Week 32: CHANGES IN PRACTICE AND FUTURE PLANS

What:

Professional Learning: Our codes our standards Ministry (2017) 

The last 32 weeks of Mindlab has been difficult at times but extremely rewarding. After only recently completing my degree online, the part I was dreading the most was the online part. I struggle to stay motivated at times and I didn’t want this to happen here. I have been challenged at every point on this journey. The first 16 weeks was great. It got me hooked into what was being provided and gave me the opportunity to connect with teachers from different schools, year levels and experience. This, along with my colleagues from school who came on this journey with me, gave me the ability to push through to the end, to help me learn new and exciting things, and to become more confident for learning and teaching in the 21^st century.  

The key changes I will continue focus on is trying to make education more collaborative for myself and my students and becoming a better digital teacher

So what:

Osterman and Kottkamp (2015)

A. Problem identification 
There were 2 problems for me with my practice. Firstly I have never really embraced collaboration regularly in my learning and my students learning. This is a big part of working in 21^st century education. By not making these opportunities available to myself and my students, I was not setting us up for the most beneficial learning experiences possible. Secondly, my confidence in my digital technology skills was poor and that also effected how I taught and used it in class.
B. Observation and Analysis
Many teachers from school had gone on the Mindlab course previously and raved about it. When the opportunity for me to do Mindlab arose, I was hesitant for personal reasons. A colleague managed to convince me to go with her and as I do I decided to give everything I had. To learn about the digital side and become a more confident and competent teacher.
C. Abstract Reconceptualization
At first I felt a little out of my depth. Many people at Mindlab seemed to have more knowledge, experience and confidence. But my motto is you either sink or swim, so I decided to swim. I put in the effort to grow my confidence in my digital skills things happened from there. A long the way my eyes were opened up to how sharing and working collaboratively made things easier. As the weeks went by my confidence grew in both the use of digital technology and working collaboratively.

Now What:
D.  Active Experimentation
Everything changed because of Mindlab. Me and a fellow colleague decided to do collaborative teaching this year. We got together and began planning before last year had even finished. You could hear the excitement every time we discussed what we wanted to do. We got together during the holidays to go over our room and do our assignment (our literature review was done together on collaboration), We began this year in a collaborative situation and we only seeing it getting better as we learn and grow together. We use google docs for planning and it has been an invaluable tool. We don’t always have time to get together so having this tool makes everything more accessible for us.

Final Reflection:
The Mindlab experience has changed my mindset towards my teaching. That can only be a good thing. I rate it higher than my studies for my degree as I have seen where I can use it in my teaching. I will continue to grow as a teacherI feel both excited and a little intimidated with the changes that will continue to happen in my lifetime and yet grateful knowing I am more equipped to help students become ready for their future.

References: 

Ministry of Education (nd). Our code, our standards. Retrieved fromhttps://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

 Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Corwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files.   

Week 31:INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS IN MY PRACTICE

I have used Rolfe model of reflection.

What does it mean to have a culturally responsive pedagogy?

As stated by (Gay 2001) cultural pedagogy is defined by our response to life. In society, we interpret our world by our interaction with others and we use our own cultural lens (Milne 2013) to make sense of it. First, though we need to know our own cultural identity and intelligence. I am a Maori, every paper I have ever checked for ethnicity has and will always be Maori. I am proud of who I am, where I come from and the fact that I am Maori. Everything that has happened in my life, both good and bad, has shaped who I am as a person and teacher. Unfortunately in my childhood I lost part of my connection my culture and language when I moved to Rotorua from Feilding at the age of 10. At the time I had been a part of the school bi-lingual class and loved the Maori performances we did. I enjoyed learning the language at it was great. The expectation was I would continue this in Rotorua. Unfortunately an interaction with a teacher blasted my confidence, and the decision was made to continue my education in a mainstream class. It is something I regret but it has made me stronger in my motivation to be a more culturally responsive teacher, not just for Maori, but all cultures that I have the pleasure to have in my class and school. With this I agree 100% with Ellerbrock, et al (2016) who states that "Teachers who are culturally responsive and who use the cultural knowledge, prior experience, frames of reference and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for them".

So what.

As teachers, we have such a huge influence on children, their learning, personal life, social development, and experiences. We spend more time with children then some of their parents, so how we interact with them will go a long way to how they develop. We need to look at ourselves, how we treat individuals, how we relate to each unique characteristics of our children, and how we incorporate cultural pedagogy into their learning, to build their own cultural identity. We build relationships, trust, and respect with our children. What I have just written also applies to our parents. They are the biggest part of our children’s cultural identity and it is expected that working together will have a greater impact on our children.


