I wrote these words in July of 2018. Seven years later, as another cycle comes to a close, I’m publishing them. As someone who works in education, I could tell you of many things. On this blog, I have at times tried. So I won’t tell of you of many things, but instead a story. And not even the full story, but merely the ending of a chapter. I have formally resigned from my position as a leader in a school. My final day here will be on July 13th, 2018. ...
I gave this talk to a small group at the ICOT Conference in 2013. To post the talk now in 2025 seems a bit odd, but I think it still holds up. It is of it’s time, in that I reference the early days of Network for Learning (N4L). I did go on to work to work at N4L 2015-2017, and the final talk I gave in that role was this presentation to staff at AUT. ...
In 2005, in my third week of teaching, I had a student join my classroom. This student had a range of high needs and unique characteristics. One of these was that they enjoyed discreetly masturbating during silent reading time, particularly when looking through National Geographic magazines. I must admit to being a little concerned about how to manage this behaviour appropriately, considering the mana of the student and with a desire to maintain a safe and inclusive classroom culture. ...
This Wednesday August 15th, for the first time in over 20 years, primary teachers are scheduled take legal strike action, as part of a campaign to lead, teach and learn. It’s a campaign I support - there is a teacher shortage, there are enormous workloads on teachers and school leaders, and there is a need to align and strengthen the career paths for people in the school sector. Articles such as this one from Charlee Jobson, a Facebook post picked up by the media has been getting some traction and shares over the weekend ...
This statement, appeared on the VLN recently. “The rate of change in education is too slow for our priority learners - Māori, Pasifika, students with special educational needs? Do you agree or disagree?” If you removed the phrase “education” out of this statement, would it make anymore sense? “The rate of change in society is too slow for our priority learners - Māori, Pasifika, students with special societal needs?” “The rate of change in parents is too slow for our priority learners - Māori, Pasifika, students with special parental needs?” We can do all the whizz-bang work in education and make ourselves sound futurific with flipped classrooms, QR codes, Google glasses and all - but if you look around at society - it’s still pretty similar to what we’ve always had. ...
Buried deep within the Ministry’s website are these pages. If you’re at all interested in the future of NZ education - please take the time to peruse them and consider what they mean for the shape and feel of schools and learning. Public Achievement Information page Flyer for parents on PAI Timeline for PAI - 2012 - 2017 PAI - The Case for system-wide improvement PAI - Use of Data - Expected Outcomes ...
Cory Doctorow’s article from Locus really nails a number of issues that apply to the writing we do in class. If we’re to teach writing as a skill, it’s the doing of the skill that matters. “Short, regular work schedule When I’m working on a story or novel, I set a modest daily goal — usually a page or two — and then I meet it every day, doing nothing else while I’m working on it. It’s not plausible or desirable to try to get the world to go away for hours at a time, but it’s entirely possible to make it all shut up for 20 minutes. ...
Agendas are due out on Wednesday. Twenty five written agendas to guide 25 minute conversations with parents who just really want to know what their child can work on, and what they can do for them. At week 6 in the term, I have to assess work for a conversation at week 9 - and have to give up class time get the students to prepare their bit. Tomorrow we have an orchestra playing for an hour, 8 of my students will be at Eastern Zone Cross Country, on Thursday it’s the science fair, and then with my half day of ICT release I’ll be out working on the server so we can send out the 15 Macbooks. Friday will be my photography class and teaching languages. We have hui on Friday morning. ...
The cantilever challenge is a problem solving exercise, that requires students to work as a team, design and engineer a simple cantilever beam, work to a short time frame, and solve problems as the arise. All on blu-tack, ice lolly sticks, some tape and a handful of paper clips. It’s a fun use of session, although the cleanup can take a while. The sessions introduced with a wikipedia page and some examples such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Fallingwater’, Old Trafford and a reference to the Caketin here in Wellington. The discussion wasn’t so much on the engineering details, but the advantages of using a cantilever in a design. Several pointed out that at the Caketin a design using a cantilever allows everyone to see the field without anything blocking the view. ...