Social media in learning and teaching and professional development.

• What are some key features of social media that you have identified as beneficial for teaching and learning?

My students have individual blogs and we have a class blog too. It is a great place for the students to share their learning with their families (both local and overseas). It is a massive part of my literacy programme where students read others blog posts and leave comments. One of the things my students love the most is the fact that they are writing for a real purpose, they know someone (other than their teacher) will read their writing, and give them feedback on it! As Angela Vermeulen (Core-ed, 2015) states, "the biggest purpose for blogging is for sharing learning, and student voice". It's about getting the students learning and ideas out there and making it public. 

• What are potential challenges that teachers need to be aware of when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities?

One of the things we have discussed at a professional level with the staff in my setting is being aware of which social media outlets are appropriate for students, which legally allow primary age students to use them and how we manage this from an educational perspective. Rivett (n.d) also discusses the importance of keeping our students safe, we have a responsibility to model good social media use, growing learners who apply positive, respectful values in their interactions on social media platforms.

• How do/would you use social media to enhance your professional development?

Social media has played a huge role in my professional development, especially since starting out in a 1:1 classroom. Through blogs, Twitter and Facebook groups I have learned a great deal that I simply would not have been able to learn so quickly without these social media outlets as professional development. Rivett (n.d) also highlights the her use of un-conferences and #edchat as an alternative to waiting for professional development opportunities to come along.

References 

Core-ed.org. (2015). Blogging - True Portal for Learning. CORE Education. Retrieved from http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/podcast/blogging-true-portal-learning-part-1-2 on 1 August 2015.

Rivett, K (Rivett, K. (n.d.). Teachers & Social Media | Social media and my classroom. Retrieved from http://www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz/your-stories/positive-case-studies/social-media-and-my-classroom

Professional Context - Broader Context

Global Connectedness
As highlighted in the Mega Trends clip it is clear to see that our world is becoming more connected that ever before. Perhaps even more connected than we can imagine. The thing we, as educators, need to be thinking about is how are we preparing our students for this globally connected world?  As teachers our role is to ensure our learners are prepared, are able to investigate, question and act as global citizens. (Core-Ed, 2015). Our students need to learn to question information they find, to know where to find credible sources, and to know when they need to find further information.
In my classroom my students are globally connected, they share their learning on public platforms, they blog and receive comments from around the world. "Developing the digital literacies required to usefully and purposefully navigate this environment remain a strong learning focus." Core - Ed, 2015.


Developing Learner Agency 

Derek Wenmoth speaks about student agency and highlights the fact that learning requires the initiative and actions of the learners rather than the input primarily from teachers (Edtalks.org, 2014). This active involvement in learning is what can be considered student agency. Wenmoth also discusses the ideas that learning cannot simply be handed over to students, but teachers need to set students up for success, to develop this process, or agency.  In my classroom I have begun to teach some lessons as flipped lessons, starting with small groups of students, teaching them how use flipped lessons, and trialing in our classroom to determine the success of these lessons. I am using flipped lessons to help develop student agency. My aim in developing these flipped lessons is to provided my students with the opportunity to develop their own learning agency and giving them the 'power to act'. (Core-Ed, 2015).

Networked Organisations
Core-Ed(2015), describe the shift towards Networked Organisations "Across the globe we are seeing the rise of new models of what it means to be a modern, networked organisation - and at its heart is a shift from hierarchical structures to networks." There are two key ideas at play in a networked organisation. The first is understanding that each person within the organisation can make contributions, and the second is that the the organisation its self is globally connected, through groups and individuals. The organisation is able to communicate with others, and visibly share it's work. (Core-Ed, 2015).
As educators or key challenge is to re imagine what learning looks like, when it is student driven, when the student is the one leading. (Core - Ed, 2015).
In the past 18mths I have had some experience in the beginnings of a networked organisation. Working collaboratively with colleagues, both within my school and across the Ako Hiko Cluster, developing ways in which we can put our students into that driving seat.

References

Core-ed.org. (2015). Ten Trend Categories. CORE Education. Retrieved from http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends on 29 July 2015.

Edtalks.org. (2014). Ten Trends 2014: Agency [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.edtalks.org/ video/ten-trends-2014-agency on 24 June 2015.

