Two Years In...

Kia ora,

Time flies when you're Education Programme Leader. One minute I catch myself thinking I'm still new to this role and moments later I feel like I've been doing it forever. Technically it has been two years and one term since I took on the role so I thought I'd share some thoughts and reflections on this time period.

In the spirit of full visibility I am sharing my original scribbles. The first one shows the brainstorm I made while convincing myself that taking this job was the right choice after stepping out of the classroom a year earlier.

I've enjoyed being in class with students and still believe that supporting them to be at home in a digital world is a vital and incredibly fulfilling task. Something that has been difficult is not getting to know students as well as you do when you have your own class. While I don't miss writing reports etc, it is hard to support learners when you don't know them as well as you feel you could.

The reason 'missed opportunity' is there is because I had the chance to step up to this role way back in 2016 (I think). I always wondered what it would have been like so I'm glad I did take a chance.

One of my favourite parts of the job is the opportunity to be creative. I've loved organising poetry slams and podcast episodes as well as student toolkits and film festivals. I appreciate the flexibility that my job offers and the fact that I still have the energy to come up with creative ideas. This was not always the case when I was still in the classroom.

As you can tell for the circling, storytelling was a big part of why I took the job. I really wanted students and teachers in the cluster to have the chance to tell their stories. Through my own personal writing projects I've realised how empowering it is to tell your story and how important this is as a reflective process and something that helps you move forward. I helped create a short film where students tell the Ako Hiko story and what it means to them. The more recent podcast episodes have also been focused on students telling their own stories, something that we've also started looking into with a survey that over 400 of our learners filled in.

The bottom right scribble talks about multiplying others. I'll leave that for the next section...

This second picture shows some thoughts from pretty soon after accepting the job that loosely come together to create a vision statement. The Ako Hiko Education Trust has the vision of accelerating student achievement by increasing access to digital learning but this brainstorm was more about me having a clear idea of what I was bringing to the table.

Having read Multipliers a number of times, multiplying others was also a priority when starting this role. I feel like I've helped to multiply and empower students through teaching them about being Cybersmart, podcasting, offering the chance to be Ako Hiko Ambassadors and taking part in various projects including student toolkits, film festivals, poetry slams and coding challenges. Supporting students to utilise their blogs as a way of sharing has also contributed to this.

Something that I've found more challenging is multiplying teachers. Through in class facilitation and coaching on the Digital Fluency Intensive I'm confident I have multiplied and empowered teachers but it's difficult to know how impactful you're being. I'm always striving to be of more use to teachers and often wonder if I'm being utilised as much as I could be. One way I'd like to empower teachers is by encouraging more sharing. Google Currents is on the way out so I've stopped pushing this but I have created a Google Group for all teachers in the cluster and have started sending a monthly update to keep everyone connected and informed. I'm hoping that this role modelling of sharing may normalise it and encourage others to share more too. I'm currently thinking of how we can use our staff hui and Inquiry PLG time most effectively in this respect.

Shifting to Edublogs was a good chance to multiply and empower lead teachers in terms of their admin responsibilities and I think all our schools are now in a position where they can take care of the admin processes internally. A next step for me is, now that admin is taken care of, supporting lead teachers to be real drivers of the learn, create, share pedagogy in their schools.

By far the most difficult group to multiply has been whānau. We created three workshops in 2020 but only had two sessions at a school before lockdown kicked in again and momentum was lost. Having said that, the Kanorau Digital programme is available online to our families. As well as promoting this opportunity, my focus has shifted towards how we can support our schools to connect with their communities and how we can allow time and space for schools to share these ideas.

The third year...

So my big takeaways from this reflection and some next steps include:

- PLGs and staff hui - how can we use this precious time to encourage useful sharing that will help accelerate student achievement?

- Storytelling - continue to use the podcast to share students' stories. How can we reach a wider audience with this?

- Whānau - how might we support schools when engaging with their families and provide opportunities for schools to share ideas?

Ambassadors' Coding Challenge - A Story Of Empowerment...

Kia ora koutou,

It's been a while! In previous bog posts I've talked about some of the new(ish) ideas that I've implemented since becoming Education Programme Leader for the Ako Hiko cluster of schools. I've often struggled to get uptake and buy in to new ideas which has been frustrating but interesting to reflect on. With this in mind, I have been absolutely delighted with the introduction of the Ako Hiko Ambassadors.

Let's take a moment to delve into how this started. Interestingly, rather than it being something I dreamt up from scratch, it was a conversation with some of the lead teachers from our schools that planted the seed. A good example of how ideas are far more likely to stick and get some momentum when they came from a collective consciousness rather than an individual brain.

So each school selected two students to be ambassadors in 2021. Our first meeting was face to face but then lockdown happened and we didn't get much done for the rest of the year.

Then 2022 rolled around, with some new ambassadors being chosen. This year we have met twice a term via Google Meet and the ambassadors even requested a third Meet in Term 1 so that they could collaborate more effectively! It was during this fruitful term that the ambassadors came up with the idea of a Coding Challenge for the cluster.

Between the ambassadors a Google Site 

was created, posters designed and

resources created. The ambassadors were assigning themselves to jobs, promoting the challenge in their schools, working on their tasks in their own time and sending (cybersmart) emails to the group. This was super exciting! Students were being empowered having the opportunity to connect with other students outside of their school and also by leading an initiative and promoting it within their school

But in the end participation was disappointing. We left the challenge open from week 5 until the end of term and only had 8 students submit their projects. All entries were from the same class so I feel like the goal of empowering students by being able to connect with others from across the cluster wasn't met. A chance to further empower and connect our learners missed.

One reason is the obvious point that schools are busy and this was another extra being added on top at the end of an already busy term. I do know that some classes took part in the challenge but did not get round to adding their projects to their blogs or filling in the Google Form in order to share their project.

This second point has made me reflect on the sharing process. Mainly...

- Do we need to scaffold students into actions like embedding projects onto blogs and filling in the form?

- Is enough time set aside for the share part of the learn, create, share pedagogy?

This second question could be a whole blog post in itself. I know that there are amazing examples of learn and create happening in our classrooms. My ponder now is what percentage of this activity is being shared beyond the walls of the classroom? i.e. How much is visible for someone like me who may never set foot in that classroom?

In conclusion, there are two big ideas floating around my skull at the moment. Thoughts, ideas, questions and wonderings about these ideas are more than welcome. Get in touch if anything resonates with you or if you have any suggestions...

1) How might we provide new opportunities for our learners without them being 'extra things' for teachers to fit in?

2) How might we ensure that students have the chance to share authentically beyond their classroom walls?

Ngā mihi nui.

12 weeks of lockdown

Kia ora koutou,

Twelve weeks ago was the last time I set foot in a classroom. Despite there being plenty of positives about working from home, it has been a very challenging time. Over the weeks I have constantly been asking myself what is the best use of my time, what are the biggest and most urgent needs and how can I serve my schools, teachers and students most effectively?

This blog post is essentially a reflection on the ideas I have played with over the last three months. Writing these out has made me realise that I've tried a fair bit but I still get the overwhelming feeling that I could still be far more effective and efficient. I feel like there are missing pieces of the puzzle I haven't found yet.

I would absolutely love to hear about any ideas you have trialled in your schools or clusters as well as any feedback on the below items.

1. Podcast tutorials

I was keen to keep the Ako Hiko Podcast running so I put together four tutorials to support students while making their own episodes using Screencastify (audio only). Initially this was aimed at the Ako Hiko Ambassadors but I posted it on our blog so that anyone could have a go.

There are 54 views on the first tutorial, 36 on the second, 8 on the third and 6 on the last. I'd be interested to dig into why there was a drop off and what the barriers were that prevented students from producing an episode. My shining light though is Neha @ HPS who took up the idea and ran with it and it now preparing season 2 of her own podcast.

2. Podcasts and critical literacy

With a lack of episodes coming in and no chance to get into schools to record students I decided to make some episodes myself. I'd been doing a fair bit of reading around critical thinking and critical literacy so I set out to create some activities through the podcasts that would help develop these skills.

As you can see the numbers aren't huge but the episodes did get used, with Who is the baddie? being the most popular. Another aim of those episodes was having a main provocation to get students commenting and interacting with each other. Four comments in total was not a huge success on this front.

3. Relentless about reading

At a principals' meeting some people mentioned that they were concerned about whether students were reading enough. This reminded me of a wananga where the term 'relentless about reading' was used. With the help of some fellow facilitators I created a set of resources that teachers could use to keep engagement up with reading. 

It's a bit harder to know how many people used these or how useful they found the resource but I have seen the slide deck pop up on a number of class sites and this post has been a good reminder to follow up with those teachers.

4. Animated Film Festival

One of the huge disappointments was having to cancel the Ako Hiko Film Festival. We did still want to provide a creative opportunity for students so we turned it into an animated film festival instead.

I put together these resources for teachers and students to use and yesterday we had our first offical entry (see below). I also know that a couple of schools made this a big focus either at the end of term 3 or at the start of term 4 so I'm looking forward to seeing those entries come in.

5. Fun ways to engage students during Meets

I can't take credit for most of these ideas. Joining different class Meets and perusing class sites has helped me 'magpie' some great activities. Would you Rather has been one of the most popular so I've made a few of these on Google Forms. They have actually provoked some great discussion, with students justifying their choices, agreeing and disagreeing with each other and sharing whether they have been persuaded to change their minds.

My current favourite is playing Guess Who? with the people on the Meet screen as the characters. This has also been a great way to reinforce the expectations of having your cameras on and sitting still.

6. Currents posts

The number of people in our Currents community has kept creeping up. With some extra time on my hands I've tried to do a weekly update to share Blogger of the Week, other examples of quality blog posts, activities on class sites and other opportunities and events coming up.

7. Holiday blogging

This was more of a recycling and curation job to make sure students who were keen could do some holiday blogging.

8. Blog boosters

I created these blog booster lessons earlier in the year but I got a chance to use them in some classes where students had been blogging for a while and were ready for an extra challenge.

9. Online and optional Inquiry PLGs

As our Inquiry PLGs came a few weeks after lockdown started we decided to make them online and optional. We started with a demo slam with myself, lead teachers and a few other teachers sharing tips and tricks that we find useful, especially in a distance learning environment. We then broke out into groups to have discussions around discussion, critical thinking and creativity. 

36 people attended with representatives from each school present.

10. TBC - my thinking cap is on and open for ideas...

Ngā mihi nui

Thanks for reading this far...

2021 DFI - Day 6 - A Coach's Perspective

DFI day six already! Another great day focusing on the kaupapa of connected and on Class Sites...

Connected:

Dorothy's presentation reminded me of the need to encourage participation in the Ako Hiko Google Currents community. I think there is still a lot of apprehension when it comes to sharing our practice but there is so much potential for us to learn from and support each other that I think it is essential.

Dorothy's toolkit about attracting an audience to your blogs was very useful. I will use some of these ideas while planning Cybersmart sessions in future terms and will also unpack them further with our Ako Hiko ambassadors who are starting their roles in Term 2. 

Class Sites:

Having time to view some sites from other clusters was extremely valuable. I found some great examples where the teaching and learning is visible on the reading or maths group pages. In many cases the learning was also fully rewindable and had links to T-shaped literacy. These will be good exemplars to use with teachers I work with this year.

In the afternoon our bubbles had time to work on their own class sites. It was a good opportunity for me to reflect on my recently built Poetry Slam site (our Poetry Slam is next week and all online if you are interested in joining us).

Ngā mihi

Phil

2021 DFI - Day 5 - A Coach's Perspective

Kia ora koutou,

This week's adventure into the Manaiakalani pedagogy was based around visibility. I don't think you can repeat too many times that the default is to make everything visible. This applies to everything from planning to assessments.

I've been really impressed with the class sites in the Ako Hiko cluster, especially over our multiple lockdowns. I think a next nudge for us is having more of the teaching visible on the sites. This could include teachers' planning and assessments and as we have discussed at this term's staff hui, more rewindable learning.

I enjoyed hearing about the purposes of Class Sites and Hāpara:

Class Sites - making the teaching visible for learners

Hāpara - making the learning visible for teachers

Class Sites:

It was my first time presenting to the whole group today. It made me realise how much content there is to cover when creating a site. I also learnt that simple themes aren't the best for macrons.

In the afternoon our group was collaborating on a Jamboard to share resources for our sites. We found a few things frustrating such as not being able to add a hyperlink and text boxes being a bit awkward. A good reminder here that with any Google Apps you can send feedback. In Jamboard this feature is found by clicking the three dots, in something like Docs it is under the 'help' section. The more requests they get about a certain feature the more likely they are to fix it!

