Session 6 at the Mind Lab:  Connected learning and Connectivism for the DCL course and Leadership Theories and Styles for the LDC course.

As I sit down to write this I feel like a rabbit in the headlights, I don't think it is the morning session of Mind Lab,  more likely is the 3 hours shopping in Pukekohe. I can't believe I even stopped at the pet shop for 2 'Christmas bones' for the dogs...what kind of world do we now live in, people starving and homeless and others thinking it's ok to buy Christmas gifts for the dogs.

So, as I drive the car (not right at this moment you understand) and I think and reflect (I have just become aware that I do this a lot after our session today). I have to mention the fact that my new associate Alice was very kind to me and put a horse in the picture for the 'personal learning environment' activity...I love horses.It made me realize how important it is to listen carefully and take action to make someone feel good. Alice had mentioned that she liked to think whilst playing Netball and I had hoped to put a little picture of netball in her 'personal learning environment' poster...but for the life of me I couldn't seem to find one...but I shall always remember to inquire how her netball is going in the future. I will try not to ask her every time though as that could be rather annoying...there is always fine line eh.

For the first part of the session today we looked at the assessment that is coming up and 

discussed in more detail what makes a good leader? Here are some of the things we came 
up with:

• Good listener

• Know the strengths and weaknesses of team

• Flexible

• Integrity

• Gives credit

• Emotional intelligent

• Enabling others to act

• Vision

• Encouraging

• Humility

• Trustworthy

• Good role model - work ethics and values

We were asked to reflect on how we are as a leader...and this got me thinking. At this present time, and without saying to much, I find myself in a situation where I don't believe the leadership that I am 'under' within my department is really getting the best out of me or suiting my individual needs. What I mean by that is I am finding it very restrictive and a real turn-off. Luckily, I am a bit out on my own down in my little Rural Science area so I can work around the situation at present and I try to just push through and not let it get me down.Some pictures of my happy place (Rural Science Practical Area)....It might not be very smart or state of the art deco but I love it and I don't have to worry about making a mess or too much noise

   


Oppps there I go again digressing...So here's the thing, with regards to looking at leadership... all this time because I am not in a 'official' leadership role I have been coming from a angle of not finding the current leadership I am experiencing as particularly enjoyable one and I am struggling to understand why someone would feel the need to control everything and anything and how I feel this is just killing collaboration within department and also, if I allowed it to, could have a very negative effect on my creativity and passion for my role in education. 

But today, something changed and it allowed me to look at it from a different point of view and this view allowed me to see yes this person is the 'official' leader and I needed to follow suit and complete all that is reasonably asked of me (which I have always done if case your wondering)...but (and this was the change) what about me in this situation? People will be observing how I behave and react as a leader to what is happening. Am I responding as a leader I would like to have or am I responding as a leader I would not want to be a part of?  

When things come up that I don't agree with, am I able to lead myself well, articulate my beliefs and negotiate in an assertive, but polite manner and as a successful and respective leader would? Or do I struggle to know how to deal with the issue productively and not demonstrate and model what I consider to be good leadership? What leadership skills and values do I model to my students? I had never thought about things like this before and I think it might allow me some positive growth and confidence to try and bring up and tackle issues from a new perspective. It may also allow me to be a little more empathic to others with different leadership styles to myself, afterall why should I think my way if the only way, or the right way.

In this link below http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/leadership.htm It allows you to see what type of leader you are. 

Here are my results;

Authoritarian 26

Procedural 27

Transformational 40

Participative 38

Laissez Faire 36

I think I am quite proud and happy to come out top on the transformational style on the leadership rubic, it makes me feel good that I am not an Authoritarian because, although they say there is good and bad from each type of leadership style, I have to admit I find this type of leadership does not bring out the best of me and I find it really draining for some reason. It is like it just kills my enthusiasm, passion and creativity. I suppose we are all different though and maybe some would find the authoritarian leadership as a security blanket, just being told what to do and when.....urrrrgh it sends shivers down my spine. It also allows me to consider how my leadership style may be a turn off to those who couldn't stand being led in a different style than the one which they are? Being aware of this may allow me to be more sensitive and varied when or if I am in an official leadership role.

Here is a little snippet of the main leadership styles

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/leadership.htm

I quite like the idea of being a mix of Obama, Mandela and Gandhi.....On a good day eh! Or maybe that means you have the potential to turn into that type of leader style?

........WISE WORDS FROM Alison "Get off the computer and go spend time with your family" 

Have a great week everyone!

