I am in a particularly unique and supremely fortunate school situation this very moment. Hard to believe, as we are currently in week 10 of Sydney lockdown… but it is time that my school community of teachers have been gifted. Eight weeks ago, my new school was scheduled to open its doors and welcome its foundational group of students. This meant that we would have had one professional development day together as a new staff, before getting straight down to the ‘business of teaching’. Although we have many students pre-enrolled, as they had not stepped foot onto the school grounds for their first official day, they are yet to be ‘ticked off’ as part of the final enrolment process and thus, still belong to their former school for the purposes of home learning.
Although we are yearning to begin with our students, it has provided the unprecedented opportunity for the whole staff to be intensely involved in meaningful team building activities, discussions and shared development of our school culture, as well as professional development centred around project-based learning, technology and collaborative teaching practices.
The design of the school is supremely modern. Our classrooms are inspired contemporary learning hubs that can fit up to four classes within the space and are reflective of Thornburg’s notion of the campfire, the watering hole, the campfire and life. The library space has also been designed with this modern design idea in mind. My school is unlike any other I have experienced (as a teacher or student).
The learnings and reflections from Module 4 of the ETL401: Introduction to Teacher Librarianship subject about various inquiry learning models, 21st century learning, as well as a focus on the importance of collaborative practices has me feeling very excited about the foreseeable future. While many of my librarianship course colleagues are currently pondering how to get their principals and classroom teacher counterparts ‘on-board’ with these notions, I am feeling so supremely lucky that I am part of school community that is actively establishing and embedding these future-forward practices and pedagogies right from the beginning! What a tremendously exciting time!