Activating the 'Maker Space' with Coronet

My one line job description for my DATS leadership role is: '...to lead the igniting of curiosity for meaningful making and learning.'  Earlier on during this term I worked with the mentors from the Coronet team to develop shared beliefs, principles and practices for their DATS (maker) space in their habitat, and to support the team 'activating' this hands on learning space. We used the DATS belief and principles to ensure we shared beliefs and principles across Shotover Primary School and then the Coronet team developed their ideas around the practices for the learners in their habitat. I'm looking forward to work with the team next term to see how they have been developing their DATS makerspace.

My 3 Great Steps towards my desired reality

At Shotover we have been developing our understanding as appraisal as learning / teaching as inquiry and expanding our current model of appraisal to "growing our professional capacity".

As a teaching team we looked at the work of Patti Dobrowolski's visual goal setting. Dobrowolski method is to draw your current reality, then your desired reality of where you want to be in a year's time.  The next part is to identify 3 'bold' steps to achieving your desired reality.

Unpacking the visuals in my Current Reality

Joining dots or making connections between DATS, beliefs, learning model, capacities and values is vast! These are all amazing best practice ideas that are incredibly exciting and will support our students, learning mentors and our community to "live and breathe" our school vision: "creating a climate of possibilities".  My drawing depicts all of these ideas excitedly 'buzzing' around.  My current reality is working with students and learning mentors to make these ideas or concepts cognitively portable.  I'm 'juggling' many exciting roles, but at times this can be overwhelming and I sometimes wonder on my effectiveness of achieving my role, hence the question mark!  Time ticks and the teaching and learning team have many priorities.  It's hard to spread my time around, to attend 3 different team meetings or for time to be fitted into already busy team meetings!  There is no 'blue print', especially around the DATS role and redefining traditional technology in the primary school!  Working at a new school is both challenging and rewarding - and exhausting, as we are creating, redefining, trialling our first iterations of our school's unique 'blue print'...this takes slow thinking time, discussion, collaboration and developing shared beliefs, principles and practices (BPP).

Unpacking the visuals in my Desired Reality

My desired reality (or my utopia!) is where the students, mentors and community have connected all the dots between our vision, values, learning beliefs, capacities, DATS and the learning model! Where we truely collaborate...relying on each other to achieve our shared goals (think BPP!).  This is no mean feat to achieve!  It is also one that will take a great deal of collaboration, patience and intelligent failure (with many iterations!)  It is a desired reality and not one that will be 'completed' by the end of the year (nor should be - as great schools continually reflect and adapt to the needs of their learners.)  My desired reality for the end of the year is to have taken 'steps' towards my goals.

My 3 Great Steps Towards My Desired Reality (my goals)

1. develop my co-teaching practices with a variety of different teachers across SPS - reflect upon our experiences
2. start to join the dots between vision, values, beliefs, capacities, the learning model + DATS
3. develop an understanding of DATS as tinkering, maker space + maker culture across SPS