Words from Germany

This is a post sent from Germany where five members of the ELP team are working with teachers in 9 German cities and one city in Switzerland. This is a press release from the University of Koblenz, which has been translated via Google translates into English. We are experiencing a tremendous amount of interest in Learning Stories. Many of the teachers have been on this journey with us over several years. We are meeting new teachers and also connecting with many we have worked with in earlier times.

Neuseeländische Erziehungswissenschaftlerin Wendy Lee begeisterte mit ihrem Vortrag über Lerngeschichten

Mit einem enthusiastischen und inspirierenden Vortrag über die „Philosophie der Learning Stories“ zog Wendy Lee, Direktorin des neuseeländischen „Educational Leadership Project“, die Zuhörerinnen und Zuhörer an der Hochschule Koblenz in ihren Bann. Rund 300 Personen waren der Einladung des Fachbereichs Sozialwissenschaften und des Instituts für Bildung, Erziehung und Betreuung in der Kindheit|Rheinlad-Pfalz (IBEB) gefolgt, um an diesem Abend von Neuseeland lernen zu können.

Der Präsident der Hochschule, Prof. Dr. Kristian Bosselmann-Cyran, begrüßte die international renommierte Referentin, die gemeinsam mit vier weiteren Mitarbeiterinnen des „Educational Leadership Project“ angereist war, um am Folgetag gemeinsam mit Studierenden der Hochschule in fünf Workshops arbeiten zu können. „Lerngeschichten sind ein ganz zentrales Element der Qualitätsentwicklung und Evaluation“, betonte Prof. Dr. Armin Schneider, Direktor des IBEB und Prodekan des Fachbereichs Sozialwissenschaften, in seinem Grußwort, „es ist wichtig, dass wir wesentliche Merkmale der Lerngeschichten wie Haltung, Diskurs, Familien- und Sozialraumorientierung in eigenen Ansätzen der Qualitätsentwicklung aufgreifen und weiter denken.“

Wie bedeutsam eine respektvolle, ressourcenorientierte und auf Austausch fokussierte Haltung für den Erfolg von Lerngeschichten ist, stellte Wendy Lee in ihrem Vortrag eindrücklich dar. Zahlreiche Foto- und Videoaufnahmen zeigten anschaulich, wie sehr Kinder und ihre Familien davon profitieren, wenn häufig und vor allem auf wertschätzende Art und Weise Geschichten über besondere Momente und wichtige Lernerlebnisse von Kindern aufgeschrieben werden. Für Kinder und Eltern ist es ein besonderer Gewinn, diese Geschichten immer wieder anschauen und lesen zu können. Durch die Dokumentation von Lerngeschichten erfahren Kinder und Eltern eine hohe Wertschätzung und sie können gemeinsam mit den Fachkräften über das Lernen von Kindern sprechen. Dass es hierfür hilfreich sein kann, die Familien der Kinder auch zuhause zu besuchen, wurde von Wendy Lee besonders betont. Notwendig sei es, die kulturelle Vielfalt von Familien zu berücksichtigen und die Teilhabe von Familien zu gewährleisten. Hierfür braucht es in den Augen der neuseeländischen Referentin nicht nur die Öffnung der Kindertageseinrichtungen, sondern durchaus auch neue Wege der Kommunikation mit Familien. Manchmal könne es hilfreich sein, bedeutsame Lernerlebnisse der Kinder telefonisch oder sogar per Email zu übermitteln. „Das Schreiben von Lerngeschichten ist eine besondere Verantwortung, um Kinder und deren Familien mit offenem Herzen und Verstand zu begleiten, um neugierig und engagiert als Gemeinschaft von Lernenden zu wachsen und schließlich auch, um die eigene Professionalität beständig weiter entwickeln zu können“, so Wendy Lee.

Dass es in deutschen Kindertageseinrichtungen jedoch gar nicht so leicht ist, regelmäßig Lerngeschichten von Kindern zu dokumentieren, die auch die Lernschritte eines Kindes transparent machen, zeigte die rege Diskussion am Ende des Vortrags. Pädagogische Fachkräfte kämpfen hierzulande mit unzureichenden strukturellen Rahmenbedingungen, die es fast unmöglich machen, mehr als eine Lerngeschichte im Jahr zu verfassen. „Hier muss einfach investiert werden“, so Prof. Dr. Schneider. Dem stimmte Prof. Dr. Regina Remsperger-Kehm zu, die selbst Mitarbeiterin im Projekt „Bildungs- und Lerngeschichten“ des Deutschen Jugendinstituts war und die als Professorin des Fachbereichs Sozialwissenschaften die Vortragsveranstaltung geplant und konzipiert hat: „Wenn wir es ermöglichen wollen, dass Kinder ihren Interessen vertieft nachgehen können und wenn wir für Kinder eine Lernumgebung schaffen wollen, in der sich Kinder wohlfühlen und sich voll Vertrauen auf das einlassen können, was sie interessiert, dann müssen wir auch für pädagogische Fachkräfte Rahmenbedingungen schaffen, in denen sie die Lernprozesse von Kindern achtsam begleiten können“. Im Gespräch zu bleiben und den Dialog mit Fachkräften, Eltern, Kindern und Verantwortlichen aus Politik und Wissenschaft fortführen, um von Neuseeland lernen zu können, lautet der deutliche Appell der Wissenschaftlerin.

New Zealand educationalist Wendy Lee enthused with her talk about learning stories

09/18/2018

RheinMoselCampus Koblenz TOP University of Social Sciences

Wendy Lee, director of the New Zealand Educational Leadership Project, cast a spell over the audience at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences with an enthusiastic and inspiring presentation on the "Philosophy of Learning Stories". Around 300 people accepted the invitation from the Department of Social Sciences and the Institute for Education, Childhood Care and Support | Rheinlad-Pfalz (IBEB) to learn about New Zealand that evening.

The President of the University, Prof. dr. Kristian Bosselmann-Cyran, welcomed the internationally renowned speaker, who had traveled with four other employees of the "Educational Leadership Project", in order to work together with students of the university in five workshops the following day. "Learning stories are a very central element of quality development and evaluation," emphasized Prof. Dr. med. Armin Schneider, Director of the IBEB and Vice Dean of the Department of Social Sciences, in his welcome address, "it is important that we take up and continue to think essential characteristics of the learning stories such as attitude, discourse, family and social space orientation in our own approaches to quality development."

How significant a respectful, resource-oriented and exchange-focused attitude is for the success of learning stories was impressively demonstrated by Wendy Lee in her presentation. Numerous photo and video recordings clearly showed how much children and their families benefit from it, if and often Appreciative way stories are written down about special moments and important child learning experiences. For children and parents it is a special benefit to be able to watch and read these stories over and over again. By documenting learning stories, children and parents are highly valued and they can talk to the professionals about learning to be a child. That it can be helpful to visit the families of the children at home was emphasized by Wendy Lee. It is necessary to consider the cultural diversity of families and to ensure the participation of families. In the eyes of the New Zealand representative, this not only requires the opening up of day-care centers, but also new ways of communicating with families. Sometimes it can be helpful to convey meaningful children's learning experiences by phone or even email. "Writing learning stories is a special responsibility to accompany children and their families with open hearts and minds, to grow inquisitively and committedly as a community of learners, and ultimately to continue to develop their own professionalism," said Wendy Lee.

However, the fact that it is not so easy in German daycare facilities to regularly document learning stories of children, which also make the learning steps of a child transparent, was shown by the lively discussion at the end of the lecture. Educational specialists are struggling in this country with insufficient structural conditions that make it almost impossible to write more than one learning story a year. "It simply has to be invested here", says Prof. Dr. med. Cutter. Prof. Dr. Regina Remsperger-Kehm, who was herself a member of the project "Bildungs- und Lerngeschichten" of the German Youth Institute and who, as a professor of the Department of Social Sciences, planned and planned the lecture: "If we want to enable children to pursue their interests in depth and if we want to create a learning environment for children in which children can feel at home and confidently embrace what they are interested in, then we also have to create framework conditions for educational professionals in which they can mindfully accompany children's learning processes ". To stay in the conversation and continue the dialogue with professionals, parents, children and political and scientific leaders to learn from New Zealand, is the clear appeal of the scientist.

LEARNING STORIES IN THE USA!

Margaret Carr, Annie White and Wendy Lee

How wonderful it has been to have Annie White with us over the last few days. Annie is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Studies, at California State University, Channel Islands.  It has also been a pleasure to host her husband Jim as well. Annie is passionate about ‘Learning Stories’ and has participated in three Study Tours in New Zealand with Margie Carter, which was hosted by NZ Inspire early childhood educators in Auckland. During her stay, she has been interviewing teachers, leaders, academics etc about the use of Learning Stories in New Zealand.

In California, all State funded programmes are required to use a children's assessment tool referred to as the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP).  This tool was developed by University of California, Berkeley and WestED, research institute.  This is a very challenging tool to use and has the potential to stop any teacher in their tracks with the density of the observation requirements.  Finding a pathway to meet these requirements and keep teachers connected to children’s learning lives has been a huge challenge for Annie. When Annie came to NZ, and listened to our voices and witnessed the practice, she knew that there had to be another way that Head Start and California could approach children's assessments.

After learning about the practice and philosophy of Learning Stories she returned home from NZ with a deep passion and a tenacious drive to incorporate learning stories in the Head Start programme, where she has worked with for the past 18 years. They have now been using Learning Stories for the past four years. 

This led her to her dissertation study, "Engaging Families in School Readiness: Creating New Pathways for Dialogue".  She used Learning Stories as the basis for her research to investigate teacher and parent collaboration and family engagement.  Annie also worked with Early Head Start program (birth to three years of age) to use Learning Stories (they called them "Journey of Discoveries") in collaboration with parents/families.  Her research was a qualitative case study through the University of California, Davis and Sonoma State University.  Her findings have been well received and she has presented at the California Department of Education, Early Education Support Division, to demonstrate how learning stories can be used in conjunction with the DRDP tool.  Recently, she has presented locally, Statewide and Nationally on her research.  There is an incredible interest in Learning Stories.  Annie recently received a Simms/Mann Fellowship and will be conducting a year-long project using Learning Stories with two homeless shelters that have child care centres.  Annie’s University students will also be supporting the teachers in the homeless centres, as peer mentors, to support parent to complete Learning Stories.

Annie was recently hired by California State University, Channel Islands to support their existing work using Learning Stories in the early childhood study courses.  Learning Stories have been used as part of the curriculum and assessment courses for several years.  Teachers who are placed in classrooms for student teaching, use Learning Stories for children's assessments, to assess the centres, and for their own assessment for learning. 

Annie continues to teach, explore and research Learning Stories as she searches for meaningful and authentic ways to assess children’s learning.

On Celebrating Learning Stories - Conference Oct2015

The Learning Story Conference has been a stalwart of the Educational Leadership Project since the year 2000. Each year teachers come together from throughout New Zealand and share stories. What is refreshing about this, is that every story is different. And thus, every Learning Story Conference offers new insights, fresh ideas, and stimulating pedagogical discussion.

2015 was no exception. As Wendy Lee enthused, it is, as usual, encouraging and inspiring to see teachers face their fears, and stand up and share their stories, philosophies, successes and challenges with fellow colleagues. At times we saw the nerves, presenters shared their anxieties, as new and experience presenters began their presentations. But what excitement! as these leaders, reached deep, expressed their passions, relaxed and became animated as they began to enjoy the conversations that evolved from their personal and professional shared experiences.

At the end of an incredible conference, Wendy Lee thanked presenters, and encouraged new presenters by quoting “You have to be brave so that others can be brave”. And that is certainly what I witnessed throughout the day.

The Learning Stories shared worked together to clearly represent and encourage learner identity. These are treasured stories that children claim as their own, interacting with their portfolio, and passionately sharing their learning with friends and family. Examples were shared about learning Stories and portfolios connecting children with events through time, and with whanau - clinging onto their books with a deep sense of belonging.

Margaret Carr brought us back to the essence of the story. When Margaret first researched narrative stories, it was just the beginning of what has become a rich assessment process, not only documenting children’s learning, but developing learner identity and influencing children’s long term image of themselves as competent and confident learners. Margaret reminded us of the element of uncertainty - about what came before and the direction the learning will take - between stories. We were encouraged to continue to embrace the value, and grow the continuity, of learning stories, to celebrate the connections between time, places and relationships.

