Activity 5 - Professional Connection Map

I have identified the following two professional connections that I have in my map that have had a significant impact on my practice:

1. My Principal
2. The Mindlab

My Principal
My principal and I started at Glenfield Primary School at roughly the same time. I was just embarking on my new role as teacher and she had just taken over her new role from the acting principal having come from a South Auckland school.

Without a doubt my principal was and continues to be the most influential connection I have in my own practice and within my professional community. Her impact has been enormous on me as an individual and as a teacher.
She has been driven to make each and every one of us teachers the best that we can be so that we can teach the students in the most effective way possible. With an open door policy, her support, guidance and trust in me, my abilities and my learning has allowed me to flourish as a teacher.

I feel that we have a common interest in keeping abreast of the latest global trends in teaching. We talk freely about these trends, she motivates and inspires me to try new things and not to be afraid to fail, as long as I learn. She provides me and my community with current and engaging professional development, she listens, she provokes and she supports me as I am learning how to be an effective 21st century educator.

She has been excited by what I have learnt with the Mindlab, helping me with assignments, reading my work and making comments and suggestions on how I can improve what I am doing, always giving me pertinent feedback.  As ICT leader she trusts implicitly in the decisions I make, the technology we purchase, the support partners I choose and the digital pedagogies that I utilise within the classroom.  This support has helped me become a more confident and effective ICT leader.

My principal leads by example and it is her qualities, work ethic and determination to do what is right that will leave a lasting impact on me throughout my teaching career.

The Mindlab

It would have been an obvious choice to reference my students as having the greatest impact on my professional practice but it is the Mindlab that has also had a huge impact on my practice in a relatively short period of time.
The exposure that I have had to such engaging, motivating and inspiring tutors (and fellow teachers), coupled with the hands on learning, interaction with others on the course, videos, course readings, assignments, provocations and discussions has been profound.

I have learnt so much from my tutors and peers, made many new connections and have been exposed to so many thoughts and technologies and I feel so motivated and inspired to be a teacher in these fast and exciting times.
My practice has changed as result of this course; with the two areas of leadership and student-centred learning having had the most impact on me. It is interesting that it is not the digital element of the course that I mentioning here!

The learnings from this course and the new teaching methods that I have applied is slowly changing my teaching program and the way that I teach, interact with the students and interact with my community. Not only this but my peers have seen what is going on in my classroom and are inquiring themselves into their practice and partnerships with their students.

I have also reflected on areas that I might not necessarily would have done, read and criticised literature that I might not have done and asked questions about my own and others practice that I may not have done. Plus of course, I have been exposed to a wealth of applications and websites that are gradually making my way into the classroom and across the school much to the students, teachers and parents excitement.