Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes (Turn and face the strain) David Bowie

Wow! What a journey it's been, 32 weeks of personal and professional development.  The most invigorating, challenging, confronting yet rewarding experience I have had since first becoming a parent!

The timing of the Mind Lab post grad course could not have been better for me.  I had recently been given the role of "Director of Innovation" at our school.  A description that was equal parts exciting and overwhelming.  As I crashed around in the online environment trying to lead staff in first defining what innovation meant to us, and then coming up with ways we could all develop it further, I was desperate for some guidance.  The Mind Lab course provided me with this.  Within the first three sessions I felt a sense of grounding - this was exactly where I was supposed to be.

The Practicing Teacher Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice, has been substantially demonstrated with my participation in this course.  The change in practice in my teaching and learning has been immense.  The grounded feeling I experienced was because I was being exposed to latest best practice which was based on sound educational research - not just things I had happened to come across online.  It hasn't been without it's dramas though.  I really question why I was teaching Accounting (especially after checking out Will a Robot take your Job).

The outcome has been that I have developed an absolute passion for developing a more integrated curriculum.  As Frances Valentine the founder of The Mind Lab and Tec Futures Lab explains, we need to “open their eyes wide” when referring to students.  The relevance and context of what we chose to do in class is everything.  She has challenged educators to “stop valuing only what we can measure” and celebrate divergent thinking.  The purpose is to produce students who are design thinkers, social crusaders, politically mobilized and educative disruptors.  These are exciting times and I am keen to "turn and face the strain." 

Osterman& Kottkamp (1993) define reflective practice as "neither a solitary or relaxed meditative process" - complete understatement there!  By using reflective practice to become more self aware of my teaching and learning has been an uncomfortable process.  The experience of becoming a student again delivered my first major change in practice.  More specifically, the experience of receiving a grade that was inversely related to the amount of time and effort put in (and my expectation).  I was surprised at the level of disappointment I displayed and the associated behaviours when I first saw my grade.  It took a good week and a half before I was even in the head space to be able to take in the feedback given (I did read it on the first day, but just scoffed at the comments and thought bad thoughts about the marker)!

Reflecting on this experience I have altered the way I give my students grades and feedback.  I no longer give out the grade first.  For internal assessments feedback is given first along with the criteria.  For practice examinations each paper is "marked" with codes, we go through the marking schedule as a class with the students checking their papers.  Once this is completed (with accompanying teachable moments) the students add up their codes to reveal their overall grade.  Previously when trying to go through the marking schedule to find those "teachable moments" a third of the class would be slumped on their desks, obviously disappointed with their grade, not hearing me over the negative self talk going on in their heads, while another third smugly thought they didn't need to listen to anything because they had already received an Excellence pass so obviously knew it all! This experience has certainly developed my understanding around the Practicing Teaching Criteria 8: Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding o how akonga learn. 

So where to now? In conjunction with looking a ways to develop a more integrated curriculum at school I am also looking forward to the freedom of being able to blog on whatever area of interest I have and not be concerned if, a) I have met all of the criteria of an assessment rubric, or b) what I have to say might not be "worthy."  The fact that I now want to blog is a monumental mind shift for me.  The opening description to this blog states  Even though it goes against my natural inclination, I need to blog, so here goes ....

I now can appreciate the benefit of sharing my thoughts, not just for my own self awareness, but to contribute to a online social network - the strength in which is increased by connections and contributions.  At this point I have to give a shout out to my mate Wozza - it took a few years but I got there (even if I have stolen your idea of song quotes as a title)!

And as Mick Jagger said so well; "you can't always get what you want," but by crikey, I sure have got what I need!

Interdisciplinary connections: crossing boundaries and making connection

So here is a bubb.us map of my current interdisciplinary connections.  My future goal is to further develop the (magenta) connections of the HOD's of all of the learning areas at school to attempt to develop an "interdisciplinary way of thinking" along the lines of the Ross Spiral Curriculum from the video.

There is no denying the need for interdisciplinary and innovative teaching models to help our students develop the skills of critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and effective communication which we know they will need to be effective members of a more globally connected future workforce.  The challenge, of course, is to implement these authentic, real life, complex problem solving activities into the currently siloed curriculum and timetable structure of a high school.

Dr Deana McDonagh, Associate Professor from the University of Illinois explained simply that interdisciplinary studies "help students see the world more holistically rather than myopically."  This analogy resonates with me, I like the idea that each traditional subject area can be used as a lens through which students can view an aspect of an overarching theme, idea or complex problem.  I do think it can help students develop a greater global understanding or appreciation.  I see benefits for teachers as well - there is no better way to develop empathy and understanding of different subject area than looking at things from another teacher's point of view.  The idea of becoming "connected experts" rather than subject experts.

We are lucky at my current school to have been given a mandate to review the current curriculum and timetable structure.  The push has come from staff so we now have the opportunity to explore and research other options.  We have trialed aspects of the interdisciplinary model with our end of year, two week duration, "passion projects" and "big idea" groups.  The timetable is collapsed and the morning is devoted to students following an inquiry of their own choice, examples range from exploring 3D printing by constructing a printer; creating a travel website for teenagers, researching and building a bird feeder to encourage native birds into the school environment; right through to learning how to surf.  Individual staff mentor small groups of students with similar areas of interest.  The afternoon session is then a group project around a "big idea" an example of which have bee "How can we make a difference?"  The interdisciplinary opportunities in this model have been plenty, this challenge is now how can we move to a more in-depth approach which spans more than two weeks and involves senior students as well?

Mathison & Freeman (1997) identified interdisciplinary studies as a "stepping stone" towards Integrated (inquiry orientated, global issue driven) and then Iterative (theme driven but student and teachers partner in the curriculum design).  The reason it is considered a good place to start is that it "disturbs the current structure the least, so is more likely to be accepted."  So my goal is to work with the HOD's of all the curriculum areas to develop an integrated approach to the curriculum design specifically at the year 10 level.

Why year 10?  Two reasons, it is "pre" the senior school and from a current timetable point of view, all core subjects are blocked. 

Reasons we should be successful:

• Staff and students are familiar with thematic driven curriculum even though it has only been for 2 weeks periods.
• We currently have 8 out of a total of 28 staff who are completing the Mindlab PG course.
• There are less timetabling constraints because of the blocking of core "subjects."
• A culture of innovation is supported and being "future focused" for our students is one of 4 strategic priorities.

Potential problems:

• Although year 10 is "pre" the senior school we currently offer a lot of NCEA credits across a number of subject areas.
• Our school community have been very satisfied with the high rates of endorsement passes of our students so may be unwilling to welcome change.

So, is it worth the extra time, effort and no doubt, drama to pursue this plan?  Absolutely!  We owe it to our students to help develop the skills they are going to need rather than just provide the knowledge content of  each subject in isolation.  By teachers also having to experience it, students should be able to view the world through a variety of perspectives, as as Ian Dukes so succinctly put it:

Reference

Mathison,S.&Freeman, M. (1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies.  Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 1997.  Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/mathisonlogic12004.pdf:

Social Online Networks

So what social media do I use in my practice?  There are two main lens to look at this through: Professional Development; and Classroom use.
Let's take a look at the PD aspect first.  It is safe to say my social media use for PD has developed organically.  I first joined twitter while attending my first Ulearn conference in 2012.  I was completely overwhelmed at first.  I experienced FOMO in a big way, if I didn't constantly check twitter imagine what I was missing out on!  This early experience highlights one of the problems of social media use for PD identified by Karen Melhuish 2013 Masters Thesis: Online social networking and its impact on NZ educators' professional learning, which is information overload.  Other problems of lack of quality control and organisation also became apparent.  Yes I had to sift through posts and threads to find what I was after, then I discovered the power of the #tag and lists.  But really, the "luck of the draw" approach of gaining professional learning via twitter is similar to who you sit next to at a conference workshop or even which workshop you pick to attend.  There are some gems, but also a few duds.

What am I looking for in my professional learning from social online networks?  If I'm completely honest it is probably the affirmation of my practice - looking to see that what I am currently doing is in fact OK.  The danger in this is that I may then only be open to learning about and from people who hold a similar view to me.  What I hope actually happens is that if I see someone is doing something different or another way I am motivated to explore the potential benefits this approach may have for my students.  As the Innovative Pedagogy Report for the Open University observed one of the main drivers for teachers to explore online social networks is for new resources.  This is a enticing motivation to go searching.  One problem I have is that I tend to be a bit of a "lurker" when it comes to the online realm.  Although Karen Melhuish suggested that lurking did not mean non-learning, in the spirit of a community of practice it is not sustainable to only observe and 'take' resources, I should be contributing myself to add to the collection and dialogue, without which an online community might not survive.

The collaborative nature of being a "connected educator" is a real benefit of using online social networks for my PD.  The fact that the "experts" are the very participants in the network rather than a singular superior individual, can aid this collaboration.  The benefits of this collaborative approach have even been identified by NZQA who are now offering online "best practices" workshops for NCEA subject teachers to "engage in professional discussions with colleagues and the facilitator about interpreting the standard."

So if using social online networks is good enough for NZQA surely there is no excuse not to get involved.