Beginning the School Year 3

Beginning teaching - or starting a new year

Robert Fried is worth reading. Another of his books is called the 'Passionate Teacher'. In his book the 'Game of School' he writes about how students learn to play the game of school to get along. I remember one of his anecdotes was about a grade one student coming home and being asked by his anxious mother what he had learnt during the day? He told his mum he learnt that their were two kind of kids. Good ones who did as the teacher asked of them and bad kids who didn't. Conformists and non conformists. Kids learn quick.

Fried's book outlines several groups of students from those who work to please the teacher, those who work because they love learning , and others who get their satisfaction by confronting teachers, and those who try to remain invisible.

Beginning teachers face a dilemma.

It is obviously sensible to 'find out what is important around here' and to get on with doing it.

Good advice to start with but the danger is that it is all too easy to conform unthinkingly to bad habits as well.Compliance and conformity to school expectations ( for better or worse) is more the name of the game for new teachers.


For example there is a lot of talk about the importance of inquiry and creative learning - about integrating subject disciplines around relevant problems. However when school timetables are passed out it becomes pretty obvious schools are centred around two traditional areas - literacy and numeracy.

In fact it is hard to see where inquiry and creativity actually fit in.

The only solution, if you are a new teacher, is to do your best to develop literacy and numeracy skills that will be used to ensure deep and meaningful inquiry studies. Students should see inquiry learning as the most important thing.. They should see literacy and numeracy as a means to an end -as vital 'foundation skills'. They need to see the difference between 'real' maths and 'practice' maths.

This is easiest in literacy ( I prefer the heading 'language arts') by basing comprehension and information research skills on the current inquiry topic but most inquiry topics also need mathematical skills to be in place. And it is important for students to see the connections as well.

One task I would do is to get the class to complete an informal survey of attitudes, or feelings, towards all aspects of the school curriculum. Ask students to show their interest using a one to five scale or sad or smiley faces.

Developing a love of learning and developing a 'feeling for' each area is vital. If the results are less than wonderful then you will know where to place your effort as teacher.

It strikes me teachers spend hours each week on mathematics for little effect. At the end of schooling far too many students leave with a poor attitude ( and achievement level) in maths and this ought not to be the case. If you placed poetry on the list I bet not many students would say they liked it but I also bet that, with interesting teaching, all students would come to see poetry as a fun activity.

So what do your students think of various school subjects? The survey is a good first day activity. Better still if the list were drawn up by all teachers and used as an important assessment tool.

If you know about the mindset research of Carol Dweck add :

1 Do you think were are born as smart as you are ever going to be ( 'brains' or sports ability) and there are some things you just can't do ?

Or

2 Do you think you can get better at anything if you try hard and practice?

The first is a 'fixed mindset'.Low ability students get their lack of ability affirmed at school ( through ability grouping, national testing or streaming) and high achievers ( often girls) do not risk their status by new areas of learning becoming risk averse. Those with a 'growth mindset' just have a go at anything believing in effort and focused practice and see not succeeding as a challenge.This 'growth mindset' underpins the New Zealand Curriculum; ' have a go kids'


Click on the links below for some good advice to read before starting the school year.

Great expectations -advice for beginning teachers

Starting the school year..Lots of practical activities to choose from

If you want some practical ideas to start the year check out action plans and lessons.


Make this the year to break out of traditional patterns and assumption and to develop active literacy, mathematics and inquiry programmes - ones that value students' 'voice' , questions, ideas and creativity.

There is no rush but don't be trapped by yesterdays timetables and expectations.

Remember the revised New Zealand Curriculum has as its vision for all students to be 'confident life long learners' ( or inquirers) and for them to have the competencies, or 'habits of mind', or 'learning power', to be 'seekers, users,and creators of their own knowledge'.

Few schools have achieved such a vision - yet! Or if they have the vision they have a reality gap between what is said and done

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

Beginning the School Year :2

Beginning the school year - some activities

My previous blog had ideas about beginning teaching and some links to articles with ideas to to think about. This blog just adds a few more.

Teaching is one profession where there is no shallow end. From day one you are presented with up to thirty plus young individuals for you to shape into a learning community; and every class community will be different. Even experienced teachers have second thoughts about starting a new class as at the end of the year they will have left students who have learnt to work with each other and their teacher.

Developing this learning community is the real challenge for any teacher. Good schools will provide structures, organisations and curriculum guidance to assist but it always worth having ideas up your sleeve.

First impressions count and the students' parents will be waiting to hear from their children what their teacher is like so it is important not to leave it to chance.

A good idea is to begin by introducing yourself to your students with a small potted history of yourself based around a number of questions. The students can then use this model ( or scaffold) to write up something similar to share with you or even, in small groups, with each other.It is a good idea for then to write a draft, or make a mind map, before they start - and this also you can model.

Keep this reasonably short and ask them for their best writing - this will give you an idea of their personal best they bring with them.

You might like to have 'mini lesson' on the school vision, mission and values and what they mean if they are available. This could be developed later into a class treaty of expectations and positive behaviours and linked to a 'mini study' on the Treaty of Waitangi. If so it is a good idea to get them to draft out , or mind map, their 'prior views'. After this done students can complete research to clarify their knowledge.

The idea of valuing students 'prior' ideas, or skills, should be part of all learning activities.

During the first day you might share with them one of the best things ( most memorable or exciting) you did during the holidays. Then get them to do something similar. Emphasize the importance of writing as if they were back in the situation, what they felt , heard. or saw, and get them to write about what they were thinking at the time. This is an opportunity to introduce students to the idea of valuing their personal 'voice' and going for quality - not length or most words.

Think of continuing this personal narrative writing throughout the year as a weekly occurrence - completing one from idea, draft to realisation once a week in a writing journal . This is the best way to let students know you value their experiences and for them to contribute to developing a learning identity.

Personal narratives can be illustrated ( often for homework) but, if so, students need to be taught the skill of powerful drawing. Some students will have already decided that they are not artists and, if so, this is a chance to change their minds. One idea is to get them to complete a self portrait with their biros. First let them draw without instruction ( to see their 'prior' skills) and then guide them ( 'scaffold' them) through the process. This is another chance to introduce the idea of quality. Once again value individual differences. The lesson is outlined in the link on the previous blog.

One way to develop students drawing or illustrative skill is to base their drawing on a digital photo of themselves - possibly doing something exciting during their holidays. If so get them to focus on the dramatic aspects, or close up views, not long distance shots. Combine their portraits with them holding perhaps a fish or some food for example. Get them to include as much texture, or details, as they can.

Both the above can be expanded to develop as a major piece of art.

Another way is to get some school journals and then students to select an illustration they like and to copy it into their language book. It maybe be useful for them to copy only part of the drawing to introduce the idea of focus. When complete add the artists name. This is an excellent language activity and illustrates to the students wide range of artists styles and genres ( there lots of approaches to being an artist from the real to the bold). This is a fun activity to use whenever new journal arrive.

Observational drawing, a vital science/art skill, is a good activity to get students to do. Once again get then to draw an object ( kawakawa leaves are great) without instruction to assess their 'prior skill' and then instruct them to draw carefully, to go slow, and to take their time. The two efforts be compared and lessons drawn from the activity.If you are planning a small environmental study then this skill can be put to use. A 'mini study' of cicadas is one idea, or shells collected from the seashore during the holidays. Wild flowers, grasses or a flax study are possible studies.

A good idea for maths ( after you have surveyed their prior attitudes ) is to study what maths is and get them to research the history of number development through the ages. You could cover how different cultures have their own number system. Find out who developed the zero and why it is so important. It is important to humanize maths if all students are to gain a 'feeling for' the subject. Famous mathematicians can be researched. It pays to keep maths as applied as possible.

It might be useful to share with them the main ideas of each Learning Area covered in the New Zealand Curriculum if so make time to gain their collective 'prior ideas' first. The main ideas coud be copied into one of their books?

For writing,after you have assessed their handwriting abilities, it is fun for the class to research the development of writing from cave drawing to word processors. The history of writing ,and the various writing media, is a fascinating one.

One final thought.

All students buy a set of exercise books to begin the year. Some schools I know have reinvented these books as portfolios as they ought to show qualitative improvement (the Japanese call this continual small improvement 'kaizen'). The first days of school is the time to introduce students to this expectation. It is a good idea to introduce them to simple graphic presentation ideas. It is also a good idea to aim, by Easter, for all books to show improvement.In the schools that have developed their books as portfolios all books are sent home before parent interviews for their comments and later to discuss during interviews.

When a research study is undertaken students should be shown design or graphic 'scaffolds' to help them present their work. As with all 'scaffolds' it is important, that once in place, students be encouraged to show their individuality and creativity.

One you have thought out all the possibilities map out a programme for day one and week one. If you are in a proactive school your fellow team member will provide you with ideas to include.

Share your daily plan with the students at the beginning of the day. At the end of the day (and each activity) have reflective session to clarify what has been learnt. At the end of the day discuss with the class the three main things learnt during the day - their mothers will want to know!

Even if you don't use all the above suggestions they all remain available for later use. It is important to do fewer things well in depth.

The overall 'message' you want to leave with them is that you want them to do their best work - to aim for quality; you want then to to value their own 'voices', experiences, questions and ideas; and you want them to value their individuality and creativity. This is the essence of a learning community.

Best of all slowing their pace of work (many students will arrive with a 'first finished is best' attitude) will help you to get them to value perseverance and effort and to develop a concept of personal excellence.

Not a bad start.

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Posted in: Action Plans and Lessons,Creative teaching,Personalized Learning,project based learning,teaching and learning

Beginning the School Year :1

Beginning the school year - 'keeping the end in mind'.

If you want a book to inspire you to become aware of the possibilities of your environment this is the book for you.Ideal for any adult wanting to expand their awareness but for teachers a most valuable classroom resource. Full of practical ideas to use with your class to help them retain ( or regain) their natural curiosity. Very creatively and visually presented. A fun book. Not written by a curriculum consultant which makes it even more valuable.
Check link for more info.

Business philosopher Stephen Covey, in his book 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People', writes that it is important to ' keep the end in mind'. It is too easy to get bogged down in the present just trying to get through and in the process lose sight of the 'end in mind'.If this happens you can easily end up losing your way. As the saying goes, 'it is hard to remember you came to drain the swamp when you're up to your backside in crocodiles!'

So what is the end in mind for a teacher beginning the school year?

This ought to be defined by the agreed vision,values ( agreed behaviours) and teaching beliefs of the school. And if this is important, and not just rhetoric, then success ought to measured by achieving this vision. Of course this is rarely the case - schools are all too often concerned with the 'crocodiles' of day to day hassles. Tradition, or past unquestioned habits, seem to rule the minds of most schools. Just look how they apportion their time - it would seem few have escaped from the Victorian emphasis on the 'three Rs'.

So what would be the end in mind to keep in mind?

A good place to start would be the vision pages of the revised New Zealand Curriculum 2007.

Nothing should get in the way of NZC Vision of ensuring all students become 'confident life long learners' - or life long questioners and inquirers.

This means really focusing all teaching interactions on developing the 'key competencies' of the curriculum; learning to think, work with others, persevere and use every means to communicate effectively. Some call these 'habits of mind' (Art Costa) and others 'learning power ' ( Guy Claxton). Once it was just called 'learning to learn'!

To achieve 'confidence' and 'learning power' requires teachers make certain that what is studied is seen as real and relevant by learners.

Good advice is for teachers to to do fewer things well and to continually diagnose what each individual can do and, where there are gaps in skills or understanding, teaching the missing information.Positive attitudes for, or 'feelings for', the particular learning experience are the key to successful learning.

One key phrase in the NZC ( on the vision page and in the thinking competency) is for each student to be a 'seeker, user and creator of their own knowledge'. The teachers role is to ensure all students have the skills and attitudes to achieve such personal knowledge creation. The challenge for the teacher is to ensure all students develop 'feeling for' whatever they are learning. Successful teachers really care about what their students think and feel particularly those who have lost confidence in the ability to complete any task. Valuing each learner's 'voice', questions, and ideas is vital.

Such a vision is student or learning centred one in contrast to students simply asked to do what teachers expect of them. This doesn't mean letting students do what they like ; the teacher role is a very creative one.

Teachers need to negotiate with students to ensure empowerment or a sense of ownership and to hold students to completing what they have agreed to do.

This requires firmness and teacher artistry to assess what it is each learner is capable of and then ensuring students gain the skills to continually improve their personal best. As educationalist Jerome Bruner says, 'teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation'.

Thankfully students are easily trapped by their innate curiosity if what is put in front of them appeals. The challenge for teachers is to think up ways to tap into this sense of curiosity in all learning areas.

With such a vision in mind teachers can slowly , as students develop skill, pass greater responsibility to their students..

When it seems difficult to negotiate learning then it is honest to say 'we just have to do this so lets do it'. With maths it is possible to develop relevant studies but when practice is required then just call it that, practice. Remind students that to do anything well you need to have the skills in place and that sometimes skill practice is important , but only to be able to get back to the real learning. Literacy blocks ( and maths where possible) ought to focus on providing the research skills necessary to undertake in depth inquiry studies.

The vision of the revised curriculum's is a personalised approach to learning - helping each learner at their point of need. Students will see the point of practicing learning missing skill if it helps then achieve the 'end they have in mind'.The whole purpose of education is to develop in every learner a powerful learning identity, a strong sense of self, of being a valued and worthwhile person. This involves the teacher really listening to their students and validating them.

A good idea is to start the year with a discussion with your class of what makes a powerful learner. Work through the introductory pages of the NZC with them and develop an image of a great class - a true learning community of inquirers 'hunting' for meaning in their tasks. Such a community requires rights and obligations (agreed behaviours) for both the teacher and the class members to hold themselves to.

'Their' powerful learning attributes ( 'merged' with the NZC 'key competencies') can then be referred to, as required, to ensure students keep the 'end in mind' and do not get lost in pointless ( to them) activities.

Keeping the 'end in mind' is valuable advice for both teacher and learners

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Posted in: Action Plans and Lessons,Creative teaching,inquiry learning,Integrated Learning,Personalized Learning,teaching and learning

Education - still firmly stuck in the 20th C ( or 19th)!

This small picture book points out the futility of trying to 'tinker' education into the 21stC - after trying several well known reforms it suggests what is required is a total transformation - 'a new horse' ( in the book a car!) -  not improving a faulty/failing system.

The other day I was talking to a young teacher who was starting to think what she might do with her class when the term starts.

We had a good discussion but it was soon clear to me that the advice I wanted to give would clash with what it was expected she would have to do. There is not much room for my thoughts these days and so my decision to keep clear of schools a good one. All the more sensible as schools will increasingly focused  on collecting data to prove their students are achieving appropriate standards in literacy and numeracy -and all the intended , or unintended , consequences that will eventuate from such a reactionary approach.

