Overview
Two caterpillars were talking when a butterfly floated past. One caterpillar turned to the other and said: 'You'll never get me up in one of those butterfly things.'
Attitudes to change vary. Some see opportunity, rejuvenation, and growth, while others see instability, upheaval, and threat. Whether people perceive change with excitement and confidence or with fear and anxiety (or somewhere in between), depends partly on the individual and partly on the nature of the change.
How change is perceived also depends on how it's managed. Managing change is about implementing new processes and overcoming resistance to change. Change management is the process of developing a planned approach to change; at heart, it is a human resource issue.
Brian Allen has seen a lot of change since he trained as a woodwork teacher at the Auckland College of Teaching in 1972. Brian sat on the 1983 Ministry of Education committee that looked at Technology teaching and led the change to the teaching of Technology in several schools. In 2004 he became HOD Technology at St Patrick's College, Kilbirnie, Wellington, charged with rejuvenating the school's Technology Department.
While at St Patrick's, Brian participated in the Wellington cluster of Beacon Practice schools. In 2006, Brian left the school to become a Technology Adviser, with Massey University.
In his place, Chris Smyth was appointed Acting HOD Technology. Chris gained a BDes Design Degree with a major in Visual Communications Design, from Wellington Polytechnic/Victoria University in 1995 and spent six and a half years as a freelance technical illustrator, illustrator, designer, painter and model maker. After completing his Graduate Diploma in Teaching-Secondary, from Wellington College of Education in 2002, Chris joined the staff at St Pat's. Initially his energies were divided between two departments – the Visual Art Department, and the Technology and Graphics Department. As a designer, his teaching and planning philosophy was to take a holistic approach. The Technology HOD at the time allowed him to plan and teach new units of work, with an emphasis on combining several of the traditional 'technological areas' in one project, for example, integrating materials, structures and mechanisms and electronics. After six months, Chris moved out of the Art Department to teach Technology and Graphics exclusively. Following Brian's arrival, Chris was appointed assistant HOD Technology and Graphics. In 2006, he began to participate in the Wellington cluster of Beacon Practice schools; at the end of that year he was appointed acting HOD Technology. He has recently been appointed HOD Technology as a permanent position, and currently teaches Print Design, Materials, Electronics and Control, and Graphics to Year 13.
