Learning to let go...

Today we had Science Alive come and run a lego mindstorm robotics sessions. Such a great session in learning about programming, perseverance and failure when programmes would not run as planned. Engagement level was high and learning even higher.  Students were learning how to 'fail fast' and just get on and try to make it work. Right at the beginning was a huge set of instructions of how to set up the lego mindstorm through to getting it to run through paces of going forward, reversing and a turn.

At the time I thought there were too many instructions for them to follow through successfully. Oh how wrong was I!  Once they were allowed to start putting everything together, they were off without hesitation, consulting with each other in pairs and across groups.  As their teacher I became their sounding board for ideas or to be shown what they had (or in many instances) not accomplished. In other words, the students learning has been completely flipped and they were driving the bus and I was just a passenger. It felt awesome! The educators from Science Alive scaffolding their next programmable step (even here many students were jumping ahead and devising their own programme).

Engagement level, I believe, comes from the interest with which a student has about what they are learning and how much control they have over what is happening or the direction it may lead. It was there in bucket loads today in those two short hours.  It is about reimagining how we educate our students. New Zealander Richard Wells has just published a book called

A Learner's Paradise - How NZ is reimagining learning.

(A really interesting perspective of how education is changing in New Zealand and why we need to do this.)

So why do we as teachers struggle to let go of our 'dominance' in the classroom and really allow students to lead their own learning? Probably fear I think. Fear and perhaps no longer being the 'controller' of what is going to happen in the classroom.  I never struggled at wanting to let go. I'm not sure why but I did feel uncomfortable and now I'm very comfortable with assisting students to take control of their learning (direction). One of the books I love about this is A.J. Juliani's

Inquiry & Innovation in the Classroom

Using 20% Time, Genius Hour, & PBL to drive student success

There's one thing I have learned though is that the more you let go the more structure you need to have in place. A bit of an oxymoron really but choice has guidelines and scaffolding to ensure success, whatever that may look like for individual students.

This has been an affirming day (again) for my teaching practice and continually adjusting my (or our) programme in the direction of learning the students may wish to take. Student led learning through competencies rather than curriculum. The curriculum is weaved through the competencies...it is no longer the driver. My favourite competencies are the NPDL 6 C's: collaboration, character, community, critical thinking, creativity and citizenship. Our NZ competencies fit in there but that's another blog for another day! Everything is still a work in progress.

APC - Changes in Practice

Week 32:
Reflective Practice - so here it is...La Grande Finale!  

Found on: quotesgram.com

Wow. This is it! Why is it that when you are in the thick of something that it seems so hard and difficult to see where it might end and yet here it is! What a journey and what professional growth! I'll be the first to put my hand up and say that I was "over it" in the last few weeks and had to dig deep to smash out the last few blogs. But there it is people, grit. Digging deep when you just want to push it aside. It's been a rollercoaster ride from the frustration of 'writer's block' to the elation of a great mark for the blood. sweat and tears of hopefully producing a worthy piece of academic writing. Early on I got burned with a disappointing grade. Note to oneself "always include more than two references in essays to back up your work!" Got that sorted pretty quickly for my next 'masterpiece.' One area I was surprised and pleased about was being able to work collaboratively on assignments with colleagues also on this journey. Practising what we need to be developing - working collaboratively as educators and growing collaborative skills in our students.

Being part of this Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice journey has given me a solid base to continue to build my teaching practice and growth as a leader. I am now a connected educator who has absolute belief in the changes that need to happen for the better of all in education, educators and students alike. I have been challenged, provoked to reflect upon my own practice, engage new ideas and basically reimagining learning. The changes I have made are research based. My reflective practice, prior Mindlab, was loose and inconsistent. Not anymore. It is now solid and consistent and so is the direction I wish to head. Osterman & Kottkamp (1993) describe the behaviour of a reflective practitioner below.

"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" (p.2)

I believe I am at this point but it is a continuing journey of reflection within my practice and as a leader. Blogging my thoughts each week in response to questions and associated readings has certainly enabled me to clarify my thinking on the various issues presented. It may be the end for Mindlab blogging but only the beginning for my personal reflective journey ahead.

