Partnerships with Whānau

As we return to school in this post-lockdown period we have an opportunity to reflect and learn from our experiences.

The Education Hub has been active in collecting parent, teacher and student voice. 

The Education Hub's webinar of "Lessons form Lockdown: Engaging in true partnership with Māori and Pasifika families" is a succinct article about what can be done on the way forward. 

In our cluster many schools reported anecdotally that they felt that they had formed closer relationships with whānau. They reported that whānau were active in their children's learning at home and even sat in on class Google Meets. Many of the junior teachers I worked with had parents emailing photos of their children learning at home. 

On return to school parents were messaging schools with gratitude for the work they saw teachers and schools doing. They appreciated the high level of communication through daily Meets, online assemblies and emails. They expressed thanks for the care and attention the teachers gave to the learning tasks and how accessible it was on class Google sites. 

So how can schools learn from this and continue to forge relationships to continue on from the good work done in lockdown? How can they build on what worked and collectively work on what is good for students, whānau and schools?

Lockdown Learning For All

The 2020 Digital Fluency Intensives (DFI) started in term 1. DFI is a nine week course where teachers are connected with a range of digital tools and apps that are required for effective teaching, planning, assessment and professional learning.

We only just got underway in March with face-to-face sessions but were soon interrupted by the level 4 lockdown. So not only were we getting ready to deliver learning online for our students in term 2, we continued our own professional learning online as well.

The Manaiakalani team harnessed the affordances of digital technologies and moved online to deliver DFI in Term 2. 2 groups were formed to have DFI on Tuesday or Thursday 

Teachers from all clusters in The Manaiakalani Programme Outreach were given the opportunity to carry on their DFI online. Facilitators from all cluster were online to support teachers throughout the DFI. Read the Tuesday participants introductions here. Read the Thursday participant's introductions here.

We formed "digital bubbles" and used Google Meet to connect and learn. Lots of us used more than one screen to access the content and keep connections with the wider group and our "digital bubble". 

Feedback showed that DFI continues to impact positively...

"I really enjoyed being in digital bubbles. It was good working with the same group of people and the one facilitator as you develop a relationship with them. I felt much more comfortable asking for help or extension when we were in our bubbles, and I found this very beneficial."

"The DFI has allowed me to unpack the Learn Create Share framework in more depth. I really enjoyed all of the sessions on the Maniakalani pedagogy. It gave me an opportunity to confirm any wonderings that I had, gave me access to new teaching tools/ experiences."

"I would be so lost without the opportunity to attend this course. Moving in to a 1-digital class next term now means I have all the tools and tips and knowledge and confidence to be able to lead my class through this journey, which is also new to them."

"I think that by learning, creating and sharing as per Manaiakalani's approach, through this course, my competence and confidence in using the Google collaborative tools for teaching and learning have increased."

Will we Embrace Distance Learning in a post-Covid-19 World?

I am reading an article about embracing distance learning by Jeb Bush in between Google Meets. Sometimes I feel like the meat in the Meet sandwich! (I could make a meme for that but I have to get to the next Meet...soon.)

I wonder lots about what will happen when we return to school.
I wonder if we will go back to "business as usual"?
I wonder what we can ditch in this golden opportunity to change.
Because if ever there has been an opportunity to change, it is now.

Jeb's 4 bullet points on what we should do now really struck me as a comprehensive place to start in the post-Covid-19 world. 

• Every district should make available a device and WiFi so every child can participate in online learning. The digital divide must be closed.
• Every district should practice and plan for distance-learning days every year. Distance learning isn’t just for pandemics; it’s also for times when schools would otherwise be closed — whether for snow, hurricanes or other emergency events.
• Every district should make sure teachers and other instructional professionals understand how to use distance-learning tools effectively.
• Every district must plan to virtually serve students with special needs, nonnative English learners and others who require more attention. This will be challenging. First steps should involve conducting an audit to identify which services can be delivered online, and then narrow the list of services that require unique solutions. Districtwide solutions should be considered, such as using a reading specialist to virtually support dyslexic students across the entire district, without being constrained to an assigned school.

