WeeLisa and Learning

This week’s reflection has really made me think about my journey as a learner and a teacher. I believe that I have been fortunate enough to have always been involved in active community of practices. As a beginning Science teacher my first community of Practice was the Northamptonshire Association for Science Educators. This CoP actively promoted and supported teachers who wanted to develop their practice and to collaborate with other teachers who had similar goals but a variety of skills, through a variety of face to face professional development days and meetings. Today, the advent of technology and social media means that our community of practice is no longer restricted by where you are and therefore you are no longer restricted to belonging to just one. To help improve my practice and share with others I contribute and participate in several communities of practice. Within my school: Junior science curriculum group with my school, as TIC Junior Science Physics teache...

How has Mind Lab positively impacted in my practice? To be honest it’s hard to figure out how to tackle this question without waffling. So I’m going to try and stick to Gibbs Model for reflection in an attempt to avoid this. I had always felt that I was fairly forward thinking with my practice. I have been using BYOD, blended learning, O365 and One Note since 2015. But, I had had varied success. Unfortunately, being a High School Science teacher there are certain restrictions that can affect what and how we deliver content, such as school structure, limited flexibility and assessment criteria for NCEA and expectations of the schools stakeholders. For me I needed to break from what had always worked and look towards how I could make it better for my students. Mid Lab offered me the opportunity to explore how I could affect these changes by looking at my practice and leadership. At first I was apprehensive as it had been a long time since I had last studied – what if everyo...