Week 32: Changes in my practice

Reflecting on my 32 week journey
Sitting back now and reflecting on my journey, it's hard to believe how much learning has taken place. Articulating what I have gained in under 600 words is going to be a challenge! ;) Hence, I'll resort to bullet pointing....

Benefits gained:

• Opportunity to delve deep into research around best practice.
• Heightened awareness of current trends and the impact and implications they are having on education and future instructional design.
• Taster of innovative technologies that our schools have available to us.
• Opportunity to truly collaborate with colleagues and experience first hand what it means to collaborate, the dispositions we develop and benefits we reap - I guess for me it helped me to answer the 'why collaborate?'  particularly when tackling group assignments.
• Reflect on approaches to leadership, considering the research and rethinking my current practice and implementing changes.
• Time to really engage in the Teaching As Inquiry and Change Management processes, discuss and reflect on findings.
• Further build my online professional learning network and recognise the value!
• Opportunity to carefully consider the issues that my communities of practice need to address - and through our online network, think about these issues from different perspectives and viewpoints.

Above all, this has been a time for critical reflection and exposure to new ways of thinking based on sound research.  While some of the content has been affirmation for my own philosophies of teaching and learning, it has also challenged me to think differently in some areas - and that has been exciting!

Two Key Changes in My Practice:

Strengthened Desire to Collaborate

To be honest, the group assignments pushed me right outside of my comfort zone when we first began.  I was working alongside colleagues who I highly respected so you'd think it would have been easy for me... but it wasn't.  Initially we took so much time negotiating the content of our assignments. For me, I was concerned about my contributions - not wanting to come across as domineering, overthinking my contributions - worried that I wasn't adding value....  I guess it came down to a lack of confidence and initially a lack of trust (in myself and how the others may perceive me).

However - the development of our collaborative group evolved significantly over time and it was fantastic to be able to reflect on this growth we all experienced as collaborative members of this group.  Essentially this came down to strengthened relationships within the group and developing an appreciation for the different strengths that each member could bring to the task.  Once we found our 'place', a high level of trust developed, resulting in much better outcomes - and is now at the stage where I don't ever want to go back to tackling such assignments on my own!  

Collaboration enabled me to think more critically and creatively as we bounced ideas off each other. We could build on each others ideas and come up with new and better ideas as a team. I also became a lot more aware of myself as a learner in the process and recognised areas for further development. Isn't this exactly what we want for our students?

With this revelation (so to speak) - I need explore further!  Hence - I have recently taken on a new part time position, working in a collaborative team (Year 5/6) - to really focus in on the 'ingredients' for successful collaboration, the dispositions that need to be developed, the communication skills that need explicit teaching and how to foster those positive relationships of trust and confidence. It is also giving me the opportunity to recognise the significant gains our students experience through more collaborative approaches.

Practicing Teaching Criteria in eLearning: 

Criteria 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment. 

Teacher/Leader as Facilitator - Not limiting my students to my own areas of expertise

I've always known this - but haven't always practiced this!

This is a message that has come through strongly during this course and something I was keen to address.  

Coding and Computer Sciences is a field that I have always been interested in but lacked confidence to pursue - however it is an area I know is becoming more and more relevant for our students today. I see huge potential in our students understanding the fundamentals of computer science  (and the basics of coding) and then utilise that understanding within design thinking processes (also experienced during our course!)

This has led to the formation of a Coding Club at our school where I am genuinely learning alongside the students.  I am loving being their facilitator - who doesn't have the answers but can help facilitate the processes of problem solving, critical and creative thinking.

We rely a great deal on our online network of experts who have provided much guidance and valuable resources for us.  Our latest venture is collaborating with the university and trialling a series of lessons designed to introduce computer science fundamentals to primary students.  What a great opportunity!  The kids are incredibly excited and feel empowered by the connections they are making and the people (around the world via Twitter) who are interested in what they are doing - and for me, every session is exciting and highly motivating!

Practicing Teaching Criteria in eLearning:

Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.

Next Dream?

Having developed a better understanding and experienced the affordances of reflective practice, I'm keen to further develop my approaches to eLearning professional development.  This is an area that is constantly evolving for me and one I am passionate about - that is looking at how PD can be better delivered in context and enable/encourage teachers to be more reflective about their practice - better tying together theory and practice.  This quote from Osterman and Kottkamp (1993) pretty much sums up my beliefs as a facilitator:

"The learner assumes a central position, and the model of instructor as expert gives way to that of the instructor as facilitator. The role of the leader is no longer to deliver but to guide - to provide information and resources to facilitate the learners personal inquiry and personal growth....entering into a reflective conversation" (P.16)

.... so what does this look like in practice?  Here begins my next Inquiry.......  :)

References

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Registered-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning

Week 31: My Interdisciplinary Connection Map

This week we have been looking at working across disciplinary boundaries and were asked to think about our own interdisciplinary connections.  My first step was to better understand what was meant by the term 'disciplinary' and came across the following Nissani (1995) definition as sited in the  Matheson & Freeman (1997) reading that states that defines a discipline "as any comparatively self-contained and isolated domain of human experience which possesses its own community of experts. Every discipline has its peculiar constellation of distinctive components: such things as shared goals, concepts, facts, tacit skills, methodologies, personal experiences, values, and aesthetic judgments".

This then got me thinking about the different 'hats' that I have come to wear within the education sector - thinking of these as disciplines in a sense.  Here is the initial map that I came up with:

Hopefully I haven't got too much of track with my diagram - as it does not refer directly to interdisciplinary practice in the classroom - but more at taking a interdisciplinary approach to improving my educational practice by looking reflectively from multiple viewpoints.

Two potential connections from this map as near future goals
The first connection that I am keen to develop in that between my school students and the University Computer Science Department.  Computer Sciences is something that has always interested me and something I have dabbled in a tiny bit - but never explored in depth.  Recently an opportunity has opened up (through my online connections) where I am able to trial a series of computer science lessons aimed at primary students as a part of a PHD study. This will enable a connection between my students and the university where I see reciprocal benefits for all stakeholders.  For the university, we are able to trial and provide valuable feedback as they develop their programmes.  For my students and myself - we are able to engage in rich learning, gaining a deeper understanding of computer science fundamentals.  It is also very empowering for my students, opening up options for future career paths that they may have never previously considered.  Already they are enthusiastic members of the coding movement - this now takes that enthusiasm to a whole new level!  This connection becomes a highly collaborative venture and involves a lot of critical thinking across disciplines - working towards a common goal from different perspectives (programme developers, primary students, classroom teacher).

The second connection extends from the first - where I can take what I learn from the context of working with my Bromley School students and the context as a teacher working with the university and apply to my role as a professional development provider (eTime).  A challenge I have faced in the past when delivering professional development to teachers is that I have over time become more and more disconnected with actual classroom practice (ie haven't always had the opportunity to 'walk the talk').  As a result of (hopefully) successful collaboration with the university - I can better assist fellow teachers to integrate computer science concepts into the primary curriculum.

The Benefits?
Matheson and Freeman (1997) highlight the educational benefits of an interdisciplinary approach for students:

• a better overall comprehension of global interdependencies, along with the development of multiple perspectives, points of view, and values
• an increase in the ability to make decisions, think critically and creatively, and synthesize knowledge beyond the disciplines
• the increased ability to identify, assess and transfer significant information needed for the promotion of cooperative learning, a better attitude towards self as a learner and as a meaningful member of a community solving novel problems
• increased motivation

I think the same can be said for educators as we design learning experiences for our students. I think it is important for us to look at problems/opportunities from multiple perspectives, where possible taking a interdisciplinary approach so that we too can advance in our critical thinking, creativity, pedagogy and essential academia (Jones, 2009).

References

Jones, C.(2009). Interdisciplinary approach - Advantages, disadvantages, and the future benefits of interdisciplinary studies.ESSAI, 7(26), 76-81. Retrieved from http://dc.cod.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1121&context=essai

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

Nissani, M. (1995). Fruits, salads, and smoothies: A working definition of interdisciplinarity. Journal of Educational Thought, 29(2), 121-128.

Week 30 Professional Online Networks

This week we are reflecting on the potential that social media has in enriching the learning environment.  I’ve chosen to focus in on these two questions:

1. What are some key features of social media that are beneficial for teaching and learning? Why?
2. How do/would you use social media to enhance your professional development? Why?

The students I am working with (across different schools) use a number of different social media platforms to support their learning, each with its own potential benefits. I’ll just highlight a couple that I am enjoying using with my students at the moment:

Google Classroom

As an introduction to social media, I think this platform is fantastic for introducing students to the concept of online interaction.  It is not a public environment so the participants are restricted to your school community - but we find that this then provides us with a safe, closely monitored environment for our students to learn the basics of participating in online discussion and demonstrating safe, appropriate online behaviours.

It’s interesting to see how students behave when they first discover they have an ‘online voice’. Typically the discussion threads contain a lot of ‘wassup’s’, lol’s, and irrelevant ‘stuff’ as they seek to establish their online identity.  This is where the teacher can play a crucial role in determining the success of the online community by initiating the online discussions with thought provoking material and questions and providing opportunity for the students to reflect on their own online participation and how they go about relating to others in an online context. So much higher order thinking can come into play - forming questions, providing constructive feedback, showing empathy, perspective, synthesising, connecting ideas, reflecting … the list goes on. It is also important to develop shared expectations around online etiquette and build confidence to not only respond but initiate online discussion around their learning. This all adheres to the social nature of learning - one of the 7 principles for innovative learning environments as highlighted in the OECD ‘Nature of Learning’ research and supported by Bolstad and Gilbert (2012):

“Learning involves interaction—trying out and testing ideas with others. Some or all of it takes place in the context of relationships with other human beings. Sometimes these are people who know more than the learner, sometimes they know less, and sometimes they are learning together” (Page 12)

Seesaw Learning Journals

This is another platform that can be viewed as an introduction to social media, in a safe, closely monitored environment. Essentially it is a web-based tool that allows students to build an online reflective learning journal that can be shared with parents. Key benefits of this tool are that it can make the learning visible, encouraging students to articulate what they are learning and showcase evidence of learning through multimedia (visual, oral, written).  It also provides the students with an authentic audience for their work, encouraging feedback and feed-forward. With the ability to share to parents, it is also an effective communication tool, providing parents with a window into the classroom.

How do I use social media to enhance my own PD?

Wow… where do you start?  I’m loving the opportunities that I have available to me with the evolution of social media and online networking.  Here are a few the I am making use of at present:

Twitter - I have been building my twitter network for the past 5 years now - with a focus on using it for connecting with and learning from fellow educators.  I love how we are restricted to just a few characters, making it easy to scroll through and identify areas of interest.  If I want to dig deeper I click on the recommended links and browse the articles, blog posts etc.  I have to confess to being a real stalker at the beginning but have gained confidence over time to create my own posts. For this platform to be successful we have a responsibility to create as well as consume. :)

Facebook - Many of my Facebook friends are educators and often post relevant articles and start some really good discussions related to our practice. I find Facebook is a great place to seek advice or put the call-out for recommended resources.

YouTube - If you need to know anything - there is bound to be a YouTube clip about it!  I also use YouTube often to obtain thought provoking material that I can utilise in my classroom.  It has also been fantastic for sourcing Flipped Learning material.

Blogs - I subscribe to several blogs. Not only do I love the inspiration but it also feel it is important to keep up with latest trends, what is working well in other people’s classrooms and it is also an opportunity to share our my own expertise and hopefully help others!

Google + - hadn’t used it much until this course but am fast seeing the benefits.  I have enjoyed the online discussions - but again realise that I have a responsibility to not just ‘stalk’ but also contribute. I have also loved viewing some of the links that people have posted - that has lead me to some fantastic thought-provoking material.

VLN - in particular the iPad User group has been a brilliant source of PD, not only for sourcing recommended apps and lesson ideas - but also for highlighting potential issues and offering invaluable advice around BYOD programmes and app deployment.

That is just a few ways that social media benefits my professional learning.  It’s hard to think what it would be like without it now!

Week 29: Influence of Law and Ethics on Professional Practice

Interesting reading this week - looking at some of the legal and ethical dilemmas that we face as we engage with social media.

Personally, I am an avid user of social media. My Twitter and LinkedIn accounts are a brilliant source of PD for me and I am a regular user of Facebook. My Facebook page was originally set up with the purpose of connecting with friends and family who I don’t get to interact with that often. It was also set up to share photos and little anecdotes about my growing children - particularly appreciated by the grandparents and family who live overseas! Over time my Facebook profile has become a precious online journal that the kids and I often look back on and reflect.

