By Allan Alach
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!
How teachers
are taught to discipline a classroom might not be the best way
“Research
clearly shows that students learn best in engaging environments that are
orderly. However, all children are different; they respond to discipline in
different ways. So how do we teach our teachers to manage all types of
behaviour?”
Put Working
Memory to Work in Learning
“…working memory is a key cognitive skill for students and their
teachers. As an educator, you know well how you must to be able to maintain the
mental skillfulness and agility to process many variables in everyday teaching
practice, such as students' prior knowledge, the primary purpose and goal of a
lesson, sequence of learning activities, time constraints, interruptions
throughout the school day, and on and on.”
The Triumvirate of Upheaval in Our Classrooms
 |
| It is not about learning it's about testing |
“Teachers
are being asked to scrap what they know about teaching and children and start
from scratch with really bad materials. This means throwing out volumes of
craft knowledge that these teacher collectively hold and doing so for no good
reason.
Why would you make teachers who are doing amazing work completely
change what happens in their classrooms? This is the short answer – tests
and money.”
Secret Teacher: don't let spineless school managers drag you down
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| Teachers- grow a spine! |
“I don’t believe these invertebrates started life without their spines.
They were probably born with them and maybe even showed a bit of it in their
early careers. Back then they had vision, drive and the desire to make the
world of education a better place. They planned lessons, did playground duty
and even gritted their teeth through the next tome of paperwork to land on the
doorstep from the DfE. Yes, my friends, they were like us. They may have spoken
out against the “machine”, railed
against it even.”
The 47% Solution: Playing Musical Chairs With Our Children’s Futures
Is this the unspoken intent behind current
education policies in USA and elsewhere?
 |
| Educational musical chairs |
“We
are adding one twist to the game of musical chairs we are imagining as our
children’s future, where a seat
represents a job. Before our young graduates can begin their hunt for a chair,
they have to prove they are “college and career ready” by
passing a Common Core test. And those tests have been designed so that only
about 30% of our students will pass.”
What neuromyths do you believe in?
 |
| Neuro bonkers! |
“…people
do not perform any better in their preferred learning style, rather they
perform better in the learning style that best matches the material being
taught. People are in fact poor judges of what form of learning will be best
for them, in reality often a mixture of learning styles is the best solution…”
Reconnecting Adults With Playful Learning
 |
| Adults playing with learners |
Following on from previous articles about the
importance of play for children and teenagers, here’s one for adults.
“… incorporating
playful learning into their trainings with educators is a very practical
approach. It has helped them achieve major turnarounds in the quality of
education, making the learning process more engaging to help young people pick
up the life skills they'll need to succeed in the classroom and beyond.”
What Makes Great Teaching and the Role of Technology
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Hmmm …
“Most
teachers have agreed wholeheartedly with its findings, but other teachers and
academics have cautioned that reports such as this may be simply propounding
strategies for which it is easier to find evidence while eschewing others,
which may be equally beneficial to learning, but for which the evidence base is
not yet strong enough. Trying to measure the relationship between teaching and
learning is notoriously difficult, chiefly because nobody actually knows how
learning takes place in the brain.”
This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
#26 - “Without
Government Schools, Most People Wouldn't Get an Education”
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Bruce’s comment: An
interesting read. I think it comes from a libertarian source but it criticizes
the one size fits all American system obsessed with standardised testing and
suggests more variety is needed.
“Today’s schools have become
standardized, homogenized and regimented. The unhealthy obsession with testing
(coming from remote politicians and bureaucrats) drives the incentives of
teachers and administrators alike. The result is a perverse factory model
governed by one-size-fits-all curricula and five-year plans reminiscent of the
failed central planning of now-defunct socialist regimes. Of course, such plans
are at odds with local experimentation and innovation.”
What Charter Schools Can Teach Us About
Teacher Voice
Bruce’s comment:
Interesting!
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| Who chooses? |
Charter schools were originally proposed
as vehicles to give teachers more leadership opportunities; however, the sector
has evolved to focus on empowering management over teachers, and today just 7%
of charter schools are unionized. This commentary piece explores what lessons
can be drawn from the experiences of charter schools, both positive and
negative, and how to run schools and structure the teaching profession to build
and retain strong teachers.”
In An Ideal World, How Would You Measure
School Quality?
Bruce’s comment: How
to measure an ideal school – ideally! A short but insightful read. Few
current schools would measure up.
“Together, we the educators can and must be unwavering in our
attempts to turn the discussion of school quality back to the Whole Child. Then
and only then can we be sure that school quality is being measured by what
matters most—
how well students’ needs are being met every day. “
6 Awesome Blogs for Project Based
Learning
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| ICT and Project Based Learning |
Bruce’s comment:
Seems like a set of useful blogs to integrate ICT with project based learning
including one of my favourites Edutopia.
“When you feel like you’re too bogged down (we
know how busy teachers can be), it’s easy to feel alone
in your quest for affording your students the best 21st century learning
opportunities. To save you the trouble of searching on Google for websites to
help you with implementing project based learning, we’ve listed some of our favorites and what they have offer.”
Creating Innovators - Tony Wagner, Sir
Ken Robinson and Kirston Olsen's plea for change.
Bruce’s comment
about this article that he wrote last year: Not so old but a ‘goody’ – Wagner’s book is well worth acquiring if you want a classroom or school
facing a future requiring innovative creative thinkers. How to extend the
innate curiosity of the very young through passion, play and purpose.
“Wagner identifies patterns that educators could emulate in their
classrooms. The innovative individuals all had a childhood that involved
creative play and the fostering of deep-seated interests which eventually
blossomed into deeper purpose for career and life goals. Play, passion and
purpose are the forces that drive such innovators.”
From Bruce’s oldies but goodies file
The Interactive Teaching Model
This is a MUST READ.
Bruce’s comment: My
impression is that today’s NZ teachers do not feature in depth inquiry studies as central to their
classroom programme . With the imposition of the Literacy and Numeracy National
Standards,
and the time they require, such inquiry topics are
limited. The answer is to ‘reframe’ literacy to introduce the appropriate information research skills to
allow students to work independently on inquiry learning. Thirty years ago
teachers were making use of the below, all but lost, excellent
NZ research.
 |
| What theories do students hold? |
“Learners from birth do their best to make sense of any learning
situation that attracts their attention but all too often develop
misconceptions. At school they 'learn' to provide the 'right' answers while at
the same time still holding on to their hidden personal views. If this process
of a mismatch between teacher and students' knowledge goes unchallenged then
students gain, what some call, 'fragile' learning.”
 |
| My letter writer right front |
30 Years ago - so what has changed?
My teaching philosophy from the mid 70s – and
a link to a brilliant letter written by a past student. Nothing much I would
change in my beliefs except to make use of modern information technology.
“Education is a means of helping all students achieve their full
potential...this includes the development of interests that might lead into
personal fulfilment or a career. As well we need to broaden each child's
awareness of their immediate environment and the wider world.The key to any
success will be seen in the attitudes of each learner to their own education.”
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