He manako te koura i kore ai.
Crayfish are scarce when they are expected. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.
The whakatauki above is pertinent to the on-going journey, both now and more importantly into the unforeseen future…
If we are to be truly responsive to the learners arriving at Hobsonville Point Secondary School next year, then we do need systems and structures in place. However, there needs to be flexibilty to allow for responsiveness that is required to actually place the learner at the centre. Therefore, there is planning for process, curriculum pathways and exposure and passions to be allowed for. To empower the learners there needs to be some constraints, but also we must allow for the learner to lead the way with our ‘advisors’ guiding along the way. We are being given the opportunity here to do this at Hobsonville Point in a ground breaking way…
With a Senior Leadership Team adamant that we will not be ruled by the institutions that have impeeded (on occasion) forward momentum in regards to true personalisation in Secondary Schools around the country, such as, timetabling constraints, siloed subjects and more… This is huge and we must take this opportunity to make a difference to all learners in a way never attempted before. With this in mind, there is only so far you can plan, before you start to move away from your vision of responsiveness and personalisation. This does create tension with a group of professionals who like to be organised and prepared as the priority must be to WAIT….take a breath, we need student voice on so many levels before we can really create that responsive learning to occur.
So what can we do?
We can focus on the structures that enable personalisation to occur, what does a flexible timetable look like?
How can we best get to know our learners in our advisories and how best can they get to know us?
What type of advisory support do learners need to ensure rigour of learning as well as personalisation?
What type of modelling must we do to ensure we are walking the walk?
How can learners have input into our vision of what “Hobsonville Habits are? In action what do they look like? Sound like? Feel like?
How do we integrate our dispositions “Hobsonville Habits” with our quadrants and gather the evidence required to make a learner profile that responds, adapts and develops overtime so that these are not token focuses or add ons?
What do modules of learning look like when the NZC is hacked down to see the true links and potential of the document in action?
How do our big projects and passion projects structure themselves to ensure that authentic learning and taking action occurs?
So many questions….However, we are getting there, documentation, models, dynamic software that allow for this to occur are all on the way…we are putting the processes, structures, systems, models together that will allow for exposure, rigour and cohesion of learning to occur through truly personalised learning. Well on the way to seeing the vision realised…BUT not counting our chickens before they hatch or the same with the crayfish…to be truly responsive we will wait for our learners, their dreams, their passions and design their learning pathways with them.
sallyhart72 