Changes in Practice

Reflection on my learning journey and key changes in my practice...

There are 4 PTCs that stand out as having affected me the most with the Mind Lab experience behind me:

• 4. demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice i. identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues ii. participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community iii. initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills

I have been able to discover what's important and therefore what is worth spending time on. I can clearly articulate my learning goals just as we expect our students to - this makes for a focussed use of any time I have to spend on Professional learning. It has also enabled me to lead others to developing clear professional learning goals and with the management team, I have set up a new appraisal system through blogger (similar to the example on sites this week) where teachers can reflect on their practice and click to link it to the label (PTC) that relates to this piece of evidence. 

• 5. show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning i. actively contribute to the professional learning community ii. undertake areas of responsibility effectively

The leadership papers have been the most beneficial to me. In my role as DP I have been able to take a step back and consider my leadership style while learning about various leadership styles that get the desired results from the teams I work with. I have become more knowledgeable in up-to-date innovations in the education sector and have regularly been able to share this with staff either informally or in planned presentations at staff meetings. From the very beginning I  enjoyed the hum of excitement after sharing augmented reality apps such as quiver and aurasma in our staff meeting. This week I have been asked to take a 1 hour workshop for the staff on the STEM approach and have created a google slide presentation relating many initiatives that were covered in Mind Lab - all relating to developing 21st century skills. The most powerful change for me is being able to understand the 'why' alongside the 'what' and 'how' (Golden Circle, Simon Sinek) as this journey has encompassed theory with practical from the very beginning. Sharing the reason for it all - the purpose for what we do everyday and relating it to meeting the needs of 21st century learners has been enlightening for myself and for my staff. 

• 7 promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment i. demonstrate effective management of the learning setting that incorporates successful strategies to engage and motivate ākonga ii. foster trust, respect and cooperation with and among ākonga 

The practical learning through participating in the digital and collaborative papers set me up to provide engaging, motivating, open ended use of ICT learning activities for my students. Whanau have enjoyed seeing their children as fully active participants in their learning and often commented on the excitement of sharing their achievements through the class blog or through coming in to our classroom. Using ICT for learning was a focus for an early assignment for me and the strategies such as experts training others (tuakana teina) in the use of 'show me' to share their understandings are now embedded in my practice. 

• 12. use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice i. systematically and critically engage with evidence and professional literature to reflect on and refine practice ii. respond professionally to feedback from members of their learning community iii. critically examine their own beliefs, including cultural beliefs, and how they impact on their professional practice and the achievement of ākonga

Reflection is the key to progression for me now. Setting goal posts and asking myself how I am going towards reaching them?

 

"keep the four stages of the experiential cycle clearly in mind as road signs to guide learning and progress through the process" (Osterman, 1993 pg 9)
Reflection has become a far more conscious effort with structure and a clear process to follow to get the best from it. Frequently is a key for me - the Agile approach has given me the knowledge of how to organise my goals into achievable chunks where so I stop and check how I am going in relation to my goal posts often. I enjoyed this whakatauki as a beautiful way to encapture the Mind Lab journey for me.

WhakataukiTitiro whakamuri, kokiri whakamua 

Look back and reflect, so you can move forward

References:

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

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/

Crossing Boundaries and Creating Connections

Interdisciplinary and Innovation

The analogy of a rubber band stretching out to bring people into a space (Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education, 2013) helps with grasping the notion of bringing colleagues together from all fields of expertise to pool together their resources, their knowledge and their ideas to plan together, make decisions together and set goals together. Keeping in mind the purpose of education as outlined in the Ross Spiral curriculum (2015) as being generating a higher level of understanding of the world we live in, there has to be a massive change in how we foster interdisciplinarity in our secondary schools. Different domains for subjects need to combine resources, expertise, vision, and assessment to work towards achieving a connectivness that supports this purpose.

Here is my interdisciplinary professional connections in a primary school setting. Much of the planning and curriculum delivery design is done together across syndicates and whole school. I call up support in various areas of expertise to work with me on getting the best recipe for all children.

I would identify a potential interdisciplinary connection goal as working more with experts in the community both local and globally. I recently worked with someone from Environment Southland to plan and design a project on our waterways. Seeing the success in this has inspired me to get experts involved early in intended inquiries to support development and planning. Using online connections will enable this to occur anywhere in the world. The benefits  also include students making sense of what they are learning. It  gives purpose and real world problem solving opportunities for the learning across all curriculum areas. It  provides a common reason for using science knowledge with maths or technological knowledge with the Arts. Motivation and inspiration flourishes if students have opportunities to be creative and innovative with what they know and what they need to know to solve problems. Self-regulated learning also benefits from students taking more ownership for the direction of their learning. Other desired 21st century learning skills such as collaboration and communication have greater opportunity to develop along with the use of ICT for learning - all due to becoming more interconnected with the right people as our role as educators becomes more of 'connector' to these resources.

References:

ACRLog. (2015). A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration

Ross Institute. (2015, July 5). Ross Spiral Curriculum: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Science. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHZhkB0FJik

ThomasMcDonaghGroup. ( 2011, May 13). Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA

Professional Online Social Networks

My current use of social media networks to enhance teaching practise and professional development...

I was fascinated to see WeChat mentioned in research conducted by The Open University (2016)  as a form of social media used by so many in China and one with so many uses. My daughter has recently started working in China and I have been introduced to this  app and all its uses to keep in contact with her frequently as a contributor, collaborator and communicator to her and her followers.

However on reflecting, my current use of social media in my workplace is more as a receiver of information rather than a contributor. I use the VLN (virtual learning network) and NZ Teachers (primary) Facebook group to get most of my information and ideas and to meet most of my professional learning goals. 

To be a 21st century educator as mentioned in Connected Educators (2013) I need to practice the 21st century skills that I expect my learners to use. My challenge is to collaborate, create, communicate and share resources on these social media platforms in order to enhance my teaching and professional development practice. Becoming more of an active participant rather than a passive one would enhance my experiences to support learning at a deeper level and I would achieve a greater understanding of my learning goals.

The key to successful social media use...

The key to successful pedagogy is the need for experts to engage and inspire. I monitor our class blog to ensure bianess and hostility is not part of the feedback between students and from others in the school and community. Teaching students that there are successful and unsuccessful sources and ways to use social media effectively is vital as is clear guidelines for all including students, parents and teachers on how to contribute and interact with others ideas effectively. Parallels between how teachers provide opportunities for students to personalise their learning through social media can be made when considering the value of social media for teachers professional development - in that it provides direct access to the information needed to support teachers own inquiries into their practice. (Melhuish 2013)

References:

Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrieved on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han...

Office of Ed Tech. (2013, Sep 18). Connected Educators. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=216&v=K4Vd4JP_DB8

NZ Teachers (primary) Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1390088457960727/ 

Sharples, M., de Roock , R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Looi,C-K, McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller, M., Wong, L. H. (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Retrieved from http://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf

Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

With such a changing world including changes in society, education, social roles, rights and responsibilities, global connectivity and ethnic diversity - ethical dilemmas are on the increase. For teachers - arriving at a decision that is respected by all stakeholders as being fair and just is difficult and we are required to go through a process for each incident or possible problem as 'one size does not always fit all'. Hall (2001) suggests asking this question "What I ought to do, all things considered?" when exploring ethical problems. It does make it difficult to provide clear guidelines for teachers with such an individual, case by case approach to issues. Our school has clear policies and procedures to guide most events and activities but they are fairly black and white and do not lend them self to the approach suggested by Hall (2001). 

A possible ethical dilemma linked to digital or online access... 

Digital platforms have publicised the work of students and the feedback they receive from teachers, peers and members of their whanau and wider community. This in itself is a possible ethical dilemma as it exposes the work of students who may or may not feel comfortable about having their work made public. Sometimes this could have a negative impact for students whose opinions and thoughts are different to the majority, or for students who are not able to produce the same quality of work as others and who previously would have had a more private channel between the teacher and themselves. As teachers we see collaboration as a healthy sharing and growth of many skills required to learn and work in the 21st century. These assignments have highlighted the possible ethical dilemmas that modern teaching practice could pose.

