Well here we go - hard to believe this journey is coming to an end. Fitting study into my already busy life has certainly been a challenge at times, and I can't deny I'm very much looking forward to submitting this final assessment. I also found that completing the second half of the course, mostly in isolation, was challenging after enjoying such engaging sessions for the first 16 weeks. However I would still wholeheartedly recommend this course to all educators. I'm really excited that two of my colleagues are about to embark on it next week and I am looking forward to sharing in their learning. I believe that the course has taught me a lot of practical skills and given me exciting tools to work with, however more than that it has shifted my whole approach to education and made me a passionate advocate for 21st Century teaching and learning. If you stumble across this blog and are not already a student, do yourself a favour and enrol!
As a summary of our learning we have been asked to reflect on our whole programme in relation to the 12 Practising Teacher Criteria (PTC) in e-learning, choosing three which we feel we have met well.
I think first and foremost, by the very nature of this study, I am meeting Criteria 4: "Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional practice". Not only through completing this postgraduate programme, but through how motivated it has made me for future learning. I have always enjoyed PD sessions, however now I am even more aware of the importance of teacher as learner and how vital it is to be seeking new learning all the time. I also have now broadened this view to engaging in online professional learning opportunities through Twitter and Facebook groups.
Though the collaboration aspect is still a work in progress, I feel I am doing well in regards to Criteria 7: "Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment". This course has brought home to me the importance of learning spaces being collaborative - completely unrelated to whether they are ILEs or not. Having based my literature review and inquiry plan on nurturing these skills in my young students, I'm now working hard with my new teaching partner to create a learning space that encourages collaboration between us as teachers, between us and the students, and between the students themselves - whilst fostering a happy and supportive environment.
Lastly, especially with a new role this year, I am working well in relation to Criteria 5: "Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning". This year I have been given the opportunity to take on the position of Syndicate Leader, allowing me to engage with leadership to a greater degree, particularly with the implementation of ICT and helping to foster change in our school as we move further down the collaborative teaching path. I have learnt a lot about leadership throughout this course, both in general terms and in particular relation to myself and my own skills. It is so exciting to be able to put this into practice and bring my new learning back to my school.
In direct contrast to this, however, I am also identifying leadership as one of my main goals for future development. I have listed it as something I'm doing well because I feel I'm bringing back new learning from the Mind Lab and helping to lead change within our school environment. However as mentioned, I am brand new to this leadership position and have much to learn in terms of the larger implications of what is involved. I am learning every day and doing an effective job in this role is a key focus for me at the moment.
My other main goal as I move on from Mind Lab is in regards to Criteria 9 + 10: "Respond effectively to the diverse and cultural experiences and the varied strengths, interests and needs of individuals and groups of Äkonga" and "Work effectively within the bicultural context of Aotearoa NZ". I identified in my previous post that cultural responsiveness was an aspect of my practice I hoped to improve on. I'm fortunate to be working with a teacher this year whose expertise lies in this area so I hope to draw on this and learn as much as possible. As we implement our new collaborative and self-management systems I also hope to generally be far more individualised in the way we cater for individual strengths and interests of the children.
And that is where I leave this study and this blog! I hope to continue my blogging practice as a reflective tool but will be moving on from this postgraduate context. Thank you to all who read along the way, and good luck if you are embarking on the course yourself! You won't regret it.
Reference:
Ministry of Education (nd). Practising Teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/..
Saturday, 12 March 2016
APC Activity 9 - Cultural Responsiveness
In reading the class notes for this topic, I liked the reminder that culture is not exclusive to race or ethnicity, but comprises the unique features of a community. The notes also include this summary and outline of cultural responsiveness:
Cultural responsiveness is a relationship based approach which allows for culturally appropriate responses to diverse communities based on a range of factors:This week we are sharing our views on our own indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy, then considering how our school addresses cultural responsiveness.
- The capacity to work with the community to support culturally appropriate programs and practices
- The necessary resources to create and support programs, policies, and
- Practices that are culturally responsive to community needs
- Strategic collaborations to enhance cultural responsiveness
I would consider my own knowledge and pedagogy as constantly evolving. My knowledge is there and I certainly make attempts at making my pedagogy as responsive as possible, but it is an area I need - and want - to improve in. I feel I have an inherent respect for diversity, however am not always actively putting it into practice in my teaching.
In this video, principal Mike Hogan refers to the tokenism we can end up with if due attention isn't given to culture. This is something I'm particularly aware of in my own practice, and am sometimes nervous that my attempts at cultural responsiveness will actually be tokenistic and surface level. This can sometimes put me off altogether.
Our school certainly addresses cultural responsiveness, and I believe we are doing so in a very genuine way. There is always more to do and more to learn but our community and staff have a real desire to make this a priority.
An area in which we do particularly well is school-wide activities - which also includes community connections. We have introduced a number of new initiatives over the last couple of years such as a whole school karakia and waiata every morning, a powhiri to welcome new students and staff at the beginning of every term, community hui and whole school hangi. These have all been a huge success and are now a well-established part of our school culture. They also involved extensive involvement of and assistance from the community, both at execution and planning stages. Our morning karakia in particular reflects our school approach, and gets many positive comments and reactions from visitors.
Though I do not presume to speak for all my colleagues, I feel that an area we are still working on is bringing this responsiveness more specifically into our planning, assessment and learning activities. As mentioned above, this is a personal goal of mine and something I find quite difficult. I believe as a school in general it is challenging as well. We are, however, making a concerted effort to improve all the time, drawing on experts in our staff and community, and learning from each other. I have no doubt that all staff are mindful and respectful of all cultures, and this is a central value in our school. It is the specific application that can be harder to enact.
References:
Edtalks.(2012, May 30). Mike Hogan: Culturally responsive practice in a mainstream school. [video file].Retrieved fromhttps://vimeo.com/43097812
APC Activity 8 - Legal Contexts + Digital Identities
This week's topic is a fascinating one, particularly off the back of social media last week. It is undeniable that as rich and valuable a resource the internet and online communications are, there are potential risks and dangers involved if these tools are not used in a safe and mindful manner.
This short video available here was in our media selections this week and I loved its core message: safety concerns should not stop social networking! But it is vitally important to be aware of your purpose in using them.
Consideration of this topic also prompted a revisit and refresher on the Code of Ethics for teachers. Reduced to its four main points, it is a commitment to Learners, Whanau, Society and the Profession. No great surprises there, but as teachers it is central to our practice and something worth taking the time to reflect on. When specifically considering ethics related to digital or online access, I feel the points about student wellbeing and confidentiality are most pertinent. Though these issues are becoming more complex all the time.
In this activity we are asked to discuss a situation (either actual or imagined) where there was an ethical dilemma surrounding digital/online activity. I did have such an issue occur in relation to my own class blog about a year ago, which does demonstrate how we have to be constantly reevaluating our position on these issues.
I first started my own class blog as part of a teaching inquiry in 2014 with my single cell class of year ones. Though other teachers had dabbled in the past, at that stage I was the only teacher with an active blog up and running. I was very aware of privacy concerns, so was careful to set up systems that would be safe for students and families. I made it my policy that I would publish photos of children (if their parents/caregivers had given permission to the school) but only ever use first names. This was in line with our school approach to publishing photos, such as in the newsletter. Everyone involved was happy with this arrangement for the six months I ran the blog.
Then when I set up a blog in 2015 for our new collaborative team, I put out a notice advising of my same policy. This time, however, I was approached by a parent who was unhappy with this. They had known of an instance where someone had used a school website to identify a child by their first name, then attempted to actually go to the school and call out to the child by name, trying to convince them that they knew them and it was safe to go with this unknown adult. This was not a scenario that had occurred to me, but I of course could not deny the validity of their concern - sad as it is to have to take such things into account!
So what next? I discussed the concern with a number of colleagues as well as our management team, as it had implications for our online policies in general as well. There were also other teams intending to start blogs of their own. I did experience some initial disappointment, as it seemed to take away from some of the celebratory nature of the blog. Especially if someone had won an award; no longer could I say 'Congratulations Johnny' with a photo of his proud face below! However the immediate action I took was indeed to change our blog policy. Here is how it stands now on my current blog: Blog Guidelines. The key point is "photos and names will NOT be used directly together in order to ensure children are not identified online". I also go on to give particular instructions around this in terms of families leaving their own comments on our blog.
We also addressed the issue in our school Guidelines for Online Publication. Parents now are asked to give permission for their child to "appear in photos and videos on team blogs, on the school's You Tube account, and other online media associated with the school with no mention of my child's name".
It took a while to adjust to writing the blog in this new way, however it hasn't actually taken away from the experience at all and we are now ensuring the safety and security of our students as much as possible, while still allowing them to be able to be involved in this celebration of our learning.
References:
New Zealand Teachers Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520
Education Council (nd). The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certficated Teachers. Retrieved fromhttp://www.educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0
This short video available here was in our media selections this week and I loved its core message: safety concerns should not stop social networking! But it is vitally important to be aware of your purpose in using them.
Consideration of this topic also prompted a revisit and refresher on the Code of Ethics for teachers. Reduced to its four main points, it is a commitment to Learners, Whanau, Society and the Profession. No great surprises there, but as teachers it is central to our practice and something worth taking the time to reflect on. When specifically considering ethics related to digital or online access, I feel the points about student wellbeing and confidentiality are most pertinent. Though these issues are becoming more complex all the time.
In this activity we are asked to discuss a situation (either actual or imagined) where there was an ethical dilemma surrounding digital/online activity. I did have such an issue occur in relation to my own class blog about a year ago, which does demonstrate how we have to be constantly reevaluating our position on these issues.
I first started my own class blog as part of a teaching inquiry in 2014 with my single cell class of year ones. Though other teachers had dabbled in the past, at that stage I was the only teacher with an active blog up and running. I was very aware of privacy concerns, so was careful to set up systems that would be safe for students and families. I made it my policy that I would publish photos of children (if their parents/caregivers had given permission to the school) but only ever use first names. This was in line with our school approach to publishing photos, such as in the newsletter. Everyone involved was happy with this arrangement for the six months I ran the blog.
Then when I set up a blog in 2015 for our new collaborative team, I put out a notice advising of my same policy. This time, however, I was approached by a parent who was unhappy with this. They had known of an instance where someone had used a school website to identify a child by their first name, then attempted to actually go to the school and call out to the child by name, trying to convince them that they knew them and it was safe to go with this unknown adult. This was not a scenario that had occurred to me, but I of course could not deny the validity of their concern - sad as it is to have to take such things into account!
So what next? I discussed the concern with a number of colleagues as well as our management team, as it had implications for our online policies in general as well. There were also other teams intending to start blogs of their own. I did experience some initial disappointment, as it seemed to take away from some of the celebratory nature of the blog. Especially if someone had won an award; no longer could I say 'Congratulations Johnny' with a photo of his proud face below! However the immediate action I took was indeed to change our blog policy. Here is how it stands now on my current blog: Blog Guidelines. The key point is "photos and names will NOT be used directly together in order to ensure children are not identified online". I also go on to give particular instructions around this in terms of families leaving their own comments on our blog.
We also addressed the issue in our school Guidelines for Online Publication. Parents now are asked to give permission for their child to "appear in photos and videos on team blogs, on the school's You Tube account, and other online media associated with the school with no mention of my child's name".
It took a while to adjust to writing the blog in this new way, however it hasn't actually taken away from the experience at all and we are now ensuring the safety and security of our students as much as possible, while still allowing them to be able to be involved in this celebration of our learning.
References:
New Zealand Teachers Council.(2012). Establishing safeguards.[video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49216520
Education Council (nd). The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certficated Teachers. Retrieved fromhttp://www.educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0
Sunday, 6 March 2016
APC Activity 7 - Social Media
Well this is a topic close to my heart! I feel very passionately about the importance and benefits of social media in education, and cannot stress enough how valuable I feel online communication tools are.
Two of the videos on our portal this week I think are worth sharing, and give a great introduction to this subject. The first is a teacher who uses social media extensively in her classroom with her students, and gives a snapshot as to how this can be done, even with young students:
The second rings very true to me and is all about Connected Educators, and how being connected online is not only valuable, but essential in today's education context:
Even as someone already converted, I come away from watching these videos re-inspired and itching to explore the latest posts in my Twitter feed!
The Education Council defines social media as embracing "web-based and mobile-based technologies to facilitate interactive communication between organisations, communities and individuals". Interactive communication is the key phrase here. The ITL Rubrics identify collaboration and skilled communication as essential 21st Century Skills, not to mention use of ICT for learning. First and foremost, these are skills our students need now in order to live and work in the 21st Century. However it is not just learning the skills themselves, it is the incredible learning that comes from having an entire world at your fingertips.
Extending my use of social media in the classroom is a personal goal of mine, as I have only scratched the surface with my students. Our class blog is a fantastic tool for sharing information and learning, and we use it daily in our learning space. However it is currently teacher led and I'm looking forward to increasing student ownership of this process. The children are also building their own online portfolios through Seesaw and as well as sharing learning, they learn a lot about online feedback and commenting. I also plan to have a class Twitter account going later this year so that we can start communicating with other classes around the world.
There are, of course, challenges involved, particularly around cyber safety. However I feel that is another argument for including social media in our teaching programme, to help children learn to be safe online and use these tools appropriately. The same applies to students finding it a distraction - we need to teach our kids the skills needed to be efficient and mindful users of technology.
When it comes to my professional development, Twitter has had by far the biggest impact on my practice. One thing that makes it stand out is that my account is a professional one, and purely dedicated to education. So I can easily dip in and out and only see content relevant to teaching and learning. The scheduled chats are what makes Twitter really come into its own though. I have been time poor this year so far and only managed a couple, but they are SO worthwhile in terms of sharing, challenging, exploring and connecting.
I am also increasingly seeing the value in Facebook groups and have got more out of this recently. I have dabbled in the VLN and received great insight from my small experience. I also plan to keep an educational blog up after MindLab finishes and start building a list of others to visit regularly.
As the Connected Educators video says above, we promote being lifelong learners so we need to walk the talk and get out there ourselves!
References:
Education Council, Teachers & Social Media, Retrieved 6 March 2016, from http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/
21st Century Learning Reference Group, ITL Research, Retrieved 5 March 2016, from http://www.itlresearch.com/images/stories/reports/21cld%20learning%20activity%20rubrics%202012.pdf
Two of the videos on our portal this week I think are worth sharing, and give a great introduction to this subject. The first is a teacher who uses social media extensively in her classroom with her students, and gives a snapshot as to how this can be done, even with young students:
The second rings very true to me and is all about Connected Educators, and how being connected online is not only valuable, but essential in today's education context:
Even as someone already converted, I come away from watching these videos re-inspired and itching to explore the latest posts in my Twitter feed!
The Education Council defines social media as embracing "web-based and mobile-based technologies to facilitate interactive communication between organisations, communities and individuals". Interactive communication is the key phrase here. The ITL Rubrics identify collaboration and skilled communication as essential 21st Century Skills, not to mention use of ICT for learning. First and foremost, these are skills our students need now in order to live and work in the 21st Century. However it is not just learning the skills themselves, it is the incredible learning that comes from having an entire world at your fingertips.
Extending my use of social media in the classroom is a personal goal of mine, as I have only scratched the surface with my students. Our class blog is a fantastic tool for sharing information and learning, and we use it daily in our learning space. However it is currently teacher led and I'm looking forward to increasing student ownership of this process. The children are also building their own online portfolios through Seesaw and as well as sharing learning, they learn a lot about online feedback and commenting. I also plan to have a class Twitter account going later this year so that we can start communicating with other classes around the world.
There are, of course, challenges involved, particularly around cyber safety. However I feel that is another argument for including social media in our teaching programme, to help children learn to be safe online and use these tools appropriately. The same applies to students finding it a distraction - we need to teach our kids the skills needed to be efficient and mindful users of technology.
