Changes in practice

I have been a teacher for over 20 years and still felt ill-prepared for the demands of collaborating in an Innovative Learning Environment. After doing my own thing for so long, I knew it was going to be a challenge to have to share the same teaching space with others. It was obvious that I needed to upskill and fortunately, I heard about the Mind Lab opportunity.

After a hard 32 weeks, I am glad I took up this opportunity. There are so many topics I could not sink my teeth into because time simply did not allow it. I had to prioritise.  My hope was to regain the confidence I felt slipping away as I tried to get on top of the New Zealand Primary School curriculum. I got that as well as a renewed sense of purpose

I haven’t seen myself as a leader in New Zealand, as my focus was entirely on giving the students in my class my best, secretly worrying that this may still be less than what students in other classroom were getting. Compliments and positive appraisals did help, but the confidence levels were still well below where it was. I definitely did not look forward to working with other teachers, fearing I would be the weakest link!

It is now almost a year later and I did a complete 180.

Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning. Professional knowledge in practice

The first week’s reading about leadership and followership certainly influenced my thinking. This helped me to understand the shifting of roles when collaborating with the other three teachers in our learning space. Also significant was the view that you do not have to be in a position of power to have influence. Having cut my teeth in a time when ideas about leadership were very different from the modern understanding, learning about the new approach to leadership helped me to understand the dynamics of the team. The analogy of the dancing couple discussed in week 1 of the course, was especially significant for me. Over this time, having worked so closely with others - and you can’t help to compare - I am holding my own, contributing to an environment where students experience effective teaching and learning.  

Criteria 7: Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment.

Developing my understanding of collaboration and other  21st century skills,  enabled me to contribute during professional development sessions, during our planning meetings and it enabled me to work collaboratively with others. Knowing that your opinion on pedagogy is valued certainly helps with your own confidence. More important, is the fact I could use my new learning to have those hard conversations, that I am able to justify my opinion and ask the right questions without burning bridges.

It does take everyone’s input to build a team that is inclusive and supportive, and we are still building the trust needed to be truly collaborative, but I am thankful for having the knowledge and skills to add value.

Next goals

I will continue studying and I am set on doing a mathematics paper. Studying has been time-consuming and, as the Mind Lab quotation rightly states, “...we can only prepare teachers to begin teaching,” I need to take the time to implement what I have learned to help my team build a fantastic Innovative learning environment.

My interdisciplinary connection map

My initial feeling was that the readings on interdisciplinary curriculum were  more for the benefit of secondary school teachers who, as subject specialists, need to develop ways to collaborate across different subjects.  As primary school teachers, we already use an integrated curriculum and it is rare to see subjects taught discretely.  This feeling was reinforced by the fact that the goal of a curriculum like this is to help STUDENTS synthesize discrete information and to connect such knowledge to the needs of everyday living (Mathison and Freeman, 1997).  Furthermore, according to Jones (2009), the interdisciplinary approach is a key concept to the advancement of SCHOOL CURRICULUM at all levels.

Further reading, made me realise that I have been making interdisciplinary CONNECTIONS with outside agencies such as Auckland Transport as the Travelwise Lead Teacher,  the Resource Teachers for Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) and the Outreach Service Teacher. As teachers/professionals working together, we do synthesize discrete information and connect this knowledge for the benefit of our students and communities. Working with these outside agencies are interdisciplinary because the disciplines (agencies) are kept distinct and in focus.

An external agency I want to work with better is the Outreach Service (ORS) teacher who is supporting me with a lovely girl in our room. The  ORS teacher has specialised knowledge on working with students with Global Development Delay.

Working with students with special needs was not included in my training, whilst it is this teacher’s bread and butter. Working with the specialist teacher has helped and, looking at the conceptual model for successful collaboration, I can see why it has worked and the area we need to work on to improve.

Firstly, in terms of goals, we both want to support the student to maximise her potential, so we share a common goal.  Secondly, in terms of qualities/attitude, we both have the patience and we are both prepared to do what is needed. We respect each other as teachers and we feel safe to critique and be critiqued.

It has been hard to schedule a regular time to sit down together and we have been relying on her weekly reports, Seesaw, emails and the short conversations we had every week. To support my student even better, we need to schedule more time. At the moment, I have been reading up on how to use the Numicon resource, which is taking up a lot of time. I have had useful conversations with the ORS teacher, but having more time would be hugely beneficial. To get around this, Technology could perhaps provide a solution as we could schedule a time to have a video call.

As it is impossible for any teacher to be an expert in every field needed to teach every child, and it is impossible for any staff to possess all the skills they could possibly need, it is certainly worth the effort to strengthen interdisciplinary connections with external agencies.

Reference:

ACRLog. (2015). A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration

Jones, C. (2009), Interdisciplinary approach - Advantages, Disadvantages and the future benefits of interdisciplinary studies, ESSAI: Vol. 7, Article 26. Available at http: //dc.cod/essai/vol7/ess1/26

Mathison S,  Freeman M. (1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. CELA, University of Albany, School of Education, NY.