Today we were lucky enough to have Julia Atkin spend the day with us at Hobsonville Point Secondary School. First of all working on articulating our core learning values and then discussing our results in the Hermann Brain model.

This diagram shows the model that we used with Julia to develop a clearer articulation of our educational values:

Working through this model gave me a clearer picture of why I have seen value in Guerrilla Geography over the last 12 months. Initially I thought this looks really interesting and a fun way to engage students with their learning but I intuitively knew there was more to it. Today I finally drilled down to what is underneath this idea that gives it such value for me.

Starting on the outside circle of the diagram with Guerrilla Geography as the practice I use in class, I had to constantly answer the question ‘why?’ to drill down into why I think this is valuable. By following this through I came up with answers that briefly look like: because I think exploration is important; this opens up their eyes; it develops curiosity; curiosity enables learning…eventually ending up with a core educational value of:

Curiosity empowers students to discover their own learning paths

This makes a lot of sense to me as this same core value is also shown through the use of inquiry learning and my enjoyment of coconstruction.

After this we went over the Hermann Brain test we had sat a week or so ago and were given back our results. This shows the preference you have for different thinking styles.

I came out as 2211 with a strong preference for the upper right quadrant which is creative, synthesising, holistic and conceptual and a second dominant area of the lower right which is interpersonal, emotional and expressive. This profile wasn’t too surprising for me as I had almost identically drawn this picture as a prediction before we received our results. The profile detail suggests my most satisfying work as being: taking risks, designing, seeing the big picture, being part of a team, helping people, listening and talking. Sounds exactly like me!

The interesting part was then looking at how that picture changed when under stress. My picture changed with a decrease in the detailed, planning green quadrant and a significant increase in the analytical upper left quadrant. This does make a lot of sense though as when the pressure comes on I do have a tendency to withdraw a bit from all the talking etc. I normally do and find a way to get things done in my own way. The challenge now is to recognise when this stress and withdrawal is happening and ensure I still keep other people’s perspectives in my thoughts!

Thanks Julia for such an awesome day of professional development!