Activity 8: Changes in my practice

Reflections of the year that was Mind Lab

Woohoo! What a ride! 2017, and the journey with Mind Lab, has been the most challenging and stimulating year of my teaching career. While the challenge has been teaching fulltime and then adding study on top, it has reminded me to think about the demands we place on our students in terms of assignments and working to deadlines (thank heavens for extensions!). And yet…I find myself thinking that I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.

It has been many a long year since I last undertook any study and I have often looked on at colleagues who have completed their Master’s degrees, while working fulltime, with nothing short of admiration. Now I have proven to myself that ‘there’s life in the old girl yet’ and that it is possible to ‘teach an old dog new tricks’! So far, so good…

Mind Lab has had numerous benefits for me, not least of which has been to force me out of my comfort zone and stretch my boundaries – or replace them altogether in a new position! I feel re-energised and more enthusiastic about teaching in general and my practice specifically. It has given me more confidence in using digital technologies and including them more and more in my teaching. While both semesters have been interesting and challenging, I found that I missed the weekly meetings with Lynley and the whole Taupo group of the first 16 weeks once we began the second semester. However, the online collaboration through Google+ and webinars has been stimulating and given me access to a far wider group of like-minded people, and I have learnt to blog.

Changes to my practice related to the Practicing Teacher Criteria in e-Learning

Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice.

Completing the Mind Lab course has been the most worthwhile PD I’ve ever done. While it has challenged me to makes changes in my personal practice, it is the regular and ongoing aspect that is important and most effective as we teachers have become part of the learning process through collaborating, researching and facilitating our own learning in ways that are important to us as individuals (Osterman, 1993).

The course, including weekly sessions, readings and online collaboration with other teachers from both primary and secondary sectors over the 32 weeks, has meant I have had the opportunity to start putting some of what I’ve learnt into practice.  And the ‘ongoing’ part will not end here. 

Criteria 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment.

Through Mind Lab I am engaging in more reflective practice, looking with a critical eye and with reference to evidence-based research to help inform and improve my practice. Osterman (1993, p.2.) describes reflective practice as “a challenging, demanding, and often trying process that is most successful as a collaborative effort…..a means by which practitioners can have a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance”. I have particularly enjoyed learning about the 21st century learning rubrics and am already starting to deploy these in my teaching (collaboration, and real-world problem solving and innovation particularly), along with a move to more project-based learning. This aligns well with the current approach in our science faculty where we are moving to more evidence-based assessment linked to the science capabilities in the junior school. It also addresses the concept of ako – using effective teaching strategies that will motivate and promote learning for my students.

Where to from here?

I will continue to use the 21st century learning skills rubrics and look forward to continuing with an ongoing collaborative, real-world problem-solving project started this year with colleagues from my school and one of the local primary schools. I also want to further explore the use of project-based learning in science and look at adding student blogs to the mix.

The new Mind Lab Masters course starting in 2108 has also piqued my interest. However, I’m not quite ready for that yet!

Mind Lab has opened my eyes in new ways to where 21 century education is, and should be, headed. The downside to this is that I’m now itching to get on with it but find that the change we need to implement within my school environment is going to happen much more slowly! The ultimate dream would be for all staff at my school to complete the Mind Lab course so we can get some real change starting to happen. 6 down, 70 to go! The digital future is already upon us, whether we like it or not, and our education system needs to catch up so we can really prepare our students for their futures.

References

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (1993). Reflective practice for educators. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin Press.

Activity 7: My Interdisciplinary Connections Map

 

What exactly are ‘interdisciplinary connections’? Veronica Boix-Mansilla (1996) describes them as “integrating knowledge or modes of thinking from two or more disciplines (fields of study) in order to create products, raise questions, solve problems, and offer explanations of the world around them in ways that would not have been possible through single disciplinary means’.

Through interdisciplinary studies students are presented with a curriculum that engages them in authentic learning, project-based experiences that are not bound by the traditional subject-silo teaching methods that are still so prevalent today. Instead they have the opportunity to follow their own interests and develop critical thinking skills in order to solve real-world problems.

Jones (2010) describes other advantages of this curriculum delivery method as encouraging the development of lifelong learning and having more direct student involvement in their own learning which leads to becoming independent learners while blending the traditional stand-alone subjects. He acknowledges that while there can be a few drawbacks, such as being it being time-consuming for teachers to prepare, the advantages and benefits of it leading to more innovation and higher order thinking in the future outweigh these negatives.

At my school we are still in the post-industrial era model of education where subjects are taught in isolation, although there are groups of teachers who are trying to break this mold by working across two faculty/subject areas, such as the annual Y13 combined Geography/Biology field trip based in the Central North Island.

This year I am the science teacher for the newly introduced Sport in Education (SIE) class at Y9. The ‘core’ subject teachers of this class meet weekly to plan and integrate the learning experiences as much as possible while still covering the curriculum as outlined by our respective faculties, with an emphasis on active/activity-based learning. We were able to do one major integrated unit based around the Lions Tour this winter which culminated in group presentations to their teachers and parents. While there were some teething problems (access to computers, students learning how to collaborate fully, lack of verbal & visual presentation skills for many) and it did take extra time to plan and coordinate across the subjects, there were also some benefits. These included having an authentic audience to present to (their parents!), gaining confidence in presenting to an audience, and that every group in the class rallied together in the end.

Next year I would like to trial another interdisciplinary project, preferably with my colleagues on staff who have done the Mind Lab course with me in 2017 as between the five of us we cover science, social studies, maths and design & visual communication (DVC). In order for this to happen a few things are required: a growth mindset (this is a ‘given’ as we’ve already demonstrated this through doing Mind Lab!), a commitment to broadening horizons and crossing the subject silos, and being given time for us to properly plan and implement the process. In all likelihood it will be the latter point that is the most difficult to achieve! In their conceptual model for interdisciplinary collaboration Mulligan and Kuban (2015) describe the need for three elements to be present for a successful collaboration. If one element is missing the project will be challenging to complete. Appropriate planning time would fit under the element of workplace conditions. This is the aspect that is out of our (collaborators) control and without which an interdisciplinary project will difficult, although not impossible.

Another probable constraint to using an interdisciplinary approach in 2018 is that there will be no fixed core class rolls in Y 9 & 10, instead the students in a class may differ from subject to subject depending on their strengths and weaknesses in any particular area. This will make teaching with an interdisciplinary approach messy and challenging - but not impossible. After all, we owe it to our students to move towards an interdisciplinary model in order to properly prepare them for their working lives beyond school. If we are to fulfil our duty to our students, we need to keep the following words from Daniel Pink (cited in Interdisiplinarity and Innovation, 2011) in mind:

“We need to prepare kids for THEIR FUTURE, not OUR PAST.”

References

Boix Mansilla, V., Miller, W. C., & Gardner, H. (2000). On disciplinary lenses and interdisciplinary work. Interdisciplinary curriculum: Challenges to implementation, 17-38.

Jones, C. (2010). Interdisciplinary approach-advantages, disadvantages, and the future benefits of interdisciplinary studies. ESSAI, 7(1), 26.

Mulligan, L. M., & Kuban, A. J. . (2015). A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration

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

Activity 6: Using social online networks in my teaching and/or professional development.

In this world of constantly growing interconnectedness it is inevitable that social media will increasingly make its way into the classroom, whether we like it or not. While social media for personal use is the most common trend, using it for professional development is fast becoming just as important. It is also gaining favour within the classroom although many educators are still wary of this for a number of reasons (Seaman, 2013).

I use social media personally and professionally via a variety of forums on a regular basis. From a professional stand point I find Facebook, Twitter and Youtube useful forums for professional reading/viewing and information; Facebook in particular often has articles worth sharing with colleagues and I follow a couple of education based groups. Through the Mind Lab course this year I have also used Google+, Google Hangouts and Blogger.  VLN Network is another professional online group I access on occasion. I find there is a wealth of information on Twitter (although I rarely ‘tweet’) and Facebook and the TEDEd/TEDx/TEDTalks channel on Youtube is well worth a look for ideas that challenge and expand the horizons. All of the above offer a valuable “pooling of expertise” (Melhuish, 2013, p. 171) and an arena for sharing ideas and experiences as well as academic learning. In particular I like the fact that I can connect and share ideas with teachers all over the world at a time of day that suits me.

As for using social media in my teaching, I haven’t really pursued this to any great lengths - although I do manage a school sports team Facebook page with a colleague and am a member of my Y13 House group in my role as House staff leader. Really the only way in which I currently communicate with my classes online is via Google Classroom or email. While I would like to learn how to effectively incorporate it into my classes, access at school to all social media was blocked for students earlier this year. A new social media policy for staff has also restricted our ability to use it with students, although I hope this can be changed at some point.

 While I feel I would need professional development as to how I might utilise social media effectively in my teaching, there are both definite advantages and disadvantages that I can see to this. Some of the ‘pros’ would be the ability to better engage students with their learning in ways that are familiar to them, challenging them to lift the standard of their online submissions as they would be posting to a much wider audience than previously. Using social media is a part of life now for most people so why not add it to the tools we use for teaching and learning? Blogger is one platform I would like to use in class as a means for students to share their work with their peers and families and receive feedback from them. Youtube and Twitter I could also see myself using in class.

The drawbacks to using social media in my teaching (apart from the current block to all social media at my school) include the potential for online bullying and abuse, the ‘open all hours’ aspect of being constantly available to students unless this is well managed and the fact that the sheer amount of online engagement can be overwhelming. During term breaks there are days when I literally switch off and refuse to engage in any social media. I need to do this for my own sanity! For me to implement using social media in my teaching will take careful planning, professional development, and time management. In time I’m sure I’ll do this as it will become more and more important for teaching in the 21st century.

“Get connected, grow your networks, accelerate your learning.” (Office of Ed Tech, 2013).

References

Source: Office of Ed Tech (2013, September 18). Connected Educators. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=216&v=K4Vd4JP_DB8

Melhuish, K. A. V. (2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning (Doctoral dissertation, University of Waikato). Retrieved on 30 October, 2017 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/

Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning. Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf