Reflecting on Reflecting!

Kia Ora,

Here we are, week seventeen, or week one of online study!

This weeks challenge, to reflect of our reflective practice.

I have chosen to use Jay and Johnsons (2002) reflective model to reflect on my reflective practice, by describing, comparing and critically reflecting.

This quote from Finlay (2009) rings true for my reflective practice, that for “busy professionals short on time reflective practice is to easily applied in a bland, mechanical and unthinking way”. I’ve been teaching for 5 years now, and my written reflections have always been few are far between, and not very meaty! At the moment, my reflective practice takes place subconsciously throughout teaching and learning. Its automatic. What went well, what didn’t and what would I do differently next time. I tend to focus on the failures rather than the wins.

As a part of this Mind Lab journey, I discovered blogging as a way to begin sharing my teaching practice but I am yet to use it as a place of critical reflection. I felt (and still feel) uncomfortable sharing online the scary, unknown moments in my teaching practice, and in has felt safer to fight these battles alone (or with a few trusted colleagues). I’ve learnt that reflective practice stems from this uncomfortable place, and that instinctive ningle that something could be done better.

Better together.

Looking into the future, I’d like my reflective practice to be a shared, collaborative process.  I’ve learnt through the conversations I’ve had on this at The Mind Lab (online and offline) that the knowledge and perspectives of others can shed new light on my teaching practice, in ways I’d never achieve alone. Yang (2009) shares that a blog can be a place of honesty, a place to voice doubts, discomforts, the raw moments and the successes with others who have shared in other similar scenarios. I’m beginning to experience, the wealth of knowledge, that Twitter (@becca_kirby_nz) is able to harness, with a few hashtags and a short sharp tweet! I can now see the value in bringing down the walls of my teaching practice, being transparent, online and offline, casting my net wide, leaving myself open to the opportunity of much greater learning and connections with others.

A step beyond blogging, a step only taken by the brave, is to video lessons to use as a self-reflective tool, and to share online with a wider audience.

Check out Manaiakalani Google Class on Air!

Would you be brave enough to video yourself teaching?

Am I brave enough?

It was my mantra when beginning this Mind Lab journey, to practise what I preach, to be show my kids than I am a learner, just like them, taking risks and letting my curiosity run wild. And that is how I intend to keep marching on into this second half my Mind Lab journey!

Kia Kaha!

Here we are, halfway through The Mind Lab!

16 weeks of face to face, done. 

16 weeks of online learning to go.

No more coffee, griffins biscuits and the company of my fellow Mind Lab folk on a Wednesday night. 

I've throughly enjoyed the chat, let's carry it on! I'll start the conversation by sharing a little about me, for those in who I haven't had the joy of connecting with yet. 

I'm 26, a kiwi kid at heart. 

I am a primary school teacher, working part-time at Glen Innes School.

I run, for the joy of it! Up steep hills, in the mud and rain, and occasionally through a river. 

I'm currently helping set-up a community garden, even though the only thing I've grown before was "a strawberry" (and it was on the plant when I brought it from the garden store). 

I have a rainbow gumboot wearing two year old, who can't help but jump in every muddy puddle that she sees!

I help with a playgroup one day a week, with babies to 4 year olds. An age group, that used to scare me, but I have now fallen for. 

Keen to hear your stories, as you adventure into the next 16 weeks of online learning...

Let's do this!!! 

Games and Gamification

Since the beginning of time, games have brought people together. In a world filled with these, coloured boxes, that zone us and our kids out to the world around us, I think, games are so important. They have a magic about them that takes technology and makes it a shared experience. 

Game designers are far better at engaging our kids than us teachers, we can't deny that. So it is time we took some hints from these engagement experts. 

A tip we can take from game designers is flow theory. When gamers enter a state of flow they lose track of time, and they keep playing for longer and longer. The game is not too challenging and not too easy (sounds a lot like Vygotsky's ZPD, in my opinion). 

Something that I'd love to try out, is gamifying a language experience (not technology based), using game mechanics. 

The technology based, game design tools I'd like to give a go is Game Froot, as it is created right here is Aotearoa. 

As we rethink the learning experiences we design for our kids we have to be aware of...

 'CHOCOLATE COVERED BROCCOLI', 

looks like a game, sounds like a game but when the kids start playing they realise its just math practice. 

And just for the pure joy of playing a game, to bring us and our kids together... Google 

Cat On Yer Head... a game for crowds!

Design Thinking with year 6/7!

We designed towers that would become a tourist attraction for an allocentric or psychocentric tourist. We explored a mixture of S.T.E.M. and design thinking.  The S.T.E.M concept linked into the class's geometry learning, by looking at the strength of different shapes (e.g. Is a triangle stronger than a rectangle?) and how we could use this knowledge to make our designs better!

My biggest hesitation to include elements of S.T.E.M into design thinking was that the creative side of design thinking would be lost. Including the S.T.E.M element using a flipped learning approach worked a treat as the kids went and watched the video to prepare themselves for the tower building experience. Sparking in them ideas like the use of triangles to make their towers strong while they were ideating.

