Today, I think, has to have been the longest day of my life. Certainly since coming to New Zealand.

I have felt like I’ve been trapped in some educationally-bent episode of 24.

The following takes place between 8pm (the night

before) and 12pm the day of the ERO visit.

If I could do the tick-dum, tick-dum noise I would:

8pm (last night) My Prinicpal calls for a quick chat about the run through of the day, beginning with “You know they’re coming a bit earlier, don’t you?”

9.pm (ish) last night, I am reviewing some plans for the ERO visit. Running through the day in my head, checking the resources et al.

11pm-1pm Still running through the events of tomorrow while relieving my bodily system of dinner. I wonder if I ate something funny, I’m not laughing- that’s just great.

2.30am Son wakes me with news he needs the toilet- what a fine time for him to be trying to get out of the ‘overnight nappy’

3.30am finally manage to get to sleep (did I mention, my boy fell asleep whilst on the loo about 2.34am)

6am Woken by son saying – “I can’t go to sleep!” Probably has something to do with you having slept 11 hours I manage NOT to say. Anyway I’m up heading toward the day

7.03am I’m out the door for the $10 ride to school – It takes me 30minutes – 36 km but I measure in the cost of fuel now, not distance.

7.30am (give or take the logging truck I followed up the Taihape road) I arrive at School. Final prep for the visit – remember they are coming in early- I want to check the students desks – if they ask to see an example of the writing matrix in the students books I want to have every confidence that I can open any students desk without the fear of having my digits chewed off by any lurking rodents.

8.25am First bus arrives and I begin my mantra for the morning. “Have checked morning routine, do you have your writing kit out, sharp pencil, been to the loo, cut your toe nails, removed the boggies from your sleeves.

8.40am ERO due any minute, students appear ready and I struggle to find them extra stuff to do to keep them off the computer games (they are maths games- most can be found on my delicious account so its all educational stuff, but not a good first impression I guess)

9am Still no sign of ERO, call comes via the secretary, they’ve gone to the wrong school- That poor principal, just imagine ERO turning up on your door step, no warning just a friendly “Hello, we’re the ERO team come to inspect your school.” – ERK! Apparently they did not actually arrive at the school before they realized- but saying they did paints a much more amusing picture.

9.30am The Board begin to arrive, some earlier than others but all looking a little nervous- Funny that, I was nervous meeting the board for the first time, so where does that put me in the pecking order?

10.05am ish Inspectors arrive. They meet the board and we in the class are finishing up writing and heading toward fitness- I’m actually very disappointed they missed the writing lesson as the principal and I team teach it in a very inter-reactive way (if there is such a word).

10.10am We’re in doing Reading- Big book is on the IWB. Wish I’d printed it out to show then later but hey ho.

10.45am ERO appear in my room as I am mid flow with a reading group. Lots of positive feedback about classroom displays looking great and ‘feel of the room’ being directed toward student learning. Yippee.

11.00am Morning tea. I walk into the meeting one of the inspectors is having with the chair of the board. Oops! Then they have to leave the staffroom on account of my presence- Double Oops!

11.20am DEAR time in the classroom. Observation begins. I hate the few minutes at the start of the session while students prepare themselves for their learning. It always appears chaotic but in reality on lasts a few minutes (despite it feeling like an age when the inspector is right there).

11.42am Been working with a maths group and have set them off on an independent task. One inspector is now working with them. Not sure if it’s a good thing or not, so I head over to check. Everyone is smiling so I return to the individual kid I’m working with. With my current maths group numbers being 2,1 and 2 it is hard to argue that the learning isn’t personalized.

12.30am Lunch- I’m on duty so I sit and eat with the kids- We get into a great conversation about middle names, whose got one, who hasn’t. Then they spend the next 7 minutes trying to guess mine…. And succeed I have to add. These kids are not worriwed about our visitors. And rightly so, I’ve never met a group of kids so supportive of one another and clued in socially and educationally. These kids ROCK and I’m so happy to be called their teacher.

I’m going to leave it there for now but the afternoon was equally eventful. 10.32pm I’m signing off.

Sir Ken hits the mark again. He’s speaking on creativity/ education/ and the general systematic sleep-walking toward the future.

I will be listening again to the talk and reflecting on it further at some later date, I just wanted to share with you the audio recording of the presentation.

Just listening to Steven, through Wes Fryer.

I have to begin by saying that listening to Roger Schank inspired me too, I even posted about it at the time. It was one of the first podcasts of Wesley’s I heard and he really challenged my thinking, in fact I wonder if I can track back to hearing that podcast and that being the catalyst for the challenges I have faced in the last 18 months as I began to push back?

School improvement, are we really doing what our society requires?

