How do I design and develop professional learning experiences?I believe in networked intelligence where we learn continuously from each other. Connected to that is a belief that we must contribute to that networked intelligence not just take from it. I believe that we all have a responsibility to contribute to the best of our abilities to improve our world. We all have skills, aptitudes, interests, and passions that can improve our world and we should use these ourselves and celebrate them in others. We also have a responsibility to improve our own skills and aptitudes as we pursue our interests and passions. Based on these beliefs I focus on improving the educating of our youth. To that end, I maintain a Twitter account @GFussell, a blog (http://whynot-gfussell.blogspot.com/), and a web-site in addition to this one.
Professional learning needs to be connected to improving student success, no matter how that is defined. Learning is fun, but that fun can come in many forms. I enjoy having ideas that challenge or extend my beliefs, assumptions, or current levels of proficiency. I have been very fortunate to have been asked to present on a variety of topics that align with the work I do to improve student success. In the 1990’s I was very involved in getting away from marks and grades. Consequently, I wrote on the topic and presented at conferences exploring the notion of no-marks assessment. In the first decade of this millennium I was faced with the realization that gifted students were not being supported, specifically, in our school. I did some digging and found that the success rates for gifted students was much lower than for our general student population. Through my learning I wrote and then presented at conferences and provided workshops based on that work. Then our district faced a very disturbing time with teen suicides, so I began work to develop a plan do develop resilience in our students. I was very fortunate to work with many leaders in this area and shared my learning through my writing and presentations. Concurrently, the Ministry of Education in British Columbia signaled a change in curriculum which mirrored my work challenging practices and curriculum that was not designed for the dynamic 21st Century. Between my writing, presentations and workshops, I was able to push and challenge the status quo while participating as an active learner throughout. Below are the slides, and one document, from some presentations I have given in the past 10 years provincially, nationally, and internationally. |
Do the best you can until you know better.
Then when you know better, do better."
Maya Angelou