 I have identified the following two professional connections that I have in my map that have had a significant impact on my practice:
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.
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A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor. (Wenger & Trayner-Wenger, 2015)
When defining my community of practice in regard to Wenger’s concept of community of practice it is important to note that this has been clarified further by his summarising of community of practice as being ‘groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly’. Working in the education system I feel that my community of practice is ‘ a complex social system that can be viewed as constituted by interrelated communities of practice’ (Wenger & Trayner-Wenger, 2015) and is far reaching. However, the core of my community, the heart of my practice, as you will, should be defined by recognising my immediate stakeholders; these being my students, my students parents, my fellow teachers and principal (within my school), the Board of Trustees and my ICT support partners and vendors. All three of these groups I identify as constituting my domain, one of three characteristics defined by Wagner to describe a shared interest - that of learning. Wenger goes on to further define two further characteristics of a community of practice, that of community and practice. The former (community), which would refer to my stakeholders engaging in joint activities and discussions, sharing information and helping each other. The latter (practice), whereby my stakeholders ‘develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short, a shared practice’. This can be broken down in the following way: Students: If I am a committed and reflective educator then my students and I will create positive student-teacher learning partnerships. Teachers: My fellow teachers and I will be in constant pursuit of upskilling ourselves through the wider community (see below), and from each other to enable us to become more effective educators and collaborators. Parents: My parents will wish to learn about their students, their progress and how they can be supported at home and within school. They should also be actively involved with school life. Board of Trustees: The board of trustees is responsible for setting the overall policies of the school, the budget and ensuring that the overall needs of the community (the students, teachers and parents) are met. ICT Partners: Being the ICT Leader I am constantly liaising with my third support and ICT vendors to ensure that the school network together with the hardware and software is up to date and running effectively. Within my wider educational sphere of practice I would identify the main bodies of my community to be the cluster schools in my area, specialist education centres such as Team Solutions and the Mind Lab and then the virtual global community - Social Networking sites, Pond, Google + and the many other professional development websites and resource sites. What Is My Specialist Area of Practice? My school-wide responsibility is that of ICT Leader. Below are a few of the responsibilities that I am accountable for:
My specialist area of practice relates very closely to the current shift in practice in relation to the broader professional context. In ‘Supporting future-oriented learning & teaching - a New Zealand perspective’ (Bolstad et al., 2012) the following points are of note:
My specialist area is vital as we learn how to incorporate existing and emerging digital technologies into the classroom as a way of creating new learning opportunities and ways of learning and as we connect locally and globally with an array of communities (defined above), both within my immediate domain and on a global scale. This is easier said than done however, as we look to address the current issues within the community and the challenges that I face in my own practice. What Are The Current Issues In Your Community? It is beyond the scope of this post to reflect upon all of the community issues that we currently face but I have identified that of ‘communicating effectively with parents so that they become more aware of their child’s learning and more aware of school life and activities’ as one of the most important, and an area that I/we feel that can be improved upon. One, of the ways the we are looking to address this is through the use of ICT. We are looking at the ways that technology can be used to communicate more effectively with parents. Specifically:
We are also now looking at developing e-portfolios that can be accessed online by the parents so that they are more aware of their child’s learning. We are addressing these issues currently amongst the staff, not our parents, which, as I am writing this, feels like something we should be doing and I will bring it to my principal's attention. As a staff we are each trying different things. Some of us are trialling Class Dojo, some are blogging, some are using Google Docs and Classroom, some are not using anything, which needs to be addressed. We will meet back shortly to discuss what is working, not working and the challenges we are currently facing. We are also going to meet with the BOT to discuss the use Facebook as a tool to communicate more effectively with our community as we feel that the type of demographic that our school resides in would be susceptible to this form of communication. What Are The Challenges That You Face In Your Practice? The greatest challenges that I face within my specialist area of IT is: (in no particular order):
We are addressing all of these issues on some level at this stage and it is important to clarify that since carrying out the leadership module from the Mind Lab that I feel that I am doing this more effectively than I was before. I have created an ICT team that covers all year levels and teacher expertise and we meet to discuss current issues and concerns that are detailed above. We have created a digital citizenship and cyber safety program, we have had a student/teacher/parent community evening where we have presented and discussed the inherent dangers of being online. We have started talking to the board about the possibility of using social media as a better method of communication. We have conducted staff surveys through Google Forms on teachers perception of ICT and how it is used within the school. We are soon to start a coffee club where teachers can come and discuss the latest websites and applications (both locally and globally), that are available and how they are using them within the classroom. As mentioned above, this post has only highlighted what I feel are the most important issues and challenges that I and my community face in my specialised area of practice and these can only be achieved through effective leadership and collaborative efforts within my immediate local domain and in the wider global community. References Wenger, E., & Trayner-Wenger, B. (2015). Communities of practice: a brief introduction. April 2015, 1–8. http://doi.org/10.2277/0521663636 Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching - A New Zealand perspective\n. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/109317/994_Future-oriented-07062012.pdf Before reading Reflecting on ‘Reflective Practice’ (Finlay 2008) my definition of reflective practice mirrored that of (Boud et al 1985; Boyd and Fales, 1983; Mezirow, 1981, Jarvis, 1992) being that ‘reflective practice is understood as the process of learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and/or practice’. I could not have worded the definition as succinctly as this but this has been my understanding. However, after reading the article I was both interested and surprised at the depth of analysis that reflective practice involves and what it’s connotations (both positive and negative) can have on myself, my peers and my Year 4/6 students. Below I have highlighted some of the points that within the article that I can relate to in my my reflective practice.
The Reflective Model that I am Adopting - The Spiral of Inquiry |
Author21st Century Educator, UltraMarathon Runner, Motorbike Rider, Globe Trotter. ArchivesCategories |
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