Now What: 

 

The Unitec’s Poutama tool:

By using this I believe that I am in the middle part of this tool but and still becoming more confident in my own practice. I know I can make the necessary steps to continue my ascent to the red area. My mind set is great, personally I am trying to and wanting to change but it is also about changing the system that we are in. As Anne Milne (2013) says we do work with a white colonial education model that is now beginning to change, and the teaching profession and NZ curriculum calls for us to be culturally responsive "The curriculum reflects New Zealand’s cultural diversity and values the histories and traditions of all its people." Ministry of Education (2007).

References: 
 Milne, B.A. (2013). Colouring in the white spaces: Reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. (Doctoral Thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10289/7868

Ministry of Education (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington:Learning Media

Teaching Tolerance. (2010, Jun 17).Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8

Week 30: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN NZ SCHOOLS

I will use Rolfe's model of reflection, his three steps of "What", "So What" and "Now What".

Firstly what is a 'trend'? According to Visser and Gagnon (2005), the term “trend” refers to the statistically observable change or general orientation of a general movement. I will use this theory and Rolfe’s model of reflection to analyse, critique and evaluate a trend that is becoming more prevalent which is Innovative Learning Environments (ILE), in the past known as Modern Learning Environments (MLE).

According to L. Benade (2015),"An Innovative Learning Environment is the complete physical, social and pedagogical context in which learning can occur". What does this mean and why have I chosen to talk about this trend. ILE’s are an open design environment that supports strengths-based teaching and learning. It offers students and teachers flexibility, agency, ubiquity, and connectedness. It encourages flexibility in learning and teaching (Chapman, Randell-Moon, Campbell & Drew, 2014), and allows collaborative, team teaching. ILEs enable teachers to shift from a one-size-fits-all approach to a flexible approach that can be customised and adjusted for individual needs. Students should be at the centre of your planning (Ministry of Education, 2007). I am very interested in this trend as I am doing collaboration with another teacher/class and we have an open planned classroom, the difference being that we are able to shut doors to make separate classes.

ILE’s are not for everyone and they do not work without teachers collaborating together. It is not as simple throwing teachers into a big space and say go for it. Teachers need to be well prepared and supported (from team colleagues, team leaders, school leaders and boards) throughout the transition (Thomson, 2010) especially if they lack ability to produce the desired physical environment (Lackney & Jacobs, 1999).

The first experience I had of an ILE was in my second year of practice in a year 2 team. There were 3 classrooms in 1 large space. My first thought was how anyone can teach in this. Children are naturally load individuals as it is, having over 70 children in 1 space must be nearly impossible to hear. How wrong I was. The whole space, was set out well, the children knew exactly what to do in the space, and the whole thing ran really smoothly. Compare that to a year 7 class with 2 classes in 1 space. It was hard to concentrate, noise level was extremely high and I noticed that some children got lost on the shuffle. I realised then that to have a good ILE it is good to have your space set out well but more importantly, to get all routines and expectations sorted with the children. It is about developing strategies from the get go that make these classrooms more manageable for teachers. This must be done before the positive impact on learning can happen.

References

Benade, L. (2015). The Transformative Educative Prospects of Flexible Learning. Auckland: New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work.

 

Chapman, A., Randell-Moon, H., Campbell, M. & Drew, C. (2014). Students in space: Student practices in non-traditional classrooms. Global Studies of Childhood 4 (1). 39-48

Lackney, J. A., & Jacobs, P. J. (1999). Teachers as placemakers: Investigating teachers’ use of the physical setting in instructional design: Council Educational Facility Planners

Ministry of Education. (2015, September 7). Innovative learning environments: Form follows function. Christchurch, New Zealand. Retrieved March 09, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lOKS8Mv-8M

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical Reflection for Nursing and the Helping Professions: a User’s Guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave

Thomson, P. (2010). Whole school change. A literature review. Creativity, Culture and Education

Visser, L., & Gagnon, K. (2005). Defining “Trends” and “Issues” in Distance Education. Trends and Issues in Distance Education International Perspectives. pp 83-89

Week 29: USING SOCIAL ONLINE NETWORKS IN TEACHING OR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Use of social media in my teaching and professional development. 

