Start the year off with lots of inquiry thinking...

Some very interesting points are made here by Australian inquiry 'guru' Kath Murdoch and have certainly got me thinking (again!) about how to incorporate more inquiry thinking across all curriculum areas...

http://www.kathmurdoch.com.au/blog/2017/1/24/establishing-a-culture-of-inquiry-through-inquiry

Modern Learning

This is very much how our school is conducting our inquiry programme, which we have called DRIVE (Discover, Reflect and ask questions, Investigate, Vision and create, Evaluate):

DRIVE Term One 2016: In Great Shape!

DRIVE - the Inquiry process at Edendale Primary School:
Discover  Reflect & ask questions  Investigate  Vision and create  Evaluate

Term One 2016: HEALTH 

"IN GREAT SHAPE"

- What makes me a healthy person? 

PURPOSE/AUTHENTICITY:
* Personal Health and Physical Development is where students develop the knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes that they need in order to maintain and enhance their personal well-being and physical development.
* Healthy Communities and Environment is where students contribute to healthy communities and environments by taking responsible and critical action.

KEY UNDERSTANDINGS:
* Health and well-being (hauora) is physical, mental and emotional/spiritual.
* My health is my responsibility.
* I can support others as they keep themselves healthy and safe.
* We mature physically and mentally as we get older.
* We all have feelings and emotions that we express in different ways.

CORE KNOWLEDGE:
* We all have a range of feelings and emotions to describe our experiences in different situations.
* If I don’t take care of myself I will become ill.
* Healthy eating, hygiene, exercise, sleep, relationships, positive thinking, Sunsmart, water safety etc. SMARTS/learning styles, values and principles
* Our bodies and minds change at different rates.





RESOURCES FOR DISCOVERY AND INVESTIGATION STAGES OF 'DRIVE'

General
templates for tracking healthy habits
a variety of health/body templates

Food/Eating  - AN APPLE A DAY pupil group resource links blog-post
track your diet for a week - template   and five food groups tracking chart
Healthy eating for kids
expert: Mel McKenzie, Heart Foundation (Linda Harris)

Exercise - WARRANT OF FITNESS pupil group resource links blog-post
tracking your movement minutes chart
expert: Jane Muir

Hygiene - KEEP IT CLEAN pupil group resource links blog-post
healthy hands templates and unit
teeth - experiments to show why we should brush
toothbrushing tracking chart
kidshealth.org - why we need to brush our teeth
expert: Dental Health service educator

The Body - ENGINE PARTS pupil group resource links blog-post
variety of games/activities to print out
skeleton cut out
skeleton labelling sheets
heart health
expert: NZ Heart Foundation (Linda Harris)

The Brain - BRAIN POWER! pupil group resource links blog-post
multiple intelligences pupil survey printable
another printable smarts survey
expert: Maureen Deuchrass, Road Safety Southland

2015 INQUIRY - Science: Physical and Chemical Change

"A-ha Moments!"  How does it work? Why does it happen?

TERM THREE: SCIENCE INQUIRY - physical phenomena and chemical changes
Reason for this inquiry: Children are curious about physical and chemical changes and enjoy the experimental side of these discussions and activities – they need to learn about scientific process too.

Understandings: (Big ideas/Key Concepts)

• Physical phenomena and chemical changes can be observed and measured. 
• Physical phenomena and chemical changes behave in certain ways. 
• Physical phenomena and chemical changes can occur naturally or be controlled through human input. 
• Materials can be changed in lots of ways. 
• There are physical and chemical changes. 
• Some types of changes can be reversed, others can’t.

Core Knowledge: (Baseline knowledge)

• Physical phenomena are light, heat, sound, forces (push and pull), electricity, and magnetism.
• There are three states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) and matter can change from one to the other.
• We use controlled scientific experiments to observe and test physical phenomena and chemical changes.
• Changes in materials include physical (e.g.stretching, bending, twisting, squashing etc), and chemical (e.g. dissolving, melting, heating, etc).
• We use physical phenomena and chemical changes to help us in practical and recreational situations. 

Inquiry Skills: REFLECTING
Strategies: Using the question matrix.
Blended Learning: Reading and writing – research, recording experiments and following scientific method; Blog posts/Explain Everything; Videos of experiments and results
Key Competencies: Me as a Collaborator V
Value: Participation
Te Reo/Tikanga Maori integration: Questioning, understanding and appreciating our world and resources; use of cooperative activities and shared tasks
Special Needs: Targeted learners: support with discussions and written tasks – use tech expert classmates to support with creation/presentation of info
Further notes: I will begin inquiry with investigating physical/chemical changes, and moving into the use of scientific method for science fair projects. Trainee teacher to take children further, with physical phenomena (forces) theme, for posting Weeks 5-9

ASSESSMENT: by end of Week 10


TEACHING RESOURCES AND INFORMATION
Chem For Kids
Chemical change vs physical change
Solids

Learner.org: Physical Science course for teachers
Session One - what is matter?
Session Two - solids, liquids, gases
Session Three - physical changes
Session Four - chemical changes
Session Five - density and pressure
Session Six - rising and sinking
Session Seven - heat and temperature
Session Eight - extending the particle model of matter

BBC Bitesize
Change


Scientific Tuesdays - colour changing chemicals video - use the idea for a inquiry starter??


Scientific Tuesdays - Color Changing Chemicals by JacindaBoyce

Mr Lehan Teaches You Stuff - a ninth grade video/powerpoint about change


Grade 9 Chemistry, Lesson 3 - Physical and... by snarlingunite

Science with Higgins - Soap in a Microwave


Scholastic Studyjams - states of matter video 


https://youtu.be/BgM3e8YZxuc

ANZAC resources

Image source

25 April 1915 - 100 years since the first ANZAC battle began...

Class mini-inquiry "Walking With the ANZACs" blog-posts:
#1 Intro videos


Poppy art idea "That Artist Woman" blog         Quiz

Link to the ABC Gallipoli documentary website - videos sharing the first day of the campaign - 25 minutes if watched back to back

Second ABC link - online 3D interactive documentary - very well done, lots of info, maps of the area, timeline, mini clips etc

Radio NZ - oral diary                     NZ Army museum

National Library online links  and  WW1 resource guide

National Library online images           NZ History WW1

NZ WW1 100 years website               TKI resources

Rachel Boyd blog - Anzac Day resources and videos            WW100NZ pinterest board


Definite read for anyone with a Year 6+ classroom! My pupils thoroughly loved it:

NZ author Susan Brocker's website

NZ War Memorials map              Stretcher bearers and donkeys            The Unknown Warrior

Research NZ soldiers          NZ Archives research a soldier           NZ Curriculum Online

English unit (NZ)            Teach Ezy maps of Gallipoli           Starters.co.nz NZ unit plan

Make a paper poppy                Last soldier to leave the beach           WickED Anzac resources

Imperial War Museum (UK)           NZ Battle of Gallipoli             Photo links

Walking With an Anzac           Capital E Theatre resource             Poppy Time lesson ideas

Someone has put a lot of effort into telling a little of the Gallipoli story with Lego:

A new link or two for Just Cool!

Am adding a couple of new links to my Just Cool! page -

-this is a gorgeous little animated film about persistence:

https://vimeo.com/98919897

- and some awesome photos of children from around the world doing what children do best...playing!

http://www.boredpanda.com/happy-children-playing/

Would be great for writing prompts, social studies, discussions, photography/art....

They are all fantastic...this is one of my favourites!

Image link

2015 Beach-goers! Rocky Shore inquiry

Term One 2015: 

Curio Bay, petrified forest

How do my actions affect the environment of the rocky shore?

Science inquiry - Level 3 Living World

Purpose: for pupils to learn about the living creature of our rocky shore and to explore the good and bad impact that humans have upon the habitats of these creatures.

QUOTE: "In all living things there is something of the marvellous." - Aristotle

CORE KNOWLEDGE: (teacher background info):

• MRS GREN = movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion, nutrition
• a rocky shore is an ecosystem full of different habitats for both plants and animals
• human impact includes pollution and conservation, over-fishing and introduction of predators etc
• at the rocky shore we should find mammals, fish, birds, crustaceans, molluscs, bi/uni-valves, plants

Sand dunes (and early Maori umu/ovens) - Curio Bay

KEY UNDERSTANDINGS: (for pupils):

• MRS GREN is a scientific concept that defines what a living thing is.
• Living things can be classified into groups.
• Living things have different habitats.
• Humans impact on habitats.
• Living things have special features to adapt to their habitat.

Online Resources

NZ MARINE STUDIES CENTRE - lots of fantastic resources:

DoC info sign, Curio Bay

Who Eats Who? - use pages 16-19 for a food chain activity
Marine Life database website - find info on a range of creatures
The Southern NZ guide to rocky shore life
Life on the Rocky Shore overview sheet

Canterbury's Spectacular Coast - blackline masters and a food chain snap game

Incredible Science NZ - Life on the Rocky Shore is Hard

National Library of NZ Rocky Shore links

Te Ara Coastal Shoreline site

Image source

Defining Living Things: 
MRS GREN
BBC for kids
KSW
slideshare powerpoint

Moulting yellow-eyed penguin (Hoiho) at Curio Bay

Curio Bay

Curio Bay

Curio Bay

Passion Projects as a LIteracy Programme

I've been devising a change for my literacy programme for my Year Six class - I don't know why I do this... well, actually, I DO know (it's because I am always trying to fine-tune my class programme to give the pupils the very best possible learning experiences...) but I have come up with (to quote Blackadder) "a cunning plan" to incorporate reading and writing by using the Passion Projects idea in a different way, one that will suit the way I operate...I'll try it out and see how it goes at least!

You can read my overview of intentions and term overview of topics here: click this link!

Basically, the plan is that at the start of the term I will offer up five different topics for literacy sessions - pupils will indicate which topic they are most interested in.  Guided groups will be developed from that, and I intend to incorporate relevant writing tasks alongside the reading tasks eg read an article about animal cruelty, write a letter to the SPCA commending them for their work - pupils may come up with ideas for writing as the unit progresses too (I want them to be guiding the direction of some of their tasks too...)

I need to have some aspect of control over the topics offered to the pupils as if I want to stay sane while building up the resources and lessons for four or five different groups I will need to keep certain limits on what is offered, while still giving pupils choices).  I have broken down some different topics into four terms - topics that twenty years of experience has shown are popular with pupils, while also trying to use topics that have relevant application to their world in 2015 and to have topics that will provide a good range of reading materials and writing contexts.

I have also aimed to cover a range of curriculum areas, with the topics being based on non-fictional themes, but choosing topics for which I will easily be able to find and incorporate fiction texts (ie in School Journal) that fit the theme as well, for instance in the unit about team sports we might read a narrative story about sportsmanship. I have also thought about topical events eg the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli and the Rugby World Cup.

I have thought of a range of EOTC experiences for the pupils to take part in at the end of their unit as incentives for completing a great range of tasks during the term. I have a goal to involve more parents, whanau (family) or community members as part of my class programme, so to have a couple of parents take a group of pupils for a morning fishing or to visit an exhibit at the aircraft museum, will be a good way to increase those connections.

For each unit, once I know which pupils are in that group, I will select the most relevant reading and writing learning outcomes to address, based on pupils' ability and next learning steps - these will be presented to the pupils for their comments and reflections on progress.

Wish me luck! I am off to start building up a class blog-post of online resources for each of Term One's topic units, as well as a Google Drive page for each unit (where the pupils of that group can look to find their independent task list, and I hope to also use the Google Drive for collaborated reflections and other shared tasks for each group/unit).

2014 Term Four Week Three

What did Team Kahu get up to this week?

We cooked green bananas to get a taste of Pacific (fish and) chips!

We journeyed around the Pacific on a magical flying carpet ride (thanks to Google Earth)!

We heard the road safety messages presented by Share the Road, ahead of the major sport event, The Cycle Tour of Southland!

And we were excited to hear back from NZ author, Susan Brocker!

Science Fair preparations

Information for the Southland Science Fair - held in mid-late August each year.

Introductory activities: maybe use to get pupils thinking about scientific process:

• Turn Milk Into Plastic!
• Home experiments from Science Is Fun

With the Sci Fair being held in Week 5, it means we only have four weeks to carry out our investigations and write them up for display and interviews with the judges.

I plan to introduce scientific process in Week One, pupils to then choose their investigation, materials gathered for the start of Week 2 - with on-going record keeping for Weeks 2-4 and the final write up happening at the start of Week 5. So I have looked for quick investigations where results should be showing in the time-frame - I have also selected ideas that flow on nicely from our Term 2 inquiry about our solar system, as well as any that could be related to the Science Fair special theme of 'Living in a Cooling World'...

Pupils will work in groups of 2 or 3 and can choose from any of the ideas below (which are from Science Buddies which has a huge range of fantastic investigation ideas):

1. Is It Getting Hot in Here? - temperature/greenhouse gases - Ben and Jonas
2. How Salty Does the Sea Have to Be? - floating an egg  Jennifer and Caity
3. Is the Soup Ready? - measure the amount of water dried beans can absorb
4. Shaking for Butter - which temperature works best?  Nikka and Anthony #1
5. Mag-nificent Breakfast Cereals - how much iron is in your cereal?  Coebie and Damien
6. How Greasy Are Your Chips? - measuring the fat content of potato chips
7. Bigger is Better - how much baking powder do muffins need?  Kim and BJ
8. Growing, Growing, Gone! - the use of nitrogen fertilizers on plants   Nikka and Anthony #2
9. Radiant Radish Seeds - how much heat can a seed take?
10. Which Way Up? - how does gravity affect plant root growth?
11. Do Plants Need Soil? - a simply hydroponics investigation
12. Home Sweet Biome - which environment is best for plants?  Dylan and Brayden
13. Recycling Grey Water - do the plants like it?  Brock and JM
14. All Packed Up - how does packaging affect the storage of fruit?
15. Can House Colour Reduce Energy Bills? - how colour attracts heat Keegan and Logan 
• instructions            background info**
16. Cold Room - make your own solar air heater  Lisa and Richard
17. Roof-top Gardens - do they help keep your house warm?
18. Colour My World - how do different colours of light affect plant growth?  Maria and Lane
19. Breathe Out - how does increased levels of carbon dioxide affect plant growth?
20. Feed Me - how do different fertilizers affect plant growth?

** background info can be found via the link on the Inquiry page of our classroom blog - scroll down to see the Science Fair heading and select the links for the appropriate investigation/theme!

HEALTH - Firewise - Fire safety practices

For the first week of Term Three our school health safety focus is Firewise - very important with so many homes using fireplaces at this time of the year!

The NZ Fire Service Firewise programme is aimed mainly at Years 1-2 but the resources can be adapted for older pupils, with a DVD available for Years 7-8 (and some parts can be used with Yr 5-6 with careful consideration).

With my Yr 6 pupils our focus will be on revising the basics about fire safety eg keep matches out of reach, the heater-metre rule, don't play near barbecues or fires; with the main focus being on Get Down...Get Low...Get Out Fast! (and Stay Out) and having an at-home escape plan and safe family meeting place.

For our literacy sessions this week, I plan to pair the pupils up to research and present one aspect of fire safety advice, using the Firewise booklets that the Fire Service has sent us (again, these are aimed at younger pupils but my older pupils will benefit too from having the messages reinforced). We will set a criteria together first so pupils have clear guidelines of what to share.

Pupils will create a presentation of their choice on the ipad to share on their blogs and on our class blog.

INQUIRY - Technology Production and Process

Term Three 2014 - TECHNOLOGY: 

PRODUCTION AND PROCESS  

Inquiry Question: MADE IN NZ!

How do we get ........?........ 

and why is it important 

to my life?

Key Understandings:

·         Technology is a man-made process.

·         Technology takes something that is natural and processes it into a product.

·         Technology makes life easier and provides more choice.

·         Technology provides greater convenience for daily living or job performance.

Core Knowledge:

·         Something natural becomes processed as soon as an aspect of it is changed by humans.

·         Processed items often don’t look like they originally were.

·         Some products are highly-processed, others are lightly processed.

·         The process of production can be shown by a flow-chart.

·         Technology involves inputs, outputs and controls.

http://technology.tki.org.nz

Key Competency:
Me as a COLLABORATOR

Key Strategy/Skill:
Thinking/Reflecting            

Key Value: Innovation

Focus: for pupils to create their own flow-chart (using Explain Everything app) of the production process of a product that is important in their life (which could be one of the products we investigate as a class, or a product that the pupil has chosen to investigate for themselves).

Assessment: (Level Three): 
Knowledge: Identify the steps and use appropriate language
to explain the process when producing a product.
Skill: Reflecting: Discusses and analyses, in discussions and
reflection logs, what he/she has learnt
and why it is important.

STAGES ONE-FIVE: EXCITING INFORMATION - DECIDING ON QUESTIONS - EMERGING IDEAS - NOW I'M SORTING - DISPLAYING MY IDEAS

http://www.redband.co.nz/

As a schol we share the same inquiry objectives but each teacher has flexibility to choose their own context to follow this, according to the needs and interests of the pupils in their class.

I have given the inquiry a ' Made in NZ!' focus to get the children to look at and appreciate the innovation that has occurred in our very own country where we as a people are known for our 'number 8 wire' thinking!

I intend to start the inquiry with a whole class investigation into Redband gumboots - almost every rural household in NZ will have at least one pair, if not multiple pairs of Redbands - a true Kiwi icon!

 (Gumboots = 'Wellingtons' in some countries)

The Redband website has a plethora of fantastic information about the history of the brand, and the manufacturing of the product!

It is a familiar product for my pupils and has a full and interesting production process, beginning with the harvest of the rubber and ending with the promotion of the product. I think they will enjoy finding how it all happens...

fibreglass innovations

After working as a class on the gumboots, I intend to take the children a little wider in their thinking by investigating the production and processes involved in a very modern product...fibreglass.

Local Invercargill firm Fibreglass Innovations makes a huge range of products with fibreglass, from lining swimming pools, to car parts, boats, all manner of items! They really  - I am hoping to make a visit there to see and discuss the process...

I might try to combine the trip with a visit to a clothing manufacturer - I have discovered Stormline Gear --NZ is an Invercargill-based firm that produces another product that will be familiar to many of the farming pupils.

Here is the video the company has made to share some insights into their products. I think it will be good for the pupils to view to learn about why materials have been chosen and how the product has been adapted to suit different purposes.


STAGES SEVEN-NINE: ASKING FURTHER - LET'S ACT! - EVALUATE IT ALL 

Science inquiry - Why is Planet Earth the best place for me to live?

This term's school-wide inquiry is a Science them of outer space....

Our key understandings:
* The earth is the ideal place to live because it has water, atmosphere, food, gravity, animal live and the right temperature. 
* The sun is vital to our existence as it gives us light and heat. 
* The moon affects the earth. 
* Space is vast and made up of many galaxies.

The core knowledge:
* The earth is ideally located from the sun to have a temperature range that supports all kinds of life. 
* The sun gives light and heat. 
* Planets and moons rotate and orbit around the sun or their planet. (Rotation produces day and night. Orbit produces years.) 
* There are different types of astronomical bodies e.g. stars, comets, asteroids, planets, protoplanets, moons. 
* Each planet has a unique gravity, atmosphere, surface and composition.


Due to a combination of many factors (a nine-week term, a senior production happening in Week 3, my student teacher being on posting with 8 days of control in Weeks 4-6, and speeches happening before the end of term) I have broken the inquiry into three sections:

• Weeks 1-3 (mainly 1-2 due to rehearsals for the show) are our exploration weeks, running on a Star Trekking theme - 
• Week 1: the children contributed their first thoughts about the inquiry question to a padlet.com page and then, during reading time, the pupils used the links on a class blog post to find out about one of the planets:  Week One: classroom/student blog post - Star Trekking mission #1
• Week 2-3: they can use the links on this blog post - Star Trekking mission #2 - to find out about other celestial bodies in our universe, whichever they were interested in.  We had first completed a group brainstorm of space-related words.  I have also given a list of the main words to our ESOL pupils so they can bring in their home-language words for the word-wall.

My  student teacher began a Social Sciences inquiry based on celebrations last term and will continue this in Weeks 4-6, coinciding her inquiry activities with the Maori New Year celebrations "Matariki" (the late May/early June appearance of the Pleides above the southern horizon) so this fits really well with our science theme.

In Week 7 the children will use the information they have learned to write a speech about any aspect of the topic (if they choose to) and for Weeks8-9 I plan to have a few HOT activities eg questions to debate, such as 'If we had to leave Earth, where would we go and what would we need to have?'  or "Which is more important - sunshine or water?"
 
Some other bits and pieces I have found along the way...

A great introductory/motivational video:


A cool video with examples of how to show the proportions of the planets and sun etc with everyday objects:

2014: Inquiry: Being a life-long learner

Term One 2014 - INQUIRY - How can I be a life-long learner?

The wall display at the end of the term - most activities were digital and are on the pupil blogs.

Reason for this inquiry: 
* We have a new school logo, slightly changed motto and vision statement.
* The logo has children with backpacks – in these backpacks they put their learning tools: we need to introduce these images and concepts and help the children embrace them as their own philosophy.

HOST CURRICULUM: HEALTH - target curriculum level: Three (Year Six pupils)

Understandings: (Big Ideas/Key Concepts) 

• I am unique; so is everyone else. 
• I have different strengths that complement the strengths of others. 
• Making healthy choices helps my learning. 
• Great learning happens in partnership. 
• I am responsible for my own learning.

Core Knowledge: (Baseline knowledge)

• We can create our own toolkit for learning: SMARTS, turn-ons/turn-offs,school vision/motto/quotes/values; personal learning goals, making healthy choices (relationships, attitude, food, exercise, hygiene, sleep), working in partnership with others.

Inquiry Skill: Thinking      Key Competency: Managing myself      Value: Self-responsibility

Strategy: Six Thinking Hats         Blended Learning Opportunities: blogging, photos, tagxedo etc

Some of the concepts: motto, vision, competencies, backpack (toolkit) for learning

And, following our EDENDALE inquiry process, there was a huge range of possible learning activities...

EXCITING NEW KNOWLEDGE
(Covering the information in the core knowledge to build up a base of understanding to help pupils learn the Big Ideas.)

Attitude - having an attitude that is positive and healthy is important:

• Here is a lesson plan from the Education World site that emphasises the importance of can-do statements in building self-belief - pupils can 'bury' their negative statements.

What the competencies mean for us...

We carried out a variety of discussions and activities to reinforce the key understandings, and found that our Year Six Camp was the most relevant activity of the whole term for pupils to be able to put the concepts into action!

Showing we were lifelong learners with our activities at camp...

Pupils used the experience for a variety of follow-up activities - writing about their demonstration of the aspects needed to be a lifelong learner - many of these were expressed with digital tools...


Year Six Camp from Edendale Primary School on Vimeo.

Take Two News 2014 - Year Six Camp from Edendale Primary School on Vimeo.

New ICT tool - padlet.com

Padlet.com is an online app that is designed to work just as beautifully on an ipad as it does on a laptop or similar device - accessed viz the internet, its uses are numerous: for independent, group or whole class activities, for teaching, for learning - you are only limited by your imagination!

This is a great overview of some ideas, created by Suzy of the Technically Invisible blog and you can get your own free copy of it here

My class have been used the site for reading responses and inquiry brainstorming/sharing of ideas.

LEARNZ Virtual Field Trip - Feb 2014 - Geohazards

A resource I love to use to provide content and extend my pupils for reading and/or inquiry, is the NZ website LEARNZ, which provides real-time virtual field trips to various locations or based on various events around NZ.

I love it because the field trips, once you have registered and they have taken place, can be accessed any time - so if it doesn't suit my programme to follow the trip in real time on the dates the trip takes place, my pupils can still make use of the related resources at another time - for instance in 2012 there was a wetlands field trip which we used about two terms later in the year when it fit better in support of our inquiry.

Term One of 2014 - 25-27 Feb - a field trip to the geo-thermal region of the Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand is taking place. We will be using it for our reading programme as I think the non-fiction nature of the content will really motivate my boys and my reluctant readers:
                

Geohazards: 

volcanoes, tsunami, landslide, 

earthquakes and 

hydrothermal activity

The topic of natural disasters is one that many children find fascinating and, as I cannot physically take my southern class to view this North Island area, they will be able to see it via the photos and videos that will take place on the website. They know this is our theme and were excited about what they might find out.

This is a link to the learning resources page I created on our classroom blog for the children to use: 

Geohazards - NZ is full of them!

My guided group lessons will be using material based on the geohazard topics also, and the class bookshelf also has library books about the topics.  Different reading groups, as per ability, will be given guided or independent activities to complete over the next four weeks, some from the field trip and others based on their guided reading material.  These are the independent sheets that I have developed based on the fact sheets in the LEARNZ website.

Supporting materials - guided reading resources: to be used with various groups according to reading ability and interest level of the content...I usually set pre and post tasks for the title, meaning that the group has at least three days of activities with the guided text and one day of an independent activity using other resources (but that is a whole other blog post!)

• Connected 2 2005 - Living on a Lava Flow
• Connected 1 2011 - Ruaumoko Rages; Taupo; Time Capsules; Understanding Volcanoes; Living With a Volcano
• School Journal Part 2 No. 2 2002 -  Make a Volcano
• National Geographic Kids Science Readers Level 2 - Volcanoes!
• School Journal Level 3 Nov 2011 - One City, Two Earthquakes
• School Journal Story Library Level 3 - Quake, Rattle and Roll
• Connected 2 2000 - Jago Descends
• MainSails 2 - The Volcano Awakes!
• MainSails 2 - Tsunami!
• School Journal Part 4 No 3 2004 - A Bit of a Bang
  
• MacMillan Winners - Killer Quakes
• Scholastic Connectors - Extreme Scientists

Inquiry - Mini-beasts - What are they and why are they important to our world?

This is our science-based inquiry for Term 4 of 2013: I have a sub-question of: Which mini-beasts will be most beneficial to our school garden and how will we attract them to it?

"In all things in nature there is something of the marvellous."

 - Aristotle, a Greek dude from a really long time ago! (384 B.C. - 322 B.C.)

Key understandings: Big ideas/Key concepts:

• Recognise that there are many living things in the world and they can be grouped in different ways.

•  Creatures within groups have specific types of features.

•  Mini-beasts are important parts of the food chain.

• Mini-beasts have varied habitats.

• Mini-beasts have important roles in our world’s ecosystems

Core knowledge: Baseline knowledge:
·         There are different types of mini-beasts eg insects, exoskeletons, arachnids, molluscs etc.
·     Mini-beasts live through life cycles.
·     Mini-beasts can be found on land and in water.
·     Mini-beasts have different body features such as legs, body parts, etc and habits eg egg laying, web spinning.
·     Mini-beasts play an important role in Nature’s food chains e.g. pollination, decomposition.


Key Competency:  Me as an e-learner

Skills: Research

Strategies: summarising of info/ideas, presenting of ideas/info

e-learning:  use of Aurasma on ipads, PowerPoint/Explain Everything, Book Creator/My Story, embedding videos into own blogs

Maori integration: Maori names for native insects

Resources: SparkleBox search results       Pinterest search for mini-beast pins

Week 1: First we will spend time immersing ourselves in our prior knowledge 

and building up new knowledge.  

We will identify our Let's Act goal (the beneficial insects for the garden) and keep that in mind as we build up our knowledge:

• A clip of photos taken by the members of National Geographic Kids' website.
• BBC Our Planet video clip - a great intro to animals with no backbone (may need latest FlashPlayer)
• A great unit full of starter activities - classification, life cycles, habitats.
• Nature Detectives - mini-beast hunts.
• An interactive where children create their own Super Bug while reading about various features of insects.
• Take the mini-beast quiz or read about mini-beasts/arachnids/insects/other mini-beast groups.
• Read simple information about mini-beasts and watch more BBC clips of different mini-beasts.
• All sorts of information and fantastic photos (also teacher resources)
• Some general mini-beast info from the Scholastic website

Flipped? These are the pages for the children to use independently on our classroom blog as they continue to build up their baseline understandings:

• It's a Bug's Life - who am I? (general introduction to mini-beasts)
• It's a Bug's Life - who is who? (classification)
• It's a Bug's Life - who eats who? (food chains)
• It's a Bug's Life - what's my address? (habitats)
• It's a Bug's Life - all in the family! (life cycles)
• It's a Bug's Life - the coolest bug for me! (research a specific mini-beast of choice)

I Love Teaching Conference 2013 - Invercargill

My colleagues and I were pleased to be able to attend this high-quality conference for the first two days of the school holidays. The speakers were excellent and we learnt a lot and were able to reflect on our teaching practices and how we run our classroom.

