New touch table technology

When I was at the WAPPA conference last week I had a chance to view and test a touch table. The table is the size of a small coffee table and looks a bit like a huge iPad/tablet. It is actually a fully functioning computer with the same power as one of the latest desktops computers. It is different from a standard tablet not only by its size but also by the number of touch points it supports. We had 6 people all with 10 fingers working the device and it was recognising all of their fingers.

The table requires purpose built apps. The ones I saw looked amazing. The approximate cost is $10,000 so we won't be rushing out and buying one any time soon. However, the cost of these devices will come down over time and eventually you will see them as part of our classroom based technology. These devices have so much potential for engaging students in learning and when used as part of an effective teaching program will help to improve student outcomes.

Thanks Jonnine

For over 12 months now Jonnine Gould has been giving up her own time to support our Breakfast Club. Jonnine is not a parent of any students at our school but has willingly volunteered her time every Wednesday morning (before work) to come and help ensure our Breakfast Club runs effectively.

Jonnine is usually the first person here, setting up and cooking toast well before the first student arrives. We appreciate such commitment and congratulate her for being awarded the 2012 Foodbank 'School Breakfast Program Volunteer' of the year.

We really appreciate Jonnine's involvement in our school!

Hungry for Culture Cooking

Our P&C and canteen did a great job promoting good food and culture again this week by cooking another recipe from their Hungry for Culture cookbook. This week the recipe 'Char Kway Teow Seafood' came from Anzeny and his Mum. The food was delicious and enjoyed by all. Special care was taken to ensure that students with any seafood allergy did not have any.

Our thanks go once again to the wonderful members of our P&C and canteen workers!!

School Board Meeting

Last week the School Board held their Term 2 meeting. At the meeting we reviewed the school's current financial position, budget and expenditure and noted that all is going well. We discussed the recently advertised position on the School Board for which we received no nominations. This was very disappointing. The Board decided not to readvertise until later in the year.

At the meeting I outlined the process for replacing me in 2013 when I go on teacher exchange to Canada. Our Deputy Principals will share the Principal's position with Mrs vanderWal taking on the role in Semester 1 and Mr Ralph in Semester 2. The Deputy positions will then be filled by interested teaching staff.

The incoming exchange teacher, Mr Aaron Hoffman will be provided with a senior primary class in Room 11.

The School Board also looked at a draft Workforce Plan which outlines future staffing needs and outlines strategies we will use to fill these needs. This item was carried over for further discussion at the next meeting on September 5.

General Business that was discussed included:

• the success of the Greenfinger TV program and the positive impact it has had on our school community
• the extension of Mrs Harlond's sick leave due to her ongoing medical treatment.

Our next meeting will be on September 5. Community members and parents are welcome to attend.

A kitchen for the kids

Here is the latest article from Greenfingers looking at Sustainabilty Classrooms, which appeared in last Friday's West Australian. The photo was taken at our handover event earlier in the term.

Schools and You website for parents

The Department of Education provides a great 'Schools and You' website which helps keep parents and community members informed about important issues in education.

The latest information on school enrolments, changes in early childhood education and a whole range of other relevant topics can be accessed at this site. Click the link below to go to the Schools and You site.
Schools and You

WAPPA Conference Day 3

The keynote address for day 3 was again presented by Ben Levin. His message for today was on ‘Improving Teaching and Learning’. Below are some of the points that I noted:

• Competition does not result in system improvement
• Autonomy does not drive improvement
• Things that get in the way of improvement:
• teacher resistance and autonomy (bound by the 4 walls of their classroom)
• lack of focus on the skills of teaching and how to acquire them. Teaching is highly technical and the skills don’t come naturally
• lack of leader knowledge of how to lead teaching
• Public attitudes and expectations e.g. testing
• Teaching is a technical art and a highly skilled occupation
• need to move our focus from ‘teachers’ to ‘teaching’.
• People, including teachers, can learn to get better
• Systems should help and support individual improvement
• we know a lot about what good teaching is, we also need to know how to build it
• Improving teaching should be a collective social process. One skilled teacher can impact on another. What a teacher’s colleagues do can impact on them.
• PD is not enough, group norms matter greatly.