The Code Of Ethics for Certified Teachers guides our schools social media policies - some points in particular on our commitment to learners relate directly to this possible dilemma:

Teachers will strive to:

• cater for the varied learning needs of diverse learners,
• promote the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual wellbeing of learners,
• protect the confidentiality of information about learners obtained in the course of professional service, consistent with legal requirements.

While these points support digital and collaborative practice in eduction - especially as these practices encourage and cater for the sharing of diverse ideas - perhaps greater consideration could be given to a students thoughts about sharing their work on an online platform, receiving public feedback on their work and even consciously noticing whether technology has enhanced the quality of work and wellbeing for the child.

I chose to use the set of questions from Hall (2001) as a guide as I worked through this ethical issue.

• Which stakeholder should be given priority? Why?
• What restrictions are there to your actions?
• Which courses of action are possible?
• How should the course of action be implemented? 

Also this Code of Ethics diagram illustrates 4 important domains that need to be considered when addressing ethical issues in an attempt to make the decision fair and just with "all things considered" Hall (2001).

References:

Education Council. (n.d). The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-et...

Hall, A. (2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers

Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Responsiveness in my practice

My critical understanding of indigenous knowledge (IK) and cultural responsiveness (CR) ...

Warren (1991) talks about indigenous knowledge being local knowledge and the basis for local-level decision-making. It is knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation. Cultural responsiveness is both visible and invisible ie; it can be visible through music and art or invisible through values, beliefs and feelings (Teaching Tolerance, 2010). It is how we draw out and include culture in our classrooms that make us culturally responsive teachers. The best example that springs to mind is through the use of comprehension strategies in a guided reading group when we as teachers draw out prior knowledge and make connections to the child's world as we learn to read.

How has my school been informed by IK & CR pedagogy in 

• vision, mission and values?

Our School has recently involved the community in a revamp of our vision and values. The parents, teachers and students have been involved in selecting the words that best represent us as a school to define our beliefs of what is important. The opinions were sought via digital survey and via written submission. On reflection some groups may have preferred to orally share their ideas and a meeting could have been arranged to welcome this input from these groups in our community. 

• resources?

Our resources are both tangible in the form of books and digital devices - and also in the form of people as in teachers, teacher aides and other experts. This is an area I think we could do better to improve our practice as a culturally responsive school. Not only in the resources we purchase but by inviting families into our classrooms more often, asking representatives to help transition children from their previous schools, early childhood centres, visiting children in these centres and enabling students to bring their prior knowledge, values and beliefs along with them. 

The Pacifika evaluation tool:

Participation, Engagement, Achievement

The school involves parents and families to support students and the schools activities by:

• encouraging parent helpers in our classrooms and for out of classroom activities
• being involved in 3 way interviews - teacher, parents, child
• having home/school homework links
• regular communication via newsletter, face-book, text message
• inviting whanau 1 every term to be part of our celebration of learning in each classroom

The school ensures it's vision, mission and core values reflect cultural responsiveness by:

• involving the whole community in a review of the vision, mission and core values
• collating data collected and changing signage, in class teaching and learning focus to reflect new vision and values.

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

Warren, D. M. (1991). Using indigenous knowledge in agricultural development (No. 127). World Bank.

Practice - Broader Professional Context

Focusing questions:

What are the Key issues facing the NZ education system and what should be done?

Three key issues facing the educations system as outlined by the Education Review Office (Evaluation at a Glance, 2012) are:

1. Shifting the focus to student-centred learning.
2. Knowledgeably implement a responsive and rich curriculum.
3. Using assessment information to know about, and plan for, students' learning.

The issue most relevant to my practice is 'Shifting the focus to student-centred learning'. As a leader in my school I am constantly involved with driving best teaching and learning practice and encouraging teachers to consider what's working and what's not. We have recently made big gains in seeing this happen effectively across the school through the introduction of 'TAPs' (Teacher Action Plans). Each teacher, each term, and for each of the three core subjects - reading, writing and maths, completes a 'teaching as inquiry' process by recording all children into below, at and above groups and drills down on data to determine what's important to each group and what's worth spending time on. Reflection at the end of each term is a big part of the success of this process. Teachers springboard their whole term from this one action plan - it keeps everyone focused on the students.

