Transformation in my Practice- Agents of Change.

Lifelong Learning.

My initial reasons for engaging with the Mindlab course was to continue my aim of being a lifelong learner. I apply this to most things I attempt and became a volunteer firefighter last year and after a period of initial training, completed a 7 day practical and theory course. I enjoyed the challenge of learning something new. The Mind lab course presented further opportunities to up skill myself in my practice and provided a fresh approach to the dynamic changes currently occurring through education in 2016. We were also offered to become agents of change. Very James Bond!

Being recruited as an agent of change, I signed up and arrived with a growth mind set ready to absorb the content of the course. Much to my surprise the approach was to consider our personal views of such questions as “What is education for” and “What is learning”. Am I any clearer in my response to this question, having engaged with the readings, assignments, literature reviews and self-reflective logs over the course?

I would like to say that I am far more knowledgeable and better equipped to provide for my students learning experience. Furthermore I have a much clearer understanding of what is required to enable them to participate in and contribute to the 21st century workforce of the future.

The biggest changes and gains in my practice have been around the
 21st Century skills.

 
The ITL and Microsoft rubric has had a profound effect on my pedagogy, specifically around the collaboration and self regulating indicators. At a senior secondary school level, preparation for the workforce is vital and needs to meet the MOE expectation that employees are innovative and creative. My literature review on entrepreneurship has provided me with good insight into how we can move our students from creative individuals to successful entrepreneurs. It is also timely with the whole school rebuild underway with new flexible learning environments planned and interdisciplinary project based learning delivery of the curriculum signposted.

TWO KEY CHANGES:
Criterion 4 - Demonstrate ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice.

Blogs and teaching as inquiry are now everyday language within which I can easily converse with others. The teaching as inquiry has enabled me to focus on specific areas of my practice and improve my students performance. The Mindlab course has given me a wide range of practical experiences, as well as exposing me to a plethora of new digital platforms to improve my students learning. The next stage is to step back from my role as teacher facilitator and allow the students to lead their learning. In doing so I hope that the roles can be reversed and the students become the teacher and I become the learner.

Criterion 7 - Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment.

Working collaboratively at the Mind Lab gave me a useful insight to some of the frustrations that no doubt our students would similarly experience. The importance of understanding that others maybe facing their own challenges and also may feel out of their depth with the speed in which change is occurring. A constant theme and necessity for successfully completing the course was the use of social media. This has enabled me to become a digital citizen and provided me with the tools and strategies to support my students outside of the classroom. Through online learning sites and school based websites my students have had far better access to material and been able to contribute to each others learning and generation of knowledge. The next stage for me is to incorporate project based learning and collaboration by solving real world problems. In doing so I hope to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.

Agents of change???

There are 340 or so teachers on the Mind Lab March intake (Google+ number) and a similar number on the July intake.The teachers who attended the course in November 2015 have been putting their newly gained knowledge into practice in schools for over a period of six months. There are Principals who have convinced their whole staff to attend the course and some individuals will travel 90 mins each way to attend. There are more centers opening and a local new build college on the edge of Christchurch has one night set aside for their staff to attend. There are just two of us in my school out of a staff of 30 promoting digital and collaborative teaching practices.

In my experience my colleague and I have had considerable influence in changing the awareness of staff in regards to the needs of our students for the future. Some are excited, some are skeptical, some are reluctant to engage.




One thing is for sure that even in the 32 weeks since the start of the course some new technologies demonstrated are now commonplace, the groundbreaking theories and models expressed are presently adopted as practice, the demand for a highly skilled workforce is increasing and the threat of automation of low skilled repetitive tasks unquestionable. What is not in doubt is the exponential rate of change will require the learners of the future to be able to unlearn and relearn As Alvin Toffler put it “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who  cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn".

Dreams of future professional development.

Considering a Masters or even a Diploma at this stage is very much on the table for me personally. However I would like to develop other colleagues expertise in this area. This will be my primary focus for my own professional development over the next two years. The new school rebuild will have significant impact on teachers practice and a move to collaborative practice. As these proficiencies become embedded I really would like to further my knowledge around the 21st skill set. Specifically around the requirements that employers will look for in a creative and innovative workforce and how best we can deliver this through project based learning. I can envisage a host of real world problem solving activities being placed on line and schools collaborating to come up with flawless solutions. Perhaps this a business opportunity as well as a professional development exercise.

Thanks to everyone !!!



Ministry of Education. (n.d). Practicing Teacher Criteria and e-learning. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Practising-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning