Activity 10:​ Summarising your Postgraduate Learning Journey and your planning for the future

Create a blog post where you reflect on your personal 32 week learning journey through the whole postgraduate programme with regard to the 12 Practising Teacher Criteria (PTC) in e-learning.

Reflection

It is difficult to single out three areas of practice that I meet well when all the criteria are explicitly interconnected and without each of them, it makes it harder to be a 21st century educator, and to understand and meet all the criteria above. 

As a leader in the primary school sector, it is often harder to analyse my own teaching, learning and behaviour, and identify the positive things I have implemented, and the positive relationships I have built, particularly when so many of the issues I have to deal with are negative or problems teachers, students and parents have. These tend to over shadow the positives and at times it is hard to 'see the wood for the trees.' It is often hard to look beyond these issues and identify what I am doing well. 

The MindLab Postgraduate Programme has allowed me to reflect deeper on the why, how and what that makes me a 21st century educator, appreciate the support of others, and know we are all on a similar learning journey.

First choose 3 o​f the criteria you have met well. Briefly give examples of these from your practice. 

Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice.

• The biggest step was to identify why I needed to continue learning, how I was going to get what I needed to continue learning, and what I was interested in and choose the appropriate course to enrol in. The MindLab provided practical hands on experiences alongside pedagogy and camaraderie. It brought back the passion and helped me clarify why I got started in teaching.

Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.

• DCL 1 and DCL 2 provided the research and background knowledge to reflect on my personal style and preference when leading others. I was able to use my learning and apply it within our school with staff, with students, with the BOT and with our parent community. The MindLab provided me with the knowledge and the model to share my learning via online tools, videos and a self developed website that requires staff and students with access to learn, share and collaborate online.  

An example of our online student Literacy Learning website
https://sites.google.com/a/woodhill.school.nz/trash-trial/

An example of our online staff online interactive websitehttps://sites.google.com/a/woodhill.school.nz/growing-mindset-woodhill/

An example of our online community online interactive website
https://sites.google.com/a/woodhill.school.nz/ukulele-woodhill/hand-position

Criteria 6: Conceptualise, plan, and implement an appropriate learning programme.

• Assignment LCD 1 - 3 provided the knowledge; why 21 century teaching and learning is important for our future generation, the Lean Canvas provided the model of how to move our school into the 21st century, and the what - pedagogy - was provided in the readings and the course material to support, build and sustain our 21st century teaching and learning practices.

Plan and justify t​wo m​ain goals for your future development. 

Criteria for future improvement and planning.

Criteria 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment

• I am really excited by the prospect of implementing DCL 3 - Lean Canvas. Our school staff have worked tirelessly in the past year to develop a culture of learning, learning how to learn, collaboration and enviro-school fun. We implemented professional development that supported staff to further develop their teaching practice that is innovative, proactive and reflective. Staff have increased their openness to new initiatives and have at times reflected, challenged and questioned rationale and processes.

Criteria 8: Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn.

• My Learning Journey with the MindLab has provided me with the knowledge, practical skills and courage to move our school from a Traditional to a 21st Century learning model. 

• Our school is moving from Traditional Education to 21st Century education. As a part of this we are moving staff and students from dependent to independent learners. Self-directed learning is critical in the 21st Century classroom. I believe it allows students to differentiate learning for themselves, provide a greater depth of knowledge, and develops core 21st Century Life and Career skills. In turn we are also moving staff and students from individual to collaborative learning - increasing collaborative learning and decreasing the emphasis on Individual learning. 

• This year we have started team teaching using a new model of teaching reading and maths. This is called the "Daily 5". Every day our children must participate in five activities. The children are guided to set the expectations to follow within each activity. The beauty of this programme is that it allows children ownership of how and what they choose to do and in what order they choose to do it. It is a fantastic programme that allows everyone quality time to read and also to work with their teacher. From a teacher's point of view, children stay on task longer, are more focused, are a resource for each other in class, monitor themselves and others. All of this frees the teacher from managing, and allows them to devote their time to teaching. This has brought about a noticeable improvement in progress and focus compared to more traditional methods used in many traditional New Zealand schools.

The problems of the 21st Century require cross-functional, interdisciplinary, collaborative teams to innovate and solve the big challenges - from fighting cancer to designing the next amazing technology product. We believe providing opportunity for independence and self managing is laying the groundwork for our learners to be capable of addressing those challenges that lie ahead of us all. 


Reference: 

Grow, Gerald. (1996) Teaching Learners to Be Self-Directed.  Teaching Learners to Be Self-Directed. Dr. Gerald Grow, 20 Mar. 1996. Web. 27 June 2013. - Link The Staged Self-Directed Learning (SSDL) Model (Grow 1991) 

Practising Teacher Criteria and e-learning. Retrieve from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Practising-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning