Two leading Canadian educators have gone back to school around Tamworth as part of an international teacher exchange program.
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And two of the head public school directors in Tamworth will return the visit in a couple of months.
David Abbey and Kate Creery arrived over a week ago and have been teamed with Ruythe Dufty and Mark Young, the Tamworth based departmental directors.
Ms Dufty said the exchange visits are part of the Leap program, a program connecting principals, deputies and senior education officers around the world.
Essentially they get to experience cutting-edge learning by peer-shadowing.
The reciprocal visit will see Mr Young and Ms Dufty go back to school in Ontario during the September holidays.
A superintendent of education with a district school board based on the northern shores of Lake Erie, Mr Abbey comes from a town of 15,000 and has been keen, and impressed, to see the types of technology being used in schools around Tamworth.
There was a real diversity in technology use and ipads were being used to great effect, he said.
The differences in Canadian and Australian education structures has also given him food for thought.
But while much of the learning has been in the classroom and the school offices, he's also had some first hand lessons in Aussie cultural life.
There was a trip to Sydney last weekend for a footy game, but before then Ms Dufty also made sure Mr Abbey had the chance to kiss a koala, get up close and personal with a wallaby, and learn the rudimentary but fundamental classic steps to how to do the Tim Tam Slam.
The four exchangees have this week also gone to Ballina to join a directors of education conference there, involving the 18 executives from the northern NSW region.
The Canadian teachers have seen classroom and teacher management systems at Gunnedah, Wee Waa, Quirindi, Manilla, Spring Ridge, Scone, Merriwa, Aberdeen and of course Tamworth during their visit.