Reflecting and Reporting

This week I was suddenly closer to 60 than 50! It only seems like the other day that I was only half way to 60. For time to have gone so fast I must be having one hell of a lot of fun!

The day itself was a true pleasure. Staff thought they would dress up as me.

The two things that alarmed me about this was that they had this stuff in their wardrobes and that they thought they were dressing up as me - they just wore a random combination of bad taste clothes!

I was really blown away when the whole school ambushed me in the cafe and sung Happy Birthday and launched balloons they had been secretly blowing up.

On the slightly more serious side birthdays are a time to be reflective - one of our important Hobsonville Habits that make up our dispositional curriculum. A lot of our staff regularly blog (check them out on the sidebar) which is a great way to model being reflective. The courageous aspect of them being reflective is that they choose a tool that is open and public. By their very actions they are further deprivatising the practice of teaching and making teaching even more visible - something all teachers need to be embracing.

Right now teachers throughout NZ are writing reports for their students. They are spending hours ticking boxes, compiling grades and writing comments for learners they may not yet really know. Hours are being spent proof-reading and correcting, compiling and printing and issuing to parents, in many cases 3-4 weeks after they are written.

How many teachers are taking the opportunity to report on their own performance, effort, progress and achievement, let alone publishing their reports for anyone to see. Recent posts from Steve, Ros and Sally have them doing that exactly. Sally makes comments about herself against each of the Hobsonville Habits while Ros asks the questions of herself that coaches are currently asking of their learners in preparation for their IEMs.

We are reporting to our parents as well. Once a fortnight Learning Coaches send a brief email to parents on their child's learning goals and how well they are going towards achieving them.

As well, last Tuesday evening we held a parent workshop, as part of our reporting to them where we had a 80% turnout. Parents met in their child's learning community and rotated through 4 kitchen table workshops on Big Projects, Specialised Learning Modules, Learning Dispositions and Learning Hubs - the key elements of our curriculum.

Parents participating in curriculum workshops

In 2 weeks time parents will be invited in by their children to have a 30 minute conference with them, supported by their Learning Coach, where they will discuss this term's learning and what their goals are for next term. Seems like effective and valuable reporting to me.

The neat thing is that we don't confine ourselves to just reporting on ourselves! Check out Claire's post on her report on the Minister.

Wandering around during the week I am still impressed with the high levels of engagement I am seeing throughout the building. Through a range of different modules and contexts students have been engaging with the big concept of Identity in ways that are linking the important Learning Areas of the NZC.

Liz ensuring students use the NZ Engineering Standards in their work!

Composing and performing music to express Identity

Visualising our pepeha - our community's identity!

I pinch myself that we have only had 8 weeks yet students are talking about their stages of learning in relation to our Learning Design Model - they know when they are Exploring, Making Sense, Focusing, Generating, Testing, Refining and Sharing. One student told me that she was involved in a process of 'Ideation' in her attempt to make sense and enable her to focus within her project!

They are also engaging actively with the Hobsonville Habits and knowing which Habit they are displaying and which ones they need to strengthen.

Visualising the examples of when habits being displayed

And right in the mix is the fantastic Big Project element of our curriculum. Check out Sarah's post on this part of our curriculum and view the YouTube clip which puts the Big Project element right in the Big Picture.

As a said in my last post the Professional Learning we do as a staff each Friday morning is a highlight. This week was no exception. Di, in a brief but powerful workshop, linked our Learning Design Model to the writing of Learning Objectives which made me embarrassed when I realised the poor quality of my Learning Objectives in the past. This was an epiphany for me. ut wait! There was more! Lisa lept to her feet and with a very messy drawing clearly explained the way in which higher order thinking is scaffolded both with a lesson and across a whole module.

Fridays are such a buzz after these sessions.

I was rapt with my cycling shoes and gloves for my birthday but this note that was encased in a balloon and delivered to me by a student took my breath away.

This will do as my report card for the meantime.

