Why Michael Gove's invocation of Gramsci misses the point of his work | Peter Thompson For someone like me, who left a fairly "bog standard" comprehensive school at 16 with no qualifications and, as far as I can remember, having never read a book – let alone all the classics that the education secretary said we should return to in his speech to the Social Market Foundation yesterday – Michael Gove's choice of the Italian revolutionary Marxist Antonio Gramsci as an intellectual buttress for his views on contemporary education in Britain seems both fascinating and instructive. Gove started with a statement of sympathy for Jade Goody and the way in which she was an object of derision for her general lack of knowledge. Of course he then promptly blames the comprehensive education system for her failings, claiming that if only she had been taught "properly" then she wouldn't have been so stupid. Using Gramsci he maintains that a proper grounding in the basics is missing from the structures of contemporary education and that this lack is failing working class children.
To Find Success, Psychologists Recommend More Listening and Connecting Do you struggle to understand what people may be thinking? Do you wonder why you are not as successful as you want to be? Do you think that sometimes your emotions get the best of you? If so, you may need to improve your emotional intelligence. It was two Yale psychologists, John D. Emotional intelligence allows you to develop and focus the skills that will help you understand people better, attain the type of success you want, and stay on top of your emotions. When you understand the essentials of emotional intelligence, you can learn more about yourself while you lead and interact with others. 1. 2. 3. 4. It's a lifelong process but when you connect with your emotional intelligence by observing, listening, and building your self-awareness and responsibility, you'll find it's both powerful and essential.
Splogs Before We Were Connected: How To Achieve a Statewide Professional Learning Network It’s only fair that I begin this post with an honest perception of my experience as a “connected” teacher in the state of Tennessee. My journey began in 2001, when I accepted a 3rd grade teaching position in Shelby County, TN. The county was small, yet quaint. As many schools do, we taught in silos—but being that this was my first teaching job, I didn’t know any better. Throughout my years of teaching, I leaned on educators in my own schools, but began feeling alone when it came to using technology integration. I began attending local conferences, and researching online about what teaching and learning should look like. When in moments of doubt like mine, here’s my advice: don’t wait for the connections to come to you. Trying to Find Others—And Failing in the Process Now, you might be thinking that my next move was Twitter, and that I magically connected to educators, making this a beautiful ending to my struggles. But all wasn’t lost. A Call to (PLN) Arms
The pen is mightier than the sword Part 1 | Carping From The Side Lines – Iorek's Blog Handwriting is not dead. Despite reports to the contrary, despite a plethora of technologies for creating text, nothing yet matches the speed and immediacy of a quick note jotted down with a mark-making implement on a scrap of paper. It’s probably not a stretch to suggest that a handwritten letter or card remains one of the most intimate means of non-verbal communication of thoughts, ideas and feelings. It is certainly true that the majority of students hand write the bulk of their work, at least at primary level. With this in mind, it is frustrating to witness students struggle to master basic ‘stylus skills’ (a non-gendered alternative to ‘penmanship’). As with many things that we could do better in schools, a focus on improving handwriting sits comfortably with the concept of marginal gains, beyond the opportunity to clinch a couple of extra test points. 1. 2. 3. 4. This is part one of a two-part post. Like this: Like Loading...
We are way too dependent on technology – Chalyn's Online Journey Through Technology As soon as we are with a group of friends at a restaurant or sitting with family visiting, someone pulls out a smart phone and somehow the domino effect takes place. Less people are socializing with the bodies that are present. Some of the people with gadgets begin to engage with online activities. I am sooo guilty of it, I have even coined the phrase “what are you FaceBooking around?”, because of the amount of times people get distracted by their gadgets. I agree with Sherry Turkle and her Ted Talk Connected, but alone that receiving an affirming text is just like getting a hug, as I write this I think that I should text my step-daughter and let her know that I am so proud of her today. But, it is sad to have to admit, but the first thing I do in the morning is roll over and grab my phone, as it is only an arms reach away. Between this course and 831 last semester, I have made a conscious effort to include more technology in the classroom. Yellowstone national park. companion .
535: Made for students. By students. Beginning of Visible Learning Beginning of Visible Learning On August 2 1999, John Hattie gave his Inaugural Lecture as Professor of Education at the University of Auckland. You are what you eat. Have you ever been on a diet? There are the crash diets (or fad diets) - The Beverley Hills diet and Cabbage soup diet are 2 examples. Goldilocks Feedback. This blog is not about Assessment for Learning. Where's the evidence? I listened to a great podcast. The gentleman, let's call him Stephen, was heavily into the science of his craft. Tuck your shirt in! One of the many perennial questions that teachers have to field from pupils (and in some cases parents) is regarding school uniform. Supply or demand? As a young boy I used to spend time playing in the playground of my junior school.
Internet of Things: Connectivity for a smarter world Is retreat the only option? - news Comment:5 average rating | Comments (8)Last Updated:31 January, 2013Section:news Arguments against the government’s planned GCSE replacements are coming from all quarters. Will Michael Gove continue to pursue his goals regardless or will he be forced to reconsider?, asks William Stewart Michael Gove appears to have done that rare thing in politics - he’s come up with a policy that almost no one supports. Teacher union opposition might be seen as par for the course for an education secretary wanting to shake things up; it might even be viewed as a political necessity for one wishing to keep the right-wing press on side. But classroom “militants” are not the only ones up in arms about Gove’s plan to introduce English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBCs) in core subjects as a replacement for GCSEs. Major doubts have been raised by the heads of the schools supposed to use them, the exam boards that will provide them, the watchdog that will regulate them and the employers that will consume them.
Online Communities for Civic Engagement - Insightrix Communities The concept of the Innovation Adoption Lifecycle has been around for many years and has been applied to many industries, products and services. Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards are all terms used to describe segments of the population who vary on how quickly they adopt new innovation. Cities are no different in how they adopt new technology. On one end of the continuum are the innovators, and at the other end are the laggards. The U.K. provides a useful model of how councils are evolving. In a recent presentation compiled for PricewaterhouseCooper. In the past five years, UK local authorities have undergone tremendous change. A focus of local authorities has been to work more efficiently. In the past, many people feared that technology and social networks might threaten or destroy location based associations. Councils need to realize the power of social media. What will future civic communities look like? Let’s talk about communities.
Getting the scale right: attitudes before systems. After millennia of battle the surviving G’Gugvuntt and Vl’hurg realised what had actually happened, and joined forces to attack the Milky Way in retaliation. They crossed vast reaches of space in a journey lasting thousands of years before reaching their target where they attacked the first planet they encountered, Earth. Due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was swallowed by a small dog. Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy I love this Hitch-hiker’s Guide story. 1. Short-term accountability pressures force us to be diverted from thinking about the heart of our business: the quality of teacher-student relationships and interactions. 2. Here we have a fleet of policies and systems, reinforced by OfSTED and the latest accountability drive. I’m a pretty good teacher. Here is my radical contention: If we burned or deleted all the Performance Management files it would be a long long time before any student noticed a difference. 3. But that is all.