ULearn 2016 Day 2

Great to be back for Day 2 of ULearn 2016.  A very full day with a keynote, ministerial address and three break out sessions!

OPENING KEYNOTE - Michael Fullan - New Pedagogies for Deep Learning

Children are highly creative and its important that schools don't squash this creativity.   Often the millennial's rebel against organisation - they are keen to explore the changes required to move forward.

How do we make the "Six C's" of character, citizenship, collaborating, communication, creativity, critical thinking shine in the classroom?

• Deep learning and equity go hand in hand - it connects to the real world if we provide authentic experiences
• It builds relationships of trust with our students
• It increases optimism with students
• It provides support systems for learners that traditionally have not have enough support
• Accountability and Standards by themselves will not effect change
• A change in system culture - collaboration within and across schools, leadership from the middle; supported by pathways to success
• Respect and reject the status quo
• Be an expert and an apprentice
• Experiment and commit to getting it right - keep working until you get the solution you are looking for
• Students become agents of change (pedagogy change, organizational change, societal change), working alongside teachers as agents of change (human capital, quality of the group, the group gets better at using evidence to show what they are doing)
• The job of leaders is to make learners run better
• Live by a motto of "less is more" and give learners choice
• Be willing to admit you don't know the answer
• Its OK to make mistakes and create opportunities for revision
• Ensure students feel they belong in the classroom
• Leaders/Teachers listen, learn and ask questions
• Leaders/Teachers help crystalize, articulate and feedback what they see
• Deep learning incorporates parents, families and communities
• Pedagogy is the driver, technology the accelerator and culture the runway
• Coherence - simplexity - make things more simple!

"The job of education today is to produce better citizens for tomorrow, today"

ADDRESS - Hon Hekia Parata

It was great to hear Minister Parata speak this morning and some of the messages that resonated with me are:

• It can only be the profession (teachers) that can lead learning and learning outcomes
• Standards don't create professional behaviour or accountability - they are 'part of' but not the whole of
• If the profession is not focused on how we create, with young people in the centre, young people will not be educationally successful 
• How does funding more closely align with what is the size of the educational change?
• We need to take advantage of the all the possibilities, not just in NZ, but what we see happening overseas
• We need to remind ourselves constantly about the wonderful educational system we have in NZ - we still need to strive to improve, and use all the functionality that we have available to us
• 7 big system levers that the government is working on (puzzle card) - what pedagogical changes are we going to make in our Community of Learning?
• We are a small, smart, sassy nation and education is the critical pivot of that nation

SESSION THREE - Helen King & Karen Belt - Redefine your classroom with Explain Everything

It was great to present with Helen again this year at ULearn and share the great things we do in the classroom with Explain Everything.  Details of our presentation are available at this blog post.

SESSION FOUR:  Dorothy Burt & Fiona Grant - Apple Smacdown

A great Apple Smacdown full of lots of tips and tricks!  Some of those that were shared include:

• Become an Apple Teacher ... coming to New Zealand sometime soon - can't wait!
• How to put the macron in the right place in a word - a great online resource
• Preview App - annotate PDF, edit images, resize images, remove background images
• iTunesU - resources for learners to access based on a class assignment
• Keyboard shortcuts - I really love the F3 - expose - view all open windows; command & spacebar to open up the search bar
• Collaborative Keynote - work with others to create a keynote
• Maths Shake - app designed by teachers for teachers to support maths learning
• Using Siri to edit work
• Swift Playgrounds for coding and app creation  (Lightbot for younger learners)

SESSION FIVE:  Writing tips and tricks in the iPad classroom - Amie-Lee Mills & Trudi Fausett

The last session I attended for the day shared ideas to motivate reluctant writers.

Spelling books - a fun and exciting way to practice your spelling words using Book Creator and Mojo Masks - post your book to your blog when complete at the end of the week.

• write your words in your handwriting book - take a photo of these
• type each of your works into Book Creator five times - change the colour/font 
• record yourself saying each of the words using Mojo Masks which save as a movie to your camera roll - put these in your book
• at the end of the week, buddy test the words and take a photo of your test - add it to your book
• post your book to your blog

Siri to check spelling - learners underline all the words they are unsure on the spelling in their writing and then use Siri to give them the correct spelling by asking Siri, "how do you spell .... "?

Responsive writing  -  pen pal writing between 2 different classes in different schools - use Google Docs and/or learner emails to support this.

TES teach with Blendspace - great for creating a shared space to direct your learners - I could link this from my class site for added ease of access.

Keepvid - an alternative to Clipgrab for downloading You Tube and other video clips

WOW!  What a big day - looking forward to the dinner tonight and another great day of learning tomorrow!