week 13 continued

This course has taught me to reflect on readings and viewings and connect it to my own practices and experiences. Its been many years since I studied and the difference is now I have practical experiences to draw on while learning. This has been a course that has been timely and relevant.

A significant event has been the response to my ARP from Nikki and Matt. It shows the me the new depth of thinking and reflection I can now achieve with the benefit of age and experience. As a uni student or studying travel in my 20s I would never engaged in this type of learning and been able to reflect to such depth. It is reaffirming that as a “mature” learner (is 43 mature?)  my work can be use to lead others in following courses. Have to say this have given me a whole new view of myself…

For me, I feel where I am most interested in continuing to source learning and ideas through Twitter. I think I am almost addicted and can’t wait for time on the holidays to filter through all the stuff I have like for things to apply to my team/school. I am excited about this way of developing myself as a teacher.

week 13 reflection

I really like the video on 21C learning this week. My favorite thing was it's emphasis on how the classroom now is not the only place for learning and that is now a 24/7, anywhere proposition. I was happy to see parents involved in the video as this has been one of my main considerations during this course. I also related to it as being a parent, i understand how learning is available to my kids any time - even at times i wish they were asleep…. It reminded me of the learning that was still accessible to my kids as we travelled through France and Spain for 2 months last year. Lucky for my daughter and son, they have a teacher for a Mum and I have fond memories of working through fractions on Mathletics with my son at the ancient table of pre-revolutionary farmhouse in rural France on one of our quiet days. He kept up with and actually excelled at maths that term even though he was on the trip of his life. This shows just how learning can be as needed, when needed.
It just reaffirms one of our foci in the Change Plan being parents - i would love them all to see learning a i do. I was happy when one of our boys who is off to Vietnam for a couple of weeks to see family checked he could take his iPad with him. I hope he jumps on and uses it to record his adventures.

Week 12. Are we there yet?

Actually, reading Stephen Heppell's letter to Queensland was very pertinent to my recent experiences talking to friends whole recently moved there. It could have been to Victoria as well though.
This is a one- off opportunity now though to make the change to 21C pedagogy. We have so many young grads that are a rich resource and so many people about to retire with rich experiences to draw from. I feel privileged to actually be in the middle of this. I am one of the few who teachers who survived the Kennet years and introduction of contracts just as they were graduating and fortunately stuck it out and eventually got job security mixed in with many other employment experiences. I am one of those last mohicans that I discussed early in the course who remembers the time without all this technology but has readily made it my own. I feel powerfully equipped to lead the charge into the future.
The mention of standardized testing was timely as we have just come out the other side of NAPLAN.
As a teacher i didn't have much to do with it but saw it swirl through the school and also through my home - having both a year 7 and Year 5 child. My approach to it is "these things shall pass, just do your best, no pressure" You could say the biggest value i place on them is that they are one, somewhat unreliable assessment tool out of many. They are such a juxtaposition against the sort of teaching and learning we are learning about.
I like the mention of fact that this type of learning is not always as expensive as it has to be. We are learning this at our school- we have to be resourceful. We have already discovered the rich source of ideas and resources that Twitter and Pinterest are.
We too are starting to feel that the hardest part is over and that our efforts are being rewarded.

Week 11- The Nitty Gritty

Michael Fullan's reading was very timely and relevant in light of my own experiences this week. The kids are up and flying with the iPads and we are really seeing the change in their learning. They are leading the way with activities and tasks and teaching each other. They are rapidly leaning new technological skills as they work and there is a real buzz about their learning and excitement in the room. HOWEVER, i am in now doubt that there is still a big place for the teacher. They are the facilitators in learning but teachers cannot be hands off, they still need to be making sure the kids are on task and that their activities are relevant and purposeful. Because they are ubiquitous and 24/7 teachers do need to set protocols and guidelines for their use and make kids accountable for what they are doing when in front of they screen, as they are so tempting and multipurpose. I have had to redirect kids away from Minecraft……So many of the issues I face at home with 2 tech savvy screen addicts have wised me up to the temptations and distractions of the screen. As a teacher I need to be aware of creating a culture of discriminating use and the view of it as a tool for learning. That said, i am loving how it is slipping seamlessly into their learning, for example while placing photos of shape patterns into a book creator page one boy decided on his own to record an explanation of the pattern he made. Way beyond what we had thought of for the task but so rich - especially for our English learners.

As for the change plan, I will keep in ming as we work that it almost needs to be a SMART plan- I think that is like a Skinny plan. Acheivable in a timeframe.

Action stations...

As Nikki said today, it really was about the HOW TO.  After today I am really keen to get back to the classroom to start changing a few things and getting rid of tables and reconfiguring out layout and buying furniture- lookout Helen. I and pleased to see how it can really work and would like to see some planning documents from Silverton PS. So I can see how it looks on paper. It was all so busy but I could see it was organized and all kids and teachers seemed to know what they needed to be doing. I still wonder, having worked with a few kids with Aspergers and autism, how would they copw with the business and noise around them. I know a few who I feel may struggle in this sort of learning environment and wonder how it could be altered for them.

It has been significant for me to know already that I cant wait to get back to my room and really shake it up and be sure that the kids and my teaching partner are really going to go with it. I have a real chance to lead the team and make some profound changes in the school that others can take up. Some steps like furniture can change soon, some will take time. But I know we have buy-in in the team. Having the enthusiasm to bring these changes is a good feeling. Looking forward to putting some ideas/plans on paper tomorrow. Feeling a little ready to lead.