Term Three 2017
“The best teachers don’t give you the answers... They just point the way ... and let you make your own choices.”
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Index 3 Your Soapbox 4 Assessment for Learning in the relationality of schooling spaces Dianne Smardon & Jennifer Charteris 5 Is it right or wrong? Ethics in the classroom John Hellner 8 Global Teacher Prize awarded to Canadian educator who works with Inuit Ben Rosen 10 Mary Egan Publishing on their new children’s imprint ‘Little Love.’ 12 Books: The Mirrors and Windows of Diversity Elaine Le Seuer 14 Bravehearts MOTAT 18 Lessons learnt in Christchurch Laurie Loper 22 Teacher’s digital upskilling leads to unexpected empowerment... Mindlab/Unitec 26 STEM students who learn by example may miss key concepts Gerry Everding 28 The Need for Accelerated Learning in an Accelerating World Michelle LaBrosse 30 A Large Suspended Tree Trunk Carved by Maskull Lasserre Christopher Jobson 32 New theory revolutionises understanding of autism University of Oxford 36 Disruptive Classroom Technologies Book review 39 A Neural Network Generates Surprisingly Elegant Images Chris Rodley 40 The New Zealand Wildlife Activity Book Book Review 44 The story behind: ‘a tale of two friends’ Book Review 45 Create Your Future C M Rubin 46 Socioeconomic background linked to reading improvement Anne Trafton 50 Cyberbullying is far less prevalent than offline bullying... David Sutcliffe 52 How Teachers Are Learning in New York C M Rubin 56 Amelia’s Maze Adventure and Marco’s Maze Mission Book Review 60 Testing the metrics... Peter Dizikes 62 Life-Line videos showcase human impact of EU infrastructure investment in Africa 64 Stanford Educational Farm hosts class sessions from across campus Danielle Torrent Tucker 66 School Asks 100 Graffiti Artists To Paint It Before Renovation Dominyka Jurkštaitė 69 Principal puts finishing touches on career Austin Walsh 78 Bournemouth University gives students global opportunities Bournemouth University 80 What Teachers Think vs. What We Actually Say Steph Jankowski 82 Sketchbook-Based Ballpoint Pen Drawings by Nicolas V. Sanchez Kate Sierzputowski 84 Looking Back. Not Too Fondly…(based on a true story) Roger’s Rant 90 Front Cover: Back Cover:
View of Auckland’s city centre Adelaide Zoo... Meditating meercat
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Your Soapbox!
“
” If you want to have YOUR SAY please email your offering to: info@goodteacher.co.nz
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Assessment for Learning in the relationality of schooling spaces. Dianne Smardon and Jennifer Charteris
Over the last few years there has been intense interest in the physical design of schools. There have been demolitions, with walls removed and spaces conjoined. Factors associated with population growth, the Christchurch earthquake and leaky buildings have led to exciting new builds with consideration given to student agency, curricula and power relations. Transformative shifts to develop Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) in schools and notions of the empowered 21st century learner have resulted in student agency emerging as a critical aspect of schooling. With schooling design influencing a revisioning of spatially influenced pedagogy, it is timely to consider power dynamics and how schooling spaces can enable student agency. There are different assessment related spaces, influenced by webs of social relations, technologies, policies and practices that interconnect in schooling sites. Once we stop thinking about spaces just as physical environments and see them as social, we can recognise how relationships influence pedagogical dynamics – for instance, those associated with Assessment for Learning (AfL) practices. Our case study research, conducted with 38 Aotearoa/ New Zealand principals, highlights that there are a range of spaces relating to Assessment in schools. We use sample comments from Principals to describe teacher orchestrated spaces, assessment progression spaces, student voice determined spaces and spaces of curriculum agency.
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Teacher orchestrated spaces Bella is principal of a rural full primary school with just over 150 students. She describes a process of transitioning AfL practices in her school. She explains how she and her colleagues are in a process of exploring how teachers orchestrate classroom spaces and how it is aspirational for the students to “have a voice’ so that they are not ‘done to’ through assessment practices. This shift aims for the learners to take up some of the decision making and responsibility in classrooms. For us at the moment, the role is a mix of participant and learner. We want to shift to a mix of learner and teacher, so rather than being ‘done to’ being a ‘part of’… I’ve been here two years now, for both staff and students there was a real culture of it was ‘done to’. You didn’t have a voice in your learning as both staff and students.
Spaces framed by assessment progressions Both formal and informal assessment tools make up assessment frameworks. These frameworks mark classroom spaces. Dana is Principal of a full primary school of almost 300 students. She describes how teachers use the New Zealand Literacy Learning Progressions (Ministry of Education, 2010) to engage in dialogue with students. The children are able to look at their data with their teacher. They are able to discuss their data… We use e-asttle, the PATs, a whole raft of the New Zealand Maths tools. But also, it’s all about what children are doing in the classroom.
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Raleigh is a Principal in an urban primary school with a roll of over 400 students. In the comment below, he also describes how progressions for learning, associated with AfL processes, are brokered by teachers to assist cumulative learning. We have quite a lot of student engagement in their own learning. We have a really transparent sharing of learning expectations so that children have goals that they’re working towards. They can see a learning pathway. It’s quite a broad pathway, but they can see the elements of the pathway and it starts when they are five. It goes right through the school.
Student voice determined space Student voice is a process that is used to gauge efficiencies in the schooling spaces. Marlene is Principal of a primary school with a roll of just over 200. She describes how she and her DP audit practices in schooling spaces, using student voice to judge the quality of practice. We don’t make appointments, we just arrive. So, and some days I will spend the whole day in a class and teachers love it (not!). They’ve got used to it now but when I see the cold feet on the ground I know things aren’t going so well. When she sees that teachers are uncomfortable and there are “cold feet”, student voice can be used to evaluate what is not working in the classroom. While it is helpful if teachers are provided with additional support, random checks do not necessarily build
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relational trust or teacher confidence nor do they enhance an attentiveness to student agency. In the conceptions of space articulated above by Marlene, Raleigh, Dana and Bella, students do not have much influence. There are however learning oriented spaces that are co-determined - where students exercise agency.
Spaces of curriculum agency Curriculum and assessment practices, when negotiated, can enable student agency. Recent moves in ILE have involved programming that is flexible enough to promote student decision making. Kim is the Principal of a primary school with 500 students. She describes how students engage in dialogue with their teachers to articulate the information they need to enhance their own learning. ..[H]aving the knowledge that they know what they’re next learning steps are and having that power to actually influence in dialogue saying ‘Actually I think I need a running record. I think I found these books these are looking okay for me. I think I might need to be pushed to green, you know, even at year one level.
Reconsidering Power Asymmetries The findings reveal a number of ways that practices associated with assessment are enacted in Aotearoa primary schools. In the relations of schooling spaces, there are “power asymmetries” (Mayes et al., 2017, p. 31). The assessment practices of leaders, teachers and students are caught up in the often unseen unevenness of power relations. This is where young people can be monitored, surveilled, and governed, often in ways that teachers may think enable empowerment and agency. Yet students are just following a recipe, knowing to transgress the power relations may bring about unwanted repercussions.
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Student voice, when used as a quality control measure marks efficiencies, and while it is useful to gain a global picture of students’ perceptions, it does not provide scope for students to enact agency in itself. Additionally, voice can be a way of ‘doing to’ students (and teachers). However in assessment spaces, as illustrated above, there are possibilities for student curriculum leadership and agency, especially when scope for decision-making is provided and there is a willingness to share power. With the drive to revision the relational space of schools, it is worthwhile closely examining Assessment for Learning practices and how these serve to both inform and construct spatial practices that make learner agency possible.
References Mayes. E., Bakhshi, S., Wasner, V., Cook-Sather, A., Mohammad, M., Bishop, D.C., GroundwaterSmith, S., Prior, M., Nelson, E., McGregor, J., Carson, K., Webb, R., Flashman, L., McLaughlin, C., Cowley, E. (2017). What can a conception of power do? Theories and images of power in student voice work. International Journal of Student Voice, 2(1). Retrieved from https://ijsv.psu. edu/?article=what-can-a-conception-of-powerdo-theories-and-images-of-power-in-studentvoice-work Ministry of Education. (2010). NZ Literacy Learning Progressions. Retrieved from https://literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/
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Is it right or wrong? Ethics in the Anne Keeling
In January, the news services carried a story about governments taking steps to outline ethical boundaries for robots. Governments know a time is coming when devices with artificial intelligence will make humans obsolete, labelling that point ‘the singularity’. The machines will replace us in the workforce, causing unforeseeable economic, social and political upheaval. A classroom discussion might explore how we should programme our robots to respond in life and death situations. Will the programming be based on ethical considerations? Or, more practical considerations? What should humans do? What ethical boundaries, if any, should we impose on the development of artificial intelligence? Who should set those boundaries? What is the fundamental basis of your ethical beliefs? Do we need to rethink the basis of our ethical decision making? Right now: what about driverless cars? If a crash is unavoidable, should a driverless car decide who it slams into? The conundrum grows more complicated: in the final moment before the collision, should the vehicle target a small car, rather than a big one, in the hope of protecting its owner? Or should it do the reverse, at the expense of reducing the owner’s chances of survival? And what if it’s a choice between driving into a busy school crossing, or hammering into a cement wall? Does the robot choose carnage or the life of its owner?
and governments minimize environmental and social borders; bankers and financiers trade off fairness and integrity for profits and bonuses. Our time has been called the “post truth” age. Unregulated, these forces may become calamitous. Beginning with our children, we may face an ethical imperative to ask ourselves important and responsible questions about the way we live and think in the world we have, based on firm moral and ethical frameworks. This could begin in your classroom if you wish it to happen.
Ethical debate and discussion Ethical discussion and debate gives students the opportunity to explore and evaluate alternative opinions and compare them to their own. This can promote critical thinking, essential to any decisionmaking process. Debate and discussion lay a pathway for students to intellectually engage in considering ethical boundaries about central life questions. Sharing ideas and opinions can build students confidence and a sense that the problems of our world matter and their beliefs mean something.
When and how?
Almost daily, either in our subject material, in our school community, in national or world events and advances, we encounter behaviours and decisions resulting in potential pain, suffering, fear, sadness, humiliation. We also regularly encounter Issues of honesty, compassion, responsibility, fairness, respect, making things better. Any of these can provide a forum for allowing students to share opinions about what is right or wrong. For how long, if at all, remains An ethical imperative? up to the teacher. “If live one in wants to educate for genuine understanding, then, it is important Across the globe, we a world with many Every subject taught can be enriched by an identifyof these early representations, appreciate their power, complications andto a scarcity ethical models. The awareness and maybe an and exploration of ethical confront themespecially directly and repeatedly.”dimensions. Any character, any theme, even pace of change and innovation, in science and technology seems relentless and bewildering. vocabulary in a reading or history lesson acquire new (Gardner p71) Instead of going hand in hand with ethical meaning when placed in an ethical spotlight. Science considerations, scientists working in the fields of and geography open countless doors regarding the nanotechnology, intelligent design, genetic ethics of technology, food production, medicine, engineering and cyborg engineering operate largely poverty, refugees and more. Art and music also offer outside of an ethical construct. themes, artist, images and events inviting ethical evaluation: what constitutes art? Censorship or not? Oftentimes, our cultures fail to provide good models Purposes of art? for ethical behaviour: athletes beef themselves up on steroids; politicians outlandishly lie; multinationals On the surface, Maths may be less open to ethical 8 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
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classroom John Hellner
analysis, but comments about mathematical certainty, questionable claims for the uses of algorithms, the Fibonacci sequence and the structure of our natural world, the uses of statistics, the Golden Ratio and beauty.
Ethical probes Using a case study style approach to any topic, we can ask students to share their views with questions like: •
What ethical issue do you see in this situation?
•
Do all of you view this as an ethical matter?
•
What ethical judgements do you hold on this issue?
•
What is the basis of why you think the way you do? What are your decisions about right and wrong based on? Where does your thinking originate from?
•
Do other people hold different views? Why might that be the case? How could they justify their viewpoint?
•
Does the ethical view change over time? From culture to culture? For different ages? Genders?
Morality is fun to debate If you have the freedom and you wish to make ethical dilemmas a regular part of your teaching programme, the internet offers a treasure trove of “ethical dilemmas” or “moral dilemmas” scripted for students of all ages and all degrees of grittiness.
chance the money will be returned to the bank, leaving a lot of kids in need. What do you do?” (Source: Listverse) With a bit of thought, most of the inherent issues in hypothetical dilemmas readily translate to daily occurrences.
Ethics on a day to day basis The real fundamentals of ethics begin with how we manage our classroom. When notions of respect, goodness, inclusion, truth, sense of self, fairness, compassion are the supporting beams of your classroom management, you teach ethics by modelling. Most all teachers I have ever worked with do that already. And now I advocate a more focussed attention to ethics. It seems many articles (including mine) often suggest teachers do more and more, and do it all better, without any time, training or money being offered. I hope the incorporation of ethical considerations into the classroom enriches your practice in an easy and natural way, further making way for stimulating and unique thoughts and ideas we teachers so enjoy sharing.
Try this for a taster: “You are an eyewitness to a crime: A man has robbed a bank, but instead of keeping the money for himself, he donates it to a poor orphanage that can now afford to feed, clothe, and care for its children. You know who committed the crime. If you go to the authorities with the information, there’s a good
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Global Teacher Prize awarded to Cana Maggie MacDonnell’s teaching philosophy underscores hope and acts of kindness, which she puts to practice in an isolated corner of Quebec. In the Inuit village of Salluit, far north in the Canadian Arctic, winters are so harsh and life so remote that most teachers leave midway through the school year or apply for stress leave. Not Maggie MacDonnell...
She has been a middle and high school teacher there for six years, encouraging “acts of kindness” among her students to address gender issues, suicide, and drug and alcohol abuse among the indigenous community, the second-northernmost in the Canadian province of Quebec. Ms. MacDonnell’s perseverance helped her stand out among the ten finalists for the Global Teacher Prize, which the Canadian teacher received, along with the $1 million award that comes with it, at a ceremony in Dubai on Sunday, beating out thousands of applicants from around the world. MacDonnell’s story illustrates her commitment, both in time and effort, to tackling even the most pervasive issues among students from underprivileged backgrounds.
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adian educator who works with Inuit Ben Rosen
“I think as a teacher in a small Arctic community, your day never ends,” said MacDonnell in a press release on the Global Teacher Prize website. “The school doors may close – but the relationship with your students is continuous as you share the community with them.” The Global Teacher Prize was established three years ago to recognize one exceptional teacher per year: someone who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession, employs innovative classroom practices, and encourages others to joint the teaching profession. It is presented by the Varkey Foundation, whose founder Sunny Varkey, established the forprofit GEMS Education company, which has more than 250 schools around the world. Throughout her time in the fly-in village with a population of 1,300, MacDonnell has taught her students to focus on solutions, not problems. Teenage pregnancies, for example, are common, as are high levels of sexual abuse, and traditional gender roles often leave young girls responsible for many domestic duties, according to a press release. But MacDonnell created a life skills program for girls, which boosted girls’ registration in programs formerly dominated by boys by 500 percent. In the village, where the temperatures dip to 13 degrees F. below zero, a lack of exercise can present a problem. So MacDonnell and her students built a fitness center. She has also tried to help prevent suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and self-harm, according to a press release from the Global Teacher Prize. MacDonnell talked to the Associated Press on Sunday about the 10 suicides that took place during her time in the village, including six young men between the ages of 18 and 25 in 2015 alone. “The memory that continues to haunt me is when I see these Canadian teenagers, their very own classmates of the deceased, literally digging the grave,” she said. “I didn’t know until I came to Salluit that that was a Canadian reality.”
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With the more than $1 million prize, MacDonnell plans to use the money to continue helping the community in Salluit by establishing an environmental stewardship program to reconnect youth with many of their cultural traditions. But she also hopes to raise further attention to the indigenous communities of Canada and “ideally that they be treated with the dignity that they deserve.” The prize has given past recipients a platform to inspire teachers in their local community and their broader regions. Last year’s winner, Hanan al-Hroub, showed other Palestinian teachers and the rest of the Arab world how they can empower students, even if their lives outside the classroom are filled with conflict. “The most important thing is that once we close that door, we forget everything that goes on outside the door,” she told Christa Case Bryant for The Christian Science Monitor. “Any hostile behavior is rejected in the classroom. Any attitude of violence or hostility is also rejected.” Ms. Hroub’s achievements and recognition have inspired others in the region: A school, encouraged by Ms. Hroub, won $1 million in a reading contest. And teachers have gained a much greater say in curriculum: The Palestinian Authority’s curriculum development team, which once relied heavily on other professionals, now has four teachers for every non-educator, says Refat Sabbah, head of the Teacher Creativity Center and a member of the Palestinian committee that evaluates prize applicants. This report contains material from the Associated Press.
Ben Rosen
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Mary Egan Publishing on their new
“If you can get children excited to read a book about feelings with you then
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w children’s imprint ‘Little Love.’
n you’ve opened up that safe talking space right from the start.”
Talking about feelings is the pathway to emotional wellbeing. Fractured communities, bullying and social isolation create challenges for society when trying to promote resilience in our young people. Equipping today’s emotionally mature children with the tools that they need to face life’s ups and downs, means that more focus needs to go on understanding and encouraging communication about feelings from an early age. And that starts with the adults in their lives.
Feel A Little enables parents, caregivers
and educators to connect and have important conversations with children about feelings, in a safe and nurturing environment. Counsellors and educators say that talking to children about colours, shapes and the sensations of feelings, encourages them to talk about their feelings.
Feel A Little
creates a poetic, imaginative and fun world for children to express their feelings. The strong visual language and cute illustrated characters evoke feelings and provide a starting point for children to explore their emotions. The book features a rainbow of 14 significant emotions – from sad and angry to happy and curious – which are explored through lively ‘read along’ poetry that involves all the senses, accompanied by gorgeous, compelling illustrations. Rhyme and rhythm help children remember and relate to information, while the bright, zany characters capture their imaginations. The creative powerhouse behind Feel A Little are long-time friends Jenny Palmer (author) and Evie Kemp (illustrator). They funded their book project entirely through crowd-funding platform Kickstarter and, with community support, raised more than $20,000. Jenny and Evie believe that every little book can and should make a difference, so they gave $1 for every book pre-ordered during their Kickstarter campaign to charity Foster Hope. For more: www.tinyurl.com/feelalittle and www.facebook.com/feelalittle/
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BOOKS: THE MIRRORS AND WIND Many of today’s picture books contain powerful messages that apply to today’s world and be used to stimulate critical thinking, reflection and discussion. Books can make you feel valued by providing a mirror, or introduce you to alternatives by offering windows on diverse views. My contention is that sophisticated picture books can provide us with curriculum etcetera for our gifted students.
E
Empathy and sensitivity in gifted go hand in hand with emotional intensity, and stories about characters dealing with anxiety and compassion help the student with exceptional ability in reading and working with text information to make sense of the world. With higher ability comes greater awareness and understanding of the bigger picture behind the text. It is not always easy to find stories that provide young gifted readers with lots of opportunity for further research, but I can heartily recommend Emily Gravett’s book ‘Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears ‘ because it not only gives the reader a chance to reflect on his/her own fears but provides wonderful ‘big words’ to find out more about and relates to experiences that a child is likely to encounter.
E… Empathy T… Tolerance C… Connection
Do you know what these phobias are? Read this book to find out! Rupophobia, Entomophobia, Teratophobia, Clinophobia, Aichmophobia, Isolophobia. And no, I didn’t know them all either.
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DOWS OF DIVERSITY Elaine Le Sueur
T
Tolerance Tolerance can be defined as an interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices and viewpoints that are different from our own and books can definitely help to increase awareness and serve as motivation for change. In a world where it has become increasingly harder to find agreement on decisions about the future, it is necessary to generate as many alternatives as possible and to look at how these decisions will affect others. The ability to switch over and look at things in a different way is termed ‘insight.’ De Bono defines it as a shift of emphasis from proving the logical ‘rightness’ of your own point of view, and therefore the logical ‘wrongness’ of the other person’s, based on the questionable assumption that you are both looking at the same thing. Looking at things from other points of view may even cause us to refine our own ideas.
C Connected yet disconnected
In her research into the friendships of profoundly gifted children, Miraca Gross notes that gifted children look for friends to develop close and trusting friendships at ages where their age mates are looking for play partners. Their advanced intellect may result in difficulties where there is little or no access to like-minded peers. Some react by having imaginary playmates, while others may need help to practice social skills. Books can offer insights to help young students to support the message that everyone is unique in their own way and no matter how different you are there are others in the world like you. It helps for parents and teachers of gifted children to have an understanding of age related issues to do with friendship because students who are operating at a level in advance of their chronological age will have progressed beyond their age mates but may not have the maturity to recognise what it is that is setting them apart and making it difficult to create connections. Adults need to be prepared to offer a sympathetic ear but not try to solve these problems in order to build resilience and a tolerance for frustration. Before the age of 4 a child is egocentric. Between 4 and 7 they become more co-operative in play and prepared to a greater or lesser degree to share belongings.
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The book ‘Feelings’ by Aliki is useful for helping young children understand about the feelings they may have associated with interacting with others. It has lots of little vignettes in cartoon form. Between the ages of 6 and 8 children begin to realise that being a friend is having similar interests and they share likes and dislikes. Older primary age students (8-10) focus on helping each other to foster friendship. Between the ages of 11 and 15, most students understand that there needs to be an element of give and take in any friendship and they start to build affection and support for each other. At ages 16+ friends look for commitments to each other based on trust and acceptance. The way in which many gifted students cope with these differences is to gravitate towards older students who are like minded peers, and to build on similar interests. One way to foster this at school level is to allow opportunities for students to get together on a voluntary basis to discuss philosophical questions. Tiffany Poirier’s book ‘Q is for Question’ provides a whole alphabet of idea starters and ideas for follow up.
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There you have it.... Gifted readers have a unique ability to perceive relationships and solve problems. As a pre-schooler I had a family of pegs and would tell stories about their difficulties with life in a peg box. I was thrilled when I found the story of the Borrowers when I got to school. Gifted readers demonstrate keen observational skills and a unique child’s view of the world. Conversation with a two year old… Do trees look the same under the ground as they do on top of the ground? The tree in my book has roots that look like branches. They are able to grasp abstract ideas quickly but their conclusions might be more in keeping with their experience of the world.
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ALSO ... ... I would love to issue a challenge to
Conversation with a two year old…
readers.
Do babies have blood inside them?
I am working on a research paper that looks at what it is about teachers that make them really memorable to the learners.
Yes Well, how come you can’t see their veins? You can see my veins. And you can see your veins. Do they get more blue when you get old? Yes. That must be it, because babies are new. And I’m not new because I’m not a baby any more. And you can see your veins easily because you are old! You suspect a gifted reader when a student in your class complains that he has read everything in the school library, and he may be right! Our gifted students have a lot to be thankful for with the increase and ease of technological access.
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Everyone can remember fondly a favourite teacher who made a difference for them at school and I am collecting stories about those people and what it was that they did that was different to make them so memorable.
Can you help? Please send your responses to Elaine at... Justelaine@xtra.co.nz
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Bravehearts Here, put on this tee shirt and have your friend use their smartphone to explore the chambers of ‘your’ heart…. you’re participating in Brave Hearts augmented reality, one of several unique experiences offered in this superb, educational exhibition profiling pioneering Kiwi heart clinicians and the bravery of their patients. Brave Hearts – The New Zealand Cardiac Story, opens at Auckland’s Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) on Friday 18 August 2017. This pop-up exhibition developed by The Auckland Medical Museum Trust with support from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), explores how the heart works, how heart disease is investigated, and the largely untold story of New Zealand’s leading role in the evolution of heart surgery.
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Displays with interactive models demonstrate normal heart function, what could go wrong and what can be done to diagnose and correct heart problems. The exhibition delves into the inspiring stories behind New Zealand’s first open-heart operation, the cooling of children’s hearts to allow life-saving surgery and the innovation which led to replacing damaged heart valves. Brave Hearts is supported by an engaging education programme specifically designed for students in years 7 to 10. With clear links to the Living World strand of the Science learning area, the exhibition also offers curriculum links to the learning areas of Social Sciences and Technology Education. In exploring the story of how New Zealand’s cardiac surgeons have helped change the face of cardiac medicine globally through their brilliance, bravery and innovation, students can consider ways in which
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people make decisions and participate in social change. Brave Hearts offers an insight into the personalities, culture and organisation of mid 20th century cardiac practice. The impact of technology on society is beautifully illustrated in the story of New Zealand-led medical innovations which transformed the way heart disease was treated around the world. Students can assess the value-laden nature of technological development through first-hand stories from cardiac patients. The Brave Hearts education experience includes educator resources, pre and post-visit activities, hands-on activities and a coding competition. We guarantee your students will learn heaps and have fun while doing it. For more information and bookings please email bookings@motat.org.nz or call 09-815 5808 Online information: www.motat.org.nz/learn
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Lessons learnt in Christchurch Education seems destined to stumble along forever not learning from its mistakes. One of the things education authorities seem to be forever talking about is improving achievement for all students yet somehow they end up ignoring the very information that would allow them to do just that. When evidence surfaces that can’t be ignored, those same authorities do their best not to actively support it. Or so it seems to me. Much of what’s involved here appears to be a reluctance to face change. That’s not at all surprising for where learning is concerned there are very strong beliefs involved. As they journey through the education system, students absorb the beliefs and so those beliefs become part of the belief fabric of whole communities. Hence any education authority contemplating change will mostly consult with the community to increase the chances of buy in. Especially around election time, and depending on their position in the polls, political parties aren’t necessarily going to be consultative about changes that effect learning but even they know you can’t fool around too much with the beliefs involved. By and large, such is the solidity of sentiment about preserving our beliefs about learning there is only a remote chance that any changes contemplated will accord with what the research wants us to know.
trajectories that ensure not only do diverse (all) children learn, they do so to a degree never been seen before. This exciting amalgam of research and pure innovation looks set to turn many beliefs about learning on their respective heads. Yet it seems to me to be struggling for support especially from the agency, the MOE, that’s supposed to be promoting improved achievement for all students. Judging from my involvement in getting the programme Bobbie Maths implemented in Shirley Primary, Christchurch, I don’t get the feeling that this support reluctance is all due to the not inconsiderable cost of implementation. As every participating teacher learning how to use the programme knows, the hardest thing of all is managing the dissonance between their beliefs and the new skills required of them. Such is the affront to their “business as usual” beliefs and practices there is talk of the “learning pit” into which all fall and out of which they have to extract themselves. There is talk, too, about having to re-invent the very act of teaching. Now such a reaction is only to be expected when something comes along that cuts the very legs from under a profession. It is telling teaching that it has got learning wrong, wrong, wrong in no uncertain manner. But that’s just the common experience of all teachers as they take up Bobbie Maths. Yet that’s by no means all of what has been learnt from the Christchurch implementation at Shirley Primary School. From vantage point of age, I have witnessed how the battle has raged between beliefs about how learning works and what science keeps telling us. It’s a battle that beliefs always seem to win, never mind incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. Seemingly beliefs about learning are part of our DNA. This resilience of beliefs about learning over science
Enter Bobbie Maths with its ten-point growth
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Laurie Loper Psychologist shows up in several ways, some of which will now be discussed. Despite Bobbie Maths’ impressive and building folio of successes (in over thirty implementations in New Zealand alone), I don’t get the feeling that underachievement is being sufficiently understood as an issue. As Bobbie Maths confirms, it is our misunderstanding of how learning works in classrooms that is causing student underachievement in Maths. Clearly, in Maths, underachievement is due to the use of an inappropriate pedagogy. However, I don’t get the feeling that this as a cause is being sufficiently accepted. I back my argument as follows. I have developed a peer-reviewed concept that makes it evident that underachievement occurs across the whole spectrum of subjects. It isn’t a single-subject phenomenon. Neither does it just affect failing students, it results in undeveloped learning capacity and so affects all students in all subjects. Living with this undeveloped student capacity to learn carries a cost, reckoned to be as much as half the combined total of what’s available by way of capacity to learn in our young. This cost by far outweighs that of retraining teachers in the use of a more efficient pedagogy like Bobbie Maths. Forty years ago the efficacy research backing this view started emerging. Is it going to take another forty years to build appropriate pedagogies across all subject areas and to capitalise on the changes Bobbie Maths has started? Another lesson learnt from the Christchurch implementation of Bobbie Maths is that the programme isn’t being sufficiently valued as an innovation. There are two aspects to this. One has to do with there being a proper appreciation of the potential that the programme has.
