How Might We share our schools' strengths so that others might benefit?

And by we, I mean the "royal we"; I'm talking about your school, my school and schools throughout our community? How might we harness each school's strengths, their point of difference if you like, and share their collective expertise so that rather than competing against each other, we are all benefitting for the greater good, ensuring quality learning for our children?

Think about it; what makes you proud to work at your current school? What things is your school doing really well? Every school has its unique culture, the things that are really important to them, the things that give a school its special flavour. Is it a wonderful kapa haka programme, exceptional pastoral care, a Dance Academy or a highly innovative mathematics programme? What is it that makes you proud of your school? Maybe there is one area where your place is a shining light for other schools; perhaps there are a number of areas your school is focusing on? What do others in the wider community perceive to be your school's strengths? What are you known for?

 Schools are by definition places where we grow talents. Our purpose is to help our learners thrive and we work hard to help every learner on our roll be the best version of themselves. But what about our duty to other schools in our communities? Do schools have a moral obligation to support each other, sharing strengths and encouraging growth? I'm not sure of the answer to this; after all ensuring our own schools are thriving is a big ask, let alone supporting others. Having said that, I have seen many times in recent years the power sharing between schools can have.

Social Media has enabled us to share and collaborate in ways we could not have imagined 10 or 15 years ago. But what about face to face? Is a reliance on social media, subconsciously excluding members of our school communities? How can we reach these people? Is there still room for doing things "old school" and sharing face to face?

I am fortunate to be one of the Te Kahui Cluster Digital Leaders here in Christchurch, lead by the incredible Cheryl Doig and Donna Frame. This experience has been inspiring and has convinced me of the incredible power collaborating in a cluster can have. I am surprised to learn that clusters are not prevalent throughout New Zealand.

I am unsure of the "history" of clusters here in Christchurch and a google search is not shining any light on this. I suspect they were a structure put in place to provide support to schools when they were suffering post-earthquakes. Belonging to your designated cluster is optional and each cluster has its own unique make-up depending on the types of school in the area. The direction the cluster takes is determined by the members of the group depending on the needs of the schools in the area. Our Digital Leaders group is currently organising a Digital Citizenship Evening for parents in our area while another Christchurch cluster recently held an unconference which was highly successful judging by the twitter feed!

I'd love to see more visits to each others' schools. School visits are so powerful and benefit both the visitors and the hosts as we see our school through fresh eyes. Taking a whole staff to a neighbouring school during a school day is obviously a logistical nightmare but why not an after school shared afternoon tea complete with a smackdown or perhaps some eduignite talks from volunteers from both schools? After all, its highly likely that both schools are facing similar challenges.

I'm not a school leader so perhaps this entire blogpost shows my naivety around issues of schools collaborating rather than competing but it seems to me the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.  

So how does your school collaborate and share its strengths with other schools in your area?  

A Beautiful Mash-Up

On Friday, 250 Year 5-8 students, their teachers and more than 20 mentors from the technology industry experienced the magic than can happen when education and industry work together.

The first ever Christchurch Mash Up for primary schools was initiated by Michael, Tim and Bryn from Code Club Aotearoa and many other parties with an interest in getting young people into technology and design thinking. These included Bridget and Carl from the FabLab, Caitlin Duncan from UC and a huge number of a volunteers from technology firms around Christchurch. The format was based on the highly successful High School Mash up held last year at the EPIC Hub.

250 students filled the Selwyn House Atrium

What is a Mash Up you might well be wondering?

Well, I'm still not entirely sure of the strict definition myself(which is probably slightly alarming given that I played a small role in helping to organise the event!) but one thing I know for sure is that this Mash Up event provided rich, authentic, highly engaging, real world learning experiences for the 250 students lucky enough to be there.

The challenge was to work in teams of 5-8 students to identify real world problems, gradually whittling down their list to one problem that really bugged them. They had to work to find solutions eventually planning and designing their best idea. There were mentors for each team who were industry professionals and there were pods of "pros" such as Bridget and Carl with their 3d printers for prototyping, Bryn with his incredible array of sensors and Esther with her marketing skills so teams could get feedback on their logos, company names and guidance with their pitching.

Bridget McKendry from The Fablab prototyping with teams

There were many steps to the process and the students were learning all sorts of new terms including-

• Ideation
• Market Validation
• Solutioneering
• Curation
• Pitching

This was a very intense and exhilarating three hours and the learners were so engaged from the get-go; the atmosphere was electric! 

One of the many highlights of this event was the arrival of Claudia Batten, kiwi entrepreneur. She had a very powerful message for us all.

"You only fail if you give up. Keep trying." 

What a great message; have a growth mindset. Her message was empowering and inspiring for the young Christchurch learners. 

A highlight for the teachers was being able to leave the students with the mentors to attend a workshop led by Caitlin Duncan from University of Canterbury. Caitlin shared her research findings around primary school children learning to code and Initial Learning Environments such as CodeAcademy and CodeAvengers. It was a great chance for teachers to chat about the computer science in our schools and what our next steps are. 

The afternoon drew to a close with selected teams sharing their pitches with the three judges, followed by a question session a la Dragon's Den. 

Finally, a prize giving. Prizes were then awarded for a range of things including Best Pitch, Best Solution and Best Teamwork with prize money from the Christchurch City Council. 

Cobham Intermediate pitches their virtual pet with emotion sensors

It was an amazing afternoon and I feel grateful to have had a small role working with the industry professionals to bring Code Club Aotearoa's dream to fruition.  I learned lots from working with this amazingly dedicated group of people who want to see young people have the opportunity to join the thriving technology industry. Their belief in the ability of the children of Christchurch to achieve amazing things in such a short period of time was a reminder to me that we should never underestimate young learners. Huge thanks to Michael Trengrove and Tim Hatherley-Greene and also to Bridget McKendry for your unfailing belief in and dedication to New Zealand's young people.  

Amazing things can be achieved when schools work with professionals to solve wicked problems. How can our schools benefit from this model? How can we create more opportunities for education and industry to create magic together? 

Caitlin Duncan talks with teachers about teaching coding at primary school

Here's an article about the event from Stuff.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/67464535/The-squiggly-path-to-tech-success

Out of the Rubble- The Rebuilding of a Community

I'm going to put it out there..........Christchurch teachers are EXHAUSTED.  Really, really exhausted.

Ok, so there's a few Christchurch educators reading this saying,
"Speak for yourself, Bridget! I'm completely and utterly chipper! Teaching is Christchurch is just awesome. I'm full of beans."
But on the whole, most of us are getting by on high doses of iron tablets combined with large and frequent doses of strong coffee.....or something stronger!

It has been an incredible four years in Christchurch. That 4.35am, 7.1 magnitude wake-up call in
 September 2010 and the resulting hideous few years have changed us all irrevocably. The quakes have left such deep and jagged scars on the people of Christchurch that it is sometimes hard to convey that impact in words so I'm not really going to try. You'll have to just take my word for it.....and I know that you wonderful kiwis do. I know that you have supported Christchurch in a way that makes me so proud to be a New Zealander. I still think back to an incredible week we had in Auckland when we escaped Christchurch after the February quake on an Air New Zealand 747 so my husband could work in his firm's Auckland office. We were the lucky ones, able to escape the ongoing aftershocks, the lack of electricity and running water and the overwhelming sorrow that was so thick in our city you could taste it. I know how lucky we were and I'm immensely grateful. I still get a lump in my throat when I think about how my traumatised children were swept up by complete strangers who knew exactly what to say and do to distract them- the kindness of strangers was such a beautiful and moving thing. It helped us to be brave enough to pull ourselves together to return home with the resolve to stay here and help rebuild our precious city from the ground up.

But things were tough, especially in schools. Our students had been through things that no child should have to experience; they were frightened. Just leaving their parents on that first day back at school was something I will never forget. It was TOUGH. Teachers had to be strong, no matter what. We had to ensure that we provided the safest environment we could but it was hard to be positive when we'd lost homes and friends and for many Christchurch teachers, family members. It was hard to keep smiling when you were sharing portaloos in the playground with your students. (By the way, I recommend not being in a portaloo during an aftershock if you can avoid it!)

The girls wanted to hang messages of love on the school fence on our first day at school after the quake. 

We were living in broken homes with wonky floors and cracked windows. Many of my colleagues had their homes demolished or red-zoned and had to find new homes in a saturated and over-priced rental market. We were fighting with EQC and insurers and finding out our land was damaged and labelled TC3 which is earthquake speak for, "You've just lost 50% of the value of your home because who's going to want to buy it now?"

Then came the killer blow for schools- the announcement that the Government was looking to close or merge up to 31 schools in Christchurch. I still remember the overwhelming horror I felt when news of these possible closures broke. Schools had been the backbones of their communities since the quakes. Teachers had provided safe havens in the midst of tragedy and devastation.  Deep down, the Christchurch education community knew that change would have to come at some stage, but after so much tumultuous change in Christchurch in such a short space of time, this was a step too far, too soon for many broken communities.

But as you probably know if you're reading this, we teachers are a dedicated and resilient bunch, aren't we? We box on for the sake of our students; we want the best for them........ and so, Christchurch teachers put their heads down and continued to do their very best in the most trying of circumstances.

But the thing about resilience is its tiring! Exhausting even. And trying to be resilient all on your own is even more exhausting!

Enter the wonder of the PLN- or Personal Learning Network. Some time in that most hideous of years, 2011, I did something that has changed my life as an educator more than I could have imagined; I joined Twitter. My PLN don't know this but at times when teaching has been really hard work, they've inspired me and I know many other Christchurch teachers who feel this way. The power of belonging to a network of educators who support one another is something I can't rave about enough.

Last night was the Christchurch Eduignite; a fantastic night. It was attended by a small but incredibly passionate bunch of educators who are aware of the need for Christchurch teachers to come together to inspire each other and affirm the amazing work that is happening in our schools. Later, over a cheeky shiraz, a new hashtag was born; #chched. We hope that Canterbury teachers will join the conversation, connecting and supporting and affirming and perhaps most importantly, having a much-needed laugh. A huge thank you to Pauline Henderson and Aimee Sibson for being the impetus behind this rebuilding of Christchurch's teacher community.

There is so much incredible stuff going on in the Christchurch education community. To any Christchurch teachers reading this, I think you're awesome! And I hope to get to know you better on #chched. See you there!

Right! Off to take my iron pill.........