Week 31: Professional Context - Crossing Boundaries

It has been interesting reading the required readings about interdisciplinary connections, especially ‘The logic of interdisciplinary studies’, written by Mathison and Freeman.  This phrase summarises the changes and introduction of new trends that have occurred in the New Zealand education systems in the past ten years.

 “The push for interdisciplinarity or integration incorporates many of the trends that have become part of the recent discussions of educational restructuring – shared goals, flexible scheduling, site-based decision-making, collegiality, and outcome-based assessment” (Mathison & Freeman, 1997).

This week I’ve decided to explore a digital tool - coogle to draw a map which demonstrates my current and potential interdisciplinary professional connections.

My interdisciplinary connection map:

My future goals are developing these skills: research, inquiry and collaboration so I am effectively facilitating 21st century learning and teaching.

I clicked on this post about “A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration” and thought that the table below (that is displayed in this post) does endeavour to show what needs to happen for meaningful collaboration to occur.

Table 1. Qualifiers for a three-faceted conceptual model for successful collaboration

Workplace Conditions	Qualities/Attitudes	Common Goals
§  Regular communication §  Standing meetings §  Physical space §  Administrative support	§  Cooperative—able to compromise §  Equitable—respect for roles   §  Trust—perceived competence §  Shared vulnerability—safe setting to explore, inquire & critique §  Enthusiasm—desire to continue collaboration	§  Identify individual strengths §      Select conference & publication venues that “count” for both, or alternate   §Establish research “pipeline” & philosophy   §  Articulate/update timelines

Source: http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration./

The interdisciplinary connection I have we be with my teaching colleagues as we will be doing collaborative planning and sharing via Google Docs in Terms 3 and 4. As teaching professionals we will discuss and decide on learning goals with students and these goals will be integrated into our teaching and learning collaborative planning. The outcomes of the learning goals will be shared with parents or whanau either through Google Slides or kanohi-a-kanohi (face to face).

References:

ACRLog. (2015). A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration

Mathison,S.. & Freeman, M.(1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 1997. Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/mathisonlogic12004.pdf

Reciprocal Reading Professional Development

Builds thinking skills & accelerates reading comprehension.

Trains students to become collaborative in their learning.

Studies show it can be effective for Maori students & low-achieving students.

Can support learning across the curriculum – whole class or groups.

Supports teacher by developing student autonomy.

It gives teacher time to observe students & diagnose learning needs.

Equips students with skills  to engage in more thoughtful, co-operative & productive classroom interactions.

High impact & effective – developing evidence-based understanding & practice to achieve high impact results for all students in a collaborative approach.

Phase 2 – deliberate transfer of learning & metacognition.

Deliberate strategy – use non-fiction texts to motivate – needs to be high-interest texts.

Text can be read prior to the reciprocal reading session.

Teacher becomes part of a group –powerful message: teacher is learning alongside with her students., therefore everyone is participating.

Transfer to the whanau – parents & their children doing reciprocal reading.

Groups of 6 or less: all students need to participate.

First 12 sessions: developing group processing,t each 2 strategies at 2 weeks interval,meta-workshops: teaching key strategies & skills, inferential questioning, use of the tokotoko bookmark, during this time teacher writing anecdotal notes 

At Risk PD with Ana Byrne

Used my data to identify at risk students in reading, writing and maths. Wrote one SMART goal for an at risk student in reading, especially the goal being relevant. Shared with a colleague this students's IEP plan who also shared other strategies. This was a worthwhile session.

Reflecting on PD

This was a rewarding learning day that was given sufficient time & great collegial support. We have begun a learning journey together that has created a positive teaching environment.
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James Street School Rocks

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My Second Post

My First Post