Do the students have to constantly move?

 Write a blog post about an education question/ challenge/wondering that you have or are facing. You don’t need to have the answer/solution.


 This is a wondering I have had since my son started in a MLE three years ago and then in my own school as we started to make the move towards this (we move to a new MLE in 2017) in our current school. It was something that I also asked during a Twitter conversation during Ulearn 15 which started with +Kassey Downard tweeting about having the same Homeroom teacher for 5 years. ( I can't remember what breakout she was in where this came up).     

Why do we assume in a MLE we have to always move the students around?

I can see the positives and negatives for shifting and moving students and I will admit I am guilty of this as well. We are still working in single cell classroom but trying to adjust to teaching in a more MLE or ILE ( what ever you want to call it) environment. And yes I move students around because when we first began this that was what our assumption was. Set homeroom but changing all the students in the team around for different subjects. So five teachers and the majority of 116 students moving about.

I don't work (yet) in a open planned room so I am not sure if it is different for those who do. You would constantly always see the same teachers and students in the room so would you have the same issues?

This term I am team teaching ( I like the students am moving out of my room into another room every day for literacy) and I have already said that we are two teachers with a class of 43 rather than two teachers with our own reading and writing groups. How this will work I am unsure as it is completely new to me.

We have had a few students who have found moving to different teachers hard. When I asked my own students about this, most said they liked the chance they got to move and work with different students and teachers. But this is every 10 weeks not every 2-4 weeks so does that make a difference?

I have had some very honest students articulate to me why they would like to stay with a certain teachers and I personally don't have an issue with this. I don't force them out of their comfort zone as they are not ready for that (yet). But do other teachers still make them move? Does it work? 

Or is it even an issue?

Do MLE actually raise the academic achievement of students?

Edchatnz is a great Thursday night twitter conversation that is fast paced and really gets you thinking. Last week’s conversation was no different - MLE Modern Learning Environments.

Lately I have distanced myself from this term as since beginning my journey into this area, I have realised how much my opinion and ideas have changed. I have realized and seen that although some schools use the term MLE they still teaching like a single cell classroom just in a bigger space.

I began to question what was really changing. Had we misinterpreted what MLE were supposed to be? Should we have never introduced the ‘bean bag’ catch phrase? Had we run with one idea and forgotten to look at all the other parts of a MLE? Is ‘modern’ the best word to use at all?

A lot of educators have been throwing out the term MLP- Modern Learning Practices. To sum it up teachers are creating a personalised, collaborative and reflective classroom. This is where I am. I teach in a single cell classroom in a school where the buildings are older than me! But I am changing the way I teach and think students should learn. My pedagogy is changing and becoming more in line with what students of today need.

One of the questions raised by the devil’s advocate aka @BeccaSweeney was Do MLE actually raise the academic achievement of students? This is what others thought.

I have been questioning this as a parent and a teacher. To be honest, I don’t think they do. It’s more about the MLP that is happening inside these buildings rather than the building itself. And this can happen in a brand new  building or  a 40 year old prefabs. The only bonus of a MLE is that you can easily fit more than 30 students into a room and it allows for more collaboration among teachers.

I made a hard decision last term to pull my son out of a MLE. I began to realize some MLE schools believed that by letting students move from class to class to be taught by different they were  ‘modern’. Yet they were still streaming their reading, writing and maths groups.  I wrote about this and my own personal battle about how we were trying to develop a more MLP and what I felt wasn’t working. The more I reflected on my own teaching and learning practices with my own class the more I became aware this was not happening in my sons own school. Therefore I made the decision to move him. I realized by putting him into a school that worked more on MLP rather than focused on the MLE his own mindset about school and learning had completely changed. I suddenly had a child who was learning and wanted to learn!

So no, MLE don’t raise the academic achievements of students it is more about the teaching and learning and how inline it is with MLP’s. This is only my own personal experience and I also think a lot also come down to the teacher/ student relationship as well as how dedicated a teacher is to wanting her students to succeed. But then if they’re dedicated, they are probably a teacher who is always reflecting, changing and looking at ways to improve themselves to meet the needs of their students.

This has got me thinking a lot about where I want to head with my journey. So far we still stream for maths and reading. This is something I want to try and change next term but and still unsure how. Mainly because this term we had two new teachers start with us and next term I will have another new teacher starting. I have to think about what is best for my students but also what is best for a teaching coming in half way through the year.

With 112 students and five classrooms where 3 are still single cell it does face me with a lot of challenges. I know where I want to head, but it is the getting there that is causing me headaches!

Part of me still feels I am only halfway there with my MLP’s and I have areas I still need to work on and change.  Where we are focusing more on MLP I can see the benefits. In those areas I can see that students have succeeded and are enjoying their learning. My job now is to work out how to continue and develop my MLP’s so that the whole day is like this.

Wow, this has taken a while to write.

 It’s taken me nearly three weeks to finish this blog as I have had to question a lot. I have doubted myself, had to think hard, question my own ability, reasons and question if I had my own fixed mind set about how I taught.

Last year when I started giving students more independence, own timetables, group teaching rather than whole teaching it felt right. I enjoyed what I was doing and feedback from the students also showed this. Yes, it took a while to get there but in the end I think as a class we thoroughly enjoyed it. This was me trying hard to take on MLP in a single cell classroom.

This year it has been different. Although we are still single celled, we are planning as a team and working more together in twos or threes  rather than individually. So why then do I feel disjointed, lacking enthusiasm and not enjoying myself? This is quite a hard thing to admit as I have to question myself, my surroundings and where I am working. I am quite good at reflecting on my own teaching and learning. I know I can be very head strong, stubborn and see things very differently to those around me. I feel I have had to sit back and accept things, question less and go with the norm (even when I am not sure it is right). Is this how I want to teach? Is it me?

I guess this is why it has taken me a while to write this as I really do have to reflect and wonder if it could be me. I enjoy the fact that we are working as a team. I love the fact that I am not planning on my own, coming up with my own ideas and feeling a little like I am by myself. I enjoy bouncing ideas off others, listening to different ideas and views.

But I feel more constrained and restricted then I did last year.  As a school we have been encourage to change our way of teaching and work more closely as a team. To have a growth mind set and to look at things differently.

What I am wondering?

·         Are we really making a change?

·         Have we actually made a difference?

To be honest, I don’t think we have.

To me it is like a messy desk, moving things around and making piles isn’t really the same as creating a tidy desk. And I feel this is what we are doing. We have moved students around given them different teachers for different subject but have we actually really changed the way we are teaching?

The truth is no.

I have been questioning these MLE where they think giving students different teachers all the time is MLP. But is it? We are meeting the needs of your children by grouping them and they may not have their usual teacher. Isn’t this the same as streaming, groups, setting (or any other words you want to use)? Is this really MLP? What are we doing differently?

And I guess this is what I have struggled with this term as I feel this is what we are doing.

Do we really need to split all five classes up? Could I not work with the teacher next door with just my own homeroom and theirs? Teach more small groups rather than whole class? Give students the choice?

What do I want next term?

Integrate our topic so I don’t have stand-alone lessons.

Give students more of a voice.

Feel excited about teaching again.

Teaching in a team- My thoughts on how it is going (so far).

Teaching in a team, having different students, planning together is not new to me. It is something I have done in the past. So this year trying to plan, teach, learn more like a MLE hasn’t really fazed me. What is hard is trying to do all this in a single cell classroom.

Unlike the other 3 teachers who have access through two doors to each room, my room does not do this. It is in the pipeline to take away the wall but that may not happen until term 2. This is not to say I can’t incorporate ideas of MLP into my teaching and learning but I have been doing this already.

What I would really like to experience is that ‘openness’ . Getting to grips with over 50 students in one area, more teachers, and really seeing how this works and feels. I am doing the best I can but there are roadblocks being in a single cell room.

We have tried some team teaching and having all the students in one room but to be honest space was an issue and it didn’t feel that comfortable at all. Teleport them into an actual MLE and I know for certain I wouldn’t have felt the same.

I think one of the great things about planning as a team and working more closely with others is I don’t feel alone. I’m not sure if it’s just that we have ‘chatty’ teachers in the team, others like me who like to talk, say ‘good morning’, pop into each other’s room (yes in a MLE we would all be in the same room). I have enjoyed this and something I had missed since returning to NZ as my previous school our rooms were very close to each other you always ended up chatting.

It has also raised a lot of questions, ones we are still trying to answer. Working out how to tackle reading and writing groups, what we would do for maths, how would be teach the rest of the subjects? I have thoroughly enjoyed our Thursday rotation day (here) and although I am not teaching the other subjects, I like that the students are actually getting taught them once a week. We all know how sometimes throughout the term certain subjects can get side lined or is not taught as well. So it does make sense using the talents of the team in this way.

Even though we are into week 3, it still feels like I am finding my feet. We have started moving students for reading, writing and maths. I have the same reading and writing students (mixed ability) and different maths students (streamed) which I would still love to be mixed ability (something I am used to teaching) but we also have teachers who have strengths in certain stages so doing it this way are we making better use of our talents?

For me, I think it is more the teaching of year 3/4 I am finding harder to get my head around rather than the whole MLE as I have completely forgotten how much younger these students are, how much they wriggle and move and how the smallest things really do matter to them. On the plus side, I have realised that my son actually is a typical Year 3 and they all only have one volume and they only hear the first and last word of any instructions and nothing in-between!

My own two cents

Reading through everyone's #28daysofwriting has been wonderful. Keeping me up way to late in the night mind you. One of the reasons I wanted to attempt this writing is to feel more comfortable blogging. I am not the best blogger and I always feel a little embarrassed about what I write when I read others. But I also wanted to read other blogs, reflect on them and try and express my ideas, thoughts, opinions in my own blog.

+Bridget ComptonMoen wrote a blog the other day that I could relate well to - allocated seats and desks! As schools all move to MLE/MLP we are told/shown about all the different ways we can set up a open plan classroom. Getting away with the single cell rooms and creating all these different spaces where students can place themselves. Modern learning environments support strengths-based teaching and can offer students and teachers flexibility, openness and access to resources. Providing teachers with an open, flexible learning environment can lead to the development of a robust, continuously improving community of practice (Core Education).

But the desks have always been something some teachers can't get their head around. Even the idea of not having their own teachers desk! I don't have a teachers desk and I love it. I work on one of the student tables and tend to mark with my students rather than at the end of the day. This was an easy choice for me but I know other teachers battle with this.

Like Bridget she to was finding the issue I had with my girls- the need for desks. My classroom is slightly different to Bridget's in that we have tables rather than desks but we were also a single cell room and not officially a MLE. In previous post I have spoken about all the changes I had made in my old classroom and what my students felt about this. Most of my students went from having to sit in allocated seats to suddenly being taught by me and having an option of where to sit. Most coped with this fine and enjoyed the idea that they didn't have to sit in the same place everyday. I was lucky enough that I had 'acquired' a couple of the old school wooden flip top desks which I was using for my 'quiet' area.

I don't have an answer but I do know my girls didn't like working on the ground. The big cushions that I had sourced were only ever used by the boys. They also weren't keen on lower tables either and voted against them. The norm isn't always for everyone.  Mornings were always interesting because you began to see how they 'allocated' their seat by placing enough items on a table to show everyone else that was where they wanted to sit. Like Bridget, I did have students find this hard as sometimes they did feel left out. I guess we forget at this age where you sit and who you sit by is a big thing.

I will admit that sometimes I felt I was pushing them into something they didn't like. I had moved away from listening to their feelings and was trying hard to develop this MLE with all the different break out spaces. The last thing I wanted to do was make them feel uncomfortable when they entered the room. I spoke a lot to my students about the changes and they were very honest with me. In the end I think we found that balance between enough tables and where they wanted them.

But I do wonder how far one way do we go? I don't want to see students sitting in the same chair on the same table with the same people all year. But I also don't want them to feel uncomfortable or worried about where they might sit. There has to be that balance and sometimes what other classes/ schools do may not be right for your class.

As we move to our new school and incorporate more MLP, our principal does remind us a lot that what we do has to work for OUR students and community. That we don't do things just because that is what other schools do or what the recent research says. In the end is having or not having a desk the biggest issue of MLE? I really enjoyed Arnika @BrownArnika commented she left on Bridget's blog and thinks she sums it up well. In the end students can learn any where sitting on anything but they can't learn if the teaching is boring, unengaging and unrelated to them.

#day6

The Questions Have Started

I am working a little backwards with the next few blogs as I am very keen to post about my Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) as well as the PD we had on Collaborating and growth/fixed mind set. I am just waiting to get a few slides and links which I hope will explain it a bit more clearly than I possibly could.

 I have reflected already how this year is going to work. Already it seems strange as usually I would have a class room all set up, displays to help with the students thinking scattered around the room, planning for at least the first 3 weeks completed and just a general sense of  a room ready to greet the students.

However this is not the case. I am working in a team with 4 other teachers and my ‘classroom’ is merely my homeroom for my class to have registration taken. I don’t own the walls therefore can’t splash all my own things on it –yet.

I am loving this, it is right up my alley and doesn’t faze me one bit (this will become apparent when I blog about the HBDI) but what is hard is all five of us agreeing about how we will do and go about things. We are a great team and I think we will work fabulously together but we are also individuals who have different ideas and interpretations about how things may work.

What has been great is out principal has been using what we will be using with the children- Our Graduate programme and our first one is Team Player. This is something we have to do in order for success to happen and for our students to be successful.

I won’t lie it’s daunting as I know I am someone who has a million and one ideas and sometimes get carried away with excitement. Very much like a child right before Christmas! But I do know I have to restrain this side of me and listen (which can be hard for me) rather than talk!

Already we are thinking how we will work with nearly 120 students and four classrooms (we have two rooms that could easily fit two classes in and have doors that lead into each). We know we need to utilise the space we have to best suit the students and our teaching. So far we have a few ideas but setting them in stone is hard.

Today I began thinking;

Some students need to be read to everyday others once a week. How will this rotation work? Where will they go? Is it easier for students or teachers to move around?

What about maths? How can we get away from interchange?

Would utilising the two bigger rooms as ‘independent’ working rooms with teacher/s facilitating work?

Could the others be used as group rooms? If so how would we work this?

How will we work collaborative learning so that we are successful? At the moment everyone have a very different definition of this.

Movement- How will this work?

I know in the next few weeks my questions will be answered but there is a lot to ponder over.

What does 2015 hold for me?

You can tell when teachers are back working while on holiday as Twitter once again is filled with their blogs. A lot have been reflecting about 2014 and what they want to see in 2015.

A lot happened for me in 2014 and I have tried to get onto the ‘blog train’ and reflect about all the changes that have been taking place. But for me it is all about 2015!

I am moving away from my comfort zone completely. Yes, I am making a change which I am excited about and at the same time terrified. Not only that, but the school is also making a lot of changes which I am super excited to be part of.

So what am I going to be doing?

I am going to be teaching year 3/4 students. The last time I did this was over 12 years ago and in the UK. For me this change is important. I need to be able to confidently say I can teach a range of year groups and have a solid understanding of them as individuals and how they fit into the New Zealand curriculum. I love teaching older children and enjoy the banter and conversations you can have with them. They are also a lot more independent! So I am slightly worried about how I will cope with younger students. Moving from year 5/6 is a big leap but I'm sticking with the idea of ‘what my year 5/6 students could do, so can these 3/4 students’ (It just may take a little more scaffolding and time).

The other change is that we are going to be working in teams rather than having our own individual class that we would teach throughout the day in our single cell rooms. I’ll still have a group of about 25 students that I will over sea for pastoral care but it won’t be like last year where I only taught those children and they were ‘my class’.

Our year 3/4 intake is big (over 100 students) therefore we have four classrooms but 5 home-bases (we have yet to work out a name for this) as two classes are going to be in one room. My concern is the odd number and how this might work. Collaboration between 5 teachers could be interesting as well as movement of over 100 students around the classes and school.

 Part of me wonders if we will break off into two groups and have 2 teachers together and the other 3 as a team.  I also wonder if we should have made a separate year 4 class with two teachers while the other 3 taught year 3. At the moment we are still trying to work this all out.

We have a tentative timetable and what we might see happening each day. Thursday seems to be the day where we will see every single student in our team (that we have called Arohanui) through the rotation of subjects we are doing. I am excited about whom I am working with and having worked this way before, I know that communication is the key. We all have expertise in different subject areas which is great but we also have our own ideas as to how a MLE could be run so we are going to have to tread carefully.

Still I have a few concerns. Maths is one of them. At the moment we are grouping students by ability and each teaching a group of students in a classroom. To me this is still what we have always done. I am not a big fan of ability setting and while in the UK we moved away from this and I enjoyed teaching mixed ability. We are trialling mixed ability lesson on Thursday which is what I will be taking (all classes during our rotation day) so hopefully we can branch out if this is successful. Also how will we work this? I guess this is when I jump onto Twitter and get help from my PLN to come up with ideas.

I like change. I have always taught different topics and chopped and changed the way I teach things every year. I am looking forward to this and I know there will be a lot of hurdles we are going to have to overcome. Questions will be raised and hopefully solutions will be found.

 As we are still set up as single cell classes (some walls will be cut through but not for a while) it will be interesting to see how this work. We are lucky that two of our classrooms are big; hence we can fit up to 50 (maybe) into the one room. So I hope that we utilise this as much as we can.

The biggest thing for me is how will we teach the students so that we are moving away from the traditional way of teaching?

This year, I hope to try and blog about what is happening to me as a teacher as I grapple with year 3 and 4 students and the changes taking place in our school.

Term 3 Reflections.

Last week the class reflected on what Term 3 was like in our classroom.

We used three criteria's:

• What worked in Term ?
• What didn't work?
• What did we want to see in Term 4?

Students opted to work on their own or in groups of their own choice. The conservations I over heard were amazing. My students were really reflecting about the three questions and the language they were using made me feel so proud. Words like, self manager, independent, options, student voice could be heard throughout their conversations.

I wanted to punch the air as it finally seemed to all be working.

One BIG issue I have had with all of this change is how long it 'seems' to take. It wasn't a 'quick' fix and there were times I wondered if it was all going to work. I guess I thought all children by now should be 'self managers' and it has taken me a while to realise that this isn't always going to be the case.  There are still some students in my class who are 'directed' learners. I would say 2 definitely and another 3 now and them. So I guess out of a class of 26 that is pretty good. I think until I did this Term 3 reflection. It wasn't until I heard them discussing and talking about the questions did I realise how far they had come.  Rather than just say 'this didn't work"   they were trying hard to find alternative solutions and working with other groups to gather ideas.

Althletics

With the onset of Athletics day looming, our syndicate goes out together so children get the opportunity to practice the track and field events every day. I like that the children have this opportunity to work on their skills, participate and have some friendly competition. Yet how it used to be taught in the past even bored me. Therefore if I’m bored surely the students are as well? Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti PE and do love being outside, but to me it just wasn’t working. We tended to move around in our classes and spend up to 30 minutes on one chosen item. Trying to engage a whole class, teach them skills and then let them work on this always felt rushed and disorganised. I never felt like I was making most of the opportunity or able to really teach them the proper techniques. I also had students who found certain track and field areas quite tough and a challenge. Each day they dreaded this hour with one actually avoiding school in order not to do it. Notes slowly would come in as well and athletics training felt more like a chore rather than a pleasure.

