Reflective Practice and Changes in Practice
The thirty-two week journey Anticipation, nervousness, excitement, trepidation. These were some of the initial feelings as I entered the school library where I would spend the next 16 weeks, 1 evening a week, with fellow teachers. We would discuss, interact, collaborate and touch on many concepts, skills and IT tools, some of which I had previous exposure to and some that were new to me. I grew in confidence over the 16 weeks, as I attempted to implement some of the tools and thinking into my teaching, with varied results. The main thing was that I was trying out new ideas and spending time thinking about how the tools and skills could be best utilised in the classroom to improve student engagement. Engagement has become a key word in the modern classroom, but it is difficult to define fully. We recognise when a student is or is not engaged, but can we measure engagement? Often, there are other features we can measure, like achievement and behaviour. These are easier to put a nu...