What if?

The Power of the Platform

The Twitter platform has opened a new avenue for teachers to share and celebrate successes in the classroom as well as developing a professional network worldwide.  It doesn't take long for a beginner to understand the power of an authentic audience. 

Setting up a Twitter account is easy through the website or the iPhone or iPad app.  

STEP 1 Link to the following website or app.

STEP 2  Select a USERNAME for your PROFESSIONAL PROFILE.  Remember to keep this completely separate from any PERSONAL PROFILES.  

STEP 3  Sign in

STEP 4  Find some people that you know.  There are a number of staff members on Twitter.  They can be your initial network.  Then it is worth searching for other educators that you know or speakers you have attended or seen at conferences.  Have a look at the types of tweets that they write.  

STEP 5 Once you've had a good look around and begun to follow some other educators online, then it becomes your turn to TWEET.  You are able to write 144 characters of text.  This includes any #hashtags that you use.  Your hashtag is your conversation topic.  Anyone else who is talking about this topic will use the same hashtag.  That way, if you are looking to see what others are writing about this topic, you can do a search and follow.  

If you follow the steps and set yourself up on Twitter you will be surprised as to how much you can gain for your own Professional Learning. 

Add the #hashtag #HCCPLC or #HCCPLN to share within the Holy Cross College community of learners. 

Professional Learning and AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership)

Have you had your say?  An invitation to participate in the National Survey 2015 to collect current data on how the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers are being implemented at schools, education facilities and higher education institutions.

http://www.aitsl.edu.au/research-and-evaluation/evaluation-of-the-standards/activities/national-survey-2015

Digital Learning at Holy Cross College

At the centre of our ideas and philosophy at Holy Cross College is the building of a community focused on living LIFE to the full.  So where does technology fit into this?  The goal for the integration of technology is not to drive the instruction but to support it.  We continue to ask the question of how we measure the effectiveness of technology on the learning process and how it does actually support learning.

Living LIFE to the full is to recognise the skills and gifts we have been given and to use them to develop and contribute to the future in meaningful ways as both a student and a staff member.  Being at the forefront of the integration of digital learning in WA schools gives us the opportunity to observe and learn as the students in front of us create and demonstrate new pathways to learning that were previously inconceivable.  We have no more excuses in pushing ourselves forward into the 21st Century learning revolution.   We can learn from our previous successes and take pieces with us into the new learning journey but we MUST adapt in order to provide for our students who have been born into a digital world.

The following video from Digital Leadership writer Principal Eric Sheringer, shares with us information about schools that work for kids.

The real world of the student allows for creativity and understanding through both the digital and physical world in an integrated way.  Traditional schools encourage students in their learning in siphoned boxes of learning.  At Holy Cross College we allow students to bring their learning together in a Da Vinci approach that we call, 'Big Ideas'.  Students have the opportunity to tackle the big questions in the world in an integrated and relevant way building on prior knowledge and learning.

Bringing the real world of the student into the classroom means building on the opportunities for learning that they have in their communities; whether digital or physical.  Some of the ways that Sheringer states that we can encourage this to happen are:

Five things we can do:

• Encourage the use of social media
• Bring their own devices - BYOD
• Create, Invent, Tinker, Make
• Be involved in blended, flipped and virtual learning opportunities
• to be encouraged to have a student voice through authentic audience

Ultimately, it is important for us to remember the message that Schools are about KIDS and that developing a community of trust between students and staff will make for a harmonious and connected learning environment focused on developing LIFE to the full in ourselves and one another.