Two key changes relating to Practising Teaching Criteria: 
Criteria 5  Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning
Collaborative teaching practice:
Last year, I initiated a change within my team towards teaching collaboratively through maths and we continue to develop our collaborative teaching practice this year with three team members. Planning is discussed and completed together or online via Google docs. Alongside this pedagogical change, we moved the students towards being more responsible for their learning by introducing workshops they could opt into based on their identified learning needs. A step towards self- managing their learning. To assist this change, we developed individual student goal sheets for students to monitor their learning, designed planning sheets for students to opt into workshops based on their learning needs, overall tracking sheets keeping track of what workshops students have signed up for and an overall assessment data spreadsheet for the whole team. We are now starting to apply this workshop style teaching and learning with written language. You will notice I have used the word 'we' throughout as 'we' did develop this together as a team. We are working collaboratively to improve our students learning. My role was to introduce this new practice through discussion and for us as a team to own it and run with it. Osterman & Kottkamp (1993) back this up by saying  ..."we know that learning is most effective when people become personally engaged in the learning process, and engagement is most likely to take place when their is a need to learn" (p.2).

A colleague and I are also responsible for introducing collaborative teaching practice across the school. We are currently working on the 'why' our practice needs to change. Recently we organised visits to a number of other schools who are working collaboratively or working in a ILE. Our colleagues needed to see a variety of practices to help them form a picture as to what it may or may not look like for themselves. As a school, we will now develop a vision of what collaborative teaching practice might look like for us.


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

Guiding question

How do I/can I utilise e-learning to further my professional learning and development?
I have always committed to be a life-long learner, especially in my teaching practice. Having now completed an 8 month journey of gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice, I am already looking ahead. As I mentioned below I will be taking part in in George Couros' 'Innovator's Mindset' MOOC starting in September this year. Also a colleague and I had a wonderful opportunity to take part in Joan Dalton's two day workshop on 'Learning Talk.' It was hands on and practical and I am already using her ideas in my practice. My ongoing professional learning will continue as part of the online learning communities that I am part of, especially Twitter. I also hope to engage other colleagues on the Twitter journey by sharing the following links with them to help get them started or give them the 'why' it would be benefit for their teaching practice to be part of Twitter education.

Five-minute film festival: Twitter in education
This post on the Edutopia site has a list of videos that help to explain the place of Twitter in education. Many of the videos show how Twitter can be used to create a network of educators.

10 ways teachers can use Twitter for professional development
This post by Educational Technology and Mobile Learning outlines how to make the most of Twitter to connect with the wider educational community.

So where to next with my learning?
It's a great feeling to say "it's done" but I can already feel a wee itch growing as a committed lifelong learner! I think my next learning adventure will be engaging in George Couros' 'Innovator's Mindset' MOOC starting in September this year. Also further investigation into gamification in learning which was what our Literature Review and Implementation Plan was based on (I collaborated with two other colleagues on these assignments). Lastly maybe, just maybe completing my masters degree. After all I do have one third of this degree already! That does feel good Mindlab as I did wonder there for awhile why I was working so hard for a certificate and now I know. Thanks for the journey.
Ka kite ano.



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

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

Interdisciplinary Teaching...crossing the boundaries

Activity 7:

Interdisciplinary teaching and learning is something that primary school teachers are familiar with. We generally called it something else, e.g. integrated teaching or thematic units. Today it might be seen through Genius Hour (80/20 learning), project-based learning or deep learning tasks. The difference being now is that an overarching question is created to narrow down the focus area for the learner. There also may be a sub-question or questions. It is more about the students learning and agency. It is about the teacher scaffolding the learning rather than directing it.  The difficulties with this approach in a school situation is that not everyone is on board or if they are, they are all at different points on a continuum. There is definitely a game of two halves in our school with the Years 5 - 8 well on the journey of interdisciplinary teaching and the other half of the school still working on topic integrated approach at best. This is not an easy journey as it requires a mindshift from the teacher to share the decision making with students. Not all teachers are prepared for this.

Jones (2009) suggests that through interdisciplinary techniques, students (and teachers) will continue to grow in critical thinking, creativity, communication and pedagogy. I firmly believe this as I am on this journey and have begun to see these changes in many of our students..


