Week 26 - My Professional Community

According to Stoll (1998), 'school culture is defined as three dimensions, relationships among the members, the structure of the organisation including the physical environment and the management system and the learning nature.'

Stoll (1998) also says identifying and understanding what our current school culture looks like, feels like and how it influences our collective behaviours is the starting point for improving our school environment. The history of the school from initiation through to this point in time has shaped the impression we, as staff, and we, as a community feel towards the environment. We are constantly reminded of socio-economic backgrounds contributing to our school community and the expected behaviours, successes and influences these play on our learners. National policies to education, health and housing contribute to our school culture and the support we receive to deliver effective learning programmes. Our school has been, and continues to be the back bone of the community and changes in our contributing clientele remains cyclic.

A key challenge we are currently facing, as are many Christchurch schools, is the forecast of rebuilding our physical buildings and rebuilding to meet Modern Learning Practices. The challenge in reality is to the staff philosophies. We as a staff are involved in discussions around trends in education and how these may impact on our culture, our community and how to manage these.

My professional community is currently in discussions around how Modern Learning Environments operate and what support is needed for school staff to understand them, parent information sharing, student competencies development and learning opportunities. We are strong believers in everyone having strengths and having something to offer in this process. Participating in discussions and professional development to support and encourage our students learning and questioning our philosophies, cultures and understanding is important. We are also developing collaborative teaching and learning experiences in a basic and fundamental level. This continues to be an area of development and with the continued help from Grow Waitaha, we will build an evolved idea of our school values in partnership. 

It is important to note the MacNeil, Prater and Busch (2009) state that strong school cultures have better motivated teachers. Highly motivated teachers have greater success in terms of student performance and student outcomes. School principals seeking to improve student performance should focus on improving the school's culture by getting the relationships right between themselves, their teachers, students and parents. p.77



References:

MacNeil, Angus J.; Prater, Doris L.; Busch, Steve (2009). The Effects of School Culture and Climate on Student Achievement. International Journal of Leadership in Education, v12 n1 p73-84 Jan 2009

from http://donnieholland.wiki.westga.edu/file/view/school%20culture%20climate%20%26%20achievement.pdf

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from: http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture

Interesting Readings for a reflection

I have decided to add some readings I have found recently for future reference.
Sometimes these readings promote immediate questions or ponderings and I like to take some time to process and re-read and make some connections for myself.

Through Learning is Well-being:
http://unitec.researchbank.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10652/2322/Whole-1.pdf?sequence=1

Childrens Participation: Roger Hart
https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/childrens_participation.pdf

Communities of Practice: Wenger, E. (2000)
http://stjamesschoolbermondsey.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2.-Wenger-E-2000-Social-theory-of-learning.pdf

Week 25 - My Community of Practice

I am a Y3/4 teacher in Christchurch. I have been teaching for eight years and love what I do. Over the last six months I have been working towards a Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning). Learning about digital tools to support learning and collaborative approaches has allowed me to explore and experiment within my practice. Part of this process has also allowed for the reading and discussion of research both old and new. This has encouraged debate, questions, knowledge sharing and collaborative study with like minded professionals. We have supported and engaged with one another along and with technology allowing for us as teachers to return to learning while doing. 

As part of our Applied Practice it is important to identify and define my professional and community of practice. 

What is a Community of Practice?

A community of practice (CoP) is a group of learners sharing their knowledge, experience and understanding. Wenger (2000) states that "by participating in these 'communities of practice' is essential to our learning. It is at the very core of what makes us human beings capable of meaningful knowing.' p.229

Being part of a CoP is participating, connecting and collaborating socially in our personal learning journey. We are passionate about education and willing to further our knowledge and build on our practice. Wenger, McDermott & Snyder (2002) defined communities of practice as 'groups of people who share a concern or a passion or about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interaction on an ongoing basis'. (p.4)

Who are my Community of Practice?

My CoP is my colleagues in our school, colleagues also studying this course and fellow teachers in online forums. Like-minded professionals passionate about providing the best opportunities in education for our life-long learners. 

Key Theorists that underpin my practice

Understanding what is important to my practice provides me with reminders of why I want to teach and how I want to teach. Sometimes daily practice becomes difficult with tight timetables, outside forces and general school business impacting on my philosophy creates friction. Making sure I follow my true belief's in a changing climate gives me hope for the future of our learners and my CoP feeds my passion to teach experientially. I feel a strong alliance to the four theorists outlined above and over the next twelve months I will have courage and follow my early philosophy and understanding rather than push myself to conform to the philosophy of others. 

References:

Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems. "Organization 7.2 (2000): 225-246.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press,

Enlightening moments

Over the last six months my journey through my Post Graduate Certificate in Digital and Collaborative learning and Applied Practice has created many questions, many opportunities and many moments of madness.
Study and working full time is not a particularly easy task however, doable.
I have spent many hours chasing my tail trying to finish assessment tasks, late nights, pouring over research, thinking about implications for my teaching practice, my students and my philosophy.
The journey is now on the last stretch of a marathon and I am more informed and to a degree, more motivated to independently read research.
My next few blogs will be my Applied Practice assessment and therefore topic related. Enjoy.