Activity 10: Your Postgraduate Learning Journey and your plan for the future

"We've come a long long way together, through the hard times and the good. I have to celebrate you baby, I have to praise you like I should." Fat Boy Slim

It's been a challenging, rewarding, and at times overwhelming experience... but the last 32 weeks of study have changed me as a teacher. I feel empowered to make change, expect change, and to become change.

My Reflection on the 32 weeks...

I have been aware for some time that digital tools alone, without support of pedagogical development was not going to be the solution to making learning relevant and valuable for my students. Learning needs to be (Criteria 4, Criteria 5, Criteria 12):

• Relevant to the lives of students - content, context, and value
• Responsive to student's needs and culture
• Active learning, as opposed to lots of 'time on the mat' and passive learning

Taking the above points into consideration, I knew what I wanted my students to experience in their year with me. I have observed that my classroom has become a place where (Criteria 6, Criteria 7, Criteria 8, ):

• A LOT MORE questions are asked (Our class now has a reputation for being curious!)
• New methods of learning - to develop 21st century learning skills and values (Criteria 6)
• Agency is visible with the use of digital and collaborative technology and tools (Criteria 11)
• Active learning and autonomy of learning is become more evident (This has been the hardest behaviour to 'un-teach' through the year, Criteria 11)
• Collaboration and creativity are skills valued in our room

My Goals:

Trying new concepts, evaluating, and setting goals has become a big part of how learning takes place in my classroom. Throughout the year I have made gains, stumbled on dealing with organisational culture and parent perspectives.

My first goals in the deployment of digital and collaborative skills within my classroom is to Establish better community goals for learning of students in my classroom. What do parents deem important for their children's education and how closely are these concepts related to my practice and pedagogy? Do these two need to match up from the start of the year? Is there room for education of our community into what is important for learning in the 21st Century?

I plan to use digital and collaborative tools, as well as informal gatherings to create a classroom community where learning is going to benefit students (not just for high school) but for life. Using a group project (like a Jiwi Machine) and the design thinking process I would like to help make connections between school and home better.

Breaking away from the constraints and assumptions of 'organisational culture' is going to be a big goal. How can I expect different results when I keen on doing the same thing? Critical analysis of teaching methods and pedagogy is going to be crucial in continuing to develop the use of digital and collaborative tools in my classroom, and within our school.

As a leader of e-Learning (JUST LEARNING!) within our school, it will be my challenge to see if some of the constraints and mindsets within our school can be changed. Possibly through critical analysis of pedagogy and student voice within our school. Voice will be collected through survey - as planned in my RC assignments.

And so I would like to end this assignment, as I started the first, with an image that inspired me to let go and to move forward. Sometimes that is the only way.

Thank you all - especially my understanding family! :)

Activity 9 : Evaluations of the cultural responsiveness in practice

Being predominantly educated in another country and having a naturally inclined intrinsic motivation towards learning about other cultures has helped me to be a teacher who takes into account indigenous knowledge and making sure that my teaching pedagogy and classroom environment is culturally responsive.

Being a teacher in New Zealand however is more than knowing about Maori culture, it's about respecting and working towards honouring the Treaty of Waitangi to make learning accessible and valuable for all students, especially Maori.

For a time of my life it seemed that (especially as an outsider looking in) there was not much difference between teaching Maori or non-Maori students. Statistics from Russel Bishop tend to agree with my perspective; being that not much has been done differently for Maori students. With this in mind and considering the words of Russel Bishop, it seems that pedagogy needs to line up with the Principals of Kaupapa Maori. These principles are closely related to 21st Century Learning skills, making for an excellent collaboration of future thinking and culturally responsive pedagogy.

School Wide Activities:

Our school addresses culturally responsiveness by making sure that students, Maori or not, know that Maori culture and language is valued. We attain this by developing common language and phrases to normalise Te Reo Maori within our daily notices. Language and sayings in the notices are accompanied by video of students using these in context - Maori and Non-Maori. Our school takes part in the Tairawhiti Turanganui kapa haka festival as a whole school.

Learning Activities:

In the classroom it is valuable to include Maori perspectives to help explain phenomenon and concepts. How does local history and traditions support what we are learning about? Having an understanding and connection with Maori (and Non Maori) students help teaching and learning to become student/relationship centered. This gives learners the opportunity to become the teachers, and teachers the opportunity to learn and connect. These experiences help students to develop autonomous learning capability that will enable learning to excel.

Activity 8: Legal contexts and digital identities

Our school has had a challenging first year of 'Bring your own device' while heading down the Chromebook in classrooms track. We upgraded antiquated devices with 10 new Chromebooks per class. This has both enabled and enriched learning experiences for students. It does seem however that there are some interesting ethical discussions arising from.

e-Learning Agreement: 

Our school has always had an ICT agreement (which used to be separate from our school agreement...) to encourage kids to think about the way they use the internet and devices at school. This agreement became outdated with the introduction of BYOD devices at the start of the year. This year we have had several ethical issues around technology use with students having their own devices.

It becomes confusing and not so transparent when students are able to 'play games' and 'take selfies' in their own time, but not at school. We have experienced situations involving emails being sent to parents out of context during the school day creating kaos without the teacher evening being aware of a situation.

The Situation: 

In my classroom a student used her device to take 'funny selfies' before school with friends and decided to load the image (of students in their school uniform) to Instagram after school. Some parents were made aware of the image (which I was completely unaware of!) and let me know via email a kid has been posting images on instagram during class time. As you can imagine this was a tricky situation that did not really breach our code of conduct around ICT - I established that the photo happened outside of class time.

The student did however not take into account the other kids in the photo, or that they were in school uniform. To resolve the issue we had a great discussion as a class about appropriate use of technology at school, and made sure that we think before posting any images online. It did lead to other interesting discussions around public blogs, school photos on Facebook of trips, etc...

Solution?

To address this specific issue (school wide) we made changes to our e-Learning agreement to make sure that devices are not used during break times. We will need to develop a program to help teach students (and teachers) learn about appropriate ICT use at our school. Our school's solution used to be 'block' sites so it's not a problem at school... this obviously doesn't enable kids to learn about responsible use.

We will use the 'Common Sense Media' website to help guide our program development to ensure teachers and students feel supported in learning about keeping our digital footprints positive.

Resources:

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Activity 7 - Social Media and the classroom

Social media is a powerful and relevant tool to use in education. It's helpful for teachers, students and our communities. With such power however comes great responsibility and for our intermediate school a whole new set of problems at times.

In my opinion social media needs to be incorporated into the classroom. There are 2 main ways in which this should be occurring.

1. To model responsible social media use
2. To extend the connections a teacher can make with other educators

Responsible Use:

The classroom is already riddled with social interactions that teachers are not even remotely aware. Kids use Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, ... and the list goes on! I'm not suggesting that teachers need to know about every single platform that students can use, but instead that teachers need to provide opportunity to show how powerful social media can be. How can we expect kids to just know how to use social media in a responsible way? Would we provide students with dangerous (but exciting!) science apparatus and provide no scaffolding for safe and responsible use? Is it ethically  or professionally responsible for teachers to publically like, comment, and share content that isn't demonstrating what it is to be a Good digital citizen?

It's easy to see what some of the big issues are here that prevent teachers from using social media in class, but as articles like this one on Edutopia points out the emphasis needs to be on what we should be posting online, and how powerful this could be as a tool to improve your positive presence online.

After all... it's not like student's future jobs could be affected by social media... could it?

Professional Development:

I think back on my first few years teaching (Can't believe that was 8 years ago!) and of the professional development course I attended. Upon reflection, the aspect that made courses successful, or not, was whether I made a connections with the learning I was already doing on the job.

Professional development has changed so much. It's possible to use Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.... THE LIST GOES ON..... to better yourself as a teacher, and person! The key determining factor I suppose is whether you have taken on a growth mindset or if you are a teacher who demonstrates 21st Century learning skills. Teachers are free to discover connections and become active participants in developing other teachers across the world.

Resources:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/modeling-constructive-online-behavior-david-cutler

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=1

Image source: http://elearninginfographics.com/the-use-of-social-media-in-school-infographic/

  

Activity 6 - Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

There are no shortages of creative, provocative and at times hilarious memes that help people to question and consider the implications of technology, government and global trends on education. In a more formal context Sir Ken Robinson consistently questions education in its present form and existence and in this adaptation he notes 3 main areas to consider:

1. Human capacity - it's interesting (and scary) to contemplate the effects that 'education' might have on my children.

2. Learning happens in groups - How can learning and collaboration be separated if working with people is a natural process?

3.       School culture; habits and habitats - Why do we factory line produce kids to fit a specific mold... when we are not even sure of what the mold will look like or of the material we will cast.

When considering the above areas and comparing them to the New Zealand ERO report of 2012's recommendations... I have identified two contemporary trends/issues that are most relevant in progressing 'education' within my classroom: Individualised learning and developing a responsive and rich curriculum.

Learner Centered Learning:

How do I make sure that the learner is at the centre of education in my classroom. This is one of the biggest issues in my eyes because it requires the redesign of current culture and spaces of learning at my school. Core Ed identifies this trend as a current area for improvement. To me the concept of student centered learning revolves around understanding how my learners learn, what they choose to learn, and about making links between what they enjoy and the real world.

Addressing this issue will require input from a community that is still very traditional in considerations towards 'future learning' and '21st Century Skills'. How do I ensure that my community agrees and supports directions of my classroom/our school without consultation and education?

A way to solve this issue could be by using student agency, in conjunction with community consultation and education to work collaboratively to engage learners and learning. This needs to be accompanied by a curriculum and school culture that is responsive to change, and relevant to students.

Ponderings to consider:

• How do you change an organisation that is not ready to redesign themselves to focus on the learner?
• Will it be difficult for kids to adapt to a system where they are expected to be autonomous learners?
• How will how we teach link with expectations and experiences at High School?

Responsive and rich curriculum:

When considering a responsive and rich curriculum it pays to consider the processes that students can use to learn knowledge, and then use this information to create new innovative and creative solutions/designs.

Having a rich and relevant curriculum is not enough however. Thought needs to be put into how pedagogy needs to change so make a rich and responsive curriculum powerful for student development. Using processes and approaches like Design Thinking empowers students to learn about and create new knowledge, and to develop complex 21st Century Skills in a meaningful and real way.

Ponderings to consider:

• How can I show that the development of 21st century skills goes hand in hand with development of 'core learning' areas?
• Can Science, Maths and the Arts be used to teach 'Core Skills' in isolation from 21st Learning approaches and skills? 

Activity 5 - Professional connection map

In this infographic I have tried to show that connections to other communities exist everywhere... as long as you are willing to look. Some of the most effective and innovative solutions of our modern era came into existence by simple connections being made by people who are not necessarily experts in a specific area.

In the same way teachers need to bring together experiences, activities and help students to form and build on connections. We no longer need to be the experts of everything, instead confident and able to help make connections to help foster and develop 21st century learning skills.

David Wiley has the right idea in thinking that learning needs to be customised to students and their lives. Making connections outside of your classroom is a good start towards teaching in the 21st century. Could not get a mind-map looking pretty... so my latest ambition (infographics) have taken over!

Activity 4 - My professional community

Resources:

Hodkinson, P., & Hodkinson, H. (2004, May 11th). A constructive critique of communities of practice: Moving beyond Lave and Wenger. Paper presented at “Integrating Work and Learning- Contemporary Issues’ seminar series. OVAL Research.

OPENiPhotojournalism. (2009, Sep 15). Etienne Wenger talks about 'walking the landscape of practice'. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjw0YoqpEq8&feature=youtu.be&list=PLb5Ty6fTaPkWE

Wenger-trayner.com. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice | Wenger-Trayner. Retrieved from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/