 I made separate notes about ideas I want to implement or carry out this term as I listened and reflected.. The list got quite long but I am going to start the term with an intensive digital week, as now that the class have had the chance to explore the iPads I want them to create with more focus.  I also aim to bring in a lot of discussion about their learning focus, the use of our inquiry process and the use of learning tools in a much more powerful way for learning.

My notes:

HINE WAITERE - RAISING CULTURAL AWARENESS

-Success comes in CANS.

- CULTURE Is cultivation, nowadays about the practices that produce significant meaning. 

SAM CAWTHORN - BOUNCE FORWARD   - this man is an absolute inspiration, he lost an arm in a car crash but has never looked back and is now a motivational speaker...

1.  Crisis creates opportunity - what you focus on is what you get - look forward and look for opportunity or potential, where focus goes energy flows. 

2. Proximity is power - you are the average of your five closest friends - the company that you keep determines who you are - look for inspiring, positive influences build your energy and motivation.

3. Leveraging happiness that fuels success - being happy will increase your success eg work rate, give 110 % and make a conscious choice to be happy and positive. 

I must find and read the Book by Brad Smith Aussie entrepreneur

Jason Ohler was my favourite speaker and I attended two of his workshops. I must seeJodie and read her notes for his third workshop too...

JASON OHLER - TRANSFORMING LEARNING THROUGH DIGITAL CREATIVITY

jasonOhler.com.     www.committedsardine.com.            Presentation is on his website

BYOD - personalised workspace, find a policy to guide you. Brand it on-off, turn on and use, now turn off and talk

Building blocks of Education today-  

1 we are mobile

2 we are connected, where's school? ( who owns the learning), connectivity, constructivist, constructionist -TRANSMEDIA - immersed in digital devices, 

3 We are moving from text based to media based teaching and learning

4 digital citizenship

Augmented art - blending real life with virtual life - Aurasma app. Easy to use in class. 

Ed Leadership magazine CREATIVITY. from Feb 2013 ? Try to find and read for ideas

 Literacy is consuming AND producing therefore students need to be able to write well what they read. 

SO: TEN DIGITAL LIT ACTION GUIDELINES

1. VALUE WRITING as this is what good media is based on

2. Shift from text centred to new media collage

3. ADOPT ART as the 4th R

4. Follow DOAR  of literacy - digital oral art writing - use all four to create media

5. Attitude is the aptitude - learning is the heart, being able to learn, unlearn, relearn

6. practice personal and digital literacy

7. Develop literacy about digital tools

8. develop literacy about info

9. Fluency, not just literacy

10. Harness both report and story...embrace story!  Digital storytelling eg green screen of pupil telling story with their own art on background, or Voice over of a presentation. 

CHILDREN AND TEACHERS NEED TO BE CRITICAL CONSUMERS OF THEIR DIGITAL WORK: don't just give an A for anything that moves!

Need to bring children over the media maturity line (get them to reflect on their work and think "will the people who are not in my head understand what I am telling them about?", this covers use of storyline, art work, music - it must all enhance the story, not detract from it, the connections must be less about themselves but more about making sense to the audience)   - get them to view tv and see how the professionals handle the music, titles, transitions, the people creating these need to be top of the line as there are a thousand others who want their job so they need to do it right and do it well!

-encourage all stories to have TRANSFORMATION (where someone changes or grows) as an element, ie not just a problem and solution

Use a story map rather than a storyboard as pupils will see more possibilities and it will be easy for teacher to see potential of story. 

WORKSHOP ONE - TRANSFORMING YOUR CLASSROOM USING DIGITAL MEDIA TOOLS - DIGITAL STORYTELLING PRIMER

Creating media, not just consuming it...building writing and sharing skills through digital tools - building media literacy by creating media - storytelling/ persuasions/ explanations 

TWO KINDS OF MEDIA DEVELOPMENT WITH KIDS:

Two rules: 

1.  story first and digital second - front end load the project with a lot of discussion and review of the story first before the devices are even turned on

2.  There are no rules! Only guidelines and ideas. 

NARRATIVE: 

iMovie - green screen with own artwork as background, pupil tells the story on screen as filmed - expect and teach them to do body movements, facial movements, sound effects - play games like the programme whose line is it anyway eg be my sound effects, or be my actions

Voice over narrative - create a slideshow/video and record narrative overtop

Evaluate the product twice - first for the story alone, then again for the production. Keep them separate and give feedback separately. Low production skills can be forgiven only if the story is good, the reverse is not true. 

See Jason's website> digital storytelling> part 2/part 3 etc - range of links to tips and resources 

The image gives you the information, the music tells you how to feel it - Jason ahas a movie sequence that shows this example ( boy getting out of bed- play with no music, children tell you what it's about, then play and listen with music to get sense of emotion)

Aim for instrumental music, do not allow singing while a narrative is happening

Www.freeplaymusic.com - allows you to choose music by emotion

GREEN SCREEN STORYTELLING - see his website for ideas

1 develop content first eg at the end of an inquiry tell a story about it, decide on content, practice telling the story (most likely have not even written it down yet), the write it, tell and repellant critique stories, design artwork for background, scan it to computer, perform in front of screen and pupils film it, edit in chroma editing, add music etc

Recommends buying a collar mike that can pick up the pupils voice so much more clearly ( video camera needs to have an external mike port) and headset mikes so sound is lot clearer. 

And no more than four or five pupils present at filming, to keep noise down.

Do not use storyboards ( too restrictive) - use story maps as they chart the story flow and the flow of emotion, look for a story to have a problem ( tension) and s solution ( resolution) and a transformation ( change or growth -A REALIZATION,  the character must realise something) -

range of story maps on his website? - kids respond to the first part of the McKee map, 'the mountains' where the storyline goes towards the goal the away from the goal over and over and that is what keeps the audience engaged

Story spine by Kenn Adams: once upon a time...every day...but one day...because of that...because of that...because of that...until finally...ever since then...the moral of this story is...

assessment aspects and the process of creating - two column plan, every time there is a new image on the screen there will be a new part of the script - making plans about the specificity of the images and words they are choosing, if have time then can then look for images and insert into the column as a kind of storyboard but is not necessary

Does it need to be clear like an essay or challenging like a poem or somewhere on the scale in between?

