Kids Cafe

For awhile I've been wanting to create an Educamp inspired forum for kids to share, inspire and teach each other. I looked into doing it face to face with another school, via Skype Education or GHO (Google Hangout). However; all three of those options would limit the number of children that could actively participate. What I really wanted to achieve was to find a way where as many classes as interested, could participate and from anywhere in the world. I wanted to break down the barriers of location and time difference. This week I came up with the idea of Kids Cafe. 

Kids Cafe is based on the concept of Educamp, with a few differences. It’s an opportunity for kids to teach other kids about a passion, interest or talent. This could be anything from a maths strategy to Te Reo, how to care for turtles, how to use iMovie, how to kick a rugby ball over the goal post or how Daily 5 is used in your classroom. The aim is to create a mini tutorial to teach other kids about your passion, interest or talent. How you do this is up to you. You could create a YouTube clip, use Puppet Pals, digital storytelling, Educreations, create an ebook etc. The only catch is that it must be able to be accessed online. This is also a next step for my Adventure Learning programme, which is based on Google's 20% Time.

Kids Cafe runs on a four week cycle. Here is an outline:

Week 1 - At the start of the week sign your class up. Then add to the Google Doc, by recording what you could teach someone else or what you’d like to learn more about. You can do this by completing the kids registration form at the bottom of this doc. The Kids Cafe topics will also be announced on the Kids Cafe blog and via @KidsCafeNZ on Twitter.

Week 2 and Week 3 - These two weeks are set aside for presenters to create their tutorial, as well as for classes to plan how they are going to organise how they will run Kids Cafe in their own class. By Friday at 3pm all tutorials will be linked to the Kids Cafe Thinglink. Instructions on how to link your tutorial will be able to be found on the Kids Cafe blog -

Week 4 - Run your own Kids Cafe in your classroom sometime during the week. Click here for an example of how you could do this in your class. On the Friday join in the @KidsCafeNZ Twitter chat to reflect on your learning, share photos of Kids Cafe in your class and to provide the presenters with feedback, as well as to discuss topic ideas for the next Kids Cafe.

To register your class for Kids Cafe visit the doc. Scroll right down to the bottom. Remember any class, anywhere in the world can join in. http://goo.gl/R3dLL1

To visit the Kids Cafe blog click here http://kidscafenz.blogspot.co.nz/


This is only a seed I've started to plant so am open to ideas and further suggestions for improvement. 

Intrinsic Motivation

This morning I watched Dan Pink's TED Talk 'The Puzzle of Motivation'. He speaks about how there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. 

Bonuses, extrinsic rewards etc work well for tasks with a simple set of instructions. They don't work as well for creative problems, as they have been proven to actually narrow people's focus. In Western Europe, North America, Australia and many parts of Asia white collar workers are needing to not only do left brain, routine, rule based work, but are now also required to have more right brain, creative, conceptual abilities. There's the competition of low cost providers around the world being able to do a job cheaper, as well as software being able to do a lot of things faster or at a lower price. 

So how are people going to be motivated without extrinsic rewards? Dan Pink suggests three elements of intrinsic motivation:

1. Autonomy - the urge to direct our own lives. 

2. Mastery - the desire to get better and better at something that matters. 

3. Purpose - the yearning to do what we do to service something larger than ourselves. 

He then goes on to talk about FedEx days, 20 % percent time and ROWE (Results Only Work Environment). It was the first time I'd heard of ROWE. Basically people don't have schedules. They show up to work when they want and don't have to be in the office if they don't want to. They just have to get their work done. How they do it and when they do it is up to them. Research shows that when these three elements of intrinsic motivation are applied in the work place productivity goes up, worker engagement and satisfaction increase. 

If this is correct and this is how things are moving, then how are we preparing our students for their future? When I started watching the TED Talk I had no idea that he was going to talk about FedEx days or 20 % percent time. For me, this just confirmed that what I'm trying to achieve with Adventure Learning is a positive step towards preparing students for when they leave school. If you're not familiar with Adventure learning you can find out more here 

http://nzadventurelearning.blogspot.co.nz/ 

I then became curious about how ROWE could be applied to education. I soon started to come across blogs around ROLE (Results Only Learning Environment). There were teachers that had done away with grades, homework, national testing, set times of the day, attending classes etc. Although not completely realistic in the current NZ education setting, I couldn't help but think that aspects of ROWE or ROLE could still be applied to my classroom. 

