Compare and Contrast...

I put my hand up to "convene the French programme" at an upcoming regional Language teachers day conference. Here are a couple of reasons:
- to help out
- to keep in touch with the local Language teachers community
- to share experiences gleaned from a range of professional learning opportunities
- to further support my conviction that this model of Professional Learning has seen better days


This is comparing and contrasting the traditional Subject Association Conference day with the Unconference day, educamp style.
Both are intended to be "for teachers by teachers" (the only "both A&B" of the Venn Diagram)

I have attended a range of subject associations conferences in NZ and abroad, four educamp and one Ignition. I have previously been a convener,  helped organise Week End d Immersion the upcoming Fransème and put together FrenchCamp 

Convening for a day's conference involves:
- Attend committee meetings
- Go over what was has been done traditionally and that was deemed "to work"
- Follow it to the letter (including mail outs, venue booking, catering, establishing conference fees, finding sponsorship, finding/inviting a "flash" keynote speaker, collecting fees...)
- Convince teachers in your network to present "something spectacular" "their excellent practice" to fit in one of the "lines" of the programme,  ask them to take a day of school, plan relief,  ask SLT for relief ($300), pay for their conference fee (because there is not enough money to invite them),  travel to the venue, send a bio and a presentation outline by a certain deadline, convince them "it's good for their CV"
- Exchange countless emails with the committee, hope that there are enough registrations to break even, ensure that all is on time for the programme to be published
- Decide for others on a programme for the day, plan all its aspects
- Meet and greet the presenters on the day, intro them when they start, thank them when they are done, give them a bottle of wine and a handwritten card of thanks.
- Decide on how /when to give the Evaluation form that is so hard to ellicit from attendees at the end of the day.
- Use the few evaluation forms returned to continue to do mostly the same, as some "will always be moaners" and "it is hard to please everybody"
- Count on attendees to come and expect to be given "a presentation"
- Count on listening a lot
- Count on listening to "experts"
- Expect no media coverage
- Expect tech to be limited to dedicated workshops
- Expect limited access to resources, if shared online, to those who have paid their conference fees
- Timetable of sessions reinforce silos (I ll never know what the Japanese teacher or the Maori teacher have to say, I ll just run from one session to the next, just like at school from one lesson to another)
- Opportunities to network and exchange ideas beyond the programme or about the programme are limited to morning tea and lunchtime
- Go home tired after another day

Organising an unconference involves:
- Pick a date on a week end, the self directed learner knows when it is worth giving up a precious day off for quality professional learning
- Whip up a google form, send the link via a range of social media
- Share the list of attendees and watch it grow by word of mouth
- Tap shoulders or just wait till someone offers their school as a venue
- Check the numerous website offering tips on coordinating a flow of activities to make the day go smoothly, start a google doc and watch the contributions grow
- Just check there is wifi and heating is on
- Organise a bowl for koha and coffee
- Ask people to bring a plate or to walk to a nearby café
- Rightly assume that all come to share something and ask something, prepared to talk, present off the cuff, take hard questions
- Count on participants to come and give, and share experiences: the good, the bad and the ugly
- Count on exchanging, collaborating a lot and maybe even critic and argue!
- Count on co-constructing knowledge and understanding
- Expect extensive social media coverage
- Expect online resources shared and open to all
- Expect tech to be embedded to communicate beyond the event and to support learning
- No need for evaluation: if people stayed on and did not vote with their feet, consider all got something out of it
- Expect to read many reflections and blogposts on what has been learnt, shared and questioned by participants
- Go home enthused after another day

So if the question is "What's next for Learning Languages?" I would argue that those who have traditionally provided Professional Learning opportunities start thinking about Professional Learning in the context of both the NZC and of the current era.  Professional Learning is not something a teacher should be expecting to be organised for them and to receive passively by turning up but something that the teacher would go and get in their own terms, when they are ready, when they need it, that is accessible, in a range of authentic contexts, that they reflect on and share,  just like the learning of our students in the classroom.
To continue to ask a few to focus huge energy and effort on providing costly Conference days which value is determined in terms of attendance and on the spot evaluation is too big an ask when the alternatives abound. Subject Associations, hand over the learning to the individual teacher,  by empowering them to share their practice openly in an environment conducive to exchange and conversation. Create the right climate and accompany change.

Day 3 #Ignition13

I went to Ignition13 with a couple of things in mind and came back with many more... Since I have been thinking about it all day,  I called this post Day 3!

Here is what I wanted to find out about:
-  What does a two day unconference look like? I wanted to experience how the succession of time slots complement each other. My only prior experience was with attending some Educamps and with running a immersed FrenchCamp last year.
-  How are teachers accessing PLD in their schools? What if it has not been "planned for?" Some of the participants paid their own registration, others came as a school team but all came to share something with others beyond their school and all recognised that there is something to learn from one another. What are some models of "in house" PD? Thought to hang on to #1
- Is eportfolio part of the landscape, if so to what extent and how? I got asked about MyPortfolio beyond Dec. 2013 which I can't answer because I don't know and it is frustrating, but I am better off thinking happy thoughts. There was evidence of use by teachers, there was talk that it is too much for primary, there were also concerns that despite building the eportfolio in primary it was never looked at by the next teacher at Intermediate. There is a need for more eportfolio information. What is going to change the game here? Thought to hang on to #2
- I set out to feel very humbled as I expected to mix with a wide range of people "who are doing it" "who are walking the talk" and "sticking their necks out". I was right to be prepared and I hope not too many noticed my jaw drop at their awesomeness. I had not thought though that the format and above all the people would make this such an inclusive event. And such a provocative one. Phew and thought to hang on to #3

SO this is where it gets very messy!

                                       Thanks @NatashaLowNZ  for the reading me so well!
Some general observations:
Emerging Leaders at #ignition13 are self directed learners. The conversations are about Teaching and Learning. Period. We are not exchanging resources here: this is big picture stuff.
All have a network outside of their schools, some outside of the country, ideas they share willingly, warts (very few...) and all,  use social media to connect with others, read extensively, lean on research and best practice, tend to substantiate what they talk about, use ICT naturally, don't think in terms of eLearning as it is before anything Learning, want to learn and use Te Reo more and have an awareness that Culture is in Language and that Language is in Culture. Many present a side of themselves through Ignite talks and this adds to the respect and warmth and support.
The following words are used not because they sound clever simply because they are internalised, (maybe to various degrees but still no need to "unpack"!): Student centred Pedagogy, Assessment for Learning, Key competencies, Teaching as Inquiry, Student Voice, Co construction, NZC Vision and Principles, Te Tataiako.
NCEA is recognised for what it is: an opportunity to evaluate in this very context. Rapport with families and communities around their schools is built and taken into consideration in their work.

All participants' are encouraged to share Ignition13 experience beyond and across so spread ideas further and beat the echo chamber effect, to find "your way to change the world". Tall order for this isolated disinstutionalised cookie but I ll give it a shot here and there to start with.

About thought #1: 
- do Professional Learning Programmes and PLD providers (Universities?) build self direction in their programmes? What tools can they use?  Te Kotahitanga as an excellent model is caned for "costing too much?" What next? Rethink PLD all together?
- is the gathering of evidence of professional learning occurring systematically towards the key indicators of the Registered Teacher Criteria? (Could be collected from evidence gathered over Teacher as Inquiry and tagged according to the RTC?)
- do teachers actually get any "mastery" and "autonomy" to support their professional lives (one of those big "badaboom" questions that did not get answered!) Am I right to think the following happens: school principals align the school goals to the Ministry Goals, state them in their Charter, then Faculty/Departments/Learning Areas state goals in line with these goals and same for teachers who them make these Professional Goals their appraisal goals? Is this allowing for mastery and autonony? Why not?
About thought #2:
- What is the core purpose of ePortfolio? To film the learning occurring over time. A conversation I have re centers the core business of an ePortfolio: think Assessment for Learning, Co Construction, Student Voice. It makes learning visible, amplifies learning, connects learning, shares learning. That should be my pitch if I wish to continue investigating how I can make myself useful in the support of the adoption of the eportfolio approach in NZ schools. I need to bring this to the fore more prominently and convincingly: this is Why. And this is the reason why workshop PD does not work, because this needs discovery and conversations over time. I need to read and research more in this area in particular if I intend the "change the world" there!!  And ought to use an inquiry cycle too. I know that ePortfolio will support the students' learning and the teachers' professional learning. 
About thought #3:
-  A series of sessions I attended complemented each other. The first piece of the puzzle was facilitated by a secondary teacher inviting to discuss Student's Voice and Co Construction and where we where at with that.

There was mention of knowing the students before the planning and using the rigor of the Teaching as Inquiry for the Planning, of the importance of knowing the NZC backwards to frame the action, to engage deeply with the Assessment objectives and all documents, to survey to co construct not as tokenism, to find a common language between students and teachers in order to allow for that. ( I think now too about the Key Competencies as indicators and to "trust the process" as urged by Guy Claxton for positive students outcomes in formal assessment). The contributions, ideas, practice shared flowed very well. 

Then one question arose "What about co constructing between teachers?" Some practitioners in the room have experienced collaborative teaching, some are in schools where it is the practice. Some are not. Some are doing change on their own, no matter what/who gets in the way, for the good of their students and to be true to their pedagogical beliefs.

                            "Knowledge emerges when people take uncertain action"

Then boom! Another torpedo of a question: How to co construct change in schools? followed by "What decade is your school at?" to start debunking. Another session that attracted another fair few, yet did not quite flow so well: end of day 2-itis maybe? Maybe simply because those are hard out questions. While other conversations had revolved around familiar (to a certain extent) themes, this one felt left field. It stuck around appraisal (box ticking appraisal?) and a tad of management bashing. Hard questions, little time to investigate together to assess if yes or no there is the freedom to do just that: change the lot. Would be a great question to explore with Design Thinking the NoTosh way. I think that more time and a bit of structure would have lead to a more satisfactory outcome. Or maybe it would be something for a World Café event?

And I have been thinking about this all day!
If schools were stripped down naked what would be the bare essentials to create an environment where each child succeeds and is equipped for his/her life ahead?

What if collaboration forever replaced competition?

If the teacher facilitates learning for the students by empowering them to own their learning, what if  the principal applies the same principles to empower teachers to own their the professional learning? (Helen Timperley's 10 Principles of Active Leadership)

And what if the Key Indicators of the Registered Teacher Criteria and Teachers' Council really were used as they are intended?

Twitter today led me to The Essence of School Leadership for the 21st C : it looks that this Principal is co-creating a culture of change by utilising the powerful, creative, daring bare essentials NZ schools have at their disposal.

Needless to say all this thinking is contributing to change my way of being in this world ;-), through raising my awareness of some really deep issues and inviting me to further my understanding of Assessment for Learning in particular. Still at cross roads, but not stuck in the mud!

#ignition13

I marvel at what happens when 80+ teachers get together during the holiday for some self directed learning. This is now happening now at Ignition13
I admire the commonality:
All deeply care for their students' learning. All deeply care that the students own their own learning.
The participants embody change as it is enabled through NZC, effective pedagogy, aligned NCEA standards, natural use of ICTs...
All are practitioners that are effecting change.
I am in owe of the sharing of ideas taking place.
I appreciate the mix of primary and secondary teachers exchanging.
All talk thinking, talk inquiry, talk modern learning environments, talk evidence of learning, talk assessment for learning, talk mindsets and mindfulness.
All prepare clever, crafted and convincing Ignite talks on subjects as diverse as "flipped Library", "Music as alchemy", "Mindfulness", "Exploration", "Call of Duty", "Overcoming stigmas"... (I ll edit here to link to them when they are posted).
All are change agents because this is what they want to model to their students to enable them to be change agent themselves.
I appreciate the goodness of what is shared and learned as it will keep on giving as it will be in turned shared to those not present.

I respect that all are prepared to stick their neck out, have their views challenged, stumble and start again.
I have all to learn from this ever growing group of emerging leaders: their risk taking, their clarity of purpose, their drive, their confidence in their role, their enthusiasm.

All today embody this culture of "working together to make things better for all". How long before this mindset is mainstream in NZ schools? 

Conference or not? ICOT2013

No doubt I took away from ICOT2013 heaps to think about , discuss, weigh etc. BUT!

I sat for five days and listened for five days. I took in: I wanted to be there, both the keynotes and presentations engaged me. I had built my own programme selecting from hundreds of breakouts. I was prepared, I knew what to expect, it was part of the deal.

The speakers were big guns that I respected and wanted to learn from. There was a bit of "fangirl" time going on there.

But a dimension was lacking: I wished some unconference times had been scheduled : I could have heard more but also talked and exchanged, built a better picture there and then.

Hazel blogged live here about her wish to an alternative approach to the conference lecture

And Viv captured it very well in this tweet:

 

Not saying that big ticket conferences need to go: maybe to be attended sporadically (cost, time value for money, reporting back etc. to be taken into consideration) for the big picture inspirational stuff, where some seriously good presenters are truly going to kick your thinking into action... Or I say, read about it online and engage in discussions with others on matters arising on social media or discussion groups to make sense of it.

What is an alternative? I believe in the value of robust conversations with colleagues,anytime anywhere, as a pillar of professional learning.  User driven conferences, where practitioners share experiences, discuss, make sense of together on matters which actually really matter to them and make the necessary connections, provides a frame for these conversations to take place. Attend an educamp sometime,  there is always one near you. Or there may be a repeat of a frenchCamp!  (Note: what you get out of it is proportional to what you put int, and those gatherings do have a method behind their madness, it's a matter of do what you want in a framework. Nuance!)

Not a place where practitioners expect content delivered in a tidy one hour slot of listening before moving to the next tidy one hour slot, not necessarily connected to the previous, not a space that is partitioned, not an environment that is close to only those present, not a time where somebody tells me what I am going to listen to. I want to choose, I want to lead my learning, I want to decide what I need to learn about to further my understanding, I want to do it as I own it. Stuff that conference conveners,  no matter how much they labour on a programme, coerce presenters to deliver, decide on a venue but are limited by cost, choose what I will eat and drink, try to keep the cost down but still there is a cost, just can not decide for me.

Then that will be teachers embracing their learning and thus being able to truly get students to embrace theirs.