Week 32: Key change in my professional practice

Osterman and Kottkamp (1993) contrast professional development by experts with a reflective practice model such as blogging. They suggest the traditional approach results in knowledge acquisition whereas reflective practice leads to change in behaviors via self-awareness.

Step 1 (What): Identify one key change in your professional practice

I have chosen to identify (and implemented) in my practice has been collaboration (Hack education research). I have learnt to appreciate the necessity for learners (in my Year 7 & 8 class) to collaborate in all learning areas (at primary) to enable them to understand other learners needs, thoughts, new ways of looking at problems, listening to others with understanding and empathy, and building up their social skills in the process. Students learn more from each other than from their teacher, and given time to collaborate, children inevitably make far greater connections and deepen their thinking. Learners in my class appear happier and more cohesive at school.

Step 2: Evaluate the identified change

Reflective practice: An Experiential Learning Cycle

The cycle has 4 stages including problem identification; observation and analysis; abstract reconceptualization; active experimentation.

Stage 1: Problem identification

Learners below or slightly below (without specific learning needs), did not appear to be making any significant progress to bring them in line with the NZ curriculum levels and their peers. In numeracy, writing and reading, the same individuals appered on intervention sheets and planning, marked as ‘below curriculum level’. Previous attempts of giving additonal home learning, focusing on specific needs (gaps), providing extra tuition time worked to little avail. As Osterman & Kottkamp (2015) state, ‘the drive to implement a change in practice is often started by a gap in an educator’s desired condition and the reality’. The reality led to questioning whether a different approach would work? This was important because I wanted to make a difference to the learners, make their time at school valuable and to provide equitable opportunities for all children.

Stage 2: Observation and analysis

Data gathered during Term 1, 2018 was compared to results from children’s learning in 2017. The time extra time spent on these learners appeared to be wasted. Data was gathered using standardised testing, for numeracy (PAT, GLoSS and IKAN), writing (e-asTTle matrix) and reading (STAR, PATs, Running Records).

I considered the 21st Century Skills learners need to be using and insights into previous learning I had about (but not fully engaged with and implemented) began to surface. Collaboration and teamwork stood out as an area I could to do better in and implement. I realised that I mostly ability grouped and used a teacher centered learning model that was not providing enough opportunity for student voice.

Stage 3: Abstract re conceptualization

From gathering assessment data and analysis of the learner’s situation, I had an insight into considering collaborative learning (a process of re-conceptualization). I began to implement gradually a tuakana teina model into the classroom. This consciousness raising (coupled with exposure to new approaches) led to me making significant changes to my program. It was an experiential process, lessons did not go according to plan, with a lot of re-directing and guiding for learners.

Stage 4: Active experimentation

It was exciting implementing new ideas, not all learners embraced them and at times it was a struggle to encourage students to work together with noticeably different levels. Teaching social skills (patience, empathy and understanding) was important and an area I had not counted on needing to do. It required a lot of active modelling of what group collaboration looked like for example in numeracy: allowing all members to have a turn at trying to explain their strategy and ensuring that all members could show how the group solved a problem (rather than one person solving the problem continuously). Slow implementation of changes was more effective.

Step 3 (What next)

Learners who are ‘well below’ the NZ Curriculum levels or those with special needs present a delima with their involvement in mixed ability collaboration. Negatively, these learners get lost in their peers working or leave to friends to solve problems and do the majority of the work. The positive, that they feel included and are still learning from peers. One solution was to have them collaborate in their own group (similar needs), with some success, but this rquires further exploration. The process of inclusion works for religious education, physical education, inquiry learning, writing (using Google Docs and blogging), but not so well for numeracy and reading (peers need to practice patience at this time).

A process of rotation mixing groups up daily (currently have maths mates or groups for term), would give at or above students a break from working too often with special needs or well below learners. Another idea could be to make simpler entry level tasks for maths that the special needs learners can do to make them feel capable? Remaining open to new approaches, exploring and experimenting with them  to test whether their practical application is also a next step.

References

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Corwin Press, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.itslifejimbutn otasweknowit.org.uk/files

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators: professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Week 31: Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

When I consider culturally responsive pedagogy as defined by Gay (2001, p.106) I question what I know and understand about cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives. At teacher’s training college I learnt a smattering of Te Reo Maori and Tikanga, and on placement I experienced no teaching of Te Reo Maori and/or Maori Tikanga. I consider myself to be culturally sensitive and having spent 10 years Korea I developed an understanding and questioning of what Milne (2013) calls “our cultural lens”. In Korea I regularly questioned why I thought what Koreans were doing was ‘wrong’, however it took me 2 years to get to a point where I could honestly say “Maybe the way I do and think about things is not the best!”

Bishop in Edtalks (2012) suggests that a culturally responsive teacher challenges “deficit thinking” of student educability and has agentic thinking. The idea of schools responding to student needs based on their cultural identity has been discussed by Dr Ann Milne as “culturally sustaining pedagogy” (CORE Education, 2017 ). Milne (2017) argues that cultural identity is not a thing that needs to be celebrated on certain occasions, but rather teachers and school should embrace student cultural identity at every opportunity throughout curriculum and learning activities, school policies and events. In her talk at ULearn 2017, Milne stressed that schools have a role in sustaining culture instead of negating it. She also comments that in this 21st-century era of connectedness, culturally sustaining practice has to take into account how to prepare students to be global citizens (Milne, 2017).

Step 1 (What):

My Practice informed by indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy

1.  learning activities-

My students have been learning Tikanga and Te Reo Maori weekly for an hour because my experience has been that if I do not make a specific time slot for this, it inevitably does not get taught. We (a Kai Tahu member from our community and I) teach culture, history and language. We have learnt the Hail Mary in Te Reo (Catholic school) and have incorporated Te Reo Maori into our core Catholic values by integrating into our daily prayers. In addition we have entered a team in the weekly winter sport Ki o Rahi competition, trained by a local kaumatua who also teaches the history of Ki o Rahi, Maori values of peaceful conflict resolution, working as a team (manaakitanga) and tuakana teina teaching.

2. school-wide activities-

Our school could do this better by oragnising a marae visit, holding a hangi or whanau get together fortnightly, entering the Koru games and generally doing more with whanau. The difficulty in doing these things is usually time and effort. It could also be helped by enrolling members of our community to take leadership of these activities.

Step 2 (So what):

Milne discusses in her presentation (CORE Education, 2017) culturally sustaining pedagogy and offers recommendations for schools and teachers. As educators we need to take time to critically analyse our practice and Milne suggests that we be in the struggle and solidarity with the community. By including whanau voice in decisions that impact their children and creating gatherings to share kai and discuss how to include aspects of tikanga into our school day this could occur. Teachers in the school need to reflect on their practice and consider the white privilege that is inherit in the system, in our mindsets, and work in ways to generate a more culturally sustaining pedagogy.

We should consider our role in sustaining the current culture and bringing to the fore the cultural identity of our learners. We can provide a voice so that whanau can raise fundamental questions about schooling and responsibility to revitalise and sustain the Maori culture and other minority cultures at our school. Milne impresses on us to not just to work on achievement based on cultural background, but to teach young people about education and how to make it work for them. We need to actively teach about learning, know and teach our history, and know the game of education is a rigged game, yet work in ways to let the learners take control of their own destiny.

Step 3 (What next)

As teachers we could attend a project such as Te Kotahitanga to develop culturally responsive pedagogy, however this would not be enough to effect changes in our school policy. I personally would like to partake in learning Te Reo and Kaupapa Maori principles more deeply, but then the question of working again until 10.30pm on a week night and taking time away from my young family makes me question this idea. At present what I can do is consider ways to include all ethnicities in our learning space, by speaking to whanau, listening to learners points of view and being mindful the cultural identity of the learners in the classroom.

References

Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T. & Teddy, L. (2009).Te Kotahitanga: Addressing educational disparities facing Māori students in New Zealand. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5),734–742.

CORE Education.(2017, 17 October). Dr Ann Milne, Colouring in the white spaces: Reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTvi5qxqp4&feature=em-subs_digest

Gay,G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.

Milne, B.A. (2013). Colouring in the white spaces: Reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. (Doctoral Thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10289/7868

Milne, A.(2017).Coloring in the white spaces: reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.

Week 30: Contemporary trends in New Zealand

Activity 6: Contemporary trends in New Zealand

Step 1 (What):

1. Development of personal skills (Daggett, B., 2014)

This trend takes precedence over the other trends facing us in education today because of the importance to an individual and their relationship to the wider world. If learners make mistakes with this trend it can (and will) stay with them for life. In our present social media climate what you post can have serious impacts on ones future. Digital information people provide shapes who they are, whether they are aware of it or not. Many parents are unaware of what their children are doing online and (as a consequence) the role of a teacher in teaching children to be smart digital citizens is of critical importance.

 At the heart of it, if children learn to be respectful, honest, self-aware and decent human beings, and consider the online world an extension (rather than a removal) of the real world, then they should be smart and safe online. However, there are still practices that educators can teach children to help them be safe, such as creating complex passwords, posting appropriate comments and posts, and being aware of who we are friends with, to name a few.

Step 2 (So What):

Implementing a programme that includes how to be a smart digital citizen should be foundational to online learning. The responsibility lies with educators on how best to do this, as an integrated plan/unit within other units or as a stand alone unit. As more learning is shared online through social media, learners need to be aware of their audience and teachers need to teach students the skills to make the right decisions online. Providing examples in the classroom of inappropriate posts (comments, videos, etc.) and together as a class looking at potential consequences is a good way to engage learners and digitally collaborate to find solutions or potential ways to prevent damaging mistakes.  

The challenge is to implement a programme to an already jam-packed primary (in my case). This challenge could be met by integrating into all programmes the idea of having a digital identify, especially when teaching through the use of an online tool (for example as a blog in literacy). Teachers can ask learners questions such as  “What does this post say about me as a person?”, “Is this the image I want to project of myself to others?” or “How do you think the recipient of the comment will feel if I write/say this?”.

