This was shown at Learning at School this year and just found it again for using at school:

this is cool too….

and check out his other videos on YouTube

It has been an interesting time recently ….
We have ERO coming this week so I have been pretty preoccupied with getting all the small loose ends tied up that you need to do before they descend upon you. We have a fabulous staff and the focus is on “student engagement” (our focus) and “Professional development” (government are of interest - PD … don’t get me started on what that implies!!) should not be too much of a drama for us.
I have been reflecting on Julia Atkin’s work since L@S in Rotorua a couple of weeks ago. I have put a display in the foyer and put things in the newsletter to try and get feedback on what the “Values and Beliefs” that underpin our practice and existence are at Outram School. I have been having some very interesting discussions with people prompted by this.
Good thinking to do …
*why DO we send children to school (apart for the obvious childcare function)?
*Where DOES your school fit within your community and the values the community adn families hold?
*Where IS the line between the ethical and moral discussions families should have and the ones we have in the classroom with the children?
*What DO we believe about learning - children and adult?
*What SHOULD the learning and physical environment be like ion the school/classroom?

Interesting stuff ….

The challenge is to get people to respond …. it is starting though

Again blogged on teh fly in the workshop. My thinking in Italix

Values is not a poster on the wall - it is the actual way the school and it’s culture ‘works’. planned and hidden curriculum stuff

John Holt - ‘What do I do Monday?’
*four worlds we live in … 1. Inner world/world within my skin; 2 world of direct experience; 3. the world you know about; 4 the world of your ignorance and that you don’t know about.
*learning that involves an emotional component is much more powerful ….engagement

“even though we go back [in terms of trends and things happening in education] overall we do go forward!”

Coming back to mental models and the ideas from the keynote yesterday. Have to confront and challenge the thinking in order to change them.

Nice link sinking in here …. spending time only getting to World 3 means that nothing changes. If people already know about the new ideas/practices/whatever and have not chosen to make any changes to practice how will spending time looking at them change anything? Finding out what you DON’T know is key to making transformative change. hmmmmm ….. I like this …. bit of a duh moment happening here Relates to learning at all levels (chn, adult…) too - immersion in Inquiry

transformative learning has to engage at all 4 levels - including the self! Value and paramount place of INTRINSIC motivation on all of this ….

[refer presenters section of conference website fro readings following on from these ideas]

Implications for Inquiry:
Honouring childrens questions - eg having Immersion stage and getting children to gather and sort the emerging questions rather than having teacher constructed focus/big questions from the outset. I like this … has power implications for the classroom adn some may struggle with this…. quite confronting idea …

concentric circles: Values and Beliefs — Principles — Practices.

“A value is an expression of something you believe” - defining the difference between the two. Values are reflected through the priorities we choose. Digging into values to the underlying belief ….
this is something we need to do at school …. to come back and re-examine our school values adn wht we really believe, and what these values are actually an expression of (beliefs that underpin them). This would also potentially enable us to have fewer and focus on them in a deeper way….. hmmmm …. something to ponder on. Julias model (and others!) would have values as the starting point for new curriculum implementation as well as school development in general. Good discussion to have!

Activities to find out Values:
eg: in groups of three. One person shares significant moment. other two people reflect back to them the values that this story illustrates. stories are such a valuable way to delve into what value are …after all it is the things in action that truly show what values are. not as an intellectual exercise but the ‘reality’.
eg: asking lots of WHY questions will get to the values and beliefs that underline practice/s.
eg: groups of three - one tells story (of some act that you admired or touched you in some way), one retells story, last person then retells story from perspective of the person who did the thing admired or that touched.

The focus is not on what the person is doing - it is the values that are important. The things that sit behind practice/s. remembering that it is values in the broadest sense …. not just the moral and ethical. It is also the values in terms of practice/pedagogy, relationships, etc