“We are expected to teach our children incorrect grammar and punctuation so that they will score highly in the tests. This is ludicrous!”
Example of why people are joining us in SUPPPORT of schools & Teachers on May 3rd
For Emphasis: SUPPPORT!
(iPhone hates it but I rather like it.)
Worried about how you’ll explain your child’s absence to your school on May 3rd?
‘Our schools will not be academies,’ says major local authority | News
It can be done.
Birmingham City Council has passed a motion stating that it does not want its schools to become academies
Source: ‘Our schools will not be academies,’ says major local authority | News
Meet WALT, WILF, WALA & TIB
A teacher’s take on the jargon of explicit teaching…
I know that parents have to decode a lot of jargon whilst their kids are at school. I’m often asked about some of the acronyms commonly seen and heard in my classroom. Perhaps they sound more like a quartet of elderly folks in a retirement home, however WALT, WILF, WALA and TIB are some the latest educational buzz words.
Explicit teaching focusses students toward the learning/understanding/skill, rather than the doing/task/activity. Below are some useful acronyms that are becoming more and more common in schools, for making learning explicit for children.
WALT = We Are Learning To…
Sometimes called a Learning Intention, a WALT makes the learning, concept, understanding or skill clear to students. For example, “We are learning to use talking marks in our writing”. I find WALTs extremely useful in differentiating between the task or activity and the actual learning…
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Struggling with my body, struggling with my mind
My long holiday from blogging has been due, in part, to bipolar disorder and the need for medication, in my case Lithium carbonate, which seems to have a demotivating and anhedonic effect on me – as well as the dampening of my manic behaviours both productive and harmful.
Strip the personal details out of the excellent piece which I am reblogging here; read it and boil it down to the discussion of affect and energy and motivation and volition and self image and dosage.
What I found was a text that describes well the situation I find myself in at present. I’m pretty sure that this is a template that many with bipolar disorder would recognise.
The frustration of trying to explain to others:
“I know what I have to do, step by step, for xyz” but whenever I try to address it – brain fog. As to the NHS: It is such a shame that while I can be prescribed fabulously expensive drugs for weight loss by unnatural means, the option to prescribe gym sessions doesn’t seem to exist.
Private companies tortured children – now running children’s homes and services
Perhaps we are re-awakening, collectively, from that warm fuzzy antimacassar-strewn Victorian dreamword where childhood was a special time. Possibly we started to re-remember that for most of history children were just diminutive people who could fit into places full grown adults couldn’t and were easy prey for exploitation or abuse.
The Maiden Tribute to Babylon shocked the Victorians. We barely bat an eyelid now.
(not satire – it’s G4S and SERCO)
Private companies G4S and SERCO have agreed to pay out £100,000 in compensation for restraining torturing kids.
This illegal “restraining” by staff working for subsidiary companies belonging to the two multi-billion pound conglomerates has even resulted in the deaths of at least two children.
G4S went on to deal with the problem of the torturing and killing of children in their care by promoting one of the members of staff involved in it to the position of Health and Safety Manager in their children’s homes.
And Serco went on to allow its staff free range to also sexually assault young women who had been put in its care.
Considering all of the above shocking facts – why are we still allowing these cowboy companies to run children’s homes and our children’s educational services?
Could it be because they have friends in high places?
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Related…
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Blair urges air strikes against Scotland in event of ‘Yes’ vote
(satire?)
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has urged the UK government to consider military action against Scotland in the event of a vote for independence.
Mr Blair, who was prime minister between 1997 and 2007, broke his silence in the debate over Scottish independence to urge air strikes – including the use of the Trident independent nuclear deterrent – against Scottish strategic targets in the event of a ‘Yes’ victory next Thursday.
Interviewed in Kiev, Mr Blair said on Saturday that he hoped Scots would vote against independence, but warned that if Scotland voted to break up the United Kingdom then military intervention would be inevitable:
“Obviously I hope that Scotland votes to stay part of the United Kingdom. But Scotland should prepare itself for a full-scale invasion by ground forces if it doesn’t.”
Mr Blair’s comments came just weeks after the former PM called for NATO leaders to agree a joint campaign of targeted…
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Scientists create self-folding Lib Dem MPs which can fold at the slightest pressure
A modern and less visceral twist on the ‘How is the LibDem MP like a kipper’ riddle.
(satire?)
A team of engineers at Harvard University have designed a self-folding robot Lib Dem MP which is able to fold itself at the slightest pressure from its Tory coalition partner.
The scientists say their design – inspired by the ancient Japanese art of origami – will enable Lib Dem MPs to fold themselves and crawl without need for any human intervention.
The robotic dissembling Lib Dems are made from flat layers of fabricated material and are created without a spine, which will enable them to easily bend themselves into any position necessary to hold their position in government.
The Harvard engineers say they have also designed the self-folding Lib Dem robots to be able to tie themselves in knots trying to explain why they broke all their pre-election promises once they were in government.
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Related articles by Tom Pride:
I was sex toy of top Tories claims Nick Clegg
Lib Dem? Feeling impotent? Keep losing your elections? Get help here:
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22/7/14: The Day in Trojan Horses.
The ‘Report into allegations concerning Birmingham schools arising from the ‘Trojan Horse’ letter’ authored by Peter Clarke CVO OBE QPM was published today, Tuesday 22 July 2014, and can be found here.
Also published today on this theme:
• Trojan horse: teachers may face misconduct hearings, says Morgan (The Guardian, 22/07/14)
• ‘Disturbing’ Trojan Inquiry Findings (BBC News, 22/07/14)
I am grateful to The Guardian for their live online coverage of the Statement by Nicky Morgan on the Trojan Horse Letter debated in the House of Commons today, Tuesday 22 July 2014. The Telegraph and The Sunday Times, neither of which would sit on gogwit’s coffee table, should also be mentioned for running this story when it was being written off as right wing, Islamophobic, racist fiction.
I have used the local press as a source of many stories offered today on Gogwit’s Blog, I make no apology for this.
Local parliamentarians have spoken out on the “Trojan Horse” issue today Birmingham Hodge Hill (Birmingham schools ‘feel like the Balkans’ – The Guardian, 22/07/14) and yesterday Birmingham Perry Barr (Stop pretending Trojan Horse plot is fake, urges Birmingham MP – Birmingham Mail, 21/07/14).
The output from three news sources on one sunny July day. The content requires no further comment from gogwit at this time.
Other local news: Today many students are graduating from local universities and many local school children have begun their summer break. I wish them all the very best.
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