Week 32- Course Reflection

Professional learning -
I have decided to focus on the changes that my Mindlab experience has had on my Professional Learning. I looked at all of the Registered Teacher Criteria and selected this, as the Professional  Learning that I have done in the past 9 months far exceeds anything that I had done in my previous professional development as a teacher.
The inquiry based approach that our assignments in the Digital and Leadership papers in the course took allowed my colleague, Hella, and I too test the theories behind our teaching pedagogy and more importantly, examine whether the pedagogy that we were introducing was having a positive impact on our students. For instance, our first Digital and Collaborative practice assignment focused on the establishment of a "Makerspace" in our school. The professional learning, planning and technical learning that we acquired while setting our Makerspace up certainly developed our professional knowledge as teachers. We learnt not only about the pedagogy behind the "Maker" movement, but also developed our technical knowledge about many of the digital and mechanical tools that are required to develop an effective Makerspace. 
I also learnt a lot about my leadership style and skills completing our Leadership 1 assignment. We reflected upon the leadership required to help our students develop E-reports, in an effort to promote student agency. In order to justify the introduction of the initiative we looked at the meta analysis that John Hattie made and identified "Self-reporting" as a method that had a positive impact on the effect size of learners as a justification behind the initiative.

STEP TWO-  The change

I am going to focus on the impact professional learning had on our digital innovation, the creation of our Makerspace. The research that we completed around the ITL 21st Century Learning skills that we studied in the first few weeks on the course made it clear to us that the curriculum we were currently offering to our students was not meeting the needs of students in

• Collaboration
• Knowledge construction
• Self-regulation
• The Use of ICT for learning
• Skilled Communication
• Real-world problem-solving and innovation

By looking at these skills in detail we were able to formulate a plan for activities in our Makerspace that would help students to develop these skills. The students were overwhelmingly positive and excited about the learning that was taking place during the sessions. As teachers, we have been able to reflect on what works in a Makerspace and what changes we need to make in the Makerspace to allow students to reach their potential.

STEP 3- What next?

What has been made most apparent to me on this journey is the need to continue to engage in professional learning. It is too easy to focus solely on organizing a class and perfecting already established routines with students. This means that when it comes to adapting to the changes that are constantly taking place around us we are often left with our heads in the sand. This course has taught me to keep my eyes open , as the education landscape has changed so much in the time that I have been teaching without me noticing it. 

By increasing my professional learning I am also learning to be more skeptical about new initiatives and changes that are being introduced by political parties for political reasons, rather that ideas introduced based on pedagogical findings.

Thankyou