ISTE 2016!

It has taken me a few weeks (almost a month, in fact) to fully come to grips with my ISTE 2016 experience. To sum it up in word: Amazing! But obviously there were some really good takeaways that came from the experience. I'll try my best to share all of what I learned, but no doubt some good stuff will get left out.

edit: Now it's almost two whole months after ISTE! But still thinking lots about it. Some of this may be repetitive because of the time between when I started writing and when I finished, but I think the tone that will likely be consistent throughout will convince you of the value this experience had for me and could have for you in the future.

People, People, People

The first place you need to start when dealing with ISTE is the people. I'm not talking about the sheer number (though that is staggering on its own). What I'm talking about is the people you meet. The biggest draw for something like ISTE is to meet lots and lots of like-minded and incredible people. And don't get me wrong, EVERYONE at ISTE is incredible. When I told one of the people I met that "I'm just a classroom teacher," she responded by saying that nobody is "Just" anything. We all have something to offer, no matter the title or experience. Though I did realize this before, it was interesting to see how our language can affect our perceptions (and the perceptions we create in others). Later on that day, I met someone who said pretty much the same thing about being "just" something. I was spurred on to share my new perspective.

There are also countless opportunities to meet and connect with educators around the world (well, mostly the US). There is so much value in this for all of us and our students who will benefit from these connections. I made a concerted and deliberate effort to seek out new people and talk to some who I wouldn't have otherwise spoken with - including the CEO of ISTE! I made several great connections which will help me make further connections in the future. It's all about the people. If that were the only result of the week in Denver it would have been worth it completely.

On top of meeting people at official conference events (probably the best source of that was the Global Ed Day - a great group of people to connect with, if you're looking), there were several social events which turned out to be just as valuable. I had made it my mission to find the "seedy underbelly of ISTE" this year, and while it definitely wasn't seedy, it made the conference that much more impactful. My only regret is that I didn't find more events to go to. In all, I attended events put on by Wonder Workshop (happy hour at a restaurant), the Ed Tech Team & Symbaloo (Karaoke), Gaggle (a party) and OSMO (a Sneak Peak event). All of those events, helping to strengthen my PLN (personal learning network for the uninitiated). I was able to build on some of the connections I made a year prior and hopefully will be able to build on these ones in 2017 (because yes, I'm going).

New Things and Old Things with More Pizazz

Having been at ISTE last year, I found that there were a lot of things repeated, but with more development. There were literally tons of resources (if you weighed them all together, there is no doubt of this) showing how makerspaces and making can be used in the classroom. Many people were sharing how they've been using their robots (many of which I bought last year after ISTE) and other cool gadgets in the classroom. For example, there were many people sharing what they've done with paper circuits (a shout out to Chibitronics & Spark Fun who both gave me some free samples to use in my classroom) as well as robots (guess who won a free kit from Hummingbird?) One really cool startup that was sharing in the expo was Hyperduino which had some really simple applications with their custom built arduino boards. They ran out of free samples by the time I got to their booth, but I may pony up the dough to get one.

It seemed like everyone had a Dash & Dot, Sphero & Ollie and Ozobots. Not to mention Makersaces. Perhaps this, too, was one of my big takeaways from the conference, and (since it's taking me forever to write this reflection) one of the things I've been most active promoting since I've returned. While I'm fully trying to gear up my classroom's Makerspace, ISTE this year has planted the seed of a big idea in my head. I'm working now to start #MakerEdNZ, a community of schools and teachers who are using Makerspaces in their classrooms. I'll write a long post about it later, but for now, just know that ISTE inspired me.

Global Connections

The only actual planned event I went to at ISTE was the Global Ed Day 2016. What a great group of people. Again, this is something I want to explore in much greater detail. Yes, we've done Twitter chats and Mystery Hangouts, but those connections are only on the surface (but again, much, much better than no connections at all). A lot of the talk around the Global Ed Day was starting collaborative projects between schools on different continents. This is another area for leadership within New Zealand, I feel, and something that is many people are primed for. We'll see what comes out of this, but perhaps someone reading this will take the call to arms and run with it. I only ask that you please include me.

Things I've Been Using

So it has taken me 2 months to get this far in my reflection. But that provides a great opportunity to reflect upon how those new things are going. Probably the most immediate thing I tried was Seesaw. For anyone who hasn't heard of this before, I urge you to have a look at it. I was lucky enough to have it explained to me by a teacher at the Seesaw booth in the expo. It's basically like Facebook for schools. Using the app (on tablets, phones or chromebooks) my students can take pictures or videos of their work, record an explanation over top of it, tag themselves in it and just generally share their amazing ideas. They can like each others' work and make comments - both written and oral! And I've only scratched the surface of what I can do with it. So far my students have found it super easy and have enjoyed sharing.

I also re-met my good friends at Kiva, which got me back to teaching the Kiva U curriculum (in the small amount of time that I can fit it in).'

I've also given my students focus with the Student Blogging Challenge. Though we may have been a few months late, meeting some of the people who have set this up, got me intrigued. My students have had some ups and downs with it (some of them spent a whole week or writing time making an avatar, not saving it, then making a new one), but overall it has helped teach them about blogging a bit more.

Another, practical thing I saw at ISTE and brought back to use were all the paper circuits that were being shown. I was extremely lucky to have been given those starter kits from Chibitronics AND Sparkfun, so I had a go with that at school AND at some educamps. It was interesting to say the least and something I want to look more into.  I was also given the chance to make a wearable circuit with some Lilypad Arduino components:

One of the sessions I went to was actually done as a walk around Downtown Denver. The presenter was telling us that we should be getting our students more active in class, and building movement into every activity. I had previously had swiss balls in my class but had given them up because of some behaviour issues. However, he inspired me to pump them back up and get my students moving more often. A small thing, but I think it's something that's important.

Conclusions

I could go on for pages and pages talking about how ISTE has changed me and my practice, but my biggest advice is: Go next year to San Antonio! It will change so many things about how you see teaching and give you so many ideas to help you do so. It will give you connections that will change your idea of teacher-teacher relationships and the way our profession should interact. It was honestly the best four days of the last year for me. Unlike a lot of the New Zealand based conferences that I've been to, ISTE has made me feel that we lone nuts are much stronger in numbers. It's nice to have our smallish group here, but expanding beyond our shores, in my opinion, is never a bad thing. Being part of something so big, is truly empowering. Meeting so many genuine people who only want the best for their students is inspiring. So, I urge all of you Kiwi teachers (and why not all my Canadian teacher friends as well, I belong to two countries), come with me next year! Come join my tribe!

#edchatnz Conference

A week ago Friday and Saturday I was extremely lucky to be able to attend the second ever #edchatnz Conference, down at Rototuna Junior High School in Hamilton (New Zealand, not the one where I grew up and lived). It was a fantastic experience which allowed me the chance to meet so many people in person who I've been speaking with through twitter over the last year.

The big theme of the conference was Possibilities. What can we do to change the world, change education and change ourselves. We spent a lot of the time working within our tribes to come up a plan of action that we can take with us to help encourage change.

My tribe was Kotuku and included some people I knew (from twitter and some unconferences) as well as some new people. As one would expect from any of the tribes at the conference, it was an awesome group. We had many discussions and came up with a simple plan: encouraging minute changes. The idea is simple: none of us have gotten where we are by changing everything in an instant. We took small changes, day by day and the cumulative effect has been massive. To outsiders it seems like too big a change to make in one go, so they don't feel comfortable making it.

Our vision is that no two teachers will end up going down the same path (similar to the ideas expressed in Punk Learning by Tait Coles), but that we should all adopt the same guiding principle of changing in baby steps, which is essentially the same idea as growth mindset.  We've even set up a twitter hashtag (#WIDD - what I did differently) and a twitter account (@minutechange) to help us continue doing this.

There were also some sessions to attend at the conference. The first one was a rundown of how Rototuna School oraganizes everything. It was quite interesting to see how they have two areas in all of their modules and the variety of modules the students have to choose from. One of my favourites was "Science and Superheroes." Students have three modules each term - one of which must include literacy, one that must include numeracy and another that includes neither. They also get three times during the week where they can choose from a wide selection of Flight Times, subjects or topics that have been suggested by students or teachers.  We then had a tour of the school (while the students were present) led by two current students. Hearing the perspective of the students was extremely helpful. Both said that they would never want to go back to the old way. Both spoke at lengths of the better relationships they have with their teachers. The told me that the teachers were like their friends, before quickly correcting themselves and saying it wasn't quite a friend. They said they were much kinder and that they were more like your coach. Though every school like this (ILE) will have a different set of specifics, I feel that the guiding principles are quite similar and it was extremely beneficial to see it in action.

My Awesome Tour Guides

My second session was about using STEM (or STEAM) in the classroom. We were given a fun, hands-on activity to complete, which led into a discussion on the nature of science and how we can make science more relevant.

Here's a video of my creation. We had to make something that would keep the ball moving for as long as possible.

The second day of the conference began (after we shared our possibilities pitch) with my presentation. I was sharing ways in which coding (or, more specifically, Scratch) could be used throughout the curriculum. I had previously shared this idea at two educamps, so I had had some experience in what worked and what didn't. I tried to make my presentation less about me talking (because really, who wants to hear me talk for over an hour?) and more about people getting a chance to do something. So I just introduced Scratch and gave my attendees (all 9 of them!) some challenges to complete. With such a small group I was able to have lots of conversations and support a very diverse group of people - a couple of them had a lot of coding experience, while some had never coded before. It was a great session, I thought. I think in the future, I will always need to make sure to have my presentations as active, instead of passive.

My last session was with Andy Crowe who was sharing some things we can do as a Lone Nut in his Lone Nut Toolkit. He shared lots of design thinking and lean startup ideas and we worked through the Squid chart, which helps us get to the real questions we should be trying to fix in a problem. It was an interesting session, to say the least.  I'm personally not someone who sits down and maps things out in charts. I just tend to do stuff, which can be problematic for me at times. So now I have a way of being "accountable" (in quotes because I think it's a dirty word) and mapping out my thinking when I do something different.

Like all of the PD that I've been to recently, this one was most valuable for the connections. What people said wasn't necessarily valuable (though, much of it was), but just making those connections and finding others in my tribe is what makes all the time and effort worth it. I no longer feel like that lone nut. I am definitely looking forward to spending more time (online, but preferrably face to face) with my newfound tribe!

Educamp Auckland

This past Saturday, I attended Educamp Auckland at Aorere College. I was quite nervous because, though I had attended two Educamps previously, this was the first I was going to stand up and share (though, I guess I did share at Sparkshop, but that was slightly different).

The nervousness turned out to be unnecessary, as everyone was amazingly supportive of me and what I was sharing. I guess I have become accustomed to people shooting me down and trying to get me to stop sharing.

I ended up having two sessions out of the three, which was good, but it also meant that I missed out on what a lot of other people were sharing. Though, the conversations are the best part (for me, at least) and I had lots of those.

It was also the first time where I publicly talked about my pet project: #MakerEdNZ. No doubt I will be sharing more of this along the journey, but suffice it to say, I was also overwhelmed by the support I got from many of my twitter friends (I guess they are real-life friends now). If anyone is interested in what this might be (i.e. if you know or want to know about makerspaces) please follow @MakerEdNZ on twitter (or me) and information will be coming out soonish (and probably another post on here as well - when I get caught up).

I did get a number of takeaways from the unconference. The first is (and I can't say it's the first time I've realized this) that I can easily go a bit too fast when sharing what I know. This is something for me to work on (but hey, I'll likely get a chance each of the next three weekends, so there's that).

I also have a few twitter chats planned with other people. It's amazing how quickly things can happen when you're in the right company. I'm excited and a bit nervous for this, but looking forward to both of those opportunities.

It was also a really great experience (going back to #MakerEdNZ) to give others a chance to spend some time doing some STEAM activities. I brought some copper tape, LEDs and batteries to make paper circuits. This is part of what I want Maker Ed NZ to be doing, so it was a good first step (though I wish I would have gotten some more pictures for the twitter account.

Steaming ahead with #STEAM #educampAKL @mrs_hyde @DianaWilkes @michaelteacher pic.twitter.com/4j0oNmST0E

— Caroline Bush (@CaroBush) July 30, 2016

If anyone reading this has never heard of an educamp, I strongly urge you to go to one (educampBOP is this weekend). Thanks to Jackie Allen and Stuart Kelly for all their organization of the day. Was definitely a positive way to spend my Saturday!

TAP Lab Visit

Last night I went to the Te Atatu Penisula Community Center where they have an awesome makerspace to learn about Arduino. I heard about this through meetup. The idea was that anyone interested in Arduino could get a crash course in the basics, even if they didn't know anything about it.

Some of this may be too technical for some, but keep on reading for my thoughts on makerspaces in general.

I figured that since I want to get students making robots (at some point), I'd better learn myself. There were a good number of people there and I was given help in a small group of 4 people. We were taught how to just use the Arduino to light up an LED using both parallel and series circuits. Then we got the chance to experiment with coding some LEDs to blink and to fade. While not completely earth shattering stuff, it was a good first step with not only the physical setup of the Arduino and breadboards, but also with the coding for Arduino.

As I have been slowly sharing with people, one of the things I'm attempting to do at the moment is to actually organize the maker educators in New Zealand, so this visit was also a good way of networking with other people, outside of schools, who have knowledge. In an long discussion with some of the regulars afterwards I was able to get a good idea of what is out there in New Zealand at the moment (a growing number of makerspaces for adults, along with a network connecting them - but still a lack of organized network for school, something which I'm prepared to start - Maker Ed NZ, which is quickly or slowly becoming my pet project).

I'll be writing more about makerspaces and why I think they are important and necessary in schools later, but I did want to share what I did and what I learned. Here's a short video of the LED lights I was able to get to blink in an alternating manner.

CS4PS (Or My First Trip to the South Island)

I recently made the trip down to Christchurch (which incidentally was my first time on the South Island after living in New Zealand for 4+ years) for a Computer Science for Primary School course put on by some amazing educators from the University of Canterbury.

A major focus of the course was using Scratch to code. We talked about learning both coding and about using coding to teach other subjects. The things I learned in two days absolutely have blown my mind with respect to coding in the classroom, as well as the possible uses of Scratch.

We started off the two-day event by discussing (and completing) several unplugged activities to teach computational thinking (because that's what coding is about, NOT the computers). We learned about binary and how to represent numbers with only ones and zeroes. We did a massive activity which pretty much led us to writing codes with musical notes. We also discussed ways in which computers verify data (through ideas such as parity - see the Error Correction activity in the below link) and how data can be transferred through the Internet securely (hint: it travels through the web three times, instead of once). A lot of these activities can be found on http://csunplugged.org/.

Then came the chance to actually get programming with Scratch. Up until now, I've always looked at Scratch as a way to 1) make games and 2) tell stories. Though I have had some coding experience (FORTRAN in my first year of University, some JavaScript course on Khan Academy and lots of HTML coding), I never put 1 and 1 together. Well, I finally figured out what the 2 is. The following are some programs I made for activities we did this week as well as some programs that I might use in the near future (i.e. next week when I go back to class). Some of these came from direct problems - i.e. can you make a program that takes such and such info and tells you this and that result. Some of the challenges involved using only a small number of blocks. The programs are down in the order I made them, so you can see the evolution of what I've learned (keep in mind, this was over two days!).

Debugging is also an important skill that we discussed. The idea here is that no code will be perfect when first written, so we need to be able to go through our code in various ways to check that it does what we want it to do. There are many different ways to check. When using variables you can show them or you can have them said at certain parts of the way. All cases should be tested for to see if all cases work (boundary cases are specifically important). We got to do a quiz on this and I ended up winning some parity magnets for the efforts of my team.

These ideas will likely be the basis of the upcoming digital technologies curriculum in New Zealand, so this is a great way to get started. Computer Science doesn't need to be an add-on to our current curriculum, it can fit in nicely with everything we are already doing.

A side note: This was apparently the first Google-sponsored CS4PS in the world! It's definitely a great idea and should be repeated over and over for as many teachers as possible.

Punk Learning

So I just finished an amazing book: Punk Learning by Tait Coles. This book has both inspired me to change my practice AND embolden me to realize that perhaps I am on the right track, despite what others may say about or to me. The premise of the book is that we should give control back to students (and teachers!) so that they can own their learning. That's a very simplistic summary, but I'll try to do the ideas justice when explaining some of the key thoughts.

At only 163 pages (and short ones, at that) this is a very quick read, but filled with a lot of thought provoking ideas. Long story short: if you're truly interested in doing good by your students, READ THIS BOOK! It's not a recipe for success, but it is definitely a code that you can live by.

I've broken my thoughts down into the mini-chapters from the book (only to help organize the thoughts in my head).

Choice (DIY culture), Mindset
Even before I read this book, I have wanted to give my students more choice and control of their own learning. Perhaps that's why I read the book in the first place. Remember, our jobs are to serve our students - to prepare them for the life they want. Check that. It's to help them become learners and find wonder in the world. It doesn't have to be in the future. It should be now. Punk learning is all about choice and DIY learning. We (adults and children alike) make meaning by asking our own questions (more on that later) and finding the answers. Punk learning is about a mindset, not just going against the grain, just because (which some people seem to think I am doing). You will be amazed by what students can do if you only give them the chance (and the tools!) to be the amazing people that they are inside.

The book suggests that we need to change our perceptions of anarchy. It's a good thing. An anarchist "offers a critique of the existing order." We should all strive for this. A saying I like to remind myself of often is: Adapt or Die. I'm not sure who or where to credit that as it's been so long since I've first heard it. But it's spot on. If you don't change you become irrelevant. Lately, I've been doing a lot of this (partly because of reading this book, but also because I feel that change is necessary for us to move forward). If you want to know all the things that are suggested to create anarchy in your classroom, I suggest you buy the book, but the one thing I will say is that make sure you ask yourself: "What am I doing this?" Nothing should ever be sacred when we're talking about the minds of children.

Famous Punks
A whole chapter is also devoted to discussing famous punks in history. Not just punk rockers (which are quoted extensively throughout the book), but those people who did things their own way and had an amazing impact on millions of others and, in some cases, across centuries. Coles suggests that we teach our students about these people - something I plan on doing (perhaps a weekly "spotlight" - though the caveat here would be to make sure it's not all white men). Among the punk learners mentioned there are: George Orwell, Charles Darwin and Jessie J. I believe there is tremendous value in this - not just discussing the famous people, but by showing that they became famous and amazing by breaking the rules, not by following them blindly.

Punk Learning Manifesto
Included is a Punk Learning Manifesto, which basically states that students should be valued and have control. That's a very simplistic interpretation, but the list given in the book is worth the cost, I'd say. Plus, the whole idea is to adapt and make it your own. So there really is no set manifesto. It should be what your students want it to be. That's something I can get behind. As Obi-Wan Kenobi once said: "Only a Sith deals in absolutes!" (I do know where that one comes from).

Questioning
After a lot of theorizing and grand ideas, the book then gets down to a lot of very practical ideas The first is having students learn how to come up with some really good questions.  It is vital to students' learning that they ask good questions. We (should) all know that children are really good at asking questions. They have a natural curiosity that seems endless - until we school it out of them. So we need to leverage this tendency rather than squash it. Our best bet is to teach students to improve their questions and figure out which ones are the best to ask.

So three steps are suggested: 1) Get students to ask questions based on some sort of stimulus (video, article, etc), 2) Get students to analyze, critique and improve their questions, 3) Get students to decide which questions are the most important (for them) to ask.

