By Allan Alach
On Wednesday Labour Party education spokesperson Chris Hipkins released a press statement about the very
obvious intention to turn PaCT into a form of national testing.
Better late than never - I predicted this (as did Kelvin Smythe)
when PaCT was first publicised in October 2011. I raised many issues about PaCT
in this article Smoke and Mirrors that I wrote at the time -
these are still very valid, even if the resulting fall out was rather
unpleasant for me.
SInce then, Hekia has pulled back from making PaCT compulsory in
2015. Good news, but beware - this victory was much too easy to achieve.
Have a well deserved rest and recuperation over the next two weeks.
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!
A truly great question
US
educator Jamie McKenzie is another valuable person to add to your reading list,
and if you get a chance to attend one of his workshops, take it! In this article
he explores the value of truly great questions in stimulating purposeful
inquiry learning.
Lester Flockton:National Standards
and PaCT – no way to solve the problem of student underachievement..
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Bruce
Hammonds posted this last week - hopefully you will have read it then. However,
in case you missed it, this is a very valuable article.
My Message to the Badass
Association of Teachers
Diane
Ravitch, probably the leading voice in the USA anti-GERM battle, wrote the
following message when asked to join the Badass
Teachers Association, formed
to empower teachers’ voices. Her message is powerful indeed, for all teachers
wherever they may be.
‘Teachers must resist, because you
care about your students, and you care about your profession. You became a
teacher to make a difference in the lives of children, not to take orders and
obey the dictates of someone who doesn’t know your students.’
Bruce
Hammonds has posted this
article about Diane.
The Mother of all Curriculum Myths
…(the RE-boot)
In-depth
posting by Tony Gurr that examines the difference between GERM like imposed
curricula and the real learning involved in genuinely holistic curricula. This
is an excellent resource for anti-GERM debates.
 |
| Time to fight back! |
Freedom from Wasted Training: The
e-Learning Bill of Rights (via David Kinane)
‘One of my greatest frustrations
in working in e-learning for so many years, is that as technologies come and
go, the rights and values of the learner are repeatedly compromised in
preference to arbitrary limitations set by software, management systems,
unrealistic development environments, impossible performance expectations,
etc. In pursuing some particular development goal, the central importance
of the learner experience is lost, or at least muddled.’
We’re Not in Kansas Anymore…
Interesting
article about adapting Google’s 20% time to the classroom.
So much for the language police
(via Bruce Hammonds)
Stephen Fry takes a firm stance on grammar. He doesn't go the
way you'd think.
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