Our research journey started out with the hunch that real-time reporting could improve the reading outcomes for culturally diverse students in our school. We aimed to implement our research in term one of this year however we were unable to do this as planned due to COVID 19 lockdowns. This entry will reflect on what we have managed to achieve so far and the impact of COVID 19.
Our first step towards live reporting was to establish guidelines with staff on a teacher only day held just prior to school starting. This went ahead as planned. Staff were introduced to the concept of Real-time reporting and the benefits we hoped would come from it. We asked teachers to think about our stakeholders (students, whānau, teachers, community) and identify:
What each group needs to ensure they can participate in real time reporting effectively.
How we support each group to be ready to participate in live reporting.
Staff worked in small groups to write their ideas on an ideaz board which can be seen here. It is our experiences that where staff are asked to share ideas verbally very few people will speak. Ideaz Board gave people a chance to speak to each other in smaller groups and share without being singled out, resulting in more ideas being shared then previously experienced in meetings. This was a great learning opportunity for us and something which would be good to include in future meetings. Many of the comments in the teacher section highlighted that teachers are still unsure about what real-time reporting looks like in practice. As a staff we need a shared understanding of what real-time reporting looks like before we implement it. This is something we can establish collectively in future meetings.
‘When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters – one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity’ (Hood, 2020)
Although the Covid 19 lockdowns meant many of our plans to implement real-time reporting were disrupted it presented opportunities for learning and brought about some positive outcomes. Seesaw was our main platform for learning while in lockdown, leading to teachers having to quickly upskill. This resulted in collaboration between teachers as those that were more confident using the tool supported those who were not. Learning from Lockdown (Hood,2020) stated that many schools reported increased collaboration over lockdown and this was certainly the case for us. The collaboration has continued after lock down, with teachers sharing what they are doing on seesaw and celebrating their successes.
Our whānau also had a steep learning curve with Seesaw. For many parents it was their first time engaging with the platform and in Room 12 there was a high uptake, with 17 out of 24 students engaging in online learning using the platform. McWilliams and Patton (2015) stated that Real-Time reporting promotes connections among and between people, ideas and settings and we have seen this beginning to develop between whānau, students and teachers. For example just before the first three day lockdown Kirsty had taught a lesson on the Treaty of Waitangi. A parent gave the following comment on a post related to this:
‘It was great to hear A talk about his oar art and his current understanding about “the Maori people went to war coz other people try take the land”...when I grow up I want to be Maori and go to war”. We can’t wait to see his knowledge of tangata whenua and The Tiriti o Waitangi develop as he gets older’
The post had generated discussion between the student and whānau, connecting school and home. The comment allowed Kirsty to gain an insight into what the student had taken away from the lesson. It also started conversations with the parent when Kirsty saw them at school, further strengthening relationships between home and school.
Of course there were some areas that need to be addressed, such as lack of access to devices. We were able to hand out devices to whānau for the lockdown, but now students are back at school we need to develop a system whereby whānau can come in and use school devices. Another insight gained from lockdown was the value of face to face meetings. During lock down Kirsty attempted to hold a zoom meeting with parents from Room 12 to go through the basics of Seesaw. Out of 24 parents, two attended, with one of these two leaving mid call due to difficulties with connections and having to soothe their youngest child. This made us realise that for our community Zoom is not the right forum for meetings. We need to make time to develop authentic relationships with whānau in order for real-time reporting to be a success. This is something we will continue to work on.
Mindlab has allowed us to widen our focus and look directly at those ‘wicked problems’ that have been sitting at the back of our minds for a long time. Through this we are seeing changes in our practice which are starting to have an impact on kaiako, whānau and akonga. We look forward to continuing to challenge the status quo, working with and for our families as we move towards real-time reporting. This is not the end of our journey, it is the beginning.
Hood, N (2020) Learning from lockdown. Retrived from https://theeducationhub.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/7440-TEH-learning-from-lockdown-document3.pdf
McWilliams, L., & Patton, C. (2015). How to share data with families. Educational Leadership, 73(3), 46-49.
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