This year we decided to try and teach it in a way that was more like a MLE style that some of us have been trailing in the classrooms. We gave the students options! The first day we did this we allowed them the opportunity to visit any station they like. They had to spend at least 15 minutes there and had to do at least 3 stations. It worked ok but as teachers we still felt we didn’t really have the opportunity to teach the skills without new students coming over and some were still overcrowded.

Day two we decided to group the children into their age groups and designated two stations that were the MUST activities. Each day, two groups would go to the MUST activities and then carry on with their CAN choices. The rest of the groups had CAN activities but had to complete a certain amount in the allocated time. This worked so much better as groups were smaller and as a teacher, I felt that I had the time to teach new skills and techniques. It also meant that students had ample time to practise and work on their technique.

Feedback from my students showed that they enjoyed being given the opportunities’ to decide themselves what activities they wanted to do. My students who found athletics challenging also enjoyed it as well. Even my usual ‘absent’ one only missed one day out of the two weeks we did this! They also turned up to Athletics Day as they had realised that they had a pretty good throw on them!

 

Visioning for design.

The Graduate Profile is one stage of moving towards our MLE. Most schools in Christchurch who are part of the rebuild have gone through the same process.

Schools Education Vision - Project Brief- Master Planning - Design - Construction

One of these meetings was based on our vision. How do we want learning to look? What do our children need now? ... and in the future?  On our journey to this stage teachers have had the opportunity to visit a number of schools who are considered to be MLE. What strikes me is that some schools have been built  brand new, designed with this idea while others have 'developed' from what they already had- their old buildings.

Unfortunately I didn't get to visit Waimairi School but listening to the teachers who did and their feedback it was probably the one school I felt really portrayed the idea about 21st century learners rather than the idea it was all about the building. I think that is one pitfall we can get into thinking a MLE has to be new with all this 'flash' ICT equipment, amazing furniture, new buildings. But to be honest that is not what it is about. The building does not make it, it is what is happening inside that does. I think this sums up perfectly http://fcl.eun.org/learning-spaces  what 21st learning is all about.


One question we were asked was to do with our practice- how will this look like? What LEARNING ACTIVITES are needed?

Most MLE take on four things;

• Collaboration
• Personalised learning
• Authentic learning activities 
• Learning through presentation

The nest step was to look at our own Graduate Profile and based it around these ideas and questions.

Our first one was EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS
What activities?
How will we make it work?
What do we need to enable this to happen (resources)?
What will staff need to do.

Below are some of the ideas we came up with.

        


What I always enjoy about these activities is what other teachers come up with and how sharing our knowledge and ideas develops our own thinking and may even change some of the ways we work and teach!

I was keen to take one and try it out next term and was lucky enough a few colleague's in the UK wanted to start up a pen pal club. So that is one way we are going to be 'Effective communicators'.

When things don't go to plan.

End of term and I have spent some time reflecting about the classroom.

What I have noticed is that most of the class are very independent in their learning. They know what to do, when they need to do and where they like to learn/work. The only frustration I had were a small group of students that still couldn’t complete all the week’s task in the allocated time span. To be honest it was driving me mad. When I started this ‘independent working hour’ I set the week’s task pretty much the same, so routines were set and then expanded on that. I explained orally and in written form so they heard and could visually see what they needed to do. Each day I reminded them as well, yet I still have this issue.

I felt like I was hitting a brick wall and began to question what I was doing wrong. Why couldn’t this small group of students complete their set tasks? The tasks themselves were not difficult and were set for them as individuals. They had over 5 hours in the week to complete them therefore time allocation and the amount of tasks were not an issue. So where was I going wrong?

It was in a staff meeting where we were learning about another school and how they approached this that it finally hit me. I naturally assumed by the end of term 3 everyone would be independent learners. Not once had I thought that I should still be directing some of them still.

The next day I decided to experiment with this idea. I had started to think about next term and how I was going to approach the idea of allowing individual students the freedom to work inside or outside. This was a great opportunity to introduce this and discuss again what an independent learner was. We talked about what the word independent meant and how this related to the classroom and their learning. We discussed how we could’ see’ and ‘hear’ an independent worker and what ‘self-managing’ their own time was about. I then asked them to reflect and decide if they felt they were independent learners. As I expected most agreed that they were and a few felt they were not yet there.

Looking back now, I should have spent more time teaching this phase at the beginning of term 3 but as I was taking time off work I rushed through this part and assumed those in question would soon ‘get it’. Although I knew everyone was going to become ‘independent learners’ in their own time, I guess I never assumed that it might take a few students a lot longer than the rest. This small group have now become my ‘directed’ learners where I tell them what they have to do in the allocated time slot. They understand that until they can self-manage their own time they will stay on this level. And it is working!

