Connecting Learners in a Global World

This week I am participating in an online conference entitled "Connecting Learners in a Global World: why is this important? This conference is sponsored by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, and provides a great opportunity for me to engage in some discussion with educators and leaders from around the world.

After my first day of participation I have added the term 'next-practice' to my vocabulary. I have long been aware of best-practice and have actively read current educational research and stories from succesful schools and organizations to ensure that my teaching and leadership is an example of current best-practice. The term next-practice refers to taking what is current best-practice and applying a futures focused planning approach to ensure that what you are doing in 3-5 years will be the current best-practice of that time.

It is very important that we continue to look ahead - if we don't we find ourselves in a continual game of catch up. When the current GSIS Kindergarten students arrive to the Middle School in 6 years time what will their MS education look like? Is our current best practice going to serve the educational needs of this group of students in 2015? I don't believe so. Therefore we must continue to implement, evaluate, reflect, and revise so we can use where we have come from, combined with where we are now, to map a path for where we are going.

At GSIS I sincerely believe that we are utilizing current best-practice, and this makes me very excited because it means that our next-practice will ensure that we continue to provide high quality learning experiences for each individual student.