TML Wk 32: A key change in my professional practice.

My post this week relates to reflective practice. In response to this I will consider as a school leader the impact that this course has had on my professional practice as a leader using aspects of the Hack Education themes. I will discuss this considering what happened using Rolfe’s (2001) reflective model to unpack it. This takes the form of three simple questions, “what”, “so what” and “now what”.

What?

The Mindlab's 2016 portal of Hack Education in which the trigger statements “In the future education will be…”, “In the future education will not have…” and “I wish education…” were answered and subsequently analysed into 13 themes/concepts as shown in the picture below and from the research of Parsons et. al (2017, p61) this allows me to reflect on the areas of my practice related to collaborative, technological, future focused, digital and 21st Century Skills Based as a leader of a primary school.

I have also felt a huge responsibility as an educational leader to promote within our staff a Learning-focused culture as required within Our Code, Our Standards for the teaching profession where this is described as:

• Learning-focused culture - Develop a culture that is focused on learning, and is characterised by respect, inclusion, empathy, collaboration and safety (p. 20).

So What?

CC Licence for public use

As a school leader, I am wanting our teaching team to collaborate together and provide the best learning opportunities for our students in order to be future focused.  I have reflected on the use of digital technologies for both staff work streams and student learning.  Seeing the value of participating in this course and encouraging as many staff members as possible to participate, I have had to have a positive mindset and show ways of working that the workload for this course, as well as teaching and family commitments can be achieved.  It has been important to encourage others on the course to speak positively rather than negatively about the workload (this has been the biggest challenge, and one that hasn't fully been achieved).  Although I can see positive changes in daily practice for each of the staff members involved in the course, it is hard for them to see beyond the workload capacity that this new learning has brought to encourage others to participate.

In promoting a learning-focused culture I have developed digital systems in order for staff to collaborate and reflect using teaching as inquiry with a collaborative inquiry lens.  This process has been iterated several times in order to explore adaptive leadership and being agile in order to meet the needs of the staff (this has been my biggest reflective area and change in practice).  Recognising through feedback that the digital system created wasn't working for staff and providing coaching and changes to get what is required for effective teaching as inquiry and learning-focused culture it was important to refine and revise our digital system for staff reflection on the changes in their practices.  I need to relate these changes also to the professional standard so that staff can see explicitly the link to the learning-focused culture standard.

Now What?

I need to continue promoting effective digital work flow and consider the parameters of professional learning for all staff to feel comfortable working and teaching in a digital world.  As a staff next term we will complete the digital passport created by MindLab and several staff have also committed to becoming Google Certified Educators Level 1 - being a Google for Education NZ Leader, I will be running a study group each week to support our staff.

In order to reflect on digital innovations at our school, I need to work with a team of educators that looks closely at our Tinker Time innovation to create a rubric that identifies a progression of learning.  This document would support staff to understand how our learners participating in the Tinker Time innovation are meeting the achievement objectives and process outcomes of the digital technologies curriculum.  I envisage that this will link to 21st Century skills and attributes and link back to our newly created GEMS foundation of learning curriculum at Sunnyhills School.

I will continue to lead by example in digital leadership within my school context and wider professional networks that I am involved with.  I will encourage our staff on this Post Grad Certificate in Applied Practice my support to successfully complete their professional learning by continuing to dedicate time in our meeting schedule for them to focus on their professional improvement.  I will also encourage the graduates that form our Sunnyhills Community of Practice to continue to be innovative and feel comfortable to explore the digital possibilities for our learners and to share this practice with all our team, so that all classes at our school can benefit from our new learning.

Word Count: 803 words

References:

Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

Parsons, D., Lynch, J., Han, B., & Thorn, R. (2017). Hack education: Crowdsourcing the future of education in New Zealand. In S. Nash and L.L.M. Patston (Eds.), Spaces and Pedagogies: New Zealand Tertiary Learning and Teaching Conference 2017 Proceedings (pp. 57–66). Auckland, New Zealand: ePress, Unitec Institute of Technology. 

