Monday, 16 April 2018

Mindlab 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.


My two possible teacher inquiry topics
1. How can I use the digital technology I have to promote and support whanau engagement?


2. How can I use my Ipads more effectively to engage learning and not just be a time filler or a task in a rotation?


I have chosen these two inquiry topics as they are two areas I need more development in my practice. I feel that they both involve student agency and also relate to getting whanau more engaged in students learning so that they can be successful.


My first possible teacher inquiry topic I chose is about building whanau achievement. This is very important at our school as we would like for families to be more engaged and involved in their students learning. I currently have Ipads one to one in my classroom and have the Seesaw app set up.  But I have noticed that I don't have many families signed up to this as I would like. I have chosen this inquiry topic to investigate some other ways to engage whanau using digital technology.


My second possible teacher inquiry topic is finding ways that I can better use the Ipads in my classroom learning to engage students. I feel that at the moment I use them during rotations with learning but they are not personalising the learning for the student and they are often a time filler or just a task that needs to be completed. I would like for my students to be engaged and using 21st century skills when on the Ipads and for learning to be more personal.


Using the model identified by Wenger I have identified communities of practice that would support my teacher inquiry topics my principal, colleagues and students/whanau. I believe that both the principal and my colleagues would help as we often have informal conversations and daily reflections on learning (Jurasaite-Harbison & Rex, 2010). I regularly discuss with colleagues about how we can get whanau more engaged with students learning and we all agree that it is an area that our school would like to improve on.


I believe that getting students and whanau involved in the learning and part of the inquiry makes them feel more involved and is personalising learning. Having discussions informally with whanau makes them feel more relaxed and is more a joint enterprise where teachers and whanau can collectively develop a shared understanding about what the inquiry is about (Wenger, 2000).


I am currently also involved in other communities of practice that can be linked to both of these inquiry questions. Within my school we are involved in a CoL (community of learning) which focused on using data and raising student achievement. We are also involved in Manaiakalani which is using digital technology to enhance and engage students to be successful. Through studying with Mindlab I am also involved in another community of practice with the teachers that are also studying.


By being involved in different communities of practice they have helped me to become more informed about different viewpoints and helping me to analyse what I want from my inquiries and what I need change or do differently. I can change what I learn from each of them and reflect accordingly. "One makes a judgement or a choice among actions, or simply integrates what one has discovered into a new and better understanding of the problem." (Jay and Johnson, 2002, p.79). 


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

Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.

Monday, 9 April 2018

Activity 2: Reflecting on changes in my future orientated teaching practice



I have chosen to focus on the theme of "Personalising learning" as I feel that the Mindlab postgraduate course has changed this a lot through my own teaching and practice. Personalising the learning is when you specifically cater the learning around the individual. (Bolstad et al., 2012). Making sure that their needs are being met and the teacher knows what the students enjoy, like, know and what they need to work on. Within my own teaching I have made sure that I cater to individuals and make sure that I am working on catering to their specific learning needs. Some examples of this is that I have drawn on a variety of data from both summative and formative assessment. I know the learners and feel like I know what they need and how they learn successfully. I then make sure that I am using this information to help me plan and effectively teach. I feel like prior to the postgraduate study I was trying to personalise the learning in my classroom. But looking back at this I feel like I was just using data and doing the same things that I normally would do thinking that I had personalised learning but not taking any risks or trying different things like using ICT in innovative more creative ways.
Thinking back to my learning journey, it has changed a lot since I started out. I am really impressed with not only myself but seeing the progress in the students. I feel that they are becoming more independent and more confident with their own writing. The routine is fun and they understand what is needed from them. (Spillane, 2006) It even makes it easier for me to discuss with them what they have done well and what they need to work on as they understand what is needed in their writing to make themselves successful.

Reflecting back I know that this is very positive in my classroom as the students are more confident in their writing and they don't just come to me and ask what do I do now. Which is what I used to get a lot. Students are making sure that they use the models both on the walls and their self checking strips so that they can edit and re-craft their writing. I've noticed that I no longer have a line of students who have finished their work. Sometimes I do notice that students are not correctly ticking off their self checking strips and just doing it fast so that they can be finished. But majority I think are doing this task and it is successful. My teaching has improved from this as I am becoming more reflective and noticing what is working and what isn't. It is also great that they are sharing their work onto the Seesaw App for their families to see, as this is really important for their learning. (Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems & Holbein, 2005)
In conclusion I feel like the changes I have made have been very beneficial both for myself and the learners in the classroom. Students are becoming more confident and routine shows that they enjoy knowing what to do next and when they finish. As a class we still need to work on our feedback and feed forward to others but that will come. We have continued to do this throughout this year as I am noticing it is very beneficial and the students enjoy going through the editing process independently or with a buddy before they come to the teacher. To improve this in the future it would be great if they could feed forward to each other specifically what they need to improve on and then go and make the changes. As most of the time they do not like changing their writing or adding things because it is more work.

This change has shown students what they need in their writing and that although they may have finished writing it does not mean that the writing is done. Students are more independent in their learning and are becoming more confident when articulating what they need in their writing. I believe that this change has been a huge success as parents and other colleagues have commented on the work and that it is great to see the students so positively engaged in their learning in writing. I feel that this change could also be implemented through other year levels so that it progresses and students can continue with a pattern they are familiar with. I feel that I have become confident when personalising learning and think that this change was a success in my class and  know that reflective practice is understood as the process of learning through and from experience. (Finlay, 2009)








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. PBPL. 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


Gonzalez-DeHaas, A.R, Willems, P.P., & Holbein, M. F. D. (2005). Examining the relationship between parental involvement and student motivation. Educational psychology review, 17(2), 99-123.

Spillane,J.P. (2006). Distributed Leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass