Welcome to Learning @ ISB!

Lissa C6 Biliteracy & Bicultural, Captivate, Care, Challenge, Clarify, Collaborate, Confer, Consolidate, Design Process, Inquiry Path, Personalized Learning, Service Learning, Social Emotional Learning 0 Comment

Welcome to the learning at ISB blog! We’ve been pretty quiet the last 2 years, but we’re back and excited to continue sharing learning at its best at ISB.

At least twice per month, we’ll be publishing posts written by ISB educators sharing their thoughts & reflections on learning. Have an idea for a guest post? Let us know! Want to get inspiration delivered to your inbox? Enter your email on the right to subscribe! [Make sure to keep an eye on your ‘Other’ inbox tab for the emails!]

Have thoughts about something you read on this blog? We love comments! Feel free to leave your thoughts here or come chat with us in person.

As we relaunch this blog, we wanted to introduce Learning at its Best and our principles & approaches of learning. You probably have one of these posters up in your classroom or have seen them around the school. All of our blog posts will be written through these lenses. Want to dive deeper into one area? Check out the categories on the right to begin exploring!

Learning at its Best

ISB’s principles of learning provide a research-based foundation for how students learn best and insight into what makes our learning environments most effective. ISB’s Learning Principles are based on Tripod’s 7C framework of effective teaching: Care, Challenge, Confer, Clarify, Captivate, Consolidate, Collaborate, Classroom Management.

The approaches of learning are integral to how we design learning experiences at ISB, guiding our instructional practices.

Social-Emotional Learning – Research shows that explicitly teaching social and emotional skills increases student well-being, enhances positive behavior, reduces crises, and enhances academic achievement. A focus on social-emotional learning also creates a safe, positive school culture. At ISB, we prioritize building relationships and want every student to feel cared for every day. Our Social-Emotional Framework supports students in developing self-awareness, self-management, social and cultural competence, nurturing relationships, and taking purposeful action.

Personalized Learning – At ISB, we believe in a progressively learner-driven model of personalized learning to facilitate student ownership of the learning process and provide student voice and choice in their learning. We empower students to build strong relationships, leverage their interests, and assess their strengths and areas for growth to engage in deep, relevant learning.

Service Learning – Service Learning is infused into the curriculum and across the co-curricular program at ISB. It is a relevant learning journey that integrates meaningful action with instruction and reflection. We believe that Service Learning develops compassion and empathy, strengthens communities, and nurtures a global mindset.

C6 Biliteracy Instructional Framework – The community at ISB is culturally & linguistically diverse, and we aim to serve our emergent bilingual and multilingual students so that they are able to access grade-level standards regardless of language proficiency. The C6 Biliteracy Instructional Framework supports faculty in creating culturally responsive lessons that celebrate the diversity of our students.

Inquiry Pathway – At ISB, we empower students to ask questions, think critically, and reflect. Based on provocations and real-world phenomenon, students see & think, wonder & question, investigate & explore, make meaning & find patterns, and explain & construct arguments.

Design Process – Solutions to the problems of the world do not exist in silos and neither should learning. Students at ISB are given the opportunity to use design-thinking to create connections between traditional curricular areas and build empathy while solving real-world, authentic problems.

We hope you’re as excited as we are for this blog to be active again! Next week, keep your eyes open for a post from Angie (MS/HS Math Instructional Coach) with a focus on Challenge. Even better, get her post delivered to your email as soon as it’s published by subscribing on the right! After you subscribe, look in your email to confirm your subscription.

Make space for readers in your classroom library

Paul Captivate 0 Comment

Classroom libraries, spaces to captivate readers

Classroom libraries, some classes have them, some teachers want them, and for a few learning environments, are either not fully utilised or are lower on the list of things to sort out.

For a new teacher arriving into a new class, a well stocked library is exciting, but can also be an overwhelming jumble of books to get to know, or even decide how you want to incorporate them into your teaching and learning environment, especially when you are becoming familiar with curriculum, systems, team dynamics and children.

Classroom libraries offer a multitude of ways to engage and captivate readers in your class, they give teachers and opportunity to communicate through characters and story, add a flair of personal reading interests, nudge readers into new genres and help those new to the habit to begin growing and seeing themselves as readers. We see the power a teacher has when they share a beloved read-aloud, now, multiply that passion you share through an armful of stories each year with a lovingly maintained classroom library.

Simply surrounding learners with 1000s of books should be enough to get them to love to read, however, less is is more and selecting and displaying books that respond to your readers interests helps to create excitement and enable readers to browse armed with selection strategies, choose their next read easier from your classroom library.

So, how do you quickly and easily begin making space for readers in your classroom library?

First of all, “weeding” is a term used widely in libraries to describe the process of evaluating and discarding titles from your collection using a set criteria that responds to the needs of your school and readers. The word “weeding” is similar to that of gardening, the aim is to remove books that may no longer grow readers and continue to motivating them to read or become life-long and self-directed readers.

Common weeding methods

MUSTY

Weeding the School Library – School Libraries (CA Dept of Education)

Misleading: Look at the copyright dates

  • Dated popular fiction
  • Obsolete information
  • Books containing racial, cultural or sexual stereotyping

Ugly: Refers to the physical condition of the book

  • Antiquated appearance ƒ
  • Worn-out, frayed, dirty ƒ
  • Unable to mend

Superseded: There may be newer copies available.

  • Duplicate copies ƒ
  • Almanacs, yearbooks, encyclopedias superseded by newer editions

Trivial: Look for appropriateness for the collection.

  • Check for poor writing, inaccurate information, an inappropriate interest or reading level for students.

Your collection: has no use for the book.

  • It is irrelevant to your curriculum.

An additional way to evaluate your collection is to ask:

“Is my collection FRESH?”

What I love about the FRESH approach is that is elevates the need for diversity and representation of characters and stories.

Why does clearing out (weeding) makes sense?

Once you have a collection you are proud of, show it off! Where possible showing the covers of the books allow readers to be drawn in and browse the collection, whilst we don’t want to judge a book by its cover, we are inherently visual people. popular subscription channels have tiles for us to scroll through and the same should be done with our classroom libraries, highlight, celebrate, rotate, and bring out those themes you are currently teaching about. Displays don’t have to be fancy, a simple poster made in Canva, a basket to flick through, or a few bookstands make all the difference.

Examples of great book displays in classrooms

Get students involved

Consider having your class or group of students involved in this process,

  • Can they help to identify old or damaged books?
  • Can they help sort genres?
  • Can they create signs?
  • Can they research for titles they want to add?

What should I do with books I have weeded?

  • Recycle any books that are damaged or misleading
  • Ask your colleagues if they would like any of the books that might still be relevant and appealing to other readers
  • Send appropriate books to your ES Librarian, we will find a home for them
  • Donations. if the book doesn’t belong in your collection, is it good enough to be donated? We want to make sure that when books are donated they they are appealing and relevant to any reader, so pause to think before making this decision.

Ask an expert

Talk to your Librarian to support you through this process.

Making Thinking Visible

Jenni Redman Captivate, Challenge, Collaborate, Consolidate, Personalized Learning 3 Comments

Diving into Thinking Routines

You might have heard about Thinking Routines, Making Thinking Visible, or Project Zero – but might be wondering what they all are, how they’re connected, or how to incorporate the ideas into your own context. Project Zero is an educational research group through Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, and there is a vast array of projects that they focus on, just one of which is Visible Thinking, often referred to as Thinking Routines. (To learn more about Project Zero, check out the resources at the bottom.)

A common worry about incorporating Thinking Routines is “But I have too much on my plate as it is, I can’t add anything else!” and yes, at first it can seem like you’re adding something new. But with time and a bit of practice for both you and your students, you might start to see that thinking routines are a powerful tool to develop thinking and become a way of being in your classroom, not just an activity that ticks a box.

[A quick note: I’m using ‘classroom’ and ‘students’ in the descriptions below, but any of these could be used with adults in team meetings, or other contexts that don’t necessarily involve students.]

Many ISB staff have participated in Project Zero workshops and courses and will have fantastic ideas about how to add Thinking Routines to your repertoire if you’re interested. An open invitation to anyone who would like to dive further into learning about thinking routines or Project Zero: contact me! I’m always happy to be a thinking partner and help determine which routines might be a great resource when you’re designing upcoming learning engagements, regardless of your context.

 

Questions to Consider When Choosing the Best Routine to Use 

The first, and arguably most important, question to consider is, “What thinking are you hoping to bring out from your students?” The answer to that question will help determine which type of routine might fit best. For a terrific resource with loads of different routines listed out by category/type, check out Harvard Project Zero’s Thinking Routine Toolbox (here’s a screenshot of the menu)

A second question to consider is, “Are you hoping to bring out thinking from your students that involves independent thinking, partner or group thinking, whole class generating ideas or discussion, or a combination of those?” Routines can vary quite a lot and can be adapted to fit just about any context or need. Some routines are certainly more naturally geared toward capturing independent thinking and some are best with a small group, and some move from independent thinking to shared thinking and back again to independent consolidation or new ideas.

Another important consideration is, “Where are you in your unit/lesson?” Perhaps you need a routine that would be helpful for generating new ideas at the beginning of your learning; possibly you are looking for something to use as a check-in in the middle of your unit, or you might need something that will help consolidate or clarify thinking toward the end of your unit.

 

A Few Routines – Give Some a Try!

Here are just three of the many excellent routines to possibly spark an idea for how to implement deeper thinking in your classroom:

  • 3-2-1-Bridge

This routine can be a powerful tool for preassessment, as well as having students reflect after a lesson or unit about how much they’ve learned by the end.

The basic premise:

  1. Students complete a structured 3-2-1 response with prompts before they’ve done the learning. (All of the prompts can be adapted for what you need; here’s an example of how you might structure it)
  2. After the learning engagement, they complete the same 3-2-1 response prompts and see what they know now.
  3. Students reflect on how those before and after responses changed, or what they did to move their learning forward. This is the Bridge part of the 3-2-1 Bridge.

Implementation ideas:

Have  students complete the first half (left side of the example) before a movie, text, or before the start of a new unit. It’s a great way to preassess and capture what students know about your topic now, and later will serve as a powerful visual both for you and for them how their thinking has changed or deepened as a result of the movie, text, lesson, unit, etc. (For younger students I often adapt the Metaphor/Simile prompt and have the students write down a vocabulary word or an image related to the topic instead.)

 

  • ESP+I

This routine has become a new favorite go-to, not only because of its simplicity but also the potential for digging deeper into an idea.

The basic premise:

  1. See an example visual here; students reflect on three of the boxes – Experience, Struggles & Puzzles – independently. Adapt or change the language for each to match what your students need as a prompt for their thinking.
  2. Share (in partners, small groups, whole group, etc.)
  3. In the Insight box, add new thoughts or questions they have now, as a result of sharing and hearing others’ ideas. (This is the +I part of the routine.)

Implementation Ideas:

This is a great routine for when you’ve done something that might have stretched students’ thinking, such as a learning engagement or activity or experience that is new.

