https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12330047
So many of us still struggling with letting go of control, and potentailly watching our students fail, but how many are failing already?
""I think we are starting to think outside subject silos. That is the thing that is the difference between secondary and primary, and the more we can build villages at secondary school, the better - the more we can create a sense of home and whānau, because the kid has got to belong.
"Relationship is everything," she says. "The relationship is the thing that will bring the kids back to school. Kids will learn from you, but they will also learn for you if you've got it right."
8/5 Brave New World
https://whakataukihewakaekenoa.blogspot.com/2020/05/peering-into-post-covid-world.html
and key competencies needed for all!
8/5 You're having twins!
Thank you colleague for your feedback- "as I tried to explain to kids- it is the critical thinking about what we learn, how we learn and what are our next steps that is important. Literacy and critical literacy gives us the tools. Why are some of us learners and some not? A friend, a high achiever in a low-decile school who went on to a degree in Stats, was [in the faltering early stages of pregnancy,] diagnosed with twins- she went straight from ultra-sound to library to get books about twins , I have to learn she said, when she came to my place to talk it through. My siblings would say I was the nerdy one but they have also devoted much time to learning sports, becoming coaches, running sports clubs and committing to their work lives too. Ultimately learners have richer, fuller lives, they build resilience and access support to not just survive but thrive. Our role is to guide young people to become learners for the benefit of themselves, their relationships, community and society. Teacher's use meta-cognition all the time." Reflection is ungoing and cyclical, there is no one set of answers but we just keep pushing on. I enjoyed painting the Autumn flowers from he garden- which ws supposed to be the 5 year olds learning activity but...
7/5 More Dancing Please.
Discussions with social science - concerned re students not engaging with online learning; lacking agency, self-efficacy. Is this a new problem? I don't think so. I think we see in classrooms a lot of passive compliance, not actual learning. Present in body absent in mind. Today I have looked at a lot of junior blogs- patterns are the same for term 1 and term 2 those few who blog do so occasionally, some subjects they do more often but much of it is cut and paste. Some students haven't blogged since 2019. 10 drama students asked why blog? I did it -you know I did it so why blog? we discussed - does the teacher know you did it- show me the evidence/ can you evaluate what you did- improve it/ we also talked about how motivating an actual audience is which they agreed with- is your work worth sharing? They like being home, only missing socialising, Couldn't teachers archive their work - eg: on the class site with pages for individuals and their evidence, eg: videos. They would rather use twitter, instagram and tiktok, they would also like to dance more! Blogging is old, they say, but I say it also requires more depth than a tweet [even American presidents can tweet]
Ps in junior drama only 1 student showed up despite individual and repeated emails. so I know engagement is low but, judging by blogs it is always low.
PPS - 2015 this is what I was doing for my TAI- Encouraging confidence and acceptance through shared performance work. Open mindsets and self-efficacy/ social and cooperative skills.Commitment, resilience and respect leading to achievement - so no change there!
Readings from Principal
6/5 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/?fbclid=IwAR084h0vOp2oJI59jh_1-znKfaM9GWGefxpFRuzrWG5TYJdePbdbd2FII70
digital divide and flipped classroom
I do not see students engainging with the technology- I thought they would do online sessions with their performance groups but not even the tight year 11 Shakespeare Group has done this. Best success I have had is playing Drama games but the novelty is wering off. I would love to have performance students read/ view/ learn lines at home and then come in ready to work with the group but it is ealy stages yet [and still relies on engagement]
Since studies have shown that children extensively use their senses to learn, making learning fun and effective through use of technology is crucial, according to BYJU's Mrinal Mohit. “Over a period, we have observed that clever integration of games has demonstrated higher engagement and increased motivation towards learning especially among younger students, making them truly fall in love with learning”
5/5
"The measure of success of a school will be whether the institution and its teachers have prepared, and can keep up with, a new age of student who have had a taste of independence, self-directed learning and agency from the comfort of their bedrooms.
Covid is forcing secondary schools to drop the last remnants of the factory model. They will no longer be able to rely on conformity, tradition and enforcement of rules to manage and measure a student’s success."
Not all students are agentic- this is the problem; how we develop agentic learners is what we need to think about. How can we give them the time & space, the confidence, self-management and interpersonal skills they need to create a performance, a set design, a permaculture garden, an entertainnment progrmme for the elderly, To do any project requires knowledge and skills. Anyone can say they are good at [reading/ arguing/ growing cabbages...] but the bank manager you're asking for a loan, the employer your asking for a job, the institution you want to study at will want verified evidence.
Change is coming? The ARTS have so much to offer.
4/5 I think we do the same things that have always been needed at Hornby, sometimes more than others; We CONNECT, build relationships; ACKNOWLEDGE feelings- accept where students are at, let them talk about it; PRAISE- give positive feedback especially around resilience, build self-esteem with descriptive praise; BITESIZE content- chunk the work, repeat it, praise it. Principles of whanaungatanga. Of course we are concerned for academic achievement but we will only be frustrated if we don't rebuild relationships.What does that look like in online learning? Email- affirm, share; g-Meets- interactive Drama games, eye-contact, personal greetings.Change is coming? The ARTS have so much to offer.
"Further to the release and sharing of the Te Rito Toi site and resource last week (have you had a look yet?!), I wanted to share this little gem of support and advocacy for arts, particularly dance and drama, coming right from the top today in the form of Perry Rush's president's message to members of The New Zealand Principals' Federation, where he acknowledges Prof. Peter O'Connor the Te Rito Toi site, and the absolute necessity of The Arts as pedagogies to deliver the NZC; to reconnect and 'get through' the COVID-19 period and into a 'new normal' for schooling and teaching/learning." Ryan Timoko-Benjamin
3/5 What do students need to succeed?
https://whakataukihewakaekenoa.blogspot.com/2020/05/is-this-distance-learning-stuff-working.html
"An interesting discussion, I think as a teacher providing distance learning I have moved past the content and the method [the materials all on Site, the G-meet set up and am wondering[worrying] about students independence. Can they read and understand emails, negotiate a site; organise their own day's schedule? Can they break the tasks down into the essential steps? Drama particularly is about working collaborativly with a group, about physical connections. It takes a lot of confidence to direct your performance to an audience but maybe more to address the camera behind which lies an unknown crowd.
30/4"Spoon Feeding" discussion from SocSci Meet- all of us are struggling with students who repeatedly ask questions showing they have not read the resources given, Including basics like - where is the link; where is it on g-site even when links are in email; on a bigger scale they struggle to follow written instructions- even with screen castify. Is this a literacy problem? Or an engagment problem? Certainly many even at Levl 3 cannot work independently. https://blog.irisconnect.com/uk/blog/9-tips-for-encouraging-students-to-become-independent-learners/ In theory we have the ideal opportunity for students to set own goals.
AS3.5 Research Theatre theorists
As I have had to redesign the year's course due to actual/ projected disruptions due to lockdown/ social distancing. I am working on a research task for my L3 Drama; it's an "extra" because of the disruption to performance standards. In the past I have done it with theatre acting theorists but this year I want to do it with set design. I am asking HOD Art " would you have an example of teaching an artists style? a] guides me and b] helps students who do art/design make the linksS"
Already working with fabric techology teacher on shared vocabulary for design and practicalities of fabric.
DramaNZ great resouces primary focused
This links with the Learning through Play TAI - Nick & I are in that PLG group. Also Reading/Drama hurumanu.
Dr Viv Aitken-
And finally, a post about Te Rito Toi - a lovely new resource produced by Prof Peter O'Connor of Auckland University in partnership with a whole team of experts from around New Zealand and the wider world. The site provides rich arts-based activities and advice to "help teachers work with children when they first return to school following major traumatic or life changing events." It's great.
