Bursts and Bubbles 2020

 

Bursts and bubbles: Karen Ferguson

The aspect of student learning my inquiry focused on this year was having all of my class working at scholarship level to try and improve the standard of work of the whole class. This then shifted to be how to support them in terms of mindset and feeling like they can complete the work.

I identified this as my focus when I noticed that I would have four of my target Year 13 students who were capable of trying for a scholarship this year. They would still be in the normal Year 13 class so I started to wonder if the quality of work for the whole class would improve if they all worked at this higher level. It would involve a lot of mindset work to underpin this new standard of working. This became especially important after lockdown.

To build a rich picture of my students’ learning I used their previous NCEA results and student voice through a Google Form. 

The main patterns of student learning I identified in the profiling phase were that even at Year 13, only a couple of them had any confidence in their work. When we did a mindset profiling activity, quite a few of them were not in a growth mindset at all in the way they thought.

My profiling of my own teaching showed that I have strengths in being open to trying new things and not being precious about how we approach anything.My students would likely make more progress if I developed positive self talk for myself. When my teaching was observed it became clear that I am always being negative about myself and I can’t expect my students to have a positive mindset if I am not modelling that in my own behaviour.

The changes I made in my teaching were getting training sessions right at the start of the year for both me and my students. We all worked to the same high standard throughout the year.I also got my students to monitor my self talk and pull me up on it if they heard me saying anything negative. A few of them were really good about doing that and were very supportive about it.We did mindset activities and games throughout the year with games where you lose a lot and team activities.

The literature that helped me decide what changes to make were books about Mindset - Carol Dweck, Mary Cay Ricci, Daniel Willingham.

Expertise that has helped me has come from PD sessions with Pippa Lawler, a Technology teaching expert. I have had help in house at Tamaki College from the head of PE talking about Mindset and from Mele and Gene helping me to let the students analyse their work in their native languages.

The easiest things for me to change were the structure of the course and work. This is easy for me as I am always open to change and trying to make things better. 

The hardest things for me to change were how the students saw themselves and their work. It is really hard to get someone to feel more confident about themselves and it takes more time than just a few months. 

Some changes I made along the way was a totally different way of structuring projects and building in time during the week for mindset.

Overall I would rate the changes in student learning as a good start. 

 The evidence for my rating is that there was a definite change in the quality of the work being produced and if we start earlier, like Year 11, and work like this consistently, there will be a change in outcome at Year 13.

The most important learning I made about getting the whole class to work at the highest level we can was that they really got what we were trying to do and tried hard. 

The most important learning I made about inquiry was letting the students know what we were trying to do and why. They really stepped up to the challenge. 

 Some learnings that would be relevant to other teachers are to aim for high levels for all students and let them know what you are doing and why. Build in time for mindset and support.

Monitoring evidence, Sharing and Interrogation

I do not have specific, measurable data at this point to share about my students. The work that we do at NCEA Level 3 takes sooooo long to complete that I will not know till the end of this year and the beginning of next year when the results come in. My feedback for this check point is qualitative rather than quantitative. 

At the start of the year, the whole class and I had a great training day, with my scholarship group staying for the whole day. Blog post here.

My approach for the whole class after that was to always prepare work that was to the highest standard I could to try and up the quality / standard of the work for the whole class. Blog posts about this preparation here.

What I have observed in the students -

They did not shy away from the challenge. They all responded well to aiming high.

One of my students is now confident in drawing in 3D for his design ideas. He has been with me since Year 10 and has always lacked confidence and got me to draw with him so he could copy. It has always taken him a few tries. This year, he has had a real breakthrough with this and we celebrated with fist bumps when he showed me 3D drawn work that he had done with no input from me at all. I know this one has been a really slow grower but it was so worth the look on his face when he cracked it. This has further underlined for me the importance of not worrying that the effects of an inquiry be seen after that short space of time of less than a year. It takes time for effects to come through and be embedded in how the students work.

When lockdown happened, the focus of my work with the students was on supporting them feel confident about their work and how they were doing. My blog posts about distance learning and how we did it in my subject are here. I felt that this was a more important direction to go in as everything else would come from that.

While we were on lockdown, I started making support videos for my inquiry class (the Year 13 students) to help them work through the design brief activities. I did this so they could work through the design brief activity in small chunks, that had videos and talked through examples at each stage. Blog post about it here.

When we got back to the class in person, I asked the class how they were finding the help videos. Were they helpful at all? Were they using them?. I got a mixed response at the time. 

"I didn't really watch the videos, but the examples are useful"

"I watched the first video. It was ok"

"They were useful. No they weren't too long. Yes I could understand what you were saying"

When we got to the end of this part of the work and there were no more videos, I started getting different comments from the students.

"Is there any more videos miss?

"I've just watched the last video miss, did you make any more?"

So I think that the videos were more useful than we originally thought and they gave them more support than we thought, which is good as that is what I was aiming for.

When I had my lesson observed for patterns of behaviour in myself, blog post here, it became clear that I needed to lead from the front in terms of self talk and thinking positively. I asked my students to monitor me on that and they were good to their word and 2 or 3 of them are really good at picking me up when I do negative self talk - "miss, remember" ... "miss, don't be negative remember" ... "that was a bit harsh miss". It has got to a point where I have received unasked for feedback from my HOD about this where she has noticed that I am a lot less negative about myself when I am talking, which is great. I still need A LOT of work on this but it is a good start. I will get next year's students on board with this straight away and we will monitor each other as the year goes on. I can't expect my student to be positive about themselves if I am not modelling it myself.

 

CoL Interview Questions

What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2021 and why?

Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise

 

Achievement Challenge 1

 

I have focussed on this achievement challenge for the last 4 years doing my CoL inquiries and the

work that I have done with my inquiry groups has been of a benefit to all of my students. Things that I

have focussed on and will definitely be continuing with include :-

 

• All of my planning is based around SOLO taxonomy, which helps structure the analysis notes that

we have to write about the design work

• The literacy work has been of enormous help in all of my classes and I have been able to use the

expertise of colleagues in other departments and other schools.

• My work on mindset has been a really interesting journey, which has lead me into some useful

readings and we have done some classroom activities that have been outside of our comfort zone.

• Working towards scholarship has been a great process which has really shown me the value of

aiming so high with all of the class.

• Making support material for the students on lockdown has made me realise that I need to adapt

my class site so that it supports the students more and gives them confidence to know what they are doing.

 

I am wanting to try and put this all together on the class site where I can use what I have learned over

the last few years so the students have a highly structured and supportive platform and feel they always

know what they are doing, where they are and where they can go for help. 

 

 

 

What learnings from the 2017 - 2020 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking.

 

As well as the things I have listed above, that I have done, I find visiting the classrooms of my

Intermediate colleagues is always incredibly useful. I get to see how they structure their planning, their

lessons, their students and see how the students approach the work after all that planning. 

Example here

 

 

 

How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and  kaupapa?

 

Learn, Create, Share has been there on my blog all through the last 4 years of being a CoL teacher,

my two years of Class on Air and my two years of Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher. I always share

everything I do, plan and put together for my classes. This year, with the planning for the scholarship classes,

I have been putting all of my planning on my blog, including all of the resources, learning outcomes,

materials and equipment and examples. This came about after listening in CoL meetings where we talked

about “can someone take this and use it?”

 

 

 

Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as

you think about this?

 

I will continue to always include work on literacy - reading and writing in anything that I do as an inquiry.

This is constantly brought up by the research findings and by the inquiries from my fellow CoL teachers. 

It is always a shock for my students who think that by choosing Graphics, they will draw all the time and

then they find themselves writing quite a lot. I have started including reading links in my new Year 9 project

this term. This is definitely something that I want to include more of  to target my students towards specific

reading that will help and stretch them. 

 

 

 

How would you like to be supported in 2021 as you undertake this inquiry?

 

I have had so much help in all my inquiries in the past from colleagues in other departments at

Tamaki College and from other schools. I would like to visit more schools and more classrooms and I

would like some help in order to do that so it becomes a natural “swapping of skills and ideas”. 

 

 

 

How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or

teaching in the area you are exploring?

 

I always write up what I am doing on my blog so this will continue.

I have presented to the school, the cluster and the wider teaching community at various times over

the years. I have been involved in supporting the Technology department teachers recently in creating

their own literacy posters for their rooms like I have in mine.

 

Making Masks

 This week I have been making masks for the students. I asked the principal if I could get some fabric use the department sewing machine.  After a couple of days of testing construction and sizes, production started on Wednesday. I had chosen two really pretty fabrics, backed with black so they are reversible.

I had read some research on different types of mask and the best ones for people to wear are double layered cotton, that are well fitted round the face, so that was what my testing was aimed at achieving.

This is the fabric and the final masks.

Here is where I got up to by the end of the week. Their only payment was a photograph of them wearing the mask. Word is getting round and they are starting to ask me for them now. It is good to see them wearing them. 

Lockdown - Take 2

 We are in the second lockdown and teaching from home. As part of our department planning we have just had to fill in what changes we have made to our lesson planning to cope with the teaching from home situation and what we intend to do when we get back to being onsite.

Here is my section from that document. There are more specific details under the table.

Ferguson Year 13 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on materials research and existing product analysis  for my Year 13 students during the next two weeks. This work can be done completely online. I only had 3 / 4 of my Y13 students come online last time so this research work can be done without me.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on the design development work that has already been started for my learners.  Year 12 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on materials research and existing product analysis for my Year 12 students during the next two weeks This work can be done completely online. I only had 1 of my Y12 students come online last time so this research work can be done without me.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on the design development work that has already been started for my learners. Year 11 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on materials research for my Year 11 students during the next two weeks. I had 3 regulars last time so this work can be done without me.. When we are back onsite, I will focus on getting the laser cutter fixed so they can finish their first project and they can continue development work for the designs for their second project. for my learners.  Year 10 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on Tinkercad skills, so they can use these skills for their design ideas when we start the project,  for my Year 10 students during the next two weeks.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on starting ideas for the product design project for my learners.  Year 9 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on coming up with ways that they can continue with the plan online,  for my Year 9 students during the next two weeks.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on starting design ideas based on their work in SOS and Health,  for my learners.  Year 7 and 8 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on short activities that can be completed in a half short timeslot, for my Year 7 and 8 students during the next two weeks.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on starting the new work for the new rotation,  for my learners.

The details of this are as follows.

Year 12 and Year 13

The Year 12 and Year 13 class have been working on materials research in the class as part of their design development work. We have started reading about different materials together and I put a few examples of different materials on the class site so they could read in their own time too. Link here

When we went on lockdown again, I shared this template with them to collect their information onto. We also chatted individually about their designs so we could look for specific material suggestions online. These were then added to the materials research page.

These students also need to look at existing products as part of their design development work. I shared a variety of templates with them, all based on SOLO taxonomy. 

Product Analysis
Describe ........  Describe Self Assessment
Analyse Map ........  Analyse Map Self Assessment

I have tried to offer work to them that can be done without my input so they can get on with it even if they can not come to the scheduled meets.

Year 11

The Year 11 class have just started looking at materials that can be used in their seating design development work. We have been reading about materials together in the class and I have given them the link to the same site page as the Y12 and Y13 students about materials, so they can read and watch at their own pace.

With the students who came online, we have been looking at how different materials can be applied to the specification points they made in their design brief. Example that I worked through online here. I now have this example to give them as well as the information collection template to work through in their own time if they can't come to the scheduled meets.

Year 10

My Year 10 class have just started their new Technology rotation so we had not made a start on the project when we went into lockdown. I have given them the link to the Tinkercad skills instructions on the class site. Link here. They can work through the skills and exercises here and they can then use these skills when we get back into the class and start the product design project. This work can be done in their own time and if they come to the meets they can ask questions and watch me show how to do specific things they need to know.

Year 9

My Year 9 class have just started their new Technology rotation. We had made a start on the project before we went into lockdown so I have been focusing on putting work on the class site that can be completed online but is still definitely part of the project and provides useful skills.

Link here to class site page

Intermediates

My Design class have work that was already set up from the last lockdown and we will be using that again with this new group. Link here The skills they learn here will be used in their product design project when we get back to the classroom.

The coding class can learn the basics of using blocks to code with and can play some of the coding games I have set up on my site. Link here

Adding more reading into project planning

 A couple of weeks ago, we had a "Secondary Connect" PD opportunity (blog post here). The focus was on English and Literacy. When Dr Aaron Wilson was presenting, he was discussing T shaped literacy. 

When I was thinking about this afterward, I realised that I don't actively plan to include reading for my students. All they really do in my lesson is read instructions and some research.

I have my new Year 9 class this week on their new Technology rotation and we are doing a new project based on Graphic Novels. I have decided that this is the perfect opportunity to start planning to include reading.

As of writing this blog post, the class site has two activities on it for these students and I have found readings for them to do and put them on clickable buttons on the project activity pages.

Graphic novel page - Types of Graphic Novel page - Three Act Story page

I will keep this format as I continue to plan for this project. It needs to become the new normal. I can then plan for the "depth" part of the T.

Cluster Create Workshops 2020

 We have just had our second Manaiakalani Cluster Create workshops where the whole cluster comes together to talk about the "create" part of Learn, Create, Share.

The first workshop I went to was Greg's on Pencil Code. This is a great online app for drawing with code.

Here are his resources to teach us some basics.

Coding shapes challenges

Coding angles challenges

I presented for the second round of workshops. Russel and I were showing our team how to code mBots to follow a black line.

Here are my resources for the day. I also included a couple of extra activities at the end just in case.

As you can see, we did well with getting the robots to race round the track.

AS91627 - Starting Concepts - Prep for students

Planning for AS91627 - Producing concept sketches for their chosen product design.
We are moving onto concept ideas. This can be done as drawings on paper or the iPad (Procreate) or as 3M sketch models to help them to visualise their ideas.

We are focussing on the form of their concept ideas first so there is not much colour or details yet.

Resources

Link to blog post planning - Pattern and Texture
Link to blog post planning - Form
Link to blog post planning - Colour and Shape

Link to blog post - Form Development

Link to class site

Link to help page on the class site - includes worked examples and screencasts of explanations

Learning Outcomes

• To produce a wide range of different design concepts that could fulfil the design brief they have written.
• Use a wider variety of media to create their work and rely less on the standard use of drawing pencil and coloured pencil.
• Create 2D and 3D sketches or models to explore different ideas.
• To be able to use the information from the design brief and the needs of the client to guide them in their ideas.

Materials and Equipment

Drawing pencils - only to be used in a support role, not as the main media for the work
Black outliner pens
White pencils

Brown graphics marker pens
White paper, brown paper, coloured sugar papers

Clear acetate for tracing.

Card , glue and scissors

Plasticine and 3D modelling tools

iPads and stylus's with Procreate installed


Form drawings and models in pencil and various media.

Form development drawings and models.
Look at these drawings as a base to find forms to use in the design concepts.

Examples

Initial concepts. A photograph of my hand was traced to provide the ergonome for the drawing.

We are using quite a monochrome approach to the concepts so we can focus on just the form to start with.

This is brown paper, brown marker pen and white pencil.

To see what kind of shapes can be held easily in the hand and how big they could be, I made some sketch models in plasticine and photographed them being held in my hand.

Some of the students have started using the iPads, with an app called Procreate.

This small example is going over a few of the key elements we have been looking at on the app. Using the airbrush pen, the smudger and the eraser. Using the colour picker and layers.

The notes that will go with these concepts will explain how they relate to the design brief. The students then need to take these back to their client to get feedback. The direction they take their design developments will depend on what the client says about their concepts.

Multi Lingual Literacy Support with SOLO

In my inquiry group there are three Filipino boys. One of them has very good English, one Ok and one not so good. There is a lot of translating that goes on between them when they need to understand my lesson instructions, which is great, but I cant have that responsibility on them when it comes to the written analysis that they have to do for their design ideas.

This is a continuation of the multo lingual literacy support I started with my Year 11 class. Blog post here.

This is the support sheet I have put together for the notes that have to go with their design developments. It is structured around SOLO Taxonomy so they can see how the structure is supporting how they are analysing their work.

Here is a direct link to the Google Drawing

Here is where it is on my class site with the other literacy support documents I am putting together.

One of our teachers is also Filipino and she very kindly agreed to translate this for me so I can give two of the boys especially, this work to do in their own language.

Here is the updated, translated version. The boys will get this on Monday. I cant wait to see what they think.

Link to Word Doc version

Secondary Connect - English - Literacy

Inquiry Question 6 - Teaching Observation

1. Plan and conduct detailed inquiry into specific aspects of your current teaching that are relevant to the hypotheses you identified in the literature. Inquiring into your teaching should give you:

• Formative information about your current strengths and areas for development
• Baseline information that you can use at the end of the year to provide evidence of shifts in teaching

Use multiple tools such as self- or peer-observations, analysis of your class site, student voice.

2. Present findings from this inquiry about your teaching. Ensure qualitative data includes rich descriptions of your teaching and quantitative data is clearly presented.

3. Write a reflection in which you summarise your main learning about your teaching and next steps. This will prepare you to design an intervention next time.

I asked Mrs Anderson, the HOD of Technology to observe my lesson. We decided that if she was in the room taking notes then I would change how I interacted with the students without meaning to, so we decided to record a section of a lesson with my inquiry group.

This is the rubric that we are using ...

Mindset Lesson Observation

Item	Seen / Not seen	Notes
Listening to the students talking about their work.
Does not use negative language with the students while talking about their work.
Inquires into / Encourages / helps students when they are stuck or need help.
Has help available for the students to use in their own time when they need it without them having to ask all the time. Building self resiliency.
Uses growth mindset language - you can, effort, try, fail, learn, mistakes. Etc… to model mindset talk.
Encourages self reliance and self management in project work.
References to work?

Anything else to add …

I recorded one period of a double lesson and we reviewed about 25 minutes of it.

Here is the whole video.

Here is the rubric with the notes on it ...

Mindset Lesson Observation

Up to 24:08 in the video

Item	Seen / Not seen	Notes
Listening to the students talking about their work.	IIII	Is it important to get the students to talk more? The only listening time was when they were responding to questions asked.
Does not use negative language with the students while talking about their work.		There was no negative talk directed towards the students personally or their work. Comment about them being slow in finishing work.
Inquires into / Encourages / helps students when they are stuck or need help.	IIIIIIIII	Inquiring a lot into student progress, “what are you doing?”
Has help available for the students to use in their own time when they need it without them having to ask all the time. Building self resiliency.	II	Students were drawing and making in 3D. They all needed individual help.
Uses growth mindset language - you can, effort, try, fail, learn, mistakes. Etc… to model mindset talk.	I	Not enough of this type of language used throughout the lesson. A little seen in the whole class talk at the start of the session.
Encourages self reliance and self management in project work.		Students are seen getting on with their work. It is when they need a “next step” that they sit and wait for the teacher.
References to work?

Anything else to add …

Teacher Self-talk IIIII

Notes:

Identify what is turning over work output by the students to know how to expend teacher time effectively

Student Voice and Observation Reflection - figure out what is positively impacting student output, to know what items could be focussed to improve student output even more

The main talking points and analysis for Mrs Anderson and I after reviewing the video were

1. What are the main things that the students feel help them to get on with their work confidently? I can do a very quick Google Form for this to get some student voice about it. I can then plan what the main focus of attention needs to be in terms of changes to put in place from the rubric.
2. What can I, as the teacher, do to stop the negative self talk that is coming out of me all the time? I had not noticed this was a problem until we watched and analysed the video together. If Mrs Anderson had done an observation in the class and we had not recorded it, I would not have believed her. To see me doing that so often was embarrassing. How can I expect the students to improve on their mindset if I am constantly putting myself down? This is going to be a tricky one to work on and I am going to need time to think of strategies. I may involve the students in this too and explain to them what I am trying to change and why.