Teaching as Inquiry/ Links to PD/ Reflections against teachers Criteria

 

Teaching As Inquiry Why do we inquire into our practice? We don't want to be complacent and rest on our laurels, nor do we want to stick our heads in the sand and ignore innovative ways to do things. Without further ado... Here was my 2021 hunch: I don't have a clue what I'm doing with computers. That had to change. What was I going to do about it? Putting my hand up for help was the first step. I signed up for Manaiakalani in class coaching with Herman Fourie. Yikes, I did NOT know what I was getting myself into. It has been an awesome ride.

Setting up a site:

After discussion with my co-teacher Amber prior to the school year, deciding upon our shared responsibilities for the year, and knowing that I learn best when I have space to just give it a go, I decided to take ownership over the Class Site.

Manaiakalani PD - Awapuni, holidays before term 1 2021

At this training day we set up our class sites and learnt some basic formatting skills and learnt to create an animation using Google Slides.

I started this site from scratch and have refined it over the course of the year with input from my co-teacher, beginning co-teacher, through discussion with Mr. Fourie, through feedback from DFI tutor and bubble group, through gleaning ideas from colleagues sites and inspiration sites. I also received feedback from my students through lockdown. This Links to the Teaching Standard: Professional learning - Use inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners.

Myself and Alicia Lasenby took this learning and ran a workshop in term 2 for our colleagues teaching them how to make animations. 

This links to the Teaching Standard: Professional relationships - Establish and maintain professional relationships and behaviours focused on the learning and wellbeing of each learner. (Engage in reciprocal, collaborative learning-focused relationships with: – learners, families and whānau – teaching colleagues, support staff and other professionals)

Links to Tu Atamai ī te Ipurangi lessons - we moved away from using Manaiakalani to describe our lessons as my digital teaching and learning kaupapa began to grow. It was clear to me as I learnt that the value of working in the digital space, making learning rewindable and seeking to always innovate, didn't just belong in the Wednesday middle block 'box' of Manaiakalani but if it was to be meaningful and great powerful, life-long learning for my students - it needed to be integrated throughout all aspects of classroom life. As such, by term 2 my mindset had shifted and I had really taken the kaupapa and ran with it.

Tu Atamai ī Ipurangi is the way we refer to our specific lessons with Herman Fourie, which is inline with our referring to all of our subjects by their Te Reo Māori names. Not only written on the daily timetable but when we talk about them. Not to the side but front and centre. Both Amber and I have been on a Te Reo learning pathway this year, taking bite sized chunks at a time - kupu, kīwaha, kapa haka - and again making them integrated, integral parts of our class life. We are both conscious of wanting to be life-long learners - not just paying lip service or going hard and having the learning be superficial, only to be forgotten; but rather we are interested in taking something on and letting it become the new way of doing or saying and then taking on the next new learning. It's no longer Maths. It just is Pānagarau. Yes this is small, but to me, it is important that it is meaningful, real and lasting. 

PD link

This links to the teacher's standard: Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership - Understand and recognise the unique status of tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand. • Understand and acknowledge the histories, heritages, languages and cultures of partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. • Practise and develop the use of te reo and tikanga Māori. Demonstrate commitment to tangata whenuatanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand.

I have found the rewindable aspect of using a class site to be an incredible tool to ensure students can work at their own pace, revisit information that they may have missed or not understood on the mat, for students with large absences out of their control to access the learning remotely and of course during remote learning in term 3 this year - the site proved invaluable. This fits with the the Teaching Standard: Teaching - Teach and respond to learners in a knowledgeable and adaptive way to progress their learning at an appropriate depth and pace.

In order to meet the needs of our different leaners - the class site and the use of devices, allowed all students to access their learning and to present it in the meaningful way that suited their needs. E.g. Screencastify to record learnings orally and Mote and videos to convey the teaching orally too.

My 2021 digital learning:

- Manaiakalani

- DFI - Google Certified Educator

- Gamefroot - Dan Milward and Gamefroot Dave: visits to class, training and development days, Game Development Club

- Tract.app - Ari Menemar: Google Meets with class, engaging in learning competitions and winning, Summer learning journey

- Tipu in Schools - Te Reo Māori learning on a digital platform in class

WTE

WTE PD

In Action

WTE observation by Kaytlin Walters Term 4 2021

This relates to the Teacher Standard: Professional Learning - Seek and respond to feedback from learners, colleagues and other education professionals, and engage in collaborative problem solving and learningfocused collegial discussions.