Activity Ten: Criteria and Goals

Activity Ten:  Teaching Criteria and Goals

I think I have dragged myself to the end of this course kicking and screaming. Certainly in my head, and in a body that prefers to move, not sit and read and stare at computer screens for long sessions. But I could see that digital awareness and prolific use was the way I was moving in my own work, even though I was an older non-native user, and so must be embraced fully if I was going to be effective with the students I taught and built a community around on a yearly basis. I was ten in 1974, they are ten in 2016. I needed to look at what their future could hold; the possibilities and the expectations. And so to Mindlab I came. The digital knowledge I have gained from the course and the experience has been huge, to the point I almost can't identify what I knew before and what I know now, as the learning has tumbled in on top of itself so many times and sent me in so many different directions, it feels very whirlwind like. And indicative of the learning done in schools today, where learning is cyclic more than linear. Frequently, I come across something that I know I have seen in the past, but that now makes sense to me, because I have more experience on which to hang it.

The first criteria I choose as an area I have done well in is Criteria 4: commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal practise. The very act of completing the Mindlab course is a huge commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practise. I have used my own teaching context and the changes that are occurring in it, as much as possible in all the assignments, to make all the tasks and learnings relevant to my teaching future and the day to day practises that I want to analyse for the purpose of either keeping or changing.

The second criteria is Criteria 7: promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment. Working continuously with my two school colleagues on all the tasks in a true collaborative fashion was a new experience for me who sat School C and UE. Our relationship was very supportive and inclusive and the bulk of our work and discussions were done together in one place. Our desire to keep the topics and research as close to our working situations as possible made them very authentic and had the spin off effect of drawing in other colleagues from school, either in discussions, accessing knowledge or offering opinions. Research we did and new things we learnt were shared with our school staffing community and within our own classes. My students certainly were given more opportunities to collaborate with tasks because of the experiences I had, and the learning I was engaged in.  

The third criteria would be Criteria 6: conceptualise, plan, and implement an appropriate learning programme. The content of the course was frequently challenging in several ways. Often I needed to work hard to understand a concept or programme, way of thinking or tool, before I could pass it on or decide on it's merits. They were new. Then, I needed to look at how I would implement them, and whether they were relevant to my classroom setting. What was my reason for using them? I believe I successfully integrated many new tools and ideas or changes into my class programme over the last year, that enhanced the core areas of learning and engaged my students at a higher level. Certainly we looked at many ideas for reading with Pacifica boys in DCL and now with chromebooks on a 1:1 basis.

One goal for the future is to continue to develop and up skill my digital prowess. To learn from my students, my colleagues and personal professional reading or research. Many of the programmes and platforms I have been privy to I have a surface understanding of. I would especially like to build my knowledge and skill base around personal professional blogging and student blogging to complete the learn, create, share model that underpins Manaiakalani and Ako Hiko. I enjoy the interaction blogging creates between many different communities both internal and external to the school environment, as well as the engagement students have with the forum.

My second goal is to successfully set up our three class syndicate as an ILE that has integrity in it's systems, structure and body. I believe it is important to develop models of learning that have built in learner agency as well as the development of skills in the basics. Students need both to operate independently. I would like our ILE unit to run with 21st Century skill acquisition to the fore, and for this to be reflected in our planning and the programmes we run.

Activity Nine: Cultural Responsiveness

Activity Nine: Cultural Responsiveness

A culturally responsive pedagogical orientation focuses attention on reciprocity in exchanging teacher and 
learner roles; on collective responsibility; and on the importance of caring and respectful classroom 
relationships between people, and between students’ cultural knowledge and domain knowledge
 (Glynn, Cowie, & Otrel-Cass & Macfarlane, 2010). 

What is my indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy?