1. Yes - we must close the digital divide. The Manaiakalani Education Trust has been front leaders in doing this. Learn from their model. It can be done.

2. Yes - distance learning isn't just for when close schools because of a pandemic. Even though this is an American article some NZ schools do have snow days, some schools are closed for emergencies. So we should learn from 2020 and always be prepared for this.

3. And yes - we should make sure teachers are digitally fluent. that is what The Manaiakalani Programme sets out to do with the Digital Fluency Intensives. Which by the way, are being delivered online right now. So that can be achieved as well.

4. But what about the last bullet point? Have we been able to virtually serve students with special needs? Many teachers I have contact with in this period has agonised over student sin their classes and how they are managing at home but they have not had any helpful guidance. Can we do an audit as suggested? The Manaiakalani Programme have a wealth of people to draw this information from and from a range of contexts, schools, geographical areas and across all demographics. I trust the way The Manaiakalani Programme researches and gathers data, so I would trust them and their findings for this particular point. 

Let's not go back to school and return to what we were doing before. Let's chuck out those awful worksheets. Let's look at our timetables again. Let's look at the way students were empowered and could design their daily timetable. Let's look at how engaged and motivated they were in things that interested them. Let's ask the students what worked for them and why.

Teachers have made huge inroads in delivering distance learning for their students by using the affordances of digital technologies. And they themselves have upped their digital fluency in doing so. 

So we need to harness what has happened and make our classrooms great again! (There's another meme in there too)

Distance Learning: It's About More Than Access

What has been your most profound change in lockdown? What are you most proud of? What do you regret?

I have worked with many teachers during the lockdown supporting them to deliver online learning and have been impressed by the adaptability of some teachers. Some teachers who had functional class sites transitioned quickly into the distance learning space picking up quickly on using Google Meets to connect with their class or groups. Some teachers had a very steep learning curve but they got there and were very proud of what they could do in a very short time. They were ready for April 15th when term 2 started.

As we moved through the weeks there was a whole lot of  'expert' advice coming from all directions. It was overwhelming. Teachers needed to be very secure in their belief in themselves, that they knew their students well, knew the curriculum and knew what the learners needed next.

A lot of the teachers I talked to were very conscious that 'hauora' was the number one consideration. They knew some learners and their parents were anxious for a variety of reasons. So they knew that by making regular contact and communications this would support those at home. And they did it with style and grace. Daily videos were created with the unique style and personality of the teacher shining through.

Ann Milne in her work about culturally sustaining pedagogies posted this on her blog recently and it struck me as good set of questions for teachers to reflect on.

Engage whānau. Engage learners. Let's ask them how online learning and distance learning was for them. Let's rethink what we do and make the changes while we have this opportunity to do so.

from Colouring in your VIRTUAL White Spaces - Ann Milne

Looking Forward to School

What is school going to be like when we all go back.? 

Can we go back to “business as usual". 

What can we learn from this disruption?

Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's blog post really got me thinking about when we go "back" to school. Silvia says we should look "forward" - not in the sense of something happy to look forward to but to go forward in terms of teaching practice.

Her image of a bubble that she created in 2009. It actually looks like so many schools today.

from Langwitches blog 

The challenge for all of us going back to school is to make the most of this disruption and change. This is the best chance we have to make change.

So what would you get rid of? On my list are...

• round robin reading
• individual tasks
• worksheets
• iPads only used for games/distributed practise
• looooong drawn out teacher instructions (use your site!)
• glass ceilings on learning 

And hey - if you don't know what change is needed - ask the kids!

Are you ready? Remote Learning here we come!

In the two days we had before schools closing down St Mary's decided to go ahead with their scheduled staff meeting. And as some teachers had selected to work from home, a Google Meet was set up so they could join in. What a great opportunity to practise the coming reality of delivering #remotelearning when school resumes on 15th April.

With the announcement on Monday of the lockdown it made the theme of this staff meeting very relevant. Helen, the Principal, talked about the expectation in their school for how they are using sites to amplify and turbocharge learning. Most classes in this school already had sites set up. Some had just started using them this year and some teachers have used them since joining the cluster 2 years ago.

In the past week we had been discussing with school show they will deliver online learning using the Manaiakalani "Limit the Links" doc as the guideline. St Mary's set to last week and ensured every class had a class site and that all content was visible. Their class sites and blogs are all linked on the school site here.

During the week the year 4-6 classes practised using Google Meet to familiarise the student with this Google App. It also gave the teachers an opportunity to set up protocols with their learners for connecting online in a video conference.

So are they ready? Yes indeed. Combine this with effective practice, Digital Fluency Intensive participation, online support from facilitators of The Manaiakalani Programme and a strong collegiality, they sure are ready.

St Mary's staff meeting before lockdown 25th March

Helen, Principal of St Mary's Catholic Primary School - Gisborne

History in the Making

Do you feel like history is being written right before our eyes? I do. Everyday there is a significant development in every way. And while I am deeply ensconced in isolation and working at supporting teachers to deliver online learning, I am staying in touch with (official) sources of information.
My 3 go to's are...

• COVID-19 NZ Government site
• The Prime Minister's daily press conference 
• The Spinoff's COVID-19 page

So how is history written? I think we can write history. We don't need historians or academics to do it for us. And yes, I think they will publish books on this pandemic and the responses will be analysed ad infinitum, but I reckon we can write history just as well as them.

How? By documenting and curating our experiences and understandings we can write history.

Teachers are in a position that we have never been in before. We are having to deliver learning online - uncharted waters for everyone.

We need to write and write and write as this new reality unfolds. I entreated a group of teachers at a staff meeting last week to document what happens over the next 4 or more weeks. The group I was with all have professional learning blogs and this is the ideal platform for them to write, reflect and amplify their experience.

I have been motivated to write this blog post by another blogger - Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano aka:  Langwitches. Her blog post We are in the Midst of Making History really got me thinking about history and not leaving it to the academics to write. Her blog post has many questions that will prompt thinking. Let's get this down for posterity and chronicle our growth as educators, because I predict that out of this disruption will come change. 

So get writing...and be kind.

Online Learning is Here!

What a week this has been!
The announcement on Monday that we were going into a nation-wide lock down at midnight on Wednesday sent many into a spin.

There was panic buying nation-wide and widespread anxiety from parents about their children's educational future if they miss 4 weeks of school - which is actually 2 weeks because there are 2 weeks of holidays in the 4 week. But who knows if it will only be 4 weeks. It could be longer and we need to prepare for it to be longer.

Our Manaiakalani team were onto it a week before this announcement and delivered a doc title "Limit the Links" to all our schools.

We were preparing all that week before the Level 4 announcement was made. We connected with Principals to ensure they had read the "Limit the Links" doc and shared it to staff and that they realised what a lockdown could mean for their school.

Schools were closed effectively on Monday and teachers were to be at school preparing and teaching remotely. We supported schools on Tuesday and Wednesday face to face as much as we could. Most of the support I provided was about using Google Hangout Meet with learners. Lots of the sites just  needed a bit of tweaking in the schools I supported.

Our Manaiakalani Schools are well poised to deliver #remotelearning. Some schools could tick most items off the list immediately and in particular having a school site with links to class sites and blogs.
Take a look at some of the local schools and their set up for this...

• St Mary's Catholic Primary School - Gisborne
• Ormond School
• Campion College - Courses page
• Wainui Beach School - Nui Syndicate

This means there is one portal to all sites and blogs in the school. Whānau would only need to Google their child's school and can get to the learning that their child can do remotely easily.

Click here to view all the schools in our local cluster.

Why Blogs?

This question comes up all the time in our work as facilitators with The Manaiakalani Programme.

So why do we in the Manaiakalani Programme choose Blogger as the platform for Share | Tohatoha? 

Many years ago I visited Pt England School and saw the way blogging was used with learners. On return to my school I got stuck in and get students blogging. We followed a lot of the guidelines on Edublogs and joined in with their challenges. We also joined Quad Blogging and interacted with schools in USA and UK. It was fun especially when we had a competition to see who could get visitors to their blog form different countries and who could get the most visitors.

I read the Langwitches blog by Silvia Tolisano and she is a strong advocate of blogging. Not just blogging by learners but she advocates for teachers to blog FOR their students.

My main reason for learners to blog is the way a whole bunch of skills come together such as writing skills, reading skills, metacognition skills and reflection skills to name a few.

Image from Langwitches

Sharing by blogging is core to what we do in The Manaiakalani Programme. We have systems and processes to develop blogging with teachers and students and are able to provision this legally, systematically, and securely under the GSuite owned by each school's BoT so they can share with purpose.

So why should we blog?  I firmly believe that blogging gives the quietest learners a voice, a place to document their learning and to connect with others.

Summer Learning Journey

 The Summer Learning Journey (SLJ) is part of The Manaiakalani Programme.  This programme started as a response to the "summer slump". This is a phenomenon where students achievement drops markedly over the long summer break. The Woolf Fisher team research showed that this was endemic across all clusters and designed this SLJ programme for learners to participate in while on their summer break to engage them in tasks to sustain literacy skills.

Research from the Woolf Fisher Research Team shows that by posting more than 3 times each week students were able to make progress.

At the end of 2019 students form our local cluster were given the opportunity to join. Weekly activities were posted for them to complete. Each blog post was commented on by a team of commenters and points were issued to gamify the programme. On return to school in 2020 prizes were awarded to bloggers in each school.

Hayley & Tim from Matawai School with their LSJ prizes.
Click on their name to read their blogs.

Amplifying our Practice - Getting from others

As we plan for our term 1 staff meetings with a Learn | Ako focus, I am reflecting on offerings from  other educators on the WWW as they amplify their practice.

We live in a digital landscape which makes sharing and requesting very easy. With digital resources we can share and help each other.

When you learn, teach. When you get, give - Maya Angelou

There is a plethora of sites with digital offerings right across the curriculum spectrum. But oh! how do you sift through offerings such as "50 of the Best Chrome Extensions for Teachers". I really don't have time to sift through these.

I do like lists like this on in a Sheet from Eric Curts where you can use the control + F  function to search the Sheet and get to what you want.

Locally we have a Facebook group to share stuff that we find useful. Join us and share the good stuff you have. We also have a Google + community for out Tairāwhiti cluster to share good stuff.

I have a long list of educators around the world that I glean all kinds of information from. This ranges from global education issues to specific Google sites that provide information about Google Apps. I subscribe to their blogs, follow them on Twitter and listen to podcasts and ma thankful for the material they provide for us all to use. Who do you follow or subscribe to?

Once you tame your twitter feed this is a a place to go to. Hashtags help sort the material. List of edu #hashtags are available as a place to start. I use TweetDeck to help organise Twitter Feeds. I would be lost with out this.

Once we discover a source of material we then need to Cybersmart and use our critical thinking and literacies to determine whether the material is useful, reliable and/or applicable to our context.

One found you will then need a curation tool so you can find it when you need it. I use Google Keep, OneTab Chrome extension, Toby Mini Chrome extension and Bookmarks in Chrome mainly.

In our term 1 staff meetings we have been exploring Manaiakalani Class on Air episodes. If you want to see real teachers in action in real classrooms then this is the pace for you to go. The teachers document an extended plan which allows you to get inside their head and see how they have planned and reflected on lessons they teach and video for us to watch and learn from. This Sheet lists all episodes. Hint: use the tabs at the bottom to explore categories and control+F to find specific search terms. This shared resource really does amplify teaching practice.