I can also see the benefits of social media in the classroom. Immediately it can generate an authentic audience for the student’s creations. An audience that can provide instant feedback and interactions at a global level. Now that’s exciting! Many schools find Facebook as the most effective way of reaching their parent community through online communication.

With so many potential benefits, I’m against the notion of banning social media in primary schools. I also am aware that our children are surrounded by social media, this is the world they live in and something that they will engage with (either now or in the future) - so I see that ethically - we have an obligation as teachers to teach our children how to engage with social media in ways that add value to their learning and social interactions - in a safe and responsible manner. In the NZ Code of Ethics for Certified Teachers, under ‘Commitment to Learners’ it states that we should strive to “encourage learners to think critically about significant social issues” and “promote the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual wellbeing of learners”. I think that the use of social media provides a platform and opportunity for these important conversations to take place in the classroom.

Dilemma: Teacher Personal Use of Social Media - Accepting Friend Requests from Students

When I had my first friend request from a student I was delighted. This was a student who I had taught several years ago and had just started her university study. I admit to enjoying the opportunity to see what my students were up to later in life, what they become, their achievements - something we often miss out on as teachers when our students move on.

At the time I thought I had all of the risks of accepting students as Facebook friends covered. Looking at the School Docs policy around staff personal use of social media - I thought I had ticked all of the boxes:



From SchoolDocs:http://www.schooldocs.co.nz

I had been mindful of my audience every time I had posted to Facebook in the past (especially given my family elders and in-laws were included in my audience!) so I was happy for my students to see any of these posts. I had also set up a group in my privacy settings that restricted the content that certain people could see and interact with.

What I hadn’t anticipated were some of the issues that later came to light:

1. Photos I was unexpectedly tagged in
Didn’t see this one coming. Hadn’t considered the photos/content that my friends might post and tag me in…. Yes those alcohol induced moments that you never anticipate being shared out of context!

2. Inappropriate content being posted by the students
I could cope (only just) with the poor spelling and grammar - although did wonder where I went wrong in my teaching!!! ;) What I made me really uncomfortable and confronting were the sexually provocative photos that my young female ex-students were posting publicly - along with so much personal information - including phone numbers. These students were practically adults now - so in some respects this was none of my business - however - I still felt that ethically as their teacher (whether it be past or present) I had a responsibility to warn them of the dangers … but how do you go about approaching this with an 18 year old!

3. Friend requests from students under 13
Then there emerged the problem of friend requests from students under the age of 13. This one was a little easier to tackle although in many cases it was the parents who had set up their accounts. For this one I drew the line and did not accept friend requests from these students - but ethically I felt I needed to take this further - particularly given that we have a responsibility as teachers for the wellbeing of our students. At the time we had issues with other social media tools - Instagram and Snapchat. This lead to an open conversation with the students around the use of social media. I was open about my own dilemmas that I had faced and posed a range of scenarios for the students to think about. We also made use of the Netsafe resources and talked through the concept of a digital footprint. Also recognising the importance of involving the parents in this discussion (Code of Ethics - Commitment to Parents/Families/Whanau) - our school held a cybersafety education evening for parents and we promoted the use of the Netsafe resources for parents.


Again, I see the importance of being open with our students about the dilemma’s we face in our use of social media and use them as opportunities to think critically and engage in those important conversations around how we can overcome those challenges, protect ourselves and reap in the benefits that social media use can afford.

Week 28: Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness in my Practice

“Cultural responsiveness is much more than introducing myths or metaphors into class. It means interacting with their families to truly understand their reality; it means understanding the socio-political history and how it impacts on classroom life; it means challenging personal beliefs and actions; and, it means changing practices to engage all students in their learning and make the classroom a positive learning place for all students”

Earl et al (2008) as sited in the Tātaiako - Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners

In reflecting on my own beliefs around indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy I was interested to hear Russell Bishop talk about the educational disparities around Māori Achievement. In honoring the Treaty of Waitangi, I see it as our duty as educators of Māori students to actively work to address these disparities. This means developing understanding around where our Māori students are coming from, what is important to Māori and their underlying beliefs about learning - valuing what they bring to the classroom. It is about building respectful, positive relationships with the students and their families and constantly inquiring into how to better engage and improve learning outcomes for all students - and as Russell Bishop asserts - this takes professional commitment.

