At last…….
I am writing my last blog for this wonderful, thought
provoking and challenging course that took 34 weeks to complete instead of 32
weeks as I took extension for my last assignment. 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 my discussion was also helpful.
From weeks 25 to 32, has been again challenging for me
because blogging is not my forte. To be able to blog fluently, requires a
person to be widely read and write with a passion. For me, I had to read each
topic to get a better understanding before I could express my views in a blog
with regards to my pedagogy and my teaching context. I feel as time progressed,
I have become good at it and in doing so, I have gained tremendous amount of
information regarding the topics covered. Reflective practice, use of social
media, law and ethics within my profession plus Indigenous knowledge and
culturally responsive teaching has been thought provoking. I feel I have gained
a lot in terms of professional development in these areas.
The three PTC
criteria that I have met well.
Criteria 1: Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on
the learning and well-being of all ākonga..
To be an effective teacher, one needs to maintain or build
relationships with their akonga, their colleagues and the wider community. This
course, has helped me to redefine my role as
a facilitator than as a teacher in my classroom. My priority this year
has been to understand my students better by getting them to do a little survey
about them. During class time, I chat with individual students to maintain the
friendly, but professional relationship. I tend to acknowledge my students when
I see them out on the fields or sitting in a shade chatting away. I find this
is good time to talk to them.
Maintaining relationships with colleagues in a professional
manner is paramount. Having enrolled in this course has led me in to having
meaning full talks with my colleagues. I can now better relate to them because
I can now talk about how to embrace teaching in this 21st century.
Having meaningful discussions on the use of ICT in a classroom is hot topic as
teachers find it hard to implement digital media within their lessons. Giving
them ideas and ways to introduce ICT, is my way of sharing my learning at the
Mindlab.
Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional
learning and development of professional personal practice.
Our profession is such that it requires lifelong learning
for the betterment of our students and colleagues. So, ongoing professional
development is a necessity. When I first embarked on to this course I found
myself lost because my understanding of some aspects for 21st
century teaching and learning was quite shallow. When I saw my fellow teachers having
meaningful discussions and views, I felt that I knew very little. So I started
to actively listen and do further readings. As time progressed, I found that my
understanding of various theories and pedagogical style was getting better. Lot
of things started making sense. From here on my desire for professional
development has been rekindled and now I avidly read material related to my
profession. My 32 week course has finished, but my personal learning journey
has just begun and will continue, as we live in a society where knowledge is
growing at an exorbitant rate. While writing the assignments for DCL and
LDC and R&C, I have gained a lot of
knowledge from each of these courses and some areas will be revisited by me.
While doing my assignments in DCL, LDC and R&C, my focus
always has been how to raise students’ motivation and engagement in a classroom.
I have used collaborative teaching and learning in my senior school. With this,
I found that within each heterogeneous groups, those students who were thorough
with the content knowledge, improved their grades because they were busy
teaching their peers. This allowed them to improve their understanding and the
content knowledge.
I became a fan of digital games and gamification whilst
doing this course. My literature review was on using digital games and
gamification to improve student engagement and achievement in schools.
Moreover, my inquiry project that followed the literature review was based on
use of games to improve student engagement and achievement. For me, being on a
learning journey, I have fulfilled this criteria to the best of my ability. This
doesn’t mean I will stop here. I am more inquisitive to see how I can use this
with my classes and see what the outcome is. This could be the basis for my
Masters project.
Plan and
Justification for my future developement
Goal 1:
The first 24 weeks of this course has taught me a lot but I
have had very little time to really think about how I am going to incorporate
this within my teaching. Now that I am on the verge of completing this course,
I will have ample time to revisit some of the topics and study it in depth. I
can than apply that to my pedagogy. They say “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, so
obviously it will take time to make changes in my pedagogy.
Goal 2:
This course has been really interesting and challenged my
assumptions. My views have changed and I
have started making changes in my pedagogy. I would like to spend may be one
year to really try things out and then embark on completing a Masters in
Applied Practice in Digital and Collaborative Learning and teaching.
Reference
Criteria 1
Criteria 4
Criteria 7
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