Also Mantle of the Expert -
https://mantleoftheexpert.co.nz/dnz-workshops-on-zoom/
DramaNZ- Reaching the Edges ZOOM meetings - great session on using Drama games in g-meet with detailed resources. Sibject organisations dnon't seem to be considered as professional development [TAI] but the parctical support with NCEA programme changes and the practicalities of a performance subject in lockdown are invaluable. Great sharing conversations going on across the country. https://www.drama.org.nz/
Learning at home -https://thereandbackagainbel.blogspot.com/2020/04/you-want-me-to-learn-at-home.html
I was iterested in the importance of establishing routines, 13Ck have mentioned this as the hardest thing- creating a hme routine. I remeber when I had a child learning piano readig an article that said- practise at the sme time very day, eg: 4.30pm , or everyday you're trying to make a new space. I realise I have applied this to adding exercise to my day - it has to happen between 6-7 am for me- or othe things come up. How can I help my students: google calandar? https://blog.brookespublishing.com/15-tips-on-organization-study-skills-time-management-for-students-with-executive-function-issues/ Looked at some study skills tips like these. I think start simple, and asssume lack of parental support [or knowledge]
Google sites-
- learn Google MEET- https://topteachingtasks.com/10-tips-for-using-google-classroom-for-distance-learning
- seeting up G-meets/ how to book a time
I-pad- for givig feedback ; have got account up and running; added kamar and Te Reo app; filming & photoshop features
Hapara
Rewindable Learning - lesson outline with links; screen castify-
- woring with screencastify on Classics presentation
Recommended reading from Principal-
This first is from Perry Rush, current Chair of the NZ Principals Federation. He is addressing issues of leadership. We are ALL leaders, and at this time more so than ever.
This second is a piece of 'English' commentary, so obviously a different context. But it says much about where we are, and what we need to be thinking about.
"This pandemic is going to hurt those most at risk: those in precarious employment, those in rented accommodation and all those who, just weeks ago, the government labelled as unskilled – the essential workers in schools, shops, hospitality, social care, delivery and communications, cleaners, caretakers, the armed forces, police, fire, ambulance and the NHS." What will change in NZ education ? An opportunity to fix the social inequity and give everyone opportunities; yes it will cost, but not as much as letting "the tail" continue.
If we don’t recognise now the vital importance of an inclusive education system and the positive impact it can have on developing a fairer society, then, I fear, we never will. We must use the situation we are faced with now to end child poverty and inequalities in education and the wider society.
- Niamh Sweeney is a teacher of health and social care and criminology at Cambridge Sixth Form College
The website for Yong Zhao, an extraordinary writer and thinker on educational reform. In this case there is n specific reading, I encourage you to browse his site and see what you come across.
Wonderful advice from Anne Kenneally and Rachel McNamara on teaching and learning from home with junior classes.
http://blog.core-ed.org/blog/
- connections: read aloud [continue in Classics with pieces from The Odyssey]
- connections: read aloud [continue in Classics with pieces from The Odyssey]
A great new secondary blog post from Madeline Campbell and Karl Summerfield exploring teaching our teens while in lockdown.
http://blog.core-ed.org/blog/
-takeaways: look after studenst well-being, don't overwhelm them with new things, be the connection for my form class.
-takeaways: look after studenst well-being, don't overwhelm them with new things, be the connection for my form class.
Rest up, please... as the PM said, this is a marathon.
Learning from home resources
Reaching the Edges- DramaNZ workshop
"My questions at this point - I have plenty of written material on google site which most , but not all, students can access. They should have group performance work techniques/ genre ready for 2o May [maybe?] They have groups- scenes- lines to learn- intentions etc to write, Challenges
a] get students working together in some way;
b] helping them film and share their efforts [so they do something physical] for feedback
c] how to motivate them to actually do the work?
Further down the track - having research tasks as back up if our production can't be done at end of term 3"
