Enjoy a Jamie McKenzie workshop in 2009

Auckland 23-24 February at the Auckland Girls Grammar School
Wellington 27-28 February at the Marsden School
Christchurch 2-3 March at the Fendalton School

You can also attend Jamie's sessions if you are attending Learning@School 2009 in Rotorua 25-26 February.

Sign up for one day or both days. Outline of each day is below.
Costs and registration details are below.

You can register and pay for these seminars at http://fnopress.stores.yahoo.net

Bring a wireless laptop and a partner as many activities will be hands-on.

Making the NZ Curriculum Real

Every Student a Thinker!

Thinking (Quoted from the NZ Key Competencies)

"Thinking is about using creative, critical, and metacognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences, and ideas. These processes can be applied to purposes such as developing understanding, making decisions, shaping actions, or constructing knowledge. Intellectual curiosity is at the heart of this competency."

"Students who are competent thinkers and problem-solvers actively seek, use, and create knowledge. They reflect on their own learning, draw on personal knowledge and intuitions, ask questions, and challenge the basis of assumptions and perceptions."
Outline of Each Day's Content

First Day - A Focus upon Synthesis - Engaging Students in Making Good New Ideas

This day will identify a toolkit of strategies that will help young ones to "develop understanding, make decisions, shape actions or construct knowledge."

9:00 AM  -  10:30 AM
Laying the Groundwork

What does the New Zealand Curriculum expect in the way of thinking and invention? How does that contrast with old fashioned topical research and copy and paste thinking?

What do we mean by synthesis? invention? novelty? imagination? originality? inquiry?

How do questions and questioning support inquiry? What kinds of issues, challenges and concepts lend themselves most powerfully to inquiry by various age groups? How will we know when they have moved from knowledge to understanding? When is inquiry worthy of student time and when is it mere ritual? How does a teacher orchestrate inquiry?

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Morning Tea

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM 
Synthesis and Puzzling
Meaningful inquiry involves students in wrestling with mysteries, puzzles, conundrums and difficult questions and issues that deserve thought and consideration. We expect students to weigh the thinking of experts and elders but then come up with their own positions, decisions and suggestions.

Research should take students beyond the mere gathering of information to the construction of new understandings. They will need a firm grounding in synthesis skills in order to combine the information in ways that may resolve puzzles and mysteries.



12:30 - 1:15 PM
Lunch - A light lunch will be served on site.

1:15-2:00 PM 
A Half Dozen Synthesis Strategies
Back in the 1950s, Osborne and others came up with a synthesis strategy called SCAMPER, the first of a dozen strategies the seminar will cover during the afternoon. Mixing presentation, demonstration and hands-on activities, Jamie will lead the group through the toolkit of strategies and provide a rich collection of resources for follow up after the seminar.

2:00-3:00 PM 
Another Half Dozen Synthesis Strategies

Rounding out the day's focus on synthesis, this final hour will add to the toolkit of strategies that should help young ones to "develop understanding, make decisions, shape actions or construct knowledge."

Second Day - A Focus upon Questioning, Challenging, Reflection and Intuition

This day will identify a toolkit of strategies that will help young ones to "reflect on their own learning, draw on personal knowledge and intuitions, ask questions, and challenge the basis of assumptions and perceptions."

9:00 AM  -  10:30 AM
Powerful Questions and Questioning

What does the New Zealand Curriculum expect in the way of questioning? How do we nurture the development of powerful questioning over the years students are in school? What can we expect at each level?

Why is it important to equip students with more than a dozen types of questions and show them how to orchestrate them in combinations that will help them to wrestle with mysteries, puzzles and difficult challenges?

What is the spirit required to persist with questioning? What can teachers and schools do to build that spirit over time? How can families be engaged as partners in this effort?

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Morning Tea

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM 
Intuition
New Zealand may be the only country in the world that mentions intuition prominently in its curriculum. This should be a matter of pride, as teachers know without any doubt that intuition fuels much of their most inspired teaching. It is this supposedly "soft" aspect of knowing and understanding that can work magic, especially when it comes to human relations, negotiations and planning. Poorly understood and rarely taught, intuition deserves the place granted to it by the NZ Curriculum.

In this portion of the day, Jamie will provide definitions and as thorough grounding in the kinds of thinking involved with intuition, equipping the group with strategies to nurture its development in the young. Too often treated as a magical and mysterious aspect of thinking restricted to psychics and fortune-tellers, intuition can become a "habit of mind" that all students employ to meet the challenges of their lives.

12:30 - 1:15 PM
Lunch - A light lunch will be served on site.

1:15-2:00 PM 
Challenging the Basis of Assumptions and Perception

In an age of PhotoShopped Realities, Artificial Intelligence and Spin, the capacity to challenge the veracity of what is presented by the media, political candidates, marketing gurus and soothsayers is basic to life in this century. 21st Century Skills must include the ability to debunk false claims and cut through the hype. In this segment, Jamie provides a package of thinking skills designed to empower this kind of challenging.

2:00-3:00 PM 
The Reflective Student

The New Zealand Curriculum calls for "students who are competent thinkers and problem-solvers actively seek, use, and create knowledge. They reflect on their own learning." What does this mean? What are the qualities of a reflective thinker?

How can we best equip students to reflect skillfully on their own learning? How can we encourage them to practice such reflection on a continuing basis? How can we make reflection a persistent habit of mind?
Registration and Costs

You can register and pay for the seminar at http://fnopress.stores.yahoo.net
Costs are outlined below.

Both Days $ 250 USD discounted to $ 200 USD for early registration
Day One Only $ 135 USD discounted to $ 110 USD for early registration
Day Two Only $ 135 USD discounted to $ 110 USD for early registration

Early registration discount for registrations made and paid by December 15, 2008.

How is Thinking like Soaring?