This week we are putting some final touches on our planning for the 20% Time Kick-off Day. This Friday, we will introduce the kids to the concept of 20% Time and what the expectations for the year-long project are. We have been mentioning 20% Time here and there since school started and the kids' ears perk up every time that we do. Some of the kids have had siblings who participated in 20% Time and some have just heard about all of the cool projects that their predecessors have created. Even though they do not have a full understanding of what 20% Time is, they are eager to get started.
Friday promises to be a huge day for us. We love taking kids through the story of 20% Time, showing them the philosophy behind this kind of learning, relating it to what their work in real life will be and narrating a story of personalized learning that they will live this year. During our two-hour "meeting" about 20% Time, the kids' enthusiasm grows bigger and bigger. Their energy is boundless and, by the end of the meeting, they are ready to begin!
Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Open warfare #eden15
It was good to sit Martin Weller in the hot seat recently, for a forthright discussion about various aspects of openness in education. Martin is well known for his work around digital scholarship and his various research into the use of MOOCs and other open education approaches at the British Open University. I caught up with him in Barcelona at the 2015 summer EDEN Conference, where he had just given a keynote speech entitled 'The Battle for Open.' I originally interviewed him via text for this blog post ahead of conference, so many were already aware of what he would be saying. Subsequently, I also posted a live blog of his speech as he stepped off the stage at the event. The video of his keynote will be made available soon on this site, but below is some additional content in the form of the video interview.
The key premise of Martin's presentation was that although openness is now more mainstream and accepted in education than it was previously, there are still small battles to decide the direction and development of openness in the coming years. I asked him about the future of MOOCs and other open courses, and we also discussed the concept of open scholarship. These, and several other related topics made this encounter into what I hope you will agree, is an engaging and thought provoking interview about the importance of open education, and the critical role open content, open courses and open scholarship will play in shaping the future.
Video produced by the European Distance and Elearning Network
Open warfare by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The key premise of Martin's presentation was that although openness is now more mainstream and accepted in education than it was previously, there are still small battles to decide the direction and development of openness in the coming years. I asked him about the future of MOOCs and other open courses, and we also discussed the concept of open scholarship. These, and several other related topics made this encounter into what I hope you will agree, is an engaging and thought provoking interview about the importance of open education, and the critical role open content, open courses and open scholarship will play in shaping the future.
Video produced by the European Distance and Elearning Network
Open warfare by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Monday, 28 September 2015
Uneducation of a technologist #eden15
Once in a while you meet someone who inspires you to think more deeply. Jim Groom is one such person. He is anarchic, subversive, the original EDUPUNK (it was Jim who coined the phrase and insists on it being written in upper case) and he constantly challenges the status quo of education. He has redefined what it means to learn online with groundbreaking initiatives such as the open course ds106. As a part of the run-up to EDEN's annual summer conference in Barcelona, I was invited to interview him. Jim and I had previously interacted only on Twitter and other social media so to put some questions to him directly was hugely enjoyable, and he gave me his fairly unique take on the world. And so it was with even greater pleasure and a lot of anticipation that I finally met him in the same physical space in June 2015, where he gave a keynote speech at the EDEN conference in Barcelona entitled 'The Uneducation of the Technologist'. I live blogged during his keynote speech and met him afterwards for a chat in the EDEN studio. Below is the video interview we recorded:
Video produced by the European Distance and Elearning Network
Uneducation of a technologist by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Video produced by the European Distance and Elearning Network
Uneducation of a technologist by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Sunday, 27 September 2015
Punk learning
Some were outraged by the audacious behaviour of the punk rockers. Their clothes and hairstyles were bizarre and their demeanour was antagonistic and aggressive.
Others were energised and inspired by punk rock - some enough to take up a guitar or microphone and give it a go themselves. You see, at the heart of the punk movement was the belief that you could do-it-yourself. To release a record you didn't have to bow and scrape to the multi-national music publishers and labels.
Anyone could take part. Audiences and bands often merged. Many punk bands created their own labels and fanzines, promoting their music to new audiences by subverting the rules, challenging the established way of doing things and creating a new and vibrant culture of creativity.
Punks cared nothing for authority or tradition. The only thing they respected was authenticity. Essentially, punks spat in the face of 'the establishment' and went off to do things their own way.
Punk learning (some would call it Edupunk) reflects that seventies music ethos. For some time, educators have been subverting established methods and turning their backs on institutional tools and technologies such as the managed learning environment (also known as LMS or VLE). I would argue that these are 'punk' educators, whether they realise it or not. Some educators have at some time openly identified themselves as edupunk, including Amy Burvall (who created a series of history teacher videos for YouTube), Jim Groom (pictured top, considered the originator of Edupunk) and Pam Nelmes (who has transformed communication across her large cohorts of nursing students and with the general public through creative use of social media).
Many punk educators are finding viable and for them, more acceptable alternatives to proprietary software, structured courses and closed journals, and instead are devoting their energy to creating new approaches including open software, open courses (including the original C-MOOCs) and open publishing with free tools. The C-MOOC or Connectivist Massive Open Online Course was a free at the point of delivery online learning experience with no limits to the numbers who participated, and where 'students' could choose how, where and when they learnt. Some of the early MOOCs also allowed students to choose their own preferred method of assessment, and spawned many creative outcomes such as global radio with #ds106.
There is also a lot of energy being directed into transforming the education experience. Some go as far as to argue that autodidacticism - or self-teaching - is an important part of contemporary learning. Learning by watching YouTube or participation in social media discussions are certainly methods that are gaining traction. For example, 2015 world champion Kenyan javelin thrower Julius Yego claims he owes his prowess to watching YouTube videos. Even professional teacher development through social media is gaining great impetus, evidenced by the large numbers of participants on education Twitter chats such as #edchat, #AussieEd and #ukedchat as well as global online events such as the Reform Symposium.
In this digital age some are changing their opinions about what we think education is and should be. Punk educators have a lot to do with this - it's not just the disruptive nature of social media and personal technologies. It's also the energy and commitment they have to making a difference in a new way. But punk educators need to be wary of a precedent. What happened to the original punk rock movement? It was compromised and commercialised - becoming the very thing it was trying to avoid in the first place. The contrast between the raw late-70s punk rock of The Clash and The Sex Pistols and the more polished post-punk (or 'new wave') commercial sounds of the early-80s from U2 and Blondie is stark.
Fast forward to today, and we see signs that the early dynamic MOOCs and other punk learning approaches are being adulterated. The recent offerings of the so called xMOOCs which use Coursera and other bespoke developed platforms is returning the MOOC to the traditional online delivery and it is now hard to tell the difference. But a hard core of punk educators remains who are determined to do things differently. Whatever pressures the commercial world throws at education, and whatever the criticism thrown at them by traditional educationalists, edupunks will still continue regardless, practising their own particular brands of pedagogical anarchy and will answer with a: 'WE DON'T CARE.'
Graphic image courtesy of Jim Groom
Punk learning by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Friday, 25 September 2015
A future
With me in the picture from left to right, they are Charlotte Langslow, Matt Povey, Hannah Shelton, Megan Douglas, Chris Nesbitt, Charlotte Rice, Polly Short, Rebecca Legatt, Peter Tolley, Lloyd Chilcott and Adam Easterbrook. Missing from the picture are Kelly Holborrow and April Farrell-Langler. Each of these former students, now newly qualified teachers, have contributed significantly to knowledge already, with their regular blogging, video making and other activities related to education.
Take the example of the blog Learning to Teach by Megan Douglas which is a frank and honest running account of her time as a student teacher. Or read Hannah Shelton's account of her own journey to become a primary educator in her Life as a Trainee Teacher. Chris Nesbitt always wrote deeply thoughtful pieces, reflecting on his own learning and produced an exceptional piece of blogging for his assignment on psychological perspectives in education. Lloyd Chilcott has quite a presence on social media as can be seen here, and won the prize yesterday for the highest grade on his research project in digital literacy. I will miss the verbal sparring I enjoyed with others such as Peter Tolley, who always challenged and never stopped questioning. Along with other students in the group Polly Short was always very active in organising Teach Meets and other Education Society activities and fully deserves her first class honours degree. In fact, over half this group achieved first class degrees - something that is rare in any field of academic study. And I can't forget the brutally honest and wonderfully touching video Kelly Holborow created on her own digital identity - one that I have shown several times in my own presentations as an exemplar of student video autobiography (below).
I could go on, but I like to keep my blog posts short. I will miss this extraordinary group of young educators. I believe I have learnt as much from them as they have from me. I'm certain that each will go on to significantly impact their own particular corners of the education world. I hope to hear from one or two of them now and again to hear how they are progressing in their teaching careers, but I have no worries for any of them. They will all become great teachers. I will never forget how rewarding it has been to teach them during their time at Plymouth University, and I will treasure the immense sense of pride I felt yesterday as I watched each of them receive their awards.
Someone asked me yesterday what would be the collective noun for a group of newly qualified teachers. My response: 'A future'.
Photo: Steve Wheeler
A future by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Thursday, 24 September 2015
Readings for creative teachers tired of the standardization agenda Ideas from Art Costa, Grant Wiggens and John Holt et all
By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
All this week’s contributions are from Bruce Hammonds:
Providing Space for Wonder: Fostering Children's Natural Sense of Inquiry
“Why is the sky blue? Who invented the toilet? Why do zebras have stripes? As any parent of a preschool- or elementary school–age child can attest, children are born with a natural sense of curiosity. It is this innate sense of wonder that will lead and support our students' lifelong journeys of discovery and learning. As educators, we have a moral obligation to not only allow for our students' inquisitiveness, but to also foster and support this powerful, often untapped potential.” |
| See maths ecerywhere |
How to get children to want to do maths outside the classroom
How to get children to want to do maths – try some maths walks
“Ask adults about maths and they’ll often say: “I was never very good at maths at school”. How can we stop young children growing up today saying the same thing. One way to develop ownership is to take children on a “maths walk”, opening their eyes up to the world around them. It’s like a treasure hunt, with the treasures hidden all around us waiting to be observed.”
Three Lessons For Teachers From Grant Wiggins
This advice is offered so that each student can continue to benefit from Wiggins' teachings and wisdom.“While Grant is no longer with us, his spirit and ideas live on. Indeed, we can honor and celebrate his life’s work by acting on the sage advice that he offered to teachers over the years. As we prepare to meet our new students, let us consider three of Grant’s sensible and salient lessons for teachers.”
Five Strategies for Questioning with Intention
The art of questioning by Art Costa and Bella Kallick
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| Bella and Art |
“One of a teacher's most important practices is designing and posing questions. Knowing that questions are the gateway into students' thinking, masterful teachers don't just ask a lot of questions; they purposefully design and pose questions that are appropriate for each learning goal—questions that will bring about the specific kinds of student learning they are aiming for.”
The Neuroscience Behind Stress and Learning
The real oil about brain friendly learning.
“The realities of standardized tests and increasingly structured, if not synchronized, curriculum
Beyond the Factory Model
Blended learning – many schools are moving into personalised blended learning to move out of a factory one size fits all model.
“A foundation-funded experiment is testing whether“blended learning” can personalize instruction in eight Oakland schools. Blended learning combines brick-and-mortar schooling with online education “with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace” of learning, according to the Clayton Christensen Institute definition of the term.”Classrooms Flooded with Devices.
Remember B.F. Skinner’s teaching machine? Are similar claims being made for today’s technology?“By repeatedly rotating a little wheel on the machine’s side, each child was presented with a question and its answer, then another question and its answer and so on. The feedback was instant. Each child could move at their own pace. Learning was fun instead of hard work. It was obvious to Skinner that this technology was going to change the face of education forever. Except it didn’t.”
Nine of the Best Ways to Boost Creative Thinking
“When it comes to creativity, one of our biggest concerns is usually how we can be more creative, or how to come up with better ideas. Research in this area is all over the place, but I’ve gathered some of the most practical studies out there to help you utilize specific techniques that can boost your creativity.All of these studies are useful for everyday creativity in daily life, so try a few out for yourself and see which ones work best for you.”
