Changes in Practice- Lifelong Learning

WOW! Nearly there. The last 32 weeks have been a roller coaster ride, from sheer terror to moments of delight.  Juggling a full on career, with family and introducing study.  I have loved sharing parts of the learning journey with my students, reminding them we are all lifelong learners.  My students have definitely supported me and taught me some of the digital components of the course.

Mind Lab, as well as my supportive seven other staff members on my intake from our school have given me the confidence and skills to become more of a 21^st Century educator.  “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 there is a need to learn.” (Osterman and Kottkamp 1993) The Mind Lab tasks were effective because we had to become totally engaged and put into practice what we had been learning about. The practical activities in the first 16 weeks, gave me the confidence to try them in my classroom.  I have always been passionate about ongoing professional development and upskilling, but had never thought about 32 weeks part time study.  Spending weeks collaborating with to others on a Literature Review around Growth mindset fits in with Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice. We are sharing our learning at a staff meeting next term. My learning is not over and I will continue as long as I live.  I have been introduced to Google + as a professional development forum.

Throughout MindLab I have improved in Criteria 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment.  Learning about Growth Mindset has totally changed my way of teaching and has helped myself and my students understand the power of our brains.  Carol Dwerk (2014) and the power of yet is now used in our classroom and students add ‘yet’ to the end of sentences when they are learning a new skill or strategy. Learning about our students and having high expectations of them is crucial to having a supportive learning environment. Through Mind Lab I have become increasing more collaborative and digital in my approach to teaching and learning. This is an area I am interested in continuing to learn about and implement into my classroom programme.  

The end or just the beginning?

REFERENCES

                Dwerk, C. (2014, November). The Power of Believing that you can improve. Retrieved from TED TALKS.

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

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

My interdisciplinary connection map

Jacobs (1989) defines interdisciplinary curriculum as “a knowledge view and curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue, problem, topic or experience.”

As a syndicate team we try and plan across the curriculum to link our literacy programme to our inquiry.  We also work to try and link to real world problems.  I feel we definitely do this well in inquiry and literacy, but need to move on now to incorporating maths within the interdisciplinary approach. At this stage my maths is still very much a separate subject.

The Los Angeles County education video talks about preparing our students with 21^st Century skills.  Collaboration, communicating, creativity and critical thinking. All these skills are easier to teach when the approach is interdisciplinary and students learning is linked through a common theme or inquiry, relating to real life problems.  I can certainly see the benefits in this and need to increase these within my programme. This year I have used an increased amount of collaboration after learning more about it through my Mindlab journey.  Students’ collaborate through more group work and on google docs.

Watching the video on the Ross Spiral Curriculum was inspiring. A curriculum that the whole school works towards, real life problems and field trips both locally and internationally as well as passionate staff.  Huge amounts of money and professional development investments must have been dedicated to get this system up and running.  We are a long way off this type of model. All staff would need to be on board as well as the students and parent community.  Our students have four different technicraft subjects which are all run separately from our school wide inquiry.

 Jacobs (1989) defines interdisciplinary curriculum as “a knowledge view and curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue, problem, topic or experience.”

As a syndicate team we try and plan across the curriculum to link our literacy programme to our inquiry.  We also work to try and link to real world problems.  I feel we definitely do this well in inquiry and literacy, but need to move on now to incorporating maths within the interdisciplinary approach. At this stage my maths is still very much a separate subject.

The Los Angeles County education video talks about preparing our students with 21^st Century skills.  Collaboration, communicating, creativity and critical thinking. All these skills are easier to teach when the approach is interdisciplinary and students learning is linked through a common theme or inquiry, relating to real life problems.  I can certainly see the benefits in this and need to increase these within my programme. This year I have used an increased amount of collaboration after learning more about it through my Mindlab journey.  Students’ collaborate through more group work and on google docs.

Watching the video on the Ross Spiral Curriculum was inspiring. A curriculum that the whole school works towards, real life problems and field trips both locally and internationally as well as passionate staff.  Huge amounts of money and professional development investments must have been dedicated to get this system up and running.  We are a long way off this type of model. All staff would need to be on board as well as the students and parent community.  Our students have four different technicraft subjects which are all run separately from our school wide inquiry.

My own interdisciplinary connection map was interesting to make.  I had not ever stopped to see how many connections I have both professionally and personally that guide me on my teaching/learning journey.  My school connections are huge and we have many opportunities within the school for connecting through syndicate meetings, staff meetings and curriculum meetings. A couple of areas I marked in red are to move on are; connections with our local iwi and COL (Community of Learning). We are in the initial stages of expressing an interest in being part of a COL. As an intermediate school and in my role as Head of Literacy it is important for us to make links with college and prepare our students for the transition to college.  A goal I have is to meet more with the Head of English at our local college and find out more about what level 5 looks like, looking at what else we can do to help with the transition.

References

Lacoe Edu (2014, Oct 24) Interdisciplinary Learning [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA564RIlhME

Mathison,S.. & Freeman, M.(1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 1997. Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/mathisonlogic12004.pdf:

Ross Institute. (2015, July 5). Ross Spiral Curriculum: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Science. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHZhkB0FJik

Using social online networks in teaching or professional development

As educators we are preparing our students for the 21^st Century and I am on a steep learning curve. When I started teaching way back in 1989 I wrote out notices and activities and ran them through the bander machine, the smell of methylated spirits was always lingering. Some notices may have been typed on my portable typewriter.  Now I can email a notice to parents or upload a post on Facebook and the notice goes global instantly.  

I am embracing social media cautiously in my classroom and Mindlab has given me a huge boost in knowledge and confidence.  I spend far too many hours looking through Pinterest, reading others blogs and on the Facebook professional development sights being inspired by other educators.  A question which once would have meant me researching for hours on end can be answered by a wide variety of people within hours, I have social media to thank for this. Being connected through technology now allows for global collaboration. The collaboration and sharing between professionals should make our job easier, but I would have to admit with the huge amount of resources, aps, sites etc. available to look at I spend just as much time working now as I did back in the 1990’s, possibly even more as my laptop or phone is always close by.

An aspect of social media that has impacted on the home school connection being accessible to students and families in Facebook and google classroom.  Students are able to access their work from home and the ‘book’ is never left at home as their work is online. This increases parents being able to be involved and students seeking feedback from me and their peers from home.  Posts on Facebook of students’ success and work throughout the day are posted and straight away reach whanau. Using NZ Read Aloud this year was a first for my class and they loved collaborating and reading comments from other Year 7 and 8 students around New Zealand. As staff too we shared the load of planning the novel study, each teacher setting activities for just two chapters.

Having the skills to be 21^st Century learner and keeping safe on line is also important to visit in class. Students are quick to report when someone has made an inappropriate comment and our school values are re visited.

A personal goal of mine at the beginning of the year was to use more digital tools and I am on track. Having introduced a blog, google classroom and been part of NZ Read Aloud, my next step is to use Twitter and Storybird.com. I found watching Kathy Cassidy’s clip on ‘Using Social Media in the Classroom’ inspiring and my students too are very knowledgeable about digital knowledge and can often teach me.  My learning journey continues.

References                 

lindseyinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/social_media_services.png

Office of Ed Tech. (2013, Sep 18). Connected Educators. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=216&v=K4Vd4JP_DB8

Tvoparents. (2013, May 21). Using Social Media in the Classroom.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno