Tauranga Intermediate School was my first visit for the day and will be the focus of this post. I want to thank Karen Mills for the warm welcome, while at the same time giving up her release time to show me around, chat with me and share what they are doing.
What are they doing?
There is a media-based cluster of classes that students can apply into, of which Karen is the Senior Teacher. Parents are expected to supply their child with an Apple Mac book if their child is offered a place in this team on which most of their work will be done. Those that can meet this requirement and still wish to continue into these classes (this year two Year 7 and two Year 8 classes) go into a ballot following a meeting where it is laid out to both parents and students how these classes work. The students should be able to manage their learning remaining on task while researching, completing tasks required and not being drawn into the distractions that the Web and computers in general can provide.
Like the other classes in the school these students also have the purchase of a hardcover 1B5 Learning Journal and a hardcover 1E5 Math book to make. The Math book is used regularly while the exercise book version of their Learning Journal is used most often when the classes have relief teachers for whatever reason. The digital Learning Journals are shared with the teacher and the student's parents through the usual methods in Googledocs. The Year 8 students focus on their editing skills through their blogged Learning Journal, while the Year 7 students have an authoring focus.
All work completed fits within the Inquiry model the staff have worked to create. It is expected that all tasks, including Math if possible, will fit into the focus of each Inquiry. In the Media classes this means that all tasks are completed online, while the remaining teams in the school work within their book version of the learning journal. The teams of teachers choose their Inquiry focus based on the needs of their students. They have a rubric to ensure aspects of the Key Competencies are achieved each year with the expectation students will meet each of these in some form. The key areas derived from the New Zealand Curriculum fit under the following headings:
- Read/Write/Explain
- Statistical Investigation
- Be Published
- Create/Exhibit/Perform Artistically
- Science and Technology Investigations
- Create, Manipulate, Design Digitally
- Our Cultural Identity
- LEOTC
- Community Social Action
- Focussing on Beyond Tomorrow
As a teacher in an Intermediate school, I can see the benefit of this for myself. Rarely do I have my full class in the afternoons due to the number to Extension, sport and extra curricular activities they are involved in. The students organising their timetable while being aware of what they will miss should, in a self-managing model, prompt them to ensure they work to complete what is missed at a time that suits them.
Tauranga Intermediate is another Google Apps school. However, interestingly after our Auckland visits, they have chosen not to use the Hapara dashboard creating instead their own individual ways of managing the students work. Karen shared with me how she creates folders within her Google Drive that she can then pull the work through into. The example demonstrated was the students Novel Study responses. She had set up the tasks required and emailed them to each student for the novel they were reading. As the student completes the tasks they publish this onto their blog as well as sharing it with Karen. She then files it into the appropriate folder, following up with the student giving her feedback and tracking those who have yet to share their work with her.
Where to from here for a prescribed, safe and traditional curriculum? Well, we discussed that too.
If we want to move into a true inquiry model we need to investigate what this will look like in our school. Everyone with an interest should be given the opportunity to be involved in the groundwork. PD with the experts or sharing by those who have attended courses with them will be needed - questioning, inquiry models, 21st Century learning, assessment and so on. As we develop a new model we need to ensure we find ways to incorporate our traditions of Science Fair, Mathex, Production or Arts Festival, Sporting excellence, as well as the ribbons and badges that can be earned by students.
We need to be well aware of the pedagogy that should be sitting firmly behind any model we develop, while at the same time ensuring we are looking at it through the eyes, digital abilities and interests of our students. It is in our own best interests as teachers to create a model that will grab students rather than one that conforms to our comfort zones. This is an injustice to the students we teach every day who know nothing other than a digital world and from whom we could learn a great deal. Once we think we have a model developed we need to test it to ensure it is robust, constantly questioning what the learning is (learning intention) and what we are doing to achieve it (activity) while in our own minds keeping these two entities separate.
The model developed should not be dependent on the number of computers in the school or the classrooms. It is instead a model of learning we need if we are to encourage the development of lifelong learners ready for the world into which they will move - no matter what tools they have at hand.
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