Monday Module Magnificence

Posted on March 31, 2014 by stevemouldey

On Mondays I teach in a Big Learning Module called the Museum of Mihi. This is a cross curricular (Social Studies, Health and Arts: Drama) module which I co-teach with Megan Peterson and Sally Hart. We have 3 x 90 minute blocks during the day with the same 37 students. The module has been based on exploring students’ personal identity through the artefacts and interests that represent them. Students are then generating their own museum exhibitions to share their identity with peers, parents, staff and invited guests.

Today we started with a reflection exercise on defining personal identity and shared identity; describing their personal identity and then explaining which aspects of their identity they would focus on for their exhibition. Then we were off to our Maker Space to generate their exhibition artefacts.

Continue reading →

Excited Puppy

Posted on March 16, 2014 by stevemouldey

Original Source unknown

Over recent times I have gained the nickname “Excited Puppy” at work and even been given the picture above by a workmate to represent me. This is because I seem to be amped all the time about the awesome stuff happening at Hobsonville Point Secondary School or whatever the latest book/article/blog I read has taught me.

A week ago I wrote Warm and Demanding about how we were working through some challenges at school. That post cleared my mind again and helped me to see that we are going to figure out solutions and reiterate processes based on our vision. Since then I have been in a strong “excited puppy” phase again as I have been able to focus on all the great things occurring.
Continue reading →

Mid Term Report Card

Posted on March 12, 2014 by stevemouldey

As we are halfway through Term 1, I thought it must be time to reflect on (and share) how the term is going. In line with my current thoughts on assessment, it will be descriptive and diagnostic rather than a pointless grade giving exercise!

This term I am teaching 2 collaborative modules: Museum of Mihi with Sally Hart and Megan Peterson; and Mapping Me with Cindy Wynn. I have also been involved with 1 Big Project and am Learning Coach for Reweti Hub.

Museum of Mihi

Our course description was: “In this module we will explore your identity through the artefacts and interests that represent you. We will look at how different people choose to represent themselves with different objects. You will then decide how to share your museum of yourself.”

Megan, Sally and I have collaborated really well in both the planning and teaching of this module. Continue reading →

Catalysts for Curiosity and Creativity

Posted on February 26, 2014 by stevemouldey

This post is based on an Ignite talk I gave at the Learning at Schools Unconference at Sky City at the end of January.

Titled Catalysts for Curiosity and Creativity, in 5 minutes I briefly covered some suggestions for how teachers can enable students to unleash their creativity. Many of the ideas stem from 2 amazing books I read over summer: Can Computers Keep Secrets by Tom Barrett (from NoTosh) and Creative Confidence by Tom & David Kelley (of IDEO fame). I highly recommend reading both of these books!

When someone mentions curiosity to me, I think of:

a sense of childlike wonder
eyes wide open
looking for new ideas to identify and explore

For me, I link this very closely with creativity. Yet so many people (like they do with Maths) say “I’m not creative.” Continue reading →

Personalised Learning at HPSS

Posted on February 10, 2014 by stevemouldey

HPSS Vision of Personalised Learning

After many months of planning, today was the day that personalised learning really took flight at Hobsonville Point Secondary School. We have tussled with the tension between curriculum coverage and personalising learning for the past few months and today students saw what this has resulted in.

Most New Zealand Secondary Schools place students in form classes for the “core subjects” (English, Maths, Science, Social Studies and Physical Education/Health) whilst allowing some measure of choice over the “option subjects” (Technology, Languages and The Arts). All of these Learning Areas are compulsory up to Year 10 in the New Zealand Curriculum, so we had set out to avoid the ancient hierarchy of subjects that dominates NZ schools.
Continue reading →

Ready, Set, Go!

Posted on February 4, 2014 by stevemouldey

After all that time deschooling, deconstructing and designing we have finally crossed the start line this week. Monday was our official opening day as Hobsonville Point Secondary School became a real school!

Most of the first 2 days has been spent with my Learning Hub of 9 students (for a great description of Learning Hubs and how they operate see Megan’s post). These are the students for whom I will act as academic and pastoral mentor for the next 5 years and I am rapt to have such an awesome bunch.

My Learning Hub, now known as Reweti

Continue reading →

Curiosity and Inspiration

Posted on January 15, 2014 by stevemouldey

Last night I bought, downloaded and read Can Computers Keep Secrets? How a Six-Year-Old’s Curiosity Could Change the World by Tom Barrett. Stemmed by all the questions his 6 year old son asks, Tom then delves into how we could maintain this natural curiosity that is with all youngsters but seems to disappear as we grow up.

I have long wondered at which point do we stop questioning the world like a 6 year old? When do we start to have more anxiety than curiosity?

Loc 176 of 489 on kindle Edition

These questions struck me as both an educator and a parent. Continue reading →

Bias Towards Action

Posted on January 14, 2014 by stevemouldey

Elements of a Design Thinking Mindset from dSchool K12 Wiki

A bias towards action is the element of a design thinking mindset that resonates with me the most and what I see as really making this such a powerful pedagogical approach. Yet, the bias towards action is bizarrely an aspect that has seen some teachers question the appropriateness of design thinking as an approach for all learning areas. For me, the bias towards action is what makes this an authentic inquiry process rather than just another project producing a poster. Continue reading →

A Culture of Prototyping

Posted on December 15, 2013 by stevemouldey

I have been thinking a lot lately about the diagram below which covers the elements of a Design Thinking Mindset. This is the first post in a series I hope to publish over the next fortnight covering how I see these developing at Hobsonville Point Secondary School.

Elements of a Design Thinking Mindset from dSchool K12 Wiki

A Culture of Prototyping can be quite scary for teachers (and particularly school leaders) to start developing. This is because it requires all members of the staff to have no fear of failure. Continue reading →

Creativity as Disobedient Thought

Posted on December 10, 2013 by stevemouldey

Today we were lucky enough to have Professor Welby Ings speak to us as an end of year inspiration. This post will try to (briefly) cover the hour and a half master class on Creativity that we were treated to. (For an 18 minute version see Welby Ings’ TedxAuckland Talk here).

Learning outside school is not within traditional houses of thought (subjects) that schools put in place. For example when learning to drive we are not taught completely separate aspects of this without thought to the connections that exist. The hierarchies of disciplines that exist in schools are bollocks but unfortunately embedded in people’s minds.

Too often in schools we require students to Continue reading →

Steve Mouldey

Emergent Reflections of a Secondary Teacher

Tag Archives: learning