TTLA Presentation

Today's TTLA Presentation

Badges and Passports

As well as creating Adventure Island, Room 8 came up with the idea of having badges. This idea came from two boys in my class who go to Scouts. Initially we were only going to use the designs the children came up with for our adventure passports. The idea being that for each stage on the island a group worked through, they would earn a passport stamp for their adventure passport. Then I came across a website called www.zazzle.co.nz where you can have physical badges made.  We decided to call these explorer badges. To start with I ordered six badges, which is enough for one for each group. Why did I bother ordering badges? It shows the children that their ideas are valued, created instant student buy in and after all, learning should be fun. 

The tricky bit was working out how we were going to get the design that was drawn on paper uploaded to the Zazzle website. I ended up using the Art Rage iPad app. You can upload an image, trace over it and then remove it. We did this using the photo of the original island design. This part requires a little bit of teacher help.I plan to order extra badges so that once the children complete their first Adventure Learning project they will be presented with their own explorer badge. The children aren't aware of this, so it will be a surprise.  If you're planning on ordering products from Zazzle keep in mind that they can take up to three weeks to arrive (unless you want to pay the earth for faster shipping). 

As well as the badges, I also had the children's passport stamp designs printed as stickers. That way they can easily be stuck into their passports. 

Passport Cover

Inside Passport 

Adventure Island - A Visual Model, Part 2

Throughout Term 1 my class of year 4 students put together a visual model for Adventure Learning. We decided on an adventure island. The children spent a lot of time coming up with different designs. You can read more about the process we worked through here. By the end of the term we had created the final product. All children are able to explain what each icon represents and as we work through the model for the first time are learning what happens at each stage. What I love about the design is that it was created by kids, for kids. The children refer to themselves as explorers as they work their way around the island. 

Here's a brief overview

Adventure Island 

Explore at Sunshine Cove

Plan under the coconut palms

Discover at Mermaid Lagoon

Create at the rocky volcano 

Share at the island tree house

Take Your Learning Further in the hot air balloon

Here are Room 8's initial designs

Adventure Island Maps - Video Maker

Kids Cafe

For awhile I've been wanting to create an Educamp inspired forum for kids to share, inspire and teach each other. I looked into doing it face to face with another school, via Skype Education or GHO (Google Hangout). However; all three of those options would limit the number of children that could actively participate. What I really wanted to achieve was to find a way where as many classes as interested, could participate and from anywhere in the world. I wanted to break down the barriers of location and time difference. This week I came up with the idea of Kids Cafe. 

Kids Cafe is based on the concept of Educamp, with a few differences. It’s an opportunity for kids to teach other kids about a passion, interest or talent. This could be anything from a maths strategy to Te Reo, how to care for turtles, how to use iMovie, how to kick a rugby ball over the goal post or how Daily 5 is used in your classroom. The aim is to create a mini tutorial to teach other kids about your passion, interest or talent. How you do this is up to you. You could create a YouTube clip, use Puppet Pals, digital storytelling, Educreations, create an ebook etc. The only catch is that it must be able to be accessed online. This is also a next step for my Adventure Learning programme, which is based on Google's 20% Time.

Kids Cafe runs on a four week cycle. Here is an outline:

Week 1 - At the start of the week sign your class up. Then add to the Google Doc, by recording what you could teach someone else or what you’d like to learn more about. You can do this by completing the kids registration form at the bottom of this doc. The Kids Cafe topics will also be announced on the Kids Cafe blog and via @KidsCafeNZ on Twitter.

Week 2 and Week 3 - These two weeks are set aside for presenters to create their tutorial, as well as for classes to plan how they are going to organise how they will run Kids Cafe in their own class. By Friday at 3pm all tutorials will be linked to the Kids Cafe Thinglink. Instructions on how to link your tutorial will be able to be found on the Kids Cafe blog -

Week 4 - Run your own Kids Cafe in your classroom sometime during the week. Click here for an example of how you could do this in your class. On the Friday join in the @KidsCafeNZ Twitter chat to reflect on your learning, share photos of Kids Cafe in your class and to provide the presenters with feedback, as well as to discuss topic ideas for the next Kids Cafe.

To register your class for Kids Cafe visit the doc. Scroll right down to the bottom. Remember any class, anywhere in the world can join in. http://goo.gl/R3dLL1

To visit the Kids Cafe blog click here http://kidscafenz.blogspot.co.nz/


This is only a seed I've started to plant so am open to ideas and further suggestions for improvement. 

Intrinsic Motivation

This morning I watched Dan Pink's TED Talk 'The Puzzle of Motivation'. He speaks about how there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. 

Bonuses, extrinsic rewards etc work well for tasks with a simple set of instructions. They don't work as well for creative problems, as they have been proven to actually narrow people's focus. In Western Europe, North America, Australia and many parts of Asia white collar workers are needing to not only do left brain, routine, rule based work, but are now also required to have more right brain, creative, conceptual abilities. There's the competition of low cost providers around the world being able to do a job cheaper, as well as software being able to do a lot of things faster or at a lower price. 

