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.

Exam post mortem

So last week was mid year exams. It is a very interest process to watch as you see how different students cope and react with the stress and pressure that come hand in hand with exams. When it came to marking them I was very pleased with the of all three classes. The all pretty much fitted a perfect bell curve. I had my low and my high marks, all of which was expected. There are a number of disappointed students and and number of were pleasantly surprised.

Each  student did a post exam reflection which asked them to reflect and amount and quality of their revision, if they were happy with there marks, the areas they struggled and how the could improve with and a few other questions. The answers from the students were really pleasing and showed that they were taken the whole process quiet seriously and were all wanting to improve throughout the rest of the year and things to work on form finals.  It was a wake up call of some and highlighted clearly that what they are currently doing is not working and the need either a new approach or to take studying a lot more seriously whereas for others it was a validation that what they are doing is working for them and is bring them success.

Inspiration Lost

So over the last few weeks I have lost all inspiration for my new approach.  I do admittedly have an obsessive personality and I do lose interest in thing easily if I am not constantly inspired or engaged I get bored and forget about it.  This has happened to me this term. It started off with a hiss and a roar and has fizzled out over the past few weeks. Exams in the middle of the term did not help nor did writing reports and new topics. In hind sight the writing of a new Yr 8 topic should of given me plenty of inspiration and new ideas and I has. My year 8 topic was investigation based, lots of student driven activities and work. they were taking charge of the the learning in the topic with scaffolding from. This has been very fun and the students were engaged and having a good time. I endeavour to make junior science as fun and as engaging as possible and I am finding the students are really responsive to that style of teaching.

The Yr 10 on the other hand are getting old school me talking at them. I have lost inspiration for new ideas in teaching this class. The investigation inquiry based learning disappeared, I started being the focus of the lesson again and I really don't like it at all. I have ran out of ideas for the topic we have just finished. I have just started a new topic and in writing this blog I am slowly regaining the inspiration, I desperately need an injection of new ideas and ways to present the topic I have just started. I could teach this topic in my sleep, which should mean I should have heaps of new exciting ideas but I just don't.  Teaching plant and human reproduction isn't the most exciting topic for the students, and I want to find exciting ways to approach it.  I am then finishing up with genetics,  one of my fields of expertise and a great love of mine. I have always approached this topic as enquiry based using case studies and heaps of real life examples.

So I would love some new ideas of teaching plant and human reproduction as inquiry based. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The term so far

So it is the Friday before the long weekend, the Friday before exams next week. A good Friday to look back the reflect on what has been a very interesting and trying second term. This term I tried a new approach to teaching with inspiration from Claire Amos and #hackyrclass. Doing the background research and reading really inspired me, probably a little to much. I forgot the culture of the school and boundaries that I am expected to keep within. I jumped in feet first and really did not remember the parameters i am expected to work with in. The outcome of this was not necessarily negative, the students gained a lot of positives from it. The biggest issue looking back was the way I carried it out. It didn't have the necessary scaffolding to guide the students through and it was a brand new concept that I admittedly just told the student they were going to do. They all got on with the assignment, with some groups really tackling it head on and making a really amazing job while other spent the time messing round, no matter how much redirection they were given.

The overall success of the modified jigsaw assignment was good. The parts of the topic I chose to do it with were small and the class set of notes that I did give the class was all the information that the students needed to know. The feedback I got from students was mixed but very useful.
The rest of the topic I took a slightly different approach after a very useful and insightful conversation with my PRT mentor.  The approach was still very much with in the #hackyrclass idea and the growth mindset but also was more sympathetic to the culture and expectation of school.  The students were still expect to actively investigate and problem solve but I greatly increases the scaffolding and also introduced new concepts first with a quick power-point or discussion. This method the students didn't even the notice the difference. I found this work really well for investigation the difference between parallel and series circuits and also to teaching equation. A quick overview reinforcing the key ideas and things to remember then giving the student time too work it out it for themselves.

This whole experience has been really rewarding if not a little challenging, not just for me but also for the students. I am not longer spoon feeding them information, but making them find it whether it is on their devices or by using the notes and powerpoint I have posted on Blackboard. I am making them take charge and I am now using student examples and ideas a lot more, putting them at the centre.
This is how I have started our new chemistry topic and it worked really well this morning. The student with thinking, listening and really had to work to find the information. the question asked were great and insightful.

A new outlook

What an interesting week. I had the flu.

Last week despite looking and feeling like death warm up was very interesting. The conversation I had had made me really sit down the reassess what I was trying too achieve. I have taken a new fresh approach which I am really enjoying is a much better way to approach what I am trying to achieve, more independent and intinstically motivated learners. We still have a very long way to go, but I now know what my learners want and also what their parent want. My teaching style has adjusted, I am teaching a very short sharp blocks, and then I set them written or experimental task to reinforce the short sharp information load. I have made a vow to not spend another whole lesson talking again. I will give in the information and break it down, emphasis important point and then let them discover and learn how it suit them. It is working very well with my physics topic and if the students need extra help they are asking each other first before they ask me.
I am seeing really great results and progress and understanding I am seeing is very good.

My aim for the next week in the lead up to exams is to reinforce and go over how questions should be answered especially and explain and discuss type questions. This is goes along in the our year long PD we are doing. I finally understand what we are trying to achieve which is awesome.  Up until this point is was really confused of how I was suppose to implement in the class. Now I understand the rational and really see why it is such a benefit. It works really well in with everything else I am trying too achieve.

This term has been such an amazing learning journey not just for me personally and professionally but also for my students.