Activity 5: Professional Connection Map

Choose two professional connections you have in your map. Evaluate their impact on your practice and professional community.

1.  Classroom teachers:  Currently I support the teachers with the eLearning in their classrooms.  I do this via in-class support, emails, a Professional Development blog, learning conversations in the staffroom and attending their team meetings.  The support I provide for the classroom teachers enables them to gain confidence in their own abilities and to learn and to try new methods of teaching using ICT.  

The teachers impact my practice in that I desire to provide best practice tools for them to use in their classrooms, which causes me to seek continuous improvement.  Their frequent questions and need for support keeps my practice sharp and current.  I am learning new, more efficient ways to perform certain tasks, as well as to present material.  

Going into such a variety of classrooms is also enhancing my practice as I am privileged to see how other teachers manage their students and set up their classrooms.  I am also getting to know many more students in our school.

This connection impacts the professional community in that it creates a common goal of seeking knowledge and improving practice.  Teachers engage in learning conversations with each other around the implementation of ICT into their classrooms.  They share ideas, lessons and best practice methods.

2.  Senior Leadership team:  Currently I work with our three senior leaders - the principal, deputy principal and assistant principal.  I am mainly accountable to the deputy principal for my timetable, as to which classes I will be working in each day and what I will be teaching them.  I am mainly accountable to the principal for our eLearning Strategic Plan as well as my ICT budget.  

I have learnt so much from my senior leadership team regarding strategic planning, budgeting, leading and attending Professional Development, team leadership and overall goal setting and follow through.  I have also appreciated the support and dialogue we engage in around learning and the implementation of technology.  

The impact from my senior leadership team has been significant as I have been encouraged and empowered in my role as eLearning leader and support person in our school.  They allow me freedom to engage with teachers and students in a way that is moving our school forward in digital technologies.  They support the purchase and maintenance of equipment that encourages this advancement.

This connection impacts the professional community of our school in that the teachers feel and know the support from senior leadership in our forward thinking of eLearning.  Teachers receive Professional Development, along with the equipment and support they need to be successful and provide the best learning opportunities for their students.