NZC Online Newsletter November 2018

One for my Kiwi readers.

November 2018 View this email in your browser

Kia ora and welcome to the November newsletter for NZC Online. In these newsletters we keep you up to date with resources, events, stories, and research to help you implement your school curriculum. What’s new on NZC Online? Innovative learning environments and student agency Rob Posthumus, principal of Hurupaki School, shares the findings of her recent sabbatical where she investigated systems of innovative learning environments (ILE) that maximise student agency and self regulation. Rob describes four pedagogical approaches that help to support student agency. They are: Collaboration Use of learning matrices Student initiated learning Horizontal connectedness You might also like … Spotlight on learner agency Use our NZC spotlight to explore learner agency and find strategies to help you build greater agency in your own classrooms. Learner agency blog This blog post unpacks learner agency and offers ideas on how we can support students to be active participants in their learning. Planning an innovative learning environment This guide provides strategies and suggestions for developing innovative learning environments (ILE) that work for all learners. Tapasā – Cultural Competencies Framework for Teachers of Pacific Learners In this blog we take a closer look at the newly released resource Tapasā – Cultural Competencies Framework for Teachers of Pacific Learners. We explain the purpose of Tapasā, highlight key sections, and offer suggestions on how to use it. You might also like … Supporting Pasifika students This guide from Inclusive Education focuses on inclusive teaching and learning strategies that can be used in the classroom to create a more effective learning environment for all Pasifika learners. Pasifika Education Community This TKI website features resources, research, and stories to help you learn more about effective teaching strategies for Pasifika learners and how to better engage with Pasifika parents and families. Grouping students in mathematics… more than just mixed ability Sue Pine, Accredited Facilitator, shares information, resources, and advice about mixed ability grouping in mathematics. Also on our website …  Raising the bar with flexible grouping In this 2017 blog, Professor Christine Rubie-Davies challenges the practice of grouping students by ability, arguing that it constrains learning. Instead Christine recommends that teachers use flexible forms of grouping to ensure that all students are challenged and engaged. Curriculum support Resources on the curriculum change This Ministry of Education web page has a range of factsheets, posters, reports, and resources on how to teach the Digital Technologies Hangarau Matihiko curriculum content. Coming soon! As the year draws to a close, students across the country are bidding farewell to their classmates, teachers, and in some cases, their schools. End of year trips, fiafia days, leavers’ dinners, final assemblies, and award ceremonies feature on many school calendars this month as schools celebrate students’ journeys through education. Our next spotlight focuses on transitions, an important component of the coherence principle. It will provide questions, resources, tools, practical advice, and stories to help you ensure positive transitions for your students and their families. Subscribe our facebook page to see it first! What’s on? We will be updating the National Events pages for 2019 over the summer break. Let us know if you have events planned in your school that we could share on NZC Online. Engaging in these special weeks provides opportunities to learn about and nurture other languages and cultures, and allows students, whānau, and the wider community to celebrate the cultural diversity of New Zealand. Your feedback helps We would love to hear from you if you have ideas to make the website easier to use, or better for you, or if you have ideas for future blog posts or newsletters. Email us at: nzcurriculum@tki.org.nz

TLA Fall Update: What Are We Thankful For?

Note this newsletter.

Dear Friends, At The Learning Accelerator (TLA), we’re deeply passionate about ensuring that every child has a highly engaging, effective, and equitable education that prepares them to reach their full potential. Our efforts, which focus on connecting practitioners and leaders with the knowledge, tools, and networks they need to transform learning, are simply impossible without those of the amazing educators all across the country working to make student experiences more personalized, mastery-based, and data-informed on a day-to-day basis. So, as we head into this week of Thanksgiving, the TLA team is especially grateful for all the teachers and leaders who have opened their doors – classroom, office, or otherwise – to show what can be possible for kids and families. Thank you. Beth Rabbitt, CEO Recent Highlights Innovation Directors Network TLA launched the Innovation Directors Network (IDN) this June in Denver, CO, bringing together system leaders from around the country who are charged with scaling innovation initiatives across their districts and school management organizations. With participants serving a highly diverse group of over 800,000 students nationwide, the IDN’s goal is to accelerate collective learning through knowledge development, sharing, and evidence-building. Through ongoing virtual and in-person meetings, this network is collaboratively identifying and testing approaches for solving commonly-held problems and sharing that knowledge broadly with the field. Follow us on Twitter @LearningAccel with the hashtag #TLAInnovationDirectors to receive updates on the work. On Giving Tuesday, you can help TLA further the work of our IDN cohort. Visit our fundraiser on Mightycause to donate and support innovation. TLA 2019 Measurement Fellows TLA launched our annual measurement fellowship in 2017 to build the pipeline of relevant and actionable research for blended and personalized learning. We’re excited to announce the Independent Study cohort of our 2019 Measurement Fellowship: Dr. Edward Cremata of Aspire Public Schools, CA will be investigating how blended learning approaches are currently used across Aspire, and how data and systems can be used to capture, share knowledge, and provide appropriate support across the organization. Cecil Short of Brigham Young University, UT will be determining what performance-based tasks and artifacts would present a valid, adequate means of scaffolding and measuring teachers’ blended teaching competence. Dr. Joshua Tabor of Denton Independent School District, TX will be exploring what drove Denton ISD’s version of blended learning, and whether the chosen method of blended learning delivers content to students in an effective manner. ‌ This year, TLA is also offering a Partner Studies fellowship, which will be research on blended learning driven by the needs of a specific school system that has partnered with TLA to collaborate on testing and adaptation of blended practices. We will be accepting applications for Partner Studies until November 30, 2018. Apply here. Learning Commons Playlists The ability to create, save, and share playlists of professional learning content from multiple expert resource providers has proven to be a favorite feature of the Learning Commons. For example, our content partners (and TLA) have been creating playlists based on content shared during sessions at important conferences and convenings. And school districts have been using playlists to model personalized learning and differentiate professional development, creating multiple pathways to allow adult learners to build their skill based on their specific needs and interests. Check out these examples of popular playlists and explore more at the Learning Commons. Personalized Learning Coaching & Development Rubric Strategies for Grouping Students Teaching in a Blended Learning Environment Coming Soon Register for the 2019 Blended & Personalized Learning Conference! On April 4-6, the Highlander Institute and The Learning Accelerator will showcase the best classroom, school, and district implementers from across the nation at our 2019 Blended & Personalized Learning Conference in Providence, RI. This event is a chance for educators and leaders to discuss blended learning as it exists today on the ground – both in terms of day-to-day implementation in blended classrooms, and the strategies and systems that have effectively supported replication and scale across schools and districts. TLA will be hosting an invite-only, full-day workshop on Friday, April 5, designed to bring advanced practitioners and leaders together to share learnings and tackle collective impact challenges. Registration for this day (which includes a few application questions) and the full conference is now open. Join us! Open Educational Resources High-quality open educational resources (OER) hold incredible promise as a tool for equitably improving classroom instruction while freeing up critical financial resources. TLA is in the middle of a six-month project to investigate the current state of OER practice in non-traditional school models. Early next year, we will share strategies emerging from the field for how to implement OER with fidelity at the classroom and system levels, including a series of case studies of real-world strategies and guidance for OER leaders on how to modify current options and/or future products. If you would like to share your insights and strategies with us, we would love to hear from you and welcome you to contact Jennifer Wolfe. The Learning Accelerator | Contact Connect with us!  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌

The Learning Accelerator | 167 Hamilton Avenue, Princeton, NJ 08540

 

Research Methods, Project Management, Learning Sciences, And Data Visualization For IDs

From yesterday’s inbox…

Are you an instructional designer looking to further your learning or do you know a colleague who might? These 4-week workshops highlight topics specifically-geared toward the instructional designer, including research methods, project management, learning sciences, and data visualization. Review the workshop descriptions below to learn more and register. Lori Kupczynski, OLC Institute faculty, recently discussed how research knowledge and experience are important competencies for instructional designers, in both their career and professional development, in this blog post. Focus on: Instructional Designers Project Management for Instructional Designers Jan 28 – Feb 24, 2019 Many instructional designers juggle multiple projects at a time, contributing to key aspects of each project, and often managing more than just one. Join this workshop to develop key competencies in project management by exploring practices, tools, and techniques associated with project management. Applying the Neuro, Cognitive, and Learning Sciences to Instructional Design Feb 25 – Mar 24, 2019 At the conclusion of the course, participants will have redesigned a current or planned course, workshop, or program using the principles of the neuro, cognitive, and learning sciences learned in each week of the course. Storytelling with Data: An Introduction to Data Visualization (NEW) Mar 4 – 31, 2019 In this course, you will explore key aspects of data visualization, and then focus on the theories, concepts, and skills related to communicating data in effective, engaging, and accessible ways. Research Methods for the Instructional Designer Community Apr 22 – May 19, 2019 Upon completion of this course, members of the instructional design community will be able to identify various research designs, apply soundmethodology to research problems, and collaborate in research environments with knowledge of research from the unique perspective and expertise of the instructional designer. SEE FULL SCHEDULE Learn | Attend | Read | Join | Connect | About | Contact | Consult | Support © 2018 The Online Learning Consortium

The Online Learning Consortium | P.O. Box 1238 | Newburyport | MA | 01950

NEPC’s November Education Interview Of The Month Podcast Explores School Privatization And Segregation

An item from the National Education Policy Center from late last week.

NEPC Education Interview of the Month is a great teaching resource; engaging drive-time listening; and 30 minutes of high-quality policy information for educators, community members, policymakers, and anyone interested in education. View this email in your browser Thursday, November 15, 2018 Publication Announcement KEY TAKEAWAY: NEPC Education Interview of the Month is a great teaching resource; engaging drive-time listening; and 30 minutes of high-quality policy information for educators, community members, policymakers, and anyone interested in education. NEPC Publication -> NEPC Resources on Privatization -> CONTACT: William J. Mathis: (802) 383-0058 wmathis@sover.net Noliwe Rooks: (718) 708-4368 nrooks@cornell.edu BOULDER, CO (November 15, 2018) – In this month’s NEPC Education Interview of the Month, Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education Gregory A. Smith and Cornell University professor Noliwe Rooks discuss school privatization, segregation, and the end of public education. Greg and Noliwe, who also chairs the American Studies Program at Cornell, explore issues that have arisen from the range of privatizing reforms prevalent over the last decade, and their impact on our ability to create equitable schools. Dr. Rooks has researched the roots of school privatization going back to the 19th century, when, she points out, there was the same kind of “deep-pocketed interest” from philanthropists that exists today. Dr. Rooks coined the term “segrenomics,” referring to the profit for businesses that offer to educate children in economically and racially segregated communities. She attempts to understand the meaning of a society in which those with access to wealth and power are invested in education reform for “poor black children”…but only with models of education that don’t look like the education their own children get. “We try everything except for the education the wealthy provide for their own kids,” Dr. Rooks says. “This is the education for you, they say, instead of having a sense of what makes a quality education for everyone.” In her work she consistently finds this discrepancy in education quality dependent on the economic status and race of the child. Policymakers must take a long view towards equity, Dr. Rooks believes – no one election or candidate will resolve the issue. She argues that what is needed is a much broader form of organizing beginning at the local level, looking at what each individual school needs, and figuring out how to fill that need. NEPC Education Interview of the Month, hosted by Gregory A. Smith, is released each month from September through May. Don’t worry if you miss a month. All NEPC Education Interview of the Month podcasts are archived on the NEPC website and can be found here. Coming Next Month In December, Greg’s guests will be Dr. Rick Mintrop and Miguel Ordenes of the University of California Berkeley. Greg, Rick, and Miguel will explore the universal implementation of school vouchers and privatization in Chile, and what might happen in the U.S. if similar policies were to become more widespread here. Stay tuned in to NEPC for smart, engaging conversations about education policy. The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu Copyright 2018 National Education Policy Center. All rights reserved.

The National Education Policy Center
School of Education, University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309

How To Make Education Research Relevant To Teachers

So late last week I received the item below from Institute of Education Sciences (IES).  It was interesting, because as soon as it showed up in my inbox I was reminded of something I said in a recent entry where I was responding to a colleague that asked what did I think about the Quality Matters National Standards for Quality Online Teaching (K-12) literature review:

Now that I have had a chance to examine it in a more systematic way, I would add that this document is also a good example of why researchers in the field continue to lament the propensity of poor quality research that is being conducted, which only serve to confused those untrusting practitioners.

So there are two issues at play here.  The first is the one raised by IES – how do we translate empirical research to make it accessible to teachers.  However, when it comes to K-12 online and/or blended learning I believe the second issue is of even greater importance.  How as researchers do we protect teachers from relying on or an over-reliance on bad research like the QM effort I dissected above.

How to Make Education Research Relevant to Teachers
Research shows that good teachers are the most important ingredient that schools can provide to help students succeed. This is especially true for struggling schools. Now here’s something we’re realizing about our current education research: Too few educators feel that the research that the US government supports has a tangible impact on their work in the classroom. That’s something that has to change. To read more, please visit: https://ies.ed.gov/director/remarks/11-14-2018.asp
The Institute of Education Sciences, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, is the nation’s leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation and statistics.
You have received this message because you subscribed to a newsflash service through IES or one of its centers. By visiting Newsflash you may also sign up to receive information from IES and its four Centers NCES, NCER, NCEE, & NCSER to stay abreast of all activities within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). To obtain hard copy of many IES products as well as hard copy and electronic versions of hundreds of other U.S. Department of Education products please visit http://www.edpubs.org or call 1-877-433-7827 (877-4-EDPUBS).