Google Teachers Academy

Seventh of May, twenty-thirteen saw 52 educators from 13 countries directly influencing 32,727 students, 40,311 teachers, therefore indirectly influencing 410,885 students - sitting in a conference room in the Google Sydney office in Sydney ready to embark on 2 full days of learning.

The room is full of names I recognise from Twitter - educators I follow and learn from - so I am privileged to be part of this amazing cohort.

So what did we learn?

The first day was structured with workshops run by our lead learners, googlers and the GTA planning team.  They were based around Maps, automating your world, youtube editor and collaboration tools.

Here is a snippet from one of the workshops:
Creating your world - lead by Tom Barrett & Jim Sill
What inspires us to create?

Using youtube editor  we were given an image and on a post-it note, wrote down a phrase/ key words about that image.  This was then displayed and we used youtube editor to create a story around this image.  Throughout this workshop, we were given key points to consider when:

• The starting point - don't front load too early
• Prototyping is the key - fail early
• Share early
• Critique: fail fast to quickly move on

We also heard from Googlers about what life is like working for this amazing company. We had the token Google photo of the cohort and rounded up the first day with magic moments, the pinning ceremony and the dinner.

Day two was the Unconference.  With a relaxed feel, we heard from more Googlers and then designed our day of learning from each other.  This was a great opportunity to get a real feel for the talent that was in the room.  Part of being a Google Certified Teacher is creating an action plan for a project that will be completed in the coming year.  

This was an amazing experience and can highly recommend this face-paced, mind-blowing experience.

Here is my application video:

Walking a fine line...

Over the past two days, these questions have been driving our own end of day reflections.  A task that I would have guessed to take 2 - 3 hours, has spanned across two full days.  As I think about how I would have taught this last year, I realise that although I provided a lot of choice, I was really the driving force  - this year, we are aiming for the students to be the driving force of their own learning, deciding (with some gentle nudging) what steps they need to take to achieve the goal they set.

So back to this week - challenge - that will be my word to sum up it up.  I found the balance between students driving their learning and wanting to step in a bit of a juggling act.  Where do we (the professionals entrusted with their education) step in and when do we back off? What if certain students do not step up and own their learning, who drives the bus then?  As a teacher, how much am I saying/ influencing/ implying throughout a given day - how much is too much, what if it is not enough? What about the things I don't say? 

Yes, things take a lot longer, but hopefully the outcome will be greater ownership from the students of the process and products produced.

I guess the proof will be in the pudding....

UNschool ME

Honeymoon over, time for action.  It has been just over a month since starting the school year and we have been going slowly, slowly finding our feet, which has been great, but it is time to start challenging our thinking - why were we doing the things we were doing, were we falling back into old, 'safe' habits that we have been used to?  It amazes me the default you can easily fall back into if you don't have people challenging what your doing and your thinking behind your plans.  Last week, we were challenged - in our thinking - why were we doing what we were doing?  Does this fit with our school philosophy? Are we defaulting to the one-fit-for-all model?  In some instances, I think we were going down that path.  Our goal is to offer a personalised, student-centered learning experience for ALL students - so why were we doing things such as getting all the students sitting in the one configuration for our morning meeting, why did all students sit on the same type of seat for this?  Why???

Great question - so getting ready for Monday morning.  For the first time in my teaching career, I have no plans for Monday, or Tuesday or Wednesday for that matter, Thursday is looking pretty much the same - blank!  As we (senior learning common team) sat down to plan out our week, last week, we thought back to the discussion we had - why are we doing what we are doing, are the students in control of their own learning?  We have decided to plan with the students on Monday.  Include them in the decisions we make.  Model what collaborative planning looks like, how working relationships...work.  We purposely did not plan anything, we haven't even talked about what it will look like as we want this to be as authentic as possible - and it sure will be!

So I dampen the voice of a the uni lecturer saying "detailed [weekly] planning is the key to successful week" and go into Monday's uncharted waters...what will the week bring? Watch this space to see....

2013...ready?

If I thought 2012 was a rich, busy and exciting year - 2013 is going to blow it out of the water!

I am lucky enough to be involved as a foundation teacher at Hobsonville Point Schools - Primary section (schools as the primary and secondary schools will be running under one umbrella) - in one of Auckland's newest community.

The start of any school year is always filled with excitement, anticipation and a little bit of the unknown...starting a new school was just the fresh start I needed in my teaching career.

So - what has been involved thus far....

January 14th, 2013 - first day back!  Unlike previous teaching years, gone was the endless summer holiday - back to work after 3 weeks holiday.  For me, this is great.  I am someone who needs to actively relax - I love being busy...so this was a great relief (especially to the credit card which normally takes a hammering when everyone else has gone back to work).  So we headed back three weeks prior to the start of the school year...

