Restorative Discipline: From Getting Even to Getting Well

In this session of restorative discipline, Judy Mullet described what a noncoercive discipline approach looks like.  She advocates that restorativee discipline is a differentiated approach that invites students to put things right and make good choices.  The essence of restorative discipline is to move away from punishment to reconciliation.

Using the assumption that one can't do bad when doing good, restorative practice aims to get well instead of get even.  It is about the art of bringing together where inclusivity is the key to nurture a community that is healthy and harmonious. 

It is also about the art of asking effective questions.  Restorative practice is a process for developing self discipline and channel all energies towards a just and compassionate living.  It seeks to create, nurture and amnd relationships.

I feel that the restorative practice must be assimilated into the current discipline structure in all schools.  The restorative practice would certainly serve to build a compassionate and inclusive community.  It injects a sense of ownership trust and respect in the community.  It repairs relationships and expects all individuals to be part of the culture giving life rather than taking away.  However, it must be build into the system as a whole because if a student refuses to participate in finding solutions for any situation, he/ she may still have to be referred to a disciplinary process, which is the last resort.

Written by: Aubury Ong

Student Achievement in the 21st Century: Literacy Skills for 21st Century Learners

This session certainly expounds the need for innovative change in learning and teaching to preapre our young generation to be competitive, creative and productive citizens of the 21st century.  The fluid and dynamic future demands it!

The speaker, Sue Beers (educational consultant), outlines and explores the definition of 21st century skills.  Besides the content of the core subjects, the 21st century skills comprise of the categories of Leaning & Innovation Skills; Information and Technology Skills; and Career & Life Skills.  It is imperative that the teacher plans the lesson to infuse the 21st century skills. 

Sue Beers also shared the framework for 21st century learning.  It represents a holistic view of teaching and learning that contains 21st century learning student outcomes as well as the essential support systems.

One of my main takeaways for the session is the main 4Cs of the 21st century skills which are namely, Creativity and Innovation; Communication; Critical Thinking & Problem Solving; and Collaboration.  Hence, it is empirical that the skillful teacher is able to weave the elements of the 4Cs into the lesson delivery so that the acqusition is as equally important as the acquisition of the core content knowledge.

Like many participants, I was awed by the vast amount of web tools for learning that is available.  The myriad of webtools shared by Sue Beers was quite overwhelming.  By harnessing technology, I am sure it will spark the interest of students and engage them in learning.  Being digital natives, the students would find learning interesting and fun by using the right technology.  However, there is a need to level up the technology literacy of the teachers in order to make use of the correct webtools appropriately and skilfully.    

Technology is but a tool in engaing the learners.  Technology when used skilfully allows learners to own their learning.  And it is through such ownership of learning and accountabililty in learning that the 21st century skills could be acquired.

This is a photo taken during the session with Sue Beers in the middle. 

Written by: Aubury Ong

Pre-conference: 101 Tools & Techniques to improve Teacher Quality

101 Tools and Techniques to improve Teacher Quality

Opening question 1:

Why do we need good teacher?

Reform happen 1 classroom at a time.  We have to start with having effective teacher in school.

Improve quality of teacher  =  Improve learning of students

On the other hand, research has shown that ineffective teacher has a deep impact on student academic gain, very often leading to regression.  One year impact on maths.  Student with 50 percentile, improve to 70 percentile under an effective teacher.  Same student will drop to 40 percentile under ineffective teacher.  Over a 3 year impact, student under an ineffective teacher will regress even further.

Question 2: What is an effective teacher?

The speaker suggested that effective teacher should be determined base on two main criteria. First, the background of the teacher which is further divided into prerequisites and the person.  Second, job responsibilities and practices which can be observe through classroom management and instruction, organizing for instruction, implementing instruction and monitoring student progress and potential.

The speaker went on to illustrate how each of the determinants can be observed or examined through use of interview and classroom observation through rubrics or questions that are specially designed for this purpose.

Personal takeaway

I have always deemed teaching to be a nurturing profession whereby you allow people to make the change at their own pace. After attending this session, I have understood the urgency of having effective teacher in the classroom.  In a way, we owe it to students to provide the best learning experience and opportunities if not we should not be drawing a salary as an educator.

This ties in with the notion of improving teacher’s competency so that effective teachers are in school to help with student learning and engaging them to realize their potential.

Lawrence

How can we prepare our learners for their future?

We all know that the world is changing very fast and are highly aware that we need to prepare our learners for the future but how to? Perhaps one of the questions to ask is what skills would the learners need to succeed in the future. The critical skills needed would be Creativity, Critical Thinking Skills, Communication & Collaboration skills.

From the few sessions that I have attended thus far, the key learning points that I have drawn are as follows:

·                    Independent learning comes only with ownership of the learning. How as teachers could help our learners to own the learning? Help the learners to see the relevance in what they are learning which will spark of their curiosity to want to find out more. These “Relevance” message has been repeated many times across the different lectures and also during our School Visits at Presidio Middle School and Napa New Tech High.

·                    Assessment drives the curriculum & instructions. Structure drives behaviour and assessment likewise will drive the teaching pedagogies. I have gleaned from the sessions that web2.0 promotes self-directed and collaboration learning. Currently, we are still at web1.0 and not many teachers are making use of the web 2.0 tools as assessment. Useful website to explore: http://www.curriculum21.com/home and hopefully, it will encourage more teachers to make use of web2.0 as a teaching tool.

·                    Teacher is the key to students’ achievement, hence the need to Promote Professional Interactions. What we want for our learners, would also mean what we want for our teachers. Eg, if we want our pupils to be critical thinkers and able to ask questions then we also need our teachers to model these questioning skills in their teaching. One of my key takeaways would be that teachers need to plan and prepare the questions ahead, it cannot be left by chance or incidental approach during teaching. Our Time-tabled Time is a good platform for teachers to come together to plan lesson and also to discuss on Higher Order Thinking (HOT) questions to stimulate students’ thinking.

Group Photo at Seoul Transit on 21st Mar

Group photo at Seoul Transit

Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom by Carol Ann Tomlinson & Marcia Imbeau

ASCD Professional Development Institute San Francisco, CA March 23-25, 2011
Pre Conference :

Day 1 : Goals for Class Management : Leading to Success.

1. Clarity about key elements of differentiation. Practice of differentiation is the  modification of four curricullum-related elements: content, process, product and affect. which are based on three categories of student needs and variance- readiness, interest and learning profile.
2. A framework for thinking about 'successful flexibility' in the classroom. T
   

   eaching "makes room" for student variance.
3. 
   
   Relationship between leadership and management in a differentiated  classroom.The teacher who lead  for differentiation have the opportinity to lead colleaques  including teachers and principals as well as students and parents,  opportunities for coplanning or coteaching, sharing pertinent insights.mute voices that say''not in this school' and correct misconceptions, 
4. The philosophy that guides teacher leadership in a differentiated classroom is when a student is known and valued as an individual  and where there is reliable support system  to build on the pupils's strengths, help shore up or circumvent weaknessses  and maximise academic growth for the time the student ia a member of the class.
5. Practical guidance related to managing a differentiated classroom. Contrary to common misconceptions, classroom management is not simply the process of arranging desks, rewarding good behaviour, and choosing consequences for misconduct. Classroom managmnent encompassess many practices  integral to teaching such as developing relationships;  structuring classroom communities where students can work productively; organising productive work around meaningful ciricullum ; teaching moral development and citizenship, making decisions about timings, and other aspets of instructional planning; successfully motivating students to learn  and encouraging parent. involvement
6. Classroom implementation of ideas and strategies. Learning occurs best in a positive enironment - one that contains positive interpersonal relationships and interactions that contains comfort and order, and in which the learner feels appreciated, acknowledged, respected and validated

Day 2:  Effectively Leading And Managing a Differentiated Classroom.

1. Growth mindset moves to student-teacher connections and the community. teachers with a growth mind-set work from the premise that virtually any student can learn anything if the student is willing to work hard and if he or she  has support in that effort. Teacher-student connections bridge the risk of learning.They regularly help students understand that they have control over their success, thus enabling students with fixed mind-sets begin to operate from a sense of personal agency
2. Building community in the classroom.
3. Creating a learning environment.
4. Getting to know students
5. Rules for DI Classrooms 

Day 3 : 3 routes to launching a Differentiated Classroom

1. Avoiding 'Hot Spots' in a flexibly Managed Classroom
2. Some practical considerations
3. Group work : Checklist for pre-assigned "standing" groups
4. Routines for handling paperwork and Time Management
5. Anchor Activities
6. Strength-based Assessments:

• Spelling Checklist
• Writing Assessment Rubrics
• Checklist for expressive skills
• Oral reading Assessment
• Role Cards

My Reflections

• I learnt that differentiation in the classroom is not just a set of instructional strategies, I need to adopt in my teaching practice but how I use a set of principles to guide me in the way I teach my students as I reflect on my teaching practices and make adjustments to pay attention to student variation and respond to it according to the students’ readiness, interest, and learning profile.
• I realize that to facilitate this, I need to create a positive learning environment where high-quality curriculum is taught through flexible classroom management skills and use ongoing assessment as a tool to enable me in my decision making how I need to progress as an effective teacher. Diagnostic assessments to determine individual students' entry points into a unit of study in terms of their readiness, interest, and learning profiles. Formative assessments to measure students' readiness, interest, and learning profiles. Summative assessments to offer varied modes of expression and scaffolding.

I asked myself why do I need to adopt differentiated instruction in my classroom when streaming and banding is already done in my school.

• Of course I know that as a teacher, I need to ensure that all of my students master important content. But what Carol Ann Tomlinson advocates is that I need to pay attention to the fact that students differ as learners because they have different background experience, culture, language, gender, interests, readiness to learn, modes of learning, speed of learning, support systems for learning, self-awareness as a learner, confidence as a learner and independence as a learner and they need help at various points in the learning process. She mentions that I need to continually ask, "What does this student need at this moment in order to be able to progress with this key content, and what do I need to do to make that happen?

•  What is mind boggling is that how am I going to adopt different methods such as independent reading, partner reading, text on tape, text with images, listening comprehension, online research, communication with experts, group demonstrations, small group instruction and also sometimes go back to prerequisite content in order to move some students while the advanced learners move ahead before their classmates.

What does Carol Ann Tomlinson say: 

•       Carol Ann Tomlinson mentions that the core of the classroom practice of differentiation is the modification of four curriculum-related elements—content, process, product, and affect—which are based on three categories of student need and variance—readiness, interest, and learning profile. She offers many solutions for  a teacher to be effective in a differentiated classroom.

1. Adapt the learning environment to cater for students' readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles and develop an instruction that maximizes each student's opportunity for academic growth. The appearance, organization, and structure of a classroom can invite learning with appealing colors, effective displays of student work, spaces for both solitary and collaborative work, easy access to materials and supplies, furniture arrangements that focus attention on peer input rather than largely or solely on the teacher, and visible cues to support quality work.
2. Cultivate the classroom's intangible emotional climate where students learn best when they feel safe, respected, involved, challenged, and supported. 
3. Design lessons with student differences in mind, including differences in learning, culture, language, and gender and be a metaphorical "bridge," to help students to connect the knowledge and skills to develop self-awareness, and independence. 
4.  Adopting flexiblity in terms of time, materials, support systems, student groupings, instructional modes, and teaching and learning strategies and  offer various routes to help students develop self-efficacy and independence as learners develop proficiency in collaborative learning.
5. Provide classroom routines that balance student needs for guidance and freedom.
6. Be aware how the classroom elements interact. If a student feels like an outsider in the classroom, he or she is unlikely to commit to class discussions, group work, or even individual tasks, and this unfavorable learning environment negatively impacts curriculum and instruction for that student. Likewise, if assigned work is beyond the abilities of certain students, they will feel unsafe in the classroom and regard the learning environment as negative. 

Carol Ann Tomlinson & Stella 

    Stella : Differentiating Instruction and 21st Century Skills : Preparing all learners for the WORLD AHEAD. 

By Stella Fernandez

21st Century Skills come alive at Napa New Technology High School!!!

Braving the new frontier at Napa New Tech.

Branded as the school of the future, it envisages a culture and vision that encapsulate the 3Rs, namely, Relationship, Relevance and Rigor which propels student success in the 21^st century.There is strong evidence of school-wide alignment of school vales (Trust, Respect, Responsibility, Professionalism) integrated into all aspect of school life.

The school demonstrated high levels of student engagement and strong performance in Reading and Science, college acceptance rates and behaviourial indicators.

This strong result could be attributed to the following success factors:

a)    Recognises that 21^st century skills are vital to students’ success in life. Evaluation of students not only on how proficient they are on traditional subject matter, but also on their mastering of critical skills like critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication, technology fluency, creativity, media literacy and contextual learning.

b)   Engaging and rigorous instruction through the use of project-based learning. Students collaborate on projects that require critical thinking and presentation skills. By making learning relevant, student engagement is high and there is better educational outcomes.

Peer assessment of a Maths/Physics PBL Presentation

c)    Collaborative culture which empowers both students and teachers. Allows ownership of learning experience and school environment. Working in teams also allows students to be accountable to their peers and acquire a level of responsibility similar to a professional work environment.

 

Easy accessibility to school's resources 

 d)   Seamless use of technology to support innovative approach to instruction and culture. The use of 1-1 computing and vast resource network allow pupils to become self-directed learners. An interactive network system is put in place not only to help students, teachers, administration and parents connect, but also allow self and peer assessment based on clearly-defined rubrics and exemplars.

Collaboration in action!