I haven’t had much time to write in the long winter term – but there’s a good reason! I work at a fantastic school with terrific teachers and equally fantastic leadership, all of whom do not shy away from addressing learning challenges – albeit in a timely and appropriate manner.

So TWO really exciting things are happening within my scope during the remainder of the year.

The first revolves around the library learning spaces at ‘Joeys’. The Brother Liguouri Resources Centre was built with an amazing vision that still holds true – the facilities work! and the services are great. It’s just the physical environment that needs an overhaul. So I am involved in great planning with our architect, and we expect to undertake the refurbishment starting late November, early December. Woot!

The second revolves around our trip to Melbourne next week for the official launch of the Australian cohort of the international Powerful Learning Practice program being run Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and Will Richardson.

Powerful Learning Practice offers a unique opportunity for educators to participate in a long-term, job-embedded professional development program that immerses them in 21st Century learning environments. The PLP model is currently enabling hundreds of educators around the country to experience the transformative potential of social Web tools to build global learning communities and re-envision their own personal learning practice.

PLP’s learning cohorts are led by internationally recognized voices and practitioners in the field of educational technology.

I love working with Will, and can’t wait to begin to work with Sheryl too on a regular basis in this program.

We have a great team from school which includes our adventurous Director of Teaching and Learning; my explorer buddies Gary Molloy and Anthony Rooskie (explorers of Wiimote in our Classrooms); and two new teachers (from English and Social Sciences) ready to jump right into this wonderful experience. We will be a strong team.

In addition I am excited to be one of 10 educational leaders called 21st Century Fellows within the Program, which will allow me to work with schools around the world and expand my own knowledge and understanding of an integrated approach to 21st century learning. The Fellows serve as facilitators of online professional development activities and can be “go to” folks if the teams have questions or need help!

For more information, visit the International PLP Wiki.