Home Learning ; One Parent Shares their Story

Faith, hope and innovation at our school were key themes of my previous post. Please place your faith and hope in our innovative staff as we are assure all families that our children will flourish with Home Learning this term. Let's focus on the core values our children live out at school as we support each other with a positive mindset at home.

On Sunday 22nd March, the Victorian Premier announced that schools would close early, almost a week before Term 1 was officially due to end. The global COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding. Every few days new restrictions were introduced until home isolation became the norm for most of us.

Fortunately, at the end of Term 1, our teachers had prepared and uploaded Term 2 Home Learning resources on our Learning Community Site. We wanted to be ready in case school wouldn't resume. At that stage, little did we comprehend the full meaning of the national "Stay Home and Stay Safe" slogan.

On Tuesday 7th April, just before Easter, we were officially told that schools would remain closed for Term 2. Immediately our staff responded. We held a Zoom leadership meeting and began to review and prepare detailed plans to ensure a smooth and supportive transition for our community to Home Learning.

In the interim, I received a number of emails from parents with questions, concerns and worries over and above the COVID-19 challenges already impacting families. To support parents and hopefully allay any anxiety, I responded with a Frequently Asked Questions FAQ tab on the Learning Community Site. Our staff have indeed been working hard behind the scenes. 

Amidst these communications, I received an Easter blessing. It was an encouraging message of hope in the form of an email from a parent, Brooke, who trialled our Home Learning resources with her children during the holidays. Brooke was happy for me to share her story to help encourage and support other parents. Brooke is a mother of two children, Evie in Year 3 and Chloe in Prep. Just as Brooke said to her daughters.. "this will look and feel different to school", we cannot and do not intend for you to replicate school learning at home but together we can create a supportive Home Learning environment that works for your family.

Here is Brooke's story..

I made sure that the girls are aware that we are continuing to do their schoolwork daily, but that it will look and feel different to their classrooms. It’s sub-structured, so I ensure that we still go for a walk or a quick bike ride. I utilise Cosmic Kids for yoga classes, and I know there are other resources to keep the kids active inside when its wet and cold. I also incorporate learning, so they aren’t even aware they are learning i.e. cooking, getting them to get the specific ingredients, use their maths skills etc…… or I may make up a scavenger hunt out in the backyard and they need to tick off their items from their list.

The night prior, I set all of us up for the following day. I will go through what they have completed and what needs to be actioned and make an outline for the next day. I make sure that Evie incorporates reading every day and she completes her daily diary after she has read. She will spend 20-30 mins reading and may do this over 2 parts of the day.  She is organised. We have her weekly spelling words so each day she writes these into her book and practices and on Friday I do a spelling and dictation test with her. Evie is also attentive and makes time each day for her writing. I normally get Evie to complete these tasks when I am working one on one with Chloe, as I know she is more than capable and completes these successfully. Chloe, who obviously in Prep needs support, especially in terms of reading and understanding words, phonics and pronunciation.

We have been working on the year level documents provided on the school Learning Community Site which provide good guidance. As Evie is self-sufficient and motivated she can complete her maths tasks, and when Chloe is working on something independently, I will then sit with Evie and we go through this. We identify if she didn’t understand anything, work through and then correct her work. Besides writing and maths, some days we allocate the other tasks such as narrative writing which Evie did a great job on. She drafted this, we discussed it and when she was happy, she wrote it into her book.

I am also allowing them time to be creative. They make up stories together and they both love drawing and colouring so I give them that opportunity and it breaks up the day for all of us. I have been using FUSE and they have good resources. I think keeping the children involved too is important as they can then take ownership. I know Evie would specify if there was something, she wanted to work on i.e. history work etc. For the Youtube clips they both watched these together and again it's just making the time to do this.  I ask them questions afterwards to gauge their understanding.

In terms of Chloe, Reading Eggs has been fantastic, she is really doing well on that. I am encouraging her to continue with this. She completes Reading Eggs and Sunshine Online daily for 30-60 mins per day and she is very keen which is positive. We have utilised Top Marks for her maths and again I follow up in everyday discussions to get her thinking. For me, the biggest concern with a Prep is ensuring they can read, so I am working hard on this, and trying to put things in place to help such as Reading Eggs. I am working on Chloe's understanding of phonic and the chunking of words, so we break them apart. I have printed Oxford wordlists and specific words that I have turned into my own cue cards/flash cards and daily I focus on 5-10 words and we go through these, pronouncing them, sounding them out so she actually understands them and then do a mini test at the end of it to gauge where she is at.