When it comes to my professional development, Twitter has had by far the biggest impact on my practice. One thing that makes it stand out is that my account is a professional one, and purely dedicated to education. So I can easily dip in and out and only see content relevant to teaching and learning. The scheduled chats are what makes Twitter really come into its own though. I have been time poor this year so far and only managed a couple, but they are SO worthwhile in terms of sharing, challenging, exploring and connecting.
I am also increasingly seeing the value in Facebook groups and have got more out of this recently. I have dabbled in the VLN and received great insight from my small experience. I also plan to keep an educational blog up after MindLab finishes and start building a list of others to visit regularly.
As the Connected Educators video says above, we promote being lifelong learners so we need to walk the talk and get out there ourselves!
References:
Education Council, Teachers & Social Media, Retrieved 6 March 2016, from http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/
21st Century Learning Reference Group, ITL Research, Retrieved 5 March 2016, from http://www.itlresearch.com/images/stories/reports/21cld%20learning%20activity%20rubrics%202012.pdf
APC Activity 6 - Contemporary Trends
In this
activity we’ve been asked to identify two contemporary issues or trends that
are influencing education, which we find particularly relevant to our own
practice.
I find this a fascinating topic, as we are in such a state of hyper change at the moment that education is under particular pressure to adapt, while being simultaneously affected by a multitude of trends, both in society in general and more specifically in an education context.
In their 2012 report, ERO identified the “three most pressing issues” for our education system. The first of these was the need to shift the focus to student-centred learning. I find it very interesting that the report notes that New Zealand prides itself on this, yet practice is often still not matching these ideals. In my experience and talks with colleagues, there is no shortage of desire to make this shift, however I agree that in actuality it doesn’t always happen, and meeting ‘official’ requirements regularly gets in the way. This is, however, in my opinion the most important issue that needs to be addressed in education worldwide.
I am fortunate that my school embraces this approach and we have a heavy focus on students taking control of and managing their own learning. It relates closely to self regulation, which is also identified in the ITL Activity Rubrics as one of the key 21st Century skills required by our students. I am attempting to address this with my teaching partner as we embrace collaborative practice and endeavour to put systems in place that enable students to make choices about how and what they learn, and give them the chance to take ownership over this process. We are creating a ‘stations’ approach in our space which encourages the children to make choices around their tasks. We also try to follow student interest wherever possible, and keep our learning relevant to our learners!
CORE Education also identify trends that are likely to have the largest impact on New Zealand education, and their 2016 Top Ten can be found here. The trend that particularly stood out to me was ‘Community Focus’, in which they include things like strategies for engaging parents, using portfolios, and effective community participation.
This is something I’m working hard on in my own context at the moment. We have started using the programme Seesaw to build online portfolios and encourage parent engagement and involvement in children’s learning. It makes such a difference to the students’ own engagement when they have a chance to share and a greater audience and purpose to their learning tasks. Our class blog is another medium in which we communicate with families. I first started a blog two years ago and have had overwhelmingly positive feedback and a huge increase in community engagement. With today’s technology we have so much more scope to encourage this participation and should be utilising these opportunities!
References:
CORE Education (2016), Core Education's Ten Trends 2016, Retrieved 5 March 2016, from http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends
Education Review Office (2012), The three most pressing issues for New Zealand's education system, revealed in latest ERO report, Retrieved 5 March 2016, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Releases2/The-three-most-pressing-issues-for-New-Zealand-s-education-system-revealed-in-latest-ERO-report
21st Century Learning Reference Group, ITL Research, Retrieved 5 March 2016, from http://www.itlresearch.com/images/stories/reports/21cld%20learning%20activity%20rubrics%202012.pdf
I find this a fascinating topic, as we are in such a state of hyper change at the moment that education is under particular pressure to adapt, while being simultaneously affected by a multitude of trends, both in society in general and more specifically in an education context.
In their 2012 report, ERO identified the “three most pressing issues” for our education system. The first of these was the need to shift the focus to student-centred learning. I find it very interesting that the report notes that New Zealand prides itself on this, yet practice is often still not matching these ideals. In my experience and talks with colleagues, there is no shortage of desire to make this shift, however I agree that in actuality it doesn’t always happen, and meeting ‘official’ requirements regularly gets in the way. This is, however, in my opinion the most important issue that needs to be addressed in education worldwide.
