Ali Carr-Chellman

Engaging the Disengaged Learner

Ted talk
Energize Conference - Day 1 - Keynote

"Bring back the boys - gaming to re-engage disengaged learners" (book)

US stats

75-80% of all ADHD medications are give to US boys.  Are we medicating them because they are boys?

4 X as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD if you are a boy.

3 X as likely to be suspended, expelled, in special education if you are a boy.

For every 100 women who earn a bachelor's degree, only 73 men earn one.  Women outnumber men obtaining master's degrees by more than 30%.

Why?

Zero tolerance policies (if you play guns, you will stay in at lunch).  Too many things that engage our boy learners, are outlawed in school.

Compressed curriculum (3 R's alone)

Cultural differences (Schools not current enough.  'Millennials' are their own culture with their own needs.  They are disengaged for 6 hours at school and head home for education to begin).

What can we do?

BringBackBoys

Fluidity, Improvisation - key aspects to learning that engages our disengaged learners.

Raising Cain

Gaming

• Minecraft (education option).
• OTS (off the shelf gaming).  What can you learn from games that already exist for public consumption?
• Failing at a game is a way for millennials to now explore failure in a way that other peers that do not game, do not experience.  Therefore they explore the emotions for failure as well as problem-solving and perseverance skills.  Communication and people skills (eg, teamwork) is incorporated also.
• Don't use educational simulation games.  Disengaged learners like the gory stuff!

Key points

• Forces a culture shift.   Respect and trust from adults.
• Design based thinking.

Examples:

One Stone

Circle School

CLC (Centre Learning Community)

"An educational system isn't worth a great detail if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't team them how to make a life."

Reflection

• Gaming isn't something that I want to focus on in my Year 2 room at this stage.  We are not equipped with devices that will run Minecraft efficiently either.  However the ideas of boys being treated differently throughout the system is pertinent to my work in a boy heavy classroom.  Key points to take away when designing my play programme:
  - less rules on the play (freedom within a framework)
  - the 3 R's alone is not enough to engage our boys meaningfully.  Context needed.
  - these children are millenials and need engaging for this culture.  What is this culture?

Action

Louie working on measuring through the Roomble Froomble potion making guise.

Coby writing down his potion because of this context also.

SPIRAL ONE - Urges and Curriculum

By resourcing the urges in the room, I am able to connect children into the higher forms of PRoPELS play.  

PRoPELS evidence (narrative assessment)

Karyn Gray

In what ways can we do this differently than in the past in order to more fully engage our learners and enrich their learning experiences?

Need to have a vision - when things aren't working, go back to the vision.  Create a vision for the class?

Make dispositional stuff the priority.  You must put this first in your assessment as well.  Learning muscles examples at TKAS.

Be responsive - planning changes.  Confirmation for me!

Provide and Plan for Collaboration for the children.  Feed this through to our staff meetings?

REFLECTION is so important.  Needs to be a set part of the day.  Introduce some learning muscles - teach - reflect on this in the play.  Publish on seesaw.

Look into solo taxonomy as a tool for feedback, reflection and obvs - personalising learning!

Use of Space and Display.  It's not an art museum. It is a place for children to access the resources for learning.

Key messages:  (As a leader you must do these things for your teachers)

• Give permission
• Create time and space
• Be responsive
• Face outwards
• It's exhausting....but rewarding

Reflection

• Look into First Order and Second Order change - Mark Osborne.
  First order change - extension of the past (manuals are often wanted by these tchrs).
  Second order change - more aspirational and unchartered territory.

Action

During Term 2, 2018 I have worked with Paul to begin establishing the charter and vision for Waipawa School.  Although my ideas around connect were not taken up, action became to 'root' word for the vision and the way it links through the different stages and phases is intuitive.  Bay Play has become a stalwart of established PLD that is a tangible 'get on board' point for teachers.

The above Key Messages for leaders have influenced the way I am rolling out the support for TAI and Learning through Play development in Term 3.  Team meetings are taken back to once a fortnight and these will alternate with TAI support meetings.  This will give permission and space but be responsive to the onslaught of needs that will arise.  There will be choice to jump on board a guided inquiry around learning through play/STEAM/hands-on learning, or to be supported on your current inquiry.

Digital Opportunities for Younger Learners

Sue Forndorfler
Methven Primary School

New Digital Technologies Curriculum

• Computational thinking for digital technologies has a Level 1 outcome.
• Getting students to plan and create instructions for problem solving (eg, old maths activities)
• Checking steps make sense and are accurate
• Debugging - did it work?  Can you fix it up?  Reflect - how can it work next time?
• Developing some computer science thinking (basic coding).
• Learn how to store and retrieve work on a device.
• Teaching about digital technologies NOT teaching with digital technologies.

How?

• Integrate with classroom programme
• Make strong links to literacy and numeracy
• Teach the skills of computational thinking
• Give time to practice and explore
• Find class experts

What is computational thinking?  (www.barefootcas.org.uk)

• Check out the above website for a break down of what to teach for computational thinking.
• TKI have exemplars.
• www.digitalpassport.co.nz
• www.csunplugged.org
• code.org
• tynker

Examples of digital learning opportunities for junior children
Start with the school values/learning dispositions

Methven School began with their values that they aligned with the new digital curriculum

• computational thinking
• collaboration
• creativitiy
• communication
• citizenship

Technologies to explore

• Scratch
• Hour of Code
• Microbit
• Beebots/Mouse - plastic sheeting from spotlight and place letters/numbers/nz map underneath
• Mentimeter
  
  More technologies to explore under the different learning disposition 'labels'

Creativity

• Explain everything
• Book Creator
• Chatterpix
• Minecraft:  Education edition.  Staff have an account and children come under that.  Piece of art to be recreated.  3D shapes. Teacher sets up world.
• Paint 3D - what comes next?  Past - present - future idea.  What device do you need?  (Microsoft)
• iMovie
• Mixed reality viewer

Communication

• Seesaw
• Mystery Skype and Skype in the classroom (chn can draw pictures and make notes about what they can hear)
• Learnz

Collaboration

• Student voice using google forms

Citizenship

• Manage the environment - don't put on the floor!
• commonsense.org (digital safety)
• Reading eggs
• Matific

Personal Reflection:

Begin using the new curriculum for digital technologies by starting with computational thinking.  Integrate this into my TAI by introducing maps - pirates - Roomble Froomble.

Action

High interest with the inclusion of the pirates and how it was wrapped in fantasy.  Need to now work on 1/4, 1/2 turns and left and right with more focus.

SPIRAL ONE - The "hook"

How to make sure everyone is on board with The Wizard...

To be able to capitalise on Roomble Froomble so that his 'magic' lasts a large proportion (if not all) of the year, I need to make sure that the children are completely hooked.

Roomble Froomble invites them to his magical place in the bush.  This linked to all sorts of work to do with literacy writing ( see Seesaw link) and worked as a large curriculum focus.  Very motivating and not just as an instigator of learning but more of a vehicle.

Link to Narrative Assessment evidence

Link to curriculum 'vehicle' evidence

SPIRAL ONE - Introducing Roomble Froomble

Hello...

The introduction of Roomble Froomble was the mysterious appearance of the tree in our room and the little fairy house.  An introductory letter happened explaining who he was and where he was from.

Letters to Roomble Froomble went to and from the tree.

Observations:

• Lowest ability writers are the most interested to write to Roomble Froomble.  Connection with development theory here?  If not developmentally ready to write formally, are you more likely to be more developmentally connected to wizards, fairies etc...
• No uptake of Roomble Froomble to imaginary play, although imaginary play is happening.
• Indigo still in the 'observing phase' of play.
• Harley often in a leadership role with play depending on peer he is playing with.

Link to evidence of imaginary play in room

SPIRAL ONE - Baseline Data

5 Stages in a child's make-believe play.

After reading this reading, I decided that I needed baseline data of where the children sat with their stage of play agains the PRoPELS.  This would allow me to track progress (using target children as the barometer and noting any other children who were outliers) and see whether the work with Roomble Froomble will improve the quality of executive functioning and therefore the level of complex play.