First Year Madness

Did you know that 90% of the world's data was created in the last 2 years ? Neither did I until last night. But apparently the world is moving quite quickly, and technology advancements are a key driver in this rapid river of change and discovery (mixing metaphors here but I think the idea is clear enough)! Me trying to figure out how to get the technology to work with 52 kids waiting... This week we are considering a broader, international context with regards to not just the world around us but how it affects education on a global, national and local context. The trends on a global scale are both fascinating and terrifying, with a future that feels completely inevitable but also incredibly unclear. Coming from an ILE ( innovative learning environment ) where my students are 1:1 with devices, and the teachers are learning about how to best teach our students to be 21st Century learners I wanted to focus on the trend of technology and its rate of accelerated progress. This tr

"Te kaha me te wairua". Energy flows where attention goes. Before I get into the meaty part of discussing my professional context, I spent a while pondering this. For me it really meant focusing my energies on the things that matter, because those are what will end up getting done! In the days of never ending to-do lists, I have had to consider choosing 2-3 things to really focus on getting done each day because without this focus my attention was all over the place, and therefore my energy was too. Anyway - on to the topic at hand! Professional context refers to the various factors that impact on my practice. It includes not only those communities of practice as discussed earlier, but also the socioeconomic status of my community, the professional environment on a global, national and school wide level, and the culture of the school I belong to.  We are a decile 2 school and so this is reflected in the community which is often struggling with a variety of issues. Befo

Today's post is brought to you by Mindlab , who have set up a series of topics and reflections over the next few weeks in order to assist us teachers in becoming critically reflective. I think I am both critical, and reflective, but not always at the same time and not always in the constructive ways that Mindlab is promoting. This first year is flying by, and one huge thing that has become very apparent is how important it is who I choose to surround myself with while I move through the challenges and struggles that seem to crop up on a daily basis. The community of practice is defined as those groups of people who use their shared passion or voca tion to deepen each others' knowledge and skills through that ongoing interaction - both in an unofficial sense (e.g. a coffee in the staff room) as well as through more structured interactions such as team planning sessions. Communities of practice that I belong to include my colleagues from last years study, with whom I inter