This post is to share a few iterations happening at Hobsonville Point Secondary School. I wrote last week about the process we were undertaking to evaluate and adjust our timetable for Term 4. We have now created the next iteration of our timetable. This sits alongside the new iteration of our Learning Design Model that occurred earlier this term and the next iteration of how my Learning Hub will operate.

Our current timetable was created last year and looked like this:

HPSS Timetable for Terms 1,2 and 3 2014

We have now been operating long enough to evaluate how well this is working and our evaluations found a few areas to improve upon. We have

• removed the Big Learning Modules as staff and students both found the connection forced at times for a 3rd subject area.
• increased the number of Small Learning Modules as both staff and students found the authentic connections between 2 learning areas was enhancing their learning.
• decreased the morning hub time from 30 minutes to a 10 minute check in, allowing for more focus on the extended hub times – now 3 of these instead of 2
• increased My Time in length from 50 minutes to 1 hour to allow for deeper thought to develop but decreased the number from 4 to 3 to allow for a more focused Hub My Time to occur.

So, the timetable for Term 4 looks like this:

A year ago, our Specialised Learning Leader team was developing the HPSS Learning Design Model that shows how we believe learning occurs. This has been incredibly invaluable for shaping how learning occurs here at HPSS. Staff use the language regularly when planning, teaching and reflecting but more importantly the students use this language to speak about their learning as well.

Original HPSS Learning Design Model

This was always going to be the initial version of the Model as we hoped to get a designer at some stage to make it look better. Before this happens though we wanted to test it out thoroughly, check for missing words etc. We haven’t added anything to it yet but we have over this term been using a new version:

HPSS Learning Design Model

This new version has taken the learning verbs from each phase and ordered them in increasing complexity. Highly influenced by SOLO Taxonomy (we had wonderful help with this late last year from Pam Hook) the new model now shows that there are varying levels of exploring, making sense etc. So, for example, when students are Making Sense of knowledge they can now see the difference between simply connecting ideas and being able to empathise. A great improvement for helping students further their learning.

I wrote yesterday about my Hub redesign but also today kicked off with a new version of how my Hub will operate. In our review the students asked for some flexibility in how they approach each week. So, today they created and shared with me a timetable of what they will do each day next week in Hub time. I gave them a list of Must Do’s and Can Do’s then they negotiated when each would occur and shared that document with me.

It’s the first time we are trying this approach in our Hub but I look forward to seeing how this pans out.

Overall a few iterations occurring. Not sure if these things will ever be nailed but I really feel all these slight structural improvements will make a big difference for our students.