In considering what is important to Maori, I find the six elements of the Effective Teaching Profile (Bishop & Berryman) a useful resource:

Manaakitanga – teachers care for their students as culturally located human beings above all else.
Mana motuhake – teachers care for the performance of their students.
Nga whakapiringatanga – teachers are able to create a secure, well-managed learning environment.
Wananga – teachers are able to engage in effective teaching interactions with Māori students as Māori.
Ako – teachers can use strategies that promote effective teaching interactions and relationships with their learners.
Kotahitanga – teachers promote, monitor and reflect on outcomes that in turn lead to improvements in educational achievement for Māori students.

Reflecting on how my school addresses cultural responsiveness in practice:

Because I have only been teaching at my current school for a short time, I have chosen (for this task) to look at the school where my own children attend and where I am a BoT parent representative - a slightly different hat! The areas I’d like to focus on are around policy development and communication methods - from a BoT perspective.

Policy Development
This is an area that we feel we have improved in significantly over the past few years, in relation to cultural responsiveness. Recognising some major gaps in our understanding, we engaged in a great deal of professional development around better understanding (as a Board) the intent of the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori Achieving as Māori - through Dr Richard Manning (UC) and CORE Education. This also involved an intense review of where we were at as a school and from this a comprehensive Maori Action Plan was developed. This Māori Action Plan feeds directly into our Charter and Annual Plan. As a result we are seeing real traction across the school. There is still a way to go, but there has certainly been improvement and better understanding of our Māori students and teacher actions that can really make a difference. Just some of the actions that have come out of this review process and plan is the establishment of our Whānau group, community-wide cultural celebrations, thriving Kapa Haka group and the inclusion of the cultural competencies in Teacher Appraisal.

With specific policy development, we spent a great deal of time working with our Whānau group and external advisors to develop our ‘Improving Educational Outcomes for Māori’ policy - which informs many of the decisions that we make. Ideally we would like to better engage our Māori community as we work through the policy review process - which leads me to an identified area of improvement …

Communication Methods

Although we made great progress initially as we engaged with external PD providers and our Whānau group, we have since faced challenges in finding the recipe for effective consultation and we think that this is largely due to our methods of communication. Interestingly we have experienced the same concern when engaging with our Asian families. To address this we have identified the area of ‘Effective Communication’ as a strategic priority in our current Charter and have appointed a Community Liaison Facilitator to work with our families to better understand the communication methods that will work for them. We also strive to continue building on the positive relationships that have developed over the past years through our annual cultural activities and group celebrations - that have proven highly successful with huge turn-outs, positive vibe and positive feedback! Really keen to hear what is working well in other schools …

Week 27: Broader Professional Context

This week we have been looking at global trends that are influencing/impacting education, suggesting how we might address these trends/issues within our learning community.

In exploring these ‘trends’ The NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition addresses the following questions:

What is on the five-year horizon for K-12 schools worldwide?
Which trends and technologies will drive educational change?
What are the challenges that we consider as solvable or difficult to overcome, and how can we strategize effective solutions?



Original Source:http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf

Two key trends jumped out as areas that we are well aware of in our school learning community and actively addressing;

• Shift from Students as Consumers to Creators
• Shift to Deeper Learning approaches

Shift from Students as Consumers to Creators

The Horizon Report asserts that “a shift is taking place in schools all over the world as learners are exploring subject matter through the act of creation rather than the consumption of content. A vast array of digital tools are available to support this transformation in K-12 education; indeed, the growing accessibility of mobile technologies is giving rise to a whole new level of comfort with producing media and prototypes” (p.14)

At our school we see this shift as a great opportunity to empower our students and build independent, innovative and highly resourceful learners. We are working towards our children having 1:1 access to iPads and are utilising them in ways that encourage them to design, creative, innovate and share their creations globally.