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I’d like to expand a little on that point and tautoko (support) what Mere Berryman said in her quality assurance report about the Shirley Primary project. Reacting to the knowledge that some students are already transferring skills across subject boundaries, she said she would like to see a “more determined spreading of this pedagogy across other areas of the curriculum”. I, too, ask why the potential for the across-subject benefits of the programme are not being explored right now as a universal remedy for underachievement? I’d go even further and would like to see the whole issue of our understanding of the way learning works in classrooms handed over to a high status, independent commission of inquiry for examination and report. This commission would examine things like the development of a set of universal learning principles, applicable to all subjects; it would examine the part efficacy research plays in the formation of education policy; it would be asked to advise on how a total reinvention of teaching might be carried out; and further, it could provide advice on what changes to teacher training need to occur, along with a plan for implementing such changes. The other aspect to how much Bobbie Maths is valued as an innovation concerns the degree to which the Ministry of Education (MOE) shows ownership of Bobbie Maths. The list of incidents calling this into question is extensive but for the moment will remain confidential. What can be revealed is that funding arrangements are part of the difficulty. Again, part of that is the apparent difficulty the MOE has in working with private funders and part is due to the MOE having to deal with an awkward “two-pot” Government funding policy for teacher professional development.
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The last points to be made from my experience of the Christchurch implementation and the battle I see going on between beliefs and science concerns three of the pivotal people involved. They are all women and each has been pivotal in different ways. Two have won international reputations for their work that has involved making headway against centuries old beliefs about learning, beliefs that have strangled the development of student capacity to learn. One has apparently found the stress of her job too much to bear and has given up her position. All have contributed to their personal cost, the war that I see going on takes no prisoners. What strikes me about all three is that they are not in it for any sort of personal gain, far from it. It is their contribution to our understanding of underachievement that takes my eye the most. The pity in this situation is that, in my opinion, their contribution isn’t being valued and hence not supported well enough. Certainly not supported to anywhere near that is a match of the value of the contribution being made. In sheer monetary terms their contributions must be about to add billions of dollars to the national economy. Not only that, at the individual student level, you have learners that love learning. Moreover, it’s a love of learning that affirms
them culturally, affirming them like “business as usual” teaching could never do (and has never done). Neither does the innovation involved stop at that. Advances in evidence gathering have come from the necessity to show “evidence in action” that would be otherwise lost. Such then are the lessons that are being learnt about learning in Christchurch. They bring hope of a new era in teaching and learning providing, that is, science wins its war with beliefs.
For anyone seeking further information on Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities, otherwise known as Bobbie Maths, less commonly Pasifika Maths – the 15 video feature with the analysis of ‘evidence in action’ and supporting references provide great background. http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/BES/ developing-mathematical-inquiry/introduction
Associate-Professor Bobbie Hunter at Southern Cross
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Link to a review on Radio NZ (click on the photo on the facebook page) https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10214291438382851&id=1322913625
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Teacher’s digital upskilling leads to students School leaders need to be constantly learning to understand what students need for the future. Deputy Principal Steve Katene of Napier’s Richmond School has committed to levelling up his teaching practice by enrolling in The Mind Lab by Unitec’s Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital & Collaborative Learning). Modern day technologies are enabling enriched interaction and learning among students, teachers and parents, and are also providing new ways to assist students with unique challenges such as learning disabilities and impairments.
Steve Katene has been able to guide and empower a struggling deaf student at his school, integrating the principles of gaming into education to improve the student’s communication and engagement in the classroom. “Many teachers get put off when they think of games like Minecraft and the Sims as they don’t really see how they work in the classroom. However, I’m really interested in discovering how we can use these games – which have fantastic engagement levels with kids – in education to further engage our students and enhance their learning,” he says. Steve says he has been using the principles of gaming, specifically Minecraft, to improve the achievement levels of the student. “This student had a severe hearing impairment, as well as ADHD, and hadn’t learnt how to sign – he would only communicate in grunts and pointing. One day he saw Minecraft on my tablet so I showed him how to use it, and I discovered a fantastic way to connect with him. “I left markers inside the Minecraft field where I posed a question or a scenario such as ‘build a house’, and then he built it in 3D. He started coming to us more and more as he needed help to figure out the scenarios – he had to communicate with us. “We started communicating through block patterns and using videos through the game. It was amazing to see how quickly he was picking it up. The difference in his communication and his engagement has been remarkable.” Steve says The Mind Lab by Unitec’s postgraduate programme enabled him to further his understanding of how and why new technologies can be implemented into the classroom.
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o unexpected empowerment of all “Although our school was already integrating technology into our classrooms, the programme linked this into detailed research which gave me a well-rounded understanding of the importance of these approaches. This is the brilliance of the programme – there are always opportunities to learn and develop your teaching practice regardless of your tech-literacy.” Steve says he understands the impact the future of work has on both students and the teaching profession and how vital it is to create a learning environment that caters to these changing needs. “Our young people need to be adaptable to lead changes in society rather than simply being reactive. Students are now global citizens as well as local citizens so we need to make sure they can lead and learn anywhere in the world,” says Steve. Steve is grateful to the NEXT Foundation for providing 1,350 teachers with scholarships in 2016 to allow them to undertake The Mind Lab by Unitec’s postgraduate programme. The NEXT Foundation plans to invest $100 million over the next ten years to create a legacy of environmental and educational excellence for the benefit of future generations of New Zealanders.
Steve Katene
The Mind Lab by Unitec’s Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital & Collaborative Learning) is a part time 32-week programme that is redefining professional development for teachers through the offering of a hands-on, progressive and blended qualification. Upcoming intakes for 2017 are in July and November. To find out more visit www.themindlab.com/ postgrad-studies/programme-overview/
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 27
STEM students who learn by exam study finds No matter how smart, well-prepared or hard-working, many college students struggle with rigorous introductory science courses because their approach to learning fails to provide a working knowledge of abstract concepts that underlie examples presented in the classroom, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis. “Our results find that individual differences in how learners acquire and represent concepts is a potentially crucial factor in explaining the success or failure of college students learning complex concepts in introductory chemistry courses,” said study coauthor Regina F.Frey, the Florence E. Moog Professor of STEM Education in Arts & Sciences. The findings, published online May 12 in the Journal of Chemical Education, are important because they may help to explain why so many aspiring Regina F. Frey students make an early exit from science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs after failing to perform well in tough introductory science courses. In this study, which included more than 800 students taking chemistry courses over three semesters at a highly competitive research university, about 50 percent of those tested were classified as having difficulty making the leap from example to concept. And that was true of students with similar educational backgrounds and equally high marks in advance placement courses and college entrance exams. “Every instructor nods when you say students seem to do well when tests present concepts the same 28 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
way they were addressed in class or in homework, but flounder when the test presents these same concepts in a different context ,” said study co-author Mark McDaniel, a professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Washington University. “If nothing else, this study should provide teachers with a better understanding of why some of their students may be floundering when it comes to applying a studied concept to a novel situation.” Frey and McDaniel are co-directors of the Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE) at Washington University, where they explore how new innovations from learning and memory research can be used to improve classroom education. Mark McDaniel
Much of their current research focuses on improving student performance in introductory science courses where a primary goal is ensuring that students can use basic concepts to explore problems in new and unknown contexts. This study suggests there are real and identifiable cognitive differences in how individuals go about building a conceptual framework to explain what’s happening in complex scientific scenarios. Understanding those differences and finding ways to deal with them early may be critical to success in science because advanced work requires students to be creative problem solvers, they argue. The study used a computerized learning assessment to gauge how well students are able to grasp abstract concepts presented as part of a fictional NASA science assignment. The task required learning the functional relation between two new elements associated with a new organism discovered on Mars. The students were asked to determine how much of the fictional element Beros the new organism might excrete after absorbing a certain amount of Zebon.
mple may miss key concepts,
Gerry Everding
Washington University By using a fictional scenario, the researchers eliminated any advantage a particular student might have based on prior education or experience with a real world science problem, ensuring that the ability to build concepts and apply them was a primary driver of performance in the learning assessment.
through one of three semester-long chemistry courses. Abstraction learners consistently outperformed exemplar learners in all three courses. These performance differences grew even more pronounced among students taking the higher level course, Organic Chemistry 2.
The assessment, which could be offered online, provides a way for researchers — and potentially teachers and students — to evaluate whether someone has difficulty building a conceptual framework for understanding the interaction between variables in a complex scientific scenario.
“Abstraction learners demonstrated advantages over exemplar learners even after taking into account preparation via ACT scores and prior chemistry performance.” Frey said. “Our results suggest that individual differences in how learners acquire and represent concepts persist from laboratory concept learning to learning complex concepts in introductory chemistry courses.”
Students who are able to make accurate extrapolation predictions based on the study material were categorized as “abstraction learners.” Those who failed to make the leap from the studied examples to the extrapolation test were classified as “exemplar learners.” After the assessment, researchers tracked the performance of all students as they worked their way
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This research was supported in part by grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Teagle Foundation. Michael Cahill, a research scientist and project manager in the CIRCLE lab, also contributed to the study.
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The Need for Accelerated Lear There is no question that our world is moving faster today than ever before. New developments in communication, financial, and transportation technologies allow ideas, money, and people to travel across the globe with amazing speed. And with technology in every industry changing at such a fast rate, what are the implications of this for your own professional development? How can you prepare for a career path that may look totally different in 10 or even 5 years?
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Here at Cheetah Learning, we’ve learned that the secret to keeping up with the fast-paced changes in any industry is to learn how to learn faster - also known as accelerated learning. Accelerated learning refers to the practices, habits, and techniques that enable you to assimilate new information quickly and retain it for longer than with traditional learning approaches. Most importantly, accelerated learning helps you overcome two major challenges unique to today’s ever-accelerating world: the rapid growth of innovation, and the increasing number of technological distractions in our lives. The first challenge that professionals face in a fasterpaced world is the rapid growth in the rate of innovation; scientific innovation now doubles every nine years. What this means is that the nature of the work we do is also evolving rapidly across most industries. While in earlier eras professionals could spend a long time gaining education and job skills to help them prepare for a lifelong career at one
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rning in an Accelerating World By Michelle LaBrosse,CCPM, PMP®, PMI-ACP, RYT,
company, today most people change careers at least five to ten times over the course of their life. To adapt to and thrive in a career with ever-shifting job responsibilities and required skills, it is now essential to be able to learn and assimilate new information rapidly. The second challenge that professionals face in today’s accelerating world is the proliferation of distracting technologies in all parts of our lives: texting, social media, email, chat, and other modes of instantaneous communication. The New York Times, for instance, today produces as much information in one day as people experienced their entire lifetimes just 200 years ago. However, this does not mean that our brains are now able to process this quantity of information. This information overload then leads to distraction from our many communication technologies - which then prevents us from engaging in meaningful, focused learning. And beyond information overload, instantaneous communication activates the limbic brain (leading to more emotional and impulsive decision-making), creates addictive behaviors relating to technology use, decreases the ability to focus, and impairs higher-order thinking.
Accelerated learning techniques give people tools to avoid distractions and focus intently on the task at hand, bringing their mind up to peak performing condition. With accelerated learning skills, you can quickly adapt to rapid innovation in your field and overcome the impulse to engage with distractions. People who gain the ability to do these two things then go on to become leaders in their field because they not only possess the knowledge and skills needed to do the job today, but they show that they are capable of adapting quickly to and thriving in a changing work environment. Cheetah Learning created the Certified Accelerated Learner program to help people reach this level. We have validated the techniques that students master in the Certified Accelerated Learning program over the past two decades, and with over 70,000 students, through award-winning programs in Project Management, negotiations, and accelerated exam preparation. To learn more about the Certified Accelerated Learner program and Cheetah Learning’s other classroom and online courses, visit www. cheetahlearning.com.
About the Author:
Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, is an entrepreneurial powerhouse with a penchant for making success easy, fun, and fast. She is the founder of Cheetah Learning, the author of the Cheetah Success Series, and a prolific blogger whose mission is to bring Project Management
to the masses. Cheetah Learning is a virtual company with 100 employees, contractors, and licensees worldwide. To date, more than 50,000 people have become “Cheetahs” using Cheetah Learning’s innovative Project Management and accelerated learning techniques.
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Honored by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), Cheetah Learning was named Professional Development Provider of the Year at the 2008 PMI® Global Congress. A dynamic keynote speaker and industry thought leader, Michelle is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world. Michelle also developed the Cheetah Certified Project Manager (CCPM) program based on MyersBriggs Type Indicator personality profiling to help students master how to use their unique strengths for learn is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world.
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A Large Suspended Tree Trunk Carved Dow If you had to summarize an allencompassing theme to describe Maskull Lasserre’s artistic practice, the word would probably be tension. From the balance of life and death to the opposing forces of war and peace, the Candian artist explores tension not only metaphorically but physically as well. Case in point, his latest piece titled Schrodinger’s Wood carved from the trunk of an Ash tree that relies on the tree’s inner core to serve as a tangled mass of rope in the process of fraying from the weight of itself. The work appears to share a kindred spirit to his sliced piano artwork, Improbable Worlds. You can see more views on his website maskulllasserre.com/
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wn to a Frayed Rope by Maskull Lasserre
Christopher Jobson
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New theory revolutionises unde Geoff Bird, newly-appointed Associate Professor in Experimental Psychology, is building the University’s strength in autism research with a new interpretation which transforms our understanding of the condition. A fresh challenge to our perception of autism could offer new hope to people living with the condition and their families. Professor Geoff Bird joined the University earlier this year as Associate Professor in Experimental Psychology and Tutorial Fellow in Psychology. In an interview with Oxford Today he explained how he aims to expand the University’s research effort into understanding and treating autism – and how a new theory underpins his approach. The interview follows...
Geoff Bird is challenging our perceptions of autism and offers a message of real hope to those living with the condition and their families. He’s a bit late and profusely apologetic, and unlike many Tutorial Fellows at Oxford does not have a room lined with walls of books. Professor Geoff Bird, Tutorial Fellow in Psychology at Brasenose College, has barely had time to turn the lights on since moving to Oxford at the start of 2017, hitting the deck running in the middle of an academic year. The larger reason, I suggest, is that he’s a man with a mission, given that Oxford wants to be better known for its autism research. ‘Yes, I want to establish it here – it means applying for funds, building a database of volunteers for experiments, and acquiring the testing facilities we need. It won’t happen overnight.’ Assuming all that was in place, I ask rhetorically, what then? He replies by noting a particularly satisfying experiment he conducted in 2010, that proved, with brain scanning (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging is the full term, fMRI), that you can be diagnosed with autism but still show empathy. Equally and just as importantly, the experiment showed that non-autistics may lack empathy. The condition that describes this lack of empathy is called alexithymia, and affects roughly 8% of the general population, says Bird. Autism affects 1% of the population. ‘Alexithymia and autism are completely independent of each other,’ he says, ‘…yet even now we are told time and again that autistic people lack empathy. Of course some do, but many do not, and this is really important because it has large consequences for how they are treated by society and whether, for a practical example, they can volunteer their time or find work.’ The difficulty with alexithymia, Bird
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erstanding of autism Oxford University explains, is that it’s a newish concept having only emerged in the very late 1970s, and even then on the couches of therapists, ‘a psycho-dynamic Freudian thing…’ So to this day it does not appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. Only in the past fifteen years have more established cognitive neuroscience studies been conducted on alexithymia, including Bird’s experiment of 2010.
they believe they have the explanation. ‘We wondered if it [alexithymia] rested on a failure of something called interoception, a term that refers to a person’s understanding of their internal state.’ He explains how interoception refers to how good you are at working out that you are hungry, or that your heart is racing, what makes you ‘feel an itch’ or ‘feel an achy muscle’? He describes these as ‘very specific anatomical pathways.’
‘Ask anyone in the field,’ says Bird, ‘what characterizes autism, and they’ll say a lack of empathy. An autistic person can’t recognize emotions. Sometimes they can’t engage in moral reasoning. We think that’s completely wrong. Completely inaccurate.’
‘So we wanted to then establish whether alexithymic individuals had a really poor ability to monitor the state of their bodies and lots of research later, we believe this is the case.’
About half the autistic population have alexithymia, when they have difficulty determining which emotion they’re feeling. ‘They’re not sure if they’re sad, angry or afraid – a moderate level of alexithymia – or at a more severe level they might not be able to distinguish between having an emotion and feeling hungry, for instance. What we’ve shown is that the supposed emotional deficits of autism are actually due to alexithymia.’ What follows is of great significance for society’s treatment of autistic individuals, but Bird is at pains to note that this theory has not been proven beyond doubt, but rather that he and certain colleagues have been working hard on defining alexithymia, and that
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‘It would appear that the interoceptive system is abnormal in sufferers of alexithymia, so they misclassify these signals from their body. If they are stroked by a parent they might feel pain.’ ‘This is important. It takes you straight back to sleeping difficulties and other sensory symptoms reported by some autism sufferers.’ Professor Bird believes that over the next two decades, assuming that he is broadly right about the role of interoception, it will lead to pharmacological modulation – which in lay language means medical cures. Taking the very long view, he notes that the 1960s saw incredible advances in understanding of autism, but that since then there has been very little
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advance. Yes, he notes, there have been excellent cognitive theories about what autism might be. ‘Yet for all that, we have no idea what the genes are for autism; we can’t find the brain abnormality for autism. We have really struggled to find the problem to be solved.’
So the research around interoception concerns the whole population and not just sufferers of known dysfunctions – and at that point Professor Bird grins for the camera – he has good reason to be excited by his subject, not least because it has the promise of huge impact across a large population.
His broader message to the community is that ‘individuals with autism are not unempathic, psychopathic monsters. This is really important. We can’t be wrong about that one. …I have heard so many stories about people who simply cannot get jobs or even volunteer their time because of this damaging myth, which causes additional frustration for the parents of autistic individuals. Individuals with alexithymia are also not psychopaths of course, although they may struggle to understand emotions in a typical way.’ Asked what he’d recommend as reading for a lay audience who are curious, he immediately mentions his former colleague at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (ICN) at University College London (UCL), Professor Uta Frith. She is the author of OUP’s Autism, Very Short Introduction. He also recommends Steve Silberman’s Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2015. While he is clear about his challenge at Oxford, to establish a reputation for excellence, he begins with one particular ally, Professor Russell Foster, also associated with Brasenose and Director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute. When Oxford Today did a piece on his work about why we’ve lost the art of sleeping, it was very popular.
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Professor Geoff Bird is Tutorial Fellow in Psychology at Brasenose College and Associate Professor in Experimental Psychology. His PhD work (which was supervised by Professor Cecilia Heyes at UCL), was on the mechanisms by which we imitate the actions of others. After this he moved to the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (ICN) at UCL, where I worked with Professors Chris and Uta Frith on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Since then he has worked at The Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution (ELSE), and Birkbeck; then the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience (IoPPN). He moved to Oxford in January 2017.
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Disruptive Classroom Technologies
A Framework for Innovation in Education By Sonny Magana Foreword by Robert Marzano Publication date 14 Sep 2017 Publisher Sage Publications Ltd Imprint Corwin Press Inc Publication City/Country Thousand Oaks, United States Language English ISBN10 1506359094 ISBN13 9781506359090 Available at Amazon, Book Depository, Fishpond etc. The cover of this book asks ‘Have we developed, at considerable cost and effort, classrooms that are digitally rich but innovation poor?’ Timely and powerful, this book offers a new framework to elevate instructional practices with technology and maximize student learning. The T3 Framework helps teachers categorize students’ learning as translational, transformational, or transcendent, sorting through the low-impact applications to reach high-impact usage of technologies. Teachers and leaders will find: Examples of technology use at the translational, transformational, and transcendent levels Activities, guides, and prompts for deeper learning that move technology use to higher levels of the T3 Framework Evaluative rubrics to self-assess current technology use, establish meaningful goals, and track progress towards those goals
This book by Sonny Magana not only makes interesting reading but is also a very useful guide for assisting teachers and leaders interested in both their class and school’s constructive progression of the use of technologies within their school and classroom.
With seven pages of praise for the book started by Hattie, Fullan and Zhao followed by an insightful foreword by Robert J. Marzano the book is divided into three parts. After covering in Part I the case for Disruptive Innovation in Education and introducing the T3 framework: A New Framework for Innovation in Education. It then moves onto Part II Stages of the T3 Framework and then Part III Putting the T3 Framework to Use. The book also comes with links to downloadable resources to assist in introduction and ongoing assessment of progress.
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Sonny Magana
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A Neural Network Generates Surprisingly Elegant Images of Dinosaurs Composed of Plants Artist and writer Chris Rodley utilized a deep learning algorithm to create these really lovely illustrations of dinosaurs composed of plants. The images were generated with an online service called DeepArt that lets you upload a “target” image and then apply a visual style to it. For step one he fed the network images of common dinosaurs and then applied the styles of 19th-century fruit engravings and botanical illustrations. The results are a sort of 21st-century artificial intelligence channeling Giuseppe Arcimboldo. You can read a bunch more about all the technical mumbo jumbo over on Sploid. (via Kottke)
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The New Zealand Wildlife Activity Book By Dave Gunson Publisher New Holland RRP $24.99 (NZ) Age Range 6-12 years This very New Zealand book was first published in 2013 and it has certainly stood the test of time. It is a really lovely and original book.
Ed-media Consulting... Specialising in: Educators CV’s and the Employment Process All aspects of Communication Mentoring Change Management Issues and Crisis Management If you think we might be able to confidentially assist you please email info@ed-media.co.nz for more information
With masks and mobiles to cut out and use through to activities ranging from species spotting, crosswords, making activities to a variety of puzzles this book would surely be the most useful item to have to encourage holiday activities which would get children out and about with interesting activities which relate directly to them and their country. There is enough variety in The New Zealand Wildlife Activity Book to keep boredom at bay and many of the activities could be extended with a bit of thinking and forward planning. A great book for parents, grandparents and carers wanting to make the next holiday break productive and interesting.
www.ed-media.co.nz
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The story behind: ‘a tale of two friends’ Written and Illustrated by: Esther Van Kuyk
Esther Van Kuykhas been creating imaginary worlds since she first picked up a pencil. Now the talented Randwick Park author and illustrator is celebrating the release of her first published work. Van Kuyk, 25, wrote the story and created the watercolour and ink illustrations for the 16page children’s picture book, A Tale of Two Friends. It’s suitable for children aged 5-7 and began life while its author was studying a bachelor of design degree at Massey University in Wellington in 2011. “I was doing a paper about sequential narrative and it got us to think about an event from our lives that could be turned into a story,” she says. A road trip Van Kuyk embarked on several years ago with friends was her inspiration. “We wanted to drive in convoy but the guys in the car in front kept going really fast and leaving us girls behind. I thought I could turn that into a story.” Van Kuyk’s book tells the tale of furry friends Petunia Rabbit and Oliver Hamster. Their relationship is tested when they each build rafts to travel down a river to an animals’ picnic. Petunia focuses on building a strong raft that will get her there safely but Oliver is more interested in speed.
learn from your mistakes, that strengthens the relationship.” Van Kuyk raised $800 through the Kickstarterwebsite to have 300 copies of the work printed. She says she’d love to write more children’s books. “I’m testing the waters and putting it out there to see what sort of interest I get. I really love being able to create something from nothing and telling stories through imagery.” - Stuff.co.nz 2016 Esther’s book is a visually pretty book with a lovely storyline and undercurrent message. It’s really nice to have the opportunity to review a new writer/ illustrator’s book funded by kickstarter and produced in a limited edition. Contact Esther through etsy.com/nz/shop/ EstherIllustration if you want to buy one of the few remaining copies for $15 plus postage.
The sensible rabbit represents Van Kuyk and the other girls who were in her car during the road trip while Oliver represents the guys in the car in front. “The story has a few layers to it, like it’s worth taking your time to do a good job and that friendship is more important than mistakes,” she says. “If you’re willing to grow and
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“We need courageous cathedral builders! We also need to address traditional experts’ biases clinging to their narrow domains, parents’ old personal experiences biasing their views, and teachers’ and administrators’ lack of training and leadership, respectively.” — Charles Fadel All around us we are witnessing disruptive automation that is changing lives and taking away the jobs many have relied on to make a living. According to a recent report by PwC, within 15 years, artificial intelligence will take over 38% of U.S. jobs. But will this trend continue even further, and to what extent does AI pose a threat to most of our jobs?
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Charles Fadel says ”yes, but…” In the interview that follows, the Founder and Chairman of the Center for Curriculum Redesign acknowledges that the Digital Revolution will force many jobs to become obsolete. However, all is not lost. Fadel believes new and higher paying occupations will develop as a result of automation; what we must do now is reform education to ensure our kids don’t get left behind. J. Hawksworth, PwC’s chief economist, agrees, stating “Knowledge will be a commodity so we need to shift our thinking on how we skill and upskill future generations.” Dr. Carl Frey, one of the most widely cited scholars in the field of workforce automation and industrial renewal from the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, also confirms, “Social and creative skills are most difficult to automate. Those are the ones that most workers will have to acquire.” Exploring topics such as “What should students learn for the 21st century?” and “Making Education More Relevant,” Fadel’s research into education, and more specifically, curriculum, has focused on developing innovative ways to revamp education systems to make learning more relevant. The first step? Changing perspectives. We all have personal biases, however, Fadel claims parents and educators must acknowledge and reform their dated opinions so they do not interfere with preparing the younger generation for their AI futures.
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The Global Search for Education is pleased to welcome global education thought leader and futurist Charles Fadel, author of Four-Dimensional Education, to discuss how workforce trends will change as a result of increased automation, and to share his views on creating an education that will ensure students are able to succeed in an age of robotics.
These jobs are becoming increasingly offshored even though they are harder to automate. The third is routine personal work, such as taxi drivers and cleaning services. These jobs remain onshore but are becoming increasingly automated. The last job type is non-routine personal work. These jobs include surgeons, CEOs, and teachers. These types of jobs will most likely remain onshore for a long time, and are also harder to automate.
