Mark's Learning Log- Wondering if all teachers in training and graduate teachers are being taught to instruct all students in reading as though they were in the red? September 29, 2024I have this wondering that we are teaching all students in the class – as a whole class lesson – in the junior years as though they all needed the intensive phonic instruction and frequent repetition. Yes some explicit instruction … Continue reading →mwalker
- Why Why is the question we all need to answer! May 31, 2024In my work with school educators this is the question I ask them to resolve for themselves. What drives you to lead / teach young people and why? What happened to you and why is that important. I was reminded … Continue reading →mwalker
- Wondering if all teachers in training and graduate teachers are being taught to instruct all students in reading as though they were in the red? September 29, 2024
Mark’s Visitor Map
Readers Map
Category Archives: Harvard
Elsternwick PS meets Tobin Montessori in Boston
Continuing the series of posts written by Jess, Erin and Sarah 3 teachers attending the Harvard Institute and now visiting schools. Today we visited The Tobin School in Cambridge. This school was familiar to us, as we had read about … Continue reading
Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, Instruction, Networks of Schools, school, Teaching
2 Comments
American History – learned over a weekend.
This post continues to be written by our four staff over in Boston – this time over the weekend exploring American history. The weekend was spent exploring Boston’s significant history, namely its prominent place as the birthplace of American independence. … Continue reading
Posted in Harvard, history, Holidays, Travel
2 Comments
Data Wise: Summer Institute Day 5.
Well…it’s over. Today was a celebration of our journey so far. We spent some time-sharing our insights and dilemmas with another school, and used something called the “consultancy protocol” to give and receive feedback around our journey to date. We … Continue reading
Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, history, Teaching
4 Comments
Data Wise: Summer Institute Day 4
Today all the 8 pieces of the Data Wise Improvement Process came together. We collaborated with teachers from other Elementary schools on a case study about a school in Texas. We used real data, student work samples and videos of … Continue reading
Data Wise: Summer Institute Day 3
We are now officially over half way through the course, and what a whole lot of learning has taken place. We feel that in a sense there has been growth on four different levels – personal, team, school and beyond … Continue reading
Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, Instruction, Teaching, Uncategorized
1 Comment
Data Wise: Summer Institute Day 2
Today was a significant day for new learning, during which the ideas we had established in the morning session, had dramatically changed by lunch time. Following the morning session, in which the Principal of the BART Public Charter School, Ben Klompus, … Continue reading
Posted in Assessment, Data Wise Program, Harvard, Teaching, Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Data Wise: Summer Institute: Day 1
This series of posts are being written by three teachers Erin, Jess and Sarah and Penny the Assistant Principal who are all attending or part of the teaching team at the Harvard University Data Wise Institute. Well, we’ve just finished … Continue reading
Posted in Data Wise Program, Harvard, Instruction, Teaching, Video Clips
1 Comment
Naplan hits headlines
This article headlined in my school newsletter this week and I have invited comments. Unless you are a teacher or parent of student in Years 3, 5, 7 or 9 you may switch off when reading a newspaper headline with … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Assessment, Harvard, Teaching
4 Comments
time for great teaching – a report on how
I’ve recently read the Gratton Report “Making time for great teaching“. In the executive summary is says: Government regulations restrict schools. Enterprise bargaining agreements restrict changes to work schedules, and duty of care requirements restrain schools that want to … Continue reading
Data Stars
At a recent staff meeting we were busy celebrating some new data which showed improved student learning results for the first semester this year. This clip shows a small part of those celebrations and I think the importance of humour.
Walkthrough on Relational Learning
Over the past month we have conducted weekly walkthroughs to gather data on elements of our school culture. Prior to conducting a walkthrough we asked staff what they thought the protocols surrounding walkthrough should be. To build and keep up … Continue reading
Instructional Rounds and Data Wise.
Last week I facilitated an Instructional Round at a neighbouring school and tried to embrace some of the principles of Data Wise into the evidentiary analysis of the observations. The initiative was well received so I thought I would share … Continue reading
Data Wise at Elsternwick, a Harvard perspective.
Last month David Rease Jnr from Harvard visited Elsternwick to view our progress in implementing the Data Wise: Inquiry Approach to Improving Instruction in schools. We were quite chuffed at David’s visit and recorded this clip to capture some of his … Continue reading
A Harvard Coach!
One of the great privileges Penny and I had at Harvard was the allocation of a dedicated coach (Emma) who assisted us in the preparation of our presentation and helped us determine what the next level of work. Prior to … Continue reading
Posted in coaching, Data Wise Program, Harvard, Instruction, Leadership, Uncategorized
Leave a comment
The ‘learning pit’ of Harvard: a data wise inquiry into what next!
We are at the end of our time at Harvard having had our presentation both acknowledged by the facility and celebrated by our American colleagues.It felt gooood! Our thinking was then sharpened over the remainder of the course to focus … Continue reading
Posted in Data Wise Program, Harvard, Instruction, Leadership, reflections, school, Teaching, Travel
Leave a comment