Preparing learners for the 22nd Century

Dear parents, As part of my teaching practice I will send an email home regularly to explain what is happening in the learning space. Parents concerns or questions inform the topic, if one parent is asking, then maybe all parents would like to know.  So a parent recently told me that her six year old was resistant to writing...here are my thoughts... Our kids have greater wisdom than we give them credit for. If we listen to them they will teach us what they need to know.  A child needs to be  willingly  engaged in an activity to make the best connections to the learning. Your daughter is saying she wants to DO and TALK and notice and wonder and think and DO and TALK and not write! Which is all good!  Read  on.  The basis for writing is oral language. This comes from the do-ing and talking and thinking and noticing and wondering and talking and questioning and finding out and do-ing some more because this makes the words.   Wit...

As an educator I often do things differently, I don't know how to do otherwise. I don't want to do it the same as the others. I believe Mr 14 inherited this unfortunate trait, we both want to find out, but we want to find out for ourselves, in our own way, in our own time. Mr 14 has been described at best, "determined", I like the description, "disruptor" adding "disruptors, our future's innovators". As does often happen with our disruptors, they can be misunderstood and when my teaching practice was misunderstood, what others said mattered, I was expected to "fit in". When Mr 14 is misunderstood, he is sent outside, made to "think about what he is doing", made to apologise, he was expected to fit in. Our "disruptive" students struggle with most school learning, every "task" is one or two or more steps removed from connection. We are expected to accept something "just because" but it is a reas...