“An estimate of 9% to 50% of the labor forces of developed countries are susceptible to automation in the coming decades.” — Charles Fadel “The Canadian Scholarship Trust has attempted to predict various new positions for the coming “Robots are going to cause unemployment.” The decades, including robot counselor, gamification themes of automation and offshoring are in our designer, and recyclable design specialist.” headlines more than ever. Robotics and artificial — Charles Fadel intelligence are improving at dramatic rates. What kind of job skills can we expect to see replaced by automation? There are four different job types: the first being routine impersonal work, such as basic accounting, call center operators, and airline help desks. These jobs are often offshored and are moving towards further automation. The second job type is non-routine impersonal work. These jobs include X-Ray interpretation and pathologists, legal discovery, and document editors.
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Let’s talk about the new jobs that we can expect to see in the next decade. What does the increasing progression of Robotics/Artificial Intelligence mean for future jobs? There is a huge “jobsolescence” factor that has become more relevant in recent years. This means that jobs will be rendered obsolete. An estimate of 9% to 50% of the labor forces of developed countries are susceptible to automation in the coming decades, but even at the 9% low end of the estimates, this can
Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 47
Given the rapid growth in automation, it’s clearly essential that we prepare young people for those new jobs now. What is the role of education in keeping up with the automation advances and equipping people with the competencies they must 48 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
have to make a living? A higher level of overall expertise is needed to be able to survive in this new environment, as it became the norm during the Industrial Revolution – the Digital Revolution is placing an even greater pressure on all of us. People need to be versatile and adaptable to their morphing environments, and to be “upskilled.” This is similar to what was implemented for the Industrial Revolution but with the rapid growth of automation, this process needs to be implemented significantly faster. In addition, the goals of education have to tackle three main points. The first is relevance, for motivation and a real-world applicability. The second is versatility, for robustness in the face of relentless change. The final point is the transfer for actionability across novel situations. Transfer is critical because it is the ability to use one’s learning from whenever it was acquired and use it for a completely different context. So in the same way we talk about “flipping the classroom”, we must talk about “flipping the curriculum”. Traditional education has focused on information and data, but expertise and transfer are of much greater importance. These goals apply to schools, higher education, as well as lifelong learning/workforce development.
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(All Photos are Courtesy of CMRubinWorld)
cause significant social unrest – not to mention the 50% nightmare possibility… However, jobs are facing multiple scenarios in upcoming years. The first scenario is replacement or substitution of jobs with automation. The second is augmentation, such as IBM’s Watson used to shoulder doctors’ diagnostics, and the third is the creation of more jobs, which is the hardest to imagine. Since there are many jobs that exist today that did not exist a decade ago, it is quite likely this scenario will happen as well. Some of these jobs include app developer, driverless car engineer, and big data analyst. Not only are these jobs being created due to the increase of technological development but also the pay in these jobs is high. While not as high paying, other jobs created by technological change include social media manager, drone operator, and Uber driver (and the latter two can be automated over time). The Canadian Scholarship Trust has attempted to predict various new positions for the coming decades, including robot counselor, gamification designer, and recyclable design specialist.
“We talk about ‘flipping the classroom’, we must talk about ‘flipping the curriculum’.” — Charles Fadel What are the critical steps we must take to ensure we shape education to combat what you called “jobsolescence”? To ensure that we shape education for the future that we desire, some changes need to be made: to college entrance requirements that presently focus on efficient sorting; to assessments that measure the narrow traditional disciplinary goals of partially antiquated knowledge; to politics/policies that shrink away from controversy – we need courageous cathedral builders! We also need to address traditional experts’ biases clinging to their narrow domains, parents’ old personal experiences biasing their views, and teachers’ and administrators’ lack of training and leadership, respectively. We will also need to make concerted collaborative efforts among the education, business and government sectors to react to the emerging jobs. And as to forecasting new occupations, despite the uncertainty with respect to making such determinations, we must do our best to identify what appears to be likely given the trends that are clear to us now.
C. M. Rubin and Charles Fadel C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, includingThe Real Alice in Wonderland, is the publisher of CMRubinWorld and is a Disruptor Foundation Fellow.
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Join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. MadhavChavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. EijaKauppinen (Finland), State Secretary TapioKosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Geoff Masters (Australia), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Professor Manabu Sato (Japan), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (LyceeFrancais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today. Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 49
Socioeconomic background linke benefit more from summer reading intervention. About 20 percent of children in the United States have difficulty learning to read, and educators have devised a variety of interventions to try to help them. Not every program helps every student, however, in part because the origins of their struggles are not identical. MIT neuroscientist John Gabrieli is trying to identify factors that may help to predict individual children’s responses to different types of reading interventions. As part of that effort, he recently found that children from lower-income families responded much better to a summer reading program than children from a higher socioeconomic background. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the research team also found anatomical changes in the brains of children whose reading abilities improved — in particular, a thickening of the cortex in parts of the brain known to be involved in reading. “If you just left these children [with reading difficulties] alone on the developmental path they’re on, they would have terrible troubles reading in school. We’re taking them on a neuroanatomical detour that seems to go with real gains in reading ability,” says Gabrieli, the Grover M. Hermann Professor in Health Sciences and Technology, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences, a member of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and the senior author of the study. Rachel Romeo, a graduate student in the HarvardMIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, and Joanna Christodoulou, an assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, are the lead authors of the paper, which appears in the journal Cerebral Cortex. Predicting improvement In hopes of identifying factors that influence children’s responses to reading interventions, the MIT team set up two summer schools based on a program known as Lindamood-Bell. The researchers recruited students from a wide income range, 50 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
although socioeconomic status was not the original focus of their study. The Lindamood-Bell program focuses on helping students develop the sensory and cognitive processing necessary for reading, such as thinking about words as units of sound, and translating printed letters into word meanings. Children participating in the study, who ranged from 6 to 9 years old, spent four hours a day, five days a week in the program, for six weeks. Before and after the program, their brains were scanned with MRI and they were given some commonly used tests of reading proficiency. In tests taken before the program started, children from higher and lower socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds fared equally poorly in most areas, with one exception. Children from higher SES backgrounds had higher vocabulary scores, which has also been seen in studies comparing nondyslexic readers from different SES backgrounds. “There’s a strong trend in these studies that higher SES families tend to talk more with their kids and also use more complex and diverse language. That tends to be where the vocabulary correlation comes from,” Romeo says. The researchers also found differences in brain anatomy before the reading program started. Children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds had thicker cortex in a part of the brain known as Broca’s area, which is necessary for language production and comprehension. The researchers also found that these differences could account for the differences in vocabulary levels between the two groups. Based on a limited number of previous studies, the researchers hypothesized that the reading program would have more of an impact on the students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. But in fact, they found the opposite. About half of the students improved their scores, while the other half worsened or stayed the same. When analyzing the data for possible explanations, family income level was the one factor that proved significant. “Socioeconomic status just showed up as the piece that was most predictive of treatment response,” Romeo says. The same children whose reading scores improved also displayed changes in their brain anatomy.
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MIT News Office
Dyslexic children from lower-income families
ed to reading improvement Anne Trafton Specifically, the researchers found that they had a thickening of the cortex in a part of the brain known as the temporal occipital region, which comprises a large network of structures involved in reading. “Mix of causes” The researchers believe that their results may have been different than previous studies of reading intervention in low SES students because their program was run during the summer, rather than during the school year. “Summer is when socioeconomic status takes its biggest toll. Low SES kids typically have less academic content in their summer activities compared to high SES, and that results in a slump in their skills,” Romeo says. “This may have been particularly beneficial for them because it may have been out of the realm of their typical summer.” The researchers also hypothesize that reading difficulties may arise in slightly different ways among children of different SES backgrounds.
Image: Rachel Romeo
“There could be a different mix of causes,” Gabrieli
says. “Reading is a complicated skill, so there could be a number of different factors that would make you do better or do worse. It could be that those factors are a little bit different in children with more enriched or less enriched environments.” The researchers are hoping to identify more precisely the factors related to socioeconomic status, other environmental factors, or genetic components that could predict which types of reading interventions will be successful for individual students. “In medicine, people call it personalized medicine: this idea that some people will really benefit from one intervention and not so much from another,” Gabrieli says. “We’re interested in understanding the match between the student and the kind of educational support that would be helpful for that particular student.” The research was funded by the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Halis Family Foundation, LindamoodBell Learning Processes, and the National Institutes of Health.
Brain regions that grew significantly thicker in reading-disabled children whose reading improved after an intensive summer treatment program, as shown in the red and yellow areas. Neither a control group nor children who did not respond to treatment exhibited changes in brain structure.
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 51
Cyberbullying is far less preva but still needs addressing
Bullying is a major public health problem, with systematic reviews supporting an association between adolescent bullying and poor mental wellbeing outcomes. In their Lancet article “Cyberbullying and adolescent well-being in England: a populationbased cross sectional study”, Andrew Przybylski (Oxford Internet Institute) and Lucy Bowes (Oxford’s Dept of Experimental Psychology) report the largest study to date on the prevalence of traditional and cyberbullying, based on a nationally representative sample of 120,115 adolescents in England.
This stands in stark contrast to media reports and the popular perception that young people are now more likely to be victims of cyberbullying than traditional forms. The results also suggest that interventions to address cyberbullying will only be effective if they also consider the dynamics of traditional forms of bullying, supporting the urgent need for evidencebased interventions that target *both* forms of bullying in adolescence. That said, as social media and Internet connectivity become an increasingly intrinsic part of modern childhood, initiatives fostering resilience in online and every day contexts will be required. We caught up with Andy and Lucy to discuss their findings: Ed.: You say that given “the rise in the use of mobile and online technologies among young people, an up to date estimation of the current prevalence of cyberbullying in the UK is needed.” Having undertaken that — what are your initial thoughts on the results? Andy: I think a really compelling thing we learned in this project is that researchers and policymakers have to think very carefully about what constitutes a meaningful degree of bullying or cyberbullying. Many of the studies and reports we reviewed were really loose on details here while a smaller core of work was precise and informative. When we started our study it was difficult to sort through the noise but we settled on a solid standard — at least two or three experiences of bullying in the past month — to base our prevalence numbers and statistical models on.
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Schools and parents play an important role in educating children about cyberbullying. Credit: Pasco County Schools (Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0).
An academic survey of more than 120,000 English 15-year-olds finds cyber-bullying to be far less common than “traditional” face-to-face bullying. We interviewed the authors about their findings.
While nearly a third of the adolescent respondents reported experiencing significant bullying in the past few months, cyberbullying was much less common, with around five percent of respondents reporting recent significant experiences. Both traditional and cyberbullying were independently associated with lower mental well-being, but only the relation between traditional bullying and well-being was robust. This supports the view that cyberbullying is unlikely to provide a source for new victims, but rather presents an avenue for further victimisation of those already suffering from traditional forms of bullying.
alent than offline bullying, David Sutcliffe Oxford Internet Institute’s Managing Editor Lucy: One of the issues here is that studies often use different measures, so it is hard to compare like for like, but in general our study supports other recent studies indicating that relatively few adolescents report being cyberbullied only — one study by Dieter Wolke and colleagues that collected between 2014– 2015 found that whilst 29% of school students reported being bullied, only 1% of 11–16 year olds reported only cyberbullying. Whilst that study was only in a handful of schools in one part of England, the findings are strikingly similar to our own. In general then it seems that rates of cyberbullying are not increasing dramatically; though it is concerning that prevalence rates of both forms of bullying — particularly traditional bullying — have remained unacceptably high. Ed.: Is there a policy distinction drawn between
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“bullying” (i.e. young people) and “harassment” (i.e. the rest of us, including in the workplace) — and also between “bullying” and “cyber-bullying”? These are all basically the same thing, aren’t they — why distinguish? Lucy: I think this is a good point; people do refer to ‘bullying’ in the workplace as well. Bullying, at its core, is defined as intentional, repeated aggression targeted against a person who is less able to defend him or herself — for example, a younger or more vulnerable person. Cyberbullying has the additional definition of occurring only in an online format — but I agree that this is the same action or behaviour, just taking place in a different context. Whilst in practice bullying and harassment have very similar meanings and may be used interchangeably, harassment is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010, whilst bullying
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actually isn’t a legal term at all. However certain acts of bullying could be considered harassment and therefore be prosecuted. I think this really just reflects the fact that we often ‘carve up’ human behaviour and experience according to our different policies, practices and research fields — when in reality they are not so distinct.
Andy: No easy ones. Understanding that cyber- and traditional bullying aren’t dissimilar, parental engagement and keeping lines of communication open are key. This means parents should learn about the technology their young people are using, and that kids should know they’re safe disclosing when something scary or distressing eventually happens.
Ed.: I suppose online bullying of young people might be more difficult to deal with, given it can occur under the radar, and in social spaces that might not easily admit adults (though conversely, leave actual evidence, if reported..). Why do you think there’s a moral panic about cyberbullying — is it just newspapers selling copy, or does it say something interesting about the Internet as a medium — a space that’s both very open and very closed? And does any of this hysteria affect actual policy?
Lucy: Bullying is certainly complex; school-based interventions that have been successful in reducing more traditional forms of bullying have tended to involve those students who are not directly involved but who act as ‘bystanders’ — encouraging them to take a more active stance against bullying rather than remaining silent and implicitly suggesting that it is acceptable. There are online equivalents being developed, and greater education that discourages people (both children and adults) from sharing negative images or words, or encourages them to actively ‘dislike’ such negative posts show promise. I also think it’s important that targeted advice and support for those directly affected is provided.
Andy: I think our concern arises from the uncertainty and unfamiliarity people have about the possibilities the Internet provides. Because it is full of potential — for good and ill — and is always changing, wild claims about it capture our imagination and fears. That said, the panic absolutely does affect policy and parenting discussions in the UK. Statistics and figures coming from pressure groups and wellmeaning charities do put the prevalence of cyberbullying at terrifying, and unrealistically high, levels. This certainly has affected the way parents see things. Policy makers tend to seize on the worse case scenario and interpret things through this lens. Unfortunately this can be a distraction when there are known health and behavioural challenges facing young people. Lucy: For me, I think we do tend to panic and highlight the negative impacts of the online world — often at the expense of the many positive impacts. That said, there was — and remains — a worry that cyberbullying could have the potential to be more widespread, and to be more difficult to resolve. The perpetrator’s identity may be unknown, may follow the child home from school, and may be persistent — in that it may be difficult to remove hurtful comments or photos from the Internet. It is reassuring that our findings, as well as others’, suggest that cyberbullying may not be associated with as great an impact on well-being as people have suggested. Ed.: Obviously something as deeply complex and social as bullying requires a complex, multivalent response: but (that said), do you think there are any low-hanging interventions that might help address online bullying, like age verification, reporting tools, more information in online spaces about available help, more discussion of it as a problem (etc.)? 54 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
Ed.: Who’s seen as the primary body responsible for dealing with bullying online: is it schools? NGOs? Or the platform owners who actually (if notintentionally) host this abuse? And does this topic bump up against wider current concerns about (e.g.) the moral responsibilities of social media companies? Andy: There is no single body that takes responsibility for this for young people. Some charities and government agencies, like the Child Exploitation and Online Protection command (CEOP) are doing great work. They provide a forum for information for parents and professionals for kids that is stratified by age, and easy-to-complete forms that young people or carers can use to get help. Most industry-based solutions require users to report and flag offensive content and they’re pretty far behind the ball on this because we don’t know what works and what doesn’t. At present cyberbullying consultants occupy the space and the services they provide are of dubious empirical value. If industry and the government want to improve things on this front they need to make direct investments in supporting robust, open, basic scientific research into cyberbulling and trials of promising intervention approaches. Lucy: There was an interesting discussion by the NSPCC about this recently, and it seems that people are very mixed in their opinions — some would also say parents play an important role, as well as Government. I think this reflects the fact that cyberbullying is a complex social issue. It is important that social media companies are aware, and work with government, NGOs and young people to
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safeguard against harm (as many are doing), but equally schools and parents play an important role in educating children about cyberbullying — how to stay safe, how to play an active role in reducing cyberbullying, and who to turn to if children are experiencing cyberbullying. Ed.: You mention various limitations to the study; what further evidence do you think we need, in order to more completely understand this issue, and support good interventions? Lucy: I think we need to know more about how to support children directly affected by bullying, and more work is needed in developing effective interventions for cyberbullying. There are some very good school-based interventions with a strong evidence base to suggest that they reduce the prevalence of at least traditional forms of bullying, but they are not being widely implemented in the UK, and this is a missed opportunity. Andy: I agree — a focus on flashy cyberbullying headlines presents the real risk of distracting us from developing and implementing evidence-based interventions. The Internet cannot be turned off and there are no simple solutions. Ed.: You say the UK is ranked 20th of 27 EU countries on the mental well-being index, and also note the link between well-being and productivity. Do you think there’s enough discussion and effort being put into well-being, generally? And is there even a general public understanding of what “well-being” encompasses? Lucy: I think the public understanding of well-being is probably pretty close to the research definition — people have a good sense that this
involves more than not having psychological difficulty for example, and that it refers to friendships, relationships, and doing well; one’s overall quality of life. Both research and policy is placing more of an emphasis on well-being — in part because large international studies have suggested that the UK may score particularly poorly on measures of well-being. This is very important if we are going to raise standards and improve people’s quality of life. Read the full article: Andrew Przybylski and Lucy Bowes (2017) Cyberbullying and adolescent wellbeing in England: a population-based cross sectional study. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. Andrew Przybylski is an experimental psychologist based at the Oxford Internet Institute. His research focuses on applying motivational theory to understand the universal aspects of video games and social media that draw people in, the role of game structure and content on human aggression, and the factors that lead to successful versus unsuccessful self-regulation of gaming contexts and social media use. @ShuhBillSkee Lucy Bowes is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at Oxford’s Department of Experimental Psychology. Her research focuses on the impact of early life stress on psychological and behavioural development, integrating social epidemiology, developmental psychology and behavioural genetics to understand the complex genetic and environmental influences that promote resilience to victimization and early life stress. @DrLucyBowes Andy Przybylski and Lucy Bowes were talking to the Oxford Internet Institute’s Managing Editor, David Sutcliffe. [Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not necessarily the position of the Oxford Internet Institute or the University of Oxford
Types of bullying
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 55
How Teachers Are Learning in
“I was exposed to even more sites than I was currently aware of. It was a great place to exchange ideas.” — Linda Bean A new era of personalized professional development is penetrating New York schools. Online learning methods that in the past enriched students are now engaging educators. Participation in online professional development is on the rise. And demand will continue to grow. The State of New York has mandated that all teachers complete 100 hours of professional development to maintain their teaching certifications. New York Partners for Technology Innovation (NYPTI), a nonprofit organization with the purpose of helping educators integrate technology into their instruction, has partnered with the world’s largest K-12 social learning platform, Edmodo, to create blended professional learning courses for teachers. “Our courses blend anytime online learning convenience with synchronous videoconference sessions for the best practices of both individual reflection on teacher practice and group activity within a learning community,” says Carol Weintraub, Director of the New York Partners for Technology Innovation. 56 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
She explains that “rigor and accountability” is a critical goal. Beginning in May, courses on numerous topics from Children’s Literature K-12 to The Flipped Classroom will be available. Weintraub notes that all NYPTI’s courses delivered via Edmodo are eligible for CTLE professional learning hours and adhere to the guidance of the Standards for Online Learning created by Nassau BOCES, New York Institute of Technology, and NYS Teacher Centers. Research indicates that group-based versus individual and instructor led courses, with live sessions, yield much higher engagement and completion rates. “Edmodo has been long-known as an intuitive, user-friendly learning system for students,” says Carol, who believes the Edmodo medium will be “as popular for professional learning for educators as it is for students.” How do Blended Learning courses capture the best of both online learning and face-to-face sessions? What kinds of courses are the most popular, and would teachers using blended learning recommend them to their peers? While face-to-face learning is a different experience, there are clearly collaborative and group-based benefits of professional development via a social learning platform, as I discovered when
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New York talking to teachers. The Global Search for Education reached out to teachers Julie Trzaska, Jennifer Lindner, Jeanette Wolters-Lennon, Linda Bean, Melissa Penman and Rebecca Diehl to learn more. “Online learning compared to face-to-face PD allows you to work around the time constraints of your job and personal life. There is still access to the teacher as in a face-to-face class, especially if you have questions, but you also have more of an ability to be independent.”— Rebecca Diehl Teachers, welcome. How did your blended learning experience compare with face-to-face professional development using the same content? What do you think are the pros and cons? Julie: Having the courses online gives us the option to control our own time. Things come up, and being flexible with our PD is extremely beneficial. The weekly emails from the moderator were helpful, even if they were just to say “hello.” It jogged my memory about the course. Linda: I like to work at my own pace and work ahead if I have time. I don’t really see any cons to this type of course at all. I do see many pros. I was exposed to even more sites than I was currently aware of. It was a great place to exchange ideas.
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Melissa: Online learning requires more time on the student’s part. Instead of attending class once a week and completing homework assignments, I found myself doing additional research to be prepared for Zoom sessions, completing assignments, and logging in regularly to participate in conversations with my classmates. While it required more time on my part, I felt that I learned more by putting the additional effort in. Rebecca: Online learning compared to face-to-face PD allows you to work around the time constraints of your job and personal life. There is still access to the teacher as in a face-to-face class, especially if you have questions, but you also have more of an ability to be independent. “The content ranges from introducing the common core standards in assignments – for newer teachers – to adapting technology and implementing modified instruction/assignments to fit the needs of today’s changing classroom populations.” — Jennifer Lindner What about the quality of the content in the courses you selected? Julie: I chose MindMapping for Educators. I liked it because it was relevant no matter what grade you
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Jennifer: The content ranges from introducing the common core standards in assignments – for newer teachers – to adapting technology and implementing modified instruction/assignments to fit the needs of today’s changing classroom populations. Jeanette: I am looking forward to see what is coming up next. I chose an art class for non-art teachers. Personally the class was great for me, but I’m not sure if I could use much in my discipline.
Linda: I picked the Computer Literacy course. I am a computer teacher, but I am always looking for new and exciting things for my students as well as for my fellow teachers. I found some great videos to use in my classroom, and was able to bounce ideas off the teacher and the other students. Melissa: I ended up choosing to take the Full STEAM Ahead course. My second choice was a course about literature in the classroom, and while this would have been a great course to have under my belt, I chose the STEAM course because this concept was not popular or taught while I was working on my degree. I love that I learned skills to provide my students with hands-on learning experiences that nurture critical thinking skills. Rebecca: I decided on taking the course on Computer Literacy: PBS Learning Media and Webquests. I enjoyed taking this class. The teacher was very flexible and understanding if you had questions or concerns. My classmates gave great feedback and discussions with them were often enlightening. I came away from the class with some great resources to use and to share with my co-workers. Our instructor also supplemented class with Zoom, which is a video meeting app, and we had a quick video meeting once a week which gave us some face time with each other to ask questions. “I loved checking in on our group discussions and learning about what other educators are doing in
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(All Photos are Courtesy of CMRubinWorld)
were teaching or what content area you teach. The trial and error opportunities aren’t often offered to educators; usually information is thrown at us and it’s time consuming to go through and therefore often put on the back burner.
their classrooms.” — Melissa Penman Specifically on the Edmodo platform, what did you like about the environment? Jeanette: Sharing ideas is wonderful in this platform. I have been able to build relationships outside of the PD with those teachers that take many of these classes. Melissa: I loved checking in on our group discussions and learning about what other educators are doing in their classrooms. The participants of the class varied in grade-level and subject area taught, which led to some interesting discussions. It sounds like you all had a positive learning experience. So my final question: Any thoughts or
recommendations for teachers or the team that develops these courses? Rebecca: It would be nice to have a more crosscurricular offering. Jeanette: Do it! This is a great way to get some of the old dogs to learn new tricks. I’m not being disrespectful saying this, I am an old dog. I’ve been teaching for 25 years. Julie: Take advantage of the flexibility that online PD offers! Linda: Go for it. It was the best 6 week course I have ever taken. Continue to get these courses approved by the state so that they will count for PD under the new guidelines for teachers. Thank you Teachers!
Top Row L to R: C. M. Rubin, Carol Weintraub, Julie Trzaska, Rebecca Diehl Bottom Row L to R: Melissa Penman, Linda Bean, Jeanette Wolters-Lennon, Jennifer Lindner
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 59
Amelia’s Maze Adventure an Marco’s Maze Mission
Amelie’s Maze Adventure
By Jane Gledhill
By Jane Gledhill
Published Lonely Planet Kids
Published Lonely Planet Kids
Get ready for an a-maze-ing mission around the world!
Get ready for an a-maze-ing globetrotting adventure!
Brilliant but absent-minded photographer Geronimo Keats is back from the trip of a lifetime. The only problem is, his luggage...isn’t! Time for young explorer Marco to swing into action and find his missing belongings - but he’ll need your help! Travel the world like never before in this brilliant book of mazes brought to you by Lonely Planet Kids, an imprint of Lonely Planet, the world’s leading travel guide publisher. In Lonely Planet Kids Marco’s Maze Mission, you’ll tackle challenging mazes and discover incredible facts on every page as you explore Norway’s fjords, the USA’s Grand Canyon, New Zealand, Belize and beyond. Packed with fun illustrations and a gorgeous twocolour palette, Marco’s Maze Mission provides hours of brain-boggling fun for children aged 7+.
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Disaster! Lady Vivian Winthrop has returned from a round-the-world expedition, but her precious jewels are missing. It’s up to young explorer Amelia to retrace her steps and track them down - but she’ll need your help! In Lonely Planet Kids Amelia’s Maze Adventure, you’ll tackle challenging mazes and discover incredible facts on every page as you participate in the Tomatina festival in Spain, waltz through the Palace of Versailles, rush to Mount Rushmore, and lots more famous locations - all with incredible facts on every page! Packed with fun illustrations and a gorgeous twocolour palette, Amelia’s Maze Adventure provides hours of brain-boggling fun for children aged 7+.
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nd Marco’s Maze Mission
Over 40 mazes in each book should provide plenty of challenges and there is scope for a bit of colouring in after the mazes are complete... both books have been printed with only one colour to go with the greyscale cartoons ... Marco’s in teal and Amelia’s in purple. Be aware that the maze solutions are in the back ... you may want to remove them before handing the book over!
About Lonely Planet Kids: Come explore! Let’s start an adventure. Lonely Planet Kids excites and educates children about the amazing world around them. Combining astonishing facts, quirky humor and eye-catching imagery, we ignite their curiosity and encourage them to discover more about our planet. Every book draws on our huge team of global experts to help share our continual fascination with what makes the world such a diverse and magnificent place - inspiring children at home and in school. Follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/lpkidstravel) and Twitter (@lpkids)
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 61
Testing the metrics... MIT researchers In recent years, 14 states in the U.S. have begun assessing teachers and schools using ValueAdded Models, or VAMs. The idea is simple enough: A VAM looks at year-to-year changes in standardized test scores among students, and rates those students’ teachers and schools accordingly. When students are found to improve or regress, teachers and schools get the credit or the blame. Perhaps not surprisingly, however, VAMs have generated extensive debate. Proponents say they bring accountability and useful metrics to education evaluation. Opponents say standardized tests are likely to be a misleading guide to educator quality. Although VAMs often adjust for some differences in student characteristics, educators have argued that these adjustments are inadequate. For example, a teacher with many students trying to overcome learning disabilities may be helping students improve more than a VAM will indicate.
