Education
I've been reading lots of articles from Phil Beadle, voted the UK Secondary Teacher of the Year in 2004 (or perhaps 2005? Websites are dodgy and seem to disagree, so maybe even more than once?).
He has a lot of things to say about education, some of them which I'm feeling more equipped to deal with these days, having just spent three weeks in a high school (one more til the end of prac!).
What I'm left wondering, besides whether or not ICT is bullshit in most regards and why funding can't be provided when and where you need it, is where is the Australian voice?
Phil has a monthly column, which I've been catching up on, in the UK's newspaper, The Guardian. I've been looking around in the Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the The Daily Telegraph, among others, to try to find something similar, especially something with Australian statistics, or talking about Australian classrooms (not that they're incredibly different to British ones, but I digress).
I'm not really finding something. Sure, there are articles about education, but most of them seem to focus on higher education, or complaints about funding or the poor quality of teachers. Where is the teacher's voice sounding out, explaining to us about the quality and use of the Australian classroom, of our curricula, of our technology and of our students?
Britain seems to have such a variety of information and help that we as a country are lacking. There's the afore mentioned Phil Beadle. There's www.teachers.tv, a website which advertises itself as "free education videos and resources for professional development", and features videos on various topics, from subject specific topics, to whole school policies and procedures, to different roles undertaken in schools to dealing with all manner of problems within schools. There are programs in which intervention is taken - such as the "Teaching with Bailey" series. There are programs such as "The Teaching Challenge", in which high ranking members of society are asked to - and dropped right into - teach classes, to experience what it is like for teachers.
It's just kind of depressing that I now have all this information and resources... for Britain. Granted, a lot of this information, especially about professional development, is TOTALLY usable. I just wish I knew more about the Australian landscape, that's all.
Anyway: This is just my experience. It is possible there are good resources here that I just don't know about. If you have a good teacher resource website from Australia, or know who writes a good column or blog on the topic, let me know. Only the ones you don't have to pay for, though.
He has a lot of things to say about education, some of them which I'm feeling more equipped to deal with these days, having just spent three weeks in a high school (one more til the end of prac!).
What I'm left wondering, besides whether or not ICT is bullshit in most regards and why funding can't be provided when and where you need it, is where is the Australian voice?
Phil has a monthly column, which I've been catching up on, in the UK's newspaper, The Guardian. I've been looking around in the Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the The Daily Telegraph, among others, to try to find something similar, especially something with Australian statistics, or talking about Australian classrooms (not that they're incredibly different to British ones, but I digress).
I'm not really finding something. Sure, there are articles about education, but most of them seem to focus on higher education, or complaints about funding or the poor quality of teachers. Where is the teacher's voice sounding out, explaining to us about the quality and use of the Australian classroom, of our curricula, of our technology and of our students?
Britain seems to have such a variety of information and help that we as a country are lacking. There's the afore mentioned Phil Beadle. There's www.teachers.tv, a website which advertises itself as "free education videos and resources for professional development", and features videos on various topics, from subject specific topics, to whole school policies and procedures, to different roles undertaken in schools to dealing with all manner of problems within schools. There are programs in which intervention is taken - such as the "Teaching with Bailey" series. There are programs such as "The Teaching Challenge", in which high ranking members of society are asked to - and dropped right into - teach classes, to experience what it is like for teachers.
It's just kind of depressing that I now have all this information and resources... for Britain. Granted, a lot of this information, especially about professional development, is TOTALLY usable. I just wish I knew more about the Australian landscape, that's all.
Anyway: This is just my experience. It is possible there are good resources here that I just don't know about. If you have a good teacher resource website from Australia, or know who writes a good column or blog on the topic, let me know. Only the ones you don't have to pay for, though.