Term 2 Week 11 - some holiday listening & a reading on improving student behaviour

As I was driving home from Peter Pan (which was fantastic - good work Director Karen) last night, I caught this talk "Smart Talk: Education and Innovation" on National Radio. It is well worth a listen but is 50 minutes in length, so you may need to wait until the holidays. I thought the discussion on National Standards and the future of schools was especially enlightening (and raised some concerns about the purpose and benefit (or lack thereof) of National Standards).

Professor John Hattie, Head of Education at Auckland University, best-selling author Gordon Dryden and trailblazing principal Charmaine Pountney, recorded at the Auckland Museum in May 2010. Finlay Macdonald is in the chair. Audio from Documentary on 27 Jun 2010.

Some downloading tips: Click on the link above. Scroll down the page to number 5 (there are other interesting talks which you can also download and listen to later). Click on the link and then save to a folder. On my laptop when I came to open the audio file, I had to right click on the file and open with Windows Media.


Reading: Using responsibility to improve behaviour

Term 2 Week 10 - A Vision for the Teaching Profession

I forgot to add a link to my last post. Read Anne Tolley's press release about the Workforce Advisory Group's report on teacher education. At the bottom of the page is a link to the report and discussion document... Both make interesting reading.

Term 2 Week 10 - bits & pieces

Behaviour Management Tip - Intelligent Use of Praise

'Wallpapering' your classroom with praise and positive reinforcement is important. Being passionate about your teaching, motivated and energetic is certainly infectious but teachers who succeed with the hard to reach know that there is more to praise than simply saying lovely things.

In your next lesson make a mental note of how you are using praise and see if you can get a balance between the five definitions below.

• Wallpaper praise - praise that makes the classroom feel good, 'Great, lovely, marvellous, splendid..'
• Personal praise - praise that is aimed at the student's personality 'You are brilliant, you are intelligent, you are really doing well.'
• Directed praise - praise that reinforces good choices in behaviour 'Well done for following the rule, thank you for respecting the 'one voice' routine.'
• Reflective praise - praise that encourages positive self reflection 'You must feel good about the accuracy of this work'
• Contextual praise - praise that places the achievement in a wider context 'That work is NCEA LEVEL 1 standard and you are in year 9, can I use it for the display?'
• For students who have low self esteem and a negative view of their own potential it is reflective and contextual praise that attacks this most effectively. Take a few moments to include some reflective and contextual praise for your trickiest students when you are marking their work or giving personal feedback.
  
  © Paul Dix 2001-10 www.pivotaleducation.com/behaviour
  

Howick College embraces cell phone technology (video) Most schools ban cell phones, but one school in Auckland is doing quite the opposite. Howick College is using them in class. It is part of the shift towards technology that young people can relate to. Campbell Live went back to school to learn about it.

Some ideas for teaching suggested by Carol Young (Team Solutions Facilitator in Quality Teaching)

• Interested in the Football World Cup? Here is a link to how you can teach across the curriculum using the World Cup as a focus.
• The IGBP (International Geosphere, Biosphere project) are responsible for carrying out and evaluating research into Climate Change. They have come up with an index - a single number - to measure the changes on earth due to changes in climate. Their latest release could be useful for science, geography and maths teachers.
• Carrying on the science and maths slant, the Inquiry Strategies booklet makes interesting reading. It is non-academic and has useful ideas for all teachers about ways to make their teaching less directed and more student-centred.

Professional Reading:

• The Kids Are Alright! Why Digitization and E-books are Good for Literacy

Comic Relief: