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Education Readings   By Allan Alach Sad news this week. One of New Zealand’s premier educators, Kelvin Smythe, lost his battle against prostate cancer last Saturday .  Kelvin was one of the very best educators in New Zealand’s history and his passing is a tragedy for primary school education. Over the past decade from 2009, Kelvin led the battle against the then government’s imposition of national standards (not too dissimilar to common core standards in the USA) and I think it’s fair to say that his efforts contributed to the removal of these when the government changed a year ago. He was indeed an educational warrior who fought to the end to protect holistic /creative /democratic teaching from current technocratic formulaic approach es . Our condolences to Kelvin’s family , who devoted themselves to his care over the last few weeks . Every week Bruce Hammonds and I collect articles to share with teachers to encourage a creative approach to teaching and learning. I welcome ...

We need creativity not  standardisation! Education Readings By Allan Alach I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz How to improve the school results: not extra maths but music, loads of it Thanks to Al Ingham for this article. 'But at Feversham, the headteacher, Naveed Idrees, has embedded music, drama and art into every part of the school day, with up to six hours of music a week for every child, and with remarkable results. Seven years ago Feversham was in special measures and making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Today it is rated “good” by Ofsted and is in the top 10% nationally for pupil progress in reading, writing and maths, according to the most recent data.’ http://bit.ly/2klQVoC Helicopter Parents Need To Let Teachers Do Their Jobs ‘Ms. Streeter realized that " one of the greatest challenges for teachers and principals is dealing with stressed, over-reaching parents who, like me, can't see the...

Ideas to read and share - pass on to two poeople Education Readings By Allan Alach I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz 10 Things That Happen When Students Engage in Design Thinking ‘Unfortunately, the system isn’t designed for innovation. For years, schools have been stuck in a one-size-fits-all factory model, where students passively consume content. Some people will point out that this model is outdated. However, I would argue that factory education was a bad idea from the start. Because here’s the thing: kids aren’t widgets. While one-size-fits-all works great for socks, it’s not ideal for minds.  Kids need to dream and wonder and imagine. They need to design and build and tinker. This is why I love design thinking. It’s a flexible framework that guides students through specific phases in the creative process.’ http://bit.ly/2fGQNt5 What Neuroscience Can Tell Us About Making Fractions Stick ‘Fractions a...