Establishing foundations to go forward with formal learning...

After our first COL meeting for 2022 I came away thinking about Russell's question, 'How do I have present, happy, healthy, engaged tauira who are learning in the Goldilocks Zone?'

Good inquiry happens in teams, something we have done as a school for a number of years. It means we can have those informal conversations with colleagues that helps us problem solve and form new ideas as we have access to a larger pool of experience and knowledge. Before this meeting, as a school we had decided before our students returned in February, that our initial inquiry focus would centre around student engagement. Without establishing foundations to go forward with formal learning we realised we would struggle to engage our learners and be in a position to effectively contribute to wider school and cluster goals further down the track.

Covid lockdowns in 2021 meant we needed to help our students to reconnect with the formal learning environment. For some, this was no issue at all. They simply walked into our shared learning space on Day 1 and picked up where they left off, but for others it was a different story. School was a place they hadn’t been in since August 2021 and through 1:1 conversations throughout the day, became aware of how daunting to walking through the doors of a classroom for the first time in 6 months actually was. Something made even more challenging with a mask on. We all felt the challenge of mask wearing, but reassuring our learners that mask breaks were important and could be taken when they were needed helped to alleviate some of these new hurdles. In addition to this we began establishing foundations to go forward with formal learning by:

Creating a sense of belonging:

Having a level of or sense of ownership towards something, is what builds strong connections. With this in mind we, (Dianne and I) began building our class culture by setting learning tasks that required our students to talk to each other. As I mentioned earlier, a number of our 2022 learners had not engaged in online learning or physically been in a classroom since August 2021. This meant their verbal interactions had been mostly informal since then. Relearning how to take part in the learning was something we needed to scaffold. We have been doing this by creating tasks that needed paired or group collaboration to complete. We revisited group norms and set challenges that needed input from everyone to achieve. These mini challenges have helped increase buy-in as not only do we have a really competitive class, but it's also a fun way to learn something. This sense of normality helped to set the tone of our classroom, and definitely made everything seem normal to our students. These collaborative activities have helped to form bonds amongst our learners and have allowed us to display work on the walls with their names on, giving our students a real sense of ownership in the room.

Harnessing the power of the familiar:

Our learners who show up in class or online are there to learn so we need to make sure that is exactly what they have the opportunity to do. We were initially challenged with the erratic levels of attendance as it became very clear to us very early on that we never knew who would actually be in front of us each day. We are now in March and are yet to see everyone on our roll in the classroom on the same day! Our expectation from day 1 has been 'it is important to keep your learning going' so our students learning from home or learning in the classroom, understand what they are expected to do and more importantly know why they need to do this. We are continuing with instructional group teaching so we can provide the right level of challenge and support to help our learners keep their learning going. Hybrid learning in LS2 is not about setting different tasks for those accessing the learning outside of the classroom, it is opening a Google Meet and including them in the same instruction that is taking place in the classroom. With more than one adult in the room it is easy to monitor the Meet while the teaching is taking place, which means the students online are able to actively participate in the learning. We follow our timetable regardless of where we are learning, and has been a huge help with continuity as the gaps in learning are lessened. It has also meant those not at school remain an active part of our class with work on our walls.

Scaffolds:

The frameworks and scaffolds we use are unpacked and explained so that the purpose behind a task becomes clearer. We use the same scaffolds across all learning areas which means regardless of ability level or location of learning, our learners are able to carry our the task. Dianne and I have aligned our teaching DLOs so they look the same. The work is differentiated but the layout means which ever DLO you need to access, the instruction is the same making it easier for everyone to use.

Purpose:

Having a real purpose behind the learning has been one of the important messages we have shared with our students. As with anything you do, knowing why you're doing it, is what motivates you to participate actively. I have found that this year I have spent more time introducing and revisiting the learning intentions and purpose of the tasks I have set. My students know what they need to do and why they need to do it, and has helped those who are learning from home maintain stronger connections to what is happening in the classroom. The same thinking and transparency was applied to assessment week. We explained to our students that we didn't have current achievement data so we needed to take time to gather this in order to be able to teach them properly. For the first time in a long time I saw my learners approach assessment week with a real understanding of why they were doing these tasks, and have enjoyed the rich discussions that followed as we discussed next steps as a class.

Expectation to finish work:

Like many of our colleagues around the motu, we have been challenged with the ever changing attendance levels each day brings. To help us navigate this uncertainty we have kept our expectations to complete all work set, in place. Teacher feedback on every piece of work via the comments tool in G Suite has allowed us to give affirmations and identify where tweaks (or if needed, specific guidance) can be made to increase the detail and accuracy of responses. This has proven to be a really valuable way to connect with our students on an individual level as the protocol in our class is to reply to any comment received. They can see by acknowledging their work we are valuing the efforts they are putting in, regardless of where that effort was put in. 

We are continuing to establish the foundations that will enable us to go forward with formal learning. Nothing is set in stone and in the spirit of full transparency, it is important to note that all our initial ideas have been tweaked and adapted along the way to keep our learners engaged both in person and online so that we are all able to move forward in our 2022 learning journey and make the most of our learning time.