See you next time for Week 6!

Term 4 Manaiakalani Hui

On Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th December I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Manaiakalani Hui at the National Library. Above all else I really appreciated the chance to connect face to face with the extraordinary team of leaders and facilitators from around the country. On Tuesday we each had five minutes to reflect on our journey over the past three years. Further down this post I've included my reflection slides, but I also wanted to document and share some of the gems I picked up from other people during the day...

Amie @ Tairāwhiti

Amie reminded me that I should be blogging more (other than what I'm doing right now obviously).

She also mentioned meeting weekly with principals. This is something I'd love to do as I've gained so much insight and so many ideas from brief five minute chats with principals this year.

Cam @ Kootuitui ki Papakura

Cam simplified her main goal for next year as getting her schools to work together. This is very much on my radar for Ako Hiko and it's been great to see people working together in our T-shaped literacy PLGs and to hear of teachers wanting to visit other schools next year. 

Cheryl @ Tairāwhiti

Cheryl mentioned talking to individual teachers: What's your data? What's your starting point? What do you want out of this? This is a great reminder for when I start off with the new teachers I'll be working with in 2021.

She also talked about an unrelenting focus on reading which has come up a lot this year and is worth keeping at the forefront of my mind.

Dave @ Manaiakalani

'He aha te rākau hei whakatō mā tāua?' (What tree shall we plant?) This is a great reminder when thinking about what new opportunities we can offer in 2021. I need to remember to talk with teachers, leaders and principals to make sure their needs are being met in order for them to fully invest in new ideas.

Another great quote from Dave, "It's not what you do, it's what they do when you're not there." This got me thinking about sustainability. How will I support the teachers I've been working with in 2020 to make sure the great progress continues? And how can I work with lead teachers to make sure there is consistency across (and between) schools?

Fiona @ Manaiakalani

'Leadership empowers strong teams.' I'm lucky to have an amazing group of lead teachers and am looking forward to working with them next year. I'm also mindful of making sure I give them opportunities to develop and grow their leadership.

Herman @ Tairāwhiti

Herman discussed 'community feels' which reinforced what Cam talked about. He also talked about rewindable learning and what that looks like. Another timely reminder for orientation 2021.

Nicola @ Hokitika

Nicola fed back how people felt overwhelmed with lots of information at orientation days and suggested that it might be worth chunking this information. This is something I will definitely have in mind as I prepare the orientation and site building days for 2021.

Sharon @ Te Ara Tūhura

Sharon emphasised how important listening is (luckily I was listening to her). Especially in terms of listening to teachers and where they are at. You can then use this as a starting point to know what to work on with them next.

As promised here are my slides. My reflection on the last three years was slightly different in that I spent 2018 as classroom teacher and AP at Wesley Primary, 2019 travelling in Europe and Canada while trying lots of part time and voluntary jobs, and then 2020 taking on the EPL role at Ako Hiko.

 

A common theme that came through most reflections was the importance of relationships. I can't wait to meet the teachers I'll be working with next year and start building those relationships.

Another key point I will keep in mind while facilitating is making it explicit what strategies I am using with the class. There was an interesting discussion about our role as facilitators and I think if we are trying to promote effective practices then these need to be pointed out to the teachers we are supporting.

I hope this is helpful to others. Thanks to everyone in the team for sharing their reflections. Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions.

Happy holidays everyone! 

Cybersmart at level 2.5

Kia ora koutou,

I simply had to post today as yesterday I had two of my most successful and inspiring Cybersmart sessions ever.

The success of these sessions is a tip of the cap to the huge amount of hard work that teachers, leaders and principals have put in over the last few months. And let's not forgot the students and the epic stint they have put in!

I've been facilitating from home this week due to the current situation in Auckland. Around two thirds of the classes I was working with were in class and socially distanced. There were also some learners who were at home but joined via Google Meet.

 

 The biggest bonus for me was being able to facilitate lessons as I did during distance learning but having the teacher in the classroom to roam and trouble shoot any problems that arose. I think this was also good learning for the teachers as they could see what the learning looks like from a student's perspective.

I realise there are still huge challenges around equitable access but yesterday gave me so much hope with teachers and learners showing they are flexible, resilient and willing to learn. It also reinforced what I already knew about the technology we use empowering learners and making the learning visible and ubiquitous.

The lessons were around quality blog commenting. Once students had learnt what quality blog comments look like and demonstrated their confidence they moved onto creating DLOs to teach others. The choices included Scratch, Canva and Screencastify. Here is an example of each:

Screencastify - Asfan 

Canva - Mehmet 

Scratch - me (no one chose to do Scratch so I did one)

                             

If anyone is interested here is the link to the lesson on the Ako Hiko Cybersmart site. On reflection there is a lot in this lesson and I might split the create part into two and move the actual commenting half into the learn section and scrap what's there already.

And if you're looking for a chance to practise your quality blog commenting yourself, why not leave me a comment or check out the Ako Hiko bloggers of the week and give them some well deserved feedback.

Ngā mihi

Cybersmart Planning

Another term lies ahead and after my first full term of facilitating I had a lot to reflect on. Here is my list of things that I tried to keep in mind while planning sessions and resources for Term 3.

keep it simple!

less talking by me - use Screencastify videos more for rewindable content

make sure resources are visually engaging on the site

offer different levels of choice for learners e.g. beginner, getting going and smart learner

make sure the create tasks are genuinely creative and that they allow students to demonstrate that they have learnt the 'learn section'

how do these activities reflect the Key Competencies?

more modes of text on the site, especially audio

plan opportunities for students to provide feedback

This seemed like a daunting task and the list seemed to make the very first bullet point impossible. In Term 2 I think I was guilty of trying to fit too much into a session. This meant that sessions were often left unfinished or ran over two weeks and lost some momentum.

I've realised that I can not possibly fit everything I'd like to into each session and still deliver a clear and effective Cybersmart programme. However, I still believe that all aspects of a successful Cybersmart session are visible at some point in the term. From giving students choice over what they create, to challenging and supporting learners with different levels of scaffolding. I haven't forced these features into each lesson but they are there throughout the term.

If you have time to look at some of the lessons I've prepared I'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions.

Term 3 Site:

And here's a link to the Term 2 resources if you wanted to compare:

Multipliers

Kia ora!
I've just finishing re-reading Multipliers by Liz Wiseman (technically I finished a while ago and this has been sitting as a draft since then). It wasn't my first choice of books to read but due to libraries being shut and having re-read all my Terry Pratchett books I decided to get stuck in. And I'm really glad I did. As I devoured the chapters I stumbled upon many timely reminders as I start my journey as Education Programme Leader for Ako Hiko.

My primary objective for my first term was not to drop the ball on anything. However, a global pandemic somewhat changed the term for everyone involved. Because of the the circumstances, I started seeing innovative ideas everywhere. Something I've been guilty of in the past is rushing into projects on my own, devoting time and resources to them, only for them to receive very little engagement and traction. Re-reading multipliers has reminded me of the importance of the whole team at Ako Hiko. If ideas are going to get traction people need to have ownership of them. And if and when I step away from the cluster the processes put in place need to stay standing without me there.

Some other key aspects of the text for me:

My role is to invest, teach and coach. The book gave the example of a soccer (American book!) coach and how they don't run on the pitch to score a crucial goal in the last minute of a game, even though they have the ability to do so. 

Diminishers (the opposite of multipliers) tell people what they know whereas multipliers help people learn what they need to know.

Multipliers don't set the direction - they make sure the direction is set.

Multipliers look for native genius in people. What spikes their enthusiasm? They then tell the person about this genus to unlock their potential.

Multipliers never do anything for people that they can do for themselves.

It is this last quote that stuck out the most for me but it's also the one I'm battling with the most. On one hand I want to help (and multiply) the school leaders by making sure they have opportunities to grow and learn new skills. The example that comes to mind is blog building. On the other hand I am fully aware of how busy teachers are and I don't want to be adding to their workload unnecessarily.

After talking with colleagues about this balancing act I believe that there is no hard and fast rule. It will very much be a case by case judgement call on whether a task is something I can support leaders to achieve or whether at that moment of time it's a job I can just get done for them.