  

To the future...
One of the areas I intend to further develop is Genius Hour. I introduced Genius Hour this term into our Year 5/6 team. We wanted our students to investigate, research or make something that was of great interest to them.  However the only way our team could fit it in (time wise) was under the umbrella of our term theme of Music & Art. It was not ideal but it was better than nothing. We really wanted the students to find their passion project and run with it. We soon learned that it was going to be too difficult to fit a number of 'passions' under this theme. We had to assist them find an interest they could develop that truly aligned with either music or art. It turned out okay. They produced a piece of art or music because they were required to. It didn't sit well with us as teachers as this is not the philosophy behind Genius Hour as quoted below.

"There exists empirical evidence proving that students who are given the freedom to explore areas based on their personal interests, and who are accompanied in their learning by a supportive, understanding facilitator, not only achieve superior academic results but also develop socially and grow personally" Motschnig-Pitrik & Holzinger (2002).

Next term we have timetabled in approximately 20% time for Genius Hour, solely for the students' to follow a passion or idea that they wish to explore further. They will follow the same scaffolded expectations that were in place last time, i.e. identify the project they wish to work on, develop a question(s), research, create and present. Along the way reflect on their journey through blogging and if they are 'making' something, take photos of different stages of the process and create a time-lapse movie. This worked especially well for many art projects and can be applied to other projects in the future.

It was quite evident that student engagement in their learning increased, many students collaborated on their projects outside of school via google docs or facetime to keep their project moving forward.
It was about being able to follow a step by step process, start a project and finish it regardless of failures along the way. Students knew that was part of the deal - fail to succeed. They were not allowed to get off the horse so to speak just because it wasn't going right. With help, they were encouraged to problem solve any difficulties they encountered and us as teachers asking the right questions at the right time to keep them moving forward! And oh, it was messy learning in every sense of the word but a wonderful learning journey.

I can see how PBL can sit alongside this in order to follow our school overview or theme for the term. The scaffolding would be the same, however an over-arching question will be posed to the students' to investigate and perhaps break down into one or two sub-questions. I intend to further investigate this combination of PBL and Genius Hour by reading Inquiry and Innovation: Using 20% TIme, Genius Hour and PBL to Drive Student Success by A.J. Juliani

Digital Technologies - Coding/Robotics
As I am writing this blog the  has announced that digital technology, i.e. coding, computer science and robotics is to be formally introduced to the curriculum in 2018. This is an acknowledgement by the government as to the importance of ensuring our students today acquire the 21st century skills that will help them in their careers...especially in IT where it is predicted the skills will be required the most.

“The information technology sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in New Zealand, with a demand for skilled graduates. This step will support young people to develop skills, confidence and interest in digital technologies and lead them to opportunities across the diverse and growing IT sector."  Education Minister Hekia Parata as cited in CIO New Zealand (2016)

I have begun to dabble in coding (Scratch) and have joined Code Club Aotearoa but have yet to form a club at school. I have viewed a colleagues club and the enthusiasm and concentration of the students' to achieve each level is amazing. All this is done in their own time. I have casually asked in my team of 75 students' how many would be interested in learning coding. Three quarters put their hands up...now there lies the challenge. How do you cater for that many? Not easily so there might be a wee bit of shoulder taping for assistance. There is no lack of enthusiasm for the challenge among the students as they are already working in a 1:1 device environment. I can now feel the pressure a little more with the latest announcement from the education minister.

In the same article that I have quoted Education Minister Hekia Parata above, NZTech CEO Graeme Muller talks about the addition of digital technology in the curriculum as being a step forward but only a step. He backs this up by saying “we believe coding is an essential skill. Since 2014, the principles of computer programming have featured on England’s curriculum for children from the age of five or six, when they start primary school." I have been aware of this so I am not surprised that we are now heading in the same direction. I only hope there will be plenty of professional development for teachers. 2018 is not that far away! 



