Activity 3: Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

Activity 3: Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

Shifting the focus to student-centered learning-Issue (Education Review Office, 2012)

Education Review Office (2012, pg. 7) states that "In the most successful schools, the trustees, leaders and teachers have an uncompromising focus on fostering students' interests and strengths, and on addressing their learning needs". Student-centered learning encompasses all of this. If you provide the opportunity for your learners to choose what they want to learn about the engagement and motivation of those students to learn sky rockets. I do a thing called adventure learning in my classroom where students get to choose what they are interested in and learn about it. It is taken from the concept of Google's 20% time where their employees were able to work on something that they wanted to work on for 20% of their week. Applications such as the Google Teacher Academy and gmail were created during this time. It fosters innovation and if you can develop this in your students then you have hooked them. Finding learning experiences "...when time seems to collapse and disappear, when intensity in the process takes over and the thrill is so great that one hates seeing it end and can’t wait to get back to it” (Deci & Flaste 1996, pg 47) are so important. As a community of practice it is important to find the new and exciting ways to develop student-centered learning. One way is providing the opportunity for students to develop partnerships with the teacher, where they get to create their own learning goals and develop their own understandings of how they learn. Where they get feel comfortable enough to choose what they learn and feel that they have the opportunity to fail and learn from that failure in an safe and nurturing environment.

Enabling Technology-Global Megatrend (KPMG International, 2014)

It is important to embrace new technologies. By embracing new technologies teachers are able to access wider communities of learning, where learning conversations can happen around the world instead of confined to the four walls of a classroom. Having this access enables learners to not only develop their research skills but also their ability to learn about what they want to learn. This ties in with student-centered learning because if the students have the technology to give them access to the world then the when it comes to learning the array of global knowledge and opportunities become more accessible. KMPG International (2014, pg. 22) states that "the exponential growth in the volume and speed of access to information and communication has numerous effects". One such effect for the education sector and my community of practice is the collaboration it fosters. Students are able to work collaboratively on a piece of writing or adventure learning project through the ability to share their work. This sharing ability also allows students to reach an authentic and real audience where they can get a wider variety of feedback and feed forward.

There is a direct correlation between student-centered learning and the ability to access technology. By having that access to information technologies students are able to gather and make sense of the world in their own ways. Not to mention the benefits of assistive technologies for students who have learning needs. The way technology is used in the classroom is becoming a more prominent learning curve for communities of practice, especially my community of practice where we are developing our understanding of how to use technology in the classroom to assist learning effectively. It is important to embrace it to develop and understand where education is going and what skills are needed.

References:

Deci, E., & Flaste, R. (1996). Why we do what we do. New York: Penguin Books

Education Review Office. (2012). Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand         Schools. Retrieved 18 May 2016, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Releases2/The-three-most-pressing-issues-for-N

KPMG International. (2014). Future state 2030: the global megatrends shaping governments”. KPMG International Cooperative: USA. Retrieved fromhttp://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/future-state-government/Documents/future-state-2030-v3.pdf

Activity 2: Your professional community

Activity 2: Your professional community

Risk taking as an challenge:

Looking at and defining the current issues in my professional learning community is a relatively hard concept. In unpacking this, having the ability to risk take - where teachers learn by trying something new is a reality that teachers need to be able to grasp. As teachers we should all have the ability to risk take as by being set in certain ways we can hinder our practice. Stepping out of your comfort zone to try something new is what we should be aiming for. I personally find risk taking as something I enjoy. I enjoy trialling things to see if they work. Our professional learning community is situated around success criteria and learning conversations in writing. I have decided that I am going to take the risk and change my whole writing programme. This programme will encompass individual conferences and giving specific 5 minute workshops to each child's need while they have free choice about what they write. We will unpack what makes a successful piece of writing at the end of year 5 and year 6 and this is what the students in my class will aim to achieve. This is a completely different approach that I am taking to the writing process but by being involved in my professional learning community and being able to have the discussions about successful learning conversations it will hopefully be a success. I have all boys in my classroom and they like to write what they like to write. They enjoy having choice. My community of practice addresses the risk taking process by being supportive and saying "why not try something new". By having the support to try something new it empowers other teachers to try things. It it gives us the opportunity to develop our own reflective processes to see if the learning experiences or classroom program is effective. This almost takes away the challenge.  

The changes that are occurring: 

The changes that are occurring in the teaching profession is the teachers are having a pedagogical shift when it comes to using and implementing technology in the classroom. There are many who say that technology has had a negative effect on teaching. I went to a course that was run by Mike Reading and he said that "a bad lesson with technology is still a bad lesson". Its a mindset shift. Technology is used as a tool to guide lessons and connect the world. By having this implemented in the classroom correctly, students are able to connect with other people all around the world and to have a wider knowledge collection base. This allows for learning conversations to happen any time and anywhere. To address this change as a community we deconstruct how we use technology in the classroom. To find the things people are doing successfully with technology and how we could all use this in our classrooms. By having this open discussion we are able to construct our own new knowledge and make that pedagogical shift to using technology to assist and not the be all and end all. 

Activity 1: My Community of Practice

Activity 1: My Community of Practice

• What is my practice? and what is my professional context?

My name is Eliot Hall. I teach a Year 5 and 6 all boys class at Maungawhau Primary School.  It has been an interesting challenge to start the year having all boys in the classroom. After completing my literature review and teaching as Inquiry Plan it was intriguing to see the impact of my practice on the boys engagement (for example completing BP Challenges where the students had to create a cannon using materials but without a design, having to problem solve and work together in a team). This showed me how I needed to change aspects of my practice to make it more interesting . I also attended a "Boys in School" course which helped me to refine my practice to include a "Black & White" approach as boys respond to this better, knowing what the rules are and what the consequences are. I am passionate about using technology in the classroom and finding ways to engage the boys in my classroom through the integration of ICT. I currently hold a management unit in e-Learning which also helps to inform my practice. 

• Who are my community of practice? 

I belong to a few communities of practice when it comes to technology and boys engagement. The Matuaranga (Senior School Year 5 - 6) Team, e-learning team and a professional learning community based around writing with colleagues across the school. These are my current communities of practice. As a part of the e-Learning community of practice, 2 other colleagues and I, share engaging and interesting new ways of using technology in the classroom. Our community of practice also shares this with the wider school community by running optional professional learning and Techy Breakies (where people share their integration of technology). All 3 of us have had the opportunity to attend a multitude of workshops/professional learning course where we have been able to gather resources and share them with our community. I am also a part of a professional learning community which has a focus on how to develop reflective learners through co-constructing success criteria and developing the quality of student conferencing (Peer and self assessment). The Matauranga Team is made up of 8 classroom teachers who are open to sharing new ideas and successful learning experiences that they have had with boys. 

What is the purpose and function of your practice? In what ways do you contribute to the community of your practice?

The purpose and function of my practice at the moment is to find engaging and motivation learning experiences to develop new knowledge in my boys in literacy. 64.8% of the boys in our school are reaching national standards in writing. But what is happening to the other 35.2%? Through establishing the professional learning community around peer and self assessment I am able to discuss with other like minded colleagues about the best techniques to engage boys and identify some successful learning experiences. I contribute to the professional learning community by bringing a range of fast, quick writing warm-ups which engage and take the pressure out writing formally. These quick warm ups allow students to have a bit of fun while writing. 

• What are the core values that underpin your profession? Evaluate your practice with regard to these values

Ministry of Education (2007, pg 10.) states in their values that "students will be encouraged to value 

• innovation, inquiry, and curiosity, by thinking critically, creatively, and reflectively;"

This is one value that I strongly believe underpins the teaching profession. In my practice I provide opportunities for students to develop and understand their inquiry skills. By giving the students the opportunity to develop their own understandings of a selected topic it empowers them to learn. They want to learn about the things they are interested in. If I am able to create a learning environment which fosters innovation, inquiry and curiosity by challenging my students to think out side the box then I am preparing them to be a 21st Century Learner. Deci & Flaste (1996, pg 47.) discusses learning experiences where "... time seems to collapse and disappear, when intensity in the process takes over and the thrill is so great that one hates seeing it end and can’t wait to get back to it”. This is the sort of learning experiences that I want to create in my classroom, where students don't realise they are learning and are totally engaged.

Reference:

Deci, E., & Flaste, R. (1996). Why we do what we do. New York: Penguin Books

Ministry of Education (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Learning Media: Wellington