My Professional Community #4

Who are the Stakeholders of your professional community? In what ways do they influence your practice?

The students in my class are who I’m primarily responsible for and who play a vital role in influencing my teaching pedagogy.  Society is changing rapidly and Robinson, (2011) suggests that we may face challenges that we have not experienced before such as students with 21st-century technology.  Therefore, I need to continue to evolve as a practitioner and make necessary changes that best enables my students to learn. I know technology such as iPads, Chromebooks, PC’s, Samsung have the potential to engage and promote learning.  



Last year I taught in a digital classroom learning with robotics and this year has seen me try many digital and collaborative innovative learning to bring about change both for students, my colleague and myself.  I have a student who is a great writer however he does not have very good pencil grip and this at times can be an issue for him.  It restricts how much writing he gets done in a time-frame and this can be detrimental to his learning as he becomes withdrawn.  Using digital tools like iPads, Chromebooks and PC’s with apps such as Google Classroom with their Google Docs this student is no longer held back as he finds it much easier to type than write.  I have also used other apps like Blendspace and Google Classroom to assess students learning and give teacher and student effective feedback.

My colleagues are also stakeholders of my community as I’m part of a Modern Learning Environment.  Some students at my school have more knowledge about digital devices and apps than the teachers themselves including my colleagues.  As the teacher with the most knowledge when it comes to ICT it is not only the students that seek my support but also the teachers and my work colleagues.  I’m often supporting teachers to implement new learning or to solve their technical issues.  Some teachers are keen to learn while others struggle with the idea and often need more support.

What is the purpose and function of your practice?  In what ways do you cater for the community of your practice?

As an educator, I am responsible for the students in my community of learning.  The purpose and function of my practice are to give students choice of how they learn best.  This means I need to have the knowledge to empower not only my students but also my colleague as she plays a vital role in making this possible.  Just as important as having the knowledge is letting go of the locus of control.  Students should be utilised as ako’s (leaders) to help others grow including teachers as sometimes hearing it from a peer is more powerful than the teacher explaining to the student.  Effective feedback has been one of the biggest purposes and function of my practice and Hattie and Timperley (2007) states, “Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement, but this impact can be either positive or negative”.  At first I purely focused on teacher feedback using Google Classroom until I realised I needed to shift the focus to include peer feedback.  Hattie, 2012 says, “Teachers who do not acknowledge the importance of peer feedback can be most handicapped in their effects on students.  To ensure I was catering for my community I discussed with my colleague how best we could achieve this as it was important to us both.  I began creating lessons using existing alternatives such as peer review, traffic lights, and a rubric that most students were familiar with.  This was the beginning of a great outcome for the students I trailed it with at the beginning of Term 3 and have extended to others.

What are the challenges you face in your practice?

We are faced with many different challenges, but the real test is how we cope and adapt to those challenges.  Being part of a Modern Learning Environment has come with its own challenges.  The first challenge was being part of a much larger learning environment and working closely with another teacher in the same space with the same students.  It has taken a bit to get used to and I would be lying if I said it was a box of roses.  The most important thing to come out of all of this is our relationship as colleagues. We have a better understanding of each others strengths and weaknesses.  One of the things that we established early in the year was to communicate openly and collaboratively  This has been important to ensure we were both on the same page and the students were not getting mixed signals.  Before coming into this environment, I was aware how loud my colleague can be and this was a challenge for me because I didn’t want to have to raise my voice to be heard over hers.  To overcome this challenge I continued to use a quiet voice and I also expected the students to do the same.  What I have noticed is her voice is much lower most of the time.  Other challenges have been upskilling my colleague.  The students have been great ako (leader) for my colleague in supporting and answering questions to develop my colleagues knowledge of using various devices and apps.  Just as important as having the knowledge is the devices to support the knowledge.  This has sometimes been a challenge as the school provides a limited number of devices with some students bringing their own.  It makes it really challenging when have a great lesson planned but insufficient devices to match the number of students.  We know technology has the power to engage and motivate learners (Lebler, 2012) and so it is important I continue to persist with the challenges for the good of the learner.

References

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. London; New York: Routledge.

Lebler, D. (2012). Technology and Students’. Theory Into  Teachers and students getting left behind by technology. Practice, 204-211.

Robinson, K. (2011). Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. West Sussex, United Kingdom: Capstone Publishing Ltd.