Teaching

This term we’re doing a minor unit on climate change. The main resource we’re using is a revised version of Tim Flannery’s book, “The Weather Makers.” He has rewritten it for young adults and titled it “We are the Weather Makers”. It is aimed squarely at those who will be directly affected by global warming and who will bear the impact of the choices we make today. The website* (snapshotted from the WebArchive in 2025) that’s been setup to support teachers and students in studying the resource is quite well equipped. We’ve been given a supporting book, with lesson plans and black master copies as well. ...

Taylor Mali. Keeping it straight.

Thankfully we don’t have standardized tests in NZ yet, although there have been mutters from some in politics that they should be introduced here. It is usually condemned as the opposite of relevant and ‘real’ teaching, so I was interested to read these comments from Walt Gardner, writing in the Deseret News. The key paragraph in his argument is this. “There is a distinct difference between teaching to the broad body of skills and knowledge that a test represents (good) and teaching to the exact items that will appear on the standardized test (indefensible and illegal). ...