Visible Footprints

Until very recently we had spent a lot of time whistling in the dark - researching, theorising, planning, imagining what a redesigned secondary school would actually look like. I have to pinch myself that after only 7 weeks of operating as a secondary school with students with only the last 3 actually in our building we are seeing our imaginings becoming a workable reality and we are beginning to leave a footprint.

Yesterday, Saturday 22 March, was a special day for establishing our footprint. Lea, along with Sally, Megan and Ros, was at the Big Picture Conference in Wellington and Saturday was her day for the presentation on how Big Picture Kaupapa has influenced the thinking behind our school.

Twitter was going crazy with ravings about her presentation.

The storify collection on the conference can be viewed here

As well, Claire was going hammer and tongs at the Festival of Education in Auckland.

She put out a challenge to educators to accept the need for change in our schooling system and then later in the day chaired a panel of innovative thinkers. The following day she arranged for a group of our students to be part of the Youth Summit at the Festival.

I think I got the short straw but did enjoy the opportunity to be a provacateur while making a keynote at the Auckland Technology Teachers Conference at Auckland University. After hearing a hell of a lot of deficit thinking from them as they responded to a previous speaker I challenged them not to be that group of technology teachers who sit in the corner of the staffroom grizzling about change and compliance, claiming 'we tried that in 1972 and it didn't work then' and blaming primary schools for low achieving students etc, etc. I managed to get out alive and have been invited to speak to Rangitoto College's Emerging Leaders Group. Not quite as exciting as Lea's offer of employment in Sydney!

While at the Festival of Education Dinner that evening I was prompted to reflect on several matters. Minister Parata gave a stirring speech which was well-received, but the introduction and thanks was over the top with its crawlingness and the mismatch between her rhetoric and her shameful focus on testing and grading is a hard rat to swallow.

It was the three young people who took the stage to talk about their schooling experiences that was the most heart-warming and affirming, They were each asked to suggest what should happen in schools to make them more relevant for young people. Arizona pleaded to have out-of-class learning included in evidence of learning and used her experiences as Head Girl at EGGS as an example. Tristan Pang (12 years old and off to full-time university study next year) asked that schools have passion days when students could concentrate on things they were passionate about to keep them engaged with learning rather than concentrating on timetabled academic classes for the whole week.

Thanks for describing our school!

More schools are going to have to follow our lead. Secondary schools still largely look like what they did when I first attended in 1971! There's no way I would go into a hospital or dentist that was operating the same as it did 43 years ago.

Despite the tinkering around the edges secondary schools are still based on the model of one group of kids, in one class, for one hour, with one teacher, being taught one subject, by doing the one set of learning activities, at the one pace and completing the one same piece of assessment at the one time with none of the learning in that one class linked to the learning in their other classes down the corridor and having very little say in the learning activities they are all doing and in what the assessment will be.

Schools must move to the paradigm of many: many ways to group learners, many contexts for learning, many teachers to support the learning, many ways of teaching, many different activities to engage in, many ways to show evidence of learning and many paces for learning.

The following photos show the range of programmes students have been experiencing in our very important MyTime aspect of our curriculum when students determine where they need to be, with whom and doing what to support their learning. They can choose individual or group learning support, numeracy or literacy support or extension or they can pursue a passion.

The very important Friday morning staff Professional Learning is quickly becoming a highlight of our week.

And while this is all going on staff are tracking their journey. Check out the blogs on th right hand side which are being updated continually. I reckon you should check out Claire's post on blended learning which is the best succinct outline of the importance of blended learning that I have seen. And Megan's post is a great champion for conferencing as an important tool for tracking and reporting on learning. And you should check out Steve's honest reflections in his mid-term report card. And finally check out Georgi's description of our emerging library.

One Chapter Closes For Another To Begin

The last week was our last week based at the wonderful Hobsonville Point Primary School. I'm really pleased we didn't move straight into our building as it has given us the opportunity to keep our focus on the learning relationships and the pedagogy rather than buzzing out over our building and its spaces. It has given us the chance to get used to the shared spaces that are a feature of the primary school.

