Friday, December 22, 2017
kti manitoulin
Reflections on the KTI institute Stan Kozak November 2017
Big take aways
-Aboriginal learning based on the traditions was holistic and there is great opportunity to continue to explore how traditional insights can inspire and shape learning practices in First Nation's schools-these are rich traditions that offer so many possibilities for educators to become aware of and utilized to enhance learning -this is a great challenge since the learning curve involves evolving from conventional learning into transformative practice but in the context of what is relevant to Aboriginal cultures
-from the discussions that took place -there is great need to support advancing learning in First Nations schools -it seems that many if not most are in the conventional teaching worldview and that parents in these communities apply pressure for more of the same -when they are not working
-we heard of teachers grappling with students in communities under great stresses -an entire additional layer of complexity to those tasked with facilitating learning in these communities
What worked at this institute
-despite being somewhat overly lead -there were 4 facilitators, a program administrator and an elder, the institute was overall successful due to experiential elements outside and inside, some elements of inquiry and some drawing on the input of participants attending through which we got glimpses of Anishenabeg experiences and family experiences in previous times -relevant to learning today
-there were some significant side conversations where individual teachers grappled with their current practice and the wish to apply inquiry/outdoor practices advocated or demonstrated
-leadership of the Elder Josh was essential in bringing authentic Anishenabeg presence to the gathering -a few of the older participants had depth of experience to draw on in this regard
-KTI staff were very well organized as per the site and the meals and overall organization
Enhancements
-the institute did not follow the continually evolving LSF professional inquiry methodology so it would not be fair to apply the criteria we normally use to determine impact and effectiveness (identification of learners questions, participants taking leadership in the learning, documentation of that learning, planning for application, participation in the online sharing of proceedings, etc)
-as per land based learning we really did not get into this in any deep way -what we focused on was learning outside -important for all early years programs -this is important and maybe as far as the participants would be open to going
-we could have more formally identified how Anishenabeg traditions can be used to shape and inform learning outside
Walking the talk
-attention to living lightly on the land -let's plan to do recycling and compostable collection and request bringing of cups
-getting outside on day 2 would have been helpful
-fitness -we could have done some walk and talks and explained this as a way of getting our exercise and discussing important issues
Future Possibilities
Goals
Address student Motivation for learning
-an overriding goal for Indigenous learning that seems to be the place to start is -how do we as educators create school learnings experiences so that kids feel compelled to attend -where individuals want to attend even when they are ill, when learning is so vital to them that is central to their being -I have experienced this numerous times in my teaching achieved through one of two ways
1. create interesting and compelling learning scenarios -often involving audience beyond the classroom where learners see themselves as helpers to others -or learning experiences where children are in close contact with nature -this is enticement -
2. the second approach is through authentic inquiry where we follow their interests -this is intrinsic
Conventional teaching often resorts to an external compelling of students to learn with rewards or punishments -not very effective
When the desire to attend school to learn has been sparked the curriculum can then be also addressed
Unfortunately learning practice in schools seems to be dominated by conventional approaches resulting in part in poor attendance.
What might the land based cultural curriculum be over the grade range?
-we could have brought attention to this great possibility for linking learning to cultural traditions and I think it could be the focus of future land based PD learning experiences
examples
-in early years the focus might be plants that are important and their sensory experiencing, learning their names in Anishinabek
-early grades -traditional shelter construction -honour ingenuity of the people in being able to live with what nature provided
-stories in context whenever possible
-cooking over an open fire experiences
-these are just some guesses on my part -so many would come from the Indigenous educators attending
-from there we would weave in the pedagogy -how to find all the curriculum based on these experiences
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Guelph Youth Forum
This forum was secondary teachers and students. We conducted the day entirely from a circle. I have found that this format brings greater accountability for 'presence' and participation from all.Tables were located around the edges of the circle to access when necessary. We went outside for the opening (in a circle) and again later in the morning and as well in the afternoon to connect curriculum to nature and the built/cultural community.
This was indeed an enlightened group of secondary teachers who were very open to hearing about and thinking about evolution of practice as being one of the keys to the change they recognized as necessary. The KBC Question -"How can we engage the young people in our classes with the challenges of our time? What does it take to make that happen?" This brought a thoughtful and deep conversation. I drew their attention again back to the people in the room as being an important support team. Recognizing this they seemed willing to get to know one another on a deeper level than usual. They also were very concerned about the 'wellness' of their students (and themselves!). Empowering students becomes even more critical in this light. Perhaps these are the 'sustainability issues' we need to approach next using all of the 'pieces of the puzzle' we have offered to date under the umbrella of 'student empowerment'.
