Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2013

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CONNECTED TEACHERS MRS MARISE MCCONAGHY, DEPUTY PRINCIPAL (STAFF)

ARTICLE

AUTHOR

their experiences and connections marvelously. Meanwhile, in the Mathematics Faculty, Ms Maggi Gunn and Dr Peter Jenkins established valuable contacts through their attendance at the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers annual conference. As a result, the National Mathematics Summer School is seeking to engage Dr Jenkins as a tutor, and Ms Gunn has been invited to speak at the Mathematical Association of Victoria annual conference. Mrs Judith Muller and Ms Gunn recently accompanied students to the Singapore Mathematical Modelling Forum and Challenge hosted by Ngee Ann Secondary School and Raffles Girls’ School. Teachers and students had the opportunity to liaise with international counterparts and gain insights into teaching and learning practices from around the world. Our English Faculty is considered a leader in the field, and universities are frequently seeking to develop relationships with our School. This year Dr Natasha Mayne, Head of English Curriculum Development, has been invited by Griffith University to lecture part-time in their Secondary English course for pre-service teachers. The School is supporting Dr Mayne so that she can extend herself professionally and bring back to her students and colleagues the benefit of her experience working in a university setting. Ms Rachael Christopherson’s classes have been filmed by Queensland University of Technology so the footage can be used as an exemplar of best practice in English teaching to their pre-service teachers. Dr Kay Kimber, Director of the Centre for Professional Practice, English teacher, and Adjunct Researcher at Griffith University, has recently returned to us full-time after being seconded to Griffith to work with research teams on several projects. The sports area of the School is as vibrant and forward- thinking as ever. Recently, Director of Sport Ms Sally Northcroft attended the International Conference on Sport and Society in Chicago. Leadership was a key focus of Ms Northcroft’s interest and she met university lecturers from the USA and Europe to explore how girls can use their sporting capabilities to become leaders in their future careers. She also attended the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools conference in Massachusetts, where girls and leadership was again a key topic, and was able to make connections with many like- minded people. In particular, discussions are ongoing with the Hockaday School in Texas about creating future programmes between our two schools. The activities described here are just an example of the professional connections that our staff build to create exceptional learning opportunities for our students. We may spend our hours and days behind the white picket fence on the Terrace at Spring Hill, but technology, enquiring minds and adventurous spirits ensure that we are part of a national and international context.

THE BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL Board of Trustees often states that the biggest asset this School has is its teachers. In part, this is due to the tradition of a love of scholarship passed on to us by former colleagues over the past 138 years. Indeed, the beautiful heritage building in which I sit seems to eke a gracious, yet muscular, intellectualism and a desire to contribute to understanding. So, as educators here, we are advantaged by this heritage. However, the learning required in the globalised, networked world that our current students navigate will not ignite without the presence and vibrancy of teachers who are engaged in the world beyond the white picket fence. Our teachers harness the velocity of change and channel it in pedagogically clever ways for our students’ learning. Like our girls, our teachers inhabit online worlds and are part of networks posting, blogging and tweeting educational ‘#edchat’ across local, national and international forums. A number of our teachers have become online leaders in their fields, gathering followers seeking to gain from their expertise and curious intellectualism. Cyberspace has become the living embodiment of ideas, and we can imagine the Girls Grammar pedagogical brain activity synapsing its way to and from Gregory Terrace. Meanwhile, in real time and physicality, connections are being made by teachers across all areas of the School. Ms Julie Hennessey, our Head of History, was exposed to some of the best scholars and scholarship on offer at Cambridge University when she participated in the Oxbridge Academic Program recently. This experience followed her secondment to Education Queensland last year to develop the Australian Curriculum for History and, while she was sorely missed, she returned to us renewed from her experience working with like-minded colleagues. Mr Alan Allinson’s leadership in teaching Physics also has an international context through his work as President of the International Young Physicists’ Tournament. He, teacher Ms Carmen Keating and several students have recently returned from the 26th IYPT in Taipei, where they participated in ‘Physics Fights’. By meeting Noble Prize Winner Professor Douglas Osheroff at the opening ceremony and visiting the President of the Republic of China in his offices, our teachers and students furthered

SPRING ISSUE / 2013