Skip to main content

2016



This year I am venturing into unchartered territory on my journey as an educator. I am team teaching in an open environment with 55 students ranging from year 6 - 8.
I am participating in an eFellowship where I am looking at innovative ways to engage and teach students.
All of this is very new and as such I thought it would be interesting to share my reflections with an authentic audience in the hope that by doing so it will provide me the forum to be honest with myself so that I can improve my practice.
If anybody should come across my blog, please feel free to provide some constructive feedback/feedforward, what ever you prefer to refer to it as.


Week 1:
  • What has gone well -
    • team teaching going very well
    • Share similar philosophies - growing people, understand and value the importance of community, empowering students
    • communicate well, no ego’s and willing to learn off each other and recognise each other's strengths
  • What can go better -
    • team planning and progress recording sheets could be focussed on a little more - we have provided them but I’m not sure how well we are monitoring them. I think if they are to be successful we need to make sure the students understand what they are, what they are for and why we are using them

  • The focus has been on:
    • Community: What is it? What does it look like? How does it function? What does our community look like?
    • All students shared their ideas of what they think community in in a video journal. We will use that and others in the future to track students understanding of community and how it develops over the course of the year.
    • It has been interesting to see what students understanding  of community has been and to realise their understanding of their own community is limited.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How is your school addressing the needs and aspirations of its community?

How is your school addressing the needs and aspirations of its community? In the last few years I have been fortunate enough to have been the recipient of several research grants. As part of this I have read many education and social research articles both international and national. This has allowed me to be aware of, and follow many international and national trends in education. It has also meant that I have been exposed to many different perspectives of what education could look like as we attempt to navigate the uncertainty that surrounds the future needs of our ākonga.  There are many organisations that have discussed and provided evidence to help us recognise the need for change and the tools to implement them. Organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provide The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, which governments use to help them measure the effectiveness of their education systems for preparing stu...
Post a Comment
Read more

What can we learn about community from our students?

This was my first real experience of asking a deep question and using research to explore it. It was a fantastic opportunity and one that has created a burning desire to question our why and to provide students with a platform to have their voice heard
Post a Comment
Read more

Examine how indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness are informing your practice

  After living abroad for almost 15 years, I came back to New Zealand at the beginning of 2010. For the previous 5 years I lived and worked as a teacher in an Aboriginal community in the far north of Australia. It was an isolated community that was only reachable by boat or a single daily flight. English was often a third or fourth language for the indigenous population and their traditional way of life was in many ways still intact. Being immersed in their culture, I learnt their language and was adopted into a local family. During my time there I developed a deep understanding and respect for their culture. I only mention this as a reminder to myself of where I have been and where I am now. On returning home after having been away for so long, I noticed how much New Zealand had changed in terms of its focus on honouring the Treaty of Waitangi (at least in the media and the attempts by Government Agencies to promote our bi-cultural status). This was evident to me as I began teachi...
Post a Comment
Read more