…technology with a twist

… if you read the blog of one of my partners in crime yesterday, you know that I had one of those rare moments in time when I was on the verge of laughter or tears or both…when SH said "LG, I have some homework for you" my insides just collapsed and I felt myself paste a ‘team player’ attitude on my face. In the next few seconds my insides recovered sufficiently to begin screaming "I have enough work to send me completely round the twist and off for a little rest in the insane asylum!"

Then I heard some key words drift through … technology … more laptops …. more classes with computers … and then I couldn’t help myself … I

bugger!! now he knew I was keen and he was on a winner!! te he he

So now we take a huge step and blast off into new territory. And I chose the photo for this post quite intentionally … because in this leg of our journey a key to our success will be getting the groundwork done and done very well. Even Houston doesn’t achieve lift off unless so many obscure and minor details are in place at just the right time.

What?

People (teachers, techies, management, students, parents, sponsors) need to be on board, strapped in, excited, knowledgeable, with a clear vision of their part of the journey, eager to play their part in the team … but with a shared goal in mind.

It’s not about the ICT gadgetry; that’s the console that TFT will operate in mission control. It’s about the pedagogy that comes with shifting our teachers’ and learners’ positions in both time and space. It’s about us capitalising on each component of the staging of this learning and using that to propel us into the next phase. It’s about changing how we do what we are already doing well. It’s about keeping the reason for this journey clearly in mind.

And that reason is?

Facilitating the learning of our students so that they are lifelong learners with ubiquitous skills for the 21st Century world that awaits them.

That’s our payload for this journey.

…5, 4, 3, 2, 1, (Now, who has the map?? I do … )

• Leave a comment... (1)

Now you are

• Leave a comment... (0)

Yesterday was a day to try my patience…and I am not sure if I held out too well. But what was worse is the sense of a great number of my colleagues who were similarly unimpressed and for a variety of reasons.

The difficulty is understanding the root cause so that the symptoms might be treated. From my position on the sidelines there was a great many incidents to be blamed on lack of communication of small pieces of information that would smooth the path for many. For instance, a teacher who has roles in two different areas of the school and suddenly found themselves required to be with two different classes at the same time because of minor changes to the routine in one area of the school. I wasn’t timetabled on a class at the time and was able to assist, but the damage was done and the teacher’s day started off with an anxious moment with conflict in duty of care. This same teacher was subject to further disruptions later in the day … and so it goes on.

I sit here wondering how larger corporations manage to maintain better communications than we do at a school of some 700 students and 60-70 staff? We are the most close-knit school I have worked at in my career and yet, year after year, one of the top 3 negatives identified by staff is … communications. How do the BIG companies do it?? Is the key that these companies are not always immediately accountable to their clientele in the same fashion that a teacher is? … a small change + lack of shared details = a teacher feeling like they look disorganised in the eyes of not one but two classes of students. (this wasn’t me … my own day was far too frustrating to have been able to digest it just yet…I went out walking in 40km winds after school just to see if that would clear my head of the day…brrrrr)

Do we stop caring so much about the individual and become heartless about the "profits" of the company? Is that how the corporate world seems to operate so efficiently?

(by the way…I think I am the guy on the left-hand bike…)

• Leave a comment... (1)

45.5 hrs of holidays remaining…heavy sigh…….

• Leave a comment... (2)

2008 National Ceremony

(from) For The Fallen

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon (1869–1943)

• Leave a comment... (0)