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!

Which way back to the Drawing Board? - Part 1

Before I can move forward I need to take a good look where I have come from and establish where I am now. Yes that is about my journey with MyPortfolio so far. And it is about my lack of visibility into the future. Something tells me MyPortfolio is here to stay on the NZ Education landscape but as I write someone is still to decide for its funding post December 2013. I usually tend to take things one day at a time, as the journey I am about to retrace indicates. But with what I know now, it just doesn't cut it. I know I need to go back to the drawing board but don't quite know the way.

Where have I been?
- 2009 - New Languages NCEA Internal Standards, aligned to the NZC, require a "portfolio of evidence" "gathered over time" "selected through a student/teacher negocation process"
Immediate thought arising: how to manage this practically? (At this stage I am not thinking too much in terms of pedagogy and NZC!)
- Hear of Mahara an eportfolio software, developed from the needs of a consortium of NZ Universities to provide their students with an eportfolio space. Tiki tour at a local college that has an install. The word eportfolio enters my vocabulary. 
- Feb. 2010 - Attend Learning at School, discover amongst a plethora of tools that "support teaching and learning" (yep I do love the tools still) my first intros to  "Why"  using an eportfolio.
- Keep my ears to the ground in terms of ePortfolio with further investigations to deepen my understanding  The phrases learning journey and lifelong learning become familiar. It also becomes clearer to me that technology pointers are only going to help a little, that what we are looking at is to change the way we have been assessing and to give the students the responsibility to own his/her learning. Which prompts me to download again the NZC and to this time properly read it. Page 36 in particular retains my attention:
 

- I dwelve some more as I am now aware of MyPortfolio a hosted instance of Mahara made available to NZ schools, funded by the MoE.  It is not until Ulearn10 that I find out more information and meet users. The practical in me sees a solution for students and teachers for the internal assessments. I have not got enough hindsight at that stage to gage the transformative "power" of this technology on teaching and learning.
- Feb. 2011 - First real intro to MyPortfolio at Kristina's workshop. I am sold! I also meet Ronja a Language teacher who shares my enthusiasm. She does have classes and students to try it with! (I am no longer teaching). I make my first pages, to discover the functions. The Learning Languages Group is created, I join the MyPortfolio Discussions Group. I effectively take my first steps in the MyPortfolio community. Till then my immediate community has been the French teachers of NZ, being an NZAFT exec  which reinforced the bond created by redeveloping and maintaining french.ac.nz and managing its Listserve.
- Paul (then in MoE team that has started MyPortfolio) was keen to see the MyPortfolio word spread and potential users found. Free 90min taster sessions were already made available on request to all primary and secondary schools in NZ. There were two trainers and the rapid growth of early enthusiasts contributed a contingent of local trainers. The idea is to grow interest and develop use from within the community of users. Thus a need for a critical mass of users for this to grow organically! 
- Paul asked me "how can I help you?"? 2011 was a NZALT Langsems year. Language teachers meet in the regions. I suggested I could hold MyPortfolio introductions and workshops at each of these Langsems, and that I could contact the then Regional Language Advisers and offer a day's training at Cluster levels. I surveyed Language teachers. I got on the road.  I kept my journal. I learned by doing.
- Jan. 2012 - There is still plenty of demands on the MyPortfolio taster session calendar, and with one trainer left I am offered the opportunity to take his place until the contract runs out end June 2012. 
- New format (90 min taster session is not a half day workshop that I have ran so far), new people (from 48 different schools many primary, a few big secondary, across Learning areas, people I don't know!), new surroundings (visiting schools not conference rooms!) new focus (in 90 min, the standard taster focus on the Reflection, whereas the focus had been on managing assessement and feedback with Language teachers), new geographical horizons (up and down the South Island, and some part of the lower North Island), new way of doing things (making contact at potential user's request, explaining who I was, reminding them of their interest,  connecting them regionally as a small group, facilitating the "finding time and place" that suits all! sending reminders, located the schools geographically, this is NZ after all!, writing invoices, keeping tab of expenses... ) new outlook on what the NZ education landscape looks like on the ground, across sectors, new awareness (no such thing as "one fits all model" rather "one fits one"), new reality (good infrastructure access innovation exist in pockets and are unevenly distributed). One very lasting picture is built from the numerous interactions: MyPortfolio is a shared online space which functionalities definitely "open up new and different ways of learning" (NZC p.36) and supports fully the Vision of the NZC for "young people who will be confident connected actively involved life long learners". These were a short . These six months went so fast.
- March 2012 - New opportunities arise. I am invited to work with GCSN schools as a consultant. That adds another layer to my understanding of the diversity and the complexity of the issues at play when introducing something new. More than ever it is the "Why" that must lead this. I see school grounds really affected by the earthquake   , whole neighborhoods deserted with houses destroyed and boarding up and places and other schools and neighborhoods which appear to look as they ever looked. What I quickly gather though is that everyone, teacher and student, that I spend time with has been affected deeply by the catastrophe. What I am amazed with is the demand for something new, at the interest generated by eportfolio and myportfolio, at the warmth of the welcome, at the openness of mind. I end up going back to work in Christchurch GCSN schools in November 2012 and again in March 2013. 
- Working with the Christchurch schools lead to work with schools from the Wellington Loop and with a cluster of teachers located in the Nelson region. I meet again teachers I have met before in other myportfolio workshops. Learning happens when it is revisited often, in different contexts, over a period of time.
- I enjoy contributing to the online MyPortfolio group forums where I can, I learn from the questions and I continue to develop my understanding of online communities and how they "work", how its contributors seem to move quite fast and focus on the future.
- I accompany the work of three language teachers in three different secondary schools and of  their students using myPortfolio remotely, we meet regularly online, take stock and map next steps.
- March 2013 - The MoE continues to support hosting and development of MyPortfolio till at least Dec 2013. Some schools continue to want to know more about MyPortfolio and get in direct contact with me. ePortfolio is now almost a household name now for many in New Zealand schools, it appears often in online conversations and generates conversations around the pedagogy which leads to its use, the reasons why, the type of tools to build one etc. It may have entered the vocabulary but not so widely the practice yet. All good things take time. Hence my multiple interrogations! (To be continued)

