The Learning@School conference blog

Sadly I wasn't able to hear all of Christian's keynote which concluded the Learning@School conference in Hamilton, but the part I did hear had me determined to find out more when I arrived home.  Christian is an educator, school planner, and passionate advocate for innovative learning communities. Earlier on at the conference I had the privilege of being able to spend a little time with him discussing a number of the 'big picture' issues we're facing in New Zealand education at the moment – both the opportunities and the risks. His breadth of understanding and his passion for building a better future impressed me then, and I saw the same emerging in the early part of his keynote. 

His message simply:

We need to fall in love with failure as a vital experience in the experience of learning

Christian asked us; "Can we embed failure into our DNA of learning – to enable us to do great things in complex times?"

He quoted Samuel Beckett here: "Failure isn’t the problem, but our failure to lean into the messy-ness of learning."

Christian claims that we'll fail (as teachers) if we fail to do certain things, posed here in a personalised way:

1. if I ignore the centrality of kids in all we do
2. if I spend all the time thinking about next year and no time on next Tuesday
3. if I claim that I am right

Fortunately lots of Christian's ideas are available to reference, so I plan to do exactly that. The recent copy of ISTE's Teaching and Learning Magazine has his article "Teach Your Kids to Fail Better" published in it – so that might be a good place to start. 

During the keynote we also set up a collaborative open Google Doc so delegates could take notes together during the keynote – check it out.

Day two at Learning@School, Kevin Honeycutt provided a stimulating and engaging keynote, sharing from his personal experience as the child of an alcoholic father – to his experiences as a teacher and the ways he works with his own students. 

Through his expertly timed performance of masterful one-liners and personal encounter stories, Kevin had us oscillating between peels of laughter and tears of empathy as he explored the importance of identity, of acceptance, and of experiencing success in becoming a truly liberated and self-directed learner. 

I particularly liked Kevin's reference to 'the benevolence of rewindable learning'. Through a series of stories about his students and of his own son, Kevin creatively described the value of technology in enabling a much more personalised approach to learning. He cited his own experience in learning the guitar—having to hide it from his father, and of learning it one note at a time as he memorised music in sections from the sheet music in the music store—eventually teaching himself to play Led Zepplin's Stairway to Heaven. He then told of his son who wanted to learn to play the guitar, but declined to have his father 'teach' him. Instead, he locked himself away in his bedroom and learned the same tune from a 6 year-old, who had posted his videos on YouTube. Kevin's observation here was the value of being able to re-wind the learning, to watch the one piece over-and-over, with no criticism or judgement, until mastery is achieved. Honeycutt's point is that there is benevolence in archiving instruction. Once teachers are rewindable, kids get as many chances to learn as they need.

Kevin made many references to teaching and learning in the "eduverse", emphasising the need for all of us as educators to be connected in order to be empowered and relevant in the 21st century. He asks "where do we get our information from?" and challenged us to join listservs, Twitter, Facebook etc. We need to be panning for 'information gold', he says, using things like Google Alerts to 'scrape' the internet for the nuggets of information that we'll find useful.

He sees two kinds of people emerging from our education system and applying for jobs in the future—the first is very smart and self contained in the way they do and learn things, the other is not quite as smart but very connected. Of the two, it's the second we need to focus on developing—the first will still be doing the same things in the same ways in five years, while the second will be refreshing what they learn and know all the time. 

This principle applies to us as teachers—we've spent long enough building our confidence around the knowledge we've acquired and keeping it to ourselves lest someone else steals it. Honeycutt says we have to incubate ideas, we can no longer build our lives on one idea. His advice: "when you have a good idea, have another one!"

A lot of Honeycutt's presentation focussed on the fact that kids nowadays can become producers (rather than consumers)—and that most of this can and will be done online. He introduced us to a range of online tools, including Lulu, which he used to illustrate how young people have used to self-publish their own writing, and in doing so, have become more intently focused on the things they need to do to improve. Other online tools he referred to includes:

• cafepress - print your own designs on T-shirts or cups etc
• story jumper – print your own children's book
• tiatok - aplace for kids ot publish and share their own books
• zazzle - Create Your Own Shirts, Prints, Mugs
• spreadshirt - custom T-shirt printing
• pikistore – custom T-shirt printing
• createspace - self publishing and distribution of books
• blurb - create your own book online
• tastebook - online recipes collection.

The simple message here: 'don't ask if we can—ask how we will". 

Honeycutt's infectious wit and enthusiasm for things that excite kids kept us engaged for the full hour and a quarter. His final comment summed it all up for me:

"We need to throw our education where our kids are going to be!"

