Transformational Teaching

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Transformational Teaching
U-Learn October 2008 Tony Ryan
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Some roles for the Transformational Teacher

• The Energiser
• The Ethicist
• The Entrepreneur
• The Environmentalist

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New paradigms of life and learning

• Lifespan is extending (for the white Western
  world) - 55 to 78 years in the past century
• An increasingly electronic environment
• The Zeitgeist of lifelong learning
• Significant financial reframings over the next
  few years

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We Need A Transformational Humanity

• The next 8 years are the most critical in human
  history
• We will need people who are solution-focused
• We will need people with a very different kind of
  mind - creative, inspiring, compassionate
• We will need people who believe they can make a
  difference!

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• Although its important, the key question is not
  What do we need to teach?
• The key question is Who do we need to be?

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THE ENERGISER We need hot personalities
because...

• The skillset required for consistently engaging
  students (onclass or online) is hugely complex
• Teachers are the single most critical influence
  on student success in learning
• Teachers strongly influence family and
  community values / attitudes
• Schools create the future

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Thinking patterns that create energy??

• Your thinking is a critical influence on your
  physical / emotional / spiritual energy
• Teaching is a mirror - your attitude is reflected
  back to you
• Regulate your self-talk (and show students how to
  do this)
• Consult with your Self

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Your own energy

• When and how do you get energy from teaching?
• What are your real reasons for being involved
  with education?
• How consistently do you engage in positive
  dialogue about education (100, 90, 80 of the
  time)?
• How do you consciously generate your own energy?

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THE ETHICIST Factors that have created an ethics
focus in education??

• 1. Societal / political responses to some Net Gen
  children (and their parents) eg how to respond to
  rights cf responsibilities
• 2. Increasing focus on emotional intelligence
• 3. Virtual environments (avatars contract
  cheating) that test the limits of human values...?

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Z Gen (0 to 15??)

• Life expectancy of 120
• Smaller families (or even a single spoilt child)
• Cocooned due to safety factors
• Twitch thinking speed with consistent online use
• High consumption patterns - their bedroom
  material weighs approx 20 times that of a 1958
  bedrooms material
• A new silent generation - a revisit to pre-Baby
  Boomers

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Some key values for education??

• 1. Care and Compassion
• 2. Doing your best
• 3. Honesty and Trustworthiness
• 4. Integrity
• 5. Respect
• 6. Responsibility
• 7. Tolerance

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Practical applications

• Explicitly clarify and promote the values that
  underpin your school and classroom/s
• Build these values into your unit planning
• Implement one extra-curricular ethical program
  per term
• Engage students in dialogue processes that
  encourage their application of the values

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Academic Controversy

• 1. Form into teams of 4, and appoint two yes
  and two no representatives
• 2. The statement is Every human being must be
  respected and tolerated, without exception.
• 3. In your pairs, brainstorm all of the arguments
  that support your side.

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• 4. Present your arguments to the other pair
• 5. Now change sides, and present the other
  perspective
• 6. Drop the yes and no, and determine your
  groups final response to the topic
• 7. Mark your groups final decision on a Yes / No
  line, and justify your stance to others

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THE ENTREPRENEUR Attracting them to teaching

• Develop similar practices to the best-practice
  companies when attracting the most innovative
  graduates eg
• Wireless access anywhere anytime
• Money???!
• Demonstrated ethical values-driven environmental
  / global stances
• Uncompromising focus on personal / professional
  learning opportunities and fast-tracking of
  career (including travel opportunities)

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Some perspectives on innovation

• The rise and rise of creativity
• Educational Intrapreneurs??
• New thinking on learning delivery eg Innovators
  who provide online and offline learning to a
  community / business groups
• The promotion of innovative classroom practice!!

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Digital Literacies??

• 20th C - Behaviourist / Constructivist /
  Cognitivist?
• 21st C - Constructivist / meta-cognitivist /
  Connectivist?
• All of the Es E-Learning? e-Curriculum?
  e-Pedagogy? e-Assessment? e-Reporting?
• How does an Academic Controversy process or a
  PMI work with a handheld device on a wired campus
  in a 24-hr learning environment?

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Intellectually rigorous digital assessment tasks

• A blog for exploring your own thinking?
• A YouTube video that will score five million
  hits?
• A piece of music that will be created by 200
  children from 20 cultures?
• A website that will alter global consciousness

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Intrapreneurial solution-finding at the personal
/ community / global level

• 1. Do your research
• 2. Work out the real issue / problem
• 3. Brainstorm solutions
• 4. Choose one (or several) solution(s)
• 5. Put it into action

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The Environmentalist

• A rebalancing of standard of living, with
  quality of life
• A profound awareness of ones contribution to
  the Common Good - applying the ripple effect
• Sustainable practices in personal and
  professional life - moving beyond being a
  greenie
• The microcosm of your classroom The macrocosm
  of your planet

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Practical options

• The 10 rule
• Implement the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)
• Live a carbon-neutral life
• Become a carbon-neutral school
• Include an enviro-focus in every study

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Some support addresses

• tonyryan.edublogs.org
• tonyryan.com.au
• plotpd.com
• ted.com

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Professional coaching

• 1. What three ideas / concepts most appealed to
  you from this session?
• 2. What could you put into action?
• 3. What will you put into action?
• 4. Whats the 1st step?
• 5. How will you keep it going?

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Final Points

• How really will you apply your U-Learn-ings in
  Term 4?
• tonyryan_at_headfirst.com.au
• Teaching is the critical profession. And what YOU
  do counts!