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)!
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