(Referring to the advice of a coach to the quarterback in a game of American gridiron football to get him to throw the ball to where the runner will be, rather than where he starts from.)

Kevin Honeycutt has spent 20 years in education, the last eight have been at ESSDACK, a non-profit educational service agency, working in the area of staff development around 21st century skills. He has been managing the ArtSnacks network for nearly four years, and has used it to bring art understanding to thousands of people from all over the world.

Kevin Honeycutt recorded an EDtalk while at Learning@School :

Trends, tools, and tactics for 21st century learning

During the keynote we also set up a collaborative open Google Doc so delegates could take notes together during the keynote – check it out.

Nothing beats the sharing of experience, and the telling of personal stories interwoven with the historical context and insights of experience is a powerful way to convey a powerful message.

This was the case with the keynote speech from Deanne Thomas and Wharehoka Wano who are well known in the Māori Medium sector, and in the wider Māori communities for their work in education, technology, te reo Māori, the arts, and school leadership and management,

De's was a very personal account of growing up without a clear sense of her personal identity as Māori, and her personal journey of discovering what that was, and the impact that has had on her as a person and as a teacher.

Whare's was also a story of discovering his identity as a Māori in a predominantly Pakeha society, featuring the significance of Whare's mother being a Parihaka local in that journey.

Through the telling of their own stories, De and Whare described the context of the "last generation" of Māori who grew up communicating with Māori as first language, who lived between 1930s and 1970s, and who died without passing on their language to their kids. They described the impact of this on the generation that they represent, and how Māori have struggled with a loss of identity during that time, and the renaissance that followed in past 40 years.

Whare and De painted a picture of what it is like for Māori children in school today – the majority of whom are in mainstream education system. They quoted statistics showing that Māori students are 2.5 times as likely to be stood down from school, twice as likely to granted early elaving exemptions before age 15, and 18 out of 100 Māori students will not achieve basic literacy and numeracy skills by age 10.

These two are passionate about changing that situation, and have backed that up with an impressive commitment to working with and for young Māori in our schools over the past 20 yers. to them the significance of telling their stories in this way reflects their belief that 'we are our history', and that by tellting such stories, we can begin to change through understanding and reflection. 

They referred to the work of Mason Durie who identifies 4 key markers for Māori cultural identiy

1. identification as Māori
2. cultural knowledge and understanding
3. access to and participation in Māori society
4. communication in te reo Māori

They ask: "what does success look like for Māori students in our schools?", and "What are the key things that keep Māori kids at school and performing really well?" suggesting things such as:

• looking after other people
• t-ball
• writing and texting
• eating
• tidying my room

As a consequence, they explored the idea of taking the pedagogy of Kapa Haka and sports into the classroom to encourage success for Māori. The suggest he following attributes shared by Kapa Haka and sport that could be transferred over into the everyday lessons in the classroom:

1. Te Reo – the Māori language
2. Tuakana teina - relationship of the elder teaching the younger
3. Ako - the teaching-learning relationship
4. Reciprocity – learning off/from each other in ways that they are comfortable. (e.g. when parents come in to support they aren’t all Kapa Haka experts, but some will bake afternoon tea, others will play guitar.)  
5. Oral literacy

Key elements of success for learning for Māori are:

• Encompassed by wairua
• Guided by karakia
• Underpinned by belief
• Recognized as success and achievement
• Supported by whanau

So to create successful experiences for our Māori students, in our classrooms we need to be thinking about and asking:

• how well do we work as collectives – young teaching the old?
• where is the sharing and supporting?
• are there steps for sequential learning (steps in learning, scaffolding, expect it to be mastered)?
• context that kids can see themselves in
• localized curriculum

Also – the values we speak about in Māori, are doing words

• kaitiakitanga - guardianship
• whanaungatanga - kinship
• manaakitanga - hospitality
• wairuatanga - spirituality
• kotahitanga - one-ness/unity

Whare and De emphasised that these concepts are not just for including in charter statements, we need to do them. We need to plan to take action to connect with Maori learners & their whanau – what will we do differently in 2012?

Some thoughts they left us with at a personal level were:

• learn a little of the Māori language (Te Reo Māori at a critical stage, and important that we make a real commitment to learning more of it. Hoping that we (all teachers) will see it as a valuable thing to learn and make a real, personal commitment to this.)
• research local history
• find out who are the local Māori leaders
• ask questions
• ask your Māori mates/whanau

Theirs was certainly a call to action – not something we should sit and listen passively to. All who attended need to reflect on this challenge and consider how we will respond. 