See how all of those things start with the students doing and thinking?

SOLO Taxonomy

Before this year I had only heard of SOLO taxonomy. I had watched a few videos but wasn't really sure about it. My new school this year is very big on SOLO and I have started trying to use it in class. So it was nice to see that Punk Learning talked a lot about SOLO. To put it simply, SOLO is a great tool to use with students that can be adapted for any type of learning. It outlines the different levels of understanding of ideas or concepts from Prestructural (I have no idea) to Extended Abstract (I understand fully and can use the idea to create new ideas). I'm not going to go into explaining all the levels and ideas around SOLO (one, because I don't have the time or space, but 2, I don't actually know everything... yet).  If you're not using it, I would suggest you look it up. It's definitely a useful tool.

There were some practical applications here that I hadn't even thought of. One suggestion is to have stations around the room on a certain topic, for example (from the book: forces.  Again, I won't go into details, but each station was designed so that it would help students move from one stage to the next. The brilliant part of the idea is that students choose which station to go to.  This gives students a way to access the material at their own levels (differentiation, anyone?). And students can easily make their own decisions about whether or not they should be at a particular station or not. This is because each station should have a list of success criteria for students to check. I'd like to try this, perhaps for our upcoming science inquiry (though again, that might depend on student choice).

The chapter on SOLO actually started with a comparison to Bloom's Taxonomy. I have, for a long time, been a big fan of Bloom's. I like that there are different kinds of questions, though I have always wondered why some of them were above each other. This book is pretty unimpressed with Bloom's, and gives good reasons. I don't think it's worth abandoning it, but I do think that SOLO is a good place to start. I still use different Bloom's questions (specifically Create questions) but then compare them to SOLO levels as well.

Zeitgeist (or the Spirit of the Times)

The next mini-chapter discussed zeitgeist and how we can embrace the idea in our classrooms. As many teachers will know, there are numerous things in which we are told we HAVE to do or have in our classrooms - non-negotiables, if you will. Many of these things may be rooted in something that was once a great idea, but over time they have been distorted and people do them just because (That's What We've Always Done, or TWWAD). We rarely question the reasons behind this and when we do, often we find that it's because we've been told to do them.

While there are many suggestions as to how to improve in this area, I think the main idea is simply this: ask yourself why you're doing something. We don't do this enough. If it helps the students and their learning, keep doing it. If it doesn't, stop.

Critiquing

One of the most powerful things I took out of this book was the idea of critiquing. We all know feedback is one of the most important factors for students when it comes to learning, and often that is interpreted as marking books (see above section regarding TWWAD). This is much more than that. If you want to find out more, buy the book (seriously, why haven't you already?), but the gist is Be Kind, Be Specific, Be Helpful (and Be Harsh if necessary). Students need to know what is good about what they've done and what they need to do to improve it. They need time to actually make the improvements and they can benefit from sharing their critiques. With a growth mindset, children will learn the value of getting this feedback and be able to improve on their own more readily.

Learning vs. Progress

And this brings me to the next point. What is really important at school and why do we measure what we measure? There is a huge trend today to look at data and report on data and compare students to a set of (arbitrary) standards. How has this happened and why do we need to keep doing it? My theory behind this whole thing is that the focus on standards has actually lowered them because students aren't learning the important things. But I digress. The whole point is that we measure progress (what level are you on?) through a set of standards, but we miss a lot of the important learning. We know when learning is going on, we know when students are engaged. What do we gain by putting a number or letter or whatever next to a student in a very specific subject?

Bookwork vs Writing/Recording for a Purpose

This section is actually very close to me these days as we've just had our books checked to see if they are up to standard. What's the point of books? Why do we focus on students writing in books when we never do (I bet someone out there will say they just love to write by hand, but they are the exception, NOT the rule)? Why do books have to be so neat? Personally, I think there is some value in using books (journals), but if we record it needs to be for a purpose. We shouldn't just fill up books so that we can send them home at the end of the year and say: "Look, we're teaching your children - see how much they did!" It's about quality, not quantity. It's about recording things when and how they need to be recorded. It's about brainstorming and being messy (learning is messy). I don't see how making your book neat makes you a good learner. I've started trying to emulate these ideas lately and have several big pieces of paper up in my class with brainstorms we've done (and we share a lot online through GAFE). I like the idea and am not really fond of the "rainbow vomit" (quoted from a former colleague) that many classrooms have up on the walls.

Levels, Numbers for Assessment - Using Rubrics Instead (eg SOLO)

I touched on this idea above, and to be honest, there is not much that can be done about this on a country-wide level (at least not by me alone) anytime soon. The idea is simply this: How do levels (1A, Stage 2, Turquoise for reading) explain how or what a student is learning? Who decided that reading, writing and math are the skils that are most important and that the way we measure them is the best way to measure them.

Again, it is suggested that SOLO can be quite useful here. Because SOLO is such a general tool, it can be applied to many situations, and students can assess their own understanding of ideas, using the levels - even without the aid of a rubric. When you do add a rubric, however, it can become a powerful tool to help students identify what they know and what they need to improve upon. We've already started using rubrics on our writing projects (and in fact, writing in NZ is assessed using a rubric, but rarely is that shared with students - in my class it is though). While numbers that go up may look really good for a school in the eyes of a politician who has never spent a day teaching, they don't really tell the whole story.

How do you know if you're a punk learner?

Ask yourself this: are you doing something because you've been told to, or are you doing things so that the children can learn what they want and how they want? Do you get bogged down in what you have to do? Are you trying to impress someone so that they think you're a great teacher?

Showing creativity in ALL subject areas

Creativity is often given its place in schools: art, drama, music, etc (which is kind of ironic because most of those subjects aren't creative at all). We, as teachers, need to see that students can be creative in any endeavour. Creativity can come out of a simple problem of how to keep the class tidy, or how to sort out who gets the milk (two problems my class has had). Students need to be given the opportunity and time to mull over problems and to find innovative solutions to them. This isn't just students doing what they want - it is just letting students exercise their brains to deal with real world issues.

Chaos vs Control w.r.t. Student vs Teacher Centred learning

Ask yourself: what's better for learning: a room where all student actions are controlled by a teacher or one where students are chaotically doing their own learning? We, as teachers need to cede some control over to our students. This may look like chaos, but out of that chaos comes real, authentic learning. When we allow students to have control over what they learn then it becomes more meaningful to them. If we control them, then many students will become disengaged. This may look messy, but learning is messy.

Girl Power in Schools

The more I write, the more I realize how long this post is becoming (crazy, but it's just a testament to how great this book is!). One of the last chapters discussed girls in education. As I've mentioned in a few posts previously, I do think there are many issues facing girls in school (and sport). One important thing to remember is there is no such thing as a "boy book" or a "girl subject." Somehow society has put labels on things as being for boys or for girls. And this especially can cause girls to not do things they would otherwise want to do. One big takeaway from this is to expose children (both boys and girls) to famous women who have done the "boy" things and been successful (also, encouraging girls to try these things).

Keep on the Bus

One of the final messages of the book was that education can often be like a bus station (I actually had to return the book to the library so I don't have a copy to remind myself of it at the moment - but it was so good, I'll be buying a copy shortly). When you start out you're at the station and you get on a bus with lots of other people and you go the same way as them. But you want to be different, so you say, "OK, I'll go back and try again." So you go back to the bus station and get on a different bus, with new people. Then after a while you realize that you're just like them so you go back and start again. And again. Over and over. We should be staying on the bus though. Eventually, we'll find our own niche and our own way that works for us and our students. Punk learning isn't about following a formula. One punk teacher will be different from all the other punk teachers. It takes time, though. You won't wake up one morning and be a different teacher. It comes in slow steps over time.