Ideating on a large paper worked a treat. Some real collaboration started to happen, more than just "working together". Everyone in the groups ideas became important and needed to be listened to and included. Miss L's group all contributed ideas and then took the best bits from each design to create their final ideation. 

Here the ideations from each member of the team and below the final ideation which incorporates the ideas of the whole group. 

And the prototype, created with newspaper and sellotape. 

Miss L, used Google Draw to create a technical drawing of their teams latest design. It is simply stunning! 

Miss L writes, 

"I made my tower for an allocentric tourist. An allocentric tourist is someone who likes insane activities like bungee jumping, extreme roller coasters and other insane life or death activities. To show my empathy for an allocentric tourist I made a 35 feet tower with a bungee jump, a slide going down the top of the tower, a swing hanging from the side of the tower and last but not least a ladder starting from the bottom of the tower to the top."

Her use of this digital tool sparked an idea of where to take design thinking next.... I'm thinking Game Froot or Tynkercad, with the year 7/8's next week! 

Design Thinking with Year 4/5!

As we only had an hour, I decided to focus on teaching the stages empathising and ideating. We designed for a friend. The kids could pick from a selection of different "friends" who wanted things like "something to sit on", "something that moves", "something that is soft" and so on. 

At the empathising stage, Master T, made the link between empathy and design thinking by sharing with the class... 

"Empathy is thinking about what someone else wants!"

At the ideating stage, I was impressed with how Master R, caught on to the idea of changing one thing about a previous idea to make it better. He began with a simple idea, and kept making changes to make it better and better and better! 

As we ran out of time...here are the crew that spent their lunchtime bringing their ideas to life by prototyping using Lego! They have requested more lunchtime making and creating sessions... Master S even suggested making things out of old boxes and cardboard from home. Sounds like a Makerspace to me! 

I am always intrigued by the way "making" creates language in abundance. As the kids created with Lego we chatted (back and forth, back and forth) about topics ranging from how the Earth orbits the Sun, and the Moon orbits the Earth all the way to how an escalator works.

The next step in my design thinking journey is to explore the way S.T.E.M learning tasks (like building the highest tower, bridges, egg drops, hover crafts, scribble bots to name a few) could be tackled in the classroom with a design thinking structure. 

. 

Let's see how S.T.E.M and design thinking go in year 5/6 tomorrow. I think we shall focus our learning around towers of the world, to tie in with their classroom inquiry topic, tourism! 

Design Thinking with year 5/6!

Between getting ready for and celebrating Matariki plus a few additions from another class to add an already buzzing classroom we tackled a design thinking challenge linked into the class inquiry topic, Tourism! The challenge was to design a tourist attraction for an allocentric (risk taking and adventurous) or psychocentric (thoughtful and peaceful) tourist.

Next time I am going to introduce the ideating stage by sharing with the kids different strategies to come up with new ideas. As across all the classrooms this is the part the kids have found most challenging. 

For the reflecting stage, a hack I've discovered this week is getting the kids to write their "script" on post-it notes to make filming their digital learning objects a breeze - one take and they were done! 

Master P, J, S and S designed for an allocentric tourist. They picked up on the ideation process and loved they idea of mixing together two old ideas to make a new idea. 

They designed a tourist attraction where "risk taking" people who like to do graffiti can come and spray paint the wall without fear of getting caught by the police. They learnt lots about working together and communicating with each other about what needed to be achieved to get the job done!

Masters H, D, B and C designed for an allocentric tourist. They struggled at first to come up with a new ideas but quickly worked out they could make something that was "impossible" which pushed them to take bigger risks and be more creative! 

They designed a teleportation machine that would transport their tourist to any place in the universe instantly. 

I will leave you with a question which was shouted very loudly at me from across the room my Master J,  

"MRS KIRBY ARE WE ALLOWED TO USE OUR IMAGINATION?".... 

.... yes, always! 

Design Thinking with year 7/8!

Our year 7/8 class used design thinking alongside their inquiry topic for the term, tourism. The kids had been learning about different types of tourists with their classroom teacher. So we used design thinking to design tourist attractions for either allocentric or psychocentric tourists.  

We used Lego and a box of "junk" for prototyping.

The challenge I came across was how much the kids struggled to ideate (it was so hard as the teacher to let them struggle and not jump in and give them some ideas). They are possibly just not used to ideating, or expressing their ideas by sketching. 

At the reflecting stage of the design thinking process the kids made short (one take) videos to share with others their designs. The kids had to write a script and practising saying it before they were allowed to film. I was surprised how they really struggled to communicate their ideas.

Here is an example for one of the videos the kids made to share their design thinking prototype. It is definitely not perfect but a good first go, I think! 

Here are few of the most innovate designs. First up is a hot air balloon ride designed for a psychocentric tourist. What a innovate way to use a balloon! 

Miss S, designed a baggage trolley system for her adventurous allocentric tourist. She commented on how she liked learning by making things. She spent  a long time making her ideas better and better and BETTER! 

There is lots of room for improvement. BUT loving this design thinking journey!