Learning from Home Update xx xxxx 2021

Kia ora whānau

As you will have heard in this evening’s announcement we are moving to Level Three for a period of three days. At Albany Senior High School we have been planning for this possible situation for some time. We want to assure our learners, staff and whānau that we are well placed to continue with delivering learning whilst our students remain at home. We recognise this lockdown will have been a shock to many and that it will be a challenging period as we get used to being in lockdown once again. Firstly, it is okay to not be okay and secondly, we are all in this together and as a school community we will work together to get through this period with a sense of purpose and a whole lot of kindness!

As a school we are focusing on three areas: wellbeing, connectedness and doing NCEA from home! We recognise that as a senior school our young people want to continue to work toward their academic goals. To this end, we will work with our school leaders and teachers to focus on meaningful learning and assessments that lend themselves to working from home. We will look to manage learning and assessment as effectively as we can and will keep you informed with any updates we receive from the Ministry of Education and NZQA (who manage NCEA) as they come to hand. As it is early in the year we are primarily focused on connecting with you all and engaging in learning! Read the instructions below to see how to engage with your learning!!

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with your (or your young person’s) Tutor teacher to make a plan if learning from home is a challenge in any way.  

And remember…

Be kind.

Stay safe.

Stay home.

Wear a mask if going out!

We got this team!!

Nga mihi

Claire

Claire Amos

Principal | Tumuaki

Albany Senior High School

What remote learning looks like at ASHS (good to get familiar with this!)

Our General Expectations

• Put your health and your family first.
• Your week will be separated into three different blocks. Monday and Tuesday structured learning, Wednesday Impact Projects and Thursday and Friday self directed learning (teachers available for check ins).
• Check your emails at least once a day and reply if necessary.
• We will use one consistent platform (Google Classrooms) for sharing learning activities and one consistent platform for meet ups (Google Meet).
• It is essential that you continue with your learning and working towards NCEA assessments where possible.
• Remember teachers will be with their families as well so know they will respond to your emails and give feedback as they can.
• Your “attendance” and engagement will be monitored so please ensure you are taking an active role in your lessons. Join your Google Meets (Monday, Tuesday and Impact) and login to your Google Classrooms each day.

Our Priorities

Wellbeing

Over this period of lockdown it is vital that everyone’s well being is prioritised →  Learners and Staff.

You will be feeling a range of emotions and many of these emotions will be based on your previous experience in lockdown. How can you take care of your wellbeing over this second lockdown?

• Emotions - don’t suppress and ignore these. Name your emotions → acknowledge why you feel this way → validate these feelings and use the emotion to motivate how you respond.
• Be active! Exercise and get out of the house every day.
• Do things that boost your mental health (happiness) and avoid things that don’t.
• Get enough sleep.
• Prioritise work and make achievable to do lists/goals.
• Stay connected to your friends and family. Share your worries → Learners get in contact with your tutor teacher. Teachers get in contact with your SSL or DP.

Connectedness  

Remaining connected with your Tutor teacher is essential.  Tutor teachers will be working with learners to ensure they are keeping focussed, tracking their progress and supporting individuals to find the best balance between wellbeing & school work.

To support learner’s focus and engagement, Specialist and Impact teachers will be passing on congratulations or concerns to Tutor teachers. Tutor teachers will be holding one-on-one meetings with all learners in their tutor class and they will also be the main connection between whānau and school.

NCEA Achievement & Assessment from Home

It is essential that learners continue with their NCEA assessments where possible. Being early in the year, your priority is making the most of your learning.

Learners please check in with your specialist subject teachers, Impact Project Mentor and Tutor to confirm which assessments you will work on from home - note that some of these may be different than those planned for in school learning.

Note - And whilst we are focusing on continuing learning  to begin assessments it is important to stress that although we value NCEA we value the wellbeing of our young people more!

Our Weekly Learning Structure

Specialist Subjects

• Monday and Tuesday Specialist Subjects will begin with an online Google Meet at 9.30am, 11.00am and 1.30pm. This will be when your teacher will set the goals and focus for the week and frame up your learning tasks.
• Teachers will upload tasks/lessons for the day by 9:00am. Make sure that you check the classes that you would have that day.
• Thursday and Friday Specialist Subject lessons will be more flexible but you will need to login to your Google classroom and continue with your assessments and learning
• Your teachers may nominate a time when they will be online and available to answer emails, questions etc.

Tutorials

• There will be a scheduled meetup twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. PLEASE ATTEND your Tutorial session at 9.30am via Google Meet. Every second week you will have a one on one chat with your tutor to support your progress.
• Check your Tutorial Google Classroom for information at least twice per week.

Impact Projects

• You will continue to complete your Impact Project remotely.
• Mentors will update Google Classroom by 9:00am every Wednesday. Meet your mentor and impact project class in a Google Meet at 9.30am (unless otherwise negotiated).
• Some projects will have clear road blocks within the lockdown world. In this case go back to the heart of what the project or Hub focus is - how could your initial ideas be adapted towards a new project or outcome?
• Impact Project NCEA Assessments will continue remotely.
• IP50 will not take place over lockdown

Developing learner agency by supporting self-directed learning

Important things to note

• All learners will continue to have a full five day timetable each week.
• All learners will be onsite and supervised and supported by a teacher in all periods throughout the school week.
• All changes will be introduced in a slow and staged way with regular checking and reflecting on effectiveness.
• All decisions about what the students prioritise will be made in partnership with their teachers.
• Any students who want or need to continue working with their timetabled teacher throughout the week will be supported to do so.

Why are we focusing on this now?

Feedback from our students and teachers suggests we could benefit from the following things: developing learner agency and designing learning that enables students to work in an increasingly self-directed manner. We need to practise for this when we are in school, so that learners can cope with the more self-directed approaches of online learning. We also need to ensure that we design for enhancing learning relationships, collaboration and connection both online and offline and that we have mechanisms for ensuring that engagement with learning is tracked, so that “no-one slips through the cracks”. We also need to review how we approach NCEA so as to maximise opportunities to curate and collect evidence of learning over time, both online and in school.

What is learner agency?

Learner agency, is about having the power, combined with choices, to take meaningful action and see the results of your decisions. It can be thought of as a catalyst for change or transformation. Within a school context, learner agency is about shifting the ownership of learning from teachers to students, enabling students to have the understanding, ability, and opportunity to be part of the learning design and to take action to intervene in the learning process, to affect outcomes and become powerful lifelong learners. Source

What is self-directed learning?

Self-directed learning is an instructional (teaching and learning) strategy where the students, with guidance from the teacher, decide what and how they will learn. It can be done individually or with group learning, but the overall concept is that students are supported to take ownership of their learning. Source

How do the two relate to each other?

Self-directed learning is an instructional (teaching and learning) strategy and learner agency is something that the learner demonstrates. The two are interdependent in that by experiencing self-directed learning students are supported to develop greater learner agency. The greater the sense of learner agency a student has, the more capable they will become of effective self-directed learning. Experiencing self-directed learning and developing learner agency will support our young people in becoming effective life-long learners.

How will we do this in a meaningful and manageable way?

We are making this manageable for both the teacher and our learners by maintaining our timetable throughout the week and primarily focusing on self-directed learning on Thursday and Friday. All learners and all learning will be supervised and supported by a teacher every day of the school week. This is important as it will enable students who need or want to continue to learn as usual i.e. alongside their teacher following their normal timetable, will be supported to do so.