On June 14, 2018, we invited our parents to join internationally renowned Harvard Researcher, RonRitchhart, for a night of insight into how they could make a positive difference in their child’s learning and their capacity to think. Parents were invited to discover and explore (see PDF):
8 key questions to ask your children that comprise ‘The Understanding Map’
9 simple tips to making thinking visible in your daily interactions with your child
Ron Ritchhart Video
View the complete parent seminar, presented by Ron Ritchhart, below.
Overview
Ron Ritchhart is a Principal Investigator and Senior Research Associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero; a vibrant centre for research that, for over 50 years, has been a prominent catalyst for advancement in the field of education.
Project Zero has led the complex inquiry, conceptualisation and birthing of new intellectual perspectives on the development and support of human potentials such as intelligence, understanding, thinking, and creativity. More specifically, Ron’s work focuses on topics such as teaching for understanding, the development of intellectual character, creative education, making students’ thinking visible and most recently the advancement of school and classroom culture.
Ron’s research and writings have informed and enriched the work of schools and school systems throughout the world, including St Leonards College. Ron has been working directly with the academic leaders and teaching staff at St Leonard’s for the last three years, building leadership and teacher capacity to develop St Leonard’s as a College where teacher and student thinking is valued, visible and actively promoted in our classrooms.
At St Leonard’s College, we are deeply committed to creating an environment that supports the discovery of our students’ ‘intellectual character.’ We recognise the seriousness of our responsibility to regularly review who our students are becoming, as thinkers and learners, as a consequence of their time with the College.
Ron pioneered the idea and exploration of intellectual character with the intention of understanding where effective thinking originates from. While a numerical indicator of IQ is positive, it does not compare to those thinking ‘dispositions’ that make students curious, reflective human beings who view the world with an open and curious mind. It is the development of these more expansive approaches to thinking that ensures our students are educated and equipped for life beyond the classroom.
This academic association between Harvard and St Leonard’s preserves our ability to fulfil our College Vision of: ‘An education for life’ by delivering a more enlightened educational process and system that prepares our students well, as robust thinkers and learners, for the world that they will live, work and mature in.
We are wholeheartedly committed to a progressive scholastic model comprising of classrooms as places of intellectual stimulation where the ability to think and learn is viewed not in test scores but in the development of individuals who can think, plan, create, question, and engage independently as learners.
Please click on the below presentation to download the notes from the parent seminar on Tuesday 10 May 2017 which was aimed at parents with children in year 5 through to year 9.
On Tuesday 6 September we had a panel of experts discuss the changing nature of our society in terms of digital disruption and the skills we need to build in our young people.
Our enhanced Digital Technologies and STEM, or DigiSTEM, program was also discussed.
Healthy Relationships in an Era of Sexually Explicit Images
Current research indicates that up to 90% of boys and 60% of girls will view sexually explicit material online before the age of 15, either deliberately or accidentally. Author of It’s Time We Talked, Maree Crabbe, provided information at a recent parent seminar that demystified the world of explicit online material, and helped parents understand the impact of this phenomenon and their role in raising young people for healthy relationships in the digital age.
Please click here to view the presentation by Brad Falstead, who has over 25 years experience as an educator and is the author of The Balanced Student, The Art of Relaxation and Teen Sleep. He has a passion for helping students to achieve at their personal best while maintaining excellent health and managing stress.