-Pamela
This was indeed an enlightened group of secondary teachers who were very open to hearing about and thinking about evolution of practice as being one of the keys to the change they recognized as necessary. The KBC Question -"How can we engage the young people in our classes with the challenges of our time? What does it take to make that happen?" This brought a thoughtful and deep conversation. I drew their attention again back to the people in the room as being an important support team. Recognizing this they seemed willing to get to know one another on a deeper level than usual. They also were very concerned about the 'wellness' of their students (and themselves!). Empowering students becomes even more critical in this light. Perhaps these are the 'sustainability issues' we need to approach next using all of the 'pieces of the puzzle' we have offered to date under the umbrella of 'student empowerment'.
-Pamela
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Halifax Youth Forum Nov 2017
Going to Halifax is like 'Groundhog Day'. As an educator one gets the feeling it is 10 years ago. These grade 7- 12 teachers struggle with getting support from their board and administration to use the community as a venue for teaching. Going outside is seen as a 'fringe activity' and seriously questioned as to its validity. In spite of this, 21 teachers gathered in a circle at Dalhousie to contemplate such 'rebellious acts' and look for support to do just that. They were a relatively quiet group at first, but as the day wore on they began to loosen up and contribute to some wonderful conversations. As we worked they began to nod in agreement, and question, and feel supported. We went outside twice to talk about the possibilities for using the outdoors and community. They were really interested in 4 credit courses and how they could work together with other staff members to do integrated projects. We started in a circle and stayed in a circle. They talked to the whole group not just a small table group. I realized that the circle has become for me an effective way of conducting these forums for the last 2 years. Youth Forums are like a 'tasting menu' or a 'trailer' for a movie. They move quickly through a number of ideas and teachers need time between each to respond and talk to each other. I truly have become more of a 'guide on the side'. Knowing when to sit down and be quiet is as important as when to talk. This group was very interested in the r4r searchable data base. They loved the peer review feature and some wanted to contribute to the site. That is the first time that idea has come up in any Forum I have been part of. It is my opinion that there is very fertile ground in Nova Scotia for the kinds of Institutes that we have done in the past on getting outside and on inquiry and that they would be very receptive to LSF offerings.
Monday, October 30, 2017
Milton Youth Forum, October 2017
Thanks for summarizing what we did Pamela. I repeated what we had done
on day 1 on my own on day 2. There seem to be a bit more energy for the
questioning piece in the afternoon. Here is the link to the Question Formulation Technique: (you need to join and log in to access the slideshow).
The KBC led to some rich discussion. The new question was: “How can we engage young people with the challenges of our time through action projects?” and...
“What does it take to make that happen in our classrooms?"
We also touched on the 4Cs of 21st century learning (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication) in our discussion around the shift from conventional teaching to transformative teaching. I've also uploaded a video called "Above and Beyond" that hightlights the 4C. Our "question focus" was "Social action does not belong in the classroom". This question focus is supposed to spark questions.
The KBC led to some rich discussion. The new question was: “How can we engage young people with the challenges of our time through action projects?” and...
“What does it take to make that happen in our classrooms?"
We also touched on the 4Cs of 21st century learning (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication) in our discussion around the shift from conventional teaching to transformative teaching. I've also uploaded a video called "Above and Beyond" that hightlights the 4C. Our "question focus" was "Social action does not belong in the classroom". This question focus is supposed to spark questions.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Thanks for summarizing what we did Pamela. I repeated what we had done
on day 1 on my own on day 2. There seem to be a bit more energy for the
questioning piece in the afternoon. Here is the link to the Question Formulation Technique (it is a slideshow but you need to register and log in to see it). http://rightquestion.org/educators/resources/. Our 'provoking' question focus was "social action has no place in the classroom'.
The KBC led to some rich discussion. The new question was: “How can we engage young people with the challenges of our time through action projects?” and...
“What does it take to make that happen in our classrooms?"
We also touched on the 4Cs of 21st century learning (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication) in our discussion around the shift from conventional teaching to transformative teaching. I've also uploaded a video called "Above and Beyond" that we showed that hightlighted the 4Cs in the facilitator's resources (as I cannot put a link in comments). Here is the link to the page: https://www.fablevisionlearning.com/blog/2014/05/above-and-beyond-the-story-of-the-4cs
The KBC led to some rich discussion. The new question was: “How can we engage young people with the challenges of our time through action projects?” and...
