SBEA Conference 2009

Miss Dunlop and myself attended the SBEA conference in Perth on Saturday. This was my 3rd consecutive time at the event and again it was very worthwhile.

Following in Peter Hughes and Colin Semple's footsteps was Ian Ritchie CBE, who has a list of highly impressive achievements in Software and Web Technology companies. One of his companies OWL were involved with the forerunner to the World Wide Web and sold one of his firms for somewhere in the region of $100 million! Serious money!

On a lighter note we learned that Ian was not a fan of Dragons' Den. Ian invests in many business start-ups and as he gave great insight into the mind of an investor. Investors are looking for on average 5 times their money back, and they accept out of every 10 investments 2 will fail, 6 will perform okay, 1 will do well and 1 will be a runaway success. It is this jackpot investment that keeps the system going. It reminded me of the Hollywood Studio system whereby they have several flops but only need 1 or 2 blockbusters a year to make a healthy profit!

The main focus for us was Curriculum for Excellence and we attended Norma Mathieson's presentation on the new materials being offered by Leckie and Leckie for S1/S2, CfE Outcomes delivered by representatives from LTS, and finally the best was saved for last by Monica Greer and Eileen Erikson who exemplified the CfE work being implemented currently in Inveralmond Community School.

All in all an excellent and inspiring day. In fact we were treated to a brilliant quote from William Arthur Ward (though I am certain it said Word on the presenter's powerpoint!!!)

"The mediocre teacher tells.

The good teacher explains.

The superior teacher demonstrates.

The great teacher inspires."

Simple, yet powerful. And it encapsulates everything Teaching and Learning should be about, in my opinion.

In fact I will cite as an example the most incredible lecturer I have ever witnessed at University, a Strategic Management lecturer called Phillip Holden. Mr Holden is an author of several financial tomes and self-help books, but for me he was the most enthusiastic and incredible presenter I have ever witnessed. Phillip Holden looked like a respectable bank manager. Quiet, unassuming, wearing spectacles. You'd walk by him in a crowd. But once he got into that lecture hall he transformed into a different entity altogether. He was lively, funny, unpredictable but all in all he was exceptional. Charismatic and inspiring.

I reckon he is my inspiration and hopefully I can pass some of that on to my own students.