When Marilyn Monroe's dress is blown up above her waist by a passing train underneath a subway grate she is standing on, she exclaims "Isn't it delicious?"
We left the conference venue on Friday with a small carry-on sized travel bag and laptop each ... before we hit the intersection of the Old Taupo Rd and Ngongotaha Rd we had added a larger than life sized photograph of Marilyn Monroe with dress blown up mounted on three hinged screens, an outsized turtle shell in need of linseed oil, a wicker topped table and two chairs and a collection of brightly coloured ceramic pasta jars ... we had all the key ingredients .... with Marilyn and the Mock Turtle on board we were ready to talk ....
I get a little excited ... ... about the potential conversations on the return road trip from the MoE Learning@School conferences in Rotorua each year –
Over the years these conversations have been associated with moments of significant new learning. Academics would probably categorise this as “historical precedent excitement” – but to me intellectual excitement (historical or not) is hard to differentiate from all those other catalysts for emotional lurch
I reckon this excitement is because the road trip from Rotorua to Auckland provides an uninterrupted and unmonitored opportunity for “frankly reckless conversations” about those Lewis Carroll “We called him Tortoise because he taught us.” moments –the what was of value, what was dodgy and what needs more investigation of the Learning@School 08 conference experience. And it also provides a time where intelligence gleaned from multiple sources is pooled – the she said, he said stuff, he looked, she looked, he was, she was ...
I like to start by thinking about the conference breakouts, spotlight presentations, keynote addresses and trade hall exhibits using chelonian thinking - I use an assessment rubric based upon the Mock Turtle's analysis for assessing “a really good school” (and translate this to “a really good educational experience at conference”)
So I analyse my conference session notes and memories against rubrics I have developed against the Mock Turtle’s analysis of what makes a really good school.
"Ah! Then yours wasn't a really good school," said the Mock Turtle in a tone of great relief."
He goes on to flipper the following as essential to goodness ...
"Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with," ....."and then the different branches of Arithmetic - Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision."
Not too hard to find examples of all of these ....from here it is easy to move quickly onto an analysis of my learning moments of "Mystery, ancient and modern, with Seaography“ and by the time we hit Tirau I am ready to tussle with my learning experiences that best aligned with “Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils."
When I get to “Fainting in Coils” I bring in Marilyn .... asking
What moments of new learning at Learning@School 08 best meet a “Fainting in Coils” assessment rubric at the "Isn't it delicious?" learning level – that fusing of mind and heart moment.
From the Keynotes it is easy to pick “Key Messages” from Murray Brown for a current focus, clearly articulated, well sequenced overview of the different flows of information and data happening through eLearning in New Zealand, national student identification and authentication programmes, and for his identification of the need to look carefully at the new critical literacies that e Learning brings to education.
But the consensus from our teachers would see the overall “Isn’t it delicious?” moment go to “Learning’s the Thing!”- Mary Chamberlain’s Spotlight session on the New Zealand Curriculum - – a breakout delivered with such passion and relevance that there was hardly a dry eye in the room –
Note to self - Give feedback to conference organisers ... This is a verve filled presenter whose message and delivery needed a bigger audience –mark for an opening keynote position on the next conference programme.
The only thing the Mock Turtle is uncertain about is the role of the Classical master and the importance of “Laughing and grief” in a learning experience.
"Hadn't time," said the Gryphon: "I went to the Classical master, though. He was an old crab, he was."
"I never went to him," the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: "he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say."
"So he did, so he did," said the Gryphon, sighing in his turn, and both creatures hid their faces in their paws."
Learning@School 08 certainly had its share of both ....
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
(Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (1832-1898)
Chapter 9 The Mock Turtle’s Story
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