As a fourth generation Pakeha and a 'child of the environment', the Maori culture has always resonated with me and been part of my identity as a New Zealander. Despite an education at school and at home in the 60's and 70's that labelled Maori as 'lazy', I have always disbelieved it. Early on I had no real grounding for that disbelief except that it was just plain wrong and unfair, but on entering Playcentre with my own children and being educated on the Treaty of Waitangi and the history of Maori in New Zealand (which I didn't get at school) a light was definitely shone on the glaring discrepancies in both my education and the deal Maori had gotten. Teaching about the Treaty of Waitangi, and the possibility of all people, and the unfairness of racism, became important to me as a parent and later a teacher. I saw diversity as paramount to developing accepting and inquiring children. 
In my classroom practise I believe I have high expectations of Maori (and all students) and disbelieve deficit explanations as to why Maori in particular are not achieving. I believe as Russell Bishop (2015) states that Maori are very educable and that being responsive to a student and their culture helps to develop relationships that can be built upon in their learning journeys. 
Looking at what I do in the classroom I believe I incorporate children's funds of knowledge and lived experiences beyond school, well, and use these in the classroom in the direction learning takes. However I don't incorporate families or communities funds of knowledge nearly as much, and believe this is an area to really work on.  I am comfortable positioning myself as a learner so that students can contribute their expertise, but haven't opened myself up to their families and whanau.  
Over the years I have gained some insight into how Maori and Pasifika communities operate and the beliefs they have around co-operative and collaborative learning. I have incorporated systems that ensure students can express and present their learning in all manner of ways.  

Addressing Cultural Responsiveness

School Wide Activities and Learning Activities.

Over recent years the direction Waikowhai Primary School has taken to address community involvement and cultural responsiveness has meant we have developed strengths in our school wide activities and learning activities. I think these link together as the school wide activities include learning opportunities for students, staff and community members. 

WPS Student Ethnicity Population

Waikowhai Primary has a unique culture because of its size and demographics. No one culture is more dominant than the others. The numbers reflect seventeen different cultures or ethnic groups identified.
Over the last four years we have tried and tested a number of ways that we can engage our diverse community and participate in learning from their funds of knowledge. Cultural celebration has increased with evenings, events and recognition of special days or significant traditions. Included into the calendar year are regular hui with Maori families and fono with pasifika families. Days that are designed to have families connect and enjoy their shared cultural background as well as voice how they want to interact with us. Alongside these a raft of new innovations into the school programme have been set up to create a culture of care and inclusion. They are all initiatives that have brought the community closer. The introduction of a breakfast club, two walking school buses, a social worker in school two days a week, Kids Can food baskets, shoes and jackets, Eat My Lunch and providing childcare at all evening meetings have all helped student wellbeing. The introduction of Reading Together courses for parents and students, Parent Reading programmes that see parents and grandparents listening to students read, staff being enrolled in the Incredible Years Parenting courses, the development of a Ka Hikitia plan and Pasifika Education Plan, are all programmes that impact on the learning activities in the school. Finally, Maori and Pacific parents helped put the Ka Hikitia and PEP plans together for the school.

Communication Methods

% families engaged in school  

2015 WPS Report 

The area I think we need to do further work on regarding community involvement is how we communicate and the methods we use. There are still a number of families who are not engaging with the school. In 2015, a Community Engagement Survey was carried out by two teachers who found that European and Indian families are the most involved ethnic groups with both over 80%, while Middle Eastern and Tongan ethnic groups are the least involved with 50% and 58% respectively. Some ways that are being looked at to improve communication so that all families feel included and encouraged to participate in school life, are having newsletters translated, shoulder tapping different cultural leaders from among our parents to lead regular forums where families feel comfortable to raise concerns or make requests and encouraging parents from different ethnic backgrounds to become members of Friends of the School. A survey could also be created that asks about how families want to be communicated with, to gage if there are ways we have yet to consider. 

References 
Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994
Edtalks.(2012, May 30). Mike Hogan: Culturally responsive practice in a mainstream school. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/43097812

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al.(2011).Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative.Retrieved from http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/9268_cowie-summaryreport.pdf                                  Shinn, L., Rai, C. (2015).  Ethnicities of Families Involved in School Activities September 2015 [school report]

Activity Eight: Ethical Dilemmas

Activity Eight: Ethical Dilemmas

Cyberbullying

Image Source 

Cyberbullying is a hot topic with the latest tragedy of a young girl taking her own life at 12, in New Zealand. This dilemma is relevant for my situation as we head into our first year of starting up three digital classes in our school, which is all of the senior syndicate I lead. Our students are 9-11 years old so younger again than this case, but the side issue to this dilemma is that they have access at a young age so that by the time they are 12 and heading into teenage years they have sophisticated skills and use of digital devices. Far more sophisticated than many of the adults in their lives. How do we prevent it? How do we ensure we don't step over 'early signs' of students being digitally bullied in our community?

"Cyberbullying" is defined as any act of bullying through the use of the Internet, interactive and digital technologies, cellular mobile telephones or other mobile electronic devices or any electronic communications according to Connecticut State Statute, Section 10-222d." (p.40)

This description of cyberbullying goes on to say that victims may not often know who the bully is or why they are being targeted, that the actions of a cyberbully can go viral resulting in a cyber attack by many, that it can be done from a physically distant location and finally, many adults lack the technological know-how to monitor online activity. (Cyberbullying Research Center www.cyberbullying.us)

These are important elements to consider when overseeing digital learning in a school and teaching cyber safety from the onset. Being open and aware of the context of this type of bullying will help with the identification of it early on. Thinking of the consequences up front is like the development of a RAMS form (Risk Analysis Management System) when planning an outdoor offsite adventure or camp. Looking at the risks, ensures a plan is in place to prevent them.

Our school has preventive measures in place. Understanding the importance of these and ensuring my code of ethics as a teacher is maintained is vital to student wellbeing around their device use. I have a commitment to my learners, their whanau and society. The measures include;

• A programme of communication with whanau and community on the use of, respect for and conditions of the student chromebooks. Evenings to connect with families are run to share learning and build relationships and understanding of their rights around the devices. 
• Cybersmart lessons on a weekly basis for a year with an outside facilitator. These are uploaded to the class sites, accessible by all family and the community. These include sessions on what to do if unfair, mean, nasty actions are taken against them on a device. Building a culture of integrity online from the outset that will hopefully be lasting.
• A Kawa of Care document that is signed by all students and whanau on the onset of purchasing a chromebook. This includes agreements signed by students to "respect others by always using this device to interact with anyone in kind, positive and helpful ways" and to "always be in the right place, at the right time when I am online. If in doubt I will ask my teacher or parent." It also includes agreements signed by family that they "will ensure we apply Cybersmart values at home." and "I will interact with my child's learning in a kind, positive and helpful way" and finally '"and ensure my child is encouraged to be a responsible user." Alongside these is included an agreement by the school "to ensure the classroom environment adheres to the CyberSmart curriculum" and "to support parents in engaging with student work." (Manaiakalani Kawa of Care, 2015)
• A school wide block on facebook, and instagram as students need to be 13 or over to own an account. As well as restrictions on a range of sites and words.
• The use of Hapara in classrooms to monitor online access, and discuss choices being made.
• A series of Waikowhai School documents and policies that underpin a safe and secure digital learning environment that follows the Ministry's Netsafe Learn, Guide, Protect model.
  
   

Laying a foundation that is open and honest, should mitigate most cyberbullying practices from going too far as students will understand they can discuss them, how to deal with them, who to approach and what is not acceptable. If incidences do come to my attention, I would discuss them with my principal and ICT lead teacher to ascertain the next steps to take. A discussion would need to be had with the students involved to understand the level and duration of the bullying, as well as the motivation. Then a three way conference would be necessary with the whanau or family. Restorative sessions may be called for with the school councillor as well. Depending on the situation Netsafe may be contacted for further advise of how to proceed, if we feel it doesn't sit within our school behavioural plan or cybersafety policies. As would the authorities be contacted if that was deemed necessary.

I feel it would also be necessary to address the issue again with all the students in my class and syndicate in the form of reviewing lessons and discussions to insure students are aware of what we need to do to keep ourselves protected.

References

Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program. (2012). Ethical and Professional Dilemmas for Educator: Facilitator’s Guide. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ctteam.org/df/resources/Module5_Manual.pdf

Ministry of Education. (2015). Digital Technology: Safe and responsible use in schools. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. retrieved from http://www.netsafe.org.nz/managing-digital-technology 

Activity Seven: Social Media

Activity Seven:  Social Media

The tools and features within social media that allow individuals to make connections, 

build networks, share learning, receive feedback from peers and grow one’s own learning 

are already challenging the purpose and even need for a classroom, 

as we’ve known it in the past.   Wells, R. (2015) 

Key features of social media beneficial for teaching and learning.