“People would rather look competent at the wrong things than incompetent at the right things” Michael Fullan

• Prioritise:
• you can’t improve everything at once
• pick a focus area
• assessment is often a good starting point
• use evidence to generate professional dialogue
• Leading teacher learning:
• is more about process and organisation than expertise – the principal does not have to be an expert teacher but must know what process to use to improve teaching
• team building is critical
• use data/evidence
• have high expectations
• invite external input as it brings new ideas to the table and helps avoid having the same conversations
• build a wide base of support
• marginalise opposition
• To drive a culture of improvement a good leader must demonstrate relentless optimism
• Develop and maintain an intense focus on the relationship between teaching and learning
• Develop a collective responsibility for student outcomes and school achievement
• Focus on the capabilities and capacity of your students and staff
• Listen to your students – student voice is powerful for teachers as we are here for them and they remind us of why we are here
• Not many people go to work every day with the opportunity to effect the life of someone else for the better – teachers do

WAPPA Conference Day 2 concurrent session

I went along to Ben Levin’s presentation on ‘Finding the time to do what is important’

Many of the ideas he presented could be applied to any job. Notes I took which I thought were useful included:

• Identify the distracters in your day and week
• Identify the tasks that are vital to success and that only you can do – schedule these first
• ask – what do I spend my time on? what do I want to spend my time on?
• Time is a resource that we need to budget, plan for and allocate
• Need to overcome perfectionist tendencies because you can’t do your best at everything – there isn’t enough time to do everything perfectly
• Save your best for the times where it really matters
• Look at your week, try dividing it up and doing the important stuff first (30% of the time)
• Routines are important as they help to reduce the need for you to work on certain tasks e.g. a child with an injury – have a set routine which anyone can follow
• Delegate things to others and let them do it without standing over them
• accept that surprises will happen. If you have too many surprises than it may mean that your routines aren’t working or that you need one.
• Routines and procedures empower others to feel comfortable to act without you being involved
• Keep priorities ‘in your face’ e.g. posters
• Bind yourself to to act by scheduling and making public commitments
• Be accessible without an open door. An open door communicates that ‘anything someone else wants to talk about is more important than what I have to do'. Have an appointment schedule for things that people need to meet with you about.
• Reduce the number and length of meetings
• Don’t use important meetings times to communicate things that they could read in a memo or email. Meetings should be about discussing important things like how to improve teaching and learning.
• Choose what gets your attention and how much attention you will give to it.
• make things shorter and quicker – handle paper once, deal immediately with things and get them out of the way
• Remember that people have their own interests which are often politically motivated
• learn how to manage conflict
• learn how your team works
• Don’t always be in the middle. Let others argue with each other
• Create vehicles for dialogue – good communication solves many problems
• Remember that no days go according to plan
• Good leaders have:
• VISION – knowing what we want to achieve
• OPTIMISM – knowing the possibilities
• REALISM – flexible, knowing human nature

WAPPA Conference Day 2

On the second day of conference they tried something new by having a keynote address presented digitally by a speaker in Canada. The speaker is very well known in education circles, Michael Fullan.

Michael Fullan's website

Michael spoke on ‘Drivers of Change’

He outlined what he believed to be the wrong as well as the right drivers for changing our education system.
He suggested that things like ad hoc professional learning activities, teacher appraisal systems, merit pay (award the ‘good’ and punish the ‘bad’), leadership competency frameworks and external accountability are drivers that will not lead to an improved system which results in higher student outcomes. He suggested that good drivers tap into the intrinsic motivation that exists in the system to do our best and improve. Successful schools are those with a positive culture and high human social capital.

Good principal’s, he suggests, are those who build internal accountability through helping members of the school community to feel safe and then willing to analyse school performance data in order to generate improved teaching and learning opportunities. He talked about using ‘the group’ to impact networks of schools and ultimately the system itself.

Some dot points I made while listening to his presentation include:

• Good accountability:
• is a function of good data and is used for improvement
• is non-judgemental (everyone is responsible for results)
• is part of widespread transparency and respectful partnerships
• builds individual and collective capacity
• Schools with high social capital make the greatest impact
• Improve by using ‘the group’
• Technology is good but does not lead to improvement without good pedagogy
• The degree to which the principal participates as a learner to improve performance is the key – working with teachers to look at performance data and talk about teaching
• Individual teachers need to stop thinking about their classroom alone and think bigger at the school level. Schools need to think at the network level and networks at the system level.
• Collaboration is the premier strategy for improvement. To build intrinsic, safe collaboration and positive culture you need:
• high expectation with assertiveness
• a spirit of partnership and respect
• obsession on implementation of good practice
• Principal’s need to develop ‘Motional Leadership’ skills. These skills cause positive and measurable movement. It’s when you do something that motivates the unmotivated.
• Beware of ‘fat’ plans. 1 page plans are better. Have three goals with a core focus
• Put ‘draft’ on documents to make a document live
• Ongoing 2-way communication is important for reinforcing vision and finding out what works and what needs to change (problem solving dialogue).
• Targets should be viewed as aspirational and not ‘do or die’.
• Have a non-judgemental improvement mentality

Interschool Sport

Congratulations go to our inter school sports teams who performed very well at this week's carnival. All of our teams represented our school wonderfully and should be proud of their behaviour and performance. Teachers reported that each team improved in their game play throughout the day. Our soccer team and one of our netball teams also reached the final. Well done!

Special thanks go to Mr Ioannou who coordinated the event and to the staff who helped teams with their training and supported them on the day of the carnival. Thanks also go to the parents who came along and supported the students through their cheering.

 

WAPPA Conference Day 1 continued

The concurrent session that I attended on day 1 of the conference was presented by Dr Paul Swan who is a senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University. He is an expert in Mathematics education with his recent focus being on early childhood education. Dr Swan presented a concurrent session on the importance of 'Getting children off to a good start.' In this session Paul talked about the changes in education in Mathematics that has come with the new Australian Curriculum.

I had recently heard Paul speak on the same topic so this presentation helped clarify some important points when it comes to the teaching of mathematics.

1. It is important that teachers think carefully about the mathematics content of their lessons. The question that Paul suggested teachers ask themselves is: 'nice activity but where is the mathematics teaching?'
2. A whole school approach to mathematics teaching is essential for sustained whole school improvement. Planning should begin with the Australian Curriculum as the scope and sequence it provides clearly outlines the developmental progression of mathematics learning. The development of a common language for teaching mathematics is essential at a whole school level.
3. Intentional teaching is the key to success. The interactions and conversations that a teacher engages in during a Maths activity is more important than the activity as it is these conversations that guide, direct, confirm and embed learning.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~markobri/Paul_Swan/Paul_Swans_homepage.html

 

WAPPA Conference Day 1

The Western Australian Primary Principal’s conference is held once per year at Burswood. This year the key note speaker is Professor Ben Levin who comes from Canada and is a respected leader in school change from a system level.

 

In his recent book ‘How to Change 5000 Schools’, Ben Levin, former deputy minister of education for the province of Ontario, draws on his experience overseeing major system wide education reforms in Canada and England to set forth a positive, pragmatic, and optimistic approach to leading educational change at all levels.

Professor Levin shared a key note address on ‘Real and Sustainable Change’. Some of the notes that I made included:

• Education matters – it has very real implications for the outcomes of a persons life.
• There are problems that we need to address:
• there are too many that don't benefit from education
• the achievement gaps between to successful and unsuccessful are too great
• there are too many other factors that impact on education
• Schools cannot solve social problems but they can make a difference by helping to reduce them
• Blame for failure of the system cannot be placed on the learners or their parents
• We need to get out of the ‘who’s fault’ blame mentality and avoid deficit thinking when it comes to changing our schools for the better
• People can turn their lives around, even if they come from the worst of circumstances. Education can help them.
• What teachers do and say can either enable students to believe in themselves or add to the self-disbelief that they already feel.
• He used the example of Arnie Boldt who is a one legged high jump champion. Ben pointed out that when at school his teachers could have focussed on Arnie’s disability or they could have seen his potential and desire to succeed.

