© Julie Boyd ‘And then I was hit on the head by a paper bomb that had been thrown at me…and one kid was so rude! Then she said I’d only told her off because she was black. I didn’t even notice her colour- just that she was the rudest young woman I’d ever met.’ […]
Pedagogy: Beyond E-Learning The six R’s of Teaching for Effective Learning
April 21, 2011 by
©JULIE BOYD Introduction Teachers are now being told that E-Learning is way of the future. Adaptable teachers will be excited by new and creative ways to use technology effectively, and by the promise of unlimited possibilities. This does need to be balanced by the premise that the role of schools is to effectively integrate students […]
Why Good Teachers Aren’t Thinking About the Global Economy By Alfie Kohn
April 11, 2011 by
Here are some phrases that might reassure us if they were used to defend a particular education policy: “excitement about learning” . . . “deeper thinking about questions that matter” . . . “promoting social and moral development” . . . “democratic society.” And here’s a phrase that ought to make us wince and back […]
Two-thirds of teachers want to quit. What is the Purpose of Education
April 4, 2011 by
NEARLY two-thirds of Australian teachers are considering quitting their jobs for a new career. So are teachers all over the world See: A love of teaching, but fear for the future: Fight over collective bargaining leaves one teacher uncertain about career choice http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42306729/ns/business-us_business The Centre for Marketing Schools was commissioned to survey staff satisfaction levels […]
I’m Sorry I’m A Teacher
April 3, 2011 by
This powerful letter was written by an American Teacher, Alan Haskvitz, a member of the National Teachers Hall of Fame and has been recognized many times as one of the nation’s most successful and innovative teachers. Accounts of his students’ accomplishments have been featured in books, periodicals, and on national radio and television. He is […]
Why Bill Gates (and Christopher Pyne!)are Wrong
April 1, 2011 by
Bill Gates in his Washington Post article, http://tinyurl.com/47mxu7e How Teacher Development Could Revolutionize Our Schools suggests that one approach is to get more students in front of top teachers by identifying the top 25 percent of teachers and asking them to take on four or five more students. Part of the savings could then be […]
Student test data in assessing teacher quality.
January 13, 2011 by
A study released last month by the Gates Foundation supposedly offered up “some of the strongest evidence to date of the validity of ‘value-added’ analysis.” VAA makes the claim that teachers’ effectiveness can be reliably estimated by gauging their students’ progress on standardized tests. But Jesse Rothstein, an economist at UC Berkeley, argues that the analyses in the […]
Testing turning kids off of learning
January 13, 2011 by
Comments from Blog ‘for the love of learning’ http://www.joebower.org/2011/01/our-system-tests-and-grades-young.html “It’s impossible to discuss education without being hit upside the head umpteen times by the word accountability. At the root of this word is a demonizing fear that there is this horde of pension-sucking, union-loving teachers who are laughing their lazy asses to the bank. This […]
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