2.+Philosophy

=** Philosophy  **= ==Much of my working life has not been spent in the field of education. I came to this profession late in life and brought with me my beliefs about education and its place in our world formed from experience as a mother, work in private enterprise and reader of futurist, Peter Ellyard . My educational philosophy is fairly fixed, all students can learn, given the right environment all students will want to learn. The application of my philosophy is dynamic, it is evolving in response to beliefs about the requirements of students from a systemic level, speculation about our student’s world in ten years and the present day world of each individual student in my care. ==

All of us can learn, and I emphatically believe we want to learn. We just need to push the right buttons to engage all learners. We learn best when there is a clear purpose, goal and motivation. My educational philosophy is that simple. We can learn, we want to learn, we will learn and we have the responsibility to teach in a manner that best facilitates learning for all styles of learner. Engagement is a critical part of the teaching / learning relationship, to engage is to connect and establish an <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">interest, a spark of curiosity and the means by which connections will be made between learning and a life. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Education is so much more than the imparting of facts and knowledge. Today education is about providing a <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">platform by which an individual is empowered to participate meaningfully and purposefully in their world. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">The essential elements of my philosophy are; students learning, teaching, professional learning, faith in me and my place in an <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">effective learning community. __<span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Effective Learning Communities. __ <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Elmore espoused that the most powerful professional learning occurred within the walls of the school. To this end I believe it is <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">important to establish a professional culture in which teachers can share and observe best practice, evaluate their own practice <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">and modify practice to produce the best possible learning outcomes for our students. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt; color: #404040; font-family: Constantia; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Constantia; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> __<span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Professional Learning, Faith and the Future __ <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Recent research is changing our beliefs about learning as rapidly as technology is changing our methods of learning and teaching. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Students will need highly developed interpersonal and communication skills to maximise opportunities in their future. <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Preparing students for their future, resilient, assertive, street wise, able to communicate, willing to take educated risks and <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">confident requires faith. These are not things that I can measure or observe at some stage in the future. I coach students to <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; color: #404040; font-family: Calibri; language: en-AU; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">develop these skills and attributes without ever knowing how effective my teaching is, but I have faith.