After last weekend's great Open Day Monday started with the group of students who acted as hosts at the Open Day being filmed as extras for a video that is being filmed to promote Hobsonville Point.

Lights! Camera! Action!

It's been neat to experience another round of our timetable which includes a different range of Modules from Big to Small to Spin. Each involves different sized groups of students with different combinations of teachers learning in a range of different spaces and configurations.

Small group collaborating around the campfire with Kylee

Cyndi facilitating a large group at the waterhole

A lot of my time throughout the week was concentrated on getting ourselves and our stuff ready to move to our building. Thursday was a neat interruption to that as we held our first ever Athletics Sports at the Millennium Institute. I was trying to figure out where all the spectators were when I realised they were all competing!

It was a fantastic day during which students and staff got right into the spirit. This Tuesday we will honour our first ever champions and record holders.

Bryce kitted out as official starter

I spent almost all of Friday moving stuff and helping to ensure our infrastructure was going to be ready for our move in on Monday. This was after our Friday morning Professional Learning time which was once again a highlight of the week. This week Ros took us through developing our critical friendship understanding with our critical friend and reflecting in our MyPortfolio.

Collaborative Professional Learning setting a great vibe

I am fortunate to be paired up with Steve Mouldey  and look forward to having my practice challenged by such an innovative and future-focused thinker. You can follow his regular thought-provoking posts in his blog and you should follow him on Twitter (@GeoMouldey).

We both came to the conclusion that an effective critical friend relationship is one that embraces the concept of warm AND demanding. It has been neat to see this concept emerging as a central part of our wider kaupapa for the school.

On both Saturday and Sunday a lot of time was spent at school making sure our building was ready to welcome us tomorrow. Pete did an outstanding job on both days, not only moving people's resources into their spaces but also setting up the auditorium for our celebration. Sunday afternoon evening was spent with Ben and Raj moving printers and getting my head around the wireless and printer environment.

But Saturday night was all about .........

The Boss

Building an Airplane (out of 21st Century transparent materials) While We Fly It

At this Friday morning's staff Professional Learning session Cindy built on the building-the-airplane-while-we-fly-it metaphor by introducing the concept  of  transparent 21st century materials to highlight the openness to scrutiny and critique we are embracing. It was her introduction to teaching-as-inquiry in an environment where we want both learning and teaching to be visible.

Cindy leading PL (with a great T-shirt!)

Right from Cindy's start and then throughout the session I constantly heard colleagues talking about the importance of teaching inquiry focusing on the effectiveness of our practice on student learning, that the focus is directed by student learning needs and not on teacher-determined goals. What an awesome environment!

It was a great way to (almost) end the first week of our 'normal' timetable. This week has been the first week of students running through their full timetable. On Monday students participated in their Big Learning Module, on Tuesday they worked on their Big Project which is focused on the move into our building, on Wednesday they started with a SPIN Module and followed up with a Small Module, on Thursday they completed 3 SPIN Modules and on Friday completed another Small Module. As well, each day they spent time in their Learning Hubs.

Covering the curriculum through Specialised Learning Modules rather than single subjects is a major point of difference between us and other schools. 

Specialised Learning Modules:

·    The Big Learning Module (BLM) represents a day long module made up of three curriculum areas and teachers working together to present an integrated daylong module

·    The Small Learning Modules (SLM) is a two session module that is made up of two learning areas and two teachers working together to lead an integrated module 

·     The Special Interest (SPIN) is a single session module that has a singular curriculum focus and is led by one teacher. 

All modules are designed to relate a term long theme (Term One is Identity). Students select modules with support of their Learning Coaches to ensure curriculum coverage is achieved. In future, when we send information home about future modules we will clarify which curriculum areas are being focused on within each module.

Sally has just posted on her blog how a single subject like PE is present within such a curriculum structure.

Big Project

Our introduction to Big Projects is a mini project on making our move into our new building a special occasion. Students are being introduced to the key stages of successful project work while carrying out this mini project.

You can follow this link to a great YouTube clip posted by Sarah which explains the key stages of Big Projects:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m4iWStN8Rk

Every day I farewell our students as they leave the building and ask them all to give feedback by raising, holding horizontal or pointing their thumbs downwards. It's the best part of my day as all students leave with at least one, often 2, thumbs in the air. They are loving their school days at the moment (long may it last!) and I reckon a big part of it is the fact that no one day is structured as any other day in the week. I love our timetable!

This morning at 6am several of te staff, BOT, students, parents and wider whanau gathered at the building for dawn karakia and a blessing throughout the building. It was a very special occasion which has cleared the way for us to move in, cemented our relationship with local iwi and was pwerful partnership in action. I'm really enjoying how important aspects of tikanga are comfortably becoming part of how our school operates. 

Nga mihi ki te kaumatua, Glenn. Nga mihi hoki ki nga kuia, Te Rongopao me Te Kahui Iti.

And then we threw our doors open from 10am until 1pm for the community to wander through and view our building. Our students acted as wonderful volunteer hosts and excelled in this role. More than a thousand wandered through and shared in our excitement. I got the last to leave just after 2pm!

The countdown is on as we spend one more week at Hobsonville Point Primary School before moving into our own building on March 3. And we've got Athletics Sports this Thursday!

The excitement keeps coming! 

Harmonising Certainty with Uncertainty

I've always talked excitedly about the concept of "building an aircraft while we fly it" - it describes that state when you are in when you think something is going to work enough to give it a try, but still you are not certain how it will pan out (though you can find plenty of reasons to be optimistic).

I came across the concept of "harmonising certainty with uncertainty" when meeting with Noeleen and Bronwyn from the University of Waikato who are tracking our journey as leaders. It seems a perfect description of the state that we have become increasingly confident - the space designers often find themselves.

Harmonising certainty with uncertainty!

We have just begun our 3rd week as Hobsonville Point Secondary School (and still 2 weeks away from  moving into our building). These first 2 weeks have surpassed my expectations. The months of work we have done on exploring and unpicking our BOT's vision, developing a mission and set of values that clearly puts the learner at the centre of everything we do and truly exploring and understanding the intent and aspirations of the NZC have come to fruition.

As I stood at the exit at the end of the day to farewell our students for the day I got them all to give me thumbs up, horizontal or down sign for how their first day of Big Modules went (a full day in a group of 40-50 students with 3 teachers exploring the concept of Identity (see Steve Mouldey's and Claire Amos' posts that summarise these elements well) 3 gave the horizontal thumb and all others thrust their thumb upwards with many raising them high into the air.

I end every day in this way and am overwhelmed by the sense of happiness, fun and engagement our students leave the day with.

Last week I faced the prospect of running 3 workshops with the whole school on the best ways to deal with the inevitable conflicts that will occur in our school. I approached it with some nervousness as it was September 2012 when I last had to work with groups of students in such a way. The students had only had 5 days in our school but I could already see their comfort operating in an environment which valued them as individuals and placed them at the centre.

Most look interested with some even laughing at my jokes!

All throughout the last 2 weeks staff have been delivering workshops on important foundation skills such as digital citizenship, establishing on-line presence, behaviours and collations, understanding SOLO thinking taxonomy, understanding and applying our design learning model, exploring inquiry learning and experiencing our Big Project learning process.

I have attended most of these and have not only been blown away by the quality of the content of the workshops but more so by the total integration, modelling and exploration of our values and Hobsonville Habits (learning dispositions) by the staff.

Danielle's workshop on MyPortfolio used the theme of Super Heroes and was firmly linked to our values

In between these workshops students return to their Learning Hub to process their learning and make sense of it for them. The sense of whanau is very evident.

Hubs in action

Staff also model this in our own 'hub'. Last Friday morning during Professional Learning time students arrived at school to find us in our 'learning hub' working on MyPortfolio in the same way they had been. We're trying to make all learning as visible as possible.