Use a story storming table to help check storytelling elements are present

See hulu.com for documentaries: by director Burns (1st person). Jason has an example he referred to as King John (1st immersive  - being the person eg a monologue, children love to do this type of documentary), by director Michael Moore (1st person protagonist), 3 rd person narrator

SECOND WORKSHOP  - DIGITAL COMMUNITY, DIGITAL CITIZEN

ISTI standards for IT In Ed.  Go to ISTI. com. (Or is it ISTE?)

Digital citizenship is a general term that is the international term

Digital citizen week in October.  Jason is doing a MOOC course in  early 2014see website

 Being a digital citizen - How am I behaving while I am online? Users need to think about this in a way they never think about it, taking it from the invisible to inquiry.  Users forget they are broadcasting themselves online ( disinhibition) and we behave as if no one is watching. 

Character education for digital kids - create a frame work rather than just attack the issues, make kids aware of the connections between values and behaviour and digital tool use

Be involved but safe

Risk assessment v risk aversion

Enthusiasm v skepticism

Positive v negative footprint

Develop critical filters

Be inspired, creative users

Think about local and online communities - we live in two places now! eg consider behaviour with regard to local and virtual perspectives and relationships. Eg in all communities, local, global and digital.

Create a mantra, one sentence/phrase eg We use internet safely, respectfully, responsibly.  Or eg. Is it honest, fair, protective? Is it appropriate?  Is what you are doing publishable? Does it add or subtract to my digital footprint? 

Involve students in policy develoment. Eg book From Fear to Facebook

UOPS - using other people's stuff  - Have students develop the citation scheme that works for them

Connects and disconnects can be sprinkled throughout the curriculum - what did that technology give us And what did it take away from us? Eg the microwave connects us to fast food but disconnected us from family meal cooking or eating together - be deTECHtives and always think about/ discuss how tech tool connects or disconnects us, as EVERY item of tech will enhance and reduce us

7 questions: physical characteristics, enhancement/reductions, social contexts, replace/foretell, biases, benefits, applications(?)

Teachers need to be an ethical coach, 

Video 'Digital Dossier' (TED  clip?)

//borndigital.com

Engage the kids:

Look at the evolution of a technology eg the suitcase, think past, present, future??

Combine two technologies eg wagon and suitcase, wii and Internet - what are the possibilities??

Create maps of their own personal networks- use variety of lines to show importance of relationships between friends and classmates

Lane Clark from Canada is an inquiry expert who focuses on the I profane of learning about learning in order to be a successful learner.. I felt that much of her theory and advice was very relevant to me as I aim to develop an independent, differentiated learning program in y classroom, so my list of,things to do got longer as I listened to Lane...

LANE CLARK - COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY.     - Edmodo has the full set of notes, the course handout has graphic org to help work through the notes.  Code  t4cwdj.  And code kvm4 gs for first workshop group

Two focuses: what the research says and how to use it in the classroom with kids

What is learning? If nothing has been changed in long term memory then nothing has been learned.

Make sure graphic organisers for children are framed by you so that it helps the children learn the schema that you want them to take into long term memory.

- limit your words, give time to record, record (write in colour to switch on your brain), use images/symbols, initial your contributions (ie did you borrow idea from a friends ideas)

- pupils must understand why they are using the organiser

- provide a cheat- sheet to help the kids check they were on the right track - add anything you missed in a different colour, if they had other ideas then have a conference to discuss relevance / thinking around it

Working memory alongside longterm memory 

- children should record with ANY learning they do

- mind maps are great for this and can help lock new learning into LTM If reviewed

- the learning has to be relevant/personal to them so they will take it into LTM

- video or record teaching points,pupils can refer to it the next day as much as want

- personal relevance is crucial for them to invest in the learning for long- term rather than just memorising for short term eg put the continuum or progressions in their writing book

We need to: 

- unpack the curriculum to  recognise the level of complexity inherent in the material 

- know what schema the pupils already have or need to have before learning the new material

- use immersion experiences to test prior schema and lay down foundation schema

- separate the criteria for the skills, content, processes - in kid speak, specific and measurable

- provide micro processes for learning

If chunk the learning, keep the big picture in mind at all times eg how we do inquiry question and have key statements to support

Have an inquiry process that is kid based and they use it for all areas of the curric, and have images alongside the words. 

Immersion - the time to check the prior schema and acquire new learning - use task cards to help them know what to do - have images with text ( build a library of clip art to use in class) big numbers, no more than four on a card, a well- framed organiser to support the schema/ sharing of the schema - new concepts are taught by resources eg brain pop or study ladder or Kahn academy or books etc - use organisers to help the students focus on the appropriate material, children check the cheat sheet and sign up for workshop if need to clarify a concept - pupils can move between groups as identify own needs and progress against the checkpoints (see Lane's solution think strategy/ sheets for process of building knowledge through to applying and problem solving)

WORKSHOP ONE PROCESSES FOR LEARNING look for this on Edmodo

Empowering them to be able to continue their work without us.  (Helen Keller)

Enable.  Empower. Engage. Awaken their soul.

Micro learning processes are part of the big picture, are a good place to start, are still a whole in themselves and are a way of getting to the big picture without getting lost on the way.

Lane to make a code for demo do for processes for learning, will put it in the first code page?  Email her if she doesn't. 

Need systems in place as well as tools. 

Macro processes  - the inquiry/ research aspect or model of helping kids learn how to learn - make sure the steps are explicit and have icons so the kids own it, and use it in every area of the programme. Use copy of model and colour in the steps you have completed, should be at least four stages as well as celebrating/ sharing.

Think box is the model of the processes: 

When you learn you have to think, thinking is what you do to learn. " I,m going to teach you what tools you can use to help you find out.  Thinking tools work with thinking jobs.  Choose from the think box a tool that will be useful."

Keep it tight to start with, Model it first, choose one to who tools at a time, lead the kids through it, after that they can select their own when they need it. Show the kids what you planned for them, why, where the tools are on the think box; eventually the kids can help you plan.

Kids Hilite on 

think box in colour code to show when used a tool.

15 second retention, so there are a lot of options for tools to record the info.

Organisation of self, information and team.

Micro processes are processes to manage self within the learning eg need to publish, so use the author process, need to design something, use the techno process, need to evaluate, use the view process.

You haven't learnt it if you can't apply it to your so what brief or problem (a solution/an alternative) this is when you synthesise twice, as problem solve and as share the solution.

Hilite the tools you know from the think box, get started on using them, learn some of the ones you don't know.

Think tower (similar to our inquiry model, puts the think box tools into a linear model) - should be using tools from all the areas to have comprehensive thinking and learning happening, and the linear tower shows that everything is linked and if one section is missing then the tower will collapse.

On edmodo lane will put the power point with the micro processes. 

The microprocesses relate to the think box and are based on the thinking JOB not the actual task: eg author think is the framework for quality publishing (not writing as such but any form of publishing), so it will include the criteria for each step, pupils have. Copy and colour as they work their way through

Lane will give us this PowerPoint on edmodo - Author process: plan on planning document or organiser, draft, get typed on computer verbatim, print out and take to author circle for review, now self-edit on copy, outside edit with teacher or adult, when ready can plan out the publishing format and create

Will also give us the PowerPoint for Thinkitgreat process and examples etc of think charts

Must be using the same processes throughout the school so pupils are not having to learn new schema for carrying out each process. 

Lane always creates the rubric not the children. What the kids decided as important will be base criteria on all three levels, teacher adds the level of complexity via negotiation ( see the fairy tale example on Thinkitgreat PowerPoint)

Aim to build independence with the process stages, even if not done competently they are at least done independently (pupils following the model you have demonstrated), then kids get the process with the indicators so they can fine tune their process: 

provide worked models that other kids have done, model yourself doing it, then let the kids take a punt on doing it themselves and support them as they follow the steps

Almost never only use one tool, you should be layering tool upon tool

Display learning process, display the tools that could go with each stage - all labelled and visible and transparent (see next workshop notes)

WORKSHOP TWO: THE 12 DIMENSIONS OF THINKING INFUSION

WIGs - wildly important goals

For learners to be good learners they need to be good thinkers and to be good thinkers they need infusion - where the lines between thinking and learning are almost invisible because they are occurring so naturally together and within everything they do.  

The lines become invisible because you first made the lines visible and taught the children how to do it.

There are twelve dimensions within four overarching categories: nature of the program ( dispositional links, extent of the tool use, consistency, transparency), nature of the tools ( diversity, complexity), nature of tool use (cognitive consciousness, transference, cognitive responsibility), nature of tool use (significance, authenticity, relevance )

NATURE OF THE PROGRAM: 

How EXTENSIVE is the use of thinking tools across my program? 

How are the intellectual dispositions LINKED to my thinking program? Eg Costa's 16 habits of mind

Extent - the degree to which something has spread

Consistency - conformity in e application of something

Transparency - can be distinctly seen

Dispositional links - a persons inherent qualities of mind and character

Diverrsity - a range of different things

NATURE OF THE TOOLS

How DIVERSE are the tools you  use?

How COMPLEX are the tools you use in your teaching and learning program?

Complexity - being intricate; consisting of many different parts

Diversity- many different things

Looking at the tools you'd know and saying what thinking is in each one,  eg is it used to acquire or extend knowledge, do they need the immersion before can do the vein diagram to compare?

Always go general to specific, that is about building depth of schema, and in the breadth or complexity of the thinking eg t chart to cross classification to reasons why to cause and effect ( guess/predict then research/ synthesise) to alternative / so what ideas to help with the issues - this may involve framing changes of the organisers to make me more complex to get depth of thinking

NATURE OF THE TOOLS USE

How SIGNIFICANT is the outcome achieved because of the tool? Is it making a difference in their life or someone else's life because they used it for their thinking?

How RELEVANT Is the tool you are using?

How AUTHENTIC is use of the tool?

Significance - being worthy of attention

Relevance - closely connected to the matter at hand

Authenticity - being real or true

NATURE OF THE OWNERSHIP

Cognitive consciousness - awareness or perception of something

Cog responsibility - having duty to deal with something,ability to act independently

Transference - act of moving to another place

WHATS THE WIG OF MY THINKING PROGRAM? Comprehensive, seamless infusion!!!

EMAIL LANE IF WISH TO BE PART OF TRIAL PERSONALLY OR AS A SCHOOL AS A PD FOR A YEAR - I think I would like to do this! It would be a good teaching as inquiry project. 

FOR IMMERSION LEARNING - ie inquiry process

Unpack curriculum, unpack specifically what want from it ( content) look at how they can use that outcome to make a difference if their lives or some one else's lives and develop a so-what to inquire based on the needs of this community and culture of the kids in the class - you set the context and that is the reason for the schema that you build with them. Don't have to change the world but do have to have impact on

Remember the schema needs to be relevant to the learner, ie set a design brief that will require the schema to be learnt and applied.

Has find-out Fridays. When the teaching is all about tools and skills for inquiry, but pupils follow own inquiry of an area of passion. Teacher is then teaching tools without cognitive overload for the content, whereas the Mon to Thursday class inquiry program is about building schema required by curriculum. - this would fit with the book I got for the Essential Resources stand about Passion Projects, something else on my term four list of things to do!!