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Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Best wishes for the festive season from me
2009 has been a kind year for me as I have had the opportunity to travel widely around New Zealand to share ideas about creative teaching - ideas that are being placed at risk by the Government's imposition of National Standards - so the challenge continues.My thanks to all who have asked me to work with them. They have all helped me have my house painted!Ka kite anoBr...
Posted in: KTuesday, December 15, 2009
Testing times?
Mrs Tolley will go down as one of the disasters in education if her uninformed and simplistic views are imposed on teachers. The question is how strong will teachers be in resisting her reactionary ideas? We will find out next year.‘May you live in interesting times’, the Chinese saying goes; or as Charles Dickens’s wrote about the Victorian Era, it is the ‘best of and the worst of times’.Just as schools were becoming enthusiastic about implementing the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum the ‘new’ government is imposing its populist national standards in literacy and numeracy on schools; standards which have more than a whiff of the Victorian Era about them.It all sounds simple enough. From next year all primary schools will have to test children...
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Mary Chamberlain's defense of National Standards.
Mary Chamberlain's new role seems to be defending the imposition of the Government's populist simplistic National Standards.After having observed her present 'her' ideas at a seminar held in Northland I am sure her heart is not in it. After her great work in developing the highly respected New Zealand Curriculum this diversion is a shame. This blog is in response to a letter she wrote to our local paper defending the standards.It is sad to see Mary Chamberlain, a highly respected educator, in the role of the Government's 'spin doctor', defending the educationally unsound National Standards.While Mary acknowledges that New Zealand students are among the best in the world in student achievement it is the worrying 'achievement tail' that requires...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
A chance to do some real inquiry: Harakeke study.
An environmentally alert teacher aways keep an eye open for interesting things to introduce to his, or her, students. November/December is an ideal time for environmental or ecological studies. My visits to schools this term indicates such awareness is a lost art.By term four students should be fully equip ed with all the skills and strategies in place to undertake inquiry topics on their own or with minimum assistance. The ability to do this would indicate that students are able to 'seek, use and create their own knowledge' as asked by the New Zealand Curriculum.Driving around last month I couldn't help but note the untapped resources available for teachers to involve their class in exploring.This is a great time to study harakeke or flax,...
Mr popularity and Mrs simplicity but where are we going as a country?.
'While I am popular we can do whatever we like - just keep smiling'.The new government is having a dream run.Running up to the election they tapped into all the fears and prejudices of the public - crushing boy racer cars, locking up people forever in jail and, of course, introducing national standards in reading and mathematics.This, plus a electorate grown increasingly tired of the previous government demeaned by those in opposition as leading us increasingly into a 'nanny state', has given them the mandate to put into action a range of simplistic solutions to complex problems. The simplest solution to a complex problem is the governments answer to education and they couldn't have picked a better minister for the job! Our minister has small...