My decision to embark on the post grad Mind Lab journey came out of my desire to increase my knowledge and experience around digital technology and its place in today's education. I was concerned that coming out of a class would make me too far removed from the e -learning and connectivity that I knew my students and colleagues would be a part of. I was concerned that I didn’t know enough to contribute fully to a senior leadership team.
At Mind Lab I found that collaborative practice was being modelled by the teachers in the room during the first 16 weeks of face to face lectures and hands on activities. Luckily there was always enough knowledge in the group and people willing to learn, work together and produce to a deadline. I found the lectures interesting and thought provoking and the hands on activities challenging and at times frustrating. I gained in confidence over my thinking around technology and I increased my confidence when trying new technologies. During this time I have also gained in confidence over the use of blogging and twitter as a way to be connected globally.
At Mind Lab I found that collaborative practice was being modelled by the teachers in the room during the first 16 weeks of face to face lectures and hands on activities. Luckily there was always enough knowledge in the group and people willing to learn, work together and produce to a deadline. I found the lectures interesting and thought provoking and the hands on activities challenging and at times frustrating. I gained in confidence over my thinking around technology and I increased my confidence when trying new technologies. During this time I have also gained in confidence over the use of blogging and twitter as a way to be connected globally.
One of the highlights for me was the opportunity to work with my colleague on the group tasks. As of the beginning of this year we have been working at the same school. This brought our group assignments sharply into focus as we were able to make every assignment and piece of research relevant to our school context. (Newly established school as a result of a merger). We discussed, debated, analysed and clarified our thinking on a variety of subjects that we were always able to view through the lens of our particular context. It didn’t start out that way last November, but what a bonus!
Two key changes in my own research informed practice in relation to the Practising Teacher Criteria (PTC) in e-learning:
Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.
One of the benefits of this course is the dialogue that has come out of looking at research. As a new school, everything that we do, we are are looking critically at and deciding how it will look for us. It is the perfect time to reassess or press the reset button. We have looked hard at how we want to show leadership to our teams. We are consciously modelling collaborative practice as a senior leadership team. We have a shared office and the staff know that we work collaboratively on tasks. We model professional attitudes of a growth mindset (The whole staff were given Carol Dweck's book Teaching a Growth Mindset at the beginning of the year). In the course of our Mind Lab work, my colleague and I have investigated and created a plan for the introduction of project based learning as a natural progression in innovative practice from self regulated learning, student agency, and deep learning tasks. We are excited at the prospects this promotes for our future direction. We are now using blogging as a means of professional dialogue. Blogs are used as a means of chronicling staff Teaching as Inquiry. We now link the activities that we blog about to our PTCs. (Practicing Teacher Criteria).
“Professional development processes share a common goal: improved practice.” (Osterman & Kottkamp. 1993)
Criteria 11: Analyse and appropriately use assessment and information, which has been gathered formally and informally.
One of the challenges that I am enjoying in this role is using data. I have used data as a means of initiating professional dialogue around raising student achievement in my teams for some years now. I have reported to BOT on student achievement in my team. Next level for me is using the school management system to collate, graph and analyse school wide data. This is in order to find trends and implications to report on progress to the BOT and to determine next steps in terms of resourcing, monitoring target children and identifying professional development needs.
We report on overall teacher judgement that we have triangulated with our teachers using formal summative assessment, anecdotal evidence and informal observations.
My next professional development dream is to help facilitate the mindshift that will be necessary to move our school further into innovative practices which includes the adoption of multidisciplinary project based learning. I want to be a part of the movement towards using e- learning as a means of accessing technology in order to do things that we could not: connect, collaborate, design ideate, synthesise, and produce without the technology.
As for my personal commitment to life - long learning, I’m not exactly what the next course will be, but I know that it will be one that is relevant to my leadership role.
References:
Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf
