17 questions we should really be asking students. Bullet Journal Instructions – Bullet Journal. Cookies and Biscuits Archives - Sweeter Life Club.
Principals As Chief Culture Officers: Five (Not Always Easy) Steps. Eric Saibel , Assistant Principal, Global School Play Day, writer, painter, CUE Rockstar faculty. Posted 03/04/2015 8:39PM | Last Commented 03/13/2015 2:27AM There is much talk these days about the school principal as “instructional leader.” While the purpose of schools is ultimately about student learning, a principal risks getting “lost in the weeds” if her primary focus is on classroom instructional practice. Why is this the case? To enable dynamic, engaging and collaborative instructional practice across the school, we must first ensure there is an open, trusting, giving web of relationships in place - one where doors fly open in invitation, rather than staying shut in comfortable isolation. While not an exhaustive list, here are five important actions a leader can take every day to nourish the confidence and trust necessary to an open, supportive, collaborative and joyful school culture. 1) Show love for everyone - especially to those that may be challenging to love.
I Have To Push My Own Limits To Let My Kids Find Theirs. Agency and Ownership. Last week I attended uLearn15, an epic conference in Auckland with 1700 teachers and 250 sponsors and exhibitors. On the first day I ran a Breakout session called Agency and Ownership: Why the How? Initially planned as a smallish interactive workshop, it proved very popular as people chose their sessions so it grew into a large presentation to around 250 people with a lot more of me talking from the front. Core Education filmed this presentation and streamed it live from their conference website. You can watch it here (jump to 11.50 where it actually starts): Or, if you don’t have an hour and a half spare, this post will cover the highlights.
We have all heard the terms Learner Agency and Student Ownership of Learning. We all have the same vague understandings of what these are about. Core Education have Learner Agency as one of their Ten Trends this year and this has highlighted the term to many. The 2nd highest category is around student ownership of learning. Like this: Like Loading... The Man Who Will Save Math. In 2008, a panel convened by President Bush called American math achievement “mediocre.” Bush hoped to “keep America competitive.” Given that success in mathematics is a strong predictor of college and career success, the panel was worried. The “delivery system” of the math classroom, their report declared, “is broken and must be fixed.” Alien abduction, in other words, does not work. But in the years since, scores have changed little. Meyer frequently cites a statistic from the 2008 panel’s report: 62 percent of algebra teachers said that their greatest challenge was unmotivated students.
One popular feature of his blog is its repository of “Three-Act Math Tasks,” which take the process of mathematical modeling and turn it into narrative. That’s hard to do on paper. “The quadratic formula wasn’t invented just to torment kids with a rhyme thousands of years later,” Meyer told me. In 2010, Meyer left his classroom to pursue a doctorate in education at Stanford. Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work? Reflections of a Reluctant Writer / The Grassroots Are Always Greener. Reflections of a Reluctant Writer / The Grassroots Are Always Greener. UNITED COLONIES ARG- MODULE 1. Components of an ARG Trailhead/Rabbit Hole - A deliberate clue which enables a player to discover a way into the game. Most ARGs employ a number of trailheads in several media, to maximize the probability of people discovering the game. Some trailheads may be covert, others may be thinly-disguised adverts.
These entry points are also referred to as “Rabbit Holes”. The Curtain - The curtain is generally a metaphor for the separation between the game runner and the players. This can take the traditional form of absolute secrecy regarding the identities of those involved with the production. In an educational setting, this would be teachers and support staff.
Game Runner- Person who creates the ARG storyline and manages the progression of the players towards the end of the game narrative. Avatars – Certain characters will need to interact with the players of an ARG when questions arise or they get stuck with a clue. Learning is Not a Mechanism: Assessment, Student Agency, and Digital … Screw Finding Your Passion. Remember back when you were a kid? You would just do things. You never thought to yourself, “What are the relative merits of learning baseball versus football?” You just ran around the playground and played baseball and football. You built sand castles and played tag and asked silly questions and looked for bugs and dug up grass and pretended you were a sewer monster. Nobody told you to do it, you just did it. And the beautiful thing was, if you hated baseball, you just stopped playing it.
And if you loved looking for bugs, you just did that. There was no bullshit. Today I received approximately the 11,504th email this year from a person telling me that they don’t know what to do with their life. And of course, I didn’t respond. But more importantly, what I want to say to these people is this: that’s the whole point — “not knowing” is the whole fucking point. The common complaint among a lot of these people is that they need to ‘find their passion.’ I call bullshit. It’s priorities. Inspiring inquiry through picture books. — Kath Murdoch. "The bridge will only take you halfway there, to those mysterious lands you long to see.
Through gypsy camps and swirling Arab fair, and moonlit woods where unicorns run free. So come and walk awhile with me and share the twisting trails and wondrous worlds I've known. But this bridge will only take you halfway there. The last few steps you have to take alone. " — Shel Silverstein Well before I became interested in inquiry-based learning, I was passionate about the role of literature – particularly picture books – in the classroom.
So I am always taken aback when teachers with whom I work struggle to name a picture book or novel they have recently shared with their children – let alone how they plan to use literature to help students make deeper connections within an inquiry . The inquiry classroom needs to be a habitat for story. To contribute to students’ understanding of key CONCEPTS being explored. The Mind Lab by Unitec Blog: How old are leaders? I know the following commentary is controversial. But in the interest of a robust discussion and education advancement I wish to present a view that our education system needs a spring clean. For real representation and diversity in education leadership we need to inject dynamic, bold, youthful educators into the exclusive Principal club. According to the New Zealand government website Education Counts, in 2012 (the most recent stats available) just 13% of our public and state integrated school principals are aged 45-49 years.
Which at a quick glance could make you think there must be plenty of education leaders in their 30’s and early 40’s. Right? Nearly 70% of our principals are over 50 and under 80 years of age. We need leaders who are informed by the very best contemporary practice, creativity and digital nous, who are collaborative, innovative and passionate. We need leaders who can lead our children into the increasingly complex (and competitive) world they live in.