We read daily, and I was hoping we may be able to get some readers from school. She finished her scrapbook and loved this. I have other similar worksheets and books that she also completes. I encourage writing, she writes the alphabet fully for me, and is learning how to space out her letters and put them on a line. Chloe also writes the days of the week and she practices her name. I am just getting her to feel confident with her writing and again understanding her letters and words.

Other adhoc things I incorporate – puzzles, they love memory games, play – using their imagination, keeping them active, helping around the house, cooking etc.

Personally, I have found knowing what you want to achieve for the day makes it easier, as I then know what one child can do whilst I am focussing on the other. I break up the work spaces too giving them variety. Some days we are all on the dining table, other days they are working on the kitchen bench or I have one in the other lounge room where I can see reading and then focussing on the other so that both get the attention they need.

What do the girls think of Home Learning ?

Evie shares, “Despite missing being at school and seeing all of my friends I am enjoying being at home and learning with my Mum & sister. It’s a different type of learning, but we are making the most of it and Mum is making it enjoyable for us both”.
Chloe said, “I miss my friends, but I am trying to learn how to read and keep doing my work. Mum helps me with writing, and I love Reading Eggs and Sunshine Online!” 

Brooke said to me, "I can understand that there are many parents feeling anxious about the term, it’s not always easy juggling it, but having the guidance we have been given via yourself and the teachers, and so many great resources out there it alleviates some of the stress."

Here is a link to a few extra resources Brooke accesses with her family.

Thanks to Brooke for sharing her story and photos of her family in action.

Every home setting will naturally be unique to the family living there. You will be able to support your children's learning in a way that works for your family. Please understand that our experienced and approachable staff will be with you all of the way and we know that a strong parent school partnership supported by our core values will enable all of us to adapt to this new way of learning and change2flourish.

Practice Fields Lead to Quick Wins for Learners

Staff are currently working in action research teams to help bring the St Pat's vision for our community of learners to life.  In the midst of a twelve month initial research period, self-motivated staff are trialling smaller projects to further engage and motivate learners.

Based on the work of theorist Edgar Schein as shared at the Schools That Deliver Innovation Masterclass, the trialling and testing of new ideas is vital for organisations to progress and succeed. Self-motivated action learning projects by staff are referred to as practice fields. The current St Pat's practice fields are resulting in quick wins for St Pat's learners.

Taken from the Schools That Deliver Innovation Masterclass June 2018

Seesaw Practice Field (Link to the St Pat's vision narrative.. We utilise technology to communicate learning and strengthen home school partnerships).
Year 1
Seesaw is a way to share children's learning in real time with parents and family members. This leads to opportunities for authentic learning conversations. Year 1 started with Seesaw to communicate the children's reading goals. There was immediate positive feedback from families and the children loved it. Now the app is used to share work problems and engage the parents in the children's learning. Other classes are very interested in exploring the use of the Seesaw app for 2019 and will talk further with Anne, Kim and Jacinta, the Year 1 teachers.

Acknowledgement @syliviaduckworth for this image

Flexible Furniture Practice Field Year 5 & Year 1 (Link to the St Pat's vision narrative Both students and teachers are excited about learning).
Year 5
The Year 5M class are the senior pilot classroom for flexible furniture. They have been trialling the furniture for three school terms since the start of the year. Feedback from students and challenges for the teacher were shared with staff. Together, our Year 5M teacher and the children made a recommendation going forward. The flexible furniture gets the big green tick with both the students and the teacher excited about learning in a classroom with flexible furniture. Thanks to Lisa Maraschiello for sharing the slideshow. As a result of the success of this practice field, the other Year 5 class and two Year 6 classes will start the 2019 year with flexible furniture.


Year 1 
The Year 1W class are our junior school pilot class for the flexible furniture. Like the seniors, the juniors don't sit on the same seat. They can choose which space to sit at. By allowing the children to choose, the teacher is relinquishing a form of control or management of the children. This is not easy for a teacher to do. However, as with the senior class, the junior children respond by making positive choices about where they choose to learn. This contributes to a genuine excitement for learning. Kim Wilson's recommendation is to give the children choice in your classrooms, with or without the flexible furniture.

Mental Toughness Practice Field (Link to the St Pat's vision narrative.. A healthy mindset, coupled with resilience and well-developed social skills ensures all learners are equipped to deal with life’s challenges, and have the skills to positively resolve conflict and communicate their ideas and emotions).
Year 3
The Year 3 classes have been participating in a Mental Toughness Pilot. They are about to complete a final assessment to understand the success of the programme. This practice field has taken place over two terms. Based on the initial benchmark assessment, our children scored high on the Mental Toughness scale at the start of the pilot programme. Staff believe that we already have programmes in place that contribute to a high level of "mental toughness" for our St Pat's learners. Once the post assessment is complete, a recommendation or otherwise of the programme will be made.

Collaborative Planning Practice Field (Link to our vision narrative...Ongoing data tracking leads to learning that is differentiated therefore optimising engagement).
Year 5
The Year 5 teachers are trialling a different form of planner. The new planner was in response to a staff meeting exploring ways to show evidence of adjustment in teaching for NCCD (Nationally Consistent Collection of Data). The goal was to show additional support and explicit teaching strategies thereby indicating differentiated teaching and to do so efficiently and effectively. The newly designed collaborative planning document is an adaptation of other models. Teachers can contribute to the document and use different colours to indicate special events and specialist programmes as well as include digital links to resources. The Year 5 teachers have found the new collaborative planning document invaluable.
An Emergency Teacher who came into one of the Year 5 classrooms was able to follow the planning document and felt confident and well informed with teaching the class.
Based on the outcomes of this practice field, the collaborative planner will be explored further with staff at the next planning day with a goal to use it across the school for 2019.

Acknowledgement to St Pat's teachers Lisa Maraschiello and Paul Jones

Spelling & Grammar Practice Field (Link to the St Pat's vision narrative.. Ongoing data tracking leads to learning that is differentiated therefore optimising engagement).
Spelling (Year 1, 3, 5) 
Analysis of student data led to research around a consistent, differentiated approach to spelling and grammar across the school.
Our Teaching and Learning Leaders and colleagues are using The SMART Spelling approach as part of a practice field in Years 1, 3 & 5. Teachers are finding that the children are successfully transferring their learning to reading. Language such as 'diagraphs' is being used by the juniors along with hand gestures for spelling rules. The new school timetable for Term 4 which includes two equal play breaks during the day, lends itself well to a two hour block for literacy including a 15 minute daily spelling slot. Children are responding positively to this explicit and personalised learning approach. A final review is planned for the end of Term 4 and a recommendation for 2019 across the school will be made.

  Grammar (Prep, Year 2, 4, 6)

Grammar matters and should be taught differently is a research article that clearly captures the need for a grammar revolution within all schools. Our DP Liz Hills worked with teachers to explore the Victorian Curriculum and develop a Scope and Sequence to trial and potentially replace the current reliance on text books. The new approach to grammar is driven by an emphasis on learners reading quality literature.

Being proficient with spelling and grammar will make our learners better writers and readers and will strengthen outcomes, ensuring the curriculum has a positive and meaningful impact ( linked to the St Pat's vision narrative).

The St Pat's Practice Fields lead to quick wins for our learners.

Disruption, Creativity; Innovate 2 flourish

Future focussed progress is reliant on innovation.
To engage in deep innovation for success: Open your minds, listen with your hearts and
STRETCH your learning. What action will you take ? What deep innovation will you make ?

Active participation and deep reflection stimulated by the Edward's and Martin Delivering Innovation Conference (June, 2018) led to the creation of a video. The personal challenge was to succinctly capture two full days of powerful learning in a three minute animated video to share with others.

                                              

Here is the way the video evolved:

1. Reading through my own notes, the slides from the conference and collaborative notes shared  from colleagues, led to the scribbling of key words, ideas and images in the pages of a large sketch book.

