Connections
Sometimes as a teacher it is very easy to stick with what you know and not branch out of your own personal bubble. But to be honest what student wants to learn the same way, units and go to activities their older sister experienced 5 years ago. For me interdisciplinary connections are a huge part of teaching, learning and professional development for any teacher. It is vital we connect, collaborate and integrate as much network knowledge as possible.
But how strong our own interdisciplinary connections?
The Ministry of Education (2007) had a vision for interdisciplinary connections to flow freely within our education system as they state “All learning should make use of the natural connections that exist between learning areas and that link learning areas to the values and key competencies.” Perhaps this was short lived, due to National Standards and the emphasis shifted to lifting and assessing achievement in 3 sole core subjects; math, reading and writing. Some may say this shift hindered the way many teachers integrated and interacted with the curriculum.
Personally I feel over the short time I have been teaching I have developed and sustained an number of interdisciplinary connections through my own education, teaching practice, professional development and through the relationships I have made outside of teaching. My own interdisciplinary map below identifies many of these.
Reflection
I feel each year these connections grow and help support, guide and ignite my teaching in many areas that benefit my students in my class. Many of the connections above are happening every day and are ingrained in my everyday practice, but at times these connections could branch out and support more than just my class and myself. I would like to see my own teaching programme become more integrated and use experts regularly to enhance teaching and learning for all. I am also planning to develop and take a lead in Pasifika matters at my school, therefore I would like to develop community connections with the Pasifika families and the wider school community.
It is fascinating to look at the Ross Institute in America and learn about how it functions. A curriculum that is a true spiral of interconnected knowledge and learning. A curriculum that prides itself in the integration of subjects and building strong network knowledge while seeing students take control of their own learning. I like that they have experts on hand to support learning on a daily basis (Ross Institute, 2015).
Recently I have watched my students steer their own learning. Due to a novel from the #NZreadaloud my students became intrigued by nuclear testing and from here they inquired more about it and then they reached out to a local scientist who came into class to teach and show them about nuclear testing through experiments and meaningful discussions. The students regarded this experience as one of the ‘BEST DAYS EVER’ and after learning about the Ross Institute I thought to myself ‘Why is this experience such a once off for my students?’ This has made me seriously rethink what I am doing in my classroom and is something I need to look at in the near future. How can I make these rich learning experiences happen on a more regular basis? How can I connect with experts in a range of fields. We have a student volunteer army project coming up that the students will run, so I will be thinking of ways for the students to again be steering their own projects and learning, while looking at experts to support this.
Another goal for the near future links to nurturing the relationship between Pasifika learners, Pasifika parents and families with schools and teachers. At my current school the connection between these could be seen as non existent, hence why it is not seen above in my interdisciplinary map. My aim is grow this connection that will hopefully have long term benefits for my school, the Pasifika learners, their families and our whole entire community. Currently around New Zealand educators are getting together to discuss the cultural competencies for Tapasa which are currently under review - I went to the Dunedin meeting recently which is Step 1 of making connections. From here the Ministry are wanting parents and teachers to complete a survey on the current framework. Therefore over the next week I need to contact all the Pasifika families and talk to them about Tapasa and asking if they will complete a survey. Step 2: I will be putting in the school calendar when Tonga Language Week is as well as Cook Islands Māori language week as these are coming up in Term 3. We will look to celebrate these cultures and get experts in (making connections with families and wider community members). In Term 4 I have spoken to the Principal about running a Fono for all Pasifika parents and families, but I will need to do a lot of communicating with parents - finding out their views and get feedback on how they feel their child's culture and learning is being supported at school. I am passionate about Pasifika learning and McDonagh (2011) sums up my own beliefs of if nothing is done incredible opportunities will be lost.
It is through connections, through strong, positive connections that opportunities for learning are endless.
References
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Retrieved fromhttp://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/content/download/1108/11989/file/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum.pdf.
Ross Institute. (2015, July 5). Ross Spiral Curriculum: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Science. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHZhkB0FJik
ThomasMcDonaghGroup. ( 2011, May 13). Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA
Hi Lisa, thanks for sharing this blog post! You have done a thorough job of creating your interdisciplinary connections map - you have formed so many connections already in such a short teaching time. It sounds like you are really in tune with what engages your students learning - it is quite inspiring that you allowed the students to direct their own learning with nuclear testing, and even had an expert in! Go you! You are right in saying this is often an irregular occurrence in classrooms. I certainly need to allow for more of these opportunities within my own classroom. Thank you for sharing.
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