Our schools are so NOT “fine they need tweaking”, there needs to be a fundamental shift in what the curriculum is addressing and what schools are supporting. We in New Zealand are quite blessed with the new curriculum, it is very new and shiny and very 21^st Century perspective, however I wonder how these are being implemented in schools. It makes me wonder what the key pressures are on schools that truly define how the curriculum looks, it is not simply the National Curriculum.

Steven Wyckoff spends quite a bit of time talking about the analogue of learning to drive and someone made the comment that while you’re growing up you spend a long time watching people drive. I heard it said once that while you are learning to drive, driving instructors spend quite a while telling people where they need to look. “Focus on what is immediately in front, look out around parked cars”, etc. People’s closest sensory experience to driving? It’s sitting in the passenger seat. So a new driver has unlearn the passive ‘watching’, for example looking at someone walking over a footbridge for the whole time it takes for the car to pass under it. Drivers then need to learn to be active observers of the environment around them. There are so many things that students are learning that are wasting time… We DO need to spend more time on learning the skills that they are going to need in life.

So what DOES a curriculum look like?

What are the other pressures and issues we need address in school?

What are the school teacher:student ratio look like in New Zealand. Are there the same issues as in Kansas where the system needs to be adjusted to lower the ratio or is there a genuine issue around ratios?

“In order to do what?” Brings the curriculum into sharp focus. Steven links the need to focus education on ‘economic productivity’ for the future. But I want to consider, is there any value in learning for learnings- sake? Does it not do something for the brain development, regardless of purpose?

My next question: Are there quality apprenticeships or study-to-work programmes available in New Zealand that realistically address the issue applying students for the workforce?

As I was listening I was thinking this idea about applied learning and the links made to Ted McCain and the discussion/ presentations made by Ian Jukes in Napier last year.

I was discussing with a high-school principal the other day around the issues of NCEA level1 not meeting the expectations required for courses in NCEA level 2, let alone NCEA level1 OR 2 meeting expectations for the workforce.

So how are we going to measure success for the 21^st Century, what are the skills required and EQUALLY, what is the core knowledge required for the future?

]]> http://educatingthedragon.edublogs.org/2008/06/23/natural-learning-what-schools-don%e2%80%99t-do-by-steve-wycoff/feed/ 1 http://educatingthedragon.edublogs.org/2007/10/14/pedagogy-how-important-is-it/ http://educatingthedragon.edublogs.org/2007/10/14/pedagogy-how-important-is-it/#comments Sun, 14 Oct 2007 08:01:51 +0000 Dragon09 http://educatingthedragon.edublogs.org/2007/10/14/pedagogy-how-important-is-it/ It has been interesting to share Greg’s post and Chrissy’s posts 1 and post 2 about pedagogy.

 I am of the opinion that it is vital for us as practioners to know the answer to the WHY? question. There are many teachers of various generations that I know or know of who struggle with the WHY? question. I have had to take a stand on this issue recently when a colleague of mine answered me by saying:

“I really don’t think we should concern ourselves with the background to why we have identified these traits as being gifted and talented, we should just concern ourselves with classroom practise.”

I totally agree with her about focusing on our classroom practise but we still need to understand the purpose behind what we do, simply replying to the question “Why do you run your reading programme like that?” or “How did you determine these as valuable traits to worthy of additional time and resources?” with the words “Because Marg told me to” really isn’t going to cut, especially in an ERO year!

 My main focus has to be on the classroom teacher, me specifically. What values and beliefs to I hold to as I develop my classroom practise.

In 1997 Julia Atkin wrote an article entitled “Enhancing Learning with Inforamtion & Communication Technology: Promises, pitfalls & practicalities” 

She uses the term ‘Learning Technologist’ as one possible alternative to ‘teacher’ – Learning technology she states is the applied science of learning.  I do prefer this term to facilitator, coach and teacher, the reason being that the Learning is placed at the heart of the role:

There is a huge difference been ‘training’ and professional development. Even so many years through the ICTPD model in
New Zealand there seems mch confusion about the two terms and they remain in the minds of most as synonymous. But that is not strictly true. Sure there is some overlap, and some need for both aspects but when training (as in the ‘how to’ aspect of ICT) is called professional development it often. In my experience anyway squeezes out the true PD ( as in the ‘considering classroom pedagogy’)  

It is often argued ‘upskilling teachers will mean they will begin to use this technology with their classes’ – this maybe true but will it have the maximum desired outcome? I think not- A class’s use of technology after such training of the teacher will remain ‘low level’ – skills oriented level. Where as the desired outcome should be  a ‘higher level use of ICT for learning’.  