Week 2 Homework Leadership in Digital & Collaborative Learning (LDC)

TITLE: Reflective practice and Key Competencies in Leadership
OVERVIEW
This week allows to look at how we are leading the key competencies as educators, in role modelling them to our learners, as well as exploring how well we interact, collaborate and learn from other professionals. What are our professional strengths and what would we like to work on, how are we enabling these steps to develop? Are the KC’s important, and if they are how do we develop an understanding of these beyond our education circles?

CLASS NOTES

The key competencies element of The New Zealand Curriculum brings with it exciting possibilities for making students’ experience of learning more relevant, engaging, meaningful, and useful.

Key competencies-rich programmes will enable students to be confident, connected, actively involved learners in the present and in the future. They will encourage lifelong learners who are equipped to participate in rapidly changing local, national, and global communities.

What are the conditions that teachers and students need, so that key competencies can develop? There are leadership practice demands on these areas (culture, pedagogy, systems, partnership/networks) – what are also those exactly?

Leadership and the key competencies

Learners are most likely to develop and strengthen their capabilities for living and learning when they learn with teachers in a school whose leadership creates conditions that stimulate key competencies.

The key competencies element of The New Zealand Curriculum brings with it exciting possibilities for making students’ experience of learning more relevant, engaging, meaningful, and useful. Key competencies-rich programmes will enable students to be confident, connected, actively involved learners in the present and in the future. They will encourage lifelong learners who are equipped to participate in rapidly changing local, national, and global communities.

Giving effect to key competencies in ways that address their complexity will entail significant challenge and change. Tackling those challenges and compelling change to support key competencies is a vital role for school leadership. Effective leaders create the conditions required for key competencies in teaching and learning. They need to ensure that the culture, pedagogy, systems, partnerships, and networks in their school support key competency development. Leaders also need knowledge and skills in leading change since, for many, key competencies require, and make possible, a significant change in practice

Leadership of the key competencies requires a school culture that signals that those competencies are important and valued. Importance can be signaled through goals for teaching and learning, through the explicit and implicit values of the school, through traditions, and through the things that are celebrated by the school.

Online Form - Key Competencies in Leading - Week 2 - November 2015 Intake

Reflective Practice

On the fourth course on this programme “Applied Practice in Context” you’ll get to critically reflect upon different aspects of your practice. If you want to start that journey already you can start to blog about your learnings. Even if blogging is not assessed as part of the official assessments during these first courses, all the previous students who have started blogging have told it has been essential to their professional growth and improvement. Blogging can be a really good way for you to explore and record new ideas for your future research. If you are anyways making notes, why not share them and build your online identity at the same time?

Recommended readings for this week:

The Affordances of Blogging As a Practice to Support Ninth-Grade Science Teachers’ Identity Development as Leaders

Hanuscin, D., Cheng, Y., Rebello, C., Sinha, S., & Muslu, N. (2014). The Affordances of Blogging As a Practice to Support Ninth-Grade Science Teachers' Identity Development as Leaders. Journal Of Teacher Education, 65(3), 207-222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022487113519475

Overview: Increasingly, teacher leadership is being recognized as an essential ingredient in education reforms; however, few teachers consider themselves leaders. Becoming a leader is not just acquiring knowledge and skills for leadership, but developing a new professional identity. As teachers become leaders, however, this identity might put them at risk with dominant school culture where norms of egalitarianism, isolation, and seniority persist. Luehmann emphasizes the value in offering safe spaces in which teachers can take risks as they “try on” new identities. We utilized an online environment to support ninth-grade science teachers in the development of common perspectives, commitments, and visions for teacher leadership as they implemented a new freshman physics curriculum. Our findings illustrate the potential benefits of blogging in terms of providing identity resources and opportunities for identity work. Specifically, by participating in pedagogical transactions, social interactions, and intellectual deliberations via blogs, teachers were supported in their efforts to be leaders in their classrooms, schools, and districts.

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture (recommended)

Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Overview: Many teens today who use the Internet are actively involved in participatory cultures—joining online communities (Facebook, message boards, game clans), producing creative work in new forms (digital sampling, modding, fan videomaking, fan fiction), working in teams to complete tasks and develop new knowledge (as in Wikipedia), and shaping the flow of media (as in blogging or podcasting). A growing body of scholarship suggests potential benefits of these activities, including opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, development of skills useful in the modern workplace, and a more empowered conception of citizenship. Some argue that young people pick up these key skills and competencies on their own by interacting with popular culture; but the problems of unequal access, lack of media transparency, and the breakdown of traditional forms of socialization and professional training suggest a role for policy and pedagogical intervention.This report aims to shift the conversation about the "digital divide" from questions about access to technology to questions about access to opportunities for involvement in participatory culture and how to provide all young people with the chance to develop the cultural competencies and social skills needed. Fostering these skills, the authors argue, requires a systemic approach to media education; schools, after school programs, and parents all have distinctive roles to play.

