The good old days of creative teaching

Last week all the key figures involved in what came to be known as the Taranaki Environmental Approach were in town. It was too good a chance to let go by so a party we had. Also invited were others who became involved, or who were involved in creative learner centred education. May be there were similar groups elsewhere in New Zealand but ours was a special group whose influence is still to be seen, if not recognised, today.In front Howard Wilson and next to him Bill Guild. At rear Robin Clegg, Bruce Hammonds and John Cunningham. The term environmental was used in the sense teachers created student centred learning environments and many of their studies utilised the natural, historical and man made local environment.Such groups do not emerge...

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Posted in: Big Picture,change,Creative Schools,Creative teaching,Creativity,inquiry learning,Integrated Learning,Personalized Learning,project based learning,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

Towards a creative school.

It is sad to see schools happily 'driving into the future using their rear vision mirrors'. Just as our students are entering a world beyond our comprehension we are busy ensuring they will be able to cope with a past age. There is more than a whiff of Victorian three Rs around our schools as teachers focus on testing children in what are considered the two areas of concern literacy and numeracy. All this conformist formulaic 'one size fits all' teaching is leading us back to the standardisation of Henry Ford who one said, 'you can any colour you like as long as it is black'.It was great to be asked to talk to teachers and parent of a local school about the purpose of education for the next decades.There is no doubt that things have taken a...

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Posted in: change,Creative Schools,Creative teaching,Creativity,Leadership,Ministry NZCurric,national standards,teaching and learning

Ideas for lessons on Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis.

A New York Times blogger offers great resources for teachers to use with classes. I just thought it might be useful for schools.http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/teaching-ideas-the-earthquake-and-tsunami-in-japan/?pagemode=printAnother excellent site for resources on the Japanese Earthquake is to be found on this Utopia site ( a site sponsored by George Lucas of Star Wars fame). The Utopia site is all about experiential learning - making use of information technology.An excellent student centred inquiry study process is also included on this site."The devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan is on the minds of all of us, including our students. The event and aftermath is tragic and the continuing nuclear emergency is a reminder...

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Posted in: Action Plans and Lessons

Creative Leadership: A Challenge of our Times

If schools are to break out the crushing conformity that has resulted since technocrats and politicians captured the education agenda creative leaders will have to emerge. Creative leadership is the challenge of our times. This was the title of an article written by Loise Stoll and Julie Temperley based on their research in schools in the United Kingdom. I thank my good friend Paul Tegg for sending me their paper which I have used as the basis of my blog. So far there is little sign of such leadership emerging but there are a few points of growth that provide some hope.'Learning is the core purpose of schools', Stoll and Timperley begin their paper, 'Creative Leadership: a Challenge of our Times', and continue with a quote from a book by Stoll...

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Posted in: Big Picture,change,Creative Schools,Leadership,Personalized Learning,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

Leadership for a Learning Organisation - Tony Gurr

To read this article in full on Tony's site. I have slightly edited Tony's article. It is relevant to leadership issues ( or lack of leadership) in our schools.'My way or the highway' or 'walk the talk' leader? Which one are you?Tony writes:In my 25 years in the world of teaching and learning, I have come across many managers / supervisors that have graduated from the “my-way-or-the-highway” school of thought. Many of you will also know I frequently discuss ideas from the “walk-your-talk” school of leadership.Now, I know we are warned (by Obi-Wan) that “Only the Sith deal in absolutes” – but I thought it might be useful to compare these two perspectives and look at which form of “educational leadership” might be best suited for a 21st Century...

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Posted in: Big Picture,change,Leadership,Rants and Raves

Dysfunctional Schools

Kirsten Olsen author of the book 'Wounded by School-recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing up to the Old School Culture'. Kirsten's book brings to light the devastating consequences of an educational approach that values conformity over creativity, flattens student's' interests,and dampens down differences among learners. Olsen's book shows that current schooling does not favour all students and tends to shame, disable and bore many learners. Powerful stuff.I don't think teachers like to face up to the fact that schooling actually harms many of their students but it is clear , reading Kirsten's Olsen book, it does. Obviously this harming is not done intentionally but it is all too easy to blame failure on dysfunctional students.Certainly...

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Posted in: Big Picture,change,Creative Schools,Ministry NZCurric,Personalized Learning,Rants and Raves,School Vision,teaching and learning