Guest post by Allan Alach
I found the following poem (written by Lee Crockett, Ian Jukes and Andrew Churches) on Tony Gurr's All Things Learning blog. Great blog to follow, by the way!
Given the current situation in New Zealand education, over the introduction of national standards, and the strong indications that national testing is on the way, I thought it was timely to be more positive and proactive about teachers, who have the power to make positive changes in the lives of children. This is, of course, with the proviso that politicians, of any kind, stay out of education!
What is a Teacher?
A guide, not a guard.
What is learning?
A journey, not a destination.
What is discovery?
Questioning the answers, not answering the questions.
What is the process?
Discovering ideas, not covering content.
What is the goal?
Open minds, not closed issues.
What is the test?
Being and becoming, not remembering and reviewing.
What is learning?
Not just doing things differently, but doing different things.
What is teaching?
Not showing them what to learn, but showing them how to learn
What is school?
Whatever we choose to make it.
4 comments:
Thx Allen - glad you liked it. If you and your co-bloggers enjoyed the poem - this follow-up might be of interest.
http://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/why-we-need-more-%E2%80%9Ccommitted-sardines%E2%80%9D%E2%80%A6/
Thanks Tony, hope you didn't mind me accessing it off your marvellous blog. I knew I was being a bit presumptuous but as the battle here against the standards is reaching crunch time I wanted to out something positive on the blog while Bruce is holidaying in England.
Thanks for the link -will share it on. I've been to presentations by both Ian and Lee, and have been a committed sardine ever since!
Regards
Allan
Great you are keeping up the good work Allan. Am enjoying reading your blogs- and Kelvins' postings All sounds a bit serious?
Hi Bruce
It's getting rather nasty and the aggression of the MOE is beyond belief. Far worse than the 1990s under Maris, which says something. The lies, mistruths, distortions and hidden agendas add up to a disaster in coming years. In some ways a clean imposition of a Naplan style testing programme would have been preferable to this nightmare. When are you back?
Allan
Post a Comment