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Image credit: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1379760

TML Wk 31: Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Responsiveness

My post this week relates to indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness. In response to this I will consider as a school leader the systems and structures I promote to enable and enhance culturally responsive practice in relation to our community demographic. As there is a large field to consider within this area of practice I will focus on the school Vision & Values, along with our communication methods. I will discuss this considering what happened using Rolfe’s (2001) reflective model to unpack it. This takes the form of three simple questions, “what”, “so what” and “now what”.

What?

Culturally responsive pedagogy is described by Gay (2001) as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives as conduits for effective teaching” (p. 106). It is important to consider your own cultural intelligence and family values and how this impacts on your actions and interactions within a bi-cultural and multi-cultural society. As teachers, we are entrusted to be culturally responsive to meet the needs of our learners and communities in which we serve.

Our Vision statement contains six paragraphs that are aspiration to our school community to work towards achieving for our community. One paragraph states:

Sunnyhills has a diverse community. We are responsive to our learners and whanau through our recognition and respect of the many cultures, languages, identities and needs. A willingness to embrace differences is fostered, all the while promoting our special “Kiwi Culture”.

Our vision also states "Our curriculum is inclusive of all learners and all cultures".

While our vision statement is long, our 5 values reflect the essence of our school vision. Part of this that is reflective of culturally responsive practice is that we celebrate our differences, show kindness and respect, along with treating each other fairly. 

So What?

As a school leader while it is important to promote the unique bi-cultural partnership of the Maori culture first and foremost, it is important that we need to be responsive and reflective of our diverse school community. Sunnyhills School has the following ethnic demographic

in which a large proportion identify as Asian.

Currently, we are creating an Asian Awareness Strategy in response to the 46% of our school population identifying as Asian. Chinese form the largest demographic within the Asian community (32%) and I have worked hard over the last 3 years to engage with this community to understand more about their values and needs at our school. I have started a WeChat group to be responsive to their questions, as well as hold termly meeting that are well supported by a Board member that is able to interpret for us. I have also engaged the Asia New Zealand Foundation to hold a parent evening for all our whanau on why we need to understand the impact of Asia on New Zealand's changing multi-cultural landscape and had the opportunity to travel to both South Korea and Singapore on educational tours to understand cultural aspects of these communities and how they might impact at Sunnyhills.

As a school leader creating a new language of learning based on a school values and vision has been important work. Having a strong moral compass towards promoting the bi-cultural relationship and unique position of Maori in our community even though Maori only form a small demographic (5%), is a priority for me and a challenge. Our staff participate in daily karakia in their classrooms and try to incorporate tikanga and waiata to the best of their ability. We have a teacher supporting our Years 1-3 learners with te reo and Te Ao Maori, as well as a whanau member who has stepped forward to take our Kapa Haka group. More can be done and communicating via face to face hui with our Maori community is a vital next step. 

On a bi-cultural level, it is important that our foundation of teaching and learning philosophy incorporates Te Ao Maori principles. Our language of learning that has been developed over the last term is based on the concept of GEMS: Growth, Empathy, Mana and Self-belief. We have looked closely at how these GEMS principles first and fore-mostly link with culturally responsive pedagogy and principles from Tataiako (Cultural competencies for teachers) and the Key Competencies from both the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Whariki (ECE curriculum) as pictured (below).

As yet, we have not shared widely with staff this new foundation of learning and teaching (it has arisen out of research that the leadership team have done towards reaching our school vision and values). Next week, our staff will come together with the Board of Trustees, to report back our research and investigations into practices that our school can do in order to achieve our school vision - this is a unique practice. It is agile and responsive, as a leader, I do not know what may surface and will have to consider how to implement the suggestions (based on research that come from our staff)... plus consider how to communicate this with our community and learners.

Now What?

Community consultation needs to occur as part of our next steps at Sunnyhills in relation to our vision and values, along with a communication plan. Our vision journey with the Schools That Deliver network needs to be communicated with all members of the community. While this has been done to a certain extent through our monthly newsletters and weekly emails, no face to face discussion and feedback has happened. A whole school consultation evening for communicating our vision needs to occur, as well as smaller ethnic group meetings for our Maori (5.6%) and Pasifika (1%) families, along with our smaller Asian minority groups that make up our demographic (of importance to note - Indian (5%) and Sri Lankan (3%).

Communication via WeChat needs to continue with our Chinese community (32%)

and further exploration into translating newsletters into Mandarin needs to be considered. I have been approached by different website providers that offer a translation feature, which might be of use. This would again need to be trialled to ensure the translation into different languages was accurate. I believe it is important to continue with my informal coffee chat opportunities that any community member can attend, so that all members of the community can have a voice and meet with the me (the principal) to discuss what is relevant and pertinent to them as a moment in

time with their on-going experiences of a whanau to be proactive in meeting the needs of our community.

Another next step for us, is to include visual symbols around our school to identify the unique bi-cultural heritage of New Zealand as well as incorporating symbols from our Asian community. We are currently looking at erecting a beautiful carved Maori structure at our entrance and paint cultural symbols and signs around our school environment too.

References:
Gay,G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.

Ministry of Education (2011). Tataiako: Cultural Competencies for teachers of Maori Learners. New Zealand Teachers Council

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sunnyhills School (2018). Ethnic Statistics. Internal School Data. Retireved on 1/7/18 from www.etap.co.nz

Sunnyhills School (2018). GEMS: a foundation of learning. Internal School Document.

Sunnyhills School (2017). Vision & Values Statement. Retrieved from http://www.sunnyhills.school.nz/our-vision

TML Wk 30: Trends Influencing NZ

My post this week relates to trends influencing NZ or internationally. In response to this I will be reflecting on the trends I am informed by professionally following Core Education's Ten Trends over the last decade. I will discuss this considering what happened using Rolfe’s (2001) reflective model to unpack it.  This takes the form of three simple questions, “what”, “so what” and “now what”.

What?

Trends are a general direction in which something is developing or changing. The education sector needs to take stock of the rapidly changing world around our industry and consider the implications for preparing our learners for a world in which the impact digital technologies is creating disruptive and exponential change.  Daggett (2014), identifies five potentially disruptive emerging trends are that need to be considered in the education sector (page 4-8), these are: 

• Impact of digital learning 
• Heightened demand for career readiness 
• Increased emphasis on application-based learning 
• Use of data analytics for decision making 
• Development of personal skills (Daggett, B., 2014)

Figure 1: Core Education: 2018 Trends

Since 2007 Core Education have published each year ten trends based on research that the New Zealand education sector could consider.  In 2014, Core Education started grouping the ten trends that they believe are important to consider against 5 themes: 1) Cultural;  2) Technology; 3) Structural; 4) Economic; and 5) Process.    

As an educational leader that is future focused and interested in being at the forefront of current pedagogical practice, I have encouraged staff to implement a STEM based curriculum in our context in order for our learners to acquire skills and apply learning that is much needed for their future.  This initiative in our context is called Tinker Time.   

So What?

As a professional leader I have taken notice of Core Education's ten trends because they specifically relate to exponential change and digital disruption affecting New Zealand educational contexts.  Tinker Time, provides learners with kits of cutting-edge technology that are rotated around each classroom for our learners to explore and engage with.  It addresses Daggett's (2014) areas of heightened demand for career readiness (with coding and critical thinking strategies being employed) along with the development of personal skills, and addresses the impact of digital learning.  The Tinker Time initiative also sits within the Economic thread of the ten trends, as we prepare our Sunnyhills learners to be active members of their future community.

We have had many visitors to Sunnyhills to see how we have set this up.  Our parent community has provided positive feedback and our teaching staff do not have to be experts in the use of this new technology, however they must allow our students the opportunity to explore the Tinker Time kits.  The below presentation explains our Tinker Time at Sunnyhills:

The Horizon Report, agrees that concepts implement like the Tinker Time activities that we employ at Sunnyhills, help to create opportunities for students to stimulate complex thinking (NMC, 2017).  They postulate that authentic learning isn't a trend, it is a necessity and that inquiry based learning and STEM related activities will help learners be future ready.

