Week 27 Mindlab Blog Post- Contemporary issues and trends in NZ

I was actually spoilt for choice in picking out a topic to discuss for this week's blog post. My school has either actively adopted or adapted itself to and is implementing quite a few of the contemporary 'trends' or 'issues' popular in NZ and the world.
ILE, BYOD, use of GAFE, using ALL or Accelerated Literacy Learning for at risk and priority learners, SOLO taxonomy to create divergent thinking, Inquiry models woven into planning, teaching and assessment and last but not the least, school wide professional development in Assessment for Learning to name the most prominent ones.

On deeper reflection ( I seem to be using this phrase in almost all of my posts so far!), I saw the common thread running through all of these efforts/projects. The end goal was to uplift success rates for our learners, it was to enable them to be 'confident, connected, lifelong learners' ( NZC) no doubt. But they ONLY way to get there was to get our learners to OWN THEIR LEARNING.
It was through building and actively enabling 'student agency' to shift the locus of control as recommended in the ERO Report of 2012. So, all the trends adopted by my school ultimately culminates in the one goal, to create lifelong learners who own their learning.

Developing student agency is at the very heart of uplifting student achievement and my school has adopted the philosophy which is reflected in our charter.
We have embarked on a 2 year long PLD in Assessment for Learning which lies at the heart of all our planning, teaching and assessment.
So, the relevance of student centred and owned learning is undoubtedly very relevant to my school
and to me.

A Review of what  looks like so far
All our teaching staff have practised how to bring about 'clarity' in the learning process under the guidance of the facilitator. We have been observed, given feedback and guided by our facilitator.
Our learners have learnt some stock phrases and jargon about Learning Intentions, Relevance and Success Criteria. We all have posters and toolkits displayed for our learners to track their learning pathways and to reflect on what is working for them and why.
And I am by no means negating the positive impact of these steps.

However, there is a distinction in my mind about 'following the steps that will potentially lead to student agency' and actually handing over the locus of control.
How successful are we as a school community in doing that? are our teachers fully prepared to hand over the reigns and step back? How involved or informed are our whanau in this process?
do our whanau actually buy into the relevance of 'student led conferences' in building their children's confidence in owning and directing their own learning?
Do they see the connection between that and the future citizen their child will be in a socio economic landscape that is changing so rapidly?

What about me?
Where do I fit in? I am very much a product of 'industrial age education'...am I walking the talk?
I would certainly hope for my students' sake that I am making a solid effort to do so. For me, this Assessment for Learning implementation needed another channel, something that my learners naturally adapted to. For me that was BYOD and Blended Learning. Now, I had a formula for handing over control, bit by bit over the months. Now, my learners had channels and technology through which they could demonstrate they were taking control and loving it. They were turning to me and to their peers for feedback, in real time. My more confident early adopters were even creating content for the consumption of their peers!
Are many other teachers in my school adopting my formula? Not really! Would I want to show them what I am doing that my learners are responding well to? Yes, but I need opportunities to be created by management for that to happen. Floating an opt in PD over and above the regular plethora of meetings will not have a sizeable turn out from an already time poor staff.

I will end by posting a diagram I have borrowed from a  a private blogger  I follow
Getting started with student choice

References:
1.Global Trends
2. Assessment for Learning ideas retrieved from Clarity in the Classroom by Michael Absolum
3.Future State KPMG
4. Evaluation at a Glance ERO Report
5. John Spencer's Blog ( link supplied above )

Week26 Mindlab Blogpost-Current issues in my professional context

I teach at a primary school in Auckland. In many ways, my school is quite unique and seems to sit outside the norm. I will explore these issues following the steps recommended in the class notes.

SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS its impact and the school's response:

My school is geographically located in an affluent suburb of Auckland. As far as decile ranking goes, it is a 'high' decile school.
However, the situation with my school is quite unique in that until quite recently, it had no zoning and was actually quite a small school as far as student numbers go.
This resulted in the school having students from many other not so affluent suburbs as well, which probably is what has prevented it from reaching the highest decile ranking. The school is also growing at an amazing rate which has resulted in a zoning policy to be introduced in 2015.

