What do I have to share?

Last year I didn't apply for Google Academy because I didn't think I had anything to say or share.

Then my principal said my next step was to share my journey as a teacher, and the authentic learning experiences that happen in my class - he said he was looking forward to seeing me present at conferences. Again I was lost - what do I have to say or share that others want to hear? Or haven't heard before! 

I take risks as a teacher - and am always willing to try new things out - I'm not afraid that it might go wrong - there is always a backup plan, or something else to do if it doesn't work out. I try to make my lessons interesting for all students. I try to teach students to take risks, as learning is not about being successful the first time, its about the journey you take to get there. Yet I am not always willing to take risks in front of my peers. 

Educamp seems to be the baby step I need to share my ideas with my peers. Its one thing talking to the like minded teachers at school - its a whole other thing sharing with a captivated audience at a conference.  The purpose of EduCampNZ is to learn and contribute. I am definately not afraid of learning, or contributing. Educamps are an unconference, The sharing of ideas that are tried and tested in the classroom - shared with people who want to learn more, or find out more about the tool or way of doing things. Its informal social gathering of teachers who are wanting to learn and contribute ideas. 

I really like this idea of meeting people face to face to discuss, and share ideas. I was a little jealous of all the great Twitter people I follow heading off to #educamprotovegas

One tweet lead to a meeting with the great @Allanahk  and @nickitempero. Educamp Marlborough was born!  

I am really excited to hear from others - and potentially share my own learning experiences. Those who I have told about Educamp (non twitter peeps - who I am slowly working on converting) are really keen to come along. Not long now until Marlborough & the top of the South educators get to share, contribute, and learn from each other. 

Save the Date:
Saturday 23 May 2015
Keep an eye on this space:
http://educampnz.wikispaces.com/Educamp+Marlborough

What do you want to learn more about? 

What would you contribute? 

Don't smile until Easter

Whoever decided that teachers needed to be scary, mean and authoritative really didn't think about the consequences.
Once again I've been reminded that I need to not smile until Easter. This is something I don't really agree with. I am generally a happy person, and want to make school a fun, safe place for students to be. I loved school despite all the hang ups I had with learning and I think that was because of a few teachers who made the effort to get to know me.

This first week back at school - my 5th as a teacher has been the best yet. No matter how long you've been teaching you only get the start of the year once a year - and you need to start as you mean to go on. I've started by trying to get to know my students and by letting them get to know me. I don't want to be the robot teacher who kids are shocked to see in the supermarket. I want them to know I am human and have a life outside of my classroom.

This term my class and others in the year 8 team are learning about the human brain. We want our students to know how to learn, and the importance of looking after the brain. One thing that I have found in my research about the brain over the years is that the reptilian part of our brain overrides everything.  http://www.copingskills4kids.net/Reptilian_Coping_Brain.html
Fear is one of the primitive instinctive brain functions - so if someone is experiencing fear - they have three options - flight, fight or freeze.

If I want the students in my class to be able to learn, I need to remove the fear factor. I want them to feel safe enough to be willing and able to learn. 

This week has been about setting boundaries, and getting to know each other. Yes I have made myself clear about my expectations. Yes the students have had a say in how they want the classroom to be. Most students have told me something about themselves and their lives, and I have told them a little about my life. I believe that if we communicate how we are feeling - especially when we aren't feeling that great - and likely to be grumpy, our students will see that we are human and respect that. To them I will not a bomb that could go off at anytime.

Over the last two years I have recognised the importance of building relationships with students. As a beginning teacher I felt that I had to be in control, and I was the robot teacher who lived in a classroom. I was the teacher I hated at school. If I want to be the difference in these students lives - then I need to be different from last centenaries teachers.

This year I started as I intend to go on. I smiled when I read out my class list and welcomed my students to the Awesome Room 1. I also rang home and introduced myself to all parents in my class. I want to make positive contact with home this year. Most parents were a little weary as to why I was calling - immediately going to "my child is in trouble."

It is my mission to make school a place where my students feel safe enough to take risks, make mistakes and FAIL -  First Attempt's at Learning. I believe that if they take risks, they will become confident life long learners.

Even if that means smiling before Easter.

2015 - More & Less

Since I have had a lot of down time these holidays (no massive tripping around being adventurous). So I have been doing a lot of reflecting and thinking. Kind of goal setting in my head - I've been meaning to find some way to record my thinking. I did consider doing a vision board - after my Mum posted something on my Facebook page. But my lazy holiday self didn't want to go to school to find all my magazines, and other craft supplies!

