Reflection on "Is it Better the Second Time Around?"

Thursday, June 27, 2013 3:00am - Originally posted on MOC website

For those of you old enough to remember "Better the Second Time Around"  is paraphrased from the title of a famous Frank Sinatra song "Love is lovelier the second time around"  (Van Heusen and Cahn- 1965) . So was High Tech High (HTH) going to be better for me on the second visit?

That was my musing before I arrived to spend four days at HTH being part of the Summer Institute.

Since our initial visit in January 2012  MOC  then became part of the HTH Leading Schools Certificate program with six teachers involved. This has been a blend of on-line conferencing, coursework and then face-to- face workshops. The Summer Institutute was for them and all their fellow participants the culmination and graduation. 

For me it was the opportunity to reflect on both the distance they individually had travelled and our distance travelled as a school community. Combining all this information should then enable us to have a clearer direction for the way forward for MOC.

Emily G, Katrina A, Ashlee B, Tom G, Emil Z with their certificates after graduation at Point Loma. Not present was our other graduate Candice H  who remained in Adelaide - the tired but very happy mother of Lincoln, who decided he needed to be here very early!

Since my initial visit MOC has implemented many significant structral changes based on our learnings. These include

• longer block sessions of time- only three periods a day, and sometimes whole day programmes.
• teachers working in teams including interdisciplinary in the Senior Years
• developing a more product/outcome focus
• exhibitions and presentations of learning to enable students and teachers to describe to the audience (parents, guests) the processes of learning that occurred.

I have previously written blogs about these developments - Reflection on “Audiences, Encouragement, Critique and Conversation” and Reflection on "Same and Different"- see Principal's Blog

This visit reinforced for me we are getting these elements in place for MOC. Students and staff have embraced the structural changes and parent feedback on the exhibitions/processes of learning have been that these are a great positive addition to our repetoire.

So what are the new learnings- well not surprisingly, they reinforced my original thinking that we are on the right track. As well they confirmed the continual need to grow teacher and student capactity such that our students achieve and succeed.

These are skills/capablities that in general we would want all our children and young people to have, what is different is that at HTH they explicitly teach or include them in their programmes through a series of protocols.

Examples are

• pursuit of excellence, need to draft and redraft to get better product
• critique - student led analysis of their work, and staff critiquing each others work
• project development and tuning by and with groups of teachers.
• student led conferences with adults- parents and teachers
• real world learning through community projects (Wallz Rullz is an example) and a different spin on "work experience".

I never want MOC to be another HTH just as never want to become another Heppell designed school - however we do want to learn from the best,

I believe we want to continually ADAPT to continually get BETTER to continually CREATE the best learning environment and outcomes possible for our children and young people. Thus over the next twelve months we will work at how we develop the "MOCster" versions of those other key elements of HTH. I wouldn't say it was better the second time around - just affiriming!

Next week , internet and weather permitting (114degrees here yesterday) I will post on my visit to the DelMar Education district.

Reflection on "When a Blog is a Travelogue"

 Saturday, June 22, 2013 6:40pm -Originally posted on MOC web site

A blog by definition is “a personal website or web page on which an individual records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular basis.” Oxford Dictionary.

Sometimes I think I do write an opinion piece however most times it is just an electronic newsletter article. My piece tonight is unashamedly a short travelogue, written in a fair bit of haste as I have still not packed (ugh) and we are leaving first thing tomorrow. 

However the delay was worth it as I spent the day cheering on my beloved football team to victory!

The trip is funded through the $20,000 grant prize I won last year. The prize must be used for professional development. I have already used about a third to fund the attendance of four staff at EduTech in  Queensland earlier this month and a membership for the school of TED. I have blogged a number of times about talks I have heard through TED - Ideas Worth Spreading

The first stop is San Diego, California, USA where I will engage once again with High Tech High (HTH).  This trip is very special. Since our initial visit in January 2012, six teachers from MOC have engaged in the HTH Leading Schools Certificate program.  I am going to see their presentations, watch them graduate and also discuss with HTH leadership what more might we be able to do together?

Whilst in San Diego I am also going to talk to officers of the Del Mar County District Education office on their use of Chrome Books.  Del Mar County have deployed significant numbers of Google ChromeBooks.

Whilst we are proud of being an Apple Distinguished school, the world of technology in education is moving at a phenomenal pace and the new very cheap “browser movement” cannot be ignored. As a school that needs to purchase over 100 laptops a year ($120,000) and where parents are not asked for any contributions- any  option that may enable significant savings must be explored.

From there the next stop is Bayfield, Canada – the home of Virtual High School (VHS).  Virtual High School (VHS) began in 1996 and has grown enormously offering extremely high quality accredited online courses. In 2012, it served about 4600 students and they opened their elementary school.

I am delighted that I will be able to meet with Principal Stephen Baker to hear about how VHS is adapting to provide an innovative educational experience to students around the world. Please click here for Stephen Baker's TEDx Talk

Whilst in Bayfield it appears I will Skype in to a meeting of the Group of Eight (Go8) to talk about the Children’s University and why I am so keen to have it develop at MOC. The Go8 is a coalition of leading Australian universities.

Then on to Boston, Mass., USA to attend the 2013  Building Learning Communities (BLC) conference. BLC is an annual conference bringing together a diverse ensemble of keynote speakers and attendees to forge new relationships and strengthen existing ties for more meaningful teaching and learning enhanced by technology. BLC is a showcase for leading edge  innovative and practical learning resources.

After that I go back to school! I am attending a course at Harvard University. The course is the Future of Learning offered through the Graduate School of Education. The course will look at how societal changes and technological advancements in the early 21st century affect educational practice and the way students learn. Globalization, the digital revolution and advancements in our understanding of human biology all present new opportunities and challenges. How can schools prepare students for increasingly diverse and global futures? What is worth teaching, with unprecedented amounts of online information? How can educators best integrate emerging research on learning and biology?

I have already had to do home work!

Anyway I will blog, tweet (@SymoLyn) about the trip until I return in August!

Permaculture Design Course

I have just completed a Permaculture Design Course at the Food Forest in Gawler with Graham and Annemarie Brookman and guest lecturer – world renowned Permaculture Specialist David Holmgrem (pictured) .  The course was 10 days of intensive face to face sessions combined with 4 weeks of additional personal study days.

It was such a wonderful experience (exhausting but wonderful), we were immersed in the philosophies of Permaculture Design and given the opportunity to visit a number of sites around Adelaide and Stirling who are practising these philosophies on a daily basis in a range of ways.  Being surrounded by like minded people during the course was truly inspirational.

I presented a successful project presentation during the course and was lucky enough to have 4 other students choose to join my team and develop a Permaculture Design for my school.  My team was wonderfully diverse with members bringing a range of skills to the team such as plant knowledge, energy efficiency expertise and IT skills. 

My team presenting our project and with our model and site map.

We developed a plan consisting of 5 stages that our school can implement over time as funds and hands on assistance become available.  We felt it was vital to include the students at the school in the design process.  I worked with them to measure the spaces and to do the ph testing of the soil on the site.  Students were also involved in gathering items for the model made for the project and subsequently made a range of models of the site themselves.

I look forward to implementing the design into the school with the support of my team and students and thank my team for their time and expertise with this project.

 Graham and Annemarie Brookman and I after receiving my certificate and the 2013 Permaculture Design Certificate group.

Dyslexia Aware Schools

Wow I cant beleive how quickly this year is traveling, I am a little behind with my blogging as I have been so busy with my studying but will do my best to rectify that now...

With the Kitchen Garden program now up and running at our school I have changed my focus to implementing a ‘Dyslexia Aware School’ accreditation process throughout the Barossa and Gawler Regions with the hope that once the process is in place those of us involved will be able to support schools Australia wide to become accredited and make the changes needed both at a classroom level and leadership level to improve the learning outcomes of the thousands of students in Australia who have been diagnosed with Dyslexia or who have Dyslexic type learning needs. 

I was thrilled to spend time with world renowned Dyslexia specialist Neil Mackay (pictured below)during his recent visit and am truly excited to have been invited to work with him on writing and implementing the accreditation process for schools in Australia.  Staff at my school are committed to having this process completed by the end of the year and are looking forward to having Neil spend time at our school when he returns to Australia later this year to work through the audit and accreditation process with us.  We will be working in partnership with the Dyslexia Action Group of Barossa and Gawler Surrounds (DAGBAGS) to ensure the accreditation process is successfully implemented in as many schools as possible.  The group is also looking into creating and supplying a range of resources that can be used by schools as they adopt some of the methods/processes proven to improve the learning outcomes of these students.

June already!!

Well it is June already and as I write this I am finding myself wondering where the first half of the year has gone!! I am also very excited that June has arrived as later this month I will be taking three of my colleagues from Naracoorte South Primary School to the 'Happiness and its Causes' conference in Melbourne where we will hear 'His Holiness the Dalai Lama' himself speak.

I am also looking forward to hearing many of the other great speakers who I'm sure will enlighten us with many words of wisdom to help us get the most from our lives.  At this time of year when reports are looming, the sky is dreary and the wind is freezing, I am definitely in need of some positive energy!  If you would also like some daily inspiration you can like 'happiness and its causes' on Facebook for links to many inspiring blogs and quotes to lift your mood.

Last month I was able to use the first of my award money to take my whole current school staff (of four teachers) from Frances Primary School to the Hawker Brownlow 10th Thinking and Learning conference in Melbourne.

This was an amazing opportunity where we could all learn together and return back to school all with the same understandings, ready to put our learning into action in the classroom.  

We attended Jay McTighe's 'Understanding by Design' sessions for two of the three days and on the third day attended Phil Warrick's 'The Highly Engaged Classroom' and William Ferriter's session on 'Writing Student Centred Learning Targets.'  I would highly recommend you to seek out works by these professionals.  They provided us with many practical ideas but also challenged our thinking on our classroom practice and our understanding of the Australian Curriculum.  

Here is a photo of us with Jay McTighe. (I'm the one on Jay's right.)  His books on Understanding by Design are well worth exploring further and he also has a great website- www.jaymctighe.com where you can find lots of useful links to more information.

It was an amazing learning experience for me just to be in a big city! I managed (with assistance from friends) to work out the train system, the shuttle bus and even braved it on a small plane to get to Melbourne.  All very big steps for this country bumpkin!  

This was the view from our motel room. A lot different from the view from my window at home- The lights I see in the sky at night are stars!

I will write again after my next adventure to Melbourne.  Until then. 

Keep Smiling

Natalie Gherardin

a quest to being 'the best teacher I can be'

Well this year has gone by in a whirlwind; it feels as though we only just started the year, but here we are nearly half way through! So far this journey has led me to some interesting places, with much more to come. I am going to be honest and say that deciding on how to spend the grant money was difficult for me; being new to the teaching profession, and with limited contacts and a lesser sense of where teaching can lead me compared to my experienced counterparts. My principal helped me to think about my goals at this stage in my career and as an early career educator, my main priority is to improve what I have just finished studying; the teaching practice. I want to be the best teacher I can be, so it seemed fitting to put some of the money into assisting me with this professional goal. So far this year I have been able to fund my Masters degree in Gifted Education which has equipped me with knowledge to bring back to the classroom on how to extend my students. My school has also sent me to training for literacy coaching, which couples well with some of the content from my degree. I aim to implement the coaching and my Masters degree to extend those students who are boarderline 'A' students into achieving their best. The grant has also allowed me to travel to Melbourne just recently to attend the Hawker Brownlow conference with three other colleagues. Here we were schooled in important classroom strategies from how to construct effective student friendly learning plans, how to use Understanding by Design, and the implementation of classroom differentiation, to the effective use of music in the classroom. To say the least, I returned to school my head buzzing with fresh ideas; now just to find the time to put these into place! I also attended a workshop on using ICT, which blew me away when the presenter discussed the future of ICT for our students. It seems hard to fathom such exponential advancements in technology when we are such lateral thinkers, but the reality is our students need to be ready for an information communication savvy world, and what better place than to learn how to use this wisely than in the classroom. This sparked my interest in ICT, and I have promised myself that this is something I will follow up in my own classroom. Later this year I am to complete a workshop that teaches educators how to use Ipads, which will be useful for me to learn how to manipulate my new Ipad to its capacity.  I have also ordered some visualisers and an interactive classroom voting system for use in the Science laboratories. I am hoping this will digitalise my students learning and provide them with innovative ways to engage with Science. So, as you can see, this by no means is the end of my professional development journey, but merely the tip of the iceberg, and I hope to remain communicative as I continue my quest to being ‘the best teacher I can be’.

My Kitchen Garden Professional Development 2012

Winning the 2012 SA Public Teaching Award for Excellent School Support Staff was quite overwhelming.  I love my job and love being able to provide additional learning activities for the students at my school, it has been a truly humbling experience to have so many people acknowledge and congratulate me for the work that I do and for winning this wonderful award.  As I am only able to do the work that I do because of the supportive staff at my school, I decided quite early on that there was no better way to spend my scholarship than by involving them in this wonderful opportunity to extend not only my Professional Development but theirs as well.

Our school was in the process of setting up a Kitchen Garden program when I won this award so I spent the last term of last year doing a range of T&D around this.  I was able to take my Principal on a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Tour which resulted in our school applying to become a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden School ourselves.  We were extremely pleased to have had this application successfully processed early this year and we are looking forward to the training days scheduled for later this year for both the Kitchen and Garden lessons. 

I was also able to attend a number of training days at the Food Forest which helped me further my knowledge of vegetable growing and fruit tree care.  This new understanding was incredibly useful as I began my knew role as Garden Specialist at our school. I worked with staff and students to design, build and plant out our garden beds and orchard.  We used National Tree Day to plant our orchard and this enabled us to include our parents, local member of Parliament Tony Piccolo and local Greening Group in this fabulous activity making it a real community event.

Myself with Tony Piccolo, Josh McLean and Principal Deb Fairey after planting the first tree in our Orchard.

Another of the courses I did at the Food Forest was an Introduction to Permaculture which was thought provoking and inspiring and has lead to my enrolment in a Certificate in Permaculture Design which will take place at the Food Forest later this month.  I plan to incorporate many of these design principals into the schools garden area as it grows.  I did look into the Forest Schools training but decided that whilst this is a wonderful program and that students would benefit from structured outdoor learning opportunities, implementing the Kitchen Garden at our school was our main focus and finding ways of implementing this with Environmentally Friendly and Sustainable practises would be of most benefit to staff and students now and into the future.

To help get our Kitchen classes up and running I was able to bring Sprout (Callum Hann from Master Chef and his partner Themis Chryssidis a nutritionist) to our school to run a cooking and nutrition class for all of our staff, the session was fantastic, they cooked a variety of dishes for us and talked to us about good nutrition focusing on child friendly options that we will implement in our Kitchen classes, staff were also shown a range of cooking techniques and tips, I took the opportunity to show Callum and Themis our Kitchen space – they were impressed with our plans and provided invaluable advise in regard to the layout of the kitchen spaces and items that we should purchase as a start up kit for each space.

                                       Themis, myself and Callum during our cooking class.