Changes in my practice

The point of reflection is to recapture the experiences, mull them over critically in order to gain a new understanding and so improve future practice. This is all part of being lifelong learners. (SkillsTeamHullUniversity). Looking back at my MindLab experience I can honestly say  "What a journey this has been". I have learnt so much about myself, my practice, my students and  my future. So much has fallen into place, now. I wish someone would have told me at the beginning of  my MindLab journey that I would come out thinking more about my teaching practise. The first few weeks I spent dreading the thought what I would have to come up with at the end of each session to put on the portal to show my learning. It was only through my assignments that I realised the wealth of information I was gaining. 

Is that how our students feel? 

I would say my journey started, dare I say, ten years ago. I was one of the teachers using the new catch phrase "preparing our students for the 21st century and for their jobs that don't yet exist". I blindly went where the future was taking us- into inquiry based learning where we, the teachers chose the  inquiry topic, the process and the the all important question. We, the inquiry lead team, made an amazing model and we lead the teachers and students through this model. The only problem was we never seemed to get past the knowledge stage, we felt our students needed more front loading. I, and many other teachers, never got to the presenting and reflecting part of the model. A few years later we re- developed the model-put more information into it and relaunched it. Same result. A few years later we designed a new model, now much more simplified. It lives on as a token in our planning. 

It was while attending the first 16 weeks of MindLab, where I was learning about 21st century skills, like collaboration, knowledge construction, communication and real world problem solving and innovation that I realised: I really didn't know very much about the 21st century learner. Then another revelation dawned on me while discussing Inquiry based learning models with a fellow MindLab colleague- that I actually didn't know as much about inquiry based learning as I thought I did. In fact I was missing a few important aspects- namely the 21st century skills needed for the inquiry to work and the fact that the actual inquiry should be student driven, based from the student's questions. This was not entirely new information, as somewhere in our model there was a student question part, but we just never got there or if we did the question was not deemed rich enough. Oh boy did I get it wrong. Another problem with our inquiry based learning was we only allocated time for it as a topic, not as an interdisciplinary unit across multiple curriculum areas.

Armed with this new understanding I would like to introduce real inquiry based learning, not with a model, as I feel we get too hung up in the steps or phases, but real inquiry based on a broad topic that students could enjoy investigating and really immerse  all our curriculum areas in this topic. I have already discussed this concept with my syndicate and we will explore this further at our next planning day. 

There are many other things I have learnt this year, but inquiry based learning when done right can really make a difference to the way my students learn and it will bring the enjoyment of learning back.

References

University of Hull SkillsTeamHullUni. (2014) Reflective writing. [video file]. Retrieved from  

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoI67VeE3ds

Interdisciplinary Connections

My Interdisciplinary map

The interdisciplinary connection I selected is my students as, after all, they are my priority.

I think we need to remember what Daniel Pink states - we need to prepare our students for their future not our past. I believe most teachers will agree with that statement, but with the constraints of curriculum subjects and National Standards, we get bogged down with must cover rather than the creative flare that would allow children to blossom.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article Themes or motives? Aiming for coherence through interdisciplinary outlines by K. Barton and L. Smith. They state that "Instruction should focus on integrated, interdisciplinary activities that revolve around a set of important ideas." They go on to say that "in order to be effective, thematic units typically must be broad enough to provide authentic experiences in more than one content area, offer a range of learning experiences for students and give students choices in the projects they pursue and the ways they demonstrate their learning."  This is not new- we as a school have been battling with authentic inquiry learning. We have had PD, and have created two inquiry models, but yet we still miss the mark and most of us- including me have gone back to teaching the same old same old, concentrating on getting our children to "achieve the National Standard." Don't get me wrong that is important, but there has got to be a better way.
Barton and Smith talk about a teacher, Leslie, who was successful with this idea of interdisciplinary outlines. She does not force integration but looks for broad topics- "big ideas" that authentically tie materials together from different subject areas. 

I really liked her Roots unit and would love to start our new year off with a similar type of theme. This could include the students heritage and history, their lives, their school, the history of Mt. Roskill, what is important to them. Just think of how well we will know our students. Together the teachers within my syndicate will plan for authentic learning around our students life, refining Our Learning Community unit to include experiences across most if not all our curriculum subjects. We as a syndicate work very well together sharing our planning. 

Interdisciplinary units  should encompass reading, writing, topic, maths and the arts. I work with a fellow teacher who embraces this in her teaching. She is a teacher of one of our Samoan bilingual classes and this year she has totally immersed her students in the story of Easter. Her students read about Easter, wrote about Easter and had to solve maths problems about Easter celebrations. She has done the same with Samoan language week and White Sunday. Of course these are very important festivals in the Samoan culture so this was authentic learning. If one teacher at our school can do it, we have an expert and we can all give it a try. We must just remember what Leslie said- "units like bears and apples are very preplanned and they aren't related to the students or what they are doing. A thematic unit will be different every year with different students; it has to be broad enough to expand and contract with the students needs." I am ready to give this approach another go- armed with more information and understanding this time. True inquiry is about moving to where the children want to go with their learning.

References

Barton, K. and Smith, L. (2000) Themes or motives? Aiming for coherence through 
         interdisciplinary outlines, The Reading Teacher. Vol.5 No.1 Retrieved from
         https://app.themindlab.com/media/32978/view

ThomasMcDonaghGroup. (2011). Interdisciplinary and Innovation Education. [video file].
         Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA