Jayne's Reflective Teaching Journal

Activity 8                                       Week 32 - PRACTICE - Changes in Practice I have thoroughly enjoyed the Mindlab journey. I feel we are in an exciting time in education as we have tools and information at our fingertips to promote and encourage innovation. I need to revisit the course material for the first sixteen weeks as I found the delivery of this part of the course less effective than the last sixteen weeks due to the commitment of the weekly four-hour class time. After a ten-hour work day, the frontal lobe of my brain was not working at full capacity. I found that delivery online, which was self-directed and self-paced was more productive. I found I could focus better and make connections with my practice and the course work. Thus I feel more empowered by my engagement w...

Activity 7 Week 31 - PRACTICE - Professional Context - Crossing Boundaries This is a map of my current and possible interdisciplinary collaborations. The ones I am using are in green, and the ones I'm not, but could be using are in pink. The interdisciplinary connection I am choosing as a future goal is team teaching in Ako. I found this week’s readings very relevant to issues with my current teaching practice as I am finding interdisciplinary collaboration to deliver interdisciplinary teaching challenging. Three years ago my interdisciplinary connection to co construct planning, decision-making and goal setting was with three teachers, team teaching 67 students with an integrated curriculum. It was hard work but the children were highly engaged and there was pockets of innovation happening. We integrated all the subjects well except for Maths. To integrate maths well takes lots of planning and expertise. I find teachers afraid of coverage more so in maths than oth...

Activity 6: Week 30 Using social online networks in teaching or professional development Kathy Cassidy states in the video, using social media in the class, that using digital tools is ‘where the children are at’. They use these tools at home so it is natural to use them at school. Children in my classes use a large range of digital tools. Enlightenment with using digital technologies occurred for me ten years ago after attending an ICT conference (Navcom 2006) in Christchurch. This was the same time that the Labour government started funding more computers in schools and teachers laptops. This time was transformational for me as a teacher as I felt like I had been given a license to make learning fun for both myself and my students. Once I got back to school my children started creating animations, green screening, and using cloud based tools for learning and presenting. Since then my classes have used augmented reality apps, robotics, GAFE and have run code clubs. It was a n...

Influence of Law and Ethics  Week 29 Week 29 Activity 5 The Problem Teachers’ Behaviour Online - addiction to social media There are many ethical dilemmas that I have witnessed as a result of teachers interacting (with the best of intentions) online with the community that they teach in. I cringe now when I see social media interactions from teachers at my practice about current issues in the community where the teacher is giving an opinion. Teachers are so vulnerable and digital communications are fodder for misinterpretations. This has included innocent comments from a teacher about how proud she was of some of her children receiving well deserved certificates. This resulted in comments from parents saying “you're obviously not talking about my children”.  More worrying is when a teacher commented on the controversial sentencing of a family member who was also a member of the local community who were divided in their opinions about the sentence delivered. This ...

Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness - Week 28 Relationships, a belief in potential and high expectations are at the core of indigenous knowledge, cultural responsiveness, and good teaching practices.  Building relationships in the class requires an association between the teacher and student. This relationship can range from brief and surface to deeper depending on the teacher's knowledge of the child’s culture. “Caring for students as culturally located individuals within a framework of positive student–teacher relationships is considered beneficial for all students, but particularly so for Maori” (Savage, Meyer, Hynds, Penetito and Sleeter. 2011). At the core of my teaching is the belief that to be effective and a change agent I need to get to know my students as mathematicians, as readers as writers. To be culturally responsive I need also to get to know my Maori students as Maori and make the social commitment to be able to care for Maori students as Maori. T...

Trend influencing education in New Zealand or internationally Redesigning Learning Spaces - a trend influencing education in New Zealand and internationally I have been implementing a 21st century pedagogy for the last three years in a physical environment that is not cohesive with the philosophy of modern learning. Last year this involved sixty-seven students and three teachers working collaboratively using the philosophy of Ako and our school focus of visible learning. This year we still have three teachers, the same space but have nearly twenty more students. With a student-centric pedagogy now firmly established it is now obvious with this extra number of students why redesigning learning spaces has become a long-term trend both nationally and internationally as it has the potential to significantly impact classroom practices and learning in ways that my current space cannot. The Ministry of Education is embracing policy changes as seen in their draft vision for educati...

Week 26 Activity 2: Current Issues in my Professional Context My school is situated in Cromwell. The 2013 census states that of the total population aged 15 years and over in Cromwell: 76.1 %  have a formal qualification, 11.1% have a bachelor’s degree or higher and 33.9% have no qualification. The median income is $29,300. 33.2% have an annual income of $20,000 or less and 23% have an annual income of more than $50,000. The unemployment rate is 3.6%. Home ownership is 64% The town is currently experiencing unprecedented growth, its population is increasing significantly as Central Otago has become a fashionable place to live and visit. House prices are skyrocketing and rents have increased by 50% over the last three years. Some of our families have made significant capital gains and 35% of our families are facing higher rents and are now unable to afford to buy a house, or are struggling financially, or may have to move out of the town. The three local sch...

Activity 1: My community of practice I am part of four interrelated communities of practice that overlap and influence each other. They are part of the constellation of communities of practices at our school. They each have their own domain, community and practice as each takes care of a specific aspect of practice (Wenger, 2000). They are important social units of learning that contribute to the overall competence needed in order for our school to effectively operate. I am part of: an innovative teaching team with two other teachers. the leadership team with two other team leaders and the principal. the maths and assessment team. the whole school teaching team. The community of practice that I am involved with that has the strongest social learning system (Wenger, 2000) is the innovative teaching team as a result of our daily sustained interactions both public and private and our constant shared reflections. Community Our community is comprised of th...