Last week (Thursday, 20th July) I had the pleasure of attending Google Educator Group New Zealand’s ‘Sparkshop’ which took place at Manaia View School in good ol’, Whangarei. Designed to ‘spark’ or inspire teacher practice, these Sparkshop events are free professional development opportunities run by teachers, for teachers.

How good is that? No middle man, just teachers getting on and plugging the gaps as they see them. It’s always nice to be reminded how willing teachers are to give up their own time to support their colleagues and further their own learning. It was, after all, their “holiday” time – you know, two of those twelve weeks teachers get to drink pina coladas in the sun – but here they were, planning done, marking set aside, coming together in the interests of continuous improvement.

Lifelong learning in action.

Refreshing.

Not only this, the conversations you hear at these events center on student achievement; it’s rare that teachers are selfishly battling for promotion or looking to boost their professional capital. It’s not that they aren’t motivated for career growth, it’s that student outcomes are their #1 priority.

But anyway, I digress, I’m here to tell you about the event itself. So let’s do that..

First, for the uninitiated let’s understand the format of the event. A Sparkshop is an unconference; a semi-organised event where participants volunteer to hold workshop sessions on topics they have experience/expertise in. The day begins with these volunteers providing a one minute pitch for their workshop. Participants are then asked to rate their interest in each workshop and out of this process a timetable is created. It’s part Dragon’s Den, part personalised learning, with just a hint of traditional conference all rolled into one lively event.

So there we all were, approximately 40 people in Manaia View’s staff room ready for the event to kick off. We’d reviewed the options, it was time for people to hear the pitches. Here’s what we had on offer:

• Makey Makey invention kits
• Google Classroom
• Class Dojo
• Wushka Digital School Reading Program
• [In]Flipped Learning
• Technology that supports literacy
• Self managed classrooms
• Coding
• Explain Everything
• Google Certification / Training

There was also an opportunity to learn about engaging tech (robots) – you might say there was something for every educator.

 
Votes cast, timetable created and we were ready to get stuck into the day. I guess the only real problem with these events is the opportunity cost of your decisions; there were so many options and not enough time.

First off, I headed to the robots to check out the new tools on the block. The Sphero SPRK+, the Edison (which works with LEGO…. LEGO!) and LittleBits Education STEAM kit were all on hand to test out. These tools support STEM/STEAM learning, each with varying features (and price tags). Students get to see the tangible outputs of their programming while engaging with devices that support and encourage creativity (digital technologies curriculum anyone?).

I then moved on to Helen Moore’s (Hikurangi School) session on inflipping her maths class. In the flipped classroom model a teacher provides direct instruction (often via video/interactive media) to be completed outside of the classroom (i.e. at home). This means that class time can be used to demonstrate their understanding with the support of the teacher. It’s a model that activates and enables  personalised learning. The inflip is a variation on this theme but instead of accessing the direct instruction prior to the lesson, it’s accessed via a designated area (or ‘station’) within the classroom. This means that students who don’t have good internet at home aren’t disadvantaged and can make use of the fast internet connection at school (wink, wink). Helen’s workshop was a practical illustration of how she has introduced inflipping into her teaching practice. By her own admission, she’s new to the inflip game but was able to provide attendees with the confidence and encouragement to get started. If you’re interested, you can find out more about inflpping here.

From there it was off to see Justine Driver (Principal Sunnyhils School) talk through the Google Certification programme and offer some great practical advice. Justine walked us through what can be expected from Google’s Educator programme and how best to complete the certification process. She encouraged attendees to form study groups and support each other through the training and certification programme.

Google’s collaboration suite of tools has a global reach and has become extremely popular in New Zealand schools. By completing the educator certification, educators can demonstrate digital competence and gain an affordable qualification – Level 1 and level 2 will cost you $35USD (total). And, as Justine rightly points out, it’s also accessible professional development that principals can flexibly support their staff through. Interested? Learn more about the certification programme from the Google for Education Training Center.

Finally, Nick Major (Google Innovator/Science Teacher, Whangarei Girls High) walked us through his use of Google Classroom. This session provided attendees with a student experience of Classroom (Google’s Learning Management System). Nick was able to demonstrate the steps he goes through to set up his Classroom and attendees were able to see how his setup impacts  students. We were provided tips and tricks on how to organise class folders (note: “you should never delete your ‘Classroom’ folder in Drive”); manage assessments; and organise learning content within your class stream. Even better, Nick left attendees with his slides for future reference.

While this post may only reflect the workshops that I attended, the buzz around Manaia View on the day was that there was lots of awesome going on. And it’s not just about the workshops, the interactions you have during breaks or on the way to/from different sessions contribute to your professional learning network. Yes, the content being delivered during the event was great but it’s also the conversations, those chats with other educators, like minded or otherwise, which challenge, encourage and support your professional development.

Interested in attending a Sparkshop? Good news, these aren’t one-off events, they are ongoing and well worth the effort. There’s even a NZ Student Summit on the 11th August. Check out the Google Educators NZ site for further details. Go on, get sparking, you know you want to…

Honourable mention: Special shout out to Beth Lamb and Manaia View School for inviting N4L along and for organising such a great event.