Sunday, 18 June 2017

TED Talk-How to make a library that makes kids want to read

Literacy-Libraries

I watched this Ted Talk about some people that were interested in changing libraries in public schools in New York. To get rid of the idea that libraries are musty old boring places. So this guy was bought in to re image so came up with three options 1- a shh free zone Option 2-OWL- rename it Open Wonder Learn or other thing that fits- Option 3-based on read (red) Red Zone-Are you Red?- But needed to rethink these as not many kids didn't even really know much about a library.  He came with this logo L!brary.
However this was not the end of it as then the architect came back and said there is a problem and said there is a gap between the shelves and the ceiling can you fix it? So they came up with the idea to put in pictures of the children above the shelves as mural reading and enjoying themselves. Then other schools wanted more and so they added other art and ideas from the children. They got artists in to come up with ideas and put up materials in this area etc.
This talk made me think about how can we make Libraries more engaging. I have visited schools in Melbourne where they made the library the hub of their learning as it was in the middle of the school usually in behind the office. I liked this as it was often a hive of activity, however you have to consider more than the location of it. Libraries have to look different than they have in the past and the libraries have to offer more than they have in the past. I recently enjoyed the experience of having some people from the Christchurch Library sharing their knowledge on Matariki. This was great and the children were very engaged in the experience and they also were interested in going to the library to learn more about Matariki because of their visit. A library today has to have the resources that help a child to learn and have a variety of different resources. I think this talk has make me think libraries also need to be attractive in order to get them to walk in the door and enjoy. I like the display of some art work in the spaces, as couldn't a library be also a place to appreciate the Arts as these days they often have to be multi purpose buildings.




Monday, 5 June 2017

Personalities



I am currently working collaboratively in a modern learning environment and have been able to observe what it is like to work so closely. It made me think what makes a successful collaborative environment. At first I think you need to look at the people involved in this as no matter what training you have had for this kind of environment, it is the people that play a big role in this.  So what personalities do you need to have in this type of environment to work well.

I found this article which I liked when they talked about how it is not the introvert v's the extrovert situation that we need to be thinking about.  Personal and emotional intelligence is very important in ensuring a group of people can work collaboratively. Being able to read the situations and emotions of the people you work with can help with working together.
One thing Mayer's research has shown is that people who are able to better understand and react to people's personalities tend to be happier in the workplace. "We find that on the job people with higher personal intelligence are happier and more likely to appear agreeable and helpful to more people," says Mayer.
You can't really change people's personalities and hopefully Principals and Board of Trustees  consider this when employing and think about who might work best with this person. It is not always the case for many reasons. This article made sense to me as how you interact with your colleagues is very important and if you except their personalities the easier it is to get along. I think respect is also a big thing that needs to be considered when working with others in this collaborative modern learning environment.

We need to work well together otherwise the affects of this will be on the children's learning and the general hum of the environment.  It doesn't matter how nice your environment is the teaching will not be great unless the teachers work well together as a collaborative team.

Inspiring Reading And Writing- Murray Gadd

Attended this session with Murray Gadd on Reading and Writing- What is critical for all ( especially under-achieving and reluctant) readers and writers?
This man has clearly done some research in this area and many of it made sense. The eight dimensions that he came up with made perfect sense. It was interesting to see what he found to be the one that helps to generate learner gains and decreases the achieving gap. I have over the last few years realised the importance of direct instruction in teaching and this is important for the children to gain more from the lesson.

It was nice to be reminded on the fact that writing topics comes from
-the students' own experiences, understanding and interests
-the texts that students access: or
-the cross-curriculum findings and challenges that emerge from classroom inquiry

He appeared that he didn't like the Monday recount pieces of writing, although I do believe there is a time and a place for that. I think for some children that is definitely a stage they go through and does fit under their own experiences aspect. I know in my class I started with writing about their weekend and t was good for awhile as it gave them confidence in writing what they knew. However I have now moved on to imaginary writing for most.  I liked some of his ideas of using text in stories to motivate children for writing. I plan to do this as another way to inspire writing as have not really done it in awhile. I liked when he got his children to write about only an aspect of the story. It is great to let the children to have a choice in writing when they can. Also his questioning was good to get more out of the children to write.

This speaker has made me think about checking out some more books to inspire the children to write.