Category Archives: differentiation

Maribyrnong Network of School Leaders

Posted on October 29, 2018 by mwalker

This post is to follow-up our network day on the first 2 steps of Data Wise. We spoke about answering the WHY question when change is being advocated – as we are about to advocate for change in collaboration in … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, differentiation, Feedback, Instruction, Leadership, Networks of Schools, professional learning, Teaching, Uncategorized, Video Clips | Leave a comment

Why have learning intentions without success criteria?

Posted on July 24, 2017 by mwalker

John, in this 9 min clip, puts the case for why we need to explain what we intend students to learn, why and how they might self assess success. It’s hard to defend the opposite. In this clip John’s work … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, differentiation, Feedback, Instruction, professional learning, Teaching, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Provoking student interest in learning

Posted on December 2, 2014 by mwalker

I say again I’m in a fortunate role as principal to see some amazing products and processes of learning and I’m guilty of not sharing these as often as I should. So here goes: the first two photos show an … Continue reading →

Posted in curriculum, differentiation, Instruction, Teaching, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

“education is not a horse race”

Posted on July 3, 2014 by mwalker

Over the holidays I came across an easy to read article by Elliot Einser on Benjamin Bloom. Essentially the article made a some key points about Bloom’s work: education as a process was an effort to realize human potential, indeed, … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, curriculum, differentiation, Instruction, Instructional Rounds, Teaching | 1 Comment

Is drill and kill the right approach to learning to spell?

Posted on May 19, 2013 by mwalker

My headline is in lots of ways misleading for there is no one right way to learn to spell efficiently in English. In the 60’s and 70’s we made students learn to spell lists of words through repetition or drill … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, differentiation, Instruction, Teaching | 10 Comments

Personalising is really an outcome of differentiation: points to note for educators

Posted on June 10, 2012 by mwalker

At a recent regional Principal conference I heard Vic Zbar, an educational consultant based in Victoria; speak about personalising teaching and learning. Personalising learning he put it was really an outcome of differentiation. Vic then made a number of points I … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Assessment, differentiation, Geelong Conference, Instruction, school, teacher efficacy, Teaching, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

2011 Instructional Rounds Evaluation

Posted on January 27, 2012 by mwalker

As I set up our Network Instructional Rounds dates for 2012 I was interested to read and reflect upon another group of principal evaluations of their experiences last year. Overwhelmingly the consistent comment of principals as observers in both groups are … Continue reading →

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Carol Tomlinson: an encounter to remember!

Posted on January 5, 2012 by mwalker

This year in our Instructional Rounds group within the local network of schools we purchased Carol Tomlinson’s book “Leading and Managing A Differentiated Classroom” to use as a base text for understanding our observation of instruction in classrooms. Last year … Continue reading →

Posted in 2011 ASCD Conference, Assessment, differentiation, Instruction, Leadership, Teaching, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Rick Wormeli on redo’s and retakes

Posted on November 6, 2011 by mwalker

I’ve been pondering some recent parent feedback about our senior students lack of engagement with some teachers and the material they are expected to learn. I began my reflections about the students coming from the digital generation and expecting to … Continue reading →

Posted in differentiation, Feedback, Instruction, teacher efficacy, Teaching, Uncategorized, Video Clips | 6 Comments

Three improvement strategies to make a difference to relationships and learning.

Posted on April 10, 2011 by mwalker

Over the past 2 months we have focused on preparing our teachers to differentiate instruction. I’m writing this post to explain to readers within my own community why this emphasis on preparation and why we need to adopt three different … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Assessment, coaching, Collaborative Communities, differentiation, Instruction, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Differentiated Instruction

Posted on March 2, 2011 by mwalker

This post is a work in progress. I’m putting it up on my blog before this weeks instructional rounds for principals to view so that we can tune in to the problem of practice.

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