Elly Warnock

We had a great discussion at tonight's BOT meeting about Empowerment... Compliance - Engagement - Empowerment Empowerment is so important when our kids go into an environment where they are forced back into compliance. The possibilities are so huge when kids are empowered. Our kids teach us - they are much more capable than I ever was (a comment from Cindy) How are our kids going to adapt when they go into a different environment if they are not empowered These kids are our future leaders My thoughts... Values are even more important now to underpin Empowerment

Mel and I had a great session today discussing agency, dispositions, our RSS vision, the key competencies and our school values. We want to be able to see how they all link together.  We want to be able to simplify them, yet not loose the heart of any of them. Our discussion led to this...   Certainly still a work in progress, but a great start to aligning these important factors of what we believe is important at Russell Street School.  I just love that the work that was done in the Innovation Fund is not coming to fruition.  It is aligning beautifully with the PD we have had in maths, and the latest research. Next step - to take to Leadership.

Effective Teaching & Learning in a Play-Based School Environment Sarah Aiono & Linda Cheer What is Play? Primarily, play is: self-chosen and self-directed; Children need to have the opportunity to quit. Children need to problem solve themselves. (It grows intrinsic motivation.) process rather than product driven; its about the means rather than the end. We don't have to always 'do' something with the e.g. poem contains structures or rules established by the players themselves; Play vs games or sports imaginative, non-literal and removed from reality; These days, children are faced with reality most of the time. Play allows for imagination/magic to develop. occurs between those who are active, alert and non-stressed. Play/imagination happens in the pre-frontal cortex.  If stress is present, the child is not able to be working in the pre-frontal cortex. Play involves higher order thinking. Gray, 2013; Brewer, 2007 Continuum o...

http://www.bamradionetwork.com/bloggers/why-we-need-to-abandon-subjects-and-focus-on-big-picture-learning What a great article outlining the need to flip education on its head.  Why do we continue to try to make the learning match the real world or make connections to the real world? What we really need to do is teach the real world! This makes so much sense, yet traditionally in NZ and around the world, we continue to teach subjects in isolation.  This is not what life is all about.

I came across this great visual today outlining 12 strategies from Jo Boaler to help pupils learn and love Maths. Praise what children have done not the child. Always be a good Maths role model. Praise mistakes as learning opportunities. Encourage pupils to work on challenging problems. Help but don't do it for them. Encourage drawing wherever you can. Support pupils to make sense of maths at all times. Encourage pupils to think flexibly about numbers. Never time children as they work. Pinpoint the logic in incorrect answers. Give children Maths puzzles. Play games that use Maths. As I reflect on this list, I love the way that these strategies summarise the work that we have carried out with Dinah over the past two years.  My favourite?  Number 3 without a doubt!  Praise mistakes as learning opportunities.  This is something that I am passionate about - in fact we celebrate mistakes.  Kids know that I love it when they make a mistake. ...

A great little clip from Stephen Heppell talking about education polarisation and the importance of an inquisitive curriculum.

Longworth Education carried out a seminar specifically designed for Leadership outlining the important factors in implementing a play based environment. My notes, a little bit different to usual, are taken from the Webinar. What are my thoughts?  Play based learning fits in so very well with our vision - to inspire creativity, agency and excellence - why would we not inquire into this and see the benefits for our children?!

What conclusions am I starting to draw from my sabbatical? Maths has got to be engaging Maths needs to be relevant - related to real world Learning of 'soft skills' are JUST as important as the content knowledge Who is doing the maths? The teacher or the student? Every student needs to be treated equally with an expectation that ALL can & will succeed

Another great day today visiting School C - this time seeing a large range of ages throughout the school participate in maths. Generally speaking, the practice in each class was consistent across the school.  All students are in groups (seemed to be streamed) - one works with teacher, one group working on mathletics and the third group completing a worksheet. Key messages that emerged: learning must be relevant where students see the link to real life don't just show the 'perfect' model - life is not about perfect! e.g. when teaching geometry, can students identify a triangle if it is irregular? ensure it is the students doing the maths, not the teacher On a side note, it is SO important to have a shared understanding about agency across the sector - what is it? What is it not?   When matrices are used, how do the students feel who are in the 'bottom' tier ALL OF THE TIME.  What hope do they have?  Is this motivating for them to move or do they jus...

Most Likely To Succeed What factors are going to ensure our students will succeed?? School is about now! It shouldn't be about drudgery/assessments... Now ... 53% of college graduates in the states cannot find a job - why? Because of the advances in technology. 1843 - last major educational change - the Industrial Age.  Age, ability and subject were split up at this time. 'The Committee of Ten' designed our curriculum and by and large, it hasn't changed since. The 20th century was a century that was full of people who had good skills in the 3 r's and an economy that required those skills. This is no longer the case! Life is not segmented into subjects! High Tech High - USA   Do you need me to micromanage your way through school or do you want to do it on your own? Need to set up situations to help kids do it on their own. No bells, no subject areas, teachers are hired on one year contracts, what they teach and how they teach is up to each teacher...

It was great to go and visit School A today - always so refreshing seeing a different school in a different context and how things roll! What stood out for me? Ease of teachers planning - maths boxes prepared and ready to go. Engagement of students Whole class teaching, but students often working in mixed ability groups - still the risk of the best mathematician doing all of the maths - how do you eliminate this?  Imperative for students to ask questions of each other. Why did you do that? Explain to me how? This is a culture that would be prominent in many NZ schools - how do you break it?   How do you ensure understanding at ALL levels? All about teacher questioning - working in pairs - ask the student who has less understanding to explain - Dinah's "We thought/We did" Maths books with no lines or squares Look into Maths 300 - this looks well worth the subscription fee!  $400Aus for the first year, $200Aus every year after that. Mathematicscentre Po...

Chapter 5: Rich Mathematical Tasks "Teachers are the most important resource for students.  They are the ones who can create exciting mathematics environments, give students the positive messages they need, and take any math task and make it one that piques students' curiosity and interest.  Studies have shown that the teacher has a greater  impact on student learning than any other variable." (Darling-Hammond, 2000). Engaging maths = curiosity, connection making, challenge, creativity and usually collaboration. Maths excitement = maths engagement. Number sense is crucial. Students have to be taught to listen to and respect each other's thinking. It is crucial to engage in "low floor, high ceiling" tasks. What comes first?  The chicken or the egg?  THE EGG!  Give the real problem first as this engages the students and ignites their curiosity and then give them the method. We want students to think intuitively about the problem. We want stude...

I have been thinking a lot about the agency work that we did as part of the Innovation Fund in Poutama. We got to a point where we realised that although the matrix that we had created was useful for us as teachers, it wasn't so useful for students (too wordy). I created a target that I would like to trial and am really pleased that Nic and Brenda want to do this in the seniors. Well, now that I am moving back to the junior school, I am keen to see if it works with juniors. Brenda was kind enough to digitise my idea, which I would love to give to Julian Hardy to get him to make a big 3D one - with the middle circle rotating.  This needs to be a topic of conversation at a team meeting - is it junior friendly? Does it fit in with play-based learning? Would something like this work? Do any of the words need changing?