Finding the silver lining

In Auckland, we find ourselves once again in the learning & working from home situation. Although this is disappointing after returning to relative freedom, I know we are hugely fortunate compared to many places in the world, and we can continue our lives using the power of digital technologies. I also believe that every cloud has a silver lining, and there have to some awesome things to come from lockdown 2.0!

At the beginning of this term, I started working with two classes who are new to Chromebooks at Edmund Hillary School. Their teachers were really keen to support learners to share the learning they have been doing at home, but we knew these students were not yet ready to be introduced to their own blogs. I knew that we could use email to post to the class blog, but I also wanted to support students with the process of writing a blog post by using 'cues' for each section. Working closely with one of these teachers, I created a form that students could complete when they were ready to share their learning. The questions in the form are designed to guide learners through the thinking process ofcrafting a blog post. 

Behind the scenes, I created a template for the blog post, which I connected to the form responses using the Autocrat add on. The merge job is set up so that each time a new response to the form is submitted, an email is sent to the class blog so that it appears as if student work is published straight away. On their learning sites, teachers will embed a rewindable demo to show students how to complete the form, and a link that students can use as frequently as they need.

Click on the image above to see the learning Kylie's students are sharing to their class blog

Throughout this process, I asked myself whether my work would be empowering for learners or whether I was doing the heavy lifting and therefore disempowering them. On reflection, I believe that this type of support is empowering, as it is scaffolding students towards ever increasing ownership of their learning. I think of it a bit like the way we introduce children to sports; initially we want them to achieve success so we keep the goals close and anticipate any major hurdles. As skills and knowledge are developed, we make the goals higher, the court larger, and we introduce 'twists' such as the stepping and contact rules that teach our young people to be more responsible for being in the right place at the right time. 

Normally when I work in classes where students don't yet have their own blogs, I ask the teacher to share a few examples of student work to the class blog. I'm wondering if in future, I might set up this type of system to enable sharing right from the start. What do you think?

If you would like my support to use any of the resources that I have talked about, or if you can see other ways this might be helpful, please let me know in the comments!

Pushed and Stretched

Learning is the thing that drives me, so I love working in a role where there are constant challenges and opportunities to improve. I approached the planning for my Cybersmart lessons at the beginning of the year with the intention of offering differentiated tasks and outcomes for students, depending on their previous experience. Last year I had noticed that the relatively high rate of teacher turnover in our cluster meant that some students were in their second or third year of having a teacher who was new to the cluster, so they had already 'done' many of the lessons previously and told me they found Cybersmart boring. Ouch! At the same time, new students enrolling through the year may have had little experience using devices for their learning, let alone creating, sharing and following the Kawa of Care.

I had noticed when Kelsey from the Uru Manuka cluster shared her planning that she had lessons for those new to Chromebooks and those who had used them before, great idea! During term 1 I used that strategy to develop my planning, which seemed to work really well, especially in a year 3/4 class where most of the year 4s were seeing me for the second year in a row. I wanted new teachers to have clear instructions for what was expected of them, and for teachers who had previously received in-class support to feel confident flying solo. Everything was ticking along fairly well and then COVID.

The challenge of taking in-class support to a remote model created the opportunity to zero in on what exactly we are trying to achieve in our role as facilitators. We want to support teachers effectively in developing their skillset and their mindset as they make the transition to teaching in a 1:1 environment and enacting the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy. We also have responsibility for supporting the young people in our schools to understand and demonstrate what it means to be a smart learner. In addition to this we want to incorporate the fruits of knowledge that have been borne through Manaiakalani's partnership with the Woolf Fisher Research Centre; affordances and efficiencies of  digitally managed learning, t-shaped literacy and high leverage teaching practices.  Doing all of these things justice is no mean feat.

I made some changes to my planning for term 2 based on the knowledge that 'in-class support' would be happening remotely. Taking inspiration from the quality blog post rubric, I pitched lessons at 'beginner', 'stepping up' and 'confident' levels. Each lesson included rewindable content, step by step instructions and an introductory video. Mark and Sharon from Te Ara Tuhura cluster built on what I had started by incorporating UDL principles to make the lessons more accessible for all learners. I was a little confronted at first that I was being pushed to consider further elements that hadn't been included in my planning. At the same time I was excited to be bouncing ideas around with team members who had a shared purpose and brought diverse experience and perspectives.

 

Te Rito | Stepping up Lesson 1 Task board

When it came time to plan our programmes for term 3, it felt like we had organically shifted from a form of retrospective collaboration to a more proactive approach. Working together, we have created a set of five lessons each at beginner, stepping up and confident level. The expectation is that teachers who we have been working with from the start of the year will tag team by planning and leading every second lesson. Follow up lessons can reinforce or extend the previous week's learning or revisit something from earlier in the year. When planning these lessons, we tried to think about the development of our students from kākano (the seed), through te rito (the shoot) to puāwai (the blossom). By providing supports such as task boards, video and audio we hope that our young people will be empowered and engaged whatever their year level at school or experience level with the Cybersmart curriculum. Putting our planning into action this week, I was thrilled with the way students responded. It was great to see cooperation and collaboration happening, to hear discussion and negotiation and to feel the buzz of classes engaged in their learning.

Students from Room 11 at Edmund Hillary School collaborate on their Cybersmart learning.

By working together I really believe we have achieved far greater depth and quality than any of us could have achieved individually. I am certain that we have improved the learning experience for our young people, but I am also mindful of the impact on the teachers we are guiding. The amount of work that went into planning these lessons is considerable, and I worry that some teachers may be overwhelmed to think that this is the expectation for them. Can we plan less but do it better? In doing so, might we clear the way for students to take greater ownership of their learning, creating and sharing?

As always, I'm already thinking about next steps. Each of us gauges the quality and impact of our lessons when we are in the classroom, which is more difficult if the lessons we plan are in classrooms across the country at the same time. I would love to be able to 'debrief' weekly as facilitators to highlight the aspects of the lessons that have worked well and what could be improved. It would also be great to gather feedback from teachers who have taught the lessons in their own classes independently of the facilitator. I would love to hear any suggestions for how we can keep the conversation flowing, and how we can continue to enrich the learning of our teachers and students through the power of collaboration. Being pushed and stretched might feel uncomfortable in the moment but the depth and reach we gain from working together surely make it all worthwhile. 

"That's the beauty of collaboration. You get pushed and stretched to go where you'd never go otherwise."

- Licia Perea