Week 32: Key change in my professional practice

Step 1 (What): Identify one key change in your professional practice

The key change in my professional pactice is using research to inform my learning. I seek out research as a theory of improvement for all new interventions and initiatives i try. We use the spiral of inquiry as a teacher inquiry framework at our school and the new learning section is very important.
I seek out research articles to share with staff when we are looking at initiatives or changes in practice at our school.
This change in my professional practice links to Standards for the Teaching Profession:

• Professional learning - Use inquiry, collaborative problem-solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners.

Step 2 (Now what): Evaluate the identified change

Stage 1: Problem identification:

1. What drives you to make the change? (What is the problem that arise in practice?)
2. Why is it important to implement the change?

Using theory and research as the basis to every change initiative or change in practice means that its easier to get everyone onboard with the change iniative. When I plan to introduce something that is going to impact on learning of all our students it is useful to have the research to back it up that it works and has an impact on learning. I met with parents this week and we were discussing a way of working with some students. I brought a piece of research to share with them that backed up the way we were going to move forward and gave them a much better understanding.

Stage 2: Observation and analysis:

1. What kind of data you have gathered?
2. What insights have you gained about the problem that drives the change?

I am the assessment co-ordinator so I unpack our school wide data regularly. All of our teachers complete teacher inquiries focussing on raising student achievement, so spending time finding research about the intervention or initiative they are going to implement is important. I model this by using research as a basis for all school wide interventions and iniatives that I lead.

Stage 3: Abstract re conceptualization:

1. What are the new learning theories or research provide useful background to implement change?
2. What other perspectives be relevant to consider?

This section is the key change in my practice. That every change I make has a learning theory behind it. This allows me to consider other perspectives.

Stage 4: Active experimentation:

1. What new strategies or ideas you have tried to implement in your practice?
2. What have you learnt from the change/ experience?

Using the spiral of inquiry framework for my inquiries allows me to use the new learning to provide a theoretical framework to my change iniative and then I would introduce the change iniative and when I compare whether the change iniative had an impact on student achievement and learning this involves reflection about how much diffrence it made and self review on whether we as a school will continue with the change iniative. 

Step 3 (What next) Share your next plan(s) regarding your future professional development or your future practice.

5. What areas do you want to explore further in your practice? 

I want to continue with Educational Leadership reflections and inquiries. I am going to be Acting Principal for the rest of 2018 so I would like to examine further the different leadership styles and reflect on which is useful and when. 

6. How might you develop these ideas in the future?   I am hoping to take part in the first time Principals mentor programme. 

Week 31: INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS

Activity 7: Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice:

What?:

Reading the definitions of cultural responsiveness from Gay (2001) Bishop (2012) and Milne (2017) I have come to the understanding that to be culturally responsive teachers need to use and integrate the experiences, cultural contexts and perspectives from their students into the curriculum and classroom. Teachers needs toachievement and  challenge the "deficit thinking" about students achievement and raise their expectations for students and have the belief that they have the skills and knowledge to help EVERY child achieve. Teachers need to embrace students cultural identity in all curriculum learning activities, rather than just in Maori Language week or in Te Reo sessions once a week. 

The two areas that I am going to focus on for discussion are:

• communication methods,

• planning and assessment,

So What?

Evaluate your practice or your school practice in light of one of the frameworks:

I have chosen the Action Continuum: from Anne Milne.

Communication methods: As a school I think we are working in Green. Last term I sent a survey out to all whānau finding the best way to communicate with them. We got 74 responses and have implemented many of the suggesteions from whānau. 
They asked for a facebook page which has now been created. We offered school wifi guest passes for whānau that did not have data to access the facebook page and to use seesaw to find out what learning the students are doing in class. We have set up a freecall 0508 number for the school so whānau with no credit can still communicate with the school. We make an effort to take away any barriers to communication for whānau. We use bulk texting to let whānau know about events in the school. We also held our prizegiving to the local marae in 2017. 

Planning and Assessment: As a school I believe in this are we are still working in the purple area. We do have some teachers and teacher aids who are still holding deficit views of non-white learners. We have begun to challenge these people and we ran a staff meeting last year on Culture: Big C and little C: During this meeting deficit assumptions were made about our non-white learners from a few staff meetings and these were challenged but it showed us that those beliefs were held by some staff.
We are critiquing the assessments we are using in our school eg. Our trying to find cultural relevant mathematical tasks and looking for AsTtle writing tasks that all of our children have experienced but we are still working within whitestream thinking and expectations. We do  plan an authentic curriculum (so this is in the Purple area) eg. This years theme is Identity. We know that Identity and Whakapaupa is so important. All our classes have started the year learning their Pepeha, and we have woven Ifdentity into all our inquiry topics this year. 
Our challenge to move us further along the framework is to further examine our assessment tasks and ensure that these more culturally responsive.

Now what?

What can we do to improve our cultural responsiveness:

Communication: Continue to talk to whānau and remove barriers for good communication. We had our first prizegiving at the local marae last year and I would like to continue that relationships with local marae and iwi. Attend the poukai and continue to develop those relationships so that we can have authentic communication with whānau. 

Planning and Assessment 

This is an area that we need to continue to develop. We need to ensure that all of the inquiries that we plan are culturally responsive. We need to invite whanau into our planning days for our curriculum and take our planning out to the marae and our local iwi to find out what they can add to planning for our tamariki. Have we planned tuakana/teina inquiries? Do we have authentic collaborative and co-operative activities? We have created two collaborative spaces in our school. Te Waahi and Whare Manaaki. So we need to see how to ensure collaborative learning in our single cell classrooms. 

We also need to look at our assessment tasks and ensure that these are culturally responsive. Do we have oral presentations as tasks rather than just written all of the time?.

How can we plan collaborative/peer assessment tasks?

References:

Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Gay,G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.

Milne, A.(2017).Coloring in the white spaces: reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.

Week 30 - PRACTICE- Trends Influencing NZ or Internationally

What:

• What trend captivates your attention? Why? 

The trend I am going to reflect on today is "The impact of Digital Learning" The reason I have chosen this to reflect on is I co-lead Digital Learning in the school and often read and hear comments online from parents worried about the impact of digital learning and whether screen time is going to negatively affect their child. 

So what?

• What does the statistical data or resource reveal about the identified trend?

The graph above shows that 73% of Grade 3 students have personal access to a laptop , 40% have personal access to a tablet and 82% have personal  access to a mobile phone. We need to ensure that schooling provides this access so we can teach the students the skills needed to be safe in this digital world. 

• What do you see as the key challenges and/or opportunities this trend poses to your practice or context?

This is why we lease chromebooks for all our students from year 4-6 at our school. We want to ensure every child has equal access in the classroom to digital learning. We use flipped leaning/blended learning in the classrooms. We want to prepare our students for the future. We use seesaw so that whānau can also share in the students learning and be able to see their digital learning and comment on it. 

• How might this trend impact your teaching context and others across New Zealand?

Our students are coming in to schools as digital natives. They are more confident using technology than some of their teachers. We need to ensure that the staff at our schools take part in PLD  (like Mindlab: We have 6 staff currently doing the course) so that they are able to integrate digital learning into their classrooms for our tamariki. 

Now what?

Critique and evaluate practice in the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives.

• How has this trend been addressed by local, national or global educational organisations?

In New Zealand the Ministry of Education has created a Digital Fluency Document which outlines how in NZ the Ministry is determined to have a worldleading education system through changes to our infrastructure, practices and pedagogy.

Towards Digital Fluency

• What changes might need to be adopted in your context? 

In our context we just need to ensure that all staff have been given adequate PLD to be prepared and improve their teacher capability to be confident with digital learning. Half of our staff have done Mindlab this year but how to we get the rest of the staff involved. We are all doing the digital passport in Term 3/4 this year to understand the new digital curriculum. 

• How might the curriculum be delivered to equip the students with adequate competencies to cope with or adapt to the trend?

