Ngā Matapakinga | Discussion

This thread has offered some great ideas for schools to dive into the Changing role of teachers Ten Trend and examine this concept more deeply, against their own pedagogical practices across the school.

St Mary’s Catholic School Rotorua has done just that. Staff have been undertaking professional learning and development to brainstorm and plan how their learners might graduate and progress their learning through play-based learning to more problem-based/project-based learning opportunities.

Staff in leadership roles have supported other teachers in their teams to understand theory (largely shared by Buck Institute for Education), effective pedagogies as well as design elements that underpin ‘gold star’ practice for project-based learning. Teams were able to read discuss, debate and disseminate supporting readings as well as view examples of authentic learning in action.

Circumnavigating these learning conversations is a school-wide focus on a graduate profile - key skills, competencies and capabilities students need today. There have also been discussions on how St Mary’s Catholic School might deliberately create conditions for students to learn and practise these skills. Enter Ten Trends: Changing role of the teacher.

Through facilitated support (Anne Robertson, Tessa Gray) teachers were invited to engage with the guiding questions from the Ten Trends cards to help bring everyone on the same page and clarify common understandings going forward; when collaboratively planning for more authentic, project-based learning opportunities that prioritise different cultural perspectives, personalise learning and make integrate digital technologies.

Next up: St Mary’s is about to implement a strategic plan 2021 (Te Hāngaitanga, one of the guiding principles of Te Hurihanganui) to ensure Mātauranga Māori and bi-cultural connections with local mana whenua (through a number of initiatives, business and trusts) are visibly part of authentic, integrated and localised curriculum design (place-based learning) with a goal to strengthen science capabilities.

Follow-up on this story in the coming months and see how these developments have influenced teacher planning, design and delivery of authentic learning opportunities for all students. 

Pātai/wero: How might this Ten Trend help guide/address engagement, diversity and self-management needs of your learners? We'd love to hear more. Simply join the CORE Ten Trends group to contribute below.

Kia ora @shiralee thank you for sharing your research and practice journey so far. It sounds like you have a hybrid model of 6 monthly reporting as well as giving parents and whānau access to progress information about their children. This is invaluable. Personally (due to some circumstance this year), I still don't know how my son is tracking this year (no mid year report), fingers crossed he's tracking ok by the end of Year 8.

I see you've created a structure for how Seesaw will be used, there are some helpful tips to make learning visible to encourage parents/whānau to comment and respond, including:

• Making learning intentions clear (and in plain language)
• Sharing processes and progress made towards learning goals
• Inviting reflections and critical feedback about learning in an iterative cycle
• Having shared ownership
• Making it manageable

I've always drawn inspiration from Nick Rate's early work on e-Portfolios and his ten step guide (CORE Blog post). 

1. Research to understand the pedagogy behind the approach
2. Define your purpose for using e-portfolios
3. Consult and seek input from all stakeholders
4. Develop a framework
5. Define the criteria
6. Choose the tool
7. Educate all those involved in the process
8. Implement
9. Update
10. Review

There are also a list of links and resources complied in the Ten Trends 2019 PDF (p10) including Curriculum, Progress and Achievement Ministerial Advisory Group Conversation Document, but like yourself, I'd love to hear more school stories. Is anyone brave enough to axe the six-monthly reports to parents?

I've just been doing some research lately for a Digital Technologies workshop on telling localised stories and have enjoyed creating my own story in Tour Builder by adding photos and videos. But I'm super impressed with  Google Earth 3D the updates are spectacular - check these videos out...the potential is huge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KtwMRedAbc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XcLcF-huCo

Imagine using this tool to tell stories about our ancestors in te reo Māori?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6pcznVAFWw

Where will your local stories take you? 

Hit the ground running

Welcoming space, but can't touch

How to slow down time

What we are looking at is what we should keep, leave and improve on after this shift in learning. How can we support each other not to fall straight back into the manic rush that is teacher life?

Over in another land of online conversation and contemplation, there's a growing pool of reflection and whakaaro around what we can takeaway from COVID-19 and keep, tweak, lose or improve going forward @ Covid-19 Lessons learned going forward. A big huge thank you to @markmaddren for sharing your blog connections as well.

Image source:  Covid Image by FrankundFrei from Pixabay

Very helpful things to remember/consider. Thanks :-)

@Tessagray. Talking to yourself in a compassionate way is actually really good for you.