Changes in my practice
Over the past 32 weeks during my journey with MindLab I have made some discoveries in my teaching and in myself. I personally, have found the balance of study and teaching tricky to manage.
Coming into this experience I was excited to continue with more study and open my horizons in relation to digital technologies. I saw this course as an opportunity to further more growth as a teacher, especially since digital technologies is a rare strength within my school. I wanted to grow on my strengths and help myself to understand it further as to how I might incorporate technology more into my teaching practice, classroom and the wider school/community.
As a management unit holder expectations were put around me and with no one else willing to take the course, out of fear that it would be beyond them, I knew I had to learn more to be able to reassure these other teachers.
As part of the Teaching Criteria, the fifth criteria is to show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning. Professional knowledge is practice. Initially for me I thought I already knew a lot. Within my own school I seemed to know a lot but when exposed to MindLab I really knew either not a lot about some things or was just of average knowledge. From this experience I have learnt how to be selective about what is really useful and important to my teaching but to experience different technologies or apps in the process to achieving what I want. I have learnt how to educate others and how to use what I already know or have learnt to educate others who are adults.
The learning process is not just about the children and I have always known this but I don't think until now I had truly appreciated this. A huge emphasis had to be moved from the students and opened up to myself and the rest of the staff members. I became more confident in what I knew and became open to taking Staff Meetings or Professional Development sessions.
Criteria seven talks about promoting a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment. Often we relate this to our special needs students or high needs learners but when I took on this course I began to realise the effectiveness that is offered through simple collaborative tasks. I experimented more within my own classroom and fine-tuned my lessons before teaching other classrooms the same skills. MindLab informed me of the 21st Century skills and how to identify if I was supporting my own students with these skills. I became more aware of meeting the needs of my students and am now able to comfortably educate all of my students using digital technologies and adapt to meet their needs. The change in my own teaching practice and students has definitely come a long way even since the beginning of this year.
Reflecting now and looking towards my future professional development, I am in no hurry to take on any more papers but instead am ready to experiment further in my own classroom and school. I am ready to fine-tune and improve on what I have learnt over the past 32 weeks and begin to educate more my work colleagues. I am also ready to look at others who have taken the journey with me and see what they have taken from the course and how they have implemented it. To be more reflective and see what else I can take away from my journey. I still need to work on structuring digital technologies into my classroom more, utilising the skills of my students and staff members.
Coming into this experience I was excited to continue with more study and open my horizons in relation to digital technologies. I saw this course as an opportunity to further more growth as a teacher, especially since digital technologies is a rare strength within my school. I wanted to grow on my strengths and help myself to understand it further as to how I might incorporate technology more into my teaching practice, classroom and the wider school/community.
As a management unit holder expectations were put around me and with no one else willing to take the course, out of fear that it would be beyond them, I knew I had to learn more to be able to reassure these other teachers.
As part of the Teaching Criteria, the fifth criteria is to show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning. Professional knowledge is practice. Initially for me I thought I already knew a lot. Within my own school I seemed to know a lot but when exposed to MindLab I really knew either not a lot about some things or was just of average knowledge. From this experience I have learnt how to be selective about what is really useful and important to my teaching but to experience different technologies or apps in the process to achieving what I want. I have learnt how to educate others and how to use what I already know or have learnt to educate others who are adults.
The learning process is not just about the children and I have always known this but I don't think until now I had truly appreciated this. A huge emphasis had to be moved from the students and opened up to myself and the rest of the staff members. I became more confident in what I knew and became open to taking Staff Meetings or Professional Development sessions.
Criteria seven talks about promoting a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment. Often we relate this to our special needs students or high needs learners but when I took on this course I began to realise the effectiveness that is offered through simple collaborative tasks. I experimented more within my own classroom and fine-tuned my lessons before teaching other classrooms the same skills. MindLab informed me of the 21st Century skills and how to identify if I was supporting my own students with these skills. I became more aware of meeting the needs of my students and am now able to comfortably educate all of my students using digital technologies and adapt to meet their needs. The change in my own teaching practice and students has definitely come a long way even since the beginning of this year.
Reflecting now and looking towards my future professional development, I am in no hurry to take on any more papers but instead am ready to experiment further in my own classroom and school. I am ready to fine-tune and improve on what I have learnt over the past 32 weeks and begin to educate more my work colleagues. I am also ready to look at others who have taken the journey with me and see what they have taken from the course and how they have implemented it. To be more reflective and see what else I can take away from my journey. I still need to work on structuring digital technologies into my classroom more, utilising the skills of my students and staff members.
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