Resiliance.
noun
1.
1.
the
capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
"the
often remarkable resilience of so many British institutions"
2.
2.
the ability of a substance or object to spring back
into shape; elasticity.
"nylon is excellent in
wearability, abrasion resistance and resilience"[1]
I have been pondering this word
for the past ten days or so since I got word that our Teacher Led Innovation
Funding application was declined. I get
it – it is the last round and there are probably many many worthy applicants –
but I couldn’t help but feel slightly crushed, not just for myself but for my colleague
who had put in the bulk of the written application after all our Skype conversations.
One of the comments that came back as feedback was there was not
sufficient evidence that it was led by teachers for teachers (I’m assuming more
teachers make changes = larger numerical student benefit). The slightly cynical part of me was left
wondering if we were from a bigger school/cohort, therefore able to have more
teachers on board to start with – would it have made a difference. Sure, we could have ‘proven’ we were
impacting more teachers initially – but if our inquiry follows our hunch, it will
be beneficial for both the teachers and students within our Southern Area
Schools Kahui Ako and potentially beyond.
So – what now? Obviously we
won’t have funding but we are still going ahead with our project, it will just be
a scaled back and potentially longer timeline.
We have a SKYPE session with our inquiry facilitator early Term 3 to
keep fleshing it out and ensuring we stay focused. I have started changing my practice - part of that being using a wider variety of tech, such as Flipgrid with my
students to reflect on their learning – and they know have learnt the WHY behind the choice
to use those particular technologies.
DisruptEd the past two weeks has been prompting us to question the
principles and mindsets required to deliver powerful learning. I responsed to the question “What principles
do you believe underpin powerful learning?” with he tãngata, he tãngata, he tãngata, - the people, the
people, the people - by putting the learners first, the learning then become
collaborative, it becomes accessible to all and authentic. To this end, we will carry on and we will put
our learners again in the center – changing our practice as needed to ensure
positive outcomes, collaborative planning and real agentic learning for them. So – the link to resilience – I too need build the capacity and ability to
move forward and bounce back after a disappointment – this isn’t the end of the
world, it’s just a curve in the learning journey.
