Thoughts from a 21st Century Teacher

Where did those 32 weeks go? I finish these blog posts with a sense of pride, camaraderie, and impending adventure. I’m proud of the work that has been completed, which has pushed my pedagogical thinking in ways that I had not considered. I’m also proud of the work I’ve completed together with my colleagues - we’ve worked very closely together to undertake this course, and I’ve learned an incredible amount with and from these wonderful teachers/friends. Our sense of camaraderie throughout has helped drag us through the incredibly busy periods where we have had to balance work, study, family, and sought success in all areas. Hooray for collaboration! Hard work is more satisfying when shared. Hooray for digital tools! Collaboration and connection have never been more possible. And thus, there is a sense of an impending adventure - armed with new skills and experiences, we go forth into the rest of the 21st Century as forward-thinking educators. What a time to be alive! It will be...

Creating a map of the different connections I have in my professional setting is a humbling and inspiring act - the “it takes a village” phrase comes to mind, in terms of helping students gain a useful and relevant education, and supporting teachers and colleagues to shape and facilitate learning. What is Interdisciplinary Practice? Andrews (1990) defines interdisciplinary collaboration as occurring "when different professionals, possessing unique knowledge, skills, organizational perspectives, and personal attributes, engage in coordinated problem solving for a common purpose" (cited in Berg-Weger &. Schneider, 1998). How does it affect me? As a primary school teacher, much of what we teach and how we approach the curriculum is in an interdisciplinary way. Our staff, and collaboration teams within the school, are made up of people who bring a wide variety of specialist knowledge and interests to our planning and can bring a range of perspectives to learning...

My use of social media until the past couple of years has been primarily for private, social purposes. I would consider myself a very fluent user in this respect! Suitably high expectations regarding privacy and ethical contact in public has meant that until until these last couple of years I have been wary about the place of social media in learning. My eyes have been opened though! As a teacher of young students, I haven’t included social media in our learning programme beyond being consumers of YouTube videos and offering posts of our activities to our school Facebook page moderator. These uses definitely add value to the classroom experiences, in terms of bringing new ideas into the classroom and sharing our learning with the world even in a small way - however I can appreciate how valuable it would to take a broader view of what social media is, and find appropriate ways for students to interact themselves. In watching Kathy Cassidy ( Tvo parents, 2013 ) speak about her 6...

As teachers we hold a significant role in our community and need to carry ourselves in a manner that is seen as above reproach. Our employment in positions where we ‘unavoidably act as moral educators’ (Howe, 1986) for vulnerable children means that we should rightly be held to a high standard and be accountable for our actions. Increasingly, the ethical scenarios we need to navigate are becoming more complex. Hall (2001) discusses how changes in society over the last 30 years for example -  increasingly pluralistic societies, blurred lines between the responsibilities of school and families, and legal changes regarding the rights of children - have drawn teacher’s actions and responsibilities under the microscope. Media coverage and a more vocal, well-educated public are ready to call teachers to account and broadcast instances where questionable ethics have been displayed. The digital medium has brought a new arena for teachers to navigate themselves and their students thro...

A few years ago my best friend got married. She is  NZ European, born and raised in Christchurch. He is Maori, raised in Kawarau. He was in the midst of medical studies and is now a practicing GP, so already a ‘success’ in the eyes of educational and social statistics. Newly married and living in Christchurch, they were happy of course - but found themselves discovering new aspects of their worldviews that they hadn’t realised were actually very different. These differences manifested in unexpected ways, for example, an offer by her father to her new husband to have the honour of carving the Christmas ham - an act of submission by her father to welcome him into the family - was deeply offensive to her new husband as he interpreted the request as a denial of the offer of hospitality in his in-law’s home. His cultural belief was that guests (manuhiri) should be generously hosted, and the way that was done was for the family (tangata whenua) to serve without asking for anything in...

Paradox. What a brilliant word to describe the world we teach/learn in. The trend that captures my attention with regards to Globalisation in education is technology and how much more connected we are. There seems to be so much more to know about the world, and yet it is getting smaller everyday. Things that were once difficult to access due to distance are now available at the touch of a button - we can access the world in High Definition with views that might not even be possible if we were there in person. For education, the opportunities to enrich learning experiences with greater diversity and more inclusivity are profound. Developing key competencies and advanced skills within students to equip them to participate in this hyper-evolving world is changing the way we think and go about education. The OECD report on ‘Trends Shaping Education’ (2016, p19) states that educators need to be aware of the skills students need in order to “flourish in knowledge-rich labour markets”...