professional learning

Twitter

Published by Nick

For 20 minutes or so a day I go on Twitter and have a look at the ‘tweets’ the teachers I follow have made. Everyday I find something useful, it could be a website, a video, a blog post, a concept to use in my teaching, a conversation I can join in on (sometimes I start my own).

At the 7-12 meeting on Wednesday Ali Newbold made the statement that one off T&D is often not worthwhile as we never have time to implement or follow up the large concepts or programs that a 1 or 2 day conference provides. They often motivate us for the next week and that’s the end of that. Twitter gives me access to as many educators and their ideas as I like and I’m being drip fed those small useable pieces of information on a daily basis. A small sample of useful tweets/information that I have used from Twitter:

 

  • A PE teacher suggested I make links with the fundamental motor skills used in athletics to every day physical activities to try and demonstrate the importance of developing correct technique in athletics, not just to throw further, jump higher etc. This was in response to me talking about how I was running my athletics classes this year using a different approach to previous years.
  • The idea for ‘The Shadow Game’ came from a Twitter link. An inspired idea by a PE teacher (no jokes about ‘inspired’ and ‘PE teacher’ being used in the same sentence)! I tried it out last year and the R-3 students (plus some year 10’s) had a ball. Ed also came down and had a look.
  • A science teacher from Sydney and myself shared our sites that we created for staff in our schools. Helped us both.
  • I had a problem with an app on my iPad and through Twitter contacted the maker (another PE teacher) who helped me sort out the problem in 15 minutes.
  • Twitter has broadened my knowledge of education internationally. I have learnt about education systems like Finland’s through Twitter and the links to articles and video. I have read as teachers compare systems in the UK, Finland, the US and my understanding of these systems has grown.
  • Sometimes it’s just a statement someone makes that allows you to think more deeply about your educational beliefs like this one from @joe_bower “If tests & grades and creativity disappeared tomorrow which would you miss more?”

It has taken time to build up a ‘following’ list, but it has been worth it. The teachers I follow range from teachers of various subjects (mainly HPE) but also IT and the odd science teacher to JP and primary teachers to school leaders and internationally renowned educational theorists like Sir Ken Robinson. These people span the globe and cover over 13 different countries at last time I counted.

I know Twitter is not for everyone and the views we as adults have of social sites like Facebook and Twitter is not always a positive one. But I can honestly say that Twitter is the most useful Web 2.0 tool I have come across in terms of what it provides me on a daily basis. So if you think you might like to try Twitter, jump in, have a go – what the hell it’s free!

Process for investigating the Australian Curriculum

Published by Nick

Process for Investigating the Australian Curriculum

What will you need?

  • The Australian Curriculum website
  • A hard copy of your subject content on A3 paper with space to write notes (Nick will provide this).
  • Some work samples from your own students

What is the
process?

  • What does  your (or the schools) program in this subject area currently look like? Describe how it looks in your classroom including structures, topics, assessment, reporting etc.. This would be a broad overview in note form.
  • Australian Curriculum: Investigate the AC subject content (requires time to investigate the Australian Curriculum and compare it with your current program).

IMPORTANT to do this
properly you will need to go on the website and open the ELABORATIONS.

    • What do I currently teach that is not required?
    • What do I do that is required?
    • What is new that I have never taught before?

 

  • How will I (can I) make the Australian Curriculum work in a composite classroom? At present there is no magic bullet to make this work. It is up to the teacher and school to make it work as best we can in our context.

 

  • Achievement Standards/Work Samples
    • Have a look at the Work Sample Portfolio for your subject/year level. This will have multiple samples within it. Each sample is supposed to represent a satisfactory result.
    • Will the assessment tasks I currently use allow my students to meet the Achievement Standard?
    • Will the assessment tasks I currently use allow my students to meet the Achievement Standard to a high
      level?
    • Compare the work sample portfolios from the AC website with our own student samples. Have some
      discussion around this.

      • Do we consider them above or below the standard our students would be expected to achieve at a particular
        year level (the portfolio samples are at a satisfactory standard)?
      • How do we assess and provide an A-E or word equivalent result based on the Achievement Standard? What tells us
        an ‘A’ or ‘Excellent’ is justified for a piece of work?

        • Using current work samples and discussing our expectations as a group to arrive at some common understandings about what makes an ‘Excellent’ piece of work. Similar to a moderation process used at Years 11/12. Have a go at marking work using the Achievement Standards and discuss within your group.
        • Have a go at creating some assessment tasks using the Achievement Standards. Select an assessable element
          from the content and create a task that uses the Achievement Standards to assess this.

How do you handle change?

Published by Nick

Education is going through some significant changes at the moment. A new curriculum and a more intense focus on pedagogy and teacher performance. The Federal Government (rightly or wrongly) wants to reward high performing teachers, they want to rate teachers on a yearly basis using the newly formed Professional Standards for Teachers that focus on our pedagogy. As well as these “system” based changes there are those changes that are occurring because they are part of our and our students daily lives. Web 2.0, iPhones, iPads, Android Tablets, educational apps, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Cloud technology, online gaming ……. it can be all a bit overwhelming.

So considering all of the rapid changes occurring in education at the moment how do you see the next 5 years in education? How will you handle all the change?

I like the following quote about change, I think it sums up nicely that fear we have when we are between the comfortable and the new.

It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear… It’s like being between trapezes. It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold on to. ~ Marilyn Ferguson

Here is an interesting blog post by Canadian teacher Joe Bower on change. The lizard brain, ninjas and pedagogy