Week 32 / Reflective practice - Key change in professional practice

This blog entry will reflect on a key change in my professional practice using Rolfe's model of reflection. I will also evaluate this change using The Cycle of Experiential Learning recommended by Osterman and Kottkamp (2015). Lastly I will briefly share my plan for future professional development.  

Step 1 (What):

One key aspect that has changed as part of my professional practice since beginning the Mindlab course has been that I am more confident in collaborating and sharing ideas with other colleagues in my own school, across other schools in our local area and also online. This course has highlighted the importance of having professional learning networks and encouraged me to put myself out there in order to better my practice rather than working in isolation. 

This change in my practice has allowed me to meet the Standard of the Teaching Profession - professional learning. This criteria set by the Ministry of Education for professional learning requires teachers to "Use inquiry, collaborative problem-solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners."

Step 2 (Now what): 

Problem Identification

I have been teaching for 7 years at the end of this year (2018), and I had begun to feel a bit stagnant at the end of 2016/17. I hadn't been to observe any new ideas and felt as though teaching was not exciting anymore. I decided that I needed 2018 to be the year where I tried something new to up skill and reignite my passion for teaching and learning which is why I signed up for The Mindlab. This has been a game changer for me and has helped to build my confidence in sharing and learning with/from others in the teaching profession. 

Observation and analysis

I have gained new insight into the value of developing and engaging with professional/personal learning networks. It has been rewarding for myself as a professional to be more willing to try new ideas and share problems or issues I am having in terms of teaching and learning with other colleagues. It has also been great to collaborate on assignments with others as I feel a I have gained a deeper understanding of course material and how it can be applied in the classroom through discussions I've had with others. 

Abstract re conceptualization

Connectivism is a new learning theory I have found myself really connecting with. I am a person who enjoys discussing new ideas and concepts with others rather than mulling over them myself. I prefer to hear the opinion and perspectives of others as this helps me to critically analyse and make up my own mind about new information and ideas. According to Siemens (2004), connectivism begins with the individual - as it involves the individuals knowledge and ideas to be fed into a network, which then feeds into an organisation/institution. The cycle then feeds knowledge and ideas back to the individual therefore allowing individuals to remain current through the network they have formed. 

DeWitt (2016) states that PLNs enable people to stretch their thinking, share ideas and resources and help bring out people's best. I have learnt that in the digital age, it is vital for us as teachers to value professional/personal learning networks and also encourage this for our students so they can be the most successful and knowledgable they can be.

Active experimentation

As a result of becoming more collaborative with those in my school, the wider community and online; I have made the following changes to my practice to help this grow more:

• Made my professional blog public to break down the barriers I once had up.
• Share my ideas more in staff and syndicate meetings.
• Comment more on other professional social networking pages.
• Seek ideas from others who have tried new learning approaches or dealt with similar issues I am facing.
• Encourage my students to share their ideas and learning more both in the classroom and online (through their own public learning blogs) and also seek knowledge using the same process. 

Overall I have learnt that sharing my own ideas and opinions is not such a daunting task and that we all benefit from each others sharing of experiences. 

Step 3 (What next): 

My next step for my future professional practice is to delve more deeply into blended learning and how I can design a classroom programme that effectively implement the use of 1:1 chromebooks. I am planning on using my PLNs to seek and discuss resources and information to learn more about this and also branch out and add to my current PLN. 

References:

DeWitt, P. (2016). Collaborative Leadership: Six Influences That Matter Most. Thousand Oaks CA: Corwin

Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators : professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. eLearnSpace. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Week 31 / Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness

This reflective entry will focus on my understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness and critically evaluate how mine and my school's practice has been informed by the two aspects including planning & assessment and learning resources.

Step 1 (What):

My understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness is recognising that our students do not come to us as empty vessels waiting for us to fill them up. They come to us full of their own experiences, values and knowledge. It is up to us as teachers to ensure that we take the time to get to know our students - their strengths and weaknesses, their likes and interests their whanau and values. I have always believed that building relationships is the key to any child thriving in any learning environment and figuring out what makes them tick as learners is the key to them being successful. I could relate a lot to what Russell Bishop discussed in his video on edtalks about providing relationship centred education where learning is co-constructed and students are aware of what they need to learn and how to get there - a learning centred relationship.

There are two areas I would like to focus on in this reflection. The first being planning and assessment which I feel my school does well in. The other is learning resources which is an area I would like to improve in - particularly those that are relevant to my students and our local area.

Step 2 (So what): 

Firstly, I feel that planning and assessment is an area of strength and sits more in the green area of the action continuum framework developed by Milne (CORE Education, 2017). This is because when planning units and assessments, we have our students needs at the centre. We take the time to get to know them as learners and make sure they are fully aware of the assessment process - meaning they know how each assessment works and why they are doing it including the level they are at and any goals they have are co-constructed. Teacher planning is informed by formative assessment and it is good practice in our school to be responsive to student's needs. Cowie, Otrel-Cass, Glynn & Kara (2011) point out that "Culturally responsive pedagogy thrives when teachers ensure that students have multiple and diverse opportunities to develop, express, and receive feedback on their understanding"

The second area of focus is one I would like to improve more in - developing learning resources that are culturally significant to our community and the children at our school. I feel I've previously been stuck in the blue/purple area of the action continuum for this area as my language and cultural knowledge is not the best it can be - only sticking with the bare minimum in terms of kapa haka practise and basic Te Reo Maori integration.

Step 3 (What next):

A more collaborative approach to developing learning resources is needed to take this aspect further. This will include students, their whanau, teaching staff and local kaumatua. I am in the process of getting to know the local stories that are significant to Ahipara in order to co-construct digital resources where my students are empowered to educate others in our community about this special place. I feel it wouldn't be right for me to develop the resources to tell these stories in isolation and instead would love for my students and their whanau to be the ones who develop and share this knowledge in the community. Cowie et al. (2011) state that a teacher's need to find ways of bringing students funds of knowledge and expertise into the classroom - and this is the perfect way for them to share their knowledge and expertise with the rest of the school and community. The challenge lies ahead not only achieve a greater level of cultural responsiveness but for it to continue to grow.

References:

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al.(2011).Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/9268_cowie-summaryreport.pdf

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

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., & Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection for nursing and the helping professions: A user's guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Week 30/ The Broader Professional Context

This reflective entry will focus on analysing the global trend of the impact digital learning is having on schools and their students. It will look at it from my own classroom perspective and also that of its global impact on our students future career skills and requirements.

What: 

One global trend that is relevant to my practice is the impact of digital technologies. My students have all had experience with using a range of digital technologies whether it be in the form of a home computer, tablet or their parent's phones. My students are very young (6, 7 & 8 years old) and they already had a vast range of digital skills before they entered my classroom e.g. gaming, photography (selfies) or social networking. Therefore it has been made a priority in our school to educate our students to develop digital citizenship which enables them to have a positive impact in the rapidly evolving digital world. Daggett (2014) discusses the need for schools to embrace digital technologies rather than fight against the movement in order to keep learning relevant and engaging for our learners. 

So What:

Digital technologies is not only impacting on students engagement levels in the classroom but also their ability to acquire the necessary skills needed to get a job in the future. As Daggett (2014) points out, middle level jobs which were popular in the 1970s, 80s, & 90s around the globe are now being/have been replaced with computers which do a more efficient and cost effective job than their human counterparts. As a result, it can be assumed that more is needed in terms of digital related education such as coding, to enable our students to be better prepared for the many digital take overs we are already seeing. Our students need to more skilled in not only the use of digital technologies as consumers, but as developers and software designers to ensure their career choices stay relevant for the future. 

Now What:

It has taken a long time for the New Zealand education system to provide suitable support for schools and teachers in the area of digital technologies. Some clusters of schools are streets ahead of others in terms of developing digital learning programmes. One example of this is the Manaiakalani cluster of schools. This cluster has developed a research based digital programme and experienced the success that is possible when blending digital technologies with traditional learning techniques. They have witnessed a huge increase in literacy learning in the 11 years they have been running which can be seen in the research reports and evaluation available on their website. The success of this initiative has lead to a number outreach clusters around the country and provides a huge amount of support and professional development for schools and teachers. Our school has joined an outreach cluster this year.

With the world changing faster than it ever has before, governments have had to think quickly to adjust education to adapt to the change in employment prospects for their citizens (Pearson, 2013). The New Zealand Government has responded to this global trend, by developing a new digital component to the New Zealand Curriculum document. Here it outlines learning outcomes and requirements for all Year 0-13 students in New Zealand. The Minister of Education Chris Hipkins (2017) has summed up the relevance and importance of this document in the following quote -  “The digital curriculum is about teaching children how to design their own digital solutions and become creators of, not just users of, digital technologies, to prepare them for the modern workforce."

There are now multiple professional development opportunities the Ministry of Education are providing such as the Raranga Matihiko initiative which aims to educate New Zealand teachers and their students by providing hands on digital technology experiences for students and guided planning opportunities for teachers. My class participated in this fantastic opportunity this week at the Waitangi Treaty grounds. 

References:

Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing Current and Future Challenges in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf

http://www.manaiakalani.org/home

Hipkins, C. (2017). New digital technologies for schools and kura. Retrieved from:
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-digital-technologies-schools-and-kura

Pearson. (2013). Global trends: The world is changing faster than at any time in human history.[video].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdZiTQy3g1g

Manaiakalani Staff Meeting Reflection T4/18

Do your learners know the process of learn, create, share?
My learners are totally immersed in the learn, create share process as they are 1:1 iPads, work from their class site, have begun posting to their own blogs. I need to use the language more with the students. 

Do your parents/community know the process of learn, create, share?
Yes our class site is open to the public and has been shared with parents. There was an issue with attendance to our school hui about Manaiakalani. We will be having another hui this term with Year 3 students and their parents to discuss chromebook purchases for next year.

Is this visible on your school site/class site/class blog?
Yes, students use our class site to access their WALTs and activities for each week. This is a work in progress and more is needed in terms of digital learning activity development on my site.

What are your ‘next steps’ for 2019 to improve visibility of LEARN CREATE SHARE in your class?
Make sure my class site is set up from week 1 in Term 1 and shared with parents. Use the learn, create, share language more with the students and explicitly teach these.

How can I, as a facilitator support you to enable visible Learn, Create, Share in your class?

Continue with teaching myself and students to blog and comment in others' blogs. Lessons on how to specifically teach the learn, create, share pedagogy - Demonstrating what these mean? How do you explain them to a junior/middle class? Overall lesson ideas etc...

Week 29 / Professional Online Social Networks

Step 1 (Descriptive): 

My current use of social media for professional development includes the use of Facebook, google apps such as docs, slides and hangouts (live casting),  google+, blogger, youtube and Pinterest. I use these social media platforms to discuss and share ideas and new learning with other professionals as well as gaining new ideas from others to inform my teaching practice and professional skills. I am a confident user of these tools and find them extremely helpful. 

Step 2 (Comparative): 

After viewing the survey completed by fellow educators about what social media they use in professional development (shown below), I can clearly see the most popular networks used include Facebook & google+ communities (PLN & Social Forums), blogs and videos. These are platforms I also use and am familiar with. Twitter also features quite highly. This is a platform I have an account for but very rarely use. 

After reading the book "What connected educators do differently" by Whitaker, Zoul & Casas (2015), I can see the many benefits twitter offers and how this can be used effectively to grow ones professional learning network (PLN). They recommend the practical strategies "Follow 5" - meaning follow and interact with 5 educators who they suggest are exemplary connected educators; "Find 5" - referring to looking at the 5 resources/tools they recommend for growing your PLN; and "Take 5" - encouraging educators to take part in their 5 steps to get started with becoming a connected educator. Whitaker et al. (2015) conclude that it is time for educators to take responsibility for their own professional learning by creating and participating in PLNs and connecting with like minded educators to enhance their teaching practice. It also enables professionals to learn at their own pace and preferred learning style (Melhuish, 2013). I personally enjoy learning using a combination of literature, conversations and video content which was not available when I was at school. I found school a struggle and information technology was not something that was readily available.      

Step 3 (Critical Reflection): 

The implications for using social media in my own professional development are that it enables me to connect with like minded individuals that is not possible without technology, it allows me to grow as a professional and know that I am not alone with the various challenges I face as an educator. It also gives me the opportunity to take charge of my own learning to be the best that I can be - breaking down barriers and fulfilling my wants and needs as a professional. I do however need to be quite selective and critical with the information I choose to accept. Melhuish (2013) points out that the downside to social media is the lack of quality control and fact that anyone can comment and share information - which is not necessarily theory driven or proven to be helpful in any way.  

This reflective process has highlighted the impact social networking has on my professional development. I was so used to social networking being 'just something I did' without actually realising the important role it had with growing my professional practice. This has made me aware that others can also learn from myself and gets me thinking about how what I post will help other educators.  

This reflection was constructed using Jay and Johnson's  (2002) reflective model.

References:

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002) Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.

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

Whitaker, T., Zoul, J., & Casas, J. (2015). What connected educators do differently. New York, NY: Routledge.

Week 28 / Influence of Law & Ethics in Practice

What:

Cyberbullying is an issue I have been involved in at a previous school I worked in and although both students were not in my class I was the first to become aware of the situation. Both students were using a social media platform called musical.ly which allows comments on people's videos. Both students participated in the cyberbullying and this led to parents becoming involved with one posting inappropriate comments about the other child on Facebook while also mentioning the school they attended in the post. I discovered the comments online and informed the classroom teacher and principal straight away. Both parents were called in for a meeting with the principal where the issues were mediated and resolved with the post being removed from Facebook. It was left to the parents to enforce consequences with their children.

