Professional connections - appreciating the PLN

He aha te mea nui o te ao  What is the most important thing in the world?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata  It is the people, it is the people, it is the people

Maori proverb

Throughout my teaching and non-teaching education career it has been the relationships and networks I've formed that have impacted on my practice more than reading or seeing.  

The advent of social media has been a huge boost to my personal learning network.  Since joining the Twitter-sphere I have been able to listen to, follow and contribute to education conversations across the globe.  Following hashtags like #educhat, #educhatnz, #wellyed, #ulearn, #mindlabed provides both conversation and links to research and readings.  This has allowed me to access a wealth of experience, opinion and expertise on topics of interest.  

While there is sometimes a tsunami of information to process and discern, the Twitter community offers a sense of validation for my personal experiences / wonderings / difficulties.  The fact that educators across the globe are wrestling with the same questions about their practice provides a 'safety in numbers' environment where I feel my contributions are worthwhile.  

I do not regularly have time to check in with my Twitter PLN but know that the stream will be flowing when I am again available to dip my toe in.

The second acceleration period in my personal learning network occured when I joined the July 2015 intake of the Mindlab/Unitech course.  The combination of face to face and social media contact has formed professional bonds that traverse sectors, deciles and roll numbers.  Having discussed and debated educational topics from a personal and research base I value the diverse solutions offered by my classmates to universal issues.

Being a lifelong learner means continually growing and changing in response to feedback.  My PLN provides both the feedback and the information for change.

Most great learning happens in groups. Collaboration is the stuff of growth.

Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D.

Communities of Practice - building a professional identity

"Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly."  Etienne Wenger-Trayner

As a social human being with diverse interests, I am a member of several communities of practice.  

In my learning life I am one of 150 participants in Le Grand Continental - a local-population sourced dance performance to open the NZ Festival programme.  The group is all ages, all levels of experience, all types of physical ability, all cultures, all religions, all [insert personal attribute here].  The one thing that has brought us together and drives us to learn the choreography (a 4-6 hour commitment each week since Nov '15) is our enjoyment of dance and music.  Unexpected bonds have been formed.  Offers of feedback and support abound.  Reflective discussion about connecting music with movement can be heard.  Through all these dynamic interactions there are continuous 'light bulb' learning moments so powerful that you can see, hear and feel them - which feeds the momentum of the group.

In my teaching life I am part of a community of mathematical inquiry.  The community was formed last year with three primary schools in Porirua East and mathematical mentors from Massey University, Auckland.  The aim of developing the community of mathematical inquiry is to deliver maths in a highly culturally responsive way to accelerate maths engagement and achievement for our students.

All three schools are in close proximity and have 80%+ Pasifika students.  The framework we use for maths delivery incorporates the Pasifika principles (respect, service, leadership, spirituality, belonging, family, love, inclusion and reciprocity).  As a community we come together for professional development days.  Within our schools we have sub-community and critical buddy sessions.  Students are part of the community.  They participate in maths lessons, reflect on their own and each other's learning, as well as providing feedback to teachers and the mentor team.  This year the community is welcoming three more local schools.

One of the issues the community is currently working on is how to collaborate amongst schools between professional development sessions.  This would enable sharing of day-to-day practices and learnings.  I have set up a Google site for teachers to post questions / lesson plans / breakthroughs.  However without regular contributions from community members there is no dialogue.  Some teachers have Twitter feeds.  Perhaps the shorter format will prove more appealing.

If I draw on my dance community experience, starting with the passionate (or able) core, we can begin with a gesture that will become a movement.

Reflecting on 'Reflecting on Reflective Practice'

Switching from holiday brain to school brain - planning, mentoring a masters teaching student and continuing Mindlab course papers - Linda Finlay's (2008) discussion paper raised a lot of flags.

The point in the article that particularly resonated with my own reflective practice journey was the importance of making reflection timely and meaningful.

