By Allan Alach
Key is not the key, Pressure
Cooker, and other poems
Diane
at Save Our Schools NZ ran an Educational Poetry Slam. There are some
rather talented people out there…
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it
to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.
This week’s homework!
Teacher LEARNing, PD, CPD,
Training….wotever! When are we going to get it ‘right’?
Another
thoughtful post from Tony Gurr.
‘The
learning opportunities we provide them just need it to be “fit-for-purpose”…to
be convenient…to be useful…and fun (but not just a “laugh-and-giggle show”)…’
The
Big Lie in Education
‘“Preparing
kids for the Real World” is a phrase that many educators and schools use
without regard for the consequence of what they selectively choose as reality
for their students. Both educators and institutions in many cases are still
choosing for students by educating them traditionally, or more progressively
using technology tools for learning. This probably begins with educators’ misconception
of the real world. We cannot prepare kids for the Real World when we still have
a 20th century view of it.’
Why Testing Fails:
How Numbers Deceive Us All
‘But,
"teaching-to-the-test" is something different. It is an educational
mindset, in which test scores are not measures of learning outcomes; the test
scores are the outcomes. While that distinction might be subtle, it has real
effects on how classes are taught, and in the messages we communicate to
students about the goals of an education. Tests are measurement tools; they
should not be the reasons that students come to class.’
Why Are the Rich So Interested in
Public-School Reform?
“...reformers
need now to think beyond the numbers and admit that closing achievement gaps is
not as simple as adopting a set of standards, accountability and instructional
improvement strategies.”
and
“In other
words, more than good teachers, more than targeted testing, more than careful
calibrations of performance measures and metrics that can standardize and
quantify every aspect of learning, it’s the messy business of life — where a
child comes from and what he or she goes home to at the end of the day — that
really determines success in school.”
Indeed.
Along similar lines: The ‘educational’ value of being born rich
Teachers or
‘Quantitative Learning Gains Facilitators?’
‘There is a myth going
around our country that goes something like this: American (New Zealand?
Australian?)schools have been dumbed
down, bad teachers have been given free reign, our educational system is
failing, and we will fail to be competitive in the new global economy.’
And so on. Recommended.
Creativity
unleashed!
Steve Wheeler, Associate
Professor of learning technology in the Faculty of Health, Education and
Society, at Plymouth University, (Twitter @timbuckteeth) is well known to many
teachers and is well worth following.
Testing young children will cause untold damage (via Mike Boon)
Not exactly rocket
science, is it? So why are politicians incapable of understanding this?
Teaching Through Inquiry:Engage,
Explore, Explain, and Extend
Holiday
reading suggestion from Bruce Hammonds.
‘This article gives an overview of
an instructional framework that takes students through the four components of
inquiry: engage, explore, explain, and extend. The author describes the central
aspects of each inquiry phase, the types of questions students might consider,
assessments that check readiness to progress to the next level, and what
reflective teacher practice might look like at each phase.’
Henry Giroux - lessons for New
Zealand educators.Revitalizing the role of public education, by Bruce Hammonds:
‘I was recently sent
a rather long article written by Henry Giroux. I struggled to read it but I
believe it is important to share the ideas he writes about if the true aims of
education are to realised. Giroux sees education as central to the development
of a just and democratic society currently under attack by neo –liberal
thinking.’
1 comment:
Thanks for my weekends holidays.
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