What Is A Good Learner

Shared Understanding of Learning

We've all been there - sitting in the first week of a new school year looking over the class list/photo's thinking about those 30 odd students we've just met.

The honeymoon is a nice stage pretty much students are working on those first impressions.  Teachers are working on the 'don't smile until Easter'.  The students will be weighing up what sort of teacher they've got and teachers are thinking what kind of learners they've been timetabled.  What specifically is it that students are trying to project?  What characteristics are the teachers looking/hoping for?  

An interesting exercise has been to see if there is a shared understanding of whether students and teachers have the same ideas about what makes a good learner. 

An early staff meeting this term I presented the following presentation.

What does it mean to be a good learner? from WaihiCollege

Part of this professional development programme was to survey staff on the characteristics of good learners.  I've also interviewed fifty students and asked them the same question.  

What was very interesting was that although there was much middle ground between what teachers and students viewed as good teaching there was very significant differences. 

Perhaps the most obvious difference was that the students view 'good learning' as physical actions; like 'listening' and 'neat books' or 'good test results'.  For teachers the most common view was the dispositions of mind 'collaborative' or 'determination'.  

I think that this is a valuable observation.  That our young people haven't yet thought deeper about education and their larger role in the learning.  I think that there are good messages that can move our students to a more empowered space as learners.  

This post relates to RTC #8. "Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn - iii. encourage ākonga to take responsibility for their own learning and behaviour 
iv. assist ākonga to think critically about information and ideas and to reflect on their learning." 

And ERO's School Evaluation Indicators Domain 4 "Responsive Curriculum, Effective Teaching and Opportunity to Learn - students develop learning to learn capabilities."

Mentoring Year 12 Art Students

The Three N's
Firstly a big thank you to those staff who have put their name next to a student (or two) that we've identified as being on the margin for getting their NCEA level one qualification.  My intention/hope here is that you as the teacher will be able to facilitate some open conversations with the student about their progress in their learning.  Ideally this is about having a chance for students to identify what factors are 'blocking' their learning (if any).   

With the start of term two it is an ideal time for mentor teachers to meet with the year 12 student mentee's.  There will be a strong indication of where they're progressing in their learning from the first term (there will be grades and students will be aware of how they're going).  

The ART initiative (Achievement - Retention - Transition) is very specific about targeting the individual student rather than the cohort.  The acronym that they use is NNN - "names, numbers, needs".  So far we have worked through the 'names' we have identified a subset of the cohort (28 students in year 12).  We have access to the 'numbers' - #'s of credits available, #'s of credits needed - these can be found on the students kamar page (see below).  I can see that this student has six classes and is enrolled in only one end of year exam (in media studies).  He has numeracy and literacy and currently has 38 credits towards his Level Two qualification.  

So now I need to have a conversation with him about his 'needs'.  That is what are the specifics of his academic year.  

• Is he on the right pathway (is his year taking to the places he wants/needs to go)?  
• Are there classes/standards that are an issue for him (I want to find out if he's drowning in any particular areas)?  
• Are there issues around attitude/energy levels/home/work/sport (anything that is getting in the way of his progress)?
• Are there things that we as a school can do to help his progress?

The intent here is that you as the mentor will be able to engender a positive trusting relationship so that important learning issues can be processed through.  The next steps...

1. Ideally the student is on track and finding good levels of success that indicate that he/she are progressing towards NCEA Level Two.  
2. Possible communication with SLT (JHA) if there are issues - then interventions can be put in place (these could be as easy as sorting new stationery or as far as moving class).  
3. One of the common things that I'm expecting is students that have missed standards and not looking at resit opportunities (or not contemplating what things went wrong).  
4. Possible communication with teachers - there may be a case for you as mentor to approach the students teachers directly and raise an issue (student can follow teaching or needs extra help etc). 
5. Possible communication with home - all the parents want their children to do well and would appreciate the contact.  
6. Planning another contact time.  Please don't let the relationship go cold - If you can meet regularly (say monthly) that would be ideal.  By the time this term is over the majority of internal assessment would have happened.  

At this stage I have set up an interview questionaire on kamar for all 28 students on the ART initative.  But I'm of two minds in this regard - the ideal thing here is not a set list to check off but a genuine open dialogue for progressing these guys through to a practical high school qualifications.

Here are some instructions on how to find that questionnaire on kamar.  

Final Thoughts...

• Do keep the exit strategy for students in mind.  For a lot of our senior students that struggle with the academic nature of NCEA they experience great anxiety and even depression.  They can see that their peers are progressing academically.  Many of our students that don't get level two just drift off out of school.  There are better ways to manage this.
• You are a teacher and ultimately students that struggle with school may have a negative association with teachers.  Thank them for their time and their honesty in their conversations with you.

Thanks again for your contribution to these students.