Don’t Assume I'm Smarter Than My Contractor: Why Schooling Helps Us Devalue the Nonacademic
It is not only what school think is worth knowing – shame teachers don’t understand this“Whether we mean to or not, we constantly reinforce the message that only the stuff kids are taught in school counts as serious learning. Extracurriculars are fine, but what really counts is in their textbooks and homework.We send them to school precisely because we believe that’s where they’ll be taught the most important subjects. We grade them on those things, and in many ways we measure their worth (at least while they’re in school) by how well they do on tests and school assignments.”
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:New Literacies for a New Millennium
Reading has shaped our brains!
“It is hard to imagine that such an innocent act as reading could limit our thinking. After all what could be more innocuous than reading a book?
Creativity: process or product?
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| Quote by Goethe |
What’s often missing in many classrooms are the ‘voices’ and personal creativity of the students.
The point of the creative process is for each student to produce a piece of work (research, poetry, art or dance) that represents the best a learner can do; a piece of work or performance to be proud of. We are what we create to a degree.To many teachers do not understand that to develop student creativity they need to do 'fewer things well' to allow their students to 'dig deeply' into any experience and then to express what they discover with individual creativity.
See nothing, hear nothing, don't talk to anyone!
Time for the elites to listen to voices of the people.The only way we will get a real change in the basic script of our society is for central government to start listening to the voices of the wider community and, in education in particular, to the voices of teachers, students and their parents.
Unlocking the treasure within
Unlocking the treasure within with regard to Maori students.“Perhaps there is no way for schools to develop their Maori students learning unless they dramatically change their style of teaching – and if they did all this students would benefit.”
Observation and imagination“Students who are taught to observe the intimate world of their immediate environment not only see more, and have more to wonder and talk about but, in the process, develop a wider vocabulary and ask more questions. From this wealth of sensory experiences arises the source for talking, drawing and early writing.”
Time to re-read John Holt
John Holt quotes on learning - more pertinent than ever
Along with John Holt I now have to admit that, after decades of encouraging school transformation, I have also come to Holt's view about the impossibility of really transforming our antiquated education system.
Tuesday, 22 September 2015
New Zealand Education is at risk - it is time to make a stand!!
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| Please share posting this with other teachers! |
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| September 2015 |
The September New Zealand Principal’s Magazine reporting on the 2015 NZPF Conference couldn’t have made the disastrous issues facing New Zealand education any clearer.
But who is listening to the ‘frightening messages’ – or more importantly taking action?
My interactions with local principals seem to indicate that, even though they may be aware of the situation, it is all too hard; so much to do just to keep up with compliance requirements.
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| Elwyn Richardson |
Sadly Elwyn is no longer with us but he still remains as the ultimate example of what creative education is all about – his book, ‘In The Early World,’ recently republishedby the NZCER is testament to the kind ofeducation that we were once heading towards. His classroom was a community of young artists and scientists exploring and expressing their ideas about issues that concerned them.
And it is not that the ‘frightening messages’ are new as anyone who reads the posting of ex senior inspector of schools Kelvin Smythe will know. Kelvin warned us in the 1980s of the consequences of ‘Tomorrows Schools’ reforms of self-managing, competitive schools, but no one listened ,including myself, at the time! A man before his time but at least he hasn’t given up the fight. He is now more relevant than ever. |
| Visit Kelvin's site |
A recent comment to one of his posting, said in respect to the NZEI succumbing to the Government’s wishes over Community of Schools (a good idea abused by the Governments’ standardisation ideology):
‘Don’t comply. Stand firm…..resolution from our leaders will not happen while teachers remain apathetic and only think in the short term about their back pocket rather than the long term about the NZ education system, their profession and what is truly best for our students’.
Our ‘so-called’ self-managing schools are suffering from what one writer calls ‘a corrosion of character’. They were promised the opportunity to develop flexible schools but find that their success depends on the approval of the Education Review Office. This dilemma, to gain approval by ERO and to stay true to their educational beliefs, is made worse because ERO approval is a shifting target. Only those with real character (and courage) can stay true. And then there is the problem of their school’s reputation and destructive interschool competition; far easier to comply – to go along to get along. |
| Denise Torrey |
From the ‘President’s pen page’ it couldn’t be clearer. Denise Torrey summed up the messages from the internationally respected keynote speakers.
‘Professor Meg Maguire (UK) demonstrated the harsh reality of the global education reforms (GERM) which in a nutshell, she said,’ can be summed up as the decimation of the public education system in the UK’.
Meg Maquire spoke about how assessment and so called ‘performance’ are the all-consuming focuses in the UK. ‘Children’ she said, ‘face more of the same, year after year: assessment preparations, then assessment, then repeat’. School leadership is a statistical exercise in crunching data and preparing children for the next test. And, she said, ‘if schools are underperforming they are closed down by the equivalence of ERO (OFSTED) and replaced by private academies’ (charter schools).
No wonder such principals suffer from ‘a corrosion of character!’
This brings up what Denise calls ‘the sinister topic ofprivatising of education.
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| Diane Ravitch |
Keynote speaker American educator Diane Ravitch outlined the steps politicians use to introduce their agenda- ones that will be recognised by New Zealand educators.
First they manufacture the ‘crisis’ ‘in New Zealand the ‘one in five failing’ and ...’students are leaving school and can’t read, write or do maths’. Once the crisis gets public support then in comes the political solution.
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| 1 in 5 failing = 1 in 5 in poverty! Any connection? |
The ‘crisis’ is framed as teachers not doing their job properly, teachers unions protecting them, not being accountable and not having proper standards. Then in come the standards in literacy and numeracy and suddenly we have a standardised measure of a schools ‘performance’.
Next in line, warns Denise, are privatised charter schools to solve the problem – and to make a profit. Denise brought up the issue of the TTPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) which she says would allow foreign corporations to establish charter schools and, if so, to override the decisions of democratically elected Governments.
Next in line, warns Denise, are privatised charter schools to solve the problem – and to make a profit. Denise brought up the issue of the TTPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) which she says would allow foreign corporations to establish charter schools and, if so, to override the decisions of democratically elected Governments.
In this scenario schools are to blame – no mention of poverty being an issue.
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| Totally compliant |
Denise asked those attending, ‘What is the purpose of education?’
Seems like a good question and too important to leave to
Denise informed the meeting that a business world survey found that the top five skills required for job hunters are: problem solving, team work, communication, critical thinking and creativity.
And Denise reminded attendees there are the views of theimportance of a creative education by such educational experts as Sir KenRobinson. ‘Unless we reach an agreed sense of the purpose of education’, Denise concluded, ‘we will continue to be overwhelmed and bewildered by myriad policy initiatives none of which emanate from a common purpose.
A good start would be to put the focus back on the vision of the all
Steve Maharey,the Vice Chancellor of Massey University, continued the theme of the importanceof a personalised education system where, ‘students would become activeparticipants in constructing their own learning by making their own decisionsabout why, how and what they learn’. And he commented the New Zealand Curriculum, introduced when he was Minister
ofEducation, was ‘a document to be proud of’. He concluded by saying that in a rapidly changing world only the flexible, creative and innovative will succeed’. He could’ve also be referring to schools themselves!
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| Steve Maharey |
The message was loud and clear; creativity or compliance.
Liz Hawes the editor of the NZPPF magazine (who summarised all
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| Liz Hawes |
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| Meg Maquire |
In England Meg said, ‘we haven’t got a system left. Teachers are the objects of policy, not the agents. These are deforms not reforms’, resulting in ‘intolerable stress levels’.
‘Don’t go down this path,’ she concluded.
Professor Alma Harris (Head of Educational Leadership, London) asked attendees to rethink what high performance means and to ‘press the pause on the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA), which is distorting education’. Sir Ken Robinson calls then as reliable as the
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| The leaning tower of PISA |
Alma’s final message was to ‘unite against thestandardisation and privatisation of our excellent education system with itsworld class curriculum’. ‘Resist! Resist! Resist!
This was a message further pushed home by Professor Diane Ravitch of New York University. ‘You must avoid being infected by GERM (Global Education Reform Movement). It is not aboutreform it’s about privatisation and eliminating public education’.
‘What drags down performance in the United States is poverty, more than any other factor. But politicians and power brokers don’t want to talk about poverty they want to talk about reform.’
A further belief is that ‘if you standardise testing, and the curriculum and everyone has common testing them all children will be successful and all poverty will disappear And, with regard to charter schools, ‘you have no unions, no tenure and no security’. ‘This is education for profit based on ideas ‘Resist! Resist! Resist!’ Ravich insisted,‘public schools are vital to a democracy’
Liz Hawes concludes her summary by writing, ‘It is timely that we continue to take on board the strong warning from the speakers from both the UK and the USA that global reforms are dangerous and destructive and should be resisted’.
Time it seems for educators to remember ‘they came to drain the swamp’ and to set their sights on an educational vision that focuses
It will take character courage, imagination and working together to avoid the current ‘corrosion of character’ but what is thealternative?
Monday, 21 September 2015
Cut and thrust
Peter Ford makes a compelling case for academic blogging and social media engagement, citing several high profile politicians who have cited teacher bloggers in their speeches or who follow them on Twitter. I know this is true from personal experience. My own blog has been cited by the Irish Education Minister, while another, the US Secretary of State for Education, Arne Duncan follows my personal Twitter account. This blog, and many like it are becoming first ports of call for information, the latest news, reviews and discussion groups. My own blog is well on its way to six million views (over 100,000 views each month), and there are others that can boast significantly more visits from readers. How does this compare to academic texts? Are peer reviewed journals as well read, or as dynamically responsive to their readership?
Reading between the lines, Peter Ford seems unrepentantly traditionalist in his allegiance, while I am a unashamedly a progressive educator in my thinking and my practice. It would not be easy to find a forum where our polemic views could gain equal time, but social media is one such place where this kind of debate can be hosted. Were we to hold such a debate we would not require a room or lecture hall, and there would be no need to invite an audience. The blogs themselves would be the room and the audience would be those who were connected through social media. Excluded from the discourse would be those academics and teachers who either refused to participate in social media discussions, or for whatever other reason, were unable to be involved.
The digitial divide is very real in academia and education. The 'haves' and the 'cans' are moving along at a pace, discussing and sharing and learning from an online community of practice. The 'have nots' and the 'cannots' are in Ford's words 'in danger of being sidelined'.
Photo by emaze.com
Cut and thrust by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Friday, 18 September 2015
Podcast: We're Baaaaaaack!
In this episode, we talk about kicking off the new year of Harmonized Learning, the way students should learn in a modern classroom, tweaks to the program and other issues related to implementing a 20% Time program in class. Follow us on Twitter (Don - @dayankee, Melissa - @melissahellwig4). Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes. Just search "Harmonized Learning".
Thursday, 17 September 2015
Education Readings - fighting for creative education in the face of politically imposed standardisation.
By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
Why America’s obsession with STEM education is dangerous
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| Steve Jobs: Technology alone is not enough |
Other countries who are being sucked into STEM need to take note.
“A broad general education helps foster critical thinking and creativity. Exposure to a variety of fields produces synergy and cross fertilization. Yes, science and technology are crucial components of this education, but so are English and philosophy. When unveiling a new edition of the iPad, Steve Jobs explained that “it’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — that it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.”’
Weapons of maths destruction: are calculators killing our ability to work it out in our head?
It’s not the calculators that is the problem…“Sadly, the potential for calculators to transform school mathematics and enhance our facility with mental arithmetic is not being achieved. We are not being provided with opportunities to solve real and interesting mathematical problems in the most effective ways”
How The Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive
Interesting.
“Sassoon’s analysis of how we’re taught to hold pens makes a much stronger case for the role of the ballpoint in the decline of cursive. She explains that the type of pen grip taught in contemporary grade school is the same grip that’s been used for generations, long before everyone wrote with ballpoints. However, writing with ballpoints and other modern pens requires that they be placed at a greater, more upright angle to the paper—a position that’s generally uncomfortable with a traditional pen hold.”
A New Kind of Social Anxiety in the Classroom
“Kids who constantly use phones and computers tend to be more nervous in face-to-face conversations. What can teachers do to help?”
Making and the Reggio Emilia Approach: Making the Connection
“The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education places among the children an atelierista with two primary responsibilities: to conduct deep observation of the patterns in each child’s growth and use these observations to lead children into the process of the artist. Atelieristas often refer to this process as the “aesthetic dimension,” full of desire for meaning, curiosity and wonder.” |
| Alfie Kohn |
Four Reasons to Worry About “Personalized Learning”
Alfie Kohn deconstructing the corporate view of “Personalized Learning”:
“Certain forms of technology can be used to support progressive education, but meaningful (and truly personal) learning never requires technology. Therefore, if an idea like personalization is presented from the start as entailing software or a screen, we ought to be extremely skeptical about who really benefits”
This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
Putting the Passion in Project-Based Learning
“How do we as teachers get our students to define their own driving questions? One way is by pairing design thinking with project-based learning. If you want students to develop leadership, confidence, and solid core content knowledge, then this is a strategy that works “learning miracles.”Students crave assignments that are relevant to them. That’s why project-based learning is the best way to get students to take control of their learning. Here are some keys to getting the most out of project-based learning.”Most Likely to Succeed,’ by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith
New York Times review of Tony Wagner’s excellent book is well worth a read
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| Tony Wagner |
‘“Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era,” by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith — argues that the only way to ensure any kind of future security for our children is to totally upend the education system and rethink what school is for.Many of the disruptions the authors suggest — an interdisciplinary approach; hands-on, project-based learning; student-directed curriculums — are already in place in some of the country’s best schools. Less convincing is the assumption that undergirds this whole tract: that every person can — or should — be molded into an entrepreneur.’
Why Ed Tech Is Not Transforming How Teachers Teach
“A mountain of evidence indicates that teachers have been painfully slow to transform the ways they teach, despite that massive influx of new technology into their classrooms. The student-centered, hands-on, personalized instruction envisioned by ed-tech proponents remains the exception to the rule.”
Golden Rules for Engaging Students in Learning Activities
“Research suggests that considering the following interrelated elements when designing and implementing learning activities can increase student engagement behaviourally, emotionally, and cognitively, thereby positively affecting academic achievement.”Igniting Student Engagement: A Roadmap for Learning
More good advice on engaging students.
“Here are three practices that, when incorporated by teachers, offer entry points for students to invest in their learning.”Know that you have it: Keys to self-driven, self-loving, self-supporting education
“In life and learning, sometimes it isn’t what we know, but knowing that we have it that makes the difference. How can we cultivate an education system that values both how we feel and behave, as much as what we “know?” Imagine if you went into school every day and learned, along side your core studies, how to listen, communicate, and collaborate; how to honor each other; how to see the best in each other. The possibilities are endless.”
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
Negotiating the Curriculum
“In the Australian book 'Negotiating the Curriculum, edited by Garth Boomer, four steps are suggested to negotiate a study with students applicable for any level of schooling.Essentially it is an inquiry model that emphasizes valuing the 'voice' of students in the their own learning. It is very much in line with the 'co- constructivist' teaching philosophy.The four steps outlined below are premised that the study has not yet been widely accepted by the students. In this situation the teacher and the learners should ask four questions and together negotiate the answers. This is essentially about power sharing leaving the agency for learning in the hands of the students.”And further ideas:
How to engage students - advice from the experts!
“Engaging students at the year 7 to 10 year age groups seems to be a growing challenge worldwide as non 'academic' students are finding their learning boring or irrelevant. The obvious answer would seem to be to ask the experts themselves - the students!
This is what was done by the innovative Australian project 'Negotiating the Curriculum' of the early 80s edited by Garth Boomer.”
Transform schools or exclude students
Either we transform schools or exclude disengaged students.
“On Sunday night TV One a play, 'Ahead of the Class', based on the true story of how Lady Marie
Stubbs turned around a notorious school in South London was shown; this school, no doubt, had more than it's fair share of suspended students; the previous principal had been murdered by a pupil! The play faced up to the challenge of ‘turned off’ learners that face too many of our secondary schools. And it also faced up to a staff who had accepted that the problem lay with the students.”
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| A scene from the play |
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