• Next step- what does the research say?

I asked for staff to volunteer not only themselves but also their students for the innovation project. I have set up my classroom with mixed-year levels and mixed-ability students to demonstrate how it would work.

Staff shortages!- Being able to lead staff in PL when we don't have enough staff to even cover our classes has been incredibly difficult. The reality being that we need protected time, but in the end our students are in the centre and our classes must be covered.

This was the moment that I realised I had integrated my ITC into my writing innovation .

This first doc allowed the student to test out different language and add their own "pivot"

However, the most insightful feedback was from some of my students.

Personally, I have always had a passion for learning and this stems from one thing- curiosity. It’s this spark of curiosity for learning that drives me to continue to investigate new concepts; that then spurs my critical thinking and collaboration with others to create a student-centred learning environment. Then in turn it is when I ignite that spark within a student for learning that it continues to fuel me to do more and learn more for my students.

However, like any solid narrative, it’s not without its twists and turns, unpredictability, and missteps. As a teacher with the learner always squarely in the centre, you are acutely aware that to continue supporting student learning, you must be a reflective learner. Some might say you magnify issues to dive deep and challenge thinking. You must be willing to examine all data and evidence present and, when required, pull apart a tightly wound and intricate piece of knowledge or firmly held belief. This allows us to unlearn unconscious bias, unravel and reconstruct the scaffold or framework, strengthening it to allow for new knowledge and once again changing the direction of my narrative. For me, I welcome new evidence-informed ideas. There is so much power in that paradigm shift, that change in idea that, if crafted correctly, supports new learning for your students.

The year I started teaching, Cathy Freeman won the gold medal in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, A our Prime Minister introduced the GST on our Vegemite jars and globally, there was a collective sigh of relief when, on January 1st at the stroke of midnight, the Y2K millennial bug didn't bring the planes down from the sky. I remember that first day vividly, chalk in hand. For a brief moment, my hand trembled as I realized there was no safety net—I was now the "real" teacher in the room. I took a deep breath, and twenty-five years later (minus the chalk), I'm still here.

Having graduated the year prior, I completed all my placements, assignments, essays, and exams, including tasks such as learning how to create a PowerPoint, which was a new technology at the time. I also had to pass my chalkboard exam, which required an overhead projector-led theme and some well-rehearsed Victorian Cursive Script. These skills prepared us to be modern teachers of the 2000s. Reflecting on this now, some aspects may appear almost comical to our current generation of Millennial and Gen Z teachers. However, it does raise the question: how do we future-proof education? How do we future-proof a profession when we are unable to see what lies ahead and cannot necessarily be guided by what came before us? How do we know what to take with us and what to leave behind? For my own personal learning narrative, the answer came in the form of The Victorian Academy of Teaching and Learning and Leadership.

I am currently a 2023 Fellowship recipient, but my journey began in 2021 when I clicked the TEP link (Teaching Excellence Program). After two years of lockdown, I was filled with curiosity and intrigue, knowing that education post-lockdown would be different—and rightfully so. It was evident to me that coming out of Covid, students, teaching models, and educators within the education ecosystem in Victoria had all undergone a significant shift. While the environment remained familiar, there was a clear paradigm shift that required me to rethink how I approached my pedagogy.

Both the TEP and my Fellowship in the Academy have afforded me access to professional learning from leading Australian and international educational experts it has given me the ability to collaborate across public, private and independent school sectors.  A somewhat rarity in education.  It has given me the gift of working together with teachers in different sectors that seldom cross lines except in sporting events. To really deep dive into practice together to look at issues with all of us sharing the same passion for improved educational outcomes. The learning that I will take from this as an educator will last a lifetime.  Most powerfully for me, it has allowed me to drill deeply into my practice through provocations, that challenge me and ask me to re-examine how I teach and to continually improve.

In reflecting and exploring the edges of our thinking, we allow things to expand, strengthen, change shape, and crucially change perspectives. It is vital for us as educators to be open to this process so we can improve therefore better support our students and collaborate with our peers. I believe that we are to be vulnerable- just as our students are when they enter our classrooms, laying bare their own vulnerabilities and unconscious bias. It is essential to demonstrate to students to ensure our classrooms are equipped for students with their own personal narratives.

Why is this educational narrative thread so important? When it’s fortified it strengthens a lifelong learning thread dissolving such things as postcodes, social inequalities and generational poverty and trauma. Students are not then lost in geographical narrative tropes, that limit their opportunities and confine them to low socioeconomic stereotypes.

My time working within the partnership between the Academy and my own school has given me another chance to unravel my narrative thread, look from another perspective, redesign my own thinking, and rebuild my current scaffold of learning. Each of my narrative threads rewoven to make up the learning fabric that is me as an educator. This is curiosity. Strengthening my curiosity, changing direction this is the evidence of my own personal learning. It should be a different reflection and new perspective.  A diverse, inclusive and more dynamic one. Building my pedagogy and passion through insightful new learning and collaboration with my peers.

This EXCEL document has been successful in scaffolding students to have successful growth in their data post pandemic. I told the DET paper one and attempted to create a document that was more shareable, flexible and live.