Reflective Entry - Activity 1: My Community of Practice

You know when...you start a new role at a new school and there is just so much to learn like the names of the staff, the names of the students, the support staff’s names, the admin staff’s names, where the kitchen is, where the wharepaku are, where do I get the stationery from? How do I book things? What time do we start? What time do we finish? Where do we park? Where is the staffroom? What are the bell times? Where's the meeting place in case of an emergency drill? On top of all of that you are still learning what it is you must do first. 

Well that is where I am now in my teaching career after being over a decade in the classroom. I am two weeks into my new role as a Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) in Cluster 21 from Mohaka to Potaka.  I am thoroughly enjoying my community of practice as a newbie and learning all over again – learning never ceases by the way it is forever.  Just in case you want to know more about the RTLB service and how to access it you can find more information from the tki website. 

Community - My community I consider to be in is the national RTLB service which works collaboratively with schools and educators to find solutions to support the needs of students in Years 1-10 with learning and/or behaviour difficulties.

Layers in the RTLB community - There are 40 RTLB clusters nationally, from the Far North to Southland. Each cluster has a lead school, lead school principal and a cluster manager. Each cluster also has a team of RTLB, specialist itinerant teachers.

Practice – RTLB work in a cluster or team. The work of the team, and workload of RTLB, is managed by the cluster manager. RTLB support students with learning and behaviour difficulties in the cluster who meet the set criteria. They do this through:

·         networking

·         school policy developmentworking with kaiako to meet needs in the classroom

·         initiatives such as peer reading

·         individual needs, for example Individual Education Plans (IEP).

When working in kura or secondary school settings, RTLB meet the learning and behaviour needs of students through negotiation with a range of people. These may include:

·         the class kaiako

·         Special Education Needs Coordinators (SENCO)

·         parents

·         whanau

What are the issues that we face – According to a senior RTLB colleague, she has found that communication and time can be a difficulty when not all supportive networks of the child or the whanau and/or the wrap around services are unable to come together at the one time to action or discuss how to support the child further.  As for me, there is just so much to read, action and remember that my thoughts and reflections are filled up with mainly learning my new role now which I’m sure will change overtime.  So take care out there until my next blog you know when...

Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk

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

http://rtlb.tki.org.nz/The-RTLB-service/The-RTLB-service