So what:

As a result of this dilemma, I felt professionally obliged (professional ethics) to inform the school of the social media post as I knew this would have a huge impact on the students attending the school, their whanau, my fellow colleagues and the school. The parent who chose to post private information about another child was completely inappropriate and demonstrated that our community (society) needed to be more educated about their own digital citizenship. Being posted to a public group in Facebook, put this issue into a global context where the parent had breached the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 (Ministry of Education, 2016). This could have resulted in all sorts of legal issues. This situation also highlighted a need within our school context (institutional context) for more education around cyberbullying prevention for our students and how to keep ourselves safe online (Ehrich, Kimber, Millwater & Cranston, 2011).

Now what:

Had I chosen to ignore this situation both the teacher and principal would not have been prepared to deal with the event and parents could have felt the need to take matters further. I would have been ignoring my professional commitment to my learners, their whanau, society and my profession had I said nothing and 'minded my business'. As a practicing teacher under the Code of Ethics for Registered Teachers (Duty of Care value), I have a responsibility to my students, their whanau and my school to do good and minimise harm, which I believe I have done in this case (Education Council, 2017).

As a result of this situation, I have learnt that ethical dilemmas don't always arise in school and in this case social media was a major contributor to this dilemma occurring and being discovered. Cyberbullying is a dilemma I will highly likely have to deal with in the near future as I am about to have a class with one to one Chromebooks next year. The school has an internet agreement which all students sign at the beginning of the year and it clearly states that students will be suspended or banned from using devices at school if they are used inappropriately, however this scenario proves it doesn't have to occur at school to become a school issue.

This dilemma was analysed using Rolfe's Model of Reflection.

References:

Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards.Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794

Ministry of Education. (2016). Managing Social Media Guidelines. Retrieved from: http://shapingeducation.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MoE-Managing-Social-Media-Guidelines_FA.pdf

Digital Fluency Week 9

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Ubiquitous learning is one of the four Manaiakalani kaupapa words - rewindable learning has been scaffolded in my classroom through my class site. I have a student who was overseas and access to the class site helped her and her parents to keep up with what the class was doing - however I have received feedback where some of the areas of the site were not accessible so this is something I have fixed.  

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

I am excited to be able to go back to school after completing this course and confidently use the google apps with my class and integrate them into my learning programmes. We are about to begin blogging next week and I feel equipped to teach this aspect after completing this course. We will discuss the Digital Citizenship aspect of begin respectful and behaving properly online. I am excited that my students will now be able to 'share' their learning and creation through their blogs and look forward to embedding the 'learn, create, share' philosophy within my classroom. 

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I feel a lot more confident to share my learning and thoughts publicly with fellow colleagues who may be interested in what I post. Also building a network with teachers from other schools in the Te Hiku Cluster has been very rewarding. 

Digital Fluency Week 4 (Catch Up Session)

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

The introduction to Google Forms and Spreadsheets was excellent! Thanks very much to Kerry, Dave and Dorothy for making the recording of this session accessible to those of us who were unable to participate in this session. I feel a lot more confident with the basics of creating different types of questions in forms and dealing with the data through sheets. It was also great to see how impressive the predictive AI technology google has and I can definitely see this saving lots of time. My previous experiences with forms and sheets was literally filling them out - which is not much help in the classroom. Learning how to find the average and freeze rows and cells is also very handy to know and I am excited to use these features when collecting and analysing in my students' assessment data for the end of the year.

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

I am keen to use forms to gather student feedback on their attitudes towards learning and how I can improve classroom learning programmes. I am also interested in using forms to question students as part of the teaching inquiry I am about to start through Mindlab which is focused on 'using blended learning approaches to accelerate student achievement levels in writing.' 

Once I become more confident with using forms I would like to encourage my students to try making forms to quiz each other in either literacy or numeracy.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

I look forward to converting the data entered onto sheets into graphs to show a more visual picture as I think this will make data a lot easier to interpret rather than just a whole heap of number on a page which I often find to be overwhelming. 

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 8

Improved your understanding for the Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Empowerment involves students, teachers and whanau. Manaiakalani aims to empower and educate all stakeholders in our learner's lives with/through the use of digital technologies.  The aim is to not just see digital technologies as a tool, but a way to transform the way we all learn and use technology to empower our lives.  We need to think about our sites as though students are going home to discuss their learning with their parents and whanau with our sites being used to enhance these discussions and partnerships. Therefore our sites being access capable for all with no locked access in essential. 