Personally I am not really a big user of social media with my teaching or in life in general. Facebook is the one platform that I do use and am semi confident with and this is the one place I use to get ideas and resources from. A big part of Facebook for myself as a teacher is the many groups that provide us with somewhere where teachers from all over New Zealand can share resources, ideas and photos, ask questions, and even a place to vent. I am/have been a part of a few groups including the NZ beginning primary teachers group, primary art ideas group, daily 5/literacy group, and the most commonly used group NZ teachers (primary). It is all so simple to use. If I have a question or in need of a resource I just post in this group and responses come fast and in abundance. Searching for something is also easy. All it takes is a few strikes of the computer keys and colleagues of different experiences, knowledge and skills are all too keen to help. Teaching is best served when collaborating with peers and this platform is an excellent source of collaboration.
For Mindlab I have dabbled with twitter, google plus, blogs and other social media platforms but I have always reverted back to the good old Facebook. I have tried using these in my teaching and to enhance my teaching but being not as social media friendly and digitally proficient I still struggle to make the best use of the available social media platform.

I am doing collaborative teaching this year for the first time and even though we have an open classroom between us it is not always easy to meet. Duties, meetings and personal lives can sometimes mean we do not always have the time to discuss everything we need. Obar and Wildman (2015) states there four key features of a social media platform. These are it must a be web based platform, users are able to generate the content, individuals and groups can create user specific profiles, and online social networks are developed by connecting profiles of individuals or groups. We use google docs which fits Obar and Wildman’s 4 features of a social media. We use it to share everything we do, it makes working collaboratively a lot easier and we are able to share this with our team leader also.

There will always be safety concerns when it comes to the internet. There is no guarantee that you can be 100% safe no matter how much security you have. This goes for both students and teachers.  Today social media is abundant in everyday life, with teachers and students readily able to go on to platforms and have discussions at the click of a button (Seaman&Tiniti-Kane, 2013). Social media sites are a good way to stay connected to families and colleagues outside of work hours, and any possible challenge that may arise should not hinder ones use of it (Education Council, 2012). If used correctly, the benefits far out way the negatives. Even for someone like me who is not as savvy as others, it gives me the ability to connect to people and professionals all over the world, to have a broader understanding of what teachers and students go through from different back grounds and it is the way moving forward with learning.

Education Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520

Obar, J.A. & Wildman, S. (2015). Social media definition and the governance challenge: An introduction to the special issue. Telecommunications Policy, 39(9), 745-750.

 

Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning. Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf

 

Week 28: ETHICAL ISSUES WITH DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

Reflection on an ethical issue connected to digital communication.

By looking at Rolfe et al.’s (2001) ethical decision making model (which has 3 parts) I will reflect upon an ethical issue that I have knowledge of, how the situation developed and what happened after the fact.

Rolfe et al.’s (2001) asks simply "what is the problem?" The situation I am reflecting on is when a twelve year old girl made a bad decision that would affect her time at school and her mental state. The girl in question made the decision to text a compromising picture of herself to a boy she liked. Unfortunately the boys’ sister somehow got hold of the phone. The girls in questions were part of the same group of friends but for unknown reasons (she still does not know why she sent the pic) she sent the photo on to other friends. Within 1 night the girls’ entire class had received the same message of the compromising picture. The looks and comments she received the next day (including from her best friends) were very demoralising to her. She left the school and didn’t return for over a week until the girls’ parents and teacher found out what had happened. This happened when the teacher phoned the parents to see where and how the child was.
The girls teacher in conjunction with the Principal and school councillor called many meetings. Firstly with the girl and her parents, then with the girl who sent on the photo (with parents). Next was a meeting with the class, and then a meeting with all parents from the class. The discussion was the same with all, about parents making sure they know what their children are doing, and going over the expectations of children being good digital citizens and looking after themselves when using their digital technology, and speaking up when they know something is not right.

The only good thing from the situation was that the picture somehow did not go any further than the class. This does not alleviate the problems the girl was going through at the time but it could have been so much worse.

So what?

I believe that the teacher and the school handled the situation with aplomb. It is not something you would usually have to deal with previously at the intermediate level but in today’s age of technology, it is important for all involved to be aware of what children are doing on devices. This situation was a clear example of how students need to be taught and shown beforehand the consequence of putting personal information (personal pictures) out there. Another issue that came from this is what about students who do not do anything including speaking up when they know something is not right.  

Now what?
The girl in question was given continual counselling support to help her through what was a trying time. For any situation there must be continual communication between parents and teacher/school. All parties involved are responsible for the physical and emotional safety of their children throughout a day, a month, and a year. Parents and teachers need to keep a close eye on what their children are doing with devices.


Reference

Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards.Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D. and Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Communitiy of Practice. Activity 3

The readings and videos from this week had me thinking about my school and whether we had a true Community of Practice which according to Wegner (2000), “a community of practice is defined as a group of individuals participating in communal activity, and experiencing continuously creating their shared identity through engaging in and contributing to the practices of their communities.”

