Why, why, why, why, why?

Kia ora!

This post is another in a series following my MIT ( Maniakalani Innovative Teacher) journey through the design thinking process. If it is the first time you have visited this blog please come along for the ride. I would also value your thoughts and feedback, so please feel welcome to add any ideas to the comments below.

The Five Whys

After creating a proposal outlining the challenge impacting achievement, I was partnered up with the lovely Jo Gormly to look below the surface and investigate the root causes beneath this issue.

The challenge with its following flow of questions is listed below.

Reach for the Moon

Kia ora! Thank you for checking out this blog! 

Last year I was given the incredible opportunity to attend a DFI ( Digital Fluency Intensive) being a teacher within the Maniakalani schools group. This subsequently lead to applying for the 2020 MIT ( Maniakalani Innovative Teacher )  opportunity, an initiative designed to encourage innovative thinking and creating of new 'tools' within education.

Each applicant was required to propose a problem that they had identified within teaching and learning.

My proposal centered around learning through listening in independent groups.




I noticed that as teachers we often grouped children to share and learn together. However, when observing groups in my classroom I noticed that the children's ability to learn from each other was often impeded by social status and a lack of attention or value placed on what another child was saying.

Defining the challenge that impacted achievement took four re-writes to hone and clarify. It now reads:

 

The following deck of slides shares some of my initial thoughts around how I might address the social connection among students in a learning group.



Thank you for reading this post. If anything resonated with you or if you have ideas to contribute to developing a solution please feel free to comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Nga mihi nui

DMIC: Cactus Status

Kia ora and welcome back to another blog post chewing over the topic that has been on my mind lately of status.

This is a continuation of Jodi Hunter's battle against status in the maths classroom and her theories and ideologies related to mathematics and status.

I see what Jodi means. I see status played in many areas of learning. I see status all through life and learning. But just because it is does not mean that it should be especially if it is hindering quality learning and engagement.

Jodi believes that it is the teacher's role to illustrate to the class that every student is capable - not delegating  high status to the high status students - the students who know whether the answer is right or wrong. We want to delegate that maths is the high status here. Maths determines what is right and wrong not human social interaction.

I find this a very difficult thing to do because delegating high status to children who get a correct answer is difficult not to do!

I need to consciously  frame my positive feedback around thinking, explanations, risk taking and questioning. I need to stop having conversations that explain how to get answers and rather listen to the children and choose students who already have a solution to explain and share back rather than choosing a student who has a wrong answer unintentionally thereby unintentionally lowering his or her status.

Jodi suggests a few other strategies:

• Create 'find out what's wrong' questions. Set up maths questions where the children are looking for what is wrong in a question.
• Put the 'onus' on the group. Share back what they heard other's thinking. The pressure is not just on one child's thinking.
• One of my colleagues who is our maths team leader and fabulous at getting her children involved in maths and accelerated in maths came up with the idea of getting the children to write out the problem of the day. "Assign students to write out the question the day before. Give them boundaries so that they are applying what is current in the class. The children then get to teach this and the delegating of mathematical knowledge gets passed to them."
• Give explicit feedback.
• Children's feedback or sharing is much more powerful than teacher talk.
• Get the answer out of the way - now let's talk about why that was the right answer.

Thinking About Strengths

'It is important that no one person has all the strengths.' This should be the motto for group thinking learning and collaboration.

Based on discussions from the group I was sitting with in our DMIC session and Jodi's content I gathered the following ideas to implement.





'It's not the the destination it's the journey.'
Tell the children who want to get the answer that they are wonderful - maybe they are over participators- then re-direct them to think about what strength they contributed to their partner. Get them to explicitly identify which strength that they contributed.

Value the thinking above everything.
When supporting learning give no indication about whether an answer is right or wrong. Rather question whether or not the thinking is right or wrong and revert the students back to the question.
The idea is that the children become comfortable grappling with each other's reasoning and listen carefully to what other's are saying for clues to extend on the problem solving.

Each child needs to have a voice and area of expertise.
It is important that children are aware of what they have that other will value. They need to understand their strength and what they can contribute. This gives them motivation to question the problem instead of simply agreeing with what the 'pen holder' or most vocal child says.
Look for strengths in the children and assign each child their strengths.