Jones, C.(2009). Interdisciplinary approach - Advantages, disadvantages, and the future benefits of interdisciplinary studies. ESSAI, 7(26), 76-81. Retrieved from http://dc.cod.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1121&context=essai

Motschnig-Pitrik, R., & Holzinger, A. (2002). Student-Centered Teaching Meets New Media: Concept and Case Study. Educational Technology & Society, 5(4). Retrieved from http://www.ifets.info/journals/5_4/renate.html 

NZ curriculum to include digital technology - but tech industry wants more. (2016, July 5). Retrieved July 7, 2016, from http://www.cio.co.nz/article/602864/nz-curriculum-include-digital-technology/ 

Legal and ethical contexts in my digital practice

Activity 29

This social media graphic from http://www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/what-social-media is a great map showing how much the different social media platforms are now a part of our educational journey with our students. I look at this map and can see that I am part of many of these digital communities. The ones I am most active in include Twitter, Facebook, Blogger and Google + as part of Mindlab. These mediums are my professional social media. Very rarely do I use these them for personal use.

Online media has certainly changed the way I teach, collaborate and interact online with other professionals or students' within our school. Being connected is just how it is now - no longer restricted by the four walls of our classrooms. It is to the web I go to find new resources or through my professional social media connections.

Understanding Professional Ethics:
Our profession is bound by a code of ethics. According to the Education Council NZ, there are four fundamental principles. These are:-

• Autonomy to treat people with rights that are to be honoured and defended (Commitment to Learners)
• Justice to share power and prevent the abuse of power (Commitment to parents/guardians & family/whānau
• Responsible care to do good and minimise harm to others (Commitment to society)
• Truth to be honest with others and self. (Commitment to the profession)

As teachers, we are all 'aware' that there is code of ethics that we abide by but (and there is always a 'but') how many of us (either individually or as a school) have sat down and looked at the code of ethics in relation to our own school contexts? Probably not many, including myself, until something goes wrong. This is especially true in the digital world, as we are only too familiar with (see below Ethical Dilemma).

Working in a catholic school means that we also have our own professional standards of conduct that we follow. These include a commitment to challenging our students' to live by the gospel in their daily lives, encourage restorative practice when disagreements arise (both students' and staff are part of this practice) and for staff to nurture their own spiritual growth and wellbeing. This code of ethics aligns closely with our school values of being: " Respectful, Responsible, Lifelong learners who live their Faith everyday".  My own ethics and moral values sit quite comfortably within our school values. It would be a bit difficult to work there if they didn't!

We are a 1:1 device school from Years 5 - 8. As part of the introduction in 2015, we ran a digital citizenship unit to show our students' how to be good digital citizens. This was also taught across the rest of the school. This forms an important start to each year. However, interacting appropriately online is always sitting in behind everything we do - using online content for research, commenting online, emailing or using or posting images. These are just a few.  Students' and parents were required to sign a cybersafety use agreement upholding what being a good digital citizen means or looks like.

Ethical Dilemma:

The one thing you learn very quickly as a teacher today is what a big part social media or online interaction plays in the lives of students' today. I teach a Year 5/6 class and many of these students' have their own private google accounts and yet you have to be 13 years or older to have an account outside GAFE. I have raised this issue with parents before and many have been unaware of this 'additional' account. 

One area that many students struggle with, especially those new to using 1:1 devices, is understanding that their device is for educational use only during school hours - that is currently part of our digital agreement. Also a hard one to keep track of short of checking all students' online interaction everyday!  We had an incident where a student emailed a parent during the day to say a student was bullying them (they weren't). The parent responded inappropriately about the other student. One thing led to another and it came to the teacher's attention. It was resolved by speaking to the parent reminding them that we are trying to encourage our students to be responsible digital citizens as per our cybersafety agreement. A restorative meeting was held with the students involved. It takes time for young online users to understand the effects of written words when it goes beyond the people it is intended for - rightly or wrongly. It is a collective responsibility for our community, teachers and parents, to ensure our students interact appropriately online. 

Education Council. (nd). Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0

Education Council. (2016). The Education Council - Teachers and Social Media. Retrieved from: http://www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/what-social-mediaEducation Council. (2016).

The Education Council, Guidelines on ethical use of social media. Retrieved from: http://www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/guidelines-ethical-use-social-media

Henderson, M.,

Auld, G., & Johnson, N. F. (2014).

Ethics of Teaching with Social Media

. Paper presented at the

Australian Computers in Education Conference 2014, Adelaide, SA.

http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/session/ethics

-teaching-

social

-

media

Henderson, M.,

Auld, G., & Johnson, N. F. (2014).

Ethics of Teaching with Social Media

. Paper presented at the

Australian Computers in Education Conference 2014, Adelaide, SA.

http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/session/ethics

-teaching-

social

-

media

New Zealand Catholic Education Office. (2014) Code of Ethics for Staff and Boards of New Zealand Catholic Schools. retrieved from http://www.nzceo.catholic.org.nz/media/resources/publications/NZCE-Code-Of-Ethics-2014.PDF

http://ola.schooldocs.co.nz/   Retrieved 3rd July 2016

Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness

Week 28 - APC

My earliest awareness of the Māori culture was when I was very young.  My parents had bought some land in South Bay, Kaikoura. It was the early 1960's. Up until that point, the land was owned by the local iwi. Somehow the iwi were convinced to sell this prime piece of land and they did. I know that many signatures were required from within the iwi to agree to the land being sold. My parents did not start building until 1965, I was then 5 years old. I have very vivid memories of the land being cleared for building and the finding of so many Māori artifacts. It was not just on our property but all around the bay as people started building. I did not understand the significance of the finding of these artifacts until later. At the time, Sir Roger Duff from the Canterbury Museum was a frequent visitor to the bay and became a good friend of my parents. There was so much history lying beneath this land in South Bay and as we and others built, the deep history of the tangata whenua (people of the land) was being brought to the surface.  Thankfully many beautiful artifacts ended up in the museum but many did not. My mother had great respect for the Māori culture. She made a tukutuku panel which still hangs in our bach today. I regret never asking her what story her tukutuku panel told. All these things I have mentioned above have had a profound impact on me and my deep respect for the Māori culture.   

Fast forward to today and my sister and I now our family bach. It has beautiful views of the sea, right up to the Kaikoura mountains in the distance. I feel very grounded when I am there. While we cannot change what happened in the past, my sister and I are deeply aware of the cultural significance of the land upon which our bach is built.

Culturally Responsiveness Teaching Practice:
Culturally responsive pedagogy is defined by Gay (2001, p.106) as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives as conduits for effective teaching." It is reflected in five elements including the knowledge about the culture diversity, the culturally integrated content in the curriculum, the development of the learning community, the ability to communicating with culturally diverse students and the culturally responsive delivery of instruction (Gay, 2001). 

I currently work in a Catholic school where 6% of the students identify as Māori on our roll. At our school, our most prevalent culture is pakeha, including myself. Our Religious Education (R.E.) programme is taught with a Māori language and culture focus. Aspects of Māori cultural beliefs are woven into our R.E. programme, e.g. manaakitanga, tapu, mana. Taking part in a karakia and/or a waiata is an important part of our daily routine.  As a school we have taken steps to become more culturally responsive to our Māori students. This includes: a school wide programme for te reo and tikanga Māori identifying what should be taught at the different year levels, a kapa haka group made up of children from Years 1 - 8 (this group is now taught by a kaiako from our local marae) and last year, our school had day visits to Te Kura Tuarua o Horomaka, our local marae.

 While the above steps have certainly grown our cultural responsiveness with our Māori students, I personally need to take this further in my own teaching practice. Bishop (2012) talks about the 6 steps of success for our Māori students. He believes these steps need to be present on a daily basis to make a difference to Māori student achievement. I agree and these 6 steps can equally be applied to all other cultures, including pakeha. They are very learner based. Since starting this blog, I have reflected on these 6 steps within the context of my classroom (and team). While I do have a good relationship with my students (ata), the one are area I can improve on is step 2 - "Create a learning context where Māori can draw upon their own knowledge and bring it to the classroom." Interestingly, through the introduction of Genius Hour, two students investigated their Māori culture through art. One had her Grandmother teach her how to weave using harakeke, the other looked at the significance of Māori art patterns. Neither have really spoken about their culture before and through discussions with them, it was clearly a journey they were both on and this showed in their final presentation.

I recently attended an evening where STEM was being promoted to pasifika youth as a career path option. It was an excellent event arranged by my nephew Rikki Welsh who is based at UC. There were a variety of speakers and one in particular struck a chord with me. The speaker was a Māori Outreach Co-ordinator whom I sort out later for a discussion about 'gamers,' which was what his speech was about. Inevitably our conversation moved towards Maori student achievement. There were two words that he spoke that resonated with me and they were 'empathy' and 'equity.' He said empathy for your Māori student's background - where they come from and who they are. Understand them. Equity - is access to our education system truly equitable if a disproportionate number of our Māori students arrive at school without their basic needs being met?  Well of course it's not equitable and all teachers who work with students from this disproportionate background know this.  At our school we support students and their families through 'Helping Hands' who can provide meals or other support, depending on the needs of the families. This is also true for all our families at school in times of need.

As an educator, we are bound by a Code of Ethics and our Practising Teaching Criteria. The two that stand out for me are...

1. Teachers play a critical role in enabling the educational achievement of all ākonga/learners.
2. The Treaty of Waitangi extends equal status and rights to Māori and Pākehā. This places a particular responsibility on all teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand to promote equitable learning outcomes.

I am currently on a journey of enabling my learners to have a greater voice in their learning and the way they learn. This aligns with Bishops '6 steps to success' and also points 1 & 2 above. In his talk, Bishop also identifies that "teachers being 'agentic teachers' are the key to making a difference for Māori students" (Bishop 2012). He goes onto to say that teachers can weave together a learning context so that young Māori students can bring their own context to the learning table and their knowledge is accepted.

Finally, I always believed that I treated all my students with 'equity' but upon reflection perhaps...'some are more equal than others.' I will ponder on this as I continue forward and change my practice and allow greater student voice in their learning. How exciting!

Bishop R.   Source: Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.

Professional Context

APC Week 26 - Activity 2

What is the organisational culture (collective values/principles) that underpins your practice? How would you contribute to fostering a positive professional environment in your community of practice?

"We are respectful, responsible lifelong learners that live our faith everyday." These are the values of our school - a catholic school established in 1951. These values sit at the heart of our school, staff and students alike. We are a Year 1-8 co-educational primary school that focuses not only the academic achievement of our students but also their physical, spiritual, emotional and social development. We provide education in a sound Catholic environment. Stoll (1988) talks about a school's culture being a representative of the community around them -  both dynamic and static and how vitally important it is to keep the traditional values that make up a school. Alongside this, it is important to establish the idea of lifelong learners (which is already part of our vision).

Our students are very aware of our values, they are present in every classroom. Staff uphold these values everyday. It is evident in the interactions that staff have with students and the way students behave when on EOTC activities - respectfully and responsibly. As students progress through our school they are on a journey of lifelong learning - a journey that is guided by the curriculum and the key competencies.  As educators, we are endeavouring to future proof our students learning by installing 21st Century skills.

What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How would your community of practices address them?

There is a major shift happening in the educational world from students having education 'done' to or 'delivered' to them to 'how can we or you solve this issue/problem' type scenario. It is about handing learning back to the students to make their own sense of what being a lifelong learner might look and feel like. As as early adopter, this is happening way too slow, not just across our profession but within my own school CoP. 

So what am I doing about this change in my own CoP. When I speak of this I am specifically talking about my own team of which I am the team leader. Here we have already started on this journey of collaborative teaching (in a single cell environment) to shift the learning of students from being 'delivered to' to an environment where students are taking ownership of their learning. There are three educators in our team who work hard to ensure that learning is meaningful and relevant to all students. Is it perfect? - no it is not but we are on a journey ourselves along with our students to make a difference to the way their education received. On Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D. blog she talks about the difference between pedagogy (teacher led learning), andragogy (self directed learning) and heutagogy (self determined learning). Our team is definitely moving out of the pedagogical practice of learning to andragogy of learning - ultimate goal: heutagogy. She has a great graphic on her blog showing these 3 areas.

Also, Stoll and Fink (cited in Stoll, 1998) identified 10 influencing cultural norms of school improvement including:

“1. Shared goals - “we know where we’re going”

2. Responsibility for success - “we must succeed”

3. Collegiality - “we’re working on this together”

4. Continuous improvement - “we can get better”

5. Lifelong learning - “learning is for everyone”

6. Risk taking - “we learn by trying something new”

7. Support - “there’s always someone there to help”

8. Mutual respect - “everyone has something to offer”

9. Openness - “we can discuss our differences”

10. Celebration and humour - “we feel good about ourselves”” (p.10)

The above 10 influencers are evident in our team. Some are stronger than others but all form an important part of who we are as a team. 

