Activity 5 : Professional Connection Map

Activity 5

Professional Connection Map

Choose two professional connections you have in your map. Evaluate their impact on your practice and professional community.

Connection 1

The first professional connection is my assistant HOD in Mathematics. This person is a true motivator and a great mentor. She has a wealth of knowledge and always thinks creatively and critically. She has used transformational leadership skills to entice me into teaching Growth Mind-set to this year’s year nine students. She offered to team teach Growth Mind-set with my class. 

When not teaching, she mentors us one to one, in the use of ICT related queries and classroom pedagogy. Moreover, she has been working with me in writing some project based learning lessons for my year nine class. At present, we have been looking at different ideas that we could use for the project based learning.

She has read widely and has deep understanding of the digital and collaborative nature of teaching required for the 21^St century learners. I am lucky to collaborate with her in regards to pedagogy and use of digital technologies with her. My professional community of Mathematics, is privileged to have her as our mentor.

Her ability to run meaningful Professional Development has helped us to learn and grow in our own area of specialisation.

Connection 2

 My second professional connections are some Physics teachers whom I met at the Physics day at Auckland University last year.  Since I am, all by myself teaching year 13 Physics, I have to be in touch with some of these people. These are expert teachers in their discipline of teaching Physics and have a great deal of ideas, resources and advice.

One of the teachers was kind enough to share their scheme for year 12 and 13 physics. This helped me to write my own scheme for the department.

I need to collaborate with these physics teachers on a regular basis.  May be once a month. This is not possible, as everyone has to find time to meet on a scheduled place and time. My best option is to email other Physics teachers for help or clarification.

For moderation of my Internal Achievements Standards, I will need the help of a Physics teacher who will be willing to moderate my work.  Some teachers have volunteered to do this for me and this will be a great help.

I, at times, need clarification for certain practical experiments that needs to be done in year 13. Again flicking an email to my professional practice group is the way to resolve the issue.

Activity 4: Your Professional Community.

Activity 4: Your professional community.

Community of Practice

“Communities of practice are 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.” (Wenger & Trayner-Wenger, 2015).

Wenger (2015) says the community of practice is made up of three characteristics.

                        I.        The Domain

                       II.        The community

                      III.        The Practice

My community of practice in regard to Wenger’s concept of community of practice.

My community of practice is our maths department, which from time to time, meets to discuss the pedagogical issues for year 9 to year 13. Although, our group of maths practitioners are experienced members of the department, we still have issues within the department that needs to be resolved to facilitate better imparting of mathematical knowledge to the students. Our Head of Department and assistant Head of Department are always involved in sharing their knowledge and practice with us. I find that we in return share what and how we teach our classes. The members of my community of practice are always talking and reflecting to improve students’ learning outcomes.

This year we have become a BYOD school. Last year, when we were told of this, our assistant HOD asked us if we were interested in discussing how, we as a maths department, would approach BYOD for 2016. This issue became a huge problem solving activity for us. After discussing the pros and cons of which platform and which devices to use, we than embarked on learning about how to use ‘OneNote’ for teaching of maths.  There were members in the department, who were legitimate peripheral participants. The expert members such as my assistant HOD and I took charge to share and help other members of the department to teach the basics of OneNote software. However, during lunch and morning intervals it became a norm to talk and discuss about ‘OneNote.’ Although “OneNote” platform can be used by anybody, our focus was to adapt it for the use of teaching of mathematics and collaboration.

What are the current issues in your community of practice? How would you or your community of practice address them?

Last year we as department put lot of effort and energy in planning how the BYOD program would run. We were told by the senior administration that there would be an influx of students with Chromebooks as that is what they were using in the intermediate school.  My school is a decile 2 school with students coming from low socio economic status. Not everybody can afford to bring a device to school. Most classes have about three to five devices at most. This is a problem, because, the lessons have to be taught in more traditional way. To resolve this issue, differentiated teaching seems to be a likely solution. However, this creates more work for teachers. We now have to cater for those students with the devices and those without one.

Another way to solve this would be to carry out a project-based learning in class. So that only five devices (one per group) in the class will be required to do research. 

