Holiday Reading - Empower - Chapters 7 - 12

EMPOWER - CHAPTERS 7 - 12

WHAT

• Shifting from consuming to creating
• Innovation - it isn't change for the sake of change. It is driven by a sense of purpose and meaning
• Framework for innovative thinking:  1. Lookm listen and learn - awareness - could be a sense of wonder at a process or an awarenss of a problem or a sense of empathy toward and audience. 2. Ask a tons of questions - students asking questions about a process, a system or a physical phenomenon. 3. Understand the process or problem. This is done through research and interviews etc. Students are selecting the resources, finding the information and using strategies that they find useful. Students own the research process and are answering the questions the came up with in the previous phase. 4. Navigate ideas - students apply that newly aquired knowledge to potential solutions 5. Create a prototype - They continue to drive the process 6. Highlight what works and fix what's failing - mistakes bring us closer to success - self assessment/peer assessment abd conferencing with the teacher. 7. Launch to an audience - share with the world!
• Ideas for the Launch process - Maker challenges (start with a problem), Global day of design.
• Creativity often follows the process of noticing, copying, modifying, mash-up then starting from scratch.
• Assessment is only authentic if students own the process. When students own the process they are able to figure out - What they already know, What they don't know, What they want to master, what they will do to improve. Assessment should be a collaborative partnership between students, peeers and the teacher involving self assessment, peer assessment and teacher conferencing.
• The shift from failure to failing. This is about trying again and achieving success by making changes. 
• The system should fit the student, not the other way around. Encourage students to select the skills strategies and standards. 
• Empowering students ideas - start with one project, wonder week, genius hour, geek out on blogs, Do a choice audit, re-think the standards, communicate with stake holders, model it.

SO WHAT

• The balance of ICT use in my classroom is more weighted towards consuming rather than creating.
• What opportinuties am I giving students to be innovative - there is lots of creativity, but am I providing students to be creative for a purpose?
• Do my students have a say in what they need to learn? I have often been guilty of keeping assessment results away from students and using it to direct learning programmes. How can I involve students more in this process?
• Choice audit - what am I doing for students that they could do on their own?

NOW WHAT

• With an increased number of devices in 2019 it would be easy to fall into the trap of using the devices as a means to engage students through the consumption of learning games. Ipads are wonderful tool to create unique learning. Some ideas that I will try - using Explain everything for students to demonstrate their mathematical thinking,  creating stop go animations to tell a story or re-enact a value, using the video function to record reflections and explain thinking, using the camera to take photos of example/non examples of a concept. 
• Our topic for the start of the year is the history of our school. Starting with an awareness (phase 1), we could go for a walk around the school and notice dates, information, photos (old principals) and significant features, we can map out the school our class block - did it always look this way? We could extend the skill of maping to look at where previous sights of the school were in P.N. Questions - (Phase 2) - why did the school move? where did the names of the school teams come from? What did Matanginui used to look like? What teachers/teacher aides have been here the longest? - students to generate wonderings. Understand the problem (Phase 3) - summarise the history of the school, create timelines, interview teachers and teacher aide, research where the school used to be and what is there now?  Navigate ideas (Phase 4) - what could we do to show our new learning? videos, models, maps, posters, documentories, songs (student driven). Create a prototype (phase 5).  self-assess/peer assess/confeercing (phase 6). shareing (Phase 7) - share through Seesaw!
• After completing start of year assessments (knowledge testing, gloss, running records etc), work with students to identify what they are doing well with, what they need to work on and a plan to achieve this.
• Choice audit - I have started to think about planning and things that happen in the classroom more from a student perspective. I am asking myself more - "is this something students could take ownership of instead of me doing it for them?