Career burnout / history of reform / votes for woman / school rules? / Reading Recovery / Play is learning / schools to develop talent

Kate Shepherd - Suffragette

Education Readings

 By Allan Alach

Every week Bruce Hammonds and I collect articles to share with teachers to encourage a creative approach to teaching and learning. I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz

Are you heading for a career burnout- the symptoms and how to beat it?

I can relate to this….

‘Career burnout usually creeps in quite insidiously; slowly but surely over time.Tthe very nature of career burnout can make it physically and mentally difficult to draw up the required energy needed to address it.’

http://bit.ly/2xa4eeW

Why This Time is Different - school reform the past 100 years.

‘“Given the number of books that have been written and papers that have been presented around  school change over more than 50 years by some very well informed and esteemed writers, why has there been so little change in schools and why do you think it will be any different this time ?”

It’s a question that we’ve all struggled with from time to time, however, I do think the answer becomes a lot clearer if we step back and look at the bigger picture, which tells the story of school reform over the past hundred years and highlights why this time is different.’

http://bit.ly/2Qm8Ur5

No gimmicks: technology in schools must serve a purpose

‘The push for more technology often misses the mark when it comes to improving educational outcomes. Just adding more gadgets to the classroom won’t necessarily benefit students. Rather, we need fewer gimmicks and more focus on what actually works.’

http://bit.ly/2QllQxf

Zero-Based School Rules. Zero-Based School Procedures.

‘What would you do if you had to justify and defend every school rule? Every school procedure? Every school tradition? And you

had to do that before every new school year? Our schools are filled with rules and procedures and norms that define the hidden curriculum. And I find that when schools worry about their culture they rarely tackle that persistent structure of rules — formal and informal — that define that culture.’

http://bit.ly/2CNL9pb

What I Learned from Reading Recovery and How It Helped to Inform my Classroom Practices

Marie Clay

‘I’ll begin by saying what this blog entry is not about.  It’s not about trying to move Reading Recovery practices directly into the classroom or to create some pseudo Reading Recovery program. If you want Reading Recovery like results, then get your teachers trained by certified trainers. Before trying to move any Reading Recovery practice into the classroom, first visit the theory behind the practice and then adapt the practice classroom setting.’

http://bit.ly/2x7RNjJ

The Unexpected Power of Reading Conferences

‘Teachers face many challenges when it comes to helping students develop a love of reading, some of which I wrote about in “Putting an End to Fake Reading,” but one of the most daunting is the accountability piece. How do we know if students are actually reading? How do we assess the learning students are gaining from choice reading?’

https://edut.to/2QnTuTc

It’s Not About Behavior

By Alfie Kohn

‘Over and over — in schools, families, and workplaces — researchers continue to find that the more you reward people for doing something, the more they lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward. Often, too, they end up not doing it as well as those who weren’t treated like bundles of behaviors to be managed and manipulated.’

http://bit.ly/2N6UVaI

Play IS learning: why play-time matters more than you think

‘Play isn’t some sort of soft approach before the ‘real’ learning begins, says early childhood education expert Viv Shearsby. Play is learning, children are the experts – and all teachers should provide play time every day.’

http://bit.ly/2QodXaw

A good prompt is worth a 1000 words.

‘I know that much is expected of today's teachers and students. I also know that the richest learning experiences and greatest demonstrations of student mastery

have emerged from situations where maximum flexibility is exercised. If deep learning is the goal, then when it comes to curriculum, less is more! I argue that anytime an adult feels it necessary to intervene in an educational transaction, they should take a deep breath and ask, "Is there some way I can do less and grant more authority, responsibility, or agency to the learner?’

http://bit.ly/2Nz8miZ

The new shape of knowledge.

‘If conventional schools aren’t likely preparing learners for this world of knowledge, what can? I

believe this new knowledge landscape makes Self-Directed Education both more feasible and more necessary. It is easier today for learners to learn what they’d like when they’d like. It is also more imperative than ever that children’s education prepare them less for amassing a head full of facts and how to remember what teachers teach, and more for a world where they must seek out the information they need.’

http://bit.ly/2p09xdv

From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:

The NZ Suffragettes battle for women to get the vote!

‘It would be a learning experience for students to begin to appreciate the challenge this was for

Kate Shepherd

woman facing up to the fierce opposition that came from the men.Students could research the history of the suffragette movement world wide and the actions of those involved that included gaol, hunger strikes and force feeding  and the opposition and ridicule they had to face up to.’

http://bit.ly/2p2h3V5

Diane Ravitch : Finding the genius in every child

‘The role of schools is to tap into and extend the unique gifts of every learner - not to judge, sort , stream, or classify them according to some supposedly objective set of standards or expectations. Personalisation of learning is the true agenda for the 21stC.’

http://bit.ly/2x8C9F6