These could be in the form of badges:

• pattern person - spots and uses visual patterns
• wonderer - thinks outside the box and wonders about new and different ideas
• picture perfect - draws pictures
• reader - decoder
• super starter - energy booster positive
• equipper - feels comfortable using tactile equipment to create and build thinking
• notator - writes things down
• interrogator - questions thinking
• presenter - shares back to others, speaks comfortably in front of a crowd
• calculator - basic facts strengths
• listener - listens and sums up or repeats to clarify
• detector - makes sure that it is a right strategy or true problem
• speedometer - helps to manage the pace of the group, slows rushing to the answer or speeds the group up.

Motivational, developmental talks help!

Reinforce the the thinking and the team skills that create good mathematicians.
'I like how you are slowing down together. You're really thinking about it and making sure you've got it right in your head. That's what a good mathematician does.'

Pre-correct the likely-hood of attitude upsets and give them stems for extension.
Things that bring a hero down:
I can't...
Thats too easy...
I don't care...
I don't know...

Power boosters:
Lets try another solution
Lets ask for a suggestion

When in an intermediate school fed by DMIC Primary schools, Jodi noticed that the top children (the ones who got placed in gifted and talented maths groups) were mainly children who had been through DMIC. Not only where these children being giving highly challenging maths problems they had been given a huge boost in social skills - developing relationships, listening to each other and equalising status. 

When one child was asked regarding her DMIC training, 'What have you learnt in maths?' she responded, ' I have learnt how to be a good person.' The child explained by saying that she thought once that she was better than other people and would only play with others who were as good as 'me' ( herself). In maths I learnt that everybody had something to share and I started to play with others too, so I learnt to be a good person.

Is maths really the focus?
We want to create learners - in essence, a society -  that values multiple solutions, values others, makes time for different personalities, strengths and ways of thinking. We should be developing learners that can see things in their own individual way and yet make an effort to see things from other's perspectives. I want to create in my students a willingness to slow down and seek the richness of persevering through challenges ( the learning pit) rather than jumping to answers and conclusions - children who encourage and find new and unique solutions together with a team.

Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC) Facebook page

There is no Abilities only Status....

DMIC: Thinking about Status

Ability Grouping

What does this do for children's achievement and mathematical dispositions?
I does not work either if we mix them all up and pop them into their own groups. We need to understand how children work together and what status is. This means status is coming from outside the classroom and affecting what happens in the classroom. This has a lot to do with competence. Other children need to see all children in the class as capable and worth listening to.

"You are valued. You have things to say that are unique to you. You are worth listening to." This should be the mantra of every classroom.

The following ideas are direct notes from Jodi Hunter's second to last DMIC course presentation to teachers.

Create learning intentions that have to do with explaining thinking and not just mathematical strategy.
Today we are learning to share by agreeing and disagreeing using the magic word 'because'. To initiate this you could create a problem to check to see whether or not children could agree and disagree and can say why. This could be a completed problem with a wrong answer.

Always check that everyone has the same information, is listening and ready with their thinking.

Junior children may not always be able to read the numbers so it is important to discuss this verbally and check with partners to make sure things have been heard.

Uses of grouping - positioning and repositioning children -
Grouping means assigning children higher or lower status with your ( the teacher's) words and contexts. The numeracy project advocated for students to be grouped with similar students. We need to stop thinking about students as a stage 4 or a stage 6 child. It is simply indicative of a strategy used to solve something at a particular point in time. As adults we are not stage 1 adults because we use stage 1 strategies.

When National Standards was used in classes children were hearing a lot of 'belows', 'ats' and 'aboves'.  This clarified a status view. Internationally NZ has one of the most stratified systems in the world. Stratification is negatively related to overall achievement.

In uniform groups there is less opportunity for students to use and practice multiple strengths. They are less likely to provide diverse strategies and thinking processes.

But why challenge the status quo? Research has come out to say that children who are in mixed ability groups have more of a growth mindset than those in ability groups. How children are taught in these grouping systems also has an effect on their dispositions and mindsets.

Fixed mindset: Intelligence is status.


Teaching children a 'unit' about fixed and growth mindset makes no difference to their mindset but the words, beliefs and pedagogy we use in the classroom does.

Complex Instruction
Complex instruction has three key principles which are group worthy tasks, meaning that no one child can solve the problem by themselves. They need each other through applying instructional strategies, multiple strategies and status and accountability.



