Co-operative schools
Almost unnoticed, Co-ops are thought to have increased in number so they now make up the third largest association of schools in England, after those run by the Church of England and by the Roman Catholic church. They easily outstrip more publicised groups such as Ark Schools or the Harris academy chain. via guardian.co.uk . […]
Fish climbing trees
This is going up in my classroom. Thanks Joe! “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” -Albert Einstein
Getting Children into Groups #ukedchat
Frank Noschese has shared a fabulous way of getting children into groups at the beginning of a term. I’ve made a couple of tiny tweaks for my UK students. I waited at the door and, as kids entered class, gave each one a card with a word on it. Initially, students could sit wherever they […]
No more celebrity news
Gesture Theory have come up with a way of filtering out Brangelina, Posh and Becks et al from your news. [hat tip Lifehacker] It’s called Silence of the Celebs and works on Android at the mo. “Sick of hearing about Charlie Sheen when you go to your favorite news site? Well now you can do […]
10 most irritating phrases
More important research here from the University of Oxford – the top ten most irritating phrases are: At the end of the day Fairly unique I personally At this moment in time With all due respect Absolutely It’s a nightmare Shouldn’t of 24/7 It’s not rocket science My methodology isn’t quite as rigorous but I...
To teach by theme or by subject
There’s a report here from Pearson about whether to teach by theme or by subject. It goes over the Rose Review, the Cambridge Primary Review, current research and some case studies of successful schools in the UK. Then it looks at successful models in Singapore, Finland, Canada, Korea and Australia. The conclusions are A holistic...
Parents spying on their children
Over half of parents use Facebook to keep an eye on their children?! Aargh…. Would be really interested to know how children react to that. Courtesy of: OnlineSchools.com [thanks to Edudemic for the pointer]
The Lost Tools Of Learning
we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall […]
Where Children Sleep
This [via Kottke & Lens] looks beautiful and depressing in the way that only photos seem to manage. The caption for these photos reads: “A 4-year-old from Romania who, with his family, sleeps on a mattress on the outskirts of Rome.” It’s from a book called Where Children Sleep by James Mollison. Mollison says: When...
Gamification is Bullshit #gbl
Some interesting points made by Ian Bogost: [thanks Tom Armitage] In his short treatise On Bullshit, the moral philosopher Harry Frankfurt gives us a useful theory of bullshit. We normally think of bullshit as a synonym—albeit a somewhat vulgar one—for lies or deceit. But Frankfurt argues that bullshit has nothing to do with truth....