Last year I started exploring Independent Learning Plans (ILP) or Personalised Learning Plans (PLP). See my post here http://goo.gl/tigp3H. I now work in a much more traditional style school than I did last year, but am keen to have another go at ILP. ILP provide students with autonomy, mastery and purpose. It lifted student engagement, provided more opportunities for students to teach each other and encouraged them to take responsibility for their learning. This resulted in my students becoming independent learners. 

Here is the TED Talk by Dan Pink 

15 Maths Apps to Trial

We were lucky enough to have Tania (@TarnzC) come in and share some new app ideas with us at the end of last term. The apps below are a mostly ones she suggested, as well as a couple of my favourite apps. Also some I've used before e.g. Puppet Pals, but not as part of my maths programme. Looking forward to experimenting with these in Term 2. Went away inspired as usual. Thanks Tania :) 

Hacking Maths

Our school is currently participating in maths PD this year. The focus is mainly on independent activities and ensuring that our reluctant or academically low learners are engaged. At my previous school I participated in a series of maths papers through the University of Auckland (from 2010-2012). The main focus of those papers being on instructional group teaching, including both number and strand maths. This year I'm looking forward to further exploring and experimenting with how to improve the activities that my independent groups are working on. 

At the beginning of this year I was handed a stack of maths text books for my students to use. I don't doubt that there's valuable content in there, but I think it's about time maths had a makeover. In the 21st century do independent maths activities always have to consist of tidy, ruled books and activities completed from a text book? I think not. 

Independent maths activities in my classroom have always been reasonably hands on. I've previously included game boxes with knowledge practise activities, iPad apps that have been used to reinforce basic facts, as well as a follow up activity from their instructional group session. Maths in our class isn't a quiet time. It's a time for discussion, problem solving, collaborative learning, hands on activities, reflection and sharing. 

I've been lucky to be given five iPads for my class, as well as to have had a maths facilitator come into my class to model a variety of hands on independent activities. The activities included games that used a variety of equipment outside e.g. a tag game with foam 'islands', frisbees to practise basic facts etc. 

My goal is to further improve the quality of maths programme by doing the following: 

• Most of the children in my target group for maths are also in my target reading and writing groups. Because of this I want to ensure that maths time doesn't become a reading or writing challenge. Therefore; I plan on including more hands on activities e.g. inside maths games using cards, dice, game boards, outside games, iPad apps etc. I also want to ensure that these activities are specific to their maths knowledge hot spots.
• Hacking the way that maths books are set up. I work at a decile 9 school and book work is held in high regard. I shared my concern with my team leader that my kids had very little in the way of book work in their maths books, due to the learning being so hands on. They had the odd follow up activity that had been completed in their books, as well as we're starting to use group modeling books. He was very supportive and open to suggestions. As a result I'm in the process of creating a new maths book template for our syndicate to use. Basically when the children learn a new independent game or activity they will be required to write the learning intention in their book. Underneath photos or a diagram of the activity will be glued in and the children will write a set of instructions on how to play the game. This also acts as a resource that the child can refer back to. If a group completes a hands on activity for their independent activity they will be expected to record their learning intention, what the activity was and then reflect on their learning at the end of the session. I'm looking forward to trialing this new system. 
• To teach my students how to reflect on their learning. We are going to trial building reflection time into the end of each maths session. Most children will write a written reflection, while some will have the option of voice recording their reflections using an iPad or voice thread. The child will then create a QR code that links to their recording. The QR code will be pasted into their maths book. 
• To make time to connect with the groups of children who are working independently, on a more regular basis. 
• We use Maths Whizz as part of our independent programme. My aim is to weekly review this to identify which areas individual children are finding challenging, so I can further support them. 
• To effectively use the five iPads in my classroom to support my target students, during their independent work. This may be done in a variety of ways, but could include using apps such as Squeebles, Maths Slide or Multi-touch Maths. More importantly, I want to see children creating content e.g. creating a movie of an independent game to teach another group, using Educreations to demonstrate a new strategy they've learnt or using Popplet or Puppet Pals to show their learning. 
• I've also been watching some of Dan Meyer's YouTube clips and am inspired to include more real life problems in my maths programme. Have a look at the clip below. 