I am fortunate that my school embraces this approach and we have a heavy focus on students taking control of and managing their own learning. It relates closely to self regulation, which is also identified in the ITL Activity Rubrics as one of the key 21st Century skills required by our students. I am attempting to address this with my teaching partner as we embrace collaborative practice and endeavour to put systems in place that enable students to make choices about how and what they learn, and give them the chance to take ownership over this process. We are creating a ‘stations’ approach in our space which encourages the children to make choices around their tasks. We also try to follow student interest wherever possible, and keep our learning relevant to our learners!
CORE Education also identify trends that are likely to have the largest impact on New Zealand education, and their 2016 Top Ten can be found here. The trend that particularly stood out to me was ‘Community Focus’, in which they include things like strategies for engaging parents, using portfolios, and effective community participation.
This is something I’m working hard on in my own context at the moment. We have started using the programme Seesaw to build online portfolios and encourage parent engagement and involvement in children’s learning. It makes such a difference to the students’ own engagement when they have a chance to share and a greater audience and purpose to their learning tasks. Our class blog is another medium in which we communicate with families. I first started a blog two years ago and have had overwhelmingly positive feedback and a huge increase in community engagement. With today’s technology we have so much more scope to encourage this participation and should be utilising these opportunities!
References:
CORE Education (2016), Core Education's Ten Trends 2016, Retrieved 5 March 2016, from http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends
Education Review Office (2012), The three most pressing issues for New Zealand's education system, revealed in latest ERO report, Retrieved 5 March 2016, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Releases2/The-three-most-pressing-issues-for-New-Zealand-s-education-system-revealed-in-latest-ERO-report
21st Century Learning Reference Group, ITL Research, Retrieved 5 March 2016, from http://www.itlresearch.com/images/stories/reports/21cld%20learning%20activity%20rubrics%202012.pdf
Monday, 8 February 2016
APC Activity 5 - Professional Connections
Following on from the last post, this task asks us to examine our current and potential professional connections. I used Popplet to create this visual map of my connections:
Choose two professional connections you have in your map. Evaluate their impact on your practice and professional community.
I have mentioned it several times in this blog already, so it is probably no surprise that the first connection that comes to mind for me is Twitter. I may well be coming across as a stuck record, but I cannot emphasise enough the impact that Twitter is having on my practice. I had signed up for it a long time ago and never really 'got' it. In fact I was quite disdainful about the site and saw it as full of mindless celebrity shenanigans. However after going to 2 or 3 professional development sessions in a row whose main message seemed to be "Get on Twitter!" (even though they were about unrelated topics) I started to realise the professional potential. I created my account from scratch as purely education related (with a wee dash of wildlife and conservation) and started to see some exciting things pop up in my feed. However it wasn't until Mind Lab and getting my head around scheduled chats that my interest really took off. I now try and participate in various chats as often as possible. It is so exciting to engage with like-minded professionals who share, advise and inspire. I get all sorts of ideas for my practice and am kept up to date with exciting things happening in education. This has had a huge impact on me as an individual, but I also try and share regularly with my school community and am encouraging everyone to get on there themselves!
The other connection I have forged in recent months which has had a significant impact for me is my Mind Lab cohort. While I have learnt an amazing amount from the course content, probably the most valuable thing for me about the course has been the time spent sharing, collaborating and engaging with other professionals as excited about new things as I am. We are absolutely spoilt with the global connections available to us through the internet, however there is nothing quite like face to face and the weekly sessions in the first half of this course were some of the most inspiring hours I've spent during my education career. Now that we are not able to catch up in person so regularly, however, I am very glad this connection has extended online with the Google + community and contact I have with my particular group I got to know in the course. I am blessed with an awesome bunch of colleagues at my own school, however to now be able to reach beyond that and find out what others are doing in other contexts is having a profound impact on my own teaching and learning.
Choose two professional connections you have in your map. Evaluate their impact on your practice and professional community.