A sample of the collation of ideas for the video

2. Three strong links to my 2014 sabbatical report and 2014 sabbatical video became apparent. Themes of trust, using the expertise within the group and moving out of our comfort zones, were mental models that were revisited in the new video. The images were adapted and refined to reflect my new learning in relation to innovation.

Images from the 2014 video were revisited and refined for the innovation video

3. I proceeded to replicate and refine the text I developed for some of the original video images such as the heart, the world globe and the ripple waves. I also included new images such as those from the presentation and others to carefully align with the innovation theme.

Adjusting & playing with images on the videoscribe

4. I began writing a script for the narration. The script was refined several times to ensure it succinctly captured the essence of key learning within the three minute time frame. Iteration after iteration was made to carefully match with the images and the online creation of the sketches in real time.

Iteration after iteration of script to capture the key messages

5. The voiceover took several attempts and although not perfect, there comes a time where one runs out of time and simply has to finish !

Here is the final narration script for the video to engage in deep innovation for success:

To engage others in deep learning we must move out of our comfort zones and personally experience the passion, energy, excitement and creativity of learning (Hawkins, 2014. This is an outcome of the research I carried out,  during my principal sabbatical. You can read the full report here).

You can access the original video at this link

How do we engage in deep innovation for success ?

Kim and Mauborne (2015) refer to non - disruptive creation. This is as important as disruption for successful outcomes. Such disruption motivated and inspired the creation of this new video. 

It is an outcome of actively participating in the Edward's and Martin Delivering Innovation Conference (2018).

The focus of the conference was the powerful Innovation Model designed by Edwards and Witten-Hannah. This model has a proven record of delivering significant results in business, sporting and educational institutions.

Edwards and Witten-Hannah Innovation Model

Refining three key mental models for engagement in learning (Hawkins 2014), has led to a deeper understanding of the Model of Innovation.
A culture that genuinely fosters trust is vital. Relatedness connects the hearts and minds of the group and drives purpose and shared ownership.
Ownership is strengthened when the skills and expertise of the group are valued and celebrated. This leads to long - term gains and sustainable outcomes.
Thirdly, the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition (1980) progresses from novice to expert. The competence level often becomes the comfort zone. Stretching and challenging learning to the proficient and expert level is necessary to truly engage in deep innovation for success.
How can success be sustained ?
The Edwards and Martin Schools That Deliver Network (2016) is authentic innovation in action.

This book published in 2016, is based on years of research in practise

Every voice contributes to a contextual vision and core values.
Research teams spend months in the action learning phase, gathering specific data and reflecting on ongoing iterations to bring the vision to life.

Innovating means operating at the high performance level.
This can happen when we:
Shift from talking to active listening.
Hold weekly cadence sessions.
Encourage peers to strongly challenge thinking and openly share progress.
One to one interviews are more valuable than surveys.
Embrace the learning pit. It is the only place to stretch learning.
Allow quality time to practise, research and refine ideas.

Future focussed progress is reliant on innovation.
To engage in deep innovation for success:

What action will I take ?

Create a video. Share this video. Spread the message.

Listen with my heart to others. In particular listen to our learners, staff and parents. 

Use one to one conversations to gather feedback instead of written and online surveys. 

What deep innovation will I make ?

It is evolving. 

It will be collaborative in relation to our vision moving forward. 

It will move us from competent to highly proficient to recognised experts 

within our community and beyond.

What about you ? 

Engaged and motivated students design learning spaces with award winning architects

Engaged and motivated learners always faithful to our loving God is the vision for the St Patrick's school community. Community consultation over a year ago led to a renewed vision for teaching, learning and living. Learn more at this link. Further to this, the redevelopment of internal and external learning spaces as a stimulus for authentic engagement and motivation was one of the drivers for a school ten year masterplan. Other drivers are: student and staff well being, collaboration, security, child safe standards, sustainability and maintenance of the buildings and grounds. The Parish Education Board formed a Masterplan Committee who shortlisted and appointed the award winning architectural firm K2LD to design the masterplan.