During distance learning most teachers showed immense creativity and flexibility. It was also noticeable that their own passions and interests were coming through in their teaching. I'm now on the lookout for these gems of native genius and thinking about how I can use them to multiply others.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on multiplying others. Have you found the native genius in someone? How have you resisted taking the reins and doing things for people? What are your tips for making sure a direction is set?

Ngā mihi

DFI Session Nine (last one!)

Today, before we took the Google exam, we heard Dorothy speak about the term ubiquitous. It was a great reminder that learning should be available:

Anytime 

Anywhere 

At any pace

(and from) anyone

This made me reflect on distance learning and whether we have achieved these goals. I agree with Dorothy that the dream of having rewindable learning available regardless of time or place has become a reality in the last few months. It's a credit to our teachers and leaders that students are coping with this way of working. But I'm also very aware that not all are students are engaged at this time. So what are the barriers that we still need to address moving forward?

Reflecting on the DFI on the whole I feel very privileged to have shared this experience with an amazing team of educators. I've learnt so much and feel so much more confident supporting other teachers with the content we have covered.

As a facilitator and now Education Programme Leader, I've also been able to up skill myself and start to be able to trouble shoot and help other people through their challenges.

Thanks to Gerhard, Dorothy and all the other facilitators and participants of this cohort. And good luck with the rest of the term and year!

Distance Learning Week One

Well, what a week! I feel exhausted from just a couple of days of distance learning and I don't even have my own class to teach! But my overwhelming feeling is of pride in the wonderful teachers and leaders in the Ako Hiko cluster (and all over the country) for the amazing effort they have put into making the transition to distance learning as smooth as possible.

I'm extremely grateful for the collaboration and support the lead teachers of schools have been giving each other, the enthusiasm with which teachers with differing levels of experience have adapted their sites and set up Google Meets with their classes and with the gusto with with students have been posting on their blogs. This post is really to share and celebrate the awesome successes I have seen already.

I've been really impressed with the class sites I've seen with teachers considering how to make them visually appealing to students while keeping them simple and easy to navigate. This is true from new entrant classes up to Year 7 and 8 and also from beginning teachers through to more experienced staff. Here are a few examples:

I've also been inspired and enthused by students posting on their blogs and seeing teachers and support staff leaving positive, thoughtful and helpful comments.

Zara @ Waikowhai Primary

Gaylene @ Hay Park School

Floyd @ Owairaka District School

And I also need to acknowledge the vast raft of support that has come from the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme and from facilitators around the country. I couldn't imagine being in the role I am in without the advice and expertise that is oozing from such an amazing group of professionals. Thanks team!

Moving forward my efforts with the cluster will channelled into blogging and engagement. I'm asking myself (and others) how we can best support students to blog independently and effectively, especially those who haven't had any practice at this (check out some 'how to' videos o the Ako Hiko Cybersmart site). In terms of of engagement, students seemed engaged by the Google Meet sessions. Our challenge may be how to keep the enthusiasm and engagement up as the days and Meets go on.

Ngā mihi.

Jagged Smackdowns

Everyone is different. In Room 3 we make jagged profiles to show what we're good at and what we need to work on next. This week we researched our goals (e.g. leadership) using YouTube videos but interestingly students got more useful advice from each other. They then shared their tips in a smackdown where they all presented for a minute. A genuine collaborative process.

epro8

Taking the Wesley Wizards to the epro8 (engineering, problem solving, innovation) taught me a lot about collaboration. It was really challenging to sit back and NOT help. But I was proud that they were the only team to take the time to draw a plan before they started building. Good communication and collaboration all round. We ended up coming 7th out of 12 teams with 160 points.

Jigsaw Learning

Hi all, I did some reading about jigsaw learning on this website. Next week I'm planning on using this idea in reading. Each student only reads one page of the text so they really have to collaborate to gain an understanding of the whole text. I also like it because students from different groups who are reading the same page get to support each other. This means that students can choose their groups but also get to work with a range of different people. I'll let you know how we get on...

Collaboration Rubric

I was given a great reading around collaboration. Using the rubric on this site made me realise I was controlling too much of the planning when my students were collaborating. We carried out a science investigation and I encouraged groups to visualise the experiment and plan for the different jobs that would need to be completed. Here is the doc...



We also happened to have our assembly in the same week so I threw all of the planning and organising to the class and they collaborated to complete five different (but cohesive) items with minimal planning from me. Here are our slides...