Brian's Blog

Recently I was asked at a conference why was I encouraging my teachers to have a class blog and also begin professional reflective blogs. My response was something in the lines of - one of the greatest desires of parents is to get more information about how their child is doing in class. Their key questions are often: What they are learning?  What is the social climate of the classroom?  Are they really happy? It is not that class blogs can definitively answer this but they do give a snapshot. They allow parents a portal to see in on the classes learning as a whole and help them facilitate discussions at home. The second reason I have been encouraging the use of blogging is that it provides a portal for students to have learning curated. My students whenever they need to go out on the internet always go via our classes blog . Parents have commented that this is a common routine at home also. I have the key topics tap with learning resources behind these. The blog bec...

Edcamp Global was a 24 hour virtual professional development program that had over 100 sessions and 1800 participates. The archive of this event can be found on the Edcamp Global's website . I was privileged enough to have been able to facilitate one of these sessions with some of my dearest and most esteemed globally connected educators. Dan Heasler – International keynote speaker, educator and writer. Passionate about issues of engagement and well-being. (Empathy Connections) Marty Keltz – Emmy Award winning producer, Educator, Co founder of the Not Perfect Hat Club movement and former Editor of Scholastic ( Touchcast ) Jenna Ball – Author and Artist, Educator, Co founder of the Not Perfect Hat Club movement and all round amazing woman. ( Not Perfect Hat Club )   Bev Ladd – Master Skype Educator, She is passionate about global learning, and collaboration. ( NPHCBlogIT , Classroom Twitter and Skype) Brett Salakas – Founder of #aussieed , Educator, Speaker and Cl...

Just over 18 months ago I was exposed the programming process of "Design Thinking" and "Problem Based Learning". Design Thinking The term was originally coined by Peter Rowe in his 1997 "Design Thinking" book. In this he described the methods and approaches used by urban planners and architects. This concept has been more recently been adapted for education by the REDLab Group from Stamford Universities Graduate School of Education . It is a method of planning, goal setting and creating creative solutions for problems to improve future results. Design thinking is regarded as solution focused thinking where the starting point is the goal and then uses backward mapping to fill in the details. "A key component of the process is fostering the ability not only to solve a problem, but to define the problem. This seemingly subtle shift can energize one towards empathetic action and innovation." (REDLab, 2009) Design thinking encourages divergent thin...

Children benefit academically when parents and educators work together, as a parent is a child’s first and most important teacher. Within the formal education system, parent involvement is most effective when viewed as a partnership between parents and educators. Parent involvement occurs when parents and educators participate in regular two-way and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities. Parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their children’s learning at school and are included, as appropriate, in decision-making activities. This may be achieved through regular feedback for schools, students and parents regarding the social and academic progress. As such school reports are an essential element in the partnership between teachers, schools and parents. As teachers focus on building trusting collaborative relationships among families and community members; they acknowledge and respect the family in addressing any class or c...

Berne and Stiefel (1999) suggest that, all children should have an equal chance to succeed, with this success based on personal characteristics such as motivation and effort. Equal educational opportunity should result in no difference in educational success based on student characteristics or place of residence. For there to be equal opportunity, all students should have access to capital that put them at an unbiased starting block and the conditions at school should allow them the possibility to succeed. Within a classroom, inclusion is the key for pedagogy, understanding and appreciating people. Inclusion has been seen as a process that is relevant to all children in a school, but particularly focusing on those groups who have historically been marginalised by class, race, religion, sex, speech, disability and appearance or have underachieved. It recognises the way the school involves all parents, staff and community in its practices and decision-making processes as an important s...

Professional interactions with colleagues, parents/caregivers and the wider community are vital means of communication that enhances students’ learning, gives insight of particular needs and requirements of students. To create rich, nurturing educational environments in the classroom, schools need to maximize the use of resources available in their communities. Professional interactions with other staff offer the opportunity for teachers to work with colleagues to strengthen their professional practice and deepen their understanding of teaching; through a cycle of planning, teaching, and feedback. The desired outcome of these interactions between teachers is foster the concept of the teacher as reflective and collaborative practitioner. The qualities for a positive relationship can vary to set a learning experience approachable and inviting the students to learn. A teacher and student who have the qualities of good communications, respect in a classroom, and show interest in teaching...

As I sit on the AirTrain pondering my reaction to Edutech I realise how blessed I am to be teaching in a wonderful school and supported by an incredible Professional Learning Network. Much of today confirmed for me that there is a groundswell of educators who are now looking for ways to pedagogically improve their application and integration of technology. They realise that they along with students can do "dumb things with smart devices" and we need to be empowering educators and students to move to creating solutions for real world problems.  I loved the quote that "a pencil is a technology but does it mean students can write?" The answer is no, obviously! Teachers need to be the guides in the learning process. We need to become less scared about what technology we are going to use and look more about the skill and process we are looking to teach. Then choose the technology appropriate for teaching the skill. Another takeaway was student voice is more powerful that...

The ability of teachers to organise classrooms and manage the behaviour of the students is critical to achieving positive educational outcomes. Student learning is the primary goal of effective classroom management and thus the inability of teachers to effectively manage classroom behaviour according to Harrell et al., (2004) contributes to the low achievement of at risk students.  Instruction that is effective in encouraging higher rates of academic engagement and on-task behaviour is characterised instruction which has significant to the students, is planned, sequential and logically ordered to develop skills, offers frequent opportunities for students to respond and guides practice through immediate feedback (Carnine, 1976). The use of rules and routines is a powerful preventative component of classroom organisation and management plans. Rules establish the behavioural context of the classroom by specifying what behaviours are expected and the consequences of inappropriate beh...

I love the ability of educators to connect and the power of this has been shown today at EduTech Australia. Previously working in other field speakers were often distant and untouchable; however, the key notes, session leaders and seminar speakers were accessible. My greatest takeaways so far are: Maker spaces are here to stay – contact @ZeinaChalich  Computational thinking is a concept we are going to hear more and more about. One size and method of technology implementation does not fit all.  Backchannels are something to consider implementing in classrooms as it draws out the students who would often draw back. What would a classroom be like if we took most of the furniture away?   How can we allow students to collaboratively complete assessments after completing an individual assessment? The value of teachmeets - learning from the grassroots. Authentic assessment and teaching is crucial.

When teachers assess student performance, they're not placing value or judgment on it as this evaluating or grading. They're simply reporting a student's profile of achievement with relation to an expected benchmark. For student performance the teacher reports on such effects as absolute achievement, relative progress and scores for specific writing skills. Good assessment is about expanding the assessment repertoire to generate richer information about students' performance because no single form is sufficient. There are reliability and validity problems with each. Every method has its strengths and weaknesses, and its place. Authentic student assessment ought to be done regularly to guide teaching (Mosier, 1951). This assessment reinforces the content gathered throughout the term, helping students accumulate a body of knowledge and gain deeper understanding. Teachers that guide students learning experiences based on the child's current level of performance shown...