What are the challenges that you face in your practice? How would you or community of practice address this?

Some of the challenges that I am facing are:

·         Lack of motivation and engagement of students in maths class

·         Work incompletion by students

·         Students struggling to bring a device to school and unavailability of computer labs.

Students’ lack of motivation and engagement is an ongoing issue in schools and my school is no exception. I feel the way the content are delivered to the students, is not motivating and exciting enough to engross them in a given task.

To overcome the issue of motivation and engagement in class, I believe, I need to introduce group collaboration to problem solve in Mathematics. Moreover, research says that games and gamification have a huge potential in motivating and engaging students to learn content and complete set tasks that is built within the games. Students’ out of school digital gaming experience, can be utilised to motivate students with Game based Learning in schools (Fredrick, 2014). Fredrick also claims that gaming is a tool that brings about engagement and develops critical thinking for students. For students to be engaged and motivated there needs to be more play and discovery.  My plan is to provide at least two periods per week in the computer lab playing maths related games for my year 9s. Their progress will be tracked using assessment data using a spreadsheet. At present, I am struggling with the fact that students are not able to afford a device in class. Secondly, the computer labs are always, booked by teachers doing internal assessments and it’s difficult to get a booking. 

What is your specialist area of practice? How does your specialist area of practice relate to the broader professional context?

My specialist area is Mathematics. I have been a Mathematics teacher for the last 17 years. However, since last year, I have included another area of specialisation and that is teaching Physics to year 12’s and 13’s. Having graduated with double majors in both Mathematics and Physics, I have always taught Maths. In New Zealand, there is a huge demand for these two specialist subjects. I taught from year 9 maths to year 13 Calculus. Having experience in both these subjects, students from different classes flock to my room for help. Physics demands a good command of maths plus communication skills. Since I am, the only year 13 Physics teacher, I am, left to my own prerogative. Last year I went to Physics Teacher’s day. There, I made some friends who have been very helpful in providing me with some guidance and directed me to some excellent resources to teach year 13 Physics. Since I have no one to share my concerns, I reach out to the wider community of Physics teachers to seek help and clarification.

Fredrick, K. (2014). Play along: gaming in education. School Library Monthly, 31(2), 24–27. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.libproxy.unitec.ac.nz/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA404037230&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=fulltext&issn=2166160X&p=AONE&sw=w

Wenger, E., & Trayner-Wenger, B. (2015). Communities of practice: a brief introduction. April 2015, 1–8. http://doi.org/10.2277/0521663636

Activity 3 : Response to Finlay’s (2008) article

Activity 3 : Response to Finlay’s (2008) article

Reading Finlay’s article, it becomes apparent that ‘reflection of one’s actions’ has become a norm in nearly all works of life regardless of how it’s interpreted. In general, reflective practice as cited by (Finlay, 2008) is a process whereby learning takes place through and from experience by obtaining new “insights of oneself or practice” Finlay (2008). The idea is to examine past practice experiences critically and gain new insights so that future practice has room for improvement. Finlay raises a point on the pages 1 and 2, that professionals, who are busy and short of time, may not apply reflective practice in thoughtful ways.

Finlay defines ‘reflective practice’ as having varied meanings ranging from where professionals engage in ‘solitary introspection’ to having a critical conversation with other people.

Although, Dewey was first to identify reflection as a special form of thinking, his ideas provided the foundation for the idea of reflective practice.  Schon’s (1983) ‘The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action’, drew more attention on reflective practice. Schon’s idea of “reflection-on-practice” and “reflection-in-action” was a huge contribution towards this subject.

Schon’s idea of reflection-on-practice is widely used in classrooms by the teachers. I tend to reflect on lessons that I have taught and evaluate its effectiveness. I will sit and ponder, about bits that happened accordingly and bits that did not work out. Things that did not work out is evaluated and analysed. From here, I tend to modify or change the lesson to ensure it delivers the expected outcomes next time.

