Reflection and Evidence for PTC1

I have been thinking how I engage in an ethical and respectful manner with my colleagues, principals and teachers I work with, as well as members of the wider Education community. In my team we work in a collaborative and professional manner in preparing and delivering workshops or courses. We have regular fortnightly meeting where we connect with each other and share our knowledge.
Collaboration is at the heart of what we do as a team and this has been a new way of working for me but one that I see as being a better way of working to share ideas and use different team members' strengths.

I also work closely with principals and teachers in my work as a facilitator to develop a professional development plan for the year based on the school goals, as well planning and delivering professional development workshops. It is vital to build those respectful relationships and trust with teachers
as this is more likely to mean that akonga will feel respected and more willing to learn/actively engage with new learning (Professional development). I believe I work effectively in a professional manner with school leaders to achieve their school goals. Again this also involves building relationships, actively listening and working collaboratively to co-constuct a development plan for the school. One aspect that has changed in my practice is realising that not all schools will change or move at the same pace on their digital journey. This can be for many reasons, but one of the keys is treating the school and the staff as individuals. After reading the OECD report the Nature of Learning and looking at the 7 principals of Learning I realise that recognising individual differences is important to how schools may look at professional development with our team. While there is a sense of urgency to make a difference for learners in classes, it is also important to meet teachers where they are at in their learning journey.

From my work last year in clusters I learnt that knowing the learner was just as important with teachers as with students. Following UDL principles, this has led me to change my practice. I now send out a Pre-workshop/School visit survey. This allows me to find out about my akonga before I meet them. I always start my first meeting sharing information about myself and my family to start making connections with the teachers. I also communicate via email (see below) to keep those connections building. A good example is the relationship  I have built with a teacher in Southland this year. On my most recent visit to her class we spent time working on her class blog and problem- solving to make sure her learners could use the technology to record their learning.

As part of my professional work I am involved in the online learning community. I am on Twitter, take part in Twitter chats, write a Professional Learning Blog , a blog for a Community of Practice plus I am involved in Educamps. These are all ways that I build my personal and professional relationships, both on-line and F2F (face-to-face). This creation of a PLN is also a  way of building my professional knowledge and sharing that knowledge via those networks.


Link to Tātaiako : Whanaungatanga