Discovering Positive Eduction, Part Four

Today was the final day. Sessions covered:

• Positive Purpose
• From Discovering to Living

 

As with most of the course, the Positive Purpose session could equally be used to consider our own search for meaning, as well as providing strategies for exploring purpose with students. One of the key nuggets of gold I will take away was from the introductory session, looking at the value of purpose and meaning. To paraphrase:

Those who have found meaning and purpose are fortunate.

Those who are searching for meaning and purpose are fortunate.

It is certainly true. Both the pursuit and the finding of purpose are valuable experiences. The state to guard against is purposelessness. Unfortunately, this is often where I see students, especially towards the end of year 10. At this point my thinking links back to earlier discussions of fixed and growth mindsets. Students with a growth mindset see the search for purpose as a valuable and challenging experience, those with a fixed mindset can give up, and slip into purposelessness.

In From Discovering to Living we explored the GGS model for the introduction of Positive Education and the related change management. It is based on advice from Martin Seligman:

Learn it, Live it, Teach it, Embed it

In the four-day residential course, we had the chance to learn it and live it. Key to this is the idea of teachers truly living it before teaching it. Positive Education is not something that can simply be dropped into a school. It must be embraced by staff (and maybe even by parents and the school community) before it can be taught to students successfully. However, the model does not stop there. Embedding is about taking Pos Ed beyond the pastoral care program. It needs to infused into the school culture at all levels. It should be:

• Applied in the academic curriculum
• Expressed in assessment and reporting
• Embedded in behaviour management policies and practices
• Central to staff evaluation, feedback and professional development
• Promoted and explained in parent communications and newsletters

Bringing together all of these aspects will support culture change, and allow the full, deep and authentic practice of Positive Education.

So there it is, we have come to the end of the course. Probably the most intensive, but also the most meaningful and worthwhile training I have ever attended. I can’t wait to get home, share with my family and colleagues and start my new way of thinking and teaching.

 

I thank my family for their love and support, without which none of this would be possible.

Discovering Positive Education, Part Three

We have pushed past the half-way point. It is a huge course, covering so much content. Given any other material I would probably be flagging by now, but this stuff is gold, and keeps me coming back for more.

Today’s sessions were:

• Resilience
• Character strengths

Only two today, as these are big. Really big in my mind. In the Geelong Grammar Institute of Positive Education model, resilience is defined as:

Practising sustainable habits for optimal physical and psychological health that are developed from a sound knowledge base.

It is clear from this, and what they said, that they view resilience as both a physical and mental strength. It relies on flexibility, growth, adaptability and perseverance. It also relies on both internal and external resources. While we may acknowledge that resilience requires inner strength, it is also important to know that resilience is supported by connections to family, friends and community. This is a point that adolescents sometimes miss too.

In the break-out session we explored the concepts of help-seeking and coaching – once again, addressing the external resources for resilience. It is OK to ask for help – it benefits you and empowers your helper.

The other session was on strengths. In particular, the focus was on the VIA Character Strengths. You can take a survey here, to find out more about your strengths. The strengths are a great way to start dialogues with students about what they can do. Especially when they are in trouble, or even in crisis. In fact, I am such a fan of Character Strengths that I have embedded it across the Year 8 Pastoral Care curriculum. After today’s session, I plan to go even further. I want to make sure it happens earlier, and goes deeper.

It is important for students to be aware of their strengths, but it is only by using them that they really take their well-being to the next level. Therefore it is important to teach them in context, not in isolation. For us, we are asking students:

• How would you use your signature strengths to combat bullying?
• Which strengths would be important is these scenarios?
• How can you use your strengths to make a positive impact in the lives of others?

I hope that a strengths-based approach will increasingly become part of our program. But more than that, I want to see it in the regular curriculum, and in our school policies, even for staff.

I also find it useful to be aware of my own strengths, and how I use them. One of the most powerful activities this week has been the Strengths Spotting exercise, in which members of the group identified the strengths which we saw in each other. It was truly uplifting.

 

Discovering Positive Education, Part Two

Today’s sessions were on:

• Positive Engagement and Flow
• Positive Relationships
• Positive Emotions and Gratitude

Once again, each of the sessions involved an introduction to the whole group, break-out sessions and a plenary.

The guru of flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalli, defines flow as:

…the state of intense absorption and optimal experience that results from taking part in intrinsically motivating challenges.”

