*Activity 4: Your professional community

*Activity 4: Your professional community
Schools are diverse places with a variety of stakeholders. Stakeholders are broadly defined as people having a ‘stake’ in the school and its students, meaning they have a personal, professional or financial interest in the success and welfare of students (Hidden Curriculum, 2014)

Students
For me, the key stakeholders are students. The students come from a variety of backgrounds and have all had unique experiences. As a teacher I need to provide learning experiences that are relevant and engage and excite the students. It is important that learning is accessible for all and all achieve success. This means that I need to be aware of the students and their uniqueness to incorporate this in my teaching practice.


Families
Families have a vested interest in the success of their children. An effective working relationship between home, school and student allows all interested parties to provide the best support available for student. We look to get our community into school as often as possible to be involved in the learning and as a teacher I make provision for this and it to be successful.


BOT
The BOT are responsible for the governance of the school. In a general way the BOT are responsible for providing access to professional development and resourcing which also influence my practice. We are lucky to have a supportive board who have been encouraging and supportive regarding digital learning.


Colleagues
My colleagues provide the main professional network that I work within. We have adopted a PLC (professional learning community) structure which addresses an area of focus within the school. This allows me to draw on the experience, suggestion and ideas of other practitioners as well as providing collective responsibility for the students of our school. We all have varied skill sets and share these effectively to support each other



What is the purpose and function of your practice? In what ways do you cater for the community of your practice?

As outlined in the student section of stakeholders the main purpose of my practice is to provide opportunities for students to engage in relevant learning experiences. I have identified that we have a diverse community within our decile 2 school, many students could be considered to be at a disadvantage. This has an influence on the function of practice. To ensure equity for all we often use shared learning experiences at school to involve all students, then use the experiences of others to add and build knowledge together. This caters to the different members of the student community, allowing them to experience success.


What are the core values that underpin your profession and how?

The values that govern our school and us as teachers are displayed in our school charter. Respect is the key value at our school and is evidenced in everything we do. Central to this for me is the respect to treat people with respect and respecting the rights of others to learn, however or whatever this looks for them. The value of respect is interwoven through students interactions with each other, teachers interactions and interactions with the community. Other core values I identify with are innovation, through which we embrace change and try out new ideas to best support learnings. Inquiry and curiosity are also important values, ones to embrace in students but something that I need to model myself as a teaching professional. Finally I have previously discussed equity and fairness for all who have equal right to learn.


What is your specialist area of practice? How does your specialist area of practice relate to the broader professional context?

In my first blog post I identified that I enjoy using technology to support and enhance learning. For the past two and a half years ICT has been my area of responsibility at school as well as sharing responsibility for inquiry thinking. My interest in ICT has evolved over time and is very much self taught apart from some professional development experiences. Technology is playing an increasing role in the classroom. This year I have facilitated staff meetings and created iPad/digital learning workshops that are teacher opt in to support the learning of staff across the school to develop confidence and experience using digital tools to support student learning within our school community.


What are the challenges that you face in your practice?

Teachers face a variety of challenges day to day. I have chosen to focus on challenges relating to my identified specialist area of practice. I see the main function of technology and devices in the class to support learning and this is what I would like to be modelling and supporting other teachers with. For the majority of my time leading technology the release time that I has received is related to troubleshooting technology problems and little help developing pedagogical knowledge. Equity of access is also a difficulty. At this point in time all classes have 8 ipads available and there a a variety of issues using shared devices. The unique experiences of all students also make the personalisation of learning a challenge. I see the use of technology a way forward with regards to helping students learn at a pace suitable to their own needs.




References

Hidden curriculum (2014, August 26). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum