Andrew Solomon: 'Figuring out how to love someone who seems unlovable is very familiar to me' It was around the eighth year of working on his book about childhood and parental love, still wading through the 40,000 pages of interviews he'd conducted with over 300 parents and children, some of which were so painful he could hardly bear to read them, that Andrew Solomon began to worry that his book was simply unwriteable. And in those moments, he felt something close to despair. What kept him going were the two things that underpin Far From the Tree: first, his deep connection with the families who shared the most intimate and painful moments of their lives with him. Second, his belief in the message of his book, which is that differences unite people in the way that sameness is assumed to. "I felt as though one seldom has anything to say and I thought I had something to say about this.
If I gave it up what was I going to do? " And so, he continued to work at it for another three years. But he has not written a "Lemons? "Parenting involves two separate activities. Sunday Times - Festival Of Education - News. April 25, 2014 The principal who’s coming to EdFest with all his teaching staff ‘It’s probably the most cost-effective CPD I’ve done in years’ There’s nothing particularly unusual about schools singling out a few favoured members of their senior leadership teams to bring to the Festival, but Sir Mark Grundy, executive principal of Shireland Collegiate Academy, ranked ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, has gone one better.
He’s bringing his entire 130-strong teaching staff. Every single one. Also being coached down from the school in Smethwick, West Midlands, are no fewer than 35 of his non-teaching colleagues, too. Sir Mark reels them off: his PA, all the teaching assistants, HR, finance, e-learning, learning-support staff, mentors and, last but not least, ‘potentially, my chair of governors’. He says it’s ‘probably the most cost-effective CPD I’ve done in years’. Most training days in most schools are ‘one size fits all’, he points out. Sunday Times - Festival Of Education - News. Modernity Britain by David Kynaston: Social history with a smile. Modernity Britain: Opening the Box, 1957-1959 David KynastonBloomsbury; 432pp; £25 The entertainment flies off the pages. The Kynaston method of compiling a vast array of sources and applying them with equal zest to the momentous (elections, the launch of Sputnik, the Notting Hill race riots) and the ephemeral (plotlines of the Archers, the vandalising of an Elizabeth Frink sculpture in Bethnal Green, the ambition of Accrington Stanley’s club chairman for the team to be one of the centres of European football) guarantees a rattling read.
This is social, cultural and political history, more or less in that order, with a smile on its face. That’s not merely because Britain was shaking off post-war gloom and discovering the joys of owning washing machines, televisions and irons. (Fridges, you may be amazed to know, were nowhere near as desirable as TV sets). What Kynaston does not do is historical neatness. Every now and then Kynaston lets himself go. So to the politics. Sunday Times - Festival Of Education - Home. The art of thinking – A.C. Grayling #educationfest. What is the one obsolescence proof thing that we can give young people going into the world? An ability to think. This sounds obvious, but thinking about how to think is not always straightforward. Grayling argued that the ability to think is essential to the kinds of problem solving, our career switching young people will need to be able to deal with.
University education has been traditionally pictured as something which is done for the love of the subject, and a byproduct of dealing with the types of ideas needed to do this should be a deep ability to think. However, graduate employers do not seem to currently agree that this is happening… When he went to University, 8% of students did, and they were chosen by academics who were primarily looking for people who would be able to replace themselves. What we should be looking for is not the acquisition of knowledge, but the acquisition of understanding. We need to create thinkers, but thinkers need things to think about. Related posts: Education Chief: Maybe Start School Later in Day. Michael Gove Exclusive Interview at the Festival of Education.
Post-Political Education, the Digital Ages: Thoughts from the Education Festival | guyjwilliams. I’ve had a great day at the Education Festival at Wellington College (@EducationFest) and, more than anything else, it has reinforced some ideas I’ve held for a while about the future of education. This is going to be obvious, but it still bears repeating a few times in case we forget it: Technology is going to transform learning for everybody, forever. Coursera And just in case you don’t think that’s the case, I’m going to start you off with with my experiences from this morning – listening to Daphne Koller, one of the founders of Coursera.
If you haven’t heard of it, you should look it up. This is not to say that Coursera and other MOOC providers are going to replace face-to-face education (after all, it’s good for humans to learn socially also), but there is huge potentially to level the playingfield. I think that is just so very radical, so promising; it is magnificent. Shift in the balance of power So, let’s imagine in 2019 you don’t really enjoy the new equivalent of GCSE History. ISTE Book and Online Resource Bundle. Carlo and Heroes at the Festival of Education, Wellington College. Great Lessons at the Wellington Festival. The Spiritual Room at Wellington (photos via Wellington and @ZoeAndrewsAST) It was a real thrill to take part in the Wellington Education Festival this year. I was overwhelmed by the level of interest, with people packed into every corner and many more who couldn’t get in at all. Guess what? People at an Education Festival want to talk about lessons!
