Smoke and Mirrors

Guest Post by Allan AlachThe October 25th issue of the New Zealand Education Gazette features an article from the Ministry of Education which starts as follows:“Supporting professional judgments in reading, writing and mathematics.A progress and consistency tool is being developed to support teachers’ professional judgments in relation to the National Standards, and to improve the measurement of student progress over time.”The article presents this as a positive development in education, although everyone knows that the introduction of national standards was a purely political move by the National Party.  It follows then that any development of national standards also has political origins.We know that New Zealand education is...

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Something I wrote a while ago - now on Phil Cullen's site

Take look at Phil Cullen's site Phil printed the below on his site.The NZ government’s response to schools’ failure and poor teaching is to implementNational Standards aka Naplan in Australia and NCLB in the US, strategies that look back to the past for inspiration. This ‘rear-vision thinking’ is too simple and diverts attention.Time for a public conversation. The biggest concern is that there seems to be “…no urgency for change…in schools…where disengaged students are reaching frightening proportions”. The standards agenda is “… rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to get a better view. The confusion around national standards actually makes ensuring all students achieve success difficult by distorting teacher energy, narrowing...

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Posted in: Big Picture,Creative teaching,inquiry learning,Personalized Learning,teaching and learning

The Way David Hockney Sees It.

I have just returned from a few short weeks experiencing hospitality in the United Kingdom. Other than the wonderful hospitality I have had a wonderful opportunity to intimately explore the forests,country lanes and fields of Kent. Not to mention a number old country pubs but that another story.My visit included a couple of days exploring the 'new' Tate, the 'old Tate' and the National  Gallery experiencing, close up, painting I have only ever seen in art books. One of my favourite artist is David Hockney one of Britain's greatest living artist. Hockney came into public notice in a Young Contemporaries Exhibition in 1961.Hockney's...

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Posted in: Big Picture,Creative teaching,Creativity,teaching and learning

WRC Rugby is Over - applying success to our country.

An article by Martin Hawes in the Sunday Times caught my attention. Martin usually writes articles giving financial advice but in his latest contribution he reflects on the success of the World Rugby Cup and how its success might be applied to the wider picture of  the New Zealand economy.The point he makes is that 'New Zealnders can do anything when we set our minds to it'. When we  have determined  and agreed somethings important nothing can stop us'. He then goes on to say 'it is a pity we don't get similarity determined about our economy. Wouldn't it be great', he continues, ' if we had consensus about future economic direction and went all out...

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Posted in: Big Picture,Leadership,Rants and Raves

Layers of the National Testing Onion

Guest post by Allan AlachThe layers of the government’s national testing onion are being stripped away. It is now very clear what the plan and the process to achieve this is.Kelvin Smythe has laid this out in a series of clear statements on his latest posting, which is a damming indictment of the underhand processes of the Ministry of Education and of their political masters, the National Party led government of New Zealand, who are those who must bear full responsibility for the secrecy and deception that has been uncovered. Kelvin’s article needs to be read carefully and distributed very wildly, far beyond the teaching profession, so that all this is out in the open.As many people have been saying ever since the concept of assessing children...

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National Testing - here we go.

Guest post by Allan AlachHalfway through the first week of the term break, and the nonsense keeps being spilled out. The depth of deviousness being displayed by the Ministry of Education (MOE) , no doubt following orders from above, is beyond comprehension.Schools with ‘non-complaint’ charters have been aware that the MOE were in the process of mailing out “letter two’, setting requirements for charters to be compliant, and imposing a tight deadline for this. That was only to be expected. However, for these letters to be dated (and posted to schools) on October 7th, the last day of the term, conveys another story. So does the tight deadline of October 21st, the Friday of the second week of the term break.In the words of the cliche, ‘it’s not...

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Posted in: guest blogger,Ministry of Education,national standards,national tests

What Is A Teacher?

Guest post by Allan AlachI found the following poem (written by Lee Crockett, Ian Jukes and Andrew Churches) on Tony Gurr's All Things Learning blog. Great blog to follow, by the way!Given the current situation in New Zealand education, over the introduction of national standards, and the strong indications that national testing is on the way, I thought it was timely to be more positive and proactive about teachers, who have the power to make positive changes in the lives of children. This is, of course, with the proviso that politicians, of any kind, stay out of education! What is a Teacher? A guide, not a guard. What is learning? A journey, not a destination. What is discovery? Questioning the answers, not answering the questions....

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Posted in: Big Picture,Creative Schools,Creative teaching,guest blogger,teaching and learning