Professional connection map

I have chosen to illustrate the professional communities I belong to using a range of colours, yellow being the groups I belong to and am active in, orange representing the groups I belong to but could be more active in and utalise better and blue as the possible communities I could join. 

1. What other professional communities intersect with or lie at the borders of your own profession? What impact do these communities have on your practice and professional community?
   
   The groups identified in orange and blue highlight those which are at the borders of my own profession.  At present these communities have a limited impact on my professional community, but looking forward I can see the benefits of being an active participant in more communities.
   
2. What are or what would be the benefits and challenges of working in a more interdisciplinary environment?
   
   Some of the benefits of working in an interdisciplinary environment are the ways in which working with others broadens our outlook. It helps us to come up with more innovative ideas than we do when working alone or only with those in a similar context to us. Some of the challenges can be the lack of understanding of the different communicates we come from which can lead to difficulties in implementing and trialing new ideas. 

My Professional Community

• What is my practice?
  
  1. Who are the stakeholders of your professional community? In what ways do they influence your practice?
  A community of practice, as defined by Wenger (2011) is a group of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. In my context, my community of practice is my classroom, with my students being the major stakeholders in our community. We are a low socioeconomic community with a range of ethnicities, predominantly Pasifika people.
  We are also part of the Ako Hiko Cluster of schools and have 1:1 Chromebooks. My practice has changed dramatically since beginning to teach in a digital classroom. My learners influence the direction in which we go with their learning. Student voice is well represented in our school with decisions such as concepts to be covered.
  
  
  2. What is the purpose and function of your practice? In what ways do you cater for the community of your practice?
  The purpose of my practice is to educate my ākonga. To provide my learners with the best possible environment for them to learn, develop and grow. My community of practice (my students) are catered for through differentiated learning, developing ways students can have more say in what they are learning and how they are learning it. Providing opportunities for students to become aware of other ways of learning.
  
  
  3. What are the core values that underpin your profession and how?
  The core values that underpin my profession are the Registered Teacher Criteria. These “describe the criteria for quality teaching that are to be met by all fully registered teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand.” (NZTC, 2009)
  There are 12 criteria which fully registered teachers must meet. Criteria 1 states teachers must: establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of all ākonga. I do this through working to know my students in both their academic abilities, but also as a person, their likes and dislikes, their passions and dreams.
  Criteria 2 states teachers demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of all ākonga. In a low decile school this is crucial to the academic achievement of our students. Pastoral care is a necessary part of my daily role, if my students are cold, hungry or haven’t have enough sleep how can they be expected to perform at their best.
  
  
  4. What are the challenges that you face in your practice?
  As in all classrooms there are challenges, students who have learning difficulties and how to best cater to them, and how to extend and support the high flyers. Whilst ensuring those in the middle are learning too.
  
  
  5. What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How would you address them?
  One of the major changes affecting my context is the loss of our principal at the end of this term. She will be moving on to another school after 10 years in my school. She is one of the driving forces for the technology we have in our school and the way in which we as teachers are given freedom to explore new ways of implementing learning in our classrooms. As with all changes, we as a staff, are unsure as to what the future holds for us, in terms of a leader with the same vision and forward thinking ability as our current principal.

• Hodkinson, P., & Hodkinson, H. (2004). A constructive critique of communities of practice: moving beyond Lave and Wenger.

Reflection on learning and practice

Key things I have taken from my study with Mindlab:

What:
Flipped Lessons
 - When I started out with Mindlab I had a very small amount of understanding of what flipped lessons were.

Now what:
Through this course I have greatly increased my knowledge of flipped lessons and have begun to use these in my class. The students enjoy using flipped lessons, they love the rewind-ability, and being able to go at their own pace.

So what:
Flipping lessons has enabled students who struggle with learning to replay lesson material. I am now using at least 1 flipped lesson for each maths group each week.

What:
Collaborative learning
Teaching in a 1:1 GAFE environment, it is very easy for my students to work collaboratively on their learning.