Teaching learners about our core values as decent human beings and developing personal and interpersonal skills that are vital to success in our society, such as integrity and honesty, responsibility, respect, self-management (much of this is covered in our R.E. programme, but is also covered in the health curriculum in New Zealand), are also important. A learner needs those fundamental skills in the real world on-goingingly.

 Another fundamental challenge I perceive with online learning is to find the balance in how much time one spends online, in a social media context. At primary school in New Zealand it is incredibly important for children to learn to talk and work with others face to face and to complete some physical activities away from devices. I personally am just beginning to experience the challenge with our class having 1-1 digital devices this year, however I am relatively lucky to be part of the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme which has an inclusion of teaching learners to be Smart Digital Citizens. The programme has plethora of resources aimed at helping learners design and create a smart digital footprint as well as generate discussion for learners on these topics.

Step 3 (Now What):

Our school community has spent a great deal of time and effort to look at the existing challenges in the context of emerging trends. We have a culture at our school that embraces change and works to stay current, given the resources (or lack of them) at hand. As our school in the east of Christchurch has been severely impacted by the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 we were thankfully able to become part of the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme as a cluster (the programme is usually only implemented in low decile schools). This is helping to bring us back in-line with what some of the other schools in Christchurch area are already doing.

We have to stay current and at present the work with Manaiakalani goes part of the way to help embrace this, with 1-1 devices in the Year 7 & 8 class. However, the rest of the learning community has some way to go, although over the next 3 years the intention is to spread what is happening in the senior class with the rest of the school, it currently means that other learners are at something of a disadvantage. A question we should ask ourselves is “What can we do to mitigate this?” Despite the lack of devices, other learners in our community can still implement many of the ideas around being a smart digital citizen for example, learning how to respond using the ‘Positive, Thoughtful, Helpful’ model, which if used by many adults on social media would save a lot of suffering. Another thought is that other learners could be viewing the senior blogs and discussing what message the posts are portraying about the author.

Reflective entry based on Rolfe’s model of reflection (2001).

References

Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing Current and Future Challenges in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014 MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf

Rolfe et al.’s (2001) Reflective Model. Retrieved fromhttps://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/MyCumbria/Documents/ReflectiveModelRolfe.pdf

Week 29: Using social online networks in teaching

Activity 5: Using social online networks in teaching 

Step 1 (Descriptive stage):

In our school this year we are part of the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme, which uses the ‘Learn, Create, Share’ model through personal blogging to improve student achievement. My class of Year 7 & 8 students have been assigned a personal blog and we are also using a class learning site to access learning material. In addition to this we have a class blog.

I have used Blogs, Google+ communities, Wikianswers, Google maps, Wikipedia, and, Google docs in my classroom with learners. To help with my own professional learning and development I have used Facebook, Facebook groups, Google+ communities, Blogger, Wikianswers, Twitter, Google maps, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Vimeo, Pond, TED, Slideshare, Google docs, Prez, Facebook Events, Livestream and Picasa.

Personally, I do not want to spend anymore time on Social Media than I already do, I feel as though adding more sites to what I already use will take me further away from being present at home for my family. I think I probably do not understand how to use some of the social media tools effectively and/or current trends in how to use these tools effectively for my classroom teaching.

Step 2 (Comparative stage):

In relation to my professional colleagues, my use of certain social media sites is similar namely Blogs, Google+ communities, Wikianswers, Google maps, Wikipedia, Wikispace, YouTube and, Google docs in the classroom with learners. Because of the year (7 & 8) I teach I can not use sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter because my students are legally not allowed to have an account under the age of 13 (some do, but are not legally allowed to). However, I do notice that peers are using music or podcasts, Youtube, Wikianswers and Wikispace in their teaching and I wonder if I could use one of these in my classroom?

From the  Teaching and Learning” chapter of the book “Embracing Social Media” (Magette, 2014), the most pertinent item for me was “Putting videos on YouTube and sharing through Twitter and Facebook does huge things for the content that my students create…” This has me thinking that rather than the straightforward blogs of a photo and written piece, I could have learners create and share videos of their learning, which could improve parental interest in the learners blogs. Magette (2014) goes on to write “It puts the pressure on to make better videos, as well, when you know how many people are watching.” I have certainly found this to be the case with blog writing, where learners know they have a larger audience (outside of just the teacher) and therefore have spent greater care on their posts.

Step 3 (critical reflection):

 Given these various perspectives and the implications, use the following questions to guide your thoughts:

The implications for using social media in teaching in my classroom are that I think in mathematics we (my class) has not shared at all what we have been learning with whanau, but I feel as if by using screencasts and YouTube we could do just that. If I create a class YouTube account (and keep it private) and we use this to share some of our learnings on our blogs, it might engage parents more than what we have been doing and perhaps also help teach other children in the school (when sharing strategies that children are using). I think it is time for me to change my practice using the student blogs and ensure the children are being more engaged with their learning using the ‘Create’ and ‘Share’ parts of our model.

* I have used Jay and Johnson’s (2002) reflective model to structure my reflective entry.

References

Magette, K. (2014). Embracing social media : a practical guide to manage risk and leverage opportunity. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.(Available in Unitec library).

Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning. Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf