Connected Learning

Jarrod Lamshed

Feb
9

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New Beginnings

Category: 1. Know students & how they learn, 4. Create and maintain supportive & safe learning environments, 7. Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/ carers and the community Tags: , , , , , , Leave a Comment

“And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that never were”

Rainer Maria Wilke

The beginning of each school year comes with a mix of excitement and trepidation. For the most part we prepare ourselves to step into a class of kids that, for the most part, we don’t know very well. We don’t know what connects them to their learning, we don’t know who our classroom leaders are and we don’t know which of these kids are most likely to send furniture flying across the room…. but it’s exciting finding all of this out.

In our classroom, the new year is a time for new beginnings. If things have gone badly for you in the past, we put that aside and start fresh. To me, this is very important. As we work toward creating a team of learners from 31 individuals, each child needs to know that they are not being judged by the poor choices of the past. This can be a difficult thing to do (especially when faced with the variety of opinions voiced in the staffroom) but it is vitally important.

If kids feel that we have written them off and have low expectations for them, then they will live up to those low expectations. Set the bar high, and for the most part (with the right support) they will strive to meet these goals.

This year also brings a new beginning for our staff team at Hackham East. With three new members of the school leadership team and three new teachers to our school, it is a great opportunity to develop new professional relationships and connections that we can learn from as teachers.

New beginnings, however, don’t mean that we cast aside the connections of the past. After requests from former students, we are working toward including ‘old scholars’ in this year’s Kapa Haka group. Keeping these connections is very powerful. Several former students are also working toward setting up a charity event at their high schools that they began at Hackham East. I am looking forward to supporting them with this. This year I’m looking forward to exploring our new connections at Wirreanda High School as we work together to better support the learning and wellbeing of our students as they transition to the next stage of their learning.

Two weeks in, I’m feeling positive and am looking forward to the year ahead.

Oct
29

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How Has Social Media Influenced Your Professional Practice?

Category: 6. Engage in professional learning, 7. Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/ carers and the community Tags: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

I saw this question floating around Twitter today and I thought I’d have a go at answering it.

Social Media has become a HUGE part of our world. In schools, we have spent a lot of time focussing on the perceived negatives surrounding it and quietly keeping our fingers crossed that it will go away. It’s become pretty obvious that this is not going to happen. We could spend a lot of time discussing the possibilities and methods of incorporating social media into our classrooms.

For me, social media has had (and continues to have) a substantial effect on my teaching. This happens in several ways.

Professional learning
Through Twitter, social media has connected me to many educators from around the world. All of these people have become part of my professional learning network. Through their blogs and through 140 character conversations, I learn from these people everyday. This community provides me with an ear for my questions and a multitude of links to interesting information and practical ideas that eventually make their way to my classroom.

Making connections
Making connections with educators around the globe has become an integral element of my classroom practice. As a classroom creating student blogs these connections help to provide my students with an international audience for their learning.

Reflection
Blogging and social media provide me with a platform and an opportunity to reflect on my practice. The difference between using social media and using a traditional book diary is having an audience. No matter how small, knowing that someone might see my ramblings forces me to think deeper and reflect in a much clearer way. It also allows for conversation based on my reflections. A traditional diary wouldn’t encourage any interaction at all.

Twitter has been the biggest social media contributor to my professional practice and the next step for me is to better harness the power of Facebook for my learning. Until now, Facebook land has been purely social. Maybe it’s time to blur the lines and explore this further.

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