19/7: Reflection - National PENZ Conference - Past, Present, Future

Reflection: National PENZ Conference - Past, Present, Future

19th July

From 10th - 12th July I was down at Papamoa College attending the National PENZ conference. The conference is made from a wide range of educators, from Primary to Tertiary, along with other external providers from the 3 key organisations of Physical Education New Zealand, Education Outdoors New Zealand & Health Education Association New Zealand. This year's theme was around celebrating the past, understanding the present and looking forward into the future. 

Across the 3 days I was able to attend a variety of sessions, present my own session with Georgia & continue creating many new connections. Like last year, I had many great takeways from conference and hope to share some of my highlights.

The conference started off with 3 key note speakers - Professor Ian Culpan to represent the past, Cameron Smith to represent the present & Helen Tuhoro to represent the future. These 3 speakers were a great way of captivating the theme right from the start of conference and are my first highlight. 

Ian is one of the creators of our current New Zealand Curriculum document. He emphasized he would be to trying to address the influences of what is happening in our learning area. This started with the idea of HPE being the hostage of politics, ideologies and cultural concepts through key themes of controlling and discipling the human body and normalisation of behaviour. However, he wanted to remind us that HPE is a learning area based around humanism and the development of people. Throughout his Keynote Ian got us thinking about how we ensure we challenge these 'norms' we are faced with everyday.

Cameron's key theme was putting the emphasis in the value of Physical Education not physical outcomes. He got me to reflect on what the role of a Physical Education teacher is, ensuring that we are putting the learning and sociocultural thought at the forefront of our subject and whether we are doing enough in our junior curriculum to cultivate critical thinking. He also gave fun practical examples of how our students could learn, in, through and about movement rather than through theories in a classroom. One example was how Deb Robertson is trying to get away from formal standardized assessments, so is instead getting her students to reflect throughout the units.

Helen finished off by inspiring us all through Tarawera's journey. Helen spoke about the importance of relationships and giving students hope. To do so at Tarawera three things needed to change; the people, the environment & the curriculum. This involved the creation of the MANA (Manakitanga, Ako, Ngāku-pono & Āwhina) acronym and asking the questions of what are we here for, what do we want from them and how are we going to do it? Key points that I am going to take away is ensuring that my students see the point in every learning activity and where it is taking them in the bigger picture. Key quotes I am also going to take into my practice include:

• "Great teachers engineer great learning that put the students in the driver's seat"
• "The first step to raising achievement is by raising engagement"
• "If it is not tough and doesn't challenge you it won't change you"

Tracey Clelland along with Rachael Dixon & Jenny Robertson's presentations also stood out to me. I decided to go to these as I am currently trying to rewrite the Year 9 Health programme. Tracey's presentation was around building resilience. She gave us some activities that we can take into our classes to get students to truly think about who they are through using 'the power of vulnerability' and how we can put the '5 Ways to Wellbeing' in action not only within our classes but our own communities. Rachael & Jenny's was around teaching and learning activity ideas around the topic of Alcohol & Drugs. This 90 minute session gave us ideas on what we may want in the unit and activities that can allow us to challenge our students thinking. These activities included; continuums, scenarios, identifying influences & PIPS. Look out for a future blog post to see how my unit planning is going and how I have used these ideas. 

Another highlight was Sara Hayward's 'Engaging the disengaged' presentation. This session stood out to me as it closely links through to my inquiry for the year of how to create independent learners.  Sara's improvements were made over 3 years with the same cohort. These findings were inspiring and being able to talk to others in the session helped me to brainstorm new ideas. Not only was I able to pick up on some new ideas, but it also allowed me to acknowledge that I have been on the right track in what I have currently been doing and that maybe all I need is extra time. Keep an eye out for a future blog post on specifics that I took from Sara's presentation and how it has helped my 2017 inquiry. 

Other highlights included Lesley Park & Alison Schofields presentation on troubles with marking and moderation surrounding Level 2, Mike King's closing Keynote and presenting my first ever PENZ presentation with Georgia on our BT Journey and the part Twitter has played (see her post on this here). Georgia and I also won a prize for our costume (pictured below) and of course we were both humbled when we were awarded with the PENZ award of Outstanding New Professionals!

Overall it was another successful conference in which I am walking away with new ideas and inspiration, new connections and having finally met other educators that I have been previously connecting with!