Maker culture - student engagement

Here are some pictures of my Year 9 class creating to show their understanding of the novel Galax-Arena.

 The Galax-Arena - with batteries to make the gymnast 'perform'!
 

 Character posters and visual plot 'understandings'.

 The battery-powered gymnast is at the front.  The student is problem solving because his choice of material (paper) is too light.  Reinforcement needed!

 Boys working on a breakdown of costs for the Galax-Arena.

This was a wonderful mini-project full of self-direction, creativity and 'making'.

Student engagement - what does that mean again?

After watching my Year 9 class actively participate in the third of six hours on a self-selected assignment, I'm thinking a lot about student engagement.  I had the pleasure two days ago of saying to a student 'you can only do this for homework if it's fun for you'.

Shouldn't that be one of the measures of value in education?  That is, intrinsic motivation and interest from the student? 

The assignment is a rubric - much choice is given.  For my class, I asked that they selected three activities.  Because this is a class of high achievers, I did not stipulate that they MUST complete particular activities.  I was really interested to see WHAT they would choose if given full permission to follow what appealed.

The rubric is for the novel Galax-Arena by Gillian Rubenstein.  It can be found here.

What I've discovered is that students are 90% engaged in an authentic way - I have been sitting at the back of the class and listening to conversations around the room.  90% of these are about the novel, and it warms my English teacher heart to hear debates ranging from the nature of goodness to how we treat animals in our society.

Edglossary.org talks about 'student engagement' as being a potentially difficult thing to define, with variations from school to school:

 

It should be noted that educators may hold different views on student engagement, and it may be defined or interpreted differently from place to place. For example, in one school observable behaviors such as attending class, listening attentively, participating in discussions, turning in work on time, and following rules and directions may be perceived as forms of “engagement,” while in another school the concept of “engagement” may be largely understood in terms of internal states such as enthusiasm, curiosity, optimism, motivation, or interest. 

 

My measurement is definitely the latter rather than the former (although the first is naturally occurring anyway!) -  enthusiasm, curiosity, motivation and interest are all words I would use to describe how this class is responding to choice.

It also shows me that, in a system that controls student bodies - with one type of table and chair, bells that go on the hour, every hour, defined timetables that cannot be deviated from - students desire choice and, yes, even power over some aspects of their day.  I believe that the more we can hand over to them in this way, the better it is for both student and teacher.  How can we expect young people to take ownership of and responsibility for their lives if we continue to do it all for them in this way?  It just doesn't make sense to me.

Markus Zusak (author of The Book Thief) on the importance of failure

Yesterday I chanced upon this TEDxSydney 2014 talk in which Martin Zusak, author of the hugely successful novel The Book Thief, shares his views on failure.  It is inspiring and, as is so often the case, fell into my lap at the perfect time.  My Year 11 classes are both in the middle of creatively writing, and some are inevitably confronting moments in their work that appear to be 'brick walls'.  By this I mean they come to a point where they think their ideas are 'dumb', 'stupid' or worthless.  Or sometimes it's a problem that they just don't know how to solve.  I do not believe that it is my job to solve those moments for them - that, in fact, those moments are actually the most valuable.  The sense of accomplishment that comes from overcoming what seems insurmountable is where the learning and forward momentum truly occurs.  There are so many times when students get me to read their work and say, 'where should I go next?'  My answer is always 'what do you want to say in your writing, and how can you best say it in this moment?  What will serve you best here if that is the message you want your reader to get?'

If I tell my students what to write next instead of allowing them to experience that frustration that Zusak talks of, I rob them of a chance to feel truly triumphant (and I also produce 20 to 30 pieces of writing that are, in essence, my work, not theirs).  There's very little learning value in that.

Thanks Markus Zusak for helping me articulate that to my students today.

(And thanks to http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Learning-and-Failure-datruss.png for the above image - this is shared under the Creative Commons license).

14 things that are obsolete in 21st century schools

I've just come across this fabulous article from an Icelandic teacher.  There is some fabulous food for thought here.

Click here to view the article.

The Finland Phenomenon - a high-trust model

'It took 25 years'.

 

I've just finished watching this fairly comprehensive film on the Finnish Education system.  Whilst from a distinctly American perspective, there are many innovations to reflect on as a New Zealander.

Here are what I think are some of the highlights of both the system AND the film.  Please, watch for yourself and add your own!

• All food at school is free – this is one indicator of how wrap-around systems and social services are imperative for functional learning.
• All teachers have Masters qualifications and rigorous in-class experiences and observations (as well as time to reflect both collaboratively and individually).  Teaching is a highly-sought career.
• Less is more – the curriculum sounds very similar to New Zealand's, with a national curriculum that allows for a school curriculum without tension.  Importantly, there are longer class times, and fewer classes in the day.  Class sizes are smaller than in New Zealand - 20 or fewer.  Homework is viewed differently (especially compared to the American system). 
• Motivation is high in students, possibly because there are many choices and the arts are well-integrated.
• There are comprehesive vocational education system choices. This means students are not valued more for choosing academic pathways - 55% do this, whilst 45% choose to learn in a more practical environment.
• The whole education system works as a high-trust model – teachers as treated as the professionals they are. Otherwise 'what is the point in having them so highly trained?'
• And, finally, some concluding words from one of the Finnish educators interviewed:

‘Concentrate, read, dream, talk, understand, reason; find solutions yourself.’  Innovate!

Hobsonville Point Secondary School

 

I was lucky enough to visit Hobsonville Point Secondary School and have a look at their brand new facilities.  Whilst incredibly impressive, what was equally great was the future focus on innovative teaching and learning. 

Here are some photos from my tour during the BYOD Conference held there this year.

 Great locker bays for students.  Including charging docks for BYO devices - bring your own lock and take off when finished.

Lots of glass - sunshine and 'big picture' perspectives for students out the windows!  Allowed (even encouraged?!) to dream.

Huge new gymnasium.

Seating choices galore.  Interestingly, I'm pretty sure Principal Maurie Abraham told us that staff didn't have any input into furniture choice.  The contractors did well!

The staffroom space, which leads down into the open cafeteria area for all.

I love the airy hall that connects all spaces.  And I love the unconventional lights zig-zagging down the line of the building.

One of the great things about so much glass is the potential to use it as brainstorming space.

Teachers are like gardeners and Twitter

I've been spending a bit of time on Twitter lately, which is a new thing for me.  Thanks to roller derby, Facebook is probably my 'go-to' social media, but I have a love/hate relationship with that.  What I like about Twitter is the ability to be sent in other interesting directions, without having to 'hear' too much from the 'tweeter' (!)  Just now an educator I'm 'following' re-tweeted the above video - short but sweet and inspiring.

I've also been interested in the '#hackyrclass' (or hack your classroom') revolution that has inspired teachers recently.  Claire Amos at Hobsonville Point Secondary School came up with the idea.

Claire's amazing blog is here.

Claire is an inspiring educator.  You only need look over her blog to see how much she cares about the state of education in New Zealand.  Here is her talking about 'Realising the future of education'.

Claire Amos: Realising the Future of New Zealand Education from Festival of Education on Vimeo.

And here are the slides that accompany this presentation.

Realising the Future of Education from Claire Amos

Welcome to my world!

Welcome to my blog.  I'm moving some of my posts from a private G-site at the school I work at to this, a more public (and, I feel at least!) user-friendly reflective tool for my teaching practice.  I'm a teacher in Dunedin, New Zealand, at a co-ed secondary school.  I want to use this blog to play with ideas and remind myself that teaching is inherently creative.  I believe that the way we are educating our young people is mostly based on an outdated model of education that is, thankfully, starting to be questioned nationally and internationally.

To start with, here are some clips that offer me inspiration. Ken Robinson has some words to share on education, creativity and revolution, and Stephen Fry discusses language.