From the Director of Innovative Pedagogies

You’re Just Holding It Wrong

This week we have entered the second half of the term and the weather is showing Blue Mountains Grammar School in its full glory. The daffodils are out on the lawns, the trees are blossoming and the weather is warmer. I have had countless conversations with staff and students about just how nice it is to come to campus at the moment. There is a happiness and lightness to a lot of what is happening at the moment. 

One particular conversation I had recently was about the joyfulness of school and the joy of teaching. Many teachers enter the profession for two reasons: they are passionate about their subject area, and they are interested in meaningful relationships, which they can build with colleagues and students. When you get a chance to combine an area of passion and relationship building, time in the classroom can be energetic, productive and rewarding. Students enjoy their learning and see how it is connected to the greater world. They are intrinsically motivated and engaged in what they are doing. They learn a lot and achieve impressive results. Likewise, when classrooms are at their best, teachers can tailor lessons creatively to their students' needs and experience the satisfaction of students having ‘Ah-ha! I get it now!’ moments. However, this isn’t always the case. Often the joy of teaching is squeezed out by administration, compliance, technical complications and more. Teachers charge through curriculum content at a fast pace due to the sheer amount they must cover. Students are asked to keep up, lest they get left behind.   

This situation reminds me of a story from 2010 when the then latest iPhone was released. 

Hours after the iPhone 4 went on sale to excited crowds, Apple found itself responding to complaints that holding the phone by its metal edge caused mobile reception to suffer. 

One of the new phone's vaunted features, its sleek design (nearly 25 percent thinner than its most recent predecessor) was achieved by snaking the antenna through a metal band around the edges of the phone. However, the challenge quickly became, how do you hold the slimmer iPhone without interfering with reception?’ People quickly took to social media, forums and Apple stores to find a solution.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s then CEO came out quickly with a curt message: You are just holding it wrong.

As I think about the potential for joyfulness, rich and connected learning and happiness that can happen in classrooms, and inversely, the potential laboriousness driven by compliance, I can’t help but think we are just holding it wrong. We have everything we need for our teachers to be world class teachers and students to be world class learners, we just need to hold it right! 

Christopher Sanders

Director of Innovative Pedagogies