The Student Representative Council (SRC) with two reps from thirteen of the fifteen St Pat's classes met with the team of architects and designers from K2LD for the first masterplan visioning workshop. It made perfect sense that the students were the first to be consulted in the process. K2LD will lead two more visioning workshops; one with staff and the other with the parent and parish community during the first two weeks of the 2018 school year. This extensive consultation will contribute to the development of a unique masterplan for creative change for the St Patrick's community.

You can learn more about our architects on the K2LD website at this link 

The K2LD team introduce themselves to the SRC

A slideshow presentation highlighted the role of the architects and designers and included reference to the following : perspective, plan, elevation, collaboration, details, interior design, existing spaces and benchmarking. The students were asked to draw or write three suggestions to help improve the school. They played a card game and were asked to choose one card to describe how they felt about the current school and one card for how they would like to feel in the redeveloped school. 

We look forward to seeing how the K2LD team incorporates the students ideas and suggestions into the masterplan. 

Working alongside award winning architects is certainly one way to engage and motivate our students to learn how to be connected, collaborative leaders of creative change.

One bus with a new driver

Is the new principal the new bus driver ? No !!
How do we ensure we are all on the same bus, going in the same direction together ? Do we know what our ultimate goal is for our learners or for ourselves as a community ?

During this final school term, we have had a chance to reflect and renew our vision in order to go forward with passion and purpose into 2017 and beyond. Ultimately, the driver of our bus will be our agreed, authentic community vision.

Image attributed to dbclipart.com

After eight weeks, our bus driver has emerged.
You can read the steps we have taken during our eight week process by reading these posts:
Individual culture and context drives the vision process
A renewed community vision emerges in the seventh week

Here is a brief presentation that summarises our experiences, leading to the renewed vision going forward.

As an outcome of consultation with our community, our bus driver will be :

                   Engaged and motivated learners always faithful to our loving God.

3 winners for junior learners: Self - management goals, shorter sessions & visual prompts

Continually inquiring into our pedagogy and reflecting on best practice for engagement and learning success is something we are serious about at St Joseph's. As a passionate New Entrant teacher from my pre principal days, I had the pleasure of spending quality time in Jo O'Sullivan's class at the Paeroroa Campus of South Timaru School with our Junior Hub One teachers. Special thanks to Jo and her learners for welcoming us into her class.
Jo has been teaching the juniors for thirty-eight years. She has the energy of a beginning teacher with the skills and expertise of an expert practitioner. We want to ensure our juniors get off to the best ever start and Jo has a reputation for doing just that with her learners.
Here are the three winners that stood out and some further reflections from our visit.

Jo in action in front of the literacy wall

1. Learning and self - management goals.

The children have writing goals and self-management goals. They shared them with the class. The children were asked to read them in a big voice. Jo said, “Everyone needs to know what you are working on”.

They read them before they started work for the day and then before writing.

Some examples were:

I am learning to form my letters correctly...

I am learning to not hurt others, use a nice voice...

I am learning to give things a go...

I will listen to the teacher and look at her when she is talking...

Classroom management strategies? What does she find most effective ? Jo continually refers to the children managing themselves.”Manage your body, manage your book”. Jo never sits. Jo roams and checks and supports, she sits on the floor to work with the children, roams again and ensures everyone is on task.

Jo addressed a boy off task...“You have one chance or I will make the choice for you..” “When and then….” Jo gives them a choice, goes away and gives them time to make the right choice and then checks in again and gives praise. At another time Jo said, “I don’t mind if you work together as long as you work sensibly.” Jo uses a self-management mat. If someone is off task they work on the mat. 

We loved the Jump Jam video break and the yoga mindfulness stretches.

The learners read their goals before they start.

Pencil grip - Jo reinforces this. They all write with pens and the correct way to hold the pen is shared with parents at the 4 year old transition to school sessions.

Pre school visits - how are these organised ?

Friday afternoon transition sessions. Jo focuses on social skills - dependent on the needs of the children at the time. Below is the Y chart of skills they are working on with parents at present.

What phonics teaching methods does she use?

Kiwi Phonics by Heather Deighton-O’Flynn

Y chart of social skills to focus on.

2. Shorter learning sessions

Reading and Mathematics routine activities. What are her activities ? How often does she change them?
Half hour slots for everything, repeated throughout the day. Literacy and numeracy end up being done twice a day - shorter, succinct session with total engagement.