Having said that if the focus is purely professional development – the teacher is more likely to be reliant on the ICT literate students to problem solve the applications.  Which may be fine for classes of older students but with juniors their use of ICT will naturally involve explicit ‘skills’ teaching.  

My thought is that the facilitators of ICTPD clusters must take a serious look at what they are providing. Perhaps it needs to be more balanced. Perhaps the balance that needs to be redressed is on a school by school, teacher by teacher basis? But having said that there still needs to be a professional development element that goes beyond up-skilling and into the heart of classroom practise.  

So I would like to leave it there for now.  

What is the most effective ICT professional development you’ve ever had?  

How do you, in your school, go beyond upskilling/ just in time training?   

What does the ‘changing pedagogy’ really look like in New Zealand schools? Or around the world for that matter?

And is there a natural desire with ICT for professional development or is ICTPD seen a ‘you must!” storm cloud of negativity?

The support for ICT professional development is central to the government’s initiatives; is this just rhetoric or are they prepared to specifically fund to meet their outcomes? Under ‘E-Learning activities and contributions to facilitate/ support effective teaching’ teaching capabilities is ranked first on the list (MOE 2006, pg 5) with professional development again first under Communication and Learning Networks; capability and services (MOE 2006, pg7) But how will that translate into the school environment? I spoke to a principal concerning the financial aspects of ICT in the school. I discovered the following:· No money is ear-marked, tagged or ring-fenced specifically for Professional Development in ICT. · Specific funds are designated for such expenses as the Laptop scheme, ICTPD Clusters, networks and broadband connection and SMS.  

Some may argue that when funding is given for an ICTPD Cluster it is assumed that some of that money would be identified for professional development³, but that is not stated, merely implied and the reality is that participating school principals can allocate that money ‘as they see fit’ within the boundaries laid out by the contract. The ICTPD contact states: What can schools use the funding for?
The funding can be used for a range of costs associated with professional development activities for staff including (but not limited to):
· Teacher release time;
· Costs associated with workshops, seminars, and meetings;
· Internal/external cluster facilitation and support.Schools will be required to set out a budget in their proposal that details anticipated expenditure. Successful clusters will be accountable for showing progress against the planned expenditure during the course of their three year contract This shows a clear focus on professional development, I see now how the Ministry also keeps tabs on such expenditure. There are also checks and measures of development through the PD. I recall filling out several questionnaires on the top over the last 12 to 18 months. So it is right to ask the question “Where is the money going?” $120,000 sounds a lot of money, but that could easily be halved with the employment of a full time co-ordinator/ facilitator plus their hardware/software needs. The issue then arising around the scope of the role of the ICT coordinator, their competence and qualification to deliver the lion’s share of the  Professional Development and the most feasible and cost effective way to up-skill teachers to the deliver, meaningfully, in the classroom.   It has been identified that teachers having both their pedagogical approaches challenged and ‘forced’ integration of new technologies is problematic and more involved than a 3 hour workshop on a Friday afternoon (Jacobsen, D. M.,2001). Therefore funding has to reflect such a commitment.The document (MOE, 2006) is smattered with phrases such as “teacher(s) must be supported….through professional development and consistent ongoing support..” and “…teachers becoming confident and capable users of ICT and understanding how to integrate ICT effectively into their teaching practice” (MOE, 2006,pg 10) all are noble goals and ones that need to be addressed for the 21^st Century Learner but the answer to the how question remains elusive if funding specifically for ICT professional development is left for principals to pull from their ops-grant or private contracts and funding, especially after the contract is completed and the funding dries up, what is a school to do then? 

In the case of my school, which is why I have identified it as a critical issue, the current professional development is being supplied not by ministry funding but as a negotiated add-on to a wider ICT project. Is it right that professional development in ICT be left to whether a principal has such a vision or not? Is there a need for the government to be specific with funding if they are to be held accountable for whether or not the outcomes for “teacher capabilites” (MOE, 2006, pg 11)  are realistically to be met?

  ^{3http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=11143&data=l#P29_2327} 

^{Jacobsen, D. M. (2001). Building Different Bridges: Technology Integration, Engaged Student Learning, and New Approaches to Professional Development. Paper presented at AERA 2001: What We Know and How We Know It, the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA: April 10 – 14, 2001. MOE, (2006) Enabling the 21st Century Learner: An e-Learning Action Plan for Schools 2006- 2010}

We just had it confirmedfor our school that thelast day of this academic year is 20th December. There was some confusion over whether other schools in New Zealand are finishing on that day, earlier or later. I would really appreciate comments from anyone who knows the last day of their school year. I can’t believe their is ley-way in this. But maybe that isjust my UK background speaking.  Please leave comment or email me direct. Thanks.