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The year that was...
What are six adjectives that best describe this school year?
Enlightening | Challenging | Progressive | Transformative | Inspiring In what area do you feel you made your biggest improvements? Throughout my journey at St Luke’s I have been challenged personally, professionally and pedagogically that has enabled inevitable growth. Upon embarking on a new adventure, I often reflect on how much my practice has transformed my understanding about education, fit for an ever-changing future. Similar to Timperley, Wiseman and Fung, life-long and life wide learning has been a concept that has undoubtedly accelerated my thinking as a self-identified ‘visionary’. In a growing technological landscape, the need for versatile, curious, and adaptive learners is paramount. Commencing my position at St Luke’s, I recall being startled by the idea of spaces being available for members of the community to use upon the completion of the school build in 2026. I found myself battling questions that constrained this possibility. Will these external members need Working with Children Checks? Will there be a booking fee? Does the booking fee cover insurance and liability? What about theft? Do they need to register programs or record who is on site? These questions, though legitimate, are a product of an education system built on analytical thinking which has undoubtedly served great purpose in my life. It is this same thinking, though, that prompted Watson to conclude that lifelong learning is likely to remain in the “too hard” basket of national education policy’ (2004). Armed with this understanding, I rejected the questions that limit this possibility and started to investigate the benefits of the proposed ‘post-schooling’ through Community Based Hubs. In our learning context we strive to equip students with a bank of interchangeable skills and often seek for experts to come and offer their wisdom in particular fields. Experts, not necessarily teachers, give students insights into their profession through collective learning opportunities that offer great benefits to student agency, regulation, communication, innovation, and initiative that contributes to a larger sense of purpose. The larger obligations to social and human capacities far outweigh the satisfaction of an ‘A’ on a half yearly report as the learner becomes an authentic contributor to a community of like-minded individuals. When you consider the rest of your life, what percentage of what you learned this year do you think will be useful to you? The pedagogical impact that St Luke’s has left on me is something that I believe has accelerated my growth as a professional educator and inspired me to adhere to a model of lifelong learning. Inquiry Based Learning, team teaching and the opportunity to evaluate authentic learning has largely inspired me to commence my Masters in Leading. This endeavour has inspired me to greet the next ‘new normal’ with enthusiasm as adaptability is the key successor to change. This year has changed my professional teaching goal as I now search for opportunities that give me greater insight into practices that enable learning. The web of practices has removed the boundaries associated with my degree as a ‘Secondary Teacher’. Now I look for learning opportunities across varying contexts and appreciate types of formal, informal, direct and indirect learning. It is this newfound insight that has me excited for the opportunity to teach in the role of a primary teacher if given the opportunity in my career. From my experience, I have witnessed the dedication, initiative and innovation displayed by determined teachers that ignite intrinsic motivation and curiosity in their students. This aspect of learning is something that I am largely inspired to investigate and would relish in future career opportunities. What is something you learnt from a fellow colleague this year? Please refer to this link: More than Pink Panthers
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