My ‘independent learners’ are now working on their next level of being given the opportunity to prove they can self-manage their time in a responsible manner to be allowed the choice where they can work which will included outside the classroom. I have decided to create lanyards for them so they are easily identifiable to other members of stuff. I am thinking that on the back of them it will outline what they should be doing therefore teachers can see this straight away.

So what have I learnt about myself?  I need to remember to give my students time and to realise that they all won’t get there together.

Letting Go

This week I came back to work after being off for 3 weeks. Having a little ‘mini’ break made me realise how far my class has come this year.  Also suddenly having a migraine appear while teaching showed me once again how independent my class were. While I desperately tried to appear cool and calm as my eyes began to ‘fuzz’ over, my class just got on with what they needed to do. Everyone was doing their work and knew exactly what they had to complete. And although I was suffering, I couldn’t help but smile as it highlighted so many positives in our journey to a MLE.

Although we have experimented with our room layouts, sitting arrangements, designated areas, for me it has been more about the learning process.  This whole year one key statement has rung true with me; it is not about the building. Modern Learning Environments (MLEs) are designed to support ‘multimodal’ learning styles, as well as collaborative communication styles something you can still do in a single cell classroom.

I started off by trying to get the class to become more independent and learn at their own pace and style. To be honest, I found my students weren’t very independent and relied on me too much to tell them what to do.  I will be honest, it hasn’t been easy. There are times when I feel some students are not being productive and my main concern is will the work get completed? I know I am still driven by the ‘finished’ work philosophy and that can be quite a hard label to get rid of. Sometimes though, it is about the journey they are making to that final destination that can tell me more about their learning than the actual finished product.

I started off simple and blocked an hour per day to start off with. During that time, I took a mixture of reading and writing  groups. The rest of the class had the opportunity to do their set tasks for as long as they liked. The only criterion was that they had to have a certain number completed by the end of the week. Therefore they choose when they completed the activities not me. If there was any teaching aspect to any of the activities, I put a tutorial up on our class page where they could view it. That meant they could take their time to learn it, rewind, pause as much as they liked until they got it! Other activities were read to self or others, free writing (they wrote anything they liked), word study, touch typing, handwriting, blogging, spelling etc.

It was simple and starting off with an hour was manageable for me. It also meant the class learnt to self-manage themselves and make vital decision about how to make the most of their time. I would be lying if I said the whole class was perfect! Yes, I still had to direct some and set criteria’s for them but that is part of the journey. On the whole, most of my students were able to get on with their work without the presents of the teacher.

To an outsider it may have looked chaotic.  But the class was actually learning! It is one of those times where I had wished I had used a camera to record the beginning of the year to illustrate the progress they have made. What I see are children learning to manage their time, understand the way they learn and how to be successful – a lot of what we try to teach them as part of our school values.

Next term, I would like to try and visit a few other schools to see how they do this. I know mine is quite basic and I would like to expand so I have at least half the day set up like this.   

How do I want to teach?

How do I want to teach?

When I heard this I thought straight away of all the wonderful ideas and in my mind it seemed like a simple answer. Now I am not so sure. How do I articulate my ideas well enough so a complete stranger will feel my passion?

The next step as part of our MLE is to work out how we teach and what we want for our students. This has nothing to do with us designing a building but it helps them design it for us. So if I wanted an outside area where students could collaborate and work without the glare of the sun, they would design something to cater for that.

So many ideas and thoughts!

To me some characteristics of 21st century learning:

It is collaboration.

It is creativity.
It is critical thinking, risk taking and problem-solving.
It is research and information literacy.
It is digital citizenship.
It is responsible use.





So how would you articulate your ideas and thoughts to show what you wanted in a classroom?

Where are we sitting?

Reflections about the changes that have been taking place in the classroom. This will be a few posts as lots has happened!

Term three as been all about continuity for the class room. In term 2 (mostly) we changed the room physical and also changed our learning styles. New ideas were developed, new ways of thinking and learning posed. Therefore term 3 meant continuing with this and not making any more radical changes.

Also I have been off work so have been unable to implement anything else.

So how has it been going?

FEEDBACK: Where are we sitting?
One part of changing my room to a more MLE has always been about the children’s involvement and feedback. The last thing I wanted to do was implement something that they didn’t like. So a lot of the time I would propose the idea to them, get feedback and then run with whatever the outcome was. The only rule I had for them was they had to give it at least 2 weeks before they gave me their feedback.

Feedback has been great. The children have been very honest! Personally it can be very hard hearing negative feedback on ideas that I thought were amazing! But it did give me insight into how they thought and saw things. Which to be honest is what this journey is all about.

What really surprised me with this class was how many of them didn’t like sitting low to the ground. This surprised me as I had read and seen so many MLE with cushions and beanbags. There is this encouragement of moving away from children having their ‘own’ desk and research showed children enjoyed working down low or up high. In particular the girls (mainly my yr 6’s)  didn’t enjoy it at all.

They preferred instead to bring chairs over. So my next step is to find maybe stools to cater for this as although I appreciated their feedback, the chairs are annoying!  One thing we did do as a class is use the area around the IWB as our ‘collaboration’ area. We created two sections using the tables in the room and put more chairs then were needed. That way when we needed to all come together I didn’t have students grabbing all the chairs around the room.



Tables at the front where we collaborate.

This has worked quite well. Students have the opportunity to either sit on the chairs, or the floor with cushions. This is definitely one thing I would like in the new school. But instead of one main area, I would like two. This is because there are times when I want to collaborate with the class but don’t like the constraints my IWB area has. I have a tendency to move to the back of the class where I feel I have more space and movement. Maybe that is something I need to think about?

Is it because when I am at the front I feel like I am doing the ‘teacher talk’ type of teaching rather than having a more student centred feeling?

I am not a ‘front of the classroom’ teacher. You will find me on the floor, at the back or sitting beside a child at the tables. So for me that freedom to move around the room is important. Therefore it is important that my students have the opportunity to do this as well. They have enjoyed not having 'assigned' seat and the fact they can move around the room freely.

Freedom to work where ever they like

Some haven’t enjoyed the change. I have had a few students who found it hard to move away from having their own desk and tote tray. These students, I have noticed are the ones who find it hard to develop friendships. It has taken them a while to adapt to the changes but I do think it has been a positive move for them. I am seeing more independence in them and they have slowly seen the benefits in their own learning. I also found that some students don’t understand what type of learner they are and through a lot of discussion and modelling, they have developed a better understanding of this.

 We had talked as a class about bringing in a low table in but once again they were not keen for that. My girls wanted to cluster together. They have decided to incorporate 3 tables and tend to sit around this. To outsiders this may sound awful and the image of girls all talking and chatting rather than doing work. But it is the complete opposite. They actually encourage each other and work extremely hard. They are also very independent in the fact that they know what place in the room is the best place for them to work in. So they will move away straight away into smaller group areas or to the quiet areas depending on the lesson.

We don’t line up anymore! I worked out by the time I left the staffroom after every break ( we have 3 as we have two 30min lunch breaks) waited for them to be in line etc. I had wasted nearly 5mins. Imagine that in a week- 25 minutes of learning. So instead they just go back into class and carry on with what they need to be doing. It is great! Children actually make it into class faster than they used to lining up. I think it gives them a sense of responsibility and the knowledge I trust them enough. To be honest in the real world how often are they going to line up? They need to learn to be self-directed learners and understand how to get on with a task with having to be always told.

My kitchen is like my teaching- it is forever changing.

 

 

I have made a radical change and turned my utensil so the handles now face to the back. Yes, I know I may have joined this club late and it was so last year. But for the life of me I can’t understand why I have been putting my utensils the other way round for all these years!

Dare I say it; teaching can be a little like this as well. We get comfortable with what we are used to. We are all a little bit weary of ‘new fads’. It’s the ‘been there, done that’ mentality that we are all saying in the back of our heads. To be honest, fashion is a great example. It comes and goes and then somehow re invents its self again.  Look at how popular vintage and retro is now? Who would have thought the formica table would be back! Therefore we sometimes question the new and scoff that in a year or two it will disappear.


'A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but noting ever grows there'. - Unknown

Some of us stick to what we have always known even though it may not be the most practical solution. My utensil draw is fine both ways but a very simple change and now I can see what each one is rather than playing the ‘guess who that handle belongs to’ and it is a lot faster. No wasted time hunting for something that usually ends up being right in front of me.

Things are changing. When I was at school, it was normal for a teacher to get out the OHP (yes, showing my age) and all we did was copied out copious amounts of work. I am sure if there had been a drama element to history I would have learnt more!  

Worksheet were in, textbooks were trendy and the more maths books you used up was a sure sign you were learning.

But… that is not how it is these days. Sometimes we have to break with what we are used to and branch out. Learn new things and give it a go. I have no idea about QR codes, I’m not a wizz with technology, and I am trying to understand SOLO and many more new ideas that flood my Twitter account. One of the best things a teacher can do is continue their professional development. Learn new things, challenge the norm, and take a risk. We ask it all the time from our students but are we willing to do it ourselves?

I always question myself and my teaching. If it has been a success, fine don’t change it. But if you are not seeing any progress or year by year the same issues are arising maybe turning something around could work.

Changes need to take place even the small ones can make a difference.

Move out of your comfort zone.

'You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something NEW'.  - Brian Tracey

Spinning less plates.

Time is an issue with me and probably most teachers as we never have enough of it!
Having spent the weekend on Twitter following edcahtnz it opened my eyes up to a lot of things. More positive's than negatives and even some 'pat on the backs' when I realised I was already doing some of this stuff already.
Oddly enough the negatives had nothing to do with words like 'I can't so that' or ' my school won't allow/go for that' ' we have always done it this way!' but more 'where am I going to find the time?'.


