My Learning Spaces

A very late February Edblognz Challenge 

My learning space for the last 6 weeks has been really different than being in a classroom or a school. The learning space for my colleagues and I has been the city of Christchurch.

While we have an office space situated at Aranui High School and we have spent some time in there

The office at Aranui High School

We have also been out and about visiting various groups and businesses. This has helped us be aware of whats available in theca its as we move into designing learning programmes for the students who will start wiht us next year. Its also been helpful to have conversations with businesses about what they really ant form school leavers, and be privileged to see the way different businesses manage their people and their workloads.

We are so quick to fall back on the way it has always been in schools and its been a real privilege to have this time to look at possibilities out there in their real world.

We've used public spaces like libraries.....

eBOT and SLT in the Aranui Library

and we've spent time on our building site...

The Building site for Haeata Community Campus

We've travelled the city looking at street art......

We've worked in Board rooms

At Sheffield Recruitment

and visited places of technology and action

Mind lab ChCh

and played in parks and playgrounds....

Margaret Mahy Park

We've visited businesses and seen them in action.

Office space at Jade

And worked in the corners of the odd cafe or two

We've talked a lot about needing to take time to unravel our thinking, to rid ourselves of the "notion" of what "school" must 'look like," before we get into designing what it might be. (Some people call this un-schooling or de-schooling)

And so when I need to reflect, and ponder on some of the things we are seeing...and discussing....and reading....

then I can sit on my porch with this view

Or walk 3 minutes to the beach and watch the sun rise.

It is an absolute privilege to have this time and be able to work in so many different spaces. What we will be able to design  through dong this will hopefully be the school of all dreams- for teachers,  but more importantly for whānau and most importantly for the young learners who will join us in 10 months time.

Mind Lab and PTC's

Mind lab Post 10/10

The Task:

Create a blog post where you reflect on your personal 32 week learning journey through the whole postgraduate programme with regard to the 12 Practising Teacher Criteria (PTC) in e-learning.

First choose three of the criteria you have met well. Briefly give examples of these from your practice. You can also refer to previous (DCL, LDC, R&C or APC) assessments that you now have as evidence.

Then plan and justify two main goals for your future development.

Completing the postgraduate certificate in Digital and Collaborative Technology over the last forty weeks has been an absolute joy. I have loved it. I have managed the workload alongside leading a busy school and holding a reasonably heavy teaching load as well at times. I remain so glad I have done it. 

Although I have been working in the field of digital technologies for as long as possible- I remember having one of those computers that got passed for teacher to teacher each week in my very first year of teaching in 1997- I learnt something new with these papers every week. I enjoyed being forced into practically experimenting with things I might not have chosen to like robotics.

I am finding it hard to select specific PTC as I believe my involvement withe these papers have strengthened all PTC. If i had to get specific I would say Criteria 4,5 and 7. Not only was this a great way to demonstrate my commitment to my own ongoing learning, it was also a great model for others. I know that staff certainly mentioned thinking about giving up their own study but seeing me persevere with mine with everything else I had to do inspired them to keep going. I loved that the papers were freely developed enough to let us have a real input. Thanks to Tim, in the Gisborne Mindlab for being so keen to hear from us as participants and letting us contribute to sessions and lead parts that were in areas we had specific skills, knowledge and experiences. The papers all gave such worndeful examples and suggestion for promoting collaborative, inclusive environments.

Having that experience last year will be invaluable as I have moved into a new positions where as one of four learning directors, alongside a Principal, I am currently working to design a completely new curriculum for a new school beginning next year. Will definitely be aiming to develop PTC 6 as we do this. As this new school will be strongly bicultural and multicultural everything we do has both  bicultural lens and a multicultural context to it so I will also be working to develop PTC 3 and 10.

Reference:

Practising Teacher Criteria

Professional relationships and professional values

• Criteria 1: Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of all ākonga.

• Criteria 2: Demonstrate commitment to promoting the well-being of ākonga.

• Criteria 3: Demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa / New Zealand.

• Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice.

• Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.

Professional knowledge in practice

• Criteria 6: Conceptualise, plan, and implement an appropriate learning programme.

• Criteria 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment.

• Criteria 8: Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.

• Criteria 9: Respond effectively to the diverse and cultural experiences and the varied strengths, interests, and needs of individuals and groups of ākonga.

