Reflections for The Mindlab

This is the eight and final in a series of posts in which I will attempt to demonstrate critical reflection with respect to different aspects of life as a teacher (for now, at least).  This post aims to explore how my practice has changed as a result of the 32-week learning journey of The Mind Lab's PG Cert in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning), with reference to the Practicing Teacher Criteria in e-Learning  (Ministry of Education, nd), and to my dreams for the future! We all know reflective practice is good practice (Osterman & Kottkamp, 1993), but I've always found it difficult to make a proper habit of meaty, critical reflection.  In reflection, this aversion to habitual reflection stems from arrogance and laziness - in short, I like to think I know what I'm doing, and that what I'm doing is fine as it is.  Over the past 32 weeks I've been equipped and nurtured, then pushed and prodded to take an honest look at my practice and how I cou...

This is the seventh (and penultimate!) in a series of posts in which I will attempt to demonstrate critical reflection with respect to different aspects of life as a teacher.  This post aims to explore how I might leverage my current and potential interdisciplinary professional connections to provide interdisciplinary learning opportunities for my students. I made this (link to full-size original): The above map shows the interdisciplanary professional contacts with whom I could potentially engage for an interdisciplinary purpose.  I can't say that I'm currently engaging any of these contacts for that purpose, although I regularly engage with many on professional and/or social levels! I am really interested in the potential for e-learning to facilitate interdisciplinary learning, and being in a high school I have fantastic contacts in the form of teachers in other departments, teaching the same BYOD class.  I'd love to be engaging with contacts in other schools an...

This is the sixth in a series of posts in which I will attempt to demonstrate critical reflection with respect to different aspects of life as a teacher.  This post aims to explore my use of social media for professional development. Thankfully, I explored the ethics of using Facebook for learning in last week's post , so I feel I can leave out that aspect of the discussion.  In short, as long as the teacher is careful to frame and facilitate, it's okay to use social media for education, and it can be a very effective way to organise and engage students. Above are screenshots of some online social networks that I use professionally.  These are Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yammer (from top to bottom).  Listing like this prompts me to feel that the range and extent of my involvement is a bit excessive, but I swear I use each network quite differently and they all serve quite different purposes! Google+ I use Google+ as a requirement for a ...