Tag Archives: education

A Mindset for Learning

Posted on by
3

“If you haven’t failed in the classroom lately, you probably aren’t pushing the envelope enough. You are being too safe.” Dave Burgess

This blogpost is all about the word “mindset”. I know this has been around for a while but I first consciously came across the word Mindset at ICOT this year. It seems to have really grown on the world and in my consciousness this year and I see it everywhere now. There are many people out there selling tool kits or strategies that will make you a more effective teacher but I fundamentally believe there is no 1 correct answer for education. By having an open mindset we can make more of a difference.

My teaching mindset at the moment is heavily influenced by the following mindsets that I believe really complement each other to help me approach teaching with the enthusiasm (and hopefully effectiveness) that I do:

– Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset
– Design Thinking
– Teach Like a PIRATE
– Exploration mindset (heavily influenced here by Dan Raven-Ellison)

Continue reading →

NZ Teachers Council Review Submission

Posted on by
Reply

The New Zealand Teachers Council is undergoing a review at the moment and the proposals are up for consultation. You can find all the review documents here.

The initial read of the glossy proposals seems nice enough. There is a major catch however. The more you read, the scarier it looks. I thoroughly recommend that you take the time to read the details hidden within the larger cabinet paper as this is where you will find some of the bits that worried me.

Whilst writing my submission I was lucky enough to get the chance to read some other submissions (ranging from 1 page to 11 pages), all of which had great thoughts in them. Even if you only write a short submission, I urge as many of you as possible to make a submission.

In the interests of collaboration, here is my submission in full which was sent in today:

Continue reading →

A Crumbling Capitalist Schooling System?

Posted on by
Reply

On June 13th I was lucky to attend John Morgan’s inaugural public lecture at the University of Auckland. It was entitled “Schooling the Crisis: Education in the aftermath of the financial crisis.”

John Morgan preparing for his lecture

John Morgan preparing for his lecture

What follows is a synopsis of John’s lecture with my reflections integrated into it.

For the last 3 decades schooling has been thought of as preparation for the real world. So far, the post financial crisis of the last 5 years has not made people question what needs to change in schooling. Yet we need to acknowledge that we are preparing students for uncertain futures.
Continue reading →