Fostering a Culture of Learning

The story of 'Project Kaizen', empowering staff to have a appetite in learning and growth. 

21st Century Education

What does it mean to be an educator in the 21st century? What part does technology play in the orchestra that is education?

The Lab - Creativity in Practice

The Lab ask students to apply creative problem solving skills to a range of problems, & to identify problems around us that need to be solved.

Peeling The Onion:
​Empowering Teachers through Curriculum Development

Brenda (Science teacher) had a dilemma: “is there sufficient scaffolding in our current project design to ensure all students are successful at some level? What are we missing that would make this a stronger experience for all students? What do we need to strengthen or add onto the Science of Separation unit?" The Science department investigated and unpacked these dilemmas in a recent half day workshop led by me. We supported her through using structured protocols to introduce a researched focused ICT task that is authentic, challenging, and engaging.

Teachers being Students:
Learning through Empathy

PDHPE staff took the deep dive and became students again to emphasise with challenges our boys face when completing an assessment task. Tinkering with the implications of their Year 7 Young Consumers unit on teaching, learning and assessment, staff walked away with a set of strategies and teaching activities that could be used in the classroom the following day.

Fostering Sustainability
Challenge Based Learning project

In its 4th Year, this project is an engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching & learning that encourages learners to leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems. Challenge Based Learning is collaborative & hands-on, asking students to work with peers, teachers, and experts from around the world to ask good questions, develop deeper subject area knowledge, accept and solve challenges, take action and share their experience

​eLearning Review
lessons learnt (Part 1)

Last year, I was task with investigating how ICT is impacting our school and explore ways to move forward and improve. I'm hoping over the next few posts, I can reflect on the overall process and what I've learnt from this experiences.

Eating Meat Pies with Chopsticks
​A lesson in Innovation

What does it mean to be an educator in the 21st century? What part does technology play in the orchestra that is education? This is a presentation I gave recently which discuss the pitfalls of being innovative in education as well as exploring the journey of discovery through passion, fear, and failure. 

Drones in Education
​3 years on....

Whilst it's still a relatively niche technology to integrate in an educational context, I have been exploring the role of drones in teaching and learning for the past 3 years. Below is a presentation I gave at the National FutureSchools Conference to discuss my successes, failures, and anything in between...

A Tale of Two Cities:
Purposeful Technology Integration

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness ….” (It was time for something different.) It is a tale of universal priorities, shared practice, similarities, and yet important differences in the way Newington College (Sydney) and St Peters Girls School (Adelaide) leverage their Learning Management Systems to improve student success.

Making Learning Visible:
​Language teachers playing Masterchef

“How might we leverage technologies to make learning visible?” That’s the big question our Languages Department tried to unpack during their half-day curriculum workshop with me. Not only did teachers discover the difference between ‘doing a project’ and Project Based Learning by designing cupcakes and being Masterchefs, they also trialled a variety of Digital Learning tools which will allow students to showcase their knowledge & understanding during our College's Poetry Night in Term 3.

The Lab:
​Creativity in Practice

The Lab is a new subject where we look at creativity in all of its forms and puts you at the centre of that. It cuts across and incorporates traditional subjects and looks at what it means to be outside the square. It will teach you and ask you to think about the ways we can approach problems and will ask you to create, solve, build, manufacture and experiment, to be creative in new and different ways.​

Redefining
​Professional Learning

At a recent #PubPD organised by Craig Kemp, I explored the notion of giving teachers more autonomy and explain simple ways to redefine teachers' professional learning.

Nurturing Dispositions
​via Genius Hour

What does it mean to teach in a way that achieves strong results while fostering dispositions (like persistence or curiosity) that students need for long-term success?

#Hacking Staff
​Professional Learning

In this post, I recount a hands-on workshop I ran at the TeachTechPlay Conference exploring the idea around:
"How might we facilitate meaningful and engaging professional learning"

more blog posts...