Wendy Lee explored the development of e-portfolios and challenged us to remain true to the purpose of the learning stories’ socio-cultural perspective, and to remain true to our professionalism. The use of technology within ECE has always been a contentious one, however e-portfolios offer valuable connections. We need to be mindful not to become teach-technicians using quick and easy tech tools, which can distract us from digging deep and expressing what we know. We were encouraged in all manner of learning stories, to reflect and be mindful about how we weave our professional knowledge of assessment, using Te Whāriki into children’s stories of learning, in a way that is relevant and powerful. There is value in both the e-portfolio, and the paper portfolio, and we hugely beneficial to have both!!

I can’t wait for the next Learning Story Conference, and to hear about the tamariki and teachers’ courageous stories of learning.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

I had the privilege of listening to Melissa Osmond, from Greerton Early Childhood Centre in Tauranga, speak at the Learning Story Conference in Hamilton recently.  Melissa had shared how Learning Stories were an amazing vehicle for sharing learning in a multitude of ways.  

I was particularly taken by the analogy Melissa used of a pie and Learning Stories.  She spoke of how each piece of pie needs to be individually robust, no crumbling crust, lack of flavour or runny filling, for the pie to be successful.  The same can be said of a child's portfolio, the Learning Stories contained within must also be robust, with no spelling or grammatical errors, lack of analysis of learning or depth.  

Melissa's message was about the importance of producing quality documentation, one that identifies a teacher's ever growing understanding of teaching and learning and that shows planning, evaluation and continuity.  

Have you thought about encouraging your colleagues to edit one another's Learning Stories while in draft? This process not only creates opportunities for feedback but professional discussions, where teachers can contribute their ideas and thoughts and it's a wonderful way to not only ensure that the documentation is robust but also has depth. 

We need to ensure that each piece of documentation filed within a child's portfolio can not only stand on its own, as a fabulous piece of assessment, but also contributes to building up the picture of the child as a whole.  As teaching teams we need to take time to reflect on the portfolios of our tamariki. Is what's contained inside a reflection of them?  Does it show who their friends are?  Does it contain Learning Stories that celebrate what the child knows a lot about?  Does it show how teachers have fostered the child's strengths and interests?  Does it include their whānau?  Food for thought!  

Meri Kirihimete

He toa taumata rau

To follow is a learning story I wrote about my moko, Taylor.  I wanted to share this as it is a Nanna's prerogative to feel a sense of pride, whakahi, when they see dispositional learning happening for their grandchildren that will have positive outcomes right throughout life.  What better way to celebrate the learning than by writing a learning story about our adventure around Mauao and the way Taylor embodied the  disposition of persevering.
As teachers when we are sending these positive messages to children about their learning the implications are far reaching.  What a wonderful privilege to be able to build into children's lives strong messages about them being capable and confident life long learners.

He toa taumata rau.

We all went for a walk around Mauao recently - you, Fletcher, Uncle Jordan and myself.  As we started our journey of adventure you were keen to try the tracks that Uncle Jordan and Fletcher were taking.  These tracks were not the main walking tracks they were narrow little tracks above the main path.  

You ventured along the first path a short distance then decided that you were not confident enough to go any further and asked me a assist you down.  Fletcher and Uncle Jordan continued to take the higher more risky road.  Every now and then you would give that road another try, traveling along it as far as you were confident, setting your own limitation you knew when it was time to get down.

The wonderful thing about going around Mauao is that there are places that can grab our imaginations. A walk around the base of The Mount can become a time of great adventure and creativity as we found out on this day.  We had taken a pathway that lead down to a beach and you, Fletcher and Uncle Jordan stopped to create a wonderful piece of art work out of drift wood.  This was truly a team effort that required everyone pitching in and doing their bit. 

Once completed we sat back and took photos.  We could here the wow’s and  the“oooh look at that” from the people 

passing by.  Our mission was complete, our structure built and now it was time to keep moving.

 Back on the track you decided once again to follow the steps of Fletcher and Uncle Jordan.  They ran along quite swiftly and managed the trickiness and the height of the path with ease.  You however, could not keep up, but.........and it is a big BUT, you were staying on that tricky path.  Even when the path grew narrow and high you stayed there and you stayed there and you stayed there.  Amazing Taylor you conquered your fear one little step at a time.  

Finally the track became quite high and even the bravest of the brave, Uncle Jordan, had trouble getting down off the dizzying  heights.  However, seeing Uncle Jordan struggle to manage on a very slippery slope did not put you off you still wanted to keep going.  It was at this point I asked that you come down which you most reluctantly did.  It was not because of the height, not because of the slipperiness, not because I was worried about you,  but what would normally take an hour to walk around the base of The Mount had already taken us two hours and were only half way there.

