Saturday 30 May 2015

Teachers in Scotland ‘work an extra 11 hours’, EIS survey finds

http://schoolsimprovement.net/teachers-in-scotland-work-an-extra-11-hours-eis-survey-finds

H.O.T. / D.O.K.: Teaching Higher Order Thinking and Depth of Knowledge: More Than a Ride: Why Every Educator, Student, Par...

H.O.T. / D.O.K.: Teaching Higher Order Thinking and Depth of Knowledge: More Than a Ride: Why Every Educator, Student, Par...: Don't dismiss TOMMOROWLAND as another marketing ploy by Disney to buy merchandise or visit their parks by making a movie about one of...

Redraw The Line

"We are still waiting for a binding international commitment that will drive our nations to respond to the climate challenge as a global community; however, there are agents of change responding to climate change at every level. The Asia-Pacific Media Alliance for Social Awareness (The Media Alliance), with the support of the Swedish Government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), are working jointly to promote positive social action and behaviour change on critical issues facing the region today, particularly climate change...."

http://www.redrawtheline.org/

Project Design: Overview and Student Learning Guide

http://bie.org/object/document/project_design_overview_and_student_learning_guide

PBL Essential Elements Checklist

http://bie.org/object/document/pbl_essential_elements_checklist

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Επιμορφωτικό σεμινάριο στο Project Based Learning για καθηγητές όλων των βαθμίδων και ειδικοτήτων!

Σάββατο,30 Μαΐου 2015, 09.15-11.45
Θέμα:H αξία του Project Based Learning για τη διδακτική πράξη
Εισηγητές:Φ. Διαμαντίδης,M.Ed.,Μ.Α.,Καθηγητής Γυμνασίου–Λυκείου Κολλεγίου Ψυχικού, Στασινή Φράγκου,Ph.D.,Καθηγήτρια Γυμνασίου Κολλεγίου Ψυχικού

Σάββατο, 6 Ιουνίου 2015, 09.15-14.30 Θέμα: Οργανώνοντας ένα Project
Εισηγητές: Φ. Διαμαντίδης, M.Ed, Μ.Α., Καθηγητής Γυμνασίου-Λυκείου Κολλεγίου Ψυχικού, Στασινή Φράγκου, Ph.D., Καθηγήτρια Γυμνασίου Κολλεγίου Ψυχικού

Πληροφορίες Δρ Πολυάνθη Τσίγκου Σύμβουλος του Διευθυντή/President Κολλεγίου Αθηνών-Κολλεγίου Ψυχικού τηλ.: 210-6798265

Monday 25 May 2015

Study: Major Antarctic Ice Loss Could Impact Earth’s Gravity

http://www.discovery.com/dscovrd/nature/study-major-antarctic-ice-loss-could-impact-earths-gravity/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Discovery&hootPostID=9ce285b14df6c8732dc7b647d9e4a123

Sunday 24 May 2015

Mysteries of the deep: oceans and marine life to inspire your class – gallery

From ghost crabs to shipwrecks, the ocean depths are fantastic for intriguing young minds. Dive into our photo gallery for lesson inspiration

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/gallery/2015/may/24/oceans-marine-life-inspire-class-gallery?CMP=share_btn_tw

Saturday 23 May 2015

SOJA - Shadow | #OutOfSchool | UNICEF

World Employment and Social Outlook 2015 Where are workers less likely to have a permanent contract?

http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/multimedia/maps-and-charts/WCMS_369618/lang--en/index.htm

Preparing Leaders for Deeper Learning

http://gettingsmart.com/publication/preparing-leaders-for-deeper-learning/

Q&A With Sir Ken Robinson - Education Has to Be a ‘Human Business’

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/05/20/qa-with-sir-ken-robinson.html?cmp=soc-edit-tw

3,000 children enslaved in Britain after being trafficked from Vietnam Like many Vietnamese children, Hien was brought to Britain for a life of modern slavery. He ended up in prison on cannabis offences. We report on the gangs expanding across the UK and efforts to help their victims

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/may/23/vietnam-children-trafficking-nail-bar-cannabis

Secret teacher: I am all for inclusion in principle, but it doesn't always work

A very provoking discussion ...

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/may/23/secret-teacher-support-inclusion-but-not-at-any-cost?CMP=share_btn_tw#comments

Wednesday 20 May 2015

More pupils 'reading for pleasure' By Judith Burns Education reporter

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-32797986#?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Still Can't Remember All Their Names? | Edutopia

10 Tips for Educators Considering a New Position | Edutopia

Critical Thinking: A Necessary Skill in the Age of Spin | Edutopia

Homework vs. No Homework Is the Wrong Question | Edutopia

3 Things Students Desire to Hear From Teachers | Edutopia

6 Engaging End-of-Year Projects | Edutopia

Monday 18 May 2015

B.B. King’s Best Rock Collaborations By Jeff Giles Read More: B.B. King’s Best Rock Collaborations | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/b-b-king-rock-collaborations/?trackback=tsmclip

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/b-b-king-rock-collaborations/

PBL Pilot: Formative Assessment and PBL

Pope Francis says society today needs good, well paid teachers

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/03/14/pope_francis_society_today_needs_good,_well_paid_teachers/1129396

Saturday 16 May 2015

World – Infographic - 7 Engineering Wonders of the World

http://www.thales-ld.com/blog/engineering-wonders/

Love it or lose it - News - TES

The Best Interactive Web Tools for EducatorsBy Sarah Muthler on May 8, 2015

http://www.edudemic.com/best-web-tools/

Inquiry in the Classroom: 7 Simple Tools To Get You StartedBy Pamela DeLoatch on May 16, 2015@pameladel

http://www.edudemic.com/inquiry-in-the-classroom/?utm_content=buffer0ce45&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

'Rapid' decline in staff well-being, poll finds Darren Evans 15th May 2015 at 12:11

https://www.tes.co.uk/news/further-education/breaking-news/rapid-decline-staff-well-being-poll-finds

Sunday 10 May 2015

Expose children to classical music whether they like it or not, says Nicola Benedetti

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11595782/Expose-children-to-classical-music-whether-they-like-it-or-not-says-Nicola-Benedetti.html

Report of the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, Cephas Lumina - Addendum - Mission to Greece (22 – 27 April 2013)

Extremely interesting!!!

http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G14/118/82/PDF/G1411882.pdf?OpenElement

‘I have always been temperamentally wired to carry on’ Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot’s lessons in resilience

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/04/i-have-always-been-temperamentally-wired-to-carry-on/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hu-twitter-general

Is there a way to democratize a school? Here are some thoughts:

I will try to propose ways towards the democratization of a school, trying to avoid a general theoretical discussion. Feedback is more than welcome.

First of all, it must be cleared that democratization is not a panacea for solving all internal or external problems of a school. Democratization is another way of dealing with problems; a way that is based on justice, respect, freedom and autonomy. Solving the problems is up to the people that are implicated on dealing with them.

Another important fact is that if a school that decides to aspire democratic culture should acknowledge that every person on that school has his share. Democratization connotes participation as a person in a profound way. As Woods says (2005, p.118), "it requires an authentic involvement, in the sense of commitment and direction that are guided be deeply embedded navigational feelings".

Proposes are going to be split in two parts. The first has to do with the school as an organization trying to adopt democratic leadership, and the other has to do with students, as the school tries to adopt a more democratic pedagogy.

Part A:

A school should try to disperse responsibilities to as many of the stakeholders. Teachers must play a more dynamic role in leadership and the administration should hear them and take what they have to say under serious consideration.

In order to implicate teachers as mush possible, they have to be educated on educational leadership matters. This developmental procedure must be a permanent one, and all teachers should take part despite the years they have in education and in school. Professional development is a great way to create real professionals.

Ministry of Education or School’s Board, decides who is going to be the director and the synthesis of the administration, which is something unchangeable. But there are also the heads of departments, meaning the head of the sciences, the head of mathematics and others. These heads of departments could be elected by the teachers (or everyone should take his turn on a rotation basis) of the departments every two or three years. In that way everyone would be implicated with the common, with the "κοινά" as the ancient Greeks said.

Something very important is the creation of clear evaluation procedures. These procedures must be addressed to everyone and implicate everyone. The school must decide which are its performance indicators and try to measure them as objective possible. Finally, the results should be communicated and discussed with all stakeholders that were implicated.

Staying at the same spirit, the school should find ways of taking feedback from all stakeholders (teachers, technicians and others) and elaborate this feedback in a scientific way in order to make changes if possible or, at least, discuss things with them. The heads of departments could give this feedback.

Finally, there must be a "conscious participation in microgenesis" (Woods, 2005, p.128-129). That means that everyone, by his position, should make short creative actions which must be repeated, in order to succeed small structural changes that, hopefully, will lead to an overall structural change towards democratic leadership. These actions are possible to be decided at the departments and be advocated by the heads of the departments.

Part B:

The first thing that must change is the administrations' and teachers' attitude against the students. No one claims that anomy is the solution. There must be a very firm and strict structure that will define and determine the relations between teachers and students. This structure must be known in details to everyone implicated and first of all to the students. It is obvious that everyone should be responsible for keeping this structure and I mean that all teachers must be the keepers of the rules (and not only the “bad” ones). On the other hand students should be given, in the everyday interaction with them: "respect, time and attention" as a head teacher said (cited in Woods, 2005, p.124-125). The key word is respect. Students must like coming to school. They must feel that the school is their second, and sometimes first, family. The national curricula, as everybody agrees, is boring and very pressing. The school must balance things and make education attractive to students. After they leave school they must remember it with a smile and the belief that they gained a lot as personalities. Shouting and punishment is not the solution. They just remind students that there is an autocratic hierarchy that does not care about them as children and future citizen of democratic societies. As Woods (2005, p.125) argues, pupils and teachers are not just subjects for the school but they are also "school builders", through their everyday actions and interplays. Children must be respected as everybody should, beside their characteristics. Maybe an organized feedback from pupils can help the school to find its weakness and change ways of attitudes.

Students should be more implicated in procedures that are of interest to them. They could take part in discussions (decision making is something that should be discussed further) having to do with discipline, pedagogy, activities like excursions and others and finally the evaluation of the school. This kind of students’ implication is very advanced for Greek teachers, thus needs a lot of discussion.

All the above are interdependent. In order to achieve them there must be a lot of sincere and conscious discussions and acceptance that things must change. Structures cannot change in one night. Small steps must be made by all, in an individual level and an aggregate level as well.

Bibliography

Athanasoula-Reppa A., (1999)., "Ληψη Αποφάσεων στον χώρο της Εκπαίδευσης", in Athanasoula-Reppa A., Maurogiorgos G., Koutouzis M., Nitsopoulos B., Chalkiotis D., (1999), Management of Educational Units, volume A, chapter 3, HellenicOpenUniversity, Patra.

Aristotle University of Thessalonica, (1998), Dictionary of common Greek language, Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών, Thessalonica

Aristotle Rhetoric (book A), translation Heliou H., Ι.Ζαχαρόπουλος publishing, Athens

Bottery M., (2004), The Challenges of Educational Leadership, Paul Chapman Publishing, London

Dewey J., (2007), Democracy and Education, Echo Library, USA

ELD of Texas Tech University (1995) http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses/available/etd-01072009-31295009151266/unrestricted/31295009151266.pdf [last accessed 7 July 2009]

Gutmann A., (1999), Democratic Education, Princeton University Press, USA

Haydon G., (2005), Values, Vision and Moral Purpose in Educational Leadership London, University of London Press, London

Maurogiorgos G., (1999)., "Η εκπαιδευτική Μονάδα ως φορέας Διαμόρφωσης και Άσκησης Εκπαιδευτικής Πολιτικής", in Athanasoula-Reppa A., Maurogiorgos G., Koutouzis M., Nitsopoulos B., Chalkiotis D., (1999), Management of Educational Units, volume A, chapter 4, HellenicOpenUniversity, Patra.

Microgiannakis E., (1992), Παθολογία Πολιτευμάτων στην αρχαιότητα, Καρδαμίτσα publishing, Athens

Petropoulos K., Sarres M., (2000), Πλάτωνα Πολιτεία, Πατάκης publishing, Athens

Strike K., Haller E., Soltis J., (1998), p.93-100 "Educational Authority" in The Ethics of School Administration, in University of London (2005), Values, Vision & Moral Purpose in ed l/ship, London: External programme.

UCL (2000) www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/jurisprudence/jurisprudencereview/content/jr_demarco_20000.pdf [last accessed 24 May 2009]

UIOWA (2009) www.uiowa.edu/~c030142/DefinitionsOfDemocracy.html [last accessed on 24 May 2009]

Vaidhyanathan S., (2004), The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System, Basic Books, USA

Woods P., (2005), Democratic Leadership in Education, Paul Chapman Publishing, London