I'm looking at my practice again as part of the Applied Practice in Context paper, the final one in my Post Grad Mindlab course.
So here's the brief:
You may include your own provocations.
- How would you define the context in which your practice is situated?
- What is the purpose and function of your practice?
- How does your context of practice relate to other contexts of practice?
- What are the core values that underpin your area of specialisation?
- How are these values articulated within:
- your organisational culture
- organisational policy
- organisational ethics
- What are the legal,regulatory or professional requirements within your field and how do these effect your practice or community?
Interesting, I had to really think about how I was going to make this a little different to what I've already posted as my Vlog in response to these provocations. I've decided to post my responses/script I had for the vlog I created and associate evidence with what I said. The easiest way I found to do this was in the form of a table, below the left of the table is the script I used to create my Vlog. The right of the table is evidence I've collected to support this as well as further ideas I've developed since creating the Vlog.
How would you define the context in which your practice is situated?
My Practice
I currently work as an ICT lead teacher across our school. Our school has 540 year 0 to six students and more than 50 staff.
The community our school is situated in includes many maori and pasifika families in fact our school is 46% Maori 46% Pasifika with the other 8% being made up of European, Asian and other nationalities.
Much of my work at the start of the year consists of setting up devices and online environments for staff and students to work in as well as fixing the inevitable issues that seem to occur over the summer break. Alongside this I work with new staff to familiarise them with our use of Google Apps for organisation and management and new teachers with electronic rolls and their classroom ICT gear. I’m also responsible for setting up data recording through our SMS system and ensuring our digital rolls are working correctly.
Once the year gets going I’m responsible for maintaining devices and online environments as well as providing professional development for staff around using ICT in their classrooms.
As the year progresses I’m involved in setting the budget for the following year and continuing to develop the ICT plan.
|
Starting point
ERO Report 2013 on Rowandale School. This ERO report was completed with a previous principal, there have been many changes to the school since it was completed.
Assembly SMS
Our SMS system collates data for us on our ethnic makeup. This is where I was able to get the most up to date statistics about our school.
ICT Plan
A big part of my context comes from the ICT plan that I've developed in conjunction with ICT team members and our Senior Management team.
|
What is the purpose and function of your practice?
The main purpose of my job as I see it is to keep our IT running smoothly and to push teachers to use IT in ways they may not have thought of or haven’t had the time to investigate.
As an ICT lead teacher I am responsible for all aspects of Information Communication Technology across the school. Anything from photcopiers to iPads through to PA systems and and phones.
I setup and maintain our school network including our online envrionments. Our school website, facebook page, twitter accounts, blogs, web tools including things like Skoolbo accounts are something I work with on a daily basis.
I distribute and maintain our physical devices including our Activ and Clever touch boards, ipads, mac computers, teacher laptops and all other IT equipment.
I am also responsible for professional development for all teachers in the area of ICT. This includes providing regular opportunities for staff to explore new tools and devices, providing assistance with planning and preparation for those tools and devices and also trialing and experimenting with students and teachers to come up with better ways of doing things.
This year I am working with a team of teachers across the school to further develop ICT and to give all teachers a voice in the way forward of ICT at Rowandale.
We’ve also embarked on two future focused classrooms where the ratio of devices is 1:2 and teachers are focused on finding better ways of engaging and learning with our students. Although the devices in these rooms have been increased the focus isn’t on having devices it’s on how best to use them to enhance student achievement.
|
ICT Plan
I think this explains the purpose and function of my practice. I'm not able to post that here though as the plan is specific to our school and contains information that may be considered confidential.
Simple
I've been evaluating a lot of what I do recently as I'm trying to make sure what I do is relevant but also manageable. One of the big things I want to keep on my mind is really my motto as an ICT Lead Teacher - Providing technology for teachers that just works.
This isn't just about making sure it's fixed, plugged in and turned on, but also about ensuring the policies, procedures and professional development around ICT leads to technology being an integral tool like a pen or a pencil that doesn't require a teacher to be a technician to use it.
|
How does your context of practice relate to other contexts of practice?
| I didn't have a lot in my script for this section of the provocations because I felt I'd already covered it in other areas of the Vlog. Basically my practice relates to all other areas of the school as it's something that works behind the scenes as well as out the front in classrooms. |
What are the core values that underpin your area of specialisation?
I think the values needed for being an ICT Lead teacher are those required across our school
Consistency
Respect
Integrity
Honesty
I also think having the ability to protray all of Art Costa & Bena Kallicks habit of mind are important, especially since we’re a habits of mind accredited school. A few habits though stick out as being essential for this job they include:
| Our School Mission, Vision, Motto and values are what guides my in my practice. Vision: With our hearts and minds we will innovate, inspire and inquire. Motto: Soaring to Success Mission: To provide an innovative, stimulating, learning environment, that prepares students for the challenges they will face in our global society We also have four values - Consistency, Respect, Persistence and Integrity. These four values are detailed further for leaders, teachers and students. Each having a role to play in upholding these values at our school. Alongside our vision, motto, mission and values are the 16 Habits of Mind. Developed by Art Costa and Bena Kallick. http://www.habitsofmindinstitute.org/ http://www.habitsofmindinstitute.org/about-us/hear-art/ |
How are these values articulated within:
We are a habits of mind school and all the values I explained are part of the habits of mind, successful people have these habits. We are constantly referring to how, when and why students use the habits we talk about how to use them, when each habit is appropriate to use, what they look like, feel like and sound like and why we use them.
Our school goals this year are
They reflect a commitment to raising student achievement.
Our school values are
Our School Motto is soaring to success
|
Our school logo shows the kite a story associated with the location of our school in Manurewa
As mentioned above we have a school Motto, Vision and mission. All of our classrooms and office spaces have the Vision, Motto, Mission, Values, Habits of Mind and our school wide goals displayed in them.
When we're meeting as a senior management team the question - does this relate to our school goals this year is always on our minds and if the answer is no, we change what we're doing.
|
What are the legal, regulatory or professional requirements within your field and how do these affect your practice or community?
I guess the big legal and regulatory requirements are those of copyright and privacy laws when working online, with software and with any form of presentation - printing, photocopying, live and videoed performance. Navigating these laws isn’t easy
I’m also governed by the registered teachers criteria through the teachers council and by our own school policies and procedures. These are both fairly easy to work within as I’m familiar with them and helped to write some of the school policies and procedures.
National standards are another large part of my work I’m responsible for ensuring the data in our SMS system is ready for national standards reporting.
As a teacher I find national standards can be limiting and am hoping to show teachers how standards can still be achieved even when learning looks different to what we’re used to. I’m working hard with our two future focused teachers to do this this year.
In terms of our community, I don’t believe they’re informed enough about best IT practice and how, when and why we use IT in schools and I’m looking to change that this year.
| Copyright law information for schools Creative Commons National Standards New Zealand Teachers Council, registered teachers criteria |
References
Costa, A., & Kallick, B. (2007). Hear from Art. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://www.habitsofmindinstitute.org/about-us/hear-art/
Creative commons in schools. (2014, April 07). Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org.nz/ccinschools/
New Zealand, Education Review Office. (2013, December 2). Rowandale School 02/12/2013. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/Early-Childhood-School-Reports/School-Reports/Rowandale-School-02-12-2013
New Zealand, Ministry of Education. (n.d.). Managing Copyright in Schools. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from https://www.tki.org.nz/Copyright-in-Schools/Guidelines-for-schools/For-principals-and-trustees/Managing-copyright-in-schools
New Zealand, Ministry of Education. (n.d.). National Standards. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards
New Zealand, New Zealand Teachers Council. (n.d.). Registered Teachers Criteria. Retrieved February 1, 2015, from http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/rtc
Comments
Post a Comment