TeachMeet Melbourne - Scienceworks
21st April, 2016
Will reflects on his first TeachMeet, what he took away from it and why he will be going again.
Summary:
On Saturday 16th April, Nick, Alex and I went along to TeachMeet Melbourne at Scienceworks. A TeachMeet can be hosted by anyone who is willing and they are usually at schools. They provide an opportunity for teachers (including pre-service teachers) to gather and engage in discussions about all things ‘teaching’. Anyone can put their hand up to do a presentation (up to 7 minutes). It was our first time going to such an event and we all had an open mind; we were excited to listen and engage with likeminded teachers and PSTs.
Saturday’s TeachMeet was mostly centred on technology and 21st century education. After listening to presentations, it is safe to safe we were quite inspired and thankful to have stumbled across this community of educators. Alex decided to get up and do an off-the-cuff talk about our blog and stressed the need for greater collaboration between universities, schools, teachers and pre-service teachers in order to make the jump from being a PST to an actual teacher.
What did I take away from TeachMeet?
We listened to talks from 9 presenters on the day. All were engaging and generated thoughts and discussions afterwards – I may share some of these insights in future blog posts. However, I was particularly impacted by the talk by Lottie Dowling who spoke about global collaborations.
The students we are teaching will (hopefully) one day be in the workforce. Today’s workforce now requires employees that have collaboration skills along with technological skills that allow them to participate in the global network and economy. Lottie made a strong point regarding deep learning. Whilst there is much debated research on what deep learning is and why it is important, a common recurring factor is collaboration.
Lottie is the manager of professional learning at the Asia Education Foundation. She provided us an insight into the abundance of FREE resources on the AEF website that can help build global collaboration skills in the classroom. These can be found by subject area or by year level. One thing that I want to do in my future classroom is participate in a global collaboration project. The AEF website offers numerous links to established projects and organisations that link classrooms together from around the world.
Why should you go to TeachMeet?
- It is essentially free professional development
- A chance to build up a network of educators
- Authentic learning, real discussions and stories
- As a PST, a chance to engage with people in the profession
- It shows you are passionate and have good initiative – excellent program to discuss in an interview or on a resume.
- Also keep an eye out for #beerpedagogy – self-explanatory…
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