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Despite this being a 'thinking' conference, despite us all being advocates for structured and scaffolded models of thinking, not one group had applied any thinking routines, utilised a collaborative planning protocol or talked about applying an inquiry model or design thinking cycle. It wasn't that we didn't know about them. It wasn't that we don't know how to use them. It wasn't that we don't value them. We had all the knowledge we could desire on the how to and the why of a broad set of thinking tools and anyone of these would have enhanced the process, but we did not use any of them. Why was this the case and what does this reveal about our teaching of these methods to our students?

To ensure reflective practice is more than an activity added to our schedule, we need to take a reflective stance. Too often, reflection becomes the thing we do at the end of a task or the end of the day. We look back and contemplate what was, and with that in mind, we look forward to what we might do differently next time. It is in this way a very reactionary process. By all means, this form of reflection has its place, and it can be a powerful strategy to deploy as we seek to learn from experience. If we value reflective practice, we will be sure to set aside time for this form of reflection on a routine basis. By engaging in reflection habitually, we ensure that it is a routine part of our day. But adopting a reflective stance can make this more powerful.

At the start of each year we arrive back from our break hopefully rested and energised. The new year brings many new opportunities including new students, new team members and new teaching programmes. We begin again the climb up the hill with a fresh group of learners arriving at our doors full of excitement who will rely on us to meet their learning needs in the year ahead. All of this means we are at risk of starting the year with a certain level of panic. There is so much to do, our students are not accustomed to our routines, we don't know each other well, there are parents to meet, assessments to be done and before we know it we are back to being busy. 

"Back to school is the perfect time of year to establish routines and remind students about making healthy choices. Children of all ages should have an understanding of the impact of their decisions related to the food they choose to eat. There are a variety of games and resources to promote discussions about healthy eating and to help students make smart choices. "

In the contemporary classroom, there is much greater consideration of what the learner does in partnership with their teacher so that they develop the capacity to learn. Classroom routines and structures are designed to engage the learner in a rich process of dialogical learning. 

I am wanting to take a slightly different approach to this weeks post. The past week has seen the latest round of PISA results and the media has had a field day. Headlines have routinely attacked students, educators and education systems in equal measure. The Canberra Times reported that "Australian school scores plummet on world stage", the Sydney Morning Herald led with "Alarm bells': Australian students record worst result in global tests" and The Weekend Australian went with "PISA global educational rankings: Schools fail on maths, science". 

Number Talks are a wonderful way to see where our students are with their mathematical thinking. As a part of a daily routine, a Number Talk promotes number sense and mathematical reasoning. In this post, I revisit what a Number Talk can reveal about our students' understanding of mathematics, and how they might be used to promote a fresh perspective. In addition, I examine a success criteria for Number Talks that is more expansive and recognises their true power.

This much-maligned question seems so appropriate for education's recent history. All that was normal, everything that was routine, all of our structures, have been turned upside down and hurled into the wind of COVID19. From having spoken of a future dominated by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), we have found ourselves living in it. Innovation and creativity became the new normal as we "Apollo 13" schooling into a model that met the demands of emergency remote learning. The pressure, the workload, the demands on our time and the cognitive load have all been immense, and so it seems fitting to ask "Are we there yet?".

Must. Read. Such a valuable lesson and another example of how we are doing it wrong.

Looking to build a list of questions to use similar to 'What makes you say that?' for use with thinking routines.

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Public areas such as schools, eating places, religious places, hotels, airports and offices, malls, etc. are areas that are prone to the continuous movement of people requiring regular sanitary control measures to maintain the safe occupancy zones within the premises. To maintain such high levels of the hygienic environment, sanitation employees are employed to manually wipe down and disinfect high-touch areas frequently throughout the day. This is problematic, considering there is always the threat of employees contacting pathogens, and research has shown that not all high-touch areas tend to be cleaned. Thus, regular and contactless sterilization is the need of the hour especially in pandemic times such as now to ensure that safe occupancy zone efficacy is maintained in all public areas. UV-C-based surface sterilization allows a regular automated nightly disinfection to be performed with no user intervention when the applicable public space is empty. The extension to this approach is the use of UV-C air sterilization. Using simple ceiling or wall-mounted air sterilization units, large volumes of air are quietly circulated through the units, where it is exposed to UV-C light. The units are completely sealed, ensuring no light escapes, whilst ensuring treated air is as clean as possible UV sterilization can also be effective in maintaining a hygienic environment even while occupied by people through fixtures mounted on walls or ceilings to shine ultraviolet light across the top of interior space, well above people's heads. Ceiling fans are sometimes installed to draw air upward so that floating bacteria, viruses, and fungi are zapped more quickly. A different frequency of ultraviolet which is safer even when it shines directly on people but can carry out disinfection of surfaces is another option to maintain safe occupancy zones.