I have mentioned it several times in this blog already, so it is probably no surprise that the first connection that comes to mind for me is Twitter. I may well be coming across as a stuck record, but I cannot emphasise enough the impact that Twitter is having on my practice. I had signed up for it a long time ago and never really 'got' it. In fact I was quite disdainful about the site and saw it as full of mindless celebrity shenanigans. However after going to 2 or 3 professional development sessions in a row whose main message seemed to be "Get on Twitter!" (even though they were about unrelated topics) I started to realise the professional potential. I created my account from scratch as purely education related (with a wee dash of wildlife and conservation) and started to see some exciting things pop up in my feed. However it wasn't until Mind Lab and getting my head around scheduled chats that my interest really took off. I now try and participate in various chats as often as possible. It is so exciting to engage with like-minded professionals who share, advise and inspire. I get all sorts of ideas for my practice and am kept up to date with exciting things happening in education. This has had a huge impact on me as an individual, but I also try and share regularly with my school community and am encouraging everyone to get on there themselves!
The other connection I have forged in recent months which has had a significant impact for me is my Mind Lab cohort. While I have learnt an amazing amount from the course content, probably the most valuable thing for me about the course has been the time spent sharing, collaborating and engaging with other professionals as excited about new things as I am. We are absolutely spoilt with the global connections available to us through the internet, however there is nothing quite like face to face and the weekly sessions in the first half of this course were some of the most inspiring hours I've spent during my education career. Now that we are not able to catch up in person so regularly, however, I am very glad this connection has extended online with the Google + community and contact I have with my particular group I got to know in the course. I am blessed with an awesome bunch of colleagues at my own school, however to now be able to reach beyond that and find out what others are doing in other contexts is having a profound impact on my own teaching and learning.
APC Activity 4 - Communities of Practice
I have really enjoyed the emphasis on professional communities during my
Mind Lab studies, and something that has really stood out for me is the huge
importance and value of these. For this task we are looking at the concept of a
‘community of practice’.
For an excellent overview of this concept, see this webpage Introduction to Communities of Practice put
together by Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner. It puts forward the following
definition:
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.
It goes on to identify three key elements that must be present:
- The domain
- The community
- The practice
I see myself as part of a number of communities of practice, which as pointed
out on the webpage above, is common to most people. I like the concept of
becoming more aware of less obvious formal communities and being able to “perceive
the structures defined by engagement in practice and the informal learning that
comes with it”.
I would align myself primarily with three communities: my school, the
Bays Cluster and now the Mind Lab and associated Google + community. The
interactions within these are what makes them so beneficial. Within my school,
especially since moving to collaborative teams, we constantly share and learn
together. Our cluster has become closer and more active over the last few
years, and our regular professional development sessions and catch ups are an
invaluable chance to collaborate and problem-solve. Mind Lab has turned out to
be a fantastic community of practice which through Google + and personal
connections we have forged, I expect to extend far beyond the end date of this
course.
What are the current issues in your community? How would you or your
community of practice address them?
One of the biggest issues in our school and cluster community is the
move to MLEs and collaborative teams. This is only the second year into it for
most of us and we have all taken part in a massive learning curve. The fact
that we form such a strong community of practice is central to how we are
addressing this. We are in constant communication, both face to face and
digital, at a staff level, school level and cluster level. We exchange ideas,
share experiences and offer advice. We hope to spend even more time working
with other teams this year and taking opportunities to observe what each other
are doing.
What is your specialist area of practice? How does your specialist area
of practice relate to the broader professional context?
I have always had a keen interest in digital tools, and since commencing
my Mind Lab studies this has become somewhat my ‘specialist area’ though I
still have a lot to learn! I think this is becoming an increasingly important
area in our professional context as it is more and more vital for students and
teachers to be able to make the most of the amazing technology at our disposal.
We also need to prepare students for the world ahead of them and equip them
with vital 21st Century skills.
What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How do you
think you or your community of practice should address them?
Change is very much the word of the hour! We are in a constant state of
significant change and it is becoming increasingly vital for everyone involved
in education to be open to this change and able to adapt constantly. We are responsible
for equipping our students to cope with this changing society. Our community of
practice needs to be proactive about staying relevant in terms of technology,
modes of learning and global communities.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)