What does success look like?


What does success look like? Is it getting an NCEA Level 3 and a UE so mum and dad can say that their kids are a success and can go on to uni?  What about Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft), Steve Jobs (founder of Apple, NeXT Computer and Pixar, an instrumental force in shaping the landscape of modern culture), who both dropped out of uni but went on to be a massive success? Do you have to have success on such a grand scale?

Is it because parents (and teachers) don’t understand the internet or the online world that our students have been born into… this is their world and we are still scared of them getting lost in it. 

My own kids already know how to do more creative and incredible things on the internet, using video editing and app software that I feel embarrassed saying that I am the teacher!  Imagine how clued up they will be when they get to high school!

Will teachers still be judging students on how well they can remember things they could easily lookup on the internet? Or will we have moved on to explore ways they can apply knowledge, using their individual strengths and design their own programs around their personal passions and abilities, creating real-life experiences and learning?  Will they have agency over their learning?  Will we be tracking and facilitating through our online tools, so that learning doesn’t just happen between 9-3pm? I love that we are being challenged to rethink what we have always done.

This is my favourite article about Agile education and why we should bother.  I think Steve Peha has some fantastic ideas and he has inspired me to truly take this to the next level through my inquiry.  For the first time in forever, I feel motivated to make massive, systemic change….. Just thinking... where to start! https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-schools-education/ Even the title of his article is fantastic! Agile Schools: How Technology Saves Education (Just Not The Way We Thought It Would).

This website rocked by thinking and has heaps of awesome resources that are practical and easy to adapt. http://theagileschool.blogspot.com/

Student Agency empowers students to influence their own path to mastery. By encouraging students to take initiative, you enhance their ability to take control and increase motivation. https://www.renaissance.com/edwords/student-agency/

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