 

  • Name Describe Act

This routine is useful for enhancing descriptive language, and for helping students understand the power and importance in noticing details and looking closely at something.

The basic premise:

  1. Choose an image that will provoke discussion or something that might require some close examination.
  2. Students look at the image for a minute, then the teacher removes the image from sight.
  3. Working from memory, students make a list. (I’ve used a 3-column format for this that has worked well in the past – see visual and student example below)
    1. Name – make a list of all the parts or features that you can remember
    2. Describe – describe each item in the list
    3. Act – for each item, tell how they act
  4. Put the image back up. Students write out questions they now have, or new observations they’ve made.

Implementation Ideas:

This has worked as a provocation to start off a unit or new topic, and as a way to generate some deep thinking, quite quickly. The second time the image is put back up for display, it’s amazing how intensely students look at the image again, and the new details that emerge for them.

 

Common Pitfalls

Making Thinking Visible co-creator Ron Ritchhart recently posted some common pitfalls that you might be on the lookout for when using routines: Using Thinking Routines: 10 Ways You Could Die. A quick blurb is here:

“Although thinking routines are relatively accessible (admittedly, some more than others), they aren’t silver bullets, magic potions, games, activities, or tricks.  Some teachers may be expecting routines to do all the heavy lifting in the classroom, and thus not experience much success. So, with much appreciation to my two colleagues, I offer my own list of ways you can die—or struggle, or flounder—focused on using thinking routines.”

 

Helpful Resources to Check Out

 

Need Support?

Need ideas of how to use these or other Thinking Routines? Not sure where to start? Have some ideas but would like to see an example or talk through the logistics of how to use a routine? Let me know – I’m happy to help!

 

Learning from Emergency Remote Instruction

Clint Challenge , 1 Comment
Photo by Ivan Samkov from Pexels

Since February 2020, the International School of Beijing has continued to improve and refine its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The work of the Office of Learning to clearly define and document our expectations, procedures and protocols for Online Learning has been immense, both in the scope of the task and in the guidance provided to our community (students, teachers and families alike)!

I literally stopped in my tracks, then, when I came across the article The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning. Published in March, 2020 by Charles Hodges, Stephanie Moore, Barb Lockee, Torrey Trust and Aaron Bond – all of whom work within the higher education sphere – I was immediately struck by the language in the title. What is the difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning?

As the authors go on to explain, online learning is an effective modality of education that has been highly researched over many years:

Online education, including online teaching and learning, has been studied for decades. Numerous research studies, theories, models, standards, and evaluation criteria focus on quality online learning, online teaching, and online course design. What we know from research is that effective online learning results from careful instructional design and planning, using a systematic model for design and development.7 The design process and the careful consideration of different design decisions have an impact on the quality of the instruction. And it is this careful design process that will be absent in most cases in these emergency shifts.

One of the most comprehensive summaries of research on online learning comes from the book Learning Online: What Research Tells Us about Whether, When and How. The authors identify nine dimensions, each of which has numerous options, highlighting the complexity of the design and decision-making process. *

These nine dimensions (modality, pacing, student-instructor ratio, pedagogy, instructor role online, student role online, online communication synchrony, role of online assessments, and source of feedback) are the result of careful and intentional design choices, made to maximize the potential and the accessibility of learning.

On staff at ISB, we have numerous teachers who are currently implementing online learning through their work with our partner Global Online Academy. These courses are created to be delivered through various online modalities – synchronous and asynchronous – and to take advantage of the various affordances that online learning allows. We also have high school students who are enrolled in these courses, supplementing their ISB enrollment with courses of their choice.

Emergency remote teaching (ERT), on the other hand, “is a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances. It involves the use of fully remote teaching solutions for instruction or education that would otherwise be delivered face-to-face or as blended or hybrid courses and that will return to that format once the crisis or emergency has abated.”*

As a school, we have done an amazing job of making this shift to what the authors call ERT. The hard work, dedication and professionalism of all of our teachers is something to be proud of. Our agility in shifting from on-campus learning to campus closure, and from fully in-person to our Dragons’ Abroad Academy model is remarkable. Our fluency with existing systems such as Seesaw, Dragons’ Exchange (DX) and Clever made this transition easier. Our continued dedication to those platforms and other tools for effective blended learning during periods of “normal” only improve the learning experiences for our students when the need to switch to ERT arises.

In their follow-up article, One Year Later . . . and Counting: Reflections on Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning, the same authors wrestle with the effects of returning to a pre-pandemic “normal”:

Traditionally marginalized students noted how they felt they could thrive in online learning, since distance from the classroom also meant distance from racism and microaggressions. Students with disabilities also noted that online learning during the pandemic made education more accessible. Students’ reactions to the push for a return to normal are complex and nuanced, suggesting that they wish colleges and universities would retain the benefits and lessons of online learning by blending new solutions in the online space with what’s effective about classroom learning, not merely rejecting or adopting either in toto. *

What lessons can we learn from our experiences with remote teaching, and how can we incorporate the positives of that modality with our face-to-face instructional practices?

March 2022 TTTs

Lissa C6 Biliteracy & Bicultural, Captivate, Care, Challenge, Clarify, Classroom Management, Collaborate, Confer, Consolidate, Design Process, Inquiry Path, Personalized Learning, Service Learning, Social Emotional Learning , 0 Comment

Several times a year, we turn professional learning over to our faculty & staff during Teachers Teaching Teachers (TTTs) sessions. TTTs focus on improving our collective professional practice, allowing us to engage with our colleagues. On Wednesday, March 9, we had our second TTTs of the school year. For these TTTs, we challenged faculty to focus their sessions through our Learning At Its Best framework for their 45-minute sessions. (Re-visit our first TTTs of the year.)

