Reflection 8: Changes in my Practice

Reflection 8: Changes in my practice
I think it is fair to say that the past 32 weeks of this course have gone incredibly quickly. I had a very limited understanding as to what I had signed up for at the start of this course. I hadn’t gone to the first meet-and-greet session of what Mindlab was about. My flatmate came home after she had gone and she described what this postgraduate diploma entails. I thought why not. I will be honest, most of the topics that were covered in the first 16 weeks of the course were not new to me or my school’s context. However, what was new was how these topics could be integrated at an earlier year level.
What this course has provided me with is a chance for me to be confident in justifying how and why I do different things in my classroom. This course has made me critically think about they way in which I conduct different learning practices, contexts and styles within my classroom. Collaborative learning is an aspect that I have spent a great amount of time exploring throughout the past 32 weeks because it is a factor that is pivotal in equipping our children with the necessary skills to be a future-focused learner for the next generation of jobs. Collaborative learning involves so much more than being able to effectively work alongside others. What I have learnt is that collaborative learning involves eac learner being able to have their own voice, to be able to have their thoughts shared in a respected cultural environment and having an educator in front of them that allows them to co-construct their own learning through different contexts.
Through incredible opportunities to discuss my classroom issues, I have been able to collaborate myself with others around me within this mindlab course. It has been through these discussions that I have been able to discover new collaborative tools that I can implement within my classroom. Collaborative learning contexts were very minimal in my classroom prior to undertaking this course. Now, I am implementing a range of collaborative opportunities and teaching children how to explicitly use and implemented key skills learnt. It has made me think about how I run my curriculum programmes and how these can be changed to cater for key necessary skills needed for my learners to learn.
Throughout this process, I have also been undertaking my own professional teacher inquiry within my school. Each term I have been meeting with a lead educator in teacher inquiry and I have been keeping her up-to-date with the progress of my key aspect I want to implement in my classroom, collaboration. I have walked her through this Mindlab journey so far and where I am wanting to go with it in relation to how I could implement collaboration into my classroom. From a recent discussion, we discussed creating some sort of collaboration rubric that I could create visually, so that my learners could self-manage themselves as to how they think they are using some of the key skills, like listening, sharing, showing respect, demonstrating leadership etc. This is my current area of focus at the moment and is still in the early stages as I am not sure how this looks as of yet. But what I have been fortunate to have done is to undertake the course and be able to have professional development opportunities to look into how a key aspect that I want to explore and implement in my classroom, can influence learning and a child’s learning behaviour, in my classroom.
I am fortunate to have been given this opportunity to complete this course. As a young educator, I know that I have a wealth of knowledge that is going to lead me to new exciting opportunities over the next few years. I have been fortunate to have been accepted in a course to become a Seesaw Ambassador which is a tool I am very fortunate to lead alongside my colleagues at my school. I am hoping to get Google Certified trained towards the end of year. In relation to the future, I also want to be a team leader and mentor teacher, as I have been fortunate to have incredible experiences in my own personal professional journey that I want to provide the same opportunities for someone who needs that chance. As Osterman and Kottkamp (1993), once said, ‘change is a process, not by learning a new idea from an expert, but by realising that something is not quite “right” in one’s own professional practice’. We need to celebrate change, and we need to confident in realising there are changes that need to be made. Only then will our education system start changing in a positive and inclusive manner.
References:
Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf





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