“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” Today, and I do feel a little sad about it, was our sixth and last ‘Resilience and Optimism’ Staff Development Day Conference at the Nan Tien Temple. It is time for renewal and in 2015 our school will find a new venue and approach to our […]
Dapto High School is moving to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) for Y7-12 in 2015. In this year of transition we have learnt much from the experience of trialling BYOD in 2014 with Year 9. This post is part of a workshop for deputy principals at our annual conference, earlier in the year, that explored […]
Twice a year at this blog I reflect on books read. While drafting that soon to be published post, I started thinking about how children become avid readers and how significant adults in their lives assist construction of this identity. I suspect that peers play a large part in this process but the ground must […]
Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. Miriam Beard Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me. Sigmund Freud If travel broadens the mind of an adult it must do something even more […]
It was a wonderful autumn day, cold and bright; as we drove inland from Bergen in the morning, frozen mist was lying over the fjord. The trees on the mountainsides were displaying red and yellow leaves, the fjord below was like a millpond, the waterfalls immense and white. Karl Ove Knausgaard We are […]
It rained incessantly and the wind was fierce but our time in Iceland was rewarding. The light, the landscape, the relaxed ambience and the people were all worth a journey to what is probably the furthest point one can travel from our home in Kiama. It felt well ‘North of the Wall’. There is a […]
“This was a townscape raised in the teeth of cold winds from the east; a city of winding cobbled streets and haughty pillars; a city of dark nights and candlelight, and intellect.” Alexander McCall Smith, The Sunday Philosophy Club “Edinburgh is alive with words.” Sara Sheridan “Climate change argument is absolute crap.” Tony Abbott “Jesus […]
“Diane Ravitch is the rarest of scholars—one who reports her findings and conclusions, even when they go against conventional wisdom and even when they counter her earlier, publicly espoused positions.” Howard Gardner ‘So Bill Gates Had This Idea for a History Class’, although inaccurately titled, is quite a good article from The New York Times […]
We need to start thinking now what do we do when large sections of the population are unemployable through no fault of their own. What to do in a future where, for most jobs, humans need not apply? Please watch this 15 minute video. The quote, from the conclusion of the video you just watched, […]
What percentage of students in Australian schools are explicitly taught digital citizenship skills? There are plenty of government sponsored projects that provide resources but how many kids are truly learning at school how to succeed in an online world? How many teachers have the skills to teach them? I do not know. There’s no data. […]