Jo finds the PM readers are better than Ready to Read for the foundation reading, vocabulary and punctuation skills.

Learners don't have individual browsing boxes. They have some books in their reading folders and have access to a few large shared browsing boxes. All learners are targeted and monitored, not only the below learners. Repetition of the basic skills, sounds, blends, high frequency words.

3.Visual prompts Jo uses many visual prompts to direct the children to what they need to do. There are numerous posters for : how to sit when listening on the floor, how to get on with their learning at the tables, healthy brain food in their lunch boxes...as well as the WITS way and their Class Treaty. The literacy wall has everything the learners need to support them to write independently. Everything displayed has a learning purpose. "We work hard to make it easy to learn" is the class motto.

WITS way display

Visual Class Treaty

School Entry Assessment. What does Jo use and when ? Jo assesses them as soon as they start. Very detailed student profiles are kept from enrolment. These compliment the pre school profiles.
What follow up learning do they do at home ?

Home reading - the learners have an enlarged and laminated essential word list and alphabet chart for sound practice with tracking graph on the back. Jo ticks these off and records progress.

I took three videos of Jo in action and will share these once we have approval.

After discussion and reflection, as a result of our visit, some of the ideas Junior Hub 1 will be incorporating into their hub are:

Giant literacy wall between the rooms, reorganisation of browsing boxes & trays, school entry assessment on arrival, tracking graphs, writing and self- management goals, half hour literacy and numeracy session (twice a day) fit well with out focus on engagement, shorter wait times on the mat (6-8 minutes max) and a new plan for Terrific Thursdays.

Going OPEN one year anniversary Ch 8

Almost twelve months has passed since : 
• My 10 week principal sabbatical, sabbatical report and video
• I joined Twitter and started blogging
• I started studying Masters in Educational Leadership and writing about
•  OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future by David Price

Meanwhile, in the course of applying the principles of OPEN within the context of our school and community, creative, engaging, challenging CHANGE is happening.

 

Screenshot Image reference: Professional Renewal Centre www.prckansas.org

During the past few years, we have developed our future focused pedagogical culture, trapped within the chrysalis of a traditional school structure.

This year, we have triumphantly emerged out of the chrysallis into our Engaging Learning Spaces (ELS's) and have become totally OPEN in all that we do.
We have not relocated into a new modern learning building. Inspired by @ DavidPriceOBE and @ timl27 (read more here) we have been creative within our existing spaces.
Through dedicating some 'free time' for staff (no staff meetings) it has allowed staff a chance to find some "sacred space" (Duignan, 2008). It is through this downtime that staff authenticity, creativity, innovation and passion has found room to flourish.
We are about to commence our second term in our ELS's and already have staff from two schools keen to visit and see our ELS's in action.

I am only part way through reviewing Chapter 8 of the nine chapter book OPEN. Spending almost twelve months reviewing this book has been an ongoing learning opportunity. "Stretching out" my responses to this book has meant that I have the benefit of a never ending read. Maybe I will have to tweet David @ DavidPriceOBE and ask him to write a sequel !

Here are just a few highlights from Chapter 8:
On page 166 Price questions the value of the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessments) in an educational world where knowledge transmission is being replaced by key competencies.
Heng Swee Keat's (Singapore's Minister of Education since 2011 - I noticed he has a Facebook fanpage with almost 19,000 likes ) agrees and shares a list of 5 traits of the 21st century teacher -
1. Ethical Educator
2.Competent professional
3,Collaborative learner
4. Transformational leader
5. Community builder
Price shares engaging details about the following innovative schools.
School of Communication Arts 2.0. London

High Tech High Schools, San Diego County, USA

There is much more in this chapter, some of it I have referred to here at this link. I am not the only local person reading OPEN. Colleagues across New Zealand have also been reflecting on it's content as well as local members in our community.