So how are people going to be motivated without extrinsic rewards? Dan Pink suggests three elements of intrinsic motivation:

1. Autonomy - the urge to direct our own lives. 

2. Mastery - the desire to get better and better at something that matters. 

3. Purpose - the yearning to do what we do to service something larger than ourselves. 

He then goes on to talk about FedEx days, 20 % percent time and ROWE (Results Only Work Environment). It was the first time I'd heard of ROWE. Basically people don't have schedules. They show up to work when they want and don't have to be in the office if they don't want to. They just have to get their work done. How they do it and when they do it is up to them. Research shows that when these three elements of intrinsic motivation are applied in the work place productivity goes up, worker engagement and satisfaction increase. 

If this is correct and this is how things are moving, then how are we preparing our students for their future? When I started watching the TED Talk I had no idea that he was going to talk about FedEx days or 20 % percent time. For me, this just confirmed that what I'm trying to achieve with Adventure Learning is a positive step towards preparing students for when they leave school.

I then became curious about how ROWE could be applied to education. I soon started to come across blogs around ROLE (Results Only Learning Environment). There were teachers that had done away with grades, homework, national testing, set times of the day, attending classes etc. Although not completely realistic in the current NZ education setting, I couldn't help but think that aspects of ROWE or ROLE could still be applied to my classroom. 

Last year I started exploring Independent Learning Plans (ILP) or Personalised Learning Plans (PLP). See my post here http://goo.gl/tigp3H. I now work in a much more traditional style school than I did last year, but am keen to have another go at ILP. ILP provide students with autonomy, mastery and purpose. It lifted student engagement, provided more opportunities for students to teach each other and encouraged them to take responsibility for their learning. This resulted in my students becoming independent learners. 

Here is the TED Talk by Dan Pink 

Tip of the Ice Berg

This also relates well to when others see children's adventure learning sharing items or when people see that a child is 'just' doing skateboarding or baking cupcakes. What you see is only the tip of the ice berg. They don't realise that the group of boys learning about skateboarding are all engaged in something that they're passionate about, that their attendance has improved, that for the first time they're working effectively in a team, learning to compromise and share ideas. They don't see all the planning, practises, time and effort that went into that YouTube video. They look past the fact that for one of those boys it's the first time he's really felt like he's good at something at school, because literacy and maths aren't his strengths. That he feels valued by others in the class, which in turn lifts his self-esteem and gives him the confidence to teach others how to skate, as well as to take risks in other areas of his learning. So next time someone asks why you've let a group of kids do cooking, art or sport for Adventure Learning ask them to look beyond the tip of the ice berg.

Learning How to Use Minecraft

Last year I carried out my own Adventure Learning project, where I built a 

chicken house as well as learnt about keeping chickens. Some people will ask

why I bothered to do this. Here are the reasons I personally chose to do it:

1. It put me in the shoes of one of my learners and took me out of my comfort zone. 

2. It enabled the children in my class to see me as a learner too. 

3. It allowed me to learn something new and forced me to make the time needed to do this. 

4. It also provided me with an opportunity to reflect on what I'm asking my students to do during Adventure Learning time and the process they're expected to work through. 

This time I've decided to learn about how to use Minecraft in the classroom. 

Below are the planning questions that are on the planning proposal that each

group in my class has to complete. I decided that it was only fair that I

answer the same questions. 

What do you plan to do and why?

For some time now I've been inspired by how other teachers are using

Minecraft in their classrooms. A couple of my students, who already knew how

to use Minecraft used it in our class last year. We'd been learning about

minibeasts and for their sharing item they created a beehive in Minecraft.

It was detailed and well thought through. One child was a very capable

student, who often became bored if he wasn't challenged and 'hooked in'. The

other child was amazing at hands on activities, but found writing and reading

challenging. Straight away I could see the potential that Minecraft could have

in the classroom. 

The problem was that I had very little knowledge about how to use it mysef or

how it could be effectively used in our classroom. We've just got five iPads for

our classroom so I've decided that now will be a good time to learn a bit more

about it. 

What do you already know about this topic?

* That you can purchase the full pocket edition of Minecraft for iPads.

* It engages students in their learning. 

* It's recommended that you use creative mode, not survival mode in the classroom. 

* Minecraft has huge potential for use in the classroom. I'm just not exactly sure what that is yet. 

* There's a lot of teachers using it in classrooms already. 

What are your 'I wonder' questions?

* How do I physically use the iPad app? How do I get started with building something? 

* How are other teachers using Minecraft in the classroom?

* How can I effectively use Minecraft in the classroom to engage students in their learning. 

I'm sure there will be a lot more questions as I work through this! These are 

just my initial questions. 

What research are you going to do? What will you spend your Adventure

Learning time doing?

* I'm going to connect with other teachers through my PLN to see how they're using it in their classrooms. 

* I will read blog posts about Minecraft in the classroom. 

* I have a much younger brother who is into Minecraft, who might be able to teach me a few tricks. 

* I know there a few kids in my class who I'm sure would love to show me what they already know about using Minecraft. Lunch with the teacher and Minecraft lessons, from the kids might be a go next week.

* Connecting with other teachers and reading what is on the VLN. I think there's a Minecraft group I may be able to join, or something similar. 

* Explore! There's nothing like just getting in and having a go. I think that's when the questions will start to arise. 

What resources will you need? What will you need help with?

* The Pocket Edition Minecraft iPad app. 
* Access to the VLN group, access to Twitter etc. 
* I will need help with learning how to use the app. 
* I will also need help with finding ideas around how to effectively use Minecraft in the classroom.