Hi Colleagues,
I hope this week’s edition finds you well.
QUOTE
“The primary purpose of formative assessment is to improve learning, not merely audit it. It is assessment for learning rather than assessment of learning. Formative assessment is both an instructional tool that teachers and their students use while learning is occurring and an accountability tool to determine if learning has occurred. In other words, to be “formative,” assessments must inform decisions that teachers and their students make minute by minute in the classroom.” Moss & Brookhart (2009)
FUNNY OF THE WEEK
NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK
If you weren’t aware we are currently in the middle of National Reconciliation Week. The dates for NRW are the same each year – May 27th - June 3rd. The dates are significant as they commemorate two milestones towards reconciliation – the referendum in 1967, and the High Court Mabo decision. The week itself is a perfect opportunity for students (and educators) to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements. It’s also important that we consider how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.
In my experience, all schools have Acknowledgement of Country as part of what they do as a school. This can lend itself to becoming token over time, and it is important that if we are acknowledging country, that our curriculum also reflects indigenous perspectives and culture.
Some resources that might be complementary to building greater knowledge and understanding:
· The Melbourne FC rebranding as the Narrm FC
· Books – ‘Fire Country’; ‘The Biggest Estate on Earth’; ‘Welcome To Country’; ‘Dark Emu’; ‘Young Dark Emu’
Let’s all play our part when it comes to reconciliation.
CAREERS – 80,000 HOURS
80,000 hours started as an organisation in 2011. It came about when the founders were about to graduate from Oxford, and were wondering what to do with their own careers.
I never really knew what I wanted to do as a career, and while I’m happy with how things have turned out, it would have been nice to have more direction/options when I was ready to enter the workforce.
The name 80,000 hours stems from the idea that is how many hours you will roughly work in your career: 40 years x 50 weeks x 40 hours.
What I love most about 80,000 Hours, is that it provides research and support to help students and graduates switch into careers that effectively tackle the world’s most pressing problems.
On their site, they have a lot of resources for students to consider:
1. Online guides – which cover key ideas, such as how to compare careers in terms of impact, which global problems are most pressing, ideas for new high-impact career paths, and how to make a career plan
2. A podcast – in-depth interviews about the world’s most pressing problems, and how you can help solve them
3. A job board – with current opportunities to work on big and neglected problems and build skills
4. One-on-one advice – which helps their most engaged readers enter the pathway that is best for them, by helping them make an individual plan and by making introductions to mentors, jobs and funding.
Below I’ve included their list of the world’s most pressing problems:
HIGHEST PRIORITY AREAS
SECOND HIGHEST PRIORITY AREAS
BUYING BOOKS
I always have a huge list of books that are on my list to buy.
As educators it is hard to read anything of note during a school term, but it is an excellent way to recharge when the holidays arrive. Therefore, now is a good time to order a book or two so that it can arrive just in time for when you get a break.
In the link below is a list of the best books under various categories.
Happy reading!
SCIENCE
On the theme of reading, one of the best ways for students to gain an appreciation of science is to … read.
Below are a series of resources that contain scientific articles that are in student friendly language.
· https://kids.frontiersin.org/: written and formatted as a scientific journal, but for kids. Visually appealing scientific articles--complete with abstracts, references, young peer reviewers, and citations.
· https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/: a free version that is similar to kids.frontiersin.org, but you can get a paid teacher account to unlock extra educator features.
· https://www.dogonews.com: has a focus on Science and Social Studies.
· https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org: scientific feature articles, written with a playful but an authoritative voice.
· https://www.sciencea-z.com/: this one's like Newsela, but for science. It's made by the Reading A-Z team.
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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