Week 32: Reflective Practice and Changes in Practice

Reflective practice as defined by Osterman & Kottkamp (1993) is a “means by which practitioners can develop a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, an awareness that creates opportunities for professional growth and development.”

When I reflect on my journey with Mindlab this year I have mixed emotions. I was never one for study and found it difficult to manage my time effectively to get the results I wanted. After walking in for the first session I looked around the room and found myself amongst experienced teachers, some of which taught me at college. The best part of this journey was the support from our Mindlab Taupo group and having the ability to bounce ideas off the other three teachers from my school who decided to give Mindlab a crack as well. I soon got into the swing of things and found myself reflecting on my teaching and how I can refine my practice to meet the needs of my students.

The Practicing Teaching Criterion I endeavour to reflect on is criteria 4 & 7.

Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice

Mindlab has reignited my motivation to continue to be a life-long learner – something I believe as teachers are extremely important. Being involved with other educators within Taupo has set up effective communication where we can continue to support each other in our teaching journeys. Social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ will allow me to keep up to date with relevant teaching strategies and practice. I look forward to continuing to extend myself professionally and taking on exciting and challenging opportunities should they present themselves in the future.  

Criteria 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment

It is important for students to develop effective teacher/student relationships to be able to make learning gains within the classroom. Using the 21st-century skills and the growth mindset vs. fixed mindset ideas have helped me develop my classroom programme to create more effective learners. Also learning that collaboration is more about sharing has been huge learning for me as an educator.

Next dream

I want to continue to work on myself as a leader within my school. I want to challenge myself and take on opportunities that will allow me to engage in further learning. I want to support others with their challenges and inspire my students to be motivated in their learning. Further study has always been something I have looked at doing so who knows I could be a sucker for more punishment yet.

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/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf

Week 31: Interdisciplinary Collaboration

“Interdisciplinary teaching differs from discipline- and field-based teaching in that it does not necessarily carve out spaces for each individual subject area, and instead, connects content and consciously identifies the relationships between these subjects.” (Coffey, n.d). Whilst creating this interdisciplinary connection map it became extremely apparent that teachers use a range of sources, people and expertise to help students learn. The term ‘It takes a village to bring up a child’ comes to mind when reflecting on what I have outlined on my map.

A focus point for interdisciplinary connections I have seen as an area to be improved on would be the connections between year levels and technologies. More collaboration on programmes is necessary to create 21st-century learners and problem solvers. It is important to create a school curriculum based on the ideas that are fresh and relevant each year to engage our students. Including the technology teachers into our programmes will make the learning experiences real-life and personalized. As Andrews (1990) defines interdisciplinary collaboration as occurring "when different professionals, possessing unique knowledge, skills, organizational perspectives, and personal attributes, engage in coordinated problem solving for a common purpose" (cited in Berg-Weger &. Schneider, 1998).

How would we do this?

Our staff would need to meet to formulate the planning, decision making and goal setting for the overall curriculum. From here there would need to be by in from all staff members involved to make sure this idea functions effectively. Teachers would meet weekly to track how the programme is going. Student voice collection would also be helpful to formulate next steps and further planning. Constant teacher reflection is a must. The idea is for our students to get the most from their learning over core curriculum areas in an engaging and motivating way.

Why is this important?

It encourages our students to take an invested interested in their learning. It also gives them opportunities to investigate personal interests. Students can show their strengths and can communicate their findings to small or large groups of people. Allowing for goal setting and monitoring these as they progress through their chosen idea.

As the Ministry of Education (2007) states we must create students “who will be confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners.” Integrating an interdisciplinary way of teaching into our classroom programme is the way of the future.

References

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

Coffey, H. (n.d). Interdisciplinary Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/5196

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum

Week 30: Social Media in Teaching and Professional Development

 “Social media make it possible to involve and draw on the experience of people around the world.” (Sharples et al., 2016)

Social Media in the Classroom

My use of social media varies from personal to professional use. I use Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram for personal use. This is mainly to keep up to date and communicate with friends and family who live all over the world. Professionally, I use Facebook, Twitter and the education app Seesaw in my classroom. These are used for professional development, sharing of resources and communicating with parents on classroom tasks, just to name a few.

The benefits to using social media in the classroom include giving the students the opportunity to engage in discussions and collaborate outside of the classroom walls. They feel empowered when others from outside their ‘communities’ take interest in what they are doing and learning. As Abe & Jordan (2013) state “The use of social media encourages students to interact with one another and may increase engagement and interest in the course content.”

The challenges we face with the use of social media in the classroom are teaching our students the difference between factual and false information. Giving the students the power to form their own opinions on issues rather than following that of others. Spending too much time communicating via a digital device and not maintaining conversational skills they may need in the future. Social media can also form a distraction for some students from other areas of academic needs. Teacher knowledge of specific social media is also a challenge. Altenbach (2016) talks about teaching being an evolving career and that responsibility lies with the teachers to make themselves more knowledgeable when it comes to technology and the strategies that come with it.

Social Media in Professional Development

The use of social media for professional development has developed throughout my Mindlab journey. As a ‘new’ teacher to the profession, it is often seen more beneficial to observe and watch those teachers around you to gain some insight and ideas around teaching pedagogy. However, throughout this course, I have found Twitter to be an awesome place of learning especially making connections with Edutopia and Mindshift. These twitter accounts post education-related articles etc. regularly and although they are short reads, you gain valuable information about teaching practice from them.

The challenges that have arisen from the use of social media is the time taken engaging in twitter feeds. As stated above it can become a form of distraction to areas of the profession that value your time more. Although it is learning, it is extremely important to manage the time spent reading and engaging in social media.

Social media has a place in the New Zealand education however, it is important to keep a balance between digital and physical.

References

Abe, P. & Jordan, N. A. (2013). Integrating Social Media Into the Classroom Curriculum. About Campus, 18: 16–20.

Altenbach, C. (2016). Social Media in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1665&context=ehd_theses

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