Trees, ABW and Future Learning

Photo by Floris Bronkhorst on Unsplash

If you have kids, then like me when your child suggests they would like to do their homework (after picking yourself up off the floor) you eagerly support the activity.

So on the weekend when my wife asked me to check in on my daughter doing her homework

"and make sure she hasn't hurt herself"

I was directed to the backyard confused.

As our Golden Retriever puppy, Molly led the way, I was still slightly miffed by my task, thinking of how she could hurt herself doing homework?! My confusion lifted as I found our 9 year old Sophia (year 4) up a tree doing her homework.

So why am I sharing this experience?

Aside from being proud of my daughter….

It reinforced to me how at different times, different approaches and settings may be needed, and that sometimes you need to think outside the box, maybe redefine the box, or possibly delete the box to enable our goals to be achieved.

As we @TSA Management move towards Activity Based Working in our office, I'm likely to come back to this image of Sophia doing her homework in a tree. It will remind me that what I think is the best location/way to do a task doesn't mean it's the same for my colleagues and that (on most occasions) it's the result and not the set location or environment that matters.

Furthermore, as we work with the Department of Education's Principals, Teachers, Students and Parents in delivering Future Focused Learning Environments for School Infrastructure NSW, we need to explore and create opportunities for differentiated learning and this may be in ways we haven’t even thought of yet.