Activity 5 - Professional Connection Map

Personal:
My personal connections relate to people I know outside of my working environment.   This paper has been amazing for making new connections and working with like minded people.
Online:
As a future focused teacher my online presence is quite important in learning new information and keeping up with colleagues.  Twitter is amazing for information, and I love the Facebook groups I am a part of.
Connections in school:
The biggest group I have.  This ranges from the principal and board of trustees, down through the management steps to the classroom teachers like myself.  My teams I am a part of and in charge of.
School related:
People who are integral in helping me to do my job to the best of my ability.

What are the benefits of working in a more interdisciplinary environment?
New opportunities.  Two heads (or more heads) are better than one.  The aim of our profession is to keep moving and do what is best - you need to be collaborative and listen to others for this to happen.

What are the challenges of working in a more interdisciplinary environment?
Different groups post different problems.  Working with colleagues has its own positives and negatives depending on who you are working with.  Agencies have their own times and ways of doing things, and these are often not the time frame I wish to work in.  Everybody has their own workloads, work stresses and own things to do...sometimes these do not align and this can cause pressure and/or stress and this collaboration and interdisciplinary work can not reach its full potential.

Activity 4 - Professional Context - The Community

"Understandably there is considerable debate over the definition of learning communities...I shall simply define them as groups of people engaged in intellectual interaction for the purpose of learning."

-- Cross, "Why Learning Communities? Why Now?" About Campus, 1998, p. 4

So before I answer the questions below - I need to start by defining what my professional community is.  To me it's the people I work with - from the big man at the top and the other senior managers, to the teachers and outside agencies that help us.  But also outside of that - it's everybody that influences me in how and what I teach..it's huge!

1) Who are the stakeholders of your professional community?  In what ways do they influence your practice?
In education, the term stakeholder typically refers to anyone who is invested in the welfare and success of a school and its students (Hidden Glossary of Educational Reform, 2014).
Principal and senior managers: they oversee everything.  I am responsible for reporting to them.  They are responsible for providing me with what I need to do my job.  They see the worth and value in me and allow me to do what I need to do.
Teachers: they are the people I speak with every day, share my knowledge, and they share back  We work together to create a great environment.
Students: I don't necessarily share pedagogical knowledge and seek advice from them - but they are why I do what I do.  They are why I consult with others, research, and spend countless hours planning hopefully awesome and relevant lessons.


2) What are the current issues in your community? How would you or your community address them?

I wish my community was one where harmony reigned and teaching and learning were the most important issues of the day.  Sadly, this is not the case.  
* a new principal, a new outlook for the school.  We are moving away from our google docs planning format and having a future outlook to a place where the black teaching folders are returning and we have to tick off our checklists and hand in our paper planning.  Seems we are heading back to last century with the sit down and listen mentality, and it makes me sad.  I'm not sure how we are going to address this one...


4) What are the core values that underpin your profession and how?
Professional conduct: we are professionals.  We have the future in our hands.  We must abide by that.  
Pride and Respect: respect for ourselves, respect for our children, respect for colleagues, respect for our job, respect for our community, respect for the cultures we teach.  It's an important world wide value.  
Persistence and determination: I find this so important in my school (and in my own life).  The value of following through with something and not giving up because it's hard is something I talk about each day.
Empathy: this is a really relevant for where I teach.  So many people are empathetic to the children I teach, but they don't understand that or know how to care for others or their feelings.  But it's so important! 


5) What is your specialist area of practice?  How does your specialist area of practice relate to the broader professional context?
My specialist area of practice is using digital technology and integrating that into the classroom and learning.  It is something I am passionate about and use in all facets of my life.  
I have the senior future focused classroom at our school and the leadership in that will bring people seeking advice and expertise.  In the broader sense of my professional world, colleagues (mainly other classroom teachers) will request my help in integrating technology, or just a general question, and I am more than happy to do that.  


7) What are the challenges that you face in your practice?
My challenges in my practice are really related to the area in which I teach.  We are a Decile 1A school in Manurewa, South Auckland.  There is a 55% Pacific Islanders, 35% Maori and 10% Asian/Indian and European split in the school.  There is a high percentage of non english speakers.  We are a milk in school, fruit in school, KidsCan, Feed the Need (hot lunches), free breakfast school.   Some of the children I teach struggle to survive on a day to day basis and here I am trying to teach them to read and write, and have an outlook that takes them beyond where they are now.   It's quite soul destroying some days.  But it is what I want to do, it's where I want to be - making the differences I can.  I can't change their home lives, but for the few hours a day I have my 35 children, I can make a difference for them.  My dream is to have moving to a 21st century learning model, or be better inquirers as my challenge...one day!




References:

Cross, "Why Learning Communities? Why Now?" About Campus, 1998, p. 4

Hidden curriculum (2014, August 26). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum

Activity 3 - Responding to Finlay's article

In my early teaching days I was not a great reflector.  I have only really began formally reflecting on my work in the last few years (primarily because I had to, and then I began to see the benefits). Reflection is part of teaching and education.  No two ways about it, and it seems to be becoming more and more so.  We need to reflect on everything - our lessons, our planning, our assessment, our environments - are we catering for everyone all of the time, am I doing the best?!?  The list could go on and on.  It all seems a little overwhelming at times!

This quote sums up the importance of reflection for me and why it is important.  I wish I knew about this early on in my career:

“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). 

The article had a load of great points though, and there were some that really resonated with me.
What are the main points that captivated my attention:

*Schons belief that as professionals become more expert at their practice they develop the skill of monitoring and adapting simultaneously, and when are you are a beginner at your practice you need to have these separate.
I liked this point.  It made a lot of sense.   It's important for beginning teachers to reflect on their practice consistently and continuously, but to try and make me (after 10+ years) reflect each week as my management team is trying to get me to do, seems a bit of a waste of time and effort.  I reflect and change as I go.

* There are so many ways of defining what reflection is and how we can do it!  What I took from all of the different definitions, theories and models was that I need to do what works for me and my school.  One persons way is not going to be a one size fit all kind of ideal.

*Reflection must be for a purpose, otherwise it just wastes everybody's time.  It needs to be contextual and relevant.  I don't want to reflect on every part of my day just to tick a box somewhere.




What reflective model(s) do you find most suitable to use...?

I like Gibbs' model.  It's clear.  It's continuous.  It leads me on a cycle where I have to complete the process - and for me that is very helpful.  Zeichner and Liston (1996) argue that to be a really reflective teacher  I need to move beyond Gibbs' questions about whether my practice is working to critically examining values and how my practice can lead to change.  I feel that as a professional I can do that within the boundaries of the questions Gibbs model poses if needed.

References:

Finlay L (2008) Reflecting on ‘Reflective practice’. A discussion paper prepared for Practicebased Professional Learning Centre (PBPL CETL). The Open University’s Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, 52. UK. 

Gibbs, G (1988) Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further  Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic. 

Zeichner, K. M. and Liston, D. P. (1996) Reflective Teaching: An Introduction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Activity 2 - My reflection of study so far...

Wow..what a journey I have been on.  For someone who thought they would never do any more study I am quite surprised and pleased with myself.  Yay for scholarships is all I have to say on that!  It has been a struggle to balance work, family and study...but on reflection a throughly worthwhile experience and one that I'd recommend.

The first half of the course (16 weeks) was really interesting!  I had my thoughts challenged, my horizons broadened and I met a whole new bunch of colleagues who were on the same path forward as me.  I enjoyed the weekly sessions with the opportunity to discuss and work though all of this new information and reflect and plan on all of this.

This research online part of the course has been a challenge and so rewarding all at the same time!  I have loved the collaboration, and I have found the lit review especially to be a thoroughly worthwhile experience.

Three things I have learnt about myself as a learner:

1) I <3 collaboration!  I work really hard and hearing other opinions really helps my learning and broadens my thinking on subjects.  

2) I am a participative leader.  I have always been involved in the decision making process with my team, guided them and listened.  Now I know the name for this and can work on the negatives of this theory, and also on the positives of other theories I have looked into.

3) That I enjoy keeping up with relevant research and what's happening in the world of technology education - both here and overseas.  It's one of those things that was put at the bottom of the list because of time constraints..but now that I've been exposed to a wide range of research during this course I am definitely going to keep up with what is going on and use that information.



Three key changes in my own practice:

1) As a teacher in a future focused classroom I was always about integrating technology into the learning that went on.  The drive behind that was I really liked technology and I wanted to share that.  I now have a different outlook on whast I'm doing - and I'm doing it because this is what my children need.  I need to equip them for a future that is very different to what I was prepared for.  The work my children do on technology has a purpose to help them prepare for  and give them skills for what they may face in the coming years.

2) Flipped classrooms are awesome!  Ok I'm not doing it completely by the book but I work in South Auckland where the only devices my kids generally have are their parents phones with no data, but for maths (and increasingly in literacy) my children are clicking on links in their emails and learning maths strategies before they come to me.  They love it, they love the ownership, and especially love the fact they can go back and re-watch if something hasn't clicked.  I love the fact I have children lining up at the classroom door at 8am ready for learning.  Added bonus is that I'm well organised for their learning and can monitor them really well.

3) When I am leading my team or my classroom I am conscious of the way I am leading that particular group.  I use the positive aspects of participative and transformational leadership theories and employ them when decision making.  I try very hard to avoid the negatives (now that I know what they are)!

Welcome...all about me!

Hi!  My name is Danielle Johnson.  Welcome to my blog!

So...to introduce me.  Well.  I'm a Year 6 teacher at Rowandale Primary in Manurewa.  We are Decile 1, and a bunch of awesomeness.  I have been teaching for a number of years and absolutely adore helping children build on their love of learning.  I am teaching our senior future-focused classroom and I am also in charge of sport (although why they chose me for that I have no idea!)
Outside of school I have a love of reading, sewing, technology, cooking and travel.

My teaching philosophy:

I love the work I do!  Not a day goes by when I am not challenged, surprised, enlightened, or delighted.  The most important aspects of the school environment for me are relationships; with students; with colleagues; with families; with our community.

I love getting beside a student and really getting to know them; what makes them happy; what makes them angry or frustrated; and what makes them excited.  Then I can truly make a difference.

I value my students and acknowledge all they bring to the classroom.  I accept them without judgement.

I believe in making them see their potential and find excitement in all that they do.  I believe in experimentation, mistakes, exploration, noise and creativity.

I am an educator because I want to change the world for the children I teach.  Teaching has been a calling for me since I was a small child.  I know through education I can have an impact on children’s lives.  I want the children I teach to understand the world they will be growing up in, and I want to prepare them for a world that is so going to be so different to my own.  I want children to be problem solvers, confident, technology literate and word literate beings who find delight in the world around them.  I try to achieve this in any way I can.