Taylor, bravery has many resting places, He toa taumata rau,  is my favourite - whakatauki -  proverb.  I know that you are brave because you kept going with something even when it was scary.  Brave sits well on you Taylor.

What did I learn about Taylor today?

I realised that Taylor sets his own limits as to what he can and cannot accomplish.  But I also learnt is that Taylor will continue to try at tasks that seem too hard, too scary and too tricky until he has mastered them. This ability to persevere  with difficult will see you rise to challenges in the future Taylor.

Taylor you come from a long line of brave people.  Relations that saw big mountains in front of them but still tried to climb them.

Lynn Rupe (Kaiako, Nanna, Kuia)

April 2012

Navigating the bigger narrative of planning around Learning Stories

I spoke recently at an ELP lecture series on ‘Nurturing spaces, thinking places: How do these link in practice?‘  One team wrote to me afterwards with some fabulously thoughtful reflections, asking for some ideas about how they might re-think their current ways of planning.  The most useful process I think is to channel this kind of energy into a self review inquiry. As we draw near to the ELP Learning Story Conference, thinking about this now, without identifying the team and with their permission, the process I outlined to them, might well be useful for others. So, I thought I’d blog my response.  Teaching teams will have questions they wish to pursue and sometimes this might seem daunting. However using much of what you already have on hand will lessen your workload. It is the organisation of this material that is critical. It must be accessible and having a title: like a book, with chapter headings, that break the inquiry into manageable, relevant portions so subsequently the data can be accessed logically, easily, is a format that is simple and effective. 

The team asked me first if I remembered them! This is what I wrote:

“Yes I totally remember you and yes you were loud and laughing and I took that to be a sign of a team very comfortable and happy with each other which I thought was fabulous!!!”
What a wonderful email! The question you ask is a perfect self review question:

“One question we have been reflecting on is how authentic and relevant our own programming is for the children we care for? We wondered whether we were trying to plan too far ahead for an age group that has constant changing interest”. 

My thoughts would be:
Set that as a research question (this becomes the title of the self review)
Then put in a number of chapter headings:
1: What is  our practice so far? 
Put in some examples of your current planning, any wall documentation photos of this and any reflections teachers are prepared to write. Maybe you have discussed this at a team meeting and have some minutes from those. This becomes your base line data.

In this way you are using your documentation for a range of purposes and reducing additional work as much as possible.

2. What would happen if we stopped formal planning for the next month and everyone committed to writing learning stories?

Collect examples from each teacher. At your staff meetings read these out to each other and see what happens in your discussion. On the back of these stories write the comments from your teachers. My guess is that you will all have wonderful moments of thoughtful comment to add to the analysis the teacher has already written. Add this email letter to this chapter as well, as this is evidence of professional conversation wider than your centre. Add the evaluation forms from the workshop you all came to that night we met - more evidence of reflection without adding additional work. I think these kind of reflections are easier to write as they are immediately after some experience and the thoughts often just flow. There is often a lot of collective chat and excitement that leads to change.

3.How are we tracing children's progress through our learning stories?

In this chapter put the learning stories that have links, continuity is the key to tracking children’s learning progress.. Start writing in your stories: When I read through your learning story folder I saw a story written for you from Karen and as I watched you today I can see how much you have practiced this .......

I saw you on Monday working hard to pull yourself up against the table and all that practice has paid off for look at you now!.....

4. How are we supporting children to grow their learning further?  (the third part of learning stories  - the what next, this is the individualised planning for children)

Put learning stories in this section that have thoughtful ideas about planning.  Sometimes this will be acknowledging that the children are the planners and it will include how you are setting up a vibrant environment, full of discovery opportunities. Eg: We watched how you used the planks to balance and thought we would add some tree trunk rounds to offer some more challenge. I will be really interested to see what you choose to do. (someone else might write a story about what happens from introducing this kind of provocation. We need multiple perspectives to make Learning Story narrative assessments, valid).  When you stop taking up your time with old style planning formats and put the additional time you save into learning story writing, you have more stories to share with families and use for individual planning.

5.How have our families responded to these more connected stories?

Put any comments from families into this chapter including the comments you write into your learning stories after conversations with them.

