We're off to the Museum...

Diprotodon - Victoria's Megafauna

Today I had the privileged of joining Learning Team 3 from Findon Primary School on a visit to the Melbourne Museum. Whilst I had attended an excursion a couple of times in the past, this was the first one that involved visiting a specific venue.

The Museum had things down pat - they had things figure out and their systems and processes enabled a fairly stress free day for the teachers (apart from trying to supervise 5 classes of grade three students:)). The visit gave me some great ideas for how to improve some of the processes we have in place at the Wildlife Sanctuary.

Students on the Forest Walk

The students had a great time exploring all the exhibits from the Melbourne Gallery, were students explore Mellbourne's history, including an old shack and Phar Lap, to the Forest Gallery, where live exhibits engaged students in understanding frogs, lizards and forest plants, to the Science and Life Gallery where evolution, dinosaurs and wildlife were on display.

Something I noticed was the way in which students engaged with the technology in various exhibits. Whilst interpretation experts would tout their educational benefit, I noticed in so

Students exploring the Dinosaur exhibit

me exhibits that this was a very surface level of education and in fact bordered on students being more engaged with the interactivity than the information presented. One particular instance was when students were fighting over looking at a virtual display of animals. pressing screen images that would provide information about the animals - at no point did students pay any attention to the content, even when it directly linked to questions in their worksheets (they had to have the exact section of information pointed out to them). At this time I asked the students what they were looking at - they explained - 'just random animals'. They were amazed and excited, when I pointed out the animals on display (above the screen) and were then actively engaged in looking at what was around them - rather than the screen. I feel if the screen wasn't there, they'd have had a more interactive learning experience.

Findon Primary School

I'm pretty lucky to be able to work with the students at Findon Primary School. Over the last few years I've been able to do some of my teaching placements and work with great teachers and students on sustainability projects. Mr Fromm, who is a great teacher and mentor, has provided me with great opportunities to work with his students and the sustainability leaders since 2012.

Paula, Linda, Daniel and the whole team at Findon have welcomed and supported me through a journey that has had many challenges and not only have they encouraged me to explore and refine my teaching skills, they have also made me feel like I belong as part of the team.

The students at Findon are also fantastic! I can see they are excited when I visit and keen to run up and talk. Having been involved for some time it is really great to see their growth.

In 2016, I've become kind of a scientist in residence at the school. This involves developing lessons around the various learning teams inquiry units and then working with classes to deliver these lessons. This has been another great opportunity to practice my teaching skills and also develop some really interesting lessons that tie in with the Masters research project.

Working with Findon on this project has really provided insight into my teaching practice, where my strengths lie, where I can improve and it has reinforced my thoughts around what interests me with regard to student learning.

What I am discovering is that I have a real passion for engaging students in inquiry based lessons, that enable them to take control of their own learning pathway. I am still much more of a 'sage' style teacher, but with intent to change this through my teaching practice into more of a facilitator of learning.