My Space and My Place

Initially, the inquiry idea that I had for 2020 is that I would focus on the target group of my combined NCEA Level 2 and Level 3 students.

The desired change in student learning that wanted to inquiry into was 'Whether increased and sustained engagement leading to achievement, could occur via the combination of online tutorials for learning (skills and content specific to NCEA standards), and Hapara Workspaces for resource sharing, evidence gathering, tracking and monitoring of student achievement'.

The reason that I wanted to focus on NCEA Level 2 and Level 3 students is because this was the target group that these students are most closely connected to school leaving age, and the goal of '18-year-olds having a minimum of NCEA Level 2 or equivalent'.

Collaborate with Colleagues

On Monday 2 March during our Curriculum Committee meeting of School Leaders at Tamaki College, the focus was to discuss within our smaller groups (which included Christine David from Maths, Elenoa Telenoa from Art and myself), theories of action to address the achievement of Year 11 students in 2020.

The following are discussion and reflection points that I had regarding the students in my Year 11 DigiTech class this year.

It dawned on me through this discussion process that actually my target group for my Inquiry 2020 would actually be best suited to be my Year 11 NCEA Level 1 class. If I was already having discussions with colleagues about this group of students, and this would be an ongoing discussion throughout the year, then it just made sense. Christine and I met again the following Monday, 9 March after school, to see where we were at with the suggestions that we'd discussed from our curriculum meeting. I'd applied the first suggestion highlighted in pink, and was looking forward to the PD session with LearnCoach on Tuesday 10th March.

Collaborate with Senior Leadership Team

On Thursday 12th March, the Tamaki College CoL teachers (including myself) met with Soana, Russel and Kathryn to discuss our inquiry ideas. The idea that I shared my inquiry was 'Will the use of online tutorials (for content knowledge) lift achievement in NCEA Digital Technologies?' with the target group being my NCEA Level 1 students. I conveyed to the group that I'd been tossing between my target group being my NCEA Level 2/3 students, or, being my NCEA Level 1 students. The rationale for refocussing to my NCEA Level 1 students was that:

the target group aligns with the focus for the Collaborative Leadership approach with Middle Leaders in Curriculum Committee

LearnCoach materials are available for Level 1 courses

the overall inquiry idea relates to School Goal 1 - To raise Maori achievement and cultural visibility

Feedback from the meeting included the following:

focussing on NCEA Level 1 will allow a carry through into 2021

upskilling in Digital Technologies content and knowledge at NCEA level could provide an example of managing change (unpacking and resourcing) across any learning areas when the new NCEA standards are introduced

consideration of who I'm collaborating with to support my inquiry idea

Based on the conversations and feedback from colleagues and SLT, I'm relatively confident that the target group of NCEA Level 1 DigiTech students is a sensible group to focus on, and that my inquiry will make a powerful contribution to wider school and cluster goals.

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My recent and ongoing involvement as a Panel member for LearnCoach, a NZ start-up company who develops NCEA videos and resources for students and schools, has involved collaborating with IT professionals to develop online resources that enables learners to achieve credits from the Digital Technologies curriculum.

I intend using the LearnCoach online programs to accelerate student achievement for Tamaki College students undertaking courses in Digital Technologies NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3.

During JumpStart 2019, I managed to trial some of the online LearnCoach tutorials with my NCEA Level 1 class. I developed a Workspace so that the students could capture the work that they had been completing on the LearnCoach site. The purpose of the Workspace was so that students could submit individual tasks relating to various sections of the module, and I could provide the students with formative feedback as well as track student progress. The Workspace was also designed to give the students who essentially were transitioning out of Year 10 and into the senior school, insight into the evidence that they have to provide, to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding when undertaking NCEA standards.

The students found the work to be extremely engaging. The students were already familiar with using Workspaces in my class for completing and submitting work, as well as tracking their achievement. Accessing learning activities through the LearnCoach site, was a new experience for the learners. They enjoyed being able to undertake learning activities that involved a mix of audio/visual video modules, developing codes to perform tasks, and testing their codes which they recorded using PhotoBooth on the Mac machines.

Here is an example of a slide deck that one of the students submitted into the Workspace:

Based on the impact of trialing the LearnCoach resources during the JumpStart 2019 program with my NCEA Level 1 class, I am keen to utilise the LearnCoach modules for all of my NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3 students in 2020.