Empowering students to own their learning

John Spencer's and A.J Juliani's book, "Empower. What happens when students own their learning" has come at the right time for me. 

With Chapter headings like;

• Our job as teachers, parents and leaders is not to prepare kids for 'something;' our job is to help kids prepare themselves for 'anything'. 
• Assessment should be fun. No, really, we're serious.
• The system should fit the student instead of the student fitting the system.

it's easy to get a sense of the key messages within the book. Couple those key messages with some funky, non-traditional layout and this book lives up to it's title. 

The book itself empowers the reader.

A key message for teachers considering how to Empower their learners starts with asking:

What decisions am I making that students could make for themselves?

It's  a shift from a compliance mindset to a self-directed mindset.

So, how to get active learning? It doesn't happen by accident. It isn't about guiding from the side, it's guiding on the ride. Spencer and Juliani quote guides like Gandalf, Yoda and Ms Frizzle as examples of guides on the ride.
Remembering that when a student doesn't know what to do in Maths we show them, when they don't know what to do in writing, we show them, then the same needs to apply when a student doesn't know how to self-start or self-manage - we need to show them. We teach them along the way, when they signal they need help. (This might not come from the student actually asking for help)

We're sometimes fearful to "release" ourselves enough from what we think we need to do as teachers and that students who have choice in their learning can end up doing nothing meaningful, and I've seen this happen. (Think of the student who looks very busy on their device but achieves nothing).
A recent post called, "Swim a bit Deeper" offers some great ideas about how we can ensure students are involved in worthwhile self-directed projects of work.

So, where to from here for me? I'm thinking ahead to our next step in Inquiry learning at Winchester School and how we might move from Inquiry time to Inquiring classrooms. What will be involved in making this transition?

• Teachers will need to have a similar mindset to mine.
• Get copies of the Empower book for others to read
• A 6 year journey at our school might need to have stages: Ignite, Launch, Explore.
• Map what needs to happen at each stage to develop students who truly can own their learning
• Work with staff to develop "smorgasbords" for independent learning activities
• Model this approach through the professional learning programme for teachers
• How might I give choice and ownership to teachers of their professional learning?

It's a bit of a scramble of ideas, but from this will come clarity as I think through my reaction to the "Empower" book.

This self-starter is under way.

(Read the book and you'll get it)

Personalising the learning app

I think there's still a bit of confusion for some over the term "personalising" learning. 

“Make Learning Personal” (Bray & McClaskey, 2015) states that in a personalised learning environment, “Learning starts with the learner. Learners understand how they learn best so they can become active participants in designing their learning goals along with the teacher. Learners take responsibility for their learning, they are motivated and challenged as they learn so they work harder than their teacher.”

The challenge for us educators is to find how the system can fit the learner, rather than the other way around.

I've come to think of it like the Stuff App. Here I'm able to personalise my news feed and scroll past the stuff that's not relevant. I can change my view to compact or expanded and I can select local news or whatever category I wish to include. Some might take this for granted but when we think of how News has evolved over time, this app approach certainly allows for personalisation compared to the news on TV. 
When watching TV News, we have to wait for the parts we're really interested in and sit through all the irrelevant parts. Even in a newspaper i'm able to skim over the stuff I have no interest in - although I've had to pay for the whole paper!


I guess a lot more media is heading this way - how many under 20 year olds actually watch "free to air" TV? I'd suggest not many. They've become accustomed to viewing what they're interested in, be it on youtube, or paying for a TV series they can download and watch immediately, rather than waiting for it each week on TV.

So, how might this apply to education?

How might we enable students to pick and choose the parts they need and want rather than having to wait for the "newsreader" to get through all the boring bits or having to wait for the weekly instalment?

Why not let our students download what they want, when they want and have a more personalised experience?

What's the point of School?

Professor Guy Glaxton posed this question in the title of his 2008 book, "What's the point of School?" It's a punchy title that contains a huge question!

I've been writing a section for our school website called, "Our Future Direction" and I'm using this to ask largely rhetorical questions of the parent community at our school. I'm drawing attention to this via the school newsletter and am hopeful that people are considering the ideas ahead of some consultation that we will have about the future direction of our school.

I've come to this. What is the point of school? Things have got complicated. Really complicated. So, it's important to remind oneself of the moral purpose of what I'm doing. For me, and I hate to sound like a Miss World contestant here, but I do want to make the world a better place and to have world peace.

We need to consider what's really important here. What do we value most in education? In school? What are we all about? Why do we do what we do?

