Marbles

You know those moments when you see something and just know that it's going to roll around - like a marble - in the recesses of your brain until you do something with it?  Well, let's put it this way: if you shook me right now I'd rattle. So many moments today. Too many. Nah. Never too many. Just... Just... Oh gosh.
 
This morning - during that lesson in which my class were using the padlet I wrote about yesterday - I was looking at the data for our school's year 6/7 students in a particular area. It didn't look good. In fact it was alarming, but as I looked I started to see the patterns. And hear the marbles.

This afternoon, instead of a normal staff meeting after school, today we took a walk around the school - visiting all the different learning spaces. Each team spoke about how their design choices reflect their professional practice. Every space was unique and perfectly suited to the group of kids. Cue the sound of marbles dropping.

Borrowed from the SVHS Tech website

Tonight I went to a parent teacher acquaintance night for my son's high school.  Towards 'home time' the iPads came out to show off the learning of the first week of school. I'm not going to comment on where most of it would fall on the SAMR model of educational technology but they were based on middle school pedagogies. And I teach middle school. So the marbles just rolled on in.



I need to interrupt myself for a moment here an make a distinction between those ugly cat eye marbles and the lovely white or black speckled eggs. Some moments - like seeing data that paints a picture of class wide poor understanding - drop cat eyes. Others - like seeing innovative learning space design - drop speckled eggs. Both are important. Both lead to change. You want more speckled eggs than cat eyes but you can win with either right?

So, I've been making mind maps of learning space ideas; planning a programme to fill some gaps and waiting patiently for my son to finish his home learning before I pick his brain about his learning tasks.    Anything to get these marbles to stop rattling before bed!

Time to get back to linking to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.  This post relates to 
Standard 6 Engage in professional learning

Standard 7 Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community

And for a change in proceedings...

... I have a contract for this year! Actually I've known about it for nearly a week now but I've been so busy sorting out the classroom and getting my head around a whole new year level that I've not had time to scratch myself let alone blog about it.

So, I have a class of 22 year 6/7 children in a collaborative unit of four 6/7 classes. None of the classes has more than 23 at this stage. AMAZING! Two of the classes are mixed gender and the other two are single gender. Interesting huh?  We're a 1:1 Ipad unit in a completely Apple school, so this little Microsoft/Android user is on a steep learning curve with a new Macbook Pro and Ipad. Lots to learn!

I'm a bit in love with my classroom. It's apparently the biggest in the school, and it's beautiful. (So far as classrooms go!) I've set  it up along the ideas of learning spaces: I have a desk area, a reading area and an active learning area which doubles as a group meeting area in front of our Apple TV. (No IWBs in this school - all Apple TVs.) Our unit has a lovely open common space linking our rooms which we've set up along the same idea. (And by we I really mean they because that was pretty much done before I arrived.)

Here's a sneak peak of what it looks like...

One friend has described it as having a rather minimalist look. I guess it does, but it also feels really warm and inviting. Once we've got books on the shelves and work on the walls it will look rather different I imagine.

The planning process has, so far, been fantastic. This school works VERY collaboratively so we plan as a unit team.  The four teachers in our team are all very different which has lead to some great ideas being generated. They've all taught this year level before which makes me a little less concerned about my lack of experience in it - I know they'll keep me on track.

School goes back tomorrow and I'm both incredibly nervous and excited. This is the first time I've started the year with a class, and my first time teaching year 6/7.  Wish me luck!