Quality presentation requires explicit teaching of a range of skills - use them or lose them!

A very simple format for students to present their research - a half cartridge piece of paper folded to make a four page booklet. Suitable for all ages. To complete such a simple task requires a number of skills to be in place -and once in place students can then innovate and develop their own creativity.Teachers will begin the second term with a new inquiry study, one hopefully negotiated with the students to develop ownership. Better still would be an inquiry based on what the students want to know. At the very least any study should be based on the student's questions and, to ensure question are valuable, a good idea is to introduce the topic with a motivating experience or display.To ensure the students develop an in depth understanding...

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

Putting critical information literacy skills into action - use them or lose them

Part of a display following a visit to a museum to study the land Wars. To make good use of such an exciting experience students need a full range of literacy, numeracy observation , inquiry, and expressive skills in place. Real literacy requires a context, or need, that students can see the point of acquiring such vital skills. Literacy and numeracy are all about gaining meaning and power. Exciting studies provides the context for such learning. The trouble is, these days, classrooms seem to place emphasis on literacy and numeracy as stand alone subjects and, by doing so, lesson students engagement and ability learn deeply about whatever the class is studying.The first term ought to have been the opportunity to ensure the appropriate learning...

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Posted in: Action Plans and Lessons,Information Technology,inquiry learning,Integrated Learning,Personalized Learning,project based learning,teaching and learning

Guest Post by Allan Alach - a 'must read' and share with others blog

My principal friend Allan sent me an e-mail that was so on the mark that I asked him to extend it into a blog. To my mind it is a piece of writing all teachers and schools should read -and then pass it on to as many other people as is possible. Schools have two choices. To go along with the populist anti educational agenda of the current government, or to decide what is worth fighting for. A good decision to make on Anzac Day or EasterSo many schools seem to have given in just to get along - swallowing unthinkingly the superficiality of 'educational Easter Eggs'. Worse still many have become 'poster schools' for the Minister - and, in line with Easter, 'educational Judas Sheep'. Loved your latest blog post, Bruce "Authentic Inquiry Learning...

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Posted in: Big Picture,Creative teaching,inquiry learning,Integrated Learning,Leadership,Ministry NZCurric,national standards,Personalized Learning,Rants and Raves,School Vision,teaching and learning

Authentic Inquiry Learning - the focus for all classwork.

It was great to see a display to introduce a new study, and later for students to add to, during their inquiry/study/research into the times of early whaler Dicky Barrett. The group of teachers I worked with in earlier times aways introduced new studies with similar displays. To be honest it was an idea I picked from creative teachers when teaching in England decades ago.Sadly both in NZ and the UK such ideas have become less common.Visiting classrooms these days often makes me feel sad to think of how much has been lost as schools turn themselves into testing and assessment organisations.Teachers now seem obsessed with planning tasks for their students to do rather than co-constructing learning alongside their students -at the same time keeping...

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

On the road again!

Last year I traveled with Doug Hislop the editor of Education Today to visit New Zealand's 'top schools'. Before the edition was published we were often asked how did we decide on the 'top schools'? Pretty simple really - we travelled as far North as we could to Cape Reinga and Spirits Bay and visited the top four schools geographically! It was a long and insightful trip and the resulting article was well received. As a result we decided to visit the isolated schools along the East Coast from past Opotiki to Tolaga Bay. What we found provided more than enough for a whole magazine.All last week we visited as many schools as we could traversing the Te Whanau a Apanui and Ngati Porou Iwi areas.It is aways interesting 'cold calling' on schools...

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Posted in: Integrated Learning,Personalized Learning,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

Creative education - the only alternative to current formulaic teaching

My well worn copy of Elwyn Richardson's inspirational book.Every creative teacher should acquire one -available from NZCER $22. Excellent value - it won't show how to do it but it will show you what can be done if you focus on valuing your students 'voice', lives and discoveries, and are prepared to work along side your students rather than 'teaching' them. As Elwyn writes 'they were my teachers as I was theirs, and the basis of our relationship was sincerity, without which, I am convinced , there can be no creative education'.In my copy of the book I found the below article. I thought it worth sharing and have only slightly adapted it.It was first sent out in the 1970s to local schools by the Art and Craft Branch - in the days when advisers...

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Posted in: Big Picture,Creative teaching,Creativity,Personalized Learning,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

Creative teaching under threat from Ministry Audit Culture: Urgent Action Required - share with creative teachers!

It is dark days for creativity - the progressive reputation earned through the actions of creative primary teachers is now at risk.Over the past years a demeaning audit culture has been imposed on schools and it is about to get worse. Under such a surveillance culture creativity cannot survive.Please read what Kelvin Smythe and Lester Flockton have to say. And while you're there join to get his regular postings.Schools themselves are often part of the problem by establishing their own audit cultures to develop consistent class programmes which, ironically, create anti creative learning environments.As principals for their own survival , or worse, to look good to outside agencies, develop what some call 'a corrosion of character' - trying to...

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Posted in: Big Picture,change,Ministry NZCurric,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning