We had another teachers meeting on Friday 1 May and in some ways it was confirming of the existing system but also disappointing in that teachers are merely tweaking what they have been doing already when designing new units of work to meet the new New Zealand curriculum.

There are some glimpses of hope though in that a couple of schools are freeing up the notion that they do not necessarily have to predetermine what they teach all the time.  Going with students' interests is a huge mindshift fro teachers.  It's more possible in junior schooling where the assessment stakes are not quite so high.  We hoe our government does not adopt a policy where all students get tested at certain stages.

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At present I'm working with a dedicated bunch of teachers in a high school in Christchurch, NZ to figure out how we are going to disseminate aspects of their on-going discussions about their work. The research project enabled the teachers to take time out of their usual work (teaching/ administration responsibilities) to meet together to discuss ways they were "leaders and leading learning". I'm wondering what a catchy title for an article might be that captures the on-going conversations and how they evolved, sprked new thinking and enabled others to  consider new possibilities for the way they work with pupils and their colleagues.