The infamous brownie incident 

What have we been doing?

Seven people make up the Hobsonville Point (Primary) team. With such a small group, it is vital that we all get along, so there has been a lot of 'getting to know each other'.  We headed away to Waiwera for 3 days, which involved lots of planning, planning and more planning (aka laughter, wine and good food). We got back to school to tackle setting up for the start of the year!

The junior common (year 0 - 3) got well under-way, putting up beautiful boarders, creating discovery tables and generally creating a visually rich environment.  Us in the senior common (year 4-8) took a slightly different approach to our learning common.  We really want the older children to take full ownership of their environment, so we have gone for a minimalistic approach with the idea that the people that fill the space will design the surroundings, from the walls to most of the resources (we have got the bare essentials) that fill our space.

Our weeks have also been filled with open days.  We had a public open day (held on a Sunday).  This was not hugely advertised and we expected a few people to pop in...fast-forward to the Sunday at 10.05am...the place was filling up and it took my brain a little while to click into gear and answer the deluge of questions.

We have also had the families in - with our first IEM's (individual education meeting) taking place.  This has been a fantastic experience, getting to know the families and the children that we will be working with.  Usually I have had three way conferences towards the end of the first term.    The idea of having these meetings prior to school was a little foreign, but I could immediately see the benefit.  The IEM process is typically designed to be run by the child, discussing their learning path, however this first one was a chance to get to know them.  We had a few questions to ask such as:
- if you could design your own school day, what would it look like?
- what do you do outside of school?
- what areas of learning do you find easy/ what makes learning easy for you?
- what areas of learning do you find a challenge/ what can make learning difficult for you?
- does anything worry you about the start of the school year?

So we know a bit about our learners (tick), we have moved furniture in and out of our learning common (tick)...we then began planning our first couple of days.

So the journey has well begun.  It will be great to finally see this amazing space being used for its intended purpose.  Monday we start with a stagering 31 students enrolled - we (Kristyn, Lisa and myself) have 13 in our senior (year 4 - 8) learning common.  Activities ready, bouncy castle ordered - we are all good to go!

The year that was...

I asked the class to give a round up of their year - and thought it only fitting that I do the same as this has been such an action-packed year!  From helping to deploy over 100 iPads in the school to attending workshops run by my own students, iLearn is an understatement!

Here are some of the highlights from 2012 and what I have learnt:

This is no easy feat and here are some tid bits from my year:

Train before implementation 
At the GAFE summit in Auckland, Mike Reading suggested train before you implement and make sure your training leaves your staff wanting more.  We started our training when the iPads landed.  Some staff had their own personal devices (ipods/ ipads/ iphones), but many had only seen pictures of these.  Pre-training for these people would have been invaluable and given them some prior-knowledge when we came to starting out.

Buy-in From Senior Management - Top-down approach rather than pushing up from the bottom
This may sound obvious, but it has been a hurdle this year.  This was the direction the school had chosen to take and getting all team and planning leaders onboard would have strengthened the concepts we were trying to implement.  When we started the year, a self-selected group was formed to take on the e-learning focus for the year.  Each year group was represented, however there was a major oversight in that no senior staff were on this team, so when ideas were shared, they had no idea of the background involved.

Buy-in from Parents
Getting not only buy-in, but actively involved parents makes your job so much easier!  We ran parent workshops on Twitter, Wikispaces and Blogger so our parents could not only see why we were using these tools, but how they could add to their child's learning environment.  I had heard too many times parents say "she comes home and says I'm doing my homework online, I have no idea how to help so I leave her to it".  I wanted parents to be able to see what they were doing and to have the tools to be able to help out.  This was also a great way to strengthen relationships with parents and the community.

Let Go - you don't need to know everything - teach explorers!
This probably the hardest concept to get across to adults.  Many teachers felt we were adding to their ever increasing workload.  They felt they needed to know everything before the students - when training to be a teacher, I remember being told to always be prepared - be over-prepared for anything.  I think letting go and exploring with the kids is one of the great benefits of the digital world.  Letting kids become the experts and modelling this sharing of knowledge - teaching kids how to impart their knowledge of the world, is a great real-world experience.  I am proud that my students are explorers and don't reply on me to be their main source of information.  They know where to go and if all else fails - google it! 

TWITTER - do it!
Twitter continues to be my single biggest source of professional development. I am constantly amazed by the resources and ideas that come my way.  Over the last term, I have also been regularly involved in twitter chats.  #edchatnz on Thursday 9 - 10pm.  Moderated by @MissDSciTecher, 'PD in your PJ's' is a great source of motivation, inspiration and sharing.  From #edchatnz, #kidsedchatnz has been born. This is a great opportunity for kids to be active, engaged and connected learners.  This is a weekly event (during the term), 2pm - 2.30pm with kids moderting (check out the archive of #kidsedchatnz.

Get Involved
Attend UNconferences, twitters chats, ignite evenings - it is a great way to meet other educators!  This will help cement your PLN.

Do it now - don't wait to be an expert!

#KidsEdChatNZ: articulate, engaging...and connected!

Today marked the first #kidsedchatnz - a concept born from a EdChatNZ conversation on Twitter.  

I personally (or should I say professionally) love being involved in twitter chat sessions and at the last #EdChatNZ @PascalDresse made the comment:

Pascal Dresse ‏@PascalDresse

Imagine the kids in our classes participating in a weekly #edchatnz aimed at different topics. Imagine the ideas they would have...

and to that, the responses came flooding in...

Amy McCauley ‏@AmyMMcCauley

What a great idea #KidsEdChatNZ

Pascale Hyboud-Peron ‏@phpnz

Would you start a twitclass?

cheesynz ‏@cheesynz

Fantastic idea - could get them doing it during a set time during a school day

Luke Dyer ‏@dukelyer

That type of thinking answers question 1 of #edchatNZ what elearning should look like#innovativeidea

Pascal Dresse ‏@PascalDresse

Too often we think learning is pen on paper. imagine a chat between schools/classes that involves parents. #powerful 

Danielle Myburgh ‏@MissDSciTeacher

Number 1 on to do list tomorrow. Get twitter unblocked!!  

So #kidsedchatnz was born.  We discussed the logistics of involving kids, ironed out some issues we could forsee, discussed some questions and Pascal Dresse created a website for this information to go on...KidsEdChatNZ.

The time was set, the topics were put out there - next step: discuss with the class.

We have been using Twitter in our class for the year.  Popping in and out, sometimes we are prolific tweeters, other times it is in the background, so my students already had a handle on the basics of Twitter.  I showed them the #edchatnz discussion and shared how it all worked.    Then I talked about how the #kidsedchatnz would work during school time.  I showed them the website that had been created and we looked at the questions that had already been suggested.  

As with anything, some were excited...some glazed over...one asked how much they will get paid!  So I invited those who were interested to participate - half the class were interested.  

Tweet deck loaded on laptop

Next we talked about the logistics.  Part of being involved in a twitter chat, is being able to quickly respond to questions coming in.  My students are so hands on, I knew they would need their own device, or at the very least 1: 2.  It was all devices on deck...laptops, iPads, iPods - any device that could accomodate Twitter.  It was at this stage I invited another year 5 class (@pinehill10) for those interested to join in - this also meant those students in my class who were not interested could go out for a game with the remaining other students in Rm 10.  I loaded up Tweetdeck on both the laptops and iPads, so the students could easily follow the hashtag and we were ready!

Wednesday 7th November:

The day arrived, the devices were charges and the students were ready - I was secretly nervous we would be the only ones involved!

1.15pm - I met the students in my class to get ready and make sure everything was connecting.

1.30pm - Off it went - just like a normal chat, the tweets were coming thick and fast ~ phew!

So what did they talk about? Here is very small snippet of what was discussed...

What to use? Laptop, iPad...iPod???

Room14 ‏@PinehillRm14

We think that being connected to the internet means enjoying technoligy but still learning. MM MS

Marcelle Natusch ‏@MNatusch

We think being connected is working together with our class (Aaron) and others around the world (Loren) 

Room 6 Hawea Flat ‏@Rm6HFS

What makes your school special?

Room14 ‏@PinehillRm14

@Rm6HFS Our Pinehill Way makes our school special. MM

Room14 ‏@PinehillRm14

Q. What's your favorite subject at school AS 

Room14 ‏@PinehillRm14

Q. What's the greatest thing you've ever done at school???

Louise Trousdale ‏@Rm3TKP

@PinehillRm14 Being nice to others (Nevaeh, 5 yrs); swimming (Alisha, 5yrs); playing with others (Tipene, 6 yrs); learning (Xander, 5 yrs)

Room14 ‏@PinehillRm14

@Rm3TKP That's nice! I especially like the first one about being nice! MM #kidsedchatnz

Room 10 & Rm 14 busy keeping up with #kidsedchatz

Room 6 Hawea Flat ‏@Rm6HFS

I used to have an account with Sumdog and it helped my maths By Reuben 

Louise Trousdale ‏@Rm3TKP

Do you use your ipad for maths? (Ashleigh, 6 yrs)

Room14 ‏@PinehillRm14

Question:Take a photo of your uniform and show it on tweet deck From Isaac

Room14 ‏@PinehillRm14

The devices we use in the classroom is the iPods, iPads, computers and the (teachers) iPhone. ST 

Engaged, connected learners!

By the time 2:30pm rolled around, the students involved were absolutely buzzing.  They raved about the experience, saying they loved the way people replied to them straight away and they got to learn how kids around NZ are learning.

Takeaways:

- Very worthwhile activity reinforcing the digital citizenship values we have been discussing throughout the year - students were asking about talking pictures, this lead to a conversation about digital citizenship #proudteachermoment!

- Questioning skills - students had to think on their feet.

- Succinct answers - due to the 140 characters, students had to get to the point, quickly - which proved difficult for some!

- Connections (being a connected learner) - making these connections with other students.  We have already investigated some of the tools other classes discussed.

- Make sure we have enough devices for the session...we had a lot of devices in the room, but the internet was dropping in and out.  I had my phone on 3G, which was quickly picked up on and my phone soon found comfort in the hands of one of my students...lost for the session.

Check out #edchatnz and #kidsedchatnz as well as the facebook page we have set-up for teachers to reflect and discuss up and coming topics/ ideas

Conference Week

What a huge week of learning and sharing!  GAFE summit in NZ and ULearn!

Here are some of my favourite/ inspirational quotes and advice from the week...

Suan Yeo - 
Heads Google Enterprise Education Asia-Pacific

Technology is not new if you were born with it

Learning should be open, free and easily accessible
- does your classroom encourage learning outside the classroom?

Become a 21st Century teacher...teach with technology, not teach technology!

Teach how to use not BAN technology

Mike Reading

Offer training that leaves your staff wanting more...train before you implement!

Technology magnifies what is happening in the classroom: think through why technology is being deployed in the classroom.

Glenn Capelli

 

Natural play is the greatest developer of the brain that we know

Kaizen - a little bit, a little bit, a little bit of improvement - every day!What was your Kaizen today? Great for reflection at end of learning session

The Russian Brothers and their Cousins

Morov - do a bit more of  - Kaizen

Lessov - back off a bit - a bit less of sometimes

Ridov - shed/ kull/ get down to it - live simply!

Cousins: Tossin - What can you bring in?

This principle can be used for coaching, appraisals, observations, feedback - do a bit Morov this and a bit lessov that...

Thinking Caps 

e-book that challenges us to ponder some of life's significant issues in a delightful collection of anecdotes, lessons, humor, wit and wisdom - iTunes Store

Kevin Honeycutt

Treat the scariest kid like he’s the only one you trust.

Recast a student as a leader in the classroom. Give them the tools to investigate (might be a problem, a learning tool...)and then let them teach the rest of the class. As teachers, we have the power to manufacture this success.

Archive yourself. Take a video of yourself changing a tyre for your daughter/ son, video yourself reading a story for your great great grand daughter...what a great legacy to leave.

When filming - put a paper face over the camera so you know you are talking to a person.

Kick my butt with love. Expect something from me

http://www.google.com/alerts set up an alert to mointor your name, school, child’s name. Anytime it appears on the web, you get an email.

We need to teach kids to manage their devices, not let their devices manage them.

Jason Ohler

We need to be a door opener for our kids, especially when it comes to their curiosity and their creativity.  We need to act to prevent them living in two worlds - one in school, and one out of school. BYOD is a good example of how to create this shift.

Ten digital literacy media guidelines

1. Good media is based on good writing
2. Value writing more than ever
3. adopt art - art is the next R
4. The DAOW of literacy - digital, oral, art, written Storytelling and new media narrative
5. Attitude is the aptitude - the degree to which you are willing to learning new things will determine your intelligence - now have both personal and social literacy
6. Practice personal and social literacy
7. Develop literacy about impacts of digital tools
8. Develop literacy about information
9. Fluency, not just literacy
10. We need to harness both the art of storytelling and story - the new media narrative

The degree to which you are willing to learn new things, determines how smart you are! This determines your intelligence.  Learn, unlearn, relearn.  

Be problem finders as well as problem solvers.

Leave positive digital footprints. Put information out there you want people to find, you can’t hide anymore so put out what you’d like people to see.  

“So what’d you do on facebook today?” - Families need to have these conversations with their kids.

Turn concerns into goals - a concern is just a negatively stated goal.  

Whats your concern? Great we now have a goal to work towards.

My PLN

One of the main highlights was meeting up with some of those wonderful people who make up my PLN. Networking is an understatement and is almost it's own breakout!

Thanks to all those I was able to have an actual conversation with and I love what Kevin Honeycutt said in regards to his PLN...'you don't just get me, you get 2000 others in my back pocket'.