Waikato Principals' Conference

Taupiri the mountain; Waikato the river.Last week I was invited to present at the Waikato Principals' 2009 Conference.It is important for leaders to keep alert to ideas on the horizon but it more important to return to school and to put some of them into action. It seems too many Waikato Principals didn't bother to attend. What does this tell us?Such conferences provide an opportunity for both affirmation and challenge.Whatever, on return, rhetoric needs to be translated into action.Dr Stuart Middleton started the ball roiling by stating that education is a 'social promise' of a future for all students and then provided data to show that this promise was far from being realized. He wondered if current schools 'balkanised' structures were...

Read more »

Posted in: Big Picture,change,Leadership,Rants and Raves,School Vision,teaching and learning

Creative Education.

Not all learning is able to be measured and graphed to prove achievement. This simplistic scientific approach has all but killed, or ignored, the innate creativity of many of our students, creating unnecessary problems of 'disengagement' or 'behaviour' in the process. To study a bridge there are a range of 'frameworks' available to explore and interpret such an experience -many well beyond measurement of learning. First of all you have to find the time to introduce students to such an experience.Elliot Eisner is a highly respected educator who champions the role of the arts and creativity in education.What follows are some of his ideas presented at a John Dewey Memorial Address; ideas that have greatly influenced my own beliefs about teaching...

Read more »

Posted in: Big Picture,Educationalists,Integrated Learning,Personalized Learning,teaching and learning

Let's reach for the stars!

I have a few excellent quotes which are worth sharing.The first from Stephanie Pace Marshall an American educator and space astronaut. She knows all about the courage to reach for the stars. She writes about creating 'new minds' for an ever evolving future.'The liberation of genius and goodness of all children, the creation of new minds, and learning communities that invite and challenge the wonder and awe of the human spirit'.'Is this,' she asks of her fellow teachers, 'the work you want to do?'Continuing this evolutionary line Leonard I Sweet writes:'The future is not something we enter.The future is something we create.'And Physicist Ilya Prigogine who says:'The future is uncertain, but this very uncertainty is at the heart of human creativity.'American...

Read more »

Posted in: Big Picture,Rants and Raves

Early warning for NZ!

This was just a simple drawing of a pine cone but in the process an ominous figure emerged. Are there things we can learn from mistakes made in the UK? It seems we are doomed to follow their political lead when we should be focusing on the true purposes of education. At present our 'new' curriculum has given us an opportunity to be creative but talk of national standards are on the horizon - idea proposed by simplistic politicians and appealing populist minds.A recent Guardian article gives us early warning! Thanks to those of you who sent it to me. A Cambridge Review of Education has just been published after three years research. It presents a damming view of the UK primary curriculum which it suggests has failed generations of children....

Read more »

Posted in: Big Picture,Creative Schools,Creativity,Leadership,Ministry NZCurric,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

'Colonise' the Curriculum says Kelvin Smythe

Few people give curriculums the 'once over' like Kelvin Smythe. Kelvin has a had a long career in education and has aways been a champion of innovative 'holistic' New Zealand teachers. Kelvin has long suggested that teachers ought to 'colonise' Curriculum documents to fit their own philosophies and I agree. If you want to read Kelvin in full go to his site. In the meantime I am going to 'colonise' Kelvin's writing! Kelvin is determined that education ought to attend to the heart as well as to the mind. Recent curriculums have ignored the affective , or feeling aspects, of learning and, as a result, a lot has been lost. Kelvin believes that powerful learning experiences 'transform' how students think/feel about issues. This of course is too...

Read more »

Posted in: Big Picture,Ministry NZCurric,teaching and learning

Developing a co-constructivist unit of study

A foyer display - Hokowhitu School. Hokowhitu is a school that values in all learners their sense of wonder. A school that values their students thoughts and is keen to develop their school as an inquiry community. Below is a plan for a school to develop a unit of work which values students' ideas and thoughts and then challenges them to 'change their minds' though interactive activities.Before starting the unit the staff need to clarify their idea of 'constructivist' and inquiry learning.1 Select a unit of work either individually or as a team. If a team each team member will develop their own interpretation of the unit.2 Plan to complete the unit in 4 to 5 weeks.Junior classes may need less time.3 Plan to achieve 3 or four major outcomes...

Read more »

Posted in: Action Plans and Lessons,inquiry learning,project based learning,teaching and learning