Most of my difficulty revolves around school expectation for literacy and numeracy - areas that have been highlighted by political pressure the past decades particularly the National Standards. In literacy and numeracy most teachers (and principals) have very traditional, hard to change,  views.

As a result, as one UK commentator has written , 'the evil twins of literacy and numeracy have all but gobbled up the entire curriculum'.

Until new perspectives are developed education change will remain 'tinkering'; 'reararnging the deck chairs on the Titanic to get a better view'. As business philosopher Peter Drucker says, 'every organisation has to abandon almost everything if they are to thrive in the future' , he also wrote that 'the first countries to develop a 21st C education system will win the future'. New Zealand had such an opportunity  with the , now sidelined, with the 2007  New Zealand Curriculum.

Back to the school scene.

The key question to consider is what is the purpose, or point of, school in the 21st C? What attitudes, competencies, attributes or dispositions will students need  to thrive? What aspects of schooling do we need to keep and what new thinking is required? The answers to all these questions are available - one only has to read Sir Ken Robinson, Guy Claxton, or any number of insightful educationalists.

All their advice is most ignored - the status quo has an amazing power to ignore the need for change. Throw in the fear of the unknown, the views of populist  politicians, and pressure from conservative elements in society, and it seems all but impossible.

So what can schools do?

First, for all teachers to believe all students can learn given the right opportunities, and  appropriate help. This requires a personalised approach to learning - an approach premised on students being helped to construct their own meaning through guided experiences.

For all students to succeed it is important to tap into  every students particular gifts and talents  and that a curriculum active realistic enquiry is the way to achieve this. In earlier days, before political ideology took control of curriculum, many teachers were moving towards a creative education system.

These beliefs applied to literacy ( I prefer language arts) are not that difficult.

The literacy programme needs to be focused on developing all the skills required for students to make sense of, or comprehend, the material they are exposed in their cross curriculum inquiries. Language activities simply need to be 're framed' and determined by need required to complete deep learning in other areas.

I personally would be careful of ability grouping ( mental apartheid) and would not countenance streaming students into various ability classes  - both are techniques of outdated educational thinking.  The second is destructive to purposeful integrated learning- the first reinforces unnecessary attitudes.

As the ideas above  are part of the mindsets of most schools my thoughts find no room to be developed.
If literacy seems possible to integrate, or 'reframe',  into a a talent based inquiry curriculum mathematics seems even  more traditional and  problematic. Most primary teachers are not confident in this area - they have inherited the negative attitudes from traditional ability grouped programmes they themselves experienced.

So 'reframing' maths seems a bigger challenge.

Ironically all the current thinking in mathematics is about developing maths in real contexts and there are resources available to assist once mindsets are changed.

How students see maths is important ( their prior views). To change minds students need to be helped to develop positive attitudes - given leadership most teachers would be able to think of lots of positive ideas. A piece of good advice is to tell students that when they are doing exploratory maths that this is 'real maths' and that when using texts or developing algorithms it is 'practice' maths. And, if this distinction is made, for teachers to relate as much maths as they can to their current  inquiry study, to inject maths into their studies,  or to develop rich mathematical themes. 'Real' maths requires students working in groups rather than as individuals which is current practice.

As students are involved in realistic literacy and mathematical situations teachers are continually diagnosing progress. Students with special needs can be brought together to be given focused assistance in missing skills so they can return to 'playing the maths game'.

It is my belief that once teachers develop answers to the purpose of school in the 21stC then they can develop programmes with their students to develop the appropriate literacy and numeracy programmes that contribute to the development of every students gifts and talents and  required dispositions and attitudes.

Trouble is today political pressure is being placed on schools pushing school to 'stick to riding horses' into the twenty first century.

No place for me in such a failing system.

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Posted in: change,Creative Schools,Creative teaching,inquiry learning,Integrated Learning,Ministry NZCurric,Personalized Learning,teaching and learning

Educational Quotes 7: Creativity

Michelangelo was believed to have said : I saw an angel within the marble and went about to set it free'. Teachers need to have this 'David factor'.

We are leaving the Industrial Age and entering an Age of Ideas and Creativity ; an age where individual and shared talent will be the most important assets. Schools, as Tom Peters says, in his wonderful book 'Re-Imagine': 'Are a thinly disguised conspiracy to quash creativity'. 'Talent', he says, 'is everything. And the production of talent is significantly dependent on schools'. Or it ought to be.
 
 
'Creators love creations before they exist'. Robert Fritz
 
'I believe I experience creativity at every moment of my life.' Henri Bergson
 
'Some people see things as they are and ask 'why'? I see things as they have never been and ask 'why not'?' George Bernard Shaw
 
'Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.' Anon
 
'Life is creative. It makes it up as it goes along.' Margaret Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers Authors 'A Simpler Way'
 
'Creativity may have killed a few cats, but evolution certainly eliminated many more incurious ones.' Guy Claxton in 'Wise Up'
 
'Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself you bloody well better find a way that is going to be interesting.' Katherine Hepburn
 
'To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist today.' Samuel Beckett
 
'When error holds so much power, play disappears. Creativity ceases'. Margaret Wheatley and Kellner Rogers
 
'Be a judge of children's creativity - but not too good a judge!' Elwyn S Richardson NZ Pioneer Educator Author 'In the Early World'
 
Life is not neat, parsimonious, nor elegant. Life seeks order in a disorderly way.' Margaret Wheatley and Kellner Rogers
 
'To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.' Joseph Chillons Pearce
 
'Orville Wright did not have a pilots license: don't be afraid to bend, or break the rules'. Richard Tait Grand Pooh Bah , Cranium.
 
'Professionals built the Titanic - an amateur built the Ark.' Anon
 
'Although prepared for martyrdom, I prefer it to be postponed.' Winston Churchill
 
'When Michelangelo looked at the block of marble he was to carve he looked beyond the outside and saw the shape of the statue he was about to create. He could see the real beauty hidden within... ' Valerie Stewart, 'The David Factor'.
 
'The human imagination... has great difficulty in living within the confines of a materialist practice or philosophy. It dreams like a dog in it's basket, of hares in the open.' John Berger Art Critic
 
'To invent something you have to be removed from the world. In order to have liberty to imagine something better, you need to step outside for a while.' Bruce Mau Designer
 
'There is no hope for any speculation that does not look absurd at first glance.' Niels Bohr Physicist.
 
'Every important idea in science sounds strange at first.' Thomas Kuhn Scientist
 
'Most of the rules in society tend to restrict creativity to a safe level.' Sting (Musician)
 
'Great thought reduced to practice become great art.' William Hazlett
 
'...the artist treats intuition and nuance with respect and reminds us that a little madness resides in all of us. Artists give voice to feelings, to conflict, to the prism of human experience,' Peter Block, Business Philosopher.
 
'Creativity is born of chaos, even if it is somewhat difficult to glimpse the possibilities in the midst of the confusion' Charles Handy
 
'You have to stand outside the box to see how the box can be re-designed.' Charles Handy
 
'Passion is born of vague hopes.' Charles Handy
 
'All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is opposed. Third it is accepted as being self evident.' Arthur Schopenhauer
 
'If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.' Thoreau
 
'Don't worry about people stealing your ideas/If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.' Howard Aitken
 
I don't give a damn for any man who can spell a word only one way..' Mark Twain
 
'Marge, I can't wear a pink shirt to work. Everybody wears a white shirt. I'm not popular enough to wear white shirt.' Homer Simpson
 
'A hunch is creativity trying to tell you some thing' Frank Capra
 
'..centres of creativity tend to at the intersections of different cultures, where beliefs, lifestyles and knowledge mingle and allow individuals to see new combinations of ideas with greater ease.' Mihaly Czikszentmihaly
 
'The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a creative mind to spot a wrong question.' Anthony Jay
 
'Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?' Frank Scully
 
'Creative minds are rarely tidy.' Abbey Plaque
 
'innovators are seldom easy to be around. The most creative members of an organization can be irascible, annoying, touchy, intolerant, prickly, self aggrandizing. Their lack of tact offends coworkers. It also makes them willing to speak up when other hold their tongues. What comes out of their mouths is often quite valuable, if not always easy to hear.' Farson and Keyes, 'Whoever Makes the most Mistakes Wins.'
 
'If we learn to domesticate creativity- that is enhance it rather than deny it in our culture- we can increases the number of creative persons... as it was in the Renaissance, Elizabethan England, when civilization made great leaps forward.' John Gowan Educator.
 
'The creative person is overpowered, captive of and driven by a demon... They become our legendary heroes.' Carl Jung
 
'One of the marks of having a gift is to have the courage to use it.' Katherine Anne Porter US Novelist
 
'Human life itself may almost be pure chaos, but the work of the artist is to take these handfuls of confusion and disparate things that seem to be irreconcilable and put them together in a form to give them some kind of shape and meaning.' Katherine Anne Porter US Novelist

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Posted in: Creative teaching,Educational Quotes,Talent Development

Educational quotes 6 : Teaching and Learning

Dr Suess


For too long schools have had to comply with endless bureaucratic top down edicts, confusing curriculums and associated accountability demands which have taken the focus away from learning and teaching. As these imposed technocratic systems falter it is now time for creative teachers to also add their voices to the debate.

Students are born with a powerful desire to learn. Everything we do as parents and teachers must ensure that this powerful desire is kept alive. If there were to be one thing to be continually assessed it would be this desire... too many students leave with little to show for their time at school. Too many leave alienated and powerless.

'People see their own lives as stories; a lifelong story with a single hero or heroine... much contemporary unhappiness is due to the fact that people in high tech societies receive neither strong myths and stories from their culture nor the ability to construct their own... they lose the plot.' Guy Claxton in 'Wise -Up'

'We should turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.' John Holt

'Why don't we teach out children in school what they are? We should say to them, 'You are unique... you have the capacity for anything. You are a marvel.'' Charles Handy

'Learning power comprises both literacy and numeracy, and is ultimately more fundamental than either of them.' Guy Claxton in 'Wise -Up'

Underneath the visible problems with reading and writing lies the deeper problem of 'illearnacy': an acquired disabling of learning courage and learning initiative.' Guy Claxton in 'Wise-Up'

' The key is to replace a belief in 'experts' who 'deliver' knowledge of what good teaching is to workshops with communities of teachers who learn through ongoing collaboration and practice.' Dennis Sparks Nat Staff Dev Centre (US)

'education ultimately depends on what happens in classrooms... between teachers and learners. That is fundamental.'... 'I hope that teachers will discover the optimism and direction to combat the energy - draining pressures and frustrations of most educational settings.' David Perkins, 'Smart Schools.'

'It's about teaching and it's about time.' Stoll and Fink

'All learning begins when our comfortable ideas turn out to be inadequate.' John Dewey

'Teachers must be encouraged - I almost said 'freed', to pursue an education that strives for depth of understanding.' Howard Gardner

'The overwhelming number of teachers ...are unable to name or describe a theory of learning that underlies what they do.' Alfie Kohn

'I haven't been in long enough to retire, but I have been in too long to quit. I like the children. I want to do good job, but I don't have the room to manoeuvre. What I think about things doesn't count. My ideas are not important...The central office grinds out curriculum guides ..that no one pays any attention to... I go to school everyday. I go through the motions. I'll put my time in. But my heart is not in it.' Jack Frymier
 
'Something is out of whack. The bureaucratic nature of the enterprise seems to have acquired a purpose of it's own.' Jack Frymier

'Most learning disabilities are actually teaching disabilities on the part of the school.' Retired Teacher

'All human beings are born with unique gifts. The healthy functioning community depends on realizing the capacity to develop each gift'. Peter Senge
'What we want... is for students to get more interested in things, more involved in them, more engaged in wanting to know; to have projects that they can get excited about and work on over long periods of time, to be stimulated to find things out on their own.' Howard Gardner

'Most schools do a remarkably poor job of recognizing and rewarding future achievers... The standards of success in school have very little to do with standards thereafter' Farson and Keyes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.' What did predict economic success was a willingness to take chances, most educational systems honor those who play it safe... The ones who do take chances have a hard time in school and are often penalized for their independent ways'. Farson and Keyes.

'We are creating a one size fits all system that needlessly brands many young people as failures, when they might thrive if offered a different education whose progress was measured differently. Paradoxically we're embracing standardized tests just when the economy is eliminating standardized jobs.' Robert Reich Former US Labor Secretary.

'teachers and administrators sleepwalk through their responsibilities, dulled and discouraged by the endless pressures and problems.' David Perkins 'Smart Schools.'

'A teacher's failure to create an intellectually reflective, engagement for learning is not simply malpractice but it is immoral particularly for students who cannot withdraw.' John Goodland Educator

'There are two reasons why people learn one because someone said you can't and the other because someone said you can.' Howard Wilson Retired NZ Principal

'The learner's attitude is thus an essential factor to determine the direction of his learning, whether he shall learn to do or not learn to do.' William Kilpatrick, Prof of Education 1917


'School improvement is most surely and thoroughly achieved when teachers engage in frequent, continuous and increasingly concrete talk about teaching practices... capable of distinguishing one practice and it's virtue from another.' Judith Warren Little Education Researcher

'Many children struggle in schools... because the way they are being taught is the way is incompatible with the way they learn.' Peter Senge

'We must give more attention to the interplay between the science of teaching - pedagogy - and the art of teaching... A teacher must be anchored in pedagogy and blend imagination, creativity and inspiration into the teaching learning process to ignite a passion for learning in student.' Peyton Williams, President ASCD 2003

'what a child can do today with assistance, she will be able to do by herself tomorrow'. Lev Vygotsky

'Teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation' Jerome Bruner.


'Me te huruhuru te manu ka rere'
'It's the feathers that make the bird'  Maori saying

'Quality in education is what makes learning a pleasure and a joy.' Myron Tribus
 
'School can be a torture or an instrument of inspiration.' Higgins and Dolva
 
'It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather... I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanised or dehumanised.'
Haim Ginott
 
'In teaching students to think the emphasis is not on how many answers they know. Rather, the focus is on how well they behave when they don't know.' Art Costa
 
'The message we want to give to all students, "you are important, you can succeed, and we will not give up on you"'. T Patterson ASCD
 
'There can be no significant innovation in education that does not have at its centre the attitudes of the teachers. The beliefs, assumptions, feelings of teachers are the air of the learning environment; they determine the quality of life within it'. Postman and Weingartner
 
'Ano me whare pungawerewere'
'It is like the house of the spider - linked by a web (of values)'  Maori saying

'Education is about helping children, who are capable of self reflection and self organisation, and of enjoying a life where they explore their abundant potential'. Caine and Caine
 
'Teaching is not that difficult, it is thirty plus children, a good relationship and doing things well ' Howard Wilson

'The guts of teaching is simple - it is the relationship between a teacher and a group of kids' Howard Wilson    retired Taranaki principal

'I am always ready to learn.but I do not always like being taught.' Winston Churchill
 
'Going to school and getting and education are two different things; and they don't always happen at the same time.' Rosa Hill First Native Indian Physician
 
'Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.'Albert Einstein

'To be interested is to be absorbed in, wrapped up in, carried away by, some object. To take an interest is to be on the alert, to care about, to be attentive.' John Dewey
 
The principle goal of education is to create men and woman who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done'. Jean Piaget
 
'We are shaped and fashioned by what we love' Goethe
 
'Man ultimately decides for himself! And in the end, education must be education towards the ability to decide' Victor Frankl
 
'The problem is never to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out.' De Hock VISA
 
'You cannot teach anybody anything. You can only help them discover it within themselves.'Galileo
 
'Schools should be about providing a sense of hope for all not achievement for the few.' Anon
 
'Schools must inquire deeper into their own practices, explore new ways to motivate their learners, make use of learning styles, introduce multiple intelligences, integrate learning, and teach thinking, and in the process discover the passion and moral purpose that makes teaching exciting and effective.'Fullan and Hargreaves


'we know at lot more now than the 'last time around'- the 1960s and 1970s - about how to work for smart schools... ' 'The smart school finds it's foundation in a rich and evolving set of principles about human thinking and learning.' David Perkins, 'Smart Schools.'.
 
'Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time.' Hebrew Proverb
 
'Every parent's deepest wish is that their children are self sufficient, happy, and able to live a full life.' Peter Block
 
'To be a teacher you must be a prophet - because you are trying to prepare people for a world thirty to fifty years into the future.' Gordon Brown MIT
 
'Smart people don't learn... because they have too much invested in proving what they know and avoiding being seen as not knowing.' Chris Agyris
 
'The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you are learning you're not old.' Rosalyn Sussman Yalow US Medical Physicist
 
'The world cannot afford to lose the talents of half it's people if we are to solve the many problems that beset us.' Rosalyn Sussman Yalow US Medical Physicist
 
'Old age is compulsory, wisdom is optional.' Anon
 
'You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizons. The more things you love, the more things you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about.' Ethyl Barrymore Actress
 
'Until recently, education has had it backwards, caring little for the teacher... and enormously about the content. Yet it is a gifted teacher who can infect a generation with the excitement of learning.' Aquarian Conspiracy
 
'Education must develop in youth the capabilities for engaging in intense concentrated involvement in an activity.' James Coleman 1977
 
'My education was a prolonged and concerted attack on my individuality' Neil Crofts Author Authenticity
 
'I was born exited' Mark Twain
 
'Learning is a matter of intensity not elapsed time.' Tom Peters , 'Re - Imagine'
 
'There is a road from the eye to the head that does not go through the intellect.' G K Chesterton
 
'We can whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children... we already know more than we need to know in order to do that.' Ron Edmonds Educator
 
'Having no alternative we were born creative.' Aquarian Conspiracy
 
'Human beings start out as butterflies and end up in cocoons.' Anon
 
'Unfortunately schools are no help because they teach us not to make connections... There should be a few people at least... pulling things together.' Edward Hall Anthropologist
 
'When Abraham Maslow asked a college class whether anyone had expectations of greatness, no one responded. 'Who else then', he replied dryly.' In 'Aquarian Conspiracy'.
 
'How can you do new math with an old math mind.' Charlie Brown /Peanuts
 
'The first problem for all of us, men and woman, is not to learn, but to unlearn.' Gloria Steinem US Feminist
 
'Teachers who do a bad job with old tools are likely to do a worse job with strange new tools.' Anon
 
'The young child approaching a new subject or anew problem is like the scientist operating at the edge of his chosen field.' Jerome Bruner
 
'Good teaching is forever being on the cutting edge of a child's competence'. Jerome Bruner 86
 
'The teacher's role in discussion is to keep it going along fruitful lines - be moderating, guiding, correcting and arguing like one more students.' Mortimer Adler, The Paideia Proposal
 
.
'The metaphor ( coaching) with sports is meant quite seriously... the coach stands back , observes the performance, and provides guidance. The coach applauds strengths, identifies weaknesses, points up principles, offers guiding and often inspiring imagery, and decides what kind of practice to emphasize.' David Perkins 'Smart Schools.'
 
'Expert tutors often do not help very much. They hang back letting the student manage as much as possible. And when things go awry, rather than help directly they raise questions: 'Could you explain this step again? How did you... ?' Mark Lepper Stanford Psychologist
 
'The difference between reform and transformation is as if we have been trying to attach wings to a caterpillar... it is high time we freed ourselves of attachment to old forms and eased the flight of the unfettered human mind.' 'Aquarian Conspiracy'
 
'No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in their mode of thought.' John Stuart Mills.
 
'Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.' Douglas Adams, Author 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'
 
'To change your reality you have to change your inner thoughts.' David Bohm Physicist
 
'One of the saddest things about US education is that the wisdom of our most successful teachers is lost to the profession when they retire.' John Dewey
 
I discovered the brutally simple motivation behind the development of impositions of all systematic instructional programmes and tests - lack of trust that teachers can teach and students can learn.' Frank Smith 'Insult to Intelligence'
 
'The too soft teacher reinforces the learner's natural wish to retreat and stay safe... the teacher must know when to let the learner struggle... we must not be spared our learning. Risk brings its own rewards.' Aquarian Conspiracy
 
'In every story I have heard, good teachers share one trait: a strong sense of personal identity infuses their work'. Parker Palmer 'Courage to Teach'.
 
'All true thoughts have been thought through already a thousand times; but to make them truly yours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.' Goethe
 
'Time given to thought is the greatest time saver of all'. Norman Cousins
 
'The trouble is that thinking looks like loafing. Who wants to pay people for daydreaming? Somerset Maughan
 
'Don't just do something, stand there.' Zen saying
 
'Some people are making such thorough plans for rainy days that they aren't enjoying today's sunshine.' William Feather US Author
 
'Only the mediocre are always at their best.' Somerset Maughan
 
'Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we were never able to do.' Peter Senge
 
' The biggest thing about being someone is imajunation. Before you can be something, you must imajun it.' Fifth Grader quoted by S Papert
 
'each individual brain is more like a unique and unimaginably dense rain forest, teeming with growth and decay. It is less like a programmed machine than an ecological habitat that mimics the evolution of life itself.' Prof Edleman Nobel Prize winner
 
'Learning is spontaneous, unpredictable, fun, passionate, dangerous.' Bowring - Carr and Burnham West UK Educators
 
'A child's attitude towards everything is an artist's attitude.' Willa Cather US Novelist
 
'Art should simplify.' Willa Cather US Novelist
 
'We don't have to make human beings smart. They are born smart. All we have to do is stop doing things that make them stupid.' John Holt
 
'Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them too quickly, we keep them from reinventing it themselves'. Piaget
 
'Morpheus: 'I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one who must walk through it' The Matrix (Film)
 
Of a gifted teacher (she) 'has an unfailing heart and eye for magical classrooms and who loses sleep over any sliver of work at less than the highest quality'. Carol Ann Tomlinson 'The Differentiated Classroom
 
'The drive to learn is as strong as the sexual drive. It begins earlier and lasts longer' Edward T Hall ( Anthropologist)
 
'Out of the questions of students come most of the creative ideas and discoveries'. Ellen Langer
 
'To be a teacher you must be a prophet - because you are trying to prepare people for a world thirty to fifty years into the future.' Gordon Brown former Dean MIT
 
