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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Category Archives: school
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
Is there a social agenda that pushes the use of data in schools to a more summative view?
Over recent weeks I have pondering concerns raised by teachers and a few parents on the use of data to report to parents (summative assessment). Last week three of my staff attended a briefing on the new National Curriculum due … Continue reading
Posted in Assessment, school, Teaching, Uncategorized
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Basketball a great team sport at EPS
I thought I might show a bit of this clip at the start of my meeting this week with the Year 5/6 students as they prepare for the annual Hoop Time Basketball competition. Each year we enter around 15 teams … Continue reading
Posted in school
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Personalising is really an outcome of differentiation: points to note for educators
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
Knowing our core work
Recently I heard Major General Jim Molan, a retired Army officer who served in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars talk about leadership. He opened with the observation that the army and schools have something in common – they both … Continue reading
Posted in politics, school, Teaching, Uncategorized
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The purpose of a school is………………
Last week I was working with Dr George Otero on trying to navigate through the various theories of action that underpin our work at Elsternwick. What are the connections between relational learning framework, Data Wise inquiry cycles, instructional rounds observations on task … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, school, Teaching, Uncategorized
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Creativity: alive and well
I was walking past some art work at school today and was so impressed with the quality of the pieces I felt I had to showcase them by putting them on my blog. We hear about creativity being a … Continue reading
Posted in school, Teaching, Uncategorized
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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
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The honour of presenting at Harvard
A few weeks ago we were asked to present our work on changing a school culture whilst engaging with the ‘Data Wise’ inquiry process at Harvard. It’s an honour to be invited for it acknowledges our work and commitment to … Continue reading
Posted in Data Wise Program, Harvard, school, school structures, Uncategorized
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Selecting schools is not like shopping!
In writing my last post on community I’ve come to reflect on a phrase I used on school tours “please shop around before considering this school”. I’m wondering whether I contributed to a consumerist way of looking at education or schooling. In saying … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, parenting, school
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Meeting the Minister
Recently I, along with 2 colleagues, were nominated by our network of schools to meet with the Minister of Education to chat over a few concerns our colleagues wanted us to raise. We raised a number of points that he … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, school, Uncategorized
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Leadership and Relational Learning
Last month we held our 3rd curriculum day on one of our strategic improvement strategies – the implementation of a relational learning framework in teaching and learning and to engage with the parent and wider community (school are entitled to hold 4 … Continue reading
Posted in curriculum, Leadership, school, Teaching, Uncategorized
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A few challenges to the idea of “life long learning.”
Last week I was privileged to spend 3 days interacting with James Nottingham and others around the topic of life long learning. He made to me some valuable points worth exploring a little further. “tests show only what a child has … Continue reading
Posted in Assessment, Conference, school, Teaching, Uncategorized
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Kath says students acquire assets through inquiry focused instruction
Last week Kath Murdoch continued her work with us here at Elsternwick with a session on the “assets” students learn through inquiry focused instruction. From the outset let me be clear that I’m not saying students cannot acquire these dispositions through … Continue reading
Posted in Instruction, school, Teaching, Uncategorized
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