Guerrilla warfare

Wikipedia describes Guerilla warfare as "a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants ... fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military". Due to their size, they tend to avoid head-on confrontations, focusing instead on very targeted attacks including sabotage, ambushes, and hit-and-run tactics. 

I often wonder about guerilla warfare as a metaphor in education... 

When education attempts to make large-scale shifts, such as by introducing more Mātauranga Māori in the curriculum, there are those people who hide in the shadows and staunchly defend their existing territory. You might even be able to think of examples where someone deliberately sabotaged a project, or planned an ambush to derail an initiative.

Of course, we can use Guerrilla techniques for the positive too. Just think of the Guerilla Girls and how they have done this in the art world. The photo I have selected to share today reminds me of the guerilla girls a little. It is a simple action I have taken that did not require permission, lots of infrastructure or resources, and was a one-person action that impacted a larger group. What did I do? I just made a small sticker for each staff members' computer so that it is easier for staff to identify various priority learner groups when they take the roll. It is a simple action, but it really helps people know who the students in front of them are. What other small things can we do as leaders that to reduce the cognitive load for our colleagues to make it easier for them to do their jobs effectively? 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Learner agency rubric

Our community of learning has been focussing on increasing learner agency across our schools. We have developed rubrics to help us track our progress in doing so. The photo above shows a staff activity where teachers were asked to think of examples of existing practices in our school that promote learner agency. We then collected some data about where teachers felt we were on this rubric to help us set professional learning school goals for next year. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Bones

 

The misinformation around COVID and vaccination has particularly highlighted for me the importance of ensuring that science needs to be more inclusive. This year I've been trying to assess science in more ways than just writing. One of the ways that I believe science excludes students is that it relies too heavily on writing to communicate an understanding of scientific ideas. Hence, this year I designed and taught a unit called Bones. We focused on creating models and representations of bones. This illustration was produced by a year 10 student. Pretty amazing right? 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Elwyn Richardson

 

The pottery work in this photo is some of the artworks produced by the students of Elwyn Richardson. If you don't know, Elwyn was an influential educator both in New Zealand and internationally for the impact his educational philosophy had. I was lucky enough to get to see some of these artifacts in person earlier this year when I visited the University of Auckland's Epsom Campus. I include this photo here because it is a good reminder that sometimes we have to break the rules to succeed. It is when we break the rules that we are able to break free from racist institutions. It is when we break the rules that we see innovation occurring. However, knowing when to break the rules and when not to requires wisdom. So just how does one acquire wisdom?

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Power

 

Today's photo is from my PLD journal. As you can see I do like a bit of bullet journaling. The notes on this page are from a PLD session lead by Perry Rush. I was reminded again about why I think the idea of a student-centered focus in education is problematic as it still results in an imbalance of power structures. I am more interested in how I might become a genuine partner and collaborator in the learning journey of a student. My reasons for shifting to this position are long and complex. But in a nutshell, our society is full of stories that show what happens when there is an imbalance of power. I talk more about how I came to reframe how I thought about power sharing in the classroom in this post. In particular, I talk about how I am increasingly convinced that a lack of power contributes significantly to the disparities we see in the academic achievement of Māori and Pasifika students. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Every kid needs a champion

Hobsonville Point Secondary School (HPSS) uses an advisory model for pastoral care (informed by the work of  Dennis Littky and Eliot Levine). We call these pastoral groups hubs. The young people in this photo are my responsibility for their time here at HPSS. I work to help them succeed in whatever goals they set. I work hard to help them feel like they have a place here at school where they feel they belong, and where there is an adult who will always have their back while having high expectations of them. Or in the words of Rita Pierson; "every kid needs a champion". And that is exactly what I work hard to be for these students. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)." 

Tiritiri Matangi Island

Today's photo is of a takahē on Tiritiri Matangi, the bird sanctuary which is located in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, 3.4 km east of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula in the North Island and 30 km northeast of Auckland. Earlier this year I visited the island sanctuary with my level 2 biology class. This photo is a reminder that experiencing learning with all your sense is always powerful. But where the deep learning happens is where that experience is then used to inspire deeper inquiry. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)."

Photo essays

One of the things that frustrate me about our current education system is that it has a bias toward using writing as a means to represent learning. Students are asked to write essays, write reports, write an email, write a letter, write a story. In science, this is particularly evident through the prioritisation of exams, tests, and reports that remain fixed as one of the primary means to assess students (not in all contexts but in many). I have a hunch that this bias contributes to the lack of cultural and gender diversity represented in science fields. In response, I wanted to spend some time this year emphasising some other modes of communicating ideas in science. The photo above was taken by a student as part of their photo essay about climate change. Here is the task I used to scaffold students in their photo essays. 

("It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)."

Ngā tuna me ngā arawhata - eels and ladders

 

Two photos today, but of the same thing. One of my roles is as an Across School Leader for our kāhui ako of 12 schools. As we come to the end of the year, the teams I work with will be reflecting on the impact they have had in 2022. To help those conversations along I have reinvented snakes and ladders. Firstly, since we don't have snakes in New Zealand I changed it to eels. Secondly, on each open space there is a question to prompt deeper reflection about the focus of each team's inquiries this year. When you land on the space, you will need to answer the question you have landed on. 

"It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...)."

Battleground - generating inquiry questions

Students in this photo are playing Battleground. In order to have agency in their learning, students need to be able to ask good questions. I invented this game as a fun way to have students practice generating questions. When playing this game students can develop their critical thinking through both generating questions and the strategy that they try to use in order to win the game. 

PS: It's been a little while since I've blogged regularly so to get back in the habit, I thought I would share one photo every day for the remainder of the school year to capture some of my learning, reflections, and creations for 2022. Each photo is accompanied by a short caption. The idea is to keep it short, simple, and reflective. I would love for people to join me - if you do, make sure you include #edphoto22 on whatever platform you share it (Twitter, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram, wherever...).