Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

Week 27

Two contemporary issues that are relevant to my practice and the wider NZ context are student centred learning and collaborative practices.

Student centred learning is an area that I believe that we need to review within our COP. We have strong leadership from our Board of Trustees through to our Senior Leadership Team and Professional Learning Groups.  We are all working together to improve the outcomes for our students.

A 2010 ERO report outlined the following points for inclusive practices that reflect effective practice and are equally applicable to our setting.

• “advocated strongly for the needs of students
• focused on adapting school systems, programmes and resources to meet the needs of the students
• were innovative in how they responded to students‟ learning needs
• had experience in working with students with diverse needs
• resourced programmes through creative problem solving
• worked effectively as teams
• had good practices in communicating with external agencies, families and whānau
• used information about students‟ strengths, interests and needs to develop and review programmes for students
• supported students well to manage transitions within and beyond the school.”

(ERO, 2010, as cited in ERO, 2012)

While I believe that we are meeting many of the above points well, I question our effectiveness in using information about our students strengths, interests and needs in developing and reviewing programmes for our students.  We have a good understanding of student needs as identified by summative and formative assessment.  We plan our learning programmes via a Concept Curriculum.  This is made up of broad themes that have the scope to cater for developing student interest, yet I continue to see throughout the school and within the team I lead, some topics of learning taught each year with small changes made to fit into the current concept.  As a new entrant teacher, I myself struggle with balancing out the needs of the students with their interests and strengths when we have such a diverse group of learners, starting points and a continuous stream of children starting school.  My solution to this is to inquire into play based learning and how this can support the transition from early childhood into the primary setting.  Our programme is constantly changing and evolving towards student interests.  I continue to work on developing closer relationships with many of our ECE centres to support my own learning.  This is being fostered through reciprocal visits to ECE centres, professional learning in the form of courses, readings, research and the learning through play facebook page.

My colleague and I who I work with in our foundation class also work hard to form supportive working relationships with students, parents and whanau to build connections, mutual respect and to understand our learners to best engage them in learning.

Collaborative practices are the second of the two current issues that I am delving into.  For our students to develop into global citizens they will need to develop 21st century skills that include collaborative practices.  Johnson etal (2015) talk about the roles of the policy makers and how  they need to “rethink how they invest in and organize schools so that there is more time for professional learning and collaboration among teachers.” (Johnson etal, 2015)  I see this as the role of our MOE, Boards of Trustees and Management team filtering down to classroom teachers.    Resourcing and school organisation are important factors in developing a successful and sustainable model within our NZ setting.  Alongside this lies the role of the classroom teacher as we all have to take responsibility in changing current practices from teacher lead instruction to collaborative learning.  My current teacher inquiry is based on this and how I can foster collaboration within our class of new entrants both with and without using digital technologies.  I need to delve into my own pedagogical practice and review where I can make changes and what I currently do that works and what needs to change in my practice.   As a team leader I am using the knowledge I am gaining from my Mindlab studies to question, guide and support my team along this journey.  As a team we are having deeper pedagogical discussions challenging our own practices and making changes to our programmes of learning and daily practices.  We are only just beginning this journey and it is a watch this space area in the future.  

Education Review Office. (2012). Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand Schools - Education Review Office. Retrieved 5 May 2015, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Releases2/The-three-most-pressing-issues-for-N:

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf:

My Professional Communities - School Culture

Week 26 - School Culture

The culture of Westbrook School is underpinned by the ‘Westbrook Way’.   The Westbrook way is made up of the following values; Excellence, Responsibility, Respect, Initiative, and Whanaungatanga. These values have been in place for a considerable number of years and are now embedded in our culture. Staff, students and their families 'walk the talk' about the Westbrook way. Stoll (1998) talks about culture that has been in place for some time being difficult to effect change in as the culture is hard to articulate.  I don’t believe that we are at this stage and that as a community we need to be mindful of this.  We work hard when new students and staff enter our community so that they are shown how the Westbrook Way is alive and breathing in our school.  It is often commented on by new staff in particular, how much of a strong impact the Westbrook Way has on our school and what it is.  I ensure that I model the Westbrook Way and that it is a part of my everyday practice to use the values in all that I say, do and in the way I act.  To continue to grow a positive school culture is important and if we wish to make changes to our culture they need to be planned and well thought out. Stoll (1998) talks about how structure and culture within a school are interdependent and changing one has an impact on the other.  In our community, we foster changes through strategic planning and professional learning at a senior leadership level this then unpacked with the whole staff to develop many of the 10 cultural norms that Stool and Fink (as cited in Stoll 1998) identify as influencing school improvement.

Currently, we are working on developing Innovative Learning Environments within our school.  This involves developing and strengthening the pedagogical practice of our teachers. Mark Wilson posed some very good questions to ask ourselves when looking at developing unity and empowerment that would be good for our stakeholders to answer.  They include

• “Who am I? What do I bring?
• What is it we wish to be and why?
• How do we become what we wish to be?” (Wilson 2013)

We have begun the process and are in the early stages of looking into future-focused learning and our next step going forward is 'what could this look like in our school?'  I believed that if we have a shared understanding of pedagogical change then as a staff we can support and further evolve our beliefs and priorities. Wilson (2013) talks about this as supporting a culture of success.  Our distributive model of leadership is integral to our success in driving change that does not drastically change the culture of our school.  Wilson (2013) talks about the principal as the keeper of beliefs.  I believe that this is the collective responsibility of the Senior Management Team who work as one. The changes in pedagogical practice will be gradual and time will be needed to reflect upon and evaluate the success and failures.  I look forward to the journey we are embarking on an know that the study I am completing for Mindlab will hold me in good stead going forward to participate in, lead and change pedagogical practice in our community.  

References:

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture

TEdEd(2013, Jun 21). Building a culture of success- Mark Wilson. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8Bjz-OCD8

Communities of Practice

Community of Practice (Week 25 APC - Reflective Practice)

My professional community of practice knows me as Whaea Rochelle, I am a classroom teacher.  I have taught 5 year olds for many years now.  I consider myself fortunate to team teach with a highly experienced teacher who challenges my thinking on a daily and at times, hourly basis.  

I wear many hats that overlap in different ways Wenger (2000) sees this as being boundaries that are fluid.

I am firstly a classroom teacher, I also hold to role of Year One Team Leader, our team is diverse with teachers at various stages in their teaching career.  I have recently started in the role of Junior SENCo.  I am also staff representative to the Board of Trustees.  All of these leadership roles I have taken on mean that my community of practice foundation continues to grow and evolve.  I am surrounded by people who want to provide great educational opportunities for learners.

A new community of practice I have joined is Mindlab this community has strengthened my leadership and classroom practice and has created new “learning loops” (Wenger 2000) for me to explore.

I believe that the purpose and function of my practice in creating lifelong learners is to develop relationships with my students and their whanau as they begin their journey into more formal education.  Developing, maintaining and managing relationships with other professionals both within my workplace and from outside agencies is another function of my practice.  This takes a lot of time and adds considerably to my workload, creating meetings most days and during release time.  The benefits of investing this time early on pay great dividends when our team works with great synergy and efficiently.

In the community of practice I work within there are many different forms of participation.  Wenger (2000) talks about elements within communities of “events, leadership, connectivity, membership, learning projects and artifacts.”  While I contribute to aspects of all of these elements I specifically contribute to leadership with the Team leader role and SENCo roles I hold. I facilitate professional learning, lead team discussions and data analysis and ensure the pastoral care needs of my team are met.  This is only the tip of the iceberg that is 'my job'.   

Relationships and whanaungatanga is one of our school's core values and this as a New Entrant teacher it is at the forefront of all that I do. I work hard to ensure students have a great start at our school as I believe that this can help to set them up in their learning journey for life.  It is often parents that I find the hardest to engage for many different reasons.  One of the main ones is that their view of school is based on their own experiences and many of them seem to be negative.  A crucial role I play is to break down those barriers and engage parents in all aspects of their child’s learning.  One way I work towards this is by chatting with parents before and after school getting to know them and sharing my own experiences with my children to make connections and strengthen relationships. Many parents comment that school is not like it use to be for them and how open and inviting school is now.  When I hear comments like that I know that I am succeeding.

References

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