Nature Based learning in England and Scotland.

Having searched for months and frustrated many people trying to help me - finally I am deliriously happy to be heading off on an exciting international study visit to the UK in October! (Fingers crossed) The tour will include meeting Claire Warden - the owner of the first outdoor nature Kindergarten in Scotland. Centres we will visit include Pen Green children's centre, Middlesborough, Wingate Children's centre, Dunblane, Cowgate Pre -5 centre, Edinburgh, Fowlis Wester and Auchlone Nature Kindergarten, Crieff, Scottish Crannog Centre , Kenmore!
The fact that the study visit will be linked to the National Australian Early Years Learning Framework is brilliant. I'm already looking forward to sharing my experience and promoting nature based learning when I get back!!!
Meanwhile - as part of my award I was able to buy a camera and laptop specifically for the children to use to capture snapshots and videos for editing, reflection and studying. The photos posted here have either been taken by the children of things that particularly interest them or taken by me of children engaged with nature with the idea to share with their peers for our 'Talking and Thinking FloorbooksTM' intentional learning groups. Enjoy!
For more information on Nature schools and kindergartens go to www.mindstretchers.com

Reflection on the TED talks

As part of the prize for Inspirational Leader of the Year in 2012 I was able to “buy” a membership of TED Live. TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences for "ideas worth spreading." The TED2013 conference just happened in the USA and was broadcast live. This meant I needed to be up from 5am to watch and so in most cases I downloaded to watch the next night. I tweeted the YouTube links as soon as they were public @SymoLyn

At the same time as watching TED my home Apple page just announced that ITunes U had just passed one billion content downloads. Similarly last month the Khan Academy announced they had just passed one billion exercise problems done using Khan Academy resources. These figures again show that the world of education is rapidly changing.

Back to TED! There were some good talks I watched, some OK and a few truly sensational! One of the truly sensational was that of Sugata Mitra in his acceptance of the TED prize ($1million). Now Sugata Mitra’s academic career is nothing short of phenomenal anyway and he has discoveries and publications across Science, Maths, Technology and now Education.

His popular acclaim now is through the Hole in the Wall experiments in children’s learning. In the initial experiment, a computer was placed in a "hole" created within a wall in a slum in Delhi, India and children were allowed to use it freely- even though it only had English and the children could not read or write in English. The experiment aimed at proving that kids could be taught by computers very easily without any formal training- and they certainly did learn. The experiment has since been repeated at many places throughout India and the rest of the world.

… “The Victorians created a global computer made up of people. It’s called the bureaucratic administrative machine,” says Mitra, in the bold opening of his talk. “In order to keep that running, you need lots and lots of people. They must be identical to each other … So they created a system, called school, to make parts [for this human computer]. They must have good handwriting, they must be able to read, and they must be able to add, subtract and do division.”
But these skills aren’t as necessary with the advent of computers. “It’s quite fashionable to say education system is broken,” says Mitra. “It’s not, It’s wonderfully constructed — it’s just that we don’t need it anymore. It’s outdated.”
We can’t imagine the technology of the future, and thus we can’t know what jobs we’ll need the skills for. So Mitra suggests that education should be about developing the ability to learn anything on one’s own. …Sugata Mitra accepts the Ted Prize at Ted2013

We have seen glimpses of this ourselves when we handed Ipads to our preschoolers and watched them play- they experiment and learn and astonish and amaze us with what they can do in such a short period of time.

Sugata challenges us to have a new vision for learning through SOLE = Self Organizing Learning Environments as the old model of schooling was for another time that no longer exists. He believes we need to pose big questions (similar to our Adelaide University Compass program) and support our children through encouragement to develop their own curiosity and solve/answer/find information to develop their ability to learn anything!

In conclusion he made a bold TED Prize wish: “Help me build a place where children can explore and learn on their own -- and teach one another -- using resources from the worldwide cloud”. He asked us to develop SOLEs and then send the data and information to him such that the school in the cloud can truly develop.

