 |
| Escape the audit surveillance culture |
Education Readings
By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come
across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
The problem of perfectionism: five tips to help your students
 |
| Pressure to be perfect |
‘As well as affecting general well-being, perfectionism can lead to
fear of failure. When your whole self-worth and identity are tied to your
success, mistakes and setbacks are seen as a threat and you avoid taking risks.
We need to talk about these issues – but where to begin? Here are
some tips for helping students manage and overcome perfectionism.’
Why For-Profit Education Fails
Good…
‘Indeed, over the past couple of decades, a veritable who’s who of
investors and entrepreneurs has seen an opportunity to apply market discipline
or new technology to a sector that often seems to shun both on principle. Yet
as attractive and intuitive as these opportunities seemed, those who pursued
them have, with surprising regularity, lost their shirts.’
Teachable Moment
What is a Teachable Moment?
Difficult to achieve in an education environment
dominated by accountability/standards/raising achievement etc.
‘A teachable moment is an unplanned opportunity that arises in the
classroom where a teacher has an ideal chance to offer insight to his or her
students. A teachable moment is not something that you can plan for; rather, it
is a fleeting opportunity that must be sensed and seized by the teacher. Often
it will require a brief digression that temporarily sidetracks the original
lesson plan so that the teacher can explain a concept that has inadvertently
captured the students' collective interest.’ |
| Privatizing schools for profit |
Education in Africa
The Uberfication of Education by Bridge
International Academies.
How a US for-profit, data-driven, education
experiment is failing children from poor African families and homogenising
culture.’
‘So bottom line. No reliable evidence of efficacy supported by
independent academic research conducting randomised school trials.’
We live in a sick world…
Why do parents take such different approaches
to their kids’ education?
 |
| Tiger mums |
Thanks to Phil Cullen for this article.
‘While some children spend the school holidays studying in tutoring
centres, enrolled in sports camps or other structured activities, others are
left to do their own thing.
So why is it that parents take such different approaches to
education and how their children spend their time?’
Getting Curious (Not Furious) With Students
‘When their students act out, I propose the novice teachers do the
following: Get curious, not furious. Let's explore what that means. Rather than
a teacher resorting to traditional discipline measures, it behooves the student
greatly for the teacher to realize classroom outbursts, verbal defiance, or
volatile anger can be symptomatic of repeated exposure to neglect, abuse, or violence.
Traumatic stress can also manifest as withdrawal or self-injury.’
 |
| Bruce the teacher - best days ever |
Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:
One best piece of advice to ensure students achieve quality learning
and teachers time to teach: 'Slow the Pace of Work’.
Bruce's latest article:
‘Too many students spoil what they do by rushing through their tasks
working on the principle that 'first finished is best'. When teachers allow
this 'mindset' to be an implicit part of the school culture students are not
encouraged to stop and think (or reflect) about whatever they are undertaking
and, as a result, a frenetic atmosphere can result. Slowing the pace allows
no time for teachers to give students (particularly those struggling)
appropriate help.’
STEM to STEAM
‘Makerspaces are environments that foster passion for projects of
all stripes and sizes. If you can dream it, a makerspace will help you breathe
life into it. I christened the makerspace the
 |
| Solder station |
Ten Tips for Mentoring a Student Teacher
If you have a student teacher in your room here
is some good advice.
‘I remember the first time I was asked if I would be willing to have
a student teacher. Looking back, I was totally unprepared, both by my
experience and by the university, to know what to do as a cooperating teacher.
I relied on the experience I had just a few years earlier and tried to model
after the cooperating teacher I had—sort of the way some teachers teach
today.If you are in the same boat I was in back then, I have a few tips that I
hope will be useful.’
Students Use Phones, iPads to Create Digital Biographies for Senior
Citizens
A simple but powerful idea:
 |
| Interviewing seniors |
‘A group of Orange County fifth-graders isn’t only reading about
history, they’re documenting it.
As part of the Fullerton School District’s narrative writing and
listening curriculum, 100 students taking part in the “Story Angels” program
have begun interviewing seniors and using technology to create digital
biographies of their lives.’
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
Creative Schools – an impossible dream?
‘If children grew up according to early indications, we should have
nothing but geniuses’ said Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.It is hard to believe
that something that starts so well results in so
What’s wrong with Ability Grouping?
‘New areas of research started to focus what was happening in
classrooms which showed that teachers themselves are implicated and maintaining
persistent patterns of differential achievement; that ability grouping helps
create the very disparities it purports to solve. It does this in subtle and
unintended ways through the ways it has on teacher’s thinking and through the
impact it has on self-image for children in the ‘lower’ ability groups. It is
obvious that teachers do not set out to do their children harm but they also
know that children live up or down to what is expected of them.’
 |
| All students can 'grow' given the right conditions |
No comments:
Post a Comment