This post is related to RTC #1. "Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga." And RTC #7. "Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment part ii. foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga."

  

Waihi College Happiness Survey

Happy Students = Learning Students
The following survey was something that I thought that I'd put together after closer examination of the PISA 2012 results.  There was a strong correlation to the sense of belonging and their achievement at school.  Here are the questions that the PISA assessment asked.

1. I feel like an outsider (or left out of things) at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
2. I make friends easily at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
3. I feel like I belong at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
4. I feel awkward and out of place at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
5. Other students seem to like me.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
6. I feel lonely at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
7. I feel happy at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree
8. I am satisfied at school.  Strongly Agree    Agree     Disagree   Strongly Disagree

The web link to this survey is... https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LPCXPVG

Please do take the time to supervise (minimise the "funny" stuff) your Learning Advisory students through this. 

I hope that in a couple of weeks we'll have an idea of where our current students are at. 


Here is an interesting graph from Alive in the Swamp a book by Micheal Fullan & Katelyn Donnelly...

Can you see that the "Love of School" is consistently decreasing (Canadian study) until students start to drop out? 





Here is a little video of the authors speaking on Alive in the Swamp  which was about the new way of digital technology in education (good watch for those thinking of being in the BYOD group). 

This post relates to RTC # 2. demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of all ākonga

Student Voice

How To Guide Student Voice

One of the important aspects of knowing your impact as a teacher is to gain some perspective from your students.  The following presentation was given to staff at morning professional development. 

The end of the second term marks a convenient time of the year to get some student voice. 

Here is the presentation that I made to staff...



It goes through the reasons behind gathering student voice. Ties the method/tools used into our appraisal system on OneNote and also links into the Registered Teacher Criteria. 

Here is the link to the actual student voice document I've set up for Waihi College.  http://learningwaihicollege.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/student-voice.html

ART - Achievement Retention Transition - June Audit

How To Use Kamar Interview

I've set up on Kamar a place where staff (ideally the Learning Advisor) can sit down with a year 12 student and go through some questions about how their year is progressing towards NCEA level two. 

This is a pretty big job (about 5-10 minutes per student).  So ideally we want the Learning Advisor to pick out those students that they feel, probably indicated by their reports, may be in trouble with NCEA level two. 

I've set up a slide show that will show the teacher how to get to the right place on Kamar...



I'm available during morning Learning Advisory times to come an assist any year 12 Learning Advisors with these interviews.  The better the quality of these discussions the better our interventions can be for these students. 

Good Info For Parent Interviews

A Student Self Review

This is a review form that I adapted about twelve years ago (sorry I can't reference the original - it was from professional time management review - I adapted to focus on students). 

This is a form that I give to the students and say "you're not expecting to 'ace' this like a test but just to give an honest assessment of where you're at in learning here in this class".  Generally students are very honest and a lot of the material is relevant about trying to forge better links with home. 

I will highlight a few things with parents when I have an interview. 

Here is a copy (a few handed out in staff briefing too).  It would be silly for all teachers of any particular class to all do this - but good for at least one too (maybe kamar out to fellow teachers of any particular class if you have used it).

The original is saved in S:\Administration\Appraisal\Admin\Student Self Review.doc

PLG Discussion - Five Powerful Questions to Ask Students

Good Questioning Techniques 

I found a very interesting article (click and the link will take you there) in Edutopia website (a nice source of material for teachers). 

It is an article written by at teacher and puts forward five simple questions (and presents reasons why we should be asking them).  It's nice to be reminded to take the time to make those links with our students. 

The questions are...

1. What do you think?
2. Why do you think that?
3. How do you know this?
4. Can you tell me more?
5. What questions do you still have?

A real encouragement to try and ascertain where your students thinking is at in any given topic/unit. 

Nb RTC 12 is about critically engaging with professional literature and reflecting on how this is part of your practice in the classroom. 

Student Voice

We need to be focussed on improving our impact on the learning of our students. 

John Hattie puts it...

"Attention needs to move from how to teach to how to learn - and only after teachers understand how each student learns can they then move on to make decisions about how to each." Visiable Learning for Teachers p.103.

One of the most valuable methods of gather data on our practice is to gather student voice.  The following questionnaire was developed by Kevin and the PE staff (I've tweaked slightly to be more generic for any subject). 

I would recommend that four times this year (this is set up this way on your OneNote appraisal folder) you gather student voice.  That could be four independent classes once.  Or one class four times or couple of classes twice - no hard and fast rule. 

Student voice can be unnerving as we as teachers are putting ourselves "out there".  Some students will be stupid and write stupid things (those can be expected and dismissed).  But in practice most students are constructive and reflective - these provide rich reflective resources. 

Here is a copy of the questionnaire it is also available on shared drive saved in S:\Administration\Appraisal\Student Evaluation of Learning.docx