Now What?

I believe through the implementation and promotion of Tinker Time, I have followed the steps described by Daggett (2014) that school leaders can take to address the existing challenge in the context of emerging trends:

• Create a culture that supports change
• Create a team within the school focused on the impact of the emerging trend
• Network with others to share best practices
• Take risks in prototyping and iterating practices to accept emerging trend
• Push trend-aligned policy (Daggett, B., 2014)

Our staff are committed to being future focused and that through the implementation of Tinker Time activities they are beginning to realise that we are meeting the requirements of the new Digital Technologies component of the Technology curriculum.  As a school we still need to create a rubric of competencies that each Tinker Time kit addresses.  Staff professional development also needs to occur, as while staff are giving the students the opportunity to participate in the STEM activities, they have not made the correlation between the activities and aspects of the technology curriculum.  As a staff in term 3, we are working towards completing the Mindlab Digital Passport professional learning and several staff are working towards the Google for Education, Level 1, Google Educator Certificate.  As a leader I have promoted staff to personally upskill in these areas and by the end of the 2018 academic year, 8 staff members will have upskilled with the Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital & Collaborative Learning).

Word Count: 760 words

References:

Core Education, (2018).  Ten Trends Document. Retrieved from https://core-ed.org/assets/Uploads/Ten-Trends-14May2018.pdf 

Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing Current and Future Challenges in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014 MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf

New Media Consortium. (2017, August 29). NMC and CoSN Release the Horizon Report: 2017 K-12 Edition [Video]. Retrieved from Youtube

TML Wk 29: Professional Online Social Networks

My post this week relates to Professional Online Social Networks. In response to this I will be reflecting on my own experiences as an early adopter of social media and the opportunities this has created for me professionally. I will discuss this considering Jay and Johnson's (2002) reflective model to unpack it. This takes the form of a three step reflection process that is descriptive, comparative and critical.

Descriptive

I consider myself to be a connected educator and early adopter of social media for professional use.  I have documented this journey, as evidenced in several blog posts and in particular this early one from 2009 on my top 3 tips for getting connected online.  In this post I suggest using "new" web 2.0 tools such as opening an RSS reader account, using social book marking (Delicious) and starting connections using Twitter! I also refer to my developing Professional Learning Network (a PLN) which back then was a very new term and predominately spread throughout New Zealand.  Now, some 10 years later, my PLN is global and these digital connections I can call upon because of the on-going nurturing of interactions via social media, making the vast physical distance of global connection virtual and compact in the palm of your hand (on your device).

Comparative

My experiences parallel the video produced from Office of Ed Tech (2013), shared for our week 29 course work which discusses how being connected is one of the number one tools for being a 21st Century Educator, the isolation of the classroom (or school environment) is no more through the magnification of the transformative power of professional learning via technology (social media).  At the time of writing this post their was limited responses in our cohort survey tool to compare.  What I can say from my own observation of being connected over the last decade is that the use of Facebook for professional social networking has increased with the use of "groups" and of interest over this time the development of #hashtags and frequency of #twitterchats to share professional knowledge.

Critical

As an advocate for using professional online social networks, I reflect back on this 2013 Ignite presentation that I shared in which I spoke about being connected, disconnected and reconnected.  

Ignite Talk | Justine Driver from Emerging Leaders on Vimeo.

It takes a lot to nurture your online social media profile and connections. The rewards of doing so open a world of professional growth that I would have never had opened if it weren't for social media/technology. I would recommend that anyone wanting to start being a more connected educator to follow the simple "Follow 5, Find 5, Take 5" method suggested by Whitaker et al., (2015) as a way nurturing a PLN.  As an employer, being a connected educator is an important factor in considering whether a candidate is suitable and I do review the online presence of applicants.  One of the key points of difference I have in my tool belt when going for leadership roles (I believe) is that my employer knows that it isn't just my skills, and knowledge that they are employing, but that of my wider collective and connective PLN too, which I can access readily!  

Opportunities afforded to be by being connected (& associated blog links/video):

• Presenting at the National Aspiring Principals Conference 2013 as alumni
• Presenting for TeachMeetNZ at the Festival of Education 2014
• Attending the Google Innovator Academy 2014 (becoming a Google Certified Innovator and Educator)
• Being on the leadership team for GEGNZ (Google Educator Group NZ)
• Organising the 2015 Twitter Dinner in Auckland
• 2015 Presenter for the Connected Learning Advisory session "Are you a connected leader?"
• #SparkshopAKL 2016 & 2017
• Being invited to be a coach at the 2017 Google Innovator Academy in Sydney
• Being invited to attend the GEG Asia Pacific leaders forum in Singapore for Google for Edu.
• Being a mentor for Google Innovators from the Colorado 16 cohort & Sydney 17 cohort

Word count: 649

References

Emerging Leaders, (2013) Ignite Talk by J. Driver. [video file].  Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/69428288

Driver, J (n.d). Blog posts retrieved from http://digitallearningnz.blogspot.com/

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002). Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.
Office of Ed Tech. (2013, Sep 18). Connected Educators. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=216&v=K4Vd4JP_DB8
Whitaker, T., Zoul, J., & Casas, J. (2015). What connected educators do differently. New York, NY: Routledge.

TML Wk 28: Influence of Law and Ethics in Practice

My post this week relates to the Influence of Law and Ethics in Practice.  In response to this I will be reflecting on a previous experience with a Provisionally Certified Teacher (PCT) breaching our school privacy guidelines.  I will discuss this considering what happened using Rolfe’s (2001) reflective model to unpack it.  This takes the form of three simple questions, “what”, “so what” and “now what”.

What?

At our school all students in Year 3-6 have their own school Google Suite for Education account.  The PCT of a Year 3 class was teaching them to use their account and had on display each child's class login and password.  A parent brought to my attention that her daughter's work had been tampered with as a result of the passwords being on display (another child had signed into the student's account and ruined their work because of the passwords being insecure due to teacher error).  

So What?

It is important that our staff uphold and model best practise with using digital technology and being a digital citizen.  A privacy guideline from our policy states "We have reasonable safeguards in place to protect personal information from loss, unauthorised access, use, or disclosure.  These safeguards include the use of individual logins for computers" (2018).  In this case, the young PCT had breached privacy by displaying the logins and passwords for all students in her class, causing a student to take advantage and destroy another child's work (digitally).  This made tracing the offender very difficult, as the document didn't have shared authorship; the offender used the child's login/password.  As a school leader I was able to use the history feature of the G. Suite to print evidence and timestamps of when specific changes had been made to the student's document and provide this as evidence for the parent.  

Now What?

The dilemma for myself and the PCT was how to do to use this as a learning opportunity for these young learners regarding sharing passwords, appease the parent that action had been taken, and support the PCT on how best to manage digital technologies in class with her learners. On reflection it would have been useful to have been able to use Ehrich et al. (2011) “model of ethical decision-making” as it would have not only given ourselves some clear directions but also may have been useful to show the parent how I thoroughly considered all aspects of the breach (the seriousness of the issue) and dealt accordingly. The strength of using a model like Ehrich et al. (2011) is the way in which it breaks down each of the components of the incident. Whether these are around legal issues, professional ethics or areas of public interest and relates these to the implications for us as individuals, organisations and communities.  In this case, I went into the classroom and took several lessons for the PCT/students around digital citizenship and strong passwords.  This satisfied the parent, the learners understood the seriousness of the issue and learnt how to protect their password, the PCT felt supported and as a leader I felt satisfied the dilemma had been resolved for all involved. I had acted with professionalism and integrity upholding our school Code of Conduct (2016) when interacting with the student/s, parent, and staff member with this dilemma.

Word count: 541 

References

Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sunnyhills School Board of Trustees, (2018). Privacy Guidelines.  School Docs retrieved from http://sunnyhills.schooldocs.co.nz/index.htm?toc.htm?18805.htm 

Sunnyhills School Board of Trustees, (2016). Code of Conduct.  Internal School Document.

TML Wk 19: Communities of Practice

Descriptive:

Wenger (2000) states a community of practice can be defined as "groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". These communities have three characteristics, domain, community, and practice.  I am part of several CoPs and for this reflection I will contextualise my participation and leadership within our school senior leadership team and consider the following 2 inquiry areas from our MIndlab study to date:

1. Digital: Maker Movement + computational thinking (Tinker Time)
2. Leadership: Teacher inquiry into student learning

The senior leadership team as a CoP consists of 4 senior leaders and 6 team leaders.  The team leaders are responsible for ensuring that Tinker Time (our school's take on the Maker Movement inclusive of computation thinking) takes place within their teams.  The team leaders also are responsible with the facilitation of weekly collaborative inquiry meetings within their respective teams to reflect, plan and adapt their weekly teaching in order to have a positive impact on student outcomes.  

My involvement as the principal and lead learner/change maker is to create systems and structures to ensure that these 2 initiatives are happening and empower the team leaders (and senior leaders) to monitor the implementation of these initiatives.

Comparative:

1. Tinker Time: The video below was made this week by visiting educator Michael Davidson of MakerEdNZ.  At our school we have integrated Tinker Time as our take on Maker Space and incorporation of computational thinking.  Many schools have visited to see how we have invested in technologies and have our Tinker Kits rotated through the classes.  
2. Collaborative Inquiry: Teaching as Inquiry has been modified at our school over the last 3 years.  We have implemented a spiral of inquiry approach in the past that was individual, however last year moved to a more collaborative approach where staff worked in teams (rather than individually).  Staff were able to then start reflecting and supporting each other with changes to their practice.  When responsibility is shared, substantive decision making occurs and interdependent relationships are fostered for collaboration (ITL research, 2012).

Critical Reflection:

After discussions with my CoP (senior leadership team) and also informal discussions with my CoP (Mindlab crew) I can reflect: 

1. Tinker Time: Currently staff go through the process of letting the students participate in Tinker Time, however there isn't a deep investment from staff with the importance of how this links to the digital technologies curriculum.  There is also a disconnect between the WHY we are implementing Tinker Time with how student interactions with this type of technologies contributes to promoting our future orientated outlook at our school.  I would like to investigate the views of staff into the barriers for them with implementation.
2. Collaborative Inquiry:  Based on feedback from last year's teaching as inquiry/collaborative inquiry where teams once a term investigated student outcomes and possible ideas for changes in their practice and reflection, a new system has been created to enable weekly critical reflection of teacher practice and the impact that this has on learner outcomes.  I would like to investigate how to support and develop team leaders facilitation and coaching skills to really ask the hard questions of their team members to reflect on whether their adaptations are having an impact.

Word count: 546

References:

ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002). Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.

Ministry of Education (2017).  Digital Technologies Hangarau Matihiko. Crown, Wellington.  Retrieved from  https://education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/consultations/DT-consultation/DTCP1701-Digital-Technologies-Hangarau-Matihiko-ENG.pdf

Wegner,E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7 (2),225-246 

TML Week 18: Future-Orientated Learning & Teaching

Figure 1: Gibbs' reflective cycle

Step 1: Description - What happened?
As a connected educator/leader who has a future-focused disposition and considering myself as a change maker already, I am interested  now in reflecting on theme 3: A curriculum that uses knowledge to develop learning capacity.  I am interested in our current pursuit for developing a new teaching model at our school focused on a visual metaphor of GEMS (Growth, Empathy, Mana and Self-belief). This change is a current process that we are in the midst of implementing.

Step 2: Feelings - What were you thinking and feeling?
Myself and the senior leaders believe our GEMS acronym will provide continuity for our staff, learners and community to understand what teaching and learning at our school is about.  We can relate the GEMS to aspects of the New Zealand Curriculum (2007) key competencies, and have adopted the GEMS into our behaviour management plan, learning inquiry model, staff performance management and values.

Step 3: Evaluation - What was good and bad about the experience?
We are currently energised by the GEMS and adapting these to many aspects of our school context.  We are finding that having a strong focus is giving us opportunity to bounce creative ideas off each other and relate the GEMS to different cycles.  For example, in our performance management we talk about Growing Everyone, Maximising Success.  In our learning model we talk about Get thinking, Exploring, Making meaning and connections, Sharing & shining. The changes at present have not been shared out with the learners or community (this will be the next phase after consultation, co-construction and iteration with the teaching staff). 

Step 4: Analysis - What sense can you make of the situation?
There is a sense of synergy across the leadership team and this is beginning to extend to the wider staff as we share our initial concepts and see feedback on the development of each metaphor within contexts.  The staff initially have indicated in favour of this strong metaphor/acronym and in relation to GEMS as a learning model for inquiry (described above) this moves us closer to knowledge not being taught in separated learning areas and equipping our learners to do things with knowledge and within context in order to develop learning capabilities (Bolstad et.al. 2012).  We believe our GEMS will help support and develop learning capabilities.

Step 5: Conclusion - What else could you have done? & Step 6: Action Plan - If it arose again what would you do?
We are within the process of implementing this change, so at present we are too close to have perspective of whether we would do this differently.  What I have learnt with our change process is that we seek and consult with our staff to gain feedback to adapt and be agile.  We trial ideas, reflect and iterate.

Word count: 535

References:
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  

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. 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.pdf

TML Week 17: Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is one of those terms that is touted as current best practice for being responsive to the needs of our learners and dare I add in my leadership role, responsive to our staff and community needs.  It has become an integral part of the cycle of teaching as inquiry for effective pedagogy, a practice that is now widespread as a means for educational improvement and improved teacher quality. However after reading through the article by Finlay (2008), I would postulate that it is not done with the depth of understanding to truly be reflective.  The important element of critical analysis required for reflection-on-action as Schön (1983, cited in Finlay, 2008) describes as ‘after-the-event-thinking’ is often missing. In this post, I attempt to use a three step model by Jay and Johnson (2002) to critically reflect on my own reflective practice.

Jay and Johnson (2002) Reflective Model

Stage 1: Descriptive

In my own practice, as an educational leader, I do not believe I reflect to the best of my ability, despite good intentions.  In a time poor environment where I am driven to juggle many tasks and manage events on a situational basis, I feel I need to be more selective and spend time to reflect and draw clarity to the events around me for future learning and leadership. I am often caught up with situations that arise unscheduled, where I have to be agile and this requires me to take a reflection-in-action (thinking while doing) approach.  I often find that I then personally reflect on my own after a situation or event on my actions, my feelings and what I would do differently in the future based on my own gut feeling and hindsight.

Stage 2: Comparative

When given the opportunity to meet with a colleague, my leadership team, or in a professional learning group, I have the time to digest an event and reflect more deeply on my actions, the situation and contemplate how to adapt if this event or similar was to occur again.  When reflecting with others, if this is verbal or completing a PMI chart of an event, I am drawn to the many perspectives that I would not have had while in an isolated internal thought structure. This interaction allows me to consider multiple perspectives, feelings and therefore new information for me to add to my personal professional knowledge and mental model.  I also find when I reflect with my professional learning group, we are often reflecting against our own practice and a current topical reading. For example, currently my professional learning group is reading Dylan Wiliam (2016), Leadership for teacher learning. I find relating relevant readings when reflecting on a situation or event can be helpful to uncover what the wider educational community have found through research.  However, I must include in this part of the reflective process that through being a connected educator and leader, I will often seek perspectives from social media. I tend to post on a closed Facebook group for New Zealand Principals, or on Twitter to seek advice.

Stage 3: Critical reflection

After connecting with others through online forums or in person (partner, team or group), and considering relevant readings (or research) I find I am able to draw conclusions and considerations to add to my personal professional knowledge.  Through these connections I know that when confronted with a new situation or event, I am often more poised to respond in-the-moment (reflection-in-action) by appropriately drawing on hindsight of previous experience, collective wisdom gained through discussion and readings, and ready to seek further feedback from my colleagues.

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References

Finlay, L. (2008). 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.pdf

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002). Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.

Schön, D.A. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books