Danielle setting us up for our PL task for the morning

Last Friday I acted as the Pied Piper and led our students down to our building and spoke of our aspirations for them, for our school and for our community to help Sarah launch our first Big Project (see Sarah's blog). I challenged our students to make our school the beating heart of this new community.The activity back at the primary school when we returned as students began planning their project is a testament to the way in which Sarah and her team are motivating all of us in this important element of our curriculum.

Talking about 'Moving In'

Last Saturday morning a small service was held on site to unveil a plaque to honour the three men who passed away building our school when the tornado hit on December 6 2012. The families planted a tree in remembrance of their loved ones. The plaque and trees with seating are right at our main entrance and will be a daily reminder of their contribution.

And what about our building?

Reception

Student Social Space - 1 of 7

We're having an Open Day for people to view our building on Sunday 23 February from 10.00am-1.00pm so come along and check it out.

The rubber has hit the road this week with students (and teachers) beginning our normal timetable. The kids loved their first experience of Big Modules and I was able to confidently farewell them tonight with the promise of more excitement tomorrow with Learning Hubs and getting hands dirty with Big Projects. And then Wednesday will bring their first experience of Small and SPIN (special interest) Modules ....... oh and also they'll be choosing MyTime workshops!

The excitement just keeps on coming!

Shifting the Paradigm with Powerful Partnerships

It was so important that our year with students started as we meant to go on. We'd been talking a lot about the importance of powerful partnerships, having the student at the centre, getting to know each other as learners and making sure the students had as a clear understanding of our vision and values as we have.

Our aspirations could not have been more realised!

Powhiri to start 2014

The first day started with a powhiri to welcome the combined students of Hobsonville Point Primary and Secondary Schools. Kaumatua, Heta Tobin, spoke of the pleasure of being involved in this special event.

On Monday and Tuesday students spent their time in their Learning Hub working on getting to know each other, learning about our community and understanding the values of our school.

Exploring Hobsonville Point

Working on Digital Citizenship with Georgi

Exploring Values with Cindy

Getting to know each other with Megan

On Wednesday we had a focus on our Waitangi Whanau Celebration. Students worked in workshops on exploring their understanding of Te Tiriti through contexts of art, drama, music, sport and food.

That night we were rewarded with 400 people attending our event. They were entertained by a competitive netall match against the North Harbour Maori rep team and exhibition matches of Ki o Rahi, music performances by students and whanau and viewed exhibitions of student work from our workshops. And they had a wonderful kai of pork, lamb, chicken and vegetables prepared by our students. Check out Danielle's post on the celebration!

The feedback was outstanding with parents and whanau expressing admiration for the event and real appreciation that we are determined to involve the community in our school.

Outstanding work Learning Partnership Leader, Sarah Wakeford!

Yay, Sarah

The week ended with a Teacher Only Day on Friday. After workshops on Digital Citizenship by our Library Leader, Georgi, and Andrew Cowie from National Library and on Restorative Practice by myself we were presented with the next iteration of work from Di and her Specialised Learning Leader Team who are now focusing on finalising the Fluencies we wish our students to master and matrixing these with Curriculum Levels and SOLO Thinking Taxonomy.

Over the weekend I have been reflecting on the things that have meant the vibe in our school is as we hoped. Obviously the reasons are complex and varied but an event at the end of the first day when I spent more than 2 hours with some of the kids on the side of the road waiting for a bus that didn't turn up captured for me the type of school we already are.

Last year we talked about how the students would address us and I stated that I was determined to be addressed as Maurie. Most staff have also followed this. Immediately all power hierarchies based on roles disappeared and I have witnessed total respect amongst and between everyone.

While waiting for the bus the students were at ease with their Principal and while lying on my back in the grass by the side of the road seeking relief from the sun I heard one of the students say, "We go to a secondary school where the Principal lies on his back in the grass by the side of the road!"

That's the sort of Principal I want to be!

West Harbour Bus was only 10 minutes late

Getting to know each other waiting for the Whenuapai Bus

Signed:
He who lies on his back in the grass by the side of the road!