Last Thursday IFS held its inaugural swimming carnival. During the day Julie Doolan made the remark, “We’re not only a land-based sports college, are we?” How true. I was taken by the fact that we have a college of fit, healthy and athletic young people, most of whom would be successful in whatever sport they chose. Most sports enable the individual’s contribution to be recognised while at the same time counting towards a team’s effort. There were some fantastic individual performances on the day, but in the end it was a ‘team meet’, with the green Chapman team taking out the honours.
Behind the scenes there was an amazing amount of organisation happening. We had the student Team Captains, who did a fabulous job, ensuring their team members knew when their races were on. Their work helped the day run as smoothly as it did. It was a great day and a big thank you must go out to everyone involved – a mighty IFS team effort. I believe that it is all too easy to be blind to the fact that it is virtually impossible to be really successful without having the support of a great team behind us.
Since IFS began, much has been said about PBL – Project Based Learning. By now I imagine most people in our college community have a reasonable appreciation of what this means. For me personally, the integration of subjects into real life based tasks is brilliant. The dryness students can face with a lesson timetable where they are jumping between subjects that seemingly have no relationship to each other, too often brings about the switching off of students to certain subjects. Having all subjects cohesively woven into a meaningful task focuses students in a far more engaging manner. A big part of PBL, which cannot be mentioned enough, is the way the students work in groups – small teams, quite like it is out there in the adult world and in sporting teams.
So how is it for us adults working in teams/groups? Is it always easy? I think not, it can be challenging, can’t it? There are the bossy ones who would probably prefer to work alone, but when they are required to be a part of a group/team, they try to take over. Then there are the slackers – they’re happy when the bossy ones take over – less work for them. And how about the varying skill levels within a group? How about experience? Age? The ability to focus or not? The jokers? Personal and family circumstances, etc, etc. Would we expect it to be any different with students? In traditional collegeing, it’s every student for themselves; success is measured by an individual’s results. You might argue that adult life is similar, however this is only a skin-deep reflection, because really successful people need to have the support of a great team backing them.
In stage 2 we have already introduced group working. It’s foreign and challenging for the students, but you would be surprised how quickly they are adapting; how they are recognising that some students may be more capable in certain areas than others, some more focused, some more inclined to sit back while others step up. These young students are learning to accommodate different skill-sets and attitudes, they are learning communication skills, they are learning about consultation and collaboration and how to be creative. I love this side of PBL. Beginning with these quite young students in this way, we would hope that the fruits will be seen when they join the high college in a few years time. Hopefully as adults, they will be individuals who are able to make outstanding contributions to the teams they are involved with, whether it be on the sports field and/or in the work force.
It really is quite revolutionary what is happening at IFS, facilitated by a fantastic team standing behind a group of great team leaders.
Kind regards,
Rodney
chontelle singh says
Great read Rodney, thankyou.