Empowered you professionally with your teaching practice?

Computational Thinking 
Today we had the opportunity to work on computational thinking, breaking down the new digital technologies curriculum and have a play with programming some robots and making stop animations. It was great to finally have the chance to experiment with these tools with the assistance of some very knowledgable experts to help troubleshoot issues I came across. I can definitely see amazing potential to integrate these into my classroom programme. 

Below is a video of me using Dash Robots and another where Blake Masters and I created an animation using Clapmotion and Green Screen:

Given you new skills that you can use with your learners?  

I have taught a bit of computational thinking using things such as The Foos app (digital),  plastic cups and mazes (hands on non-digital). My students really enjoy it and I'd like to continue this with the use of digital technologies such as Dash Robots. My students have a good understanding about the 3 three roles they can adopt when programming being coder, debugger and robot. I feel a lot more confident with introducing robots into the classroom now that I have had some practise using them myself. 

Improved your confidence with digital fluency, capability or workflow in your personal life?

I can see a clearer pathway for how I can integrate the new digital technologies curriculum with my students and have realised we are doing a lot of it already! I can't wait to begin the Raranga Matihiko PLD next term with my learners and am keen to empower them by offering a wider context and resources to be creative and digital experts within our school.  

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 7

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Today's Manaiakalani kaupapa focus was Connected. Connected as in within the class, whanau and  wider world. Being connected extends the learner wider and helps them to realise that there's more than just themselves out there.

Being connected also extends our professional relationships and eliminates the location barriers as we have greater access to other professional colleagues online. We have greater access through blogging, emails, google hangouts. It's not only between schools but also the school's community (BOT, whanau, teachers, students).

Being part of the Manaiakalani cluster of schools means that we are developing a shared language - learn, create, share, shared pedagogy, shared kaupapa.

Term focuses with students: T1-Learn, T2-Create, T3- Share, T4 bring them all together. Each of these aspects are specifically taught and broken down with students.

Connecting face to face is still very important. Having DFI's in different schools is is a great way to build connections within the cluster.

Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu - Write to me, write to others, register your class.

Activities on slide 12 - link

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Today we worked more on developing our class sites. We had a look at other people's sites and completed a google form to offer our feedback on how we thought their site's visual appeal and user experience. There was also an opportunity to share what we have done so far with google sites and received feedback form others. I definitely fell my class site has really engaged my learners and they enjoy using it. They also don't spend as much time mucking around on random apps and all of the apps on our class iPads are used for a purpose. 

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

After looking at Clarelle's class site, I have gotten some ideas for how to link in Explain Everything activities to my slides and she is happy for me to use and adapt some of the activities accessible on her site - Thanks Clarelle! She has also recommended that I have a look at the work Rebecca Spies is doing with her class for persuasive writing which is our writing focus for the term.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

It was nice to see that others are still developing their sites and starting small. I have enjoyed helping others in this session to set up 'the bones' of their sites. It has helped me to consolidate the skills I have learnt over the past two terms.  It is becoming more evident that our Junior Syndicate needs to spend some time creating Explain Everything resources that suit our learners. 

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 6

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Being Cybersmart - we want our students to be confident using digital devices in a safe manner (behaving appropriately online). Manaiakalani's Cybersmart Curriculum is based in an NZ context. It's great to see the range of resources developed to support both teachers and students with implementing the Cybersmart Curriculum. There are three main categories from the Cybersmart Curriculum that relate to everyday life including:
-Smart Learners (Term 1)-Smart Footprint (Term 2)-Smart Relationships (Term 3)

Link to the Manaiakalani Cybersmart Curriculum.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Today I learnt how to use Explain Everything. I have been waiting for this opportunity all year and I finally have this app on my classroom iPads. There's a mountain of resources out there and they are really easy to make. I'll be checking out a few other teacher's classroom sites to get some ideas for what to make. Uploading the resources and linking them to the class site is something I'll have to practise a few times as I wasn't logged into my own account because I borrowed an iPad. Khismira's iPad presentation is very helpful and a good introduction to using iPads a Year 1 class (I think this will work just as well with my Year 2/3 students). I have also just found out that Sunshine books are available to Manaiakalani Schools for free! 

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?  

Last week I made a resource using google drawings and linked it to my site. I soon discovered that google drawing is not available on iPads so thank goodness Explain Everything is available to our school now as this seems to be the one stop shop for making iPad friendly activities. 

Week 5 working on making a resource for my students in google draw.

I am going to begin introducing Explain Everything in a very structured way and make sure my students have a lot of time to practise using the tool and be creative with it. I need to make sure they press record before they begin any activity so they can show me how they completed an activity. 

Kawa of care is something we have focused on since Term 1 so I need to move onto the other aspects the Cyber Smart Curriculum offers. This will be a lot easier now that I've been shown the resources that are available. I am very keen for my students to become digitally fluent. 

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Overall having access to shared resources will save me a lot of time and not having to create resources from scratch all the time will be a nice change. I feel if we work together at a school and cluster level, we can build our own bank of resources that are relevant to the children in the Far North area and this will make life easier for everyone.  

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 5

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Making learning completely visible is hugely important and give students an authentic audience. If learning is not visible to whanau it can seem as though we are putting up barriers. Whanau having access to student learning through Google Sites has a very positive impact on home-school partnerships and gives parents an insight into what their child is learning at school and can prompt learning conversations between our students and their parents.

Multi-modal- different modes of communication.

Engaging - the hook: using multi-modal raises student engagement e.g. videos, maps, text, 

Once the hook is in - teach! Multi modal addresses behavioural engagement but multi-textual achieves the cognitive engagement - it gives the learning a purpose.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

I learnt a lot more about google sites. I already had a clear understanding of how to use it but now I feel more confident with the idea of what content to add to my site and to make sure I add instructions and explanations to do with the multiple modes I am embedding on the site e.g. make sure youtube clips have an instructional purpose captioned below. I am now motivated to create a range of google sites to run our class inquiry topics through.

A few tricks for making images the correct size for google site:

-960x300 pixels header size for google sites

-200x200 pixels for buttons (make sure buttons are quite large for use on iPads).

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

I created a school garden site with links to videos, google drawing activities, and digital text links. I also converted a junior journal text about gardening into a google slide to make it more accessible to my students. I plan to do more of this in the future to build my own bank of digital resources. Making texts into slides will make handling school resources more manageable as I won't have to worry about have enough copies of books for the students in their reading groups. They can also access these resources from home. 

Link to the site I worked on today:

Link to my class site:

When kids are first starting out at year 4 with chromebooks, the instructions need to be specific with the tech e.g. what colour to add text to a shared doc, make a copy of the doc etc... The older students get the less technical instructions needed as they get used to using google apps.

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?

Making digital books accessible through google slides will enable me to work from home more as I can access the digital texts for this like junior journals and school journals from home. I can update and add digital content from home onto my site also. I need to keep in mind that making digital resources is really worthwhile for using year after year. Building a bank of these should make my workload less as time goes on.

Connected Learners Share Workshop

Activity 1 - Blogging! Has It made a difference?

What is the new strategy?

After reading Simon Scott's blog post, I have gained new insight into how blogging can really motivate, engage and support student learning in writing. He has experienced great success in terms of students motivation, thoughtfulness and raising student's punctuation levels in writing (eliminating the need for a worksheet).

I have gained a lot of ideas for how to scaffold my students to' make meaningful comments on their peer's blogs. I like how basic his 3 step blog commenting prompt is and I can see this working in my year 2/3 class.Check out his Blog Commenting Prompt below:

What are you thinking about trialling in your learning space?

For a start I need to set blogger up on my students iPads as they are currently using Seesaw which is quite limited in regards to making learning visible with the world - as only parents have access. I need to focus on scaffolding students to make quality blog posts and highlight the fact that these will be open to the world. I's love to find or develop a '3 Step Quality Blog Post' model to guide my students so they have something to refer to when struggling to make a blog post. If anyone out there is reading this and has something similar to the commenting prompt above but for making blog posts I'd love it if you could share it!

What new learning, resources or support could your Manaiakalani Outreach Facilitator provide?

I would definitely love some more support with setting up blogger on the iPads, making quality blog posts and having a go at commenting on each others blogs. My students love to share on Seesaw so I know they will be excited with the prospect of broadening their audience.

Activity 2 - The Acceleration of Sharing

How has sharing changed in your lifetime?

Sharing has changed hugely over the my lifetime. I was born in 1990 (wow!). Checkout the timeline below:

In your role in your learning area how has the increased sharing opportunities enhanced your teaching practise?

I feel like the amount of content online has revolutionised teaching! I can't imagine a world without the internet and I can't imagine what it would have been like not having content and knowledge at my fingertips. I have to admit sharing my professional reflections has been a tricky aspect to get my head around but I am slowly gaining confidence in this area (especially with the the expectation of my students sharing their learning and knowledge with the world).

Week 19 / Contribution of Teacher Inquiry Topics to my Communities of Practice

Descriptive

The teacher inquiry topics I am interested in researching are as follows:

Inquiry Topic 1: How can I raise student achievement levels in writing by moving them from a fixed to growth mindset?
Inquiry Topic 2: How can I engage reluctant writers using digital tools such as Coggle and blended learning approaches?

I have two communities of practice which include my fellow junior syndicate colleagues and the Kaitaia Mindlab study group I am apart of. These two CoPs are made up of like minded colleagues both of which encompous the dimentions required in a CoP: Enterprise, Mutuality and Repertoire (Wenger, 2000).

Our junior syndicate is a very effective CoP for myself as a lot of ideas and observations of lessons are shared and analysed together. Our school's overarching inquiry for this year is raising student's achievement in writing which is why both of my chosen inquiry topics are focused around writing. My fellow colleagues in this CoP are all heavily involved in using digital technologies to enhance learning with a few of our classes being 1:1 iPads and others gaining access to this next year.  We are also a pilot school for the Manaiakalani Te Hiku cluster. 

The Kaitaia Mindlab study group we have formed involves a number of schools around our Far North district and is a safe and supportive space to share ideas and give and receive feedback/forward. I feel the colleagues within this online CoP are already proving to be beneficial to my own professional practice and I have enjoyed building trusted professional relationships with these people. As noted by Wenger (2000), participating in communities of practice is essential to our learning.

Comparative

Inquiry topic 1, I am hoping will benefit not only our junior syndicate but also our school. This is because the Growth Mindset theory is already valued and taught within the school. All classes have posters displaying growth mindset sayings and I have had a few discussions with fellow colleagues about the importance of our students (and ourselves) having a growth mindset. I am however unsure of how deeply understood this notion is within the school and I am interested in finding out more about this in the hopes that I can share this knowledge with others within our CoP. I know for myself that the notion of a 'False Growth Mindset' is a very real possibility in my own classroom and that it is not enough to only use positive affirmations and language to make a growth mindset a reality (Dweck, 2016).  

Inquiry topic 2,  is of interest to my fellow colleagues in both CoPs I am participating in. One fellow colleague in our junior syndicate is inquiring into student engagement in writing but without the digital aspect due to lack of devices in her classroom. Therefore I feel the outcome of my inquiry could be of use to her for next year when she acquires more devices. We have also discussed the use of 'front loading' target students with lesson content in preparation for a future lesson that maybe taught whole class at a later date - I feel this can be achieved with the idea of the flipped classroom using short video clips, quizzes and collaborative discussions (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). 
I also know the Kaitaia Mindlab CoP are interested in the blended learning aspect and how this can enhance student engagement in their classrooms. We have discussed the use of different apps in our Mindlab face to face classes and shared success and failure stories as well as the barriers we face. 

Critical Reflection

Overall I feel the inquiry topics I have mentioned are very relevant to both of the CoPs I am apart of. I look forward to sharing my findings and discussing different approaches others have used in relation to growth mindset and blended learning. I have a much better understanding of what Communities of Practice are and can see the relevance these have in regard to working together to achieve a common goal and sharing differing knowledge and perspectives in order to improve our professional practice. 

I have used Jay and Johnson's (2002) reflective model for this weeks reflection.

References:

Bergmann, J. & Sams, A. (2012). Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education. https://books.google.co.nz/books?isbn=1564844684

Dweck, C. (2016, January 11). Recognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset. Retrieved July 26, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/recognizing-overcoming-false-growth-mindset-carol-dweck

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002) Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.

Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.

Digital Fluency Intensive Week 3

What did I learn that increased my understanding of Manaiakalani kaupapa and pedagogy?

Today I learnt about the 'create' part of Manaiakalani's philosophy. This aspect is focused on engaging learners in creative tasks and is not based solely around a device. Dorothy made a point of explaining that everyone learns differently; and we need to provide a range of opportunities for students to create and use the whole body to do so (the  infographic to the right demonstrates what this looks like visually). It is important to note that devices are a small part of 'create' and is often only used as a recording tool to capture the creativity e.g. via photo or video. Devices are a way of turbocharging the learning and creativity!

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow as a professional?

Today I practised making buttons. I have already had a go at making buttons for my class google site, but it was great to have a refresher. 

We were shown how to change certain settings on our youtube channels to make them more private and make sure the videos we embed on our class sites are free from showing suggested videos; therefore eliminating the element of distraction of unintended youtube clips. This will definitely help with keeping my students more focused while viewing content via our class site!