“Whether expert or novice, all professionals should reflect on practice - both general and with regard to specific situations” (Finlay 2008). As an expert professional, I need to deal with and resolve situations that arise in my classroom from time to time. Once the situation is under control, I tend to wonder if I resolved that situation professionally.  When you reflect on your actions, you may think that you could have resolved the situation a bit differently and more effectively.

The other concept of reflection-in-action is while teaching, your lesson tends to deviate from the intended intentions. As an expert teacher, I tend to rethink and improvise my lesson during the lesson. This happens with me quite often.   

Currently, my school has been using “teaching as an inquiry” model  on TKI , for the teachers to think and reflect about their pedagogy in class. 

Teaching as an inquiry has Focusing inquiry, teaching inquiry and learning inquiry.

Focusing Inquiry : Here the teacher endeavours to determine all that has been learnt by the students and what needs to be learnt next.

Teaching Inquiry : Here teachers use evidence based strategies to help students learn whatever is  being taught. The teacher uses evidence from research and from their past practice to teach the students to ensure that they learn whatever has been planned in the focusing inquiry. 

Learning Inquiry: here the teacher investigates how effective their teaching was. The investigation may take place as assessments, tests, student feedback etc. This information gathering can take place while the teaching is happening and may continue until or beyond the completion of a topic or unit of work. The information is then analysed to see what the next steps are.

This teaching as an inquiry model does help in ascertaining the fact, that students’ learning out-comes are adhered to. If the out-comes, are not met, the inquiry cycle continues. The draw back with this model is that, it does not actually give you an instant feedback on students’ learning. The data collection takes place towards the end of the topic or unit of work. By then it is too late.

I think Timperley’s spiral of inquiry will be a better model to use instead of inquiry cycle.

 

Bibliography

Finlay, B. L. (2008). Reflecting on “ Reflective practice .” PBPL Paper 52, (January), 1–27. http://doi.org/10.1016/0260-4779(91)90031-R

Schon, D.A. (1983) The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books

Activity 2: Metacognitive reflection on learning and practice.

Activity 2: Metacognitive reflection on learning and practice.

The last 24 weeks…

In the last 24 weeks of study, the first sixteen weeks was very intense. I felt the workload was high and became compounded by my schoolwork. Four hours per day, two hours per course, once a week was intense and lot of information to take in and think about. At times, I felt that certain topics needed much more time for me to comprehend.  The first two courses had some interesting topics that kept challenging my views and assumptions. Some of the interesting topics that grabbed my attention were collaborative learning and coding, augmented reality, blending learning, games in education and gamification of leadership, agile based learning and leadership, design thinking in classrooms and leadership, leading change and leadership theories plus leading change. These topics are of great interest to me, which needs further attention. From weeks 17 to 24, the literature review was quite involved and demanding. The inquiry based research project was equally demanding but beneficial. However, doing online discussion on the Mindlab discussion forum was helpful. Seeing other peoples’ views in regards to your discussion was also helpful.

Key Competencies

In the last 24 weeks of enrolling in this programme, my personal views about classroom pedagogy and pedagogical theories have been critically analysed. In doing so, I have further developed some of the key competencies. The two that I would like to mention are :

i)                    Thinking skills

ii)                   Managing self

Thinking:

“Thinking is about using creative, critical, and metacognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences, and ideas.”  as defined by  the NZ curriculumon TKI web site. This course has taken me on a learning journey where I had to rethink my learning strategies to assimilate all the information disseminated at us. I had to read, think and accept information relevant to my learning. At the same time, I critically evaluated the importance and relevance of certain information while writing my assessments for this course. As time went on, I found that I became better at sieving relevant information and critically analysing it. My metacognitive skills also developed. I think while doing my literature review, my thinking skills helped me review information relevant to my research questions. Furthermore, my creative writing skills enabled me to tie in all the information gathered in a cohesive manner to produce a literature review. In the last 24 weeks I believe, I have empowered myself to become a lifelong learner.

Managing Self:

As per New Zealand Curriculum TKI website “This competency is associated with self-motivation, a “can-do” attitude, and with students seeing themselves as capable learners. It is integral to self-assessment.” 

While doing the first sixteen weeks of this course, I found that I had to manage myself in order to sustain this course. I felt it required lot of motivation from myself and lot of discipline.

When I started doing my first assessment, I was completely confused. At one point, I felt like withdrawing from the course. Anyway, my results from the first two assignments were not to my liking as I always set very high standards for myself. I started setting goals and having that positive can do attitude helped me through the first 24 weeks. I have also built resilience and manged my time wisely with my school workload.  In doing so, I have developed my leadership skills.

Key Changes:

As mentioned earlier, this course has led me to make pedagogical changes within my classroom. The two key changes that I am looking at are:

i)                    Creating project based learning in class.

ii)                   Using digital games to enhance students understanding of concepts in Physics and maths.

Project based learning

As mentioned in http://www.edutopia.org/pbl-research-learning-outcomes

“Project-based learning essentially involves the following:

·         students learning knowledge to tackle realistic problems as they would be solved in the real world

·         increased student control over his or her learning

·         teachers serving as coaches and facilitators of inquiry and reflection

·         students (usually, but not always) working in pairs or groups”

As a teacher, I can create some real world problem questions, which the students will have to solve using inquiry based learning. Students are engaged, creative, they ask questions and allows them to revise knowledge. At the same time their skills in critical thinking, collaboration, communication, reasoning, synthesis and resilience is developed.

Using digital games to enhance students understanding of concepts in Physics and maths.

Digital games have the ability to develop the following 21^st century skills. Critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, effective communication, motivation, persistence, or learning to learn. “Many DGBL experts now believe that the true power of digital games lies in their ability to promote these 21st-century skills through the learning strategies that digital games support and the unique way in which those strategies are synergized through gameplay.” (Van Eck, 2015).

Bibliography

Van Eck, R. (2015). Digital Game-Based Learning: Still Restless, After All These Years. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/10/digital-game-based-learning-still-restless-after-all-these-years

Activity 1: Creating a reflective Journal

Activity 1: Creating a reflective Journal

Who am I?

Welcome to my blog page for Applied Practice in Context.  Before I write any blogs for you to comment on, I think it would be nice if I introduced myself to the readers.

My name is Vimal Singh, an Indian by ethnicity. I was born and raised in Fiji. This is where my primary, secondary and tertiary education took place. I did further studies in New Zealand and Australia. Came to New Zealand 21 years back and have no regrets. I worked for a Telecommunication company for 4 years before taking up teaching.  I have been teaching for the last 16 years at Edgewater College.  For the last fifteen years, I have been teaching Mathematics from years 9 to 13. From last year I have started teaching year 12 and 13 Physics.

My Passion:

I enjoy reading novels, watching English movies and churning out some yummy food when I am in the Kitchen. I enjoy the nature and love gardening. I get inspiration from motivational speakers and teachers that have the can do attitude.

My Teaching Style:

When I first started my teaching career in New Zealand, I practiced how my teachers taught me. This was chalk and talk. In other words, my teaching style was quite traditional. I thought I was the sole authority in the class and ruled with an iron fist. Some students liked me being strict whilst others loathed it. At that point, in time I lacked the friendliness that students seek in a teacher. I didn’t realise that building up a warm relationship with students would help me in learning more about them and the students will open up to be taught easily. As time progressed, I became friendlier and held one to one conversation in class with students trying to learn more about them. This helped me in lifting the students’ motivation and engagement in class. However, I still held on to my traditional ways of teaching and did not feel comfortable relinquishing my control.

I have been thinking of using collaborative teaching style in class, but held the belief that my class would become noisy and disruptive. However, last year I built the courage to put students in small groups and get them to work on certain topics. This was the game changer for me.  At the same time, I was lucky to enrol myself in the Post Grad course offered by The MindLab. This course challenged my beliefs and it motivated me to become a facilitator rather than a control freak.  Now, I am open to various ways of teaching students so that they become skilled with the 21^st Century skills, mandatory for survival in the 21^st Century.  When I see a student smile and say,  “ I now understand this”, makes my day and I feel even more motivated as teacher/facilitator to empower these students so that they become successful learners both outside and in the classroom.