Activity 8-Week 32

Changes in Practice. 

The Mind Lab Postgraduate Course in Digital & Collaborative Learning (Applied Practice) was an experience that I won't forget. There were many highs and lows for me, but in the end I feel I came out the other end better for it. I learned how to be more confident in my abilities as a teacher and that I am not the only one who is wondering about whether they are doing right by their students.  The first significant experience I had on the course was attempting the first assignment by myself and to add to the stress, I had to deal with videoing myself talking about using technology in the classroom, when I was having trouble myself with how to edit. 

This was way out of my comfort zone and it was great to take a leap into the unknown.   

Prior to the Mind Lab, I had never really thought about my practice in the classroom. I wasn't sure if I was teaching the right concepts for my Year 9-10 Maths classes and didn't realise whether I was catering to the needs of individuals or not, I didn't know there were words such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for what I already did in the class.   Doing the course has enabled me to grow my teaching practice while working with others, as I know now; this is known as "collaboration".  I have learned more about my colleagues, how they work, how I work with others and to know there are other teachers out there with the knowledge and know how. 

"When teachers engage collaboratively in the teaching as inquiry cycle they are continually checking whether what they are doing is achieving the learning they intended for students". Ministry of Education. (August, 2014)

I found that weeks 25-32 when I had to reflect in a blog was at first a little bit daunting as I don't really reflect in this way, usually it is writing on my plans and seeing where do I go to next? What didn't work and what did. This blogging thing was new to me in that I guess it got me to think about my teaching using the topics provided and link this to research. Critical reflection involves asking questions about assumptions and practices which I have taken for granted. In relation to the Practicing Teacher Criteria in e-learning  the four main criteria are what I feel I do within my classroom. 

• Criterion 4 : Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice.
• Criterion 6 : Conceptualise, plan, and implement an appropriate learning programme.
• Criterion 7 : Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment.
• Criterion 8 : Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.

Obviously Mindlab has helped me develop criteria 7,  for the past 7 years I have taught solely and had to find my way through the dark, but it has encouraged me to look at myself as an educator and realise that I am doing right by my students and I now how a clearer picture of where I am heading to.  

My next goal is to develop my Te Reo Maori to help support the students that I teach, being that I am at a Kura Kaupapa. 

References:

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Practising-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning
Ministry of Education. (August, 2014). Report of the professional learning and development advisory group. Retrieved from:

http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Initiatives/PLDAdvisoryGroupReport.pdf

images:

http://evepodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CHANGES.jpg
https://s-media-cache ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0d/eb/29/0deb29d186f9e27c68c1822d3334a994.jpg

Activity 7-Week 31

My interdisciplinary connection map 

One of my current interdisciplinary connections involve working with teachers from other departments to create interdisciplinary learning experience for the students. I teach Science/Maths for Years 9-13 and work alongside all of the teachers within the school.

As mentioned in my previous blog, my school uses Te Aho Matua as the foundation for the teaching and learning that takes place. Currently this term we are following Te Ira Tangata, where the student develops physical, spiritual and emotional wellbeing, an awareness of his or her individual uniqueness and knowledge and respect for him or herself and others. There are a list of criteria that students should have or be gaining knowledge in the following:

• The student is enthusiastic about learning in a nurturing environment based on traditional Māori values, beliefs and concepts. 

• The student values his or her identity, is self-confident and displays positive self-esteem.

• The student is physically, spiritually and emotionally confident.

• The student accepts and respects gender difference.

• The student is caring, considerate and cooperative.

• The student is focused on and accepts responsibility for learning. 

An example from Physical Education is working as a team, obviously playing sports with each other, English they are learning about the difference in gender in History; Woman's rights to vote, Science is the brain and how we have emotions and what makes us the way we are as individuals and Maths is working as a group and being able to communicate how we achieved out answers.
I found the video on Interdisciplinary Learning was exactly what we are doing as a school. In this video it talks about the core subjects all teaching the same theme, but using their own subject-specific language and skill set.  At our school the students see the connections between subjects clearly and this is evident in the video as well. 

One of the potential interdisciplinary connections from my map as my near future goal is working with the Community, especially the caregivers or parents of the students who attend this school. 

According to the Video Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education, "not being an expert in all these fields is an advantage." For my teaching, I know I am not an expert at everything. I know I have skills and others have theirs. We live in a rural community and when I teach something new,  I don't teach something because I know it 100%, I teach it, because I know the students will have some enjoyment from it. I like to look for the practical side of the subject. So finding people in the community who have the skills or knowledge to help support the teaching and learning  within the class would be an advantage for me, especially the practical side of the subject. 

 “A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration” post talks about communication which is essential to collaboration. I feel that without communication you cannot work together as one, you cannot find common goals or find out who has particular strengths in particular areas. The question I want to ask, is how do I find out who in the community has the necessary skills and the confidence to be in front of a group of students?

References :

ACRLog. (2015). A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration

American Association of Colleges of Nursing.(2016). Interdisciplinary Education and Practice. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/position/interdisciplinary-education-and-practice

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

Hardré, P. L., Ling, C., Shehab, R. L., Nanny, M. A., Nollert, M. U., Refai, H., ... & Wollega, E. D. (2013). Teachers in an Interdisciplinary Learning Community Engaging, Integrating, and Strengthening K-12 Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(5), 409-425.

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

ThomasMcDonaghGroup. ( 2011, May 13). Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA

Activity 6-Week 30

Using social online networks in teaching and professional development 

Technology has moved from the good old chalk and blackboard to the use of white boards, to smart boards and projectors to computers. Technology is advancing at a rapid rate and as schools start to come to grips with the ever changing ways we do things within the classroom, we are always looking for new ideas to enhance the teaching and learning within our class. 

"In New Zealand and internationally there is widespread interest in the use of technologies to enhance learning in schools and the debate has extended to include the way educators also use technologies to support their own professional learning". Melhuish (2013). 

Some of the ways teachers are using technology is the use of social media, we know that the majority of our students have a social media account and access it everyday. Some of the reports I have written during my Mind-lab course have looked at the use of social media and whether it enhances teaching and learning. I haven't looked at whether it enhances professional development. However, since joining up on google + into the Mind-lab community, this has benefitted me, in that I can ask  or answer questions of people who are educators who understand and have knowledge of teaching. This type of social media has helped me with my professional development as previously I only had my colleagues to ask for feedback, now I have thousands of people who have the answers or have other ways to do the same thing.

For me social media was really used for personal use, and thats how I thought it was used for. Over the years I have been a teacher, I have started to use social media in my teaching, such as making a subject page and inviting the students to join. This page contains links to other sites which I use if they were absent and missed the lesson. The students can also ask questions and post comments on items as well. to help them with their work. The benefits are students are regularly updated on what is happening in the class and it is a forum to ask questions if they can't within the class. 

Upon reading the survey in Seaman et al, I do see that in my faculty, social media has a place, however, now that I am at a school where students do not have regular access to a computer or internet at home, then I am tending to not utilise social media in my teaching practice.           "Many faculty use social media sites for both personal and professional reasons, and a somewhat smaller proportion also believe that social media sites have a place within their courses. There is an interesting age pattern among the 41 percent of teaching faculty who report “monthly or more frequent” social media use in their classes". Seaman et al. (2013)

I think social media does have its benefits for teaching and professional development, it is just how we utilise this method of technology that will either make it great ,or make it fail. 

References 

Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrived on 05 May, 2015 from https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/8482/thesis.pdf?sequence=3

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

Image: Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning. Babson Survey Research Group page 13. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf