MIT 2020 - Step 3: School Hall Scenario

With my moonshot proposal and 5 WHYs completed, the next part of the design thinking process came unexpectedly!

Matt and Dorothy took us through a role play centred around a fictitious School Hall scenario. Each of the MIT 2020 group were given parent personas  from the local community to act out (e.g a pizza maker, a lawyer, a bach cleaner).  The gathering was led by a senior staff member (Matt) with a representative from ERO (Dorothy) in attendance. Parents were asked to prioritise a series of issues impacting the school. There was a tangible sense of frustration as we progressed from one issue to another. Indeed, comments from 'the floor' got quite heated at times:

               "We need more information! 

                What do you mean my kid can't listen!

                Are you telling me my kid is dumb? 

                It's not my problem? 

                What are the teachers doing to fix this?  

                Why are we only hearing about this now?

The senior staff member (Matt - heroically sticking to character!) pretty quickly came under the pump. Due to circumstances out of 'his control', he could not provide any of the details requested by parents to help clarify each issue and figure out which were the most pressing.

At some point, the penny dropped. It turned out that the 'issues' we were hotly debating were in fact the achievement challenge statements from each MIT member.

GENIUS! 

Having each MITer in character as part of an audience dialled down any potential awkwardness or defensiveness that might have come up had we been asked instead to present our ideas in front a group of relative strangers.The role play was a way for us to hear an upfront critique of our initial musings and prompted each of us to go back and re-examine our initial problem statement.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:- was the issue expressed in concise language? was the issue actually worthy of investigation as a design thinking project?

MIT 2020 - Step 2: The 5 Whys

Step 2: Use THE 5 WHYS methodology to identify the root cause of a challenge/problem

The 5 WHYS in action: Paired up with Tina Takimoana from Ahipara School, I found it humbling to trade WHY questions with her in an effort to unpack the root cause of our respective challenges or problems.

The process was thought provoking because it forced me to unpack and then consolidate my thinking around the challenge I had identified. In our responses to each WHY question, the crux of the problem was slowly revealed and the 'real' challenge we needed to solve started to take shape.

Below is a slideshow (THANK YOU DOROTHY!) that shows the questioning and answering of Tina and I had with each other as we went through the 5 WHY process.

Slide 1: Managing Change: Navigating the transition of students from primary to
secondary school (KIRIWAI)

Slide 2: Accelerating students learning to reach the norm in mathematical understanding (TINA)

MIT 2020 - Step 1: Moonshot Proposal

To kickstart my Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher (MIT) 2020 project, I needed to prepare a moonshot proposal. This is a working document which essentially lays the groundwork for my design thinking project.

Step 1: Identify the challenge impacting achievement that I want to focus on in 2020 through the MIT design thinking process?

As a Year 7 & 8 teacher, one of main areas of concern is around those Year 8 students who leave ill-equipped to adapt and cope with the move to secondary school, and so are at greater risk of dropping out of school before they have the qualifications (NCEA Level 2) that will allow them to build better life outcomes for themselves.

Keeping this in mind, I developed an initial CHALLENGE STATEMENT is shown below:

All ten of the MIT 2020 cohort gathered at Kuaotuna at the end of February and with guidance from Dorothy and Matt, there were plenty of opportunities to re-evaluate our initial statement (more posts to follow!) and craft it into challenge that would be worthy of exploring over the coming year.

Looking back at 2019! Moving forward to 2020!

As week 9 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting back over the last 12 months - it really is hard to believe that my third year as a classroom teacher is almost over! Humps and hollows, sidesteps and missteps aside, there have also been some triumphs. Here are a few of my personal highlights from 2019:

• By year end, all 6 Year 8 students in my target reading group made gains of at least 6 months in their reading ages- one student moved 2 years while two students made a shift of 12 months. It was a very satisfying to know that half the group would enter secondary school with a reading age of 11 years - the benchmark set for the students at the start of the year that would enhance their ability to access the Year 9 curriculum.
  
• Collaborating with team of Pt England staff (made of teachers and office personnel) to prepare and present to a PD session for staff about Tataiako, the Maori learners framework. It was an awesome opportunity to work together and produce practical steps our colleagues could implement based on the framework - the focus being to promote ways to empower those students who identify as Maori
  
• Embracing the opportunity to teach extension students in literacy. This really pushed me outside my comfort zone and required me to adapt to students who could unpack the deeper meaning in variety of texts. The students and I engaged in meaningful discussions across a range of topics. Students seized the change to grapple with a range of themes including stereotypes, race relations, family dynamics and climate crisis.

Now looking forward to the new year, I am excited by the prospect of new challenges including:

• Being part of the Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher (MIT) group for 2020. I am really interested in how we will apply the design thinking process to a rigorous teacher inquiry. I looking forward to meeting, working with and sharing ideas with educators selected from across the Manaiakalani outreach clusters.
  
• Continuing to develop my skills in teaching literacy, particularly writing
  
• Building my skills to teach Te Reo to Year 7 & 8 students

Farewell 2019 - thanks for the memories! Bring on 2020!

Where to from here? Update - Term 4, 2019: Teaching as Inquiry

Satisfying Results: Teaching as Inquiry - Update - End of Term 3, 2019

A Change of Tack - Inquiry Update - Term 3, 2019