32 weeks of thought provoking and practice changing learning is coming to an end. Although I have grown a lot and my practice has changed in many ways this blog will reflect (using Rolfe’s (2001) reflective model) on one key change in my professional practice, in relation to the theme of professional relationships (from “Our Code, Our Standards” ) and how this change may continue in the future.
What
Professional relationships (Ngā hononga ngaio) has been a key change in my professional practice as my relationships with whanau have strengthened through introducing Seesaw as well as with my colleagues as my leadership skills have evolved, particularly with rolling out the Seesaw initiative across the junior school. How I communicate with others has become more effective as I have become more aware of how to effectively build relationships and communicate with students, whanau and other professionals to develop relationships focused on students learning and wellbeing. I began with a passion/problem around the lack of regular communication with parents in a busy modern world where many of our parents work full time. Through MindLab assignments I explored the possibility of using Seesaw as a possible solution. Through consultation with stakeholders we identified a problem of wanting to have more regular meaningful three-way communication with students, parents and teachers. What drove me to make this change was not having the time to have regular face-to-face conversations. I felt that it was important to implement the change to develop greater professional learning focused relationships with students and whanau.
So what
Osterman and Kottkamp’s (2015, p.70) model, the Cycle of Experiential Learning, got me thinking about my professional relationships. I began with great enthusiasm by trialling Seesaw to share learning and communicate between school and home. However I have found this level of enthusiasm hard to maintain. From observing, collecting feedback from parents and analysis of data parents responded well to the initiative with only a few parents needing encouragement to participate. However, some of my colleagues needed additional encouragement. This allowed me to utilise Robinson’s (2009) early, late and laggard adopters. I reconceptualized by looking at the perspectives of my colleagues and reflected on the speed at which we had agreed to roll out Seesaw (slow to ensure all classes joined at the same time). Although we agreed to all invite parents at the same time there was a discrepancy with teachers not accepting parents to join until they felt they had enough on Seesaw for them to see. This has the potential of losing some of their early adopter parents. From this I identified a problem of not offering enough professional development and examples to support the staff in the initiative. Reflecting on Osterman and Kottkamp’s (2015) active experimentation stage I identified that even though parents and teachers may have been enthusiastic about using Seesaw, getting them to regularly and actively use it requires a change in behaviour. I learnt that even when taking into account different infusion adopters things may need to change along the way and people may surprise you.
Now what
I would like to further explore my own development in how to lead others through a change initiative such as Seesaw, including different ways to support different learning styles and the laggards (Robinson, 2009). I would like to develop this in the future by also increasing my understanding of how I can use Seesaw in different ways that may engage colleagues, whanau and students. I would like Seesaw to become second nature to teachers, students and whanau within our school to enhance professional learning focused relationships.
References
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators: professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.
Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards
Robinson, L. (2009). A summary of Diffusion of Innovations. Changeology. Retrieved from http://www.enablingchange.com.au/Summary_Diffusion_Theory.pdf
