ISTE 2018 - Beyond the fourth wall - one school districts quest to make thinking visible

Lake Zurich Community Unit District 95 is following a pathway similar to our Manaiakalani ethos and COL practises. This panel of teachers spoke to a series of predetermined questions that told the story of their shared learning journey. Throughout the session they used menti.com to allow real time audience participation. I really enjoyed listening to these teachers as their passion was evident and their experiences real. Below are my notes from this session.

What is visible learning and why does visible learning matter?

• What students know v don’t know - inquiry conceptions v misconceptions - ref to TED x Luis photographic process v actual pic we see. Students and T u/st what they need to learn and where the gaps are - current fb to engage and forge connections - often students tell us what we want to hear but T can use technology and instructional strategies to explore beyond this - need to remember to get students to explain their thinking... it matters because it allows for self reflection from students that is then developed by T fb - use eg of clapping to show u/st - T claps student's grade but T doesn’t know why or how she got these marks - Fb needs to remind how success can be achieved but need to give choice options - Children need to know how to learn and how to receive fb so that they accept it as a growth opportunity - visible means knowing where u r on your learning journey and T know how to keep this journey going

How have administrators and coaches helped teachers develop a common language and practices around visible learning?

• Where am I now? 
• Where am I going? 
• How can I close the gap? - shared language of instruction so T have vocab to talk about their practise cluster wide - cornerstone of learning T tell students what they are learning and how they can achieve it LI/Sc - look for questioning and fb with students eg to corroborate - Hatties research of Teacher Efficacy 

How have visible learning strategies made a difference for students?

• Students use the same shared language... Where am I now? .... Where am I going? ... How can I close the gap? to talk about their learning. Effective as all students understand what this means - Remind students about the power behind words

What are some examples of successfully paired visible learning and technology?

• iPads - digital discussions eg: menti to ask qu - embrace failure - stdnt fb on app choice - keynote - president - slides - green screen - stop motion... look up torn paper version. SAMR - G suite - seesaw (annotate pics/selfie video) - flipgrid - talk ideas - canva - twitter type info bytes will see what main ideas are being internalised - Storify - post it plus - clips

How do we know our interventions have been successful?

• Efficacy and ownership of learning and gaps in learning - be able to communicate this to others - create to show u/st

My takeaways:

• Use menti.com as a way of encouraging student questioning as it removes the fear that often comes from our struggling learners when they are asked to ask questions
• Introduce the app 'post it plus' to LS2
• Build on the global connection I made so that LS2 have American blogging buddies and their Y7/8 class have NZ blogging buddies