Activity 15: Summarising your Postgraduate Learning Journey and Planning for the Future

Create a blog post where you reflect on your personal 32 week learning journey through the whole postgraduate programme. Identify and evaluate your most significant learning outcomes and outline your future goals by mirroring them against the Registered Teacher Criteria and e-learning. If you want, you can choose to focus just 4-6 out of the 12 criteria. End your blog post by sharing your future dreams of your professional practice.

What have I learnt & So what?

The final post! (At least the final post that will be assessed!) 

The past 32 weeks of the Digital and Collaborative Learning Postgraduate Course have flown by. Partly due to the wealth of information and new ideas that I have been exposed to, partly to do with assignment due dates, and partly to do with teacher workload!

Whilst I feel like a lot my reflection for the first part of the course was done here, I have learnt more about ethics and the use of social media in the classroom over the last few weeks.

I’ve learnt about myself as a professional that my moral judgements are a result of my upbringing and societal factors and that these influence my decisions and actions. I feel that these factors have had a huge impact in the development of my character, which in turn impacts on the type of teacher that I am and what I bring to the profession.

I've also learnt that social media is a great tool that can be utilised for teaching and learning, as well as networking. There are so many ethical dilemmas that can occur through the use of social media, so in order to implement it more into my classroom, I would need to do some research - ideally by using social media (possibly twitter?). I would need to put it out to other educators by actually asking them how they use social media and what challenges did they encounter, as well as how did they overcome those challenges. Hopefully doing so will give me more confidence and support to trial this in my classroom, and then share this back to professional community, again via social media.

And as for trends and issues... there are SO many happening in education right now!! How do you keep up?! Perhaps via social media?!...

Criteria 4: How do I/can I utilise e-learning to further my professional learning and development?

Signing up to the Postgraduate Certificate I had no idea what I was in for. I originally thought that it would be very tool orientated and after having to make videos nearly every week I started to feel like the course was well and truly over my head and I was surely sinking, yet in some strange way I wanted to get better at making videos and using all these tools! The fire had been lit!

I WANTED to become better at utilising e-learning in my classroom, especially since I was undertaking my first digital class in 2015.

Figure 1: The Aurasma app
could be integrated into the
classroom

The Mind Lab opened my eyes to a whole different way of looking at how use digital resources. For example, being shown how to use Aurasma, I took this back to school and asked my students to draw their name and incorporate cultural patterns into it. They then had to record their mihi and we attached the video to their picture. Whilst it wasn’t overly successful do to time constraints, I did trial something that could have had potential to work. This has prompted me to reflect on this lesson and consider what I would do differently next time.

e-learning has also prompted me into be more proactive in sharing good resources that I have found online with my colleagues. I’ve used other educators expertise, such as: TeachTechPlay and Kasey Bell at Shake up Learning, as well as Free Technology for Teachers to help build my own professional knowledge and skills outside of school hours. I am a lifelong learner myself, and I will continue to actively seek out resources and strategies that will help further my professional learning and development.

Figure 2:
Twitter logo

My next step in this area is to use social media more effectively by joining twitter so that I can network with other education professionals and share ideas with a global audience. Then I will begin to look at strategies for how I can implement social media within my classroom.

Criteria 5: How do I/can I use e-learning to support my colleagues to strengthen teaching and learning in my setting?

Whilst not the ICT Lead Teacher (although I am on the team, and am currently the Acting ICT Lead Teacher), I have been involved in supporting my colleagues strengthen their teaching and learning at my school. I have supported them with technical issues, as well as ethical dilemmas regarding social media.

I have promoted and encouraged my colleagues to participate in digital workshops and have given guidance on what would be most useful for them.

After trialling many of the ideas that I have been introduced to at the Mind Lab, I hope to extend my leadership skills by considering what will work best for teachers and students in my school and hold workshops or staff meetings to share this knowledge with them.

Criteria 6: How can e-learning support and extend what I am trying to achieve when planning programmes of work for groups and individuals?

The integration of digital technology has made me reflect on my teaching and planning. I have seen first hand how digital devices can support and extend student achievement, not to mention motivate them! For example, I used booktracks to help motivate my struggling readers and writers. After some dramatisation, we wrote pieces about World War 1 using google docs. My students then published their writing using booktracks with sound effects. One of my struggling writers was the first one to complete this piece of writing, and as a result of using the digital tools he informed me that he “used to hate writing, but now I like it”.

There are so many e-tools available but it’s about knowing our learners so that we can cater for the needs whether they be working as a class, in groups or individually.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve begun to trial flipping the classroom with my students watching maths videos. The feedback that I’ve had from the kids is positive and they love being able to go back and watch the video when they aren’t sure, can’t remember or if I’m out of the classroom. This is proving to be successful, and I’d like to continue it, maybe even extend it into other curriculum areas.

The Mind Lab has made me challenge traditional ways of teaching and learning, as well as making me reflect on my own personal teaching philosophy and pedagogy. It has made me critically look at digital technology as a tool to enhance teaching and learning programmes, and motivated to use the SAMR model when planning my lessons. The Mind Lab has made me consider modifying tasks and encourage collaboration within my classroom more often.

Criteria 11: How can I use e-learning tools to gather and use assessment information in ways that advance the learning of my ākonga/students?

The use of collaboration is a key way of advancing the learning of my students. This is an area that I need to continue to model and develop in my current class. Google drive has a number of possibilities as a way of giving feedback and gaining assessment. Student voice can be captured using voice recorder apps, and this can then be uploaded onto the students individual blogs where it can be commented on by peers, whanau, teachers….anyone! This feedback can be given instantly, and engages students in a conversation about their learning.

My professional goal is to operate an effective digital learning environment in my classroom. I think this postgraduate programme has certainly helped me on my way to achieving this.

Some key areas that I would really like to focus on now are:

• 

  Figure 3: Goal setting (Bernardo, 2015)

  using the SAMR model - continue to use this when planning lessons and move into the modification and redefinition phases
• using social media more effectively - for professional development (twitter) and to enhance student learning, as well as to engage our schools community
• stepping out of my comfort zone more often - by taking risks and trialling new concepts, such as blended learning and design thinking
• using my class blog to share more frequently and develop a google site for my class
• tinkering more!

and maybe... after having a break, I may even consider further tertiary study!

References:

 
Aurasma. (2015). Aurasma. Retrieved from http://www.aurasma.com/#/whats-your-aura
Bernardo, E. (2015). A Simple Guide to Goal Setting. Retrieve from http://emeroy.com/blog/my-simple-5-step-guide-to-personal-goal-setting/

 Ministry of Education. (n.d). Enabling e-learning. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning

Twitter. (2015). Welcome to Twitter. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/

Activity 14: Evaluations of the Cultural Responsiveness in Practice

Create a blog post where you evaluate how you or your school addresses cultural responsiveness in practice in at least 3 of the following areas: vision, mission, and core values; policies; goals; communication methods; decision-making; planning and assessment; learning activities; school-wide activities; resources.

What do we do at May Road School? 

How do we address cultural responsiveness in our practice?

In a multicultural school like mine, it's hard to not be culturally responsive. Being culturally responsive is integrated into the way we teach and embedded into the culture of the school.

Vision, Mission, and Core Values

The school’s mission statement (or vision) of 

“Value yourself, value your learning and respect all others” 

implies that everyone should be valued and respected and that learning is the utmost priority. We aim to ensure that students experience success through high quality teaching and learning opportunities.

Our strategic plan outlines the ways in which our school demonstrates cultural responsiveness.

Figure 1: May Road School's Strategic Plan for 2015 -2017

You only need to look at the second page to see that we embed cultural diversity and a Maori dimension into our philosophy and pedagogy.

We also have separate Maori and Bilingual Plans to ensure that Maori and Pasifika students have high levels of success. However, that is not to say that we don’t value and respect other minor cultural groups.

 Figure 2: May Road School's Pasifika Education Plan for 2015-2017

Figure 3: May Road School's Maori Education Plan for 2015-2016

Goals

Our school has 2 primary goals that we focus on in order to achieve our vision:

Goal One: All students and staff strive to reach their potential

This means that ALL our students, regardless of their culture are engaged and achieve their potential. Our teaching and learning programmes are personalised and cater for the needs of our students.

Goal Two: All students and staff aware that they can make a positive difference to the world

This means that all our students are actively involved in all learning opportunities. Our teaching and learning programmes foster student agency, so that students know that they can use their skills and talents to create change.

Communication Methods

Communicating with our community is very important. When families are engaged and interested in their child’s education, the child is more likely to have academic success.

So how we do we communicate with parents and whanau?

• social media - school website and facebook page
• blogs - every class has a blog, and every child in year 4-6 has their own individual blog, there is also a community engagement blog that has been recently created
• weekly school newsletter is printed and sent home (an e-copy is also available on the school website)
• class newsletters are sent home once a term
• notices (for example: for camp) are translated into other languages
• orally - teachers have informal chats when they see whanau, a teacher/deputy principal also does gate duty in the morning and after school to greet students/ catch up with parents
• student conferences are held 3 times a year (beginning, middle and end). Maori students also meet with the deputy principal. If families cannot attend, teachers arrange an alternative time or phone/email home
• we have staff who can speak different languages so that they can also interpret when the need is required, and there are other parents in the school community who also support us doing this
• assemblies are held every week, and parents are invited along to attend these
• host workshops to help support parents with their children’s learning, eg: home-school partnership for reading, digital workshop, PB4L workshop, maths workshop...

Figure 4: May Road School Ideal Student in many different languages

We also aim to communicate and involve family and whanau with decision making within the school, so that they feel part of the community and can have ownership. For example, when generating our PB4L signs, we asked for input from our community for words in their language.

Learning Activities

There are so many ways that we incorporate cultural responsiveness into our teaching pedagogy. 

Some of the key learning activities that we use to do this are:

• tuakana-teina: where students can work alongside an older/more experienced buddy. This type of learning is an integral part of traditional Maori society. Last year we buddied up with a class and worked together on flax weaving and origami making. The previous year students were split up right across the school and worked together to build erupting volcanoes.
• parents/ experts are invited in to share their knowledge with students - eg: parents come into assist with the end of year cultural celebrations.
• integration of curriculum areas - for example when we studied space last year, we incorporated Maori myths & legends into our reading and writing, but also created videos, artwork and music to share our learning. This allowed students to have ownership and choice about what and how they presented their learning.
• celebrating different language weeks - drawing upon the “experts” (students) in our classes to speak about their culture and teach us words/ phrases/ songs in their language. We also host a Race Relations Day each year where students are encouraged to dress up in their cultural clothes, bring traditional cultural food and share their culture with others. We also have 2 Samoan bilingual units who regularly share their learning and culture with the rest of the school.

Figure 5: Celebrating Race Relations Day

• specific feedback and feedforward (both oral and written) is given regularly.
• learning activities are differentiated for the needs and levels of our students.
• evidence of students learning is used to inform planning and teaching, as well as students being able to identify their next learning steps.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what we actually do to ensure that we are culturally responsive to our students and their families. At the end of the day, we all want to see our students succeed and being culturally responsive is just one part of how our school community achieves this.

Activity 13: Indigenous Knowledge and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Create a blog post where you share your own views on your indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy you have implemented appropriate to your student community.

Culture is not exclusive to race and/or ethnicity. It also refers to the unique features of a community - its demographic makeup, including location, gender, language, local history and economics. Societies are becoming more culturally diverse as people become more mobile through relocation or being dislocated from their social groups as a result of war, employment, natural or environmental disasters.

Auckland is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, part of the reason why I love living and teaching in this city! With over 200 ethnic groups living in Auckland, all teachers must ensure that their pedagogy is culturally responsive.

The role of education in New Zealand is to nurture and support every child to achieve educational success. Doing so will have positive flow on effects in our society and benefits for our economy in the long term.

Unfortunately, not all students are achieving the success that they are capable of as their needs are not being catered for. This lack of success not only impacts on the students themselves, but also their families, wider communities and New Zealand.

We must know our learners - who they are and how they learn best.

We know Māori students do much better when education reflects and values their identity, language and culture. There are 2 key factors that need to exist in order for Maori students to achieve their full academic potential:

Figure 1: Critical Factors to improving Maori students achievement (Ministry of Education, 2013)

Teachers are the key to making the difference in academic success. We need to be able to:

• have access to professional development and the time to undertake it
• actively engage with indigenous (Maori) students and their whanau,
• seek out resources and support
• care for Maori students as Maori
• care for the performance of our Maori students and have high (and realistic) expectations for them
• consider classroom management and pedagogy
• have interactions with Maori that allows for feedback/feedforward and co-constructed learning
• use different strategies effectively (eg: tuakana-teina, a combination of oral and visual presentation, integrating curriculum areas with the arts...)
• be responsive to our students needs and use evidence to inform our teaching
• and weave together a learning context that is appropriate for Maori, so that their level of engagement is increased and attendance is improved.

Much of this pedagogy can also be applied to other cultural groups. If teachers are doing this, they are being culturally responsive, and as a result, are helping to set Maori (and students from other cultural backgrounds) up for academic success.

My personal belief is that if you are not culturally responsive, then you are doing your students, and the profession, a disservice.

References:

     ED Talks (2009) A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations, [Video]. Retrieved from http://www.edtalks.org/video/culturally-responsive-pedagogy-relations 

     Ministry of Education. (2013). Ka Hikitia Accelerating Success 2013-2017. Wellington: New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Strategies-and-policies/Ka-Hikitia/KaHikitiaAcceleratingSuccessEnglish.pdf 

    Tapaleao, V. (2014) Auckland now more diverse than London. The New Zealand Herald.  Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11213317