Watch the clip below and ask; why do we do what we do? What's the point of school?

Is school just preparation for life?

I kind of understand what people mean when they say that school is preparation for life, that primary school is preparation for secondary school (and therefore secondary school must be preparation for university and so it's university that is preparation for real life). And I guess that means that kindy is prep for school.

My problem with this chain of thinking is that it belittles the significance of the "now" in each instance. What is happening now is important for each learner and is real life to them.

I tend to agree more with Dewey's quote above. The power of this way of thinking is that rather than viewing our work as preparation for the next stage we must consider what will make learners successful now. By guaranteeing their success now, we are probably guaranteeing their success later too. And by success I don't necessarily mean achieving NCEA or going to university.

When I consider what I would deem as being successful in life, I tend to think that someone is doing something they are passionate about, that they have chosen to do (not forced into or fallen into by default), that they treat themselves and others well, that they can contribute in positive ways to their community, they're happy (content) and they have a positive view of themselves.

We must consider if what we are doing is ensuring that learners of all ages are being successful in their life now, not just later.

My belief is that they Key Competencies of the NZ Curriculum are the essential ingredient in the recipe of ensuring our learners experience success both now and in the future. Are our classrooms based on teaching these competencies and allowing authentic opportunities for learners to practice and demonstrate these?

In order for schools to fulfil the vision of actively involved, confident, connected and life long learners then Key Competencies need to be at the fore of our thinking in curriculum design and school culture. It would be pointless to have learners who can only relate to others sometime in the future and who can manage themselves at some later point in their life. Surely, to be successful at school then learners need to be competent at these skills as soon as possible.
Think about your "ultimate learner" or what your top 3 outcomes are for learners in your class or school and then ensure that your class/kura is enabling learners to become capable in this now, not just in the future.

Could we be missing Something?

We're talking about effective practice and how to best meet the needs of our learners. We're looking at how to develop self regulated learners in single cell classes. Evidence available from australia.teachingandlearningtoolkit.net.au/toolkit shows that meta-cognition and self regulation along with feedback as having high impact on learning and achievement.
So we're wondering how to best create the conditions that promotes these outcomes. We're currently pursuing creating self-guided programmes in single cell classes. We are working on having greater learner voice and choice, through having must do and can do activities within various aspects of our programmes. Learners will be involved in the development of some of the learning activities.
Having just come back from a trip to Christchurch that focussed on collaborative teaching approaches, I'm now wondering about the "power of more than one".
We were reviewing our moderation practices today and then I gave a quick report from my trip and the link was made between the two - with more than one teacher about, moderating would be enabled on a more frequent basis, there would be ongoing moderation as learners are discussed between teachers.
I am learning more and more about personalising  learning and collaborative teaching. I am learning about more advantages for both teachers and learners in taking a collaborative approach in an "innovative learning environment". Such ideas as a learner not connecting with one teacher might be avoided in a space that has more than one teacher, learners might gain different perspectives on the curriculum. Teachers worry about not knowing their learners so well. I know this is a real concern in many schools and one parents might have too - who is actually looking out for my child?
We don't feel we know enough yet about this to implement it successfully and there is a high level of angst in my community about taking this approach. So currently we're  looking at how we can ensure our learners are offered all they can be in a single cell setting.
If there's  one thing I hear over and over again, get the pedagogy right, then go from there. We have work to do to ensure that our classes are running how we want, that we all share some understandings of what we are wanting to achieve and how to go about achieving that.
Perhaps some teachers will select to work in a collaboration in the near future. In the meantime, we need to get our pedagogy right about enabling learners to be self guiding and self regulating.

Our approach to professional learning at our school.

We're trialling something new at our school to support professional learning. Professional learning networks have been offered, with each staff member leading one. I lead my first session today about personalising learning, sharing back from my sabbatical. Our next session will be in ten weeks with everyone sharing some practice.
The intention behind the PLNs is for learning needs to be better met, for everyone to have a say in the professional learning programme and for everyone to have a leadrship role. We have an experienced team and most of us have been working together for a few years, so the time and the culture is right.
I am hopeful that over time the PLNs will develop into carefully planned for sessions that run for as long as necessary to achieve set outcomes.
The PLNs have generally been attended by everyone, but they are not compulsory to attend. Some staff have been brave enough not to attend Some sessions which I salute and would encourage. This is the type of thing I want happening in our rooms, so support it fully at this level too.
In addition to these networks, staff are each in charge of their own professional learning budget. This can be used for anything to support their own learning - further study, conferences, travel, etc. We also have a teachers only day where school visits are the focus. Teachers select the schools themselves based on their learning needs. We are sending two teachers to ulearn and these two contribute some of their professional learning funds to the cost of this.
I think that everyone's professional learning needs are better met through this approach, as opposed to our previous traditional staff meeting approach.I have been able to decide my own professional learning programme to support the goals that are set in my appraisal and I think the experience is one that everyone should have. That is, being in control of their own learning. This is what I want for everyone in our school; teachers and children.  I am surveying the staff at the start and end of the year to see if this has indeed better met their learning needs.
Tteaching as inquiry is firm embedded. We are also in the second year of  Accelerating learning in literacy. Our interventions are the basis for our TAIs - we're not doubling up work.
There is additional funding in the professional learning budget for things that pop up along the way, so we don't miss any awesome learning opportunities.

Does a school need a Principal?

Last night I started to write this - there was no way I could articulate what I wanted to express in just 28 minutes, so here's version two.

Initially I'd convinced myself that I might be superfluous - a scary reality. Am I necessary?

I'd managed to reroute admin jobs and saw the BOT taking a larger role in the development of the charter and that type of thing. I even had in independent appraiser working across schools to carry out staff appraisal. Yes it would be a major system change, but it was possible. That's  what I thought.

I looked across the room to the voice of reason, my wife, and told her I'd created a little ripple on Twitter by putting my post idea out there. Her reaction was to ask me who would synthesise everything and provide the direction of the school. That was her immediate reaction. Not - who would parents complain to, not who would run staff meetings or do the bus roster or any of those routine jobs. Synthesising and leading.

And of course, she's right. That's what Principal's do. Through listening to others they're able to bring all the ideas of the students, staff and community together and provide the direction that the school needs.  

So, while there's always a mountain of other tasks to do to keep the school ticking over, there are higher order tasks required. Creating a place that everyone loves being part of is a challenging and rewarding occupation. 

I've convinced myself again. Schools do need Principals. 

Now, what type of Principal does a school need?

Meat and 3 veg in week 4 of the term.

I was raised on meat and three veg. It's what I know. When the daily question arises, "What shall we have tonight?" my mind automatically goes to meat and three veg. I can cook other meals. I prefer to cook other meals. Especially one pot meals. Sometimes I go to cookbooks for inspiration. We have lots of cookbooks. We like the way they look. Some of the recipes are really good and work well. Others have been attempted and failed and not tried again.
I go through phases. I look through the books. Get inspired. Buy fresh new ingredients and go for it. Then it's back to meat and three veg again. Hurumph. What's happened here? I was going well with the new dishes. They were well received and were relatively easy to make. But before I know it, I'm back in the old routine, peeling spuds and carrots. I like spuds. I like carrots. Peas. Meat. No problem, it's just the tediousness of it all. Plus, there's not enough variety. Not to mention you don't have to have meat everyday anyway. But change is hard right. This is what my Dad likes so Mum cooks it. I learned by watching Mum. I cook similarly.  It's engrained in us. What we see we become. How we ate is how we eat. How we were trained to cook is how we cook. And when I run out of ideas, or just can't be bothered, this is what I revert to.

Ooops, just realised that I'm meant to be writing about teaching. Have a great week 4. Avoid the meat and 3 veg ok.

The power of the school trip.

Since becoming a Principal I haven't been on too many trips - something I really miss. I always found it a liberating experience getting out and about. When I worked at a school in town, we were able to walk places - I always found that so exciting and I'd often charge off at the front of the line (I never had patience for the dawdlers at the back) keen to get to where we were going, and explore with my class. I think I had just as much fun looking around at "real people" doing "real stuff" in the "real world" as being on the trip itself.
Sure, they're a tonne of work - paper work, RAMs, parent permission, organising transport groups - the list goes on. Plus it can be stressful. Being responsible for all those children and then making sure the objectives of the trip were met, making sure they got maximum learning opportunities - it was exhausting. Funny how those days were double tiring. But it was always worth it. We know that these days are highlights for our students - why wouldn't they be - they get to learn in a real context. I remember the chatter of excited kids in the car on the way to the place, and again on the way back. It was real. It meant something. It stuck. It was learning.

I was reminded of this when I visited Te Manawa today (our local version of Te Papa) and going through the various sections of local history, NZ history and science part. It was quiet - no school trips today - but it wasn't difficult to imagine excited kids roaming this place, exploring and learning.
I hope that you and your class get "out there" soon. Make it real. The power of the school trip is that it is another place where learning can occur. It may very well present itself as an opportunity to observe your students in regards to key competencies in a real/different context.
Is school just practice for the real world?

