Whenua Teaching Team
I am part of the dynamic duo who teach and learn in an ILE/MLE where we consider ourselves ‘Authors of our own learning - in a collaborative and supportive community that lets play, passion and purpose grow’. Our Whenua learning team is made up of two teachers, 56 learners, and two learning support ladies. My role as team leader provides opportunities for me to not only lead but follow where the strengths of those whom I work with are built upon and shared with others. There is a strong culture of support and sharing of ideas, reading and research within our team. Opfer & Pedder, 2011) refer to this as a micro-learning community of practice that is achieved through an open modern learning environment.
School Community
Over the last 7 years we as a school have been on a journey where we have constantly critiqued, questioned and researched what we as teachers are doing for our learners. “What is collaboration and how do we learn together?” “What’s going on for our learners?” “How do we know?” “Why does it matter?”. This enables us as a staff to inquire into the latest research and published material, focusing on what may be beneficial for our school (staff, students and whanau). Within our school there are people (teaching staff, support and administrative) who have areas of expertise or passion who also mentor and support ongoing reflection and change. Our deputy Principal has led the school through a rigorous self reflection process with a focus on Dumont, Istance & Benavides ‘The Nature of Learning - using research to inspire practice’ (2010) and Timperley, Kaser & Halbert “A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry (2014) as a framework to lead change. Our BOT provides the financial assistance and investment to enable us to stay current in research.
Kāhui Ako - Hauraki CoL
We belong to the Hauraki CoL where information/data is shared and achievement challenges are shaped in response to the baseline data collected. These include surveys (NZCER Teaching and Leadership Practices Survey, NZCER Me and My School Survey) and student assessment data (e-asTTle, PAT). There has been a focus on improving practice with particular attention paid to writing outcomes. Support and guidance are provided by outside agencies to develop a shared understanding of effectiveness capabilities, current learning and teaching practices and engaging community.
Virtual Communities
There has been a rapid increase in accessing and using online tools and communities to broaden my teaching knowledge and practice. I belong a variety of online communities such as Facebook (e.g. NZ Primary Educators PLN, NZ Teachers (Primary), Te Reo Maori (Mainstream NZ Primary) to name a few. Google+ communities include Mindlab, Hauraki CoL as well as VLN, Twitter and LinkedIn. All of these provide a platform for discussion, critical reflection, support and research that can be utilised in my learning environment to best meet the needs of myself as an educator and my students. I am able to access people and resources I have not been able to do previously - a truly global community of practice.
References:
Dumont, H., Istance, B., & Benavides, F. (2012). The nature of learning. Using Research to Inspire Practice. Practitioner Guide from the Innovative Learning Environments Project. OECD. Zugriff 7, 2014.
Opfer, V., & Pedder, D. (2011). Conceptualising teacher professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 81(3), 376-407.
Timperley, H., Kaser, L., and Halbert, J. (2014, April). A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Centre for Strategic Education, Seminar Series Paper No. 234.
Hi Tracy, love your quote on the side. Think I may have to pinch that one or at least think of adding something similar to my own blog. I have art room blog, but finding time to update is a mission. Reading about the support you have in your Whenua learning team, makes me very envious. One of the things I miss from being a classroom based teacher to a specialist is the support of a set of peers who are teaching similar things to oneself. Most Intermediate/Middle School specialist teacher are a little island unto themselves. If I have an issue with say in my case an art process, there is nobody else, within my school to turn to for advice. hence is my situation one of the most important communities of practice I rely on is an informal group of artist/ art teachers. Most are all Facebook friends, some I chat with several times a week. Most I tag when I see something of interest in the art line. All live in other towns/ cities from me. I often wonder how we got by before Facebook.
ReplyDeleteKia Ora Tracy, I really enjoyed reading your post! I was wondering what impact the pedagogical change had on student agency? Have you considered using student voice as part of the baseline data.
ReplyDeleteHi Noula
DeleteYou raise an important question. Student voice is a very important part of our data collection. In the past we have conducted surveys using Google forms, one to one interviews and small group interviews to gather student voice. For the last two years we have also conducted a survey with our Year 4 - 8 students using Me and My School, a unique, research-based student engagement survey from NZCER. We critique and use this data to target specific PD, teaching and learning programmes and as part of our overall Teacher Spiral of Inquiry. I've included a link to the NZCER site if you want to investigate further.
http://www.nzcer.org.nz/tests/me-and-my-school