Maybe there is no such thing as ability ... maybe what we are talking about is status.
Usually high ability children are high status children. They have simply had many opportunities to share their ideas, be listened to and questioned on their thinking.
This concept shows up low achievers results as a group problem and a relational problem rather than an individual problem.

Assigning competence - what you will find is that the child who disengages with the group has tried to say something and no one has listened and therefore he or she disengages. Everyone misses out when children are not participating and sharing their ideas.

Think about children as having low status instead of being low ability or low achievers. How do we give children status? How do we raise their understanding of themselves?

You can actually get rid of status.
Status is local and changes within settings and contexts. Value multiple strengths. Status in the classroom reflects that of society. To assign competence, feedback needs to be quality and specific.

Put your phone or laptop near a group and record what is happening in a group. What are they actually talking about in a group? Who has the status?

Ask the status questions: What makes someone good at mathematics?

Tips to re-engage non-participators:

• Ask low risk questions in private conversations in groups. ( "You might think this is difficult but I want you to be the best mathematician you can be.") 
• Use ice-block sticks - at the end of this session you need to have repeated three things (three ice-block sticks) 
• Get the child to respond in a group not in front of the class.

DFI: Certified Level 1

Once again back in the learning pit. Once again feeling that strange nervous pressure. That feeling which the children in my classroom struggle with all the time. Once more recognising that in my own way I have not been walking in their shoes.




Last night the nerves kicked in prior to the following day's DFI ( Digital Fluency Intensive) Google Certification. It was good, but uncomfortable, to be be sitting a test. To recognise the pressure but also the natural need for it.

Google Certification Level 1... check!

So what now...

Now as Term 4 start rumbling forward, carrying us along into summer like a tidal wave the question of next years goals is beginning to arise.

I am posting these goals online to ask you to help keep me accountable! I aim to accomplish at least two.

Goal 1: Run an online Toolkit either in Term 4 or next year. - Extension: aim to run an Online Toolkit once a year.

Goal 2: Apply for MIT in 2020

Goal 3: Apply for Google Class on Air

Goal 4: Investigate Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu

Goal 5: Sustain my online blogging presence.

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

We make a difference. Maniakalani makes a difference. Blogging, relationships and love of learning makes a difference...

Owning this knowledge, understanding how the pedagogy came into being from the ground up, has been invaluable. I have learnt that this pedagogy is not just solely academic education focused. There are a multitude of programs that do this. Maniakalni makes a difference because it is educating the humanity and the academic aspect within all of us. It is a collaborative approach where teachers and students are learning alongside each other. Knowledge is free and accessible and we learn, create and share together - learning through learning, learning through creating, sharing and we create, sharing as we learn, inside, outside, upside down.

It requires relationship. it requires validation. It requires purpose and it makes a difference.

I learnt that this is not just a school philosophy, it is not a government initiative, it is not just an organisation. It is a pedagogy and philosophy that I need to incorporate in my own understanding and actions in order to make the greatest difference now for my children. I am sold... twice over.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Having the skills to quickly and easily use all of the google suit has increased my personal confidence and opened up a whole raft of other tools and tricks that I did not before think of using. If the thought crossed y mind, it was often placed into the too hard basket because the time taken to figure it out fail and experiment was just too valuable.

I feel so much more confident to be using google sheets, groups and hangouts and have extended and clarified my use of everyday tools such as sites, docs, drawings and slides.

Little expectations across the course for speed and efficiency have raised the speed of preparation in everyday access to teaching: shortcuts, searches and url. changes have made a difference.

The following document is a collection of key ideas, tips and tricks that I have found most useful and is what I am currently endeavouring to use and put in place in the classroom.

A big shoutout to the facilitators, Maniakalani and the sponsors who made this possible. Thank you to the incredible principal of Hornby Primary for the opportunity to be a part of this DFI. Thank you to all the teachers who participated, for your feedback, great conversations and inspirations.

I am proud to be a part of the Learn Create Share community... this is where it's at.

DFI: Sheets and Forms - The Great Data Wrangle

Welcome back to another great Digital Fluency Intensive day shared here on this collective puddle of thoughts...

After being away for a week, it was good to be back in the learning pit. The morning's opening, where everyone shares and listens, was comforting and stimulating to hear. Challenges, like others sharing how many comments teachers were making per day on blogs or ideas they were developing, helped to inspire and shake up healthy competition.

Dorothy graced us with her presence visiting this session from Auckland. She shared some of her personal life with us explain how she is living and working in her decile one community and walks to all her schools within her community. She say that while living in a decile one community you are entrusting your children to your community and are grateful for the blessings of everyday in comparison to the living standard of many around. 80% of Dorothy's community is statehousing. The average wage the Maniakalani community live on $1900 per annum. In an incredible way most make this work without asking for handouts. It is Dorothy's mission to empower all communities to access learning and break down barriers no matter what decile, condition or status our learners start life from.

EMPOWERED: Empowering the un-empowered

Why do we now talk about EMPOWERING our whanua instead of using the term Agency?
Maniakalani now uses the term empowered because this is what is necessary in order for learners and whanau to  be agents of their own lives. They found that agency had far too many negative connotations especially for the most vulnerable in communities who had been caught up in multiple webs of 'agency' red tape. They did not need another 'agency' in their lives.

If Maniakalani/ Learn, Create, Share/ and the Chromebook platform was just a tool then causing our impoverished communities to buy this expensive tool is just cruel.  The philosophy of Learn Create Share needs to  effect every part of our communities' lives for the better. Their water, power, and daily habits should benefit from changed ideas and skills.

What is being empowered?
If we want to make a difference in the lives of our whanau we need to empower them. As an example, if we are struggling with a digital issue we are able to connect with Dorothy who can pass on a contact who can help. This might save around two days of our working life of having to trying to figure out the learning ourselves. This is empowering.
If we give the children and parents the opportunities and the skills. (eg. how to book  doctors appointment online) being familiar with online platforms, give parents confidence online, give parents the opportunity for internet access, it can change their lives.

This is education people... it is making education, ability, aide and clarity available for all.

Let's Get Learning

The following are ideas, tidbits and information that I will be using, developing and following up with in the classroom and with my children at school.

Google Forms

When creating google forms:
- use the short cut: google.forms.com
- or go direct through the folder you want it to live in

If you are making a form for anyone outside of the school it is important for question one and two to ask: what is your name and what is your email

Remember to check settings:
- send response receipts: so responders can check, 'what did I write?'
- collect email addresses
- and ... more options

On a site embed the form next to the google sheets- That means whoever fills in the form can directly see their data transferred over to the form. You can hide columns such as emails or phone numbers.

It's important to put in the school or be specific about the questions and the structures that you ask.
If you ask people to write in the in their school data may not be consistent and the from may take one school and collect it as three separate ones 9 eg. HPS, Hornby Primary,  and Hornby Primary School.
It really hard to get people to 'do' data entry consistently. The more drop down menus you can use to get your data consistent the better.

When creating an important form, especially for tests or important surveys create it first in google docs. This better to work through with colleagues and share editing rather than just sharing them the form.There is an app you can use called doc to form that will turn your doc into a form.

Under responses, create a spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet select 'Tools' then 'notification rules' and set your notification settings. In forms under responses you can select the destination you want your data to go to. You could send it to a specific form or spreadsheet on a certain page. Always check the three dots - select the destination - and then select 'existing form'.

Google MyMaps

Map Sharing
Google map sharing, (when picking up someone from the airport) , allows you to see where someone is. Similarly to using uber, if a friend or partner has shared their map with you, you are able to track their location.

Using MyMaps
When designing a task or project put the places you want to use into  a spread sheet first and then import it into a mymap.
Mymaps can have multiple layers.
You can use mymaps in maths, geography, histroy and social studies.
Think about where do you live? Where did you live overseas? Find out the distance between...?
Use mymaps to develop maths context questions.
Follow a journey through a novel study.
Data, such as photos can be added straight into mymaps and this is a novel way for children to create for their learning.

In the explore session of our course, the class filled in a google form with our desired holiday destinations. The destinations where processed through google sheets and imported onto mymaps. On a separate layer we had to calculate the distance or plan a journey between to locations.

Sheets

Sheets has always been a frightening platform for me to use. I think and work visually and for most of my teaching career have stayed within the safe zone of what I am familiar with and can quickly and easily manipulate. Only this year have I decided to start using google sheets to record data and log blog posts and have used the tedious skills of google docs within sheets. Today was an eye opener for the allowances of googles sheets and below are a few of the key skills that I have learnt or refreshed.