“What does it take to make that happen in our classrooms?"
We also touched on the 4Cs of 21st century learning (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication) in our discussion around the shift from conventional teaching to transformative teaching. I've also uploaded a video called "Above and Beyond" that we showed that hightlighted the 4Cs in the facilitator's resources (as I cannot put a link in comments). Here is the link to the page: https://www.fablevisionlearning.com/blog/2014/05/above-and-beyond-the-story-of-the-4cs
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Complex institutes and new tools
Thought I would record some thoughts here in the facilitators' blog about complex institutes as a means of providing some insights to Diane who is soon off to the Yukon for an institute that has anglophones, francophones and indigenous educators attending and an organizer who seems that we can do all things for all educators. On one level we can -we can provoke and generate questions but as with all of our institues some folks think they are coming to these things to have answers delivered. Not the case.
Emphaize we are doing professional inquiry
This is so important up front. Professional inquiry being:
-professinal leanring being directed by participant's questions
-group knowledge builidng -that acknolwedges that insights are found in the group
-making the learning visible -so that the learners can see what has been learned, revisit, build on
-and we are doing this in the context of supporting an"owning you own PD" position -which is a way of supporting individual professional agency -learning to know what you need to know and then be able to pursue those needs
-we also are having participants experience inquiry as a means of helping them facilitate inquiry with their studnets
-so best to make it really clear that we don't have the answes, we don't even have the quesions -that is what we are here to facilitate
Intro provocation
-we have been starting sessions with having participants reflect on issues that keep them up at night for short
-sharing these as a mixer with others in the group
-posting these and then going right into a KBC
-recently I have evolved this to asking participants to individually think of a child important to them and recording on a large index card
-child's name
your relationship to them
-insights about the child -their uniqueness
-your hopes for this child
-your fears for the child or what challenges he/she and their generation will face
-we do this provocation to bring emotional elements to our inquiry and to set up the context for the KBC as to why learning which is what underlies the KBC question --what should these learners experience in school in order to achieve our hopes and prepare them for these challenges.
-in planning with indigenous educators recently we decided to go back to the original version of this initial provocation to make it less personal in acknowledging that the experiences currently part of life in indigenous communities might be too close/invoke feelings too deep.
-anyway this is something to consider
Additional video examples of transformative practice
Secondary-students choose their teachers -see the 4 minute video from a much longer AlJezera story about students in London who choose their teachers based.
-see the Grade 7 to 12 video folder in the facilitators' folder
Norcan Math -this video show secondary students talking about their math learning experience -being math coach in their class, being asked about how they learn best, being part of the school math council which informs teachers about math learning -part fo the NORCAN math project involving schools in Alberta, Ontario and Norway
-also in the facilitators' video folder
New Kindergarten video from the lab School
-this 7 minute video features Carol again and spans outdoor learning and then bringing that indoors
-this is a nice addition to the gravity experience that is
Outdoors pre school from the US Seattle region
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jNAImEvcAs
Bringing in Indigenous Perspectives
-in moving from Conventional teaching to transformative learning we highlight the underlying values or perspectives and then have use the simple T chart to compare the two
-this is not particularly helpful for indigenous educators since their cultural base is different from the dominant and minority western ones we highlight
-a number of sources have identified First Nations Principles and these can be used in having a base on which to inform decisions about teaching practice
Here are a few -but note these may not be accurate for all First Nations
For our activity where we have participants add to the T chart comparing conventional and Transformative learning we might add another column
It will be very interesting to see what educators wiht Indigenous roots have to contribute to this chart.
Note that we might also compare transformative principles with Indigenous ones.
Supporting Change
In the last half day of the 2 day institute we often start looking at considering where we are going from here after the institute.
Chnage is central to this but change to what, is not clear.
Freeing up some time in our busy educator day is essential and hence consideration of what are we going to stop doing.
I have borrowed a title from an ASCD book "Never work harder than your students" at this point but that was based on a misinterpreataion -I never read the book until recenlty. The author did not propose the idea I thought it meant -stop doing things that your students can do and share your power and the learning that comes from these activies with your studnts. Example -don't get your room all prepared with the bulletin boards filled in before school starts -share that with your students asking them -what should be on our bulletin boards to help us learn better and be a better community?
