When reflecting on today's session three big ideas came to mind; student equity, respecting the past, and informed pedagogy. We are in education to improve the outcomes for all of our learners; providing equity within schools, across schools, and beyond will hopefully work towards this. I believe if we work towards this goal the academic gap between the high and low-achieving students will narrow; creating equal opportunities for students to participate, progress, and achieve.
Respecting the past efforts of those individuals, schools, boards, and the initiative of the innovative individuals that had the foresight to see this disparity coming was uplifting. Innovation in education, along with other 21st century skills; collaboration, skilled communication, creativity, using ICT, knowledge construction, etc... are soft skills we need to develop through the curriculum along with enhancing teacher knowledge; so that the learning experiences encourage learner engagement. As a keen researcher, I like my practice to be informed by research. The declining achievement in numeracy (PISA report) I think is reflective of the past teaching and learning of numeracy as a stand-alone subject. Government initiatives should be research-informed; qualitative as well as quantitative.
The skills that I learned today that will help me to better communicate with others is using tables to better align images and writing, using google groups, and voice tying. I like that a number of these skills I can teach to my digital technology class - the way our facilitators presented this new learning gives me a scaffold as to how I can implement this in the classroom. Even more so as I am day four into my new role! Voice typing can also cater to the diverse learners that we have at our school, especially the dyslexic learners.
Along with the skills-based learning, I would also like to delve deeper into the different modes of presenting information; chalk 'n' talk, deep dive, and explore - what is the pedagogy or andragogy around this? What has been the feedback from participants on this mode of learning? I think in the future this would be a handy tool to present new learning, with my students and colleagues, for example, when I have to present at staff meetings and teacher only days.
With regards to workflow, keeping up-to-date with the organisation of folders is important. I am even more excited now to teach all these new skills to my digital technology learners - I hope that they are also!
Today I created an information sheet for whaanau:
This WordArt encapsulates words relating to Manaiakalani which may mean different things to different people, within this context.