The students from lower or less advantaged SES seems to be very well contained within the school. They are low in numbers and can be supported through subsidies for stationery, a second hand uniform shop, exemptions from paying for school trips and other financial expectations. The school also has a hardship fund for SES families which is used at the Principal's discretions.
However, apart from financial assistance, there are other assistance available in the form of free, extra academic support for students needing it ( most of the children needing it seem to be from families battling financial hardship of some kind) which is evident in these words " Research indicates that children from low-SES households and communities develop academic skills more slowly compared to children from higher SES groups "(Morgan, Farkas, Hillemeier, & Maczuga, 2009)

A unique characteristic of our school is its transient student population. We are one of the most culturally diverse schools I have ever come across in my decades of teaching. At present  the school proudly celebrates diversity with over 44 different nationalities.

The main ethnic groups are as follows:- NZ European/Pakeha 39%, Maori 10%, Chinese 11%, Korean 7%, Other European 6%, Indian 5%, Filipino 5%, Japanese 3%, Other Asian 2%, Latin American 2%, Middle Eastern 2%, Samoan 2%, Tongan 2%, African 2%, British/Irish 2%, Australian 1% and other groups less than 1% - Cook Island Maori, Fijian, Niuean, South East Asian, Sri Lankan and Vietnamese.

New migrants flock to the area and to our school. However, a big number of them then relocate due to job and housing related reasons. So, student turnover rate is high. I have had 5 new students in my class this term and have lost 4 last term!

This has an impact on the school community, its overall culture and on student achievement rate to some extent. Our ESOL class is brimming. And Literacy needs are high amongst the ESOL learners.

OVERALL SCHOOL CULTURE
I will refer to our school charter here and state the following to put things in context:

 The following Principles will be the foundations of all curriculum decision making: High expectations, Treaty of Waitangi, Cultural Diversity, Inclusion, Learning to learn, Community engagement, Coherence, Future focus.

From my perspective, our school stands firm and true by the principles, especially those of 
High expectation, Cultural Diversity and Inclusion. For a school with such ethnic diversity and high turnover rate, creating a climate of welcome and acceptance is very crucial.
This echoes from the Principal, through to teachers and office staff and finally down to each student in every classroom. It is an explicit expectation that every new child is made to feel a part of the school family. Every new child is acknowledged at school assemblies and every leaving child farewelled.
The expectation to strive for excellence is embedded in the values promoted by the school as well.

PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT

It was with interest and happiness that I looked at the 10 influencing cultural norms by Stoll and Fink (cited in Stoll, 1998) 

Since the start of last year, my school has started revising the school charter in keeping with the growth and change we are undergoing. All teaching staff and management have been involved in brainstorming, ideating, sharing , creating and contributing to shared visions and goals and have come up with the following:
Our Vision: A community of connected, life-long learners. Proud to be different. Proud to make a difference.
We have been undergoing extensive PLD to enable greater student agency and to encourage a growth mindset in both learners and teachers.

ANY CURRENT ISSUES that need addressing:

So far, I have focussed on all the positives. But to be realistic, no school or no COP for that matter is without its issues. Ours seem to be a dis balance in expectations between what teachers should take on board and what is realistically possible. We are heading towards a new, futuristic learning model. We are getting a new building and more technology and lots of PLD. But, the feeling is growing that too much is being thrown at us too fast.
There needs to be time to synthesise, assimilate and even pick and choose. To implement, critique, to chop and change.
At the receiving end of any dysfunction, would be our learners. Burnt out or stressed out teachers are not the most effective to maintain a high standard of expectation out of themselves or their learners.
On reflection, I would ask is it possible to do too much in too big a rush for the sake of progress?
Which one is less desirable, little or no change resulting in stagnation or too much change in too little a time frame resulting in confusion and a sense of overwhelm?!
Any comments most welcome.

Week25 Mindlab Blogpost MY COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Defining my Communities of Practice has proven to be a very useful reflective exercise for me as I realise that in my mind the words 'community' and 'group' have been synonymous to some extent.

Not that I think of every group I belong to as a community but I definitely did think of a community as a 'group of people with a common purpose'. And that's all!
 Bringing the word 'practice' into the equation changes that pattern of thinking. More so as this reflection is linked to my professional arena.
 So, armed with the new understanding of “communities of practice”, which are defined as “groups of people who share a concern or a passion or about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interaction on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002, p.4). I set out to define my COP.
 In doing so, I am going to use the 3 distinct elements set out by Wenger(2000)
Joint Enterprise that has a shared domain of collective understanding
Mutual Engagement amongst the members built on trust, relationships and accountability
Shared Repertoire of the communal resources, knowledge and understanding gained.

My School- This is a group that I definitely belong to but is it my COP?
All the staff at any school are obviously aware and to that effect bound by the Joint Enterprise, the collective understanding that the purpose of a school is to facilitate 'learning'. A school is defined as 'a place where children go to be educated' Cambridge Dictionary Definition
But, a school is not just a 'place' or a building, it is , in fact a community where the learning is not only for the tamariki enrolled in the school but for the kaiako as well. So, as a teacher, I am a part of the enterprise engaged in learning along with my colleagues.
There is undoubted evidence of Mutual Engagement amongst the teaching and non teaching staff at my school. The school system is set up to run in a way where such trust, accountability and 'professional relationships' must co exist for a school to be delivering the learning.
Shared Repertoire- is where a deeper reflection is needed. It is inevitable that busy teachers will find time to interact with the colleagues who they have the most in common with. And thus, teachers teaching in the same year level are most likely to have a shared body of resources, knowledge and understanding leading to professional discussions. Thus, it is challenging for a school as a whole to form a COP in this respect.
But, that is not what a COP is all about, as Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file].points out, the job of an organisation is to shepherd and nurture emerging COPs within itself, and my school does that for sure.

My Whanau or my syndicate-
This is a group of 6 middle school classes that are bound by certain curriculum areas that are covered the same way and taught by all teachers as rotations.( Inquiry, Sports and PE)
We have meetings together, see and talk to each other more often than with teachers from other syndicates and are more likely to have informal 'shop talks ' with each other at break times.
So, the Whanau group would be my closest COP, the one that I belong to most surely. well, definitely more than my whole school. However, within out whanau group are buddy teachers who team teach and cross group students to target teach needs. These pairs of buddy teachers would be forming micro COPs. I am sure I have one with my buddy teacher next door!

But, on reflection, my most valued COP is one that I wouldn't even have considered before my Mindlab journey and before I began to look at 'teaching' as a team effort between the learner and the facilitator..that is ...
My class of learners
If as Wegner points out that, a community of practice is based primarily on the quality of ENGAGEMENT within that community, then my most purposeful and thriving COP has to be my current students. We interact with each other for six hours everyday on the basis of the common goal or enterprise of 'enhancing learning'. We collaborate, share, problem solve, help, evaluate and sustain each other five days a week. Would my principal or a colleague know me as  a teacher better than any of my students? I doubt that! Would they know any of my students better than I do? I hope not!! 
Could my school or my whanau help me grow as a learner and a teacher more than my 26 enthusiastic, collaborative Year 3/ 4 learners? Not in practice...they could offer me theories, solutions, ideas but I would transform them into reality through  Joint Enterprise  with my students, through Mutual Engagement based on trust and acceptance building a  Shared Repertoire of knowledge and understanding throughout the year.

Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002, p.4
Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk

MINDLAB Applied Practice in Context Reflective Journal Post 1

Looking at Inquiry as presented to the teaching community

Yong Zhao: What Counts?

I can see my brainwaves!

I got the brainlink lite!! Here's my brainwaves as I listen to Mozart!!

Wearable Technology in Education

A NZ perspective...

We are in a good position in that most of the new technological innovations happen in the '

bigger 'countries and get trialled out there.

We adopt the ones that stand the trials.

So, we adopt and use the best :)

In NZ, wearable technology is most certainly not all pervasive, certainly not in the primary sector.

So, let us pick the ones that are relevant to us( our kids, our curriculum ) and try them out , reflect on

them before we go inventing any new one .

Which one would be the best to start with? Google EXPEDITION stands out as a clear winner for our

primary kids.
 By
Kirtsen, Letita, Amy,Melinda

#wearabletecnology
#auckland