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Staff Conference: Connecting Learning To Life

Today’s staff conference explored the theme, Connecting Learning To Life. It is also the College’s learning theme for the year.The day began with a fascinating guest speaker, Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie. The topic of her presentation was Future Humans. Dr Raynes-Goldie is a lecturer in Internet Studies at Curtin University.In 15 years’ time, 40% of Australian jobs will be lost to automation. The world of work is changing so quickly that it is hard for our girls to envision their work future. Raynes-Goldie made the salient point that we can’t teach kids to compete with machines. We need to teach them to be good at what computers can’t do well:

  • Creativity and imagination
  • Critical thinking
  • Empathy and emotional intelligence
  • Vision, strategy and entrepreneurship

In achieving these outcomes, Dr Raynes-Goldie encouraged teachers to use both online and offline play. She referred to play as ‘the magic circle’. It teaches:

  • Experimentation
  • Curiosity
  • Thinking by doing
  • Being in the flow
  • Failing forward
  • Fearlessness

Many other interesting ideas were presented and, judging by the chatter at morning tea, teachers were left intrigued and enthused.The second session of the day was devoted to professional reading about future skills and education. Teachers were given time to read and reflect on interesting research papers about learning. They then reported back to the whole staff with their own understandings and opinions on the research.Finally, the afternoon was devoted to working in learning areas, where teachers could discuss strategies and processes that would best serve their subject areas. Effectively, they were putting into place their learnings from the day to enhance the already amazing work they are doing in the classroom with our girls.

What A Term! So Many Opportunities – Jennifer Oaten

As I look back on the past nine weeks, I am so grateful for who we are as a community and what we have achieved. Through the dedication of our staff and the enthusiasm of our students, we have established new connections, immersed ourselves in opportunities and worked through challenges.

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