Smoke and Mirrors

Is it me or do others of you who use web 2.0 applications get the urge to defect to a different application than the one you are currently using?  I mean, don’t get me wrong there’s now way now that I will move my blog from edublogs, but the temptation is there to keep rattling around and play with all the new toys online. 

Ah well, I guess, just like a marriage, one has to make a commitment to your applications!  So no moving from Facebook to MySpace (I’m not that much of a digital native to make the most of it anyway & facebook is a bit daunting!).  No taking myself off to Eduspaces.  Although I am attracted to Nuuvo, so don’t tell Moodle!

Via the BBC, this article concerns research undertaken by Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Guides

It included a survey of parents, which suggested many felt they simply lacked the knowledge to answer many of their children’s endless questions - such as how far away is the sun, how deep is the ocean, how do birds know which nest is theirs?

There are plenty of us who don’t know the answer to those questions.  However, I believe the most important response for a parent is not to give an answer or dismiss the the question but to help the child develop skills in finding things out.  As any decent educator knows, there are always questions which are impossible to answer immediately but have to be deferred until you can find out.

We have long known that Disney held the answers to the greatest questions life has to ask.  Bereavement can be overcome (Bambi), love will triumph over evil (Sleeping Beauty), great rewards await inherently good, but poor, people if  you believe (Cinderella, Aladin) and living with 7 small men will lead to almost certain death at the hands of a wicked step mother!

Well now, with the help of the words of a song from Disney’s Pocahontas, Peter Worley at Eliot Bank Primary School, have been utilising high-order thinking skills in their philosophy sessions.  “Can you step in the same river twice?”  is the question posed and this BBC article outlines how these young children take answering it very seriously.

 One of the biggest challenges facing schools in the coming decade is how to provide a suitable education for the future work force.  NESTA have recently published a policy document outlining how important “soft skills”, such as collaboration, problem solving and leadership, will be to our children.  So iniatives such as the philopsophy sessions at Eliot Bank are a key element in redressing the balance with the burden of a reductionist, results-driven curriculum.

As Kathy Palmer, Head of Eliot Bank says:

Our children are going into such a changing world. We can’t predict what they’re going to need in terms of knowledge, but one thing we can give them is confidence and a sense of how to learn.

The Sutton Trust have relesed the results of a survey indicating that leading professional people are more likely to have been educated independently.  In particular, schooling post 11 is the greatest indicator of future success. 

Dr Elliot Major said: “This analysis shows that the school you attend at age 11 has a huge impact on your life chances, and particularly how likely you are to reach the top of your chosen profession.”

So where does that place the Prep Schools?  If, as it seems from the survey, that your senior school education is the one that gives you the leg up, professionally, then surely it is the job of the Prep Schools to inculcate the core values that our future leaders are going to need. Honesty, fairness and teamwork are elements of what a good preparatory education can and should offer.  With the hope that our charges, when they go onto their senior schools, will take all their lessons in how to be a decent person all the way through into their professional lives.

I put here, for your delight, the government’s 45 phonemes by which we are to learn to read through the joy of synthetic phonics.  Although, according to the BBC’s website, from where this list came, some say there are 44.  A scan through the Wikipedia entry for phoneme points out that the number of phonemes in English is dependent on the speaker and averages somewhere between 40 & 45.  So 45 for our children to learn?  Nanny state?  Or a drive to encourage RP?

/a/ cat
/e/ peg, bread
/i/ pig, wanted
/o/ log, want
/u/ plug, love
/ae/ pain, day, gate, station
/ee/ sweet, heat, thief, these
/ie/ tried, light, my, shine, mind
/oe/ road, blow, bone, cold
/ue/ moon, blue, grew, tune
/oo / look, would, put
/ar/ cart, fast (regional)
/ur/ burn, first, term
/or/ torn, door, warn (regional)
/au/ haul, law, call
/er/ circus, sister
/ow/ down, shout
/oi/ coin, boy
/air/ stairs, bear, hare
/ear/ fear, beer, here

Consonant phonemes and representative words

/b/ baby
/d/ dog
/f/ field, photo
/g/ game
/h/ hat
/j/ judge, giant, barge
/k/ cook, quick, mix, Chris
/l/ lamb
/m/ monkey, comb
/n/ nut, knife, gnat
/p/ paper
/r/ rabbit, wrong
/s/ sun, mouse, city, science
/t/ tap
/v/ van
/w/ was
/wh/ where (regional)
/y/ yes
/z/ zebra, please, is
/th/ then
/th/ thin
/ch/ chip, watch
/sh/ ship, mission, chef
/zh/ treasure
/ng/ ring, sink

My professional association, the NAHT, like many others runs CPD courses.  Naturally at the NAHT these are concerned with developing leadership skills.  Imagine my surprise when, in their recent mailing containing a list of forthcoming courses, I read this:

…a highly participative course that draws on a range of techniques including NLP and Jungian psychology as well as the latest research in leadership and management theory.

Since this course is titled Heading fo Headship of Independent Schools, I am now feeling somewhat inadequate!  In order to be the Head of on Independent School am I required to brush on my Post-Freudian, Neo-whatever psycholanalysis?  Well, I suppose it beats having to do NPQH!

I love Louis Jordan. I especially love the lyrics in this fantastic song.

03 Hungry Man.m4p

Moving to Edublogs.org is a curious event. I’ve been blogging for a few years now and have a fairly successful set of School Blogs at BCPS (thanks to Peter Ford).  My own personal blogging has largely revolved around adventures in web 2.0 and investigating all the bells & whistles that can be applied to a blog!  Now I feel that it is time to blog with a purpose and lay out a coherent set of thoughts on the professional task that I have set myself: to be a good head teacher.