Enews 17th December Vol 3 No 12
Edited by Keith Redman
Topics covered in this edition include:
- Have you booked PD presenters for your curriculum days in 2009?
- Dimensions of Learning Hub: Opportunities in 2009
- Professional development through an Action Learning model
- Flexible Schools – Margaret Vickers on ABC Radio National’s Life Matters
- Teaching Our Digital Kids (Digi Kids) – completing the 2008 Hub activities
- Teaching Our Digital Kids – Hub membership and opportunities in 2009
- Habits of Mind Next Steps Conference
- Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) Hubs in Victoria – Registrations for 2009 still available but closing soon
- Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) Hub in WA
- Thanks and our best wishes to Andrew Bills
- Curriculum Planning Hubs and a Snapshot of Practice
- Big Picture Education Summer Institutes
- Another Life Matters item – Educational Success and Money
- Some interesting reading
- Reminders of ANSN activities, covered in previous editions of E-News
Have you booked PD
presenters for your curriculum days in 2009?
Last week you received an email flier from Viv White, ANSN National Coach, reminding you that ANSN Networkers are available to run quality workshops throughout 2009.
It is not too late to organise sessions if you contact us now. In
particular, act immediately if you need a quality workshop for the
curriculum days at the start of next year, as we have experienced
presenters available for topics including:
- Interactive Whiteboard training (basic and advanced);
- Teaching Our Digital Kids workshops;
- Bee Bots workshops (suitable for Prep to Year 2)
- Curriculum Planning;
- Cognitive Coaching;
- Dimensions of Learning;
- Setting the Stage (Habits of Mind); and
- Communicate, Collaborate and Create.
To find out more about these ANSN programs and to check pricing and availability, please contact Viv White as soon as possible, on her mobile at 0409 120 749 or by email at viv.white@ansn.edu.au .
Throughout this E-News, you will also find details of some of the
current and planned activities associated with these programs. An item
follows on Dimensions of Learning opportunities in 2009.
Dimensions of Learning
Hub: Opportunities in 2009
Click to enlargeIn 2009, ANSN and
Central Queensland University will be offering educators an opportunity
to share and extend on the learning of the highly acclaimed Dimensions
of Learning (DoL) program, based on practical experience and research
by the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
organisation. The diagram to the left illustrates the
interrelationship between the five dimensions, which the McRel research
suggests are essential to successful learning. The DoL Hub is
co-ordinated by Hanan Harrison, ANSN Networker (below, right).
Hanan has
developed and implemented Research Circles, courses and Hubs
across Australia since 2002, to support educators in exploring and
reflecting upon their professional practice. She also lectures part-time
to pre-service teachers at CQU Noosa.
As members of the DoL Hub, through five professional development days
over the year, participants will work together to develop their
thinking and practice relating to how students learn, and explore how
to apply McRel research and theory in their classrooms. The photos
below show participants in recent Hub activities, in Darwin.
 
To find out more about DoL, view CQU’s website at http://www.cqu.edu.au/dol/
Professional
development through an Action Learning model
What is Action Learning? Participants, as part of their professional development, work together, through dialogue, reflection and sharing, to solve real problems that are related to their own context, issues and needs.
Why Action Learning? The action learning approach is based upon the premise that no learning occurs unless action and reflection are undertaken.
Action Learning underpins ANSN work in Dimensions of Learning (as well as a range of other programs that are based on membership of Hubs). This program goes beyond providing participants with new information; it requires participants to explore and implement new ideas, possible solutions and/or strategies that promote improved student learning outcomes and team approaches to curriculum planning.
ANSN offers a number of ways for schools or individuals to engage in
this style of professional learning. These include:
- participation in our Action Learning hubs, where schools locally and nationally work collaboratively, over a period of time, to explore an identified issue or need – either within a school-wide context or specific to teachers’ own professional practice;
- working in a critical friend model, where the ANSN works with a single school or a smaller cluster on identified common issues, with an intended outcome of building whole school awareness, reflecting on current practice, and developing working models for whole school implementation; and
- participation in one of our information sessions, which aim to give participants an introduction to the program.
These options will be
available in 2009 for Dimensions of Learning and also for a new
program, Setting the Stage, which will be introduced more fully in
E-News at the start of the new year. To learn more about Action
Learning and how it can benefit you as a practitioner, through
participation in an ANSN Hub or project, contact Hanan Harrison hanan.harrison@ansn.edu.au
or Tina Doe tina.doe@ansn.edu.au
Flexible Schools –
Margaret Vickers on ABC Radio National’s Life Matters
Margaret Vickers (see below), ANSN Board Director, is Professor of Education at the University of Western Sydney.
On
17 November 2008, Margaret spoke on the ABC’s Life Matters, about
Flexible Schools. The introductory note on the Life Matters website
reads as follows:
“A half of all high school students have part-time jobs and juggle work
and study. This explains the need for schools to think very differently
about their timetables. The issue is the subject of a parliamentary
inquiry, inspired in part by the work of Professor Margaret Vickers and
the Australian National Schools Network.”
To listen to the program or to download it as an audio podcast, go to www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2008/2419970.htm
Teaching Our Digital
Kids (Digi Kids) – completing the 2008 Hub activities
Hanan Harrison reports that two Digi Kids Hubs recently completed their fifth professional development day for 2008. In this session, the participants celebrated and shared their learning, their presentations reflecting the diversity and the needs of the group. One teacher (below left), in the Adelaide Hub, reflected on how her room had changed in terms of physical environment (where she set up her computers, for example, and the activities around it) and also how she was now engaging students in tasks that used computers as an integrating tool rather than a stand-alone activity.
In the other photos
below (centre and right), two Brisbane teachers share with their
colleagues some images and materials they developed during the year.
Other teachers focused on more specific needs, such as how to use
technology to motivate and engage ESL students in literacy tasks. In
one example, a teacher engaged her young prep students through the use
of Photostory, to document a series of cooking lessons that were used
to develop oral language with her students. Related skill-building
included recall, labeling of equipment and materials, and describing
actions.
In 2009, we intend publishing some of the teacher reports from 2008, to
share these teachers’ learnings with a wider community. These reports
will be similar to the KidSmart snapshots that were published in late
2007. To
view one of the KidSmart Snapshots click here. To read or download
other Snapshots, click here
Teaching Our Digital
Kids – Hub membership and opportunities in 2009
The Teaching Our Digital Kids (Digi Kids) Hub will continue and extend its work in 2009. The work of the Hub is about helping teachers develop strategies to incorporate technology within a play-based curriculum. This is achieved through participation in a 12-month professional development program. Anticipated benefits include: improved student motivation and focus; opportunities to reflect on national and state initiatives for embedding technology into the curriculum (and the implications for members in their classrooms); and opportunities to work with teachers both locally and nationally on issues of common interest. For further details, or to register for Hub membership in 2009, click here.
For further background about what has been achieved by the Digi Kids
Hubs during 2008, or to explore the possibilities for 2009, contact
Hanan Harrison on hanan.harrison@ansn.edu.au
or on 0407-464-672.
Habits of Mind Next
Steps Conference
The ANSN was proud to
support and host Art Costa’s 2009 Next Steps Conference, where Art (see
below) motivated and inspired participants to develop successful
dispositions for learning through the Habits of Mind. Art’s tour
included two conference dates, one in Sydney and one in Brisbane.
There was also a workshop day in Darwin, where Art facilitated
professional conversations, as a critical friend, for various
facilities within the Northern Territory Education Department. The
focus was on extending and refining key ideas for future curriculum
focus.
Interactive Whiteboard
(IWB) Hubs in Victoria – Registrations for 2009 still available but
closing soon
ANSN, in partnership with Lambourne Consulting, is inviting schools with Promethean Interactive Whiteboards to join the 2009 project. Andrea Federico has written to schools in Victoria, informing them that our project includes the important balance between technical training requirements and pedagogical discussion – reinforcing the point that Interactive Whiteboards in themselves are not interactive; that it is what we do with them which makes them interactive. There is still time to register, if you are very quick. Hub dates for 2009 are as follows
Group 1: meeting at St Albans South Primary School
- Thursday 26 February 2009
- Thursday 19 March 2009
- Thursday 21 May 2009
- Thursday 27 August 2009
- Thursday 12 November 2009
Group 2: meeting at St Albans South Primary School
- Thursday 5 March 2009
- Thursday 26 March 2009
- Thursday 28 May 2009
- Thursday 3 September 2009
- Thursday 19 November 2009
Group 3: venue to be finalised
- Thursday 12 March 2009
- Thursday 2 April 2009
- Thursday 4 June 2009
- Thursday 10 September 2009
- Thursday 26 November 2009
Email your interest to Andrea Federico at andrea.federico@ansn.edu.au
and she will contact you directly to discuss the individual needs of
your school. Andrea can also be contacted by mobile at 0414-472-189.
Interactive Whiteboards
(IWB) Hub in WA
Helen Davey reports that
in mid-November the Western Australian IWB Hub held its final session
for 2008. Helen was pleased to see members emerge with increased
confidence, contacts and ideas. She was especially grateful to the
three main presenters, Karen Murcia (from Edith Cowan University),
Rosie McAlpine (Concept Audio Visual), and Kate Seabrook (ANSN National
IWB Hub Co-ordinator).
Thanks and our best
wishes to Andrew Bills
Andrew Bills, ANSN
Networker for South Australia, has resigned due to ill health. ANSN
wishes to express its gratitude to Andrew for his work and dedication,
particularly in his co-ordination of the Connecting Lives and Learning
project, and wishes him a swift recovery.
Curriculum Planning
Hubs and a Snapshot of Practice
Gavin Grift’s work with
Curriculum Planning Hubs, and the Research Circle that he established
in 2008, will be continuing and expanding in 2009. At a November
professional development session in Frankston (see below), Keith Redman
(Editor of E-News) took notes and will be working with Gavin on the
development of a paper about the ideas and practice associated with
this work.
In the meantime, to explore how the Curriculum Planning Hubs work, you
can read or download the Snapshot of Practice that Gavin and Keith have
produced as an introduction. The Snapshot describes what was done in
the first Hub; outlines some of the participant responses at various
stages; and discusses some of the implications and conclusions that
emerged after a year of hard work by the participating schools and
teachers. Click
here for the Snapshot.
For further details of the Curriculum Design Hubs and Research Circle
or to enquire about future participation, check the website at www.ansn.edu.au or contact Gavin
Grift – by mobile on 0409-110-050 or by email at gavin.grift@ansn.edu.au.
Big Picture Education
Summer Institutes
As ANSN members and
E-News readers, you will have received an email in October, notifying
you that ANSN and Big Picture Education Australia, in conjunction with
partnering universities, are conducting a number of Summer Institute at
the start of 2009. The Institutes are called Re-designing School
Relationships, Relevance and Rigour.
Big Picture, a not-for-profit organisation, works to catalyse change in
education by generating and sustaining innovative, personalised
schools. Originally founded in the US, and now involved in Australian
initiatives to create and support Big Picture schools in Australia, the
organisation develops public schools based on research in new designs
for education, trains educators to serve as leaders in their schools
and communities, and actively engages the public as participants and
decision makers in the education of our youth.
The Summer Institute locations and dates are:
- Murdoch University, Rockingham, WA – 12 and 13 January (Advanced) and 14 to 16 January + 2 further days in term 1 (Foundation)
- University of Tasmania, Hobart UNITAS Campus, 1 to 4 February
Another Life Matters
item – Educational Success and Money
Earlier in E-News we
referred you to an item on Life Matters. You might also like to check
out another item, on “Educational Success and Money”, which the ABC
broadcast on 27 November 2008. The interviewee in this case is Rob
Simons, Head of Research and Evaluation for the Smith Family, who
outlines the findings from recent Smith Family research into the impact
of financial disadvantage on children starting school. The ABC
introductory note reports that “lack of money does not itself set
children up badly for starting school. But there are other factors,
often associated with financial disadvantage, which definitely do
hamper children’s school readiness and subsequent success … (and) …
there are plenty of changes that can be made in children’s lives, but
increased income is not essential.” The program is available for
listening or podcast at www.abc.net.au/m/lifematters/stories/2008/2429290
Some interesting reading
The items listed here,
which might make for interesting reading over the Summer break, were
identified in recent editions of Australian Policy Online (APO), which
is edited by the Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of
Technology.
Beyond the classroom: Building new school networks - Introduction
Written by Rosalyn Black, Senior Research Manager at the Foundation for
Young Australians, this new book is published by the Australian Council
for Education Research (ACER). Based on the findings of a year-long
research project, it offers a strategy to help navigate through the
uncertainty and controversy surrounding the current education agenda.
The message emerging from the research is that piecemeal reforms to
schooling will not provide solutions to the widening gaps in education
that limit opportunities for many young Australians. APO provides a
more detailed synopsis, and a link to the full text, at www.apo.org.au/linkboard/results.chtml?filename_num=239856
Making the grade: school report cards and league tables
Jennifer Buckingham, a research fellow at the Centre for Independent
Studies,
examines the school report cards scheme being considered by the
Australian government and recommends a balanced approach to performance
incentives for Australian schools. APO provides a more detailed
synopsis, and a link to the full text, at
www.apo.org.au/linkboard/results.chtml?filename_num=239850
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- The Australian National Schools Network -