 

5 Types of Non-Fiction
Principle: Captivate, Approach: Inquiry Pathway
Come check out the ES Library brand new collection of narrative non-fiction books: an engaging sub-genre of non-fiction writing that will spark joy for readers of all persuasions!

Basic PowerPoint animations
Principle: Captivate, Approach: Design Process
Learn how to add basic animations to your PowerPoint presentation

 

Level Up Student Projects with the Studio
Principle: Challenge, Approach: Personalized Learning
Recording techniques for audio projects. Explore ISB’s recording facilities and familiarise yourself with our studio equipment. Go through the recording process from tracking to print. Then, take your learning to student projects!

 

How To Use WTW Data to Target Your Instruction
Principle: Challenge, Approach: Personalized Learning
Now you have your middle of year data, so what? This session you will learn how to break down your current Words Their Way data to see exactly where the students need direct support and instruction. Come learn how to support and challenge all of the learners in your class!

 

Supporting LGBTQIA+ students in your classroom
Principle: Care, Approach: Social Emotional Learning
Powerpoint
It’s Pride Week at ISB, but what does that mean for you? If you know you want to make LGBTQIA+ students feel safe and included in your classroom, but you’re not sure where to start, this session is for you. Topics will include: addressing homophobic comments, using inclusive language, and more.

 

Cooperative Learning Structures
Principle: Clarify
Raising the number of Opportunities To Respond will increase the learning in your classroom. How can you get every student to engage with every question you ask as a teacher, rather than just one student who raises their hand. We will look at a number of Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures. Hopefully you will walk away with some new ways to engage your learners.

 

Clarify with COLOCOs
Principle: Clarify, Approach: C6 Bilteracy & Bicultural
This session is intended for those who are currently attending the C6 training (or those who need a refresher) and would like to revisit the work on COLOCOs (and complete their homework in the process!).

 

Using Visuals to Support Organization and Independence in the Classroom
Principle: Classroom Management
I will share two strategies using visuals I learned at a PD session in 2019 and have since used with co-teachers in the classroom. We’ll also share ideas about how to use and adapt these visuals to our classrooms.

 

The Working Genius Model and YOU
Principle: Collaborate
Resources, Podcast
Improve your collaboration skills by exploring Patrick Lencioni’s Working Genius model, a simple and powerful 6 step model for all work. You will reflect on your personal Working Genius type and learn language to apply personally and in teams. This session will include chunked learning, reflecting and application individually and in small groups. This model is useful for anyone who works or is on a team.

 

Round Table: Sharing ideas on unpacking the Teachers College reading units
Principle: Collaborate, Approach: Inquiry Pathway
Let’s come together to share our processes around how we go from the planned lesson in the TC units to teaching our individual classes. Bring an example to share or a topic to discuss!

 

Making Thinking Visible
Principle: Confer/Challenge, Approach: Personalized Learning
Resources
This session will seek to share the ideas from the Making Thinking Visible training and book in a condensed and applicable way, including the core concept, and sets of teaching moves/strategies that can be used for all learners. Making Thinking Visible is a philosophy that seeks to promote engagement for all learners, intellectual curiosity and exploration, and to shift the focus in teaching towards ‘thinking’ above all.

 

Excel Basics
Principle: Confer, Approach: Personalized Learning
Looking for ways to organize and analyze student data? This session will explore some basic tips and tricks for using Excel. Bring your laptop and any questions you have about using spreadsheets.

 

What works to improve student literacy in Chinese class?
Principle: Confer, Approach: Personalized Learning
In this session, we will share what we have studied and learned about the Balanced Literacy components that have been used to effectively teach Chinese in some international schools.

 

Rubrics and Feedback in DX
Principle: Confer, Approach: Personalized Learning
Resources
Learn how you can use assignment rubrics and other feedback tools (including the new iPad annotation feature) in DX.

 

Diversity and Inclusion Conversations in Chinese
Principle: Confer, Approach: C6 Bilteracy & Bicultural
The purpose of this TTT is to create a space where educators can have conversations around Diversity and Inclusion in Chinese to explore it through the lenses of non-western perspectives. This session provides an opportunity for equalizing access to conversations around Diversity and Inclusion and building a foundation for contextualizing Bias and Racism to our global international school environment.

 

Spotting the Signs–Structure and Function in the Head, Neck, and Mouth
Principle: Consolidate, Approach: Personalized Learning
Spotting the Signs is geared for teachers and TAs of younger students. We will focus on spotting students who may need an SLT referral in the areas of articulation and feeding/swallowing–whether you teach in English or Mandarin! Normal and atypical anatomy of the head/neck/mouth and developmental milestones for articulation and feeding/swallowing will be taught so that you can spot students who may not be meeting these expectations.

 

Save the Rainforest! Digital Planning and Journaling with iPad
Principle: Consolidate
Tired of losing sticky notes with your to do list? Want to reduce your reliance on paper and taking notebooks everywhere? Move your planning and / or journaling to the digital realm to save your sanity. This session will be most beneficial if you bring an iPad, Apple Pencil, and have access to either the Good Notes or OneNote app.

 

People, Systems, Power, Participation
Principle: Consolidate, Approach: Service Learning
In this session we will explore the People, Systems, Power, Participation Thinking Routine. We will use this routine to examine Gender, Migration, and Racism, then talk about how it can lead to service learning.

 

Literacy is Learning
Principle: Consolidate, Approach: C6 Bilteracy & Bicultural
Various literacy activities across subject areas that can enable students to acquire depth of understanding and consolidate their learnings.

Team Collaboration for Online Learning

Laura Brown Collaborate 0 Comment

From the onset of COVID-19, we’ve learned that our current context can change overnight, and while we’re all aware of this, the constant changes and not knowing makes a transition to online learning especially disruptive. Working online means adapting to a new environment, battling a new set of challenges, and if working from home, the fusion of work and home life. In order to continue working efficiently and creating value under these new circumstances, we need to understand, accept, and support one other’s specific situations and needs. 

Whether we are in a position to work from school or home during a period of online learning, it is important for teams to consider how the way we work and collaborate might change as a result. If we need to transition to online learning at any point during the year, I am grateful that we have had the opportunity to work together in the “usual” way in the months prior. It takes time for a new team to “gel” and work to its full potential, and having had this time together as a team, you’ve established norms and working agreements and you’re likely well into the progression of team development.

Psychologist Bruce Tuckman came up with the memorable phrase “forming, storming, norming, and performing” in his 1965 paper, “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups.” Forming, norming, storming, and performing in an offline environment is different to that of an online environment and to ensure your team is adequately prepared for a transition to online and a change to the way you collaborate, you may need to revisit some fundamental questions about who you are and what you are trying to do. 

I came across this Edutopia article, Four Guiding Questions for Effective Remote Collaboration by Zachary Herrmann, last year when we were preparing to transition to online learning over the winter break. Some of you might remember employing the four guiding questions to support your team’s transition:

  1. What is our team’s purpose?
  2. Who is on our team and what are our roles and responsibilities? 
  3. How does our team work together? 
  4. How does our team take pride in its work?

It is likely that most, if not all of these will change as a result of a transition to online learning, and while your team might be in a good place in its current setting, the stress and anxiety associated with online learning, can break down established systems and structures that have worked well for the team in the past. 

Purpose 

I think we can all agree that, in an online environment, it is impossible to replicate exactly what we would do if we had students on campus. With this, it is important for teams to recalibrate their purpose to ensure that they’re working on the right things at the right time. How have the team’s goals changed and how will you measure success? When we first shifted to online learning in February, 2020, without knowing how long the situation would last, we prioritized academics and a continuation of what would have happened had we been on campus. On reflection, our purpose had changed and until we were able to identify that, we were not in a position to talk about strategy and action. 

People 

Most teams at ISB will have agreements around who is responsible for what. This might be reflected in the responsibilities of a course or unit lead in Middle or High School or a Subject Area Representative (SAR) in the Elementary School, for example. In an online environment we shift to a more blended approach, with synchronous learning supported by asynchronous content housed on DX or Seesaw. How might the roles and responsibilities on your team shift as a result of this? Having a candid conversation about how team members’ efforts should be reallocated and how different duties may need to be assigned will be critical to team success.

You’ll also be collaborating with coaches, coordinators and facilitators in different ways than what you might when students are on campus. How might your team leverage the support of these people to identify high quality learning materials and ideas for online learning? 

Process

Even if we are in a position to work from campus, this does not guarantee that all team members will be able to do so. Last year we were lucky enough to have faculty children on campus, but after only a few weeks, this was no longer an option. This meant that those with children had the option to work from home. Whether you have one team member or the entire team working remotely, it is important to reestablish how you will communicate, share resources, make decisions, and how you will report on progress in this new working environment. 

Pride 

We’ve had time to build positive team culture in the on-campus setting, but how does this change in the online setting? Take time to consider what your team’s rituals and traditions might look like and how you will maintain that sense of pride and belonging. An online meeting as a team can be tough after a full day of teaching – how might your team achieve the outcomes for your work while connecting with each other as people? 

The Harvard Business Review article, 4 Tips for Effective Virtual Collaboration, summarizes the purpose behind team collaboration in an online environment well: “It’s to make sure that you and your team are aligned on your goals and most effectively moving ahead in accomplishing them. You can collaborate effectively from far apart, even when you have an incredible amount to do, if you collaborate with intention and focus” (HBR, 2021).

It’s right for us to be preparing for a transition to online learning, but let’s cross fingers and toes that we don’t have to!

 

REFERENCES

Herrmann, Z. (2020, April 17). 4 guiding questions for effective remote collaboration. Edutopia. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/4-guiding-questions-effective-remote-collaboration. 

Tuckman, B.W. (1965). ‘Developmental Sequence in Small Groups,’ Psychological Bulletin, 63(6). Available here.

4 tips for effective virtual collaboration. Harvard Business Review. (2021, August 27). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2020/10/4-tips-for-effective-virtual-collaboration. 

Appropriate Challenge and the ZPD

ASostak Challenge, Personalized Learning , 0 Comment

While we all love a good acronym, it can be frustrating when they get thrown around and you feel like you are not in the know.  Chances are, however, even if you don’t know what ZPD is off the top of your head, you probably think about it in the context of your classroom all the time.

ZPD is short for Zone of Proximal Development, which was developed by Lev Vygotsky in the 1920s and was elaborated on until his death in 1934.  The ZPD is used to describe the distance between what a child can do independently and what they can do with the assistance of a more knowledgeable partner (Eun, 2019).  That more knowledgeable partner could be the teacher, a peer, or even an interactive computer program.  The ZPD is the basis for a lot of our current scaffolding practices such as simplifying a task, monitoring ongoing performance, and adjusting the level of assistance provided.  We can also see the influence of the ZPD when we use graphic organizers to support student thinking, help them choose a “just right” book to read, or reference the learning continuum from student Map results to target learning.  The ZPD goes beyond scaffolding, however, framing student-teacher collaboration and negotiation as a bilateral process as opposed to something that is always done by the teacher.  Finding appropriate challenge and thus avoiding boredom and confusion and the subsequent distraction, frustration, and lack of motivation, is thus a shared responsibility.

