Week 19 - Community of Practice

Week 19...
Or is it
Challenging to keep on top of the learning with everything on top. I guess this is the same for everyone.

Activity 3: Contribution of Teacher Inquiry Topics to my Communities of Practice Create a reflective entry where you critically reflect on how two potential and inspiring digital and/or collaborative learning related teacher inquiry topics would contribute to your Communities of Practice. Your reflection should be based on a reflective model of your choice.

Step 1:
The inquiry topics I have chosen are;
1: Using gamification to engage students with kahoot
2: Using blogging inside the classroom


The community that will support the success of the inquiry involve the senior syndicate at New Brighton Catholic. This group of teachers have a desire to see improvement in the students writing and are innovative and keen to build on their tools to do this.

The domain is in this literacy are. An evident need to up-skill the students in writing based on assessment and students own identification of their needs. The wider shareholders have a desire to see this improvement un engagement and results and have shown commitment to these goals.

The practice is catered to with teachers new knowledge gained during the first 18 weeks of mind-lab and an ability to share what works and research new ideas. The tools available include laptops and iPads to varying degrees of usability as some are older which allows children to collaborate together on devices.


The use of gamification to engage children has proven a good tool. The children are engaged and it can be set in stages using a range of skills, such as;
Questioning - creating questions gives the children direct ownership of the game and allows them to have success when playing as it is their knowledge and understanding used to complete in the games.
Collaborating - a lack of devices has allowed the children to work in pairs or small groups when competing or compiling questions showing the ability to have success with others.
Ability to be patient - many of our school virtues are addressed with the limited resources but particularly being patient, waiting for turns and contributing as a group member.

Blogging has engaged in other ways;
Recognising audience - the children post for a wider group than previously considered, such as parents, peers, wider community.
Pride in work - children endeavour to reach success criteria so they can be happy with what they have posted.

Step 2:
Other members of the community of practice have a greater access to technological tools and have shown more success in children's results. Having one to one would be a huge improvement and really encourage those reluctant writers who are hampered by difficulties getting ideas on paper and challenged with surface features of writing.


Christopher Pappas explains in his 'Science and the benefits of gamification in eLearning' (https://elearningindustry.com/science-benefits-gamification-elearning) article that the engagement helps students absorb what they are learning and commit it to their long term memory. The students feel immersed in what they are doing and it is fun.

To improve the issues with involving the these innovations in my writing program I need to ensure that the tools are prepared and able to deliver what my intentions are. This will come with involving others in my community of practice, namely IT support, and include these supporters in what I am hoping to achieve and how I am intending to do this.

Step 3:
When the initiative is intrenched in the classroom routine the children will be engaged and confident to deliver to a person. They will understand what is expected and each be able to contribute to this. The upgrading and setting of devices to cater to my plan will ensure there is no lag in delivery and the children will be able to expect consistency in this. When this is all in place and concrete in the classroom I feel this initiative will show great improvement of the children's learning.


References

Bozarth, J. (2017). Nuts and Bolts: Communities of Practice. Retrieved from https://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/2400/nuts-and-bolts-communities-of-practice

Cavage, C. (2016). Utilizing an Online COP: Family, Community, School. Retrieved from http://blog.tesol.org/utilizing-an-online-cop-family-community-school/

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002) Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.

Jurasaite-Harbison, E., & Rex, L. (2010). School Cultures as Contexts for Informal Teacher Learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(2), 267-277.

Knox, B.(2009, December 4). Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk

Pappas C. (2104) GAMIFICATION: The Science And The Benefits of Gamification In eLearning: 

https://elearningindustry.com/science-benefits-gamification-elearning

Week 18 - Future-orientated Learning and Teaching

Week 18 - Future-orientated Learning and Teaching

This week I have focused on a specific elelment of my practice and how effective it may have been or is in my class. I have chosen the Gibb's model for reflection. (as it was recommended)

Focusing on theme 6 

New kinds of partnerships and relationships: Schools no longer

 siloed from the community

I chose this with several examples in mind from the activities of Room 3 this term. This idea of ubiquitous knowledge - generating activities appeals as these activities engage the children and inspire them to build and retain knowledge. This theme puts an emphasis on myself as the classroom teacher to connect with community resources and relate them to the intentions for learning in the classroom. Building these collaborative relationships with accessible experts calls on knowledge of what makes up our school community and local resources. This also builds buy-in from the community and connects them with the school, building strong links.

As I suggested above there were several examples of this partnership and relationship building through the term. On camp the children were inspired by an archery activity. Through internet research I found we were neighbours with an Archery club and I reached out to them to create a link and feed into the new found connection with the activity. We were afforded a visit later in the term with an expert from the club who shared his in depth knowledge of the activity and allowed us to see the more experienced archer in action. The children used independent activities to build questions and the majority were fully engaged with the presentation. From these questions I intend to extend children by having them create a kahoot.

This Kahoot idea was used to show children how they had built knowledge in our procedure work and tied in with my writing initiative from previous Mindlab assignments. I found a recipe for ANZAC biscuits and video to show the reason these were a good treat for soldiers in WW1. I approached parents to support in making biscuits and, after a few dead-ends, found 2 who were happy to help. The children were tasked to make 2 questions each relating to our ANZAC learning and these were compiled into a kahoot to extend fast finishing children who were adept at manipulating images and information.

Initially this activity felt like I had bitten off more than I could chew. Having parents to help was a relief as this part of the learning, I felt, was the pivotal engagement tool - hands on with a concrete product the children could enjoy. I was worried with the fast approaching term break that I wouldn't fit things in. At the end hearing a student say the Kahoot was easy allowed me to respond with would it have been easy 2 weeks ago and seeing his realisation that this was knew knowledge was very satisfying. 

Ensuring I was doing this to meet learning intentions was another challenge. Trying not to cover too much and focusing on writing with procedures. Letting children have ownership through the range of activities ensured they were engaged. 

Using parents was the only link to the community here. There expertise was with managing small groups and baking, not a large stretch but an experience many of my pupils may not have had and one that showed they were all engaged. 

This change showed how I could use a range of resources to engage the children in my class. The success of the learning showed the children they had learnt and the kahoot tool engaged them with gameification. Using this tool regularly will show the children the benefit of storing information they are taught and it gave the majority of the children success. The students were also able to show virtues when working with parents and build relationships. To use this tool more effectively in the future I may expose the children to their next learning steps.

References:

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. Practice-based Professional Learning Centre, Open University. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

Week 17 - Reflective Practice

Kia ora and welcome to my first reflective blog post.
It feels quite strange to be reflecting on reflecting but the valuable process outlined in the course notes have allowed me to realise that, while I lack the formal habits of writing my reflections, it is something I do all the time. It appears I am not alone in this as the survey results place in a fairly typical range.

1. Descriptive

When it comes to reflecting on my practice I tend to analyse events and outcomes. The truth of the matter is I tend to do this when something has not worked as I had foreseen it. I will play events over in my head and may take scratchy notes which serve to brainstorm ways to improve outcomes. I will invariably replay events following things through out the day and this becomes distracting rather than settling on a contingency and working with it. Generally these contingencies prove effective.
I often take these concerns or (sometimes) successes and discuss them with colleagues allowing another point of view to support me. These discussions tend to be more effective at easing my stress and offering other solutions, self clarification or reinforce my own thinking.
I am challenged by the time management of writing but see that if these things are playing in my head after the analysis then writing my forward thinking ideas may alleviate this stress.

2. Comparative
Looking at the survey results I see many people at a similar stage in their reflecting. Colleagues also express that they have trouble with recording reflections and the time factor is where this challenge is most represented.
I feel when I reflect internally and with peers that I am always looking forward, how can I improve outcomes. This is a type of reflection-in-action (Schon) and while it is good to think on your feet reviewing the outcomes and results (reflecting) post the event creates a deeper understanding and allows further improvements.
Improvement will come for me with setting specific times to reflect, either through a formal method like a blog or meetings with peers recorded in a minute format.

3. Critical Reflection
The implications for me are prioritising. Making sure I allow time to reflect and putting to the front of my routine. Positive outcomes will be less dwelling on issues and focused 'corrections'. Taking this time will also allow me to pin point things that work and ensure they are adapted to other situations.

Well Blog one done. Thank you for reading. I have included the course references as they all guided my thinking.

References

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. Practice-based Professional Learning Centre, Open University. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002). Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.

Larrivee, B. (2000).Transforming teaching practice: becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1(3), 293-307.

Yang, S., H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice. Educational Technology & Society, 12(2), 11-21.