Leadership Theories and Styles

The task was to watch the video 'Leadership Theories and Styles', then identify a change initiative that you have been involved with, where you contributed to leadership or followership. Create a diagram that links your experiences to one or more specific leadership theories, with some explanation of these links.

Democratic Style  ---> providing opportunities for followers to have their say and get involved in the change process in a variety of ways

Transformative leadership ---> using empathy to guide others through the change process

For my own change initiative:
Use those above as well as:

• Situational leadership ---> changes to suit the needs of followers
• Tu Rangatira ---> concepts of Ako and Hauora, Tiaki (guardian), visionary, manager, and advocate
• Emotional intelligence ---> includes empathy, listening, warmth, caring (something to look into further).

The makers movement

We watched this video "The maker movement in schools" by  Jason Wik & Gabriel Wilkes, They are part of |TEDxTokyoTeachers

 The following is a summary of the main points: 

The future of education is Innovation and how do we foster this?
One answer is STEAM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics

This can be applied in

• Real life situations
• maker tool set e.g.
• electronics
• coding
• 3D modelling ( 3D printers) and 
• robotics

When we use digital technology it is only the tools which have changed

"Innovation infused curriculum render ideas into real life situations"

We can use a framework - this provides the criteria  (e.g. science teacher)

Inquiring & designing

• Outline problem
• Testable prediction
• Collect data
• Evaluate results ( e.g. solar light bulb for energy project)

Different tools are used and we could use this in maths, engineering, fine arts, sports and language

An example of this is playing test demo e.g. pinball
Children and teaching adults how to make again

Maker revival
e.g. NASA astronaut - this was made using:
scratch, makey makey and snap together electronics (little bits, Mindstorms robotics (lego), arduino (sound), motion detectors
collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and communication



I like the idea of using #Scratch and #Makeymakey as tools. The examples in the videos showed a range of resources which I think would be awesome to have in a classroom. I wish I could improve the students access to electronics as I could see this being so effective when designing and innovating. I think the cost is a barrier at the moment. Scratch by itself is free to use and can be made to create games or interactive stories.  I would introduce students to Scratch and let them try some of the tutorials, perhaps show them a few demos. #Hornby #Rangiora #Christchurch

Computational thinking: Why learn to program?

Computational thinking: Why learn to program?

As part of the flipped preparation for Mindlab I watched "The Poetry if Programming" by Linda Liukas:  a delightful way to teach kids about computers
 It'a a TED talks video about computational thinking and I wrote down some notes. 

"Look wider, don't be too narrow" 

I think this quote is important as sometimes we try to focus on only what we know. I think it is especially important for high school trained teachers as it's potentially a trap that a teacher falls into when planning activities for students.

I learnt that computational thinking is a way humans solve problems and relates to human behaviour. This surprised and intrigued me. When you know very little about coding it seems very daunting, I think a lot of people may be put off the idea just by the perception that it contains a lot of maths.

I found this video fascinating as it explores the concepts that programming and computational thinking. There was an activity done in Mindlab where we had to guess a number with the fewest amount of guesses. There was methods that worked but ideally the strategy is to take the number and divide by half each time to narrow the range.
Other concepts discusses were, decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction and designing algorithms.

Our next activity was "unplugged programming" where we have to write a list of instructions to move one of our team around a table. We then also used this to make a series of movements we all did, to make a "dance". We had set criteria for this activity.

"Lets teach kids to code" by Mitch Resnick (Fluent in language) Is a book mentioned during this workshop. I want to look into this further. Let's teach kids to code by Mitch Resnick
We then had a go at using Scratch, this is found on a website and suited for 8+ year olds. It's possible to use it to make interactive stories.

In pairs we had turns being the driver and navigator role. These roles help ākonga to work on collaborative tasks.

Digital Technology Curriculum - Digital Passport is something I would like to look at if I had more time.

Backwards Bicycle  - Brain Experiment

knowledge =/= understanding

This video teaches you to be careful how you look at thing because you have bias
For an adult it took 8 months to learn but it was quicker for a child, for them it took 20 mins to relearn!
This relates to neuroplasticity & rewiring brain. As a teachers is relates to experiences of your students as what is given attention and repetition grows and strengthens these connections

We looked into growth mindsets, especially Dweck (2010) Mind-mental attitude and 
Dweck (2006) "Mindset: The new Psychology of Success"  www.mindsetonline.com and 
Guy Claxton (2002) "Building Learning Power" and explored the implications for learning. 

We then tried to research so we could bust a myth about the brain 

I enjoyed learning how to use stop motion and we worked together to make stop frames to demonstrate whether Mozart makes our brain smarter.
Ideas for further use: replacement parts and facial expressions can be made suing a 3D printer e.g. used in movies like Box Trolls & Paranorman

Suggested app - Unmashable? Stop motion animation - is a chrome extension and its fun to play with. This inspired me to introduce this to students... I want to continue to try new  and different ideas as I believe this is an exciting and accessible way to have students be creative and collaborate naturally.

Learning spaces and their uses

Learning spaces and their uses

The cave, campfire and watering hole are concepts that are about 25 years old. They have relationships at the heart of their definition. This reflection is both about the physical and the virtual.

The Cave is a reflective space, free from stimulation

It is for One to self relationship - where the learning is all internal. 

What is my opinion? What do I think about this?

Campfire, this is a one to many space. It is also a space for expertise e.g. many learning from the guru, it is a powerful space.

Watering hole, is a space for many to many. People bounce ideas from each other in a free for all, it is improvised e.g. problem solving. A space for collaboration

In virtual space a cave is a blog post, it is an internal reflection.
A virtual campfire is like blended or flipped learning which is "free to access" by students
A virtual watering holes can be any of the collaborative online apps e.g google docs

To manage avoidance or constraints - make these spaces available through out the day.

This is my reflection on G+ Community

It's tricky to think how I could use the #cave in my classroom. During tutor time (the only space thats like a normal classroom in design) the students are used to being asked to reflect and they do this regularly (usually as a reflection post they put on Linc ed). During the rest of the day some students also like to be able to find quiet spaces to work but not usually alone, this is for independent work but they usually work collaboratively via shared docs or slide with each other and teachers. Some of my students have started to go to the library although the building they are meant to be in is "meant" to be a quiet space. Having more smaller and clearly defined spaces within the larger open space may encourage students to respect the quiet space. Students have to be able to self direct or self manage in order to work in these spaces, otherwise teachers are constantly having to tell them to be quiet. I would like to encourage more individual exploration or reflection but my students need scaffolding to be able do this. The year 7-10 age group are very busy being social! #Rangiora #Christchurch #Hornby