ISHCMC Food for Thought

Dear all,

Before focusing on our world at ISHCMC I think that we should give a minutes thought to all the innocent French men and women who lost their lives on Friday night as a result of the series of terrorist attacks that rocked Paris. Let's hope that politicians in the western world remember the words of Gandhi and look for a wise response to such a challenge to peace and security rather than meeting violence with violence.

I hope that you all enjoyed the professional development work on Friday. I was extremely impressed with the engagement that everyone showed both as workshop presenters and participants. Every time we do something like this it makes me more and more aware of the educational talent that we have in our faculty and how much there is to learn from each other. This link to Kath Murdoch's blog was sent to me last week and connects perfectly with the work we were doing on Friday. In this short post Kath gives six ideas that need to be considered when letting go and allowing students to inquire. Kath says......

"One of the great privileges of my job is bearing witness to the process of ‘reconstruction’ that teachers experience as they transit to more inquiry-based practice.  Becoming an inquiry teacher can mean a significant degree of ‘unlearning’ as beliefs and roles are reconsidered and re-shaped.  In a series of conversations I held with groups of teachers last week,  I asked what they were noticing about themselves and how they were changing as they engaged in a year of learning about and through inquiry.  We discussed the struggles and the joys of working this way and the new questions and goals that were emerging.  Taking time to do this – to press the pause" 

Finally, thought that you might like to watch this inspiring short video from the Atlantic   that shares Maria Popova’s, a regular contributor to Brain Pickings, reflections on finding fulfillment, satisfaction, and purpose in life. “I share these here not because they apply to every life and offer some sort of blueprint to existence,” she writes, “but in the hope that they might benefit your own journey in some small way.”

Hope you are all having a relaxing weekend, I certainly am in Quy Nhon. 

See you on Tuesday, for a four day week.

Yours
Adrian