Welcome to imagi-nation
November 2 & 3, 2023
Smithfield Public School
The Opening Session
Our Network Days began with a joyful Acknowledgement of Country conducted by students at Smithfield PS. Then our plenary session began with some thought provoking questions, a story book and some technical hitches.
Mapping the Imagi-Nation
We gave everyone a map of Imagi-Nation and each group drew their representation of the landscape and how to understand it.
Asking What If….
In a powerful session on imagining what could be, our educators took time to discuss what resonated with them about what might be possible of there weren’t barriers to dreaming, trying and experimenting. Here are some of the powerful What If responses created.
The Bazaar Stalls
An exciting part of every Network Days event is the bazaar stalls sessions, when schools hold stall presentation of how the 4Cs are being used in their classrooms, with their teacher PL, in their leadership meetings, with behavioural issues, what their journey has been like in 4CTL’s Imagi-Nation. Here’s just a few snapshots of what was presented this time.
Student agency drives innovation in curriculum planning.
Educators from Jerrabomberra HS have taken a whole new approach to art curriculum. Creating subjects (rows) and skill level (columns) students can select their subjects of interest and their starting skill level.
Planning a teacher-determined learning disposition journey
The team at Curran PS have plotted a journey for their classrooms that allows teachers the freedom to choose the dispositions their class need to focus on, which creates a student-centric map, while remaining connected to the core desire to embed the Learning Disposition Wheel into the school culture.
Embedding the 4C approach gets uplevelled
Oatley PS have deepened their explicit use of 4C strategies, techniques and approaches as they embed student agency, learning dispositions and the 4Cs into everyday activities, including using critical reflection, age-appropriate language for the disposition wheel, give space for student voice and prioritise agency & intrinsic motivation over learning.
Taking a wide-lens look at the 4C approach in an early learning setting
Journey Early Learning have embraced the 4C approach in their leadership team, to give voice and agency to team members, developing Leadership Wheel-based action plans for the leadership team, talking about dispositions in the early childhood classrooms and more.
Giving students choice, independence and flexibility creates greater engagement at Dubbo School of Distance Education
The team at DSODE revamped their old “Hook Week” (a week aimed at getting students interested in the subjects to come in the next term) syllabus into an all new “Hookenstein.” The allowed students greater choice, upgradied the delivery platform, changed their “check up on” approach to a “check in on” approach, and listened to student feedback on future topics for this exciting and important week’s content.
A 4C Dinner Party - Feasting on Critical Hope
Day two of the Network Days event began with a powerful dinner party, where deep thought and reflection were invited guests. We discussed what we’d hoped for when we began teaching, what we hoped for now, and what we can begin doing to ground that hope in action.
The Workshops
THE DESIGN STUDIO
Design thinking uses scaffolds to think about thinking, that break our rut-happy minds out of the same old thought patterns and help us play our way into new, interesting and more effective ideas. In our Imagi-Nation Design Studio, teachers could play with physical items to help represent their challenges and to find innovative and creative solutions.
The COmmunity Garden
In the quiet sunshine of the Imagi-Nation community garden, teachers grew flowers of new ideas, whose petals were noticings and suggestions from the other gardeners, growing their own flowers.
The PlayHouse
Coming soon….
The Lab
Coming soon…
The Closing Session
The final session provided an opportunity for each school to consolidate their learning from over the 2 days and then share how they plan to ride their wave of 4C transformation in their context going forward.
GOT MORE QUESTIONS?
Send our administrator, Naomi, an email here.