Virtual Learning Network

Replies

• • Paul Pirihi@PaulGlenavon340

  

  Paul Pirihi (View all users posts) 20 Oct 2015 11:10am (2486 days ago)

  Hi Ed

  I'm from Glenavon School in Blockhouse Bay - we are well into our work in this project.

  Our project is based around : 

  Increasing teacher awareness of student talk and using this to inform pedagogical practice, in order to support students as thinkers and managers of their own learning, which in turn will raise literacy and numeracy achievement.

  The staff are 100% behind this project and our school is 'buzzing' as students schoolwide are taking real ownership of their learning.

  Paul

   

• • Ed Strafford@Ed.Strafford

  

  Ed Strafford (View all users posts) 21 Oct 2015 2:53pm (2485 days ago)

  Kia ora mō tēnā pānui Paul.

  I'm really grateful that you've shared info about your project.

  I can see why staff would be loving the project. I do reckon that lots of professions are getting smarter about listening to the 'users' or in our case "learners".

  It will be exciting to see how the knowledge from your project takes shape and how it gets picked up by other schools.

  Are any schools outside your 'formal project members' starting to show an interest in how listening closely to student talk helps learners own their learning?

  Ed

   

• • Ed Strafford@Ed.Strafford

  

  Ed Strafford (View all users posts) 21 Oct 2015 3:02pm (2485 days ago)

  Hi TLiFers !!

  To help group all the short introductions to phase one projects into one place, I've copied this from Stephen, from another thread.

  At the risk of seeming like a cheeky Wellingtonian  .... 2 down 38 to go ;-)

  Or, put more politely, if you could spare a few minutes to write a paragraph about your phase one project, I do think it would help folks who are thinking about joining phase two.

  Here's Stephen's description of his project and - even more impressive - his kind offer to help you if you are interested in phase two

   

  Stephen Wood (View all users posts) 19 Sep 2015 7:15am (32 days ago)

  Hi Ed

  We were a successful cluster down here on the West Coast. Our 'puzzle'  succinctly inquires into the what's currently happening in regards to engagement with parents, family and whanau, our learners and teachers. Our cluster of schools are spread wide (part of our puzzle) and isolation is factor. If anyone requires advice for this years round i'm happy to help. 

  Stephen 

• • Craig Reddington@Crreddington

  

  Craig Reddington (View all users posts) 22 Oct 2015 2:12pm (2484 days ago)

  Hi everyone, our project is a collaboration between Kaikorai Valley College and Queen's High School.  Our project extends our learning from the Sport in Education project. In that project we found that being active in the classroom (i.e. not just sitting still through the whole lesson) helps engage students, which in turn helps lift achievement results. In SiE we have tried this in PE, maths and English, using a range of different types of learning activities. Now we want to know whether, and how, the strategies we developed can be adapted and used in other learning areas.  We have 3 research questions;

  1. What does active learning look like in different subjects? (Are there differences in what works? If so, what are they and why is that? Can students have ‘too much of a good thing’ or is it good to use active learning activities in all or most of their classes?)  
  2. Can the ‘teacher as coach’ metaphor be adapted for peer to peer professional learning? (What happens when teachers model and coach new strategies with other teachers? When does it work best and why? When doesn’t it work and why?) 
  3. Does increased activity during class learning time contribute to increased participation in sports and physical activity in out of class time?  

  Craig

  Kaikorai Valley College

• • Ed Strafford@Ed.Strafford

  

  Ed Strafford (View all users posts) 28 Oct 2015 5:20pm (2478 days ago)

  Thanks Craig,

  Wow, that is an interesting set of questions - wider than I would have anticipated and all the better for that!!

  I'm guessing (and it really is guessing, unlike you good folks, it has no basis in a process of disciplined inquiry or innovation metrics) that any possible threshold for 'too much of a good thing", would sit at different levels for different students (even as students become aclimatised to more activity).

  That and question two have really got me thinking! and I expect for some teachers (and the wider community) question three will hold real interest.

  I hope other readers of this thread are finding these descriptions interesting.

  In my view these descriptions have a vitality that makes the work fascinating.

  Thanks again Craig.