Reflective Blog (Week 18)
Activity 2: Reflecting on changes in my future-oriented teaching
practice.
Deciding to undertake
postgraduate studies after 25 years of teaching, was initially very exciting
and I felt that it would be the key to revolutionize my teaching into 21st-century
teaching and learning.
My initial concept of doing
the Minlab course was that it was going to teach me a few exciting apps and
this would then change my existing practice. After 18 weeks of this course, I
could not have been more wrong.
For me, personally, Mindlab
got me to begin critically reflecting on my practice and asking myself the
searching question; ‘Am I preparing my students for the 21st
century?’ The simple answer to this question is that I could do better.
I am basing my reflective
practice on the Gibbs Reflective Cycle
Description
My change initiative, to date,
has been slow. Introducing a digital component to my Hard Materials technology
class was a learning journey for both my students and myself. For this learning
journey to be successful, I had to change my mindset to embrace a new challenge
and immerse myself in this challenge. As Boldstad mentions that people do not
learn well as ‘spectators.’ Good learning requires active participation and
engagement.
Feelings
and Evaluation
As the introduction of a
Digital component to my practice was something totally new to me, I had to
first try out this initiative with a selective group of students. I had to
collaborate and ask my colleagues for help on how to teach and introduce this
technology to my students, “drawing on each other’s strengths and knowledge to
best support learning.”(Bolstad R. Gilbert.J MOE June
2009)
Talking to my colleagues and
asking for support allowed me to overcome my insecurities. My students were
really excited about this new technology as it was a great way of improving
communication.
Analysis
To date, the use of Google
classroom within my Technology class has been very positive. My students find
it very easy and efficient to share their ideas, design brief and plan of
action to me.
For me personally, I find
myself becoming better and more confident using this technology. I can now
provide constructive feedback to my students and this allows my students to
come better prepared for my technology class.
The challenge is to move past seeing
learning in terms of being "student-centered" or
"teacher-driven", and instead to think about how learners and
teachers would work together in a "knowledge-building" learning
environment. Bolstad, R.,
Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012)
Conclusion/Action
Plan
The goal is now to embrace this
new way of using a digital technology component to my teaching and exploring
what other aspects of technology I can introduce into my technology class.
To achieve this, I would need to
collaborate and network with other Hard Materials teachers. Sharing of ideas,
successful units of work and also gaining constructive feedback on how to cater
for students with different learning needs. This will now be my primary focus.
The nature of my curriculum area
involves a very high percentage of been creative, hands-on and providing
solutions to practical problems. Although there are aspects of my curriculum
area that overlaps with the classroom curriculum, I need to focus my
collaboration with Hard Materials teachers in other schools and businesses within
the greater school community.
Form a partnership with local
business people is the direction that many schools are moving towards. Networking
with the Futureintech Organisation to get professional Tradespeople to showcase
career pathways will be inspiring for my students to physically see and
interact with.
Reference:
Bolstad,
R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012).
Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective.
Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306
Kia ora e Neville,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your reflection about the process of change in your practice. I will read your referenced sources as they relate well to my focus on 'Changing the Script - Rethinking Learners' and Teachers' roles'.
Kia ora Neville, I thought your post was very reflective. I was interested in that you were using Google Classroom. I'm at present using Hapara Dashboard as it is what we use in our school. I think they are quite similar platforms. You say the children can plan what they intend to do. Do they ever give you feedback on how Google Classroom can be improved. Also, do you think it would be a useful tool to share what their finished product looks like with you, other students and whanau?
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Jonathan Ritchie