Changes in my practice

And so it comes to an end…at least this part of the journey. The past 32 weeks have been challenging, in both a positive way as I have developed my professional practice, and in a less rewarding way as I have struggled to maintain any work / life balance. Despite the drain on my family time, I see this as ‘short-term pain for long-term gain’. I am looking forward to using some downtime to refresh and relax, so that I can revisit the learning and ideas we’ve been presented with and look to incorporate more in my classroom teaching.

I found the whole course an exercise in reflective practice. Reflective practice is described by Osterman and Kottkamp (1993) as:

“a challenging, demanding, and often trying process that is most successful as a collaborative effort” (p. 2).

I think this quote sums up the course perfectly!

Reflective practice, as professional development, leads to behavioural change on the basis of developing self-awareness. It is undertaken in response to a problem where there exists “the desire to function well in a professional capacity coupled with the awareness that current behavior is not fully reaching this goal” (Osterman et al, p12). Reflective practice requires active participation (experiential learning) by the learner and is usually most successful when done with others (Osterman et al, 1993). The hands-on activities, as well as the numerous professional discussions, both in class and online, provided many opportunities for developing self-awareness and questioning aspects of my practice and pedagogy. It also led to a number of changes, including how I teach collaboratively and my purposeful use of digital tools in the classroom. Personally, it was these professional conversations and connections that were one of the highlights of the course.

I have also gained a new appreciation of the place of research and using evidence to support changes in practice. This has already proved useful in my team leader role as I have needed to draw on evidence in research to support some of the changes I have been implementing.

The assignments, whilst all time-consuming, have had a direct impact on my practice. My DCL assignments led to the development of a maths weebly that is in constant use in my classroom. My implementation of this digital tool was the focus of my LDC assignments. My literature review and subsequent research plan have formed the basis of my leadership inquiry at school this year and I am looking to begin implementing this next term. Within the Applied Practice part of the course, I have found it an interesting experience ‘defining’ myself and my practice, and having to share this online has opened up (still tentative for now…) new online connections.

When reflecting on this course against the practising teacher criteria, I think I could find evidence for nearly all 12 criteria. However, the two most significant would be:

Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice.

•       Any course requiring the amount of time and effort as this one did, is a definite demonstration of a commitment to ongoing professional development. To make the course meaningful, I tried really hard to make any changes or new learning relevant to my own context – hence why all the assignments have been implemented in my classroom.

Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.

•       As I took on a new team leader role soon after beginning the course (big commitment!), I found the leadership aspect of the course very beneficial. I was able to use theories around leadership to support me in my new role and the assignments gave me a great scaffold for implementing change successfully.

Where to next…

As already mentioned, I’m looking forward to having some time and space (mental capacity!) to revisit many of the ideas and learning that I’ve seen over the past 32 weeks – in particular, the digital tools we were introduced to.

I have also been inspired to continue the post-graduate journey and I have ‘pencilled-in’ the Masters course as a next step. Not this year though, as I also feel a responsibility to dedicate some time and energy to my team leader role at school, as well as to my family. In the meantime, my own professional development will still continue through the online connections I have made and communities I now belong to. I enjoy following links and reading blogs and see great benefit and opportunities in doing so – especially now that I’ll have more time!

References

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 fromhttp://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Registered-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning