Flip the MLE building ; Team teaching can work with single cell classrooms.

As a future focused principal of a traditional style school building in Oamaru, listening to Tim Lovelock and his DP's share learning at Myross Bush school in the far south was sheer bliss. At St Joseph's, we have an enthusiastic, pedagogically switched on staff keen to experience team teaching but only two of our junior classes have been able to make it happen. We thought that we would have to knock down walls between classrooms. At Myross Bush school, effective team teaching happens within single cell classrooms. Learn more from my notes here.

Team teaching model at Myross Bush school, Invercargill

• Children experience one – three teachers a day and are moving around different spaces. School looks traditional on the outside but revolutionized inside.
• Team teaching is  visible to each other and to the kids – totally transparent. No busy stuff!!
• What is team teaching? We share it with the parents and show them what it looks like.
• Team teaching helps. It started with the new entrants and moved through the school. Teachers have agency. No planning checks. Come and sit in the room and talk through your programme.
• Team teaching makes it sustainable – each pair makes a philosophy on how they work together. Keep changing and mixing teams. Have different combinations and strengths.
• Team teaching but still in single cells classrooms.
• Myross Bush's school vision is articulated around Simon Senek's golden circle of why, what, how.

Myross Bush learning model. Go to the prezi here

• Philosophy based on Dean Finks Sustainable Leadership
• Attend U learn as a whole staff – immersed in future focused learning as a staff and all have a growth mindset. See expert practitioners in action.
• Child is always at the centre and learning all around the child. What sustains and compliments it?
• Always go back to the why and the pedagogy to check they are on track.
• One teacher in the cave/workshop room teaches traditional groups. Opportunities for kids to opt in and out.
• Workstation/ action station sheets, other teacher alongside/ flipped learning model
• Agency really important – learning centredness to opt in and out of workshops
• Action research alive, no place to hide when you team teach and plan together
• Environment has changed to aide the why and thus a MLE. Cloak bays have change to become extra classroom spaces
• Digital efficacy – bring it back to the why
• High agency & low agency students paired up
• Use SOLO thinking taxonomy for everything
• Students Hyperlink evidence from goals on progression to their blogs to share with whanau
• Prefer blogs as its totally open compared to ultranet (closed network). Parents RSS feed by using cellphone numbers when new blogposts come up.
• BYOD More than the device-but why you want to use it and what you want to do with it?
• What is it you want to do with it? – go with a tool that will give you the most connection over time, teacher dashboard,
• Have a go together as a staff. Just jump in. Won’t role out an official BYOD policy unless we know the why, what and how.
• Alvin Toffler quote ......... shared with parents: 'cannot learn and unlearn, and relearn'
• It’s NOT about the thing that you want them to bring ie. The device. 
• SOLO – Ask children, where you think your SOLO thinking is and why do  you think you are there?
• You don’t always need a rubric for everything.
• Don’t talk about reading , writing and maths but talk about ‘thinking and learning via SOLO'.
• Kids aren't pigeonholed into the red reading group.
• Numeracy is focussed on agency groups rather than ability groups in the senior school
• Movement within workshops all the time.
• Materials for maths at Solo 1 etc Solo stations – prestructural using materials
• Keep SOLO simple.
• One day a term is an inquiry time for a team as well as crt. Time out of your room as a team of 4.
• Apply the key competencies to staff as adults – ask questions!!!! Powerful and hard conversations.
• Growth mindset http://prezi.com/fqwtgh3cfnu_/growth-mindset/
• Why? – We keep coming back to it as a staff.
• Give staff time and space to experience everything together as a staff.
• New staff: We look for potential and initiative. Can they think outside the square ?
• Learner Licenses : Creates accountability for learners. Only level 3,4,5 can choose  independently Not reflective on learning ability based on solo taxonomy. How you work fits in with how you think.

Next steps for us: Visit Myross Bush as a staff and learn more