Spelling Mistakes - Food for Thought

Yesterday I came across a blog post that struck a chord with me. It was an article about spelling mistakes in children's draft writing books. See below for the link to the original post. 


The blog post starts off like this... 

'Last week, my son brought home a stack of papers from his first-grade class. Some of them had obvious spelling errors, but no one had marked them wrong. Later that same day, I was helping my 10-year-old daughter with a research paper. I noticed a few misspellings on her draft, but when I pointed them out, she said, “My teacher told us not to worry about spelling when we’re drafting.”

What’s the deal? Why don’t teachers seem to care about spelling anymore?'

In our classroom, I tell the children the exact same thing as this teacher has told her class. At the beginning of the year I had three children who were in tears during writing time. This is the first time I have had children in my class that were this upset and reluctant to write. Not all children were upset on the same day, but their stories are the same. I simply asked them what they were worried about. Two children were worried about their spelling not being correct; the other child was worried about her handwriting being messy. 

I explained that I wasn't worried about their handwriting or spelling. All I asked was that they got their ideas down onto paper and tried their best. We also talked about how we're all learners and that it's okay to make mistakes. That's how we learn. These weren't children who didn't know what they wanted to write. They were creative students, who were able to share their ideas orally. They were just reluctant to record them on paper. As the term went on this particular group of children became more confident writers who actively participated during both group writing and independent writing time. I put a large emphasis on sharing writing once it's finished and celebrating success. Sometimes individual children read their story in front of the class and children provide positive feedback or suggestions for further improvement. Other times it is published on our class blog or the school kids corner, which is accessed through the school wiki. 

I'm not saying that handwriting and spelling isn't important, but during draft writing time I don't think it's essential. There's a time and a place e.g. during proof reading and re-crafting. It should never be a barrier to getting a draft story written down. From the start of Term 2 I will have five iPads in my classroom. I'm looking forward to being able to use these to further engage my reluctant writers. 

http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/spelling-mistakes/

Blogging Challenge

I got tagged by a couple of people in this blogging challenge awhile ago, so thought I better stop being a lazy lump and give it a go. Because both Marnel and Mark tagged me I've decided to answer a mix of both their questions. First blog post for 2014 :) 

The blogging task includes:

• Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
• Share 11 random facts about yourself.
• Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
• List 11 bloggers.
• Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. 
• Don't nominate a blogger who has nominated you

11 random facts about me 

• I love to travel. I've visited Samoa, Australia, UK and spent seven weeks travelling through Europe. I'd love to visit Canada and South America. There's something special about experiencing new cultures, places and meeting people you otherwise would never have crossed paths with. 
• I'm a vegetarian. 
• I don't have any kids, but I have a lot of animals. 
• I have taught at Morningside School since I started teaching five years ago. I couldn't have wished for a more positive start to my teaching career, but am looking forward to starting my new job at Matarau School this year. It's time for a new adventure. 
• I don't think you're ever too old to watch an animated movie. My favourites are Up and Ratatouille. 
• I love spending time at the beach and going camping. 
• I grew up on a lifestyle block and enjoy the rural lifestyle. 
• I went to Hurupaki Primary School. There were only 7 pods and one was the assembly room. The school was painted yellow and green, until they repainted it blue and pink (as it is now). Mrs Barber was my first teacher. That's one for you Mark ;) 
• The first thing I do every weekend is get up early to go to the farmers market. 
• On the 2nd of February I'm a bridesmaid for the first time, at one of my best friend's wedding. My first day of school is on the 3rd. 
• I have a slight L&P addiction. 

My answers to Marnel's questions

What is your life motto?

One day your life is going to flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching. 

If you weren't a teacher, what would you do?

Probably something with animals. 

If you could change something about the education system, what would it be?

I'd get rid of National Standards. 

What are you reading now?

The second Hunger Games book. I was hoping to read it before the movie finished at the cinema, but I read like a sloth ;) 

When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?