Closely tied to the concept of a ZPD are social practices associated with learning, both in and out of the classroom.  Vygotsky believed that learning was a process of knowledge co-construction and becoming a member of a community, reframing learning to be more than just an accumulation of knowledge (Renshaw, 1998), but rather a property of the interaction between the students and the learning environment (Shabani, Khatib, & Ebadi, 2010).  In our classrooms students are learning more than just the content we teach, they are learning the vocabulary and ways of talking about the different subject areas, they are learning to communicate and verify different knowledge claims, and they are learning the values and beliefs that form the implicit and explicit features of our community culture.  Knowledge and abilities are dynamic and are the result of a student’s history and social interactions in the world and we all come to master our cognitive functions in unique ways and through participation in different activities and cultures.  Thinking through the lens of the ZPD can give us another way to think about developing cultural objectives that are meaningful for our students and how they see themselves and form their identities in the various content areas they move in and out of throughout the day.

When we think about learning and the ZPD it is easy to see how students learn through the support of a more knowledgeable peer, but this social component of learning is supportive for the development of the higher mental functions of both students (Shabani, Khatib, & Ebadi, 2010).  The collaboration provides a space for the more knowledgeable student to reflect and make concepts explicit in their thinking.  These roles often evolve as well, with students taking on different roles at different points in their learning.

So what role do I play as a teacher?  Think of students not as just separate individuals in the same place at the same time.  Rather they should be engaged in a collaborative activity that fulfils a specific goal where the ZPD is created based on the need for collaboration and assistance to make progress toward that goal.  The teacher’s role is thus facilitating the interrelated zones of students as they take control of their own learning.  We are on a continuous journey with our students as they progress through different and evolving zones and make sense of the world.  Vygotsky said it well, suggesting that teachers must be focusing “not on yesterday’s development in the child buy on tomorrow’s” (Vygotsky, 1987, p. 211).

References

Eun, B. (2019). The zone of proximal development as an overarching concept: A framework for synthesizing Vygotsky’s theories. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51(1), 18-30.

Renshaw, P. (1998). Sociocultural pedagogy for new times: Reframing key concepts. The Australian Educational Researcher, 25(3), 83-100.

Shabani, K., Khatib, M., & Ebadi, S. (2010). Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development: Instructional implications and teachers’ professional development. English language teaching, 3(4), 237-248.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). Thinking and speech. In R. W. Rieber & A. S. Carton (eds.)., The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 1. Problems of general psychology (pp. 39-285).. New York: Plenum.

A Plea for Positive Education in Schools

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Author: Simon Zopfi, HS PE Teacher

 

 

 

The rise of positive psychology

“Dr. Seligman, how would you describe the state of the field of psychology today?” “Good.” “Okay, Dr. Seligman, that won’t do. We better give you two words…” “Not good.”

“Look, Dr. Seligman, we can see you’re not comfortable in this medium. The best we can do is give you three words…” “Not good enough.”

Dr. Seligman, the Head of the American Psychological Association at the time describes his interaction during an interview with CNN in his TED talk about Positive Psychology in 2004.

Until the late 1990’s psychology was the science of finding out “what’s wrong with you” and trying to get people from a constant state of suffering into a state of coping with everyday life.

A lot has changed over the last 20 or so years. Psychology still concerns itself with relieving suffering but the field has expanded further into the science behind human flourishing. Dr. Seligman himself launched the era of positive psychology in 1998 when taking on the role of Head of the APA and stood at the foundation of the development and implementation of his work in schools, calling it “Positive Education,” working with and living on campus of Geelong Grammar School (GGS) in Sydney for 6 months.

Researchers and teachers put their heads together and developed the Geelong Grammar School Model for Positive Education. A science-informed framework that outlines and guides the usage of positive education in schools. The foundation of the framework is built on students’ and staff’s character strengths, linked with 6 different areas being positive relationships, positive emotions, positive health, positive engagement, positive accomplishment and positive purpose. The outer layer encourages anyone to learn about Pos Ed, embed its theories in everyday practices and live its philosophy by paying it forward.

By no means is this the only model out there, nor is it claiming that the implementation in our work happens through this framework alone. Outstanding educators and people are highly likely to already apply many elements of Positive Education in and beyond their teaching spaces. Positive Education is also not the same as “happiology” yet recognizes life’s challenges, ups and downs and the struggle in search for meaning.

Positive Education in Schools

Schools can be stressful environments for both staff and students. Getting through piles of paperwork, lesson preparations and staff meetings can overload the systems on the regular.

Navigating the social landscape as a developing adolescent of friendships and first loves while submitting assignments, taking assessments, dealing with not making the school’s varsity team while deciding what you want to do with the rest of your life, are experiences that most students go through too.

 

Positive Education might be the light at, what sometimes feels like, the end of a long tunnel. Positive relations can be built in classrooms, hallways and meetings if we are more aware in our conversations and use active constructive responding. We create a more pleasant learning environment if we focus on people’s character strengths and the areas that they shine brightest in. Teaching about neuroplasticity will help students understand and believe in the moldability of their capabilities. This will in turn nurture a growth mindset and the development of grit, paving the way for positive accomplishment.

Positive accomplishment encourages intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy causing us to continuously engage in activities that we thrive in. Dedicating your time to something you are willing to work for and develop a passion around, can lead to peak performance and flow states or “being in the zone.”

Providing regular opportunities for staff and students to exercise, reducing the workload to support getting enough sleep and providing healthy snacks at work, all fall under the domain of positive health. People do better when they feel better and people who feel better do better too. Placing ourselves in the service of others by the ways of caregiving, service learning and supporting others around us, can lead to a sense of purpose and meaning for ourselves. Concepts that make life truly worth living.

The field of positive education is a fascinating area from which we can all benefit.

If you have made it to the end of this plea and you are as enthusiastic about it as I am, I strongly recommend looking into the 8-week professional learning course “Discovering Positive Education 2.0” by Geelong Grammar School. Enrolling in this comprehensive program is by far the best professional development I have come across and has changed the way I approach teaching and learning from here onwards.

Go well, friends…

September 2021 TTTs

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Several times a year, we turn professional learning over to our faculty & staff during Teachers Teaching Teachers (TTTs) sessions. TTTs focus on improving our collective professional practice, allowing us to engage with our colleagues. On Wednesday, September 22, we were excited to have our first TTTs of the school year.

90-minute Sessions
Coding Fun! Spiced up narrative writing
We will tell stories with animations using Scratch (examples). With voiceovers or speech bubbles, students can re-tell, summarize, or create stories with animations. We will also look at the scratch community and why it is a great world for students to get into.

 

Graffiti: Write your name in style
Take a chance to explore and play on the ISB Graffiti wall as we learn basic techniques and introductory methods in the skills of spray paint art. Limited to 14 people.

 

Jewelry Design
I’ll teach you how to use some software, and you’ll use it to design some jewelry. You’ll walk away with some new skills and some new bling!

I’m C6ed… Now What?
This follow-up session from C6 will dive deeper into Content, Language, and Cultural Objectives. Why do we write them? How do we write them? And most importantly how do we make these meaningful for students.

 

The Mindful Use of Power in the Classroom: How Authority Distorts Respect, Honesty, and Trust—and What You Can Do About It
Presentation of research on the distorting effects of power and authority on people’s perceptions and perspectives, followed by strategies and techniques to facilitate greater respect, honesty, and trust in school settings (and examples/case studies to discuss).

 

Ceramics – Learn to Play
Join us for some stress-relief ceramics fun, and to create something that you can take home and brag about it! 🙂

45-minute Sessions
Sip and Read
Love the smell of a new book? Come discover the delightful new books the ES library has purchased to support our SEL focus! ABAR, inclusivity, equity, LBGTQIA+, friendship, emotions, and more! Hey MS/HS folk, picture books aren’t just for little kids! These big concepts are often best deconstructed using accessible stories so come browse! Staff Resources

Exploring Backstage
Take an all-access tour of the ISB theatre venues to see what goes on backstage. If you are curious about all the theatre ‘hidden spaces’ or how the magic happens, then now is your chance. There will be stairs involved as we visit the highest and lowest spots in the theatre.

 

Singing for Mind and Body
In this session, we will learn a couple of easy songs to sing in a group and discuss how singing can positively affect your mental and physical health.

 

Wellness with Basketball
We will host a wellness option of a friendly basketball game! Co-ed and any skill level welcome, you can play in long pants and shirt or whatever!

 

Hill’s School of Hot Sauce 
Want to learn to make your own hot sauce? This is the wellness activity you’ve been looking for! This will be the first of two sessions. You’ll need to be able to come back on the morning of Sat Sept 25 or at 4:30 on Monday Sept 27.

 

ABAR Conversations 1
For those who want to know more about ABAR, ask some questions, and begin engaging in this work.

 

Deconstructing DX: Learning how to create beautiful lessons
In this session, we will learn how to create units, lesson pages, quizzes, and assignments in DX. This is a great way to make lessons accessible for all!

 

Having Fun With Glyths!
What are glyphs? Glyphs are a pictorial form of data collection. Glyphs can be used as a fun SEL activity or as a summative assessment. Come and learn about a fun way to assess students using paper and glue.

 

Excel 101
Learn some simple Excel tips and tricks. In this session, we will focus on the basics of how to work with Excel. Bring your laptop and any burning questions you have and we’ll explore together.

 

 

Ideas for in-depth reading in Chinese classes
Wondering how to teach students to read? Want to know more about strategies for in-depth reading? Join this session to enhance our collective knowledge and skills on effective reading. Staff Resources

 

Making excellent graphics
Want to improve your graphic design skills when making resources for your classes? Join us as we look at some simple rules and techniques for improving your visual communication skills. Staff Resources

 

Integrating creative data collection and visualization with a Dear Data project
A Dear Data project gives students an authentic way to collect data about their own lives and present their findings with a creative visualization. Topics can include any content area, including SEL topics. Students keep a process journal throughout, integrating literacy and notebooking skills.

 

Executive Functioning Skills 101
This session will go into detail about what Executive Functioning Skills are, why they are important, how we can build on them at school, and tips on how parents can reinforce them at home.

 

Simplify Your Life with Power Automate and Mail Merge
How do you empower students and personalize communication quickly? Come see examples using two tools and brainstorm how you might leverage them in your classroom! Resources: Slides, Mail Merge Survey, TTT Automation Mail Merge Sample.xlsx, Student Interest Survey Template.docx, Power Automate Survey, Power Automate Home Page

 

Classroom management for TAs
Work with kids but not trained as a teacher? Come learn basics of managing a classroom and feel more confident while support students’ learning.

 

Practical Practice for Reading in DL
This workshop bases on Chinese reading and learning in DL program, but is applicable to other language reading. It focuses on using reading assessment data to plan and arrange reading activities; planning stations with word study, character learning, self-reading, and guided reading to students across a big range of language proficiency; sharing station examples.

 

ABAR Conversations 2
For those who are ready to have some deeper conversations, lean into some discomfort, and continue to engage in this work.

 

Fall 2021 Cohort 1 C6 Homework
Need some time and support to catch up on your C6 homework before our next session Saturday? Keen to collaborate with colleagues in the cohort? This session is for you!

Screen Time from Head to Toe 

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Authors: Caleb Hill and Randen Morisako 

In our high speed, high tech and highly global word, we may find ourselves doing more of what you are doing right this second – looking at a screen. Like me, you are probably longing for the offline world to resume what is so important for developing children. An analog world of using your hands to create art with a paint brush, gain insight from a newly opened book or give a task-affirming high five just cannot be recreated through eLearning.  
Teachers, parents and students alike need to manage this carefully in order to avoid overuse, stress and yes, injury.  

EYES 

If we aren’t mindful of screen time many of us are at risk to develop what ophthalmologists call “digital eyestrain”. For children and adults this can lead to dry eye, eye strain, headaches, and blurry vision. While some symptoms may be temporary; they can persist if breaks are not taken. These symptoms do not mean special glasses are required or that an eye condition if forming; instead it could mean they aren’t taking enough breaks.   
Most doctors recommend what’s called the “20-20-20 rule” – Every 20 minutes, take a 20 second break and look at something that is 20 feet away (about 6 meters).  

source: https://www.carillonvisioncare.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/digital-eye-strain.jpg

If you find you or your child’s eyes are drying out quickly you may need to place a humidifier close to your eLearning space, use eye drops, and drink more water. The level of lighting in a room when using a computer or iPad should be roughly half as bright as other activities such as writing on paper. Decrease the brightness on your screens and try to position computers so that light from uncovered windows, lamps and overhead light fixtures aren’t shining directly on them.  
If you find dry eyes persist it could also be an issue as simple as not blinking enough. Blink! 

MIND-BODY CONNECTION

Adults and children need to be moving. School has changed over the years and rarely at ISB will you find a group of students all sitting at desks for long periods at a time (exam time excluded). Students are missing that up and down interaction with their classmates and teachers and it adds a lot of extra pressure on parents. That’s why it’s so important to TAKE BREAKS. 
There are zero negative side effects to taking a physical activity break when you are working. It will help you work smarter and more efficiently after getting your heart rate up. As mentioned by Lissa in Strategies to Survive Working at Home it’s important to move your body. Students should take AT LEAST a ten-minute break once every hour to rest their eyes and move their bodies. Set a timer to limit yourself and take breaks.  

source: https://www.pngfind.com/pngs/m/468-4680505_the-benefits-of-working-out-extend-beyond-just.png

PE teachers are providing workout videos or activity suggestions multiple times a week and encouraging students to get at least 60 minutes of activity every day with 30 minutes of vigorous activity. This means that they are raising their HR and potentially getting hot and sweaty too.  
If you can safely do it, getting outside and taking a walk is more than enough to get your blood pumping. Get out for a morning walk before you start your eLearning, breathe some fresh air and look out the window to give your eyes a break. 

NECK AND SPINE 

Do you find yourself bending your head down to look at your screen? This is called “text neck.” For every 15 degrees of downward gaze your spine experiences an additional increase in stress. You can limit the risk of text neck by monitoring the amount of time, you spend staring down at your phone.   
Another strategy is to ensure that your laptop or computer monitor is set up at the right height. Your monitor should be set up so that the top of your monitor is perpendicular with your gaze. This ensures that you should be able to see the bottom of the screen with no more than 15-degree downward gaze. 

source: https://notsitting.com/proper-height/

WRISTS 
When using a keyboard and mouse we are at extended risk of carpal tunnel syndrome. This is an overdevelopment of the wrist/forearm muscles and causes irritation the nerves in the lower arm causing pain, numbness, and even tingling. Making sure that your hands and wrist are in the right position while working may prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. Periodically massaging or stretching your forearm muscles may also prevent muscle tightness in the forearm.  
 

source: https://inside.ewu.edu/ehs/occupational-health-safety/ergonomics/

 
A simple forearm stretch is to straighten one arm out in front of you with your palm facing out and fingers pointed to the sky. Using your other hand, apply light backward pressure to the tips of your straightened hands finger. You can repeat this stretch with your fingers pointed down for a different muscle group. 

LOWER BACK 

Long bouts of sitting may cause back pain especially in the lower back. Be sure to sit properly with a straight spine. Using a lumbar support chair or small pillow on your lower back may support muscles there and keep your back from slouching.  

Source: http://www.chairsadvisor.com/maintain-good-posture-when-sitting-at-a-desk-all-day/

During this time, one technique may be to try using a standing table. If you decide to do so make sure that the desk is high enough so that you don’t have to look down at your monitor and develop text neck. 
Sciatica is characterized by pain, numbness, or tingling that runs through the lower back, through the buttocks, and sometimes down the lower leg.  
By using a well cushioned chair and making sure that each buttock is evenly on your chair are some strategies to prevent sciatica. Other strategies include taking periodic breaks and including stretching or foam rolling of the glute muscles to make sure they do not get overdeveloped from prolonged sitting. 
Staying physically active during this time is extremely important. With a regular dose of physical activity, we can help limit the effects of prolonged sitting and screen time. Your eyes, brain and body will all thank you. Now… take a break!