Celebrating the Summer Equinox

Photo by Photo by Jordan Elliott “Madness designates the equinox between the vanity of night’s hallucinations and the non-being of light’s judgments.” Michel Foucault School leaders have the profile in the community, and all the responsibly for all things in, around and of the school. Policies spew from tired printers, phones scream for attention, and…

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School Holidays or Planning for next term?

pexels-olia-danilevich-5088188 “A good teacher is like a candle—it consumes itself to light the way for others.” Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Can you imagine a school year without holidays? The screams of teachers and school leaders would echo around the school fence. To be fair, the roar of workers in other industries would be just as loud.…

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I remember the 3-term year!

Photo – Museums Victoria “As you grow older, you learn a few things. One of them is to actually take the time you’ve allotted for vacation.”John Battelle In the time of the 3-term year, the winter vacation was always very welcome. The coughs and sniffles of the staffroom, student absences and half-year reports crowded the…

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What makes an ideal team player?

Photo – Pixabay “Collective efficacy creates a self-sustaining cycle: The belief that we can make a difference together makes us want to make a difference together.” Jill Harrison Berg Teachers are very good at bringing students together; sharing in groups in sport, art, and drama. It is often the case that this occurs out of…

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Semester 1 – nearly there!

Photo by Alexander Dummer “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”Malcolm X Education is all too often referred to as ‘the business of education. Business, measured on a Profit/Loss statement or as a unit of productivity?’ If education describes the sum of many parts i.e.,…

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Life Long Learning (LLL)

Photo – Andrea Piacquadio Professor Pierre Vellas (Toulouse University) coined the phrase ‘University of the Third Age’ (U3A) in 1973. Aimed at older students, usually aged 55 years or older, this simple model of leaning has expanded into countries around the world. In the context of schools, professional and personal is not simple. It is…

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What really matters?

German philosopher Herbart (1806) believed that the mind was the sum of all ideas which entered one’s conscious life. He emphasized the importance of both the physical and the human environment in the development of the mind. To Herbart, ideas were central to the process. To this point, what really matters in planning for a healthy…

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Teaching is more than data entry

Photo by Artem Podrez “The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”B.B. King Education has an important social, industrial, and democratic purpose. The overt political influence on pedagogy in pre-schools through to tertiary education systems is changing the work of schools. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) states…

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The Promise of Elections

“The ability to read, write, and analyse; the confidence to stand up and demand justice and equality; the qualifications and connections to get your foot in the door and take your seat at the table — all of that starts with education.” Michelle Obama Every election campaign brings with it funding commitments, reforms and smiling…

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