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Critical friend, a technique for self - reflection

125 years of Ascham

Last week 'Ascham' in Sydney celebrated the 125th anniversary.
From their Newsletter:

"The last week has been exhilarating and memorable with a series of events that showcased Ascham past and present and heralds our next exciting chapter.

Approximately 2,600 guests including parents, Old Girls, former staff and friends of the school joined us over the week at 14 functions. In addition our girls were in evidence at Careers Night on Thursday, at the opening of the Norah Street Library at Fiona, at the Back to Hillingdon Assembly, Fiona Open Day and Assembly, the Senior School Showcase Assembly, the School Committee panel discussion and of course, the outstanding Angel Place Concert on Monday night this week".

Congratulations to this brilliant school.

In-service-training Dalton

As a senior Dalton consultant I work for Wenke Daltonconsultants/KPZ.
Our institute is the leading university for teacher training and also
in-service-training.
The Dalton program focusses on students, teachers, teams of teachers
and the management of schools. One of the special training programs
is a training for Dalton co-ordinators in schools.
We also offer a wide range of training courses in team- and personal
development and school development.
One of my favorite routes is the coaching of schools during the
process of Dalton implementation.
Our starting point is to raise the awareness of the fact that Dalton
must penetrate every part of the educational process.
Dalton is not the process of individuals, but of the whole team.
During 12 seminars and workshops we design a process that leads to
the official certificat Dalton teacher.
After such a period the school can apply for the predicate of
Dalton school.
Our university is entitled by the Dutch Dalton Association to issue
the certificate.
Dalton International is the institution that may award foreign schools with the predicate International Dalton School

The 7 habits of happy kids

Sean Covey, the son of Stephen R.Covey, wrote this fabulous book for
parents, teachers and children.
"It will teach them about the power of living according priciples
such as responsibility, planning ahead, respect for others, teamwork
and balance".
A very attractive illustrated view on Dalton education.

Watch this

"The leader in me"

Just reading this great book of Stephen R.Covey.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective people
presents an 'inside-out' approach to effectiveness that is centered
on priciples and character.
Inside-out means that the change starts within ourself.

Its a supportive view on Dalton education for those who like to
inegrate Dalton in the 21. century.

A useful site in this context:
The leader in me

Planning and reflection

Good article:
How planning and reflection help young children's thinking skills.

Find the brochure here.

Training certificat Dalton director

Yesterday the third session with directors of Dalton schools who likes
to obtain the official certificat 'Dalton Director'.
This training lasts 12 sessions of 3 hours during two years and also
four intervision/peer days. All participants make their own development
portfolio which will be used during a presentation at the end of the
whole process.
The structure of a learning organisation and the coaching of the
Dalton quality development are some of the topics.
Yesterday all the aspects of differentiation were addressed in this
group of 15 colleagues. Interesting aspect is how to deal with the
differences in the team.

The typical Dalton management competences were determined by the group.

Training Dalton coordinators

It was a pleasure to work with such a motivated group of Dalton
coordinators. One of the most beautiful Dalton schools in the country
was yesterday our host. We could admire the view from the building on a
beautiful part of the harbour of Rotterdam.

Training Dalton coordinators

Tomorrow the final training of a new group of Dalton coordinators.
The training lasts 5 evening sessions of three hours and focusses
on the continues Dalton line in school- and educational development.
Topics are:
*what is the scope of a Dalton coordinator
*the policy planning regarding the Dalton development in the school
*conversation skills and coaching techniques
*several didactical and pedagogical aspects

It is always a big pleasure to work with these motivated prefossionals.

Just bought this book.

Teachers must inspire children.
Teachers must inspire teachers.

Instructional design

In teaching methods it is always a matter of a deversified organisation
to reach the educational target. Both , teacher and pupils are active.
The teacher is mainly concerned with organizing the learning process.
But the relevant question is:
"Which teaching method is most suitable to reach the goal?"
We can distinguish five main groups of teaching methods.
Instructional forms
Interaction forms
Co-operative forms
Play forms
Assignment forms
All of these would be addressed to the Dalton week assignment.
I created special processing guides to help pupils to do their work in
another way if they get the chance.
(See:'Dalton, doe het eens anders')

Training head teachers of Dalton schools

This year we started to organize training seminars for the
management of Dalton schools.
During 6 days, spread over one school year, the participants work on
their personal and professional development.
Some of the topics are: the parallell process in Dalton,
situational leadership, competence management, systemic working,
view on the own performance (Senge - Fullan - Kolb - Helen Parkhurst).
We initiate peer groups and all participants must make an own portfolio.
The management of quality is one of the targets. In this context it is
interesting that the management team of the Begonazpi Ikastola in Bilbao
decided to start the implementation of Dalton as their next step in the
process of managing the quality.
I am proud to be involved in these local and international processes.