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