Mindset

 Carol Dweck's research focuses on the development of a Growth mindset to improve the learning opportunities of all learners.  A Fixed mindset limits the learning opportunities by focusing on the barriers,  

This research is part of what informs Guy Claxton's BLP.  This fundamental change in understanding of the ability to learn is essential to reframing education

Strategies to Build Intrinsic Motivation

On Friday we had a staff meeting session using Story Hui to help teachers reflect on an aspect of their practice that they have changed or developed.

Some of the main themes that came through all the examples given throughout the school was student choice, student ownership of learning, and student responsibility.  Common outcomes from these innovations included greater motivation in most students to learn and greater engagement in learning activities where there attributes are present.

I stumbled upon this article today by David Palank about strategies to build intrinsic motivation of students.  His comments about getting rid of both the carrot and the stick fit in with the developments that we have been putting in place.

It is great to see that these innovations are happening throughout the school and developing naturally based on the improvements that teacher are noticing.  David's article adds a few new possibilities to consider for our next innovations.

boys writing

Boys and writing, like  oil and water, are difficult to mix.  I stumbled upon this link on the MOE site and am keen to use it in my class with my reluctant writers.
Starting a story is often the hardest part and these celb starters may do just the trick.

http://success-for-boys.tki.org.nz/Teaching-learning-resources/Story-Starters

positive feedback

23/6/2015

Sometimes when we are caught up in the chaos of all we have to do it is difficult to see if anything we are doing is making a difference, if any one is noticing, or if all the changes and extra effort is just extra work having no impact.

But there have been a few (unexpected) things turn up that are encouraging to see and to help keep the momentum of what we are doing.

This shared doc is by a keen learner in year 6 who decided to share the reading/writing task with those in the same group to help each other.  This is a great example of Ako, shared learning, collaboration, building learning power, etc etc that we have been trying to foster with the children.

This message came from a parent regarding the BLP section we have added to our newsletter this year.  It is great to know that at least 1 parent is reading the section, finding it interesting and better yet, able to 'see' it is happening and having an effect on their child's learning.

These small actions certainly encourage me to keep moving down the path we are on and encouraging the staff to keep being resilient, resourceful, reflective and reciprocal in their learning and their teaching.

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The Learning Pit

The Learning Pit

23/5/15

The Learning Pit with James Nottingham from Challenging Learning on Vimeo.

Karen reminded me of the learning pit earlier this year and it fits in very well with BLP and growth mindset.  The idea of the learning pit was something I had explored at a previous school and as Karen had introduced it to the students, I thought I would also reinforce the need to get into the pit to really learn.  

The above video effectively relates the learning pit with Growth mindset and while the terminolgoy isn't the same as used in BLP - the strategies to get out of the pit certainly fit with Guy CLaxton's work.

I think this is a concept I need to revisit with the students and provide some learning opportunities to enjoy getting into (and out of) the learning pit.

ERO report

 click here to read the blog and get links to the article and report

beginning BLP

Week 2 Term 2 - Introducing Absorption

In class development

We have decided to introduce the students to an aspect of BLP each week.  We initially considered 1 per fortnight, however at that rate it would take into term 1 next year to get through them all.

One per week will be difficult I think, but if we can manage to demonstrate how they fit together it should be ok.

Absorption was a tricky one to start with.  I began by introducing the fact that we would be looking at an aspect each week and gave the students a chance to discuss what they thought absorption might mean.  Some did reach the idea that cloths, sponges, and mops were absorbent and they 'sucked water up'.  So I used that analogy to explain that they were the water and the learning was the sponge - and they needed to get sucked into their learning so they were caught up in it.  Most seemed to understand what I was meaning and related it to being caught up in a good book or movie and you didn't hear what was happening around you.  We discussed how we needed to be on the look out for classmates (and ourselves) getting absorbed into our learning.  

This proved difficult.  After a long weekend the students were chattier than usual and found it difficult to settle into their work, let alone get absorbed!  We did have a few examples though.  At the end of the day we discussed if they managed to get absorbed or not.  Most were honest about not being able to and why they weren't - main reason... too much to talk about!  So I asked what could they do to change that and consider their actions, and their environment.  They concluded that they should be taking more responsibility to tell people to stop talking, and to stop distracting others by talking.  They also suggested some changes to the room layout (which they set up last term) that they thought would make it easier to stay focused.  

A couple of students turned up at 4pm to start changing the room around.

Day 2 was a slight improvement - the students enjoyed the new larger quiet area and having the teaching table away from it.  While they were a little more on task, absorption in learning was still difficult to see in action.

The other classes had used similar strategies.  Ingrid's class seemed to have more success in staying absorbed in their learning than mine did.  I think given some more time and reviewing the usual class expectations will assist the understanding (and use) of this concept.

Next week focuses on Managing Distractions - this will be a great follow on to our first concept.

Whole school development

We discussed the introduction of Absorption in staff meeting including what our understanding of the concept was, how we introduced it, and how successful our class was.  I provided some video links for staff to listen to Guy Claxton and Carol Dweck to use as review and support and building our understanding of BLP and improving our practice to improve student outcomes.

We also discussed the next aspect - Managing distractions and how that may be introduced and implemented.  The suggestion of playing quiet music ( mellow jazz) was interesting to all and is one that I would like to try, and get students to reflect on it's effectiveness.  An example of this was seen by Ingrid and myself in Bromely School where they were using Reggio Emilia to inspire their teaching and learning in the junior classes.

After the staff meeting I thought about the fact that so far we have introduced, or are introducing new concepts and expectations for our students - but not yet for ourselves.  I don't think that we will be successful in implementing long term change without revamping what we expect of our selves.  Based on that I sent out the week 4 and 5 concept sheets for the students along with pages explaining how teachers build learning power.  These will be discussed at our next meeting.