Through today’s session, I feel I have gained a much deeper understanding of flow, and more importantly, have practical tools to establish conditions in which it can occur.

Firstly, flow relies on three dimensions of engagement. These are cognitive, behavioural and emotional.Therefore, to enhance flow you must provide conditions which support these dimensions of engagement.

Secondly, flow occurs during activities in which high challenge meets high skill. Without the requisite skill, we feel anxious and frustrated by the task. Without sufficient challenge, we may become too relaxed or even bored. This is tricky in the classroom. How is it possible to supply the optimal challenge to students who are at different levels? One approach may be to use adaptive learning environment (such as Khan Academy), where the complexity of learner challenges is based on previous performance. Probably a better way is to allow students to pick appropriate levels of challenge for themselves. One of the delegates in my break-out group reported that she offered students the option of a “mild, medium or spicy” assessment tasks.

For Positive Relationships, we explored the practice of Active Constructive Responding (ACR), a technique which is well explained by Dr Martin Seligman here. Although I have done this before, it was good to have a chance to practice it again. It felt good to both give and receive ACR.

The final session focussed on Gratitude. Much of this looked at Kerry Howells’ view that gratitude actually has two stages. Firstly there is appreciation. Here is where many people stop. But she argues that to fully realise gratitude one must then act upon that feeling. We then explore numerous ways in which we can practice gratitude, some private, some shared. These included: Gratitude journals, acts of kindness, gratitude letters, gifts and so on.

Discovering Positive Education, Part One

As promised last time, I now have a proper definition of Positive Education, after completing the first day of the Discovering Positive Education course:

Positive Education brings together the science of positive psychology with best practice teaching and learning to encourage and support schools and individuals within their communities to flourish

Geelong Grammar School, 2011

The course is structured around a cycle of sessions.

• Each session begins with a short slide show and theory around the topic to be discussed
• Groups then split into break-out sessions, to discuss these ideas further and complete practical activities
• Groups the reconvene with the larger group to summarise their discussions and share key findings or insights

So far, the sessions have covered:

• Introduction to Positive Psychology
• Accomplishment and Mindsets
• Positive Emotions

There has been much of interest, and so many ideas to take back to the classroom. One of the main things I have noticed about this course, compared to other PD I have attended, is that the instructors really practice what they preach. It is an approach which is very personal, and they are not afraid to share their life stories or show vulnerability. I was talking to Steve over dinner about mindfulness. He shared that one of the key ingredients to having mindfulness work in the classroom is you have to be truly authentic – you just can’t fake it.

Other nuggets of gold from today:

• We know that growth mindsets are preferable to fixed mindsets. But how do you foster a growth mindset? One strategy is to focus on process-oriented praise. It takes more time, and you actually have to observe student processes, but the investment means that the feedback you give will be much more powerful.
• Oldie, but a goodie: When you hear yourself or a student say they cannot do something, but sure to add the qualifier “yet”. As in “I can’t juggle…yet.” The brain is capable of extraordinary learning, and we ourselves do not know the ceiling of our potential.
• We spent time focussing on building positive emotions. One of mine to focus on was joy. I most often feel joy when I am with my wife and kids. Luckily I am with them often (just not now). But when I am with them, too often I let insignificant things block us from playing, laughing, ticking, pranking and sharing our joy.

Finally, our homework was to write three entries in our Gratitude journal. Mine are private, so I might just post this and do it now.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Discovering Positive Education, Part Zero

I am back in Geelong. It’s been a while.

I grew up in Adelaide, but lived in Melbourne for a five years, working as a neuroscience researcher. During that time we used to visit Geelong regularly. We moved back to Adelaide when I became a teacher, but now I’m back across the border.

I’m here for the Discovering Positive Education training course at Geelong Grammar School. Positive Education is big right now, huge. And rightly so. It is built on the foundation of Positive Psychology, which dared to ask: what if we used what we know about psychology to improve everyone’s lives, instead of only working to remove mental illness?

Positive Education has many elements, but rather than try to describe it now, I think I will hold off until I have completed my first day of training. Did I also mention the yoga and pilates classes? No? Well you’ll probably hear about that too…

For now, I’ll just mention my gratitude. It’s one of my so-called signature character strengths. I am very grateful to be here, and for the support of  my school. I am very grateful for my profession, and the opportunities it provides me for helping young people. Most of all, as I prepare for this week away from them, I am grateful for the love and support of my family.

A good way to start your Positive Education journey is to complete your own character strengths survey here.

