THE FUTURE IS NOW CONFERENCE NOTES

Greg Whitby Keynote speaker

Teaching is about Passion, precision and focus. Improve the learning of the child.

Target areas - learning, leading and teaching

Learning about the future - need to teach kids to learn for the future.

Openness we are use to socially is not transferred to education - kids are switching off because they expect freedom and openness but don't get it. Can't go back. I think we are seeing this as students are used to having several different sources of input (e.g. screens, people, videos etc) and some struggle with the one-dimensional aspect of school. This will become more apparent over time as society moves more and more to use technology for all aspects of life.

Www.elance.com - cutting out the middle man. Jobs are becoming more flexible and changing in nature. How are we preparing children for this? Need to be self-motivated learners and able to promote themselves.

Gap between school and learning is growing. Information is accessible everywhere through the internet. School is no longer the font of knowledge.

Theory says - people learn through context, connection and meta cognition. Context is shifting. Connections are more powerful as there are more combinations rather than just teacher and student.

Elmore theory - google this!

Need to move from I know to we learn - less sage on the stage. I think I do this reasonably well in the classroom as I prefer the students to develop questions and frameworks for what they want to know in a range of subjects rather that me telling them what to learn.

Nature of teaching - prophet, intrepeneur, activator

Bluyonder.wordpress.com - presentation

Richard Newton - modern learning environments (look at photos on ipad for slides)

Research these:

Hargreaves models of teachers

Michael absolum - clarity on the classroom, using formative assessment

Agentic learning/Self regulating, interdependent, socially connected, non hierarchical

What is my mental model? Is this meeting the needs of the kids? I would like to think I am a New Romantic all the time but after hearing Richard explain the different models I fear I often slip into the Lion Tamer mode in which I am hyper organised and keep the kids on task moving from one activity to another in quick succession. I put this down mainly to being a BT and feeling like I need to keep control of the management of my classroom. I aim to give the children choice over their learning and lots of time to question what we are doing but sometimes need to allow this to take priority rather than thinking about keeping the lesson moving so it finishes in the planned time period.

Mary Chamberlin - innovative learning environments (see photos)

Real learning comes from stretching boundaries. You need to feel uncomfortable to learn.

Modern learning can be taught anywhere buildings just make it easier.

Learning to learn - how accessible are the key comps for kids. Do you have the foundation?

Does every child in the room know what they are learning? Can they see the bigger picture/ path

How are we setting goals? Are they curriculum specific or learning to learn goals.

Talk the talk vs understanding - are they just spouting back walts? Is it more important that they can explain their learning in their own words rather than repeating teacher-told learning outcomes. I personally think if a child can explain in their own way what they are learning to do it shows a deeper understanding than repeating something that has been written on the whiteboard.

The pit - everyone is a learner and teacher

How do you maximise people and resources to maximise learning?

Building learning muscles claxton - I like this analogy, boys would relate to muscle building for sports.

Samr in two minutes

Self-regulated learning workshop

Teach them how to list and prioritise tasks - individual interviews? How to do you juggle this with instructional teaching time?

Study time? Weekly timetable/ to do list with points. Must gain certain amount of points by the end of the week. Kids book in 'appointments' for group and instructional lessons. Teachers run work shops at different times on different subjects. Ie. 1 runs 3 workshops other runs 2 and roams. Stagger times so a teacher is available most of the time. Run this model for maths?

Pathways instead of homework. More key comp based than traditional homework - optional? How do you make it meaningful and not pretty projects. Some set activities some own choice - have to give a proposal to teacher on how it fits and will be marked. Rewards for each competency once certain number have been completed. Should take two years to get them all?

Technology Workshop

Think about Why not how are you using technology.

Digital citizenship -need to teach before devices arrive

Right tool right time - how do you manage this with byod - 7inch screen

Surf wise

Kids need to sign own digital contract to make sure they know the rules/appropriate way to use it

Digitalcitizen.net