My school’s latest adventure, captured as a Photo Peach slideshow!
The Gruffalo goes to the Joan
Monthly Archives: May 2011
Changing education paradigms
RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms
This very clever animation was adapted from a talk given at the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) Institute by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award. For more information on Sir Ken’s work visit: www.sirkenrobinson.com.
Thanks Sue Warren for the heads-up.
Finding feathers for Phoebe
This year, ALIA’s annual National Simultaneous Storytime event is Feathers for Phoebe by Rod Clement. Phoebe is a small grey bird who gets herself decorated in colourful feathers, and develops a new song and new moves, in order to attempt to get noticed. We plan to do this as a whole school event, probably split across four groups.
I was thrilled to notice some black-painted wooden bird templates in a local “Sam’s Warehouse” bargain store (at $4.00 each), which I’ve since painted with grey enamel. I hope to have one decorated in feathers in time for the big event on 25th May at 11.00am.
Yesterday, I found a great little mask, decorated with peacock-feathers and sequins, which should prove useful as part of Phoebe’s new look. Numerous bargain stores sell packets of assorted feathers for craft work – and then I found these cute little styrofoam birds, already decorated with sequins, gold tinsel and coloured feathers, at just $3.00 each:
Libby Gleeson on “I am Thomas”
There’s a new Australian picture book creating a little controversy, I am Thomas, by Libby Gleeson & Armin Greder.
I trust Libby Gleeson implicitly and I know Armin Greder’s more confronting illustration work from both “The island” and “The city”. If people thought they were ordering a sequel to Gleeson & Greder’s “Big dog”, they’ll certainly be in for a surprise. I did see “I am Thomas” in the bookshops recently, riffled it, and figured it was a picture book aimed more at secondary students – one to keep on a special shelf for teaching purposes rather than for open borrowing.
Last night, I emailed Libby Gleeson, author of the book, for some insights into its theme and purpose. People on the teacher librarian listservs have mentioned that it is included in the current Australian Standing Orders secondary list. Libby is happy for me to reproduce her email on the blog.
Libby says, “Thanks for this [opportunity]:
“There is a wonderful set of teacher notes by Robyn Sheahan-Bright up on the Allen & Unwin website at:
www.allenandunwin.com/_uploads/BookPdf/TeachersNotes/9781742373331.pdf
“It is a dark book in that it deals with the dilemmas of some kids growing up and trying to find themselves in a world of conformity.
“For some people that is a real challenge and it isn’t appropriate for little kids. But the notes offer terrific insights and ways to work with the book in classrooms. I notice ‘Magpies’ called it ‘a masterpiece’. Thank you Maurice Saxby!
“Thanks again for letting me know about [the TL enquiries on the listservs]… Libby.”
So there you go. Straight from the horse’s mouth. So to speak. Thanks Libby! Fast response! Much appreciated.
What bonus?
It’s been announced that the Federal Government intend to pay bonuses for “the best teachers”. An article has appeared on the ABC website.
When Julia Gillard first floated the idea of new bonuses for teachers of students who’d performed well in NAPLAN, we sort of imagined it would be the school as a whole that benefited, not individual teachers. Our school has worked really hard on literacy and numeracy in recent years; according to NAPLAN, our Year 5 students started low in Year 3 and didn’t necessarily finish high in Year 5, but their improvement from Year 3 to Year 5 was phenomenal. But… who did the “value-adding” of these students anyway? Was it the Year 5 teachers in the first few months of last year, the Year 4 teachers between tests in 2009, or the Year 3 teachers in the last semester of 2008? Who gets paid if a (totally theoretical) teacher was on long service leave, or extended sick leave for the duration of the lead-up to the second NAPLAN test? The talented casual who has long since gone?
What if it was actually our incredibly hardworking STLD, ESL, and Reading Recovery teachers? Or do we, instead, salute our Principal’s leadership? The class teacher who set up a new literacy program and ended up seconded to a DET, now DEC, Priority Schools Program position? The assistant principal who set up a database to track students? The assistant principal who ran the student welfare program? Or our team of “early intervention” parent volunteers and Aboriginal community liaison, who spend hours with little magnetic letters on baking trays, working 1:1 with needy K-3 students? Or our hardworking but very modest teacher-librarian?
Maybe – gasp! – it was all of us: K-6 teachers, support staff, school executive, P&C, volunteers, canteen assistants, general assistant, clerical staff, cleaning staff…, all working together like a sometimes-well-oiled team?
It seems that some of that team is destined to miss out big time. Especially since the new bonus scheme is supposedly three years away. Equity in education?