Comments on: Diving In Part 2

By: Blog Prompt for Week of 9/9 « Whole New Minds: English in the Flat World

Blog Prompt for Week of 9/9 « Whole New Minds: English in the Flat World — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:45:04 +0000

[...] 3–To Do–Set up your bloglines account to retrieve selected content from classmates and other web “teachers” w/one click. And see what Will has to say to the teacher he encountered at one of his workshops in Australia! Very cool. It’s his message and his mantra. [...]

By: Janetta Garton

Janetta Garton — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:02:38 +0000

Perfect turn around. I’m going to try this strategy on the next nay sayer with the “but…I can’t….” attitude.

By: Greg E

Greg E — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:29:49 +0000

Hi Wil,
After meeing you in Lorne, I decided to challenge my own teachers about their own learning and digital life-style. Since then, Library Lynn has started a great blog about every book she reads (subscribed to by teachers and students) and Keith has created a multimedia blog for his Oxfam trip to South East Asia. Our students might be involved, but so might anyone, anywhere. I feeling good about moving beyond thinking of the Australian classroom walls and Australian education system as barriers to new learning. We just need to think bigger, and that is every teacher’s responsibility.

By: wendy phillips

wendy phillips — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:37:47 +0000

Hi John! You are correct – the school year is broken up into 4 ‘terms’ with a break between each one of 2 weeks duration (some private schools have a 3 week break between terms 2 and 3). The Summer holiday break between school years is about 6 weeks and spans christmas from december to the end of january. Personally I think it’s a nice set up – they get refreshed and ready to go again between each term and have a good long break over our summer, and enjoy the warm weather. Usually, they have projects and study to do during the breaks as well.

By: john brandt

john brandt — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:44:30 +0000

Will, I am curious about “vacation/holidays” in Australia. I just visited some Aussie education sites which show the kids get a “summer vacation/holiday” for about 5-6 weeks from around late December to late January. They then have what looks like 1-2 week breaks three times during the school year. I wonder what effect that has on learning since it is unlike the American system where kids have off for over two months in the summer, plus a 7-10 day break at Christmas, and a week in the winter and a week in the spring.

By: Will Richardson

Will Richardson — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:18:24 +0000

@Karen…thanks for the comment, and I hear you. There shouldn’t be anything stopping teachers from continually learning. But there is a system that most every teacher operates within, and at the end of the day, it’s one that promotes very narrow assessments as the measure not just of student achievement but of teacher competence. Creativity and teaching “out of the box” is not rewarded for either group. In a perfect world, professionals continually update their knowledge because they are compelled to, intrinsically more than extrinsically. In education, it seems the extrinsic pressures are to stay the course, and at the end of the day, that dampens anyone’s desire to keep learning.

By: Karen Janowski

Karen Janowski — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:00:36 +0000

Will,
Welcome back – sounds like an unforgettable adventure for your entire family.
Just can’t agree with you final conclusion – that “Not only is our kids’ enthusiasm for learning being largely dampened by the system, so is that of our teachers.”
What do you really mean by this? Does “the system” control teachers’ time outside of school? Does “the system” restrict or even mandate what teacher’s can learn in any environment? Does “the system” limit opportunities to model lifelong learning?
Teachers are responsible for their own enthusiasm for learning as well as their own learning.
And who or what is “the system?” Your statement sounds very Orwellian and I don’t believe that it applies to the profession of teaching. Part of being a professional requires one to continually update their knowledge and and use the latest tools, technologies and theories.
The worse problem to me, would be if teachers relinquish their responsibility as professionals to continue to seek knowledge.