Tagging, portfolio pondering and John de Mado

Coucou Pascale,
I've just had a second read of your synthesis of our various frameworks with Ewan McIntosh's tagging for self-assessment and your reflection on incorporating e-portfolios as an integral part of the learning and assessment process. Lots to be digested here but it's certainly going in the right direction in terms of passing the responsibility onto the learner. One of my first tasks when I get to my new school will be to ascertain what they already have in place, if anything, and then take it from there. It's certainly the way I intend to go.
For years I've felt that there was something radically wrong with teachers going home night after night with a pile of books to make laborious comments that students rarely act upon. It's just too passive. It's a form of martyrdom which makes teachers seem very busy, but how often do they ask themselves "WHY am I doing this? Is this helpful for the learning process or is it just generating grades for my mark book and ultimately for the sacrosanct school report?". In other words, is it being done for purposes of compliance because someone else is going to check that work is dutifully done and marked?
I dislike imposing anything on students that smacks of duty or 'cod-liver oil' - you have to do this because it's good for you. I don't think that learning out of a sense of obligation, and at the teacher's instigation, is likely to elicit the intrinsic motivation required for real engagement with the subject.  I like the idea of students deciding when they're ready for their teacher to comment and/or grade their work as I totally agree that they all learn at different rates and don't have to be assessed on exactly the same thing at the same time. The only advantage it has is its convenience for the teacher who likes to tick things off as they go, under the illusion that if it's been taught, it should've been learned.
In fact I even have difficulty telling any group of learners what I think they should learn and when, as this robs them of ownership of their learning. I have also felt that instead of producing a quantity of work they would learn much more from reworking and polishing fewer items. An e-portfolio seems a perfect vehicle for doing just that. All this fits in very well with the model you propose. If I had to tag it à la Ewan McInstosh, what would I say? What is it? > Tagging, student-centred assessment, e-portfolios. What skill/competence is involved? developing learners' autonomy and self-reflective capacity  How do I feel about it? Enthusiastic, optimistic, curious, exploratory......

As you know, my blue sky vision for language teaching is partly shaped by the ideas of John de Mado who maintains that language is acquired rather than learned, that students self-select language in accordance with their interests. His presentations at the Queenstown NZALT conference made a deep impact on my thinking as they articulated precisely my own feelings about what's really important. He outlined the difference between Language Knowledge and Language Proficiency, saying that language teachers traditionally focus on, value and assess against Knowlege whereas it's Proficiency that fosters communication. Language Knowledge values accuracy and complexity and tends to give rise to inhibition and risk-averseness. Language Proficiency on the other hand is about survival strategies for communication. In other words, what you say (the message) is much more important than how you say it. The key element in communication is vocabulary, as it's impossible to understand or express ideas without a good repertoire of words at your command. You can communicate a great deal with nouns or verb infinitives with gestures or simple time words to indicate tenses. This is unsettling for many teachers who feel strongly that language should be used correctly. John de Mado drew a rather neat analogy to illustrate his point about what's essential to communication. What he said was frankly liberating as it fast-tracks students to a stage where they can say practically anything provided the listener has a tolerance of errors.
Here is his analogy. Supposing vocabulary was represented by consonants and structure by vowels.
Would it be possible to make something comprehensible purely out of vowels (=structure) ? ae i u ouie. NO (That was 'my name is Ruth Bourchier'). Would it be possible to make something comprehensible out of consonants (=vocab)? My nm s Rth Brchr ALMOST.
He illustrated his point further by asking us whether the letters BTTR were comprehensible. Well ALMOST. What would be required for those letters to have only one meaning? Most people answered 2 vowels but on closer inspection it was only the first vowel that was really necessary to distinguish BATTR, BETTR, BITTR, BUTTR, but that the second vowel, E, although adding to accuracy actually added nothing to the comprehensibility of the word.
Thus he underlined the importance for teachers and students of identifying and devoting time to essential structure and elements of language that allow language users to avoid miscommunication. So if we take a quick look at French it becomes clear that most structure turns out to be largely decorative - aesthetically pleasing but not essential for communication. This includes some biggies that normally hog lots of teaching and learning time.

