Hi Colleagues,
I hope this week’s edition finds you well.
QUOTE
“A great discussion is one of the best ways to engage people of all ages, to make student learning visible, and to create community. Kids of all ages can do this, but if they aren't used to taking charge of their own learning, it will take time and practice. Students will need to break engrained hierarchies, like looking to the teacher for the right questions and answers and raising hands to speak. When learners respond to questions from a place of genuine interest (rather than trying to please teachers), they use entirely different networks of their brains (Kang et al., 2009); students in a dialogue-based classroom who've become used to more teacher-centric ways of doing school will need to rebuild those neural connections. So, dialogue is not a "one off" experience to try, but a classroom way of life to practice over weeks, months, or years.”
Ostroff (2020)
CARTOON OF THE WEEK
CAMBERWELL SOUTH
Recently I had my first day of the year at Camberwell South. What I love most about my work is that I get to work closely with super talented educators of which CSPS has an abundance.
The work I engage in with schools is many and varied. The most common practice would be to go on learning walks, which is important, but at CSPS I often have a deep coaching session with individual teachers on top of a learning walk.
The learning walks and coaching are complementary, but the coaching allows for individuals to hear all of the excellent practices they are engaging in, as well as one or two areas that will help them become even stronger.
After a period of leadership instability, the recent appointment of Tash Cummins as substantive principal helps ensure that CSPS is a school going places. Congrats Tash!
GEOGRAPHY
I’ve always been interested in Geography and I’ve recently discovered Tomas Pueyo’s website that has a number of interesting blog posts (some are free, some you need to subscribe to).
The articles are relevant for upper primary and secondary students (as well as adults 😊).
I’ve included links to the free posts below.
Geography Is the Chessboard of History, [the big patterns of GeoHistory] The Global Chessboard [the big patterns of GeoHistory, part 2] A Brief History of the Caribbean What China Wants and Why Egypt vs. Ethiopia
LD ONLINE
LD OnLine focuses on learning disabilities, featuring hundreds of helpful articles, expert interviews, videos, columns by noted experts, first-person essays, children’s writing and artwork, and a comprehensive resource guide.
The resource is American focused, but obviously this easily transfers beyond the U.S.
A blurb from the site:
“More than 2.9 million school-age children in the United States — approximately five percent of the student population — are diagnosed with learning disabilities. Many more struggle in school but never receive a formal diagnosis. For more than 25 years LD OnLine has provided educators and families with accurate, authoritative information about learning disabilities so they can obtain the help and support they need.
LD OnLine also serves adolescents and adults with learning disabilities. Our site offers information and resources on the transitions from school to college and from school to the workplace, and on the issues faced by adults with learning disabilities.”
When working with students that have learning disabilities it is important to be informed - check it out.
WORDLE
I love a good word game, or weekend paper crossword, but I have to declare that I am yet to complete a Wordle. I’m assuming that you have all heard of Wordle by now, whether or not you have played it.
I have discovered some spin-offs that you might want to explore.
Dordle – guess two mystery words instead of one
Quordle – guess four mystery words
Octordle – guess eight mystery words
Latin wordle – exactly what it sounds like
Nerdle – like wordle, except it’s numbers and maths calculations
Heardle – name that tune, based on 1 second increments
Semantle – guess the word based on semantic similarity (devilish)
ONELOOK
OneLook is a search engine that aggregates word definitions from over 1,061 indexed dictionaries. Visually, it can be a bit overwhelming—so it can take a little bit of getting used to. It’s worth sticking with it: it's useful for not just defining words... but also finding them when you're like what's a word that means....?
Thanks for reading and see you next week,
Danny.
P.S Feel free to provide me with any feedback regarding the newsletter, or anything for that matter via email. Also, let me know what topics you would be interested in reading more about.
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