Life in 100 Words is an idea gleaned from Solid Gold Creativity: The magazine, Marie Claire, recently featured a series to mark the centenary of International Women’s Day. It asked “10 women, 10 years apart, to offer their life story in 100 words.” I will try this idea with students in the future but would really […]
After watching this talk I feel a little depressed about the graph on the ability of adults to aquire a second language. I also feel that so many of us native English speakers are increasingly going to be disadvantaged in a multilingual global environment. Q: Can anyone comment about their experiences learning a second language […]
It is always wonderful to have a fresh enthusiasm to share. HDR photography (or HDRI) is new to me and in the last weeks of the holidays I learnt much about this art. Just a few years ago it would have been very difficult for me to learn about this quickly as I do not know […]
Michael Wesch has been such an important educational thinker and innovator for so many of us in recent years. Here is his ‘Rethinking Education’ video recently posted on his YouTube channel which is a must subscribe to space. You can submit entries for @mwesch‘s next video here. This is an remix of the submissions so far:
Do you advocate playing video games in education? We should talk more about our own life experiences as part of this conversation. I have been reflecting on my video game playing past and finding it interesting to try and remember what was played and when. I thought I would share this with you in the hope […]
Anyone who read my blog in 2010 would know how a trip to Shanghai opened my eyes to what we have all been reading about over the last few years, the rise of China. The 2009 PISA results and commentaries seemed to quantify the obvious investment, vision and an absolute respect for the importance of education that I […]
Hello colleagues, I jotted down a list of thoughts about 2011 that feel important for me to personally remember about our school and our directions. As you can imagine, it kept growing and is somewhat incomplete. Some are basic, somewhat mundane procedural matters that all schools employ but others are philosophically important, or fundamental, if each student is to […]
I really do not know what motivates me but I am, most people would say, ‘motivated’ and very enthusiastic. For some things. I am sure that the things I enjoy give me the satisfaction of, to paraphrase Kipling, filling the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run but it is hard to define or understand. RSA […]
Do you play video games? Lucy (7) and I are playing Civilization Revolution (CivRev) on PS3 with great gusto. Sarah (4) plays this same game on the iPad and we all enjoy each others company in the family room. Here’s the opening to the game for those not familiar with Sid Meier‘s Civilization franchise: A friend, who is not a teacher, […]
It has been a great year and uplifting final day of 2010 for those of us lucky enough to work at Dapto High School. Last year, we ended our year on a professional high at the salubrious Nan Tien Temple. The staff, anecdotally and via a SurveyMonkey evaluation, overwhelmingly wanted to make it an annual event. The […]