Thanks De and Whare for making these messages accessible to us all, and for laying out the challenge with some very practical steps to get us started. 

During the keynote we also set up a collaborative open Google Doc so delegates could take notes together during the keynote – check it out.

“We’re in a new world and we need new structures, new ways of doing things in order to participate in it,” so claims Frank Green, CEO of Leigh Academy in his opening keynote address to the 1400 delegates at the Learning@School conference being held in Hamilton.

Frank Green comes from UK where has has an established reputation for innovation and transformation as part of the school improvement process. The schools he has led have become leading schools in the country.

Frank  challenged us to think more creatively, more strategically and with bigger vision about the transformation agenda in schools. His key challenge to the delgates of the conference: "What is transformational about what we’re doing?"

“Transformation hasn’t yet happened – most of what we’re seeing is simply modernization”, says Frank, “compare the development of trains and the rail system – they’re still trains, they still ride on tracks and they still provide transport within the confines of the continent on which they’re based. What we need is to build a jumbo jet – that opens up entirely new dimensions of travel that the train, no matter how modern, could possibly compete with.”

Frank shared the background to the development of the Leigh Academy, highlighting the process of developing the vision and values upon which the school is based. At the Leigh, the mission they've settled with is:

Creating a quality learning network that delivers excellence in all its services in an enterprising culture and in partnership with the community

Which Frank summed up as..

• Take risks
• Work together
• Work hard

This sort of process and thinking will be familiar to many L@S delegates… things such as partnership, collaboration, students at the centre, high expectations etc. forming the underpining beliefs behind the formation and ongoing operation of the school. We've seen schools in New Zealand go through a similar process in thinking – take the new schools that have opened recently in the Auckland region for example.

The point of difference in what Frank shared, however, is how to take the success of one school and replicate it in others, and so begin to achieve systemic change, rather than simply just another 'island of excellence'. 

He challenged us to make sure that everything we consider doing in terms of the transformation process is underpinned by research and evidence. His rationale for breaking the Leigh Academy into four 'schools within schools' for instance ws informed by research evidence around the increase in vandalism and grafitti in school buildings, which revealed a correlation with roll size. 

Franks provided a list of questions as examples of the sorts of things we need to consider in setting our transformation agendas, such as

• How do children learn best?
• Where do they learn best?
• At what times do they learn best?
• What size of group is best?
• What style of learning//teaching works best?
• Which teachers are best?
• What abut Technology?
• Where is the evidence?
• What about research into learning?
• What about neuroscience an how the brain works?

Rather than provide specific answers to each of these, Frank encouraged us to find answers to these that are a best fit for us and our context, and then find the evidence to support and back up our position. I suspect this list could easily form the basis of some really useful professional discussion at staff meetings in the early part of the coming year.

I was intrigued by the reference he gave to some 1948 research into effective learning which concluded; "children learn best when they learn from other children". The theme of students at the centre of the process and design thinking was central to much of what Frank shared. The signs of transformation in our school system that he'd be looking for included:

• students are the teachers
• school students as self motivated as university students
• school students as leaders of learning
• 20/80 to become 80/20 at least (i.e. 80% achieving what 20% used to achieve – as leaders in their field etc.)

Frank emphasised the mportance of being practically involved as a part of learning, and need for practice (e.g. mechanics don’t learn to fix cars by only reading books, gymnasts don’t become great at what they do by only watching videos of others) and provided several examples from his UK school experience to illustrate this.

Technology was also profiled significanlty in the programmes in the schools Frank is responsible for. There is a signifcant focus on the personal use of computers in all aspects of the learning process. He referenced how iPads are being used at Longfield Academy where every student comes to school with an iPad, and shared an interesting movie clip made by students to illustrate how they are using iPads at the Academy. 

Frank also shared another video titled "why did we choose the iPad?” which I watched with interest given the topical nature of this debate in New Zealand. While this clip certainly conveyed the enthusiasm of the students, and began to unpack the potential uses of a personally owned device, I was disappointed that it didn't really live up to its title of why they chose iPads – it could really have been any mobile device. 

Frank certainly left us with lots to ponder on, however, particularly in stretching our thinking beyond simply thinking about our own school to think of our education system. Here is his summary of what is required to move forward:

• Clear vision and educational plan
• Enormous expectations
• Outstanding learning and teaching
• Relentless pursuit of improvement
• ‘it’s relationships’

During the keynote we also set up a collaborative open Google Doc so delegates could take notes together during the keynote – check it out.