Mark's Learning Log- Harvard Data Wise Institute in Melbourne January 28, 2024Last week 19 school teams came to Melbourne during the last week of school holidays to attend a 5 day Harvard Data Wise Institute. There were long 8 hours days of intensive learning where participants shared their ‘why’ stories with … Continue reading →mwalker
- Jez – the old chestnut – ability grouping or streaming – is still being touted as a solution to falling standards! January 5, 2024Sorry Natasha, education editor for the Australian Newspaper, wrote a recent article on the state of education in Australia using the results of the recent PISA tests to say that our students are bored out of their brains at school, … Continue reading →mwalker
- Harvard Data Wise Institute in Melbourne January 28, 2024
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Author Archives: mwalker
Teachers look at phonics anew after training
A recent article in the Australian Newspaper raised two points on the teaching of reading skills in schools: States in Australia are increasing testing the phonic skills of students “NSW this week became the second state after South Australia to … Continue reading
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Can we see through the looking glass into an alternative world?
In Lewis Carroll’s book Alice is playing with her white kittens when she ponders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror’s reflection. Climbing up onto the fireplace mantel, she pokes at the wall-hung mirror behind the fireplace … Continue reading
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Parents want more than jobs out of education for their children.
The Australian Newspaper features an article by Chris Mitchell “Parents want education system to prep kids for jobs, not political activism”. In the article he makes a number of claims and offers solutions which I think need a response. Mitchell’s … Continue reading
Posted in parenting, politics, school, Teaching, Uncategorized
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What does back at school look like?
. As schools in Victoria resume face to face teaching over the next 2 weeks there might be a temptation for a period of testing to see where students are up to, what gaps may have occurred and know what … Continue reading
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Teaching has 4 Seasons
During this Covid 19 isolation period I have been catching up on my reading and I came across an article in the ASCD Education Update (Oct 2019) titled “Teaching Comes in Seasons”. The author Chase Mielke talked about the careers … Continue reading
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Lilydale High School
During November I worked with the leadership team at Lilydale High School on collaboration. Some of the resources we used: https://hbr.org/2002/06/a-survival-guide-for-leaders Lilydale HS Meeting Rolling Agenda.docx http://mwalker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Inventory-of-Instructional-Initiatives.xlsx
Posted in Data Wise Program, school, school structures, Uncategorized
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Use differing Genre in teaching Reading and Writing
I’ve posted these two images from the work of Cass a reading specialist after recent discussions about the growing effects of NAPLAN particularly on writing. It seems the genre we teach is narrowing to narrative (what sort of narrative I … Continue reading
Posted in Assessment, Instruction, writing
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Effect Size: using Hattie’s work
In my ‘using data wisely’ work around Victoria I’m asked about calculating Hattie’s effect sizes. There are several good sites that show you how, here are some. From Visible Learning In the interests of perspective here I have included a … Continue reading
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How to determine zones of proximal development.
In my “using data wisely” work with Principals and teachers I’m sometimes sometimes how to look at a data set and calculate zones of proximal development. This clip featuring Patrick Griffin from Melbourne University I think answers that question.
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Student Reports: Are they worth the time and cost?
During May I visited a number of schools and invariably teachers spoke to me about starting their student reports which were due in 4-5 weeks time to parents. It seemed a long time in the prepare phase but then as … Continue reading
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Yarra – Darebin Network of Schools
Hi everyone, This post has the requested resources from our day together and some snapshots to remember the highlights: De-identified Primary School Data Inventory 2016 – 2018 DW Minutes sample The Five WHY’s protocol. Compass Points (survey monkey) Leadership-compass-self-assessment … Continue reading
Maribyrnong Network of School Leaders
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
Inferencing in the early years
This week I’m writing about inferencing. It’s nearly 5 months into the Australian academic year for our Foundation to Year 2 students and teachers have built Reading Workshops where students build sufficient reading stamina for guided groups to run, where learning … Continue reading
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Lesson Transitions
About 9 months ago I started working as a casual academic for Deakin University, Faculty of Education, in Victoria. Students are placed in schools for at least 80 days, depending upon their course. They work along students and experienced teachers … Continue reading
Painting a new school’s curriculum and pedagogy.
As an educator, and now consultant, it’s hard not to get excited when you are asked to support a newish school develop its curriculum and pedagogy. In many ways, it’s like a starting a painting with a blank canvas, or … Continue reading
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