Just about there ... one more post and it's over, or is it?
Step 1 - What?
The last part of the question that ends with ... or is it?, actually forms this part of my last reflection for Mindlab. Each week Mindlab has made connections with Our Code And Standards. The one key change in my professional practice is linked to the standard of professional learning.
Professional learning - Use inquiry, collaborative problem-solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners.
What Mindlab has gifted to me is my keenness to learn, and the more I learn the more I can make a difference to my students, and the more it effects them it will effect their future. Mindlab has made me a more reflective educator. As Osterman and Kottkamp (2015) state, "Learning is most effective when people become personally engaged in the learning process and engagement is most likely to place when there is a need to learn". In our course notes this week, they (Osterman and Kottkamp, 1993) also suggested the difference as to how teachers/schools have traditionally undertaken professional learning e.g. bringing in facilitators, sending teachers to acquire knowledge on a course, whereas there is more ownership and upskilling when the teacher uses reflective practice. This is where the real change takes place ... "behaviours via self-awareness.
This is where The Mindlab has taken me!
Step 2 - Now What?
Stage 1 - Problem Identification
As I identified in assignment 1, limited or no 'active reflection' (Absolum, 2006), was happening amongst many of the teachers throughout our school, this in turn saw limited or no active reflection happening amongst our students, therefore our students were perhaps, not in touch, owned or even progressed as fast as they might have been, if they were. It is very important that active reflection becomes part of our, teacher and student, learning cycle. As we move into our online digital portfolios (Blogs) for all our students, this is certainly becoming more relevant instead of just being a storage of learning tasks.
Stage 2 - Observation & Analysis
This stage became a focus for me when I collected data on what students were posting on their learning blogs.
(Evidence from my Assignment 1)
Not only was it straight from the 'students' blogs, it was from discussions held with fellow colleagues who had very limited knowledge of Assessment for Learning, and the learning principals that underpin this very important strategy offered by the Ministry of Education.
Stage 3 - Conceptualization
Mindlab has given me the tools and skills to ask those key questions of myself as an educator, and myself as a leader of learning AND follow up with research that form my ideas, thoughts and actions.
Thinking reflectively demands relatively complex mental process and requires the subject of a thought process to become its object. For example, having applied themselves to mastering a particular mental technique, reflectiveness allows individuals to then think about his technique, assimilate it, relate it to other aspects of their experiences and to change or adapt it. Individuals who are reflective also follow up such thought processes with practice or action’
(OECD, 2005 - Absolum, 2006)
S6)
Stage 4 - Active Experimentation
This is where it has become really exciting ... Not only have I just become a Deputy Principal, another fellow co-Mindlab student has become the other Deputy Principal at my school. Having two of us on board has made it easier making changes, implementing new ideas, discussing like-minded ideas on research and/or theories.
In our staffroom, our PLD wall now shows key signs;
- What?
- Now What?
- So What?
We have identified the 'early adopters' and have started conversations with them using Rolfe's model of reflection
When we have gone into classrooms, we have rounded off our lessons using the same model, posting the student's reflections on the wall, or on their class blogs.
And ... some of our 'early adopters' are doing the same. It is exciting to see our roller coaster gain traction.
Step 3 - So What?
The school has approached an outside provider to come and work with us for a year, with the focus on Assessment For Learning. Which will then continue the small learning and teaching we are working with our staff on.
Since, undertaking Mindlab, many of our teachers have grown an interest of what we have been learning, they have observed us making changes to our own practice, and they are taking part in the professional conversations we are having.
References
Absolum, M. (2006). Clarity in the classroom: Using formative assessment. Auckland, New Zealand: Hachette Livre NZ Ltd.
Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Corwin Press, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.itslifejimbutn otasweknowit.org.uk/files
Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators: professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.
Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from
