I hope you don't mind Richard but I borrowed your notes from your site
(they were so much more refined than the original ones you sent me)
I have been a bit under the weather of late, working at a snail's pace and finding it really hard to keep up with stuff. And this was important stuff so felt it needed to be on BardWired.
So: "Don't ask for permission, Ask for forgiveness!"
Thanks Richard @ Toko School
In the morning the Management team and anyone else that was able to get there listened to and talked with Bruce Hammonds. An excellent mornings discussion. Big messages for me were:
We are not curriculum delivery boys and girls... we make the icecream! IN other words we design the curriculum for the kids we have. We are best placed to do this and distant unmanagable curriculums from Wellington are not part the answer.
We are the curriculum experts! The untapped wisdom is ours!!!
We need depth not coverage! Fewer things well...
Realistic meaningful units are memorable for children.
IEP's for everyone...... personalised learning is the future for learning. Just a bit scared of this one....
Portfolios are shot, (always were) Children's exercise books, valued an cared for are the best samples of children work.
SO we have to look after them and not let them disappear!!!! Even staple two together to get a feel over time. Kids will value their books.
Children need to be taught shown modeled layout and design. They don't learn it through osmosis. Design is an essential skill.
Handwriting and book layout and care and attention and measuring, and planning , are vital skills and we need to be more tenacious with our children's exercise books. They are the standard we expect. They reflect our teaching.
Developing relationships is key to success. Collegiality not necessarily congeniality. A school with new ideas and direction and belief wont always be a smooth path.
Literacy numeracy and learnacy... do they still want to learn! LEARNACY what a good word. Do our children still want to learn... If they don't they will certainly fail.
The very word teacher implies a series of promises to children. What do we promise?
Questions to think about.
What is working well at our school?
What is not working well?
What do we need to do?
Just to add to this some recommended reading:
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point - ditto
Re-imagine - Tom Peters
In the Early World - Elwyn S. Richardson
Simplicity - Edward de Bono
Developing Teacher Leaders: how teacher leadership enhances school success - Frank Crowther
Professional reflections on education in NZ - Dancing on the shifting carpet
4 comments:
You are so welcome!!
A lot of strings vibrated with this morning! Bruce is good at simplifying the big messages...
I really liked the stuff about us being the curriculum creators and learnacy!! How cool. Who can tell us more about our children!!than our selves and our community.. We are the experts!!
What is working well at our school?
What is not working well?
What do we need to do?
These are great questions they also work well with the individual - check out this quote from David - The Office
“You grow up, you work half a century, you get a golden handshake, you rest a couple of years and you’re dead. And the only thing that makes that crazy ride worthwhile is ‘Did I enjoy it? What did I learn? What was the point?’ That’s where I come in. You’ve seen how I react to people, make them feel good, make them think that anything’s possible. If I make them laugh along the way, sue me. And I don’t do it so they turn round and go ‘Thank you David for the opportunity, thank you for the wisdom, thank you for the laughs.’ I do it so, one day, someone will go ‘There goes David Brent. I must remember to thank him.’”
David (Series 1 Episode 6)
What is great at the end of the year is the the kids,parents and teachers who make time to say ‘Thank you Bard Wired for the opportunity, thank you for the wisdom, thank you for the laughs.’
Wow! Amazing how ideas get spread around by 'word of mouse'.
Bruce
: )
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