Many people may get annoyed with this post, in fact it may even be considered sacrilegious by some. Sir Ken Robinson is extremely well known, liked by many and revered by some. His TED talk from 2006 has been watched almost 35 million times. Yet on finishing his most recent book I was left with an overwhelming sense of “meh.”
Yesterday I wrote about breaking out of my echo chamber, so of course my thoughts then turned to my students. Are our students operating in echo chambers and should this be something we worry about?
Well yes, I believe this is something to be concerned about and here’s why. Deeper understanding is developed through:
If students are constantly interacting with people with similar opinions to themselves, how are they going to do any of the above? Continue reading
Schools that recognize the need to prepare their students for a changing world are knowingly or unknowingly in the process of converting from an engineered process to a model based on the laws that govern natural ecosystems
Grant Lichtman, #EdJourney p210
In #EdJourney, Grant Lichtman makes the link between schools that are effectively innovating and how natural ecosystems operate. He found that the schools demonstrating transformative learning were:
Using this, Grant proposes a model that shifts from Assembly-Line Education to a Learning Ecosystem. Continue reading
Seeing your Principal send a tweet like this is so incredibly affirming and validating of the work you have been undertaking. Especially when it comes on a day where your team is sharing the outcome of weeks of work putting together the structures for learning to take place in your school.
The time spent on the vision, values etc. last term was the foundation for the structures coming into place over the past 2 weeks. All our decisions in putting these in place are well grounded in the school vision and values. Then in one day this week we introduced the staff to all the structures supporting the delivery of our curriculum: Continue reading
NZC pg 16
My job over the past 2 weeks has been to explore, deconstruct and reconstruct the New Zealand Curriculum. The incredible thing about this process has been how clearly a Design Thinking process emerged from the curriculum. Continue reading
For this week’s Staff PD session at school we had Paul Ego come and talk to us. As a comedian who has worked on stage and television he was an inspired choice to talk to teachers. He mentioned early on how teachers are performers with the most judgemental audience.
As the school year begins and students start coming back into class, I felt it was time for me to refresh the conditions necessary for my classes to operate as complex, living networks. This is a quote which I have loved since first reading it and it is something I strive to achieve:
In this context, the practitioner is less like the bulldozer driver carving a way through the landscape to a pre conceived objective, more like a combination of canoeist shooting the rapids and creative artist exploring possibilities and waiting for inspiration.
Some statements and questions to reflect on from the breakouts I attended at ICOT on Wednesday and Thursday
Rose Hipkins
Embodied thinking is intuitive, ‘rational’ decisions are usually after-the-fact justifications
How do you develop students’ intuitive thinking?
Thinking in the spaces between individuals or ideas is a more apt metaphor for the changes afforded by information technologies
We need to push past our urge to stick with people like us. Learn to love difference – then you will learn
Epistemic experiences are moments when we become conscious of something about our knowing
Martin Renton – In the Learning Pit
Moving from clarity to confusion is a positive step in the learning process
No such thing as a bad question. The important part is the reason for asking the question
Get comfortable with silence, it helps us process our thinking
How often do you question to confuse your students
Hana Olds
Active thinking is where creative, critical and caring thinking overlap
Do your inquiries allow for passion, persistence and purpose?
“I don’t want a project, I want something with a purpose”
Rich Allen
Don’t just think differently, act differently
Good teachers are always learning from their students
Lesson plans are hallucinations
Karen Melhuish Spencer
Social networks privilege the individual, online communities privilege the relationship
Do you use social networks to check or challenge your thinking?
What social network has the most effective impact on your teaching? How? Can you prove this?
As educators we are morally obliged to share our practice for the good of all students
Steve Mouldey 