6. What changes have we seen in our children's abilities to be planners of their own learning?
7. How is our team more in tune with children's interests?

I hope you can see how this systematically builds a strong picture of committed teachers, thoughtfully responding to children's learning. My guess is that in the past when you spent time planning together, that most of what you thought you would do, never happened and so much else happened that you have no record of. I think it is a fallacy that teachers carry, from a very old way of working, that 'planning' has to be done formally. It is much more responsive when it happens in the moment. Carry this planning voice on your shoulder " how can I make this learning more complex in this next moment?'  'What resources can I add to deepen the children's experiences?' Then write Learning Stories to document the process.

Planning for individual children happens in your learning stories and most importantly in the conversations you have with each other. Essentially the framework underpinning your view of your children and your community of learners is what will drive your practice.  Start with the Principles of Te Whāriki, then move to practice, otherwise teachers become task driven and real learning becomes squeezed, fragmented between rosters and routines (nasty words by the way, switch these for rhythms and rituals. These words revolutionise practice). If you truly think children are competent and capable, make your programme more flexible, more child decision friendly, more doors open.

So when ERO asks you, management etc. “What planning do you do for individual children?” show them the children's fabulous folders and the self review folder documenting your thinking journey. The Self Review that I have described is indicative of all that individual planning. After the month you will have stories to look through with a view to thinking about any strong patterns emerging. This could be the focus for a “Story of Interest’. This becomes an exemplar of planning in your community - group planning. This is done in retrospect as you see ‘threads of inquiry’ emerging from children’s interests. It might be about a traditional curriculum area or a disposition. And once again you set up the  Group planning story folder just like you did for the Self Review question and follow the same format.    You might ask yourself: How do we support curiosity to flourish?  What do literacies look like for our babies?

Over the months ahead you keep adding your stories with handwritten reflections from the sharing you do together at your meetings or supporting each other editing your stories. These become very relevant for your Teachers Registration/staff appraisal folders. I hope you can now see that writing more reflectively and sharing these lessens your work load as these thoughtful learning stories become very useful for a range of purposes. 

Hope this helps.
Have a fabulous time talking to each other and experimenting with ways that will work for you. What I hope most of all that this makes good sense, lessening irrelevant work and focussing on the work that really makes a difference for children and families.  

Learning Stories: Are these powerfully reflecting the learning culture of your setting?

Learning Stories are teachers  individualised planning for children. Teachers  write the narrative (story) followed by an analysis and then think how to grow this learning further (planning). These three parts are what Margaret Carr considers narrative assessment and individualised planning. Their intention is to make a positive difference to nurture learning opportunities for children. This is why Learning Stories, to be effective, must be current (written as close to the context of learning as possible), shared in the team (so that every teacher can support this learning) and written with the three headings visible to make certain that learning is in the front frame. Over time, it seems that in many places, these headings have been absorbed into the body of the story. I know from my conversations with ELP facilitators that we think this is a concerning trend. While teachers might see the noticing (story), the recognising (analysis) and the responding (planning), it is not so obvious for families or children. There is a tendency too for teachers to stay in the descriptive phase, without a clear analysis when the three parts to a Learning Story are combined. This is not ‘planning’ for an individual child. Learning must be in the front frame, otherwise it is simply an interesting story. The three part format essentially gives teachers an opportunity to discuss the valued learning and support families to see this too. Otherwise we have missed a clear opportunity to support families to be their child’s long term advocate. We will have potentially missed the chance too of building a partnership where conversations about the learning interests of the child freely move between setting and home.

Planning for individual children/tracking their progress

There must be equity for each child where teachers consistently write to make sure no one is missed. It seems to me that this has nothing to do with accountability but everything to do with professional responsibility. This is meaningful planning. When we think of planning like this, it is only natural to want to share this across our team. Reading these to each other at team meetings invigorates these meetings with purpose and positive energy. The thoughtful analysis that each teacher writes is the kind of reflection, when shared at team meetings and other informal moments, gets translated into practice. This means we are continuing to build shared understandings of what ‘wise practice’ looks like and improve not only our writing abilities but our sensitivity to respond in meaningful ways. Everyone grows as a result. 

Teachers often make decisions in the moment as happened when a whole lot of cherry tree branches were dropped off to the centre and everyone helped to construct a teepee. No amount of staff room planning could have predicted this opportunity arriving on a door step.

Practical ways to ensure teachers’ professional growth

The time we spend thinking and writing about our children’s learning is valuable time indeed. Non contact (teacher research time, let’s call  this time for what it is because we get what we focus on) means one teacher receives some quality time (Supportive employers schedule this time fairly and do not expect teachers to write these at home) to reflect on a child’s learning in the context of that learning. That teacher also considers how this learning might be extended. This is planning in action. A draft copy is printed and a team member edits this. It is most profitably an opportunity to have feedback, is evidence of collegial, professional conversation and so very useful for a range of purposes. These draft copies are kept for Teacher Registration criteria/staff appraisal and self review folders. Nothing is wasted and instead of, often tedious reflections on practice, away from the context of a child’s learning, the annotated Learning Stories are incredibly valuable. This is what we call working ‘smarter, not harder’. There is no need to write additional material to make teachers’ practice visible when thoughtful Learning Stories are shared and documented in this way. Try this and see the stress evaporate and the wasted time disappear! Management expectations for additional reflective work that sits in a cupboard, for the most part, are often too high. Using the Learning Stories you write every day are much more powerfully situated to change teachers’ practice and improve outcomes for children. Teams who work like this have synergy, purpose and shared understanding and it shows in the culture of learning and teaching that happens in their setting.

Group Planning/ Community Stories of Interest 

As teachers see links across children’s stories, through the interests and dispositions they write about, teachers move individual planning into community planning (planning stories/stories of interest). When we see all of these areas as a connected whole, we are truly working as a team of teachers and learners inside a community that values everyone’s efforts to stretch their abilities; children and teachers. These threads of interest may be about traditional curriculum areas like literacies and they may be about dispositions like leadership and curiosity. Most essentially these track an exemplar of the kind of learning that happens in an ongoing way in that setting. They are a ‘slice of the pie’ as it were. Margaret Carr has said there are around 900 planning moments each day. It is impossible to record each of these and why would we want to? Using teachers’ thoughtful learning stories to record learning interests, knowledge, skills and dispositions however, give real insight into the learning community. Compare this with a more traditional planning sheet where teachers ahead of time plan a series of activities. Half of this never happens and the exciting things that do occur, as responsive teachers engage with children, rarely is added to these sheets. This is time wasting for some imagined accountability expectation based in the 19th century!

The primary effort is to advance opportunities for children’s learning, draw families into teachers’ thoughtful reflections and give children a chance to revisit their learning. It tracks the continuity of learning and makes the depth and width of this learning visible. This means we are continually improving learning opportunities for children as many people inside the community of learners know where children’s interests lie and can support these in a wide range of conversations, resources and experiences. This shared understanding takes time to gel together and most of all it relies on everyone moving together so that we all keep improving.  The progress in teams who work this way is phenomenal. Overtime these teams consolidate this learning, enjoy each other’s perspectives and help each other through their feedback. The evidence is most particularly in the vibrancy of the learning culture. 

‘Through the Looking Glass … a Lens on Quality Preschools’

It was lovely to be invited by the Early Childhood Unit for the NSW Department of Education and Communities to present a keynote and also facilitate a workshop at the conference. This conference was titled ‘Through the Looking Glass … a Lens on Quality Preschools’.

 The second day saw a range of workshops facilitated by the following people and a few others.....

My keynote was entitled Sustainable Leadership: A time to reflect, re-imagine and to reconstruct’ and the workshop was titled ‘Pedagogical Leadership: A powerful opportunity to build learner identity via ‘learning story philosophy’.

 

The work was enthusiastically received, some of the comments sent from the organizers following the conference included the following:  

“Participants all agreed that your presentations met the highest possible rating and their comments supported these ratings. I have added a small sample of these for you as follows:

It is so good to be reminded of the importance of positive interactions.

Find the magic... I loved that. I am making it my new philosophy/goal.

This presentation was so thought provoking and powerful making me think about how/why I work with

young children. 

I love Wendy’s stories that she uses to build relationships.

I love the slow schooling theory...a real inspiration.

This was first class...a real joy. Fantastic content and presentation.

Thought provoking!

What a wonderful keynote speaker..

Thank you for helping early childhood teachers have a voice- promoting the child’s strengths and interests, not a K-6 curriculum push.”

After the two day conference. We (Dave and I) went on to have a lovely weekend in Sydney. See photos of this on my personal blog http://wendyelp.blogspot.com

Windows of Opportunity

Child Australia held the 2011 Western Australian Early Childhood Education and Care Conference “Windows of Opportunity” in June 2011.

Recently I had the privilege of speaking at this conference. Not only did I have the opportunity to provide a keynote but also to facilitate a workshop on learning stories. There was a high level of interest in Learning Stories, many people had already begun this journey. Teachers in Australia were very passionate about learning stories and the power of this documentation to make a difference for not only children but parents as well.

The early childhood environment in Australia is very different when it comes to looking at the structural issues. Childcare Centres and Kindergartens operate under very different structures. The 2011 Western Australian Early Childhood Education and Care Conference “Windows of Opportunity” brought together early childhood leaders, educators (in childcare, kindergarten and school settings), academics, researchers and policy makers so they could work collaboratively to ensure our children have the best start in life.

The Conference provided participants a wide range of international and national keynote speakers who presented on current research findings and provided a variety of workshops based on Leadership, Learning Environments and Relationships. The areas of Advocacy, Curriculum and Assessment, Reflective Practice, Play, Early Childhood Education for Aboriginal Children and Inclusion were also in focus. Keynote speakers at the conference are below.

Dr Stuart Shanker (Canada); Dr Margy Whalley (England); Dr Louise Hard (Australia) and Wendy Lee (New Zealand)

The conference organisers gave opportunities for participants to use ipads and ipods during the conference, they set up a Wiki and invited everyone to participate. For many this was the first time that they had an opportunity to use an ipad or infact and ipod. There were 300 ipads and 300 ipods distributed to conference participants.

Some of the comments on the Wiki relating to my participation are listed below…..

Dr Alec O'Connell

"Bravery has many resting places." What a great phrase! Wendy's call to arms is very timely. Commitment and passion are great drivers of sustainable success.

Dawson

What fantastic practice principles to guide our work with children and families by. Just imagine the outcomes that could be achieved if these principles were embedded in our thinking in every centre and classroom.

Dr Alec O'Connell

Wendy's decision to go and find her favorite teacher is a great idea. There is a lovely book which my wife bought for my birthday called "My Favourite Teacher" by Robert Macklin. A simple compilation of how teachers made a difference to those interviewed for the book.

Hans

What great encouragement for thorough reflection in learning stories. The personal stories of educators is an idea I will be taking away. How can we expect our families to be integrated and vulnerable to share life if we can't offer our own ... Great stuff

Leanne

Thank you Wendy for challenging educators thoughts and allowing us to take a moment to put ourselves in the children's shoes and to believe we can support children to be capable competent learners

Dawson

Wendy has a great solution focused approach to her work. Build on their strengths, that’s the foundation to good education.

Marg

Powerful message about the importance of developing quality friendships in the workplace and about displaying kindness... Specifically adult to adult.

Dianne

You have inspired me to try this in my class.

Kae

Very inspiring presentation. Absolutely loved the whakatauaki that helped to reinforce that we can change the world one child at a time!

Ana

I really enjoyed learning and taking in more knowledge, I felt like a child in wonder and awe. I would love for all of our children to have the same opportunities that your children have experienced and can't wait to implement the type of learning story letters that our children can treasure now and when they grow older.

Anita

What an inspiration! I can only hope to take it back to my classroom and involve the children more. My only real dilemma is to inspire my colleagues as you have inspired me. I want to change right now!

Sylvia

Thankful for encouraging us to be brave going forward, and I feel free to be me to interpret and implement my child focused programme.

Debbie

What a fantastic motivational speaker and finally someone agrees its ok to play outside in the elements.
Can you please write in my next newsletter to let the parents know this! Thank you for reigniting the flame.

Jessica Bradbury

Hi Wendy,
I loved your talk about leading by heart and soul, I found it so inspiring and learnt so much from it.
I write learning stories where I work on the children and I learn so much from children each day
Thank you, Jess

Sonya

Thank you Wendy on an inspirational talk. Our staff have been working on learning stories for twelve months. We have seen much progress and embracing of this concept. It will be wonderful to pass on information to our staff and to see them further embrace this area.

Evelyn Houghton

An inspiration as always Wendy, food for thought and motivation to achieve more and more every day.