Doing a lot of stuff - but is it change?

I've missed a day of writing due to having a friend over for dinner and painting all day. (who thought it was time to change colour of all the windows this summer anyway?)
Our friend is another teacher, of course, and we got talking  education, between the sevens. Along the way she said, "some schools can be doing a lot of stuff, but nothing much changes," and isn't she right on the money there!
I laughed because it's so true. You can be taking part in all manner of pd sessions at school and return to your room and pretty much just carry on in some instances. Of course, effective schools have good appraisal systems to ensure that teachers are implementing school wide approaches etc. But isn't that the problem - sometimes a teacher might only be implementing stuff to be complient. Of course, that's better than the teacher who just carries on regardless, but not a whole lot better. I can think of schools I have worked in previously where we were caught up in a number of different pd programmes and we were all very busy. Did it bring about change or is there an assumption that change will just happen as a result?
I am pretty sure that your school has some schoolwide pd happening right? Who selected this? How was the decision made? Is it something that you personally need? Will it be tailored to your needs? Are you onboard or are you going to be busy doing stuff without bringing change?

If you could choose your own pd, what would it be this year? How would you run it? What would you read, who would you see and what would you do and why? Exciting to think about?

Keep it moving people, please!

I hear a lot of people say, "It was good enough for me" or "we turned out alright" when referring to their school experience. I'm not so sure.
I think back to my time at school, and yes, I will admit it, my aquarian nature did see me day dream my way through at times,but essentially I didn't get it. I had no idea what I was doing or why I was doing it. Don't get me wrong though, I could do it. I enjoyed the SRA box especially at primary school and ruling up my maths book and filling in two or three pages of perfectly layed out equations gave me some sense of satisfaction. Apart from 'process writing' (I was at primary school late 70s and early 80s) I had no choice about my writing. Process writing didn't really work for either by the way. I just wrote rubbish. I've had to teach myself as an adult about such things as verbs and still don't know about pronouns.
I got through secondary school largely unscathed. Missed an A bursary by two or three marks and went straight off to teachers college. All the way through not really thinking about my learning, just doing the work in front of me because it was a means to an end. Becoming a teacher. Getting a job.
My son who is now 21 sailed through school. He was made for the system. Perfect memory. Diligent. He is now in his fouth year at med school. He works hard. It's not difficult though. Things make sense to him. Lucky.
Miss 17 has taken a different course. Equally capable as her older brother, but no interest in academia. She dances. School was boring. The most she enjoyed her learning was doing level two ncea via correspondence last year. She liked working at her own pace. She liked the autonomy. She enjoyed not being at school.
The experience that my older kids got was not too dissimilar to my own. How can that be? We're a generation apart.

I think about little miss 13 months. What will her experience be? I hope things make sense to her. I'm sure school would have to be different for her, to the experience her older siblings got. Wouldn't it? Twenty years down the track, things would have to be different. It would have to be different to my own experience wouldn't it? 40 years later? Surely.

Unbundling

I first came across the term 'unbundling' when reading Supporting future oriented learning and teaching - a New Zealand perspective. For some reason that one term has stuck in my mind more than others from this publication. I wonder if it's because it seems to have so many layers and migt explain why change in some cases is so difficult.
I'll start with myself. To 'unbundle' myself as Principal. Here's my thinking. First of all, I have ideas of what I think a Principal should be and how they should act, what they should do etc. Then there are the ideas and expectations of others - students, parents and colleagues. Where do these expectations ckme from? Usually from our previous experiences right? I've watched and been around several Principals in my time. I guess along the way I've decided that that is what you do and how you behave. I'm not entirely sure that I fit the typical mould, if there is such a thing, but I attempt to be the type of Principal that I believe others would want me to be like. I sometimes ask myself if I'm the type of Principal I would want to work for. Sadly, sometimes the answer is no!
So, unbundling. Where would or should I start? After all, I am the only thing I can change. I can only control myself. What one thing could I attempt to change about myself that might have a positive effect on all those around me? I have no answer, yet. But being aware that to bring about change at all levels of school, to unbundle some of the existing practices that might be holding us/me back, I might need to reflect on what it is I do as Principal, and what I don't do and begin with one idea or behaviour to focus on.
I'm thinking that in order to bring in something new, I will have to let something go. That's the whole idea of unbundling. I want to go back from my sabbatical time, changed slightly, for the better.

What would you wish to unbundle?