As the Director of Learning and Teaching at SHORE School in Sydney, I am responsible for the strategic leadership of
learning and teaching, innovation, and promoting excellence in teaching practice. I am a high school History teacher
and I am currently also the Chief Examiner for Modern History with the NSW Education Standards Authority.
I have a strong partnership with Harvard’s Project Zero. I teach a class on "Protocols for Professional Conversations"
annually at Harvard in July, I am a coach for Harvard’s online "Creating Cultures of Thinking" course, and I taught in the
Harvard teacher education program on sabbatical during the 2010-2011 academic year.
I have received several awards for teaching and leadership, including the 21st Century Learning International Global
Innovation in Teaching Award (awarded in China in 2016) and a NSW Premier’s History scholarship. I was also a top fifty
nominee for the one million dollar Global Teacher Prize in 2015.
My teaching practice features as a case study in Ron Ritchhart’s book, Creating Cultures of Thinking (2015) and in Julie
Lindsay's book The Global Educator (2016). I have served on the executive of organisations including: the Australian
Curriculum Studies Association, the NSW History Teachers’ Association, and the New Media Consortium Horizon Report
expert panel. I have hosted some of Australia’s most innovative conferences, including the Flat Connections conference
in 2014, ResearchEd in 2015, the Project Zero Sydney conference in 2016 and the Australian Curriculum Studies
Association conference in 2017.
I currently lead a team in the ELEVATE project, supporting educators to collaboratively design and implement powerful
practices to lift learning outcomes for high potential learners. The focus is on the teacher as pedagogical designer
using design thinking methods to consider how ‘high potential’ is thought of and talked about in schools and which
learners are thought of in that way.
I am also currently co-editing a Flip the System Australia book with Routledge about teacher leadership, autonomy,
empowerment and professionalism, and I write about innovation in education for the US-based Getting Smart.
In 2013, TED-Education published my Ho Chi Minh Trail animation. I am a well-regarded keynote speaker and I have
keynoted national conferences in Australia as well as presenting internationally at the Global Education Leadership
Summit in Bangkok and at the International Society for Technology and Education in the US. I also lecture to Masters of
Teaching students annually at the University of Sydney.
A recent report to the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership noted about my leadership: "I have never
come across such an innovative and progressive approach to professional learning. What has been developed is a
school where coaching is seen as an integral part of daily practice, where doors are open and classrooms are accessible
and where there is ample opportunity for teachers to engage in professional discussion and dialogue and it is a very
healthy place to work."
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