• Professor Levin suggested that, as a system, we need to stop talking about ‘better teachers’ and focus more on creating ‘better teaching’.
• Good teaching is about developing better teaching skills. Teachers need to have a mentality of ‘I can be better at teaching tomorrow than I have today’.
• As a school system we need to stop thinking ‘When will we get better kids?’ and instead think ‘How can we apply our skills to help the current students we have to learn and be successful?’
• There is a lot of room to improve teaching practice in schools.
• Parents can be both a challenge as well as a resource in the educational process. It is their role to advocate for their kids.
• There are no unmotivated kids. We need to find what motivates them and use it to help them learn new and greater things.
• Curriculum is not as important as good teaching!
• The way we organise, structure and timetable our schools does not improve outcomes.
• The three keys to success are
• RELATIONSHIPS
• TEACHING PRACTICE
• COMMUNITY
• We need to infuse equity into education i.e. knowing every student, their needs, their situations, and apply good teaching
• How to make all this happen in a school system
1. Have 2 or 3 clear goals and high expectations
2. Build capacity – through the collective development of skills and by working wit the people you have
3. Be positive – use a three to one ratio with giving out positives
4. Develop strong partnerships within the community
5. Use data and research to inform areas for focus and improvement
• FAILURE DEPRESSES EFFORT WHILE SUCCESS LEADS TO EFFORT

I will be sharing the content of Professor Levin’s message with staff as part of a process of school reflection in order to challenge thinking and set challenges for the future.

A New Interactive Whiteboard (IWB)

Great news...our school will receive another free interactive whitboard as part of the 'Technology roll out to WA public schools'!!

This IWB will be placed in Room 3. All but one of our classrooms now have an IWB. The last one for the early childhood centre will hopefully be purchased before the end of the year (or early in the new year).

We are also looking to increase the number of portable ICT devices (iPads and/or netbooks) in the school in Semester 2.

I am very excited by the ongoing development of our ICT resources because they have the potential to greatly enhance the teaching and learning programs offered by our school. We are working hard to assist staff to make effective use of these devices on a day to day basis within their classrooms.

The Latest from Our School Garden

A lot of activity has been taking place in our garden since its establishment a few short weeks ago. Our classroom teachers have been engaging their students in various garden chores through our garden roster. Parents and their children have also been rostered over weekends to come and continue the high level of care that our new garden requires. They have all been doing a great job and I thank them for their enthusiasm and work. We are still keen to get more volunteers to add to our roster so please contact the office if you are interested (many hands makes light work).

A special thank you also goes to Greg Mount-Bryson for manufacturing and installing the very impressive covers for our chicken coop. These covers provide our chickens with added protection from the cold winter wind as well as the hot summer sun. I would also like to thank Greg and Di for giving up so much of their own time to check on our garden outside of school hours. They have been instrumental in ensuring that newly planted trees and vegies are thriving and sick chickens, fish and yabbies are cared for. 

Unfortunately we have had a few animals die over the first few weeks. We have been told that this is to be expected in a newly established garden. We have continued to act on all advice to try and provide the best possible care for the animals in our garden. However, death is an inevitable and natural part of keeping animals and something that children also need to experience and learn from. We will continue to ensure that animal deaths are dealt with sensitively in classrooms.

If you have been in our garden over the past few days you will notice that we have installed more raised garden beds. These beds will help to increase the amount of produce that will be available for classroom cooking lessons.

Parents are always welcome to visit our garden. However, we do ask that when in the garden that you supervise any children that you have with you. We have had instances of younger children breaking healthy fruit trees and pulling up plants.

Next Monday June 25 at 1.10pm we will be screening the entire two episodes of Greenfingers back-to-back in the school Hall. This will be a wonderful opportunity for students and staff to view the program together. Parents and community members are welcome to attend. The two episodes will run for approximately 44 minutes. Please bring  your own folding chair and popcorn!!