My slides included some images from lessons at my school, showing that learning takes many forms… with traditional ‘heads down’ essay writing integrated with group work, on-line resources, student-led instruction, peer support, tightly focused drills and more open-ended explorations… Lessons take many forms; they integrate techniques and strategies of many kinds. However, the idea of a ‘great lesson’ is that it is characterised more by the habits of the teacher, the things they do routinely every day, rather than the specific strategies and structures they employ. The full series is available via this link: Great Lessons. Like this: Putting the stiletto into Professor Grayling.
The Sunday Times Festival of Education – Let’s Celebrate Mobile Learning. The Sunday Times Festival of Education brought together a mixture of people working within education from both the public and private sectors. Headline speakers like Michael Gove, Michael Wilshaw and Ellen MacArthur were a big draw, but for us the real benefit was talking to delegates in between the speeches about where they are on their tablet journey. The conference took place at Wellington College and offered keynote speeches on themes including: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs);Digital learning;Entrepreneurship;The future of learning. Debates of the day There was much discussion about equipping students with the skills they will need and questions around how the curriculum will, can, and should be adapted to meet the changing needs of education for this generation of young people.
If there was a theme, it was that technology has created an amazing opportunity as a catalyst for students and teachers. Preparing teachers for the future Developing students for the new economy. #educationfest | what will school be like? I picked up on the Festival of Education through twitter early this year and had high hopes from the billing that this would be a fantastic event. It did not disappoint. Held in the atmospheric grounds and buildings of Wellington College, it was brilliantly organised and set out to attract teachers (and tweechers), parents and families by bringing together leading speakers from the world of education.
As anyone who has been to a music festival can attest, one of the greatest challenges of these type of events is choosing who to see. There were as many as ten different talks running simultaneously and I was left wondering what might have been if only I had turned right to hear Andrew Adonis (@andrew_adonis) or left to hear Michael Wilshaw (I missed both, alas). That said, the talks I did see (thirteen, in all) were, almost without exception, stimulating, challenging and entertaining. As perhaps already hinted at, my festival experience was greatly enriched by twitter. Like this: IRIS Connect. 2014. Are your students thinking? | Inspiration, not desperation! 2014. What’s Katie Price, Russell Kane, Michael Gove & Anthony Seldon all got in common? | What’s Katie Price, Russell Kane, Michael Gove & Anthony Seldon all got in common – and no it’s not a pink horsebox the size of a county It’s the very wonderfully eclectic Sunday Times Festival of Education !
It was an awe inspiring venue as I parked up my little red mini and pondered the magnificence and privilege of Wellington College in the early evening June sunset. I felt honoured & fascinated to be dining with some of the finest thinkers in education free from politics, rhetoric and controversy. A wonderful eclectic meeting of experts, headmasters, teachers and mindsets from a wide tapestry of life. I heard how Katie Price had rocked up in her huge pink horsebox and changed stereotypical thinking and prejudice as the truly inspiring Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College, which hosts the annual Sunday Times Festival of Education, said: “prejudice and typecasting are things education is designed to destroy. Katie Price brings a touch of glamour to Wellington.
Katie arrived at Wellington school in her hot pink horse box with Harvey and her mother Amy A stampede of students at £30,000 a year Wellington College in Berkshire ensured that the glamour model Katie Price was the surprise star attraction at the first day of The Sunday Times Festival of Education at Wellington College on Friday. The students at the co-educational boarding school were mingling with the guests and speakers at the fourth annual Festival, which brings together the leading thinkers and practitioners in the world of education. Price was at Wellington to talk about the difficulties she faces bringing up her son Harvey, 11, who has multiple special needs. She arrived in her hot pink horse box with Harvey and her mother Amy.
The event had to be relocated from the school's Great School auditorium to the 1,000-seater marquee as crowds of pupils - mainly girls - tried to crush in for a glimpse of the celebrity. So what did the Wellington girls find so compelling? Festival of Education – Day 1 | Maths is Not a Spectator Sport. I went to the Sunday Times Festival of Education this week; this is my recap of day 1 (and some general stuff)!
Venue Wellington College is a really beautiful place – gorgeous buildings and a real ‘old school’ feel. And by that I mean it was like every other independent school I’ve been to (no joke, and I’ve been to plenty!). Buildings that block mobile signal and WiFi, huge expanses of green space and new buildings hidden in the woods. Not criticising (well maybe about the wifi/signal) but the place was big enough that the map was necessary and frustratingly upside down. I have a love/hate relationship with these types of schools. I love the way every building and room has a history and its own idiosyncrasies, but I hate that the naming and layout is illogical and senseless to me.
I also felt a lot of the rooms were undersized for the presentations they held. Sessions 9:10 – Hywel Roberts Imagineering Creativity So the first thing I wrote down in this session was ‘CHARISMA’. Jan: Guy: High Dive Teaching | Hypocrite, n. – a teacher who thinks there is nothing left to learn. The 2013 Sunday Times Wellington College Festival of Education | The Missing 3,000. I’m just home from this year’s Festival of Education, at which I was fortunate enough to be asked to speak.