• Freeze columns: select: view + freeze column or freeze row
• To select all: click the row letter + shift next row number 
• To shrink: select all + find the thicker blue line and double click
• Grabbing the blue square on a selected segment and drag to apply to all
• Add ons - 'crop sheet' - gets rid of all extra rows and columns
• You should never be typing numbers in a sequence in a sheet if its in any sequence. Type only the first three numbers or words of the sequence, click on the little blue square and drag to apply your sequence to the following blank boxes in the sequence.
• There are many ways of doing the same thing in google sheets. Find the shortcuts that work for you.
• Highlight data and click on the explore tool - what does google offer?
• If in doubt click on the three dots at the top right hand corner of any google app.
• If you have put in all your data perfectly and someone changes things it can be challenging for our character! If you want to be able to work together on sheets its important to protect your sheets, columns, or cells. Set the sharing settings. (ie children can put in their own links or scores but not have access to anything else on the sheet.) Select a column or box. Right click and select 'protect'
• Data we don't want people to see, we can hide. Select and right click to hide.
• If you are working through data (eg. reporting on one child at a time) rather than scrolling just hide the sections you have already done and then it is easier to keep track.
• Order from the highest scoring: select z- a
• Click on the filter button to filter: select the filter symbol at the right hand side of each heading to filter for that section.
• Conditional formatting. For example this is where you can find and select all the children who scored less than average in their E-asttle raw score and colour code them all orange. Select formatting- click conditional formatting -  (eg. you could select less than) and then choose a different colour to colour code.
• Calculating and percentages - click on a column letter, select format as a percent. If you have any number of columns with numbers in them you can in a new column ( C ) insert a ' = ' then click a segment in column A. Use a mathematical symbol( eg. / for divided by, or + ) and then the next box in column B. Column C will then calculate the percentage ( if you used divided by) or the number the you have mathematically programmed. Click the blue square in the box and drag down to apply to all.

Let's Wrap Up

This week I am going to frantically sneak away moments to practice my google skills in readiness for the following week's google exam. I hope to cover the speed challenges set by Dorothy and watch all the training videos that I can.

I hope you have found this post helpful in some way. Please let me know if you have tried out any skills and which ones you found successful in your own practice and workflow.

Have a fabulous week! Nga mihi!

DFI: Connected

It was a bit strange to study up on this week's Digital Fluency Intensive without the great team from Cohort 2. However, I have been lucky enough to have been teaching in a Learn Create Share school for a while and have had the privilege of having the Maniakalani passion filter down and out to the staff.

As a junior teacher in one of the first outreach clusters it was interesting to observe the change in philosophy and the connection developing between teachers within the school. Over the years these connections have grown, collaborative classes and shared thinking is now the norm. Learning successes and ideas are grown together. The highschool and primary have more symbiosis. The clsuter has pulled together and relationships developed through inter-school partnerships and PLGs. Blogging has been a huge part of this with children now following their peers at the highschool, commenting on blogs from the cluster up on Twitter and building relationships with buddy class blogs.

As humans we are designed to be connected. We are grown connected to our mothers. We have no humanity without relationship and so it follows that one of the most powerful reinforcements to learning is to be connected to others.

The learning that I stumbled onto during this DFI is my role as a playmaker. I can aid the children's connection with others. I can raise the status of the less known and give them the connection or recognition they need by passing on their blogs, emailing it our to others, and commenting.

The other key part of this week's learning was based in one of  Google's more recent acquirements, Youtube.

Youtube

We use youtube in the class for so much research, reading and learning through sight, sound and motion. But, I had only basic knowledge of using youtube, uploading videos and building playlists.
it was good to refresh this knowledge and be pushed to develop new knowledge in readiness for the Google exam.

One of the pieces of information that I found most relevant to my everyday teaching and learning was the consolidating the boundaries and expectations for a teacher's and student's use of youtube. Essentially, the students never need to use youtube except for viewing. Their videos can be created and uploaded directly to their drives where they can imbed them into most platforms.

Here are the Maniakalani guideline for youtube use in the classroom:

Thank you for popping along to have a read today. I hope you have found some of this useful. I would love your feedback so please feel free to leave a comment below. Ka kite for now.