 

A Journey to Co-creation

How I use Technology

I have always used technology in the classroom. This is my third year teaching, after graduating straight into a school which had a 1:1 laptop program and interactive whiteboards in every classroom.

The big change for me this year has not been how much I used technology, but how I used technology.

In previous years, the technology was teacher-focussed. For example, when using interactive whiteboards I am tempted to use them for lecturing to prepared slides shows. Both the screen, and teacher’s computer are at the front, and when I rely on them I end up being tied down. I revert to acting as the  ‘sage on the stage’, with students only using their laptops for taking notes and completing assignments.

Something had to change.

Humble Beginnings

I set up a website.

 

It wasn’t much, and really, it was just there as a way to store my traditional, lecture-style slide shows. What it did allow was students to go back and check the notes after the lesson, or if they missed it. It also meant parents could have a window into the learning – though what they seem to access most is the page with due dates.

A Work in Progress

It has changed a lot since I set it up. Student feedback and my own experiences have led to both restructuring and cosmetic changes. Before long I realised I needed to give it a name: “Go to the website thingy” is not as clear an instruction as “Go to the Learning Space.” As I worked through the first semester, more and more content has been added.

The other thing that has been changing is the focus. My aim is to move along the continuum shown below. So far, progress is slow, but reassuring.

I feel that the provision of accessible, curated content has gone very well. Focus areas for the next six months are:

• Resources used as ‘base camp’ for further learning (in progress)
• Provision of teacher-made videos for instruction – ‘Flipped Learning’ (in progress)
• Creation of student-made videos for instruction (planned)
• Students using reflective blogging to record their learning (just started)
• Students providing majority of resources and writing content for the Learning Space (planned)
• Co-planning and creation of learning journey (Unit Plan) with students (planned)

Making Ripples

Although the focus has always been the learning of my students, there have been a couple of very positive ripple effects. Firstly, students from other classes have started accessing the content of the Learning Space as a supplementary resource. Secondly, other teachers have shared with me their interest blended learning and flipping. I have delivered a brief flipped learning session to the whole staff, visiting Indonesian teachers, and have convened a group who are sharing their sites and stories, and helping each other grow their skills in this area.

Watch this Space…

 

The Aboriginal Summer School for Excellence in Technology and Science (ASSETS)

ASSETS brings together a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from around the country for a ten-day Cultural Leadership and Scientific Inquiry programme.

The students are exposed to a fantastic array of experiences, designed to open up new pathways for exploring their interest in science, and their own cultural heritage. They return to their communities as leaders, and often go on to diverse and exciting careers.

This is my third year as a tutor in the Summer School. I have been privileged to work with some extraordinarily talented young people, taken out of their comfort zone and given challenges far above their education level: the general differential is Year 10 students doing university-level experiments.

ASSETS is hosted by the Australian Science and Mathematics School, and this year’s programme has included contributions from the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre (see this previous post), UniSA School of Natural and Built Environments, the Gene Technology Access Centre.

The programme is also well supported by the Governor, His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce. In previous years the students have visited Government House, but this year the Governor came to the laboratories at ASMS to see the students in action.

As an academic tutor, my role is guide students through their inquiry projects. These are student-driven projects which draw on skills and understandings derived from the initial part of the program. To be honest, I did not have to work hard this year. The group worked exceptionally well, despite occasional set-backs. They brought with them solid scientific skills and understandings and had a determined yet relaxed attitude. I would love to have filled this post with photos of the students doing some amazing science, but due to privacy concerns you instead get a tightly cropped in photo of me with the governor.

The culmination of the scientific programme was the final presentations at the Mawson Institute this morning. All of the groups presented well-considered studies. I was particularly proud of my group, who examined the effects of botanical extracts on bacteria, specifically showing the surprising acute effects of Melaleuca pentagona extract on Micrococcus luteus.

In case you haven’t got the message, it is a great programme, with amazing outcomes for students (not to mention the learning that I have experienced). Despite its ongoing success the programme is always in need of support. If you think you could contribute in some way, or just want to find out more, go here: http://asms.sa.edu.au/assets/

Notes from a day with Steve Francis.

Today’s Student Free Day was led by Steve Francis, and focused on a strategic direction of the school:

Student Engagement

I took some notes which barely scratch the surface, and may only acts a prompts for people who were actually there. Where possible, I have hyperlinked to his original sources. Here they are:

A survey of Year 10 students has found that the main characteristics for good teacher are:

• Positive relationships with students
• Fairness and equity
• Passionate about their subject and teaching

5 levels of engagement (Schlechty, 2002 ) See also here (pdf).

• Authentic engagement (flow)
• Ritual compliance
• Passive compliance
• Retreatism
• Rebellion

7 Reminders for Good Teaching

• They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
• Passion sells
• It’s not about US. It’s about THEM
• High expectations and the self-fulfilling property
• Maximise time in the Learning Zone
• Make it meaningful
• Show students how much they need to learn

Live the reputation you want to have.

You should have been doing so already, but if not, the second best time is now.

Cores of Credibility (Covey 2008)

• Integrity
• Intent
• Capability
• Results 

 

Working on the Work (Schlechty)

• Content and substance
• Organisation of Knowledge
• Product focus
• Clear and compelling standards
• Safe environment
• Affirmation of Performance
• Affiliation
• Novelty and variety
• Choice
• Authenticity

 

Summary

I take away many new ideas, but mostly it was the resounding reminder that teaching is all about relationships. Engagement, trust, integrity matter. Passion matters.

At the end of the day we are teaching our students, not our subjects. The human element makes it messy, but it also makes it thrilling and rewarding. Don’t be afraid to expose your flaws and admit your mistakes. At the same time strive to improve, and demand the same from your students.

10 Ways to Use Lego Robotics to Teach Things Other Than Robotics

I met Rob Torok today at the Google Digital Curriculum Summit. Along with Damien Kee, his online resources helped to kick-start my learning journey with Lego NXT Robotics. I was talking to him about some of the things we have done or could do at my school, using NXT robotics in the curriculum. He challenged me to provide a list of 10 things we could use robots for, that wasn’t primarily about teaching robotics. Challenge accepted!

[1] Mathematics: Coordinate Graphing – program robots with y=3x+2 equation. Each group gets a different x value. Robots drive forward y rotations. What pattern do they end up in?

[2] Physics: Energy transformation – Use sound sensor to record the sound of a bouncing ball. Use peak intervals and decay to discuss conservation (and loss) of energy (hat tip to Damien Kee)

[3] Art/Maths: Drawing systems – attach pens to Domabots and program to drive in complex, recursive patterns.

[4] Biology: Coordination of Body Systems – combine an NXT kit with a chemistry kit to control the flow of liquids. Model bladder fill/empty feedback system (see here)

[5] Mathematics: Interpreting graphs – Use light or sound sensor to record input over a long period. Analysise data retrospectively. What do you think happened in the room over time, when? (hat tip to Damien Kee)

[6] Biology: Ribosomes – The ribosome is an amazing piece of biochemical engineering which translates messenger RNA codons (three-letter sequences) into a strand of amino acids to make protein. I have planned, but never built, a device which would take a paper strip as an input, and read grey scaled boxes (light sensor) or colour patches (colour sensor) in groups of three, then translate them into an amino acid letter sequence. The hardware build wouldn’t be too hard and the program should be fairly straight-forward. It would use the ‘genetic code’ as its reference.

[7] Chemistry: Reaction rates – We already have reactions which turn cloudy, and students use a black cross under the beaker to determine when it is too cloudy to see. This gives you a single time point used to estimate a reaction rate. Using the light sensor on one side of the beaker, and an LED on the other would give a data log of the whole process of precipitate formation (in real time).

 

[8] Physics: Sustainable energy – When teaching Year 7 students about sustainable energy they came up with the idea of using the light sensor to track the sun across the sky. By using this to rotate a solar panel, maximum power generation can be achieved.

[9] Computer Science: Data transmission – Encode a message in binary and send out bits using the light or sound output. Use the corresponding sensor on a recipient device to record the signal, then decode.

[10] Earth sciences: Building Earthquake Test-table. This device was used to generate oscillation for a shake table. We tested different building designs for their ability to withstand increasing levels of vibration, controlled by the NXT device (see video for full set-up).

Google Digital Technologies Curriculum Summit

I sent in an application at virtually the last minute, but it seemed like too good an offer not to throw my hat in the ring: Flown to Sydney to participate in a two-day summit discussing the implementation of the Digital Technologies strand of the Australian Curriculum, hosted by Google.

The application required the usual details, some short sections on how you use technology and, here’s the kicker, a one minute, vision-statement video.

I’ve made videos before, I know how long it can take to make even just a short one. This was a long-shot, and I didn’t want to waste much time. I threw something together, uploaded it to Youtube, and pressed submit. It’s embarrassing, but I suppose I should link to it.

Miraculously, my application was successful, and here I am, at Google HQ in Sydney, about to meet some great folks, learn a lot and hopefully pick up some great ideas.

Day 1

Keynote: Maggie Johnson

• Computer  science is an important skill in our society
• The demand for people with CS skills is greater than the number of graduates
• We can address this by teaching computational thinking (see this seminal article)
• Computational thinking is as important as literacy and numeracy
• Google has done a lot of work defining what computational thinking is, and how we can teach it
• The core of their definition is Abstraction: the ability to take a complex situation and reduce it to its important features
• Pattern recognition was the other key skill she discussed
• Combining these allows you to take a pattern-to-program approach to coding (at Google they have students code in python)
• Interestingly, for teaching purposes they also had students work on program-to-pattern problems: run numbers through commands and investigate patterns in the output data

Digital Technologies Update: ACARA Julie King

• Digital Technologies will form part of the Technologies stream along with Design and Technology
• Core of subject is around: Computational Thinking, Design Thinking and Systems Thinking
• Aim is take make students creators of technology, not just users.
• Will be taught F-8 to all students, and as an elective subject from Year 9.
• ACARA will be working closely with Scootle to produce resources for teachers

From e-learning to free learning: Dr Chris Tisdell

• The future of education is: online, on-demand, mobile.
• Youtube is a powerful tool for scaling teaching and allowing students to control their consumption of his teaching content
• Doesn’t require a lot of know-how or equipment to get started
• Analytics helps him to data mine student learning activities
• However, lacks the personal touch. So Tisdell uses Google Hangouts to provide live webinars where he can respond and give feedback to students
• He has also written a large, free text book to accompany his Youtube channel

CS Unplugged: Tim Bell

• Computational thinking does not require computers
• Foundational core skills (which can be very sophisticated) can be taught through simple and fun activities
• There are some excellent teaching resources through CS Unplugged and CS Field Guide

Unconference Sessions

• Computation thinking and digital technologies should be embedded across the curriculum
• We can use new language and approaches (possible moving away from coding) as ways to engage with reluctant students
• Need new models of professional learning (primarily face-to-face and buddying) to help colleagues upskill
• Focus, as always, should be on good pedagogy
• Student-centered learning and project-based learning are important directions
• Transparency in syllabus design and providing student voice and choice
• School structures (logistical, administrative and even physical) need to change to facilitate, rather than impede these changes
• Open classrooms with observation as the norm helping teachers learn from each other
• Need to sell the message to get parents and communities on board

Day 2

CS Unplugged 

• Activity 1: Using “bit cards” to explore how numbers and letters are encoded in binary.

• Activity 2: Treasure Hunt (Finite state automaton)

Can be drawn for stopwatches, microwaves, DVRs, etc, etc

• Activity 3: Information Theory. How much information do you need to define a number?

For a number less than 8, it is only 3. But, in compression algorithms we can use assumptions about the data in order to narrow down the range. The assumptions are based on context – what does the data (eg colour in an image) look like around the one you are encoding.

• Activity 4: Sorting Algorithms. Pairwise comparisons (select and sort).

Chris made a great time-lapse of the process here.

Nick Falkner

Nick is an academic at Adelaide University, doing amazing things in the School of Computer Science. He is part of a team launching a new program with Google which will “help teachers encourage the next generation of students become the creators rather than consumers of digital technology”

 He asked us to explore:

• Ideas
• Resources
• Community
• Scale of effort

Nick asked to consider where these things have come together for us. How did it work for you?

This is what our group put together:

Key take-home for me was encapsulated in the central diagram: PD should happen in classroom, to students and teachers at the same time! Great idea Phillip.

Why do computer science? Fun, change the world, be ready for the world.

FIRST Robotics

Just the setup looks exciting. Can’t wait to have at it!

Such a great session that I didn’t get a chance to take many process shots, but here are some of the robots our groups put together.

The EV3 systems (both the hardware and software) are a great incremental improvement on NXT and Mindstorms, but a still completely intuitive for people experienced on the old platform. Had a blast.

Finally

HUGE thanks to Google for an amazing Summit. It was great to meet up with so many passionate people and share ideas. Much to think about (and implement!).

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(For conference tweets, search the hashtag #googledigiteach on Twitter. Storyfied here)