Week 30: Professional Online Social Networks

What?

What is Social Media?

Many people have the misconception that social media is limited to social sites where people share their lives and photos, such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. However, WhatIs.com (2016, September) gives a broader definition as, "Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration."

The incredible depth of sites dedicated to social media can be seen in this diagram by Brian Solis and JESS3 (2017):

http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/writing-for-business/files/2015/05/JESS3_BrianSolis_ConversationPrism4_WEB_1280x1024.jpg

So What?

Social Media in my Professional Development

https://hadme.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/social-media-kids1.jpg?w=500&h=503

I use a large range of the tools in the above diagram, from Linkedin and Picasa to Google+ and Pinterest. In terms of my professional development as a teacher, my first port of call (in order of use) are:

1. Twitter (@ijakk2)
2. Facebook (colleagues plus two closed groups: NZ Teachers (primary ) and Waikato GATE Group)
3. Youtube
4. Pinterest
5. Virtual Learning Network

My main go-to is Twitter because I can see new blogposts, research, ideas and ask questions. I feel like every time I visit I come away with a new theory, learning or something I can use in my class.

Social Media in My Classroom Programme

I run a Blog and a Google Site for my class. The blog has been going for several years, but keeping it updated beyond the agenda (daily homework/reminders) hasn't been happening whilst I've been studying.

The students use the following as a part of their schoolwork:

• Google sites
• Youtube
• G-suite
• Pinterest
• Blogger
• Wikipedia
• TED

However, when this small list is compared to the plethora of apps and sites in the above diagram, there are so many opportunities available to students which I don't guide them to or make a part of my programme.

School Imposed Limitations

My school has chosen a number of sites which are blocked to students through our firewall - these include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat.

Most of these aren't an issue for me, except Twitter - I would love them to be able to use this network to connect with other classes and students, as well as learning from topic-related people and organisations (for example, we've been looking at our place in the universe - it would've been great to connect with the ISS and NASA, as well as individual astronauts).

The school has just put limitations on students' use of their phones at school due to cyber bullying and the distraction in class time from non-education related sites and games. We now collect students phones at the start of each morning.

Teacher Imposed Limitations

If I am honest, the biggest limitation on my students' use of social media in the classroom is me. Getting the students up and running, organising connections, overseeing their usage, organising enough devices and still fitting in a full programme in limited time can seem just too hard.

What now?

I found two of the videos on our class notes this week very inspirational. 

This video reminded me of the benefits of making connections with schools and students around the world. I did this several years ago, with a school in Canada and one in Wales. The students loved it and learned a lot about other people's lives.  I will get back to making connections.

This video reminded me of the importance students being good digital citizens - we teach them what to do and not do in terms of cyber safety, but this is different from teaching them to optimise their social media use for their learning. 

What it comes down to is, "Social media make it possible to involve and draw on the experience of people around the world." (Sharples et al, p.14) 

References

S. (2014, August 15). Social Media For Kids® The Social Media Education Experts. Retrieved June 24, 2017, 
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2rOekhi20E

Sharples, M., de Roock , R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Looi,C-K, 
McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller, M., Wong, L. H. (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University 
Innovation Report 5. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Retrieved from

http://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf

What is social media? - Definition from WhatIs.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2017, from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media

T. (2013, May 21). Using Social Media in the Classroom. Retrieved June 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno

Week 29: Law and Ethics in Teaching

As a teacher with over 20 years experience, there have many many changes since I first began teaching, many related to the introduction of the Internet to our lives and all the extra requirements that come with that (such as the amount of time spent replying to emails). The other big difference is the emphasis on testing, goal setting, and individual education plans.

In my experience, my workload is much larger than it was when I first started teaching. I feel that the above reasons have had an enormous impact on teachers' workloads. I know that I can't compare across schools, but looking at my current school, the workload is increasing yearly, as new ideas are implemented, but very little is taken away from the expectations/requirements.

As a teacher, I feel more and more stressed, and more and more disillusioned about a career I chose out of passion. I have loved teaching, and I still do, but now I feel like an administrator who does some teaching on the side. Colleagues from other schools tell me that they feel the same way.

What are the outcomes for me?

• I feel like a terrible mother and wife - I put my family on the backburner to my deadlines.
• I'm not as fit and healthy as I'd like to be.
• I have no hobbies as any spare time is spent working.

CC: https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewleddy/5540168094

The ethical dilemma for me is the question of whether it is right for schools to demand so much from their teachers, that in order for them to meet the requirements, they are unable to have a balanced life away from work.

Employment New Zealand defines this balance as, "Work-life balance is about effectively managing the juggling act between paid work and the other activities that are important to people. It's about work not completely crowding out the other things that matter to people like time with family, participation in community activities, voluntary work, personal development, leisure and recreation. It is sometimes called working flexibly."

As teachers, should we expect to have a work-life balance? Article 24 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights says that, "Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay." (n.d.) Although our collective contract enshrines our right to limited work hours, our workplaces demand more of us, and in my experience, teachers who work fewer hours, to have a balance are often seen as 'lazy' and are discriminated against.

Is the issue addressed in either the current or draft NZ Code of Ethics? No. The emphases are placed on the students, their whānau and the schools - there is nothing to address the physical and mental health of teachers.

NZCER Chief Researcher Dr Cathy Wylie wonders if a threshold has been reached and teachers can’t physically sustain working more hours, week in, week out, and manage other commitments such as study and family. “Teaching is very intensive work.” (Blaikie, 2016, para. 32)

When I have raised the workload issue with senior leaders, I have been made to feel that I can't cope, that I'm not professional enough and that I'm a complainer. I believe that this has contributed to my missing out on promotions.

In March this year, Amesbury School's Principal, Lesley Murrihy, wrote that teaching is propped up by the goodwill and sacrifice of its workers. I believe she is right when she describes teaching as a straw house that will fall down if we don't take care of our teachers, reducing stress and increasing their work-life balance.

For me, without a change, I will be finding a way to teach that doesn't leech away my physical and mental health.

References

Blaikie, J. (2016, July 14). Workload: The Problem is the Problem (not you). Retrieved from http://www.ea.org.nz/workload-the-problem-is-the-problem/

Education Council. (2017 draft). Draft Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards.pdf

Education Council. (n.d). The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-et…

Murrihy, L. (2017, March 15). A Sustainable Future in Education. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sustainable-future-education-lesley-murrihy

Starting employment. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2017, from https://www.employment.govt.nz/workplace-policies/productive-workplaces/work-life-balance/

Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2017, from http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

Week 28: Reflecting on my Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness

What?

I found this quote by Milne confronting. Before reading this, I would've said that I am definitely a culturally responsive teacher. Through the writing of this post, I will hold a mirror up to myself, and test that assertion.

Who are the children in my class?

Data from the culture parents identified when they enrolled their children

As you can see, the children in my class come from a variety of different cultures, with 23% of them being born overseas. 

International Baccalaureate Organisation and Culture

As an International Baccalaureate school, we must subscribe to the tenets of the organisation. In the Primary Years Programme's core document, Making the PYP Happen (2009), teachers are reminded: This is the kind of student we hope will graduate from a PYP school, the kind of student who, in the struggle to establish a personal set of values, will be laying the foundation upon which international-mindedness will develop and flourish. (p. 2) We are often reminded that we are creating open-minded, global citizens.

Second Language Teaching (2LL)

As a part of my 2LL teaching, I adhere to Newton's Principles for intercultural communicative language teaching. As a part of these principles, I work to encourage and develop an exploratory and reflective approach to culture and culture-in-languages, and foster explicit comparisons and connections between languages and cultures. 

So What?

After reading Milne's quote, I began to wonder whether I was seeing culture as the way people look, or how they don't fit in. I then looked at Bucher's (2008) nine megaskills that contribute to our cultural intelligence, and I realised that no, I don't look at students as colour and difference, I look at it as way of being, that are similar in some ways and different in others, but all good, something we can learn from.

How do I demonstrate emotional intelligence?

As a part of my 2LL teaching, I have stopped asking students, 'How do we do/think about _____." I realised that there is no 'we' in terms of us having one way of doing something, but that is not true, there are as many ways of doing things or thinking about things as there are people in the classroom.

What next?

Research has shown that no one teaching strategy will consistently engage all learners. The key is helping students relate lesson content to their own backgrounds. (Wlodkowski, R. and Ginsberg, M. 1995).

How will I relate lesson content to their backgrounds?

Wlodkowski and Ginsberg advocate Four Conditions Necessary for Culturally Responsive Teaching:

1. Establish inclusion 

This includes being collaborative and cooperative, whilst sharing ownership with all students.

2. Develop positive attitude

Here I need to relate my teaching and learning activities to students' experience or previous knowledge.

3. Enhance meaning

Here, I can relate my teaching and learning activities to students' experience or previous knowledge.

4. Engender competence

There are three ways to engender student competence, regardless of their cultural capital: 

• Connect the assessment process to the students' world, frames of reference, and values.
• Include multiple ways to represent knowledge and skills and allow for attainment of outcomes at different points in time.
• Encourage self-assessment.

It was interesting to reflect on my attitudes and cultural responsiveness. I feel that this area is a strength of mine, so I guess I may have been complacent in this area. My research this week made me question whether this area really is a strength; I think it is something I do well because I take joy in students' cultural backgrounds and ways of thinking, but like all areas of teaching, there definitely is room for improvements. I can improve by implementing Wlodkowski and Ginsberg's  four conditions necessary for culturally responsive teaching.

References

Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education. (2009). Cardiff, Wales: International Baccalaureate Organization.

Milne, B. A. (2013, August 18). Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools. Retrieved June 11, 2017, from http://hdl.handle.net/10289/7868

Newton, J. (2010). Intercultural communicative language teaching: Implications for effective teaching and learning: A literature review and an evidence-based framework for effective teaching. Wellington, N.Z.: Ministry of Education.

Wlodkowski, R. J., & Ginsberg, M. B. (1995). A framework for culturally responsive teaching. Educational Leadership,

53(1), 17.

Week 27: Trends Influencing Education in New Zealand

What?

In reading the OECD’s Trends Shaping Education (2016), I was struck by the trend of globalization, with my attention being caught by climate change. I began wondering about the impact this will have for us in New Zealand.

Climate change has been in the news this week, with the United State's withdrawal from The Paris Agreement. Whether or not people believe that humans are responsible for increasing temperatures, or whether it is a natural climatic event, the reality is that sea level changes are going to create issues in schools internationally.

If countries become uninhabitable, then the people who live there will have to leave, be it through voluntary emigration or by becoming refugees. The children from those countries will end up sitting in front of us in our classrooms.

Is migration a growing trend?
According to the OECD, although migration has always happened, but since 1985, the numbers have increased greatly, as can be seen in this table:

This graph shows that larger number of migration has occurred in previous years, but what about the future? Although exact numbers cannot be known, the following estimates have been predicted by Azosea and Ševčíkováa (n.d.), which shows the overall world population growing, with the migration projections (in blue) mirroring it.

So What?

Why will climate change migration be a problem in New Zealand's educational future?

I have been looking at the way migration impacts schools. There are many ways in which being a migrant can affect the students in our classes. 

The diagram shows the myriad of different problems that migration can have on students in our classrooms. This impact may be magnified further if the students are refugees who had to flee their homelands, sometimes due to environmental causes.

Immigrant students may have arrived with a variety of traumatic experiences, such as:

• students who have witnessed wartime atrocities
• grieving refugee students whose family and friends have been repatriated to different countries
• having to leave pacific countries whose islands are uninhabitable because of the environmental impact of climate change (such as the sea-level rising on Kiribati)

What now?

How will New Zealand help the immigrants of climate change?

As I look at all the different impacts of migration due to climate change that schools will be facing in the future, it is clear to me that a number of steps will need to be put in place, both by schools and teachers, but also nationally by the Ministry of Education and a variety of other organisations and government departments (such as health, housing and social development). 

Nationally, there will need to be:

• housing
• medical support
• interpreters
• mental health services
• community support agencies
• trade and skills training
• employment support

For me, as a teacher, I will need to be thinking about:

• how to communicate with parents
• upskilling in working with students for whom English is an additional language
• providing socialization opportunities
• being aware of the students' mental health states, and access support where needed
• helping students make new connections to the city
• being able to access support for economically disadvantaged students
• encourage migrant students to take up opportunities within the school
• provide students with access to technology outside of class time (and ensure they can use it)

I am aware that, as a result of low income, lack of language proficiency and low parental education, immigrant children are a higher risk that affects their well-being intensely, which can persist over generations (Wikiprogress).  

As I write this, I am also reflecting that for some of our Māori students, they feel a deep sense of loss through having lost connection to ancestral lands and I need to be aware of the effects of this too, many of which are similar to the impact of migration on children.

References

Azosea, J. J., & Ševčíkováa, A. H. (n.d.). Jonathan J. Azose. Retrieved June 04, 2017, from http://www.pnas.org/content/113/23/6460.full

Effects of Migration on Child Well-being. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2017, from http://wikiprogress.org/articles/children-youth/effects-of-migration-on-child-well-being/

National Intelligence Council. (2017). Global trends: The Paradox of Progress. National Intelligence Council: US. Retrieved from 

https://www.dni.gov/files/images/globalTrends/documents/GT-Main-Report.pdf

Trends Shaping Education 2016 | OECD READ edition. (n.d.). Retrieved June 03, 2017, from http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-

Management/oecd/education/trends-shaping-education-2016_trends_edu-2016-en#.WTNQzROGOAx