The global mega-trends: 

1. Individual Empowerment 
2. Diffusion of Power 
3. Demographic Patterns 
4. Food, Water, Energy Nexus

1 contemporary issue/trend in NZ/internationally that I find most relevant to my practice....

I find Demographic Patterns the mega-trend most relevant to my practice. Factors such as greater economic opportunities as people seek to raise their standard of living mean that migration rates are rising.  Other reasons such as climate-change driven migration will also increase in the future. Transport is more accessible meaning the world is becoming increasingly multi-cultural and schools are faced with rising diversity and the "need to prepare students for a global life." (p 30, OECD, 2016) Our school has had a recent surge in ESOL funded children who require specialist teaching and a supply of appropriate resources. School climate and culture changes are anticipated and this issue being a global mega-trend - is only just beginning! The future focus in our school will be to consider how we can better prepare for students from different cultures, how we utilise teacher and teacher aid resources, and what is our responsibility in sharing and teaching community values?

References:

Education Review Office. (2012). Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand Schools. Retrieved 18 May 2016, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Evaluation-at-a-Glance-Priority-Learners-in-New-Zealand-Schools-August-2012.pdf

KPMG International. (2014). Future state 2030: the global megatrends shaping governments”. KPMG International Cooperative: USA. Retrieved from http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/future-state-government/Documents/future-state-2030-v3.pdf

National Intelligence Council. (2012). Global trends: Alternative Worlds. National Intelligence Council: US. Retrieved from https://globaltrends2030.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/global-trends-2030-november2012.pdf

OECD. (2016). Trends Shaping Education 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2016-en

Socioeconomic factors, school culture and professional environments.

The socioeconomic status:

Although Windsor North School has a decile rating of 9 and is zoned it doesn't seem to marry with our school community as we have a large number of out of zone pupils, along with our in zone pupils seeming to come from a growing number of lower socioeconomic families. Our ESOL roll is increasing rapidly as with many other Southland schools and plans for a regional initiative to grow our population will see many more multi-cultural families arriving through SoRDS (Southland Regional Development Strategy) where up to 10.000 people are anticipated to transfer into Southland by 2025.

The organisational culture:

I like the reference to the climate of the school being 'how does it feel?' (Academy for SELinschools, 1998). As a walking DP I am frequently observing lessons across all levels of the school and find myself repeatedly commenting about the 'great feel' in our classrooms. The culture runs deeper though - it's how we do things and over the past 2 years we have recorded many of these things by generating a 'what does writing/maths/reading etc look like at WNS?' These delivery plans were generated by collecting and agreeing on what we value and what we put time and effort into. It is a great resource for new staff and is also valuable to revisit and self reflect upon from time to time. I am thinking that the MOE's introduction of CoLs (Communities of Learning) would need very careful consideration of the different cultures in different schools and the variance in what's important due to differing values and traditions embedded there.

Our school opened 140 years ago in 1877 and is steeped in tradition but has a recent infusion of modern practice with a new management team 4 years ago. The school has a leadership team that encourages reflective, collaborative, improving practice with a focus on developing 21st century skills in both teachers and students. Most staff and community members have embraced the changes as our school goes through the 're-culture' process (Stoll, 1998).

The professional environment:

On reflecting on the various readings this week (Stoll, 1998) I feel I could have placed more importance on understanding our school culture as a starting point in leading change towards school improvement. I see the important role of leadership in relation to school culture and appreciate that culture is "shaped by its history, context and the people in it". (Pg 9 Stoll, 1998).

However it is heartening to see that we embed every one of the 'Norms of Improving Schools'! - especially in that we have 'mutual respect', 'collegiality' and a big dose of 'celebration and humour'.

References:

Academy for SELinSchools. ( 2015, Apr 28).What is school culture and climate? [video file].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-_NvhlcusQ

Stoll. (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London.