A journey to the future

A change in my practice towards future-orientated learning and teaching. Theme: A curriculum that uses knowledge to develop learning capacity Thoughts, Ministry of Education (2012) looks at the future challenges in learning and teaching, one of the themes is around learning capacity. I am currently part of a traditional system where Science as part of...

How good is the mirror?

MindLab Activity 1 "Critically evaluate your reflective practice" Examine my current understanding of reflective practice I completed a MindLab survey to look at my reflective practice. My initial belief's were that: critical reflection means criticising your own practice, disagree. A consistent response compared with others doing the same survey. critical reflection means criticising your colleagues...

‘Practicing Change’

  The theme of this last reflective post is Change. The 32 weeks of professional development has created change on many levels. The old adage that states " you don't know how much you don't know" comes to mind.  Teachers are task rich and time poor; they are often faced with a myriad of tasks, professional...

Changes in my practice

The last 32 weeks have been a pedagogical odyssey, and one that I have had great pleasure in sharing with others. I didn’t realise that I would learn so much, or that I had so much to learn! Incredibly, I had never thought to question the definition of knowledge until our first session. Now, not...

Changes in my practice

This year I have been participating in the Mindlab Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning).  There were 32 weeks of intensive study and a good deal of reflection on my practice as a teacher. A deeper level of self-awareness has informed my teaching practice over the course of the year.  A significant...

Girl Power will save us all!

Activity 3: Critique and evaluate practice in the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives. During the Mindlab course I have been confronted with the trends that I had conveniently pushed to the back of my mind. You can avoid trends at a personal level in  your life outside of work;...

Have you lost your buzzy feeling?

(Activity 4) Critique and evaluate how indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness inform practice. We all want to create that buzzy feeling for each kid in the class but sometimes we settle for a group buzz. How can we spread the buzz around? In a culturally relevant pedagogy you would find that world views, values, beliefs...

‘Indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy’

Culture pertains to your wold views, beliefs, values and language. An individual’s cultural background influences the way they think, their behaviour and their assumptions, (Irvine et al, 2010) and cultural well-being has an impact on society (Ministry for Culture & Heritage): The impact we have on the cultural well-being of our students extends beyond school...

Rethinking the Role of Teachers

The role of teachers is transforming across all levels of education.  Providing knowledge at the front of a class is no longer enough.  We as teachers are now acting as guides and mentors, motivating students to be life-long learners.  An essential element of this is providing opportunities for students to direct their own learning experiences....