Now what:
Through my own learning journey whilst at Mindlab, I have seen the power of collaboration in my own learning and assignments and have seen the difference this can make for me as the learner. I found it much easier to synthesize  my learning, and apply this learning in assessment tasks where I worked collaboratively with others.

So what:
As a result of my own experiences I am now providing more opportunities for my students to work collaboratively, both within my class and across classes within our school. Next term I hope to begin some cross cluster collaboration with other classes in the Ako Hiko Cluster.

What:
Kan ban boards - a part of the agile learning manifesto.

Now what:
I have introduced KanBan boards as away for my students to track goal setting, we used these with parents at the beginning of the year to identify goals, and try students progress

So what:
This has enabled students to track their goals in an easily visible way, it also gives parents, and management the opportunity to check in on how students are going with their goals.
I would like to expand on this idea later in the year and see how it can be used for other tasks for students who are self managing, and to assist those who aren't.

Reflecting on reflective practice

Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on ‘Reflective practice’.Accessed March, 29, 2014.

Linda Finlay's Reflecting on 'Reflective practice' struck a chord with me on many levels. One of the first key points I noted was Larrivee's arguement that “Unless teachers develop the practice of critical reflection, they stay trapped in unexamined judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations.
Approaching teaching as a reflective practitioner involves fusing personal beliefs and values into a professional identity” (Larrivee, 2000, p.293).

As someone who is still relatively young in my career I have seen more experienced teachers who have been 'trapped in assumptions and expectations' (Larrivee, 2000, pg.293). Through lack of critical reflection they have become stale in their teaching, and their knowledge and assumptions have not changed for many years. 

Schon's (1983) ideas regarding differentiation between reflecting-on-action, and reflection-in-action were also food for thought. As teachers were often reflecting-in-action, adjusting and tweaking lessons to better suit our learners needs. 
Schon (1983) also identified the way in which "novice practitioners, lacking knowing-in-action (tacit
knowledge), tended to cling to rules and procedures, which they are inclined to apply
mechanically." Having just had a student teacher complete a placement in my class I can definitely agree with this point. Her lack of craft knowledge of how to teach led to very mechanical and dry lessons.

Another point which struck me was the way in which "Brookfield (1995) characterises critical reflection as ‘stance and dance’." (Larrivee, 2000). Perhaps it is my love of dance which made this passage jump out at me, but I feel the explanations of reflection as involving both the teachers 'stance' or openness to learning, and the 'dance' or willingness to take risks and experiment ring true. 

"Done well and effectively, reflective practice can be an enormously powerful tool to examine and transform practice" (Larrivee, 2000, p.10). Two key points are made in this statement - reflective practice alone is not enough, it needs to be done well, and effectively. I feel the use of a model of reflective practice to guide teachers in their reflection gives the reflection more value. Specific questions such as those used in the Gibbs model for reflection guide the reflective practitioner to identify both the positive and negative aspects of their current practice and provides opportunities to identify, plan and implement improvements to their practice. 

Welcome!

This is my reflective journal, where I will record thoughts, successes, failures and inspiration from within my classroom whilst on my current learning journey.

I am currently teaching a Year 5 class with 1:1 Chromebooks. We are based in Mt Roskill, Auckland in a multi-cultural low decile school.

I began my 1:1 journey last year, and have learnt so much since then. I began the Mindlab Certificate in Digital Collaborative Learning in Nov. 2014 and will finish in July.

Whilst looking for images to sum up my teaching style I have found a few quotes which have struck a chord, so will record those to help you understand a little more of who I am as a teacher.

From http://pocketscience.in/about-us/

I love seeing how excited my students become when they are introduced to  something that lights their fire, something they are passionate about, sometimes something they are unaware they are passionately interested in.

From: http://thefedestars.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/welcome.html

I believe it is crucial for all students to know the feeling of success, and to experience that feeling often. For those who struggle in reading, writing and maths I think it is even more important that they feel successful at other things. That their strengths are given as much  'air time' in the class as the students whose strengths are more academically aligned.

My school is a part of the Ako Hiko Cluster, and are this year working to embed the Learn Create Share pedagogy into our practice. I believe that sharing our learning is of such importance. When we share with others we need to be really clear in our own ideas, sharing often helps us to clarify our thinking.