EDfutures Educator: Jarrad Strain

Jarrad Strain, Mathematics teacher at Perth Modern School

Jarrad started his professional life working for a global consulting firm and then a large Australian bank. For professional reasons he become involved in various networking and service organisation, in particular Rotary. Through volunteering at Rotary organised youth event, Jarrad discovered joy of supporting young people’s learning. He quickly became hooked on seeing the look in students’ eyes when they finally understand a challenging concept. He took the risk of changing his career and went back to university to become a teacher. While this was a scary leap into the unknown, he has found teaching is an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling pursuit.

Jarrad is working as a mathematics teacher at Perth Modern School. He is enjoying regular opportunities to learn along with the students. He is encouraging innovation through running Endorsed programs for both Project Based STEAM program and Individual Research projects.

The value of making connections and collaborating widely remains as one of his core values. Jarrad appreciates the connections groups such as EdFutures provides.

EDfutures Community Night: How Values Shape Education

At this community night, we’re taking a deep dive into values and the impact they have in Australia’s education system. We will be exploring:

• What role have values played in arriving at the place we find ourselves in today?
• What have we been valuing, consciously or otherwise, and will those same values serve us in the emerging future?
• What other values might play a role in co-creating an education landscape that best serves the needs of tomorrow?
• How would we make that shift and make those values more explicit?
• How would we know they were leading us to the outcome we want?

This session will be facilitated by Kendall Clifton-Short of The Purpose:Fully. She works with organisations to imagine tomorrow’s future, and then embed purpose-driven strategy to create purposeful impact. As a passionate member of the EDfutures community, she’s excited to facilitate an exploration of the above questions with us all.

WHEN: November 6th 2018, 5.30pm – 8.30pm

WHERE: Lotteries House, City West

WHY: Community nights are an opportunity for us to welcome new members and a create some energy and understanding around EDfutures. Each community night will focus on a different theme.

• Learn about the work of EDfutures
• Meet other EDfutures members
• Hear about the work members are doing to challenge the status quo in education
• Have the opportunity to discuss your needs with the community
• Find collaborators in our community
• Build your capacity as an agent of change

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR:

 Kendall Clifton-Short

Kendall is the Managing Director at The Purpose:fully. Kendall’s purpose:ful journey began with transformational experiences in the outdoors forcing her to redefine what she believed she was capable of. And awakening a desire to facilitate experiences that tested people’s self imposed limits and preserved the wilderness spaces essential to this transformation.

This has grown into a lifelong quest to understand how we can build systems and cultures that promote more sustainable behaviours and lifestyles.

Through the twisting, turning journey that is life and work, this has become the core belief that caring for people, communities and the environment is actually good for business, and good for humanity.

Her professional life has seen her questioning and helping people redefine what is possible:  Leading adventures in pristine wilderness environments as a Course Leader for the National Outdoor Leadership School; redesigning sustainability educational to challenge the status quo as the Director of a remote secondary education campus; and challenging CEO’s on purposeful impact, and leadership assumptions and practice.

Fundamentally helping people and organisation reshape the way they think, connect and do business, so we can reshape the business world as a force for good.

And as a friend, wife and mother to three gorgeous balls of energy, she can often be found mucking around in the bush and wild spaces with her family, and asking difficult questions about how we can live more congruently with what we believe in and care deeply about.