The Sea of Education and our Voyage of Awareness
A dear colleague once shared how education can sometimes feel like you’re out at sea on a voyage of discovery, surrounded by a variety of vessels all of which offer you an aspect of teaching and learning that you are encouraged to take on board. The sea landscape is vast and often one cannot possibly fathom the extensive array of vessels on display. Each vessel sets sail with the current trends on offer to all those sailing on the great wide sea of education. All of these vessels are fitted with the educational sailing equipment that promote their model and appeal to the sailing crew. There is always an ever increasing array of new vessels fitted with equipment offering teaching and learning on the open seas that supports the crew and all the future sailors. On this voyage we have the opportunity to become aware of the sea conditions and what lies ahead. Choosing to stay aware of what is on offer and allowing ourselves the possibility of selecting aspects of what each vessel offers is the key to maintaining the support required to “row your own boat gently down the stream”.
VESSELS OF REFLECTION
What vessel do we choose to set sail with, knowing that the safety of all who travel on our journey is paramount? These vessels come with an assortment of cargo offering the ‘smooth sailing’ opportunity within the often hazardous conditions we face out at sea. The sea of education is often unpredictable, and brings with it regular high and low tides. As we make this voyage of awareness, we begin to realise what each vessel reflects to others and what truly supports all on board.
VESSEL OF YOUR CHOOSING
Observing the movements of these vessels as they dock themselves into school ports is an opportunity for us to discover what we are offered as an array of educational experiences to explore and head aboard. Each vessel’s equipment promotes their own trademark and also provides the future vessels with the support required to embark on their own voyages out into the open seas of education.
SUPER YACHTS
Offering the high end of the market appeal to the educator, the super yachts bring the latest research in classroom pedagogy, equipment and resources that promote the ‘thrive model’ of learning. Trending working spaces, state of the art technology and mind set of best practice based on current scientific research are their hallmark and they claim best classroom practice based on models generated to produce future generations of high fliers on a global scale.
THE CRUISE LINER
The Cruise Liners offer a smorgasbord of Professional Development that brings latest trends, catch phrases and models of teaching and learning that have been bought and taught over the decades. Programs covering all aspects of the complex curriculum are made easy and at your fingertips to choose. An assortment of resources are interwoven in these programs providing the smaller vessels with fuel to continue to sail in the open seas.
SPEED BOAT
This compact and efficient vessel offers testing, data collection, recording and evaluation packages together with bundles of easy to disperse ‘techno friendly’ devices to promote upskilling and increasingly more efficient data collection. This package recommends giving teachers “brain breaks” on the roller coaster of waves that come with assessing and planning outcomes and creating the “faster learners.” This is the support vessel that offers the pit stops and refuel stations.
CARGO OVERLOAD
What happens to teachers when we are given a glimpse of the vast sea of education and we all gather in the ports to select from the various vessels’ equipment we need to set sail once again?
Can we become consumed with the ideas of having to fully equip our vessel with all that is recommended? Do we sometimes lose ourselves and choose to take on board all that is offered out at sea whilst overlooking the weight of the cargo and what truly supports our crew?
THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR VESSEL
Choosing to sail in the sea of education is an opportunity to appreciate what is already on board that has over the years assisted the vessel to make many quality voyages with its crew. The vessel load is the marker of the quality of the journey that either has the vessel capsizing or signalling warning signs as they set sail or appreciating the many voyages it has made thus far and continues to make with the choice of load and the quality and commitment of the crew. We are here to work with all the vessels in our vast oceans and to maintain the required safety to remain out at sea. Each voyage is a marker of how we continue to service our vessel with sharing what is on offer from others as we set sail.
We are the captains of our vessel and how we choose to row, row, row our boat.