Christchurch, New Zealand — The 2019 and inaugural cohort of Boma New Zealand Education Fellows has presented their projects to a packed audience at Tūranga in Christchurch.
The Fellows’ projects ranged from student-directed, project-based learning, to using data to revolutionise engagement, with some phenomenal personal stories coming through in the outcomes. One student had been on the verge of dropping out of high school but as a result of participating in one of the Fellows’ projects has decided to attend university.
Another group of students attended a maths competition as part of their project work and didn’t want to stay for the prizegiving “because we never win anything,” but ended up winning the big trophy.
A third group was asked about their perception of maths at the beginning and at the end of the project. They went from using words like, “hard, boring, irrelevant” to using words like, “fun, interesting, useful.”
The event was the culmination of the year-long programme and journey that each of the Fellows experienced — including intensive workshops, educational field trips to innovative learning environments, and a three-day accelerator programme.
From left to right: Tamara Yuill Proctor of Hagley College; Jacqueline Fitzgibbon Yoder of Linwood College; Josh Hough of CORE Education; Alicia Poroa of Haeata Community Campus; Jackie Brown of Mount Hutt College; Brad Milne of St Thomas of Canterbury College; Bronwyn Hoy of Rolleston College; Tim Kelly of Hurunui College School; Lisa Heald of Riccarton High School; Josh Campbell of Burnside High School; along with Kaila Colbin, Boma New Zealand CEO; and Malcom Johns, Christchurch Airport Chief Executive.
All of the projects are now on the Boma NZ Education Fellows website: bomaedfellows.co.nz. They are designed to be scalable, repeatable, measurable, and adaptable, creating tangible outcomes that are available to the wider education community across New Zealand and beyond.
“It takes a lot of courage to be the first wildebeests to cross the river. As the first cohort of Boma NZ Education Fellows, you’ve paved the way for future educators to dream big, think exponentially and transform learning outcomes for secondary students across Canterbury,” says Boma New Zealand founder and CEO Kaila Colbin.
The programme is funded by Christchurch Airport as part of its social contribution to the community.
“Building a socially strong and educated South Island helps build a strong New Zealand,” says Christchurch Airport Chief Executive Malcolm Johns. “Our support of the Boma NZ Education Fellows has enabled the 2019 cohort to create positive impact in the lives and communities of their students, which will continue delivering even wider-reaching benefits for New Zealand in the years to come.”
The fellowship is a three-year partnership between Boma New Zealand and Christchurch Airport and has already proven to be a pivotal journey for participants. 2019 Fellow Josh Hough started his year as digital technologies educator at Ara Institute of Canterbury and ended it as Professional Learning Facilitator at CORE Education, saying “This programme has shaped the whole trajectory of my career.”
First cohort of Boma NZ Education Fellows and their projects:
Jackie Brown: Changing Perceptions in Mathematics
Josh Campbell: Student-directed, Project-based Learning Environments
Lisa Heald: SocialLedia—Student Led Social Media
Bronwyn Hoy: The Activation Space — Fostering an innovative mindset in teachers and learners
Josh Hough: Liberated Learning Model
Tim Kelly: Electronic Possum Lure
Brad Milne: Developing Leadership Capacity to Lead Innovation
Alicia Poroa: Revolutionising Engagement by Humanising Data
Jacqueline Yoder: Alphabet Mana
Tamara Yuill Proctor: Micro-credentials in Liberatory Design
