Tēnā rā koutou huri noa, huri noa!

Happy New Year to you all

I trust you all had a relaxing break and time to refresh and refocus ahead of the start of the new school year?

Future Focused Teacher Only Days

It's been a busy time for me over the past week with many schools holding Teacher Only Days. I really enjoy working with educators on these occasions as it provides an opportunity to engage deeply in conversation about the things that drive us in our work, and reflect on how these then inform our planning for the year ahead. 

This year I had the privilege of working with the staff at Epsom Normal School and with over 300 teachers who are a part of the Upper Hutt Schools' Cluster. The theme of my presentation in both places was "Future Ready", presenting the challenge for ensuring that our programmes in 2020 have a Future Focus and are designed to equip our tamariki with the skills, knowledge and dispositions they'll need to thrive in an uncertain future. You can view my presentations on my SlideShare site. 

30 Years from Now

2050 may seem a long time from now for many of us, but think about the change we've seen in the past 30 years, and then consider the fact that by 2050 many of the students in our schools will be the leaders in their communities and businesses. The video below provides an interesting perspective on what the future may hold for them...

I've written a blog post titled "the next 30 years?" that explores the implications of what is shared in this clip - I'd be keen to receive your feedback and thoughts. Simply add a comment to the blog post.

More from my blog...

I've added a number of new posts to my blog this month, here are some you may wish to explore...

• What Indicators Teach us About Agency - While the concept of learner agency is now commonly embraced, have we really understood what it means - and how it should be expressed in our schools?
• Defining New Models of Education - a reflection on the recently released World Economic Forum's document of the same name, the first of a series from the Forum's Education 4.0 initiative. 
• What can we learn from a PDF? - stimulated by the MoE's release of a Climate Change resource, I ponder what our approach to teaching and learning about the significant issues we face should be, and just how useful a PDF resource really is. 
• Can we really plan for our careers? - prompted by the release this month of the OECD report titled  "Dream jobs? Teenagers’ career aspirations and the future of work" - got me thinking about the emphasis in many schools on ensuring our students are 'career ready', and what this really means - and what steps we could be taking to actually begin to change things up a bit.  

That's it for this month - thanks for subscribing to my site - please feel free to pass the link to others in your network who you think may find it useful.

Planning for 2020

If you would like some help with planning any aspect of your programme and exploring how you might add a future focused approach please feel free to contact me at derek@futuremakers.nz.