Social media it would seem is here to stay, or to process us through this part of educational history until another movement is created. Students coming through primary school now have only known a world that contains social media as an important form of communication. A comment in my class today was "we are going back to the old days", when they were told technology wouldn't be a part of their camp. They use it daily and the more we can hook into their prior knowing and skills, the better for our teaching and learning being 'real world' for them. 
Some key features of social media that I have found beneficial for teaching and learning are as follows;  

•  Linking into outside agencies to ask questions and receive answers. Information can be gathered of topics or statistics that are very current. This is invaluable in Inquiry learning and giving students learner agency when they want to choose their own direction. An example is in 2015 my students emailed and choose websites they could access people through, when investigating explorers throughout the world's history. As a class this year we have linked into the Sir Peter Blake Trust Auckland Island Adventure to ask questions and contact them by satellite phone. The students were extremely motivated and learnt a huge amount over the few sessions we did, because of the immediacy of feedback and contact. 
• Sharing experiences, expertise and opinions with others through blogging. Students could read the blogs put on the Sir Peter Blake Trust site by the teenage student they knew on the adventure, as well as all the other students chosen to go.  Sir Peter Blake Trust.  At present we are sharing work on our class site and posting feedback on other class sites in the school. Our students are working towards individual blogs later this year and are very keen to trial them themselves. They have the opportunity to not only share their work that they are proud of, but build their audience and gain insight into the thinking of others when they post discussion topics or questions, and receive and give feedback. 
• Surveying to gather ideas, opinions and statistics. We have used surveys in all curriculum areas and used the information gathered to create graphs and reports. Sites like Kahoot and Survey Monkey. 
• Connecting with other parts of the world through video. Next month we will start using Google hangouts to link myself back to the class, via video, from France where I will investigate some of the WW1 and WW2 sites pertinent to New Zealand and my students learning around Anzac Day.  

Potential challenges when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities.

Some challenges with social media platforms could be:

• Students being sidetracked or distracted from what they are doing as it is easy to link into all manner of other sites where unwanted or inappropriate advertising pops up. And set tasks are not completed.
• They post throw away comments to each other frequently, which could lead to cyber-bullying or harassment away from the classroom and school.
• Students have a naivety thinking all social media platforms are innocent and appropriate for them to use so persuade adults or older associates to sign them on.  
• Personal details can be shared inappropriately or even inadvertently, by themselves of peers.
• A misunderstanding around the reasons social media are being used in teaching and learning. 

Social media platforms that best support my engagement with professional development.

Over the time of the Mind Lab course I have joined Google+, Twitter, Ako Hiko, Facebook NZ Primary Teachers Group, and Blogspot to name a few. Others I have signed up to, I can't remember how to use or why I would! 
One of the social media platforms I feel best supports engagement with my professional development is google+. I am linking into this regularly, as notifications of posts pop up, and because of the groups I am connected to like Ako Hiko and Manaiakalani. Through Ako Hiko and Manaiakalani I have access to many new ideas, activities and discussions from other teachers in either digital classrooms or ILE classrooms or both. The links to workshops and new ways of thinking have been invaluable to the setting up of my own digital classroom, as well as fast tracking my personal professional development in the digital realm. 

Image Source

While reading the social media blog by Savelino Lepou (2015), I learnt about Quadblogging for the first time. This is a site and idea I would like to hook into with my class, so they have other groups as their audience outside the classroom and country.   

Social media that enhances my professional development.

I joined twitter at the Auckland uLearn conference 2015 and was able to participate in the multi-layered sharing at the conference at the time. I was also able to connect to many people that were quest speakers, presenters I hadn't seen but knew of or heard exciting things about, and fellow participants. I believe Twitter is a good place to access more information or research about a professional topic, and I can move from link to link accessing many different opinions or new learnings. 

Activity Six: Contemporary Issues or Trends in New Zealand

Activity Six: Contemporary Trends in New Zealand

Learner Agency. Derek Wenmoth's quote clearly defines what agency is, and the essence, I think, is the words
'the power to act'. Students having the power to act on their own behalf. 

