Group items tagged

What is the ideal number for the group size for this task? Are students clear about what effective collaboration looks like and sounds like? What are the group goals and individual goals for this task? Are they clear to the students? How are you going to fend off ‘social loafing’? Should personality differences influence our grouping decisions? Are there introverts in the classroom that should receive particular attention as we decide upon grouping students? How should we group in relation to ability or skill levels? Are the groups separate by ability or mixed, or randomised? Does this make a difference?

One of the first leadership decisions I made was to work with staff to audit our schools meta-curriculum. That is all of those programs, events, celebrations, operational arrangements and practices which are not core to the teaching and learning that happens inside classrooms.

My mantra was to “give teachers permission to spend their time improving the learning of the students in their class with minimal disruption”.

Students are spending less time out of classrooms and more time focused on their own learning.

Does every meeting in your school relate to or result in learning?

Does every lesson in your classroom contribute to meaningful learning, rather than completion of work?

‘Have you ever had to sit through a whole hour when you felt like the substance of the meeting could have been handled in five minutes?’

Here are some questions I ask myself as I go through this process: Will the learning activities provide learners with opportunities to tap into their own personal interests and passions? Will the learning activities offer the learners the chance to put them “selves” into their work? Will the learning activities provide learners with opportunities to express themselves using their own authentic voices? Will the learners find the learning activities engaging? interesting? relevant? useful? What “cool” technologies can be used to help meet both the instructional and the learners’ goals? Will the learning activities provide learners with opportunities to have fun and to play? Will learners be able to do at least some of the work independently? Will the learning activities give all of the learners opportunities to shine? Will the learners get the chance to share their work with other learners, with a more global audience?

By now, the growth mindset has approached the status of a cultural meme.

Regardless of their track record, kids tend to do better in the future if they believe that how well they did in the past was primarily a result of effort.But “how well they did” at what?

even some people who are educators would rather convince students they need to adopt a more positive attitude than address the quality of the curriculum (what the students are being taught) or the pedagogy (how they’re being taught it).

There is no one way to make music, and there certainly isn’t one theory about how to make and understand music.

theories are generally descriptive representations of a style, not prescriptive principles to guide creative compositional work.

a musical theory is a simplified, expedient, and usually preliminary step in intertextual analysis.

It’s true that the Internet can be a wild and woolly place to find information, with the potential for complexity, bias and reliability concerns. However, it is also the environment that most resembles real life, where complexity, bias and reliability concerns are just part of the way the world actually works.

1. Start with the Wikipedia article.

look at the citations list.

Teaching feedback to help create a growth mindset within your classroom, organization, or team works. We suggest that you:

1. Create a culture in your learning spaces where mistakes are celebrated.

2. Ensure you maintain a culture in your learning space where peer feedback is considered the norm and is to be welcomed.

Case StudySearching for information on an Australian poet I am writing a biography on the Australian poet Edward Harrington. What information is available on him? We can start by searching likely databases for entries on Harrington e.g. Australian Dictionary of Biography and AustLit It is always useful to search the Catalogue to see if the Library has any items relating to Harrington. A Catalogue search for "Edward Harrington" shows that we hold a portrait of him, a biographical cuttings file and an oral history recording by him. It is a good idea to check his published works to see if any biographical information is included in his writings. We can then search the Trove newspaper database to find articles that mention Harrington. If Harrington was involved in any organisations, such as a poet's society, searching for the organisation may provide some useful background on his life and activities

Who owns the material and it’s components when it’s published?

How can schools not only inform but encourage the school community to start using licensing and working safely to avoid being prosecuted?

Understanding what is and isn;t ok is a crucial skill for all to learn and I hope this information helps schools get more confident with publishing material online.