Educating the Dragon

On Tuesday the Gisborne Herald reported Anne Tolley ’s appointment to Minister of Education. I for one am delighted to welcome in a new Minister of Education.

I understand that there is a general uneasiness aobuth the National Parties policy as to national exams. But their there was a catagorical statement that there were to be no national exams for primary students .

However the following does state the objective in broad strokes:

Clear National Standards: Set national standards in reading, writing and numeracy. The standards will describe all the things children should be able to do by a particular age or year at school. They will be defined by benchmarks in a range of tests.

Effective Assessment: Require primary schools to use assessment programmes that compare the progress of their students with other students across the country. Schools will choose from a range of tests, but there won’t be national exams.

Upfront Reporting: Give parents the right to see all assessment information, and to get regular reports about their child’s progress towards national standards. Schools will also have to report each year on the whole school’s performance against national standards.

We shall have to see where the priorites lie when the policies start rolling. I for one am in favour of a more vigorous assessment policy. There has to be an equilibrium between the UK league table idea and the rigid flexibility focused on "methodology".

So my question is:

Is the National policy on education percieved by the teaching profession as a positive or negative?

Furnware have released their new design in classroom desk. It’s a design that sems to make sense. And it looks kinda cool too. Peterhead School were involoved in the development of the prototypes. Hence my link to the company. Also I have uploaded their DVD material that can be viewed below. Looks good.

This has been a post a long time in the writing- There not much to it, but rather life has git in the way.

Some time ago I visited St. Matthew’s Primary School to deliver some PD on using Digital Cameras in the

classroom. I must confess I must have learnt as much from this session if not more than the attendees. Firstly, the venue was wonderfully cool on a hot day. The teachers and kids were thoughly engaged in the process. We spent some time working with PhotoStory3 and talking about Voicethread (No internet connection at the alter)

I never realised that their were so many different set ups for digital camera. Canon and Sanyo interfaces are similiar but Sony look completely different. Perhaps their is a move toward standardisation in a mobile phone and Laptop sort of way.

20 something betters to do with a digital camera was title.

Had the usual "Make a slideshow of school camp for assembly" but I was wondering what everyone else

used their Digital Cameras for.

So my question is:

What do you do differently with a digital camera in your learning environment?

My final conversation of ULearn08 was with the Editor of Interface Magazine . They were promoting the magazine for teachers and announcing the winners of the Best Blog awards. When I spoke to Greg he filled me in on what’s been happening with the magazine and the direction for the future. Have a listen .

Also go ahead and register your blog. Help them keep in touch.
Don’t forget to register for your free magazine – Put your home address and you won’t be looking for it under a pile of other guff on the staffroom table.

I emailed my local MP this past week, with a whole load of typos included (doh!). And I had a  response, the exchange  went like this:

Dear Craig,

It is great to see so many MPs engaging directly with the Public through blogs and websites etc. Haven’t seen you on Twitter though! I write an education based blog and have been working around the Hawkes Bay for 5 years now. I am currently considering the direction, politically, that education could go under the next government. I would appreciate thoughts and consideration on the topic of education and how it needs to address the shifting needs of the 21st Century.

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your e-mail.

One of the planks of National’s five point economic plan is to have an unwavering focus on lifting education standards. Our economic future depends on a more skilled workforce. Today’s school children are that workforce. We simply cannot afford to tolerate the long tail of underachievement in our schools.

Some of our main education policies are:

- Launching a Crusade on Literacy and Numeracy to ensure that every child from every background can read, write, and do maths at a level that allows them to participate in a modern economy.

- Putting Trades Training back into schools to ensure that Secondary school are exposed to the hands-on industries that can fire up their appetite for learning – industries that play a crucial role in our economy such as building, horticulture, automotive repair, farming and plumbing. Trades and industry training can inspire students who struggle in more academic subjects. It can encourage them to stay in school. It can motivate them to obtain the skills they need to make the most of their talents.

- A Youth Guarantee that will allow every young person under the age of 18 to access, free of charge, a programme of educational study towards school-level qualifications.  This new entitlement will be on top of, not instead of, the education entitlements they have now. Many 16- and 17-year olds will continue to choose school as their preferred option, but others might prefer to continue their education through, for example, a polytechnic, a wananga, a private training establishment, an industry training organisation, or a combination of these options.

- Investing up to $1.5 billion to drive the roll-out of a fibre-to-the-home, ultra-fast broadband network. Schools will be in the first tranche of this investment. Fibre to schools and children’s homes could hugely enhance teaching and learning.

- Sports in Schools. We will, over time, give schools additional resources to ensure more students take part in sport. We believe playing sport is an important part of growing up in New Zealand and we will ensure that more of the Government’s sport spending makes it to the front line.

In addition National has just announced that we will inject an additional $500 million into school property funding over the next three years to allow for a 21st Century School Building Programme.