After reading : http://chched.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/happy-new-year-bring-on-2015.html 

I realised my blog is a perfect place to record my thinking. I need to use my blog more! 

Bridget wrote about the things she wanted to do more and less of in the Classroom - I think this is an excellent concept - which I am going to steal for the purpose of focusing my thinking. I have already written a long list of things I know I want to do - and have even managed to find a few less! 

My goals for 2015 are:

For the love of Writing

2014 was a year of trying to convince my lovelies that there was a reason to write. With 30 kids having 30 different ideas about what writing is about, and why we need to write it felt like an uphill battle.

I don't consider myself a writer - heck I hated writing at school - so I know where they were coming from with their complaints about why we had to do speeches, why we had to write explanations and why we had to write persuasively. When we finally got to term 4 and narrative writing they were worn out.

I attended Lane Clark workshop (http://www.laneclark.ca/) in the September holidays - and felt she was speaking my language. She talked about inquiry not just being about students independently, self managing mucking about. It struck a chord - I had many self managing students - a guess a few were probably mucking about. She said give them the knowledge, give them a reason and a purpose to learn! Lane also spoke about cognitive overload - and how when we let our students inquire they often get overwhelmed and click on multiple pages, click, click, click...and have no way of knowing what information is the right information for them.

You know when you go on PD and the whole time you're thinking I can't use that - this isn't just in time learning for me - we're doing stats next term and they are talking about algebra. Lane's first example on the course, was writing narratives specifically picture books to send to students in Africa who lived without books. This matched our term themes perfectly - Narrative for writing, and social studies links, especially with our new cyber safety program and Keeping ourselves Safe - all the morals in fairy tales really linked in for me.

Thus started the journey of  30 year 7 students to becoming published authors. 

I followed her advice:

I used Task Cards to give the students clear outlines of what I wanted them to investigate - with a maximum of 4 tasks to complete. I gave them Thinking Charts that clearly outlined the information needed. Then we read picture books, we read fairy tales, we watched Hoodwinked - a fairytale mashup (they asked me if it was ok they were watching movies in week 1 of the term!)

We compared, contrasted, completed think charts and really pulled them to pieces - what did they all have in common, what was the first line on the story, what was the last line... What did the characters act like, was the a commonality? Our school magically had Rapunzel production visit in week 2 of the term - and it  too was a mashup fairy tale. Perfect! We used our IT suite sessions to look into the history of fairy tales, and the purpose or morals behind them.

Suddenly they understood the structure and purpose for writing narrative.

They asked questions all the way along - and there was no small questions, thick, thin - they all got recorded and answered.  This was a big deal for me - I hadn't realised the importance of answering ALL questions. 

Some of the questions they asked:

What is the most expensive picture book?

When was the first fairy tale published?

What fairy tale is the best? Most popular for 12year olds?

What is the most common first line, last line in a fairy tale? ( Once upon a time.....and they all lived happily ever after)

Who should we write for? Answers - Kids our age - 12 year olds!

What do 12 year olds like to read? Answers - Adventure, mystery, blood, guts, Zombies, things that aren't the way they should be, funny things

What is the difference between Fantasy and FairyTale

Who needs to laugh? Answers - sick or sad kids

That led to a conversation about writing books and illustrating it ourselves. We had looked at picture books in the first term, and had continued reading one a week - so they thought themselves experts. Room 9 decided as a whole (democratic votes all the way!) that they wanted to complete individual books with their audience being sick 12year olds - at StarShip Hospital - their idea was that when you're sick, you can't read a whole novel, so short stories or picture books would be ideal - but they felt that there aren't many aimed at their age group. They had a purpose and an audience.

I decided to do a bit of the leg work, as it was Week 3 Term 4 - and we were off to camp in Week 9. This didn't leave much time for kids doing all the work. I googled - Self Publishing - then Self Publishing NZ and found a small publishing house in Nelson. They answered the phone - and listened to my story. Dave offered us a great deal - which meant students would have to do all the leg work including choosing the font, doing the set out and cover design. I am beyond grateful for all the help they gave my class! 

This lead to a whole lot more questions - 

What type of fonts are there? (We learnt what Sans Serif means)

What is the easiest to read? 

How do books get set out? How big is the margin?

and many many more....

We use Google Apps for Education, and Harapa teacher dashboard. This task would have been a bit of a longer processes without Google Docs. I was able to drop into students work -  make comments, share video tips on how to correctly use speech marks and other tricky punctuation. I had students working at level 2 with little correct punctuation prior to this experience, who were now using speech marks and ellipsis correctly (and knowing the dot dot dot was called an ellipsis!) 

Each student had to share their work with three other classmates for 'Audience check'  - did their intended audience like what they had written - and laugh at the right places? They then self edited and sent to me for feedback. I have never had ALL of the students in my class want feedback generally there is always someone who fails to share their work - and I have to go on a mission to find their work and give them feedback. Once we decided their stories would be published - in a real life book - they went nuts! I had students emailing me after school, on weekends, and coming in at 8.30am to type up their work they had written over night. They would reply to my comments asking for 1:1 time with me, or for clarification. 

The students set themselves a deadline, and with a lot of hard work and encouragement of each other they achieved what I had thought was impossible. Completed pieces of writing ready for the final proof copy deadline set by the publishers. All illustrations were completed by students by hand. They were then scanned and added to the book document  - There was a class vote for the cover art work. 

The back cover has a blurb written by a small group of students, the inside cover has a collage of all the authors photos. 

The Proof Copy! 

Our proof copy arrived five school days before we went to camp - at the end of week 7. The students all had a chance to read their work and decide if there was any changes that needed to be made. By no means is this book perfect. I know there are parts that need editing - but decided this was their book and they needed to take ownership. 

This set of another wave of excitement - as a small group of girls decided we needed to have a book launch and signing. The girls gave themselves a set of jobs to complete for this next tight deadline. Planning and organising an event in 5 days. They designed an invitation, dealt with the guest list and RSVP's, they spoke to the school Librarian about hosting the event after school hours in the library. They even wrote a press release - contacted the local book store and newspapers. 

Books all ready for the book launch 50 copies - PRESOLD! 

The party! 40 guests, and kai to celebrate! 

For those who would like a sneak peek - http://goo.gl/8kmSOO

If you would like to order a copy of "Twisted Tales for 12year olds" please contact rmoran@bohally.school.nz 

Digital natives, digital creators ...illiterate writers?

The Knew Illiteracy - North&South October 2014 

"If teachers themselves aren't confident to teach writing skills, you're going to have problems." 

(Jonathan Anderson -director of Kip McGrath) 

This worries me, as someone who over thinks things, I spent a lot of time agonising over my spelling ability before I started teachers college. Do I need to be able to write and spell to be a teacher? Do I need to understand all parts of speech, the correct use of the apostrophe and what an Oxford comma is? 

Jo Morris president of New Zealand association for Teachers of English states essays she wrote in the 1970's and that received excellence then are not up to current levels of deep thinking we expect from students now.  I agree, due to conceptual education we have moved on from writing recounts of our holidays and are now expecting students to inquire into the world around them and report, narrative or explain that world. 

Should we let kids go with their content and ideas or should we drill them with punctuation, grammar and spelling? There is also the debate of should we teach handwriting?

This article argues both sides of the debate. Students in 2014 are creative thinkers but lack the skills to write in correct sentences. Society is craving creativity yet we consistantly judge students on the surface features of their writing. Spelling, hand writing and grammar are all things that can be fixed by a word processor. By the time students get to us in year 7 what changes can we make to their atrocious unreadable handwriting? Students often say when asked what their goal is in writing they say they want to improve their handwriting. 

There is research to prove more text is being written and read than ever before, however most if it is concise and web-based. We should encourage students to read more traditional texts, such as novels, but also share and model concise digital web-based texts that are well written. 

Next term I plan on teaching my class cyber-safety and look at how we communicate now and in the past. I want them to view and analyse blogs, tweets and status updates and determine what makes them 'good' just like we would with exemplar pieces of writing. I will attempt to ensure our own are grammatically correct.

Term 3 Reflection

My reflection this term was taken from

http://kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/ 

My class completed it as well. 

1. What have you learnt about in term 3? Has it been easy or difficult to learn? Why?
   I have learnt many things this term. It has been a roller coaster. I have struggled at times to keep things straight in my head. I have learnt that the hardest part of my job isn't the planning, or organisation or the kids - it is the working with adults, and leading. 
2. What is something (eg a sport, hobbies, cultural etc) that you have learnt outside of school? Why do you do take part in these activities? I have learnt a lot about science. I am studying and currently doing really well. I have had 3 A's this term even though I have been busy with school science fair, and managing my work load. 
3. What words would you use to describe term 3 for you and your class? Busy, learning, happy. It is a good place to be in room 9. Generally we are happy, and get on. There has been a few issues with girls - but that has settled down again. 
4. What praise has your teacher given you this term? I am horrible at giving myself praise. I beat myself up when things aren't going the way I want them to. I have been told by other teachers that I am doing a good job. 
5. What has been one challenge that you have faced in term 3? How have you beaten this challenge? There have been many challenges this term. Science fair was a big one. It was about dealing with the unknown, and managing that. Dealing with staff - and having to be a leader and confront people about things not being done correctly. Also talking to people about 
6. Did you have any goals for term 3? How did you achieve them? My goals are usually very large, and I tend to over plan for the term. I didn't acheive everything I wanted to. However my students did work towards some really aceheivable authentic tasks for inquiry. I love how they really embraced the feedback I gave them after science fair and took off on their own journey, questioning themselves, and making sure they asked questions of others. 
7. What advice do your teachers, friends and families give you about learning? What does it mean?  Learning never stops, this has been something I have always known. I am a curious person, and google is really my friend. I read non-stop, and so does my family. I am very grateful to them for the love of learning, and the love of books, reading and knowledge. 
8. What goals or aims do you have for term 4 and how do you plan to achieve them? Term 4 I want to plan a unit without trying to worry about what I need to fit in school curriculum wise. I am worried about this - I know time is short again but I think I can have some authentic positive learning experiences for my students. I am also really looking forward to Adventure week - white water rafting is going to be REALLY cool. 
9. What do you think you will be doing in 10 years and what will you be learning? In 10years I hope still to be a classroom teacher. Possibly a team leader - but I love the time I spend with my class. I would potentially want to teach at a small rural school sometime - but I still love the idea of an intermediate and how it challenges students at a time in their lives they are challenging the norms in their lives. Potentially I could be studying towards my masters - although I think I will be doing my own Dora Explorer  as per normal. 
10. What does it mean to be a life long learner and why is this important? I strongly believe that learning never stops. Technology changes around us so fast that it is impossible for anyone to stop learning - if you want to participate in society you need to be willing to learn new ways of doing things. I for one will not ever stop learning, exploring and going on adventures. 

Why I use twitter

Twitter used to be a place here I could see what my favourite celebrity was wearing, and thinking. It was a place to be a voyeur. Always watching, forever silent. I'm not entirely sure where I turned towards Twitter as an educational tool. I do remember why I started using it at school for my class. I had a "lovely" year 8 class, that had no passion for writing. They didn't see the point, they had no audience other than me, and writing had no purpose. They admitted only likeing writing if it was a text message, or a Facebook post. I wanted to give them an audience, and a social media platform that was relveant and real to them. I needed to give them an authentic reason to write. I couldn't use Facebook - it was blocked very rightly by our schools filter system. So @room9_BIS was launched. It was a way to share, and give them an audience. I thought they would be much more excited about using Twitter at school than they were. We tweeted a few things. Then radio silence fell. It was a bit of a fail for me. I felt that I had chosen something exciting for them, and their reaction was lack luster. I wrote it off after having to run it all myself. 

Looking back I wasn't ready to let it go, and give my students free range with social media. I decided to wait for the start of the school year, so I could start day 1 and make it rountine, expected and the norm. 2014 started with a bright faced, excited bunch of Y7 students. One of the first things we did was tweet how we were feeling. Once again I took control. I had to set expectations and be sure they were safe online before taking off the training wheels.

Whilst exploring our twitter feed as part of "@room9_BIS Twitter 101" we came across @mathspirates and the Maths like a Pirate challenges. Again we started tweeting, this time using the pirate challenge as our purpose for tweeting. They gave us a reason and an audience. This time I let go. I logged our classroom iPads onto our class twitter account and let them go after a brief chat about how we should act on Twitter. I was expecting one of them to slip up, make a mistake...but nothing. We have been using twitter in the classroom for most of the year and students have our class account signed in on their personal devices and there have been no issues. 

We communicate weekly with classes, educators and experts around New Zealand and the world. I would say daily, but sometimes we get busy. Inquiry presentations are easy to share - one click and then students are linked with a scientist or author. They ask questions, share exciting events or just write concise book reviews.

Personally I have a digital learning network I can ask questions of, or find resources of note. I personally and professionally using Twitter after the GAFE Sumit in Auckland earlier this year. I eventually want to become a Google Certified Teacher - advice given at the summit was you need to share and collaborate as part of a community, why not start already via Twitter. Thus ending my vouyerisum and started my fledgling status as a tweeter. Nothing like a little incentive to get people moving.