Teaching and thriving where I am.

Teaching is exciting. Never before has education, especially in New Zealand been so expensive, so demanding, so ...awkward and so exciting! Modern learning environments- Yeah right the buildings are old. The carpet is worn through, there is only one door into most rooms and the shape of the room is still a square. BUT i love it. There is something in the air and in the water- change . Change comes rapidly in some corners of the room and slowly in other areas. It is now about modern lifelong learning pedagogy.  I like the fact that some things are totally predictable and i like it that my teaching job is constantly embracing an element of change. After all i am a life long learner. I must adapt a bit, tidy a bit---throw stuff out, rearrange stuff! For goodness sake i never got a degree and licence to teach teenagers and then simply rot on the spot! Tomorrow is a mammoth change for me. I will be presenting at a conference that i used to think was only for the very best! #ULearn2015

 This is the second year that our college students have started the school year by attending group sessions on how to ‘Lead their Own learning’ before having to “submit” to the tyranny of the timetable. I have formulated a program and lead a dynamic team of teachers who deliver sessions loosely based on Alan November’s research and publication: Who Owns the learning (preparing students for success in the Digital Age) and His First five Days- starting the school year research. In a nutshell all our year 9-12 students attend “Rotation Sessions” for two periods each day for the 1st three days of the school year. It is through each of these important big picture learning to learn sessions that important messages are presented to the students. This has been a successful in introducing our schools core values, lead our learners to understand a commitment to digital citizenship, ensuring correct server access for every student and introducing skills to scaffold thinking and learning ri