Reflection entry #4 Apply a Reflection Model to discuss something that has happened in my Inquiry so far, and how it impacts on taking action.

Reflective entry 4:

In Finlay's article it states; ‘while we commonly assume that teaching leads to learning, it is the experiences which teaching helps create that prompt learning, not primarily the acts of the teacher’.”
 (Redmond, 2006, p.226)  

This is true in my class with reflecting, you can have the “courage to work competently and ethically at the edge of order and chaos” (Ghaye, 2000, p.7).  I am therefore using Rolfe’s Model of Reflection (Otago Polytechnic, n.d. ) to reflect on my practice so far. 

Step 1 (What): Describe something that is significant and has happened during your Inquiry so far

A notable event that has happened so far is recognising that I needed more ideas to engage the children in my inquiry.  Getting ideas and momentum was the most difficult.  I realised that to counteract this was attending the lecture on robotics and STEAM at the University of Auckland, Epsom Campus.  Chris Rogers is from TUFT's university, Chicago, America and he talked about his philosophy of education as it relates to coding and robotics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DblvNncjR9o

Step 2 (So What): Evaluate the most interesting/important/useful aspects of this event

Attending this event has allowed me to develop my practice as it created a boost in the purpose of coding and the reasons why we do it.  He asked us what do we want children to learn, curiosity and challenging exisiting thinking were some outcomes.  It made me reflect do I provide in my current classroom climate situations for this to occur?  The support therefore was not just from readings but from real life bumping shoulders with other educators and creating robots ourselves  serve a need. In working with a other educators we created a robot that could move without wheels, a fridge door that talked to close and shared with other educators their designs.

Chris shared various ideas relating to Music which is my unit, making instruments and having the brief of performing a concert creates more open ended 'tasty' designs and 'experts' in certain areas rather than a status quo 'cheeseburger' scenario. 

The affect it had on my future practice or understanding: is that it inspired me to adapt some of these ideas back into the classroom. I developed lego scenarios for students on animals and made them come to 'life' with makey-makey sounds.  This proved successful and the levels of engagement fro the students were outstanding.   The experts advice worked giving a simplistic brief for children such as to create instruments for a concert, or make a cute animal and allowing children to 'breathe' and create their design meant a variation in the outcomes.   

Step 3 (Now What): Analyse the implications from this event to the rest of your Inquiry

In the future I can now adapt these practices of STEAM more and more and create innovative ways to bring them into the classroom.  With the new 14th June NZEI negotiations taking place mentioning to relook at the way teachers are 'assessed' through appraisals, can provide a future vision for more risk-taking and learning with students to create innovative projects integrating this with other learning areas.   I also have found that not only my target group wants to adapt these practices yet every child in the class wants to give it a go, so I have had to adapt my classroom practice for the last two weeks of term to allow the space to create 'energy projects' for all students, based on the ideas from Chris and also from what I have read on play based learning.  I have in my classroom now, boats, submarines, microphones, cars and rocket ships. Six year old  students are researching on Ipads how rockets are designed, whanau engagement is up as they mention in the morning their lunch time bands, engagement is up! 

You can see the results in my seesaw blog page; 

6 year olds coding = Increasing literacy engagement. 

https://blog.seesaw.me/room1942019/#!/item/item.c3b3fdf4-42e7-4c41-8e4e-96549a4208aa

References

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. Practice-based Professional Learning Centre, Open University. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.

Reflective writing https://www.op.ac.nz/assets/LearningAdvice/d0a1fac268/Reflective-writing.pdf

Rogers, Chris, Youtube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DblvNncjR9o

Future PD opportunities https://www.teaching.co.nz/professional-learning

Interesting blog.

Reflective Entry #3. Cultural responsiveness.

I have a vege garden.... my coriander grows better as it is on the side.  It has the sun, the warmth, it isn’t pecked by the chickens.  It is fenced off in great growing conditions. My broccoli, however is hen pecked.  It is withered it is worn. 

As being culturally responsive is what we pay attention to and what to stay away from.  The analogy of planting seeds, is that with diversity  we weed, water, watch and let grow.  Just like my fence from the chickens, community is ‘companion planting’ based on a rich connectivity in public and private space and to orchestrate activities in both.  That in this there is strength in relationships in both. Edtalks also mentions; Communities have multigenerational structures and a vibrant community is not invented or forced, but grown. 

For culturally responsive pedagogy I position myself as a learner to support diverse ways to develop, express and strive. 

Community need(s)

Living in Tai Tokerau, it has been identified as a larger Maori population NZ wide.  An aspect as picked up by the Education CoL and the achievement aim of raising Maori achievement in literacy, particularly in Maori Boys.  This is the wider aim of my inquiry also. Our school vision has 'enhancing mana' as seen by the community as being the most important for our students.  This links to - mauri ora life force of student engagement success in kapa haka just as important, to feel safe valued and ako - learning styles kinesteheitc  Maori boys part of uplifting his identity and hapu iwi contribute through formal and informal means of chat.   Tai tokerau as a whole needs to uplift Maori learners and create situations for tino rangatiratanga.  However, under Dr Anne's critical thinking, I need to ask, is this perception coming from a place of expectation from me to be more pakeha or embrace Maori as Maori?  Reading the Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard prompts me to make changes, awareness is key. 

Personally; what resonates with me is the Mauri model from Pohatu, as it links with well-being of the teacher in relation to energy, to be in a state.  It reflects on 3 states

1.  

Mauri moe = to be asleep, you have potential yet you still haven't moved forward and improved your own practice.  

Mauri oho - waking up from a sleep - starting to participate in discussions and meeting with whanau, learn wiaata, 

mauri ora - to be really alive and thriving in an active state, whanau engagement and commitment as a whole group.   In reflecting on my own practice  I can the kapa haka and incorporating matariki in our energy coding concept.  I am aware of pedagogies that engage Maori students, yet this can grow. 

I have participated and contributed to others study on these concepts. I use te reo as much as possible as doing the inquiry, as I am interacting with the students.  I would like to engage in speaking more te reo to whanau in correspondence on their results

I believe, I am in between Mauri moe and Mauri oho.  I am learning also to recognise these states more as it relates to my culturally responsive pedagogy as I teach. 

Therefore, the community can be continuous and organic and an ongoing journey.  I am in the purple zone yet no 'colonisational' hen pecking, as Dr Anne suggests, yet an awareness as educators we are all planting the seeds, creating environments for a community of responsiveness.

tihei mauri ora

References

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

CORE Education.(2017, 17 October). Dr Ann Milne, Colouring in the white spaces: Reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTvi5qxqp4&feature=em-subs_digest

Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Milne, A.(2017).Coloring in the white spaces: reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.

NYU Metro Center. (2019). Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard. Retrieved from https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/media/users/atn293/ejroc/CRE-Rubric-2018-190211.pdf.

Pohatu, T. W. (2011). Mauri - Rethinking human wellbeing. MAI Review, 3, 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.review.mai.ac.nz/index.php/MR/article/v...

Reflective entry #2: Discuss how aspects of law, regulations and/or policy impact on teacher inquiry.

Reflective entry #2: Discuss how aspects of law, regulations and/or policy impact on teacher inquiry

There are many aspects of law, regulations and policy that relate to teacher inquiry.  In page .18 of the regulation ‘Our Code, our Standards’:  It states that in these professional learning standards, teachers can "use inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve their professional capability to impact on the learning and the achievement of all learners".

In our school the codes and standards are embedded into the appraisal process as a teacher inquiry google slide, which we write reflective notes and add evidence beside each code of conduct.  Teachers have an opportunity to create an over all encompassing inquiry.   In my case, it is in coding and how it raises the standards in other areas.  I also through my research, "engage in professional learning and adaptively apply this learning in practice."  In coding and makey-makey, the inquiry process is reflected in my school practice, as it is tied up in my appraisal in a yearly bases. We gather feedback from senior leaders and record this evidence and then use the evidence to see if we meet this code.  

On the online platforms it covers the Professional Learning of "seek and respond to feedback from learners, colleagues and other education professionals, and engage in collaborative problem solving and learning -focused collegial discussions".  This research has been interpreted into the school policy and imbedded into teaching practice to improve learner outcomes. 

When I inquire into and reflect on the effectiveness of practice in an ongoing way, I can identify inquiry from a range of sources;

This ERO’s report lists the characteristics that were evident in effective appraisal systems and “inquiry” is one of them.  As a result, it refines and strengthens teaching as inquiry and therefore measuring this by moving from a focus on compliance to a focus on continual improvement. 

Additionally, P.92-101 in the reading ‘Teaching as Inquiry: form, purpose and application in New Zealand Secondary Schools’ by Wood (2015)  It suggests that leaders need to make the Teaching as inquiry process more robust, valued and an essential component of the school faculty and individual teacher self review. It can kill two birds in one stone as it can relate to Professional Development aims also.  

Wood talks about the length of the teaching inquiry to be over a year is better rather than a short 6 -4 weeks.  He also suggests that it is an inquiry and not to be related to assessment and data gathering on teachers. These elements are evident in my schools inquiry process. 

Broadly speaking and in looking at the wider context, the Communities of Learning in Northland, affects Teacher inquiry. In the CoLs, it states the role is to be reflective competent personal and collaborative inquiry - "be wiling to learn and then unlearn and then to relearn". 

Sinnema (2005) suggests that evidence about student outcomes can be a focal point 

The policy of the Community of learning also affects teachers enquiry, as it has the achievement aims on well being stated. One of the purposes was to "strengthen the use of effective inquiry approaches to teaching across schools to achieve the shared learning outcomes"  It says as part of the role to lead structured opportunities to assist the ongoing development of effective approaches to 'teaching as inquiry' so it does include the code of conduct aims. 

 I have found that the inquiry that I am undertaking in coding has raised my passion for teaching and ignited a new journey of administering practices that work well for students, as well as nourishing myself to be a life long learner myself also.

References

Education Council (2017). Our Code, Our Standards. Retrieved from https://teachingcouncil.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf

Education Council (n.d.). Appraisal as a catalyst for improved learner outcomes. Retrieved from https://teachingcouncil.nz/sites/default/files/ERO_Appraisal.pdf

Wood, C.(2015).Teaching as Inquiry: form, purpose and application in New Zealand secondary schools. (Published Master's’ thesis). Unitec, Auckland, New Zealand.