Tanya's Reflective Journal

Legal and Ethical Contexts in My Digital Practice Boundaries So many digital ethical dilemmas! Unfortunately this is something that is a daily part of our teaching of  21st Century Learners. Henderson, Auld and Johnson (2014) argue that there are 4 ethical dilemmas to be taken into consideration; consent, confidentiality, boundaries and recognising and responding to illicit activity. When these are broken down, it's hard not to think, "How can a teacher, teach in a 21st Century context without crossing any,  if in fact not all of them every day?" When I started back in the classroom in January this year, I knew that things had changed from when I was there 4 years earlier, however, I was unprepared for what was now required of a teacher. I was very uncomfortable with the fact that Facebook now seemed to be the norm for schools. "A great way of communicating with your families", I was told.  I was also informed that there was no set apps, blogs or form o

Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsibility in My Practise “E raka te maui, e raka to katau” A community can use all the skills of its people Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsibility is, in my opinion, all about knowing yourself, your learners and your community. In other words, it's about relationships. Russell Bishop (2012) made the comment that culturally responsive practices involve teachers creating contexts for learning that involve 'power sharing' and this can then provide a real tuakana teina action. Bishop (2012) also made mention of agentic teachers and how they alone are not sufficient to build culturally responsive pedagogy. They need huge amounts of support to become the proficient responsive teachers we need. I look at where our school, in fact our Kahui Ako, are now and note that they have identified one part of their achievement challenges to be that of "Cultural Responsive Pedagogy. That is not to say that this practice does

Innovative Learning Environments - Trend? Modern Learning Environments, Innovative Learning Environments, Flexible Learning Environments. All are the same thing known by a different term. I stepped out of teaching for a few years very recently and have only just re-entered a classroom. During that time I worked in a Company that promoted the set up these collaborative environments. At first, I was dubious, but after doing some reading and listening to what teachers were wanting to achieve for their students, it began to become a passion for me. I particularly loved being involved in the new builds, where I gave advice on everything, from the placement of walls (usually the outside ones), to voice reinforcement systems to technologies on their wish lists. Hence, now that I am back in a school where ILE's are just beginning to be set up, I am both excited to see them in place, but also irritated by the things that I see that haven't been taken into consideration when a wall wa

SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE COMMUNITY, SCHOOL CULTURE AND PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENTS Introduction: Stoll (1998) defines school culture as being one of the most important concepts in education. She goes on to explain that a number of factors shape the culture of the school, such as the age of the school, influences of the community (whānau included), primary/secondary differences, the social mix of the pupils and any changes that may occur in Society. Socio-Economic Status The school I am currently at is comprised of 35% Māori students, 52% European, 7% Pasifika and 6% other  Education Review Office (2016). It is a Decile 3 and draws children from  a range of Socio-economic areas. One complete area has a lot of Housing New Zealand homes with the majority of the whānau unemployed or in seasonally employment such as orchard employees. At the other end of our zone, is a band new subdivision with the majority are employed in full time positions. So we have quite a mix.  Pro

Identifying my Community of Practice Communities of Practice have been around for centuries, we just didn't know that's what we had or hadn't thought to put a name to it.  We have always got together to discuss problems, enable solutions and figure out the way forward. Wenger-Trayner (2015) discuss Communities of Practice as being one where groups of people who are like minded and share concerns get together regularly to do things better.  There are of course, many Communities, but Wenger (2000) reports that the three crucial elements that define a Community of Practice are: joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared repertoire. I identify with a variety of Communities of Practice, Mind Lab  - March Intake 2017 Mahora School Management Team Mahora School Leadership Team Mahora School Team 3 (Seniors) Ngā Hau e Wha Kahui Ako PaCT (Progress and Consistency Tool) Team For the purpose of this reflection I am going to reflect on my practice within the Kah