New ABCs Newsletter Aug 2011

8/6/2019 New ABCs Newsletter Aug 2011

1/11

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2/11


www.futurelab.org.uk is a total ly amazing s ite

packed with research, handbooks, and great

practical ideas to bring classrooms and teaching

c loser to the wor ld students wi l l be enter ing.

Set as ide some time to go digg ing through their

s ite and find loads of great materials

Sticking with the Future Labs theme,

www.youtube.com/user/FuturelabEducation

is a bri l l iant col lection of videos for in

and out of the classroom. Mainly short

grabs, but most are excel lent conversation/ lesson starters.

Sir Ken Robinson is quickly becoming an academic

superstar. His name is popping up in more

conversations with me - usual ly about his great

videos from presentations he gave at either the

RSA (www.rsa.org ) or TED (www.ted.org).

Sir Ken has a wonderful way of showing how

education systems are NOT providing students

with the ski l ls needed for academic or real l ife

success at any level. He is not only right on the

mark, but wonderfully entertaining and an

engaging presenter with s imple ideas and

observations.

Insight FullHINT: Click on the images below to follow the links on the internet.
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3/11


Challenge 1: See if you can findall the ways that you put off doingimportant things / making importantchange. See if you can become a

finely tuned excuse spotter.

HINTS: You might want to turn on yourexcuse spotting in:

your quite/alone times, when you are among others, lesson planning, committees, meetings, planning days, home life, teams or groups, and social activities.

Theres no need to shout out whenyou hear someone making excuses,take note and then try and work toremove the barrier they (or you)have been pretending is stoppingthe change from going ahead.

Example Excuses: Some of themore common excuses include

Ill do X once Y happens REALLY??!! Only because youknow Y will never happen.

We cant do A because of B &C REALLY??!! Il l put goodmoney on B&C being tiny issuesthat are regularly used asscapegoats for most things

We tried that before and itdidnt work Well thats itthen??!! If at first you dontsucceed try, try again (except

for skydiving ).

I need to do up a plan andthen hold a committee meetingto plan the steering group!!Some change eventually needsorganisation around it, but thatisnt how it starts. Get the ball

rolling and then worry about thesmall stuff.

Im afraid and so you shouldbe all change is scary. Historyonly records those who chargedinto the frightening unknown andchampioned changed for thebetter.

Its time I activelyfought excuses soI can makeimportant thingshappen for mystudents, school,and community.
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4/11


Watch this!

The War on Kids was the f irst recenteducationa l doco I remember see ing

the f irst that went stra i ght to the

crux of the prob lems. The compar isons

between pr i sons and schoo ls wasnt just

an off the cuff statement every

c la im was i l lustrated with recent

examples, interv iews, or news stor ies to

back up the ir po ints.

The b i ggest cha l lenge that th is f i lm

puts to adults i s that we take the

easy way out when it comes to pav ing

the way for the next generation. Some

of the mirrors it ho lds up shows theunforg ivab le way adults set examples by

how they run schoo ls , how we prov ide

med icat ions for young peop le that

sedate rather than insp i re , and the

obsess ion schoo ls and governments have

with contro l l ing students rather than

educating them.

So th is one wi l l rea l ly tug at your

heart str ings ! Wait ing for Superman i s ful l of f irst hand stor ies and

journeys of young students and

education reformers a l ike . It s not a l l

just sad or tense stor ies , the doco a lso

br ings some fr i ghten ing stats and b i gger

p icture exposs that leave you shaking

your head at just how much adults are

mess ing up a system that wi l l d ictate

our soc iet ies future.

Students wanting to learn are h indered

at every step by se lf i sh adults and the

systems they create to make l ife eas ierfor themse lves . Schoo ls try ing to make

th ings better st i l l measure the ir impact

by how many students drop out, how

many tens of thousands of young

peop le they have let loose without a

proper education or any hope for a

br i ght future.


5/11


As I went to check my favour ite UK

video s ite for e ducation (Teachers TV

in the UK) , I found the UK

government had stopped funding both

the TV station and the on l ine s ite,

forc ing them both to c lose . The 3,500

v ideos which prov ide amazing ins i ghts

for everyone invo lved in education,schoo ls , and students l i ves can now

be found through a number of

d ifferent s ites . Schoo lsWor ld .tv i s one

s ite with ambit ions to grow it s

offer ings and reach internationa l ly .

