The Power of Student Voice

One of our students presented a slideshow at the final session of Auskick last night at the local football club. The student asked if she could prepare the slideshow and she did a fabulous job. Many adults in the audience were astonished and truly impressed by the presentation and the work she had put in.


This student learned how to create presentations at our school. It put me in mind of the power of student involvement in learning and in community events. I wondered to myself if the adults had any idea of what happens in the modern 21st Century classroom. For me it is a great example of how student voice and involvement can promote the teaching and learning that is occurring in all of our schools right here, right now.


I wonder also, how do other schools harness the power of student voice?

Why do Educators take up Professional Learning?

 

Professional learning (PL) can take many forms and occur in many different situations. For me the saying "the teacher appears when the pupil is ready" is quite fitting for me at this time. Good PL for educators has to be good...even outstanding, because we are dedicated to making our own lessons the same. I have been extremely motivated this year and fortunate in gaining a number of opportunities. I would like to explore the reasons why teachers take on PL and the different forms I have accessed this year.

 

Why do teachers take up PL?

1. To learn.
2. To satisfy their moral purpose for being an educator.
3. To maintain engagement with their work
4. To improve practice.
5. Improved practice improves student learning outcomes.
6. To make connections with other educators
7. To collaborate

In no particular order, I want to improve student learning outcomes because:

1. I believe it is VITAL for today's children to be prepared for their lives in the future - I approach my work from a social justice perspective but also....
2. It is my job.
3. I get paid and my salary allows me to live the life that I choose.
4. I gain a sense of personal and professional fulfilment from leading the learning of young people.
5. I gain a sense of personal and professional satisfaction from knowing that I am doing the best job I can.
6. Students and parents give instant feedback about how effective I am as an educator.

Teaching is full of people who are altruistic and say they are doing it "for the kids". I think this is curious, and that they leave out a key piece of information. Most people in teaching are in it because they gain satisfaction and fulfilment from learning and facilitating learning. The kids get something out of it because the teacher has this intrinsic motivation to build learners, not just happy kids.

My questions for you are: Why do you take up professional learning?

What motivates you to improve your practice?

 

 

The first day of the rest of our lives...after LSDA and LIP

So I've completed Leading Instructional Practice through Bastow and Chris and I have  completed Leading Schools in the Digital Age...a great launching pad for our next move. My thoughts now turn to how I will share the professional learning with my colleagues and link it to the learning of our students at our school.


Why did we do LSDA?
To improve our skills as educators to teach in the 21st century.
To develop the skills and understandings needed to provide our students with better teaching and learning.


Where is the evidence that this was necessary?

1. Despite having experienced teachers, quality programs and targeted interventions, our literacy and numeracy results in NAPLAN and from teacher judgements do not show that all students have reached benchmark in all areas.
2. The nature of learning and learners is changing, and teachers must change with it. This does not mean discarding effective teaching and learning approaches, but it does mean we need to do something different to ensure all students achieve.
3. Current prep students will graduate from secondary school in 2028 - technological change in all areas of life has had a massive impact in the last 5 years ...we can only guess at what their working lives will entail. We will be doing our students a disservice if we do not embrace change in our schools.

Where is the evidence that LSDA has helped us to deliver improved student achievement?


Example 1: www.learn2earn.org was discovered via my PLN on Twitter. Since signing up all students in the school have recorded the time they read for and provided responses to texts. For some students this is the first time I have seen them reflect on their reading.


Example 2: From the research project I completed about explicit teaching of effort and Growth Mindset and Reading, where I gathered data about growth mindset, we noted an improvement in students' understanding of growth mindset, and how that could help them with reading. This research will be revisited again later in the year to determine if any further understandings have been gained.


Example 3: The PL we have completed so far (4 sessions) about Growth Mindset has given all teachers another tool to use when working with those students who appear to have potential, but lack the confidence, motivation or drive to apply themselves.

Ch ch ch changes

Don't you wonder about yourself when you get to 3 days out from a presentation and you think to yourself: I reckon Goal 1 needs to be different?
Our goal is currently about developing teacher understanding and knowledge of the new pedagogies of collaboration, connection, curiosity and communication.
Given the nature of our community, we may be better served focusing on creating the foundation for change.....educating about growth mindset and opening teacher minds to possibilities before we even start to talk about pedagogy or innovative use of technology in our classrooms. This stuff is currently embedded in our first goal, but it could be separated out into a goal of its own.
Until we create a safe environment for our teachers to innovate and take risks, where they can manage the perceived assaults to their self esteem and professional identity, we may not generate the momentum we seek.

In the Pink

For our ICT Change Plan to be a living firebreathing success, we will need to consider closely the motivations of our colleagues. We'll probably show this RSA animate to them during our PL sessions. The PL sessions are interesting so far because we run them on a Tuesday morning before school and the focus is purely on teacher learning.


Yong Zhao referred to Reiss' 16 Basic Desires Theory last week, which links well with Daniel Pink's commentary. To make our ICT Change Plan (which by the way, we are considering referring to as our Learning Growth Plan :-) ) effective, we will need to be aware of and acknowledge the different motivators held by our colleagues.


Understanding the key motivators of our colleagues will help us to speed up or slow down our responses and be flexible (but still high) in our expectations. One key message Chris and I have taken on board has been to take small bites of the elephant...small steps, and testing, evaluating and reviewing along the way. High expectations, YES, but penalties for missing the mark NO!


We will need to make sure that our purpose is clear, our expectations are clear and consistent and that colleagues have support, within the ICT Change Plan.

Parallel Lines, not blurred lines

Once you get out of your own sphere of influence (be it large or small) sometimes you discover that the same things are happening in different forums.  Everywhere I look I see the power of collaboration.

Last month I attended a seminar for business and professional women in the Goulburn Valley, where Janine Garner's collaboration message is encapsulated in the title of her book From Me to We.

I watch Hawthorn FC with interest as the coaching panel is dominated by professional coaches who are also school teachers....powerful collaborators who are committed to a shared vision and purpose. I observe the lack of this in the Carlton FC executive, which is why the most experienced AFL coach is now at liberty to be a full time grandad. I support Melbourne - I am nothing if not loyal and steadfast. :-)

I watched SBS Insight on Tuesday evening because it was about Shepparton, and how the community is facing challenges going forward. The most wealthy people in the town claim to be unaware of the rates of teen pregnancy, drug use and poverty. SERIOUSLY! COLLABORATION is desperately needed in this major regional centre where I live and work.

Yesterday at the CEP Conference I listened to Maggie Farrar share with us the power of schools collaborating in clusters in the UK.  I also sat next to her to hear about the brilliant work being done at Bright P-12 and Apollo Bay P-12 colleges in collaborating with the Wadeye community. The day before Yong Zhao spoke about the role collaboration plays in developing entrepreneurial skills in our students. The key takeaways from the conference for me were how relationship building plus passion for change and progress in education plays an essential role in improving opportunities and outcomes for students in rural communities.

If I haven't said already, the CEP is the Country Education Partnership and they ran a Twitter feed live for the 2 days of the conference. The Twitter conversation brief included the following questions:
Q1. Rural learning: How can we seize the potential to focus on education on what really matters?
Q2. How can we create powerful, relevant learning opportunities that inspire young people within and beyond the "school gate"?
Q3 How can we inspire our communities to seize and embrace opportunities to cultivate holistic education approaches?
Q4 How can we generate and grow collaborative approaches so we can be at the forefront of connecting and boosting learning, outcomes and pathways?

As you can imagine I answered Q2 and Q4 numerous times - check out #RLSeize, but a crystal clear answer for me is for teachers to do PL in courses like LSDA (assuming there is one that can match it). For me all of these questions can be answered by employing innovative teaching and learning via new pedagogies and digital technologies. 

So I put this idea forward to you, my patient blog readers. Schools in rural areas recognise the need to provide powerful learning opportunities that inspire young people. Young people, like the Rural Youth Ambassadors present at the CEP conference told us that is what they and their peers want and need. Not once in the last 2 days did someone stand up and say the data tells us we need to change. The most important evidence of need for change is in the uncertainty of life/work/society/community as we move further into the 21st century.

Maggie Farrar shared a line from David Whyte -  "start with the first thing close in, the step you don't want to take.

School leaders and teacher leaders are morally bound to do this.

Connected Collaboration and Country Education Project Conference

Today has been inspiring. We heard from eight ( I think) Rural Youth Ambassadors at the CEP Conference in Melbourne today. Follow @countryedproj There are teachers here from across the state, from rural and regional centres.


Did you know that 38% of CEOs in top Australian companies were raised in the country? That means that a rural education prepares almost half of our business leaders.


We have had a MASSIVE reminder of the power student voice has in the achievement and engagement of students in rural and regional areas.


For me new pedagogies coupled with current and future technologies are a MAJOR part of ongoing achievement for students in rural and regional areas. Also, because they are unique communities shaped by their environments, rurality, remoteness and history, they have the capacity to produce unique individuals who will light the way through the fog with their red noses. (Thank you to Yong Zhao for the existential explanation as to why my nose is always red)


Great day - dinner to come with Harold Mitchell speaking - and another day tomorrow.


I hear the day with Eric Sheninger was equally AWESOME. More power to the LSDA futureniks.


:-)