Suzanne's Mindlab Blog

Step 1: What is the observed impact after the ‘Take Action’ phase? As I am teaching a new year level this year, I have no previous students to compare what I was seeing with the students currently in front of me.  Both schoolwide and nationwide data shows that writing is the weakest of the three core curriculum areas, and that the level of achievement decreases further in Years 5-8.  (Gadd, 2019)  A problem I had identified was that children often had no audience for their writing, and so why would they be motivated to produce a high quality of work if no-one was going to read it.  And so it became necessary to try something different to improve this. The student's pre-inquiry data told me that those who struggled with writing had a negative mindset about it.  However all students were keen to try something new in terms of digital publishing,  When I look at the post-inquiry data, there are still a minority of students who reported that the inquiry did...

Step 1: Describe the data you have collected As per my Action Plan, I have chosen to collect qualitative data, the ideas and opinions of my stakeholders.  At the start of the inquiry, I surveyed both parents and students to find out their feelings on writing, and the home/school relationship.  Many parents chose to not respond to the survey at all, but were happy for their children to be included in my inquiry.  The students were surveyed and were given the option to remain anonymous or to put their names on the survey.  As expected, those who responded with negative feelings about writing were those who struggle and are borderline with achieving what would have been National Standards expectations for their age.   As the inquiry nears its end, I sent out a parent post-survey on Class Dojo, querying the use of Class Dojo as a e-Portfolio forum, their understanding of their child's learning goals and processes, their willingness to comment online and di...

With the New Zealand education system aiming towards future-focused learning, and aiming for students to be prepared to live and work in an era which we cannot foresee, as teachers we need to be looking to transform our teaching practice to build innovative and engaged learners. Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall, Bull, Boyd & Hipkins, (2012) talk about a new era for the education system and the necessity to change from feeding in information to empowering children and their dispositions, to be flexible, adaptive and creative.  One of the themes that emerged from their review was the need rethink learners' and teachers' roles.  They discussed the need for teachers to discover children's strengths and develop their potential, in turn supporting the learning (p.9.)   My inquiry is based around using ePortfolio's (Class Dojo) to increase student's engagement in writing and improve home/school relationships.  When I consider the audience for this, outside of sc...

Using Rolfe's Model of Reflection I have looked at the ethical nature of the digital divide as I implement ePortfolio's as a means to engage writers and improve home/school relationships. Step 1 (What) : In week 25 and 26, I touched upon the aspect of socio-economic status being a reason for family's non-engagment with their child e-Portfolio.  While I cannot confirm this is the reasoning behind, nor would I like to pry and ask, it is something I am led to consider and therefore what I can do to negate this issue. Step 2 (So What): Anderson (2017) discussed that many low income households in America only have access through smart phones due to the cost of broadband internet access, and that we also need to consider those who do not use computers for work-related tasks.  When I consider that I myself do not have email set up on my iphone due to the large amount of data required, it occurs to me that quite possibly some of those who have signed up for Class Dojo may ...

Using Rolfe's Model of Reflection (n.d.) I have looked at the Cultural Context for my inquiry with regards to communication, and whanaungatanga. Step 1: (What) Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness could be described as having a sound knowledge of our students, their whanau and worldview, being willing to learn from others, and incorporating a range of cultural contexts into learning activities and pedagogy, and ensuring that we look at multiple perspectives. Last week I reflected on the lack of initial engagement from parents, and the need to build sound relationships between home and school.  My inquiry is based around the use of ePortfolio's to improve student engagement in writing and home/school relationships, and as I examine the cultural context of my inquiry, I am left pondering communication methods and how whanaungatanga plays a pivotal role. Asil (2017) refers to whanaungatanga as the building of mutually respectful relationships between...

Using Rolfe's Model of Reflection (n.d) I have reflected on an event that has happened during my inquiry. Step 1 (What):  Working through my Action Plan, the next step was to survey the parents to get baseline data.  I introduced my project at the Meet the Teacher night.  Unfortunately there were only parents present for about half of the children in my class.  And of those present, very few chose to answer my survey questions.  My inquiry is based around using ePortfolio's (Class Dojo) to increase engagement in writing for the children, and to improve home/school relationships.   I have previously taught Year One children and found most parents were overly-eager to see what their children were doing in the classroom.  It appears the novelty may wear off!  During the Meet the Teacher night I explained the importance of the home/school relationship and that by publishing their work online I hoped that would start some conversations at ...

Term 1 has seen me set up with a new year level group of children.  I have moved from a Junior Year 1 class to a Middle Year 3 & 4 class.  Also we have set up a temporary classroom in the hall due to building renovations.   I am working on my plan to implement ePortfoilo's to improve writing engagement and home/school relationships and have started by having the students write holiday recounts and publish them to Class Dojo.   As students completed their writing they used Book Creator, typed their stories, voice recorded themselves reading it and illustrating to create a video that was uploaded to Class Dojo. Immediately there have been children who have taken to the process quickly and have acted as tuakana teina to assist other students to upload their work.  This is still a work in progress for some however to ensure they teach the task, not take it over.  There was complete buy-in from the students who were eager to get to the ip...