#edchatnz conference

#edchatnz conference at Hobsonville Point Secondary School

8-9^th August 2014

What is #edchatnz and why as a teacher should I know more?

I discovered #edchatnz (don’t forget the hashtag #) earlier this year when I finally decided to give twitter a proper go.  I had had an account for a couple of years but never found my calling – I was already using Facebook personally and loved to try new technology but couldn’t see the point of twitter.  However, a couple of young teachers at school had been singing its praises for a while and they seemed to have lots of innovative exciting ideas around pedagogy, so I thought that I would try again!

My attempts to connect with the twitter world would have failed again but I found the #edchatnz community which meets specifically on twitter every second fortnight from 8.30 to 9.30 pm.   It is a time to be challenged about a number of issues in education with the central question always– how can we do the best for our students? This is led by the remarkable @MissDtheTeacher otherwise known as Danielle Myburgh who is the host and founder.  Although Danielle had been tweeting on international education sites she had found that there was no way to connect to NZ teachers on twitter so she decided to start her own hashtag and #edchatnz was born in 2012.

Danielle told me that she loves twitter because when she uses it she is not limited by her immediate surroundings and has 24/7 support – she is a true global citizen.  It might surprise you to know that Danielle has only taught for three years but this is the great thing about true leadership, especially at the grass route level, anyone can do it and she does it in style. She also has the support of her school leaders, including her Principal Mauri Abraham who believes that everyone is a leader, who give her the freedom and support to fly – a message to all school leaders out there.

#edchatNZ conference

The conference was born out of a discussion between Danielle and some of her fellow tweeps (a person’s followers on twitter) a number who had been interacting for two years or so but most had never met!  It took the steering committee (from Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton and Christchurch) just 20 weeks to organise the whole conference using Google Hangout and Google aps for education meeting for 30 minutes before #edhchatnz kicked off on a Thursday night.  They had decided from the beginning to make it affordable – you could go for $20!  All of the presenters, through the steering group’s connections, gave their time freely.

350 people gathered at Hobsinville Point for the opening Keynote.  One of the key themes of the conference for me was the idea of the lone nut, check it out on youtube Leadership Most of us don’t work in new build schools with handpicked teams who build and live the school vision but we can still initiate change in our schools – not change for change sake but to improve the learning of our students.  We might be the lone nut for a while until we can hopefully encourage someone else to support us or just as importantly we might be the first follower who sees someone in our school trying to be innovative and then stands by them as support.  

The conference was about, as Karen Melhuish Spencer from CORE said in her closing remarks, “growing purpose ready learners.”   Technology itself is not innovation in schools it is a tool to help create a transformative curriculum.  Yes, technology was abundant at the Hobsonville Primary and Secondary schools and we saw students use it (both had a normal school day on the Friday) but there were two common themes in the conference for me.  Firstly, social justice through making a real difference and by keeping it authentic and secondly, ways to enable students to critically think and make connections in their learning.  I was lucky to see a number of HPSS teachers discussing how they do these things through Project Based Learning, cross curricula themes and SOLO taxonomy to name a few.  I also loved Pam Hook, our NZ guru, talking about SOLO and inspiring us all to give students the tools and a common language to improve their critical thinking skills and understanding.

Seeing the political debate between Labour, the Green Party and National, chaired by Claire Amos, was very stimulating.  Danielle told me that she loved hearing teachers coming out of the debate saying that it had increased their interest in politics as she believes that we must have a bigger influence in politics if we want a bigger change.  However, my own highlight was listening to Kelston Boys High School talking about their Year 12 Health class’ anti bullying programme – it encompassed all of the themes of the conference – what a fantastic group of young people.  Follow them on Defeat the Label Facebook page

Final thoughts

It was great, although I must admit slightly strange, to meet other twitter folk for the first time who I follow and who follow me.  I think it will make tweeting even better as I can put a real person to the handle.   I was especially impressed by teachers who took a day of unpaid leave, paid their own travel accommodation and conference fee because they believed so strongly in #edchatnz and what it stood for.  I thank these teachers who care about our young people in NZ so much.

I would also like to thank Danielle and her steering committee for the conference and the Thursday night discussions.  I can only say how much I appreciate the intellectual stimulation, innovative initiatives (I have initiated at my school Techie Breakie and students teaching teachers from ideas on twitter), the support when I try to implement ideas and the total positivity.  It is great!  Thanks to the PPTA ICT committee for paying for me to go – very much appreciated.

If you feel like the only lone nut in your school and/or you’re just looking for a challenge and ideas on how to improve the learning of your students I would encourage all teachers to try twitter and more specifically #edchatnz and its subsidiaries for English, Science and education books and maybe more by the time this article is printed!  It doesn't have to be an extra and you don’t have to do anything at first, just watch the Thursday night debate for example.  As Danielle astutely said we have to start encouraging and connecting to each other in our own schools and with all schools in NZ if we want to make real change.  Give it a go!

Samantha Mortimer

Te Aroha College

@sammortimer70