I have been working on a new rubric for storyboards for production of a video. My students are developing an advertisement and part of the production process is the development of a suitable storyboard or plan which provides structure and flow to the final product. The storyboard must have a start, middle and end. They [...]
One of the things that I found interesting at the Horizon project meeting this week was the concept of “Challenging the Examination“. The concept or process was described to me in the context of a tertiary setting, where a person enters the university with significant experience and is able to sit or challenge the examination [...]
This isn’t really a surprise, but a recent BBC article has reported on a study of teenagers that indicates their IQ can change – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15369851 The study indicates that IQ is still developing in the teenage years. The most telling part for me was this quote by a participant in the studywho imitially needed remedial [...]
We know from the research done by John Hattie, in his book Visible learning, that timely and appropriate feedback has one of the largest if not the largest effect on students learning. However, once a term reporting is hardly timely , no matter how detailed and accurate or appropriate the feedback is. Reporting isn’t enough [...]
I was recently asked, via twitter, what sort of environment we would need to foster creativity in the classrooms. This is an interesting question. Creativity in our current teaching paradigm is sadly often an extension. The current assessment and curriculum driven and limited approach, does restrict the opportunities for creativity. I believe that creativity can [...]
If you have the chance I would recommend that you read an excellent book on education and exercise called “Spark – the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain” by John Ratey. In the book he recalls a school district that changed how it measured effort in Physical education. Instead of measuring the times [...]
The last couple of weeks have been busy as we have written the mid year reports. We have a new reporting format that looks at the students contribution to learning and this has made report writing more intense than usual. Like any form of change its uncomfortable, but it is probably worth it. Probably, well [...]
Wednesday I visited Albany Senior High School, one of the new schools built recently by the ministry. The school is based around the concept of learning commons and infact has 10 commons each capable (in theory) of housing 5 classes. Off each common learning space is a presentation space with projector and 2-3 meeting room [...]
If I asked you to imagine a classroom, it probably would be desks and chairs , a whiteboard and a rectangular room. If I asked you to imagine the people in their in all probability you would envisage students of varying ages and a teacher. This is how I would image a classroom. Few of [...]
But apparently this is a quiet ride on Japan Rail. Apparently for it to be crowded you have to have at least 7 people making contact with you. I have to say I love the trains here. There are so many reasons for example they have trains, the trains work (thats when you have them), [...]