Short answer to this question would be yes, in some parts we do. The long answer is a little more complicated. If I am to be honest, there are small groups within school that are a CoP but overall we do not do it as often as we should. In saying that we are continuing to grow and MIndlab has had a positive affect on this with many teachers that have completed or are on this journey,  

Topic 1: Collaborative Teaching

Where ever you go in education collaboration is an important and ever growing topic of interest.

I have been a part of small collaborative teams in my short time as a teacher and I have had great experiences, but in thinking about this more, a lot of this work could be seen as being more cooperative learning than collaborative. Next year is a big year for myself and a colleague of mine. Because of the classrooms we are moving too we have made the decision to do more collaborative teaching, sharing the planning, teaching, grouping etc. We have already had many discussion about this, we have gone into other schools to see how they are doing this, and we have the backing and support of our leaders in school. It is a new and at times scary thought process but so exciting as well. We will be starting off small (with maths being the focus) but hopefully extends to all areas of learning. While we both have our own children that we have to report to, make OTJs and meet with parents etc, the ultimate goal being that our collaborative approach will support our students and our own growth through professional learning, discussions and a shared vision of where we are wanting the students to be.

 

Topic 2: Student and whanau voice, working with whanau

A topic that would align to my own passion is to have learning that is more meaningful to my students and their whanau. To me this means getting student and whanau voice on what they want to learn/be taught. This part would be outside the core subjects that would be taught, the topic type areas that sometimes can be to teacher centered.

This also means working closely with whanau in a more meaningful way, allowing them to understand more of how we teach/what is taught in class so all teachers in our stakeholders life are on the same page, so there is less confusion between what the students are learning at school and home. Whether it works, who knows but it is something I wish to try.

Reference

Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organisation, 7(2), 225-246.

 

 

Future Orientated Learning: Activity 2

Future orientated learning and Teaching

Everything moves so fast in this profession. I am only 3 years removed from my studies and my own knowledge and skills have grown exponentially with in this time. Unfortunately everything else seems to be going even quicker than I am learning. There are times when I still feel like I am in the dark ages, I sometimes feel like I am falling into a bottomless pit. As for the university, do not get me started on that, I do not feel like I brought anything from my studies into my teaching, the whole education system (especially when you are older and moving into the real world) does not cater to the 21st century learning skills that are needed in the present and future. But I digress. Back to the point at hand, this whole future orientated learning and teaching seems a little daunting at first but with closer look into what I have trialled and currently doing, it just needs a can do attitude, a bit of luck, some common sense, good guidance and a lot of perseverance.

Theme: Personalised learning and subtheme: The role of current and future technologies

Why did I make this change? As with all classrooms, I have a range of learning abilities and skills and there is no on one size fits all for them. We have spent the whole year trying to find out what is best fit for them. The introduction of a more thought out digital plan was 1 plan that has helped many children. When I started my teaching, digital tools were used in a way to keep a student’s busy so I could work with my groups. There was no real learning happening, no learner engagement and no growth. Even now this is sometimes the case. Since I have started Mindlab I have tried to incorporate using digital tools to enhance their learning and knowledge. It is a work in progress, just like life. My class is learning together, we are beginning to understand the why and how, when it comes to using digital technology in our room, children are becoming more confident in explaining their reasons for using/needing certain apps/sites and the overall use of technology has become more efficient and meaningful. This doesn’t mean we have gone away from the pen, or drawing etc. It gives them another choice, and a choice that reflects greatly on future learning. Are we perfect? That is a big NO, but we are trying hard. Technology on a whole makes learning more enjoyable because this is what the world is about today. Everywhere you look technology is abundant, most children themselves are able to use an Ipad before being able to write. It is the way the world works now. Beeland (2002) agrees that technology helps “makes lessons more enjoyable and interesting, resulting in improved attention, engagement and student behaviour essential to learning process”

I am still falling in that bottomless pit but there is light, whether I reach it is neither here nor there. The light will guide me and my learners to continue to raise the expectations, skills, knowledge and understanding of what it is to be a future orientated learner and teacher, and to know that the world is ever changing, education is ever changing and we are either on the bus or getting left behind.

References

Beeland Jr, W. D. (2002) Student engagement, visual learning and technology: can interactive whiteboards help? Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/38455890/COOOOL.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1511846908&Signature=AoLweufmiCp%2BU5AuAMKUzggoRb4%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DStudent_Engagement_Visual_Learning_and_T.pdf  

Ministry of Education.(2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306