A new study by an MIT-based team of economists has developed a novel way of evaluating and improving VAMs. By taking data from Boston schools with admissions lotteries, the scholars have used the random assignment of students to schools to see how similar groups of students fare in different classroom settings. “Value-added models have high stakes,” says Josh Angrist, the Ford Professor of Economics at MIT and co-author of a new paper detailing the study. “It’s important that VAMs provide a reliable guide to school quality.” The researchers have found that existing VAMs tend to underestimate the amount of test score improvement that actually occurs at some schools. On the other hand, the scholars say, conventional VAMs do provide a ballpark figure for improvement that should not be discounted. “Conventional Value-Added Models are biased, but we’re able to show that the bias is modest,” says co-author Peter Hull PhD ’17, who will soon join the University of Chicago’s economics department as an assistant professor. He adds that, in Boston at least, VAMs “generate useful predictions of school quality.” The same approach that lets the MIT team evaluate VAMs also allows them to show how the metrics may be improved. In so doing, the paper states, the new method could help “improve policy targeting relative to conventional VAMs.” The paper, “Leveraging Lotteries for School ValueAdded: Testing and Estimation,” appears in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. The authors are Angrist; Hull; Parag Pathak, the Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William
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refine yardstick for measuring schools and teachers. Peter Dizikes Carlton Professor of Microeconomics at MIT; and Christopher Walters PhD ’13, an assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Boston public The conclusion comes from an analysis of data from Boston’s public school system, covering a period from the 2006-07 through the 2013-14 academic years. The data include a sample of roughly 28,000 students at 51 different schools, including some charter and pilot schools. The test scores of students are taken from fifth- and sixth-grade results in the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), in math and English language arts. The researchers use these data to replicate conventional VAMs and develop their own “hybrid” VAM model that combines the new school-quality estimates with the older approach. The study exploits the fact that Boston’s school system uses a centralized assignment system for students (which was designed in part by Pathak). This system uses a “lottery tie-breaking” feature to help determine which students will attend schools in high demand. Thus, an element of chance helps determine where a large portion (around 77 percent) of sixthgraders will be enrolled in middle school. This, in turn, gives the researchers the random assignment they need to derive higher-resolution comparisons of the effects schools have on student achievement. Because the students in this pool of applications differ (on average) only in where they were offered a place, researchers can make apples-to-apples comparisons to see how the students who are admitted via lottery perform, compared to those who were not admitted. The differences in performance then reflect school quality rather than differences in ability or family background. By contrast, when comparing two schools without use of random assignment, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to ensure that the students being evaluated are otherwise similar. In this scenario, what might look like a lack of student achievement, using a conventional VAM estimate, could result from a school having a larger number of disadvantaged students. The study itself shows the difference created by the new VAM technique through a hypothetical scenario involving school closure and expansion: Suppose the
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lowest-rated Boston school were replaced by a school where students showed the average amount of improvement on test scores. In that case, the researchers find, those scores would increase by 0.24 of a standard deviation when judged by a conventional VAM method, and 0.32 of a standard deviation when using the new method. This reflects “the usefulness of conventional VAMs, despite their inability to perfectly control for student ability,” as Hull observes. Similarly, if replacing the lowest-ranked school in the survey with a a top-quintile school, student test scores would improve by 0.39 of a standard deviation using a conventional VAM, and 0.53 of a standard deviation when using the MIT team’s own VAM method. The debate rolls on. The paper’s authors note that the findings are situated within some broader political debates about education systems in general. Charter schools are often a subject of considerable public debate, since they receive public funding but may be privately operated and staffed by nonunion teachers, in contrast to traditional public schools. Pilot schools are a hybrid model, with more room for variations in scheduling and curriculum than most public schools, but with unionized teachers. The 14 states using test-score based VAMs for policymaking are Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Louisana, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. In any case, Angrist notes, the topic of school performance is a vital one for researchers to examine and for educators to evaluate. Indeed it may be more pressing, he notes, in school districts where test scores have been perennially low, and where larger disparities in school quality may exist. “For lower-income families, this is fateful,” Angrist observes. Angrist and Pathak are members of MIT’s School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative (SEII); Walters is a faculty affiliate in the program. SEII is also a participant in the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative (MITili). The research received support from the National Science Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 63
Life-Line videos showcase human investment in Africa A series of videos produced for the European Commission’s LIFE-LINE project showcases the real impact on people’s lives of EU investment in infrastructure projects, particularly road infrastructure, in Africa. Focusing on real-life situations in Mali and Tanzania, the videos show how investment in road infrastructure can save lives by providing vital access to healthcare and create opportunities for inclusive socio-economic development and job creation by allowing people to take advantage of educational opportunities and providing access to markets.
Calling the EU a key partner in the region, Stephen Godlove, Deputy National Authorising Officer for the European Development Fund at the Tanzanian Ministry of Finance and Planning, noted in the video that the impact of EU investment was significant. “People’s lives have improved. In terms of economic activities, these roads have opened up new opportunities… people can now access health services and education, and it has improved the mobility of people from one point to another,” he said. Paolo Ciccarelli, Head of Unit (Water, Infrastructures, Cities) at the European Commission’s DirectorateGeneral for International Cooperation and Development provided some background figures: “The EU has been a long-standing partner of African countries when it comes to infrastructure investment and technical assistance. In the last ten years we have been financing more than 10,000 kilometres of asphalted road and about 50,000 kilometres of rural road networks. This work has a total cost of EUR3.5 billion and provides access to an estimated 300 million people, when we talk about the rural feeder network.” The videos are available in English and French language versions, and can be accessed here:
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Mali short version: http://ec.europa. eu/avservices/video/player. cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141009
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Mali: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/ player.cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141010
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Tanzanie short version: http:// ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player. cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141011
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Tanzalie: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/ player.cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141012
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From headquarter to the field (6’): http:// ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player. cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141014
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From headquarter to the field (8’): http:// ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player. cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141015
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n impact of EU infrastructure
Les vidéos sont disponibles en français, anglais et V. INTER et accessible au téléchargement via ces liens : •
Mali version courte: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141009
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Mali: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/ player.cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141010
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Tanzanie version courte: http:// ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player. cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141011
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Tanzalie: http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/ player.cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141012
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From headquarter to the field (6’): http:// ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player. cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141014
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From headquarter to the field (8’): http:// ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player. cfm?sitelang=en&ref=I141015
Background Under the 10th European Development Fund
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(2008-2014), transport was chosen as a National Indicative Programme focal sector by 32 countries representing the majority of Sub Saharan African countries in the ACP group (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific) of countries. In addition to EUR 3.2 billion at national level, a global budget of almost EUR 500 million was committed for transport at regional level. This combined EUR 3.7 billion investment resulted in more than 7,200 km of roads constructed or rehabilitated. In line with the priorities in the 2011 Agenda for Change, a reorientation of the strategic transport approach took place under the 11th EDF (2015-2020) in order to achieve a higher multiplier effect on development. This implied a shift from national level transport support to regional programmes, with interventions focusing on sustainable transport sector reforms and on the promotion of transport infrastructure investments along strategic corridors by blending EU grants with loans from public finance institutions and the private sector. See Page 68 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 65
Stanford Educational Farm hosts cl
Stanford Earth aims to draw more than 1,000 students from multiple majors for field learning every year at its working farm, complete with animals and crops. On a 6-acre spread on the west side of campus, scents of lavender and mint lead the way into the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm. Kurt Hickman
Hundreds of students from many academic fields visit the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm on class field trips.
Tucked away at the corner of Campus Drive and Electioneer Road near the university’s historic Red Barn, the farm houses a mini-ecosystem that includes chickens, bees, flowers and a cornucopia of edible crops. Programming at the farm, which is operated by the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, started in earnest in 2015. Now, many Stanford students do not have to seek out the living laboratory – their classes are bringing them to it. All together, more than 450 students have visited the farm for a class module, field trip, student club activity or other use since fall 2016. By the end of the next academic year, farm director and lecturer Patrick Archie aspires to have more than 1,000 students visiting annually for a learning purpose. “You really see students on the farm making connections that are integrating and synthesizing
Senior Paa Adu, an electrical engineering major, collects weeds and takes them to the compost pile during an Earth Systems 10 class field trip to the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm. (Image credit: Ker Than)
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lass sessions from across campus Danielle Torrent Tucker information in a way that’s facilitated by being together in this space and interacting with the world, as opposed to only being in the classroom – it’s absolutely a fantastic complement to the classroom,” Archie said.
Academic field trips In September, Stanford Earth launched an initiative to expose students to the farm by incorporating it into curricula all around campus. Through its new Academic Field Trip Program, instructors across the university are creating class sessions on the farm tailored to their teaching goals. For example, in a Program in Writing and Rhetoric class taught by Stanford lecturer Lauren Oakes, students explored aspects of agricultural production to learn how to contrast different perspectives on sustainability for a writing assignment.
“This is an opportunity for students to direct their own learning to some extent and discover new things that don’t just come from an instructor, but also from their engagement with the piece of land,” said Stanford Earth instructor Liz Carlisle, who runs the Academic Field Trip Program with support from Archie. “We’ve really prioritized first-year students who will have a chance to continue engaging with the farm throughout their time here.” Drawing on her experience as a writer, educator and advocate for sustainable agriculture, Carlisle works with faculty from the arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences to integrate their course objectives. The field trips incorporate sustainability, often highlighting some of the focus areas at Stanford Earth: food, water, energy and climate security. The program exposes students to the farm who otherwise
Instructor Liz Carlisle, left, teaches an Earth Systems 10 class during a field trip to the farm. (Image credit: Ker Than)
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may not visit and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, Carlisle said. “If it’s designed well, where the classroom learning goals align with what the farm can offer, visiting the farm can make concepts that seem quite abstract come alive and become much more tangible to a student grappling with them,” said Oakes, who has participated in the program twice since its inception and is offering another course in the spring. While touring the farm, Oakes’ students identified flowers, edible weeds and crops grown among other plant species as evidence for assessing arguments about the environment from different points of view. “The goal was to get students to dive deeply into one issue of sustainability and compare and contrast different perspectives on it,” Oakes said. “They did it through a corporate lens in one exercise that week in class, and then in a completely different world, in an agricultural setting at the farm.”
Cross-campus draw Programs and departments with participating courses to date have included Science, Technology and Society; the Program in Writing and Rhetoric; Thinking Matters; Education; French; Mechanical Engineering; and Art. During fall quarter alone, the farm hosted 17 field trips that reached about 250 students, and Carlisle and Archie expect to see a similar turnout during spring’s warmer weather. Freshman Maggie McGraw participated in a field trip through Earth Systems 10: Introduction to Earth Systems. She learned how drip irrigation improves the taste of tomatoes, that Stanford dining halls use produce from the farm, and how diet, food production and a sustainable environment are all interconnected. “It’s definitely something everyone at Stanford should go look at and at least volunteer once because it gives you an eye into what the environmental science side of Stanford is really about,” said McGraw, who is now recruiting friends to volunteer at the farm. “I just want to go back.” In addition to incorporating specific learning goals, most academic field trips include a tour of the farm and an opportunity to taste some of its harvest. During the field trip for Earth Systems 10 – the Earth Systems course that introduces students to a wide variety of interactions that characterize global change problems – students got their hands dirty weeding and mulching until the sun began to set. Once it became dark and cold outside, Carlisle announced it was time to eat strawberries: “That’s actually really powerful, too – just to have that sensory experience and to pick something and to eat it.” 68 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
Aiming for 80×20 The Academic Field Trip Program supports Stanford Earth’s mission to reach 80 percent of Stanford’s undergraduate student body by 2020. By visiting the farm, students are learning about concepts integral to understanding sustainability, including symbiosis, nutrient cycling and the relationships between food production, ecology, economics and health. “What you’ve learned in class can be done on a realistic scale,” said freshman Jonathan Gilbert, who visited the farm with a Thinking Matters class, Sustainability Challenges and Transitions, cotaught by Stanford Earth Dean Pamela Matson, an environmental scientist. “You can make something theoretical very real, even if you don’t have a huge amount of space.” Gilbert said the field trip helped him make physical connections with what he had been reading about in class. He described the space as a “breeding ground of botanical experimentation” and expressed interest in returning to learn more about farming techniques. “I honestly think that the farm was one of the highlights of the class – just being able to get out and explore it,” Gilbert said. “The tour was put together really well and I enjoyed the class.” In addition to its sustainability-themed learning, the farm has hosted groups interested in documenting the space, such as drawing and writing classes. Archie said he hopes to expand the Academic Field Trip Program to a diversity of fields. “What’s interesting and exciting for Liz and me is to be able to teach using this facility to engage people from different disciplines,” Archie said.
A farm on the Farm Stanford has been informally known as “the Farm” since the university was established by Leland and Jane Stanford on their Palo Alto stock farm. Its founding grant included maintenance of “a farm for instruction in agriculture” on university lands. Additionally, the farm fulfills Stanford’s commitment to addressing critical sustainability challenges of the 21st century. “We really want this to be a farm for all Stanford students,” Carlisle said. “The farm is here to give students an opportunity to be land stewards and to think about what that means for society.”
For more information about the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm, including volunteer opportunities and applications to participate in the Academic Field Trip Program, visit earth.stanford.edu/farm.
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School Asks 100 Graffiti Artists To Paint It Before Renovation, And Result Is Better Than Any Renovation
Dominyka Jurkštaitė
Most schools looks pretty bland, with safe homogeneous colors and uninspired designs, but one hundred graffiti artists have just turned the boring walls of a dormitory in Paris into a stunning celebration of art and creativity. The team spent three weeks painting the interior of a student residence at the Cité Internationale Universitaire in Paris. The artists, who were invited as part of Rehab 2, an urban festival that ran from 16 June to 16 July, were given free rein to let their imaginations run wild before the space was opened to the general public. Sadly the exhibition will only be on display for a limited period because the art will soon be erased during an official renovation of the dormitory, but fortunately photographers have documented the project so that their incredible efforts will live on. Check out some of our favorite pictures below.
Jonk Photography
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More info: Andy Seliverstoff | Instagram | Facebook 70 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
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Members of Team McKwiny clasp hands in anticipation of the awards announcement. They came in second. Ryan Eskalis/NPR
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More info: Andy Seliverstoff | Instagram | Facebook
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Discovering lots of cool thinngs
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Principal puts finishing touches on career Austin Walsh
Chef turned educator Paula Valerio retires from Burlingame’s McKinley Elementary School When disability cut short her successful culinary arts career, Paula Valerio was forced to cook up another plan. She figured returning to school in pursuit of an education degree at 35 would be a key ingredient to a fresh start, and instead was served the opportunity of her lifetime. Valerio retired at the end of the school year as principal at McKinley Elementary School in Burlingame, after 23 years of working at the district, and 12 years in the top administrative position. As she puts the finishing touches on her time at the school, Valerio said she found education work most appealing. “I’ve had many careers in my life, but this has by far been the most rewarding,” she said. Prior to her time at the school, Valerio was forced to put her work as a professional chef catering for elite social circles in San Francisco on the back burner after being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. Unwilling to allow the setback to define her, Valerio traded her knives for school books and never looked back. “I was very successful but I became disabled. But being disabled, I’m not going to sit at home,” she said. “So I asked, ‘what’s my next purpose?’” Valerio said she found her new mission through blending a passion for education and an interest in building social equity through language enrichment, which culminated in the launch of a Spanish immersion program at McKinley Elementary School. The program working toward building bilingual students through intensive language lessons was Valerio’s brainchild and it has grown in size and notability since she was named principal in 2005. When she arrived at McKinley Elementary School, it was one the district’s smallest and served only 260 students. In the past dozen years, the school’s 78 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
enrolment has floated over 500 and the immersion program has 240 students. As enrolment increased, so did the depth of the immersion program’s curriculum, said Valerio and the result is a master plan that “continues to be an example to school districts that are thinking about developing an immersion program.” Superintendent Maggie MacIsaac expressed her appreciation for Valerio’s contribution to the district. “Paula embodied the spirit at McKinley School; fun loving and honoring rich traditions,” she said in an email. “She was the principal that started the Spanish dual immersion program in Burlingame and she was a champion for the program.” Looking ahead, Valerio said she plans to spend more time with her friends and family who live locally. “I’m looking forward to travelling many two-lane roads, wherever they take me,” she said. She said she will miss the friends, colleagues and many close relationships she has established at the district over the past 23 years. “There are so many people who have touched my life greatly,” she said. “And I’m forever grateful to the Burlingame School District.” One of her favourite elements of staying in the school community for so long has been ability to foster connections with so many different students and families across multiple generations, she said. “One of the greatest gifts I have had in my career is being able to share a brief moment in so many lives,” she said. Valerio said a key to her success is keeping an open door and dedicating herself to remaining accessible for all students, teachers and members of the school community — a commitment which MacIsaac said has paid great dividends. “Paula Valerio was an amazing administrator. She knew all her students and their families. Paula had a heart of gold and was always there at McKinley School to help anyone in need,” she said. As she turns away from the heat of working as an education administrator and prepares to dash into the retired life, Valerio said she shares the same indelible mark she has left on the school. “I know that I’ll go on barking in my life,” she said, referring to the school’s mascot. “Once a bulldog, always a bulldog.” Back to index
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Bournemouth University gives students Bournemouth University is celebrating a
successful first year of its new Global Talent Programme available to benefit all students at the university. More than 600 students have enrolled on the new Global Talent Programme (GTP) at BU in 2017, with students having opportunities to work abroad throughout the year, including in China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia as part of the programme.
At a ceremony in BU’s Fusion building, BU ViceChancellor Professor John Vinney presented the first 136 students to complete the programme with their GTP certificates. Students also heard from BU Independent Board member Annette D’Abreo, Co-founder and Managing Director of Ceuta Healthcare, who said: “Instability and change are the new norm. Some of you will soon be entering the world of business and employment and as an employer we look for relevant skills and experience, but also something that shows you’ve got a passion and that you’ve got the right attitude and can be a team player.” BU students are likely to develop their careers as part of a new, global workforce, tasked with working across national borders in multiple languages with a global mind-set that understands, appreciates and identifies with a broad cross section of cultures, customs and business practices.
New Zealand School of Dance students in 1967 80 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
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global opportunities The Global Talent Programme, which is open to all students studying at BU, has been created in collaboration with employers to develop students to succeed as graduates in the highly competitive global workplace. The GTP aims to ready students for the global workplace, offering a mixture of workshops, seminars and international immersion opportunities. One example being Destination China, a summer school hosted by BU’s partner university, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai (BNUZ), which saw a group of students travel to China as part of BU’s Global Festival of Learning. The Global Festival of Learning, now in its second year, showcased BU’s research and expertise across four countries: China, India Indonesia, and Malaysia, with 55 BU students working on this international series of events, which involved hosting talks around innovation, inspiring change, and sustainable development supported by an equal number of staff.
Dr Sonal Minocha, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Global Engagement at BU, said: “At the core of Global BU is BU’s vision, which looks to fuse a stimulating, challenging and rewarding university experience with excellent education, research and professional practice so our students and graduates go onto enrich the world. “Our mission is to drive global thinking; develop global talent; and deliver global traction. This enables our students to head out into an increasingly interconnected world, interact with a hugely diverse range of cultures, businesses and organisations and ultimately deliver impact in our societies.” She added: “Our commitment to these values is seen in all of our global events, such as the Global Talent Programme, Global Festival of Learning, Destination China and India and The International Commencement Ceremony.
BU Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Global Engagement Dr Sonal Minocha, with BU students on the Global Talent Programme working at the Global Festival of Learning in Tsinghua University in Beijing.
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What Teachers Think vs. Wha Educators walk a tightrope of respectability narrower and longer than most other professionals. Our reputation and the relationships we build can make or break our careers, which is why so often we must bite our tongues until they bleed! There have been countless times I’ve wanted to say something I couldn’t, so instead, I heed my kindergarten teacher’s advice: I zip it, lock it, put it in my pocket. But that doesn’t mean I’m not firing back in my brain.
What teachers say: I appreciate your concern and will do my best to get these graded. When a student who has earned a 5 percent for the marking period asks for extra credit … What teachers think: How about completing the work that was actually assigned—that’ll give you some credit! What teachers say: It’s great to see you’re motivated! When Coach asks if his star athlete can “get eligible” for the big game …
I give you: what teachers think vs. What teachers think: Absolutely! what we actually say… Just have him come to class and When a parent insists the 36 aslearn like everyone else. That’d be signments her child turned in on great, mmmkay? the last day of school be graded What teachers say: I’m sure the immediately to determine if he team needs him; I’ll see passed … what I can do. What teachers think: You’re kilWhen an administrator proposes lin’ me, Smalls! Where have you last minute changes to curricubeen all year?! Couldn’t return lum … my calls or emails, but now you What teachers think: You haven’t care?! *puts student’s 36 assignstepped foot in the classroom ments at very bottom of to-do in over a decade, but sure—go list* ahead and use us as guinea pigs 82 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
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at We Actually Say for your next big idea.
What teachers say: I look forward to learning more about your idea.
of wine? What teachers say:*Whatever will make them go away the fastest*
When the school counselor asks to speak to your class and gives you zero notice … What teachers think: AWESOME! I just love unexpected interruptions and a blatant disregard for my time. What teachers say: Sure, we’ll make it work.
When an absent student returns and asks “Did we do anything while I was out?” … What teachers think: Not a dang thing! Why waste time teaching if you’re not here?! What teachers say: Please check the absent folder for your work.
When a student’s parents interrupt your dinner at a restaurant to discuss Susie’s progress in your class … What teachers think: OMG are you kidding me right now? Do I have spinach in my teeth? Do they know this is my third glass
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When your colleague repeatedly “drops in” on your plan period.. What teachers think: I just cannot with this. Do you not see me avoiding eye contact? I AM BUSY!
What teachers say: (keeps eyes low) Mmmmhmmm. Uh huh. Wow. Fascinating.
Hey there, I’m Steph! English teacher by trade, smack-talker by nature, and mother of three who lives by the mantra: Life is too short, laugh! I hope you’ll stick around and check out my stuff. And by stuff I mean my writing. Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 83
Sketchbook-Based Ballpoint Pen Dr New York City-based artist Nicolas V. Sanchez creates masterful drawings with only the aid of a few ballpoint pens, rendering unbelievably realistic portraits and still lifes in his many sketchbooks. Due to his precise application of highlights and shadows several of his works seem three-dimensional, such as the fruit bowl seen below which looks placed on the page and not drawn. Sanchez is also a talented painter, working with oil to create blurred familial scenes on canvas or linen. You can see more of his sketchbook-based ink drawings, and browse his collection of paintings, on his Instagram and Facebook.
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rawings by Nicolas V. Sanchez Kate Sierzputowski
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Looking Back. Not Too Fon Every now and then I fire up a couple of synapses and contemplate attending an up-coming school reunion. Then I realise that I should be practising mindfulness and concentrate on the dentist’s drill as he prepares a molar for another root canal procedure, or smell the cattle truck as the driver redecorates the road in front of my property. A month or so later the ‘r’ word resurfaces and I force myself to confront the possibility of attending. ‘Why,’ I ask myself, ‘would I want to revisit my old secondary school, even fifty years after my incarceration? I can remember my first day as a thirdformer. The buildings were new and illogically I had expected the teachers to be the same, all-fresh-faced and eager to impart their pearls of wisdom. Not so, I guess I could have been forgiven for thinking I’d arrived in boot camp. We were lined up for inspection by men who probably had been models for the British cartoonist, Giles. One or two looked OK but most had an, ‘I hate teaching’ air about them, very different from those nice people in primary school.
In military fashion we stood at attention. Were our short pants too short? Did our caps have their knobs still firmly implanted on top? Socks had to have elastic garters. Noncompliant pupils were removed from the scene. I think some returned. We were instructed that all male staff were to be addressed as ‘SIR’ and that, if we were so fortunate to encounter them in the outside world, then caps had to be taken off and forelocks tugged. I am not sure about the forelock bit. I don’t think we were told what to call the women teachers. Assemblies were sacred, daily rituals. At 8.45 a.m. we were herded into the hall, doors slammed shut and hymns started. After hymns would be such rollicking ballads as ‘Sussex by the Sea.’ Woe betide any boy who over-emphasised the second syllable of the first word, or horror of horrors, omitted the first. Then permission was granted to sit…for about 7 seconds…NO TALKING… then the PRINCIPAL, Mr Kruger-Dunning B.A, would robe his way along the centre aisle, climb the stairs, grasp the lectern and intone the list of names for the day’s caning. Everyone thought their name would be read out, even the most innocent. Then, if it were a Monday, the weekend’s sports results would be read. A typical example: ‘The 1st 15 rugby team played a magnificent game. Despite the score being 65-3 in the other team’s favour, several players stood out.’ There would be a lengthy description lauding most of the team and then the sport segment would end with cursory scores from other codes. ‘1st Eleven Hockey won 8-0…Netball girls played well.’
90 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017
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ndly…(based on a true story) Our choice of studies was limited in scope. We were either ‘academic’ or ‘commercial’. Messrs Stanford-Binet determined whether one was in class 3A or a lower order alphabetical designation. P.E. was compulsory. We were made to jump over hurdles, do push ups and compete in house competitions. I was in Kowhai House, pronounced co-why. We sniggered at Mr Roentgen, from the UK, who called it Cow Hi. The boys’ changing shed smelled – a blend of B.O. and liniment. Lesson periods lasted forty-five minutes unless they were doubled-up. Science was the worst. Any time we were given something remotely interesting, all enthusiasm was squashed with the NO TALKING rule. Dark sarcasm was the mildest consequence for any unfortunate who added water into acid-usually something more painful was in order. I don’t think anyone from my cohort took on a science career after enduring a year of science with Mr. Mangeles. English that first year was almost survivable. A vivacious but eccentric lady steered us through Julius Caesar, Greenmantle and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. We acted out a scene or two of the Shakespeare and I appreciated that the teacher made the girls dress up in sheets. I lost a lot of trust in this lady, however, when, after the first term examinations, she announced that our marks were to be scaled. Apparently our results were either too good, or totally abysmal. Those who scored over 70% would be docked 10 points; those under 70 would be given an extra 10. To her credit she changed her mind after I pointed out the unfairness of her intentions. I had scored
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71 and my friend had 68. I don’t think this teacher remained in the profession. I think she stood for Social Credit in a later election. We had a choice between woodwork or art. I’d given the former a go at intermediate school and thought myself lucky to still have all my fingers. Art it was and it was a fortuitous choice. The teacher was a local painter, who practised laissez-faire pedagogy. Basically, he would give us a short description of what to draw, paint or etch and leave us alone. No copying pages of blackboard notes which was the modus operandi of the other teachers. Five years crawled by. Our legs grew longer but our pants remained short. Our voices broke but not our spirits. We developed coping strategies, became street-wise. We discovered hiding places where one could avoid compulsory cross-country runs, I learned how to sleep with my eyes open in assembly and which bullies to stay away from. We found niches in academia, arts or sport. The teachers even started to call us by our first names. I’d almost forgotten mine. Senior staff became friendlier, the principal included. We responded. Then it was time to leave and embrace the real world. So, would attending a reunion be lifeenhancing? I know that nobody from my class went to the last one, so ‘reunion’ is not technically correct. What would entice me to attend? Perhaps if we all were to wear sheets…no, think I’ll give it a miss.
Roger Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017 91
“The best teachers don’t give you the answers... They just point the way ... and let you make your own choices.” 92 Good Teacher Magazine Term 3 2017