Looking forward to new content at

http:/ /www.schoo lswor ld .tv/v ideos/

To Do:1 . Watch War on Kids

Get Angry.

2. See Wait ing for Superman

Get Inspired.

3. Trawl Schoo lsWorld.TVGet Educated.

4. Search YouTube for v idsGet Experimental.
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6/11


Isnt technology just

the greatest thing ever?

Technology is only ever

meant to be something

that helps us get on

with doing our jobs

making the world a

better place, serving

communities, & creating

better stuff.

While many teachers try

and avoid technology

because they arent yet

used to it, others rely

heavily on computers at

every opportunity.

There is a time to use

technology, and a timeto go No-Tech. Before

you run off & get the

class to create a Power

Point Presentation, an

Excel Spreadsheet, or

start them copy and

pasting from Wikipedia,

see if other options

might be a betterlearning experience.

Would role playing a problem/solution be

a better idea?

How about giving thestudents the chance

to create a fantasy

world where none of

the current pre-

conceived ideas or

facts hold true?

Maybe let thestudents scrawl

ideas and questionson bits of scrap

paper, spread them

around the floor and

then sit amongst the

mess and pass stuff

around as they find

it.

Instead of headingto Google, get thestudents to come up

with a plan of

inquiry that

involves real people

classmates,

experts they need to

call or go and talk

to?

Building people skills,tactile or auditory

methods of problem

solving, and Blue Sky

Thinking (going beyond

the current boundaries)

may be a needed change

from hitting the

computer again.

------------------------

No-TechClasses.


7/11


Blue SkyThinking.Blue Sky Thinking is when you put aside accepted beliefs,venture into free thought, & potentially change the world.

There are many classical examples of Blue Sky Thinking that we nowjust take for granted:

Copernicus Model of the Universe, Newtons Theories on Gravity, Einsteins Theory of Relativity, and The invention of the washing machine, lightbulb, and telephone.

These are amongst many examples that have had massive changes on

our understanding of the world and what is possible. Every bit of Blue

Sky Thinking required these people to put aside currently held beliefs

and try to imagine what would be possible if that idea was wrong.

Below are a few examples of more modern day examples that all started

with one person thinking beyond the current beliefs.

Speed of Sound Womens Rights The Internet Nuclear EnergyIt was a few

stubborn pilots &

engineers who put

accepted wisdom

aside & broke the

belief thattravelling faster

than sound was

impossible &

unsafe. The first

recorded manned

flight faster than

the speed of

sound was in

1947 by Chuck

Yeager.

It wasnt until the

turn of the 20th

Century that the

long held belief

that women

should have lessrights than men

was ser iously

challenged. A

notion that now

holds in most

societies around

the world & has

changed the face

of society & the

economy forever.

The Modern

Wonder that is

the Internet has

been a string of

Blue Sky

Thinking. Peoplekeep reimaging

what is possible

& then create it in

lightning fast

time.

Technologies,

business models

& methods to

connect people

productively are

evolving daily.

Possibly the

greatest

destructive &

creative force

that humanity has

harnessed lies inthe power of the

atom. People

continue to think

of new ways to

capture this

power safely,

even as examples

of destruction

keep occurring.


8/11


1. How can we make this fun?I ts the age old problem in any topic - We know the moreentertaining and fun a class is the more students will learn andremember. Why should it be up to you to find all the ideas?
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9/11


2. What if all these things were wrong?Science is all hard and fast facts right? Actually things arealways changing in the world of science because some brave

scientist asks What IF?? and then discovers a flaw in theaccepted wisdom.


10/11


3. What have I forgotten to teach you?Inspiring a whole class of enquiring minds is no easy task.Starting a chain reaction amongst a class can start from just

one question posed to them that catches them out of the blueand starts the spark of self directed learning.


11/11


At the end of each month the school thatimpresses our panel the most will WIN

Module 01 ; Making Good Money.(Valued at 115 / US$ 175)

1 Goto www.newabcs.com/competitions

2 Use the free module 00 "Captains of Tomorrow"

to challenge your students to become innovators.

3 Post images, stories, & video links from your class.

Documents

New ABCs Newsletter Aug 2011