When I was 14 years old. A friend of mine got sent back to Fiji to live with his uncle. He had called me to say goodbye, but at the time I had been grounded and wasn't allowed on the phone. He wrote me a letter and sent it from Fiji and I wrote back. There wasn't Facebook back then. 

What inspires you?

So many things... friends, family, the children I teach, people I work with, tweeps, travel, quotes and ofcourse Pinterest ;) 

My answers to Mark's questions

What motivated you to become a teacher?

My mum is a kindergarten teacher and I was always inspired by what she did. 

What fictional character are you most like, or do you most relate to?

Penny off the Big Bang Theory. I've always had more guy mates, than girl mates and I have regular blonde moments. 

Where does the tomato sauce live - cupboard or fridge?

I can't believe this is even a question Mark haha The fridge!! 

Crosswords or Sudokus?

Chocolate.

What has been the coolest thing you have ever done with your class?

Taking them down to Toll Stadium just after the Rugby World Cup to meet some of the All Blacks and have their photo taken with the cup. The photo ended up in the Advocate too, which was awesome. 

My 11 Questions 

1. What is the best thing about being a teacher?
2. What is currently the most challenging aspect of being a teacher?
3. Cats or dogs? Why?
4. Name three things you have on your bucket list?
5. How would you describe your ultimate holiday?
6. What's the funniest or most interesting thing a child has ever told you?
7. If there was one subject you didn't have to teach, what would it be and why?
8. What is your favourite quote?
9. What do you normally do on the first day of the school year?
10. Summer or winter? Why?
11. If you were a principal for a day what would you do?

I'm tagging @carlytustian @dsmithnz75 @JoanneHiggins16 @BeLchick1 @nickkakariki   @Kar3nlj @GeoMouldey @ReidHns1 @CatrionaPene @PalmyTeacher @BenSoole 

Incredible Years

During the first half of the year I attended Incredible Years for Teachers. Incredible Years included six full day workshops based around positive classroom management strategies, building relationships with students and behaviour management. 

It was an excellent opportunity to connect with teachers from other schools, be reminded of useful classroom management techniques, as well as to come away with some fresh ideas. I found that it also really made me reflect on my teaching practice too. 

I've always focused a lot on rewarding positive behaviour in my classroom and building positive relationships with the children and their families. Carol often reminded us that you get more of what you focus on and I completely agree. Here are some of the ways I encourage and reward positive behaviour in my room. 

Our bucket filling display. See my post on bucket filling for more information. 

Class Do Jo or warm fuzzy awards as we call them are used to reward individual children. At the end of the week we use the random selector to select three winners, who need get to choose something out of the prize box. Visit www.classdojo.com to set up your own account. 

Throughout the week Room 2 earn sparkly pompoms for their jar. Once the jar is full all of the children vote on a whole class reward. This normally happens twice a term. 

I personally found Incredible Years really useful for adding to my bank of strategies for different types of behaviour e.g. engaging a child who would prefer to be rolling around on the floor, instead of doing his work or the bright spark with a short attention span. It was really beneficial to be able to speak to other teachers, in different schools who teach the same year level too. 



Here are the two teaching pyramids that were shared with us. 

Smidgens that I will take away 

• Always remember that you get more of what you focus on. 
• If you focus on successfully achieving the things at the bottom on the pyramid, you will have to use the strategies at the top of the pyramid very often. 
• Use proximity praise more often. 
• Focus on decreasing inappropriate behaviour, prior to using negative consequences e.g. use proximity praise, redirect, provide choices, ignore (but then acknowledge as soon as the right choice is made), use non verbal cues. As I've always believed, negative consequences should always be a last resort. Being provided with a bank of strategies to decrease inappropriate behaviour was really useful, as different strategies work for different children and different situations. 
• Incentives and rewards SHOULD be used!! Although we may love our job we wouldn't work if we didn't get paid. Just the same as most people possibly wouldn't take on more responsibility e.g. leadership roles within a school if they weren't getting paid extra for the time and additional workload. 
• Remember to make more time for the small things e.g. have lunch, a chat in the morning or kick a ball around at play time with a child that is displaying challenging behaviour in the classroom. Make the time to get to know each child as an individual. Those small things will make a big difference. 
• Communicate positive behaviour and achievements with families more regularly, not only when something goes wrong. So important!