Creating visible learners

Went to the most amazing PD session on Monday Session Notes. Out of the three I attended during the day it was the most useful and gave me a lot of reassurance that what I am trying to do with my class is supported by evidence and research. As a scientist that is really important to me and I respect the work of John Hattie so much. The man is a genius and a wonderful statistician and his looking into effect size is brilliant and so very useful.

Anyway the PD session was primary focussed on the creation of visible learners. What it looks like in a classroom, how we as teachers can achieve it and what it means for the students. I took a lot of encouragement about the small things I am doing in my classroom and it also was a good reminder of things that I should be doing like constantly referring the students back to the LO of the lesson and also how it fits in to the topic and referring to the I can do sheets a lot more so the students can keep track of and monitor their own progress.  One of the biggest ideas I got was for the students to become visual learners they need to be shown how to be visual learner and that initially I really need to plan it into my lessons so it become habit for both of and by doing this hopefully the students will become very comfortable with there own learning and be able to take real responsibility for it.  This I believe will be beneficial to all the years I teach.

Another really important take home message was reflecting on the learning not only in the one lesson but over a series of lesson and over whole topics. This idea is not new to me, I just don't know the types of questions that I should be asking and the type of survey I should set up. Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.  Reflection is a very powerful tool that I personally use, I am my own worst critique so for me self reflection needs to be undertaken very carefully as I have a tendency to see the worst in my own teaching. This often leaves me digging very large pits of despair that can take other people a while to remove me from, I am getting better, baby steps like everything in my teaching, the more I do the more I learn better ways of doing and appropriating situations.

One the methods suggest was to have students self reporting the grades they expect/want to get in a topic test. I have been doing this for most of this year with my year 10's and the students are very in tune with there own learning and what they know and don't know. I am hoping to use this as a platform to start slowly introducing some of the other ideas and methods that I learnt from this session as the effect sizes are very good and I am very interested in to measuring my own effect size on topic and on students. To do this mean extra work for me, but I think it will be worth it especially if what what I am doing is successful but also it will show me approached that aren't' working with a specific class which is important knowledge about how I am teaching a class.

The biggest take home message I got from the session is that the students need to be taught how to take responsibility for their own learning and their own success and to do this they will need help, encouragement and guidance from their teachers and most importantly it needs to be very positive and safe for everyone involved.  The skills that the students will learn from this type of classroom learning will bee invaluable and will stay with them forever.

Visible Learning Plus PD session

Visible Learning Plus session.
My notes, blog to follow

gathering student voice
what makes a good learner -what makes students good learners
what strategies do you use to problem solve
knowing the questions to ask - asking the right questions
knowing what you don't know - getting the most able students able too ask questions - confident in getting it wrong and asking questions and feeling safe to ask questions when they don't know

developing the shared language to learning -
reflection on learning for day
not just surface learning but also deeper learning
what does it mean to be a good learner
is it getting through to the student- checking in with the students - check your impact


self reported grades/student expectations/assessment capable learners - worth spending time on, very good impact on student achievement -
 - where am I going
- how am I going
- where to next
lesson by lesson or unit by unit

stretch goals for topic tests
focus on progressions
use I can do to check progress and stretch using core and extended content

teacher/student clarity
learning intentions/success criteria
- students know why they are learning
- the success criteria I understood by all
- share rubrics and examples

what am i doing to be very explicit and clear - what do they need to do to be successful

checking in with students to ensure the students know what they are doing - what are they learning about

more student involvement in the LO and goals  - letting students taking more involvement and ownership, co design and creation

feedback is evidence about - where am I going, how am i doing, where to next
needs to be relevant and useful for the student - knowing where the student is at for a given task
instructional feedback to key, needs to be at right level for the student and targeted

Check my impact!!!!

The term that was

What an interesting 9 weeks. They seem to go way to fast but in saying that it did drag a little near the end as the kids really started too wind down and my stress levels increased.

The term started off with a really hiss and a roar. Attending inspirational PD days can do that. The ideas and concepts were all there but the execution was off  just a bit as I have stated in previous blogs. The new way I want to teach.  My new approach is having is student and inquiry centred has worked wonderfully with the year eights and has been heaps of fun implementing. I has helped slightly that I am redoing the Yr 8 course as it has given me a lot to scope to try new things and ways of teaching. My biggest problem is that this term I just have not been organised enough. This has presented it challenges that I have meet and overcome as the come up.  I really need to sit down and plan out the entire topic in one go instead of bits at a time. Teaching the year 8 is so much fun. I am really enjoying it and the students are having heaps of fun as well. I am trying to make the learning as hands on as possible with lots of circus and other activities and very little book work. The book work we do do is sheet based to reinforce the ideas and skills learnt though the activities that we do.

The year 10 have been another kettle of fish completely. They are two very different class that each have there own issues and problems. one class I have only just noticed is nearly 75% boys whereas the other is more 50/50 gender split.  As a whole it has been a very productive term. We are right on track for where we need to be in the topic sequence. The biggest issue is that I have gone back to my old style to teaching the year 10. I was trying to make the teaching in a style more similar to the year 8's but it just isn't working. the students pretty much expect me to give them the information which yes I am there to do that, but to me I kind of defeats the purpose of why I am there. the information I am giving them is is pretty common knowledge and they could find it them selves easy enough simply by goggling it.  I am at the point now where I am handing them all the notes and I am trying to get them to do activates that are based around the information that they need to know, to make them take some of the responsibility because it has no bearing on my life if they pass or fail. I am keeping up many end of the bargain by giving them in the information and asking any questions they might have. It is up too them to do the supporting work and to ask the necessary questions or for help.

There were a few interesting incidents through out the term. I look back on them are I have learnt a great deal from them. Most of them were due to me letting the leash go a little to slack and on reining in the minor stepping out of lines. I probably gave them the slack and a bit more freedom as they have been so good up to now and it was a reward, it was probably me getting a little to comfortable with the students in both classes and not following through was much as I did in the first term, I got soft. The big major incident in week 8 I could not off pre-empted I don't think, I student choose to cross a line, a pretty obvious line in my opinion and he paid the price. The consequence were well deserved and hopefully a lesson was learnt....I doubt it but you can only try so hard with some people. Some kids are just douche bags and have no brain mouth filter.

Over all i am very pleased with how the term went. I have a number of things to continue to work on, the biggest one is the loudness of my voice, the problem is I cant hear myself when I am in front of the kids so it is hard for me too moderate myself. Other than that I need to be a lot more organised and have the rest of my topics planned out and have the activities and resources ready to go so i can stop my last minute planning.