Timings

Each day is comprised of four lessons. To facilitate Staff Development time one day a week shorten the lessons from 85 minutes to around 60 minutes. 

No school bell was sounded. This may contribute to calm purpose around the place and is one way student responsibility can be nurtured.They have to be organised, aware and motivated to arrive on time 

Part of the HOW ( Habits of Work) assessed criteria is accountability, with the specific criteria of meeting deadlines. 

A wonderful Lobster Coincidence.

Yesterday morning the Headline in the local Portland newspaper amused me. It is not often that a front page about Lobsters, but this also told me that Lobsters really matter around here.

For lunch we wandered past a Gilbert's Chowder House, a diner at the old port. Sitting down the first thing we noticed was a wooden flip book about the lobsters. It is written by elementary third graders at Presumpscot School. We instantly recognised this a expeditionary learning school.

It is basically a science project with questions and answers about the lobsters life history and biology. Although each answer is short it is written beautifully, in technical language and academically ie in genre ( eg third person)

What stood out was the choice of topic- a science project ran through a cultural element of the town. The project is purposefully placed in the students home town in their identity. Lobsters really do matter around here.

Focused learning walks

Guidelines for learning walks - a tool for deeper learning

Staff in 3's

1- focus exclusively on students, will talk to at least 2 students and asks 'what are you working on', what are you learning from this work' and then a question about the physical space

2 - focus exclusively on teacher. Use the indicators on rhs of tool, examines handouts, tasks, etc and then looks at posted targets and displays in room.

3 - documents the walk with photos (physical space, student work)

After learning walk summarise the observation together and sends out feedback to staff within 48 house.

All key areas of focus for Casco Bay form the areas for the learning walk eg. students having the opportunity to grapple 

Initial thoughts on design principles- subject to change...

1.       Positive relationships are the heart of the school experience. Relationships between students and teachers and students and students are fostered to create a supportive and challenging learning culture.

2.        A blend of school experiences are important to develop competent, knowledgeable, confident independent thinker and learners. Rigorous academic progress and development of skills and character qualities are equally valued.

3.       Community – Everyone is valued and wants to engage with their education.  Classroom and school community is fostered to provide a safe and encouraging learning environment. As a school we actively seek work that impacts on our local community.

4.       Aspiration. Students and teachers are challenged to achieve beyond their expectations.

5.       Students are challenged to become more independent.

6.       A culture of quality permeates all aspects of school life.  Students are expected to produce work of quality, value and pride. Staff are engaged in challenging professional development and model the behaviours we wish the students to develop. 

7.       A  students, teachers and families use data and student work and performances as evidence to reflect on what can be improved upon and to celebrate authentic success.  

Kurt Hahn

A name that has crept up twice in three days. Firstly a tweet from @saidthemac after an outward bound course, and now in the opening sentence design principles. These are said to reflect the educational values and beliefs of Kurt Hahn, founder of the Outward Bound Movement.

The original values are quoated as

 1. Give the children opportunities for self-discovery.

2. Make the children meet with triumph and defeat.

3. Give the children the opportunity of self-effacement in the common cause.

4. Provide periods of silence

5. Train the imagination.

6. Make games important but not predominant.

7. Free the sons of the wealthy and powerful from the enervating sense of privilege.

from the infed.org website.

A website dedicated to his work may also provide rich pickings http://www.kurthahn.org/

Core Practices- design principle- Success and Failure.

The second of the Core practice to resonate with me  is the Success and Failure.

This is seen as the capacity to build confidence and take risks in meeting increasingly difficult challenges.

Failure is also important in developing resilience and perseverance. It is defined as an opportunity not a problem, as something to work at not to be remedied. I am wondering about the role of teacher led intervention in all of this. When is this best executed? When should we grant opportunity to learn from a failure and to develop the resilience needed to succeed?

Clearly this needs to be done on a individual basis. We need to know our students very well indeed.to do this.

Core practices- Soltitude and Reflection

One of the benefits of a 7 hour flight is the opportunity to read. The expeditionary learning design principles of SOLITUDE and REFLECTION has provided some food for thought. Firtsly, our head of maths visit to China brought back the idea of all student having a daily(?) self study time as part of their daily timetable. Subject Teachers set tasks for the students to complete during this time. The students worked in silence and completed their tasks.  

This could be very powerful if the tasks involved not just practice of a skill, but deliberate practice. Deliberate practice requires  

-              bigger problem that can be broken down to smaller ones.

-              An understanding of the task at hand so that it allows investment into a conscious and focused effort.

-              An element of choice or control over what is practiced.

-              A chance to deconstruct and restructure learning.

Although this reflection is very much content driven I kind of like this idea. It is very easy to see how this routine could instil the character traits of scholarship.

Can Modialic provide a framework for structuring the choice and nature of these tasks. I do think that these need to be about revisiting concepts previously studied, and not  about learning new content.

The section on FOSTERING CHARACTER, devides this into two parts.

1.       Relational character for positive collaboration and responsible participation (eg Kindness)

2.       Performance Character or Habits of scholarship..

I like this dichotomy.

Where in our curriculum do we give students the space to be able to practice these skills?

How do the EL schools provide the time for this?