I work full time (which I love!) and have two small children but sometimes juggling both can be extremely hard. One of the reasons I made the decision to drag my husband (who is from South Africa) away from the UK to NZ was because we (more him) had no work/life balance. We were out the door by 7am (navigating the M25!) everyday and not home until 6pm ( or even later) most nights. Not great when you also had two children under the age of 4 and no family support network! Although the move here ended with us moving to Christchurch and my family lives in the North Island!


Now this is not a cop out for me but a reality. I am not limiting myself but instead taking smaller steps rather than huge ones! Something that we need to also teach children to do. You are the only one who limits yourself. So rather than just make the excuse 'I have no time' I have readjusted. I know time is my Achilles heel but I have found a way around it - less is more. Spin less plates rather than a lot!


At the moment where I work, we are going through the process of moving into a MLE so we have already done a lot of work with Core Education. We are also going through a whole different mind set in the way we see teaching and learning. I already do a lot in my classroom and tend to 'jump' on new concepts/ideas all the time. Therefore, that is covered - a compulsory PD requirement from work. So what could I do myself beside just follow people on Twitter without feeling like I was spinning to many plates and unbalancing my 'work/life balance?


One thing that stood out for me this weekend was all the things I was already doing. I realised from a few tweets that 'talking tins, kung fu punctuation, post its, questioning, peer evaluation are being used a lot by others but there are those who had no idea about them. Most of those mentioned have been part of my everyday teaching for the last 10+ years.
So, I decided to try blog a few of these things and how they have worked for me and in the past. I am no expert but one concept that came from the edchat tweets was about sharing and letting others know what you are doing. This is a BIG step for me as I always think others do it better and it also means letting my guard down and accepting that not everyone will like my ideas and thoughts.


Heck, it will take me at least a week to plan out one blog! I am very envious of those who seem to do it with such flair!


Other things I want to try and do:
Connect with other Chirstchurch teachers via this
I think by doing this, I will probably end up spinning a few smaller plates as well.
Learn more about Google Doc thanks to @chasingalyz blog
So thank you EdcahtNZ and everyone who was there tweeting. You have given me a lot to think about.

What's been going on?

Here are a few things we have been doing in the room since we took on the whole MLE/ #hackyrclass


I am lucky that I have quite a large room to start off with. Downside is it is dark and you sometimes feel like you are in one of those buildings where you are never to sure of what the weather is like outside. Reason being, one side there are trees and bushes and the others is all boarded up so we can actually see the IWB.


My class have played a lot in the decisions that have been made. It is their classroom as well and it shouldn't always be me making all the decisions. We have talked a lot about MLE! I have shown them schools, photos, blogs and even website that sell the furniture!
Part of their home work task was to think about how they could create a MLE with the room we already have.
There ideas can been seen here.


The next part of the process was to #hack the room.
We talked a lot about what we liked/ didn't like about the room. As a teacher, it is always interesting to hear what children think. Most were very insightful and showed me that the class have really taken on board the MLE concept.


Our room before we started can be seen here and here as you can tell it was the standard tables in groups, children had their seat and tray.
After some chatter amongst the class we decided to have about 4 tables up the front for our 'collaborative area' when I need to talk to them as a whole class or group and needed the IWB


As you can see trays were taken away and chairs are placed around the tables. Children also use big cushions to sit on the floor. Behind you can see pink boxes that stored all their books. The red 'bubble' table became a place for them to sit when collaborating in groups and for me to do guided reading as well- although I do still enjoy taking this on the carpet now and then.


As you can see the children then decided to go from groups of 6 to groups of 4. They choose where they placed the tables. I have some to the side by the window as well. We have a red table right at the back beside our quiet area. Although they have already decided they don't like the board there and want to change it for a long hanging piece of material.
I also have two old wooden desks that the children love and use as the 'duo' area.

Small Steps

Our school is making the transition towards a MLE and therefore we have been allowed to make changes. Changes that have allowed me to go back to the way I enjoy teaching. For a while I have been playing it 'safe'. Mainly because I am still needing to tick a lot of boxes to become a fully registered teacher again. To be honest I hated it. I have been battling with myself, a curriculum I am still trying to learn and system I don't know. Sometimes I want to scream and shout at the way things are done as it not what I am used to.


I guess my class feels the same sometimes having me as a teacher as I don't quite do what they have been used to with past teachers.


This week it was all about 'knowing your learner'
I am going to put it our there - I think I do know them quite well. Yes, I know their levels , targets, ethnicity, culture etc but to me that is not important. To me it is knowing who they are. How can a children learn if we as teachers do not know their background? Some of my children have 'colourful' backgrounds and it does affect the way they learn.


So for me it has been about small steps. I already had the class putting their main books into certain boxes rather than their desks. Mainly because that is what I was used to and found it so much easier when it came to marking. The next step was to get rid of their draws altogether. Now for most that was fine. For others it was hard! It has taken me two weeks to finally get 2 boys to part with their draw because of their background.


Small steps but we are getting there.