A message for David Price from Gloria Hurst in Oamaru

News about going OPEN is slowly spreading through Oamaru. Gloria Hurst, a passionate community educator, who connected with our school through the Whitestone Learning and Change network and the Community Gardens sums it all up here:

"Oamaru is a small town learning fast about connecting, sharing and collaboration.
We are seeing this change of attitude within families, schools and businesses.
Even council is understanding the benefits of working alongside community.
There appears to be a critical mass going OPEN.
It is exhilarating and magical to live in a connected town.
Your book, OPEN has reinforced what we are experiencing.
The timing was perfect .
As we share it with others, awareness grows.
Thank you David for putting this ‘dynamic energy’ into words.
Love to have you visit OPEN OAMARU one day.
Your philosophies are in action here!"

OPEN Ch 7 Pt 2 : 5 Commonalities of Innovative Workplaces

'The most innovative companies in the world regard work as learning'.

Learning environments that offer opportunities to explore, trial, play and collaborate allow innovation and creativity to flourish for all learners (staff and students). This was the focus of my blogpost based on the first part of Chapter 7 in my chapter by chapter review of the book that Sir Ken Robinson describes as a 'revelation' - OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future by David Price.

Screenshot taken from David's site: 'Engaged Learning'

So much change has happened in our workplace since I wrote that post a few months ago. When I made a commitment to share my chapter by chapter reflections about this powerful book ; I didn't foresee the immense and immediate impact that it would have on the way we work and learn in our own educational setting.

Although the book shares how we will work, live and learn in the future, the future has transformed into the 'now' for us. Our 'open' changes are clearly evident yet continually evolving. They are purposeful and dynamic yet fluid. Most importantly, everyone: students, parents and staff are key players and contributors in our redesigned playing and learning spaces. 

What have we done that is working for us ?

We have held on tightly to our why goal: To engage every student in deep learning for success. We have loosened the restrictions of agenda filled, frequent, business like staff ' professional development ' meetings and opened a window to let in fresh air, space and time to 'explore, trial, play and collaborate to allow innovation and creativity to flourish for all of us. This window of opportunity has now evolved into a large sliding door (metaphorically speaking only !).

Image from indYouth home decorating site

A sliding door in architecture and construction, is a large glass window opening in a structure that provide door access from a room to the outdoors, fresh air, and copious natural light (wikipedia)
  
What exactly does this mean for us as educators ? We have opened our minds and our hearts to the new learning and growth that comes when students, staff, families, parishes, networks of schools and global learning communities collaborate as one on an equal playing field.

In 2015 more than ever before, we are truly 'Open' in all that we do in our educational setting. Hubs of teachers are sharing planning, teaching and learning within collaborative learning spaces and online. Our Teaching and Learning Site is a public site that shares absolutely everything. There are no secrets. We use the SOFT (Sharing, Open, Free, Trust) values described in Chapter 3 to guide the way we work.

In Chapter 7 Part 2, Price shares examples of business workplaces that use the SOFT values as they move from closed to 'open' systems. 

Here are 5 commonalities of very successful business workplaces :

1.  All decisions are made in a work culture using a 'living - systems lens'. This way you get leaders who approach change as if they were growing something, rather than just 'changing' something. (Senge 1999 via Price 2013 p140-141). This video expands on this concept and links to Wheatley's description of 'self- organising living systems that have the capacity to respond continuously to change'.
2. Collaboration and team work are 'non negotiable'. Social media is encouraged and used in these workplaces. This 'is facilitating more face-to-face sharing than ever before.' (p143) 
3. Personal growth opportunities and time to play as well as a culture that allows for 'freedom to fail ' (p150) leads to new learning and innovation opportunities.
4. Trust provides the 'safety-net for innovation' and is the lead source of employee motivation (p151). 
5. Institutions that share and expose what they are doing with the public improve, grow and develop the fastest (p155)

'The most innovative companies in the world regard work as learning'.

Is work regarded as learning in your workplace? How?

What about "Open Learning in Education"? That's the theme for Chapter 8 and my next review of OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future by David Price.

What happens when the school environment that you grew up with starts to disappear ? Supporting parents through purposeful and planned learning and change.

In 2015 every teacher at St Joseph's will teach in partnership with one or more teachers in collaborative learning hubs. Teaching and learning across the school from Year 1-8 will go live and be fully accessible to everyone inside and outside the school via a teaching and learning site. Everyone will be able to access all teaching, planning and communication in one place (developed in response to feedback from parents).

