A final reflection … for now

I don’t claim to know it all when it comes to Learning by Design, nor do I expect to ever know it all.

However, I can really see the changes in where I was and where I am now, or more appropriately, where we were and where we are now. I think it is important to write learning elements collaboratively. There is something about bouncing ideas off a team, writing with a team and trying with a team, that makes the a learning element so much stronger.

In the beginning, we worked on this temperamental word document. When working collaboratively you had to make sure you didn’t update at the same time as someone else, otherwise you had to try and merge the two documents together. Moving activities up or down, well that caused major issues. And, they were rarely finished. Where was the motivation to finish the learning element when half the bookmarks were ‘errors.’

When I arrived at Lanyon, we had ‘some’ learning elements. I think that was the year we began to write everything up in a LbD. I worked mostly with Rachael on the year 10 learning elements. In my second year, we were able to teach them again, and we did some reflection, not much. It was in term 4 of my second year that the masters program began.

So … we experimented with CGLearner and big big big congrats to Howard and Bill who in the short time (2 years) have made some amazing changes! In the beginning, I wasn’t too sure about it. And now, I love it. I’m not lying when I say that, it had made a massive change to the way we write and it enables us to be even more collaborative.

During 2009 I taught year 7. So I taught all the learning elements that were already created and this year, this has been the golden year, I’ve worked with the year 7 team to update, re-write, and further develop the junior curriculum.

This year, it has felt right to do this. I’ve felt ready. And thankfully, the fantastic Learning by Design Web Planner (CGLearner) has allowed us to do this. As our student, throughout the cluster experience learning by design, it means we need to up the anti. I mean who would believe that a unit written in 2007 for year 9 would be taught in year 7 in 2011? But it is! And our students are more than capable of this.

It feels like we’ve done a massive amount of work! And I think we still have so much work to do. But, this is all the fun stuff! And I love it!

So, on the eve of our last ever elluminate session, I would really like to thank Bill and the University of Illinois for this opportunity. I don’t think without you we would have made such huge steps! And I know that the impact on my education has been massive! So, thank you!

Bridging the gap – Primary to High School

Rita and I are experimenting. As of next week, we will be trialling Quest Atlantis with my year 7 class and with 2-3 representatives from the 3 primary schools. We think that this is important so that we’re beginning to strengthen the relationships between the year 6 students and the high school. The dream is that maybe next year, a new year 7 class or my year 8 class could mentor a full class of year 6′s at the primary schools. With the occasional visit and bonding session, but with a lot of the mentoring happening online. I think one of the pros of the online community is we’re playing with students strengths, we’re also doing learning and we’re encouraging leadership skills. This will match beautifully with our new online learning environment cLc.

HSC – Testing in Australian schools

I actually did the HSC and I was the second year of the ‘newest’ HSC. I think that the HSC is one of the better ‘tests.’ I found that it was really testing my knowledge as opposed to testing what I didn’t know.

Standardised Testing in Australia

This is going to be short …

I don’t like standardised tests.

But, they’re here to stay.

How do I create a balance between doing my job with standardised tests?

I’m working on that one!

a REAL education for a REAL future

I work at a really good school.

A fantastic school!

My issue …. we don’t say it enough to each other or to the kids.

After going to the exec conference, we talked about our issues, what was going on and what we needed to do. One thing really came out at the conference, we are all very passionate about the work we’re doing, the school and most importantly the students.

So, we’re making some changes. Celebrations! We need to celebrate the school more. Cherie and I started with a REAL circle time LbD. The REAL circle time LbD looks at the schools vision,  a REAL education for a REAL future. respectful Relationships, a safe and sustainable Environment, high Achievement and quality Learning. The LbD looks at focusing on these four values, highlighting what they are, what they mean and how we can use them at school.

So we’ve started, now the issue is …. we need to keep going! It is important not lost momentum as the term starts to wear as down. We need to keep celebrating the achievements of our students, we need to keep working on our quality curriculum and continue to praise the students and our staff.

So in the words of Kylie Minogue … Celebration good times, come on, It’s a celebration, Celebration good times, come on, Let’s celebrate.

Intelligence Testing

What can I say? Other than, I hate intelligence testing! In IT tests I come off as completely stupid. I struggle to read the tests correctly. Even when I try to read them I struggle. I don’t get them. I can’t get them. And I know the reason why I don’t get them is because I think I cant. It this type of attitude that hurts my score. My students are similar. They think they’re dumb. They think they’re stupid. They hate it. And this effects their learning.

Ship to Shore

Just a little random …. LeftRightStereo! Awesome!!

