Raising Pasifika Achievement at Ashburton College in 2012 – the first 3 terms. This is year 3 of a journey begun in 2010. Follow the link to read the full story.
“Casting the net wider”
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Tag Archives: learning
In Praise of Young Men
Matt, James, Ben, Andrew and Joe about to leave Ashburton
This week I have been taught a powerful lesson – a lesson in commitment, endurance and citizenship – by 5 young men who I am proud to call students of the school I work in and proud to know personally as friends of my son (one of the 5). 3 of them, Matt Jopson, Joe Langley and Ben Connor (all 17 years old) decided about 8 weeks ago to plan and train for a bike ride from Ashburton to Invercargill to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of NZ. They asked my son, Andrew Robertson, and another friend, James Smith (both 18) to be their support crew and the drivers of the lead and trail pilot vehicles.
The boys set about planning this venture with purpose and clarity of vision. They sought and acted on advice from
experts: cyclists who’d done this sort of thing before, LTSA, adults who had driven pilot vehicles for cyclists before, and people who knew about the training and nutritional requirements to support their plan. They set up an online donation page, they talked to newspapers and radio stations and, first and foremost they talked to the Prostate Foundation to pitch their idea and see if this organisation was ok with being the beneficiary of their efforts. Needless to say, the Prostate Foundation is thrilled – young men doing something selfless for others; mainly older men you could say.
The boys planned the timing carefully. They worked out the time they’d need to prepare and still be able to beat the upcoming southern winter and leave themselves time to prepare for their internal school examinations. They couldn’t wait ’til spring – they
have NCEA Level 3 to achieve and holiday jobs to raise money for their university plans. And, young men being young men, they had a compelling imperative to get on with it while their enthusiasm and motivation to succeed was immediate and therefore extremely high.
Schools along the wayhave given them lunch – delighted to welcome and support role models such as these. Businesses have generously offered them sponsorship through provision of equipment, nutritional supplements and even replacement tyres after two punctures north of Oamaru on the 2nd day! Family members alongthe journey have provided them with beds and food. This has truly become a community project.
Their parents have shown them the immense respect of letting them be in charge of this venture; supporting them and advising them when necessary, but allowing them to take complete ownership of their great adventure. In this age of “blackhawk” parenting and micromanaging by parents and schools of the daily lives of young people, I also stand in admiration of these parents for
stepping back to let their sons step up.
Today, day 4, the cyclists have had to grind it out; tired and extremely sore, over the rolling hills from Dunedin to Gore. Tomorrow they ride to Invercargill to be met by the mayor and, hopefully, a whole new group of generous donors whose support for
the Prostate Foundation is all the reward these boys are looking for.
Young men working together and in support of each other in order to help others – it doesn’t get any better than this. They will remember this experience and the things they have learnt from it about themselves and what they are capable of, for the rest
of their lives. (unlike last week’s English lesson which has probably already been consigned to the “trash bin” of their memories!)
This week
I, and others, have been given a powerful lesson in managing self,
participating and contributing, thinking and relating to others; a powerful
lesson in community, integrity and respect.
Please consider sharing this story among your networks and supporting Matt, Joe Ben and their
support team, by donating to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand on
http://www.everydayhero.co.nz/raging_bulls
This week I have been
given a powerful lesson…
Why differentiate?
Kind of a cool summary of the differentiation rationale
thinking about differentiation
Differentiation is the educational catchphrase of the 2010s – or it seems that way to me. It is possible for me to go back through my teaching career and track by decade key “movements” in professional development initiatives and understandings about how our students’ learning might best be supported. In the 1980’s my school was trialling a “new curriculum” and structuring the junior timetable to allow junior students to experience breadth in their curriculum. In the 1990’s we moved on to accelerated learning strategies and ” learning styles” – the aural, the visual and the kinaesthetic. This saw attention being paid to the classroom’s physical environment and we all became concerned with thirst as a new generation of students were encouraged to bring water bottles to class. By the 2000’s we were looking for ways to “move the middle” and the idea of students working together was formalised under the label “co-operative learning”. And here we are now grappling with “differentiation” in the classrooms of the 2010’s. The thing about differentiation is, that in fact it provides the umbrella under which we can shelter myriad elements of effective pedagogy – including those that have gone before. if we get to know our learners as individuals; by analysing data, by forming good relationships with our students, by learning about their diverse cultural contexts, then we are well positioned to effectively ‘differentiate’ our teaching. If we add to that, professional development and learning about strategies we can use in our classrooms to better meet the diverse needs of these students we have come to know, then we are well down the road to providing differentiated instruction. These are the elements which allow us to provide the quality of dialogue and feedback which will enable us to move all our students from where they are now in their learning to the next place(s) they need to get to. High quality formative assessment practices are enablers to effective differentiation. At least, this is how it seems to me.
To be honest, if you look beyond the jargon and don’t get sidetracked by the cynicism of, “Haven’t we tried this before?” “Isn’t this just the latest fad?” we can find power in the idea that in one word we can bring all of these powerful learning approaches, as well as others together, and take the best of well-established research evidence to glean the most effective and relevant tools to enhance our teaching, build on the toolbox of pedagogical knowledge at our disposal and continue a cycle of improvement which can only be of benefit to our students. Most of us teach because we are passionate about learning; our own as well as that of our students.