Week 32: Changes in my Practice

When I think about what I have achieved during the last 32 weeks, words can not explain how I really feel. The experience has been mindblowing and affirming all at the same time. I have enjoyed sharing and meeting with like-minded people on the same journey while learning how to implement ideas, learning new ways of looking at things, applying what I have learned to the classroom context and analyzing my leadership style. The course has also been affirming of my practice and knowing I am on the right track leading IT at my school. I have some new ideas about blended learning and how to implement this and I am excited about what lays ahead in the future.

Collaborating with others during the first 16 week part of the course has been fabulous. I have really enjoyed listening to others sharing their experiences and learning. Learning alongside others in my profession has been inspirational. I have enjoyed reading the articles and readings as they have relevant to the learning.  It has been a real journey.  I am a reflective practitioner, before the mindlab course I kept my reflections to myself. Sharing my reflections on a blog has been challenging but I have enjoyed reading others reflections and it has been reassuring that others have felt the same or are experiencing similar experiences. Osterman and Kottcamp mention that "to gain a new level of insight into personal behaviour, the reflective practitioner assumes a dual stance, being, on one hand, the actor in a drama and, on the other hand, the critic who sits in the audience watching and analysing the entire performance. To achieve this perspective, individuals must come to an understanding of their own behaviour; they must develop a conscious awareness of their own actions and effects and the ideas or theories-in-use that shape their action strategies". I have learnt much about myself during the 32 week course.

I was the only person who took part at my school and have found it really hard especially with the online latter part of the programme. I have found it challenging keeping up the workload, not knowing if I was on the right track, I found it easier when we met as a class and were able to discuss parts of the course as this was reaffirming.

Criterion 4

Fully certified teachers demonstrate a commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice.

Key indicators:

• Identify professional learning goals in consultation with colleagues.
• Participate responsively in professional learning opportunities within the learning community.
• Initiate learning opportunities to advance personal professional knowledge and skills.

One of the areas I have implemented since my involvement in the Mindlab postgrad was teacher portfolios using isites google application. I am a team leader and wanted to engage my team in system that was more engaging and reflective for them. As a team we each started up our own teacher portfolio at the beginning of the year. Every time we meet as a team, once a week, we added to our isite page, using evidence for each criterion.  We as a team identified learning goals we wanted to focus on, which my team co-constructed and engaged in professional development meeting their goals. My team actively engaged in learning opportunities to advance their professional knowledge in areas they identified.  Every time we met as a team our conversations were always pedagogical driven.

Criterion 5

Fully certified teachers show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.

Key indicators:

• Actively contribute to the professional learning community.
• Undertake areas of responsibility effectively.

During the 32 week course, I have been able to put together a strategic plan for IT at our school.  I have run workshops for staff teaching them how to use applications and developed a blended learning model for my school. I have been able to share what I have learned through the mindlab course.

My next dream, I have decided to continue with my study, I have inquired about doing my Masters in education through Waikato University. I am a lifelong learner,  I want to continue to pursue research in areas I have been introduced to through engaging in the mindlab course. I want to be the best I can be for my students.

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

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.

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

Week 31: Critically discuss the interdisciplinary connections in practice

For quite a few years I have integrated as many curriculum areas when I engage my students in inquiry. Interdisciplinary, inquiry-based learning engages students by helping them see the connections. This term, for example, teaching the science and technology process preparing students for the school-wide science fair integrates English, Science, Technology, Mathematics and engages students in real-life problem solving for humanity. 

I also teach Future Problem Solving. This is an international programme that engages students in a problem in the future sand they have to work collaboratively to solve it, by coming up with an action plan. Future Problem Solving can also be integrated. 

The notes I took on the video provided in our class task area: teaching through an interdisciplinary model creates a holistic empathetic horizon, rather than students learning myopically, they gain an understanding of the world, through collaboration cross pollination takes place, connections happen through cultural experiences. Students become engineers and technologists, there is a shared language.  For me this is exciting and learning becomes exciting for the students, they are driven by their own interest.

There is one area I would like my interdisciplinary connection to improve. My students have the opportunity to attend a number of specialist areas within our school. These specialist areas are dance and drama, hard materials, food technology, visual arts and digitech. My team collaboratively plan together each term, we have an umbrella topic that has come from the students. When my team collaboratively plan we would very much like to include the specialist team, to engage them in the inquiry, it would be great if the students could use this time to incorporate what they are learning in class and apply this to something they could make or create within the specialist areas rather than learning something that is totally separate or myopically. Their specialist class visit I believe would be more meaningful to their learning and they would have the opportunity to make further connections. 

