It begins....

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 that 
a rhetorical question?"  When conversation did start, it was worth the wait.  One colleague offered the 
schools newest rendition of our Vision Statement: 
"Preparing confident, resourceful and resilient young women to make a positive difference in 
their world"
I can't really argue with that.  Another offered that she was passionate about the language and culture that 
she taught, and wanted to share that with as many young people as she could.

Conversation continued along the lines of giving young people positive experiences of the curriculum areas 
we ourselves love and value. I myself want to send students in to the world as informed citizens, capable of 
accessing and processing information, with the capacity to make purposeful and justified decisions.  On 
reflection, there was very little conversation around skills, dispositions and competencies.  

So if this is the why - do we sell our product to our students this way?  Do we plan our programmes
with our vision, our why, in mind? Are we facilitating learning on purpose?

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