Term Two 2018
“The best teachers don’t give you the answers... They just point the way ... and let you make your own choices.”
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Index
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Your Soapbox 4 Student agency in schools - how radical is your student voice work? Jennifer Charteris & Dianne Smardon 5 Living and Learning Outside Formal Schooling Anon 8 The non-cognitive conman John Hellner 10 They’re Not “Refugees,” They’re People Matthew Baganz 12 Gifted Students In The Classroom Elaine Le Sueur 16 The Super STEM Fair … MOTAT 18 What does it take to learn? Laurie Loper 24 Aussie teens forgo sleep for screens Vic Health 27 The Kitchen Science Cookbook Dr Michelle Dickinson 28 Introducing: Dr Collette Foster 36 Recapturing the Joys of Teaching and Learning Dr Collette Foster 37 Freshwater Fishes of the Kimberley (A field guide) Book 40 Two P’s in a Pod: Michelle LaBrosse 42 Reasons My Students Aren’t Doing Their Work Stephanie Jankowski 44 Yes They’re Ready to Teach in the Fourth Industrial Revolution! C.M.Rubin 46 Improve productivity on Android and iOS devices Media Release & Review 50 Artist Recreates People’s Childhood Memories Giedre 52 The Mind Lab and MOTAT join forces MOTAT 62 Report signals a better path forward for Timor-Leste youth Flinders University 63 Graduates return to run Programme NZ School of Dance 64 Dear Parent Secret Teacher 68 Harvard student helps crack mystery of Inca code Cristela Guerra 70 How changing the narratives you tell yourself can help you Bruce Kasanoff Retro Birdhouse Camper Kit Makes the Perfect Backyard Outpost Kate Sierzputowski Books with Heart on Issues that Matter EK Books review First Master of Professional Practice Graduates WelTec NVPF launches an important 3-year project to reduce youth violence nonviolence.com Are You as Good as Your Robot? C.M. Rubin Paper Cutouts Transform World Landmarks into Quirky Scenes Christopher Jobson Lonely Planet Kids’ Marco and Amelia are Back Review Front Cover: Back Cover:
72 74 80 82 83 84 88 96
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Your Soapbox!
“
While we may judge things as good or bad, karma doesn’t. It’s a simple case of like gets like, the ultimate balancing act, nothing more, nothing less... And if you’re deteremined to fix every situation you deem as bad, or difficult, or somehow unsavory, then you rob the person of their own chance to fix it, learn from it, or even grow from it. Some things, no matter how painful, happen for a reason... A reason you or I may not be able to grasp at first sight, not without knowing a person’s entire life story—their cumulative past... And to just barge in and interfere, no matter how wellintentioned, would be akin to robbing them of their journey. Something that’s better not done.
”
― Alyson Noel, Shadowland
If you want to have YOUR SAY please email your offering to: info@goodteacher.co.nz
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Student agency in schools -
how radical is your student voice work? Jennifer Charteris and Dianne Smardon The concept of student participation, agency, and voice as radical collegiality has gained in traction in Aotearoa schools over the last couple of decades. We have seen radical collegiality emerge in educational policies, practices and research where young people are agentic and are able to tell their own stories (Bourke & Loveridge, 2014). Michael Fielding (2012, p. 50), who first coined the term radical collegiality, frames six types of student /teacher interactions. We suggest that this typology could provide a useful lens on student voice work in schools. Which if any do you see as applicable in your school? • Students as data sources – teachers and school leaders use information about student progress and well-being. • Students as active respondents – teachers and school leaders invite student dialogue and discussion to deepen learning/ professional decisions. • Students as co-enquirers - teachers and school leaders take a lead role with highprofile, active student support. • Students as knowledge creators –students take lead roles with active teacher and/or school leader support.
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 5
• Students as joint authors –students, teachers and/or school leaders decide on a joint course of action together. • Intergenerational learning as lived democracy –there is a shared commitment to/ responsibility for the common good.
Troubling Student Voice In our Aotearoa research work, we have heard principals link student voice with agency. Agency pertains the capacity to make decisions, set an agenda and take action. It is also about speaking back to politics and exercising a capacity for resistance (Charteris, 2014). We have recently see student voice and agency speaking back to gun violence in the USA. However, as practitioners, we also have to be prepared to relinquish power and be open to what we do not want to hear. Unfortunately an emphasis on student voice work that supports agency may not be evident in initiatives when young people are only seen as only sources of data (Nelson, 2014). Students’ comments can be filtered through student voice collection into a problematic amalgam that provides ammunition for leaders to seek change in teacher practice. While we see that there can be a place for student voice work in institutional reform (Bills & Giles, 2016), it is regrettable when students do not see any action arising from their contributions. In recent years there has been recognition of the importance of agentic participation of Māori students in school decision making (Fitzpatrick 2016; Berryman & Lawrence 2017). Student voice work is embedded in politics of race, class and gender (Keddie, 2016). It is worth considering whether voice work is only done with “ideal students” and those who voices are difficult to hear are excluded from participation (Keddie 2016). Pearce and Wood (2016) highlight this issue (2016). When student are “in a minority; they are difficult to understand; they are silenced in and out of school, by choice or by hegemonic or coercive forces; or even because the voices are aggressive, rude or obnoxious” (Pearce & Wood, 2016, p. 9). 6 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
Furthermore, Lodge (2005) makes the comment that adults are highly influential in voice gathering processes and “speaking freely without retaliation” underestimates how“ adults manipulate children’s voices to carry their own message and deny or disguise their own involvement” (p. 133). Students can ventriloquise, “being used to speak the adults’ messages” (Lodge, 2005, p. 133).
Taking Stock Students can be co-researchers and the “locus of control over data generation is shifted to students.” (Nelson, 2017, p. 185). They can be active in student–teacher partnerships and jointly construct knowledge (GroundwaterSmith, & Mockler, 2015). Here are some questions to consider that may be helpful to think about in relation to agentic voice: • Are students only used as data sources or do they have decision making power? • Do students know what happens with what they contribute (the student voice data) and the changes that emerge from it? • How does voice support schooling relationships where young people are decision makers? • Are Māori and Pacifika voices agentic in your school? • Are the students who are ‘difficult to hear’ consulted? • Are there student initiated projects – where young people drive the change they want to see? As we enter a new era of schooling in Aotearoa with the change of government and to educational policy, there is scope for educators to further the political project of radically collegial and agentic student voice. There is much potential to enhance the status and positioning of students in both learning and governance partnerships. What part will you play? Please drop us a line if you would like to comment
We acknowledge Emily Nelson from the Eastern Institute of Technology. Her work has influenced our thinking about the student voice field and the importance of learning and governance partnerships with students.
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References Berryman, M., and Lawrence, D. (2017). The importance of leaders’ discursive positioning in neocolonial education reform aimed at closing the disparities for indigenous peoples. In D.Waite & I. Bogotch (Eds.), The Wiley International Handbook of Educational Leadership (pp. 335-354). Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.
Nelson, E. (2017). Re-thinking power in student voice as games of truth: dealing/playing your hand. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 25(2), 181-194. Pearce, T., & Wood, B. (2016): Education for transformation: an evaluative framework to guide student voice work in schools. Critical Studies in Education, DOI:10.1080/17508487 .2016.1219959
Bills, A., & Giles, D. (2016). Repositioning diagnostic school reviews using appreciative inquiry: A way of eliciting student voice for school. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 31(1/2), 165-179.
Invitation to Contribute to Research
Charteris, J. (2014). Learner agency, dispositionality and the New Zealand Curriculum Key Competencies. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 11(2). Available from https://teachworkojs.aut.ac.nz/autojs/ index.php/nzjtw/
Email: jcharte5@une.edu.au
Fitzpatrick, K. (2016). Hauora and physical education in New Zealand: Perspectives of Māori and Pasifika students. Waikato Journal of Education 11(2), 37-48
If you would like to discuss Innovative Learning Environments with the authors, with a view to contributing to ongoing research in the area, please contact Jennifer Charteris.
This project has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of New England (Approval No HE15282, Valid to 01 November, 2018.)
Groundwater-Smith, S., & Mockler, N. (2016). From data source to co-researchers? Tracing the shift from ‘student voice’ to student– teacher partnerships in Educational Action Research. Educational Action Research, 24(2), 159-176. Keddie, A. (2016) Children of the market: performativity, neoliberal responsibilisation and the construction of student identities. Oxford Review of Education. DOI:10.1080/03 054985.2016.1142865 Lodge, C. (2005). From hearing voices to engaging in dialogue: Problematising student participation in school improvement. Journal of Educational Change, 6(2), 125-146. http://dx.doi. org/10.1007/s10833-005-1299-3 Nelson, Emily (2014). ‘Is this student voice?’ Students and teachers re-negotiate power through governance partnerships in the classroom. PHD doctoral diss., University of Waikato.
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 7
Living and Learning Outside Forma The label home schooling doesn’t sit entirely comfortably with me. But our family are new to this gig, and as such we are ok just sitting with it for now. Essentially it’s a term that quickly justifies to others “why our daughter isn’t in school today”. H owever, as a name, it conjures up images that are in fact entirely at odds to the vision we have for our children’s education. As such, we use the name home schooling to quickly get ourselves through small talk at the supermarket checkout but we are as yet to settle into a label that effectively surmises what we believe about education and how we choose to live without the routines of formal schooling. We believe the world we are preparing our children for will require a vastly different outlook and skill-set than that for the world which we know today. Curiosity, creativity and problem solving are central to our children’s education. We believe in knowing the world - being present in daily activities of people in the real world, experiencing different cultures and societies, exploring our own environment - not through a field-trip or by watching a movie about it but actually knowing through being. While many agree that the advancement of technology and social change is rapid right now; we believe that this is only the beginning and that at a fundamental level, our children will be required to adapt and change much, much faster than ever before and it is this belief that ultimately will define our curriculum as we educate our daughter outside of formal schooling. It will be the ability look at difference and change as if it is expected - not as an anomaly but as the norm; and to have the space and freedom to learn to adapt and change as needed that we believe, will ensure future success. The New Zealand Curriculum is a document I 8 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
have a great deal of respect for. I have a comprehensive working understanding of it as a former teacher, education researcher and curriculum and assessment advisor working with individual teachers, leadership teams and whole school groups. Much of this document has formed the basis of our beliefs around the requirements of a solid education. While as a family we place much importance on the fundamental skills of reading, writing and numeracy, we value most highly our children’s innate curiosity, their enthusiasm for life and their right to explore their world in their own time, to form their own opinions based on knowing through experience and through being present rather than knowing about the world from a theoretical perspective. It is these beliefs that lead us strongly towards an ‘Unschooling’ approach - if we were to identify a model that aligns most closely with our beliefs. At its heart, our approach to education involves taking the time to explore the world with our children. To expose them to a wide-variety of opportunities and stimulus and to support them in developing their own understanding and working theories of the world. Our curriculum as such can be broken into three general areas;
Physical Understanding the physical world our daughters inhabit; this includes all aspects of science, exploring and understanding their own home environment and being able to learn about environments other than their own. Learning about how their bodies works, how to nourish themselves with food and exercise; how to grow and source food, plant and animal life cycles. Exploring cause and effect within the world. Understanding properties of physics and chemistry.
Social Understanding the way society works; this includes developing strong verbal, written and physical communication skills. Understanding the role events in history have had in shaping our
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al Schooling current society. Exploring different cultural perspectives. Being a part of a community. Understanding how business, economics and government work to shape the world we live in.
Spirit or Wairua Enabling our children to develop into strong and capable individuals. Supporting them to find their passions, building their self-confidence and resilience, developing a strong sense of self and self-worth, exploring their family connections and where they have come from.
For us, success is our daughters having the tools to build a life around what they are passionate and excited about. The nature of our homeschooling environment and our knowledge of our own child allows us the freedom to learn holistically and in a blended context - negating the need to break a curriculum into discrete subjects and units of work or learning. It allows us to be directed by our children’s interests, to take them in a widevariety of directions and to explore their ideas and interests in varying contexts relevant to them. The following bullet points provide examples of how we see this working in practice. • Providing exposure to a wide-range of environments and experiences and crucially taking the time to be aware of what is going
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on, noticing, questioning, making connections. • Learning through seeing and understanding, applying and testing theories in authentic and relevant contexts - rather than learning in theory about about something and hoping to find something to apply it to. • Being aware that there is a learning opportunity in every situation. Sometimes this can just be quietly absorbed and enjoyed to be reflected on at another time perhaps, and other times taking the time to more explicitly stop, notice, question and explore. • Actively looking to create new opportunities to explore areas of interest or to inspire or spark a new area of interest. • Taking the time to talk, listen and follow up on interests as they arise. Currently our oldest daughter is 6 years old and her sister is still a baby. Our journey is just beginning. We are strongly grounded in our beliefs around education but we allow ourselves to be fluid and open to new ideas in the way this looks in our day to day life. I hope to share our experiences and learning so that it might help to clarify what it is we do and to encourage others to see a different approach to what education can look like outside of a formal schooling environment.
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The non-cognitive conman John Hellner In the term 1 issue of GT, I wrote about my experience as a ‘grit groupie’. I questioned the notion of the educational ‘cure alls’ for ensuring student success. I thought ‘piecemeal and pragmatic’ worked best. The entire notion of educational panaceas unsettled me. But there was more. In my “Know it All” days, I wrote a few little books. One, about how to build relationships in the classroom and another about how to use humour in the classroom. Over the years, I began to think I had been an arrogant and self-serving mountebank – the high priest of humbug: I can’t teach people how to build relationships and I can’t teach them how to use humour. “Caught not taught” from your genes and from your parents. You either get along with people or you don’t; you’re either a funny person or you’re not. I can’t ‘make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear’. Was I a ‘snake oil salesman’ saying I could? When I re-read ‘grit groupie’, I felt a sense of disquiet about the whole issue of teaching non-cognitive skills (NCS) and attitudes – grit being one of those. The same self-doubts I had had about teaching relationships and humour plagued me about the teaching of grit – about the teaching of all non-cognitive skills (NCS). Can we even teach them at all, or are we kidding ourselves?
Non-cognitive skills Resilience, grit, tact, optimism, innovation, imagination, adaptability, organisation, tolerance, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, growth mindset, critical thinking, compassion, self-control, and a sense of fairness are some of the aptitudes or skills that coaches, teachers, organisations and employers dream about. 10 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
Researchers in fields of psychology, education, and behavioural economics increasing agree these skills are significant predictors of successful life outcomes such as academic achievement, physical and mental health, positive relationships, and career fulfilment. Certainly, better to have than not have.
What we do do Since the first schools opened we have fostered the development of these skills implicitly and indirectly. For example, by completing daily assignments and turning in homework, students gain self-discipline. Students learn organisation when we ask them to keep an orderly record of their work; self-control and self-management through dress codes and behaviour standards that show respect and tolerance; resilience, growth mindset and grit in extra-curricular activities. A vast accumulation of non-cognitive teaching strategies swamps the internet. With a quick review, it’s obvious our teachers already do a great deal, both consciously and unconsciously, to foster NCS in our students: They read about and think about the strategies and evaluate their worth in their lessons and how they can seamlessly incorporate them into the teaching context. They talk the talk. Tell stories about people in their curriculum, about subject specific events and current affairs, including negative ones, about values and attitudes, or when not to use a skill or attitude. Use self-talk to critique or celebrate their own non-cognitive behaviours or attitudes. They share examples from their subject, from their lives, from the daily life of the school. Develop a growth mindset using examples and stories about failure as a waystation on the path to success. They walk the walk. Teach with their life. Model behaviours and attitudes they want students to embrace. Use their own battles, no matter how trivial, as a way to teach.
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They set demanding goals and standards and celebrate the values demonstrated when the goals are achieved. They’re humble enough to accept that there are things about ourselves and our practices that can improve. And in particular, with relation to grit and perseverance and tenacity, they acknowledge there are times when it’s OK to quit: when something is out of the range of their ability; when another direction would be more enriching to their life – to temper grit etc. with judgement. But, what we do as schools and as classroom teachers does not really constitute ‘explicit’ teaching of non-cognitive skills. It is more a case of building habits and mindsets over many years, of being ‘caught, rather than taught’.
Explicit teaching humbug? Increasingly, a new growth industry counsels us we can and should, explicitly and directly, teach non-cognitive skills: we should set aside a part of the timetable; offer school wide programmes focussed on a set of non-cognitive abilities; provide outside coaching and training. Offering a specific timetabled slot for character education and personal growth can demotivate students if the NCS topic doesn’t interest or engage them. They need to buy into the value of the subject. Kids can pick out contrived situations. It becomes tougher to motivate the learning of NCS when their focus is on high stakes qualifications. Determining what skills, who teaches and where the time comes from can also raise hackles. School wide programmes designed to develop NCS, based on research findings of the next great educational panacea, raise my suspicions. Financial grants and incomes to institutions offering school wide programmes, academic reputations and career promotions, are too closely linked to promoting these programmes and ensuring that the performance reports indicate success. A number of online providers and training organisations offer coaching of NCS to students (and adults) outside of school. They claim success and offer testimony in support. I would deduce that those students and adults already possess the motivation, money and family support in the first
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place, providing a pretty good scaffolding for success. My guess would be they already have at least a baseline of the non-cognitive attitudes and mindsets, naturally obtained through heredity and parental nurture. The students we worry about in schools, who most need NCS, might likely lack the very foundations necessary to benefit from further explicit coaching. And in our schools, we must do battle with some very powerful, authentic and immediate forces, often working against exactly the NCS we want to encourage. Dysfunctional families, gangster peers, social media, popular culture and even world leaders who lie, lack tolerance and disrespect others, increasingly seem to discourage, even contradict, the capabilities we want to foster. But that is not saying we do nothing.
Compromise For me, I have settled with a compromise strategy, harking back to the introduction of ‘values education’ in the 1970s. As training teachers, we discussed and raised awareness of values education. We examined strategies for incorporating thinking about values into the context of our lessons. We delivered lessons with a dimension of values thinking, when appropriate. Education, like fashion, recycles and modifies from the past and grafts onto the present. Like the old days of ‘thinking about values’, I believe NCS can empower students. I can provide an environment that fosters the development of NCS. I can create opportunities for students to practise the skills. I can reenforce non-cognitive behaviours and attitudes. We can acknowledge and name them. And, we can hope the capabilities are caught, although not explicitly taught. But no guarantees it works for everyone. Dear reader: If you disagree with this and believe we can explicitly teach relationship building and humour and grit and a plethora of non-cognitive skills and attitudes, I would love to change my thinking. Write a letter to Barb, the editor, and tell her your stories. I bet she will publish them. Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 11
They’re Not “Refugees,” They’re People Matthew Baganz
One school’s initiatives toward integration, a two-way street The Brief History Strothoff International School is located in Dreieich, Germany, just 12 km from the Frankfurt Airport. When families from Syria and Afghanistan began moving to Dreieich, and then into a temporary housing facility 200 meters from the school’s front doors, the call to support was clear. Although there was some concern about safety and health implications, the larger part of the Strothoff community agreed that this was both an opportunity and an obligation.
Fundraising and Donations The natural place to start seemed to be monetary donations that could be used for whatever was needed. Parents contributed to bake sales and packed their children’s school bags with old books to be sold at book swaps. At Strothoff’s International Fair, community members sold regional German dishes and other international cuisine. After their unit of inquiry about businesses, PYP 4 and 5 students donated the profits from their Business Fair. As the specific needs became clearer to the school community, collections became more focused
and meaningful, such as a winter clothing drive and a specific request for men’s professional attire. A game-changing activity, however, was one that finally put a face to the fundraising. An initiative led by students as young as Pre-primary organised a toy drive. Through the local Integration Office teachers received the names and interests of a group of refugee children. Students then stocked care bags with toys, books, and treats, and they painted rainbows and Yousef, Ali or Umar on the sides. Students were no longer blindly sending a check off to an imaginary person named “Refugee” – now Strothoff children were seeing and “meeting” refugee children, if only through photographs at this point. The smiles reflected on either side of the action were one and the same.
Education and Raising Awareness Their Learning Along a path paved by Pre-primary children toward the development of new friendships, adults established educational initiatives with the goal of alleviating the hardship of the integration transition. In collaboration with the Haus des Lebenslangen Lernens (House of Lifelong Learning), an educational campus that not only offers An officer for the Integrationsbüro Stadt Dreieich accepts a check donation signed by the Managing Director of Strothoff International School.
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A parent from Strothoff International School teaches a conversational German class Friday morning before school alongside her son, a PYP 3 student. (Left and Below)
language courses to refugees but also provides temporary refugee housing, Strothoff teachers and parents began to volunteer to teach language courses in German and English. Afternoon German classes continue to be offered after the school day, and refugee parents who attend these classes can leave their children at Strothoff International School to be cared for by a group of MYP students and an adult
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supervisor. An English class is also offered three times a week to a select group of unaccompanied refugee teenagers. In addition to the recognition that language alone can be a definitive barrier to successful integration, hence the language classes, other features of local culture naturally merged into the curriculum, including the presumptions of specific posture and eye contact tendencies, social conduct such as acceptable personal space, and national politics and histories.
Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 13
New friends take a quick break from football to pose for a shot before continuing their game.
Our Learning Through these interactions the Strothoff community considerably deepened its own sense of international mindedness. Teachers and students explored the central ideas already prescribed in their units and linked them to the current events occurring outside the school’s windows. A PYP 1 unit exploring how children
around the world play with toys inspired the care bags that brought the situation to a whole new level. A PYP 2 unit exploring children’s rights led to a primary-wide discussion with representatives of Kinderhilfe Afghanistan (German Aid for Afghan Children). A group of PYP 5 students elected to focus on the refugee crisis from a broad theme about societal decision-making, and a secondary teacher took MYP 5 students to a town hall meeting to witness the political discussion about how to handle the refugee crisis.
Pastoral Care
The director of Strothoff International School poses with his resident family during a visit from the local mayor. 14 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
Trumping money, and even education, many might argue, is the notion of friendship and camaraderie. What connections might be made between international MYP students and refugee toddlers when they play with Lego while their parents are learning the local language? Inspired by the action a PYP 5 exhibition group took by visiting a local shelter for a playdate, several other students initiated a biweekly gathering where refugee children were invited to the school
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playground to escape the boring hallways of the shelter for four hours a week. Are these collaborations the seeds of greater action, such as inviting a refugee family into your home to live with you? When the mayor of Dreieich commended the director of Strothoff International School for doing just that, the director replied that “…it was self-understood. These are people. And they needed help. There should be no question.”
Strothoff teachers are exploring how to deepen their understanding and increase their assistance of the refugee crisis, perhaps by participating in an international school collaboration, coordinating new foreign exchange programmes, or learning Arabic or Persian. Regardless of location, size, or budget, all international schools have an opportunity (or is it obligation?) to be representatives among the wider community in the pursuit of global mindedness.
The Lasting Future
Reference
On the first day of the playground initiative, when Strothoff and Syrian children played side by side, a student told a teacher with a camera, “I want a picture with one!” Four weeks later, that same student couldn’t find one of the Syrian children on the playground and asked, “Why didn’t Rita come today?”
Skorik, Marko M (2012) Methodological and Conceptual Issues in Cyber Activism Research: What is Slack About Slacktivism?, Inter-Asia Roundtable, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, 77-92
Considered by some as “slacktivism” (Skoric 2012), spreading awareness of accurate information, be it through bake sales or Likes on Facebook, may very well be the spark to real change, to open and unprejudiced integration, and true friendship.
About the Author Matthew Baganz is the PYP 5 Teacher and PYP Maths Coordinator at Strothoff International School in Dreieich, Germany. Email: matthewbaganz@gmail.com Previously published in International School Magazine
A student invites the mayor back for another visit if he ever wants to come over and play.
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 15
GIFTED STUDENTS IN THE
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CLASSROOM. Elaine Le Sueur For the seeds of greatness to flourish, the conditions need to be conducive.
So what is a SUPER learning environment for gifted learners?
ALL seeds need a supportive environment… the nourishment that provides the energy for growth, an atmosphere that allows it to breathe, and an environmental trigger such as sunlight to encourage them to move beyond a state of dormancy.
Support for the child’s special interests.
Even seeds from the same plant germinate over a range of conditions if they are favourable.
Empathy with the student’s deeps feelings
However, no-one would expect that all seeds would grow in exactly the same way and produce exactly the same results. As teachers (gardeners), we have it within our capability to make a difference for gifted children because we have the power to create ripples that will change a seed’s world for the better.
Understanding of the phases of development Protection from bullying, hostility and ridicule
Respect for the child’s uniqueness. Teachers are not just those in schools. We are all role models to someone. How is your garden looking today?
Gifted children are like exotic seeds. They don’t come with instructions on the packet. Their traits are not easily measured. They are very different from each other so there is no single ability to look for as they are striving to take their place in the sunlight, and they won’t all bloom at the same time, or in some cases, at all. Giftedness is a state of being. Gifted children are not better than everyone else. Neither are they worse. Just different. Gifted children think and feel more intensely than other children. Their unique perspectives about life impact on their interactions but these differences are normal within gifted populations. They are not necessarily accepted or understood or even recognised as they attempt to make sense of the world and create connections.
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 17
The Super STEM Fair
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r…
– featuring MOTAT and some seriously splendid STEM Superstars …..
This morning I found a very nifty poster here at MOTAT, it’s promotional material for the Science Street Fair, a collaborative event between the Museum, the University of Auckland and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (D.S.I.R). What makes this poster special is that the event took place in 1988, thirty years ago! Back then I was working for D.S.I.R as an Engineering Technician - I was young, female and an enthusiastic novice mechanical engineer.
By Julie Baker, MOTAT Education Manager
When I think about my decision to become a mechanical engineer, I can’t pin-point any one event or conversation which drove my career choice. It was a combination of my father’s influence, a talented cabinetmaker who was always happy to have company in his workshop, some modest success in high school physics, and encouragement from enthusiastic teachers. The Science Street Fair at MOTAT has always been about encouraging children towards science. By combining scientists, academics, child-friendly activities and a fairground atmosphere we aim to demonstrate to youngsters that science is interesting, do-able and above all, a cool career choice.
Anthropological Science
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 19
SkillTree’s amazing stage props
Dr Akbar Ghobakhlou Auckland University of Technology
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Dr Kate Lewis Kenedi - Volcanologist, Faculty of Science University of Auckland As you would expect over 30 years, the annual fair has evolved – these days we’ve broadened the focus to include technology, engineering and mathematics. The 2018 version of the MOTAT Super STEM Fair featured a range of technologists, engineers and mathematicians alongside the scientists. Some seriously engaging stalls were included, such as those offering activities to make hobbitesque stage props guided by SkillTree’s Mike Porter [image of child with triffid sculpture], human-robot interactions with a compellingly humanoid NAO robot [image of NAO] and some slimy science fun with the entrepreneurial Slime Princess, Katharina Weischede. [Slime image] The beauty of hosting a STEM Fair is that it is such a rich field of endeavour, a deep seam of diverse disciplines. There is a glut of interesting activities to exhibit and rarely a lack of eager, engaging people prepared to give up hours of their limited spare time to organise and host a stall which engages children in their chosen field of STEM. The enthusiasm and dedication that stall hosts bring to the task of demonstrating their work to visitors always astounds me – it’s an exhausting job to explain a difficult concept, in child friendly language, to groups of youngsters and their parents, and then to turn and start the process over again with a new group. By the end of the day they are both exhilarated and utterly done in. And of course, the work on the day itself is just the tip of the iceberg, this is preceded by the hours of preparation and coordination required to pull together the plan, people and equipment.
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 21
Dr Hilary Sheppard Faculty of Science
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J.D. Warren
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So, this article is a huge thank you to the seriously splendid STEM superstars from the organisations listed below who took part in MOTAT’s 2018 event and potentially gave each child they spoke to, a nudge towards a rewarding, fulfilling STEM career. Maybe there was a child there who didn’t know that being a mechanical engineer was a career possibility for her, but now does:AUT; Massey University; Institute of Refrigeration, Heating and AC Engineers; the Slime Princess; SkillTree; STEMfern; The Mind Lab by Unitec; University of Auckland; University of Canterbury
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 23
What does it take to learn? Is this really an innocuous question?
So what had happened here?
Does it not go to the very heart of what learning is all about?
Putting it in modern parlance I think what happened is that everybody’s sense of wellbeing experienced a huge lift. Wellbeing is increasingly being recognised as the one component that will Scotch student learning but it is in itself is no simple concept and likewise the things that promote it is many and varied.
A retired secondary principal told me this story recently. He was appointed to a secondary principal’s job in Auckland. The school was on sort of downward slide that even a rank amateur could predict its future. There was constant difficulty between staff and students and the roll was dwindling in the direction of zero. Recognising the problem this new principal called the staff together and told them he wanted them each to write a positive letter to each and every student in the school, such that none would miss out. Even to the students who were habitually the troublemakers. Though he didn’t personally favour a certificate style communication that staff came up with, he went along with it. The effect was magical. The atmosphere in the school changed overnight. The students became well behaved and their parents became very interested in what was going on at the school. The roll kept going up from the initial 600 to stabilise about 1500.
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Various people see the nature of wellbeing as stemming from different sources. Hence the book by Southwick, M.D., and Dennis S. Charney. Dr. Southwick sees it nested in resilience, which is why they have given that name to the book they have co-authored on the subject. Southwick is the Glenn H. Greenberg Professor of Psychiatry, PTSD and Resilience at Yale University Medical School and Yale Child Study Centre. These two single out facing fears as a major attribute in wellbeing. They see it related to altruism. They also see it important to teach children to know “how to listen to, empathise with, and give support to others”. Evangelia G. Chrysikou is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Drexel University. Evangelia does research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Neuropsychology. She is interested in what the brain looks like when engaged in creativity and innovation. She is keen to boost our creative potential through such means as noticing obscure features of problems, taking a step out of your comfort zone, being willing to work alone (especially at first), taking a break, and challenging oneself.
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Laurie Loper Psychologist
Steve Fleming is a Principal Research Associate and Sir Henry Dale Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Fellow at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London where he leads the Metacognition Group. He is interested in metacognition, that somewhat “fragile lens” through which we employ to run the ruler over the things we experience. Various people have their theories about how to manufacture and expose others to the things they think will be a pathway to wellbeing. Only one programme I know has an evidenced based pathway to that state and that is Bobbie Maths, the popular name given to the programme known otherwise as Developing Mathematically Inquiry Communities or DMIC, (pronounced dee-mic). The way it does this by using various strategies such as the following: Exposing all children to the full curriculum … especially not limiting the mathematics for low achievers: Teachers are continually being amazed at the use of the mathematical strategies lower achieving students use once the context of the problems being posed is switched to ground with which the students are familiar, For example, using situations within the students own culture. Mixed ability groupings: This is the main way lower achievers are not isolated from the full curriculum. Students learn: • Talk moves. These consist of “polite arguing” (to cover situations where
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disagreements might arise – “play the ball and not the man” stuff). • Children working in pairs or groups Typically these are three per group and offer opportunities for many and different inputs especially since all students are required to be able to explain solutions. • Group members learn from each other. • Investigating real problems. • Working with parents. (Making use of parental knowledge and understanding). • Teachers developing their own Mathematical understanding. • A focus on good Mathematical practices. Other evidence obtained from the Bobbie Maths programme likewise indicates that where wellbeing is concerned no one single aspect holds the key as the following examples show: It does build teacher mathematical content knowledge and teacher knowledge a maths. It accelerates improvement in student achievement (cases of failing young Maori and Pasifika students gaining 4 - 5 years progress in one school year are on record.) The teachers of one high decile intermediate school were surprised by how much their “top” students gained from being involved in Bobbie Maths. It does engender rare transfer effects,increases oral language proficiency, help establish the 5 key competences of the New Zealand Curriculum and adheres to both of the New Zealand and Maori Curriculums.
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It does counter bullying and build prosocial skills. It does make it safe for children to learn maths, a subject area that long made individual children feel unsafe right through to adulthood. It does offer teacher leadership opportunities with parents in bringing in culture into the classroom. It does take a strength based view of culture and what it can offer to the classroom It does put the emphasis on all students being able to learn as well as each other. It does offer a transformative opportunity for teaching to shuck off the practices that have long held teaching and learning back (like ability grouping and keeping low achievers from accessing the full curriculum).
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But reliance cannot be placed on the above mentioned strategies to lead the way to wellbeing. Bobbie Maths has won its worldwide reputation on being evidence based. Sometimes the evidence can’t be obtained in a conventional way so “evidence in action” (videos) are employed, constructed by the skilful David Copeland, whose work is without parallel. But even the most fervent of supporters of Bobbie Maths would not claim that any single strategy will be a guaranteed pathway to wellbeing, it’s going to take the “whole deal”.
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Aussie teens forgo sleep for screens A new research report from health promotion foundation VicHealth and the Sleep Health Foundation has found Australian teenagers are missing out on crucial sleep, with screen time, caffeine and stress keeping them awake. The research found that the average teenager only got between 6.5 and 7.5 hours of sleep a night, well under the recommended 8-10 hours, and it was seriously impacting their mental wellbeing, with increased rates of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem among sleep-deprived teens. But the study also found a simple way for teens to reclaim some much needed shut-eye. Teens who put down their smart-phones an hour before bed gained an extra 21 minutes sleep a night and an hour and 45 minutes over the school week. The Sleep and Mental Wellbeing study also found: • Two-thirds of teenagers (66%) reported at least one symptom of a sleep disorder, such as insomnia • Sleep problems during childhood and adolescence are predictive of depression later in life • Up to 66% of young Australians experience symptoms of insomnia • Teenagers slept up to 90 minutes more on weekends due to being able to wake up later. VicHealth CEO Jerril Rechter said not getting enough sleep was a serious health issue for many Australian teenagers and young people. “Not getting enough sleep can really mess with all of us but young people in particular are at risk of a range of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and mood issues,” Ms Rechter said. “Our report also found that sleep problems during childhood and as a teenager can lead to depression later in life. Sadly poor sleep is also associated with suicidal thoughts in teenagers so it’s really critical we support young people to get the sleep they need. “We know that the increasing time teens spend on screen-based devices is making it really tough for many to get to sleep. There’s no denying that devices are a part of our life but our research found a simple step like putting away your phone an hour before bed can lead to more sleep and a
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better quality sleep.” Sleep Health Foundation Chair Professor Dorothy Bruck said there were simple steps teenagers and their families could take to enjoy better sleep. “The stereotype of a lazy teenager who sleeps all day is actually an anomaly – teens need more sleep than older people yet we know most of them aren’t getting enough,” Professor Bruck said. “Using technology before bed, caffeine and stress all contribute to later bed times and sleep problems in teenagers and young people. “There are things teens and their parents can do to get more sleep. During the day try to be physically active and socialise with friends and family. At night set a regular bedtime and read a book or magazine instead of scrolling through social media right before bed.”
Top tips for sleep • Set a regular bedtime and wake up time • Try to relax before bed – mindfulness activities like meditation or gentle yoga may help • Avoid stimulants in the evening like coffee, tea, soft drinks and energy drinks • Set up a comfortable sleep environment • Try to switch off screens an hour before bed – instead read a book or listen to music • Get active during the day • Try to spend time together as a family in the evening
The Sleep and Mental Wellbeing report is available at www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/sleep More information about sleep health is available at https://www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au/ Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 27
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All image credits are: Magic Rabbit
The Kitchen Science Book
Book Review
Dr Michelle Dickinson Published by Nanogirl Labs Ltd RRP $49.95 This fantastic, beautifully presented ‘cookbook’ is a huge step in the direct of making science more interesting and accessible to all parents, grandparents, friends, siblings and teachers who want to make their interactions with children more interesting while still offering genuinely interesting learning concepts and experiences. The book has 50 recipes which are divided into 9 different categories... 1. Colourful Experiments 2. Construction Experiments, 3. Edible Experiments (I’m glad that was clarified! Ed.) 4. Electricity Experiments 5. Motion Experiments 6. Pressure Experiments 7. Reaction Experiments 8. Sound Experiments and 9. Surfactant Experiments Then each recipe has sub headings for: • Equipment and Ingredients (everything needed) • Instructions (numbered steps) • The Science Behind the recipe/experiment • Explore Further .(posing questions for further thought and offering some extension ideas.) To the left on each recipe page, near the bottom of the column is a small icon graphic alerting the maker to elements which should be noted... A pair of scissors to show cutting may be involved, crossed knife and fork on a plate for edible, etc. All recipes are superbly laid out and accompanied by great pictures (Magic Rabbit)
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with appropriate cute graphics to retain the fun element felt throughout the book. Michelle has made the process of the science just as exciting as the results so the whole activity is fun from start to finish. The ‘Science Behind’ section in each experiment is to help explain the results of the recipe, and the ‘Explore Further’ section helps the reader to think about how the experiment works and suggests other tasks and challenges to see how changing the variables can change the outcome. Every book sold helps support Nanogirl Labs - a social initiative - in their work to inspire, educate and empower through STEM, ensuring that science education is accessible to all. Dr Michelle Dickinson (MNZM) nanotechnological researcher and educator has made it her life mission to make science and engineering accessible for all. Well known for her science communication work in New Zealand, Michelle is a founder of Nanogirl Labs Ltd and the Companies CTO. A member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Michelle was winner of the Women of Influence award for science and innovation in 2016, became a Sir Peter Blake Leader in 2015 and was the winner of the Prime Ministers Science Media Communications Prize and the New Zealand Association of Scientists Science Communication Award in 2014
What is STEM? STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 29
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Density Discs Equipment and Ingredients
Drinking Straw
Hot water
4 tall, colourless glasses
Food Colouring – 4 different colours
Tablespoon
Sugar
Instructions 1. Place the 4 glasses in a line. Leave the first glass empty. Add 15g (1Tbsp) sugar to the second glass. 30g (2Tbsp) of sugar to the third glass and 60g (4Tbsp) of sugar to the fourth glass. 2. Add 3 drops of food colouring to each glass, a different colour for each lass if possible. If you do not have 4 different colours you can mix colours together to forma different colour. 3. Pour 60ml (4Tbsp) of hot water into each glass. Stir each solution until all the sugar has dissolved. 4. Place a straw all the way to the bottom of the third glass. Hold your finger over the top to keep the liquid in the straw, then move it over to the fourth glass. 5. Hold a tablespoon upside down inside the fourth glass, placing it so that the tip of the spoon is against the inside edge of the glass, slightly above the first the first layer of liquid. 6. Using the fluid filled straw as a pipette, release your finger from the top of the straw, allowing the liquid from the third glass to drop over the back of the spoon. 7. Keep transferring the liquid from the third glass to the fourth glass until you can see a new layer of colour sitting on top of the fluid in the fourth glass. 8. Repeat with the fluid from the second glass, and then the first glass, until you have all the fluid layers stacked on top of each other. The Science Behind Density Discs Density is a measure of how much mass there is in a given volume. Each of the glasses contains the same volume of water but a different amount of sugar. When the sugar molecules dissolve in the water, they increase the mass in the water which increases the density. The more sugar in the water, the more dense the mixture or solution. Solutions with less density float above solutions with higher density, so by stacking the mixtures in order of density you can get them to float on top of each other. If the fluids come together with too much force they can mix, so the spoon is used to reduce the force of the liquid as it is poured into the glass. The straw ensures that only small volumes are transferred at a time, which reduces the fluid interaction force and increases the stacking success. Explore Further Can you use other materials that dissolve in water – such as salt - to create different density discs? What happens if you use cold water instead of hot water? Will the experiment still work? What will happen if you stir the density disc column? Will the discs settle back into their stacked states? Why do you think that is?
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 31
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Marbled Milk Scientific Principle: Surface Tension Time required:
10 minutes
Introduction Watch how a beautiful, moving piece of ‘food art’ changes - right in front of your eyes thanks to the power of dishwashing liquid which breaks up the surface tension of milk. Equipment ● Plate ● Cotton bud Ingredients ● Milk ● Dishwashing liquid ● Liquid food colouring (two or more different colours) Instructions 1. Pour enough milk onto the plate to cover the bottom. 2. Carefully add a few drops of food colouring onto the surface of the milk. 3. Repeat using different colours, creating a polka dot effect on the surface of the milk. 4. Note how the food colouring floats on the surface of the milk. 5. Dip a cotton bud into the dishwashing liquid, then hold it in the centre of the plate, keeping it as still as you can. 6. Watch as the food colouring swirls around, creating moving art. 7. Dip the cotton bud into the dishwashing liquid again and touch it onto a different area of the plate. 8. Repeat until the colours stop swirling. The Science Behind Colourful Milk Milk is mostly made up of water, but it also contains proteins and fat. Because oil and water do not mix, the fat is stored as tiny droplets which float in the milk. The poured milk holds itself together on the plate using a property called surface tension , which is where the cohesive or sticking forces of the molecules in the milk stick together. When drops of food colouring are added to milk, they can be seen to float on top of the surface of the milk rather than sinking to the bottom. This is because food colouring is less dense than milk. Dishwashing liquid, designed to break up the grease and fat on dishes to clean them, can also break up fat molecules in milk. The dishwashing liquid breaks the surface tension. The tension across the surface pulls the milk surface away from the break caused by the soapy cotton bud – a bit like when a balloon bursts. As the food colouring is floating on top of the milk it moves with the surface, floating away from the drop of soap and allowing the flow pathways in the milk to be seen. As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the flow slows down - but all it takes is the addition of another drop of soap to start the process again. Explore Further What happens if you use dairy products, such as cream, with more fat content? Is the flow pattern the same if you use two drops of dishwashing liquid in different places on the milk? Does the temperature of the milk change the flow rate, and if so why?
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Can Crusher Scientific Principle: Air Pressure Time required:
5 minutes
Introduction Watch as a metal can crushes right in front of your eyes - using only the force of air pressure! Equipment ● ● ● ●
1 empty drink can Tongs Stovetop or camping stove Bowl
Ingredients ● Water Instructions 1.
Fill a large bowl with cold water and place it aside.
2.
Pour 15 ml (1 Tbsp) of cold water into the empty can.
3.
Using the tongs to hold the can, heat the base of the can on the stove for approximately 45 seconds.
4.
Once steam starts to rise from the top of the can and bubbling can be heard inside the can, quickly turn the can upside down and dunk in the bowl of cold water, ensuring the open top is immersed.
5.
The can should crush as soon as it hits the water.
The Science Behind Can Crushing Water is liquid at room temperature and pressure but transforms to water vapour as it is heated and boils. Water vapour or steam takes up more space than liquid water, so some of the air inside the can is pushed out to make space for the water vapour. When the can is dunked in the cold water, the water vapour condenses and returns back to its liquid state, which takes up less volume in the can. There is now less air in the can and, because the opening of the can is sealed underwater, more air is unable to flow in and fill it back up again. This makes the air pressure inside the can lower than the air pressure outside the can. The higher air pressure outside the can exerts a force onto the can. If the pressure difference is big enough, the force is strong enough to crush the can. Explore Further Do you think the can will still crush if you do not pour water into the can before heating? What happens if you chill the cold water further by adding ice cubes? Why do you think this happens? Does the size and shape of the drink can affect the extent to which it crushes?
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 35
Introducing: Dr Collette Foster I need to preface my article with some background information about myself so you can understand where I am coming from: Hi! I am an Australian Adult Educator who has worked in Australia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Brunei, Malaysia and for the past 12 years, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I’m old school, therefore very adaptable! Hence my teaching experience is quite diverse and vast! Before entering the teaching arena, I worked in many different hand-on positions in a variety of technical areas. I often tell people that it’s easier to tell them what I haven’t done, rather than what I have done! I’ve been a shop assistant, a hairdresser (in training not qualified), switchboard operator, receptionist, meat packer in an abattoir, bookkeeper, cake decorator, dressmaker, waitress, wine sommelier, functions & event organiser, and the list goes on and on! I grew up in an era where you took whatever job was offered to you and I’m proud to say that I can count on one hand how many times I’ve applied for jobs, mostly they were offered to me when people knew me and what I could do or was capable of doing. All these positions gave me many different strings to my bow. Then when I went to university at the ripe old age of 30, I had hooks on which to hang my academic knowledge. So started a new chapter in my career life – teaching! To date I’ve had three different phases in my teaching career. In the first & second phases of my teaching (12 years), in Australia, PNG & Brunei, I taught Bookkeeping, Office & Business Skills, Resume Creation, Job Search Skills, and Interview Techniques, Hospitality (housekeeping, front & back office, bar, cocktails, wine, restaurant, butler services, functions & events), dressmaking & hand embroidery, Food Commodities for Catering, Hotel Management & Tourism, IELTS Exam Preparation (to both teachers and students), Curriculum Design and Development, Programme Development, and established the first hotel training school in Brunei. And I am very proud of the fact that I started the first apprenticeship program in Brunei, this being achieved by organising and developing a joint Memorandum of Understanding between the Technical College and various 36 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
industries in Brunei. The third phase, Malaysia & the UAE (12 years), Teaching and mentoring teacher trainers, as well as conducting teaching strategies workshops for primary school teachers, all over Malaysia; teaching English and IELTS preparation to Government Secondary School Principals in the Abu Dhabi Emirate in the UAE; workshops for teachers from the Emirates College of Advanced Education in IELTS preparation, the at two different universities, English Language, IELTS preparation strategies, Language & Communications, Academic Writing, Presentations, Discourse Analysis, Linguistics, Critical & Creative Thinking and Mentoring PhD students. The other phases in between all the above were management positions: Director IDP Education Australia & IELTS Administrator; Project Manager for APEC 2000 in Brunei; Project Manager for Professional Development for Teachers nationally in Australia, which was linked with a new Australian Curriculum Implementation Plan. Teacher Fellow/ Consultant in Malaysia to train, mentor and conduct research for teacher training. There’s more, but this gives you an idea of the scope of activities I’ve undertaken! Academic studies I have achieved to date are: A Diploma in Adult, Technical & Vocational Education, A Bachelor of Education in Educational Management & Leadership, A Master of Education (specialising in Teacher Training) and a Doctor of Education (specialising in Mentoring). And I started university when I was 30 years old! I had a great deal of work and life experience behind me when I started university to hang the academic learning on. I still remember my first day at university, and when I got home my (then) husband asked me how my first day went and I said with a huge radiant smile on my face “I feel like a flower opening up” – and that was exactly what it felt like – my mind was being opened to the wonder of academic learning! I’ve never lost that feeling and I strive to instill that feeling in all my students – to want to learn and enjoy all the benefits learning has to offer: Knowledge, Power, Respect, and Choices - because most importantly, education can open many doors in life – it gives us choices in life. It is the most powerful weapon we can arm ourselves with. Never stop learning! So in a nutshell, that’s me! Now that you know more about me, my article will make more sense – knowing where I came from, where I’ve been, and where I’m going sets the scene for my article .
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Recapturing the Joys of Teaching and Learning By Dr Collette Foster
Being a person who loves to both learn and teach, I want to share with you all some thoughts and insights which I hope will inspire you to recapture your ‘inner child’ approach to life and how we live it, as well as how we approach our teaching. I’ve read an article by Rex Steven Sikes on this topic, so felt I had to share it as it reawakened my own sense of wonder about life and teaching. How can we recapture the sense of joy and adventure we had in learning as children? Sikes states how, as adults, we need to rekindle a sense of growing and contributing. Sikes also discusses how, in order to excel, we need to remember what it felt like to learn something new when we were children – have a sense of wonder in how we look at learning. Sikes further declares that by current estimates, if we read for one hour a day in our own fields, that within three years, we would be a top expert in our field! Continuing to read an hour a day for to five years, would make us top experts in our countries, and within ten years, a world expert in our field. Well worth an hour of our day - every day!
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 37
Having taught Critical & Creative Thinking, I realise that just ONE idea can change the world. We all need to become better thinkers, innovators and more interesting people (and teachers) who foster curiosity and creativity in ourselves and our students. Taking a walk somewhere you always go and walking there as though it is totally new, says Sikes, is like being an anthropologist doing an ethnographic study, making the known elusive and bewildering. Seeing what you notice that you didn’t notice before. This reminded me of an initiative at my university here in the UAE, the initiative is called “Walk & Talk”. I’ve been in this university for 6 years and thought I knew where everything was and had seen it all, but one
particular day, I took my students along for the experience, and both the walk and the talk were amazing! The topic of the talk that day was marriage and family – and the students taught me quite a bit about their own culture and society views on this hot topic, as well as discussing their own views on their future decisions. But then the walk! Wow! I saw places I hadn’t seen or noticed before within the confines of the university. The highlights for myself and my students were the student art centre – the art work by students was very impressive to say the least and then the music centre where we saw and heard a student playing a very impressive piece of classical music – and she told us that she didn’t know how to play the piano when she first came to the university! On to the student canteen, where we were given a free ice-cream! Many more sights and sounds were experienced and the whole experience opened all our powers of observation – I can’t walk around our campus anymore without noticing more areas that I hadn’t noticed before. The students were inspired by what they saw around campus and we had a great discussion about the topic of the day as well as creative options open to them within the university. Another interesting observation cited by Sikes is that by watching movies more than once can heighten our power of observation and also causes us to question or look at life from a different perspective. Noticing more nuances each time the movie is viewed. If
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we think about two people who go to the same movie, one may love it, another may hate it and tell others not to go and see it. Are they really talking about the movie? Sikes says “No, they are sharing with you what they paid attention to – they are letting you know how their mind works.” No movie is truly universally good or bad, there are things about it that one person likes while another may not. Hence, recapturing the joy of learning is vital because it enriches us as individuals and enables us to pay attention to nuances. To become more creative, states Sykes, we need to learn a new concept or idea and we can begin to open doors that we didn’t even know existed! On the topic of movies, the Independent Learning Centre in my university introduced a great innovation for students to improve their English language capabilities – movies! I’ve taken classes to the weekly movie screening several times and different teachers have devised pre and post worksheets and discussion topics to enhance the movie experience for the students – it has always been well worth visiting one of movie sessions! T o see students discussing what they gleaned from the movie, as well as practicing their listening and speaking skills, can be a very rewarding exercise for all involved. I know it assisted me in learning how my students thought
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and the level of their understanding of the English language used in movies. Many a great discussion has resulted from these sessions. To increase a sense of fun and creativity, I sometimes take my classes outside for a lesson – I call it “Class on the Grass” – I have a couple of mats and we spread them out on the grass and have our lesson outside – very good for speaking and discussion sessions. The students love the change of scenery and enjoy the interaction with more spirit than in the classroom. So, in order to recapture your own sense of joy in learning, push yourself, set yourself new goals, but do so with a sense of adventure, joy and fun. By trying some of the activities already running around your university, college, or school, or by creating new activities which can improve learning as well as our well-being, we can assist in creating a happier workplace by recapturing and sharing the wonder of learning!
References: A transcript from a live seminar with Rex Steven Sikes: http://idea-seminars.com/articles/ recapture.htm
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Freshwater Fishes of the Kimberley The Kimberley is a rugged, remote and rich environment full of freshwater fish species. A new colour publication A Field Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of the Kimberley is now available detailing the fascinating freshwater fishes of the region including newly described species. The compact, fully illustrated book highlights the unique species endemic to the Kimberley from the Fitzroy River in the southwest to the Ord, Victoria and Fitzmaurice rivers in the east. The field guide was developed as part of a national collaboration between the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, University of Melbourne, Murdoch University’s Freshwater Fish Group and Fish Health Unit, Museums Victoria and Western Australia Museum. It was supported through an Applied Taxonomy Grant from the Bush Blitz program, a partnership between the Australian Government, BHP Billiton and Earthwatch Australia. Researchers involved in the collaboration worked in the
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remote region of the Kimberley and consulted with traditional owners. A Field Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of the Kimberley showcases nearly 100 native species from brightly coloured rainbowfishes, to algae grazing grunters, rare freshwater elasmobranchs such as the Freshwater Sawfish, and the iconic Barramundi. Dr Michael Hammer co-author and Curator of Fishes at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory said “Northern Australia is a hotspot for freshwater fishes, that come in all sorts of amazing shapes and sizes. There are many species waiting to be discovered. The new field guide is underpinned by museum collections and the latest research, to better map and describe local species. The information is easily accessible with spectacular colour photography of fishes and their habitats, and provides an important platform for improved awareness and conservation.”
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y (A field guide) Thomas Saunders, co-author and specialist in Aboriginal languages said “The Kimberley region contains both the highest diversity of freshwater fish and highest diversity of Aboriginal languages. This book represents a significant contribution to freshwater fish knowledge in Kimberley Aboriginal languages listing fish names in nine languages representing all five Kimberley language families.” The Field Guide will have wide appeal for anglers, naturalists, tourists, station workers and traditional owners, Aboriginal Rangers and natural resource managers, and researchers ranging from citizen scientists through to ecologists and taxonomists as well as the general public. It contains a foreword from renowned author and conservationist Tim Winton who has had a new species, the Winton’s Grunter,
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recognised in his honour. Details regarding freshwater fish species numbers, distinguishing features, locations, habitat, biology and conservation are contained within the Field Guide, along with information about the cultural connections between Aboriginal language, art and traditional ecological knowledge. A Field Guide to the Freshwater Fish of the Kimberley can be purchased through the Store at the Museum or online at magnt.net.au for $20.
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Two P’s in a Pod: Using Project Process Management It is common knowledge in the PM field that Process Management helps with Project Management; projects go much more smoothly and efficiently if you have consistent, process for doing your projects. It’s the same in every other area of your company where you do the same repetitive work – you need robust, transparent and consistent processes. All companies have processes and projects – processes are for managing the work you do day in and day out, projects are for your one time efforts. You need to have a consistent process for doing your projects and creating and updating the processes used to run the business, are a project. A “project,” as defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI), “is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal” (PMI 2017). Projects are what you do when things are changing in order to meet the requirements of the change. Designing or updating the processes that run the business so they are testable, reliable, robust, and transparent is in fact one of the most important projects you can do to have a successful company. The first step in carrying out the project of establishing Process Management in your organization is to identify each of your organization’s processes – your everyday operations. At Cheetah Learning, we identified 20 core processes that are the bread-and-butter of our business. 42 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
They are: • Course Development • Student and Instructor Kits • Course Upgrades • Train the Trainer • Emergency Response • Venue Management • Registration • Websystem and Upgrades • IT Infrastructure Support • Customer Relations • Corporate Sales • Marketing • Marketing Events • Marketing Literature • Finance • Employee Management • Facilities Acquisition • Facilities Development • Asset Management • Risk Management After identifying our processes, we name the owner of the process, other employees assisting with the process, process documentation, and the levels (high, medium, and low) of automation, performance, and pain (difficulty) of the process. The table (right) shows how we do this for six of our key processes: We update this assessment of our processes every quarter. The people who work in the process are empowered to optimize the processes in order to improve overall performance. Any processes that are creating
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t Management to Improve By Michelle LaBrosse,CCPM, PMP®, PMI-ACP, RYT,
Process
Owner
Assistant
Documented
Automation/Performance/Pain
Venue Management Process
Michelle L
Michelle A, Jean S, Shari M, Paul M
Yes
M/M/M
Facilities & Property Acquisition/ Management
Michelle L & Michele S
Michelle A
No
L/H/L
Facilities Development
Michelle L & Michele S
Michelle A
No
L/M/M
Finance
Michele S
Michelle A
Yes
H/H/L
Registration
Jean
Shari, Kevin
Yes
H/H/L
Employee mgmt
Michele S
Michelle L & Michelle A
Yes
M/M/L
pain in the organization get on the radar screen for immediate updating. In our decades of doing and teaching Project Management, we at Cheetah Learning have developed three key principles for doing the project of improving our processes: only start one process update at a time, finish it fast, and scale down our process improvement activities so we achieve something of significant improvement in less than two weeks.
To learn more about Cheetah’s online courses in Project Management and their award-winning Cheetah Exam Prep for the PMP Exam classroom course, visit www.cheetahlearning.com
About the Author:
Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, is an entrepreneurial
powerhouse with a penchant for making success easy, fun, and fast. She is the founder of Cheetah Learning, the author of the Cheetah Success Series, and a prolific blogger whose mission is to bring Project Management to the masses. Cheetah Learning is a virtual company with 100 employees, contractors, and licensees worldwide. To date, more than 50,000 people have become “Cheetahs” using Cheetah Learning’s innovative
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Project Management and accelerated learning techniques. Honored by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), Cheetah Learning was named Professional Development Provider of the Year at the 2008 PMI® Global Congress. A dynamic keynote speaker and industry thought leader, Michelle is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world. Michelle also developed the Cheetah Certified Project Manager (CCPM) program based on MyersBriggs Type Indicator personality profiling to help students master how to use their unique strengths for learn is recognized by PMI as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world. Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 43
Reasons My Students Aren’t Doing T I gotta say, students have really upped their excuse game. They come up with some amazing reasons for why they aren’t able to do their work, and especially in the virtual world, they’re able to blame technology for basically everything: couldn’t connect to my class couldn’t log in
the link to my assignment didn’t work my computer isn’t working
don’t have the latest version of the software not compatible
the WiFi was down
the content didn’t load got an error message and the list goes on…
The more inventive the excuse, the more entertaining it is for us. And because I’m a giver, I want you to be entertained, too. So, please enjoy this compilation of 21st Century excuses I wrote for We Are Teachers. You’ll likely read them and be all… TOPIC: Teaching High School
These Oh-So-2018 Homework Excuses Will Make You LOL We’ve come a long way since blaming it on the dog. “My dog ate my homework” is, like, so yesterday. While the times they are a-changin’, so, too, are students’ homework excuses. Today’s digital natives have come up with some pretty inventive reasons for avoiding academic responsibility. Here are a few of my personal favorites, and by favorites I mean, here are just some of the reasons why I’m banging my head on my desk. “My smart TV hacked my computer.” I bet the voice recognition remote told the TV to do it. “Alexa gave me the wrong answers.” Inadvertent admission of cheating is almost as good as the assignment itself.
GRADES: High School: 44 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
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Their Work “I didn’t realize those hyperlinks would print.” If you’re going to copy and paste, at least show some pride in your plagiarism. “Google Docs saved everyone else’s work but mine!” Look me in the eyes and say it again. “The alert on my phone didn’t go off.”
“Our Wi-Fi was down.”
The ol’ AM and PM are tricky. May I suggest a planner, a sticky note, a string around your finger …
Allow me to introduce you to the library.
“My computer got a virus.”
“You didn’t get my assignment? Weird. I emailed it.”
Had your computer’s three previous viruses not coincided with the due dates of our three previous assignments, I might have believed you.
THAT IS WEIRD, ISN’T IT?
“I didn’t know I couldn’t text you my paper.”
“I didn’t know we had an assignment—you didn’t remind us.”
How many paragraphs in were you before you realized that texting a five-page research paper wouldn’t work out?
And, let me guess, neither did Siri?
And of course, an oldie but goodie that continues to stand the test of time:
Sonny
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Hey there, I’m Steph! English teacher by trade, smack-talker by nature, and mother of three who lives by the mantra: Life is Magana too short, laugh! I hope you’ll stick around and check out my stuff. And by stuff I mean my writing. Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 45
Yes They’re Ready to Teach in the F
“Our global society faces dangers of inequity inside and outside our schools. If we are to realize the peaceful and prosperous vision of the future we desire, a focus on equity through and within our educational systems must be one of our main driving forces.” — Michael Soskil
Welcome to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It’s a complex, volatile, everchanging world where we have already witnessed fundamental shifts in the way we live. Given this extraordinary period of societal change, what will this mean for teaching? How should teachers equip learners with the competencies and mindset to approach learning as being lifelong? How can education equip learners with agency to shape their own lives and contribute to the lives of their communities?
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Six internationally recognized Global Teacher Prize finalists have authored a new book (Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Standing at the Precipice; Routledge, March 2018) in which they share their vision and strategies for an education system that matches the needs of the future. The Global Search for Education is pleased to welcome co-authors Armand Doucet, Jelmer Evers, Koen Timmers, Michael Soskil, Elisa Guerra Cruz and Nadia Lopez.
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Fourth Industrial Revolution! C. M. Rubin
“We need to embrace a new paradigm: the networked teacher. We need to build our classrooms, schools and educational systems based on the principles of collaboration and trust.” — Jelmer Evers
How can education lead us through an unknown future to a place of peace and prosperity?
How does a good teacher prepare her students for the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
Michael Soskil: Only by keeping education rooted in human relationships and empathy can we meet the great challenges on the horizon. Our students are craving the opportunity to make a difference and shape the planet they will inherit from us. Our global society faces dangers of inequity inside and outside our schools. If we are to realize the peaceful and prosperous vision of the future we desire, a focus on equity through and within our educational systems must be one of our main driving forces. Ever widening inequity will be one of the gravest threats to the health of our future society.
Nadia Lopez: Teachers must be life-long learners. Teaching is not just about preparing students for a particular workforce, but to also become agents of change that have a positive influence within humanity. When we teach girls that they can be entrepreneurs, architects, computer scientists, and engineers, then we begin to dismantle the stereotypes that limit them from pursuing any and every career. Education can build bridges across the globe and we can learn from one another.
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All Pictures from C.M.Rubin “Passion is what engages and empowers students. Schools have timetables; learning does not.” — Armand Doucet
What are some of the key take-aways from your research in Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolutionwith other teachers? Elisa Guerra Cruz: Children need the artistic touch of human connection to reach their unique potential. Even in environments devoid of technology, excellent pedagogy is still leading to astonishing student learning outcomes. True educational success lies in a system that meets the needs of the individual, with or without the use of technology.
You write about the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution requiring a shift to holistic education. What are the steps we must take to accomplish that? Michael Soskil: We need a shift in focus from accountability measures based on standardized test scores toward metrics that take into account universal access to quality teachers and learning environments, robust curricula that include the arts, as well as student engagement and wellbeing. Passionate teachers having professional discussions about what is best for kids leads to a better education system. Each individual student 48 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
is a new independent and constantly changing variable in an ever-changing context.
You talk about “flipping the system” that is changing education from the ground up. How do we do it? Jelmer Evers: It will take professionalism and also activism by teachers to help build those new systems. We need to embrace a new paradigm: the networked teacher. We need to build our classrooms, schools and educational systems based on the principles of collaboration and trust. We need to be aware as teachers how global forces influence our classrooms. Students need to be invested in what they learn.
You talk about the learner profile (Teach ME) as a practical guide to allow teachers to introduce a holistic approach to learning. What are some of the key drivers? Armand Doucet: Teachers need to evolve from simply delivering traditional knowledge towards designing lessons that develop literacies, competencies and character. Society needs to be as concerned with the education of our teachers as we are with the education of our students. As
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“As the world continues to become more globalized and interconnected, the ability to understand diverse perspectives and work with those that have divergent worldviews will become increasingly important.” — Koen Timmers educators, our responsibility is not solely to create the next workforce; it is to help raise the next generation of citizens.
True personalization involves more than content being chosen for students by algorithms. A few thoughts on how tech and traditional learning will co-exist? Armand Doucet: Without great pedagogy, technology integration is worthless. Passion is what engages and empowers students. Schools have timetables; learning does not. Koen Timmers: Technology is a pedagogical catalyst. It can make good classroom practices great, and it can make bad classroom practices even worse.
teachers must play an integral part in shaping them. Teaching is not an exact science, because, quite simply, humans are involved. Rather than passively wait for history to take its course, or to succumb before the inevitable shifts that come ahead, we want to inspire educators and the society in full to make active decisions and take whatever roads we need so as to guarantee that every child in the world has the opportunity to thrive. As we enter a new age of Renaissance in education, it is key that in each educational jurisdiction, we align our vision to what is truly happening in the classroom.
What’s the key take away you want other teachers to have from your book? Koen Timmers: Education is a human right. Everyone, everywhere has a need and the right to quality Education. As the world continues to become more globalized and interconnected, the ability to understand diverse perspectives and work with those that have divergent worldviews will become increasingly important. Armand Doucet Jelmer Evers: Education should be at the core of any proposed solutions, and
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Top Row L to R: Elisa Guerra Cruz, Armand Doucet, Michael Soskil, Koen Timmers Bottom Row L to R: Jelmer Evers, Nadia Lopez, C.M. Rubin Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 49
Improve productivity on Android with the new Bamboo Tip Media Release: The new fine-tip stylus offers expanded crossdevice compatibility in today’s connected world. Now, users have one easy solution for quick note taking across several smartphones and touchscreen tablets. Wacom have announced the Bamboo Tip, a new fine-tip stylus for Android and iOS devices. Aimed at everyone who relies on digital note-taking and works across several devices to get things done but is weary of compatibility and pairing issues, Bamboo Tip offers a quick and intuitive experience across devices. Designed for writing on Android, iPhone and iPad devices and switching between without pairing, Bamboo Tip is an easy to use every day stylus for users on the move. “In today’s connected world, we rely on a combination of smartphones, tablets and different operating systems to capture ideas, observations and next steps at work or at play,” said Mike Gay, Senior Vice President of the Wacom Consumer Business Unit. “Bamboo Tip lets users move seamlessly between devices and operating systems to get things done. As OS providers roll out more seamless note taking and mark-up capabilities on their devices, Bamboo Tip will help users take full advantage to be more productive and turn ideas into reality.”
20-hour battery life and easy charging make it extremely portable and great for anyone who spends the day on the go and might not have access to their charging station. After an initial charge, simply press the button on the stylus to turn on the Bamboo Tip. The stylus will turn off after several minutes of not being used, or users can turn it off by holding down the button. A switch at the top of the stylus also helps users fine tune performance by changing the frequency at which the stylus communicates with a device. Priced at NZD $89, the Bamboo Tip is available now at PB Technologies.
Bamboo Tip leverages Wacom’s decades of experience in pen and styli technology to improve touch screen detection for reliable accuracy in nib-to-screen contact. It allows the user to quickly jump from device to device without waiting for the device and stylus to pair. That means you can take notes on your iPhone, sketch them out on your iPad, and then walk your co-worker through your ideas on their Android device, allowing you to focus on the ideas in front of you instead of coordinating your tools. Bamboo Tip comes with a durable and comfortable to touch anodized aluminium surface in elegant dark blue and a sturdy clip. Its 50 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
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and iOS devices Giving it a Go: As a longtime Wacom user of interactive tablets in various guises I was interested in the new Bamboo Tip when I read the media release to the left. The courier package with the ‘loan’ Bamboo Tip duly arrived and the fun began. The stylus comes with instructions and after reading them I eventually downloaded Inkspace and Bamboo Paper. What you need to know at the start is that the devices you intend using the Bamboo tip with need to all be compatible. Once you’ve realise that it is all pretty much plain sailing. I was trying the Bamboo Tip on a Samsung phone and a Samsung netbook (both Android devices). Using Bamboo Paper was fun and would be useful... You create journal booklets rather than files and you can choose Paper type, Cover colours, rename your journal and save as a PDF. I was given the options to share via.. Dropbox, Bamboo Paper, Bluetooth, email, Evernote, Gmail, Onedrive, one note, and save to a drive. I did not try all of these as while I was having fun time was of the essence. I found that handwrittten notetaking was occasionally delayed in showing on the screen but design sketches with nib size selection and colour choice was a handy and really usable feature. I also found that sometimes there was a delay between sending from one device and receiving it on the other but this may well have been more the incompetent operator rather than the system. I would suggest that there are uses for this pen which could make a classroom teacher’s life...if it revolved around technology .. much easier.
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Bamboo Tip – fine-tip stylus for quickly noting ideas on your iPhone, iPad and Android devices. A thought springs to mind and you want to capture it on your smartphone or tablet? With Bamboo Tip you can. Just power up and start writing. A fine tip for even finer ideas Bamboo Tip gives you fidelity when taking notes on the fly, making lists and drafting concepts. With the fine tip, you can see exactly where the stylus touches the screen – so you focus on your ideas, confident they are captured exactly as you want.
Compatibility you can count on Simply turn on Bamboo Tip and use it with your favorite apps. No pairing is needed. Bamboo Tip easily works with iOS and a broad range of Android devices. Just flick a small switch to optimize its performance for your device.
Long-lasting functionality Bamboo Tip is designed to be comfortable to use and durable. Enjoy 20 hours of continuous use, then quickly recharge your Bamboo Tip via USB. And should the fine tip wear out one day, you can easily replace it.
Store, shape and share your ideas The Bamboo Paper app makes capturing notes and doing visual ideation simple and convenient. The Inkspace service lets you easily move your ideas to the cloud and watch them come to life as you connect to a range of productivity and workflow applications.
Feature Overview • Instant note-taking and ideating with fine tip • No app-pairing required • Compatible with iOS and various Android devices • Approx. 20 hours of continuous use, charging via USB • Attach to your tablet cover with a sturdy clip • Accessory replacement nibs available for long-lasting functionality • Store, shape and share ideas with the Bamboo Paper app and the Inkspace service
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Artist Recreates People’s Childhood Eddie Putera is a Malaysian artist who combines his photography skills with miniature modeling to create stunning dioramas Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better, and 51-year-old Malaysian artist Eddie Putera proves it with his stunning miniature dioramas. Putera combines his talents of miniature modeling and photography to create scenes so detailed that it’s hard to believe they are all hand-made mini versions of objects, and not real life still photography. Some of them take as little as a week to complete, and Eddie says that sometimes he manages to complete 5-6 of them in a month. Eddie Putera always has a story to tell and creating miniature dioramas was the perfect way to visualize those tales. He built his first diorama about 3 years ago after realizing that the subjects of his works need a physical background to fully explore their history and context. Some of his miniatures are recreated completely from memory, as a way to honor and relive moments from Putera’s past. It’s especially difficult as some of the scenes no longer exist in the real world, so he has to either ask for his family’s input or try his best to remember the specifics. Attention to detail and the ability to recreate various textures and objects make his dioramas extremely realistic, so it’s no wonder that his painstaking work attracted people’s attention. The artist not only sells his work, people mostly buy them as gifts, but also takes requests. On one occasion, a customer asked Putera to recreate his grandfather’s village and his old Volkswagen car. “The customer gave it to his grandfather as an anniversary gift and his grandfather shed tears looking at the diorama,” Putera told xtra. Eddie Putera’s miniatures are truly impressive and we surely had to do a double take at some of the dioramas to make sure they weren’t photographs of real-life buildings. So scroll down, see for yourself and tell us what you think!
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d Memories With Realistic Dioramas GiedrÄ—
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The Mind Lab and MOTAT join forces
...to empower Kiwi kids and adults The Mind Lab by Unitec has teamed up with MOTAT to bring its student programmes and Tech Toolbox to more students and adults in Auckland. Pioneers in digital and collaborative learning, The Mind Lab by Unitec is partnering with the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) to move their popular education programmes from their current Newmarket site to MOTAT’s premises in Western Springs. From April 2018, the award-winning learning specialists from The Mind Lab will run their popular Tech Toolbox, school and holiday programmes from a purpose-built facility at MOTAT’s Great North Road site in central Auckland. The new location at MOTAT will include flexible teaching areas, labs and creative reflection zones. Frances Valintine, a strong advocate for transformational change and Chair and Founder of The Mind Lab by Unitec, says, “Over the past four and a half years our Carlton Gore site has become an icon. More than 40,000 students have learnt how to create, code, invent, test and build solutions using problem-based learning and technology in our lab. This new partnership with MOTAT is the start of a new era for Auckland students who will experience the best of both worlds - MOTAT’s immersive learning environment combined with the hi-tech digital world of The Mind Lab by Unitec.” MOTAT and The Mind Lab share a natural synergy. As an interactive museum, MOTAT focuses on Kiwi ingenuity, and educating and inspiring the next generation. The Museum plays a valuable role in providing learning experiences outside of the classroom (LEOTC) which broaden and deepen curriculum understanding for more than 25,000 Auckland students each year. The MOTAT education team will continue to deliver
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programmes that use collection items and in-house subject expertise to cover topics from the Social Sciences, Science and Technology curriculum. Michael Frawley, MOTAT Museum Director and Chief Executive, says the agreement with The Mind Lab by Unitec creates a unique new offering for schools and strengthens MOTAT’s leadership in creative technology education. He says, “We are delighted to finalise this threeyear partnership of like-minded institutions who share the vision of inspiring young New Zealanders to innovate and create. With the option to combine courses from The Mind Lab by Unitec with our regular LEOTC programmes or a Museum visit, schools can now build a truly memorable learning experience. It’s a very exciting time for education at MOTAT.” Recognised as one of New Zealand’s leading education providers in Science, Technology and Engineering, The Mind Lab by Unitec will continue to operate their other regional locations around New Zealand for their postgraduate certificate in digital and collaborative learning, including running evening sessions at sister company Tech Futures Lab at 22 McColl Street, Newmarket, and their dedicated student lab in Gisborne. All programmes are designed to enhance digital literacy capability and the implementation of contemporary practice in the teaching profession through hands-on learning. The expert EdTech Educators from The Mind Lab by Unitec’s team will make the move to the Museum during March while MOTAT’s experienced booking team will support the operation by managing enrolments from the start of Term 2 onwards.
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Report signals a better path forward for Timor-Leste youth Flinders University researchers have played a crucial role in developing a landmark policy blueprint for Timor-Leste’s social and economic future, based on supporting the huge youth population in this emerging nation. Associate Professor Udoy Saikia, lead author of the report ‘Timor-Leste 2018 National Human Development Report: Preparing the Opportunities for a Youthful Population’, hails the document as a crucial pathfinder for a country with one of the youngest populations in the Asia and Pacific region, with a median age of 17.4 years. The population below age 35 accounts for 74 percent of the total population. The Timor-Leste government’s acceptance of the report marks an important step in the nation building process underway in Asia’s newest nation – and it presents an important model for other emerging nations with youth, economic and social challenges to follow. The 4th National Human Development Report of Timor-Leste was the result of a two-year collaboration between Flinders University, the Government of Timor-Leste and the UN Development Program. The report – which also features Flinders’ Associate Professor Gour Dasvarma, Dr Merve Hosgelen and Dr James Chalmers as principal authors - is an important example of Flinders’ expanding its global reach through high quality collaborations. The report collates a representative sample of Timor-Leste’s youth population across the country’s regions, conducted down to village level by trained local researchers, and it responds to their development aspirations. “The youth of Timor-Leste are at the heart of this work,” says Associate Professor Saikia. “In the process of producing this report we consulted with them at various stages of the project. I sincerely hope that they will take ownership of it, and of our findings, in bringing their dreams for the future to reality.” The chal-
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lenges ahead are significant. Associate Professor Saikia says Timor-Leste shows the typical demographic “bulge” representing large numbers of young people in the populations of developing countries following independence. In the face of poverty and unemployment, this bulge can lead to social unrest and conflict – but with smart policy and social initiatives, it can also be transformed into a growing asset for the young nation. This is the pivot of the report, identifying appropriate sectors for development and job creation that will best help the youth demographic. Training is a focus – even in unconventional areas, such as new types of localised training institutions outside Dili, to help generate and facilitate discussions among employers, educators and district authorities. This will serve to complement new centres such as Knua Juventude Fila-Liman in Dili, which provides wide-ranging services to encourage social entrepreneurship among youth as well as increased employability and youth engagement in decision-making. The report’s focus on education and training, embracing technology, public investment and the economic inclusion of youth in new work prospects addresses the need to transform this emerging nation’s youth from being job seekers to job creators. About 20,000 young Timor-Leste people join the labor force each year, but only about 2000 new job opportunities each year exist in the formal economy. Key areas of improving the wellbeing of TimorLeste youth have been identified as increasing school completion rates up to Year 12, and reducing a student gender gap, both of which will ease unemployment numbers; boosting the prevalence of contraception; and improved labour market flexibility and financial market efficiency. The Timor-Leste Government says it is highly committed to implement the recommendations laid out in the 160-page report. Associate Professor Saikia says this is a positive sign, as the report finds that while three quarters of youth across Timor-Leste perceive themselves as leading healthy and satisfactory lives overall, more than 80 per cent also say they experience deprivations in education and community vitality. Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 63
Graduates return to
New Zealand School of Dance graduate Connor Masseurs. Photographed by Stephen A’Court.
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o run New Zealand School of Dance Tū Move Programme Over 8 years ago the New Zealand School of Dance (NZSD) began their Tū Move programme. The workshop encouraged young Māori and Pacific Island men (aged 14-18 yrs) to explore contemporary dance and provided access to tutors that would both mentor them with their dance expertise as well as provide a safe platform to explore and experiment with other dance genres. Two young Wellington men, Connor Masseurs & Toa Paranihi decided to give the workshop a go. Neither of them had ever been in a ballet studio or the formal environment of an internationally recognised dance school.
It soon became apparent that by taking part in Tū Move their lives were about to change. NZSD graduate and tutor Luke Hanna provided exceptional training for all the students who were part of the Tū Move programme and opened up a new appreciation and understanding of contemporary dance to them. Mentor, Norm Hewitt talked with the young men about mental health, strength, belief in yourself and taking risks. It soon became clear that there was a wealth of talent within the Tū Move group of students and this is what has allowed the successful workshop to continue.
New Zealand School of Dance Tū Move students. Photographed by Amber Griffin.
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Tū Move is “a workshop that works in exploring and developing your own movement alongside others as we find new ways for you to get down. No matter what background of movement, sport, dance or simply walking to school, if you bob your head to a song then you are welcomed at TU MOVE” Connor Masseurs At their auditions for the contemporary programme at NZSD Connor Masseurs and Toa Paranihi demonstrated talent, energy, and commitment. They soon graduated in 2017 with a Diploma in Dance and have both gone on to receive awards in the industry. They have met internationally acclaimed tutors and top New Zealand choreographers through their time at NZSD which has all played a part in their successful journey. More recently, they have found employment with some of the top New Zealand and Australian contemporary dance companies (New Zealand Dance Company and Australian Dance Theatre). Notably they have not lost touch with their hip hop background, and have combined this with their formal training to create a new and exciting dance form. They have created their own Dance Company ‘SUB’ and recently held their first performance Season, ‘BLUEPRINT’.
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It is with great pride that NZSD welcomes Connor and Toa back to where they started and confirms their appointment as part of the team of tutors and mentors for the 2018 Tū Move programme. Participants in this unique and inspiring programme will explore hip hop, street and contemporary dance, discover new skills, and workshop their ideas with mentorship from Connor, Toa and Luke. The Tū Move workshop is free & open to young Māori and Pacific Island men aged 14-18 yrs and runs at the New Zealand School of Dance Saturday 2 - Monday 4 June (Queens Birthday weekend), 10am - 4pm each day. For the first time Tū Move is on the move travelling to Auckland and Christchurch with the Toa & Connor at the helm. Material learnt on the course has been useful for students studying NCEA. Catering throughout the weekend is provided. Spaces are limited and registration is online; www.nzschoolofdance. ac.nz Tū Move workshops are also available to schools and communities by prior arrangement. If you’re interested in hosting a Tū Move workshop for your school or community, please email Paula Steeds-Huston Paula.Steeds-Huston@nzschoolofdance.ac.nz TŪ MOVE WELLINGTON 2 - 4 June 2018 New Zealand School of Dance *Please check NZSD website for any updates on the Tū Move programme
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New Zealand School of Dance TĹŤ Move students. Photographed by Amber Griffin. New Zealand School of Dance TĹŤ Move students. Photographed by Amber Griffin.
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Dear Parent, Let me tell you about my day as your childs class teacher… 7am – arrive at school, quick tidy round, get busy setting up for the day, gathering resources for this mornings carpet input. I’ll go get my cuppa when I’ve just finished this. 7:30 – answer the emails from the SENCO (another form to fill in), answer parents messages on twitter and tapestry that have appeared overnight. I’ll go get my cuppa when I’ve just finished this. 8am – ‘quick’ diary briefing with all staff. I’ll go get my cuppa when I’ve just finished this. 8:45 – ‘quick’ diary briefing ran over. Time to let kids in. I’ll get my cuppa at lunch, no break time in foundation stage. 9:00 – consoling 2 crying children, the same 2 that don’t want to leave Mum every morning. Greeting everyone else, including your child, as they come in. Listening to parents’ messages about Sam moving to packed lunch, Grandad is picking Sarah up tonight and Oliver’s Mum telling me he needs the next level reading book. I’ll listen to him read today. Keeping an eye on how Lacey interacts with Mum today, and vice versa – should I be worried about that or am I over thinking it? I’ll put it in the safeguarding book just in case. 9:15 – carpet. 2 children still crying. TA takes them out, quick change of plan so I take all children as TA can’t have her group now. Your child struggled a little, worked with her until she got it – lightbulb moment! Will tell you about that at home time. 9:35 – continuous provision. iPad out, get on Twitter to post the first of my ‘3 a day’ that we’re asked to do. Tweeted. Onto observations. 9:45 – Charlie fell over outside, get cleaned up.
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9:55 – making a train with the crates (I was sure they’d want to build a den again today!) Can we have a cover for the seats? Go find a cover with the children. Can we have the tyres for wheels? Go find the tyres with the children. Can we have our snack on our train? Go get the snack with the children. Kodak Moment! Prime observation material here. 11:00 – where did the morning go! Must remember to listen to Oliver read this afternoon. Phonics should be starting, we’ve not tidied up yet! 11:10 – phonics groups. How has Archie snuck into this group?? He shouldn’t be here! Never mind it won’t do him any harm. 11:30 – hands wash, story, lunch. Dying for that cuppa. 12:00 – boy with autism upset I’m leaving the hall. I’ll stay with him until he finishes his dinner. His funding doesn’t cover lunch times yet – need to speak to the head about that. 12:30 – all children outside for play. Cuppa time! Actually, first I’ll speak to the head about that lunchtime 1:1 and concerns over Lacey. 12:50 – kids back in 10! What! Quick set up for afternoon carpet. 1:00 – kids back. Register. Lovely carpet session. Where was Archie? I’m sure he was supposed to be in my group? Never mind it won’t do him any harm. Never got that cuppa but I’ll treat myself to a staffroom bun after school to go with it. I’m starving. 1:20 – continuous provision. Second tweet of the day. ‘Miss will you come be Nemo with me?’ I worked with your child and her friends, acting out Finding Nemo in the small world. Some fantastic vocabulary, questioning, understanding. Proud teacher. Kodak Moment!
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3:00 – tidy up and get ready for home. Notice a red mark on your child’s head. How! We were literally JUST being Finding Nemo! They don’t know what they’ve done, they’re not upset, but I give them a cold compress just in case. 3:20 – never tweeted that third tweet. Will tweet extra tomorrow. Never listened to Oliver read. Will explain to Mum and do it tomorrow. Who’s this picking Lacey up today? Where’s Mum? Lacey upset. TA gone to phone Mum – can we let Lacey go home with this gentleman? Can’t get hold of Mum. Phone Dad – Yes, we can. This is Uncle Jim we should know that we were told last year Uncle Jim can pick Lacey up so why are we phoning while he’s at work?? Never seen Uncle Jim before. Is he a real uncle? Will write it in the book just in case. Console Lacey and reassure her I’ll see her tomorrow. Little boy with Autism trying to escape. Where’s Mum? Ah she’s here! Relay message – he didn’t eat much again today. Then you arrive – explain your child had a bumped head just before home time. A cold compress was applied. She wasn’t upset and isn’t sure how she did it, but keep an eye on her tonight etc etc. Oliver’s mums here – really sorry I didn’t get chance to listen to him read today… 3:30 – cuppa tea time. Ahhh. Shit I should be in after school club. Will finish my cuppa when that’s finished. 4:35 – everyone’s dismissed from after school club. Going to mention Uncle Jim to the headteacher. Just in case. Headteachers gone – meeting. Must remember to do that first thing tomorrow.
filled in. Classroom tidy and ready for tomorrow. Home time. 7:00 – ‘you’re late again tonight!’ from the hubby. Too tired to explain the busy day. Worried, hungry, tired. Must remember to listen to Oliver read tomorrow – I didn’t put it on the post it note!! Worried about Lacey. 9:00 – showered, fed, written today’s observations up on the iPad, falling asleep on the sofa. Quick Facebook catch up before sleep. 9:10 – Your Facebook comments (after a message from a friend – might want to have a look at your open profile.) Your child had a bump today. The whole of Facebook knows about it. ‘Shit school’ (outstanding actually) ‘She’s been feeling sick all day’ (it happened at home time) ‘She’s been crying all day over it’ (no she hasn’t – check Twitter pictures) ‘Going to the head teacher to complain tomorrow’ (fantastic I’ll look forward to that one) ‘I didn’t even get a bump note!’ (Shit I forgot that piece of paper…) ‘moving her schools’ ‘want a new teacher’ ‘she has no friends at this school anyway’ ‘making no progress’ (never got round to telling you that lightbulb moment from this morning…) 2 am, 3am, 4am, 5am – can’t believe I didn’t give that bump note. School policy. I know better than that. How could I forget. Kicking myself. I’m in for it tomorrow. Still worried about Lacey. How was your day today, parent? Regards, your child’s class teacher.
4:40 – no buns left in the staffroom. Gutted, stomach sounds angry! I can finally have that cup of tea. It’s cold. Fresh brew. 6:30 – emails from today answered, class page on the website updated, tomorrow’s ‘to do’ list written on a post it note. Really am concerned about Lacey. SENCO form
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Secret Teacher Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 69
Harvard student helps crack my
Manny Medrano displays a model of khipu knots, an information system that the Inca used to tally and record data.
It’s a mystery that has left many scholars flummoxed. For all the achievements of the Inca Empire, including a massive roadway system, sophisticated farming methods, and jawdropping architecture, it was the only pre-Columbian state that did not invent a system of writing. Instead, the Inca, whose civilization originated in Peru and grew to include peoples and cultures all along the west coast of South America from 1400 to 1532, relied on knotted strings to encode information, a system so complex that scholars still struggle to make sense of it. 70 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
Which is what makes the work of Harvard student Manny Medrano all the more remarkable. The young student provided new insight into how the Inca recorded information by analyzing the colors and the direction of the knots placed on the strings, known as khipus. The discovery could be a first step to unlocking far more Inca history. Three years ago, freshman Medrano was working as a research assistant for Gary Urton, the Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies and chair in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. Medrano, then just 19, decided to spend his spring break analyzing the data from six khipus that were found in the collection of an old Italian count who’d lived in Peru.
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/massachusetts/
ystery of Inca code The Inca used khipus — the colorful, threedimensional string systems — as record-keeping devices to tally census data, inventory resources, and record narratives such as royal histories, myths, and songs. Anthropologists believe that the codes would contain insights into the Inca’s way of life, if they could be broken. Furthermore, it would be the first history of the Inca told from the perspectives of the indigenous peoples themselves. “The only history we have of the Inca Empire are ones that were written by Spaniards after they conquered the Incas,” said Urton. “And those have all sorts of problems about the Spaniards writing from their own viewpoint and with their own prejudices. It seemed to me that the khipus represented the Incas’s own histories of themselves.” Alas, there is no Rosetta Stone for khipus, no translation for what the patterns of knots represent, and no match between the Spanish documents and the khipus themselves. What did exist was the Harvard Khipu Database Project, which Urton established in 2002 to collect all known information about khipus into one centralized repository. Medrano set to work. Though he was most interested in studying mathematics and economics, he also had a strong interest in archeology. “We think of language as either spoken or written down,” Medrano said. “But the khipu really takes that and breaks that boundary and makes language something that can be felt, something that can be touched, and something that can be handled.” He made graphs and compared the knots on the khipu to an old Spanish census document from the region when something clicked. “Something looked out of the ordinary in that moment,” Medrano said. “It seemed there was a coincidence that was too strong to be random.”
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Cristela Guerra
He realized that, like a kind of textile abacus, the number of unique colors on the strings nearly matched with the number of first names on the Spanish census. For example, if there were eight “Felipes,” all were indicated by one color, while “Joses” were indicated by another color. “There were so many different combinations of colors, whether solid colors or two colors spun together,” Medrano said. “This looked like there was enough diversity in here to encode a language.” The khipus were similar and came from a burial site in a river valley on the north coast of Peru. Urton had previously discovered that the Spanish document referenced 132 taxpayers in a village. Altogether, the six khipus had 132 six-cord groups. As a result of Medrano’s discoveries, Urton and Medrano produced a paper, which will be published in the academic journal Ethnohistory in January. Medrano, now a junior, is the lead author of the article, “Toward the Decipherment of a Set of Mid-Colonial Khipus from the Santa Valley, Coastal Peru.” The paper states that what Medrano found is “the first instance of ‘reading’ information from khipu attachment knots.” Medrano plans to continue his research. He has decided to major in applied mathematics and minor in archeology. “There are hundreds of khipus that could encode stories and also hundreds if not thousands of Spanish documents from the period that also contain transcribed stories,” Medrano said. “But, we need a link [to connect them.]” “Being able to look at the past not just as Indiana Jones or trying to discover a golden idol in a cave,” Medrano said, “but to help the process of getting history told from the perspective of the people who have been conquered.” Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 71
How changing the narratives you control of your professional path One of the key lessons I learned at Wharton is that nearly all of us underestimate the control we have over our careers. At times, nearly everyone feels stuck in the middle—even CEOs, who perceive they must answer to investors, their board, regulators, the media, and others in the face of employees pushing back and often not performing as expected. I’d like to suggest that the first step towards taking greater control of your future is to pay more attention to the stories you tell yourself. In case you are wondering, “What stories?,” let’s start at the beginning.
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You have a stream of stories running through your head, and they reveal your beliefs, perceptions, self-perceptions, and biases. Some of these stories are so ingrained that you don’t even realize they exist, and you won’t notice them unless you take the time to step away from daily distractions and look inside your own mind. For example, you may profess to be both confident and capable, while deep inside you may think you are good, but not as good as your rival for that next big promotion. Or maybe you believe that your boss consistently seeks to undermine you. That’s what one of my friends believed for years, until her coach suggested she take a week and write down any moments she witnessed her boss being supportive of her. At the end of the week, she had numerous examples and realized she had been so busy telling herself he was unsupportive that she became incapable of recognizing that, in fact, the opposite was true. Amy Blaschka and I recently published a short book called “I Am,” comprised of dozens of prompts that all start with “I am…” The idea is that you pick a prompt and run with it, unleashing your imagination for a few moments, or longer. Our goal isn’t to convince you to be positive or confident or imaginative or creative, although those are all possible results. Instead, we simply want you to experiment a bit and gain some insight regarding what’s spinning around in your head. Early reader feedback has been incredible, but one response was especially insightful. Jared Karol wrote, “As I jotted down notes on every page [of your book], I realized how much the theme of possibility permeated my deeply held values––empathy, vulnerability, equanimity, inclusion, connection––so much so that a thought occurred to me: possibility, itself, is a value.”
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u tell yourself can help you take h
Consider those last five words carefully: Possibility, itself, is a value. Is it among your values to tell yourself stories that bring out your best, and that do the same for others? Or do you all but ignore the programming that runs in your head, not really paying attention to whether it discourages you, frustrates others, or generally causes you to miss opportunities? The possibility of achievement, success, abundance, and improvement surrounds you, but none of these may be obvious. In fact, many may be disguised as “problems” or “intractable roadblocks.” I can’t prove this—yet—but my perception is that the people who accomplish the most are consistently telling themselves stories rich with positive possibilities. When times get tough and
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obstacles loom large, their instinct is to pump up the volume on these stories until they surmount the challenges that confront them. Two professionals, armed with similar skills and faced with similar challenges, can produce dramatically different results. Many argue this is the product of different levels of effort or grit. But if you peer beneath the surface, I suspect you’ll discover that the stories you tell yourself largely determine whether you have grit, tenacity, or the power to persevere. Stories have power, and nowhere do they have greater power than when you play them inside your head. Choose wisely. Bruce Kasanoff
Ghostwriter & Speaker Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 73
Retro Birdhouse Camper Kit Make
In a charming sendup of the current camper van resurgence, Marcus Williams and Sj Stone of the Nashvillebased design studio One Man, One Garage have created a set of vintage camper birdhouse kits that are the perfect backyard outpost for a family of birds. The design was inspired by a 1974 Serro Scotty Hilander that once belonged to Williams, complete with decorative window shades and accessories such as flowers, a grill, and a few lawn flamingos. The wooden models each come in a 40-piece set, which are flat-packed for easy construction. You can purchase a painted or customizable kit from the duo’s Etsy shop, and see more of their wood-based designs on their website and Instagram. (via Laughing Squid)
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es the Perfect Backyard Outpost Kate Sierzputowski
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Does This Writing Group Work?
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Book Reviews-www.ekbooks.org - B
EK Books, an imprint of Exisle Publishing have a series of books which cover a wide range of sensory perceptions... Sight and hearing, community, diversity, self belief and creativity are just a few of the areas they cover with appealing texts for children (and their adults), helping explain or develop an understanding of events or feelings which are difficult to quantify.
Picture of the front and back... or is that the back and front??
These books would be an asset in an classroom or library and as they could well suit the purpose of unlocking conversations for children who have difficulty expressing themselves they could also be a useful in the family bookcase.
Hear See
A sampling of books they have recently published follows.
This ‘Flip Book’ on Hear and See is one of a growing group of books published by EK which have at their core the senses...
By Tania McCartney, Illustrated by Jess Racklyeft Published:
EK Books
RRP :
NZ $24.99, UK 10.99,
US $17.99, Can $23.99
Inside: senses, sensory development, sight and hearing
With delightful watercolour illustrations, and posing the question ‘There’s magic all around you. What can you see? What can you hear’... it is imaginative and quirky enough to be appealing to both adults and children.
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Books with Heart on Issues that Matter Visiting You By Rebecka Sharpe Shelberg & Andrea Edmond Published EK Books RRP NZ 24.99, UK 10.99, US $17.99, Can $23.99 Inside: Community, Tolerance, Diversity, Love, Loss, Hope I found this book to be rather moving as a child took a journey to visit a loved one and encountered a diverse variety of people who were all on their own journeys. While some of them were what could be considered ‘ ‘scary’ or ‘different’ they all responded to the child’s question “Who are you going to visit” with their particular story and memories the person they were going to visit. So the child with mother’s support learned on that journey that loving others can take many different forms and that sometimes we need to look at what is within rather than at what we see.
The Art Garden Penny Harrison & Penelope Pratley Published EK Books RRP NZ$24.99, UK 10.99, US $17.99, Can $23.99 Inside: Creativity, Self-Belief, Friendship Another beautifully illustrated book from EK Books with a lovely story exploring the notion of creativity and the ability to recognise in yourself that your creativity may be different from your friend but still be one which best suits you. The concept that all people are creative ... it’s just a case of finding and recognising which one is a perfect fit for you... comes through throughout the book as Sadie who wants to paint beautifully like her friend Tom and has a series of experiences (none particularly good) in trying until she changes her perspective on her own creativity and how to express it. Lovely book and as with the others an excellent conversation starter for children who are despondent about their ability to ‘create’.
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First Master of Professional Practice Graduates
Mumtaz Parker Dalwai and fellow graduate Robert Nelson celebrated a special event last week. Not only did they each graduate with the Master of Professional Practice, but they were the first WelTec graduates who successfully completed the level 9 Masters programme with an endorsement in leadership.
past five years and was delighted to have the opportunity to complete the leading edge Masters programme.
“The information and knowledge I gained has helped me in my current role as Manager, Trainee Education Programs for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians,” says Mumtaz Parker Dalwai.
Head of Social Services at WelTec and Whitireia Kendra Beri is thrilled to see the first graduates of WelTec with the Master of Professional Practice, which was launched in 2016.
“I studied leadership and undertook my research, which is a component of the Master of Professional Practice, on employees’ perspectives of management communication practices in the Tertiary Education Sector. My employer was very interested in the research I completed and I have been able to apply my studies to the benefit of my organisation,” says Mumtaz. For Robert Nelson, senior academic in the School of Business at WelTec and Whitireia the Masters has “opened my eyes.” Robert’s thesis focused on techniques for effective student conflict resolution. “The Masters validated my work over many years.” Robert has taught at WelTec for the 82 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
“The Master of Professional Practice is very flexible with online learning and face-to-face tutorials. The programme provides students with the skills to be effective leaders of interprofessional teams,” says Robert.
“The collaborative approach of this Masters is evident in the overall curriculum design for the suite of post graduate programmes we offer in this field which also includes a Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Practice. “These qualifications are applicable to people from a broad cross-section including educators, team leaders and managers in the state and private sectors, and health and social service professionals wanting to further their skills of working in interdisciplinary teams. Graduates like Mumtaz and Robert have developed leadership skills and enhanced their knowledge in their chosen discipline,” says Kendra Beri.
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NVPF launches an important 3-year project to reduce youth violence in Uganda 250 schools, 2500 teachers, 25 000 students with a total of 250 000 people in communities will be engaged in The NonViolence Project Foundation (NVPF)’s educational project in Uganda, thanks to the financial support from the City and the Canton of Geneva in Switzerland. The 3-year project is an outreach to stem the escalation of youth violence in the country, which has increased partly due to lack of knowledge on how to solve conflicts peacefully and to the high rate of youth unemployment. The project’s first phase is to train 20 NVPF Master Trainers who then will train teachers in rural and urban schools in the Busoga Sub region of eastern Uganda. The teachers and students will be trained in the three levels of NVPF’s Schools for Peace program over the three years’ period, to ensure a continuous decrease of violence.
“Thanks to our generous supporters for practically getting on board to address this often ignored problem of youth violence, we are sure that this project will tremendously build the capacity of schools and teachers to manage conflicts and most importantly inspire our young people to become peace builders rather than engaging in violence and risky behaviors.” says Eddy Balina, Country Director of NVP Uganda, established in 2011. NVPF’s CEO Blaise Oberson thanks the Geneva authorities for their support and says; “we believe our education programs are the solution to reduce violence in Uganda, as well as in most other parts of the world where violence has increased to unreasonable proportions.” The Uganda Project will be launched with a ceremony on the 8th of March in NVP Uganda’s Head office in the district of Jinja, with guest speakers from local authorities, partners and other international and national organizations. www.nonviolence.com 20 NVPF Master Trainers are this week being educated by Ivana Busljeta, Global Director of Education NVPF.
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Are You as Good as Your Robot?
“We should be working harder to figure out how soon large-scale employment disruption will occur and exactly what income policies will be needed when the time comes.” — Elliott/Van Damme Stuart and Dirk: According to Computers and Technological advances are going to change the Future of Skill Demand, robots seem to be better at hard skills such as mathematics and work skills in the future and leave certain computing, while humans are much better at kinds of workers unemployable. soft skills, such as reasoning and writing. Should education systems in the future focus more on A new book, Computers and the Future of softer skills and give up teaching hard skills Skill Demand, uses a test based on the altogether, or is there some value in knowing OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) to skills that robots, at the moment, seem to be compare computers with humans. better at?
The test assesses three skills that education systems like to focus on which are used in today’s workplace, namely literacy, numeracy and problem solving. The Global Search for Education invited Stuart Elliott, the book’s author, and Dirk Van Damme, OECD’s Head of the Skills Beyond Schools Division, to discuss the study. 84 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018
For a skill like literacy, it’s still useful to learn to read at a simple level – similar to what computers can already do – as a way to develop reading skills that are beyond current computers. So one reason to learn something a computer can do is to develop a higher level of that skill. Other skills are useful to learn to develop certain ways of thinking. Computers are far better at basic arithmetic and we now rarely solve complicated math problems by hand. But it’s helpful for everyone to learn basic arithmetic as part of learning to reason with numbers, even if
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C. M. Rubin
“We’ll be surrounded by computers that provide information, direct our attention and suggest choices. The real competence needed by people will be the critical thinking and reasoning to put all the pieces together.” — Elliott/Van Damme we usually use calculators for most arithmetic problems.
In your opinion, what are three key skills each child must possess in order to remain competent in an age of robotics? The study looked at three skills that are generally believed to be important for everyone: literacy, numeracy and problem solving. That’s why we call them ‘foundation skills’. These will still be key skills over the next few decades. But the capabilities of computers suggest we’ll be using these skills in new ways, as we’re already seeing. We’ll be surrounded by computers that provide information, direct our attention and suggest choices. The real competence needed by people will be the critical thinking and reasoning to put all the pieces together.
What can parents, who have young children, do to prepare their kids for a robotic future we know so little about? This question goes beyond the current study. However, it might be helpful for parents to focus on a set of more fundamental skills that have
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been important throughout human history: the skills of developing passionate interests, building strong individual relationships, and participating actively in groups. These skills will continue to be essential to creating a meaningful life, no matter what happens with robots and computers.
Do you foresee a future where governments and intergovernmental agencies mandate human-to-AI ratios in the workplace to avoid massive unemployment, especially in the transitioning phases between human and robotic workers? Such a mandate seems completely unworkable and would simply encourage companies to find ways to work around the requirement. For one thing, it would be impossible to count robotic workers because most automation will be virtual and invisibly distributed across many computers. This is the case for the skills analysed in the current study. Instead of trying to limit robots and computers, effective policy responses to job loss will need to start first with education and then move to income redistribution as automation becomes more advanced. Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 85
We hear a lot about robots in professional contexts but let’s talk about this technology’s social implications. Can robots become our friends? What role will robots have in human societies, especially outside of jobs?
Saudi Arabia recently gave citizenship to a female robot named Sophia. How will giving citizenship to robots change society’s rules, such as human/ robot rights? Should governments start drafting up legislations that deal with robots?
This question goes beyond the study and the current state of computer technology. However, we know that people have emotional reactions to objects like dolls and to animals with more limited behaviour than humans. There are also anecdotes about people having emotional reactions to simple computer conversational systems like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. So there’s no question that people will develop emotional reactions to robots as their behaviour becomes increasingly complex and responsive. At some point, it will be natural to see our extended relationships with particular robots as allowing a kind of friendship. This is a theme that’s often been addressed in science fiction, but the reality is a long way away.
At this stage of the technology, giving citizenship to a robot is a publicity stunt that trivializes the serious issues involved. Someday there are likely to be robots that are so self-reflective that they’ll describe their reasoning and goals the same way humans do. When that happens, we’ll need to decide whether to treat those robots legally as having a kind of self-interest comparable to humans. That decision involves difficult scientific and moral issues that will be hard to work through, but we’re not there yet.
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On a more practical side, however, it’s already time for legislation to start to address the responsibilities of autonomous robots and computers, such as self-driving cars, automated trading systems or computer personal assistants. Increasingly, such systems are making decisions that only humans have made in the past. There will be many practical areas where legislation related to actions by robots and computers will be needed.
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All Pictures from C.M.Rubin
“It might be helpful for parents to focus on a set of more fundamental skills that have been important throughout human history: the skills of developing passionate interests, building strong individual relationships, and participating actively in groups.” — Elliott/Van Damme
“Someday there are likely to be robots that are so self-reflective that they’ll describe their reasoning and goals the same way humans do. When that happens, we’ll need to decide whether to treat those robots legally as having a kind of self-interest comparable to humans.” — Elliott/Van Damme
Are we equating robots to humans too much? We’re nowhere close to robots being equal to humans, so it’s still science fiction to think about robot friendships or citizenship. However, most work tasks don’t require full human capabilities, so we do need to start to think about the possibility of robots and computers substituting for many human workers.
Can you foresee a world where robots, AI, automation, algorithms, 3D printing, and all these interrelated advances, cause such an enormous disruption in employment for human beings that our entire economic system will need to be transformed? For instance, a world that will require a basic incomes policy and in which a very significant portion of the population will not be employed? Absolutely. The primary question is whether such large-scale employment disruption is only a few decades away or whether it won’t appear for a century or more. If most skills are like the three
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skills we analysed in the study, then such disruption is probably only a few decades away. But we simply don’t know if that’s the case “Once you how an algorithm because weunderstand haven’t analysed other types ofworks, skills. typing it out should be an afterthought. The Whenever the disruption comes, it will require important thing is to understand it—once you difficult changes to the structure of the economy, do, it’s yours forever.” involving something like a universal basic income. — Derek Lo It’s too soon for the public to worry about this or for governments to enact basic income policies. However, we should be working harder to figure out how soon large-scale employment disruption will occur and exactly what income policies will be needed when the time comes.
Stuart Elliott, C. M. Rubin, Dirk Van Damme
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Paper Cutouts by ‘Paperboyo’ Transform London-based paper artist and photographer Rich McCor (aka. paperboyo) has a way of seeing the world from a slightly different perspective. By adding a simple paper cutout to the foreground of famous buildings or other popular tourist attractions, he creates novel moments in time where an octopus squirms from inside the Colosseum or a WW2-era sailor embraces the Leaning Tower of Pisa in reference to the famous photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. McCor makes frequent mentions to pop culture by recreating scenes from films or by repurposing works from other artists. To see what he dreams up next you can join his near quarter million followers on Instagram. (via Creators Project)
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m World Landmarks into Quirky Scenes Christopher Jobson
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Lonely Planet Kids..
Marco and Amelia are back an Lonely Planet City Trails, Secrets, stories and other cool stuff I have just finished looking at the most fantastic set of books... perfect for those with a short attention span, those who like to ‘dip into’ a book, those who like to amass facts and super cool for anyone travelling to the cities they cover. While Marco and Amelia (who we’ve met before in other reviews) are children who are sharing facts about these cities for other children I would certainly take them with me if I were visiting . I looked most carefully at the one on Sydney – a city I have visited many times – as a basis for this review. The next time I venture to Sydney I’ll be taking the book along with me ! I have visited so many of the places highlighted and yet managed to not only find information about them that I was not aware of but also found so many more interesting features and sights to take in next time. There is all sorts of interesting information .. historical facts and buildings,. Following the carefully themed ‘Sydney City Trails’ outlined in the book will
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make sightseeing so much more fun. Now if I feel this way as an adult what do you think the interest level of visiting children might be? And those who are armchair readers will be able to read through the different trails... grab a city map and use their imaginations to travel in their minds... learning as they go. There’s scope for further investigation and finding out in more depth any of the interesting facts which happen to spark the imagination. Marco and Amelia travel both well known and secret paths to find a myriad of fascinating facts. Lonely Planet sent City Trails books for Tokyo, Sydney, Washington DC, and Rome and there are others available, London and Paris spring to mind... The remaining three books are written following the same formula and unlike some formulas these are all just as interesting as the first. I’d recommend having these book available... great for readers who love information but have a short attentions span, those who love collecting facts and adults who need a diversion. ... Great books!
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nd busier than ever!
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Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018 97
“The best teachers don’t give you the answers... They just point the way ... and let you make your own choices.” 98 Good Teacher Magazine Term 2 2018