Co-Producing the Learning

I'm so glad that I wasn't expecting to gently unwind from the summer break and merge slowly back into the fast lane because my first day with the other educators at OrmPS was definitely a case of hitting the ground running with little time to pause and take a breath.   

  

Along with getting to welcome some of the new Learning Coaches that are joining our #oresome team, today's timetable covered a range of learning and refresher moments.   The collaborative games had us up and moving, videos gave us an opportunity to learn from people outside our community and conversations within the room provided food for thought.

There were many 'ah-ha' moments throughout the day, e.g. how games are a fun way to encourage learning (and recall); what connections we have with each other (no matter how random they may be); the whys and hows of narrative assessment (mental note to self that I will complete more of these in 2017);  tools to use when constructing a narrative assessment; what happens during the numeracy stages/steps etc.

Heath kick-started the day with some videos to provoke thinking around the changes that have been made in education, and how it's important that we continue to review and reflect on our practice so that we can...

Guarantee every learner engages in innovative, personalised world class learning

Following this were many 'gems', but one that shines the most for me were the words spoken by Tony Mackay (Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic Education (Melbourne) and President of the Global Education Leaders Programme, (GELP).  Refer to the following video from 2.25minutes where Tony says,

"improving learning outcomes in an ILE by not just doing better, but we need to think about learning differently."

He also said,

"young learners of today need to be able to thrive and survive in a 21st century environment.   They need to be creative, collaborative, culturally aware and problem solvers."    

I'm excited by this thinking as it leaves the door wide open for educators and learners to move away from the rigid and directed education process that I grew up with.  Instead, we are able to learn in a variety of ways, with an authentic purpose and acknowledgement of everybody's abilities and interests.    As Clive Dimmock said (in the above video),  the learners, teachers and leaders are "co-producing the learning."   This teamwork approach to learning is far more supportive and personalised than traditional learning.   I'm looking forward to working alongside my fellow educators in LH6 to co-produce the learning with each and every one of the 82+ learners that we meet next week so that they will be able to 'thrive and survive in a 21st century environment'.