Roaming Recycler Visits Tuart Hill

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, the Roaming Recycler Waste Education Display visited our school. The Mindarie Regional Council have developed this mobile Waste Education trailer to take the recycling message out to the community. It is a creative,fun and educational display on recycling, waste minimisation and household hazardous waste disposal. All students from PrePrimary to Year 7 have had the opportunity to visit the Roaming Recycler trailer and take part in interactive games and activities designed to spread the message about the three R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

2012 Education Awards

This week you will receive an information flyer inviting you to nominate staff for the 2012 Education Awards. If you put a nomination in this year you have the chance of winning an Apple iPad. More importantly, your nominations will highlight the wonderful job that so many of our staff do in our school and in your community.

Any staff can be nominated (not just teachers) so please consider carefully putting a nomination in this year.

Greenfingers Newspaper Article

Congratulations to Kate and Tianna who look very enthusiastic in this article from last Friday’s West Australian. Well done girls!

Greenfingers Episode 2

I have just finished watching the second episode of Greenfingers with my family. What a great show! Congratulations to all the students who appeared. You did a wonderful job and should be very proud of yourselves. Don't forget that you can watch the show again on the 'video' link on the Greenfingers Facebook page.

 

WA Week Activities

This week is WA Week and we are celebrating through a range of activities. Each day in the week has a theme.

• Monday - WA Day public holiday

• Tuesday - A day of friendship

Students have constructed Warm Fuzzy Bags. Here are some examples

Students will be placing warm, kind and caring comments about other students and staff in the bags throughout the week. At the end of the week the students can take their bags home.

• Wednesday - A day of history

Students participated in a history quiz

• Thursday - A day of sport

Students are competing in a tabloid sports event

• Friday - Arbor Day

Students will plant trees around the school

 

Bloom's Taxonomy Modified

I found this post online while doing some professional reading. I like the 'interlocking of cognitive processes model'. It seems to provide a more accurate representation of how people learn. The original Bloom's model was too linear in its representation.


Taken from http://blog.kathyschrock.net/

MAY

21

The interlocking of cognitive processes

Yesterday on Twitter, Dr. James Norwood (@JRNorwood) posted a short tweet entitled "Flipping Bloom's Taxonomy". The intriguing title led me to click to the link that led to his Teaching in the Middle blog post about a blog post he had read on Shelley Wright's blog, Powerful Learning Practice.

 


The gist of the blog post was Shelley's idea to start with the creating cognitive process and "flip" the pyramid so it looks something like the image below.. She states, "Here’s what I propose. In the 21st century, we flip Bloom’s taxonomy. Rather than starting with knowledge, we start with creating, and eventually discern the knowledge that we need from it."

 

http://plpnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/bloom_pyramid-2.png

 


I do not think I agree. I do promote the use of problem, project, inquiry, and/or challenge based learning models to allow students to take control of their learning. However, I truly believe students need to have at least some knowledge-base in a topic before they can analyze, evaluate, or create something with the content at hand. In addition, during the acquisition and creation of new knowledge, learners move up and down the cognitive levels as they need to.

Shelley states that she (and many others) were taught that "Blooms becomes a “step pyramid” that one must arduously try to climb with your learners." I am glad my professors at Rutgers College of Education did not teach it this way! I am a big fan of the pedagogical model and thinking about the different levels has always allowed me to plan activities at any (or all) of the levels at any point in the teaching and learning process. I never thought of Bloom's Taxonomy as a series of steps to the top.


However, I do agree with Shelly that the pyramid shape, with the little tip left for creating, may confuse some educators into thinking only some students are capable of getting to that level or creativity is a small component of the cognitive skills process.


I gave it some thought, and developed a different graphic to represent the taxonomy based on how I utilize it. Take a look at the image below and let me know what you think!

References:
Norwood, James. 17 May 2012. "Flipping Bloom's Taxonomy". Blog post. Teaching in the Middle,
Wright, Shelley. 15 May 2012. "Flipping Bloom's Taxonomy". Blog post. Powerful Learning Practice.

Posted 2 weeks ago by Kathy Schrock

Location: Eastham, MA 02642, USA

Labels: Bloom's Taxonomy Shelley Wright Kathy Schrock James Norwood

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Greenfingers online

I have just finished watching the first episode of Greenfingers and really enjoyed seeing the way that the show promoted the school's focus on sustainability and environmental awareness. It was great to see our students involved. Well done to all those who got to appear in the first episode. If you missed it or would like to watch it again you can go to the Greenfingers website and click on the video link or just click on the image below.


 

Exchange to Canada 2013

As previously mentioned in an earlier post, I am going on teacher exchange in 2013. The school I am going to is called Okanagan Landing Elementary School which is situated in the city of Vernon in British Columbia. This area of Canada does not get as cold as some parts of the country although we will still get to see plenty of ice and snow.

Okanagan Landing Website 

Test of iPad App

Am trialling the use of Blogsy. This app seems quite versatile allowing plenty of options for text modification as well as the ability to drag and drop images and video from iPad, Flickr, Picassa, You Tube.

 

A Vision of 21st Century Teachers

I have a strong interest in ICT as a teaching and learning tool. Below are some interesting You Tube videos, some of which I have shared with staff at various professional learning opportunities.

 

 

 

Newsletter Blurb

Below is the latest blurb from the front page of our newsletter:

Our new garden is certainly a busy place with every class actively involved in some aspect of its daily management and maintenance. Earlier this week, over 30 staff members gathered in the school kitchen for breakfast in order to talk about the possibilities that the garden provides for enhancing teaching and learning programs and to sort out any issues or concerns that exist for its proper maintenance. The overwhelming feeling is one of excitement for what this new resource offers our students and our school. Don’t forget that the first episode of Greenfingers will be shown on Channel 7 this Sunday June 3 at 5.30pm with a second episode scheduled for Sunday June 10 at the same time.

We will rely strongly on community assistance in order to keep our garden healthy over weekend and holiday periods. Many thanks go to the parents who have let us know that they are able to participate in our weekend and holiday garden roster. The roster will commence next weekend (June 9 and 10). A copy of the roster will be sent to families who have expressed interest on Tuesday next week. A special breakfast for families that have volunteered to be involved will be held at the school on Friday June 8 at 7.30am. Please RSVP to the office by Tuesday June 5 if you intend coming to the breakfast.

Open and honest communication is an essential part of a happy, healthy school. Parents are always welcome to approach their child’s teacher to arrange a time to meet and discuss their child’s progress or to volunteer to participate in classroom activities. All staff have a school email address which consists of their first name and second name separated by a full stop and followed by @education.wa.edu.au. For example, my email address is Stephen.Bevan@education.wa.edu.au. Email is a quick and easy form of communication which you are welcome to use although proper protocols and etiquette should always apply. Issues and concerns should always be followed up with a face to face meeting. I have a blog which usually contains up to date information about what is happening at school: http://mbevan.blogspot.com.au. If you choose to ‘follow’ the blog you will receive an email every time a new post is uploaded. You can also leave comments on the blog. Links to our school Flickr account and other relevant websites are also available on the blog.

Teacher Exchange 2013

It is official. I will be teaching in Canada next year!!

The application I put in to participate in a teacher exchange program has been successful which means that I will be spending 12 months as a classroom teacher in Canada.

Mr Aaron Hoffman will be joining our staff in 2013. What this means for our staffing is not fully known as there are a number of positions that are yet to be clarified and confirmed. We will know by the end of the year what our final staffing structure will look like for 2013 and will be able to more accurately share this information with the school community then.

I am very excited by the opportunity that this exchange offers me as a professional educator and for my family who will be joining me in Canada. I have informed the School Board and staff of this development and am waiting for advice from the Director General as to how the principal’s position will be temporarily filled next year.

Stirling Times

Our students and school feature in the latest Stirling Times. This is another great promotion of the school and its commitment to sustainable themes (being waterwise).

Congratulations to Ralph, Ashish, Irene and Wandi who feature in the article.

Habitat Magazine

Our students and school feature in today's Habitat lift out in the West Asutralian. Congratulations to Caleb and Aine who look so smart in the photo.