A time to reflect teaching and learning

So over the New Year period, I had been doing a lot of thinking about the resurrection of my blog site and thought no better time than never. I have a website specifically set up for my Masters of Education, however that has somewhat also been neglected over the course of 2020. I was thinking that blogging is a much easier way to reflect and share ideas 💡 pertaining to Education. Rather than a continual update of my website.  The last blog post I had written was about the GIS training I completed back in 2019! Upon my return to the Boys school, I was teaching at. My HOD Science and I developed a level 3 Geography and Science course. Based on Water Quality in the HB taught in one term and fortunate enough to have the students 20 hours per week. We had the SHMAK water testing kits (purchased from HBRC) developed a survey using the Survey 123 application (ArcGIS) program and used the SHMAK kits to collect water samples, temperature readings, conductivity readings, photo evidence of r...

This is an old one. Better to post than never.  I completed a 2-day workshop in Auckland early 1st and 2nd of March. The first stage of the course was discussion about GIS Champion and how to set up ArcGIS account which was a mixture of pedagogy, and transmission teaching. This was important to give us students grounding and purpose as to what we are so passionate about and how we can implement ArcGIS in our own kura. I had visions of using this technology as a school-wide project, migrating away from the paper Korowai and powerpoint, to a visual, collect the data yourself (field trip to your marae), virtual tour Poepeha. Connecting your whakapapa. It would be fantastic if my taiohi (students) were able to learn the skills of using GIS to benefit their iwi- through mapping land boundaries and other natural, cultural and historic resources. Benefits in The second session we went through co-constructing a survey and using Survey123, investigating a real-world problem. Looking at...

Changes in my informed practice: The Mind lab graduate programme has allowed me to re-affirm the importance of ongoing professional development allowing me to test and support my own theories and practices with stronger pedagogy. Making sense of what I had been already practicing with my E-learning and collaborative learning practices and re-assurance that there is a reason to the rhyme. The post graduate course reminded me of the benefits of collaborative learning, the importance of design thinking in course planning, and how important reflection in my own practice and learners voice all contribute to an appropriate learning programme. Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993) believe the reflective practice model only implies a link between theory and practice and that if teaching practices is to improve then we need to examine the behaviours with our own practices to make positive changes. Two key changes made to my own teachi...

My current and potential interdisciplinary connections. As a secondary teacher of Geography and Social Sciences and passionate about both my subject areas. Teaching both these subjects have allowed for interdisciplinary collaborations with teachers and experts outside in the field. Social studies has allowed, I believe, for the greatest collaboration and innovation opportunities. As NCEA constraints in our senior subjects still force many teachers to stick to their silo subject areas for fear of disruption and failing to meet many expectations of communities. The junior discipline of social studies I feel I have more flexibility as it is topic or thematic based and often I can pose a problem, inquiry and hands on activities for students to achievement or excel, incorporate all key competencies and the 21 st Century skills. Mathison,S.. & Freeman, M.(1997) describe this as a typical interdisciplinary model.   http://popplet.com/app/#/4145228 Savage Earth Year 9 Social S...

This year I have used Facebook with my Hockey teams as a communication tool. The changing community at KHS suggests that Face book is becoming a more accepted practice to communicate and connect with students and the wider community. Some faculties of learning are trailing Facebook as a space to collaborate. I have  trialled social media in a previous role. I suggested students to use twitter to follow National Geographic and use Pinterest to extend and organise their learning, but the one students preferred the most was Facebook. So I used Facebook  to as space for students to communicate, collaborate, share ideas, resources and course information KHS HOCKEY COMMUNITY FACEBOOK PAGE.  I CREATED FOR TEAMS, COACHES, MANAGES and PARENTS. Sharples, M et al (2016), discusses the added benefit of using social media as a learning tool, it can bring learning to life, using different times, spaces and supports collaboration, creativity and communication. I could se...

Teaching is certainly a rewarding profession, students ask me why I became a teacher. A student asked me this very question just the other day and my first response I do it for the daily challenges and the many, many rewards that I get from my profession. Going onto to list the any examples one being the Geography field trips to many Natural Environments. However, Hall (2001) suggests that societal changes over the last 50 years in New Zealand in the public's  expectations of teachers has changed and that we are now facing ethical dilemmas that we never had in the past. One such dilemma is the increasing use of digital technologies in our schools and our society. Over the last decade that I have taught there has certainly been a culture and thinking shift in how teachers use digital technologies for learning in the classroom and the ideology of flipped classrooms. In our own lives we use digital technologies for purpose or pleasure. Purpose being completing professional readi...