Day two at Ulearn08

Day two at Ulearn started off with the Microsoft Innovative teacher awards. Big congrats to both Deidre Senior at Oamaru Intermediate, one of the four lucky winners to be heading off to Kuala Lumpur for the International awards, and to Allanah King from Nelson, who was a runner up.

Steve Carden gave the Keynote speech for the morning. He is a Harvard Business school graduate, and is currently the GM for Business development at PGG Wrightson.

Steve also founded the First Foundation, a non-profit organization that matches bright, gifted students from under privileged backgrounds with business mentors so that they can further their education in their chosen field.

His keynote addressed the changing nature of business in a rapidly globalising world, and how this will impact on New Zealand's future workforce. He talked about the changing face of education and social connectivity that is emerging and how we as educators can help future citizens adapt in this fast evolving world.

His underlying message was that it is our ability to connect with and motivate our students which often has the most lasting impact for our students. Our moments when we manage to shift or engage a student with one sentence can have life long effects.

"Be the best teacher you can be"

For someone who professed to have no education background, and a 'rocky' experience with the school system, Steve managed to get over a minutes applause at the end of his address.