Most Likely to Succeed

What?
Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend a viewing of the award-winning documentary "Most Likely to Succeed" made by Greg Whiteley. The screening was presented by CORE education, and screened at St Peter's School, in Cambridge.

The film's synopsis:

The current educational system in the United States was developed a century ago during the rise of the industrial age and was once the envy of the world. However, the world economy has since transformed profoundly, but the US education system has not. Schools are attempting to teach and test skills, when mastered, that still leave graduates woefully unprepared for the 21st Century. After presenting this problem, the documentary focuses on the story of a school in San Diego that is completely rethinking what the experience of going to school looks like. As we follow students, parents and teachers through a truly unorthodox school experience, the audience is forced to consider what sort of educational environment is most likely to succeed in the 21st century?

What caught my attention?

• student agency
• meaningful
• soft skills
• feedback
• exhibition
• real audience
• obvious growth and learning
• thinkers
• collaborators
• problem solvers
• re-imaging

Discussion
After the screening, the audience all participated in a group discussion where we shared our thoughts on the following questions:

What changes are happening?
What do we still need to do?
What action/discussion points will I take back to school?
What next?

So what?
I came away from the film with a renewed desire to look at my teaching practice. I was trained under the old style teaching (based upon system created in 1893). To me this system is not adequately preparing students for the society we are moving forward, where it's not about specific knowledge, but instead, knowing how to access knowledge, as well as being problem solvers who work creatively and collaboratively with others. 

I believe that I need to change the way I teach.  Fortunately, we work under a forward-thinking curriculum which gives us the freedom to make change.

Working out my thinking and how I am going to make changes will be a large part of my PLD over the next year or so.

Staff Meeting: eLearning

Google Expediditions

What?

Today, the students at Berkley were extremely fortunate - we had the opportunity to trial Google Expeditions as they introducing their programme to New Zealand.  If you're wondering what this is, here is an explanation:

I was fortunate enough to lead two classes on exhibition.

When Room 10 went on an expedition today, we started off by visiting and following a free climb up El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in the USA.  Following this, we went underwater and learned about a variety of sea creatures. Finally, we took a short tour around the canals of Venice.  In each place, the teacher is able to direct students to points of interest, and share information with them.

I would love to show you photos of Room 10's expedition, but unfortunately, I was so engrossed that taking photos completely slipped my mind.  Here are some photos from another expedition I led for Room 1...

It was interesting that the students chose to sit down when the staff didn't this morning:

There was an article on Stuff about the visit today (although it was the whole school, not just 24 students). Here's the article.

So what?
I enjoyed leading the classes in this, but more importantly, I enjoyed being at the cutting front of technology and introducing students to it.  For the future, this makes it important that I keep on top of new technologies and ideas and introduce them to my class.

Warm Fuzzies

What?

Every now and then something happens which makes us feel valued, which is a wonderful feeling.  I am feeling exhausted today, but I've just received this email from Greta Dromgool (our science teacher, who is on leave for two terms), and it felt really good.

"Hi Kathryn,

I hope that I have conveyed this in some small way already, but I would like you to know how thankful I am for the work you have done to support Science at Berkley. Thank you for keeping an eye out for the wonderful Rochelle, for all your many, many hours ensuring Science Fair was a success (and wasn't it just!), and all the times you have shown enthusiasm in meetings, or replying to my emails.

Looking forward to working with you again next year.

Greta"

So what?

This has shown me the power of well-chosen and well-timed words.  I often think appreciative thoughts of people, but often the time comes and goes in busyness and they get forgotten.  What I have learned from Greta is that it is important to share this appreciation with others. Just like it did for me, I may provide someone for support, just when they need it.

Class Twitter Account

Today I read this blog post.  It made a lot of sense to me.  Up to this point, I have been using Twitter as a place to keep up to date on teaching happenings and finding articles to read for my professional learning development.  This article has shown me about the usefulness of having a class twitter account. This year is nearing its end, so I will set up a new twitter account to start next year with for my new class.

Reflecting

Since attending uLearn 2015, in the back of my mind, I have been constantly reflecting on my teaching.  I've been thinking about the structures and policies I work within in my school.  I haven't yet formulated my post, but I do know that this quote by one of the father's of modern (???) education reform, John Dewey, is at the heart of a lot of my thinking.

This is an old quote, so how does it apply to me? Further reflection is needed.