Communities of Practice - Etienne Wenger

Hack your schooling and other videos

Hack your schooling

Digital Leadership - Mark Anderson

Digital leadership matters from Mark Anderson

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

Reflection and Evidence for PTC 2DF

The Nature of Learning - OECD report
- I read this booklet at the end of last year and I started to think about
students I had taught .  The book highlights 7 key principles of learning.

1. Learners at the centre - self directed learners
2. The social nature of learning - co-operative/collaborative learning
3. Emotions are integral to learning - positive beliefs of self as learner
4. Recognizing individual differences -prior knowledge important, 
5. Stretching all student- programmes that demand hard work and challenge
6. Assessment for learning - clarity of expectations
7. Building horizontal connections- community-global

The key take away is for me is to start thinking about the all  learners being at the centre, it's not about the teacher being the "sage on the stage".  And that as teachers we need to ensure that the 

conditions in our classes will help all learners achieve to their potential. The poster below says it 

all. We just can't expect to turn up and teach the same way we have for 20 years.

21st Century learners need 21st century teaching and  learning environments, "we need to redesign learning environments that harness the potential of digital technologies in a knowledge-based economy to develop 21st century learning competencies for our learners."  Nature of Learning 

Another concept that has made me reflect on what and how I teach is  UDL- Universal Design for Learning. Both colleagues Chrissie Butler and Lynne Silcock have presented workshops at team Hui and have shared ways we can use these principals in working with akonga. For me the image below

says it all. We need to teach to include those at the edges, not just the ones in the middle.  

This concept has changed my practice in two ways. I have changed how I prepare for my workshops-

I will send out a pre-workshop survey, send an outline of the day by email, participants are shared in to the presentation at the start of the day, videos are enabled to have subtitles, there are handouts for those who prefer a paper copy, seating is flexible.

When talking to teachers about their students,  I am aware of the impact of UDL and how making some small changes can make a difference to students and their learning. In a recent conversation with a teacher, she told me about a student who found verbal instructions a challenge. I suggested she print out a copy of the instructions so the student could have a paper copy to refer to. And why not print out another larger copy and put on the wall  for any other student that might find reading or re-reading the instructions useful.  While it seems obvious to me now, I know that many teachers do not

think about this aspect with regard to their students. This is one concept that we share in our work with schools

Link to Tātaiako : Manaakitanga

Reflection and Evidence for PTC 3 F

There are many ways I am using Te Reo and Tikanga in my practice and work with my colleagues.
At the start and end of our team meetings we say Karakia to settle us into our mahi. This is also how we begin our workshops.  Singing Waiata is also part of the culture of our workplace, at a Mihi Whakatau or to welcome visitors.






 Example of Karakia used for beginning a workshop.

Link to a recent workshop at a school   Karakia,  Whakatoki,  Kaupapa for the day

When I first joined CORE,  I was able to say my pepeha at my Mihi whakatau. Although I have
Stage 1 Maori in my degree, like any language you need to be using it to sustain it.  We have Te Reo sessions in our office once a week to help us grow our language knowledge.

A recent blog post by Andrew Penny, one of our CORE colleagues also made me reflect on how as Pakeha, I need to keep up-skilling in Te Reo. I think the more people who use Te Reo  and become more familiar and comfortable with Tikanga, it will become part of what we do in New Zealand.
As a teacher/facilitator, if I continue to model this for the teachers I work with and students I also see in class  I believe it can only help Maori students at school to feel their language and culture is valued.

Link to Tātaiako :Tangata Whenuatanga

Reflection and Evidence for PTC4 F A THIS ONE Prof Learning

Over the last 7/8 years I have been able to be involved in a wide variety of Professional Development about teaching and learning involving digital technology. I have attended CORE Education breakfasts, Educational Conferences both in New Zealand (U Learn and NZATE) and Australia (Edutech).  I have also been involved inTeacher-led Educamps, teacher-led eduignite evenings,  attended many different workshops, am active on Twitter and have a wide PLN. I am also the co- founder of the Christchurch Connected Educator Group. In 2013 I was selected as a CORE -Ed e-Fellow which enabled me to grow my knowledge and develop my inquiry on using digital technology. This opportunity also meant I was able to continue to be involved in a variety of professional learning opportunities. Working at Christ's College in 2014 also allowed me to keep building my personal professional knowledge and skills by attending Edutech and other workshops with speakers such as Steve Wheeler and Abdul Chohan among many others. I created a 
school blog to share resources and ideas with teaching staff.  I have also attended TEDxChristchurch for the last two years and plan to do so again this year.

I have always been someone who has initiated learning opportunities and believe that PD is absolutely critical - however I don't mean the "one size fits all Thursday afternoon PD"  Although I have attended numerous staff PD sessions, I have not been inspired , provoked, wowed, had my thinking expanded etc etc as I have at some of the wonderful workshops I have attended.
Over the past few years I have had a chance to meet or at least listen to some of my Education Heroes - Sir Ken Robinson, Sugata Mitra, Ewan McIntosh , Kevin Honeycutt and to be inspired by many others.  

So why is self-directed PD beneficial to teachers? It is about striving to find new knowledge that
makes sense to you, answers your questions, solves a problem and it is also about teachers making connections and moving outside their classroom door.  It may only be  A Saturday morning to attend
an Educamp or a Sunday morning to listen to Michael Fullan.  Perhaps it is reading a book written about teaching and learning that inspires a teacher, what ever it is sometimes that inspiration is all that is needed to make a change and that is the key. "Change is not hard. it is uncomfortable"  Grant Lichtman.  Changing how we teach and what we teach is what we need to be doing, if we are preparing our students for their future.

This year my Professional Learning and Inquiry is about Secondary Schools and ILE, in particular how schools are making these changes/factors for success. I am part of a group of facilitators who are
Secondary teachers/working in Secondary Schools who are curating resources/success stories to help us in our work. This is an area where change is very uncomfortable for teachers, for a variety of reasons.

Another area where I have been involved in professional learning opportunities within the learning community is with the Connected Educator Network. We organise events, publish our blog and
for the past two year have run 31 days of blogging encouraging teachers to share a little of what is happening in their classroom.

While running Professional Development and working with teachers in Southland, South Canterbury and Christchurch is the main focus for my work, I believe that being connected and part of the learning community is also vitally important to share ideas and practice, as well as supporting teachers as they negotiate the new educational landscape.

Tātaiako Link: Ako

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