Copiers do not collaborate

I’ve been teaching since 1973, some in area schools, some in intermediates, but mostly in secondary schools. Throughout my career I have enjoyed studying part-time, and in 2004 I was privileged to spend the year as an e-Fellow. I’m still studying, still reflecting on education in general and teaching in particular, and still very interested in what it means to be working in this space, what it means to be a teacher. In this piece I am therefore writing primarily with my colleagues in mind—I am writing for the classroom practitioners of today who are the teachers of the future. The ideas of connectedness and collaboration that I discuss here are based on what I have learned from my own practice. Built on a firm theoretical foundation, they represent my synthesis of education wisdom and philosophy. They are intended to challenge the status quo and to provoke change, just as the future challenges us to learn from the past but move from the present.