Our Deputy Principal Mrs Frances-Rees has designed our new Teaching and Learning site for 2015.

Focusing closely on our school wide learning goal for the past few years; "Engage every student in deep learning for success", has meant that we have continually reflected on our teaching practices at St Joseph's. This latest development is an outcome of our ongoing hard work, inquiry into our teaching practice, research and reflections. It is a natural next step to for us, to support the planned engaging and personalised learning environments that we wish to create for our children, to fully prepare them for future success at high school and beyond. 

Our school wide goal was also the focus of my principal sabbatical in Term 1. You can learn more by watching this 4 minute video.

For parents, this significant shift in teaching practice is one that takes them far from the traditional classroom system that they grew up with. This means that some parents will naturally feel a little nervous and anxious and may have many questions.

Being part of a Learning and Change Network has helped us review our existing partnership with parents. Our work this year with families has been focused firmly on learning relationships. We held four "Family Learning Huis" (hui is the Maori word for gathering) and numerous parent workshops. You can go to this link to learn more about our Family Learning Huis. Our huis have enabled families to be immersed into informal, social, collaborative and engaging learning environments that mirror much of our school wide teaching and learning practices. We have already planned more of these for 2015.

Family Learning Hui in action. All staff attend and families bring their tea (fish and chips) and digital devices.

Explicitly encouraging parents to come and talk about any questions, concerns or worries and then being available to respond is the least that we can do to support our parent community. We have a fortnightly parent reference group who meet with the principal to discuss "What's on top?"  Making changes to classroom layouts and moving our Year 6 class upstairs into the Senior Learning Hub with Year 7 and 8 for 2015 resulted in much discussion.
The main themes for discussion with the Senior Learning Hub evolved around:
Siblings - The focus on personalised learning and engagement will mean that siblings are in learning spaces with three teachers who together will ensure that relationships between siblings are respectful and responsible.
Safety of devices - Year 7 and 8 have been operating a BYOD learning environment for the past 2 years. Digital Citizenship, BYOD contracts and learning licenses all contribute towards the safety of devices in digital learning spaces.
Number of hours on devices - Our Family Learning Huis have helped parents to understand that the devices are a tool to support deep engagement in learning. Children will not be sitting on devices playing computer programmes but will utilise the devices to access learning links to support their learning at different times as appropriate. Mrs Frances-Rees prepared a pie chart in response to this same question from our parent reference group.

This chart gives an indication of where digital devices fit into the big picture of  deep learning across a week in Year 7

 Challenges for able and less able learners - Children will have three expert teachers collaborating to support and engage all learners. Differentiated skill based learning workshops will ensure both extension and support for learners is managed effectively. Children will work closely with the teacher as they move to independence as part of a licensing system. A benefit of team teaching is that while one teacher is running a workshop, there will be another teacher available to give more attention to the other children working in the learning spaces. 
Social challenges- A major focus in Term One across the school will be learning relationships and expectations across learning hubs (treaties). This is something that all teachers do with a new class at the start of the year and involves collaboration and contribution from the children as well as the staff. 
Parent expectations- We will be looking at creating a parent treaty with parents early in 2015 to explicitly support parents to participate effectively and engage in deep learning with their children across the school.
Children off task- Teachers in the senior school have access to Hapara Teacher Dasboard. This enables teachers to have access to any sites that children spend time on. "Teacher Dashboard saves teachers time, helping them track engagement and improve student outcomes with a snap-shot view of student activity across Docs, Sites, Blogger, Picasa & Gmail. Teachers can push out docs in a differentiated format to their students, and view all student work organized chronologically by class and by student."

Taken from the Hapara Teacher Dashboard Information site

This  shift for 2015 did not happen overnight. It is the culmination of several years of focus on effective pedagogy and quality teaching and the drive within a proactive school culture to best achieve our school wide goal. I am proud of each and every member of our staff who has embraced this challenge with open arms and  their commitment to remaining resolute to this cause.

So far as staff, we have focused on how we can change our teaching practice to best meet the needs of our learners. Next, we will be asking our children and our parents to have a growth mindset and take greater responsibility in this learning process. Together we will continue to support and challenge each other to make sure that we "Engage every student in deep learning for success."