Engage Me!

I have been thinking about student agency and engagement. I came across this video which reflects these two aspects.

Dweck and Hattie -Teachers As Change Agents

I have been thinking a lot lately about how we as teachers can make a difference in our classes. Often it is not the whole class, but a small group of students who are not achieving. The classroom challenge that wakes me up at 4.00am! Am I the only one?... I came across these two videos recently, one of John Hattie and the other by Carol Dweck. Both Carol Dweck and John Hattie have looked at a large body of research into learning. Carol Dweck's research focus is on a Growth vs Fixed Mindset for students in our classes, where some students believe their ability is fixed and there can be no improvement. Students with a Growth Mindset believe that with a focus on the process, working to achieve success, even with some failure along the way, they will be grow as learners. Carol Dweck talks about the concept of "Not Yet", which means students haven't been successful "yet", but they
are working towards it. There are many videos of Carol Dweck explaining more about her work and also her book "Mindset - How you can reach your full potential" is very good. I have this on my iPad, I ordered it as an ebook and it was delivered in a micro-second - ah the power of the internet!
John Hattie is well-known for his work on Visible Learning and looking at the factors that make a difference to learning. If you want to learn more these two links John Hattie Part1 and
John Hattie Part2 are edited highlights of a 2011 lecture explaining his research. The video below talks about his own time as a learner and the relationship with his favourite teacher which comes in at spot 11 on the best influence on learning with an effect size of .72. Professional Development sits at
19 with an effect size of .62.  Two good ways to make a difference to the learners in our classes!

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The secret of change - examples via Twitter

This image is a screenshot of a photo taken at #ignition14 and then posted on Twitter by
@Tina_P then retweeted by @carlacurious. I have also retweeted it.  One of the challenges for many teachers is that "new" can be challenging, we have had so  much "new" and let's be honest,  change can be difficult and scary.  However, it can also be amazing and rewarding. Following on from @Geo Mouldey (Steve Mouldey's post) on returning from a Conference or workshop. I have also been thinking about how we go about developing those sparks of excitement into fires of change, before they are extinguished by the buckets of cold water from negative colleagues, as well as the reality of a busy teaching life! (A little OTT?)
Many teachers these holidays are involved in personal PD, reflecting on their teaching and planning to make changes to impact learning. I think a good way is to choose one idea that fits in with something that currently happens in your class/school and try that.

I was struck by these three tweets demonstrating change in the classroom and "building on the new"
How much new learning was happening and how engaged were those students?

What will you be doing in Term 3 to change the learning in your classroom?

Meeting an innovative educator -Making Learning Happen

Last week I was fortunate to listen to, and meet Abdul Chohan, from Essa Academy in Manchester. He is the director there and is an ADE and has The schools we work at are very different. This year I am lucky to be at high achieving school which has just implemented a 1.1 laptop policy with a robust (usually) wifi and full-time IT support staff.
"In December 2008, Hayward School - our school - was at the point of being closed down. Poor attendance and years of underachievement had cemented a culture of low expectations. Failure was often seen as inevitable. In each of the previous four years, the proportion of students getting five A*-C grades including maths and English at GCSE was below 30%.  Students lacked aspiration and staff lacked inspiration. Our use of technology was ineffective and expensive: " ...)read the rest

I had read about Essa Academy and their use of iPods a few years ago. I had also watched videos of students engaged in learning with their devices. It was great to meet Abdul and hear how far the school has progressed, now using iPads and creating their courses on iTunesU. Some of my takeaways from the afternoon were about how to implement change,having a school vision, building belief in students(and staff) being transparent and developing people. Teaching and Learning is about building relationships, no matter what school we are at. It is always about learning, not the technology. 

Below is Abdul's talk at the "Learning Without Frontiers" Conference 

Sharing, Collaboration,Open Source - The new Pedagogy

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  “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” ― George Bernard Shaw

Sharing ideas and resources is a very powerful way to increase not only your teaching "tool kit", but it is also a powerful way to empower colleagues and benefit ourselves.  As we move into a new year and new challenges as we embrace BYOD, the concept of sharing ideas, tools and strategies just seems to make sense. 

What can you share?