Well I've been off my blog for some months. Been away for a while and so much to do when I returned .
Have also been feeling a bit disillusioned with where education is going. It seems as though we have not made any progress in what is happening in education for several decades. We still seem stuck in teaching last century's ideas utilising methods which we know fail. So I have felt as though I have just been rolling things over.
I was at the Ulearn conference last week where I was doing a presentation. The feedback about the presentation was good (even allowing for technical hassles) and made me feel that maybe we are trying some things at my school that work.
Also went and listened to Tony Ryan. I found him inspiring. It was great to listen to someone who is able to have things that not only inspire that can work as well. There seem a gulf in so many presentations between what is presented and what can be used in the classroom.
The question we should ask is "What can I use tomorrow?" If the answer is very little then was it worth being there? We seem more interested often in inspiring speakers rather than what this means for us and how we can use it.
This is what I felt about many of the presenters at Ulearn. Lots of big ideas floating around. Presented well and sometimes really inspiring. But where is the next step? The linkages between these big inspirational ideas and what works in a classroom is often lacking.
This creates frustrations.
This is where I have been at. Trying to move towards a modern curriculum within structures that want to hold us back is trying and tiring.
About Me
- Brian OC
- I am a Physics teacher in Phnom Penh, Cambodia having previously worked in Uzbekistan, China, Bangladesh and Australia. Prior to that I had a career in New Zealand education and I was fortunate to establish an innovative secondary school in Auckland.
2 comments:
Thanks for visiting my 'blog' Brian.
I often think that disillusion is the begining of creativity. It provides a need for a choice - to retreat or to give it another go.
I give the 'odd' presentation myself so I know what you mean about the gulf between what is being suggested and what is actually being done is immense but there is aways the chance of someone picking up the idea and running with it back in their own school.
As you say, even if a presentation is inspiring, or entertaining, if nothing is done back at school then it hasn't really happened.
All I can say is keep on with the struggle - one day you will win, even if it is the day the structures that limit you fall down under their own weight (like the Berlin Wall).
Anyway what is the alternative? We live in hope of better things!
I have to give a presentation to the local secondary principals - any advice?
Presentation to local secondary principals. Advice? Don't turn up.
Or Shake and Rattle the cages. I often say that if we do not get our act together as secondary teachers then we may not have a future. If we continue just to teach content then in ten years time it may be better (and cheaper, if Treasury finds out) to use technology to do the delivery. So outside the range of learning of literacy and some numeracy much could be done through digital medium.
That is why the key competencies are so important and is why we need to change the empahasis away from ohm's law and other content. Still need the content as that what the key competencies hang on but it is not the most important part.
So that is your presentation to the secondary principals. Invoice for my fee is in the mail.
Post a Comment