• Reflect: How might teachers’ strengths in developing capabilities in thinking, using language, symbols and texts, managing self, relating to others, and participating and contributing, be recognised and celebrated?
• Reflect: How might students’ capabilities in thinking, using language, symbols, and texts, managing self, relating to others, and participating and contributing, be recognised and celebrated?
• Group task: Choose a KC and create a working definition which would explain the skill to a non-teacher

Session 5 at the Mind Lab: Collaborative, Constructionist and Constructivist Learning (Coding) for the DCL course and Developing a Growth Mindset for the LDC course.

I was really excited to be up and out for my Mind Lab session today. It feels such a positive and safe learning environment and I was looking forward to catching up with the friends I seem to be making. It is hard to believe that I have only been going for 5 weeks. I feel like I have learnt so much and I just love being in a climate where everyone is so open and supportive and friendly. 

Today it was my turn to pass on the knowledge and understanding I had now gained about making a video using 'movie maker'. That seems a crazy statement to make, seen as I am pretty sure it was only last week I was in a fluster and feeling stressed that I did not know how to make a movie and complete my first assessment using this tool. But here I was showing another how to 'voice over' and use the 'snipping tool'. Exactly the things others had shown me last week.

The session started with a quick introduction to Scratch...I had heard this word around but I had no idea what it was, except it was something to do with computers. I found it a bit confusing first off but eventually got my 'cat to meow'... I have to admit I just had another quick go on this and I can't wait to play around on it. I hope I can get it on the kids ipads on Monday as I think they would love to have a go on this.... I have actually printed off the Virtual and Augmented reality innovations we were shown the other week and plan to hopefully have some fun with my Science classes next week with them.

We were also shown 'Makey Makey's'... I have to say although I didn't get my head totally around how it all worked I was totally hooked and can't wait to buy one to play around with.

We were set to task to make our own magical musical machine using scratch and Makey Makey - with the recital being in 50 minutes. I'm the group this week we had my good companions Meeta and Karima and also Linda. We had the idea of taking Roger the Robot and turning him into a singing and talking Christmas Robot. Luckily a Karima and Linda could sing...so they took themselves of to record some festive numbers whilst Meeta and myself set about setting up the circuits so that things would run smoothly when they returned. So here is our finish video... hope the sound is OK, as usually we had a blast being innovative and collaborative and it was a real pleasure to work with these lovely people.

From left to right...Meeta, Karima, Roger, Me and Linda. 

The end product of our musical instruments using Makey Makey and Scratch 

Once we had recovered from giggling so much and congratulating ourselves for managing to complete the task - and in good time we settled down for the second half of the session.

We reflected on what collaboration was and how to develop it with our students. It got me thinking about when we put fixed roles on who will be in a group and the role that each student must fulfill, rather than allowing students to work out those things for themselves. If we control things so much within the students learning environment then what do they really learn? Are we restricting and controlling the amount of positive opportunities for students to learn to negotiate with others and communicate effectively with each other successfully as well as experience the host of other 21st Century skills. I have been reading about creating a collaborative classroom all week and reflecting on how best to achieve this goal. 

We also reflected on what a Growth Mindset was and what that really entailed and if intelligence was fixed from the start. 

https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?language=en

We spoke about intelligence being more that just academic.  This video below about riding the backwards bike is very interesting and demonstrated so clearly that although we or our students may have the knowledge that doesn't mean they have real understanding. He knew how to ride a bike, but it didn't mean he could ride it. Although this question I think was really posed around changing our own mindsets and considering our leadership role when working with others. It also made me think about the learning that goes on in a class, particularly when preparing for NCEA examinations. I often wonder how many students have really got a clear and real 'understanding' of what they are learning about, that is a deep learning experience or what percentage of students have knowledge but no real understanding but they pass the test or exam by just regurgitating the knowledge that the teacher have instilled into them. 

I know things are changing in education and we are now entering a time where we are encouraged to offer a learning environment that allows for deeper understanding to take place within the students learning, but my question is how, when or will the examination constraints that teachers are faced with change in order to allow this to happen in the more senior levels of a students schooling. 

Knowledge if not understanding!

http://mindsetonline.com/testyourmindset/step1.php  ....want to check out your mindset??