Updating a unit – learning something new!

I’ve spoken about this before, so as I sat down again to type up an LbD into CGLearner, I realised again how far we’ve come.

The ‘Fair Go’ unit was a good unit which looked at bullying and discrimination. I was not one of the original writers, however I did teach the unit last year. As I began typing up I was able to add more and more detail. When we used to type the learning elements up in word, we’d type them up with the bare instructions. Often repeating the information on both the student and teacher side. Now, we’re really moving away from the repetition. The student side offers instructions, questions, the tables or retrieval charts. The teachers side is now used to give teaching tips, to add resources, to let teachers know about the purpose of the activity. It also allows for a reflection. We have begun using the reflection part in a variety of ways, reflecting back on the activity. Offering more ideas, tips or things to help. We’ve also used it to give an estimate for how long the activity should take in class. While we are realistic, each teacher won’t teach it for exactly the same amount of time, it gives an idea of how much time it should take.

One massive thing I learnt while typing up this learning elements is that you can now add music and film clips to the learning element. Not just linking to the youtube clip, but actually adding the file to the unit (similar to PDF and word documents). This is really helpful as it allows teachers to share even more resources.

Values of social justice and inclusion

So just a small update. I’m currently in holiday mode and think about what I can do next after the masters program. Can’t stop learning now! At least we’ll still have CGLearner and Learning by Design.

Computers, the internet and our students

Just this week I was talking to a beginning teacher in my curriculum bank. We were discussing the pros and cons of handwriting drafts or typing. After a lengthy discussion, about how we work best at typing, he decided to try the computer labs first. They spent one lesson drafting dot points, putting down page numbers for quotes on paper and discussing their ideas and arguments. And then straight into the computer lab for typing. After an hour and 45 minutes in the computer lab the majority of students have nearly finished their essays. They’ve been able to edit as they go and ask for help while they type. When we compared this to 2 – 3 lessons handwriting drafts and 2 lessons typing, the answer was obvious to us. Computers have made our lives easier, we’ve got them at our school, students are going to be expected to use them in the workplace, this is what our students are used to.

At the same time my students were typing their information reports, they had all the information in their books ready to go, so they were just typing. What I’ve noticed as a teacher is that some of our students are hopeless at word. They don’t know how to do basic formatting. To centre a title the press space bar until they think it is there. They don’t know how to do a simple header or footer (or what it is.) 1.5 spacing is a completely new concept to them. These students are not computer illiterate, they navigate through computer games and websites like pros. I don’t think it is an equity issue, it isn’t about the students who have a computer at home. I think …. word, publisher, excel … are actually heading in the same direction as the pen and paper.

How many assignments have we submitted to Bill as word documents? … none! We don’t even use word to write up our learning elements any more. We’re not only using our wiki to submit assignments but we’re also documenting our research on one. My students can navigate through a wiki better than word.

As I said above, I don’t think it is about who has a computer at home and who doesn’t. I think that our students (see Rachael post new media, new literacy as even more proof) have grown up immersed in a world where computers and new technologies are all around us. Similar to Rachael’s daughter (as talked about in the post) I have three younger cousin who I used to look after regularly. The youngest one is now 8. I remember when he was 5 and I was looking after him and his two older siblings while his parents were away, while I was folding the washing , he found my laptop. He managed to turn it on and begin naviagting his was around. When I found him he was on the internet googling his favourite movie Shrek. Now when I see him, the first thing he does is steal my iPhone from my pocket, find a game and starts beating my high scores (neither of his parents own an iPhone and his older sister is the only one with an iPod and it is an older one not an iPod touch.) So how can he do this? I don’t have an explanation. I do know that when Grandma locked her phone, stopping her from being able to call anyone or receive any calls, he was the one who fixed the situtation. This is not a nerdy child, he is a non stop running, sporty student. If you could read his reports the underlying subtext would be …. has he been tested for ADD?

So why … ? Everything these students do or see is surrounded by technology. I use it in the classroom. They’re parents use it at home. Even tv’s are no longer just ‘on’ ‘off’. They no longer need a computer to access internet and questions no longer go unasked, ‘google’ is now a verb.

So … I think it’s time we started re-thinking our views on children, technology and education, AGAIN!

Just to add …. sorry the information is halfway through this clip. It’s called the one laptop per child project happening in the NT. What I found really interesting was when the children were given the laptops, they were given free time for about an hour. These children who have barely any access to a phone, let alone computers and the internet were able to play, navigate and have a go!

I also found this article quite interesting, Internet and your kids: navigating the boundaries.

Our class visit to Second Life