My community of practice

Knox (2009) defines a community of practice as a group of people who share a passion for something they know how to do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better. I feel this definition reflects my community of practice closely as my community is predominantly made up of teachers who are committed to learning how to provide the best education they can. 

Within my workplace I am a member of several communities of practice:

• my collaborative team
• my syndicate team
• mixed-team COPs groups

All of these groups share the same common purpose - how can we make learning better for our students - but examine this issue from different perspectives. 

Wenger (2000) states communities of practice must have three key elements to succeed, joint enterprise, mutuality and shared repertoire. He argues that through the community's joint enterprise or purpose the community builds a sense of being a competent practitioner. In my community of practice our joint enterprise is the desire to improve learning for our children. Depending on which specific community I am working in this may be more specific, e.g. improving literacy learning for children. Wenger (2000) and Knox (2009) both highlight the importance of mutuality or relationships within a community of practice. Knox (2009) states the relationship between members of a community creates a sense of belonging while Wenger (2000) explains these relationships create a sense of accountability and trust. In my community of practice, I have different relationships with different members. For example, my collaborative partner and I have a relationship built on trust and honesty that has developed over time. In other groups I am still getting to know the participants and building this relationship. A key aspect of communities of practice is to meet and discuss knowledge and ideas regularly. I feel my community of practice is very strong in this as we are always reflecting on progress and discussing how we could change our practice to increase progress further. 

The final aspect of communities of practice researchers discuss is the concept of a shared repertoire being built. In my community of practice this has been an invaluable resource to me as I seek to improve my own practice. Through our regular discussions our community has shared ideas and programmes that have worked well in different classrooms as well as evaluating programmes members are currently trying. This has led to a set of resources and ideas that all members can use if desired. 

When reflecting on my community of practice I was surprised to feel very connected to my professional community. Entering a new school year has given us the opportunity to take some slow brain time to reflect on our own practice and then return to school and share these reflections with members of my community. Although this has not been done in a formal meeting I think the informal sharing and debating has strengthened our community further. I have also been reflecting on my role in my community of practice. I always considered myself a very new member of the community however I have come to the realisation that I am one of the longest serving members of our community now! This caused me to reflect on my role and how I interact within community discussions. I feel more confident now to lead discussions and question members to help them reflect. I initially found this very hard and sought the guidance of more experienced members however now I am (surprisingly!) one of the more experienced members I am looking forward to stepping into this 'helper' role more. I think this is also reflective of how much I contribute to group discussions. In the first year of my teaching career I think I probably said 10 words during group meetings! However, now I feel I am one of the more vocal members. I think this is also a reflection of growth in my own confidence as a teacher and more clarity around my personal beliefs and pedagogy. 

Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk

Wenger, E.(2000).Communities of practice and social learning systems.Organization,7(2), 225-246 

SAMR and TPACK Models

This is a great video explaining the different stages of the SAMR model.

In my practice I have been thinking about the way I integrate technology into the classroom. I have tried really hard to move away from the substitution stage of replacing paper with technology. In some cases some of the tasks we do are still at the substitution level (e.g. typing responses to questions) however I'm trying to develop activities at higher levels. Activities at each stage I have tried are

Augmentation:

- using google forms to collate student voice
- using google forms to create reading comprehension tasks
- using Kahoot as a summative assessment tool
- reading e-books and embedding links to comprehension tasks
- using Hapara to share work with students and students to share work with me
- students using spell check and thesaurus tools

Modification


- students collaborating on shared docs through Google Docs
- presented mind maps through Google Slides
- created multi-media presentations through Google Slides

My next goal is to increase the amount of modification I plan for and work towards redefinition in my classroom.

Useful links:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AaLZ5diqSdCEtlb7Mok2uQuwAAOvYImJOG32T5_I7Rw/edit#slide=id.g539cd07ab_2273

http://dailygenius.com/integrate-google-apps-with-the-samr-model/

http://ditchthattextbook.com/2014/04/03/10-ways-to-reach-samrs-redefinition-level/


Modification ideas:

- using comments function to annotate a piece of text

John Hattie's 8 Mindframes

This video was interesting as although I have come across Hattie's work before I had not heard these 8 mindframes. I agree with all 8 to an extent, some more than others! I strongly agree that my fundamental task is to evaluate the effectiveness of my teaching. Working collaboratively has strengthened my ability to do this as we are constantly discussing and evaluating our joint and individual practice and the affect this is having on our students' learning. Mindframe 2 poses some questions for me. Although I agree that a teacher is a very strong determinate of student achievement I also feel that social, cultural, emotional and physical aspects of a student's life also affect their success rate. Research shows that students who are struggling with emotional distress or upset have a limited capacity to learn (Odgen, 2006). This is due to brain space being taken up with worrying and not being able to focus on learning.
I definitely agree with 3 and 4, although we are assessing what children have learned ultimately we are assessing how well they were taught. Mindframe 5 is the cornerstone of my teaching philosophy. I feel very strongly that teachers should not be the holders of knowledge and power in a classroom but rather teach through conversation and dialogue. This builds much stronger relationships with students which is shown to improve student outcomes. This also links to mindframe 7, education is all about relationships. With staff, students, parents and community. Challenging oneself as a teacher comes as part of the territory. I enjoy the challenge of researching and trying new things in my practice and evaluating how these affected outcomes. Mindframe 8 confuses me somewhat, I am not entirely sure I understand what informing about the language of learning looks like. I have interpreted it as talking to students and adults about the why of learning. How we learn and why we learn what we learn. I agree this is important, discussing metacognition with children helps them understand how they learn. This awareness can lead to great reflection and goal setting.

What do you consider to be the most important skills of the 21st Century?

ITL research considers these to be the most important 21st Century skills:

• Collaboration
• Knowledge construction
• Self-regulation
• Real-world problem solving /innovations
• ICT for learning
• Skilled communication 

After discussing each skills. We were allocated one as a group to create a video. Our skill was Real-world problem solving

When reflecting on these skills for both myself and my students I found myself thinking about how much value I put on these skills in my classroom. When planning I realized that subconsciously I often look for or create activities that centre around these skills. The planning flow-charts we were shown today will definitely help to ensure these activities are higher stage activities. As a school we talk a lot about these skills being the 'soft' skills we want our children to develop. They are embedded in most of our practice and although they may not be assessed and checked off I think our children are beginning to develop a great understanding of these 21st Century skills. One area I have seen a huge improvement on is collaboration amongst children. Traditionally we undertook 'group work' however now that as teachers we have moved into collaborative environments I think the children also more naturally collaborate on tasks. Many tasks we do are collaborative in nature however even when set tasks that are not explicitly collaborative our children still naturally tend to collaborate with peers to complete activities. Moving forward I would like to expand this by creating tasks that have components that are reliant on other group members. I think this will extend my students' collaborative nature by showing them that group discussions are fantastic however to truly work as a team each person/sub-group must do their part. This will then feed naturally into creating environments where skilled communication, real-world problem solving and self-regulation are needed. I will aim to use this as a focus in my first assignment. 

"Towards Reconceptualising Leadership: The Implications of the Revised New Zealand Curriculum for School Leaders".

"Towards Reconceptualising Leadership: The Implications of the Revised New Zealand Curriculum for School Leaders"


I found this article very interesting as it was written shortly after the 'new' curriculum was introduced. Having only been teaching for 2 1/2 years this is the only curriculum I have worked with and therefore I was not part of the discussion when this was implement. I was also not even at school in NZ when the new curriculum came in so the only experience I have had with it is through my limited teaching career. Personally I find the NZ curriculum fantastic. The framework allows a lot of individual interpretation and I usually find myself building class programmes that suit the needs of my students then finding corresponding objectives from the curriculum not the other way round.
This article talks a lot about the 'tell me what to do' mentality. I can see how this would have been a big mindset change with the current curriculum as the objectives do not tell you what or how to teach but rather the skill that the child will end up with. This would have been very confronting for teachers who were used to working with a more prescriptive framework. The article talks about knowledge being conceptualized as a verb is something we do something with, rather than something we have (Gilbert, 2005). I think the new curriculum reflects this clearly.
From a leadership perspective the biggest challenge talked about in this article is teacher think time when facing a new reform in education. Education is constantly changing and as teachers we need to be able to change along with it. However I can relate to the feeling of 'stop the world, I want to get off!' some days. The article discusses how by distributing school leadership among staff will enable teachers to gain ownership over some of these changes. I have been very fortunate in my career to work in a school that does distribute leadership and encourages teachers to have imput into any major changes. We are consulted and our opinions valued before changes are made. This article made me realise that perhaps is isn't/wasn't the case in all schools. Frost and Durrant (2002) emphasise that teacher agency is central to school improvement. The article includes a list of characteristics of teacher leaders:

According to Wynne (2001) the literature on teacher leadership offers a profile that defines teacher leaders as those who:
 • demonstrate expertise in their instruction and share that knowledge with other professionals
• are consistently on a professional learning curve
• frequently reflect on their work to stay on the cutting edge of what is best for children
• engage in continuous action research projects that examine their effectiveness
• collaborate with their peers, parents, and communities, engaging them in dialogues of open
• inquiry/action/ assessment models of change
become socially conscious and politically involved
• mentor new teachers
• become more involved at universities in the preparation of pre-service teachers
• are risk-takers who participate in school decisions.

This list caused me to reflect on myself as a teacher leader. There are aspects of the list I feel I do confidently (consistent professional learning, reflection, collaboration) and areas that I find challenging (demonstrating expertise, mentor new teachers, socially conscious). I thought for a long time about the areas I find challenge and they are things I would like to work on. Some come down to me not feeling like an expert compared to colleagues that have been in the industry for much longer than me. Other come down to not having the brain space/time to become aware of political/social issues. These are both things Freeth mentions in his research!

What is knowledge?

This week we were asked to discuss 'what is knowledge?' Here is our brainstorm.



This week we discussed the purpose of education and what we think knowledge is. Here is the video our group created to reflect this thinking.

"What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skill" and reflecting how 20th century and 21st century skills differ? Do we need both?

This video was very interesting as much of the message was similar to what I have heard since starting my teaching career. This made me think about the potential difference between American education and NZ education as I think NZ is further along this journey than the video tells. The main point of the video was that we can't wait for a government driven change but rather need to start changing the way we view 'skills' now. In Christchurch there has already been a bit of a shake up of the education sector through the implementation of clusters. These clusters have starting breaking down the silos Lichtman talks about and encourages more collaboration between schools. Likewise the implementation of collaboration in the classrooms is making a huge difference to the way students are now taught.

Lichtman discusses the difference between 20th century and 21st century skills.

He discusses how 20th century industrial skills are not reflective of the world we will in today. Therefore education needs to move with this new way of being and put more emphasis on 21st century 'ecosystem' skills and approaches. These two approaches differ predominantly in the role of the child in both systems. In the 20th century model there was much more focus on adult control and passive children whereas in the 21st century model children are encourage to drive their own learning as much as possible. This also reflects the huge social changes that have occurred with views towards children. I think the main difference between the two is adults being open to change and getting things wrong. We are no longer expected to be the 'sage on the stage' and know it all but rather encouraged to model failure and perseverance to children. Lichtman talks about how 21st century learners need to be self-evolving. Technology is changing so fast that we can't predict what concrete skills our children will need and therefore Lichtman argues that we should be teaching children to evolve constantly to develop new skills for different situations. Therefore as adults and teachers we also need to embrace this constant change and develop schools that are also self-evolving. This can prove difficult when schools are still answerable to an industrial model of measurement and standards based performance. I think there is a place for some 20th century skills to remain in the 21st century education model. Many parents are worried that teachers are throwing the baby away with the bathwater however we need to clarify that this is not the case. Children will still leave school with the traditional skills of being able to read, write and add however they also need to leave school with resilience, problem solving, adaptability, teamwork and self-management skills as these will form the basis of many jobs they undertake. Even teachers who have been present in western society for many, many years have a very different role now to how they were 100 years ago. We still have the same job title and basic role requirements however a teacher from 100 years ago would find it quite challenging to teach today. Likewise our children may hold similar roles in the future (e.g. doctor) however this will be very different to how we perceive doctors now. We need to teach students for their future not based on what is in our past. Research clearly shows that the biggest influence on how a teacher teaches comes from how we were taught ourselves. This also goes for parent expectations of schools. We need to broaden our thinking around this. This is by no means a new concept, Dewey was discussing this years ago.