionate educators in a room, my own thinking, questioning and thirst for knowledge is extended. They keep me awake at night. Whether it is because I lost track of time reading a great book they recommended, researching a new perspective or idea they exposed me to, or simply lying awake at night with all the ideas that have been generated and are now keeping me awake.

Isaac Newton wrote "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants." I am fascinated and curious what the future will bring for all the members of the Hobsonville Team and their students. With such passion, commitment and skill all reigned in for one vision, I think the results will be exciting indeed! 

PS: If you aren't already, I urge you to follow the Hobsonville tribe and #edchatNZ on Twitter!

Project Based Learning - Phase 1 Complete

Late last year, I joined Twitter with a teacher account. Initially this was simply an afterthought. Something else to add to my personal website. The personal website having been an idea that someone suggested to improve my chances of getting a new job. As it turned out, I discovered a world (literally) of connected educators, excited to share, communicate and who were talking about their job as often as I want to. As well as all the new acronyms I now know (GBL, BYOD, BYOT, STEM), I learnt all about PBL (problem based learning) from the outstanding collaborators that roam the PLNs (personal learning networks). And so, I thought I would try this project based learning idea that everyone was raving about. I 'tweeted' that I was hoping to do this and whether anybody had some advice for me. The tweeting teachers did, and sent me some great ideas and readings such as this from Miss Noor.

I let the ideas simmer for a week or so, designed my own PBL task, and then, set it for homework.

I gave the students a goal: Evaluate whether using as much as possible renewable paper combats or aids the effects of global warming. Their assignment then had four parts, each with a different due date: I broke the assignment up into four parts. Part 1 - research the learning objectives, Part 2 - Class discussion, Part 3 - 200 word judgement of the situation in their own words and Part 4 - Designing a promotional item to educate the public on this matter. (For the whole assignment click here) and for the facilitated discussion help cards click here

My thoughts were that at least if this trial fails, then the class time wasn't wasted. We continued with normal science lessons at school; experiments, videos and activities, however, where appropriate I identified the links to the assignment. We also had one whole lesson as a facilitated discussion about our assignment.

PBL wasn't intended to be completed for homework however considering the excellent returns I got and how much I learnt about my students' abilities, I will (and have already started to) do it again. Of course giving the assignment for homework meant that lots of students missed the first due date. However, I am not worried about the missed due dates at all. Only a very small number of students did not return part four, the rest however, completed part one, two and three by the end of term. In addition, over an informal coffee, a colleague at a different school mentioned that her students didn't know anything about global warming despite having just completed a whole assignment about it. She said that all the students did was "copy and paste". Having heard the discussions and arguments my students had about global warming, having seen the opinions they formed in their "200 word judgement" and seeing some excellent presentations, I KNOW that my students learnt something. What's more, each and every one of my students had a newly formed opinion about global warming, each backed up by a different combination of reasons from their research and from our class discussions. I even had written proof of this!

The project also gave me an excellent sense of students understanding of research methods, their ability to process research, how well they manage their time, their presentation and organisational skills, but most of all, how much support students needed to feel comfortable expresssing their own opinions about academic material, not just the opinion that was expected of them.

All in all, a successful trial. Now, can you imagine the power of PBL in the hands of an experienced teacher? Or in my case, with a bit more polishing, tweaking and development?

It seems I have become and advocate for PBL.