I also started to make an infographic for book week for our school as it will be held next week. As a library leader I thought this would tie in great with making things more visual and creative! 

What did I learn that could be used with my learners?

I had so much fun creating an animation using google slides. I can definitely see my students utilising this and creating all sorts of animations. It is important to remember to make duplicate copies of the slide as you go to make it easier to move the images gradually to make it look more realistic. I got some great feedback from my fellow course buddy Blake Masters on how to improve my animation and it was easy to adjust. You can view my practise animation below. 

One thing I'm not sure about is how to make png images work on iPads as the pixelated backgrounds still show up once an image is inserted. This will be an issue for my students in class as they are one to one iPads. If there is a way to fix this please feel free to comment! 

What did I learn that could improve my confidence, capability or workflow in my personal life?


Learning how to adjust privacy settings and create labelled playlists on youtube will be invaluable both professionally and personally. I have always been reluctant to upload videos to youtube as a way of storing them and as I've found out for good reason. It turns out it's not good to post videos of students to youtube especially for Years 1-8 with the comments feature present. I know as a parent I wouldn't too happy is my child was in a video online especially without my permission and for public view. 

This has prompted me to recheck my child's youtube account settings to ensure the restrictions are appropriate (now that I know how to do this).

Week 18/Future-oriented Learning and Teaching

Step 1 (Description):

Since starting my studies through The Mindlab, the number one thing in my future oriented practice that has been impacted is the way I implement technology into my classroom. I have had one to one iPads in my classroom for a few years now but have known deep down that I wasn't utilising them in the best way. For instance I would download any app I heard another teacher talk without actually trialing it properly myself, and I didn't have pedagogical knowledge about fostering digital technologies in a 21st century learning environment. 

By analysing my implementation and leadership of past digital initiatives in my Mindlab assignments against relevant theories and research, it has helped me to better understand where I was going wrong and be more thoughtful with how I implement digital technologies in the future. Now my iPads only have apps tested by myself. These apps are linked to my class google site that I have developed to run my classroom programmes through. It has enabled me to make learning more visible for students and their whanau.

Step 2 (Feelings):

Initially, I felt as though a light bulb went off. I finally had access to the resources I had been searching for. It was a little hard to look back (in the Mindlab assignments) on all of the mistakes I'd made but I've decided those needed to happen as part of my own learning process. Now I feel a lot clearer with not only the 'how' to implement the technologies but also the 'why' I should do it a certain way. 

Step 3 (Evaluation):

My students now see the iPads as a tool for learning, not just something 'fun' to play on. They are more goal driven and a lot clearer about what they are learning and why. The handful of whanau that have been given access to the site have enjoyed seeing what their children have been learning at school. I have a student in France with her family who have been accessing the site to keep up with the learning that has been occurring in the classroom. 

Although this process has been hugely beneficial to my teaching practice, it took me a while to get my head around the fact that our learning programmes are visible to the world. My google site is still under construction and is a work in progress so there are a lot of parts of it that are unfinished. The changes I have made to make learning more digital and visible has improved my practice and really made me think about the content I am teaching and different ways I can improve it using digital technologies.

Step 4 (Analysis): 

I feel the models SAMR (developed by Ruben Puentedura, ) and TPACK (developed by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler, 2009) have helped me build confidence with digital technologies and  enabled me to think more deeply about the potential the learning tasks I create have; as well as inform/evaluate my practice.

With the use of the Assessment Rubric for TPACK and SAMR developed by Grandgenett, Harris & Hoffer (2010), I can assess the quality of my technology integration and effective teaching approaches. 

Step 5 (Conclusion): 

In conclusion, there are always things I could have done/ can do to make the implementation of digital technologies more efficient. In terms of my google site, I could have waited till my entire site was up and running before I introduced it to the class, but it is still evolving so the fact that I have been about to trial different aspect of it has been great. 

Step 6 (Action Plan):

I have learnt that with the correct tools and theories, I am more confident with implementing digital technologies. The change I have made has benefited my students and their whanau by making learning more visible therefore strengthening home school partnerships. My next steps are to roll out the access to the class google site to all student's whanau and ask for feedback/feedforward iso I can make further improvements to it.  

I have used Gibbs (1988) reflective cycle for this reflection about my future oriented learning and teaching.

Reference List:

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from http://www.open. ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/29544/article_29544.pdf

Puentedura, R. (2010). SAMR and TPCK: Intro to advanced practice. Retrieved from http://hippasus.com/resources/sweden2010/SAMR_TPCK_IntroToAdvancedPractice.pdf.