Imagineering

I am currently leading a Leadership Review at my site. To begin this we undertook some "imagineering".

If we are to look at restructuring our school we need to have a vision about what we want to achieve. I asked staff to consider: in an idealistic world what will our site look like in 5 years time? What structures will be in place? How will staff work with students Years 8 - 12? What will teaching and learning look like? I then asked that with this imagined world in mind that staff contribute their thoughts to an ideas table (a variation on an "Ideas Boards" I took from The Eight Pillars of Innovation).

I have now represented the collated ideas in a word cloud.

The most represented term is "learning" followed by student, further to this the common terms include: skills, flexible, thinking, community, ICT, literacy, school, pathways, work, personalised, vocational education and training, feedback, teaching.

With these key ideas in mind the next step is to make some sense of the myriad of research I have been reading and sift through our student data to begin to formulate a plan of action for where to next.

The Virtual Milk Bar

This Sixty Minutes Extended Video Interview with Michael Carr-Gregg discusses depression in adolescents and the role the internet plays. Carr-Gregg advocates that we need to be careful not to demonise the internet OR Emo subculture. He also mentions that the internet is a virtual milk bar where kids get together after school. Carr-Gregg's interview provides some useful tips for parents (included at the end of this post) and I particularly liked his question "under what circumstances would you ... rifle through your child's diary?" and his own answer to it "I hope you'd only do it if you thought that there was something wrong, if they weren't communicating with you and if you were really worried about them".

Whilst it is useful that Sixty Minutes has made Carr-Gregg's extended interview available on-line it is also interesting to note that in the interview that went to air (check out the transcript) the internet was slightly demonised:

MAN'S VOICE: I'm not here to tell you what to think. I'm here to suggest to you that there is, in fact, increasingly a dark side to the technology.

I suppose that's commercial television for you... a story isn't a story without a scandal.

Adolescents who do not have mental health issues will not be seeking out sites on the internet that advocate or provide information on suicide and other vices sought out by people with poor mental helath. Ana websites (sites that support anorexia), which have previously featured in the media, are also out there along with an infite number of other sites which raise concerns, however, there are equally as many sites where young people can seek help and support (e.g. Kids Help Line Headroom). Young people who access these sites are usually attracted to them for a reason. And those who stumble across them and are not interested are usually reslient and have good mental health. Where there's a will there's a way. The internet is simply another vehicle for young people to access information and make contact with like minded individuals. We don't not walk down the street because we might trip over. The best way to protect our young people from the demons of the internet is to be aware of their behaviours, educate them (and ourselves) about internet safety and talk to them.

Useful Tips for Parents
Carr-Gregg suggests "the following signs warrant checking out" by parents and are worthy of following up with a GP, if they persist for two weeks or longer:

miserable most of the day, most of the time;
no longer enjoying things they use to enjoy doing;
can't concentrate;
not sleeping or eating in the same way as previously;
seem to be obessed with death, dying, loss or grief;
using substances;
not engaged in school.

Teaching with the Brain in Mind

I always enjoy a presenter who doesn’t lecture or speak down to the audience too many times I switch off to people whose choice of language and body language demonstrates an assumption that educators aren’t doing the right thing in their classrooms.

Eric Jensen presented a one day conference in the Limestone Coast today entitled Teaching with the Brain in Mind. The day focussed on the latest principles of brain compatible learning based on up to date brain research.

Jensen is an engaging presenter who practices the strategies he promotes throughout his presentation. Others in attendance commented on the usefulness of:

• specific strategies
• Jensen’s acknowledgement of the expertise of the attendees as professionals
• his desire to highlight to educators why the things they already do work and how teachers can optimise the learning of students in the classroom through educated use of existing strategies.

Jensen encouraged all educators to develop ESP (“the purposeful Engagement of effective Strategies")

He highlighted that Gene Expression (the capacity to respond to intense or persistent environmental input) impacts/affects/changes the brain. Gene Expression can be impacted by trauma (usually immediate in its effects) and consistency (something experienced over an extended period of time). As it is not recommended that students are traumatised in the classroom, teachers can positively affect Gene Expression to benefit student learning and in turn their success through highly consistent, effective teaching practice. Teachers need to be in it for the long haul. If teachers consistently work effectively miracles can happen; consistency = benefits.

However the same can be said in reverse a persistent exposure to ineffective teaching practices can affect students. Jensen said it would take a good teacher maybe 2 years to undo 1 year of exposure to poor teaching practice.

Another acronym used by Jensen was VRM (pronounced vroom). VRM represents the three Learning Principles Jensen states are confirmed by Neuroscience.

V = Vesting is Valuable

R = Rough Drafts need Repair

M = Memories are Malleable

Vesting (or buying in) is simply Jensen’s term for students becoming motivated toward their own and shared learning. The largest impact teachers have on students’ vested interest is by creating meaningful content. This concept promoted discussion around the effects of imposed and/or prescribed curriculum which can pose challenges to teachers. Other factors which research reveals impact upon students’ willingness to vest in their learning are:

• stress levels,
• physical environment,
• peer relationships,
• students’ health and personal assets (study skills, time management, and organisation).

The number one way teachers can foster an environment in which students will vest their interest in the learning is by strengthening their own relationships with their students.

Something I found pertinent to counselling was Jensen’s discussion around the role of hope (goals and belief that things can happen or change) and choice (within set parameters) in relation to students’ willingness to vest. Students at our site will be involved in research undertaken by Anthony Venning around hopeful thinking, adolescents and mental health. I am eager to view the results of the survey and look at how we can utilise the data to better support students’ wellbeing and learning within our site.

Jensen suggested teachers should be skilled in managing states (mind and emotional states). The optimum state for students to be in for learning is a state where they want to engage. Jensen says that by constantly involving students in small/short activities (energisers, brain storms, discussions) educators can promote a state of engagement and inturn encourage students vesting into the learning.

Rough Drafts need Repair promotes the need for trial and error and to correct errors. Learners rarely get things right on the first try. A strategy provided by Jensen is to reinforce effort rather than accuracy, so as to promote students exploration of a topic and allow students to reveal what they understand.

Example: ask students a question (in relation to the topic) and allocate a scribe to record all ideas. As students provide answers to the question posed, the teacher should respond by acknowledging the effort: “good effort, what else”, “thanks for jumping in, other ideas?” The brain storm should continue long enough to allow everyone who has an answer to contribute and should not stop once the correct answer has been obtained. The point of the exercise is not for students to guess the answer in the teachers head but rather for students to take risks in sharing their understanding/ideas. Once a number of answers have been recorded students are then asked to choose the answer they believe is most correct turn their chair to face three people closest top them and justify their choice to the people around them. Each group needs to decide which answer they agree with and feed back to the class. At which point the teacher can verify and correct as required. The strategy encourages students to think through answers and draw upon the existing knowledge they have. The opportunity for feedback allows the teacher to correct answers that are false so that students do not learn the wrong thing and students develop a breadth of information and connections which will allow them to access the correct answer again in the future.

Some interesting information in relation to learning:

• Brains require glucose to function but too much glucose impedes learning. This brings into question for me nutrition in schools, I see many students drinking 1.25 litre soft drinks on the way to school and consuming energy bars and drinks at break times. I have questioned in the past the impact of sugar highs on students emotions and concentration levels but this research says that too much glucose inhibits learning- however how do you determine the line between a moderate amount of glucose (which is optimal to learning) and too much.
• Too much new information overloads the brain. Research presented discussed the role of the hippocampus in learning and that too much learning can overload the hippocampus. The hippocampus learns quickly and has a short term memory. If too much learning occurs the brain becomes overloaded and the information stored in the hippocampus is overwritten as more and more information enters in to the short term memory.
• The working memory functions best with small chunks (between 1 and 4) of information. The working memory will store information with practice/reinforcement/revision.

Memories are Malleable – “our brain is designed to forget most of what we see, hear and do unless it has to do with survival”.

• Memories are stored in fragments and accessed as parts to create a whole.
• Our memories can be affected by new or corrected information. Revision will promote consolidation of the memories.
• The more emotional the event the more vivid the memory.
• Physical activity and emotional events stimulate glucose release within the body.
• Purposeful teaching uses energisers that raise heart rate and memory chemicals.
• Memories require maintenance.
• Information needs to be repeated, skills practiced but only after error correction (practice makes permanent so make sure the practice is correct).
• Learner reviews/repeats new information 3 to 4 times within the first hour. Revisit 24 hours on and again in another 7 days in order to assist memory.

Leaving Eric Jensen’s conference today I have gained reinforcement of strategies I already use and promote within my site and like Jensen promised I now have a base of research on which to validate the strategies I already use that experience has shown me work. I have further developed my understanding of Brain Based Teaching and have consolidated prior knowledge with the research presented by Jensen. I have been exposed to an array of strategies for a brain compatible classroom which will:

• provide opportunities to develop positive relationships with students.
• promote states for engagement.
• provide opportunities for students to develop their own motivation
• provide opportunities for correction.
• provide opportunities to consolidate memories.

Disconnected Adolescents in a Connected World

I have been working with an adolescent student who is experiencing some depression. We have been exploring a couple of strategies to improve her emotional wellbeing, including writing, engaging in at least one activity outside of school and expanding her social network. And this is where we met with some elements that require problem solving. The student lives on a property outside of town and the people who live one the nearby properties do not have children or their children are in their twenties. Another issue for her is that her friends all use Telstra for their mobile service and she uses Voda Phone. In her own words: “I’m too expensive”, her friends won’t message her because it costs too much and they don’t get free text messages to her.

So I suggested to this student that she look at some social networking sites. She tells me she had set up a Myspace account but rarely uses it and finds it difficult to access the internet for two reasons: one her family has a dial up connection which drops out regularly and two her mother doesn’t like her spending time on the internet so limits her time to school work only. We discussed her combining her journal writing with a blog and connecting with people on line. But she was pessimistic about these possibilities because her mother believes that the internet is a time waster. (I think part of this might be her mother trying to protect her and monitor/manage her activity on the internet. And it is important to keep tabs on adolescents internet activities. However I think there is also potential for social and emotional benefits for this student given her circumstances).

One of the issues contributing to this student’s feelings of depression is that she is not connected in a connected world. She isn’t in the text message loop her friends are in and she has limited access to IM because of the dial up connection and having her time on the computer restricted. Consequently she misses out on a whole world of communication that occurs between leaving school one day and starting class the next morning.

I believe for this child, who is geographically isolated, the internet could connect her to a network of support that she currently doesn’t have. I have asked the student to talk to her mum about her feelings of depression and disconnection from her peers and discuss the possibilities of using the internet to develop connections with her peers outside of school, as well as school work. I would also like to publish something in the newsletter about social networking sites and their benefits for adolescents in developing connections. I would like to put something in the newsletter which she can encourage her mother to read that discusses appropriate use of scoial networking sites to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of isolated students, which can also provide pratical information for keeping her daughter safe on the interent as well as supporting her daughter to create connections (which will hopefully alleviate any concerns and provide practical strategies fore her mother to employ in monitoring her internet use). If anybody out there in the bloggersphere has any useful information, links, articles, ideas for information to incorporate in a newsletter for parents I would greatly appreciate some help and direction in gathering some information together.

Acknowledging Professional Networks

I've been surfing blogs lately, following one link to another, when I stumbled across a post entitled The Blame Game on The Strength of Weak Ties by David. After reading this I began to think about my Learning Support Group (the staff in my Performance Management group) and the T & D record sheets I have been signing off in lieu of week 41 (which staff will not have to work if they have accumulated at least 38 hours of T&D hours throughout the year). And it occurred to me that of all the professional development and training I have signed off none of it was online training or development in Web 2.0 tools. Many staff claimed "professional reading" as part of their hours and I question how much of that was online reading.

I, myself, did claim hours for online training this year. I didn't, however, claim any professional reading, one because I didn't need to and two because it didn't occur to me that I could claim my blog or the reading associated with my professional network online. II know the hours I have spent developing my blog, reading other people's blogs and the many RSS feeds through my bloglines accounts along with creating a professional network online are well in excess of 38 hours.

As a site in a regional area it is logical for staff to develop professional networks online. There is no need for them to be isolated in their practice simply because of their geographical location. I would like see our site promote blogs and social networks as a legitimate training and development activity, and will do this with my Learning Support Group next year. I wonder what would happen if we were to encourage that a percentage of T & D hours claimed for professional reading involve reading blogs or online content?

Become a Yoda

I have been tossing around ideas regarding student engagement of late.
Wara's response to my previous post highlights one of the obstacles: teachers

need to feel that they are in control of the situation...

Pete Reilly questions the opportunities for engagement offered within our schools:

So where in our schools and classrooms do our students get to be Hero’s? Where in school do they get some element of control? Outside of school they “ride the line” and “save the city”. They decide, they create, they act…

Inside the classroom, often, they are like fish out of water. I don’t know where I got the quote but this description of school is sometimes all too accurate,

“School is the place where kids come to watch teachers work”.

Wara suggested the following brainstorm question:

How do we create a situation or environment that is conducive to the buzz hopefully happening?

One answer is to relinquish control and allow students to take the reigns of their own learning. Become facilitators/guides/sages. I like the analogy of the sage (or Yoda figure) who quietly observes and then appears when needed to guide the hero on his/her journey.

We need to encourage staff to abandon their own agendas and allow the students to decide the course they will take, within agreed parameters.

We need to support staff to become confident enough within their own classrooms to hand the learning over to the students and relinquish their control. (Oh no what will they think of next!)

Passion/Intrinsic Motivation...The Buzz

Yesterday I found myself reflecting further upon the factors that contribute to learning successes and remembered a discussion I had with Wara earlier this year regarding intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. As educators we can use extrinsic motivators to encourage students to participate and persist with their learning. However, when a student develops an intrinsic motivation their own engagement in the work being undertaken and desire to persist does not need to be fostered by extrinsic means. When students become intrinsically motivated they become passionate about their learning. Intrinsic motivation is passion.
I see intrinsic motivation develop within my classrooms and often refer to it as a "buzz". When a kid becomes buzzed about their learning they drive their own learning. So the question then (and this is the vein of discussion I have had with Wara) is: how do you manufacture the BUZZ?
The discussion around immersion which Bill has linked back to a previous comment in which he sates: "The desire to master computers must come from within" refers to intrinsic motivation.
Through my observations students become buzzed when the learning is authentic and collaborative. I would like to explore further how to manufacture the buzz OR if it is something we can manufacture at all?