Create a blog post in which you reflect on the last 24 weeks of study. Provide a critical discussion of at least three things you have learned about yourself as a learner and three key changes in your own practice.
Over the last 24 weeks undertaking the Mind Lab’s Digital & Collaborative Postgraduate Certificate Programme, I have been exposed to the stark reality that our education system is undergoing a hugely dramatic change.
As a New Zealand trained teacher who has been in the teaching profession since 2008 (mostly in New Zealand, with a brief stint in the UK), my eyes have been opened to the fact that we MUST prepare today’s students for a world which does not yet exist.
When I applied to the Mind Lab course I approached it with a teacher’s lens and what I could gain from the course and apply in my classroom. I anticipated hands on practical digital learning that would help me develop the way I teach in my first ever fully digital classroom. Whilst I was given new tools to trial in my class, the course has encouraged me to look critically at my own teaching practice, as well as analyse my approach to leadership.
Leadership
2015 has seen me take on the PE Curriculum leadership, and also become our school’s PB4L team leader. Up until this year, I had never deemed myself to be a “leader”. A teacher - yes, but a leader - no. Until one Mind Lab session where we analysed our own personal leadership styles…
If you’re a teacher, you’re a leader! Of course you are!
You lead your students and facilitate their learning!!
Taking that into consideration, I began to think about all the leadership roles that I undertake everyday: PE curriculum leader, PB4L team leader, Digital classroom teacher, Associate Teacher, Sports coach, and I recently stepped in to cover the ICT leadership role as my colleague is overseas.
During one Mind Lab session (December 2014) we were asked to complete a leadership quiz. For each leadership style, I scored the following:
Authoritarian 28
Procedural 29
Transformational 36
Participative 43
Laissez Faire 42
For me, the Participative and Laissez Faire results weren’t surprising. My personality is one in which I prefer to discuss and bounce ideas off others, before making decisions. I wouldn’t describe myself as an overly competitive person, and I believe that the staff who I work alongside are professional, so I am happy to draw upon their expertise and delegate tasks to them.
An area that I particularly wanted to focus on was the transformational leadership aspect, particularly in the classroom. While I already felt like I conducted this leadership through my PB4L leadership and behaviour management, I wanted to increase this style in regards to my teaching practise. I believe that I am able to motivate my students in an effective and efficient way, however the big area of improvement is for me to help my students develop strong teamwork and creative collaboration skills. This is my vision for my students, and I am continuing to persevere with helping my students develop these 21st century skills.
Out of interest, I thought it would be worth doing the quiz (in June 2015) to see if my leadership style had been impacted upon after my learning journey through the Mind Lab. Surprisingly, my transformational score stayed the same! However I feel that this may have been partly influenced by the increase in my leadership roles which have taken me out of the classroom more often. It reminds me that I need to keep working closely alongside my students to continue developing their collaborative skills and allow them more opportunities to own their learning.
Collaboration
The Mind Lab’s collaborative constructivist view of teaching and learning supports my school’s current position of digital teaching and learning through our Learn, Create, Share model. As a learner, the course has modelled a collaborative approach to learning - through using google docs with my colleague, creating stop motion animations and videos with peers through to 3D modelling and printing. From this collaboration, I found that when it comes to digital technology I generally prefer to be shown how to do things, then have someone sit alongside me to work with and bounce ideas off or ask questions when I become stuck. Working alongside my ICT savvy colleague throughout the last 24 weeks was ideal for me as I was able to bounce ideas off her outside of the Mind Lab sessions and was encouraged to take more risks in my classroom with her support.
Collaboration has allowed for me to have a change in thinking about what knowledge actually is. From this, I have developed a better understanding of the collaborative learning process that brings learners together in such a way that students are responsible for their own learning as well as the learning of their peers.
In terms of my teaching pedagogy, I need to develop students who are both independent thinkers, but also collaborative learners who can work with others. Within my classroom, I am currently working on developing this collaborative approach, as it involves changing the mindsets of some of my students as well. Ultimately, I would like the students I teach to be able to move forward from collaborating with the peers within the classroom, to collaborating with students all over the world. This is a process that will need to time to develop, and while I am realistic that it may not necessarily happen this year, it is a goal that I am aiming to achieve.
Digital Technology
Something that really resonated with me was a video clip that was shared with us in the beginning weeks of the course. It highlighted the fact that today’s graduates will leave university looking very much like their predecessors. However the 5 year olds that are just beginning school in 2015 will be required to bring and share an entirely new set of skills to their career. With the increase in digital accessibility in all 4 corners of the world, education is now about preparing our students with skills so that they can compete in an international market.
With that in mind, educators in New Zealand are fortunate that the key competencies from The New Zealand Curriculum allow flexibility when providing exciting learning experiences that are relevant, engaging, meaningful, and useful. By teaching through these key competencies we can enable students to become confident, connected, actively involved learners both in the present and in the future. Through this, we help to shape and equip students with the necessary skills to participate in rapidly changing local, national, and global communities. This reflects my own personal teaching philosophy in that I want to encourage my students to become lifelong learners, who are active problem solvers.
The introduction of digital devices provides an opportunity for us to develop these 21st century skills and approach teaching and learning in a meaningful way that enhances the learning experiences and increases the ownership of students outcomes. This is a major factor in why I was so keen to get onboard with having a 1-1 digital class.
As mentioned above, I have found that as a learner myself, I prefer to be shown how to use tools. However, this is a completely different mindset from some of the students or “digital natives” in my class. Many of my students are passionate about using technology and exploring for themselves. They are always keen to try new things. As a teacher, I found it quite challenging to cater for all the needs of my students when teaching them how to use their chromebooks and google drive. It was overwhelming at times as some students were quick to learn how to use the digital tool, while others needed lots of repetition. After attending the Mind Lab sessions all I wanted to do was to take what I had learnt and trial it IMMEDIATELY in my classroom. At times I became extremely frustrated, until a colleague (in her second year with a digital class) suggested that I teach the my students how to use the tools one at a time and establish the routines around the digital devices. For me, this was a learning curve where I realised that it is ok to go slow: Do the basics and do them well.
In that respect, I learnt that I needed to teach my students the basics, and how to to use them well, before moving onto other tools. My students can now do the basics well (Yippee!!). With that in mind, I am pleased to say that I have implemented the following tools (with success!) into my classroom:
- Booktracks Classroom - students have been able to read online, but also construct their own writing with their own soundtracks
- Bitstrips Animation - create their own avatars to use as motivation for character descriptions
- Pecha Kucha - in preparation for speeches, using a pecha kucha to develop their confidence when speaking about a topic in front of the class
- Kahoot It Quiz - engaging students in maths and revising maths and science concepts
And in the future, I intend to trial with my students:
- Stop motion animation - to create videos in order to share their learning
- Scratch and coding - for maths, particularly in terms of geometry
- Augmented reality through Aurasma - linking artwork to students mihi’s
- Video creation and editing - again, to create videos in order to share the learning (although the opportunities are endless here!!)
- Flipped classrooms
- Using design thinking for students goal setting, rather than SMART goals.
The purpose of trialling these tools is to experiment and expose my students to various ways of creating and sharing their learning with a wider audience.
Upon reflecting on my learning over the 24 weeks, it is evident that one of the major challenges is the changing of a mindset. Like any teacher, I want my students to be the best that they can be, and that requires me to be the best teacher I can be. To achieve this, I need to foster both within myself, and my students, a growth mindset. Doing so will allow for the students that I have taught to become confident, connected, actively involved learners who can engage with a global community.
References:
The University of Kent Careers and Employability Service. (2011). How to find out your leadership style. Retrieved from http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/leadership.htm
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