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?

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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