My Conclusions
This book struck a massive chord in me. Many things I'm doing but have been marginalized because of them. This just strengthens my resolve to try even more to be better. And by better I mean better at producing competent students who can learn on their own and are empowered. I feel that in the short time that I've read this book, I've been able to take many of the tools I've learned from it and applied them in my classroom (it's taken me a good two weeks to write this post). My advice to anyone else: do what's best for your students. Teach them how to ask questions and teach them how to find their own, meaningful answers. Don't listen to the people who tell you that this is how it has to be done. Have conversations. Get better. Never settle. Always questions why you're doing things.

And go read this book. It will change your perspective.

Mixed-Ability Reading - More Thoughts and Developments

I'm a few weeks into my changed reading program and it feels like a good time to share how it's gone. In talking with some colleagues it has become apparent what the particular challenges of mixed-ability groupings will be in this case.

One of the challenges suggested to me is that my more keen readers (or the ones who have been lucky enough to have had positive experiences with reading and have read a lot more) will want to read ahead and the less keen readers (or the ones who have not fully been supported yet) will take more time to read the pages. I'm addressing this problem by 1) reading with the readers who require a bit more support, helping them with decoding the more difficult words and my asking more questions to help them make sense of what they've read, 2) having the quicker readers come up with more questions to discuss - and to extend their thinking by improving the questions they have given - particularly with creating more open questions vs yes/no questions.

Last week I asked my students to give some feedback via a google form anonymously. For whatever reason, not all of my students filled it in, but I did get some helpful responses:

• All of my students said they liked or really liked the book they were reading
• When asked whether they want to keep doing reading this way, 46% said they prefer the novels, while 39% said they were happy either way. None said they wanted to change back.
• Though most students found the books were either easy or just right, there were a couple that thought the book was difficult (particularly those who chose The Witches, which is twice as long as the other books).

As the whole idea pertains to me, I'm finding ways to make the books more enjoyable for the students and to help them understand. We are coming up with good routines when it comes to working as a group (one of the groups has 9 students, which is somewhat of a challenge). Sharing of the chromebooks during discussions and getting all students involved is a problem that we are well on our way to solving. Students are working well in their groups when I'm not around for the most part - all groups are coming up with lots of questions independently and this is allowing us to discuss them AND to work on our questioning skills.

For a while, the SOLO maps became a bit too much, so we missed them for a week or two. Now that we've settled down with our questions, we are able to spend some time in our group discussions on them and this week has shown that we are understanding them a bit better - ideas are flowing, which is the whole point.

The students are really engaged during the time I give them to respond creatively, though most of the ideas tend to be draw a character or a place. Over time, and as I give them more chances to create and more experiences to draw from, I expect that they will have a variety of ways to respond to their reading.  It just takes time.

For a while, I was a bit worried that perhaps what I was doing was not the right way (I was certainly told that, implicitly and explicitly, by a few), but I'm seeing the students and there are way less issues with reading now than there were.

I've found some articles online that discuss some of the issues that we're facing:

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/grouping-students-who-struggle-reading
This has given me some insight into different ways to effectively group my students. Though I don't want to have fixed ability groups, I think there is some value in grouping students according to needs. This is something I will be exploring (and certainly am exploring with my math and writing instruction). It gives some strategies (some of which I am very familiar with) to help involve and engage all students in whole class settings.

http://www.casenex.com/casenet/pages/readings/differentiation/diffisisnot.htm
This one seems a bit like a rant, but I promise there is good information in here. It discusses what differentiation is NOT (and many of these practices I see on a regular basis) but also gives suggestions for what it is. One of the key focuses of the differentiation I'm trying to provide has to do with learning pathways and choice. Students can access the same material (in my case, the same books), but they look at them in different ways and have different understandings of them. Certainly, I am trying to give my students as much choice as possible (even on those days they just frustrate me by making horrible choices) so that their learning can be organic. One thing I need to sort out a bit better is having different modes of learning. Though I do think I do this, I probably need to mix things up a bit more (or maybe I'm doing this without explicitly trying to do it - who knows?).

Certainly the results have not been affected terribly. I'm in the middle of another round of running records and more than half of my students will need to be retested so far. That's certainly good news - at least I'm not negatively affecting their reading!