• verbs conjugated with être in the passé composé 
• gender 
• the subjunctive 
• most agreements 

to name but a few. Essential things could include subtleties of pronunciation such as the distinction between u/ou which can lead to problems (merci beau cul,  cou/cul) or the tu/vous distinction which is so important interculturally, but which we tend to delay tackling because it's felt to be too difficult for beginners to grasp. French has traditionally been taught in a fairly standard progression based on a perception of what's easier or more difficult for students to assimilate, with the present tense preceding the passé composé, preceding the subjunctive etc. There has been little account taken of what students are actually interested in being able to say. My argument now is that if we were less precious about errors and allowed students to experiment and try getting their meaning across with survival French, not only would this more closely equate to the experience of anyone learning an additional language in an authentic context, but it would be a jolly sight more motivating and fun, as it would no longer be a case of pre-learning prescribed language for the purpose of practicing it. Can you see how well this fits in with  the notion of students being responsible for their own learning? Considering the majority of students don't continue learning languages beyond Y10 why are we clipping their wings with structural constraints when they could be having fun exploring and making their own meaning? This would be a better preparation for the real world. Let's tap into their creativity!!

Nothing is plain-sailing though. According to the Ellis' principles, effective language acquisition depends on having plenty of input, output and interaction as well as an extensive repertoire of formulaic language and some rule-based competence. My question to myself is 'If students are all self-selecting and building their own individualised repertoire, how can teachers guarantee that they will end up with enough common repertoire to be able to interact effectively? They might be able to interact with a teacher or native speaker but not necessarily with each other'. I'm still pondering my way through that problem. On the one hand I'm adamant that we should be looking beyond the time-honoured boring, neutral old topics to something of real interest, more likely to engage the learners emotions, but what can I put in their way instead, which will give rise to some common ground on which to interact? This is not a problem for writing so maybe that's where there should be much greater freedom. For interaction it's vital to develop a good repertoire of language that can be adapted to lots of different contexts and topics. I think perhaps one of the best ways of doing this is to get the students to monitor how frequently the same words and expressions pop up in English in class. These should become the transactional target language, generated by need rather than habit. This would be more effective than my presenting the students with my pre-prepared list, even though they're likely to come up with something very similar.

Getting back to subject matter, I was interested to see the FLIP lessons on Chris Harte's website, Learner Evolution. These clearly gave students more responsibility for their own learning but I couldn't help noticing that the subject matter was unchanged. The students were building Spanish sentences with cards, which they seemed to be enjoying but they were still saying 'I don't like maths because it's difficult and the teacher is too strict' which is the same sort of predictable utterance students have been trotting out forever. It's dictated by the obligation for everyone to learn the same words and expressions. There's no evidence of being encouraged to put one's own stamp on the content by asking 'How do you say........ in Spanish/French....?' Where's the students' creative input? Maybe they have little choice with regard to content. In New Zealand we're particularly fortunate to have 'carte blanche', as our language curriculum no longer has suggested topics or prescribed structure, although there is a list of prescribed NCEA vocab, designed less to constrain learners than exam-setters, and very broad proficiency descriptors for each curriculum level. I wonder, then, why most teachers still adhere to the same old stuff. WHY ARE WE WAITING?

So how do I see my role as a teacher of French, if it's not to push all students through the same mold? I can draw on my own experience of learning languages and share with them strategies that have helped me to become fluent in French and proficient in Spanish. I can put them in contact with native speakers both in person and virtually. Some would say that it's best to stick to authentic materials that adolescents are likely to engage with but how can we be sure this is not short-changing them? For me what has been memorable has been the unexpected, often moving, inspiring things that I might never have come across without guidance from the teacher (poetry, art, music, history, literature). I wouldn't have wanted my teachers to limit themselves to my popular culture or keep me fixed in my present. I'm looking for myriad ways to inspire my students and foster their intrinsic motivation.

Wow, this is a ramble. Congratulations for getting to the end of it!