• Criteria 10: Work effectively within the bicultural context of Aotearoa NZ.

• Criteria 11: Analyse and appropriately use assessment and information, which has been gathered formally and informally.

• Criteria 12: Use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice.

Using Indigenous Knowledge with Respect in Our schools

Mind Lab Post 9/10

The Task:

Create a blog post where you first share your own views on your indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy.

Then evaluate how you or your school addresses cultural responsiveness in practice.

I have just seen the new Lee Tamahori directed movie Mahana based around a Māori whānau growing up on the East Coast in the 1960’s.  There are a number of strong messages in the movie- the connectedness and support of whānau, loyalty, hard work, the willingness to speak up when you witness injustice.

I can’t help but ponder on some of my indigenous knowledge and connect this to the movie  and then relate this to pedagogy in the classroom as I am reflecting on the movie.

I have been a strong proponent of significantly multi level classrooms for some time- not just the two years most of us have grown used to- Yr 5 & 6 or Yr 7 & 8 and then completely separate from Year 9 up. 

Sir Ken Robinson is famous for his statements around the conveyor belt of education and putting students on it based on their ‘year of manufacture.’ Instead he suggests putting learners on the learning conveyor belt based on their needs and with multiple entrances and exits. Isn’t this what Māori have always done with learning? There is a lovely scene in the movie of the whole whānau working together to clear scrub from a hill- all interdependent on each other and learning from and with each other- from the youngest child (under 10) to the kuia of the family who is 60, and every age in between.

Why don’t we capitalise on this more in our classrooms? When we put our Year 6-13 learners together in a classroom last year at Te Karaka Area School people thought we were crazy and while there were adjustments for our young people because they were so used to a system that classified them by age, they soon relaxed and all learnt together. There was a keen sense of tuakana-teina, and this wasn't always based on age. Sometimes our 17 year olds were learning from our 10 year olds and vice versa.

There is so much talk about agency in schools today. Agency for learners and agency for teachers. The movie illustrated so well the dilemma we all face between obedience and loyalty and a preparedness to speak up when we witness injustice. Learning to be great orators, to articulate themselves is a strong indigenous skill for out Māori learners and one we need to embrace in our classrooms.

Above all the movie illustrated a sense of whānau. Positive relationships are such an important core to our classrooms as well. If we can get that sense of support, that sense of loyalty into our learning environments they will be so much more enriched. It reminds me of a video taken as a Ka Hikitia illustration of one of our students where she describes the school as “one whole whānau learning together.” To me there was no higher praise or indicator of our success than that.

Wharehuia Hemara summarises some key findings in research about Māori students and the education sector in Māori Pedagogies.Traditional curricula were closely related to the spiritual, intellectual, social and physical wellbeing of the community and individual. Children and adults are at the centre of the educative process. Teaching and learning is a cooperative venture in which everyone involved learns something new. Learning is a gradual process. Learning is a mixture of formal and informal learning. IN a formal setting a small number of students are given instruction at a time. There are other adults on hand to be kaiarahi (guide) and kaitiaki (guardian).

I can’t help but reflect how like the innovative learning environment we have at Te karaka Area School this all is. A focus on te where tapa wha as a graduate profile. Teachers worked wiht students not for them or in charge of them. There were a mixture of small group formal learning workshops with small number son students while others worked on learning they co constructed with teachers, and there were always spare adults for be kaiarahi and kaitiaki. 

Involving whānau in this learning is an ongoing goal for the teachers remaining in this environment this year. I know they have already met with whānau and co-constructed with them appropriate concepts to underpin their learning for the year.

References

Hemara, Wharehuia. Māori Pedagogies: A View from the Literature. Wellington, N.Z.: New Zealand Council for Educational Research, 2000. Print.

Mahana

An Online Ethical Dilemma in Schools

Mind lab Post 8/10

The Task:

Create a blog post where you identify an ethical dilemma in your own practice linked to digital or online access or activity. Explain the dilemma and discuss either:

• how you would address the potential issue if it occurred in your own practice

or (if relevant)

• an actual situation that you have knowledge of, and how it was resolved.

Teaching and leading in  small rural school has amazing rewards, but also comes with its challenges. Not only do you live closely together but in some cases many of your staff and students are related. Blanket policies about not being friends with students on social media are impossible when for some staff students are also nieces, nephews sisters and brothers.