         One way of thinking of learner agency is when learners have “the power to act”. When learners move from being passive recipients to being much more active in the learning process, actively involved in the decisions about the learning, then they have greater agency.   Derek Wenmoth (2014) 

Derek Wenmoth (2014) of Core Education, talks about the three main features of Learner Agency being self regulation, interdependence and awareness of responsibility. Self Regulation being when the student truly believes that their behaviour and approach to learning will make a difference for them and their learning in a given situation. Interdependence whereby students aren't working away on their own but take into account the social context of the classroom and are aware of the consequences on others of their decisions and actions. Awareness of Responsibility being the awareness that every decision or action a learner takes will impact on those around them and their environment.

Image Source 

Having had Year 5 and 6 students for many years now, I recognise how much at 9 and 10 years old, students want to have responsibilities, challenges, problems to solve and personal autonomy. They thrive on it and relish in the chances they are given to develop their independence. Knowing this I have strived to feed into my programme over many years situations and times when students could work to 'the beat of their own drum' so to speak.  I also run the Student Leadership group and manage the opportunities and responsibilities Year 5 and 6 students have within the school: jump jam leaders, librarians, backtrack duty monitors, peer mediators and wet-day monitors.

Moving into the future of ILP's and digital devices has suddenly thrust this trend into the limelight. Looking at what I have done and the level of Learner Agency Wenmoth is speaking of I can see I need to develop a deeper layer of agency than I currently adopt. Learners need to be more actively involved in developing systems for themselves and I need more intentionality around students being aware of the learning levels in each area of the curriculum, so their decisions are even more informed. While we have student voice in our school and have gathered ideas and opinions through surveys and mini panels, this is usually limited to particular areas of review within the school. Bringing this into the classroom on a regular basis is an area to develop further. 

Within the Ten Trends that were listed by Core Education in 2014 and 2015 was Global Connectedness. The descriptor in 2014 states that most of us now have more opportunities to connect with others than ever before. Social networks, global branding and economic advancement, ease of travel and global communications - all accessed through a handheld device - characterise the world in which we live. Karen Melhuish Spencer ( 2014) talks about the reasons or drivers behind global connectedness being technology, changing demographics and economic competition. Technology has enabled us to link into a vast number of other countries, allowing people to connect with, contribute to and learn from those people. Changing demographics is the shift and growth in workforces as well as ageing populations and growth of skilled workers. Economic Competition sees countries competing for advantage globally, in terms of supply and demand. All these elements filter down to families buying or selling online, skypeing relatives overseas, watching in horror situations unfold on news channels and/or connecting with others through games. This myriad of ways to connect also brings problems or challenges for me as an educator. Being global citizens with integrity online is as important to learn as having integrity when face to face with people. Recognising how to be cybersmart, especially when connecting independently, is paramount. 

Image source 

Having moved into a digital classroom I have suddenly been thrust into acknowledging, recognising and looking for the vast number of ways in which we use digital devices and systems as a society, and how I will keep up with and incorporate these into my teaching. I am aware I need to prepare my students for their future and not my past, as stated by Derek Wenmoth (2014) when he was talking about student agency. The opportunities to link and share in both information and practical terms is huge, but having the digital literacy to navigate this environment is vital if my students are going to take advantage of the opportunities successfully, as well as question and critically evaluate what they see. We have used LEARNZ virtual field trips, satellite phones to the Auckland Islands and skype to other schools so far. In the future we are connecting with an overseas school as email pals, using our class blog and class site to stay connected when I am overseas for five weeks and using google hangouts to directly share experiences. Greater student understanding of the people they share communities with, is important to build culturally rich and empowered societies.  

References

Melhuish Spencer, K. (2014). Ten Trends 2014: Global Connectedness Retrieved from 

http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends/ten-trends-2014/global-connectedness 

Wenmoth, D. (2014, February 13). Ten Trends 2014: Agency | EDtalks. Retrieved from
http://blog.core-ed.org/blog/2014/02/ten-trends-2014-learner-agency.html

Activity Five: Professional Connection Map

Activity Five: Professional Connection Map

Link to Image

Goals: 
Becoming fluent in the use of digital devices is an overarching goal for me personally this year. While creating my Professional Connections Map, and in fact completing the blogging assignments for the course, I have come to realise that my professional development and connectedness would be greatly enhanced if I continued to blog and comment and follow other educational professionals. So my first goal is to continue to blog and comment within the Ako Hiko Google+ Community, in particular, to build up connections with teachers that are in this cluster. My other goal is to attend Toolkit Workshops run by Ako Hiko and Manaiakalani twice a term, targeting new digital skills. This also allows me the opportunity to put faces to names and blogs I have interacted with online, and who are all new connections made in the last six months.

Interdisciplinary Environments
Moving into teaching a class that has 1:1 devices and an ILE environment later in the year lends itself to working in a more interdisciplinary environment. In Mathison and Freeman (1997) review on interdisciplinary approaches to curriculum delivery I was interested to read about the different layers, and how they look in a classroom setting, from those that involve relatively little risk to others that need huge systemic changes to curriculum delivery. My understanding from the article is that interdisciplinary teaching is when two or more disciplines are consciously brought together and taught simultaneously, keeping them distinct and in focus, but allowing for content to be co-ordinated and run along a connected theme.

 We have been talking about 21st Century skills frequently over the past nine months and it would seem the benefits from this style of delivery is that students gain skills that lie within this realm; the ability to adapt, to analyse and organise, and to interpret fast-paced multidimensional information. (Mathison & Freeman, 1997). When Inquiry learning brings together different disciplines and is cemented in real life themes or activities it provides more meaningful learning experiences and links students to the real world. They are not just learning abstract, arbitrary facts and strategies, but have a reason that is obvious to them for the learning they are doing. An example for me was students setting up small companies to fundraise for their school camp and then selling their products at a market day. There was some teacher direction and requirements and even direct teaching of content that would be needed, but students also needed to plan, collaborate and problem solve all manner of things to actually 'present' on the day. The experience was more hands on and required the students to make decisions, and then change direction if those decisions weren't right.
Other benefits to teaching this way, would be the sharing of strengths, ideas and subject matter with colleagues, the greater understanding of different disciplines and how they link together and the motivation of students who feel they have greater autonomy over their learning journey.

The challenges that arise I think are definitely around choosing themes or connections that promote the educational standards that are required and desired in students at the level I have. Also the ability to maintain the structure of learning and create balance between a general education and in-depth coverage of different disciplines. How do I decide what is important for students to know and do and what can be left out? As the teacher I would need to be flexible and explore ideas and ways of achieving goals that are different to what I may have done in the past, which I could find difficult to do.  Another challenge is answering to parents who are worried their children are not getting the basics and a traditional grounding like they did. Finally, knowing what level of ability to expect and how to evaluate if the task or activity has been successful also needs to be discussed and considered.

References:

Mathison, S. & Freeman, M. (1997). The Logic of Interdisciplinary Studies. Retrieved from
                https://app.themindlab.com/media/9266/view

Activity Four: Community of Practise

Activity Four: Community of Practise

"It is life itself that is the main learning event."   

                                                                                                 (Wenger-Trayner, 2015)

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

Cornwallis Beach 

While my job titles are Classroom Teacher, Syndicate Leader and school wide Sports Co-ordinator, I believe my specialist area of practise is the organiser, or motivator for others to organise, Education Outside the Classroom trips and events, as well as events within the school that are a collaboration between the different stakeholders in a school community. The quote above resonates deeply because I believe that life itself is the main learning event, and so often we plan ahead only to have those plans changed because of an idea or event that just happens and needs to take precedence if we want our students to have real life experiences and learning. My strength is in believing in creating extra-ordinary events, having the energy to run with new ideas and to motivate others to agree and run with them as well. In 2015 our entire school went on a school picnic to a local (30min drive) beach with an emphasis on the community coming too. Over 220 students swam, cleaned the beach, built sand sculptures and 'hung out' with their families. This is now an annual event on the school calendar. 

Victoria Park Auckland 

We also took the whole school to the Rugby World Cup celebratory parade in Victoria Park in Auckland after the All Blacks successfully defended the World Cup. 
For camp, I took my syndicate of Year 5 and 6 students to Mt Ruapehu for four days. Of the sixty students that attended only five had ever been to the snow or skied before. All the students learnt to ski or snowboard. 

Mt Ruapehu 

These events bring communities together, allow for many many people to be involved or participate in others being involved through fundraising, donations, discussions, organisation and prior learning of expectations. They allow for students to apply skills they are learning to real life situations: creating posters, developing fundraising ideas, being student leaders, acknowledging the efforts of others and applying new learning to assessment expectations. 
For me it is about facilitating interconnectedness and creating events that are remembered with pride by a community that might not have thought it possible. Events that can be stepping stones to other possibilities, created by other people. One of the issues that arose with the ski trip in particular, was that children from a low decile school, that needs to feed it's students breakfast, shouldn't be sending them on an expensive trip to a place that isn't relevant to their lives. This is a mind set that keeps children from striving for the 'top of the mountain', whatever that may be for them, and is a prejudice or classism that needs to challenged. All students should be given opportunities to 'test' themselves physically, mentally, socially and academically. 

What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How do you think you or your community of practice should address them?

Image Source. http://akohiko.org/

In 2015 our principle signed our school into the Ako Hiko Cluster of schools; an outreach of the Manaiakalani Community in East Auckland. With this decision was the agreement to start up 1:1 digital classrooms in 2016. The pedagogy of Manaiakalani is Learn, Create, Share and puts the student at the centre of their own learning. There is an expectation that students will constantly reflect on how well they are doing in relation to the Learn Create Share pedagogy. And that they move toward visible and ubiquitous learning. All three classes in the senior syndicate are now digital with chromebooks the choice of device. Later in the year our three classes will be shifted into an ILE building that is in the process of being built. This is a huge change in the context of my profession and that of my syndicate. Planning and activities now need to be considered in this context. While the pedagogy is not knew to teaching or even our Inquiry based style of learning, the level at which students share in particular is different.  And again although our classes have worked together as a syndicate in the past the level of change and collaboration needed when in a shared space is at a new level. For this reason we have and think we should continue to work closely together, sharing and reflecting on how we are progressing on an almost daily basis. 

Class Site 

Over the holidays we created class websites together and had many discussions about how the year ahead might look. Class websites are the anchor place for all student learning. From these sites students create copies of documents and file them into their personal drives. They have personal emails and are linked to the outside world. We also set up classroom blogs to start sharing work on a weekly basis. Later the students will have personal blogs.   

                                     Room 9 Blog   

Our syndicate is visiting different schools together and attending workshops together to gain insight into how we will successfully transition in both areas of change. 

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

Within these changes are definite challenges. Creating a website and blog was a huge learning curve for me. They were new systems I needed to learn quickly and efficiently, and become comfortable navigating on a daily basis. Becoming more savvy in the digital realm is another challenge and very important if I am going to be able to keep ahead of, or at least up to, the students in my class. Being honest with the students is important in addressing this. Having a culture of 'lets learn together' will help build relationships and student agency. To us as a syndicate, it is important that the integrity of the student's learning is maintained and that the systems are robust enough to engage them, challenge them and continue to move them forward in all areas of the curriculum. The challenge is that these changes don't become an excuse for a slowing down of core learning. As a syndicate we are changing how work is planned, accessed, completed and shared. Our planning is done more collaboratively and work is shared continuously, so all three classes cover very similar ground and each class benefits from three teachers being 'on the job'. Students mostly access their work digitally, not in hard copy, but have continuous access to it, as it will stay on the class site and be saved into their own files. When work is set it will be completed in a range of ways. Although most may be accessed digitally, we are mixing up how they complete tasks. Some is digital, some in books, some with physical movement that may or may not be recorded. Finally sharing, students can share their work with each other, other schools in the cluster and with their parents.

Hapara Dashboard

Student work is also accessed by teachers through Hapara. This system connects all student activity and work to the teachers laptop. Marking is done online through commenting on work that is saved into files. Finally another challenge is that a move into digital learning doesn't take precedence over practical or physical skills. To address this we are ensuring our planning includes robust systems of Fitness, PE, EOTC, The Arts, Technology and Community Involvement. Our students will attend a local camp this year that will focus on outdoor skills. For this they will be involved in their own fundraising, creating companies. 

References: 

eLearning Infusion. (n.d.) Student Agency. Retrieved from http://nickrate.com/2013/06/04/student-agency/ 

Manaiakalani Education Trust. (n.d.) Learn, Create, Share. Retrieved from http://www.manaiakalani.org/our-

            story/learn-create-share

Wenger-Tayner.com. (2015) Introduction to Communities of Practise. Retrieved from http://wenger-

            trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/