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By Allan Alach
Another New Zealand school year is about to
start, so I guess that means I need to unpack my brain and get started on this
year’s education readings.
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!
Can Lego Help Return Play to Children’s Lives and Education?
Peter Gray commenting on a Lego Foundation
conference - a good read.
“..there
was no real discussion of the meaning of “play” (at
least none that I heard), and I wish there
had been, because many speakers used
the term to refer to activities that neither I nor most children would class as
play. They used the term to describe activities that teachers could bring into
the classroom for the explicit purpose of teaching certain lessons, lessons
that are part of the school curriculum and would ultimately be measured by
scores on tests.”
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| .Importance of play neglected |
When you innovate are you a puzzle builder or quilt maker?
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| Are you a quilt maker? |
Interesting video:
“When
you don't 'get' something, when there's something you've not got that gets in the way of building your idea, do you put your
hands up and wait until the next piece in your puzzle becomes available, or do
you just make stuff happen with the resources you've got - are you a puzzle
maker who struggles when a piece is missing or a quilt maker who makes the best
out of what you have?”
Workload forcing new teachers out of the profession, survey suggests
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An article from England, however from what I
read online this is a widespread concern.
“Almost
three quarters (73%) of trainee and newly qualified teachers (NQTs) have
considered leaving the profession, according to a new survey by the Association
of Teachers and Lecturers. Heavy workloads are wreaking havoc among new
recruits as 76% of respondents cited this as the main reason they considered
quitting.”
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What's Worth Learning in School?
Thanks to Ivon Prefontaine for the link to this. Ivon’s Leadership, Innovation, and Creativity Scoop.it site is
well worth following.
‘“You’ve been teaching long enough to be pretty sure that hand is going to
go up as soon as you got started on this topic, and so it does, with an
annoying indolence. All right. You gesture toward the hand, Let’s hear it.
The student: ‘Why do we need to know this?’”
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Seven ways schools kill the love of reading in kids — and
4 principles to help restore it
“This
post by Alfie Kohn explains all the ways that school actually kills a desire to
read in many kids, and how that can be remedied.”
Great Research
Jamie McKenzie:
“Students
must make answers. The research is like a shopping trip to find the raw
ingredients that will be chopped up and combined to cook a great stew or sauce.
Cooking should involve more than heating up "store bought" dishes in
the microwave.”
5 Devastating Facts About Charter Schools You Won't Hear from the
'National School Choice Week' Propaganda Campaign
“Children
who are better resourced with more family support are the winners in the school
choice game. Children from disorganized families don’t even enter the lottery. Children with significant special needs
are not well served in charter schools that lack the appropriate resources. The
privatization of our schools puts public schools at a huge disadvantage, stranding
the least advantaged and disabled in underfunded, under-resourced schools.”
This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
Beginning the school year with the end in
mind ( Steven Covey)
Bruce wrote this article for New Zealand
teachers who are about to enter the fray for the new school year; however it
has relevance all over.
“A few years ago Steven Covey wrote a popular book called 'The Seven
Habits of Effective People'. One of Covey's effective habits was to 'begin with the end in mind'.I
think it very important advice for teachers starting with a new class. What
would you like the class to be like at the end of the year? What habits,
dispositions, attitudes, competencies and behaviours would you ideally like to be in place?”
Insights into Student Motivation
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“Motivating students is always a hot topic among education writers
and researchers, but never more so than the last several years. This MiddleWeb
Resource Roundup gathers blog posts, interviews and studies centering on some
of the recent commentary on intrinsic and extrinsic sources of motivation.”
My Longstanding Beef with Instructional
Leaders
Bruce’s comment: Are
principals really’ instructional leaders’ or’ lead teachers’? Do you go to your principal for help or to an admired fellow
teacher? The reality of the principal's role is to create conditions to
encourage creativity and to trust teachers.
‘When the mic finally came to me, I pushed back at the notion that
principals are truly the instructional leaders of any school. "How can you REALLY be the instructional leaders," I
argued, "when no one has ever seen you teach?!”’
The Past, Present And Future Of
High-Stakes Testing
Bruce’s comment: The
state of testing –
is USA the model to follow? This testing obsession must
never take over New Zealand schools!
“I've just written a book on this topic, The Test: Why Our Schools
Are Obsessed with Standardized Testing — But You Don't
Have to Be, and Steve Inskeep sat down with me to ask me a few questions about
it.”.jpg)
Andrew McAfee: What will future jobs look
like?
Bruce’s comment: This TED talk by the author of The Second Machine Age is a must to watch about the future of jobs in the coming decades.
It is a positive message. Schools need to be about encouraging exploration,
imagination and creativity – not the current push towards standardisation ( which has more to do with the first Industrial Age. Be great
to show to staff and senior students. Andrew Mcafee gives a powerful quote
about education ‘I learnt in Montessori school that the world was interesting and it
was my job to explore it. Then I went to public school – it was like
being in the Gulag’.
8 Myths That Undermine Educational
Effectiveness
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| .Educational myths |
“Certain widely-shared myths and lies about education are destructive
for all of us as educators, and destructive for our educational institutions.
This is the subject of 50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools: The Real Crisis in Education, a new book by David
Berliner and Gene Glass, two of the country’s most highly respected educational researchers. Although the book
deserves to be read in its entirety, I want to focus on eight of the myths that
I think are relevant to most teachers, administrators, and parents.”
1 comment:
Thank you for a wonderful set of readings - a good start to the year.
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