 Digital Technologies in the national curriculum is being introduced in 2018/2019

Our New Zealand curriculum has digital technologies as a part of it. This curriculum will focus on: 

Digital fluency is about using a digital system effectively. It means understanding how to use digital technologies, deciding when to use specific digital technologies to achieve a desired outcome, and being able to explain why the technologies selected will provide their desired outcome.

Digital technologies involves computational thinking – learning to be a creator in the digital world, not just learning to use systems. Digital Technologies is not about learning with technology (e-learning), it's learning about technology.  

References:

Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing Current and Future Challenges in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014 MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf

Applied practice: Week 29

Week 29

Using Social Media in Teaching:
Descriptive:
What is currently happening: My current situation is that I use Social Media confidently in my own personal life but I have not explored using it in classrooms. I have used blogging in a classroom, and this was for sharing our work with whanau and getting comments and responses. I have also used Skype to video chat with other classes around NZ. I also have been on learnz virtual fieldtrips with my classes.
One of the reasons that I havent started using a wider range of Social Media is due to the restrictions on our school internet network. Some of the common social media sites are blocked like facebook, twitter, instagram.

Comparative:
Having watched the TED video today and seeing the benefits of using social media in the classroom I am inspired to use more sicial media to capture a world wide audience. The great learning opportunities before we start to discuss digital footprints and how everything that is posted stays out there forever. Teaching our students to think about everything they post and ask themselves (Would I say this in front of my Mother) are such good life lessons because our students are going to deal with this in the rest of their lives and now is a good time to start modeling these behaviours.
We have had Social Media blocked on our school network since we became an N4L school in 2013. It is time to move with the times and go and see the BOT to discuss unblocking some of these social media sites so they can be used with an educational purpose inside the classroom. Twitter would be the first that I would like to use with a classroom. I have examined lots of benefits for using this with the children like world wide audiences, improving reading and writing skills, being precise with what they post as you only have 140 characters or less per post and getting critical feedback from others. I also see the benefits of being part of twitter iniatives like chapter chat. This allows students to connect with others who are reading the same texts and critically reflect on the texts using social media.

Critical Reflection: 
What are the implications on my practice?
One of the first things I need to do is talk to our BOT about the benfits of using social media in classrooms and requesting to unblock twitter off of our school network. I will share with them all of the benefits shared above.
Before I even start though I will revise our digital safety/citizen unit in regards to using twitter. We start the year off with this unit and through blogging and leaving comments on others work we have addressed the impact of our words but this unit will need to be reviewed to make sure it covers the aspect of digital footprints and the childs responsibility to be respectful online as well as in person.
This has made me think alot as so much of social media I have not really discussed with the students because I had the midset that they are primary school aged and they are not allowed to use social media like facebook and instagram till they are 13, but actually we know that some parents let their chilren have social media accounts before that. So by introducing a tool like twitter into the classroom I can address all the issues of social media, how to report inappropriate comments, how to be respectful online but also have a voice so that our students are prepared in case they are accessing social media at home.

Applied practice:Week 28

Critique and address issues of law, regulations and policy in practice using a reflective mode:

Step 1 (What):

Ethical Dilemma: I was monitoring our students email access at school using Hapara and noticed some boys that had emails from the game Grand Theft auto. These boys had used their school gmail accounts to subscribe

to an R18 youtube channel and talking on discussion boards about playing this R18 game at home. We called the parents in and they told us that they knew their children were playing the game and had no issues with it as their cousins play it.

Step 2 (So What):

The reading from Hall (2001) (supplementary) recommends these questions (among others) to guide the process:

“Which stakeholder should be given priority? Why?

1. Students: All the other students at the school have to be considered. These games have an R18 rating due to the violence and are rated due to

Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol. This group is the stakeholder that should be given priority as we need to make sure we follow school policy to keep all the students safe. We do not condone the playing of these games by any students under 18.

What restrictions are there to your actions?

The Rating on the game: Our students are only 9 and 10 years. The law states that it is illegal for shopkeepers to sell this game to under 18 year olds. But there are not legal restrictions to actually playing the game.

School policies about what school email accounts are to be used for. We have a procedure stating that school gmail accounts are not to be used for subscribing to ANY you tube channels.

Parents can allow their children to play these games at a home setting and this it outside of our school control.

School cybersafety agreements that the students signed about their use of school gmail accounts.

Which courses of action are possible?
A.                 Ignore the issue: It’s being played at home and the parents condone it so that is the parents choice

B.         Meet with the parents and share the game rating with the family to ensure they are full informed                 about the dangers of the game.

C.                  Ban the students from their devices and gmail account until they have completed a revision unit                 on cybersafety and keeping themselves safe at home.

D.                 Ban the students from using their chromebook and gmail account for the rest of the year.

How should the course of action be implemented?

We chose Option C. After taking them through the revision they chose to unsubscribe from the GTA channel and decided it wasn’t an appropriate game for them to play at home due to the violence and and they shared this decision with their family.  

Step 3 (Now What):

For registered teachers in NZ, practice is governed by the Professional Responsibility and Standard for the Teaching profession -  Our Code, Our Standards.

This dilemma comes under Commitment to Learners:

1. promoting the wellbeing of learners and protecting them from harm.

This game was unsafe and not appropriate for them, even though they were playing it at home.

We also were meeting relevant regulatory, statutory and professional requirements which is required in Learner focussed culture: Standards from the Teaching Profession. We followed our school policies on cybersafety and using school email accounts.

 References:

Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards. Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/file…

Hall, A. (2001) What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers

Assignment 2 Checklist

Teacher Inquiry project plan (RESEARCH assessment 2) checklist

• The engaged communities are identified.
• The inquiry model is described.
• Method of data collection and Ethics are identified.
• Evidence of community feedback tool is present.
• Evidence of engagement regarding the Inquiry is present.
• Reflection on how the community engagement has informed your plan is included.
• Potential impact of findings is identified.
• A digital artefact of your submission if the chosen format is a blog or an e-portfolio or a set of Google slides is submitted.

Week 27 - Data analysis and potential impact of the findings

Gray (2012) challenges the assumption that ‘data is a perfect reflection of the world’ because it is up to an individual to interpret and give meaning to a set of data, in the Guardian in ’What data can and cannot do’.

In your Teacher Inquiry project plan, the purpose of using data is to answer the research question.

From the examples discussed in the sections ‘Understanding and interpreting data’ and ‘Purpose for using data’ or the required reading above, review the data and collection methods (discussed in week 25 class notes) to check that the data that you plan to collect can be used to address your research question. These two questions might help you to do this check.

• To what extent does the collected data answer the research question?
• How well does the data collection method proposed in the plan help you to collect the data?

reading: using data to inform teaching

Matters (2006) drew from a categorisation of sources of data provided by Earl (2005) to identify potential sources of data about student achievement: 

◗ standardised, norm-referenced, criterion-referenced tests 

◗ questioning in class 

◗ performance and standards-based assessments 

◗ teacher-made tests, projects, quizzes 

◗ teachers’ observations 

◗ student work. 

Potential impact of findings

You need to assess the potential impact of the findings from your inquiry project. The Association for Qualitative Research defines findings as “the principal outcomes of a research project; what the project suggested, revealed or indicated. This usually refers to the totality of outcomes, rather than the conclusions or recommendations drawn from them.” (2013).

While you may not yet know what the findings will be, you need to think about some of the ways in which they might impact on you, your community, your school etc. as you address criterion 5 of the Assignment 2 rubric. Here are some optional questions that might help you to address the potential impact of the findings.

• What are the possible benefits (and disadvantages of the project)?
• How might it impact on your communities?
• How will the outcome of the inquiry contribute to the topic area you are investigating?
• How will the outcome of the inquiry impact on the perception of members of your community about that topic area?
• How will the outcome of the inquiry impact on your practice (or community of practice)?