The Power of Design

Last year I was lucky enough to be involved in Matthew Flinders Anglican College (MFAC) inaugural Design for Impact summit. This was a 2-day Design thinking immersion experience for all Year 5 students where they were set with a real challenge that impacted their local community. This year I was able to participate in the 2nd annual Design for Impact Summit and have again, seen first-hand, the benefits of teaching Design Thinking to school children, in particularly, primary school children. 

Design thinking is a problem-solving process or problem identifying process. It is an iterative process that draws on creativity and innovation and focusses on the user to develop the best solutions to problems. Design thinking embraces dispositions such as empathy, collaboration, critical and creative thinking, adaptability, communicating and failing forward. Skills that are essential for our next generation of leaders to navigate future global issues. Skills that MFAC are developing in students from a young age. 

In 2020, MFAC kick started a program called I-Impact, which embeds design thinking into the curriculum of all their Junior School classes. MFAC views these skills as essential to students’ education. The college recognises Design Thinking skills as transferable, scalable, and adaptable to all subject areas, year levels and areas of a child’s development and growth. 

To provide an authentic experience, MFAC partnered with QUT’s Design Lab and CreatEd and challenged the Year 5 students to design and prototype the Maroochydore City Centre of 2050. The Maroochydore City Centre https://www.maroochydore-city.com.au is a real project under construction on the doorstep of where these children live. It is a place with which many of these children will interact, work in or visit as the next generation of Sunshine Coasters. 

The Design for Impact Summit not only used a real project to challenge students’ thinking but engaged experts from the wider community to enhance the learning experience. Over the course of 2 days, students were lucky enough to listen to presentations from Architects, Town Planners and local Councillors. They got to work alongside peers, teachers, university lecturers and university students and a variety of experts from industry. Students’ thinking was disrupted, challenged to empathise with users and dared to think deeper about future needs. Students were empowered, as the future custodians of this precinct, to think critically and creatively about what the challenges, possibilities and solutions might look like in 2050. Over the course of the summit, students imagined, designed, prototyped and tested. They discussed, shared and redesigned. They negotiated with stakeholders, role played, worked in ministerial groups to abide by local design regulations and presented their solutions. The experience was an inspirational one for me and I’m sure one that the participants – old and young – will never forget. 

As an advocate of design, I hold the strong belief that design thinking should be taught from an early age. Imagine students entering high school where empathising with others is second nature to them. Where students see failure as just their first attempt and using it to improve and solve the problem. If resilience and perseverance are the essential skills that students need, then design thinking is the way of their future. When students have the capacity and confidence to communicate with a range of people from different backgrounds, cultures or expertise; when they can value collaboration and flexibility, then we can be confident that the world’s future will be in capable hands.

What I’ve learnt from tutoring maths.

I’m a proud Design Teacher. I believe that Design should be taught across all year levels including the very early years. I am well connected, have preached my passion and presented at national and international conferences and at 47 years of age, I still have a burning desire to connect, learn and hone my craft. In the last 12 months, I have done just that, but I haven’t taught one class of design. 

Let’s rewind 12 months. I had finally taken the plunge to leave Australia and had accepted a job teaching Design at an exciting International school. COVID 19 hit and I was forced to walk away from that job, fearing that now was not the best time to travel. For a little while there I was in limbo, with no job and wondering what my next move was, when a former colleague contacted me and asked if I was interested in tutoring two primary school girls… MATHS! 

I’ve never taught maths and I’ve never even tutored before. However, I believed in my abilities as a teacher of children rather than just subjects and contacted the family. When I got the job, I remember being very excited and enthusiastic and really looking forward to getting started. Maybe it was the new start? Maybe it was the new challenge? Or maybe it was because I had no other way to pay the mortgage. 

Since then, life has thrown me (…and all of us) some curve balls. Halfway through 2020, I found myself teaching in a remote indigenous community ‘smack bang’ in the centre of Australia, 3 hours drive from the next town. Without warning, my Mum passed away and by late 2020, I desperately wanted to secure a teaching position back in Brisbane to be closer to my family. 

While many things have changed for me over the past 12 months, the one thing that has been constant is my maths tutoring sessions with these two girls in Hong Kong. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, but it has only been this week, that I have thought about why these times have been so special. 

The first thing has been the personal connection. Our lessons are over SKYPE twice a week, but to be able to work with only two students, has allowed me to really understand how those two girls learn. I got to see their strengths, weaknesses and interests so that I could design lessons to best cater to their learning needs. With only two students sitting in front of you, you also enjoy the ‘A-ha’ moments on a higher level. I’ve felt even greater pride than normal in those moments because of the more personalised connection. 

The personalised connection has also allowed me to connect and work with their parents to support and encourage their learning. I’ve always considered teaching a team sport and a good parent/teacher/student connection can only enhance learning. 

Through reflecting on what has worked well and what I have enjoyed while tutoring the girls, I have been able to focus on those areas within my own classes at school. Things like getting to know the kids on a more personal level, taking the time to discover what their interests are and having conversations about this. This, in turn, develops a rapport with students that allows trust and respect to flourish and let kids see that you are genuinely interested in them achieving to the best of their ability. 

