My name is Leonie McIlvenny and teaching is my passion. I currently work across many contexts which provide a wonderful opportunity to work with school aged students, undergraduates or education practitioners. In any given week I could be tutoring in study skills, lecturing undergraduate teachers in scientific inquiry around sustainability or digital literacy, conducting PD sessions for teachers on how to incorporate the UN Sustainable Development Goals into their teaching / learning programme, or creating online courses. I love that each context gives me the opportunity to teach new skills, challenge thinking (theirs as well as my own), inspire learning or reinvigorate old habits and mindsets. Even after 40+ years working in the education arena as a primary school teacher, teacher librarian, lecturer, curriculum writer /consultant, online course developer and library consultant I still get a buzz out of working in this space.
As a teacher librarian Inquiry Learning was always a key focus of the learning programmes I developed - seeking to find the answers for oneself by asking the question "I wonder why?". The introduction of digital technologies as a platform and mechanism for transformational learning has provided a new lens through which to disrupt and challenge the way we deliver curriculum. Developing digital resources to support teachers and students has also been a key focus for the past 15 years. See the Website page for details of these.
More recently l I have begun writing children's books, both fiction and non fiction, which allows me to bring my love of diving together together with my teaching background.
As a teacher librarian Inquiry Learning was always a key focus of the learning programmes I developed - seeking to find the answers for oneself by asking the question "I wonder why?". The introduction of digital technologies as a platform and mechanism for transformational learning has provided a new lens through which to disrupt and challenge the way we deliver curriculum. Developing digital resources to support teachers and students has also been a key focus for the past 15 years. See the Website page for details of these.
More recently l I have begun writing children's books, both fiction and non fiction, which allows me to bring my love of diving together together with my teaching background.
Do what you love and love what you do
We only get one chance at this life and we need to work out what impact / legacy we a want to leave behind.
For me I want to help my students be the best versions of themselves they can be and for them to also 'feel the fear and do it anyway'.
While education has been my vocation I have used my love of a challenge to take me outside my comfort zone to try new things. And so, whether it is participating in the 21km ocean swim to Rottnest Island, climbing mountains in Scotland, travelling in a container ship from Western Australia to England, or scuba diving with sharks, sea lions and sting rays, my motto is "feel the fear and do it anyway". This is the basis on which I live my life today and what I try to promote with my students - a sense of agency and self efficacy where they take control of their own learning and celebrate their own uniqueness; where they ask the question "What is possible?" and "What difference can I make?"