A time to reflect teaching and learning

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...

Understanding indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness According to Bishop (2012) a teacher with a culturally responsive pedagogy, will challenge the negative ideas as to why a student(s) may be failing. The teacher believes that they can make a real difference with the skills and knowledge that they have to help their students achieve regardless of the students cultural and socio-economic status. Reflecting on KHS schools culture and the students of 2016 and going into 2017, I thought I would be more cultural responsive by changing my year 9 and 10 Social Studies Programme better suit the learning needs of my students and culture at KHS. Starting term 1 with a Pepeha study to allow a more in depth way of students to introduce themselves. In the past I have always done a getting to know you activity with all my classes, I had always given my pepeha to my students. ‘Ko Horotua, toko Waka…..’ I had set an expectation and encouraged Social Sciences colleagues to also compl...

Trend influencing education in New Zealand or internationally The trend that captives me the most is how technologies create positive and negative impacts to our society we live in and furthermore our education system. In 2016 the OCED stated “New technology can be a double edged sword with many positive impacts, it can also give rise to previous unknown risks and dangers’ (OCED, 2016). The rapid rate in which technology has developed and change society I believe in the last decade has now meant that technology is firmly imbedded in many facets of our everyday lives and including my own. We have these devices and technologies for purpose or pleasure. I frequently use technology, for example my fit bit watch monitors my heart rate and how many hours I slept. My smart phones allows me to connect to communities in various ways, speaking to family and friends overseas, or connecting to my students in the conversation box in Office 365 Group app. Diagram 1: OCED (2016) Repo...

My Professional Context: Having taught just over a Year and a half at Karamu High School (KHS), I am still finding my way in terms identifying the school culture and where I fit in the community. There is strong evidence of culture, I do however feel that this is a young school and continues to evolve its culture. The schools I have taught at were older established schools and schools of special character, where culture is in-bedded into the community. Our vision: Proudly Karamu, Proudly Learning, Proudly Hastings . The History of Karamu High School.  Karamu High School was opened in 1962, the city of Hastings first co-educational high school. The school's motto, Knowledge Is Strength  He Mana Tō Te Mātauranga  emphasises the important role knowledge plays in a strong and successful life and is the basis of good citizenship In 2009 the Ministry of Education announced that a 8 Million dollar modernisation project would take place at Karamu which was offic...

My Practice Within the Community of Learning.  As a secondary Social Sciences teacher of Social Studies and Geography, my community of practice has grown rather large of the past 13 years of teaching. My communities of practice have also changed significantly over those years of teaching. My current community of practice is the Social Sciences Faculty, BYOL Pilot Teachers Group, and my students, Year 9 and 10 Social Studies, 11 Geography classes.  (Wenger, 2000) Said the following things about a Community of practice,  Joint enterprise: is a shared domain which is the “collectively developed understanding of what the community is about”. Mutual engagement: within the community, the members engage through interactions, building mutual trust in the relationships. Shared repertoire: is “the communal resources” that the community of practice produce  The community of practice which is specific to me is the Social Sciences Faculty and the BYOL pilot teachers ...