 'If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it.' Mao Zedong
 
I believe babies are born as innovative personalities... But our social processes work to stamp out exploration and questioning.' Jay Forrestor Prof MIT
 
'Learning to use your intuition is learning to be your own teacher'. Vaughan
 
'Being 'educated' means knowing how little I really know.' Carol T Lloyd
 
'As your island of knowledge grows, so does your shoreline of wonder.' Anon
 
'Good teaching is forever being on the cutting edge of a child competence'. Jerome Bruner
 
'Let the main object... to seek and to find a method of instruction, by which teachers may teach less, but learners learn more.' John Amos Comenius
 
'I cured the patient but he died' is as logical as saying 'I taught the pupil, but she did not learn.' Bowring -Carr and John Burnham West UK Educators
 
'The open teacher ... establishes rapport and resonance, sensing unspoken needs, conflicts, hopes and fears. Respecting the learners autonomy, the teacher spends more time helping to articulate the urgent questions than demanding the right answers.' Aquarian Conspiracy
 
'Progressive white teachers seem to say to their black students 'Let me help you find your voice. I promise not to criticize one note as you search for your song'. But the black teachers say 'I've heard your song loud and clear. Now I want to teach you to harmonize with the rest of the world.'' Delpit 'The Silenced Dialogue'
 
'teachers who respond to their children's message, and not to their mistakes, appeared to help their children more.' John Smith Warwick Elley NZ Educators
 
'The open teacher helps the learner discover patterns and connections, fosters strange new possibilities, and is a midwife to ideas.' Aquarian Conspiracy
 
'We trust the teacher who gives us stress, pain or drudgery when we need it. And we resent the teacher who... takes us into deep water when we are frightened of the shallow'. Aquarian Conspiracy
 
'Come to the edge', he said.
They said, 'We are afraid'
'Come to the edge', he said
They came
He pushed them... and they flew. Guillaume Apollinaire Poet
 
Before we choose our tools and techniques we must choose our dreams and values.' Anon
 
'If you want to make a mark you have to take a risk.' Terrance E Deal
 
'After the final no there comes a yes and on that yes the future of the world depends' Wallace Stevens
 
'Studies of high school gradates rarely find any correlation between recognition in high school and recognition thereafter... The terms are too different. What worked in high school seldom works later... Those not tested by setbacks when young may never learn how to rebound from defeat.' Farson and Keyes 'Whoever makes the Most Mistakes Wins.'

 'We are born trying to gain power over our environment. We live and die trying to figure out who we are; what life means; how to understand joy, pain, victory, and death; how we relate to each other; and why we are here. The disciplines we study- art music, literature, mathematics, science or philosophy- give us lenses... the skills... the power to use the understandings in meaningful ways.' Phenix 1986
 
 
'In order for the brain to comprehend the heart must first listen.' David Perkins, 'Smart Schools.'
 
'To live our lives fully, to work whole heartily, to refuse directly what we can't swallow, to accepts the mystery in all matters of meaning- this is the ultimate adventure.' Peter Block, Philosopher
 
 
 'One barrier... is the impoverishment of classroom language, the failure to cultivate a common vocabulary about inquiry, explanation, argument and problem solving. David Perkins 'Smart Schools.'
 
'Good questions work on us, we don't work on them. They are not a project to be completed but a doorway opening onto greater depth of understanding, actions that will take us into being more fully alive. Peter Block
 
'I will act as if what I do will make a difference.' William James
 
'An individual who stands out, or disagrees or takes risks is a danger to such systems and is effortlessly and, unconsciously sidelined.' John Ralston Saul 'Voltaire's Bastards.'
 
'Intelligence is knowing what to do when you don't know what to do.' Art Costa
 
'We have to learn to make our own way through a complex world without the benefit of an accepted trustworthy route map.' Guy Claxton in 'Wise -Up'
 
'Know how - can do'. 'Don't know how - but will give it a go.' Extended 'Place Makers Motto' by Bruce Hammonds
 
'It is amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.' Charles Kettering US Inventor
 
'When the going gets tough the tough get going!' Saying
 
'The germ of an idea doesn't make the sculpture that stands up... so the next stage is hard work' Csikszentmihalyi 'Nature of Insight'.
 
'It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning.' Calude Bernard, French Psychologist 1813-78
 
'Powerful learning strategies can most simply be thought of what we presently do for gifted and talented children. What works for them works just as well for 'at risk' students.' Henry M Levin Accelerated Schools Project.
 
'One in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.' Grateful Dead
 
'Wherever you are be there.' Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
'We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.' Anais Nin Diarist
 
'Don't go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.' Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
'Destiny is not a matter of chance it is a matter of choice.' Anon
 
'Life is the path you beat while you walk it It's the walking that beats the path It is not the path that makes the walk'. Antonio Machardo Poet
 
'Eagles don't flock - you have to find them one at a time.' Ross Perot Businessman
.
'I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.' Winston Churchill
 
'We must believe in ourselves as no one else will believe in us, we must match our expectations with the competence, courage and determination to succeed.' Rosalyn Sussman Yalow US Medical Physicist
 
'In order to act, you must be somewhat insane .A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.' Georges Clemenceau Premier of France 1917-20
 
'When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves he isn't a man of action.' Georges Clemenceau Premier of France 1917- 20
 
'You learn at your best when you have something you care about and can get pleasure in being engaged in.' Howard Gardner
 
'The drive to learn is as strong as the sexual drive. It begins earlier and lasts longer.' Edward Hall Anthropologist
 
'To be nobody - but - myself - in a world which is doing it's best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human can fight, and never stop fighting.' e e cumming us poet
 
'What gives people superiority at a task is true intention. That makes you attuned to everything.' Weiner Erhard
 
'If there is a way to do it better... find it!' Thomas Edison
 
'Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better'. Samuel Beckett
 
'You miss 100% of all the shots you never take,' Wayne Gretsky Ice Hockey Coach
 
'Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. You simply 'must do' things.' Ray Bradbury
 
'Getting the balance right between intuitive experimentation and conscious deliberation is vital. Think too little and you may be stuck with bad habits. Think too much and you may become paralyzed with self consciousness. Guy Claxton 'Wise Up'
 
'I have my faults but changing my tune is not one of them.' Samuel Beckett
 
'A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spend doing nothing.' George Bernard Shaw
 
'The major difference between the 'best' and the 'average' is that the 'best' get as much pleasure from practice as performance.' Ben Zander
 
'It takes a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.' Alfred North Whitehead.
 
'Education is knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and its knowing how to use the information you get.' William Feather US Author
 
'Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them.' Ralph Gerard
 
'Thinking is past experience guiding present actions.' William Kilpatrick Educator 1917
 
'The golden rule is that there are no golden rules' G B Shaw
 
'Te wao nui tane ( about giant NZ Kauri trees 'Standing out from the crowd') Maori saying
 
'People whose talents are not exploited become disenchanted and disruptive.' Sir Terrance Conran ( Decorator)
 
'Talent comes with an individual name tag.' Charles Handy
 
'The mind aware of itself is a pilot... vastly freer than a passenger mind.' Marilyn Ferguson
 
'We have two strategies for coping; the way of avoidance or the way of attention.' Marilyn Ferguson
 
'You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.' Mark Twain
 
'To go faster you must slow down.' John Brunner Author
 
'Fear of knowing is very deeply a fear of doing.' Abraham Maslow
 
'It is not so important to have all the answers as to be hungry for them.' Carol Ann Tomlinson 'The Differentiated Classroom'
 
'If everyone is thinking alike then somebody is not thinking.' George S Paton
 
'In any work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts' Ralph Waldo Emerson.
 
