A Student voice: A thank you from World Teachers Day 2013

This year on World Teachers Day we asked the school community to 'Thank a teacher' via email and Twitter. A host of great personal stories came in from parents and a few from students. With some technical help we were able to share\feed the messages to a screen in the staff common room during morning tea on the day. Amongst the messages there was the following letter written late at night by a year 12 student. With his permission I have included his thankyou in this post (he asks that you excuse his grammar).

To all my teachers,

I only have had the privilege of being at the College for year 12, but in this one year alone I have been taught by people which I have never encountered in my 12 years as a student, It never seemed like any of my teachers were teaching me because it was their job, they often seemed passionate and excited about teaching which I found very strange at first. As I progressed through the year (I admit, I'm probably not the most educationally-orientated student on earth) I really enjoyed being in the College, small things like teachers not treating me like a little child makes the learning experience a lot more pleasant.  At our lunch during the AST (Scaling test that Year 12 students wishing to get an STAR do in the ACT) I saw our principal walking around with that box of assorted cake and teachers conversing with students not just in a teacher-to-student manner which I think had them gain my respect. There are certain teachers who stood out for me, like Ben, at first I had no interest in ancient history, but now I am quite hooked to it. David who started working at the College around the same time I did, I learnt a lot from him, I've never had such a good flight teacher, the learning content is excellent.  Alfred I would like to thank for sharing and teaching not maths, but life skills (I did not do too well in math, I do apologise). Duncan is the most interesting English teacher I have ever encountered (Sorry my sentence construction isn't that great, excuse my African education). And finally, Maria and Shannon. I've always enjoyed drama, Shannon had the great privilege of teaching me from the beginning of the year (Couldn't get rid of me actually), I enjoyed drama significantly more than I ever would have, I was shown that the dramatic arts isn't just some acting skills one could get, but an important stepping stone for the future of any person's career (public speaking, confidence, body language). I would like to commend all of my teachers for their amazing work, adjusting to Australia has been very easy, and I would say this is because of the excellent teachers I have been fortunate to have,  Thank you. 

Year 12 Student

There once was an office that grew into a school

I started working at Gungahlin College in late August of 2010. At that time there was a Principal (Gai Beecher, who was appointed in July), a Executive Teacher, a business manager and myself (Associate or Deputy Principal). In those days the College was a construction site and we all worked from a small office upstairs in the Gungahlin Market place. With the College opening for the school year in 2011, we got very busy appointing the rest of our staff and establishing a school.

Gungahlin College Office\Shop front July to December 2010

I recall a very busy first week where we had to: visit both of our feeder schools and talk about the college; visit the Australian Science and Mathematics School (ASMS) in Adelaide; and finalise 22 classroom teaching positions. This little office was a hive of activity where Gai's catch phrase "Every day is a big day at Gungahlin College"  rang true. From this brightly coloured office we organised and appointed another 7 executive teachers and our admin staff, enrolled students, took student ID photos, had our initial planning meetings with executive, created all of our start up procedures and processes, and had our initial  staff get together.

Office partition complete with College Plans and student uniform

 This little office was a place of robust conversation and many new ideas. With no sink and no toilet the shopping centre facilities and accompanying music also helped the creative juices flow. In the time leading up to the College opening the staff were only able to visit the college site on two occasions. I felt at times that we where buying a school from the 'plans' not knowing exactly how the building would finish up, and how it would function as an effective learning environment.

Front counter of shop front - complete with funky lights

My 10 week challenge

Do you want to?:

• stay in touch with the latest educational discussions
• learn about learning technology quickly and easily
• build your Professional Learning Network (PLN) in your school and beyond

Then you might want to follow me on my '10 Week Challenge'. My challenge may not deliver a dream job or  a hot body for the beach this summer, like the infomercials on TV. It may however, help you develop a fantastic PLN of like minded educators. Well that is what I am hoping for.

I am relatively new to Social Media. I joined Twitter and Facebook in 2012 and I guess I was a 'lurker' (watching the conversations but not participating), accessing content occasionally and wondering what all the fuss was about. Recently I have started to engage with Social Media more and the advantages are becoming more apparent. So that I continue to explore the advantages of this communication platform I have set a few goals for myself in term 4:

1. Tweet at least once a day about our school
2. Participate in a Twitter chat(s)
3. Create a blog and post at least ten times during the term
4. Connect with people outside of my school, build a PLN, and learn new things
5. Share what I learn with our staff and post it on my blog in week 10 of term

You can follow me on twitter @CraigMEdwards_ . I will report back about my personal challenge week 10.

 For those that are new like me and want to get started, the following two guides are useful for understanding Twitter (obtained via Edudemic.com)

What is in a name?

You know the line "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet ". So why was finding a name for this blog so hard? Well it really wasn't all that hard, finding a name that was available was the hard bit. I wanted to create a blog about education focused on innovation and trying new things, in order to advance learning. I want to be able discuss attempts to 'change up' learning and celebrate the attempt and learning outcome whether it is good or bad.

At my house I have  a favourite children's book which I have read to my children. The title of it is "It's Okay to Be Different" by Todd Parr. I love this book at its message: It's Okay to wear glasses; It's Okay to need some help; and It's Okay to make a wish etc. I have actually read this book to the staff at my school - I reckon they thought I was nuts but I made my point which is it's Okay to take a chance, take a risk and learn.

So in this blog I hope to document the things that our school, I, and others have tried, what worked, what didn't. It might be good, it may not - but that will be Okay. I will take a chance. And there it was, the title, and it was available!