That calls us to change our vision of teacher. Hence based on some nice interviews a few yeas ago with teaches at Stirling Public school I created the video Good Teaching 1.0 to Good Teaching 2.0. It is in the video folder. Certainly a good provocation before going into a KBC on what are you going to stop doing.
Emphaize we are doing professional inquiry
This is so important up front. Professional inquiry being:
-professinal leanring being directed by participant's questions
-group knowledge builidng -that acknolwedges that insights are found in the group
-making the learning visible -so that the learners can see what has been learned, revisit, build on
-and we are doing this in the context of supporting an"owning you own PD" position -which is a way of supporting individual professional agency -learning to know what you need to know and then be able to pursue those needs
-we also are having participants experience inquiry as a means of helping them facilitate inquiry with their studnets
-so best to make it really clear that we don't have the answes, we don't even have the quesions -that is what we are here to facilitate
Intro provocation
-we have been starting sessions with having participants reflect on issues that keep them up at night for short
-sharing these as a mixer with others in the group
-posting these and then going right into a KBC
-recently I have evolved this to asking participants to individually think of a child important to them and recording on a large index card
-child's name
your relationship to them
-insights about the child -their uniqueness
-your hopes for this child
-your fears for the child or what challenges he/she and their generation will face
-we do this provocation to bring emotional elements to our inquiry and to set up the context for the KBC as to why learning which is what underlies the KBC question --what should these learners experience in school in order to achieve our hopes and prepare them for these challenges.
-in planning with indigenous educators recently we decided to go back to the original version of this initial provocation to make it less personal in acknowledging that the experiences currently part of life in indigenous communities might be too close/invoke feelings too deep.
-anyway this is something to consider
Additional video examples of transformative practice
Secondary-students choose their teachers -see the 4 minute video from a much longer AlJezera story about students in London who choose their teachers based.
-see the Grade 7 to 12 video folder in the facilitators' folder
Norcan Math -this video show secondary students talking about their math learning experience -being math coach in their class, being asked about how they learn best, being part of the school math council which informs teachers about math learning -part fo the NORCAN math project involving schools in Alberta, Ontario and Norway
-also in the facilitators' video folder
New Kindergarten video from the lab School
-this 7 minute video features Carol again and spans outdoor learning and then bringing that indoors
-this is a nice addition to the gravity experience that is
And some pretty far out videos of outdoor kindergarten in Denmark
Kindergarten outdoors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkiij9dJfcw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jNAImEvcAs
Bringing in Indigenous Perspectives
-in moving from Conventional teaching to transformative learning we highlight the underlying values or perspectives and then have use the simple T chart to compare the two
-this is not particularly helpful for indigenous educators since their cultural base is different from the dominant and minority western ones we highlight
-a number of sources have identified First Nations Principles and these can be used in having a base on which to inform decisions about teaching practice
Here are a few -but note these may not be accurate for all First Nations
Sites and Resources relevant to Indigenous learning and the shaping of this learning
First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning Model
First Peoples Principles of Learning
For our activity where we have participants add to the T chart comparing conventional and Transformative learning we might add another column
feature
|
Dominant western –conventional teaching
|
Minority Western –Transformative learning
|
Indigenous traditionally inspired
|
Why schooling
|
Serve the economy
|
Individual enlightenment and citizen capacity
|
|
Role of teacher
|
Command and control
|
Facilitate and coach
|
|
Note that we might also compare transformative principles with Indigenous ones.
Supporting Change
In the last half day of the 2 day institute we often start looking at considering where we are going from here after the institute.
Chnage is central to this but change to what, is not clear.
Freeing up some time in our busy educator day is essential and hence consideration of what are we going to stop doing.
I have borrowed a title from an ASCD book "Never work harder than your students" at this point but that was based on a misinterpreataion -I never read the book until recenlty. The author did not propose the idea I thought it meant -stop doing things that your students can do and share your power and the learning that comes from these activies with your studnts. Example -don't get your room all prepared with the bulletin boards filled in before school starts -share that with your students asking them -what should be on our bulletin boards to help us learn better and be a better community?
That calls us to change our vision of teacher. Hence based on some nice interviews a few yeas ago with teaches at Stirling Public school I created the video Good Teaching 1.0 to Good Teaching 2.0. It is in the video folder. Certainly a good provocation before going into a KBC on what are you going to stop doing.