You're my favourite class, too

My parents both worked two jobs to make ends meet and while I was aware of this struggle growing up, they made every effort not to let our financial status impact on my education. I can only imagine the late night budgeting and hair pulling my mother went through to make this happen for me and my brother. Although my parents sheltered me, I'm very aware that family income does come into play when we talk about student success and engagement, and that there are students in front of me every day whose family find school expenses difficult to meet or whose income affects their learning outcomes. Our school's culture is influenced by " its history, context and the people in it" (Stoll, 1998). I teach in a Decile 6 school. According to the Regional Economic Activity Report,  in 2015 the average household income was $81,867, which is $10,000 less than the average of all of New Zealand. The Environmental Health Indicators New Zealand  break this down further, and show t...

John Donne's famous line 'no man is an island' has become a bit of cliche but that is because it is also a universal truth. Likewise, no teacher can function in isolation; to pervert Donne's metaphor, we operate within an interconnected metropolis. One of the things which continually impresses me about teachers is how we work together to improve practice by sharing of resources, ideas and feedback. My teaching practice would not have evolved as it has without this ongoing support. Not only does this support occur within the physical confines of a school, but is often also online, through communities such as Mindlab or subject associations. Wenger-tayner define a community of practice as: " Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." Similarly Hoadley says a COP is"a community that shares practices", as well as "a process of k...