Auckland Road Trip

Teachers buzzing with enthusiasm, exploring modern learning environments, seeing personalised learning and ICT effectively integrated into every day learning experiences, chatting to students about their learning, professional conversations en route to Auckland or caramel, cookie slice for afternoon tea? It's hard to pick only one highlight from our Auckland road trip to Elim Christian College and Hingaia Peninsula School!  

The purpose of our visit was to look at modern learning environments and ICT. It was an early start, leaving Kamo Primary at 6.30 am - still in darkness. I think most of us were at least half awake by the time we reached Wellsford. Our first stop was Elim Christian College, followed by Hingaia Peninsula School. 

Elim Christian College is a relatively new school, with the junior campus opening in 2012. The senior campus is a couple of minutes drive down the road. We couldn't have asked for better hospitality from Shaun. Not only did he take time out of his day to talk to us about his school and show us through their modern learning environments, but he also ended up taking us across to Hingaia Peninsula School when our mini van failed to start. 

The junior campus caters for students from new entrants to year 6. Sliding glass doors separate classrooms, allowing for open spaces as well as having the luxury of being able to close a space off when needed. Blended learning (paper and paperless/ICT) takes place across all MLE (modern learning environments). Children work collaboratively together, sprawled out across the floor, sitting at tables or on ottomans. Some children were using iPad minis, others wrote on paper and some children were actively participating in a group session with the teacher. 

Shaun also spoke about the difference between BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and bring a specific device, in their case an iPad. I thought his discussion on the benefits and the simplicity of sticking to one device had merit. It also links in well with the SAMR Model. As Shaun said, "you can't use new technology the way you used the old technology. The pedagogy needs to change."

After morning tea we popped down to visit their senior campus. The senior campus was a traditional school that has slowly evolved into a more modern learning environment. It's refreshing to see how a traditional school started their journey, as it can often be disheartening seeing modern learning environments when you know you don't have a brand new school to go back to. 

What I've learnt over the past year is that the key isn't the fancy furniture, but the change in pedagogy. Elim Christian College have worked hard to ensure that their staff compliment each other and can collaborate effectively. Learning is personalised by students and I couldn't have agreed with Shaun more when he said, 'if you're a passenger you don't remember the journey as much as the driver.' 

Over the past couple of years I've visited five schools with modern learning environments. Something I've noticed is that each of them has the ability to have smaller spaces within spaces. Whether it's small rooms with glass doors like the photo above or large glass sliding doors between rooms like we saw at the junior campus. Some of the benefits of doing this, that teachers have shared with me include: having a space where children are able to make more noise if needed e.g. when using iMovie or doing music, a place for a quiet space or a room to withdraw a small group to. While we were at the senior campus one of the groups using a smaller space was their target maths group. The group number was kept small and the same teacher worked with that group each day. Another benefit of having more than one teacher to a learning space. Something else I noted was the use of Swiss balls in one of the learning spaces. Great idea and won't break the classroom budget!

At lunch time we moved on to visit Hingaia Peninsula School. Because it was lunch time we didn't observe any students in the learning spaces, but were able to walk through and have a good look at how they had created their MLE. Here are a few snapshots. 

Beautiful courtyard, with painted bird boxes attached to each post. The children also have access to a large grass area. 

Modern stools and benches in an open side room, off the main learning area.

Another open, side room off to the side of a learning hub. 

Whiteboard paint seemed to be a popular choice at both schools we visited. Endless possibilities! 

 Stools that move around (wobble) as you sit on them. Awesome idea for kids (and teachers) who struggle to sit still. I could use one of these! 

The main learning space. The rooms above branch off to the side of this main hub. All open/visible though.

Had to take a quick snapshot of this character. He lives in the school office.

Overall an amazing day out of the classroom, with an enthusiastic and inspirational bunch of teachers from Kamo Primary, Kamo Intermediate and Tania from Core Education. Great professional discussions over lunch at the waterfront and on the way home. 

Here are a couple of gems from our discussions...

Voice QR codes 

Challenge based learning 

So what am I going to take away from this road trip as a teacher who works in a single cell classroom?

* To continue to allow the children to design their own learning environment. I've said it before and I'll say it again - you don't need modern furniture to have a modern learning environment. 

Our current learning environment designed by the children and based around the concept of caves, campfires, watering holes and a sandpit.

* To continue to work towards making learning more personalised. 

* Play around with mixed ability groups. 

* Discuss with syndicate how we can work more collaboratively. 

* Incorporate challenge based learning into strand maths and Adventure Learning.  

* To further explore the use of QR codes within the classroom e.g. voice QR codes, using them for feedback in books, around the classroom, QR code wall with the children's photos and QR codes linking to their label on our class blog. 

* Continue to dream big! 

A big thank you to Ben Soole and Tania Coutts for organising such a worthwhile experience.