Education Investigation

Yay for holidays I say! A time to relax, reflect and gain some sense of sanity! LOL

Humour aside, I do find that to be a Primary (Elementary) School Teacher I need to know how to spin many plates.

Now this clown may do it for entertainment but I don’t. I do it because I have too. I find all too often that the goal is to hold it together, rather than develop and improve what your doing.

Psalm 90v12 says: “Teach us to realise how short our lives are. Then our hearts will become wise.”

Are the plates I’m spinning actually worth spinning?? Maybe it’s time to let a couple of plates drop so that I can focus and improve a few of the things in my life? Or is it time to remove some stuff from the classroom? We have been talking about the “crowded curriculum” for some time now here in New Zealand - what therefore can we take out?

Looking back over the last 2 years only, I see a number of things that I have added to my “Teacher’s toolbox”:

• A range of Thinking Skills eg: Tony Ryan’s Thinkers Keys, Bloom’s Taxonomy, De Bono’s Thinking Hats, Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences.
• Formative Assessment: feeding forward and back (via conferencing, marking books, WALTs, etc)
• Inquiry Learning
• Classroom blog
• ICT Contract (with this comes new goals, stretching, conferences and meetings)
• Other Professional Development: readings via Twitter, Wiki’s, Centre4, my Netvibes account, etc.
  

These development are great and I have enjoyed growing as an educator, networking and integrating these new tools into the class. BUT it all takes time, energy and what we call “mental power”.

So these holidays for me are not only a chance to rest but also a chance to remember again my priorities. I am reminded of what my Syndicate Leader said to me at the beginning of the year:

“Life is a lot like juggling balls. However some of them are rubber and others are glass. The glass balls are important relationships in our lives eg: our spouse, family, etc. Drop the other balls if you need to but DON’T drop the glass balls.”

So the questions we need to ask ourselves are: What are the glass balls in my life? What balls do I need to drop?

Picture Authors:

“Spinning Plates” http://www.thefeinline.com/blog1/entrepreneurship/

“Inspector Gadget” http://www.i-learnt.com

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A book that has recently challenged my priorities, clarified my thinking and encouraged me in my teaching is “Steppingstones to Curriculum” written by Harro Van Brummelen.

Below are only a few of the many “gold nuggets” I personally gained from reading his book:

• Harro Van Brummelen talks about how Teachers are guides (Page 8 ) who “guide young persons into knowledge and discernment that lead to service for God and fellow human beings.” Just as Jesus the great Shepherd guides us. Psalm 23, John 10:2-4
• Competition (Page 211): “The bible promotes cooperation and self-sacrifice rather than competition….competition is desirable only when students strive together to develop their physical potential, and when they try to better others as well as themselves as they participate.” This builds the type of community spoken about in Eph 4:16.
• Sex Education (Page 212): Schools should teach a holistic and biblical view of sex not just the physical side. “Schools shrink their responsibility if they do not concurrently teach about the emotional, social, economic, and ethical consequences of sexual relationships.” Students must not be lead to think sex is only physical.

• There are 3 mandates our Heavenly Father has given us which we must uphold in our Schools and classrooms (Chapter 3):

1) The Creation Mandate: Gen 1:28, 2:15. God entrusts us, His stewards to rule over the earth and enable everything in God’s creation to fulfil its intended function so that all will benefit and God will be glorified.

2) The Great Commandment: Matt 22:37-39 We are to love the Lord with ALL we have and to love those around us in the same way we love ourselves.

3) The Great Commission: Matt 28:18-20 As Christian educators our priority is to share Jesus with others and encourage them to know the Lord personally, walking with Him and following His ways.

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From time to time you come across a post that is worth sharing and collecting for future reference.

Today I was catching up on my Netvibes account (as you do) and Durff’s post “Who Do You Want To Be?” caught my attention.

According to research there are three types of teachers: expert, experienced, and novice. They each focus on different aspects of classroom culture.

Expert teachers are more effective scanners of classroom behaviour, make greater reference to the language of instruction and learning of students, whereas experienced teachers concentrate more on what the teacher is saying and doing to the class and novices concentrate more on student behaviour. (Hattie, 2003).

Reference: Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? Interpretations, 36(2), 27-38, Retrieved November 23, 2007 from http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/RC2003_Hattie_TeachersMakeADifference.pdf

Hmmm now which one am I?

Thanks Durff (and Hattie) for challenging us with your work.

Picture Author: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Blue_flag.svg

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