Claire Amos

As Deeper Learning 2023 comes to a close it's important to reflect on the key takeaways. As with every conference it delivered a mixture of new learning and affirmations for what we already do. Below is what I have taken away after three full-on days of listening and learning as much as I can. 1) New Zealand is already doing amazing things So often I feel like we look overseas, whether it is Singapore, Finland or the USA we tend to think that others are somehow ahead of us. Well, I can assure you this isn't the case. We have an incredibly flexible education system (at least we do at the moment), we have a national curriculum that calls for localisation and personalisation, and we have a flexible assessment framework (at least we do at present) that allows us to meet the needs of individual learners and when I think of the learning we deliver at both Hobsonville Point Secondary School and Albany Senior High School, we are already doing what many of the schools in the USA aspire ...

Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez From the Deeper Learning website Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez' scholarship focuses on issues of identity and power in mathematics education, paying particular attention to how race, class, and language affect teaching and learning. An expert in rehumanizing education and creative insubordination, her keynote will integrate indigenous ways of knowing and being, what it means to build new futures, and so much more! Rochelle Gutiérrez - University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Champaign, IL Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez’s research interrogates the unearned privilege that mathematics holds in society and the roles that race, class, language, and gender play in teaching/learning mathematics so as to open up new possible relationships between humans, mathematics/science, and the planet. Activism - Creative Insubordination When you are fighting for the rights of people you don't need no badges. Don't ask for permission we know our ancestors have given us guidance. Yo...

Karla Cruz Godoy and Sofia Ervin From the conference website: Join San Diego Met alumna Karla Cruz Godoy and current SD Met senior, Sofia Ervin as they share the elements & design of their experiences at a Big Picture Learning school and how it has contributed to their identities as lifelong learners and beyond. This den talk will explore interests, relationships, and the self in the context of being a BPL student. Sofia Ervin is a 17-year-old senior from San Diego, California who attends the San Diego Met. She is a young activist who participates passionately in speaking up in the name of student voice, especially black student voice. Some of her influences include groundbreaking creatives such as Spike Lee, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and John Singleton. Karla Cruz Godoy is an educator, community organizer, and strong advocate of Big Picture's mission and values. Karla’s love for Big Picture originated from her own experience as an alumnus of the San Diego Met, Class of 2012. Curre...

Aisha Bain and Manasa Yeturu This talk is for you - for your body, your mind, your soul, your spirit, your past selves, and the you that is becoming. This talk is raw and real. It is about rejecting what no longer serves us, about the things we don't talk about because they are filled with pain, and yet create barriers to our healing and to our unbounded possibilities. This talk is a rejection of white supremacy, we are not doing anything that gets in the way of the liberation of our people and of everybody. This talk grapples with our leadership that comes from love and rage, the place of being with the complexities around us and within us -  yet not to be consumed by them. This talk is deep belly laughter, joy, celebration. Come talk with us. See you soon! Speaker Bios Manasa Yeturu. Educator. Dancer. Poet. Designer. Diver. Those are just some of Manasa Yeturu’s life descriptors. She is currently a lecturer at Stanford's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design and co-lead of d.Sch...

Deep Dive Descriptor - All Politics is Local Step into the shoes of two New York City high school principals as they grapple with shaping civically engaged, empathetic young people ready to lead the world. With an emphasis on civic knowledge, skills, mindsets, and experiences, we will simulate our civic capstone projects that are democratic in nature and empowering by design. Together, we will uncover the connections between civic engagement and authentic SEL work in the classroom, and analyze student artefacts from past civic capstones for deeper learning competencies. You will walk away with a capstone project toolkit to support similar work at your school sites. Speakers Hannah Kehn - New Visions for Public Schools Founding Principal Brooklyn, KY https://newvisions.org/humanities4 Robert Hiller - New Visions Charter School for Advanced Math & Science Principal Bronx, NY https://newvisions.org/ams Aruna Patel New Visions for Public Schools Lead Curriculum Development Professi...

Source: https://borderlandcollective.org/ If there is one thing to say about the Deeper Learning Conference it is that the conference and workshop design is exceptional. From the kick-off on the field that felt more like High School Musical graduation than PD, to the way they establish a conference whānau, made up of a smaller group of around 25 educators, who you meet up with throughout the three days. The group is the same people who signed up for the Deep Dive topic we are doing today (on Day 2) which ensures we also have some common interests.  The workshop we did in the afternoon of Day 1 was a 90-minute session the topic of which we selected from around 30 options. To be honest, it was near impossible to choose just one session. Each session had to be clearly designed to ensure active participation rather than just any kind of stand-and-deliver. The session I went to was a fantastic example of how to engage adult learners whilst also modelling great classroom teaching. Not su...

Over the next few days, I am lucky enough to be attending the Deeper Learning conference at High Tech High in San Diego. This morning I went on a pre-conference tour with two senior students and a teacher. You'll be glad to know that teachers are an unruly bunch wherever you are on the globe. The students did a stellar job of managing the constant questions fired at them.  From the outside, High Tech High is relatively unassuming, a series of school buildings that fail to prepare you for the creativity and visible learning that is evident on every wall and every space in the interior.  The Elementary and High School is a series of classrooms, many with glass walls and connected by shared common spaces. The feel is something in between more traditional school structures and the ILEs such as Hobsonville Point Secondary School and Albany Senior High School, possibly most similar to the spaces at Albany Junior High School. In Elementary learning is either integrated or connected w...

This Thursday the 16th March both Primary and Secondary teachers will be striking. There is no question, teachers deserve more money. Put bluntly, there is a teacher shortage, teaching has become increasingly complex and to top it off they are also the profession most at risk of contracting COVID-19 with teachers having the highest rates of infection of any occupational group.  And I say all of this as a career educator 25 years in who is still very much in love with the profession. I also say all of this as someone who recognises the challenges that governments face when everyone seems to be asking for more. I recognise that the NZ Government and Ministry of Education has a limited budget and when all of the sectors go to their Ministers cap in hand we can not expect more money to be allocated to one sector at the expense of another.  Earlier today I read two posts by Paula Wine that got me thinking. You can read her excellent insights here and here . In the first post she p...