Mindlab Musings

Another interesting week this week as I have really been challenged by the comments last week. My own cultural lens plays a part in all my interactions and I’d like to think I critically reflect on my actions as an educator, both in-action and on-action. Using Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) (see figure) as a guide, this week I am going to examine an unexpected reaction from my target learners in the first week of taking action. Figure 1. What Happened? For those of you who haven't seen my action plan, one of the initial steps of taking action was to give the children a choice in many areas of self-management for writing. After meeting with me, in an attempt to be sure the target students were ready to head off and get started, I gave them a sheet to quickly fill out. What I had not anticipated was how difficult it would be for my 7 and 8-year-olds to cope with being given a choice! Their reactions to this varied from doing nothing, watching someone else in ...

This week has been a particularly challenging week in terms of reflectiveness. I have had to dig deep to consider my own ideas about cultural responsiveness within my teaching practice and consider the correlation between my espoused theories and my theories in action. At times this has been uncomfortable for me to be truly honest with myself. Putting this into a blog that others can then read has heightened my level of uncomfortableness.  However, it can only make me a better teacher, so here goes. I’ve always been aware of the need to be culturally responsive in the classroom. After all, children (my main focus) are children and their skin colour and race has never been a conscious issue for me - however, my actions may be an issue for the children I interact with each day. A study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) Pygmalion In The Classroom, was first brought to my attention about 15 years ago and has helped shaped my teaching philosophy. I didn’t know the term ...

As an experienced teacher in a New Zealand Primary School, my appraisal is heavily influenced by the document ‘Our Code, Our Standards - Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession,’ These are the expectations for all teachers practicing in Aotearoa and it states clearly “ Teachers should “use inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners.” (Education Council, 2017, p.18). At my school, the standards heavily influence the way we inquire into our practice and use evidence to examine it. We see this in school policy regarding appraisal where it says “Each teacher has an e-portfolio where evidence and reflections are collected around progress on their goals, teaching as inquiry which is linked to each teacher’s Accelerated Learning Plans and how they are meeting the requirements of Tataiako, the Professional Standards and the Registered ...

Gail Loane (2010) wrote a book once called "I've Got Something To Say". This is the basis of my inquiry into the choice and control we give to the children in my class that struggle with the traditional ways of 'teaching' writing. All children have something to say - and we need to give them \the chance to say it. I'm not alone in this thinking and what's more, it’s not even my idea. It has been largely driven by recognising the need for children to have agency in their learning. On a national level, Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall, Bull, Boyd & Hipkins(2010) in their report to the Ministry of Education, recognise 21st Century skills as being crucial to the development of our tamariki and in particular talk of the need to genuinely involve students in their learning.  The two key themes that I am interested in, in this publication are: Personalised Learning - giving students a voice  The idea of making learning personalised is not...