Educating the Dragon

Conferences are great for catching up with old friends and colleagues. I have had many conversations today with many people but there is one that stuck for me. Someone was saying about the focus the staff have this year for professional development:

“For this year is on Inquiry Learning

The focus this year for Literacy is Efeective Literacy Practise.

The focus this year for Maths is consolidating the NUMP programme.

Also we are working on SMS Etap across the school

And those of you with IWB’s have a series of day in the holidays to assist you in embedding this technology into your classroom practise.”

So what is the focus for this year?

Someone should mention to senior management that focus is the singular even though it ends with an ’s’.

How are staff supposed to fully focus on so many areas at once?

Is it just this school or do others have similiar long lists of focus (sic) ?

Smart Use of Technologies for thinking, Questioning, Wondering

The Byline read:

Very much in line with the goals of the NZ curriculum. Jamie McKenzie shows how ICT can be used to engage all students in serious thought about the important question and issues of their lives. In contrast to the cut and paste thinking and powerpointlessness that can result from the use of new technologies if we are not careful Jamie emphasizes activities that build the comprehension skills of all students, challenging them to wrestle with demanding questions calling for inference, analysis , synthesesis and evaluation. At the same timer he calls for curriculum that is both engaging and authentic, harnessing the curiosity and passions of the young to fuel inquiry.

Jamie stated that the best definition of thinking is in the NZ curriculum.

Here are a few links:

http://nochildleft.com/

http://www.fno.org/

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Inspiration

One statement that stood out to me during the session was when Jamie talked about ‘Other’ Literacies besides Maths and Reading his list is below:

Technological

Artistic

Visual

Social

Emotional

Merchanical

Linguistic

Natural

Ethnic

Cultural

Kinesthetic

Environmental

I thought of Oral

But I have to ask the questions:

If these are different types of Literacy

What do they look like? What does he mean by each of these?

Then which ones are teachers to be concerned about?

Which one’s require a line or two in National Frameworks?

Comprehension

Young students need to flow and engage with each of these: Jamie says it better than me

I would love to share with you some of the learning going on in Flaxmere this year but unfortunately I have made very few notes.

I recorded the session with Jamieson MacKenzie but am unable to share the contents with you in the audio format. As I listen to it again, perhaps I’ll be able to share some notes and thoughts… He is down in Dunedin tomorrow so if you’re down there catch up with him. His message is spot on and I wish I was as animated and engaging as he was.

What I have learnt today is to ask AHEAD of time if I can record peoples sessions. But the few times I have asked speakers if I could share them as a podcast the reasons given for a ‘NO’ answer have never been: “Well, if you’d asked me before…”.

I wonder, perhaps if the bottom line is the real reason. Perhaps these same sessions are repeated over and over and if they are made available publicly the audience number goes down.There is als othe thought then that the message is being diluted, changed and, through blog notes et al., subtly altered from the original.

A distinction, therefore, needs to be made from what is the presentors material to what are mine, and your additional thoughts/concerns/ questions and general wittering.

Wittering, though, has some value. The value in this day and age is the global voice conponent of the message of educational reform. The “witterings” ca not nor should not be ignored.

Went Googling for a beach story to inspire students about a rocky shore project but came across this instead.

A couple lived near the ocean and used to walk the beach a lot. One summer they noticed a girl who was at the beach pretty much every day. She wasn’t unusual, nor was the travel bag she carried, except for one thing; she would approach people who were sitting on the beach, glance around furtively, then speak to them.

Generally, the people would respond negatively and she would wander off, but occasionally someone would nod and there would be a quick exchange of money for something she carried in her bag. The couple assumed she was selling drugs and debated calling the cops, but since they didn’t know for sure, they just continued to watch her.

After a couple of weeks the wife said, “Honey, have you ever noticed that she only goes up to people with boom boxes and other electronic devices?”

He hadn’t and said so. Then she said, “Tomorrow I want you to get a towel and our big radio and go lie out on the beach. Then we can find out what she’s really doing.”

The plan went off without a hitch and the wife was almost hopping up and down with anticipation when she saw the girl talk to her husband and then leave.

The man walked up the beach and met his wife at the road. “Well? Is she selling drugs?” she asked, excitement pouring out with her voice.

“No, she’s not,” he said, enjoying this probably more than he should have.

“Well,? What is it, then? What does she do?” his wife fairly shrieked.

The man grinned and said, “She’s a battery salesman.”

“A battery salesman?” cried the wife.

“Yes,” he replied, “She sells ‘C’ cells by the sea shore!”