For example:

• Media team who use iMovie to produce a weekly news broadcast (student-led) via YouTube channel
• Interest Projects where students have the opportunity to share their learning using multimedia (Green Screening, Movies, Slideshows, Prezis, iBooks, Animations) and publish to a wider audience through reflective blogs
• Junior students are creating digital artifacts to communicate their learning with their parents viz the Seesaw app
• Our writers have the opportunity to publish their writing in the form of multi-touch digital books and potentially publish to iTunes Bookstore.

These are exciting opportunities for our students, made possible through the use of evolving technologies. We see it as important to expose our students to these opportunities, build their tool kit and most importantly develop the learner dispositions (Key Competencies) that will arm them for success in the future.

Shift to Deeper Learning Approaches

The Horizon report also highlights the importance of deeper learning approaches and teaching complex thinking. They state that "teaching coding in schools is a way to instill this kind of thinking in student as it combines deep Computer Science knowledge with creativity and problem solving” (p.32).

This year our school have taken the plunge and decided to explore the opportunities that ‘coding’ opens up for our students in terms of addressing the key competencies:

• Using Language, Symbols and Text
• Thinking - Creative, Critical, Reflective
• Relating to Others
• Participating and Contributing 
• Managing Self

Using www.code.org as our starting point, we established a ‘Coding Club’ - a group of Year 5-6 students who meet once a week to develop their coding skills and utilise a range of resources.

Although we have only been up and running for a few months, we are thrilled with how this group have developed in terms of their confidence, problem solving abilities, creative thinking and most of all excitement for learning!!

In terms of the development of complex thinking, we have discovered some fantastic resources made freely available to us online that have really helped us with our journey. An example is our use of the Pixel Floors resources that guided us through a Design Thinking approach to game design. Here is a short video clip of our students sharing that process:

The area of computer science and coding is still very new to us, but an area that we are keen to pursue further after seeing the impact it is having on our students!

References:

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Week 26: My Professional Community

For this week's reflection we are required to take a deeper look at our community of practice looking at organisational culture, changes that are occurring in our wider professional context and how we as a community are addressing them. The community that I will refer to here, is the school in which I work part time.

It was in fact the unique culture (heart) of school that attracted me to work there in the first place. For the past 5 years I have had some involvement with the school as an external PD facilitator. Although I worked across a wide range of schools, there was something about this school that stood out for me - and that was the ‘vibe’ that you had every time you entered through the gates. I could ‘feel’ a real sense of empowerment for the children - where everyone has something to offer. It was a place that fostered a strong sense of belonging and high aspirations. It was a place that had confidence in their students to experience success in the world - much like Mark Wilson’s TED talk around building a culture of success.

Exciting opportunities to learn were accessible to all students who entered through those gates - opportunities that were innovative and highly personalised through a Reggio-inspired philosophy of 8 Guiding Principles that were recently developed collectively by the team - best described by one of the school leaders here.

Now that I belong to this community, the unique school culture is even more evident and I can experience first hand the impact it has on the why, when and how learning takes place. It is now my responsibility to help contribute to our school culture by actively engaging with the Guiding Principles and using them to inform the decisions that I make in my teaching/facilitation. It is also my responsibility to help build that culture of success through the opportunities that I can provide for them. Drawing on my own expertise in the area of eLearning I can assist our community in utilising digital technologies in ways that align with and enhance our philosophy for learning. I can also utilise my professional learning networks to give our community global presence. For example - creating digital games for other kids around the world to play, publishing eBooks to iTunes, collaborative coding etc) - demonstrating to our students that anything is possible!

Our community of practice is responsive to the changes that are occurring in the Education profession. We recognise the impact that rapidly evolving digital technologies are having on society - and that the educational needs of our digital natives are very different to those of the generations that came before them. We have had to rethink the ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ we teach. Currently we are moving to a more collaborative approach to teaching and learning and looking at ways in which we can nurture greater student agency and learner independence through our Guiding Principles.

We are also looking at how we can effectively use digital technologies to transform teaching and learning - utilising Ruben Peuntedura’s SAMR model (with consideration of TPCK) to guide us. This also means improving our student’s access to technology with a move to a 1:1 programme. This year we have offered a BYOD (iPad) programme but recognise that cost of the device is a major barrier for many of our families. We are currently looking at funding options for tackling this challenge and ways in which we can provide opportunities for our parents to up-skill and experience the (transformational) benefits that digital technologies can offer our community of learners.