'Plan to be better today, but don't ever plan to be finished' Carol Ann Tomlinson
 
'If poetry comes as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.' John Keats
 
'The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.' William James
 
'If necessity is the mother of invention what was papa doing?' Anon
 
'Fledgling skiers make the most progress when they are pushed outside their comfort zone, but not so far that they're sacred off the slopes altogether.' Ski Instructor
 
'Courage isn't lack of fear, after all, it's the ability to carry on despite the fear. General Omar Bradley called courage the 'capacity to carry on properly even when scared half to death.' Genuine risk takers not only have the guts to act in face of harrowing apprehension, they know how to harness fear's energy' Farson and Keyes, 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.'
 
Fearing failure is not necessarily a bad thing. Excitement is the flip side of fear. Any ten year old on a skateboard knows that exhilaration is primarily fear transformed... Fear begins as a negative sensation but can end on a positive note in the form of excitement, elation, exhilaration, euphoria, even ecstasy. Enthusiasm is close cousin. So are intensity and concentration.' Farson and Keyes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.
 
'Winning and losing aren't all they're cracked up to be, but the trip to the destination is.' John Wooden UCLA Basketball Coach
 
'the Samurai were fierce warriors. What is less known is how much of their thoughts were based on achieving victory by avoiding thoughts of victory. They knew that focusing on the outcome of a contest made defeat more likely... to achieve victory by becoming fully absorbed in the process that would lead them there.' Farson and Keyes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.
 
Winning is not everything - but making the effort to win was... If you can't accept losing, you can't win' Vince Lombardi Basketball coach.
 
'By not trying too hard, we avoid learning what our true potential is, and having to fulfill it. Doing our best can be deeply threatening. It forces us to consider what we're actually capable of accomplishing. Once we learn the lesson we can't unlearn it. Our true potential becomes a shining light we can follow...' Farson and Keyes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins'.
 
'An exaggerated fear of losing is the ugly sibling of an over emphasis on winning. Both cloud the mind.... The players most urged to victory by mothers and fathers proved to be the most cautious. Those whose parents cheered but didn't push them were then ones most likely to take chances -and win'. Farson and Keynes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins.'
 
'I worry that whoever thought up the term 'quality control' thought if we didn't control it, it would get out of hand.' Lily Tomlin Singer
 
'Looking at students work brings you face to face with your values.' Daniel Barron US Nat Reform Faculty.
 
'To attract joy and create more success, try doing less but doing it with more enthusiasm.' Phillip Humbert http://www.philliphumbert.com/
 
'A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.' Roald Dahl ( Author)
 
'To develop a complete mind: study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.' Leonardo da Vinci
 
'Most advances in science comes from when a person for one reason or another is forced to change fields.' Peter Burdon
 
'We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as in insoluble problems. John W Gardner
 
'Imagination is more important than knowledge.' Albert Einstein
 
'Life is a series of lessons that have to be understood.' Thomas Carlyle
 
'A fear of foolishness keeps us from painting the pictures we would like to paint, composing the poems, courting the lovers, making the friends, pursuing the jobs, starting the businesses. Those who know this, can confront and transcend their fear of ridicule, are usually in a strong position... Every path breaker has looked foolish, and been humiliated, yet society depends on them utterly... Only those who are willing to risk looking foolish can invent a breakthrough.' Farson and Keyes 'Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins'
 
'The best work we do is on the verge of embarrassing us, always.' Arthur Miller Playwright.
 
'A fear of foolishness can never be conquered completely. Nor should it be... Deep down shyness is a secret most charismatic people have.' Farson and Keyes
 
'We are all afraid. That's the thing that unites all truly successful people: fear, fear of failing, fear of criticism, fear of letting down the team in some way. That why they try so hard, that's why they pay attention to detail and try to get every possible duck in a row. It's fear'. Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's Speech Writer.
 
'Ana te toka te moana Live like a rock in the sea He akinga na nga tai washed by the tides' Maori saying
 
'It is not the biggest, the brightest or the best that will survive, but those who adapt the quickest.' Charles Darwin
 
'The secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and a thousand things well.' Henry Walpole
 
'I have learnt to say the word impossible with great caution.' Verner von Braun

'Those periods of struggling to overcome challenges are what people find to be the most enjoyable times.' Csikszentmihalyi
 
'Excellence is the new forever.' Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
'We've got to do fewer things in school. The greatest enemy of understanding is coverage... You've got to take enough time to get kids deeply involved in something so they can think about it in lots of different ways and apply it.' Howard Gardner
 
Giving students the power and then watching them strive for excellence is an incredible teaching experience.' Catherine Doanne
 
'Enthusiasm is the match that lights the candle of achievement.' William Arthur Boyd
 
'Nothing has happened in education until it has happened to a student.' Joseph Carroll
 
'To play the trumpet well, a musician can not let more than a few days pass without practicing.'Csikszentmihalyi  
 
'The ability to take misfortune and make something good come of it is a rare gift. Those who possess it are ..said to have resilience or courage.' Csikszentmihalyi
 
' "How does one become a butterfly?" She asked pensively. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar".' Trina Paula
 
 
 

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Posted in: Creative teaching,Educational Quotes,Personalized Learning,teaching and learning

Elwyn Richardson: NewZealand's pioneer creative teacher.

Elwyn Richardson with Margaret MacDonald. Margaret has just completed a thesis on Elwyn Richardson's place in creative teaching in New Zealand.

Take 15 minutes to view this U -Tube video of Elwyn's work and pass it on to others.

I was reading in an art book I was given for Christmas about all the influences that had contributed to the development to the artists personal style.

Everybody has people who have contributed to the beliefs they currently hold and I got to thinking who had made the greatest contribution to my own views about education.

In one way I was was rather privileged because most of my time in teaching, since the 60s, has been as an itinerant specialist teacher, first in nature study, later as an adviser in science and for a short time an art adviser. I say privileged because the various advisory roles enabled me to come across number of teachers whose approach to teaching and learning stood out from other teachers.

I have aways believed that the best professional development is to be gained by observing other teachers - particularly those who have the ability to draw the best out of their students. Teachers have a  profound respect for the advice from those who do the real work.Unfortunately, in recent decades, 'experts' from outside the classroom have become the sources of 'official'  knowledge and this has led to a reduction in the importance of those creative teachers. This is is a shame.

In my early years the most innovative teachers I was lucky to visit were principals of small rural schools.Bigger urban school were very traditional places in those days.  There isn't much point in mentioning names as all have long since retired but they, I realised later, were aware of the creative ideas that were in the air, in all areas of life, after the World War Two. In New Zealand progressive child centred ideas were being encouraged under the guidance of Dr Beeby the then Director of Education.

During the sixties I became involved with local art advisers ( who were under the guidance of National Art Director Gordon Tovey. With Gordon's encouragement the art advisers involved teachers to explore integrated  or related art studies.  With most classrooms having every part of the day timetables this was a revolutionary approach and suited those teachers in multi-age small schools who had the freedom to experiment.  Unfortunately such advisers, in a range of fields , are now history and  leaving an important inspirational gap that has never been filled.

Also during this time I became aware of the UK Junior Nuffield Science approach and worked with a number of local teachers to implement such ideas. This approach encouraged open ended inquiries based on children question making use of the immediate environment. This  dovetailed nicely with the ecological approaches that were being encouraged by nature study and later science advisers.

It was during this time I learnt about the exciting work of Elwyn Richardson  in his small school in the far North written up in his book 'In The Early World'.

Another important influence to my beliefs came from my visit to the UK to learn more about Nuffield Science and English child centred learning. The most important aspect was working in a very progressive school King Farm School Gravesend Kent.

Returning to New Zealand I worked with a small group of Taranaki teachers to develop what came to be known as the Taranaki Environmental Education Approach (the environment referred to the importance of stimulating classroom environments and making use of the rich local environment). This group combined ideas from the related art approaches,   English progressive teaching and the ideas of Elwyn Richardson ( who we had made contact with).

At this point my ideas about teaching and learning had become clear. Going teaching for a few years in the 70s  enabled me to put them into practice as did being a principal in the late 80s.

Since then lots of ideas from a range of educationalists have added to the mix.

Unfortunately sine 1986 the winds of change worldwide have sent school off in another direction towards standardised education -an approach that undermines the very creativity and diversity that New Zealand educators had gained world wide respect for

It is time for  schools to return to believing in the importance of creative teachers as the source of lasting change.  Teachers will need to work together ( they now have the technology to do so) to articulate a set of beliefs for the new century - one thing that they could do is get behind the  almost side tracked 2007  New Zealand National Curriculum.

Elwyn remains as an inspiration of what can be achieved if we want to develop the talents and gifts of all students

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

Let's not lose the point of school now we have 'the standards'!

Just as we need creativity the government imposes standardisation. Not that schools haven't been there before.

I have just discovered, in my tidy up, a copy of Guy Claxton's ' Whats the Point of School - Rediscovering the Heart of Education'. Claxton's book provides inspiration for a real 'step change' in education to cope with the demands of a dynamic new century that is already a decade old.

Our current system fails too many children but the answer is not to go back to the failed standardisation of the past.

The trouble with the standards is that the cure may be worse than the problem as school are pressurised to focus more on more on ensuring students succeed they will neglect more important things such as attitudes and individual students' talents and gifts. It is these qualities that are the heart of a future orientated education. I am reminded of the old saying:  ' when you are up to your backside in alligators it is hard to remember you came to drain the swamp'! It is not that I am against literacy and numeracy it is just that these need to be seen as very important 'foundation skills'  - skills best learnt when students see the point of them.

There is no doubt that Claxton is one of the most important writers of our time. Claxton is one of the UK's foremost thinkers on creativity, learning, and the brain.  All schools should have a copy and make efforts to implement his ideas - somehow, in the present environment in New Zealand, I can't see this happening - quite the opposite.

Claxton begins his book by writing: 'The purpose of education is to prepare young people for the future. Schools should be helping young people develop the capacities they will need to thrive. What they need, and want, is the confidence to talk to strangers, to try things out, to handle tricky situations, to stand up for themselves, to ask for help, to think new thoughts.'

'But, he says, 'they are not getting it'.

'Education' he continues, 'has lost the plot and it urgently needs to recover its core purpose'. Politicians claim to put education at the heart of their concerns but they are wrong if they think imposing regressive standards will do it they are mistaken - they will only act as  intellectual straight jackets. Politicians need, Claxton says, 'the courage to go deeper'.

Albert Einstein wrote that 'education is what remains after one has forgotten everything one has learnt at school' - and Claxton reminds us that Einstein was referring to those lifelong skills and attitudes that mark out a true learner.

The key to develop such qualities are gained by students working in groups researching engaging projects involving skills of collaboration, discussion and attitudes of self organisation. This of course involves in depth content and quality outcomes but it is , Claxton says, 'not the immediate performance so much as the cumulative development that is going on behind the specific tasks' that is more important. It is these attitudes and skills that matter in the long run.They are the core confidences young people need,Claxton calls them 'learning muscles.These are curiosity, courage, investigation, imagination, reasoning, sociability and reflection' .'These , Claxton calls ' qualities of mind'. And all these are are 'perfectly capable of being strengthened and cultivated by education' - but the 'pressure to push up literacy rates' subverts their development. The quest for results undermines student's confidence and contributes to their 'losing their capacity for wonder and critical thinking'.

Claxton quotes John Dewey who wrote: 'How many students for example, were rendered callous to ideas and how many have lost the impetus to learn by the way in which learning was experienced by them?' The new standards come to mind!

In this desire to focus on literacy and numeracy, Claxton writes, 'we  have forgotten the deeper purpose of education.'

'To effect a thorough change' he says, 'we have to start by seeing how bad things are.We have to understand what it is young people really need, what schools are actually providing, and acknowledging the gulf between the two. And then we have to establish, beyond all possible doubt, that the kind of educational reform for more than a hundred years is not going to work'.

Only when this is understood that a different kind of change is both necessary and possible. 'With a little bit of imagination, and a modicum of courage, education can rediscover its heart and soul.'

Claxton wants to inspire teachers to see  students as 'brave and confident explorers, tough enough in spirit,and flexible enough in mind, to pursue their dreams and ambitions.'

So did the New Zealand Curriculum until the government sidetracked it!

'We need a new narrative for education that can engage and inspire chidren'. Lets fire kids up with the deep satisfaction of discovery and exploration. They are born with learning zeal; lets recognise, celebrate and protect it, but also stretch, strengthen and diversify it.'

Schools have , as Claxton says,   'lost the plot'!

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Posted in: Big Picture,change,Creative teaching,Creative teaching Educationalists,Leadership,Ministry NZCurric,national standards,Personalized Learning,School Vision,teaching and learning

Are we losing interest based teaching?

Seven and eight year old children study Fuchsias.


I have been busy cleaning out all the students work I have kept over the years - one teacher Bill Guild left me an amazing collection of research work, language and art.
I used to take selections of this work to show schools but I got the impression they thought it all beyond their own students ( 'students are different these days Bruce'). On two occasions I took work back to the schools that the work originally came from and in both cases teachers thought it was beyond their low decile students!

Teaching is about high expectations and skillful teacher interaction where teachers come alongside the learner assisting but taking care not to  do the work for the children. In this respect helping is an art form - the 'artistry' of the teacher is won through experience.

When visiting schools recently I have seen student work, some 'scaffolded', where it is hard to tell one students work from another. This applies whether it is research writing, layout of work, language and, worst of all, art.This of course is not what 'scaffolding' was meant to result in - student creativity and individuality was meant to be protected.

The Fuchsia study illustrated resulted from one teacher who had a particular fascination for fuchsias - it is amazing what individuals become fascinated in! As a result she took her students to visit a fuchsia nursery where the children were amazed by the variety of fuchsia and watched how fuchsia were propagated.All students left with a fuchsia cutting to propagate back at school.

At school students learnt about the fuchsia family ( discovering there were two native fuchsias they were unaware of), completed careful observational drawings, learnt about the structure of flowers and their role in pollination,  how to propagate plants, and wrote up notes of all they had learnt.

All very simple stuff but involving  a set of skills to be in place - how to go about observing, using water colours (and later pastels as they extended their ideas into pieces of creative work), and note taking and research writing.

It is from such experiences ( not always arising from teacher interests) that provide the means to develop creative learners and it is through such experiences student will develop their own set of personal interests - some of which may lead to a career or simply a life long interest.

The last few weeks of the year is great time for students to study aspects of their environment to demonstrate all the skills they have in place - what better form of evaluation could there be?.

One good study is  looking at the flax plant which is currently in flower.

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Posted in: Action Plans and Lessons,Creative teaching,inquiry learning,teaching and learning