Thursday, October 16, 2008

Transforming teachers - Tony Ryan

This was an interesting and thought provoking presentation about the role of the teachers.

The key question is not: What do we need to teach?
The key question is: Who do we need to be?

Tony spoke about the next eight years as being the most crucial in human history, the need for people who are solution-focused and the need for people who believe they can make a difference. Hence the use of the term transformational teaching.
Tony's four roles for the transformational teacher, all starting with "E":

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

What follows is a snapshot of some of his ideas and questions.


The Energiser

  • Your thinking is a critical influence on your physical / emotional / spiritual energy.
  • Teaching is a mirror – your attitude is reflected back to you.
  • How and when do you get ‘energy’ from in teaching?
  • What are your reasons for being involved in teaching?

The Ethicist

  • Factors that have created an ethics focus in education: -
  • increased focus on emotional intelligence,
  • virtual environments that test the limits of human values,
  • societal / political responses to some Net gen children.

The Entrepreneur

  • The rise and rise of creativity
  • Educational Intrapreneurs?? (Working from within the system)
  • New thinking on learning delivery e.g. innovators who provide online and off line learning to a community / business groups
  • The promotion of innovative classroom practice!!

The Environmentalist.

  • Implement the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle).
  • Live a carbon-neutral life
  • Become a carbon neutral school
  • Include an enviro-focus in every study


    Links
    His blog
    His Webpage

1 comment:

Sari said...

This looks interesting, I wish I could ahve attended.