The experience was a very positive one, and I met many new people with terrific new ideas about the future of education. It felt strange to be giving a presentation about young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in the grand setting of the College’s Old Hall, but the audience response was among the most favourable I’ve ever had. Some of the other talks were outstanding, as blogged here, here and here. Of the politicians, it was interesting to hear Lord Adonis note that private schools “do well by the taxpayer”, but I wasn’t too convinced by his idea that stay-at-home students should get half-price degrees.
Tristram Hunt did his best to outline a Labour alternative to the coalition agenda, and criticised government dismissiveness towards teachers and educational professionals. This was my only grumble about an otherwise fascinating event. Like this: Like Loading... POWER v LOVE and the first False Dichotomy (mainly Steve Munby) at the Festival of Education. The Festival of Education at Wellington College Session 2 I wanted to go and see Rachel Desouza speak about turning round a difficult school. I hope that will be my next job. It was packed and I couldn’t see the door, let alone get near or in the room. So I went to a session that I can barely remember with people promoting themselves and talking about teaching kids in Antarctica via the web and being proud.
It was probably very good for people into that sort of stuff. I didn’t hear her say anything unexpected (high expectations, do not tolerate poor behaviour at all, no-one goes up the pay scale unless they’re good or outstanding, promote good colleagues, get rid of bad ones, and most importantly don’t worry about being popular). Session 3 This was titled Leadership for the Future First up was the Director of Institute of Education – Chris Husbands Husbands was hard to hear in the Old Hall. In the 1970s we were giving Headteachers courses in Educational Management.
Planning a system Like this: Great Lessons at the Wellington Festival. The Festival Of Education Part 1: Wellington's Biggest Ball. Now, I really have to start with Pricey. My first thought, upon hearing of her inclusion in an educational festival was to presume that The Teletubbies must have had a prior engagement. The avatar of ambition and making the most of what you've got, seemed an odd bed-fellow to AC Grayling and Nevile Gwynn (and doesn't that image just chill the sap?).
And true to legend, She-Who-Must-Be-Obliged didn't disappoint with her entrance, arriving in- of course- a livid pink mobile home (sadly not the horse-drawn carriage from Sleeping Beauty I had hoped for) with what appeared to be the Pricey crest: Rosea, two Suitors, rampant. Of course. This is the fourth year of education's annual Great Exhibition, hosted in the stately pleasure dome of Wellington College. Seldon is a man with nuclear levels of ambition, and it's paid off.
The first gig I managed to get to was David Laws, the minister for schools. Another lovely moment when Cyril Taylor, ex of the Specialist Schools trust (Knock knock. Great Lessons at the Wellington Festival. The Festival Of Education Part 1: Wellington's Biggest Ball. Wellington Education Festival « David Didau: The Learning Spy. Thank you so much to all those who squeezed in to my Deliberately Difficult session at Wellington today. Photo by @headguruteacher I realise that lots of people were unable to see the screen due to the thronging hordes (really!)
Blocking their view, so here, as promised, are the slides I used : As ever, I met some lovely people; some for the first time, some old acquaintances. But particular highlights for me were having lunch with childhood hero Johnny Ball (and getting the gossip on what really goes on at Strictly Come Dancing!) And being taught by the wonderfully erudite grammarian par excellance Nevile Gwynne. I loved Mr Gwynne’s (and it most definitely is ‘Mr’!) There were a few disappointments, chief among them being the surprising inarticulacy of Tristram Hunt. In all in all, a rich and varied menu. Like this: Like Loading... EducationFest. EducationFest. EducationFest. He Festival of Education - Formation. WTV. Lab_13Irchester : Questions are coming on tour... Programme. Speakers. Presentations. Festival of Education | Public. I may quit over criticism, says schools’ chief. Rohan-silva-from-no-10-special-adviser-to-techpreneur-8635897. Learning 'on the rise' in Africa.
Sunday Times - Festival Of Education - Home. Sunday Times - Festival Of Education - Home. What we’d change now. iF Poems for iPad on the iTunes App Store. Teaching assistants could lose their jobs under Gove review. Messy education (Part 2) - The Sunday Times Festival of Education. Top 200 Special Education Apps. What is a Good Teacher Worth? Dancers at #EducationFest. Leaving #wellingtoncollege #educationfest after our talk. Lovely place and excellent audience. Angels - Kenya 2012 UK Tour - Rachel Swinburne. Festival Fun. The Behaviour Guru: Tom Bennett's School Report. Sunday at the Festival of Education. The Festival of Education 2012: The Teacher's Olympics. Saturday at the Festival of Education. Wellylearning : #educationfest trending. h... EducationFest : Main marquee at #education... EducationFest : Googlebar looking good for...
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