Activity 1-Week 25

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

My Community of Practice is the school I work at. This community is comprised of people with a range of skills and knowledge. These people are teachers, parents and the wider community.
"A community of practice can be viewed as a social learning system. Arising out of learning, it exhibits many characteristics of systems more generally: emergent structure, complex relationships, self-organisation, dynamic boundaries, ongoing negotiation of identity and cultural meaning, to mention a few". (Wenger, 2000)
The shared purpose of this Community of practice, is to provide students with the tools to become lifelong learners, who are ready for the 21st Century world. As a community, we are all learning ourselves as well as providing learning opportunities for our students, we all work together to achieve a high standard for the students and every member has the ability to contribute meaningfully, and as a group we work together to support and uplift other members if required. 

My Community of Practice is important to me, because we are working together as a team and towards a common goal. 

As a member, I have changed in many ways, recently just starting at this school in term 2 of 2016, I am the only one that is not fluent in Te Reo Maori and are still getting to know my colleagues and the way the school works. However, I have had many opportunities to learn from others as well as providing the skills that I bring.  I have improved in my confidence to try new things and challenging myself at the same time. 

I feel that I am a valued member in my teaching skills but I have found that my sense of belonging can fluctuate. Within team and staff meetings I try to participate and contribute as a team member, but often are lost due to the language barrier I have. I am currently leading by trialing new initiatives, e.g. Matheletics. This is so I can extend my knowledge and support others to expand their abilities in Math.

I have reflected a lot throughout my teaching at this school. I have looked at myself and how I do things in class, and I am trying to implement more practical ideas into my classroom as well as incorporate more Maori. I have reflected on my experiences and realised the following: How can I be a valued member of my Community of Practice? How can I implement more activities that are more outdoors, that are relevant for teaching Math’s?

REFERENCES: 

Dawson, F. (2012, October 10). Reflective practice.[video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1aYWbLj0U8

Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization, 7(2), 225-246.
     Retrieved from moodle.unitec.ac.nz

http://www.informationr.net/ir/16-1/p464fig2.jpg