Week 32 - Changes in My Practices

CISC 8100 APPLIED PRACTICE IN CONTEXT

Assessment 2

DUE ON THE 21 NOVEMBER 2017 – Extension Approved

Identify and critically evaluate the context of your practice

 

Week 32 - Changes in My Practices

The end – what a ride!  I have to say at times I have been ham strung because I have had such a hideous year health wise but I have learnt more than I could ever begin to share in this blog.  I have been quite disparaging about PLD of late as I have not found very much available that has enabled me to further develop my skills and inspire me.  Mindlab has been fabulous from this perspective, I have learnt so many valuable and exciting things since participating in this learning opportunity. 

I have been extremely grateful for the transferrable nature of the learning in that I have been able to utilise a huge proportion of what I have learnt in my own school environment and have been able to share aspects with other staff.  I have loved the digital technology and the leadership focus Mindlab has provided.  I truly believe leading your own learning is so valuable and I have loved the way in which Mindlab has delivered this.

I believe my own teaching has gained some new skills and attitudes which has impacted positively on the Practising Teacher Criteria (PTC):

Criteria 4:  Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice.

The importance of research has firmly come back to the fore of what I need to be doing to stay connected to learning myself and for my own leadership practices.  I am committed to learning and researching so that I am able to offer the best possible learning environment and experience for our students and Mindlab has firmly reinforced the need to continue like this no matter what.  In the end if we are not informed by theory when utilising tools it demeans the tool and we are better if we have both.

Criteria 7:  Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment.

My knowledge base of digital learning tools and of the related theories has been hugely enhanced by my work with Mindlab.  As a result I have been able to implement so many aspects of what I have learnt during my year with Mindlab.  Many of these I have now got my students using for themselves which has been such a breakthrough.  In particular we all love Scratch, Kahoot, Screencastify, iMovie and so much more.  For the firast time I have felt our students are finally using technology to do things they have never done before which is the best motivation ever.  Now that gamification has joined my thinking I am excited where we might take that forward for the purposes of learning in the future.

Blogging has been something I have always wanted to do and I tried before but not as successfully.  Now that Mindlab has facilitated this for me as part of my learning I now feel this is something I would like to continue to do and to extend to my students equally.  21^st century learning has been on my radar for some time and I have worked tirelessly to try to be appropriate for our students of now as we are already 17% into the 21^st century so all the excuses and lack of readiness can no longer be used to excuse ignoring this.  I am committed beyond words and Mindlab has been hugely successful in assisting me with this vocation.

Week 31 - Interdisciplinary Collaboration

CISC 8100 APPLIED PRACTICE IN CONTEXT

Assessment 2

DUE ON THE 21 NOVEMBER 2017 – Extension Approved

Identify and critically evaluate the context of your practice.

Week 31 - Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Interdisciplinary connections can occur in an educational setting between school teachers, and external agencies such as speech and language therapists, social workers, specialist counsellors and the like in order to assist developing and supporting the well-being of a student.  This allows the range of expertise amongst this interdisciplinary team to professionally enable a student to gain independence and confidence that learn how to learn to inevitably develop skills for lifelong learning as the ultimate result.

This alone shows the power of the collaboration if a diverse group of experts connect and collaborate focused on the seeking a lifelong learning outcome for a student via the interdisciplinary nature of their collaboration.  To plan for effective and beneficial interdisciplinary collaboration it is stated that three aspects are important to enable decision making, goal setting and joint planning to eventuate:

1.     Qualities / Attitudes

2.     Common Goals

3.     Workplace Conditions

If these aspects are in place and adhered to the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration as occurring "when different professionals, possessing unique knowledge, skills, organizational perspectives, and personal attributes, engage in co-ordinated problem solving for a common purpose" (Berg-Weger &. Schneider, 1998).

I am the principal of a small primary school and I consider collaboration as a primary role of my position.  Mulligan & Kuban’s conceptual model for successful interdisciplinary collaboration (2015) allows me to critique how this fits in with my own professional connections and the way in which I collaborate.

Common Goals

At Whakawātea there is a rigorously strong and aspirational reason for everything we do - Ko te tamaiti te pūtake o ngā mea katoa! - The child is at the heart of everything!  Our belief is that children are born perfect and whole and highly capable of achieving success in every way possible.  It is equally communicated and planned that we as a team do everything we possibly can to ensure this is the reality for each and every student.  I strongly believe that not one cent or one second is wasted when it is being utilised working for our students. 

Equally I believe in our team and their capability to collaborate to deliver this learning environment for our students.  On reflection I see pockets of sound collaboration and a couple of areas where either clarification or attitude adjustment needs to be worked on.

Qualities and Attitudes

As a school principal driving an environment of collaboration I believe that our team need to be open to being flexible, giving up controlling all aspects of learning and the way our students learn.  They need to trust in themselves and in each other and be brutally honest about what they think is working and what isn’t.  I have stated from the get go that although I am not sure what will work and that we need to engage in a process to discover that together.  I personally believe they are all highly capable and that as a team we can overcome any barriers or perceived problems.

When I reflect about all of these aspects my feeling is that some teachers are afraid that they are not good enough or are scared that people may think they aren’t.  Also, that they might be afraid of not being able to control every aspect of their classroom and potentially not be able to fulfil the requirements of paperwork.  However, regardless of all of this I sincerely believe that as a team we have high levels of trust and capability to be all that we desire.

Workplace Conditions

As the principal I believe I have a very good professional relationship with my team and that there is reciprocal respect.  We meet each morning before school and have longer after school meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays.  As a principal I also meet with other principals, participate in principal meetings and within our community of learning and meetings from a national perspective.  In general we are an extremely close and hard working group of professionals who I feel privileged to work alongside.

Our physical environment supports our collaboration and ensures our learning spaces are beautiful and well designed to provide open collaborative spaces.  The learning spaces all open where each area seamlessly connects with the next and within that there are some large shared open spaces.

References

Berg-Weger, M., &. Schneider, F. D. (1998). Interdisciplinary collaboration in social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 34, 97-107.

Mulligan, L. M., & Kuban, A. J. (2015). A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration

Week 30 - Using Social Online Networks in Teaching or Professional Development

CISC 8100 APPLIED PRACTICE IN CONTEXT

Assessment 2

DUE ON THE 21 NOVEMBER 2017 – Extension Approved

Identify and critically evaluate the context of your practice.

Week 30 - Using Social Online Networks in Teaching or Professional Development

 

Although social media is a part of our everyday life and has been for some time. The most common options being simple texting or messaging, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest and are available on most smart phones and other electronic devices.  These work in real time and instantly allow us access, feedback and interaction with others within all mediums from photos, quotes, messaging and any other way desired by the user.

 

The ease of access and the fact that the access is available to absolutely everyone no matter who and what they are has been the cause for major concern.  In particular the concern was related to personal privacy and in some cases professional boundaries and where children are concerned a potential misuse of photographs or information.

 

However, the professional use of social media in the classroom is beginning to gain acceptance as there are perceived positives such as improved student engagement, easy access, and the ability to link a wide variety of content and expertise on a global scale.  To assist New Zealand education practitioners the Education Council has developed some advice and guidance on the ethical use of social media via their website - teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz which they have identified under four domains:

·       Learners - need to develop and maintain professional relationships with learners based on their best interests.

·       Parents/Guardians and Family/Whānau - using social media to collaborate and communicate with whānau.

·       Society - the need to model good social media use to learners

·       The Profession - Professionally using social media to share, seek and respond to knowledge and discuss concerns. 

Because I am a principal of a primary school our students are not legally permitted to utilise memberships on social media.  As a result we have chosen to generate our own collaborative platform by becoming a Google school and therefore able to interact online with everyone else at our school.  This provides an effective platform for socialising and collaborating amongst ourselves and allow us to monitor and provide a safety net for our students.  The overall aim being that as a result our students develop appropriate digital citizenship practices.

Although we have a school Facebook page I am mindful of what and how I make posts.  If we are going to share photos of events it is our normal practice to make closed groups for those participating in an event and then only that group of parents and students receive the information and / or photos.  I never engage with any parent or whanau member past or present with regard to any school matter whatsoever on any social media app or even via email.  If anything controversial is being communicated I always formalise matters of this nature with a formal letter as opposed to simple emails or texts.

References

Teachers & Social Media. (2017). Teachers & Social Media. Retrieved 18 November 2017, from 

      http://teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/