Final Reflection

I have really enjoyed my MindLab journey, especially the opportunity to meet and network with other passionate educators. While it wasn’t 100% what I expected (I thought there would be more techy stuff!) it has made me think, reflect and change my practice. The two key changes I have made in my practice are around student agency and 21st Century skills for learning. Both of these areas were things I had wanted to do in my classroom for quite a while but wasn’t sure how to effectively do them. Through the activities over the past 32 weeks I have had the opportunity to learn about different models of learning and theories around skill development. The 21st Century skills reading (http://www.itlresearch.com/images/stories/reports/21cld%20learning%20activity%20rubrics%202012.pdf) has been one I have read and re-read and passed on to others! I think these skills provide a great framework for planning and learning and have definitely been implemented in my classroom.

I have always tried to include student voice in my practice as I strongly believe it is the students that we are all working for. The module on student agency firmed up my pedagogy around this concept and highlighted the difference between voice and agency. I am working towards building agency in my learners and hope by the end of this year we will be a considerable way through Sylvia Duckworth’s infographic.

Continuum of Voice: What it Means for the Learner. (2016,) . Retrieved March 18, 2017, from http://www.personalizelearning.com/2016/01/continuum-of-voice-what-it-means-for.html

I found the leadership modules interesting as this is not an area I have had much experience in. I hope to use this learning in my future career. My dream now however is to continue on to the masters programme and investigate how to set up and facilitate successful collaborative partnerships in a primary school setting. Wish me luck!

Interdisiplinary teaching

As a primary school teacher I teach all disciplines during my work day. Traditionally primary education looks at a ‘theme’ during ‘topic or inquiry’. For example we may teach about life cycles during our afternoon slot, read about life cycles in reading, write about life cycles in writing and carry out statistical investigations around life cycles. This model shows children how knowledge can be used in a variety of ways. ThomasMcDonaghGroup (2011) state interdisciplinary leads to innovation and new ideas. I have seen this first hand in the classroom where suddenly all the learning about a topic clicks and students start questioning and wondering how and why things are as they are. This model of teaching and learning is fantastic for children learning about their world however I feel strongly that it could produce fantastic results in a secondary school environment where young adults have more sophisticated thinking skills. I found the Ross Institute video (Ross Institute, 2015) a really interesting look at how this model could work in a secondary setting. Mathison and Freeman (1997) state interdisciplinarity seeks to combine two or more disciplines to enhance learning while still keeping each area distinct. I think this would work well in our currently ‘siloed’ secondary system as each subject is still taught as a subject while following the systems thinking model of the Ross Learning System (2015).

After reading the Mathison and Freeman (1997) article I began reflecting on my own practice. Their definitions of different forms of interdisciplinary teaching were really interesting.

We have been referring to our practice as integrated however based on their definitions I think we might need to reword this to interdisciplinary as our practice still differentiates between subject areas, we do have some ‘cross over’ however I’m not sure we're quite there yet. I would like to move towards integrated over time once our students are used to the expectations and routines of our classroom. We have some thinking to do around how this could look for 3 teachers and 76 children. At the moment group based teaching is the best way to manage these numbers which limits opportunities for complete integration. I would be interested to hear other people’s ideas on this!

ThomasMcDonaghGroup. ( 2011, May 13). Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA

Mathison,S.. & Freeman, M.(1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 1997. Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/mathisonlogic12004.pdf:

Ross Institute. (2015, July 5). Ross Spiral Curriculum: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Science. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHZhkB0FJik

Social Media

Social media in education has been a hotly contested topic. While there are a variety of opinions on the benefits or risks of using social media in the classroom as an educator, social media can be a great tool. According to research conducted by The Open University (2016) social media encourages creativity, collaboration, communication and the sharing of resources. In the ever changing landscape of education a platform that encourages us to do this is brilliant. While there are benefits to using social media to increase teacher practice Melhuish (2013) warns us that professional knowledge gained from social media may be superficial and shallow. She states due to the lack of quality control on social media sites the information shared and gained may not be theory driven and reputable therefore limiting the ability to gain deep knowledge from these platforms. While this may be true, Melhuish also argues that social media is a powerful tool for busy teachers to gain and share ideas in an any time, anywhere platform to reflect on ideas beyond their own four walls.

In my own practice I use social media in a variety of ways. Due to the age of my students (7-9 years) I don’t really use social media in the classroom. The exception to this is using twitter for Chapter Chat activities which we will be doing later in the year. However, I use social media extensively to gain ideas and information from a wide network of colleagues. I belong to the NZ Teachers (primary) Facebook group which provides a wealth of ideas and resources for all levels of primary school teaching. This group is also a sounding board for various problems and challenges teachers come across in their line of work. I personally find this group invaluable for not only teaching ideas but answers to questions about teaching that more experienced teachers can give. I also use Snapchat to share planning ideas or potential resources with my collaborative teaching partner when we are not a school. Other platforms I use regularly are a variety of blogs and forums found online (usually while browsing Pinterest) that link me to classrooms all over the world. I’m not sure how teachers came up with new ideas before the internet!

My next challenge in my teaching is to develop safe ways students can use social media to communicate with other students around the country/world. I have looked in to Skype in the Classroom which seems to be a great platform to connect with different classrooms around the world. This is still teacher driven and monitored though, I am trying to find safe ways young children can use different platforms to communicate. We are also trialling Seesaw and Facebook groups as a way to connect with parents and share learning. While this is proving successful, I’m not sure if these platforms are improving learning for my students although they are certainly engaging!

References and Links:

p. 36-44 in Chapter 3 of Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators ‘professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrieved on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/8482/thesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

Sharples, M., de Roock , R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Looi,C-K, McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller, M., Wong, L. H. (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Retrieved from http://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf

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