Brian's Blog

  This week the quote from Paulo Coehlo (2018), "Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path," resonates deeply. Over the last little time, I have been on a journey where I have experienced some of the most challenging and the most rewarding times in my career. Even this week, the last week of Term 3 has included those bumps that cause frustration. It is important for us to know how to navigate these storms but also embrace the opportunities set before us during this disruption. This post pulls together elements of my professional learning I have done over the past six months, sorry for the longer reference list! Some of this I have previously written; however, it is a great opportunity coming to the end of a term to be reminded of this. I will explore the concept of professional resilience and determination in education, highlighting how we can navigate these storms with character and use them to our advantage to enhance engagement and foster real-...

The premise of this post comes from my own classroom activities and research on the best practices educators use to engage and create rich and meaningful learning. They are not limited to the areas I write about but begin a conversation. I would invite you to add your own ideas by leaving a comment and participate in the discussion “What does a post-industrial class look like?” Why use video? The use of video in the context of a lesson has significant impacts on both content retention and student engagement with McInerney & McInerney (1998) claiming that the technology provides students with ‘greater control over their own learning’ with benefits amounting to enhanced understanding resulting in ‘self-confidence, independence and autonomy’ within learning experiences. In the realm of language education, a key component across all key learning areas (KLA), Mejia (1999) extols the use of video as ‘valuable tool that can enhance a classroom experience’ through the acq...