Activity 10

Activity 10.  
Reflection - elearning and the PTCs.

Meeting the PTCs well...

Criteria 1:  Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of all ākonga.  Students in my Yr 9 classes last year were able to contribute to the decision-making around contexts we would study for our "Going Places" topic in Social Studies.  For one Yr 9  class the students suggested ideas on a google form and after collating all the topics students again used a google form to vote on the outcome. Students felt like they had input into what was being learnt in class.  
Students in my Yr 11 and Yr 13 classes have the ability to ask me to check their work during assessments.  Using a combination of drive and email, students can submit drafts and ask for feedback at any point along the track. Rather than waiting for verbal feedback, requests can come it at any time and students often respond with a redraft even before the next lesson!

Criteria 5:  Fully registered teachers show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.  Every Monday morning PD time brings the opportunity to introduce more e-learning strategies to staff.  Hapara Workspace has been the topic this term and teachers will be presenting their "workspaces" to the whole staff at the end of this term. As the new Senior Manager in charge of PD at school I organised a LwDT  (Learning With Digital Technologies) Facilitator to be in school to upskill teachers who missed or needed updating on the elearning training implemented in 2014.  The skills taught at these google (GAFE) sessions are then discussed and supported further at a departmental level where teachers share their understandings and use of the strategies in the classroom. Favourite strategies for teacher discussion are forms, managing email and organizing drive documents. 

Criteria 12:  Fully registered teachers use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their practice.  Last year my inquiry focus was parent contact and although this may not seem like elearning - how I contacted parents was!  I reviewed the attendance data for my whanau class daily in KAMAR and every day I was at school I sent a text home through KAMAR to parents asking them to reply with an explanation for a child's absence. Often it was 40 - 60 texts per week and it was relentless.  I never missed a day.  Students initially were annoyed - "Miss, you'd better stop texting my Dad!" until finally after about two months students started bringing me notes to stop me texting.  The relationship I had with parents for attendance was only by text but it generated a lot of discussion (some parents phoned me asking for techniques to help get their child to school) and finally it changed student behaviour, which was my goal for the inquiry.

Two main goals for my future development 

1. Successfully transition our students to the new school with an elearning "toolbox".  Students will be leaving us at the end of 2016.  Aranui High School staff have little idea about specific expectations of students in 2017 however if we provide our current students with a variety of skills enabling resilience, flexibility and self-management, then we will have gone some way to ease the change from one school to another. 

2.  I would love to take my digital-learning journey further.  I have appreciated the chance to study through Mind Lab and on completion of this course and closure of my school the goal is to take the Government's retraining option to do more research.  What research specifically?  Looking at the impact of Haeata's Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) on student achievement, school culture and engagement would be my first choice for research. During completion of the R&C assessments I was especially interested in the research that Cashmere High School Principal, Mark Wilson completed regarding ILEs.  It was interesting how his research diverged from current Ministry thinking, yet as the decision he made for his school, it may well be the best outcome for CHS student achievement.  How different the journey to an ILE has been for Aranui High School staff and students!  
Research involving tracking ex-Aranui HS student well-being, engagement and achievement is to hopefully be my main goal for 2017.

Siobhan Murphy
March 2016

Activity 9

Activity 9

Cultural responsiveness in practice

First my own cultural context:  I am a first generation New Zealander, the product of an immigrant from Ireland and an immigrant from Australia. I feel a sense of place here which is different to my connection with Cork or Sydney.  This mix of deep attachment to land, a critical view of colonialism and isolation from tupuna shapes the way I see indigenous knowledge in the classroom. Early in my teaching career my cultural empathy expanded during visits to a Pacific Island nation and Nepalese classrooms both returning to normality following a period of civil war.  I had the privilege of observing the strength that culture brings to a classroom e.g before and after school Bougainville Island students hunted for turtles in a lagoon, tended the school kumara garden and made musical instruments with whatever resources were available.  Nepali students and teachers likewise used whatever resources were on-hand e.g. a newly killed goat for dinner became an impromptu science lesson on respiratory systems or adding local custom/cultural dimensions when teaching social studies.  

2015 Social Studies Teacher Training - Nepali Style (own photo)

All indigenous knowledge that finds it's way into my classroom via students or whanau is prized and subsequently stored for future use e.g. a student showed me photos of land their Tongan church leases in rural Christchurch and related how he and other church members tended the land and grew vegetables for the whole church.  On our gardening day this student was stoked to teach me how to tend the potatoes in our school garden.

Russell Bishop ([video recording] n.d.) hits the nail on the head when he explains in his Ed Talk that culturally responsive practise comes from agentic teachers who have enough confidence in culture to not be threatened by others'.  I endorse his views about deficit thinking; in my humble opinion and experience this is the biggest negative effect that teachers can have on student achievement.  His metaphor about fiscal deficit was perfect as a future explanatory note to staff when discussing the "why are Maori students priority learners? question" that invariably raises it's head.    His six points for cultural responsiveness are textbook answers for anyone wanting to make deeper connections with Maori/Pasifika students and in fact any students at all.

So how does my cultural responsiveness in teaching practice measure up? 

CORE VALUES
In the school's core value of "Excellence" I believe I do an acceptable job in caring for Maori student performance by consistent expectations of high achievement (i.e. "this is what you need to do to achieve a M or an E) and following this up by responding or reflecting on student evidence with positive and realistic feedback.    Feedback is a double positive as it not only alerts the learner to what they need to do, it also maintains a one to one learning relationship with the student.  I actively seek out opportunities to create a "learning among learners" classroom - where students want to give as much information as they receive -  what a great model for all teaching!  In junior Social Studies I have found many ways that students can teach others in the classroom as they reveal and build on their own expertise with the help of the internet in class and my own rejection of the "sage on the stage" approach.

DECISION-MAKING

This area could be improved at the school organisational level and during the transition into the new school, my feeling is that Maori student voice should be utilised far more than it is now.   Processes such as student hui, further leadership roles, one-to-one mentoring and celebration of student culture occurred sporadically in the past, however the missing link has been either sustainability or management support and many smart initiatives were subsequently overlooked or dropped due to changing personnel or lack of will.   With well-resourced efforts towards inclusion, true collaboration and utilising as many digital tools as possible , there is greater opportunity for Maori students in an Innovative Learning Environment to engage, be heard, be present and to lead change in their new school.


References:

Bishop, R. (n.d.). The Mind Lab.  CORE Ed Talks. A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations [Video file]. Retrieved from Mind Lab Media.

Activity 8

Activity 8

Legal contexts and digital identities...

An ethical dilemma raised at a recent school meeting was the issue of students videoing teachers in class with their smartphones and posting them on face-book or snap-chat for no reason at all, for a joke or for humiliation.  Teachers are feeling threatened causing a power shift in the classroom.  

As a "traditional" school the current procedure for teachers, since the 2011 earthquakes has been that...

'Students are not allowed to use cell phones, or have them out during class time unless there has been an emergency and/or the teacher has given permission. The general rule has been that if you see them, or hear them, you may take them. If confiscation is required, use this as the last resort. If you do confiscate a student’s cell phone, it is your responsibility to name it, and take it as soon as possible to the office to be placed in the safe. Tell the student that they will need to pick it up from the AP/DP of their level.' (Aranui HS Key Operations and Procedures, 2015).

Up until this year our student phones have generally not been smart enough to post humiliating videos online - although we have had the odd fight along with one particularly nasty taunting of our wonderful rubbish lady posted onto face-book a few years ago.  As school did not then, have wireless broadband available to students for free, such incidents remained thankfully few and far between.

This year, with free internet wireless and some decisions still to be made regarding how to manage and limit student use of this, it seems that smartphone use is increasing, so the potential for videoing during class time and posting online has increased.

SOLUTIONS?

On enrolment students are expected to sign a Cyber-Safety Use Agreement which covers the use of computers and mentions briefly the use of phones in this way, 
"I understand that the rules in this agreement also apply to mobile phones.  I will only use my mobile phone(s) at the times that I am permitted to during the school day."  Later in the agreement the rules about posting information are worded like this... "I will ask a teacher's permission before giving out any personal information (including photos) online about myself or any other person.  I will also get permission from any other person involved.  Personal information includes ....photos."  AHS CYBERSAFETY USE AGREEMENT.,  (2016).  This is quite clear about photos, however should the word "video" also be included?

Another place this issue could be addressed could be the school privacy policy.  This is a Board of Trustees Policy reviewed every 3 years. However, in our ultimate year, there is little need for policy review, hence the reliance on the document from the Privacy Commissioner's Office,  "Privacy in Schools".  This document states that if there is a breach of privacy (and gathering digital information without permission is a breach), individuals can make a complaint to school through our Complaints Policy or take the issue up with the Privacy Commissioner directly.  

My immediate solution would be to limit or better manage student access to the free wireless internet, by password protecting the use of certain sites such as snapchat, instagram or facebook. This would limit the ease that students can currently video and post.  

Longer term solutions are inevitably to be works in progress due to our "Ultimate Year" status, however I expect Haeata(the new school), will have in place student education for the use of digital devices in classrooms.  I also suspect that there would be appropriate user agreements for mobile phone use in place, especially as this school will be an Innovative Learning Environment and classroom phone use will be encouraged by the school.  Best of luck guys!

References:

Aranui High School. (2015).  Key Operations and Procedures.  (Aranui High School). Christchurch, New Zealand.

Aranui High School. (2016).  Cybersafety at Aranui High School:  Cybersafety User Agreement for Secondary Students. (Aranui High School).  Christchurch, New Zealand.

NetSafe. (2015). Digital Technology:  Safe and Responsible Use in Schools.  (Ministry of Education Report).  Wellington, New Zealand.

Kathryn Dalzeil. (2009).  Privacy in Schools:  A guide to the Privacy Act for teachers, principals and boards of trustees.  (The Privacy Commissioner).  Wellington, New Zealand:  The Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Activity 7

Activity 7

Social media in teaching and professional development.

The most important key features of social media that are beneficial for teaching and learning for me are:

    

Skye extends classroom and staff room walls i.e. during class I can bring, literally, the world in through Skype or hangouts.  Last year a teacher was on leave; cycling from Athens to the Pacific Ocean across Asia and my geography class was able to Skype him when he reached

Kyrgyzstan despite dodgy internet and timezone issues.   The students still remember that conversation and talk about it often, "yeah, where was Mr P..............., really?"  During a field trip to the West Coast the DOC liaison person was unable to see us on the (changed) date we were there, so when we got back to school we were able to Skype him also to conduct the interview necessary for students to complete Geography research (with an emphasis on collecting primary data). With Hangouts (the google equivalent of Skype) I brought Kevin Honeycutt into our school hall as the keynote speaker for all staff on a TOD. 

The potential challenges that all teachers need to be aware of when integrating social networking platforms into teaching activities is the distraction factor to students once a screen is in front of them. Teenagers, whether or not they are "digital natives" must also be educated in respectful and appropriate use of social media in school and this is clearly linked to the "Management of Self" key competency in the New Zealand Curriculum.  There are legal requirements and usually protocols for school digital media use, however at this early stage of use in my school, there also seems to be many grey areas around acceptable use.

The social media platform that best supports engagement with my professional development is 

                                                         

Twitter!

I joined Twitter in 2009 and it has been a great source of information for general teaching and learning practise as well as a 'mine-field' of information when trouble-shooting almost anything.  There are gazillions of self-help videos and blogs and answers to all my questions and ponderings. From simple requests such as "How do I cut and paste from one google doc to another?" to more sophisticated professional demands, "what is the best political cartoon platform IN THE WORLD???"  It's also been great to praise and affirm other teachers when awesome resources or links are tweeted.  I know that putting your stuff out there to be critiqued, in the real hemisphere is nerve-racking enough, so I imagine that releasing your best lesson activities into the twitter-sphere must be 305 million times worse.  My philosophy, when the educators I follow share resources, is to compliment the creator of the resource.

  It's a nice buzz!

My professional development is being developed and enhanced on yet a fourth Social Media platform - FACEBOOK...  Our local subject association Christchurch Geography Teachers' Association has a facebook group page, which has 64 members including other Geography Teachers' Associations.  The ways I use this group is to share cool links of specific relevance to the NZ L1 - L3 NCEA Geography courses.  Due to the special interest and expertise of all the members in this group for Geography, I go here whenever I need such specific advice.  It's been great for upskilling and keeping my teaching contexts current - as these should change annually. 

I would never think to look for information like this without an alert from Facebook.  I feel confident sharing these up to date links from experts with students on my school geography site...  It's a win/win.

Activity 6

Activity 6:   New Zealand and International trends and issues in education

A current global trend is for poverty reduction and growth of the middle class.  

"Today there are 1 billion people in the "middle-classes", in 2030 there will be 3 billion. As families get wealthier, there is an increasing demand on goods and services and a larger proportion of this wealth will be spent on education."  Course reading - Global Trends 2030.

The impact that this predicted trend of growth in the middle class and their associated increasing spend on education seems immensely positive.  However, before we teachers begin to celebrate this rise of education spending, maybe we need to be mindful of what will not change.
This trend will not change the situation for those who remain not middle-class students and will therefore not be in the situation of having a greater amount of money spent on their education.   This issue is addressed, now and in the future, within my learning community by focusing on increasing family and student engagement with education and ignoring how little money whanau is spending.  Our families have always supported student's education in non-financial ways and I would work hard to increase this type of support through relationship building and mana. 

Relationships and engagement with school includes opportunities such as Breakfast Club, Sports events, Cultural events, parent/student goal setting interviews, one-to-one mentoring and social events.  Mana includes being part of this community and sharing in the successes of all students as well as individual success.  The celebration of our successes and therefore engagement is being addressed more and more utilising social media(hits on Facebook!) along with students being out and about in the community. With the transition to the new school being one of our goals this year, students are engaging far more with students from our contributing schools than ever before.  A lot of this is to do with planning for the new school - awesome!

A New Zealand Education trend is the rise and rise of technology (digital) access in schools.

The concern I have is about equitable access across all New Zealand students and whether students will also have increased access to supporting pedagogy.  In my own school the digital technology implementation has been hit and miss.  

The hits are the high speed internet, the three or four bookable class sets of Chromebooks along with half a dozen iPads and numerous desktops for all students.  Teacher implementation of the use of computers in classrooms has taken care of PD for the foreseeable future!  

The misses have been the struggles and conflict around the use of smartphones in classrooms (and the Health and Safety need for them following the 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch), the confusing website blocks instigated by the switch to N4L along with the increasing gap between teachers who are digital natives and the digital dinosaurs/immigrants.

These issues are addressed again (surprise, surprise!) by relationship building.  Senior Management meet weekly with our IT support team for attending to questions raised by teachers over the previous week.  This face to face meeting ensures that messages are not blurred and lines of communication with our technical support remain positive and open.  The N4L issue was solved within one day!

Educational use of smartphones in class must be implemented uniformly across the whole school with teachers and students mutually respecting the need for responsible use - a responsible use policy just for smartphones? 

The gap in digital use between natives and the dinosaurs is SLOWLY being addressed through hours of PD along with follow ups in department and face to face meetings. My observation here is that often both groups need each other for successful outcomes.  Teachers with experience and mastery of digital-free pedagogy have in their 'tool bags' the foundations needed to move into and upward with digital pedagogy.  Teaching literacy to non-engaged learners isn't something you want to throw an unsupported computer programme at, however there are many literacy based computer programmes supporting the work that experienced teachers do in the classroom e.g. Success-maker. 

This digital marriage won't happen overnight - but it will eventually happen.  

References:

National Intelligence Council. (December 2012.). Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds. Retrieved from www.dni.gov/nic/globaltrends 

Activity 5

Activity 5: Professional connection map...

Professional connections: an evaluation of the impactof these on my practice and professional community.

1.  CGTA and Social Sciences Department...
The Canterbury Geography Teachers Association and the relationships I have with the people involved in this association contribute 100% to my off-line subject PD.  Without this group I would not have access to most of the connections/information needed to effectively support my curriculum delivery.  Acces to research, academic experts and overseas connections have all been made through the CGTA.    As HOD, this learning is fed back into my Social Sciences department; Best Practice Workshops, University Days (links with tertiary providers such as UC and Lincoln University), subject advisory days and subject conferences. 

Geography Teachers' Day at Lincoln University 2015

Farm Day for students at Lincoln University 2015

As part of this group, confidence in the "delivery" of subject content to senior students has increased. University lecturers can be called on to share relevant subject based presentations to senior students, because I now know them!   CGTA is an organisation which has a long history of supporting and advocating for teachers with links to other subject associations e.g. AGTA and the National body (NZ Board of Geography Teachers). A weakness of this connection is that my own personal growth tends to occur only when we are able to meet face to face (up to 10 times per year for CGTA and once a year for BOGT).  The meeting times we do have are very much valued and professionally important, however due to the frequency of their occurences, other forms of PD are in the running to overtake this style of connection.

2.  Social Media (Twitter @smurphlee) and eLEARNING...
The best 'til last!  I would never have believed that seven years ago, when I joined Twitter, how much of an impact "social" media would have on my teaching practice!  I've been teaching since (ahem) 1987, but in all those years I have never connected with people or associations in this way.  The instant, global, nature of feedback and conversation is mindblowing to me.  I remember one day commenting on a post by an educator in USA, when she tweeted that the graphic I had commented on was originally from a teacher in Australia and she copied his twitter address into the conversation.  He tweeted instantly back saying "glad you liked my diagram" - this was all in less than 5 minutes and the conversation went half way around the world - twice!  Eh?  This was during my lunch hour, when I was on gate duty!  Unbelievably awesome!  
I love the connection with such a huge range of professional bodies.   The Ministry of Education, the Irish Summer Reading "Buzz", UN Human Rights, TEDLearn are a small selection of the 100 twitter accounts I follow; they all add another dimension to my practice, whether it's a cool youtube clip, an evolving disaster or a recently released book review, I love being able to share these with my students.  This is the world that my students exist in and becoming aware of the possibilities for application inside the classroom (such as global connection) is very exciting for a Social Science Teacher!  Opening students' eyes to the world outside Aranui has been a passion, so many of the clips shown have been random, with students commenting - "where'd ya get that from, Miss?"  
Educational tweeters such as Sam Gibson, Kevin Honeycutt and Tom Adams have supported my eLearning journey with their 'spot-on' recommendations, video clips and observations about all things technological.  The fact that these educators are telling their stories from the chalk-face is inpirational, authentic and relevant to my context.
The dark side of this media?  The bias in what I see.  Information "self-delivered" or censored?.  Like going through a newspaper with a pair of scissors and a highlighter before I hand it over to my husband to read.  On reflection, most of what I traditionally teach is 'censored' by me to a certain extent, in that I choose the resources or activities that my students are exposed to on a day to day basis - so why should Twitter be any different?
I'm very happy to report that there are sent tweets in my account as well!  My tweets include proud acclamations of success at school along with advertisements for events about to happen of relevance to the twitter followers.  Twitter has become a roadmap of my professional online learning and I'm the cartographer!  

@smurphlee

Activity 4

Activity 4

My professional community

The domain of my community of practice is the hard work my colleagues and I do for our students in order for them to be achieve academically in 2016 and at the same time transition successfully from Aranui High School into their new school, Haeata, in 2017.

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

― Haruki Murakami.

The practice is my colleagues in all four closing schools discussing, learning and implementing to the best of our ability, a taste of 21st century learning pedagogy to ensure that all students, staff and families are not left behind when the the transition is complete.  We have learned that you don't have to have a Modern Learning Environment to implement modern learning practice!

The community is the way that we interact.  Depending on the group of teachers interacting this could be through classroom observations or collaborative teaching opportunities. Collaboration will also occur across the 4 closing schools as students and newly appointed Haeata teachers begin to share similar experiences from the start of term three. 

CURRENT ISSUES IN MY COMMUNITY?  

The biggest issue in the community right now is the transition.  The transition is most visible in the new buildings and facilities that are being built.  Initially vibrations, noise and dust were an issue for staff and students alike, so I organised a group of staff across the school to be the depository for "transition issues" raised by staff members.  Any staff member could submit an issue to the group, who met once a fortnight to discuss action or outcomes. The outcomes were shared across the school to management, BOT and PPTA, creating a climate open communication about the issue.  In the first week the outcome was to shift the contractor's ground vibrations to before 9am and after 3pm - a great solution for our community.  The transition of students is not as visible because they are all still operating on the 4 closing schools, which means that interaction between groups of students have to be "engineered".  Design Thinking opportunities and sports days have been held with mixed groups of students which is to be ongoing until the end of the year.

THE CORE VALUES THAT UNDERPIN MY PROFESSION ARE RESPECT, AKO AND SERVICE.

I would not be a successful practitioner without respect for my students and colleagues. This means that I "walk the talk" when it comes to statements such as "if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say it!"  Recognising the point at which people are at in their learning journeys; whether that be as a student, a new teacher or a teacher at the end of their career, underpins the relationships I have and the level of care and attention I give to each person in that relationship.  

Ako refers to me as a learner and without my community I could not continue to learn. Commencing post-graduate study has been a real privilege as I was able to meet with and interact with primary school, like-minded, teachers who invigorated and sustained my thirst for learning.  Staff at school are also supporting my learning as I take on a new role in the school, especially those whose roles I am picking up.  Being on the other end of the relief phone for the first time in my professional life has been an education!

Service for the school has been a huge part of my recent life at school and the enduring community supporting this value has been the gardening group.  Slow to start, however an awesome bunch of hardworking people who have just stuck with the kaupapa to create a beautiful school garden which we are now able to enjoy in our ultimate year. The community has evolved itself from a group of students who were shoulder tapped, to include the Service Academy students (they who must be supervised - note to self), students doing community service for a mild misdemeanor and self-selected student "nerds" who like the space and wanted to help enhance it. 

Aranui High School Community Garden  - the workers!

Teachers in the community have likewise evolved into a core group who love to talk gardening and plan big things to come... For Matariki the group has been planning to serve up a feast from the garden and for the creche the group has been asked to show them how to plant seedlings.  

CHANGES OCCURRING IN THE CONTEXT OF MY PROFESSION:  The single biggest change has been a huge shift towards Innovative Learning Practice.  School buildings are physically changing to suit the needs of the new pedagogy and staff and students will follow by the end of this year.  My community of practice are practical and alongside grief associated with our own school closure has been an urgency to prepare for employment in the new school.  The community has been supported in this need, on-site, by service providers such as Core Education who are adept in upskilling teachers in the finer points of google docs, forms, sites, hapara, you tube etc.  Our students, for the last two years have been our 'guinea pigs' with a community of practice focus on new ways of learning whilst keeping sane.  A great example of how this all rolls, was a whole school collaborative learning day led by the English Department, across all subjects and levels.  Students viewed a movie then interacted with students (not known to them prior to the day) on collaborative learning tasks which were creative and designed to be goal specific. Students appreciated the opportunity to work across levels and due to the structure of the day (a 'pop-up' lesson?) some students didn't believe that they had just participated in a formal lesson at all.   My community of practice is awesome because despite all the issues we have had to face they still choose to initiate and engage in risk-taking (moving out of their comfort zone) to address this latest change to practice in the landscape of school closure.  

Activity 3

Activity 3:  My response to Linda Finlay's (2008) article...

"Reflecting on reflective practice" by Linda Finlay

The first key point I can relate to my own teaching practice appears in "Defining Reflective Practice" and that is the process of Schon's (1983) 'Reflection in action' (as cited in Finlay, 2008, p. 3). . Despite the criticism of Schon that follows i.e. that it is not possible to distance oneself enough from live situations to be able to reflect on practice, my own experience fully confirms that this is indeed what occurs in almost every lesson that I teach.  

As a teacher of students with a wide range of abilities and/or high behavioural needs, I have an expectation that activities, approaches or student engagement may need to be amended and decisions about what should be happening in the classroom have to be made on the job.  Colloqually known as "tweaking" the lesson, students understand that while the learning outcome(s) of lessons remain the same, the path to those outcomes for each student may be slightly varied.  A good example of this may be deciding that an instructional video with headphones and a "back" button may be better for certain students, than a teacher giving a set of instructions once, following their participation in a physically demanding lunch hour.  

The second key point I can relate to my own HOD practice appears in the section "Critiquing Reflective Practice" under the heading "Pedagogic Concerns".  As a Head of Department I was fully aware that a few in my department were, and remain antagonistic towards reflection and saw it as something that was only done to fulfill appraisal.  This usually meant that such reflections were minimalist and just enough writing to get "passed". One way that I have tried to balance this perception has been teacher conferencing and modelling as suggested in Finlay's article; discussing incidents as a group to promote more general reflection and my staff appreciated the incidents being raised by me, making the whole process less personal.  I have definitely been aware of the variance of reflection approaches by teachers at different stages of their careers i.e. the novice relying on more mechanical forms of reflection and the "expert" more reliant on the notion of Schon's (1983) 'professional artistry' (as cited in Finlay, 2008, p. 3).

Teaching as Inquiry Model

With Teaching as Inquiry having been the "flavour of the month" at our school for the last three years, the resulting reflections on practice have generally been either extremely useful (if teachers can share their reflections in a way that is not wholly tied to appraisal) or just as mechanical.
The first year we used the model it was fully supported by UC Plus advisors and it was run across three departments as a trial.  The end of year powerpoint presentations of each teacher's reflections were both informative and critical. At the start of the following year the whole school ditched our previous "appraisal booklet" on the basis of the success and effectiveness of the Inquiry Model.  During the second year the context and personnel changed.  There was less support from UC Plus, however current staff members stepped up to fill the "mentor" role to enable careful and consistent modelling of the reflective process.  I believe the second year was just as effective, if not more so than the first as it was a whole school roll out of the process.  Teacher reflections were celebrated in "public" presentations and these gave other teachers the opportunity to engage in reflective discussions.
At the end of our third cycle of using the Teaching as Inquiry model for appraisal(at the end of Term 1 2016), teachers will continue to reflect on their practice in their own ways until Aranui High School closes. This final cycle has highlighted areas for improvement including the need to keep the reflective conversations going throughout the cycle, rather than leaving them to the "presentation" at the end.  Time to model reflective practise by mentor teachers must be increased, especially for novice teachers.  This will help to reduce the possibility of emotional harm, suggested in Finlay's (2008) article, that comes with challenging assumptions when we truly reflect (p. 11).  
My own experience has been that the more teachers talk about teaching with other teachers, the more teachers realise that every situation is not new and there will be an "expert", usually on staff who has been there before, learned from it and can offer advice.  My mantra to teachers is always, "it's not the first time," and taking the time to reflect, then act on this can only serve to strengthen teachers' practice and ultimately, the teaching profession.

References:
Finlay, L., (2008). Reflecting on 'Reflective Practice'. (Article, Practice-based Professional Learning Centre, The Open University).

Ministry of Education. (n.d.). Teaching as Inquiry Model. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Case-studies/Teachers-as-learners-Inquiry/Teaching-as-inquiry

Activity 2

Activity 2:  Metacognitive reflection on learning and practice

Postgraduate Certificate of Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning)

Two Key Competencies - Critical Discussion on...

• Thinking
• Managing Self

The development of my key competency of "Thinking"

The New Zealand Curriculum includes the following statements about thinking:  "Thinking is about using creative, critical, and metacognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences, and ideas. These processes can be applied to purposes such as developing understanding, making decisions, shaping actions, or constructing knowledge. Intellectual curiosity is at the heart of this competency.

Students who are competent thinkers and problem-solvers actively seek, use, and create knowledge. They reflect on their own learning, draw on personal knowledge and intuitions, ask questions, and challenge the basis of assumptions and perceptions".

When the Mind Lab course began in July, did I know what I was getting myself into?  I had been to a GAFE conference in April the previous year, dabbled with chromebooks for the first half of 2015, my own children even attended a school with self-directed learning as part of it's special character; however prior to the Mind Lab course, deep thinking about what this all meant, where it was all coming from and where it was all going had simply passed me by.  
It is difficult to put thinking time aside when full-time work and family fill every waking hour.   Once committed to the weekly course at Mind Lab HQ in a downtown warehouse and then squirrelled away at home in my upstairs "loft", the opportunity to develop deeper understanding and construct knowledge snowballed.  Every week at Mind Lab was a chance to reflect on new information, apply this to my practise and challenge my own underlying beliefs about teaching practice.  Some weeks were crazy!  Gaming was an eye-opener!  Robotics took me back to motherhood moments with Lego and Duplo, which was awesome!
This whole learning process eventually revealed itself as the mechanism for unpacking my own teaching practice and "philosophy" and reattaching the elements of this to current research in 21st century learning. 
From robotics to growth mindset and leadership theories, the range and amount of educational research introduced and investigated was utterly thought provoking and brain bending.  It challenged and celebrated my own teaching and consistently confirmed the importance of pedagogy in the classroom.  My thinking about learning evolved and cemented itself throughout the ML course into the "anywhere, any time, any how" camp. The capacity for technology to expand the boundaries of learning seems unlimited.

The development of my key competency of "Managing self"

The New Zealand Curriculum includes the following statements about "Managing Self": "This competency is associated with self-motivation, a “can-do” attitude, and with students seeing themselves as capable learners. It is integral to self-assessment.

Students who manage themselves are enterprising, resourceful, reliable, and resilient. They establish personal goals, make plans, manage projects, and set high standards. They have strategies for meeting challenges. They know when to lead, when to follow, and when and how to act independently."

Could I do it?  Could I complete the course once started?  Given the special circumstances at Aranui High School and my own tenuous employment status, there seemed to be many reasons not to take on further study and even more not to complete the course.  Why would I?  Professionalism, inquisitiveness and pure love of teaching actually kicked in at this point, and the road to managing my time began.
Since the assessment goals for the course were set in concrete and came regularly throughout the duration of the course the only hurdle I had to overcome was "the cycle of procrastination" (Burka & Yuen, 2007, pg.23).  It is pure irony to me that I teach students to hand work in on time, yet getting projects completed for the Mindlab course has been a struggle.  There was a mismatch between looking forward to all the new ideas about technology we were exposed to each week in the MindLab and the relentless beat of the assessment "drum".  It was a reality check for me but a great way to walk in the shoes of my students!

Key changes in my own practise have been...

Thinking - Research. reasearch, research!  I see huge benefits to my teaching practice in keeping up with research.  The opportunity to gather together ideas which either conflict or compliment my practice (or is somewhere in between) has definitely had an impact on my beliefs and understanding about teaching.  So many experts, with so many awesome studies completed in so many locations around the world and with totally agreeable or understandable conclusions. Amazing!  I am now far more open to research than I ever was and far more likely investigate to find out what others have written or completed research on a specific topic.

Managing self - Yes, well, this is a work in progress.  As I write this I am three weeks over the original due date of APC1 and finally getting my head into a blog.  But actually really enjoying it.  Despite this latest glitch, I have decreased the level of procrastination in my life and I have learned from mistakes made.  I have made it to this point though, which has been great and being proud of these efforts makes me think I can take on even bigger projects in the future.

References:
Ministry of Education (n.d.) New Zealand Curriculum Online.  Retrieved from
     http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum
Burka, J. B., & Yuen, L.M. (2007). Procrastination:  How you do it. What to do about it            now.  Boston, U.S.A: Da Capro Press.

Activity 1

APC Assessment 1 Activity 1

My name is Siobhan Murphy and I teach Junior Social Studies (Yr9 & Yr 10) and Senior Geography classes (Yr 11 & Yr 13) as well as being the Head of the Social Sciences Department at Aranui High School in Christchurch, New Zealand.  At the end of this year our school is closing and will join "Haeata", the new Aranui Community Campus for Yr 1 -13 students.  For Aranui High School students, teachers and community this will literally be its final, "ultimate" year.  

My teaching style, I would say, is holistic, responsive and reflective including lots of practical activities, games and visual engagement. 

Holistic, because I am a true Social Scientist with one foot in the Sciences and the other foot in the Arts. Lessons, conversations and topics can veer in different directions due to anything from current events(the flag debate or the refugee crisis), fiction (Kaitangata Twitch) or non-fiction (Anne-Frank's Diary), Sciences (NASA) or Arts (Banksy!).  Since 2011 there has been a increase in student awareness of the world around them, closely related to the increase of computer and other IT use in my department and across the school.  Students are becoming more holistic as they fit the "bigger-picture" jigsaw pieces together.

Responsive; teaching has to be!  Am I right, educators?  Let's talk day of the week, time of the day, the hourly/daily temperature, impact of or incidents during the previous lesson, current calorie intake.  This simply means that I have a few key questions to check where students are at as they walk in the door, including... "How's the day going? Best part of the day so far? Worst part of the day so far?  Do you want an apple?" Answers to these questions give me useful reference points to begin each lesson.

Lunchtime concert 

Reflective ... I would say 4.30pm - 5.30pm is my best reflective time.  I think about the day, maybe debrief with other teachers about what happened, what needs to happen next and any changes I can make to improve outcomes e.g. "Well, that didn't work for Shaun, but when I read to him later in the lesson he engaged with the task much faster.  Maybe if I record the instructions for him and give him a link to that audio it might help tomorrow?"  "Have you done that before?  How did you do it?"

Student success is our school's "business".  Success, unfortunately, is often narrowed down to successful achievement in assessments!  My interest and focus is on the bigger picture of what "success" looks like.  

I admire the vision of the NZ Curriculum (Ministry of Education: 2007) for successful students to be "life-ling learners, connected, confident and being actively involved".  I aspire to creating a community where students have ample opportunity to practice and "master" these skills.

Practical.  Hands on?  Kinaesthetic? Cutting and pasting?  Rolling out the playdough or mini-whiteboards?  Chalk?  Music?
All of the above for junior and senior students.  Creating things to demonstrate knowledge is not only fun but it gives students a non-threatening way to discuss and reflect on their learning and months later, the activity WILL be referenced by students.  

 I like incorporating new ideas (currently the focus is on MLP) into my teaching and a lot of what works in my classroom is Best Practice from research (BES Education Counts: 2009),  teacher experience/colleagial observations combined with practice introduced from PD or 'worked' suggestions from teachers in my subject areas. It's like making a batch of biscuits with  new flavours; keeping the basic recipe and adding different spices or essences to meet the needs of the different tastes of all the biscuit eaters out there.  

Every day brings something different to the table.  Most students appreciate an empathetic and humourous approach to teaching, so there is lots of laughter and a lot of caring. Frustratingly, the timetable exposes me to a different group of students every 60 minute "period" four times a week, which means teachers become cunning to create further connections with students.  Opening my classroom door at interval and lunchtime, taking chess club or a student for 1 to 1 mentoring are some of the ways I build relationships and trust with students. I am inspired by the resilience of students who continue to make it to school each day despite their own relationship, transport, breakfast, laundry and stationery issues.  Their ability to overcome these hurdles makes my job both humbling and urgent.  I am in the teaching profession to provide opportunities for "success", and at the same time, guide these students to take their place as citizens in a challenging world.

Aranui High School's Ultimate Year

I am priviledged to be part of Aranui High School's "Ultimate Year" as I believe it will be exciting, intense, filled with aroha, challenges, opportunities and lessons for every member of our school community.  It will be a great ride and you are welcome to join me for the journey!

Siobhan Murphy.