MIT video presentation from my ENGAGE research in 2020

KPMG Hui

Our MIT 2020 group met today at KPMG and had time to discuss our reflections from the Wananga presentations. We also reflected on what we would have, could have and should have done if we had prior knowlegde about COVID taking effect this year. We learnt how to make a screen recording on our Google slideshows and then add this to our own record of learning and professional development. I feel inspired to continue the ENGAGE program in 2021 and encourage my junior teaching colleagues to participate with their own classes as I can now see the value and importnace that it holds.

Wananga 2020

On Thursday 22nd October I was privileged to be able to share my research and newly devised digital tool to a group of teaching professionals hosted by the Manaiakalani outreach program. I focused on ENGAGE which is a series of games played by young children to develop self regulation skills and increase language. I have designed a website: https://sites.google.com/ptengland.school.nz/goldengiftsin2020/home to explain how teachers can use these games in their classroom environment and the benefits it has. These videos were also shared on our Team 2 site during lockdown as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. Please leave a comment after viewing my presentation. Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YJek2_n8oONHiJm18nnjC3NwrqNtuSwhrYOBHyIsGWw/edit#slide=id.ga4323cda3e_0_5 This has been a rewarding experience to watch the holistic growth and cognitive development of the Year 2 children that I teach.

MIT research data

Today I asked each of my four priority learners which ENGAGE game they liked the best and why? These were there answers:

What surprised me the most was that the student who has the lowest literacy skills in the group had the most amount of comprehensive language accumulation in her reply statement!

Inquiry reflection for Term 3

These students have been participating in the ENGAGE program for the duration of this year with the exception of the lockdown period. I have observed the following shift in Reading from 3 out of 4 of my Priority Learners from the start of this year Term 1, 2020 until now. Term 1: Student H - Red 4 Student L - Magenta 1 Student P - Red 3 Student S - Red 4 Term 3: Student H - Yellow 7 Student L - Red 3 (significant absence from school) Student P - Yellow 7 Student S - Yellow 8

MIT Hui

Today our research group travelled into the Auckland CBD on different modes of transport and met at KPMG who hosted us for the day. This was the first face to face meeting we have had since our first summer hui. It has been a long time that we have been able to gather together because of being in lockdown due to COVID 19. So, the 10 of us gathered inside a conference room and had an opportunity to discuss each of our projects to date. What I enjoyed the most was listening to other teacher's progress and learning about their highlights of developing a digital tool. I was able to take on suggestions and feedback from my colleagues about what changes could be made to my website. I will have to put some time aside to plan for my research presentation for the Wananaga. I aim to get Student Voices as part of my ongoing research feedback and evaluation of the ENGAGE program.

ENGAGE support!

I was so thrilled to hear that our support staff at school are also being trained to use the ENGAGE program with the children they are allocated to support with their learning and behaviour in the classroom! Our Deputy Principal showed them my ENGAGE videos that I made during the lockdown and this helped them to visualise how to use the games with children and also to use the consistent language as well. I am in the process of updating my website as I have new videos and information to add to it now. Watch this space...

Reaffirming my MIT challenge

I have booked in 2 MIT release days as I realised how fast the end of Term 2 was nearing! It has certainly been busy being back in the classroom teaching face to face. Once we moved to level 1, all of my 20 students had finally returned to school. Needless to say, writing reports has been a challenge considering the fact that we haven't seen some of our students for 7 weeks! I have been able to continue initiating ENGAGE games with our Year 2 children on a daily basis, which has been a bonus especially with the start of winter when there have been some rainy days. All the students are engaged and are obviously having fun. Their favourite game is pass the kiwi and another teacher has now stepped up to take one ENGAGE session per week as I was busy doing JAM tests... The overall goal of implementing ENGAGE games with my priority learners has continued to be successful, however I would like to go back to having a smaller group to work with on a regular basis rather than the whole class as I feel it is more effective. I will trial this in Term 3. Another reflection I have made is after creating a website for other teachers to use called ENGAGE gifts, I would like to add videos of me teaching the children, and the children interacting with each other so that a focus on language accumulation can be achieved.

MIT Hui: Feedback on website design thinking

Today I was brave enough to share my prototype with my teaching colleagues from MIT:2020! They all made some worthwhile suggestions about my newly designed website to share online. This prompted me to think back to my original "Achievement Challenge" which was: Teachers need a digital tool for the ongoing collection, analysis and sharing of ENGAGE data. This research project has been designed to support other teachers who will be using the ENGAGE games in their classroom with students on a daily basis. So in my introduction I included parents, this has now been deleted as I need to solely focus on teachers. I had also included other videos of my story telling and creating science experiments (during the lockdown) which was off the topic and have since been removed. However, these are still available to view on the Team 2 site at PES. https://sites.google.com/s/1EUBYK8aQdRkpBXasd5QHqXVb1q2hb9Uk/p/1gvleo_u7KxkZkP-6hiWkKEXILMEqnV0k/edit I now aim to add new videos of children participating in the ENGAGE videos at school and include a tutorial video for teachers on how to use the data collection spreadsheet on a weekly basis. This will help teachers to identify next steps in regards to children's key competencies and self management skills within a school environment. I would also like to include some more relevant research to support the idea that children's well being and holistic/emotional development needs to be nurtured and encouraged in a social setting. You can view the comments made below that influenced my decision to change my prototype and refine it accordingly.

MIT research connections

So I had the privilege to meet with Jimmy McLauchlan via a Zoom call last week and wanted to share our meaningful korero around the value of the ENGAGE program that he has been involved with over the past 5 years of research. Since implementing the ENGAGE program over a 7 week period, prior to lockdown I have found that the children's engagement, interest and participation has definitely increased. I explained to Jimmy that I regularly use relaxation breathing techniques with my students as it helps them to calm down and refocus before structured learning takes place throughout the day. I try to use at least one game on a busy day and up to 30 mins of games in total which is the recommendation in order for this program to be effective. I often find that the students need to have a game to participate in during "transition times" throughout the day as well as when they get hungry before scheduled meal breaks such as morning tea and lunchtime. We discussed how much teachers are finding the games useful and how their students are responding to them throughout the day as they do require some preparation. I also shared my Google survey that I have created and am looking forward to reviewing the results. I can relate to the purpose of combining a child's holistic well-being with learning self-regulations skills in order to interact with their peers and manage themselves independently in a school environment. I shared some ideas around future games which could include Te Reo Maori and Pasifika games, language with a focus on cultural observances that the children are experienced with in their home environment and then make translations on new cards so teachers can use them in the classroom. I'm looking forward to this new direction and hope to use them when we can return to school life again. Depending on whether New Zealand comes out of Level 4 lockdown in response to COVID - 19? Kia kaha, stay safe in your Bubbles.

Seaside Hui

This has been such a worthwhile opportunity to design, rethink and unpack my research project with a set of fresh eyes, like minded colleagues for support and time for meaningful reflection as I walked along the beach. Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Empathy session/ role play

My MIT Moonshot buddy Kerianna and I got together to discuss what our current challenges are with our students in the classroom setting. We then role played each idea to the whole group. #1: So I started and began introducing "The Magic Blanket" game with Kerianna who was one of my Priority Learners (in amongst 19 other Year 2s) who was easily distracted, not focused and kept interrupting the game. I kept going, trying to involve her whilst using verbal praise and encouragement along the way. #2: She then began speaking fluently in Te Reo Maori and I pretended to be the disengaged student who was unwilling to participate in Te Reo korero g(speaking). My attitude was getting in the way of my learning, making it more challenging for Kerianna to carry out her Whaea role effectively. This gave our teaching colleagues an opportunity to observe the challenges we face in trying to overcome disengagement.

Crazy 8's - IDEATE

Here is the poster I created which highlights 8 different ways that I will utilise and implement support to help carry out my research project for this year. I took a photo of my poster which has "Googly" eyes to demonstrate the most popular idea! This was my idea to create a digital tool being a "Teacher Portal" for teachers to use to be able to access and implement the ENGAGE program with their students.

My new Research Project Title:

Teachers need a digital tool for the ongoing collection, analysis and sharing of ENGAGE data.

How might we?

My MIT colleagues gave me suggestions as to how I could utilise other people to help my with my research project.

Connections and Resource poster

Here is a poster of the people and resources I plan to contact and use for the initiation of my research project.

Design Thinking Quote which I agree with.

School Hall reflection

This imaginary school hall scenario involved 10 teaching colleagues who participated in a role play. We were all given a range of different characters to act out. The chairman identified a number of "challenges" that had come to the school board's attention and were being shared with parents of this "hypothetical" school. Some examples of the characters were a doctor, a lawyer, a cleaner, a farmer and an ERO representative. The issues that were brought to light were low oral language acquisition, lack of Te Reo Maori participation, students who needed support with transition to Intermediate, students who struggled with curriculum based literacy and maths learning, ESOL support, lower levels in Reading and Maths etc... So after a heated debate it was agreed that these pertinent issues either needed to be removed or dealt with as soon as possible, especially considering the principal was overseas stuck on a cruise ship. It was easy to relate to these challenges as they are based on the reality of the problems that we currently face in our low decile schools which have Maori/Pasifika students who attend. Research shows evidence of the learning outcomes of these students and how it affects them if not addressed by teaching professionals. So it was interesting to find out how other teachers might investigate these challenges over a period of time.

Tweaking and redefining the challenge

This is how my research began....my initial ideas was to focus on children's oral language acquisition for my original Moonshot proposal. I have now decided to use this for my Inquiry focus for 2020.

My original Moonshot slide deck was developed with "oral language acquisition" as a focus. However, this has since changed as you will see in later posts.