Curiosity Matters!
Curiosity Matters! How might teachers enable students to develop the habit of enquiry and to embed a spirit of curiosity?
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“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit” ― E.E. Cummings
There is little doubt that curiosity matters. How can educators sustain and enhance curiosity? How can we teach students to be curious? In this workshop, Michelle will share her own journey working through her puzzle of practice: How might I assist students develop the spirit of curiosity? Participants will discuss and engage in thinking routines and strategies that can be used to assist develop and sustain students' curiosity.
Presenter: Michelle Caruso - North Ryde Public School
Bio: Michelle is a dedicated and passionate Primary Teacher and Assistant Principal who has a strong vision that curiosity is an achievable goal for all students. Last year Michelle embarked on a journey with a team of teachers that looked at a ‘Puzzle of Practice’ around facilitating curious learners. As an educator she values the important goal of enabling students to develop the habit of enquiry and to embed a spirit of curiosity.
Code: WS1
Discovering and Sharing Stories of the Past
Discovering and Sharing Stories of the Past: How might we make historical inquiry engaging and accessible for our learners?
Goal: Participants will gain an insight into the experience of one school that is in the early chapters of its ‘culture of thinking’ story. They will understand that “for classrooms to be cultures of thinking for students, schools must be cultures of thinking for teachers.” They will leave with a better understanding of their own school’s story
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‘In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.’
Charles Darwin
This workshop offers a taste of how thinking routines and protocols can be employed amongst colleagues to foster collaboration in service of inspiring fresh ideas into teaching and learning programs. It proposes a model for differentiation that allows teachers to cater for the needs of learners within the classroom and scaffold student learning through the provision of targeted, frequent, timely and effective feedback opportunities.
Presenters:Erin Taggart - North Ryde Public School
Bio: Erin is passionate about driving and delivering future focused education directed at engagement and deep understanding, as well as equipping students with the skills and dispositions to work collaboratively in service of becoming effective problem solvers and change agents. Her vision is to build teacher and student capacity to thrive in dynamic, global environments.
Code: WS2
Slow Looking
Slow Looking: How taking the time to observe more than first meets the eye leads to deeper understanding and greater engagement.
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‘When people look slowly at things for themselves, they tend to grasp complexities and make connections in a way that no amount of expert information can convey’ - Shari Tishman.
Slow looking can be defined as taking the time to observe carefully more than meets the eye at first glance. In this workshop, Simon draws on the work of Shari Tishman from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and takes a practical look at how educators use strategies to foster slow looking, including categories to guide the eye, open inventories, scale and scope, and juxtaposition. Whether in Kindergarten or Year 12, Maths, English, Science or any other discipline, slow looking helps learners come to discern the multiple ways in which things are complex and uncover the intricacies of stimulus materials, objects, systems and relationships. When educators deploy approaches to help learners look slowly at the world around them, they build a culture where noticing and appreciating complexity is at the heart of how learning gets done.
Presenters:Simon Brooks - Simon Brooks Education
Bio: Simon works with educators around the world interested in building vibrant school cultures, where children delight in their learning and develop deep understanding through the process of becoming critical and creative thinkers. For many years, Simon was Director of Teaching and Learning at Masada College in Sydney, where he developed close connections with the Project Zero team at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Simon is the recipient of the UNSW Dean's Educational Leadership Award, and in 2014 was honoured to become a fellow of the Project Zero Institute at HGSE.
Code: WS3
Starting Strong
Starting Strong: How might we look differently at students, schooling and standards via The Descriptive Review of a Child Protocol?
Description: Do you want to learn how to know a student better, and as a result of that knowledge, better meet the student’s academic, social, or physical needs? Are you interested in delving deeply into practices, gaining different perspectives, examining assumptions, and building trust? Protocols, or structured conversations, have gained enormous popularity in schools around the world as essential tools for guiding professional conversation. This workshop offers an introduction to The Descriptive Review of a Child, a process for reflecting on students and their work. The primary aim of the Descriptive Review is to recognise and specify a particular child’s strengths as a person, learner, and thinker, so that the school can respond to and build upon those capacities.
Presenters: Cameron Paterson & Sarah Hill - SHORE
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Cameron is responsible for the strategic leadership of learning and teaching, innovation, and promoting excellence in teaching practice at SHORE in North Sydney. He taught in the teacher education program at Harvard in 2010-2011, he is on the faculty at Harvard’s annual Project Zero Classroom and he is a Project Zero online coach.
Sarah has a degree in Special Education from Penn State University in the United States. She is currently a learning support teacher at Shore and is an inclusion advocate for all learners.
Code: WS4
So what are these Thinking Routines anyway?
So what are these Thinking Routines anyway? A beginners’ guide to using Thinking Routines to foster engaged thinkers and learners.
Description: In this is a practical workshop participants will focus on Thinking Routines - simple, content-free scaffolds for exploring ideas. Participants will explore Thinking Routines that introduce, explore, synthesise, organise and dig deeper. Through the routines themselves participants will have the opportunity to discuss ways these can be incorporated into their teaching, used for assessment and uncover what is happening in their students’ minds.
Presenters:Helen Maynard - Emanuel School
Bio: Helen Maynard is the Director of Studies, K-6 at Emanuel School and has been at the forefront of developing the school's Thinking Culture for a number of years. Helen is a passionate advocate of making thinking visible and facilitating professional learning communities that foster change that deepens both staff and student thinking.
Code: WS5
Teaching for Understanding with Universal Design for Learning
Maximising the benefits of Universal Design for Learning with Teaching for Understanding
Description: This workshop will explore the practical application of Universal Design for Learning strategies for differentiation in combination with Teaching for Understanding. Participants will develop BIG understanding goals, consider what success with these will look like and explore how Universal Design for Learning can allow them to minimise and even remove barriers to learning. Participants will develop an understanding of the Universal Design for Learning guidelines and build confidence in applying these to their planning process. They will see how Teaching for Understanding allows teachers to establish clear and life-worthy goals for their learners.
Presenters: Nigel Coutts - Redlands
Bio: Nigel is Dean of Teaching & Learning P-6 at Redlands. He is a cultivator of thinking, creativity, deep understanding and a love of lifelong learning.
Code: WS6
t’s all about the routines! Let’s think some more..
It’s all about the routines! Let’s think some more.. How might we leverage the 8 cultural forces to promote deeper thinking and learning?
Description: Often when we think about good teaching and learning with consider programming and instructional design. But is it more than that? How can we create a culture of thinking and learning? How do we shape and mould it so that it supports students’ development as thinkers and learners and promote deep understanding? In this interactive session, Ryan will move beyond the thinking routines and help participants unpack the additional cultural forces such as expectations, language, modeling, time, opportunities, interactions and environment. Using these as the levers of transformation, we will focus on ways in which we can deepen the culture within our classrooms, enriching our use of thinking routines.
Presenters: Ryan Gill - Masada College
Bio: A passion for everything teaching and learning with a focus on critical and creative thinking. Having taught and held leadership positions in the UK and Australia and a founding member of the Project Zero Sydney Network, my current role has developed to focus on the pedagogies and practices of teaching and learning, actively promoting a learning environment in which collective and individual thinking is valued, visible and actively promoted.
Code: WS7
Learning to Reflect, Reflecting to Learn
Learning to Reflect, Reflecting to Learn
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We do not learn from experience...we learn from reflecting on experience. - John Dewey
Are we providing enough opportunities for the students we teach to reflect upon their learning? How can we encourage them to not only think about what they have learned but how they learned it? To engage in deep and meaningful learning, students must be given the time and opportunity to think deeply, challenge ideas and acknowledge that setbacks and failures are part of the learning process. One of the key ways that this authentic rich learning can become part of classroom culture is through reflection. Practical approaches to documenting student reflection will be shared as a way to not only make student learning more visible but to also help learners develop the disposition to reflect and learn from their experiences.
Presenters: Carla Gagliano - Masada College
Bio: A K-6 educator, Carla Gagliano is passionate about teaching for understanding and helping her students to become critical and creative thinkers. In her current role, in addition to inspiring the learners in her class, she has the opportunity to work alongside colleagues to continue developing a culture where individual and collective thinking is valued and promoted.
Code: WS8
Becoming
creative thinkers who make connections between learning and life?
How might I help my students become creative thinkers who make connections between learning and life?
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Building a culture in which students think deeply about their learning involves helping them see how their learning relates to real world applications. As Ron Ritchhart writes, if students are to find worth in their learning it is important for ‘the teacher to place the activity within the context of a larger goal or enterprise that matters’ (Ritchhart, 2015, p.165). If students are to go beyond memorising to developing understanding of complex ideas, it is helpful for them to explore and apply them in the context of the world around them. How do we make the time for thus? What would it be like if we made the time to look deeply into ideas raised by learners during class discussions, even if we ‘don’t have the time’ to do so? If we don’t give students the opportunity to wonder, then they’re just passengers… let them fly the plane, and see the learning that happens.
Presenters: Craig Verbruggen -Bishop Druitt College
Bio: Craig is the Director of Learning and Teaching at Bishop Druitt College, Coffs Harbour. Previously, he was Head of Mathematics and eLearning Coordinator at the same school. Craig has a passion for integrating technology into learning, mathematics, physics and engineering. He has run workshops on peer instruction, digital citizenship and data, and has fallen in love with cultures of thinking pedagogy.
Code: WS9
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Presenters: April Taylor - MET School
Code: WS10
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Presenters: Natasha Mercer & Claire Cartwright - St Ives High School
Code: WS11
Stoking the Fires
Stoking the Fires: How might teachers help students become curious young people in service of developing deeper understanding and greater engagement?
Goal: Participants will understand that curiosity is more than a character trait that students either 'have' or 'don't have', but rather that it is a disposition which we as teachers can nurture. They will understand how by drawing on the Seven-Point Learning Arc and creating opportunities for being curious they might grow learners with this disposition, and how this could benefit their learning and engagement.
Description: What role does curiosity have to play in developing cultures of thinking? Are some children more curious than others? Can we help children develop the disposition to be curious? And what might be some of the pay-offs if we can? In this interactive workshop, Simon will introduce participants to the theory of the Seven-Point Learning Arc, a practical framework teachers might use when fting learning opportunities for students which are rich with meaningful inquiry and perceived worth. Simon will draw on examples from a variety of different faculty areas and age-ranges, exploring several practical strategies that teachers might employ to ignite students' curiosity, leading to deeper understanding, greater engagement, and ultimately to the growth of curious-minded young people.
‘Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why’ – Bernard Baruch
Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Simon Brooks - Simon Brooks Education
Code: WS12
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Presenters: Dan Ryan - Meridian School
Code: WS13
Can You Speak Boy?
Can You Speak Boy? Teaching in a Boys’ School Creating and Promoting a Culture of Classroom Engagement
Goal: By the end of the workshop participants will be able understand and answer the following based on their own context:
Guiding Questions:
- How can our understanding about boys’ research, enable us to harness the eight cultural forces to create meaningful opportunities to facilitate learning and engagement?
- As activators of learning, what practices do we do each day to engage our boys in the classroom to create a culture of engagement?
- Which tools can we use to assist our boys to make their thinking and understanding of the world around them visible and promote a culture of engagement?
- What messages are we sending about what it means to be a learner in our classroom?
Description: As female leaders, girl is our first language, but why is it important that we learn to speak boy? How does an understanding of research into boys’ education guide our classroom practice, and student outcomes?
This interactive workshop will outline how to maximise the engagement of boys in the classroom using the research based Cultures of Thinking philosophy (Project Zero, Harvard), in particular the Eight Cultural Forces, various visible Thinking Routines and protocols.
- As female leaders, girl is our first language but why is it important that we learn to speak boy? What does the research tell us?
- As activators of learning, what practices (cultural forces) do we do each day to engage our boys in the classroom to provide meaningful learning opportunities?
- Which tools (thinking routines and protocols) can we use to assist our boys to make their thinking and understanding of the world around them visible and promote a culture of engagement?
Audience: Female teachers in boys school - All welcome ... including men!
Presenters: Kylie Bowra - St Augustine's College Sydney
Code: WS14
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Presenters: Jacqui Galvin - Kildare Catholic College
Code: WS15
So what are these Thinking Routines anyway?
So what are these Thinking Routines anyway? A beginners guide to using Thinking Routines to foster engaged thinkers and learners.
Goal: Participants will understand how utilising Thinking Routines can
- lead to deeper learning, more thoughtful and engaged students
- foster students intellectual development
- encourage greater motivation
- cultivate the dispositional side of thinking
- encourage a Growth Mindset
Description: In this is a practical workshop participants will focus on Thinking Routines - simple protocols for exploring ideas. Participants will explore Thinking Routines that introduce, explore, synthesise, organise and dig deeper. Through the routines themselves participants will have the opportunity to discuss ways these can be incorporated into their teaching, used for assessment and uncover what is happening in their students minds.
Audience: Primary
Presenters: Helen Maynard - Emanuel School
Code: WS16
How to create a Culture of Thinking
How to create a Culture of Thinking in a classroom, the impact it has on students and teachers without adding to an already time poor workload.
Goal: Cultures of Thinking can be integrated into any subject or classroom without adding a lot of extra work to an already overloaded time schedule. By explaining the journey Wendy has gone through, she aims to show that embracing a Culture of Thinking does not have to add extra time or planning. Just a change in how teaching happens which leads to great results.
Description: Looking at different Thinking Routines and how a change in language and methods of teaching has created a culture of thinking for both students and teacher. A practical session showcasing examples of Thinking Routines and 8 Cultures of Thinking. Discussions and questions will be encouraged to help teachers gain an insight into what they can do to aid their students.
Audience: Primary
Presenters: Wendy Williams - North Ryde Public School
Code: WS17
Language, interactions and time in Science
How might I use the cultural forces of language, interactions and time to help my students work scientifically rather than do science?
Goal: See - Think - Wonder? This is science! From drawings of the moon, models of DNA, sketches of cells, science is our fascination and portrayal of the world around us. Can a picture tell a thousand words? How might we encourage students to seek answers through active questioning, genuine curiosity and deep thinking? How might we bring students to experience 'Aha!' moments through their own observations? With a focus on three of the cultural forces, this workshop will allow collaboration and provide suggestions from successful classroom practice to walk away with examples of and the skills to identify images that hold the essence of science topics.
Description: To have students work as true scientists is not only important to foster enthusiasm but also necessary for the advancement of society. Participants will be given the opportunity to experience lessons exemplifying the use of See-Think-Wonder and the cultural forces of language, interactions and time in a science context. Techniques for questioning in ways that foster deep thinking will be explored. Helping students discover that not knowing the answer is essential to scientific genius, will also be discussed. Examples will be given during the workshop and time will be allocated for collaboration of ideas to develop a bank of images on a shared file that can be used for various units. Units can be those taught regularly or those which are difficult to teach. Participants are encouraged to make suggestions on the day of topics they would like to adopt See-Think-Wonder Routines into. The presenter has experience in all stages and branches of science, a background in mathematics and a passion for teaching. In this workshop you will have the chance to enjoy discovering, share your stories, walk away with usable resources and foster teaching practices that align with the philosophies of Cultures of Thinking to generate opportunities that nurture genuinely deep thinkers.
Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Jenny Stephens - MET School
Code: WS18
Becoming Agentic Thinkers
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Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Nigel Coutts - Redlands
Code: WS19
Building a culture of thinking for us and our students.
Building a culture of thinking for us and our students.
Goal: Participants will begin to reflect upon and consider the impact that the 8 cultural forces can have on student learning and will have time to consider the messages that their students are getting about learning from their surroundings. Participants will leave with a range of practical approaches, having explored a number of thinking routines, to help create a thought-FULL learning environment for all learners.
Description: A culture of thinking is a learning environment which values independent thinking, awareness of how thinking happens and deeper understanding of what we are learning. So, how can we create classrooms where students are given opportunities to develop the disposition to think while also supporting them to see the value of thinking for themselves?
In this practical introductory workshop, we will uncover the 8 cultural forces that shape any learning environment and examine how they might be leveraged in a way that helps students to develop mindsets which are curious, reflective and critical while encouraging them to become alert to thinking and learning opportunities, and eager to take them.
Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Carla Gagliano - Masada College
Code: WS20
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Presenters: Ruqqiya Dean - Pymble Ladies' College
Code: WS21
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Presenters: Jesse Wright - Oakwood School
Code: WS22
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Presenters: Yvonne Garcia (Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School) & Tanya Davies (Ku-ring-gai High School)
Code: WS23
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Presenters: Tammy_Anne Caldwell - Woodthorpe School
Code: WS24
Putting Students in the Driving Seat
Putting Students in the Driving Seat: What would it be like if my students were the driving force behind their education and assessment?
Goal: Participants will come to understand that using an inquiry model which prioritises and gives time to thinking, students can uncover the curriculum for themselves and develop meaningful ways of demonstrating this through negotiated assessments. They will understand that it is through thinking that learning occurs and therefore see how giving students permission to 'drive' teachers can create opportunities for deeper and more fulfilling learning opportunities for all students.
Description: Too often on the education road trip teachers are given the role of driver and navigator- carefully taking the main highway to a known destination of 'understanding' with student passengers along for the ride. But what if we as teachers relinquished the keys and let the students direct us to that same destination?
In this interactive workshop Alice will share her experience of how she put her students in the driving seat by using an inquiry model prioritising thinking and allowing students to assist in shaping the teaching program and negotiating assessment while still meeting the content demands of the Australian Curriculum.
Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Alice Clement - Woodthorpe School
Code: WS25
The Heart of Collaboration
The Heart of Collaboration - How might unlocking the DNA of collaboration bring life to the classroom and transform minds?
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What do we need to really know about collaboration in order for it to work in our classrooms? What assumptions must be shed? What conflations must be disentangled? Most importantly, what is possible? This workshop, through both experiential and reflective learning, will enable participants to:
- Consider how we can define and model collaboration for students.
- Experience practices and philosophies that are required to make collaboration an effective agent for transformation.
- Question how students may use collaboration to 'cultivate the mind' of their peer, and, how to open themselves up to 'be cultivated'.
Participants will be given time to wonder and to create their own collaborative task.
Description: The Heart of Collaboration: Collaboration, at its best, is transformative. As Vera John-Steiner puts it, collaboration is "an affair of the mind." The experience of thinking, connecting and evolving together is the marrow of deep learning. The true DNA of collaboration contains a dynamism that, when evocatively harnessed, allows for cultivation of minds. Activating collaboration within a classroom is contingent on designing tasks and experiences that draw on this DNA. Once we transcend group work, and fully embrace the interpersonal, interpersonal and cognitive potential of true collaboration, we can create a wondrous culture of transformation.
- What is the DNA of true collaboration? Literally, what is the simple, explicit and pragmatic schemata that generates collaboration? (Cultural Force: Language)
- How can the practices and philosophies of collaboration generate a culture of transformation through cultivation? (Cultural Force: Routines and Structures)
- What if the most valued outcome was a students ability to use collaboration to 'cultivate' and 'be cultivated'? (Cultural Force: Expectations)
Audience: Primary & Secondary
Presenters: Margo Bowen - Turramurra High School
Code: WS26
To boldly think where no one has thought before
To boldly think where no one has thought before - An Innovative Design Project for Primary and Junior Secondary
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Presenters: Alannah Nastase, Shireen Winrow & Friends - Redlands
Code: WS27
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Presenters: Peter Mahony - Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences
Code: WS28
Thinking and Creativity in the Mathematics Classroom
Thinking and Creativity in the Mathematics Classroom
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Audience: Primary and Lower Secondary
Presenters: Amber Bidwell, Melanie Cleary, Catriona Ling & Karen Pittard - Redlands
Code: WS29
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Presenters: Rhonda Kaidbay - Ryde Secondary College
Code: WS30
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Code: WS31
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Code: WS32
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Code: WS33
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Code: WS34