Mindlab - My Community of Practice - Activity 1 Applied Practice in Context Evidence for Mindlab

Introduction:

I would like to introduce myself as Joyce Sarita Shankar-Kay. I have been Mrs Shankar-Kay for the past 5 years. I have been teaching for 16 years.  Originally Secondary trained to teach Technology, Science and Health Education.  I belonged to Aorere College’s learning community and taught Food Technology for 3 years.  After getting my registration I decided to embark on my OE. I lived and taught in 2 Secondary schools in England. An experience not to be forgotten.  I returned to NZ at the end of 2004. I was fortunate enough to be invited to work at Tangaroa College. A learning community which continued to inspire me to teach and grow with young adults.  After 4 years I had the urge to connect and experience learning  with a younger age group of learners. I have spent the last 6 years teaching and leading Technology at Rosehill Intermediate School. Again I continued to learn, grow and aspire to be a life long learner.

Wegner (2000), states that humans have formed communities and shared cultural practices since the beginning of history. Communities of practice is essential for our learning.  Educators like myself benefit from being part of various learning communities.

Etienne Wenger first coined the concept of “communities of practice”, which are defined as “groups of people who share a concern or a passion or about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interaction on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002, p.4).

My Community of Practice:

My current community of Practice is at  Bailey Road Primary & Intermediate  School in Mt. Wellington, Auckland http://www.baileyroad.school.nz/

I have been practicing within this community since July 2015.  This learning community has given me the opportunity to further my learning, become future focused and embrace 21st Skills.

At Bailey Road School I am the Technology Specialist teacher. I teach Year 7 & 8 students. I have also been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to experience a Year 8 homeroom class and a Year ⅔ class.

I collaborate with  two  Year 7 and  two Year 8 teachers very closely.  Even though we plan learning for the students separately there are numerous opportunities where I can collaborate with the classroom teachers. This  so that we can give our learners the best possible learning choices.

Who are my community of practice?

I would say that my professional community of practice within my school I interact with include:

These include:

• Educators/teachers
• 400 students
• Senior Leadership team
• Support staff
• Whanau
• Board of Trustees
• Indian Bollywood Group
• Inquiry team

As Wegner states, we also belong to sub-committees. I belong to other learning communities outside the Bailey Road School community.

Some of these include:

• Twitter community
• Google + community
• Primary School Teachers Facebook community
• Google Educator Group

The purpose of my Community of practice:

The purpose of my community of practice is to inspire my learners to learn and solve real life problems.  I want them to be future focused and engage and learn 21st Century skills.

I believe in building strong positive relationships with my learners. Once there is a good relationship then risk taking and learning can happen. It is also important to my practice that I get to know the learners and their worlds. Especially my Maori and Pasifika students who make a large proportion of my community of practice. Reflecting and understanding about these learners is vital.  Fook & Askeland say, it is about “connecting individual identity and social context” (Fook & Askeland, cited in Finlay, 2009).

Alongside my learners, I have robust trusting relationships with my colleagues. This means that when we do have differences these can be resolved with a discussion. Within my team we share resources and teaching strategies.  

My specialist area of practice:

Technology Education is my specialist area of Practice. Within this broad context I expose my learners to experiment with various materials. We use Food, Textiles, Electronics, Hard Materials such as wood. Learners also engage with using Digital Technology. This has allowed me as a practitioner to broaden my knowledge and skills so that I can continue to empower my learners. I am having to take risks and delve into context areas and use materials such as wood which I am unfamiliar with.

As I am the only Technology teacher within the school, for my professional growth I am part of numerous specialist communities of practice. These include Technology Online, Technology Education in New Zealand, Home Economics and Technology teachers association. Through these learning communities I am able to share ideas, share resources and broaden my learning.

References:

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice.

Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization, 7(2), 225-246.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press