I will put up my hand and admit to being the teacher who, long after the teaching had occurred (and with no real evidence), filled in the 'evaluation/reflection' box at the bottom of the planning document.  My reflections were never deliberately acted on - although a few ideas seeped through.  No one checked in with me nor did I invite input from students or colleagues.  It was an entirely solo, box-ticking exercise.

My teaching and learning practice has become far more responsive.  Using a teaching as inquiry approach means that reflection is happening formally and informally throughout practice (not after the unit is finished and the form needs to completed and filed away).  Planning and practice shifts as required to meet the needs of my learners.  In order to ensure that any shifts are in the right direction, both teacher and student need to reflect on what is or is not working, how we know and where to go next.

By incorporating reflection into my teaching and learning practice I not only prioritise the time and resource that deep reflection needs but can immediately implement changes to make my practice more effective.

At my school we use a range of reflective tools and do not have one prescribed model.  There is a lot of dialogue between colleagues, teacher-student or student-student (formally and informally).  A framework we have adopted through developing our community of mathematical inquiry is the 'talk moves'.  These are designed to encourage critical participation in maths discussion.  They have a strong element of critical, reflective thinking and justification which makes them apt for reflection.  For our teaching as inquiry foci we use a critical buddy to pose questions and provocations.

The challenge is to record these interactions and conversations in a way that is not intrusive or counterproductive to the reflection process (ideas?).  The record of reflection can then be used as an artifact (and a tool) in our learning journey.

The Journey So Far - a look back to move forward

The first step of this journey happened almost by accident. I had been a sporadic twitter user, an early adopter of new technology (in my school, certainly not the world), interested in teaching and learning theories and a professional development junkie. I had followed Glasser and Claxton. I had heard about inquiry and 21st century competencies from Kath Murdoch and Tony Ryan (among many others). I realised that as incredible and inspirational as all this was, it was the connections and conversations with 'people on the ground' that really helped turn information into practice.

When the opportunity to enrol on Mindlab's Certificate of Applied Practice: Digital and Collaborative (themindlab.com) course first came up I read through the information and decided it sounded a bit too much like hard work! However, the idea lingered. I revisited the website and by then I had met someone who had previously done the course. While home from school with tonsillitis I found myself signing up! Blame the antibiotics but it was a decision I am glad I made. While it has been very hard work at times (literature review anyone?), the collaborative nature of the course and the class has been impactful in my teaching.

In the early weeks of the course we had to comment on the key competencies as they related to us and our teaching practice. I deemed my strengths to be thinking, relating to others, participating and contributing. Two areas I committed to develop through the course were thinking and managing self. 

Thinking aka making connections has been a huge part of my challenge and enjoyment through the course. There were times when discussions, readings or videos would intersect with classroom experiences and professional learning happening through my school. In these moments I felt validated when a hunch was given substance or a challenge given acceptance. I often find myself thinking how my students must feel in similar circumstances and how important the opportunities to speak and be heard are.

Given I have just submitted an assignment due early December, managing self seems an apt competency for me to work on!

 
Reflecting on the reasons that I procrastinate (I usually have a plan and I usually follow through, eventually).  1.  I'm scared of failure and embarrassment.  2.  I'm not sure what to do (then refer to 1).  Knowing there is a model to borrow or template to use makes any task less daunting.  Having your thoughts and opinions valued by others (even when they disagree) is also encouraging.  The Mindlab class provided both of these crutches.

In my classroom these experiences have translated into a more scaffolded approach to tasks where a model (or shared experience) is discussed without judgement or agenda as a prequel to the learning activity. Learning has become more about the process (we talk about 'growth mindsets') than the end product. In his latest blog post George Couros (http://georgecouros.ca/blog) has a great diagram showing the messiness of learning, how it is not linear but derives from making connections from multiple inputs.  Understanding the process and minimising the 'risks' of learning has become a big part of my classroom practice.  Using 'talk moves' students to contribute and value multiple viewpoints which we synthesise into a shared understanding.

From our shared understanding we can all move forward.