Chriss Betcher poses the question of whether or not a brilliant polymath like leonardo da Vinci would have survived as a student in the modern classroom or would he have been stymied at every turn by classroom and educational practice.

About to start our first cohort session. Interesting collection of teachers and administrators but what will we learn? Will it be a case of too many chefs? I am excited to find out about little da vinci’s. There is so much potential in our students that is just waiting to be ‘discovered’. I will keep you posted….

Steven Bradbury makes a valid point – we remember him for the biggest lucky break in sporting history, despite the fact he flogged himself to get there and he was in the final on merit. He may have got lucky but he created his own luck.

Enjoying Stephen Bradbury but itching to get into the education and ICT stuff. Hoping to set Cass up as an admin soon so she can blog her profound thoughts soon. I’ve come to realize I’ll never be an ICT nerd – it’s just not in my blood. I am however looking at all these fantastic products on show and thinking what amazing tools they are – but they’re only going to be amazing in the hands of great teachers. It was interesting that last night it was propsed to hold a session entitled “integrating ICT into old fashioned classrooms” and someone proposed changing it to “integrating ICT into old fashioned teachers”

Fantastic conversations over a couple of glasses of……….lemonade in the bar last night. Now about to hear the keynote speech from Stephen Bradbury – the ultimate accidental hero!

Not that Cass and I work too hard but both of us slept from tarmac to tarmac – my kind of flight. Today has been a blast and we’ve met some great people already. My immediate response is “OMG we are MILES behind on so many levels but quite forward thinking on others”. I’ll blog more later on these extended thoughts to give the ICT committee something to chew on tomorrow morning.

Just a personal aside to all this – I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Cass today, what a fantastic person. We all have great friends on staff and others whom we only nod too on a corridor. Sometimes we’re all too busy to build personal relationships with the people we work with but it would be great if we took the time…I know I’m feeling guilty that I haven’t joined the staff association yet. I made some amazing contacts and talked to some amazing people today all before the conference started properly, and all because for once I had the chance to sit down and converse with no time constraint. The wine helped!