In my wider CoP, i.e. my school, not everybody has started this journey of change towards collaborative teaching and student ownership of their learning. Everyone is at a different starting point.  As part of the leadership team, a colleague and I are leading a culture of change through professional development to develop a shared vision of what collaboration might look like for us as a school. The one thing I have learned so far on this journey is said quite succinctly by George Couros...

Effective leadership in education is not about moving everyone 

from one standardized point to the next but moving individuals 

from their point “A” to their point ”B.”

I am leaning that every small step ahead is still a small step forward in the right direction and that this journey is a process, not a destination. We need to ensure staff feel safe to take risks and to understand the 'why' of this change in their practice. 

Couros, G. (2015). Strength based leadership. In The innovator's mindset: Empower learning, unleash talent, and lead a culture of creativity. 

 Gerstein, J. (2016, June 14). Maker Education: Pedagogy, Andragogy, Heutagogy [Web log post]. Retrieved June 26, 2016, from https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/maker-education-pedagogy-andragogy-heutagogy/?blogsub=subscribed#blog_subscription-3 

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture

Communities of Practice

APC Week 25 - Activity One

What is a community of practice?

Reflecting on the term 'communities of practice' it is amazing how many communities you are actually part of as as an educator. I personally see my communities that I am part of as an integral part of who I am as an educator. These communities are loosely intertwined with me moving in and out of these communities at various times, depending on what is happening within my practice. These communities are: 

My immediate teaching community at Our Lady of the Assumption School (OLA); part of the Leadership Team and Team Leader at OLA; my Professional Learning Network - Twitter, Virtual Learning Network (VLN); Mindlab face to face community as well as our Google+ community; part of the wider Catholic schools community as well as a Community of Learning which is currently being established. 

Wenger defines community of practice "as groups of people who share a concern or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by an interaction on an ongoing basis" (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002, p.4). 

What is the purpose and function of your practice? In what ways do you contribute to the community of your practice?
As an educator, I belong to a very large community of practice. There are many communities within communities in this large group. Collectively they have a purpose to not only educate and meet the learning needs of students but also to ensure their own continuous development of professional learning.

In my community of practice, I am a Year 5/6 Team Leader at Our Lady of the Assumption School. I am committed to leading this team on a journey of making learning better for our students. As part of this journey, we are working hard as a team to fully develop a collaborative teaching practice. As we have grown in this role, so has our reflective practice. This involves professional reflective blogs, we regularly meet, either formally or informally. Discussions are held across teams and of course, as a staff. The best reflective time though are those little snatches of conversations you have in passing as they are usually 'in the moment' conversations. Dawson (2012) identifies that reflective practice leads to better learning and when reflection is shared, it is most effective. I personally also find online forums, especially Twitter a great place to engage with my wider community of practice.

As part of the leadership team community of practice, we are working together with the staff to see how this collaborative journey might look for us. We are working towards building not only a collaborative teaching staff but also a collaborative student learning community. This takes time to plan, ensuring that discussions are held, support is offered, professional learning is given to help understand the 'why' of this change and of course, reflecting on their journey in this process.

What are the core values that underpin your profession? Evaluate your practice with regard to these values.
I believe the core values that underpin my profession is relationships. A whole community of relationships:  relationships between colleagues,  relationships between teacher and student and relationship between teacher and parents. In order for my team to be successful, I need to build lasting meaningful relationships based on trust. With my students, also trust. Trust that I will be there for them. Trust that I will support and encourage them even when things go wrong. Engaging with parents, building a professional caring relationship - them entrusting me to do the right thing by their child. 

As a profession, we belong to many communities of practice. Actively engaging in these communities is the basis of continued growth in professional learning, both deliberate and incidental.
Let's get engaged!



Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

                     
                     

Contemporary issues and trends in NZ or internationally

Trends:
Trends are ever evolving. They change and flow like the ebb of a tide. In 2015 as an 
e-Leader and part of the LWDT, I attended a number of workshops at Core Ed. One of these involved looking at trends - specifically the 10 Trends that Core Ed had put together. This was huge. I was well of some trends here and there, e.g. moving towards more collaborative teaching and student led learning but these 10 trends certainly put into perspective the possible future of education. I have left the 2015 trends on my blog. Already you can see a change between the 2015 trends and the 2016 trends. Although it is not huge, it is still change. Trends are never static as the evolve into something else depending on the direction it was heading.

2016 Core Ed's 10 Trends

What is a trend?
A term which refers to the ‘statistically observable change or general orientation of a general movement’ (Visser & Gagnon, 2005). A general direction in which something is developing or changing. Dator (2009) talks about 'trends analysis' which focuses on things that are already on the way but not yet commonplace. This certainly is evident in the 10 Trends above...certainly happening in some places in education but not yet commonplace. The two following trends I have investigated...

Rethinking how schools work: (NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition)

• There is a focus towards reinventing the whole school experience. A movement that is being driven by innovative learning practices. This is being influenced by project and challenge based learning. These type of practices call for school structures to be more fluid to enable students to move from learning activity to another, removing the time limitations of the traditional bell schedule. As learning becomes more fluid and student centred there needs to be more room for schedules to be more flexible to allow for authentic learning to take place. Also being taken into consideration are teenagers and sleep deprivation which can interfere with learning e.g. later start times (8.30am) has improved attendances and academic performance.
• Alternative forms of assessment: Finnish schools do not receive grades before the 5th grade. They focus on self reflections. Globally much research is being done on redefining assessment around creativity. The 2013 OECD report (see ref below) "The first steps towards new forms of formative assessment" is one. They identified 5 key areas for assessment: Inquisitive, Persistent, Imaginative, Collaborative and Disciplined.

Digital Badges:

• Usually a part of gamification, the use of digital badges is gaining traction and most recently with Khan Academy. Badges are a way to grant certification for formal and informal learning. They assess learning based on outcomes rather than 'seat time.' Digital badges are being used to help track, capture and visualise learning in a way that motivates students. While badges are not yet used widely in education, more and more educators are using this approach to demonstrate a student's learning path - a method that encompases much more than traditional grades and credits.

• Digital badges have been great for obtaining soft skills like problem solving, persistence and communication. They are also being used to increase teacher development. A number of USA schools have introduced badging in recognition of teachers further education.

• A growing number of educators are welcoming badges as an alternative in showing a more concrete indication of what students have achieved.

Issues:

Dator (2009) explains that 'emerging issue analysis' looks at things that are just emerging and have not yet become commonplace or a well established trend.

Leadership for Improvement: (Education Review Office. (2012)

• Leadership for Improvement: Research is quite conclusive about the effects good leadership can have on teaching and learning. The area this report focuses on as having the most impact on students learning is the promotion and participation of teachers in their own learning and development. Teaching practice was particularly influenced by leaders who are actively involved with teachers leading learning in their school. Continued development as Teacher as Inquiry is necessary for leaders to cultivate in order to improve student success. There is a strong interrelationship between what teachers teach and what the students learn. Teachers and leaders need to try different approaches to teaching and learning to benefit students. Leaders need to respectfully challenge teachers thinking, especially having them reflect on some of their habitual teacher practices so that the focus of their work is always on students learning.

My thoughts:

1. This paradigm shift in education is huge. Teachers need support and professional development to navigate their way ahead. While this change appears to be 'rapid' out there in the big wide world, it is currently not being reflected in enough of our classrooms. Teachers need to see what this new 21st Century learning is about. Too many teachers, leaders and schools are doing it own their own. What about a more co-ordinated effort to spread the knowledge and professional development quicker? Teaching is no longer an isolated profession.

References:
Dato, J. (2009, July). Trend analysis vs emerging issues analysis. Retrieved May 29, 2016, from http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/publications/futures-theories-methods/TrendVsEIA2009.pdf

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf

Education Review Office. (2012). Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand Schools - Education Review Office. Retrieved 5 May 2015, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Releases2/The-three-most-pressing-issues-for-N

Lucas, B., Claxton, G., & Spencer, E. (2013, January 10). Progression of student creativity in school: First steps towards new forms of formative assessment. OECD working paper no.86. Retrieved May 29, 2016, from http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=EDU/WKP(2013)1&docLanguage=En