Learning on Purpose

I have had an exciting opportunity this term, as a deputy principal.  I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy the role, because I am passionate about learning, and my job was the Deputy Principal of Assessment and Reporting.  Learning and assessment are not mutually exclusive, but there are times as a teacher that I feel like assessment eclipses the importance of learning, for learnings sake.  I feel like you value credits and grades more than learning, and what it means to your development as a person.  Don't get me wrong, I know gaining a qualification is important, but it shouldn't be the only reason you turn up to school in the morning. So today I am going to share with you why I love the act learning, and why it should be valued by you. I love being an informed person, being able to have conversations with a wide variety of people, on a wide variety of topics.  And when some those conversations become confusing to me, I love that I have the confidence to say &

I am in my second year of teaching an accelerated year 10 science class. They complete 1 term of year 10 chemistry, then terms 2 and 3 on 3 Biology context L1 achievement standards, and term 4 on a geology internal. While trying to cram 2 chemistry topics into term 1, I gave the class a lot more independent home learning than I would usually do for a year 10 class. And they seemed fine. So in term 2, I thought I'd try something different with them. At the beginning of our micro-organisms unit I gave them the SLO's, my previous teaching notes, interesting newspaper articles, online resources, TED Talks etc And then I said "You have a test in 7 weeks"....... you can imagine the tumbleweeds rolling through the room....... then the explosion of sound as reality hit. 29 teenage girls can make a lot of noise when they put their hearts into it. So I explained that I would still be there and if we needed to stop at any stage and do some traditional teaching, we could

A unique opportunity has come my way, I am going to be acting deputy principal of my school for a term. A unique opportunity in that not many have the chance to 'taster' a role like this, not many schools will let a senior leader escape for a term! I could settle into my (temporary) predecessors shoes, and do what she does, and just hold the position in place for nine weeks, for her to walk back in to and pick up where she left off. I don't want to transform her position, but I do want to add a sense of me to it. I want to be the best leader I can be, and not just a gatekeeper. So I started reading about leadership, and educational leadership, and here's what I have learnt so far: Listen . The people around us have voices, values and opinions.  They are as much stakeholders as we are, decisions and changes will impact them first and foremost.   " Employees and subordinates long to be asked for feedback and to be heard so  ask how everyone’s getting on  on

I facilitated a professional learning session today with a group of 10 colleagues.  It is an eclectic group including a senior leader, middle managers, run of the mill teachers and one who received her full registration last week.  The session was the first in a module rotation I am offering, within the professional development framework of the school on blended learning, showcasing a smorgasbord of digital tools to support good pedagogy.  I wanted us to begin by thinking about why we do what we do, from the institutional level, down to individual lessons.  I don't want them using the digital tools I am presenting them with for the sake of using them. I started with Simon Sinek's "The Golden Circle" Clip He beautifully describes why having purpose, knowing our purpose and communicating our purpose, is  the best way to engage our learners. So I posed the question "Why do we do what we do?"  I was greeted with silence, then a quiet "was tha