Stephen Harris from Northern Beaches Christian School challenged us to think about schools in 2045. The oft used analogy of thinking about who you would want to treat you in a hospital if you had a life threatening disease…the small country hospital with one doctor who has been there for years, never really changing his skill set or a facility that is based in current research with a team of surgeons working collaboratively to find a cure and help you heal.  Most would choose the current collaborative environment yet many schools are not making the paradigm shifts to become the “new empowered environment”. Teachers are time poor, yet globally  there are many teachers doing great things. This conference has many aha moments that are making me think…we ask (or should be asking our students) to work collaboratively (and they are time poor too when you consider that in study they cannot work collaborative most of the time), take risks, create and be creative and hopefully to reflect on their learning – through blogging or at least some kind of reflection . Yet most schools do not expect this from  teachers… Aren’t we also about modelling good practice to students… mmmn makes you think!! Yes I cannot think of any teachers at Joeys who are not life long learners (in their area of passion) but we need to make it explicit and show students that Life Long Learning is good, exciting and a necessary skill as a 21st Century Learner.