This would mean that the specialist team would need to join my team when we collaboratively plan for the terms theme. The students would have the opportunity to use the specialist space to inquire further into their inquiry. 

The model above highlights for an interdisciplinary connection to be successful, common goals need to be identified and communication is at the forefront of the successful model. Everyone needs to be on the same page. 

The most cited conditions or success in interdisciplinary approaches cohere with these trends. 'Success stories in the interdisciplinary/integrated literature cite the following conditions as necessary for the adoption of new curricular models to occur; continued participation in and ownership of the curricular design; the flexibility to explore different models and make adjustments when needed; consistent and continual time for planning and discussion; access to resources, resource groups, feedback and training'. 

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

American Association of Colleges of Nursing.(2016). Interdisciplinary Education and Practice. Retrieved fromhttp://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/position/interdisciplinary-education-and-practice

Berg-Weger, M., &. Schneider, F. D. (1998). Interdisciplinary collaboration in social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 34, 97-107.

Hardré, P. L., Ling, C., Shehab, R. L., Nanny, M. A., Nollert, M. U., Refai, H., ... & Wollega, E. D. (2013). Teachers in an Interdisciplinary Learning Community Engaging, Integrating, and Strengthening K-12 Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(5), 409-425.

Week 30 Professional online social networks

Over a few years, I have used many digital platforms to connect. I am a LinkedIn user, I love pinterist, I have a facebook page, but am careful who I connect with and are an active user of many groups on facebook. I have a twitter account. I also have a class blog and I enjoy looking through other classroom blogs. I have used a class blog for a number of years. When I first started to engage in blogs, students enjoyed posting their work online and seeking feedback.  There was much teaching around giving appropriate feedback and what to comment on. Parents also got involved with commenting and the students were very excited when their parents were involved. It was a way of conencting the community. 

A few years ago my class were asked to be part of a collaborative unit of work with a school in North Carolina USA. Each class told their story. I divided my class into small groups of pairs or threes. As a class we brainstormed how we could share our story of agriculture, horticulture, population and population density, land use, water quality, opportunities, and culture. We skyped each other, and even though the time difference wasn't quite right, my students were keen to come to class at 6.30 am in the morning for breakfast and hot milo's just to engage in conversations with students from North Carolina. 

The teachers involved; myself and the teacher of the 'science' class at the North Carolina school, we collaboratively planned the unit of work through google docs. We shared our curriculum documents with each other and created a classroom blog for each class so we could watch, learn and feedback on each stage of the process. 

This experience had a huge impact on my students, every day they contributed in some way to the blog. 

Some of the challenges we experienced were maintaining the communication. With the busyness of other things for both classes, often there was no communication, then we had to set time aside to make sure we had communicated. This happens now with my current blog. I find unless you designate a specific time the blog does not get updated. I have a year 8 class and we are so busy with so many things that to keep the class blog updated takes time. I am also finding, students are becoming more aware of what it means to have work posted online, many students like the idea, but there are quite a few students who do not wish to have their work posted online because they have had a bad experience. Parents are now very busy, I have some parents who take part with the class blog. One way I engage my parents is including them in photostreams of the students eg; camp experiences. 

I enjoy looking through the twitter feeds on specific groups. I also enjoy looking through the primary teacher's facebook page and secondary school Facebook page. I am also a member of a science facebook page. Facebook is blocked at our school so I usually find time later in the evening to lurk through posts. There are some very creative teachers out there who are prepared to share their experiences. The Linkin links often share professional readings as do twitter feeds. These are great reads from people who are like minded. Karen Melhuish is one person I follow. I also follow VLN groups, over the years these groups have been a great resource to ask questions about all sorts of areas related to IT.  

Karen Melhuish thesis is an interesting read especially with regards to the delivery of teacher professional development. Networking in a social media forum is really conducive. It is a place to ask questions, get support, share experiences with many professionals. 

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...

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

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 fromhttp://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf

Silius, K., Miilumäki, T.,Huhtamäki, J.,Tebest, T., Meriläinen, J., & Pohjolainen, S.(2010) ‘Students’ motivations for social media enhanced studying and learning.’ Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 2, (1). Retrieved on 7th May,2015 from http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-p.