WE were challenged if this was something MOCB12 could be part of as our small contribution to the future of learning?

2013 Professional Learning Journey

I was delighted to be awarded the Inspirational Leader's Award in the 2012 S.A Public Teaching Awards. I am the principal of Mark Oliphant College B-12 (MOC) located at Munno Para West.

I have already begun to use my award by signing us up for TED Live -as I could not get there in person! We will begin the live stream (or download depending on time differences) to MOC when the event begins in mid February.

I hope to travel to the United States in the mid year to firstly visit High Tech High in San Diego to see our MOCsters graduate from the Leading Schools program. As a school community we have been heavily influenced by the work of HTH amongst others! Then on to Ontario, Canada to visit Virtual High School ( an amazing example of the growth of on-line learning and flexible delivery).

Final stop is on to Boston for Alan November's Building Learning Communities Conference and after that attending Harvard Graduate School of Education doing a summer school with Howard Gardner (!!) - the Future of Learning

I will blog and tweet during this adventure!

In the mean time if you want to hear about life at MOC

• I publish a blog weekly - Reflections on.... 
• I can be followed on twitter -@SymoLyn and @MOCB12.
• MOC also has a significant facebook presence - the main page can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/MOCB12

The following cartoon is my current favourite and hangs above my desk!

Let the Learning Begin

My name is Esther and I am the winner of the Early Career Inspirational Teacher Award 2012. This year will be my third year teaching, and if it is anything like the last two, I will be learning as much as I will be teaching! As Louka discussed in his post, facilitation of teacher development and learning is central to the student outcomes of growth and development. In my experience, teachers are challenged daily to build on knowledge, alter their perceptions, and strive to be the most effective teacher you can be so that your students have the best possible chance of learning. This year I have been given an unbelievable opportunity which allows me to be supported in this quest for learning, self-improvement and consequently, student outcomes. I look forward to sharing this journey with you all.

And so my adventure begins!

A new year starts and so does my new adventure. My name is Natalie Gherardin and as the winner of the inspirational primary teacher section of the awards I am excited to be able to pursue the many and varied professional learning opportunities available to me. It is an amazing opportunity but also a daunting task as I grapple with how I can make each dollar count!!

For the past five years I have taught Receptions at Naracoorte South Primary School and have loved every moment of it. In this role I have been lucky enough to develop my passion for early years literacy through play as well as build children's skills in sustainable living. The school now has an exciting environment centre which houses 15 chooks, a worm farm and a productive vegetable garden. I have also enjoyed sharing my love of music with the community through a weekly music and movement program for parents and babies.

This year I am changing pace and moving into the role of Principal at Frances Primary school. Frances is a small rural school with two classes. I am very thankful for the opportunity to extend my skills and build positive relationships with the Frances rural community.

I am really looking forward to researching and exploring professional learning that will enhance my passions but also extend my current teaching and leadership skills. I hope that by sharing my experiences with you via this blog that you too can further your learning. The world of 'blogging' is very new to me, so you will need to bare with me as I struggle to work out the 'ins and outs' of it all!

I'm sure you will also enjoy reading the entries from the other fabulous winners. What a remarkable group of ambassadors for South Australian Education!

I will keep you posted with any updates.
Until then, happy teaching!
Natalie Gherardin

My journey

I am the Admin/Finance SSO at Wasleys Primary School.  The school is 15 min north of Gawler and currently has 47 students.  We are in the process of building a new Kitchen Garden at the school and are looking forward to implementing this program into the schools learning approach.

I have already started my learning journey by undertaking a number of one day courses at the Food Forest which has helped me with planning and building the new garden space at the school. I have also used my scholarship to fund a whole staff cooking class which included a range of cooking and nutrition tips which has prepared us for next year.  It was great to have this story picked up by local newspapers.

A new learning experience for me "Blogging"

I always wondered why people used the phrase "I'm Blogging". What does this mean? I will enlighten you with my version of blogging as soon as I learn more.