Changing Education

Launching into Remote Learning was an abrupt and unexpected turn of events for all in education. The learning curve has been steep and quite challenging, requiring flexibility and adaptability to cope with the rapid pace of events as they have unfolded through the past weeks. Remote learning has meant that teachers have had to find new ways to connect with their students in a way that is virtual. The challenge is still to provide lessons that are engaging and providing quality learning, while the students are in their own homes. Students themselves are grappling with understanding this new context for learning. Parents are having to determine the best routines for their child's education. It has been a daunting situation for many. The platform that our school uses for Kindergarten to Year 4 is Seesaw. This platform is easy to use for younger students providing a range of tools that students can easily access. What I have learned through this has been to develop skills that w

Homework is an area that has often been a part of education that is often the hardest to get right. Many parents expect homework and insist that their child does it. There are other parents who believe in Homework but have no time to give to it, because of work commitments or other priorities. There is also a small minority of parents who feel that Homework should not be given at all. Even amongst educators, it can be a divisive topic. Our school has a homework policy, that while we give homework, it is not compulsory for it to be completed. It serves to support the learning happening in the classroom, but no pressure is applied to have it completed.  My belief is that homework serves the purpose of developing healthy study habits and supporting those families who want homework for the child. For some parents though, it can be a source of tension when a child struggles with a task.  How to make it a positive experience? I came across this idea a few years ago and

As a teacher, the challenge is how to make learning accessible, engaging and to make it memorable for our students. It is a quest for every teacher to consider the ways that our lessons will be structured to meet the needs of our students and make sure that it moves their learning forward. This year as part of our Professional Development at my school, we are engaged in an Action Research Inquiry Learning Plan. The Action research model uses the spirals of inquiry to determine the needs of our learners and researching further into one area of interest. John Spencer explains it very well in this video: What is Game-Based Learning?  The area that I have chosen will be centred around game-based learning. Game-based learning borrows ideas and principles of competition and engagement to real-life situations. While students play they engage in concepts and feedback that are designed with an educational endpoint ( Game-based Learning definition, Annie Pho and Amanda Dinscore 201

Have you ever considered how important Data is when using digital technologies? It wasn't something I had considered until I was a recent STEM symposium with AISNSW. There had been a discussion of what is being done about Big Data and the issues that surround this problem. Data is how digital technologies stores and sorts information. It is the facts that come from numerical, categorical and textual sources of information that can be measured, calculated and stored. It impacts computational thinking because computers need processes to know what to do with this information. Data Collection focuses on the how the information is obtained. Teaching students about this process will help them to gain an understanding of the process that is needed to obtain data and the way that it can be used. Examples of Data Collection The following are ways that students can collect data, which they can apply to a range of different sets: sorting through different categories survey o

Have you ever come away from an event excited by the possibilities of the direction of things to come? Education has so many possibilities. There is often an underlying thread that connects these possibilities together. We are fortunate to be able to influence, direct and guide students towards a goal. We need to have the capacity to look beyond the task of just educating students. Recently I was fortunate to have attended two events, while different from one another, there was a commonality as well. It was inspiring and exciting to make the connection.  The first was a  STEM Symposium  organised by the AIS. This event was to showcase STEM education within Independent Schools in NSW. There were many schools in attendance   showing projects that they have been working on. These projects aim to develop STEM education in their schools. I was fortunate enough to listen Professor Candace Lang from Macquarie University. She was presenting on  "After HSC, Engineering? ".  The

In the past year I have found that I have been moving towards a more paper free way of of working, relying more on the files on my laptop and iPad. The main reason is very practical: I lose pieces of paper. I put down the page that I need to use and its not to be found again until 6 months later under the cupboard next to the broken pens and old rubber, gathering dust. My intention is to be completely organised but reality dictates the success of this at times: I can be frustratingly disorganised. Putting that aside, its time to start again! With the new year having started, comes a sense of new possibilities and fresh starts. It is also a time to consider the plans for the coming year: What will I do? Where will I head to? What worked well? My goal for this year is to be more organised regarding my program, lesson plans and student files. It has been a  bit haphazard up until now. Evernote  is an online file system, where documents, notes, pictures, sound files can be recorded a