Our Timeline
Our Story So Far |
Click this button to access an evolving timeline of our journey both before and during the NPDL project. (Please excuse the adds it is a free account.) |
Over the past four years we have moved quit quickly with the introduction of technology in the classroom. After a small group of staff attended the Leading a Digital School conference in 2012 we determined that it was quite urgent that we make some changes, not only to what was being taught but more importantly how it was being taught.
We realised that we needed to create a culture of change - not an easy feat.
Our first major shift was to introduce BYOT. We determined this would be the most practical and financially sound move after the NSSCF funding ceased. To go along with this we introduced a significant amount of professional development for staff around specific web tools. This was done in conjunction with introducing Hattie's Learning Intentions, Success Criteria, Meaningful Tasks and Feedback.
We began a specific focus on 21st Century Skills by partenering with world renown keynote speaker Ian Jukes. Ian conducted a full day conference (attended by many regional schools) followed by a day of workshops, to look at 21stC Skills with a particular focus initially on the 6D's of the Solution Fluency to help develop Critical Thinking. (See Critical Thinking under the 6C's). At the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 all staff had 10hours of professional learning time with Ian (8 hours of this was done via a remote connection using Fuse) to develop units using the Fluency 21 Unit Planner (http://app.fluency21.com/) which were real world, realistic and relevent to our students and their learning. Ian returned in 2014 to run further workshops in the QFT (Question Formulation Technique) which is an extremely valuable tool to help students critically think while generating questions to the 2nd 'D' (Discover) of the Solution Fluency. Below are some of the presentations we have used along the way to stimulate thinking around the changes needed to make learning more relevent to our students.
We realised that we needed to create a culture of change - not an easy feat.
Our first major shift was to introduce BYOT. We determined this would be the most practical and financially sound move after the NSSCF funding ceased. To go along with this we introduced a significant amount of professional development for staff around specific web tools. This was done in conjunction with introducing Hattie's Learning Intentions, Success Criteria, Meaningful Tasks and Feedback.
We began a specific focus on 21st Century Skills by partenering with world renown keynote speaker Ian Jukes. Ian conducted a full day conference (attended by many regional schools) followed by a day of workshops, to look at 21stC Skills with a particular focus initially on the 6D's of the Solution Fluency to help develop Critical Thinking. (See Critical Thinking under the 6C's). At the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 all staff had 10hours of professional learning time with Ian (8 hours of this was done via a remote connection using Fuse) to develop units using the Fluency 21 Unit Planner (http://app.fluency21.com/) which were real world, realistic and relevent to our students and their learning. Ian returned in 2014 to run further workshops in the QFT (Question Formulation Technique) which is an extremely valuable tool to help students critically think while generating questions to the 2nd 'D' (Discover) of the Solution Fluency. Below are some of the presentations we have used along the way to stimulate thinking around the changes needed to make learning more relevent to our students.
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Our Pedagogical Framework
Creating a shared understanding of the skills and learning dispositions learners need to work in an ever changing global community.
Our Pedagogical Framework is the culmination of 2 years work with the entire College staff, to develop a framework that everyone had ownership of.
This framework helps us determine our direction as a collective body - with everyone on the same page, with the same expectations and using the same language.
The 8 fundamental areas of Explicit Instuction, Higher Order Thinking, Inclusivity, Knowledge of Effective Teaching Practice, 21st Century Skills, Supportive Environment, High Expectatins and Feedback with specific descriptors for what they look like in the classroom aim to support staff as they develop and refine their teaching practice.
The Framework also helps determine specific areas for professional development as staff are able to easily identify areas of need.
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