Reading Writing Responding

There seems to have been a few blogs bouncing around in my feeds of late. These include  Deb Hicks ' 'Why Blog', Tom Whitby's 'Why Blogs and Who Needs Them Anyway' and Peter DeWitt's 'The Benefits of Blogging'. I t kind of occurred to me that I hadn't really ever stated, nor really thought about, why I have chosen to blog. I have therefore decided to have a go at providing some of my reasons: Scratching an itch . Often while reading, there are things that stick out, that prop the ears, the spike the imagination, that remain like an itch. A blog is a way of  responding to these things, somehow alleviating the irritation. Being connected . I love being connected, following various threads of thought, commenting, tweeting and reaching out to others, but sometimes a responding needs to be something more substantial. A blog is one avenue that allows this. Critical engagement . I read on the wall in a coordinators office the other day the st...

In a recent blog , Corrie Barclay shared his experiences from a recent meeting he attended where Dr. Bill Rankin spoke about presentations. In conclusion, Corrie came up with the following, that: The creation of a presentation is more than just images and text on a slide. To effectively engage an audience and convey powerful messages, you need to consider those messages and specific design principles that will allow present your information in the most effective manner possible. I could not agree more that it is more than 'images and texts'. A presentation is also about more than just an app or a device. I am not saying that apps are not powerful, but in my view having a good app is only one part of the puzzle that is a good presentation. Let me diverge for a moment to explain. At a recent staff meeting, we had Tony Richards come and speak about cyber safety smarts. Not only was I left pondering the consequences of my ongoing digital footprint, but I was also lef...

In a recent blog post on being a connected educator, Tom Whitby suggested that: The unconnected educator is more in line with the 20th century model of teacher. Access to the Internet is limited for whatever reason. Relevance in the 21st century is not a concern. Whatever they need to know, someone will tell them. If they email anyone, they will follow it up with a phone call to make sure it was received. The question that it got me thinking was that if not being connected means not being a part of the 21st century, what does it actually mean to be working within the 21st century? There are many contrary opinions out there about what 21st century learning is and what are the skills associated with it. However, the one thing that stands out across all discussions is that to ignore one element often collapses the whole definition. Reading, a Sum of Many Interconnected Parts The other day, I was discussing the practise of reading with a fellow teacher. Although see...

It's interesting, when you let go of the usual teacher/student hierarchy, as +Joe Mazza  has with the idea of the ' lead learner ', all else seems to slowly crumble around it. Take for example the notion of 'professional relationships'. I am not so sure which of the two words has had the biggest change. The profession to which everything has become seemingly so serious and accountable or the concept of relationships, which in the past were always so haphazard. Let me firstly look at the profession. What's in the Name? Often people say that you don't always choose your family, I think that the same thing can also be said about colleagues and clients (that is what students are, right?) This may have been different in the past where a student could have been 'expelled', where they would be shunted off to the next school and then the next school until they eventually flunked out of school. The profession of teaching has changed, subsequently h...

Strength is in the Weakness In my view, the strength of any team is not in the leadership group, although having strong leadership is important, rather it is in the supposed lower ranks, those individuals and stakeholders deemed to be at the bottom, and their ability to carry the overall vision for the organisation. To use a sporting analogy, it is often the depth of the reserves rather than the strength of the seniors that a teams metal is truly tested. With enough money, any team can buy enough players to be a good side, but to be a strong and successful side, it is the ability to stand up against injury and adversity which often decides between winning a game and maintaining long term success. This same mentality can be applied to the day to day actions in any educational environment . Often effort and money is put into key areas associated with big data, such as NAPLAN . However, it is those areas found in the margins of the curriculum, areas which neither provide clear measur...

Reform needs Team I was in a staff meeting the other day, the start of which focused on auditing the curriculum in regards to a whole school initiative that had been progressively implemented over the last few years. The task was divided into year levels. As staff all sat down together, many looked at each other wondering who had sufficiently incorporated the different modules in their planning. There were a few cases of ' it doesn't fit into our learning in ... ' and ' I just did it informally ', while others simply had a blank look of ' what are we talking about here '. The one thing that did become apparent was the necessity to work as a team, crossing all learning areas, focussing on the student at the centre. The River of Education Being in a somewhat unique situation of having both 'Primary' and 'Secondary' classes in the same school - and having taught in traditional 'Secondary' schools in the past - it can sometime...

Too often in education we get caught up worrying about our own situation, our own students, our own children, our own resources. What the Gonski Review set out to do was to fix a system that was failing a certain group of students and failing them badly. If you look at the PISA results you will notice that Australia is above the PISA average in regards to the quality of the education provided. However, you will also notice that there is a significant drop off in regards to equity and access across the board. Australia has a large group of students who for a range of reasons are being disadvantaged when it comes to learning and risks creating a two tiered culture of those who have and those who have not. What has been disappointing in the whole debate is that we often hear about who will supposedly be missing out in 'real' terms and so forth, but what is missed is that if a school were to 'miss' out, it would be because their need is not as great as that of anot...