9AK #7: Evidence gathering: Connecting with whanau during lockdown

Did connecting with whanau support student learning during the lockdown?  

The lockdown was a chance to connect with whanau on a another level.  Before the lockdown, students were sent to school for their learning and that was that.  During lockdown, students pretty much brought their homes, lives and families to ‘school’ with them when they were forced to shared their learning spaces with their teachers.  I was interested in how our students handled this and I found an article that talks about the vā, the relative space between people and their relationships.

“The vā that binds: a Pasifika education story during Covid-19” describes the vā as a sacred space that online learning interrupted.  Teachers were invited into the sacred spaces of our kids in their homes.  In that space, the divide grew wider or got closer, depending on whether the kids trusted you or not.  At the start of the lockdown, my seniors were all for it turning up to online classes religiously.  But nearer the end, they were rarely there.  There would be a few reasons for this.  Much of the school work they were doing was individualised research which required basic checking in and quick discussions and they were off.  Another reason for a lack of attendance was that many students either worked, babysat or were expected to contribute to the household chores and rarely had time to login(see a recent blog post).  

The juniors on the other hand were there everyday, ready to learn.   In the 9AK project based class, I had at least 75% attendance on average from my year 9's and it was really enjoyable connecting with them in this way.  Most of the time, they had their screens off and mute buttons on. 

I'd like to highlight one student who regularly invited me into his whanau ’space' whenever our classes were on.  Below are the interactions we had from the lockdown (I have changed the boys name to Adam).

Week 1:  Adam introduced his little brother to the class and was feeding him whilst taking part in the lesson. 

Week 2:  Adam’s mum joined the class kahoot with us and beat Adam in a couple of the questions.

Week 3:  Mum helped Adam brainstorm capabilities when he was stuck (see video 11 mins - 11.45 secs).

The week before we went into level 1, Adam’s mum had described to me online her worries about sending her son to school.  I reassured her that she didn't need to send him to school until she was ready and he wouldn't miss anything as we were still online as well as in the classroom.   She seemed happy with my response.

Now that we are pretty back to normal teaching and learning in the classroom, I feel that I have a better relationship with Adam compared to before the lockdown.  If he gets distracted during the lesson, I just call out his name and give him the 'look' and he apologies and refocusses.  I feel there is an unspoken respect and trust that has been formed as a result of connecting with his mum during lockdown.  

The fact that these small connections occurred closes the gaps with the vā.  My wonderings are that if we can shorten the va’, how do we continue the momentum?  I am excited to learn more about developing better connections with our whanau to support our student learning.

9AK #6: Evidence gathering: Online group collaboration

While we were in lockdown, I wanted to see if groups could still collaborate online to complete tasks set for them.  I noticed that one particular group, Team 'I.S' crew, were finding it difficult to get all members of their group to contribute to group discussions.  I had observed this before lockdown in the classroom as well as at the start of our lockdown during our online hangouts.

On the 4th of May, I set the groups a group task and let the groups know that I would be recording them to make sure I can see how to help them better.  Here is a blogpost about the lesson.

For the Team 'I.S' crew, I paid particular attention to them because I could see that although they had 4 members of their team online, only 2 of them were regularly contributing.  

Here is the video and transcript.

When I reviewed the video, I noticed that at the start of the groups discussion, most members of the group were contributing.  But when one of the students felt like he wasn't being heard or that his point was being questioned, he seemed to distance himself then no longer contributed.  It was then left to two of the members to complete the tasks which they didn't get to do.  I joined the hangout at the end and I could see that they had struggled to complete the tasks set.  In fact, they were way behind the other groups.

After transcribing my feedback to the group, there were a number of things that I noticed that I'd said when one of the students had asked for my help:

I praised the group for doing what they could

I explained why I thought they were finding it difficult to complete

I relayed that I thought they're discussions were good even when I'd only heard a minute of their discussions.

I didn't actually listen to why they were having issues, I just tried to solve it.  

On reflection, I wondered about the way I responded to the group.  I was conscious of the time and having 5 groups all wanting my attention made it hard for me to listen to understand and I basically listened to respond.  I wonder if by having a number of key prompting questions, I could apply more of a deep dive into finding out what the real issue was.  I also hope to teach the students how to feel more confident in contributing to their group discussions. 

TAI 2020 WFRC #6: How will I use the data?

By collating the PAT/Asttle and STAR data for students at the start of the year, I am able to identify where their learning needs with regards to reading and writing.  By adding to this ongoing formative and sumative video analysis of groups in actions as well as teacher observations, discussions and student voice surveys, I can create a holistic picture of how a student learns and where their strengths and weaknesses lie with regards to how they collaborate and how they talanoa.

What I have found interesting so far is that some of the less able students who scored quite low in their testing are finding confidence in speaking in front of the class.  I wonder if the collaborative nature of the class has allowed the learners to feel validated and safe enough to share.  I would like to understand more about how this has happened.  

I am hoping to compare students from this class to those in other year 9 classes who are at the same levels of data testing and compare two time points, the start and the end of year data.  Coupled with interviews for both groups, I am hoping that this will give me a chance to see whether explicit teaching of collaboration through Talanoa, will be one of the indicators to a shift in achievement.

Online teaching and learning #9: Google hangout whilst on sick leave

Today I was sick with the flu and I contacted my classes that I would be having our classes online (as in I was at home) and the classes would login to a hangout from my physical classroom EP6, with the support of their reliever.   

One of my classes, the year 10's were really good at showing me who was in the class and I noticed Tom, one of my hard case boys was really engaged.  I know he loves to wear his headphones and listen to music so it was good to see him so engaged.  Watching the video back, I could see that kids were comfortable to be taught and to learn online, regardless if I as the teacher, was in the classroom or at home.  I wonder if this would be the 'norm' in the future?