This became a real ethical dilemma for me when leading my previous school. There was no way I was going to tell staff they couldn’t be friends with students on social media, especially their own relatives. So this posed its own dilemna. How did we keep the school safe? How did we keep staff safe? How did we keep students safe?

The basic solution was conversations about appropriateness and around common sense and then using initiative. Coming to see me if they were unsure whether something crosse the boundary lines or not. It was good that I was in a position that most staff also trusted me as Principal and most were happy to have me be friends with them on their pages. This meant if I saw something that I thought overstepped the bounds I could also initiate a conversation about it. (I actually only had to do that twice in five years.)

I witnessed on many occasions the fact that teachers presence as  ‘friend’ on Facebook led to situations where teachers developed an awareness of developing situations outside of school that could have tremendous social and emotional impact in school and for learning. Because of their awareness of issues they are able to address those issues as they were developing ratchet than coming in to try and mop up a situation after it had happened- as often happens when social incidents outside of school bubble over into school.

In another context it may be totally inappropriate for teachers to be friends wiht students on Facebook. But once again, I don’t think we can make blanket decisions and statements about this. It is contextual and dependent on so much more than a a guidebook. What is most important is both that we all keep safe and that we find every opportunity to help our young people deal with something that will always be in their lives.

Social Media in Teaching and Learning

Mindlab Post 7/10

The Task:

What are some key features of social media that you have identified as beneficial for teaching and learning?
What are potential challenges that teachers need to be aware of when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities?
What social media platform do you feel best supports engagement with your professional development? Why?
How do/would you use social media to enhance your professional development?

It intrigues me when I hear people talking about keeping the world of social media away form teaching and learning.  Probably in the same way that it intrigued people years ago when schools let fountain pens be used instead of slate, or half a century ago when ballpoint pens were seen to be the scourge of modern education as they took over for fountain pens.

Social media is the world we live in now. We know the news as it happens. When we went into lock down at a school this week and the loudspeaker told us to remain in our rooms wiht no further information, as adults we went straight to twitter and news apps on our mobile phones to see if the world outside knew what was happening. Of course this requires some critical thinking skills. The ‘news’ spread on social media is often rumour based. But I’ve seen some pretty big assumptions in print media over the last few months too. Of course we need to teach critical literacy skills. And those skills need to take higher priority in our teaching programmes than some of the content and skills of the past. 

I wrote in a previous post about the power twitter has given me personally in my professional learning over the last couple of years. I have connected with people locally, nationally and globally. I have learnt new things through reading others thoughts and the links they publish. My professional learning was broadened extensively- it was no longer dependent on the people geographically close to me and the face to face events I could afford to get to. Twitter with it’s 140 character restrictions has shaped me into a better writer. I have found participating in twitter chats and having to figure out what I really believe as part of conversations in 140 characters or less great for sharpening my meta-cognitive skills.

I belong to educator Facebook groups, and occasionally look at stuff that comes up on my feed. I know some of the teacher Facebook groups are a great source of inspiration and help to some teachers. I also know there has been some powerful conversations about the content some teachers put on them- theres been a lot of learning about copyright and about appropriateness of comments, requests for support and offers of help. Again some real learning about where professional boundaries are. I personally have some real concerns about the support some of these teachers are getting in their schools when they have to ask for the kid of support they ask for ut at least it is an avenue for that.

The brevity of twitter was also great when I used it in a classroom for reflections. We asked learners to reflect using a format- rating their  focus level, one thing they had learnt ir developed and a feeling word as they left class. By standing t the door and farewelling learners with your phone you could see if they had tweeted- no collecting in of books etc. And then you could reply to tweets you wanted clarification for, like things and even retweet things for other learners to see.

I’ve seen Facebook used successfully on classrooms to share learning- with each other and with whānau. Its immediacy for giving peer feedback is great, and its yet another opportunity to teach digital literacy and cyber awareness through authentic tasks when you set up agreed collective understandings about what feedback is appropriate.

Ive heard significant arguments for and against teachers being ‘friends’ with students on social media platforms. And I’m undecided on this myself. However I have seen some great teaching of cyber safety cyber awareness and digital literacy through this. Teachers becoming aware of escalating issues and being able to become part of helping young people deescalate and work towards solving issues rather than making them worse. I’ve seen teachers work through Facebook statements with young people that they have then decided to remove and hopefully gradually learn not to posit any more. If those teachers hadn’t been ‘friends’ with those students online they would not have been aware of those escalating issues.

Of course teachers also need to keep themselves and young people safe so this needs some robust discussion and agreements but let’s personalise those discussions and agreements. What is appropriate in one context may not be in another. 

And let’s not put our heads in the sand and think that our young people are going to learn to use social media effectively and with respect by banning it from the place they spend so much of their time. We are only banning effective learning opportunities.

Learning From the Journey of Other Schools

I'm sitting on a plane flying back to Christchurch, after three busy, tiring, exhausting yet inspiring and exhilarating days.

I think we've all learnt, been challenged and been affirmed at different times over the last three days. We've been simultaneously scared by the journey ahead but at the same time excited by the immense privilege and trust placed in us by our eBOT to develop Haeata Community Campus over this year so that it is indeed a superb place of being and learning for the young people who choose to be on this journey with us from next year. 

In these few days we've visited secondary, primary, senior secondary schools and a school with special designated character.

The thing that stood out the most was the manaakitanga shown by all schools. The way they made us feel welcome and the way they all encouraged us to have continuing and ongoing further dialogue with them. That it's not a one-off but the start of an ongoing relationship we have begun with each of them. The willingness with which they all shared their journeys- both the successes and the pitfalls was inspiring and we can only endeavour to repeat the same for people who come to visit us and learn from our journey in the future.

All schools are different, all are designed to meet the specific needs of a specific community. I guess one of the things that struck us was the deliberateness with which decisions-not just about learning, but about everything in a school are made. I know new schools have a lot of advantage and privilege in the decisions they make and the practices they develop, but it is also demanding and hard work. The deliberateness of decisions around learning linking back to core vales and principles of each learning community struck us in all the schools we visited.

What's happening out in edu-land at the moment can be truly invigorating. There is brave courageous unwavering work being done by unrelenting tireless advocates for improving the learning landscape for all young people. We've met a few of the brave and courageous people out there breaking down barriers and inspiring learning in some imaginative, different and innovative ways this week. It can be lonely work. It's definitely hard work. It can be polarising work and it's very nature often attracts criticism and detractors. But, oh the satisfactions and rewards as well.  I know for me personally, the opportunity to be helping to develop a new school for the second time in my professional journey is an immense privilege. I am looking forward to seeing what we develop together as a team, even more after what we've seen in the last few days.

Thanks to Hobsonville Point Secondary, Hobsonville Point Primary, Stonefields, Albany Senior High School and Kia Aroha College. You all shared your stories so willingly with us. And you gave up so much time to be with us, to talk with us and to discuss with us.
We appreciate it. 

Collaborative Practice-Starting It Again

Mindlab Post 6/10  Part B

Create a blog post where you identify and evaluate two contemporary issues or trends that are influencing or shaping NZ or international education, which you find most relevant to your practice.

Elaborate in your own words how you would address those issues or trends in your context within your learning community or professional context. 


Collaborative practice is definitely a  trend influencing New Zealand education at the moment. I have written about this on more than one occasion- examples here (teaching) and here (leading).

Although some of the other concepts of Innovative Learning Environments are taking a little longer to embed, one of the central concepts of collaboration- whether this is teachers working together with larger numbers of students, or leadership being distributed using some very non traditional leadership structures- seems to be taking hold across the country with so much deeper collaboration evident than fifteen years ago when I started working singininfcatly with others to deliver curriculum and leadership. See a post here referring to practice in the early 2000's.

I have been working with teachers to develop their collaborative practice in order to provide a more effective learning experience for their students for many years now. I see so much more willingness and expertse in doing so than I did even five years ago. 

As I now work with a new group of people its important to remember some of those lessons as we develop a way of working that works for us as a team. And and as we very soon look to bring 50 teachers into that new team and put them into a place where they will have to practice collaboratively with strangers from Day 1 in order to set up our new school it will be important to revisit those lessons, to give them time to understand the concept of collaboration before they figure out how to manage and organise for leaning within the new parameters we will all have next time.

The thought is a little scary but a lot exciting!

Take your PLD into your own hands

Mindlab Post 6/10  Part A

Create a blog post where you identify and evaluate two contemporary issues or trends that are influencing or shaping NZ or international education, which you find most relevant to your practice.

Elaborate in your own words how you would address those issues or trends in your context within your learning community or professional context. 

Teachers taking individual responsibility for sourcing and tailoring their own Professional Learning and Development is a trend that's been strongly emerging over the last few years. Educamps, eduignites, the use of social media are all part of this.

We expect teachers to provide learning that is tailored to individual students in their classes. Why do some schools still persist in then telling teachers that they must all learn to be better at the same thing at the same time? I get that there has to be some whole school unity and a common vision and drive but just like young people, our teachers will learn so much more readily if they have a real stake and passion in what they are learning about or developing skills in.

What we are really talking about is PLD for teachers by teachers. People passionate about learning and the teaching processes necessary to cause great effective learning. And people willing to share. No big money passing hands and causing barriers. No big heroes taking centre stage. Just people wanting to share and get better at things to make things better for the young people in their care.

I love eduignite evenings. The fact that there is no cost, that it is just people sharing  their beliefs and learning. That each person speaks for a maximum of five minutes. That again there is no hero. That whoever would like to speak can and does, it's not dependent on one person.
.
I also love the use of Twitter for professional learning for the same reasons. It's a great leveller. There's no hierarchy. Principals are having chats with beginning teachers about teaching and learning in authentic and challenging ways and learning from each other. It's not all top down imposed learning.

Last year two colleagues and I did a 5 1/2 hour trip for a 5 hour educamp in Palmerston North  with a 5 1/2 hour trip home afterwards. No regrets whatsoever. It was an awesome day. I wrote about it here.

What makes an educamp so effective? The un conference format where the participants decide on the day what it is they would most like to discuss. The fact that there is no big money involved, that attendance requires time not a big fee.

Last weekend I attended an educamp in Wellington.  I don't live in Wellington. I don't even live in the North Island any more. While I didn't fly there just for educamp, I deliberately  planned my "time out" weekend in Wellington to coincide with the date of educampwelly. The people involved make all the difference. Those organising and attending educamp do tend to be the movers and shakers, the people on the cutting edge of learning and teaching in our schools. The people that are happy to spend five hours of their Saturday sharing and learning with and from each other. So actually just the networking and connections with people make it worthwhile. The fact they are held in other schools and you get to wander around another school,and learn what they are doing in their classrooms is another.

I do get wary when I see schools wanting to charge a lot of money to provide PLD to other schools. It must be very easy to blur the professional learning lines into money making schemes and I'm not at all convinced we should be using PLD to do this.
I get downright outraged when I see providers who haven't been in a classroom authentically for a long time charging exorbitant amounts of money to "provide" PLD. I think embedding our practice in theory and research is important and that all teachers should be supported to become more accomplished at doing this through the teaching as inquiry process. However the theory without the practical application that I have seen in some PLD providers makes me angry. Teachers immediately switch off when they know there is no understood reality of  what being in a classroom is like.

For me the enduring things about personally tailoring your own PLD and taking advantage of things like educamps is that you get out of them what you put into them. I know leaders get concerned about the teachers who would never actively seek out their own PLD if it was all left up to them. Maybe, though it's time to start acknowledging those that do, and giving them the scope to manage this. We don't treat all learners in our classrooms the same as far as self management. Different students are ready for differing stages of external and internal control. Why don't we treat our teachers, who are our lead learners the same?

Thanks to the organisers of educampwelly and the fantastic wellyed team. Your awesome hard work made the day run incredibly smoothly. But thanks also to everyone who attended. Thanks to anyone I had a conversation with or joined a session with. You were all part of enriching my professional learning for 5 hours this Saturday. No one told you that you had to be there, you were there because you wanted to be and the rich development and learning that took place was because you took control of your own learning.

I look forward to continuing connections with those I already knew and to developing further connections from those of you I met for the first time.

References:
http://educampnz.wikispaces.com/?responseToken=07ce0e5d4eb5ee6a2da4df9baf837c4e2
http://educampwelly.wikispaces.com/Home
https://emergingleaders.school.nz/ignite-evening/

Most Likely To Succeed.. A Review...A Reflection.. A Renewal of Possibilities

CORE's introduction said....

"Most Likely to Succeed is the best film ever done on the topic of school- both its past and its future. The film inspires its audiences with a sense of purpose and possibility, and is bringing school communities together in re-imagining what ur students and teacher are capable of doing. Run, don't walk. to bing this film to your school. After seeing this film, you'll never look at school the same way again."

This movie was definitely inspiring and affirming. I think it should be compulsory viewing for all in education. While aimed at secondary schooling, it has many parallel messages for both primary and tertiary learning.

I loved seeing the story evolve through the year and to be able to witness the emerging understanding of both young people and the adults working alongside them of the true inter-disciplinary nature of learning. Seeing young people do far more than adults assume they can, and seeing them learn so much more than they often do in an adult driven class by class subject driven culture was fantastic.

The power of exhibiting learning for the public, and learners being accountable to this rather than to summative testing, or random assessments by a teacher,  is inspiring for learners and teachers alike. I know many years ago working in Wellington with Yr 7-8 learners in a very self managed collaborative integrated learning environment we used to run a learning exhibition at the end of each term. When visitors to our learning environment came they often wanted to know how to deal with the learners who just didn't get things done on time, and we used to say that it rarely happens. I don't think we were really believed, but that concept of accountability to the real-life real-world exhibition truly meant it very rarely if ever happened. Learners- and these were 10-12 years olds in the early 2000's- had such an accountability to that exhibition each term that if they weren't going to get something finished in time they made arrangements to come in out of school time to get it done. WE never asked them to to. They had an accountability to something bigger than getting an exercise completed in an exercise book.

So excellent to see this movie with our new team whose heads are fully into thinking about setting up a new school, and about what teaching and learning practices we want to evolve so that all of our learners needs are not only fully met but possibilities are opened to them in many ways.

Themes the movie affirmed for me:

Learning needs to relate to real life, it needs to be authentic. The time for focusing solely on context without context to support it is gone, and to bridge that gap teachers have often contribnved contexts to try to engage students in deeper learning. Get rid of contrived contexts and engage our learners with the real word and with real world problems.

Learning needs to relate to individuals- it needs to be personal. If our young people get what's in the learning for them and what they will get out of it they will engage with it so much more. if they have a stake in the learning they will be involved in it.

Connections are really important. The ability to collaborate, to work in teams, to led and to take direction, to articulate and to converse, to dicisuss nd have dialogue are ver increasingly irpotnat in the world our young people are going to live in. The student who has always achieved real success in th school system by themselves often struggles with this change when it is introduced in schools. However this is the same young person who will struggle to survive in the world of work if they aren't scaffolded though developing these skills. Most companies would now say they don't want "heroes" who can do the job by themselves. They want team players who will work with others. Who know when to step up and when to be led. Who know how to contribute to a project rather than wanting to do it all themselves in their own way.

Learners in todays world need to have agency- having a real voice in actual decision making. This includes the concept of them developing a degree of self regulation and accountability to the purpose and outcome of the learning.

For me the movie was summed up by a quote on the CORE presentation before the movie began:

 "....what's possible when you give kids more responsibility than you think they can handle and ask them to bring all of their knowledge to bear on a single task." 

My mind has been blown away over the last fifteen years by what I've seen young people produce when adults get out of the way of dictating and instead support learning. When adults let go of the vision of the "perfect" outcome, and hand it over to young people and support them. When collaboration is seen as the new normal- for young people and for adults in classroom environments. It takes courage for teachers to give up that 'power" and to directly teach according to situational need. But the learning that can happen and the outcomes that can be produced are simply outstanding- as Most Likely to Succeed demonstrates for us.

The posisbiitis for learning are endless. Hopefully we will begin seeing some NZ versions of this movie created in the next couple of years.

The First 8 Days at Haeata

It's been so exciting hearing all the chatter from teachers setting up for the new year alongside their learners this week.

For me the last fortnight has been both a recognition of the immense privilege it is to be in a team that has a year to set up a new school, and also developing an understanding of the immenseness of the task ahead of us.

We have been immersed into a world that teachers often don't get a chance to be immersed in. We've visited businesses- marketing, branding, designing, IT services. Apart from the value and services these businesses might be able to add to the development of Haeata Community Campus, it has been so interesting to see the different ways businesses run and to think and talk about how we might learn from those learnings as we design learning for the learners we will have in 2017.

We've done some personality trait testing and participated in some facilitated analysis. Doing in the past helped me to understand ppl I worked with. Having that information at the start of forming a team where everyone is new to the team is again a privilege. I guess our challenge is to use that information to understand and complement each other but not to pigeonhole each other with it.

We visited the site to see the beginnings of the buildings emerge, excitement as some of the stuff we have been talking about becomes more reality when you an see the spaces taking shape.

And the biggest lesson of all, get some covered shoes and keep in the office or car so that I don't have to wear gumboots around the site again! Trudging around site works and buildings in Size 11 gumboots (coz thats all that were available) on a 30 degree balmy Canterbury day for a couple of hours produced a rather hot and sweaty outcome!

My Professional Connections

Mindlab Post 5/10

I honestly think the connection that has made the biggest impact on my practice over the last few years has been twitter.

The ability to connect with other educators with similar passions and to debate practices and philosophies has been extremely empowering. 

Following international and well as renowned national educators and reflecting on what they write- both on twitter and their blogs adds to my developing practice.

Being exposed to a wide range of professional reading through the links people post on twitter and having professional conversations about these links means my professional knowledge is always being extended and my thinking provoked.

Taking part in twitter chats and being forced to summarise my thinking i posts of 140 characters has been a strongly contributing factor to being able to concisely and succinctly share my optioning and philosophies.

The other strong impact on my professional practice are two previous colleagues- from two different schools. These are colleagues I have a strong connection with. They are part of my ongoing professional network and we all have strong shared beliefs. Because they are no longer my current colleagues, I can use them as a sounding board for ideas and opinions and discuss things with them on  different level than possible sometimes with direct colleagues. They are honest and there is a high level of trust between us which means they can hold me high accountable for my beliefs and aspirations.

A Community of Practice

Mindlab Post 4/10

Wegner describes a community of practice as groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

In New Zealand there is a growing community of practice centred around the themes of innovative learning environments (ILE) and innovative learning practice (ILP).

This community of practice is evolving- mostly informally- throughout the country in response to meeting learners needs in a way that prepares them for a future that is immensely different than the world was when the notion of schools was first developed.

Teachers in new schools who are committed to developing and implementing a curriculum in different, perhaps collaborative ways are forming their own communities of practice. Other teachers, not in new schools, but committed to doing things to better meet the needs of today learners are joining this community of practice on some level too. The social media tools of blogging and twitter are active ingredients in spreading the word of this practice.

A significant issue facing this community is pubic understanding and perception. Although the general public accept that their own workplaces are vastly differing places than they were 20-30 years ago, many people still think school should look the same with the same learning structures, discipline structures, and curriculum dictates that were present when they were at school. While teachers and leaders within this community of practice are working hard to influence other educators, the general community needs to be helped to develop a greater understanding of the purpose of the changing more innovative, or modern, practice in classrooms and schools.

There are however challenges this community of practice face. How to continue to practice highly and get the best result for students, while experimenting with new approaches and methods implementing the curriculum can be a double-edged sword. The sharing of practice- of successes, and even more importantly failures is an important part to the strengthening and developing of the practice of the member son this community of practice. Blogging, twitter chats, google plus communities are all aiding this every day. Continuing to encourage each other to delve deeper, to reflect and to change practice in relation to these reflections is what will make this community of practice thrive and flourish.

It is a community of practice I am proud to be a part of.

Wenger-trayner.com. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice | Wenger-Trayner. Retrieved from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

Reflections on Reflection

Mindlab Post 3/10

The Finlay (2008) Reflecting on Reflective Practice paper is a subject dear to my heart. 

For many years I have extolled the virtues of teaching learners to self reflects and change actions based on these reflections, as well as tried to inspire and install this as a common practice in educators I have worked with. I have adamantly seen the need to schedule this into planning and timetables or else it becomes the thing “we run out of time to do.” 

Without reflection we cannot change our actions. All student management systems I have implemented at schools have refection as the key element. If students are just punished they will not change the pattern of behaviour. Serious attention needs to be given to reflection and creating new habits for a change to occur.

Over the last two years I have posted about developing the concept of learning muscles in  classroom and the a school. You can read another post on this here. You will see that refection is one of the key muscles.

Personally I use a fairly general model of reflect..think about changes I would like to make..set a goal around this changes and then create a timeline to make those changes to. Sometimes I blog or tweet about this, and sometimes I don’t. Here is an example where I learnt about the true value of reflecting.

I think my goal for the next year is to become more public with these reflections, and write about them in order to become even more introspective and to allow others the opportunity to learn from my writing about the ongoing changes I make to my practice.