Planning for 2017 - What's obsolete in your school?

“Education can be encouraged from the top-down but can only be improved from the ground up”

– Sir Ken Robinson

I found this blogpost  14 things that are obsolete in your schools by Ingvi Hrannar Ómarssona , an Icelandic elementary teacher early in 2014 and posted it to a school blog to provoke some thought. I re-read the article recently and was struck that for many schools there have not been many changes since then.

Here is the list:
1)Computer rooms - how many times have you heard teachers say they can never book their students into the computer room...
2)Isolated Classrooms - once that door is shut...
3)Schools that don't have WiFi - or perhaps now in 2017 robust WiFi with easy access for all students.
4)Banning Phones and Tablets - (how many schools still ban phones in class?)
5)Tech director with admin access ( and is the only one who knows the current WiFi password/organising the guest password/works part time/is the classic gatekeeper!)
6) Teachers who don't share what they do - I am always so grateful to teachers who share ideas via Twitter, Eduignite, Educamps, teachmeets or better still from the classroom next door!! So many of our colleagues think that they have nothing of value to share - how wrong they are! Check out Hack your classroom
7) Schools that don't have Twitter of Facebook - If you want to find out how a Principal used Twitter to change his school then you need to read Eric Sheninger's book Digital Leadership:Changing Paradigms.  Loved this TEDx talk as well! Lots of schools use Facebook as an information feed for parents/students and as a way to celebrate success.
8)Unhealthy Canteen Food - There are many schools that have fantastic healthy food for their students, if there are schools that don't - it just isn't acceptable, no excuses!! Lots of schools also have vegetable gardens and students are learning how to grow vegetables. 
9) Starting School at 8am for teenagers-
10) Schools that do not cater for diverse learners. A learning disability hinders a student's academic and personal growth. It is our job as teachers to find out more if we need to and help our students be successful. 

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/domino-cats

Cats playing with Dominos - So cute!!

 

      

What I did to support #ClimateStrike as a baby boomer!

    HOW DARE YOU?  KEEP THE OIL IN THE GROUND!

        

    Sourced from Stuff

Yesterday the 27th September 2019, thousands of school of students around New Zealand left their classes and joined the #ClimateStrike.  Teachers from my school went as well as many students. 

In many cities around New Zealand the thousands of students were joined by adults who also feel

that is time we take action and declare a "Climate Emergency".  Hundreds of thousands around the world have been doing the same over the last week. This movement is not going away.

Being a "baby boomer" I can remember many historic events (some more significant than others) that have occurred over the last 50+ years. They include (not really in order)

The assassination of JFK, 1963

The death of Marilyn Monroe

The end of the Vietnam War 

The Beatles first songs.

Woodstock

Neil Armstrong walking on the moon -"One giant step..."

The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior

David Langes's Oxford Debate " I can smell the Uranium on your breath..."

The 1981 Springbok Tour

The first Star Wars movie

Rod Stewart's songs - the first time round

Nelson Mandela's release from prison and election as President of South Africa

9/11

Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States

The Amazon on fire 2019

The list goes on but nothing is as important as the events happening in our world right now. Greta Thunberg has inspired and challenged us to look at our world in a different way. Her "how dare you?" comments at the United Nations Climate Summit have echoed around the world and made many adults really look at what has been happening to our planet and realize that we all need to change what we have been doing with regard to how we are living, consuming, discarding, polluting.

But it is not all doom and gloom. There are many things I can do to change my impact on the planet.

A recent video by Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot talks about two ways we can start to reverse 

climate change.

So what did I do? I have already started changing small things. Like many, many people we have a veggie garden, compost bins, we recycle our paper, cans, hard plastic, glass bottles.We have reduced plastic - we no longer buy plastic wrap -using beeswax wrap (made by a friend). Glass jars and lids are recycled and used in the pantry. We buy free-range eggs and organic chicken. We own bikes and use them for small trips - although to be honest, I haven't yet biked to work. But is this enough?

Is my current ifestyle sustainable? is our planet sustainable? The answer is no. The key word in Climate Change is "change". I cannot ignore what is happening to our planet, I also need to change

what I am doing to reduce my impact on the environment, although I am already doing small things, so to make a start on a sustainable change I changed Laundry Powder! A very small change I admit but I want to look at how we ( includes husband and one cat) are living on our planet. And changing laundry powder is one tiny, tiny step. Greta Thunberg's passion and call to action caused 1.6million people around the world to do something about Climate Change.

Yes, I know it was only laundry powder but it's a start and a change.

Class of 2017 - What will they say about their teachers at their school reunion?

                                         Prefects at Christchurch Girls High School 1933


Over the past two days I have spent time talking and remembering my school years at Christchurch Girls's High School. We were the class of 1967 - 50years ago! It is quite scary to think about how quick the years have passed. It was wonderful to catch up with ex-classmates, find out what has happened since we left school and of course discuss our old teachers, the school, our two Principals, friends who were absent, look at the old photos and discuss our education compared with today.

One of our classmates produced the school rules, hand-typed (with errors) on 4 yellowed pages.Yes, we did wear hats and gloves, were silent in assembly, rode our bikes in single file in Hagley Park (both hands on the handle bars) and certainly did not talk to students from Christchurch Boys' High or Christ's College!

However, as we shared what we have all been doing with our lives and we discussed our education, it was obvious that we all felt that we had all received a solid academic education. Yes, by today's standards of ILE's, student agency, coding, flipped learning etc, it was very traditional - but that was 50 years ago. Some girls in the "A" stream learnt Latin and French, while the "G" stream could continue with French and some classes where University was not seen as a choice, did typing.

As we talked about what we had all done with our lives, many of us went on to be teachers, principals, doctors, and lawyers. Many had Masters degrees  or a PhD. There were farmers, women who worked in a wide variety of business ventures or were business owners, even a Minister. Saturday saw 55 women at lunch sharing our lives and memories of school. It is true that we didn't like all our teachers or subjects, some of us may have failed Physics because we did our English homework sitting at the back of the room, but there were also subjects we enjoyed and did well in,
teachers who we had affection and respect for, lifelong friendships made.

Life in 1971 was more predictable, slower-paced and school leavers could be offered several jobs to choose from. Fast forward to 2017. Can someone really make money out of sharing their life on Instagram or You Tube?  Can a 17 year old design an app in his bedroom and sell it for several million dollars? Can a few friends get together with an idea and start a company before they leave school?
Yes, all this is possible in 2017 - but what what can we teach our students that will also help them to be successful in life if being a You Tube celebrity is not for them. Do we go back to the
key competencies

thinking,  using language, symbols, and text, managing self, relating to others, participating and contributing.
Although we didn't have the key competencies in 1967 perhaps what we learnt could fit under those headings.

So what would we like our students to say about their teachers, their school, their education when they leave and meet up for a school reunion?

What will your classroom look like in 2017? Are you ready?

This is a question I asked at my uLearn workshop last year. AS John Dewey said"If we teach today's students as we did yesterday's.,we rob them of tomorrow" This year many students will be turning up fresh-faced in brand-new uniforms to their Year 9 classes. For a large number of them, using a device,choosing how they present their work, choosing the order they complete work is something they see as part of learning. And for me as an English teacher that includes cell phones, social media, blogging,and using a variety of web tools to explore the curriculum. Today I sat and watched Peppa Pig on the ipad with my 2 yr old grandson, face-timed his aunty so he could talk to her, looked through his videos on my phone with him and looked at the snap chat his Granny sent from Christchurch. What will school be like when he gets there in three years? Here's the blog post I wrote on this topic for "31days of Blogging 2015" And on a slightly different topic - I love this video where the poet questions society's view of success - worth a watch!            

What will the world look like in 2028?

We still keep talking about what skills our learners will need for the 21st Century but we are already here.

This video carries on the ideas started by the "Shift Happens" series of videos by Scott McLeod and Karl Fisch. I saw one of the versions when Scot Mcleod was a visiting lecturer for one of my courses at the University of Canterbury. Here is a link to Scott's blog Dangerously Irrelevant  and  the link to the Wiki which gives the background to their series of videos.

One of the original Shift Happens videos from 2007  - worth a look to see what has changed.

The Adaptable Mind

Inspirational video that really challenges us to think about the skills we need/our students need for living and thriving in the 21st Century. This is via Derek Wenmoths blog ( Derek's Blog )
(Get a coffee first - the video is 11mins long - "but it's worth it"