UNCONFERENCE

WEDNESDAY 21st August 2019

What on earth is this ?...
How will this work? 

YOU choose what is presented / discussed / shared. 

YOU choose what to participate in.

YOU need to trust in the process.


. 

And wow ! what an Amazing process it was.

The call went out to the Auckland Central Community of School teachers
(from the across school leaders) and they responded with 25 fascinating
topic smack down slides (a power point slide outlining their idea  for discussion). 

On Wednesday,  70 teachers (ASL & ISL’s)  team leaders, DP’s and
Principals met to ‘Unconference’.   

The topic proposers unpacked their slide with a 45 second brief and then ‘the people’ voted,
choosing 2 topics that they would like to hear and talk more about with others,
by putting Post It’s’ on their nominated slides. 

While these were collated and condensed into the 12 workshops by the ASLs,
the group networked over pizza and drinks. 

The ‘Unconference’ was organised into 2 sessions with 6 workshops in each.
Each group ran in its own unique way:( I think …***.) including

- a presentation which formed the basis for the discussion

-   active participation by the group and discussion about theory,
mplementation and sharing of resources by the participants ?? 

- a resource and theory to back up the practice

- an in depth look into a case study, where practice had influenced achievement data. 

- sharing by an expert in a specific area. 

and some which included a mix of all of the above. 

What did the participants say about the process? 

Robust discussions which sowed seeds for change.

I presented at one, and it was great to hear others sharing. Just the feeling that I am not alone.
I felt encouraged to learn that others are exploring similar teaching practices, asking the same questions, and enjoying inspiring results. Really great talking about teaching and assessment practices in other schools.
Neither of my preferred take outs were selected, which is the luck of the draw and
totally understandable, so I decided to go to 'Mindfulness' and 'Anxiousness'
- they were amazing.
Great way to share resources and have professional conversations
with like minded people. Was organised really well and ran smoothly, well done ASL's!
The power of doing rather than just listening.
Seeing the quality of work happening in resilience in other schools
especially lower primary. Encouraging to see techniques used relate to what we are doingat Intermediate level.
Useful to see Google competency courses are easily available. Very appealing.
Lots of useful things I am taking back to use confidently
and immediately (which isn't the norm) in my classrooms. Thanks.
There is not enough inter-school interaction in my view, so it was nice to be in a room
with others in my universe.
Just brilliant.

So would our participants want to do this again? 

Overwhelmingly, Yes!

Suggestions for the future? 

There were too many great workshops to choose from.
Perhaps more (3x15 min) workshops next time would be great? 

Perhaps making it a full day event so that more breakout sessions can be held. 

If two of the workshops we wanted to see happened in the same session,
we had to select between the two. Maybe repeat very popular ones. 

The afternoon was an opportunity for next working and collaborative professional development.
There were many take outs for people from classroom practice, well being, digital tools
to leadership development and coaching, so something for everyone.
The conversations that have been had at schools since the event
have been positive with ideas that could be implemented and shared in PLG's and
some networking, collaboration and school visits being planned as a result.  

So congratulations to those who facilitated this afternoon and thank you to those those
who took the time to provide feedback. 

Our Kahui Ako will be looking to run another Unconference in 2020. 
We look forward to more exciting conversations and the opportunities to learn from each other.