I will attempt to consider my extended audiences through the use of Jay and Johnsons (2002) reflective model.
Descriptive / Who are my extended audiences?
At the very heart of what I do is always the students, but I feel that sometimes I need outside perspective to help me to find solutions to better my practice. I do this by keeping in regular touch with my Mindlab colleagues, people who aren’t as invested in my particular students, so can help see things differently. I also am involved in a ‘Writing across the curriculum’ COLs groups who also offer various ideas about what I can be doing to improve my writing programme. Finally I am involved in quite a few social media pages for teachers, on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. I feel that it is important, especially as a new teacher, that I am getting different ideas from other new and experienced teachers, because “You don’t know what you don’t know”. I like seeing what other educators have done and try adapt their ideas for my own students.
Comparative / Theme 1: Personalising learning
Throughout these groups there are modified activities and lesson plans that try and account for the different needs of students, there is also a wide variety of topics and tasks. Bolstad et al. (2012) discusses how teachers need to be allowing access to more and more resources, sometimes without even knowing what those are. Using these social media sites helps to foster discussions on what is working and what could be working better. I have been trying to implement ideas I have seen while at the same time trying to set structure and routines and assessments that have to be done, that may not be beneficial to a students learning. I am trying to get around this by giving students as much information as I can so that they can become critical thinkers and make informed decisions on what will help them as a learner. At the moment I am using the marking criteria given and running workshops to help students to address what they see as their needs to help them achieve. Giving students choice in the direction of their writing to ensure that they are engaged, creating opportunities for them to write without seeing it as ‘writing time’ moving from “one size fits all” to cater for the students at the high and low ends of the spectrum and allowing those in the middle to fill in gaps that they might have missed. I am trying to extend their learning, so that they are not being forced to learn a the same pace as their peers. I am struggling with having the resources to be able to do this – time is a big factor, and ensuring that you are meeting everyones needs, if it is a bigger issue some whole class teaching should be done around it. My wider audience would be those I go to for ideas, TKI “writing achievement in writing for boys” the literacy shed, NZ Primary Teachers Facebook Page, are all people who shape what I am teaching in the classroom, where I try and find ideas from to engage my students in writing.
Critical Thinking / Audience perspective
Being on a NZ wide facebook page for new secondary teachers, primary teachers, and catholic school teachers, offers a very wide range of perspectives. I find that lots of ideas align with my own, and some seem very in the past. It is also interesting to see the perspectives of my fellow Mindlab colleagues, and what they would do in situations I pose. I feel as though the best way to get through things is trial and error, and the trials and errors of others help me to find a fit for my classroom. In regards to my inquiry, I have seen many against taking the curriculum to a digital space and many for it, but I feel as though as long as I see the digital space as a tool, rather than the be all and end all then that will help my students to succeed. As somebody who has tried moving their planning onto an online forum, and still reverted back to paper, I feel that we should be giving students an option in how they want to be using technology, and I feel like I see a lot of discussion around that on online forums.
References
Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306
Finlay, L. (2008) Reflecting on reflective practice.PB4L
Danielle's Mindlab Reflections 