It has also reminded me of the responsibility I have to educate each and every student and not let any child slip under the radar. I am not a parent, but I’m certain every parent sends their child to school every day, entrusting us to provide them with equal opportunities to learn and develop their minds. 

I’ve missed out on working and living abroad for now. But, connecting with this English family, living in Hong Kong, has somewhat still been a bit of an adventure. Concepts that have come up in lessons like measurement, money, food, travel that are different from those in Australia has given me a taste of a different culture and been a learning experience for me as well. Conversations with the girls and parents have also taught me things about Hong Kong and the culture. 

I have also learnt a lot about maths in the last 12 months. More than I can ever remember learning at school. I didn’t enjoy maths at school. I didn’t understand things and I never really tried to. So, I’ve been determined to put my maths lessons into contexts that could be understood. I have checked that it was understood and if it wasn’t, tried other strategies, or contexts until it was. In the classroom, we often get tied up with trying to cover a certain amount of content per lesson. Tutoring has reminded me that understanding is more important than covering content and to slow down more often and take the time to ensure everyone understands. 

Fortunately, the girls are able to resume school soon but unfortunately this means that the tutoring will come to an end; however, the connection with the girls and the family won’t. I’ll miss the regular SKYPE calls, the jokes, and even the teaching and learning. But there’s still some learning ahead for me. I’m looking forward to seeing how well I’ve prepared the girls for their return to regular classes and reflecting on that. 

Will I be rushing out to apply for maths teaching jobs? Not likely. Will I be more open minded about learning from different challenges, not just professionally but personally? ...Absolutely! 

I never imagined how valuable tutoring these girls would turn out to be for me both personally and professionally. Thank you, Ramsey Family! I hope your girls have learnt as much as I have.

New Year, New School, New Challenges.

This time last year, I decided it was time for a change but little did I know just how much of a change it would be. You see, I thought I had a plan – a new position in a Canadian school in Beijing. Then COVID hit and the whole world shifted off kilter. So, here I am 12 months later, on a completely different path, working in a new school but with a whole bag of experiences and lessons learnt in 2020. 

I’ve always loved teaching and I’ve always loved travel. I knew that it was only a matter of time before I would combine the two. Whilst attending a conference in Singapore in November 2019, I took the opportunity to visit some International schools. Listening to like-minded people and seeing some of these wonderful schools, resonated with me and provided me with the motivation to make some changes to my life. I returned home knowing that 2020 was the year. 

Once the decision was made, I started the search for a new school in earnest. I submitted many applications and was lucky enough to sit quite a few interviews. Finally, I secured a position in Beijing, and the big change was suddenly becoming real. At first, I took the safe option of applying for a year’s leave. With 19 years at the same school, a total leap into the unknown seemed a bit too daunting at first. However, my confidence in my teaching ability had never been higher and I decided that if I was really going to challenge myself, I needed to cut ties completely and start afresh. So I resigned! 

 Of course, that’s when things started going ‘pear-shaped’. A little thing called COVID-19 reared its ugly head. At first, like most people. I had no idea the impact it would have on the world around us. It soon became apparent that this was not going away, and my best made plans were now unravelling. International travel was becoming less appealing and quite frankly, a bit scary. As supportive and as encouraging as my new school was, I took the option, with my school’s blessing, to walk away from the job. 

All of a sudden, I was jobless, living in a new house that I’d just built with, no furniture (I’d sold it to go overseas) and no idea what I was going to do for work. Instead of heading back to my old school with cap in hand, I took this time to reflect and reassess. Thinking over my options with an open mind I soon realised that I could do anything I wanted! I had no ties. I had no pets, little debt and of course no furniture to store if I chose to move towns. This was exciting! I reached out to my professional connections to let them know I was open to new beginnings. 

Before long, I was on my way to the Northern Territory to teach in an Indigenous community. I had never been to the Northern Territory and I’d never visited an indigenous community let alone lived in one. The following 6 months were exciting, but it also had its challenges, both personal and professional. I won’t go into detail as this topic needs a blog of its own. 

Fast forward 6 months and I am back in Brisbane, a week into a new school year, in a very good school. A school, that 1 year ago, was not even on my radar. I am teaching different subjects from my usual collection – again another challenge. This is a new environment, with kids who are both socially and economically extremely diverse, in a staffroom with people from a variety of faculties, experience and ages.

It is amazing what happens when you open yourself and your mind and I’d like to share my take on it. 

 1. It pays to take a risk. If you trust in your abilities and give it a go, it opens you up to new             experiences. In turn, that develops you as a person and as a professional. 

 2. Teachers are flexible and adaptable. We are great actors and story tellers and draw on all our      experiences to create learning opportunities for our students. 

3. We need to live the ‘growth mindset’ that we educate our students to have. We need to take        that attitude into our real life and again, that may just lead to experiences that you can use to     tell stories and create learning experiences. 

4. It’s important to be grateful for the life you have. It’s easy to remember and complain about        the negative things, but what about all the great things in your life! 

I’m really enjoying my new school. But will I be here this time next year or the year after? Who knows, but that is not what is important. To paraphrase John Lennon - Life is what happens to you while you are busy making plans. So no more plans. I intend to enjoy each day and revel in the surprises it may bring.