It was wonderful meeting the Launch team this week. What a great bunch of bright, enthusiastic learners! We started the week with getting to know each other. This involved interviewing a partner, asking them some standard, and out-of-the-box questions, then writing their bio, which will be uploaded to this site soon. The students also tried out the "squiggle birds" activity which involved drawing a bunch of random squiggles on their page, then attempting to transform each of these squiggles into a bird. This activity challenges people to see things from a different perspective, see opportunities where they may not normally, and be ok with things not being "right" or "perfect". We have also started an exploration of our personal character strengths. Everyone has strengths. However, we don't always know what these are, how they present themselves, or perhaps how we can 'turn them up or down' depending on context. This is something we will develop over the course of this whole module (and our lives!). Launch Learners also had a go at their first team activity this week. They had to build a free-standing tower out of balloons in a 20 minute time-frame. The challenge was to also make their tower the tallest but also the most cost-effective, by using as little tape and as few balloons as possible, as these items all had a "cost".
It was really great to see students working together, planning, communicating, collaborating, encouraging each other, and thinking on their feet.
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I'm very excited to be able to offer Launch at Nayland College this year! Founded upon the principles of Problem Based Learning, Universal Design for Learning, and Design Thinking, this course aims to support students to discover and develop personal character strengths, their own sense of autonomy and self-efficacy, self-belief and confidence, and arm them with the skills necessary in our modern and every-changing world. More than ever, our young people need to know and understand themselves, their own learning needs, what supports or hinders their own wellbeing, and how to respond and adapt to change. Life isn't as consistent and predictable as it once was; and this is ok! We need to be ok with the fact that we're not able to predict how many (or any!) things are going to work out in our lives, or what may happen in the future. I feel that our increased general sense of anxiety has come along at the same time and pace as the rapid and exponential amount of change we're experiencing, and instigating, as a human race. Problem finding / identification, is something we're all pretty well programmed to do; it's a survival mechanism. But understanding which problems are within our locus of control, which ones we can have a hand in addressing or solving, and which ones it is ok to not be able to have any influence over just yet, is a major life skill. The major principles of this course are:
Collaboration is a vital skill our students will be developing. It is important to know that no one person can see the whole problem, can see the whole solution, and be able to spot strengths and skills in those around us and tap into these to address challenges together. Tapping into creativity, being able to see and understand different perspectives on the same issue, and understanding the principles of innovation, will set these learners up well for continuing success at school and beyond. The resilience and mental fitness needed to work at the edge of our comfort zones, respond to failure and adapt to and pivot when encountering change or the unexpected, will all be life-long skills our young people will need as they move forward into the future. Let's ensure they have these strengths and skills in their kete, because they are going to be our future leaders and decision-makers, and I know I want to be in the best hands possible when these young people take over the mantle of leading us into the future! PBL - Powerful, Brave Learning. We can all be doing this...Why did we start? |
AuthorsRowan Taigel is the Launch Coach at Nayland College. Launch NayCol is a 2nd half year module for yr 9 students in 2023. Archives
July 2023
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